Niall Kennedy's weblog, newest first. Page 61 of 72.
Steven Sinofsky apologizes for the inclusion of a clockwise swastika in Microsoft’s Bookshelf Symbol 7 font. Character code 0x7E. Star of David is 0x74. Microsoft released a tool to take the offending character off of your system. Yes, the symbol was used by the Nazi party, but has a history of a few thousand years. It was also part of Rudyard Kipling’s coat of arms!…
You can now search for a UPS or FedEx tracking number on Google, a patent number, FAA registration, and FCC equipment IDs. Full feature details….
congratulations to Nick for FeedDemon 1.0 going gold! I downloaded RC4b and I look forward to the final product….
I just ordered the Java Desktop System from Sun. $54.25 shipped. Should be interesting to experiment with….
“Both male and female students at McMaster University were shown pictures of the opposite sex of varying attractiveness taken from the website ‘Hot or Not’. The 209 students were then offered the chance to win a reward.” “When male students were shown pictures of pretty women, they discounted the future value of the reward in an “irrational” way – they would opt for the smaller amount of money available the next day rather than wait for a much bigger reward.” New Scientist article about the ability of men and women to think rationally after being presented with a picture of…
Scoble writes : “Maybe we should have a film crew follow a Tablet PC user around for a day.” An entire day would not be necessary. Just a typical meeting I think. Microsoft aims at the information worker and increasing productivity. It would be cool to define the purpose of the device in infomercial style. Have someone walk into a meeting with a 17″ PowerBook and someone with a Tablet PC. Both are very cool, but it is nice to compare functionality. The same method of questions you used to describe a sale at Best Buy could also apply here….
America West airlines now has advertisements on its tray tables. 4 week showings, minimum 8 week purchase, and design changes every 8 weeks….
Mark’s post promted me to write about my daily experience with my Tablet PC. I use the Compaq Tablet PC TC1000. First generation, convertible design, 3 pounds, integrated 802.11b, and powered by a 1GHz Crusoe 5800 with 512 MB of RAM. The power of a Tablet is the same as you would find for a regular laptop. I am sure some extra power is needed for the inking input, but I have not noticed a difference. Most tablets now use Intel’s Centrino chips. I am not running Lonestar. I bring my tablet with me to business meetings. A laptop screen…
Today Microsoft was granted a patent for writing an application in HTML….
Starbucks is offering content at its WiFi locations, regardless of your paid access to the outside Internet….
Nigel McFarlane wrote a piece for DevX about the architectural similarities between Longhorn and Mozilla. Write down to the XAML vs. XUL comparison….
HBS Working Knowledge has a good article on the importance of employee retention. In an August 2003 study by Accenture, 48 percent of U.S. middle managers surveyed said they were looking for another job or planned to do so when the economy recovered….
HBS Working Knowledge has selected its first weblog, Techdirt, as its featured Web site recommendation….
How many months’ salary is Windows XP around the world? 10 month average in Africa….
Are companies now preying on busy lifestyles? NY Times writer David Pogue examines overbilling and miscellaneous fees creeping into monthly bills. My $39.99 cellular service plan comes to about $46 with all the line item fees. I am not sure if these fees are government mandated or something invented by my service provider for a quick buck….
Eric Sink has put together a column named Finance for Geeks (The Business of Software)….
Element Computer has released the Helium 2100, a new 14.1″ tablet running Lycoris Desktop/LX Tablet Edition. It costs only $999. The first device I have seen using a Via CPU….
Longhorn alpha is on sale in Malaysia for six ringgit ($1.58) in Malaysia. The alpha is so hyped it is actually being bought!…
Today’s NY Times magazine has an in depth look at Apple’s portable music player, the iPod….
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Kevin Fagan has the first of a five part series on the homeless issue in San Francisco. He will probably be up for a Pulitzer for this one, along with photographer Brent Ward….
A woman in Florida was trampled by a herd of shoppers at Wal-Mart. In the 6 A.M. doorbuster she was pushed over in the rush to grab a $30 DVD player….
Rosanna Davison won the Miss America Beach Beauty contest. Rosanna is the daughter of musician Chris de Burgh. Well done Ireland!…
Mao Tse Tung handbook for guerilla fighters is still the basis for a lot of the ground fighting we see today in places like Iraq….
Ahmet Ekin of the University of Rochester has put together software that filters out less interesting parts of a soccer game and focuses on the perceived exciting moments. His Automatic Sports Video Analyzer will send soccer highlights to cell phones during the 2004 Olympics….
A new device is entering clinical trials that delivers an orgasm on demand through a spinal implant. Stuart Meloy is struggling to find volunteers for the program. Towards the end of the article it mentions that an orgasm is a reflex response, and people with spinal injuries can still orgasm. Interesting….