[Edited for the sake of unhappy guests. Please note my disclaimer posted on my blog]
I don't get much time to update my blogcast, so I thought I would take a little time on my vacation to do some new posts this week as there are many changes in technology. I recently posted on Kindles and smart phones, and this one follows right along with those posts.
The topic in this post I admit I am not super familiar with. However, being a techy, I am really excited about what is coming! Tablets!
Mark my words, tablets are going to steal a huge chunk of the computer industry in the near future. The majority of people simply do web browsing and email, and the tablet is a perfect interface for this. They are very portable and light weight, and fun to use. Microsoft surprisingly has seen this paradigm shift and planned accordingly. Despite Windows 7 being their best OS they have put out, Windows 8 will be one of the biggest changes we have seen with a Windows OS. They have designed it in such a way that you will use the same OS whether you are on your PC, your windows phone, or your windows tablet. I played with Windows 8 a little and I found myself wishing I had a tablet, as it was not too friendly with a mouse and keyboard. I must add, it is a beta of windows 8. It did increase my excitement for what is coming though!
Apple was not the first to design a tablet, but they have taken the tablet market by storm with their iPad, and the 2nd gen iPad was even more amazing. Apple's biggest competition will be the increasing number of Droid tablets coming out and the ever changing hardware that is getting better by the month. I think this technology will soon change as much as the cell phone technology.
There is certainly a huge selection of tablets to choose from, but I will only mention a couple. You can't go wrong with the iPad. I am certain the Samsung Galaxy tablet is an excellent product as I have already used their Galaxy phones and LOVED them. The tablet I have my eye on is the ASUS Transformer Prime. This is the new version of the ASUS Transformer, so don't confuse them, because there is a big difference. The Prime has a great video card and a quard core processor! And if I was to get one, I would be inclined to purchase the dock/keyboard with it for an additional $150. With this setup, I would rarely use my laptop for anything!
Yes, there are many other tablets already...Sony, RIM, Motorola, and HP to name a few. This post is not to help you choose one, I am simply excited about the near future. You can go here if you want professional reviews of the top five tablets you can buy. (three of them are the ones I mentioned above)
Watch out, tablets are going to take some huge market share in the PC world! I can't wait to get one!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Latest in the smart phone world
I think this will have to be a quarterly update at the rate things are changing in the cell phone world. And to prove I am not biased, this post will show quite a different tune from the posts in the past.
As most of you know, I have been an AT&T customer forever, and I have strongly supported the iPhones as the best phone out there. This has all changed!
The iPhone 4 was amazing! And at that time, the Androids were also taking huge leaps improving their hardware to amazing new heights. The Bionic from Verizon was probably their first really nice droid phone. AT&T finally began pushing out some nice droids, and Verizon finally pushed out the iPhone 4. So now we all have options with the biggest carriers.
It is impossible to keep up with all of the new phones, especially being locked into 2 year contracts. There are new devices coming out every month! So all I can do is give you the latest...
On the AT&T side, I have yet to see the Nitro, but I will say with confidence the Samsung Galaxy S II is one of the best phones I have ever seen! It is a perfect size, incredible screen, 4G compatible, and runs very fast. Yes, I would even go as far as saying this phone is better than the iPhone 4S, Apple's latest version of the iPhone. Apple made a very big mistake when they didn't change the size of the iPhone 4s. With the amount of droids being put on the market every month, the iPhone is quickly falling behind. I have had every version of iPhone, as well as the Galaxy S II with AT&T. As much as I do not like the messy droid OS, the Galaxy S II is the best phone AT&T has.
On the Verizon side, I would have to say it is between the Motorola Razr and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. They are both very similar, and very highly rated. The screen may be the biggest difference. The Nexus is the only phone I am aware of that has a 4.65" screen, while the Razr comes in at the standard 4.3. The Nexus is the newest version of the Galaxy line, an "upgrade" to the AT&T version we just discussed. There is something else that this phone has on the others - Ice Cream Sandwich. What? Finally!!! Google has cleaned up their sloppy OS and given some real competition to Apple's proven IOS. Unfortunately, the camera on the Nexus is only a 5.0 mega pixel camera. The Galaxy S II with A&T has a very nice 8.0mp camera, so why didn't they put that camera in the Nexus? Well, I think they sacrificed mega pixels for the shutter speed. The Galaxy S II had a long pause when taking pictures, while the Nexus has 0 lag. The camera is so fast you barely notice that a picture was even taken.
There is also T-Mobile and Sprint which I have not done a lot of business with. Sprint has done very well with their 4G Evo phone. And T-Mobile also offers a Galaxy Nexus I believe.
And more great news. I spoke with our Verizon reps a year or so ago and they boasted this new 4G (LTE) network like it was the biggest thing ever. (And they were right) Verizon bought up all of the TV towers, all of them, to invest in their wireless networks. They sold off their land line business to Frontier and put $8 billion into the wireless infrastructure. The rep told us we would probably see 4G in two or three years in this area. Here we are, one year later, and 4G live!
That was the last draw. I was a loyal AT&T customer, one of the very last on the account to be moved to Verizon. With the best phone now available (Nexus), and 4G turned on, it was time to make the move. The Nexus is without a doubt, the best phone on the market (for now), and I am getting 11mb downloads with two bars of 4G. I have seen up to 23mb! (My home internet is lucky to get 2mb on its good days) I hear they are seeing over 30mb in CDA on the 4G network!
This information should be good for a few more weeks...until the next phone comes out. We are expecting better things from Apple with the iPhone 5, and the droids are unbelievable now. With ice cream sandwich soon available on many of the droids, they will not have a problem stealing some shares from Apple.
As most of you know, I have been an AT&T customer forever, and I have strongly supported the iPhones as the best phone out there. This has all changed!
The iPhone 4 was amazing! And at that time, the Androids were also taking huge leaps improving their hardware to amazing new heights. The Bionic from Verizon was probably their first really nice droid phone. AT&T finally began pushing out some nice droids, and Verizon finally pushed out the iPhone 4. So now we all have options with the biggest carriers.
It is impossible to keep up with all of the new phones, especially being locked into 2 year contracts. There are new devices coming out every month! So all I can do is give you the latest...
On the AT&T side, I have yet to see the Nitro, but I will say with confidence the Samsung Galaxy S II is one of the best phones I have ever seen! It is a perfect size, incredible screen, 4G compatible, and runs very fast. Yes, I would even go as far as saying this phone is better than the iPhone 4S, Apple's latest version of the iPhone. Apple made a very big mistake when they didn't change the size of the iPhone 4s. With the amount of droids being put on the market every month, the iPhone is quickly falling behind. I have had every version of iPhone, as well as the Galaxy S II with AT&T. As much as I do not like the messy droid OS, the Galaxy S II is the best phone AT&T has.
On the Verizon side, I would have to say it is between the Motorola Razr and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. They are both very similar, and very highly rated. The screen may be the biggest difference. The Nexus is the only phone I am aware of that has a 4.65" screen, while the Razr comes in at the standard 4.3. The Nexus is the newest version of the Galaxy line, an "upgrade" to the AT&T version we just discussed. There is something else that this phone has on the others - Ice Cream Sandwich. What? Finally!!! Google has cleaned up their sloppy OS and given some real competition to Apple's proven IOS. Unfortunately, the camera on the Nexus is only a 5.0 mega pixel camera. The Galaxy S II with A&T has a very nice 8.0mp camera, so why didn't they put that camera in the Nexus? Well, I think they sacrificed mega pixels for the shutter speed. The Galaxy S II had a long pause when taking pictures, while the Nexus has 0 lag. The camera is so fast you barely notice that a picture was even taken.
There is also T-Mobile and Sprint which I have not done a lot of business with. Sprint has done very well with their 4G Evo phone. And T-Mobile also offers a Galaxy Nexus I believe.
And more great news. I spoke with our Verizon reps a year or so ago and they boasted this new 4G (LTE) network like it was the biggest thing ever. (And they were right) Verizon bought up all of the TV towers, all of them, to invest in their wireless networks. They sold off their land line business to Frontier and put $8 billion into the wireless infrastructure. The rep told us we would probably see 4G in two or three years in this area. Here we are, one year later, and 4G live!
That was the last draw. I was a loyal AT&T customer, one of the very last on the account to be moved to Verizon. With the best phone now available (Nexus), and 4G turned on, it was time to make the move. The Nexus is without a doubt, the best phone on the market (for now), and I am getting 11mb downloads with two bars of 4G. I have seen up to 23mb! (My home internet is lucky to get 2mb on its good days) I hear they are seeing over 30mb in CDA on the 4G network!
This information should be good for a few more weeks...until the next phone comes out. We are expecting better things from Apple with the iPhone 5, and the droids are unbelievable now. With ice cream sandwich soon available on many of the droids, they will not have a problem stealing some shares from Apple.
Which Kindle is the one for you?
I recently got my first look at the Kindles as I wanted to get my wife one for Christmas, so I thought I would share some thoughts. I knew nothing of the Kindles, and needed to know which one was the the right fit for my wife, who is a hardcore book-worm.
There are about 5 different versions of the Kindle now. When I began looking at them, I really had no idea what they were other than Amazon's reading device. It didn't take long to figure it out though. There are three versions of the orginal Kindle, then the Kindle Touch that is a touch screen interface of the oringal Kindle with pretty much the same menus. Then there is also the highly talked about Kindle Fire, Amazon's first real attempt at a tablet. So take this for what it is worth; after seeing and reading many reviews, I think this is pretty reliable information I am going to give you. Keep in mind, I am looking for something for my wife who has threatened to never put her books down.
Before I began my research, I asked around. Everyone who owned a Kindle said they absolutely LOVED it, and they willingly shelved their library of books. Yes, that sounds like a sad story, but it is yet another paradigm shift that we are seeing in our culture. Can you imagine having any book you want at your finger tips everywhere you go? No going to the bookstore, just click a few buttons and you have it. That is where we are at today!
I looked at the Kindle Fire first. The one thing consistant in all the reviews is that the price is unbeatable, and this is true. And at that price, you really can't go wrong, it is a great device for the price! However, I really don't have a lot of good to say about it. As a Kindle, it no longer has the incredible reading interface with the e-ink. Now that it is a tablet, it has a backlit screen like a laptop or tablet, so reading for long amounts of time is not going to be as enjoyable on this device. It is also very heavy, even for a tablet, let alone a Kindle. Basically, it is a poor Kindle. However, Amazon was shooting for something different, so it wouldn't be fair to compare it to the Kindle. It hosts an Android OS, so it will have a lot of features that your phones have, except the Droid Market place. Amazon has restricted your content purchases to strictly Amazon's stores. There is quite a bit there, the movies, music, books, apps, and much more. This is the reason for the low cost of the Kindle Fire, they count on making their money back from you as you purchase from the Amazon market place. (And by the way, you can download an app on the Amazon market that will allow you to install droid apps, so there is a work-around!) Some would argue that Amazon wasn't trying to get into the tablet market, they were simply trying to create a device to access Amazon resources. And that is what the Fire is all about. If you like Amazon, this may be the device for you. If you are looking for a tablet, this is a poor tablet in my opinion. The interface is very slow, much slower than an iPad. It is heavy. And her are some other things I have seen in reviews: No camera. No volume controls on the device. Poor interface with web browsing. Power button in the way. Speaker in a poor location.
