Oct 24, 2013 | Computer technology, Security
Surveillance isn’t just for the NSA anymore. Just ask Dennis Gray, General Manager of pest control company Accurid Pest Solutions.
Gray suspected something wasn’t right with two of his employees. He got GPS tracking on their company issued smartphones for his…troublemakers. The GPS tracking showed this guys weren’t where they were supposed to be. When confronted with the evidence, one admitted slacking off during business hours. One admitted to having an affair with a customer during business hours. Needless to say, neither work for Accurid Pest Solutions anymore. Gray says since then, more employees are telling him they need to take time off rather than just take matters in their own hands.
Dennis Gray’s story isn’t unique. Throughout the blue-collar work world, employers and bosses are turning to technology software to monitor their employees. Employers insist this technology monitoring isn’t just about discipline, it’s about safety and morale. They say this kind of monitoring does everything from reduce theft to help investigate claims. Much of the laws favor the employers. Only in two states, Connecticut and Delaware, are bosses required to tell employees they’re even using such devices on their employees.
I have mixed emotions about this. I do understand from the bosses’ point of view.? Slacking off on the job can costs them money and can lead to other unnecessary problems. And let’s face it, ‘When the cats are away the rats will play.’ But what if something more severe happens on the job, like cries of sexual harassment, theft, workplace bullying, or a serious crime? Without this technology, it would simply be one word against another. Maybe this tracking technology will get to the bottom of such claims. What if someone was injured on the job? Maybe the GPS system can help people learn from these mistakes and prevent them.
But that’s best case scenario. What’s the worst? I wouldn’t take much for an employer to abuse this technology. I wish I can say they wouldn’t, but welcome to the real world, especially the 21st century world. I’m sure someone won’t hesitate to use this technology to follow them outside of business hours and try to spy on them 24 hours a day. What if the boss/employee relationship ends badly? Whose to stop that boss from using this technology to ruin the employee’s life forever? And if they can do this, what’s stopping them from checking your social media accounts every day, and firing you for something you put on these accounts? Lets’ face it, ‘Give an inch and they’ll take a mile’. So is this kind of surveillance helpful or hurtful?
Oct 23, 2013 | General, internet
But not everyone is struggling during these turbulent times. It’s been reported Facebook CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg is the highest paid CEO for a North American company.
In 2012, Zuckerberg pocketed approximately 2.28 billion dollars. The majority of this didn’t come from advertising, but from stock options. To put this in perspective, 2.28 billion is almost as much as the other nine highest paid CEOs combined (that came up to 4.7 billion). A year ago, Facebook’s stocks were around $17 a share. As of today, October 23, 2013, it stands at around $52 a share. But as early as 2005, during Facebook’s infancy, Zuckerberg exercised stock options at just six cents a pop. When Facebook went public in spring 2012, those stocks were worth over 2.7 billion dollars. If you’re wondering, Apple CEO Tim Cook ranked fifth on this list.
It’s impressive that someone not even 30 years old made this list and has already changed the world forever. It’s also impressive he’s investing in projects, like making sure anyone who wants online access can have it regardless of cost and/or location. But I thought more tech giant CEOs and general managers would have made the list. Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff made ninth on the list. Where’s the Google CEO? Aren’t their stocks in record numbers? Where’s Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos? Where’s Bill Gates? Why aren’t they on this list?
Oct 22, 2013 | Computer Repair, internet
As many of you know, the Healthcare.gov sight works only when it wants to, when it wants to work at all. Telecommunications giant Verizon is going to help the government help their online health system.
Verizon’s Enterprise Solutions have been asked by the US Department of Health and Human Services to help improve the troubled healthcare.gov site. The site is critical to the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. According to Aneesh Chopra, who was once President Obama’s chief technology officer, “”There is an existing ‘best and brightest’ available to call in… Verizon is one of those already under contract.” Verizon also works for Medicaid and Medicare Services on information technology. Many in the online community are confident the problem will be fixed. However, neither Verizon nor Dept. of Health and Human Services are confirming anything.
I hope something gets done. I’m not going to rant about whether I agree with Obamacare or not. This isn’t the place or time. But I do know tens of millions of Americans were and are depending on this website. People’s lives are on the line. And what are these stories of cancer patients who couldn’t get their medicine during the shutdown? Look, Americans’ view on their government isn’t very good right now. One way they can start to make things right is to make this website right. It would be a great start. If Verizon can help do that, then God speed to them. But for them to be? preaching this system for years, and then for the healthcare.gov website to act like this, something has to be done.? Will Verizon be enough to get healthcare.gov up and running again?
