I'm Gina Smith

A little Kipling for Memorial Day. Let's keep our heads about us.

 

By Rudyard Kipling.

If If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on"; If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Jake Shikamaburo and Char jamming -- amazing.

Okay, wait, it does get better. Jake with CHAR. WOW. More rock and bluesy. I love this version of Something, too.

 

Jake Shikamuro with California Guitar Trio (jazzy)

Does it get better?

 

BREAKING: Microsoft MANGO news, what's up with the Windows Phone 7 upgrade.

We're posting now on BYTE Unplugged. And then I've got to get back to editing! BYTE coming back in July -- www.byte.com for details.

For all of us at teamBYTE, I'm Gina Smith : )

gs

 

You've got to wonder what the PSN outage will mean to corporate customers of others Sony products w/networks. Today, another hack -- in Japan. When will the madness stop?

What BYTE editors do in the middle of the night.

We edit all night. And laugh while doing it. Launching BYTE -- relaunching it -- is a blast. Here's me laughing at a funny remark in a deeptech that's going in on launch date. Below, on Skype, where we work (because he is in MN and I'm in San Francisco), you can see my Executive Editor, Brian Burgess.

 

 

From Steve Wozniak's jokelist.

Top Ten Things To Do Before The World Ends

Some theologians predict that The Rapture will occur on Saturday, with the good people swept up to Heaven and the bad people left behind to wait for the world to end. Just in case these predictions turn out to be correct, here is a checklist of the top 10 things to do before The Rapture occurs (assuming you're one of the good people).

10. Lock the house. Considering the caliber of people who will be left behind, your electronic equipment would be gone by midday Sunday.

9. Put gas in the car. You don't want it sitting around for all eternity with a near-empty tank. Plus, think how high gas prices might be by the time you see that car again.

8. Mow the lawn. You wouldn't want it looking ratty and overgrown when the world ends. Pick up the pine cones, too.

7. Feed the fish. We know that dogs are leaving and cats are being left behind, but cats can take care of themselves. They're resourceful. We don't know the fate of the fish, and they're pretty helpless swimming around in that aquarium with no food.

6. Dress nicely. Doesn't have to be formalwear. A nice pair of jeans and sneakers should be fine. But, you know, look presentable. Kids, don't look all punk or all trashy. You're going to be wearing these clothes for a long, long time. Don't pick something you'll regret down the line. Some jewelry is fine, but don't go overboard - you don't want to look like you're trying to "take it with you."

5. Set the DVR.

4. Have vital papers on you. Driver's license, passport. There will be a lot of souls being processed, and you want to avoid confusion.

3. If you use glasses, contact lenses or hearing aids, keep them nearby. If The Rapture happens a few minutes ahead of schedule, you'd hate to be caught unprepared and have to spend all of eternity squinting to read and asking people to repeat themselves.

2. Put a few bucks in the charity jar on the counter at 7-Eleven. Just in case you're on the bubble.

1. Leave a note for your idiot neighbor: "Ha ha, I made it and you didn't. So long, doofus."

Copyright © 2011, Newport News, Va., Daily Press

BYTE Unplugged on RIM Playbook. FAIL?

Brian Burgess reports on the RIM Playbook on BYTE Unplugged. FAIL? Click here for raw copy from teamBYTE contributors on news until the BYTE site launches.

UNCUT BYTETV Gina Smith's interview with VMware's Noah Wasmer.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TechWebTV?feature=mhum

BYTE Unplugged -- teamBYTE launch editors posting now ...

.. breaking stories, doing news analysis, reviews and live streaming coverage on tech before BYTE arrives in July. Check it out here.

Here's the video (short version) of my interview with VMware's product manager of advanced systems, Noel Wasmer, on the Horizon App Manager. It's the first part of Project Horizon, the virtual workspace VMware's been talking about since last summer.
[10:06:18 PM] Gina Smith:

Apple's Mac OS X Lion preview 3 out to developers -- note is according to sources.