I understand there are many who love their Kindle Fire, but if you are an avid reader, stick to the old Kindle with the amazing e-ink technology. And if you want a tablet, save your money and get a good tablet. Otherwise, the Kindle Fire is a great value for the price.
I decided this was not what I was going to get my wife. So I played with a couple of the e-ink version Kindles. I simply couldn't believe my eyes! It is no wonder book lovers love them. There is no backlight on these devices, so reading is a pleasure, in fact, it looks like a page in a book! The battery life in these devices is rated to last two to three months! They were extremely light devices, and very comfortable to hold. There was one thing I didn't like about any of them, and that is the menu system. It is sloppy and almost archaic...I have a problem with sloppy interfaces, that is why I have never liked the Android OS. :) The question has to be asked, "why didn't they upgrade the interface in the newer models?" Moving on...
Which Kindle should I buy? Well, I assumed it was between the Kindle III and the Touch. There is also older models with keyboards, and models with 3G for internet access wherever you go. The 3G is not a monthly subscription, a one time purchase of the device and you have unlimited 3G access for free. The catch is, you can't really do anything on a Kindle outside of shopping for books, which takes very little bandwidth...so Amazon struck a deal with AT&T, sounds good. I actually liked the button interface on the older Kindles for flipping pages, but the reviews showed users really liked moving to the touch screen. And there was a few benefits to the touch - like sharing books online with other Kindle users. So I chose the Kindle Touch. To my surprise, my wife has been using it quite a bit, so I am waiting for the final verdict...
This is my first experience with the Kindles, hope this was helpful information.
There are about 5 different versions of the Kindle now. When I began looking at them, I really had no idea what they were other than Amazon's reading device. It didn't take long to figure it out though. There are three versions of the orginal Kindle, then the Kindle Touch that is a touch screen interface of the oringal Kindle with pretty much the same menus. Then there is also the highly talked about Kindle Fire, Amazon's first real attempt at a tablet. So take this for what it is worth; after seeing and reading many reviews, I think this is pretty reliable information I am going to give you. Keep in mind, I am looking for something for my wife who has threatened to never put her books down.
Before I began my research, I asked around. Everyone who owned a Kindle said they absolutely LOVED it, and they willingly shelved their library of books. Yes, that sounds like a sad story, but it is yet another paradigm shift that we are seeing in our culture. Can you imagine having any book you want at your finger tips everywhere you go? No going to the bookstore, just click a few buttons and you have it. That is where we are at today!
I looked at the Kindle Fire first. The one thing consistant in all the reviews is that the price is unbeatable, and this is true. And at that price, you really can't go wrong, it is a great device for the price! However, I really don't have a lot of good to say about it. As a Kindle, it no longer has the incredible reading interface with the e-ink. Now that it is a tablet, it has a backlit screen like a laptop or tablet, so reading for long amounts of time is not going to be as enjoyable on this device. It is also very heavy, even for a tablet, let alone a Kindle. Basically, it is a poor Kindle. However, Amazon was shooting for something different, so it wouldn't be fair to compare it to the Kindle. It hosts an Android OS, so it will have a lot of features that your phones have, except the Droid Market place. Amazon has restricted your content purchases to strictly Amazon's stores. There is quite a bit there, the movies, music, books, apps, and much more. This is the reason for the low cost of the Kindle Fire, they count on making their money back from you as you purchase from the Amazon market place. (And by the way, you can download an app on the Amazon market that will allow you to install droid apps, so there is a work-around!) Some would argue that Amazon wasn't trying to get into the tablet market, they were simply trying to create a device to access Amazon resources. And that is what the Fire is all about. If you like Amazon, this may be the device for you. If you are looking for a tablet, this is a poor tablet in my opinion. The interface is very slow, much slower than an iPad. It is heavy. And her are some other things I have seen in reviews: No camera. No volume controls on the device. Poor interface with web browsing. Power button in the way. Speaker in a poor location.
I understand there are many who love their Kindle Fire, but if you are an avid reader, stick to the old Kindle with the amazing e-ink technology. And if you want a tablet, save your money and get a good tablet. Otherwise, the Kindle Fire is a great value for the price.
I decided this was not what I was going to get my wife. So I played with a couple of the e-ink version Kindles. I simply couldn't believe my eyes! It is no wonder book lovers love them. There is no backlight on these devices, so reading is a pleasure, in fact, it looks like a page in a book! The battery life in these devices is rated to last two to three months! They were extremely light devices, and very comfortable to hold. There was one thing I didn't like about any of them, and that is the menu system. It is sloppy and almost archaic...I have a problem with sloppy interfaces, that is why I have never liked the Android OS. :) The question has to be asked, "why didn't they upgrade the interface in the newer models?" Moving on...
Which Kindle should I buy? Well, I assumed it was between the Kindle III and the Touch. There is also older models with keyboards, and models with 3G for internet access wherever you go. The 3G is not a monthly subscription, a one time purchase of the device and you have unlimited 3G access for free. The catch is, you can't really do anything on a Kindle outside of shopping for books, which takes very little bandwidth...so Amazon struck a deal with AT&T, sounds good. I actually liked the button interface on the older Kindles for flipping pages, but the reviews showed users really liked moving to the touch screen. And there was a few benefits to the touch - like sharing books online with other Kindle users. So I chose the Kindle Touch. To my surprise, my wife has been using it quite a bit, so I am waiting for the final verdict...
This is my first experience with the Kindles, hope this was helpful information.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Nuclear Threat - Update
In my last post I discussed the threat that Iran currently poses to the entire world. While governments scramble for options, Iran continues to get closer to having nuclear weapons. They seem to be unanimously the greatest threat to national security we face today.
There is no ignorning this problem; actions have to be taken with haste. There is strong debate as to how to deal with Iran, but the fact is, as long as its current regime is in power, they will stop at nothing to get nuclear weapons. Many world leaders and expert analysts agree that tough sanctions are required. Now they are considering sanctions against Iran's banking system which would cripple their economy and slow their progress. The problem with this approach is that oil prices will climb dramatically and further hurt the world economy. Another problem with this is that it will not stop them from getting nuclear weapons; they will stop at nothing. Another approach is to bomb their nuclear facilities. This will have the same affect on oil prices hurting the world economy, and will also unite the Iranian people behind their corrupt regime, that would be a huge step backwards. What seems to be the best option for the world is to stir the people of Iran against the regime they hate and support them in removing their government. Until they have replaced their current leaders, Iran will remain a dangerous threat to the world. With a new government in place, maybe Iran could be trusted with nuclear weapons? Well, that is not my words...
There is no ignorning this problem; actions have to be taken with haste. There is strong debate as to how to deal with Iran, but the fact is, as long as its current regime is in power, they will stop at nothing to get nuclear weapons. Many world leaders and expert analysts agree that tough sanctions are required. Now they are considering sanctions against Iran's banking system which would cripple their economy and slow their progress. The problem with this approach is that oil prices will climb dramatically and further hurt the world economy. Another problem with this is that it will not stop them from getting nuclear weapons; they will stop at nothing. Another approach is to bomb their nuclear facilities. This will have the same affect on oil prices hurting the world economy, and will also unite the Iranian people behind their corrupt regime, that would be a huge step backwards. What seems to be the best option for the world is to stir the people of Iran against the regime they hate and support them in removing their government. Until they have replaced their current leaders, Iran will remain a dangerous threat to the world. With a new government in place, maybe Iran could be trusted with nuclear weapons? Well, that is not my words...
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Armageddon?
It has been quite interesting watching things develop in the Middle East over the years. We have had our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I really don't have much to say about these conflicts. There is another war already waging that is much more serious which will involve the entire world, the war for the very existence of Israel. We all know that scriptures prophecy many enemies coming against this small nation, but whether or not we are seeing prophecy come true, we are witnessing some very dangerous times.
Israel has many enemies who will not be satisfied until Israel is no longer a nation. Contrary to our comfort and safety in the United States, Israel is at war every day with their neighbors, and their neighbor's neighbors. Families climbing into bomb shelters is a way of life; rockets are being shot into Southern Israel on a daily basis. The battle over the Gaza Strip has been a never ending struggle. Thousands of Israelis forced to move their homes years ago in attempts to make peace, but as the story always unfolds, the opposition is not happy with compromise and will never be happy until Israel ceases to exist.
Over the years Israel has had many negotiations with Pakistan, with the assistance of our presidents for much of it. They have gone to war with terrorist threats like Hezbollah and Hamas. These terrorists groups are greatly supported by Iran and Syria. Hezbollah is a significant threat to Israel, and has spent the last couple of years rebuilding its army and arsenal to go to war with Israel again after being pounded back in Lebanon a short time ago.
All eyes are turned East of Israel though, to the nation of Iran. There has been a long development leading up to the dangerous state of the Middle East that we see today. But without a doubt, Iran is the biggest threat to world peace that we face today. Iran has been working for many, many years to develop nuclear capabilities. They have claimed it to be for economic and energy reasons, but recent reports have confirmed what the world has already known all along, that they are developing nuclear technology for use with their weapons systems.
The Iranian regime is a tyranny, and opposition in its nation is suppressed. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is a highly trained army, and very powerful. The Iranian president is an Islamic extremist, and will stop at nothing to fulfill his religious duty, which is to wipe out Israel to bring about the prophesied prophet, Imam Al-Mahdi, the Ultimate Savior of mankind. Most of the world may be ignorant of this radical extremist, but I assure you that our governments are not so ignorant. Now the fun begins...
Iran is nearing their full nuclear capability, and their intentions have been quite clear. So clear that Israel faces some very difficult decisions in the very near future. It has been talk for a couple of years now, "Will Israel strike Iran?" First of all, they have to do SOMETHING, one strike from Iran and Israel will be toast. However, the ties with their allies in the U.S. are extremely important, so they will be very careful in dealing with Iran making sure to have approval from the U.S. And just when things seemed imminent not too long ago, I read about a new warfare that struck Iran. It was a virus called "Stuxnet". Developed by Germany, Israel, and the U.S., it would attach itself to a removable device and make its way to the Iranian nuclear facility which was not accessible over the internet, and once on their network, it would program the PLCs that controlled the nuclear centrifuges and cause them to spin out of control. The virus was impossible to detect or remove without entirely wiping out the network (so they say). It was brilliant! No weapons, no war, no attacks...and it set Iran back for nearly an entire year according to the reports. At the same time this happened, one of the nuclear scientists was gunned down. It bought some time...
I am still watching for another amazing story like Stuxnet, but today it seems time is out, and sanctions are not going to work. The only sanctions that would work would be to cripple their economy by shutting off their banking system, but that would do greater damage to our already hurting world economy, so that is also off the table. At one time, Israel would strike their nuclear facilities, but the world has waited too long to act and that is now not going to be enough to take Iran's threat away. It will now require a strike that will deliver a blow not only to Iran's facilities, but also to their navy, their air force, and their revolutionary guard.
