computers run by google could never take over the world, because they could never update themselves

The biggest problem Google is wrestling with is how to manage updates for their plethora of Android devices. According to Google, there are 80+ Android devices currently on the market, coming from a variety of makers and carriers. With so many phones, it's hard to keep them all up to date. Apple, due to it's dictatorship style ruling, has such strict control and exclusive access to their devices that updating their iPhone is quick and painless. Oh that it were so for Google. I am the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy SII, running on T-Mobile's 4G network. In the 8 months that I've had it, i've had no complaints - except for the updates. Android's new version of its OS, the Ice Cream Sandwich, was released months ago, but my phone (even though it's top of the line and just about the best android phone out there) has yet to receive this coveted update. Google releases it's OS to Samsung, who makes their changes before passing it off to T-Mobile, who has to test it on their network before releasing it to me. The result: months after the release of ICS, I am still not-so-patiently waiting for my behemoth of a phone to be restored to its former glory as king of the heap. Google needs to come up with a solution, and fast, or their users will fall away to more reliable services.

Bringing Back the Dinosuar

Microsoft's Internet Explorer has long since been disregarded by tech savvy users, spawning the phrase, "the only thing IE is good for is downloading other browsers," a phrase that Microsoft has now chosen to accept. Though IE still claims the majority percentage of the market share, that share is largely due to its coming already installed on all Windows computers.  Rather than admit defeat, Microsoft has launched a spoof campaign ridiculing their own product and committing to revolutionize it at the same time. This coincides nicely with their pre-release of the Windows 8 OS, which will utilize the new IE to allow internet apps such as Facebook and YouTube to be installed directly on the W8 desktop. As a huge gamble to reclaim their dwindling claim in the OS market, they have to impress consumers as well as developers in order to stave off Apple's continuing domination.

Square

There are a lot of apps destined to fizzle and die in the market, but one that I think will continue to gain ground is the Square Register. It can take an iPad and make it a portable cash register (provided there is wi-fi nearby) that will record and submit any transactions. One of the biggest small-scale problems today is that nobody carries cash, so how am I supposed to pay two dollars to that cute little girl selling lemonade? Square Register comes with a free card reader - no more than a few square inches in size - that can allow the user to swipe credit cards and charge the money right to their account. Despite the obvious credit card percentage takeaway, this presents a simple solution to those that can't pay because of a lack of cash. Cab drivers, salvation army reps, burrito trucks, and all sorts of small/medium scale businesses could leverage this app to great effect.

Sonar

Yet another social networking app is gaining ground in an ever-increasingly competitive market. Sonar, an app that shows you other users that are nearby, touts its ability to "uncover the hidden connections you miss everyday, in real time, in the palm of your hand." The problem with these social apps is this: the whole experience depends on other people in your area using the app often enough for them to show up on your radar (or sonar, if you will). Foursquare has had considerable success encouraging user adoption, but unlike sonar it doesn't focus on meeting the other users present. I just got accepted to the Sonar beta test for Android, so i'll soon see if it's worth sticking around for. Downloading an app in its early stages is a bit like going to a party right before it starts - odds are you'll get bored and leave before anyone else really shows up, which makes those that show up later feel like the party is a bust when they see nobody is there. So as to whether or not Sonar will become a dominant force in the social arena is yet to be seen, but one thing is for sure: the competition is only getting tougher.

http://www.sonar.me/

Innovation vs. Impatience

There is a fine line between innovation to improve upon what exists and innovation for the sake of innovation itself. The technology sector is becoming inundated with new programming languages and different ways to write web sites, many of which are handy, but not necessary. Choosing what to code a project in is becoming more of a shopping trip - what do I think is easiest and fits me best - than defaulting to the established and tested system. When applying for web programming jobs last summer, I discovered that just because I can write web pages in a certain language doesn't qualify me at all. Can I do Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JQuery, Javascript, Node.js, MySQL, or Drupal? Some, but not all. And the qualifications differ from job to job. At some point, the programming community needs to come together to refine and perfect a few good languages, rather than create new ones just to suit their current needs.

Technology Attention Deficit Disorder

As advancements in technology occur more frequently, our satisfaction with that same technology decreases at a similar rate. When the iPhone 4S was released in October 2011, not a day had gone by before disappointed consumers were already speculating as to what new features would debut on the iPhone 5. This is now common, as new phones and computers are released monthly, each attempting to be the "next big thing" for as long as possible. Back during the release of the iPod in October 2001, instead of wondering when the next version came out we were busy being amazed at what innovation had given us! The focus was on what we had, rather than on what would come. If you wanted to own the best phone in today's market, and would rather wait for the next release than buy the current best just to have it be beaten, you'd never be able to buy a phone! You would forever be waiting for the next phone release so that you were sure you got the best. Such is the age of advancement that we live in, where we think more about the future than what is happening in our lives now. We need to remember to be satisfied with what we have and use it to it's full potential, rather than wait for the next release to be satisfied.

Technology going too far

Technology is slowly but surely taking the place of meaningful personal interaction in our society. Although it provides widespread benefits, it fails to (and will never be able to) provide the personal touch that face-to-face communication does. I just read an article about several valentines day apps that can order flowers for you, write poems for you, or create and send valentines day pictures to your special someone. This is not what the world needs! We are only facilitating the degrading of our society by taking the personal touch out of what used to be meaningful. A holiday that is supposed to be about affection and very personal feelings is becoming distant and reduced to electronic mail and pictures. So do the world a favor - go out and actually buy flowers yourself and make valentines day something personal, dont resort to having your phone do it for you.

http://t.co/wVxqN40S

Anonymous: Protector or Purloiner?

