Author Archives: bluedepth

Whither LTE?

Posted on by
Reply

I just got a notice that Verizon is going to be expanding their LTE service in the lower peninsula of Michigan and covering Flint, Detroit, Lansing, and Grand Rapids. That Kalamazoo isn’t on that list is only sauce for the goose of course, but it’s a particular bittersweet sauce.

What’s the problem with really fast mobile broadband traffic? The problem is twofold, and it’s partially a problem with the consumer group and partially with the carrier. First, what is the consumer going to do with 5 to 12 mbps downlink and 2 to 5 mbps uplink? It comes down to applications and the speeds at which they are most well suited. Mobile data currently is composed of streaming traffic such as XM and Pandora, PIM data such as BES traffic, email, CalDAV and CardDAV traffic, and small application data such as navigation apps and other social media applications. Currently all of these applications work well on 3G networks, and moving to LTE, well, what would that get you? The applications themselves aren’t really going to benefit from the increase in network speed, but there is one network application that will benefit and that is video. Video uplink and video downlink. Much like what drove VHS development in the eighties and nineties, it is going to be pornography that will flow over these fast circuits. It’s not productivity anymore, that putters along at 3G speeds, now it’s going to be prurient content that dominates the airwaves once LTE traffic is established. This of course is a trap. The next problem is the carrier itself. LTE traffic is going to encourage people to consume more network traffic over their mobile device and porn is just the tip of the iceberg. Verizon is going to establish data caps, if they haven’t already, and this is going to be a cash cow for any carrier. If you give a busy male executive “Broadband in your pocket” then he’s going to most likely end up trying to seek out “Broads in your pocket”. They’ll be pounding down the gigabytes. After that, the only other application that is best suited for really fast networks is BitTorrent traffic. So people will be consuming porn and illegal movies on their mobile devices and generally making both a biochemical and legal mess of themselves.

Of course we can’t discount the why behind LTE. Verizon, along with all the other carriers are pressured to always enhance their services that they provide. So much like the insipid megapixel battles when digital cameras were first being developed we’ll now have a “G” battle over ever-increasing speeds. A network that is super-fast, built for porn and huge carrier bills. This has your average white male shareholders pants filling with reproductive fluids just at the thought of the profits-to-come.

So I call bullshit on LTE. It’s bullshit because it’s core application is fapping. If that’s all there is, then LTE is just that, just so much fapping. It’s bullshit because it’s a money trap for fools dumb enough to subscribe to it. Once the population gets this mobile broadband experience they are going to blithely blow right past their data caps and land smack dab in wireless-bill-bankruptcy. I can’t wait until the wife opens the bill and sees a $1600 charge for a massive use of data and ask her husband, who told her that the reason his right arm was so much bigger than his left was because of his handedness in Tennis. Of course. Sure it is. The only people who will benefit from LTE will be the carriers. They’ll be raking in the cash and laughing their way to the bank. Mark my words.

SUNY Buffalo

Posted on by
Reply

Talk about a blast from the past! I noticed a few weeks ago @GenerationSUNY’s twitter feed talking about the SUNY report card being presented by Chancellor Zimpher and that reminded me about @ub_alumni. It’s a curious condition I’m in. I work for WMU’s Development and Alumni Relations department and here I am talking to my alma mater’s Alumni department. The things I’ve learned here at Western, things I never thought I’d actively use in pleasant conversation all of a sudden are now directly relevant.

So of course the nice people who staff the @ub_alumni account gave me a link to their Alumni connect website. This is exceptionally comic since the system I tried to get into is the same, at least thematically, that we are attempting to bring to WMU alums right here and now. So on I go. I know a few things, mostly my UB Person Number, when your grades are in a list and it’s sorted by this number, you know it. It’s a number that’s as with-me as my Social Security Number is. And I dimly remember my username that used to be on UB’s computer system, which as I remember was a Solaris Unix system. Ah, the geeky stuff you remember. And then I made contact with @ub_alumni on Twitter. They helped me remember my password to the UB Connect site and once I got in I remembered that many many months, maybe even years, yikes, I got a letter in the mail from UB offering UBMail, their email account they offered all alums through Google. This letter, as I remember, came hot on the heels of WMU’s decision to either go with Merit’s hosted Zimbra infrastructure or to go with Google’s infrastructure for email services for higher ed. There was something very deeply satisfying to know that my alma mater elected to go with Google, and that my arguments for Google and against Zimbra were at least backed up by my alma mater’s choice. I remember laughing heartily because my alma mater is nearly the same size, at least when it comes to students, as WMU is. Golly, if it works for Buffalo, maybe it’d work for Western?!? Bah, it’s all water under the bridge.

