Technology

My predictions for Apple announcements next week

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is next week and as usual in both Apple fandom and the media, everyone is trying to predict what Apple is going to announce. I pay pretty close attention to Apple and have done so for the past 25 years so here are my predictions for what we’ll see at WWDC:

 
1. New iPhone operating system, which we’ve already seen, will be given a ship date. I think we’ll also see some more new features demonstrated, including video.
 
2. New iPhone hardware is also a given. We’ll see larger capacity models at 16GB and 32GB, video-capable camera which will also do higher resolution stills, and a compass to go with GPS (so it will know what direction you’re facing in addition to where you are). I don’t think we’ll see an FM transmitter or receiver, to cite another of the more common prediction. Form factor/design will get minor updates, nothing dramatic.
 
3. iPhone ship date will be just before the release of the new iPhone software.
 
4. OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which has already been announced, will be reviewed and developers will get a close-to-final beta. I don’t think it will ship until the 4th quarter, probably September.
 
5. The mythical iPod touch tablet, i.e. an iPod touch in a larger form like a tablet computer. Less confident about this, but if Apple does announce it, it will be just to show it so iPhone app developers can begin modifying their apps to work with the larger screen and form factor. We’d see a new version of the iPhone App development software.
 
6. No new iMacs or Mac Pros or minis or AppleTV or iPods or Macbook Pros. We might see new aluminum Macbooks since the low-end white plastic Macbook now has better specs than the low-end aluminum Macbook at a lower price. That won’t last long.
 
7. One More Thing: The keynote is being given by a team of Apple executives, but at the end one of them will say the now-infamous phrase “One More Thing.” Steve Jobs will walk out to thunderous applause from the audience and return to his duties at the company.

So that’s my list. How will I do? It’s anybody’s guess since Apple has a track record of doing the unexpected. But I feel like I’ve struck a middle ground between the extremes of predictions I’ve seen so far. Let me know what you think you’ll see.

Photo credit: Flickr.com user Steve - Boston,Ma. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Geeky is the new #000000

I couldn’t believe no one had thought of this t-shirt idea before. So of course I had to create it myself. You can buy it in many style at my best-kept secret, the Bettnet store.

Boston College Police to Mac, Linux users: We’re watching you

Linux and Mac-using students at Boston College should watch out. Apparently, using those two operating systems—which have command-line prompts and are not the “regular B.C. operating system”—is a sign of criminal intent. That’s what we’re to believe after Boston College Campus Police seized a student’s laptop computer and other electronic gear in a hunt for the person who identified another student as gay on a mailing list, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The warrant used for the seizure of the student’s possessions says the police are seeking evidence of the crimes of “Obtaining computer services by Fraud or Misrepresentation” and “Unauthorized access to a computer system.” And yet, according to the EFF, the cited behavior in the warrant application is laughably broad and contains no specific allegations that would constitute criminal behavior.

There are no assertions that a commercial (i.e. for pay) commercial service was defrauded, a necessary element of any “Obtaining computer services by Fraud or Misrepresentation” allegation. Similarly, the investigating officer doesn’t explain how sending an e-mail to a campus mailing list might constitute “unauthorized access to a computer system.”

Of course, we might surmise that the real crime here is the outing of a student as gay, a politically incorrect move to be sure no matter whether the student was actually gay, although an article in the campus newspaper BC Heights leads one to believe that this is a standard case of two roommates who just didn’t get along, each one determined to make life hell for the other. If you’ve ever lived in college with a random stranger, you probably know what that’s like.

Yet, the greater issue is the equation of Mac or Linux use or the use of a bash shell with potential criminal behavior. Looks like someone at the BC police, the Mass. State Police, and the Middlesex DA need to get a little more familiar with the wide world of computing. And Mac users, Linux users, and all computer science majors at BC need to watch out!

Photo credit: Flickr.com user 96dpi. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Boston Herald hunts Craigslist

Many analysts say one of the causes of the decline of the newspaper industry has been Craigslist, which has co-opted what once one of the most profitable parts of the newspaper business, classified advertising.

