Steve Wozniak just sent this fun stunt caught on video a few years ago:
Watch him deliver a Mac to Emma, a girl who freaks out when she realizes
her idol is at the door carrying her new computer. As Emma's father
says in the video: "This is like having your lightbulbs delivered by
Thomas Edison."
-- via roy
Monday, March 31, 2014
Friday, March 28, 2014
speeding up Windows 8
I noticed Windows 8 seems a bit sluggish on my laptop, especially while scrolling. Don't know whether it's Windows 8 or the laptop. Probably both. But let's see if I can speed things up.
Came across this page and tried step 2. Don't know if it's my imagination, but seems more responsive now.
Came across this page and tried step 2. Don't know if it's my imagination, but seems more responsive now.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Tim Cook on ROI
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has bluntly told climate change sceptic investors to ditch their stocks if they do not support his pledge to slash greenhouse gas emissions, in the latest signal that the company will continue to invest in sustainable energy.
According to witnesses at Apple’s annual meeting on Friday, Cook became visibly angry when questioned by a radical right-wing think tank about the profitability of investing in renewable energy.
Under Cook’s leadership Apple has stepped up its commitment to curbing its environmental impact, pledging to supply 100% of its power from renewable sources and crack down on the use of minerals mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that can fund war and human rights abuses.
At the meeting last week, shareholders voted down a resolution by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) - an avid campaigner against action to tackle climate change - that would force Apple to disclose more information about the costs of its investment in tackling climate change.
However, Justin Danhof of the NCPPR pursued the line by asking Cook if Apple’s environmental investments increased or decreased the company’s bottom line. He also asked Cook to commit Apple to only investing in measures that were profitable.
Cook became visibly angry at Danhof’s questions and categorically rejected the NCPPR’s climate scepticism, according to the Mac Observer’s Bryan Chaffin, who attended the event. He told shareholders that securing a return on investment was not the only reason for investing in environmental measures.
“When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind, I don’t consider the bloody ROI,” Cook said, adding that the same sentiment applied to environmental and health and safety issues.
He told Danhof that if he did not believe in climate change, he should sell his Apple shares. “If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock,” he said.
Cook’s comments and visible passion over the issue are one of the strongest signals yet of his commitment to reducing Apple’s environmental footprint. He told shareholders that he wanted to “leave the world better than we found it”.
-- TheGuardian
***
Apple CEO Tim Cook took on so-called climate change "deniers," issuing a stern message to anyone who disagrees with the company's clean energy push.
According to a report by Mashable, the exchange occurred Friday at an annual meeting with the company's shareholders.
He was pressed on the issue by a general counsel for the National Center for Public Policy Research, a D.C.-based conservative think tank that owns Apple shares. He asked Cook to pledge not to go forward with any new energy initiatives that do not improve the company's bottom line.
"We want to leave the world better than we found it," Cook responded, telling any shareholder who doesn't like the policy "to get out of the stock."
-- Fox News Insider
***
It looks like former Obama EPA Chief Lisa Jackson (alias: Richard Windsor), who Apple gave a job to last year in spite of her scandals, and Global Warming High Priest Al Gore, an Apple board member, have gotten to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Cook is so entrenched in the faulty theory of man-made global warming that he’s even willing to see his shareholders dump his stock.
Never mind that a plurality of Americans reject the myth of the discredited belief in man-made global warming and that the co-founder of Greenpeace this week referred to the myth’s followers as being like members of a religious cult, Apple CEO Tim Cook has a message for his shareholders. Cook says if you don’t like believe in man-made global warming, you should sell his company’s stock.
The National Center for Public Policy Research, a free-market think tank, who owns shares in Apple stock along with National Center executives, released the following statement on Friday:
***
Tim Cook, was asked at the annual shareholder meeting by the NCPPR, the conservative finance group, to disclose the costs of Apple’s energy sustainability programs, and make a commitment to doing only those things that were profitable.
Reportedly looking directly at the NCPPR representative, he said, “If
you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of
this stock.”
Mr. Cook made clear that Apple would continue with energy
sustainability and its other initiatives. Most of the shareholders went
along with that: the NCPPR’s proposal received just 2.95 percent of the
vote.
-- Forbes
According to witnesses at Apple’s annual meeting on Friday, Cook became visibly angry when questioned by a radical right-wing think tank about the profitability of investing in renewable energy.
Under Cook’s leadership Apple has stepped up its commitment to curbing its environmental impact, pledging to supply 100% of its power from renewable sources and crack down on the use of minerals mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that can fund war and human rights abuses.
At the meeting last week, shareholders voted down a resolution by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) - an avid campaigner against action to tackle climate change - that would force Apple to disclose more information about the costs of its investment in tackling climate change.
However, Justin Danhof of the NCPPR pursued the line by asking Cook if Apple’s environmental investments increased or decreased the company’s bottom line. He also asked Cook to commit Apple to only investing in measures that were profitable.
Cook became visibly angry at Danhof’s questions and categorically rejected the NCPPR’s climate scepticism, according to the Mac Observer’s Bryan Chaffin, who attended the event. He told shareholders that securing a return on investment was not the only reason for investing in environmental measures.
“When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind, I don’t consider the bloody ROI,” Cook said, adding that the same sentiment applied to environmental and health and safety issues.
He told Danhof that if he did not believe in climate change, he should sell his Apple shares. “If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock,” he said.
Cook’s comments and visible passion over the issue are one of the strongest signals yet of his commitment to reducing Apple’s environmental footprint. He told shareholders that he wanted to “leave the world better than we found it”.
-- TheGuardian
***
Apple CEO Tim Cook took on so-called climate change "deniers," issuing a stern message to anyone who disagrees with the company's clean energy push.
According to a report by Mashable, the exchange occurred Friday at an annual meeting with the company's shareholders.
He was pressed on the issue by a general counsel for the National Center for Public Policy Research, a D.C.-based conservative think tank that owns Apple shares. He asked Cook to pledge not to go forward with any new energy initiatives that do not improve the company's bottom line.
"We want to leave the world better than we found it," Cook responded, telling any shareholder who doesn't like the policy "to get out of the stock."
-- Fox News Insider
***
It looks like former Obama EPA Chief Lisa Jackson (alias: Richard Windsor), who Apple gave a job to last year in spite of her scandals, and Global Warming High Priest Al Gore, an Apple board member, have gotten to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Cook is so entrenched in the faulty theory of man-made global warming that he’s even willing to see his shareholders dump his stock.
Never mind that a plurality of Americans reject the myth of the discredited belief in man-made global warming and that the co-founder of Greenpeace this week referred to the myth’s followers as being like members of a religious cult, Apple CEO Tim Cook has a message for his shareholders. Cook says if you don’t like believe in man-made global warming, you should sell his company’s stock.
The National Center for Public Policy Research, a free-market think tank, who owns shares in Apple stock along with National Center executives, released the following statement on Friday:
Cupertino, CA / Washington, D.C. - At today’s annual meeting of Apple shareholders in Cupertino, California, Apple CEO Tim Cook informed investors that are primarily concerned with making reasonable economic returns that their money is no longer welcome.
The message came in response to the National Center for Public Policy Research’s shareholder resolution asking the tech giant to be transparent about its environmental activism and a question from the National Center about the company’s environmental initiatives.
“Mr. Cook made it very clear to me that if I, or any other investor, was more concerned with return on investment than reducing carbon dioxide emissions, my investment is no longer welcome at Apple,” said Justin Danhof, Esq., director of the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project.-- TPNN (the Tea Party News Network)
Tim Cook, was asked at the annual shareholder meeting by the NCPPR, the conservative finance group, to disclose the costs of Apple’s energy sustainability programs, and make a commitment to doing only those things that were profitable.
Mr. Cook replied –with an uncharacteristic
display of emotion–that a return on investment (ROI) was not the primary
consideration on such issues. “When we work on making our devices
accessible by the blind,” he said, “I don’t consider the bloody ROI.” It
was the same thing for environmental issues, worker safety, and other
areas that don’t have an immediate profit. The company does “a lot of
things for reasons besides profit motive. We want to leave the world
better than we found it.”
The National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) attended the meeting as shareholder. It describes itself as a conservative think tank and was pushing a shareholder proposal
that would have required Apple to disclose the costs of its
sustainability programs and to be more transparent about its
participation in “certain trade associations and business organizations
promoting the amorphous concept of environmental sustainability.”
-- Forbes
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Whoosh!
As I was walking through the recent International CES, the big, bright-orange Whoosh! booth caught my attention. I gave my phone to the Whoosh! representative – and wow! My phone was probably the cleanest it has ever been. What makes this cleaner different than all the rest is that it coats your screen with a nano-thin proprietary polymer that resists fingerprints, dust and dirt buildup, yet allows your fingers to glide easily over the surface.
The very first thing I noticed after my phone was Whooshed was the ease of swiping my finger across the screen. There was significantly less resistance than before, which is a good thing. It now has been more than a month since my iPhone has been Whooshed, yet I still can feel the coating’s effectiveness. I’m sure I should be cleaning it much more often than that, but I wanted to see how long it would stay on.
Being the germophobe I am, I already know that my iPhone harbors a ton of germs. To be exact, according to the BBC, 18 percent of mobile phones are contaminated with staphylococcus and 16 percent are contaminated with fecal flora and E-coli. On top of that, Yahoo states that the average cell phone is up to 10 times dirtier than a toilet seat – yuck!
Whoosh! is 100 percent natural, non-hazardous, environmentally friendly and never tested on animals. Best of all, there is nothing within Whoosh! that will damage or etch harm to any of your screens or devices. Visit whooshscreenshine.com or Amazon.com to purchase for $4.99 (pocket/.3 fluid ounces), $9.99 (on-the-go) or $19.99 (Duo+/one 3.4 fluid ounce bottle and one .3 ounces).
-- Click Chick, Midweek, February 12, 2014
Saturday, March 15, 2014
reporting phishing attacks
You can take steps to avoid a phishing attack.
• Don’t ever email or text personal or financial information.
• Be cautious about opening attachments and downloading files from unfamiliar emails.
• Use trusted security software and make sure it is updated consistently.
• Provide personal or financial information through a business’s or organization’s website only if you typed in the website address yourself. If the URL begins with https (the “s” stands for secure) it is likely safe. However, keep in mind that phishers have been known to forge security icons.
• Review your credit card and bank account statements and check for unauthorized charges. If your statement is late by more than a couple of days, call your credit card company to confirm your billing address and account balances.
If you think that you have been tricked by a phishing email, take the following actions.
• File a report with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at www.ftc.gov/complaint.
• Visit the FTC’s identity theft website, www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/feature-0014-identitytheft. Victims of phishing could become victims of identity theft; the site lists steps you can take to minimize your risk.
• Forward phishing emails to the FTC at spam@uce.gov and to the company, bank or organization impersonated in the email. You may also report phishing email to reportphishing@antiphishing.org. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, a group of ISPs, financial institutions and law enforcement agencies, uses these reports to fight phishing. UPS offers more tips on fighting phishing. Go to www.ups.com and search “fight fraud.”
-- Costco Connection, March 2014
• Don’t ever email or text personal or financial information.
• Be cautious about opening attachments and downloading files from unfamiliar emails.
• Use trusted security software and make sure it is updated consistently.
• Provide personal or financial information through a business’s or organization’s website only if you typed in the website address yourself. If the URL begins with https (the “s” stands for secure) it is likely safe. However, keep in mind that phishers have been known to forge security icons.
• Review your credit card and bank account statements and check for unauthorized charges. If your statement is late by more than a couple of days, call your credit card company to confirm your billing address and account balances.
If you think that you have been tricked by a phishing email, take the following actions.
• File a report with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at www.ftc.gov/complaint.
• Visit the FTC’s identity theft website, www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/feature-0014-identitytheft. Victims of phishing could become victims of identity theft; the site lists steps you can take to minimize your risk.
