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Usenet: The Outsiders Guide to the Internet’s Oldest Community

Anyone who has used the internet for more than five years has heard at least once of this thing spoken of in reverent tones called “UseNet.” The problem is, once you find someone who has used this “UseNet” or read a few articles about it, you come to realize that everyone has a different description of the service. Or is it a website? Or is it the internet itself? Let’s take a walk and see if we cannot untangle this mess that is the myth and reality of UseNet.

Usenet is a service, not a website.

First of all, Usenet is a service that is hosted by many computers worldwide. There are several companies and organizations that will archive the messages (such as Google) and other companies that will provide access to Usenet and all it holds. At the very base of it all, Usenet is an internet community held between hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of different people through e-mail like messages being shared within newsgroups. Newsgroup is the proper word for each subset of Usenet. They are not lists nor are the SIGs or just “groups”.

Finding Information within Usenet

When a person takes their first steps into Usenet, it can be extremely overwhelming to find information at first. It takes understanding the hierarchy that the entire system is set up on. First of all, you have your prefixes; for example, Comp.Language.Java is the newsgroup about the computer programming language, Java. There is what has been commonly called “the big eight” hierarchy breakdowns. They are:

• comp.* — Discussion of computer-related topics
• humanities.* — discussion of the humanities (e.g. literature, philosophy)
• news.* — Discussion of Usenet itself
• sci.* — Discussion of scientific subjects
• rec.* — Discussion of recreational activities (e.g. games and hobbies)
• soc.* — Socializing and discussion of social issues.
• talk.* — Discussion of contentious issues such as religion and politics.
• misc.* — Miscellaneous discussion—anything which does not fit in the other hierarchies.

Once you know what main heading your topic comes under, then you can easily find a group covering the issue you have interest in.

Accessing Usenet

Unfortunately, it is not as simple as just loading up a webpage and reading the information that is there. Some of it may be accessible this way through Google groups and other archive systems; however, the best and most reliable way to access the service is through one of the many high speed connection companies out there. They often come with a newsreader which is a program that will assist you in connecting to the service and searching for the particular information that you were looking for. Speaking of information that you might have been looking for, what brings people to Usenet and what do they share in these newsgroups?

Usenet and Copyright

As we advance into the digital age, we hear more and more often about how copyright laws are being broken and information is being sent to the internet to be downloaded by any who happen across it. This includes everything from music and movies to important government documents that were not well maintained (Wiki leaks, anyone?).  For the longest time, the first rule of Usenet was that you did not speak about Usenet. However, now it is well-known that this service is still the wild west of the internet. Anything can be had here if you know how to find it. News, information, how-to files, movies, music, programs etc. can all be found on Usenet and downloaded to your own machine. Because of how decentralized the entire system is, depending on a network of personal computers and several thousands of archive sites and computer banks that provide the processing power, it is also the single more private place to share files of any type.

Now, of course, I am not suggesting that you should go out and break copyright law. I am making certain that you, the reader, are aware of the types of information to be found so that you can keep yourself away from files that may contain problems for you. There is also the fact that the majority of Usenet groups are not moderated and files that can be shared may contain viruses and other things that are dangerous to your computer. When you go to download anything from there read around the file you have your eyes on, particularly notes from those who have downloaded it before you. If there was a problem with the download, most people are nice enough to actually say something about it. This is not an excuse however to be sloppy about your own vigilance.

Wait, what do you mean Usenet is not moderated?!

Exactly what I said, Usenet is quite literally its own beast at this point. There was at one point a group called “the Backbone Cabal” which was a group of moderators who kept things running smoothly, but never ever did they make an attempt to staunch the flow of information or to protect anyone’s tender sensibilities. In the early 1990’s, they stepped away and stopped being active in the community, seeing that Usenet now has its own life and way of being.

What is its use for the average user?

There are a lot of perfectly legal reasons to be on Usenet. It is an excellent place to learn about topics that you have an interest in, like computer programming languages, or even Pinball (yes, there is a rec.games.pinball newsgroup). It is also a good place to discuss current events and to stay on top of the news of the world. It even has been and will be again (I’m sure) used as a way to organize conventions and gatherings of people who share like interests. So, although there are plenty of iffy reasons to be on Usenet, do not let that frighten you away. Come to Usenet to learn and to grow, share your knowledge with others. That is the reason it was created in the first place!

Distributed Computing: What is it and What is it Used For?

A trend we hear about now and again, mainly in relation to some rather large mathematical projects is ‘distributed computing’. Distributed computing is when you take a large task and break it down into many small parts and have an entire bank of computers working on the project instead of just one. This allows for a project to be completed faster, using the processing power of many computers which are in the bank that is working on the project. Simply put, distributed computing is a way to take a task that would take one computer million years to complete, and instead hand it to a million computers, thus making the task obtainable.

What types of tasks are completed in this way?

One of those more well-known tasks is PrimeGrid, the project which works to find more prime numbers through the use of distributed computing. It is one of the wider projects and open to the public through the use of software called BOINC (Berkley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing). The user can find a compatible project which can be done through the Wikipedia page here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects

The user can often download the software from that site, and set it up on their system. From there, the program will proceed to use the computers downtime (that is, the time that the user is not making use of the system and when the system itself is not doing any related tasks, like updating) in order to complete the tasks necessary for the project, often just using the processing power itself if not doing the actual task on the user’s system itself.

Now, before you go and think that this is a project and a program that has little real world use and is essentially the creation of a bored MIT student, you need to understand that this form of computing is actually being funded by some of the nation’s largest science foundations while it works on tasks, such as predicting Protein folding and the finding of prime numbers. In fact, just this past month (October 2011), a PrimeGrid computer and user found the largest generalized Fermat prime number which is 361658^262144+1. Now, this may mean nothing to you, however, it means the world to mathematicians and to those in many sciences that go into protecting our world.

Seti@Home

Seti@Home (Seti at home) was the first significant voluntary, public distributed computing and was popularized by the movie version of Carl Sagan’s fiction book, ‘Contact’. Now, thousands of people are adding their computers downtime energies towards the worthy goal of searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Aside from the goal of observing and reporting on possible intelligence outside of earth, the second goal of the project is to prove the viability of volunteer distributed computing.

