a new threat on the horizon; global IT debt

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/092310-global-it-debt.html

So it appears that we have another threat on the horizon that few people would take into consideration, the global IT debt.  According to analysts for Gartner, the global IT debt is at 500 billion dollars and will reach 1 trillion by 2015.  This is an astronomically large number for such a seldom thought of maintenance and in the economy today as well as the dependence of corporations on IT, this cannot bear well for anyone.

This debt is basically the cost to keep corporate software up to date.  Corporate applications are updated to keep the software at the edge of technology.  Some of these applications are being prioritized as more important to update than others which is allowing many of these programs and backlog data warehouses to be dangerously out of date.  This debt is the cost to update this software, and because the software companies prioritize the systems they choose to update, it is creating not only a giant debt but a problem with old software.  Software companies should have a scheduled maintenance program for all of their products to help combat this problem.

Another issue at hand with this problem is that the software departments are not doing a good job of keeping up with the review process and inventory of the required maintenance, which is causing the problem and debt to grow without their knowledge.  This is a very large problem.  The fact that these companies cannot even keep up with their own products is alarming in that this kind of maintenance, one would think, would come standard with such a large corporate purchase.  If this number keeps on being hidden and is not taken into consideration soon, there could be major consequences in the IT world for those who take these things so easily for granted.

Blog on diddybeats headphones

Being a Dj for 4 years, I understand the difference in quality in headphones.  For someone who has not experienced a high quality sound system in headphones before, it will blow your mind if you able to hear the difference in levels, bass distortion, and background suffocation.  Cheap headphones have several drawbacks: poor distinction of clear levels, distortion, too much bass compared to the other levels, some are not comfortable, and most are easily tangled.  It appears that monster cable's new diddybeats headphones take all of this into consideration with their new product and really shine.
   The most important thing in a quality headphone is just that, quality.  I don’t care about looks as long as they give me the quality sound experience i want out of my music.  According to the article, the headphones give a great performance when listening to music in the mid to upper bit range choices, which refers to the encryption process of the music.  Being a Dj i download and buy music of the best quality, and therefore would find these headphones a great buy.   192 kilobytes per second is my norm, although lossless audio is by far the best but harder to find and more expensive, but lower quality ear buds lose sharpness in sound when playing at these levels, which this headphone seemingly does not.   Another interesting thing the author noted is that he never has turned the ear buds up past the mid volume setting, which i really like because i love to blare my music.

     On top of sound quality, these headphones offer some new and interesting technology.  I hate to untangle headphones but am seemingly doing this all the time.  These headphones eliminate this problem by having a flat, rubberized cable that becomes untangled very quickly.  If this actually works, it would fix a major hassle.  Another interesting note is that monster cable lets a little knowledge out that the average Joe might not know.  Speakers require a break in time to fully use their range of sound, and the manual advises that 20 hours of play is the time required to meet this potential.  The author says that this is definitely true, which is a good piece of knowledge for any novice to understand.

     A downside to these earphones is the size of the bud.  The author states that they are loose in the ear and often fall out, and also fit funny into smaller ear canals.  They also state that due to the flat cable, it is not possible to wrap the cable around the ear to prevent this.  However, the headphones come with 8 different earpieces to fit different sizes and shapes of ears, which are 6 more than i have ever seen in any other equipment.  It also comes in a very nice felt case that the author says is easy to carry.  If the fact that the earpieces to not fit well deters some, let it be said that you shouldn't be bringing 180 dollar headphones to the gym anyway, these babies are made for the home or walking only.

     It appears that this is a quality product with many new attributes.  The cord is something i am particularly interested in.  180 dollars is a lot for a piece of equipment like this, but once someone understands the difference high quality can make, they can understand that it is well worth the investment.

technology rant

Oh how the world is changing. It cannot be understated how technology is creating a homogenized planet, allowing people from across the world to communicate and interact in unprecedented ways. That this is entirely a good thing, however, remains to be seen.


Certain retailers are using the fact that the majority of marketable people utilize a hand held device of some sort to "get closer to the customer." Emails on sales, discounts, and offers seem to be popping up everywhere. The fact that I am being profiled based on my digital fingerprint is alarming, and more often than not, is off the mark. I can appreciate the fact that businesses are doing there best to mold to what they think are my preferences, and in many ways this does make shopping easier, but sometimes I feel that I would prefer a less invasive method. The WSJ article is interesting in the lengths that some stores are going to in order to make store shopping a continued practice, but online shopping is so much less of a hassle that at some point it may not be worth the amount of time and money spent on the technology. If a mirror could tell me my exact size for a certain garment and profile other clothes I might be interested in, then that might be an idea that I would be interested in, especially if it would reduce the need for terribly harassing salespeople. On the whole, this movement towards an experience that is closer to the specific shopper is inevitable and positive, but I hope certain precautions are taken before going too far.

As far as having an app for my phone that tells people my location, I am powerfully against it. While this does seem novel and useful, I really don’t want people to know where I am at all times. It is somewhat scary to think that we live in a society that has an app that can tell where you are. How much control can we give technology? It may seem like a Hollywood fantasy, but how unfeasible are ideas like terminator and the Matrix? If technology is given such increased control, who is setting the laws on where it stops?

My final rant is on how technology is homogenizing the world. I am all for the continued advancement of communication. Google and Skype have now made it cheap and easy to talk around the world. This is great, but at some point it will aid in the loss of specific culture that will cease to exist with a smaller world. A bad example of this is specific regional accents. When a specific person lives in a society with a vastly different accent from their own, they gradually lose their unique accent as they begin to pick up on the phrases and sayings of their new surroundings. Is this happening to the world as it becomes such a smaller place? You might think not, but I think it is a tragic inevitability to these advancements. How much farther down the road will it be before we have an app that acts as a perfect voice translator for talk between two otherwise non-communicating individuals because of a language barrier? I believe as the need for a second language continues to rise in the world today that this is closer than we think. I look forward to the possibilities of increased communication on a global scale, but hope that it does not do so at the cost of what makes each specific person unique.