Andrew Fore

Over the past several years I have begun to wonder if the trend towards all things new, online and electronic is really better than the non-electronic analog.

There are many areas where the electronic version has eclipsed the original analog format, and others where the electronic version is making serious attempts to usurp the existing analog.

I decided that I would write a series of articles discussing this trend and my personal take on various changes that  have occurred.  I call these articles the New Tech Series, since they will generally be pitting a new technology version against the traditional analog.

Many newspapers around the country have embraced what many people have referred to as the Information Age. The current era has also been referred to as the Connected Age:

The Information Age is the age of the knowledge worker. The Connected Age is the age of the web worker. Knowledge workers create and manage information, massaging it into intangible knowledge goods. Web workers create and manage relationships across knowledge goods, hardware, and people.

– From the Information Age to the Connected Age, GigOm

In the beginning this was done merely by having a website where you could view additional content that was unavailable in the print editions due to editorial constraints, be they size, content, or otherwise. The newspaper website was also seen as a source for additional advertising revenue, which has been the profit mechanism for most newspapers.

Then as the Internet become more common place, newspapers and magazines started to produce content solely for the online editions.

As the trend towards regular access to the Internet continued, it became clear that a certain segment of the market had ceased to read the print editions, indeed, many young people never started reading the newspaper in print at all. It was also clear that for the newspapers to keep up with the social and economic trend that they would have to shift their attitudes to the distribution of the news to match the reader.

This is particularly noteable with the Atlanta-Journal Constitution (AJC). In February of 2007, the AJC decided to cut a large number of jobs, offer buyouts to many other employees, and drastically reduce the distribution area for the print editions. This was done to ostensibly adjust to the new ways that news is being viewed today:

The changes come as the Atlanta paper, like other newspapers, adjusts to major shifts in news consumption and advertising spending on the Internet.

– Ga.’s Largest Newspaper Offers Buyouts, cbsnews.com

While I agree that shifting attitudes towards the distribution of news and the way it is being consumed does require some changes, I wonder if the online format is really better.

I like being connected to the news, even more I like being connected in general. I carry a smartphone that checks my corporate e-mail every 15 minutes, I carry a pager and I use text messaging for alerts and to keep in touch with my friends. I have an account on most of the major instant message services and I even have a blog. In fact I would say that I am one of the more connected and online people in my social group.

Despite all of this, I worry that there are some points of value that are being overlooked as we make the headlong rush to placing everything online. From a journalistic standpoint the content may be the same, and yes, online newspapers often give new opportunities for engaging advertisements that just can’t be put into a print edition. What I find missing is the other value that comes from a print newspaper.

When I go to the barbershop on Saturdays, I often have to sit and wait. What do I do with this free time? Do I pick up my smartphone and surf the Internet? Do I check my e-mail? No, I sit there patiently in my chair and read that morning’s paper. Occassionally I will engage in conversation with the other people in the shop, especially when there has been something interesting going on, such as UGA beating the University of Florida. Can you easily sit in you chair in the barbershop and read the online edition of the AJC? Maybe in your barbershop, but definitely not in mine.

But beyond the value of the feel of the newsprint in your hand, there are what could be referred to as value-added services that we derive from a print edition:

• the older papers can serve as packing material for shipping gifts
• they can be used as kindling to light a fire
• they can be used to put down on a table or other surface to protect it from paint
• they can be folded into hats and boats to entertain your friends children (or your own)

None of the above can easily be done with the online edition of a newspaper, unless of course you are willing to print it out first.

Is an online newspaper really better? Post a comment and let us know your opinion.

So I was wondering on the web this morning and ran across a link the to an article about whether there should be a 4th Matrix movie.

