“Quality over quantity” or “why I like Google+ Circles”

The web is ablaze with Google+ gossip, and everyone is quick to jump aboard the new social media revolution from the world’s leading search engine/portal/mapper/web dev magic shop.  So why should this blog be any different?  I’ll wade right on in there too.

First off, for those wondering “what is Google+?” I suggest y read the following:

1. What Google wants you to know – Take the tour of the Google+ project
2. What XKCD and most geeks (including this author) thought – XKCD Google+

So now you know what it is in broad terms.  You’ve also noticed this is the “Google+ project” and not the “Google+ product”, and that seems to be because Google does not intend to replace FaceBook with a different social networking platform.  Instead they want to continue to evolve their products to work closely together and infiltrate your entire browsing experience.  On the one hand this sounds brilliant, a creative light in web technologies striving to make the interwebs better for everyone… however, the realist (or cynical IT worker) in me also sees this as a potential invasion of privacy, and another attempt by Google to not just help you enjoy the web, but actually monitor and control how you interact and communicate with the digital world.

For me though the experience so far has been quietly enjoyable.  The integration with other Google products I use is relatively painless, and worryingly intuitive.  The overall experience is uncluttered, with clean white space, with subtle animations and hints of colour guiding your around the interface.

The big win for me though has been the “circles” concept.  This is a visual way of grouping your friends into multiple circles, allowing you to rapidly and easily communicate with only select groups of people, or with everybody you know, or even the whole world.  FaceBook attempted this with lists, but the interface was rudimentary, and the publish method was neither user friendly or easily maintained.  Circles for now seems easy to understand and the drag and drop interface makes management of groups of friends quick and easy.  Will it continue to grow as more users come online and everybody’s circles grow?  I’m not sure, but for now it is a clear advantage that Google+ has over FB and other social networks.

So why quality over quantity, well aside from the annoying bugs that one expects in early code they haven’t bloated the product with features.  Google hasn’t tried to out-FaceBook FaceBook, they’ve looked at a few key social interactions, and how people could expand those interactions on the internet, and have run with that idea.  I don’t think it is a FaceBook killer, but it has definitely introduced some new ideas both technically and design-wise into the marketplace.

Who reads your posts?

The MOD are aware of the risks of the online world, and made these fabulous adverts to raise awareness.

I’ve never been a fan of “checking in” and location aware apps, and these two films just drive home why.

Ommwriter – First impressions

So this post is written in Ommwriter.  A minimalistic word processor that is meant to free up the writers creativity by removing the distractions that clutter the screen of a regular word processor.  I’m going to use it now to write my first impressions.

I do like how the screen is taken over by the software.  If you leave your mouse alone (and really you should, you’re here to type, not wriggle around the screen)  the menu bar, and options around the text area fade away leaving nothing but a blank canvas for your words.  Even the borders of the sizable text section fade out, giving no visual limits to your typing space.  In addition, the software prevents you from accessing other windows, masking the taskbar and hiding away the minimize and exit options in the fade-awaymenu and sidebar.  I found this kept me focused on the task in hand (writing this piffle) but did mean I had to scout a bit furtehr to find my screen and research quandries like how much the paid version costs.

Ommwriter with options visible - Screenshot added in WordPress NOT Ommwriter

The cursor is a blinking subscript underscore ( _ ) rather than the more normal flashing pipe ( | ), and it turns out that the software writers did this to remove the wall formed by the vertical cursor.  Not sure how much I’ve been stymied by a cursor before but we’ll see.

Now I am using the free version of the software, and it isavailable for both Mac OSx and Windows.  There is a paid for version which includes a few more themes and schemes, but functionally the two versions are identical. The paid version costs a non-threatening $4.11 with the potential to add a larger donation if you so wish, and a request that you end your price with a 1 to bring good fortune.

Oddly this is a word processor that makes noises all of its own, and the free version only has three themes for background music, and three typing sounds.  The typing sounds can be best described as:
1. A faint electric chirp.
2. Soft electric water droplets.
3. A hard clack sound, electric maracas?

The background music breaks down to:
1. Ambient chimes and plucks with a galloping coconut shell horse in the distance.
2. Classical chimes, with more than a passing nod to a temple bell.
3. Deeper and almost discordant electronic organ sounds.  This is sometimes a bit menacing, but then lifts itself out again.

