Phil Gyford explains why he turned Samuel Pepys into a blogger.
10:48:57 PM  #   your two cents []

Spam driving you mad? If you use Outlook, try the free SpamNet program from Cloudmark. You can read plenty of press commentary on their website -- but in a nutshell, you become part of a huge community whose pooled info on spam enables the program to catch about 90 per cent of what ends up in your inbox (in my experience). Occasionally I have to fish out something from the spam folder that's actually a newsletter I want, but you can put those mistakenly-deleted items onto a whitelist. In short, this program has given me back at least a small measure of sanity and is extremely effective. And there's a nice little thrill of pleasure to watch it zip through your just-downloaded email, commiting spamicide on all that unwanted crap.

1:30:32 PM  #   your two cents []

Macworld: Apple mum on new year's product crop.[InfoWorld: Top News] ...I read this and initially thought Steve's mother was going to tell us about the latest Mac products...
12:11:28 PM  #   your two cents []

Court Punts Sex.com Domain Case. Federal judges want the California Supreme Court to consider a dispute between the owner of a porn site and the company that erroneously transferred its Internet domain to a con man.  [Wired News]
12:10:19 PM  #   your two cents []

More divine justice: Wall Street Star May Face Suit by Regulators. Henry Blodget, the former Internet stock analyst at Merrill Lynch, has been told that he will probably be sued for fraud and other securities violations.  [New York Times: Technology]
12:09:33 PM  #   your two cents []

My god, this certainly has swung back and forth over the past few days. Some good news, for now, anyway: Supreme Court backs off DVD case. The U.S. Supreme Court has bowed out of a long-running dispute over a DVD descrambling utility, dealing a preliminary defeat to Hollywood studios and electronics makers. [CNET News.com]
12:08:12 PM  #   your two cents []

Dave wishes someone made a phone with a keyboard; Bernie and Alan have jumped in with suggestions. Bernie has been using his Nokia Communicator here in Ireland for ages to moblog (usually, it seems, from pubs or coffee houses!). Alan suggests the same, or alternatively a combo Blackberry phone or a PDA/PocketPC/phone, or the Sidekick/Hiptop. My pal and PR whiz Frank in New Mexico just got a Sidekick and was pretty excited about it. I've been testing out O2's XDA, which is a PocketPC with built in mobile and internet capability. However you need to get an add-on keyboard, which is bulkier than what Dave seems to want.

The PocketPC/PDA phones, in my experience, are still a bit clumsy both for actually making calls and for managing contacts, compared to a device whose primary purpose is to be a phone. For example, there's no easy way to add the number into your contacts of a person who has just phoned you -- you've got to cut and paste by tapping. The PocketPC phones also display in VERY LARGE LETTERS the name of the last person you rang or who rang you -- decidedly indiscreet, esp. for a journalist who may just have chatted with a confidential source or a well-known figure whose name lights up on the screen in front of others as you prepare to make a call (nothing like having people gawp at your phone at a party, for all the wrong reasons). I'm sure these things will be improved in future software releases. But Dave's right -- people will probably become less focused on a tiny shape for a phone and more interested in functionality, as they tend now to use headphones anyway.

12:05:25 PM  #   your two cents []

Warning: bloggers may find this just... too... painful...A blogaholic confesses, from Misanthropyst. (You'll also notice I'm posting this at 1:30 am on a Friday night/Saturday morning. S-A-D ... although I am just back from a dinner with friends. Really.): You could call this an experiment in media. [Windows Media Player required] OK, here's a version that uses RealPlayer, though I distrust that software immensely...
1:35:18 AM  #   your two cents []