While the obvious point was made aboutthe Oracle’s comment at the end of the third movie concerning whether Neo would be seen again, I found some of the other plot points to be quite interesting. I especially liked the image that was conjured by the comment about the Architect going kung-fu on Neo:

Now, I Am not suggesting for a minute that The Architect ought to get out and jump around going all kung-fu on Keanu Reeve’s ass. That would look dismal; but it would also run contradictory to the story… A program is designed with a function, and the purpose of the Architect is not to fight, but to develop and build. In other words, like Palpatine, he is the master strategist. For the heroes to win the day, he must be taken out. The Oracle’s protector is Seraph; and it would stand to reason that The Architect would have some kind of protector also – another possible rival.

There were some really good ideas in this article.  Maybe we will get another chance to see the bluepill in action.

On December 18, 2007,  the latest release of the Blade Runner movie will be out.  The Ultimate Collection is going to come in a scaled down imitation of the briefcase that Deckard uses in the film.

It is going to have not only the new edition, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, but also includes the original theatrical release, the international version, and the director’s cut.

When reading the review of the screening of the newest version on SFFMedia, I was somewhat disappointed to see that one of the things they did was to extend the violent sections.  Having seen the international release that had more of that content, I can honestly say that I don’t see where it enhances the film any.

It is nice to see that they are going to fix some of the problems that were in the director’s cut.  There was a really bad audio sync issue in one scene, and a scene that was completely missing Deckard’s voice over.

References:

So it seems that L. Frank Baum’s Oz book series is going to at last come to the silverscreen as a whole.

According to an article on sliceofscifi.com, Warner Bros. has purchased the film rights to all of the original 14 Oz novels, plus a fifteenth book by Ruth Plumly Thompson.

Apparently it is going to be a combined effort between Todd McFarlane and Josh Olson.

One can only hope that McFarlane will restrain his tendencies a little and not produce a product that is as out-of-touch with the original concepts of the books in the way that his Twisted Land of Oz action figures are.

I think that it is great that he wants to update the series and make it “more 2007,” but please don’t warp the childhood of millions by turning Dorothy into a dominatrix.

There is an AP story out about a Minnesota college student attempting to sell his vote on eBay. He is being charged with a felony under an 1893 law that makes it a crime to sell your vote in Minnesota.

Seems to me that if the teenager is going to be charged and prosecuted for selling his vote, then maybe there needs to be some investigation of the politicians while they are at it.  How many of them could be guilty of violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the same law?

The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That’s what poetry does. — Allen Ginsberg

I found this really cool moon photo at the AstroMeeting.

I love all the detail that he goes into about taking the photo.

A nice post on Amazing Filtered Things shows a whole bunch of photos of nuclear blasts.

My favorite is the one with the observers in the foreground.

Google Maps has a cool shot of an SR-71 Blackbird on the deck of the USS Intrepid at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.

At my local Linux users group meeting, someone brought up the Nerdcore HipHop music.

So if you are a nerd or a geek, then check out this Hip-Hop rhyme, called Kill Dash Nine.

I like the chorus:

KILL DASH NINE, No more CPU time. I run KILL DASH NINE, And your process is mine. I run KILL DASH NINE, ‘Cause it’s MY time to shine So don’t step outta line or else it’s

KILL DASH NINE!

Who says geek can’t be hip?

So I just finished Prince of Persia on my PS3.  I decided that I would go and purchase the $9.99 Prince of Persia: Epilogue DLC from the PSN (PlayStation Network) store so that I could have some more PoP game time.

Turns out that I can’t purchase anything using my Bank of America debit card, because Sony’s billing and account system is seriously messed up.

First I tried just entering in my account information in the PSN store interface as a direct purchase.  I put in the card information and billing information.  I get an error back that says “Credit card is invalid. Check your entries.”  Thinking that I may have punched something in wrong when relying on my memory, I go get the physical card and verify that all the data was correct.  Hit continue.  Same error.

I then tried to just enter the billing information into the account management thinking that maybe that would work.  Same error.

I tried logging into my PSN account over the web on my laptop and entering the information there.  Same error.

Having now exhausted all the possible avenues for entering in my information, I search the Google to find out if others have had this problem and what the fix might or might not be.  Turns out there have been numerous people with the same problem.

