Tag Galaxy

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Security and Digital Picture Frames

I was listening to “All Things Considered” on NPR as I drove home last night, and happened to catch part of an interview with Counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke. One of the items that caught my interest was Clarke’s assertion that one of the new vectors for computer viruses will be devices we connect to the web. As an example, he cited a problem with Best Buy’s Insignia 10.4-inch Digital Picture Frames. Here’s an excerpt from a CNet article published back in January:

“Best Buy is warning customers who purchased its Insignia 10.4-inch Digital Picture Frames that their device may be harboring a virus, according an advisory posted on its Web site over the weekend….Best Buy learned of the problem in the first week of January, after receiving several customer complaints, said company spokeswoman Nissa French. It took a couple weeks for the company to ascertain the problem, which it attributes to a virus that was loaded onto the devices during the manufacturing process.”

A bit more from Engadget in February:

“…Now it looks those now-discontinued virus-ridden Insignia units from Best Buy and several other models produced in China were carrying a much nastier trojan that we'd originally heard. According to an analyst form Computer Associates, the trojan, called Mocmex, is able to block more than 100 types of security and anti-virus software from killing it, and bypasses the Windows firewall to download files from remote locations, spreading them randomly over your hard drive and any portable storage device you plug into your PC -- like, for example, a digital photo frame. The trojan is apparently set to only steal gaming passwords at present, but CA says it's capable of stealing nearly any information on your machine, and thinks it might be a test for a much worse virus yet to come. Infected frames have come from Sam's Club, Target and Costco, in addition to Best Buy, so we'd say to avoid picking one up until this mess gets sorted out -- or, you know, forever.”

I’m glad I heard it…I think I had naively overlooked the possibility of all our new web-enabled devices as vectors for cyber troubles.

Adobe Free Trials = Adobe Free Tribulations

FYI, It looks like some poor programmer at Adobe has inadvertently disabled free trials from working during the month of June!

http://www.adobe.com/trial_update/faq/

“During the month of June 2008, certain product trials that are launched for the first time (regardless of when they were installed) will function for only one day instead of 30 days, due to an error in a line of code that counts down the remaining days in a trial. You will not experience this issue if you have launched your trial before June 1, 2008, or do not launch it until July 1 or thereafter.”

Wireshark

It’s a little over my head, but packet sniffing software (like Fiddler?) seems like a very useful thing to make note of:

“Wireshark is an award-winning network protocol analyzer developed by an international team of networking experts.”

Microsoft is Giving Up on Scanning Books

A short blog entry at The New Yorker points out that Microsoft is giving up on scanning massive quantities of books in an effort to beef up its search engine.

MicroHoo

ER pointed out this great (and funny) article on why Microsoft sometimes competes in the wrong areas:

“So think hard about the future internet OS: ubiquitous computing, with a computer not just on every desktop and in every home, or even every phone and every camera, but in everyday devices, clothing, shopping carts, cars, pens, toys, buildings, roads, the power grid, even human bodies--and yes, lots of server farms. An infrastructure of real-time data services across that "network of networks," with search (and search-based-advertising) only one of many such services. As David Stutz once wrote: Useful software written above the level of the single device will command high margins for a long time to come.”

Counting Calories From Your Cellphone

I originally read about this in Newsweek. Seems like a good idea – although the site (from a regular computer) is annoying and colonized with pop-up ads.

“Using the new Diet.com Nutrition on the Go service really is as easy as…

1. You put your phone in text message mode, type in the menu item you need help with, then send that info to DIET1 (34381).

2. In a flash you receive a text with the information you requested (see actual examples at right of page)

3. Make an informed decision! Feast on tasty, guilt-free, diet-friendly food!”

http://www.diet.com/mobile/

Mike’s Flying Bike

MC sent me this link from Kim Komando’s Video of the Day. Innovative stuff! I'll have to remember to look into the SunSPOT.

NNDB Mapper

Another Flash-based mash up that serves up data visually.

“The NNDB Mapper is a visual tool for exploring the connections between people in NNDB, linking them together through family relations, corporate boards, movies and TV, political alliances, and shadowy conspiracy groups. Maps can be saved and shared for others to explore.”

Neurobotics

A fascinating video (among others) from the 2008 New Yorker Conference.

"Yoky Matsuoka, the director of the neurobotics laboratory at the University of Washington, discusses how brain signals can control prosthetic limbs, and other advances in the hybrid field of neuroscience and robotics. From “Stories from the Near Future,” the 2008 New Yorker Conference."

