Dr. Bill.TV #328 – Video – “The Wall Street Casino Edition!”

Roku said to be weighing an initial public offering in the U.S. in 2014, LinkedIn gives users ‘member blocking,’ Microsoft is cutting Windows prices to compete with Android and Chrome, GSotW: Volumouse. Is Net Neutrality’s demise slowing Netflix?

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

International Association of Internet Broadcasters

Blubrry Network

Dr. Bill Bailey.NET

Volumouse v2.01 – Control the sound volume with a wheel mouse


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Available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/yBu1YEYzRdk

Available on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/87358420


Dr. Bill.TV #328 – Audio – “The Wall Street Casino Edition!”

Roku said to be weighing an initial public offering in the U.S. in 2014, LinkedIn gives users ‘member blocking,’ Microsoft is cutting Windows prices to compete with Android and Chrome, GSotW: Volumouse. Is Net Neutrality’s demise slowing Netflix?

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

International Association of Internet Broadcasters

Blubrry Network

Dr. Bill Bailey.NET

Volumouse v2.01 – Control the sound volume with a wheel mouse


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

(Click on the buttons below to Stream the Netcast in your “format of choice”)
Streaming M4V Audio





Streaming MP3 Audio

Streaming Ogg Audio

Download M4V Download WebM Download MP3 Download Ogg
(Right-Click on any link above, and select “Save As…” to save the Netcast on your PC.)

Available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/yBu1YEYzRdk

Available on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/87358420


Netflix is Slowing Down… Thanks to Net Neutrality’s Death

I told you. The death of Net Neutrality has consequences! We need a content neutral internet!

Is Net Neutrality’s Death Responsible for Slowing Netflix Streaming?

Latin Post – By Robert Schoon – “In recent weeks, Netflix subscribers have noticed that their instant streaming service has increasingly degraded in quality and load time, even some with hefty broadband connections. The big question on everyone’s minds is: does the slow-down have to do with the recent suspension of Net Neutrality, or something else?

Besides lots of grumbles and conversations on Twitter, Netflix itself has confirmed that speeds have degraded among several big broadband internet service providers (ISPs), including Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T. Here’s Netflix’s data spanning from Dec. 2013 to Feb. 2014. Those three lowest downward sloping lines are Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast. Verizon Fios is the steepest downward slope (the grey line) in the middle.

Specifically, Netflix reports an average of 14 percent speed degradation in streaming speeds on Verizon FiOS in the last 30 days, according to the Wall Street Journal. For a lot of customers, this means HD streaming has turned into regular definition streaming, and some Netflix users are getting stuck on seemingly infinite buffer.

Now, if you’re not already aware, in January, a U.S. appeals court struck down the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s authority to regulate ISPs on Net Neutrality — the rules that previously disallowed ISPs to throttle certain traffic on their networks. And customers of Verizon, which was the specific contender in that FCC case, have been seemingly the most affected since.

Does this mean Net Neutrality’s (temporary?) death is already being leveraged against Netflix? Is the timing too suspicious, or have we all been watching too much House of Cards, simultaneously degrading our own connection speeds and amplifying our cynical paranoia?

The answer to the first question is a tentative no, but a dose of skepticism about ISPs — and Netflix — is healthy. And we have been watching ‘too much’ House of Cards and other streaming content from Netflix, if ‘too much’ means too much for networks to handle under current arrangements.

Verizon has denied throttling Netflix and other services like Amazon Web Services, saying ‘We treat all traffic equally, and that has not changed’ in a statement, but a dispute between Netflix and Verizon is causing streams to slow down — the connection degradation is just probably not where you think it would be.

Net Neutrality doesn’t allow ISPs to mangle traffic on the so called ‘last mile’ of internet tubing between the ISP and your house, but with Netflix streaming traffic (along with others’) at an all-time high and increasing, the way business has usually been done deep in the internet is changing.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, the internet was historically run on arrangements where huge networks agreed to swap each other’s traffic without charge, assuming that it all evened out in the end. But now that Netflix streaming is eating a huge amount of North America’s downstream traffic every evening — nearly a third of downstream traffic as of late last year — those pro-bono arrangements are being stressed.

Netflix, for example, runs through a middle-man network Cogent, whose traffic has quadrupled in the past half year after Netflix began offering 1080p streaming to its customers. Stressing the networks like Verizon and Comcasts’ traffic that much more, those companies have asked Netflix to pay additional fees for its usage — not for the Net Neutral ‘last mile’ but all the way up the pipe. Instead of throttling users’ connections, ISPs like Verizon have delayed upgrading their networks in an effort to get Netflix to foot the bill that it’s largely running up.

Dan Bowman, chief of internet traffic management company Sandvine Corp., told the WSJ that either side of the dispute could give in a little to make streaming connections better. Verizon could go ahead and upgrade its connections for Cogent’s network traffic, and Netflix could distribute its traffic more to avoid data jams.

