TechnologyInsanity.com

Most people don’t know how much they’re being tracked online by Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. To find out, check this site out

These days it seems like no one has privacy online anymore. Google is collecting data like crazy, along with all the other major search engines. Looking at something on amazon or newegg? Be prepared to be advertised similar items on other websites you visit. Reading an email on gmail? Get advertisements based on the contents of the email. Tracking cookies are everywhere. Facebook is a pit of personal identifying information.

So, can you protect yourself from being tracked constantly? Yes.

Here’s how:

1. Use FireFox as your browser. The other browsers don’t have nearly the amount of privacy plugins and features.

2. Install the “Minimum” plugins listed on this website for your browser, even if you’re not using Firefox. If you are using Firefox I’d highly recommend giving NoScript a go, it has saved me many times from Adobe exploits.

3. Stop using Google search. I would recommend DuckDuckGo & Startpage.

4. Delete your Facebook and Google accounts.

5. Use a VPN  at all times.

Now, some level of tracking on the internet is okay in my book, but when you cross a certain line, like Google has, it turns into something evil. Now, am I really worried about Google tracking me? Not really, I don’t genuinely think it’s a huge problem at this point, but at the rate things are going it’s just going to keep getting worse. I don’t follow all of the above suggestions although I do have all the privacy plugins installed. They really don’t mess up web browsing at all so at the very least I’d install those plugins.

Please do note that some tracking is good for the internet, especially small sites, they need the data to properly monetize the site and keep it alive, but if you’re really privacy & security conscious then follow all those steps. If you’re really paranoid then browse the web through the tor browser bundle.

I watched some of the “Reveal”  today and I really wasn’t impressed.  It seems like Microsoft would have the ability to collect tons of information for advertising, along with collecting fees for various services. My guess is this will subsidize the cost of the console a bit, along with the cost of games.

As with rumors about the PS4, the Xbox 360 may have some games that absolutely require an internet connection.

Graphics – well, I’m not really impressed here, but why would I? The thing runs a video card that’s less powerful than the one currently inside my computer. So I’m hard to please there. The only thing that makes me happy is now console ports might actually have decent graphics. I will be interested to see how much graphical output they can optimize for like they did with the 360.

They are integrating HTPC like functions into it – which seems interesting, however I don’t like Microsoft’s layout, I prefer XBMC.

I might be a little biased though – because if I don’t have absolutely 100% control over a box, I don’t want it. So this console is actually targeting a different demographic. It’ll be several years till I get this console, if I ever do. Heck, I just got a 360 a few months ago, so if that’s any indicator maybe I’ll have an Xbox One in about 8 years. I don’t like the trends in electronics moving constantly towards more and more privacy invasion, and requiring an internet connection just for them to function properly.

I guess there’s a flip side – more and more open source devices are also appearing at the same time, like Raspberry Pi.

Lately I’ve been reading a lot about the upcoming “Google Glass”.  First of all, I’m going to talk a bit about smart phones. I never really caught on to the smart phone revolution mainly because I don’t see a point in it, and as of right now my life doesn’t dictate that I need one. When I have changes in my lifestyle my views on smartphones will undoubtedly change. Mainly, I just don’t leave being in front of a PC or laptop very often.

I do still carry my smartphone sometimes to connect to WiFi hotspots but there is no cellular service on it nor is there 3G. I tried it for 2 years and I did not really care for it, mainly because I thought it was taking away from me interacting with humans face to face. Google Glass aims to solve this issue by you still looking at other humans while you use your internet connected device.

So Google glass has some limited abilities compared to a smart phone, taking pictures, video, and limited web browsers. I’m not 100% on all the details of how the thing will actually work since I did not get an “Explorer” version, but my guess is that it will be looked at as a “toy” version of augmented reality in the coming years.

Eyesight Issues

I wear glasses 24/7 to correct high myopia, so I’d have to get contacts to be able to use Google Glass until they rolled out prescription frames that also come with Google Glass. There’s no telling if wearing contacts and using Google glass will cause issues.

Steve Mann

Steve Mann has made some comments on Google Glass and how it has some issues. I don’t think that these issues really apply that much because it seems like a casual version of augmented reality. His arguments are that Google Glass will cause eye strain – which is probably true. The “screen” is not directly in front of you so you have to actually move your eyes to look at it. If you’re doing that all the time there’s no doubt you’re going to run into eye strain issues. However, I see this as more of a casual device so these issues may not be as apparent.

Privacy

Some people are concerned if this thing catches on that people will lose their privacy. Well, I really don’t think anyone has privacy as it is in the world today. There’s cameras everywhere and people taking pictures with smart phones all over the place. I’m sure the Amish will hate this thing, but the truth is even the Amish are being recorded and their pictures taken all the time as it is today.

