www.elitehighlights.com

while I had possed this domain for a while I had just had a placeholder graphic set as the index…I decided that I would take this opportunity to flesh it out some.

The site is a presence for a endeavor I have undertook for the past year or so to gain some side income and develop some skills. And while I still plan on developing the sites content and design significantly in the near future I think this was a good start.

The topic is highlight videos for sports. The audience is anyone who might need a sports video made. The particular target  I had in mind was high school atheletes hoping to gain college scholarships  I linked it to a youtube and a facebook presence  for the same entity.

Some problems i had involve the postioning of the navigation which will vary based on the windows size and computer displaying its screen resolution. I am proud of my rollover images used in my navigation and button links at the bottom to facebook and youtube.

Skills I used outside the scope of the class include rollover images (used in the top navigation and buttons at the bottom), embeding my youtube videos and also uploading to an actual web domain instead of our diskspace (which I could easily do if requried of me). I think this was helpful for me to think about the framework and look I want for this site and also begin creating that vision.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_52/b4161022124450.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34462850/ns/business-motley_fool/

The interesting aspect of this story is expressed in the business week article

“Now Google is considering a move to sell its own phone, which risks undermining the coalition. Phonemakers such as Motorola (MOT) and Samsung, in particular, could begin to see Google as more rival than ally if the search giant starts selling a product head-to-head with theirs. “This could destroy the Open Handset Alliance,” says program manager Will Stofega of market researcher IDC.”

This point is exactly what the MSNBC article elaborates on however they provide insight into the motivations which google has to spurn all those the carriers they have provided with their mobile OS “android. That reasoning according to this blog entry author is:

Google, fundamentally, is an ad server. It can’t allow a private network to stiff-arm software that will help it to collect data from Android handsets. To do so would be to waste the $750 million it spent for mobile ad market AdMob…..Google needs its own phone. Not because the other handset makers are a threat, but because it can’t depend on the carriers.

While I understand why they might want to create their own phone which they have more control over,  I think this could be a very dangerous move if they upset those carriers who sell the phones with their mobile OS on it.

This LA times article explains how a new standard that has been set for 3D use on blu-ray disc should allow the format to grow in its home audience. With new movies like avatar that are done in 3D eventually becoming available.

These movies are the ones we all know about but have seen few of, the ones that require each viewer to use their own pair of “3D glasses” and ironically Thursday Sony also, “formed a partnership with RealD, a Los Angeles company whose 3-D technology is being used in nearly 5,000 movie theaters. RealD will make the glasses used with 3-D-compatible Sony sets.”

While I think this is an interesting development technologically, I am more interested in actual 3D depiction that takes place typically through projection and requires a sort of fog or special gas (which is typically contained)

This development should make for many more home movie offerings that are very entertaining for the kids in the near future.

This article sums up exactly why I philoshopiclaly do not believe in updating others on your life through social networks or networking sites. While this is a dramatic example of a woman posting info about her childs death and remebering him on twitter. the author states

“The NYT article is excusing her by saying that “it feels perfectly logical that Shellie Ross would reach out to that community with her pain.” Really? How is that “logical” again? Do you mean as logical as plastering the front of your home with photos of your dead kid, and publicly declare that you are “remembering” him shouting through the window? With a bloody megaphone? And what is that community of 5,400 followers? Are they 5,400 friends? Or just 5,400 spectators? And since we are at this logical game, could we step it a little bit further and turn on the Justin.tv webcam? I want to see the tears, please. What’s the difference, anyway? It’s all about “reaching the community” because everyone feels isolated, after all.”

I have found a similar example on a much smaller less infuriating scale that illustrates the same concept in everyone rushing to post RIP chris henry. It is unfathomable to me that people are so anxious and have such a desire to tell everyone even a lot of people they are not that close to what they are thinking, what they are experiencing ect.

Whether you are expressing that you want a nfl player to rest in peace or that you are deeply grieving about the death of your child, to me it is all an attempt to get others to care or know more about you. and at the same time, to me, it illustrates that you do not know or care enough about yourself, which is why you desire everyone elses attention and consideration

this article updates what is and isnt allowed after recent changes

http://gawker.com/5428155/the-facebook-privacy-settings-youve-lost-forever

I am particularlly troubled by number 3. To me hypothetically if I am friends with everyone I know I would want to be or would otherwise add anyone i wanted than I should not have to worry about rejecting others offers to be my friend. However at least you can restrict it to only friends of friends who can add you (although I personally do not care about leaving it set to everyone being able to add me).

Another very aspect is not being able to hide group and page memberships. This is exteremely critical for people to be aware of since many people join groups and pages that might be uppsetting, offensive or off putting to certain other important people such as potential employers.

In summation facebook is a great web application and deserves all the sucess it has had however they must be very careful about what decisions they make if they wish to maintain their success

This article which references a recent Wall Street Journal Article states that Iraqi insurgents are using $26 dollar software to grab the feeds produced by unmanned recon dones from what has always been an unencrypted transmit links. While I understand there are some costs associated with maintaining a certain level of encryption I am very surprised the military does not employ it in their missions in Iraq. They now say they are working to encrypt all feeds but there are issues with the outdated proprietary network that the predator which is the un manned vehicle uses.

To me this article raises a couple of issues in my mind. One is a horrible indication of key decision makers underestimating their enemy. I am certain if this were a higher status enemey even such as north korea that it would be likely more steps would be taken to maintain privacy of transmission feeds.

