(Reprinted from the Metro Spirit, 2/9/2012)

It’s been 15 years since Clayton Christensen released what continues to be the foremost reference on innovation and modern business.  The Innovator’s Dilemma focuses on Disruptive Technologies – those innovations that have the potential to completely redefine an industry.  Of course, these innovations can be identified with certainty only in hindsight.  Hence the dilemma to business:  continue with what is working today, or change to a newer, riskier, but potentially better solution.  For the reasons outlined by Christensen, established businesses are often late seeing the market change.  As a result, former industry greats such as Tower Records, Blockbuster, and Kodak fade into the history books as new leaders such as Amazon and Apple take their place.

Experiencing a disruptive technology change can be an exciting time for the consumer.  Over the past 10 years, we’ve had the privilege of experiencing changes brought about by the internet and mobile electronics.  (Does anyone even remember life before Facebook and Google?)  Fortunately for us, it’s still not over and probably won’t be for a while.  Currently, tablets are being very disruptive to desktop PCs.  While we still don’t know how everything is going to shake out, tablet makers are introducing incredible innovations into their product lines in hopes of finding the magic combination that will stick.  For example,

• The Pantech Element features a water resistant design submergible in up to 3 feet of water, so whether it’s the beach, bath or hot tub, you’re good to go!
• The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime features an optional keyboard dock that gives it the functionality of a laptop.  The quad core processor ain’t bad, either.
• The Sony Tablet P utilizes a hinged design that connects two 5.5 inch displays which operate independently or in tandem.  It folds away for easy storage, too.
• The Samsung Galaxy Tab7 Plus includes an integrated infrared sensor and remote control application that allows you to utilize the tablet as a universal remote while still racking up the points in Temple Run.
• The Toshiba Thrive is one of the very few tablets that includes a removable battery pack.  Nice try, but I think consumers prefer a single battery that lasts forever.
• The HTC Evo View 4G utilizes a digital stylus for writing notes and annotating documents.  Again, another feature that I don’t think will make the final cut…but ultimately it’s for the market to decide!
• The G-Slate from LG provides a stereoscopic camera for capturing 3D video.  Very cool…assuming 3D TV becomes the norm.  (Hey, Lynnsey…you and Tim in 3D!  How cool would that be!)

Disruptive technologies exist in other industries as well.  Growing up, I don’t recall any of my neighbors owning a golf cart.  Now it seems that golf carts and other electric vehicles are the preferred method of travel within subdivisions.  Last week, Mr. Mike Tomberlin of the Tomberlin Group spoke to our Rotary Club about the growth in the Low Speed Vehicle (LSV) market.  The Tomberlin Anvil and their other LSV models utilize disruptive electric vehicle technology to create a product that is well-suited for both suburban neighborhood and high-density city environments.  Their 700 U.S. distributors and growth in international markets seem to indicate they might be on to something.

With all the advancements that disruptive technology brings, it’s amazing that many people and companies still refuse to change.  Even worse, they lobby for regulations that prevent the free market from evolving and restrict the freedom of innovators to provide new consumer goods.  The record and movie industry support for the recent Stop Online Priracy Act (SOPA) is a perfect example.  Instead of accepting the new internet capabilities and figuring out how to integrate those features into their service, the record and movie industry continue their fight to preserve the old way of media distribution.  Meanwhile, Apple, Amazon and Netflix are well on their way to figuring out the new business model and will eventually make the RIAA and MPAA irrelevant.

So the dilemma when faced with disruptive technology really isn’t a dilemma after all.  Innovation leads to improved consumer products and a more competitive position in the marketplace, whether local or global.  A little disruption is good for the soul.  Don’t be afraid to shake things up!  Until next time, I’ll see you on the internet!  @gregory_a_baker  L8R.

(Reprinted from The Metro Spirit, 2/2/2012)

Let’s start out with the obvious – I’m not a big Facebook user.  Yes, I have an account.  Yes, I log on occasionally to check in with friends.  But when I go online, it’s usually directed by purpose.  After all, I’m a buyer, not a shopper.  Facebook is shopper’s destination.  I don’t have the patients to weed through the constant stream of posts and updates.  And please don’t get me started talking about the ever increasing violation of cyber etiquette known as “oversharing”. ( Just to be clear – I don’t need to know about anything that involves bodily fluid , oozing, transferred or otherwise , and personal drama is just that – personal!)  Even for those that “share” appropriately, Facebook privacy concerns always seem to be a topic for the technology talking heads.  Here’s the thing, though.  Facebook is a good app.  It connects friends and family in a meaningful way where no individual or group can dominate the conversation.  The barriers to participate in the Facebook community are minimal, yet each person has a world-wide audience.  Was Facebook designed specifically to embody this egalitarian spirit, or did the quest to increase the user base inadvertently create a community of free speech?  Either way, Facebook is seamlessly woven into our social fabric.

