Niall Kennedy's weblog

Niall Kennedy's Weblog

Page 61 of 72, covering posts published from November 2003 to December 2003.

Google Search by Number

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….

FeedDemon 1.0 going Gold

congratulations to Nick for FeedDemon 1.0 going gold! I downloaded RC4b and I look forward to the final product….

Java Desktop System

I just ordered the Java Desktop System from Sun. $54.25 shipped. Should be interesting to experiment with….

Pretty women scramble men’s ability to assess the future

"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…

Following around a Tablet PC user for a day

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 tray table advertisements

America West airlines now has advertisements on its tray tables. 4 week showings, minimum 8 week purchase, and design changes every 8 weeks….

Tablet PC on a daily basis

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…

NY Times : Starbucks WiFi flavors

Starbucks is offering content at its WiFi locations, regardless of your paid access to the outside Internet….

Longhorn and Mozilla: Birds of a Feather

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 : Employee Retention

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: Innovation

HBS Working Knowledge has selected its first weblog, Techdirt, as its featured Web site recommendation….

Licence fees and GDP per capita

How many months' salary is Windows XP around the world? 10 month average in Africa….

NY Times : Stealth Inflation

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….

Linux Tablet

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 sold in Malaysia for $1.58

Longhorn alpha is on sale in Malaysia for six ringgit ($1.58) in Malaysia. The alpha is so hyped it is actually being bought!…

SF Chronicle : Shame of the City

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….

Woman knocked unconscious by trampling shoppers

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….

Mao Tse Tung on guerilla warfare

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….

A Framework for Soccer Video Analysis

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….

Orgasmatron having trouble finding volunteers

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….

Home Depot Center scorecard

The Torrance Daily Breeze has a very interesting Home Depot Center scorecard. "The Galaxy will also make the first profit in its eight-year history, team officials confirmed Friday. The team turned last season?s $3.5 million loss at the Rose Bowl into a modest $150,000 profit." Doug Hamilton should keep Sigi Schmid as head coach. It looks like your revenue worries are not his fault, and you need to get some quality Latinos in your starting 11, not your head coaching position. Carlos Ruiz is the top Latino player in MLS and he was the work of Schmid….