Internet Connected TV

     The furture of TVs is almost here, with the mass spread of Flat-Panel HDTVs and the switch to Digital Signal the market for advanced TVs is here. The most promising technological aspect would have to be web connected TVs. Able to load Flash and use a variety of services/content such as: YouTube, Yahoo! Widgets, Blockbuster On Demand, Flickr, Rallycast, Twitter, eBay, Facebook, Picasa, Revision3, Sports Illustrated, CBS, Bloomberg, Netflix, MSNBC.com, NBC Sports, Rallypoint, Slacker, VUDU, Amazon Video On Demand, CinemaNow, Epicurious, Pandora, and Sony Pictures.

     Most computer users are going to be pulled into the PCTV way in the near future. The computer tasks one common person does on his/her computer from word processing to browsing the internet... actually there is nothing in between for the common user. Just typing and browsing, as many more tools and applications are web based. This will mold the entertainment machines together and maximize the needs of the consumer with one product.

     Above is a Vizio remote for a internet connection capable HDTV. The remote clearly turns to show a qwerty keyboard that remains in contact with the TV through bluetooth connectivity. Samsung, Sony, and Visio (Panasonic not far behind) seem to be top contenters in my book on who seems closest to making the full transformation of TV and PC to PCTV.

Facebook's Best Feature

     Besides the obvious privacy settings which have and continue to get scrutinized... Facebook, one of the largest social networking sites out there currently, has a hidden to some feature. This feature is under the "hide" category, which enables you to hide a person your friends with, or just hide certain applications like Farm Land, What celebrity do you look like?, or What Toy Story Character Are You?... like I show below. You can hide these by mousing over to the top right corner of the post and find HIDE>HIDE __App__. Bam, you should nolonger see that app on the news feed by anyone. You can also hide certain people entirely, your choice. Overall, this hide feature is sweet, but wouldn't it be nice for some of us to have that "Block all app invites" button? ... Now that would be a wonderful feature.

Better than Blu-ray?

     A tale of two companies... one with the goal of producing storage needs of large companies and the other the large storage needs of the consumer. InPhase Technologies and General Electric are both researching and testing Holographic storage. Storage through disks of multiple lasers and angles, unlike the 90 degree application storage of todays media. InPhase Technologies' holographic disks boast of about 300 GB of data storage (further expansion expected), with up to 50 years shelf life once written. G.E.'s storage is said to be at 500 GB, they are also expecting storage expansion. Even though this sounds amazing, this technology is hindered by the cost of affordable consumer products that play the new format. More companies are working on this basic technology but they're each approaching it differently.

Note: G.E.'s number one goal is the consumer, but it may have to go through the hands of movie studios and other corporate companies to get to the consumer.

"Read" all about it!

     There comes a time where things change... okay things change every second in our fast paced world. A friend of mine, Cassie, has just brought to my attention a company called Americhip. This is consider a basic advertising company with above average style. They commit to the senses, all of them: Taste. Smell. Sound. Look. Feel. How you ask? Remember the greeting cards that pop out at you? or how about the ones that play music or a personal recording? These are all ideas that Americhip used to make cards more engaging.

     Now, Americhip has a new idea, infact its already in production. Its called "Video-to-Print" patented by the Los Angeles company. It uses a low cost cell phone type screen and battery to pass on a message that fits into a brochure or magazine. Take for instance Entertainment Weekly's new CBS ad for new shows... that you can watch. The special issue will be distributed only in the local area but this is just the beginning. Take a gander at the technology. Here's a couple links to give you a better feel.

