Google Play: What's The Point?

Today I noticed something new on my home page. My page is iGoogle. At the top where the different Google services are listed was Google Play.

So I decided to check it out. The first thing recommended was, what else, Angry Birds. But you can't play it on your computer. It's an Android app, for a device. Well, I don't have any Android devices, so no can do.

Movies. Would someone please tell me why we need yet another website that rents movies for 4 bucks a piece? I can do that on iTunes, Blockbuster, Hulu, YouTube, & on & on. This is getting silly.

Music. Yes, because there aren't enough sites that sell songs for $1.29. Again, iTunes, Amazon, & a bunch of lesser sites. Why would I use Google Play over the two biggest?

Books. Same thing. Even if it's e-books or audiobooks, why use Google over Amazon or Audible? It just doesn't make any sense.

This is Google trying to be the one stop shop. The WalMart of the internet. Except that Amazon holds that position. I'm sure that Larry & Sergey want to control the world, but this will be another idea like Wave that will not pan out.

Facebook's Ironic Complaint

It is amusing to read someone from Facebook complaining about employers demanding the log in info from prospective employees.

Facebook is the best known example of privacy violation out there. They are constantly in trouble for misuse of customer information. It is the reason I deleted my account. Plus no one I know actually uses it. I know, I know, EVERYONE is on Facebook. Yeah, but do they actually use it?

When I had an account, I would go on relative's pages & notice there hadn't been a post either by them, or from friends to them in months. I wasn't getting stuff either. But the big problem is Facebook not deleting stuff when asked, or after accounts have been deleted. That is just wrong. So for them to be criticizing companies for wanting to look at people's account is hypocritical.

NY TImes To Cut # Of Free Articles Online

Newspapers are having trouble making money these days. Advertising on the web isn't as lucrative as in print. So papers have gone to the paywall. The New York Times has now cut the number of free stories per month from 20 to 10.

So if you see something you want to read, be careful. I have the Times on my iGoogle home page. But if I access too many stories, I will be out of luck way before the month is over.

Now before you call me a cheapskate, let it be known that I subscribe to my local paper, the San Jose Mercury News. This is where I get all my local news. Also tech news since this is, of course, Silicon Valley. Plus I am not a fan of having my info on every freaking website out there.

So for national & international news I visit the websites BBC.co.uk, Guardiannews.com, & Huffingtonpost.com. The first one is obvious. The BBC is the most respected news organization out there. The Guardian is a British paper, based in Manchester, famous for it's coverage of the Murdoch hacking scandal. None of these outfits charge, so they are good places to go for world info. I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones I know.

Connection Problems With New Modem

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a new modem. All seemed fine at the time, other than an issue with my e-mail account. Now the last two days I have had an issue with the connection.

There's supposed to be 4 lights on my modem. If one isn't on, there's a problem. That happened last night, & then again this morning. The internet light wasn't on, meaning no connection. After shutting everything off, & waiting a couple of minutes, I turned everything back on, & voila! The internet was available.

I'm not one of those people that never turns off my computer. Because of my work schedule, I can go days without using my computer. That happened this week. I used it Tuesday, then never turned my computer on again until Saturday night. Why keep it on & use electricity for no reason?

So keeping it on is not an option. The point is there shouldn't be an issue. Apparently the new modem isn't recognized by my computer. But why? It's the proper modem or it wouldn't work at all. Obviously it's working now or I couldn't post this.

So tomorrow I will see what happens & if this happens again, I WILL be calling AT&T. It is not acceptable.

TWIT.TV Attacked Again

I was about to go on TWIT & watch Tech News Today, but my computer wouldn't let me. For the 2nd time in less than a year, this very popular tech podcast network has been breached by foreign criminals distributing malware.

This angers me greatly. This is a legitimate site with some of the best, most informative netcasts devoted to technology. Last week, one of their podcasts devoted an entire 1-2 hour episode showing how Windows 8 works.

But hackers & criminals have no respect for tech. They use it, but they are willing to destroy it. This makes no sense. These are the type of people our justice department should be going after, not some british college student who's site had links to "gasp" movie downloads.

To be clear, it wasn't Firefox that stopped me (I have lots of security add-ons), it was Google itself. So bravo to them.

Pravda Bought By RNC

On Google News there are links to news stories from various websites. Most are legitimate, but I found one that looked like Fox News. It was Pravda, the Russian news organization. This used to be a front for the Communist Party. Now it just looks like another right wing joke.

First it has a piece on well-known wing-nut Sheriff Joe Arpaio claiming he has proof that Obama's long form birth certificate is a forgery. It goes on to attack the media for not reporting on this, implying that they are in the President's pocket. How about Joe the clown working for the RNC. The man is an embarrasment & should have been fired a long time ago, but it's Arizona.

The second piece was an attack on SOS Hilary Clinton for calling Russia & China despicable for vetoing an attempt to get Syria's leader from exterminating his own people. How about explaining why you consider it OK to commit genocide?

So this is what's on the web. A formerly leftist/socialist/communist front that now appears to work for Rupert Murdoch. I humbly suggest that Google News be very careful about making links to foreign "news" sources that attack with little regards to facts. That also should include Fox.

Tech Stories In The News

There's a bunch of stories this week, so let's check them out.

1. Apple is going to sell refurbished 1st generation iPads for $299. Well, this is a lot closer to what I would be willing to pay for one. I still won't because I have a full sized desktop, with an 18 1/2" monitor.  And Amazon Kindle Fire's are cheaper yet. But this should put more in the hands of more people.

