Posted via email from Paul L. McCord Jr.

This being said, they are no different than anyone else.  Any time a person surrounds themselves with like minded people, they have both credibility and non credibility.  They have credibility because they have many people with different perspectives on the same issue.  These people tend to be passionate about the stories they cover making it even more interesting to the reader.  They lose credibility for the same reasons.  Since all parties involved are passionately enthusiastic about the subject matter, there is no one to really question, or be critical of the subject.  When I say being critical, I am not talking about being negative.  I am speaking of having someone question motives, question processes and question the validity of the claims.  It is always good to have multiple sources from differing views.  By questioning the subject matter, it helps the reader wrap their mind around it and possibly learn the subject from differing views.  This is one lesson from college that has really stuck with me.  I use to see this attitude as being negative and just trying to be a roadblock to progress.  Now I understand that when people question things it often results in the reader being more informed.

One thing that is paramount when a person decides to be a technology writer is that they must submerge themselves into the subject. They need to learn it through and through so that they can not only know the subject but that they can be seen with credibility.  Earlier I made the claim that technology writers from San Francisco are similar to members of Congress in Washington D.C.  The point that I was making with that statement was that they live in a bubble where everyone thinks the same way.  There are no people questioning their motives, processes, or validity of their claims.  This is not meant to disparage them but rather point out the dangers of isolating yourself from differing views of the subject. 

An example of this was a couple weeks ago when the technology writers became too passionate about their topic that they painted themselves into a corner.  The topic I am referring to is the Facebook privacy issue.  They were all beating the same drum.  They were all thinking that it was the single most important issue of the day.  They went beyond reporting about the topic to a point of encouraging others to cancel their accounts.  Even Leo Laporte made a big scene by canceling his account on his technology podcast, This Week in Tech (TWiT).  He was indignant as most of them were.  They were so passionate that Facebook had violated the people’s privacy that Leo Laporte actually said that by being on there he was coercing others to use the service.  One of the people on the show questioned him basically telling him that coercion is too strong of a word even making an example of Leo beating people  up to use Facebook.  Of course he was joking but it illustrated the point.  Leo reiterated his statement by saying “coercion is the right word”.  His rationale was that if people want to see the picture he uploaded then they have to join Facebook.  He said that was the only way people could interact with him.  I will say that most people tat would follow him on Facebook would know he has a blog where people can post responses.  This is a perfect example of losing touch with reality.

While I do like Leo, I think it is a complete exaggeration to think that people are force to join Facebook against their will so they can interact with him.  This is either the most arrogant statement I have ever heard or the most ignorant.  In either case, I think it is a direct result of being too  caught up in the circle of like thinkers.  If you want to listen to this dialogue for  yourself, just go to http://www.twit.tv and listen to episode 248.  The dialogue goes like this…

52:01 (Leo Laporte) I don’t wanna coerce other people into participating in Facebook because because that is how they would participate in with me.
52:09 (Jeff Jarvis) Why do you use the word "coerce" which I thought was a little bit strong. You’re not physically threatening them if they do, "you need to use the Facebook". I mean its like… you, you are giving them a tacit endorsement of it which maybe you are uncomfortable with but I think coerce is kind of a strong word.
52:24 (Leo Laporte) Nah Look, if you want to see that picture I posted on Facebook or want to see that video I posted on Facebook, or you
52:29 (Patrick Norton) How about compel
52:32 (Leo Laporte) I think "coerce is exactly the right word in my mind because I’m incent’ng people to join Facebook in order to interact with me. You know we were one of the things I was doing was uh…

There is another danger of this type of getting too caught up in a story.  Once he has deleted his account, then he no longer has access to it and the features that it possesses. As I said before, to be a good writer, it really helps to be informed on the subject matter.  Once the writer has proclaimed to the world that they are done with the matter and deleted their account in front of everyone, it paints them into a box.  The reality is that Facebook now has more than 400 million users, the vast majority of which do not understand or even care about the privacy issues. Facebook will continue to grow and now there is a person that has previously been considered an expert in the field that has publicly sworn off the very topic that he is expected to be an expert on.  He is now left in a conflicting situation.  On one hand the person can no longer have access to the subject thus leaving him out of the loop.  He can no longer be seen as an expert when he does not use Facebook.  On the other hand, if he changes his mind after vehemently denying that he will EVER go back, he will be seen as a hypocrite.  In either case, it is a lack of credibility.

