June 29, 2007
Len Edgerly's "First Person" Perspective of Buying iPhone
Installing CrashPlan
I'm finally installing the backup tool "CrashPlan".
Ever since my hard disk failed I've been doing manual "drag-copy" backups on my local net. But that's not a good long-term solution.
I've seen, and been told about, some good backup tools for the Mac. But CrashPlan is the one I find most appealing. I like the idea of doing backups automatically to another computer which I control.
Right now I'm backing up to another machine on my local net. But if this works out I'll arrange to do it to a machine at another location.
I'll report back as the process proceeds.
iPhone Day coverage
It's pretty amazing how much citizen reporter coverage is happening of the wait to purchase day-one iPhones.
For example, I've seen live video from the Palo Alto Apple Store. Twitters from the Cambridge MA Apple Store. Recorded video from the Brookline MA AT&T store. And all sorts of blog posts.
The intersection of a national news story, and all these new-media-literate users, could make for a spectacular case study on how information flows in this new media universe.
June 22, 2007
If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers
Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion. My house should have somewhere between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdown for each configuration so that I can arbitrarily pick one.
Read more...
June 20, 2007
Next Boston WebInno meeting: July 9
The Web Innovators Group is an every-couple-of-months gathering of...
...people engaged in internet and mobile innovation in the Boston area. We aim to support entrepreneurs, visionaries, and creative thinkers in the field by holding events which foster community interaction.Our regular meetings provide a forum for entrepreneurs from self-funded/early-stage startups to present new services to their peers, as well as an opportunity for everyone in the community to share and exchange ideas.
I've been to a couple of these and they are terrific.
June 19, 2007
AndyI's MIT Flea photo tour
Andy Ihnatko has posted a set of pics which capture the geeky goodness which is the legendary MIT flea market.
June 18, 2007
Personal scanners for supermarket shopping
Stephanie Cerneck doesn’t go through the checkout line at her supermarket anymore. Or even the self-checkout line.She uses a personal scanner offered by the Bloom grocery store near her home, scanning each item as she takes it off the shelf and bagging as she shops. When she’s done, she pays at a terminal at the front of the store.
“When I come up to the checkout, everything’s already bagged, I go to my car, I’m done. No waiting in line,” she said at the suburban store between Washington and Baltimore.
Blockbuster picks Blu-ray as exclusive HD disc format
Story on CNET:
Blockbuster Inc. announced on Monday that it would rent only Blu-ray discs, and not HD DVDs, in its 1,700 company-owned stores. That's supposed to take effect by mid-July.The company said the decision was based on Blu-ray rentals "significantly outpacing" HD DVD rentals, and added that both formats will be available through its Web site.
While the dueling formats are technically somewhat similar, Blu-ray enjoys the advantage of being backed by more film studios (Sony, 20th Century Fox, Buena Vista, and Lionsgate) vs. HD DVD, which counts NBC Universal as its strongest supporter. Warner Home Video and Paramount have said they'll release movies in both formats. In addition, Blu-ray discs can store more data.
[ Thanks AlexR for the heads-up on this. ]
The original DevHouse
Following up on my earlier post about the upcoming DevHouse Boston 2, here's a piece from the San Jose Mercury News about the original: SuperHappyDevHouse.
Sixteen programmers quietly clack on their laptops while sitting on plush couches that have been pushed against the family room walls so there's more floor space where later arrivals can sit.The studious air makes you want to whisper.
A few guys get up to graze the spread covering the kitchen counter: burritos wrapped in corn or flour tortillas, chile verde with pulled pork that's been simmering for eight hours, and chocolate-chip bundt cakes laced with Godiva liquor.
Techpopuli Podcast #21
After a not so brief hiatus, the podcast is back. I'm shooting for the more realistic schedule of 2-3 episodes a week. Wish me luck.
In episode #21:
[ RSS Feed ]
UPDATE: OK, so the hiatus has left me a little rusty (as if I was all that shiny to begin with). I referred to the date as "monday the 17th" oops.
June 17, 2007
DevHouse Boston
A week from today (June24) is the second Dev House Boston.
Boston Tweetup
A good time was had by all at yesterday's gathering of some of the Boston Twitterati.
Here're Joe Cascio's flickr pics.
June 11, 2007
Safari 3 Beta requires restart
Installing the new Safari 3 beta requires you to restart you computer. That means there's more than just application software here. I wonder what's up?
Stockmarket also not overly impressed
Apple stock fell $4.30 today. Down 3.45% to $120.19.
WWDC Keynote first look
I wasn't able to follow the on-site reports live, and I'm still waiting for the video to be posted. But based on post-keynote reports from various sites, here are the highlights from this morning's Steve Jobs keynote at the WWDC.
More gaming
Lots of games and gamers are migrating to the Mac. Electronic Arts has made a new commitment to making games for the platform.
New desktop
New look and feel for the Mac Finder Desktop and some elements of applications. More transparency and a more 3d look. The dock reformatted to have depth. More animation. "Stacks" is a new file management metaphor allowing you to organize (sic) files and things into piles which can be pushed around, fanned out, etc. (sounds like this demo that I wrote about a while back) No more brushed metal look. I never hated this look as much as others, but I guess Apple got the message.
Finder
Enhanced searching. "Back to my Mac" the ability to access your home or office mac from the field across the internet. This uses .mac to help make the connection between machines. (Is this an effort to make people sign up for the not-really-so-useful .mac just for this?)
Leopard in October for $129
I'll say what I always have. If you think your software project still has five months of work, well then you really have no idea when it will be done. Cause anything can happen in that much time.
Safari 3, and for windows too
I don't understand why Apple would want to do a version of Safari for Windows. They did iTunes for Windows in order to sell iPods. What hardware will Safari sell? Is this to somehow support the iPhone?
iPhone widget-like apps by 3rd parties
Apple will allow third-party developers to create simple, widget-like apps to run on the iPhone. They will have to run in Safari for "security" reasons.
iPhone june 29, midnight, att and apple stores
I guess this makes it official. It will probably be fun to go check out the excitement that night at your local Apple Store.
[ Photo source ]
Zen and the Art of Jeep Repair
About 30 mins into Episode #53 of This Week in Media, John Foster talks about how he overcame his fear of his car, by diving into the process of diagnosing and repairing his '89 Jeep Wrangler.
He talks about the feeling of satisfaction he got from learning these new skills. He says, "I levelled up." A reference to gaming, when your character reaches the next higher level of play.
For the past few months my friend Mark has been my guru and native guide into that same world. He's been helping me to repair my aging Jeep Cherokee. And in addition to the money saving (which has been substantial), I've gotten a great sense of satisfaction from the process. It's also liberating to discover that this stuff is not a big hi-tech mystery. Most of it can be managed by mere-mortals.
WWDC 2007 Keynote today
Today is the first day of the rest of history... sort of.
At 1pm EDT today Steve Jobs will step on stage to present the keynote for the 2007 Apple World Wide Developer Conference.
This event is the #2 venue for Apple giving us all a state-of-the-union of Apple stuff.
Apple watchers have been anxiously awaiting this day. But speculation is all over the place on what will be presented. Some of the possibles are:
* Final features list for the Leopard version of the Mac OS
* Formal ship announcement of the Apple iPhone
* Announcement of how much third-party software development will be allowed on the iPhone
* Mac Mini end-of-life
* New Macs with the "Santa Rosa" chipset
June 05, 2007
VSLs: Very Small Laptops
Via Technologies has unfurled a prototype for a mini notebook that will compete against similar small computers touted by Samsung and Intel, but sell for less.The Taiwanese company is also showing off motherboards that will appear in smart phones in about a year.