That brings us to a couple of Facebook events in the news this week.  First of all, the Facebook web site continues to evolve in pursuit of its mission to create a more open and connected world.  The Facebook Timelime becomes part of your profile page over the next couple of week.  The Timeline feature provides users the ability to navigate past Facebook activity.  You can control what events appear you your Timeline and highlight the importance of those events.  By default, all of your Facebook activity is contained in your Timeline.  After you are notified that you will be switched to the Timeline profile, you will be given a week to adjust Timeline events.  I suggest that you take a few minutes to review and remove those forgotten posts that really don’t need to be re-shared.  It’s pretty fashionable to criticize the Timeline, and several surveys seems to indicate that popular opinion is against the Timeline.  Personally, I can see why some folks are freaked out, but I kind of liked it.  For more information, MacWorld wrote a great article on the features and privacy concerns of the Timeline.  To check it out, see my Facebook page for the link.

BTW, the second Facebook news this week…it looks like Facebook is going to conduct their Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the next few months.  Early analysis indicate that Facebook will be valued between $75B and $100B with expectations that the IPO will generate about $10B cash.  I heard a report that Mark Zuckerberg will make $24B on the IPO alone.  Of course, that’s before President Obama takes his 30% and spreads it around.

While we’re talking about using the internet to share information, I came across a website this week that offers a taste of how job seeking might evolve.  The website is www.visualize.me.  It’s a well-known fact that images and pictures communicate more effectively than words.  This site translates the basic resume facts into meaningful images intended to create a stronger impact on perspective employers.  Currently, the website is very beta, but it’s good enough to be functional.  (Check out my resume at www.visualize.me/gregory_a_baker )  With HTML5, I can envision a scenario where resumes are presented electronically with embedded sound and video.  Even better, visualize.me has tapped into an underutilized resume distribution network through its partnership with resumeshirts.com.  They will print your amped up resume on a T-shirt so you won’t miss another opportunity to show that you are ready, willing and able to work.  What better way to demonstrate your initiative to future employers?  After all, you never know who’s standing behind you in the grocery store.

Until next time, I’ll see you on the internet!  @gregory_a_baker  L8R.

(Reprinted from The Metro Spirit, 1/26/2012)

If you are reading this, first of all, let me say congratulations.  We’re still alive.  If you weren’t aware, on Sunday night, a solar flare caused the largest coronal mass ejection since 2005.  The Earth passed through this glob of charged matter during the day on Tuesday.  In other years, this would likely cause only minor disruptions in satellite navigation, satellite communications and maybe the rerouting of flights over the poles.  However, with the Earth scheduled to meet its doom in December of this year, I suspect this storm will cause significantly more chaos.  Since we’re still here, the lead-lined walls of the Metro Spirit command center must of held and allowed the courageous Metro Spirit staff to complete their work and deliver goodness to the freshly-radiated Garden City.  No doubt that the rate of mutation will accelerate rate due to the radiation, but as for now, we’re alive.

Last week, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) got whacked for a bunch of hit points.  Last Wednesday Wikipedia, Google and other web sites staged an online protest.  For its part, Wikipedia completely blacked out its English language web site in a symbolic reference to the censorship provisions of the legislation.   The protests capped a several week push by opponents to raise awareness and mobilize opposition.  On Friday, the U.S. House and Senate leadership acknowledged the political pressure and postponed votes on the matter.

Is SOPA dead?  Unlikely.  Think about it this way.  Prior to the creation of the VCR, big media producers (radio, TV, film, publishing) dominated the consumer due to the total control they exerted over distribution.  Quite simply, when you only have a few choices, you don’t have much control over what you get or how much you pay.  Starting with the VCR, technology facilitated a transfer of power back to the consumer.  Today, virtually anyone can create content for world-wide distribution.  The provisions of SOPA fundamentally have one primary effect: To impose policing actions on website operators so that  publishing internet content becomes cost prohibitive for anyone other than the big media companies.  The voice of the consumer was heard this week, but the battle isn’t over.

