Tons of great items and cool stuff from Geekazine, Dorkazine, Sportazine (including a contest I didn’t know about) and TVazine.

We also talk about the trip to Detroit for Ford and all the other cool happenings at Geekazine.

Sponsor:  14 Day Gold Membership & 1 FREE audio book at Audible – audiblepodcast.com/geekazine

I moved over to Blockbuster simply because of convenience. That year I also switched banks because of convenience – More locations, more options. But this last year I closed that bank account and went back to my credit union. Online banking made it easy for me to get stuff done.

So I figured, if I can do it with banking, I can do it with movie rentals.

Sponsor:  14 Day Gold Membership & 1 FREE audio book at Audible – audiblepodcast.com/geekazine

I also go into a little more information about the Ford SYNC car I will be driving next week. Finally, I talk a little bit about the HP Road Show – Converged Infrastructure and the contest to win the HP Elite 2530p.

To check out the episode:

TPN Weekly 2010-03-30 #49 5 Way to let Social Networking Work for Your Podcast

Simply choose your plan, choose from the large library they have and get the books in the mail. No late fees – return at any time through the pre-pay envelopes. The next book will arrive shortly.

Eric Ginsberg - Bookswim.com

In this Quickcast interview, we talk with Eric Ginsberg – a teacher, musician and librarian that brought over some great ideas of online book rental to life months after BookSwim was created by George Burke and Shamoon Siddiqui. We talk with Eric and discuss the reasons why someone would use BookSwim as opposed to an e-reader, buying or just going to the Library to get books for Transummers.

Plans start at $3.95. Gift cards are available for those you love, too.  If you are a Transumer – person who rents, consumes, then gives back – Bookswim will definitely fulfill the transummation of books.

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Brought to you by Mozy Unlimited Backup – $4.95/Month! Use code “Geek” for 10% off!

If you would like to be on the Quickcast interviews, simply contact at 608-205-4378 or geekazine@gmail.com

In this episode I talk about the week at CES, what is happening over at Geekazine and a little about what is happening with the Quickcast.

However, the National Podcast Post Month is simple: One podcast a day for 30 days. I normally do that with the Day in Tech History anyway, but I am going to ramp up some other stuff to try and surpass the 34 I would normally do. I suppose with the video, it’s more like 38 a month, so I figure 50-60 would be a good number to hit.

I do have a few video reviews from Blogworld New Media Expo that I have to put out. I will also try to get AppWild going this month. In all, this should be a great month for Podcasts!

But why put out the challenge if no one is listening. Therefore, I am encouraging all of you to LISTEN to a new podcast a day for 30 days. Find out all the great shows out there. Get involved and call in to those shows. Make people know you are listening.

To all participating, good luck with your challenge. I am rooting for ya. And adding the contest will help.

This weeks applications reviewed:

• Madden 10
• Rhapsody
• Sad Fact of the Commodore 64 application
• Pandora and Facebook for Android

10 years ago, if you had a computer, it was most likely a desktop. Notebooks – then called Laptops – were pretty expensive, but were also beginning to show that they could start to replace a desktop model. Fast forward to today: Event the Notebooks have been threatened as of late by Netbooks and smartphones. It leaves you to the question: What should your next purchase be?

My first Laptop was a Zenith Data Systems 386 laptop. It wasn’t cheap – and I even got it used. It had a very small hard drive, a trackball on the side connecting to the serial port and a monochrome monitor. It ran Windows 3.0, which was really great. I was able to run the Word processor and Lotus 1-2-3. I was happy.

The machine was about twice the size of my current laptop and most likely twice the weight. The battery life was almost nothing – maybe 5 minutes. Still, I thought at the time “This is the future of computing.”

I was right – kinda.

Notebooks have been getting bigger and better since the term became mainstream. Functionality these days can match a notebook to a desktop. Desktops advantage was simply it was able to be customized, whereas notebooks could only get a new hard drive, memory, DVD-RW and possibly a graphics chip (depending on what brand you had). You could add items through a PC Card slot like Firewire or extra storage. If you wanted a second hard drive or an extra battery, you would have to forgo the CD drive. With a desktop, that’s not a problem.

