Google Killed This Blog!! Good-Bye and Happy New Year!! FY Google for becoming the Evil Empire who kills free speech!

FY Google for becoming the Evil Empire who kills free speech!

Google killed my blog. It is hard to imagine that Google has such power, but they ‘accidentally’ killed this blog. On November 23, all traffic from Google (about 98% of my 200-300 daily visitors came from Google search) to this blog stopped.

Even though I had not posted in 2 months, they felt I had some how violated their quality. No clue as to what the real issues was, just “We don’t like your site, fuck you, your dead now.”

I wrote them saying they made a mistake, and a few days later, they wrote back and said “Sorry, we made a mistake.”

It has been a month and change, and I am lucky to get 10 visitors to the site in a day. They have not restored my traffic, the site is not visible on the Google index, and I have no clue as to why.

Below are the messages of this issue:

Google Webmaster Tools: Quality Issues on https://pusz4frog.wordpress.com/
Nov 23, 2012

Dear site owner or webmaster of https://pusz4frog.wordpress.com/,
We’ve detected that some of your site’s pages may be using techniques that are outside Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.
Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team

Reconsideration request for https://pusz4frog.wordpress.com/
Nov 27, 2012

We’ve received a request from a site owner to reconsider how we index the following site: https://pusz4frog.wordpress.com/
We’ll review the site. If we find that it’s no longer in violation of our Webmaster Guidelines, we’ll reconsider our indexing of the site. Please allow several weeks for the reconsideration request. We do review all requests, but unfortunately we can’t reply individually to each request.

Reconsideration request for https://pusz4frog.wordpress.com/: Manual spam action revoked
Nov 29, 2012

Dear site owner or webmaster of https://pusz4frog.wordpress.com/,
We received a request from a site owner to reconsider https://pusz4frog.wordpress.com/ for compliance with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Previously the webspam team had taken manual action on your site because we believed it violated our quality guidelines. After reviewing your reconsideration request, we have revoked this manual action. It may take some time before our indexing and ranking systems are updated to reflect the new status of your site.

Of course, there may be other issues with your site that could affect its ranking without a manual action by the webspam team. Google’s computers determine the order of our search results using a series of formulas known as algorithms. We make hundreds of changes to our search algorithms each year, and we employ more than 200 different signals when ranking pages. As our algorithms change and as the web (including your site) changes, some fluctuation in ranking can happen as we make updates to present the best results to our users. If your site continues to have trouble in our search results, please see this article for help with diagnosing the issue.

Thank you for helping us to maintain the quality of our search results.

Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team

FY Google!!

I will keep this site up, since there is some traffic from Yahoo and Bing, and it is a free WordPress.com site, but I am not going to post to it anymore.

FY Google for ‘accidentally’ killing this blog.

FY Google for becoming the Evil Empire who kills free speech!

The Newest 802.11ac Routers Don’t Have Wi-Fi Certification, and Why You Should Wait Till Q2 of 2013 to Buy a 11ac Router

Wait to buy a 802.11ac wireless router till the Wi-Fi Certified routers from the Wi-Fi Alliance will be available in Q2 of 2013 – searching…

I have been thinking about routers lately. I know, it is not the most sexy thing to think about, but I recently moved and I don’t have a wired connection in my upstairs room. This means I need a Wi-Fi router in order to get Internet in my room. As usual, I like to make simple things complicated, which means I went on the Internet to do some down and dirty research.

Over the past year or so, I have been trying to get more technical, learning about computers and how they work and how to use all the technology I find myself dealing with – whew, it is a full time job!

For Wi-Fi routers, I started looking for a simple solution, and came to realize that a router is not just an internet connection for your computer, but it is now becoming a portal to connect everything (your computer, your phone, TV, DVR and other home electronics) that needs internet access.

How a router deals with all these things, and with the fact that all these things are trying to access the internet at the same time, is what defines a good router.

Wait to buy a 802.11ac wireless router till the Wi-Fi Certified routers from the Wi-Fi Alliance will be available in Q2 of 2013 – cutting the cord

GO SPEED RACER, GO

When it comes to routers, speed is not just on my mind, but everyone else’s as well. A wireless router is in essence a radio transmitter and receiver, and like all transmitting and receiving devices – they have a limit to how much information they can send/receive at any given time.

In the USA, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) determines which parts of the radio frequency spectrum are used for the different types of technologies. How various electronic technologies use these frequency bands is controlled and defined in various standards by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

These IEEE standards are important, because they make it so that every ones wireless products can communicate with any other product based on the same standard. For wireless networks, these standards are known as the 802.11 standards.

In 1999, the 802.11b standard which uses the 2.4GHz frequency, was used in the first mass market wireless routers. The 11b routers had data transfer rates of about 11 Mbits per second (Mbit/s). As Wi-Fi began to take off, people needed some way to know that different brands worked together. The Wi-Fi Alliance was created to “certify” products from different vendors, so consumers wouldn’t be stuck buying one brand of wireless equipment for everything.

A couple years later in 2003 the IEEE issued the 802.11g standard, which use the 2.4GHz frequency, but offered data transfer rates that were five times faster than 11b. The 11g routers have a data transfer rates of about 54 Mbit/s.

11g was good for the first few years, but with the rapid growth of wireless devices and the demand of better wireless internet connectivity; the industry was clamoring for more speed and better coverage. So in 2007 the first 11n routers became available, even though the IEEE 802.11n standard actually wasn’t approved till 2009. The 11n standard uses multiple antennas and operates on both the 2.4 and 5GHz radio bands. Depending on the number of antennas they use, 11n routers can have a data transfer rates ranging from 150 Mbit/s to 600 Mbit/s.

This year (2012), the IEEE is in the process of developing and finalizing the 802.11ac standard, which makes 1 gigabit data transfer rates possible (again, depending on the number of antennas, width of the channels, and other factors). Depending on the number of antennas they use, 11n routers can have a data transfer rates ranging from 500 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s.

Basically, 802.11ac routers should be about 4 to 8 times faster than 802.11n routers.

HOW FAST?

8 times faster!! Wow!!

Well, not exactly. You see here is where reality and theory meet, sit down and have a coffee.

You see, to get the maximum transfer rates, your 11ac router must talk to another 11ac device. It can still work with the other components in your current system (most of which use the slower 802.11n standard), but you certainly won’t get gigabit speeds.

Say, you install an 802.11ac router in your house. Well your 1 year old laptop will only be able to send and receive data at the 11n rate of about 150 Mbit/s – NOT the 1 Gigabit per second of 11ac.

Of course, if you buy a 802.11ac router now; later when you get a new laptop or phone, they will probably have 802.11ac chips in them and they will get very fast data transfer with your router. On the other hand, who knows how much 11ac routers will improve – and how much cheaper they’ll be – between now and then.

Wait to buy a 802.11ac wireless router till the Wi-Fi Certified routers from the Wi-Fi Alliance will be available in Q2 of 2013 – Wi-Fi Certified Logo

IS IT WI-FI CERTIFIED?

This brings us to the second issue with 802.11ac. It won’t be Wi-Fi Certified till Q2 of 2013.

What?

“Wi-Fi CERTIFIED is a program for testing products to the 802.11 industry standards for interoperability, security, easy installation, and reliability.  The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED logo is an assurance that the Wi-Fi Alliance has tested a product in numerous configurations and with a diverse sampling of other devices to ensure compatibility with other Wi-Fi CERTIFIED equipment that operates in the same frequency band.”

http://www.wi-fi.org/wi-fi-certified%E2%84%A2-products

The Wi-Fi Alliance does this by allowing companies to put the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED logo on the products that have been tested and certified as meeting the various IEEE 802.11 standards.

If you buy a wireless product, it should have a Wi-Fi Certified logo – and if it doesn’t, then you know it was tested and verified that it will work and perform correctly.

This is the problem with the current 802.11ac product that have recent come out – they are not Wi-Fi CERTIFIED, because the testing will not even begin till early next year (2013).

