One last security post

I don't know if any of you are still following along, but I wanted to share one last security related story for you. I have often been asked if Macs, cel phones, ATMs, tablets, and a host of other digital devices can be infected with viruses or other malicious software.

The answer is yes. Once again - YES. No digital device is safe from exploit, and while some are more susceptible than others simply because of their market share (Windows machines are still the most frequently targeted), any machine can be targeted. Even dedicated systems like those used to run power plants are vulnerable. Remember, you can't have 100% security.

Keeping that in mind, here is a fascinating yet technical article about watching attackers take over a Linux-based machine, Linux being an open-source alternative to Windows. It was often considered invulnerable, but it appears that's not the case.  Be sure to note that the researcher who has set up this machine has configured it as what is known as a honey-pot server which is used as a fake target to entice attackers and trap or at least misdirect them. So the box was set up specifically to trap and monitor the activities of attackers.

And as a final holiday send-off, here are a bunch of robots dancing to Christmas songs. Happy holidays!


Robot Christmas dance by kj1983

Related to our discussion of cookies

If you recall, we talked about small text files called cookies that websites will leave on your machine to track you, or remember you, or serve ads to you, or a host of other tasks. Now, to feed in to the hysteria about government spying, it appears that the NSA and GCHQ (Britain's version of the NSA) have been using those cookies to monitor those individuals that were already under suspicion.

Remember, cookies can be very useful; they are used to remember who you are when you visit websites and serve up relevant ads. They are also benign in and of themselves, text files are not natively harmful. But they do contain a lot of information about you and your behavior, and that is very valuable to, well, everyone. Also, if you're being good, then nothing to worry about, right?

Right?

If you're interested in seeing some of your cookies (or 'Temporary Internet Files' as IE likes to call them) in Windows you can navigate to the Temporary Internet Files folder on your hard drive, although the options menu in most browsers should give you a view of the ones you have. Here is the folder showing a few of mine, and it shows what your path would be, without the 'Darren' of course. There are other files in there, but the image is an example of what cookies look like - and they are *all* from sites that serve up advertising!

Did you notice the Google thingy today?

Today is the 107th birthday of one of the most important people in computing history. Grace Hopper, the Navy Rear Admiral, mathematician and computer scientist was the first ever to write a compiler (the process that converts your programs into machine language, or ones and zeros), one of the first to see computers as something other than gigantic calculators, and even coined the term 'debugging' for removing problems within a machine. Of course, it was literally debugging in her case, since a moth had flown into relay 70 of the massive - and I mean massive; that's a picture of it below and all it did were calculations since it used mechanical relays as opposed to circuits - Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator at Harvard University causing the system to experience operational problems. I have also included a picture of the bug itself, which is in the collection of the Smithsonian's Museum of American History. She admits she didn't actually find it, but her name is most often associated with it.

The above is just a small sample of her accomplishments, she really was a pioneer in the then-emerging world of computing capabilities. (One other thing that deserves mention - the site gracehopper.org, ostensibly for celebrating women in computing, never actually mentions or discusses Grace Hopper!)

The bug

This is what it's come to.

Remember writing Christmas lists? You have a list, sometimes a really long list, but there's stuff you want! You write it all down, or word process it (although it's nice to know that in the future, robot Santa still uses a scroll and parchment), and send it off.

But we can also assume that Santa has a sizable enterprise-wide back end with distributed front-end processing for all his elves, right? If he wants to keep up and be able to continuously distribute gifts to all the good boys and girls, and a few adults as well, he needs to computerize. And that's exactly what this kid is assuming. I think it's a safe assumption, and I have to give him credit for writing all that out! A regular list would have been easier.

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn passwords stolen

There were some other sites as well, but these were the big ones. The article I'm linking below talks a lot about Botnets and Keyloggers and what makes a good password and things such as that, and we'll be discussing all of that as we wrap up the semester (although if you want to read a scary story about new types of BotNets, just head over to this story on Ars Technica). But just be aware that although the list of stolen passwords from these sites that originated in the U.S. is very small, you should always use robust passwords when first creating them.

How exactly do you do that? There's a hint right here on this page, but I'll just tell you anyway.

Later.

Two million stolen Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, ADP passwords found on Pony Botnet server

Since it's cyber monday...

