Monthly Archive for March, 2009

Unlocked iPhones, soon?

Published on March 26, 2009 in Mobile. 0 Comments

Apple is finally selling non-contract binding iPhones at their Apple Stores. at&t is also offering a similar deal but for some odd reason they have a limit of one device per customer.  This is really great news, nevertheless, what will be the fate of a consumer who wishes to discontinue using at&t as a provider and just paid $600 for a smart phone that is currently only works with the at&t network.  Are we seeing an early signal for an unlocked iphone and the possibility of other carriers being supported by iTunes?

I’m generally  disappointed by at&t’s wireless service and I would have to say that a number of friends in our mountainous  area agree with me that at&t’s coverage in the Colorado mountains has been less than sufficient and the number of missed calls is just becoming unbearable. Addicted to my iPhone and my ability to establish ssh connections directly to my servers along with all the other bling bling the iPhone has to offer I find myself stuck with a wireless provider I don’t appreciate and it would be really nice if I was able to use my device on some other network.  There is a rumor about iPhone on Verizon and if the rumor is true, then we should expect the iPhones to be running on the most capable wireless network in the US this year.

With the slowing economy it just makes a lot of sense for Apple to target multiple wireless providers and maximize on the their profits by selling the phone directly to consumers who can in-turn choose their provider or switch providers as they please.

It is really time to end this legalized monopoly and give consumers a choice.

Smart Grid – Hackers are Smarter

Published on March 21, 2009 in Innovations. 1 Comment

As always, innovations is controlled by fear and most security experts are apparently not as smart as hackers.  Security experts are warning against digitally based electricity distribution and transmission system known as the “Smart Grid” due to their speculations on hackers ability to hack into the system leaving millions of households and business without power.  Given the many advantages of having a nationwide “Smart Grid” technology implantation I just don’t see why such technology cannot be protected efficiently especially when such systems are built, implemented and maintained by individuals who are smarter than the feared hackers.

I’m not going to describe and analyze the technology as much as I would like to focus on the fact that fear is limiting innovation and in most cases the wrong people are hired to do such projects.  Innovative individuals and extremely smart engineer find it difficult to work on such projects for corporations that choose not to pay them more  than what they would make if they just run their own small businesses.

So to stop the hackers, we must pay innovative individuals the right money, otherwise, power will be out for few minutes until backup systems go online, if there is a backup system. Knowing how most corporations cut corners to save money, such technology could be problematic at first but eventually the system will be perfected.

Hard drive failure in high altitudes

Published on March 9, 2009 in Computers. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

I just finished replacing a hard drive in an iMac and what a fun experience that was. I took the dead drive over the the graveyard, a small storage closet, and I counted over 50 dead hard drives I replaced in the past 8 years on servers, desktops and notebooks in my office where we have an average of 10 total heavily used systems. Most failures where attributed to overheating in our high altitude environment. Our office is located in Breckenridge CO at an elevation of almost 10,000 ft.

I was able to get some replaced by manufacturers at no cost but we had to pay for the majority of them.

I have tried all manufacturers and in most cases when a machine is used excessively to process video and or transfer huge amount of data we lose the hard drive in about 1 year.  

I have been searching for high altitude hard drives but I have not been able to find any that has specific high altitude design specifications.  The interesting observation is that my 3rd generation 30G iPod still works. I dropped my iPod in snow while skiing, I dropped it on rocky hiking trails on the deck and once it dropped and bounced down the cement driveway leaving few nice dents in it.

Next time you decide to take your laptop with you on your ski vacation, seriously, back up your data before traveling or risk loosing your data, especially if you are in the habit of moving your notebook around while it’s turned on.

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