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Audio/Video Internet Chat Tips
brian on 2008.04.09 at 08:35 pm
I’ve done a lot of live audio and video broadcasts on the web. I produce our virtual seminars (some people call them “webinars”) at work, and I’ve done a good deal of audio/video chats through both iChat AV and Skype. Here’s some tips and voodoo I’ve learned from that experience that should help the quality of your live, online audio and video.
Posted in: Technology · Web
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Two Weeks of Comcast HD TiVo Service: Complete or Total Disaster?
brian on 2008.02.11 at 11:41 pm
What follows is the story of our first two weeks with the brand new, Comcast HD TiVo service. The merges the Comcast HD cable settop box with the DVR recording capabilities of TiVo software.
The experience, while having so much potential for a quality product at a fair price, has been nothing short of disastrous. Read on to find out how.
Posted in: Technology · Television
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Twit or Twerp?
brian on 2008.01.05 at 10:22 am
In this case it’s good to be a twit and bad to be a twerp. This article lays it out–one of a handful I’ve seen recently–so this Twitter-use issue is clearly bugging others in addition to me.
Are you a Twit or a Twerp –via SteveGarfield of SteveGarfield.com
Case in point, I’ve been trimming my “following” list to cut out the “twerps.” One recent example is someone I’ve actually met in person, shares two key professional interests with me, is really sharp and friendly. But he would often break all the etiquette rules: tweeting 10 times an hour, having conversations over twitter, psuedo-spamming tweets that advertise every move he makes professionally. Repeat after me: Twitter does not exist to be your spam mechanism.
The worst part was when he would tweet from church! I’m fine if you want to be open and excited about your faith. But I’m not OK with the play-by-play of the sermon. Four tweets in an hour, all preaching, all from a pew in church? That saddens me. What do his fellow worshippers think when they see him on his phone during the sermon?
I don’t think that people who are that into church realize that excessive preachiness puts more people off from your faith than attracts to it. And again, Twitter does not exist to be your personal preaching mechanism. Unless you’re a pastor and the point of the account is to spread some faith to your flock. That would actually be a very cool usage of the service! The key here is that the tweet stream would not include tweets from the pastor when he’s annoyed standing inline at the grocery store. It would serve one purpose.
So, if you want me to follow you on Twitter, be yourself, not a marketer (it’s OK to tell me you’ve launched a new product or made a new blog post so long as it doesn’t make up more than 20% of your content). If you feel there’s an audience for your marketing message via Twitter, please make an account just for that, so that I may opt not to follow it. But if you are interested in me following you, just tell me “What are you doing?”
Posted in: Technology · Web
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Adam Engst on Twitter
brian on 2007.10.10 at 09:26 pm
Adam of Tid-Bits fame writes up Twitter, explaining why at first he thought it was useless until the network effect and good content from his friends came across. Offers practical advice to people just discovering Twitter…
Confessions of a Twitter Convert
Posted in: Technology · Web
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Facebook and LinkedIn
brian on 2007.08.07 at 07:42 pm
Jeff Pulver writing in Business Week that he’s leaving LinkedIn for Facebook for his business networking. Ditto from his personal blog.
Jeff pulver says he’s leaving LinkedIn for the Facebook. (Yes, actually that’s how the creator refers to it, The Facebook, but I’m going refer to it with out the “the.”) I have been on Facebook for a while, but recently I’ve been considering joining LinkedIn. Here’s why: social vs. professional. On Facebook, I only friend people I can have a non-awkward conversation with. Only people I would or have socialized with in real-life. It’s my offline life, online. As with Twitter, I find it loses value as you add people you only know tangentially, if that. I was looking for a place for personal connections, and I have a blog (actually a couple, and that’s growing too) that the general public can view, without having to know the ins and outs of my personal details.
I like Facebook a lot. If it becomes a business hotspot, I would love to use it as such, but I couldn’t and will not use it as such in its current form. I need a wall between the personal and the business realm. A friends-facing Facebook and a colleagues-facing FB. I don’t want a potential future client to be reading the sexual bragging of my friends on my Wall. OK, none of my friends have actually done that yet, but since FB gives you that ability, it’s something to think about.
I suggest making a simple check box when adding a friend, that is similar to a choice that Flickr gives you (Mark this contact as… [] Friend []Family) that would allow you to mark someone as business acquaintance and/or personal acquaintance, and then in the privacy settings you would choose what features are visible to which viewers.
Will Facebook grow to allow this Janus1-like ability? Will people flock back to LinkedIn after their first personal/professional crossed signal? Only time will tell.
1 fun fact: Janus–an ancient Italian deity, guardian of doorways and gates and protector of the state in time of war. He is usually represented with two faces, so that he looks both forward and backward.
Posted in: Technology · Web
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Sorry Our Servers are Taking a Smoke Break
brian on 2007.06.27 at 11:27 pm
I’m a big fan of WGBH in Boston. Tonight, I’m doing some work and listening to their nightly jazz. It’s 11:30 and they’re playing a song that’s just great, and I want to know who it’s by.
Saunter over to WGBH.org and I see this note…
This site is temporarily down as we are moving the servers to our new building in Brighton, Mass.
Please pardon the inconvenience. We expect to complete the move quickly, and look forward to welcoming you back to all of our pages soon.
Because they are handled by a different server, our WGBH.org donation pages are fully functioning and secure. You can still pledge or renew online right now. Thank you for your support.
Donate using our online donation form
Thank you for your patience, and come back soon!
Ouch! So GBH is this world-famous media company (a non-profit, but a seriously successful one) and they have these wonderful new studios in Brighton… and they have to shut down their entire site to move the servers? Really?
Posted in: Technology · Web
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OLPC for Iraq?
brian on 2007.01.29 at 05:59 pm
On my commute home today, I was listening to an NPR report on the sorry state of education in Iraq today. Many, if not most of the country’s higher ed students are too scared to attend class under threats from the barbaric, hate-filled, ideological death squads that have declared war on secular education.
Iraq was once proud of its doctors, engineers and professors. Many hoped that with Saddam’s fall and the end of economic sanctions, there would be a resurgence of professional skills.
But the Ministry of Education says only 30 percent of Iraq’s students are currently attending classes – the lowest level since U.S. troops invaded Iraq four years ago. The universities, which are directly linked to Iraq’s future, are on the verge of collapse.
Hundreds of professors have been killed or kidnapped, with many more going abroad to save themselves. Understandably this is crippling a country in need of scientists and engineers to rebuild itself into a modern society.
One thing that was mentioned was that many students stay home based on the commute to class alone, having to navigate the sniper and bomb ridden streets of Baghdad. This brought something to mind… online classes.
Two major problems exist in Iraq: a) lack of a steady power supply, and b) lack of infrastructure, especially internet access. From what I can tell, there are only two main sources of internet access: cafés and colleges.
But if you think about it, that actually puts Baghdad ahead of much of the developing world who plan to employ the One Laptop Per Child Initiative (aka the $100 laptop). Three major pieces of the OLPC design are 1) ruggedness, 2) auto-generation of electricity for areas without power, 3) mesh wireless networking for areas without internet infrastructure.
Perhaps with this system, the students and professors could hideout at home for the most part until Baghdad (or anywhere in Iraq) stabilizes.