Today’s notebook is a great item, but now it’s being encroached by the Netbook market since the announcement of the OLPC in 2007. Being able to access the internet and email doesn’t take a lot of process. Trying to use a Notebook on an airplane is impossible. The Netbook can slip into a coat pocket, turns on almost instantly and lets you have your content on the go anywhere, including music, movies and documents.

Netbooks are small, easy to carry and able to work for hours at a time. With Windows XP or Linux installed, you can find many applications to work with it. Best part – some of those applications are free. You can post to your blog, facebook, twitter and many other websites anywhere you have a 3G, Edge or WiFi signals.

Then there is the smartphone:  Easy to use, easy to carry. Limited screen, keyboard and no mouse. No DVD drive, no USB connections, but access to your data and a lot of good programs to use. A great companion to your computer – whatever the computer is.

Netbooks, Smartphones and Notebooks also have the ability to use 3G with 7 MB service in some areas; but to use it on a Notebook, you have to buy a card. Todays’ Netbook can come with a 2 year contract from a wireless carrier, with the Netbook being received for a discounted price. Some smartphones have no choice – they must come with some sort of connection contract.

Netbooks and Smartphones have limited functionality. The ATOM, ARM or NVIDIA processors inside – along with the memory  – can do a lot. If you start loading items like photoshop, video or audio editing software, even games, you might find it’s not going to cut it. That is where a notebook or desktop will step in. Then again, the same could be said about the laptop of yesterday.

The Netbook market has been growing. It’s taken 22.2% of sales in the last year according to DisplaySearch’s latest “Quarterly PC Shipment and Forecast Report.” That jumped up 40% from last year. Once you get faster processors – even dual core processors like the newer ATOM duals, that are starting to come out , faster and higher capacity hard drives and powerful memory with a slightly larger screen, you might have people ditching their Notebooks for the compactness of the Netbook.

G-screen has put out a dual-screen Notebook. Open the cover and the screens butterfly out like the old IBM Thinkpad keyboards did. Imagine if you put that technology into a Netbook? 7” screen instantly becomes 14”. If you can have one slide up and one slide across, the desktop real estate will not be an issue.

As for Smartphones, imagine if someone made a Netbook or tablet in where you would insert the smartphone. The phone would be the main processor and the tablet would just be a large carrying case with ability to make the screen larger.  Added battery will put less drain on the device which can sit in the car at times to recharge while you use the smartphone. Think about how much more work you would get out of one device. Mount a connection appliance to the dash of your car, one to the side of your bed, another in your favorite work area. Slide in the smartphone and access all your content – Even with a 3G connection to the cloud, you data doesn’t even need to be on the phone.

In the next 5 years, the desktop will be item in the corner of the room that the kids get on to play old Sponge Bob games on CD. You might connect up the TV and watch movies and TV shows from it – possibly even games. It could even be a server that hosts and backs up your Notebooks, Netbooks and Smartphones data. Only real die-hards will have a machine to work on. Even the “Notebook” of today might become obsolete.

For now, I can get a more powerful Desktop than a Notebook, Netbook or Smartphone. The recent desktop purchase has made 3 other computers in my house obsolete, which is nice. I wonder what I’ll be using in 5 years? A Desktop, or a workstation with a Smartphone or Netbook dock?

The question is: Is it changing the way a think and can I fix it?

A study from Stanford University came out this week that told us we might not be that great a multitasker. It is also suggested multitaskers are not focused. They polled 100 students in where they gave them one of three tests. In one test, they told them to focus on the red rectangle and tell them where it was. The “Heavy” Multitaskers – Those that do 5-6 things at once – did not do that well in the task. They did even worse on the other tests.

It got me to thinking; Are we really not good multitaskers?

I started picking apart this study. The one glaring issue is that the group polled 100 students. I am always amazed on how someone publishes a poll, then says it’s a small group in one demographic. So I beckon you to this question:  Could  100 – 30 plusers  be better at heavily multitasking than students? What about 50+?

