As a group we have a lot to be embarrassed about.  There were Pet Rocks in my day.  Beanie Babies?  How about fighting at ToysRUs for a Tickle Me Elmo?  Think you managed to avoid common failings?   Two words:  Registered Voter.

Right now there is a change based on our collective stupidity.   It hasn’t played out fully but it is on its way.  Computers have always been on the change fast track.  People use them for personal reasons that vary dramatically.  Appliance operator was a derisive term that has moved even former programming giants (me) into their camp.   It has been scary.  I look over my shoulder a lot anytime there seem to be cliffs near.

Programming is a joy that few can really understand.  Let me put it in a different perspective.  While computers aren’t anything close to the brain in capability, they can fake you out with speed and rote operation.  As a programmer that is a real lure.  Where in life do you find something that does only what you tell it to and does it without complaints?

The Internet really screws that all up.  We were fat, dumb and happy.  More impotently we were left alone by the mainstream.  We’d enrich a few nerds to get a copy of Frogger to play.   We could play chess against the computer or type a letter.  It started downhill when business found spreadsheet nirvana on them.  The Internet interconnect us with each other and corporations saw they could put us in their business plan.  To max out profits they want control and the newer the technology being offered the deeper their hooks go.

Users accessed “applications” and could with one that did all or most of what they wanted at some big box location.  You paid for it and it at least seemed yours forever.  Well, there was this thing called the EULA (end-user license agreement) but they ran from unenforceable to ignorable.   Because computers do things we tell them to, we can bypass outside control.  The Internet changes that but we’ve been able to interfere with that using the computer’s capability.

The latest things that look like computers are not the general purpose beast of the past.   Layers are added to limit the user’s access and capability.   But, you can play Angry Birds so…what the hey?  We keep clicking “I accept” when we encounter those annoying EULAs because we could ignore them.  But the new layer in these “devices” are becoming the presence of others in our life.  Cloud computing is taking our data away from our physical control.   It is also allowing others to audit that data for their purposes.

Understand the trade offs that are transpiring.   Life is a compromise but compromise can go beyond the benefit tipping point.  That gets closer and closer.  Try to look at everything and find the alternatives to the easy way.  They are out there and they don’t take a lot of tech savvy to pull off.

No related posts.

Columbia House was owned by CBS/Columbia.  It had ads in every magazine.  Its direct mail was as frequent as the most aggressive mass marketer.  The “great deal” was four records — now most of you don’t remember vinyl that well either — for just $.,99.   Such a deal.  What great folks compared with those CD sellers that are trying to bring about PIPA and SOPA.  But, actually, they were the same S.O.B.’s. The gimmick then was the negative option and contract.   Each month you got a mailing say some album would be on its way to you unless you sent the card they sent you back.   That’s about as sleazy a business plan as one can use and avoid the courts.   As technology changed it morphed to everything including good old 8-track.  It led in its own way by being one of the early sites spewing customer info.

That covers the quality marketing of the fine folks that are the RIAA.  The movie guys at the MPAA aren’t any better.   From Buzby Berkeley and Cecil B. on down, the cost were always something laugh/bemoaned in “the industry”.   If they couldn’t screw the audience… well, I’ll let our friend explain it to you:

 I am 100% opposed to SOPA and PIPA, even though I’m one of the artists they were allegedly written to protect. I’ve probably lost a few hundred dollars in my life to what the MPAA and RIAA define as piracy, and that sucks, but that doesn’t come close to how much money I’ve lost from a certain studio’s creative accounting.

So, the media emperors have again lost their clothes and humanity.  It will never end.  I mentioned publishing the other day and won’t go over their poor relations.

Part of the laws used to shut down poker crowd have been the same ones used on pirate sites and there has been plenty of heat over that without bring about more abusive laws.  That the marketplace has been in rebellion isn’t new.  The technology cost for you and I to do it with ease is more recent.  Some still can’t bring themselves to “steal” from the nice men with their hands always reaching for their pocket.  It is amazing the amount of creativity in rationalizing we can do.   But, even more amazing is the creativity that can be seen in creating another new media.

If I were to explain to you that you could steal studio content, I would probably get a nasty gram and subsequent threats of legal action.  They have backed off with the more common copyright “enforcement” of late because of the bad press about silver-haired grannies who evidently are downloading all the stuff from the latest teen heartthrob.  Ambulance chasers come in many guises.

