Author: Dr. Bill

Can we trust the InterWebs for doing the Census? For voting? For other really important stuff? Well, after all we trust it for our LOLcats, right?

2020 Census will be done by Internet

“Add paper census questionnaires to the long list of everyday items becoming quaint vestiges of tired technology, like landline phones, television armoires and butterfly ballots.

The Census Bureau already has started offering an Internet option to the 250,000 households it selects every month at random for the American Community Survey. Since becoming available in January, more than half the responses have come in on a secure site that requires codes and PIN numbers.

The bureau expects to use the Internet — plus smart phones and other technologies yet to be invented — for the next decen­nial census, in 2020.

The increasing reliance on technology is designed to save money. The 2010 Census cost $96 per household, including the American Community Survey that has replaced the old long form. That cost has more than doubled in two decades, up from $70 in 2000 and $39 as recently as 1990.

The factors pushing costs higher are unlikely to abate.

Increased diversity means questionnaires and ad campaigns must be produced in more languages. Fewer Americans willingly participate in surveys, making it more expensive to gather statistics about them. And the Census Bureau has been pressured to make its count more accurate, especially for smaller groups of people that tend to be undercounted.

But under prodding by Congress, the bureau is trying to keep the per-household cost stable, though the total cost inevitably will rise with inflation and population growth.

‘Congress has instructed us to find a way to do things for no more money,’ said Jim Dinwiddie, a senior census official who helps oversee the decennial census. ‘So we’re looking at what things we might do that have a dramatic impact on costs.’

Chief among them is using the Internet more. Though 60 other census surveys have an Internet option, the American Community Survey is by far the largest.

The Census Bureau spent two years running preliminary experiments in how people responded to American Community Survey questions on the computer screen. Five rounds of ­testing involved tracking eye movements as people scanned a Web page looking for which answer they wanted to check.

The households selected for the survey still get their first contact the old-fashioned way, with a mailed letter telling them the questionnaire is on its way. Then they receive a letter telling them how to respond over the Internet. If they don’t use that option, they get a 28-page paper form a few weeks later.

The questions are listed on a green-tinted Web page that takes roughly 40 minutes to complete, with 24 questions on housing alone and up to 48 questions about every household resident.

‘There are benefits to doing it online,’ said Todd Hughes, a senior census official working on the American Community Survey, as he illustrated how the computer catches contradictory answers and seeks clarification.

The savings are potentially huge, said Frank Vitrano, associate director for the 2020 Census.

‘It reduces the cost of printing, the cost of postage and the cost of data capture off paper forms,’ he said. ‘And we see it as more convenient for the public.’

Vitrano said other cost-cutting options also are being studied for the 2020 count.

Administrative records, including those kept by the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, may be another source of statistics that the Census Bureau can mine. That could diminish the need for what in 2010 was hundreds of thousands of temporary employees hired to check addresses, make follow-up calls and knock on doors when people didn’t respond quickly after the census form was mailed to their homes.

The bureau also is contemplating a promotional campaign to encourage people to contact the them and pre-register, providing an e-mail address so the questionnaire can be sent electronically.

But in an endeavor as big as a national census, final decisions on design and technology will have to be in place at least two years in advance. That means whatever looks fresh and new in 2018 will look a little stale by census day.

‘The census is always going to look a little out of date,’ Vitrano said. ‘There will be a time in 2017 or 2018 when we have to lock in decisions. Something new will come in 2019, and our technology is going to look obsolete.'”

Eventually, I am going to get an Ouya. But, I wasn’t the first to sign up, so I won’t get one soon. But, at least they are starting to ship!

First Ouya Consoles Shipping to Backers

“The early bird gets the worm, or in this case, the new portable home gaming system. Ouya’s $99 Android-based console is now shipping to early backers, and is expected to hit shelves this summer for all consumers.

Ouya games include action, sports, arcade, and indie, played directly on your TV. Big-name publishers like Square Enix and Namco Bandai have already signed on with the company, which also snagged independent developers like Tripwire Interactive and Adam Saltsman.

The Ouya may seem like the underdog in the established console market, but the little machine is aiming to disrupt the entire home gaming platform.

Industry heavyweight Julie Uhrman took to Kickstarter in July to crowd-fund her project, aiming for $950,000 to get the idea off the ground. She walked away a month later with almost $8.6 million and the support of more than 63,000 backers.

Following an epic Kickstarter run, Uhrman inked a deal with music and entertainment service Vevo, before announcing in February that the Ouya would sell via Amazon, GameStop, Target, and Best Buy.

The system has its own online store, a la Google Play, where gamers can choose from various titles, all of which include a free trial to test the game before purchase.

