If you haven’t heard, Google is under investigation for capturing internet traffic from unsecured WiFi access points via their Street View cars all around the world since 2006. Please note that the WiFi was unsecured: any secured WiFi hotspot was protected.

Until recently, Google has claimed that the traffic they captured by accident was not sensitive in nature. However, it has now been found that Google has been gathering more than just random internet traffic from its Street View cars. It has been reported that the information that Google collected contained email passwords and other more sensitive information. So basically, Google can have your email password right now, and that is a scary thought.

The internet world has been harassing Facebook for an extended length of time over privacy concerns, but Facebook never drove to your house and snooped on your home network’s traffic. And so I say that this is a further invasion of privacy than what Facebook has ever committed (yet), but to the average person, Google can do no wrong. I have written a blog post about how Google is going to take over the world, and while that was in jest, when stories like this break, you just wonder how true it could be.

So please, for everything that’s good: secure your WiFi! Here are some resources for doing this yourself:

Securing your Wireless Network

How To Secure Your Wireless Network

How To Secure Your Wireless Home Network

How To Secure Your Wireless Network Connection

The new big thing in television is 3D. And, I mean, if you only look at the press and what all of these technology companies such as Sony
and Samsung are saying, you would be absolutely sure that 3D is going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. They make 3D TV sound like it has already achieved “Minority Report” level already (which I can not wait for, and could be closer than we think).

However, after watching Avatar, which was quite good, I thought the graphics were breathtaking but I just wasn’t impressed with the 3D effects: they seemed pop up book-like and not really necessary. And those glasses! My word, I just couldn’t deal with those glasses throughout that whole movie.

And now, you are telling me that not only do I have to buy another flat screen TV but then I am going to have to wear glasses while I watch it as well? So I’m supposed to watch the World Cup or whatever with everybody else in ridiculous glasses? I mean, it’d better be hologram-like for me to even bother with the setup. Honestly, if this is going to work, I must not have to wear glasses.

And that is why I am keeping a close eye on the new Nintendo 3DS. Remove the glasses requirement for the television, and maybe I’ll watch my sports in 3D. Let’s make it happen, technologists; it would be a great feat to accomplish that on a large screen.

I watched Steve Jobs’ two hour keynote at the Apple Development Conference for one reason and one reason alone: to hear news on a potential Verizon iPhone.

Don’t get me wrong, my Blackberry Tour has done a lot for me… that is, when the trackball actually works. But I’m looking at all of these large screen phones and it is making my Blackberry look more and more inadequate. I get annoyed when I see a website that I use on a daily basis come out with a mobile app and then it is only available on… the iPhone. And if the company is really devoted to the mobile platform, the next one up is… the Android OS. Blackberry is a distant third, and sometimes the Blackberry app comes crippled with limited features; examples at the time of this writing include Dropbox and Mint. This makes me very sad.

Everybody knows that a Verizon iPhone would make sense on a lot of levels for Apple: 80 million potential customers, and a more reliable network, to name a couple (some people will disagree, but well, I stand by my statement).

There are also a few reasons for Apple not to go to Verizon: the need to make a CDMA phone in addition to the current GSM-based phone they have, the need to negotiate terms for Verizon that may not be as lucrative as their deal with AT&T, and so on.

And so I wait.

No word from Apple probably means the earliest launch date would be mid-2011, if ever. I could just go ahead and get an Android phone, especially when the HTC Droid Incredible, Motorola Droid Xtreme, and the Motorola Droid 2 are going to be/already are available; and to be honest, the reasons to choose between Android phones and the iPhone become more and more only a matter of preference. If the new iPhone doesn’t come out soon enough for Verizon, I may go and get my own Transformer and never turn back.

But I’m not at that point yet… here are rumors on the Verizon iPhone coming out at the end of the year. And with that, I maintain my hope.

If you bury yourself in the tech world as I do on a regular basis, you will hear about this war between Apple and Adobe, between HTML5 and Flash, and how the iPad does not support Flash. The battles have been riveting, with Adobe executives writing biting comments to Apple on their blogs, and Apple writing a specific article on why they chose HTML5 over Flash when it is usual Apple practice to not comment so actively on major technological decisions.