Torrents is the technology they blame.   It is nothing more than a distributed network.  The problem isn’t that it is nefarious technology.  The problem is that the media people can’t monetize it.  But, for the one Luddite that I know is reading this, I can describe a site that uses bitTorrent — which can be downloaded here.  Why can I get away with it?   Well, there are — surprise surprise — quite legitimate uses.   Vodo is a site distributing using torrents.  It is out in front of the rush from the traditional middle men.   They have a number of indy feature films and scads of other docu-whatevers.  They lead the “cord cutter” trend that scares all the vested interests.  They are even bragging about the user financed movies that people damned by media self-interest villify.   So all you Luddites with varied threats aim at your not finding out another truth can click on the first and let it install.  Then you can click on the second and get legitimate viewing and explanations to ease the learning.

If you enjoy Pioneer One or some of the other indy stuff you downloaded via Vodo (and other similar sites), I suggest sending them a buck or two to help them eat and also come up with another decent idea that doesn’t have anything more creative than replacing Spencer Tracy or Liz Taylor in golden age stories that seldom get better because it the latest heart throb.  Vodo can help you do that too.

Isn’t it amazing what people can accomplish without needing congress or their friend telling them how to act?

ADDENDUM:

The above is quite legal.  The search function in that torrent program won’t necessarily continue that.  So don’t use that unless you can figure out some educational reason or avoid the further temptation.   And, should you want to succumb, ask a friend to explain things beyond this simple introduction.   With torrent downloads account for as much as 25% of all internet traffic, I’m just guessing that there are simple ways to avoid the MPAA/RIAA hangmen.  You believe I wouldn’t stoop to that, right….

No related posts.

One e-friend is outspoken about work and person.  Generous comment would be an honest soul.  You can’t be honest on the internet.  Another friend just as bright saw it in their workplace and ended up going private with their blog and doing away with their seemingly innocuous social media presence.  Neither really saw the risk and one got bitten and the other is vulnerable.   That is one side and personal.  There is another side that is more avoidable and that’s what I’d like to discuss today.

If you are on the internet you have an IP address.   It is issued by the ISP to connect you to the internet.  It is like your phone number.  If you leave the cable or whatever attached, it will stay the same.  Even if you don’t the info will be close the next time.  You can see it show about where you live by clicking on this.  You can’t avoid this and have to live with it.  Marketers love knowing it and can direct ads at you based on local.

This is the Firefox addon that I’m going to cover in more detail.  It automates a lot of personal protection.  I just use the free services they offer.

We register on sites all the time.   It wants our name, address, phone and so on.  That can be controlled by those with limited computer skills and a bit of healthy paranoia.  You need to use Firefox as your browser.  There is one stop shopping for an add-on that will make it stupid-easy to add protection.    If you use it, you can confuse the trackers that try to follow every aspect of you life.   It doesn’t solve everything but protects a lot.

Your credit card is a nasty thing.  Your real name is there and there is a number that doesn’t change.  Things that are constants are what trackers use to keep you in their sites and consolidate what they know about you in a single file.  Many cards allow you to generate temporary or different card info.  I have an application on my desk that lets me do so with my Discover card.   I don’t need it at Amazon or the known, legit sites.  But, I occasionally shop others on a one time basis or where someone wants a credit card that it will auto renew some service that I’d prefer to control instead of them.  You want this capability.

Names are hard to avoid. That especially true as it relates to a credit card.  If you don’t have to use the card, you don’t have to make it easy.  As far as I know, I can use a pseudonym without legal ramifications.  At least that was true as long as I wasn’t preforming an illegal act before The Patriot Act and its ilk.   I tend to use variations on my real name.   Many of you have seen my KenP comments which is a bit of that.  I use JKenP and a host of other to obscure things.  If you clicked on the above link, it will even set up a way to recall which you’ve used – where.  Only use your given name where you don’t have a choice.   I’m Ken Prevo, James Prevo, Jim Prevo, etc on sites where I do have to give credit card info.  It isn’t bullet proof but it does add some confusion.

