Today at Web 2.0 Microsoft announced a new product called Spindex. From the quick look during the presentation, appears to be Friendfeed with some semantic search.
MS Live account needed, and it appears it is an invite model for now. Gonna try to grab an account tomorrow. Definitely could see some uses for the government and the IC.
There has been an increase in discussion over the past couple of weeks regarding the overuse of PowerPoint in the military and the commercial world, and how it can sometimes be a detriment. In fact, some articles are actually suggesting that the overuse is costing lives.
While I agree that the “PowerPoint Ranger” mentality of the military CAN be a detriment, PowerPoint does have its uses when used properly.
This became very apparent yesterday during a session here at Web 2.0. The topic was Security in Code Development, clearly a complex topic. The presenter chose to eschew PowerPoint altogether and instead handed out ten copies of a 25 page paper so that the audience could follow along while he presented it. It wasn’t a page by page review, but selected sections were presented to help facilitate understanding to the audience.
What it underscored to me is the power of pictures and diagrams to facilitate understanding. This is not something that is PowerPoint specific, but tools like PowerPoint provide a good forum to present concepts. In a complicated discussion about cross site scripting attacks, it would have been very helpful to level set the knowledge of the room to further the discussion. Instead, I felt that some of the audience (frankly myself included at times) was lost in the discussion. I also see this in briefings for the Government…the simple “cartoon” picture is a great way to level set discussions, especially with senior level folks who are less technical.
Of course I am not suggesting that this cartoon picture replace real diagrams. Instead I believe it is a great tool to have in your quiver to enhance buy-in, stimulate discussion, and further your project.
This week I am at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. Originally I was attending with my customer, but as she as decided to pursue other adventures, I am here on my own.
Looking through the agenda, the expo seems to be heavily focused on design, social media, and web development. It is my goal to find out how the methodologies and technologies here can apply to the government. As usual, the biggest challenge is likely to be that much of the cool tech presented here is more SaaS based, whereas in the government (at least where I sit) we need to be able to install it in our closed network.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a ton to learn. I am looking to blog about what I learn and see at the show, as well as Tweet/Geo-locate with the best of them!
Blippy, a company that enables users to share their credit card purchases, today provided details on a breach of credit card information. Turns out that four credit card numbers were searchable via Google. The beginning of their response:
Today someone discovered a Google search that displays the credit card numbers of 4 Blippy users.
We take security seriously and want to assure Blippy users that this was an isolated incident from many months ago in our beta test, and doesn’t affect current users.
While it looks super-scary and certainly sucks for those few people who were affected, and is embarrassing to us, it’s a lot less bad than it looks.
Although I feel a “less bad” for these four folks, WHAT THE !@!$@!$ DID YOU EXPECT? It is one thing to use your credit card online for purchases, but it is a whole new level of voyeurism that drives you to share your credit card number for the purposes of telling the world what you are buying.
“Hello world…I just bought an fully capable inflatable sheep for $19.99. I promise it is just as a gag…honest.”
It is always entertaining to keep track of the old media vs. new media war. Old media still can’t figure out how to handle the new way of business and continues to be left behind.
Today’s news of Blockbuster’s new deal with Warner Bros is a prime example. A few weeks ago, Warner signed an agreement with Redbox and Netflix limiting the availability of new releases on those services for 28 days post release to DVD. Today’s agreement gives BB the ability to rent these titles immediately via brick and mortar and online.
Double standard anyone? In all reality, business is business and the movies are Warner’s to do with as they please. However, seems like a reactive business move and some old media blowing old media. Can’t wait to see what happens when BB goes bankrupt.
So maybe this should be a Tweet, but I felt like trying out the WordPress app on my Droid. I’m not on the metro much so why not be productive?
Anyhow, since I am on the metro I am craving a Kindle app on my Droid. Come on Amazon…don’t u want to piss Jobs off like Google is?
Saw this article over at NextGov this morning stating that the Army wants to outsource the creation of one email service for the Army. BUT, once you read this article it becomes clear that they actually mean one Exchange based email system for the entire Army.
The Army has wanted to do this for years, and in some ways had it with an antiquated email system in AKO. I just wonder if other vendors out there will argue that there systems should be up to the task? Seems like the Army has already made the decision on vendor without a fair competition…or at least that is an easy argument for a vendor.
What’s also interesting is that the Army is “inviting companies to partner with the Defense Information Systems Agency” to house the email system. Not sure how that contractual relationship would even work? DISA’s DECCs are not typically vendor facing, and unless something is changed, I am not sure they are designed to work directly with industry. When working on other enterprise level acquisitions, this same kind of thing was encouraged, and the only offers that were really considered were those that housed the system at DISA “inside the firewall”.
A article over at PCWorld yesterday entitled Hacking Impresario: ‘Windows Safer Than Mac’ quotes the organizer of Pwn2Own stating that Windows 7 is more secure than Snow Leopard.
