Bill Brandon: Gadgets & Tech

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 21:45:40 GMT

Review: Matrox Adds More External Monitors via Triplehead.

Found this on ExtremeTech. Driving two monitors is a big plus in geek land, but driving three or four really sets you apart. Only trouble is that configuring Windows to do this with most video cards is a bit of a pain--plus requires video cards with multiple monitor ports.

Enter Matros with the TripleHead2Go. This is an external box that plugs into any video card (even advanced configs like a two-cardÂ SLI setup) and automatically takes care of recognizing both monitors and spreading your screen image across both of them. A mite pricey at $299, but that's still significantly cheaper than a second video card not to mention your valuable time.

(via ExtremeTech)

[technology filter]

Don't put Web 2.0 in your business plan.

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 03:59:08 GMT

A vc's view of Web 2.0

Rick Segal says, "Do not get caught up in all this stuff." via [Scripting News]

On-Demand DVD Publishing

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 14:40:25 GMT

Robin Good's List of New Media for October 2, 2005.

I liked this one for home-based entrepreneurs who are long on ideas but short on production gear:

On-Demand DVD Publishing

CustomFlix is a company enabling anyone wanting to sell her own DVDs to outsource complete production and shipping duties. The company simply takes your self-produced master material and it prints, packages and ships your own DVDs as orders from your customers come in, eliminating completely your inventory and shipping costs. CustomFlix allows independent DVD producers to set their own prices, and can accommodate both large and small production requests.
http://www.customflix.com/Producer/...

But here's the link to the rest of Robin's finds:

New Media Picks Of The Week: Sharewood Picnic 20.

By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Robin Good). [Lockergnome's RSS & Atom Tips]

How to use RSS Feeds to support your marketing plan

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 03:30:09 GMT

How to use RSS Feeds to support your marketing plan.

RBuzz/ResearchBuzz: RSS Feeds to Newsletters and Specializing the Feed.

RSS Feeds to Newsletters and Specializing the Feed — I got a very nice e-mail from a lady in Australia asking how the ResearchBuzz newsletters were done. Did I have a method, she asked, of converting my RSS feed to a newsletter? — The answer to that is no; the newsletter is done separately …

Source: ResearchBuzz
Author: RBuzz
Link: http://www.researchbuzz.org/2005/10/rss_feeds_to_newsletters_and_s.shtml

View discussion

[tech.memeorandum]

Dept. of Not News

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 03:27:47 GMT

Dept. of Not News.

Zogby Report Finds Surge in Online Learning. Online learning is surging among academic institutions, according to a September 2005 statistical analysis conducted by polling, market and statistical research firm Zogby International. The findings were commissioned by Blackboard Inc., a leading provide [Online Learning Update]

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 20:46:51 GMT

Joy: Web's Future Is in Mobile. Bill Joy, cofounder of Sun Microsystems and a driving force behind the creation of Berkeley Unix and Java, among other technologies, said the increase in handheld devices connected to the web will... [MarketingVOX - The Voice of Online Marketing]

Habla Espanol?

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 20:46:18 GMT

Habla Espanol?

U.S. Spanish Speakers Flocking Online. Some 79 percent of Spanish-speaking U.S. Hispanics have used the internet for five years or less - but are already highly active online, according to a study by Claria's Feedback Research, ">writes... [MarketingVOX - The Voice of Online Marketing]

Roland Tanglao's podcast mike

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 15:48:08 GMT

Roland Tanglao's podcast mike.

Roland recommends the APEX 162 . Says it's "$CAN 15 at Long and McQuade for it in Vancouver, not $US 19!" and gives the description from Amazon.com: Musical Instruments: APEX 162.:

QUOTE

Probably the most unique microphone in the line, the APEX162 is a true stereo mini condenser microphone designed specifically for use with minidisc recorders or portable dat machines. The 1/8th inch mini TRS connector is fixed directly to the microphone and mounted on a swivel base allowing the mic to be angled up to 90 degrees foreward when attached directly to a recording device. A 4.3 metre (14 foot) mini TRS extension cable is included for maximum versatility. The APEX162 requires 1.5-volt DC phantom power to operate. Ideal for event recording, Electronic News Gathering, ambience recording or for use in broadcast, the small and inconspicuous APEX162 is shipped with pop filters and a five-metre cable with TRS 1/8th inch minijack. Small and inconspicuous design makes the APEX162 ideal for use in any application where quality stereo recording is required, yet the microphone itelf needs to be virtually invisible.