Your address is unchanging and often needed.  If you have a single family residence, you are home free.  You turn it into a high rise apartment building.  1234 Main St. Apartment 101   1234 Main Street Suite B   This won’t confuse the mailman but it will confuse the trackers.

That link above will generate names and password for common sites and let you enter others for it to remember for you.  That a danger so you probably want to avoid bank, mortgage, financial relationships.   Your data is encrypted there and covered by the password you use which works for the common stuff.    But, we are talking paranoid here.

Real password are a problem.  People often come up with really stupid (crackable) ones like their birthday.   Number are good to included in password.  Words listed in a dictionary are very bad choices.  There are number you hold in memory that aren’t easily known.  A street address from childhood, the phone number of your best friend in grade school and so on remain available and cryptic. Select a half dozen really secure combinations and rotate them.  It isn’t as perfect as a randomly generated password but it probably will both keep the wolf from the door and let you log into those important sites where you need such protection without having to have to jump through hoops to get access after you forgot the PW.

Email addresses become exponential with the tool above.  The one I’ve used for years is another that has kept a lot of spam out of my inbox.  It has a nice feature of letting you disable spam after a certain number received and also allowing through the ones you want to allow to continue after said trial period.  And, it lets you go to the site and respond using one of the addresses used.  Your real email address should be on gmail, ymail, live or such.  These are online address that you can access over time from anywhere.  You should have several with varying security.  Family and friends is the top-level here.  Business relationships come next and so on.  I have five “real” email accounts including the one for here.   Don’t use the ones the ISP provides except as possible throw away ones.  If you move or change ISP, they go away and that can be a real annoyance not related to security.

All of the above is pretty easy to use by the least tech savvy among us.  It isn’t foolproof but it is confusion to the enemy.   Most certainly most can’t be worse off than what they have done — lacking concerns they weren’t aware they should be concerned about.

ADDENDUM:

Friend Waffles is one of the 5%ers that I used to be and is far more net savvy than I am these days.  If we harass him a bit he might do a post that expands and improves of what I’m providing.   Pester him!

No related posts.

He then went on to say that longer term forecasts aren’t guaranteed and really anything come happen before winter.  Unusual that the new would point their failings.  It may be the first not buried in an errata section. But, lets keep the admission that longer term forecasts are quite iffy.

The latest and greatest comes by way of Minneapolis.  No, not from Silent Dave but about a Stanford geophysicist trying to use up his grant money.  He blames Columbus — yeah, the guy and not Ohio.  Says our discovery of the new world caused an ice age.  It seems a bit tenuous and the temperature reaction seems beyond the premise offered.  He says we killed off the natives to the point of causing the change.  So, he relates population loss in the new world to a mini ice age.

You see the problem if he’s right.  Our population has grown and grown.  It isn’t stopping and, based on his premise, all this green struggle is too up hill to have an effect.  I don’t know if that’s the case.  I’m not proposing introducing pandemics.   But, will this warming be as diabolical as the alternatives that are crushing available capita?

There is a graph of the last thousand years that show noticeable change:

Now that looks pretty dramatic. But, graphs can be deceptive.  First it reports that only in the medieval warm period did the temperature reach the norm at 0.  Second the seeming exponential rise is .04 which is half of the variance seen in the Little Ice Age.

How is zero established?

Greenhouse gases are the evil enemy.  And they did decline in post discovery.  That was 1492 and the decline started in 1525.  That a response in three decades.  The rise post major ice age was far more dramatic than anything we’ve experienced since.  Columbus certainly wasn’t to blame for that.  Man at the time was  primitive and evolving.  It was a very small population.  Recently, PBS reported that there were about 300 human living in Africa that we descended from.

Who has an idea what all this means?  On the scale outline, there isn’t a real answer other than making the joke, “Don’t like the weather?  Wait a millennium.”  And if you look at the true record of earth, you’ll see something that looks normal and expected.

According to this clocking cycle, we are about on schedule.  The very complex cycles are complex and we can only see part of the reasons over such a timeframe.  There have been past climate disruption.  Part of that brought about our success in being the dominant specie.   We ascended not through strength but intellect.  And that intellect seems to be getting us in trouble once again.  Down with using energy.   Maybe it is time to send us back to living in caves.  But, I am voting against that idea.  That last graph has the ascent of man dependent on the increase.  What will all those wise scientist say if it is natural?  Oops. sorry?

