Showing 1 - 9 of 9
New chatbot can do a lot, but can you trust it?
Life, James Hein, Published on 18/01/2023
» Over the New Year break, I was digging a bit more into artificial intelligence and especially how the ChatGPT can be used and how it could affect society.
Windows facelift is on the cards
Life, James Hein, Published on 04/08/2021
» Today we start by looking at Windows 11. Microsoft is getting closer to its new major Windows version, expected at the end of the year. According to the marketing blurb it is focused on "simplified design and user experience" along with a few new key features, including Android support.
Protecting your privacy
Life, James Hein, Published on 05/04/2017
» Internet privacy is dead, at least in the US. This will trigger a rush to VPN's, the use of Tor browsers and advanced encryption, for some. In the US, new legislation allows your ISP to collect and store all of your browsing history. This will include length of time spent on sites and pages visited. The information will be at the mercy of the ISP to keep or use it to apply social engineering in terms of recommended sites and marketing. While the point seems to be to allow ISPs to make more money, the scary part for some will be that hackers seem to be able to regularly hack into ISPs and grab stored data.
The WiGig revolution slowly gains traction
Life, James Hein, Published on 24/02/2016
» Some time back I wrote that we would soon be seeing 100Gbps on our wireless data connections. The Japanese have claimed this speed using a new transmitter operating in the 275-305GHz range. This is close to standard fibre speeds using Wi-Fi and uses a multichannel technology to achieve it. Current Wi-Fi technology operates around the 5GHz band and at 60GHz for the so-called WiGig system. The higher the operating frequency the faster the data transmission and the expectation here is for terabits per second, or to put it another way, very fast. To do this they will need to extend the technology to an even higher frequency range.
Samsung's market share drops
Life, James Hein, Published on 24/12/2014
» Based on the third quarter figures, Samsung's global market share in smartphones dropped close to 8% year on year. It is still top of the heap, but their loss was Chinese mobile manufacturers' gains. Apple, Huawei and Xiaomi increased their shipments along with Lenovo, which leaves three of the top five manufacturers now in the Chinese camp. Xiaomi is the biggest mover to date, quadrupling their shipments over the past year. The fastest growing market on the planet for smartphones is currently in Africa and the Middle East so even though they are losing ground in China, Samsung could still make it up in those countries.
Web of possibility
Life, James Hein, Published on 19/11/2014
» A decade ago the PC was the primary way that millions of people, mostly running a Windows operating system, interacted with companies and applications. At that same time many used Microsoft Office for building documents and Internet Explorer was the browser king of the era after deposing Netscape.
A sexy new way to pay
Life, James Hein, Published on 05/02/2014
» Forget PayPal, what you really need is at least as The Register in the UK quaintly puts it "pay by bonk". Using the system, you knock your smartphone against another smartphone or device in a store to transfer funds from one account to another. A new payment system is also being planned at Apple, who wants to lead the near field communications (NFC) race. It will no doubt heavily feature the iTunes store (i.e. you pay money into your iTunes account and then use that to purchase items in the real world). This could essentially work like an iTunes-based debit card. Remember, however, that these NFC payment systems are also subject to those of a more unsavoury nature passing close to you and grabbing some cash for themselves. It is early days yet, but I expect that this will turn into a real issue. As for me, I bought myself a woven stainless steel wallet that acts as a Faraday cage. You could also just wrap it in tin foil, I suppose.
Google's Ingress to the real world
Life, James Hein, Published on 17/04/2013
» There is a new game for Android mobile users called Ingress. It is from Google and based on their popular Google Maps. The game requires you to get out of the lounge and into the real world. It is already being played in Bangkok but is in closed beta mode until the end of April. You'll need a Google+ Community account, sensible shoes, patience and time. You play on one of the two sides doing battle for control and if you want to know more go to www.ingress.com. I'm playing on the side of the Enlightened that is doing well in Bangkok but as I write this the Resistance is currently winning worldwide. Watch out for spies!
Microsoft developer troubleshooting woes
Database, James Hein, Published on 14/04/2010
» I don't believe that Microsoft understands developers and development environments. I was working my way through a training course on Visual Studio 2008. The course itself, from Total Training, was not too bad. The product covered both Visual Basic and C# programming languages in their examples. One plus for .NET apart from the syntax differences is that the coding was quite similar when it came to the .NET functions.