Among other things, Apple warns you to back up your system before installing it : ) No upgrading from Lion Developer Preview 3 to final Lion release.

My sounces say Mac OS X Lion has a so-called Recovery HD, used in place of an installation DVD. It has Disk Utility, etc. To shut down, you hold  ⌘-R while booting ...

There's also a way to move PC data via setup and migration assist apps, sources say. But you have to download the migration assistant app for the pc from the mac dev center : )

There are some known problems with this release, but that's cool. It's a PREVIEW. 

- The Recovery HD may not always work with unsupported partitions.

- You can't use it on a RAID. Really, don't. The LION installer can make the volume non-bootable.

-  Network migrations supported: Only Mac OS X v10.6.6 (probably with the migration assistant update installed, too).

- Developers have to manually install Java for MAC OS X 10.7 from the developer link at Apple. Cripes.

Apple is collecting bug reports. I'm expecting to get screenshots from sources soon : ) Stay tuned!

gs

 

My upcoming book, which I cowrote with Herta Von Stiegel, is coming out soon. Here's a sneak peek. The Mountain Within ... it's a leadership book with lessons coming out of Herta's inspiring trips up some amazing REAL mountains.

BYTE Unplugged: PlayStation Network Update Now Available (Update)

Raw copy from BYTE senior editor Jacob Lopez

BY JACOB LOPEZ 

After some radio silence, Sony has posted an update on their official blog. Today, users trying to log into PlayStation Network will be asked to download a mandatory update for firmware version 3.61. Whether this is an indication that the service is fully returning later today or sometime this weekend isn't entirely clear at the moment. We're willing to bet that by later tonight we will be able to sign in. Fingers crossed. Though it may not be up to full capacity, we expect that the main features of the service will be available.

This is the first time since a small update on May 10th that we hear an official word from Sony. Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) did announce that their gaming services have been restored. SOE runs apart from PSN, but it's a good indication that Sony may be ready to roll out the rest of their services in the near future.

This comes after nearly four weeks of downtime for the network. It looks as if the light at the end of the tunnel may be near! We will update further if the service returns.

Update 1: Sony officially announced that they are restoring PlayStation Network. The rollout isn't happening instantly. It's being restored by regions. Online multiplayer will be the first part of the service to return.

  

 

Sony also has a map that is being updated as service returns. They note that as states become illuminated, service is returning to those areas, but add that "If your state is illuminated but your service has not yet been restored, please be patient – it can take a little while for the servers to populate fully."

You can view the map here. Be warned that millions of North American PlayStation Network users are no doubt hitting the refresh button repeatedly.

Sony has additional information on their official PlayStation Blog.

You can follow additional updates at Gina Smith's BYTE unplugged.

 

Wednesday Feature: 10 random songs i heard last.

Here are the last 10 songs that played on my iPhone, randomly.

1. All Day Breakfast (Audio interview with Jim Morrison at a concert, where Stones are playing in the background!)

2. Polythene Pam (Beatles, Abbey Road)

3. Infected (The The, who I hear now has a twitter account!)

4. Clairaudients (Bright Eyes, off Casadaga. Incidentally, that is a village of fortune-tellers located not far from my hometown of Ormond Beach,Florida).

5. Gently Weeps (Jake Shikamaburo, off Let's Dance. Incredible electric ukelele rock. Must hear!)

6. Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell, off Shine.)

7. Four Sticks (Led Zeppelin IV)

8. Heading for the Light (Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1. Thanks Ron Posner, for that song. It's great)

9. Black Water (The Doobie Brothers: Best Of) Oh, Mississipi, you're calling my name ...

10. Welcome to the Machine (Pink Floyd, off Wish You Were Here.)

The last is still playing and I wish you all were here to hear it! Thanks for reading the IGS blog since 2003. Greatly appreciate it.

gs

Hands-on with Google's Music Beta (thanks Brian Burgess, aka mysticgeek)

So I received a passcode to get Google's Music Beta at the Google i/o conference and handed it off to my colleague, Brian Burgess. He's my executive editor here at the relaunching BYTE.

