Over the past year, I have slowly (but inexorably) become more and more excited by e-books. I think the real turning point came when my wife gave me a Kindle for Christmas (and my mother-in-law gave me a generous gift certificate at Amazon). This post won’t be about e-books, e-book formats or even portable readers, per se. Instead, I want to focus on a PC-based management tool: Calibre.
The Calibre team bill their product as a complete e-book manager. But it is far more than that. For me, it is the Swiss Army knife for digital books. I started using this tool when I needed to convert some books from one format into another. Specifically, I wanted to convert a bunch of Mobipocket books (obtained from the Internet) into EPUB format. While I like Mobi, I am beginning to think that EPUB will drive the market a little faster (due to Apple’s adoption of EPUB). [Note: For a complete comparison of digital book formats, take a look at the Wikipedia entry here.] So I’ve used Calibre for certain specific needs. But that may be about to change.
I discovered a curious new feature of Calibre when I loaded the latest version (v0.7.7). Specifically, Calibre provides a visual browser experience that is decidedly familiar: it looks just like CoverFlow. [Note: This feature actually appeared in Calibre with v0.5.1] Of course, this kind of browsing paradigm is not just limited to iTunes. It has shown up in other music products – most notably, it can be found in the Songbird player.
But is this a copyright or DMCA infringement? I have no idea. [Note: There is an excellent discussion on this subject here.] But it is a welcome addition to my toolbox for digital books. Does it provide a feature that I really need? Not really. But it is so cool to see it. And it may very well herald an increasing need for metadata management tools.
I look forward to even more metadata editors for my e-book collection. And I really welcome a universally adopted e-book stadard. For music, the MP3 ID3 tag system was the least common denominator. So who will step up and create the cool product that will necessitate the standardization of metadata for e-books? Some people are betting that it will be Apple. But I think that it just may be Kovid Goyal (the author of Calibre).
So here is my final question: which e-book vendors is Monsieur Goyal currently talking to? For my money, I would love to see someone incorporate Monsieur Goyal’s designs into a more broadly accepted reader. For me, I wouldn’t be surprised if the new Kindle for PC incorporates these kinds of features.
-Roo
Category: Technology
Password Managers – Bleh or Yay?
How many of you remember the scene from WarGames when Matthew Broderick slides the desk drawer open to reveal a list of passwords? Yeah, that movie is twenty-seven years old now. But the message is still apt: don’t store passwords where people can find them.
And after twenty-seven years of computer development, we have single signon systems, strong passwords, multi-factor tokens, and all sorts of cryptographic wizardry. But despite all of this, we have competing rules for password strength, differing password expiration durations, and even more different types of accounts that demand different strengths of security. For example, most people are very concerned about password strength for their financial transactions. But these same people are probably less concerned about the password for their PetCo account.
The result of all these new rules and password differences is the same: people either store their passwords somewhere, or they use the same password root with variations in prefixes/suffixes, or they periodically must go through the password change/challenge dance.
Amidst this reality, there are a plethora of solutions. But two such solutions have captured my attention: Roboform and LastPass.
Roboform is an excellent tool that will store passwords in an encrypted, local password store. It seamlessly integrates with most browsers – especially Firefox. It is actively developed. And most importantly, it is secure by design. Specifically, passwords are stored in a private place under YOUR control. Of course, this means that if you access online accounts, you will need to have access to your password store. This usually means storing passwords on a portable USB key. For these and other reasons, Roboform has a large and devoted following.
But there is a new gunslinger in town. Over the past few months, LastPass has garnered a large and growing user base. It has a very attractive UI. But more importantly, it is flexible and very powerful. Like Roboform, it has the ability to store and exploit multiple identities. And it is tightly integrated with every browser – including Chrome. Indeed, the Chrome plugin is one of the best features of LastPass.