• Forward phishing emails to the FTC at spam@uce.gov and to the company, bank or organization impersonated in the email. You may also report phishing email to reportphishing@antiphishing.org. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, a group of ISPs, financial institutions and law enforcement agencies, uses these reports to fight phishing. UPS offers more tips on fighting phishing. Go to www.ups.com and search “fight fraud.”
-- Costco Connection, March 2014
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Amazon Prime price increase
“There are two kinds of companies,” Amazon.com (AMZN)
Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is fond of saying, in one of his
earnest, oft-repeated Jeffisms. “Those that work hard to lower prices,
and those that work hard to raise prices.”
In a letter to Prime members this morning, Amazon cited fuel and transportation costs and noted that the number of items eligible for free Prime two-day shipping has jumped to more than 20 million products. Amazon’s shipping expenses have indeed risen dramatically, from $2.4 billion in 2010 to $3.5 billion in 2013. In all but two years since Prime’s inception, Amazon’s net shipping costs have increased more than 25 percent. At the same time, Amazon has extended Prime eligibility to millions of products sold by third-party merchants that store their stuff in the company’s distribution warehouses, via its popular Fulfillment by Amazon program.
Prime isn’t just a two-day shipping program anymore. It’s become a varied loyalty program that draws customers in and seeks to convert them into Amazon addicts. And that costs more. That said, Amazon Prime’s streaming media service isn’t priced at much of a premium compared with competitors. Prime’s monthly cost is now $8.25, not much more than the $7.99 that Netflix (NFLX) charges for a service that doesn’t also come with digital book rental and free shipping on a vast assortment of merchandise.
The Prime price increase is partly the result of changes in the way Amazon itself has used the service—as its prime weapon (pun intended) in the battle against Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL). Bezos believes, even more so than his rivals, that content (books, music, and the like) can be the gateway drug that lures customers into Amazon’s immersive world of devices and digital services. So over the last few years, he has packed digital freebies into Prime membership: 40,000 movies and TV episodes inside Prime Instant Video, plus more than 500,000 e-books that can be borrowed free, one each month, within the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.
And Bezos is only getting started. Amazon is producing its own television shows and movies in an arms race with Netflix to secure exclusive streaming rights to the most popular TV series. And the company is reportedly working on adding a free music streaming service into Prime. It’s also hiring game developers like crazy up in Seattle, building a game studio from scratch in an effort to replace the selection of mobile applications it loses by not putting Google’s more popular Android app store on its Kindle Fire tablets. In the next few weeks, Amazon will also likely release a set-top box for the living room, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the device touting extra benefits for Prime members.
***
Non-HBO subscribers will soon be able to watch some of the network's old TV shows, like "The Sopranos" and "The Wire," on Amazon Prime's streaming video service.
Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) described the deal as a first for HBO, which has a reputation for being tightfisted with its library of hit shows -- even ones that stopped airing years ago.
The assortment of HBO shows will be a significant addition to Amazon Prime as it attempts to sign up more monthly subscribers and challenge Netflix. HBO will continue to provide complete access to all its shows through HBO GO, the streaming service for its existing subscribers.
The Amazon deal draws a bright line between old and new. The seasons of "Girls," "The Newsroom" and "Veep" that are premiering this year won't be available through Amazon Prime for approximately three years. The three-year delay will apply to past seasons as well: for example, the first season of "Girls," which premiered on television in 2012, will become available on Prime in 2015.
What's missing entirely is HBO's current biggest hit, "Game of Thrones." The deal also excludes "True Detective," the new series with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson that debuted earlier this year to rave reviews and quickly became a pop culture phenomenon. HBO may seek to make money from repeats of those shows some other way.
HBO is owned by Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500), which is also the parent company of CNNMoney.
Previously, the only ways for people without HBO to watch the network's shows would be by purchasing DVDs, buying individual episodes through Amazon or Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iTunes store, or by watching reruns of certain shows on other cable channels. ("Sex and the City" now runs on the E! channel, and isn't included in the Amazon deal.)
In the television industry, revenue from DVDs and reruns has been declining as viewers gravitate toward on-demand ways to watch. With Amazon, HBO is generating a new way to make money from its reruns. In Hollywood, this is known as a new "window" for programming. (The first "window" remains the hotly-anticipated premieres of episodes on the main HBO television channel.)
Amazon and HBO said the first shows would start to appear on Prime on May 21, just in time for Memorial Day weekend.
Tuesday, March 04, 2014
Dish's deal with Disney
The Walt Disney Company and Dish Network said Monday they've agreed
to a new carriage deal that restricts an ad-skipping feature in Dish's
digital recorder and grants the satellite TV service provider new
streaming rights.
In partnering with one of the world's largest media companies, Dish gets the right to provide to its customers -- though it didn't commit to it -- live-streaming of Disney's channels, including ABC and ESPN, as a separate service.
Many pay-TV providers, including Dish, Comcast, DirecTV and Verizon, allow subscribers to stream Hollywood's content -- TV and movies -- on other devices inside and outside the home. But this new deal is the first to raise the possibility of a pay-TV provider using a media company's content, in this case Disney's channels and movies, for a new online service without requiring customers to subscribe to the video portion of their cable or satellite subscription.
***
Dish Network took a big step toward such a future with a deal announced Monday with Disney. The agreement opens the way for the satellite TV service to live-stream Disney-owned channels like ESPN and ABC over the Internet to customers' smartphones, tablets, video game consoles and other devices.
The new service will bypass Dish's
14-million-customer satellite system and offer content via the Internet
in much the same way that Netflix delivers video.
No start date has been announced. Dish will probably have to cut similar deals with other programmers to make such a service attractive.
*** [3/8/14]
This deal gives Dish Network the right to offer a separate, live TV and video-on-demand service that you could only access by streaming over the Internet. According to Bloomberg, Dish Network would be looking to price such an offering at between $20 and $30 a month.
Q: That sounds awesome, where do I sign up?
A: In the famous words of ESPN's Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend." There's still a lot that needs to happen before Dish's plans for an Internet streaming network (also known as an "over-the-top" network) can become a reality. For starters, industry analysts think Dish and Disney's contractual agreement likely prevents Dish from launching a streaming network without content from other major players like NBCUniversal, Fox and CBS.
*** [3/8/14]
Mark March 3, 2014, as the day Dish Network and Walt Disney signed the death warrant for the cable industry.
In partnering with one of the world's largest media companies, Dish gets the right to provide to its customers -- though it didn't commit to it -- live-streaming of Disney's channels, including ABC and ESPN, as a separate service.
Many pay-TV providers, including Dish, Comcast, DirecTV and Verizon, allow subscribers to stream Hollywood's content -- TV and movies -- on other devices inside and outside the home. But this new deal is the first to raise the possibility of a pay-TV provider using a media company's content, in this case Disney's channels and movies, for a new online service without requiring customers to subscribe to the video portion of their cable or satellite subscription.
***
LOS ANGELES (AP) — With a string
of recent deals, cable and satellite providers are beginning to
acknowledge a brutal truth that companies like Hulu and Netflix have
known all along: Many TV viewers, especially young ones, want shows and
movies on their own terms — wherever, whenever and on whatever devices
they choose.
Dish Network took a big step toward such a future with a deal announced Monday with Disney. The agreement opens the way for the satellite TV service to live-stream Disney-owned channels like ESPN and ABC over the Internet to customers' smartphones, tablets, video game consoles and other devices.
The
goal is to attract so-called cord-cutters who have become disenchanted
with large channel packages and rising monthly bills for cable or
satellite service.
Charlie
Ergen, Dish Network Corp. chairman, hinted at the underpinnings of the
deal last month, when he admitted that the traditional pay-TV business
model — charging customers $80 or $100 a month for hundreds of channels,
many of which they never watch — is not appealing to younger people.
"We're losing a whole generation of
individuals who aren't going to buy into that model," he told analysts.
"Obviously you'd like to kind of have your cake and eat it too, and
make sure that you come up with products that can engage that new
generation."
No start date has been announced. Dish will probably have to cut similar deals with other programmers to make such a service attractive.
*** [3/8/14]
This deal gives Dish Network the right to offer a separate, live TV and video-on-demand service that you could only access by streaming over the Internet. According to Bloomberg, Dish Network would be looking to price such an offering at between $20 and $30 a month.
Q: That sounds awesome, where do I sign up?
A: In the famous words of ESPN's Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend." There's still a lot that needs to happen before Dish's plans for an Internet streaming network (also known as an "over-the-top" network) can become a reality. For starters, industry analysts think Dish and Disney's contractual agreement likely prevents Dish from launching a streaming network without content from other major players like NBCUniversal, Fox and CBS.
*** [3/8/14]
Mark March 3, 2014, as the day Dish Network and Walt Disney signed the death warrant for the cable industry.
Roku Streaming Stick
Roku announced the Roku Streaming Stick today, which manages to pack
nearly all the functionality of a full-size Roku box into a device not
much bigger than an USB flash drive. It's actually a new version of
Roku's old MHL-based Streaming Stick, but there are two major differences: it now works with any TV that has an HDMI input, and it's half the price, at just $50.
If this all sounds familiar, that's because the design is awfully similar to Google's $35 Chromecast, and it's hard not to see the updated Streaming Stick as a response to Google's popular streamer. So what do you get for the extra $15?
For one, you get a traditional remote and an onscreen interface. It's a pretty standard Roku remote, and it works via Wi-Fi Direct, so it can still control the Streaming Stick when it's hidden behind your TV.
The other major perk over the Chromecast is you get access to all 1,200 of Roku's apps, or "channels" in Roku's parlance. This includes nearly every major service -- such as Netflix, YouTube, HBO Go, Amazon Instant, MLB.TV, Showtime Anytime, and PBS -- as well as a huge number of niche content sources. While the Chromecast has added some crucial apps since its launch (including HBO Go, Hulu Plus, and Pandora), it still can't compare to Roku's sprawling and frequently updated library.
If this all sounds familiar, that's because the design is awfully similar to Google's $35 Chromecast, and it's hard not to see the updated Streaming Stick as a response to Google's popular streamer. So what do you get for the extra $15?
For one, you get a traditional remote and an onscreen interface. It's a pretty standard Roku remote, and it works via Wi-Fi Direct, so it can still control the Streaming Stick when it's hidden behind your TV.
The other major perk over the Chromecast is you get access to all 1,200 of Roku's apps, or "channels" in Roku's parlance. This includes nearly every major service -- such as Netflix, YouTube, HBO Go, Amazon Instant, MLB.TV, Showtime Anytime, and PBS -- as well as a huge number of niche content sources. While the Chromecast has added some crucial apps since its launch (including HBO Go, Hulu Plus, and Pandora), it still can't compare to Roku's sprawling and frequently updated library.
Friday, February 28, 2014
installing Windows 8.1 (one user's experience)
Bill
Gates’s first day at work in the newly created role of technology
adviser got off to a rocky start yesterday as the Microsoft founder
struggled for hours to install the Windows 8.1 upgrade.
The installation hit a snag early on, sources said, when Mr. Gates repeatedly received an error message informing him that his PC ran into a problem that it could not handle and needed to restart.
After failing to install the upgrade by lunchtime, Mr. Gates summoned the new Microsoft C.E.O. Satya Nadella, who attempted to help him with the installation, but with no success.
While the two men worked behind closed doors, one source described the situation as “tense.”
The installation hit a snag early on, sources said, when Mr. Gates repeatedly received an error message informing him that his PC ran into a problem that it could not handle and needed to restart.
After failing to install the upgrade by lunchtime, Mr. Gates summoned the new Microsoft C.E.O. Satya Nadella, who attempted to help him with the installation, but with no success.
While the two men worked behind closed doors, one source described the situation as “tense.”