The first thread I listed had the most information.  They were discussing the possible values necessary in the address fields, etc.  I checked all my information.  Here’s what you need to double-check:

1. Make sure your console has been activated using the System Activation item in the dashboard
2. Make sure that if your billing address is a post office box that you are not adding in punctuation
3. Make sure that your zip code is matching exactly with the bank records, especially if your bank uses an address verification system
4. Make sure that your phone number, if listed, matches the bank records

The problem is that I checked all of this and none of it helped.  So I called the Sony Computer Entertainment America support number (800-345-7669) and waded through the menu system to get a support representative.  I have to give kudos to the support representative, because she was very calm and nice, and she didn’t even have a problem with the fact that I had already checked everything that she had on her checklist for me to check.

Unfortunately, she said “Sometimes the PO Box addresses just don’t work.  The only suggestion I can make is that you use a different credit card or go buy a PlayStation Network Card.”  She was very sorry that it wasn’t working, but there was nothing she could do to help.

I am not blaming the support folks, but that kind of answer is really pretty unacceptable.  I use my BoA card online, in stores, and over the phone all the time with no problems at all.  To make matters worse, when I logged in to my BoA account over the web I had a $1 pending transaction for each of my attempts to connect my card to the PSN store.  The customer service representative did assure me that they would drop off since a complete account transaction had never occured.

This is unexcusable.  Why even bother creating an online store for your game console if it doesn’t reliably work to purchase things?  Someone at Sony really needs to get this ironed out.

Many of us have played online games. Even more of us play them with the intent of socializing during the game with our fellow players.

However, there is another group of online gamers, the mute ones.

Ars Technica’s Opposable Thumbs journal has an interesting post concerning the online gamer segment that just wants to play against a human. They don’t have any interest in interacting outside of the regular game play itself.

I wonder how many gamers there are out the like this. Is there a market for a service that caters to those who only use the online games and online components to garner non-AI opponents?

So I just finished Prince of Persia on my PS3.  I decided that I would go and purchase the $9.99 Prince of Persia: Epilogue DLC from the PSN (PlayStation Network) store so that I could have some more PoP game time.

Turns out that I can’t purchase anything using my Bank of America debit card, because Sony’s billing and account system is seriously messed up.

First I tried just entering in my account information in the PSN store interface as a direct purchase.  I put in the card information and billing information.  I get an error back that says “Credit card is invalid. Check your entries.”  Thinking that I may have punched something in wrong when relying on my memory, I go get the physical card and verify that all the data was correct.  Hit continue.  Same error.

I then tried to just enter the billing information into the account management thinking that maybe that would work.  Same error.

I tried logging into my PSN account over the web on my laptop and entering the information there.  Same error.

Having now exhausted all the possible avenues for entering in my information, I search the Google to find out if others have had this problem and what the fix might or might not be.  Turns out there have been numerous people with the same problem.

The first thread I listed had the most information.  They were discussing the possible values necessary in the address fields, etc.  I checked all my information.  Here’s what you need to double-check:

1. Make sure your console has been activated using the System Activation item in the dashboard
2. Make sure that if your billing address is a post office box that you are not adding in punctuation
3. Make sure that your zip code is matching exactly with the bank records, especially if your bank uses an address verification system
4. Make sure that your phone number, if listed, matches the bank records

The problem is that I checked all of this and none of it helped.  So I called the Sony Computer Entertainment America support number (800-345-7669) and waded through the menu system to get a support representative.  I have to give kudos to the support representative, because she was very calm and nice, and she didn’t even have a problem with the fact that I had already checked everything that she had on her checklist for me to check.

Unfortunately, she said “Sometimes the PO Box addresses just don’t work.  The only suggestion I can make is that you use a different credit card or go buy a PlayStation Network Card.”  She was very sorry that it wasn’t working, but there was nothing she could do to help.