About the size of a Rubik’s cube, Ouya features a Tegra3 quad-core processor, 8GB of Flash memory, 1GB RAM, Bluetooth connectivity, and an HDMI connection to a TV, with support for up to 1080p HD.”

The next version of Windows is coming… it is in development now. The code name is “Windows Blue”… there are some basic changes, like smaller tiles in the Metro interface, and Internet Explorer 11, but are we heading toward a desktop-less Windows. My Linux buddy, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, that I have quoted many times before, thinks so! Is it the beginning of the end of Windows world domination?

No Windows desktop mode!? No!

“Summary: The early look at Blue have some Windows experts thinking that Microsoft is getting ready to dump Windows 8’s desktop mode once and for all in favor of Metro. No!

It comes as no surprise to anyone who reads my stories that I hate Windows 8’s Metro interface. I’m not alone. Lots of people hate it. But instead of switching back to an Aero-style interface, perhaps the most respected technical Windows writer out there, blogger Paul Thurrott, looked at the leaked Windows Blue release and thinks Microsoft is planning on dumping Windows Desktop mode entirely. No!

Will Metro be Windows’ only interface soon? Some experts think so.
I’ve thought all along that one way Microsoft could save Windows 8 from its current market malaise if it would make its desktop mode the primary interface instead of Metro.

That isn’t what Thurrott sees happening though. In fact, he sees the exact opposite.

Thurrott wrote, ‘All the action in this build is in PC settings, and if you were looking for any further proof the desktop being eased out going forward, look no further than this. As noted in the previous report, there are a ton of new settings in there now, including many items that were previously only available in the desktop-based Control Panel interface. This is clearly an indication of how we get from here (Windows 8) to there (Windows 9, with potentially no desktop).’ As further proof, he observed, ‘The default apps interface has been completely Metro-ized in this release.’

Some observers, like ComputerWorld’s Preston Gralla, agree with him: ‘There’s a reasonable chance that Microsoft will finally get around to killing the Desktop in Windows 9,’ Gralla writes. ‘With Windows 8, Microsoft did its best to make the Desktop at best an afterthought, relegating it to a tile on the Start screen. Windows 8 has been built for touch and the horizontal orientation of a tablet, and the Desktop has no place in that world.’

Others, such as Byte’s Larry Seltzer, disagree: ‘Can anyone actually believe this? Earth to Paul: The Windows desktop is a major strength of the operating system, ‘especially’ as compared to the competition. There is an ocean of expertise and customized software out there on the Windows desktop, and Microsoft would never alienate these people.’

I’d agree with Seltzer, except… well, Microsoft is already alienating those users. I know some Windows 8 PC users. The majority of them zoom past Metro and get to a normal Windows Desktop as fast as possible. If Thurrott is right, Windows users will be locked into Metro once and for all. That will fly as well as a lead brick.

One source close to Microsoft told me he can’t see Microsoft dumping the desktop anytime soon. ‘There’s the little, itty-bitty problem of hundreds of thousands of desktop applications that will take years, if not longer, to migrate to WinRT API-based apps. Just bringing Office alone to WinRT will be a Manhattan Project.’

Of course, Microsoft does have one way around this problem: Move all its business apps to the cloud and make them software as a service (SaaS) apps. This fits in nicely with Ed Bott’s vision of Microsoft’s future as a cloud-based service provider with its own hardware line, Surface.

If moving its business applications to the cloud really is the plan, then Microsoft could indeed leave Windows 8’s desktop mode behind. I wouldn’t be happy about it, and I don’t see that I’d ever like Metro, but a combination of cloud services and Windows-based devices with Metro interfaces could win for Microsoft.

It’s beginning to look more and more like if you want a traditional desktop, you’re going to need to use Linux. Who’d thought it?

As a long-time desktop Linux user, that’s fine by me, but I wonder if Windows users really want to follow me to Linux, or if they’d rather just have a working, Aero-style desktop instead of a cloud-based Metro device? I’d bet they’d really rather have their fine old desktop anyday.”

This past week the Linux Mint Team released a new LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) for 2013!  Linux Mint is my favorite Linux client distro, and the main release is based on Ubuntu.  This edition is based on “raw” Debian.

Linux Mint Debian 201303 released!

“The team is proud to announce the release of LMDE 201303!

Highlights

• Update Pack 6
• MATE 1.4
• Cinnamon 1.6
• Installer improvements (graphical timezone and keyboard selection, support for installation on multiple HDD, slideshow, webcam and face picture support)
• Device Driver Manager
• Plymouth splash screen

If you’re new to LMDE, welcome to Linux Mint Debian!

LMDE in brief

• Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is a semi-rolling distribution based on Debian Testing.
• It’s available in both 32 and 64-bit as a live DVD with MATE or Cinnamon.
• The purpose of LMDE is to look identical to the main edition and to provide the same functionality while using Debian as a base.”