My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: August 2013

Friday, August 30, 2013

USB 3.0 Standards Promotion Group announced 10Gbps capable USB 3.1 Standard - How PC and Laptop Sales can be revived by going Turbo


“SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps uses a more efficient data encoding and will deliver more than twice the effective data through-put performance of existing SuperSpeed USB over enhanced, fully backward compatible USB connectors and cables”

Excerpt from a Press Release from the USB 3.0 Standards Promotion Group on Wednesday July 31st 2013

There has been no word yet on the coming of Fiber Optic Version of the Thunderbolt Cables coming to PC’s as prognosticated in my blog article entitled Fiber Optic Thunderbolt Cables are coming by the Third Quarter of 2013 – Apple Mac's to finally get upgraded as Optical Computer now closer to practicality”. But a lot can change in five (5) months, as we’re just in August of 2013, the Third Quarter of the 2013 and on the cusp of Summer Holidays ending and School restarting in Jamaica and the Western World.

Now there’s news that the USB 3.0 Standards Promotion Group has outed USB 3.1 with speeds of up to 10GBps as stated in “USB 3.1 spec finalized with speeds up to 10 Gbps”, published August 1, 2013 6:07 AM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News.
At 10GBps, it’s a step up from 5GBps for USB 3.0 and equivalent to the old speed for Copper- based Thunderbolt Cables as pointed out in “USB 3.1 spec finalized, horns in on Thunderbolt’s turf with 10Gbps speeds”, published Aug 1 2013, 11:39am SAPST by Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica. However, the Fiber Optic version of Thunderbolt leaves it in the dust, maxing out at 100GBps Theoretical speed.

USB 3.1 is however more commercially possible and may even be cheaper than Optical Thunderbolt Cables. It also has more industry support, as the Optical Thunderbolt Cables are proprietary tech to Intel and supported by their chief patron Apple whereas USB is an Open Architecture Standard that is the product of the USB 3.0 Standards Promotion Group and no one company and adoptable by all. Expect to see USB 3.1 in Laptops and PC’s by First Quarter of 2014 with full adoption by the end of that year.

For me this is all exciting!

A lot has indeed happened to push toward my much vaulted idea of an Optical Computer as predicted long ago in my blog article entitled “Intel and LightPeak - Race towards the Sun. Already IBM (International Business Machines) has developed a 25GBps Photonic Processor using the 25nm Process as described in my blog article entitled “IBM develops 25Gbps Photonic Optical Processor at the 90nm level - IBM's Red Dawn (2012) for Optical Processors”.
More recently, at Apple’s WWDC (Word Wide Developers Conference) in the week of July 8th 2013, Apple had unveiled its next generation Apple Mac Pro with an innovative Central Cooling Design and multiple Optical Thunderbolt Ports as per my blog article entitled “ATL is now the Official Distributor of Apple Product in Jamaica as of July 2013 - Jamaica can now share in the innovation with Apple’s Future Products Despicable Me 2”.

And there has been AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) breaking the speed barrier with their FX9000 Series 8-Core 5GHz and 4.7GHz  Processors as stated in my Geezam Blog article entitled “AMD unveils 5GHz and 4.7Ghz 8-Core Processor at E3 2013 in Apple’s Mac Pro Dogfight for Top Gun in High End Multi-Core PC Gaming”.

Ditto too the prospect of new 3D Motion Capture Technology from Leap Motion that’s seems set to become a standard on PC’s and Laptops trying to make a comeback against Tablets and Smartphones as predicted in my blog article entitled “Leap Motion Controller went live on Monday July 22 2013 - How a Theremin Computer Device revives PC sales as Everything is Possible to be controlled by Voice and Motion”.

