TechMiso

TechMiso, our little crevice on the web, has been alive for only five months. In our short lifespan we have written what we believe to be insightful, helpful and at times visionary articles. A lot of these posts were overlooked as a result of our young age. Many of our favorite posts deserve a second chance to be read by our audience of Miso Soup lovers so I thought it would be fun to highlight twenty-five of my very own hidden gems from the past five months.

Apple

• Dreaming of an Apple Netbook. Everyone these days seems to be talking about Apple and their supposed forthcoming netbook – that Apple needs to release a netbook to remain viable in today’s market. The folks at MacFormat have sketched up what a potential Apple netbook may look like along with its possible specifications.
• The iPhone App Store is One Huge Joke. It seems that with every passing day there is yet another App Store nightmare, where a seemingly innocuous application is mysteriously rejected for ostensible violations of Apple’s App Store policies. Policies, mind you, which nary a soul appears to comprehend except the Lord Steve Jobs and Co. The most recent incident was profoundly egregious – an update to Tweetie was rejected merely because the application has the potential to display offensive language to users. The manner in which Apple has “managed” the App Store over the course of the past few months has lead me to draw a simple conclusion: the App Store is one huge joke!
• Is MobileMe Worthwhile If You Only Want to Sync Your iPhone? So you just purchased your iPhone after months of being on the ropes. You really wanted the sexiest mobile device man has ever created, but had reservations about the service provided by the mobile service provider. While the allure of a Blackberry was quite enticing, they just do not provide the same overall experience the iPhone offers. After hemming and hawing, you finally decide to take the plunge!
• Don’t Be a Dumbass – DRM-free Tracks from Apple Should Not Be Shared on P2P Networks. Apple recently announced that it has finally decided to move in to the DRM-free era by shattering the shackles off of all music sold at the iTunes Music Store. No longer will music purchased through iTunes be locked to the previously instituted 5-computer limit nor will there be restrictions on CD burning. One important aspect that has not, and will not, change is the use of watermarking to essentially “tie” the files to a particular consumer. Do not think that because the music files no longer contain DRM that you can up and hop on Limewire and start sharing these tracks with the world.

Blogging

• Communication Is Essential For A Successful Blogging Team. The most obvious aspect of a successful blog is exceptional, timely, relevant content. Your readers visit your blog or read your RSS feed because they are interested in the quality articles you post on a presumably regular basis. However, content production is not the only feature of a successful blog, especially when a team of writers is generating the blog content. One of the often under looked yet essential facets of team blogging is communication. Failure for the team to effectively and regularly communicate can lead to the destruction of a thriving venture.
• Finding Your Blogging Voice. One of the hardest things new bloggers have trouble with is finding their blogging voice – that is, how a post “sounds” to the readers and ensuring it accurately portrays who you are. After all, you are an interesting person with motivating experiences which will help enrich your readers’ lives. So not only is finding your voice tricky, it is the chief ingredient for a successful blog.
• Do You Have A Blogging Workflow? Are you an organized blogger, who methodically annotates links and takes meticulous notes to be used in the pursuit of an article? Or are you the unorganized type who hastily slaps an article together through chaotic machinations, like Monday rush-hour traffic? Not sure which realm you fall under?
• Blogging Tips for Bloggers with Full-Time Jobs. The decision to undertake blogging is a relatively easy decision in the grand scheme of things. Selecting a topic to write about, acquiring hosting, choosing software and a design for the site is fairly simple, especially if you have familiarity with blogging. The hardest part of maintaining a blog is writing with regularity. The difficulty level is magnified exponentially if you have a full-time job and come home to a family. How do you overcome the lack of time while sustaining your dream?

General Technology

• Why Is Hulu Bothering to Play Whack-A-Mole with Boxee? It apparently takes a special kind of executive to be in upper management in the entertainment industry. It would seem that one of the required job qualifications is a complete and utter lack of any form of technology competence. Every time a new technology company innovates the industry steps in with damage claims, often times issuing cease-and-desist letters or even filing pointless lawsuits against company’s which have found innovating ways to make the entertainment industry’s content more valuable.
• The Future of Music Is In The Clouds. The music industry is hell-bent on selling shiny little plastic discs rather than innovating in a space sorely in need of modernization. The litigation campaign so clumsily wielded by the geniuses behind the Recording Industry Association of America has done absolutely nothing to deter the rampant music piracy running amok through society today. If they truly desire to remain relevant, rather than focusing their efforts on the misleading “education campaign” the recording industry should be concentrating on the one area destined to be the future of music – cloud computing.
• Why is Whitelisting Absent from Telephones? The telephone has come a long way since its introduction in the late 1800’s. Throughout the years since its birth, the telephone has seen countless technological advances, leading up to the iPhone, arguably the most advanced telephone available today. Surely Alexander Graham Bell never conceived such a device would ever exist. But along with all these advancements, there is one striking feature eerily absent from the majority of telephones in service worldwide – whitelisting?
• We Do Not Need A New Internet. There has been a lot of talk over the last couple days since John Markoff published his New York Times article asking the world if a new Internet is necessary. I read the article in its entirety a number of times, both backwards, forwards and sideways, and can not for the life of me can not find any compelling reason for architecting a new internet. It seems, Markoff is either smoking crack or has no true understanding of the Internet.

