Two initiatives IBM is promoting for women of all ages

On this page IBM & Open Source for the Enterprise Developer, there is alot happening, but I want to highlight two things that IBM is doing.

First, IBM is

…partnering with Girls Who Code to promote gender diversity in software development. This summer, we’re hosting a seven-week immersion program for dozens of female high school students in New York City. In 2016, we’re taking it across the country.

And second:

We’re also working with GSVlabs to help women return to work in greater numbers than ever before by offering mentorship and placement programs after multi-year sabbaticals. In focusing on cloud development, IBM hopes to attract women back to the workforce with a new set of skills.

Two worthwhile initiatives, I believe.

Why aren’t we becoming more productive with all this new technology?

Vox raises that question here: All this digital technology isn’t making us more productive – Vox, and it implies that because people are slacking off on the Internet. I think that is incorrect, and here’s why.

The chart that Vox piece has shows big producitivity gains from 1998-2003 and smaller gains after that.

From 1998-2003 was the peak adoption of the Internet by companies. In the early 1990s, companies started to adopt email. In the later 1990s companies started adopting the Web. To me it is not surprising that companies would become more productive and they shifted away from snail mail and faxes to email. And then companies shifted further and started offering services over the Web, I imagine they became much more productive.

Slacking off on the Internet has been a problem since the Web came along. I know, because I used to monitor web server traffic. I don’t think that is the issue.

I think it is more likely that companies grabbed the big productivity gains from the Internet at the beginning, and then those gains slowed down after.

So what about smartphones? Have they made people more productive? I think they have, but I also think that the gains in being able to access information remotely may have been overtaken by the sheer amount of information to deal with. Being able to deal with email remotely makes you productive. Having to deal with way more email than you ever had to in the 1990s because now everyone has it makes you unproductive.

Furthermore, many of the features on smartphones are aimed at personal use, not professional use. I think smartphones make us more productive personally, but less so professionall.y

Do you need tools for a safer PC ?

Of course you do: everyone does. Therefore check this out: Tools for a Safer PC — Krebs on Security.

Personal drones are getting smaller and cheaper. What that leads to.

As you can see, this new drone (Micro Drone 3.0: Flight in the Palm of Your Hand, Indiegogo) is really small. Also relatively cheap. Like other IT, I expect personal drones will only get smaller and cheaper. The only limit will likely be how big they have to be in order not to get blown away.

I have heard people come up with innovative ways of using personal drones. For example, some home inspectors are using them to check out hard to reach parts of people’s house in order to see if they are in good shape or not. That’s great.

But there are going to be lots of other ways that people use them which may not be so desirable. The most obvious one is invading people’s privacy. It is one thing to inspect a house when no one is in it: it’s another to do so when someone lives there. Instead of prank phone calls, we’ll have prank drone visits.

How people protect their rights in such cases will be difficult. Drones will raise a number of legal questions. For example, what is your recourse if someone has a drone follow you around? Or if someone has a drone hovering in a public place outside your home? Can you fly a drone above an outdoor concert so you can record it? Can you attack drones that fly into your personal airspace? Will there be security drones that keep other drones off people’s property? If you post a video of a drone visit to a property on YouTube and someone uses that video to help them rob that property, are you an accomplice?

There has been some good work on drones being done by government agencies like Transport Canada, but I think the technology is going to challenge governments and courts to keep up. Expect to see more and more debate on drones in the coming months and years.

As far as this particular drone, Mashable has more on it here.

Twitter is in trouble! Again!

Since I have been using Twitter, it’s been in trouble. And according to this really good piece, Twitter is in trouble. Here’s why. – Vox, it still is! What is new is the the type of trouble it is in. Previous troubles were technical and then social. Now it’s business trouble.

My take:

they need to be less controlling and make it a platform.
they need new leadership.

Otherwise they are going to become MySpace.

