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Thursday, July 11, 2002 |
Cool app for iTunes to web....
Kung-Tunes is a with AppleScriptStudio created OSX donation-ware utility to retrieve the currently played iTunes track and upload it to a webserver. Any scripts on that webserver can then access the uploaded file to dynamically display iTunes tracks on a webpage. An example can be seen on this website (if available, in the bottom part of this window). A screenshot of the application is shown below, featuring the main window. Either manually or at timed intervals, Kung-Tunes retrieves the currently playing iTunes track, saves it to file, and uploads the file to a specified webserver. Details are provided in the accompanying readme file. This looks pretty cool. I need to give it a shot....Thanks to Rob Jorgensen for the link... [C.K. Sample, III: my iPod Blog]
3:51:08 PM 
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Mac 'browser-share' grows at O'Reilly. The O'Reilly Networks' Derrick Story posted an item on July 5 that is interesting. In Browser numbers on the rise, Story notes that the number of Mac browsers hitting the O'Reilly site has nearly doubled from a year ago. His conclusion: The growing developer interest in OS X reflected in the browser numbers could be good news for the Mac. [Mac Net Journal]
1:25:37 PM
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Bad VC market a good time to start a company:. "...while capital is scarce and returns on venture investments have never been poorer, the track record from previous downturns suggests that conditions for building a solid start-up may be the best they have been in years." [evhead]
1:23:19 PM
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John Patrick, ex IBM senior exec and author, is actively blogging. Excellent. Wouldn't it be great if more senior execs had the vision and personal fortitude to post their thoughts? [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
A nice example of a well done weblog.
9:21:25 AM
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Along with the already-widely-reported .NET Architecture Center, MSDN also launched the XML Web Services Developer Center.
The content & organization of this new site look quite promising, having Tim Ewald as the editor can only be a good thing, and the site even acknowledges the "no SOAP stack is an island" meme by including lots of links to non-MS mailing lists, other XML resources and SOAP stacks, and even some SOAPy bloggers. To kick things off there's some new content covering GXA and the Infoset by Don & Gudge respectively, a nice "Why Web Services?" piece by Tim, and a good Namespaces piece by Aaron. I have high hopes that Tim will dish up some interesting coverage of interop, deployment, versioning and other real-world issues in the near future.
My one and only request is that they provide an RSS feed for the site, so I don't need to keep surfing back there. Apparently Don has some code that does that already, so it should just take 'em a few minutes...
On a side note, the list of contributors to this site should in no way fuel the growing rumour about a reverse takeover of MSDN by DevelopMentor instructors & alumni. ;-) [Peter Drayton's Radio Weblog]
8:46:19 AM
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How Long Until The Library Of Congress Fits On Your Keychain?.
This is the one I've been waiting for: FujiFilm Unveils Tiny Hard Drive (emphasis is mine)
 "FujiFilm is helping revive Sneakernet with the release of its straightforwardly named USB Drive, the newest in a growing array of pocket-size, large-capacity storage devices that easily move among PCs.
This small flash RAM 'drive' is available in sizes ranging from 32MB to 128MB, with a 256MB version expected out in the fall. The 32MB drive costs $50; the 64MB unit, $70; and the 128MB drive, $150. Fuji initially announced 8MB and 16MB versions, too, but isn't shipping them because apparently no one wants them.
The unit's physical size, not its capacity, will catch people's attention. Forget the proverbial pack of cards or cigarettes. Measuring less than 4 by 1 by 1 inches, the USB Drive more closely resembles a short, stubby marker or a fat electric thermometer with a nose that plugs directly into your computer's USB port. It weighs only 0.7 ounce and is powered by the USB port, so there's no need for a battery or AC adapter.
Besides being small and light, it offers real plug and play--not the usual process (plug in, install the driver, identify driver conflicts that keep it from working, update the driver over the Internet, and finally hope it plays). That's because the FujiFilm Drive comes with a built-in processor that lets it work (in many cases) without drivers....
...And unlike Archos's MiniHD 20GB, the USB Drive works driver-free with USB 1.0 as well as 2.0....
But it won't work that way with everything. The drive still requires drivers for Windows 98 and Mac OS 8.6, which are the earliest versions of those operating systems that it supports. (And yes, you can use it to share data between PCs and Macs.)" [PC World]
Suh-weet!
I find it particularly interesting that Fuji found out no one wants 8MB and 16MB storage devices. When I had my first Palm III, I lusted for 8MB, but nowadays that's nothing. In fact, I wouldn't even consider buying one of these USB devices until the 256MB version is available. What's the equivalent of Moore's law for storage?
Addendum: the Fuji USB Drive site shows it available in a 512MB version!! [Jenny Levine: Tech Goddess]
8:10:26 AM
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Nice If You Forgot Your Wallet, But.....
Pay at the Pump--With Your Cell Phone
"Alon USA, which operates Fina gas stations and 7-Eleven outlets in the Southwest, is readying a field trial of an 'm-commerce' system using existing cellular telephone technology and already-installed point-of-sales systems.
Dallas-based Alon plans to use mobile-commerce payment technology developed by Cellenium in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, that will let any cellular telephone, including aging voice-only models, conduct a mobile transaction....
Once a consumer signs up for the service, he needs to call a toll-free number and punch in a four-digit authorization code on his phone. He will then receive a code to enter at the pump in order to pump his gas.
To induce customers to do all these things, Morris says, Alon will use a loyalty program that will reward them with goods such as free sodas or food from the convenience stores attached to the gas stations....
Ed Kountz, an analyst at TowerGroup in Needham, Massachusetts, says that except for Exxon Mobil's SpeedPass, which uses a radio frequency key fob to authorize payment, the Cellerate trial is among the first large-scale trials of m-commerce in the gas station and convenience store market.
But, Kountz says, Alon and its Cellerate partners face a real problem in rolling out a service that requires a customer to punch multiple digits into his cell phone and the gas pump, when he could instead just reach into his wallet for cash or a credit card." [PC World]
Agreed! I wouldn't bother with this unless I could just point my phone at the pump and easily authorize a debit from my account. So maybe this is just one small step instead of a giant leap. [Jenny Levine: Tech Goddess]
8:09:50 AM
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Plastic water bottles are turning men into sensitive creatures. This article says that men are becoming feminized due to chemicals dumped into the environment that have estrogen-like effects.
Plastics--including a plasticizer called phthalate, used in making flexible plastic for bottles of Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, Evian water, and so forth--are known to have estrogenic effects. Many commonly used pesticides have estrogenlike actions on human cells. Estrogenic chemicals ooze out of the synthetic lacquer that lines the inside of soup cans. These chemicals and others find their way into sewage and enter the rivers and lakes. Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]
8:08:02 AM
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Poul Anderson. "I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated." [Jake's Radio 'Blog]
8:05:48 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Clarence Westberg.
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This is my blogchalk:
United States, Minnesota, Bloomington, West, English, Clarence, Male, 51-55.
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