I need to apologize to our loyal readers that I have been negligent in discussing one the most entertaining, yet least appreciated, technologies.  Of course, I am talking about Cooking Tech.  I can see your expression already, but be honest…who doesn’t like browsing the shelves of Williams Sonoma for the latest Kitchen gadget?  With the Super Bowl a week away, now is the time to Super Saver ship your cooking gear.  So here’s a couple of items to munch on…

The Georgia climate provides us the luxury of year-round outdoor cooking, so let’s start with the grill.  The new Char-Broil Grill2Go ICE Infrared Gas grill provides a great infrared cooking experience.  Designed to travel with 7.5” knobby tires and a built-in cooler, the Grill2Go will be there for all your tailgating, Home or Away.

Is there anything in the App Store that can help you cook great steak?  But, of course.  The iGrill Bluetooth-enable wireless thermometer connects to your iPhone to monitor your food from up to 200 feet away.  The Cooking Time Remaining feature lets you know when to put the sides in the oven so everything finishes at the same time.  Spend the rest of your day socializing, and your iPhone will alert you when it’s time to eat!

Until next time, I’ll see you on the internet!  @gregory_a_baker  L8R.

(Reprinted from The Metro Spirit, 1/19/2012)

When most people think of January, thoughts generally turn to cold weather and football championships.  The college basketball season is heading into conference play.  Those that rent their house during Master’s week are finalizing arrangements.  But the true geeks among us are listening for different news.  January is the month of International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).  This show is the tech industry’s premier event to show-off the latest and coolest gadgets on the planet.  Past CES events introduced products and technologies such as the camcorder, the DVD, HDTV, Plasma TV, Blu-ray, and more recently, 3D HDTV at CES 2009.  This year’s CES finished up last week, and by all indications, televisions are the big winners.

This year, LG and Samsung both premiered ready-for-prime-time 55” Organic LED (OLED) televisions.  OLED technology has been around for a few years.  An OLED display works without a backlight, so it can display deep black levels and can be thinner and lighter than a LCD.  In low ambient light conditions an OLED screen can achieve a higher contrast ratio than an LCD.  Translations, OLEDs are widely recognized as being capable of producing one tremendous, kick butt picture.  The problem has been scale.  OLEDs are regularly used in handheld devices, but no one has been able to create a large screen display.  Until now.  Look for the general release of these products later this year with a price point around $10,000.

Also this year, Smart TVs have established their position in the marketplace.  Many of the featured TVs contained dual-core processors providing equivalent computer power to the typical desktop PC.  Why is all this compute power needed?  Televisions have become scaled-up smart phones with their own network connectivity and application ecosystem.  TV manufacturers are positioning for a market where viewers will select programming by clicking Apps instead of surfing channels.  In addition, television makers are integrating video cameras and microphones, allowing for consumers to do anything from video conferencing to changing channel through a Kinect-style interface.   Televisions will no longer be dumb devices, but rather, they are active participants on the Internet providing the consumer a richer experience, whether watching live content, downloaded media or interacting with others.

In another example of how apps dominate our technology experience, a company called BlueStacks demonstrated software that allows Android apps to run on Windows 8.  In all seriousness, this should boost the adoption of Windows 8.  The Metro UI is widely regarded as a great interface, but Windows lacks the app support of Android or Apple.  BlueStacks accomplishes the integration by creating tiles for Android apps that look and feel like they’re Metro apps.  The software effectively brings the entire Android library into the Windows 8 ecosystem.

3D printing was a hot item at CES.  I have only recently become familiar with 3D printing, mostly through my fledgling robot army from MyRobotNation.com.  However, I might need to readjust by plans given the demonstration of MakerBot’s Replicator.  The Replicator prints 3D objects as large as 8.9 inches by 5.7 inches by 5.9 inches.  My own in-house manufacturing facility for world domination…

And there was so much more this year.  For example, there are several new Ultrabooks (think MacBook Air for Windows), new concepts in gaming controllers like the Razer Concept Fiona, home theater devices such as Simple.TV, and some very cool automobile tech by QNX and others.  Check out your regular tech sites for a more complete run down of the products at CES.  Until next time, I’ll see you on the internet!  @gregory_a_baker  L8R.