But unlike Roboform, the LastPass team has chosen a different path for its success. LastPass exploits cloud-based technologies for customer password storage. This is excellent if you will be mobile and you can’t carry your identity in a mobile fashion. Of course, this means that your critical password store is publicly available. So if you want to use LastPass, you need to understand how they store your passwords and how they control access to your passwords.
What is Roo’s recommendation: I have switched over to LastPass. And I use a very complex and totally unique password for this store. Do I trust the team at LastPass to protect my password store? I must grudgingly say that I trust them – for now. Do I know these people personally? No, I do not. But I do trust them enough by virtue of the people and organizations that have publicly endorsed their technology.
That said, I am reminded of something that President Ronald Reagan once said: trust – but verify. So I am now keeping a mindfl eye on the continuing performance of the LastPass team (including its financial supporters).
-Roo
Google Voice…I Can Hear You Now!
It’s been a few years since I wrote about Google Voice. For the uninitiated, Google Voice is the voice service previously known as Grand Central. It has been in beta (i.e., invitation only) status for almost three years. But as of yesterday, it has been opened up to any US resident. The announcement can be seen here.
What does this mean? It means that Google is finally playing for keeps. They have not taken this step until now because they wanted to work with the various telco providers. But Google’s success with Android has forced their hand. Since every Android phone can benefit from the service, it was bundled with the phone itself.
But now it is unbundled. But what is it? Simply put, Google Voice is the one phone number that you will always have. A Google Voice number can be associated with any number of additional phone numbers (e.g., home, office, mobile). When someone calls this one number, the call can be forwarded to any (or all) of a list of pre-established phone numbers. In short, it is a personal ACD/PBX.
OK, that sounds more dramatic than it actually is. But this is the domain name for your phone. For web services, you can have a domain name point to any specific IP address (or computer host) that you want. So when people reference that name, it will go to the “right” physical IP address. Basically, Google Voice can be the “DNS” for your voice call infrastructure.
And it does far more than routing. It provides a comprehensive voice mail system. You can store messages. And you can hear the messages on your phones – or on your computer. And you can forward these calls to contacts in your email and IM address book.
But wait! There’s more. Google Voice will also transcribe your calls into text. For me, this is one of the most exciting things that is now available. Speech-to-text is now mature enough that it can be used in routine communications. This is a tremendous boon to the hearing-impaired. And it is a boon to anyone that can skim written words faster than someone can speak them. For example, if you get a call from me, you can see the words and skip to the end. Yes, you’ll miss all the colorful illustrations and historical background for your simple request. But you can get to the point faster. I am sure that there are dozens of people (and examples) that come to your mind. But the important point is that communications will become faster. And it will become easier to separate the wheat from the chaff.
And as part of the roll-out, options for calling “off-network” phone numbers will emerge. Like Skype, you can use this kind of technology to speak to your grandmother who only uses the public switched telephone network (PSTN). So Google may even be able to turn a modest prophet for these kinds of calls. [Note: Google has to be careful lest they be accused of trying to strangle competitors like Skype.]
So let’s try and summarize all of this. Is Google Voice something that you want? Absolutely. Should you pay for it? That would depend upon your needs. I know that I already pay for a home phone that is now completely obsolete. If Google supports local number portability, I will immediately abandon my local service and convert everything to Google Voice. Indeed, the only reason I keep the old number is that some people only know that legacy number. Once I can transport that number, I’ll cancel the local phone bundle I have with Time Warner Cable.
But would I pay for it now? Maybe yes, maybe no. I’ll have to live on the service for 30-60 days before I answer whether I would pay for it. But right now, it is free of charge. How can Google do this? Because they plan to monetize advertising around the service. And they may even charge if you want multiple or commercial-grade services. But for now, it is free. And it is worth every penny that someone else is paying.
-Roo
To Amazon: Sharing is Social
I just finished reading Adrian Kingsley-Hughes’ recent post about the recent e-reader price wars. His basic premise is that Amazon and B&N have already lost to the Apple juggernaut. I really disagree with Adrian. While his logic is fine, I really think that his conclusion is erroneous – or at lest premature. The real question is not when will Amazon leave the device market but whether Amazon and B&N can position e-ink readers as something unique and different from the iPad.
