November 9th, 2009

Paperless students? Never going to happen

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 1:22 pm

Categories: Discussion, Environment, Gratuitous rant, Hardware, Mobile computing, Productivity, Skills development, University, e-Learning

Tags: Student, Netbook, Computer, Productivity, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Hardware, Zack Whittaker

We live in an age where technology is rife. We cannot escape from mobile phones, computers, netbooks, projectors, e-readers and the rest of it. But students simply couldn’t go paperless. The chances are it’ll never happen, or at least if it does, when I am long gone, dead and buried.

The argument for going paperless is stronger than ever, with learners wanting less paper and more technology, and teachers wanting less paper to manage and deal with.

But this is schoolchildren we are talking about, not university students. Students in higher education relish using paper; allowing them to spread their thoughts across multiple pages and across multiple work surfaces.

The incentives are there; every time I print something off at university, because I need to use my university username and password to print, it records when I do so. But every print-out leaves me with a pop-up guilt trip reminding me of how much of a tree I’m destroying in the process.

Forget computer science students because they are a minority at most institutions. Of course they will be using their netbooks, Androids, smartphones and iPhones to tap away at during a programming lecture. But the rest of the students on campus are more than happy with scraps of paper, Post-it notes and lined paper with scribbles on. The rest of the campus doesn’t engage with technology on an everyday basis so they are not missing out in the first place.

For this, when writing up the notes later into electronic format, we can have a sense of satisfaction about screwing up the paper and chucking it away.

How would you write notes onto a PDF file? Yes, you could use a touchscreen computer, but handwriting recognition isn’t an exact science yet and a pad of paper and a Biro pen are far cheaper.

Taking books out of the library aren’t always possible. Sure, we could grab our Kindle and download the book but why should we when we are spending thousands of our respective currencies on library provisions? Some books are only available for an hour at a time, so instead of scanning them into a computer for later analysis, photocopying is a more sensible solution. Those who remember will know that I have proven this one long ago.

In realistic terms, the only computers students want to use is the one computer that they are using to write their essays on. Besides that, technology has yet to really have a major impact on the main brunt of our degree courses - the discussion seminar - where all you need is your mind and your mouth.

Me? Personally? Many can testify to this. I would be far happier with a handful of notes, scribbles and scraps than a netbook. Would you rather go paperless?

October 31st, 2009

Web addresses to extend to non-English languages

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 8:46 am

Categories: Breaking news, Environment, Major breakthroughs, Next-generation technology, Web 2.0

Tags: Web, ICANN, Web Address, Channel Management, Domain Names, Marketing, Internet, Zack Whittaker

Since the very start of web addresses being introduced, only Latin-script (English) based web addresses would work. With the ever increasing number of web addresses in use, the regulatory body assigning domain name details has approved the use of non-English addresses.

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, have approved a number of internationalised domain names (IDN’s) which could be rolled out as soon as next year, the BBC report.

At the moment, only the standard 26-letter English alphabet from A-Z and including 0-9 can be used. This new process will allow in theory any language using any symbol to enter web addresses.

This move will see the next generation web for non-English speaking users, and in short, will make the Internet truly local to whoever may use the web.

From two weeks time, ICANN will begin accepting applications for IDN’s and will make the first ones available from mid-2010.

Starting with the most popular languages, according to the BBC article:

“It is likely the majority of early non-Latin net addresses to be approved will be in Chinese and Arabic script, followed by Russian.

Some countries, such as China and Thailand, have already introduced workarounds that allow computer users to enter web addresses in their own language. However, these were not internationally approved and do not work on all computers.”

This appears to be ICANN’s first major step since receiving autonomy from the US government last month. How web browsers will respond to this it is not so clear. However, with Firefox, by entering in a non-English set of characters, seems to convert it only to English when submitted.

Will this make the Internet more accessible? Have your say.

October 9th, 2009

Coin-sized nuclear batteries to revolutionise electronics

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 12:36 pm

Categories: Environment, Hardware, Major breakthroughs, Next-generation technology, Research

Tags: Device, Battery, Electronics, Engineering, Zack Whittaker

A nuclear battery is not a new concept. For years they have been praised for their longevity and ability to keep running for years, decades longer than the lifespan of ordinary batteries.