Contest organizer Aaron Portnoy, who is the security research team lead with 3Com TippingPoint, the sponsor of Pwn2Own, told Computerworld’s Gregg Keizer that:
“Safari will be the first to go. [Safari will] be on Snow Leopard, which isn’t on the same level as Windows 7.”
Of course this stance is disputed by other security impresarios (talk about an author using a thesaurus).
Microsoft has been THE target of hackers for so long that they had to have learned. Mac has had the privilege of being under the radar for a long time since they were the plucky underdog. However, as their sales rise, more hackers will start targeting the platform.
And it also shows that marketing is a really king. For years I have said that a large part of Microsoft’s rise as been marketing. Mac has been touting its security and I even hear my parent’s telling me Mac’s are more secure! I doubt this will perception will change any time soon, but it is a little vindicating to see reality starting to bubble up in the press.
President Skroob: [enters after the interrogation of King Roland] Well? Did it work? Where’s the king?
Dark Helmet: It worked, sir. We have the combination.
President Skroob: Great. Now we can take every last breath of fresh air from planet Druidia. What’s the combination?
Dark Helmet: 1 2 3 4 5.
President Skroob: 1 2 3 4 5? That’s amazing! I’ve got the same combination on my luggage! Prepare Spaceball 1 for immediate departure!
Dark Helmet: Yes, sir!
President Skroob: And change the combination on my luggage!
It may seem like a juvenile comparison, but the above is actually not too far off when it comes to the passwords people use. Almost a month ago, a security firm called iMPERVA analyzed the passwords of the 32 million accounts that were exposed in a recent hack of the RockYou service (full report in this pdf). As Ars Technica highlights, the results were not pretty.
…about a third are less than six characters, and half are vulnerable to dictionary attacks. The most common password was 123456, and it was followed by 12345, 123456789, and Password. iMPERVA estimates that someone with a slow DSL connection could access one account a second using a dictionary attack.
To exacerbate the problem, it appeared that RockYou was pretty amateurish in their approach to security. So not only were the passwords weak, it was just as easy to expose the entire password database. In other words, many sites either don’t care, or don’t care to spend money, on making sure you are secure.
So what constitutes a strong password? There is plenty of guidance out there. The report quotes NASA Recommendations, which are fairly consistent with other recommendations. These are probably the same recommendations some of you deal with at work.
The report goes further by recommending you use different strong passwords for each site you visit. Although this sounds great from a security perspecitive, it is also unrealistic.
Typically my approach is to use a similar password (with slightly different combinations of case and special characters) for sites that I consider throw away. Yes, they may have some of privacy information, but nothing too damaging. Think WashingtonPost.com or Slate. HOWEVER, for important sites like banking and email, I do use a different unique password. These sites are simply too important if they are compromised. One technique is to use a sentence to create a password such as “This little piggy went to market” might become “tlpWENT2m”. That nine-character password won’t be in anyone’s dictionary.”
And of course you need a strong password for Facebook to prevent Statusjacking.
Of course then you have to remember all the different passwords. There are some apps out there that actually do help with this. I am going to take some time this week to take a look at solutions that will work on my PC and my Droid.
The real solution is to get rid of passwords completely and adopt stronger forms of authentication. I blogged about awhile ago, that will only really happen until it becomes prohibitively expensive and painful for banks, credit card companies, etc to support just passwords.
Since I posted a one word status update that just said “Droid” I have had many folks ask what I think about the Droid and whether or not they should get it. Back in the day I would have posted earlier, but lately work has been a little too busy to try to throw together a post about it (read – I’m busy, but really I’m just lazy). So here is a quick take on my thoughts on the Droid so far. Also keep in mind that I was coming from a 3+ year old Blackberry Curve running on AT&T so my iPhone comparisons are mostly from all of my friends who took the plunge and got the free Birkenstocks when they bought it.
The screen on the Droid is really pretty fantastic. The screen is a little wider than the iPhone and video and movies look great (in particular, Shakira looks great). I have watched Family Guy episodes, movie trailers, and played games and all look great. I remember when I almost bought a ZuneHD instead of a iPod Nano a couple of months ago. Glad I didn’t…really no need for another portable media device (you iPhone users already know this joy).
As for actually managing audio and video, the solutions aren’t as slick as what is available with iTunes and the iPhone. As you would expect, the Droid can’t play DRMed content from iTunes (which is why I buy all my mp3s from Napster or Amazon). Morotola has an application that can sync non-DRMed content directly from iTunes, but it is a bit of a pig. The media player on the device is OK, but it could use an update…it just isn’t that user friendly. BUT, it works…mostly. I have noticed some weird crackling for some songs when I plug the Droid into my car via the aux jack. These same songs are on my Nano and I have no problems. This is seldom however, and I have solved the problem by turning the content down on the Droid and up on the stereo.
You can buy music directly on the device from the Amazon store. That being said I haven’t used it yet. I just buy them on the computer and then sync to the Droid.