WAITING TO RACE

The process for defining and approving a wireless standard is one that has many steps and seems to take a long time. As a result, the global electronics tends to release wireless products based on ‘drafts’ of the standards, which is a little risky since the final standard may be different then the ‘draft’.

Basically, the IEEE develops the technical specification, and puts this out to its members for comments. In the case of 802.11ac, the 802.11ac draft was released in 2012.

The theory goes that the draft is reviewed, feedback is given to the IEEE, and then they vote to make revision and changes based on many technical considerations. This process can be painfully slow (it took 3 years for the 802.11n standard). But after a few rounds of revisions, the draft specification is considered fairly stable, and manufacturers feel confident that there won’t be any more significant changes – so they begin building products and race to be first with the new draft standard.

The second part to all this, is that the Wi-Fi Alliance needs time to develop the testing procedures, so that they can test the products to make sure they will be fully functional can compatible with the other product for that standard. For 802.11ac, the test procedure and testing is expected to start in the beginning of 2013.

Wait to buy a 802.11ac wireless router till the Wi-Fi Certified routers from the Wi-Fi Alliance will be available in Q2 of 2013 – Wi-Fi Certified connections

RADIO GAGA

The certification issues here were really brought out in 2006 with the launch of 802.11n. Almost all the world’s largest manufacturers quickly launched product from the 802.11n draft, and even before Wi-Fi Certification had started. As a result, many of these products did not perform well and had lots of compatibility issues.

This resulted in manufactures having to do a lot of returns, firmware updates and PR damage control. It resulted in consumer feeling ripped off, and losing trust in the wireless brands who products they bought.

For 802.11ac, several manufacturers have launched their 11ac routers in the last couple of months. But what is positive, is that some are waiting for the Wi-Fi Certification to start before launching their 11ac products.

Qualcomm is a chip manufacturer who provides the wireless chips to the router companies, and they have stated that they are using a more mature product strategy for 802.11ac:

“For the 11ac launch, Qualcomm Atheros is taking a more mature approach. Certainly we played our part in the industry hubbub that surrounded the launch of 11n, but it seems the vibe is different this time around. With the development of 11ac (in which we’re playing a large role), there is a spirit of collaboration that didn’t exist with the launch of 11n. The process is more open and transparent, which allows many voices to be heard, making 11ac a much better, cleaner and implementable standard than 11n.”

http://qca.qualcomm.com/thewire/qualcomm-atheros-bringing-forth-a-new-paradigm-for-11ac/

At least some people have learned from their mistakes, and I have no idea why a few companies are willing to repeat the mistakes of 11n, by launching 11ac product now.

Most of all buyers beware!! For 802.11ac, it is better to wait to buy an 802.11ac router, laptop, tablet or phone – till the beginning of next year when Wi-Fi Certification starts. The Wi-Fi Certification logo is your friend, and the best way to assure you that your hard earned money is not wasted on inferior products.

Wait to buy a 802.11ac wireless router till the Wi-Fi Certified routers from the Wi-Fi Alliance will be available in Q2 of 2013 – global connections

WHAT TO DO NOW?

So, for my own situation, after looking at the whole 802.11ac thing, I have decided to wait till next year for 11ac.

To solve my current problems, I started looking at mainstream consumer 802.11n routers. These range in price from $20 (no, not kidding) to $300 – and there is significant difference in features, range and performance between the low-end and high-end 11n routers.

After looking at several of the more popular 11n routers, I narrowed it down to two routers:

Western Digital My Net N900 HD Dual-Band Wireless-N Router – about $150

http://www.buy.com/prod/western-digital-my-net-n900-hd-dual-band-wireless-n-router/232277136.html

TP-LINK N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router – about $100

http://www.buy.com/prod/tp-link-tl-wdr4300-n750-wireless-dual-band-gigabit-router/232934237.html

Why these 2?

Well, I wanted to look at two price points at around $100 and $150 – to see what I get for the difference, and when looking at all the routers at these 2 price points. I felt these two wireless routers had the best features for me, good reviews and great value for the price point.

Western Digital My Net N900 wireless router – 802.11n

WD My Net N900

Western Digital is new to wireless routers, but it makes sense for them to get into the router game, since wireless data storage is becoming a critical part of many home networks. The new Western Digital My Net N900 routers offer some of the latest wireless technology and features, with two of the three models sporting 1 Terabyte or 2 Terabytes of storage. These storage oriented routers are perfect for downloading movies, and accessing them from any wireless device in range of the router.

For me, the WD My Net N900 routers had several features that I felt made them stick out from the crowd:

1)     Dual Band – transmits on both the 2.4 and 5 Ghz frequency’s – this means that it can ‘talk’ to most wireless devices

2)     450 + 450 Mbps – This means the router can transmit at data rates of 450 Mbps on both bands, doubles the bandwidth

3)     FasTrack technology – monitors your incoming traffic and instantly detects the services that need more bandwidth and prioritizes them automatically – it is this kind of smarts that I like:

http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=710

Video: http://wdc.com/global/products/video/?language=en&typeid=1&id=1632623342001&plid=

4)     2 USB ports – makes it easy to add external storage, shared printers and scanners

T-Link N750 wireless router – 802.11n

TP-LINK N750

You might not be familiar with T-Link, but this $1 billion networking company is looking at expanding their consumer line of routers in the US market (http://www.tp-link.us/ ), and the N750 offers a lot of features for it’s price.

The N750 features:

1)     Dual Band – transmits on both the 2.4 and 5 Ghz frequency’s – this means that it can ‘talk’ to most wireless devices

2)     450 + 300 Mbps – This means the router can transmit at data rates of 450 Mbps on the 5 Ghz, and 300 Mbps on the 2.4 Ghz band

3)     External detachable antennas allow for better alignment and stronger antenna upgrades

4)     2 USB ports – for easy file sharing

SUMMARY

In the end, I decided the extra bandwidth, the FasTrack technology and cleaner looking design was worth the extra $50 and chose the Western Digital My Net N900 HD Dual-Band Wireless-N Router.

I was just about to buy it, when a friend offered to give me his old 802.11g router. I really wanted the WD N900, but what I really want is a Wi-Fi Certified 802.11ac router next year. The free 11g router isn’t fast, but it works and it’s… well, free.

So, I will wait till next year and buy an 802.11ac router when the Wi-Fi Certified ones hit the market, and then I will be a 1 Gbps speed freak!!

$22 Million for Cookies? FTC Regulators Will Require Google to Pay a Civil Penalty of $22.5 Million to Settle Charges of Safari’s Cookies Privacy Violations

FTC regulators will require Google to pay a civil penalty of $22.5 million to settle charges of Safari’s cookies privacy violations – Big Brother

I found this on Reuters today:

“ U.S. regulators will require Google Inc to pay a civil penalty of $22.5 million to settle charges that it bypassed the privacy settings of customers using Apple Inc’s Safari browser, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Members of the Federal Trade Commission voted to approve a consent decree that will allow Google to settle the agency’s investigation but admit no liability, said one of the sources, who was not authorized to speak on the record.”

It is expected, that in a few days some kind of official announcement will be released – after their lawyers, advisers, negotiators and marketing people review and approve it for distribution.

FTC regulators will require Google to pay a civil penalty of $22.5 million to settle charges of Safari’s cookies privacy violations – A sign.

HEAVY WEIGHT

$22 Million is a big fine. It certainly grabbed my eye, and so thought I would put it up here.

The whole things was started by allegations that Google set the sites “cookies” to trick Apple’s Safari browser so Google could monitor users who had blocked such tracking. The Safari browser can be set by the user to block sites ability to track the users browsing habits and patterns.

Ah Google, the new new evil technology company (Microsoft is the old new evil technology company and IBM is the original evil technology company).

Yes Google has been, lurking in the shadows, waiting to violate it’s customers… Well, Google said that the tracking was inadvertent – just a tiny mistake – and that it collected no personal information like names, addresses or credit card data. Just trivial info like how the users browse their site, and what they are looking for on it.

