The Professor's Notes

I will be interested to see how many people (the pro-Obamacare community) get up in arms over this decision. I mean, heck, the Fourth circuit court is already in opposition.  What decision?  Well, the US Court of Appeals, DC Circuit has ruled that, by law, the US Government can only subsidize healthcare for those signed up under State-established healthcare exchanges.  If a state (up to 36 of them, depending on how you count) has decided to not create a health insurance exchange, and the Federal government has extended their exchange over that state’s citizens, then–by law–the feds cannot subsidize those policies.

This to me is a litmus test to rationality. One can be upset that the law was written the way it was, or that states chose to not participate. But if one gets upset at the court, for interpreting the law then we have a more serious, fundamental, and perhaps fatal flaw in our society. (interpretation being a broad term here since the court points out the wording in the law is “unabiguous” — “unambiguously restricts the Section 36B subsidy to insurance purchased on Exchanges established by the State.”)

Sadly the Fourth circuit does not. I actually could not believe this was in the decision from the 4th circuit, so I had to read it myself, but this quote shows the flaw in society at it’s best: “I am not persuaded and for a simple reason: ‘[E]stablished by the State’ indeed means established by the state – except

when it does not…” That ranks up there with “it depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

Hopefully people will be able to see the difference between “what we want” and “what the law does and does not allow.” But I am less than hopeful. Heck, the government asked the court to interpret the law based on “what we wanted.” (Read the article, and the decision–it’s interesting to say the least.)

DC Circuit decision:http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/10125254D91F8BAC85257D1D004E6176/$file/14-5018-1503850.pdf

4th Circuit decision:

http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/141158.P.pdf

In a conversation over on my cousin’s Facebook wall, I was pointing out that the rate of accidents (And fatalities) per million miles traveled has been steadily declining over the past 20 years or so. With a noteable exception: In 2011 the decline slowed significantly and in 2012 the number went up. (It went back down again in 2013). (ref: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812024.pdf, and http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811755DS.pdf)

Note:  The decline occurred concurrent with the increase in texting overall, and almost certainly an increase in texting while driving as well.  More texting. Fewer accidents. (And no, I am not suggesting causality here… necessarily.  Anyone care to speculate on how causality might be at play here?)

I found a very interesting correlation here. The flattening of the decline corresponds with the *increasing criminalization of texting.* Correlation for sure, but I posit that there may actually be causation: People still text, but “hide” it from the cops, which means putting the phones lower in their laps–forcing their eyes off the road for a longer time. The Law of Unintended Consequences. By the way, one response was that we have declining fatalities due to increased safety hardware such as air bags and seatbelts (and I will add anti-lock brakes.)   I would accept that, except we also see a decline in the number of accidents, and reported in the second link above.

Still slowly catching up on the Real Tech podcasts (you can find all the episodes, including the most current, over at http://rtfrp.com) This is episode 111.

Show Notes:

NEWS:

AND… GOOGLE DRIVE is official.  Is it a “Wow!” or an “Uh?”

TIPS/SUGGESTIONS:

Google Searches made easier:  A couple “quick hits.”  Want to search using speech? Simply click on the microphone and talk (assuming you have a microphone).  Want to find where an image came from?  Go to the “images” tab, and copy and paste a URL into it.  OR–find out what other images your image looks like:just drag your image from your computer into the image search block.

Virtual Disks “In the Cloud” – Gladinet. Gladinet lets you map your existing cloud storage sites as if they are drives on your machine.  Now you can edit Word, Excel, or other documents right in the cloud, and not take up space on your hard disk.  Of course, you have to be connected to the internet.  Possible sites to use include Google Docs, PicasaWeb, Amazon S3, Microsoft’s Live Storage, and much much more.  The free version only connects to one, but there are other options as well.

Managing your PDFs: This one can be a real challenge.  You have hundreds (maybe thousands?) of PDFs on your computer, but do you a) know what you have, and b) know how to get to the one you want?  Enter a few choices, courtesy of this article from Digital Inspiration.  I personally prefer Mendeley (these are windows choices) because it is specifically designed for PDFs.  Even still, I would like something with a little more “intelligence” that can sort the files for me based on general content anaylsis.

PAMFAX:  A new problem these days is “How to send a fax from home, when you don’t have POTS any more?”  Well, I have settled on a solution that works for me.  Pamfax.  It’s made by the same people that make the call recorder application for Skype, “Pamela Recorder.” It’s not free, but it is affordable.

“The House approved Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act with a 248 to 168 vote today. CISPA allows internet service providers to share Internet ‘threat’ information with government agencies, including DHS and NSA, without having to protect any personally identifying data of its customers, without a court order. It effectively immunizes ISPs from privacy lawsuits for disclosing customer information, grants them anti-trust protection on colluding on cybersecurity issues and allows them to bypass privacy laws when sharing data with each other.”