With all the music the variations seem random, which some may find pleasant and I can think of a few musical friends it will drive crazy.  The good news is that both can be turned on or off easily, and I found myself rapidly switching off the typing sounds as I use a plastic Dell keyboard which makes plenty of clatter on its own. When using a near silent membrane keyboard I found the sounds were a reassuring confirmation of a keystrike, but since i find typing on a membrane keyboard a slow affair due to the wobbly nature of the keys and unpredictable pressure requirements I settled for turning off key sounds and enjoying the regular plastic chatter muted by my headphones. If you want the typing sound, definitely use headphones, otherwise the music works well through your usual speakers if your work environment is quiet.

All good things come in threes apparently, and the same is true of the background themes,
1. A gentle shade of grey with wintery trees in a snow scene at the footer.
2. Bright white, which is just a tad hard on the eyes (and also makes me sneeze with my current cold.)
3. A middling grey, which is probably ideal for working later in the evening; the type appears like eInk on a Nook or Kindle screen.

Overall I think I can see myself using Ommwriter every once in a while to jot down ideas in an uncluttered fashion.  It doesn’t have the formattingand publishing options of Microsoft Word or the like, but it does offer a simple space to work and a relatively small footprint.  The lack of spell check seems odd in this modern world, but also gives me the freedom to make mistakes, which is nice in its own right.  You can save your text to their OMM format (it’s a plain text file with a pretty extension), or to TXT.  You can also output directly to PDF but there is no “print” option to go directly to a printer

So if you want to write with something that feels a little more like a typewriter than a desktop publishing behmoth then give it a try.  With a price of FREE where can you go wrong?

Ommwriter can be found at http://www.ommwriter.com

Outdoor safety, avalanches and smartphones

Smartphones are everywhere these days, and they’re replacing our cameras, diaries, address books, maps, GPS, and many other things in an easy hand-held unit.  We take them everywhere, and wherever we may be we know communication is but a swipe of the finger away.

Listening to a podcast recently (on my phone) I learned how these devices might not be as helpful in an emergency as they at first seem.  The podcast was January 1sts special edition of the BBC Radio Scotland’s Out of Doors program, in which the show’s presenters went out on an avalanche rescue exercise in the Cairngorms with the Grampian Police Mountain Rescue Team and the Braemar Mountain Rescue Team.  During this fascinating show the rescue teams explained how although smartphones frequently included GPS functionality which could be helpful out on the mountains they also tended to consume battery power far faster than traditional phones, and in emergency situations this rapid loss of power could make maintaining communication with the rescue team extremely difficult if not impossible.

This set me thinking about my friends (both in the UK and the US) who enjoy skiing, hiking in the mountains and generally getting out and about outdoors, and how most of them are quite possibly permanently attached to their iPhones and other smart-devices.  I found myself wondering how many of them had thought about how that rapidly fading battery, which is usually just an annoyance requiring a charging cable at work and at home (and in the car if you’ve got an iPhone), could put them at greater risk in an emergency situation.

With that in mind I encouraged them, and you, to listen to the podcast if you head out off trail, or into the woods and wilderness, and to make sure you plan for the worst even though I hope you’ll never need it.  When global distress beacons (like the McMurdo Fast Find here) and avalanche transmitters (like the Backcountry Access Tracker here) cost less than a new smartphone it seems crazy not to take one with you!

You can download the podcast here, and please note that all title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to the BBC Podcast remain the property of the BBC (alternatively it may still be available from the BBC Podcasts website here).

In addition you may want to check out the following links:

• BBC Radio Scotland Out of Doors podcast page
• Out of Doors page on Facebook
• Avalanche Safety equipment on the REI website
• Braemar Mountain Rescue Team website (and Just giving Donation link)

WikiLeaks, freedom, and the battle of words

WikiLeaks cyberwar: Hackers bring down Swedish government site (The Telegraph).

Now that is a headline to grab your attention with those glitzy buzzwords “cyberwar” and “hackers”.  Even Carole Theriault, a senior security consultant at Sophos, a multi-national computer security firm, is quoted as saying:

If the big companies weren’t locking down their information before, they’re definitely doing it now.

This is really unprecedented and Amazon could be next.

… Hacking is illegal and it’s not just the companies which are the victims of this, it’s also the people who are trying to use their services to shop and the sellers of those items who can’t sell them.