Are engineers going to be able to work on CAD on an OLPC? Obviously not, but at least this provides something to work with. A way to communicate, receive and submit classwork.
Seems this would be a better use of our billions instead of some of the projects currently proposed for our money.
Posted in: Technology
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Great Quotes in Tech Entreprenuership
brian on 2007.01.02 at 07:19 pm
And then we arrived at the hotel, and the doorman at the hotel opens up the door to the car, and [Stewart Butterfield] throws up again, right on the carpet. It was terrible. And then he stays up all night. I fall asleep. I wake up and he’s like, “I’ve got a great idea. Let’s make a photo-sharing site.” And that was the impetus.
Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr
Posted in: Technology
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Amazon Unlocks Scale for the Little Guy.
brian on 2006.11.12 at 12:57 pm
This article on Amazon’s non-retail services is terribly interesting, and I think, a great direction for Amazon to be going. I wouldn’t expect Wall Street to understand. They don’t like the long term view. Maybe a company like Amazon would be better off as a privately owned company…
But, what’s more is that I think its good for more than just Amazon… I think these services have the chance of unlocking some of the advantages big businesses have over the little guy. Mom and Pop shops certainly can have a server farm in the back, or a network of retail distribution hubs… but now, they can.
Take a look at the article. I like Bezos’ attitude.
Posted in: Technology · Web
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Who are you?
brian on 2006.08.24 at 04:13 pm
Who, who, who, who? – “The Who(The Who are an English rock band who first came to prominence in the 1960s, and grew in stature to become one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time)”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Are_You_%28song%29
[Note to regular blog readers: This post is my introduction to other participants of 2006 PodCamp Boston. ]
I’m Brian Christiansen and I’m a blogger. One who doesn’t particularly like the word “blog,” but I’ve been blogging since 2001, and reading them since before that.
Posted in: Technology · Web
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Mr Gates' Slow Exit
brian on 2006.06.22 at 06:20 pm
In fact, when you step back far enough, Mr. Gates’s entire life arc suddenly looks like a 35-year game of Robin Hood, a gigantic wealth-redistribution system on a global scale.
From David Pogue’s weekly email column. LOL.
I for one see Mr. Gates departure from Microsoft to devote his time to his Foundation as a very good thing for the world, and I don’t say that cynically. He could go much farther than to reverse his current legacy as nice guy/weasely businessman… and just be remembered as a nice guy.
Posted in: Technology
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IE7 + MSN = Surprised?
brian on 2006.05.02 at 01:00 pm
Some people are getting upset that Microsoft chose to make MSN the default search engine in their new Internet Explorer 7.
Why is anyone surprised or upset about this?
Are they also surprised/upset that Microsoft Windows comes with Internet Explorer as its default web browser?
If MS prevented people from selecting another search as default, or prevented their OEMs from doing so, then there would be reason to get upset.
Luckily, I found I’m not the only one who feels this way. Besides, if you’re stuck on Windows, you should use Firefox anyway, and there you can get all the Google you want.
Posted in: Technology
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My morning at the DPH and WiFi
brian on 2006.03.21 at 12:47 pm
Today is a day off for me. One of the advantages of a job without 9-5, M-F hours is unusual times off. This week makes that a random Monday and Tuesday my “weekend” off.
With my day off, I felt like getting out of the house. This was prompted by a lack of breakfast goods. Luckily for my there is an utterly charming café up the street which even embraces my Danish heritage. It’s called the Danish Pastry House and it’s right down the hill from Tufts University.
I enjoy the DPH’s chai lattes, and have yet to be disappointed in their baked goods.
Posted in: Technology
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Excellent Example of IT meeting EDU
brian on 2006.03.06 at 09:56 pm
If I could sum up what I would like to do with the next stage of my professional life, basically if I had to pick my next job, I would probably reference this site. Not that I’m a particularly huge fan of podcasts, but I’m specifically referencing this site: advocating the correct usage of a cool new technology, securely grounded in good pedagogy (not in some IT budgeter’s idea that some how a 3rd grader can benefit from a Palm Pilot in their English class), and presented in a well designed web site, both visually and usably.
As much of a geek as I may be, one thing that bugs the hell out of me is technology for technology’s sake. No! Technology must fill a need… not create one. Otherwise, it’s just “stuff.”
Every educational institution should as lucky as UW to have something like this site. This is very similar to what I did at UConn, in my first “real” job. I do miss that job.
Posted in: Technology
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Today's list
brian on 2006.02.03 at 02:23 am
Mass posting. Sorry. Here’s things that interested me from today:
Cambridge city-wide WiFi by this summer, sponsored by MIT. Quote of the day: “Keville said he does not anticipate any problems because MIT’s bandwidth is ‘ridiculously high.’” When will Medford get WiFi sponsored by Tufts’ fat pipes?
Transmit 3.5 update
I use Transmit for our web work, and love it. Rumor has it that Transmit is faster for iDisk uploads, too. I have been able to document that scientifically, but cursory tests have resulted in a resounding “maybe.” Of course, it’s tough with Comcast’s “ridiculously low” upload bandwidth caps.iWeb. To try out this app, I built an experimental site for my parents business in one late-night session. Went crazy and bought them a domain, hosted it on our servers, and set them up with business email. The result was christiansens.us
It’s not a big jump from the “modern” template, but I am impressed with the easy of use, and the ease to create a non-eye-sore site. I am productive in the Pages/Keynote/iWeb interface. I think this is going to be a big hit with the non-HTMLers out there.
Of course, the code it produces is not the same as a pro-hand coder would produce. It’s use of style sheets could use some work. But it validates XHTML transitional, and I think that’s huge. One giant step in the right direction for Apple, and to think it’s only 1.0. I’d love to use this as a starting point for our hand-coded work. I hope one day the code will be there for me to really tweak out.
Lastly, I enjoyed some RocketBoom via DTV. And I was exposed to this viral video. Now you’ll have to view it, too. Awww, yeah.
Posted in: Technology · Web
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HD comes home
brian on 2006.01.26 at 06:17 pm
A few weeks ago I used my corporate discount to purchase a Panasonic LCD HDTV. It’s quite nice. But only today did I get my HD cable box form Comcast.
I’ve been playing with it all afternoon. This evening, when my lovely fiancé arrived home, we tuned into a The Who concert on INHD. To quote Amanda…
You can the spit and sweat flying off him!
Yup. That about summarized HD for us. People look as sickening as they do in real life. The companies sell HD by saying it’s like looking out a window. It’s not that clear, but it’s damn nice.
I personally have been infatuated with the 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround sound. That’s hot. Finally get to give my Yamaha Digital Receiver a work out. It’s great when a plan comes together…
Lastly, I still have a SD TiVo. I’ll post again with all my wirings to set that up to use it to the best of its abilities.
It wasn’t until today that I realized I’d be buying TiVo’s Series 3 HD DVR when it comes out… hopefully it’ll be just long enough for me to save up all my loose change… this is all slowly bleeding me poor.
Posted in: Technology · Television
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Cell phone followup
jake on 2005.10.17 at 09:07 pm
Personal Experience with the LG VX8100
Not everything has been perfect with my new phone and Verizon. Naturally with cell companies I expect this and I accept it.