Iran has recently tested a long-range missile that will reach Israel, and Israel is doing drills for a strike on Iran, while ramping up support in the meantime to put greater pressure on them. Israel may not strike by the end of the year, but there is a good chance we will see it happen in the near future. Senator Lindsey Graham says the situation is "chilling" and Iran is much further along than most realized, and if something doesn't happen soon, the entire middle east will be in a nuclear arms race, leading to "Armageddon" and in his words "the world will go into darkness".
Very interesting times to say the least! Keep your eyes open as this develops...
Israel has many enemies who will not be satisfied until Israel is no longer a nation. Contrary to our comfort and safety in the United States, Israel is at war every day with their neighbors, and their neighbor's neighbors. Families climbing into bomb shelters is a way of life; rockets are being shot into Southern Israel on a daily basis. The battle over the Gaza Strip has been a never ending struggle. Thousands of Israelis forced to move their homes years ago in attempts to make peace, but as the story always unfolds, the opposition is not happy with compromise and will never be happy until Israel ceases to exist.
Over the years Israel has had many negotiations with Pakistan, with the assistance of our presidents for much of it. They have gone to war with terrorist threats like Hezbollah and Hamas. These terrorists groups are greatly supported by Iran and Syria. Hezbollah is a significant threat to Israel, and has spent the last couple of years rebuilding its army and arsenal to go to war with Israel again after being pounded back in Lebanon a short time ago.
All eyes are turned East of Israel though, to the nation of Iran. There has been a long development leading up to the dangerous state of the Middle East that we see today. But without a doubt, Iran is the biggest threat to world peace that we face today. Iran has been working for many, many years to develop nuclear capabilities. They have claimed it to be for economic and energy reasons, but recent reports have confirmed what the world has already known all along, that they are developing nuclear technology for use with their weapons systems.
The Iranian regime is a tyranny, and opposition in its nation is suppressed. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is a highly trained army, and very powerful. The Iranian president is an Islamic extremist, and will stop at nothing to fulfill his religious duty, which is to wipe out Israel to bring about the prophesied prophet, Imam Al-Mahdi, the Ultimate Savior of mankind. Most of the world may be ignorant of this radical extremist, but I assure you that our governments are not so ignorant. Now the fun begins...
Iran is nearing their full nuclear capability, and their intentions have been quite clear. So clear that Israel faces some very difficult decisions in the very near future. It has been talk for a couple of years now, "Will Israel strike Iran?" First of all, they have to do SOMETHING, one strike from Iran and Israel will be toast. However, the ties with their allies in the U.S. are extremely important, so they will be very careful in dealing with Iran making sure to have approval from the U.S. And just when things seemed imminent not too long ago, I read about a new warfare that struck Iran. It was a virus called "Stuxnet". Developed by Germany, Israel, and the U.S., it would attach itself to a removable device and make its way to the Iranian nuclear facility which was not accessible over the internet, and once on their network, it would program the PLCs that controlled the nuclear centrifuges and cause them to spin out of control. The virus was impossible to detect or remove without entirely wiping out the network (so they say). It was brilliant! No weapons, no war, no attacks...and it set Iran back for nearly an entire year according to the reports. At the same time this happened, one of the nuclear scientists was gunned down. It bought some time...
I am still watching for another amazing story like Stuxnet, but today it seems time is out, and sanctions are not going to work. The only sanctions that would work would be to cripple their economy by shutting off their banking system, but that would do greater damage to our already hurting world economy, so that is also off the table. At one time, Israel would strike their nuclear facilities, but the world has waited too long to act and that is now not going to be enough to take Iran's threat away. It will now require a strike that will deliver a blow not only to Iran's facilities, but also to their navy, their air force, and their revolutionary guard.
Iran has recently tested a long-range missile that will reach Israel, and Israel is doing drills for a strike on Iran, while ramping up support in the meantime to put greater pressure on them. Israel may not strike by the end of the year, but there is a good chance we will see it happen in the near future. Senator Lindsey Graham says the situation is "chilling" and Iran is much further along than most realized, and if something doesn't happen soon, the entire middle east will be in a nuclear arms race, leading to "Armageddon" and in his words "the world will go into darkness".
Very interesting times to say the least! Keep your eyes open as this develops...
Friday, October 28, 2011
Technology vs Culture
Smart phones really are the big topic in technology right now. Conversations are endless - from the device, to the apps, to the carrier, and from Google, to Apple and Microsoft. But there is also another hot topic that you will never read about on your favorite news feed. I admit, I don't fully understand the scope of this topic, but it comes up quite often, and it is a valid concern.
I have been in the technology world for over 9 years now, so it is natural to me to be in the middle of it. I helped people stay connected with laptops and using a dial-up modem (very expensive!). Then they came out with wireless cards for these laptops, this was the coolest thing ever invented, but it took a little while for wireless networks to be available. Some of the nice hotels would have a wireless network, but many would not. As the technology grew, laptops were now being manufactured with built in wireless, and soon wireless was in everyone's homes, as well as laptops! Blackberries took the world by storm with cell phones that kept people in touch by email 24/7. This was amazing! There was literally an illness called "blackberry thumb syndrome" because people would use their blackberries so much that their thumbs would have chronic sorness or maybe even bleeding. RIM (Blackberry) for many years led the industry in cell phones. Then Microsoft introduced the world to the touchscreen smart phones with their windows mobile devices - I LOVED my windows mobile phone! (Yes, there was the Palm Treo that did well for a short time, but I just never liked it) And now...you all know the rest of the story. iPhones, iPads, Droids...devices that do anything you want it to, or in today's world they will do anything you tell it to. There is probably an app to cook your breakfast for you if you had time to search through thousands of them.
As I have said before, the world we live in today is more connected than ever. You can reach anyone at anytime in anyway you want - email, text, call, facebook, and so on. When something goes wrong at work, my phone will either call me or email me immediately - days, nights, weekends, it doesn't care about my sleeping schedule.
"The world is more connected than ever".....or is it? This is the question that constantly arises in these discussions. While two guys are talking about their great phones or showing off the new features, there is always one guy who is shaking his head. Why? Because something has changed. His buddies no longer call him to chat, they simply text him. He is now forced to get a texting plan on his phone so he doesn't get charged extra on his monthly bill. He sits in a room with his friends and they are all looking at their phones or talking about them instead of the meaningful conversations that once took place. The kids are now playing different games made available through the app store rather than riding their bikes outside. Two people sitting next to each other are texting each other rather than having a conversation. If you want to get to know someone, you have to read their blog or join facebook! In short, technology has ruined culture.
I have just painted this picture from the eyes of the person shaking his head at all of this new "stuff", and there are a lot of these people out there. It is a valid point. This person says there is no personal relationships anymore. Instead of calling someone or spending time with someone, you are texting or facebooking.
The other guy says he has over 400 facebook friends that he would never have been in touch with and now he knows all about them thanks to facebook. And when he has a quick question, a text is very efficient and you don't spend 20 minutes on the phone when you needed a quick answer. He says he can text an entire group of people in minutes about an event rather than taking over an hour to call each one of them. He now stays in touch with his kids and close friends all day long with texts back and forth when he otherwise would not have been in touch with them. He never needs a phone book, never needs a map, never needs to pack a camera, and on and on.
Wow, this can be quite the conversation piece. I used to hear a similar battle, "why don't you just pick up the phone and call someone rather than email?" I tend to be the guy that does facebook, email, and texting; in my line of work, I despise spending my days on the phone. So how do we respond to this issue? Both sides have valid points!
It is an interesting time we live in, and yes, technology has changed culture, but is it good or bad? I truly believe it is the same problems, different time. Not too long ago it was about too much television, or Mom and Dad yelling "get off the phone!" Then we started talking about how we were hooked on the internet and spent the entire day in front of our computer screen. So maybe the problem began a long time ago? Maybe the problem is much deeper than just technology or cell phones? When did we stop going to people's houses for visits? When did we stop helping people on a regular basis? When did we give up our normal habits to sit in front of a TV, or talk on a phone, or surf the net? And now we facebook, text, blog, email...on and on it goes. What did we do before we had all of these things? Have these things damaged culture?
To be continued....maybe, this could get deeper than I am able to tackle! :)
I have been in the technology world for over 9 years now, so it is natural to me to be in the middle of it. I helped people stay connected with laptops and using a dial-up modem (very expensive!). Then they came out with wireless cards for these laptops, this was the coolest thing ever invented, but it took a little while for wireless networks to be available. Some of the nice hotels would have a wireless network, but many would not. As the technology grew, laptops were now being manufactured with built in wireless, and soon wireless was in everyone's homes, as well as laptops! Blackberries took the world by storm with cell phones that kept people in touch by email 24/7. This was amazing! There was literally an illness called "blackberry thumb syndrome" because people would use their blackberries so much that their thumbs would have chronic sorness or maybe even bleeding. RIM (Blackberry) for many years led the industry in cell phones. Then Microsoft introduced the world to the touchscreen smart phones with their windows mobile devices - I LOVED my windows mobile phone! (Yes, there was the Palm Treo that did well for a short time, but I just never liked it) And now...you all know the rest of the story. iPhones, iPads, Droids...devices that do anything you want it to, or in today's world they will do anything you tell it to. There is probably an app to cook your breakfast for you if you had time to search through thousands of them.
As I have said before, the world we live in today is more connected than ever. You can reach anyone at anytime in anyway you want - email, text, call, facebook, and so on. When something goes wrong at work, my phone will either call me or email me immediately - days, nights, weekends, it doesn't care about my sleeping schedule.
"The world is more connected than ever".....or is it? This is the question that constantly arises in these discussions. While two guys are talking about their great phones or showing off the new features, there is always one guy who is shaking his head. Why? Because something has changed. His buddies no longer call him to chat, they simply text him. He is now forced to get a texting plan on his phone so he doesn't get charged extra on his monthly bill. He sits in a room with his friends and they are all looking at their phones or talking about them instead of the meaningful conversations that once took place. The kids are now playing different games made available through the app store rather than riding their bikes outside. Two people sitting next to each other are texting each other rather than having a conversation. If you want to get to know someone, you have to read their blog or join facebook! In short, technology has ruined culture.
I have just painted this picture from the eyes of the person shaking his head at all of this new "stuff", and there are a lot of these people out there. It is a valid point. This person says there is no personal relationships anymore. Instead of calling someone or spending time with someone, you are texting or facebooking.
The other guy says he has over 400 facebook friends that he would never have been in touch with and now he knows all about them thanks to facebook. And when he has a quick question, a text is very efficient and you don't spend 20 minutes on the phone when you needed a quick answer. He says he can text an entire group of people in minutes about an event rather than taking over an hour to call each one of them. He now stays in touch with his kids and close friends all day long with texts back and forth when he otherwise would not have been in touch with them. He never needs a phone book, never needs a map, never needs to pack a camera, and on and on.
Wow, this can be quite the conversation piece. I used to hear a similar battle, "why don't you just pick up the phone and call someone rather than email?" I tend to be the guy that does facebook, email, and texting; in my line of work, I despise spending my days on the phone. So how do we respond to this issue? Both sides have valid points!
