Consequences of Improved Technology

Two tech-related news stories caught my attention today.

From CNN:

Silicon Valley to Millennials: Drop Dead

From the Washington Post:

Apple co-founder on artificial intelligence: 'The future is scary and very bad for people'

In the CNN article, author David Wheeler calls out Silicon Valley for its failure to provide jobs everyone thought would be created by the growing tech sector. Instead of creating jobs, Silicon Valley tech firms are doing the opposite - they are destroying them.

Technology improves efficiency in the workplace, replacing old cumbersome processes involving multiple people, resources, and lots of time, with automated machines run by computers. These computers must be programmed and maintained, but it can be done by eliminating more jobs than it creates.

Wheeler likens the harmful financial impact of Silicon Valley to what Wall Street has done in our economy - enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else. The new workforce created by Silicon Valley will include some high level managers and programmers. But too much of the technology created by these firms renders jobs useless or creates low-wage, low-skill jobs.

Wheeler cites a striking statistic:

"college grads age 22 to 27 are stuck in low-paying jobs that don't even require a college degree. The percentage of young people languishing in low-skill, low-paying jobs is 44%, a 20-year high"

He also says only 36% of college grads have jobs paying over $45,000, a sharp decline from the 1990s.

If a tech firm in Silicon Valley can continue to grow and prosper while sitting on a huge pile of cash while outsourcing jobs overseas why should it create jobs in the US? Apple is sitting on a pile of $160B in cash and its stock is poised only to increase with the growth of global consumers.

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Speaking of Apple, the second article involves dire predictions about the future from former Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. He joins Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates in his warnings about the potential scary future with artificial intelligence (AI).

"The future is scary and bad for people. If we build these devices to take care of everything for us, eventually they'll think faster than us and they'll get rid of the slow humans to run companies more efficiently." 

The CNN article pointed out how jobs were being replaced by AI, and not replaced by enough of those needing to maintain the systems using the AI. When you think about how slow humans are to progress compared to how rapidly technology advances one can see how an AI could exploit this weakness. And this is at the slow adoption rate lamented by paypal co-founder Peter Thiel.  Thiel believes Americans are too slow to embrace technology and that we could be even further along than we are if Americans were not so reticent to adopt change.

Even if empathy cannot be replicated in the AI, if the AI can evaluate data and create simulations for real world events, it can come close to replicating human decision making.

My 1st Database

Yesterday I created my first database using SQL:

This might not seem like a big deal to some, but this is coming from someone with no programming experience. All of the tables were created using queries provided in a book step-by-step. The first step was to execute all of the SQL coding in MySQL Workbench. Then, I told the program to "reverse engineer" the created entities into a diagram, shown above. I am currently learning how these tables are related to each other and what values are allowed in each field.

My goal is to be come familiar enough with SQL to run simple queries and manipulate some tables in databases.

Pre-Crime Police State

Imagine an America in which the state was capable of monitoring keywords and phrases in face-to-face public and private communication with tiny sensors placed wirelessly throughout the country. Even when a person is not speaking but only typing, sensors could translate keystroke vibrations to determine which key is being selected based on the amount of pressure placed on the keyboard.

Prior to revelations of NSA spying by former contractor Edward Snowden the public largely believed the government was incapable of mass surveillance methods; and even if it was, it was not using them without a warrant. Now we know the NSA has been spying on citizens without warrants, the CIA has been spying on Congress, and very little has been done to curtail abuses of power by the President or Congress. In fact, the current administration is perpetuating methods adopted by the Bush administration, justifying them in the name of national security under the legal permissions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Methods of spying include, but are not limited to:

- Cell phone geolocation
- Cell phone calls/texts sent and received (not necessarily audio or context)
- Email scanning
- Social network activity
- Web history

The NSA has requested information about individual users of services from Google, Microsoft, Apple, and others and has placed these firms under a gag order so they cannot disclose the extent of the requests.