Well, some time ago the Boston Herald decided it wasn’t going to take this lying down. Every time there’s a crime story with any kind of hook to Craigslist, the Herald plays it up. If someone sells something online and they get robbed by the buyer, the headline will scream, “Craigslist!” If police clean out a nest of prostitutes using a local hotel to meet johns, the Herald headline will note that the trysts were arranged through Craigslist.

Of course, before the ‘List was a gleam in Craig Newmark’s eye, criminals were setting up dupes with fake offers to buy through newspaper classified and ladies of the evening were peddling themselves through ads in “alternative” newspapers and magazines, so this isn’t a problem unique to Craigslist. But that doesn’t matter to the Herald, which is fighting tooth and nail for its very survival. It doesn’t mind getting into the gutter with its rival, unlike the well-coiffed and oh-so-proper other newspaper in town, the Globe.

Thus it didn’t surprise me this morning to see the front page of today’s Herald blasting in huge type: “Cops hunt Craigslist killer”. The “Craigslist killer.” Oh, you know that the paper’s editors are hoping that the sobriquet sticks. And they offer not one, but four articles in the paper today about the heinous crime, including one profiling “escorts” advertising on Craigslist who are now in fear for their lives.

This is indeed a tragic crime, but apparently the Herald isn’t above making sure its mortal enemy gets shackled to the criminal who committed it.

N.B. Don’t get me wrong. I much prefer the Herald to its pretentious rival on Morrissey Boulevard. It’s the one newspaper I subscribe to and I find its editorial focus much more compatible with my own outlook. I’m just pointing out that the Herald doesn’t have pure motives here.

Photo credit: Flickr.com user AntyDiluvian. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Friend me!

I sometimes forget that while I find myself writing and hanging out in many corners of the Internet, many of my friends only know this blog. Yet, there are several social media sites where I’m much more “present” than here at Bettnet these days, mainly for the quick, slice-of-life thoughts and moments. And I know that many of you have found me in those places, but many have not.

So occasionally I will post here to remind you where else you may read my musings if you so desire:

 
• Bettnetlog: My tumblog where interesting links and an aggregation of material from other places I visit ends up.
 
• Twitter
 
• Facebook: I’ve friended a lot of people there. I’ve found it a great way to re-connect with people I’ve lost touch with.
 
• Plurk: Plurk is like Twitter but with a twist. Conversations are much easier here than on Twitter. Lots of Catholics here.
• Delicious: A bookmarking service where I save links to interesting stuff online
• Friendfeed: Another place that aggregates my online presence, but it’s more wide-ranging and it also includes commenting.

So if you’d like to friend/subscribe on any or none of those sites, please feel free. Of course, I’ll still be posting here with about the same regularity as I’ve been posting.

Lighthouse Catholic Media update

Back in August I wrote about my frustration with Lighthouse Catholic Media, a Catholic apostolate that distributes CDs of talks by popular Catholic authors and others. Read that short post to see what I was dealing with, but the gist is that they would not stop sending me their sales and marketing emails despite my repeated entreaties.

I believe I was extremely patient with them, waiting literally over a year before taking the final step, which was to write my blog post. Only then, when I had publicly exposed their behavior did I get a response. Finally they sent me a check for the small affiliate money I’d earned in the brief time I’d been an affiliate plus a bunch of CDs and a book I hadn’t asked for. they also requested that I take down the original blog post. I refused, on the grounds that nothing I’d said was untrue, that it reflected my experience, and that others who might be thinking of doing business with them should have the whole picture. They repeatedly made efforts to contact me and today I received a phone call—while I was at work no less—from the company’s president.

He accused me of slander, to which I responded that as a former journalist I know the definition of slander and this does not fit. Then he said that as a Christian I had to forgive. I told him that I do forgive him, but that doesn’t mean he gets to sweep this under the rug and make it disappear. He complained that there are plenty of anti-Catholics out there trying to undermine Catholic apostolates and that Catholics shouldn’t do it to one another. I responded that that he shouldn’t give cause for complaint then. He retorted that my is the only complaint online out of all the hundreds of plaudits they’ve received. So I asked why then does he care what one Catholic blogger says out. Mine is but one opinion and anyone looking online for information about his company will see my one comment amid the sea of others. Heck, he should look up my name and see the nasty stuff people have written about me.