Meanwhile, if you’re a savvy Netflix customer who’s frustrated by buffering, don’t pay to upgrade your connection speed (assuming you have a decent broadband connection). Instead, you might want to try using a Virtual Private Network, most of which will be too slow, but some of which have proven to de-throttle Netflix traffic.

Or you could join the petition to put pressure on FCC chairman Tom Wheeler to reclassify ISPs as ‘common carriers’ to exercise more control over issues like this.”

Geek Software of the Week: Volumouse!

Volumouse Controls

What a neat idea! Control your PC sound volume with your mouse wheel! Awesomeness!

Volumouse v2.01 – Control the sound volume with a wheel mouse

“Volumouse provides you a quick and easy way to control the sound volume on your system – simply by rolling the wheel of your wheel mouse.
It allows you to define a set of rules for determining when the wheel will be used for changing the sound volume. For example: You can configure Volumouse to use your mouse wheel for volume control when the Alt key is hold down, when the left mouse button is down, when the mouse cursor is over the taskbar, and so on…

When the conditions that you define are not satisfied, your mouse wheel will be used for the regular scrolling tasks, exactly as before.”

Microsoft Cuts Windows Pricing

They are losing market share, so they are dropping prices. Heh, heh.

Microsoft is cutting Windows prices to compete with Android and Chrome OS

Engadget – By: Jon Fingus – “At present, it’s tricky to make Windows PCs that cost as little as basic Android tablets and Chromebooks. While Microsoft charges vendors $50 to use Windows, Google often gives its software away. The crew in Redmond may have found a way to narrow the price gap, though. Bloomberg claims that Microsoft is cutting Windows 8.1’s license fee to $15 for any device that sells for less than $250, letting builders offer very cheap Windows PCs without destroying their profits. The developer isn’t commenting on the reported discount, but this would be a familiar strategy; Microsoft slashed Windows XP’s pricing to wipe out Linux netbooks a few years ago. There’s no guarantee that the company will repeat its earlier success if the lower Windows 8.1 prices take effect. However, it may feel compelled to act when PC shipments are still declining and mobile OS tablets are on the rise — the status quo clearly isn’t working.”

Linkedin Now Let You Block Pesky Users

You can now block pesky folks on LinkedIn. Sounds good. Why did it take so long?

LinkedIn gives users ‘member blocking’

IDG News Service – By Zach Miners – LinkedIn users who’d rather not receive job inquiries or other messages, or allow access to their profiles from certain other members, can now block them.

‘Member blocking,’ was recently released by the professional social networking site after receiving requests from users. The feature adds an additional layer to privacy controls by allowing users to block profiles, direct interactions and network activity from other members with whom they do not wish to interact.

‘We built this feature not only because it was a feature our members requested, but because we also knew it was the right thing to do,’ said Paul Rockwell, who heads trust and safety at the site, in announcing the tool.

The tool is available in a dropdown menu on the profile page, by clicking on ‘block or report.’ If a user chooses block, then the two members won’t be able to access each other’s profiles or send messages to each other. If the two are already connected, then they won’t be connected anymore if one person blocks the other.

People can view and manage their list of blocked members within a block list in their privacy and settings page.

In addition to blocking, LinkedIn also provides more granular controls to let people customize which elements of their profiles are discoverable by search engines, and who can see updates to their profile, among other settings.

With the tools, LinkedIn aims to cut down on abuse of its site and give its members a new method to prevent themselves from being spammed.

That’s if users know who they should block. LinkedIn already gives members the option to view others’ profiles anonymously. If someone enables this option, then only anonymous details about them show up, like their job title or school, when others check to see who visited their profile.

LinkedIn said that at this time, people can’t block anonymous viewers of their profile.”

Roku IPO?

I may actually go for this one! Well, OK, maybe not, but it sounds cool! (I don’t trust the Stock Market… just sayin’.)

Roku Said to Be Weighing Initial Public Offering in U.S. in 2014

Bloomberg – By: Jon Erlichman and Leslie Picker – “Roku Inc., the maker of set-top boxes that connect TVs to the Internet, is weighing an initial public offering in the U.S. this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

A decision to move ahead hasn’t been made, and the Saratoga, California-based company hasn’t selected a lead banker, said the people, who requested anonymity because the discussions are private. Roku recently spoke with banks about the possibility of doing an IPO, one person said.

Tricia Mifsud, a Roku spokeswoman, declined to comment, saying the company is closely held and doesn’t discuss future financing plans as a matter of policy.

Roku may position itself as a pure-play company selling an Internet TV device, in contrast to Apple Inc. (AAPL), which sells the Apple TV box and other electronics products, one person said. Roku also competes with game consoles and some TV makers providing Web access on sets. All are vying for the growing audience for online services such as Netflix Inc. (NFLX), including people who don’t want traditional pay TV.

The Roku player takes Internet videos, such as from Netflix and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), and streams them to TV sets. Researcher Parks Associates said last year that 37 percent of households with a streaming media system use Roku as their primary device, compared with 24 percent for Apple TV. Roku also licenses its technology to television manufacturers.