Wookieepedia

LOL, too nerdy (I count myself among the nerd folk, mind you) not to post: Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki.

Google Hosted Site Search

MB pointed out this helpful service from Google: Hosted Site Search.

“Add a Google-powered site search engine to your website and improve the site's user experience, increase sales, and reduce support costs.”

I’m sure it will be fixed soon, but if you try the Google Ajax Search, make note of this bug:

Change the “av” parameter to just “v.”

Predicting the Apple Products of 2013

Prognostication is usually entertaining. (I’ll bet it would be doubly so in 2013.) Hope everyone had a great extended weekend!

From the WSJ:

“Forrester Research imagines the Apple products of 2013 in a new report. Their conclusion: While much of Apple's great successes have been mobile products, the company will seek to colonize rooms throughout the home.”

SlideShare

Another sharing application for static content – similar to iPaper?

Facebook > FaceLift?

RR pointed out this article on MSNBC:

“ Having nearly tripled its audience and added about 20,000 new applications over the past year, Facebook's popular online hangout is about to undergo a housecleaning. Visitors who can't stand the clutter that's been piling up will be glad to see that the site's new look sweeps disparate bits of information into categories marked by tabs at the top of each user's customized home page.”

TimeTube

From ER:

“A better Youtube interface?”

TimeTube

AS3: Length of an Array vs. XML Length

A handy post from underground-flash.com:

When getting the number on elements in an array, you use length as a property of the array rather than a method. Such as
var max = myArray.length;

But to get this from an XML object, you have to add function brackets like this
var kids = myXML.length();

Wordtracker - See How Popular Search Phrases Are

I’m interested in learning more about search engine optimization. Wordtracker seems like a useful tool for novices and experts alike.

“People use different words when they search for your products online. Use these 'keywords' in your website copy and people will find your site when they search. No matter what business you are in, Wordtracker will tell you the words people use when they search - and how popular each word is.”

It’s a pay service, but there is a free trial. In addition, they offer this free tool:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

Want to read more about keywords? Pandia.com has a great article entitled “Pandia SEM 101.”

Word to PDF > Preserving Hyperlinks

I always forget that printing to the "Adobe PDF" printer does NOT preserve hyperlinks from Microsoft Word. The way to preserve links is to instead use the "Create PDF" button found beneath the Acrobat tab. (For Word 2003 users, the button is always available.)

Google Code and Subversion

Phew. So, many developers, including Flex and ActionScript coders, are starting to use Google Code as their repository of choice. Makes a lot of sense! The only tricky part (at least for me) was figuring out what “Subversion” was. No, it’s not subversive. J At least, I don’t think so.

“What is Subversion? Subversion is a free/open-source version control system. That is, Subversion manages files and directories, and the changes made to them, over time. This allows you to recover older versions of your data, or examine the history of how your data changed. In this regard, many people think of a version control system as a sort of ‘time machine.’”

“…It is a general system that can be used to manage any collection of files. For you, those files might be source code—for others, anything from grocery shopping lists to digital video mixdowns and beyond.”

Pretty cool, right? The only annoying thing, is that it’s a command line utility. So, I ended up adding this (free) program that provides access to SVN using the windows explorer: TortoiseSVN. Specifically, there are a number of new options added to the context (right-click) menu. Download a copy here.

Firefox Extension: Video DownloadHelper 3.0.3

This Firefox extension allows you to download FLV files from YouTube (or other Flash video) sites; it also provides the capability to download audio or image files.

“Just surf the Web as you are used to, when DownloadHelper detects it can do something for you, the icon gets animated and a menu allows you to download files by simply clicking an item.”

XML in ActionScript 3

A few nice resources explaining how to manipulate XML in ActionScript 3

AS3 E4X Rundown (partlyhuman.com)

Using XML in Flash CS3/AS3 (kirupa.com)

ActionScript 3.0 Language and Components Reference (livedocs.adobe.com)

Getting Started with ActionScript (senocular.com)

User Interface Resource Center

Yet another cool link from ER:

http://www.uiresourcecenter.com/

"The User Interface Resource Center is a community resource dedicated to providing information, education and resources around
the technologies and techniques that make up the world of user interface design, development and rich Internet applications.”

Design For the Other 90%

RR pointed out this neat site.

“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.”

Art Wheel

ER pointed out a cool artwheel.

Nokia's Dream Phones

From businessweek.com:

“The handset maker went to citizens of Mumbai, Rio and other megacities for new ideas—and got designs that find graffiti, test water, and emit peace vibes.”

