Wednesday, October 1, 2003 Microsoft Hacks A couple of hacks I need. Microsoft Entourage has a couple of things that I think should work and don't. When I sent a link from the web, Entourage is automatically selected and the "send new" process is started. Yet no signature line is selected. Now when I select "send new" from Entourage, a sig line is automatically added. Go figure. Secondly, why is there no preference setting for the deletion of mail? I am consistently greeted with the stupid window that makes sure that I really want to delete the mail that's been sitting in the delete folder for god knows how long and still makes me select the "delete button" rather than the cancel button. Weird. 5:49:45 PM    comment [] Why does Apple still care about packaging? Tom Peters Design WOW! Ok maybe I'm the only one who's actually reading and paying attention to your three series books on Brand, PSF and Project 50. The article doesn't account for the bags you get when you go to your local Apple Store and purchase something which are a design WOW! also. "..Maybe you buy yourself, say, a new Apple PowerBook, as I just did, and it comes in this really quite beautiful sleek black box with small elegant typeface and gorgeous subtle graphics and a strange and obvious attention to detail and you think, pshaw, who cares, just another big heartless tech corporation trying to smooth talk me, just another suckass hunk of plastic and wire and metal to break down in a month and be obsolete in a year and really, why should I give a damn. And yet. You can't help but notice. Apple seemed to really put some serious work into this, into the details, the packaging, the shape and texture. The rich black box, the clean unobtrusive font, the silver sliver inch-wide side-shot photograph of the PowerBook itself on the box lid." (Kevin Christley) [Lockergnome Bytes] 3:32:18 PM    comment [] Bruce Sterling - 10 Technologies that need to die An interesting list. I'm sure we can add to this. "Some technologies are so blatantly obnoxious that the human race would rejoice if they were summarily executed. A humorist and science fiction writer offers some candidates. Technologies die rather routinely—seen a Conestoga covered wagon lately?—but it’s rare for them to be singled out and righteously put to death. Some technologies, however, are so blatantly obnoxious that the human race would rejoice if they were obliterated. A wise society would honor its young technical innovators for services rendered in annihilating obsolete technologies that are the dangerous hangovers of previous, less advanced generations. Let me offer some candidates." (Kevin Christley) [Lockergnome Bytes] 3:30:31 PM    comment [] Tom Peters [Fast Company] 2:07:23 PM    comment [] First Impression "Organizations are living organisms, not engineering artifacts." -John Old , Knowledge Management Expert [Fast Company] 1:28:06 PM    comment [] Baltimore Competes with Fee Services Hey Downtown Denver Partnership, are you awake and paying attention? Baltimore's harbor area now has free Wi-Fi: The city is promoting the service, which was donated by a local Internet company. Alan Reiter points to an interesting result of free city-run Wi-Fi networks: they compete with for-fee services offered by other companies. The folks at Believe Wireless, a Baltimore company offering Wi-Fi for a monthly fee, aren't very happy about the city's free service. Huh, that's an interesting point. Realistically though, the fee services will always have competition from the free services, whether they are run by the city or some independent cafe. Maybe, down the road, cities will try to work something out with the providers. Like the city will provide a cloud over outdoor areas or public places and the service providers will offer Wi-Fi in closed spaces like restaurants and coffee shops. Alan also has reviewed Verizon's higher speed data service and comes up with download speeds in the low 200 Kbps range. Verizon touts the service in the 300-500 Kbps range. Upload speeds are pretty poor--around 40 Kbps.... [802.11b Networking News] 1:26:48 PM    comment [] Palm updates PDAs with larger screens, Palm OS 5 Since the palm died I guess maybe I'll need to put this in my Amazon wish list. Palm Inc. introduced three new personal digital assistants (PDAs) Wednesday, adding two new Tungsten devices and a new Zire device to the company lineup as it gets ready for the end-of-year shopping season and the reorganization of its operating structure. The Milpitas, Calif., company introduced the Tungsten brand for business customers and Zire brand for consumers last year, and has since introduced several models in each category. Wednesday, Palm expanded its Tungsten T line of Bluetooth PDAs with the T3, and will offer professionals with budget concerns the Tungsten E, said Anthony Armenta, product line manager for Palm. [MacCentral] 1:01:25 PM    comment [] Extreme Pumpkin Carving It is that time of year again. Maybe we'll do the flaming pumpkin and see how many accidents we can cause at the major intersection the house faces. Extreme Pumpkins.com - Pumpkin carving at its strangest! At what point did the carving of pumpkins turn into a cute event? When did boys stop carving pumpkins and moms start? Where did we lose touch with one of the years coolest events? (Meryl) [Lockergnome Bytes] 12:34:11 PM    comment []