“Bill is usually a pretty calm guy, so it was weird to hear some of that language coming out of his mouth,” the source said.
A Microsoft spokesman said only that Mr. Gates’s first day in his new job had been “a learning experience” and that, for the immediate future, he would go back to running Windows 7.
[P.S. it's a joke.]
A Microsoft spokesman said only that Mr. Gates’s first day in his new job had been “a learning experience” and that, for the immediate future, he would go back to running Windows 7.
[P.S. it's a joke.]
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
is this website safe?
there are several websites which check whether other websites are safe to visit
There was one I was using the other day, but I don't remember what it was, so here's a few more:
https://safeweb.norton.com/
http://www.avgthreatlabs.com/website-safety-reports/
scanurl.net
PCWorld recommends URLVoid since it checks using multiple websites such as the above.
(Note: I assume the above websites are safe, but one can't be too sure as anybody with experience with fake antivirus / anti-spyware software can attest to.)
There was one I was using the other day, but I don't remember what it was, so here's a few more:
https://safeweb.norton.com/
http://www.avgthreatlabs.com/website-safety-reports/
scanurl.net
PCWorld recommends URLVoid since it checks using multiple websites such as the above.
(Note: I assume the above websites are safe, but one can't be too sure as anybody with experience with fake antivirus / anti-spyware software can attest to.)
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Comcast agrees to buy Time Warner Cable
Comcast said Thursday it had agreed to buy Time Warner Cable for $45 billion in a deal that would combine the two biggest cable companies in the United States.
If the deal is approved, the combined group will be the country's dominant provider of television channels and Internet connections, reaching roughly one in three American homes.
Time Warner Cable (TWC, Fortune 500) owners will be offered 2.875 Comcast (CMCSA, Fortune 500) shares for each share they own, valuing Time Warner Cable at about $158.82 per share.
The two companies expect the merger to take effect by the end of the year, but regulators are likely to take a close look at the potential impact on consumers.
To address those concerns, Comcast said it was prepared to divest about 3 million subscribers. But it would still have about 30 million customers. Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit will lead the merged company.
The proposed deal ends months of jockeying for control of Time Warner Cable, the second biggest U.S. supplier of cable television, with about 11 million subscribers in cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
Smaller rival Charter (CHTR, Fortune 500) wanted to buy Time Warner Cable, indicating last month it was ready to pay about $130 per share.
Now, by swallowing Time Warner Cable on its own, Comcast will gain even more leverage over the country's marketplace for television, broadband Internet and phone services. Comcast has about 23 million television subscribers in markets like Philadelphia, where it is headquartered.
With millions more subscribers, Comcast will add muscle in its negotiations with cable channel owners like The Walt Disney Company (DIS, Fortune 500) and Time Warner (TWC, Fortune 500), the parent company of this website. (Time Warner Cable was spun off from Time Warner in 2009 and no longer has any connection to the owner of CNN, HBO and Warner Bros.)
Although cable providers in general have poor reputations, Comcast has received some high marks for its next-generation software and set-top boxes.
Time Warner Cable, on the other hand, had what the American Customer Satisfaction Index called an "industry low" score last spring. It has shed television subscribers in recent months for a number of reasons, including a protracted blackout of CBS and Showtime in several million homes. Comcast could theoretically improve Time Warner Cable's performance by bringing in its own software.
If the deal is approved, the combined group will be the country's dominant provider of television channels and Internet connections, reaching roughly one in three American homes.
Time Warner Cable (TWC, Fortune 500) owners will be offered 2.875 Comcast (CMCSA, Fortune 500) shares for each share they own, valuing Time Warner Cable at about $158.82 per share.
The two companies expect the merger to take effect by the end of the year, but regulators are likely to take a close look at the potential impact on consumers.
To address those concerns, Comcast said it was prepared to divest about 3 million subscribers. But it would still have about 30 million customers. Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit will lead the merged company.
The proposed deal ends months of jockeying for control of Time Warner Cable, the second biggest U.S. supplier of cable television, with about 11 million subscribers in cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
Smaller rival Charter (CHTR, Fortune 500) wanted to buy Time Warner Cable, indicating last month it was ready to pay about $130 per share.
Now, by swallowing Time Warner Cable on its own, Comcast will gain even more leverage over the country's marketplace for television, broadband Internet and phone services. Comcast has about 23 million television subscribers in markets like Philadelphia, where it is headquartered.
With millions more subscribers, Comcast will add muscle in its negotiations with cable channel owners like The Walt Disney Company (DIS, Fortune 500) and Time Warner (TWC, Fortune 500), the parent company of this website. (Time Warner Cable was spun off from Time Warner in 2009 and no longer has any connection to the owner of CNN, HBO and Warner Bros.)
Although cable providers in general have poor reputations, Comcast has received some high marks for its next-generation software and set-top boxes.
Time Warner Cable, on the other hand, had what the American Customer Satisfaction Index called an "industry low" score last spring. It has shed television subscribers in recent months for a number of reasons, including a protracted blackout of CBS and Showtime in several million homes. Comcast could theoretically improve Time Warner Cable's performance by bringing in its own software.
Tuesday, February 04, 2014
new chief at Microsoft
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Microsoft has named the head of its cloud computing business as the company's next CEO, tapping a longtime insider to lead efforts to catch rivals in mobile devices and offer more software and services over the Internet.
Satya Nadella replaces Steve Ballmer immediately to become only the third chief executive in Microsoft's 38-year history. Company founder and first CEO Bill Gates is leaving his role as chairman to serve as an adviser. He will spend a third of his time working on future products and technology.
Nadella, 46, most recently headed the company's small but growing cloud computing unit, in which customers buy software and services housed on distant servers connected to the Internet. It's a departure from Microsoft's roots making software installed directly on personal computers.
In addition to growing that business, one of Nadella's first tasks as CEO will be the completion of Microsoft Inc.'s $7.3 billion purchase of Nokia's phone business and patent rights — part of a plan to boost Windows Phone software in a market dominated by iPhones and Android devices.
The direction points the company toward an orbit occupied by rivals Google Inc., Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. and away from the core PC business that has been Microsoft's mainstay.
"Going forward, it's a mobile-first, cloud-first world," Nadella said in a video accompanying the announcement Tuesday.
Gates, meanwhile, will remain on the company's board. The new Microsoft chairman will be board member John Thompson, who led the search for a new CEO after Ballmer said in August that he planned to step down.
Thompson said Nadella was the board's "first and unanimous choice." Other candidates considered included Ford CEO Alan Mulally and other insiders such as Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner and former Skype head Tony Bates.
Nadella has "the right background to lead the company in this era," Gates said in a video message. "There's a challenge in mobile computing. There's an opportunity in the cloud. The various business groups he's worked in, he's driven innovation, gotten architectures put together that really meet the needs of our customers. The opportunity for Microsoft is greater than ever before."
Nadella has been an executive in some of the company's fastest-growing and most-profitable businesses, including its Office and server and tools business. In four years as division president, he helped grow that business into one with $20 billion in annual revenue — about a quarter of Microsoft's total revenue in the most recent fiscal year.
For the past seven months, he was the executive vice president who led Microsoft's cloud computing offerings. Nadella's new cloud enterprise group has also been growing strongly, more than doubling customers in the latest quarter — although it remains a small part of Microsoft's current business.
Satya Nadella replaces Steve Ballmer immediately to become only the third chief executive in Microsoft's 38-year history. Company founder and first CEO Bill Gates is leaving his role as chairman to serve as an adviser. He will spend a third of his time working on future products and technology.
Nadella, 46, most recently headed the company's small but growing cloud computing unit, in which customers buy software and services housed on distant servers connected to the Internet. It's a departure from Microsoft's roots making software installed directly on personal computers.
In addition to growing that business, one of Nadella's first tasks as CEO will be the completion of Microsoft Inc.'s $7.3 billion purchase of Nokia's phone business and patent rights — part of a plan to boost Windows Phone software in a market dominated by iPhones and Android devices.
The direction points the company toward an orbit occupied by rivals Google Inc., Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. and away from the core PC business that has been Microsoft's mainstay.
"Going forward, it's a mobile-first, cloud-first world," Nadella said in a video accompanying the announcement Tuesday.
Gates, meanwhile, will remain on the company's board. The new Microsoft chairman will be board member John Thompson, who led the search for a new CEO after Ballmer said in August that he planned to step down.
Thompson said Nadella was the board's "first and unanimous choice." Other candidates considered included Ford CEO Alan Mulally and other insiders such as Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner and former Skype head Tony Bates.
Nadella has "the right background to lead the company in this era," Gates said in a video message. "There's a challenge in mobile computing. There's an opportunity in the cloud. The various business groups he's worked in, he's driven innovation, gotten architectures put together that really meet the needs of our customers. The opportunity for Microsoft is greater than ever before."
Nadella has been an executive in some of the company's fastest-growing and most-profitable businesses, including its Office and server and tools business. In four years as division president, he helped grow that business into one with $20 billion in annual revenue — about a quarter of Microsoft's total revenue in the most recent fiscal year.
For the past seven months, he was the executive vice president who led Microsoft's cloud computing offerings. Nadella's new cloud enterprise group has also been growing strongly, more than doubling customers in the latest quarter — although it remains a small part of Microsoft's current business.
Sunday, February 02, 2014
SD over HD?
It seems to me like 95% of the people I know still watch SD TV even though HD is available to them.
Granted these are probably older people that grew up on SD. And they know that SD channel number and not the HD channel numbers.
Furthermore they usually watch the picture stretched out of proportion on a wide-screen TV. That kind of annoys me, but I guess they're used to it. And some people seem to even prefer watching SD over HD (even though the screen is out of proportion and the picture is blurry).
I wonder if my experience is the same as others. So I'll google it.
And here's a couple of links.
why do people watch SD programming on HDTV sets
step away from the SD
yep.
I guess it's kind of like Frank Barone preferring his scratchy LPs to digital CDs.
Granted these are probably older people that grew up on SD. And they know that SD channel number and not the HD channel numbers.
Furthermore they usually watch the picture stretched out of proportion on a wide-screen TV. That kind of annoys me, but I guess they're used to it. And some people seem to even prefer watching SD over HD (even though the screen is out of proportion and the picture is blurry).
I wonder if my experience is the same as others. So I'll google it.
And here's a couple of links.
why do people watch SD programming on HDTV sets
step away from the SD
yep.
I guess it's kind of like Frank Barone preferring his scratchy LPs to digital CDs.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Macintosh, it was 30 years ago
NEW YORK » Look around. Many of the gadgets you see drew inspiration from the original Mac computer.
Computers
at the time typically required people to type in commands. Once the Mac
came out 30 years ago today, people could instead navigate with a
graphical user interface. Available options were organized into menus.
People clicked icons to run programs and dragged and dropped files to
move them.
The Mac
introduced real-world metaphors such as using a trash can to delete
files. It brought us fonts and other tools once limited to professional
printers. Most importantly, it made computing and publishing easy enough
for everyday people to learn and use.
Apple sparked
a revolution in computing with the Mac. In turn, that sparked a
revolution in publishing as people began creating fancy newsletters,
brochures and other publications from their desktops.
These
concepts are so fundamental today that it's hard to imagine a time when
they existed only in research labs — primarily Xerox's Palo Alto
Research Center in California. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and his team
got much of its inspiration from PARC, which they visited while
designing the Mac.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
progress
Tomorrow's children will become tomorrow's adults in a world where the
sort of life taken for granted over the past half-century -- school
until you're 18 (or 21, or 25...), a decent job at a living wage, and a
retirement supported by pensions and Social Security -- will become as
archaic as a nation of farmers is today.
You might be tempted to reject the notion of a future that looks radically different from our present, but recent history offers more than enough evidence of dramatic change from one generation to the next.