Here comes Yik Yak: a mini primer (plus 2 or 3 — ok, 7– thoughts on it from me)

By now you have heard of Yik Yak (or were curious enough to click through). Here are three links that can tell you more about it:

If you want to get the basics, check out this: You Asked: What Is Yik Yak? | TIME.
If you are a big user of Yik Yak, you most likely are on campus. College students are where it is seems to be taking off. Like any platform, eventually you see people coming out with ways to take advantage of it. Here it was used to have a back channel for a speech Ted Cruz was giving: Ted Cruz Has Skeptics at Liberty, and They Use Yik Yak – Bloomberg Politics.
And here it was used for cheating on exams! Another Use for Yik Yak on Campus? Cheating on Exams – Wired Campus – Blogs – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

My thoughts:

Yik Yak is a platform. Like any platform, people using it will invent new uses for it. I expect to see Yik Yak used in all sorts of innovative ways, and I expect it will grow as a result.
Yik Yak is big on college now. But it likely won’t be limited to that audience. Facebook was also once limited only to colleges. Look how that turned out.
Yik Yak is partially a response to all those Privacy is Dead advocates and those saying young people don’t care about privacy. Yik Yak is anonymous, and I expect there will be more social media going this way. It’s hard to exploit users when your service does not depend so much on identities.
Anonymous social media is also a dangerous thing in the wrong hands, as is illustrated in some of the examples.
Social media needs to mature to a position that is not anonymous but also protects people privacy. Otherwise people will tire of being abused by one or the other and shy away from social media.
I think social media and the people who create it are anywhere near that mature yet.
Privacy lives. Privacy is all about control about information about your life. To say privacy is dead is to say no one has control over information about their life, which just isn’t true. What is true is that new technology will continue to come out and force you and everyone else to think about privacy and what you want to share and what you want to keep to yourself.

Thinking of upgrading your Internet connection? You should test it first

If you think your Internet connection is too slow, or you just want to upgrade it, you owe it to yourself to measure how fast it is. There are a number of ways to measure it, but I like using this: Speedtest.net by Ookla – The Global Broadband Speed Test.

Record both your upload and download speed. Ideally, do it at different times of the day, and do it for both weekdays and weekends. Once you have that information, you can decide on what services would be an upgrade to this.

Also, while speed is important, the other thing to consider when you are upgrading your service is what your monthly bandwidth usage is. Your current ISP should be able to tell you that.

What you should know if you are planning to learn to code

If you are going to learn to code and you are planning to stick with it, then you owe it to yourself to read this: Why Learning to Code is So Damn Hard.

It’s well written, and it has some great graphs, including this one:

I think any area of learning where you get good initial training would look similar to this. I recommend you find some mentors to help get your through the desert of despair.

P.S. Yes, I realized they borrowed heavily from Gartner’s Hype Curve. 🙂

Three takes on twitter (2015): one mine, two others by WiReD and The Atlantic

Here’s two takes on Twitter worth reading for anyone still fascinated by Twitter as a company:

My take on Twitter?

Twitter is gunning for revenue growth. They are sinking any profit they make into research in order to continue to grow revenue wise. It works for Amazon, so maybe it will work for twitter.
As they try and ramp up their revenue growth, they are cleaning up their act and acting quicker against trolls. I’d like to think it is because they are more concerned about users, but it is just as likely that they have decided trolls are bad for business
New user growth is flat. I am not surprised. I barely get new users following me, and if you think about it, the same is likely true for you.
Interaction is dying off. I still get a fair amount of interaction, thankfully. But it is much less than it used to be. Based on some recent analysis, that seems to be the case across the board, even if you are famous. Person A tweets: Person B responds, and at most, Person A favours Person B’s tweet. I believe Twitter is becoming less of a social community and settling into being just a microblogging platform.
I think Tweetstorms are terrible, still.