Students usually mean under 30, and we have no idea how many males or females were in this study. Which ones were the “Light” and which were the “Heavy” multitaskers?  Further, I am guessing they were all Stamford students. How do we know that New York or Chicago students can’t multitask better?

Then again, maybe Multi-tasking is a learned method.

I remember in the 90’s, Kevin Trudeau put out this program called “Mega Memory”. Now let’s Put aside Kevin Trudeaus’ felony history and dealings with the FTC over his business ventures – In this case, not being able to fulfill the guarantee that you would have “Picture perfect” memory. With that aside, this program still had some validity.

Basically, he was teaching you to turn your brain into a filing cabinet. Organize the thoughts in your head by doing some “mental exercises”. In one exercise, he told you to picture a bedroom. Choose five items and repeat the names. Every morning, you mentally see these five items. These will be items you put mental notes on or in – therefore, you have created an organization to your thoughts. I started thinking:

If you can organize your brain to remember stuff? Can you organize to multi – task?

Multi-tasking for a computer is easy – but it does have limitation. We have circumvented some of those limitations by making faster processors and multi-core technologies so you don’t constantly max the same area of the processor for long periods of time. That is how newer processors can put out less heat and lower power.

Apply that to multi-tasking. Here are a few “Suggestions” to maybe work on how to multi-task. Before we do that, I would like you to take 3 deep breaths. Breathe in.. hold it…. Slowly Exhale. Again – And one more time.

1. Set time to focus on one thing and one thing only.

I set some time aside to do this. This is not sleep time and it’s not “Think about everything in the world” time. I have a task at hand and I do it – like writing this article. This task sometimes may be listening to other podcasts, writing a journal or blog, you can do a crossword puzzle or Sudoku, you can calculate pi – as long as it’s one task. By the way – I discourage the use of music in the background of that task. If you need noise, turn on a fan, mp3 of running water or waves. Nothing that can disturb your focus.

2. Schedule work – rest times

I remember a study years ago where they suggested teachers should organize the hour that they teach the subject. It was suggested that the teacher talk for about 25 minutes. They then stop and give you 5 minutes to decompress. No notes, no nothing – just mental catch-up.

Now let’s apply that to any item of work. 25 minutes, with a 5 minute decompress. Stand up, walk around, get a cup of coffee or soda. Sit back down, take 3 deep breaths and start up again.

3. Breathing

By the way, taking 3 deep breaths is important. There are known connections with breathing and stress. Further, you get more oxygen to your brain – Think of it like your heat sink to your processor.

4. Can eating / drinking right help?

I don’t want to become your family doctor, or even play that roll on TV. But studies say eating right and at least drinking lots of water can help you out.  Don’t worry, it’s something I have to work on, too. I just had a frozen pizza and Mountain Dew for lunch.

5. If you feel out of control, you probably are.

Multitasking is not a race. Therefore, if you are feeling stressed, even after the 3 deep breaths, then you should probably ease off on one of the tasks. Maybe come back to it in 5 minutes. Get a stride going where you can pick it back up.

6. Mental Imagery

I suggest you apply the method I talked about earlier in a different way. Think of 5 things that don’t change in your life – Your car, your house, your garage – whatever it is, mentally visualize those 5 things. Once a day – preferably in the morning – close your eyes, take 3 deep breaths and visualize those items. Take a few seconds to mentally move around the item you are picturing. For instance, if your car is one, notice the tires. Are the doors locked? What’s in the back seat? If you visualize the kitchen, where is the silverware drawer? Where is the fridge? What’s in the fridge?

Bottom line is that we have come into an age where multi-tasking is a norm, but we never really take a class on how to do it well. Some people are natural at it. Others may need a little direction. That’s ok though – I really believe that multi-tasking is a learned thing. Just like riding a bike.

By the way, the mega memory did help – I can do a decent job in remembering a persons’ name and applied some of the techniques of the “Human Calculator” that he touted back in the 90’s to actually be able to solve mathematical problems in my head. I guess it’s all about learning how to do it.

Just a reminder – this will be the last “Week in Tech History” produced. Please add “Day in Tech History” to your RSS or iTunes. A new segment will fill this spot shortly.