Someone born in 1800 might have lived to see their children become the first to travel on machines -- the locomotive or the steamship -- but someone born in 1900 might have lived to see their children travel further in an aircraft in one day than their parents traveled in a decade.
The march of progress has been strong for over two centuries now, lifting billions out of a hardscrabble life largely indistinguishable from that of the first farmers. But technology also steadily improved before the Industrial Revolution, though at a rate slower than might be appreciated by those living in earlier times. Why has it taken so long to get to the point where we now take progress for granted? It's because progress accelerates. It took hundreds of thousands of years to get from fire to the farm, but only a few thousand years more to get from the farm to the aqueduct. Major leaps forward took less and less time. Aqueduct gave way to cannon, which gave way to printing press, which gave way to steam engine, which gave way to telegraph. Progress accelerates because it proceeds at an exponential rate.
[and on and on he goes. This is probably the longest article I've ever seen at fool.com. Practically a book..]
You might be tempted to reject the notion of a future that looks radically different from our present, but recent history offers more than enough evidence of dramatic change from one generation to the next.
Someone born in 1800 might have lived to see their children become the first to travel on machines -- the locomotive or the steamship -- but someone born in 1900 might have lived to see their children travel further in an aircraft in one day than their parents traveled in a decade.
- "A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth's atmosphere." -- The New York Times , 1920.
- "Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia." -- Early science writer Dr. Dionysius Larder , 1828 .
- "There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom." -- Robert Millikan , winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize in physics, 1928.
- "The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty -- a fad." -- President of the Michigan Savings Bank, to Ford investor and inaugural chairman Horace Rackham , 1903.
- "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -- Scottish mathematician and creator of the Kelvin temperature scale William Thomson, Lord Kelvin , 1895.
- "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- Ken Olsen , founder and president of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977 .
The march of progress has been strong for over two centuries now, lifting billions out of a hardscrabble life largely indistinguishable from that of the first farmers. But technology also steadily improved before the Industrial Revolution, though at a rate slower than might be appreciated by those living in earlier times. Why has it taken so long to get to the point where we now take progress for granted? It's because progress accelerates. It took hundreds of thousands of years to get from fire to the farm, but only a few thousand years more to get from the farm to the aqueduct. Major leaps forward took less and less time. Aqueduct gave way to cannon, which gave way to printing press, which gave way to steam engine, which gave way to telegraph. Progress accelerates because it proceeds at an exponential rate.
[and on and on he goes. This is probably the longest article I've ever seen at fool.com. Practically a book..]
Friday, December 20, 2013
Google's plan to rule to world
You didn't think Google would be satisfied with a place in your pocket, did you?
The world's dominant search engine has displayed an impressive proclivity for the big breakthrough in recent years, but until it announced its acquisition of Boston Dynamics this weekend, it was hard to say just what Big G's long-range strategy might be. Now we know. Google wants to rule the world. It began with a search engine, but it won't stop until the world runs on Google's technology.
Here's the five-step plan that Larry and Sergey just put together that will take it from garage start-up wunderkinds to the architects of the most ambitious scheme for global corporate dominance since the days of Standard Oil.
The world's dominant search engine has displayed an impressive proclivity for the big breakthrough in recent years, but until it announced its acquisition of Boston Dynamics this weekend, it was hard to say just what Big G's long-range strategy might be. Now we know. Google wants to rule the world. It began with a search engine, but it won't stop until the world runs on Google's technology.
Here's the five-step plan that Larry and Sergey just put together that will take it from garage start-up wunderkinds to the architects of the most ambitious scheme for global corporate dominance since the days of Standard Oil.
Friday, December 06, 2013
Monday, December 02, 2013
Amazon Prime Air
NEW YORK »
Amazon.com is already cracking same-day delivery. Next up: getting your
package delivered quicker than a pizza? The online retailer is working
on a way to get customers their goods in 30 minutes or less — by drone.
Amazon.com
said it's working on the so-called Prime Air unmanned aircraft project
in its research and development labs. But the company admits it will
take years to advance the needed technology and for the needed federal
Aviation Administration rules and regulations to be created.
The project was first reported Sunday by CBS' "60 Minutes."
Amazon
CEO Jeff Bezos said during the primetime interview that while the
octocopters look like something out of science fiction, there's no
reason they can't be used as delivery vehicles.
Bezos
said the drones can carry packages that weigh up to five pounds, which
covers about 86 percent of the items Amazon delivers. And the current
generation of drones that the company is testing has a range of about 10
miles, which Bezos noted could cover a significant portion of the
population in urban areas.
While
it's tough to say exactly how long it could take the project to get off
the ground, Bezos told "60 Minutes" that he thinks it could happen in
four or five years.
*** [2/25/14]
Netflix Drone2Home
*** [8/28/14] Google testing drones too
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc is developing airborne drones capable of flying on their own and delivering anything from candy to medicine, the Internet company said on Thursday.
The effort, which Google calls Project Wing, marks the company's latest expansion beyond its Web-based origins and could help Google break into lucrative markets such as commerce and package delivery, ratcheting up the competition with Amazon.com Inc.
Google, the world's largest Internet search engine, said it will take years of development to create a service with multiple vehicles flying multiple deliveries per day.
An early version of the drone, which Google showcased in a video on its website, has a 1.5 meter-(yard)wide wingspan and is capable of flying pre-programmed routes.
"These planes have much more in common with the Google self-driving car than the remote-controlled airplanes people fly in parks on weekends," Google said on its website, referring to the company's test fleet of automobiles that use sensors and radars to navigate city streets and freeways on their own.
The drone Google showed in the video Thursday was equipped with rotors to allow for vertical takeoff and landing, as well as a fixed wing for plane-like flying. The drone flew about 40 meters above the treeline, Google said, and dropped a package of chocolate bars to a farmer in Queensland, Australia.
*** [2/25/14]
Netflix Drone2Home
*** [8/28/14] Google testing drones too
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc is developing airborne drones capable of flying on their own and delivering anything from candy to medicine, the Internet company said on Thursday.
The effort, which Google calls Project Wing, marks the company's latest expansion beyond its Web-based origins and could help Google break into lucrative markets such as commerce and package delivery, ratcheting up the competition with Amazon.com Inc.
Google, the world's largest Internet search engine, said it will take years of development to create a service with multiple vehicles flying multiple deliveries per day.
An early version of the drone, which Google showcased in a video on its website, has a 1.5 meter-(yard)wide wingspan and is capable of flying pre-programmed routes.
"These planes have much more in common with the Google self-driving car than the remote-controlled airplanes people fly in parks on weekends," Google said on its website, referring to the company's test fleet of automobiles that use sensors and radars to navigate city streets and freeways on their own.
The drone Google showed in the video Thursday was equipped with rotors to allow for vertical takeoff and landing, as well as a fixed wing for plane-like flying. The drone flew about 40 meters above the treeline, Google said, and dropped a package of chocolate bars to a farmer in Queensland, Australia.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
new Google search algorithm
Google
has overhauled its search algorithm, the foundation of the Internet's
dominant search engine, to better cope with the longer, more complex
queries it has been getting from Web users.
Amit Singhal, senior vice president of search, told reporters on Thursday that the company launched its latest "Hummingbird" algorithm about a month ago and that it currently affects 90 percent of worldwide searches via Google.
"Hummingbird" is the company's effort to match the meaning of queries with that of documents on the Internet, said Singhal from the Menlo Park garage where Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin conceived their now-ubiquitous search engine.
Page and Brin set up shop in the garage of Susan Wojcicki -- now a senior Google executive -- in September 1998, around the time they incorporated their company. This week marks the 15th anniversary of their collaboration.
Amit Singhal, senior vice president of search, told reporters on Thursday that the company launched its latest "Hummingbird" algorithm about a month ago and that it currently affects 90 percent of worldwide searches via Google.
"Hummingbird" is the company's effort to match the meaning of queries with that of documents on the Internet, said Singhal from the Menlo Park garage where Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin conceived their now-ubiquitous search engine.
Page and Brin set up shop in the garage of Susan Wojcicki -- now a senior Google executive -- in September 1998, around the time they incorporated their company. This week marks the 15th anniversary of their collaboration.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Oceans storing heat
The oceans are becoming a repository for almost all of Earth’s excess
heat, driving up sea levels and threatening coastlines, according to a
leaked draft of the most comprehensive United Nations report addressing
climate science.
Temperatures in the shallowest waters rose by more than 0.1 degree Celsius (0.18 degree Fahrenheit) a decade for the 40 years through 2010, the study found. Average sea levels have increased worldwide by about 19 centimeters (7.5 inches) since 1901 and researchers said it’s “very likely” the system of ocean currents that includes the Gulf Stream will slow in the coming decades.
The findings are detailed in a 2,200-page report that will guide UN envoys as they devise a new treaty to fight climate change by 2015. It was obtained by Bloomberg from a person with official access to the report who declined to be further identified because it hasn’t been published. The UN declined to comment.
“The Earth is absorbing more heat than it is emitting back into space, and nearly all this excess heat is entering the oceans and being stored there,” the report’s authors wrote. “Changes have been observed in ocean properties of relevance to climate during the past 40 years, including temperature, salinity, sea level, carbon, pH and oxygen.”
It’s “extremely likely” mankind is responsible for more than half of the observed temperature rises since the 1950s and it’s “virtually certain” the global rate of sea-level rise has accelerated over the past two centuries, according to the summary document. Those main points are little changed from an earlier version that was leaked by the blogger Alec Rawls on the website www.stopgreensuicide.com in December.
The latest version of the summary includes a lower forecast for temperature rise from 2016 through 2035 of 0.3 degrees to 0.7 degrees Celsius, compared with 0.4 degrees to 1 degree in last year’s version. Both versions conclude that there’s “very high confidence” the Greenland Ice Sheet has lost mass and “high confidence” the same has happened to the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The two ice sheets contain more than 99 percent of the planet’s freshwater ice, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center.
Temperatures in the shallowest waters rose by more than 0.1 degree Celsius (0.18 degree Fahrenheit) a decade for the 40 years through 2010, the study found. Average sea levels have increased worldwide by about 19 centimeters (7.5 inches) since 1901 and researchers said it’s “very likely” the system of ocean currents that includes the Gulf Stream will slow in the coming decades.
The findings are detailed in a 2,200-page report that will guide UN envoys as they devise a new treaty to fight climate change by 2015. It was obtained by Bloomberg from a person with official access to the report who declined to be further identified because it hasn’t been published. The UN declined to comment.
“The Earth is absorbing more heat than it is emitting back into space, and nearly all this excess heat is entering the oceans and being stored there,” the report’s authors wrote. “Changes have been observed in ocean properties of relevance to climate during the past 40 years, including temperature, salinity, sea level, carbon, pH and oxygen.”
It’s “extremely likely” mankind is responsible for more than half of the observed temperature rises since the 1950s and it’s “virtually certain” the global rate of sea-level rise has accelerated over the past two centuries, according to the summary document. Those main points are little changed from an earlier version that was leaked by the blogger Alec Rawls on the website www.stopgreensuicide.com in December.
The latest version of the summary includes a lower forecast for temperature rise from 2016 through 2035 of 0.3 degrees to 0.7 degrees Celsius, compared with 0.4 degrees to 1 degree in last year’s version. Both versions conclude that there’s “very high confidence” the Greenland Ice Sheet has lost mass and “high confidence” the same has happened to the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The two ice sheets contain more than 99 percent of the planet’s freshwater ice, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center.
Friday, September 06, 2013
HECO could charge more for solar
Hawaii's solar energy boom has grown to the point where rooftop photovoltaic panels are providing all of the electricity consumed during some daylight hours in about 13 percent of Oahu neighborhoods, the Hawaiian Electric Co. said.
The high level of PV penetration, far beyond what is occurring anywhere on the mainland, is the result of a doubling of solar power generating capacity in Hawaii nearly every year since 2005. The rapid growth has put Hawaii at the forefront of an evolving effort by utilities nationally to accept greater amounts of intermittent solar energy into their electrical grids.
