Yacoblog

Tech Innovation has stagnated?

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:19:00 -0600

I read a fascinating article on CNet featuring Peter Thiel's opinion that tech innovation has stalled. When I first read the headline, I thought this must be yet another crackpot tech journalist that is spouting off some new nonsense. But after reading the article, I agree 100% with his opinions. He is basically stating that while electronics related tech (Computers, the Internet, etc.) is still expanding at a rapid pace, the rest of the tech world is not. We are still using petroleum based fuel way too much. Space innovation is very slow compared to 40 years ago. Our governments still use ancient processes and 'technology' to get things done, for the most part. Peter Thiel is postulating that we live in a society that has lost interest in science and technology. I think I agree. And I think I know why. [More]

Let the people decide how to spend their taxes

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:02:00 -0600

As most of you probably know, the Unites States government is having financial problems right now. And to compound the problem, the politicians can't agree on anything to solve these problems. It all comes down to spending and income. No two politicians will agree on how much we should tax the populace, and how we should spend tax revenue. I may have a solution for this. [More]

Video On Demand Smackdown

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:46:00 -0600

There has been a lot of talk lately about Internet Video on Demand services. Everybody seems to talk the most about Netflix. But is Netflix really the best? What about Hulu? And let's not forget Amazon, which has been making a big push lately in this space. What if you were to cancel your Cable/Satellite subscription today? Could you still watch all your favorite shows? And what about today's popular movies? Can you skip the video rental stores and services and just watch all your favorite movies online? I wanted to answer these questions, so I did a little comparison. The table is below, but first here are some notes about this data:

I used Nielsen ratings from last week to pick the top 5 most popular TV Shows from the two categories (Broadcast and Cable). I ignored news shows and one time TV events.
I used the top box office numbers for the last year to pick the movies. Of course, I only chose movies that aren't still in the theater.
A lot of the TV shows are available on their publisher's website.
A lot of these movies are available to own, but I was only interested in rentals.
For Netflix, I only looked at instant streaming, not DVDs.
I only looked at services available in the U.S. I don't have access to services available in other countries.

	Netflix	Hulu	Amazon
Broadcast TV
America’s Got Talent		x
Big Brother
So You Think You Can Dance		x
MasterChef		x	x
Wipeout		x	x
Cable TV
True Blood (HBO)			x
Royal Pains		x	x
Burn Notice		x	x
Covert Affairs		x	x
Suits		x	x
Movies
Toy Story 3	x
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Iron Man 2	x
Alice in Wonderland (2010)	x
Inception
Despicable Me
Shrek Forever After
How to Train Your Dragon
Tangled			x
Totals	3	8	8

What I Learned This was a very interesting study. Here are some things I learned:

If you want to watch TV shows, Netflix is not your best bet. Hulu and Amazon have a pretty full catalog of current TV shows.
If you want to watch recent Movies, Netflix seems to have the most available, but even they don't have many. The movie studios still seem to be holding onto their content to sell in DVD/Blu-ray format.
Many TV shows and Movies just are NOT legally available to stream online.

I really hope things change in the near future. I personally love the convenience of instantly streaming TV shows and movies. More and more Americans are buying Internet connected home entertainment devices that come with Netflix/Hulu/Amazon (and others) pre-installed. And people seem to be interested in having a wide catalog of shows to watch instantly. But for now, Hollywood is still behind the times.

ColdFusion job opening

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:26:00 -0600

I work at Idaho Power (an Electric utility that serves most of southern Idaho.) Our public websites are ColdFusion based, and we have need of a ColdFusion developer! This is a temporary job, so if you are the type that looks for term specific gigs, this job is for you. You would be expected to work here at company headquarters in downtown Boise. The term ends about April of 2013. Boise is a beautiful city, and there are lots of things to do here. I can't post a direct link to the job, but here's how to find it. Go to the Idaho Power careers site. From that page click on the Information Technology link, and then you'll see the job posting which has this title: "Application Development Analyst Entry – Web (Temporary) (1493)"

Don't assume that Netflix has it all

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:31:00 -0600

Over the last year or so I have become more and more dissatisfied with Netflix. The problem is not their DVD shipping service, I like that. The problem is their instant streaming service. Many tech journalists will tell you that you can cancel your cable/satellite subscription and just use Netflix. But if you do that, you will be missing many things:
1. Sports.
2. Most TV shows that are on air today.
Not to mention that their movie catalog is very small. If you want to instantly stream a movie, I hope you're content with independent and old moldy films. Because that's mostly what you'll get. As far as TV shows, Netflix only has SOME of the most popular TV shows. Mythbusters? Nope. Chuck? Only one old season. Anything current (like, released last week?) Forget it. But I've recently been trying to find the movie/show I want on other services besides Netflix. Amazon has a streaming video service, and I found that they have Mythbusters (and yes, even the current in-progress season!) Youtube also has a service that has some of the content you won't find on Netflix. And there is also Hulu and Vudu (not to mention lots of other lesser known services.) And many of those services are pay as you go (meaning, no monthly subscription...you just pay for the shows you watch.) So I have not yet decided to cancel my Netflix subscription, but I may do that soon. And I am planning to cancel my Cable subscription later this year (after the contract runs out.) These services (and the fact that I don't watch much TV nor many movies these days) make that prospect a lot less scary.