After Apple ‘s release of iPhone 3G, people were noticing connectiviy issues. This was due to the Infineon chip within (the chip that governs the 3G). It would ultimately cause the cutout. Apple quietly tried to resolve the matter, but eventually they had to just simply let people know what is going on. Steve Jobs sent out a letter saying “I’m sorry” and announcing how they are going to fix the problem.

This is one of many different articles within the Geekazine Quickcast.’

Quickcast RSS – Subscribe via iTunes

I love my iPhone. The 3GS has finally got the touch screen right. I can use it without feeling like I am fumbling or fat fingering keys. While the advances are nice, I still have to wonder how Apple can get away with some of the things they do to make me use their stuff. Rejecting competing applications and not giving users a choice to remove apps, all seems to be a recipe for non-competitiveness. Will they continue to get away with it, or will the FTC and EU finally step in? Well if they do, these should be 5 questions they should ask.

Skype. iBoobs. MyShoe. Obama Trampoline. Google Voice. What do these apps have in common? They were banned by the Apple application store. Some of them need to be, but others have no reason.

Ninjawords was an application that had a very hard time to get into the store. The reason why : the dictionary does contain questionable words – Including swear words. It finally was resolved and the application was approved, but who knew the dictionary could cause such a controversy.

Some have had it with the iPhone. Proprietary system in a walled garden makes those who like to play feel imprisoned. Co-founder Steven Frank of the website Panic was one of them. He put out this statement:

I’ve reached a point where I can no longer just sit back and watch this. The iPhone ecosystem is toxic, and I can’t participate any more until it is fixed. As people have told me so many times: It’s Apple’s ballgame, and Apple gets to make the rules, and if I don’t like it, I can leave. So, I don’t like it, and I’m leaving.

The Google Voice application seemed to be the boiling point in the controversy. The biggest reason was because there was a possibility that AT&T wanted the app rejected. Whether that was true or not may never be discovered. If it was really true, then someone like the European Union or FTC should step in.

Now the FCC stepped in on the Google Voice issue. However, the FCC is about protecting rights on a communications level. The FTC protects consumer’s rights, or as the FTC puts it on their website:

-          seeks out and challenges anticompetitive conduct in the marketplace, including monopolization and agreements between competitors;

There are many ways that Apple is wading into murky water. If someone posed the right questions, you would have to inquire if they are making it tougher to compete on their platform – no differently than when Microsoft was accused back in the late 90’s. Therefore, we pose these questions – to think about – for Apple on the iPhone:

1. Why Safari and not another browser?

This is a quote from Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, who created and is CEO of Opera, an alternative web browser:

“Mr. von Tetzchner said that Opera’s engineers have developed a version of Opera Mini that can run on an Apple iPhone, but Apple won’t let the company release it because it competes with Apple’s own Safari browser.”

If that is the case, then why do we have more than one version of the following applications? Cyclops, pic2shop and redlaser are some barcode scanning apps. Tweetdeck can run your Twitter account. Twitter Pro, Tweetie and TwiterFon are some other applications. Shazam and MusicID both identify music and artists.

Personally, I would rather see and use Firefox on the iPhone than Safari. I know that some Google fanatics would rather use Chrome. Won’t mention IE – Does anyone use that browser? Oh well, those that do would use IE6 anyway….

You might be fidgeting in your seat about using another browser – you like Safari and that is well and good. But look at it this way – Safari comes out with an update that causes a Carpet Bomb or similar issue. The only option you have is to wait for the patch to come out. In the smartphone market, iPhone has 84% of all sales in the last quarter.  With banking applications now being written, that is a lot of data you don’t want to have exposed to the public.

The EU should really look into this point. After all, they made Microsoft give people an option to uninstall IE on their Windows OS. How is this any different for Apple?

1. Why iPhone Mail and not another?

iPhone mail is not as great as I would like it to be. Sure, it can connect to Outlook and Exchange, as well as webmail clients like Google and Yahoo.  Still, it would be great to have the mail, calendar, notes and contacts merged together.  One button to rule them all.

