Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Candy Bar-Sized Bluetooth PC [Gizmodo]: Now I don't know what exactly you'd want to use this Waysmall 200ax-bt 200MHz computer with integrated Bluetooth for, but that's not because it's useless. Just the opposite, in fact. For $184 you get a low-power computer running the Linux 2.6.0 kernel with webserver and remote login and power management circuity on-board. Throw a solar cell onto this little bad boy and you could do all sorts of fun things, like embedding a permanent webserver into a building, controlling a swarm of wireless robots, or developing the first Bluetooth-enabled loaf of bread. At just 8.3 by 3.6 centimeters, the 200ax-bt still manages to pack in USB, serial, sound, and LCD controller - now with AC adapter! Remote sensing too. What else? (Stephenson, what about security applications?) As Dave Winer's taught me to say, "kuwuhl!" 9:54:30 PM    comment []  trackback []

Apple's Strategy re Digital Rights Management eBookCulture offers a fascinating post about DRM (built on an 'epic' post at drunkenblog.com) Apple's strategy for iTunes and iPod is really about creating a 'DRM platform that is riding on top of everyone else's platform'(a la Google). -- not selling iPods. 12:11:05 PM    comment []  trackback []

Gillmor: Do we have any options about options? Speaking of Gillmor (and of market signals) he did a fine piece on options and executive compensation back in May. In their 2003 book, 'In the Company of Owners,' Joseph Blasi, Douglas Kruse and Aaron Bernstein argue for wider stock ownership among employees. After studying options grants to top executives and the rank-and-file, they concluded that companies granting more to the top bosses gained nothing -- in terms of share-price improvements over three years from the date the options were granted -- over companies that spread the wealth. Worse,' they wrote, 'the firms whose corporate chieftains were most likely to take a bigger share had sub par performance to begin with. Since the extra ownership made no difference, the shareholders with the greediest CEOs were just throwing good money after bad.' Keep options. But aim them where they'll do some genuine good -- with the people in the trenches. They're the ones who do the hard work. Exactly 12:04:31 PM    comment []  trackback []

'Trust us.' Are spam filters out of control at Verio Hosting? Sent as an open letter to Dan Gillmor at the San Jose Mercury News, the most reliable source I know in the Valley: I thought this might be of interest as a tech trend for you to write about. And I'd welcome your advice. Verio, our ISP and web host, has just implemented spam controls. That's good. My email volume has dropped 50-80%. That's good... and bad, since I fear they've blocked lots of 'false positives,' and there's no way to know, and there's no way to create a "white list" of acceptable senders. [Why do I fear their false positives? Because their 'medium probability' spam (which they pass through with '[SPAM]' inserted into the subject line) includes lots of false positives, so I'm worried that there 'high probability' includes even more.] Their policy, such as it is, is detailed here: http://www.verio.com/support/view_article.cfm?doc_id=4157 (which link I only got after an increasingly frustrated call with tech support; they didn't notify users this was coming) I wonder: is this the way most ISPs are handling the spam problem, providing no recourse to white list, no way to adjust their filters, etc? Or is it time to move to another service? (I know full well what a problem spam is for them as well as for us, but it makes it hard for me to run a business if might have important incoming email blocked, and not even know it's happened.) 11:13:04 AM    comment []  trackback []

Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight NE sky, 1am Central (US) time, 3-4 times more intense than usual. What does this have to do with sustainability? I have no idea. But it sure is cool to see. 8:05:45 AM    comment []  trackback []