So the Droid has a slide out keyboard and the requiste touchscreen keyboards. As a long time Blackberry user the physical keyboard was pretty appealing to me…until I used it. It has been described as mushy by others, and I see what they mean. It is difficult to tell the difference between keys without looking. I have gotten used to it, but it still isn’t great.
Like the iPhone, the Droid supports on screen keyboard in both portrait and landscape modes. It took some getting used to, but luckily the predictive engine on the Droid is pretty slick so very often it is smart enough to choose a word for you.
The Droid comes pre-installed with what you would expect. Email clients, browser, Google Maps, Alarm Clock, etc. Facebook is pre-installed and it is a big leap from the Blackberry version, but is still not quite as impressive as the iPhone version. The browser is quite good and fast (the 3g network helps). Email clients can access web clients like Yahoo, but it is a “pull” from Yahoo so your Droid has to go out and pull your new emails. Gmail integration is far superior and supports push email so email almost immediately is delivered to your phone as it hits Gmail. Google Calendar and Contacts will also sync to the phone. It basically just finally forced my hand to make the switch to Gmail.
The Droid can talk to Microsoft Exchange, and even other solutions like Zimbra. Email is then pushed, and contact and calendars are synced JUST like the Blackberry.
The Droid can run over 10,000 applications that are available via direct download to your Droid from the Android Market. Although Apple likes to brag about having over 100,000 apps, I have found all the apps that I really need. Pandora, Bump, Lightsaber, Google Sky (a really cool app), Weather, etc. Perhaps in another post I’ll put up a list of useful apps as I did with Blackberry.
The Droid also allows supports voice recognition. You can use it to call someone, navigate to a restaurant, search your music, and search the web. So far, I have been very impressed with accuracy. However, it does require that you have a connection to the network for voice recognition to work (although so far Verizon’s network is fine everywhere except my office…awesome).
Of special note is Google Navigation. Google Navigation is basically a full blown navigation system on your phone. It uses GPS to determine your location and has the ability to dynamically route you to your destination. I have navigation in my car, but it is such a PITA to enter a new destination. Instead, I have found myself using my voice to simply state “Navigate to Rhino Bar & Pumphouse” and the phone takes over. The one downside is that to you need a network connection for this to work. However, I have read that if you lose a connection, the app will “catch up” once you have signal.
Overall I find the phone to very usable. There are some functions that are not intuitive, but once I have gotten used to it I find that it just as quick as any other phone. The phone allows you to do more customization of your experience, which in turn can make things more complex. BUT, additions like gadgets (mini applets that run on your home screen and can tell you information, what music is playing, etc) make it worth thte learning curve. What’s more, since the Droid can multitask, you can play tunes over Pandora while browsing the web, checking your calendar, and sending email. However, the more you multitask, the more you kill the battery (more on that below).
If you are thinking about the Droid though, goto the store and play. You will find out pretty quick if it can work for you.
Like ALL camera phones, the camera in the Droid is subpar. Sure, if the conditions are right, you don’t move AT ALL, the picture is fine. There is also a focus problem that is supposed to be covered in an update this week. BUT, you do get a flash (so less people screwing with you when taking pics with the iPhone…who knows when they actually take the pic?), and it is a 5.0 megapixel camera. If the fix can take care of some of these problems, the camera will be much improved. I still wanna know WHY cell phone vendors can’t get a damn camera right? I’d love to not have to carry my Canon Elph if I already have my camera.
So so far, this has been the Achilles heal of the Droid. Although the Droid can do so many things, first and foremost I need it as a phone AND for email/txting. My first couple of days I would unplug when I wake and by the time I was heading home the battery was close to 20-30%. That is CRAP. Part of the problem is the custom nature of the Android OS. Since you do so much, you can almost do too much and kill the battery. The iPhone has been optimized over time to have better battery performance. I have learned that I need to make sure that services like GPS and WiFi are off when they are not needed, the screen is set for low brightness, and to turn it off when I leave it at home or the car.
Still, I have contemplated over the last month that I may return it. Like I said, I want to be able to count on my phone. However, I now have gotten my phone to last almost 20-24 hours (I let it run all the way down yesterday…good to let this happen every 30-40 charges). ALSO, there is a software update for the phone that is supposed to improve battery life. My hope is that Verizon will continue to support the phone and keep on optimizing battery life (there is another rumored update coming in January.
Definitely recommend that you buy a car charger and maybe even a charger for work to cover your bases. BUT, buy it off of ebay and not from Verizon. It is WAY cheaper.
SO, should you get the Droid? If you want something that is less customizable but more intuitive, then you may want to still consider the iPhone (here is some patchouli for you as well). If you’re a heavy email user, the keyboard weakness may be a tough and the Blackberry still may be what you want. However, when I first saw this was coming out I wanted to try something different, and overall I am happy with the phone. Google is ALL IN when it comes to the Android OS and you should be seeing dozens of Android phones in the next months. I am counting on Google and Motorola maintaining an interest in this market and continuing to enhance the Android OS and the Droid phone.
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