Beware of Over Simplification in UI Design

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 06:44:00 -0600

One of the trends I've noticed in the software world is a drive towards simple User Interfaces. I think in general this is a good thing, as often times UIs are cluttered with too many options, which can overwhelm and confuse the user. Apple and Google are famous for their clean simple UIs. But I wonder if you can take UI simplification too far? [More]

Windows is still not favored for Super Computers

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:02:00 -0600

I have been watching the semi-annual 500 fastest super computer list for a while, and each time I look to see how many computers on the list are based on Microsoft Windows. This latest list (released this month) still doesn't show much Windows love. Out of 500 super computers, there are 6 based on Windows. And two of those are partially based on Linux, so really only 4 of the 500 are purely Windows. That is really sad. But why is this happening? [More]

Why won't Google fight with the wireless carriers?

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:27:00 -0600

I often admire Google for many business decisions they make. I was very surprised and pleased when Google decided to shutdown their china business operations instead of bowing to China government pressure to filter Google search results for Chinese searches. More recently, the government of Kazakhstan asked google to make some undesirable changes, and again Google said no. This is all evidence that Google cares more about the greater good than they do about $$. So...Google ALWAYS makes decisions based on the greater good...right? [More]

Richard Stallman is the Rush Limbaugh of the Tech World

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:48:00 -0600

Richard Stallman is a tech celebrity who has been on the tech scene for a long time. He is most widely known for his free software activism. Basically, his stance is that ALL software should be free. By free, I don't mean free of charge. I mean free to use/copy/distribute/modify. Stallman basically believes that nobody should "own" software. Once you create a piece of software and release it to the public, it is now owned by the public. [More]

I support Citezens for an Open Greenbelt

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 20:17:00 -0600

For those that don't know, I live near Boise Idaho (in a suburb called Kuna). Boise is known as one of the best cities for bike riding on public roads and trails. There is a really long beautiful greenbelt along the Boise river. In the middle of Boise there is a separate city called Garden City. There is a ritzy neighborhood in Garden City that borders a small section of the greenbelt. In 1997 Garden City passed an ordinance banning the riding of bicycles on the section of greenbelt next to this neighborhood. For the record, I am an occasional bike commuter. Most of the time I drive to work, but on occasion I ride my bike for about half of my 22 mile commute to/from work. Also for the record, I do not ride along the contested section of the greenbelt mentioned above. I do however ride a different section that is open to bikes, and this is always my favorite part of the commute. Well, for years nobody paid much attention (or even knew about) that 1997 bike ban. But in recent years Garden City has started to enforce this ban. Bikers are given tickets if they are caught riding in this small section of the Treasure Valley's greenbelt. In my opinion, this law that was created to satisfy a snotty neighborhood is overbearing. Yes I realize that there is the occasional biker that travels too fast around pedestrians. And yes some bikers are downright dangerous with their biking habits. But to punish the entire biking community that would use that part of the greenbelt is extreme, to say the least. For this reason I am applauding Citezens for an Open Greenbelt who have sued Garden City to overturn this bike ban law. The Judge in the case has allowed the suit to proceed to trial and it will start next February. I will be anxiously watching this trial, as I hope Garden City is put in their place. I honestly believe there are better ways to deal with the "problem" of troublesome bikers along the greenbelt. I hope this law is overturned, and then our Garden City will be forced to explore alternative methods to satisfy those snotty neighbors.

