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Show of 04-25-2015

Tech Talk

April 25, 2015

Best of Tech Talk Edition
  • Segments replayed from previous shows
Email and Forum Questions
  • Email from Arnie in Crownsville, MD: Hi Dr. Shurtz, You touched on this briefly on Tech Talk this morning.  Still very confusing to me & probably others also. Hopefully, you will go over this FCC ruling in more detail. I like the free market rather than government, but since the FCC has made their move, what’s next. Arnie, Crownsville, MD
  • Tech Talk Responds: The real issue is the debate between the telecoms and the Internet content giants like Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Netflix. Will telecoms be treated like a commodity providing bandwidth or will they share in the revenue opportunities offered by the Internet. That is the struggle going on right now. It is unwise for the government to pick the winner through over regulation. More about this later in the show.
  • Email from Tung in Ohio: Dear Doc and Jim. We take lots of digital pictures. My husband loves to photograph still life. His last photo sequence was devoted strictly to carrots. What is the best way to print, display, and save them? This has become a major challenge and the number of pictures has climbed. Love the show. Tung in Ohio
  • Tech Talk Responds: Saving is your first challenge. They must be stored in two locations to be safe. It could be an external hard drive and your computer’s hard drive. Or it could be a cloud backup, like Carbonite, Dropbox, Google Drive, Apple iCloud, or MS OneDrive. I would also print them. Prints will last forever and are not subject to a digital death. I would use an online print service and upload you photos over the web. This is quick and easy fix. As for display, I would get a digital frame with a Wi-Fi connection that scrolls through photos saved in the cloud. You can change your pictures just by uploading more pics to the cloud. This is also a great way to share photos with relatives, particularly those who don’t have access to a computer. It would require Wi-Fi access. Nixplay Wi-Fi Cloud Digital Photo Frame is around $100 for 8” frame and $250 for the 18.5” frame. Sync up to five frames. Includes motion sensor. Finally I would select some the best photos for large prints that can be framed. You can print on canvas, either a single frame or as a multi-frame print. I sometimes use Costco. Their prints are incredible low cost. (24” x 32” is $60 and a Three panel 56” x 36” is $219).
  • Email from Hac in Bowie: Dear Tech Talk. I would like to watch Netflix at home. However, my TV does not have an Internet connection. I do have Wi-Fi at home, but no way to get it to the TV. What are my options? Love the show, Hac from Bowie
  • Tech Talk Responds: There are several options that do not require that you get a new TV. You could use a streaming device just for your TV. There are several options here: Chromecast by Google ($35), Apple TV ($99), Roku ($49). They all require an HDMI port on your computer. I love Chromecast. If you are an Apple fan, Apple TV may be a good option. Roku has a very convenient remote. If your TV does not have an HDMI port, you can still other devices to connect to the Internet. DVD and Blu-ray players now come with a Wi-Fi connection (multiple for around $100). If you are a gamer, Xbox and Play Station both have Wi-Fi connections. I use the Xbox in the basement. That used to be used by my son and he loved Xbox games. If you replace your TV with a Smart TV, the Wi-Fi connection will be built in and very convenient. You can get a 1080p HD smart TV for less than $1000 or a 4K Ultra HD for less than $2000 and prices drop every month.
  • Email from Andrea in Falls Church: Dear Doc and Jim. I have been asked to create a website for my employer and I don’t have enough pictures for the site. I can find lots of pictures on the Internet, but I don’t own them and my employer does not want me to steal pictures. What are my options? We have a very low budget (less than $1,000) for all the pictures). I listen every weekend. Andrea in Falls Church
  • Tech Talk Responds: There are a number of royalty free sites that provide photos for purchase. They include: www.istockphoto.com/, www.shutterstock.com/, www.gettyimages.com/,www.fotolia.com/, and www.bigstockphoto.com/. I have used iStockPhoto for years and love it. It has the kind of pictures that we need to our promotions. You may like one of the other sites, based on your photographic requirements. You can get photos for the web for less than a dollar and then if you have a print campaign, you can buy a high resolution file for $10. Prices vary based on photographer. BTW, if you are a photographer, these sites are a great venue to selling your photos and to just customer demand.
