Toshiba Is Making A Big Splash This Year.

The Shifted Librarian has links to two new articles about Toshiba Laptops, and I just realized that Macworld is around the corner. Naturally, I just ordered a laptop from Alienware, which means that that march of technology will be trotting on without me.

I know it's a losing game and all, but still, I just ordered the thing, and it's too late to cancel. Of course I do have a 1400x1050 max resolution, so I really don't have too much to complain about, and since it probably won't fit in my existing backpack, I'll have to get a new one (oh darn, luggage junkie that I am.) And the only real difference between my machine and this one is the wireless mouse and keyboard, which I can live without.

9:50:03 PM    

Macromedia gets chatty. Want to talk? Macromedia's Flash Communications Server MX allows Web developers to add chat, interactive video and other communications features to sites. [CNET News.com]

I'm going to have to play with this feature once I start the Flash portion of the MX Studio.  EEP! Nevermid, this is another $499.00 USD to get it, which is money that I don't have to spare right now. This would be a great medium for a Vlog (video log), for an interactive show (web based game show) and as a streaming method as well (I'm thinking of The Screensavers done exclusively over the web, with screened feeds from callers/viewers.)

Team meetings for distributed groups, college classes can have team workshops on different campuses at the same time. I used to work with someone who was managing teams in the Asiatics, South America, and Europe. Being able to see body language would make a huge difference.

Aside: I grew up in New Providence, NJ. That is just down the hill from Murray Hill. As in Bell Labs (That building will never be Lucent to me), birthplace of the transistor, etc. I got to grow up with the children of all kinds of brilliant scientists, and the tours they had were fascinating to me. My favorite was a large table that had two black and white displays on either end of it. Two people could sit at either end of the table and have converstations over the "Video Phone".

While webcams are nothing new, nor is chatting over the net via cams, being able to run your own server in a mass market way like this for some reason brings me back to the the thrill I felt as a kid, seeing that technology and staring in wild wonder and awe at the potential it holds.

8:10:15 AM