Kjell Gunnar Bleivik First version 05.11.2011
Last updated 06.10.2011 Status: Will be updated with additional information.
It is well known that it is possible to develope professional sites with WordPress without
knowing HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP (the main technology driving the project). Of course,
it is an advantage to know these technologies, so you can tweak third party themes, and make
your own themes, plugins etc. With WordPress 3.* it has become easier to develope multi blogs,
WordPress eCommerce sites and professional company blogs. In 2011 most bigger companies have a
business blog where they can communicate with the public, not least for managing the company's
reputation. Reputation management is very important in the digital age when a negative story can
spread globally in minutes. Being able to instantly communicate with the world via a blog, can
be an invaluable tool in killing a developing fire.
In addition, much of the work on search engine optimization is done for you by default on the WordPress platform.
But the fastest development seem to happen around developing solutions, applications, themes and
plugins for mobile platforms like the iPhone and the iPad. Turning your site into an iPhone
application is now reduced to locating the correct theme and / or plugin and install it in the
WordPress DashBoard via a few mouse clicks. Read more on my forum under the heading:
WordPress
on mobile platforms.
That forum also describes in detail, in the WordPress sub forum, how you shall set up your WordPress test or development server. If you want to make your own themes and plugins, that is almost a necessity.
Kjell Gunnar Bleivik First version 01.19.2011
Last updated 01.19.2011 Status: Will be updated with additional information.
In another article on this page, we have mentioned that Smart Phones are not smart in the sence you
think. A smart phone is a computer with security like a computer 20 years ago. So the risk of
downloading software - applications - to your smart phone is at least as risky as downloading software
to your computer. What you may not be aware of is that such software can act like a trojan and send
inforamtion like your contacts etc. back to the applications producer or their ad networks. A well know application,
Angry Birds
is a puzzle video game that send location data to trackers.
Few devices know more personal details about people than the smartphones in their pockets: phone
numbers, current location, often the owner's real name—even a unique ID number that can never be
changed or turned off.
Source: Wall Street Journal December 17, 2010 -
Your Apps Are Watching You
So the problem is that most people don't know what your application send back to the tracker. The
application can send location, age, zip code, gender and other personal details to outsiders. In adition,
an application can hack your contacts and track which applications the user uses (download) and how they are used.
This information can be and are sold to ad networks. User information and behaviour are central tags in this new business. Who
is responsible for this information? Serious software producers will tell you which information the
application track - unserious will not. If that is described in the handbook or a user manual, that is far from a guarantee that
the user reads it. Google, the producer of the Android operating system,
says app makers "bear the responsibility for how they handle user information.
Apple has signaled that it has ideas for targeting people more closely. In a patent application
filed this past May, Apple outlined a system for placing and pricing ads based on a person's "web
history or search history" and "the contents of a media library." For example, home-improvement
advertisers might pay more to reach a person who downloaded do-it-yourself TV shows, the document
says.
Source: Wall Street Journal December 17, 2010 -
Your Apps Are Watching You
A pantent based on
a system for placing and pricing ads based on a person's "web history or
search history".
Is this a system for the sovereign or the naive consumer? Where are
the limits of privacy? Where is it in different countries? Is there (international) law that can
handle conflicts and cases in court?
See also: Is your smart phone really smart?
Kjell Gunnar Bleivik First version 01.06.2011
Last updated 01.14.2011 Status: Will be updated with additional information.
According to the Las Vegas CES 2011 Microsoft Windows 8
will be ARM powered and can run on mobile platforms
like iPad, iPod and iPhone smart phones - in all more than 200 platforms. There is an explosion of
internet connected products - among other things Tv's. ThreeD Tv "without glasses" and ThreeD cam coders
were also presented on the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow in Las Vegas. With the new
foccus on ARM chips, Intel and AMD will get increased competition. For more information see:
-
PCMag: Next Generation of Windows Will Run on ARM
-
Yahoo News: Windows 8 on ARM Expands Microsoft's Mobile Horizons
-
CES: Wintel Hegemony is Over, Next Windows to Run on ARM Processors
The important thing we should be watching is how apps might transform the Web from an "open"
environment to a "closed" environment. That kind of shift is exactly what large corporations want
and need to exploit the full income potential of the Internet. It won't happen overnight, but
history shows it happens eventually.
Source:
The Web is Dead?
For more information see:
Will Apps Unravel the World Wide Web?
I think this is very serious. Microsoft is often known for their owns standards, but Windows 8,
running on mobile platforms should be better for the open web than many other operating systems
running on proprietary platforms. Limux and other open operating systems for mobile platforms should
be evne better. I see them and the next "Skype(s)" coming.
See also: Is your smart phone really smart?