On August 7th while listening to The Takeaway, a mid-day NPR program hosted by John Hockenberry, I learned there is technology capable of detecting audio vibrations typically only captured by microphones, which can be reconstructed to create a close rendition of the original audio. Hockenberry interviewed MIT electrical engineering student Abe Davis who has been working on a project that uses a "visual microphone" to detect sounds from music and even the sounds of crumpling potato chip bags.(1)

When asked whether the technology could be used for pernicious purposes the student dismissed the possibility since such technology requires a vast amount of resources. But who has the kind of resources to turn the technology into something usable on a massive scale? You got it.

Never before in the history of human civilization have people's lives been trackable to the extent they can be in the 21st century. Nearly everyone has some form of electronic communication device, email account, or GPS navigation system. And never before in the history of national defense has the need for early detection of threats been necessary as in the age of Islamic terrorism and cyberwarfare.

The government is in the business of protecting its citizens from foreign and domestic threats. It has an interest in using all means necessary to fulfill its primary duty. There is a point where surveillance tramples civil liberties, and this is the moment where we must ensure our need for security is not overstepping its bounds.

If the government can go so far as to spy on conversations and keystrokes as a means of detecting possible threats to security, they will. That would mean that everyone in the US could be spied on at all times. Maps would display colored dots where each color represents a threat level. Let us say the threat levels move progressively in order from the least threatening individual to the most threatening, starting with green, then moving to blue, purple, yellow, orange, and red. Every citizen is assigned a green dot at birth.

Source: fwi.co.uk

Regional maps would display colors by county of places where the highest threat levels are present. The government could then zoom in on any area down to a single house and see the colored dots inside of it representing the number of individuals in that building and the threat level of each. Vibration sensors could pick up the conversations and keystrokes of anyone in that building.

Source: https://zaboujojo.wordpress.com/tag/surveillance/

Technology has given us the tools to draw ourselves out of the enslavement of our barbaric past. Unless it is kept in check, though, we risk being subordinated to a more modern barbarism by our not-so-benevolent overlords in government.

(1). http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/eavesdropping-using-vibrations-bag-potato-chips/

NSA FOIA Request Denial

Two major stories came out this weekend regarding the growing threat of a police state in the USA.  One article reports that 8 of the most prominent technology companies are responding to recent findings of NSA surveillance with a petition to the President and Congress to overhaul spying practices:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/google-apple-and-microsoft-agree-nsa-spying-undermines-freedom/282143/

Another story, which was on the cover of USA today this morning, says that police departments in 33 states are harvesting cell phone tower data in much the same way the NSA is doing.  After all, if the Feds are doing it, why can't they?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/08/cellphone-data-spying-nsa-police/3902809/

In local news, I had the privilege of receiving a denial letter from the NSA regarding my recent request for disclosure on what information the NSA was collecting about me.  Page 2 says my request was denied because of statutes and executive orders which prevent the release of any records (which may or may not exist) that could be used in the interest of national defense.

I only give them a break insofar as sending me that amount of information would be difficult.  How does one send "records of all social network activity."  Would they print it out and send boxes of paper records on a truck?  Would they give me a thumb drive with gigabytes of code?

I sent them the request out of principle to show them that I, along with many other Americans, are concerned that the mass harvesting and storage of personal information can lead to an invasion of privacy.  Once this information gets into the wrong hands it can create a police state like history has never seen.

Link to the imgur album with the NSA response:

http://imgur.com/a/yHnLx

First page here:

TI-83 Plus Surgery

My job requires me to solve software problems using simple math all day long.  The calculator built into PCs would work except it's another window to keep open.  Cell phone calculators work except I would rather not put more miles than necessary on my phone by using the calculator function all the time.  I started using my old TI-82 calculator because it is in excellent shape and the larger screen allows for you to see your history of calculations, avoiding the need for the memory function.