Is ICANN extortionist? On Taylor Swift and the new TLD domains like .porn

Taylor Swift (or her lawyers) have made a smart move and went out and bought some new domain names, according to Taylor Swift buys own porn site domain names ahead of expansion – People – News – The Independent. She was able to buy “TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult before they become available”. Microsoft, who also have good lawyers, bought Office.porn.

Now you might think: big deal…domain names are cheap. But these ones aren’t, going for $2,500 a pop. And if they are like other domains, those fees must be paid annually.

You might also think: well, it was good of them to offer the domain first to individuals before others buy them. I first thought that before I knew how much the domains cost.

Does that add up to a form of extortion? That is very hard to state categorically, and if I was pressed, I would say it isn’t. But using the logic of “if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck”, you might draw a different conclusion.

Whatever you call it, it makes me think it is time to replace the ICANN and the use of domain names with something much better.

Periscope, Meerkat, and the future of virtual tourism

If you haven’t heard, Meerkat and Periscope are two apps that allow one person to stream an event and have others watch it. For example, here is an artist streaming her work on a painting while others watch and interact: Wendy MacNaughton paints live on Periscope My… – Austin Kleon.

It’s an interesting idea. Once people get creative, there will be all types of events that people stream, from the obvious (porn, music concerts) to things no one thought of before.

I think one of these not so obvious ones will be virtual tourism. Essentially someone will visit a place like Japan and stream the cherry blossom festival or go to Pamplona for the running of the bulls and others will watch in real time. Maybe people will sponsor the person ahead of time, or the person will wear a shirt with ads on it, or find some way to make revenue. In return, lots of people can see something they might not be able to see otherwise.

People will use Periscope and Meerkat in all kinds of ways. Expect this to be one of them.

(Image via techcrunch)

The pros and cons of FitBits and other wearable fitness devices (plus my own thoughts)

Here’s two recent pieces on the pros and cons of wearable fitness devices.

Pro: Wearables and Self-Awareness (Personal) – NYTimes.com.

Con: Science Says FitBit Is a Joke | Mother Jones

I tend to agree with Krugman’s pro views in the NYTimes. In a nutshell, Krugman’s view is that having a tracker like a FitBit makes it harder to lie to yourself about your fitness. A FitBit will let you know and help you track when you are active or sedentary, just like a scale will tell you when you are eating too much or too little.

The Mother Jones article has good points, too. FitBits have limits. They aren’t for all kinds or exercise, they may not be precise, and some apps on a smartphone can do just as good a job. That said, their title is a joke and their article is misleading. For example, trackers start at much lower than $100. As well, for people walking or running, carrying a smartphone is not always a good option. FitBits are more accurate than the article let’s on, and the readings that they provide is a reasonably close measure of your activity. The limits to wearable fitness devices are real, but Mother Jones overstate their case.

Do you or I need any of these devices? No. Based on my fitbit, I can walk a mile in about 2000 steps. If I were to sit down with a free service like Google maps, I could easily plot out a 5 mile walking route that, if I walked daily, would mean I would hit at least 10,000 steps a day. (10,000 steps is my daily goal). Or I could just go for an hour walk and not worry about a route at all. (It takes me around that time to walk 5 miles if I walk it at a good pace.) Either way, a map or a watch can easily replace a wearable device. If you can’t afford or don’t want a wearable device, just use a map, a watch, and a log book, and you will get similar benefits.

Why I like my FitBit is that it does the work for me. I can walk anywhere I want, for as long as I want, and it will keep track of all that for me. Plus it keeps a ongoing record I can look up when I want. Finally, like Krugman noted, it prevents me from lying to myself about how active I am.

A wearable device is an aid, and like any aid, it helps you achieve your desired outcome. If you don’t need such an aid, don’t use it. As for me, the fitbit helps me meet my fitness goals and I am glad I have it.

Want to start a startup? All you need for that is here

And by here, I mean this site: Startup Stash – Curated resources and tools for startups. It is an amazing collection of tools you likely will need, for one thing. Plus, it has a superb user interface that not only groups the tools well, but gives you a sense of all the things you need to think about if you are going to go forward and create your own startup.