(Reprinted from The Metro Spirit, 1/12/2012)

While going along in our day-to-day lives, whether you are into technology or not, sometimes you come across something that isn’t mind blowing.  It’s not revolutionary.  It’s nothing that is going to change your life.  It’s just fun.

And so it happened this past week while my wife and I were watching TV.  Well, I was watching…my wife was glued to her iPhone.

To be honest, this is not an atypical occurrence.  My wife will often spend much of her evening participating in the perpetual Junior League meeting-by-email that has been going on since 2002.  Tonight, however, she seemed to be doing something different, so I threw out a catch phrase from our family’s favorite Phenius & Ferb character.

“What ‘cha doing?”

It turns out her family had discovered Zynga’s Words For Friends.  It’s a knock off of Scrabble game that’s played on Apple and Android mobile devices.   Each player sees a copy of the board on their device and plays letters just as you would in regular Scrabble.  On this evening, my wife had three games going simultaneously.  The first being against her sister in Austin (which she was winning handily); the second against her sister in Raleigh (in which she was getting killed…more on that later); and the third against my grandmother in Evans (all square).  So of course, I load the app on my phone, and my wife and I spend the rest of the evening sitting on the couch staring at our phones.

One of the benefits of a smartphone is the ability to connect to the internet and the wealth of information that’s out there.  So while engaged in a heated match down by 27 points and staring at the letters “AEREUZA”, it occurs to me that I might be able to Google some help.  Did you know that there are multiple websites dedicated to finding Scrabble words?  (Neither did I.)  And just like that my pathetic draw of letters turned into a 48-point play.  At first, my wife was very complementary of my improvement.  But after several 6-letter words in a row, I could tell that she was starting to get a little frustrated.

“How do you and my sister keep getting all these great words?”

It’s interesting, the little relationship tests that pop-up from time to time.  Of course I knew the right thing to say.  After all, she’s the love of my life.  The mother of my children.  The woman who has been with me through good and bad.  The one with whom I want to spend the rest of my life.  And so I responded appropriately.

“Just lucky I guess.”

Well, you know how long that lasted.  We’ve been together long enough for her to know that I’m just not that good at Scrabble.  But, really, is what I did so wrong?  After all, we allow technology to improve performance in other activities.  How is using a resource like ScrabbleFinder.com any different than using graphite shafts or metal woods?  Isn’t it good to open up the game to those that don’t possess a high alphabetic aptitude?

Plus, Kari beat her sister by 40 points in their last game.

Until next time, I’ll see you on the internet!  @gregory_a_baker  L8R.

(Reprinted from The Metro Spirit, 1/5/2012)

Happy New Year!  It’s a wonderful opportunity to take Augusta Tek into our second year, and I am excited about 2012.  As always, changes in the tech world this year will continue to impact our daily routines.  Here’s a list of some of the topics we’ll be watching over the next year.

Health Information Technology will continue to impact Augusta’s medical institutions.  During 2011, most of the area’s health organizations decided whether or not to upgrade their health record software in an effort to seek incentive funds doled out by the angel investors in Washington D.C., otherwise known as the United States Congress.  For practices that decided to pursue the incentive funds (the maximum incentive was about $60,000 per physician), last year was spent upgrading their software and hardware infrastructure to comply with the new regulations.  The largest and most public of the organizations performing an upgrade is University Hospital.  The first set of practices utilizing their new Epic software installation will Go Live in early 2012.  Stand by to hear about the results.

While this more of a national story, it is likely that a new iPad and a new iPhone will be released in the coming year.  No firm details exist regarding the new features or capabilities.  My guess is that the new devices will continue to support Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies and the other popular applications that our children have grown to love.  From a personal perspective, I hope these new devices will finally start to root out the Blackberry holdouts in the Augusta area.  (For the life of me, I do not know why so many folks in Augusta continue to use Blackberries!)

In a related note, Windows 8 and a Windows phone should be out this year as well.  Both operating systems have received good reviews.  Since Nokia will be featuring the software on its hardware and with Research In Motion in the final throes of its death spiral, look for a Windows Phone to sneak into a reasonable number of your friends pocketbooks.

As far as cloud computing goes, Facebook will continue to be the social platform of choice, and Amazon, Google and Apple will fight it out for dominance in content delivery.  For those involved with developing custom websites, HTML5 should be on your radar.  In short, HTML5 should provide a browser- independent protocol capable of interfacing with web services and providing media rich applications.  Some believe HTML5-enabled web apps will take the place of apps currently distributed via the App Stores.  Late last year, Adobe announced that it was dropping support for Flash in favor of the HTML5 architecture, so hopefully, we will begin to see some accelerated movement on the standard.