When I was home the other day I spotted my brother's old TI-83 calculator and took it with me to use on the job.  Differences between the 82 and the 83 Plus are listed here:

https://epsstore.ti.com/OA_HTML/csksxvm.jsp?nSetId=62242

What I was most interested in, however, was the improved display.  Both have a monochrome display that is 96 X 64 pixels and 16 X 8 characters, but the TI-83 Plus has crisper black letters that are much easier to read.  There also appears to be less "depth" between the pixels of the characters and the bottom of the display, reducing the shadows that overhead lights create when viewing the characters at an angle.

Of course it was not as simple as moving my batteries from the TI-82 to the TI-83 Plus.  My brother had painted over the buttons with silver permanent marker, rendering them almost useless.  The calculator worked just fine besides that.

That's when I turned to ebay to locate a TI-83 Plus that could be used for parts.  For $12 I got a used, broken calculator with perfect buttons.  I took both calculators apart, cleaned the keys of the new one with rubbing alcohol swabs, cleaned the holes in the shell of my brother's so the keys wouldn't stick, and put humpty dumpty back together again to get myself a perfectly usable calcuator:

NSA Spying

Day after day there are new revelations of NSA spying.  The reach of the NSA extends beyond the United States into even the private phone lines of foreign diplomats.  Those in positions of power who defend the overreach of the seemingly unregulated spy organization say that every government participates in spying, that information obtained is limited to phone numbers and times, that it has been successful in thwarting terrorist attacks, and that every day Americans are not the subject of this massive collection.

The number and type of stories being reported on a daily basis from all over the world suggest otherwise.  The NSA is the product of the War on Terror.  It is able to operate its spying network in the name of keeping American's safe.  What it is doing has been made possible by FISA and its subsequent amendments.

The NSA needs to be investigated more thoroughly by Congress to make sure it is kept in check from unnecessary invasions of privacy.

Here are some reasons why the NSA is not being investigated:

- One job of government is to protect its citizens from domestic and international threats.  A government will use whatever tools it has at its disposal to accomplish this task.  It just so happens that in the information age people are connected together digitally, making it easier for the public to obtain information, but also easier for those in power to spy.

- In order to operate effectively, law enforcement agencies and the military require a certain level of secrecy.  If their methods of gathering intelligence were completely transparent it would be impossible to act preemptively against threats to security.

- Laws and amendments passed during the Bush administration and not overturned by the Obama administration are perpetuated by the Obama administration.  Republicans have a reputation for being hawkish when it comes to national security, but even liberals know the value of intelligence gathering.  Look how outspoken a defender of the NSA is Democrat California Senator Dianne Feinstein.

- No government official wants to give Edward Snowden the glory when it is forced to admit wrongdoing.

There are other reasons why the NSA has not been officially held accountable for its overreach.  It is extremely important for this to be addressed because if any government agency is able to harvest a large scale of data on the habits of it citizens, if a tyrant gets into power it could be just a serious a threat as the government taking away guns by force.

Contest Collusion

I drink a lot of Diet Coke and Coke Zero.  I finally signed up for that My Coke Rewards program to see how quickly I could accumulate points to buy something worthwhile.  Remember when Sprite used to offer those under-the-cap instant wins where you won a soda on the spot?  My Coke Rewards doesn't even come close to that.

First of all the prizes are weak.  A cursory look at the prizes page shows t-shirt after t-shirt, hats, photo albums, and sweepstakes.  There are a few prizes like a Restaurant.com gift card that require over 500 points.

Second, the points take a while to accumulate.  One bottle of soda equals three points, a twelve pack equals ten points, and an eighteen pack equals twenty points.

Given how difficult it would be for me to accumulate points on my own I thought I could ask my Facebook friends if they would want to pool points together and split prizes.  Many people drink more soda than I do but never enter a code.

I did a basic calculation in Excel to determine whether or not it would be worth it.  I figured if I got six other friends to send me their codes we could accumulate the 1000 points needed to earn a $100 Restaurant.com gift card.  Splitting a $100 gift card seven ways only amounts to $15 per person.  Still I thought it was worth a test.

