Software Company Not Smarter Than 12th Grader

A senior (now graduated) wrote an app so students could see all their grades at once. The way the district had done it, you could use a software system, but it took several clicks to view all the classes. So a senior wrote an iPhone app. Then it , surprise! got approved 7 was put on the Apple app store. Now 2300 students have downloaded the app. Heck his teachers wanted him to develop a version for them.

Here's the kicker. the reason for the app is that, as I said, the software program that district (which, no surprise, is in San Jose) uses, & 250 other districts around the country, didn't allow for easy access to all a students grades unless they did several clicks. The student & his father tried to get official approval from the company. Instead got the usual "copyright infringement" nonsense.

This is typical of large businesses & why it is entrepreneurs that are the future. The student is headed to Cal Poly & wants to put out an Android version. I mean, think of it: Apple approved the app, the teachers like it, but the districts & the company don't. The company needs to get with it. You are charging the district hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it was improved by a free app developed by a 17 year old. Oops.

Who Listens To Podcasts?

I watch or listen to 2 different podcasts every week. What that means is I listen to the same weekly podcast every week. It's called This Week in Tech. it is recorded live every Sunday afternoon. I never listen to it then, but I download it on iTunes every Monday & that's when I listen to it. The other podcast is from the same company, if you will. Tech News Today is a daily broadcast, recorded in the same studio but with different hosts & guests.

Both of these shows & the others recorded by this "network" are available 3 ways. Directly from Twittv.com (audio & video), iTunes or a day later on YouTube.

There are a lot of podcasts out there. Hundreds are available on iTunes & many simply on the original sites. I assume a lot are on YouTube. But they are not in the public consciousness. We hear about Twitter & Facebook, but not these shows despite their popularity. In both the US & the UK, 16% of the adult population have downloaded one, with almost half listening once a week, like me.

Adam Carolla's podcast has been downloaded 59 million times! I've only listened once (maybe I should try again), so podcasting is not going away. But it is interesting that there is little coverage of this medium. I guess it is just not sexy enough. It is basically a radio show, except that radio wouldn't have these on. the subject matter for the most part wouldn't engender enough publicity or listeners. My tech shows for instance are probably listened to in the thousands not the millions. The advertisers on the shows are tech related, but makes enough money that they just moved into a new million dollar studio. Someone is listening.

HP Decision Doesn't Mean PC's Are Dead

The word out now is that HP's decision to dump their flop tablet means the PC is dead. Says who? Most people don't have iPads. Only 29 million have been sold. Microsoft has sold 400 million Windows 7 licenses. Where I work there might be several hundred computers running XP & 2000.

Yes, the economy is still in the dumper, but people aren't replacing PC's with tablets. They're just not that good. No keyboard or mouse, limited software. Are you going to do business related work on one? No. Is Office on the iPad. Nope. That's not what the device is for. All along it has been referred to as a "consumption device". That means you use it to surf, listen to music, read e-books & watch movies. Not productive work. You need a laptop or desktop for that. They just can do more & have the storage for it. My desktop has a 640 GB hard drive. No tablet even has a hard drive, just flash memory.

Windows has a 82% market share, if you count iPads as computers. That is not going to change any time soon.

Firefox's Numbering Speedup Ruins Real Player

I have had Real Player on my PC for months just so I could watch Al Jazeera online. recently I noticed I was having problems. The audio was fine but the video wouldn't load. i would have a scrambled signal. If I went on IE9 it worked fine. Why? Because IE runs Al Jazeera through Flash, while Firefox requires a Real Player plug-in.

So what's the problem? Since Firefox started this ridiculous numbering fiasco (FF6 really? C'mon even the getting started page that shows up when you update calls it FF4), the plug-in doesn't work. Maybe if the people working on the project realized how much they've broken the browser they might stop this insanity. An obsession with Chrome's numbering system doesn't bode well for the future of the formerly best browser available. Mind you, I still prefer it & haven't downloaded Chrome yet (never cared for it), but it's getting harder every day.

