Blog Posts

October 2005

• 2005-10-25

  Pop!Tech Memes

  Pop!Tech 2005 was a great conference, again. I made notes only when something struck me as interesting or memorable or quotable, so this list of memes is very quirky just based on my in-the-moment reactions!

  “Barcode of Life” – Robert Hanner.My summary of this is that it is a specific gene sequence that can be found across a very wide spectrum of organisms, which has the characteristic that it is more or less the same in individuals from a single species and very different in individuals from different species. Such a sequence can be used to establish the borders between species. See ...

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  #science
• 2005-10-24

  It’s not all love and kisses

  We all love Wikipedia – I know I do. I’ve sung it’s praises to lots of people and have personally often looked stuff up in it and been satisfied. Still I can’t help but be impressed with an article I came across written by Robert McHenry former Editor in Chief of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

  He’s sick and tired of it and not going to take it any more:

  “The user who visits Wikipedia to learn about some subject, to confirm some matter of fact, is rather in the position of a visitor to a public restroom. It may be obviously dirty, so that he knows to exercise great care, or it may seem fairly clean, so that he may be lulled into a false sense of security. What h...

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  #blogging
• 2005-10-23

  Apple Video iPod Strategy

  For you Apple and iPod afficionados, here’s an interesting articleabout what Apple might be up to, tying together various tantalizing hints into a good story:

  “Apple’s a shrewd operator. First, its spreads misinformation from the top – like how Steve Jobs famously slagged off media centre PCs in a conference call with financial analysts last year. “We might as well make it a toaster too,” he said. “I want it to brown my bagels when I’m listening to my music,” he said at the time. “And we’re toying with refrigeration, too.” (from APCMag)

  #computing
• 2005-10-22

  More iPod stuff

  Continuing my iPod thoughts, today I read that a lawsuit has been broughtagainst Apple on the iPod nano screen scratching situation. So maybe there really is something going on. On my (recently dead) iPod, I did have plenty of mild scratching – I don’t know if the problem on the nano is any worse.

  I got to see one of the new Video iPods here at Pop!Tech. Another very impressive device from Apple. The screen is larger than you expect and the picture, watching a sitcom and listening to the audio over the ear buds, was remarkable!

  (BTW, in case you missed it, Walt Mossberg himself commentedon my postrecently about the iPod nano, clarifying that he didn’t write about it because of my post. Duh.)

  #computing
• 2005-10-19

  Pop!Tech starts tonight

  Pop!Tech is my favorite conference, and it starts tonight, in Camden Maine. I’ve been 4 or 5 times and have always thoroughly enjoyed it. It is being webcast live here, if you care to listen in.

  Technorati Tags: conference

  #politics
• 2005-10-18

  I am my own PR agency

  Over the last week or so I’ve been working around the clock preparing for BlogBridge’sappearance at the BlogOn 2005 conference in New York City.

  Contemplating this at the end of the first day, I have to say it’s been a blast although quite different from what I’ve done in the past.

  This morning, before 7:00am I left my hotel on 23d Street for the half hour walk to the Copacabana.

  In my backpack was a computer, power supply, 250 1 page “sales sheets” (color fliers) and a bunch of business cards. I was headed for a 2 day conference where BlogBridge is being highlighted as one of Chris Shipley’s BlogOn 2005 In...

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  #blogging
• 2005-10-13

  Stewart Alsop blogging!

  Stewart Alsop (the III’d I think), according to his own one-line bio is “venture capitalist and former journalist/pundit” and who I never before saw wearing a cowboy hat, is now blogging. I asked his permission to point my throng of readers to his blog, and it’s ok with him!

  Stewart is one of those guys that knows what’s happening in the technology world, so let’s give him a huge audience 🙂

  Technorati Tags: blog, stewartalsop

• 2005-10-12

  Amusing…

  File this one under stupid flash tricks. Neat.

  Technorati Tags: interesting

• 2005-10-07

  Follow-up on my iPod Rant

  After my rant a few days ago about the quality of new-fangled electronic gizmos I got various emails. Most interesting was this link to Walt Mossberg’s comments about the scratching of the iPod nano’s, where he says:

  “If I were reviewing the nano today, I would still call it “the best combination of beauty and functionality of any music player I’ve tested,” as I did in my review. But I would include a strong, prominent, warning that it scratches too easily in normal usage. This is a real downside to an otherwise excellent product.” (from ...

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  #computing
• 2005-10-04

  How long should a Treo 600 last? How about an IPod?

  A confluence of five events:

  My two year old Treo 600 stopped working: Despite my best efforts to revive it. Reboots, hard resets, new software – it was dropping calls all the time and had finally become unusable. Took it to the Sprint Store where their tech played with it for 1/2 hour and came to the conclusion that it was defective. As it was out of warrantee, my only option was to turn it back in to them for a $50 credit towards my next phone. There is no repair option. There is no authorized repair facility. This is a $400 device, 2 years old. Throw it out.

