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{ Category Archives } Geek

OwnCloud 5 Review

I’ve had Owncloud 5 installed for a few days now. I really, really want to like this app. It’s definitely improved quite a bit since versions 3 and 4, both of which I abandoned after a week. Version 5 isn’t going to last any longer. It’s not all Owncloud’s fault. Files: File sync seems to [...]

Bye Bye Google

And don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out of my life. The Internet was buzzing yesterday with the news that Google is shutting down Reader on July 1. I predicted this last year. That does not make me particularly smart. When they killed Adsense for RSS Feeds it was [...]

It’s Not Paranoia If They Really Are Watching You

Google Glass has been in the tech news quite a bit in recent months. Honestly, I have not paid much attention because they idea of walking around wearing a pair of dorky looking glasses that are connected to the Internet doesn’t really appeal to me. However, this article raises a scary point that I had [...]

Use The Blog Luke

Apparently Technorati is still an active site. Who knew? Also, I apparently have never claimed ODonnellWeb there. So I’m doing it now. I hear blogs are the next big thing on the Internet Seriously, I do think businesses are going to start to realize that neglecting their blogs in favor of Facebook was a mistake. [...]

Online Job Search is Broken

Online job search is completely broken. You’d think we would have this figured out in 2013. You’d be wrong. 25 years ago if you were looking for a job in Washington DC you bought the Sunday Washington Post and pretty every single job would be listed. Where do you go today for that kind of [...]

Internet Induced Information Paralysis Syndrome

We are awash in information. In theory, all that information should make decision making easier. In practice, all that information makes decision making impossible. Most of it is poorly organized, poorly sourced, and of dubious quality. So what happens is we overload on information trying to make decisions that in many cases, are better off [...]

Mug Shots Are Big Business

Mug Shots are big business on the Internet. Depending on where you live, if you get arrested your mug shot will forever be generating ad revenue for some skeevy website that collects mugshots. The knee jerk reaction is to not feel much sympathy for criminals, but notice that word in the above paragraph. Arrested. Innocent [...]

Is Google Preparing to Kill Google Reader?

The news that Google is killing off Adsense for Feeds is disconcerting. What is Google Reader from Google’s POV? It is a vehicle for displaying the ads that they were placing in RSS feeds. If they are no longer doing that, why would they continue to support Google Reader? This concerns me. I’m a fan [...]

Attention O’DonnellWeb Readers

If you read my ramblings via a feed reader please resubscribe now with this link. http://www.odonnellweb.com/feed/ Google’s Feedreader service is on a death watch and odds are it will stop working entirely before too long. I was redirecting my feed through it, so odds are your link goes through Google. Thanks. The Management.

Facebook wants to do for your career what it has done for your social life.

This interesting blog post seems to indicate that Facebook is gearing up to take on LinkedIn. I guess it makes perfect sense from Facebook’s point of view. Your network is the best place to find a new job. Facebook has the best digital representation of your personal network on the Internet. Personally, I maintain Facebook [...]

Bookmarks Are Dead To Me

Bookmarks have been a standard feature of web browsers pretty much since they were invented. Does anybody use still use them? I just depend on my browser history to find sites I’ve visited recently. I start typing the site name and the URL auto-populates. One click bookmarking in the browser or on the web has [...]

Why Does Amazon.com Hate Open Source?

Without Open Source software, Amazon.com would not exist. Their infrastructure would kill a Windows server infrastructure. They never could have afforded the licenses they needed to scale their infrastructure in the Windows world back in the early days of 96 and 97. So why does Amazon treat Linux users like 2nd class citizens? I just [...]

Who Gets Your iTunes Account When You Die?

The answer is nobody. If you have 10,000 albums, CD’s or physical books, they pass on to your heirs through your estate. If you have 10,000 tunes in iTunes or 10,000 books on a Kindle, your heirs get nothing. You don’t own those files, you license them, and the license is non-transferable. According to Amazon’s [...]

Own Your Words

Own your space on the Web, and pay for it. Extra effort, but otherwise you’re a sharecropper. – Tim Bray This times 1000. I’ve owned my own space on the web since 1995. The irony is that 90% of you will see this via Facebook. Facebook is fine as a distribution tool, but don’t let [...]

Steve Jobs

I finished the Steve Jobs biography last night. Nothing I read will motivate me to change my long standing bias against Apple products. In the Gates vs Jobs battle of very closed systems versus mostly closed systems, I stand with the penguin and open systems. They talk a lot about the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion [...]