It is an interesting time we live in, and yes, technology has changed culture, but is it good or bad? I truly believe it is the same problems, different time. Not too long ago it was about too much television, or Mom and Dad yelling "get off the phone!" Then we started talking about how we were hooked on the internet and spent the entire day in front of our computer screen. So maybe the problem began a long time ago? Maybe the problem is much deeper than just technology or cell phones? When did we stop going to people's houses for visits? When did we stop helping people on a regular basis? When did we give up our normal habits to sit in front of a TV, or talk on a phone, or surf the net? And now we facebook, text, blog, email...on and on it goes. What did we do before we had all of these things? Have these things damaged culture?
To be continued....maybe, this could get deeper than I am able to tackle! :)
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Smart Phone Overload
I thought I would share a few thoughts on my latest experiences in the smart phone world. It is an ever changing environment and takes constant research to stay on top of it. I am not one to stay on the cutting edge, but being in the IT world about 10 hours of my day makes it a little easier to stay somewhat updated.
This year has especially seen dramatic changes as Apple pretty much owned the industry with their iPhones prior to this year, but we are now seeing much of the iPhone market threatened with the amount of Droids flooding the market. On top of that, you have all of the carriers fighting for market. This post will probably end up being a little of Verizon vs AT&T, droid vs iPhone, and device vs device.
Some of the big changes this year:
This year has especially seen dramatic changes as Apple pretty much owned the industry with their iPhones prior to this year, but we are now seeing much of the iPhone market threatened with the amount of Droids flooding the market. On top of that, you have all of the carriers fighting for market. This post will probably end up being a little of Verizon vs AT&T, droid vs iPhone, and device vs device.
Some of the big changes this year:
- Verizon jumped into the iPhone world with the iPhone 4 at which point many customers were finally happy, they had their favorite phone and their favorite carrier. AT&T lost a lot of customers when this happened. I personally migrated about 40 corporate users to Verizon, and nearly all of them iPhone users.
- AT&T now offers Droids, and very nice ones. While they have a huge customer base on the iPhone, they probably did not see many people migrate from Verizon to get their android phones.
- 4G is another industry changer this year. Sprint did pretty good coming out with the first 4G compatible phone, but Verizon will soon dominate in this market if they do not already. Of course it wasn't until recently that we have seen any 4G phones come out with Verizon or AT&T. More on 4G later...
- Google bought Motorola, this will allow them to own the device and the software. What will they come out with now? My guess is that they will push their cloud (storing all of your information online) syncing all of your data to your Google/Motorola pc, tablet, and phone. A move that Apple has recently done with the release of IOS5.
- Speaking of IOS5, the software on these smart phones has also seen dramatic changes. You can download an app for just about anything you can think of, and now the phones are talking back to you and following voice commands!
- The final game changer in my mind is the devices themselves. In one year we have seen the hardware double their capabilities in processing speed, memory, cameras, storage, and quality.
There are two or three decisions in my mind when deciding on your phone. How will you choose?
- Which carrier?
I think this will have to be your first question. It doesn't matter how good the phone is if the carrier cannot provide good service where you are located. If the service is not a question, then maybe you would consider the network. In North Idaho, and more so the rural areas, Verizon seems to have better coverage and better building penetration. Their 3G network is much faster than AT&T's Edge network. However, AT&T has moved in with their HSP+ network which is faster than 3G, but slower than 4G. That makes the AT&T users very happy, the 4G phones do quite well on this network. Verizon is right behind them with their LTE network, a true 4G! For network speeds, Verizon will win the battle within the next year. - Which phone?
This is actually a two part question.
The first question has to be "Android or iPhone?" Truthfully, there are no other phones worth looking at right now. This is still a very loaded question that draws a lot of attention. There are new Droid phones coming by the week, while Apple only releases two phones a year at best. Apple has a very strong user base though, so no matter how many Droids they come out with, they just can't seem to take over the market. To answer the question I can highlight a few things for you. If you are eligible for an upgrade or new device at the lowest cost, Droids generally are a little cheaper. Hardware is pretty comparible now, so this is not such a major factor. The iPhone had the retna display that was better than all of them out there, but if you get the right Droid, you can now get even better displays that are also a little bigger. The most important question with "Adroid or iPhone" is really a software question. I could get into great detail discussing the differences as I have now had both phones, as well as managed them both in a corporate environment. Long story short, when it comes to software, iPhone wins. There are certainly positives and negatives to both, but the IOS is much easier to use where the Android OS is "messy". The new IOS5 that Apple has just pushed out has given them a little bit of an edge with some of their new features. They now have the iCloud to sync all of your Apple devices together. The new assistant takes voice technology to a whole new level; don't be surprised when you see people talking to their phones. They have also developed iMessage, similar to RIM's (blackberry) messenger that gives you a better texting experience. All that said, Google is releasing their new OS (ice-cream sandwich) before the end of the year which features some big changes (awesome!), and a lot of people were very disappointed that Apple didn't do much to the new iPhone 4s on the hardware side.
The second question is if you choose a Droid, then which Droid?
There are SO many Droids! It is all the same Android OS, so you really just need to find the hardware you like. I can help. On the Verizon side, the best phone out right now is the Motorola Bionic. It is a good size screen (4.3) and very fast. If you wait for a short time, the Nexus (Verizon's version of the Galaxy S II) will be here before the holidays. This will be Verizon's best phone for the remainder of the year on the Droid side most likely, but it has a much larger screen that may be too big for some people (4.6). On the AT&T side, the Atrix was a huge success in the Droid world, but with the recent release of the Galaxy S II, they have really done well. This is the best Droid on the market right now. AT&T will be pushing out 5 more Droids by the end of the year, but I don't think any of them will be any better than the Galaxy S II.
In conclusion, I have had iPhones from the 3G to the iPhone 4, and recently moved to a Droid Galaxy S II. The phone is much better than the iPhone 4, but I really miss the IOS (iPhone OS) software. The iPhone is simply easier to use. I am happy with my move as I like the phone itself so much more, and definitely looking forward to the new Android OS in the next month. And I do love AT&T, they are not nearly so strict as Verizon with their plans and contracts in my experience. While I think the Galaxy S II is the best phone out right now, I have not yet seen the iPhone 4s, which would be right at the top of the smart phone list. Here are your best choices if you are smart phone shopping:
Verizon: iPhone 4s or Motorola Bionic (or wait for a month and get the Nexus!)
AT&T: iPhone 4s or Galaxay S II
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Something Special
I normally post about technology or news on my "blogcast", but I was so inspired by someone so special this weekend, I felt compelled to share her story.
I just finished watching the new "X-Men" movie, or at least I think that is what they are called. I really don't follow them very well, so I can't tell you much about it except that it reminded me of my kids. Each of the mutants has a special power in the movie, and I have seen this same thing in our kids with their personalities (not that they are mutants, but that they have something special that stands out above all else). Terah and I can tell you without even talking to each other what each of our kids strength is, what is special about them. Today I want to share, literally, the strength of my littlest girl.
She has been the sweetest girl since she was a baby, everyone would tell you she was the sweetest baby they have ever seen, no one would ever have guessed she was so strong. But something was not right. When she should have been walking (10-12 months), she still could not put weight on her legs. I finally agreed with Mommy, even though she knew a long time before I consented that something was wrong, and we took her to a therapist for an examination. The therapist immediately knew something was wrong, but was very careful how she directed us. Mostly she encouraged us to schedule a therapist to come work with her once a week for a year so they could better determine what was going on. We knew something was wrong, so when we dug deeper, she did mention it could possibly be cerebral palsy. We were not familiar with this, so we looked further into it and it sounded just like Adah, and it would mean that Adah would never walk correctly. There is different forms of cerebral palsy, but it never gets worse, and never gets better...you just help them learn to live with it.
We prayed for the best of course, and began our sessions with the therapist. She was now over 16 months old and still could not stand, let alone walk. The therapist said she was about the stage of an 8 month old baby. Adah was eager to please him for whatever reason and would do everything he asked her to. He never gave up hope with her and quickly put our fears to rest and said she did not have cerebral palsy, but what they call "low muscle mass" in her legs. So for the next six months we worked with her to build her strenth in those legs. But we really didn't have to do much, because she is a fighter!
The therapist said she would be walking by her 2nd birthday, and she proved him wrong, she took her first steps with three months to spare! I don't know if this link will work, but if not, you can go to my facebook in the videos and find her first steps.
She has struggled through everything without a complaint, there was never anything wrong with her in her mind, the only frustration is that everyone wants to help her. She wants to do it by herself!!! We are constantly hearing her say "My do it!". She refuses to stay little, if the big siblings do it, she should be able to.
So she is now just over two years old, running around with the other kids (not normal, but not hindered in any way). And below is a picture of our adventure in Glacier National Park over the weekend. This picture has so much meaning to Daddy. The first thing I thought of when I saw it was one of the first thoughts that went through my mind when we realized what cerebral palsy was. I thought, "Adah, don't worry about anything, Daddy will carry you everywhere you need to go for the rest of your life, that is how much I love you." Then looking at this picture I realized she never would have let me. It didn't matter what the doctors said, this girl was not going to allow anything to keep her down. She is a fighter, she is determined, she is stronger than anyone I have ever seen! The only reason she let Daddy carry her in the picture below is because she had already gone as far as she could on her own up the long trail. The entire weekend she had people watching and smiling at her while she struggled up the paths. One guy said "Why don't you tell Daddy to pick you up!", I simply said, "She is determined, she wants to do it by herself."
Adah, I wish I had your strength!
I just finished watching the new "X-Men" movie, or at least I think that is what they are called. I really don't follow them very well, so I can't tell you much about it except that it reminded me of my kids. Each of the mutants has a special power in the movie, and I have seen this same thing in our kids with their personalities (not that they are mutants, but that they have something special that stands out above all else). Terah and I can tell you without even talking to each other what each of our kids strength is, what is special about them. Today I want to share, literally, the strength of my littlest girl.
She has been the sweetest girl since she was a baby, everyone would tell you she was the sweetest baby they have ever seen, no one would ever have guessed she was so strong. But something was not right. When she should have been walking (10-12 months), she still could not put weight on her legs. I finally agreed with Mommy, even though she knew a long time before I consented that something was wrong, and we took her to a therapist for an examination. The therapist immediately knew something was wrong, but was very careful how she directed us. Mostly she encouraged us to schedule a therapist to come work with her once a week for a year so they could better determine what was going on. We knew something was wrong, so when we dug deeper, she did mention it could possibly be cerebral palsy. We were not familiar with this, so we looked further into it and it sounded just like Adah, and it would mean that Adah would never walk correctly. There is different forms of cerebral palsy, but it never gets worse, and never gets better...you just help them learn to live with it.
We prayed for the best of course, and began our sessions with the therapist. She was now over 16 months old and still could not stand, let alone walk. The therapist said she was about the stage of an 8 month old baby. Adah was eager to please him for whatever reason and would do everything he asked her to. He never gave up hope with her and quickly put our fears to rest and said she did not have cerebral palsy, but what they call "low muscle mass" in her legs. So for the next six months we worked with her to build her strenth in those legs. But we really didn't have to do much, because she is a fighter!
