Summer Food Fun and Drink 14 Six years later and a re-launch · Wednesday July 28, 2010 by colin newell
Who is writing a book on global microfinance for Bloomsbury, puzzle maker for the New York Times op-ed section, travel writer, Forbes Traveler, author of Who Hates Whom, a pocket guide to global conflict outlining more than 30 of the world’s active wars and hot spots?
He is a former writer for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – season 3 in which yours truly had a minute writing role – and a freelance writer for the show “Bones”…
Deep breath…
And a consulting producer for El Pantera, Mexico’s top original action series, former AP award-winning nationally syndicated radio commentator, former on-camera presenter for the TLC series Mostly True Stories, and a winner of over $350,000 in cash and prizes on Jeopardy! and other quiz shows…
He is Bob Harris of Los Angeles California and I have been his web specialist since 2004!
In the last couple of weeks we have been doing a soft launch of the new BobHarris.com online phenomenon. Bob, in the upcoming days, weeks and months will add to the nearly 1600 articles on the classic BobHarris.com website.
And integrate the other social media elements of Bob’s life into one great big shiny experience; Twitter, Facebook meets Web 2.0
Enjoy Bob’s website – and let me know if something is not working quite right.
Website issues are temporary - stay tuned. · Tuesday June 8, 2010 by colin newell
I am currently bouncing web requests for dxer.ca and coffeecrew.com over here because of technical issues at my ISP – things should fix themselves by morning…
hopefully… and they are.
Thanks for your patience.
Rites of Spring #28 Technology of our undoing - broadband over power lines · Saturday May 29, 2010 by colin newell
My day job is in multi-media design, modernization, implementation and blah, blah, blah…
…in the educational environment. In my case UVic.
(so)Give me a classroom or lab with a black board and a piece of chalk and I will give you video data projection, infinitely variable lighting controls, high speed internet, web-casting and sound so crisp you would swear it’s live.
because in the year 2010, it’s easily to learn when you have all the tools.
And this applies to the home as well.
I have a PC workstation for audio production and a MacBook Pro for doing the stuff I am doing right now… a very high speed internet connection… and Wireless-N that I do not even use. I like my cat-5 wiring if at all possible. It is secure… and it’s reliable as gravity my friends.
I also like keeping my bits and bytes contained within copper cable if possible. Not adverse to wireless… as long as it’s wireless-N or better. Which is secure as heck after all – low power. It’s safe. And nobody gets hurt, right?
Well, there is something that has come down the pipe (more popular in Europe than here) that is scaring the crap out of me – not for what it does to people or creatures – but what it potentially takes away from us… our ability to communicate.
It’s called broadband over the power lines or BPL and it uses house wiring for distributed ethernet. God knows who designed this stuff. It has the capability, ironically, of seriously interfering with existing digital radio and TV and old style AM and FM radio – impeding our ability to communicate with each other and enjoy our high tech lives. Now that is genuinely ironic wouldn’t you say?
The boxes (shown above and sold at COST-CO) are made in China and they are shit. Some colleagues and I are investigating an interference report from the area around Beacon Hill Park in Victoria – some 4 city blocks wide! And it is likely one of these little peckers (shown above). From some of the intelligence that we have gathered, people are buying these units at COST-CO and then returning them shortly thereafter – not because they don’t work… because they do – but because they are difficult to set up.
Wireless-N is tried, tested and true – sets up easily and does not interfere with any domestic or terrestrial radio or data services.
Now imagine that you neighbor down the street buys one of these boxes and your audiophile set-up is screwed… or your HD TV is now replete with interference lines or inexplicable odd behavior – and don’t think for a second that because it’s digital it is immune to interference – cause it ain’t.
So think about this: One device (shown above) and 4 city blocks wiped out.
How wiped out? I listen to CFAX 1070 AM in Victoria and the offending box (or something like it – we are not exactly sure it is this particular unit) actually interferes with a 10,000 watt radio station.
This should concern us.
Google Rant #1 - don't steal my books Mister Google · Sunday January 24, 2010 by colin newell
My first thought is…
If I created a series of Google rants…
Would google index them?
Well. Let’s see.
Anyway.
Imagine a World where you could lose everything at the whim of a giant corporation… in a future World where there were no borders… only corporations that took what they wanted, when they wanted.
Your money. Your ideas. Your family and friends.
Sounds crazy.
Would it make it ok is the corporation tossed you a bone for your most cherished possessions? Like 64 dollars? For your life’s work…
Oddly, this is the present World. Google appears to want to steal all the books on the Planet and pay the authors 64 bucks for their trouble.
Sound odd? Sound outrageous? Sound like a scary future World.
Sure as f*ck does.
Read more about it here
Shit like this staggers me. And we all need to be on guard.