If you aren’t seriously thinking about startups, but would like to know about new tools to make you more productive at work, then I recommend you check out this site too.

Kudos to the creator of the site. Well worth a visit.

” The Apple Watch Is Going To Flop” articles are here, and …

…and I recommend you bookmark one or two to go back and read towards the end of the year to see how poorly they did and why they were wrong. This one, for example, You Guys Realize The Apple Watch Is Going To Flop, Right? | Co.Design | business + design, touches on a lot of things that are likely to be problematic about the new Apple Watch. Yet, the author makes the same two mistakes authors have been making about Apple since Steve Jobs returned: 1) looks at the failures of the competition and 2) looks at the limitations of the current technology. These are mistakes, because 1) Apple has a base of purchasers that has not let the company down in some time and that the competition will never have and 2) Apple has a way of having people focus on the potential, not the limitations.

The Apple Watch will be a success. I have no doubt. Wait and see.

(P.S. image sourced via a link to the article).

If you are cleaning up an environment by deleting resources in Amazon’s EC2, here is a checklist to get you started

I just cleaned up an environment I had set up in Amazon years ago for a client. (The client wanted to use Amazon, so we did.) In doing so, I wanted to make sure I didn’t leave anything behind which would cause me to continue getting billed even though I was no longer actively using EC2. I believe that the following checklist was useful in insuring this.

My EC2 cleanup checkist:

Delete my Elastic IPs
Terminated instances – running and non-running (I did this before deleting volumes, since it deleted alot of them for me)
Delete remaining volumes
Delete my security groups ( 1 will be left – the default one)
Deregister AMIs
Delete snapshots (you need to deregister your AMIs before you do this)
Check your account balance
In a few days, check your account balance to see if there are any charges you haven’t accounted for

After following this checklist, my EC2 environment was cleaned up. Depending on how you are using EC2, you may have more things to delete. Checking your account balance will help there: if you left things behind, they may incur charges. An increase in your account balance will help flush them out.

One thing to consider: you may delete something, but it doesn’t show in admin console. If that is the case, logout and then in. I did that when I was having trouble deregistering my AMIs. I logged out and then in and when I checked them, they were now deregistered.

Forget Google Glass: here is where wearable technology is going

As digital technology gets more and more compact, expect to start seeing it combined with new and unexpected things. Wearables will not just be watches and sports-bands, but clothing and jewellery. For example: Meet Ear-o-Smart The World’s First Smart Earring.

Anything you wear, anything you touch, anything you own: all of it will soon have sensors and digital technology in it to talk to your computer and your phone. This is just starting.

Why you should be wary of any tech pieces in the New York Times

I used to feel the urge to write posts whenever the New York Times did an article on something that was centered around IT, because they would get so much wrong. It isn’tt just something that happens occasionally either: it seems to happen often. That’s why you should be wary of tech pieces in the Times.

Case in point, the story about Sony being hacked. For this story, someone has done the work for me: Anatomy of a NYT Piece on the Sony Hack and Attribution | Curmudgeonly Ways. I recommend this piece.

I would warn you to be careful in coming to any conclusions about a matter related to IT based on what you read there.

CP/M and Computer History Museum

If you are an old geek or interested in computing history, especially the early days of the PC, then I highly recommend you check out the section of the Computer History Museum on CP/M. Before Microsoft and Apple there was CP/M. You can even download the source code! Fun! 🙂

See Early Digital Research CP/M Source Code | Computer History Museum.

If you are thinking of writing apps for a living, this is still worth reading

This came out awhile ago (As Boom Lures App Creators, Tough Part Is Making a Living – NYTimes.com) but if you are thinking about writing apps for a living, then you should read it.

If you have a great idea for an app and a passion to develop it, you should. Just finish the above piece in the Times and keep it in mind.

