All About Platforms

If your passion is in technology, you often sigh with the marketing buzzwords used in sales. Cloud Computing doesn’t actually mean anything specific (or could mean a lot of things). It’s that a lot of things to a lot of people who makes it useful as a term, an ideology, a way of explaining why you-oh-so-need-to-do-this-now. Cloud computing for me is a platform description. I think of the myriad of hosting companies who offer a platform to build your service atop.

Hollywood Tech

I always enjoy watching shows like CSI for the over-the-top depiction of current technology. They obviously have people in know, it’s not like the script writers of major shows cannot get someone to consult them on technology (or maybe they don’t - sometimes I do wonder). The video below is about IRC (Internet Relay Chat). They are correct it’s primitive (it’s all text) and hackers do actually use it (groups like Anonymous), but you can’t track someone to their living room using just an IP address!

Faster with Arch

I have recently switched my main desktop over to Arch Linux. If you have never heard about Arch Linux, it is a “roll your own” Linux distribution. This basically means from start to finish, the whole process is custom. Whether your system has a Graphical User Interface (GUI) or sound is totally up to you. I switched from Ubuntu Linux, which is very much built for new people to Linux. I have been using Ubuntu since it’s release in 2004 (as old as this blog incidentally).

Website Improvements

I haven’t been posting much lately because I have been working hard to improve the experience of visiting this website. You may ask what does that mean? - well it is simple. I love going to websites that are uncluttered, provide useful information and are to the point. It’s also small things like having a really fast page load time. So here’s a flavour of some of what I have been working on lately…

Reflection on 9-11

It’s been 10 years since the anniversary of 9/11 and much of the world has changed a lot in that period. We’ve had full body scanners at airports, marshalls on flights, bombs hidden in toner cartridges and two wars. I reflected on this and remembered two really good articles I’ll share here on the topic. Hopefully we’ve changed for the better. Yesterday I finally wrote something that’s been bothering me for about ten years: The fact that Al Qaeda can’t be as big and bad as it’s made out to be, because its whole design violates every rule of guerrilla organisation.

Review of the Motorola Xoom Wifi

I recently bought the wifi version of the Motorola Xoom. I did not get the 3G version to keep costs down (no second carrier subscription in addition to smartphone I own). Here’s my review, let it be noted I’ve been an iOS user since version 2 (iPhone 3G) and although I have used devices from Android 1.6 and up - I’ve never ’lived’ with them. Motorola Xoom Aesthetics & Design First of all the design is very well executed.

Plantronics .655 USB Headset Review

I got a Plantronics .655 USB Headset mainly for the ability to do VOIP well. Those of you who come here often know I reviewed Sennheiser HD595 before, which is a headset built for the quality of reproduction (I use that one for music). There’s not much you can say about a VOIP headset, so I am going to keep this short! The Plantronics .655 USB isn’t the most comfortable headset and the usb connection seemed like a plus as I’d never owned a USB headset.

Tech Video Podcasts Worth Watching

I try to listen to as many podcasts (netcasts?) as I can. They fall in to two categories: Irish radio and technology. Luckily, there is so much competition in this space it’s hard to pick the best - so quality is high! Tech News Today (TNT) by the TWiT Network Regular and fills you right up to the minute with the latest tech news. Can replace RSS of many blogs (HUGE time saver) since lively debate of tech topics is the order of the day.

The Paradox of Choice

From one of the best TED talks I’ve seen: I love the story about the jeans. I feel like that every time I buy shoes. Scary.

Accidental Sea - When Humans Disappear

I’ve always wondered what would happen when we are gone - an inevitability judging by every known animal becoming extinct at some stage. Creepy but very interesting…

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