Oct 21, 2013 | General, Security
As Blackberry continues it’s free fall, companies are vying for it’s buy out. One of those companies is China’s Lenovo. But what are their intentions for attempting to buy Blackberry?
According to some security sources, even the Pentagon, say Lenovo wants Blackberry not to turn it around, but to hack into that system. It’s not like they haven’t done it before. Back in the 2000s, the Chinese hacked Nortel, a Canada based company. It went on for most of the decade. The hacking got so bad that in 2009, Nortel filed bankruptcy and the company was split and sold in parts. But Blackberry isn’t Nortel, and I’d like to think people learn from previous choices. The Canadian government is working around the clock to make sure Lenovo doesn’t get Blackberry. They’ve already blocked several foreign attempts to get Blackberry. Lenovo’s bid was rejected too.
The American government is doing it’s part to keep Blackberry from China’s grip. The US Defense Department estimated over 75% of it’s mobile devices are blackberries. Lenovo’s equipment is banned from five major English speaking countries: United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. I hope all of this and more is done to prevent Lenovo from getting Blackberry. Call me old fashioned, but when a company is bought, I believe the purchasing company’s job is to help turn the bankrupt company into a winner, not destroy it some more. Think of the global ramifications if China keeps it’s hacking up with no accountability or nobody to stop it. There’s already talk that China’s calling for the de-Americanizing the world. I don’t think this is junk talk; I think they actually mean it! What should happen to Blackberry?
Oct 20, 2013 | internet, networking
Six months ago, Twitter launched a music app. It was once one of the most popular Apps out there. Now, there’s talk of taking it down.
Twitter is reconstructing it’s music department. And sources are saying the music app will be sacrificed. It’s not clear when, but enjoy the app while you still can. But according to?the stats I’m reading, not a lot of people are enjoying this free app. Twitter was one of Apple’s top 10 ranked free apps. Now, as of the weekend of October 19, it’s ranked 264. Insiders say there was a lot of dysfunction about how Twitter Music was built and around the team that built it. Kevin Thau, one of the lead developers for this app, left for a start-up called Jelly?almost immediately after the app was launched. From what I’ve been reading, they don’t even know how they’re going to reconstruct their music program. They don’t even know how to shut this Twitter music app down. I hope I’m reading wrong.
In the mid-90s, the R&B group TLC had a hit called ‘Waterfalls’. One lyric said, “Stick to the rivers that you’re used to.” Maybe Twitter should take that advice. It’s great social media; that is for what it was built to do. I say when you take the music app down, don’t bother reconstruction a new one. Put that effort in making your core project better. I’ve read some comments saying people didn’t even know Twitter had a music app. That tells me this app wasn’t properly advertised. People can easily get music from plenty of other sources, but there’s only one place a person can tweet. Let’s just stick with that. Did you know a Twitter app even existed?
Oct 19, 2013 | internet
Ever wonder who regulates the Internet? It can be complicated. In the 1990s, the U.S. government found itself under control, but in 1998, privatized some control to a group called ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Basically, they assigned domains like .com, .org, .edu. and .gov. However, for years, ICANN and other groups have been complaining on too much gov’t control.
?ICANN has been agitating for greater independence from the U.S. government for many, many, many years, basically since it was founded,? says an Internet law professor named A. Michael?Froomkin said. Earlier this month, there was a meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay.?In that meeting, ICANN and several other groups called for?a break in U.S. government dominance.? They also called for more online globalization and a more equal playing field. Back in 2009, a truce called “The Affirmation of Commitment” was made between ICANN and the U.S. ICANN got more independence, but the US government could still take over the root server in event of an emergency. Though the NSA scandals weren’t mentioned in Uruguay, it was an undercurrent theme. Many?nations and organizations are unhappy and want to make sure this kind of surveillance doesn’t get out of control.
So once again, this all goes back to the NSA. Nobody even had to say it. These recent scandals really are the gifts that keep on giving. I’m sure, in the?back of their minds, their thinking about their own countries’ surveillance too. But?since we know?now what we didn’t know then,?will negotiations be so smooth this time?
Oct 18, 2013 | Computer technology, internet
It’s here. Windows 8.1 is making it’s debut. If you have Windows 8, you can upgrade for free through the Windows store. If not, you can buy it the old fashioned way starting today: October 18, 2013. Let’s see if we should buy it, or upgrade for that matter.