One thing a writer cannot afford is a lack of credibility.  After all, if the people cannot believe what a person says then it does not matter what they say.  As a journalist, credibility should be of the utmost importance.  This should be sacred to anyone in a journalist field.

Surprisingly, I have to give credit to Robert Scoble because he seemed to go against the crowd and defend Facebook.  He seemed to understand that you cannot write credibly about something that you have sworn to never use.  I have to give him credit for that.  Again, this is not an attempt to put these people down but rather illustrate the dangers of group think.  Trust me, I am guilty of it myself.  I am very conservative politically speaking so sometimes I go over the top in my rants.  This of course results in my loss of credibility as well.  Fortunately for me, I am just a hobbyist and not an expert.  This blog is just a way to speak my piece to the world.  If no one listens then nothing is lost because it is not my job.  I do have to acknowledge though that it is important to have differing views even if the writer explains why the other view is wrong.  At least the reader has both sides and can make an educated decision on whether to believe the story or not.  I mean nothing against Leo Laporte.  I watch his podcasts all the time and will continue because I am a computer enthusiast. I bought my first computer when I was 17 years old in 1983.  This is the same year I passed my Amateur Radio license.  I have been an enthusiast ever since.

Today a person can buy a hard drive the size that no one could have imagined five years ago for less than $100.00 in some cases.  I have seen two terabyte drives at Wal-Mart.  For those that are unfamiliar with a terabyte, I will have to give you a bit of computer background so you can get some perspective.  Most of us have heard the term “bit” or “bits”.  This is a term referring to a binary digit.  Binary is nothing more than a different numbering system that is based on two instead of ten.  Most of us know that our decimal numbering system goes up to nine before carrying over to another digit making “10”.  Well binary is the same way except it goes up to one before carrying over another digit.  For example you would count. 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111 and so on.  As you can see, it is based on two.  Well a binary digit or bit is the means of measuring data.  For each letter of the alphabet, or number to be expressed, it takes approximately eight binary digits of data, or a byte.  One byte is eight binary digits and is the data required to store one letter of the alphabet, or ASCII character.

As you probably remember the metric system from high school  a kilo is 1000 units of anything.  A mega is 1,000,000 or one million.  A Giga is 1,000,000,000 or one billion units.  A tera is 1,000,000,000,000 or one trillion units of something.  Since data storage is expressed in bytes, this storage of one terabyte is really approximately 1,000,000,000,000 bytes.  This is an enormous number that is difficult visualize.

Now that data storage prices have dropped so much, there are companies offering data storage remotely over the Internet.  In some cases they have services that back up your own data over the Internet in small increments while your Internet is idle.  As we have seen with services like Google Docs, and Windows Live Sky Drive, these services are becoming mainstream.  There are benefits to this because a person may have critical photos, music, or videos on their computer that would be a tragedy if lost.  By storing things remotely, it helps keep them from being lost if a person’s house catches fire or hit by a tornado.  I have been doing this for quite some time with my photos.  I have more than 20,000 photos on my computer and currently over 7,000 of them are stored on Flickr.com.

They refer to this activity as cloud computing and has become a standard term.  The problem is that I am not an ordinary person and have a difficult time seeing the Internet when people say “The Cloud”.  I have two teenage sons that often do things like pass gas as they walk through the house and then tell you that you just walked through their cloud as you walk through the room.  Since this has happened many times, I tend to think unpleasant things when people refer to the cloud.  This is not a good thing because I am around computer enthusiasts on a regular basis. find myself reaching for the Febreeze every time they start talking about cloud computing.  Am I too far gone?  I still hold out hope that one day I will get passed the trauma.  I would like to suggest changing the name so that I can engage in computer speak without thinking of toilets.  How about calling it “The Internet”?

