Hawaii Political Platter - Journalism Shield Law to Sunset June 30

State Senator Sam Slom discuss Hawaii's Journalism Shield Law (Act 210 & Act 113) and a proposed bill that was killed by a legislative conference committee due to changes made and advanced by Senator Clayton Hee. Guest on this TV panel include Professor Gerald Kato of the University of Hawaii and Stirling Morita, President of the Society of Professional Journalists - Hawaii Chapter.

The current shield law which expires on June 30 cast a broad net of protection for both traditional journalistes employed in the print and electronic media, as well as those people who publish blogs, podcasts and video, much of which is available on the internet.

Oppsed to SOPA and PIPA

Yes, I'm opposed to censorship of the internet by the music and movie business. The bills written to do this should be opposed by everyone who values a free and open internet. Don't let government take this away from us.

LINKS:

https://blacklist.eff.org/

http://www.redstate.com/neil_stevens/2012/01/18/sopa-and-protect-ippipa-an-update/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

HawaiiReporter.com's 9th Anniversary Gala

HawaiiReporter.com held its 9th Anniversary Gala at the Waialae Country Club on October 15. The celebration commemorated the 9th year for the daily news website, often billed as the first in Hawaii

The Friday night gala was a successful party that featured recognition to the site's financial contributors, reporters, staff, and supporters. A silent auction was held and the keynote speaker was Jason Stverak of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.


HawaiiReporter.com is operated by publisher, editor and founder Malia Zimmerman and her business partner, Jay McWilliams. The two ladies started the site back in 2002 with hardly any knowledge or experience in the world of web publishing. They have grown the site from its humble beginings as a hackable Microsoft run blog to a premiere news and opinion source now running on a Wordpress back end.

Over the years HawaiiReporter.com has run several high profile stories including the sagas of the Koloko Dam disaster on Kauai, slave labor in American Samoa, the woes of rail transit and the ongoing fiasco of liberal Hawaii politics. HawaiiReporter recently added several new reporters to its roster including Greg Wiles and Jim Dooley, both veterans in Hawaii media.

Your Own Images on Google

Google on Chrome Full Screen, originally uploaded by macprohawaii.

Google now allows its registered users to upload their own photos for use as background images on their popular search engine page. Don't have your own photo? They also have a set of images from their own collection that you can also use.

This screenshot was captured using Google's new Chrome browser in Mac OSX. Shown in full screen mode.

How Private is Your Facebook Profile?

Facebook Privacy, originally uploaded by macprohawaii.

Have you checked to see how "secure" your Facebook information is? As many of you may know, Facebook has one of the poorest privacy policies and reputation on the internet. They share way too many items of information about you with third parties, many times without your knowledge.

You can analyze and fix most of your privacy levels by running the scanning tool from www.reclaimprivacy.org/.

A good article on Facebook privacy can also be found at Tidbits, the online Apple Macintosh resource. The Facebook privacy article there applies to users of all computer platforms - Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, iPhone, etc.

How to Protect Your Privacy from Facebook
db.tidbits.com/article/11282

In this screenshot from my Facebook page above using the reclaimprivacy.org scanner the green bars at the top indicate that my Facebook profile is in good shape because I have opted out of many sharing options, don't do third party apps and games. I basically set my privacy levels to the most secure possible setting. A red bar is generally not very good. In my case the scanner flagged the red item and gave me a link on where I can go to fix it.

If you are extremely concerned about your Facebook privacy, the best thing to do is discontinue your Facebook account and delete your profile. The Tidbits article has information on how to do that.

Just remember that anything you post on the internet is "not private" and stays on the internet practically forever.

View a larger version of the screen above

First Impressions of Apple's iPad

The following is based on a very few minutes of hands on tryout of an iPad at the Honolulu Apple Store.



