Category

News & Opinion

Steve Jobs Presents Plans To Build New Office Park

by | Jun 8, 2011 |

What did Steve Jobs do the day after kicking off Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference? He made another presentation -- this time to the Cupertino City Council about Apple's plans to build a new office campus. It's fascinating to watch him give this very understated slide show to communicate Apple's plans to build an incredibly beautiful and functional office structure. Watch this video and you'll really get to see how Steve Jobs thinks. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuz5OmOh_M

Following Live Blogs of WWDC 2011

by | Jun 5, 2011 | ,

I'll be watching Steve Job's WWDC 2011 keynote online (1:00 p.m. Eastern) where he'll be presenting the iCloud music sharing service, iOS 5, OS X Lion, and maybe more. Here are the live blogging sites I'll monitor: http://www.macrumorslive.com/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/06/wwdc-2011-liveblog-steve-jobs-talks-ios-5-os-x-lion-icloud-an/ http://www.macworld.com/article/158138/2011/03/ipad_event.html http://gear.ign.com/articles/117/1172006p1.html http://live.gizmodo.com/ http://technologizer.com/wwdc11/ http://www.maclife.com/article/news/live_blog_wwdc_2011_keynote And I certainly won't forget to follow on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23wwdc

Where My iPhone Has Tracked Me Without My Permission

by | Apr 21, 2011 | ,

You may have heard the news recently that your iPhone actually records where the phone has been — without asking your permission first. You can view this unsecured data by simply downloading a free software application for your Mac or PC. The app looks at your iPhone's last synchronized backup files on the hard drive and overlays the coordinates on a map. You don’t even need your iPhone! Here’s the link for the software: http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/ I was curious to find out where my iPhone thinks I’ve been. The software produced some interesting results, but not with perfect accuracy. Since June 16, 2010, my iPhone has recorded frequent travels within the Northeast U.S. and an overseas trip I made to Greece. But for some reason, it hasn't shown any information about other trips to places like Chicago, San Diego and Rome, Italy. I'm not sure why not.   This map shows several road trips from Buffalo, NY to Washington -- using a couple different driving routes (I'm...

UB Citizens Police Academy

by | Mar 31, 2011 |

I've just completed the 2011 University at Buffalo Citizens Police Academy, where I learned about University Police operations. Topics included fire and first aid, emergency dispatch, bike patrol, crime scene investigation, recruiting and more, plus hands-on training in defensive tactics and a patrol ride-along. An interview about my experience at the academy has been posted to UB Police Blog. It was a great experience and I recommend this program for anyone who is interested in University Police operations!

Apple’s less expensive iPhone will be a winner

by | Feb 14, 2011 | ,

According the today’s Wall Street Journal, Apple is working on a small, less-expensive iPhone. I think this makes perfect sense. Now that you have the option to obtain service from Verizon in addition to AT&T, nearly any employed person that really wants an iPhone already has one or is buying a new one soon. The only cost consideration is how much memory to pay for, not whether they can afford the phone itself. And Apple would love to go after the lower-end Android market and deepen their market penetration. I see two markets for this new smaller and cheaper iPhone: 1. The frugal tech person. They want a smartphone, but wouldn't spend $199 on an iPhone. Nothing against the iPhone itself, but they see it as just another smartphone option. They’re not true Apple believers. But if it's free (with a 2-year commitment) they’d grab one in a flash. 2. High school/college students on a tight budget. Most students really want an iPhone (not Android), but they're stuck for now doing...

Photographing the International Space Station

by | Nov 15, 2010 | , ,

On three consecutive evenings last week, the International Space Station (ISS) passed over my hometown of Buffalo, New York shortly after sundown. The sky was clear each night and the weather was unusually pleasant for mid-November in Western New York! My objective was to shoot still photos and a short video of the ISS going overhead. On Thursday, November 11, 2010, I set up my Canon EOS REBEL T2i on a tripod. Turning off the auto focus and image stabilization, I focused manually to infinity. Once the ISS appeared I was able to easily capture several shots using different settings. Here is one shot at ISO 640, f/5.6, with the shutter open for 8.0 seconds. The next evening, I tried to shoot video of the ISS using a Canon VIXIA HF200 HD video camera. Unfortunately, my handheld technique produced a lousy result. Against a black sky, the ISS did not look like it was moving the way it appears to the naked eye. It was just wobbling around inside the frame because of my difficulty holding...

No, I won’t be tricked into switching domain registrars!

by | Aug 14, 2010 | ,

I thought this scam had ended! I just received a very official-looking document from a very patriotic-sounding company: Domain Registry of America (DROA). They even have an American flag as part of their logo! The letter informed me that one of my registered domain names was about to expire (I knew that). And they want me to "Act today!", because "...failure to renew may result in a loss of my online identify..." That sounds serious. Of course they're willing to help me out by offering to renew my domain name for "only" $30.00 per year. What they don't say is that it's 3x as much as I'm paying now from my REAL registrar, GoDaddy. By signing this form and giving them my credit card number, I would effectively terminate my GoDaddy service and transfer my business to Domain Registry of America. No thank you. They do say in the letter that "This is not a bill, it is rather an easy means of payment should you decide to switch your domain name registration to the Domain Registry of...

Bottle Cap Camera Tripod

by | Apr 21, 2010 | ,

This Bottle Cap Tripod is a good idea, albeit a little pricy at $10 + $2.50 shipping. It should work well with small cameras for self-portraits and timed shots. A weighted bottle could also double as an inexpensive steady-cam rig.

Google’s focus on location

by | Apr 20, 2010 |

Google announced today that they are rebranding their Local Business Center as Google Places. They're also adding a number of new features. The basic services are free. The reasons? According to Google, one out of every five searches are related to location. Searching on mobile devices is surging Google Places should help businesses manage their location presence within the internet's dominant search engine.

Privacy concerns with digital photocopiers

by | Apr 20, 2010 | ,

CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian did an interesting report last night on the privacy exposure from digital photocopiers. Here's what happens: Digital photocopiers built since 2002 essentially are computers that scan and print documents. These copiers have a hard drive that stores these scanned images. The photocopiers apparently save these scanned images for a period of time. Some copier manufacturers do not encrypt their images on the hard drive. The images are not necessarily erased when the lease is up on the copier and it's returned to the leasing company. The next person that buys the used copier could possibly retrieve these images! As part of the CBS News investigation, they purchased several used copiers from a New Jersey warehouse. Using a free software utility, they easily retrieved tens of thousands of documents from the copiers, including pay stubs with social security numbers, lists of sex offenders and drug raid targets from a Buffalo police...