Iron Man Portable Trailer 1:14
News Video with a few details 2:36
Americhip Website

"Cake" for all

     As you can see... it's Bloggers tenth birthday. Seems kinda old to me, I am very happy its here. For its birthday it's adding new features users suggested and voted on. For example a previous feature called Blog2print that effortlessly makes an actual physical book from your blog postings.

iTunes 9 Update

Quick and Clean Rundown:      iTunes 9 has come out and yes, it is a welcomed upgrade! This update features 4 main things that make this update worth while. First, we have the tabs at the top of the iTunes screen listing the areas of iTunes. For more of a easier navigation. Basic, right? thats what I thought. Second, we have the new music albums and singles listed in thumbnail view, but now you can get info any of these show with just a hover and click of your mouse on the circled "i" that appears... without leaving the window. A smaller window will appear and show all the songs and prices. You can even play a song preview from this window. Which brings us our third feature. The ability to preview any of the Top Songs by hovering your mouse near the front of the song (which will bring up a play button). Also, without leaving the page: Simple/easy feature. And last we have the Home Sharing feature. This enables sharing of video and audio throughout the network with simple setup and views. You can easily view others music and show only music you don't have. Well, there it is, rundown complete.

Slacker Equals Me

     As of recently I've had a fever and it'd kicked my ass. But I'm caught up in research of two postings, yes two one fairly old that I may just throw out... nah. The other is very tricky and in depth, without being bias that is. By the way: Snow Leopard came out today for purchase as an upgrade for 29 bucks. Time will tell how that turns out in the masses quicker than I can read about it.

Snow Leopard

     Apple is rolling out their new OS X 10.6 named Snow Leopard. It comes pre-installed in all new Macs starting this September. And the upgrade is only 29 bucks for OS X 10.5 users, but is it worth it... for me it's easy to say no. I have no problems with my current computer except for one 3rd party software called "Picasa". Good idea... wretched end product. When will it just get fixed?! Now that I thing of it, I'm just going to delete it. Anyways, Snow Leopard is not much of a difference to the average user apparently. A lot of the changes are under the radar to your basic consumer. (Like the 64 bit 'switch'). Although if one does notice some changes they may be from the boost in speed of joining a wireless network, wakeup time, and time machine backup.

Microsoft Office neighbors Google Docs

     No longer will Google's Docs be 'alone' on the web. Although, there are a few generic less mainstream alternatives like Thinkfree and ZoHo. Microsoft Office 2010 will be joining it. The surprise here is that it will also be free. Yes, that comes to quite a surprise to me. After all, Microsoft will be losing valuable revenue loss from the project. Although, Google is working on a operating system that could potentially rival Microsoft. Microsoft is adding online support for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Word will apparently be able to edit photos and Powerpoint will include the additional feature of video editing, surprised? ...so am I. Thats as much as I know at this point.

Chrome: Browser turned Operating System

     Google is in fact, an innovative company, at least in my eyes. Google is now on the brink of releasing their very own OS called Chrome... yes, named like the web browser. This OS will be based on the linux kernel but will ultimately be something completely new. The focus of the OS is speed, simplicity, and security. The OS will be released as open source during the second half of 2010. I'm guessing the release of Office 2010, (which if you haven't heard, will be entirely web based) will arrive around the same time. That reminds me of something Paramendra Bhagat of Netizen says:

Google took over with Search. Microsoft responded with Bing. Google countered with the Chrome Operating System. Microsoft answered with Office 2010. It is called Capitalism 101.

I couldn't have said it better.

People talked and Google is listening. A huge amount of people use their computer solely for internet access. For example, a friend of mine was recently looking for a laptop computer to replace his old slow desktop. First question I ask: What do you need it for? He replies with: Basically just the internet, oh and maybe Word and Excel. Ah... Chrome and Office online comes to mind immediately. He didn't want to wait so he just settled for a 298 US dollar compaq from Wal-mart. I said go ahead and make the purchase, just don't install Photoshop or Final Cut on the thing! Basically, the trend is going towards web based software that is powered through the ever improving Web Browser. I'm looking forward to trying out Chrome.

Google Wave... coming soon.

     Google Wave is the name being given to a new comunication tool Google likes to think of as a email replacement. As far as I'm concerned, I do believe it resembles mostly a mesh between facebook's message program and Apple's iChat featuring Bonjour. The way it incorporates facebooks message style is that it's a collaboration between multiple users that is stored on a remote server. Each user involved has the ability to leave a message for all the other users and leave the message remaining after logout. The way it resembles Bonjour is that it also lets users see the other person typing in real time, each character as it is pushed.

