BlogThree by ThoughtFix

Google gets clever. Again.

2008-07-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

It was widely reported that Google teamed up with Seth MacFarlane to do two-minute (more or less) episodes of a comedy show that will be delivered with AdSense ads. So far, this is being billed as a way for Google to add value to the ad area of a page.

The episodes will have preroll ads for which the advertisers would pay more. MacFarlane would get a cut of each ad sale. Money-making all around, right?

Here's the undiscussed little part of this:

- It's delivered via AdSense
- There is no single site on which the episodes may appear
- The target Family Guy audience is young, internet-savvy, and clever.

That last part is the key: These are the type of people who may have things like - oh I don't know - AdBlock Plus installed.
Think about it.

Microsoft ads

2008-07-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

Buzz Out Loud discussed a thing on how Microsoft ads are coming to respond to the onslaught of anti-Vista Apple advertising. Ever full of waffles on OS choice (and a Mac, Windows, and Linux user interchangably) I've come up with a few commercials Microsoft can do.

Apparently the theme is "Free the People." It's about hardware choice over a single platform. If it were me, here's what I'd do:

Show a $400 budget office PC. Roll specs and price. Show an iMac.
Show a $1000 family PC. Roll specs and price. Show an iMac.
Show a $2500 gaming rig. Roll specs and price. Show an iMac.
Show generic Microsoft slogan about choice.
fin.

Show a $500 subnotebook running Vista. Show a Macbook.
Show a $1200 standard office notebook. Show a Macbook.
Show one of those laptops in a half dozen colors. Show a Macbook Pro.
Show a $4000 super-ultimate VAIO. Show a Macbook.
Show generic Microsoft slogan about choice.
fin.

Show a tablet PC.
Show a blank screen.
Show generic Microsoft slogan about choice.
fin.

Show a video card upgrade. Show a sealed iMac.
Show a RAM upgrade. Show a sealed iMac.
Show a hard drive upgrade. Show an iMac.
Show generic Microsoft slogan about choice.
fin.

Heh. Yes, non-Apple computers DO Free the People. However, they also free people to use Linux ;)

CES list

2007-12-04T20:04:00.000-08:00

People I want to see at CES

Fellow mobile bloggers
Nokia
Asus
TabletKiosk
OQO
Dynamism
ThinkGeek
Microsoft

View/Don't View my ads

2007-12-02T13:34:00.000-08:00

I have AdSense and Chitika on both my blogs. They don't give enough income to support the blogging entirely, but I'm OK with that. I figure the shortfall is because I don't put up enough high-traffic content. That inspires me to do better.

I stumbled across WhyFirefoxIsBlocked.com some time ago. They say that Firefox promotes ad-blocking software and viewing content without downloading the ads equates to "stealing" from the content producers. That pissed me off. As an ad-supported publisher, am I egotistical enough to call ad-blockers thieves?

Let's follow the slippery slope:

While viewing web pages, you cannot operate your computer until ads are finished displaying.
While watching TV, you cannot walk away during commercials.
While listening to the radio, you cannot use the power or volume buttons during commercials.
While driving your car, it automatically slows as you pass billboards to give you time to read them.

Thank you but no.

Even as an ad-supported publisher, I fully support the right of my readers to choose to download (or to not download) anything they wish. The closest I will ever come to actual ad intrusion is to logo articles, images, or video with sponsors. None of these will take away from the content itself. As for any ad-supported entity who insists that the ads be viewed: If your content is that important to you, make it subscription-only. If you provide good enough content, people will subscribe. If no one subscribes - you know why.

20102007

2007-10-20T13:05:00.001-07:00

How to ban SUVs from city streets.

