CES 2009 Video Gear Packout for Geek News Central



This is my full gear packout for CES I hope you enjoy the small review I did. Apologize that I have not put up more content to date. Bandwidth has been a major issue as always. The Monte Carlo hotel is throttling the bandwidth which is horrible considering we are paying big bucks for Internet Service.

Link to Video


GNC-2009-01-06 #437 Todd’s CES 2009 Gear Packout



I know this is late but I promised you a video of my gear pack out for CES here it is.. Things have been crazy here and bandwidth when I have been at my pc has been limited.. Lots to tell in the coming week.

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Tech Predictions for 2009



It’s 2009 (Happy New Year, everyone!) and that means it’s time for predictions for the new year. I’ve read articles here and there listing what’s “in” and what’s “out,” what kind of changes we can expect, and what kind of technology we will all be using later this year. This is my list of what I see:

Telecommuting and Outsourcing. As the economy drifts from bad to worse, and eventually back again, many businesses will be looking at ways to minimize costs as well as keep the best workers happy when they can’t afford to give them big raises. Telecommuting has been growing over the years, and I expect it to continue to grow. But what I also see is that companies will be looking for contracted outsourcing that takes advantage of telecommuting. A contracted worker could provide their own equipment, office space, software, and connection to the Internet, reducing costs overall for the employer to provide these things.

Energy Use Reduction through Virtualization. We all know how IT and our enormous server farms are drains on public power sources. They are also a huge chunk of what is paid in operating expenses at any business. Reducing the amount of servers needed, and desktops needed, through virtualization, could save considerable dollars through the course of a year. I work with two desktops and a laptop on my desk every day, but I’m busily converting my workhorse desktop machine into a multi-functioning, multi-layered computer that runs everything I need in virtualized environments. Many of our training dollars right now are pushed towards virtualization.

More Interns, Fewer New Hires. We have already seen this growing here on our campus. We never utilized interns before, now we have four to six of them on staff at any given time. Empty positions are not being filled due to hiring freezes, and the interns provide a valuable labor pool that costs us nothing but a little training time. It is a win-win situation for both the intern and our institution.

Continued Non-Deployment of Vista. Despite that fact that I use Vista machines (two of them, in fact) and that it’s been out for nearly two years, companies and institutions are not buying into it. All are waiting for Windows 7. I am used to it and can navigate through it, even though it annoys me, but I still prefer XP, even after using Vista for better than a year in my daily work. Vista is not for the faint of heart, or for the non-techie market, sad to say. My hopes are pinned on Windows 7, I hope I’m not disappointed.

Smart Phone Deployment. Smart phones are yesterday’s PDA’s. For some in the workforce, a smart phone may be plenty for what they do. For the techies out there, the smart phone will never replace a computer. I’ve resisted the smart phone invasion because to me it is just a toy, something to pass time while I’m waiting to get back to my keyboard. Tech workers will need to be able to help clients integrate smart phones into their technology pools.

Decentralization of Technologists’ Skill Sets. That’s a mouthful. What I mean is that technologists will need to know more than technology. The push is to have more technologists understanding management structures and methods, budget considerations, non-technological solutions to technical problems, and long-term goal setting and forecasting. CIO’s and Technology Managers these days are being hired based more on their management skills than on their technical skills. Having a broadbased knowledge and experience will make technologists more hirable in the short- and long-term future.

That’s what I see. Did I miss anything?


Twitter hack = plausible deniability?



With the recent hacking of a number of high profile Twitter accounts some are fearful of what this means to their data security. Given that the problem seems to have been caused by Twitter’s support tools being hacked these fears are probably justified. Hopefully Twitter has diconnected the support system from the external world, or dealt with the internal controls that let it happen.

I was wondering though whether this occurance might actually help Twitter attract some more non-technical celebrities. The nature of some of the posts that went out would no doubt disturb some people, but think of the upside. If you happen to put out a risque post you wish you hadn’t, when your boss asks you about it the next morning you can claim it must have been a hacked post.

In reality my boss would probably ask why anyone would want to go to the effort to hack my account. If I was a moderate celebrity though it might be tempting to blame any of my crazier posts on “Twitter hackers”. It would only work once or twice.

Twitter are probably grateful at the moment that their service is a limited one. As such they don’t actually keep any personal information other than an email address. In some way good for them if they get rid of these types of problems now before they look to expand their services and reach.


CES 2009 Coverage to Start on Tuesday



Ces2009I want to update everyone on the 2009 CES coverage. The website will be reconfigured for the week. I will have two video embeds at the very top of the website that will have the latest video we have pushed online.

2008cestpnOn Tuesday the team from TechPodcasts.com will start their CES 2009 coverage. One will be the regular content the crew has pushed up, aka what we are terming the primary channel and a secondary embed will have the back channel video.

The Primary channel will contain our daily wrap up and professional interviews. The Back Channel will have content that show what it is like to be at CES.

On the Blog and Podcast RSS feed (see second column top) we will publish a handful of videos that contain our daily wrap ups and special coverage segments.

The large majority of downloadable Videos that we push up next week and throughout the next 4–6 weeks will be on the Special Media Feed at https://www.geeknewscentral.com/video.xml

The main thing to remember is that if you want to get all of the videos we shoot to downloaded to your podcacher is to subscribe to the Video RSS feed.


GNC-2009-01-02 #436 Happy New Year!



Loaded and ready to head to Vegas in a very few short days for CES coverage. Special instructions on how to subscribe to the entire Video Content in today’s show. Plea for help for Roz Savage.

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Listener Links:
NASA and DOD link up?
PS3 Video Chat Option
Dealing with Spam
Pints for Prostates

Show Notes:
IE6 Nose Diving
Linux on a USB Drive
Five File Sharing Predictions
Clean Tech Stories
Why your Zune Died
iPhone 3g Unlock
Paperless Fax Machine?
Brother Sewing Machine with HD
Japan Immigration followed by Tape
Twitter Feed Reader
10 Personalities on Twitter
New Media Predictions by Robin Good Part 2
New Media Predictions Robin Good Part 1
The year ahead in Media and Bloggers
Rumor Mac Mini with Dual Display Support
Apple and MacWorld Insights
iMovie moving to Cloud?
NASA Columbia Crew Survival Report
Music Sales up 10%
The Year in IPV4
20% Electronics Return Rate in 2008
Pay per Opinion?
Have some old Mice? Five new Uses
Jobs of the Future

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Glad I Didn’t Buy a Zune…



Apparently overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, many, if not all, first generation Zune 30 gb players froze and refuse to operate. The shutdowns seem to have occurred simultaneously around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, December 31. Zunes that have frozen may or may not start up again, and when they do start up, they freeze again before completely booting.

Microsoft has issued a vague “we’re working on the problem” statement on the Zune website.

I have a nearly four year old iPod 60 gb player (gen IV, I think). I’ve never had one second of a problem with it (I can’t say the same for iTunes, however). When I bought MP3 players for everyone in my household for Christmas, I opted for Sony and Sansa players, something without much operating system to go wrong, and with no firmware updates to screw anything up. I’d have bought iPods but they were out of my budget for a family of five.

Since my entire household is now on a New Year’s Eve trip to Chicago, and everyone has their headphones in rocking to their own music (I’m catching up on all my podcasts), I’m glad that we don’t have a crashed Zune to deal with. I’d have a van full of angry teenagers on my hands if we did!

I hope Microsoft is able to track down the exact problem and get a fix out ASAP. Considering it’s the holidays and perhaps half of Microsoft (along with the rest of the U.S.) is away on vacation, I don’t anticipate a fix yet today, which is bad for those wishing they could use their Zunes right about now.