The first noticeable problem is the poor battery duration. A new battery and an upgrade to the firmware fixed that. My friend Jay confirmed this past weekend with his phone that it is most likely a firmware problem. He already tried replacing his battery with no success. New firmware is the way to go.
Currently the latest firmware is version 04. Take your phone to a Verizon store and request for them to upgrade your firmware. It’s free and takes about 15 minutes.
Some links on cell phone coverage.
A short while after I got my phone I found a handful of links regarding cell coverage. Some of them are generic coverage maps from the carriers, others are cool tools from 3rd parties.
- Cell Phone Tower Search (from digg.com) – Uses Google Maps to plot out cell towers.
- Verizon Coverage Locator= – “This tool identifies where Verizon Wireless offers service.”
- T-Mobile Coverage Areas (from 37signals.com)
Hopefully that’ll help anyone out there with making decisions on which carrier to pick.
Posted in: Technology
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Cyber Attacks
brian on 2005.08.28 at 11:57 pm
Fascinating story in the upcoming Time Magazine on the hunt for a highly organized cyber spying ring. They are after anything they can get their hands on from the US government and its contractors… and the may be Chinese.
Posted in: Technology
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Of Google and Dark Fiber.
brian on 2005.08.16 at 10:20 pm
There have been persistent rumors about Google buying large amount of so-called dark fiber or fiber optical cabling that is strung across the country, but unused, much of which was pulled during the Web 1.0 bubble.
Perhaps this is just people taking small bits of information and projecting their desires… or maybe its true.
Read on for more on Google and Dark Fiber…
Posted in: Technology
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Cell Phones are a pain. Verizon vs. Cingular
jake on 2005.07.24 at 02:15 pm
Basically I am currently having an internal battle between two celluar companies. I’ve been with Verizon for four years. I got my first personal cell phone the summer after I graduated college. Two years ago I grabbed myself an LG VX6000 at a very good price because I renewed my two year aggreement. Now my agreement is up, and I’ve come up with a few new options.
Posted in: Technology
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Googleplex in Boston/Cambridge
brian on 2005.05.31 at 02:35 pm
Dear Google,
Thank you for considering Boston for a new Googleplex, now come quick! I know you’re listening, because our logs show us that you like our blog.
I say this not because I dislike my current employer. Not at all. I say this because Google is one of about 5 corporations I’d like to work for, and for whom working for wouldn’t make me feel slimy. I am currently employed by corporation numero uno on that list, but for whom most of their work is done out of California, limiting my upward mobility within the company substantially.
I’ve always thought that if you are a large enough company, it would make sense to have major corporate presence in several major cities, and sales force alone doesn’t count. The reason is that not everyone would like to live in Silicon Valley. I would not leave New England for a couple reasons. The main one is family. My fiancé is very close to her family, and while my family has more of a tradition of branching out (although all still pretty much on the East Coast, save one cousin in Iowa) it’s still nice to have the grandkids be close to the grandparents. No amount of salary or sweet emerald campuses surrounded by lush mountains can really replace that. Additional reasons for not leaving New England include things like “snow” “culture” “history” “seashore and mountains within short drives” “educated and honest people” and “I like it.”
Having corporate presence opens you up to a greater employee pool. People don’t always want to relocate far, far away, plus you get a diversity of employees. Also, if you have employees who do want to relocate, you can save costs by keeping them with in the company and allowing them to transfer. All around, it’s just more efficient.
Anyhow, hopefully some other Boston bloggers will speak up and welcome Google into the neighborhood and encourage them to sign the papers. Things like the Boston Community WiFi effort encourage employers like Google to want to come to our area, by the way.
addendum SEW links to this, much more informative article from Boston Biz Journal.
Posted in: Technology
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Samsung 40" OLED display.
jake on 2005.05.20 at 04:12 pm
Perfect! This television couldn’t get any better. Well OK, I’m sure they can make it better, but it’s still pretty nice. I’ve never lived in a space that could accomodate one of those 54” tv’s. But all the new, high tech ones are hard to find below sizes like that. A 40” OLED tv would be awesome to own. It’s so thin… and check out that viewing angle in article… Too bad it probably costs $15,000 bucks…Posted in: Technology
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Boston: WiFi City
brian on 2005.04.25 at 09:35 pm
Posted in: Technology · Web
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F*ck Comcast.
jake on 2005.03.20 at 08:09 pm
I’ve really got stop swearing on here. It didn’t bother me quite as much when we were discussing politics all the time, but when it’s Television and it doesn’t involve something to make you cry, it’s a little harder to rationalize.
I brought this up before when the merger happened, I’ve never been a fan of G4. Never. I thought, hey, maybe I’ll give them a chance now that they own a bunch of shows I like.
So far all they’ve proven is that the only reason they bought TechTV to begin with was because their channel sucked and they wanted a quick way to increase their viewers. Now they have killed off all programming involving technology and intelligence.
So long G4. Not like I watched you to begin with, but you haven’t done a single thing to promote me watching you now either. Oh yeah, Resident Evil 4 is a fun game. You should give it a try if you own a GameCube.
Posted in: Technology · Television
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Dartmouth Goes Wacky Over Wireless
brian on 2005.03.06 at 09:45 pm
Sometimes I wish I had gone to Dartmouth. They didn’t have this stuff going when I went to school, but they do now. Maybe I should review their graduate programs, because they are doing some pretty incredible stuff with technology on campus. They’ve had VoIP for like two years, they’re moving to Wireless VoIP. They’re deploying Video over 802.11a, and other wireless goodies to boot.
Read all about how Dartmouth is leading the way in collegiate wireless services.
Posted in: Technology
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Mmm... del.icio.us
jake on 2005.02.01 at 09:28 am
Matt Biddulph has done a couple cool things with del.icio.us.
The first involves a simple tool that checks your account for similar words. This can be used to weed out similar keywords you may want to merge. For example, I had both ““font”:http://del.icio.us/tag/font/” and ““fonts”:http://del.icio.us/tag/fonts/” in my list. I took out “fonts” and just left “font.” Now I don’t need to look in both places when searching for the site I tagged.
The second is a bit more complex. Using del.icio.us he has created a lateral reference demo of the BBC Radio 3 site. Once a page is tagged a list of the tags appears below the article. And below them a list of related articles. In his example he tagged an article with ““cello”:http://del.icio.us/tag/cello/” and related articles from that the BBC Radio 3 site pop up for viewing.
Posted in: Technology
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Family Guy: Uncancelled
brian on 2005.01.06 at 05:41 pm
I’ll admit to occasionally watching Fox. Football, baseball, those are givens. Simpsons, yes (though certainly not regularly). Well, I may soon again add another show to the line up.
Fox is doing the unheard of, and un-cancelling Family Guy. They even have a website about it. Rumor has it they sold so many DVDs that they decided to un-bury it. As Peter would say “Freaken Sweet!”
Posted in: Technology
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Recent Reading
brian on 2004.10.07 at 08:52 am
The Long Tail: A fascinating tale of the future of books, music, movie distribution from Wired Magazine.
