WiFi in retail business
Today's New York Times covers the use of wireless technology to improve retail experiences….
Uncategorized
382 posts filed under this category, page 14 of 16.
Toyota Prius parks itself
Toyota plans to release an optional feature for its Prius cars sold in Japan, according to Wired coverage. "A car will probably always require a driver for liability reasons." A lot of people are uncomfortable with parallel parking, especially in tight spots, or a spot on the driver's side. Although the article mentions the price tag as a downfall, I know some people who pay for a parking spot just so they do not have to parallel park….
FeedDemon gets top mark
ExtremeTech reviewed 6 RSS readers and gave FeedDemon the top mark (8 out of 10). "the Cadillac of RSS readers." Congrats Nick! I am a regular user and even mentioned the product in Spider Hacks. I should participate more in the newsgroups to make this a really good app….
James Gosling: on the Java road…
James Gosling : One of the nice things about developing in Java on the MAC is that you get to develop on a lovely machine. I thought James would be using something like the SPARCLE….
Henry Hunan Weblogger Dinner
Anyone for a Chinese dinner at Henry Hunan's next Saturday? So far it looks like at least Dave Winer and Scoble will be there….
Motion Hardtop Keyboard
Motion Computing has a new keyboard available that allows for a docked slate. Looks more flimsy than my Compaq dock, but much better than the standalone keyboard. Last month on a flight from Chicago I sat next to someone with an M1300. We compared Tablets, what we look for in a notebook, and our frustrations with the first generation technology. He was playing a balancing act with his keyboard propping up his slate as it moved around. I envied his 12.1″ screen and he envied my battery life and dock. I just lost my dock edge….
Higher level programming
Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about the current state of programming. Languages seem to be more and more designed for high level interaction with the heavy lifting done at the compiler level. This allows for bad programmers to not do things that will be too harmful. At the same time it allows for sloppy and imprecise code. Most people do not consider clock cycles, memory usage, or disc usage writing code or designing a database. Embedded systems like a cell phone may be different. The use of an int to store a Gregorian year value. String…
Secret blog
Chris Pirillo has a secret section of his site up. Same content as his normal weblog, just with a different background….
Heather Mitts
Heather Mitts has a pictorial in this month's FHM magazine. For those of you not keeping track, last year the WUSA put together modelling packages for a select few women and shopped them around to men's magazines. Although none of the women were featured in Playboy, Heather won the Playboy Online poll for sexiest WUSA player. The FHM shots look mostly the same, just with different outfits. I think Heather looks more sexy in her soccer gear, but that must just be my weird fetish….
Crash Different
I found an Apple testimonial video that had me rolling in my cube. If you are a member of the Mac cult, you may be offended. Otherwise, laugh your ass off….
Blog from a Smartphone
News.com reports that the new Mio 8380 phone from Mitac will "keep a diary." Sounds like a blog to me!…
Pick your own college roommate
NY Times profiles some interesting roommate matching programs. I wonder how long until similar ideas make it out into the apartment or house sharing worlds? Most of San Francisco relies on Craig's List for apartment listings, and some sort of profile matching system would be very welcome!…
TypePad is expensive
I like TypePad, but wow it is expensive! $50 a year is about what I paid for Blogger Pro and BlogSpot. Blogger Pro is supposed to have a lot of new features and I am supposed to be lucky to have gotten in at the price I did. It has Google magic now as well. I like being able to edit the HTML of my template. This feature allows me to put in things like AIM Remote and Yahoo!'s button. To do the same I would have to use TypePad Pro and pay $150 a year. Domain mapping would be…
PDC
Can't afford it. My current company has no idea what makes Yukon better than database XYZ from 1991. PDC would be an investment in my personal future in the software and database development industry. Will I still be working at my company in 2005? Probably not. I will still be affected by the 800 pound gorilla's new toolsets that change the software development landscape. I could drive the 400 miles to the show and take vacation days from work ($80 + 5 vacation days). I could sleep on a friend's couch ($0). I could pay $10 a day for…
Phish for free using iMac
Last weekend Phish headlined the It Festival in Maine. They set up a 100,000-watt radio station and hooked up their fans with a CD-R and a selection of 150 live tracks to choose from. Now that Pearl Jam has left Epic, I wonder if they will do something similar? Very cool. "In addition to performing, the band set up a tent where fans could make their own free custom mix CD of live Phish tracks with iTunes. The tent ran at full capacity, with lines outside until 4AM each night."…
Larry King and Howard Dean
CNN has a full transcript of last night's Larry King interview with Howard Dean online. I think King was inappropriately dragged on the gay marriage issue. Dean stated marriage is a religious ceremony, and Vermont had enacted equal rights for gays, but not termed it marriage. Favorite quote : "That's how you beat a president who can get as many $2,000 checks as he wants, is to bring three or four million new people into the process, give them a reason to vote, and then you can beat George Bush."…
Howl for a Rendezvous
Howl is an implementation of Zeroconf (popularized as Apple's Rendezvous) for Windows and Linux platforms….
Bentley College on Tablets
Bentley College has a marketing class focused on Tablet PCs, profiled in today's Boston Globe. "Because it lacks the capability to show DVDs, the introductory version of the Tablet failed to "match student lifestyles outside the classroom," in the words of the Bentley project's first research report. Subsequent versions of the Tablet are being designed to accommodate DVDs." Will slate models ever contain DVDs or is the added weight not worth it? It makes sense for a Tablet similar to the Toshiba, which is essentially a regular notebook computer with a swivel screen. I do not want a desktop…
Readily available technology
AP : "A 15-year-old boy foiled an apparent abduction attempt when he pulled out his cell phone camera and snapped photos of a man trying to lure him into a car."…
Tablets as a readily awaiting business tool
The Seattle Times has an article today about Tablet PCs used in the luxury suites of Mariners' games for food ordering, updated score charts, and on-demand instant replay. "The laptoplike Tablet PCs can be loaded before each game with special messages for clients, PowerPoint slide presentations and contracts that are ready to sign with a stylus." Cursivecode is leading the initiative….
Privacy Economics
Andrew Odlyzko of the University of Minnesota has released an interesting paper on the discriminatory pricing and the privacy implications. From railroads to Amazon.com, the history of the concept is well covered….
C# and Longhorn
I want to learn C# so I can create some really awesome applications for Longhorn. I have a good knowledge of SQL which should give me a pretty good head start. How do you plan for a platform that is years away when you do not know what tools we be already available and where will there be a niche to fill. I cannot afford to attend PDC, so I will already be behind in the tool development. Regardless of Longhorn, learning some C# seems like a good idea. I am a Java guy, so it should not be too…
FeedDemon
Nick Bradbury has put together a pretty cool RSS aggregator called FeedDemon. Written entirely in Delphi. It's tough to code to .Net when the CLR is over 20 MB. You can bundle a Delphi or Python runtime, but I rather pull off of common libraries. Can a developer ship and require a 20 MB+ required library download? It's tough in the small app world. I would love to roll out something that uses Microsoft's P2P libraries, but I doubt anyone has that installed right now. If you build it, they will come……
Tim O’Reilly speech
Tim O'Reilly gave a great speech here at Gnomedex on open source software. Makes me want to go to Emerging Tech, and some of the other conferences he puts on….
Cute girl for governor
Georgy Russell, a programmer from Mountain View, is running for governor of California. Buy a thong and support her cause!…