2007-08-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

This is not complete, but it is an interesting thought. Firearm control and smoking bans set legal precedent for the banning of other legal-to-own-and-use products if people consider them a safety, convenience, and environmental hazard. On one hand, it could be a good law for the safety of others. On the other hand, it shows the danger of when individual freedoms can be taken away by majority vote. However, the second point must concede that smoking bans and firearm control are not good laws if they vote down an SUV ban. Here’s the argument:

SUVs are hurting Arizona
1. Fuel Costs and Environmental Damage
  1. Increased Fossil Fuel Demand – Sport Utility Vehicles take up to 4 times as much gasoline to operate.
  2. Increased tank size and reactionary buying – Compared to passenger cars, an SUV can hold up to four times as much fuel. During times of gas shortage or perceived crisis (remember the fuel line break in 2003?) gas purchases skyrocketed by reactionary buyers filling their tanks as soon as gas trucks arrived at stations. The presence of high-capacity vehicle first hoarding then rapidly consuming gas naturally contributed to the prices and outages.
  3. Heavy smog production: SUVs over 6,000 pounds are permitted to exhaust THREE TIMES the Hydrocarbons (2.4 grams per mile vs. 0.8,) over twice the carbon monoxide (25 grams per mile vs. 12,) and twice the oxides of nitrogen (4.0 grams per mile vs. 2) than standard passenger vehicles.
2. Road Damage – Heavier vehicles simply cause more damage to roads. The cities are constantly repairing roadways (much to the disdain of the average commuter) to keep up with the constant stress put on by all vehicles and the taxpayers pick up the tab.
3. Increased risk to passenger cars AND to SUV drivers.
  1. Crashes – Simple physics tells us that heavier mass crashing into any object will cause more damage. Higher bumper placement and wider impact area increases the damage to other vehicles or property.
  2. Visibility – Cars sharing the road with other cars can see past or around them for upcoming dangers on the highways. SUVs decrease the visibility around other cars and especially in turns. The ability to see ahead of the car directly in front of a driver is important for traffic conditions that require rapid slowing. If a visibility blocking SUV changes lanes to avoid a stalled car, the car behind would not see the danger until much later and may not be able to brake or change lanes in time. Additionally, the higher headlight mounting causes problems with the night vision of drivers of smaller vehicles.
  3. Longer braking times – Especially in slick or rugged road conditions, it takes longer for a heavy vehicle to come to a stop once brakes are applied.
  4. Rollovers – SUVs are notorious for their increased susceptibility to rollover accidents.
  5. Larger Blind Spots – The length, height, and construction of these large vehicles greatly expands the blind spot for the drivers. In addition to a wider horizontal blind spot, it creates a large VERTICAL blind spot as well – specifically directly behind the driver. A child too short to be seen below the rear window can be backed over.
  6. Drivers are not trained to handle SUVs - Slower reaction times, wider blind spots, wider turning radius, and other dangers specific to this vehicle class are not part of the test for Class D licenses.
Benefits of Passenger SUV Ban
1. Safer for drivers and pedestrians
2. Longer lasting roads
3. More visibility
4. Less gas demand
5. Truck drivers must be trained
Proposal
1. Disallow vehicles greater than 6,000 pounds from operating on public streets within city limits to reduce road wear, smog, and passenger car danger.
2. Disallow vehicles over 6,000 pounds from operating in HOV lanes.
3. Create a plate and permit class for businesses to purchase to operate their vehicles within city limits. They must provide legitimate business reason for requiring a vehicle this large.
4. Drivers of vehicles over 6000 pounds must be licensed to operate of these vehicles (same procedure, license changes, and such as Motorcycle licenses)
5. Allow the Motor Vehicle Division to sell day passes for vehicles over 6000 pounds to pass through cities.
6. Special cases can be permitted for households with 3 or more non-driving (due to age, lack of license, etc) family members. A window permit, plate sticker, or plate class can be sold to these families. Only one of these permits will be allowed per household.
7. License, permit, day pass, and ticket income can go toward road safety, environmental clean-up efforts, and highway law enforcement.
Precedent
1. The 6000 pound determination is not arbitrary. It is the dividing line between light duty trucks and heavy duty trucks in the Clean Air Act.
2. Arizona has long recognized the need for special licenses on vehicles requiring extra skill and care for operation. Operators of vehicles weighing over 26,000 pounds require commercial driver licenses (Class A, B, or C) and operators of motorcycles require Class M licenses. These laws were put into effect before the "heavy truck" and "sport utility" class of vehicles were embraced by the commercial market. The time has come for additional safety and environmental protection regulation.
3. All it takes is a simple majority for voters to put this in action.
  1. If there is a safety issue with using legal products in public space, voters can ban it.
  2. If there is a convenience issue with using legal products in public space, voters can ban it.
  3. If a legal product causes environmental damage, voters can ban it.
  4. If businesses suffer from the ban but the vote still passes, the businesses must find a way to cope.
  5. Voters can pass additional tax on any product they choose.
4. The precedent comes in the form of the statewide smoking ban and rising tobacco taxes. Voters clearly stated that smoking in bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, and other public venues or within 15 feet of the entrances to them creates safety, convenience, and environmental issues. Bars, nightclubs, bowling alleys, and others have had to adjust to cope with the ban and have lost customers because of this. Voters approve tobacco tax increases regularly.
5. Additional precedent comes in the form of firearm control. Firearms are also dangerous, require additional licensing, and cannot be used in public.
6. The safety, convenience, and environmental impact to non-SUV drivers (the majority) on public roads can be measured and quantified.
7. This is not a total ban on SUV ownership. Similar to the tobacco ban, it will be perfectly legal to own and operate an SUV in on private land, in rural areas, or in Arizona’s popular off-road trails. Day passes can be purchased to get the vehicles to and from these locations or they can be towed.