My question is: does the regular consumer care? The Apple iPhone launched without Flash, and that device seems to have done well. The iPad came out, and has sold more than 2 million units since April (which is beyond my comprehension, but that’s besides the point). It seems to me that as long as the most important Flash websites write apps for the iPad (i.e. YouTube), the typical user will continue to use products like the iPad. I believe it is on Adobe to show Apple how much they have missed out on by omitting Flash. But as long as big Flash websites are willing to write an iPad/iPhone app based on their services, I don’t think Adobe has a chance in this war.

During the “All Things Digital” conference, Steve Jobs talks about how the PC (Mac and Windows included) as we know it will not be as prevalent as it was in the past.

He makes this somewhat grand statement that devices like the iPad will soon take the place of full fledged PCs. And as I listened to this interview, the first reaction was to say that this notion is ridiculous; but then you have to think about the rather controversial moves that Apple has made in the past that was before its time and they were right on:

• 1988: Apple IIc Plus removes 5.25 inch floppy disc in favor for 3.5 inch floppy drive
• 1998: Apple iMac G3 removes floppy disc in favor for a sole CD-ROM drive and the introduction of the USB port
• 2005: Apple scraps native support for its Mac OS 9 operating system with the move to Intel chips, which forced many software developers to rewrite their applications

And all of these moves proved to be pivotal for the company. But I digress: the reason why I think I agree with Steve Jobs right now is that I believe that user experience is the most important thing right now in computing. Users want to be able to use their computer and have it perform the way they want to. Processing speeds and specs matter up to the point of ensuring that quality user experience. And hardware technology has gotten to a point where you don’t need the fastest processor to get that level of user experience for the tasks most people do day by day. There are many people today whose computing needs are satisfied by mobile phones right now, arguably revealing the beginning of this Post-PC era. There will always need to be application developers and content providers that will need full fledged PC’s to do their work, but what about everyone else? What do you think?

So in a departure from all things websites, I want to take a look at the glorious all-encompassing company that seems to unwittingly invade every aspect of our Web 2.0 lives. This company is your friendly Google from down the street— or across the country, depending on where you live. Regardless, Google is here to stay, and the more knowledge you have about how big Google really is, the better equipped you will be to deal with life itself. So let me take you through a story of a world that is now Google’s:

You wake up via an alarm from your new Nexus One and then quickly take a look at the local weather, using the GPS of your Google phone to determine your current location. You get up out of bed and check your Gmail, email which Google scans to give you the ads you see on the right hand side of the web page. You search for the email for the interview that you are going to and look up directions, using Google Maps on the Google Chrome browser of course. You then move those directions to your Nexus One so that you can have the directions on the go.

So you get to your interview and ace it: awesome. You have left Google Latitude open on your phone, and you see that you received a message on Google Talk from your friend. She noticed that you were near her and asked if you wanted to get lunch. (And yes, in case you didn’t know, Google Latitude can tell your friends exactly where you are and is a part of Google Maps for Mobile.) You get an email that your friend also left you a voicemail, which Google Voice has already gone through and transcribed for you (as well as saved the contents on their servers). So you have lunch with your friend, first looking up a good spot using Google Maps for Mobile, and plan on going to a birthday party that weekend. You don’t want to double book, so you add your plans to Google Calendar so that your computer and your phone will have the same info.

Looking at your Google Calendar, you see that you have class in a couple of hours and need to head back to school, but you realize that you didn’t read the book or finish your assignment. You don’t have the book on you but you don’t stress: you break out your laptop and go to Google Books where luckily, Google has already scanned the complete contents of the book you need and made it available to the public. You complete your assignment on Google Docs so you can go to a school computer to print it out.

Since you are done earlier than expected, you spend the rest of the time you have going on Google Reader for your news, Google Product Search for your gear, YouTube for your video fix, and Google Buzz to tell your friends how awesome you are. After that, you head to school. You get there on time and coast through class. During class you are wondering how your sister is doing, since she is dealing with some medical complications. Luckily, she is avid about updating her health information in Google Health, and she has shared access to her records with you. So you check it out, and see that everything is going well. So great, you’re happy and now off searching on Google to find out what gift you should get for this party on the weekend.