Wikis as intranets. Particularly interesting to me, as I've just recently been experimenting with the thoroughly enjoyable, infinitely simple Instiki.
Interesting Web Design Strategy from our friends at 37Signals. There are so many ways to start a site, and this seems to be an excellent one.
A Night at the Hip-Hopera. In the vein of the Grey Album. Wonderful.
Posted in: Technology · Web
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It's really so simple, the concept
brian on 2004.10.03 at 06:35 pm
Cringley hits the nail on the head this week. Or rather talks about someone else who has. This is a big duh to me, something I've envisioned (without all those pesky specifics this guy has worked out) for a while now. This is what we need now to take back control of the data going into our abodes.
Posted in: Technology
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The Revolution will be...
brian on 2004.10.02 at 10:50 pm
Well, let's not go there... but you should certainly check this out: TV + Blog + RSS + BitTorrent = Torrentocracy.
Guess its time to buy that external hard drive I have my eye on. And time to fire up iMovie. Power to the people, with easy to use video editors!
Posted in: Technology
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NetNewsWire 2 in Public Beta
brian on 2004.09.22 at 01:05 am
Perhaps my favorite application is NetNewsWire. I've been anxiously anticipating NNW2, which I will get a free upgrade to for buying a 1.0 license. I would have almost bought the upgrade sight-unseen. Version 1 is that good. Tonight I have downloaded v.2 Beta. Now I'm off to play.
Posted in: Technology · Web
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Stupid PR People
brian on 2004.09.16 at 06:36 pm
So just a minute ago I read about a press release that says BOSE is releasing a standalone system that you sit your iPod into. I somewhat reminds me of their Wave Radio system. So what do I do as a fan of both Bose and the iPod? I rush immediately to their website to read more about it!
But, there's nothing on their site about it. Not even a new blurb pointing to the PR release. How weak!!
If PR is about anything, it's about capturing buzz... capitalizing on momentum and people's short attention spans. BOSE totally dropped the ball on this. I wanted pictures, specs, colors, I wanted to know why I needed this product.
They should have learned from the people a fellow secretive company who created the iPod... the second there's a product announcement from them, you know there's a pile of info on their website.
Oh, and by the way BOSE, while I'm on the topic of your website, it's time to axe the other company's logo as your favicon. That's a breakdown in branding. But not as bad as not advertising your own new products.
Posted in: Technology
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Silicon Valley or Potato Valley?
brian on 2004.09.14 at 09:00 am
I saw a link to this story on a few blogs regarding a company set to build a device that works as a home media server. "Yawn" is the only thought that came to mind. But what I found interesting is that the company is based outside of Boise, Idaho... and that Idaho is actually the home of many tech companies, the biggest being Micron, and also HP and Dell have a division and call center here, respectively.
I think this is just great. I enjoyed passing through Idaho and wished I had had more time to spend there. Hopefully one day I'll make it back through. It's great for the workers, who get to lead a more humane life in the mountains, and it's really good in my opinion, to spread out our industries. Granted, when industries start up, an incubator in a certain area helps (Silicon Valley, 128-loop of Boston) because the companies are fed by the area's resources (like MIT and the other top notch schools in Boston feed the tech and bio tech companies in the Boston Metro 128 Loop).
But once an industry or company is cemented, setting up satellite shops is a good idea. First it spreads the wealth... especially good for the economy... producers must have consumers. Second, it diversifies the talent pool. A diversity of ideas is essential to entrepreneurship. Lastly, it doesn't lock people into just one place they can do their job. If they're locked in, and say, don't want to work in Silicon Valley, they'll probably do one of two things: 1) stay, burn out, become unproductive, star in a Dilbert strip. 2) Leave and change careers. Either way is not good for the company, or the workers. (the latter can have upsides, too, but if the employee likes his field, and doesn't want to leave the company nor industry, but is yielding to personal pressures, then it can be bad for their mental health.)
So my recommendation is for companies to stretch out a little. The hubs are getting crowded.
Posted in: Technology
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Universal Computing?
brian on 2004.09.13 at 05:45 pm
If this isn't a hoax, then its pretty incredible. I can't immediately think of a program on another platform I'd want, but it would at least allow me to test websites on PC browsers... not that I can't do that in Virtual PC today, but we'll have to see what these guys bring to the table.
Posted in: Technology
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Big WiFi
brian on 2004.09.09 at 10:21 am
I'm a big supporter of WiFi, preferably the free kind. I feel it's a like a digital Interstate Highway System.
Covering parts of Walla Walla, Columbia, Franklin, Benton and Umatilla (WA) counties, Columbia Energy's 1,500-square-mile Wi-Fi hot spot is bigger than the state of Rhode Island.
That's bigger than the proposed Philadelphia-wide one that's currently garnering all the attention. Downside? "The cost of the service ranges from $39.95 per month for 256 kilobits per second to $259.95 per month for 1.5 megabits per second." Yeow! I pay less than $50 for 1.5 via DSL. But, to places with nothing, the entry level account is an OK deal. It's biggest strength is that apparently the whole system is regular WiFi, and doesn't use a backhaul technology to shoot signals to an antennae on your house or business... you can pick it up in your car on the highway, apparently. So that convenience is worth of a few extra bucks.
"With the old Internet, it was almost faster to drive to the (farm supplies) auction,"
Posted in: Technology
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Image formats: GIF vs. PNG
jake on 2004.07.22 at 03:20 pm
Now that the patent for the GIF image format has expired internationally GD, a popular image image processor, has added support back in.
This is all important around here because of the way images are submitted for your viewing pleasure. In the past we've had to make sure that they were jpgs, if they were gifs the script I have would not resize them correctly for the front page. Now I can rewrite it to handle pngs and gifs and hopefully everything will be happy and wonderful.
There is a debate on Slashdot because of this where a lot of people keep saying the same thing, png's are better than gif's for animation. Regardless it got me thinking because one of the comments pointed out pngout by Ken Silverman. Apparently since I'm currently stuck with an older version of Photoshop at work I can't compress pngs correctly. pngout would have solved that problem for me. pngout shrunk the size of that little guy on the left by about half. And it was already a very small file. He's what I use as my icon/avatar on a few sites. To learn more about pngout and how Photoshop used to stink at compressing the files you can read these articles:So now I know that after all this time I had a solution under my nose and I didn't implement it. How irritating. Of course there's plenty of other things around here that I've been interested in adding that are in the to-do list and won't see the light of day in the near future.
Posted in: Technology · Web
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KHR-1 Robot Kit
jake on 2004.07.07 at 02:29 pm
Gizmodo has really picked up a gem. The KHR-1 Robot Kit (BabelFish Translation) is a steal compared to Asimo at a little under $1300 bucks. I wish I had all that money in my couch cushions. The little guy can do a bunch of stuff, like kick, walk, pick himself up off the ground and even pose for the camera. Check out the video while you're there to see what I mean.Posted in: Technology
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Virus Proof This
brian on 2004.06.13 at 06:03 pm
Reading articles like "Virus Proof Your PC in 20 Minutes." makes me awfully happy not to have all those security concerns. That's twenty minutes and a lifetime of headaches I'm happy to live without. Sometimes Mac users forget how good we have it.