I don’t know if price can be the only thing that creates a different product/market. I think that something else may be required. Can software (e.g., the Kindle 2.5.2 firmware) be that extra something that is needed? I’m not sure. I love the new firmware. But an honest review is that the current software alone cannot be the sole differentiator. But Amazon is hitting the right notes.
In my world view, books are not a solitary experience. They are the lynchpins of a social phenomenon. The book was the means by which medieval culture was transformed into the culture of the Renaissance – and the advances of the Enlightenment. Wherever there is oppression, books have provided relief – and focus. Indeed, books have been the means of unleashing the hidden potential within many people.
And the written word has always been a pivotal part of the faith experience. In Jewish and Christian Scriptures, God “spoke” the world into existence. And in the Gospels, we are told that Jesus Christ is “the Word” of God. Setting aside the mystical elements of this, it is clear that the spoken and written word are pivotal to the core experience of faith. Indeed, words are the defining elements of modern man.
So there is more to e-readers than just the device. There is a powerful and almost mystical connection to the words themselves. Despite the thoughts of Mr. Kingsley-Hughes to the contrary, it’s not just about the device. There is a market for the social aspects of the written word.
But Amazon did not hit it out of the park with their most recent firmware offering. The social experience does not just mean Twitter and Facebook posts about passagse found in books. It means sharing. And Amazon has to step up and create a means of sharing a book with friends, family and community. From my perspective, I want to be able to “give” a book to a friend. And when they are done with that book, they can return it – or lend it to someone else.
And Amazon needs to extend its commenting/highlighting system. I would really love to be able to attach audible annotations to a passage. Scribbling in the margin is fine. But I want to leave a note to myself and/or the next person that I share the book with. So it would be great to see a small condenser mic included in the next Kindle revision.
And Amazon really needs to change its ads. The current crop is cute – but unnerving. And the ads do not make me want to buy more books.
The Amazon ads need to be a lot more focused. Tell me why I want your platform. And then show how people use it in new and innovative ways. Show people using a Kindle for day-to-day tasks: Dad’s novel, Mom’s cookbook, the college kid’s Physics book, the newspaper on the bus, etc.
-Roo
Portable…and Secure
A few weeks ago, I wrote about PortableApps and their application portability framework. With a sufficiently large USB thumb drive, it is possible to store most (if not all) of your day-to-day applications. And if those apps are “portable” (i.e., they do not store anything on the local machine), then you have the start of an even more secure system. And as I’ve begun to use this portable device as the hub of my applications and my data, the need for strong security practices is also increasing.
So what have I done to make my portable environment more secure?
- I’ve implemented a “traveler configuration’ of Truecrypt on my primary USB device. This allows me to store important and private files in a secure/encrypted container. This container has a lot of important files – including a private key that I need for identifying myself when I use remote access services.
- I have installed Putty Portable so that I can access my main systems from any remote computer that I might access. Note: In order to authenticate to my home systems, I must mount the Truecrypt container that holds the private key that is required to access those systems.
- I use a secure, VNC-based system that requires multi-factor authentication.
- I’ve deployed portable browsers onto my USB drive. I use these portable instances to ensure that private browsing data is never available on the local systems that I visit.
- I use tools like Toucan to sync my portable device to my central system. This ensures that I have a copy of key files (like certs and private keys) – just in case.
Are these steps wholly sufficient? Hardly. Do theses steps provide me a small measure of assurance when I go portable? Maybe. But I am glad that more and more tools are becoming available all the time. I just can’t wait until I can implement self-destruct technologies to remotely disable a USB device. That technology does exist for the most expensive USB drives. But I can’t wait until it becomes available for the average user.
-Roo
Social Music: Socially-Allowable Sharing?