Yet we have to suffer through the iPhone mail. Good thing it’s just a “snapshot” of your actual mail client.  I can still keep it on my servers to deal with at a later time.

1. How come the device can only sync to one computer?

I have a Desktop and a Laptop. I cannot natively set up iTunes to Sync with more than one device. If I do, the phone will delete items I have on it to put what is on the other machine.

There is a “hack” that can be done to fix this. Basically, you fool one iTunes to think it’s on the other computer. It works OK, however, if I set one to not sync music, the setting will move over to the other. There may be another “hack” to fix that – It’s still a hack though.

What is more disturbing? iTunes can easily delete your files – mainly music – but Apple should not have any control to the content on your phone. It’s no different than when Amazon retracted 1984 and Animal Farm from peoples’ Kindles. Even purchased music can get removed from the phone. At least you can get it back by syncing with the other machine I suppose.

There are other 3^rd party applications I can use for sync. Nonetheless, why should I have to use something that is not supported to function properly? When I had the Windows Mobile Phone, the ActiveSync feature would let me set up profiles on different machines. Then I could connect to more than one machine without fear of data loss.

1. Tonight there’s gonna be a Jailbreak.

I am not a fan of any phone that has to be tied to a certain network. At least the worry of “Bricking” the phone is not as much an issue as it was back in the v.1 days. Still – Apple could easily turn a phone into a useless device if they so choose to by a simple update.

In all fairness, the jailbreak issue needs to be addressed on all phones. If I buy a phone for $200-400, then don’t like the service – I cannot return the phone after 30 days. I want the phone on another plan – but can’t get that phone from that other service. That, in turn, keeps me stuck with a phone and waste of money.

So I HAVE to buy into a certain plan. I cannot choose to not have the data plan, for example. I  only have 2 options from AT&T – 450 or 900 minutes. It would have been nice to get a 700 minute plan and keep at the prices I was at with the old phone. Instead I will most likely have a ton of “Rollover” minutes. Minutes that expire if I change plans or “Default” on a payment. Nonetheless, I guess it’s just a good thing I don’t have to select a business plan – they have to pay more.  And yes, the minutes are more of an AT&T issue than Apple, but is the Data plan that way, too?

1. How is it that iTunes can multi-task and another application cannot?

This is the biggest issue I believe. 3^rd party iPhone applications can’t run in the background, yet programs like iTunes can.  And when it comes to smartphones, you just assume they can multi-task. Once again, my WinMo phone could.

I use Stitcher, a push application. While it will continue to play when the phone locks, it will not let me do something simple like check email or SMS.  I then have to restart the app to continue functionality.

I will play devils’ advocate for a second – with a 3^rd party app, a malware program could then easily run in the background without you knowing it. With this way the problem can keep a program from accessing your phone data. Yet, Apple should give some “trusted” applications the ability to become multi-task. They could even create a certification program to justify who gets to make apps that run in the background. Yet I still have to close Stitcher to check my mail, then open it back up.

There are other issues as well, but I think that these 5 are what needs to be addressed. I would expect that if Apples’ rumored “Social Media App” comes to fruition, there may be question as to the other social networks and the Apps that run. Especially if Apple’s social media application doesn’t give a warning about possible adult content.

I am not ready to give up my phone just yet – after all, I JUST got it. However, I am seeing and hearing other people talk about trying out the new Palm Pre, the Android and other smartphones that are not Apple. Even others work feverishly on jailbreaking the iPhone so you can get your desired functionality. But that comes with a price – no warranty support after a jailbreak. So I guess I’ll live in the walled garden – for now.

For the last year and a half, the Quickcast has been running a podcast every Monday reviewing the past history of Technology. The show has been a fun one, but for the last couple months I felt it needs it’s own space. Therefore, WITH will be spinning off into the Day in Tech History – a Daily look at the Historical events in Technology.

WITH will continue on. For the first couple weeks, we will continue with the same format. Afterwards, WITH will take a new shape, highlighting one historical event and how it plays on events today. It should be a new, powerfully informative look in the IT industry.