FTC regulators will require Google to pay a civil penalty of $22.5 million to settle charges of Safari’s cookies privacy violations – Evil Meter

TIME FOR A PROBE

The problem is that this tracking was done despite public announcements that Safari could be set to protect users’ privacy and it was this aspect that prompted an FTC probe into whether Google violated a consent decree it signed last year. That decree said that Google would not misrepresent its privacy policies, which this cookie code actually does. Opps.

To make matters worse, Google also faces potential sanctions from other governments around the planet, and it is being investigated by the European Union to determine if the company complies with Europe’s stricter privacy laws.

In addition to those probes, the worlds most used search engine provider (Google) is also the subject of a big antitrust investigation by the FTC and European regulators over accusations that it manipulated it’s own search results to favor its own products. No, that’s not evil.

OK, for a company that has tens of $billions in the bank, $22 million is not that much. The question is weather Google will lose some of it’s customers trust, and that could hurt the bottom line later in the future.

Ah, the future… I wonder who will be the new new new evil technology company…

FTC regulators will require Google to pay a civil penalty of $22.5 million to settle charges of Safari’s cookies privacy violations – Google 2084

FTC regulators will require Google to pay a civil penalty of $22.5 million to settle charges of Safari’s cookies privacy violations – Google B’s

FTC regulators will require Google to pay a civil penalty of $22.5 million to settle charges of Safari’s cookies privacy violations – Doctor Evils

 

 

How Technology is Making High Unemployment a Fact For the New Work Force of Our Future – What You and Our Government Can Do About It

Obama Romney 2012 – How Technology is Making High Unemployment a Fact For the New Work Force of Our Future – What You and Our Government Can Do About It

The 2012 American election is going to be about one thing – The Economy. Why the economy? Because unemployment is high which mean a lot of people do not have jobs, and this makes everyone nervous with the fear that they will never get a job; or for the employed, that they will become unemployed soon.

So really, the election is about Jobs, and which Candidate/Party can change the situation in a positive way that will give people hope that the can get a job, or keep their job.

The sides are clearly divided; one side is less government, low taxes, the rich will help the poor –  the other side is more government, higher taxes, and wealth redistribution will help the poor.

The fact is that elections are won by the person who has the most money. For this election, this will be the Republicans.

That is cynical you say:

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/11/money-wins-white-house-and.html

In the 2008-2010 elections, 93 percent of House of Representatives races and 94 percent of Senate races; the candidate who spent the most money ended up winning, according to a post-election analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The findings are based on candidates’ spending as reported to the Federal Election Commission.

The Buck Will Not Stop Here

OK, so Romney wins, how will that really affect the economy and jobs? That is a good question, because Romney has yet to actually spell out the details of his economic plan, except to say that it is based on ‘Republican economics principles’.

The U.S. economy has expanded at a healthy clip for most of the last 70 years, but by a wide range of measures, it stagnated in the first decade of the new millennium.

Job growth was essentially zero, and modest job creation from 2003 to 2007 wasn’t enough to make up for two recessions in the decade. Rises in the nation’s economic output, as measured by gross domestic product, was weak. And household net worth, when adjusted for inflation, fell as stock prices stagnated, home prices declined in the second half of the decade and consumer debt skyrocketed.

The below chart shows a definite flattening of job growth curve during the Republican term of George Bush:

Job Growth Chart by President, Since 1950 – How Technology is Making High Unemployment a Fact For the New Work Force of Our Future

The numbers below are the overall jobs growth data for each presidential term from Carter till Obama and based are Bureau of Labor Statistics.

President                Party    Term              Ave. Job Growth for Term
Jimmy Carter           D         1977–1981      +2.30%
Ronald Reagan        R         1981–1985      +1.75%
Ronald Reagan        R         1985–1989      +2.53%
George Bush            R         1989–1993      +0.69%
Bill Clinton                 D         1993–1997      +2.60%
Bill Clinton                 D         1997–2001      +1.60%
George W. Bush       R         2001–2005      +0.51%
George W. Bush       R         2005–2009       -0.84%
Barack Obama         D         2009–2013      +0.75%

The Republican polices of George W. Bush clearly show the lowest and worst job growth numbers since his father. The decade of the 2000’s (The W Bush Decade) shows stunningly low job growth rates, even though the Republican policies of low taxes (Bush Tax Cuts), less government regulation, strong military spending were in full effect:

Job Growth Chart by Decade, Since 1940 – How Technology is Making High Unemployment a Fact For the New Work Force of Our Future

The main gist of Romney’s campaign right now is that there have been no jobs created during the Obama administration, except for the public sector (government). The data actually shows significant private sector job growth, and declining public sector job growth:

Private and Public Sector Job Growth Chart – How Technology is Making High Unemployment a Fact For the New Work Force of Our Future

Damn Commies

The Republicans are positioning themselves against the Democrats by stating that Obamas policies are ‘Socialist’ and are destroying job growth in the USA.

The Facts say something else:

654,000: The net gain in jobs since the national job number hit a 10-year low of 129.6 million in December 2009, seasonally adjusted.

54.2 million: The number of jobs created during the nearly 30 years in which Democrats have held the presidency, beginning with President Truman in April 1945. (Comparable BLS data is not available for full presidencies before then.)

34.6 million: The number of jobs created during the 36 years in which Republicans have controlled the White House during the same time period.

4.3 million: The jobs created since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009. More than the 8 years that George W. Bush was in office.

1.1 million: The number of jobs gained under President George W. Bush, the smallest job growth for any president completing at least one term. The seasonally adjusted jobs number fell in each of Bush’s last 12 months in office as 4.4 million jobs were lost.

22.7 million: The number of jobs gained under President Clinton, the biggest job growth of any president.

This chart shows how job growth experienced it worst decline ever as the Bush/Republican policies achieved full effect:

Private Sector Job Growth Chart for Bush and Obama – How Technology is Making High Unemployment a Fact For the New Work Force of Our Future

The Obama/Democrats policies clearly had a positive effect on job growth, even though we still have traditionally high unemployment:

Unemployment since 1950 – How Technology is Making High Unemployment a Fact For the New Work Force of Our Future

Job Creation in the 2000’s flattened out, one of the lowest in history, and now unemployment number are coming down at the slowest pace ever recorded after a recession.

The question: Is the flat job growth, and slowly declining unemployment number related to the economic policies of our government who has been purchased by the 1% percent and the corporations, or is it something else?

Flat Top

There are many factors related to the question of why job growth has flattened in the last decade, and why employment is taking too long to recover from the recession.

I think one of the most over looked and least discussed factor is the effect that technology has had in our society and economy.

How Technology is Making High Unemployment a Fact For the New Work Force of Our Future

The current conventional thought on technology is that even though technological change may adversely effect the demand for labor in some industries, the overall effect of technological change on total employment may be positive.

Technological change tends to increase the rate of economic growth. Higher rates of economic growth are generally associated with lower unemployment rates.

“Okun’s law,” states that this relationship between changes in the rate of economic growth and the change in the unemployment rate. It says that a 1% increase in the rate of economic growth lowers the unemployment rate by 0.3%. While there is some doubt about the exact magnitude of this effect, there is substantial evidence that unemployment rates tend to fall when the rate of economic growth is higher.
Basically, the jobs created by the economic growth provided by new technology, will off-set the job loses created by the new efficiency and productivity that a new technology will provide.

The question of whether the widespread use of computers in the workplace has enhanced productivity, is an important debate. Preliminary studies suggested that the introduction of computers had no significant effect on productivity. More recent studies have generated mixed results.

It is fairly clear, though, that the widespread introduction of computers has, to date, had a less dramatic effect on productivity and economic growth than resulted from the widespread introduction of such earlier innovations as the steam engine, electricity, and the internal combustion engine.

I think that this train of thought about technology is missing and important point.

How has the technology changed society and the way business functions?

Remote Control

Recently I have discovered through my own work experience in the last year, the real effect of technology on jobs – and why they are not coming back.

20 years ago, in order to run a small service business, you needed 10 employees and a building for them to work out of and meet.

10 years ago, you would need 5 employees, and a building to work out of and meet.

Now, you could run the same business with 2 people, and work out of their homes.