Column1	Points For Item	Points Per Soda	Weekly Rate
Bottle	3	3	21
Twelve	10	0.83	11.62

A bottle is worth 3 points and a can purchased as part of a 12, 18, or 24 pack is worth .83 points.  I figured if a person consumed one bottle per day or two cans per day I could predict how long it would take for six friends and me to get the 1000 points necessary to get the gift card.

Column1	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8
All Buy Packages of Soda	81.34	162.68	244.02	325.36	406.7	488.04	569.38	650.72
All Buy Individual Bottles	147	294	441	588	735	882	1029	1176
Four Buy Packages and Three Buy Bottles	109.48	218.96	328.44	437.92	547.4	656.88	766.36	875.84

I calculated the figures based on three scenarios: We all buy packages of soda, we all buy individual bottles, or we get a mix.  I assume each person consumes one bottle per day if they bought bottles, and I assume two cans per day if purchased as part of a package.

I concluded that it would take seven weeks for all of us to consume one bottle per day and earn enough for a gift card.  When taking into consideration the time spent entering codes and splitting up the prizes I concluded too much effort was necessary to make it worth while.

Samsung Watch - Waste of Time

You might have noticed the ad for the new Samsung "Galaxy Gear" smart watch during tonight's 49ers - Texans Sunday Night Football game.  Futuristic watch models with sound and video clips from shows like Star Trek and Inspector Gadget spin around on the screen before the narrator reveals the new Samsung smart watch.

It does not take much research to conclude this gadget is not just lacking features, but will be a complete waste of time and money.  It is a product with so much potential that you wonder why Samsung bothered to create something that is only a slight improvement on other devices in its class.

Nike has the Sportwatch GPS: http://nikeplus.nike.com/plus/products/sport_watch/  I have tried this on at the Nike store at the Wrentham Outlets and was very impressed with its capabilities.

Motorola has MOTOACTV: http://www.motorola.com/us/MOTOACTV-16GB-Golf-Edition/121481.html

The older Apple Nano could be converted to a watch using third party straps.

What are the advantages of a smart watch?  Conveniently on your wrist at all times making it easy to detect a notification vibration, answer a call, or check the time.  They have pedometers and GPS trackers which allow for a better fitness experience.

What are the disadvantages of a smart watch?  The price of having yet another gadget.  The inconvenience of having to charge yet another gadget.

What is something that would push a large mass of consumers from the skeptical, tight-fisted shoppers that we are?  Something that blows the expectations out of the water.

Samsung chose not to include a 4G SIM card.  It chose not to include a front facing camera, a feature so obvious for those familiar with how smart watches are used in movies.  It chose to exclude email and social networking support.  CNET says voice support "hit and miss."  See the full review here:

http://reviews.cnet.com/samsung-galaxy-gear/

My First Cellphone

A handful of retail reps were asked to participate in a tour of a wireless hub in Westboro, MA last week.  The Westboro facility is a hub through which most of New England's cellular traffic flows.  The tour was focused on showing the hardware behind 4G LTE, including servers and backup batteries.

At the beginning of the tour we were all asked to introduce ourselves, say how long we had been working with the company, identify the first cellphone we ever had, and the one we are using today.

My first cellphone was a bag phone that my dad no longer used.  It sat in under the driver's seat of my first car all of the time.  I only pulled it out once or twice for emergencies.  But since I hardly used it I didn't count it as my first one.

Mine was the Audiovox CDM 4000:

 

This was truly portable compared to the bag phone because it was not much bigger than some of the phones we use today.  I found the owner's manual online.  The introduction goes:

"Congratulations...(sic) You have just purchased one of the most advanced cellular telephones in the market today.  Your new Audiovox portable telephone is a dual mode cellular telephone operating in both standard analog and the CDMA "digital" (sic) modes."

The thing came with a charging cradle and a wrist strap, which is more than most come with these days.  To emphasize the age of the phone even more the manual mentioned roaming mode, indicated by an "Rm" on the screen; a separate voicemail key labeled "V+"; and it only had 100 slots for the contact list.