Got my first look and try on the Apple iPad at the Ala Moana Apple Store. It's a nice device that can do a lot of things like web browsing, book reading and purchasing, music playing, some movie viewing, youtube, word processing and office tasks with iWorks, photos and a more. It's bigger than an iPod Touch and Nintendo DSi, but smaller than most Netbook computers. It is not a full on computer as it cannot do things like flash or be connected to a wired network. It is a nice device that I may reconsider purchasing in the not so distant future.



The big problem I have with books and other content that is available for sale through the iTunes books, app and movie store is DRM. I was not given a very clear explanation as to whether or not the purchased, proprietory content can be easily transferred at no extra cost to another iPad or iPod Touch or iPhone that the end user may own. I was clearly told that book content from the iTunes store cannot be viewed on your regular Macintosh computer.

The nice thing that I found about book reading on this device is that you can turn the book in either the horizontal or vertical mode and that the fonts and type size can be adjusted to whatever you like. Pages turn seamlessly with a move of a finger.

There is a kindle app available for the iPad as well as other Apple hardware such as the Macintosh. Books bought from Amazon.com to play on the Kindle are not compatible with the book viewer that comes standard with the iPad. Again, DRM getting in the way.

While I did not try it, I was told by the salesperson at Apple that the iPad can also read PDF. There are a lot of public domain books as well as millions of other types of documents available online as PDF files, usually for free. But then again most every other computing device can read a PDF which means you don't need an iPad to view them.



The onscreen keyboard is nice and easier to type with than the ones on the iPod Touch or iPhone. A better choice would be an external keyboard which is available for the device.

One thing about the all touch interface... it leaves the glass surface of the iPad full of fingerprints and grease streaks from hands. A daily cleaning of the touch surfaces will be the order of the day.



There is a YouTube app that specifically plays any and all YouTube videos. Shown above is my video of a Hawaiian Airlines Being 717 landing in Honolulu Hawaii.

While the iPad does not do flash, it seems this app and a few others have managed to get around this limitation. There was an ABC app on the iPad I tried out that also lets you view video content from the ABC TV network.



iPad does iTunes, which means that it can play music, podcasts and other audio content as well as purchased video content from the iTunes music store. Funny how all the main features of the iPad is connected to you purchasing something from the iTunes store. I hope the music I already own and have on my Mac is transferable to the iPad.

Shown above is iTunes playing a track from a Rolling Stones album

Will I buy it? Probably will at some point. The iPad comes in two basic models of varying storage/memory sizes. All models are equipped with built in WiFi access. So if you have a home wifi network you're online. There are wifi hotspots in many places around major cities in the U.S.

The more expensive models have 3G wireles networking that you have to subscribe to from AT&T. The subscriptions are month to month and there is no long term contract. That is good. However the 3G prices are fairly high.

More Information About the iPad

• Apple iPad pages
• Meet the new Apple iPad
• iBooks for iPad
• YouTube on iPad
  
• Extended Video Review
• Steve Jobs Introduces iPad
• iPad Launch in Hawaii
• Dumb Ass Destroys an iPad
• 
  

Photos taken with Sony Cybershot U30 at the Apple Store Ala Moana, 4-12-10.

Don't Tax Our Internet

The Hawaii State Legislature passed two nasty internet taxation bills this session. Both are up for a decision by the Governor. I urge a veto on both HB 1405 and SB 1678. Most of the ruling Democrats in both sides of the legislature would like to have more taxes sucked out of our wallets. They already have increased the taxes on hotels, gasoline and income this year. Don't let them tax our internet transactions.

This is what you can do. Write, fax, email or call the Governor's office and urge her to veto both HB 1405 and SB 1678. Here is a link to her contact information: Governor's Office Contact Page.

It is rather odd that the tech sector in this community are up in arms mostly against HB 1405 but not against SB 1678. All new taxes are bad and an additional strain on our dwindling finances.

Short Bill Summary

• HB 1405 will tax affiliate programs... re: Google ad and other display ad income on your website.
• HB 1678 is the notorious "Streamline Tax" bill pact. Will apply Hawaii taxes to out of state transactions. Requires enabling legislation from the Federal Government before the law can be implemented. Supported by more than 20 states.
  

