I keep this blog open to everyone by allowing anonymous posting, and removing all available locks on my material.  If there is a technology topic that you would like my take on or would care for me to explain then leave me a comment and I will be happy to write about it.  I post Mondays and Thursdays and will let you know when it gets posted if you leave me a way to contact you.  Thanks for reading!

There is some debate going on currently that with so many people moving to the use of Cloud Computing that the use of Windows and the Office Suite are coming to a close.  To begin though let's go over what exactly Cloud Computing is.

Cloud Computing is where you take the files, photos, applications or anything else you might otherwise run locally and store on your computer and move it to the public internet.  This means that GMail, Google apps, Flickr and other sites are cloud computer applications.  Google apps is the clearest definition of it.  Basically instead of opening Microsoft Word, writing a paper, and then saving it to your hard drive you would navigate to the Google Apps page to run the app within the browser window and save your file to Googles Servers instead of your hard drive.  What this allows is more collaboration between people, and easier access to your files since you no longer need to put them on a removable storage device (cd rom, flash drive etc) to bring the files to another computer.  It should now be accessible to anyone who has a web browser and active internet connection.  It is because of this greater flexibility and ease of sharing among a group of people that many are speculating the end of the Windows era.  For myself though I disagree and see some serious flaws with this design. 

My first concern is of course Privacy.  In Cloud Computing I no longer control that document.  This can allow the company who owns the server I store my document on to search and review anything I write even if it is meant to be private.  If I were to just write and store the document on my own computer with my own hard drive then no one could view or search the document without my permission.

The other problem I have is that you may not be able to access your document at critical times.  Let's say that you spent all week working on a paper for school, and the day you were going to print or e-mail it to your teacher/professor but your internet connection is down.  You now have to scramble to get to where there is a working connection or risk turning in your paper late.  Obviously you take the same risk on a personal computer if a virus takes over or your hard drive crashes but this can easily be minimized through careful security and regular backups of all critical documents.  I don't like the idea of depending on my internet connection for my grades.

The final problem with the Cloud Computing VS. Windows argument I have is businesses which is Windows bread and butter.  Companies everywhere depend on Windows because it's what people know, and what's easy to support.  There is no strong competitor for the business market yet so Microsoft will continue to hold it's dominance there.

With all that said though Microsoft is not without it's problems.  It's mobile market is weak and dying.  People are talking iPhone, Android, and Blackberry but not Windows Mobile.  They are being overtaken by Apple in revenue dollars, and everyday Firefox eats into IE's market.  For too long Microsoft has rested on their laurels and have been slow to innovate.  They have to work to find solutions and to be more nimble but when a company gets to be the that large then that task becomes increasingly more difficult.  Bureaucracy takes over which slows down decision making and reduces the amount of risk that management is willing to take.  Microsoft is not dead but if their not careful competitors will begin attacking their core business of office suites and Operating Systems soon enough.  Google has announced they are working on the Chrome OS and Apple is selling more Macbooks, iPads, and Desktops now than ever before in the past.  The future for Microsoft is uncertain but if they are not careful it is possible they become the IBM of their time.  Still around by largely irrelevant and seeming a relic from the past to the youth of today.

Increasingly the way we look at success as a musician is changing.  It used to be that success came when your band got signed to a label and when you were no longer with a label you had flamed out or failed completely. These days however you see bands holding celebratory concerts because they are free from their labels (see Techdirt's write up here)  With the digital age we are seeing success come in many different ways and it's no longer tied to the sale of shiny plastic discs.  Instead it's through downloads (illegal or legal) and concert sales.  The truly smart musician even realizes that if you connect with your fans and give them a reason to buy (CWF + RTB is all over Techdirt in case your interested) that you can find success in other ways.

