Blog Posts

April 2006

• 2006-04-01

  “We make it up in volume”

  There’s a new meme floating around, “Freemium“, a cute/clever word for a kind of business model. Giving it away free.

  Say what?

  You may know that I am associated with a software product which is given away free. BlogBridge is a substantial, useful, real product, which for some crazy reason, we give away free. Everyone wants to know, “What’s your business model”? So now I have a cool/web2.0 response: “Freemium.”

  Many people have written about this new term, even though as far as I can tell it was coined...

  Read more →

  #business

March 2006

• 2006-03-30

  RSS Alley Geek Dinner II – A great time was had by all!

  Last night’s event was a lot of fun. A ton of energy in the room, people huddling around comparing notes, even doing some demos. The place was nice and loud (good) and packed (also good!)

  Thanks again to the co-organizers, Bela Labovitch, Adam Green. Also to the folks at Top Ten Sources and RSS Labs for sharing their wonderful space with us.

  If you missed this one, don’t fret. We’ll be organizing the next one soon, somewhere around the beginning of June.

  Technorati Tags: geekdinner, RSSAlley

• 2006-03-30

  Amazing(ly unpleasant) story about a car

  My friend Francois posts a horrifying real-life story about him and his Mercedes Benz. It makes a compelling read, kind of like watching a train wreck is compelling.

  “My final analysis? No wonder Mercedes has tumbled to 21st in the most recent JD Power Satisfaction Survey. It is mind boggling (instructive too) to witness and experience how such a prestigious brand has fallen so far so fast. And while I’ve learned something, believe me that it’s been no fun being on the receiving end of this knowledge.” (from “...

  Read more →
• 2006-03-27

  [GEEK] Interesting OS X article

  Ever wonder how Mac’s OS X program launch and execution works? No? Hmm.

  Anyway, here’s a fascinating article telling you more than you ever thought you wanted to know!

  “As you can see, executing a process in OS X is a complex affair, and I have tried to cover as much as is necessary for a useful debugging session.” (from “How OS X Executes Applications”)

  🙂

  Technorati Tags: osx

  #apple
• 2006-03-26

  Open Source: the space between Corporation and Commune?

  In The Economist, there’s an interesting overview of Open Source, what it is, strengths, weaknesses, and what’s in store for it. It introduces the catchy metaphor (or is it simile) “… occupying the space between a Corporation and a Commune:

  “Even if the cracks in the management of open source can be plugged by some fairly straightforward organisational controls, might it nevertheless remain only a niche activity—occupying, essentially, the space between a corporation and a commune?” (from “The Economist“)

  Read the whole thing, it’s interesting.

  Technorati Tags: opensource

• 2006-03-25

  Britannica vs. Wikipedia

  I’m a big fan of Wikipedia, and of course traditionally (like anyone) have been an admirer of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

  Recently the highly respected magazine Nature published an article describing a study in which they compared the two and found only slightly fewer inaccuracies in Wikipedia than in Britannica.

  “The exercise revealed numerous errors in both encyclopaedias, but among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not particularly great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained around four inaccuracies; Britannica, about three.” (from “...

  Read more →

  #wikipedia
• 2006-03-23

  Cheney watches Fox and Only Fox

  This is just silly-funny. Here are whatour VP expects to have in Hotel suites (known, aparently, as “downtime suites”)

  “And, of course, all the televisions need to be preset to the Fox News Channel (what, you thought he was a Lifetime devotee?).” (from Smoking Gun)

  Read the whole thing, it’s kinda funny.

  #politics
• 2006-03-23

  Office Live: Why am I not surprised?

  Have you heard how Microsoft is shipping Windows Live and Office Live and this-live and that-live? I’ve seen this movie before and I have to say that I am skeptical. A competitor starts getting successful with a line that Microsoft doesn’t own and out comes the “me-too-FUD” based on smoke and mirrors.

  After all, Office has had ActiveX controls forever, and I would just not be too surprised if Office Live is just a re-assembly of some cool parts that they had lying around with a really great marketing push. Color me skeptical. Or cynical.

  Anyway, this bit seems to be more or less consistent...

  Read more →
• 2006-03-22

  If you love words you’ll love this

  All the words of the english language, ordered by frequency, coupled with some really nifty graphic design and ajaxian coding. Enjoy!

  This is the work of Jonathan Harris. Here are some of his other projects. Quite cool!

  Correction: In fact as several readers have said, this site is not Ajax, it’s Flash! Which again proves why everyone’s obsession with Ajax is almost as bad as their our obsession with Web 2.0

  Technorati Tags: ajax, graphicdesign

  #design
• 2006-03-16

  American Idol fans with Tivo

  Tivo has been doing more and more cool things with their little box.

  See, it’s actually a Linux computer, with a 80Gig hard disk and a broadband connection to the internet, plus a big screen TV attached to it. Think of the possibilities 🙂

  Latest thing I just read about is that you can use your Tivo remote to enter your prediction of who’s going to be kicked off the American Idol Island next.

  Interactive TV is finally here 😉 Check it out!

