Category Archives: Uncategorized
Testing the new WordPress App
(UPDATE: Updating works well too!)
Normally when I need to add a post, adjust the layout, or generally manage this blog, I have to use a web browser to log into to the WordPress CMS (Content management System), a dashboard that lets me do all of the above and much more. It looks like this:
As you can see, there is a metric butt-load of options I have for managing the site, and each of the menu options on the left opens up a sub menu of even more options. It’s very flexible, though, and very useful.
I fear this guy’s right about VR
As everyone knows, ever since experiencing the Vive VR headset I have gone nuts over virtual reality and its potential. However there is one potential of VR that worries me, and worries me greatly, one that nobody seems to be discussing in any meaningful way, and that is its potential to isolate.
VR is a singularly individual experience, one that – as for now – can’t be shared with anyone else. People can watch you play a game on a TV, or even play with you making for a fun social experience. With VR, it’s all you. To be fair, there’s potential here as well, and some are already working on it in the form of a VR arcade where you and your friends, regardless of where they are, could be walking around in the same arcade, or you could all be watching a movie in the same virtual movie theater. That would be nice, but in my opinion it’s also mandatory that VR present social experiences that don’t restrict us to isolationist experiences. I’ve heard again and again that VR is better than real life, and that, coupled with its isolating nature, could, I believe, lead to some real problems.
(This picture is from the Futurama episode I Dated A Robot, and while only tangentially related it was the first thing that popped into my head when thinking about this post. I couldn’t let it go to waste!)
Don’t date robots!
If social capabilities can be incorporated, then it could be a real savior both for the technology and humanity. Being able to visit far off locations or ride rollercoasters with friends would quite fun, I assume. On the other hand, if we all end up alone and isolated, off in a virtual world, the implications could be staggering.
So why, after trumpeting the greatness of VR and how I can’t wait to detach from humanity am I offering this ominous warning? This whole post was predicated on a comment made regarding an Engadget story about VR and how it will change the world, and it struck me as perhaps one of the most insightful comments I’ve ever read, which in the sewer of online commentary is really saying something. Commenter GrangerFX viscerally voiced a concern that I would like to think we all have, at least in the backs of our minds, and reading what he wrote brought it to the forefront of mine. Frankly, the fact it received but a single upvote and no replies considering the immediate truth of its content is troubling. So without further ado, I will quit rabbiting on and let you soak in the wisdom, and fear, of the comment. His concern is a real possibility; let’s hope it doesn’t happen.
I own the second generation Oculus Rift dev kit but I hardly ever use it. There are some minor reasons for this like the lack of support for users with glasses, the soft highly scratch prone plastic lenses and the fact that I must reboot into Windows from my Mac to use it. There is also one major reason:
VR is too good. It is way too good. It is life changingly good. It is the type of thing that could suck away all your free time and shut you off from the world while you immerse yourself in the most realistic gaming experience of your life. I knew right away that if I did not stop immediately my productivity would be cut in half. We are talking full on tech addiction here.
One of the few times I used the Rift was as a demo when a friend of mine and his family came over. I ran a few of the most common demos like the rollercoaster. There was a line of people waiting to try it . These were not tech newbies. These were a tech industry executive and a drone builder and they stood in line to be blown away by the Oculus Rift. Their kids complained when they did not get to play it long enough.
Is VR the next big thing? Yes and you should be very afraid. When this technology hits the market, the GDP will drop noticeably.
Don’t let this happen, humanity
Oh Steam, you never let me down (except when you do)
As you all know, I gave up consoles a few years ago, and use Steam exclusively. If you’re not familiar with steam, it’s Valve’s digital distribution platform, the one that set the standard for the market and made founder and former Microsoft engineer Gabe Newell a billionaire. And not just any billionaire – he’s #307 on the “Forbes 400” list of richest people in the country.
But I digress. I have a powerful PC connected to a beautiful 4K (UHD, actually, they’re not the same) TV, a thingy that lets me connect a 360 controller and I use Steam’s Big Picture Mode.