PICKS:

Steve: Paper Camera for Android

Tony: Nike Fuel Band

Steve’s info: [blog] http://theprofessornotes.com [twitter] @scmprofessor

Tony’s info: [blog] http://getthenext.com [twitter] @tonypittman

It’s not suprising that it is difficult to download the Freeh report.  I was able to, and am making it available here.  Consider me a “mirror.”

 

FREEH REPORT_FINAL_071212

Real Tech for Real People 110 .  This was a fun episode.   My son, Matthew (known as @Spreadhdgfx on Twitter for his graphics work) joined us to share his first thoughts on his new Samsung Note. The comments might surprise you!  Check out the rest of the show notes below… and apologies to the Senate Sergeant at Arms office, but we didn’t talk about the Senate this time, or any particular Senators… not even U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, but we encourage you to all listen to our show!

REAL TECH 110

NEWS:

“FlashBack”: Mac’s first serious malicious threat.  Botnet. Java

US Government Sues Apple, Book publishers.  Good thing? Bad thing?

Samsung names their flexible displays: Youm But what is REALLY worth knowing is–it’s AMOLED.

Global Payments problems still linger; Visa warns of phone phishing after Global Payments breach

Curated YouTube–College Replacement? (Matt’s story)

TIPS/SUGGESTIONS:

SpiderOak:  If security is a concern for you, or if you store important (read: tax) files in Dropbox, you might want to consider switching to SpiderOak. Like Dropbox, first 2 gbs are free.  Up to 100 GB for $100 for 12 months… but with the code SPRING save 25%.

BoxCryptor.  Don’t want to leave DropBox, but want to be more secure?  Then there is BoxCryptor. Works with Mac/Windows/Linux/Android/iOs.  I found this one while searching for more secure storage, and mentioned it to Steve Gibson.  He will now be covering this, along with SpiderOak, in the next Security Now. (see a review here)

Google Glasses?  http://www.pcworld.com/article/253404/google_glasses_all_hype_or_reality.html

First Hand Review:  Matthew and the Samsung Note. Day two.

PICKS:

Steve:Expensify. Scan receipts.  Create Expense reports.

Tony: Kiosk Pro: http://www.kioskproapp.com/

Matthew: 500px.com – inspiration

I realize I haven’t cross-posted many of our shows lately, but I wanted to let my readers know that we are up to Episode 111 at Real Tech, and I will be cross posting the past few episodes to help catch you up!  If you haven’t been listening, you can find all our episodes over at Tony’s site GetTheNext.com (or simply get there through RTFRP.com)

Episode 109 (Scroll to the bottom of the post after the break to listen):

Show notes:

REAL TECH 109

NEWS:

HEADLINE: Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:41 PM EDT Senator: Employers shouldn’t seek site passwords   A Democratic senator from Connecticut is writing a bill that would stop the practice of employers asking job applicants for their Facebook or other social media passwords, he told The Associated Press on Thursday.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said that such a practice is an “unreasonable invasion of privacy for people seeking work.”

About time!: FAA to take ‘fresh look’ at gadget restrictions on flights http://t.co/kmSkND7i

The real issue: airlines won’t test!

Apple now gives dividends.  Harken back to our past discussions.  Thoughts? Steve says: About time…

In the “Are you serious?” category:  “Commodore unveils Amiga Mini PC with i7-2700K, Blu-ray”

http://www.techspot.com/news/47916-commodore-unveils-amiga-mini-pc-with-i7-2700k-blu-ray.html  Ships with a “copy of Commodore OS Vision”

TIPS:

Google News Alerts.  If you haven’t tried it already, you can set up alerts from Google that will either email you quick summaries and links to new items you select, or will add it to your Google Reader stream. Just go to: http://www.google.com/alerts

Want to see the future? Visit “WE Solve for X” http://www.wesolveforx.com/ They are looking for the “Moon shots”  From their site:  This combination of things – a huge problem to solve, a radical solution for solving it, and the breakthrough technology to make it happen – is the essence of a moonshot.

PICKS:

Steve:  Yubico Yubikey, and (Password Safe) http://www.yubico.com/products I bought 5 more keys recently, and have my eye on the NEO for a key with NFC built in. http://www.yubico.com/yubikey-neo

Tony: Draw Something:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.omgpop.dstfree

I have many thoughts on digital textbooks, and you have all had an opportunity to read them here.   Apple has made their “big move” and I am both pleased to see digital moving forward, and also a bit concerned about what could become the “only” platform on campuses.

I actually presented a paper on the challenges of digital textbook pricing at the Western DSI (Decision Sciences Institute) conference in 2011.   You can read the paper here.  In that paper, I point out that by driving the logistics costs of moving, handling, and returning paper products out of the system, along with other costs such as maintaining a bookstore, one can drive the costs down to about (surprise!) $15.00 while maintaining the 2 year profits of the publisher. And by withdrawing the pressures of the resale market, the profits only go up from there.

