North Coast Connections

This just in ... the pioneer Internet browser software, Netscape Navigator, has been unplugged from life support by its current owner AOL / Times Warner, and will slowly drift away from common usage. Good night, sweet prince ... and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Early Internet users will tell you that Navigator was the dominant tool in the 1990's and only surpassed in 1998 when Microsoft not only packaged their Internet Explorer with all versions of the Windows operating system, but even hard coded the bugger so you were unable to get rid of it off of your desktop ... something for which they were sued and eventually relented by allowing users to choose their preferred browser. Nonetheless, MS' IE remains the dominant browser today (82% of world market), followed by the open source browser Firefox (13.5% of world share).

Netscape was formed in the early 1990's by the legendary Marc Andreessen, and the Navigator browser was made available for Microsoft, Linux, Apple and Unix operating systems. In fact, its "Mozilla" user agent (the code name given to the original test version of Navigator) eventually became the generic term for open source browsers.

As a Mac-head in my early computing years, Netscape was like a brother to me. The Navigator browser received its fair share of criticism for failing to keep up with improved features and usability, but its familiar look and feel was at one time almost synonymous with the Internet itself. Of course, selective memory erases all the pain of early computing and web use: 2400 baud dial-up modems, operating systems that moved at glacier speed, hardware that only the rich could afford, and software that was buggy and clumsy, just to name a few. Sill it was our brave new world and our traveling companions will not soon be forgotten.

I still only rarely use the MS Internet Explorer today. I much prefer Firefox, and take some solace in the fact that most hackers still concentrate primarily on messing with your computer using the Internet Explorer software as a front door. I'll miss the old Navigator, and mark its passing with fond nostalgia.

So lift a glass to health, happiness and prosperity in the new year ... and to absent friends !!

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Posted by Chris Crawford at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Of all sources, this one comes from the American Bar Association advising their members on how to survive and tame technology while on the road. The tips are poached from a presentation made by Richard Ferguson and Catherine Sanders Reach to the Pacific Legal Technology Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. The name of their Powerpoint presentation is “Working from the Whistler Cabin: Remote Access Technologies.”

The basic road-tech survival package consists of laptops, cell phones, PDAs (or smart phones or other organizers that help you to track tasks and time), digital storage, cords/cables (or wirless connectivity), bags (or carry-ons), and "luxury" add ons such as portable printers, portable scanners, wireless mouse and other gadgets.

Their tips and tricks seem sensible:

♦ If it has password protection or encryption, use it.

♦ If your tech tools require access (such as cell and smart phones), check to ensure you have coverage in your remote location.

♦ Check ahead of time to see if your hotel has WiFi or wired high speed connectivity.

♦ If you're not bringing your printer, plan your printing options.

♦ If you're not familiar with the area and need to be mobile, get maps or consider a GPS unit.

♦ Be careful when connecting to the Internet in public areas (you never know who's snooping on you).

♦ Develop back-up plans for likely trouble (power outages, lost data, hardware crashes).

Probably the most important question to ask is what data you will need while you're on the road. If you'll need all your desktop files, will you bring them with you on a thumb drive or pre-load them onto your laptop? If so, you'd better password protect or encrypt the files (or both). If you plan to use a "virtual office" access to your home or office computer, check your network access ahead of time and make sure your home/office server or desktop is on and accessible. Even if you work these issues out, ask what you will do if your system fails ... do you have a back-up plan? I use my Internet file back-up system as my back-up plan.

They end their presentation with personal travel tips ... stay hydrated, get plenty of rest and wash your hands a lot. I wonder if staying hydrated means to drink a sufficient amount of beer?

As a card carrying, road tested traveling tech warrior, I can attest first hand to the efficacy of the tips and tricks offered in this presentation. I've had just about every imaginable technology curve ball thrown at me, including fried power chords, laptops possessed by evil spirits, revolting software, thumb drive (and other data storage) failures, and lack of power conversion in foreign lands, just to name a few. The worst are presentation hardware and software failures on the threshold of a major presentation.