...here's an interesting clip from last night's 60 minutes interview with Jeff Bezos that I found quite interesting. Although I personally find him evil and heartless, this was so off the wall I had to share it. Apparently, Amazon is experimenting with drones that will airlift packages right to your door. It seems overkill, but if it works then you know what the next step will be - that's right, just beam them directly in to your living room like Star Trek. You know it will happen.

Happy Thanksgiving!

And Hanukkah too, if you celebrate that. The two holidays coinciding won't happen again for 70,000 years! If you're celebrating the Festival of Lights and feeling especially techie, there are some surprising tech alternatives to a traditional Menorah. Consider the circuit board Menorah, for example:

Or perhaps you would just prefer a Menorah app:

Or just go for broke, and have a robot do the whole thing for you!


But what about Thanksgiving? If you're in space, you get to have a freeze-dried celebration! Me, I think that would be perfectly fine, seeing as you're enjoying it IN SPACE! Here's more info about the specifics of the foodstuffs that astronauts use to celebrate liberating the Earth from martians.

Thanksgiving.....In..........SPAAAACE!

See through your skin (sort of)

If you've ever had your blood drawn, you know that while it's not necessarily a pleasant experience, but it's not so bad, either. A little pin-prick, a few vials of blood and an Oreo cookie later and it's all over.

That is unless they can't find a vein, or have to stick you more than once, or one of any other issues that can crop up. If only there was some way to find your vein easily, have a Google map of the arm or something like that.

Well now there is. A new product from Evena Medical allows the phlebotomist to see the blood flowing right beneath the skin. It's pretty remarkable, a little creepy, and another example of some nifty medical technology. Watch the video below and be amazed.

8-core is here!

You may recall when we were discussing hardware we talked about dual-core and quad-core processors, which are single chips that act as though you had multiple CPUs all running at once (remember, that's very difficult to program for).

We also talked about how we are seeing not just desktop PCs but phones and tablets with multi-core processors, and discussed the potential advantages (speed) and disadvantages (battery life) to having such power in a small device.

Well it turns out we were discussing old-hat! The first ever 8-core mobile processor. Mobile is the operative word,since 8-core processors for larger devices have been around for a while.

So soon, if you have the need to use your phone or tablet to remotely pilot a 747, or design the next space station, or chart the evolutionary path of armadillos, or an endless amount of other large-scale tasks, well now you can.

The Large Pixel Collider.

Watch out for speeding particles.

Remember our talk about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) over at CERN, the same place that developed the World Wide Web? About how people were worried that in its quest to find the Higgs boson (or 'G-d particle' as it is more colloquially known) it would create black holes that would destroy the universe?

Well, in a nod to that beast of physics and discovery, and in response to some emails and Facebook notifications I've received about it, I would like you to feast your eyes on the most beastly PC I've ever seen. The editors over at PC Gamer have developed what they call the Large Pixel Collider, a PC meant to test the limits of PC gaming functionality. Like it or not, gaming pushes computing technology further than any other force outside of government research, and many of our best technologies have come from it (pathfinding artificial intelligence, leaps in graphical fidelity, input methods, etc.).

It's not just that this machine is in a case that could house a small family, or has 8 storage bays, or a 1200 watt power supply; no, it's the quad-SLI graphic setup they put in. What that means, simply, is that they have four graphics cards all running together serving as a single device. Specifically, four NVidia GTX Titans which run about $1000 apiece.That means it will be able to push images and video at beyond-4K resolution.

Four fans, massive liquid-cooling...if you're a PC enthusiast, prepare to drool. If not, prepare to ask 'Why would anybody *do* this?' Just don't ask if it can play Angry Birds. Because it can! It'll fling those birds clean off the screen and onto your desk!

Nothing is safe!

Well, it has finally happened. The computer virus, started way back (at least in its popular form) on the Apple IIe, has made it's way into outer space! The International Space Station has been infected with a virus carried by one of the astronauts on a USB stick. In fact, that is how *all* viruses are transmitted; they need a host of some sort. Whether it's a file set through email or a physical vector like a flash drive, viruses can't act or propagate on their own.

However it was not the Stuxnet virus as many outlets are reporting. You may recall Stuxnet was the virus that infected Iran's nuclear plants a couple of years ago.