This second task they have managed admirably. Many, many projects have moved onward to become distributed volunteer projects and the information gathered from these projects are being analyzed every day and new conclusions about everything from science and health issues to mathematics and interstellar discoveries are being made.

Is this the future of computing?

While this sort of computing bears a passing resemblance to cloud computing and indeed has been misunderstood as such by men, they are not the same. Although, with the power of banks of computers behind a single project, or even that of several super computers, even then, we have a formidable force that we need to take rather seriously. While these sorts of projects did not become really implemented until the early 2000′s (2004 was the beginning of the BIONC project), we do believe that we will see this taken as a more serious way of solving processing power issues, especially at the governmental and defense levels.

Practical uses?

The development of distributed computer networking has led to a fascinating and highly controversial development, Peer to Peer sharing. Now, of course, like with all things, it all depends on how you use the thing; there are legal and illegal ways, always. Breaking copyright laws by sharing copyrighted material with your friends and other network sharing folks would be one example of illegal usage. However, there are many private research projects that have been using this architecture over the past few years and have found it to be useful as well as expedient in their project process.

As far as governmental use goes, it has become well known that most computer nodes that are in use spend 90% of their time in “downtime”, which means that they are not being used as effectively as they could be. By making use of a distributed computing system network, they will take that time and make it useful again by assigning large tasks that may take one computer many hours or days to complete and dealing with the task overnight. It also allows for governments to create peer to peer sharing networks to assist them in sharing information on a hierarchical pattern, thus keeping the security of the system intact and making sure that the information needed is available to those who have access to it, while keeping it away from those who have no need.

In conclusion, the process of distributed computing and the entire field, including distributed programming and volunteer computing projects, will be seeing a renewed interest as processor power on the retail level rises and more users become interested in becoming part of something bigger than themselves. It has been found that those with an interest in the sciences are more likely to become users of the BIONC software and take an interest in a particular project. It is a time and energy saving option for all flavors of users. It is also a method that will make the best possible use of downtime from your computers, increasing efficiency. As more and more agencies make use of the very customizable option for their interests, we believe that we will see an increase in scientific and health related answers.

Geek Science: Guest Blogging FAQ

Q: What is good content? 
A: MailChimp is (http://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/).

Q: Can I do a research and compile different sources? 
A: Yes (http://maileohye.com/google-site-performance-compilation-answers/).

Q: Who is a content curator? 
A: I don’t know either (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/content-strategist-as-digital-curator/).

Q: What’s a good illustration? 
A: Something special for every case (http://culturedcode.com/things/blog/2011/07/cloud-sync-beta.html).

Q: What’s a good review video? 
A: Keep it simple and personal, no ads, pls. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlZo2ybE4EQ).

DARPA: The Internet’s Midwife

In the late 1980’s, early 1990’s, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) of the US began to see how the Internet could become a significant player in the nation’s defense. These exact visionaries were so proud of their creation because the internet did exactly what it was supposed to. They were ahead of the rest of the world technologically speaking, and they celebrated the birth of their newest baby. Soon, various communications and activities began taking place within the internet. It was then found that this was by far a faster and more accurate way to work.

However, as with all children, the internet grew up. Other governments began implementing the code, began connecting themselves across the network of fiber optic cables that had now been laid and they “went online” doing many of the same things the US government did. Then, it was that the creators of this marvelous invention learned that, as a teenaged creation, it had many of the problems a normal human teen had.

The Internet and its Growing Pains

Fast forward to present time, the internet as we know it is about 20 years old right now and is experiencing the issues that many young adults do when they are given their first taste of freedom. They start letting in friends that their parents don’t like (Viruses). As people are taught to understand how to program and code for the military also for civilian causes, there was going to be those people who learned how to get around systems security and how to exploit weaknesses in code. In fact, there are hundreds of people hired annually by various governments that this is their only talent. They affect the system that has been created so that those who own the system can make it stronger. As was only expected though: there are those who do not put their skills to such use and, either through actual malicious intent or just idle curiosity, they begin to do things such as hack into satellites and take control of them. Perhaps they just wanted to peek in on the young women who are skinny dipping in the ocean. On the other hand, they might have been testing their ability to do so in order to go ahead and hack into one of the spy satellites and gather valuable classified information and use it against that country. Unfortunately, in this day and age we dare not take any chances when guessing the motives of the individuals in question.

Those are the Money Words, my friend.

The knowledge of an assault that occurred some years ago was finally released to the public last week, in which it was suspected that Chinese nationals hacked into 2 satellites and took total control of them. While china denies the allegations made, the fact remains that someone did. This means that, as a nation, we are vulnerable in a way that no one thought would happen. So it was that military and government agencies have begun to reach out to what they are calling the “visionary hackers” for assistance in the matter. A visionary hacker, from what I can conclude, is a hacker who is capable of doing all of these things but only does them in order to:

1. See if they can
2. To sell their knowledge to governments in order to secure paid positions

What better way to do combat in the world west than to hire those who would be outlawed by the rules of “more civilized society”?

The phrase of the time seems to be the desire to “converge with the threat” which can only be done by getting into the heads of those who are capable of launching these types of attacks.

Where did we go wrong?

After some advanced analysis, it was shown that the governments’ security systems are based off of huge banks of code, running into tens of thousands of lines. In comparison, most malware is only a negligible 125 lines. Short, clean, simple and to the point seems to be the key to their effectiveness. Most coders who choose to do this as a living, either legally or illegally, pride their ability to deliver what they call “elegant” code. This means that the code is well notated so that others can see exactly what the code is supposed to do. The longer that a program’s code is, the more chances for failure present themselves.

Unfortunately, it would not be the logical thing to totally disable nations system of protection protocol and software in order to clean up the system and to make it simpler. There is only one option left to those in power and that is to engage in those who can get into the base of the code and clean it up while it is still doing its job. This is not a simple task and presents its own dangers, of course, but at least it would not leave the entire nation unprotected while it was being worked on.

Where does this leave us as a country?

