14 June 2002

There is No Demand for Messages Doc Searls: There is no demand for messages. [Scripting News]   [Comment on Shoptalk]

BLog is Now an Official Word Dane Carlson notes that "blog" is being added to the Oxford English Dictionary. [Scripting News]   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Blog Tools Promote Free Speech Megnut wrote the blogging piece we've been waiting for. "As with free speech itself, what we say isn't as important as the system that enables us to say it." Yes. [Scripting News]   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Use Your Phone to Read Barcodes Digicam Equipped Phones, PDAs, To Read Barcodes. Cheap alternative to traditional laser scanning solution available. [allNetDevices Wireless News]   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Visitors Remember Categories OPEN Mailing List -- The gap between how most Web surfers think and how most Web designers work frustrates both camps. According to a study at Kansas State University, when surfers looked through a Web site and then drew a diagram of how it was organized, the resulting drawings were for the large part inaccurate. Most surgers often grouped together similar bits of information rather than reflecting the real layout of the site. The reviewing psychologists think people remember categories better than they remember individual pages.   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Why Upgrade Your Mobile Phone Industry analysts (like Alex Slawsby and Adrian Weckler) believe there are no compelling reasons to ditch their current mobile phones and buy a new one. But even the next generation of phone services aren't compelling enough to suggest a new wave of buying is imminent. As a result, manufacturers will have to cut costs and lay off workers (about 20,000 at Ericsson, and twice that many at Motorola).   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Digital Camera Features Some digital cameras have features you gotta see, like diopter adjustment. This allows shooters the opportunity to adjust the optical viewfinder for nearsightedness or farsightedness. In Ireland's shops, the Nikon, Casio, Leica and Panasonic models offer this important feature. Then there are panorama features offered by the Casio, Nikon, Olympus and Canon cameras. You can take sequential photos, turning your body a little each time. The camera's screen helps you line up each new photo with the previous one. When you've transferred the photos to your computer, the software helps stitch the shots together into one wide, amazing-looking panorama. Almost all new 4-megapixel cameras offer nighttime shooting modes, letting you soak up as much light as possible. You can create lovely shots of car taillights making colored trails across the frame. But the Nikon, Minolta, Olympus and Sony cameras also remove the tiny, random color dots that often mar nighttime digital photos. Tripod mounts are important with panoramas or night shots. A tripod mount that's centered with the lens (as well as front to back) is ideal, which is yet another reason to like the Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Leica and Canon models. Web Links: www.steves-digicams.com, www.dpreview.com, www.imaging-resource.com, www.dcresource.com.   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Grant-Aided Palms in Classrooms In New York State, five thousand education leaders are using Palm handhelds as part of a three-year grant intended to explore technology's role in organizational and student development.   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Ireland Needs Properly Capitalised Broadband Policy KILKENNY, Ireland -- Many SEISS committee members believe the Irish government has to articulate a properly capitalised national broadband policy.   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Two Different Approaches to PVR Use The makers of digital video recorders have two different approaches for dealing with advertising. SonicBlue, which makes ReplayTV 4000, is in a court battle now that will decide whether it is committing copyright infringement by allowing viewers to skip commercials that have provided support for the programs they're watching. TiVo, on the other hand, is more advertiser-friendly, and does not allow viewers to skip commercials entirely, but only fast-forward through them. TiVo's chief executive says, "We found that despite the fact that people fast-forward through commercials, the retention of commercials is quite high. When they hit play again, the brain has taken in what has gone by, even at high speeds." And TiVo is encouraging advertisers to develop longer and "more creative" spots that that people would actually want to watch -- and re-watch.   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Networks and Netwars What is Ray Ozzie reading to make sense of a dangerous world ? Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy. The book argues that terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda are near-perfect embodiments of a networked organization. Ozzie explains: In the battle against small, dispersed organizations, it is unlikely that the massive, centralized organization will achieve success -- but neither will the wholly decentralized organization. The winning formula is a combination of the two: an organization that can use tremendous force when necessary, even as it enables specialist groups to work together in a decentralized manner. [Jeroen Bekkers' Groove Weblog]   [Comment on Shoptalk]