Wednesday, August 31, 2005

 

Watch Out!


The LA Times has an article about Microsoft buying an Internet phone company. As much as it hurts me to say this, once VOIP is integrated into the Windows desktop, it will become ubiquitous. Verizon needs to watch out!

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

 

5 Reasons Not To Use Linux


 

iTunes on My Phone

Market Watch reports that Apple will let Cingular put iTunes on Motorola cell phones.

Monday, August 29, 2005

 

Spear-Phishing


eWeek reports on a variation of internet criminal behavior--spear phishing. This type targets email to the employees of a particular company in the name of an executive of that company, trying to elicit userids and passwords. It apparently works best in companies with autocratic executives.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

 

When is VOIP not Telephony?


When it is Google Talk. Free computer to computer phone calls, but its not a phone and it is not a call. It is just voice messaging--instant voice messaging. I love it. That way they don't fall under all the telephone regulations. Like, how can you dial 911 when there is no dial?

Which raises a good point. Why must I "dial" 911 to get assistance? It is some kind of arrogance that I cannot instant message my distress "call" or email from a blackberry a distress "call." Why do I have to "call" at all when I am in distress. I want my future pacemaker to "call" for me when I am in distress. Text message with geo-coords would be the best, but I guess one could program the pacemaker to send a VOIP message with a simulated voice.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

 

WikiWyg!

Many2Many comments on WikiWyg and gives some hyperlinks. It is a client application that provides a high quality editor for wikis and blogs. Oh, and right now it only works with FireFox (sorry IE).

 

DVD What?


I bought a Panasonic DMR-ES30V DVD Recorder this week. It handles DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DVD-RAM, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, and CD-VCD. I love standards so much I wish I could have dozens of them--I am disappointed I only have 7 DVD standards. : - )

One of the cool features is that I can pop in a video cassette and it will--with the push of one button--dub it over onto a DVD (as soon as I can figure out which format to use). It also does the TIVO thing--that is I can record and watch a DVD-RAM at the same time.

 

What a Lucky Man


AP via Yahoo reports the death of Robert Moog. Two of my favorite pieces of music were created with his synthesizer: Wendy Carlos's "Switched on Bach" and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's "Lucky Man."

I remember listening to my small handheld AM radio in bed one night, picking up a station from a thousand miles away--fading in and out. Then "Lucky Man" came on and I was completely blown away. I did not find out the name of the song for about another year or so. It is a materpiece. I've just fired up iTunes to listen to it again.

I also have Wendy Carlos's "Switched on Bach, 2000." The liner notes chart a fascinating 25 year tale.

Monday, August 15, 2005

 

Bad BBC

Slashdot reports that it looks like the BBC has created a wiki entry for a fictional character in a computer game it is marketing. This has made the wikipedians very angry. Bad BBC.

 

Jerk-O-Meter


 

Technorati at 900,000

Slashdot reports Technorati processess 900K RSS feeds a day.

 

Firefox at 80,000,000


Slashdot reports that Firefox has now been downloaded over 80M times. See the live counter in the upper right hand corner of this site. Firefox is now the most used browser by people accessing the number one blog: BoingBoing.

Friday, August 12, 2005

 

Sour Grapes at Google

Saul Hansell reports at the NYT that Google is mad at CNet for using Google to write an article and won't speak to them for a year.

 

OS/X already on Intel

Wired News reports hackers have deploy Mac OS/X on Intel machines already and is available from BitTorrent.

 

Anti-sharing

ZDNet reports Google will pause its library scanning project while it wrangles with the publishing industry.

 

Oh No!

Slashdot reports someone is getting rid of StarOffice and deploying MS-Office.

 

Master Conrol Program



Slashdot has an interesting piece on the chain of trust in the Xbox. It begins with the MCPX boot ROM. That must be Master Control Program for Xbox (MCPX). This so reminds me of the infamous MCP in the Disney movie TRON.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

 

Customized RSS News Feeds

C|Net reports that people can create customized RSS news feeds from Google News.

 

Podcasting from Space

Slashdot reports on the first Podcast from Space--from the recent Shuttle mission.

 

Just all played out . . .

Yahoo News reports a man died while playing on-line Starcraft.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

 

Enslaving Bacteria

Slashdot reports that folks at UMass have discovered a bacterium that ingests metal and excretes nanowires (3 nm to 5nm). So all we need to do is spread a little metal jam on a silicon chip and get the bacteria to line up and eat in the correct direction and we've got ourselves a bonanza.

 

Peer to Peer TV

ZDNet reports on the Open Media Network which promotes on-line TV.

 

e-Passports coming soon.

Wired News reports a test of RFID chips in passports in preparation for a 2006 roll-out.

 

My Index is Bigger than Your Index

Slashdot reports that Yahoo's search engine has indexed more of the web than Google's search engine -- 20B vs 11B documents.

Monday, August 08, 2005

 

Gender Biased Blogs

dana boyd on Many2Many has an interesting piece that shows how the blogosphere exhibits many of the characteristics of the humansphere -- including the clumping of same gender-authored blogs.

 

Map Wars Continue

Jeff MacIntyre in Wired News reports on A9.com's attempt to up the ante in the Map Wars. When you locate a business on a map from their yellow pages section, A9 will show you a street level photograph of the store. It also allows you to "walk" up and down the street. Here are some CVS Pharmacies in Washington, D.C.

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