In order to survive, you should have back-up plans and ample resourcefulness to find workarounds. When traveling in the US, I've also become a huge fan of Kinko's, where computing, connectivity and printing options abound, often 7-days-a-week, 24-hours-a-day.

My 2008 calendar is already starting to fill with road trips and, luckily, I have an arsenal stocked full with short-stay and long-stay technology options.

May the new year bring you health, happiness and prosperity ... I will have to earn much of my prosperity by hunting it down using technology in faraway lands.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Posted by Chris Crawford at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

What Christmas gift will you get for a that geek on your list? If you're stumped, check out TechRepublic.com's list of the top 10 geekiest gifts for your propeller-headed friend or relative. You may be required to register as an authorized TR user to get the download. If you're ID-impaired, here is my analysis of their list.

First are the obligatory Star Wars accessories ... a Luke Skywalker light saber and your own personal R2D2 robot. Next is a digital photo frame. Boring you say? This one is wireless and programmable from remote.

Do you like iPods? Then you'll love the new iPod "touch," with the same cool interface as the iPhone. They include the tiny iPod Nano on their wishlist.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of digital games and fake electronic guitars, so ignore their recommendations and make your own choices of these gifts. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see the robotic room vacuum called Roomba on their list.

With the dizzying array of automotive navigation devices on the market nowadays, I was pleased to see their recommendation for the best and coolest ... the Garmin StreetPilot c330.

Drumroll, please ... my all time, favorite, coolest geek-gift on the list is ...

The WiFi detector t-shirt. Is that cool or what? For only $29, you can have a black T that not only detects WiFi signals, but also displays the signal strength. This is the ultimate road warrior tool you could wear under your button shirt, sweater or jacket and sneak a peek to know when you could check email and surf the net from public places like airports, restaurants, malls, hotels, etc. Be sure to unplug the battery pack before washing.

Too bad, I'm not on the "nice" list this year.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Posted by Chris Crawford at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The San Francisco Chronicle has a technology blog that covered a recent research finding by the technology wizards at Gartner, in which identity thieves using "phishing" scams were estimated to have escalated their number of hapless victims by approximately 30% over the past year. Not impressed? Get this ... the annual take from these 'Net rats amounted to $3.2 billion (with a B).

At one time several years ago, I actually started saving these emails under the topic of "Nigerian Scam," thinking I would need to reference them at some time (for what purpose, I can't recall). I stopped after they became so prolific that it wasn't worth the effort.

It is hard to believe that anyone would fall for these crudely written pitches to the greedy. Do you really think someone would transfer millions of dollars into your bank account and you would get to retain a large portion of the proceeds for your trouble? What would stop you from keeping all the money that was swept into your account? And what would keep someone from siphoning off YOUR money once you gave them the account number access to your savings or checking account?

The SF Chron blog goes on to reveal several other surprising nuggets from the Gartner report. First, 11% of adults don't use any security software when surfing the Internet. Talk about trusting !! Of those who do use security precautions, 45% only use free software. Yikes !!

Next, the rats who aren't out to steal your money are out to infect your computer with adware and malware, each of which are becoming MUCH more difficult to detect and eradicate. Obviously, it's a lot easier to infect your system when you don't use any protection.

Finally, the thieves are using social engineering tricks to get you to comply by posing as a trusted source based upon your profession or special interests. Think about that the next time you are asked to post your email address on an online directory for your professional association or gardening club.

There are lots of ways to protect yourself from theft or infection. Check out a few of these tips from my April 2006 posting on this topic.

And if you're thinking about downloading the full 13 page research paper from Gartner, be advised that it requires registration and $95 fee to access it.

Rats abound, so be suspicious and don't be quick to click on links provided to you in emails from unknown persons. And for GOD sakes, don't give your bank account or credit card information to some yahoo who is seeking your assistance in moving vast amounts of money out of Nigeria (or any place else, for that matter).