This left-field connection did get me to wander around SUNY Buffalo’s website, and I even looked at the Giving site and YES, I did think about giving. Before anyone gets all hot and bothered, I’ve given the last two times UB’s Annual Fund called me, my basic $35 donation, so keep your knickers on people. Jeesh. 🙂 But while I was looking at the site my mind started to wander and then I started to remember. At first it was funny odd little stories, things about South Campus, about the goofy city trolley that didn’t go all the way to North Campus because the rich, well-heeled slobs in Amherst couldn’t stand the idea of poor homeless people taking a trolley from the city up into their palatial bedroom community and reminding them about how hard life is, especially in Buffalo. Other memories too, from my house that I rented on Stockbridge Ave in Buffalo, with the people who I lived with, and regretted, it’s one of the few decisions that I made that was honestly really bad. And then the sillier stuff. Like being too drunk to drive, rather too drunk to walk even, and taking a cab from somewhere in the Red Jacket Quadrangle in Legoland all the way back to Clement Hall on South Campus and telling the cabbie that I didn’t have any cash. Then discovering that I had over $40 in quarters in my jeans pocket. That I couldn’t remember that little fact or the giant bulge of coinage in my pocket while the upset cabbie drove away was a memory that did stand out, and still does to this day. I also remember my classes, the halls, and as I continued to let my mind wander I realized just how much fun I had at UB. I met some of my best friends there, and at least one I still am friends with to this day. We met when I was 18, and now I’m almost 36. Oddly enough the funny memories are really quite embarrassing really. Like the rude knowledge of what the LGBT SA offices couch must have witnessed, to how many power tools were confiscated out of that office. Ahem. That sort of thing really stays with you. At least I can say that none of those drills, jigs, or saws were mine. And if you were wondering why such things were contraband, you are too pure and innocent to read any further. 🙂

After I graduated from UB I eventually ended up in Kalamazoo, Michigan and working for Western Michigan University. I couldn’t help but compare the two. One had a covered walkway system from one hall all the way across campus to the other end that kept you out of the weather. The other did not. Now that I look back, one of the smallest things that someone can remember really sticks out. Not having to trudge through a downpour or a blizzard as you walked the Spine really dwells quite prominently in my memory. But as much as WMU has foibles and shortcomings, at least both schools had some rather lame similarities. As you approach UB’s North Campus you see Cook and Hochstetter Halls, they look big and bold and grand and then… the rest of the campus. The two Universities look very much alike. Squat little brick buildings, most starting to age rather poorly. The one thing I do remember quite clearly, and why this sticks out does humor me, is that the chairs at UB were really really good. The chairs at Western are actually impossible to use, at least some of them in the very oldest of our buildings. It’s funny how the little things stick out in your memory like big sore thumbs.

So after I cleared up from my walk down memory lane I tried my hand at the UBMail thing again. That was just as impenetrable as it was the first time I tried to get into it, it’s one thing that UB really didn’t make easy, especially for alums who were out of contact for a good long while and forgot bits like usernames and passwords to student accounts the student didn’t think they’d ever need again. But all is not lost, I was able to contact the UB IT Help Desk and asked for a password reset. I have to admit to feeling quite awkward calling CIT’s Help Desk, only because contacting our own OIT is a fools errand and contacting the Help Desk here isn’t something that is done, really, ever. Oh well, what the hell, so I called the CIT Help Desk at my alma mater and talked to a nice fellow who asked me to scan and email some photo ID verifying my identity and to call back in half an hour. That was fine, and I was impressed, at least they knew what to ask for and used the phonetic alphabet when it was relevant. I wonder if the people who got my email at buffalo.edu notice the wmich.edu address. Yeah yeah yeah, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. 🙂 One thing I did notice was that the music on-hold was promotional material for UB and was designed to make you feel proud to have attended UB. Again I can’t help but compare…

All that’s old is new again. Maybe some day when I head back east to visit family in CNY I might make a stop or two on South Campus and North Campus and do a little wandering around. See what UB has done to itself in the intervening years that I’ve been away. Once I get free of my obligations, I’ll likely start giving to UB, at least more than the $35 hush-money I currently give them. *shrug* This is how it happens. Alums graduate and think nothing of where they came from until years and years later and all the good or funny things stick out in your memory while all the unpleasantness is forgotten. You get caught up in so much of those memories that you start to romanticize those memories, and before you know it, you’re writing $2000 checks to your alma mater without giving it a single thought. Huh.

