Daily Archives: June 6, 2011

Google, Tech

Google Doodle Honors 92nd Birthday of ‘Busytown’ Creator Richard Scarry

Google’s Sunday homepage doodle honors what would have been the 92nd birthday of childrens’ book author Richard Scarry.

The doodle features a scene from “Busytown,” a fictional world created by Scarry, which is inhabited by well-known characters like Postman Pig, Huckle Cat, Sergeant Murphy, and Lowly Worm. Click through the main doodle, and the smaller homepage doodle on the top left replaces the “l” in Google with Lowly Worm.

 

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Scarry was born in Boston in 1919, and his comfortable childhood is reflected in the more than 300 books he produced during his life, according to a biography published by Sterling Children’s Book. He attended the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, but was later drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. He was sent to North Africa, where he was the art director, editor, writer and illustrator in the Morale Services Section of Allied Forces HQ.
Richard Scarry doodle

Scarry worked at various magazines after the war, but also pursued freelance work as an illustrator; he drew the pictures that went alongside the text for childrens’ books. His first book, “Great Big Car and Truck Book,” was published in 1951 by Little Golden Books. Simon and Schuster published five more that same year.

Scarry’s first best seller, however, came in 1963 with “Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever.” The book featured pages chock full of items for young children to discover; more than 1,400 in all.

Scarry is known for books featuring anthropomorphic animals living in the fictional Busytown. As he explained to Publishers Weekly, “children can identify more closely with pictures of animals than they can with pictures of another child. They see an illustration of a blond girl or a dark-haired boy, who they know is somebody other than themselves, and competition creeps in. With imagination—and children all have marvelous imagination—they can easily identify with an anteater who is a painter or a pig who transforms from peasant to knight.”
Lowly Worm

Scarry’s characters have not been confined to books. The “Best Ever” series was made into animated videos. The world of Busytown was also made into an animated series, “The Busy World of Richard Scarry,” which ran on Nick. Jr. from 1995 to 2000.

Scarry and his family re-located to Gstaad, Switzerland in 1972, where Scarry worked until his death in 1994. His books have sold over 200 million copies in 30 languages.

Google, meanwhile, has made headlines for its own in-house homepage doodles, including an interactive undersea-themed drawing in honor of author Jules Verne’s 183rd birthday and 17 holiday-themed doodles that were live for two days in December. Recently, Google.com also featured 16 homepage doodles in honor of what would have been the 76th birthday of children’s author Roger Hargreaves, who wrote the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, and dancer/choreographer Martha Graham.

Recently, it was revealed that Google obtained a patent for its popular homepage doodles, covering “systems and methods for enticing users to access a Web site.”

California second grader Matteo Lopez was recently selected as the winner of this year’s Doodle 4 Google competition. His space-themed doodle was featured on the Google homepage on May 20, and he took home a $15,000 college scholarship and a $25,000 technology grant for his school.

For more on Google’s doodles, see the slideshow below.

Tech

The Peculiar Origins of Tech Terms

Earlier this year, PCMag offered up a brief history of malware. While researching the story, we had a little back and forth regarding the origin of the term “computer virus.”

One side had contended that the phrase first appeared in the science fiction book When HARLIE Was One. The other insisted that it was coined by computer scientist Fred Cohen. The former ultimately won out on account of chronology (1972 versus 1983), but Cohen got the nod for the first mention of the term in an academic paper. (Interestingly, it’s been subsequently brought to my attention that the term “computer virus” also popped up in a 1982 issue of The Uncanny X-Men, penned by Chris Claremont.)

 

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Interestingly, someone also commented that the term “worm” was also born in sci-fi—this time in John Brunner’s 1975 bit of dystopia, The Shockwave Rider. It’s likely not a major revelation to most that a number of well-known tech terms actually originated on the pulpy pages of sci-fi novels.

Science fiction authors often draw on current advances in technology in order to predict the future, and computer developers often read a lot of science fiction. Take, for instance, “cyberspace,” which entered the lexicon by way of William Gibson’s short story “Burning Chrome,” and later his beloved 1984 novel, Neuromancer.

This got us thinking about the origins of other well-known tech terms. Turns out, many were born from far more diverse sources than just the predictions of science fiction authors. In this slideshow, we’ve pointed out familiar terms that were born from comedy sketches, comic books, practical jokes, and children’s stories, and there’s even one that started life as an airport shuttle.