TV's Attempt To Force Me To Buy HDTV

I have noticed over the last year, & especially the last 6 months the cable channels going to smaller & smaller fonts when listing info on the screen. Yes, it may look alright on a big screen, but on my 25", not so much. As a matter of fact, I can't read it, even if I stand in front of the screen.

Now maybe they want to argue that they have to do it for the plasma & LCD users, but despite the number of those units you see in the store, I would be surprised if the percentage of those type of sets in use was above 50%. I doubt that very much. My set is less than 6 years old & works fine. Why would I spend $600-2000 just so I could read scores better?

Someday I may do it, but in case you hadn't noticed, our economy isn't that good & if you want me to go out & spend money I don't need to, there better be a pretty good deal. Like a 42" plasma for a couple of hundred. And not a low end POS either.

The fact is most shows are fine on my 25". I don't need to see Jon Stewart of Dave Letterman on a huge screen. Or any news program. Football? Yeah, that would be nice. Hockey? Sure. Directv just added Universal Sports, so I'm watching Olympic sports. So again, that would be nice. But again, two grand just so I can read the scores of other events is not right. I suspect that most people are fine with the sets they have. And most of the stations that have gone to these unreadable fonts are, surprise! Sports channels. ESPN being the worst & most unreadable. I first noticed it during the French Open when I couldn't read the set/match scores because they were so small.

While I wish I was independently wealthy & could just go out & buy a massive set, I'm not going to do it just because ESPN is trying to force me to. If I was that well off, I would be attending a lot of games in person anyway, & I haven't been to a live sporting event in 4 or 5 years.

Google Buys Motorola Mobility

In an apparent slap at Apple & it's constant lawsuits over patents, Google has bought motorola's cell phone business. Hmmm. Think Steve Jobs saw this coming? Apple has been blatantly trying to sue Google out of mobile with lawsuits against Android & it's manufacturers like HTC.

Hypocritically, both Apple & Microsoft bought 6,000 patents from Nortel last month. It was an obvious attempt to control the business. Now Google fires back with this deal, which follows their purchase of 1000 IBM patents. Word to Apple: Google isn't a small timer, they will fight back. And oh, BTW: Motorola owns 17,000 patents. I wonder if Apple is infringing on a bunch of those?

This also comes on the heels of Nokia making a deal with Microsoft in an attempt to stem the collapse of it's phone business, although how many people actually want a phone using  Windows Phone 7 instead of Android is questionable. I expect Apple will respond to this news fairly soon.

UK & SF Both Block Tech To Prevent Violence

First it was British PM David Cameron talking about disrupting cell phone use to prevent protestors from coordinating during the riots, & soon after we learned that BART police in San Francisco actually did disrupt cell coverage upon learning there was going to be a protest over a shooting.

No surprise that the Chinese government took issue with that, since our government criticizes them for censorship. Be careful when you try to talk out of both sides of your mouth.

The problem here is that while it sounds draconian & definitely not democratic, public safety is at risk. The riots in London were quite violent, with lots of buildings being torched. I'm sure the number of injured was very high. In San Francisco BART officials cut underground cell service for 3 hours to attempt to prevent a protest over the fatal shooting of a man by police (What is it about BART & people getting shot?). This has been answered by hackers attacking a BART site & listing the names of thousands of Bay Area residents using that site. Question hackers: are you threatening commuters, because if you are, you are no better than thugs & criminals.

Yes it is an uncomfortable position to be in, but protests & riots have caused it. How exactly did a police shooting in London lead to stealing TV's? One has nothing to do with the other. It's simply an excuse to get something without paying. As for BART, a spokesman now says the disruptions were legal because they own the property. You may disagree but your workplace could use the same argument. Now they are trying to prevent protests that will disrupt service Monday. Yes because preventing people from being able to get home from work will make them popular. Do these people have jobs?