First thoughts that led to that paper were written about here  and here.

Most recently I wrote about  consumer driven markets. Who should make the  choice? Digital textbooks are able separate the content from the medium, and allow flexibility–unless we are locked into a hardware platform.  I also wrote about this in this post.

I would welcome other thoughts on those posts and on the paper.

In this video for Real Tech for Real People I review, and demonstrate, Password Safe.  This is a great program for creating, storing, and accessing secure, random passwords.  When used with DropBox it creates a very portable yet secure way of accessing all your accounts.

Be sure to visit our Real Tech for Real People Facebook page and listen to our podcasts every week!  You can find the podcasts over at RTFRP.com or subscribe via iTunes.

And don’t forget–you can save 20% on any order from ZAGG.com simply by using the discount code RTFRP at checkout!  (Good until the end of 2010.)

I continue to post the “Back catalog” of our Real Tech for Real People podcasts. Last night we recorded episode 60, so if you want to get the LATEST episodes, either subscribe through iTunes (or your favorite podcatching software) or visit http://rtfrp.com

Remember, you can save 20% on ANY product you buy from ZAGG.com simply by typing RTFRP into the discount code at checkout.

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Click Here to listen to Real Tech 56

Click here to subscribe via iTunes

PLAY ON: Jason Leisure has convinced me to go back to it. Rocking–and even has iPad app (Steve) It works inside the house, and gives access to a wide range of video sources, including NHL, MLB, HULU, CBS and others. It supposedly supports streaming out to the iDevices through 3G and other wifis, like AirVideo but I can’t get that to work… more to come…

Josh recommends SquareTrade for your electronic warranties, and honestly, so do I! Why? This LifeHacker article says it best–They are less expensive AND cover more things, including glass breaking (see next story). Apple Care doesn’t cover broken glass/screens.

PICKS of the WEEK:

Tony: Jason O – http://www.jasonomusic.com/home.html

Steve: Overdrive Media Console THE Software to listen to audio books from your library–for free! Check to make sure your library supports online electronic books, and you are in! (Runs on Android, iPhone/iPad, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. Also, Windows and Mac. (and they have free audiobook samplers!)

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Steve’s info:  [blog] http://theprofessornotes.com[twitter] @scmprofessor

Tony’s info: [blog] http://getthenext.com [twitter] @tonypittman

In the effort to continue to “catch up” here at The Professor Notes I am posting episode 55 from Real Tech for Real People.  If you enjoy listening, go check out the most RECENT episodes over at Real Tech for Real People.  Over there you will learn in Episode 57 how YOU can win two tickets to the Penn State football game against Michigan.

Also, listen regularly to learn how you can win prizes that you can use daily!

Let us know what YOU want us to talk about.

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Click Here to listen to Real Tech 55

Click here to subscribe via iTunes

NEWS:

Bloomberg predicts Apple’s moves in TV.  Bloomberg expects Apple’s next conquest will be  the TV industry, comparing its early moves to its first steps in the mobile phone market. The article analyzes the technology of Apple TV, noting potential methods through which Apple may approach the TV business.

Bloomberg

Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac – Assuming I can make the podcast, I have 2011 (enterprise have it now, the broader public will have to wait to 10/26) and can make some preliminary comments.

In Brief: Apple TV part cost pegged at $64 Thin-ish margin for Apple on the TV.

TIPS:

Microsoft to debut WP7 smartphones on AT&T;

Microsoft’s Ballmer receives $1.35m pay package, but bonus curbed.  Microsoft will unveil its new line of      smartphones sporting the Windows 7 OS on Oct. 11. The devices are scheduled to launch about a month later on AT&T. IDG reports that Microsoft is the only non-exclusive smartphone OS developer charging hardware makers a licensing fee, noting that vendors receive greater intellectual-property protection through the arrangement. One analyst claims the company offers “a better managed and coordinated ecosystem that might improve the chances of success for the entire platform.” Separately, outlets note that although the compensation package paid to Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer rose 6 percent to $1.35 million in 2010, he was denied the maximum  bonus for the last financial year due to stumbles with mobile products and a failure to respond quickly to Apple’s iPad. Wall Street Journal; 24/7

Wall Street Journal; 24/7 Wall St. (also MarketWatch); IDG/Computerworld; eWeek (1);eWeek (2); Reuters (also CNBC); Associated Press (also Forbes; CNBC; San Francisco

Chronicle)

Chronicle)

iTunes Tip:

iTunes: In iTunes 10 you can double-click on the “Now Playing” window (bottom left, if you have it showing) and it will pop out to show you a small window with the album art. Now if this is a movie, it will play, etc. But in iTunes 10 the album art for music ALSO has controls. So I now have a small square window in the top right corner letting me konw what is playing and allowing me to control the music and I have minimized my iTunes window. Sure I could use iTunes long-enabled mini window for this purpose but this is prettier.