  My two year old iPod stopped working: Despite my best efforts to revive it. Reboots, hard resets, new software – more and ...

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  #computing
• 2005-10-04

  Scoble’s conundrum

  His conundrum is that he loves both Web services (browser based applications) and Windows applications and can’t seem to pick a one-size-fits-all preference. Apparently some of his readers noticed that and are calling him to task on it.

  “Some see my condundrum as being one brought upon by where I work. OK, it certainly is a possibility that I’m drinking the Redmond Koolaid,” (from Scobelizer)

  Read Scoble’s whole post, it has a very good perspective, and actually I totally agree with the dilemma. Maybe it’s not a dilemma at all. Maybe it’s not being religious and just picking the best tool for the job, balancing all fact...

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  #blogging
• 2005-10-02

  A big laugh

  Help me with my Instant Messaging shorthand…

  Is it :-)) or 😀 for a big laugh?

  And, anyway, is it 🙂 or 🙂

September 2005

• 2005-09-30

  [GEEKY] Ajax? Flash? Java? What’s the best way to create a rich browser based application?

  

  This is a perenial debate with lots of sides. Here’ s just some fodder for those of you who are pondering the question:

  I guess right off the bat I would exclude Java for a browser based application. Why? Unfortunately it requires a so-called JVM which may or may not be present.

  AJAX on the other hand requires a ‘modern’ web browser, which I think in this day and age (FireFox) is a pretty safe bet.

  And Flash requires the Flash runtime, which again, in this day and age, is also a ...

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  #programming
• 2005-09-30

  [GEEKY] Why, oh, Why, Mr. Macintosh?

  This is one of those handy dandy tips that you wish were not hidden, buried and kept secret:

  “Hold down the option and control keys while launching iPhoto and you will be treated to a very nice set of options for trying to recover your photos that have mysteriously disappeared.”

  I write this to save the next person a few hours of blind allies.

  Technorati Tags: iphoto

  #computing
• 2005-09-29

  Web 2.0 – what is it?

  Web 2.0 is one of those phrases that gets used and used and then people go nuts because they realize that they are all talking about something different. It becomes a heroic fight of personalities, emotion, politics, ego and oh, a little technology. Haven’t we seen this with other terms (memes) on which careers got built? “open source”, “blog”, “journalism”? As usual, Dave cuts through the crap and figures out the way:“What if Web 2.0 is actually about sex?” 😀

  Technorati Tags: web2.0

  #politics
• 2005-09-28

  Help us find out what’s going on in enterprise blogging

  Here’s a survey being conducted by BlogOn, where I am on the advisory board, about the state of enterprise blogging. If you have a couple of minutes, you can participate and be in the running for an iPod nano, and who doesn’t want one of those?

  Click here to participate in the survey.

  Technorati Tags: blog, enterprise

  #business
• 2005-09-26

  Microsoft blogging: “What do managers do…”

  I often cite Microsoft as an example of corporate blogging that seems to really works: If you work with, for, against Microsoft (and who in the computer industry doesn’t do one of those?) Microsoft Bloggers will give you a view into Microsoft’s thinking, attitude, plans and challenges that is incredibly valuable.

  You (generally) won’t learn any trade secrets. You will hear what you might have heard if you ran into this or that Microsoftie in a Starbucks or at a conference. But few people do.

  Exhibit #1 is a recent post by Steven Sinofsky, a very senior Microsoft manager, about how Microsoft thinks about...

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  #business
• 2005-09-26

  Gibberish?

  Interesting and amusing little article from ACM Queue:

  “One of the students, Jeremy Stribling, explains how they had developed a computer program to generate random sequences of technobabble in order to confirm their suspicions that papers of dubious academicity were bypassing serious, or indeed, any scrutiny. In fact, the students claim ulterior, financial motives behind this lack of proper peer review.” (from Call That Gibberish?)

  Technorati Tags: funny, interesting

  #science
• 2005-09-22

  Interesting article about Open Source in the Financial Times

  And in classic Blogosphere form, you can find a report on the report from Nicole-Ann Boyer on World Changing, where she says:

  “With the FT riding high as the world’s best daily for the business intelligentsia, take heed large organization types: if you ever needed a piece to put in front your boss’s nose and add credibility to some of your open source ideas, this should help.” (from World Changing)

  She goes on to comment and link to some especially interesting parts of the FT Special Report.

  I guess that makes this post a report on the report on the report. Can anyone spell **e-c-h-o-c-h-a-m-b-e-r?

  **

  Technorati Tags: dangillmor, opensource

  #business
• 2005-09-21

  Hope this isn’t true…

  Even though this is from the National Enquirer, which has no credibility, it’s a scary scary thought

  Technorati Tags: georgebush

  #politics