  • Email from Brian in Kansas: Dear Tech Talk. I love computers and want to learn about programming. What programming languages are in demand? I am in high school now, but after college I want to become a developer at a tech company. I listen to your podcast each week. Brian in Kansas
  • Tech Talk Responds: With some help from Lynda.com, I have compiled a list of 10 of the most sought-after programming languages to get you up to speed. BTW, we provide free access to Lynda.com for all of our students. Here is the top ten list from Lynda.com
    • Java — Java is a class-based, object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems in the 1990s. It’s one of the most in-demand programming languages
    • C Language – C is a general-purpose, imperative programming language developed in the early ’70s, C is the oldest and most widely used language. Because it provides the foundation for many other languages, it is advisable to learn C (and C++) before moving on to others. 
    • C++ — C++ is an intermediate-level language with object-oriented programming features, originally designed to enhance the C language. C++ powers major software like Firefox, Winamp and Adobe programs. 
    • C# (pronounced C sharp) — C# is a multi-paradigm language developed by Microsoft as part of its .NET initiative. 
    • Objective-C — Objective-C is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language used by the Apple operating system. It powers Apple’s OS X and iOS, as well as its APIs, and can be used to create iPhone apps.
    • PHP — PHP (Hypertext Processor) is a free, server-side scripting language designed for dynamic websites and app development.  PHP powers more than 200 million websites, including WordPress, Digg and Facebook. Python — Python is a high-level, server-side scripting language for websites and mobile apps. It’s considered a fairly easy language for beginners. It powers the web apps for Instagram, Pinterest and Rdio, and is used by Google, Yahoo! and NASA.
    • Ruby – Ruby is a dynamic, object-oriented scripting language for developing websites and mobile apps, Ruby was designed to be simple and easy to write. It powers the Ruby on Rails (or Rails) framework, which is used on Scribd, GitHub, Groupon and Shopify.
    • JavaScript — JavaScript is a client and server-side scripting language developed by Netscape that derives much of its syntax from C. 
    • SQL — Structured Query Language (SQL) is a special-purpose language for managing data in relational database management systems. It is most commonly used for its “Query” function.
  • Email from Ian in Greenbelt: Dear Tech Talk. Whenever I receive an email, the images are not downloaded. I get this message: “Some pictures have been blocked to help prevent the sender from identifying your computer. Click here to download pictures.” How does blocking image download protect my privacy? Enjoy the show. Ian in Greenbelt
  • Tech Talk Responds: There are two types of images in email: attached and remote. Attached images are exactly that: they’re attached to and sent with the email message itself. Remote images, not surprisingly, are also exactly that: remote. The email message actually includes a link (or reference) to the image, rather than the image itself. It is fetched from the email server only when the message is displayed. Most email programs today will block remote images by default, unless you indicate that a particular sender is “safe” by adding it to an address book or some kind of safe list. If the email is spam, the spammer can tell that the image has been downloaded. They then know that this is a valid email address and you can expect to get more spam. I leave images blocked by default, but add almost all the business senders to my whitelist, so I can see their messages immediately.
Profiles in IT: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim
  • Founders of YouTube (http://youtube.com)
  • Chad Meredith Hurley was born 1977 near Birdsboro, PA
    • Hurley is currently Chief Executive Officer of YouTube.
    • He received his B.A. in Fine Art from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
    • He got a job at PayPal around 2000.
    • He designed the logo that is still used by PayPal
    • Hurley is a user interface expert and was primarily responsible for the tagging and video sharing aspects of the site.
  • Steve Shih Chen was born August 1978 in Taiwan.
    • Chen is currently Chief Technology Officer of YouTube
    • His family immigrated to the US when he was 8.