Peace on Earth, good will toward man ... within reason. Merry Christmas !!

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Posted by Chris Crawford at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As a court management consultant, I participate in a lot of online information exchanges and one such request just came in seeking a court interpreter conversant in Quiche (or K'iche), a Mayan language spoken in the central highlands of Guatemala. It is reminiscent of a tragic criminal case this past summer in Maryland in which child rape charges were dropped because of undue delay seeking an interpreter who spoke Vai, a tribal language from northwestern Liberia and Sierra Leone.

So how far should a court go to obtain a special language interpreter? Read this posting, edited to protect the identity of the court ...

We've tried courts in major metropolitan areas, major universities, AT&T Language Line, and even the Guatemalan embassy in Washington, DC. I noticed in a Google search that a court in Louisville, Kentucky tried to find a Quiche interpreter in 2000 -- not sure if they ever found one. There are also a few appellate cases out there that talk about exhausting all efforts to find a Quiche interpreter, so I know we're not the first court in this situation. We even tried my brother, who happens to be a theology professor working with Bible translators in obscure South and Central American dialects, which led us to a possible translator at a university in Texas, but now that seems to be falling through. We even priced a plane ticket from Guatemala to our court ($697, much less that I thought), but we have no contacts there and the embassy could not offer any.

I happened to have worked on a project in the Maryland court that dismissed the case involving the Liberian dialect, and I can attest first hand that it is an exceptionally well run court. Each day, courts in the US contend with staggering logistics to ensure that parties, case files, witnesses, prosecutors, defenders, prisoners, technology and interpreters show up in the right courtrooms at the right times on the right days.

This bit of behind the scenes intrigue is indicative of the lengths to which court managers go to make the train run on time. Luckily for me, they need occasional help to streamline the processes and apply the right technology to get it done.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Posted by Chris Crawford at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There may be only 10 shopping days left before Christmas, but there are only FIVE shopping days left (until 12/20) to pledge a minimum of $2000 to a pre-purchased airfare bank at attract Delta Airlines to begin twice-daily service from Eureka/Arcata to Salt Lake City (a Delta hub). You don't need to write a check or whip out a credit card right away. Just sign a pledge form that will entitle you to $2000 worth of travel to be used within one year after Delta begins this local air connection.

As someone who flies in and out of the Eureka/Arcata airport at least once a month, I can attest first hand to the uncertainty of successfully making connections to other cities -- this attributable more than 50% of the time to weather and air traffic in San Francisco as it is to our own local fog, wind and rain.

The pre-purchased Air Travel Bank is a creative financing promotion used successfully by the aviation consulting firm that the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission is using to create better travel options for local individuals and businesses. See the description below for more information.

If you've done ANY air travel in and out of Eureka/Arcata, you'll know how a connection to another city, especially a hub city such as Salt Lake City, means much more than one added flying option. It means better business opportunities for the North Coast. Give your friends, neighbors and co-workers a Christmas present they can really use ... jobs and prosperity ... by pledging your $2000 or more today.

Thanks for your consideration, and please forgive the use of this blog for this purpose, no matter how worthwhile. Merry Christmas !!

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Details ...

On October 3, RREDC joined Airports Manager Jacquelyn Hulsey, Public Works Director Tom Mattson, and Joseph Pickering from RREDC’s consultant Mead and Hunt in a presentation to Delta Airlines officials at their headquarters in Atlanta. Our purpose in meeting with them was to discuss their interest in initiating service from our airport to their western hub in Salt Lake City. In short, the meeting with them went very well. They have expressed their strong interest in starting twice per day jet service to Salt Lake City.

Finally, thanks for your support of this important effort to connect our region to the rest of the world.

Posted by Chris Crawford at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The end of the year brings out "top" lists in every industry in an attempt to put a years worth of activity into some perspective, while trying to read the tea leaves as to whether trends portend what will occur in the upcoming year. I gleaned this list of top trends in technology for 2007 from two sources: PC Magazine and TechRepublic.com ...