Related posts:

1. Just a minute
2. Hold it a Minute

We use MINE to stack the deck in our favor.  Leave my favorite toy alone or…  But, then we mature or pass for some semblance of civilized — maybe just repressed.

I have been on the Internet for a long time.   I have used computers even longer.   Both were the wild west era without much outside control.  Mine was really mine.  And, only I had control of all that.  It was like back when I was a kid with my toy box that my sister couldn’t access or the wrath of MINE would descend.

MINE was honored in past times.  The early loss started in another recession that included something called stagflation.  It ran head on into usury laws that existed in every state.  But, the Federal Reserve corrected the problem with some of the highest interest rates in history.  One of the Dakotas was the first to do away with them.   Other states followed.  It move control from and for the individual and is one of the earliest loss of what I consider MINE — my rights.

Customer service was something that was mine — a right.  When the big box idea hit it found it could get me to surrender that for a blue light special or other perceived mark down.

On the net Amazon was smart and reversed much of that.  Its lower cost of doing business let them return some of that to me and I reciprocated.  Jeff Bezo was and is a smart man.  Now you can throw in very wealthy and that is getting to be another attack on what was MINE.

He certainly isn’t the worst at it.   He is among the more honest.  They announced a new Kindle Fire.  It seems kinda neat.  It has that “the cloud” buzzword attached to it.  It totally honors DRM in books and video. It isn’t as bad as some at that but it affects what is MINE.

Early computers were cloud based.  Well, not quite but almost.  It was called time share.   It had rules and control that were rather anal.  They defined the game and you played with their stacked deck.  The personal computer revolution played on that and lowered individual cost dramatically.   Business plans have sought to reverse that many time and failed.  “The Cloud” is the latest and far more sophisticated attempt.

It is easy to lose what is MINE.   I give it away without knowing the resulting loss in other areas that I never bother to think about.  Or I think I can take back control.   That seems closer to a fool’s dream.

GM is trying to sell information  It includes selling it to law enforcement the information of where you are and the speed you are driving.  That’d move those damn red light camera type tickets right into your gas peddle. There are other places they can sell such information.  But, I am sure they won’t need to if my local cop can cut them in on a ticket almost every time I drive the 6-blocks to the supermarket.

K-mart gave me a ‘membership’ with special prices on my meds.   Now when I get home I see my detailed bill and maybe an offer for something I like attached.  And that could be from a visit months ago.  I am not anonymous or anything close to that.

Google just offered to link your credit card to the phone.  You can wave your phone over the checkout and won’t have to sign or enter your pin.  And they will have the same info about you that I mentioned K-mart having — beside all the other stuff they know.  Along with that smart phone will be able to continue to track where you are and even the speed of your car just like GM can.

The Kindle Fire will give you free storage as the come-on.  You end up with them storing your passwords and others able to subpena your files.  It will like run a credit app at some point like Google has.  What seems MINE is really in their hands for other’s use and other’s enrichment.

All that can happen without our knowing or being allowed a decision.  Of course their will be hearings and laws to protect us.  But, those usury laws back in time that went away brought similar promises of protection.  Credit cards in those days were a point and a half above prime.  Right now that is about 20 points below what you can get charged.  That doesn’t seem like the new laws offer the old protection.

Y’all be careful out there; ya hear?

Related posts:

1. Mine!
2. Mine Salting

I love Google.  I got an email; it was sad about a casket with a flag but it also inspired..  I can forward it to you if you like.  It started with a quote attributed to Jefferson.  I went Googling and found it was really Gerald Ford’s line.  Well there was something similar from another but Ford phrased it better.

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

• Presidential address to a joint session of Congress (12 August 1974)
• Ford has also been quoted as having made a similar statement many years earlier, as a representative to the US Congress: “If the government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you have.“

That’s from Wikipedia and it also mentions another fellow who made a similar statement in the 30′s that sent me off looking at The Mercury and another thread of interest.

Google is a great tool but one to watch.  It keeps track of you.  The result is that it first shows you the thing it thinks would interest you.  That is pretty much the opposite of what it should do.  What it is doing is bias.  There is enough of that.