Genesee Cream Ale

Posted on by
Reply

Driving through Kalamazoo I can’t help but notice the billboards that creep around town and breed. They spawn clusters of baby billboards and before you know it every square inch of boring natural imagery is obliterated by a billboard. On these billboards is a new ad campaign for of all things, now, hold on to your butts… Genesee Beer.

For those that aren’t laughing right now, you have no idea the inside joke that is Genesee Beer. I grew up in Upstate New York and one of the little breweries nearby was one in Rochester. The plant was located on the Genesee River and sucked up water, brewed beer, and just a touch downriver it would dump its waste back into the river. Genesee is cheap beer. What’s more, it’s got a funny “Andy” story attached to it. When I was very very young I used to retain gas and end up crying a lot and being rather fussy about it. My father, who at the time enjoyed Genesee Beer was trying to rock me to sleep and I was just having none of it. So he gave me just a little sip of Genesee Cream Ale. Down it went. The massive quantity of bubbles (for a little babies body, it did the trick) helped bring on a burp, and then that was that. Problem solved. Now every time I see an ad or a case of Genesee Beer I’m half tempted to buy some and enjoy it.

Now, for you Michiganders who might waddle into Genesee Beer, you should know, it’s profoundly low-brow. If you are okay with that, knock your socks off.

Genesee Beer. Indeed. 🙂

Calling out the Licensing Bullshit

Posted on by
Reply

A very good friend of mine on Twitter had this to say:

maybe if we all were told up front that we don’t actually own the tech we purchased, we’re just buying a license to use it, we’d be happier

And this brought up an old straw-man that I am fond to beat up every once in a while. It comes down to purchasing software or hardware from a company that hides this sneaky shit in their End User License Agreement. For much of it, you don’t even get a chance to read the EULA until you’ve opened the package and forfeited your rights to get your money back. Then you read the EULA and find out that you didn’t buy chattel, you bought a license. That you don’t own anything but the right to use whatever it is that you purchased. Anyone with a shred of common sense knows this entire affair is composed of nothing but the most rarefied load of bullshit ever perpetrated on mankind. The courts have upheld this obnoxiousness and so it’s legally binding.

So we have to swallow this pure bullshit. But what I think would be fair is to have these facts printed prominently on the box before you plunk down your hard-earned money to buy whatever it is. I’m sure it would only enhance the bottom line of the sales department if the big shiny box prominently had printed on it “By buying this box, you own a revocable license to use the contents, but you do not own the contents of this box. You cannot resell the contents or transfer it to anyone else legally.” Then whip that out on consumers and see how they react. I know I wouldn’t buy it. My work might buy it, but that’s not my money and not really my concern. Life goes on without buying something like that and these companies that insist (along with the courts that support them) that this legal bullshit is binding should starve and die when nobody buys their product. If these companies want to push products that you don’t own but only hold rights-to-a-license, then I say we should just stop buying those products outright. It used to be that if you tried that you couldn’t get anywhere or do anything, but nowadays that isn’t the case. There is a huge collection of software that exists that is licensed under the GPL. It’s all free for the taking, it costs nothing, it works arguably better than the alternatives and you don’t have to spend your hard-earned money and have nothing but a revocable license to show for it.

That’s how we progress. This “buying a license” bullshit has to stop. We can progress by starving these bullshit peddlers and encouraging and supporting the GPL. It’s enough to start a socialist revolution I say. Y’arrrrrg! 😉

Marine Survives Two Tours in Iraq, SWAT Kills Him – Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Posted on by
1

Marine Survives Two Tours in Iraq, SWAT Kills Him – Hit & Run : Reason Magazine.

He was safer facing IED’s and Terrorists than coming home. This story just boggles my mind. The Sheriff’s Department and SWAT team fired 71 bullets, killed a veteran, detained paramedics and destroyed a family. All of this in Arizona.