I know that most people from more refined backgrounds are thinking to themselves about a thunderstorm, or even a Spring day when someone refers to clouds.  I guess I could use some more refinement but I am what I am.  It was destined to happen when I was an aircraft maintenance person in the Air Force for many years.  If you have ever been one you probably know what I am talking about.  Being in the military requires you to have some thick skin and have a sense of humor to deal with the long hours of working on the flight line in less than ideal conditions.  I guess I am doomed to being an unrefined Neanderthal incapable of rational thought.  I need to accept who I am.  Can I keep my computer though?

I have a moderate level of experience in trouble shooting computers and the Internet.  When Internet is lost, most technical support will encourage you to turn off your router, modem, and all connected computers.  They will have you turn on the modem, then then router, and then the connected computers.  This is good advice and almost always works as most people that have had this problem will attest.  Our problem is intermittent in nature but consistent in its repetitiveness.  Over the last few years, we have changed modems, routers, and providers and the problem is never ending.  I am hopeful that our move next year will help to alleviate these connection issues.  Right now we are using a brand new cable modem and router.  My router, D-Link DIR-825 802.11(n) Gigabit, is not even a week old.  Our modem is a Motorola SBV-5222 and we have only had it for six months.The one noticeable improvement this router has resulted in is the auto reset.  The Internet still loses connection but no longer seems to need us to restart the modem and router.  It seems to restart itself within two minutes.  When I am streaming video, the lost Internet is very annoying.

There are many reasons why I believe our problems are infrastructure.  Over the years we have lost electric power many many times because trees have grown into the power lines and the wind has blown them into the wires.  I have lost a monitor from a power surge that was a result of a loose ground wire on the power line behind my house.  The local power company came to my house and narrowed the issue to that connection.  To give you an idea of how this works I will explain.  When that wire comes loose it is akin to turning on the water faucet and putting your thumb over the hose.  When you take your thumb off the hose you will get a sudden surge of water pressure that shoots the water with a higher force.  The same can be said of your power lines.  The voltage is the pressure that pushes the electricity through the wires.  The actual electrons (current) flowing through the wire is like the water going through the hose.  When the current is slowed, it increases pressure (voltage).  This sudden surge of voltage can be reduced with surge protectors but those do not work in our old neighborhood.  Surge protectors rely on using the home’s ground.  These old homes only have the old two wire power wires in the home and do not have a good ground for the surge protector to use.

I may be way off on my assumption but this is what I have narrowed it down to.  We have changed every piece of hardware in the home network.  The only thing left is infrastructure.  I really hope that when we move, it can fix this problem.  I talk to others and find I am the only one that has these problems, at least to this extent.  If anyone can think of other issues that I failed to think of, please, by all means, let me know.  We have had this problem intermittently over the last ten years that we have lived in this house.  I am not too proud to accept assistance that can fix this problem. 

You may remember last week that I posted about my Internet Issues with losing my connection all the time.  The strange thing about my problems is that I would lose ‘web’ access while my other applications would stay connected.  I was with AT&T using DSL on a network with a wired and wireless router.  The wireless router is being used as an access point set up as a pass through.  I am now using Cox Internet with the same configuration.  I took a picture above of my current system after the changes.  The big difference in the above system is the new cable modem on the left.  I checked the speed on Speakeasy’s Speed test and the download speed was 23847 kbps and the upload speed was 3644 kbps, fairly impressive.

Unfortunately my problem has not gone away.  I have more than one router and I have tried both of them with the same results.  When the system is working, it works very well.  The problem is that I have times where my web access just fails to load after timing out.  When it happens, it does it to all connected computers.  It is clear that my problem is with the router because it works smooth with the computer connected directly to the modem.  I am just not sure what is wrong with the router settings.  If anyone else has had this problem before and has any suggestions, please let me know.  You can either post here, or email me directly at paul [dot] mccord at gmail (dot) com.  This is quite frustrating and I am very confused.  The router is set up with default settings for a cable modem with the exception of certain ports being forwarded to specific computers.  This is absolutely necessary because I have a ham radio linking system that uses several ports. I also have several programs that are used on specific computers that use special ports. All of our computers are set to static IP addresses so that port forwarding is possible.