Speculative points, reported by others, requiring source verification:

An average SUV or a pickup is more than twice as likely as a car to kill the driver of the other vehicle in a collision.
SUVs are four times more likely than cars to roll over in an accident.
SUVs are three times more likely to kill the occupants in a rollover.
Light trucks/SUVs crashing into cars accounts for the majority of fatalities in vehicle-to-vehicle collisions, 2,000 people would still be alive if their vehicles had been hit by a heavy car instead of an SUV.
80 percent of drivers strongly feel that automakers should make safety changes to SUVs that would make the roads safer for car occupants.

Links of interest:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/18/autos/auto_death_rates/index.htm

Meaningful Diatribes

2007-07-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

LiveJournal is down due to a massive power failure in their data center.
MySpace bulletins are offline for special maintenance.

It's a good thing I have this blog on which to post my meaningful diatribes.
...
This concludes today's meaningful diatribe.

2007-07-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

Gizmodo.com had a contest to win an iPhone. The rules were to invent something original. The winner invented something that could never be made and that no one would want anyway. Good job, Gizmodo. [pout] I deserved that iPhone!

In any event - I want to share my invention with people in the hopes that one day it will be reality. I named it the GizLocker in an attempt to suck up to Gizmodo. It didn't work.

Abstract:
Car gadgets are becoming more popular, as are secure locations in which gadgets are not welcome. Ever get stuck carrying around your phone, camera, iPod, GPS, stereo's faceplate, and PDA all at once, just to find you can't bring them into the concert or courthouse with you? Leaving devices in the car opens them up to theft, heat, cold, and damage.

Invention Name:
GizLocker

Purpose:
The GizLocker is a small briefcase shaped device. It will protect, secure, and insulate gizmos from heat, shock, and theft. Inside, it will have a unique design that offers quite a bit.

Features:

Serious protection for gadgets
A strong locking system - either key or combination.
Insulation to protect gadgets from extreme heat or cold for longer periods of time than simple glove compartments.

Appearance:
It will look like an automotive toolbox from the outside and will be designed to be small and thin enough to fit under a car seat. The inside will be padded foam which will both help the gadgets "stay put" and assist with the insulation. It should be large enough to carry a Smartphone, Camera, GPS, and iPod all at once.

Options:

Optional external cable lock which can be inconspicuous like the Kensington style lock on laptops.
Optional external GizVolt port that will supply either 12V sockets or USB sockets inside the the GizLocker.
Both 12V "cigarette lighter" style plugs and solar panels available for the GizVolt port

Notes:
Photo credits: Sentry Safe (center item) and Brando Workshop (Bottom charger display)
Attempts to contact Sentry Safe on this have been unsuccessful. Their customer support number is perpetually on hold and they do not seem to have a marketing department available. If anyone has experience building heat-proof lock boxes, it's Sentry. They probably already have the patents to hammer this out easily.