MLB.TV (and their website) sucks

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 07:40:00 -0600

For the past couple of years I have tried MLB.TV so that I can watch all of the Cubs games which are not available to me. The biggest problem is that I don't live in the "market" for my favorite team. I would guess that most sports fans live in the region where they can watch all their team's games on local TV. I cannot, because I live 1,715 miles away from Chicago. And because MLB is greedy and they care more about $$ than they do their fans, the only way I can reliably watch the Cubs is to pay $20/mo for their low quality service which gives me way more than I would rather pay for. My first complaint is that I would rather pay $5/mo for just the CUBS games. But MLB forces you to pay for ALL teams/games, and the lowest price available is $20/mo. STUPID! My second complaint is that the premium service sucks. This year I payed $25/mo for premium, and this gives you DVR like functionality, higher quality video (supposedly), plus you can watch away games with the home broadcast. This last bit means that if the Cubs are playing in St. Louis, I can watch the official Cubs broadcast instead of watching the official St. Louis broadcast. The trouble is that the software MLB chose for these premium features SUCKS rocks! I tend to watch a game after it has already started, or maybe hours later. So the DVR features were attractive. The trouble is that the software constantly crashes. Many times I was watching an in progress game 1 or 2 hours behind live. I would try to skip the commercial breaks by clicking the next half inning from the inning selector, but at this time the software would crash. It's hard to explain this, but basically MLB.TV uses two different software packages to stream games. A basic package that just streams live (and at a lower quality). And a "premium" package which works through a plugin that you have to install (this is the software that gives you DVR features, and higher quality video). This latter piece is called NexDef. Well, NexDef crashes all the time, and when it does (if you are watching an in progress game), the software switches to live mode. What this means is that you may have been watching in the 3rd inning, but you now just jumped ahead to the bottom of the 9th inning. Fun, right? NOT! My third complaint is the MLB.TV website. Last month I wanted to downgrade my subscription from premium to basic (for the above stated reasons). But the stupid MLB website doesn't even offer a downgrade option. I was forced to cancel my subscription, and then try to sign up for the Basic service from scratch. But the trouble is that their stupid site won't allow this kind of transaction. Once you cancel your current subscription, the site lets you use the old subscription until the month that you paid for runs out. This would normally be a nice customer satisfaction feature, right? But what if the site then won't tell you how long you have left on your subscription? And also, what if the site won't let you sign up for new service until your old cancelled subscription expires? Yup, you guessed it. This is exactly how MLB.com works. So I am now stuck in limbo land, and my only option is to wait until the secret date when my old subscription expires and then signup again. My fourth complaint is the retarded exclusive agreement MLB signed with Fox for weekend games. 99% of weekend baseball games are BLACKED-OUT to MLB.TV subscribers. MLB agreed to give Fox sports exclusive rights to ALL MLB games on Saturday and Sunday that start after 11 PM pacific (or something like that). Well guess what? 99% of the weekend games start after that time. So unless your local Fox miraculously decides to broadcast YOUR game on your local Fox station (almost never happens), you just can't watch it. Even though you are a PAID SUBSCRIBER to MLB.TV, you CAN'T WATCH THESE GAMES. This should be AGAINST THE LAW! I would NOT recommend MLB.TV to anybody I know. But the trouble is that if you are a true fan of a team outside of your local TV market, MLB.TV is your ONLY option (aside from watching the handful of games a year that might show up on ESPN/Fox). Thanks MLB for screwing your fans as you greedily pursue more money to add to your already fat purses.

9 Years of blogging

Sat, 21 May 2011 14:44:00 -0600

Today is the anniversary of my first blog entry, on May 21st 2002. This last year my blogging has been pretty horrific, but that's ok. I guess I've kind of lost interest in blogging, but I'll still post on occasion when I have something to share. Here are the stats for my blog:

Total posts: 444
Total comments: 1256
Total page views: 1,109,271
Most popular post: 48,825 views

I'm looking forward to another year of blogging!

ColdFusion Builder 2 Extension for CFQuickDocs

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 10:47:00 -0600

ColdFusion Builder 2 is not officially out yet, but that hasn't stopped people like Brian Swartzfager from releasing cool extensions for it. This is partially because Adobe dramatically improved CFB Extensions in version 2. Brian had built and released a CFQuickDocs CFB extension before, but it's now been updated, taking advantage of some of the new features in CFB 2. Check out his post to see all the details. I particularly like how it auto-detects your ColdFusion version (based on your project details) and then when you lookup docs it uses the appropriate CFQuickDocs doc library.

Yet another programming language popularity list

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:10:00 -0600

When discussing programming language popularity, most people point to the tiobe index. But personally I think there are some serious flaws to their method, the main thing being that they arbitrarily decide which languages to track and which to ignore. I've been playing around on stackoverflow lately and noticed today that if you hover on a tag, the site tells you how many followers that tag has. You can also see how many questions are asked under a partucilar language tag. So I decided to create a list of popular languages (or dev environments) on their site and how many followers and questions each languauge has. I included ColdFusion at the bottom for reference.

Name	Questions	Followers
C#	149,600	23,015
Java	100,276	19,136
PHP	89,720	17,279
Javascript	77,954	13,432
jQuery	66,446	13,618
iPhone	64,943	11,086
ASP.Net	64,426	12,812
C++	59,445	13,983
Python	49,209	16.142
Android	43,304	9,983
...	...	...
ColdFusion	1,906	1,202

Is this scientific? No, but it's interesting. That said, I do think it's more scientific that tiobe's, which is based on a secret search results based algorithm. This at least is based on data from a real programmer Q&A community, and a very popular one at that.

Reset ColdFusion Server Manager password

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 07:19:00 -0600

ColdFusion 9 offers a new tool for server administrators that is especially useful if you manage multiple ColdFusion servers in your company. Where I work we have 14 ColdFusion servers (mixture of dev/test/prod, Intranet/Internet). ColdFusion Server Manager is an AIR app that runs on your PC. You can perform most of the ColdFusion Administrator tasks from this one app, and in some cases apply changes across multiple servers at once. More details on Ben Forta's blog. When you first run the Server Manager, you are asked to create a master password. This password is only for this tool on your PC. It does not affect the servers themselves. But what if you want to change the password? I couldn't find an easy way. The only way I could find to do it is to mistype your password, and then the Server Manager offers you an option to reset your password. It gives you a scary message: "This will also reset all your server passwords." I was afraid that this would reset the CF Admin passwords on each server. But really it only affects the saved password you had entered inside of Server Manager. When you reset this master password, it will also delete all of your locally saved server passwords. This makes sense, because without this security measure if someone managed to get access to your PC, they could just reset your master password and then use Server Manager to cause all kinds of trouble.