Posted in: Technology
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Talk Energy
brian on 2004.06.03 at 10:30 am
There's a new site for community discussions of renewable energy, called Talk Energy. I visited their site, and was excited about the content, but saddened there was no RSS feed.
Ask and you shall receive. I sent an email of feedback requesting the feature, pointed out its benefits, and just this morning did I get a reply that they had initiated the RSS feed. Thanks, guys. However, just like Slashdot, there's no content in the feeds, which is a real rip. I hope they see the light and go the whole 9 yards with it.
Update: They're still working to improve the feed! WooHoo! Suggestions welcome.
Posted in: Technology
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Nutshell: What's wrong with America
brian on 2004.05.24 at 12:53 pm
There's a lot right with America, but here's a quote that sums up a lot of what is wrong...
"The days of engineering-led technology companies are coming to an end," Mr. Dell declared. (NYT via /.)
So many people don't want to really do anything themselves. They don't want to create, they just want to capitalize. Make money off of pimping, basically. Its in hip-hop music. It's in corporate America. And both gangsta' rap and Dell are enormously successfully and popular, both basically pretending and profiting.
I'm all for making distribution more efficient (Dell reference, obviously, not the RIAA!) but hard work got America where it is, and coasting on image and pretense will undo that post-haste.
Posted in: Technology
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Epson builds 40" OLED Television
jake on 2004.05.19 at 10:07 am
Maybe I should make a category just for stuff about OLEDs. Epson demoes a 40" display, the largest thus far. Originally I read that the process for producing an OLED display was not as complecx as a LCD, clean rooms are less necessary. So the price would be less, but now they're saying it'll be comperable to an LCD. Great, the one thing I wish I could have is better, in theory, to current technology, but still costs $10,000 at Best Buy. Ugh.From: Gizmodo
Update: Right after I finished this I noticed Engadget also had a post about this TV. It also includes a couple more links to information.
Posted in: Technology · Television
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OLED display at NextFest
jake on 2004.05.18 at 10:17 am
I've posted a bunch of times about OLEDs in the past. Coming up next is Wired's NextFest where Universal Display Corporation will be showcasing some applications of the technology. I really wish this stuff was mainstream already.
From: Engadget
Posted in: Technology
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Interview with spokesman of G4 tv about merger
jake on 2004.04.14 at 10:21 pm
This pretty much solidifies my fears about the merger. David Shane spends most of the interview proclaiming the greatness of G4 and how the new merged channel will revolve around video games. My brothers agree with me that G4 is pretty crappy channel. Last time I watched it there was a couple decent shows and a bunch of hosts who looked like they walked in off the street. And while I enjoy X-Play on TechTV, devoting a whole channel to games and reducing the general technology shows is a bad idea. If things go down the way this guy is talking, they might lose one of their "44 million" viewers.
I hope I'm wrong and the channel takes the best of both and creates something new and great. This geek is keeping his fingers crossed.
Posted in: Technology · Television
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Good News in Small Packages
brian on 2004.02.27 at 01:22 am
Lest you think I only complain about how bad things are in American politics, here's a more uplifting note. Scientists, regular people, even small children around the world are creating solutions to age old issues (irrigation and water purification, for example) with smaller, low-tech inventions. Best off all they're cheaper and more efficient than those that came before, with less non desirable side effects. Check out "The Big Promise of the Small — small-scale technology for solving water shortage problems".
Posted in: Technology
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Related Wired article to last post
jake on 2004.02.12 at 09:40 am
I get Wired Magazine every month, and they actually did a cover story on this topic in the February issue. The article makes some good points about how while IT outsourcing isn't necessarily a good thing, we are definitely whining about it a lot.
Isn't the emergence of a vibrant middle class in an otherwise poor country a spectacular achievement, the very confirmation of the wonders of globalization - not to mention a new market for American goods and services? And if this transition pinches a little, aren't Americans being a tad hypocritical by whining about it? After all, where is it written that IT jobs somehow belong to Americans - and that any non-American who does such work is stealing the job from its rightful owner?
And this other point keeps me in the grey area of the whole situation. I'd probably be sitting on the fence less if I was out of a job because of outsourcing but I do believe it can have its place.
Today, even innovative firms spend too much money maintaining products: fixing bugs and rolling out nearly identical 2.0 versions. Less than 30 percent of R&D spending at mature software firms goes to true innovation, according to the consulting firm Tech Strategy Partners. Send the maintenance to India and, even after costs, 20 percent of the budget is freed up to come up with the next breakthrough app. The result: more workers focused on real innovation. What comes after services? Creativity.
Posted in: Technology
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Cringely On Overseas Tech Outsourcing
brian on 2004.02.11 at 08:48 pm
Cringely hits it on the head with this week's column.
Posted in: Technology
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Digital Sundials International
jake on 2003.12.02 at 04:27 pm
Also Boing Boing pointed me toward this little gem this morning. A Digital Sundial. It uses two masks to display digits. It's also completely passive.
Posted in: Technology
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Tech That Should Die?
brian on 2003.09.30 at 05:06 pm
In the MIT Technology Review, Bruce Sterling takes ten technologies to task, and sentences them to death. Some of them are pure genius, but I'm not so sure he had his head on straight when he says "Newfangled electronic-parole monitors and ubiquitous computing offer plenty of opportunities." Well, that's nice but no GPS-equipped anklet is going to stop someone from assaulting or robbing another human being. In fact, this might not even be proper punishment for white collar crime.
Posted in: Technology
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Seattle Wireless TV
brian on 2003.08.24 at 08:27 pm
This is what makes the web amazing. These guys at Seattle Wireless produce their own TV show for viewing on the web. Really well made. However, downloading the MPEG at 182mb is a little ridiculous. I watched the Real Player stream instead. Although the quality suffered because of it, it was good enough for me. The other option was WiMP. Kudos to these guys. Well done. Go watch the 15 minute episode!
Posted in: Technology · Web
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Texas Cleaning Up its Act?
brian on 2003.08.18 at 10:52 am
It seems Texas, traditionally home to oil-barons and the country's most polluted city (Houston) may be cleaning up its act. It seems the state has snuck to #2 in the country in production of wind-generated power. Wired has the shocking details.
Posted in: Technology
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Freelance Honesty
brian on 2003.07.25 at 11:31 pm
I like everything about this article.
It is basically an outline of how tech support generally sucks, but that can be overcome for fun and profit, for the benefit small, underserved businesses. And they'll get a fair shake. And a talented person could work 20 hours a week and make a pretty good living.
Posted in: Technology
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Cantenna Cantina
brian on 2003.07.25 at 11:18 pm
Cantenna WiFi booster: takes the Pringles can concept to a new, premade yet affordable level. Good for them.
Posted in: Technology
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Side of fries, and diesel.
brian on 2003.07.25 at 11:16 pm
Wired carries a story on the use of used fryer oil as vehicle fuel. I've followed the development of biodiesel, but was unaware of the use of (more or less) unrefined fryer oil as fuel.
Ignore the fact that veggie fuel is cleaner for the environment, and would reduce our non-strategic dependance on foreign oil. There is hope that this would actually be much less expensive than fossil fuels. And we all know that this is the only thing that ever promotes change.