I like Gerald Ford.  He seemed to show my Midwestern bias.  I like his wife too — warts and all they are good people.   There are more quotes I find fulfilling and a look at his Nixon pardon which took a lot of strength and facing the unpopular reality of the time.

You certainly don’t expect such candor (read the Wiki) in the modern era.  It stands in stark contrast to the times and presidency.  IMO, anyway.

Co-opting is a real danger.  To make it worse, it is awfully easy to pull off.  It is easiest when somebody’s remark coincides with our view.  Yet Ford, a career politician, lays it on the line in many quotes that speak not to a gentler time but certainly a more honest one.

Use snoopes.com, google.com or other reference sites when I or someone tells you something.  It is so damn easy.  No getting in the car; driving to the library; paging through the reference section.  I know I’d have embarrassed myself less using the Internet for more than spouting.

ADDENDUM:

Filtering is the term Google uses for selecting what you will see.  It seem a plus.  They look for the things they think will interest you the most.  Danger, Will Robinson!  That means you aren’t likely to find something that might change your mind,  That isn’t as good as finding  something that can make you better informed.

We are filters without any help from Google. It keeps us comfortable.  Recliners are for comfort but induce a vegetative state.

No related posts.

“While software patents are still legal, it appears that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, sometimes known as the nation’s ‘patent court’ has just made a decision that will make it much easier to reject software patents for being mere ‘mental processes’” rather than an actual invention. This could allow the Patent Office and the courts to reject many software patents.” –slashdot.com

Computers don’t really do much.  All they do is math and some of the ways they do that doesn’t compute based on our learning the multiplication tables in third grade.  But, they do cobble together such ability — actually in a rather elegant way.  They also do a form of math that humans see as a background task — Boolean math.  That allows yes and no based branching. Compared to the human mind it is a primitive structure that can bog down without good programming practices.

Programmers had an undeserved mystic in accomplishing tasks with this bit of silicon.   Something simple like going from point to point efficiently is something that an individual can learn and use in somewhat similar situations.  He may need a pencil and paper or a $9.95 calculator to get it exact.  Humans adapt even when it takes time to get it right.  We are known as tool users and are good at selecting and using a variety of them. Computers are literal and don’t connect the dots well.  They have very defined tools and don’t grow tool skills so much as use the ones they have faster and faster. Programmers connect the dots and do it over and over.  It is a lot more interesting to do than I’m making it sound.   We talk about solutions to this and refer to the example above as The Salesman’s  Dilemma and we can argue on how it is best done and the best language to use ad nauseam.

If you’ve bothered to follow this, you’ll see that a bit of fancy math and a bit more than fingers and toes solves the type of programs that computers are good at.  Good at is really fast at.  Good at is because of programmers using the basic knowledge available to resolve issues in the correct way.  That doesn’t solve anything beyond the need that generated the job.   Yes, a lot of it is our reinventing the wheel time and again using some skills coupled to common sense.

That’s why the judge in this case did something right.  Companies that are constantly involved in patent disputes are working with ideas that may predate our use of fire.  Somebody just bothered to getting around to writing it down and dropping it by the patent office.  The defense has long been prior art.  The judge above as figured out what we do as programmers isn’t as grand as we try to make it out at our salary review.

Most of what we do is simple human concept reduced to miniscule basics.  And, having done it, there are another dozen ways to do that and make it look either unique or the same — depending on what some lawyer wants.  If the ruling stands, it will bring about greater innovation and prevent companies from punishing the marketplace using the shaky ideas they done little more than send to an office in Washington.  This is important because the limited advantage that patents offered in the past now approach infinite in duration.

ADDENDUM:

Apple is suing Google over patents for features in the smart phones they both need to provide.   Apple still owns the market but the Android Phone is making inroads.  Apple has been good at eliminating competition through innovation or what passes for innovation.  Doing something consistently better isn’t always innovative.  But, silicon valley plays the patent game and they are looking to stifle competition through patent suits.  Google’s 16+billion purchase of Motorola’s phone business was lauded because it gave them a patent library they could use against Apple.  It is the reason the financial community isn’t pointing and snickering over the deal.

16+B could have done a lot of interesting thing and might have if software patents hadn’t become the god of limiting competition.