Anthony Wood, Roku’s founder and chief executive offficer, was hired by Netflix in 2007 to help the movie-rental company transition to an online service from mail order. Netflix planned to release its own box until CEO Reed Hastings decided to stay out of the hardware business. Wood created a separate company that Netflix backed with $6 million.

In May 2013, Roku received $60 million in new funding from Hearst Corp. and an unidentified institutional investor. They joined News Corp., British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc (BSY) and others backers who previously financed the company.

Wood said in an interview at the time that the company had sufficient cash and that going public was ‘not a priority for us right now.'”

Dr. Bill.TV #327 – Video – “The New Camera Edition!”

Google is working on 10 gigabit Internet speeds, more than 200 million Windows 8 licenses sold, VMware teams with Google to offer Windows for Chrome OS, GSotW: CSVFileView, Dr. Bill’s opinion on Microsoft allowing businesses to buy Windows 7 for now.

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

International Association of Internet Broadcasters

Blubrry Network

Dr. Bill Bailey.NET

Nirsoft CSVFileView


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
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Available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/PGy-um6L2tA

Available on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/86788668


Dr. Bill.TV #327 – Audio – “The New Camera Edition!”

Google is working on 10 gigabit Internet speeds, more than 200 million Windows 8 licenses sold, VMware teams with Google to offer Windows for Chrome OS, GSotW: CSVFileView, Dr. Bill’s opinion on Microsoft allowing businesses to buy Windows 7 for now.

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

International Association of Internet Broadcasters

Blubrry Network

Dr. Bill Bailey.NET

Nirsoft CSVFileView


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

(Click on the buttons below to Stream the Netcast in your “format of choice”)
Streaming M4V Audio





Streaming MP3 Audio

Streaming Ogg Audio

Download M4V Download WebM Download MP3 Download Ogg
(Right-Click on any link above, and select “Save As…” to save the Netcast on your PC.)

Available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/PGy-um6L2tA

Available on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/86788668


Why Microsoft is Extending Windows 7 Availability for Businesses

Microsoft has never been all that bright. However for a long time they been very arrogant. This is clearly demonstrated by what’s going on right now with Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 8.x. Windows XP, as of right now, has about 30% of the market of all PCs that connect to the Internet.

That is an enviable position for any company to be in. However, as much money as Microsoft makes from Windows, and from having that big a market share, they continually shoot themselves in the foot.

Windows 7 was a good, high quality, version of Windows. In fact, I still use it at work! Then, Microsoft came out with Windows 8. There’s a lot of things I like about Windows 8. It is very stable, it is graphically, very fast due to combining DirectX technology directly into the operating system, however, it has a terrible, ugly, user interface.

None of Microsoft’s customers are embracing the interface. Well, there are a few suckers… er, I mean customers, that are supporting the interface. But I’m convinced that they mainly support it because they want to look “cool” and act like they’ve moved on into the future (and the rest of us haven’t.) But let’s be honest, this interface is pretty much useless unless you have a touchscreen!

Most businesses do not have computers that have touchscreens yet. And, they’re not likely to anytime soon! So, in the meantime, what are you supposed to do? Well, you and I know that we can download the open source Classicshell.net and fix the problem with Windows 8, and 8.1. However, if you’d be surprised how many people don’t know that Classicshell.net exists!

Plus, most businesses don’t want to use an Open Source utility just to fix the graphical user interface of an operating system that they paid a lot of money for when they purchase their PCs. I mean, think about it! You buy brand-new PCs without a touchscreen and you end up having to download a free utility developed by Open Source developers just to be able to effectively use your new computer! How completely stupid is that? How completely stupid is Microsoft? The answer, of course, is extremely stupid! And now because they no longer support Windows XP, or at least they won’t as of April of this year, they’re now alienating 30% of the Windows marketplace that have not yet upgraded! Smooth move, Microsoft!

And now, there are alternatives that most non-tech savvy users can actually learn to use very easily. The major example being Google Chrome on the Google Chromebook. And, Microsoft is watching aghast as the market share of chromebooks is increasing steadily while their market share is dropping precipitously. It doesn’t take a lightning fast mind to figure this out! But Microsoft has never been known for having a lightning fast mind!

So, what appears to be happening is that the market is realigning. Chromebooks are growing in popularity. People will be forced off Windows XP. Microsoft will die a slow and agonizing death. And of course, that suits me.

And now, in a burst of brilliance, Microsoft has decided to extend the length of time that businesses can buy Windows 7 because businesses don’t want to move to Windows 8, since the interface stinks.

Now, on the face of it, this may seem like a good move. After all, it slows the bleeding of their market to a certain extent. But, if they weren’t arrogantly insisting upon forcing everyone to an interface that nobody wants, then, perhaps, they could simply take the good things about Windows 8… add back in the interface that everybody actually wants to use to begin with, and have a winner in the operating system arena! That’s what would make the most sense. And that’s why I’m not holding my breath.

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