2012 archive
Nov 19
FIR #678 – 11/19/12 – For Immediate Release
Nov 18
Embracing Simplicity In Blogging
What if a blog post is simply text? No fancy images. No links to additional articles... except maybe one or two that might provide the immediate context (and perhaps not). Can I truly write that way?
As I wrote about last week, one of the steps I will be trying this next while will be to do exactly that - write posts like this one that are just... simple. Perhaps even... (gasp!).... brief!
In this case, I am using the Blogsy editor on my iPad. For tonight, I am not going to go out and find just the perfect image that illustrates simplicity. I will leave it as a block of text.
Can I eliminate all the trappings of what I consider to be "what should be done" in a blog post? Can I instead embrace the simplicity and just let my words flow?
Stay tuned... this will be an ongoing test... :-)
Nov 17
Using iRecorder on the iPhone For Quick Podcasts – With WiFi Transfer
On Friday I read an email from Shel Holtz that he and Neville had to record this coming week's FIR episode on Sunday morning and they needed our reports by then.
Knowing that today was going to be crazy and also knowing I had a number of tasks to do yesterday that kept me away from my office where my podcast rig is located, I whipped out my iPhone and used iRecorder to record my report. The interface itself is super-simple to use - just one button to push to start recording.
The reason why I like iRecorder, though, is that it has an extremely simple WiFi interface for transferring the recording. I just tap the down-arrow icon in the upper left corner and... ta da... it gives me a URL to hit in my browser:
A quick trip to that URL in my browser shows me all the audio files I can download:
A click on the link and the audio file is down on my computer. Now all I did was bring the audio into Audacity, do a minor bit of trimming and then export it to MP3 to send to Shel and Neville.
Simple. Easy. Fast.
Now, I don't feel the audio quality is as good as what I get on my podcasting rig, but that's understandable... this was an iPhone being used as a field recorder. It was a bit too "hot" for me with some clipping going on. But it enabled me to get a report quickly together and submitted when I didn't expect to have time to do so.
It's a cool little tool... and you can find it in the iPhone AppStore.
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Nov 16
Facebook FINALLY Adds Sharing To iOS/Android Apps And Mobile Web
It has seemed a very odd piece to leave out, given that much of what goes on within Facebook is the sharing of links and other information.
This week, though, Facebook finally got around to fixing that. First, they updated their mobile website (m.facebook.com), as noted on Mashable and other news sites.
Second, they rolled out a new version of the iOS and Android Facebook apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices.
Facebook noted all this in a brief news article on their site.
As a user of the iOS apps, I'm pleased to see this, and look forward to now being more easily able to share links and other posts in my Facebook NewsFeed. It's nice to see the "Share" link in my iPhone's feed:
Have you upgraded already? If not, look in your AppStore (on iOS) and get ready to finally start sharing...
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Nov 15
Barriers To Blogging – #4 – Getting The Tools Out Of The Way
Are the tools you use one of the barriers to your blogging? Is it easy for you to jump in and write a post? Or does the system you use make it complex or slow?
In a response to my last post in this series over on Google+, Jeff Porter left this comment:
I don’t wish pre-empt your next post, but the biggest barrier for me is the blogging system itself, in my case WordPress. Combine with writing (and coding) the perfect post, and that pretty much explains why my blog can sit idle for a month or more.
Seriously considering switching to a simpler system that allows me to save Markdown files in Dropbox and auto-publish from there.
To be honest, I was not originally going to include this topic in my list of barriers to blogging, because for me I've pretty much solved this. I have a fast system... at least on my laptop and desktop - blogging on my mobile devices is a different matter.
But Jeff's comment was a good reminder that this IS a big barrier for many people, and still is for me on the mobile platform.
As I noted in my post about writing the perfect blog post, if you want to have all the various elements in a post such as images or links, you need a writing interface that makes all of this simple and easy. Even for just blowing in text, you need an interface that makes it quick and easy to do.
Once I was helping with a site that had such a klunky interface that it did take seemingly forever to get to the point where you could write. Once you finished an article or page the process of then publishing it was equally painful.
So much latency and inefficiency in the publishing process that, yes, it dramatically slowed down building out the site.