I guess the single characteristic that makes this so interesting is that we do not lose Internet connection on our other applications such as Skype, and other audio streaming programs.  It is only the web that is being affected.  Also this seems to happen when we are accessing the web simultaneously on more than one computer.  I know the web uses port 80 and so I am inclined to think that multiple accesses to the same port are confusing the router.  Usually if I stop all web access for about two full minutes, the problem goes away.  I do not even have to reboot the router, or the modem.  Does this sound familiar?  I am very interested in any suggestions others may have.  What really gets me is that it happens on two separate routers.  Also it does not happen all the time.  For example at this moment I am trying to put stress on my system by streaming IRLP audio, watching Hulu.com on another computer, watching TWiT on another computer all at the same time.  It is running flawlessly at this moment.  I am very concerned about what is causing this because when it happens, my web is stopped cold.  There is no access at all and in some cases, it is very slow.  Let me know if you have any suggestions.

The big argument is that Twitter has become so main stream and on practically every news talk show around while Friendfeed has so many more features.  They are arguing whether Friendfeed will ever overtake Twitter.  I think as of right now, I use Twitter the most.  I also use Twitter to update Facebook.  Friendfeed was the first to be able to allow posting stories, messages and allowing others to post messages to them.  Facebook had included that feature lately and I love that.  Friendfeed now has a notifier so you can read your Friendfeed messages right on your desktop.

I love the live updates on Friendfeed though it is very fast if you follow a lot of people.  If you follow a lot of people, you may want to use the filters or you are going to have a headache trying to follow all the information scrolling across your screen.  The incoherence of this post is a classic example of the information overload.  I am typing this at the same time while listening to the Gilmore Gang podcast, and reading the Friendfeed posts as they pop up on the bottom right side of the screen on the notifier.  I truly love it though I remember the nature and anonymity of Friendfeed in the past where it is very easy to be attacked in a very vicious manner if you post something that is not very popular.  If you have thin skin then you may want to be careful what you post because people are very aggressive when they disagree with  you. 

At the moment, Twitter and Facebook are leading the pack and looking at current trends I would say that Friendfeed would never take the lead.  I do know enough to know that you cannot judge by current trends because there was a time when Google was a small part of Yahoo before Google really took off.  There was a time when America Online dominated the online world and most people thought they would never be surpassed in the online world.  Over time you never know what is going to take off.  All I know is that in the last couple of hours since I saw the new beta Friendfeed, and seeing the rate of information flow, I am scratching my head in amazement.  On this one story, there are new posts appearing at a rate of about two per second.  Absolutely amazing real time information.  If you are one of those that must read every post you will find yourself mesmerized and hypnotized by the information overload.

You could literally spend 24 hours a day on Friendfeed where every news story in the universe is streaming across your screen from both political spectrums at the same time.  You could find yourself involved into a religious or political fight in seconds on Friendfeed.  I do like it though because it allows you to see both perspectives on virtually any topic you can think of.  As I said before you could be in a hostile environment easily so you need to be prepared for that.  Don’t let me give you the idea that everyone is ugly and unfriendly on Friendfeed because that is not the truth.  I am just saying there are thousands of people that actively follow these threads 24 hours a day and anyone can see it.  Due to the very nature of its fast and capable social connection, your posts are read very fast and responded to within seconds at times. 

Again, I think this is an amazing interface and destined to go far.  This has only been out a few hours and the traffic is just phenomenal.  Despite this, I am not likely to try to get all my friends to go to Friendfeed because it took me forever to get some of them to go to Facebook and Twitter.  I love all of them but some people do not like all the overload.  As people drift over, I will add them.  I use all three because there are different audiences.  If you are inclined to try these types of toys, then give it a try.  My Friendfeed URL is http://beta.friendfeed.com/paulmccord.  The one thing that makes Twitter so popular is the SMS, or text messaging feature.  This would be virtually impossible on Friendfeed due to the enormous amount of information. 