In the end I agreed only to update the original blog post to reflect the fact that they finally heeded my requests and stopped emailing and that I have not received any further emails from them.

Lighthouse doesn’t have to win my trust back because I have no desire to interact with them. They’re not on my radar anymore. But if they want to ensure that my lone blog post doesn’t affect their efforts let them earn it back among those who would write compliments on other blogs and sites. Let them prove me wrong in the marketplace of ideas, not by badgering me to make my blog post disappear.

What Band are You Meme!

We all love memes, right? Well, even if you don’t (and I don’t love all of them), this one was kidn of fun. It’s the Band and Album meme.

 
1. Band Name: Random Wikipeda Link
 
2. Album Title: Random quote generator (take the last four words from the first quote on the page)
 
3. Album Art: Flickr Interesting Photo (pick one)

Here’s what I came up with for Band Name, Album Title (“It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.” (H. L. Mencken). I cheated a little to make it fit), and Album Art.

And the album cover:

The meme comes from The Catholics Next Door

As if barbershop quartet were not nerdy enough…

... How about a Star Trek barbershop quartet?

And yet I love it!

[via GeekDad]

3 Days, 3038 Photos

3 Days - 3,038 Photos from Robbie on Vimeo.

This is a fun video compiled from over 3,000 photos taken in a 3 day span in and around Boston. Nothing profound, but a very cool use of technology. Since this was taken with a digital SLR, the end result is effectively High Definition video, so click through to the Vimeo site for the full effect.

The new iPod touch software changes everything

A few months ago, I purchased an iPod touch to replace my old broken iPod. What sets the touch apart is the applications it can run next to the music functions. In fact, it was essentially an iPhone without the phone or built-in camera and it was indeed quite spiffy.

But when the new iPhone 3G was released in mid-July, Apple also released an update to the operating system that runs the older iPhone and iPod touch too. Among the improvements, the biggest was the opening of the device to third-party applications. Suddenly there was a whole world of new functionality available. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it’s like a whole new device. Let me give you some examples, based on programs I’ve downloaded from the store. I will point out that a very large proportion of what’s available in Apple’s iTunes AppStore is free and of the apps I’ve purchased, most have been less than $5 and only one was $19.

The app of most interest to my Catholic readers would be the Universalis Catholic Calendar. From the fine folks who brought you the Universalis web site, which gives you the Mass readings and Divine Office readings every day, the Catholic Calendar is a free app that tells you the feast or memorial of the day, and a brief biography of the saint or saints for the day. Apart from offering customization for the English-speaking country you live in, as well as any provincial peculiarities, that’s about it. Nice, but not earth-shattering.

However, if you’re willing to pony up $32.99, then you can get the full Universalis app, which gives you all the Mass readings, all the Liturgies of the Hours, all the Offices of Readings, everything! If you’ve ever seen the multi-volume breviary plus a daily Missal, then you know how compact this is. Plus, they do all the organizing of the different sections for you, so there’s no more page-flipping, back and forth, and no more rushing out to buy the little calendar update at the end of the year. While $33 may sound like a lot for an iPhone app, I may be working this into my budget in the future.

Helping me get things done

Another indispensable app on my iPod is Omnifocus. This is a companion to the desktop version of the productivity and task management software based on the principles of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” book. Some reviewers have called it complex, but I’ve been able to fit it into my workflow. The nice thing about the iPod app is that it synchronizes with the desktop app over wifi, which means it happens on a regular schedule, not just when I connect the iPod’s cable.

Now, if I had an iPhone it would have another amazing ability: location-awareness. One of the principles of GTD is that when you record your “next-actions”, you put them in a context, which is the place or situation you need to do them. For example, office, home, grocery store, client A, client B, and so on. The theory is that when you’re in a particular context you can do all the appropriate next-actions, regardless of the project they’re attached to. Since the iPhone has a built-in GPS, it knows where you are. You can imagine the possibilities for that! Imagine going into the grocery store and Omnifocus presenting you with your grocery list. Or you’re at the mall, and it shows you the five items you needed in three different stores. Or you go to your doctor’s office for a check-up and it presents a list of all the questions you’ve been meaning to ask him.

