Did you know that when you turn your cell phone “off” it is not actually off? Well, I had previously heard a rumor that the GPS (global positioning system) stuff was still available when a cell phone was “off,” enabling it to be used as a tracking device. But that was a rumor, and I […]
October 16, 2006
Connect the Dots
The US election is November 7th. Three weeks away. Read this, then read this. Then, spend 12 minutes and watch this testimony under oath from a computer programmer who was hired to write software to flip the vote in electronic voting machines. Scary? Well, even worse is that he was hired by Tom Feeney, the […]
October 16, 2006
Getting Connected
Classic Steve Jobs quote: Microsoft has announced its new iPod competitor, Zune. It says that this device is all about building communities. Are you worried? In a word, no. I’ve seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three […]
October 11, 2006
Gadgetoff
The New Yorker reports on this year’s Gadgetoff event: When asked what he planned to do with his three and a half minutes, he said, “I’m going to demonstrate how you can transfer data faster with snails than with broadband.” Then he showed a slide of a snail hitched to a tiny chariot with DVDs […]
September 14, 2006
The iPod Suit
From Eleksen, the iPod suit: The Bagir suit jacket integrates Eleksen’s ElekTex® smart fabric touchpad technology, which transforms a lapel into a five-button electronic control panel. The ElekTex-enabled iPod Suit is both fashionable and functional. The suit is machine-washable and wrinkle-resistant, making it the ideal choice for today’s music-savvy and style conscious business professionals. My […]
September 14, 2006
Quote of the Day
John Gruber, on Steve Jobs: Remember his on-stage demo last year [of the Motorola Rokr] iTunes-compatible phone? His contempt for the device was palpable; when he failed to successfully switch from song playback to accept a call, he seemed poised to just toss the thing off-stage and cry out that it was a piece of […]
August 1, 2006
The Difference a “..” Makes
Unbelievably crazy-busy day. At one point in the morning, Adrian was working on a website redesign, Marty was starting the v4.1 SFTP programming, Anne was catching me up on her sales work and the plan for August, and I’m thinking, “It used to be that I came to this office and it was mine alone […]
July 29, 2006
IPtables is Fun!
Highly technical Internet practical joke. If you don’t get the tech stuff at the top, scroll down to the resulting images. Very amusing.
July 26, 2006
Tesla Roadster
Now here’s an electric car worth waiting for. Lots of new here. It will be sold over the web starting next summer. According to their blog they have engaged Lotus for key contract engineering skills.
July 13, 2006
AI@50
Meg Houston Maker is doing some fantastic live blogging of the Dartmouth AI@50 conference. This gathering celebrates, explores, and, to an extent, reprises the original Dartmouth Summer Research Project in artificial intelligence of 1956, which proceeded “on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in […]
July 13, 2006
Nine Lives Is Nine Too Many
If the Internet turns into this, then I’m switching it off. Please, god, no.
July 11, 2006
Examples of Categories
Art: Leonard Cohen and Sonny Rollins on live TV. (Thanks Jon.) Commerce: Do Patents Encourage or Stifle Innovation? Culture: On media elitism and the “derivative” myth Technology: On playing with my Holux GPS unit… Cool: Velcro Being Pulled Apart
July 9, 2006
Make Something People Want
I hesitate to point to every Paul Graham essay that comes along, but these links are useful for future research. Excerpts: The idea of building something popular then figuring out how to make money from it was born in the Bubble. It sounds irresponsible, but it works. Requiring founders to have a carefully worked out […]
July 6, 2006
Backup Brain
So I don’t have to spend twenty minutes with Google-fu the next time I’m looking for this, here are two in-depth articles on Mac OSX backup. 1) The State of Backup and Cloning Tools under Mac OS X 2) Mac Backup Software Harmful Summary: 1) It’s a complicated problem. 2) Use SuperDuper.
July 4, 2006
Great Bass, Lesh Philling
Right up until Sunday, the day of the show, I wasn’t sure if I’d go to see Phil Lesh & Friends at SPAC. I’d been sick for two weeks, the first week full-blown, with all symptoms known to (wo)man, and a second full week with the phlegmish hacking cough. Symptoms had died down by Saturday, […]
July 1, 2006
Nano-Enabled Advances
Email from Amazon alerted me to this new book: Nanotechnology Applications And Markets, by Lawrence Gasman, $79. Discover nanotech opportunities the smart way with the first “down to business” market analysis that separates commercial reality from hype and gives you the tools you need to forecast nanotech’s impact on any company. This professional-level book spotlights […]
June 24, 2006
Will Desktop Affordances be Useful?
Computer technology demos are always interesting, but sometimes you wonder if it would actually be useful in real life. And the opposite is true: Blogging doesn’t demo well, people have a hard time understanding why, but it turns out to be valuable. This week’s impressive demo is BumpTop, showing “physically-based casual interfaces and pen-centric interactions.” […]
June 5, 2006
The Most Thankless Job in Tech Support
Tried to use the web without paying the $10 extortion tonight. No go; way slow. So I went to the upgrade screen and authorized the billing. But nothing changed—still super-super-slow, as billg would say. So I called the tech support line, cringing all the way. Can you imagine a worse job in tech support than […]
May 23, 2006
Nike+iPod
Amazing advance in product sophistication. Apple partners with Nike on a blockbuster idea. Buy special (Nike) running shoes with a sensor in the footbed. The wireless sensor talks with a small receiver pluged into the dock connector of the (Apple) iPod. A special version of software takes over the display, and adds voice feedback cues […]
May 23, 2006
Pragmatic Technology Strategy
Yesterday Mark and I drove down to Andover MA to meet with Walden. We three are running a (pro-bono) session for a Coop consulting group next month on technology strategy. Because Kate wasn’t feeling well, we went to Panera for three hours. The place was hoppin’ with businesspeople! Above you see Walden coaching Mark on […]