Again, I would like to apologize for the incoherence of this post, because I have too much information going on at the same time.  I hope you give it a try and see how you like it.  I think you will be hooked in no time.

Am I the only one that has noticed all the Apple hysteria these days?  If you turn on the television, watch any sitcom, or movie you will see everyone with a Mac.  If you go onto social networking sites or blogs around the world you will find similar sentiments.  This has become another follower story similar to the Google follower story of about two years ago.  Remember when Google was the equivalence of the second coming of Christ?  This is what is happening with Apple these days and it is almost nauseating.

Let’s have some sanity in this argument.  Apple products are just plain overpriced and I refuse to use them when they continue to be that way.  Even their Itunes software is not very attractive.  The iPhone is off the charts too expensive and so is ANY iPod.  I mean seriously…  You can buy virtually any mp3 player with more storage space for 50 to 75% of the iPod price.  The Apple advertising story is to say that to use a PC means that you are vulnerable to attack with virus’ worms, or any sorts of malware.  The truth is that Microsoft still carries 80+% of the market while Apple only has 10%.

Think in terms of a terrorist since most virus authors are just that in their own way.  If you had to blow something up and weapons were very expensive or time consuming wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on a target that would do the most damage to the most people?  In other words authors of malware and the like target Microsoft because they are the most used, not because they are the least secure.  This is a message that Apple will never tell you, nor will their followers.  They only have the appearance of being more secure because they do not have enough market share to make cracking them worth while.

Despite the never ending barrage of attacks from the Apple loving, Microsoft haters Microsoft still makes very good products.  The small exception of the initial release of Vista is hardly the rule.  Microsoft Vista has actually become a very nice operating system from what they were in the beginning.  This is not an attempt to attack Apple for making bad products but rather an attempt to combat some of the over zealous hysteria around their overpriced products.

Many of the people that I hear swearing allegiance to Apple are the same people that I use to hear bashing Microsoft for their proprietary ways.  The ironic thing about all this is that Apple is far more proprietary than Microsoft is.  They will not even allow you to use their software on hardware that they did not make.  Of course this can be done but not without violating the end user license agreement (EULA).  I watched four movies this weekend and everyone of them had Apple Macintosh computers on their desks.  I watched a Christmas episode of House just yesterday and he was not only using a Mac but was holding an iPhone.  I am not saying this is bad for a person to use their products but rather to say that Hollywood’s portrayal of Apple is that everyone uses them and everyone wants them.  This is simply not true and I am one of them.  I have zero desire to purchase any products by Apple and I know I am not the only one.

In all honesty I have to hand it to Apple for making some pretty good products lately and I have nothing against them other than their pricing for similar PC products.  The thing that bothers me is the disproportionate love fest with their products among the tech world and Hollywood.  The tech world mainly for the hypocrisy of bashing Microsoft for being proprietary while their love child Apple does the very same thing.  Hollywood for their continued habits of trying to create spin while they are supposed to be entertaining.  They do this all the time with their subtle hints at liberal slanted topics and social issues.  Instead of just doing a performance to entertain which is what their audience wants to see they try to use this monopolistic platform to try to shape people’s minds.  I guess it is no secret that I am no fan of the entertainment industry.

I have been a computer enthusiast for more than 20 years and I still love them.  I am no expert with computers, rather an enthusiast that loves learning about new gadgets.  I claim no expertise in any way but I have been around long enough to see how trends come and go and this Apple hysteria is just another example of groups of people following the crowd paying twice what a product is worth just because of the perceived “coolness” factor.  Somehow these days it is seen to make you cool if you own a Mac despite paying a higher price for the same product. If you are in the “IN” crowd you think this makes perfect sense while those not in the “IN” crowd see it as lunacy.