So hey, I’m not saying that Google is evil… yet. Nor am I saying that you should not use Google products — I definitely use my fair share of them. All I’m saying is when you do use them, beware of how much information Google has about you (which they do give you a very convenient way to find out), and of course, beware of their underlying agenda, Google Purge.

Trifecta Tech is not responsible for the pandemonium that may be caused by taking the Google Purge article seriously.

When shopping around different web designers, the phrase “Content Management System”, or CMS, comes up very often. But what is it? And more importantly, do you need it?

What Is A CMS?

A content management system enables you to manage the content of your website without the help of a web developer. Essentially, it is any system that allows you to post content up on a website. For example, if you have posted a picture up on Facebook, or sent a tweet through Twitter, then you have been using a kind of CMS.  For more information on the scope of what a CMS can do, check this article.

Why A CMS?

The biggest benefit of a CMS is that it enables you to manage a site by yourself without having to sift through the code behind the site. You are essentially your own webmaster, as long as you are willing to spend the time to learn the system and update your site. As to the importance of a CMS, imagine if every time you wanted to upload a picture to Facebook you had to send an email to changeyourprofile@facebook.com and a Facebook employee would have to upload the picture for you. Imagine the trouble if something went wrong in the process, such as if they uploaded the wrong picture to your profile (which could be potentially really bad depending on the picture). Without a CMS, Facebook would definitely not be nearly the size that it is today due to a lack of manpower, and it would assuredly not be a free service.

Thankfully, due to the open source movement along with several independent software development companies, there are several CMS’s that are either very cheap (a couple hundred dollars) or completely free to use. These generic systems are very open and customizable, so web developers can offer an enterprise-level backend without starting from scratch. In addition, the community of users of a particular CMS usually contributes a number of add-ons that extend the CMS’s functionality, enabling web developers to meet their client’s needs.

Who Needs A CMS?

In the web 2.0 world that we live in, I would argue that the vast majority of websites (if not all) need some type of CMS powering them because of how important current information is in the new decade. From adding meeting info to an upcoming event to adding news relevant to your business, a CMS can greatly help you ensure your website is current. Also with more advanced technologies such as live feeds whose content is constantly changing, the only way to keep that pace is to be able to modify your website on the fly. Even if you are fortunate enough to have a webmaster managing your site, a CMS could drastically reduce the number of mistakes that webmaster makes since he or she wouldn’t have to delve into the code to manually update the site each time. The CMS makes your site update process more streamlined and more efficient.

It is very tempting to skimp on building a CMS since developers will naturally charge more to set this up, but in the long run, once you incorporate the expense of hiring that same developer to make even the most minor of changes the extra initial cost becomes more justified.  A CMS-powered site empowers you to take control of your own website, or greatly increases a webmasters efficiency in managing your website for you.. And since the cost for this convenience has gone down drastically, most businesses and individuals can now afford it.

Most people do not know much about how much a website is worth, or better yet how much it costs to build a website. After all, there is no official price standard to follow; the values of digital goods are still somewhat hard for people to grasp in this case. There are many ways to bill for a website: by hour, project, module, etc…. but more often than not, these pricing schemes are designed to hide the real costs involve. So I am going to try to break down the different aspects of web design and their worth.

1. Consultation

Some web design agencies charge you for talking with a representative and further ironing out the idea that you have for the website. A detailed consultation session could help you understand all of the moving pieces that are involved with web design and give you a more accurate quote. However, unless your website is quite complex, consultation should be part of the project price.

2. Look And Feel

The way the website looks visually is in large part due to the efforts of the graphic designer. The graphic designer takes your vision and creates a template of what your website will look like. The template does not have any real content: they design the visuals and the user experience of the site. The template phase can be as cheap as $100 for a template at templatemonster.com or as expensive as thousands of dollars for a large custom template.

3. Implementation Of Content

The template by itself is not the website: more often than not, the template must be further worked on before it can go live. The site is populated with real textual, graphical, and dynamic content using a variety of languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Adobe Flash and Silverlight. This phase is typically a straightforward process unless advanced animation effects are required, which would require its own consultation and look and feel phase. The cost of this phase depends largely on the template discussed in the look and feel phase, and how many times you change your mind. Because this part of the process essentially consist of the bulk of the coding on the website, this part of the website can vary from a couple of hundred bucks for pre-made websites to even the tens of thousands for custom systems.