Actually, this is exactly what a growing number of people are doing. They work from home. They find work as a small business, with a website as their business face, and they cruse other websites and Craigslist in search of work.

Many small businesses run with a minimum of people, often spread over the country, working out of their homes.

This way of running a small business is due to the technological advances such as VOIP telephone, video conferencing, internet, payroll and accounting service now provided by you bank and a whole host of other innovations.

For years it has been said that small business power job growth. Well, then if that it true, no wonder job creation has flattened out and slowed in the last decade.

Small businesses are not hiring the numbers of people as they did in the past, and they are not renting small offices like they used to, which is why industrial real estate is so bad.

This does not mean small businesses are not hiring people, but as more and more small businesses become more virtual, then the less people they will need to hire.

There is only so much business to go around, small business can now run very lean, which means there are more of them, but they need significantly less staff with the technology now at hand.

So What to Do About It?

Here are some things that America and it’s people can do about jobs in the new and efficient 2010’s:

1) Create manufacturing jobs for workers who need they type of job, by sticking tariffs on imported goods from countries that have tariffs on our products (like China)

2) Train yourself in the basic computers skills and technologies: Office suite, teleconferencing, basic networking, VOIP, accounting software, website technologies like WordPress and mobile technologies and apps.

3) America needs to find a way to make higher education affordable again. Students are having to take on a mortgage in order to get a basic university education, and there is no really good reason for this high cost.

4) Vote this election.

Good Luck America!!!

Here is the chart the Republicans and Romney don’t want anyone to see or think about:

Causes Of Deficits – How Technology is Making High Unemployment a Fact For the New Work Force of Our Future

Tigertext – the future of HIPAA compliant text messaging for hospitals and doctors, and the solution to doctors BYOD requirements

Tigertext - the future of HIPAA compliant text messaging for hospitals and doctors, and the solution to doctors BYOD requirements

As you know from my last post, I am doing some writing work in the healthcare industry:

https://pusz4frog.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/us-healthcare-costs-in-the-are-rising-disproportionately-compared-to-quality-of-care-what-are-the-options-to-solve-the-problem-for-profit-or-single-payer/

As part of this work, I have been spending an inordinate amount of time in hospitals and doctor offices.

Part of this process is that I have learned about HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) laws:

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/index.html

HIP HIP HIPAA

The main purpose of HIPAA, is to “address the use and disclosure of individuals’ health information – called ‘protected health information’ by organizations subject to the Privacy Rule – called ‘covered entities,’ as well as standards for individuals’ privacy rights to understand and control how their health information is used.”

Let me give you an example. One of the thing I noticed while in hospitals and doctors offices, is that the doctors would send a text message with some patient info such as a condition and patient name to another doctor for a quick consult, or to a hospital admissions administrator.

The reason why doctors do this is because it allows them to handle more patients and the patients get better service since communication is faster.

The problem is that in order to be HIPAA compliant, the ‘protected health information’ (PHI) can only be transmitted in such a way that it can not be accessed by someone who is not authorized by the patient to view such information.

Text messages are sent on an open network, multiple copies of the messages are stored on various servers, and they are also stored on the sending and receiving phone/tablets.

This means that it is possible for an unauthorized person to get this information by hacking a server, or getting it from a stolen or lost phone. The method of transmission is on an open network, multiple copies of the message are made and the portable device is easily lost or stolen – all this means the doctors and hospitals are wide open for lawsuits from patients whose information is publicly released.

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/text-message-use-among-providers-raise-hipaa-concerns.html

ANGELINA’S BABY

Hospitals and doctors are already exposed to a lot of lawsuits, and text messaging just open them up to a whole lot more.

Imagine Angelina Jolie’s gynecologist sent text messages about Angelina’s future baby for a consult, and later loses that phone which is found by a kid who knows how to hack it and realizes what it is and sells the images and info to TMZ who publishes it. Do you think the doctor, or the hospital she works for has enough money to survive the resulting lawsuit?

Now this is an extreme situation, but HIPAA lawsuits have been flying around since 1996 when HIPAA was passed, and it is a real cost for doctors and hospitals.

http://www.hipaatext.com/phi-security-demands-leave-life-coach-feeling-doomed/

BYOD - the future of business, and a HIPAA issue for hospitals

BYOD

The real issue is very big, and includes more than just the healthcare industry. The main issue here is BYOD – Bring Your Own Device – which means that you/employee uses your/their own personal device such as a phone or tablet to send and receive business/work information.

From talking to IT managers, I have discovered that they think of BYOD like they think of Godzilla, earthquakes, volcanoes and asteroids from space on a collision course with Earth – all happening at the same time.

http://byod.us/security-concerns-with-byod-trend/

BYOD offers organizations both benefits and risks, but the fact is that almost all organization will need to deal with BYOD, and put in place some kind of BYOD policy.

For hospitals and doctors the benefits are that doctors can communicate quickly with other doctors, hospital admissions, administration and patients, which allows them to handle more patients with a higher level of care.  The most use form of communication is text messages, followed by emails and phone calls.

http://excapite.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/twitter-vs-sms-vs-facebook-vs-email-in-2010/

The risks are more simple – a breach of HIPAA compliance from a BYOD communication will probably result in a very expensive lawsuit and/or fines and penalties from the government.

TWO PATHS

After digging in to the BYOD situation and talking to several IT department managers, it looks like there are two main approaches to BYOD:

1) Large complex and complete enterprise systems:

The IT department develops a BYOD policy of company issues devices only, or one of taking total control of personal devices and allowing no use of uncontrolled devices.

Then the IT department spends a lot of time and money to find, purchase and implement one of the large BYOD systems like Centrify and Enterproid.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Centrify-Enterproid-Tackle-Android-iOS-Mobile-Management-611092/

The advantages to this, is that it puts total control of the devices and communications in the handles of the IT department. They also allow the total control and security for all forms of communications.

The disadvantages are that these systems a very costly, very hard to implement and take a long time and a lot of resources in order to train and educate everyone in the use of the systems and there is a lot of resistance from employees about the company having such control and access to their communications.

2) Piece by piece system – app based:

In this scenario, the IT department makes a flexible and developing BYOD policy, in which the users are giving devices, or use there own devices with the products/systems/apps put into the BYOD policy for security.

An example of this is that a hospital BYOD policy uses a secure text messaging app like Tigertext and it is install on all the mobile devices of doctors, nurses and admin of a hospital.

The advantages to this approach is that they are much lower in price, easy to implement, require very little training, works on company controlled devices and employee personal devices, not invasive and allows for privacy, meets HIPAA compliance and lowers risk of lawsuits, and can be used to address one area, then later address a different issue based on priority.

Disadvantages to this type of system are that they are not a complete system, but require several components to address all the areas of security and HIPAA compliance, cost of different component vary and your require multiple vendor set-ups and accounting.

HOW TO KEEP THE LAWYERS AT BAY WITH TIGERTEXT

Many hospitals don’t have the funds, time, resources or IT staff to handle implementing one of the large enterprise BYOD systems to deal with doctors using their phones to text patient information.

The hospitals like the new efficiency BYOD brings them, but they are rightfully very nervous about the security and HIPAA related law suits it opens them up to.

Since Text messaging is the most used form of communication among doctors now, hospitals can significantly lower their exposure to legal actions and fines related to PHI breeches and HIPAA violations by securing the text messaging of it’s doctors and other personnel.

I looked around for various apps to address the major areas of HIPAA related forms of communications – Text, email, messenger apps, etc.

The only area that I found something that was HIPAA compliant, was for text messaging and that is the Tigertext app.

www.tigertext.com

Tigertext is an app that is installed on iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android devices and allows for HIPAA compliant text messaging and attachments.

Tigertext is a HIPAA compliant closed network app, that costs a hospital or doctor about $10 a month per seat. The closed network can utilize Tigertext servers, or the hospitals own servers, and can also securely archive all messages.

In addition to the control that a closed network provides, the main function of Tigertext is that it automatically deletes text messages after a user controlled period of time – which significantly reduces the likelihood that any confidential patient information (PHI) will be released or compromised.