Google Glass is dead

And the BBC has a good story on it here: BBC News – Google Glass sales halted but firm says kit is not dead, including this comment that sums things up in a nutshell:

Google has tried to present this announcement as just another step in the evolution of an amazing innovation. But make no mistake – Google Glass is dead, at least in its present form.

I would say it’s been dead for sometime, and while wearable technology is alive and well, this piece of it is long overdue to be written off.

Read the BBC story: it has a good review of the history of Glass, what will happen next, and why Glass never had traction.

How to learn Python: fast, slow and somewhere in between

As one of my areas of skill development this year, I am teaching myself Python (the programming language). I had a number of different sites offering help with it, but I have found these three the most useful, so far. I have found each of them useful, but I have spent the most time on “medium”. If you are interested in learning Python, I recommend you check these out:

Fast: Tutorial – Learn Python in 10 minutes – Stavros’ Stuff. Great as a cheatsheet or a quick intro to Python or if you used to do work with Python but haven’t done it in awhile.

Medium:the Python Tutorial from python.org. If you know other programming languages, this is a good starting point.

Slow: Learn Python the Hard Way. Good if you don’t know much about programming and want to make Python the first language you know really well.

Two really good articles on passwords. (Really!)

Yes, it is possible to write good articles on what is the bane of our current existence: computer passwords. The first one talks about the top passwords that people commonly use. The second one is a beautifully written piece about the thought that goes into people’s passwords.

You will have an entirely new perspective on passwords after reading this.

P.S. Thanks to Anna P for pointing out the second one.

A great little tutorial on MySQL that covers Windows, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu (Linux)…

…can be found at this link:

MySQL Tutorial – How to Install MySQL 5 (on Windows, Mac OS X, Ubuntu) and Get Started with SQL.

Even if you don’t know hardly anything about SQL or databases, you will find this helpful. It covers pretty much everything you need to know to get started, and it’s a great cheat sheet for people who have more experience but need to know a command format or get some other quick guidance.

Recommended.

P.S. It specifies Ubuntu, but if you are using other distros like CentOS you should still find it helpful.

10 ways to get more out of another great tool, Evernote

Yesterday was about ifttt. Today it is all about another great tool I highly depend on: Evernote. Evernote has become my go to tool for capturing information. (Bonus: it works great with ifttt). There are many great ways of using Evernote. If you are using it or planning to, here are at 10 for starters: 10 Tips On How to Use Evernote To Its Fullest « The Solopreneur Life®.

Please share any other tips you have. I find the one key tip I have for users of Evernote is this: the more you use it, the better it gets.

Need a gift for a child? Consider the Kano computer

I am a big fan of the Raspberry Pi. And I think there is no better way to learn about computers and take your knowledge to a deeper level than building your own computer. The folks at Kano must agree, because they have put together this kit than combines the Pi with everything the owner needs to build a workable and very useful computer. Now you can buy all these things separately, but this kit saves you time and makes up for any lack of knowledge you might have in this area.

You will still need to have a display device to connect to it. Preferably this will be a HDMI device, though it is possible to hook it up to a non-HDMI device. (See here for details.)

For more on the Kano, go here: Kano – Make a Computer.

And now, a very strong endorsement for Blackberry’s new Passport phone

Not from me: I was a huge Blackberry fan since almost 10 years on, but they lost me a few years ago and I switched to an iPhone. But Jonathan Kay in this vigorous piece (below) on the new Passport got me seriously thinking about Blackberry again. I think I will stick to my iPhone for now, but anyone who was a fan of Blackberries should really read this: Jonathan Kay: Why I ditched my iPhone for Blackberry’s massive new Passport | National Post. You might find yourself heading down to your local service provider and coming out with one.

I am hopeful for Blackberry/RIM making a comeback. More and better choices are better for everyone.

Looking to buy a technical gift for someone (or yourself) ?