While HECO is taking steps to integrate more solar energy, that could result in added costs for some new solar customers. If HECO determines improvements are needed in a certain area to accommodate additional amounts of solar energy, new solar customers may have to bear the cost.
This week HECO began contacting its Oahu customers planning on installing PV systems, as well as PV contractors, to make sure the customers are informed of any equipment upgrades they may have to pay for.
The upgrades to the Oahu grid are necessary, HECO says, because of the rapid growth in solar installations.
The latest numbers from HECO, unthinkable just a few years ago, show that solar energy provides all of the minimum daytime power needs for 54 circuits, or neighborhoods, out of the 416 circuits on Oahu. The threshold has been reached on 26 out of Maui's 132 circuits and 17 of 143 circuits on Hawaii island.
"Those are impressive figures. Saturation on some of those circuits is higher than any other area in the country," said Tim Lindl, attorney for the nonprofit Interstate Renewable Energy Council based in Latham, N.Y.
Roughly 5 percent of HECO's customers on Oahu and Maui, and 4 percent of its customers on Hawaii island, have installed PV systems, according to data from the utility. That compares with about 1.5 percent of the customers served by California's two largest electric utilities, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison.
*** [10/19/13]
The high level of PV penetration, far beyond what is occurring anywhere on the mainland, is the result of a doubling of solar power generating capacity in Hawaii nearly every year since 2005. The rapid growth has put Hawaii at the forefront of an evolving effort by utilities nationally to accept greater amounts of intermittent solar energy into their electrical grids.
While HECO is taking steps to integrate more solar energy, that could result in added costs for some new solar customers. If HECO determines improvements are needed in a certain area to accommodate additional amounts of solar energy, new solar customers may have to bear the cost.
This week HECO began contacting its Oahu customers planning on installing PV systems, as well as PV contractors, to make sure the customers are informed of any equipment upgrades they may have to pay for.
The upgrades to the Oahu grid are necessary, HECO says, because of the rapid growth in solar installations.
The latest numbers from HECO, unthinkable just a few years ago, show that solar energy provides all of the minimum daytime power needs for 54 circuits, or neighborhoods, out of the 416 circuits on Oahu. The threshold has been reached on 26 out of Maui's 132 circuits and 17 of 143 circuits on Hawaii island.
"Those are impressive figures. Saturation on some of those circuits is higher than any other area in the country," said Tim Lindl, attorney for the nonprofit Interstate Renewable Energy Council based in Latham, N.Y.
Roughly 5 percent of HECO's customers on Oahu and Maui, and 4 percent of its customers on Hawaii island, have installed PV systems, according to data from the utility. That compares with about 1.5 percent of the customers served by California's two largest electric utilities, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison.
*** [10/19/13]
Two weeks
ago, this column covered concerns on the part of consumers that had
contracted to install solar systems and on the part of industry
leadership. In the meantime, the state Legislature held an informational
hearing during which it questioned HECO about its procedural
changes and also heard testimony from the Interstate Renewable Energy
Council, the Hawaii Solar Energy Association and the Hawaii PV
Coalition, ending with a directive to work on a solution and report back
next month.
HECO
acknowledged that the transition to new procedures on Sept. 6 left many
customers that had followed all the company's rules in what the
solar industry calls "solar limbo." This then caused a significant
slowdown for many solar installers.
HECO
announced on Sept. 6 that consumers wanting to install solar systems
first had to get HECO to confirm that the grid in their
neighborhood could handle the added solar power. HECO said if the grid
needed an upgrade to handle more solar power, the consumers
installing new solar systems would have to pay for those upgrades.
This
week, I had the opportunity to interview Peter Rosegg, a spokesman for
HECO. He said that at the informational hearing, all parties
agreed that safety cannot be compromised. Responsible solar installers
also acknowledged the utility's statement that too much solar on a
circuit without proper protective equipment risks the safety of
customers and utility crews and damage to customer electronics and
utility equipment such as lines, transformers and substations. Still,
many solar industry leaders are skeptical, saying that HECO is
heavily overplaying concerns about safety, reliability and grid
penetration.
Delays
both for HECO customers and the solar industry are frustrating and costly. The impact of the changed procedures, from the solar
industry's point of view, include 30 percent to 75 percent of their jobs
postponed; "millions" lost in revenue; "millions" in commitments
to vendors; warehouses full; lost hours for employees; continued payment
so as not to lose skilled and hard-to-find electrical journeymen;
and six weeks of confusion.
In
response, and in an effort to work with the Hawaii Solar Energy
Association and PV Coalition, HECO has pledged to try to help some
1,000 customers who may have committed to bank loans, obtained building
permits and ordered solar equipment but had not yet notified the
utility in advance as is now required.
While
HECO is a major reason for the slowdown, the solar industry is also in
the midst of an inevitable industry consolidation. The combination
of federal and state tax credits together with bonus depreciation in
recent years has fueled a dramatic, unsustainable proliferation in
the number of companies in the market. Concurrently, as the Great
Recession resolves, investment capital, once vying for solar
projects, may be pulling back in favor of other competing opportunities.
During
the last legislative session, strong consideration was given to reducing
state credits now in place. It didn't happen. Legislators should
let it go. Federal credits begin to phase down at the end of 2016.
Tapering state credits now while HECO is also in transition on its
policies and its grid is a dangerous prospect. The phasing out of
additional federal Safe Harbor and bonus depreciation benefits
together with industry consolidation portend substantial headwinds for
solar.
The big
picture is that modern civilization is quickly realizing that the health
of the planet and its inhabitants is, in part, dependent on our
collective ability to move beyond petroleum toward a consortium of
clean, renewable energy options including not only solar, but also
wind, geothermal and hydroelectric sources. HECO's ability to support
this transition to the maximum extent possible is a critical step.
The task is huge, but essential. As a society, we will get there in
time.
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
arranging facebook photos
For some reason, facebook is not allowing me to arrange the photos in my albums.
In the past, I could just go to photos/Albums/ then to whatever album I wanted to edit. Once there, I could click-drag the photo to where I wanted it to go.
But now it drags, but the photo doesn't stay there. (This is on firefox, btw. I think the problem also occurs on the other browsers, but I didn't check them all.)
Anyway I found a way that seems to get it working.
What you do is put the cursor on the picture you want to move and click the star icon (highlight) on the top right. That hulks up the picture to a bigger size. Then click it again to restore the picture to the original size.
For some reason, that seems to set facebook back to where you can drag the picture and it'll stay there.
In the past, I could just go to photos/Albums/ then to whatever album I wanted to edit. Once there, I could click-drag the photo to where I wanted it to go.
But now it drags, but the photo doesn't stay there. (This is on firefox, btw. I think the problem also occurs on the other browsers, but I didn't check them all.)
Anyway I found a way that seems to get it working.
What you do is put the cursor on the picture you want to move and click the star icon (highlight) on the top right. That hulks up the picture to a bigger size. Then click it again to restore the picture to the original size.
For some reason, that seems to set facebook back to where you can drag the picture and it'll stay there.
updating Netflix Queue (My List) on iPad
The Netflix Instant Queue has become My List, but forgive me if I refer it to the queue since it's faster to type. (Well, it's still Instant Queue on the Roku.)
Anyway, I built up my queue to nearly 500 items. The problem is that it would take a long time to update on the ipad and sometimes it just wouldn't show up.
The queue seems buggy on the app. Sometimes adding an item doesn't appear. And deleting an item doesn't remove it. [And sometimes it does.]
Plus you can't rearrange the items in the queue in the app.
So I generally do my searches and adds/deletes on the computer. But again, the changes made on the computer doesn't mirror automatically on the ipad. However it does update fairly quickly (within a minute it seems) on the Roku.
I thought maybe I had too many items in the queue and overloaded the app. So I deleted the items and started added some back one by one. But same problem (though the list wouldn't stall and lock up
Closing the app and restarting it didn't work. However closing the app and totally shutting down and restarting the ipad worked.
But here's what I found seems to work the easiest. Go to kids mode, then exit kids mode. And that seems to update the queue!
I see there's a few apps that allow you to arrange the queue on the ipad. Maybe I'll be trying one of those one of these days.
Anyway, I built up my queue to nearly 500 items. The problem is that it would take a long time to update on the ipad and sometimes it just wouldn't show up.
The queue seems buggy on the app. Sometimes adding an item doesn't appear. And deleting an item doesn't remove it. [And sometimes it does.]
Plus you can't rearrange the items in the queue in the app.
So I generally do my searches and adds/deletes on the computer. But again, the changes made on the computer doesn't mirror automatically on the ipad. However it does update fairly quickly (within a minute it seems) on the Roku.
I thought maybe I had too many items in the queue and overloaded the app. So I deleted the items and started added some back one by one. But same problem (though the list wouldn't stall and lock up
Closing the app and restarting it didn't work. However closing the app and totally shutting down and restarting the ipad worked.
But here's what I found seems to work the easiest. Go to kids mode, then exit kids mode. And that seems to update the queue!
I see there's a few apps that allow you to arrange the queue on the ipad. Maybe I'll be trying one of those one of these days.
Friday, August 30, 2013
diary of a cable TV cord cutter
I noticed a PlayOn ad (which mentioned a cnet review) on facebook and googled cord cutting PlayOn cnet.
And came across these series of articles. Though the articles are nearly three years old, they still seem mostly relevent (and kind of fun to read).
Day 1 - OTA (over the air)
Week 1
Week 2
Final Entry
Recap
And came across these series of articles. Though the articles are nearly three years old, they still seem mostly relevent (and kind of fun to read).
Day 1 - OTA (over the air)
Week 1
Week 2
Final Entry
Recap
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Netflix comings and goings
[10/12/13] Ah hah. Monk is now on Hulu Plus.
[9/24/13] Hmm. Monk leaving on 10/1/13. Maybe I'll have to get the DVDs after all.
[8/27/13] James Bond movies leaving Netflix on September 2, 2013.
And here it seems I just added those movies a couple of weeks ago (apparently 26 days ago). So I guess this was a one month deal.
Apparently this has happened before. So maybe they'll come back one of these months.
I wonder if they'll head to Hulu?
[9/24/13] Hmm. Monk leaving on 10/1/13. Maybe I'll have to get the DVDs after all.
[8/27/13] James Bond movies leaving Netflix on September 2, 2013.
And here it seems I just added those movies a couple of weeks ago (apparently 26 days ago). So I guess this was a one month deal.
Apparently this has happened before. So maybe they'll come back one of these months.
I wonder if they'll head to Hulu?
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Google could kill cable TV
If you haven't heard, Google (GOOG +0.50%)
and the National Football League are in some form of communication
regarding the NFL Sunday Ticket rights that will be up for grabs
beginning with the 2015 NFL season.
At this point, the story isn't so much about Google or the NFL. It's about something much bigger that has to have cable companies very nervous.
The media has made a big deal of a story that isn't much of one -- at least right now.
According to AllThingsD, the NFL and Google are engaging in "informal talks" that could potentially bring the NFL's Sunday Ticket package to YouTube. If you're not a hard-core football fan, the Sunday Ticket, in its current form, allows fans to view out-of-market games produced by Fox (FOXA +2.00%) and CBS (CBS +3.72%).
Currently, DirecTV (DTV +1.08%) owns the rights and offers it over the internet, on some tablets and smartphones, as well as on Sony's (SNE +0.25%) PlayStation and JetBlue (JBLU +1.28%) flights.
According to the story, the NFL is meeting with multiple Silicon Valley companies on a range of topics -- the Sunday Ticket being only one. Contrary to the attention its receiving from the media, it's not much of a story, especially given the fact that DirecTV is reported to be ready to fight to keep the rights.