For even more security, security network administrators can force pin lock protection as well as remotely wipe data from the app in case a device is lost or stolen.

Other important features are group messaging, an integrated company directory, and delivery and read notifications.

Tigertext screen image showing an expired text message and the time left for the other messages before deletion

Since Tigertext is a simple phone or tablet app, the learning and implementation curve is measured in minutes, which makes it very quick and easy for a hospital to roll out to all it’s doctors.

I think that Tigertext offers a big advantage in the healthcare situation, and that is that doctors are very particular professionals, who don’t like the idea of someone controlling or monitoring their communications, so with many of the large enterprise BYOD systems the doctors will resist it or in doctor owned hospitals simply reject such a system.

Tigertext doesn’t have this issue, since all they see is another app on their device, that provides them HIPAA compliance for their text messages – and easy solution for them.

NOT GOING AWAY

BYOD is not going to go away, actually it is going to become a bigger part of business, life and healthcare in the next few years.

It offers the benefits of easy and efficient communication, and the risks of lost, stolen and exposed data.

In the end, the BYOD solutions may encompass many different solutions all working to together to keep all data secure.

END

Tigertext allows doctors to text confidential patient info and stay HIPAA compliant, or how to stop worrying and love BYOD in your hospital

SOPA Internet Protest – The day the Internet went semi-dark to save Liberty, Freedom of Speech and Capitalism

SOPA Internet Protest – The day the Internet went semi-dark to save Liberty, Freedom of Speech and Capitalism

Google, Reddit, Wikipedia, Tumblr, WordPress, Cheezburger, Moveon.org and a host of other websites are staging a protest today against two ambitious anti-piracy bills, SOPA and PIPA.

The soundtrack for this protest and this post is here:

http://8tracks.com/pusz4frog/sopa-internet-protest-the-day-the-internet-went-semi-dark-to-save-liberty-freedom-of-speech-and-capi

On Wednesday, January 18th, Google, Reddit, Wikipedia, WordPress, MoveOn.org, and hundreds more, will participate in an online protest—a strike, no less—that aims to call attention to two bills snaking their way through Capitol Hill.

Some of the sites will shut down, and others will black out, redirecting users to a landing page with resources to learn more about the bills and contact an elected representative. Google, for its part, smacked a big black bar over its logo on the U.S. homepage.

These websites are hoping to send a clear message to the millions of users who rely on them every day. The goal is to show how SOPA and PIPA could impact their rights and free speech, and how this is going to kill jobs in one of the few bright spots on the economy, which is the Internet.

The Protect IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), have raised the ire of the tech community for what’s being criticized as their broad, irresponsible language written by politicians hoping to please deep-pocketed copyright holders.

Please see my post on Getting the Money out of Politics:

https://pusz4frog.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/get-the-money-out-of-politics-with-getmoneyout-com-dylan-ratigan-tries-to-do-something-to-get-money-out-of-politics-and-solve-the-us-politician-whore-crisis/

THE SMOKING GUN

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) initially introduced the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate in May 2011, which would give the Justice Department the power to take down copyright-infringing websites. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) then followed that up with SOPA on Oct. 26, 2011, for the House, also introducing sweeping anti-piracy legislation intended to empower the U.S. Department of Justice (and copyright holders) to fully crack down on websites that are suspected of hosting their copyrighted material.

Google said in its statement opposing the legislation: “The two bills’ various provisions, however, have since become lightning rods for critics who claim they ultimately would provide the tools for corporations to censor the Web. “Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet.”

Gizmodo.com provides the following example: “If Warner Bros., for example, says that a site in Italy is [illegally sharing] a copy of The Dark Knight, the studio could demand that Google remove that site from its search results, that PayPal no longer accept payments to or from that site, that ad services pull all ads and finances from it, and—most dangerously—that the site’s ISP prevent people from even going there,” the tech blog explains. A full-on blackout.

SOPA Internet Protest – The day the Internet went semi-dark to save Liberty, Freedom of Speech and Capitalism

What if the government feels that a site the criticizes the government has a photo on it that may be violating a copyright – then it can shut it down. IT can shut down the site, and shut down the Freedom of Speech.

This is not the first time, nor the last time that Liberty, Freedom of Speech and Capitalism on the Internet are under attack.

Please see my post on Net Neutrality:

https://pusz4frog.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/net-neutrality-large-telcom-companies-out-to-rape-the-common-people-and-their-crappy-little-websites-%E2%80%93-working-with-prostituting-politicians-selling-out-the-rights-of-the-citizen-they-repre/

Corporations, Governments and Capitalists really don’t like freedom of speech, and especially don’t like the uncontrolled and unpoliced Internet. This freedom of information spread makes it difficult to squeeze every last drop of profit from the consumers of the world if information is not checked and controlled.

WHY NOW

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) defended his SOPA bill by saying: “To enact legislation that protects consumers, businesses and jobs from foreign thieves who steal America’s intellectual property, we will continue to bring together industry representatives and members to find ways to combat online piracy, and I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues in the House and Senate to send a bipartisan bill to the White House that saves American jobs and protects intellectual property.”

I am sorry, but this Job Creators Saves American job bullshit is too much. We live in a global economy. 14 hours in an airplane will get you to pretty much any place in the world, and communication is now instantaneous.

There are no American jobs, there are only jobs. You can buy and sell something made and sold from any country on Earth, the boarder are falling faster then the old people in governments can comprehend.

WHAT TO DO

So what can we do about these ignoent assholes in Washington who are trying to control the Internet so that they can shut down the Freedom of Speech and lure in more campaign donations from corporations who want to benefit by controlling the Internet?

1)      Go to https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/ and sign the petition.

2)      Use www.dearpolitician.org to write your politicians to have them vote NO on SOPA and PIPA

For more information on www.dearpolitician.org:

https://pusz4frog.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/dearpolitician-org/

3)      Learn to use a pen and paper again, since that might be the only way you will be able to freely express yourself, once the government has shut down your website/blog for “copyright infringement”.

Good Luck America… and the World.

SOPA Internet Protest – The day the Internet went semi-dark to save Liberty, Freedom of Speech and Capitalism

Samsung Galaxy s2 phone review: Comparing Blackberry, iPhone and Android – or How to kill a Blackberry with a washer and dryer.

Noogler – Samsung Galaxy s2 phone review: Comparing Blackberry, iPhone and Android

It all started when I was doing laundry. I was in a hurry to get a load started before a lunch date, and then when I got home the phone rang and I moved the cloths from the washer to the dryer as I talked. I closed the door and continued to talk on the phone. When the dryer was done, I started folding the cloths and noticed that I was finding various pieces of my Blackberry phone. Opps.

After 3 years with my small Blackberry phone, I came to the end of the line (pun) with it. Death by washer and dryer.

The reality was that I was not emotionally, mentally or physically prepared for one of the most challenging life experiences one could have –  choosing a new phone.

Blackberry, iPhone and Android

I started the process with a clean slate, and felt that I could afford any phone as long as it was with a 2 year plan, but a lower price obviously would play a factor in the end when I narrows the choices down to a few phones.

I like my Blackberry, the email worked great and effortlessly both in and out of the USA (I like to travel), but I knew that iphone and android offered a great experience with games, unique apps, entertainment and of course email and phone functions.

So I started looking at Blackberry, iPhone and Android phones and operating systems. The first thing I discovered was the the Blackberry smart phones really are a level down from iPhone and Android in terms of functionality and features, which left this fight between iPhone and Android.

The iPhone is just one phone, with Android there are about 20 worth considering, so I had to decide between iPhone or Android. The iPhone OS has a very smooth User Interface and App store has about 10 trillion apps in it, but after playing with it for a few days, I notices that the phone and applications are very rigid, and coming from a PC Windows background found it too Applely (is that really a word?).

I also felt that I wanted a iTab, but in a smaller size. The I Phone screen is nice cuz it makes for a smaller phone then some of the Andriod phones, but it doesn’t allow for choice since it is only one size.

I will say this though, the iPhone camera and video capabilities are really some of the best of all the phones I tried.

