Sony Does It Again

Posted on July 21, 2003

Sony’s just announced their latest Clie PDA, and it’s insanely cool (though you’ll pay for that, it lists at $700 — ouch!).

I’m dying to replace my old Handspring Visor but haven’t quite found the ideal device to do that yet. This thing is veeeeery attractive, but when you get into the $500+ range I start wondering why I shouldn’t just bag it and buy an iBook instead…

Gotta Go, Gotta Go

Posted on July 11, 2003

Our Favorite Geek ™ is headed off on vacation through next week, so you’re gonna have to get your fix of Webby goodness somewhere else for a little while. I know it’s heartbreaking… but we’ll get through this… together. (snif)

Yeah, right. Later gator!

Lewis Black Uncut on XM Friday

Posted on July 10, 2003

Here’s another good reason to subscribe to XM Radio:

tomorrow night, the XM Comedy Channel (XM150) is gonna be running a complete, unedited, uncensored concert by Lewis Black, who has gotta be one of the five funniest people walking the Earth today. You can catch it at 10PM Eastern time.

Schweet!

Two Ways Of Looking At “Good Enough”

Posted on July 10, 2003

Joy Larkin has some spot-on remarks on why many people and organizations put up with Microsoft products: mostly because the only thing more painful would be to switch to something else, no matter how much better it may be.

No offense to the Microsofties who read my blog, but I don’t believe that “it just works” is a compliment in the way you think it may be. Mike’s use of the term “it just works” is just reflecting the fact that in this day and age, if a person is computer literate, then most likely they will be familiar with Microsoft products. And if his users are familiar with Microsoft products, then it makes his Life of a One Man IT Department vastly easier since he won’t have to worry as much about training.

…think of it this way, it’s a compliment in the sense that we all know who Anna Nicole Smith is, but that doesn’t mean you’d want your son bringing her home for dinner.

Exactly — it’s not that “it just works” means that it’s well designed, but rather that it conforms to the expectations and idioms they’ve already had drilled into them from suffering through a kajillion MS products already.

Or, as the inimitable Inigo Montoya might have put it, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

XM’s Silent Success

Posted on July 10, 2003

Good article on Slate today about how XM Satellite Radio has become the success story nobody’s talking about:

[T]he $10-a-month service, which first broadcast in October of 2001, broke the 500,000 subscriber mark in April and expects 1.24 million by year’s end. Compare that to TiVo, which currently stands at a hair over 700,000 users but projects only a million by December…

Lots of big-market technology journalists, with the notable exception of Fortune’s [Peter] Lewis, somehow missed the boat on XM’s potential. New Yorkers often commute via public transportation while San Franciscans enjoy the luxury of a relatively cluttered, varied FM dial. (Full disclosure: As an admitted Manhattan dweller, I’d never met an XM subscriber face-to-face before reporting this column.) To them — OK, to us — satellite radio initially seemed like an unnecessary frill, especially in the age when CD players are ubiquitous even in low-end cars. And, after all, it’s only commercial radio, a medium whose geek appeal rates just a notch above carrier pigeons.

But the growing homogenization of local radio, courtesy of behemoths like Clear Channel (which owns 3 percent of XM), and the FCC’s laissez-faire turn on regulation have made unhappy listeners willing to pay for a better product.

Indeed — just one channel of XM’s 100 offerings, XMU, introduces me to more good bands in a week than I’d previously have discovered in a year. If they keep the quality of the programming this high, $10 is a steal.

Into the Mainstream!

Posted on July 8, 2003

You know blogging is reaching the mainstream of American life when blog etiquette gets a thorough once-over in Dear Abby…

UserLand on the Block?

Posted on July 8, 2003

With the recent sudden departure of COO John Robb and numerous veiled hints from Dave Winer that something is in the air over there, Don Park is speculating on what’s the future of UserLand Software. Don thinks (as do I) that the signals all point to them being acquired by some other company, and just waiting to get the details worked out before they formally announce. The evidence does seem compelling:

• Google’s acquisition of Blogger made this space a new arena for the big players to contend in;
• AOL is readying its own “Journals” service, further legitimizing the field;
• If UserLand was going to be folded into a larger company, the one executive they wouldn’t need is a COO — the CEO is important for morale/leadership purposes, but operations would be all about learning to do it the buyer’s way;
• Ever since Sam Ruby started the not-Echo project, Dave’s been pleading for standardization on the MetaWeblog API and RSS 2.0, on the basis that the blog market is about to get eaten by BigCos — which makes me wonder if he wasn’t prompted to think that by knowing something about UserLand that we don’t.