I am not blaming the support folks, but that kind of answer is really pretty unacceptable.  I use my BoA card online, in stores, and over the phone all the time with no problems at all.  To make matters worse, when I logged in to my BoA account over the web I had a $1 pending transaction for each of my attempts to connect my card to the PSN store.  The customer service representative did assure me that they would drop off since a complete account transaction had never occured.

This is unexcusable.  Why even bother creating an online store for your game console if it doesn’t reliably work to purchase things?  Someone at Sony really needs to get this ironed out.

In my process of tranferring my DVD collection to a digital media server I discovered that the Apple TV software is smarter than I thought.

I have been ripping my DVD collection using Handbrake on my Mac and transferring them to a Windows box which is shared out via my internal only network to the Apple TV using iTunes.  I use the built-in Apple TV profile to do this.  The profile sets the frame rate option on the encoder to be “Same As Source”.  It turns out that if your rip has a final fps (frames per second) that is greater than 30 then the resulting movie will not be available in the list of Shared Movies on the Apple TV.

So in the process of applying the new SSL cert here at work, I discovered an issue with the reCAPTCHA service.

The problem was that I was getting errors saying that my forms were only partially encrypted.  This was due to my use of the reCAPTCHA library, which by default doesn’t use an SSL connection to grab the challenge HTML.

The documentation at the reCaptcha site has a section on this.  Specifically it says:

In order to avoid getting browser warnings, if you use reCAPTCHA on an SSL site, you should replace http://api.recaptcha.net with https://api-secure.recaptcha.net.

Ref: http://recaptcha.net/apidocs/captcha/client.html

The example it uses shows how to change the Javascript itself.  While this was nice to know it really didn’t help too much in my particular case. To solve this when using the reCAPTCHA PHP library, all you need to do is change the value of a single variable.  In the file recaptchalib.php look for the function recaptcha_get_html then change the declaration to read as follows:

function recaptcha_get_html ($pubkey, $error = null, $use_ssl = true)

This will force all calls to be transmitted over an SSL connection, thus eliminating the dialog box in Internet Explorer and the slashed-lock in Firefox.

However since I am not encrypting the entire site by default, yet due to an issue with our website editing/management system, Adobe Contribute, I had to do a bit more than just updating the boolean variable.  Since some of my forms are encrypted and some are not, I added the following code to the function referenced above:

if ($_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'] = 443) { $use_ssl = true;

}

This needs to be added just above the check for the value of the variable use_ssl in the function recaptcha_get_html.  Once you do this you can use the same copy of the recpatchalib.php file for both secure and non-secure forms.

Over Thanksgiving break I bought an Apple TV.  Like any good geek I wanted to expand the capability of the unit beyond the default setup.

After installing Firefox and getting USB keyboard and mouse support going, I realized that it would be tremendously cool if I could control it from my iPhone instead of using a wired keyboard.

To begin with I installed OSXvnc.  The only problem was that I needed to store a password.  After reading a the VNC post on the aTV Flash forum, I successfully conquered that.  However, I had the same problem that iMattUK had: you had to use an ssh connection to start it.

To conquer this I wrote a launchd plist to launch OSXvnc for me at system startup.  Read on for the process I used to get it all working.

Read more

So there is a nice report on cnet about an human denial of service attack on the Apple Retail Store Genius Bars.

According to this story, and the FSF site DefectiveByDesign, the goal is to book as many 10-minute time slots as possible over a two-day period at the Apple Store in a lame attempt to bring more attention to what the FSF sees as the defective nature of the iPhone 3G.

Richard Stallman, the founder of the FSF, has stated:

The motive for DRM schemes is to increase profits for those who impose them, but their profit is a side issue when millions of people’s freedom is at stake; desire for profit, though not wrong in itself, cannot justify denying the public control over its technology. Defending freedom means thwarting DRM.

He also describes DRM as Digital Restrictions Management:

However, since its purpose is to restrict you the user, it is more accurate to describe DRM as Digital Restrictions Management.

Read more

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The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That’s what poetry does. — Allen Ginsberg

Today’s video is a collage of various scenes from a whole slew of anime shows. If you watch it closely you will see some scenes from Akira, Wolf’s Rain and Witch Hunter Robin, to name just a few.