Posted in: Technology
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Random Bits
brian on 2003.07.10 at 09:37 pm
Apologies in advance for the recent lapse of posts from me. Busy week or so. First off, this is my first post from my new 12" Apple PowerBook. It's quite the machine. In other news, the other end of my local connection, and AirPort Base Station (wireless router) now (finally) terminates in a DSL modem. Speakeasy has been good thus far.
One of the first things I watched with my new high speed (although, not officially "broadband" which 1 Megabit and higher, I get around half that) connection was a sequel to the classic "Napster Bad" animation, "Sue All the World." Not quite as good as the original, but what else is new. It's funny.
Lastly, a new must have gizmo: Kensington WiFi Finder.
Posted in: Technology
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Double sided OLED phone?
jake on 2003.07.04 at 11:04 pm
Japanese company ELDis has produced a cell phone with an OLED display on both the inside and the outside. I have to agree with Gizmodo, I'd like to see more OLED displays in general. This seems more like a gimmick.
The Straits Times [from Gizmodo]
Posted in: Technology
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Adventures in Broadband
brian on 2003.07.01 at 06:07 pm
Yesterday, I joined the present and ordered a DSL connection for my apartment. I had held off for financial reasons: in our household (two people) we had one full-time student, and one half income. Now we have one full-time income, and one almost half income, that stands to leapfrog the other's full-time income shortly. Broadband is expensive. In general, the slowest residential connection will set you back $50 per month, plus taxes. Verizon is offering a $34.95 per month deal, but it's terribly hard for me to decipher what I have to do to get that, and if it stays at that rate.
At the moment we have contracts with Verizon for our local landline telephone and our wireless phones. We have long distance through some other company who I can't name, because they signed Amanda up over the phone. We have no contract, but service with Comcast for very basic cable television. It ain't much, but we're ecstatic that it's under $10 a month. I said basic. Bottomline is that none of these companies could break the $50 a month barrier, even in a package deal with our existing packages. Verizon claims to, but they would want to have us pickup a long distance plan as well, but we don't use landline long distance: their wireless division handles all the distance we need. What we'd add in per month extras to the long distance would essentially cover what they were going to knockoff in DSL charges.
Anyone who knows me knows I prefer smaller, more customer-centric companies. So I went looking for one in the broadband market. The first one I encountered was RCN. We tried to sign up with them the day we moved to Brookline. Seeing their manholes on either side of our apartment lead us to believe this would be easy. Not so. After having their helpful agent enquire, we found they service all of our neighboring buildings, just not ours. However, they were looking to continue construction of their network that coming spring, and might hook our building up then. That spring came, went, without any RCN trucks on my street. One unanswered email to their company later, I left them for dead. A shame, considering their local telephone/ digital cable / broadband package looks to be the best deal I've seen anywhere. Talking to local customers with them confirmed those suspicions. So I moved on.
Further research lead me to the independent DSL ISP "Speakeasy." I had heard mumblings about their "legendary" customer support around the web, so I investigated their service. Well, it's seemingly no bargain, at $49.99 a month for 608 kbps down, 128 kbps up. That's basically the same as everyone else. The difference, comes in the people running the company. They support Mac and Linux, and when you call, reports have it they are actually helpful. When you sign up, they don't even ask you what OS you're running. They don't care. How refreshing.
Should service be needed, you get live, online tracking of its progress. Right now, I'm tracking the progress of my connection set up. I called to sign up last night, at 8pm, and at 3pm today I received an automated email that said at noon their vendor had set up the date to hook me into the central office, which will be July 7th. That seems to to be a ways a way, but I appreciate the up-to-the-minute status reports, which I can log into my account page and see in even more technical detail. I also received my IP addresses. Did I mention static IPs? That's terribly unusual. And a good thing: they're cool with you running servers!
What's more, they are pro-WiFi. Yes, use wireless, and they think it's a good thing. Want to share with your neighbors? Go right ahead! You can start your own WiFi ISP, they call it NetShare. You get to choose what to charge your neighbors, Speakeasy takes care of their billing, and sets up email accounts, web space and other services for them. Of course, Speakeasy pockets 50% of your customer's bill, and you have to buy the WiFi equipment yourself, maintain it, and provide up-and-running tech support to your neighbors, but that other 50% goes towards your monthly bill.
So now I have a week to see if I can find someone to sign up for their NetShare plan. I already own the WiFi gear, so why not try to make some money back? If I get enough interested souls, I might even be able to jump up a level in speed. They offer DSL at up to 3Mbps down/ 768 kbps up! I can't afford it, but if I have enough help... And if you're reading this from near the intersection of St. Paul and Parkman streets in Brookline, email me now! I'm not looking to run at a profit, so the more people I find, the less we all pay. By the way, if you think you might check out Speakeasy after reading this, please do so through the Speakeasy links I've provided here. I'll get $25 credit if you sign up as a residential customer, $50 if you're a business. Just stay a customer for 7 days, so the credit will go through (you have 25 days to back out, if you don't like their service). Thanks!
Posted in: Technology · Web
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Nationwide WiFi: Free.
brian on 2003.06.24 at 11:30 pm
Nationwide WiFi for free... if you live on the South Pacific island of Niue. The Polynesian island has led the way in internet technology for its 2,000 citizens by roling out free email since 1997, free connectivity since 1999, and now island-wide WiFi.
The nation fund this development and costly satellite driven internet from the proceeds from selling the registration for the nation's .NU top-level domain.
Posted in: Technology · Web
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New DVDs all wet
jake on 2003.06.11 at 11:02 am
Because of a problem with heat cracking the conventional blue lasers used for next generation DVDs a new method using water has been developed. This should reduce costs, which have been high during early production development.
Liquids, however, don't crack. Enter the world's first water-based blue laser. Researchers at BlackLight Power heated water vapor with microwaves to generate energized hydrogen atoms which emit multispectrum light rays, including infrared, blue and violet. A prototype blue laser device is expected by the end of the year.
Posted in: Technology
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AOL and Microsoft kiss and make up
brian on 2003.05.31 at 10:22 pm
So people are grumbling (and rightfully so) about the AOL/ Microsoft settlement. If you missed it, the settlement includes a free seven year license for the use of Internet Explorer. Now why would the owner of Netscape want an inferior browser? This stinks to high holy heaven. Also included: licensing of Windows Media Player 9. Joy.
The above article is an interesting look into some involved that I actually care about: the guys (and gals, I suppose) of the Mozilla Project. Let's hope they weren't just a pawn in this whole deal
Posted in: Technology
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Lessig on OpenEducation
brian on 2003.05.30 at 12:32 pm
Lawrence Lessig has an interview with Open Education available online here. I've been reading more and more Lessig of late. An interesting twist on his normal crusade to prevent the corporate control of everything technological is its effects on the education community. Recent events like the launch of MIT's OpenCourseware must give pause to the industry since text book profits make up 75% of book publishing profits, according to some reports. Publishers love captive audiences (to gouge).
Posted in: Technology
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20,000 x $1 books
brian on 2003.05.26 at 11:42 pm
The bookmobile will make you a one dollar book while you wait. 20,000 books in the public domain availible now, millions more await scanning.