I feel like a robot

This now reduced me to having to only choose between about 20 Android based phones. So before I started looking closely at the available Android phones, I made a list of my critical features requirements:

1. Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or Android 3.3.5 (Gingerbread) with a planed update to 4.0 within 2 months

2. Larger then an iPhone – if I wanted that size, then I would get an iPhone

3. Must work in Europe and Asia

4. 4G is important, but I know I will get another phone at the end of the contract, so I can wait for 4G on my next phone. Remember, my last phone was 2G, so 3G is a big upgrade.

5. Must have WiFi

6. AMOLED screen is a must for clear photo and video viewing

7. Rear and front cameras for video calls.

8. A Dual Core Application Processor is important since that is where the real power and speed comes from for video processing and gaming

So once I had these defined, it narrowed the field down quite a bit. These are the phones that met these requirements:

• Samsung Galaxy s2
• Samsung Galaxy s2 Skyrocket
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
• HTC Amaze 4G
• Motorola Photon 4G
• Motorola Droid Bionic
• Motorola Atrix 2

Samsung Galaxy s2

All the above phone are good phones, and each has their appeal, so it really came down to some very personal preference choices. Some people will like one phone better then another, so it really is down to a person choice once you narrow the field down.

In the end for me, the one I like the best was the $50.00 deal from ATT, for the Galaxy sII.

Price versus features was the bottom line, I felt for $50 the Samsung Galaxy 2s offered all the important specs, and met all my minimum requirements for the lowest price.

I didn’t need the 4G version, and there seems to be compatibility issues with 4G in Europe – which ruled out any of the 4G phones for now. We will see what the 4G situation is in 2 year, and reevaluate.

I felt the Samsung Galaxy s2 had the best video and photo specs, and it has a planed January Andriod 4.0 update. I got a Ringbo screen protector and rubber case and I am now a Samsung Galaxy IIs phone mini tablet thingy owner.

NOTE: The photo of the Noogler, were shot with my Samsung Galaxy 2s, and I tweaked the brightness and saturation in Photoshop.

I am very happy with the Samsung Galaxy s2, and have had no problems with it.

I did find that if you are wearing glasses, that the phone will bump up against them when holding to your ear. Not a big issue.

It is a large flat thing about a 1/4 inch thick, so it is always awkward when holding it to your head. The speaker phone and the Bluetooth work great, and those are what I use the most.

My normal use of the phone, calls, photos, video, web, GPS and games, result in a battery life of about 14 hours between charges. Enough for a day of being myself. I did try the phone with just a few phone calls, 30 minutes of game playing and taking only a couple of photos, and I got more like 30 hours before the charge was used up.

Now, hopefully it will never meet my friends the Washer and Dryer!!!

Samsung Website with all the Galaxy sII specs and details:

http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxys2/html/

Samsung Galaxy s2 phone review: Comparing Blackberry, iPhone and Android – or How to kill a Blackberry with a washer and dryer

Porsche Design P’9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry – a $2000 ‘smart’ phone for the 1%

Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry - a $2000 'smart' phone for the 1%

I love my Blackberry, but it is getting a little long in the tooth so I have been starting to look at other phones.

What I like about Blackberry is the great email service, especially while traveling, but I don’t like the lack of technology in the phones and they tend to look like crap.

When I first saw the Porsche Design P’9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry, my first though was this was one hot phone, a real iPhone competitor.

Concerning it’s cars like the 911, thier styling has been refined over successive generations – you don’t buy a Porsche for how it looks, you buy one for how it works.

The same could be said of a BlackBerry – a favorite communications tool of businesspeople worldwide and a number of consumers like me as well – the BlackBerry is – like a Porsche – more about function than form.

Porche design has been distinguishing itself as one of the worlds best design firms, and has made severial of it’s own products that are not cars. Having already produced phones on its own, Porsche Design has long been rumored to be working on a project for Research In Motion, the Canadian company responsible for unleashing the addictive Blackberry device upon the world.

The co-branded “Porsche Design P’9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry” packs a 1.2 GHz processor, HD video camera, eight gigs of internal (expandable) memory, a QWERTY keyboard and BlackBerry 7 OS into a slick forged stainless steel case with leather back and a touch display screen. A personal concierge service is included with the P’9981, which still doesn’t make its estimated $2,000 price tag any more reasonable.

Of course, it is the kind of thing you’d expect from a style-obsesed businessman to use while he is talking to his lawyer; when he cuts you off in his new Porsche Panamera.

“Since 1972 Porsche Design has presented milestone products with iconic style, and the P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry will be our next landmark,” said Dr. Juergen Gessler, CEO Porsche Design Group. “The pure and distinctive design, coupled with authentic materials and an emphasis on the manufacturing process, perfectly match our philosophy and complement the Porsche Design product assortment.”

Well, $2000 is a lot of money for a phone, but if you are in the 1%, it should not be a problem, right?

Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry - a $2000 'smart' phone for the 1%

Hewlett-Packard looks to exit the Personal Computer and Tablet markets it help develop and has dominated for the last 30 years.

Hewlett-Packard looks to exit the Personal Computer and Tablet markets it help develop and has dominated for the last 30 years.

HP (Hewlett-Packard Co.) has decided to ditch the PC and Tablet business, and instead focus on Enterprise and Corporate software and services.

The company has been the biggest seller in the world of desktop and laptop computers, and on August 18th said that it was considering spinning off its PC operations and that it will exit the smartphones and TouchPad tablet computer businesses.

HP also agreed to buy a major British business software firm for $10.3 billion in cash, to help it in it’s new corporate software focus .
The new HP business plan is a great remaking of one of Silicon Valley’s most illustrious technology companies, as it seeks to move away from the sagging personal computer business and toward the more vibrant and stable market for corporate software.

It is clear that HP will include cloud computing services, remote data centers that businesses and government agencies can use to store data and computer programs they run remotely. In effect, the new plan is to turn HP from a hardware product company, to a software services company.

“Most of all, today’s about transforming HP for the future,” Chief Executive Leo Apothecker said Thursday. “HP is at a critical point in its existence, and these changes are fundamental to the success we all want as shareholders, investors and customers.”

HP is still going strong, as the company’s fiscal third quarter ( ended July 31), results were slightly ahead of Wall Street expectations: Profit increased 5.5% and sales edged 1.3% higher.

“Wall Street likes certainty, and HP is going to have a lot of moving parts now,” said analyst William Kreher of Edward Jones and Co. “This is a massive transformation from a hardware company to a software and services firm. There’s going to be a significant disruption in many of their major businesses.”
So why is HP changing directions now? Well, this is in part due to the fact that HP has seen increasingly weak growth in its PC business in recent years as it’s global computer shipments grew only 3% in the second quarter; reflecting a general slowdown as consumers opted to purchase smartphones and tablets rather than desktops and laptops, according to the latest figures from research firm IDC.

HP’s Personal Systems Group, which is it’s the PC operation, accounted for $9.6 billion, or about 30%, of HP’s revenue for the third quarter.
The company said a spinoff was one of the alternatives it was considering for the future of its personal computer business.

The company had high hopes for its TouchPad tablets as a rival to Apple Inc.’s iPad and for its smartphones, both based on the WebOS software that the company picked up in acquiring Palm Inc. last year. But neither the tablet nor such phones as the Palm Pri, Pixi and Veer have caught on with consumers.

As to what will eventually become of HP’s computer group, it may be sold off like IBM did with it’s Laptop division, or they may just shut it down – who knows, but the future of one of America’s greatest companies will never be the same.

Hewlett-Packard looks to exit the Personal Computer and Tablet markets it help develop and has dominated for the last 30 years.

Fatal1ty P67 Professional Gaming Motherboard – ASRock’s Sandy Bridge Monster Ass Kicking Gaming Solution – Let the Fragging Begin!!!

Fatal1ty P67 Professional Gaming Motherboard – ASRock’s Sandy Bridge Monster Ass Kicking Gaming Solution – Let the Fragging Begin!!!

First off, I am not a product tester, and as you can tell from my very random blog, I have written in the past about a few products I liked, as well as sports, gossip, celebrity and other crap.