4. Backend Services

Most web 2.0 sites also need to be connected to backend services that enable your site to do more than load web pages. If you opt to have your website powered by a CMS (Content Management System), then you will be able to edit your website without a web developer. The CMS hosts a backend where you can log in and add content that is automatically incorporated into the site. CMS implementations can run from low four figures to beyond depending on the services you want on your site. Services like e-commerce, databases, search capabilities, blogs, forums, user login, and protected areas are all considered additional modules that will also run up the bill, so be sure you really need those services as you proceed.

5. Hosting And Maintenance

Maintenance packages ensure that your site runs continuously and is updated with the latest security updates, so unless your site is very simple, it is a good idea to purchase maintenance for your site. Hosting is required to have your site up on the Internet in the first place. Hosting and maintenance can run you from $10 to hundreds of dollars a month depending on the complexity of your website.

So roughly every website process can be broken down into these five phases. Understanding the costs of web design helps you ask the right questions and provide the most helpful input to ensure the success of your website.

In 2004, Trifecta Tech was founded with a focus on small business and non-profit clients. Five years later, they remain our core clientele as part of our ongoing development strategy. But with all the various kinds of businesses out there of different sizes and shapes, why focus on the small organizations?

Bringing Technology To All

Trifecta was built on the belief that technology should be accessible to all. In our modern age where technology permeates every facet of daily life, not only is it impossible to live completely isolated from technology, but the resources currently available present unprecedented opportunities to those who can take advantage of it. They are opportunities to connect with people across geographical borders and time zones in ways like never before, allowing someone to build personal one-on-one connections as well as reach a mass audience in real time. They provide unparalleled access to a wide array of information, all available with the tap of a few keys or a click of a mouse. For a growing organization, there are numerous technological tools that can be harnessed for use in making information available and getting the word out to others, and also as a way to get feedback from users that can potentially lead to an improved business.

However, in taking advantage of these kinds of tools, Trifecta noticed that certain small businesses and non-profits were at a disadvantage compared to their larger counterparts. Large companies are more likely to have the resources to invest in dedicated technology departments that can focus their attentions on maintaining the most current and relevant technologies. For small businesses and non-profits that are not able to maintain such an extensive technical infrastructure, Trifecta seeks to bridge that gap by providing the services of a dedicated, full-service technology team that works together with clients on the technological front in a way that complements their business, so that they can do what they do even better.

The Personal Touch

Trifecta believes that in order to do the best job for our clients, it is important to actually build a relationship with the people we work with and to understand their business on a deeper level. It is not about merely completing the task set forth by the client at the beginning of an engagement, but about actually working together and having an ongoing conversation about how to best utilize the tools at our disposal in a way that works for them. It is about making our technical expertise and professional judgment available, and that expertise is applied with most benefit when we have a good understanding of the organization and its goals, and the community in which it exists.

We have found that our connection with small companies and non-profits has been particularly meaningful because of the depth of the relationship that we have been able to cultivate with them. Many of our clients are those who worked with us initially and were impressed enough by the results that they have stayed with us through the years. They know that we are available to them for any questions or issues they may have, and when they are looking to embark on a larger project such as a website overhaul, we are the ones they turn to. By working so closely with each other, with us taking the time to understand what they are working towards, we become a part of each other’s families and their success becomes our success.

Partnering Up And Giving Back

Trifecta exists as a business, but our vision and goals extend past the bottom line. We like to partner with people who have causes and purposes beyond merely making money because we have experienced the benefits of such organizations ourselves. They are the ones that have helped all of us along the way to where we are now, so we can say from firsthand experience that these groups can, and do, make a difference. Now, through Trifecta, we are doing our small part to help them achieve their aspirations and impact the lives of others who can take advantage of their services.

Looking Forward

Trifecta’s focus on small businesses and non-profits was not an arbitrary decision for us. In addition to our vision of making the best technological resources available to these organizations and the opportunity to build meaningful partnerships with groups that we respect and believe can make a difference, another motivation for working with who we do is the potential for tremendous growth in this area. Particularly during these trying economic times, we know that small businesses account for the majority of job growth, so we want to do what we can to ensure that they do well going forward. We see the future in small businesses, and we are ready for the journey.