Technology
February 9, 2009 - Digital TV delayed and the ripple effects
Last Wednesday Congress voted to delay digital TV until the summer to allow time for millions who have not made the switch time to either acquire a set top box or subscribe to a cable or dish service. To help with this delayed transition up to $650 million in financing has been added to the stimulus bill to help people acquire coupons. The problem is that this delay has ripple effects in many areas of the communications infrastructure including delays ... Read more »
February 14, 2009 - Importance of on-line presence in a campaign
This morning I was checking the candidate's websites to see if anything had changed recently. Something apparently was with Diane Cibrian's site. It was down and had been all night. The absence of the site had me wondering if R's comment in the debate open thread had some merit to it. I doubt that is the case but the sheer absence of the site these days sends a message of uncertainty to voters about the status of a candidate. Cibrian's not the ... Read more »
February 15, 2009 - Blog status update
Things have been changing at Concerned Citizens and I thought it might be good to provide an update on where the site is now. As I stated in the About section this is really a technology experiment with Wordpress and social media to understand how it can be applied in society. To do so required content which has now become a daily passion and commitment. Readers have been increasing and the dialogue in the postings has been great, make that incredible. ... Read more »
May 15, 2009 - The gadget geek in me is anxiously waiting
Just in case you thought all I ponder is politics, politics, and more politics there is another side to me. In reality I'm a techie nerd that just happens to have a political side to him. To the tech side, I am anxiously awaiting to see if Apple is going to come out with a new model of the iPhone. I'm not talking about the firmware upgrade that's planned but an actual new device. The usual announcement date is at the World Wide Developers Conference ... Read more »
May 29, 2009 - Could city work be crowd sourced?
Recently I have been following the City of Austin's efforts to revamp its website and some of the issues associated with this upcoming project. Back in March the city had planned to award the contract for redesign to a Cignex Technologies, a California based company that prides itself in leveraging open source technologies to provide solutions. Some of Cignex Technologies prior customers include the City of Austin and the University of Texas at Austin. ... Read more »
June 10, 2009 - iPhones and Vlogging
On Monday I decided to jump on the iPhone bandwagon after the recent announcement of the iPhone 3GS. Most of us who watch technology had been anticipating this announcement, both from a hardware and software perspective. While the other versions of the iPhone have been good, this is the version I felt was a good mix of technology for a smartphone. In another development, Mayor Julian Castro has started vlogging from City Hall in an effort to provide ... Read more »
June 13, 2009 - Digital airwaves and social identities
Last night was a busy night on the technology front. After years of planning and public outreach the nation's television airwaves went all digital. Hundreds of analog transmitters were turned off across the nation and thousands of TV sets went dark. As a result of this transition stations are able to save thousands of dollars in energy costs since the new transmitters use substantially less power. It also marks the beginning of a new model in mobile ... Read more »
June 17, 2009 - Anxiously awaiting my new iPhone
Okay, I'm the first to admit it. I'm a techno-nerd all over. New technologies excite me in a big way. But I'm also a tech critic. Do it right and you have me won over. Screw the technology up and I'm outta here and will tell the world how bad you screwed it up. You see, technology these days is more about how you creatively put together technical components for everyday tasks than the old days of just seeing "Hello world" flash on a computer screen. ... Read more »
September 21, 2009 - AT&T big on marketing, slow on service
This past weekend I traveled to Austin to attend the Texas-Texas Tech game which was the largest football crowd in Texas at 101,297 until the Cowboys-Giants game eclipsed it on Sunday. Regarding the crowd, in my mind Texas Memorial Stadium still had a bigger crowd than the Jerry Dome. Counting people standing outside in the plaza isn't really valid when you count a crowd but that's Jerry Jones for you - all hype and low delivery. Regardless, with ... Read more »
December 8, 2009 - A little fun courtesy of Google
Yesterday Google announced a lot of new innovations to the public to try out and explore. One that has gotten a lot of press has been the real-time search application. However, one of my favorites is the new Google Goggles application. It's an application that is only available to those who have an Android phone. Now that ranges from those with the original G1 from HTC to the new Motorola Droid announced by Verizon Wireless. The application is pretty ... Read more »
December 22, 2009 - Finally, a use for Google Wave - 2009 Perspective
Today I found this video at Mashable produced by Whirled Interactive providing a perspective on 2009 using Google Wave. In case you're not familiar with the technology the perspective is a "wave" with a series of wavelet conversations. There are a lot of subtle nuances that are Wave specific so all you Wavers should watch for them, especially the RIP section. Regardless it's just fun to watch. The thing to understand is that the only editing is audio. ... Read more »
July 20, 2010 - Steve Jobs - the PT Barnum of technology
Last week on Friday Apple Computer fixed a problem and, in doing so, garnered the attention of most of the technology media and even some of the mainstream media in the process. What is even more interesting is that prior to the press conference Apple had essentially been denying there was a problem to fix. However, when faced with proof positive from Consumer Reports of a potential reception problem while holding the iPhone a certain way Steve Jobs ... Read more »
August 10, 2010 - Someone who gets multitouch - great application
Okay, I'm going to try to start a new trend in blogging by picking a topic a day and blogging in that area. Today I call Tech Tuesdays and I take a look at multi-touch interfaces. If you're not familiar, multi-touch is what you've been using a lot lately if you have one of the more popular smart phones like an iPhone. The interface basically allows you to interact using your fingers and various gestures. What's interesting is that it opens up an entire ... Read more »
September 12, 2010 - Media continues to march towards digital
This past week Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., the publisher and chairman of the NY Times, told a group of attendees at the International Newsroom Summit that “We will stop printing the New York Times sometime in the future, date TBD." For some time now we've known that the Times would be changing its revenue model to a paywall to help support and sustain an all digital edition. The question back then was whether Sulzberger would continue the print edition ... Read more »
March 12, 2011 - SXSW Interactive–A Techy’s Paradise
This weekend and part of next week I’m at one of the biggest techy paradises in America – SXSW Interactive. It’s my third year and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger with around 15,000 people attending the five day conference. It’s a great conference in many ways and a place where you can spot the latest trends and technologies before they go mainstream. It’s where Twitter, foursquare, Gowalla, and Whrrl got their sea legs and took ... Read more »
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