It’s pretty nice, generally, and they’ve made significant improvements to the interface that make it even more usable with a controller. There is much easier access to game specifics, and more options from the Store page that bring it closer to the desktop client, not to mention they have really improved the input methods (hello, QWERTY keyboard!). The individual game screens offer easier access to game information, and the library has a nice, tiles look to it. The following picture shows the current, controller-friendly library interface taken from my very own machine.
Steam’s library interface
I’ve jumped into home recording
I have always adhered to the belief that because sound is analog, it should be recorded, stored, played back and heard as such. It is not meant to be digital, either in form or function, and I am glad to see that there has been a not-so recent resurgence in the vinyl album market as people begin to realize the shortcomings of digital music (or the advantages, if you do it right).
However, a couple of years ago, I went into a Maryland studio with my bandmates to record our latest opus, and was looking forward to what is always a soul-cleansing experience – creation. Taking a song that came from nothing and going through the recording process to create something tangible and permanent is one of the joys of my life. I never get tired of being in the studio, ever.
We had worked with our producer many times before over the last twenty years, from his humble beginnings with a small mixer to his current status as a world-renowned engineer and faculty member at Johns Hopkins’ Peabody Institute. Throughout those years we used many forms of storage for the recordings. We recorded to ADAT, SVHS (the latter dependent on the former and vice versa), even regular old cassette, all sorts of media that was considered the best at the time. Regardless, even though some like ADAT will claim they’re digital, the medium is not; it’s still magnetic tape.
A Life-Changing Experience
That’s me up there, mouth agape, experiencing the most incredible thing I’ve ever experienced: the HTC Vive VR headset.
I have been hearing about VR for some time now. And I don’t mean all those admirable yet misguided attempts in the 80s and 90s – remember VRML or the woefully under-appreciated Virtual Boy? No, those were far before technology was ready to handle the capabilities, potential and technical requirements of VR, and it clearly showed. But over the last few years, I have heard people who have exclaimed that current virtual reality experiences have to be seen to be believed, and that they are even better than real life.
Come on, now. Let’s all just relax.
At least that’s how I used to respond. However, after experiencing the HTC Vive at a demonstration offered at the University of California, Irvine, I can safely say it has finally arrived. And those people were right, my mouth-agape expression in the header image says it all: the experience was life-changing.
About the slow death of the Sony Vita
I don’t care. I really don’t. It might be dead, it might not, I just don’t care. As someone who loves the industry and wants to see it thrive on all fronts, that’s saying something.
I wanted to like the Vita, I really tried, but it never grabbed me the way the original PSP did. Now that was a system; great games all over the place, simple controls, UMDs (one of TWO proprietary formats on the device, but I loved them anyway) the effective XMB which it shared with the PS3, which led to an easy-to-use system, and it had interesting, fun games like epic RPG Ys or quirky music game Every Extend Extra, to the glorious re-release of PC Engine classic Castlevania: Dracula X – Rondo of Blood, formerly a Japan-only release.
They even had the surprisingly fun Snoopy vs. The Red Baron, for Pete’s sake. Please don’t forget about Pete!
And when I say I loved it, I mean it. Here’s the box of PSP games in my closet:
PSP Heaven
A new post!
It’s been a while, I know. I’ve been insanely busy in my pedagogical duties here at UC Irvine, however there is so much going on. We now won’t see any virtual reality headsets until Q1 2016, self driving cars are making great strides, or perhaps they’re not, drones are everywhere, from saving avocados to fighting wildfires, and Microsoft had their best product conference ever, which is at once not saying much and on the other hand saying quite a lot (really, if you missed it, you can watch it here; it gave me chills).
Oh, and machines (cats too but we already knew this) might kill us all.
Yet even if they do, what a time to be alive. Then dead. I’m more excited about the capabilities and the future of technology than I have been for a very long time. I’m even excited for the likely unfortunate lessons we’ll be forced to learn along the way. Such is the price of progress, however, and those willing to put themselves in the lion’s den are the ones who will move us further than we would have imagined even a few years ago.
Even so, I still feel that everyone should take a break from technology once in a while, don’t let it own you or control you. My students have to give it up for 24 hours and by and large they don’t like it. I understand where they’re coming from, but I also believe they need it, as do we all.