On a related note, look what came up while I was researching this: Just another example of why you have to be careful what yo read and where it comes from. They're not quite exact opposites, but they're close.

So which was it?

I'm more amazed by the fact the ISS has a USB port!

Like living in Vegas? How about now?

Thanks to Cynthia for sending an article about a very interesting (terrifying, maybe? Unnerving? Perhaps nefarious?) article about a new and unexpected technology being used downtown. Street lights known commercially as 'Intellistreets' are light fixtures that can strobe, play announcements, be controlled from an iPad, but can also record audio and video. Specifically, audio and video of *you.*

As expected, the current line on these lights is that these homeland security (seriously, that's what they call them) features are not being utilized, and they have no current plans to do so. But that also hints there might be *future* plans to do so.

Here one is.

It might sound like I'm completely against this, but I'm not, in principle. You can't have 100% security and 100% safety, they're mutually exclusive. Some monitoring has to take place in the interests of public security. The question is, will these contribute to that, or will they be a violation of the rights to privacy that we do have? Remember, if you are in a public place, your privacy rights are limited. DO you have the right to privacy and confidentiality on the grounds of city hall, or while you're in a restaurant, or only at home? Even legal experts aren't sure.

One other thing I'll mention; the fact they are wireless presents a potentially significant security risk. Although everything is recorded to a server, the ability to intercept recordings or take control of the lights is very real. Wireless signals are very susceptible to manipulation. 

Continuing on the theme of whipping the public into a frenzy, there is another article linked in the original one about safety warnings being broadcast in Wal*Mart stores. While the intentions are good, I can see this leading to far more trouble than it might be worth, causing everyone to think everyone else is suspicious. Has anyone actually seen these? 

Remember, we do need to intercept people who are planning something terrible. But do we need to monitor everyone in the process? Slippery slope, or necessary evil?

So are you a Twitter billionaire?

Like the guy in the hat? If not, do you at least use Twitter? Now that it has had its IPO, everyone who runs the company has become an instant millionaire/billionaire.

In fact, Twitter share prices rose sharply after the initial announcement, meaning an even larger take for those involved with the opening. It's an interesting phenomenon, since Facebook has four times as many users and Instagram is growing at a faster pace, Twitter seems to be the service that actually has the most immediate influence since it's used for security alerts and emergency warnings, political announcements and revolutions as well as letting people know what sandwich you just ate.

Even if you're not a billionaire just yet, do any of you by any chance use Twitter? Have an account but don't use it? Use it a lot? Follow anyone else? These questions are important because Twitter, for all the bluster over its IPO, is not profitable and only vague promises about how it will become so have been made. Facebook did it, so perhaps Twitter can as well.

Well *that's* good to hear!

Hey, robots won't stab us now!

Actually, this article is just discussing a newly-developed ability of robots to learn "behaviors" described by vague instructions. As the article notes, robots are terrible at doing this, as are all digital devices, they need very specific, step-by-step directions to complete even a simple task. Now, however, it appears that robots that will help us in the future will be able to pick up on cues during their training and learn the proper way to behave.

I can't believe I just typed that. I'm not thinking of I, Robot at all!

Now robots are better at everything!

Still can't beat Spock, though.

Geez, we can't even win simple children's games anymore. First it was crosses and naughts (tic-tac-toe as we call it in the U.S.), then it was chess, checkers, and any other game you can imagine. Now, they can even win - every single time no less - at rock, paper, scissors.

A robot has been developed in Japan that is so fast at determining what shape is being made by its opponents hand that it is impossible to beat. However, as the article notes, it's not really playing, it's cheating. Still, it's wining. Every time. When robots start winning at rock paper scissors, all hope for humanity is lost.

Government healthcare website

I haven't posted here in a while because I have been preparing a post about what has been going on with the government healthcare website. As you should already know, it has been a disaster. People unable to get to the site, unable to log on, unable to create an account. I have seen video after video after video of people explaining what went wrong, and read all manner of article trying to make sense of it all. I couldn't write a succinct, clear post explaining it all.

It makes my head hurt. I'm going to try to let you know some of the underlying problems that are happening and clear up some of the confusion without turning this into a dissertation.

There are several issues contributing to the difficulties the site is having: Bad design, lack of testing, mandate of conversion to name a few.

