Rumors

Interesting article from David Pogue, NYT regarding our brand allegiance with gadgets and technology.

Just took a typing test. Can you beat me?

78 words

Typing Test

From the fine folks over at ReadWriteWeb, who posted some thoughts about Facebook Connect.

I find this whole push for more data openness very intriguing, however the potential for abuse increases along with the wider adoption.  One wonders how much damage could be wrought upon Facebook with a critical security exploit.

However, there are going to be some very neat mash-ups between handheld computers (formally known as cell phones), such as the iPhone and Google’s Android, and the Cloud full of data (Facebook, Google, etc..).  Think Steve Jobs isn’t looking for another horse to bet upon, as Google looms as a burgeoning competitor.  Steve isn’t naive, and has seen another company rise a similar path, if not by different methods.   Microsoft 20+ years earlier.

Curious, is there anyone left out there that thinks Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook, made the WRONG decision by passing up on earlier offers?  Even in this down economy, Facebook is positioned to be this cycle’s Google.  Right in time, as it seems that Google is moving up the food chain, and becoming what Microsoft once was.  Natural evolution of technical giants, perhaps.

Same as it ever was.

Thanks to Wise Elephant for this one.  An extensive dictionary of text/instant message abbreviations.  Very cool!

I agree with I, Cringely…Windows Mobile is probably dying.  It is a terrible platform anyway.

This is an interesting quick read for anyone in the data center industry.  Does your data center perform these tasks daily and diligently?  

Yet another final nail has been driven into the HD-DVD casket and frankly, I could care less. BluRay is emerging as the clear winner in this pointless format war reminiscent of the old VHS vs. Betamax wars. Just in time for well-done electronic distribution to kick the snot out of it. Well done, Sony!

From the article:

The nation’s largest retailer said Friday it has decided to sell only Blu-ray DVDs and hardware in its 4,000 U.S. stores and no longer carry rival HD DVD offerings.

The announcement comes five days after Netflix Inc. said it will stop carrying rentals in Toshiba Corp.’s HD DVD format and instead go exclusively with the rival Sony Corp. technology favored by five major movie studios.

In Mac related gaming news, the fine folks over at MacLife have sit down with Spore creator, Will Wright.  I am looking forward to this release and hope it won’t suck the hours away from my life like some other games.

The Financial Times is reporting that Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. may be going after Yahoo.

From the article

News Corp has been in talks about merging its MySpace social network and other online sites with Yahoo in exchange for a substantial stake in the web portal, according to a person familiar with the matter.

My take is that you never bet against Microsoft. However, how much value is truly left in Yahoo? The combination of MySpace and Yahoo makes sense in some ways. However, make no mistake, if this would occur..it would relegate Yahoo to the bottom of the Internet social heap. Who really even uses MySpace anymore?

Wired claims it is Yahoo who is courting News Corp to fend off Microsoft.

The march of technology never ceases and the competition for small, ultra-portable laptops just got hotter. IBM Lenovo will release a direct competitor to the Apple Air that is based on a 13″ screen and full-sized keyboard.

From the article:

Sporting the traditional ThinkPad black slab design, the X300 isn’t as skinny or sexy as the Apple, but it’s still very slender and attractive, at under an inch thick. Also, unlike the Apple, most of the ThinkPad’s configurations are a bit heavier than the 3-pound weight that traditionally denotes a subnotebook.

Unfortunately, this laptop will not boot OS X natively.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Yahoo has rejected Microsoft’s offer of $31 per share ($44.6 Billion US Dollars).

The article also says that Yahoo has taken preventative “poison pill” measures to fend off more hostile takeover attempts.

The decision to reject the offer signals that Yahoo’s board is digging in its heels for what could be a long takeover battle. The company is unlikely to consider any offer below $40 per share, the person said.

Looks like this won’t be decided anytime soon. The Yahoo as we have known will probably change as they do everything they can to build value and justify this decision to shareholders.. Who else will come calling at over $56 billion dollars? What are they holding out for… Facebook money?

Google is offering to help Yahoo thwart Microsoft’s advances.

This is something that I would like to attend.  As always, my work schedule will probably not allow it.

Information Architecture Summit

GeoTag Location

Nintendo’s Wii Sports leads the nominations for the 2007 British Academy Video Games Awards

read more | digg story

GeoTag Location

Greetings! I’ve begin microblogging with Jaiku. If you want to see what it is all about, feel free to add me as a friend. I keep all of my del.icio.us, Flickr and Digg feeds there, so it’s a great way to find some tidbits that I found interesting.

Here are some quickies:

• Do Farmers Markets offer the best deals?
• James McAvoy has been cast as Scotty in the Star Trek prequel.
• They are remaking the 1976 classic Logan’s Run!
• New BitTorrent search engine has just been released.
• Collection of AppleTV Resources. I love my AppleTV!
• And 10 Things that your IT department doesn’t want users to know.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Technorati Tags: apple, bittorrent, food, movies

For those of you living in the Indianapolis area, what a great weekend. The weather simply doesn’t get much better than what we experienced this past weekend, and ends any doubt that summer has finally arrived. Hooray!

I had a blast going to the track on friday, and hanging out at the Patron suite and tent. Thanks to Patron for showing us such a great time! I will post some pictures of the event soon.

For those of us who enjoy price shopping on the internet before going out to make a purchase, here comes Frucall. Frucall allows you to get real-time comparison pricing from the internet by texting or calling in with the UPC code from the product. I have tested the service a couple of times, and it was spot on.

So, before plopping down big bucks at Best Buy or Frye’s for the latest electronics, be sure to give Frucall a shot to find a better deal.

Frucall – Online Comparison Shopping Web site for Mobile Shoppers:

Technorati Tags: deals, gadgets, mobile, indianapolis

GeoTag Location

Yesterday, I sit down with Steve Bray of WISH-8 TV and discussed DSL and cable modem download speeds. Naturally, the discussion wandered into net neutrality and Ted Stevens “Tube” territory.

This is an issue that has been around since the old dial-up access days in the early 1990′s. Some ISP’s would over subscribe their solo T1 and/or dial-in lines by a factor of 20 or sometimes much more. This would lead to extremely slow access speeds or even the dreaded busy signal.

Today’s broadband connections offer the convenience of “always-on”, but sometimes fall far short of their advertised download speeds. Contacting the provider can sometimes resolve the issue, by improving the physical build or bumping you into another tier of service. However, are the providers initial advertised speeds misleading?

Here are some interesting links that I used for research on this story.

Speed test

• speedtest.net (Multiple sites and my personal favorite)

Cable company practices

• techbasic.net
• computerworld.com
• technologyevangelist.com
• consumeraffairs.com

Net Neutrality

• pbs.org/cringely/pulpit
• nixguy.com
• blogs.zdnet.com
• savetheinternet.org
• theregister.co.uk
• it.slashdot.org(Interesting user comments below…. SlashDot is good for this)

Ted Stevens and his tubes

• wikipedia.org
• youtube.com
• boingboing.net

Be sure to watch WISH-8 TV in Indianapolis, Thursday May 10 @ 11pm to see the interview. The interview and footage was shot in one of the data centers that my company uses. Be sure to set your Tivo’s!

Technorati Tags: internet, netneutrality, TV, video