Information for this weeks’ WITH:

• Smithsonian is established
• Netscape Lawyers send a letter about Microsoft anticompetitive nature
• Twitter’s “2000″ ceiling
• Apple Fire at Building #6
• Atari Files Lawsuit against Amiga
• Netflix 3 day outtage

It was something that people talked about for months, but on August 6, 2008, CEO Jeff Bewkes confirms the rumor. AOL will be split off into it’s own company by the next year (which came to fruition on May 28th, 2009)

Other Items in Tech History, the Trash-80 is announced, SQL Server 2008 is released. Ebay and Craigslist experience outages while the first Olympic events are streamed through NBC. We also saw Bill Gates and Steve Jobs together on a 5 year deal which gave Microsoft 1oo,000 non-voting shares of Apple.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – for Yahoo, anyway. It was the botched 6 month drama between them and Microsoft that made things so stressful. With Carl Icahn nipping at the heels for a takeover – then subsequent seat offering as a settlement – Yahoo had to create a great first impression to their stockholders so they could move on.

It was a long meeting. There was some debate on who should stay on the board and who should exit. There was even concern over the new seats and who would occupy them.

By the end of the day of August 1st, the meeting had resulted in a switch of power, ultimately leading to Jerry Yangs’ step down as CEO. By the next day, T. Boone Pickens had gotten rid of all his Yahoo stock.

Other items in the Week in Tech History – Fingerprints are used, The TRS 80 line is introduced and Windows Millenium Edition is dubbed “Millenium Alzheimers”.

This week I take my Podcast talents over to the TPN Weekly Podcast for episode 14. I take the Podcast in a slightly different direction, as I talk a little bit about me and growing up in technology. I throw out some of the computers I used to work with, like the Commodore Vic20, Atari and Apple Macintosh, then my rise into an IT role.

I also talk a bit about the future of technology and where we are going as New Media Specialists. It was a fun show to do simply because I went off the cuff and didn’t talk about present tech news. If anything, it was more of an audio blog.

I also put some Podcast-safe background music into it. It was provided by Kalliopi, and can be found at Ariel Publicity.net.

It was the system that would rival the Wiki world. Google launched a Beta of their online knowledge system called “Knol”. It was a lot like Wikipedia, except this system would have online advertising. The advantage (at least that some would call): contributors had an opportunity to actually make money off their knowlegde.

Knol stands for “A unit of Knowledge”. It was in Beta until January 2009

Other items in Tech History this week:

• IBM Goes Open Source – Sort of.
• Google and Digg were rumored to be in talks
• Carl Icahn joins Yahoo’s Board of Directors
• Trans Atlantic TV Broadcast with host Walter Cronkite.

Google recently took the Beta label off of Gmail and Google Docs. Gmail has been in beta for over 5 years – with a 3 year private beta. By being in Beta, one could easily write off an issue or even think the accountability and liability might not be theirs. So shouldn’t the ISO put some regulation on this small tag?

Google started with Gmail back on April 7th 2004. They were in a Closed Beta – which meant that you had to get an invitation to use it. However, it wasn’t a difficult thing to get an invitation. My entry into Gmail wasn’t until December of that year.

3 years later – Feb 2nd, 2007 to be exact, Gmail removed the restriction. However, the Beta tag stayed on. It generally went unnoticed until this last July 6th, when Google decided to remove the tagline.
Google Docs had a shorter span – Technically starting in August of 2005. I say technically, because it was launched as a program called “Writely”. Google Spreadsheet came in June of 2006 and by October 10th, the two had merged to start Google Docs. Once again – Beta until July 6th of 2009.

Beta – in technology – generally means “Pre-release”. You have the Pre- Alpha version – which is the first look at a program. Alpha programs are next – Followed by Beta, Release Candidate, RTM: or Release to Manufacturing, THEN General Availability. Usually, Pre-Alpha and Alpha software and hardware is only given out to the “truly geeky” people and developers to break on purpose. By time you are in General Release, you have a level of confidence that it works.

In Google’s case, it was starting to be more in a “Perpetual Beta” stage – which means that it will never leave the Beta stage. There are many programs and sites that are still in or may never leave Beta. However, this is more of an issue than one will lead on to – Especially if it has to do with your pocketbook.