The big question is, if someone’s gonna acquire UserLand, who is that special someone? If I was a betting man, I’d bet on Yahoo! picking them up as a quick way to counter the announcements from Google and AOL. The other alternative would be a tools vendor like Macromedia, since UserLand’s client-centric approach via their Radio product would fit in well with that sort of product line. But my gut tells me it’s Yahoo; they’ve spent the last five years playing catch-up to Google and AOL in every other way, so why not this way too?

UPDATE: In the comments on Don’s site, Steve Kirks names another excellent candidate for a UserLand buyout: Apple. It makes a lot of sense; Radio could easily be rebadged as a .Mac service, and UserLand has bigger “street cred” in the Mac world than in the Windows or Unix worlds anyway. I could definitely see Apple snapping up UserLand to stay competitive with Microsoft (which is going blog-heavy in a big way: the next versions of SharePoint and FrontPage supposedly are very blog-friendly). And Apple has the cash on hand to snap up the comparatively smaller UserLand without a hiccup.

We await further developments…

It’s Captain Obvious!

Posted on July 7, 2003

Actual conversation overheard among two people standing outside my office window earlier today:

PERSON 1: “Excuse me, is there a supermarket near here?”
PERSON 2: “What kind of supermarket?”
PERSON 1: “You know, food.”

Thanks for narrowing it down, bud…

Because I’m Bored, That’s Why

Posted on July 6, 2003

REPORT FROM THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON DECK CHAIR SHUFFLING
Volume XVII, Issue 8

TO our esteemed colleagues of the Committee of the Whole, from whom this Standing Committee was constituted, in order to examine the feasibility of certain changes in the organization and placement of Deck Chairs upon the upper deck of this glorious ship, upon which we are all but passengers, we report the following:

WHEREAS the recent report submitted to this body by the Ad-Hoc Committee on Pumping, Baling, and Drainage makes clear that they have been unable to date to prevent this glorious ship from taking on water, due to certain imperfections in the constitution of the hull that recently have been magnified by an untoward interaction with a large, semi-submerged chunk of ice; and

WHEREAS the inability of the follow-on report from the Standing Committee on Heated Tuber Transfer to clearly conclude whose responsibility it was to direct further response efforts has led to said responsibility being transferred to this Committee; and

WHEREAS the members of this Committee have been directed by the Committee of the Whole to devise a solution to the present extingency. Therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED that the Committee of the Whole shall, in pursuance of its mandate to protect, preserve and defend the rights, benefits, and shuffleboard privileges of all passengers, take certain actions to rearrange the Deck Chairs on the upper decks, so as to potentially rebalance the ship and compensate for ongoing fluid intake;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that said actions shall consist, at minimum, of one or more of the following:

• The arrangement of all Deck Chairs, currently in straight rows, into staggered rows;
• The arrangement of all Deck Chairs, currently in staggered rows, into straight rows;
• The arrangement of all Deck Chairs not currently arranged, into demi-octagonal formations, as recommended by this Committee’s Annual Report on Optimal Deck Chair Arrangement and Organization (reference number 931572); and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, by undertaking the actions outlined above, the Committee of the Whole shall have fully and completely discharged its responsibility for protecting the rights, benefits, and shuffleboard privileges of all passengers, and that no further action need be undertaken by the Committee of the Whole, or any of its associated Standing or Ad-Hoc Committees in the matter of the continuing fluid intake issue; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that anyone who says otherwise is a big, fat jerk.

To The Thrift Shop, Batman!

Posted on July 3, 2003

… because who knows what insanely cool stuff you might find there.

Missing the Point

Posted on July 2, 2003

Apparently word hasn’t gotten around yet to some people as to just how tight belts have gotten in the world since the end of the Boom. At least, that’s the only conclusion I can reach after reading Slate’s review of Herman Miller’s new office chair, the Mirra.