He rocked it.

Check it out. If you comment on his hands on preview of this new cloud service, which I'd love, please do it on the site.

Expect deeptech coverage from other members of teamBYTE here and in the personal tech area of IWK in the weeks before BYTE launches.

To BYTE!

The Microsoft-Skype Deal: Five Reasons It Isn't Good for You

I cringed last night when I saw the rumor that Microsoft would be purchasing Skype. Now that it's out -- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Skype CEO Tony Bates took the stage at Google i/o today to announce the $8.5 billion deal -- it's time to dig in.

Here are five reasons this deal will be no good for Skype users inside and outside the enterprise.

1. Bad for privacy. Many Skype users don't know this, but Skype preserves a history of every text conversation. You know this if you have more than one computer running Skype. You have to run around clearing history on each one to delete just your history of the conversation on all devices. Skype urgently needs to fix this. The Microsoft purchase will put that on the back burner. Skype for enterprise is a no-go now and will continue to be so, despite Microsoft's Communicator and Lync. It's just too insecure.

2. Bad for call quality. If you didn't care that Skype servers (or your company's) were saving your skype conversations, you probably loved Skype for its quick service and ability to host so many users. Skype, at last count, reported 170 million monthly customers. Microsoft, by integrating Skype into Xbox Live, Windows mobile and Bing, will add far more people to the service. Also, Microsoft has a big investment in Facebook, so expect to see Skype there, too. I see Skype very quickly turning into a miserable Twitter situation, with the system constantly freezing up due to traffic. This might be Microsoft's biggest acquisition ever, but that doesn't mean Microsoft is agile enough to deal with the inevitable traffic problems that will come from adding so many more people to Skype.

3. Bad for investors. The Skype IPO, as planned by its board members, would've rocketed. Skype, not yet profitable, has said it would do about a billion dollars in revenue this year. Looks like revenues have slowed if the company would sell out to Microsoft. Moreover, under a behemoth like Microsoft, Skype will improve its service more slowly and get sucked down into corporate sloth.

4. Bad for customers. Microsoft says it will keep the service free, but I don't believe it. Do you? Seriously? Also, see above.

5. Bad for the industry. Now begings the VoIP wars, where Microsoft, Google and Apple will all begin competing with different and differing standards for a slice of users, instead of at least collaborating on a set of standards that unite the market.

Microsoft is known for buying companies, keeping them around for awhile until all IP is transferred over, then killing them. I don't believe that will happen here. The Skype brand is too strong now for that.

But unless you're an investor in Skype, there's almost nothing good in the Microsoft purchase of Skype for you.

What do you think? Email me at gina@ginasmith.com and check out upcoming BYTE at www.BYTE.com.

Follow me on Twitter at @byte and @ginasmith888.

gs

 

 

BYTE's prelaunch Sony coverage as it breaks!

Jacob is a senior editor from BYTE -- site is relaunching in July. Check out BYTE.com. In the meantime, he'll be posting his raw news coverage on the SONY PSN issue from right here. Jacob was there when it happened and gives the story, as it unrolls, deep perspective. 

gs

Watch for the relaunching BYTE blog ...

Behind the scenes at the re-launch of the most venerated brand in tech history. By NYT best-selling author and BYTE technologist, Ron White.

BYTE unplugged: PSN to remain down until the end of the month (Update: Sony Responds)

 

Raw copy from BYTE senior editor Jacob Lopez

BY JACOB LOPEZ 

Bloomberg reports that Sony's online services, which include PlayStation Network and Qriocity, may not return until May 31st. The official word, they say, comes from Sony spokesperson Shigenori Yoshida, who spoke with Bloomberg over the phone.

The service was shut down by Sony on April 20th after they detected an unauthorized intrusion. Since then, Sony has been slow to come up with answers, angering customers. The service is nearing its fourth week of downtime as the company works to rebuild their online infrastructure, something they say won't be completed until they are certain that their system is secure. Sony's online services hold approximately 100 million user accounts, any of which may have been compromised. The breach has raised concerns over online security.