First, we need to make sure that we are not just looking at this as a one country only problem. We are actually experiencing the birth of a global community and global economy. Never before in our history have so many countries been interdependent for basic needs such as defense and economics; if one link fails, the whole house of cards will be tumbling down.

Once that viewpoint is strengthened and we are looking at the situation with those lenses, we can begin to work on the actual problem at hand. We have a need for simpler, more stringent code. We also need to make sure that we do not take so many human positions out of the picture that we leave ourselves open to attacks that were not possible before. When you replace a human soldier on a reconnaissance mission with an unmanned drone, you open yourself up to hack attacks and, potentially, will lose control of that drone. When that occurs, on whose head are the deaths caused by the drone firing on the people of the country that created and deployed the drone in the first place?

Simpler code, more human positions and common sense will be the answers to these problems, if ever those in power can come to see it.

A Race to the Top: Streaming Video Services Battle for Top Place

Recently, it appears that the entire race has been with streaming video as an entertainment choice for most tech-savvy people on the planet. Netflix has been the trusty old friend who was always available, adding multitudes of new content every month while also shipping DVDs to your home, usually by the next day, for those movies and TV shows that they are not licensed to stream. However, that comfortable feeling vanished as the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 came and went. With the New Year came new video streaming options available from Netflix for your enjoyment!

Video Streaming Comparison Chart

Source: www.technobuffalo.com

In addition to Netflix, there was now Hulu Plus and latest come to the party, Amazon Prime Instant Video. Each of these services has its pros and cons, of course. As time goes by, they all grow, and there is a vast array of changes occurring with each as they strive to become more innovative than their competitors with every new press release. It is our pleasure to provide a guide to the ever-growing world of the top three video streaming solutions.

Netflix

First to arrive on the scene, Netflix began as a DVD mail rental service, offering individual plans at fair prices in order to meet their customers’ needs. In late 2007-early 2008, the company announced and rolled out an instant streaming option for select content on their site. Users were given about one hour of streaming video per dollar paid on their plan. Of course, this new option took off like a rocket, and toward the end of 2008, Netflix lifted the streaming time limit for all plans with the exception of it $4.99/2 DVDs a month-one at a time plan, which has 2 hours of streaming video included. As time marched onward, Netflix kept trying on new features and options, removing those that did not take off that well and keeping those that the users used most often and enjoyed. Then there came their agreement with Starz, which allowed content that was exclusively shown on the Starz network to be made available to the streaming menu and, once again, the company saw an incredible time of growth and prosperity.

There began to be some troubled waters, however, in the summer of 2011 when Netflix made it known that they were investigating splitting the services into two separate companies and services, renaming the DVD rental service and effectively creating two different services with two different sets of subscription options. The Netflix customer base was utterly outraged by this announcement! They began calling, e-mailing, writing and just otherwise bombarding the already slightly confused company with demands that they not make this change. As their customer base viewed the situation, streaming and DVD rental belong as one service. Thankfully, in early October, 2011 they relented.

Netflix Streaming Device Options:

1. Traditional computer or laptop running Windows or Mac

2. iOS devices and handheld phones

3. Set-top boxes such as Roku

4. Video Game Consoles such as Xbox360

5. Internet Ready TV’s

Amazon Prime Instant Video

While the shock was going on over at Netflix Headquarters, Amazon got the impression that perhaps now was time to move on an idea that they had in the pipeline for some time now. Out of almost nowhere, Amazon Prime Instant Video was born! Amazon Prime, for those who might be a little behind the curve right now, is a valuable priority shipping service Amazon began to offer a long time ago. For 79 dollars each year, your family could be upgraded to free second day air shipping on all eligible purchases. This service has enjoyed a marvelous, long standing relationship with its members. Along the way, Prime began to make available video streaming rentals and purchases of digital versions of movies and TV shows that were available. Now that their main competitor was scrambling though…out came the announcement with much FaceBook sharing and Google + posting: Amazon Prime Members now get video streaming for free! That’s right Amazon Prime Members were getting “Netflix-like services”, without paying anything more. This meant that quite a few Netflix members jumped ship to Amazon. As they saw it, there might be less content, but why pay for two of the same service?

Now in all honesty, Amazon’s service has nowhere near the number of movies and TV shows that Netlfix has. However, their selection continues to grow and new options become available for the user. There is little doubt that they will be 100% in line option-wise with its biggest rival and the runner up: Hulu Plus.

Amazon Prime Video Device Options:

1. Traditional computer or laptop running Windows or Mac

2. Television set top boxes such as Roku

3. Internet Ready TVs

4. Android device streaming

Hulu Plus

Definitely a runner-up in the streaming video race, Hulu Plus would not even have warranted mention with these two well known names if it were not for the deluge of advertising dollars that have recently been spent to bring Hulu Plus into the public eye. It probably sounds as if we have an extreme dislike of Hulu Plus, and honestly the answer to that is, “No”. Hulu Plus service is excellent for keeping in touch with currently running TV shows as well as accessing past episodes of old off air favorites like Babylon 5.

When it comes to a pure numbers game for TV sitcom lovers, Hulu Plus will win out. Offering 16,000+ TV sitcom episodes available for viewing their selection of titles interests even the idle browser with past episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “Happy Days”. Now, certainly 16,000 is not higher than the 23,000+ episodes that Netflix offers, the episodes of currently running TV favorites are available the day after the first live network broadcast. This is truly the one thing that they excel in. Hulu Plus has the know-how and the potential to become one of the big time players. Unfortunately, there is one serious flaw holding them back. That flaw is that users who pay $7.99 a month, which works out to $95.88 a year, will not continue to do so if you keep interrupting their videos with advertisements! If they wanted that, they would remain with a cable company! Hulu Plus needs to stop using advertisements in their videos or else they will remain a runner-up or be replaced by whatever the next video revolution might be.

Hulu Plus Video Device Options:

1. Traditional computer or laptop with access to a web browser. (Yes, this means that those running Linux can indeed use this service on their systems.)
2. iOS devices and handheld phones.
3. Some Set Top Boxes

When it comes down to choices, it will all depend on if you are shopping for a wide variety or if you are satisfied waiting on a service that is still building its library or a service that will run on your Linux computer. These are the Major dividing lines. There is also the option, however, that for a little more than that extra large pizza and bottle of soda that was going to be dinner one night last week you can just subscribe to all three services and use personal experience to find the winner.