     A few things are unique to Wave, in a way. Users can reply to any portion of the conversation, instead of just the last thing said. (Like on a message board, hitting reply to a specific comment). Although, this playback feature is something new. Apparently a user with be able to play the conversation as if everyone was there at the sametime to see how the communication developed. I can see how this would be useful for a user that missed a large portion of the conversation.

     Right now this doesn't seem like anything big and its a rather small and simple concept... just like the wheel. My point being, Google is pushing developers to use this feature to their advantage. To incorporate it into every imaginable facet of everyday life.
Get notified its available

YinzCam... My Cam!

     Miss the replay? Haha... or most likely... you hated the angle of the replay shown! Thats usually my case. Especially for a pens goal or a steelers play I missed because I was in the bathroom. Well, there's a thing called Yinzcam. It streams video from inside the Mellon Arena (eventually to be switched to Console Energy Center) to your own wi-fi enabled device! I could go on about it or you could just watch this video. Carnegie Mellon is awesome.





ACCESS INSTRUCTIONS:


iPhone/iPod Touch
1. Tap "Settings".
2. Tap "Wi-Fi".
3. Wait for "Choose a Network" to populate.
4. Tap "CMU-YINZCAM".
5. Press the "Home" button.
6. Open Safari Web Browser.
7. Enter address "test.yinzcam" in the browser's address bar and click enter.

Blackberry Bold
1. Click the Blackberry button to open up the device's main menu.
2. Go to "Manage Connections".
4. Go to "Mobile Network Options".
5. Navigate to "Set Up Wi-Fi Network".
6. Press "Scan For Networks" button.
7. If prompted, click "Turn Wi-Fi On".
8. Connect to network "CMU-YINZCAM".
9. Open the Blackberry browser.
10. Enter address "test.yinzcam" in the browser's address bar and click enter.

Windows Mobile Phones
1. Enable Wi-Fi.
2. Click on Start Menu.
3. Open Settings.
4. Go to "Connections" tab located at the bottom of the screen.
5. Click on "Wi-Fi" button.
6. Tap and hold "CMU-YINZCAM" until menu appears.
7. Click "Connect".
8. Verify that the device connected to the "CMU-YINZCAM" network.
9. Open Opera Web Browser.
10. Enter address "test.yinzcam" in the browser's address bar and click enter.

T-Mobile G1 Phones
1. Navigate to "Settings" through the main menu.
2. Select "Wireless Controls".
3. Ensure that Wi-Fi is enabled.
4. Tap "Wi-Fi Settings".
5. Connect to "CMU-YINZCAM" network.
6. Return to home screen.
7. Open the device's web browser.
8. Enter address "test.yinzcam" in the browser's address bar and click enter.

Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm for XBox Live

      Xbox is now working with facebook to add the social network to Xbox Live, to view and edit through your xbox. Twitter and Last.fm are also being developed into Xbox Live. Here's a video from Xbox, with Felicia Day,that explains and shows you basics.
Tonight is Stanley Cup Finals game seven, Go Pens!

Bingggggo?

     Whats your search engine? ...or decision engine or something along those lines. Microsoft has come out with a brand new one and they have called it Bing. Catchy, easy to remember, and hard to misspell are probably a few main reasons they decided on calling itself Bing. I have no arguments against it, either. So today, and yesterday I decided (without the help of Bing) to explore this new web engine and see how it's runs. To my surprise, I liked it. A lot, even considering I'm not sure how exactly things work to the T. Especially a feature they have similar to Google's shopping, except this is different. This has cashback which pays you back money used for a purchase from an eligible retailer. Cash pay outs are limited to a five dollar minimum payout and a 2,500 payout maximum payout a year. The most important paragraph that was listed in the Terms and Conditions was the following:

     You will not earn cashback savings on purchases where (a) you close your browser or open the store's web site in a different web browser or tab; (b) you click away from the store after clicking on an eligible advertisement; (c) your browser is not configured to accept cookies; (d) the purchase is not completed in the same web browsing session in which you click on the eligible advertisement or listing; (e) the order is later cancelled or the goods or services are later returned; (f) the store does not report the purchase to us; (g) the goods or services are acquired for resale or other business purposes; (h) you use a separate discount or coupon with your order; (i) you exceed the annual monetary cap on cashback savings; (j): you purchase gift cards or gift certificates; or (k) you make a purchase from yourself or from entities that you control or otherwise in collusion with other people.