Kjell Gunnar Bleivik First version 12.27.2010
Last updated 12.27.2010 Status: Will be updated with additional information.
I am used to blogger and
made one of my first web sites on that
platform. Since then I have made my web sites on my computer using the Dreamweaver platform.
I make the site on my hard drive and upload the code to my hosters web server. That is fast
and efficient. Some days ago my daughter's man ordered this domain and a few
minutes later the site
aroundtheworldtrip.net was on the web. I knew that the
wordpress platform was fast and efficient,
but how he did it was impressing. He ordered the domain name from his Norwegian
registrar domeneshop where their tool helped
him to find a semantic name. A competitive service is
nameboy.
What impressed me most was how he used Wordpress
Direct and their resources online putting the site on his hosters webserver without downloading
any code. In other words, he could make the site online as if it was hosted directly on the WordPress
web server. When the site was finished he used
social marker for a fast tagging and posting
to major social websites. On an other site I have seen how he has got the first hit on the Google
SERPs by using Market Samuray. I
know of WordTracker, but he used
Google Adwords tools in a similar way. So in 2010 you can make your own new domain and site on
a unique IP any place in the World with internet access. Don't confuse this with blog or
forum or other content management system software that is already on your hoster's server.
Kjell Gunnar Bleivik First version 11.19.2010
Last updated 11.19.2010 Status: Will be updated with additional information.
Consumerization of IT is a new term that you find on many tech company sites. Big American companies like
Amazon,
Oracle,
Microsoft
, Google etc sets the trend as ususal. What does the term imply and
do all really understand the concept? Having participated on some
Oracle seminars regarding
Cloud Computing and terms like
Weblogic, Exalogic, Exadata, InfiniBand,
Elastic Cloud, Virtual machines
I think have understood the term from Oracle's point of view. For a more or less independent view of
Oracle's technologies, you may go to
the techtarget site.
Microsoft
and Oracle look at the subject more from an enterprise view, while Amazon is concerned both about companies
and individual consumers. In the Amazon Elastic
Cloud, EC2 you can for example use your Amazon debit card and buy virtual (super) computing power
like you buy any web service. You pay for the service like you pay for electricity, telephony
and similar. Once you are finished, you (can create an image that can be recreated later) destroy the virtual
machine. Efficient and cheap and a great service in peak periodes for companies and easy for the student
that need super computing power for his master thesis for a short periode of time. There is no need
to invest in new hardware.
The cloud essentially "consumerizes" all of IT, not just relatively unimportant bits like procuring
personal hard- and software. This requires a whole rethinking of corporate IT, as the idea of any
master design becomes unattainable. How can IT as a species survive this trend as it may render the
education of a whole generation of IT-ers irrelevant? On the brighter side - it really caters for the
talents of today's teenagers: consumption as a lifestyle.
Source:
Cloud and the Consumerization of IT
In the other end of the spectrum you find companies like Google that offer
free IT services to the surfer and small companies. It is of course not free, since Google's sites and services are
driven by advertising. The difference is that online advertisers indirectly "pay" for Googles services while
the user of the service pay up front for the other solutions mentioned above.
Google (GOOG) is taking one of its biggest steps to showcase the power of a trend known as the
“consumerization of IT.”
Today, the company will begin unlocking more than 60 applications for its Google Apps customers.
These apps, however, aren’t new. They are the same ones that consumers with Google accounts have
been using for years - apps like Google Voice, Blogger, Picasa and Google Reader.
Source:
Google Unlocks More Than 60 Consumer Apps for the Enterprise.
Related links:
In the end there is no free lunch, the question is who pay for the lunch you or I consume.
Kjell Gunnar Bleivik First version 10.24.2010
Last updated 12.30.2010 Status: Will be updated with additional information.
Your smartphone is a computer, most often without a firewall and an antivirus program.
It is well known that computer on a wireless connection is generally less secure than a computer
on a cable network. Even encryption is not always enough. There is good and bad encryption
algorithms. What would you think when I told you that your smart phone's security can be compared to
a computer 20 years ago. This is so serious that mobile phone companies have rejected to participate
in Tv programs in Sweden. In addition, some of the smart phones can stop functioning in cold weather (e.g. below zero degrees centigrades). So don't rely on communicating via your smart phone if you are on a ski tour in the mountain.
You go to a secret meeting and turn off your smart phone, but if a hacker has taken control of your
phone, your phone may not be turned off. If the hacker is smart enough, he can control your phones
components like the screen, microphone etc. You think that the phone is turned off, but only the
screen goes off when you turn off your phone. The microphone and other components are active so it is
possible to record your discussion in real time or record it for later replay. This is scaring, and
indeed it is. The only secure method is not to take the phone with you to important meetings.