So how exactly are we supposed to feel about all of this? God bless the USA? Really? Honestly? Do you feel safer as a citizen to know that a “Soldier/Hero” gets technically turned into human hamburger in front of his family? The police in this case are really quite honestly out of control. How do you punish such a transgression? It’s a crime, at least you’ve got manslaughter here, you’ve also got quite a few violations of the Bill of Rights, 4th Amendment, and by the severity of the action I’d say it pushes the buttons of Posse Comitatus. The SWAT team operated more like a military unit under siege than POLICE who are supposed to “Protect and Serve”. After reading this article I don’t feel safer, in fact, I feel revolted. I also feel slightly terrorized that something like this can happen in our country. It’s one of the many things that happen that make me want to grab people by their shoulders and shake them very hard, hoping to wake them up from their stupor. This is not supposed to happen! This is not right! But it will most likely be swept under the rug and the monsters responsible will be slapped on the wrist and get a firm tut-tut-tut and that will be it. They’ll just go on to kill more citizens and terrorize the rest of us.

And people wonder why I despise the police. Show me a good cop and I’ll show you a blood-soaked murder-fetishisizing thug.

I Wish I Knew More About…

Posted on by
Reply

Photos from Pinhole Camera #1

I wish I knew more about any kind of artistic expression. Each of us has our own talents and we express them in our own ways and I am happy that mine are squarely pegged on technology and helping people deal with that technology. This isn’t a very strong wish, mostly it’s a passing curiosity on my behalf. The closest I’ve ever gotten creatively has been some dabbling in photography. It’s quite appropriate, I think, that I can find the easiest access to art via a type of technology. This desire isn’t as strong as it is for others, even when it comes to photography. Perhaps someday when I have some actual time to devote to pursuing some kind of art I’ll give it another shot.

Powered by Plinky

Dropbox Lied to Users About Data Security, Complaint to FTC Alleges | Threat Level | Wired.com

Posted on by
Reply

Dropbox Lied to Users About Data Security, Complaint to FTC Alleges | Threat Level | Wired.com.

Read the above article, it’s quite good and covers the problems that many geeks have with Dropbox. I have to admit that I’m quite fond of finding ways to “Have my cake and eat it too” and in the spirit of that saying it’s important to highlight a core issue that needs to be covered: If you don’t manage your own security, you don’t have any.

Every service is vulnerable to a search and seizure order as long as it’s hardware exists within the United States. Any company that claims that they protect your data even from this basic assumption is lying to you. You can help them by helping yourself. The people who run Dropbox certainly have aims to secure your data, otherwise nobody but a scant few would be willing to store their data in the cloud. This situation is only half-way to what is really required to make a service like Dropbox a real charmer. It comes down to security and I’ve written about it at length before. The end user has to meet Dropbox for the other half of the way. Dropbox encrypts their data using AES-256 and they have a master key that they use along with yours so that they can maintain a backdoor in case of a search and seizure order to fulfill. Protect yourself by using any number of applications, ranging from TrueCrypt, iCrypt, openssh, to encrypted DMG files. If you create one of these encrypted files to store your private information then send it to Dropbox, even if they have to divulge the file to the authorities all they can provide them is another AES-256 encrypted file that they don’t have a key to. When the authorities try to pry open the file, all they’ll see is noise, because they don’t have your key.

It’s really quite easy when you think of it, Dropbox is at most 50% secure. You can provide another 50% making your use of Dropbox 100% secure. It all comes down to going that little extra inch with any of the tools covered above. I can’t help but really love encrypted DMG files as they are the most convenient to use with Macs. You just double-click on the DMG file, enter in your password, and the volume is mounted as if it were a drive on your computer. All the files are plain and easy to use. Ejecting the drive after you are done using it closes it and the data lives 100% secure in the cloud.

Getting bent because Dropbox only gives you 50% security is rather dumb. Anyone at all has to assume that it maxes out at 50% irrespective of what Dropbox claims. If you are smart and secure your own effects, then you’ve nothing to worry about and can get over this silly thing without a single thought. Makes sense to me.

Raw milk update: Michigan State University dairy newsletter cites fresh statistics, touts website | MLive.com

Posted on by
1

Raw milk update: Michigan State University dairy newsletter cites fresh statistics, touts website | MLive.com.

Once again people! There is a reason why Louis Pasteur is the father of modern food safety! I see this in lots of states, here in Michigan and also quite notably also in South Carolina where some of my family lives. Apparently not enough people have needlessly died from e. coli, cryptosporidium, or listeria!