     Hopefully you took special note of the use of tabbed browsing and eligible advertisers.

Gas Station and ATM Scams

     If you've never heard of this, I'm glad to touch on the subject again. I did a presentation on this about a year ago. High tech criminals are attaching credit card readers to legitimate ATMs and gas pump card readers. They do nothing but skim over the information on the card and record it... giving this scam the name "skimming".
Little cameras installed on these devices record pin numbers, or even a fake one installed over top the legit one. The attachments are very well made to blend in with the current machine, so you'll have to keep your eye out.

Hulu Computer Application

     Hulu has jumped the gun, finally on creating a free program available for download on Mac ≥ 10.4 and Windows ≥ XP. The purpose of this program is to utilize the full hulu database of movies, show, clips, and trailers through a step back approach maybe on your couch with your computer hooked to your big screen, or maybe just a few feet from your keyboard.

     
Hulu Labs has released this beta download and of course encourages feedback. To me this is the start of the merge of browser and TV. Although there have already been a few products to start the move. This is a bigger step with the capability to browse and type with only six buttons. The Apple IR Remote is supported as well as Windows Media Center remotes. The menu is a little rough to understand at first, mainly because a feature video starts automatically whenever you open the program. That isn't my favorite feature, to say the least.

     
Overall though the Hulu Labs team is doing a swell job and I like what I see, so far.
Download for Mac
Minimum requirements: Intel Pentium Core Duo 2.0GHz, At least 2.0 GB of RAM, Mac OS X v10.4 or later, 2 Mbps Internet connection, Flash 9.0.124
Download for Windows
Minimum requirements: Intel Pentium Core Duo 1.8GHz, At least 2.0 GB of RAM, Windows XP or later, 2 Mbps Internet connection, Flash 9.0.124

NIN App Later Approved

     This is an update for the previous post in which Apple denies the iPhone App for NIN. Apple has actually went back on it's word and approved it now, reason... no idea.

Apple Denies NIN iPhone App

     Its come to my attention that iPhone Software Developer Agreement has some flaws. At least that's what I'll call them for now. Anyways, as you could tell by the headline, The band Nine Inch Nails has recently (2 days ago) been informed by their developer that their iPhone App nin: access has been denied. Now mind you nin already has an app avalible version 1.0 for free, but this is an updated version 1.0.3, with more features.

     
There has been many other cases in which apps have been denied, and even recently a "baby shaking" app was APPROVED then later banned. Apple stands strong on trying to be unoffensive to its customers, and that includes apps it supports. The main reason the app was denied was because of the song "The Downward Spiral" which has some swearing and mentions death. Their singer Trent Reznor (from Mercer, 60 miles north of Pittsburgh) had this to say about the denial:

Now, "The Downward Spiral" the album is not available anywhere in the iPhone app. The song "The Downward Spiral" I believe is in a podcast that can be streamed to the app. Thanks Apple for the clear description of the problem - as in, what do you want us to change to get past your stupid fucking standards? And while we're at it, I'll voice the same issue I had with Wal-Mart years ago, which is a matter of consistency and hypocrisy. Wal-Mart went on a rampage years ago insisting all music they carry be censored of all profanity and "clean" versions be made for them to carry. Bands (including Nirvana) tripped over themselves editing out words, changing album art, etc to meet Wal-Mart's standards of decency - because Wal-Mart sells a lot of records. NIN refused, and you'll notice a pretty empty NIN section at any Wal-Mart. My reasoning was this: I can understand if you want the moral posturing of not having any "indecent" material for sale - but you could literally turn around 180 degrees from where the NIN record would be and purchase the film "Scarface" completely uncensored, or buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto where you can be rewarded for beating up prostitutes. How does that make sense? You can buy The Downward Fucking Spiral on iTunes, but you can't allow an iPhone app that may have a song with a bad word somewhere in it. Geez, what if someone in the forum in our app says FUCK or CUNT? I suppose that also falls into indecent material. Hey Apple, I just got some SPAM about fucking hot asian teens THROUGH YOUR MAIL PROGRAM. I just saw two guys having explicit anal sex right there in Safari! On my iPhone! Come on Apple, think your policies through and for fuck's sake get your app approval scenario together.