Eight Simple Things

2007-07-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

In his personal blog, another technology writer I admire tagged me to say eight random things about myself. Here they are:

Blogging is my savior. I've had some serious personal stuff happen in the last year and I feel best when I am writing.
Coffee is my lifeblood.
My day job is a combination of the best and worst job I can get.
I like watching "Cops" because I like watching stupid people get what's coming to them. Is that schadenfreude?
Chocolate will be the death of me, too.
Slow, dark, spooky music inspires me.
I have not a single creative bone in my body, so compensate for it by making technical/analytical talent disguise itself as creativity: Blogging, juggling, etc.
I used to eat, breathe, and juggle fire.

There's some insight into this here blogger. Anyone is welcome to comment about themselves - I'd like to know who reads this blog.

The Rules of Strip Scrabble

2007-06-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

I posted this in my private journal but decided to mirror it here so others can enjoy it and add comments or variants.

The concept has been rolling around in my head for some time and I've joked about "Strip Scrabble" to many people in the past, but now I am making the rules.

Strip Scrabble rules:

Normal Scrabble rules apply.
In addition to this, each player must play a word that counts for as many or more points than the previous word played. If any player cannot meet or exceed the previous word's points, that player must remove an article of clothing.
Any single article of clothing may be purchased back for 100 points. The player must then wear that clothing. (Men: if you purchase your lady's bra so she can't get it back, you have to put it on yourself.)
Players can purchase clothing for 50 points, but this "discount clothing" is chosen by the opponents. Yes, ladies. You can force your male opponents to wear YOUR panties.
Multiple rounds can be played once the tiles run out. If this happens, the first player to use all of his/her tiles ends the board and gets to start the new board. That word does not count toward the opponent's previous points, so in essence the first person running out gets a "free" word.
Point totals and clothing carries from one round to the next.
At the end of play, all clothing must be returned to their original owners. No keeping trophies.

This is best done in groups of four or more and for several consecutive games - during which someone ends up wholly naked and someone else ends up wearing the wrong clothes.

Are Home Espresso Machines A Good Investment?

2007-06-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

So you've been eyeballing that nice shiny espresso machine at Williams Sonoma, right? Me too. I want one to replace the Hamilton Beach above. While the machine I have is worthy, it's not up to par with the level of control I want.

I decided to ask myself how long it takes an espresso machine to pay for itself over going to the local castle of green aprons for a mocha. The middle-sized (16 oz.) iced mocha contains two shots of espresso, chocolate, milk, and ice. This is precisely what I make at home. The educated "more or less" guess is that it is 3 oz (1.5 per shot) espresso, 2 oz chocolate syrup, 8 oz milk, and ice to fill the rest.

I decided to see how many shots of espresso I could pull from a single pound bag. I used every last ground of espresso in my stash and in my burr grinder and started fresh, marking off a double-shot each time I made it. There is always waste in making coffee so I couldn't reliably say that every ground of that pound would go into the machine. As luck would have it, I pulled exactly 20 double-shots out of a pound of espresso. Total cost for 20 mochas so far = $10 for a locally roasted bag of espresso.

Now that we measured out the "unreliable" source, we can do strict math on the rest. Twenty 8 oz. servings of milk = 160 fluid ounces, so 1.25 gallons of milk. Say milk is expensive at $3/gallon and we have an additional $3.75 on the cost. A 20 oz. bottle of brand-name chocolate syrup is about $3, so we'll need two of those for $6.

Total estimated cost of materials for twenty 16-oz iced mochas = $19.75

Say the local coffee shop sells the same drink at the typical price of $3.50. Total cost of twenty would be $70, assuming you never tip.

The savings of $50 per pound of espresso is impressive enough, but how long would it take for a nice machine to PAY for itself?

Say you had a mocha per day during the business week. It's rather Zen to pull fresh shots first thing in the morning anyway - clears the mind for the rest of the day. That's 5 double-shots per week. Five mochas costs roughly $17.50 at the Corporate Coffee Place. Five home-made mochas cost about $4.94 at home. At this rate, you'll save $12.56 per week. If you want a Hamilton Beach 15 bar pump 1000 watt machine like mine, you'll spend about $80. If you want the object of my desire, the Breville Die Cast Espresso Maker, it'll set you back $400. If you have no desire to learn the art of espresso and decide to get the Mother of All Machines, you're looking at $3,660. That thing will make your espresso, greet you by first name, and teach your children how to play piano.