UNQUOTE

[Roland Tanglao's Weblog]

This is a test.

Mon, 08 Sep 2003 23:39:50 GMT

This is a test.

It is only a test.

Mon, 25 Aug 2003 15:40:14 GMT

Two articles on today's release of the newest generation of Macromedia MX product line.

This should be very helpful to e-Learning developers, especially those using tools other than Authorware who would like to use Flash effectively.

Macromedia retools MX family.

Macromedia on Monday will announce the next generation of its MX product line. [InfoWorld: Top News]

"Boeing is using Macromedia’s new tools to develop an e-learning site, said Christopher Rogers, lead programmer/analyst for training systems and support at Boeing. "

Macromedia courts mainstream developers.

The software maker unveils the first major update of its MX line of Web development and design tools, including a version of Flash for developers who prefer traditional interfaces. [CNET News.com]

Mon, 12 May 2003 12:46:37 GMT

Etch a Site as Easy as Pie. Denim, a new sketching tool that allows entire websites to be designed as a series of rough drawings, is becoming a hit with designers. It's also being used by open-source programmers to build better interfaces for Linux. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]

Sun, 04 May 2003 16:05:34 GMT

Another round in the Great CSS Debate: pro, and con. [Scripting News]

Can't find the RSS feed for the "con" view -- it's LiveJournal, maybe that's not supposed to do a feed. The "pro" side is syndicated and he's offering a tutorial on CSS over the next few weeks, so I will post that separately.

Sat, 03 May 2003 15:37:38 GMT

We see a pattern here. Repeating background patterns, once the shame of web design, have been making a tasteful comeback. (Some sites that use patterns well.) Can't design patterns? Great free patterns for downloading available here. Been designing patterns since you lost your baby teeth? A stylish pattern exhibition wants your work. Joe Gillespie's free Simple Setter utility can help you create patterns and set pixel fonts including these great ones. (Mini-festival of fonts and patterns.) [Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report]

Sat, 03 May 2003 15:37:10 GMT

CSS Tabs. Bookmark this page at Webgraphics, which links to numerous tabbed interface experiments created in CSS. [Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report]

Sat, 03 May 2003 15:36:36 GMT

Close that thing! Open that thing!. Hate new windows on third party links? Blogzilla tells how to suppress them. Wish XHTML 1.0 Strict hadn't blocked new windows on third party links by forbidding the target attribute to the anchor tag? This tutorial provides a workaround. (But workarounds seem kind of silly, when you can just use XHTML Transitional.) [Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report]

Fri, 02 May 2003 22:34:53 GMT

RDF.root - Produce RSS 1.0 files in Radio. (SOURCE:"emm")
<quote>
This is a tool for Radio Userland. Using it will allow your Radio8 install to produce RSS-1.0 XML feeds.
</quote> [Roland Tanglao: WebCMS]

Fri, 02 May 2003 14:33:14 GMT

BrowserCam. BrowserCam creates screen captures of your site as seen "in any browser, and on any operating system." Vincent Flanders asks:... [Education/Technology - Tim Lauer]

Thu, 01 May 2003 16:04:42 GMT

Step-by-step primer on RSS.

What is RSS?

RSS is a protocol, an application of XML, that provides an open method of syndicating and aggregating Web content. Using RSS files, you can create a data feed that supplies headlines, links, and article summaries from your Web site. Users can have constantly updated content from web sites delivered to them via a news aggregator, a piece of software specifically tailored to receive these types of feeds. RSS is the hottest thing in Web communication. It powers many popular applications such as weblogs, knowledge management networks, and news syndication.

Weblogging, a term coined by Jorn Barger in December 1997, is one of the most popular and fast growing applications of RSS. A blog is someone's personal dated 'log' frequently updated with new information about a particular subject or range of subjects.
[State of Utah Government Information Locator Service]

This is oriented toward weblogging, but it does a good job of explaining how to build an RSS feed.