Standing Triumphant: What we can Learn From the Fall of Citizendium

Wikipedia is more than just one of the largest and most popular web sites in existence.  It is also a major source of evolution of our understanding of many important cultural concepts.  Wikipedia’s existence alone has forcibly accelerated the debate on a number of topics related to information theory, such as censorship, intellectual property, responsible journalism, the scientific method, and even various issues related to language.

From this, there have been many interesting debates about Wikipedia’s role and effectiveness in pursuing its purpose.  One, in particular, has been quietly raging for years, and has now reached a point in which we feel comfortable declaring a decisive outcome.  This is the none-dare-call-it-a-war between Wikipedia and what has to be considered its primary rival, Citizendium.

Citiwhadium?

Citizendium is a Wikipedia-like project that was first launched in 2006 and released publicly in 2007 by one of Wikipedia’s co-founders, Larry Sanger (exactly how “co” he is, we must point out, is itself the subject of debate).  Sanger had left Wikipedia early in its formation.  The reason was due to an ideological split in the direction that he and other founder Jimmy Wales (who is still with Wikipedia) felt it should take.

Sanger felt that there should be an emphasis on guaranteed expert oversight.  Wales disagreed, stating that knowledge is something everyone has to share.  Debates ensued, with Wales’s vision winning out in the end.  Sanger soon thereafter left the project.  Although at the time he blamed funding issues for his departure, when he founded Citizendium in 2006, he had no shortage of hard words about his estranged brainchild.

A flurry of media attention followed, with Sanger making bold declarations about Citizendium’s future.  While the site’s own FAQ pleaded that he was not trying to shut down Wikipedia, Sanger stated in 2006 press release that “Citizendium will soon attempt to unseat Wikipedia as the go-to destination for general information online.”

An ugly autopsy

Citizendium now marks its 5^th anniversary in sort of the same way that a married couple who isn’t even talking to each other might.  It’s a number, not a celebration.  While the site still exists, its state can be summed up by its plea to find some financial donors to cover its $319 a month in hosting costs.  They’ve not hit this fundraising goal once so far this year.  In June, they raised $33.68.

The rest of the numbers are just as ugly, so much so that highlighting them almost feels like kicking someone while they’re down.  The site has a total of 16,027 articles.  Wikipedia cracked 100,000 articles in its second year.  New article creation on Citizendium is down from a high of about 30/day to a mere 2: Wikipedia’s is about 10 times that per minute.

Disapproval of the “Approved”

A more important metric is the “Approved Articles.”  This, after all, was the whole point of Citizendium, to create the finest quality articles as a result of “expert” involvement.  After 5 years, the number of Approved Articles stands at a you-gotta-be-kidding-me 156.  And the quality is as equally underwhelming as the quantity.  The Approved Article for “Prime Number” isn’t 1/10 as long as the Wikipedia equivalent, the latter still only earning a “B” grade from its own user base.

Let’s stop.  This feels cruel.  We’ll just make it official and be done with it: the Citizendium project has failed.

Not without a fight…

Sanger remains defiant, but at this point his protests feel similar to the knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail with no arms and legs left shouting “I’ll bite your leg off!”.  Sanger has stated that the primary reason for this was Wikipedia’s head start.  But this is easily refuted by the evidence of how much has changed on the web since 2006.  Other wikis started around and have more pages than Citizendium.  Also, in 2006 the social networking world was dominated by LiveJournal and MySpace.  How much did their “head start” help them?

Single simply refuses to accept the hard truth that perhaps his original premise was wrong all along.  Wikipedia has been shown through multiple studies to be roughly as accurate and reliable as professional encyclopedias.  It is the #6 site on the web, and has been Top 10 for years.  In short, it has passed all of the tests.  It is nowhere near perfect, but it has roughly achieved what it set out to do.

…but the fight is over…

A look at Sanger’s fist in the air provides us with the lesson that we should take from this experiment.  Even to this day, he continues to decry what he sees as “anti-intellectualism” in the Web 2.0 world.  From the tone of his writings, it seems that the “anarchic” approach of Wikipedia simply bothers him on a philosophical level (and he is, in fact, a Doctor in Philosophy).  When we look at Citizendium today we see the reflection of this obsession: at this point, there seems to be more work being done on its inner political structure than on the articles themselves, like bureaucrats fighting over ownership of an anthill.

There, then, is the rub: it’s become ceremony before principle.  That is what went wrong, and that is the lesson that we should get from this, especially those in a position of management.  Being dead set on making sure something is done the way that you are personally sure is the “correct” way is a great way to ensure your failure.

The truth is that there is always more than one way to do things, always more than one way to solve a problem.  It’s not just data that everyone has access to, but ideas.  Wikipedia, as a further contrast, doesn’t just has its pages open to debate, but its methods.  Very few rules come from on high.  Most of the internal procedures are user-created, and in a continual state of evolution.

Another angle to take on it is this: respect comes from continual effort.  It is not some commoditive title that one holds forever for obtaining a degree or winning some award.  Moreover, it’s not something that anyone has any requirement to afford some pre-calculated level of deference to.  Milton Friedman and Paul Krugman both won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.  You’d be hard-pressed to find a whole lot of people who would afford the theories of these ideological opposites equal respect.  Or how about this: neither Steve Jobs nor Bill Gates graduated from college.  According to Citizendium’s policies, this would make them unqualified as a “constable”, their term for sysop.  Get it, yet?

…and the hive mind has won.

For managers who cherish their position a little too highly this may be a hard pill to swallow.  Swallow it anyway.  The more that you trust that the people around you have within them to capability to solve problems and the more you untie their hands to do so, in general, the more that they will prove you right.  One final example from the story of Citizendium’s fall highlights this fact.

One of the main incidents which pushed Larry Sanger to create Citizendium was one in which the biography of one famous individual, John Seigenthaler, was altered to state that he was involved with the Kennedy assassinations.  Sanger was contacted personally, and in attempting to address the problem, found the Wikipedia user base response unacceptable.  He concluded that the only remaining response was to start his own encyclopedia.