While the iPod touch doesn’t have GPS, Apple’s iPhone OS can triangulate location based on known Wifi hotspots as well. It does pretty well for my home and office so that’s nice. Plus, I can now record new tasks and projects right into my Omnifocus as they occur to me; I don’t have to be sitting at my computer.

Another “like magic” set of apps are those that provide streaming music. While iPods have always let you carry your music around with you, now with an Internet connection (always-on for iPhones or when around WiFi networks for iPod touches) you can get streaming music from a variety of sources. The free Pandora Radio connects you to the excellent Pandora web application that plays music for you based on how you train it regarding your likes and dislikes. The iPhone app will play that same music for you without requiring a computer. Who needs a radio?

Streaming music

And if you want to hear the music you’ve already purchased on CD or via online music stores, there’s the awesome Simplify Media (also free). First, you download the free desktop client from the Simplify Media site (available for Mac, PC, and Linux). Then you launch it, create a free account, and point it at your iTunes software. Then on the iPhone/iPod launch the client and enter your account info and your entire iTunes library appears. This is great for me since I only have an 8GB iPod, while my music library is over 31GB. Now, when I’m near an open WiFi hotspot, I can listen to anything in my library, not just what I’ve fit on the iPod.

I haven’t even touched on Simplify Media’s other function, which is that it will let you listen to streaming iTunes music from up to 30 of your friends as well!

I could go on and on—I haven’t even touched on the fun, little games to keep me occupied, for example, while waiting in line—but you get the idea. What the new iPhone and iPod capabilities show is that this is no mere PDA or smartphone, but a whole, new computer platform that opens up a whole world of possibilities. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

Catholic World News enters a new era

Catholic World News is dead. Long live Catholic World News… as the all new Catholic Culture project! A couple of years ago Trinity Communications, the company behind Catholic Culture—and longtime provider of CWN’s technical infrastructure—purchased Catholic World News from Philip Lawler, editor and publisher. And now, they’re taking CWN to the next level by incorporating it into Catholic Culture.

This has particular significance for me since I was there at the beginning of CWN and worked alongside Phil for 9 years. I even created the first iteration of CWN’s web site back in 1997! But now CWN is no more, except as a header for a section on the Catholic Culture site.

But that’s okay, because the new Catholic Culture site is great! Phil and Trinity have taken the best part of CWN—the insightful and knowledgeable commentary—and expanded it while preserving the parts no one else was doing as well, including breaking Catholic news and providing links to the breadth and depth of coverage of issues and news of interest to Catholics.

Under the News section are Feature Stories, which is the original reporting CWN is known for, and NewsPlus Stories (the old “NewsBytes”), now with added commentary to give context for other media outlets’ coverage. Under Commentary, you’ll find commentary and analysis by Phil, Jeff Mirus, and others; the Catholic Culture blog, where Phil and Jeff write brief bits; Off the Record, where our old friend Diogenes continues to hold court; Catholic Culture Insights, the archives of Jeff’s weekly email newsletter; Letters to the Editor; and Sound Off, which is the combox for the various articles. The Culture section holds most of what was the old Catholic Culture site, including reviews, information on the liturgical year, the text of the Catechism, the Catholic dictionary, and so on. Best of all there are a bunch of new RSS feeds for keeping track of all this great information.

Keep in mind that the site is still in beta, so there will be occasional glitches, but I’m excited by the promise we see here. Oh, and did I mention that the former pay service is now free, although they are now donor supported. Which means you better feel a moral obligation to support this excellent apostolate if you receive benefit from it, just as much as you would if it were still a mandatory subscription.

I’m happy to see CWN grow and expand into a whole new and promising form of Catholic news and analysis site. Bravo to Phil, Jeff, Peter, and the whole gang at Trinity!