Think about that smart phone on your hip.  Is it really doing creative things or is it modifying the same tools that we’ve mucked with on a PC or our snazzy GPS.  It just moved those old idea to a new platform in ways that make us happier with what it provides.  It isn’t so much innovation as access to new/neat data that the app then present for viewing/selection/whatever.

*****

I mentioned Alexis de Tocqueville.  His is a bit hard to read and stilted.  But, he was an observant man in viewing our culture shortly after our founding and see what the future might hold.   Here is a collection of his saying that might have been made yesterday.

One of his scariest ones:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”

Related posts:

1. Patently Stupid

McGee and I share a lot in common.  But, I do keep the computer fairly neat.  I’ve done that for years so it is a simple no-brainer.  It has gotten a lot simpler over the years.  But, for those who want to just use the darn computer, it is more mysticism and prayer.

Today, I got an email from a utility that I purchased announcing a lite version that is available as a free download.  It appears to have the features I use most often — the registry cleaner.

The registry arrived in an early Windows version.  It wasn’t all that well thought out but it provided needed features to help programmers and users.   It was clunky because the computers of the day were a bit underpowered for the features and the registry was built on compromise.  Those compromises still haunt.

Programs store information in the registry.  One of the standbys is the encrypted license data that allows use of commercial programs but all programs seem to store various amounts of other data and user options.  Over time that can come and go.  The now useless data tends to persist afterward.  It becomes a hall closet like the one above.  The application mentioned cleans thing up.

The registry without cleaning can, over time, slow the computer and even be the source of the blue screen of death. Yet without a simple utility it is part of the great unknown for users.

Clutter grows on a computer.  If you install a piece of software, things are scatter over the storage that accumulate without our knowledge and the utility also addresses that.

When you get a brand new computer, it seems a race horse.  It boot fast and is a joy.  Over time that starts to slow. The disk gets fragmented.  The registry balloons.  Worthless files accumulate.  This utility coupled to the Smart Defrag one I mentioned in an old post, can get rid of most of these kinds of problems with minimal effort on the users part.

It is a good thing and can bring back lost speed.  If you’ve never done something like this the results might amaze you.

ADDENDUM:

I think one feature I like in the utility is missing.  That lets you remove or disable items that load at boot time. There is a little known utility provided with the operating system that works about as well.  You click on the start button and select run.  When the text box shows up you enter: MSCONFIG.  When that loads, you will see a startup tab.  That will list all the programs that are loaded at startup.  One of the selfish trick programs do is load a part of their program to speed its loading when you select it.  The other is to report version home to see if there is an update.  If you boot is slow or memory is tight, you can often remove a lot of system overhead by unchecking these programs.  If you later would like them back, you just rerun MSCONFIG and put the check-mark back.

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1. It is a Jungle!

OK, time to cut the hyperbole.  This is about that geeky toy I bought — Logitech Revue.  And it has more promise than meat.

It is the freestanding version of Smart TV.  Those are available as an internal feature for extra dollars.  My view on that is like those TV’s with a built-in DVD player — one breaks and the other is a waste.  So, the freestanding unit made more sense.

Smart TV is still all about promise.  That may see fulfillment soon.  A new version of Android will be available for it that will give it more ability.  Smart is a buzzword.  Those with smart phones know the benefit is the apps.  They turn it from a pretty face into a helpmate. Well, smart TV doesn’t really have apps yet.   There were apps on the unit but it is a what you see is what you get machine for now.  The promise that will change is there but, you guessed it, it is a promise.

Now lets look at the seamy side.  Many folks are cutting the cord.  That the term.  It means cancelling their big cable bill and either going basic cable or hooking up the antenna for local broadcast.  They then go to a variety of sites and watch many of the shows either on a delayed, ad-based basis or pirate them on a host of torrent sites — private and public.

An example of public is the Hulu site.   There is a fair amount you can watch with an ad or you can get increased content by paying which is then another manifestation of the several other pay to view options.  That’s a lot cheaper than cable and how people get their TV fix while “cutting the cord.”  The cable industry is in decline because of this.

But, greed isn’t alone behind the cable corporate offices.  Hulu doesn’t offer the free side that is available over the net.  I am guessing that the rational is that smart TV owners aren’t smart like net users.  At least they can be herded to their profit.  And, for someone who’s dumped maybe $70 of cable bill, their fees seem like chump change.