The article correctly describes the rise and fall of HM’s last big thing, the Aeron chair, which became symbolic of Boom excess as it became the standard office furniture of every business-sense-deficient dot-com in America. Today, though, sales of the Aeron lag precisely because of that association; nobody wants to have someone walk into their office and think “hey, these folks spend money just like the dot-coms used to”. Enter the Mirra, which is supposed to provide an affordable alternative to the Aeron.

Except… it isn’t affordable. While HM is too tasteful to discuss tacky things like price on their Web site, Slate helpfully throws in some numbers. An Aeron, new, can cost up to $1,200, which anyone can see is absurd for an office chair unless you’re rolling in VC money. The Mirra, however, is quoted by Slate as costing… wait for it… $640. This is touted as being a much more proletarian figure than that of the Aeron.

Am I nuts, or is $640 for a freaking office chair still waaaay too much? Especially if you’re looking to project a frugal, penny-pinching image. Heck, I’d venture to say that half that is still too much. Sounds like the folks at HM still have a lot to learn about how people do business out here in the real world.

Lobbyists Up, Representatives Down

Posted on July 1, 2003

More on What’s Wrong With Washington: Timothy Noah has a good article over at Slate today about how status in D.C. has changed so much that lobbyists are more prestigious than House members. Yes, now you too can elect somebody to Congress so that they can get there and start campaigning for the job they really want. Wonderful.

Mozilla 1.4 Released

Posted on June 30, 2003

Hey, the final version of Mozilla 1.4 is out. Whaddaya know. Go get it if you haven’t made the big switch to Firebird yet.

Cutting Digicams Down to Size

Posted on June 30, 2003

Now this is a good idea. It’s a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, stripped down to the bare essentials, so that it’s the size of a credit card. And, since it’s stripped down, they can sell it for $69. How cool is that??? Finally a camera small enough to carry with you all the time, and cheap enough to not be a big deal if you lose/drop/break it.

Of course, it’s very simplistic — no zoom function, and you can’t swap memory cards, since the camera is basically built around the internal card anyway. But for many people, its 8MB capacity will be more than enough; the thing would work best if you’re in a situation where you can frequently sync the camera with your PC, and since the biggest use would be for quick, impulsive picture-taking I imagine that wouldn’t be a problem. Plus, every time you sync it recharges the camera using power from your PC, so no more toting around batteries for the camera — a nice touch.

They’ve also got a CardCam Value model for $20 less, but since it only comes with 2MB of memory and is limited to 320×240 resolution, I’d recommend shelling out the extra cash unless you out selling pencils on the street, in which case I’d question your need for a digital camera in the first place.

Netscape 7.1 Released

Posted on June 30, 2003

For all those of you who prefer to get your Mozilla goodness in a Netscape wrapper, you’ll be pleased to know that Netscape has just released version 7.1. This is a major update that brings Netscape up to the same code base as Mozilla 1.4, which incorporates lots of nice new features like Find As You Type, the Mozilla ActiveX plugin, and Palm synchronization for the address book.

Given the upcoming split of the monolithic “Mozilla Suite” into individual components (Firebird and Thunderbird), this may be the last major rev of Netscape for a good long time — so enjoy 🙂

The Universe Hates Us

Posted on June 30, 2003

Finally, we have proof!

Content Syndication: Keeping An Eye On the Ball

Posted on June 29, 2003

Jon Udell has written the most cogent analysis, I think, of the whole RSS/Echo foofoorah to emerge thus far. A must-read for anyone interested in the future of content syndication.

Dean Wins MoveOn “Primary”

Posted on June 27, 2003

Looks like Howard Dean has won the MoveOn.org online primary. No candidate received a clear majority of votes cast (50%+1), but Dean took home the greatest share of votes, pulling in roughly 44%. The runner-up was Dennis Kucinich, who trailed far behind Dean with only 24% of votes cast.

Interestingly, because nobody picked up a majority, MoveOn.org (and, more importantly, their PAC) has decided not to officially endorse any of the Democratic candidates. That has to be a blow for Dean, who could use all the support he can get as he emerges as the plausible alternative to the heir apparent, John Kerry.