Google

• Google is Not In Danger Thanks to The Pirate Bay Guilty Verdict. Late last week the verdict was announced in the most closely watched P2P related legal skirmish to date, the Swedish trial of the four administrators of The Pirate Bay. All of the defendants were found guilty of “assisting in making copyright content available” and received 1-year jail sentences and a fine totaling over $3.5m.
• Confessions of a Google Addict – Where Is My Google Dashboard? Waaaaay back in the day, on April 1, 2004, when Google originally published their press release regarding Gmail, announcing the company was testing a preview release of their web-based email product I was ecstatic. The holy grail had arrived – Google, our saviour, to rescue us from the evil web-based email providers has surely devised a far superior product, right?

Government

• Obama Administration Dims Transparent Government Hopes, Declares Proposed ACTA Treaty a “National Security” Secret. One of the significant promises Barack Obama made during his run up to the presidency was overturning the Bush era culture of White House and governmental secrecy. Americans, knowing full well there will never be a complete removal of political backroom drug-deals, were eager to see a more open, transparent government – a pledge Obama was intent on keeping. Unfortunately it appears the President has been unable to keep that promise, instead opting to allow his administration to play the national security card to keep details of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) out of the eyes of the general public.
• Obama’s Web Savvy Team Hitting Major Roadblocks. President Barack Obama ran arguably the most technologically advanced political presidential campaign in modern politics during the run up to the primaries in November 2008. Obama assembled an exceptionally savvy campaign team, making use of social networking, YouTube, blogging and other innovative methods of communicating with his [potential] supporters. This same team of clever technologists is apparently finding it quite challenging to adapt those effective techniques to the Federal government.
• Fleecing of the Government – IT Contractor Severely Overcharging for Classified Spillage Cleaning. Another day, another fine example of an IT contractor unnecessarily fleecing the government. This time we have EDS, the technology services company who administers the Navy/Marine Corp Intranet (NMCI), severely overcharging for “classified spillage” cleaning efforts.

HOWTO

• HOWTO Configure Apache for SSL with DoD CAC Authentication on Ubuntu 9.04. Administering Linux servers is an art form not mastered by many because it is mostly command-line driven. Windows on the other hand, while a highly complex beast, has taught most administrators that configuring can be accomplished through a simple point-and-click interface.
• HOWTO Use uTorrent as a Digital Video Recorder for Automated TV Show Downloading. BitTorrent is a powerful peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for downloading large-sized files from a variety of sources very quickly. One of the most popular uses for BitTorrent these days is for downloading TV shows. With so many people connecting their computers directly to a TV for the sole purpose of watching TV shows and movies, it quite practical to use an automated TV downloading workflow. The TechMiso Crew will teach you how to use uTorrent on Windows as a “digital video recorder” of sorts to automagically download TV shows as they are released online.
• Five Ways to Self-Host Your Own Lifestream. One of the online rages these days is aggregating web-based social interactions in to a single entity known as a lifestream. There are a number of methods for facilitating lifestreaming – services like FriendFeed are designed to aggregate content from around the web and keep users on their site, to micro-blogging services like Tumblr which offer a mix of a service provided solution with customization, to self-hosted lifestream blogs offering complete. In this article the TechMiso Chefs show you five ways to self-host your own lifestream.
• HOWTO Use WordPress to Create a Tumblr-like Tumblelog. WordPress is one of the most flexible content management systems available today, making it a highly attractive solution for just about any web-based need. Notwithstanding its price tag of FREE, WordPress is an exceptional framework, capable of powering just about any site imaginable. But because of its power and complexity, WordPress is rarely ever called in to service as a tumblelog even though it is a more than able tool for the task. If you have been dieing to to lifestream on your own terms, without being tied to a hosted service like FriendFeed or Tumblr, this might be just what the doctor ordered!

Social Networking

• Why is Twitter A Beneficial Service for the Average User? Over this weekend CNN was running one of their “Quick Vote” polls and the question was, “Do you use Twitter?” The overwhelming majority of respondents, approximately 94%, answered either “No” or “What’s Twitter?” compared to the meager 6% who stated they do use the micro-blogging service. The CNN audience reflects the average user, most of whom have no clue what the service is all about. So this begs the question, what benefits can the average user appreciate from using Twitter?
• iPhone Is The Killer Mobile Social Networking Device. The iPhone is the killer social networking device when mobile. The ability to easily and comfortably access email as well as a variety of popular social networking sites using native iPhone applications places the device squarely in the center of the social media triangle. While there are plenty of additional uses for the device, it almost seems pointless – why bother owning an iPhone if your usage goal does not involve some form of social networking?
• Observation of Facebook vs. Twitter Users. Facebook and Twitter are two completely different types of web sites. Facebook is a full-featured web-based service, offering a wide ranging set of capabilities – it is the epitome of a social networking service. On the other hand, Twitter merely offers the ability to update your status and nothing else. It seems each site appeals to a specific subset of users and for particular reasons. What is it about each site that makes it appealing and what types of users engage each site?
• RSS is Not Dead Yet and Twitter is Not Our Savior. As I was surfing through Google Reader in preparation of writing a post on a completely unrelated subject I happened across this craptastic piece of editorial bologna by Steve Gillmor at TechCrunchIT on the ostensible death of RSS. In his infinite wisdom Gillmor claims to have completely given up on his RSS reader in favor of Twitter. Whatever it is Steve is smoking it sure must be some good stuff because his barely coherent rant against RSS makes no sense at all.

Rich is working on a similar article highlighting his own extraordinary writing over the course of TechMiso’s short but exciting history. Expect to see his article posted within the next day or so.

We certainly hope you found some of the highlighted articles worthwhile and beneficial reading. Are there any stories in particular you feel we should have highlighted? Did we miss any gems worth adding? Or were there any you believe should have been left off this list?