Technology

It seems that if we can get more people to vote via their cell phone for American Idol, the United States Government should listen to their citizens and provide them with alternative methods for participating in elections.

Estonia, a small country in Eastern Europe, is setting the bar by allowing their citizens to vote via their cell phone. This is not the first time that Estonia has employed the latest technology to conduct elections.

Last year, they organized and pulled off a successful election with some participants voting via their computers. Thus, it would make sense why they are pursuing a cell phone based voting election in 2011.

How will it work? Is it safe? Won’t there be rampant voter fraud? How can they do this?  Read More »

I was told about Flock by friend about a month ago but I did not bite. I am not sure why I did not want to give this new web browser the time of day but for some reason today that changed.

I headed over to the Flock website and downloaded the free web browser which is powered by the Mozilla Firefox browser. How much different could it be you may ask?

A Ton! This web browser claims to be the "Social Web Browser" and that is no lie. It integrates flawlessly to all major Social networks. I was able to connect and set up shop in 20 minutes. Now I have an instant hookup to my Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Flickr, YouTube, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail accounts.  Read More »

Now that Barack Obama achieved the first stepping stone in the overall goal of providing the change this country needs, one must not forget about the avenues that aided in this success. I am referring to the aggressive strategy employed to communicate with millions via the Internet.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Obama plans to broadcast the traditional “Fireside Chats” on YouTube. It was about time! Ever since FDR began the weekly address it was only distributed through the radio airwaves. I am glad someone realized we have the ability to transmit video as well but more importantly making the video readily available for years to come.

This made me ponder for a bit and I came to the realization that just because the election is over … it does not mean that Obama should cease to use the same social networks and marketing strategies that made him successful.  Read More »

In what may be a paramount case and a precedent that may haunt the RIAA and MPAA for years to come, a U.S. judge concluded that transcoding is not a crime. Transcoding is the automatic process that most websites like YouTube employ to convert any user submitted video file into the flash format.

Judge Howard Lloyd of the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California dismissed a 2006 copyright infringement case against Veoh. The issue at hand was whether Veoh should be held liable for the actions of a user who submitted content from the adult entertainment company IO Group. Veoh was compliant with IO Group’s to remove the content but nonetheless ended up in court over the matter.  Read More »

The media and political campaigns were introduced to a new way of informing the general public of the latest news by a Presidential candidate. The Barack Obama campaign released their text messaging campaign so you can find out who his Vice President will be. This is an innovative and intresting way to promote the campaign and the interest in the decision. This should not be a surprise coming from the Obama campaign who has not conducted the normal campaign.  Read More »

The Austin American-Statesman had an article about the Pew Internet & American Life Project on broadband use in the United States. The research concluded that broadband internet use is increasing throughout the United States but hinted at a disparity that may be intresting.

In the war of the Haves & Have Not's, it seems that fast internet access may be a point of contention. Americans with broadband internet now make up 55% as opposed to 47% reported as of last year. African-American households with broadband stood at 43%, compared to those of Whites and Hispanic English Speaking households at 57%.

Does lack of access to fast internet really mean anything though? According to John Horrigan, associate director of research at the nonprofit Pew project,"Internet users who don't have high-speed Internet access could miss out on video-based learning programs, access to government documents or other necessities electronically, or online entertainment."

I beg to differ. As a cynic, I will claim that fast internet does not mean that individuals will be losing out. It may just mean faster means to accessing MySpace or YouTube but this is not detrimental to those individuals life or property. Faster access to information is not the same as NO access to information. I am more inclined to describe a digital divide between individuals that have access to computers with internet versus those that do not. Faster access to information on the internet does not equate to better in my opinion.

How fast is fast?I can still recall the day of dial up internet. Even though the world is a wonderful place with DSL and Cable internet, it is just a convenience more than anything. I now have faster access to data that I was not otherwise with dial up. People functioned with 56k just okay 10 years ago.I am not concerned with the speed that people access information as I am with the ability to even access that information. As technology improves and certain features become obsolete, folks will be able to enjoy the faster speeds. 56k is slowly being phased out for more practical and cost effective services such as broadband. Internet Service Providers understand that it will be more costly to maintain phone lines and subscribers that rely on those services. They will end up providing cheaper alternatives to broadband that will serve as gateway for those individuals. AT&T has taken a similar approach offering Internet plans as low as $14.99 and $19.99. The digital divide is not in the speed of information but if individuals even have access to that information . . . and that is a more important topic to entertain.

Many folks may not anticipate what will happen tomorrow. But in the last 48 hours the once Microsoft/Yahoo! deal that was expected to save Yahoo! from financial trouble has fallen apart. The fate of Yahoo! and its future will be determined by tomorrow's actions.

In order to bring most of you up to speed on the ongoing developments between Yahoo! and Microsoft I shall quickly recap. Yahoo! has been facing attempting to negotiate a deal to merge with someone over the last few months. Its main rival Google would be a no go since it the deal would face scrutiny due to monopoly laws. The only other viable source would be Microsoft who had the capital and justification for the purchaser. News Corporation (Murdoch's MySpace Company) became interested but could not afford the asking price form Yaho0. After months of negotiation, the deal was suppose to be finalized by tomorrow, May 5, 2008.

The deal ended up going sour before the due date and the fate of Yahoo! is on the line. What is the impact of this situation though? In the current troubled economic state that we are in, the sky is the limit. This in turn may possibly be the catalyst that history will refer to in books or nothing at all may occur.

I speculate that Yahoo! stocks will take a tumble this week and in 14 days or so, Yahoo! will be bought out by a rival at a discount price. As a cynic, I believe that Microsoft setup this situation in their favor from the get go. Their interest to take over Yahoo! would benefit them the most as it would negatively hurt the most. Microsoft needs some leverage in order to compete with Google and acquiring Yahoo! would help. When other parties became interested in the deal, Microsoft has to commit to their guns and offer a price that other companies could not afford. In a way they inflated the value of Yahoo! temporarily in order to prevent others from attempting to purchase it. At the last minute, Microsoft pulls out of the deal and during the ongoing days and weeks, Yahoo! would lose monetary value and become desperate and accept the first check that rescues them. Would you be surprised if by the end of this ordeal Microsoft ends up with Yahoo? Neither would I. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch offers a similar view on the fate of Yahoo.