There’s a lot of praise for the start button. It’s back through Windows 8.1 but it still goes to the start screen. You can turn your lock screen into a great slide show, even on sky drive. You can boot to screens other than the start menu and rearrange all your apps in one swoop. Speaking of apps, you can look at all of them in one place. For all my multi-monitor viewers, the 50:50 snap views will be a lot easier to obtain. And you know they’re going to make the Windows Store easier and more enhanced to get to. App dealers and app users will love that. If you’re not using a mobile device for 8.1, it allegedly runs like gold on a desktop. In fact, you’ll not even need your desktop control panel. Windows Blue will also be know for Windows 8.1.
I don’t know about you, but I’m exercising caution about this Windows 8.1. I’ve been disappointed with Windows systems before. Early this morning, a customer called complaining when she tried to upgrade to 8.1, she got a black screen and couldn’t boot up her computer. Someone is on the case as I speak, but I wonder how many more of these calls we’re going to get. How many complaints about what Windows 8.1 did to their system? Is Windows 8.1 worth getting or upgrading?
Oct 17, 2013 | internet
It’s amazing how smartphone ads are blowing up. I turn on my Facebook page, and I can’t get away from them (I’m not complaining! I’d rather they pay for it than the public.). It turns out one kind of device is profiting way more than the other.
According to an online marketing company called Nanigans, Facebook ads are nearly 18 times more successful on Apple products then they are on Android products. By successful, I mean revenue earned because of these ads. Revenue per click is 6 times higher for Apple. If that’s not enough, Apple makes companies more than double what they pay for the advertising. On Android, the advertisers lose 10% on their revenue. Here’s another shocker (I call it a shocker): the cost of Facebook ads on Apple and Android are relatively the same.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out or find the cause. Some have hypothesized people pay more for Apple devices. I got to disagree; these Droids?don’t come very cheaply. Some say Apple audience cost more,?but?not much. I saw one stat that breaks down?cost. Generally, an Apple add cost 12 cents lower than an Android. I don’t think that’s enough to make this huge of a difference. But maybe I’m wrong.?I wonder how Droid and iOS match up in?other ads. Why do you think Apple does so much better than?Android on Facebook ads?
Oct 16, 2013 | Computer technology, internet
First came Western Union. Then came Pay Pal. Now, there’s another way to send cash fast, and you can do it through email.
It’s called Square Cash. It’s available to anyone who has a debit card and an email address. In 2013 America, that’s the vast majority of the population. The?sender emails the recipient, the amount you’re sending the recipient and cc cash@square.com. You’ll be sent to the website, type in the debit card number, and the recipient gets the money. The advantages to this are many: you don’t have to wait days for a check to be mailed and wait more days for that check to clear. You don’t have to remember numbers and go into some convenient stores who may or may not have the cash to fulfill the request, not to mention the lines. You don’t have to remember codes, passwords or reference numbers. You don’t need a special account; it goes straight to your debit card. No middle man needed.
Now there are some negatives. Security seems to be very loose. A hacker or ID thief can pretend to be you and get the money from themselves. Someone can break in the sender’s debit card and get the money meant for the recipient. Square cash makes it’s debut on iPhone and Android. But if hackers can break into cars and tamper with cars, you know?they can hack into debit cards. And nobody is saying anything about spoofing or other security methods. So would you use Square Cash as a sender or a recipient?
Oct 15, 2013 | Computer technology, internet, Wireless
By now, you’ve probably seen the commercials. There’s one where watches from pop culture’s past are relived and then it fast forwards to a smart watch. Now it seems like Google is getting in the act.
Rumors circle everywhere about Google finishing up a smart watch project. This potential watch would be patterned after Google Now; it’s technology would be used to build this smart watch. Some say this watch would be launched as early as October 31. Yes, Google products are being released that day, but I’m not buying this October 31 rumor for a watch. This smart watch would be called Gem. The Gem watch could include calendar alarms, emails, SMS and other features. Gem could also include Bluetooth 4.0 and a lengthy battery life.
Keep in mind Android Kit Kat 4.4 is expected to be released October 31. So it would make some sense to at least announce Google Gem. But don’t release it on this day; let it get some more advertising. Plus, shouldn’t they be focused on Google Glass? That release is right around the corner. Okay, yes, other smart watches are getting a lot of press right now. I understand the spirit of competition, believe me.? But wouldn’t it be better to focus on something that has a lot more concrete press than to focus on something based mostly on rumor? And from the Google Gem pictures I’ve seen already, it doesn’t look very appealing. Isn’t it too early for Google to be focused on the Gem?