    • He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
    • After graduation from college, he became an early employee at PayPal.
    • Chen was also an early employee at Facebook, although he left after several months to start YouTube.
  • Jawed Karim was born in 1979 in Merseburg, East Germany.
    • He currently serves as YouTube advisor.
    • His family moved to the United States in 1992.
    • He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
    • He left campus prior to graduating to become an early employee at PayPal.
    • He got his BS in computer science in 2004.
  • Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim met while working at PayPal.
  • YouTube was born when the Hurley, Chen, and Karim wanted to share some videos from a dinner party with friends in San Francisco in January 2005.
  • Sending the clips around by e-mail did not work because of file size.
  • Posting the videos online was difficult.
  • So they got to work to design something simpler.
  • The site soon became one of the most popular on the Internet because it was designed it so people can post almost anything they like in minutes.
  • Jawed uploaded YouTube’s first video on April 23, 2005. He is standing in front of elephants at the San Francisco zoo
  • On October 16, 2006, Chen and Hurley sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion.
    • Hurley’s share was $345.6M (735,319 shares of Google)
    • Chen’s share was $326.2M (625,366 shares of Google)
    • Karim’s share was $64.6M (137,443 shares of Google
  • YouTube is currently not profitable, with its revenues being noted as “immaterial.”
    • Its bandwidth costs are estimated at approximately $1 million a day.
    • It is estimated that in 2007, YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000.
    • As of April 9, 2008, a YouTube search returns about 83.4 million videos.
  • YouTube affected the Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment Corp whose web address was utube.com, which was frequently overloaded with high traffic volume.The web address utube.com has since been sold to a copycat site.
The CanTenna – War Driving Security Report
  • Laptop with Netstumbler installed
  • 3db Dipole Antenna through moonroof
  • Wi-Fi PCMIA card (Orinnoco)
  • Took survey between my house and station this morning.
  • Results
    • Number of access points — 420
    • Encrypted access points – 272 (65%)
    • Unencrypted access points – 148 (35%)
    • 802.11b (11 Mbps) — 55 (13%)
    • 802.11g (54 Mbps) – 365 (87%)
Dressgate: The Dress that Baffled
  • A Birmingham shop was at the center of international social media storm after an optical illusion left the world baffled about the color of one of its dresses. 
  • The picture was originally taken by Cecilia Bleasdale, who sent it to her daughter Grace to show what she would be wearing to her wedding. 
  • The image quickly went viral, as people argued over its colors.
  • Scientists said that the illusion occurs because of how the human brain is wired to see color. 
  • Color is simply a perception made by the brain when light hits the retina at the back of the eye at differing wavelengths. 
  • The brain interprets these wavelengths as color.
  • It is also doing something very clever. It is working out how illuminated the color is by the light around it and subtracting or adding that from the ‘real’ color. 
  • It is how it is possible to distinguish between colors in bright sunshine or twilight. 
  • Usually that system works well. But sometimes, as in the case of the dress, the brain gets confused and cannot work out how much light to add or take away. 
  • Some people’s brains interpret the blue color as shadow on a white dress which is in bright sunlight. Others discount the shadow and see blue and black, the true color. 
  • Andrew Hanson, past chairman of the Color Group of Great Britain, said humans are evolutionary programmed to think that objects in shadow are blue. 
  • Simon Hall, of the National Physical Laboratory, said the ‘color temperature’ of the background was also confusing people’s perception of the dress. 
  • For people viewing it on different screens the “color Temperature” of the display backlighting will have an effect.For people viewing the same monitor the difference is related to color appearance and the colors surrounding the image. This can have a different effect for different people depending on how they perceive the image. Viewing angle does make a difference on an LCD display.
A Plan to Future-Proof Computers
  • Vint Cerf, Father of the Internet, Cerf raises the possibility that centuries (or even decades) from now, file formats will have become obscure and unreadable. 
  • Cerf says that you should print your photos if you want to save them.