(BTW, just an aside…anybody in town that develops websites, for goodness sake, please don’t put Flash on your client’s home page.  For that matter, think twice before you put any animation on the primary landing site, especially if you are developing a business site.  Animation is awesome if your viewer has a conventional PC setup, but the most forward leaning businesses that we support use mobile devices and virtual desktops.  They get frustrated as heck when they hit a website that causes their endpoint to freeze because some B-head put a half-dozen animations on the homepage.  Ugh!)

And of course, we’re going to be keeping an eye on the bonehead Stop Online Piracy Act, the continuing evolution of Android, and the coming apocalypse in December.  (I’m still thinking zombies.)  It’s just a short 350 days until the end of the world, so I’m looking forward to an awesome 2012 while it lasts!

Until next time, I’ll see you on the internet!  @gregory_a_baker  L8R.

(Reprinted from The Metro Spirit, 12/29/2011)

A couple of events regarding the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) occurred during the past week.  As a reminder, this bill seeks to provide the government the ability to shut down foreign internet access to destinations that are suspected of engaging in copyright infringement activities.  While the objective is commendable, this bill provides broad power to the government to regulate internet access and censor content.  The final committee vote on this bill was originally scheduled to occur before the end of the year; however, House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith decided to postpone further committee action on the bill until after the holidays.

Also this week, we learned that the SOPA bill contains language to ban any “product or service” that “circumvents” internet blockades erected against alleged infringing websites.  The definition of “product or service” is very broad and could conceivably include anything from a dedicated software package to the simple /etc/hosts file such as found on every Linux, Mac or Microsoft operating system.  Ironically, many experts agree that the Tor Project would be banned.  Here’s the irony…Tor was formed by the U.S. Naval Research Lab and continues to be partially funded by multiple federal agencies in the hope that users in China and other repressive regimes can by-pass their countries respective  censorship firewalls.

The fate of this bill will likely be determined within the first couple of months of next year.  The Senate version of the bill (“Protect IP”) has already passed, and a floor vote is scheduled for January 24^th.  House Judiciary hearings will continue next month, and as seen during the last round of meetings, the bill enjoys considerable support on the committee. Stand by for more…

Last week, an over-the-air update for Kindle Fire was released to address some of the swipe performance and browser speed issues.  So far, the results I’ve seen have been marginal.  A bigger item for Amazon is the software update for the iPad Kindle app.  The update provides a major upgrade to the viewing of magazines and newspapers on the iPad.  Overall, the 7-inch display of the Fire and the Nook seems to be a winner with the public over the holiday season.  Of course, the price point is a major consideration for these devices.  The iPad 3 is likely to be announced soon.  We’ll see what happens then.

So how many folks out there remember Rebecca Black?  Or what about Maria Aragon?  Both of these young performers hit it big earlier in 2011 when their videos went viral.  Still scratching your head trying to figure out who the heck I’m talking about?  Pop over to youtube.com/rewind and take a look at the videos that defined this past year.  YouTube presents all the popular videos of the past year in a timeline format.  Catch up with Charlie Sheen’s rants, enjoy all the K-Pop performances, and see if you can finally figure out what the whole Nyan Cat thing is all about.  My top 3 three from last year are: 3) Ultimate Dog Tease, 2) The Force Volkswagen commercial and 1) Talking Twin Babies.   Due to popular request from the rest of my family, an honorable mention goes out to Cat Mom Hugs Baby Kitten.

Fear Factor is back!  Monday @ 9pm!  Until next time, I’ll see you on the internet!

(Reprinted from The Metro Spirit, 12/22/2011)

As we enter the last few days of the holiday season, everyone is well settled into their traditional routines.  Presents rest comfortably under the tree.  The smell of cookies and seasonal treats drift sweetly through the air.  The morning nip and frost encourages all to pull out their heaviest flannel shirts.  The winter solstice is upon us, and while adults ponder the deeper religious meaning of the time, children among us possess an almost singular focus.  The man in the red suit will soon be here.