So it’s settled then. To re-invigorate PC and Laptop Sales, the following are needed to be standard on a PC or Laptop:

1.      3D Motion Capture Technology
2.      Touch Screen
3.      Voice Control
4.      Faster Optical Processors
5.      Faster Optical Memory
6.      Faster Optical Motherboard
7.      Faster Connectivity Standards e.g. ThunderBolt or USB 3.1
8.      500GB or higher SSD (Solid Stare Drives)
9.      Lower Power Consumption or even generate their own Power
10.  Sub US$299 prices, with higher prices reserved for Product bundles

This is the same argument I’d posed in my blog article entitled “Intel and the UltraBook - Stephen King's MacBook and iPad Thinner Hex” but with the slight adjustment of prices. We are now in the Post-PC Era as prognosticated in my blog article entitled “How the Apple iPad killed Ultrabooks, Printing and the Mouse as the World Rediscovers Tablets” and as such for non-Mobile Computers to survive, they have to distinguish themselves by being better at what they do.

After all, Tablets evolved from smartphones but exchanged their Hardware and Software features such as SSD’s and Instant-On with the Apple Macbook Air as stated in my Geezam blog article entitled “MacBook Air and FLASH-based Harddrives - The Quest for Instant On”.


In a similar manner, Hardware, Software and low-cost Pricing Model of smartphones and Tablets is the way to go if these PC Makers want to penetrate the Developing World Markets as stated in my blog article entitled “Analyst IDC States First Quarter of 2013 Smartphones Shipments finally overtake Feature Phones - Sub-US$200 Iron Man 3 Smartphones for Developed World Markets”.

These changes plus a lower-price model are certain to excite the PC Crowd and re-energize the sales of PC’s and Laptops which are currently in a Freefall for the past Three Quarters as stared in “PCs suffer longest sales decline in history”, published 11:50PM BST 10 Jul 2013 by Andrew Trotman, The UK Telegraph and “The PC fights back: U.S. sales decline is slowing”, published Jul 15, 2013 3:00 AM by Brad Chacos, PCWorld.

This gentle people, is how PC and Laptop Sales can be revived by going Turbo (2013)!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Animation After KingstOOn - How to Author Professional DVD Copies of your Animation Project or any Downloaded Video or Audio Files


In my blog article entitled “How to download High Quality Music via torrenting - The Mortal Instruments City of Bones used to get Free Music” I’d mentioned the Any Video Converter that’s great for converting any Video Format to any other Audio or Video Format. You should really pair this software with VLC Media Player which can also play any Video or Audio Format.

If you’ve now reached the point where you have the Animation Studio set up with the basic Video Editing Software as recommended in my blog article entitled “Animation after KingstOOn - How to get free Video Editing Tools to breathe life into you Animation Project” with the Photo Editing Software as recommended in my blog article entitled Animation After KingstOOn – Free Photo Editing Software and How to get a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS2 absolutely Free”, your basic rig is set.

Funding for purchasing more equiptment, expansion and funding your big Animation projects can be obtained via applying for NGO (Non Governmental Organization) and GOJ (Government of Jamaica) Grant Funding as well as Crowdfunding via I Support Jamaica as described in my blog article entitled“JN Foundation and JNSBL launches Jamaica's first Crowdfunding website, i Support Jamaica - Local Crowdfunding to the rescue of Jamaican Innovators so you don't have to be The Lone Ranger”.

All that’s left is to organize your team of ten (10) and get creative. Most likely with this rig, aside from doing Animation you can also do the following on the side to make revenue to support your entrepreneurial venture:

1.      Website Design
2.      Photography
3.      Video Editing

Now whether you doing Animation or any other computer related activity, you’ll need to at some point author a CD or DVD of your work for clients to see. Sharing links to your work uploaded to a Cloud Drive as described in myblog article entitled “How to use Dropbox, Google Drive and Sound File Sharing Websites to Share and Promote your Content online - Sharing is Caring”, especially if the potential client doesn’t have super fast Broadband or the File is larger than the Size of your Cloud Drive. 