2. Yahoo is suing Facebook over patent infringement. Really? Stories involving Yahoo just get funnier & funnier. Maybe if this company did something right for a change, they wouldn't be trying to imitate that Chinese company suing Apple.

3. Intel is going to create a VOD website. It supposedly will be up by the end of the year. It will also have a set-top box, ala Roku. Don't hold your breath that this will actually happen. I mean Intel has no experience in this. Remember: Google tried this & failed miserably because they couldn't get license agreements with the studios. Same issue Apple TV has.

How Does My iPod Know The Time?

Last night Daylight Savings Time started. This morning I got my iPod nano & when I clicked it on, I noticed it had updated the time. How did it do that? 

Again, this is a 4th generation nano. Not a touch. Therefore no internet connection. I don't have Wi-Fi in my house. I understand my cell changing the time, it's obviously on the 3G network, or at least calling the cell tower. Does my nano use the tower?

I went on Wikipedia's iPod page, & there is nothing about this on it. maybe I will go on Apple's site, but I don't expect to find out anything there either. It's not a big deal, I'm just curious as to how my iPod knew the time had changed. And for the record, my iPod hasn't been connected to my computer for 2 weeks.

DVD Plays In Computer But Not On TV

I have no idea what happened, but I had a major issue with a DVD today. I spent 15 minutes trying to get it to load on my 25" TV. I couldn't get it to do anything. I'd get to the "play movie" screen, click enter & suddenly be back on the opening screen that only gives the brand name of the player.

After doing this several times, including running a cloth over the DVD & not seeing any scratches, I gave up & put it in my computer. Now this was another adventure. It would play in WMP, but without sound. I have no idea what that was about. Finally I was able to go through "all programs" & find HP Media Center. And surprise! The movie played.

I may never know what the problem was. I played a DVD just a week or 2 ago with no issues. So what was the problem today. If there were scratches that severe that my DVD player couldn't get to the opening of the movie, why did my computer have no issues playing the entire 135 minute movie without a single glitch?

At least I was only dropping from a 25" screen to a 18 1/5" monitor.  If I was dropping down from a 42" widescreen TV then I would have been severely irritated.

My Printer Hates Me

I have a low cost HP printer that I've had for a couple of years. Sometimes it works great, & sometimes (like today), it is a royal pain.

The problem is that it has a nasty habit of refusing to print. Uh, that is its job, you know. It will pop up a screen saying "out of paper". Well, actually there is plenty of paper in the tray, it just doesn't feel like printing.

What causes this? I'm damned if I know. It doesn't always do it, but it does it enough to infuriate me. Like this morning I was trying to print out my monthly checkbook. I use Excel Starter Edition, which came with my computer. I hit save to well, save it. Then I hit print. It said it was ready, then of course, it didn't grab a sheet.

I'm not sure if this is an issue of needing more paper in the tray (there must have been 10 sheets, at least, in the tray), or if it was just being difficult. It does this regularly. I don't use the printer that much, but my experience is that most of the problems occur with printing stuff from Office, both Word & Excel. Printing web pages seems to be less of an issue, except for issues related to what browser I'm using. HBO for instance doesn't like to print through Firefox. Not sure why.

Is it my new modem? I doubt it, because, as I have said, it has always done this. It's a low end printer. The cartridges cost more than the printer itself originally cost. But it should work. That's its job.

Why I Won't Be Downloading Windows 8

The idea of a schizophrenic OS that is half desktop & half tablet/phone is silly. Windows 8 is full of apps that only work on the "Metro" interface. 

From what I understand, this ungodly ugly style is designed for touchscreens. It doesn't work that well with a keyboard & mouse. And yet Microsoft in their wisdom decided to make it part of the next version of Windows. Why?

Why on earth would you design something for a smartphone & then put it on a desktop? You know it's not going to work that well. No start menu, instead a full screen page? That's fine if it's a phone or tablet. But on my 18 1/2" monitor it will just look horrible.

The reviews are not that good. OK,OK, it's a "beta". But Microsoft isn't calling it that. It's the "Consumer preview". Same thing. Hey why not just give it a wacky Linux style name? It will work just as well. This of course continues the Microsoft policy of every other OS sucking (Like Star Trek movies). You know: 98 good, ME bad, XP great, Vista horrid, 7 terrific. That's all you need to know. Want a new OS, wait for Windows 9.

AT&T Support:3rd Time Was A Charm (Sort Of)

I can't believe how long it took to get help from AT&T. I have been having internet issues. Well, actually it's just that I'm paying for 3 Mbps & not getting anywhere near that.

So I called support today.  Three friggin times! The first call was disconnected. Thanks a lot. The second call got me a person who insisted I was paying for a lower level than I knew I was. "Pro" is up to 3Mbps NOT 1.5 (that's express). I hung up on that loser. Finally I got someone who was, surprise! Actually intelligent. Howboutthat!

Still not sure. I suspect I have a problem with an old modem. Mine is 5-6 years old. I would hate to have to spend the $70 needed to replace it. Of course the AT&T person wanted to imply that using Netflix or Hulu is responsible. Really? Because I haven't been on either website today, but my speed is under 2. So I don't buy that.

We did a bunch of tests. Unplugged the modem. Usually this results in the speed going up. That's why I am suspicious that it's the modem going bad. Video is still better than it was when I was paying for 1.5 Mbps. Clear not blurry. She did help me out, but still wanted me to upgrade to "Elite", which is 6 Mbps. I think that's another $10 a month. Amazing how the South Koreans get 85 & we can't even get 10. Just awful, but it's what American ISP's want to deliver. Pathetic speeds for outrageous prices.