Research engineers at the University of Missouri have developed a battery which takes advantage of the decay of benign radioactive elements to create electricity. While nuclear batteries have been used in healthcare, space equipment and military devices, the potential they hold could rule out the need for wireless power.

The real development here is the size factor. Before this feat of engineering, due to the nature of the battery, the radioactive element would decay and provide power, but in the process would damage the semiconductor device which actually collects the energy.

But through using a liquid semiconductor, the particles radiating from the radioactive isotope can pass through more fluidly causing far less damage, as the particles in liquids are far more spread out than those of a solid.

According to the BBC, not only could these devices potentially last hundreds of years, the “renewable factor” could be fixed before the problem even arose.

Gadgets and items of technology last a set number of months or years through either a product life cycle or overuse. But the battery could be taken out, recycled and put into a new device which would carry on going. Why dispose of a battery which not only has a precious element to it, but will continue working for longer after the owner has died?

Digressing for a second - could nuclear batteries be device-generic in the near future? Manufacturers could cut the cost of devices down by removing any battery or power equipment, and have a slide-in battery which you buy separately, and can swap and change with other devices like a universal battery port as and when the device fails or gets replaced.

Some would be naturally concerned with the “nuclear” element to this. For example, terrorists using this to cause mass casualties or death; it simply cannot be used in this way.

But this technology strikes a personal note for me. I wrote a few weeks ago about an experimental surgery called deep-brain stimulation which can mask the symptoms of serious neurological illnesses - Parkinson’s, dystonia, and Tourette’s syndrome - the condition I suffer from.

By using this technology, the pacemaker which will be fitted in the space between my scapula (shoulder blade) and clavicle (collarbone) could be far smaller than the cigarette-box-sized device which is normally used. They now have these devices to just larger than a coin, and hope in the future could be even smaller and almost seamless with the devices they power.

Aesthetics aside, the battery will last far longer than the host patients’ life span, meaning that the battery will never have to be recharged or replaced through invasive surgery.

But take the medical element of the equation for a moment. Just think what this technology could mean for laptops, notebooks, mobile phones; perhaps even further - why couldn’t this be installed in televisions which eat up electricity like no other?

Could nuclear energy (in this respect, at least) be the saviour of the planet that we have all hoped for? Let me know what you think.

September 29th, 2009

XP to Vista? No, if it ain't broken, don't upgrade it

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 4:26 am

Categories: Discussion, Environment, Gratuitous rant, Microsoft, Money, Productivity, University, e-Learning

Tags: Desktop, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, Lecture, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Zack Whittaker

The question I posed a few months ago was whether Windows Vista would live to die another day? It seems no, no it shall not. Today, through first hand experience on two occasions, it died entirely of its own accord.

My place of work and education, the University of Kent, went through a major upgrade over the summer which prompted me to write about this in the first place. Quoting from the original article, they announced:

“It is intended to roll Vista out on our student desktops during the summer see the Information Services’ paper to be presented to the University’s Computer User’s Panel next week.“

Although it seems that the upgrade has been performed well and everything went smoothly after speaking to IT staff earlier on, the subsequent student and staff reaction to the operating system has been mostly critical.

I logged into a Vista-running public PC for the first time today. Well, I say “logged in” to the point where I entered my username and password but got no further as the remaining 12 minutes was waiting on the folder redirection policy. I gave up in the end and went to my lecture.

My lecture revealed another flaw in the upgrade. My lecturer logged on at the beginning of the lecture. But not only should he have attempted logging into his machine before the lecture had started but doing so would have had very little difference. The projector was on and I could see the same thing going through the motions as before. I clocked it opening up his desktop no less than two minutes before the end of the hour lecture.

Our “message of the day” page which provides the latest, breaking news on the state of the all-important and hugely popular range of IT services on campus showed:

Now don’t get me wrong. There is no doubt in my personal and professional opinion that Windows is still the best operating system to be running on a mass scale in a corporate or university environment. But in this case the supply cannot necessarily meet the demand. Allow me to digress. Read the rest of this entry »

September 16th, 2009

Could Internet filtering cause more harm than good?

