Showing 1 - 10 of 14
What's in a name? On the net, who knows
Database, James Hein, Published on 03/03/2010
» How much can you trust an Internet Domain? When you go to, say, http://www.reliableshopping. com, how much can you find out about it? Theoretically when a domain is registered it should have information on who did so. You can use tools like http://www.whois.net to do a quick check. In the case of the site above, I found it is owned by godaddy.com. Trying http://www.internic.net to look it up found even less info, but I did ascertain that the domain will expire soon.
Farewell to two decades of navigating the currents
Database, James Hein, Published on 05/01/2011
» I had written and submitted this article before I heard the news. The Bangkok Post is reorganising its publication and Post Database is all but vanishing in the new format. So as far as I know this will be my last article as 'Currents' is one of those that will vanish in the reorganisation.
Uploading pics? Strip out hidden data
Life, James Hein, Published on 12/06/2013
» So there you are at the park near your home. You take a few snaps of your children and post them on Facebook or another social media site. A few days later there's a show at the kids' school, so you take a few more snaps and also post them online. If you're using a modern camera or a smartphone then the photos will contain a lot of information. Time, location, camera type and other bits and pieces will be coded into the snaps. Anyone could grab the pictures and start building a profile of where you live, where your children go to school and where they go to play. You can change what info is captured. Depending on the model of your iPhone you will find the settings under General/Location Services on the older iPhones or Settings/Privacy/Location Services in the newer ones. For Android devices, open Camera and change the GEO tagging setting under Menu. If you want to keep your location private, then you need to turn Geocoding off. Another option is a free product like Pixel Guard that you can find at pixelgarde.com. You can use this to strip all that hidden information from your photos before you post them.
Flash in the pan
Life, James Hein, Published on 21/08/2013
» As you might imagine, companies that make flash drives are working on making them faster, have them last longer and keeping the prices down. At a recent Flash Memory Summit in California a Facebook representative was urging them to "just make it dense and cheap". His reasoning is that there are some types of information that don't need fast access speeds such as logs, usage metrics and even some user data that they hardly ever access. How many photos have people uploaded that they looked at once and are now stored in memory bytes somewhere? "Write-once, read-never is probably the spec for a lot of this," the rep suggested. In other news, there is such a thing as a Flash Memory Summit.
Microsoft operating way behind
Life, James Hein, Published on 10/12/2014
» Remember that prediction from last week about the Microsoft mobile operating system taking over? According to Huawei, Windows Phone has never been a good option for hardware partners; it has not made any money with this platform. One problem appears to be the issue of independent development for this platform resulting in high R&D costs. To be fair to Microsoft, they have been all but giving the OS away in recent times to entice device manufacturers to adopt their platform but usability is still an issue for some. Microsoft has also had some wins at the lower end of the market with the newer Lumina range. The problem is that by the time things get up to the higher end of the market, dominated by Apple and Android devices, Microsoft cannot compete. There is a new version of the OS due out but unless this is somehow magnificent for consumers and developers, Microsoft will be facing the same issues.
At last, it's a new version of Linux
Life, James Hein, Published on 04/03/2015
» Linus Torvalds has decided it is time to release version 4.0 of the Linux kernel. For some this will make sense, but here's some background for the rest you who may have heard the term Linux but may not know what it is all about.
In the right domain
Life, James Hein, Published on 29/07/2015
» How important is picking the right website name or URL? I have been involved in the website selection process a number of times and it is an interesting exercise. If, for example, you have a company name like Dritzz then you are probably not going to have many problems finding a domain like www.dritzz.com, which incidentally currently does not exist.
Samsung: Wannabe Apple Corp
Life, James Hein, Published on 26/08/2015
» I recently spent a week roughly south of Buri Ram in the Northeast. I was far enough away that my AIS SIM could not reliably pick up data and it was an interesting feeling to be disconnected for such a time. There are now apparently psychological conditions being defined for those who feel a lack of continuous connectivity but for my part at least it was a short enough time to be a novel experience. It did highlight just how much those who are part of the modern world rely on connectivity for news and contact. When I was younger we thought nothing of waiting a few weeks for a reply to a written letter. These days some feel put out if they don’t get a reply within a few seconds.
Apple versus Samsung: It's a battle of the 8s
Life, James Hein, Published on 27/09/2017
» The big news from the usual sources is the new iPhone 8. After reading some of the specs and comparisons with the Samsung S8 and Note 8, I am a bit confused. Reviewers crow about facial recognition for the new iPhone, but the S8 range already has it. They go on about the edge-to-edge screen, but Samsung has had that for a few models now. In fact, almost point by point the Samsung range already has all the features of the iPhone 8 but at a lower price point, and that's before the Note 8 comes out.
Facebook guilty, Huawei continues to claim innocence
Life, James Hein, Published on 13/03/2019
» I've been thinking about the new foldable phones. For many years, I have been hoping for a foldable e-book that has, to date, not materialised in a form I'd want to buy. There is something about the traditional book format that is familiar and comfortable. The first releases of foldable phones are aimed at those with lots of spare cash and who want to dip their fingers into the technology. These buyers form a baseline for the manufacturers to build on. I see this as testing the waters and I expect to see Apple jump into the market in the near future, as they have a bucket load of patents for similar technologies.