Regarding bad design, it turns out the site is designed so poorly that it is sending far more data (unsecured, no less!) back and forth among participants - including insurance companies,  the site itself, and the users - than is necessary. For example, let's say the web page comes up and you are asked to enter your name and address. When you hit submit, it should only send that info, as well as some security and validation info as well. But it is sending much, much more. In fact, the belief now is that it is so poorly designed that major parts of it will need to be redesigned from scratch. That's right - not redeveloped or improved, but scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up.

Next is lack of testing. When I teach systems analysis and design, which is essentially the subject of how to develop and implement large systems, students learn about three types of tests: Desk testing, unit testing, and string testing. In desk testing, the functionality and logic of the system is tested on paper. It's an easy and inexpensive way to root out big problems and fix them efficiently. With unit testing, each function is tested individually. In other words, the ability of the system to accept user-submitted info would be tested as a standalone function, as would the ability to calculate a total or compute sales tax. With string testing, all those functions are tested together to be sure data is being passed between those functions properly. It might be discovered that while sales tax is being correctly calculated it is not being added to the total at checkout.

The point of all of this is it appears that the only type of testing that was done is unit testing. No desk or string testing at all. And for a system so dependent on so many participants and aspects, this is unforgivable.

There was also no capacity or load testing, meaning testing the system to be sure it can handle the expected traffic. Although it was assumed that millions would try to log on, it was only tested with 200 simultaneous users.

Finally, conversion. The government is notorious for forcing systems on line when they are nowhere near ready, and it has happened again. The site had to go live on a specific date whether it was ready or not, and it was not ready. This is one of the cardinal rules that should not be violated, but, especially with federal systems, it often is.

One other thing: This is not a commentary on the plan itself as many people try to make it out to be. It was hard to find links for this post because so many were biased one way or the other, using the site's failures to attack or defend the plan itself, but that's irrelevant, a red herring, don't fall into that trap. The failures of the system are unrelated to that regardless of your feelings of the plan itself. But the site is a huge disaster, and apparently none of the designers have ever been in my class (or maybe they have) because these mistakes are design 101 errors. Hopefully they get it figured out soon, but I suspect it will take at least three months to get to operating speed. We'll see.

New top-level domains

You are all already familiar with the concept of a top-level domain, or TLD. It's the extension at the end of a web address, such as .com, .net, .org or .biz, to name a few. Now, ICANN, the organization that oversees these domains and allows or disallows new ones, has for the first time approved and will roll out TLDs in other languages. I can't write them out since they are in languages such as Arabic, Russian, and Chinese, so I will instead point you to this article at the BBC which does a very good job of explaining it.

Other large companies also applied for new TLDs, both Amazon and Google want .music of course, but Google also applied for the mysterious and enigmatic .boo. I'm intrigued...

Now, you may wonder why ICANN has the authority to do this, who made them boss? That's a valid question, and I will fill you in when we talk about in class!

For those who torrent, a sad day.

For anyone who runs torrents, today is a sad day. If you don't know what they are or if you're a media producer, it's a victory. Isohunt.com has been shut down.

A little background: Those who remember the glory days of pioneering peer-to-peer file-sharing client Napster will be familiar with the point of torrents. Napster didn't have central servers, it allowed you to connect to the machines of other individual users to download files, usually illegally, including music, movies, and software. Of course, with no central controls, it was also a haven for viruses and other malware that would do terrible damage to someone's machine. It was a risky activity.

Napster

Nowadays, we have torrents. I don't condone it, but I understand it. The way it works is as follows: You want to download a movie or television show, say. You would locate the appropriate torrent online (it actually has the .torrent extension), download it, and then click on it, which would open your chosen torrent client software, and the tv show/movie/whatever would download. It would then be added as a 'seed,' meaning others could connect to you to download the same file.

Similar to Napster, you are connecting to multiple other users to download the file with no central server which makes the transfer very difficult to track. In fact, ISPs (COX or Comcast or whoever) try to identify those running torrents by the amount of data transmitting over their connection.

Isohunt screen

Isohunt was the main site for locating these torrents, along with a comment section and listing of uploaders and downloaders to help verify the integrity of the file. However, because it was obviously a pirating site, it has agreed to shut down and pay a $10 million fine, although they have no way of paying. The creator of the site tried to argue that it simply listed he torrents without supplying them, as users connected to other users and not the site, but that logic was unsuccessful. It's hardly the only torrent site out there, so I suspect others will pick up the slack.

