Practical Technology

for practical people.

March 30, 2011
by sjvn01
0 comments

No Broadband for You, You, or You: Kansas City wins Google Fibre

Really, I’m not too jealous that Google has awarded Kansas City, Kansas a gigabit Internet to call its own. I mean it’s not as if my own home town, Asheville, NC, wasn’t more deserving of inexpensive broadband… although we were. Seriously, though, I’m sure Kansas City was worthy and, with more than 1,100 cities in the running, someone had to win and everyone else had to lose, and after Kansas’ exit from the NCAA basketball tournament, the JayHawks needed some good news. But, what about all those other cities that don’t have serious broadband?

You see, it’s not just Asheville or Kansas City that needs serious broadband we all do. In Google’s announcement, it states that Google has “signed a development agreement with the city, and we’ll be working closely with local organizations, businesses and universities to bring a next-generation web experience to the community.”

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March 29, 2011
by sjvn01
2 Comments

No Privacy on Amazon’s Cloud Drive

Who couldn’t love the idea of the new Amazon Cloud Drive? You get at least 5GBs of free cloud-based storage, and its trivial to get 20GBs of free storage on Amazon Cloud Drive. Used in concert with the Amazon Cloud Player you get a fine cloud-based music player that can be used either from a Web browser or on Android tablets with the Amazon MP3 App. The new Amazon consumer cloud service also works well. It’s just too bad that you have to give up all privacy to use it.

Don’t believe me? Read the Amazon Cloud Drive Terms of Use for yourself. In particular, take a glance at: Section 5.2:

“5.2 Our Right to Access Your Files. You give us the right to access, retain, use and disclose your account information and Your Files: to provide you with technical support and address technical issues; to investigate compliance with the terms of this Agreement, enforce the terms of this Agreement and protect the Service and its users from fraud or security threats; or as we determine is necessary to provide the Service or comply with applicable law”

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March 28, 2011
by sjvn01
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Gosling, Java’s creator, joins Google

James Gosling, the creator of Java, has joined Google. Oracle, which bought Sun, Gosling’s former company, must hate this.

I always thought Oracle buying Sun was a dumb idea. While you can argue that, there can’t be any argument that Oracle/Sun quickly lost its leading open-source lights such as Gosling, XML co-inventor Tim Bray, and Simon Phipps, Sun’s chief open source officer. Since the purchase, Oracles seems intent on monetizing Java by suing Google, among others, for Java patent violations rather than producing new code or products.

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March 27, 2011
by sjvn01
3 Comments

The first great Android Tablet: Nook Color

Let’s get real. There are only two great tablets out there today: Apple’s iPad and the iPad 2. Android has always had the potential to be a wonderful tablet operating system, but most Android tablets have been non-starters and, even the best of them, the Samsung Galaxy Tab aren’t as good as an iPad. But, the iPad may soon have a serious Android opponent: Barnes & Noble’s Color Nook.

I know what you’re thinking: The Color Nook!? It’s an e-reader, sure you can root the Color Nook into being a full scale Android tablet, but you don’t want to hack my e-reader and void my warranty just to get a cheap tablet that might, or might not, work.

Who said anything about rooting it? While rooting a Nook Color is quite easy–watch huskermania’s YouTube video on how to do it if you don’t believe me–Barnes & Noble will be upgrading the Color Nook to being a real Android tablet in mid-April. In its press release, the book store giant states only that, “NOOK Color will get even better this Spring when a major update to the device’s firmware will offer customers access to explore exciting new applications, e-mail and many other requested features.” Sources tell me though that the Color Nook will be upgraded from Android 2.1 to Android 2.2 (Froyo), be given Flash video support, and will have its own version of the Google Android Apps Market.

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March 27, 2011
by sjvn01
0 comments

Get Started With a VPN: For Beginners, Power Users, and IT Pros

Do you want to be secure–I mean really secure–when you’re on the Internet? If so, then you want a virtual private network.

A VPN creates a secure “tunnel” across the Internet between you and your office, a VPN provider, or your home. Why would you want that? Easy-to-use programs such as Firesheep make it easy for snoops to see what you’re writing in your e-mail messages, posting to your Facebook page, or buying online. But with a VPN, you can surf the Web through that virtual tunnel, away from prying eyes, and your Internet traffic is encrypted.

Whether you just want to access Wi-Fi networks on the road without potentially exposing your activities to nosy strangers, or whether you need to enable a team of remote employees to handle business securely on the Internet, you can find a VPN to fit your needs. This guide will walk you through VPN essentials for beginners, power users, and IT departments.

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March 26, 2011
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Did Microsoft leave Hotmail open for Dictators?

On Friday, March 25th, Jillian C. York, a writer for Al Jazeera English, claimed on her personal blog that a Syrian Hotmail could not turn on (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) on Hotmail and, “he was … blocked from turning on the ‘use HTTPS automatically’ setting.” Eva Galperin, a Electronic Frontier Foundation staffer followed up, and found that the “always-use-HTTPS option in Hotmail for users in more than a dozen countries, including Bahrain, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, had been turned off.” This meant anyone using Hotmail in these countries could have their e-mail read by their government-controlled ISPs.

Since then, Microsoft, on one of its technical help sites, has denied that it had deliberately disabled HTTPS for some of its users. The statement reads: “We are aware of an issue that impacted some Hotmail users trying to enable HTTPs. That issue has now been resolved. Account security is a top priority for Hotmail and our support for HTTPS is worldwide – we do not intentionally limit support by region or geography and this issue was not restricted to any specific region of the world. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers that this may have caused.”

Inconvenience? The wrong e-mail being read by the powers that be in some of these countries could lead to a one way trip to the closest firing squad.

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