Total time for the inexpensive machine: 7 weeks.
Total time for my desired machine: 32 weeks.
Total time for the machine that can beat you at chess: 5.6 years.

Based on double-shot iced mochas, that works out. Of course I have the frothing pitcher, thermometer, tamper, cute little espresso cups, and Krupps Burr Grinder going on too, but that's what happens when you become an addict. Incidentally, by birthday is June 27, so there's still time to get me that Breville...

Oh golly I'm gonna be RICH!

2007-04-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

Uh-huh. Suuuure.

From: "david appiah" <david_appiah06@hotmail.com>
Reply To: "attn_davidappiah111@yahoo.co.in"

Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 6:27 AM

Subject: I appreiciate your response and pls call me.

Dear Friend,

I am Mr.David Appiah;a bank manager with International Commercial Bank here
in Ghana West Africa.I contacted you becuase i believed you can be of
assistance to me.I write you this letter in good faith after getting your
contact information through a personal search.I have a transaction of Six
Million, Seven hundred and Fifty Thousand US dollars ($6,750,000.00) and I
realized this fund from my branch as excess profit when i was in service as
a branch manager.

I deposited this fund in an Escrow call account were nobody will have access
to it;Even my bank does not have access to this account because it cannot be
used for any transaction;I did not declare this fund to the bank before my
retirement. I am contacting you, to stand as the beneficiary of this fund
because only a foreigner can stand as the beneficiary.Can I trust you to
hold this money for me until I come to your country after the transfer for
my share?

All I need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund and
provide an account where this money will be transferred into.There are
practically no risks involved because it will be a bank to bank transfer
which will not take us more than three banking working days.

I will give you 40% of the money as gratification,If you accept my offer;You
can contact me only on my private phone number 00233243525624.

I will appreciate your timely response as soon as you receive this mail.

With regards,
Mr.David Appiah

How could I possibly refuse that offer?
Now should I ignore it or screw with him?

Are release dates considered "Advertising?"

2007-04-12T22:17:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I was disappointed with Vista. I was ready and willing to try something different. On Feb 10 and $1,500 later, I had my new iMac at home. It's fast and the next-gen operating system was RIGHT around the corner, or so Apple had me to believe.

Today, news is that Leopard is being pushed back to October. While existing Apple fans were disappointed, I feel positively duped. The purpose of the Spring release date was not reality, but rather an intent to get Vista "disgruntled" consumers like me to buy a Mac instead of buying a new PC to get the latest next-gen operating system.

Had I bought a new Vista PC with similar specs and Vista Ultimate, I'd have saved around $500 even after the cost of the LCD. I went with Apple because I was ready to try something new. Now I feel betrayed.

Offshoring: Destroying America's Ground Floor

2007-04-05T20:56:00.000-07:00

Most of the complaints about offshoring service jobs center around the lower quality of service received. When a customer and a customer support representative have a language or accent barrier, the experience is already swinging into the negative. While this is a valid concern, there are more backlashes to offshoring than thick accents.

I'm going to tell a story of a young man with no experience and no degree. Through basic computer knowledge and motivation alone, he started out as a level 1 tech support representative for a big modem company. This was a placement through a contract job and when a bigger networking company bought the modem company, the contract ended. (Later, the whole Skokie, Illinois building was sold and support was moved.)

From there, he got several other fortunate contract placements that built his resume and experience significantly. From Level 1 tech support, he grew up through higher technical positions, then low to middle management positions, and mid-level to high-level engineering roles. Over a decade later, he's doing well for himself as a systems engineer for a very stable internet services company. While the lack of formal training and education have held him back a couple times, employers found his on-the-job skills and real-world experience to be very valuable.

He's also a blogger. In fact, he's writing this post.