For anyone’s who has read more than one of my blog posts, my next statement won’t be a surprise: I truly love music. I love all kinds of music. And music has always been a social experience for me. And whether you believe that we were created by an all-powerful God or you believe that we were fashioned through fortune and natural selection, rythmn and music have always been a part of the humanity experience.
Music is a means of communicating messages of all kinds. Music is in commercials. Music is in pageantry. Music is in exaltations of faith. Music is in calm moments of reflection. And while music can stir emotions even in solitary settings, its most powerful manifestations are found when the composer/performer is communicating emotions to the audience.
And ever since there was “technology” to harness, music has been present. And today is no different. Whether access to music is dampened by concert ticket prices, concert hall construction, the requirements for expensive instruments or even the existence of digital rights management, there are those people who seek to control access to music. Some control music in order to generate income for themselves. Some control music in order to control the emotions and the actions of others.
But as the technology wheel spins ever faster, it is increasingly harder to erect frameworks of control. And it is becoming increasingly easier to scale any such barriers that are erected. Indeed, music is becoming more plentiful and it is becoming more accessible. AND I LOVE IT EVEN MORE.
So before I wander off into even deeper philosophical weeds, let me get to the point. In the past few days, I’ve run across new modes of music sharing.
As most folks know, I use many music players. But my favorite players are Songbird and iTunes. I also use many tagging and metadata tools. And I also use many sharing tools. I have used Last.fm for years. And I used to be very active on Blip.fm. I have fiddled and played with iLike (in Facebook) for almost as long. I’ve used Pandora for over a year.
I buy most of my music via Amazon. And now that I use Songbird more frequently, I’ve bought a few songs via 7Digital. Nevertheless, I’ve been known to purchase a few tracks from the iTunes music store. And now my youngest daughter just got me turned on to a new streaming source (i.e., Grooveshark).
So here are my big questions:
- What is Facebook planning to do with music?
- Is iLike the Facebook music play or is Facebook going to do something else?
- Is Facebook’s music approach going to be just another means of using me as a market data point or as a sales target?
- Just how much music sharing is enough? [This one is a tough thing to answer as the answer varies from person to person.] But how much musical “attention” data is too much?
- How are new sharing tools (e.g., Grooveshark) going to monetize their services?
And if those aren’t enough questions to ponder, I have a few more question for my brothers and sisters in Christ:
- How will the Christian community exploit all this new technology?
- How can we demonstrate a moral context for file sharing.
- And how can we ensure that the music we create and share affirms the Gospel message?
We really need to remember musicians like Keith Green. He had the world as his musical oyster – so to speak. But he gave up massive financial gain when he realized that the gifts and talents he could use to generate money were not given to him for that purpose. God gave him the words and the music as a means of communicating the Gospel. Therefore, he turned his back on “success” and “fame” and chose the life of a prophet and a pastor. May God bless us with men who share Keith’s heart for the world – and his wisdom for the role of music in that world.
-Roo
Simply Storage or Portable Platform?
When I learned that Microsoft was releasing a new revision for the Xbox 360 software, I got very excited. I really wanted to try out the new flash drive capabilities. So I started to hunt around the house for a spare flash drive. Unfortunately, they had all been claimed by various members of the family. So I started looking around for a cheap flash drive.
Well, I found a great deal on Amazon. I could get a 16GB flash drive from SanDisk for $32. Of course, it shipped with U3. But I knew how to take care of that. When the drive arrived a few days later, I simply used the U3 uninstall utility that SanDisk provided. After clearing out the partition table and reformatting the drive, I had a great new external storage source for just a few dollars.
After successfully testing the new Xbox firmware, I realized that I didn’t want to commit 16GB to storing Xbox games and game stats. So I reformatted the drive yet again. And then I decided that I wanted to build a real portable platform with it.