Yet, while Citizendium has risen, floated, and crashed, new policies were created on Wikipedia to address how this happened.  The result?  While there is always a minor undercurrent of vandalism, there has not since been a single case of defamation that has risen to this level of notoriety.

Yes, the hive mind does tend in the long run to work.  As Citizendium and other “scholar-based” encyclopedias flounder (even Google’s “Knol” couldn’t crack this nut), and Wikipedia in turn approaches its 4 millionth article, this is no longer theory.  This is observable fact, one that passes the victorious Wikipedia’s standard for inclusion in its articles: verifiability.

Autism and the iPad: A New Route to Communication?

Over the last year or so, a “quiet revolution” as the parents of autistic children are calling it, has emerged. iPads and their applications are starting to offer new routes to communication for these children who are otherwise locked within themselves.

Autism is a disease affecting roughly 1 out of every 100 children in the world, according to the Center for Disease Control.  Those with the disease range from brilliantly intelligent if somewhat eccentric, well-adjusted individuals to having no ability to communicate whatsoever and becoming very violent when agitated or uncertain in their surroundings.

A new voice for those without

It is in the area of communication where the technology of the iPad comes into play.  Apple has been very quiet about the use of their new technology as a therapeutic tool for those with communication disorders and special needs.  This is expected: it’s very difficult for a company to make any kind of comment about such things without it sounding like a bold medical claim that can’t be solidly backed up.

It is becoming clear, though, that there’s a groundbreaking impact being made.  Thanks to specialized applications, parents, teachers and therapists are able to work on specific areas of development from behavior tracking and modification to teaching children to spell and do math problems.  The biggest areas of implementation that have been tracked are:

• Communication
• Behavior Modeling
• Activity Planning

The iPad as Assisted Communications Device

Thanks to the many applications on the market for this particular issue, such as Touch2Talk and TapSpeak Choice, those with autism can now communicate with those around them using a device that uses a natural human sounding voice.  This mean the child does not draw attention to themselves with the typical “Stephen Hawkings” type voice one normally finds in text-to-speech and other mechanical devices.

These applications let the user tap stock or uploaded photos of commonly asked for and used items, which is spoken back in a clear voice audible to those around them.  Children and adults who were otherwise unable to have a voice of their own are now able to communicate with others for their basic needs, unlocking a world of experience that was nowhere in sight previously.   All of this comes at the cost of the iPad ($500 – $800) and then the application (free to $200), making it far more affordable than various voice-box type devices that don’t have nearly this level of functionality.

Behavior Modeling

For some with autism, simple things like hand-washing and proper table manners are difficult concepts to grasp.  This can result in anxiety, leading too often to violent “meltdowns” that can last for hours.  Through the use of applications that allow users to create a story with photos, text and audio, a parent or teacher can create a story, modeling appropriate behavior for a given task, such as hand washing.  The person would watch the short story; each step animated to show exactly what is done, broken down into steps and narrated by a familiar voice.  While it must be used with repetition, the fact that autistic people are highly visual learners means this tool will help them to begin learning new skills with a predictable story to go with them.

What causes people with autism some of the biggest problems is anything unpredictable.  For example, people’s emotions and facial expressions are often confusing to autistic people and, because of this unpredictability, frightening.  The iPad offers them the ability to control how fast they receive information about a given task through tapping and touching the screen to progress from one slide to the other.  Children will often find this level of control to be both soothing and engaging, and parents will find it an excellent tool for teaching new skills.

Activity planning and visual scheduling

Because of their low tolerance for change, often handling things like doctor’s appointments or a first day of school after summer vacation can be exhausting for everyone involved.  Applications like “First, Then” allow the parent/therapist to make a visual representation of the day, serving as a reminder to the person with autism of what is to happen each day and in what order.  It gives them a sense of security to know what will be happening around them.  The more predictable each day is, the better off they feel.

Life with autism can be a great trial both for those afflicted and for their caretakers.  Psychologists are constantly on the lookout for anything that makes things easier for all involved.  Even this young into its existence, studies about how the iPad helps children with autism to come out of their shells and experience the world around them are already being released.  The media has already started to notice as well, and online communities are forming around the idea.  The “iPad for Autism” page on Facebook has more than 700 “likes”.

No one is rushing to say that the iPad is any miracle cure for autism.  Autism has resisted anything close to a cure since its original designation.  Yet, there is early evidence that use of it might have the potential to improve the lives of those affected by offering lines of communication that were heretofore closed.  It bears repeating that even if this winds up being true, it will not work for all those with autism.  All cases are different.  There are those so deeply affected that using any sort of computer is simply not an option.

Nonetheless, it would appear that there is a good possibility that those families and educators who are working with autism might now have one more tool in their arsenal.  When combined with traditional therapies, such as speech and occupational therapy, we have the rounding out of a potential new path of approach for these individuals.  It’s no small benefit that this one includes the use of new and “cool” looking technology that will allow them to use it while still fitting in, helping to strengthen their self-confidence.  With increased confidence comes the possibility of future independence and a more fulfilling life.  Whether Apple intended to or not, they may have stumbled onto something greater here than even Steve Jobs might have imagined.

SOPA – The IP Hammer Has Swung

The rise of the Internet as an intractable piece of the global social engine has brought with it a number of large scale societal problems.  One of the ones that has resisted a common ground solution the hardest is that of how to protect intellectual property in the information age.

Piracy of information has been a problem for a long time.  Bootlegs of concerts and copies of videotapes have been black market staples for decades.  The advent of the internet, though, has raised this problem to a new level.  Just about all but the most in-person art forms are now easily digitizable.  If they are digitized, then they can be copied to every person on the planet almost instantaneously.

This is a startling development that few people saw coming, and a monumental problem for defenders of intellectual property.  In turn, they have often taken what amounts to “scorched earth” policies to combat it.  Arguably, the worst of these yet is now under consideration.  It is known as “SOPA” or the “Stop Online Piracy Act” … and it has internet freedom advocates sounding the alarm like never before.

Is it that bad?