I personally find the WordPress user interface fairly easy to use, but I do admit it has become increasingly laden with options as WordPress has evolved over time from a simple blogging platform into a full-blown content management system (CMS). This is perhaps the reason there was such a huge interest in the "concept" of a "lite version" of Wordpress called Ghost that would simplify WordPress and return it to its blogging routes. Now who knows whether Ghost will actually be created, but there certainly is interest in the idea.
The point is, though, that the tools should just get out of the way and let you write.
My own solution for speed is to not use any of the web-based editors and instead use a dedicated, standalone blog editor on my laptop or desktop. This allows me to have an app that I can just flip into and start writing. Over time I have built up my own set of keystrokes, macros and other commands that speed up my writing. I know by heart the keystroke to drop in a link, and to edit a link and to add various formatting I frequently use. I can just drag and drop an image in and it works. I can be writing several different posts in different windows. I can have local drafts in progress.
The other great aspect for me is that I have one user interface across the different blogs I write on. For instance, this Disruptive Conversations and my Disruptive Telephony sites are hosted on TypePad. Voice of VOIPSA and my Code.Danyork.com, as well as my books, are hosted on WordPress. The Internet Society Deploy360 Programme's blog is on WordPress. I have some older sites floating around on other platforms.
I don't have to care about their user interfaces - I just use my editor and write my posts.
Simple. Easy. Fast.
Most of the time... there is a caveat that I often need to write my post in the blog editor and send it to the blog site as a draft because I need to actually publish it using the web interface. For instance, when the blog site auto-publishes the post to Twitter and Facebook, I want to be able to change the text of the tweet to include hashtags. I need to do that through the WordPress UI. So there is this extra step I need to go through.
For me on the Mac, the offline blog editor I choose to use is MarsEdit, and it rocks for a whole number of reasons I should probably write about in a post sometime. Over on Windows, I used to use and love Windows Live Writer, and I still hear good things about it. There are other good apps out there, too, but these are the ones I have used and can recommend.
Still, all of this may be too complex for some folks. A developer friend of mine just posted that he is ending his use of WordPress and just writing his articles in text files with a light form of markup and publishing them via a git repository. He'll lose out on many of the functions of WordPress like the social sharing, commenting, etc. ... but he just wants a simple system that lets him write. John Porter in his Google+ comment mentioned looking at other simple systems as well.
I am still looking for the best solution for me on mobile platforms. The WordPress app on the iPad/iPhone app is okay, but that only helps me for the WordPress sites. I've not been a fan of the TypePad app for iOS. I've been experimenting with Blogsy on the iPad and that seems pretty decent.
The key for me is how to make it fast to write. On the mobile side, I'm still looking.
You need to figure out what works for you. How can you get the tools out of the way and get to a point where you can just write?
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Nov 14
Cisco’s 6Lab Provides Worldwide IPv6 Statistics With Interactive Map, Daily Updates
Want IPv6 deployment statistics? Want to use an interactive map to see the global deployment? Over the past few months, Cisco’s IPv6 Lab has rolled out a very cool new IPv6 statistics site at:
We recently added a resource page about the site and added it to our list of IPv6 statistics sites.
Pulling data from a wide variety of public sources, the site displays the statistics via an interactive map at a global or country level. As Alain Fiocco wrote in a very detailed blog post announcing the 6lab statistics site, there are a number of ways to interact with the data:
- Simply mouse over the world map to see aggregated metrics per country.
- Select your favorite “data type” to see more details for each metric.
- Click on “world-scale data” or click on a country to display historical data.
The site also has an information page that explains the methodology behind the site and the sources used for the data.
Alain Fiocco goes into a deeper analysis in his lengthy blog post describing in more detail what they are trying to do with the site. He also indicates there, and has confirmed this via email to us, that these statistics are being updated daily and they are continually looking at ways to improve the site.
It’s a great way to visualize the data and we’re pleased to see that Cisco has made this available. Kudos to Alain and his team for making it happen. If you are interested in IPv6 deployment statistics, please do check it out!
Nov 14
Cisco’s 6Lab Statistics Site
Cisco maintains a comprehensive IPv6 statistics site that is updated daily at:
As Alain Fiocco wrote in a very detailed blog post announcing the 6lab statistics site, there are a number of ways to interact with the data:
- Simply mouse over the world map to see aggregated metrics per country.
- Select your favorite “data type” to see more details for each metric.
- Click on “world-scale data” or click on a country to display historical data.
The site also has an information page that explains the methodology behind the site and the sources used for the data.
According to Alain Fiocco at Cisco the site is being updated daily with new data.