Honolulu Star-Bulletin Goes Tabloid

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspaper came out in a new tabloid size starting today. Gone is the old broadsheet of old that had been the mainstay of the newspaper for more than 100 years. With dwindling readership, competition from the internet and electronic media, the Star-Bulletin was forced to make a change to this smaller size in order to remain financially solvent.

The smaller tabloid hit the streets today with a 72-page edition. Most of the features readers found in the broadsheet version remain, including the news (of course), sports, business, advertisements and regular columns. Instead of the paper divided into sections, the tabloid is one continuous publication with consecutively numbered pages (1 to 72 instead of A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, etc.).

One thing I've noticed is that news articles all appear as single page continuous stories instead of being broken apart on page B1 (for example) with the bulk of the story reported in whole on another page. This is a welcome development.

The Star-Bulletin like its larger competitor now publishes only in the morning. For years it was an afternoon paper.

Newspapers are a medium in trouble. As more people turn to the internet and many other alternative sources for news and opinion, the relevancy of the traditional newspaper is being marginalized. Circulation and advertising revenue have shrunken in recent years. Newspapers may have to think of new ways to retain readership and stay relevant in a quick changing environment.

One last thing that I'd like to see the Honolulu Star-Bulletin fix is their main website. I don't like the intrusive pop up over content advertising that have plagued the site since late 2008. The Star-Bulletin bean counters have to realize that in the long term, intrusive pop up and pop over advertising that block content are a huge turn off to readers.

• Honolulu Star-Bulletin Web
• Honolulu Star-Bulletin Mobile Web (no pop ups!)

Photo: The last broadsheet version of the Star-Bulletin (left) lays folded next to the much smaller tabloid size that was unveiled today (right).

Twitter & My Friday 5

BEHOLD TWITTER!

So what's up with Twitter these days? Plenty it seems. Twitter has exploded on to the scene in recent weeks with a lot of people saying they're using it, they're on it, they tweet and so forth. Many corporations and groups have their own Twitter pages or streams.

Media companies have found that Twitter is a great place to post breaking news items. In Hawaii most if not all of the major TV stations and newspapers are using Twitter.

Breaking news lie not only with the media firms of course. With Twitter anyone can report breaking news at anytime and from anywhere. Twitter and other Web 2.0 applications are having a big impact on how information is distributed and who is distributing it. Twitter has opened the timely flow of information to everyone. All you need is a computer and/or a mobile computing device. It's free to use Twitter.

Twitter is a personal web application that almost requires you to post your "tweets" yourself in order to make it personal. Most people post their own "tweets", though it can be assumed that businesses and organizations probably have teams of people posting to their streams. Some people and big name celebrities have hired "ghost writers" to maintain their Twitter streams. This is not good.

Of course as Twitter has grown in popularity problems have arisen regarding forged identities, fake friends and spam. Twitter users should carefully choose your "friends" and "followers". Check Twitter streams before you decide to follow anyone. Check your followers streams too. Prune and block the ones you don't want following you. Options are available on Twitter for you to control your presence, followers and stream.

Lastly you can follow me on my Twitter stream at: http://twitter.com/macpro.

My first posts to Twitter were made in late 2006. A new website called MyTweet16 can pull most Twitter users first posts. Here are mine, from November 2006.

fell asleep watching a B5 DVD. Woke up @ 1:15 and caught up on Ryan's U2 postings. 4:29 AM Dec 10th 2006

stayed home all day. Doing mundane stuff like laundry. Going nowhere as usual. 7:51 PM Dec 9th 2006

just got through watching the KFVE News @ 9. Listening to music. 12:27 AM Dec 8th 2006

can't decide what to buy for his neice this Christmas. Testing Twitter gmail chat. 10:30 PM Dec 6th 2006

checked out the ongoing bankruptcy sale at Tower Records Keeaumoku. 50% off all CDs. Slim pickings. More than 1/2 store is empty. 12:04 AM Dec 5th 2006

made an update to this twitter page and service. 6:55 PM Dec 3rd 2006

Did my laundry, getting rid of 3 old computers (1 already spoken for) and typing this. 6:48 PM Dec 3rd 2006

