So it’s all over the news already, Bill Gates is stepping down from his post at Microsoft in 2008.
Now last week, Robert Scoble left his position at Microsoft to go join, uh.. some podcasting company or something. Here’s a link to Scoble blogging about Gates leaving as well.
What if, and I’m just musing here, but what if Gates is joining Scoble??? I think it would look a little something like this…
Ahoy catz! I’m Emily. Not much to say, but I thought I’d put in a couple lines advertising my appearance as seems to be the trend. I’m not as tech-savvy as I’d like. My take on this stuff will be much more average consumer perspective. I’m not sure if any of my musings are tech-minded enough to appear here, but when they are, I’ll certainly share.
Actually, I just finished watching Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Roooooobots. Not sure I knew what was going on most of the time, but the CG was very polished. Obviously we’re quite a ways off from “gyroids” or “sexaroids” or even androids. Not up to cyborgs yet either, but there are some people doing interesting things with/to their bodies. Does anyone read Questionable Content? When can I have a Pintsize of my very own? *sigh*
… I thought I would introduce me. My name is Tim (as the byline vaguely suggests) and I’ll be posting on a regular basis. My tech obsessions have no known bounds so you’ll see stuff from every category from me. I particularly love talking about a cool new web service or things like what the world will be like when Google has everything ever written/recorded/discussed in its databases (this actually doesn’t scare me too much – feel free to tell me I’m nuts).
I pre-apologize for the wordy posts – I just like to get it all in there, you know? Cover my bases. My humor can be a little dry and nerdy too so poke fun at will!
And I too have a little web-based service that you may have never heard of, or may have forgotten about: Time Cave. Anyone remember this one? Here’s the gist of the free service:
The idea is simple: drop an email message into Time Cave and tell it when to come out. It’ll stay there for as long as you’d like, within reason. (We wouldn’t want stalactites to dissolve it.) So for days, weeks, months, or even years, Time Cave will hold onto your message. Once the message’s time comes, it’s speedily sent on its way back toward you (or whomever you addressed it to).
Use it as a free reminder service or just to send your future self a kind note. Want to make sure you don’t forget something, whether it’s an appointment or an ideal? Time Cave can help.
I dropped a message in about 3 or 4 years ago but have since changed my email countless times so I have no idea if they stuck to their promise. I just today scheduled an email to myself for June 15th, 2010. I figure this is a good long term test.
I’ll comment on this post when I get the message [hey, you never know] so be sure to bookmark this page if you don’t think you’ll remember to check back. Talk to you in 4 years…
… I’m a man of poverty and poor discernment.
…yyyyeah. It just doesn’t flow, does it?
Regardless, I’m Akela. You may remember me from such blogs as ‘Spirochete Spotlight’ and ‘Soy Sauce Roundup’. This may, however, be the first time you’ve met me, in which case, Hi! I’m happy to join the Live Digitally site, where I hope to entertain, annoy, and perhaps, if you’re very lucky… educate. ‘Cause, you know… there’s nothing that says ‘fun’ like education.
For my inaugural post, I’d like to point to a nifty web-based service that not all of you may know about: yousendit.com.
Yousendit.com is a site that allows you to send attachments of up to 1 gig in size to anyone with an email account. You pick the file, send it off, and your target receives a message in their inbox stating that they have a file waiting. They click on the provided link, the file downloads, and everybody’s happy. Registration for the site is free, and offers Standard and Secure options for delivery. Best of all, they don’t seem to care what you send, though prudence dictates that one be somewhat reserved in your file naming. Sign up now, before they decide to start charging!
Since you will probably be seeing a lot of me over the next little while, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Merv and I will be guiding you through my thoughts and opinions over a lot of things techie. My rambling posts will vary between the good old days of technology (well, for me the good old days mean the 80’s and 90’s), to the plethora of crap available now and, of course, my expectations for the future. Bare with me though as I try to get a hang of this thing.
Any questions, please feel free and I will answer them in the least sarcastic way that I can.
Merv
go round and round. Theeeeee TV on the bus goes ad ad ad, ad–
Ok, Transit Television has been around since 1999, and it’s not exactly the newest media trend, but I was reminded of it riding a city bus yesterday, so I thought I would reminisce.
Flash back to 2003. I just started college in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, acquired my university bus pass, and was learning the relevant routes. I noticed that some of the vehicles came equipped with monitors that not only had a map (which was USUALLY in sync with the actually drive) showing the upcoming stops, but also showed I Love Lucy, news, weather, word puzzles, and even recipes, sometimes all in Spanish!
This was TNN (the Transit Television Network) and Milwaukee was the second city (after Orlando, where the company is based) to get it. Since then Chicago, Atlanta, Norfolk, and Los Angeles have all been hooked up, and San Diego is getting its first taste this year. With all the money to be made from advertising to a “captive audience” with “attractive demographics,” what public transportation system can resist?
I can’t say it was all bad. Sometimes the bus DID get boring, and it was nice on occasion to zone out to one of those games where you watched letters fill in a word like “crocodile” or “vacuum” and tried to guess it before the time ran out. Sometimes the recipes sounded good; sometimes the news was enlightening, and sometimes the old TV shows made me laugh.
On the other hand, there were days when I just wanted a quiet ride home, and anyone who rides a city bus knows that’s hard enough as it is withOUT constant TV babble. It made it difficult to focus on a book, and headphones had to compete to drown out the commercials. Even looking out a window got tough, because there were always screens talking at me, wanting me to turn and look. It just felt a little invasive sometimes.