The therapist said she would be walking by her 2nd birthday, and she proved him wrong, she took her first steps with three months to spare! I don't know if this link will work, but if not, you can go to my facebook in the videos and find her first steps.
She has struggled through everything without a complaint, there was never anything wrong with her in her mind, the only frustration is that everyone wants to help her. She wants to do it by herself!!! We are constantly hearing her say "My do it!". She refuses to stay little, if the big siblings do it, she should be able to.
So she is now just over two years old, running around with the other kids (not normal, but not hindered in any way). And below is a picture of our adventure in Glacier National Park over the weekend. This picture has so much meaning to Daddy. The first thing I thought of when I saw it was one of the first thoughts that went through my mind when we realized what cerebral palsy was. I thought, "Adah, don't worry about anything, Daddy will carry you everywhere you need to go for the rest of your life, that is how much I love you." Then looking at this picture I realized she never would have let me. It didn't matter what the doctors said, this girl was not going to allow anything to keep her down. She is a fighter, she is determined, she is stronger than anyone I have ever seen! The only reason she let Daddy carry her in the picture below is because she had already gone as far as she could on her own up the long trail. The entire weekend she had people watching and smiling at her while she struggled up the paths. One guy said "Why don't you tell Daddy to pick you up!", I simply said, "She is determined, she wants to do it by herself."
Adah, I wish I had your strength!Friday, September 2, 2011
Doom, gloom, and blessings
What have we done to our thriving nation?
Terah and I got married in 2000, our first "home" was a two bedroom apartment above some storage units. We had no furniture, just a bed and a small Shopko style table and loud neighbors with thin walls. We all shared the washer and dryer! I worked nights, and she worked part-time days. We lived in this apartment for two years, paying about $500 a month. The landlord loved us. Then we found a small house out in the "country" that we just loved, next to where I had spent my entire life growing up. It was private and cozy for the same amount of money, and another great landlord. We also lived here for two years. Like so many people who are set on the American Dream (which is not bad in and of itself, another subject matter), we wanted our own home. During these four years of working nights, I was also going to college and finally trade school where I was able to get certified in the technology field. My wife picked up a book one day called "The Power of a Praying Wife", the chapter that day described how important it was to pray for the man's job, and so she did. Just an hour or two later, I called her from work and said, "You will never believe what just happened! Someone has asked me to work in the IT department!" So that was the beginning of my work in IT. And after one of the toughest seasons of work in my entire life, working LONG days and weekends in my new IT career, Terah and I finally decided to look for a house of our own. The market was very affordable in today's standards, but we were very scared of jumping into a payment that would nearly double our rent. We jumped out in faith and found a small house in town that was the first of many being built in a new subdivision. This was the end of 2004. (The year is important to recognize as it is a great example of what has happened to our economy in a few short years) We purchased our first home for 130k. Once we settled in, Terah finally got her wish and Daddy agreed it was time to begin our family. Over the course of the next two years, we had three kids and our home increased greatly in value. Unknown to me at the time, and quite frankly, I didn't really care, there was something very significant going on with real estate, banking, and loans. We found we didn't really like living in town once the subdivision grew to have a lot of neighbors and no privacy, but we had no plans to move out anytime soon. Then, one morning at work I received an email of a property listing in our dream location. I wasn't looking for property at all, but I opened this email for some reason and once opened I knew this was for us! It was so perfect that we literally viewed it, made an offer, offer accepted within a matter of a couple of days! How would we be able to afford a property payment and a house payment though? Terah no longer worked, and we had three kids now! I did what I will never do again (hopefully); I took out a 2nd loan against our house that had increased so much in value and used this to pay for the property. The 2nd loan added another $400 a month on a 1% interest I believe to ensure it was not a variable interest rate. The only reason I would make a big move like that was knowing that I would immediately sell our house to build on the property and this 2nd loan would soon be gone. So we quickly put our house on the market and it sold within a week or two ending in a bidding war. The amazing thing is that we nearly doubled the money we paid for it two and a half years prior. And this is the point I am getting to. Long-story made short, we moved in with my parents for 9 months while we built our dream home in our dream location. We paid a large chunk of it with the money we made on the first home, and we have lived here happily ever after for the last four years or so.
All this to show something very interesting. While our first home was very affordable, real estate was booming out of control in other states and would soon hit Idaho. What much of America did not know is that the Clinton administration and possibly the Bush administration were pushing Fanny May and Freddie Mack to purchase billions of dollars worth of home equities from banks all over the US. And I believe banks were encouraged to hand money to people without much qualifications. It started in places like California where the real estate was already more than anyone could afford, so the banks offered interest only loans with variable interest rates after five years. It was the only way people could afford a home! Then Idaho caught up to the real estate boom and as we experienced, properties values doubled in just a couple of years. I remember and am very thankful for our mortgage agent, he said that banks were handing these loans out left and right, but he refused. He said he wouldn't sleep at night knowing they would probably lose their home in five years. Wow, what foresight! Or maybe I should say, what common sense!
Then it happened. Immediately after we sold our first home, everything crashed overnight. There is a good chance we would not have sold our home at the value we did if we had even waited weeks. And so began the start of a failing economy around 2007. With oil hitting record numbers and all of these interest only loans hitting year five, things quickly headed south. People were losing their homes left and right, and the cost of fuel was causing businesses to cut way back. It was a very fast downward spiral, people homeless and jobless, and wall street hitting lows we had not seen since the great depression. It continued to spiral out of control - no one was buying real estate (mostly losing it), so the construction industry died almost immediately. And of course the next thing to go was the logging industry and mills.
What now? We were at the end of the Bush era and the beginning of "change", the Obama administration. The government thought it best to push out $700 billion to stimulate the dying economy. If I remember right, this was the second large stimulus (TARP) they pushed out followed by massive bailouts to big firms such as AIG ($85 billion!), Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, and the auto industries. Then the federal reserve continued to lower interest rates (which are at historic lows today) and print more money. They were band aids to a wound that would soon be infected. While the Bush administration set a record adding a huge amount to the country's deficit with the war on terror, the Obama administration made it look like small beans in just a couple of years doubling the national debt. We have never seen money spending like this in the history of the world - except maybe on a smaller level. Japan went through this same sort of economic slump years ago and took similar actions to fix their economy.
So here we are today. America was hopeful we made it through the depression of 2008. Unfortunately, it is as volatile as ever. Confidence is very low, and wall street has been a roller coaster, mostly headed downward. People are still losing their homes in record numbers and jobs are still the primary concern today. When taking a drive you will see for sale signs everywhere, and many being sold by banks. There are so many problems compounding from actions taken over the prior 10 years, it will take at least that to recover from it. We recently faced America's first default on paying a record deficit and received a lowered credit rating for the first time in our history which added to an already very weak economy. And just today, the feds have began litigation against 17 banks across America to try and get some of the money back from all of the defaulting loans that were sold to Fanny Mae and Freddie Mack. The estimate is that they were sold over $900 billion in loans. Filing law suits with these banks will just hurt confidence in our banking systems even more so. Bank of America recently dove 30% in value!
It has been extremely difficult times for many over the last couple of years; we all have friends and family fighting to keep their homes and their jobs, or finding any kind of work at all. In the end, I have written of a lot of doom and gloom in this post. That is not my nature; I am just interested in these things and it is certainly interesting to watch it all unfold. Sure I miss details and I don't know the entire story. What I do know is this - I trust in the Lord, creator of all that we see, and I trust his promise to take care of me no matter what this economy does. They can take my home, my job, my money, but I will always have everything I need (Matthew 6). The Lord is in control and faithful beyond our comprehension! When I look back over the years, at the present, and into the future, it may get a lot worse. But through it all, God's faithfulness to me and my family is evidenced over and over, and I am a truly blessed child of God!
Terah and I got married in 2000, our first "home" was a two bedroom apartment above some storage units. We had no furniture, just a bed and a small Shopko style table and loud neighbors with thin walls. We all shared the washer and dryer! I worked nights, and she worked part-time days. We lived in this apartment for two years, paying about $500 a month. The landlord loved us. Then we found a small house out in the "country" that we just loved, next to where I had spent my entire life growing up. It was private and cozy for the same amount of money, and another great landlord. We also lived here for two years. Like so many people who are set on the American Dream (which is not bad in and of itself, another subject matter), we wanted our own home. During these four years of working nights, I was also going to college and finally trade school where I was able to get certified in the technology field. My wife picked up a book one day called "The Power of a Praying Wife", the chapter that day described how important it was to pray for the man's job, and so she did. Just an hour or two later, I called her from work and said, "You will never believe what just happened! Someone has asked me to work in the IT department!" So that was the beginning of my work in IT. And after one of the toughest seasons of work in my entire life, working LONG days and weekends in my new IT career, Terah and I finally decided to look for a house of our own. The market was very affordable in today's standards, but we were very scared of jumping into a payment that would nearly double our rent. We jumped out in faith and found a small house in town that was the first of many being built in a new subdivision. This was the end of 2004. (The year is important to recognize as it is a great example of what has happened to our economy in a few short years) We purchased our first home for 130k. Once we settled in, Terah finally got her wish and Daddy agreed it was time to begin our family. Over the course of the next two years, we had three kids and our home increased greatly in value. Unknown to me at the time, and quite frankly, I didn't really care, there was something very significant going on with real estate, banking, and loans. We found we didn't really like living in town once the subdivision grew to have a lot of neighbors and no privacy, but we had no plans to move out anytime soon. Then, one morning at work I received an email of a property listing in our dream location. I wasn't looking for property at all, but I opened this email for some reason and once opened I knew this was for us! It was so perfect that we literally viewed it, made an offer, offer accepted within a matter of a couple of days! How would we be able to afford a property payment and a house payment though? Terah no longer worked, and we had three kids now! I did what I will never do again (hopefully); I took out a 2nd loan against our house that had increased so much in value and used this to pay for the property. The 2nd loan added another $400 a month on a 1% interest I believe to ensure it was not a variable interest rate. The only reason I would make a big move like that was knowing that I would immediately sell our house to build on the property and this 2nd loan would soon be gone. So we quickly put our house on the market and it sold within a week or two ending in a bidding war. The amazing thing is that we nearly doubled the money we paid for it two and a half years prior. And this is the point I am getting to. Long-story made short, we moved in with my parents for 9 months while we built our dream home in our dream location. We paid a large chunk of it with the money we made on the first home, and we have lived here happily ever after for the last four years or so.
All this to show something very interesting. While our first home was very affordable, real estate was booming out of control in other states and would soon hit Idaho. What much of America did not know is that the Clinton administration and possibly the Bush administration were pushing Fanny May and Freddie Mack to purchase billions of dollars worth of home equities from banks all over the US. And I believe banks were encouraged to hand money to people without much qualifications. It started in places like California where the real estate was already more than anyone could afford, so the banks offered interest only loans with variable interest rates after five years. It was the only way people could afford a home! Then Idaho caught up to the real estate boom and as we experienced, properties values doubled in just a couple of years. I remember and am very thankful for our mortgage agent, he said that banks were handing these loans out left and right, but he refused. He said he wouldn't sleep at night knowing they would probably lose their home in five years. Wow, what foresight! Or maybe I should say, what common sense!