What is at work is the monetization of the Internet or the ongoing attempt.  That battle will never quit.

So, the Logitech Revue is still wait and see more than wow.   The pay sites will happily feed it like they will feed a host of other appliances.  But, there isn’t yet the killer app to make you buy.   Someday soon?  Well, like the song says, there is some joy and lots of hope.  But the love is missing.

Related posts:

1. Pre-release

So, trying to resurrect some of the adrenalin in my aging geekness, I bought a toy.  Toys are very geek when they beep, buzz, flash, or interact.  In this instance it also reached the magic price point.   The toy is a Logitech Revue.  It is a “smart TV” device.  The second major price reduction brought it to $99.   That gets it beyond the early implementation crowd with their overstressed wallets.

I am writing this even before Amazon has delivered it.  That is the geek equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot with a borrowed gun called “The foot shooter.”   But it is kinda fun in that old “here the alpha” way that got juices pumping.  These days any found juices are a shock and their pumping is a nice and unexpected plus.

The reason I can promote my potential failings is that the arena is wall to wall failures.  Smart TV  is all promise and little results.   If you look at the various offering they can’t even agree on a name.  It goes by Net TV and whatever the advertising people will come up with next.  We can do it better on our computers — even if you haven’t figured out the MS media player in all its clunkiness.

The immediate problem was that it wouldn’t work with my setup.  I have basic cable and that means coax to the TV.  The Revue demands HDMI.   My current HDMI port on the TV is compliments of  a  DVI to HDMI cable. You can look up that stuff to figure out what I am talking about.  Suffice it to say geek jollies get gratified by making stuff that shouldn’t talk or cooperate do that.  It even get a category.  Kludge is the term and it seems and can be problem fraught.  But, it can be elegant.  Elegant is a word in geekdom that is the equivalent of Nobel, Pullitzer and Oscar — all rolled up in a word.  It can be as close to erotic as geekdom gets.

OK, back on track, guy.  I solved the problem with a bit of hardware.  It isn’t the shining moment here.  This is the lower end of kludging.  No prizes or admiration.  I got a Kworld tuner from Newegg.com. It has coax in and DVI/HDMI capability out.  Mixed reviews and dubious distinction.  What it is really for is bring crippled digital TV to an old analog set.  The anticipated results are clunky. Clunky isn’t a prize winning term in geekdom.  It is at the bottom of the elegant scale.

The reason I want to do this is, to my failing mind at least, neat.  Geeks add meaning to that word and see it as a pathway to elegant. What is neat is all the potential.  Smart is not a geek term.  Smart phone and smart tv are dumbed down for appliance grade consumption.  Geeks seldom see the benefits but fixate on missed opportunity. What opportunity?  Elegance.   The business based result — compromise.  You can’t compromise and be elegant.

Anyway, smart tv is one of the steps to smart everything — house, cars, keys, money.  Scary from a privacy point of view but it will happen.  The scary part of smart is that it shares data.  Sharing data is geek.  Sharing data in the real world is stupid and easy.  We do it every time we go on the net.  Smart TV et al are just going to increase our exposure exponentially.

All this reminds me of what I fondly think of as the good old days.  CP/M, DOS 1.0, drivers crashing and all night trouble shooting.  Hey, give me a break; I avoided whips and latex clothing.  That is where smart is today.  If you want to see just how stupid trying to play smart is, you can look at the video.  But, the thing G-TV provides is possibly viable promises.  And promise is what the various, similar, competing devices don’t have.  The G-TV difference is that it is the only  semi-open system.  The resulting work-in-progress fragmentation is the source of current problem but also the promise for the future.  Oh, Google’s intent is to keep it hand attached to our wallets but it the only one currently offering some beneficial tradeoffs.

So, I am going to play with the Revue platform.  It is more powerful than any of the computers I once used to make my living.  It is eminently hackable if you are a true geek.  And geeks are always looking to do it to the man.

I try to keep you posted.   Lame but a last attempt and what was.  If you want to figure out a bit of what the hype is you can visit the revue site.  And, if you want to see the promises either broken or overstated, you can visit their forum.

Come on Amazon, ship the darn thing even with disappoint in the offing there is promise.   It is hard to find promise in geekdom for only $99.

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