     Pretty strong emotions from Trent, I would say. He brings up a few points. Why does Apple even allow their song on iTunes to begin with? Apple, how ever long they decide to keep this particular approval process going, will have a bias opinion and will never really make all users happy and unoffended by every app that it allows. People of all backgrounds will be offended by even the most "innocent" apps available.

New Unknown Artists

So here I am cruising the web and looking for something interesting, which I always find, sometimes it just takes longer than other times. Anyways, I find it! And today its called Noise Trade, a website offering not so mainstream music for purchase. The site was started in 2006 by artist Derek Webb,and a few associates, because he wanted to share his music. With no luck, he started giving it away online. Okay, just like amazon or iTunes... whats the big deal? Well, thats when I get to the good part. You can either A.) Purchase with any monetary amount you want or B.) Share the music with 5 friends! Bam... Free Download.

Although there are a few downsides... For one, searching is a bit general, using A-Z, Recent, and Top Downloads. And many artists your familiar with aren't on there. Which is basicly the best part of the site, finding new unknowns that could become your daily jam.

Have a Listen: NoiseTrade.com

Firefox has a hipper cousin: Flock

So I'm cruising facebook and looking at pictures from an artist, Marcia Furman, and I notice at the bottom of her photo "Uploaded by Flock" at the bottom of the picture, underneath the caption. This got me thinking; What the hell is Flock? Seriously?! So surprise surprise I typed F-L-O-C-K into that neat little lifesaver called Google. Which I might add... I've realized I've been using since 1999. That's TEN years! Anyways, I got distracted, back to the story. So then I see the results:

Flock Browser - The Social Web Browser
Feb 23, 2009 ... Flock is a free web browser. Built on Mozilla's Firefox, Flock enables you to
instantly upload photos, share photos and videos by ...

My immediate thoughts; holy crap how didn't I hear about this browser. Having prided myself for so many years on knowing the latest greatest hardware/software about to come out or whatnot, I was stunned. So anyways, with some further investigation (haha, jokes) this Flock browser has some social skills! Able to download in 18 different languages and two way 'conversations' between mainstream social networks like facebook, myspace, blogger, twitter, livejournal, and xanga. Video and photo site aren't out of the loop as youtube, flicker, picasa, and photobucket are supported. Mail isn't an issue either. As I enter the site, I am face to face with Download Now, Version 2.0 for Mac. (Yours may say something like for Windows, depending on your OS.) Wow, not only have I not heard of this, but I haven't heard of this for the duration of TWO versions. Mind you, yes, they could have realeased this version a week after initial launch, but that doesn't matter. I'm surprised none the less.

Okay did some research and it appears flock has been around since 2005, having seeming bought the domain in 2004 there were "No birds in this flock". The site gave developer preview in Nov of 2005, but not before hinting at user service: "We're doing something crazy for you and your friends. Just wait and see." Not sure anyone knew what they had up their sleeves. During the summer of 06' Flock had turned it on to more users in a beta format. November of 2007 was the completion of verison 1.0 and even then it was available as open source to Linux, Mac, and Windows. Less than a year later 2.0 was released and was a huge success for the company.

Wanna join the flock? Give it a try tell me what you think.

Alternative Photo Site

So it has come to my attention that there is a user friendly photo sharing (or private) site. This company made an immediate impact on me as being a small company on a big scale. If that makes any sense? Anyways your free to check it out at http://www.23hq.com/ Hope you like it and either way let me know how it went and/or goes.

Credit goes to Chris Pirillo, for bringing the site to my attention, even though I did see Thomas (co-founder) in a youtube video opening a beer-with a beer a long time ago.

