The FCC!

The FCC must be busy right now. The chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin, wants subscribers of cable TV to be able to pick and choose the channels they subscribe to on TV, a la carte. Cable companies are mad, though, because it would be too expensive to offer less popular channels that are currently bundled with more popular channels. But parenting groups say the option is a must to prevent children from watching inappropriate content on TV because the channels are chosen from the cable company, not just blocked at the TV. Here's a link to this story on CNET: click here.

Also, the FCC has stopped Vonage from signing up new subscribers to its Voice over IP telephone service because the company has missed the deadline for implementing enhanced 911 services in its network. More here at USAToday.com.

Food for thought: Does anyone miss Michael Powell?

Windows Supercomputers

Microsoft is now making the move to put supercomputers into the mainstream, with Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. For more info on this, read CNET's article here.

In other news, here at Street Tech, seven of us have passed the hardware portion of the A+ exam! Thank you for your support and wish us luck with the operating systems portion of the exam in one month.

Street Tech.org

Street Tech

Enjoying reading the Street Tech Divide blog? Wonder where we got our name? You can read the top of this page to know that Street Tech provides computer training to low-income and disadvantaged students in the San Francisco Bay Area. Want to know the website for Street Tech proper? Go to http://www.streettech.org/.

The A+ class at Street Tech is around the halfway point in progress to graduation and certification. Wish us luck with testing!

Free Opera! ... I Mean, Opera is Free!

The alternative web browser Opera is now free as of version 8.5. Previously, Opera was either ad-supported, or paid for. Now, the company that makes the browser, Opera Software AG, has listened to the demands of its people and gave us the one that enables mouse gestures, voice browsing, and complies to W3C standards.. (W3C=World Wide Web Consortium). Here is the link to your all and mighty web browser: http://www.opera.com/

Unfortunately, Blogger does not support Opera completely yet (Compose is limited to plain-text).

But while there are websites that choose to block Opera as it is, Opera can also spoof other web browsers, tricking the website into thinking that it is Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Please try it out despite this, as the more people that use it, the more websites will have to support it!

Neiman Marcus on Tuesday unveiled its 2005 Christmas catalog of "fantasy gifts," and once again, there's plenty there to make your jaw drop in astonis

Neiman Marcus fantasy gift guide also features Skycar prototype.September 27, 2005: 2:45 PM EDT By Parija Bhatnagar, CNN/Money staff writer
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Neiman Marcus on Tuesday unveiled its 2005 Christmas catalog of "fantasy gifts," and once again, there's plenty there to make your jaw drop in astonishment.
The 79th version of the famed Christmas Book from the luxury retailer promises to have "something for everyone," Brendan Hoffman, president and CEO of Neiman Marcus Direct, said in a statement.
That might be a little bit of a stretch given the five-to-six-figure pricetags featured, but the catalog does offer some truly unique ideas.

Skycar PrototypeYour very own piece of transportation history: the M400 Skycar prototype. It’s the world's first personal vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft.Developed by Moller International, this prototype of the flagship M400 Skycar is a three-wheeled, folding-wing craft designed to be as safe, affordable, and easy to use as an automobile. The M400 Skycar will travel 350+ miles per hour and boasts an environmentally friendly 21 miles per gallon on alcohol.
Price: $3.5 million Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog, Neiman Marcus Direct

how about a $3.5 million Skycar that promises ownership of a piece of transportation history when you buy the M400 Skycar prototype.
The catalog calls the M400 Skycar the world's first "personal vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft." The Skycar is a three-wheeled, folding-wing craft than can travel 350 miles per hour and boasts an "environmentally-friendly 21 miles per gallon on alcohol."

Skycars and Robots Riding Bikes, Oh My!

Reporting from the class of Street Tech, this is Geoffrey giving you the latest in Tech Tuesday discussions here to you.

Our top stories today:

The Moller Skycar, as mentioned by Gerald, is now being sold in limited quantities after successfully passing testing. Neiman Marcus is one of the companies selling this flying vehicle. The price tag for this very unique "car": around $3.5 million!

Also:

Japanese robots learn to ride bikes -- the link from BBC News here. The future is coming! And for some very old news relating to this, the here are some tidbits about the Segway, another item that uses gyroscope balancing technology, in this case the self-balancing two-wheeled vehicle that current U.S. President George W. Bush famously fell off in 2003.

Reporting "live", err three seconds ago now, which this now is 8:10 pm, (there's no such thing as "live" in written text) this is Geoffrey with your Tech to the Streets "minute" (... not again with the time issues).

Microsoft Treo!!! --- or Palm Windows...

Palm has turned from a closed fist into an open palm, so to speak. The company has recently made the move to support its rival Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform on its once exclusive Palm Treo smartphone line. For more details on the new Treo 700w, go to http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/index.blog?entry_id=1233838. Let's just hope this kind of openness does not backfire in the way of Microsoft shutting this open "window" on this welcome "hand".

