Josh's Blog

I have to admit, I have become a little spoiled with all the security we have at work. There are all forms of network and desktop security in place. However, when I go home, I am not quite as secure. So I have been looking at some of the products out there geared toward securing home or SOHO users at the gateway.

One of the products I have found is the Yoggie Gatekeeper Pro. For $220 for the tiny device and $40 every year after, you get "Pentagon Level Security" (their words, not mine). Beyond your typical firewall, you get anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti-spyware, and anti-spam gateway protection. That is a whole lot cheaper than the thousands of dollars that our cooperate protection costs. But Yoggie isn't the only product out there.

The popular ZoneAlarm company that has become famous for its free personal software firewall has also developed a hardware wireless router that incorporates a lot of goodies. There product is called the ZoneAlarm Secure Wireless Router Z100G. It comes in with a lower up front cost of $150. I have been unable to find the yearly subscription costs, though.

Then there is the iPhantom. It not only offers a firewall and gateway anti-virus, but it also offers anonymous surfing and encryption. At $90 for the hardware, it certainly comes in with the cheapest up front cost, but the subscription fees are certainly higher at $120 a year.

I have not tested any of these products yet, but I thought these products were all worth mentioning. If you have had any experience with these products, please let me know.

Joost is promising to revolutionize IPTV. Maybe it will. What I can't understand is why IPTV has to be so different from regular television. Why don't content providers allow cable companies to simply rebroadcast their content on the internet?

For anyone who doesn't know how a cable system works, let me explain it. I am going to focus on the majority of channels and avoid the "local" channels. Say Comcast wants to add the SciFi channel to its channel offerings. Basically, the cable company pays a price per subscriber to the channel and in turn raises the customer's monthly bill more than what the channel costs. Some channels cost the cable company more that others, and the bigger the cable company, usually the better pricing the channel gives them. It could range from a few cents to a several dollars.

So, here is my question. Why won't channels allow cable companies to follow a similar model with IP transport? Then I can pay the cable company a few dollars extra a month to have my service duplicated via IP. Right now we have every individual channel trying to go there own way and it is making a giant hodgepodge of different media in different locations.

Frankly, I know the answer to my own question. It comes down to money. Right now I think the channels believe they can make more money doing it themselves. The cable operators might be afraid of cutting into their huge revenue stream. Don't get me started on DRM. Frankly, I think everyone is losing out. What do you think?

It seems like people want everything in their cell phone anymore. They want it to be there phone, PDA, MP3 player, and GPS. Well, here are a few of my suggestions:

Remote Control - So why can't I change channels on my TV with my cell phone? Why stop with my TV? It could be a remote for my entire house.

Self-Defense - These phones certainly aren't cheap anymore, and I think they need something a little more high tech than "theft deterrent". Phones should have build in tasers, or at least pepper spray. Maybe even an ultrasonic siren to fend off dogs for the joggers out there.

Best Friend - What about those really anti-social people out there that don't have friends to call. The cell phone should have a sophisticated artificial intelligence built in that talk to you. Of course, I'm sure the phone company would charge by the minute. We can't cut into those profit margins.

Ok, so this post was mostly just for fun. Let everyone know what you think in the comments section.

I think Microsoft is on the right track with the Xbox 360. The idea really is to get technology into the home and build around it. It is also very important to make it as simple to use as possible. However, I think Microsoft is missing the mark on some things.

Modularity - Microsoft is actually doing a surprising job of incorporating modularity into their Xbox 360. For example, they released the external HD drive. There is no reason to force people to pay for a Blue-ray or HD drive, if the consumer does not want it. I think it needs to be carried to the next level, though.

Microsoft should be putting out modular appliances. Microsoft just announced their Windows Home Server. The product sounds like it has promise and really has functionality that the home user can appreciate. But now if I want to purchase one, I am going to have yet another strange looking box I have to put somewhere in my house.

These appliances should have a common form factor so they all fit together nicely and have a common interface (hardware and software). With this section of the market, I really think Microsoft needs to take a chapter out of the Apple book. They already make the OS and have experience marketing hardware. Why don't they start producing their own hardware appliances?

A home firewall appliance, a home storage appliance, a home automation appliance, etc. I really think for them to truly enter the home, they need to interface all these appliances through a common hardware connection and a single management interface. The software UI of the Xbox 360 is already well laid out for something like that.

Online - Xbox Live is great piece of work, but one thing the Xbox lacks is a browser. You should be able to get your email and browse the internet from your living room. I should be able to use things like Google Documents (or a Microsoft equivalent) to type up a document or spreadsheet.

Speech Recognition - Ok, so this is more of a pipe dream, but speech recognition truly ads amazing usability to some common tasks. You could even use the Microsoft headset for it.

Television - Obviously I think that a media center should have television functionality. Microsoft seems to be addressing this with its IPTV service. We will just have to wait and see how it turns out.

Clearly I have written this article from a Microsoft viewpoint. I think at this point in time, only a few companies could pull something like this off. Two of them are Microsoft and Sony since they already have millions of units in homes today. I think Microsoft is well poised for a project like this because of their size and the current markets they work in. I don't know that they will actually catch on, though.

Today I found one of those great tools. You know, the kind of tool that really makes your life easier. This bit of software is called CrossLoop ( http://www.crossloop.com/ ). I have only had limited amount of time to test it so far, but here is how it works.

Say your mom is having a computer problem. She can download the free software to her computer (you could even mail it to her on a floppy disk) and she installs it. She clicks the host tab, reads you the access code over the phone, and clicks the connect button. On your side, you start the software, type in the access code, and click connect. You now have remote access to your mom's computer.

This is just one scenario. The beauty of the software is that it is free and anyone can use it. The software traverses firewalls and is simple to use. This is one tool that will be making my life a lot easier.