David Ortez

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.

Assuming you are my age … entertain just for a second telling your children in 20 years what an experience on a personal computer was like.

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.

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.

I love to watch TV . . . correction . . . there are certain shows on
TV that I love to watch but sometimes time constraints do not allow
for a practical way of viewing some of my favorite programming. Some
folks do not benefit from DVR or cable service so they must wait until
the end of the season to play catch up with their favorite show. This
can lead to dedicating a week (usually in September) to watching the
whole season in a week. Believe me, certain shows warrant such erratic
behavior.

Enter "ted" as the pragmatic solution for the rest of us. Of course
there is "Surf the Channel" but the poor quality or Chinese subtitles
may turn off a few. Ted is a program that finds episodes of any TV
show you like to watch and it aids in downloading the shows using
Bittorrent and RSS technology. It is straight forward and intuitive
approach for those that are not the most tech savvy. The best news is
that people that run Windows or Mac OS X will benefit from this
program. Ted is free and you can download it here but remember
that although everything may be free upfront . . . it doesn’t
necessarily mean that it is legal. Enjoy!

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.

UPDATE: As of February 16, 2009 …you should read and implement the new method of achieving this effect. You can still do it via this old method but I recommend doing it the new way. Check it out here!

I love technological challenges because at the end of the day there is a lesson learned. Currently, I am transitioning from Cable Internet to DSL Internet. I had been a faithful customer of Time Warner Cable ever since Cable internet became available in Houston. To help some folks out that was 8 years ago or since 2000. Even when I went to college I opted for cable with Time Warner except for one year when my only recourse was Comcast.

The Public Broadcasting Service in cooperation with Frontline have developed a two part documentary that outlines the Iraq War called Bush’s War. There were over 400 hours of footage shot to produce the account of fabrication, escalation, invasion and subsequent aftermath of the United States occupation of Iraq. The best thing is that you do not have to set your DVR or take time out of your schedule to view this masterpiece. It will provided online for free via the Frontline webpage on the PBS website. It is a media rich content that is dynamic and is controlled by the end user. As you watch the film, you are given option to explore more in-depth analysis of particular clips and additional information that may not have fit into the original film but did not deserved to be cut. I recommend spending a lazy Sunday tomorrow checking out the film. Plan on spending anywhere from 2 hours to 5, depending on how much you wish to learn.

Lawsuit Challenges Immigration Raids in New Jersey – Immigration agents systematically entered homes and made arrests without proper warrants during raids to round up immigration fugitives in New Jersey, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday. The lawsuit, brought by lawyers at the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, will provide a constitutional test of law enforcement methods often used by immigration agents since May 2006 when they began operations across the country to track down and deport immigrants who had been ordered to leave by the courts.

Olympics ‘worsening China rights’ – China’s human rights record is getting worse, not better, because of the Beijing Olympics, a rights group says. According to Amnesty International, China is clamping down on dissent in a bid to portray a stable and harmonious image ahead of the Games in August.

80,000 Jobs Cut in March; Unemployment Rate Rises – The economy shed 80,000 jobs in March, the third consecutive month of rising unemployment, presenting a stark sign that the country may already be in a recession. Sharp downturns in the manufacturing and construction sectors led the decline, the biggest in five years. The Labor Department also said employers cut far more jobs in January and February than originally estimated.

Back to pencil and paper for 2010 census – Technology problems will force the government to count all of the nation’s 300 million residents the old-fashioned way in the 2010 census — with paper and pencil.

Gene links smokers and lung cancer – Three new studies analyzing the genetics of lung cancer have identified two inherited gene variations that raise white smokers’ chances of getting the disease by as much as 80 percent compared to tobacco users without the genes. All smokers have a tenfold greater risk for lung cancer than nonsmokers, but less than 20 percent of smokers eventually develop the disease. Scientists believe heredity is why some smokers are more likely to develop lung cancer.