Then you need to check out the Wirecutter. It has experts in every area of technology — from headphones to TVs to much more — stating what they think is thebest thing to buy right now. They explain their reasoning, offer alternatives, and best of all, the site is kept up to date. Also, they have links to sites like Amazon and others to let you take the next step and purchase the tech you want.

Is there no limit to how small computers can get?

Right now it doesn’t seem it when I see a general purpose computer shrunk down to this size:

You can find out more about that computer here: Inverse Path – USB armory.

I believe that soon everything you buy will come with computing built into it, by defaul. When this occurs,people may find it weird to think about non-digital devices, just like younger people might find it weird to see people working from previous generations doing work and not using computers.

VPN 101: what it is, how to set it up (quick links)

Here’s a collection of links on VPN, and VPN tunneling. Not authoritative, and not meant to endorse any one approach over another or even how to use the technology.

Networking 101: Understanding Tunneling (obvious)
Ensuring Network Security with a VPN (Virtual Private Network) – For Dummies
VPN Tunnels Tutorial – Types of VPNS, Protocol & More (via About.com)
What A VPN Tunnel Is & How To Set One Up (seems more oriented towards PCs than servers)
How to Tunnel Web Traffic with SSH Secure Shell (oriented towards Linux servers)
How to Set Up a Secure Web Tunnel | PCWorld (similar to #5)
How to setup VPN server (PPTP on CentOS, RedHat and Ubuntu)? – Knowledgebase – PhotonVPS (if you want to set up a server)

It’s Monday. Your Windows computer sucks. Here’s how to make it less sucky!

First, take this list: 25 tricks to make working with Windows faster, better and more fun.

Second, apply as many as you can. Even if you aren’t technically savvy or comfortable with changing things, look through the long list and find some you are comfortable with and apply them.

Third, ask for help with the ones you can’t do (either because you aren’t comfortable or their are restrictions regarding what you can change on your computer).

There! Your computer is better and less sucky already. And a less sucky computer means a less sucky work week.

Good luck! Thank me later! 🙂 Also thank ITBusiness, which is where I found it.

Marketers! Here’s a way to get extremely valuable ad space for next to nothing

How? Use this idea from this great food blog, Chocolate & Zucchini. What Caroline Mignot has done is create attractive monthly calendars for people to use as their desktop background.

Think about this: what is the one thing people stare at up to 40 hours a week or longer? That’s right: their computer! Most people have not so great backgrounds. Make them an attractive one with some message you want to communicate and you will have them thinking about it all the time.

Two takes on robots that stem from one fact

Take 1: Over at Make, A Peek Into the Design of The Robot Anyone Can Afford | MAKE.

Take 2: Over at Kottke is a good post on why we shouldn’t be blase about robots replacing us (Humans need not apply).

The one fact is that as microprocessors get small, cheaper, and faster, the ability to make robots gets easier and cheaper. That means more people can experiment with them, from individuals to corporations. Soon robots will be ubiquitous, just like personal computers and now smart phones are ubiquitous. And just like now there are fewer and fewer jobs without computers or smart phones involved, soon there will be few jobs without robots involved.

I don’t think this will result in robots taking all the jobs. My belief is that there will be a mix of robots and people doing work for some time to come, rather than just robots replacing people. But robots in work and play and all aspects of our lives in inevitable and coming soon. (Depending on your work day, you may not see this as a bad thing.)

Technology that matters: Andrew Bastawrous’s Visionary App

Andrew Bastawrous has developed Portable Eye Examination Kit, or PEEK, a combination of app and clip-on hardware that allows a smartphone to become a portable optical clinic. How significant is this? To do this type of procedure from a state-of-the-art hospital, you need $160,000 plus skilled staff to run it. PEEK costs about $500 and needs one eye specialist in the field with some training.

It’s a great invention. You can read more about it here: Andrew Bastawrous’s Visionary App | Rising Stars | OZY

If the new Mozilla Firefox OS smartphone seems familar, there is a good reason for that

Look at this picture. Amazing how similar these two phones are, yes?