Artificial intelligence!

We have talked a lot about artificial intelligence, about what it is and what constitutes an organism's ability to think. We discussed sentience, which refers to self awareness, and compared machines to spiders, one of which was aware of its existence and the other which isn't.

On top of that, there was a clue on last week's crossword puzzle asking about the father of artificial intelligence, and from class discussion it appeared there was some question as to who that actually was. The correct answer is Alan Turing, a pioneer in not just AI but computing in general, mathematics, and other related fields. For all his contributions he lived a short, tragic life and it wasn't until years after his death that he was issued a formal apology by the British government for the way he was treated.

Now, serendipitously (which isn't a word), there is an article from the BBC titled 'Will Machines Ever Be Able to Think?' It discusses the current state of artificial intelligence, which is right where we left it when we discussed it in class, but it also talks about the history of computing and the people who contributed in significant ways, including Turing, as well as Ada Lovelace who is noted for being a female pioneer in what was and is a male-dominated industry, and Charles Babbage, a friend of Lovelace who created the almost-but-not-quite completed Analytical Engine, a rebuilt version of which can be seen at the Computer History Museum today.

It's a fascinating read and sets a solid groundwork for discussing where we are now in terms of intelligent machines, But we all know where we are in terms of that - right here.

Chili's enters the 21st century

I thought you all might be interested to see something I found at a Chili's restaurant in Baltimore. It seems they are trying to make the experience more...interactive? At each table was a small digital display by a company called Ziosk, and it allowed patrons to peruse the menu, play games, join the frequent eater's club or whatever it's called, you could even pay your bill, dividing up the payment if necessary, and printing a receipt as well!

You still have to have the server take the order and bring it out, but other than that it's pretty automated. I don't know if they have them out here, perhaps one of you can confirm or deny that. Have any of you used one, even somewhere else? I also thought I would show the surreptitious picture I took of the family at the other table. They were all engrossed in the Ziosk and not paying attention to each other. That's the downside to any device such as this, and I thought it was a sad thing to see. They did have the infant playing with a calculator, though, so on the bright side we may have a future mathematician in our midst.

Mandalay Bay has TV screens in the weirdest places.

On the sinks in the public bathrooms, for example. They ought to put them above the...you know.

Firefox and the ultimate memory leak

You may remember our discussion of RAM (Random Access Memory) in class. We discussed how any programming that is running, whether you are using it or not, takes up space in RAM. And the more programs you open, the more space gets taken up. Eventually, as RAM fills to capacity and the machine has to start using hard drive space to store program data your PC will start so stutter and slow, possibly even crash. Of course, if you close some programs - [Control]-[Shift]-[Escape] all held down at once will show all running processes - you will free up the space in memory that they were using and your machine will spring back to life.

However, we also talked about what are known as memory leaks. A misnomer to be certain, because they refer to a program *not* releasing memory once it's shot down, sometimes even continuing to fill it! I also mentioned that the Firefox browser has one of the worst memory leaks I've ever experienced. Well, just to prove the point, Firefox crashed on me over the weekend and when I checked the process list arranged by memory used, look who was right at the top:

Look at that huge number! To make matters worse, not only is it double the memory usage of Internet Explorer, you'll notice the column header shows the word 'Private' in parentheses after 'Memory.' That means 'Private Working Memory' and that is memory that is not useable, not shareable, by other process. Firefox has hogged it all to itself!

I'd be interested to know who among you actively read and post, so here's the task for all of you. Bring up the process list for your OS (Instructions on how to do that are at the end of this post) and indcate the program that is using the most memory and how much it is using, and the program that is using the *second* highest amount of memory, and how much it is using. Put your results in the comments, an we'll see if there are any memory hogs among your programs!

How to determine memory usage of programs:

WINDOWS:
Hold down the Control, Shift, and Escape key all at once to bring up process explorer. Clicking on the 'Memory' column heading will arrange programs by memory usage.

MAC (From Apple's own site):
For Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4 or later, open Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities/).

For Mac OS X 10.2.8 or earlier, open ProcessViewer (/Applications/Utilities/). Mac OS X processes and applications are listed in main window.