Stay away from Lighthouse Catholic Media

Update 12/9/08: At the request of LCM’s president I am updating this post to inform any interested person that following the posting of this entry (and only after) I was contacted by LCM and assured that my emails were purged from every database and that they were sending me a check for my affiliate earnings. Of course, to add insult to injury I received yet another email after that fact from a regional sales manager who was keeping a separate database, which I told them is part of the flaw in their business model. I have not received another unsolicited email from them in about 4 months.

Some time ago I responded to an email offer to bloggers from a group called Lighthouse Catholic Media. They sell CDs containing talks from noted Catholic speakers and to expand their business they were offering a portion of sales to bloggers who placed LCM ads on their blogs. I did so because I thought it would be a win-win: readers get good Catholic content and I get financial support for the blog. Unfortunately, that financial support never materialized—I don’t think I got a single affiliate payment—and then the other side of LCM became apparent.

Lighthouse Catholic Media operates like a multi-level marketing scheme that just won’t let go. They send a constant stream of emails with strategies for selling and how to increase sales and how to market to all your friends and neighbors and fellow parishioners and pastor, etc. There are constant invitations to regional call-in sales meetings and state call-in sales meetings and local call-in sales meetings. It’s like “Glen Garry Glen Ross” with the cursing.

And no matter how many times I’ve asked them to stop emailing me, how many times I’ve politely informed them that I no longer wish to take part, no matter how many times I’ve firmly ordered them to stop or I will report them to their Internet Service Provider as a spammer, they. Won’t. Stop. Emailing. Me!

So they’ve asked for it. I’m now exposing them as the slimy Internet spammers they are who seem to be more interested in the number of sales they can make and how much money they can earn over the content of their “Catholic” CDs. Their attitude clearly shows they could just as easily be peddling real estate CDs or little cans of SPAM for all their attention they give to, you know, the Gospel.

My advice: Stay away from Lighthouse “Catholic” Media. they are a sleazy outfit I would trust with my credit card and would not enrich in any way.

Small world

Talk about your small world. I just found out today that a fellow on Twitter who follows me is the son of good friend from church. The guy, Marc, starting following me a few weeks ago. He and his wife live in Salem and he’s a web developer, so I decided to follow him back as it’s nice to get to know new people. Today, he put up a link to photos of his one-year-old daughter at her birthday being held by his dad. So I click on the link—I’m a sucker for baby daughter photos—and, lo and behold, his dad is my friend Paul and then I see his wife, my friend Kris. (Who also reads this blog; Hi Kris!) What are the odds?

Melanie talks about similar small-world encounters, like her friend Betsy who is also a reader of my blog who suddenly, one day, realized that the Melanie I was talking about marrying was her friend Melanie.

It’s funny that I seem to have these types of encounters a lot. It really is a small world.

Photo credit: bass nroll at Flickr.com. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic license.

Oldest copy of the Bible now available on online

Ten years ago when I was telling people about the Internet and how the Vatican was setting up a web site, an image I often used to described the promise of this new medium was that of access to previously difficult-to-access information. I would point out that the Vatican’s libraries hold ancient manuscripts, including millennia-old copies of the Bible, that only very few accredited scholars would ever get to see and wait until the day those manuscripts are imaged and put online for anyone in the world to see at their own computers.

That day has come.

The British Library has announced that it will make the complete Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest, most complete Bible in the world dating from around 350 AD, available online for the first time and all in once piece for the first time in decades. The Codex Sinaiticus, so named because it was discovered in St. Catherine Monastery on Mount Sinai in 1844, has been divided in pieces almost from the time of the discovery, with large sections being held in Britain; Leipzig, Germany; and St. Petersburg, Russia. As of Thursday, high-resolution images of 100 pages will be available at www.codex-sinaiticus.net and the rest will be added over the next year.

Think of what this will mean for scholarship of all kinds. Whereas research on rare or precious documents used to be limited to those with access and the ability to travel to far-flung places, now scholars and non-scholars will be able to get a better view of the document than even if they were physically present. (You’d never be allowed to actually touch such a precious treasure.)

The Saint Song