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Monday, February 04, 2002 |
Yay! It doesn't get much better than a big victory over the Missouri Tigers one week and then the K-State Wildcats the next! More Rock Chalk Jayhawk tonight!
10:53:29 PM Permanent link here
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Here's a new one I haven't heard before - ZigBee. Talking Up Low-Cost, Low-Power Wireless "A standard for low-voltage, low-power chips for wireless devices will push the concept of ubiquitous computing from theory to reality in homes, offices, and even cars, an executive from Koninklijke Philips Electronics said.... ZigBee, formerly known by several other names, including HomeRF Lite, is a wireless technology focused on low-cost, low-power applications that is expected to cost only about $2 per module by next year, said Fred M. Boekhorst, vice president of Philips Research.... ZigBee will run at speeds ranging from 10 kilobits per second up to 115.2 kbps, which at the top end is about twice the speed of a dial-up modem, but only a fraction of the speed of Bluetooth...." [in PC World]
10:49:56 PM Permanent link here
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Second Meryl link of note: Making the Move to Movable Type. Here she dissects the MT blogging software, which I was two seconds away from trying to install when I decided to try Radio first. Looking at her Software Reviews, you'll be pleasantly surprised to see a review of - you guessed it - Radio! These two reviews will provide an excellent starting point for the ILA RTSF meeting at the end of the month. Now all we need is a comparable review of GreyMatter and Blogger (Lite and Pro). Anybody know of one? Anybody have a third-party review of other blogging software?
9:53:54 PM Permanent link here
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Meryl is on a roll today, so here's the first of two links gleaned from her site. On my list of languages I've already learned in a parallel universe where there are 34 hours in a day is PHP. Maybe I'll get to it a little bit faster in this life thanks to ComputerWorld's Introduction to PHP. Then again, maybe not.
9:37:20 PM Permanent link here
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Over on Evolt.org, Marlene Bruce gives some numbers to help you Design to Realistic Window Sizes. "It is my opinion that with the increasing number of surfers now surfing at 800x600 one can possibly design safely at 741x404. However, to really be on the safe side (15% at 640x480 can add up to a lot of visitors), design to 581x284." [via ia/]
This sounds great in theory, but I'm still having problems balancing 1) one-window designs that 2) contain meaningful navigation links that have a modicum of breadth and depth 3)with text that is legible. And I'm still working out how to best implement liquid designs. It will be hard to get what I want using Oracle Portal for SLS because I can't control table widths, but yet I can't put the whole thing in CSS for layout. As Mr. Dylan says, "stuck in the middle with you again."
6:32:46 PM Permanent link here
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Verizon's 3G not that great "Yes, it finally gets wireless data bandwidth and, therefore, functionality beyond the level of a 1980s dial-up modem. But instead of delivering what you'd expect from a 21st century technology, it provides levels of performance and reliability roughly equivalent to a mid-'90s modem -- minus the wires.... Considering throughput, prices and bugs, it's hard to get excited about the advent of 3G. But if you want the Web wirelessly, and you or your company can afford the price, and you're willing to put up with some glitches, Verizon's new service is here today and should meet your needs. That's more than I can say about any other wireless technology." [via Tomalak's Realm]
I'm an early adopter and even I won't go for this service. The phrase "fits and starts" comes to mind. But someday we'll look back on this and laugh (in a good way).
6:10:38 PM Permanent link here
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Office Depot dumping Visor inventory "VisorCentral is reporting that Office Depot is running some sort of "fire" sale on all Visor handhelds and Visor accessories. Some of the liquidation deals include the $99 Targus Total Voice Recorder for $25, the $99 Stowaway foldable keyboard for $49, the $39 Visor Backup Springboard module for $12, and $50 replacement Visor Prism cradles for $20. Office Depot has also removed all Visor products and accessories from their online store. This begs the question, does Office Depot know something no one else does? Could the Visor line of PDA's be heading to the grave much sooner than Handspring wants everyone to think? I still recall a representative of the company saying that Visor production will begin to ramp down in March, so I wouldn't be surprised if Visor's cease production all together by July 2002, much sooner than Handspring co-founder Jeff Hawkins would like everyone, especially developers to believe." [PDABuzz.com]
I never liked Handspring's products specifically because of their modular approach. To get everything I would have wanted, I'd have to spend $1000 and then still carry around with me all of the modules. I have enough trouble keeping track of my Clie and cell phone, thank you very much. So I'm not surprised that Handspring is scaling back in the face of competition from the new PocketPCs. If you own one, though, get thee to an Office Depot!