I am up at 2:27 in the morning and made a post to my blog. http://macprohawaii.blogspot.com/2006/12/island-air-cuts-back.html 5:30 AM Dec 2nd 2006

Just got off the phone talking to my boss on the subject of Pearl Harbor Day ceremonies. 4:39 PM Nov 30th 2006

I'm watching part 2 of the TV series "Boston Legal." Will Shirley Schmidt survive the kidnapping? 12:49 AM Nov 29th 2006

Watching the KFVE TV News at 9 tonight. No one can find the source of yesterday's earthquake hoax. 12:09 AM Nov 28th 2006

Those without mobile devices like me, tend to post computer related tasks here. I forgot to twit yesterday. So today I get 2 twits. 11:52 PM Nov 27th 2006

I went to the Hawaii Kai Christmas parade this morning. Christmas is in the air! 5:55 PM Nov 25th 2006

Just finished writing my blog entry on "Flying Go!" http://macprohawaii.blogspot.com/2006/11/i-flew-go.html 9:03 PM Nov 24th 2006

Posting to websites and sending emails out about the damn earthquake we had this morning on the Big island of Hawaii. 1:05 PM Nov 23rd 2006

Signing up for this service. There will be only one twit a day. 4:49 PM Nov 21st 2006

MY FRIDAY 5 FOR MARCH 27

Moving on from Twitter to the Friday 5. Here are my short answers to this week's inquiry:

1. To whom do you normally turn when you need to complain about something?

This blog or mutter to myself.

2. Which annual season-turning do you enjoy the most?

End of the Christmas shopping season knowing that I can put all of that off for another 360 days.

3. Where can you get a really good turnover?

I think Kafe Europa may have some baked goods that could qualify as turnovers. Can’t remember the names of them. The desserts are not on their website, but believe me, any dessert item they make "is to die for"!!!!

4. What’s employee turnover like where you work?

Seasonal… we get a regular influx of new workers at the start of the season and lose most of them at the end of the season.

5. One of the Wonder Twins could turn into any form of water, while the other could turn into any animal. Which of these powers would be more useful to you?

I have never watched the Wonder Twins. I don’t know what their powers are. That said I think I’d take water as a power source because in some places water can be used to power an entire electrical grid. Water powers us. The average human body contains about 55 to 60% water.

And that's my Friday 5 which I will definitely be Twittering this link to.

HB444, Hawaii Votes, Alakai Leaving & Macs

It is likely that HB 444 that approves Civil Unions between gay people will be pulled out of the Senate Judiciary Committee today after being locked there for more than a month. The bill was technically killed with a 3 to 3 tie in that committee after passing out of the House. Senators who support the bill are being led by Gary Hooser who has said he wants to pull the bill. He probably has the 9+ votes needed to get the bill pulled. Opponents of HB 444 are urged to show up for the Senate floor session today which begins at 11:30 am in the State Capitol.

Grassroot Institute of Hawaii unveiled their new website HawaiiVotes.org which is a privately funded website designed to empower "citizens to track activity of state legislature and individual lawmakers". The site duplicates many of the functions as the State's official legislative site, but adds a lot of other features including blogging, comments, registration, profiles, message forum and polls. Users can register for a free account at HawaiiVotes.org.

From my Facebook account, I got a message from Anthony Arakaki of Kula Maui saying that the Hawaii Superferry's vessel Alakai will be leaving Hawaii waters on Sunday for Mobile Alabama. Arakaki is one of the many supporters of the Superferry on Facebook. Maui supporters are also holding a rally supporting the Superferry tomorrow March 26.