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 5:16 pm

Categories: Discussion, Environment, Government, Legal and political, Security

Tags: Imagery, Child, Internet, Zack Whittaker

Countries around the world are steadily rolling out filtering systems which block citizens from viewing child abuse imagery. With the United Kingdom and New Zealand with independent filters in place, and Australia potentially soon after, Internet censorship is becoming common practice across the world.

What many don’t realise is the true extent of governmental filtering across the web.

I take on two perspectives here. One, I am a godfather of two beautiful little children which I would gladly take a bullet for. Two, I worked albeit for a relatively short time in the child protection sphere. While children frankly drive me up the wall, my views and opinions on keeping them safe could well be considered controversial to the vast majority of Republicans and Daily Mail readers.

Australia is a tricky one. Because of their legislative power running through a two-chamber system, their present government cannot push through enough votes to secure the filter being activated. As of today, it is very unlikely the filter will go ahead until more votes are drawn in in the next general election, in favour of the Rudd cabinet.

But looking at the broad spectrum of governmental filtering across nations, the one and main reason these vast Internet filters seem to want to accomplish is the reduction in access to child sexual abuse imagery. All good and well, you would say.

From a professional point of view, paedophilia is an illness; a genuine psychological condition which causes a sexual interest in children, whereas a convicted child sex offender (CCSO) is a branding caused by a consciously committed offence against a child of a sexual nature. One is an illness and poses a potential risk to children, whereas the other is a branding of conviction caused by someone who acted upon their desires.

The two sides to these filters is firstly by reducing (with the aim of entirely removing) the chance of a citizen being exposed to child sexual abuse imagery, and the other is to prevent people seeking out child sexual abuse imagery to satisfy their urges. Both are preventative measures, but the latter is something which cannot be avoided without medical intervention.

The filter would not deter paedophiles or CCSO’s from indulging in their desires. The World Wide Web has been around for nearly two decades, but anthropologically speaking in Western society, these crimes would have been accomplished without the aid of an international network of computers. In some areas of the world, what we would call crimes are societal normality’s and even though we would be horrified to see it, their society dictates differently.

Point being, removing access to child sexual abuse imagery online would not deter those who are determined enough. Previous non-offenders could potentially seek out children in their determination to fulfil their need and drive the issue underground and away from law enforcement.

Even though every time a child sexual abuse image is viewed, it essentially perpetuates the abuse further, but one could argue that physically assaulting a child is somewhat in an entirely different league to the aforementioned.

This aside, Internet filtering around the world is far more widespread than the average user thinks. For example:

• United Kingdom has Cleanfeed - provided by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to identify child sexual abuse imagery and provides a simple 404 error message. ISP’s can if they wish use their own systems.
• Norway provides a DNS filter which blocks access to child sexual abuse imagery deemed so by the regulatory authorities.
• Germany asked Google.de to block access to anything which is deemed to incite Nazi propaganda, which is somewhat appropriate due to the country’s history.
• The Czech Republic passes not only Internet but mobile web traffic through the UK’s Cleanfeed system.

In the US, because of the First Amendment, Internet filtering would be considered a violation, whereas some would consider the DMCA an act of filtering to remove content which is deemed copyright.

So a simple question to ask you, the audience: could Internet filtering at governmental level cause more harm than good?

Because of Pandora’s Box theory - once something happens, it can never be undone and is no doubt deemed to repeat itself in the future. Where does it stop? Should the Internet be entirely monitored and blocked to ensure the safety of its users? When is Internet filtering an abuse of governmental power, and how should it be regulated?

One thing is for sure, and that is the Internet cannot be open and fully accessible for everyone with what we see and experience in post-modern society.

Comment away. It will be interesting to see where this one goes.

September 11th, 2009

Generation Y and conscientious consumerism

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 1:02 pm

Categories: Environment, Hardware, Money, University, University fun

Tags: Apple iPhone, Generation Y, Zack Whittaker, Smart Phones, Sales Strategy, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Sales

Zack Whittaker is out saving the world again. For the time being, old friend of the blog, Elliot Harrison, who also writes for Neowin.net, is filling in and sharing his personal experiences with spending on technology.