Journey to USB 3.0 - SUPERSPEED

Remember when the USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard first came out? It was pretty sweet wasn't it. The first thing I remember it coming out for, at least the first thing I used it for, was the mouse, ball mouse to be specific. Introduced first in 1996 from collaboration between Intel, Compaq, Microsoft, Digital, IBM, NEC, and Northern Telecom. The device is used with a variety of devices including: Ethernet adapters, modems, serial port adapters, keyboards, mice, joysticks, digital cameras, printers, USB flash drives, memory card readers, media players, external drives, hubs, webcams, Wi-Fi adapters, and bluetooth adapters. The list is quite long and doesn't even cover all uses.

The architecture of USB has an asymmetric design. Which enables you to connect a root of devices (up to 127) from one port. The device will host a other devices and operate in a round robin fashion to orchestrate data between devices.

First there was Low Speed USB 1.0 which rate was 1.5 Mbit/s. It is intended primarily to save cost in low-bandwidth devices such as keyboards, mice, and joysticks. Also to smooth out the multitude of device specific ports previously used on the rear of computer towers.

Second came USB 1.1 nicknamed Full Speed. At a data rate of 12 Mbits/s. Which basically is faster and becomes the standard for hub speed.

Then comes High Speed USB 2.0. Which has a data rate of 480 Mbit/s or 60 MB/s, which is a great leap of improvement for speed. Devices using this standard are backwards compatible to previous standards if connecting a 2.0 device to a 1.1 computer. Original specifications were released April 27, 2000. Many changes and alterations were modified or added in the USB 2.0 over the next several years. These changes consisted of a variety including: mini-B, USB on-the-go, microUSB, power link, and microB.

USB is very common and versatile and the durability is hard to beat. The hardest trouble an inexperienced USB user would run into is which direction it plugs in. Although one hard push the wrong way and it soon becomes apparent that you may want to turn it around.

As of November 17, 2008 specifications for USB 3.0 have been released. The standard, nicknamed SuperSpeed boasts power and performance improvements while maintaining backward compatibility. With controllers expected in mid summer the USB product rollout is anticipated for 2010. The first devices to incorporate the standard will most likely be external hard drives, media players, flash drives, and cameras.

Data rate of SuperSpeed prides a 5.0 Gb/s with simultaneous bi-direction data flow(dual-bus). Features a six wire design, using four wires for dual-simplex SuperSpeed data path and the other two wires for half-duplex differential signaling used by previous USB standards. Another feature is packets are sent asynchronously to only devices meant for the packet. Compared to previous standards, in which packets were directed to all devices.

In summary, USB 3.0 products are basically already the shit, even if they're not even out yet.

Kodak Krap

It seems as if I have uncovered a Kodak secret (it was for me anyways). The terms of service have changed as of March 13th for their online storage site: kodakgallery.com formally known as Ofoto. While this affects previous users who were told it was totally free, and new members. There is a notice on the site at the bottom right of the main page, so it's warning isn't totally secret.

Now on to the actual changes. There is a mandatory minimum purchase of 4.99 a year for users. While users with more than 2 GB of disk space used must spend at least 19.99 a year. You ask what are the penalties? I quote: "If you do not meet the applicable minimum purchase requirement, your photos may be deleted." Now be careful, you can't rush this purchase and think everything is fine. You must ensure your purchase is in your "Kodak Imaging Network" cart and not another cart from a 3rd party meshed with Kodak services (ex: photostamps).

Thats not all folks, you better log on once every two months, because they may delete your account. Aww, so nice of them. They also delete your videos thirty days after you upload them, period.

If I convinced you to sign up... have fun.

Novell NetWare

Novell is a company operating all around the world that has its corporate office in Massachusetts. The company specializes in business solutions in the data center, security and identity, resource management, workgroup, and desktop spaces. Their high profile customers include, Wal-mart, Audi, the New York City Transit, and the State of California.

NetWare is an NOS (network operating system) that runs on level 2 of the open systems interconnection. This system runs on anything from a personal computer to a mainframe computer. There have been several versions of NetWare and the current version is six, which utilizes enhanced printing, file, and directory services. The printing services are unique, providing access through a browser, through a downloaded plug in, to view and print network files from any device securely. Also any printer can be used as a network printer to anyone with authorized access. In addition to that, Netware will also list printer physical location and printer properties and features.