My needs were simple. I wanted a thumb drive that would house all of my important tools. And I didn’t want to install those tools every time I visited a new workstation. And when I stepped away from that workstation, I didn’t want to leave any flotsam, jetsam or personal data behind. I knew that tools like this existed because the U3 suite is basically a commercial (and invasive) version of what I wanted. After a few minutes, I ran across several definitions of portable applications. And I found the PortableApps.com website.
The folks at PortableApps should be commended. They have developed an open source platform that lets you use portable applications from almost any kind of portable storage device. You can use a hard drive, an iPod, a phone or even a flash drive. And lots of people have packaged apps to run on this platform. In fact, it is the diversity of pre-defined applications that makes this platform so impressive.
After installing the PortableApps framework onto my new flash drive, I set up a dozen of my most favorite applications onto the drive. In fact, I am using a portable instance of Firefox as I enter this post.
After working on this for a couple of hours, I realized just how powerful these kinds of devices/platforms can be. While it is always best to provide support remotely, sometimes you have to go to a system in order to resolve its issues. If you equip your support techs with a drive that has their most critical tools, you can increase the chance of solving problems while reducing the cost of providing that support.
I can’t wait to use this new flash drive for all of the support activities that I do throughout any given week. PortableApps, FTW!
-Roo
A Geek Goes SEO
I am a geek. And I’ve been a geek for many decades. I was playing with computers when I was fifteen. That doesn’t sound like much to adults today. But I was fifteen in 1976. I was introduced to computer technology by a math teacher who was responsible for entering teacher’s time sheets into the Montgomery County school system. I’ve been hooked on tech ever since.
In the ensuing decades, I’ve been a programmer, a security specialist, a capacity planner, an infrastructure technologist, an enterprise architect and a lot of management positions in between. But in every job, I’ve been a geek. I’ve always loved the technology. And I’ve never gotten tired of the thrill that I get when I conquer something new.
So it is with a great deal of joy that I’ve tackled the most recent challenge given to me by my wife. She is a marketing and communications specialist. But she has found herself “displaced” in the recent economic turmoil. So while she is seeking a permanent gig, she is doing some piecework. She has been doing some new blog startups and some site development for an informal network that she has nurtured over the years. And she needed someone to help her with site testing. That’s where I come in.
She needs a place to “test” some of the site designs she is working on. And so I’ve decided to set up a platform within the house. When she launches sites, we ultimately go to hosting services that are appropriate for each client. But during development of sites and concepts, she wants to test sites and test WordPress plugins (esp. SEO type add-ons).
So I’ve decided to leverage open source technology throughout the platform. Here are the components thus far:
– I am using XAMPP as a distribution package for Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl. I’ve also decided to include Tomcat – just in case she decides to leverage any lightweight Java packages.
– I am using WordPress as the blog site manager. [Note: There is a very good primer on setup of this platform here.] I’ve used WordPress for quite some time. But I’ve either used the WordPress.com site for lightweight hosting or I’ve contracted with a hosting provider. But in this case, I’m running it myself. The cool thing about doing it this way is that I finally get to play with WP plugins. And there are some exceptional plugins for WordPress sites.
– There are quite a few sites that tell you what plugins you should use for SEO tweaks. I wouldn’t dream of recommending one over another as I am so new to all of this. So what I did was use Google to compare SEO plugins. I figure that someone who knows SEO would be able to “goose” their posts on the subject. So I did an informal survey of multiple blog posts to see which plugins were recommended most often. Given a fifteen minute analysis window, I decided that the “Top 5” analysis done by PCDrome seemed quite sound. So I am beginning to test this on my lab setup. I’ll let everyone know how it turns out.
Obviously, this platform is evolving. But I do have one takeaway from all of this: don’t just trust someone who claims SEO knowledge; verify their competence by looking at the sites and successes that they have had.
-Roo
Wireless Security, In My Chest
Tomorrow is the big day. I will be getting a new implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). It’s been almost eight years since my original implantation. So technology has changed. As noted before, I’ll be getting a Medtronic Virtuoso. And this device comes equipped with wireless management technology.