Thu, 01 May 2003 15:58:52 GMT

XHTML Syndication Module.

Abstract

This document is meant to document the Syndication module for XHTML. This module defines a namespace and arttibutes that live in that namespace that allow an XHTML web page to be syndicated.

Motivation

The motivation for this document is to do away with RSS as a seperate file format. If web publishers and CMSs want to participate in content syndication then they have to produce two versions of their front page, the HTML version and the RSS version. A careful inspection of XHTML and common web practice shows that most of the information need to do syndication already exists in web pages published today. What is needed is a little extra information to make syndication possible.

[Joe Gregorio]

This is from July 2002. More to study. Not everyone likes RSS.

Wed, 30 Apr 2003 14:26:16 GMT

It's all about convenience.

I'm off to Dallas to do a presentation at the NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores) technology conference. John Hervey, the CTO of the group, was one of InfoWorld's Top 25 CTOs in 2001. The convenience story industry is truly massive and as wrapped up in the development of standards as any other industry. It's not just Slurpees and hot dogs any more -- it was a $283 billion business in 2001.

Update: I was on my way out to the airport and forgot to link my source for the stat above. Also wanted to add a link to some interesting facts about technology and convenience stores.

[Chad Dickerson]

Sat, 26 Apr 2003 03:28:44 GMT

Abbreviate. A free online tool makes it easier to include abbreviation and acronym elements and attributes in your site's markup. More ... [Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report]

Thu, 17 Apr 2003 13:02:22 GMT

MS Office 2003, Open Office/Star Office, and XML.

This week in my InfoWorld column, I wrote about my mixed feelings about Microsoft's InfoPath:

...the realization of Jean Paoli's XML vision in the beta release of Office 2003 is truly a big deal and might be the most important Microsoft release for businesses since Windows itself. ... As compelling as this new release is, every nickel and dime still counts in most businesses. In fact, I spoke to the CTO of a large company who is piloting StarOffice as a complete replacement for Microsoft Office, which, across thousands of desktops, could save the company millions of dollars.

I took a look at what the Open Office team is doing with XML, and while they don't appear to have an "InfoPath killer" (yet, that I'm aware of anyway), the groundwork is there and people are using its XML capabilities already. This is definitely something to watch.

[Chad Dickerson]

Something to watch, indeed. If making these decisions for my one-man home office is difficult, I can only imagine what it must be like for CTOs.

Tue, 15 Apr 2003 02:54:07 GMT

Making An RSS Feed. UPDATE: As [Macro error: Can't evaluate the expression because the name "560" hasn't been defined.] pointed out in the comments to this post
QUOTE:
Danny already states this in his article: "Don't know HTML? Start a blog, because several blogging tools automatically generates RSS files."
ENDQUOTE

I stand corrected. Should have read it more closely but then again Danny should probably have titled the article, "What is an RSS feed, why you need one and how it works!" rather than "Making An RSS feed".

(SOURCE:Scripting News)-As Dave pointed out in today's Scripting News, any decent blogging system like Radio, Manila, etc. will do this automatically for you so non developers don't have to bother following the instructions here. [Roland Tanglao: WebCMS]

Mon, 14 Apr 2003 23:02:46 GMT

Opera fast-forwards to 7.1, vows Mac version. The Norwegian browser maker releases a new version of its software for Linux and Windows, and rescinds its previous threat to drop development of a version for the Macintosh. [CNET News.com]

Thu, 10 Apr 2003 13:38:17 GMT

Hands-Free Computer Control.

Forget wireless mouses for presenters. Now speakers and trainers can control a computer through voice recognition. I'd still do some serious experimenting with a completely voice-activated navigation and application control system before using it in front of a large audience.

A Voice Recognition Tool Frees Hands for Other Tasks. Long the holy grail of software development, voice recognition has proved a tricky feat, but developers have made enough progress in recent years to produce several low-priced options. The latest is the QPointer, which enables users to operate a PC without touching the mouse or even, in some models, the keyboard. By Laurie J. Flynn. [New York Times: Technology]

[Doug Fox -- The Future of Meetings]