Technology is changing the way we work.  It's taking out the middle man and allowing anybody with enough time, talent, and effort to make their own success.  You don't need the backing of label anymore which leads me to my point.  Often the media and then in turn the public view Record Labels as the Music Industry but that is all wrong.  The Record Labels make up a part of the Music Industry but they are not the whole thing.  In fact while the Record Labels are failing and growing more and more irrelevant the Music Industry is growing.  There are more music being made now more than ever.  There are entire websites devoted to just helping independent artists (see CDBaby.com) and without the Record Labels in the way musicians are making more revenue than ever before (see Techdirt again). 

I feel it's important to make this distinction because the Music Industry would like you to believe that they are victims of piracy when in fact they are victims of their own demise.  Instead of innovating to keep up with the world around them they chose to sue anyone caught downloading which alienated fans around the world.  The true innovators is the independent musician who is willing to try new business models.  That is the real success story here.  Why should we prop up the middle man when we could be encouraging the artist directly?  I support the idea that the money I spend on tickets, merchandise, or music goes into the pocket of the artists and not the label.  The more you look into the lies that the RIAA and Record Labels would like you to believe the more you see it just doesn't hold up.

What do you think the future of the Music Industry looks like?

There has been a lot of fuss lately over Facebook.  With over 500 million active users I am sure many of you on Xanga are also on Facebook.  you may or may not be aware of the recent changes to the privacy policy that Facebook has and even if you are aware you may not care.  I want to take the time to explain why you should.

Facebook started out as a closed system that was limited and private.  You couldn't even sign up without a College E-mail address (anything ending in .edu) which made it ideal for college students everywhere.  However as time has gone on Facebook as gone back on that notion and made it more open than anyone would have ever imagined.  Think about all the third parties that are looking for you to use "Facebook Connect" to register for their site.  It isn't to make registering for a site easy so much as it is for them to grab a lot of useful information about you and all your friends. 

That's right the problem really lies in that even if you never share your Facebook with out sites, and never play the goofy games like Farmville or Mafia Wars your friends could be selling your information out.

Those are all the things that your friends can shared about you.  I know it's not a good image but this is the text on that page.

"When your friend visits a Facebook Platform application or website, they may want to share certain information to make the experience more social. For example, a greeting card application may use your birthday information to prompt your friend to send a card.

If your friend uses an application or website that you do not use, you can control certain types of information the application can access. Please note that applications will be able to access your Name, Profile Picture, Gender, as well as any information that is visible to Everyone. They will also be able to access your Connections, except the Connections noted with an asterisk below. In those cases, although the information is considered a Connection, you can control whether an application can access it."

With all the choices on settings and controls this is easy to miss but a big deal.  It can share a lot of personal information about you without your permission.  Are you careful about the friends you keep on Facebook?  I know for myself I am not very choosy so I turn all of those settings off.   This is just one area though so how can you make sure that your privacy and personal information is safe on Facebook?  There are a few things that you can do.

1) Treat it like a public space that everyone can see.  I mean EVERYONE.  If you think your pastor/priest, mom or dad, or boss would be offended by what you have on there THEN GET RID OF IT!  Seriously think about what you put on there.

2) There are tools to help make it more private for you.  CNN had these listed:

"ReclaimPrivacy, a donation-based project, recently launched a tool that scans your Facebook page’s privacy settings. It alerts users when their privacy settings have defaulted to public.

SaveFace, which is free to install, automatically sets users’ settings - contact information, search settings, friends, tags, connections, personal information and posts - to “friends only.”

TinEye is not specifically for privacy conscious Facebook users. However, the reverse image search engine can be useful when looking to see if an image posted on Facebook has made its way across the Web. Simply upload a photo and let TineEye search the Web to see if the image has been used elsewhere.

Finally, there's OpenBook (warning: potentially offensive language), a site that doesn't exactly help you manage your Facebook privacy settings, but it might scare you into wanting to keep your info private. The site lets you search through public status updates. Some really embarrassing stuff shows up."

I found ReclaimPrivacy to be the best.  Check out OpenBook to see just how bad Facebook can be if your not careful.  There is plenty of private information that is easily found.  It's scary.

So be careful out there kids.  Be safe about what you post.  I personally love that Xanga gives me the option to make my blog friends only to control what gets out there.  I choose not to use that but I love the option.