The reason for this? The specs for the new smartphone are remarkably similar to those specs of the original iPhone. The phones even look similar, as you can see.

Two key differences between the original iPhone and the Firefox phone: release data and price. The Firefox phone is going to be priced well under $100, something an iPhone never has been (for good reasons).

Overall, I think the wider distribution of smart phone technology will only lead to greater overall benefits to the recipients. It will be interesting to see what change this causes. I think the net effect will be good.

For more information on this, click here.

How To Set Up Your Raspberry Pi For The First Time

If you just bought or are thinking of buying a Raspberry Pi, then two things:

Congratulations!
Read this: How To Set Up Your Raspberry Pi For The First Time – ReadWrite.

Not only will it help you get set up, but it also has a list of projects to get your started on doing something useful with it. As well, there’s some links to other resources.
There’s lots of material on Raspberry Pi’s on the Web, but if you haven’t found them yet, try this one at ReadWrite and get started.

Eight quick thoughts on the Apple Watch: its more than watch, more than IT.

Here’s eight quick things I concluded while watching Apple talk about their latest product: the Apple Watch

In the future, you won’t own one Apple Watch, you will own several. For the record I have two shuffles and a number of iPods. I can see the same with Apple Watches.
I expect Apple to experiment with different face types over time. The only thing that changes more than IT is fashion. So expect a steady stream of changing Apple Watches, which will embed fashion and IT.
I also expect Apple to launch partnerships with an array of other companies like high end fashion houses. Just like others make sunglasses for Tom Ford, Prada, etc., I expect Apple to make watches for them. They will be able to use higher end materials, like gold and expensive leather. They might even come with high end apps. Jony Ive was right to say that high end watch makers should be nervous. Apple can work with others to make high end watches that have sophisticated IT: not many (any?) can claim the same thing?
This is also tough for copycat IT companies like Samsung. Apple can now move at the pace of fashion, which is faster than the pace of IT. Plus fashion is about taste, which is an essential part of Apple. It is in their DNA, so to speak. Not so with other mobile device makers.
The Apple Watch is not simply a watch, any more than the iPhone was simply a phone. There is alot of emphasis on the watch part right now, just like there was alot of discussion about the phone part of the iPhone at first. I expect that to change over time.
Right now the Apple Watch depends on the iPhone or other device: it is secondary. I expect the Apple Watch will become the primary device over time, especially with advances in IT. It will be possible to become primary and that makes sense, because you don’t have to carry it: you simply wear it.
Apple has two wearable devices right now: the Apple Watch and Beats. Expect more and more. I expect even Apple eye wear. Unlike the fiasco that is Google Glass, it will be done correctly the first time. And like the watch, you will have more than one pair.
I don’t expect Apple to make a wide range of wearable computing devices. Apple tends to focus. They have a limited range of personal computing devices: I expect them to have a limited range of wearable devices.

P.S. The Apple Watch is not the iWatch. A small shift. Also, this has been a good day for Tim Cook. He is an understated CEO, but he has transitioned Apple from Steve Jobs very well. His first priority was to steady the company. Now he is charting a new course. Apple shareholders are lucky.

Lastly, these are my opinions only, and not my employers.

Teach your kids (and parents…and yourself) how to download software

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Why? Because they are going to do it regardless of whether or not you teach them, and if you don’t teach them properly, there is a good chance they will download malware or at least the wrong software.

To back up, my son was complaining last night he could not download some software for his computer. He had gone onto Google, entered “download software XYZ” and clicked on the first thing at the top of the page. Now often times the first thing is NOT what you want: it is some company that purchased the right to show up first. I told him to instead look at the URLs that are displayed, and look for the company name in the URL. I told him to be careful about what you click on. (The software he wanted was on the first page of the search results, but about 3 or 4 entries down.)

The safest thing is to always have them talk to you before they download something. Or you email them a safe link instead of them clicking on what shows up in Google.

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