In Mac OS X 10.3.9 and earlier, the "% Memory" column indicates the percentage of RAM in use by an application or process at the time of sampling.

In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you can see the overall percentages of memory in use or idle at the bottom of the Activity Monitor window.

Bill Gates out at Microsoft?

Actually, he's not officially with Microsoft anymore after stepping down as CEO in 2008, even making the surprisingly entertaining video below (I purposely chose this version with the less-than-stellar audio so you could hear the audience reaction).

Even so, he is still the chairman and on the board of directors, but some of the top shareholders are asking, now that Microsoft co-founder and current CEO Steve Ballmer has announced his own retirement, that Bill Gates step down fully as well. They feel that Microsoft is too far behind its competitors in the expanding mobile space, and with Bill Gates and Ballmer in the position to essentially voir dire any potential successor that my want to head Microsoft down a different path, they need to be out completely.

I suspect this won't happen, and I'm torn on the issue either way. Apple just isn't the same company without Steve Jobs, and I'm a big fan of Microsoft, they gave us standards that allowed computing and technology to expand into the global driving powerhouse it is today, but I also see the need for flexibility in thought and the ability to take risks and expand into new markets. Of course, when they've done that in the past, they didn't have the marketing to back it up. Remember Zune?

Notorious trafficking website shut down

This article from the BBC notes that a notorious site used for the buying and selling of all sorts of contraband including illegal drugs, weapons, and even humans has been shut down. Long known about but very difficult to find, the Silk Road website was only accessible through a private network using what is known as The Onion Router, or the TOR network. The site now has a single page stating the feds have seized it.

It also used the virtual Bitcoin currency in order to keep the transactions anonymous, and apparently the owner was involved in some untoward activities himself.

This is a positive in my opinion, never mind the illegal drugs and guns, but the human trafficking, child pornography and murder-for-hire contracts it was known for has been shut down as well. This is a triumph for those who fight against such things.

UPDATE: There is a much more detailed account of what happened at this link.

Who's surprised? Anyone? No?

Normally when I make one of these posts I'll add some commentary about the story or video I'm linking, but I'm scared to do that in this case. I think it would be better to just let all of you read the article and make your own comments about what it says.

I will provide some foreshadowing regarding what you are about to read. It deals with the different things men and women post on Facebook, as well as common words used by various age groups. It turns out women talk about cliche'd women things, and men talk about cliche'd men things (also, cursing)! We're all what everyone except ourselves thinks we are!

Read the article here, and be shocked and awed. Or not.

The Steam...controller?

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Steam platform, it is simply a method of digital distribution for computer games. In other words, instead of going to a store and buying a physical copy, you buy the game using Steam, Steam delivers it to your PC, and you even play it through Steam. It incorporates many console ideas such as friends lists, trophies, and multiplayer through the service.

It's not a small time operation. Developed by Valve who also created the seminal Half-Life series, along with other critically acclaimed titles such as Team Fortress 2, Portal, and Left 4 Dead, it has made Valve's founder, Gabe Newell, A billionaire, and Steam is the de facto model for any type of digital distribution.

That's right, a *billionaire*

Now, Valve has announced a Steambox stand-alone console (as opposed to software you install on any machine), but most intriguingly, they have introduced a whole new type of gaming controller that looks like the ones you'd find for a console now, but without sticks or the standard buttons. It is also said to offer new levels of haptic feedback, pinpoint precision, and complete configuration.

The reason I'm writing all this? I'm not convinced from the images alone. I've heard great things but I just can't get past the renders. Time will tell about the success of this new model that's being introduced, but...look at that thing! Not like I have the time to use one anyhow.

The incredible prosthetic leg

Below is an embedded video from last night's CBS evening news which shows an incredible achievement in prosthetic limbs. Keep in mind that this isn't the first mind-controlled prosthetic add-on, however I will hold off on providing any links as we will be talking later in the semester about prosthetic, mind-controlled hands and even a computer that can be controlled by the mind of someone who is completely paralyzed.

Either way, incredible strides have been made in robotic limbs and I believe it will only be a few years before  we begin to see truly usable replacement limbs.