Now, of course, no one has ever observed this man in action.  There is a good reason.  With over 100 million households to visit, Santa can’t afford to spend more than about 1/1000 of a second at each stop.  That’s not a lot of time to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the rest of the presents under the tree, kiss on mommy under the mistletoe, get back up the chimney before daddy comes downstairs with his shotgun, and sled over to the next house.  He won’t have to spend that much time if some kids are on the naughty list, but even so, it’s still beyond the capabilities of Jamie, Adam and the rest of the Mythbusters team to confirm.

So Santa Claus will conduct his journey this Saturday out of the reach of technological detection.  That’s probably for the best since even the master of Christmas logistics will occasionally have an operational glitch.  Just last week near the I-20 overpass at Bel Air Road, Santa found himself in quite a situation.  The news media didn’t report the story, but the following was provided to Augusta Tek by eye witnesses.

Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus, Right down Santa Claus Lane
Blinded by headlights, ran a red light, that’s when his trouble began.
Toys went flying, Children crying, there was mass chaos
If only had Santa checked his mirror, he would have saw the school bus.

Here come police cars, here comes fire trucks, Right down Santa Claus Lane
Move that wrecked sleigh, clear the roadway, and get traffic moving again
Cars are honkin’, people gawkin’, they’ve never seen such a wreck
A man on smartphone is texting home, and everyone’s cursing like heck

Here come TV trucks, here comes reporters, Right down Santa Claus Lane
We’ve got a man that’s standing by…let’s take you to the scene
What we’ve got is a classic case of not yielding right of way,
But did Santa have too much Egg Nog before taking the reins of his sleigh?

Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus, arraigned on DUI
Picture in the paper, what a caper, everyone’s asking why?
Some believe the stress of the season finally got to good, ole Claus
Others believe it’s just payback for what he did to old Grandma!

A Very Blessed, Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season to all!  Until next time, I’ll see you on the internet. L8R.

By this point in the shopping season, I’m sure that you’ve heard about, read about or seen every little tech gizmo and gadget for 2012.  So this week, I want to take a different approach to Christmas gifting.  Next Wednesday marks the beginning of the one-year countdown until the end of the world, December 21, 2012.  Now we don’t know how the world is going to come to an end.  Will it be an asteroid like the one that took out the dinosaurs?  How about a nuclear winter resulting from the escalation of military action between Iran and Israel?  It may start with a government takeover by the Obama administration, or alternatively, a Gingrich presidency.  Of course, as avid Augusta Tek readers, I know you share my belief that ultimately Augusta is going to be overrun in a Zombie Apocalypse.  (I’m sure many of you believe that it will originate from within, starting with the Commission…but that’s Austin Rhodes’ schitck, not mine.)  So for this week’s column, let’s run through the top gifts for those preparing for Zombie World Domination!

The first gift is sure to get everyone in the Christmas Apocalypse spirit, It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies!: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols.  This collection of Zombie melodies includes holiday classics such as I Saw Mommy Chewing Santa Claus and Deck the Halls with Parts of Wally.  While nothing in here will actually prepare you for the end of the world, you will certainly be in better spirits when it happens.  Better yet, on Amazon.com you can get this book of Zombie Christmas Carols bundled with The Zombie Night Before Christmas and Jack and Jill Went Up to Kill: A Book of Zombie Nursery Rhymes, all for less than $35 and with FREE Two-Day Shipping for Amazon Prime Members (assuming the logistics infrastructure holds out.)

OK, now to the serious stuff.  Preparation for a Zombie Apocalypse begins first and foremost with The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead.  Published nearly a decade ago, this guide is still the “go to” book on how to survive the hordes of undead that may be stalking you right now.  The book starts with zombie physiology, then covers weapons, tactics, long-term strategy and finally presents an overview of historic zombie outbreaks.  The reference guide is incredibly thorough, and every course of action is analyzed in depth to ensure the reader understands the risks and benefits.  The guide is on Amazon.com for $8.37, but can you really put a price on a book that will literally save your life?

One of the toughest struggles in a post-apocalyptic society is simply finding something to eat.  The food production infrastructure collapses just like everything else.  Supermarket shelves are cleaned out by survivors, and what is not taken eventually rots.  Hunting or farming present challenges due to the possibility of contamination.  Fortunately, Harcos Laboratories has developed processing techniques to extract nutrients from Zombie biology.  Zombie Blood Energy Potion promises four hours of energy derived from the extra strong green Zombie cells, and with Zombie Jerky, survivors can recycle the re-dead, undead into tasty teriyaki.  All 100% mutagen free!  Find these products and more at www.livingwithbloodlust.com/zombie.  (Hey, Zombies…How about them brains?)