Being a student, it can sometimes be hard to manage, or at least get your hands on money. This statement doesn’t completely negate anyone else from the content of this article however, I am writing it based on my subjective experience.

Summer would have been a difficult time for the average student; there are many festivals to pay for and mass quantities of alcohol to purchase. With that, summer based activities away from the classroom all involve the spending of money. The unnecessary pieces of equipment purchased throughout the year suddenly become useful not for their purpose, but how much they can be sold for.

I had a few expenses to allow for when moving house a few weeks ago, so it was time to trade in my iPhone Touch. I remember feeling a deep sense of fright as I packed all of the necessary pieces back into the box, put it into my bag and sell it in town.

On the way I popped in to see Zack where he told me I would only get about £80 ($144) for the full package. He was right. For a £240 ($400) piece of equipment, purchased only a month or so prior to its selling, the technology had depreciated by £160 ($266). Despite never being taken out of its protective pouch which I bought with it, it fetched only a small amount.

I can understand why this is. But despite my moaning, the price it sold for is not actually my issue due to the fact that the money I got from selling the iPhone was sufficient for my needs. What surprised me a great deal more was the fact that I was literally petrified by the thought of being without the item. The potential ramifications from being without my iPhone for the time felt quite unsettling.

The fact that I even felt unsettled was something which unsettled me more, and actually when I walked out of the shop I sold it in - I felt a slight relief with it not being in my possession any longer. I then considered why I purchased the iPhone in the first place; a nice pair of earphones twinned my BlackBerry would have done exactly the same job. A complete waste of £160 I am sure you will agree.

Indeed, perhaps all of this trepidation is due to my own skewed mindset with regards to the way I consider technology. As a result I have become over-dependent upon it in some manner. In short, I would describe my ‘condition’ as a false sense of ‘want’ rather than a correct sense of ‘need’.

Read the rest of this entry »

August 28th, 2009

Universities should embrace existing online identities

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 10:38 am

Categories: Discussion, Environment, Skills development, Social networking, University, Workplaces

Tags: Identity, Jen Leggio, E-mail, Online Communications, Zack Whittaker

On second thought, why shouldn’t universities embrace existing online identities?

I’ve already established the importance of having email in a university environment. Firstly, it is a dual responsibility held by both staff and students who send and receive mail, although the responsibility is not necessarily mutually exclusive to each other. One person can send an important email, and if it is not received in time by the recipient, then it is the recipient’s responsibility. This reminds me of the time I handed in an essay far too late…

When you join a university, you represent that establishment. When sending emails, you are clearly a part of that institution and can often work in your favour if sending from a highly reputable college. But there is often a single clear distinction between students and staff.

Staff will often have their name or some variant of their personal identity in their university email address. For me, it would either be z.whittaker or zack.whittaker, or z.a.whittaker, depending on the institution’s policies.

Students on the other hand dominate the register of users so there are often more combination’s of the same name, leading to alphanumerical addresses which include the initials of the student. Depending on how many same combination’s of the same initials, an added incremental number will be added. For me, I have zaw2 which is my bog-standard university email address, and zaw3 as my overdraft account because my previous account exists.

Luckily I have a strange initials making my email address interesting to say on the phone.

But as Facebook now has usernames and Twitter enables us to use personalised addresses to further our online established identities, perhaps it would be of some use for colleges to help perpetuate this in an ever growing online world?

Consider @mediaphyter. For those who know who @mediaphyter is on Twitter, you’ll know her overall online identity as the mediaphyter. Jen Leggio uses this online handle and identifies her as who she is, as no doubt there are other people out there with the same birth name as her. It’s not just a username - it’s an online identity.

So if that identity is already established on the web - and considering the way the web is nowadays, you can find more out about someone on the web than anywhere else - why shouldn’t universities embrace this as a wider form of identity branding?

Instead of it being her initials and an incremental number, why not mediaphyter@university.ac.uk or mediaphyter@university.edu?

To me, that makes more sense. That is, unless two or more people have the same handle, and that’s when you would throw them in a ring, and watch them wrestle to the death to (literally) claw their identity back.

