AliceHill.com - Where Technology Frolics

Latest Tech News - New!

My Favorite
Buzzword:
Get ready for the Wireless MAN, baby. Or short for Wireless Metropolitan Area Network.
> All About The MAN

Spam Overload Dept:
According to a recent survey, about 65 percent of Net users spend 10 minutes or more a day dealing with spam. About 37 percent of respondents get 100 junk messages a day, and 63 percent get 50 or more.
Source: Symantec and Insightexpress

Alice Hill's Technology Watch

Monday, October 11, 2004

New Digital Broadcast Trend: Podcasting

Tech Trend to Watch Department: Here's a new twist on using the internet as a radio alternative - it's called Podcasting. Internet radio sends a stream you can listen to, but "Podcasters" create audio content that is then loaded onto your MP3 player and can be listened to anytime. Wired News has a great piece on this breakthrough: "For anyone who loves listening to the wide variety of internet audio programming, but can't always listen to their favorite shows when they're scheduled or take the time to download them manually, help has arrived. Known as podcasting, the technology is a new take on syndicated content feeds like RSS and Atom. But instead of pushing text from blogs and news sites to various content aggregators like FeedDemon and Bloglines, podcasting sends audio content directly to an iPod or other MP3 player."

Former MTV VJ and early Web personality Adam Curry developed the first podcasting agrregation software called iPodder and already many bloggers are setting up their own mini-radio shows you can subscribe to much like you would add an RSS feed to your RSS reader. (We love Bloglines)

Stay tuned....this is very cool stuff.

# Posted at 1:13 PM

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Great Website on World Internet Traffic

Data Geeks Gone Mad Dept: Here's a great site that measures traffic on the internet across the world and down to the router level. You can even see Tampa routers at zero after the hurricane. Not sure what all that means? Here's their quick Q&A:

Q: What's all this about?
A: The Internet Traffic Report monitors the flow of data around the world. It then displays a value between zero and 100. Higher values indicate faster and more reliable connections.

Q: How does this relate to me?
A: Your Internet surfing safari may be smooth today, but perhaps you can't reach Yahoo or a few web sites in Europe. This web site will tell you if those regions of the Internet are currently slowed down. By checking the Internet Traffic Report, you can determine if your problems are global or local.

Q: What is the Global Index?
A: The Global Index is the overall average of the response rating from all servers queried in the Internet Traffic report. Higher Index means faster Internet.

Q: How often is this site updated?
A: Every 5 minutes.

Q: How do you measure "Internet traffic?"
A: A test called "ping" is used to measure round-trip travel time along major paths on the Internet. We have several servers in different areas of the globe perform the same ping at the same time. Each test server then compares the current response to past responses from the same test to determine if the response was bad or good on a scale of 0 to 100. The scores from all test servers are averaged together into a single index.

# Posted at 10:08 AM

Millions of Dell Power Adapters Recalled

By Bill O'Brien, AliceandBill.com: First things first - if you're dealing with a faulty power supply that can start a fire, you do something about it. Fire is not nice. I applaud Dell for acting so quickly.

Now a note about statistics. 4.4 million of these adapters are being recalled. Something similar has happened several times in the past. The reason they're being recalled is because Dell received 7 reports of overheating but no reports of injury --and I must suspect, because it was conspicuous by its absence, no reports of fire.

Sometimes you need to read the news with an eye as keen as the ear you use to hear the news. Y'know, like when you hear about the path of a hurricane but it's called, "the deadly path of the hurricane." Or when news folk say "shots rang out." I've been privy to hearing more than a few gunshots (that's another story entirely) and have yet to hear any of them ring.

So, just keep in mind that the news tends toward hyperbole to snatch your attention. Don't panic. Just take care of business.
# Posted at 9:26 AM

Transistor Radio Turns 50

According to Gizmo.com, "Fifty years ago this month, the world's first transistor radio went on sale. The Regency TR-1 narrowly beat Raytheon and little-known Japanese company Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo to market and began the revolution which has changed the world."

Texas Instruments proved that small transitors would replace vacuum tubes and make possible an array of small and inexpensive radio devices. Happy birthday Regency TR-1.
# Posted at 9:25 AM

Disturbing Conference Bike

Teamwork Gone Wrong Department: Just when you thought nothing could top the "trust fall" in unpleasant team-building exercises, comes the Conference Bike.

Basically you sit in a circle and pedal your way around town while bonding face to face. Billed as a "party on wheels", this is one sort of exercise we feel we can afford to miss.
# Posted at 9:24 AM

Stern Gets Sirius

Say what will about Howard, but the deal is being heralded a major kick-off to a new broadcast medium, similar to when Milton Berle left radio for television, and when network TV stars left the broadcast networks for the new world of cable. The deal also helps a very struggling Sirius, who only needs to sign up 1 million new customers to support the 5-year, $500 million deal. Stern has an estimated audience of 12 million listeners, so even a 10% conversion rate will spell some serious green for Sirius. I actually predicted that one sattelite radio company would fold by the end of the year, ironically, XM Satellite has a larger user base and more marketing and car deals, but this is a watershed moment in technology. Who knew that Howard Stern would be the killer app?

# Posted at 9:23 AM

Top 20 Computer Threats Unveiled

The Sans Institute releases a list of the 20 biggest software vunerabilities every year to helop companies focus their IT resources most efficiently. The group is a non profit that combs though over 2,500 problems and then ranks the biggies in a massive report. Here is a summary. Source BBC.

Top 10 Windows
1. Web servers & services
2. Workstation service
3. Windows remote access services
4. Microsoft SQL server
5. Windows authentication
6. Web browsers
7. File-sharing applications
8. LSAS
9. E-mail programs
10. Instant messaging

Top 10 Unix/Linux
1. Bind domain name system
2. Web server
3. Authentication
4. Version control systems
5. Mail transport services
6. Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
7. Open secure sockets layer (SSL)
8. Misconfiguration of enterprise services
9. Databases
10. Kernel

To read the entire Sans report including the details on what to fix, click here.
# Posted at 9:22 AM

>>More Tech News

Hosted by Dreamhost