So how can a hacker take control of your smart phone? An obvious way is that you lend your phone or
forget it and it is delivered back to you with a trojan, keylogger etc. There are also other ways to
hack a smart phone. Here are some:
- Via internet surfing. It is most often less secure than surfing the web with a computer.
- Via an email sent to you. Never open a suspect email.
- Never - open an attachment to an email you are not 100 % secure about
- Use a secure encrypted email service.
- Via downloaded documents or applications.
- Via hot spots.
- Hot spot Security concerns.
Related links:
The next article is about the Opera web browser, by many regarded as the most secure browser in
the world. If a site don't function on Opera
mobile or Opera mini, be suspect. It can be an indication that there are security holes. Here are
some articles related to Opera's mobile solutions.
Don't underestimate intruders and hackers. They are smart and can be ahead of you and security software
for mobile phones. Constanlty more sophisticated methods are used by the inventive hacker.
If a hacker takes full control of your phone, he
can send automatic sms messages in your name. He can even fake you and send a message that seem to be
sent to your friend from you, but it is not. It is only sent via your phone, so in as sense your phone is used
as a proxy or a man in the middle. The real sender is masked. Don't fall into the trap
of thinking that a smartphone is so very smart when it comes to security. In reality it may be much more
insecure than your stationary computer on a cable network.
So don't forget that your smartphone is a computer, most often without a firewall and an
antivirus program.
Kjell Gunnar Bleivik First version 10.19.2010
Last updated 10.20.2010 Status: Will be updated with additional information.
Opera Unite is a collaborative technology that allows you to share, connect and collaborate
directly between computers across the Web, without going through a central, third-party server.
How Opera Unite is different to traditional data sharing
With more traditional content sharing, you have to upload the content you want to share, and this is
then stored on a central, third-party server, out of your control. Your friends access this stored
content from the third-party server.
Opera Unite runs in a "secured sandbox", where only the files or folders you select can be accessed;
nothing else on your computer is accessible to anyone else. You grant access to specified files,
such as a directory of data you want to share, without allowing access to anything outside the
specified area. This is a common feature in Web servers, and keeping data secure has been
well-understood for a long time.
You may not know about the
Opera webbrowser, by many regarded as the most secure, efficient, and feature rich web browser.
But it is
much more than a web browser.
By signing up for
My Opera you become a
member of the Opera community and you can use that account to register for Opera Unite. But first you
must download the browser.
In addition you can use
Opera Link with
the same account.
"Opera Link is a convenient way to share browser information between computers and devices,
so you always have it with you, wherever you go".
So Opera Link give you some of the same functionality as social bookmarking sites. But you don't need
to upload your links, since you already have them in your browser. You can share everything on your
computer with Opera Unite and Opera Link. In a sense, when you are connected to the internet, you can
use your computer like a web server.
Opera is made in Norway so you must
go north
to find (appreciate) it. If you decide to use this browser, you may learn to
build a better web with Opera.
Kjell Gunnar Bleivik First version 08.03.2010
Last updated 08.03.2010 Status: Will be updated with additional information.
In AmsTex a mathematical version of TeX I could write the
most complex scientif formulas. Later came Scientific Word that made
it even easier to write scientific documents. Now,
Wolfram Reasearch, the company that created scientific word have created their own mathematical search
engine WolframAlpha where you can write in
query strings like cosinus 1 that give very nice results that you may wan't to publish on your
own blog. (As a side note, observe that the results can be downloaded as a PDF document). You may think that
the natural thing to do is to use
I have seen how scientific word documents like the one explaining the well known
Kalman filter
has been published on Wikipedia and ofte wondered how that is done on Wikipedia and
WordPress powered blogts. Most probably a script like
PhpMathPublisher is used.
The following links direct you to various online articles that explain the details.
Kjell Gunnar Bleivik First version 06.24.2010
Last updated 06.24.2010 Status: Will be updated with additional information.
Transclusion is an ideal way to cite in web documents. As far as I know the full potential of existing
web standards have not yet been implemented in any web browser. If you look at the source of this article
you will note that the above link has a name, an id and an href with a # in it. That makes it easy for
external sites to parse this text and link to it. I liked this
I can't quite "picture" how this would appear to a reader. Do you have a couple of sites that we could look
at it working? Sample Javascript code that we could use on our sites to test using transclusion to
incorporate external webpages would be a bonus!
Source: WPW - Citing in forum threads and posts.
cite from a fellow member of the WebProWorld forum. The above cite is blockquoted and coloured green to indicate that it is a cite from
an external web page.
Some related threads from the same forum:
Kjell Gunnar Bleivik First version 05.29.2010
Last updated 04.03.2011 Status: Will be updated with additional information.