Uploading your work to Video Sharing Sites and Cloud Drives is mainly for Marketing and Promoting your Work. Thus it’s still important to know how to legally burn a CD or DVD using Free Software. Before you begin, there a few pointers you need to bear in mind before you go ahead and start burning CD or DVD:

1.      The Apple Mac is preferred but if you have a PC, you can always install a Linux Distribution i.e. Fedora Linux or Ubuntu Linux. Just do a fresh Reinstallation
2.      In reading CD/DVD burner speeds, the “x” means “times 15kbps”. For a typical CD/DVD Burner e.g. 32x/24x/20x = [Read speed]/[Write Speed]/[Re-Write Speed] with you main concern being the Write speed
3.      When buying the DVD-R/CD-R Master CD and DVD’s, buy them in the Bigger Jewel Cases encased and sealed in plastic; do not buy the thinner Jewel Case even if sealed and encased in plastic.
4.      Order the DVD-R/CD-R Master CD and DVD’s (usually Gold coloured Writing surface) as these are used for pressing Master Copies for Recording Artiste. They offer higher fidelity and guaranteed coherence (ability to recover data from saved Archives).
5.      When Cleaning CD and DVD Drives, best to spend money and get a professional CD/DVD Cleaning Kit from a local PC Store or online and not the ones off the street. 
6.      In holding CD or DVD, always wear Latex Gloves and use your fingers to holds the edges and the mounting hole to avoid damaging he writing surface of the CD or DVD
7.      In Cleaning dirty CD and DVD, do NOT use alcohol. Only used Distilled Water and a Lint Free Cloth and wipe gently in a circular pattern ONLY to avoid damaging the writing surface of the CD or DVD
8.      Do not store CD and DVD’s in Sleeves or Cases. Store them in their original Jewel Cases to avoid damaging the writing surface of the CD or DVD

For CD and DVD Burning as listed in “Best free CD and DVD burning software for all your optical-disc burning desires”, published August 17, 2013 By Brandon Widder, DigitalTrends and “Best free DVD burning software: 8 programs to burn media and backups”, published April 2nd 2013 11:14 By Mike Williams, TechRadar, you can use the following freeware:

Windows OS

2.      BurnAware Free
3.      CDBurnerXP
5.      ImgBurn
6.      StarBurn

Apple Mac OS

1.      Burn
2.      LiquidCD
3.      Disco

If you planning on making a playable DVD that can be played in an ordinary DVD player, you’ll need DVD Authoring Software as listed in “Best Free DVD Authoring Software”, published July 7 2013 3:31 by site.editor, Tech Support Alert. The list above merely creates an *.iso file and burns it to a CD or DVD. DVD Authoring Software will package your Videos into a professional DVD with Menus, Chapters and Pages similar to those that you can buy on the Street.

In fact, you can use the software listed below to make your own DVD Movies from the Videos you may have downloaded using the instructions in my blog article entitled “UWI'splanning to increase all Tuition by 5.5% come the new Academic Year 2013-2014 -How to Download ANY Video, including Facebook Videos, Convert and Free VideoHosting Online”:

1.      Bombono DVD
2.      DVD Author Plus
3.      DVDFlick
4.      DVDStyler
5.      Koyote Video to DVD

As the above listed software are freeware, download them and play with them, as the advantages they have over each other mainly lies in how user-friendly they are to use and their ability to help you professionally author your work into a DVD.

I hope this helps. Sharing is caring so share this post with as many of your friends who may be looking for free options to burn Videos and Audio onto CD and DVD as well as professionally presenting their work on a DVD for a prospective client.  

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

How to share and embed Facebook Photos, Albums and Videos




In my blog article entitled “How to use Dropbox, Google Drive and Sound File Sharing Websites to Share and Promote your Content online - Sharing is Caring”, I did a tutorial on how to Share and Embed Videos from Youtube as well as from Cloud Platforms such as Dropbox and Google Drive.

But just as easily you can also share and embed content on your Facebook Page on your website of blog. In fact, you don’t even have to download it from Facebook and upload it to a Cloud Drive as described in my blog article entitled “UWI'splanning to increase all Tuition by 5.5% come the new Academic Year 2013-2014 -How to Download ANY Video, including Facebook Videos, Convert and Free VideoHosting Online”.

Interestingly Facebook is possibly the largest free unlimited Cloud Storage platform that exists on planet Earth! You may have noticed that you can upload an unlimited amount of pictures and Videos of any format to your Facebook account without paying for all that Storage space you are using.