The real story in this is bigger than the NFL or Google. First, we're seeing evidence that the sports world, which hasn't been quick to adopt new media strategies, is ready for change and appears to see the need to adopt new formats to attract the next generation of viewers.
During the PGA Championship, we reported that Fox Sports would broadcast the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open and the U.S. Senior Open from 2015 to 2026. Fox has never televised a golf event but what seemed to sway the United States Golf Association was the idea that Fox would bring a fresh perspective to the events.
But this deal would be even more disruptive and cable companies would hate it. With the Time Warner Cable (TWC +0.75%) versus CBS war still showing no signs of a resolution, there's concern that the deadlock could continue into the NFL season.
This would be disastrous for CBS and the NFL. Even now, watching the events unfold (or not unfold), the NFL has to be thinking that it's time to consider new ideas. Google has more than enough cash on hand to not only buy the rights but also build out a robust infrastructure. The Chromecast could put the NFL on the TV sets of every broadband customer furthering the "cord-cutting" push that cable companies fear.
Netflix (NFLX -0.23%) is producing award-winning content, Google wants a piece of the NFL, and don't be surprised if Apple (AAPL +0.12%) doesn't get it on a deal like this.
Bottom line -- there's more than enough cash in the bank accounts of these companies to make cord cutting a reality and the more deals like these happen, the less we'll all need traditional cable.
At this point, the story isn't so much about Google or the NFL. It's about something much bigger that has to have cable companies very nervous.
The media has made a big deal of a story that isn't much of one -- at least right now.
According to AllThingsD, the NFL and Google are engaging in "informal talks" that could potentially bring the NFL's Sunday Ticket package to YouTube. If you're not a hard-core football fan, the Sunday Ticket, in its current form, allows fans to view out-of-market games produced by Fox (FOXA +2.00%) and CBS (CBS +3.72%).
Currently, DirecTV (DTV +1.08%) owns the rights and offers it over the internet, on some tablets and smartphones, as well as on Sony's (SNE +0.25%) PlayStation and JetBlue (JBLU +1.28%) flights.
According to the story, the NFL is meeting with multiple Silicon Valley companies on a range of topics -- the Sunday Ticket being only one. Contrary to the attention its receiving from the media, it's not much of a story, especially given the fact that DirecTV is reported to be ready to fight to keep the rights.
The real story in this is bigger than the NFL or Google. First, we're seeing evidence that the sports world, which hasn't been quick to adopt new media strategies, is ready for change and appears to see the need to adopt new formats to attract the next generation of viewers.
During the PGA Championship, we reported that Fox Sports would broadcast the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open and the U.S. Senior Open from 2015 to 2026. Fox has never televised a golf event but what seemed to sway the United States Golf Association was the idea that Fox would bring a fresh perspective to the events.
But this deal would be even more disruptive and cable companies would hate it. With the Time Warner Cable (TWC +0.75%) versus CBS war still showing no signs of a resolution, there's concern that the deadlock could continue into the NFL season.
This would be disastrous for CBS and the NFL. Even now, watching the events unfold (or not unfold), the NFL has to be thinking that it's time to consider new ideas. Google has more than enough cash on hand to not only buy the rights but also build out a robust infrastructure. The Chromecast could put the NFL on the TV sets of every broadband customer furthering the "cord-cutting" push that cable companies fear.
Netflix (NFLX -0.23%) is producing award-winning content, Google wants a piece of the NFL, and don't be surprised if Apple (AAPL +0.12%) doesn't get it on a deal like this.
Bottom line -- there's more than enough cash in the bank accounts of these companies to make cord cutting a reality and the more deals like these happen, the less we'll all need traditional cable.
Monday, August 19, 2013
DIY recycling bins
Well, it's about time.
The city and county of Honolulu's Department of Environmental Services has not only embraced the concept of DIY (do-it-yourself) recycling bins, but is inviting schools, community groups and volunteers to help make and install them at district parks, beaches and bus stops.
The city's goal is to install 1,000 of the HI-5 recycling bins around the island this year.
This month, Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawai‘i was one of the first groups to step up to the plate and partner with the city for the project. B.E.A.C.H. brought together volunteers to learn how to make the wire recycling bins that they will install around Oahu while educating the public about the city's new no-smoking rules.
The wire recycling HI-5 bins were actually the original idea of University of Hawaii professors Gaye Chan and Nandita Sharma as part of their non-profit Eating In Public project.
Read their blog at www.eating-in-public.blogspot.com.
They first made the bins in 2006, installing the first one in front of their home. The simple wire mesh bins come with a sign that says "HI-5/ Take, Leave, Whatevas..." The idea caught on and they were invited to give workshops.
The self-serve bins attach to existing trash containers to help keep recyclables separate. The city will not be picking up the recyclables.
The city and county of Honolulu's Department of Environmental Services has not only embraced the concept of DIY (do-it-yourself) recycling bins, but is inviting schools, community groups and volunteers to help make and install them at district parks, beaches and bus stops.
The city's goal is to install 1,000 of the HI-5 recycling bins around the island this year.
This month, Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawai‘i was one of the first groups to step up to the plate and partner with the city for the project. B.E.A.C.H. brought together volunteers to learn how to make the wire recycling bins that they will install around Oahu while educating the public about the city's new no-smoking rules.
The wire recycling HI-5 bins were actually the original idea of University of Hawaii professors Gaye Chan and Nandita Sharma as part of their non-profit Eating In Public project.
Read their blog at www.eating-in-public.blogspot.com.
They first made the bins in 2006, installing the first one in front of their home. The simple wire mesh bins come with a sign that says "HI-5/ Take, Leave, Whatevas..." The idea caught on and they were invited to give workshops.
The self-serve bins attach to existing trash containers to help keep recyclables separate. The city will not be picking up the recyclables.
Friday, August 16, 2013
the death of cable?
Will the cable set-top box go the way of the horse and buggy? Perhaps one day.
The alliance between Sony (SNE +0.60%) and Viacom (VIA +0.24%) that has been reported by The New York Times and others shows that day may be coming sooner than many expect. Viacom has "tentatively agreed" to allow its cable channels such as Nickelodeon and Comedy Central to be part of an Internet-based TV service that Sony is developing. This is big news for several reasons.
First, any deal between Sony and Viacom could lay the groundwork for similar pacts with other content creators such as Time Warner (TWX -0.57%) and 21st Century Fox (FOXA +0.41%). Moreover, it may lead producers to sign deals with Google (GOOG -0.32%) and Intel (INTC -0.52%), which are developing offerings similar to Sony's.
"Analysts say cable delivered through the Internet could give households many more choices -- if the new services give customers more for their money and if cable incumbents don't smother the services," according to The Times.
The bad side to these types of arrangements is that they'll make it harder for consumers to avoid "the bundle." If these nascent services want access to popular channels, they're going to have to take less popular ones as well. Cable and satellite providers have done this for years, which forces consumers to shell out big bucks for shows they never watch.
Cablevision (CVC -1.07%) filed suit against Viacom over its channel-bundling practices earlier this year calling them "anti-consumer and wrong." New York-based Viacom, not surprisingly, rejects those arguments.
Here's one of the few issues where content creators and the pay-TV industry agree: If consumers are allowed to buy only the channels they actually watch, it would create a fiscal Armageddon for both of their industries. But as the number of cord-cutters rise, they may be forced to change their tune regarding what's known as a-la-carte pricing.
Consumers have to wonder how much choice they will have from services such as Sony's, which will be similar to the cable and satellite services they already use. And for people who think that quitting cable TV will deal a mortal blow to companies such as Comcast (CMCSA -1.08%), remember: You'll have to stream your videos over something. More likely than not, it will be an Internet connection from Comcast or one of its rivals.
***
So this is another small step forward, "live" TV over the internet. Though Viacom's programs aren't likely live. And there's already a lot of a la carte TV via Hulu, Netflix, and the various websites.
The big step will come when they have anti-bundled channels. If they ever unbundle ESPN, it's over. (or not?)
The alliance between Sony (SNE +0.60%) and Viacom (VIA +0.24%) that has been reported by The New York Times and others shows that day may be coming sooner than many expect. Viacom has "tentatively agreed" to allow its cable channels such as Nickelodeon and Comedy Central to be part of an Internet-based TV service that Sony is developing. This is big news for several reasons.
First, any deal between Sony and Viacom could lay the groundwork for similar pacts with other content creators such as Time Warner (TWX -0.57%) and 21st Century Fox (FOXA +0.41%). Moreover, it may lead producers to sign deals with Google (GOOG -0.32%) and Intel (INTC -0.52%), which are developing offerings similar to Sony's.
"Analysts say cable delivered through the Internet could give households many more choices -- if the new services give customers more for their money and if cable incumbents don't smother the services," according to The Times.
The bad side to these types of arrangements is that they'll make it harder for consumers to avoid "the bundle." If these nascent services want access to popular channels, they're going to have to take less popular ones as well. Cable and satellite providers have done this for years, which forces consumers to shell out big bucks for shows they never watch.
Cablevision (CVC -1.07%) filed suit against Viacom over its channel-bundling practices earlier this year calling them "anti-consumer and wrong." New York-based Viacom, not surprisingly, rejects those arguments.
Here's one of the few issues where content creators and the pay-TV industry agree: If consumers are allowed to buy only the channels they actually watch, it would create a fiscal Armageddon for both of their industries. But as the number of cord-cutters rise, they may be forced to change their tune regarding what's known as a-la-carte pricing.
Consumers have to wonder how much choice they will have from services such as Sony's, which will be similar to the cable and satellite services they already use. And for people who think that quitting cable TV will deal a mortal blow to companies such as Comcast (CMCSA -1.08%), remember: You'll have to stream your videos over something. More likely than not, it will be an Internet connection from Comcast or one of its rivals.
***
So this is another small step forward, "live" TV over the internet. Though Viacom's programs aren't likely live. And there's already a lot of a la carte TV via Hulu, Netflix, and the various websites.
The big step will come when they have anti-bundled channels. If they ever unbundle ESPN, it's over. (or not?)
Wednesday, August 07, 2013
just plain pasting
When you copy text from any source,
programs will usually copy any formatting that comes with it. To paste
this as plain text, press CTRL + Shift + V instead of the standard CTRL +
V, and the system will paste unformatted text. Note that many programs
follow this rule (Chrome, Firefox, etc.) but not all, particularly
Microsoft programs like Word or Outlook. For those there's a couple
alternatives: A) CTRL + ALT + V will show a 'paste special' dialog box.
B) CTRL + Spacebar will remove formatting in already pasted text.
-- via Retrevo
[I wonder if this will work when copying and pasting from Google Drive to Yahoo Groups? I'll try it next time. Right now, I'm copying and pasting from Google Drive to EditPad, then from EditPad to Yahoo Groups, since Yahoo Groups doesn't translate the Google Drive formatting well.]
-- via Retrevo
[I wonder if this will work when copying and pasting from Google Drive to Yahoo Groups? I'll try it next time. Right now, I'm copying and pasting from Google Drive to EditPad, then from EditPad to Yahoo Groups, since Yahoo Groups doesn't translate the Google Drive formatting well.]
Monday, July 29, 2013
watching hulu on TV
I've been using Freemake to download hulu videos (so I can download Good Dog! and play it on plex over my roku). It's the first software I've seen that can do this. (I forget where I first saw it.)
I've also noticed that hulu videos are also uploaded to dailymotion. But they don't appear on the dailymotion app on the roku. Must be filtered out.
Now I wonder if I can download the dailymotion videos without using software. Noticed this tip of the week from Retrevo about deturl.com which is supposed to be able download youtube videos easily and also supports dailymotion and vimeo. Let's see.
Look up a Good Dog! video. Say this one (which is episode one).
Copy and paste url into deturl.com.
It takes me to this link.
Putting in the video there gets a message No Preset. This video is not available because. OK I guess it's blocked.