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Why would that be? Well look at it this way – I give you a program and tell you it’s in Beta. You use it, then something happens where your data or even your money is exposed and even exploited. You come back to me and say that a bug caused this to happen. I can then turn to you and say “That’s ok. It’s in Beta….”

Accountability – This is a key factor in any software release. Think about it – Right now Windows 7 is in Beta. Well, OK. Release Candidate: but STILL it’s a form of Beta. If you were to have a problem with the program, you would report it and then go about fixing the problem or reinstalling the software. Unless it’s a critical error that could bring Microsoft down, you are not going to get any more attention than the report form you get from the company.

What could have stopped Google from saying “Well, the program is in beta, so we can’t be held accountable?” Not a good strategy in any business plan. Especially since in some cases, you are paying for your Gmail account. After all, for $50 an email address, you can ditch your email server and let Google handle all your communications. If you are paying for a system, would you want it to be in Beta for 5 years?

I do go to a website that has a currency exchange to it. They are still in Beta, yet they handle money. While I don’t put much stock in this company, what could stop this site from emailing me and saying: “The last 3 months, we found a bug, so therefore we are going to start everyones’ accounts over. After all, this is a Beta system.”
The International Organization of Standards – or ISO (which is short for Isos – a greek word for “Equal”)- needs to step in here. Why ISO? Well they have a better reach than any government. You would basically have boundaries. That web site I mentioned earlier is not only located in the US, but also has a location in another country. Therefore, if a problem arose, it might be harder for me to get satisfaction.

Here is the suggestion: Alpha = 9 – 12 months. Beta = 3-6 months. Release Candidates = 1 month for 3 RC. If any product or service needs more time, then they must move back to a previous status (with the exception for RC – they must move back to Beta) and keep doing so until they can get to a General Release Status. If a site or program cannot achieve General Release in a specific timeframe, then they must be pulled offline – especially if they are making currency exchange.

Here is where things get hairy – if a product or service is asking you to PAY while they are in Beta, then they should label accordingly. Labeling a site P2P Beta (Pay to Play Beta) comes to mind. If a site is in P2P Beta, then they must have a structured policy in place on issues and when a person can ask for compensation.

Why is this such an issue? Well, let’s put this into perspective. The best way is to talk about an article posted In Wired Magazine on 11-15-99. The RIAA was just getting a handle on music piracy. Therefore they decided to make a lawsuit with one company that was just starting up. The name of that company: Napster. During the interview, Napster CEO Eileen Richardson said on the lawsuit – “For *expletive* we’re still in beta…. We are freaking four months old.”

If you have software or hardware that is contributing to an illegal activity, do you think you should be exonerated simply because the software or hardware is in beta?

Standardization of the terms will do two things – bring accountability and give the term “Alpha”, “Beta”, “RC” and “General Availability” a sense of stature. It will help those who might have been wronged and thought a site or service would be safe simply because they are using a program that over 100 million other people are using. And frankly, it’s just annoying to see something in Beta for over 5 years and making money on it.

BTW – if a program or service ends, it’s called End of Service.

July 8th: In 2007, developer Dan Kaminsky found a flaw in the addressing of the Domain Name System, or DNS. DNS is found on home to commercial routers around the world. The issue was so severe, that they were not divulging the issue until a patch could be implemented on a wide scale.

On March 31st, Kaminsky – along with 16 other developers – gathered at Microsoft to work on a massive patch and synchronize the release so all details could be released as well. Today was the day that patch was released. Microsoft also released patch MS08-037 on the Windows side to counter the issues. Cisco, Sun and BIND fixes would come out shortly after.

Other historical notes: The first Sundae was created (Ok, geeky note). Commodore’s rebirth from the Netherlands. Captain and Tennile on a TI99/4a. Check out the Podcast for all the info

July 4th, 2008 – The company that used to be called “Ask Jeeves”, but is now Ask.com officially announced they acquired the Lexico Publishing Group. The LPG is a company that built a series of reference websites. Most notably Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com. The transaction was an all cash one, and undisclosed.