As far as file access goes, you can basicly take a computer out of the box with Windows, Macintosh, Solaris, or Linux... plug it into the network and immediately start accessing the files off the Netware server. All this is done without any client software. Netware is proud of its use of capitalizing on the best use of each OS platform.

Netware also uses simple user management that control configurations from one single point changing configurations on each server under it. This enables a one time update without going to each server and updating settings separately. Another tool of Netware is built in utilities that offer a decent range of services. One of these tools is Remote Manager to allow administrators access to change configurations from any connected computer with an internet browser. These options are vast and are only limited to the server based applications. Servers may also be restarted, shut down, or reset through the same remote tool.

File management with the Netware system has an outstanding list of features, without even listing half of them. One of my favorites is the ability to compress storage volumes after a set time without use. Meaning your storage would increase with after a longer period of use. It also features the standards of US Green Book File Security standard, which I guess means you can delete a file and someone can never find it, no matter what file recovery system is used. The last file management feature I'll mention is the ability to use the same file space as another network user, instead of having separate volumes set aside.

One more feature is the open ended use of the network. Meaning Novell has open, free use for developers to create their own custom programs maximizing tool and features most used on their network.

Not a Police RAID

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. Which is basically using multiple hard drives for fast storage and transfer of data.This often improves data reliability, volume size, and maybe some performance improvements as well.

There are many types of RAID configurations. Which is how it is setup to work, meaning one RAID is not necessarily the same as another RAID setup. The first one is called RAID 0 (sometimes referred to as Striped) which splits the data into fragments on different disks to give more performance boost to the user. Although, this is faster, but it doesn't use error checking. So if that particular drive fails... all data on that drive is lost.

RAID 1 is different. The information that is written on disk 1 is the same information that is automatically written to disk two, assuming you only have two disks. This can be done with more than two disk drives. This is often referred to as mirroring. As the exact same data is mirrored on the second drive. This provides a strong backup if one drive fails.

RAID 2 is like the Holy Grail of RAID is uses a controller in charge of two disks to write data in exactly the same rate as the other disk. This is not really in use today.

Next, RAID 3 uses a combination of mirroring and striping, per say. It isn't an exact combination of the two, but more like a mesh. RAID 3 utilizes four hard drives which three of them are used in a striping fashion then the forth drive is a combination of the three combined. This setup uses byte level striping which spreads that data across the drives like in RAID 0. That fourth disk is the parity disk which is a collaboration of the other disks data and checks for errors using parity, even and odd based.

RAID 4 also uses a parity disk (the collaboration disk from above), but it is different in that it uses block level striping. This is much like RAID 3 minus the type of striping. The striping is just done on a higher level. RAID 5 uses a parity disk that is split between the drives. Meaning there is no single dedicated parity disk. The "parity disk" is actually spread out with in the disk drives. But works the same way. The disk works in a block level parity and if one block fails then the combination of the data is formed back together with the remaining blocks.

RAID 6 is overall the same as RAID 5 but utilizes two "parity drives", although, still split up between the multiple drives. Note this setup will require one more disk drive than assumed needed for the same data volume as if needed for RAID 5.

There are also several other types of RAID which all need to use a controller to manage the transfer and reformation of data. Those other examples are not standard and I will not mention them in this text. Two types are software and hardware. The software RAID will use your operating system to coordinate the transfer and allocation of data. The hardware type will use the software inside the hardware to do the same thing. Overall, hardware RAID is more beneficial because of free usage that isn't boggled down.

One thing to keep in mind is that the smallest drive you use that is all you can use for mirroring, and for striping it is two times your smallest drive. So for example you have a one GB drive and an 8 GB drive you want to set up in RAID 1 all the data you can put on is one GB.

Pandora Radio

Well, I'm back, from a slight hiatus, refreshed and ready to write.

Pandora Radio is by no means new, and although the newest feature came out last year (iPhone App) it's still worthly of mentioning. This software is simply great and often overlooked. Yes, there's no music video's but still come on; thats hardly an argument.

There are some alternatives too if you have something against Pandora. Such as Slacker, Seeqpod, Last.fm, Musicovery, and Blogmusik.net. These all have their respective features and you should check them out.

Oh, and the two artists I type in and listen to most are TooL and Incubus.