So, first the disclaimer:

NONE of the parts used in this test were given to me as payment for this review.

NONE of these companies mentioned in this article paid me for the mention of their products or brands.

The only thing I got as compensation for this article – was my cat getting sick and barfing on my new shoes. Damn!!! Yuck!!!!

This blog, and most of my other work is done on a computer. This is the story of that computer.

This article is not just the grand story of my computer’s birth and of the miraculous upgrading process for said computer, but it is also an incredible journal of my virgin experience of actually replacing a motherboard and CPU. Being an end to my virginity, I decided to mark this significant event with a detailed product review of the new Fatal1ty P67 Professional gaming motherboard.

Most product reviews compare one motherboard of a certain chipset or spec, with the same one’s from other motherboard makers. I wanted to find out something different – How did the new board actually improve my system?

I mean, most people upgrading their systems want to know how much of an improvement will they get for the money they spend.

This is the question I wanted to find out with this upgrade process and resulting article. Enjoy.

WHITE BOX

About 6 years ago (OMG, has it really been that long ago?), I got a white box computer that my older brother gave me before he moved out to go to college. It really was a box, which was spray painted white. It was OK. It worked and it was free, what more could I ask for then that? Right?

The first thing I did to the computer was add a Creative Fatal1ty sound card. Actually, my bro came home and I had him help me add the sound card. It was a big improvement over the on-board sound, and I ran it through a small 5.1 receiver that I got for my room. I only had 4 speakers and a bass for it so it is really a 4.1 system, but it really rocked.

4 years ago, I got into Quake and Unreal Tournament, and had to start upgrading my system. My brother visited me again, and I told him I need to upgrade my computer cuz the games I was playing were lagging. We went to Fry’s and ended up getting a Fatal1ty Fp-IN9 Motherboards made by ABIT, and he bought me an Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 – 3.46 Ghz CPU to go with it. He is a good brother. Later that weekend, he upgraded the system for me.

The system now had some power and it was a big improvement, but I was still lacking in the graphics card department. On eBay, I was able to snag a used XFX-Fatal1ty 8800GTS which made Quake a hell of a lot more fun!! My bro helped me install it via the phone, and the sound card experience was real all I needed.

I ran this system for a couple of years with no problems till my original Antec PSU crapped out on me. I went on NewEgg and there in the PSU section was a 550W Fatal1ty power supply by OCZ, which I bought as well as upgrading my memory to the OCZ Fatal1ty memory. I figured since I was happy with the Fatal1ty mobo and sound card, how could I go wrong? Turned out I was smart.

So, in a round about way, I kind a ended up with a Fatal1ty computer system. It is funny cuz I didn’t really know Fatal1ty was a 12 time champion gamer, till I got the Fatal1ty motherboard and his story was on it. I am not really interested in competitive gaming, but I like the Fatal1ty brand cuz most of the parts in my system are Fatal1ty brand, and I am quite happy with them.

I use my computer now about 8-10 hours a day, at least 6 days a week. I have not had any hardware problems, with the exception of the Antec PSU, which was 4 years old when it died.

About 6 months ago, I replaced all my hard drives with the following SATA set-up:

One OCZ Agility II 180GB SSD – Windows XP and application drive (Thanx Bro!!)

Two Hitachi 7800 rpm 500 GB hard drives

More then enough storage space for the next decade.

I have NO overclocking on the system.

My bro taught me how to run the 3dMark03 benchmark, so I decide to use it for this article as a measurement test.

The current system produced the following 3DMark scores:

3DMark03 = 33826

3DMark06 =   6548

I don’t know if this is fast, but my system has been super stable and serves me well.

System Specs:

Mobo        = ABIT-Fatal1ty Fp-IN9 775 LGA Socket
CPU         = Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 – 3.46 Ghz
CPU Cooler  = Zalman 9500a
Memory      = OCZ Fatal1ty DDR2 1066MHz 4 GB Fatal1ty Edition Dual Channel Kit
Graphics    = XFX-Fatal1ty 8800GTS – 320 MB – GDDR3 SDRAM
Sound Card  = Creative-Fatal1ty Champion Series X-FI
HDD         = OCZ Agility II 180GB SSD, 2 x Hitachi 7800 rpm 500 GB hard drives
PSU         = OCZ-Fatal1ty 550w Modular PSU
DVD         = Memorex Lightscribe DVD-RW
OS          = Win XP SP3 – 32 bit

Fatal1ty Fp-In9 WinXP 8800GTS Benchmark 33826

FATAL1TY FANBOYGIRLTHING

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to my brother, and he asked me how my system was doing? I said fine, runs great and I told him how I had upgraded it and that I even did some benchmarks. He told me that he recently got an Intel Core i7 processor and was really happy with it, and said that for $800 I could really upgrade my system.

The new i5/i7 now comes in an LGA 1155 format (1155 pins = a lot of pins and a new socket format). My bro said that he read about the new P67 chipset motherboards for the LGA 1155 in one of the PC mags. He said I should think about the new Fatal1ty P67 motherboard.

He actually made me a deal – his exact words, “I will be out your way next month, and I will get you an LGA 1155 Socket CPU if got everything else (motherboard and memory)”. Deal!!! I get to see my Bro and get a new CPU!!

So I found the Fatal1ty P67 Professional gaming motherboard review in MaximumPC mag:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fatal1ty_p67_professional_review

9 out of 10 – one hot board!!

Fatal1ty P67 Professional gaming motherboard review in April 2011 MaximumPC magazine

The Fatal1ty P67 Gaming motherboard is made by the 3rd largest branded motherboard make in the world – ASRock:

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/Fatal1ty/index.asp

I bought one from NewEgg for $249:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157240&cm_re=fatal1ty-_-13-157-240-_-Product

I was also able to snag 8GB of 10333Mhz DDR3 Fatal1ty OCZ memory (I tried to find the link on NewEgg, but it is not there now, and I have since heard that OCZ got out of the DRAM business to focus on SSD’s – which makes sense).

I paid about $100 for the memory.

I was looking forward to seeing what the new Fatal1ty part could do.

I have been really happy with my past Fatal1ty products; they did what they were supposed to do: (1) last forever, and (2) have great quality for the price. Fatal1ty seems really good at picking the companies who do his products. I don’t know the gamer, but the brand’s products are great – and I guess that is all it takes to build a brand’s loyalty. They certainly got mine.
ASRock is a different story. I liked my ABIT board, but they went out of business. I knew about ASUS and Gigabyte, but ASRock I had never heard of before. I was a little nervous about it, but I figured that all my Fatal1ty product were good, so Fatal1ty would not have some weak company making his products.

I wonder if ASRock knows (at least in my case, and I can’t be the only one), that Fatal1ty gave their company credibility?

A few weeks later, my Bro showed up with an Intel Core i5 ( 2500K @ 3.30Ghz), which he told me he got off of Newegg for about $224 :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072&cm_re=intel_core_i5-2500k-_-19-115-072-_-Product

He said that he felt the 2500K offered a great performance/price value and would be a big step up from my old Pentium.

So, the total cost of this upgrade so far, $573.
If I wanted a new system, this price ($570) would get me a Core i3 550(3.20GHz) 4GB DDR3 1TB HDD Capacity ATI Radeon HD 5450 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit system:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227290

I think the potential of the upgrade, is significantly higher then buying a new a Core i3 system with half the RAM and a low end HD5450 graphics card which only has a card benchmark of 306 vs. 863 for the 8800GTS:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/

So, I think the upgrade will get me a much faster system for the money, then buying a new system that is already put together.

What I am curious about is how much of a performance increase will I see from my $570 upgrade?

Fatal1ty P67 Professional Gaming Motherboard – Top motherboard view.