  • Without the tools to interpret a particular file format, all you really have saved is a long, indecipherable list of 1s and 0s. 
  • This isn’t just some abstract problem, either. Last year, a small NASA team trying to restore photos from a ’60s lunar orbiter mission ran into this exact problem — data was trapped on old tape decks, and the hardware needed to extract the pictures was decades out of production.
  • Cerf thinks we need a solution. He calls his solution a ‘digital vellum’ — a complete snapshot of everything needed to interpret a particular file.
  • For example: to open a .psd Photoshop file, you’d need Photoshop itself, but then also a copy of Windows, all the drivers needed to make the hardware play nice, right down to the firmware and assembly code for individual chips. 
  • According to Cerf, that’s the only way to guarantee that archaeologists a few centuries from now will be able to see your files.
  • Cerf’s full lecture at Carnegie Mellon is available to watch: http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/news-events/dls/2015/cerf-news.html
100th Anniversary for First Transcontinental Call
  • January 25th marks the 100th anniversary of what is often called the first transcontinental phone call, made by Alexander Graham Bell, in New York, to his assistant Thomas Watson, all the way out in San Francisco. 
  • The phone call also included President Woodrow Wilson, who was in the White House, and AT&T president Theodore Vail in Georgia. 
  • The first ceremonial transcontinental phone line opened on Jan. 25, 1915. 
  • Of course, the actual first transcontinental phone call probably took place the year before, historians agree, after the phone line was completed for testing. 
  • The 1915 call was part of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition that year — a celebration of the Panama Canal’s completion and a showcase of the newly revitalized San Francisco, which had been decimated by a 1906 earthquake and fire.
  • It was a heavily scripted conversation, one designed to bring in publicity for the achievement, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. 
  • The only genuine moment came when Bell first asked Watson, “Are you there? Do you hear me?” 
  • Bell was also the man behind the very first phone call of all time Bell was also the man behind the very first phone call of all time, which took place on March 10, 1876 — 39 years prior to the transcontinental conversation. 
  • That phone call was also made to Bell’s assistant, Watson. “Mr. Watson, come here,” Bell is reported to have said. “Come here. I want to see you.” AT&T built the coast-to-coast telephone system, which included 130,000 telephone poles and 2,500 tons of copper wire that spanned 3,400 miles, according to the company. 
DJI Drones Will Be Disabled over DC
  • Following the crash of one of its Phantom drones at the White House, Chinese drone maker DJI will reportedly be disabling its units from flying over the DC area. 
  • According to the FAA, it was already against federal regulations to fly in that region, not to mention the fact that the pilot told the Secret Service he was drinking.
  • DJI previously stated to The Verge that it programmed its drones to stop flying when they reached a certain distance from airports. 
  • Using the GPS, DJI can track a drone’s position at all time and establish which zones are off limits. But this would mark the first time DJI is preventing flight over a metro area.
  • “DJI will release a mandatory firmware update for the Phantom 2, Phantom 2 Vision, and Phantom 2 Vision+ to help users comply with the FAA’s Notice to Airmen, which restricts unmanned flight around the Washington, DC metropolitan area,” the company wrote in a press release this morning. “The updated firmware (V3.10) will be released in coming days and adds a No-Fly Zone centered on downtown Washington, DC and extends for a 25 kilometer (15.5 mile) radius in all directions. Phantom pilots in this area will not be able to take off from or fly into this airspace.”
  • DJI also said “the restriction is part of a planned extension of DJI’s No Fly Zone system that prohibits flight near airports and other locations where flight is restricted by local authorities. These extended no fly zones will include over 10,000 airports registered with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and will expand no fly zones to ensure they cover the runways at major international airports.”
  • The drone industry is actually in agreement with Obama that more regulation is needed. Congress is on board as well, as evidenced during a recent hearing.
  • On another note: The FCC recently announced on January 28, 2015, that drones can’t be flown within a 30-mile radius of the Super Bowl stadium.