You may have also notice that you can download Videos and entire albums from Facebook if you’re read my article and utilized the software in my Geezam article entitled “How to download Photo Albums and Videos from your Personal and your Friend’s Profile on Facebook”.

So why not use Facebook as your Cloud Storage Platform and share and embed Photos, Photo albums and Videos from the Social Network? After all, it’s less of a hassle and whether you have a regular Personal Page, Facebook Profile Page (for a business or your professional work) or you’re the Admin for a Group on Facebook as described in “Pages and Profiles are NOT the same”, viewed August 27 2013 by Lindsworth, published by Kerry Kimone, Kerry is Social.

This as you can easily gauge how popular a picture or Video is based on requests for sharing, Tagging or Likes, albeit as Social Marketing Maven Kerry Kimone argues, if you have a business, it’s better for you to have a Facebook Page than a Profile. Ditto too Business Profiles for other Social Networks!

The advantage of sharing links to your individual pictures, albums or Videos is that you can show persons your Photos without them having to have a Facebook account in order to see them. Very similar to Dropbox or Google Drive, except it’s in Facebook!

How to share Photo Albums – Movements in Time

First you have to upload the pictures or Video onto your Facebook profile. To do so click on Add Photos or Video option at the usual spot where you type your Facebook Status!

Then select the Photos or Video you wish to share and then select Share to Publish. Depending on how fast your internet connection is, this may take awhile, so it’d be a good idea to find something else to do until this process is complete.

Sharing a Photo album is quite easy. First, locate the Picture Album you wish to share.

Then select the Gear icon in that particular Photo album and click on it. You’ll get a drop down menu with an option that says Get Link that you can click on.


Once you click on it, a pop-up page will appear that’ll give you a very long URL (Universal Resource Locator) that you can copy using Ctrl + C or right click to copy. You can then use a URL Shortening service from the List of URL Shortners such as Bit.ly or Adf.ly to shorten it for pasting on Facebook or Twitter!




To share an individual picture, the same exact procedure applies. Click on Options at the bottom of the picture and then select Get Link.

You’ll again get a pop-up window with a very long URL that you can copy and shorten as shown below:



To share a link for a Video is also a similar procedure. Click on Options at the bottom of the Video and then select Get Link.

Once you click on it, a pop-up page will appear that’ll give you a very long URL (Universal Resource Locator) that you can copy using Ctrl + C or right click to copy.


Embedding Pictures and Videos - Set Good like Ice inna Freeza

Embedding is the next exciting feature of interest of Website and Blogger admins such as myself. Alas, you cannot embed Photo albums or individual photos. Once you have the hyperlink as described above, that’s more than enough to display the photo on your website or blog.

Optionally you can download the file as well by selecting Download on Facebook and uploading it to your Cloud Drive as described in my blog article entitled “How to use Dropbox, Google Drive and Sound File Sharing Websites to Share and Promote your Content online - Sharing is Caring” to display custom photos, as I have done.

To embed a Video, it’s again the same procedure. Once you locate the Video on you Facebook page, select Options and then select Embed Video.


A pop-up window will appear with the HTML Script that you’ll need to embed the Video on your blog or website. Simply copy and paste into your website while logged into admin mode and make the necessary adjustments to makes sure the Video’s playing ok.


That’s it! Yet another quick tutorial on creating links and Embedding for Photos and Video, but this time using what may be the fastest growing and largest free Cloud Storage option in existence: Facebook.

Please note that this only works on Videos set to Public as described in as described in “YOU CAN NOW EMBED FACEBOOK POSTS – HERE’S WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE”, published August 21, 2013 By Kate Knibbs, DigitalTrends and “Now anyone can embed public Facebook posts, as video and mobile support is added”, published  August 21 2013, 09:12pm by KEN YEUNG, The Next Web.

Best of all, you get to re-use your Photos and Videos already uploaded to Facebook without having to download and re-upload them to a Cloud Storage option, thus maximizing on the Dropbox or Google Drive Storage you already have.

Remember gentle people, Sharing is Caring so share this article with as many people as you like.