Moving is a hassle--- if you have DSL

This is my experience in progress. If you have SBC Yahoo! DSL and you are moving, good luck. In order for you to keep your email account at sbcglobal.net, you have to maintain a dialup account at the very least, with a working phone number. The worst thing you would ever do is call SBC and explain your situation, especially if you have to move immediately because someone bought your old house already and your new house is still being built. My experience is that I went through the voice prompts, which was hard to navigate, then talk to customer service, where they sent me to a different number, and then another person sent me to yet another number, which I found out it was the first number that I just dialed, and the person already hung up by the time I found out I was back in voice prompt limbo. Fortunately, my aunt works at SBC, and worked out a way so that our DSL was to be on a third line installed in her house. (She has two already.) Maybe later on in the future, I'll just switch to broadband cable, you know, COMCAST.

Kudos to the folks at broadbandreports.com, who helped me with speeding up my DSL connection though. They sped it up from 1536 kbps down/384 kbps up to 3072 kbps down/512 kbps up. Dslreports.com/Broadbandreports.com (the same site) is one of the sites mentioned in the A+ Complete Guide book from Sybex, in the section about Internet connectivity. They even have technicians from Internet Service Providers to help you, so you don't have to go through the hassle of contacting the actual ISPs themselves, because being stuck on their level 1 support lines is not the way to go. (Who wants to deal with Tier 1 anyway?)

Are you ready for Digital TV?

This week on Yahoo! Tech Tuesday, the topic is on the transition to digital TV from analog, a mandatory move that will be in place when 2006 ends. If you have an analog TV and you turned it on in 2007, you will not be able to see anything unless you have a separate digital-to-analog converter. Not even if you have rabbit ear antenna to receive off-air broadcasts, because even off-air channels will be digital. Yahoo! Tech Tuesday gives some recommendations on which TVs you will need to buy if you don't want to use the old boxy machines in place of the new flat-panel LCD/plasma TV/monitors out there. Goodbye, VHF. Goodbye, UHF. Hello DTV. And to HDTV: Hi, you are so beautiful, with your large resolution, so let's get married.

Some comparisons between analog and digital TV are listed below:

Analog

• 480 horizontal lines
• 68 off-air channels (2-69)
• 124 cable channels (2-125)
• subject to interference - snow, leaked signal, blurry picture

Digital

• up to 1080 horizontal lines
• practically unlimited channels, depending on provider
• HDTV - high definition picture and sound
• subject to copy protection, something that analog TV had advantage over with VHS tapes

Street Tech Divide --renewed--; Sony PSP=Mini PC?

Welcome to the New Street Tech Divide! Here's some new news on current and future technology:

By now, most people should know that the Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable) is well, a portable entertainment center, displaying pictures, playing movies, music, and of course, games. Through emulation, games from other game consoles can be played on the PSP. (Imagine the original Super Mario Bros. jumping around in Nintendo's rival console.) Anyways, not many people don't really assume video game consoles to be computers. THEY ARE.
So, imagine a certain operating system of say, 10 years ago. That's right, it's Windows 95. (Wait... 2005-10=1995 --- why did I do that? Oh yeah, tomorrow's the 10th anniversary of the release of Windows 95). Well, the PSP can now run Windows 95, which I can say very impressive. Source: Tom's Hardware

As for Internet access, the long awaited PSP 2.0 firmware update for North America has been delayed by Sony.
Sony PSPs were shipped with the 1.50 firmware originally, which many users tried to keep so they can run their homebrew applications, such as the port of Windows 95 (above). For those who wanted the Internet though, one had to go through such lengths such as using an alternate DNS (Domain Name Service) server when using the network option in the game Wipeout Pure. Instead of going to a locked Sony site where it's supposed to go, the update software is tricked to open a portal, that you can use the web browser then on freely, until you turn off the PSP.

Update: Sony has already released the firmware update; I'll update on this in a new post.

Wow Tech Tuesday Learn something new everyday

I thought I had seen it all and heard it all but after today...

today I heard about a new type of virus called ransom ware. It infects your machine and encrypts your files and then demands that you pay them a ransom to get your files back. Now that's original. I would be anxious to see who they get when the get em. yeah just leave your credit card by the dumpster and Ill send you your files.

the other one that I saw that probably made me cringe the most was the 'Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence' or MAVAV FOR SHORT. First theirs MADD then theirs MAVAV. Go figure. These were the most interesting stories of the day. I have to say they really went to the heart of what we do here in the class.

GGB

Street Tech Divide “Crossing the Digital Divide - One Person at A Time”,

Street Tech Divide “Crossing the Digital Divide - One Person at A Time”,
todays tech tuesday is truly the good one we talked about the mineblaster a new device that renders land mines useless by exploding them with flame.

Moving right along

This week has been full of interesting things to do.
I will let you know the high light moment of the week.
A selected few of us, volunteers any way, were on a field trip to Sacramento
to visit where our laws are created and received the opportunity to meet several
Assembly men and women at work.
It happen to be one of their busy days which happen to be Tuesday, along with
Wednesday and Thursday.
The trip was an experience that every one should have.
I came away with a different view of of our state's capital.
My hope for the future is that I will return.
Thats all for now folks. .......................