The music used is Best of You by the Foo Fighters. This song appeared on the album Skin and Bones, which was released on Rosewell/RCA label on 2006-11-07.

So, PayPal has thrown down the gauntlet on the safe browser war.  According to an InfoWorld article, they have declined to add Apple’s Safari browser to their list of safe browsers due to the lack of native anti-phishing technology.

I find it interesting that one of the features they explicitly mention in the InfoWorld article as being a reason behind this is the use (or lack thereof) of the Extended Validation Certificate (EV).

Firefox 2 does not currently support this, however the possibility of having the browser warn you to a possible phishing attack is apparently enough for PayPal. According to the Mozilla developer’s, FireFox 3 will support the EV technology.

Personally I think that the automated protection schemes are great, when they work.  One of the first things I did when installing IE7 on my virtual machine was to disable the anti-phishing filter.  It is nice to have the automated systems, but there is nothing like a little user education to make the world a safer place.  According to a NetworkWorld article:

In one study, three groups of 14 participants each received e-mail messages that included spam and phishing attacks as well as legitimate mail. Two of the groups were presented with educational material about how to prevent being phished; but only one group received the material after having fallen for the phishing e-mails and entered personal information into a fraudulent Web site.

The group that was given educational materials but hadn’t been phished were no better at spotting phishing attacks that the third group, which received no educational materials at all, researchers say.

Besides, who is to be the arbiter of whether or not the site really deserves being declared a phishing site?  Sure sometimes it is patently obvious, like when the site is dressed up to look like Citibank, but the URL is really something like “www.citibank.secure.orangecrush.cz”.  However, there is no such thing as a perfect system, and we don’t need to train the users to rely completely on the built-in safeguards.

My GPG key expired today, so I renewed it this morning  (updated the expiration date).  Download it!

I you have read my previous post, GPG Best Practices, you will know that I am a fan of setting expiration dates on my GPG keys.

This has not always been the case. As with many computer users I tend towards the lazy, and if I can keep from having to re-learn a password by never changing it, then I have been guilty of doing so.

Recently, however, I have decided that this is not the best thing to do when it comes to computer security. So while restoring my computer this weekend after a rebuild of the OS to get rid of some cruft that had built up, I decided I needed to add expiration dates to all of my GPG keys.

Now I had already established one for my work e-mail at the time I created the key, but now I needed to go back and add ones to my personal keys. After reading the man page on GPG, it looked pretty easy. Just go into edit mode for the key I wanted to change, the add an expiration date. Simple enough, right? Wrong.

Turns out the what I wanted to do was feasible, just not readily apparent. I didn’t just want to set a date relative to the current date in day, months, weeks, or years. What I wanted to do was use a specific date.

Well, after some diligent searching on Google, I found the following in a post on the gnupg-users list:

>>Is it possible to set an explicit date (e.g. 31 Dec) rather than a >>duration? I suppose I could compute the number of days, but that’s

>>annoying.

Problem solved, mission accomplished.

Like many people who have some concerns over security on the Internet, I have started to use digital signatures for all of my mail sent from my regular e-mail client on my Mac.

While there are several avenues for this, I chose to use GPG. While I know that this means jumping through a couple of extra hoops in configuring my mail client, I decided that it was worth it, because unlike the Thawte Freemail certs, using GPG on my computer also means that I can encrypt files in addition to my mail messages, should I choose to do so.

I am wondering what the thoughts are on best practices when it comes to using GPG.

Here are a couple that I have come up with (learned through hard experience):

1. Backup your keys.

I cannot stress this strongly enough. If for some reason you have a catostrophic computer failure, you will need those backups in order to decrypt your e-mail once you restore your data backup. (You do back your data up, right?)

And when you make those backups, do not rely on just a digital backup. Backup both your public and secret keys in an ASCII-armor file and print the darned thing out. Digital backups are subject to data rot and any number of other technological snafu’s, but I have printed material that is perfectly readable after more than 20 years.