Somone recently asked me what kind of computer I use for this blog. All of my blog entries and updates to every single website and page I do are done on one of my two aging Apple Macintosh computers. One is a G4 Power Mac tower that I've had for nearly 8 years and another is an iBook laptop that I take with me to various places. Both computers are running versions of Apple's highly respected Mac OSX operating system. I am planning on buying a new Mac later this year.

Photo above: Opponents of HB444 continue to urge a "NO" vote.

PodCamp Hawaii: A Brief Wrap-Up

I spent two days this past weekend at PodCamp Hawaii, an "unconference" that gathered geeks, computer users and mere mortals together for a number of concurrent workshops that focused on podcast production, podcast advertising, marketing, blogging, WordPress software and its use, and how social media platforms can impact life and business.

The two day conference was held at the Hawaii Convention Center on October 24 and 25 and attracted more than 330 attendees. I learned several things at PodCamp. In a short nutshell they included:

• Use of WordPress software as a good content management system for general blogging and podcasting front ends.
• How to customize and get the most out of WordPress.
• It is difficult to install WordPress on your own hosted server. It may be best to go with a host that truly supports WordPress or hire a true geek who can install and possibly maintain WordPress and its associated files and database.
• A good hosting company is better than a bargain basement host.
• Most people who start podcasts burn out after 7 episodes.
• Don't invest too heavily in hardware on your podcast until you pass 10, 20 maybe even 50 episodes.
• Maintain a tight podcast format, know and be passionate about your subject matter, and stick to a regular podcasting schedule.
• Learn how to market your podcast and put it in all the right places (like iTunes, etc.)

There was a whole lot more including the introduction to a new version of WordPress that is supposedly easier to install and maintain.

PodCamp is also a good place to meet fellow geeks, business people and network with them. I don't do very well in active networking, but if I am invited to join in with an individual or a small group, I warm up to the situation in time.

• PodCamp Hawaii 2008 Website
• PodCamp Hawaii Tagged Photos @ flickr
  
• My PodCamp Hawaii Photos

Photo caption: The laptop brigade soaking up information at PodCamp Hawaii.

Hawaii ConCon Website Launched

There was a press conference on Friday (May 9) at the State Capitol to formally announce the citizen driven website HawaiiConCon.org. Speaking at the press conference were a cross section of legislators, computer "geeks" and participating citizens. HawaiiConCon.org is a free website where Hawaii residents can go to get information and discuss the merits of whether or not a Constitutional Convention should be approved by the voters in the upcoming eleciton. The site also serves as a forum to discuss other issues impacting Hawaii.

As for a constitutional convention itself, I support the vote to hold one. There are some serious changes that need to be made to our state constitution and a convention will be a good vehicle to do it. Vote "yes" on this ballot question.

Additional Links

• HawaiiConCon.org

Photo: Taken at launch press conference at State Capitol on May 9.

Heard it on Muxtape

I was introduced to a new streaming site called MUXTAPE.com. It is an audio site that allows users from all over the world to share music from their personal file library to everyone out there without allowing anyone to download the files for free. Listening and setting up your own Muxtape mix is free, but direct downloading is not allowed. Furthermore users are limited to posting only 12 songs or audio files to their Muxtape site.

Muxtape gives users an option to buy the music they hear through Amazon.com's music download service. People can preview music listed by other users and buy the track, should it be available.

I started my own MUXTAPE page at macpro.muxtape.com. This mix features a blend of current and recent hit songs, selected album tracks and more. Music will be updated and alternated on a weekly basis.

Selected Muxtape Sites:

• macpro 12 - current hits, album cuts and more.
• Oldie 45s - records that you may have forgotten
• Hawaii - Ryan Ozawa's Hawaiian music mix (current)
• Scrivener - currently his 12 favorite tracks of 2008.
• Cinemafia - eclectic music and audio - original work - cool!

User generated streaming audio is nothing new. I have long had multi-song channels featured at Finetune.com. At Finetune, users can set up multiple song playlists utilizing tracks from Finetune's 2 million plus music library.