Then it happened. Immediately after we sold our first home, everything crashed overnight. There is a good chance we would not have sold our home at the value we did if we had even waited weeks. And so began the start of a failing economy around 2007. With oil hitting record numbers and all of these interest only loans hitting year five, things quickly headed south. People were losing their homes left and right, and the cost of fuel was causing businesses to cut way back. It was a very fast downward spiral, people homeless and jobless, and wall street hitting lows we had not seen since the great depression. It continued to spiral out of control - no one was buying real estate (mostly losing it), so the construction industry died almost immediately. And of course the next thing to go was the logging industry and mills.
What now? We were at the end of the Bush era and the beginning of "change", the Obama administration. The government thought it best to push out $700 billion to stimulate the dying economy. If I remember right, this was the second large stimulus (TARP) they pushed out followed by massive bailouts to big firms such as AIG ($85 billion!), Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, and the auto industries. Then the federal reserve continued to lower interest rates (which are at historic lows today) and print more money. They were band aids to a wound that would soon be infected. While the Bush administration set a record adding a huge amount to the country's deficit with the war on terror, the Obama administration made it look like small beans in just a couple of years doubling the national debt. We have never seen money spending like this in the history of the world - except maybe on a smaller level. Japan went through this same sort of economic slump years ago and took similar actions to fix their economy.
So here we are today. America was hopeful we made it through the depression of 2008. Unfortunately, it is as volatile as ever. Confidence is very low, and wall street has been a roller coaster, mostly headed downward. People are still losing their homes in record numbers and jobs are still the primary concern today. When taking a drive you will see for sale signs everywhere, and many being sold by banks. There are so many problems compounding from actions taken over the prior 10 years, it will take at least that to recover from it. We recently faced America's first default on paying a record deficit and received a lowered credit rating for the first time in our history which added to an already very weak economy. And just today, the feds have began litigation against 17 banks across America to try and get some of the money back from all of the defaulting loans that were sold to Fanny Mae and Freddie Mack. The estimate is that they were sold over $900 billion in loans. Filing law suits with these banks will just hurt confidence in our banking systems even more so. Bank of America recently dove 30% in value!
It has been extremely difficult times for many over the last couple of years; we all have friends and family fighting to keep their homes and their jobs, or finding any kind of work at all. In the end, I have written of a lot of doom and gloom in this post. That is not my nature; I am just interested in these things and it is certainly interesting to watch it all unfold. Sure I miss details and I don't know the entire story. What I do know is this - I trust in the Lord, creator of all that we see, and I trust his promise to take care of me no matter what this economy does. They can take my home, my job, my money, but I will always have everything I need (Matthew 6). The Lord is in control and faithful beyond our comprehension! When I look back over the years, at the present, and into the future, it may get a lot worse. But through it all, God's faithfulness to me and my family is evidenced over and over, and I am a truly blessed child of God!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Blogcast Update
This week was packed full of news, but it is easy to miss, so I will share some highlights.
Probably the biggest news of the week was Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, turning in his resignation, but remaining as chariman of the board. He stated that he would be the first to say when he was no longer fit to fulfill his duties, and that time is now. He recently was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, but it turned out they were able to operate and he is doing well today. Apple was reported as the most valuable business in the US sitting on $75 billion in the bank! Their stocks did slide 4-5% on news of Jobs' resignation however. I was sent a pretty inspiring speech that he gave at a Stanford commencement, you can read that here.
Wallstreet is quite a rollercoaster these days! I am not a doomest, but I still expect to see a recession as bad as 2008 in the near future. It is funny how emotional the DOW is, all you have to do is whisper and it may rise or fall. This week saw a big gain just on a rumor that Bernanke of the Federal Reserve was going to save the day again with a stimulus and start pumping out more money. Then of course we had a big drop the next day when nothing happened. After a steady increase all month in the price of gold, it actually took a big fall this week. It is still expected to possibly hit highs of $2500-$3000 in the coming years.
On another note, I believe it was Bachmann (presidential candidate) who challenged billionaire Warren Buffet to put his money where his mouth was and help pay off some of the growing deficit. While he didn't exactly do that, he did make a very interesting move. He dumped $5 billion into Bank of America, the largest financial institution in America who has seen stocks dive 30% just in August! Of course, he is a billionaire for a reason. He bought when stocks dove, and the next day he had already made around $1.5 billion of his money back - so I hear.
Obama has some rich friends, including Warren Buffet, to help get him through a tough compaign trail. He has lost a lot of support however with the failing economy. He continues to point the finger at bad politics in the Senate, and I don't totally disagree, but that is just part of the problems. There are some interesting candidates running for president on the GOP side, and everyone is still waiting to hear if Palin will decide to jump in the race.
The East is getting pounded, first by a big earth quake, now Hurricane Irene is about to land on the coast.
Russia had a rocket blow up over Siberia on its way to the space station earlier this week. It has been a very bad week for sure!
On the technology side - facebook has just hit 1 trillion page views! And Blogger, which I am currently using to write this post, has been listed in the top 7 sites to become like a ghost town. In fact, to get anyone to read this, I will have to first link it on Facebook! :) Everyone seems to prefer a short post on Twitter and Facebook these days. And who does MySpace anymore?
I thought this was pretty fitting for this week's news:
The Weather Channel says yesterdays east coast earthquake was caused by an unknown fault line running under D.C. and through Virginia. It is now being called Obama's Fault, though Obama will say it's really Bush's Fault. Another theory is that it was the founding fathers rolling over in their graves, but I believe what we all thought was an earthquake was actually the effects of a 14.6 trillion dollar check bouncing in Washington.
Wacky Newsflash:
Qaddafi seems to have a crush on Condoleeza Rice! Rebels found a photo album in his compound. He stated his love for her back in 2007. Ok, so now this is starting to sound more like Entertainment Tonight or something (is that still a show?). This post has gone downhill, I think I will retire!
That is the latest update on my blogcast, more to come!
Probably the biggest news of the week was Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, turning in his resignation, but remaining as chariman of the board. He stated that he would be the first to say when he was no longer fit to fulfill his duties, and that time is now. He recently was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, but it turned out they were able to operate and he is doing well today. Apple was reported as the most valuable business in the US sitting on $75 billion in the bank! Their stocks did slide 4-5% on news of Jobs' resignation however. I was sent a pretty inspiring speech that he gave at a Stanford commencement, you can read that here.
Wallstreet is quite a rollercoaster these days! I am not a doomest, but I still expect to see a recession as bad as 2008 in the near future. It is funny how emotional the DOW is, all you have to do is whisper and it may rise or fall. This week saw a big gain just on a rumor that Bernanke of the Federal Reserve was going to save the day again with a stimulus and start pumping out more money. Then of course we had a big drop the next day when nothing happened. After a steady increase all month in the price of gold, it actually took a big fall this week. It is still expected to possibly hit highs of $2500-$3000 in the coming years.
On another note, I believe it was Bachmann (presidential candidate) who challenged billionaire Warren Buffet to put his money where his mouth was and help pay off some of the growing deficit. While he didn't exactly do that, he did make a very interesting move. He dumped $5 billion into Bank of America, the largest financial institution in America who has seen stocks dive 30% just in August! Of course, he is a billionaire for a reason. He bought when stocks dove, and the next day he had already made around $1.5 billion of his money back - so I hear.
Obama has some rich friends, including Warren Buffet, to help get him through a tough compaign trail. He has lost a lot of support however with the failing economy. He continues to point the finger at bad politics in the Senate, and I don't totally disagree, but that is just part of the problems. There are some interesting candidates running for president on the GOP side, and everyone is still waiting to hear if Palin will decide to jump in the race.
The East is getting pounded, first by a big earth quake, now Hurricane Irene is about to land on the coast.
Russia had a rocket blow up over Siberia on its way to the space station earlier this week. It has been a very bad week for sure!
On the technology side - facebook has just hit 1 trillion page views! And Blogger, which I am currently using to write this post, has been listed in the top 7 sites to become like a ghost town. In fact, to get anyone to read this, I will have to first link it on Facebook! :) Everyone seems to prefer a short post on Twitter and Facebook these days. And who does MySpace anymore?
I thought this was pretty fitting for this week's news:
The Weather Channel says yesterdays east coast earthquake was caused by an unknown fault line running under D.C. and through Virginia. It is now being called Obama's Fault, though Obama will say it's really Bush's Fault. Another theory is that it was the founding fathers rolling over in their graves, but I believe what we all thought was an earthquake was actually the effects of a 14.6 trillion dollar check bouncing in Washington.
Wacky Newsflash:
Qaddafi seems to have a crush on Condoleeza Rice! Rebels found a photo album in his compound. He stated his love for her back in 2007. Ok, so now this is starting to sound more like Entertainment Tonight or something (is that still a show?). This post has gone downhill, I think I will retire!
That is the latest update on my blogcast, more to come!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Favorite Technology Resources
Here are some of my favorite resources when it comes to buying computer equipment and other related items.
- BUY.COM - this site seems to sell everything! I have only bought computer equipment from them however. And there are some great deals to search for! A couple of my favorites:
*Norton Antivirus - when it comes time to renew my antivirus, instead of paying $60 to renew another year, I simply go here and buy a new copy of Norton Antivirus for use with three computers. If you buy just antivirus, it may be as cheap as $10! If you get the 360 version with a lot more protection, you will pay more, but half the cost of renewing.
*LCD screens - they are getting cheaper all of the time, but BUY.COM seems to have the best deals. The problem is, there are too many to choose from! I would recommend this one. This is definitely the best deal for the price - $150! A little bit more and you can jump this 22" LED up to a 24". And if you are like me, you will have to buy two - can't work with just one screen! - NEWEGG.COM - While you can get some items at a really good price at BUY.COM, it can be difficult to get specific computer parts. If you are searching for specific parts at the best price or even building your own computer, NEWEGG.COM is your one stop shop. This site has every computer part you can imagine at the best prices. We have been building some nice computers at work for right around $600 (6 core processors, 8-16GB memory, mirror'd 500GB drives, and more...). I purchased two car stereos for nearly half price through newegg!
- DELLAUCTION.COM - Are you searching for a computer or laptop but you don't have much money? This site may be for you! I think I may be the biggest customer on this site, I have probably bought hundreds of computers here, dozens of them for friends and family. I must add a disclaimer here: THESE ARE REFURBISHED COMPUTERS. This is where Dell sells their off-leased and refurbished laptops, desktops, and monitors. I can't tell you how long your computer will last when buying from this site - some do have problems. You can win a laptop for as cheap as $200 if you are patient, and desktops for even cheaper! It would be a good idea to watch it for a few days to get a feel of the pricing - it works similar to ebay, with a few minor differences. I find it easiest to find what I am looking for with the specs I want (Latitude or Optiplex with at least 2048mb memory and an OS, dvd-rw a bonus, bigger harddrive a bonus), and I don't bid until there is just over 10 minutes left. That is your best chance to sneak a bid in without someone noticing until the last five minutes. Any bid under the 10 minute mark will put the auction timer back to 10 minutes. If you figure the system out, you will get some great deals! The desktops come in "used" condition, but run great. The laptops usually come in "like new" condition! I even won a nice projector for half the cost of a new one that we are still using at our church.