I am sure I am not the only example of someone whose success is wholly attributed to "climbing the ranks." A decade later, there are more computers, gadgets, and connectivity systems than ever and it would be a great breeding ground the next generation of engineers... Except for one thing: There's no ground level. Entry-level CSR positions are now overseas, so anyone attempting to get into this industry must go into debt for a college degree. Four years and $80,000 later, they have to hope they can land one of the few remaining positions in the tech industry without any real-world experience. From there, it's a long, hard road to the higher positions.

And what of the higher positions? What happens when the engineers do not have the experience and history of "face time" with end users? Do the designers know what the people want? Is there some fundamental disconnect that happens when engineers and developers are so far removed from customers? If you ever dealt with Windows Vista's security center, you may know.

If corporations continue to destroy the ground floor of the technology base, we will have no more American engineers. Please, tech companies, bring the technical support and entry-level jobs back to America. It shows loyalty to your consumer base, dedication to quality service, and most importantly, a logical path for career growth for the next generation of geeks.

Sub-$500 Vista Home Premium box

2007-03-27T00:47:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I bit the bullet and built a box that's good for Vista. It was a combination of the dissection of my Windows XP Media Center box and and a couple really good special deals at Fry's. Stuff in italics is recycled.

Old stats:

Athlon XP 2500+
Shuttle SK43G chassis/motherboard
1GB DDR RAM
Dual 160G Maxtor SATA drives
8X DVD+/-RW DL
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Gigabyte GeForce FX 5200 with 128M RAM (AGP8X)
WinTV PVR150MCE TV Tuner card

New stats:

Fatal1ty F-190HD motherboard

Integrated ATI Radeon X1250 graphics
Single HDMI output cable carries digital video and audio to my TV

Intel Core2 Duo E4300
2GB Transcend Dual Channel DDR2@800 MHz
Antec Aria silent chassis with power supply
Windows Vista Home Premium
Dual 160G Maxtor SATA drives
8x DVD+/-RW DL
WinTV PVR150MCE card

Cooler, quieter, lower wattage requirement, much faster, and with an extra drive bay to spare. Vista performance index: 4.0. Not bad for an on-board graphics chip. Now where are my CableCARD tuners?

Here comes the Apple TV

2007-03-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

With all the hype over the Apple TV, I decided to read the tech specs and see what it REALLY was. After some research, it looks like an iPod that you can't take with you. Except for offering higher quality video connections (HDMI) it doesn't seem that the Apple TV does anything that the iPod can't do with an iPod AV Connection Kit.

Apple TV: $299 for 40 gig.
iPod: $249 for 30 gig or $349 for 80 gig plus iPod AV Connection Kit: $99

Both:

Play Music
Play Movies
Play picture slide shows
Require synchronization with iTunes
Works with Mac or Windows
Works with included remote control

Apple TV:

Max 40 gig of storage
Supports up to 720p video
Requires HDMI or Component cables (sold seperately)
Requires widescreen TV
Small footprint

iPod with AV Connection Kit:

Max 80 gig of storage
Supports up to 480p video
Works on any TV with standard RCA ports (including many in-car displays)
VERY small footprint
Can also bring your music, movies, and photos to your car or your pocket.

Until there's a compelling reason to start loading iTunes with 720p video (say, a 720p iPod) it's going to be a hard sell to get people to use the Apple TV when they probably already own an iPod.

Consolidate My Media!

2007-03-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

One thing I noticed while going through the first Ultra-Mobile Challenge with the Kohjinsha SA1 was how scattered my media is.

I've been an iPod owner for several years. I currently have a 4 gig 1st gen black Nano. It's exactly what I want for my music. It's small, light, has a long battery life, is easy to use, and interfaces with my car perfectly through my Harman Kardon Drive+Play kit. Since I am now a Mac owner, all my music is in iTunes and thus FrontRow as well.

For TV, I use Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. While it's impossible to get HD cable (Where's my CableCARD support already?) I find that the programs I watch (Mythbusters, Law and Order, Family Guy, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report) all seem to look just fine on my LCD HDTV. My archive of ~~downloaded~~ video backups looks good too.

For video on the go, I use my Nokia N800 along with a media converter to optimize video for this platform.

Three scenarios: Music, TV, and portable video. Three operating systems: Mac, Windows, and Linux. Why can't I get it all at once?