My next upgrade was a silver one just like it.  The enhanced feature on that was a setting that allowed you to record the name of a speed dial so you could hit a button, say the name, and it would call the person. It was primitive voice command because it only recognized what you were saying based on your recorded voice.  These two phones lasted me from about 1999 through 2003.

When I announced to the group my first phone I showed it to them as a picture downloaded from the web on my current phone the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX:

 

Recent Concern With Passwords and Security

Recently I have become more concerned about web security, especially as it pertains to usernames, passwords, and mobile phone access.  The recent security breach at Epsilon exposed the names and email addresses of millions of people who have connections with retailers that use Epsilon's marketing tools like rewards cards.  Some of the companies are well known:

Tivo
Best Buy
Walgreens
Target
JP Morgan
and others

In October 2010, it was reported that many apps on Facebook, including Farmville and other popular applications had used customer data inappropriately.  The application developers violated Facebook's privacy rules, but that is of little consolation to the user who has no way to fight back.  Once the information is sold to third parties it can't be brought back.

I wanted to develop a secure password system after I built a new computer last fall.  I had been using the password keeper on my blackberry device but it was difficult to sync and worried about the device malfunctioning.  I found Callpod's Keeper password protection software for android, the cloud, and desktop computer.  I could enter my passwords in the phone app, which was protected by a master password, and then sync it via wifi with desktop software.  For an added cost I could also sync my passwords with the cloud service.

But then I was wondering how trustworthy these application developers are.  How do I know that when they provide me with password protection service in the form of an application they are not harvesting my data during updates?  How do I know the cloud service is secure?

To start my new password system, I cleared caches and browsing history on my mobile devices, deleted the password keeper application, and changed the password on my Google account and set up a 2-step verification system.  I am still figuring out how I can safely and conveniently store my list of passwords.  Ideally I would like to be able to access them from my mobile device as well as my home computer.  The key is to have them safe and in two places.  If anyone has ideas about how to keep passwords secure I would appreciate the feedback.

NYTimes: Microsoft’s Creative Destruction

You don't have to be a techie to see that Microsoft always seems to be catching up with Apple. This article, written by a former VP of the blue chip company, explains some of the reasons why it continues to fall behind in innovation.

From The New York Times:

Microsoft's Creative Destruction
By DICK BRASS

Why Microsoft, America's most famous and prosperous technology company, has failed to bring us the future. ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/opinion/04brass.html

Get The New York Times on your BlackBerry free by visiting
http://nytimes.com/bbapp

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s

I was talking with a buddy the other day about how Facebook is changing the way people relate to each other. People have such unprecedented access into the lives of their acquaintances. And are the relationships better off? Are they impaired in some way.

On Thanksgiving I saw one of my cousins who just started high school this year. He was lounging around the house with an Acer brand netbook in his lap running the ubuntu operating system. When I was 14 the computer was still very stationary as a desktop and laptops were exclusively for businessmen in movies.

The NYT article below talks about the mini generation gaps that exist between siblings because of how quickly technology changes.

From The New York Times:

The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s
By BRAD STONE

YouTube. Facebook. The Kindle. Now a tablet. New technology is creating new generation gaps. ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/weekinreview/10stone.html

Get The New York Times on your BlackBerry free by visiting
http://nytimes.com/bbapp

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Nexus One and Verizon Wireless

There are rumors on the internets that Google's new phone, the Nexus One, is coming to Verizon in the Spring of 2010.  This will be a big year for wireless with all kinds of products expected to be released.

Slate Computers
Apple Tablet
More Android Phones
Palm Pixi
and more...

check out the link about Nexus One's rumored deal with Verizon:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/googles-new-nexus-one-superphone-coming-to-verizon-in-the-spring-of-2010-81006147.html

Also you can view a tutorial video revealing some of Nexus One's capabilities:

http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleNexusOne#grid/user/6B77FA16DD0C36F9