Joe McKinley: Director Of Technical Training

I am very happy to say that I am quite pleased with our Pilot Online Training Course. Thanks to Generation 10 for making it possible. The blog site has the appearance and feel of the most professionally done sites and you are responsible for it! Great work guys!

tech tuesday-game

if you haven't been to a lan party you're missing out. for those who love to game... lan party is the best the way to have fun. it's all legal and have nothing to worry about but having fun. so those of you who like to play pc games.... GO! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

How are you doing?

We had today a good word from Joe about the give back program here at streettech. Its funny, I talked about the give back program and rather vehemently to the class. Most people figure Oh Gerald he doesn't do any volunteer work. He only wants to get paid for doing computers. Not true at all. Because of streettech I was able to learn that even if I was unemployed it did not mean that I was not able to give something worthy to others.

I learned to Give Back and by doing so, spread the message to many others of my friends and acquaintances, who might never have even thought about giving back to their community.

Its funny about ideas. The tend to take on a life of their own when properly nurtured. The idea of give back is not practiced much here in the 21st century. All we have to do is to take a look around at the world around us to know that to be true.

Now even after completing the class I still find myself giving back to my community and spreading the message to those around me like an "Idea Virus". Infecting everyone with whom I come in contact. The Idea that it is OK to do something for someone outside of ones own self.

Happy Tuesday to you all

GGB

P.S.: You Owe Too (so give the Idea Virus a chance to spread)

The Word of the day

One of the things that I like to do everyday is ask people, "Hey, whats the word of the day?" Most of the time I get some answer like "uh I don't know." Usually that is the answer if the person is uninformed about the world according to Gerald. Now when people dont know the answer to the question, I send them to this website http://education.yahoo.com/college/wotd/ Today was no exception of course. I ran into someone this afternoon who didn't know the word of the day. so here it is Enrich your vocabulary with Yahoo! Education's Word of the Day

plausible
DEFINITION:
(adjective) apparently believable
EXAMPLE:
The idea that a widespread conspiracy to kill President Kennedy has been kept secret for over thirty years hardly seems plausible.
SYNONYMS:
conceivable, credible, reasonable
DICTIONARY:
American Heritage® Dictionary
THESAURUS:
Roget's II Thesaurus

I personally find the whold idea plausible but hey thats just my opinion.

Remember people judge you by the words you use so build a strong vocabulary

Check Point's Firewall/VPN Now Has Wireless "Edge"

New appliance includes support for 802.11b/g, Super G

By Henry E. Hopkins, Jr.

Check Point Software Technologies this week is poised to ship the first edition of a firewall/VPN appliance that integrates high-speed wireless access.

VPN-1 Edge W will be available in four configurations based on the number of users supported. The line integrates Check Point's flagship VPN-1/FireWall-1 technology with a core wireless feature set that includes support for 802.11b/g and Super C, which theoretically doubles available wireless bandwidth up to 108 Mbps. Pricing for VPN-1 Edge W starts at $799 for an edition supports eight users and one remote- access user.

Firefox, Mozilla Bug Exposes Data

Both Firefox and the Mozilla browser suite are vulnerable to attacks through flawed JavaScript engines, a security firm reported Monday.

The Mozilla Foundation's open-source browsers can be exploited by hackers to gain access to data currently in memory (but not information only stored on the hard drive), said the Danish security company Secunia.

Accordind to Mozilla, use of a JavaScript "lambda" replace can expose arbitrary amounts of heap memory after the end of a JavaScript string. Successful exploitation may disclose sensitive information in memory."said Secunia in its online alert.

The bug has been confirmed in the most recent versions of Firefox (1.0.2)and Mozilla (1.7.6), and at the moment,no patch is available. (Developers are working on one, however, to track what they're up to, check out this page on Bugzilla.)

Secunia recommends that users temporarily disable JavaScript support for what it considers a "moderatey critical" bug. By: Henry Hopkins,Jr.

This is the Beginning of a beautiful friendship

Well here it is folks...
The first ever StreetTech blog. This blog will include excerpts from the Street Tech A+ Certification class ( affectionately known as Generation 10). We will be helping others to cross the Digital Divide with us so come join us here at the Street Tech family.

We just spent today Tuesday April the 5th talking about tech Tuesday. You can find out information about the latest in technology, also about things that are just making headlines for the day. We had patricia give us info about something called Kehole software available from http://www.google.com that will allow you to look at the satillite images of an entire block. We also talked about the privacy issues that come with it.

We had Ronald and Ed talk about the latest in Cellphone Viruses and Web enabled phone viruses. NVIDIA has a new processor to compete with the Intel boys and AMD guys. and we heard from Aubrey about that one. Big San talked to the subject of the new Velocity Micro High End Gamers. They are talking about 4.0 Gig speeds. Finally Henry gave us the age old debate of Microsoft VS. Linux and the total cost of ownership. In the end the battle still rages on even years after the original lines were drawn. Thats all from me. I'm Gerald Bryant and this is the StreetTech Divide.

Welcome Everyone

I just want to tell you all that I am really enjoying this experince and look forward to enjoy many others (A+ Certification), etc.

Cheers
Ed