Apple's TV appliance looks cute, but it just streams stuff that already exists in iTunes. It does not appear to have any PVR functionality, so it cannot replace my Windows Media Center. Microsoft doesn't have a "Zune nano" with the interface and all the features I've come to love on the iPod. I would consider a full-sized iPod for pocketable video, but I would not use it unless I could sync my latest recorded TV.

Please: Can't someone create a PVR and media manager that syncs with a portable device as cool as the iPod?

Geek and Wii Party!

2007-03-10T16:56:00.000-08:00

Jill checking out the Kohjinsha SA1

Bryan playing with the Nokia N800

Bryan, Brian, Jared, and I all playing Tennis

Jared and Jill playing Super Mario Bros

In the video, Brittany and Bryan bowl and Jared and Brian box!
Thanks for stopping by, Bryan, Brian, Jared, Jill, and Brittany!

Editorial: The Future on a Slate

2007-03-01T20:03:00.000-08:00

Come with me on a journey through time.

We'll start in the late 1960's when Gene Roddenbury's vision hit the small screen in Star Trek. The 23rd century gave everyone the LCARS PADD. It's a small tablet computer with an organic touch-screen interface and wireless link to a vast library of information.

Jump forward to 1992, when John Sculley coined the term "Personal Digital Assistant" referring to the Apple Newton. It was small but not altogether pocketable, with an organic touch-screen interface. While never wonderfully successful, it did lay out an idea of what was to come.

Let's fast-forward to 1996. US Robotics released the Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000. These
were not as revolutionary compared to the Newton, but were pocketable and had one thing the Newton lacked: Success. Great success. The Pilots, with both portability and an intuitive interface, led the way for PDA after PDA storm through the market over the next 9 years until poorly designed products combined with massive corporate mergers and the rise of smartphones and convergence devices finally killed off the PDA.

What happened in that time? Starting in early 1990's, companies strapped touchscreens to laptops with swivel screens and made the "Tablet PC." Again, they suffered from one poor design after another and still aren't well embraced, but operating system support and software continued to grow. Where were slates in this time? Failing in the consumer market, that's where. They weren't well embraced in the vertical markets either: relegated to specific embedded systems.

In 2002, tablets started making a comeback. Large corporations such as AT&T and Microsoft often included the wireless slate in advertising projects showing the "vision of the future." Some examples:

Send a fax from the beach.
All textbooks are replaced by tablets, allowing students to attend class from hundreds of miles away.
Video calls to a family member in Africa.
Having an emergency room in Hawaii pull up your medical history from Chicago on a notebook-sized tablet.

Even with all this vision and advertising, little was done to put this in the hands of the average consumer. All that changed with Origami.

The Microsoft Origami Project has been the biggest consumer-targeted slate tablet push to date. The goal of a sub-$500 wireless tablet - the ultra-mobile PC, halfway between PC and Consumer Electronics device - got many consumers and analysts excited. The reality was much more harsh: The machines turned out to cost twice the target amount and lacked the computing power to handle much of the most common mass-market software.

The release of Vista further crippled market adoption of the UMPC. Vista skyrocketed the base hardware requirements of new computers. Since most of the existing UMPC owners and target market were early adopters, they became loathe to embrace the latest technology when it couldn't run the latest operating system. UMPCs are beginning to catch up, but the average consumer will buy a $700 laptop before they will buy a $1,200 ultra-mobile with comparable specs.

Watching this history, we see a trend emerge. Users can choose between power, portability, or a good user interface. They can get one and, if lucky, two. They can't get all three.

Does this mean that UMPCs are dead in the water? Not at all. Flash back to the Star Trek LCARS PADD. The acronym means Library Computer Access/Retrieval System Personal Access Display Device. This implies that the central computing and information storage takes place on a remote server and the the access and interface are on a portable device. What do we have in 2007 that is analogous?

It's called the Internet. Web applications are getting stronger every day, with Google a driving force behind it. In 2000, a decently powerful laptop loaded with map software on several CDs of map software was required to get directions to the closest Starbucks - assuming you knew what the address to the coffee shop was. In 2007, a tiny smartphone with Windows Live Search can do the same thing for you in seconds. With a GPS receiver, you don't even have to know where YOU are to find the closest triple Venti mocha.