The potential benefits of using wireless technologies in this application are staggering. During implantation, there is no need to put anything in the sterile field except the doctor’s hands and the device that will be implanted. And I’m already using Medtronics remote care and management services (trademarked as CareLink). But the latest generation of CareLink will allow the doctor to obtain vital information almost immediately.
But the benefits aren’t without downside risks. First and foremost, I wonder what it would take to hack this new device. Using the MICS frequencies helps; I won’t be subject to WiFi hacking! 😉 But if I ever become famous or important, I wonder just how high the barrier would be to hijacking either the “information channel” or the “control channel” for this device. I give Medtronic a great deal of credit for addressing these matters. But I wonder how safe these systems truly are.
In candor, if someone wants my data, there are easier points of attack. First, my cardiac data is on traditional computing systems managed by Medtronic. And the data will be available from my CareLink unit, the data in my cardiologists office and also at Medtronic’s facility. It would be far easier to hack these systems (either via frontal assaults or via social engineering) than it would be to directly hack the source of my data (i.e., the device in my chest). And I’m sure that there are plenty of people that handle my data such that social engineering assaults are both plausible and low-cost.
But as of tomorrow, my abstract concerns become practical considerations. Here’s hoping that none of my teenage neighbors get any fanciful ideas about hacking my heart! 😉 I just wish that I could add a few layers of additional security. For example, I would require using a VPN to access my device. And my device would only be accessible via an additional token of my choosing (and via a CA I choose). But I really don’t want to see if this is possible as it would strip the veneer of confidence that I’ve meticulously constructed!
-Roo
Always Backup Data – And Have a Backup Plan
Most of us remember the old joke about Jesus and Satan in a computing competition (details available here). At the last moment, the power goes out. When it is restored, Satan has lost his data and Jesus completes the task. Why? Because Jesus saves (his data before the power outage).
And I have been forced to teach my daughter this lesson. Two weeks ago, she started having trouble with her laptop. Every so often, something would result in her Windows system configuration being corrupted. And she was unable to even boot an OS to perform a system restore. So I was forced to break out the repair disks, boot from the Windows install media and recover system files (and the boot sector) by hand. I am so very glad that I remember how to do this. I am even more glad that this data is readily available on the web.
So after the last failure, we bought our daughter an external had disk. We then moved all of her personal files to the external drive. Now she had a place to store her data in case her laptop’s disk drive failed.
Everything worked quite well – until the external drive failed. OK, failure isn’t exactly what happened. Actually, my daughter dropped the hard drive and then stepped on it. She heard a crack and then realized had what happened. But it was too late. She could no longer access the drive. And she had an important paper to turn in to her professor.
Of course, she should have backed it up. But she didn’t. So it was time for the backup plan: use some tools to get the data back. I told my daughter not to use the computer lest she overwrite any data that remained on the hard drive.
So I had to get to work in order to recover data on the laptop and recover data on the external drive. Getting back the data on the laptop was fairly simple. I used Recuva. I was hoping that I could open the app ad just recover the data. But I had done a disk defrag since the first event. So I was hopeful that the sectors we needed weren’t overwritten. F0rtunately, they weren’t. But I had to do a deep scan o recover most of the files. I think a got about 98% of her files. And at first blush, she had all the important files that she needed.
So it was on to the external drive. And it was a mess. Recuva could do nothing with it. So it was time to move on to an industrial solutions. I tried to use a trial copy of the Ontrack tools. Their trial allows for analysis and recovery of one file. Fortunately, she only had one file she really needed. After spending eight hours assessing the drive, it looked like we could recover anything – including the one file.
So I recovered the one file. And checked out the pricing of the tool. And the full-feature tool was between $199 and $499. This may be chump change for a business. But I can’t afford that much money just for some miscellaneous files.
But this episode has taught me that I need to have a more robust series of tools. So I’m off to the Internet to do some additional research on file recovery tools and services. Do any of you have some recommendations?
-Roo