An analogy that could compare would be the guy that drives down your street playing the stereo so loud that the bass shakes the dishes in your home.  To the deaf guy in the car and his buddies, this is so cool that it gives them chills to see people look in their direction.  To them this is the height of attention and in their eyes everyone is looking at them with envy.  To the people outside the car looking in the same situation is seen with disgust.  The person inside the car is looked upon as a person with not enough brain power to save his own hearing.  The same situations seen from two completely different perspectives.  The Apple Mac buyer walks around with his overprices Mac with chills as people glance his way.  He sticks his chest out knowing that everyone that glances his way is looking upon him with envy.  To all those that are in agreement with him they support his lack of budgeting skills and cheer him on.  Those others “NON COOL” types look upon him with pity.  They see this poor soul as one that was so caught up in pleasing his friends that he paid twice the price for a product than he had to.  They get down on one knee just before bed to ask God to forgive them for they know not what they do.

I know I know…  That is a little over the top but I sometimes find that a little tongue in cheek sarcasm can be used to illustrate a point.  To all my Apple friends you are in my prayers .

As many of you may know I have posted about how the government does everything the hard way.  Everything we do is usually impacted by a new rule or policy that makes our jobs harder.  Over the last two days at work we have received this message or some rendition of it on our computers.  This is basically telling us that we cannot use any removable media on our computers at work any more.  This is going to virtually shut our office down in the short term.  My office produces Power Point presentations daily.  We take engineering photographs to display issues that are coming up.  With this new policy we cannot unload our work related photographs or reports.  Sometimes we deal with Excel spreadsheets that are so large that the government email will not allow it to go through.  This leaves us with our memory stick to move files from one computer to another.  We do this every day many times a day.

Although they did not post the reason for this policy, it is quite clear why they did this.  It is my opinion that their reasoning is two fold and that is to prevent the spread of virus’ to government computers.  The other reason is to keep people from taking restricted information outside of the government.  I took this screen shot this morning because I was just amazed at these ridiculous blanket policies.  We have the capability to scan these forms of removable media to check for virus and worms.  There is technology that is available that can encrypt this media that must be authenticated by our government common access cards (CAC).  This really should not amaze me at all because this is typical of the government to create these blanket policies to cripple everyone to punish a couple.  Instead of dealing with the trouble makers they shut everyone down from doing their assigned duties.

To give you an idea of the waste that goes on in the government.  If a person works in maintenance they are required to get their technical manuals or Technical Orders (TO) online.  They must print them out each time they want to work on a piece of equipment.  These printouts are only good for one day so they must be shredded and then reprinted the next day.  This means that litterally thousands of sheets of paper are printed and shreded every day at my work.  This is mandated by law.  If a person is caught using a printout from yesterday then they are subject to disciplinary actions.  This is typical for the government and keeps most people worked up over it all the time.  I am curious how this new policy of no removable media is going to play out as I have already heard that our colenel was even complaining about it and if it is true, he has every reason.

There is not a day that goes by that almost everyone in our office is required to create an electronic report of some kind.  These reports or presentations are almost always presented in a conference room on an overhead projector via PowerPoint or some other software.  I am curious how this will work out since no one will be able to get their files from their computers to the conference room.  One might think that we could just email it to ourselves on the other computer.  That is virtually impossible since to set up our Outlook Exchange server requires administrative privilages.  We would have to call the IT help desk for each person that wants to do a presentation on every computer.  Web base email is out of the question because they have blocked access to all web mail accounts including Cox.net or SBCglobal.  No Yahoo, No Google, No Hotmail.  No social networking sites.  They have even blocked access to even use CD-R’s.  To the average citizen this may seem a little over kill but the the government worker this is an average day.  You can add to this frustration that I received a delinquent travel voucher notice this afternoon for a temporary duty (TDY) that I took three weeks ago.  By law we are required to submit our travel voucher within five working days of return.  Our second level supervisor just signed it yesterday even though I submitted it the day I returned.  I fulfilled my duties immediately and my second level supervisor sits on it for weeks and then I get a delinquent notice.  This is typical of an average day.  I think I have beat a dead horse long enough.  I just had to share this information to get it off my chest.

UPDATE: 21 Nov 2008

Thanks to KC5FM for pointing out the US-CERT web site’s warning about a malicious code being spread through USB Flash drives.  I certainly hope that a fix is discovered soon as work has really been hampered.  You can read the article here…

http://www.us-cert.gov/current/index.html#malicious_code_spreading_through_usb