Recently in Technology Category

The New York Times published an article Tuesday about 4 NYU students who are developing an online network like Facebook that is called Diaspora.

Diaspora is designed to provide many of the same social networking features offered by Facebook with a focus on user privacy.
 
Unlike Facebook's centralized network, Diaspora will allow users to set up their own personal servers, called seeds, and create their own hubs so they can fully control the information they share.
 
Although I find their mission benevolent, I question whether Diaspora will have the same relevance in today's society as Facebook. It's focus on privacy is noble, but the use of jargon like "nodes" and "seeds" and "servers" make me predict Diaspora will plateau as a geek utility at best. Because let's face it, the technology world is full of sophisticated alternatives that fail to have the same cultural relevance as sub par offerings due simply to one factor: marketing.

If you've ever dated someone who texted or emailed you an uncomfortable amount of times, asked for lewd photos or made you feel like they were trying to control your life by spying on your social profiles, you're not alone.

ThatsNotCool.com is a new site dedicated to raising awareness about digital dating abuse.

Sponsored and co-created by the Family Violence Prevention Fund, the Office on Violence Against Women and the Ad Council, the site is designed to address new and complicated problems between teens who are dating or hooking up--problems like constant and controlling texting, pressuring for nude pictures, and breaking into someone's email or social networking page.

It may not seem like a big problem to some, but for many teens and even adults, the anxiety that can stem from online harassment is very real. And when personal information is distributed, the results can be damaging.

Some teens have even faced criminal charges for having nude photos of minors on their mobile phones. In the eyes of the law, it doesn't matter if that photo is of your boyfriend or girlfriend, share it and you can be charged with distributing child pornography.

Do you have a computer that boots up slow, like a toaster? Wouldn't you prefer  one that boots up fast... also like a toaster?

The VP of Phoenix Technologies sure thinks so.

In this instant gratification culture where consumers need access to information quick, fast and in a hurry, slow boot up time is the one obstacle remaining between you and porn your favorite Web sites.

Wired magazine reported that at Intel's developer conference last month, Phoenix Technologies, one of the biggest basic input/output system (BIOS) makers announced that the latest version of its BIOS could boot in just about a second by cutting out redundant checks and creating a smarter version of the firmware.

Steve Jones, VP of Phoenix Technologies, made this comparison:

"People want PCs to be like their toaster. Push a button and it is ready."

I'm not a chef or anything, but last time I made some toast I had to wait at least  60 seconds before it was ready. Maybe I just have an old toaster.... or perhaps I need to change its settings.

Anyway, I guess a slow toaster is what the reporter was thinking when she wrote this asinine gem of an intro:

"In the time it takes your computer to boot up, you can probably make some toast or a cup of tea before the thing is ready to use. In the near future, you might only have enough time to take a sip of that tea or check your watch."

She says the old boot up time is like waiting for toast, he said the new PC is like a toaster... what in the hell are we talking about here?

I don't know whether to blame Wired or the VP of Phoenix Technologies... but someone effed up with their analogy. The rest of the article makes it seem like this is a technological advancement for PC. All I can say is if the old boot up and the new boot up are both like a toaster...I might just need a microwave.

Full Wired article here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/05/computers.bootup.speed/index.html