Nov 14
The Apple Maps Fiasco Finally Hits Me – Tiffin St, Not Giffin St
Until last night I had been blissfully unaffected by the whole Apple Maps fiasco. I upgraded both my iPhone and iPad to iOS 6.0 and have generally had no problems whatsoever. I've gotten to where I needed to go when using "Maps" and in fact I like the better driving directions.
And then last night I read an article in our local paper about a building to be demolished and wondered where that was in Keene, as I'd not heard of "Tiffin Street". So I popped the street name into Maps on my iPhone and was suprised...
I tried a couple of times at different zoom levels and settings but Apple Maps would not show me a "Tiffin St" anywhere in Keene.
So I flipped over to Google Maps, still on my iPhone, and of course there it was:
And indeed I went by the street on my lunchtime run today and can confirm to Apple with my own eyes that Tiffin Street does indeed exist in Keene!
Hopefully Apple will continue to improve their data, because this is really quite silly!
P.S. I guess the good news is that I now know where "Giffin St" is in Keene... but that's not what I wanted! :-)
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Nov 14
Microsoft Researching Skype Password Reset Security Hole
This morning The Next Web reported on an exploit where Skype’s password reset web page could be used to hijack a user’s Skype account using only the password associated with the account. So… if you could guess someone’s email address (which can often be found through a Google search), you could effectively take over their Skype account.
Microsoft/Skype has DISABLED this feature while they investigate further so it appears that for the moment the security risk is limited.
However, it may be wise to watch closely the email account associated with your Skype ID for the next bit to see if any random password reset messages are sent to your account. Odds are that attackers will be sniffing around trying to see if there is any other way to exploit the apparent vulnerability.
The Next Web team reports that they were able to reproduce the attack on two Skype accounts of willing victims, confirming that the vulnerability was indeed real. They also reported the issue to Skype and worked with folks there.
The vulnerability is interesting in that it shows the complexity of modern communication applications. Skype is for the most part a desktop/mobile application, but yet it does rely on a centralized cloud-based service for authentication/passwords, etc. A vulnerability in the web interface for that central service then weakens the security of the overall system.
The “good” news for Microsoft/Skype is that because this appears to be a vulnerability in the web interface of the centralized system, this is probably something relatively easy for them to fix – and without requiring any client updates.
Kudos to Microsoft/Skype for reacting quickly to minimize the risk and we look forward to the issue being addressed.
UPDATE #1: Skype has issued a brief statement on their “heartbeat” web site with the same text that has been quoted in several articles.
UPDATE #2: The Verge has an article out now where many people in the comments are suggesting you change the email address associated with your Skype account to something less likely to be guessed. While Microsoft seems to have removed the immediate attack vector and this change is no longer critical to do, it may be something some of you may want to consider.
UPDATE #3: There’s a long Hacker News thread on this issue that also includes a link to an article walking through the exploit step-by-step as well as walking through links to protect your account. Note that because of the steps Microsoft has taken the exploit steps no longer work.
Nov 13
The Fascinating Interest in Using Google Voice With SIP Addresses
All these questions came to my mind today when I dipped into Google Analytics and noticed that for the month to date in November 2012, my old (March 2011) post about Google Voice and SIP addresses continues to receive a large amount of traffic:
Slightly over 3,000 pageviews in the first 13 days of November - and if I go back a bit I see over 71,000 pageviews since January 1, 2012. In fact, it's had about 232K pageviews since I wrote it over 1.5 years ago, and has accounted for almost 25% of all traffic to this site in that time.
And this particular article was just one in a series of articles I wound up writing about Google Voice and SIP as we all collectively tried to figure out what was going on.
Digging into the traffic sources to the page, almost all of it this month comes (somewhat predictably) from search. The search terms, at least the ones we can see (since Google now shows "Not Provided" for all searches done over SSL), show a range of interest in SIP:
And all of this for a service from Google Voice which seemed to be a temporary service and subsequently stopped working... kinda, sorta... and then did work... and then didn't work. (And I just checked... and it doesn't work for me right now.)
I find all this interest fascinating. I hope it's a good sign that people out there do want to see more usage of SIP addresses.
And I do hope that at some point Google will open up the connection again and let us connect in to Google Voice numbers using SIP URIs. It would be a great move.
Meanwhile, I'll continue to be fascinating by all the traffic still coming to those old articles...
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