Posted in: Technology
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Verizon to put WiFi on the street?
brian on 2003.05.12 at 11:41 am
According to a Yahoo News (Reuters) article, Verizon is investigating the placement of WiFi hot-spots in public pay phones for use by their subscribed broadband customers on the go. Pay phones have been somewhat obsolesced by the cellular phone, but this is an interesting idea of how a phone company could revive worth from their installed base of eqipment. Additionally, the story speculates that Verizon may not charge extra for the service, rather using it to increase their broadband product's value.
Posted in: Technology
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Finding Nemo
jake on 2003.05.09 at 10:24 am
Inside Computer Graphics linked to this very interesting article about the new Pixar movie Finding Nemo and the technology involved in making it. It is apparently the cover story to the May issue of the magazine.
The article discusses some of the creative aspects of the film. Such as having a 25-gallon fish tank with tropical fish nearby during production.
It also goes into depth about the technical process and some of the new software and tweaking the developers did during production.
[Oren] Jacob and his team first needed to create a suite of tools in the water arena. The most complex was the 3D water simulator, which allows water to interact with itself, such as when it crashes or crests, and also creates the necessary viscosity. "[For this], we expanded and modified Fizt, the fur and cloth simulator used on Monsters, Inc.," Jacob says. Martin Nugyn, John Anderson, David Baraff, Andy Witkin, and Apurva Shah were instrumental in writing the suite of tools for the 3D water simulation.
I cannot wait for this movie to come out in a few weeks. It's even more complex than Monsters Inc. was.
Posted in: Technology
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WorkFi
brian on 2003.04.15 at 12:29 am
Wired again with the WiFi. This time its about how it can change the way we work.
Posted in: Technology
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Various info. from Robodex 2003
jake on 2003.04.07 at 03:12 pm
Neowin has a post the guides you to an article on the BBC web site.
The show brings together more than 90 different types of robot from 38 companies, colleges and other organisations, up from last year's 72 bots.
And over at I4U there are a whole boat load of pictures for you to sift through. All of the pages they direct you to are in Japanese. But the pictures are what you're interested in so it doesn't matter.
Posted in: Technology
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"All your base..." terrorist threat?
jake on 2003.04.04 at 03:12 pm
Boing Boing pointed out an article at the Sturgis Journal where a bunch of kids were arrested for terrorist acts.
Sturgis police arrested seven Sturgis men for placing more than 20 threatening letters on various businesses, schools, banks and at the post office. At least 12 signs were posted Monday morning. Another 20 were put up Tuesday evening, according to Sturgis police.
The prank was for April Fools and involved signs referencing the "All your base are belong to us" geek joke.
The "All your base are belong to us" are lines said by Cats, a bad guy in a 1989 Japanese video game. The poor translation to English led to its use by many involved in the video game culture.
If you'd like to inform yourself, check out the links below.
Official Video Site
AllYourBase.netPosted in: Technology
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More info on OLED - "The future's bright--the future's OLED."
jake on 2003.04.04 at 02:22 pm
Good 'ol Gizmodo provided a link to the Australian version of ZDNet. More importantly, to an article about OLEDs. Now that a couple products (Kodak Camera) are coming around we can finally see some of the benefits this technology has to offer.My favorite, besides the obvious less costly flat displays, is power consumption. I can't wait till they start mass producing these things. Too bad I have to.
Posted in: Technology
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Mac based spin offs
brian on 2003.04.02 at 07:07 pm
Two links of note today from the Mac world:
From the more professional side, a man in Minnesota is going into business making Macs. He calls his the iBox.
On the hacker side of things, wondering what to do with left-over external floppy drives? Well if you have Mac OS X, you can configure them in a RAID! This guy has. He also is working on one using Sony Memory Stick readers (same page, bottom).
Posted in: Technology
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50 Best Pocket-sized Gadgets for 2003
jake on 2003.03.31 at 11:45 am
The Independent has a listing of the 50 best pocket gadgets. I only have one critique on this article. There are no pictures of anything. So you have to visit the web site of the maker and try and find the described product (which is even harder on some products, where there is no link, and impossible with others, when the product is not listed at all on the maker's web site.) Also, some of these products are specific to the UK, so finding them is difficult in general if you're looking at a web site for a global company.
(from Gizmodo)
Posted in: Technology
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Assorted Tidbits
brian on 2003.03.28 at 10:16 pm
The documentary film Revolution OS was released Friday on DVD.
The maker self-financed the film and worked for years without a salary.
In the spirit of open source, the DVD was released without CSS, the content scrambling system used on most commercial DVDs.
In other news, a very long interview (discussion perhaps) on Daring Fireball with Brent Simmons, creator of NetNewsWire, and proprietor of Ranchero Software.
Elsewhere, Soybo released an incredible piece of software that I cannot eloquently describe, but Steven Frank from Panic, Inc. can. But in short, it's a web interface to any program on your desktop machine, via web service. That's really quite phenomenal, if you think about it.
Steven is also working on a project called green. Which means one day you may be able to have the quality of a five-year old, discontinued innovator of portable computing in your modern PDA, which has yet to surpass it. Don't believe me? Can your PDA do this?
Posted in: Technology
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More robot stuff
jake on 2003.03.28 at 04:02 pm
I noticed at I4U there is a Fujitsu humanoid robot. In the "research" stage he's not much to look at compared to Sony's and Honda's offerings...
Also Wired is reporting that Sony is worried about how the heck their gonna get their cute little guy into your home. They still cost a lot and are based in entertainment. As opposed to Asimo, who helps around the house.
Posted in: Technology
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Batteries powered by alcohol
jake on 2003.03.25 at 01:34 pm
Over at Boing Boing I found an article that discusses ethanol fuel cells.
... Ethanol is abundant and cheap to make, relying on the well-established corn industry for its production. It is also far less volatile than hydrogen, which has seen a great deal of interest as a potential alternative fuel for automobiles.
This could be a very nice alternative to the more popular methanol fuel cells.
Minteer and her colleagues are focusing on small-scale applications, with the preliminary fuel cells being no bigger than five square centimeters — about the size of a postage stamp. "We've tested probably 30 to 50 of the ethanol cells," Minteer says. They have successfully run their cells with vodka, gin, white wine and flat beer ("The fuel cell didn't like the carbonation," Minteer says).
Posted in: Technology
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Cell phones and fires
jake on 2003.03.25 at 01:17 pm
Thank God! I can still use my cell phone while filling up my gas tank. I get soooo bored standing around for those five minutes.
Wired is reporting that the email that's been making the rounds for a while about cell phones causing bodily harm is an urban legend.
"It is in fact an urban legend," Larson said. "We have not come across a legitimate news source that has reported that gasoline or gas fumes are being ignited by a mobile phone."
I really enjoyed this statement. It just shows how little silly we can be when it comes to fear and understanding technology...
"Likewise, the claim that a 'cellular-phone ringer uses more than 100 volts for excitation' is a curious artifact of the regular telephone era: Cellular phones don't have ringers. They produce audio tones that simulate the sound of a ringing telephone."
found at Gizmodo
Posted in: Technology · Service Announcement
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Holoscreen for use in store windows.
jake on 2003.03.24 at 01:22 pm
An article from the Canadien branch of the Discovery Channel speaks of a screen used to display an image from a projector.