What do you think?

August 26th, 2009

Generation Y: Technology wasters, spendthrifts and abusers

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 12:02 pm

Categories: Environment, Gratuitous rant, Hardware, Money, University

Tags: Phone, Generation Y, Laptop Computer, Notebooks, Telecom & Utilities, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Zack Whittaker

I have been defending the iGeneration for over a year and a half now, but even this comes as a surprise to me as I launch my first direct assault on the next generation of technology users. I, of course, am one of the few exceptions to the rule, but I bathe in the vast awesomeness of my responsibility and moral upbringing.

To put this simply, the Generation Y abuse technology, as the mindset of the average student is that technology can be replaced due to the wide availability of electronic products, and as a result, the far cheaper prices to that of a decade ago.

Where has this all come from, Zack? You may well be asking yourself that. This is why:

Suffice to say, the other eight comments were pointing out this person’s idiocracy of their own life.

It seems most will look for a new laptop which cost no more than $300. The device itself won’t be treated with respect or care, and will probably last no more than a year. With expensive products we generally treat with a lot more care. The temptation from moving out of halls of residence is to buy new things for their house as well as new gadgets. With this, another laptop is bought only a year later.

But for me, because I’m quite aware that my Tourette’s will inevitably end up destroying the more flimsy of products, I take the time to research build quality, expandability and upgrade options. I’ll look at the price and think very carefully before spending anything over $100 on something. I want my devices to last.

The iGeneration don’t care about products lasting. They just want something here and now, that will do the job and something they can dispose of without it hurting their wallets when that moment in time comes. But not only will they moan about endlessly when these devices break, they simply don’t look after their stuff. Most of the time, computers crash (internally and often physically) because they do not take the time to keep their products safe, clean or secured.

In terms of businesses, those in corporate environments will want their employees to have durable and near tough-book qualities in the laptops they buy, so those laptops can be passed from one employee to another when the other one leaves or has no more need for it. Especially those in my generation, consumers just don’t care.

So as this next generation of IT workers are clearly too stupid or wreckless to look after their own technological purchases, I’ve simplified the following lines to summate my point.

• Companies have far much more money to spend, but less is actually spent. They buy their hardware and technology as an investment for the future.
• Consumers generally have less money to spend, but more is spent on the product than the company. This is partly because it’s a single product they are buying and not in bulk, but they treat their new technology as disposable.

I hope this serves as a warning to the Generation Y from one of their own. You waste technology, you abuse the technology you purchase by not looking after it, and consider everything as disposable and are therefore in my eyes, spendthrifts.

To prove this, instead of sending off their old phone to be recycled, and in return you get a monetary cheque through the post, one technology abuser decided to publicly smash his old phone on camera. Why? Why do that? I got $90 for trading in my old phone which paid for three months of the call plan on my new phone. You just smashed your iPhone on camera and got nothing out of it except a rebuke from the wider community.

And then you have the audacity to complain that you can’t afford the rent or to buy books for the next semester. For one day only - today - I am disgusted with the lot of you.

August 24th, 2009

Mobile TV: Why it stalled and why it won't take off

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 11:37 am

Categories: Cloud computing, Environment, Gratuitous rant, Mobile computing, Next-generation technology, Research, University fun

Tags: Phone, Mobile, Mobile TV, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Advertising & Promotion, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Marketing, Zack Whittaker

Being able to watch digital television on your mobile phone seemed to send the Western world into a craze two years ago. The thought of being able to watch your favourite channels or programmes from anywhere and everywhere made sense, with the apparent infrastructure already being in place.

Frank Dickson, Reed Business - Europe’s biggest online and offline publisher, told the BBC:

“The idea combines the two biggest things around: TV and phones. Everyone has a TV and everyone has a mobile phone. So of course the industry thought the prospect of bringing the two together was going to be huge. In reality, live mobile TV has been very slow to take off.”

To put this in perspective, I have been to numerous conferences, travelled daily around London for six months straight, commute from Canterbury to London both ways at least once a week, and spend the rest of my time in the city or on the university campus. I have never seen anybody watching live television on their phone. It just doesn’t seem to happen in this country.