Tech

Tips And Information Regarding Security Camera System

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This is unnecessary. If you have a medium size business store, you can setup a well secured area with the help of only a couple functioning cameras. Why? There are fake security cameras or dummy surveillance cameras to mislead the bad guys to thinking your area is heavily setup with security camera system. It’s cheaper and affordable but would help you shoo off those outside threats from ever considering on attacking your store.

 


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This can be used at home as well, you can purchase 2-4 cameras and the rest are dummies to scare off the bad guys. Dummy cameras like this are usually placed in locations where it is easily seen or is visible to the public to let them know just how heavily monitored an area is, this is to create misleading thoughts or idea, while the real functioning recording and taking images security camera systems are well hidden, and can’t easily be accessed by anyone.

Between wired and wireless cameras, the first is cheaper. However, in setting up this system, it is far more difficult to hide the wires and made them less visible. You will need a concrete plan, most likely a help of a professional, to have everything well hidden from public’s view. If you’re going to the wireless security camera system, it requires knowledge and ample information in software and setup configuration. You need to have background knowledge regarding this issue. You don’t want to test these configurations without even the basic background in networking your PC. However, you have Google to help you out when you’re in trouble, or you can contact professional installation agencies to work on your wireless systems’ setup. For more information about Security Camera Systems and installation guide.

Once your security camera system is installed it would be best to regularly check how it’s working. Every now and then ensure that it is still properly doing its task without delays or any problems. You don’t want to end up regretting in the end since your system stopped working and you had no idea for the reason that you didn’t bother checking if it is still functional. Thus, to avoid any regrets, check and double check every once in a while.

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Stupid user tricks 5: IT’s weakest link

But we were prepped. We were almost grinning, because we were about to be heroes. We told the IT guy that we have virtual images of his servers, that we had their configs registered with a local outfit that will rent us replacement infrastructure until he gets the new stuff on order, so all we need are the backup tapes and we can have him up and running in about a day, maybe less.

 

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Boy, that would have been nice. But we also learned that Mr. IT had gotten tired of going to the second floor to replace backup tapes. After all, that disk array was doing just fine as a backup. So the last tape they had was from four months before the four-post header.

Fallout: Not only did Mr. IT get fired, but the IT team lost the contract — unfair.

Moral: Do your daily backups, and don’t treat your  IT infrastructure like a fridge.

Stupid user trick No. 5: Letting mom monkey around with the admin console
Incident: One IT consultant tells tale of yet another hard-learned lesson in proper password management brought to you by that time-honored IT pro, mom.

A small-business client had us install a Small Business Server box for her. She had about 12 people working for her, including her mom, who was doubling as the office manager and her daughter’s personal assistant.

We did as we were asked. Everything was set up, tested, and found to be working. We established an admin account on the server and left it with the owner with strict instructions that it’s for emergencies when she’s on the phone with us only. She, of course, gave the admin account info to her mom to keep someplace safe without passing on the last part of the instructions.

Her mother went exploring and found this thing called Active Directory. Next thing we know, we’re getting an angry call from the daughter because our email server was sending strange emails to all her clients and friends. The story: Her mom had figured out how to get into Computers and Users and had been adding everyone in her daughter’s address book into AD, along with generating them an internal email address in addition to the one listed in her daughter’s rolodex. The system sent everyone a welcome email with an introduction to the “new” network they’d just joined.

Fallout: Apology emails around, consultant fees to delete all those users and set AD right, and palpable tension between daughter and mom.

Moral: Server passwords aren’t status symbols. If a person doesn’t need one, don’t share it.

Stupid user trick No. 6: Paying before planning
Incident: Hubris is no stranger to the world of IT. But when a trumped-up higher-up puts the purchase before the plan, the fallout can mean only one thing — a derailed career, as one developer recounts.

I worked for an Internet startup back in the late ’90s, complete with big-time VC funding and a small DNA kernel of three business whizzes and one techno geek who gleefully grabbed the CTO title.

The startup’s goal was to create a Java-based vertical accounting system followed by inventory and sales systems that would eventually comprise a “suite” of offerings. The three kernel guys land a huge bundle of first-round financing and sit down with two “experts” from the vertical to discuss what the initial application should look like and how it should run.

They’re in germination meetings for about a week, coming out with huge schematics and wireframes for the first rev. The CTO decided a messaging bus platform is absolutely required and proceeded to do a deal with the leader in that space at the time (name withheld), for — wait for it — $5 million.