As with all modern legislation, 112 HR 3261 is a plate of legalese spaghetti.  At 78 pages, it’s actually kind of short as modern legislation goes.  If you are reading it, though, and you fall on your face as you try to cut your way through lines such as…

“If an effective counter notification is made under subsection (b)(5), or if a payment network provider fails to comply with subsection (b)(1), or an Internet advertising service fails to comply with subsection (b)(2), pursuant to a notification under subsection (b)(4) in the absence of such a counter notification…”

…you could be a bit forgiven.  As always, then, we have to go by the read from the “experts” on this, and we know how often they’re in agreement.  Still, going to the authorities that we trust most here, such as the Electronic Freedom Foundation, this looks really bad.

A first power – private enforcement of complaints, and lots of it

What seems to make SOPA so bad is that its approach to potential “rogue” web sites or copyright infringers is little less than “Whatever you have to do”.  The main target for this legislation is anyone who abets the web site in question.  This includes not only those who host the site but anyone who has even an indirect hand in its continued operation, with payment processors the primary target.

The way that SOPA works for most reviews is this.  Someone lodges a complaint against a web site.  The web site operator passes the complaint on to the web site operator, who has 5 days to issue a retort.  At that point, if the original one complaining wants to, they would take legal action.

This is not new; it is roughly how the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) works.  What makes this worse is that it is not just web hosts that are required to cut off the accused web site, but payment processors and ad networks as well.  The potential for abuse here is obvious.

Enforcements expands to almost everything

Search engines would also be saddled with the duty to prevent the offending site “from being served as a direct hypertext link”.  Software to get around any such blocks would be outright illegal.  This is an especially ominous precedent, as it states that certain types of programming now be made illegal.  Step back for a second and just picture what a future based on that kind of idea could lead to.

A further extension of this attack exemplifies why such blunt measures often have the potential to do far more harm than good.  ISPs would be included in the list of companies whose responsibility it would be to cut off access from the offending site.  But this is like finding a fish by draining the ocean.  A domain name can handle traffic that serves all manners of functions related to all types of web sites.  Forcibly shutting it down over a single complaint could rip the interplay of websites, indeed the very concept of the “web” apart.  A past example of this occurred when 84,000 sub-domains of “mooo.com” were shut down due to a complain about the content on one of them.

Finally, the bill ventures into the creepy territory occupied by enforcement agencies which require that their citizens spy on each other.  Websites that don’t sufficiently target sites “dedicated to infringing activities” are also considered in violation.  As is often the case, what constitutes sufficient enforcement on their part is unclear.

Please tell me that some people are standing up against this!

Yes, they are, and it’s not just the EFF.  US Representative Zoe Lofgren, one of the most consistent voices in Washington DC against most intellectual property legislation, stated this legislation would bring about “the end of the Internet as we know it”.  From anyone else this might be laughable alarmism, but as the Congresswoman representing Silicon Valley, Lofgren has been described by one tech group as someone who “understands how the Internet works.”

Other opponents to the bill include Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, who vowed that even if passed, “we would still fight it”, a bold declaration of resistance.  Fred Wilson of the Business Insider described the bill as being crafted “without any input from the technology industry”.  Even some artists have spoken up stating that, to the contrary, SOPA will stifle creativity.

Why is this happening?

This is happening because the media empires of the world are getting frantic.  Oceans of copyrighted data are passing through networks all around the world and the efforts of those trying to stop it are roughly the equivalent of someone trying to keep the rain from hitting the ground by running around with a bucket.  Data about how much less money people are spending on copyrighted content comes in every day.  Sorry to be putting it in cynical sounding terms, but in the end, it is simply about money.

This isn’t to short-circuit the debate about intellectual property entirely.  This has been a long-discussed topic in technical and political circles, and even without this new legislation was likely to not be going away anytime soon.  In the meantime, though, this legislation from all we’ve seen signifies a very worrisome turn.  It seems to have been stalled for now.  We can only hope that this continues until something that seems like it responds to the IP conundrum with something less than taking a hatchet to the entirety of the Internet is crafted.

Are The Growing Google Concerns Fair?

With Google’s ascent to the top of not only the internet world but the entire global business world comes the expected amount of complaints about its practices.  This isn’t to say that the complaints are all knee-jerk, more that there’s probably some statistical average of, shall we say, “yuck” that a company needs to participate in, in order to get that far.

So this isn’t unexpected.  The bigger question is, is it fair?  For those of you not aware of the nitty gritty, we take a look here at some of the biggest complaints lodged against the king of search engines, maps, and about 50 other services, to see whether or not they deserve all of the bad rep they’ve gotten.

Site rankings – what’s fair?

The problem: Google is still thought of first as not only the world’s most used search engine, but in some cases the world’s only search engine.  “Google” is a verb; you never hear someone saying that they are going to “Bing” their name.  This has placed immense importance on the search engine’s results, which in turn, has caused some to object that the rankings the search engines give to certain results are not fair.

Our take: The problem with this objection is that we have now collectively come to any real determination about what a “fair” search engine would look like.  An example of this is the complaint that newer sites often get nudged out in favor of those of established sites.  But is that not arguably a good thing?  If I made a website tomorrow called the “Toyota Checkers Club”, should the term “Toyota” really give equal weighting to both my site and the car manufacturer?

A more reasonable complaint is in the assertion that Google may favor their own sites and products disproportionately to that of other web sites that are just as popular and established, offering the same services.  Google has responded in turn that they do not “cook the books” to favor their own sites.  Are they telling the truth?  On this one, we suggest stepping back and seeing what the hard data says before drawing any conclusions.

The China Syndrome

The problem: As big as Google is, they are still subject to the law.  Being a global company, this means that they are subject to many competing laws.  While some of them have drawn little criticism, such as their compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and removal of child pornography web sites, it was their alliance with the Chinese government that drew the greatest condemnation.

China has had what is known as the “Great Firewall” in place for roughly a decade now, and if Google was to take part in Chinese electronic society, it would have to submit to its requirements.  For a while, they chose to do exactly that, and a firestorm of complaints followed.

