Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,524 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 74 of 153).

Now that Little Raleigh Radio is on the online air, what can you actually hear? | Music Feature | Indy Week

Indy Week ran another great story on Little Raleigh Radio, this one focusing on the programming we’ve been “airing” during our preview phase. It feels great to know that people are paying attention!

For nearly five years, Kelly Reid and Jacob Downey had dreamed of and planned for what happened at 4 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 17.Tucked away in a small studio off of St. Mary’s Street, the pair finally took Little Raleigh Radio—their brainchild of a station dedicated to local news, music and interests—online.

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via Now that Little Raleigh Radio is on the online air, what can you actually hear? | Music Feature | Indy Week.

What I’ve learned about Google Fiber – Lori Bush – Cary Town Council, At-Large Representative

Cary Town Councilmember Lori Bush discusses what she learned from last week’s visit to the Triangle by Google Fiber representatives.

There’s been a lot of excitement about Google Fiber coming to the Triangle – and I have to admit that I’m on that band wagon. I’ve received more than 100 separate emails from Cary citizens, excited about this possibility!If you’d like to read more about our Cary position on this announcement, the Town has a FAQ on Google Fiber. You can also check out the Open Letter to Cary Citizens from our Mayor.Last week, I met with Google Fiber representatives about their plans for the Triangle, and to learn more. They were in town to meet with the municipalities about the “check list” of items that will make it easier for them to decide if Google Fiber will go forward in this area.Here is what I learned in that meeting.

via What I’ve learned about Google Fiber – Lori Bush – Cary Town Council, At-Large Representative.

Fiber letter runs in N&O

I wrote a letter to the editor last week after being amazed at all the buzz that was going around about Google considering the Triangle for Google Fiber. It created huge buzz, even though we’re not a sure bet to get it and whatever fiber Google does lay down won’t be lit for at least a year.

Here’s my short-but-sweet letter:

News that Google Fiber might bring gigabit Internet to the Triangle brought to mind the stir that must have accompanied the arrival of the railroad. Sure, a horse and buggy will get you there, but the future rides on fiber optics.

Mark Turner
Raleigh

Why Apple’s Recent Security Flaw Is So Scary

I can’t say for sure whether the National Security Agency had anything to do with this Apple security flaw but it is certainly something the NSA could readily exploit. All the Agency needed to do is control a router between its target and the target’s destination and it would have clear view of the supposedly encrypted traffic.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: America no longer has a monopoly on world-class cryptographers (if it ever did). By encouraging these types of flaws, our government leaves us vulnerable to attacks from foreign nations. Instead, our cryptographers should be working to make American software as secure as it can be.

I hope Apple will track down the developer responsible for this colossal blunder and fire him or her on the spot.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and it’s what helps ensure that communication between your browser and your favorite websites’ servers remains private and secure. TLS, or Transport Layer Security, is a more recent protocol that does essentially the same. In brief, SSL/TLS is a cryptographic key that lets a browser and a server know they are who they say they are, a secret digital handshake that keeps your financial information safe when you make an Amazon payment or log into wellsfargo.com.

This all happens in the background; your only direct interaction with SSL/TLS is when you notice the lock icon in your search bar has clamped shut. That means you’ve got a direct, private, secure line.

The Apple bug in question—which, again, has been patched in iOS but not yet in OS X, though Apple tells Reuters that fix is coming "very soon"—means that Safari or one of these other affected applications can’t actually know for sure if the servers it’s talking to are who they say they are. Which leaves you and everything you transmit over the web vulnerable to a Man in the Middle attack.

via Why Apple's Recent Security Flaw Is So Scary.

Don’t drink the water: Translated travel tips for coming to America | Compass – Yahoo Travel

This is a very funny and insightful look at how foreigners view America.

Travelers love coming to America, a land many of them have seen via exports from Hollywood. They rave about the landscapes, the recreational opportunities, the vibrant cities and the culture.

But like international travelers anywhere, foreigners visiting the United States from other countries can be flummoxed by some of what they encounter. Fortunately, their fellow travelers have plenty of advice. The picture they paint portrays Americans as relentlessly cheerful yet sensitive folks who just might raid your fridge.

What outsiders say about the U.S. will strike an American as very true, very strange, or both. Here with some help from Google Translate are some travel advice gems from around the world.

via Don’t drink the water: Translated travel tips for coming to America | Compass – Yahoo Travel.

Gallup: “Immediate Supervisor is Number One Reason Why Employees Leave”

Hmm.