MICROSOFT VISTA TRIPS OR FALLS (depending upon your viewpoint)
As a victim of forced upgrade to the MS Vista operating system for my desktop and laptop computers, I can testify first hand that this was a trying ordeal that included several senseless changes in routine navigation, maintenance and file management. However, like most senseless changes in the past, we complain, learn the new protocols and move on. Apple's new operating system, Leopard, received better reviews, but is still not universally loved.

MP3 PLAYERS
... are still dominated by Apple for good reasons (cool designs and interfaces), but other manufacturers will soon catch up. The bottom line is that mainstream America (and the world) is increasingly getting it's music in digital file format.

GOOGLE-ZILLA
Google continues its intriguing expansion into arenas that have yet to show where they will eventually lead us, but purchasing extensive proprietary wireless communication bands and entering into the cellphone business are trends that are certainly worth watching.

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS HICCUPS
Regardless of whether the adjustment in daylight savings start and stop dates were meant to achieve (or actually achieve) any energy savings, these changes have wreaked havoc with a lot of tech-appliances despite having been in existence for two years now.

HD-DVD & Blu-Ray REPEAT HISTORY
Remember the old Betamax/VHS battles of the 1980s? Touted as the new way home movie viewers will get their programming, high density DVD and Blu-ray are the two operating protocols that various entertainment and electronic giants are backing, leaving the consumer to guess which hardware and movie formats to collect. Set a standard and everyone wins. Set two standards and you've got winners and losers.

I can't believe these guys didn't mention Microsoft Office 2007. What a fiasco! When I was forced to upgrade to MS Vista, I also (naively) upgraded to MS Office 2007. While this office suite has some redeeming qualities, it is like trying to work using only your left hand when you are right handed. Simple tasks such as saving files, formatting, navigation and even printing are scrambled into all new pull down menus, many of which defy logic. Unless you were a power user who relied primarily on keyboard commands (which, thankfully, didn't change), you are stuck in a game of find-the-function just to write a letter, create a spreadsheet or modify a Powerpoint presentation.

So what's the prognosis for 2008? Well, the one recurring theme I see is that change is inevitable. Operating systems, productivity software, cellphones, cameras, TVs, music and every other aspect of our lives will increasingly be touched (if not governed) by technology. The question to ask is whether these industries will succumb to greed and control, versus open systems and clear standards. Want to bet? Most of the technology blunders of 2007 appear to me to be avoidable, so if I am putting my bet on greed and control I'll have to give odds.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Posted by Chris Crawford at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (208)

The Redwood Technology Consortium just celebrated their 10th anniversary of technology and broadband advocacy on the North Coast. This group of gearheads are now the go-to guys and gals when it comes to policies, projects and education to increase our productivity and quality of life in rural Northern California.

One of the latest projects with which the RTC and other like-minded people are involved is something called Redwood Coast Connect, associated with Humboldt State University and furthering the work of Governor Schwarzenegger's Broadband Task Force.

Tina Nerat, a leader with RTC and owner of TeraTech, is one of the contractors with RCC who are trying to gather interest and participation in broadband advocacy in Trinity and Mendocino counties. In her travels and outreach, she was involved in a town hall meeting in Mendocino where 90 (!!) people showed up to learn about how they could improve their access to broadband. Some of these folks were also trying to form an RTC-like organization to articulate their needs and advocate for policy change.

Our own Rollin Richmond (HSU) and Peter Pennicamp (Humboldt Area Foundation) are the only two rural representatives on the state Task Force, so there is a high likelihood that whatever comes out of RCC will get a lot of play in the right places. Meanwhile, RTC will be working with our Mendocino friends to help them start their own RTC.

One of the joys of working with technology is how it cuts through a wide strata of economic social and political interests. Considering how we on the North Coast tends to turn most policy discussions into them-and-us fights, this is one of those refreshing opportunities to set our differences aside to work toward a common good.

These latest developments are all promising and worth our attention.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Posted by Chris Crawford at 09:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)