- Laptops - Being in the technology field, I get non-stop inquiries about buying laptops. I can only tell you what I am familiar with, and I am not always up on the latest. In my experience, Dell, HP, Toshiba, and IBM are the top runners. HP is the most affordable, and everyone that buys them seems to love them. I have never liked them in the corporate world however. I don't particularly care for the Inspiron line of Dell laptops either, but I think they have replaced this line with Vostro. The Latitude should do great! Toshiba is more expensive, but one of the highest rated consumer laptops. IBM is like buying a Mac, they are top of the line, but you pay for the name! If you have twice the amount of money, go ahead, buy a Mac. Costco and Staples actually carry pretty good deals on some of these laptops. You can usually do well on the web also. The best time of the year to buy is right after Thanksgiving on into Christmas. If you are really tight on the budget, go back to my 3rd item in this post.
- EBAY.COM - If you know what you want and have priced it out, take a minute to look it up on ebay and you are sure to find a cheaper price for it. You may even be willing to take a used item that is in great shape for half the cost.
- B&H Photo - There are some great resources for photographers out there, but unfortunately, there are a lot of black market dealers too. I realize there are more resources than I will mention, but I found B&H Photo to have great prices and customer service for all of my wife's photography needs. They even have the option to buy "Made in USA" vs items made elsewhere.
- CNET.COM - There are so many devices to choose from - phones, cameras, tablets, laptops, desktops - how do you know what to get? Well, a lot of it becomes preference in the end, especially when you are considering all the different variations of Droids vs an iPhone or Blackberry. I have stopped trying to keep up with this stuff, if I have questions, I can go to CNET.COM. They have some great reviews of just about every device you can think of.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Interesting news this week
1. Google is buying Motorola. This will give them a huge edge in the cell phone/tablet market. It will probably hurt Apple the most. The talk is "Will Microsoft step up to the plate?" That would most likely mean they buy out Nokia who they already partner with. Ironically or not so much, Google's credit rating dropped with the purchase of Motorola. Motorola's stocks have come down in value, which is probably the cause of this, and also the reason Google has jumped in to buy them while they are down.
2. HP is throwing in the towel. The #1 consumer computer in the world, but their phones and tablets are losing big and they are even thinking of selling their low profit personal computer business and investing in the more lucrative corporate server, software, and services business. I would hate to see them go that far - Dude, I guess you get a Dell, the next most widely sold computer. HPs stocks took a dive (-20%) on the news they were selling out their market in the pc world. They were the worst performer by far on the DOW today.
3. Wallstreet is still really struggling. I have been expecting this, so I personally think it will keep falling down as bad or worse than 2008. Gold is gaining by the hour! The economy is certainly not in good shape. We are just going to keep hearing more stories like HP and Bank of America who has had stocks tank over the last couple of weeks and expects to have massive job cuts over the next two months. Europe's economy is also a big player in the DOW's performance, but the jobs and economic confidence seem to be the big players in its downward spiral.
4. CNBC did a survey on the most hated jobs in America. Of the top 10, 5 of them were technology jobs, with #1 being the Director of IT. The reasons for hating their job was working after hours, not being appreciated, working with "ignorant" people, everyone hates the IT dept, and working with old and failing equipment because they don't give you a budget to buy good equipment. As a friend pointed out on this subject, it is bitter-sweet, love-hate. Love the field of work, but it is not easy. I guess I should look for a different line of work since the statistics show I hate my job. :) [Article linked here]
2. HP is throwing in the towel. The #1 consumer computer in the world, but their phones and tablets are losing big and they are even thinking of selling their low profit personal computer business and investing in the more lucrative corporate server, software, and services business. I would hate to see them go that far - Dude, I guess you get a Dell, the next most widely sold computer. HPs stocks took a dive (-20%) on the news they were selling out their market in the pc world. They were the worst performer by far on the DOW today.
3. Wallstreet is still really struggling. I have been expecting this, so I personally think it will keep falling down as bad or worse than 2008. Gold is gaining by the hour! The economy is certainly not in good shape. We are just going to keep hearing more stories like HP and Bank of America who has had stocks tank over the last couple of weeks and expects to have massive job cuts over the next two months. Europe's economy is also a big player in the DOW's performance, but the jobs and economic confidence seem to be the big players in its downward spiral.
4. CNBC did a survey on the most hated jobs in America. Of the top 10, 5 of them were technology jobs, with #1 being the Director of IT. The reasons for hating their job was working after hours, not being appreciated, working with "ignorant" people, everyone hates the IT dept, and working with old and failing equipment because they don't give you a budget to buy good equipment. As a friend pointed out on this subject, it is bitter-sweet, love-hate. Love the field of work, but it is not easy. I guess I should look for a different line of work since the statistics show I hate my job. :) [Article linked here]
The technological paradigm shift
There has been some major paradigm shifts happening over the last couple of years due to technology. If you aren't advancing your business in some cases, you will sink! Many industries have made this mistake and paid dearly.
1. Netflix and Redbox have ended the days of video rentals and put the rental stores out of business. And after just a couple of years of this shift we are already seeing another big shift - Netflix is raising their prices and changing their subscriptions in such a way that they will lose millions of customers (including me). Walmart is jumping in the streaming business now as a big player with vudu and no subscriptions, just pay as you go. And hulu.com is also moving up in the world offering free streaming of movies and tv shows as long as you don't mind advertisements (otherwise you pay). Many people are choosing to shut off their satellite, especially now that all of these new TVs have Netflix and other apps built in! In my best estimate, Redbox will be out of business also if they don't change their business to streaming. Gone are the days of dvds - streaming is becoming more and more available (except in North Idaho of course where you find the slowest internet in the nation).
2. In much the same way, recording enterprises are losing tons of money. They thought they were losing with pirating (and they are), now they are losing because no one buys cds! Everything can be purchased through iTunes - just buy your favorite songs for $.99, you don't have to purchase the entire album. Download them directly to your iPod, iPhone, Droid, computer, xbox, wii, playstation, TV! Even better, just use Pandora or Last FM and many other streaming apps and stream your favorite music everywhere you go. I recently purchased two stereos for my cars, why? CDs are a pain and never work. Now I simply plug my phone into the stereo and either play my favorite playlist, or stream my favorite tunes with Pandora. So you can also say good-bye to satellite radio, drop your Sirius account and stream for free!
3. Along the same shift in technology as the two examples above - Borders is going out of business and shutting down all of their stores. Why? To start with, I need only say "Amazon". I think what may have driven the nail in is everyone buying iPads and Kindles (admittedly, that is my assumption). You can now download books to your devices and read them at your leisure everywhere you go. I have even read a few books on my iPhone! There will always be hardcopy book lovers like my wife (until I buy her an iPad that is), but with Borders closing their doors, it is obvious that things are changing drastically. When I prepare my devotions, I am using digital Bible references as the search pulls the information up instantly!
4. My wife didn't know where her phone was today and the boys had my phone, so I couldn't call it to help her find it. Within seconds, I pulled up my Google account on my laptop, hit the "call" button, dialed her phone number and her phone began ringing. Wow! Say good-bye to long-distance, get a Google account.
5. We are even seeing some great advances in the corporate environment. One being what they call "Unified Messaging". This would be difficult to explain. Basically, your "presence" is everywhere you go and is known at all times to all of your colleagues. You can be reached at anytime if you choose to be by many different means - phone, email, instant messaging. It all works together. You can listen to your voicemail from your inbox, you can answer your phone from your computer, you can instant message from your cell phone - on and on.
6. Another advancement in the corporate IT world is virtualization. This is really cool! You buy one BIG server, install a host operating system, then the fun begins - you start building virtual guest servers on top of this server. The end user can't tell any difference, still accessing data and resources as normal, but in IT you are dealing with one piece of hardware and paying for power to one box, but running possibly 10 servers on that one box! It gets better! You can assign harddrive space, cpu, and memory allocations dynamically to these different guest servers as needed! We recently ran out of diskspace on one of our virtual servers, so I simply configured the settings and added 100GB - no added hardware, no downtime, all virtual settings! If you have some catastrophic failure of a virtual machine, no worries, just restore the last snapshot you took and you are back up. (of course it is not that simple when you need the latest data restored, but it is that simple when you need the server up and running!)
7. Cell phones! Say good-bye to your land-lines if you have not already done so. This has been a huge shift in today's culture. I still remember waiting for the neighbors to get off the line so I could make a phone call on a rotary phone (what is that? my kids say). Unfortunately, I think Frontier invested in a dying business when they bought out Verizon's land-lines - I could be wrong. Verizon has recognized the paradigm shift and they have invested heavily into the wireless technologies. Wow, this technology is impossible to keep up with. New phones and technologies are coming out every month. Some people are set in their ways and refuse to "get with the now", which is fine, but it doesn't take long to realize how too convenient this becomes. My wife is a perfect example. We dropped our land line and got her a cell phone at little more cost so I could reach her even when she was not at home. This didn't work so well for the first year and a half; she was not so good with her cell phone. Then, I got her one of these "new" phones (iPhone) and now I can email her, text her, or call her to reach her. This doesn't fix the problem of her leaving her phone in various locations, but it does help a lot. Three ways of communication, and a lot more features on her phone which makes it more likely that she has it with her at all times and I will reach her. There are so many more examples - having turn by turn directions everywhere you go. Losing your phone is not a problem, just jump on your online account from any computer and it will show you exactly where your phone is. Within seconds, you can be calling your local restaurant to make a reservation for your arrival in 20 minutes - yes, say good-bye to your phone books as well! The apps are endless - tune your guitar (or play a guitar for that matter!), play games, watch movies, stream music, read books, or if you are like me you watch the PGA tour while the wife is inside shopping at Target. On the new iPhones and iPads, you have "Facetime". You can do video calls! One of my favorites - I have downloaded hundreds of podcasts for my listening pleasure to and from work. And of course there is texting. No need to even comment here, some people would not be able to survive on a plan that only had 2000 texts a month. In the IT realm, we have software that will alert our phones when servers go down, when they get too hot, when someone enters the server room. We usually know there is a problem before someone calls our phones to tell us about it.
8. Facebook - I included this because it really is a culture change. Facebook, email, instant messaging, texting, and blogs have done away with endless phone calls to your friends. Of course if you are stuck in the past, you think this has really ruined society and no one knows how to communicate or be personal anymore. I am not sure I would argue this, but one thing I will say that this new technology has done - it has made us more connected then we have ever been. Like I said before, there is texting, email, blogs, etc, but Facebook has really taken this to a new level. I have connected with hundreds of people I would not have otherwise. I can see their various comments, activities, pictures, status whether I like it or not. I know more about them now than I ever would have. To make it worse, I see it everywhere I go because I have one of those fancy phones that keeps me connected 24/7. This is not always good, I admit.
***Yes there is more. I will not even get everything, these are just some of the technology changes off the top of my head. I am not even going to get into cameras and photography!