I wonder there are other sites to download dailymotion videos?
Keepvid.com is the first google link to come up.
Doesn't seem to be working in firefox. Let's switch to IE.
Hmm. Doesn't seem to be working.
Try a youtube video. OK that works (the download links came up). I guess dailymotion is doing a good job blocking it. How about a non-hulu dailymotion video. Nope.
OK, it ain't that easy. I wonder if freemake will do it?
Nope, says "failed to obtain video info".
Another one is catchvideo.net.
Dailymotion ain't working. Youtube ain't working either.
Next. How about this free dailymoton downloader from apowersoft?
seemed to hang up in firefox. switch to I.E.
sorry, currently we could not find any download link.
OK, I guess dailymotion ain't that easy.
*** 3/19/14
darn. Freemake not working on hulu now. I guess hulu must have changed their format.
I've also noticed that hulu videos are also uploaded to dailymotion. But they don't appear on the dailymotion app on the roku. Must be filtered out.
Now I wonder if I can download the dailymotion videos without using software. Noticed this tip of the week from Retrevo about deturl.com which is supposed to be able download youtube videos easily and also supports dailymotion and vimeo. Let's see.
Look up a Good Dog! video. Say this one (which is episode one).
Copy and paste url into deturl.com.
It takes me to this link.
Putting in the video there gets a message No Preset. This video is not available because. OK I guess it's blocked.
I wonder there are other sites to download dailymotion videos?
Keepvid.com is the first google link to come up.
Doesn't seem to be working in firefox. Let's switch to IE.
Hmm. Doesn't seem to be working.
Try a youtube video. OK that works (the download links came up). I guess dailymotion is doing a good job blocking it. How about a non-hulu dailymotion video. Nope.
OK, it ain't that easy. I wonder if freemake will do it?
Nope, says "failed to obtain video info".
Another one is catchvideo.net.
Dailymotion ain't working. Youtube ain't working either.
Next. How about this free dailymoton downloader from apowersoft?
seemed to hang up in firefox. switch to I.E.
sorry, currently we could not find any download link.
OK, I guess dailymotion ain't that easy.
*** 3/19/14
darn. Freemake not working on hulu now. I guess hulu must have changed their format.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Chromecast
Google is taking another swing at commanding the television with its
new Chromecast, a low-cost accessory that plugs into a TV and allows
users to stream video, share tabs from the Google Chrome browser, or
play music from their smartphones, tablet or computer on the big screen.
The big selling point? The Chromecast lets users can do that streaming or sharing while also allowing the devices to do other tasks.
With the Chromecast, analysts said, Google appears to have learned a lesson from some of its own missteps and those of its competitors. The small device, which fits into a TV’s HDMI port, eliminates some of the usual frustrations with TV streaming.
For example, while Apple TV and, to a lesser extent, the Xbox allow users to beam some content from their mobile devices to the television, the mobile devices then can’t be used for anything else at the same time. Google says that the Chromecast will enable multitasking on the laptop, tablet or other device without interrupting what’s streaming on the TV.
Chromecast also comes with built-in support not only for Google devices but also for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Chrome browser on Macs and PCs. That means that nearly every television can now get a Google upgrade — a major shift for the competitive landscape, analysts said.
Now, said James McQuivey, a principal analyst at Forrester, “it’s not a war of smart versus dumb TVs — it’s a war of which smart TV.”
And, finally, there’s the price. Apple TV and Roku are both priced to move with their newest models starting at $99. Chromecast costs $35.
That lower price, McQuivey said, draws a sharp line between Google and competitors such as Apple and Microsoft and shows that the company has a different vision for how to make money off the television. Apple, he explained, aims for profit from the sale of its popular devices and won’t take a run at a new product unless it believes it can make money off the sales of that hardware. Microsoft is splitting the difference by packaging multimedia entertainment in a dedicated device of its own, the Xbox One.
But for Google — which hasn’t made much inroad with its own TV devices — the motivations are now completely different.
“Google doesn’t care about making any money on the device,” McQuivey said. “The future is about software.”
This new strategy doesn’t even focus so much on selling the content, he noted. It’s aimed more at gathering information on consumer habits — data that Google could combine with search and other data from its services to expand its user profiles.
“This is a deep, deep relationship built with you,” he said. “It opens potential for them to do much more for you than they could before.”
The big selling point? The Chromecast lets users can do that streaming or sharing while also allowing the devices to do other tasks.
With the Chromecast, analysts said, Google appears to have learned a lesson from some of its own missteps and those of its competitors. The small device, which fits into a TV’s HDMI port, eliminates some of the usual frustrations with TV streaming.
For example, while Apple TV and, to a lesser extent, the Xbox allow users to beam some content from their mobile devices to the television, the mobile devices then can’t be used for anything else at the same time. Google says that the Chromecast will enable multitasking on the laptop, tablet or other device without interrupting what’s streaming on the TV.
Chromecast also comes with built-in support not only for Google devices but also for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Chrome browser on Macs and PCs. That means that nearly every television can now get a Google upgrade — a major shift for the competitive landscape, analysts said.
Now, said James McQuivey, a principal analyst at Forrester, “it’s not a war of smart versus dumb TVs — it’s a war of which smart TV.”
And, finally, there’s the price. Apple TV and Roku are both priced to move with their newest models starting at $99. Chromecast costs $35.
That lower price, McQuivey said, draws a sharp line between Google and competitors such as Apple and Microsoft and shows that the company has a different vision for how to make money off the television. Apple, he explained, aims for profit from the sale of its popular devices and won’t take a run at a new product unless it believes it can make money off the sales of that hardware. Microsoft is splitting the difference by packaging multimedia entertainment in a dedicated device of its own, the Xbox One.
But for Google — which hasn’t made much inroad with its own TV devices — the motivations are now completely different.
“Google doesn’t care about making any money on the device,” McQuivey said. “The future is about software.”
This new strategy doesn’t even focus so much on selling the content, he noted. It’s aimed more at gathering information on consumer habits — data that Google could combine with search and other data from its services to expand its user profiles.
“This is a deep, deep relationship built with you,” he said. “It opens potential for them to do much more for you than they could before.”
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Netflix
Well finally decided to pay up the $8 a month and get Netflix. Well, actually I haven't paid anything yet as you get a free 30 day trial. My impetus was selling a portion of my NFLX stock which has increased 5-fold from the low, though still not quite back to the $300 high where it was. So that's in effect paying for the subscription.
So how is it?
First of all, lots (and lots) of content. No more searching through Crackle or Popcorn Flix to find a movie that I might want to watch. And not only movies, lots of TV shows too.
In fact, that's probably what I'm going to use it most for, TV shows.
Right off the bat, there's Everybody Loves Raymond which is not on hulu. I was afraid of whether I would be able to see subtitles, but there's an option where you can turn it on and off and I can't imagine why older models of Roku wouldn't be able to support this.
There's also the Dick Van Dyke Show, Family Ties, Cheers, the Andy Griffith Show, Leave It To Beaver.
But they don't have everything though. No Three Stooges, I Love Lucy, Beverly Hillbillies, Gilligan's Island, Get Smart, Green Acres, Mary Tyler Moore Show, All In The Family, Sanford and Son, Bob Newhart Show, Welcome Back Kotter, Taxi, Seinfeld, King of Queens.
Some of these are on hulu though: I Love Lucy, Green Acres, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart Show. And Three Stooges is on youtube (illegally) with some on crackle.
What else is on? Hercules, Xena, Charmed, Monk, Columbo. So no real need to keep the DVDs I have (well maybe Columbo since Netflix doesn't have all the episodes). One nice thing is that the Hercules and Xena shows have subtitles, which the original Anchor Bay DVD sets didn't have.
Netflix has 13 episodes of Dog Whisperer. There are much more (currently 109) on hulu (but not hulu+). Oddly the subtitles didn't work on the Roku, but did work on my iPad and computer. Maybe that's what they meant by subtitles not working on older version on the roku. And not all the shows have subtitles, though most of them do. Coach was one show that didn't, though the website says it does.
Another one was Ken Burns' Baseball series (which I was suprised to see on there). The old DVD set (which I have) has closed caption for TV, but no DVD subtitles. However I think the newer remastered series does have subtitles. [12/9/13 - Netflix has updated the series with subtitles and the 10th Inning episodes.]
And lots of movies. I was surprised to see The Avengers on there. Also Captain America and Thor. But no Iron Man or Hulk or X-Men.
Using the universal Roku search (for actor names for axample), there's actually a lot more movies not on, then on. But what do you expect for $8?
They do have all the Star Trek TV series (also on hulu+ except for the animated series). But not all of the movies (just Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, Insurrection, Nemesis).
*** [8/30/13]
Here's one minor gripe about Netflix. Yes, they have subtitles for the majority of the shows, but they don't look very good on my Roku, mainly because they are sometimes hard to read overlaid over the picture. On the other hard, they look fine to me on my iPad, partly because the iPad has a 4:3 screen, so the subtitles are partly display below the picture. And they also look OK on my computer on the 16:9 LCD screen. I wonder if it's because I have a Roku HD instead of a Roku 2 or Roku 3. [I would think unlikely.]
[12/9/13 - The subtitles look different depending on the player. For example, the subtitles are yellow on the Windows 8 app, but white while playing on a browser. They also look bigger on the Roku.]
[1/14/14 - yep Netflix subtitles on Roku appear as pale yellow even on the Roku 3. Evidently the subtitles look better on Apple TV. Reading further, evidently the new Netflix app on the Roku 3 has more readable subtitles. So maybe I should get a Roku 3. Or an Apple TV. Or just wait to see if the new Netflix app will eventually come to my Roku HD. Or just hook up my laptop to the PC.]
*** [4/15/14]
Cool. Netflix is now showing the Roku captions instead of their own on my Roku HD. Don't see that the Roku app was updated, so I'd have to deduce that the Roku firmware was updated. And somehow it connected to the Netflix app. Another clue is that there is an option to set opacity to 50% whereas before it wasn't there (they just went from 25% to 75%). So one less reason to upgrade to a Roku 3. However Hulu Plus still is locking up and using their own caption style. And still no YouTube. VideoBuzz works, but doesn't support captions. I have my doubts that captions would work on Roku YouTube anyway, as it doesn't work on the Apple TV.
Apparently captions have to be in SMPTE Timed Text format and was added in software build 4.9 in December 2012. Looking now, I my Roku is on software version 5.4.
So how is it?
First of all, lots (and lots) of content. No more searching through Crackle or Popcorn Flix to find a movie that I might want to watch. And not only movies, lots of TV shows too.
In fact, that's probably what I'm going to use it most for, TV shows.
Right off the bat, there's Everybody Loves Raymond which is not on hulu. I was afraid of whether I would be able to see subtitles, but there's an option where you can turn it on and off and I can't imagine why older models of Roku wouldn't be able to support this.
There's also the Dick Van Dyke Show, Family Ties, Cheers, the Andy Griffith Show, Leave It To Beaver.
But they don't have everything though. No Three Stooges, I Love Lucy, Beverly Hillbillies, Gilligan's Island, Get Smart, Green Acres, Mary Tyler Moore Show, All In The Family, Sanford and Son, Bob Newhart Show, Welcome Back Kotter, Taxi, Seinfeld, King of Queens.
Some of these are on hulu though: I Love Lucy, Green Acres, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart Show. And Three Stooges is on youtube (illegally) with some on crackle.
What else is on? Hercules, Xena, Charmed, Monk, Columbo. So no real need to keep the DVDs I have (well maybe Columbo since Netflix doesn't have all the episodes). One nice thing is that the Hercules and Xena shows have subtitles, which the original Anchor Bay DVD sets didn't have.