  Technorati Tags: americanidol, tivo

• 2006-03-16

  When your manager says he doesn’t see you working hard enough

  Here’s a clever retort that I heard from a colleague today:

  “When you think I’m working, I’m not working, and

  when you think I’m not working, I’m working!”

  😉

  Technorati Tags: management

• 2006-03-16

  Don’t you just hate the term Web 2.0?

  Actually, I don’t hate it. It’s not clear exactly what it means, but it means something. Is it Ajax, Web services, REST, RSS, OPML, XML? Who knows?

  But more interesting, check out this amazing list of products that one way or another are connected to Web 2.0.

  Everything Web 2.0

  Technorati Tags: web2.0

• 2006-03-14

  Very interesting discussion of an OS X Trojan – how it works and doesn’t

  Via MetaFilter: “Barbarians are at the gates, testing the locks, again.”

  As I’ve commented before, Mac OS X users are (appropriately) smug about the absence of viruses on that platform. Some say it’s only a matter of time.

  Here are the interesting technical details of one recent attempt.

  Technorati Tags: osx

  #apple
• 2006-03-12

  Web 2.0 Calendars?

  Mike Arrington waxes poetic about 30 Boxes, an entry in the, apparently, red-hot online calendar space.

  I’m not sure I get it.

  It seems to me that working even when off-line, even when away from my computer, would be top requirements for any calendar product. In other words, a downloadable application (Outlook anyone? iCal? Blackberry?)

  I’d be worried if I could only access my calendar on live web connection.

  Sure, GMail is hugely popular, and you could make that same argument there. But GMail lets me synch with...

  Read more →
• 2006-03-10

  RSS Alley Geek Dinner: March 29th – 6:30pm – Harvard Square? Should be even more fun than the last one!

  Hello sports fans. We are having another super-informal-geeky-but-not-exclusively-geeks geek dinner, this time using the well-known PaB/Free Pattern.

  Who is we, again? Bela Labovitch, Adam Green and me. We are fortunate that the folks at Top Ten Sources and RSS Labs are again letting use their space. Thanks!

  What happens at this thing? Well this is the second one that we are organizing. Basically we just hang out, casually munch on cheap food and compare notes on stuff that people are working on.

  Everyone is welcome, and people who came last time: invite...

  Read more →
• 2006-03-09

  Check out Doc Searls Suitwatch newsletter

  There are a few really good newsletters that have not moved over to a blog which I read religiously. One of them is Doc Searls‘ Suitwatch. Doc writes a fairly long essay approximately monthly. It’s always interesting and well written. Here’s how his most recent episode, about CES in Las Vegas, begins:

  “What could be more ridiculous than a city that wants to be like everywhere else? Venice, Paris, New York, Rome and Monte Carlo are all in Las Vegas, embodied as giant hotels, each as clichéd as a travel brochure. Nearly all the big theme hotels front The Strip, a wide paved line in a desert no...

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• 2006-03-06

  RSS is not a goal…

  glenn has been busy today. A series of very intriguing posts, all made today, a Sunday no less. I can remember when glenn insisted on keeping his Sunday’s clear of anything non-recreational. You should check out his blog, there’s lots of good stuff there.

  This one caught my eye – “RSS is not a goal” wherein I encountered this especially meaningful (to me) paragraph:

  “And in the meantime, if I were working on any kind of RSS/OPML-related application, I would take a day or two to stop and think about my goals, not in terms of today’s syntaxes but in terms of th...

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• 2006-03-06

  Mac OS X Hacked?

  This is only a little funny because Mac fans (and I am one of them) can be very smug about OS X security, saying things like: “There has been not a single case of a virus on Mac, ever.” Hard to prove or disprove but intuitively it’s kind of hard to believe.

  So when I saw commentary somewhere earlier today that Mac OS X was hacked in less than 30 minutes I hesitated to post about it, thinking that it was yet another urban legend.

  But now ZDNet has picked it up, and with raised eyebrows and a smile (or is it a smirk?) on my face, I share the link to an article I just saw:

  “Gaining root access to a Mac is “easy pickings,” according to an individual who won an OS X hacking cha...

  Read more →

  #apple
• 2006-03-04

  Pandora helps me discover Beth Nielsen Chapman

  I’ve experimented with all kinds of novel music related services and products.

  My favorite is Pandora. This is a a site that helps me discover new music that I like. It’s introduced me to several artists that I had never heard of before which are now favorites. In this case I am plugging Beth Nielsen Chapman. A wonderful singer songwriter, I think from Europe, that has the sound I really like. It’s quite wonderful to create a Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell or Bill Evans channel discover new artists.

  It’s great!

  By the way, also of interest are:

  Last.FM – An application that is supposed to do something simi...

  Read more →

  #music
• 2006-03-03

  Rim and NTP Settle Blackberry Dispute!

  From the Wall Street Journal: (subscription required)

  “Research In Motion Ltd. agreed to pay $612.5 million to settle its long-running legal dispute with patent firm NTP Inc., according to NTP lawyer Jim Wallace.”

  #legal #business