Search and Replace a String in AS2 and AS3

What an incredibly useful bit of code! Thanks to “the Pope’s Flash Blog:”

function strReplace($str:String, $search:String, $replace:String):String

{

return $str.split($search).join($replace);

}

“The ‘split’ function splits the string at the word ($search) you’re searching for. And the ‘join’ inserts the new word ($replace) between the elements, concatenates them, and returns the resulting string.”

Spam Definition Changes from Unsolicited to Unwanted?

I was just reading an article on Q Interactive about the results of its "Spam Complainers Survey.” They come up with some interesting (and challenging) information.

“The mission of the survey was to uncover consumers' perceptions of what they consider to be spam, why they report emails as spam and what they think happens when the ‘report spam’ button is clicked.”

“Among the most striking findings of the study is the fact that the definition of spam has effectively changed from the permission-based regulatory definition of ‘unsolicited commercial email’ to a perception-based definition centered on consumer dissatisfaction. Over half of the participants, 56 percent, consider marketing messages from known senders to be spam if the message is ‘just not interesting to me’, while 50 percent of respondents consider ‘too frequent emails from companies I know’ to be spam and 31 percent cite ‘emails that were once useful but aren't relevant anymore’. (Respondents could select more than one answer for multiple questions in the survey.)”

Brand Interactions Are the Future

ER is always passing along visionary stuff. Here’s the latest: a great article about Brand Interactions. Here’s an excerpt:

“Micro-interactions are the everyday exchanges that we have with a product, brand and service. Each one, in and of itself, seems insignificant. But combined they define how we feel about a product, brand or service at a gut emotional level. In the case of Google, each time it helps us find what we are looking for, view a map, send an e-mail or connect with a friend, it deposits a positive impression in our memory banks.”

The article also includes this interesting video: Experience Design and Convergence from the Interaction 2008 conference.

Ten principles that contribute to a Googley user experience

This is interesting to me – I agree with many of their philosophies and enjoy their products, but have to confess their page designs aren’t visually appealing to me. I must not be “Googley!”

“The Google User Experience team aims to create designs that are useful, fast, simple, engaging, innovative, universal, profitable, beautiful, trustworthy, and personable. Achieving a harmonious balance of these ten principles is a constant challenge. A product that gets the balance right is "Googley" – and will satisfy and delight people all over the world.”

Make My Logo Bigger Cream

A classic video pointed out by MB. Upon further inspection, it's actually a clever company offering programming services to designers.

Gspace: Make Gmail a Drive

I thought this was pretty innovative! I wonder if Google will put a stop to it?

“Gspace is a free Firefox extension that cleverly builds a virtual Web drive from the 2GB of storage on your Gmail account. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to switch among accounts, manage file transfers, and access photos and music. “

Get Gspace for Firefox

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus - Here Comes Everybody

An amazing speech passed to me from ER:

“I was recently reminded of some reading I did in college, way back in the last century, by a British historian arguing that the critical technology, for the early phase of the industrial revolution, was gin.
The transformation from rural to urban life was so sudden, and so wrenching, that the only thing society could do to manage was to drink itself into a stupor for a generation. The stories from that era are amazing-- there were gin pushcarts working their way through the streets of London.

And it wasn't until society woke up from that collective bender that we actually started to get the institutional structures that we associate with the industrial revolution today. Things like public libraries and museums, increasingly broad education for children, elected leaders--a lot of things we like--didn't happen until having all of those people together stopped seeming like a crisis and started seeming like an asset.

It wasn't until people started thinking of this as a vast civic surplus, one they could design for rather than just dissipate, that we started to get what we think of now as an industrial society.

If I had to pick the critical technology for the 20th century, the bit of social lubricant without which the wheels would've come off the whole enterprise, I'd say it was the sitcom. Starting with the Second World War a whole series of things happened--rising GDP per capita, rising educational attainment, rising life expectancy and, critically, a rising number of people who were working five-day work weeks. For the first time, society forced onto an enormous number of its citizens the requirement to manage something they had never had to manage before--free time.

And what did we do with that free time? Well, mostly we spent it watching TV.” Read more

Google diving into 3D mapping of oceans

From CNET:

“We've got Google Earth and Google Sky. Next up will be a map of the world below sea level--Google Ocean.”

*

“The tool…is expected to be similar to other 3D online mapping applications. People will be able to see the underwater topography, called bathymetry; search for particular spots or attractions; and navigate through the digital environment by zooming and panning.”