Friendly Technology.........

Amazed by My First Cross Continent Skype Call

As happily often happens with technology, I have seen the future. Let me tell you, it looks very very good for everyone but the traditional phone companies.

Over the course of 2004, I heard many things about a program called Skype. Skype allows you to voice chat over the Internet. Now, there is nothing completely new about that - there have been and continue to be a lot of different voice chat programs.

But Skype, people told me,  offers such amazing voice quality - better than a phone call.  And it is free - computer to computer.

And I now I can confirm this is true. I just had the great pleasure of speaking to a gentleman named Mark Zober in Israel over Skype. We are both Rotary Club members and I found Mark through a listing of Rotarians who are Internet enthusiasts and who use Skype. We had a great half hour chat.

I am still pretty stunned about the quality of the connection. It was flawless. This, I feel will, makes voice chat easier to use for those who aren't techies.

I am still wondering what the telephone companies are going to do about this. Soon, those with the most demand for long distance and who must bring the telephone companies much revenue - these people are going to abandon regular phone service and uses services like Skype.

I have written before about my Vonage phone - another Internet based phone service.

As I was mentioning to Mark, truly disruptive.

1989 Internet Code of Ethics

A couple of interesting conversations I enjoyed today:

at a lunch meeting with Grant Robertson from MediaWave Online, Grant suggested that our local technology industry association adopt a code of ethics to which association members commit to  adhere. I think this help our customers have greater confidence that they are dealing with ethical companies.  Buying technology related products and services can be confusing at the best of times,  we want to make it as good an experience as possible.

Later, while giving a talk to the Kamloops Brain Injury Association, some staff members voiced concern about the ethics of people who would send fake emails that look like official emails from a bank and the morals of people would prey on children in online chat rooms. Well, there some very sick and bad people out there folks. The Internet makes it harder to avoid them.

I started looking for Internet and technology related codes of ethics and conduct. Found this one from way back in 1989. The last paragraph is particularly good, in my humble opinion:

In the final analysis, the health and well-being of the Internet is the
   responsibility of its users who must, uniformly, guard against abuses
   which disrupt the system and threaten its long-term viability

Friendly Receipt Scanner?

From Engadget:

a portable scanner called the NeatReceipts that can scan your receipts and software that will automatically recognize and export the data into QuickBooks, Quicken, MS Money Excel or as a PDF

This product sound useful for many people. Read more and be sure to read the comments as well (lots of interesting tidbits there).

The Pain of Updating Windows...

It is very important to make sure to be on top of all the various security updates that Microsoft releases for Window. Same goes for updates Apple puts out for their computers. Same goes for any program actually.

The problem: Updates can sometimes cause problems - big ones. Ironic, isn't it. For example, my unscientific survey of clients and other friends who updated to Windows XP Service Pack 2 was that probably one in five had some hassle and one in ten had mucho major problems.

Window XP Service Pack 2 does provide better security and thus I believe every Windows XP should update to Service Pack 2.

Steve Bass provides a lot of useful help to do this (or even if you have done this) in a recent column at PC World.

An Unexpected Question about Blogging

I am often conflicted when thinking about if I should talk about blogs and blogging in presentations that I give. Yesterday, I spoke to the Kamloops Chapter of the Certified General Accountants association. In every talk I give to non techies, my goal is to pass on information that can be immediately useful - tips and tricks that attendees should  be able to take to their homes and office and implement right away.

The question that I always ask myself about blogs in this context: are blogs immediately useful?

I  would say no because a blog requires a lot of commitment, especially in a business setting.  If you commit to blogging as a way of communication and interaction. over time, a blog often has huge benefits. But, you need to understand the work and time involved.

In any case, I should rework my presentation content criteria to talk about some less immediately valuable but long term huge technologies.

New Version of Picasa Free Image Album Software

Back in August 2004, I wrote a favourable review of Google's Picasa image organizing software. Picasa did have some other useful basic editing features as well. Just read on Metafilter that a new version of Picasa is now out - Picasa 2.

I haven't installed it yet but it now offers the ability to create photo CDs right from the program menu bar. ALso new, the ability to write captions and do a lot more editing.

The main attraction of Picasa is that it is a free product which has as many features as some of the for pay offerings that do similar things.

I'll try and offer a more detailed recommendation once I have played with the new version a bit.

The Best Cell Phone Person I know

Cherie Rensing has come to my rescue once again. Cherie runs a couple of PCS Wireless Telus Mobility stores in Kamloops and is in the process of opening up more stores in other parts of the Interior of BC. She has always been a great friend in the confusing world of cell phones with all the different plans and options.

I left my charger for my cell phone in Vancouver, on a trip out of town. My cell phone is ancient but Cherie, no questions asked, found and loaned me a charger.

And I am not even a Telus subscriber. Want to be because want to go with Cherie. But, want to keep my present phone number. Hope number portability comes soon!

Cool Keyboard / Organizer Combo

Hat tip to Jeff Sandquist:

 

"I heard about the keyboard organizer last night and it was one of those “Why didn’t I think of that ideas?”

I love a clean desk, I can’t think with lots of clutter, but there always seems to be a CD, a notepad or a pencil laying around. This here wold be the answer for me."

Great Tech Tip Web Sites

I am going to start pointing to tech gurus who inspire me. There is a lot of really good stuff online that deals with similar issues as Friendly Technology (the blog you are on). Two sites today:

Chalk TV: I really admire David Chalk and Mike Agerbo. The quality of their TV show is just amazing. Non techies who want to figure how technology can add real value can access past shows on this web site AND interact with others through the Chalk TV online forums. Awesome stuff!

Alice and Bill: Just discovered Alice and Bill's site. They have tons of journalistic experience in technology, but also seem to have a great grassroots ethic. Here is a snippet from their "about" page:

Tech blogs were furiously covering gadgets and gizmos and new products from Japan, and the mainstream tech sites were diligently doing product reviews and news items, but no one was really sitting in the middle and bringing the best of both worlds to one place.

An Inevitable Change to How We Rent Movies...

If I were a betting man, I would be anyone that the modern day video store will largely disappear within 10 years. Everytime I go to rent movies, I get annoyed at the needless efficiency. Walking among rows and rows of shelves, scanning boxes. Being 6ft 4, I often find it hard to examine the boxes on the bottom shelves. I pretty soon loose hope that I am going to find the movie I most want to see.

Imagine this instead: I walk into the video store, except now its been transformed into a plush, high end coffee shop.  sink into an easy chair and browse or search for movies in an electronic catalogue. I can scan titles much like I did when I had to walk the floor or I can search for (very) particular groups of movies.

Maybe take away the video store and consider this. Through you cable or satellite tv service, I could browse through or search a huge amount of movie titles right from my living room. After choosing what I want to see, I just press a button to pay and the movie starts immediately on my tv screen.

All this technology is here today. It needs a little more time to entirely flesh out. I will be excited to see it all come together.