5:59:50 PM Permanent link here
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Layout and Content of Popular Sites. "This study by Steve Kangas, CTO of NetConversions compares common attributes in 87 sites including use of JavaScript, fixed layout versus liquid, file size, number of images used, and more. For further comparison of attributes of popular sites, you might also be interested in WDVL's Ten Top Sites Compared, which looks at elements such as fonts used, page width, background color, link location, and more." [ia/ - news for information architects]
"The “average” home page has 80 links, 11 (about 1/8) of these are through images." Can you guess that almost all of these sites are big .coms? I'd like to see this type of study done for small- to medium-sized public library Web sites. It would be interesting to compare what works well and what doesn't for this type of site.
5:55:14 PM Permanent link here
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Let Your PC Turbocharge Your TV: Personal video recorders such as TiVo cost a lot; why not build one yourself? [in BusinessWeek]
"My conclusion: It will cost you a little more than $200, a free evening or weekend, and--geek alert--the guts to open up your computer and tinker a bit to install the special video card. It's easier than you think. If you're still intimidated, I'll suggest a couple of ways to get around it."
The television industry is running scared [in The Boston Globe]
"Adding TiVo-like capabilities to a PC allows for a variety of paradigm-busting applications. Say you've got multiple computers in your home, all networked together. The SnapStream software contains a built-in network server, so you can watch a recorded program on any PC in the house. Suppose you own a palm-top computer that runs Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system. You can download a SnapStream video and watch it during the morning commute."
Ouch. BusinessWeek has an article detailing how to add digital video recorder technology (also known as personal video recorders) to your PC, complete with recommendations for video cards. This link comes from the comments in a Slashdot post called The Napsterization of TV that itself points to a Boston Globe article about SnapStream recording software and what it may mean for digitization of televised content. To paraphrase one of the commenters in the Slashdot article, if you're reading about this in BW and TBL, it's time for the bigco folks to wake up and figure out how to work with these technologies, not against them.
2:07:01 PM Permanent link here
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This morning someone I don't know told me I look like I'm 20-years old. Now I have to figure out if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
12:55:01 PM Permanent link here
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Renzo Riga: "The Boston Globe didn't update their page all night. Talk about missed opportunities and not knowing how to capitalize on new media." [via Scripting News]
Bad Globe, bad! Sooooo not shifted.
11:15:09 AM Permanent link here
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Philips Burning on Protection "But Jeff Joseph, vice president of communication for the Consumer Electronics Association -- a consortium of manufacturers -- says the standoff could require 'a huge education campaign' that could force retailers to segregate copy-protected CDs from those with the logo, something Amazon has already begun doing.... 'The last time Universal and Disney squared off against a major consumer electronics company was the Sony Betamax case,' von Lohmann said. 'They lost....' Philips' patents on much of the technology for CD audio begins expiring this year and next. And newer audio formats such as DVD-Audio already boast far superior sound quality than CDs. Doris thinks the compact disc will be replaced by 'something like what was tried with DVD-Audio, but with better copy protection.' Some of that protection may come from legislation: Senator Fritz Hollings has yet to introduce the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA) into Congress, but drafts in circulation would require all devices sold in the U.S. for playing audio and/or video to include copyright protection mechanisms dictated by the entertainment industry." [in Wired News]
Every "device" would include PCs, too. The SSSCA is just as misguided as the DMCA. How come we don't hear Congress and the bigco copyright holders advocating for the marketplace to work this one out? Because of the money. For a glimpse into one possible future, read A Love Song for Napster. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
9:38:25 AM Permanent link here
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Caution urged on 802.11a adoption "...users can expect a more limited feature set than currently found in 802.11b products, listing such missing items as full security capabilities, network management, and roaming.... 'We think we will see a lot of companies roll out 'b' and augment it with 'a' where they need higher bandwidth. But 'g' will be the true successor to 'b' because of its backwards compatibility to both 'a' and 'b,' ' said Alex Thatcher, wireless solutions product manager at HP, based in Palo Alto, Calif.... The issue over handheld devices is even more problematic. Handhelds currently support a 16-bit bus for PC Card and Compact Flash II add-on cards. Wi-Fi 5, in its first iteration, uses a 32-bit bus technology and will not work with current handhelds." [in IDG InfoWorld]
Illustrates the state of acronym soup in today's wireless world. I remember how excited I was to get my first 28.8 modem, so I'm optimistic about a high-speed, wireless future sooner than later.
9:16:26 AM Permanent link here
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© Copyright 2004 Jenny Levine.
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