A place to talk about technology

I recently ran across two amazing Web 2.0 online photo applications. While they may make you feel like you’re James Bond or Sydney Bristow, they may actually have usefulness in your daily life also.

ScanR

Finally a use for my cameraphone I can get behind. Aim, shoot, email the photo and receive a searchable PDF back in your inbox. How many times have I seen a magazine article, a paragraph from a book, or a sign I wanted to capture but didn’t want to write it down (or didn’t have my digital camera with me)?

ScanR’s technology includes character recognition and keyword identification so the PDF files are truly searchable documents. They also suggest using it to capture whiteboard information - what a great idea before you walk out of the meeting and the next group erases the whiteboard…

Riya

Wonder who those 100’s or 1000’s of faces are in your photos that you can’t identify? Wish you knew who the face was that kept showing up in the background of all your vacation photos?

Riya is an online photo management website with a twist. You can identify the faces of the people in your photos by name and Riya apply a facial recognition technology to match the face against any other photos in it’s database. Amazing technology…SCARY TECHNOLOGY.

This is not new technology. This is the first time (to my knowledge) someone has web-enabled this technology. Just imagine if Riya or some other company allows you to search the entire internet for any photos matching the facial recognition. A cursory search of Google Images or Flickr could catalog 10’s of millions of people. While we’re at it, why not throw in facial recognition on the video clips online as well. “Oh you weren’t at that concert? Well I can prove otherwise.” Shudder.

Tremendously powerful tools that the general public has at it’s fingertips. We live in incredible times.

Technorati Tags: steve watson, web2.0, privacy, pii, riya, scanr, pdf, photos, camera phone

New research analyzing how viewers read webpages presents interestesting findings for those who seek to communicate via this medium. Reseachers tracking the eye movements of found that:

Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe. Link

The implications are profound. If the research is accurate, most of the things on your webpage may not be looked at.

The research proposes that viewers read the horizontal line across the top of the page. Then a second horizontal line a little further down the page. Finally the viewer reads a vertical line on the left side of the page. This pattern makes a general F shape on page.

Users won’t read your text thoroughly in a word-by-word manner.

The first two paragraphs must state the most important information.

Start subheads, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words Link

Short, easy-to-read paragraphs near the top of the page. An informative, click to understand sidebar on the left of the page. These are factors that will affect how much of your page is read.

Article: F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content

Technorati Tags: steve watson, web2.0, web design

I’ve noticed the tech topics picking up on Voxtropolis. So I thought I’d try a straw poll.

“Vox techies out there? Please leave a comment!”

Are you in the tech industry? Tech hobbyist? What’s your technology background and focus?

I’ll go first in the comments below.

Technorati Tags: steve watson, voxtropolis, techie

Yesterday Microsoft released five security bulletins addressing ten vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer and five in Windows Explorer, MDAC, Outlook Express, and FrontPage. Some of the vulnerabilities addressed by these patches are very critical. A particular vulnerability for Internet Explorer (createTextRange) allows remote access and control of your computer via the internet.

Translation…if you go to the wrong page on the internet and you haven’t patched your system, someone can take control of your system and you won’t even know.

Microsoft releases security bulletins every Tuesday. Some Tuesdays are minor, some Tuesday have big release patches.

How do I update my system?
1. Go to the Microsoft page below and update the specific patches you need. (techies)
2. Go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com and run the necessary updates for your system. (everybody else)

Coming soon to this blog - Why should I care if my computer is secure?

News article: CNet - ‘Critical’ megapatch sews up 10 holes in IE
Microsoft page: Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for April, 2006

Technorati Tags: steve watson, microsoft, vulnerability, patching

Mozy.com offers a free account to backup 2GB of your data. Secure, encrypted, kept conveniently offsite. Presently only works for Windows XP.

Specifications:
Windows XP
2 GB (free account), 5GB (annual fee)
SSL tunnel from your box to their site
Blowfish 448-bit encryption on the site

Recommendations:
1. Set a secure password on your account so your data can’t be accessed.
2. Consider encrypting your data before uploading it to the web. Yes, theirs is encrypted but what if their site was compromised. Only upload unencrypted what you wouldn’t mind leaving on a parkbench.
3. Maybe it can be calendared to do automatic backups overnight.

Anybody out there using Mozy.com?

Technorati Tags: steve watson, backup, microsoft, mozy