Other items in Tech history this week: Hotmail is launched, AOL buys Mapquest, the eBay Baby, in 2001 the P4 1.6 was released at $294 and a lot more in the Geekazine Quickcast

Well, the US did it. Analog TV is no more. Hail to Digital TV. More channels, better reception and all still over a pair of rabbit ears. However, we’re not totally done with the Digital conversion.  As we ramp down on television, we might have a harder time with this one – Radio.

Each country has their own Digital conversion, and as of now, only 7 countries are fully digital on a television signal. The US went digital on June 12^th, 2009. We were suppose to go digital on February 17^th, but it got pushed back when some stations were not ready to comply. The UK goes 100% digital by 2012 and Japan will go in 2015.

And of course, there are still some stations that are on an Analog signal. Low power, Class A and TV Translator stations – along with emergency band stations – have no requirement to go digital. That is, unless they jump out of their class.

The Advanced Televison Systems Committee – or ATSC signal we receive replaced the National Television System Committee, or NTSC. If you worked with video, you know that certain countries would either be on a NTSC standard, or a PAL standard. Now, it will be ATSC, the MCMC and whatever other standards are created by other countries.

The biggest advantage of going to Digital TV? High definition. Stations will be able to broadcast in 1080p and you will be able to receive it in that. If you have ever watched a Low definition show on a High def TV, you will know that it doesn’t look all that great.

Some channels are opting out of using the HDTV signal so they can produce what are called “Sub-channels”. This will give you more channel choices on over the air TV. For example, our local ABC affiliate has 3 channels. One is the ABC affiliate, another is a channel that plays retro Television shows like Adam 12 and Leave it to Beaver, then the third will show movies all day. Ultimately, we have 12 channels to choose from – as oppose to 4 from only 5 years ago.

Radio is a different issue. It would be harder pressed to switch over a radio than a TV. Sure, you could connect a converter box to a car radio, but it would not look great and it could cost more than getting the HD radio.

There is no conversion date for HD radio. However, if a station was to switch over, they could run 2-3 stations on the same signal. That, in turn, would create more advertising opportunities.

Digital has a contender in Satellite, though. Sirius XM has been running for a few years now. However, their books have not been great as of late, and a bankruptcy filing is telling us that we might want to think before we go Satellite.  Still, many US manufacturers install the full Satellite – HD radios.

The technology for HD radio in the US is called “In Band On Channel” or IBOC. It uses what is called “Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, or OFDM. Orthogonality is a way where cross talk is eliminated between sub channels. In other words, if your station is at 100.3 and you change the station to 100.5, you won’t get bleed through. You can have more channels closer together without a more powerful signal impeding on the next.

I remember reading at one time they wanted to go all digital on radio by 2012. I went looking for that article, but couldn’t find it. Only a vast sea of sites that say there is no conversion date for radio.

We had an interesting time converting TV to Digital. Think about what it would take to make all radio stations the same. Whereas consumers have found that turning the TV off is easy after the DTV conversion, they might not think the same thing when they are stuck on Interstate 54 in the middle of rush hour.

Reality is, radio will become HD until there is no one listening to analog. Then the FCC will step in and say “OK, it’s time to switch”. Radio may be the last great mainstay of analog. Still, there should be more effort to take it Digitally. We can benefit from a better system running our audio and video.

Add to it the radio owners advantage. They can give you more stations and have more airtime to sell. You like that song? Well, press the radio button and get it from Amazon or iTunes.  Heck, you might even be able to run contests and polls right from the radio, instead of calling in.

But for now, we’ll have the Digital TV, and the Analog Radio as our standards.

We announce the 3rd step in the Summer of Geekazine contest

June 27th – William Gates officially hands the keys over to Steve Ballmer and goes on his retirement. Well, sort of.

Bill announced that he will be stepping down as CEO of Microsoft and letting Steve Ballmer take the reins. He will have interaction with Microsoft. After all, it is his company.

Lots of other cool historical events from Atari, Commodore, Microsoft, Apple and IBM within the podcast