2005¦~3¤ë24¤é

Thoughts on The Future of WordPress and MovableType. There more I look at the blogging "market" these days, I see things falling into fairly well defined places--at least in my head. There is a already a well defined split between the hosted services that offer blogging capabilities (Blogger, TypePad, Y! 360, LiveJournal, etc) and the "host it yourself" model. That second group is the ecosystem that MovableType and WordPress currently dominate and I think they'll continue to do so. If you further divide that into "corporate/enterprise" and "personal/non-profit"... [Jeremy Zawodny's blog] 4:55:37 PM

State-of-the-art interactivity?. State-of-the-art interactivity? Jeffrey Veen has a great essay here on some of the non-interactive "interactivity" he saw while judging a recent website competition. The comments are useful too. One of the ideas which came up a few times is how... [JD on MX] 4:52:05 PM

What Price For 'Trusted PC Security'?. 'Trusted computing' is the name given to a system that locks digital content on your computer so you can't use it without permission. It is 'trusted', of course, from the vendor's point of view. But for you, the computer owner, it works only if you can in turn trust the vendors, because trusted computing "will give content providers a lot more control over what we can do with music, movies and books that we have bought from them." So can we trust them? Probably not - look at what Apple did to iTunes users: Apple "took away the ability to play songs downloaded from Real's Harmony service on your iPod." It took only months to transform copy protection into a weapon to use against competitors. The upshot? "We need to ensure that trusted computing remains under the control of the users and is not used to take away the freedoms we enjoy today." By Bill Thompson, BBC, March 18, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily] 10:30:45 AM

IO Data USB Memory Pen More USB pens are on the scene, this time coming from IO Data Device. Available in 32MB and 128MB capacities, the pen part appears to be worth a damn; they can use refills from Pilot. There are three ink colors inside, too: black, red and blue. When you're ready to put some data on the USB thingamabob, just detach the cap and plug it into your machine. Press Release [IO Data Device] - Liam (tips@gizmodo.com) [Gizmodo] 9:59:32 AM

RFID Home Starter Kit iAutomate is selling their RFID Starter kit, a $480 package that includes a long range RFID reader, their RFID software plugin (for your existing home-automation setup) and the required cables. Attaching a $30-$60 RFID tag to your household assets will let you track their movements, control security features based on personal presence, receive notification when people arrive or leave the house and even "get reminders to take out the trash if the garbage can is still detected at the house on garbage night." The system really showcases what the future with RFID will enable but at a cost that might prove daunting for those of us who haven't already splurged on a home automation system. Catalog Page [iAutomate via Engadget] - cardinal (editor@gizmodo.com) [Gizmodo] 9:58:52 AM

Playstation 3 Mockup Of course, we can't vouche for the validity of this Playstation 3 Mockup, but it's awful pretty, isn't it? It would sort of make sense for the PS3 to play UMD, but something about the front of the big mockup looks funky to me. Still, cool. (Thanks, Junki!) Full Size Image [Gizmodo] Update: Brian at Kotaku has some commentary, as well. Specifically, he acknowledges my dominance. Playstation 3 Revealed: First Images? [Kotaku] - lev (tips@gizmodo.com) [Gizmodo] 9:56:48 AM

First sight of alien planets. David Pescovitz: Astronomers used the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope to see planets outside our solar system for the first time ever. Previously, scientists have inferred the existence of more than 100 planets by detecting a gravity-induced wobble or shift in light in the stars that they orbit. Yesterday, the astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Goddard Space Flight Center announced that they directly observed the infrared radiation emitted by two planets 153 and 500 light-years away. (Seen here is a NASA artist's concept.) From the New York Times: They said directly measuring light from the planets was a major step in the quest to understand what alien planets are made of, because different molecules in the atmosphere absorb infrared light in characteristic ways and allow scientists to compare these alien planets to those in the solar system. Ultimately, astronomers would like to know if Earth, with its ability to evolve and support life, is unique or common in the universe.... Dr. Geoffrey W. Marcy, a planet hunter at the University of California, Berkeley, called the results "the stuff of history books" and added, "With this result, we are closer to understanding our own human roots, chemically, among the stars." Link [Boing Boing] 9:54:58 AM