A projector inside the store projects an image from a DVD player onto a mirror, which then reflects onto the piece of glass in the storefront window.
But how does the picture "stick" to the glass? Well, there's a thin film glued to the back of the glass, which is six nanometers thick - that's about half as thick as a human hair. Embedded in this film are millions of tiny prisms. These prisms refract the light from the projector and send it outward for pedestrians on the street to see.
A neat idea, but probably only will be implemented in high end shops. A Hugo Boss store is the placement from the article. Not exactly an everyday store.
Posted in: Technology
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Sony updates their humanoid robot.
jake on 2003.03.24 at 11:38 am
Not to be outdone by Honda's Asimo. Sony will be unveiling a new version of their humanoid robot. It is called the SDR-4X II. It will be shown at Robodex 2003, this event takes place between April 3rd to April 6th.
Japanese Press Release (Babelfish translation)
Posted in: Technology
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High tech nausea stopper
jake on 2003.03.21 at 03:29 pm
I think I'm ready to try Dueling Dragons again.
CNN.com has a review of a new way to combat motion sickness.
Though the trip ends up being about as exciting as watching a fishbowl (we saw just one tail and endured four hours of chilly sea spray), I'm pleased to know I can go thrill-seeking without losing my lunch.
Next stop: the Matterhorn.
The product is called the Relief Band and can supposedly stop many times of nausea. I might have to get one of these someday if it really works. As I get older, I find myself more susceptible to motion sickness. Guess that's what I get for making fun of my mom for all those years about her weak stomach. It is a bit expensive to buy on a whim.
Posted in: Technology · Medicine
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Amtrak + WiFi
brian on 2003.03.21 at 12:48 pm
I suppose you'd have to consider me a geek. Today, I wrote Amtrak south to Connecticut. What was my first thought after I sat down in my seat? Well, to "war-train" of course. What the hell is that? Simple. If "war-driving" is using a stumbling device to find WiFi hotspots while driving, then I would do the same with my iBook and "MacStumbler." So far, I've found a number of networks. Unfortunately, the train moves much too fast to actually use any of them (if it didn't, I'd never get to Connecticut). There were rumors about Amtrak adopting WiFi somehow, as a service to their passengers, but I can confirm that that service is not yet available
I can confirm, however, that way too many people don't creatively name their access point. My log is full of "linksys" and "default." Tis all for now from the rail. (PS- I actually posted this from X. It's not like I posted it from the rail, per se. Though, I did actually type it there.) (PPS- If I had a cell provider that offered GPRS data service, I could have had internet connectivity via that and a bluetooth phone. Unfortunately, my provider is way too slow to catch on, and I'm stuck in a contract.)
Posted in: Technology
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3D Game Boy Advance Engines
jake on 2003.03.20 at 04:40 pm
What crazy things will they think up next?!? I read over at gamesindustry.biz that there are a couple engines that can push 3D on the GBA.
Posted in: Technology
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Apple Welcomes Gore
brian on 2003.03.19 at 08:57 pm
I would like to take a moment to welcome the newest member of Apple's Board of Directors, Fmr. Vice President of the United States, Mr. Albert Gore. MacCentral has more. Perhaps this will lead to more government contracts?
Posted in: Technology · Politics
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MySQL making money
brian on 2003.03.16 at 08:51 pm
Perhaps you knew that MySQL is a free, open source database. But did you know that it is made by a Swedish, for-profit company? Interesting, yes, but how's this: they're making money off of it, too. CNN has a story on how their free product is both a) taking market share from the big boys, and b) making the company profitable. Like the TIAA-CREF billboards say in Boston, "Money isn't evil. It just needs proper guidance." FYI, MySQL guides this very weblog.
Posted in: Technology · Software
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Sub-Urban Renewal
jake on 2003.03.14 at 04:10 pm
Wired has posted some of the stories from their April issue. "Sub-Urban Renewal" discusses using the huge tracks of land below the surface. Many different points are touched on in the article.
Among the first wave of tunneling projects under way are subway extensions, highway re-siting projects, and petrochemical repositories. These will pave the way to further standardization and automation needed for transnational, Chunnel-type digs. The East - which has never been shy about big engineering - will likely plow down first, linking Japan and Korea, China and Japan, and Taiwan and China. The West might follow by tunneling under the Gibraltar and Bering straits.
The last stop on this train is the ultimate TBM megaproject: a supersonic world subway. Maglev trains running through depressurized tunnels are the logical successor to airplanes, at least between large cities. Magnetic levitation would eliminate rolling resistance, and the vacuum does the same to air resistance. The trains could "fly" down the tracks at many times the speed of the Concorde - without creating a sonic boom. In a couple of decades, we may see a world where major international cities are within a few hours' commute of each other.
I don't know that I would enjoy living underground. But something like a mall, or a stadium could be nice to visit. And underground travel like referenced above would be an interesting alternative to flying.
Posted in: Technology
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Wi-Fi Memory Stick
jake on 2003.03.13 at 04:27 pm
I really have no personal use for this technology. But that doesn't mean that it's not a nifty application of technology. brighthand has a post about a new Wi-Fi card that fits into the memory slot on certain incarnations of Sony PDA's.
Posted in: Technology
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Local Free WiFi in Wired News
brian on 2003.03.12 at 02:09 pm
Wired News is reporting on a local Free WiFi project here in Boston, namely the Newbury Open Net. NON is run by Tech Superpowers, a local Apple Specialist and all-around cool tech outfit.
Additionally, that lead me back to the NON site, which I hadn't visited in a while, where I had found they added a bulletin board for WiFi info. Worth the trip.
Posted in: Technology
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Links for today
brian on 2003.03.11 at 05:07 pm
We have the exact type of guy like Steve within Sony. His name is Ken Kutaragi. They respect each other. So maybe if we can get them both together then they could figure out how the PlayStation and the Mac can work together.
Elsewhere, XvsXP.com
X v XP for the creative pro. Seems pretty balanced. The lone forum post I read was a throwback to the "evanglelist" days of system flamewars which have mostly fanned out. Of course, it's hard to dispute the facts.
Posted in: Technology · Software
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Twins develop 3D face scan
jake on 2003.03.11 at 04:36 pm
Israeli twins Michael and Alex Bronstein have developed a three-dimensional scanning system that can even tell the difference between them.
The technology scans and maps the human face as a three-dimensional surface, providing a far more accurate reference for identifying a person than current systems, most of which rely on two-dimensional images, Kimmel said.
This has applications relevent to security at airports and the like. But it can still be fooled by things like shaving or growing a beard. Perhaps if it is looking for someone in particular, they could lower the variables for a match. Bring a close match off for questioning, and further examination.
Posted in: Technology
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Wide spread WiFi
brian on 2003.03.06 at 08:24 pm
Yeah, I post a lot on WiFi. I like WiFi. Anyhow, here's a very interesting overview of the "WiFi market" as it is shaping up in public spaces like coffee shops, airports and hotels. The pricing structure still irks me, although I myself have not really figured out a better alternative.
Posted in: Technology
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Just what we need... a hybrid SUV.
jake on 2003.03.06 at 03:52 pm
Ford has d