9. INTERNET - this may well be the biggest cause of all the changes we are seeing today. The ".com" world changed everything many years ago, then Yahoo and Google opened our eyes to a world of information at our fingertips. Google is an IT guy's best friend! I have heard it said recently that Google has made us dummer. We don't have to know anything anymore, just search for the answer on Google. But now with increasing bandwidth and information overload, the way we access this information is changing by the day. As stated before, with the latest cell phones, we have access to this information everywhere we go. Consider this though - until recently, you have not had the bandwidth to support all of this new stuff. Now that bandwidth is increasing (faster internet speeds to your home and to your cell phone), you are able to watch movies, stream music, access emails, watch youtube, download books - and one of my favorites streaming March Madness! It is this kind of access that has put the movie stores, the book stores, and music industries in a downward spiral. And it is just going to increase. You may or may not realize what is on the horizon. As I stated before, Verizon is investing billions into their wireless technology, as is AT&T. In the very near future, you will begin to see the new "4G" networks going up. If you live in a metropolitan area, this is not as good of news as it is for the rest of us. Yes it is good for everyone who does everything from their high-tech cell phones, but now for those of us in the rural and beautiful landscapes of America, we will finally have high-speed internet like we have never seen before. Yes, the wireless internet your cell phone uses will now replace your home internet! If you are lucky, you might get 6mb download speeds in Sandpoint. They are boasting up to 20mb+ with this new 4G! In fact, a friend of mine is currently installing AT&Ts 4G in Sandpoint...hmmm.
10. Ok, so I will stop at ten technological advances. And for this one I will not pull a Steve Jobs and keep this technology a big secret. Computers are constantly changing. I will soon have a six core processor in my computer and some day add a third screen. However, this is not the latest technology I am referring to in this last description of advancements. I am sharing my next innovation of a computer. It is much more cost effective, and much easier to upgrade or repair. We call it "TheBox". As you can see, I have gutted a computer and simply set it on a cardboard box - all the airflow it will ever need now. I may need to upgrade to a bigger cardboard box, but that upgrade is most likely going to be free - now that is technology I can afford!
It's a crazy world out there, and if you come from the big corporations, you are expected to be present 24/7, and it IS possible. I am writing this from various locations in my house - the couch, the kitchen while I make popcorn, quite possibly finishing up on my hammock outside. At any moment I can access everything I need to at work to maintain our systems and keep our users productive. For now, I think I will enjoy my popcorn and technology, and stream a movie for my lovely wife and I to enjoy together.
1. Netflix and Redbox have ended the days of video rentals and put the rental stores out of business. And after just a couple of years of this shift we are already seeing another big shift - Netflix is raising their prices and changing their subscriptions in such a way that they will lose millions of customers (including me). Walmart is jumping in the streaming business now as a big player with vudu and no subscriptions, just pay as you go. And hulu.com is also moving up in the world offering free streaming of movies and tv shows as long as you don't mind advertisements (otherwise you pay). Many people are choosing to shut off their satellite, especially now that all of these new TVs have Netflix and other apps built in! In my best estimate, Redbox will be out of business also if they don't change their business to streaming. Gone are the days of dvds - streaming is becoming more and more available (except in North Idaho of course where you find the slowest internet in the nation).
2. In much the same way, recording enterprises are losing tons of money. They thought they were losing with pirating (and they are), now they are losing because no one buys cds! Everything can be purchased through iTunes - just buy your favorite songs for $.99, you don't have to purchase the entire album. Download them directly to your iPod, iPhone, Droid, computer, xbox, wii, playstation, TV! Even better, just use Pandora or Last FM and many other streaming apps and stream your favorite music everywhere you go. I recently purchased two stereos for my cars, why? CDs are a pain and never work. Now I simply plug my phone into the stereo and either play my favorite playlist, or stream my favorite tunes with Pandora. So you can also say good-bye to satellite radio, drop your Sirius account and stream for free!
3. Along the same shift in technology as the two examples above - Borders is going out of business and shutting down all of their stores. Why? To start with, I need only say "Amazon". I think what may have driven the nail in is everyone buying iPads and Kindles (admittedly, that is my assumption). You can now download books to your devices and read them at your leisure everywhere you go. I have even read a few books on my iPhone! There will always be hardcopy book lovers like my wife (until I buy her an iPad that is), but with Borders closing their doors, it is obvious that things are changing drastically. When I prepare my devotions, I am using digital Bible references as the search pulls the information up instantly!
4. My wife didn't know where her phone was today and the boys had my phone, so I couldn't call it to help her find it. Within seconds, I pulled up my Google account on my laptop, hit the "call" button, dialed her phone number and her phone began ringing. Wow! Say good-bye to long-distance, get a Google account.
5. We are even seeing some great advances in the corporate environment. One being what they call "Unified Messaging". This would be difficult to explain. Basically, your "presence" is everywhere you go and is known at all times to all of your colleagues. You can be reached at anytime if you choose to be by many different means - phone, email, instant messaging. It all works together. You can listen to your voicemail from your inbox, you can answer your phone from your computer, you can instant message from your cell phone - on and on.
6. Another advancement in the corporate IT world is virtualization. This is really cool! You buy one BIG server, install a host operating system, then the fun begins - you start building virtual guest servers on top of this server. The end user can't tell any difference, still accessing data and resources as normal, but in IT you are dealing with one piece of hardware and paying for power to one box, but running possibly 10 servers on that one box! It gets better! You can assign harddrive space, cpu, and memory allocations dynamically to these different guest servers as needed! We recently ran out of diskspace on one of our virtual servers, so I simply configured the settings and added 100GB - no added hardware, no downtime, all virtual settings! If you have some catastrophic failure of a virtual machine, no worries, just restore the last snapshot you took and you are back up. (of course it is not that simple when you need the latest data restored, but it is that simple when you need the server up and running!)
7. Cell phones! Say good-bye to your land-lines if you have not already done so. This has been a huge shift in today's culture. I still remember waiting for the neighbors to get off the line so I could make a phone call on a rotary phone (what is that? my kids say). Unfortunately, I think Frontier invested in a dying business when they bought out Verizon's land-lines - I could be wrong. Verizon has recognized the paradigm shift and they have invested heavily into the wireless technologies. Wow, this technology is impossible to keep up with. New phones and technologies are coming out every month. Some people are set in their ways and refuse to "get with the now", which is fine, but it doesn't take long to realize how too convenient this becomes. My wife is a perfect example. We dropped our land line and got her a cell phone at little more cost so I could reach her even when she was not at home. This didn't work so well for the first year and a half; she was not so good with her cell phone. Then, I got her one of these "new" phones (iPhone) and now I can email her, text her, or call her to reach her. This doesn't fix the problem of her leaving her phone in various locations, but it does help a lot. Three ways of communication, and a lot more features on her phone which makes it more likely that she has it with her at all times and I will reach her. There are so many more examples - having turn by turn directions everywhere you go. Losing your phone is not a problem, just jump on your online account from any computer and it will show you exactly where your phone is. Within seconds, you can be calling your local restaurant to make a reservation for your arrival in 20 minutes - yes, say good-bye to your phone books as well! The apps are endless - tune your guitar (or play a guitar for that matter!), play games, watch movies, stream music, read books, or if you are like me you watch the PGA tour while the wife is inside shopping at Target. On the new iPhones and iPads, you have "Facetime". You can do video calls! One of my favorites - I have downloaded hundreds of podcasts for my listening pleasure to and from work. And of course there is texting. No need to even comment here, some people would not be able to survive on a plan that only had 2000 texts a month. In the IT realm, we have software that will alert our phones when servers go down, when they get too hot, when someone enters the server room. We usually know there is a problem before someone calls our phones to tell us about it.
8. Facebook - I included this because it really is a culture change. Facebook, email, instant messaging, texting, and blogs have done away with endless phone calls to your friends. Of course if you are stuck in the past, you think this has really ruined society and no one knows how to communicate or be personal anymore. I am not sure I would argue this, but one thing I will say that this new technology has done - it has made us more connected then we have ever been. Like I said before, there is texting, email, blogs, etc, but Facebook has really taken this to a new level. I have connected with hundreds of people I would not have otherwise. I can see their various comments, activities, pictures, status whether I like it or not. I know more about them now than I ever would have. To make it worse, I see it everywhere I go because I have one of those fancy phones that keeps me connected 24/7. This is not always good, I admit.
***Yes there is more. I will not even get everything, these are just some of the technology changes off the top of my head. I am not even going to get into cameras and photography!
9. INTERNET - this may well be the biggest cause of all the changes we are seeing today. The ".com" world changed everything many years ago, then Yahoo and Google opened our eyes to a world of information at our fingertips. Google is an IT guy's best friend! I have heard it said recently that Google has made us dummer. We don't have to know anything anymore, just search for the answer on Google. But now with increasing bandwidth and information overload, the way we access this information is changing by the day. As stated before, with the latest cell phones, we have access to this information everywhere we go. Consider this though - until recently, you have not had the bandwidth to support all of this new stuff. Now that bandwidth is increasing (faster internet speeds to your home and to your cell phone), you are able to watch movies, stream music, access emails, watch youtube, download books - and one of my favorites streaming March Madness! It is this kind of access that has put the movie stores, the book stores, and music industries in a downward spiral. And it is just going to increase. You may or may not realize what is on the horizon. As I stated before, Verizon is investing billions into their wireless technology, as is AT&T. In the very near future, you will begin to see the new "4G" networks going up. If you live in a metropolitan area, this is not as good of news as it is for the rest of us. Yes it is good for everyone who does everything from their high-tech cell phones, but now for those of us in the rural and beautiful landscapes of America, we will finally have high-speed internet like we have never seen before. Yes, the wireless internet your cell phone uses will now replace your home internet! If you are lucky, you might get 6mb download speeds in Sandpoint. They are boasting up to 20mb+ with this new 4G! In fact, a friend of mine is currently installing AT&Ts 4G in Sandpoint...hmmm.
10. Ok, so I will stop at ten technological advances. And for this one I will not pull a Steve Jobs and keep this technology a big secret. Computers are constantly changing. I will soon have a six core processor in my computer and some day add a third screen. However, this is not the latest technology I am referring to in this last description of advancements. I am sharing my next innovation of a computer. It is much more cost effective, and much easier to upgrade or repair. We call it "TheBox". As you can see, I have gutted a computer and simply set it on a cardboard box - all the airflow it will ever need now. I may need to upgrade to a bigger cardboard box, but that upgrade is most likely going to be free - now that is technology I can afford!
It's a crazy world out there, and if you come from the big corporations, you are expected to be present 24/7, and it IS possible. I am writing this from various locations in my house - the couch, the kitchen while I make popcorn, quite possibly finishing up on my hammock outside. At any moment I can access everything I need to at work to maintain our systems and keep our users productive. For now, I think I will enjoy my popcorn and technology, and stream a movie for my lovely wife and I to enjoy together.
Welcome!
Welcome fellow blogcasters! I decided with all of the changes going on in today's world, good and bad, I would begin posting my thoughts on these events from time to time. I hope you enjoy!
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