CE is dead
Sony is coming out with a Palm OS powered PDA with a memory stick and maybe a camera. With their even sleeker design, what's left for windows CE powered PDAs?
Ted's ComParadigm in OneLiners Why
Ted's ComParadigm in OneLinersWhy are video games so much better designed than office software? Because people who design video games love to play video games. People who design office software look forward to doing something else on the weekend.
Running Linux on a palmtop
Running Linux on a palmtop commerically? See handhelds.org. Is this better then Palm OS? Or is Compaq trying to sell a few more boxes to the Linux Hackers?
One day someone has to
One day someone has to write a routine to do Credit Card Check Digit Validation
Being virtual Sitting in an
Being virtual
Sitting in an Internet Cafe in S.F., on a rented computer, working on my applications with a team of people via telnet and IM in Tokyo and Boston. Is this not virtual enterprise?
Paid headphones on domestic flights
Paid headphones on domestic flights
On coach class long domestic flights, why do they make you pay $4 for the headphone to watch movie? Considering the cost of a ticket is going to be $400 or so, do you think people will care if the ticket is $408 roundtrip? The logistic of having the flight attendants walk up and down, handle money, etc, is not worth the work, or is it? Or are there some strange rule that make this necessary? Some royalty thing with movie studios?
Want to fly a helicopter
Want to fly a helicopter indoor? Try KEYENCE Online International
E Books Why isn't this
E Books
Why isn't this taking off? Advantages -- one hand to hold book and turn page. No annoying keeping the book open while reading. Backlite to read in bed/plane. Great for travel -- light weight.
How is ebook different form audio books (which is avialable widely)? Someone can duplicate an audio book on cassette easily, onto MP3 or Minidisc, add chapter marks, etc. How about feeding audio books to speech-recognition software to transcript it?
The world's slowest computer The
The world's slowest computer The Long Now Foundation
The Webby Awards points to
The Webby Awards points to some cool sites.
Being Mobile According to the
Being Mobile
According to the video display, I am 35000 meters above ground, 10 hours from Chicago. I am clearing up my emails while listening to MP3's playing on my subnotebook, powered by a Jet aircraft through a pair of noise cancelling headphones.
[Alas - This is blogged later since T1 in the air is still not an option]
Visual Feedback for browsing I
Visual Feedback for browsing
I like to control my browsing work flow. When I am reading a site with a link, sometimes I want to make sure that the new link is viewed in a separate window, so that I can go back and forth.(Partly this is due to the network speed being not infinite, that's another story). So this advanced user behaviour should be supported by the web site visited. How about putting visual indicators around links that will open up a new browser window vs those which do not. For example, a little icon indicating "additional window". Similarly, required fields on forms should have visual indicators.
Back to network speed, how much of my (and others) browsing behaviour is based on the network speed being not fast enough? How much of the current theorys and studies will go out of the window after boardband?
MP3 players
The Free Standards Group
Management by Instant Messanger For
Management by Instant Messanger
For me, using AOL IM is a great way tocommunidate. I can have simultaneous and one-on-one conversation with different people at the same time. A truly time saving device (if you can multi-task). Can't do this in person in meetings. Also, putting things in writing, with the slight delay, helps clarify the conversation as well. One of course need to learn to do text chat effectively. Everything you say is on the record and can be scrolled back and reviewed.
Writing Instruments Best disposible writing
Writing Instruments
Best disposible writing instruments? Sanford Uni-Ball Gel RTgel pen. Had this discussion at work yesterday. Is it that important to have a good pen? I think so. It makes the creation and transfer of ideas from mind to paper a joy.
Workplace Design There seems to
Workplace Design
There seems to be a lack of publication that address the issues around designing modern offices, especially for high tech workers. The only reasonable reference I can find is Workplace by Design : Mapping the high-performance workscape - by Franklin Becker and Fritz Steele. This book is six years old. While this book still pushes the Just In Time offices of Arthur Andersen as the greatest things since slice bread, I often wonder if that is really a viable concept. I have heard from a few AA consultants that while this is being implemented, in general users hated this concept. That of course is not a statistically significant conclusion at all. Where are all the follow up studies?
Outlining How do you organize
Outlining
How do you organize your thoughts? A free form data kinda person? I am a list person, and a outline person. The sad thing is that after DOS there is simply no good outlining programing. I used to use this little DOS program call PCOutline. Now that we are in NT and Linux world, where is a good outliner program? I tried Brain Forest Professional, but it is not that good. The keyboard based navigation is very poor. Now I am looking at Info Select a very interesting tool. Full reivew later.
This is the best way
Keep watch on SF Gate
Keep watch on SF Gate - The Bay Area's Home Page - sfgate.com