A little more about the Dvorak keyboard

Now that many of you had the chance to try out the Dvorak keyboard, or at least a soft, on-screen version of it, I would like to point you to this article on The Straight Dope - a website that debunks common myths and legends - that provides further information about the origins of its development, as well as discussion of research that implies the Dvorak keyboard may not be all its cracked up to be.

An actual Remington mechanical typewriter!

You'll remember we discussed that it was originally developed in the 1800s to lessen the chance of the mechanical arms of a typewriter getting jammed up. We don't need that anymore, but familiarity breeds loyalty and we still use it today. The image above, a Remington which was the first company to massproduce typewriters, comes from this very interesting article over at AnandTech that is actually reviewing an ergonomic keyboard, but starts with a history of QWERTY.

Speaking of the Surface

While most people would now associate the Microsoft Surface with a tablet, that wasn't their first intent. You may remember in class we mentioned that multitouch was championed at the consumer level by Apple but at the commercial level by Microsoft. The way they did that was through the development of a relatively large, interactive table called the Surface. Some are even here in Las Vegas.

It's capabilities are remarkable, however its development languished in light of portable offerings from Apple that could do many of the same things, and Microsoft turned it into a tablet design instead. Take a look at the video below; it starts slow, but seeing what their tablet could do is even now remarkable. Still, the Courier tablet would have been a nice development as well.

The new Microsoft Surface tablets are announced!

If anyone is using a Microsoft Surface tablet (or has at least heard of them), the next generation of those tablets has been officially announced!

The linked article has some good information, and it looks like there have been some major upgrades to the line including processor power which was significantly improved, as well as internal storage. Surface tablets haven't sold so well thus far, for several reasons: They have a desktop component, meaning you have the tiled, metro-style layout, but oftentimes selecting a tile sends you into another, desktop-like environment, taking you away from the reason you have a tablet in the first place. There has also been confusion between the two models of Surface, the RT and Pro models. The RT model was an underpowered economy version of the more powerful Pro line, although from reading the article while they drastically improved the RT model, they are manufacturing less of them. The Pro line allowed true, laptop-like productivity options, the RT less so. People also didn't like having to pay extra, sometimes a lot extra, for the keyboard covers, even though the iPad required the same.

The Metro Interface

But, it looks like the improvements are a major step in the right direction. They ave both received major upgrades in power and usability, plus, they come in purple! As far as a tablet actually being able to replace a laptop, these new versions of the Surface might be the first time it can actually be done.

Ron 'Typewriter' Mingo!

In the last class we discussed the reasoning behind the current keyboard layout as we know it today, and how it was developed to prevent jamming up the arms on mechanical keyboards. But this post will share a video that could make you think it might not have been so necessary in the first place.

In the last year of the 1970s and through the first few years of the 1980s, there was a television show called 'Real People' that attempted to showcase ordinary people with extraordinary stories or talents. Even my uncle Herb made an appearance on the show!

But the person we want to address today is none other than Ron 'Typewriter' Mingo, who at the time held the record for the fastest typist in the world at 160 words per minute, and this was on  purely mechanical typewriter! Below is the segment from Real People showing him typing in front of a class, supposedly to inspire them to do well in school. He even manages to work in the manual carriage return (that is an actual, literal carriage return). I'm just amazed he didn't jam up the typing arms of that machine.

Also, Tom Hanks is well known to have a massive mechanical typewriter collection, and even wrote them an ode in the New York Times. That's dedication!

Well? Who's done it?

iOS 7? Anyone? Anyone taken the plunge into the no-longer-skeuomorphic design? What do you think? Have you had the chance to use it? Has it made your experience easier? Harder? Used to it already? If you've used it, let us know in the comments!

Careful now...

Everyone knows that if you're searching for or visiting sites that contain questionable material, such as sites that distribute warez or passwords, that you are opening yourself up to a wold of malicious software. These types of damaging programs like viruses and trojan horses (which we'll learn all about) are prevalent enough without going to sites like those.

But what if you're just trying to find out about a celebrity? See what movies they've been in? Or perhaps just looking for a nice wallpaper for your desktop? Well, you'd better be careful then too, depending on who you're searching for. It turns out that some celebrities are more likely to lead to a computer virus on your machine than others.

So if you're looking for Phil Collins' daughter or any of these other celebrities, you'd better be careful. And use good anti-virus software, even if you're on a Mac.