I’ll never run out of material to post here, there is so much going on. In addition to simply posting about whatever is going on in the world of tech, I’d even like to branch out into doing some reviews of whatever strikes my fancy (Games, hardware, software, devices, whatever), and I may even throw in the occasional music or movie review, relevant or otherwise. I have strong opinions about those as well!
In the meantime, here is an episode of Computer Chronicles detailing the state of virtual reality all the way back in the technological dark ages of 1992. This is hosted, along with many other episodes dating back to 1982(!) and an incredible collection of old software and games, on the glorious repository of old tech known as archive.org. In case you’d forgotten how great a time we’re living in, technologically speaking, this should give you the jolt you need.
There’s something happening here…
In 1967, Buffalo Springfield released a song titled “For What It’s Worth,” which is more well known by it’s subtitle and the first line of its chorus, “Stop, Hey, What’s that Sound.” True to cultural misinterpretation, it was a song about the glorious rock and roll subculture in L.A. at the time, however it is widely interpreted (or, more accurately, misinterpreted) as an anti-war protest song.
When it comes to the current state of this site, however, it is the first two lines of the song that are relevant: “There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear.” There is something stirring although I’m uncertain exactly what it is. I’ve updated the site name, the Twitter handle and some other things, but will I have what it takes to start making posts again? Celebrating the intersection of man, machine, and society as I have done so often in the past? I’m so insanely busy I don’t know if I have the time, never mind the wherewithal.
Even so, I’ve missed it and I’d like very much to slowly bring it back to life. We’ll see what happens; here’s hoping!
But it’s good to throw up another post, even if it doesn’t say much. In the meantime, for your viewing and listening pleasure, here is Buffalo Springfield performing “For What It’s Worth (Stop, Hey, What’s That Sound).”
It’s time for me to say farewell
As you may or may not know, after having taught at Nevada State for four years, and UNLV for nine years before that, I have accepted a position at the University of California, Irvine in their Informatics department, in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, which should be quite challenging and fun.
This blog, IS301.com, has been a lot fun to develop, maintain and author for, however its future is now up in the air. After all the time I have put in to developing it, and the personal affinity I have for it, I would be loathe to shut it down, so I will have to take some time and consider what to do with it. I may re-purpose it for my new endeavors at UCI, or simply continue it as a general tech blog (perhaps even with some contributors if I could find a few), or if it became too much or ended up neglected, I suppose I could give it a dignified, respectful death.
Whatever happens to this site, my time at Nevada State, my time at UNLV, and my time in Las Vegas has been glorious, an adventure for the ages, and I’m a better person because of it. I will always have ties to this area, I am keeping my house here, and I will be checking in to make sure my town is still doing ok.
Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the thousands of students who have passed through my classes and all the friends I have made, it has been a privilege to know you all, to teach at these wonderful institutions, and I am looking forward to the the next chapter.
And remember: Go out in to the world, do good, and be good.
My best regards to you all.
Spam is at a 12-year low!
Or 10-year low, depending on who you talk to. The BBC states it’s 12 years. Either way it’s still a promising sign, although that still means it’s 49.7%, however that’s the first time since 2003 it’s been at levels under 50%.
It appears all email-based attacks including phishing emails, 419 scams (also known as Nigerian prince scams), fake products scams, and others have all fallen.
The reason for this is a concerted effort by private companies and governments to bring down botnets, which are networks of compromised machines – known as bots – that are used to send spam emails. We’ll learn all about all of this in our final class.
Curiously enough, Microsoft of all companies has been a leader in bringing down these networks. Whether working with U.S. Marshals to bring down the Zeus malware botnet, or the spam behemoth Rustock, or working with Symantec to shut down the Bamital botnet, which would corrupt users’ search results and direct them to malicious websites. Other times it just works on its own.
One thing to keep in mind about the reduction in spam overall, is that criminals aren’t going away, they are merely shifting their attentions elsewhere, mainly to malware; that’s software that does something bad. Keyloggers, drive-by downloads, Flash embeds, spam isn’t doing it for them anymore so they are developing new methods of attack. None of this means you can be less vigilant, if anything you should be moreso, be sure your anti-virus software is up to date, and be careful what you click on or agree to.