Now I’d like to look at this quote in more detail, so let us break it down:

If the big companies weren’t locking down their information before, they’re definitely doing it now.

Imagine your data is a car which you’re parking on a street that has everything from multi-national corporations to drug dealers and pimps, let’s call that street “The Internet”. Now I’m guessing that most of us would close the doors and lock the car, set the alarm if we’ve had one installed, maybe even go back and check a few times (I can’t be the only one), because we know the cost of locking the door is far less than the cost of replacing the car.  Now here’s my problem with the above statement, big companies have not been locking the car, some of them haven’t even been closing the doors and yet when they come back and find the car has been broken into and the change in the glovebox has been taken they blame everyone but themselves.  When the British government lost public data by leaving laptops on trains, etc. they blamed the forgetful peon who dropped the ball and did not appear to question why someone was carrying such critical data in such an insecure manner in the first place.  We seeing a similar media frenzy now around the persecution of the WikiLeaks website rather than the more interesting question as to why the United States allowed so much critical and private data to be stored so insecurely that a single person could easily remove so much information.

This is really unprecedented and Amazon could be next.

Well DDoS attacks happen pretty frequently, what is unprecedented is the media interest in the case.  I agree Amazon could be next since the group is targeting organisations involved in the case, and Amazon dropped their contract to host the WikiLeaks website.  So guessing that the group might target another major involved party isn’t rocket science.

Hacking is illegal…

Okay here we’re not using the dictionary to it’s fullest are we, and some clarification is needed.  Let’s take a look at how Merriam-Webster define hacking:

Definition of HACK
transitive verb

1. to cut or sever with repeated irregular or unskillful blows b : to cut or shape by or as if by crude or ruthless strokes <hacking out new election districts> c : annoy, vex —often used with off
2. to clear or make by or as if by cutting away vegetation <hacked his way through the brush>
3. to manage successfully <just couldn’t hack the new job> b : tolerate <I can’t hack all this noise>

intransitive verb

1. to make chopping strokes or blows <hacked at the weeds>; also : to make cuts as if by chopping <hacking away at the work force> b : to play inexpert golf
2. to cough in a short dry manner
3. loaf —usually used with around
4. 1. to write computer programs for enjoyment
   2. to gain access to a computer illegally

So hacking isn’t illegal in most usages of the word.  Even in the realm of computers most hackers are just people who write computer programs, or in a broader sense people who modify electronic systems to perform tasks beyond which the system was initially designed for enjoyment.  In this sense I would describe myself as a hacker.

What the media describes as hacking is the criminal act of gaining access to a computer system illegally.  Again, the key words here are “criminal act” and “illegally” since many hackers are gainfully employed to use their skills to try and break into computer systems for governments and corporations to test the security which is in place.

What is the purpose of this rant?  Well, it is three fold:

1. Governments, companies, and private individuals need to think more about how their data is stored, and how they secure it.  For too long it has been easier to blame the individual attack rather than the massive security oversight.  This impacts every one of us, because when your personal information gets left on a train, stolen by a disgruntled employee, or accidentally mailed to the wrong person (aren’t governments great), it will be each of us individually footing the bill to prove we are who we claim to be and that the problem was not caused by us.
2. “Hacking” is not illegal.  “Hacking into a computer system with criminal intent” is illegal.  Society needs to understand this, since the continued negative image of hackers in the media encourages a neo-Luddite approach to technology and that in turn leads to the kind of data issues described in #1 above!
3. “Don’t shoot the messenger” – I agree that WikiLeaks was not wise in publishing all this information without some form of fact checking or review.  However, it is vital the members of the public be able to blow the whistle on unfair practices and WikiLeaks performed a useful task in providing a credible location for this.  The problem here is that instead of releasing just information pertaining to wrong-doings (I agree that details about the Blair/Brown British Government’s dodgy dealings over the Lockerbie Bomber’s release should be made public, we need to know how corrupt our political ministers can be) but embassy communications are out of the public domain for a reason, and where they do not specifically unveil a wrong doing they should not be released for no reason.  In this instance the media frenzy around WikiLeaks seems bizarre, if one wrote a threatening letter one wouldn’t expect the authorities to hunt down the typewriter!

Now the big question I find myself pondering is this: Did the US citizen who stole the information and published it on WikiLeaks commit an act of treason?