Often times, people who do well at their jobs are promoted to a management position in which they lack the skills and experience to manage. And these new managers may not even realize they are doing a poor job. These bad bosses lead to financial losses for the company and employees with low morale.

via Gallup: “Immediate Supervisor is Number One Reason Why Employees Leave” | NorthStar360 Business Solutions LLC.

5 reasons why you shouldn’t work too hard

Nice look at what we Americans are losing in our insistence in becoming slaves to work.

The first time the commercial aired during the Opening Ceremonies in Sochi, the slight pause after those two questions made me hopeful. I sat up to listen closely.

Was he about to say – we should be more like that? Because Americans work among the most hours of any advanced country in the world, save South Korea and Japan, where they’ve had to invent a word for dying at your desk. Karoshi. Death from Overwork. We also work among the most extreme hours, at 50 or more per week. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average American works about one month more a year than in 1976.

Was he going to say that we Americans are caught up in what economist Juliet Schor calls a vicious cycle of “work-and-spend” – caught on a time-sucking treadmill of more spending, more stuff, more debt, stagnant wages, higher costs and more work to pay for it all?

via 5 reasons why you shouldn’t work too hard.

Everyone In The Tech And TV Industries Is Passing Around This Speech By Kevin Spacey – Business Insider

House of Cards star Kevin Spacey explains why the traditional TV model is quickly going extinct. This five minute excerpt of one of his recent speeches is well worth watching.

Everyone in the tech industry is passing around this video of Kevin Spacey talking about how Netflix and other tech companies will blow up the traditional TV industry. In an edited version of Spacey’s speech below, he touches on how Netflix, which has produced a handful of excellent original series this year, has the potential to disrupt the traditional cable and network TV model of forcing content creators to make a pilot before accepting a show.For example, Spacey says there will be 146 pilots made this year at the cost of $300-$400 million. Only 56 of those will actually be made into a series. "That makes our ‘House of Cards’ deal for two seasons really cost effective," Spacey says in the speech.

via Everyone In The Tech And TV Industries Is Passing Around This Speech By Kevin Spacey – Business Insider.

How To Stop Facebook From Tracking You – Business Insider

Facebook’s cookies track you across the web. Here’s advice on how to curb Facebook’s appetite for your information.

Most people don’t realize that Facebook can continue to monitor their internet activity, even if they are no longer logged into the site.Using "Facebook Connect," and other social plug-ins, Facebook is able to set up a cookie on any site that has a "Like" or "share" button, giving Facebook access to a startling amount of user information. Technically, the purpose of these plug-ins is to authenticate users, but it still has the ability to collect personal information such as the IP address of your computer, browsing data, outside login information, phone numbers, etc.

via How To Stop Facebook From Tracking You – Business Insider.

Official Blog: Exploring new cities for Google Fiber

Google Fiber coming to Raleigh?

Google Fiber coming to Raleigh?


Google is considering the Triangle area for its next rollout of Google Fiber! As a veteran of the broadband fights here in North Carolina and the founder of the Bring Google Fiber to Raleigh! Facebook group, I am thrilled that we’re being considered for this.

Last week’s snowstorm provided me a perfect use case for Google Fiber. I was itching to organize a musical jam session with a few neighbors only travel conditions were too dangerous to all get together in one place. While one can do video chats with our current, abysmally-slow broadband connections, playing in time with others remotely requires highly-synchronized connections. These could be done with low-bandwidth and exorbitantly-priced ISDN circuits or on high-bandwidth, uncompressed fiber networks like Google Fiber.

I think adding Google Fiber to our area’s mix will benefit our musicians as much as our techno-geeks, pharmaceutical scientists and our other traditional area jobs.

Over the last few years, gigabit Internet has moved from idea to reality, with dozens of communities PDF working hard to build networks with speeds 100 times faster than what most of us live with today. People are hungrier than ever for faster Internet, and as a result, cities across America are making speed a priority. Hundreds of mayors from across the U.S. have stated PDF that abundant high-speed Internet access is essential for sparking innovation, driving economic growth and improving education. Portland, Nashville PDF and dozens of others have made high-speed broadband a pillar of their economic development plans. And Julian Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, declared in June that every school should have access to gigabit speeds by 2020.

We’ve long believed that the Internet’s next chapter will be built on gigabit speeds, so it’s fantastic to see this momentum. And now that we’ve learned a lot from our Google Fiber projects in Kansas City, Austin and Provo, we want to help build more ultra-fast networks. So we’ve invited cities in nine metro areas around the U.S.—34 cities altogether—to work with us to explore what it would take to bring them Google Fiber.

via Official Blog: Exploring new cities for Google Fiber.