While many companies publicly protested the possible passing of the SOPA and PIPA bills, some individuals thought that merely protesting wasn't enough. The hackers group "Anonymous"
has been cropping up more frequently in the news, and their actions deteriorate every day. Though championing themselves in defense of the free-speech of the Internet, their publicity stunts have gone from attention grabbing to illegal. Suddenly, Robin Hood is capturing the rich rather than stealing from them. Anonymous is the new face of cyber-terrorism, like the cyber-bully from the high school playground that entrenched himself in his ways rather than growing out of them. Governments need to prepare themselves to respond to a new age of theft and terrorism, because these terrorists don't need to leave the comfort of their homes to steal millions of dollars in information and sensitive data. In addition, the community needs to be careful in their support or even in their indifference to the actions of these groups - either can encourage them to continue if they see no credible threat to their operations. Rather than turn a blind eye or tolerate their actions, we all need to take a stand in defense of Internet security. Like a close-knit neighborhood, we have to stand together to protect ourselves from any attack without or within.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57372308-83/hackers-wanted-$50000-to-keep-symantec-source-code-private/

Needle in a Haystack (Current Event 1)

Throughout the past week I've been pretty impressed and overwhelmed with the amount of social media and information that is flooding the web - did you know that every second, 24 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube? That's a century's worth of video every day! Though most of that can't really be qualified as information (though I'm sure that John Doe's five minute video doing a review of the new hit movie might be considered information to a specific crowd), there is still nearly limitless information available at our fingertips. We're often looking for a needle in a very, very large haystack.

So what do we do with that? If I'm trying to find what the name is of the man who was arrested by the Inquisition in 1633 and then pardoned by the Catholic Church in 1992, where do I look? 100 years ago, I would have to go to a library, search through encyclopedias, ask the librarian what books might be useful - maybe a book about 17th century philosophers. But today? Today googling the phrase "Philosopher arrested by the Inquisition in 1633" tells me almost instantly that the man I'm looking for is Galileo. But what if I'm looking for something a little more... vague? 

Say you wanted to find New York Times articles about college test scores (but not including the SATs) from the past few years? What search terms do you use? Googling the phrase "new york times articles school test scores" gives me 115,000,000 results. Not the most promising search. Here's the problem: there's so much information out there, that it's becoming too hard to categorize it for easy searching. Andrew Kantor from USAToday wrote an interesting piece on this subject. So what can we do?

I for one have had my own share of frustrating searches, positive that what I'm looking for is on a web page hidden away in a distant server but unable to find it. While rolling around in the metaphorical haystack that is the internet, I came across a helpful list of tips that detail some of the lesser-known search mechanisms implemented by Google. Using these methods, finding that article about college test scores becomes far easier, and that elusive web page in that distant server springs more readily to hand (or browser).

http://www.gridsix.com/getting-more-out-of-google-tips-and-tricks

Using these detailed searches, finding that needle won't be as easy as it might have been 10 years ago, but knowing how to use search engines at least gives you a fairly large magnet to sort through all that hay.

Is there another solution out there? Maybe Google is becoming antiquated - yes, I said it. Perhaps the Google approach is no longer the best one. But if there is a better method out there, it has yet to be found. For now it looks as though we'll all have to touch up our Google skills.

If you want some practice, Google has a "Google-a-Day Puzzle" designed to test and hone your search skills. So what are you waiting for? Get searching!

Exactly What Happens on the Internet?

It has been said that getting information off the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant - sometimes you get so much, you wonder if you really got anything at all. With so much information online and more sites launching every day, we have more knowledge at our fingertips in this century than at any other time in the history of the world - maybe put together.

So with so many people online, what exactly is going on? How does it affect me? Here's what happens on the internet every sixty seconds:

(Infographic by- Shanghai Web Designers)

Kind of overwhelming, isn't it? And guess what? If you've done any of the 25 or so activities above, your information is on the internet. It's out there. Whether you like it or not.

I have an uncle that says he refuses to put any of his information online, whether it's through Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, etc. Have you ever bought anything online I ask? He answers in the affirmative. Well I hate to break it to you Uncle, but your information is on the interwebs! It's out there! So how can we protect ourselves? Here are a few tips on how to keep your information private and secure:

1 - Don't accept friend requests from anybody you don't know.

2 - Don't chat or pass personal information to anybody you don't know. 

3 - Have an active and updated virus scanner on your machine that can catch spy/malware.

4 - Whenever you're doing anything with sensitive information, check the beginning of the web URL for a green mark (highlight, checkmark, lock, etc.) showing the page is secure.

5 - Change settings to private on any site where personal information can be shown.

These five tips are a good beginning to staying safe online, are they comprehensive. Being aware of what information we are giving out and who can see it is always a must, but there are countless ways that others can find out about us without our knowledge. Being knowledgeable about our actions online is the greatest measure of protection we can have.

For more information on how to stay safe online, refer to the Internet Safety Project, a website dedicated to helping families and individuals protect themselves so that they can freely browse the internet without fear of exposing sensitive information.