Hawaii Reporter Streams Video

The folks at HawaiiReporter.com are getting into videos. This is their first posted to YouTube.com. The videos are embedded back to the main HawaiiReporter.com website. Hopefully this is the first of many to come. Hawaii Reporter has been an alternate to mainstream media publications, broadcasts and websites for the past 5 years. Recently their main website underwent a major design change that brings it forward as a serious news and opinion site that has attracted thousands if not millions of viewers throughout the world. Video commentary and reporting is just the next step in the site's long history of reporting the "real news."

It was 40 Years Ago Today

It was 40 Years Ago Today
Originally uploaded by macprohawaii

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by The Beatles was released to the world on this date, June 1, 1967 on Capitol Records. I've owned this album and variations of it on LP vinyl, cassette, Playtape cartridge, CD and now on MP3 (ripped from my CD). 40 years ago, I never imagined I'd be listening to this classic album on a CD, much less on a Macintosh computer or an iPod!

It's coincidental that Apple Computer and EMI Records started selling DRM-free music at the iTunes Store this week after making a big announcement about this in April. I was pleasantly surprised to see iTunes feature the back catalog of Paul McCartney to the iTunes store in conjunction with the EMI tracks. Could The Beatles classic recordings such as Sgt. Pepper be making it to digital soon?

Additional Links

• Sgt. Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club Band
• The Beatles official website
• iTunes User Reports at Macintouch
• Apple Launches iTunes Plus
• iTunes Plus Personal Info Raises Hackles
• Beatles coming to iTunes in 2008

Photo: Taken from my Power Mac G4 running iTunes while playing the Sgt. Pepper album.

What's Up With 'Justin.TV'?

For more than a week now, the biggest internet rage seems to be "Justin.TV." The media, geeks, bloggers and many others are viewing and covering this internet "experiment".

What is Justin.TV? It's a live web feed on this guy named Justin Kan. Mr. Kan is a young man who has made it his priority to have a live camera strapped to himself or one close by to record his every move and utterance throughout the day. The images and sounds are transmitted out to the world on a live internet feed. You can watch Justin wake-up, eat, sleep and engage in his day to day activities. It's kind of like having YouTube following you around 24-7.

People have written extensively about this guy in the last 9 days since the webcast launched. Ryan Ozawa, one of the geek experts that I know writes on his blog "So Meta it Hurts. Yes, there's something deeply compelling about watching "online life" and "real life" blend so thoroughly. Justin chats up a girl at the bar, and viewers on his website jeer as he strikes out. He ducks out to go to the bathroom, and people on the other side of the planet question whether he washed his hands or not."

JustinTV may be the latest rage on the net. I am quite sure that imitators are strapping on their own web cams and starting their own online chronicle. Some blog boldly states that our private lives are over and that every move of our day is being recorded, chronicled by someone, somewhere. Not a very comforting thought.

I don't like being photographed or recorded by someone else. In today's modern and connected world, it is getting harder and harder to be somewhere where a surveillance camera or someone with a camera phone is not around recording your presence and those of everyone else. Our privacy is eroding.

As a public service for this latest web rage, I offer you a live feed of JustinTV right here on this blog. All you have to do is click on the button within the embedded Justin graphic and see what this guy is up to... right there and right now. Have fun!

Upgraded Blog

I'm back to this blog. For a few weeks now I've been contemplating on a blogspot upgrade. Blogspot, the host site for this blog have been urging all users to upgrade to their new interface for several months. I was probably one of the few holdouts in fear that the layout I worked on would get messed up. I remember seeing several blogs hosted here change after the upgrade. I don't know if the changes were forced after the upgrade. Some probably were when the upgrade was in Beta. But Blogger has consistently stated that layouts would not change with the final version.

Today I took the plunge, and looks like everything is intact. My layout is still the same. There seems to be some new features implemented. I will probably use them and add some to my template. Hopefully this will motivate me to add to this blog more often, now that the annoying "Upgrade to the New Blogspot" messages are now gone.

Stay tuned.