Category Archives: Web/Tech

Reading List August 22, 2005

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  • The Best Way to Save Gas (Moore’s Lore) – If localized web services got better we’d all save money.
  • Dating the Next Recession (Moore’s Lore) – Dana Blankenhorn thinks the next recession will begin October 17, 2005 when the new bankruptcy law goes into effect.  He makes an interesting and compelling argument.
  • Writer’s Perspective on Amazon’s Pay-to-Download Short Stories (Boing Boing) – Amazon has a new service that allows you download short stories one at a time (I-Stories?), and at least one writer thinks it’s a good thing.
  • Online Bettors Find a New Love: Real Estate (New York Times) – Online exchanges are correctly predicting many new developments (election results, American Idol winners, the capture of Saddam Hussein, etc.) and now they are telling us that real estate "bubbles" in the cities that it is tracking are NOT ready to burst.
  • The Vagina…It Writes Letters (Pandagon via Blog on the Run) – This is a hilarious play on the Vagina Monologues, which I’ve never read but am assuming weren’t that funny.  Kind of reminds me of that ‘detachable penis’ song.
  • "Peak Oil:" Welcome to the Media’s New Version of Shark Attacks (Freakonomics) – Steven Levitt pokes holes in a NYT magazine article that predicts calamitous results from the rising imbalance of oil production and consumption.
  • What Do the Kansas City Royals and My iPod Have in Common? (Freakonomics) – On randomness or the lack thereof.
  • Anatomy of a New York Times Article (Blog Maverick) – Times really are different for reporters.  Mark Cuban publishes the email chain for an interview he did with a New York Times reporter and then links to the resulting article.  Let’s just say he didn’t like the results, and he’s making the process transparent for everyone to make their own judgement.  Why do I think the reporter might not come out on top?
  • Steal this Book (Reveries) – Warren Adler, author of "War of the Roses", thinks the printed book has had a great 500-year run, but it’s about to be replaced by "screen" books.
  • Foxification of Local News (BuzzMachine) – Roger Ailes is going to do to local news what he did to national news at Fox.

Cool WiFi Camera

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Hawking_cameraHawking Technologies has a very cool new video camera (picture at right is from their site) that is:

  • Wi-Fi enabled.
  • Has its own IP address, which means it can be checked via internet from anywhere in the world.
  • Unlike other web-cams it doesn’t require a connection to a PC.
  • Produces 30 frames-per-second, high quality video.

All this for the low, low price of $84.

My thanks to bookofjoe for finding this jewel.

Reading List August 17, 2005

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  • A New Dimension? (A VC) – A venture capitalist looks at what’s next in web/software services, and he thinks it is "relevance."
  • VC Cliche of the Week: The Short List (A VC) – How companies looking for a round of funding should build their short list of prospects.
  • Smart Islands = Stupid Groups (The Post Money Value) – Canada Air ticks off the author by not accepting a discount offer he received because it is "web-only" and despite the fact that the website is down.
  • Barnes and Noble: Usted tiene una pista? (The Post Money Value) – A Barnes and Noble store in Burbank posts a sign intended for their hispanic customers, but written in English.
  • It’s Time to Talk Trash (Micro Persuasion) – CooperKatz’s newest client blog is for a company called simplehuman.  Looks interesting.
  • Fire Hose Pants (bookofjoe) – Pants made from the same material used to wrap rubber firehoses.  I need to get me some.
  • Dear Mr. Dell (Jeff Jarvis) – Jeff writes an open letter to Michael Dell about his "Dell Hell" experience and explains why he thinks Dell should become egaged in the online conversation.  Worth the read simply for the excellent articulation of why "blogging" et.al. is an important development for all businesses.

Reading List July 29, 2005

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Netflix Soon to Make My Year

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According to this article on Real Tech News Netflix is getting close to launching it’s movie download service in conjunction with TiVo.

Basically Netflix subscribers who have TiVo will be able to download movies to their TiVo DVR instead of waiting for them in the mail.  Since I subscribe to both services I think I’m about to go to couch-potato-guy-heaven with this announcement.

One consequence of this is that I’m now really motivated to get my TiVo hooked up to my wireless network.  I’ve been putting it off, but I can only imagine how long it would take my TiVo to download a movie using the dial up connection.  As Larry the Cable Guy would say, I better ‘Git-r-done’.

Reading List July 26, 2005

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MSN’s Virtual Earth

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Microsoft launched it’s own maps feature at http://virtualearth.msn.com/.

I haven’t had a chance to compare it to Google Maps in any depth, but I can tell you that I like Google better on first blush.  As is the norm with Google the interface is easier to understand, and the mere fact that you can use it for directions (I couldn’t find a way to do that with Virtual Earth) makes it more valuable to me.

On the other hand Virtual Earth has a couple of utilities I really like.  One is that it has an ActiveX feature that can automatically tell where you are based on your Wi-Fi access point, or IP address if your not set up on Wi-Fi.  That makes their local search very powerful.

Another nice little feature on Virtual Earth is the ScratchPad which lets you see your most recent searches in a small window.

That said, I think Google Maps is a superior service.