2. Make a revocation certificate.

The GPG mini-howto gives a couple of excellent reasons for doing this:

For instance: the secret key has been stolen or became available to the wrong people, the UID has been changed, the key is not large enough anymore, etc.

Just remember that revoking a key is not reversible.

3. Set an expiration date for your keys.

Just like changing passwords, you should regularly change your GPG keys. Don’t worry about losing track of the data that was encrypted with a key that has expired. You’ll still be able to open that data, it just means that someone won’t be able to encrypt with the old key unless they ignore the warnings about it being expired.

What this also means is that you should hang on to the expired keys, since you might need them to access some older encrypted files. (See best practice number 1)

4. Add commentary to your keys.

If you are like most heavy computer users, you have more than one e-mail address. And if you create a GPG key for each one of those, it would help to keep things orderly if you commented on the individual keys.

For example, the key I use for my work e-mail has a comment of:

Work Address

So, do you have anymore best practices?

The concert was at Chastain park Amphitheatre in Atlanta, GA, Saturday, September 13, 2008.

The venue was pretty packed. It was interesting that a large contingent of the handicapped spaces were parallel parking.

I should have taken a real camera with me since the iPhone’s camera was unequipped to handle the lighting situation.  Missy Higgins was the opening act.  It was great to hear some of the old songs, as well as three new tracks from the new album which is set to be released in February 2009.  They gave us the actual names of two of the new songs, but not the third one, which they said had only been played six times previously.

Emily made a comment that it was really great to play on stage at Chastain, where she had attended quite a few concerts herself.  They also sang Happy Birthday for Marie, one of the friends of Amy’s nephew, who was attending her first concert at Chastain.

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After several weeks on hiatus, Music Video Friday has returned.

This week we have a trio of videos featuring Yo-Yo Ma. Yo-Yo Ma is an award winning cellist. Known for his considerable virtuosity and wide-ranging repertoire, he has delighted audiences around the world in live performances and in motion picture soundtracks.

The first video is from the dvd “The Music Garden.” This particular clip is of the prelude from Bach’s Suit No. 1 for Unaccompanied Cello. This dvd is the first of a six-part series that was filmed by Kevin McMahon and Francois Girard. This dvd was released in 2000 by Sony Classical.

The second video features the performances of several songs from motion picture scores Italian composer Ennio Morricone. The songs featured in the video are: “Gabriel’s Oboe” from The Mission, “Playing Love” from The Legend of 1900, and a suite of music from the movies of Sergio Leone. This album, Yo-Yo Ma Play Ennio Morricone, was released in 2004 on the Sony Classical label.

The third video is a live performance of the song “Slumber My Darling” by Stephen Foster. This song was featured on the studio album Appalachian Journey, featuring Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Edgar Meyer (bass), and Mark O’Connor (violin). This particular track guest starred vocalist Alison Krauss. This album was released in 2000 on the Sony Classical label.

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The unsigned Manchester-based band, The Get Out Clause, gets props for a creative use of the CCTV surveillance cameras in the UK.

Since they lacked the funds for equipment and crews, they setup in front of a series of cameras in Manchester and then used the footage, requested via the Freedom of Information Act, to create a music video.

Get the whole story.

This is pretty nifty.  I especially liked the fact that they performed on an escalator and a public bus.

Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush won the ACM 2008 Song of the Year award for their song Stay.

For those of you who don’t know, Jennifer Nettles is a former Georgia 4-Her and a former member of the Georgia 4-H performing group, Clovers and Company.

Congratulations, Jennifer, from a fellow Clover.

Well for today’s music, we are featuring some nice work with bottles.

The first video is of a Chinese group that is playing the theme from Mario on partially filled glass bottles. However, they are playing is via an RC car.

The second video is of a trio playing the theme from Tetris using partially filled bottles. I like they way that they appear to have performed it fairly slowly and sped it up for the final video cut.

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