LAYING IT OUT

When it arrived at my door, and I ripped open the package, I was quite impressed. The Fatal1ty box looks great, and it well packaged. The Fatal1ty P67 motherboard is one sexy beast!! The red/black coloring is looks really hot, and the logos and other stuff actually looks good – the ‘F’ logo on the lower heatsink is quite classy looking for a motherboard. The look of the board is, well, uh… professional 😉

I recently saw the new Assassin boards from Gigabyte, and they look like a cartoon with fake bullets, cartridges and other gun crap on the board – dumb, but I am sure somebody will buy them. For me, the Fatal1ty P67 Professional motherboard looks much better. Cleaner. More Professional 😉

Top things I liked about the Fatal1ty P67 Professional right out of the box:

1.    The Board itself is good looking, and looks/feels of a high quality

2.    In the package are lots of high quality SATA3 and USB3 cables

3.    The IDE and Floppy cables are high quality, and as a nice touch they have the Fatal1ty ‘F’ logo on them.

4.    The board has Power, Reset and CMOS Clear buttons on it, and they are nicely done and make testing and setting up the board much easier.

a.    My bro pointed out that the only thing he wished for was that when power was applied to the board, that the power button would light up showing that power was getting from the PSU to the board. Currently, the power button only lights up after you push it, so if you push it and nothing happens, then you have to figure out if power is going to the board from the PSU.

5.    This board has plenty of SATA2/3 and USB 2/3 ports, and they are all positioned in an organized and convenient way.

6.    The Fatal1ty mouse port is one of the USB 2 ports on the back of the motherboard. It seems that some Professional gamers prefer the older optical/laser mice over the newer mice. The issue is that these older mice have a preset mouse poling rate of 150Mhz. The Fatal1ty mouse port allows the user to set the mouse poling rate up to 1000Mhz for these mice. It is a feature that clearly shows that Fatal1ty had real input into designing the board, because who else would be crazy enough to want that? I use a newer mouse, and I am not a good enough gamer to notice much even if I used an older mouse, but it is nice to know that board really has some Fatal1ty to it.

Fatal1ty P67 Professional IDE Cable

Fatal1ty P67 Professional Rear I/O Panel - Note the Fatal1ty Mouse Port

Fatal1ty P67 Professional and my new Intel Core i5 2500K CPU

Fatal1ty P67 Professional - The last of the Fatal1ty memory from OCZ

Since we were planning on doing a bunch of Benchmarks to try to see what kind of performance increases we got over my old system, we laid out the motherboard and components on a work bench at a friend’s garage, so that we could change parts easily and work on the system.

The initial set-up is the new motherboard, memory, CPU – and all the old hardware from my old system (Fatal1ty 8800GTS graphics card, Fatal1ty sound card, PSU, SSD, HDD and DVD).

HE’S WATCHING ME

The first thing we did was power up the board.

Now, I have never spend much time using a motherboards BIOS. Actually, I have only really used it with my Bro for an initial setup, but I remember they are very simple and you use the keyboard to navigate around them.

Well, the Fatal1ty P67 comes with a UEFI BIOS, which looks much better, and you use a mouse to navigate it. My bro said that there is not much difference in the sections, items and menu items over a regular BIOS, but to me it is much more user friendly.

Fatal1ty P67 Professional UEFI BIOS

The graphics are nice, and for the Fatal1ty board it is red with the Fatal1ty face icon/logo, so he is looking at you while you use the UEFI BIOS. I kinda like it, but I could see that some people (mostly straight men who may have competed against him) might not like him staring at you during the few minutes you are using the UEFI.

ASRock might want to have a couple of background options, that the user could switch to, his face, or the Fatal1ty logo or a mix or something.

One thing I did find out about the UEFI – if your Boot HDD is larger than 2 TeraBytes – standard BOIS can’t read them, but the UEFI can read Boot HDD’s as large as 3 TB.

FIRST STOP – SPEEDVILLE

After we got Windows XP SP3 installed, we installed all the drivers and utilities from the disk that came with the Fatal1ty P67 board. The install process was pretty simple, and took about 10 minutes.

Next we installed the graphics drivers and Fatal1ty sound card drivers.

Last we got the 3DMark03 bench mark installed.

We ran the benchmark and got a result of: 41,442

Fatal1ty P67 Benchmark WinXP Drivers 8800GTS - 41442

So, Old mobo, CPU and memory 3DMark03 = 33,330

The New mobo, CPU and memory 3DMark03 = 41,442

This represents a 25% speed increase.

When you consider that 3DMark03 is a graphic card/DX9 benchmark, and I didn’t change the graphics card – a 25% increase is pretty good for just a mobo, CPU and memory upgrade.

Fatal1ty P67 Professional - Fatal1ty parts and test bench

NUMBER 7, TRACK 64

I was very curious to see what kind of change would occur if we did a new install of Windows 7 – 64 bit, with all the Win7 64 bit drivers. I mean in theory it should run faster than 32bit XP, but I wanted to find out how much faster.

So, we spend a couple hours rebuilding up a hard drive with Win7 64 and drivers.

Fatal1ty P67 – Win XP – 32bit = 41,442

Fatal1ty P67 – Win 7 – 64bit = 60,898

Win 7 64 bit was 50% faster than Win XP 32 bit. Now that is a good increase.

Fatal1ty P67 Benchmark Win7 64 bit Drivers 8800GTS - 60898

TWICE AS FAST

So, by spending $700 for Hardware and Win 7 64 bit, I doubled the speed of my computer.

I looked at what new computers are available for $700, and all I found was on Newegg for $700 was an iBUYPOWER Gamer Power 934i Desktop PC Intel Core i5 2400(3.10GHz) 4GB DDR3 Capacity ATI Radeon HD 5450 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227338

No way that the above system is as fast as my Fatal1ty P67 system upgrade. $700 well spent!!

GOING 4 MORE

I was so happy with my result, that I wanted to get a DX11 graphics card, and wanted to use the newer 3DMark11.
So I got an XFX ATI HD6850:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150505&cm_re=xfx_hd_6850-_-14-150-505-_-Product

I got it for $150, which brought my total up to $850 for the system upgrade.

Fatal1ty P67 – Win 7 – 64bit – 8800GTS = 60,898

Fatal1ty P67 – Win 7 – 64bit – HD6850 = 71,609

The Graphic card upgrade resulted in a 15% speed increase.

Fatal1ty P67 Benchmark Win7 64 bit Drivers HD6850 - 71420

Fatal1ty P67 with HD6850 - Top view

SUMMARY

I am extremely happy with the value, features and performance of the Fatal1ty P67 Professional Gaming motherboard.

I was not so sure of ASRock, but the quality, performance, features and value of the Fatal1ty P67 Professional gaming motherboards – means that I am now a fan of ASRock as well.

I looked at a bunch of P67 motherboards, and the number of features for the price, make the Fatal1ty P67 very competitive.

I love this motherboard!!

Final System Specs:

Mobo              = ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional 1155 LGA Socket
CPU                 = Intel Core i5 2500K – 3.3 Ghz
CPU Cooler  = Thermaltake
Memory        = OCZ Fatal1ty DDR3 10666MHz 8 GB Fatal1ty Edition Dual Channel Kits
Graphics       = XFX-HD6850
Sound Card  = Creative-Fatal1ty Champion Series X-FI
HDD                = OCZ Agility II 180GB SSD, 2 x Hitachi 7800 rpm 500 GB hard drives
PSU                 = OCZ-Fatal1ty 550w Modular PSU
DVD                = Memorex Lightscribe DVD-RW
OS                    = Win 7 64 Bit

Fatal1ty P67 Professional - The Fraggin' Machine

3DMark03 Benchmarks:

Fatal1ty Fp-In9 – Win XP – 32bit – 8800GTS = 33,330
Fatal1ty P67 – Win 7 – 64bit – HD6850 = 71,609
Total Benchmark increase = 115%

Total Upgrade cost = $850
New CPU, Motherboard, Memory, Graphics Card

3DMark11 Benchmark:

Fatal1ty P67 Win7 64 bit drivers HD6850 - 3dMark11 = P3476 / 3533

The disclaimer:

NONE of the parts used in this test were given to me as payment for this review.

NONE of these companies mentioned in this article paid me for the mention of their products or brands.

The only thing I got as compensation for this article – was my cat getting sick and barfing on my new shoes. Damn!!! Yuck!!!!