According to this chart Wi-Fi Display dongles using miracast at best have 3X more latency than HDMI cables. I think that makes it a poor cable replacement for full time computing.#

Episode 548 of Security Now provides some good technical information about iOS encryption and the technical issues relating to the Apple v. FBI case.#

Salon: "Poorly written and atrociously reasoned, Citizens United rests on three simple, absurd precepts: Money is speech; corporations are people; and corruption is OK so long as it is sanctioned. OK, the third one isn’t so simple, but it sure is absurd. It pertains to what Justice Kennedy, the opinion’s author, calls “soft” corruption, by which he means the entire system: big donors, lobbyists, lush retreats, revolving doors, exorbitant speaking fees. The whole shebang."#

January 21, 2010 may be the day the music died. #

I think one huge mistake we as citizens of the United States make is assume that the republic the Constitution creates will always exist. It is at risk now more than ever with every branch of our government corrupted. Checks and balances really no longer exists, the Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court makes this clear to me. The theatre we see in replacing Justice Scalia is further evidence. #

Macworld: "The question isn’t why Apple doesn’t want to unlock the device; it’s why wasn’t this device managed. Why wasn’t a device owned by a government entity being managed by that government entity? And, to personalize this a bit, what are you doing to take control of your devices?"#

Bruce Schneier: "The FBI's demands are specific to one phone, which might make its request seem reasonable if you don't consider the technological implications: Authorities have the phone in their lawful possession, and they only need help seeing what's on it in case it can tell them something about how the San Bernardino shooters operated. But the hacked software the court and the FBI wants Apple to provide would be general. It would work on any phone of the same model. It has to."#

In the piece above Schneier states that the FBI wants to frame the debate as security vs. privacy while the technology industry wants to frame it as security vs. surveillance. I see the issue as something much more fundamental, whether or not we have a right to our identity. Strong encryption is our single defense against identity theft, and we cannot afford to have that encryption put at risk. #

Android Wear 1.4 has been released for the Moto 360 (1st Generation) but I have yet to receive it, and it can't come soon enough. This version of Android Wear is based on Marshmallow and includes Doze, which I hope significantly improves battery life. Battery life is once again becoming a big problem on my Moto 360, and I am growing tired of the issue.#

Wired: "Rubin has a theory that humanity is on the cusp of a new computing age. Just as MS-DOS gave way to Macintosh and Windows, which gave way to the web, which gave way to smartphones, he thinks the forces are in place to begin a decades-long transition to the next great platform: artificial intelligence."#

Real Personal Computing: personal computing = hardware + software (apps) + Internet + intelligence#

Computing is on the verge of getting really personal.#

Mark Cuban: "Not only are 20-something entrepreneurs starting companies with a social component , 20 – Something consumers are EXPECTING a social component from companies they do business with."#

Rubio's Whole Career Probably Ended Last Night. Another lobbyist is born.#

Twitter's new timeline is here, and it's all about the algorithm.#

Never miss important Tweets from people you follow.#

While I use RSS to monitor web sites, I also use Twitter to find the latest news and information. What I like about RSS is that it will aways be in reverse chronological order because it is open enough to enable people to make it so for themselves. I stopped using the Twitter app for Android because I could no longer rely on it to provide information in reverse chronological order.#

Windows 10 update history - Windows Help.#

USB-C Compliant Cables - Nexus 6p, Nexus 5x, and OnePlus 2 USB Cables.#

Amazon.com: Profile for Benson Leung. Use this profile to confirm whether a USB-C product on Amazon is compliant to the USB-C spec.#

Caches to Caches: "being able to program can only ever be as important as recognizing when writing code to accomplish a task will be worthwhile." The context of this quote is an article in which the author suggests there may be parts of how we teach programming that are not correct. We see a similar scenario in corporate IT that is often called build vs. buy. Can I buy a software package that provides the functionality I need, or should I build it myself? In my opinion, too many companies build no software, but change the basic functionality of what they bought to the extent the base product is nearly unrecognizable and practically unsupportable. It's a process designed to create technical debt. #

Another fundamental problem is that programming alone is not valued by corporations, programming is what these companies buy from "low cost" countries. To succeed computer scientists need to see themselves as problem solvers who have in their tool bag the methodology of programming to enable them to solve those problems. #

My recommendation to any student working on a computer science degree is to broaden your skills so that the work you perform cannot be sent offshore, and absolutely do not see yourself as a programmer. #

BGR says to recommend the BLU Life 8 XL but I cannot recommend a phone that only has 8 GB of storage, even if it only costs $100. In my opinion BGR ought to know better. 8 GB is simply not enough storage, particularly after what Android will use of it, and while you can expand it with a micro SD, I am skeptical that micro SD will provide the same degree of performance as internal storage. #