The post-Zombie world will also suffer from a lack of electricity.  A study[1] shows that within 24 hours of a zombie event most portions of the United States and Canada, aside from a rare island of service in a rural area near a hydroelectric source, would be without power.  Now the serious planners have already constructed survival bunkers in the outlying areas of Lincoln and Burke Counties, and those bunkers are stocked with at least a year’s supply of diesel.  However, many of the living will be trapped in population centers without power.  For these folk, devices like the American Red Cross AXIS TurboDyne Weather Alert Radio will be invaluable.  The hand-crank Turbodyne is a powerful direct power transfer device that will charge a cell phone and the internal batteries for the radio, flashlight and emergency beacon.  Even if the Apocalypse doesn’t occur in your lifetime, this device would be very useful during more mundane events like hurricanes and ice storms.  Found at www.21st-century-goods.com for $69.95.

Well, of course, the list of items needed during the Zombie Apocalypse is almost endless, and all of them provide a unique and valuable Christmas experience to share with your family and friends.  If you want to read more on Zombie preparedness, both the Center for Disease Control and the Red Cross have websites dedicated to the subject.  Google “CDC Zombie” and “Red Cross Zombie” to read more.

Until next time, I’ll see you on the internet…tweet me @gregory_a_baker.  L8R.

(Reprinted from the Metro Spirit, 12/8/2011)

A potentially major scandal is emerging in the mobile device industry regarding the software manufacturer Carrier IQ.  Carrier IQ, a provider of Mobile Service Intelligence Solutions, develops software to give wireless carriers and handset manufacturers insight into their network and device performance.  A couple of weeks ago, however, a security researcher published findings that suggest this software does significantly more.  A video published on YouTube shows the software logging keystrokes, reading SMS messages and performing other curious actions.  Also, it shows that the software is embedded at the system BIOS level (i.e., a “rootkit”), making it very difficult or impossible to remove.  Since that time, we’ve learned that this software is widely distributed on AT&T, Sprint, HTC, T-Mobile and Samsung handsets.  Verizon, Blackberry, Google, HP, Microsoft and Nokia all deny the use of Carrier IQ software.  Apple states that “most” of its products don’t support Carrier IQ as of iOS5, and it will completely remove it in a future update.  Sen. Al Franken has requested the carriers utilizing Carrier IQ to appear before the Senate subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and Law, and a former Justice Department prosecutor states that the key stroke recording is very likely a violation of wire-tapping laws.  As of last Friday, class action lawsuits were filed against Carrier IQ, HTC, Samsung, AT&T, Sprint, Apple and T-Mobile over the use of the software.

There will certainly be more to come on this story.  If you are interested, you can find much more information by Googling “Carrier IQ”.  Also, Carrier IQ Detector apps are popping-up on the Andriod Market.  The VooDoo Carrier IQ Detector is widely published as being effective in the security blogs, although there are some false positives.  (The detector app on my Verizon Droid X correctly shows negative.)

In other news, we all know that the Apple iPhone is the hottest phone on the market.  But last week it was reported that the Apple iPhone 4 is the actual hottest phone.  On an Australian Regional Express flight, an iPhone began to glow red and give off a “significant amount of dense smoke”.  Apple responded by stating they were looking forward to working with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau as they investigate the incident.  Personally, I think a red iPhone would be a good addition to the product line.

On the second cyber-week of Christmas, my true geek gave to me…A complete friggin’ robot army?

Everybody has at least one – a family member, usually a guy, for whom a Christmas gift is impossible to find.  Technology comes to the rescue again.  How about a custom-designed robot army?  The geeks at www.myrobotnation.com have made it possible.  You can design, and they will build custom 3D robots for your hard-to-shop-for family members.  Prices start under $20.  So you don’t feel you have what it takes to design a robot for your loved one?  Not a problem.  You can “gift” a robot and allow them to design their own creation.  One note…you do need a WebGL supported browser (Firefox or Chrome) to work the design tool.

Finally, my 8-year old daughter came to me yesterday and asked, “Daddy, why did Eeyore stick his head in the toilet?”

Curiously, I responded, “I don’t know, sweetheart, why did he?”

“Why, Daddy, he was looking for Pooh, of course!”

My daughter’s first potty joke!  I am so proud!

Until next time, I’ll see you on the internet…tweet me @gregory_a_baker.  L8R.