I can’t believe this is still being talked about seriously. Just when you thought you won the war for one class of food to be pasteurized, and you’ve moved on to another (lets hear it for pasteurized eggs!) this bullshit comes roaring back. Raw milk was fine if you lived on a farm in 1928! It’s 2011. COME ON PEOPLE.

Of course, not enough death and illness have been suffered, we need more of that, yes, please! Sometimes humanity, as a species, dazzles me with it’s collective stupidity.

Upgrade Your iPhone or iPad’s Storage With Seagate GoFlex Satellite | Cult of Mac

Posted on by
Reply

Upgrade Your iPhone or iPad’s Storage With Seagate GoFlex Satellite | Cult of Mac.

I’ve thought about an item like this when I was standing in line two April’s ago waiting for my iPad at Best Buy. What could enable me to buy the smallest device (16GB) without having to sacrifice a huge pool of storage? When I bought the device I was sure that someone would eventually come up with something. I was right, there were at least two apps:

  • http://projectswithlove.com/streamtome/ – Stream To Me
  • http://www.zumocast.com/ – ZumoCast
Both of these services allow you to place twin applications, one on your computer at home or at work and the other application on your iOS device. This design makes much more sense to me than the Seagate drive linked to above. If you’ve got access to the web, why not use it? Plus this way your data is more secure than some drive that can be stolen or confiscated. Both apps could arguably access every last shred of your content if you had a storage system big enough to handle all of it. Arguably way more than 500GB and you wouldn’t have to contend with a rather weak battery and wondering when the drive will stop working because it’s out of juice. Just having one device where you have to watch the battery is surely enough for anyone! I can’t see this option being useful when you have other options like Stream To Me or ZumoCast handy.

Read Carefully, Read To The End…

Posted on by
Reply

Our local rag pushed a tweet out about a new traffic/intersection control called a Roundabout. They went on and on, just the same as MDOT did about all the studies indicating that these new traffic control systems were safer than anything else currently in use on the roads. I remember that when MDOT was pushing roundabouts and opened up for public comment I threw in my two cents. I maintain that while roundabouts are most certainly safer, they are only that way when everyone is properly educated on how to use them. Another point I made is if people have a problem with classic intersections, how will they cope with these wholly new experiences?

From the rag:

“…Like this email from reader, Katrina, who wrote:

I was wondering if you could please tell people how to use a roundabout! I have, on more than one occasion, watched someone go in circles again and again, trying to figure out how to get out! Please explain this to people! Thank you!

Or this email from reader, Connie, who wrote:

Who has the right of way in our new turn abouts? I have been told the person to your left has the right of way. Is it possible to post a sign saying who has the right of way? Sometimes both of you sit and wait until someone gives the OK to keep moving.”

So we have a state where the driving acumen is already deeply suspect: outrageous speeds, total ignorance of directionals, and starvation-until-death at a locked 4-way stop intersection. We are asking these people, who are already pushed to their limits by simple things like the odd thing on the left of their driving column that they never touch to the aforementioned “everyone died because they were locked solid at a 4-way” to somehow just be thrown headlong into a roundabout! Now instead of a simple 4-way lock we’ll have an internal roundabout lock joined to a accessway/exit lock on top of that!

What I’m getting at is that MDOT and these studies never took into account that people are grossly untrained for using roundabouts. Yes, they may be safer, and proven such when studies are conducted in places where people were trained on how to successfully navigate a roundabout, but this is Michigan! I am terrified of roundabouts and I try to avoid them if at all possible, not because I doubt my own wits or knowledge of how to use them, but because I’m surrounded by people who haven’t a clue how roundabouts work!

In the end all of this is meaningless. MDOT pushed hard and got permission to introduce these new car-destroying traps to this state, and now we have to cope with the ramifications of their actions. MDOT has a website that has educational material on roundabouts, but after working in academia, and seeing the things I’ve seen, even looking out my office window, people aren’t going to visit that website, and even if they do, I doubt they’ll learn anything.

At least we all were safer when Michiganders were trapped in their cars and starved to death at 4-way intersections. Nobody was hurt, they just died of natural causes. In roundabouts, now we can add fiery maelstroms of destruction to the body count.

“I don’t drive, the people on the roads are lunatics.” 🙂