I don’t see any significant change here just because people have a video recorder/picture taker on their face. Just consider yourself in the public eye when you walk out your front door. That’s just the way things are now.

Conclusion

So I come to my point – I will not be getting Google Glass mainly because it is bound to have issues being the first version of augmented reality released to the public. Do I like the idea? YES. I love the idea – and I think that later versions will be quite awesome and something worth buying. As of now, though, I’m not interested. We shall see if my views change when it is actually released to the public.

I’ve been involved in bitcoin since it had it’s last bubble in 2011. I did the whole “Bitcoin Mining” thing with tons of GPUs and Linux setups. Did I make a ton of cash off the new gigantic change in value? No. I could’ve, but unfortunately I did not. I also haven’t lost anything in Bitcoin to date.

Bitcoin in general, is most similar to what is called a “Penny Stock”. These types of stocks can swing wildly and are the opposite of conservative investments. The only way to “invest” in bitcoin is with money you don’t mind losing, it’s still very much in its infancy.

Bitcoin Mining

It seems like people always think oh boy free bitcoins let’s all go mine.

First of all what mining does is maintain the cryptography of the Bitcoin network. You are basically brute forcing the network to find an answer based off the difficulty. If you find the answer you are given a reward. The reward is halved every so often. When I started mining it was 50 BTC. Due to the difficulty being so high, bitcoin mining pools were formed so all the hashing power could be combined and then distributed out based on how much power you contributed to finding the solution. GPUs (Graphics processors like ATi/AMD Radeons, specifically) were found to be much more efficient than CPUs for breaking cryptography.

I’m here to tell you mining is a pain. I did it for about 6 – 7 months in 2011. I had a 6990 and 6x HD5830′s. I still had trouble getting it to cover electricity costs at some points. Granted, I sat on the bitcoins for a long time till the price went up and then sold so the video cards, electricity and computer hardware were all paid off. Would I do it again? No.

Keeping machines up and mining is not all that easy to be perfectly honest. The new ASIC miners are the only things I’d really mess with these days, but really I’ve completely lost interest in mining. If you want to mine, go ahead just realize it isn’t all that easy and it’s not really much fun once you get past the idea of playing with expensive hardware. There’s lots of people that would mine even if they were going negative, just like there’s lots of people that do the other distributed computing projects for free. (Folding@Home, etc)

If you could just set it and forget it, then yea, the ROI isn’t really that bad for the investment cost, but in general with computer hardware you can’t just forget it. You have to monitor it. Now, there are interesting ways to monitor it, but you also have to deal with the heat that these things push out. All in all, unless you’re running a data center I don’t think it’s really that great of an idea.

Here’s my main issues with Bitcoin as it is today:

1. It’s hard to buy.

You have to link a bank account and go through ACH transfers, plus you have to go through new verifications on Mt.Gox and other exchanges.

Why is it this way?

Well, the way the USD currency network is setup things can be reversed. With bitcoin, it can’t be reversed. Once you have bitcoin in your wallet, it’s yours. Think about it as having paper dollars in a wallet, if you give it to someone, it’s gone. The same principles apply to bitcoin, only it’s electronic and can be sent long distances.

2. Value swings.

Now, you might think, well this is why people are buying it. They want to make a lot of money off bitcoin. Well that doesn’t really make a good currency, now does it? The Dollar, even though it loses value consistently, at least day to day it stays relatively stable. That means that if you plan to purchase something in the next few months in general the item is going to cost the same or only a little bit more. With bitcoin, who knows what the value is going to be in a month or two the item could cost you 20x more or 20x less in a few months.

Now, if Bitcoin gets big enough, and I think this will only happen if issue number 1 is fixed, this problem will largely go away. In the mean time, you have to keep dollars in an exchange, buy bitcoins right when you want to buy something or send money and the receiver has to exchange it immediately for their local currency or else they might lose a bunch of money.

3. Theft.

Now, with banks, credit cards and such, money is insured or can be reversed. Having a pile of bitcoins sitting around is the same idea as having a bunch of USD under your bed. Granted, you can use various encryption methods and make copies to send around all over the place, but what normal user is going to want to go through this? There are new programs like the Armory, but largely I still don’t see a “normal” person using things like this.

Conclusion

If you don’t understand what I’m talking about here then stay away from Bitcoin, it’s not for you. If you’re a tech geek then sure, you probably can jump through all the hoops and use this currency, I know I did even when it was much less developed. Is it a revolutionary piece of technology? Really only time will tell. I would guess that either A. Bitcoin will get much more mature and products/services will launch making it very easy for the normal person to get and use or B. Another currency will come out that allows the average person to easily use it. Until i see joe blow down the street using bitcoin, it has not gone “mainstream”.