Our take: It is perhaps a minority position, but we consider this the most unfair of all the complaints made against Google.  China’s policies are not Google’s fault. To the end, it appears that Google stretched China’s electronic rules to their limits.  One example of this is the fact that users who had their search results censored, as happened with people who attempted to find information on, for example, the Tianamen Square Massacre, were told that they had their results censored.  This is a rather amazing concession, as it practically begs the user to hack around the firewall to find out more.

Moreover, what Google probably realized and Chinese authorities didn’t, is that users who want to get around their restrictions can.  Hackers live by getting around restriction.  So while governmental buffoons are running around trying to find what the hot term of the day is to censor, the billion users are finding hundreds of new terms to say the same thing.  Playing along with the Chinese government probably did wonders in letting those who knew how to play with Google’s systems to get out of it what they wanted.

And when even that wasn’t enough and China started hacking Google for user information, they finally pulled the plug.  No, on this one, we can’t convict.

Privacy concerns

The problem: We probably don’t even need to define the problem.  Any company whose currency is information is naturally going to get involved in situations in which they are accused of using that information inappropriately.  There are too many examples of this to easily list here.

Our take: The problem with this complaint is that while it is in an area which one would be rightly concerned about, so far few of the complaints have been that specific.  They have mostly taken the form of noticing cooperation between Google and various governmental authorities, but not making much of the way of exact charges.  This leaves us in a grey area of worry without hard evidence.

We are not going to go so far in this case as to de facto clear Google of all wrongdoing.  What we can say is that we are not seeing the tendency we see in, say, Facebook, to see just how fast they are capable of selling themselves out.  We’re not saying it’s not there, only that as of right now, we need to see more solid data.

Other concerns

Summarizing some of the other complaints about Google we have the following:

• Copyright: Projects like Google Books have been criticized on their failure to observe copyright agreements.  Whether or not this is a bad thing is probably a function of what your personal views on intellectual property is.
• Energy consumption: Some have criticized Google on environmental grounds, claiming that their servers use up as much energy as a large American city.  Google has responded with investments in green energy.  This complaint is hard to really put much stock into, as it’s more a function of how popular their servers are than in any action on their part.
• Street view: Google’s Street View has been the subject of a number of complaints.  One was, again, an invasion of privacy on a pictorial level.  It seems hard logically to avoid that, and the number of complaints has been far outweighed by the number of people who use the service. Another was its surveillance of Wi-Fi networks.  This raised more hairs, and this time Google agreed, stating that they were “acutely aware that they failed badly here”.

Off the hook?

For most of these issues, we’ve given Google a partial or total pass, or at least the benefit of the doubt.  This may make it sound like we’re acquitting them across the board.  We’re not.  As Google sticks its hand into just about every area of the World Wide Web experience, it’s right to keep a close eye on their activities.  So far though, for being one of the biggest companies in human history, they don’t seem to be doing all that bad a job of following their own motto “Don’t be evil.”

Technology Looking Forward: Smart Phones, Smart Cars, Smart…Cities?!

It has been seen in countless science fiction: a city where the LCD advertisements target themselves to your interests, where everything is wireless and automated, and knows your name, birthday, and pet’s favorite dog food.  Computers run the show and our existences have become, if not entirely digital, then at least inseparably so.  Thanks to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s new Smart Cities Lab, this may not be a far off reality for the world.

What makes a city a smart city?

As defined by them, a “smart city” is dependent upon six areas of development:

• smart economy
• smart environment
• smart governance
• smart lifestyle
• smart transportation
• smart community

The idea is to create a base grid that would operate via a set of programming and hardware that would remind you eerily of being physically inside an operating system.  This “SmartCityOS”, we might call it, would plug into that city’s grid, affecting each area of daily city living in order to automate processes and make more streamlined the experience of 21^st century living.  This grid would control large-scale items such as traffic flow, and more specific processes such as air conditioning and heating.

How far into the future are we talking here?

Smart city technology is already being implemented in various areas across the globe. The highest concentration of work is currently in Asia, with a heavy focus on Hong Kong and Tokyo.  There’s also, naturally, lots of work being done in MIT’s home turf of Massachusetts.  We have already taken the first steps towards accomplishing this vision by beginning to embed intelligence into our day to day devices.

You go to a website and the ads that support that website seem to be tailored expressly for you.  They are.  Through your browsing habits and purchasing habits, the technology on these websites is able to bring you advertisements that are more statistically likely to encourage you to click on them, look at the advertiser’s web page and, if the final goal is successful, get you to purchase a product or service from them.

Smart city technology has also been starting to pop up in the area of the cars we drive.  A small chip embedded in the key of our cars stores all of our preferences, so that when you put the key into the ignition, the car automatically adjusts so that the seat is exactly how you prefer it, the heat or air conditioning is correct and all the mirrors are adjusted to just your height and position.  There’s no word yet on whether or not it will make your morning coffee for you exactly how you like it, but it’s a good bet that someone is working on it somewhere.  In any event, the potential for this technology might be highlighted by how much we already take for granted examples like these.

Looking into the future, then, imagine, entering a department store and the small chip in your store card that was read by the RFID scanner when you entered the door allows a recorded but realistic voice to greet you, “Good morning Miss Smith!”  If you more cringe when you hear that than leap for joy, it’s OK.  We’ll get to that below.

Why is this direction the one researchers are choosing?

A big reason for this is ecological concerns.  While so much in this field remains hotly debated, there are few at this point who don’t agree that there are at least some resources that we are going to start running out of soon.  Although significant effort is being put into moving us over to renewable energies, smart city technology lets us buy some more time by making more intelligent, efficient use of our current energy consumption.  The more lifestyle functions that we can automate, the less raw material and manpower we wind up using.

At the same time, let’s be honest and point out that a lot of it is also just good business sense, for all of the same reasons as listed above.  While these are options being pursued by cities and other governmental structures, these bodies routinely contract out their services to private companies.  These companies will get their bids more or less based on the types of efficiencies they can offer.  Plus, remember that there are large-scale private institutions, such as malls and skyscrapers, which are so massive in their scope that they become miniature cities in themselves.  They have the same incentive to penny-pinch, and the tiny benefits from this technology can add up quickly.