Netflix has 13 episodes of Dog Whisperer. There are much more (currently 109) on hulu (but not hulu+). Oddly the subtitles didn't work on the Roku, but did work on my iPad and computer. Maybe that's what they meant by subtitles not working on older version on the roku. And not all the shows have subtitles, though most of them do. Coach was one show that didn't, though the website says it does.
Another one was Ken Burns' Baseball series (which I was suprised to see on there). The old DVD set (which I have) has closed caption for TV, but no DVD subtitles. However I think the newer remastered series does have subtitles. [12/9/13 - Netflix has updated the series with subtitles and the 10th Inning episodes.]
And lots of movies. I was surprised to see The Avengers on there. Also Captain America and Thor. But no Iron Man or Hulk or X-Men.
Using the universal Roku search (for actor names for axample), there's actually a lot more movies not on, then on. But what do you expect for $8?
They do have all the Star Trek TV series (also on hulu+ except for the animated series). But not all of the movies (just Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, Insurrection, Nemesis).
*** [8/30/13]
Here's one minor gripe about Netflix. Yes, they have subtitles for the majority of the shows, but they don't look very good on my Roku, mainly because they are sometimes hard to read overlaid over the picture. On the other hard, they look fine to me on my iPad, partly because the iPad has a 4:3 screen, so the subtitles are partly display below the picture. And they also look OK on my computer on the 16:9 LCD screen. I wonder if it's because I have a Roku HD instead of a Roku 2 or Roku 3. [I would think unlikely.]
[12/9/13 - The subtitles look different depending on the player. For example, the subtitles are yellow on the Windows 8 app, but white while playing on a browser. They also look bigger on the Roku.]
[1/14/14 - yep Netflix subtitles on Roku appear as pale yellow even on the Roku 3. Evidently the subtitles look better on Apple TV. Reading further, evidently the new Netflix app on the Roku 3 has more readable subtitles. So maybe I should get a Roku 3. Or an Apple TV. Or just wait to see if the new Netflix app will eventually come to my Roku HD. Or just hook up my laptop to the PC.]
*** [4/15/14]
Cool. Netflix is now showing the Roku captions instead of their own on my Roku HD. Don't see that the Roku app was updated, so I'd have to deduce that the Roku firmware was updated. And somehow it connected to the Netflix app. Another clue is that there is an option to set opacity to 50% whereas before it wasn't there (they just went from 25% to 75%). So one less reason to upgrade to a Roku 3. However Hulu Plus still is locking up and using their own caption style. And still no YouTube. VideoBuzz works, but doesn't support captions. I have my doubts that captions would work on Roku YouTube anyway, as it doesn't work on the Apple TV.
Apparently captions have to be in SMPTE Timed Text format and was added in software build 4.9 in December 2012. Looking now, I my Roku is on software version 5.4.
Sunday, July 07, 2013
video game consoles: the eighth generation
Did you know that we are already in the eighth generation of video game consoles? The eighth generation started with the Wii U and will include the PlayStation 4 and XBox One.
Here are some highlights of each generation.
Generation One: Pong
Generation Two: Atari 2600, Intellivision, Atari 5200, Colecovision
Generation Three: Atari 7800, Sega Master System, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Generation Four: Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, Neo-Geo, Super Nintendo (SNES)
Generation Five: Atari Jaguar, Sony Playstation, Sega Saturn, 3DO, Nintendo 64
Generation Six: Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Gamecube, Playstation 2, Microsoft XBox
Generation Seven: Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, XBox 360
Generaton Eight: Wii U, Ouya, Playstation 4, Xbox One
The full list is at wikipedia.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
are electric cars a failure?
Last month, the electric-car industry passed a small but important
milestone. There are now more than 100,000 electric cars on America's
roads, including those that operate as plug-in hybrids. That's happened
in just two and a half years, as electric-vehicle sales have only been
tallied independently since the last month of 2010, when a mere 345 were
first parked in customer garages.
Despite this milestone, there's plenty of pessimism to go around regarding the adoption rate of the plug-in EV, which have thus far made up only half of 1% of all cars sold in the U.S. this year. My fellow Fool -- and resident Foolish auto expert -- John Rosevear offered a succinct overview of that pessimism a couple of months ago, which I'll sum up as this: There's no charging infrastructure, and the batteries make EVs cost more than is justifiable.
Does that mean EVs are a failure?
The American auto industry effectively began in 1896 with a 13-vehicle production run at the Duryea Motor Wagon plant (or garage, as the case might well be). Three years later, just before the start of the 20th century, there were roughly 8,000 cars on what passed for American roads -- virtually nothing was paved for vehicle travel. There were 8,000 EVs on the road after eight months of tracking. That's not really fair, though, because there are more than three times as many people in the U.S. as there were at the turn of the 20th century. Adjusted for population growth, there should have been 33,000 EVs on the roads after three years. That happened after 19 months, and we're now approaching three times that number midway through the third year of tracking.
Why compare EVs with the earliest cars? The "motor wagons" of the late 1800s faced similar challenges to those often attributed to EVs: minimal supporting infrastructure and a high price tag relative to the dominant (horse-drawn) transportation of the day.
The first gas stations wouldn't even be built until almost a decade after the Duryeas built the first 13 cars in America, and they had no drive-up pumps -- that innovation didn't arrive until 1913. There are already more than 6,000 publicly accessible EV charging stations in the country. This doesn't count interesting infrastructure developments such as Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) battery-swap stations or its growing network of "superchargers" scattered across the United States. It's also worth noting that EVs, unlike early internal-combustion vehicles, can get recharged in most owners' garages.
EVs have to overcome an entrenched culture, just as early motor wagons did -- but today's car culture is far more deeply embedded in the national psyche than horses ever were. There's one automobile on American roads for every 2.3 Americans today, compared with one horse for every 3.5 Americans in 1900. The average person traveled about 340 miles per year in 1900, compared with 16,000 miles per year in cars and airplanes today. Despite facing one of the most entrenched opponents in the history of capitalism, EVs are already outperforming the puttering internal-combustion pioneers in terms of market penetration, price, and infrastructure deployment at a similar point after introduction.
Will EVs continue to outperform the original auto pioneers in the face of stiffer competition? I can't say. However, early results are indeed more promising than many pessimistic commentators would you like to believe. Just as autos replaced horses en masse once their technological superiority was undeniable, EVs will have to be objectively better than internal-combustion vehicles to justify widespread adoption. There are bound to be some bumps and bankruptcies along the way. After all, more than 1,000 automakers of all sizes were founded between 1896 and the mid-1920s. How many of them are still around?
*** [8/28/13]
Why aren't there more electric cars? (the conspiracy)
Despite this milestone, there's plenty of pessimism to go around regarding the adoption rate of the plug-in EV, which have thus far made up only half of 1% of all cars sold in the U.S. this year. My fellow Fool -- and resident Foolish auto expert -- John Rosevear offered a succinct overview of that pessimism a couple of months ago, which I'll sum up as this: There's no charging infrastructure, and the batteries make EVs cost more than is justifiable.
Does that mean EVs are a failure?
The American auto industry effectively began in 1896 with a 13-vehicle production run at the Duryea Motor Wagon plant (or garage, as the case might well be). Three years later, just before the start of the 20th century, there were roughly 8,000 cars on what passed for American roads -- virtually nothing was paved for vehicle travel. There were 8,000 EVs on the road after eight months of tracking. That's not really fair, though, because there are more than three times as many people in the U.S. as there were at the turn of the 20th century. Adjusted for population growth, there should have been 33,000 EVs on the roads after three years. That happened after 19 months, and we're now approaching three times that number midway through the third year of tracking.
Why compare EVs with the earliest cars? The "motor wagons" of the late 1800s faced similar challenges to those often attributed to EVs: minimal supporting infrastructure and a high price tag relative to the dominant (horse-drawn) transportation of the day.
The first gas stations wouldn't even be built until almost a decade after the Duryeas built the first 13 cars in America, and they had no drive-up pumps -- that innovation didn't arrive until 1913. There are already more than 6,000 publicly accessible EV charging stations in the country. This doesn't count interesting infrastructure developments such as Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) battery-swap stations or its growing network of "superchargers" scattered across the United States. It's also worth noting that EVs, unlike early internal-combustion vehicles, can get recharged in most owners' garages.
EVs have to overcome an entrenched culture, just as early motor wagons did -- but today's car culture is far more deeply embedded in the national psyche than horses ever were. There's one automobile on American roads for every 2.3 Americans today, compared with one horse for every 3.5 Americans in 1900. The average person traveled about 340 miles per year in 1900, compared with 16,000 miles per year in cars and airplanes today. Despite facing one of the most entrenched opponents in the history of capitalism, EVs are already outperforming the puttering internal-combustion pioneers in terms of market penetration, price, and infrastructure deployment at a similar point after introduction.
Will EVs continue to outperform the original auto pioneers in the face of stiffer competition? I can't say. However, early results are indeed more promising than many pessimistic commentators would you like to believe. Just as autos replaced horses en masse once their technological superiority was undeniable, EVs will have to be objectively better than internal-combustion vehicles to justify widespread adoption. There are bound to be some bumps and bankruptcies along the way. After all, more than 1,000 automakers of all sizes were founded between 1896 and the mid-1920s. How many of them are still around?
*** [8/28/13]
Why aren't there more electric cars? (the conspiracy)
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Google game console?
Google Inc. is developing a videogame console and wristwatch powered by its Android
operating system, according to people familiar with the matter, as the
Internet company seeks to spread the software beyond smartphones and
tablets.
With the game machine and digital watch, Google is hoping to combat similar devices that Apple Inc. may release in the future, according to the people.
Google is also preparing to release a second version of an Android-powered media-streaming device, called Nexus Q, that was unveiled last year but not sold to the public, these people said.
The Internet giant hopes to design and market the devices itself and release at least one of them this fall, they added.
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.
The hardware plans are the latest sign of Google's determination to build on the success of Android, the software it launched in 2008 that powered 75% of all smartphones and 57% of tablets shipped globally in the first quarter, according to the research firm IDC.
Games that run on Android software have proved particularly popular, and they are growing more quickly than games made for the big-name consoles supplied by Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co. The appeal of such games has prompted the development of new devices aimed specifically for Android by other hardware companies.
Sony and Microsoft have recently unveiled new versions of their PlayStation and Xbox game consoles, which are expected to go on sale later this year. Together with Nintendo, sales of the games for these devices accounted for most of the $24.9 billion spent world-wide last year on console games, according to market researcher PwC.
The people briefed on the matter said Google is reacting in part to expectations that rival Apple will launch a videogame console as part of its next Apple TV product release.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
Google has also been watching the efforts of Ouya Inc., a startup that this week began selling a $99 Android-based console and game controller, one of these people said.
With the game machine and digital watch, Google is hoping to combat similar devices that Apple Inc. may release in the future, according to the people.
Google is also preparing to release a second version of an Android-powered media-streaming device, called Nexus Q, that was unveiled last year but not sold to the public, these people said.
The Internet giant hopes to design and market the devices itself and release at least one of them this fall, they added.
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.
The hardware plans are the latest sign of Google's determination to build on the success of Android, the software it launched in 2008 that powered 75% of all smartphones and 57% of tablets shipped globally in the first quarter, according to the research firm IDC.
Games that run on Android software have proved particularly popular, and they are growing more quickly than games made for the big-name consoles supplied by Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co. The appeal of such games has prompted the development of new devices aimed specifically for Android by other hardware companies.
Sony and Microsoft have recently unveiled new versions of their PlayStation and Xbox game consoles, which are expected to go on sale later this year. Together with Nintendo, sales of the games for these devices accounted for most of the $24.9 billion spent world-wide last year on console games, according to market researcher PwC.
The people briefed on the matter said Google is reacting in part to expectations that rival Apple will launch a videogame console as part of its next Apple TV product release.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
Google has also been watching the efforts of Ouya Inc., a startup that this week began selling a $99 Android-based console and game controller, one of these people said.
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