Update: We've reached out to Sony Computer Entertainment for comment on the matter and will update if we hear back.

Update 2: Chuck Lacson, associate product marketing manager, SCEA, wrote back with the following, "I haven't heard anything that supports that.  Speculation at this point." We will update if we hear more.

[Via Bloomberg]

The big day is today. Eric's first concert with the San Francisco Boys' Chorus. It's also international children's day : )

BYTE unplugged: PSN news from the field BREAKING NEWS Jacob Lopez

News and perspective, here's the raw copy coming in from BYTE senior editor Jacob Lopez.

BY JACOB LOPEZ 

Byte Sr. Editor

BREAKING: Hackers have posted names and partial addresses of 2,500 sweepstakes contestants that had come out of the 100 million accounts on Sony’s online services. Sony is taking the names down, it says, and delaying plans to relaunch PSN.

Just give me my damned Portal 2 co-op.

On Wednesday, April 20th I tried to log into PlayStation Network (PSN) to enjoy some Portal 2 co-op with a buddy. This was supposed to be a huge week, because this game is the first to feature Steam (Valve’s online game distribution service) integration with PSN. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen--gamers were met with error code 80710A06.

After some Googling, I decided to search Twitter, because I had a feeling something may be wrong with the network (though I’d be lying if I said I had any clue as to how serious it was). Several Twitter users were reporting issues with PSN, and I knew that it was a network outage at that point.

Sony danced around the truth a bit and posted on their official blog at first saying they didn’t know what the issue was. It wasn’t until three days later that they admitted that their system had been breached. Three days after that, they finally discovered that information had been compromised. It was pretty serious at this point. No Portal 2 co-op for me. Damn…

Sony’s slow release of information was what bothered their customers. I think everyone can deal with having to change their credit card or debit card. It’s a minor inconvenience--it’s not identity theft. Sony continued to drag their feet with the updates, and we still don’t have a firm date on when PSN will be up.

BYTE: PSN DELAYED: Hackers first threaten, then PUBLISH stolen Sony Data.

Look, I'm a newshound. You may know I'm launch editor for the soon-to-be relaunced BYTE. (More at BYTE.com)   What you don't know is I have about 60, simply kick-ass senior editors and contributors contributing the most authoritative, geeky and actionable tech journalism to BYTE RIGHT NOW. But before we launch, I don't want you to miss a bit of breaking news. BYTE, launching in July, will revive the old soul of BYTE's edgy, deeptech and authoritative journalism for in= 21st century form.   You'll realize how much you missed it, watch. But about the news ... But now, as I speak daily with my team that includes everyone from our most senior Jerry Pournelle to our youngest podcaster, born in 1991, I have amazing BREAKING NEWS coming. And nowhere to put it quickly. As a news hound, I say BYTE has to get it out first -- even before BYTE launches. Our intrepid senior editor, Jacob Lopez, skyped me a few minutes after the PSN went down the first time in April. He was right there and has had his nose in the story ever since. I asked him tonight to post his breaking news on what's going on now that's breaking -- and perspective on went down as he witnessed it, play by play. BREAKING NOW: Sony said it removed the info of the 25,000 sweepstake contestants posted by hackers and is still suspending service. What went on? How did it go down? This in wake of leaks an hour ago that Sony would be hacked, and the hackers publishing the names and info thousands of sweepstaker holders minutes later. THIS STORY IS HUGE AND GETTING HUGE. BYTE'll give you the bottom line on it even before it launches. Our Jacob Lopez was at his PSN when it went down and has followed it minute by minute ever since. Watch this space for that story and more from BYTE editors, contributors and technologists now - just days before BYTE relaunches and  brings real in-depth, authoritative tech journo to people who love it. @BYTE BYTE IS BACK. gs

 

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. I lost many first-degree relatives to this horrific ethnic cleansing, my affected family included Roma victims and partisans working against Nazis in Former Yugoslavia.

We can never forget the Holocaust.