The other issue is wheter or not there are competent people leading the armed forces in regards to IT. A story like this leads me to believe that it would benefit our miliarty operations to hire a few very technologically comepetent leaders from other private companies or industries to make better decisions and institute better practices

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/10/10/t-mobile-we-probably-lost-all-your-sidekick-data/

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/12/t-mobile-considering-additional-measures-to-compensate-sidekic/

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/12/t-mobile-offers-sidekick-users-olive-branch-100/

These address a failure in which T-Mobile somehow managed to wipe the data from tons if not all of its Sidekick Handsets. In what one of the blog postings declare as “one of the biggest disasters in the history of cloud computing”. The data loss was due to a server failure and to date very little has been accomplished as far as recovering the data. The other postings explain how T-mobile attempts to make things right with its customers. That is they have allowed free service for a month and given those effected a $100 gift card.

Apple is having technical issues also with a bug in Snow Leopard causing data loss discussed in the following post:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/12/apple-aware-of-snow-leopard-that-bug-kills-data-is-working-on-a/

They are content with just letting the customers know they are attempting to correct the problem and at least no compensation is addressed in this blog posting.

I think the critical and common issue in these articles is that when dealing with technological services, failures will happen, issues will arise and customers will be slighted in these instances. In these cases it is extremely interesting to me to see what companies do. I think that far too often companies take apples approach which is telling the customer, “hey this is what happens when you are dealing with technology and we are working on correcting it, we are sorry”

It seems to be accepted and somewhat of an industry standard that the consumer has to bite the bullet when it comes to technology, nothing like the food service industry where the customer is always right and if they put a tomato on your cheeseburger they will give you a whole new one.

I applaud companies who at least make noticeable efforts to try to compensate their customers for the trouble any technical failures (or any issues that are caused by their product or service) have caused them. In my opinion it shows some foresight on their part because I believe in twenty years or so, technology companies will no longer be given the “slack” they currently are buy their customers when it comes to failures or problems. Research into the outrage over T-mobiles sidekick failure likely supports my assertion of such a trend.

Can you think of a technology company with great customer service?

How about a tech service company? (Cable, Cell, Internet ect.)

If your tweets or youtube videos were all of a sudden erased how would you feel, would you want or expect compensation even though it is free?

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/29/nokia-samsung-toshiba-and-sony-align-on-mobile-high-definition/

Which explains how “Nokia, Samsung, Toshiba, Sony and Silicon Image” have joined forces to develop a standardized technology for connecting HD displays to smaller media devices (such as personal media players and mobile phones). I think this is great news, think how much time and money would have been saved (and possibly a better product created) if sony and it blue ray partners joined forces with the developers of the losing HD-DVD from the get go.

My feelings on this are same as those expressed on engadget, yipee….any time big companies come together to develop something everyone knows is needed, and everyone knows they can easily develop, and therefore it is extremely unlikely any company can gain a competitive advantage from the development, I think that is a good thing.

It is probably not the best move when you have developed a technology that know one else knows about or is very capable of developing, to share in such a manner but this is not the case here

I would also like to touch on the below article which addresses something we talked about in class

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/29/cyanogen-android-rom-modder-bends-to-googles-will-but-does-not/

it is googles seemingly resonable concerns and response to people modding their mobile softwares and devices

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/22/atandts-3g-microcell-tested-and-reviewed-by-charlottian-yes-it/

we are informed that a new product called the MicroCell from AT&T is availiable now, but only in Charlotte.

This product is a tower that costs $150 but boosts the signal of the 3G connection around where it is stationed. It is matched by a similar product from Sprint with the same purpuse, the AIRAVE.

This is a product I am excited about. I am excited because this is just another step in creating strong and reliable wiresless mobile service (though at a cost through your cell provider) throughout the US. I see places of business that might have had weak signals buying these in the future to allow mobilie web users to connect, especially when the price comes down on the technology.

I do not see as much of a point in having one near your house since then you can always just hop on a real computer and use that to get on the internet, however I guess if you are paying $20 a month for mobile data service than you may want to be able to use it whenever you want, like when you are at home and cannot seem to get a 3G signal.

Oh yeah don’t forget this quote in the article that I almost missed as well:

“he noted that the before and after difference when fielding calls was “night and day,”

So if you want to improve the signal of your iphone where you are living, the MicroCell is coming to your rescue for a mere $150.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/172021/google_fast_flip_will_enrage_not_pacify_publishers.html

This new feature is unlinke the current google news feature in that it will feature a larger excerpt of the articles on googles page instead of simply linking through, in doing this they also show their advertising and at the same time remove the publishers advertising.

The author of this blogs initial take on this new feature/function is as follows:

“So where Google News is a traffic-generating machine for news Web sites, Fast Flip is a traffic-generating machine for Google. Call it the death of click-through rates.”

I completely agree with this, so much in fact that I do not understand how google is allowed to use such a tactic, basically screen caping other sites materials and publishing it on their site to create more traffic on google and less traffic on the site that published the article.

While google tries to play the friendly big brother by offering ad revunue sharing this seems like a way for them to keep others from becoming outraged. While I am a big fan of google and most of their efforts (I use google search, news, have a gmail, and like what i have seen of chrome though I stick with firefox) I completely disagree with this new feature/function.

I hope this new feature fails when it launches because I believe that in this case the status quo of google news that creates click throughs is a lot better than google stealing other peoples work and traffic.

Much like twitter & MacPCs  you will not see me using this feature out of my own free will