If you didn’t have reading material or some video games, it was an ok distraction. I just don’t like the fact that it’s forced on passengers. The volume never goes down and it doesn’t get turned off unless it’s just not working (which was the case at least a couple times. It’s fed via Wi-Fi, and sometimes it would inexplicably freeze).
I’m tempted to say, “Enjoy your relatively silent buses while you can!” but that seems a bit harsh. I think it just gets me that the whole point seems to be advertising money. Most people are plenty capable of entertaining themselves on a commute and if they are anything like me, they will be a little resentful of competition from TV commercials.
I’d hang on to it if you’re one of those ubermobile folks out there. If you’re like many people though that listen to music primarily in front of a desktop or laptop [insert picture of me with headphones here], you might find Pandora a very useful substitute for your music collection or shabby (at best) Internet radio options.
Pandora isn’t intended to replace your music collection though. It exists to complement it and help it grow. And from what I’ve seen, it does a darn good job.
Pandora is similar to an Internet radio station in the sense that you listen to music over the Internet.. and that’s where the similarity stops. Pandora does something much better than any radio station because it plays the kind of music that you want to hear and it’s fantastic at it! Radio stations (AM/FM, XM, Sirius, Internet, etc.) are channel-based that play music from particular genres. What Pandora does is allow you to enter an artist or song and a custom streaming music station is created for you that plays music similar to that particular artist or song, helping you find music that you’ll love that you may have never heard of before.
I know, I know, you’re saying “yea right, they play music in the same genre, no wow-factor there” or “sure – but I’ll just get the typical barrage of top 40, sponsored music no matter what I choose.” I can confidently say “Not so!”
Saw an interesting Web tool recently called blobber (yup, www.blobber.com), which (like all Web 2.0 “technologies” is of course just in beta right now) allows people who visit the same site to interact with each other, chat, and see “information and alerts … in real-time”. Which I think is important for all our readers.
The only real negative comment I have at present is I find their interface for setting up what should be an extremely simple tool is overly complex. I had to cut and paste just a single line of HTML into my Web site to activate it, but 10 minutes of reading instructions later and I still have no idea how to do any useful customization.
I honestly have no idea if this is a good idea or just wasting a little time, but it took me all of 14 seconds to incorporate it into the site. And now I have the key to Internet success, you know, chat.
Updated: Blobber is now gone from the site. It wasn’t working well when it did work, and ‘crashed’ too many times for me.
Triton just isn’t worth it, unless you’re willing to put up with a nearly constant deluge of commercials. It was annoying enough when they were added to Classic, but this upgrade is beyond obnoxious, sometimes showing the same clip two or three times in a row!
The Triton demo does highlight some pretty cool features, but the only one that I will really miss is the tabbed chat window. It seems like maybe they’ve taken a cue from Firefox, and that is an awesome move. The only other thing that seemed really new (and not just tempting, like the “huge” file transfer allowance) is AIM Phoneline. This service, for $9.95 a month, allows users to call quite a few places using their AIM Digits, and it’s free to receive incoming calls. That said, Yahoo! Messenger offers a similar deal with a different pricing scheme (and you can a much wider range of places, including Tokyo!).
Maybe what I’m really saying is: use Yahoo! instead! No commercials, a comparable feature set, and who knows? Maybe someday they’ll tab the chats into one window as well. For the people (myself included) who still want to groove with their AIM pals, I highly recommend sticking to the Classic version.
A new very chic eyeful for those who appreciate music and still love listening to records is now available. Actually, this one was created by Razyworks for those who aren’t afraid to be extravagant and pay great attention to details. I’m talking about the Swarovski version of the Vinyl Killer.
The Vinyl Killer is the world’s smallest self-running record player. This device churns out music by “driving” around the record with a needle that is situated underneath the bus. The music plays as the needle moves over the record while the bus encircles it. No turntables are required, and you can enjoy your records no matter where you are!
The device features a built-in monitor and an amplifier with speaker. A 9-volt battery is required for operation.
This special Swarovski version is encrusted with Swarovski crystals. Keep in mind that this is a limited edition, so you’d better hurry to if you want to get one. This series of the Vinyl Killer is made for those who are into fashion and style and earn enough to afford this cute thing.
I think it’s more about style and prestige than functionality. This is a chic item for those who understand and appreciate the finer things in vinyl life.
It will cost you $520. It’s available at http://www.razy-works.com/shop/shop_e/shop_e.html.
The Weekly Girl’s Gadget Report is brought to you by http://www.gadget4girls.com/
Slappa is a company who provides cases promising to protect your CDs, DVDs, laptops, and (of course) iPods. One of their lines of laptop cases is called the Velocity Pro, a well-lined backpack designed to carry laptops, small and large (up to 17″ screens). I’ve tried it out on my recent 5-week trip to NYC, Toronto, London, Tokyo, and Beaverton, Oregon (one of these things just doesn’t belong), and, to save you the rest of the read, it’s a pretty good laptop case. If you’re interested in the why, read on… Continue reading
Akihabara is Tokyo’s “electronics town”. Prior to about 2001 or so it was about the coolest place in the world to go look at gadgets, as it was often the only place to find really interesting stuff. With today’s globalization, it’s definitely lost some of its allure, but is still a must-see spot in Tokyo. Heck, even my wife got a kick out of it! Here’s a fun assortment of photos I took in my extremely rapid stop at Akihabara last week…