The uncertainty principle

This is, naturally, something of a seismic societal shift.  With it come the equally seismic societal problems.

Focusing first on logistics, the biggest of these is the fact that while this promises to save money, this is, to varying degrees, theoretical.  The upgrade costs are not.  There are going to be a lot of people and places that are going to need to see solid evidence that this is worth the investment before jumping in.  This wouldn’t be the first technology that promised to change the world.  If it failed, it wouldn’t be the first one of those to do that, either.

Related to that, then, is the fact that the upper limits of this technology’s usefulness are unknown.  We are familiar with seeing ads on web pages that attempt to market to us.  We are also familiar with how laughably bad these can be.  All forms of artificial intelligence have always had to wrestle against the fact that reality doesn’t always lend itself well to being boxed into a set of numbers.  Your car’s settings may know what radio stations you prefer, but it’s not going to necessarily be able to read your mind and know that just today you’re really sick of Pearl Jam.  It’s unclear just how effective we can hope for this technology to get.

Then there is always the persistent problem of privacy and security.  More data and more data systems means more opportunities for infiltration, with all of the crimes that come along with it.  While this was a problem before, exactly how secure would you feel about the possibility of a city’s electrical grid being in the hands of a fired city employee with a strong set of hacking skills and a grudge to bear?  A less extreme example is the sharing of personal information to companies trying to market you to death.  By the time that the 50^th billboard you pass blasts your name on it, you just might prefer that someone shut off all the lights.

Future, ho!

All of these problems notwithstanding, it is beginning to look like the smart city might be the way of the future.  There may simply be too much momentum to stop this technology from finding its way into all aspects of our daily lives.

Some will react to this with the excitement that comes from years of anticipating it.  Others will start to look for tents and teach themselves how to make fire with sticks.  If there’s one bit of advice we can issue to all parties, it’s this: wait and see.  This future may be close by, but it is still not yet written.

3D Rendering and Animation: Not Only for the Professional

In this world of ever-developing technology, we are seeing leaps and bounds of progress in the area of graphics and animation. Some of us think to ourselves, “Well, that is nice but I’d never be able to create something like that. The software must be so complicated and expensive!” Thanks to the passions of the open source communities and Google, there are now two excellent and professional grade 3D modeling programs on the market which are entirely free. Both programs have had a fascinating history that has only allowed them to improve steadily, bringing the notice of many tech magazines and blogs. Within this article, we will go over Google Sketchup and Blender, their pros and cons as well as what each program does especially well. So, have a seat, pull up your computer and let’s investigate the world of 3D rendering.

Blender

Blender is a free software program that can be found at http://www.blender.org . It has been around since 1989 as a company specific, in-house program for a Dutch-based animation studio that used it as their primary source. However, in the early 2000’s, it became clear that the animation studio could no longer keep its doors open, and so they released the code to the public under a “GPL” license which ensures that the software will remain free to the public for use and sharing. This is a common format for Open Source and community-based software, ensuring that they will continue to be developed and improved while making certain that the community itself not only contributes in what ways it can, but also reaps the benefits of their contribution.

Blender is constructed to be usable by students, hobbyists and professionals with equal ease and support through the community wiki where tutorials can be found that walk you through every and any issue that you might encounter. There are books written both by the Blender Foundation and by those who enjoy a passion for the program and are considered super users. The most stable release was made available in October of 2011. It is lauded to be perhaps the most usable release created as of yet, and there are many hopes that it will keep going in this vein.

There are a few ways that Blender makes itself user friendly:

• A community wiki: In the wiki, there are help topics as well as tutorials that will walk the user through most problems that arise.

• Video tutorials: From “Getting started with Blender” to advanced techniques, there is a video available on the site for your guidance. There are also many user-created videos to be found on YouTube offering help in animation techniques.

• User Forums: The forums are a place where Blender users can get to know one another, get assistance with a project and just relate to one another.

• Yearly Conference: There is held a yearly user conference in Amsterdam where professionals, students, developers and those just want to meet and talk with other Blender enthusiasts in person can meet.

Blender offers a full list of features including a physics engine and real-time game creation, which puts this program definitely as most usable and customizable 3D animation suites available with the most reliable user base in order to facilitate customer service and technical help.

Google SketchUp

SketchUp, while currently owned by Google, was the creation of a company named @Last Software and was first seen on the market in 2000. That very year was the recipient of a Community Choice award for its sleek interface which helped the user to feel as if they were working with something as uncomplicated as pen and marker. It was agreed upon that SketchUp would be an intuitive program that was fun for users to learn and easy to expand the scope of it in time.

In 2006, Google purchased @Last Software due to a growing interest that they had in a plug in that, @Last, was creating for Google Earth. Over the next few years, Google developed and released several versions of SketchUp and included various features and, of course, fixes bugs and added more usability to its core. In 2011, the latest and most stable version, Sketchup 8 became available for download via Google’s application pages.

While there are high hopes for SketchUp to be a highly usable and intelligent program for modeling everything from tea pots to skyscrapers, unfortunately, it is not there yet. A number of problems still exist with the program at this time, including:

• A lack of technical support: While there are 13 tutorial videos, they are not as in-depth as they could be.

• A lack of available Help Documents: While there are some help documents, it lacks the community-based support that has become a hallmark of long standing freeware.

• Limited Gallery: Users who are shopping for new 3D software want to be able to see many and varied examples of what the program is capable of.

Unlike Blender, Google SketchUp has a Pro version that has more features available to the user. However, those features are not listed on the website, and the program comes with an exceptional price tag of almost five hundred dollars per license. At that level, you also have access to (paid for) professional training to come and teach your employees to use the program if it is to be used in a professional setting.

When shopping for a freeware 3D rendering program, Blender and SketchUp are the two biggest choices in the World Wide Web at this moment. Each program has its plusses and minuses. However, both are amazingly full-featured as well as being innovative and easy to learn for even the newest beginner. As the world of entertainment moves more towards three dimensional animation and artwork as a standard, we believe that more and more improvements will be made to these already superb programs. It will be beneficial for users to remain onboard and grow with the program they choose as it becomes more functional and sought-after in this fast-paced industry.