Everyone has a phone, and everyone has a television. People use their phones for making and receiving phone calls, with the exception of evolutionary changes in mobile devices. Television is used as a device to watch at the end of a long day; to unwind and to relax, or in some cases to watch daytime tripe when you can’t get a job.

The two wouldn’t mix together well, like pouring Lysol into a pro-biotic drink.

There are currently two ways of getting mobile TV, and these two ways are flawed beyond belief:

1. A mobile TV receiver such as a Nokia SU-33W, which only works with only three compatible Nokia models at the time of print. Not only that, take a look down the average suburban street and you’ll see all the aerials on the roof pointing in the same direction. I see a mobile TV receiver working like a GPS on a train; holding it precariously against the window whilst shouting, “GET SIGNAL!”. Most of my analogies seem to involve sitting on the train…
2. Over-the-air using network streaming, which needs a network strong and powerful enough to get the stream across. I have proved with mobile broadband that it is hard enough to get downstream bandwidth over 200kbps. Mobile networks could not sustain a decent stream in the UK and US even with 3G technology. If you are using home or public wi-fi, you might be in for a shot.

Home and office broadband speeds haven’t necessarily rocketed in the last few years but have increased in bandwidth potential. With this, the chance arose for television broadcasters and networks to provide on-demand access to live and already broadcast material.

The BBC report that the slump in numbers of those utilising mobile TV is down to the fact that just under 50 million of the 270 million mobile phone users have smartphones capable of receiving these services.

But with access to these on-demand sites and mobile broadband speeds which can’t compare to those that landline broadband services provide us, the logical step is to watch television on a computer instead.

No matter which way analysts and other bloggers look at it, a good part of my degree involves looking at, understanding and predicting society and its needs. I cannot see how or why mobile TV could or would take off. I just don’t see a point to it.

You’re more than welcome to prove me wrong. Leave a comment and tell me why.

August 18th, 2009

University uses WiMAX to become dedicated student ISP's

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 2:51 pm

Categories: Environment, Hardware, Major breakthroughs, Next-generation technology, Productivity, University

Tags: Network, Broadband, University Corp., Wireless, Northern Michigan University, WiMAX, Wi-Fi, Wireless And Mobility, Zack Whittaker

Northern Michigan University (NMU) has taken a bold step in converting their standard wireless infrastrure to WiMAX, a wireless Internet technology which makes ordinary Wi-Fi look like chalk on slate in comparison.

WiMax in a nutshell uses airwave bandwidth beyond that of ordinary wireless networks and covers vast areas. The closest thing I have seen in comparison comes from The Cloud, a London based company, which uses public Wi-Fi networks to make an ad-hoc and “patchy” cloudspread across a city. WiMax on the other hand entirely blankets a city with wireless coverage.

As with all technologies, I try and balance out the equilibrium to also see the negatives as inevitably there will be at least one draw back; there always is. WIth WiMax, the only thing holding it back could be the price of the infrastructure setup, which in turn would trickle down to the consumer paying for it.

NMU has secured its network to run as any ordinary college or university wireless network would be - secured with their usual network login information - allowing them to be off campus and connecting in their usual fashion. With this in mind, the cost has been subsidised by including it as part of tuition fees, so there are ‘no extra costs’.

• Read more: iGeneration coverage: “Dial-up diary”
• Read more: 3G broadband: students outside the house
• Read more: BlackBerry’s reduce broadband outage downtime

My understanding of tuition fees in the United States is limited to “ouch, that’s expensive”. But any relief from paying extra home broadband bills I am sure would be beneficial.

Starting with ordinary household 802.11b/g, followed by next-generation 802.11n which is soon to be out of draft specification as an official standard, and then 802.16 (or “WiMax”), the following office diagrams would put these wireless standards into some perspective:

It’s hard to comprehend a city literally blanketed with wireless signals, but a 30 mile (50 kilometre) radius would be enough to cover greater and outer London - anywhere within the M25 orbital which circles the city.

Impressive, really. Perhaps this will solve the student-come-broadband problem with universities becoming their own student dedicated Internet service providers?