How will all the dreams of the future come true? Here are the four simple steps.

Ditch the operating system and create a streamlined, always-on access device. (The Nokia N800 is ahead of it's time in this concept.)
Move all heavy data storage from the tablet to the server like Google Maps, Gmail, and other similar services already do.
Push for proliferation of wireless broadband everywhere.
Turn software into services.

People are loathe to adopt that last one. Why would someone pay a monthly fee for software when they can just buy it once? The simple fact is that you already don't own the software you buy. You're buying a license to use the software. In eight months when the latest version comes along, you'll just have to buy it again or be stuck with the old version and be left behind.

Consider:

Buy two CDs per month for $16 each or pay $30 per month to get access to every song you want to listen to, when you want to hear it, wherever you happen to be.
Pay $20/month for all the Photoshop you can use or pay $300 every 18 months when the latest version?
Risk buying Microsoft Office for $350 when the next version could come out any day now?

Software, media, and storage "as a service" is not perfect, but it can address consumer price complaints and corporate piracy worries at the same time. The worst part would be the fear of losing your entire computer and data if you neglect to pay your bill or if the server has a glitch. I know enterprise computing though and know that it's MUCH more likely for a home computer to crash than to have an well-designed enterprise application server crash.

The current ultra-mobile PC isn't underpowered. It's overpowered and incorrectly focused. They tried to turn a gadget into a PC with an operating system and standard software. To realize the vision of the future, computing power, storage, and user interface have to be split. When the three-way fight between horsepower, mobility, and organic interface ends, each can take a new life of it's own.

My first Final Cut video

2007-02-25T01:43:00.000-08:00

ThoughtFix on Nokia Internet Tablets: New Canola Video

Yeah - I'm so proud. It took me 3 times as long to make that, but it worked. Now that I have a "real" video editing app and system, I can get into better produced videos. In time, I may be primarily a "vlogger" (and that sounds dirty all by itself) but I don't want to chop all my content to YouTube until the N800 supports it properly.

Genius Bar: Mixed success

2007-02-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

Well, I am still a Mac owner.

They were able to find me another copy of restore DVDs. Success.
802.11n is not enabled. Minor issue.
Upgrading the hard drive without voiding the warranty requires an Apple qualified shop. I decided to move my backups to the 240G SAN at home and use my 250G USB LaCie drive as external storage for the Mac.
Unless Leper comes out .. like .. now, I'll have to pay for it. Or pirate it.
They gave me the retail boxed copy of Final Cut Express for $99. Sweet.
FrontRow can't default to the external monitor unless I mirror them. Without PVR software, I'll only be using my Mac for music anyway. That's fine.

So limited success, but success nonetheless. Jeremy at Biltmore is the man.

Second trip to the Genius Bar

2007-02-23T11:23:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I will visit the Genius Bar again. My last trip left me disappointed, but I didn't technically speak to any "genius" while I was there.

Issues:

Disc 2 of the restore DVDs is bad. That was the topic of my last trip.
Why is it $2 to enable 802.11n?
Is there a way to upgrade the hard drive without voiding the warranty? Fry's has a 500G SATA for $149 this weekend.
Will I have to pay the full upgrade price for Leopard when it comes out?
Final Cut Express is $99 pre-installed when purchased online, but $299 as an option. I was never given the option to purchase it preinstalled. Could I still get it for $99?
Is there any way to have FrontRow default to output to an external monitor?

If I am happy with the answers, I'll probably buy an AppleCare protection plan (yay 3 year warranty!) and if I am not, I am returning the thing.

Concert!

2007-02-23T00:08:00.000-08:00

Reliquary!

Voltaire!

It was good. Mmm Good.

Voltaire!

It was good.

New threads from ThinkGeek

2007-02-22T17:54:00.000-08:00

One of several new things from ThinkGeek:

Of course, I forgot to get the shirt I intended to get: "I'm Blogging This."
Next order.

Browser Share

2007-02-20T16:03:00.000-08:00

Stats from my blogs.
IE lost this fight.