Another interesting observation about the results: Joe Lieberman actually received fewer votes (6,095, or just 1.92% of votes cast) than did joke candidates Carol Moseley-Braun (who picked up 7,021, or 2.21%) and Bob Graham (7,113, or 2.24%). In fact, more people (2.01%) chose “undecided” than chose Lieberman! That’s gotta sting.

Browsers of the World, Unite!

Posted on June 25, 2003

This is too funny…

Have you been holding off using Mozilla because it just seems a little too… well, capitalist for you?

Well, now there’s a solution: an enterprising Russian has whipped up a set of Communist splash screens for Mozilla.

One of the splashes lovingly depicts Joseph Stalin contemplating conquering the world, with the stirring slogan “Mozilla Shall Win!”:

The splash is a sign of my true gratitude: notwithstanding that the great Leader is dead (and all his achievements are ruined in Russia), there is now a new browser which brings ideals of Freedom and Communism to the masses of wired people.

Whaddaya know, maybe Steve Ballmer wasn’t wrong after all… 🙂

Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Wiccan

Posted on June 24, 2003

Here’s a guide that promises an “In Depth and Practicla (sic) Look At Magick”. Wow, I’d definitely take advice on how to defy the laws of time and space from someone who hasn’t learned how to use a spell-checker yet.

You know they’re for real, though, because they call it “magick”. The “k” at the end tells you these witches ain’t fooling around — they mean business! Maybe science should take note and start teaching classes in Physicks. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Hawking! Let’s get some of that quantum phyzzle in the hizzle.

Go Get NewsDesk 1.1

Posted on June 24, 2003

If you’re looking for the best RSS newsreader for Windows, go grab a (free) copy of Wildgrape NewsDesk 1.1, just released this week. It rocks the house. (I should know, I helped beta-test it!)

What Apple Didn’t Say

Posted on June 24, 2003

Wes Felter points out an interesting thing that hasn’t been mentioned in any of the coverage of yesterday’s Apple announcements. Lost in the noise about the new G5 systems was the news of Panther Server, the next generation of the OS X server platform. What’s interesting about this is a little note found on Apple’s page describing the product:

High-performance Java application server — Mac OS X Server is now the easiest way to develop and deploy applications based on Sun’s J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) standard. It features a built-in JBoss application server for running J2EE applications, including Enterprise Java Bean components.

Huh, so Apple can call JBoss a real J2EE app server. That would be news to Sun, since JBoss has yet to be certified J2EE compliant, which is generally the accepted criterion for being able to claim that something is a “J2EE app server” (as opposed to, say, a “servlet container” or something ambiguous like that).

Sun has been zealous about keeping up their control of the J2EE brand, so this isn’t just a minor matter of semantics. Apple is saying that JBoss is J2EE whether Sun says so or not. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love JBoss and think it’s probably the player with the most growth potential in the Java market today. But one wonders if Apple’s marketers are just overselling the product here, or if this is a deliberate shot by Apple across Sun’s bow for some reason. Either way, it should be interesting to watch this play out.

Microsoft and the Magic Coffee Machine

Posted on June 23, 2003

Lots of buzz in the blogosphere this morning over Eric Kidd’s essay, “The Missing Future“, which asks whether there’s any future for small, independent for-profit software companies as they get squeezed between Microsoft on one end and open-source software on the other.

Perhaps the strongest opposition to the piece has come from Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble, who argues (surprise!) that it is possible to enter a market dominated by an entrenched monopolist and carve out a profitable niche nonetheless. He illustrates his thesis with the examples of a small Seattle coffee shop called Victor’s that does well even in the home of Starbucks, and an ice cream chain that thrives in a world dominated by Baskin-Robbins.

Scoble’s piece is interesting, but I think he misses the point. Imagine if there were a technology that could make cups of coffee appear magically on your desk, whenever you wanted one. Imagine that, say, 95% of the world got all the coffee they ever drink through this magic coffee machine in the sky.

Now imagine that said technology by default would only serve coffee from Starbucks. You could get coffee from other vendors, but you’d need to fill out a bunch of forms and wait six to eight weeks for processing, and even then the other coffee would never be delivered perfectly; every fifth cup or so would materialize only half-full, or tasting like drain cleaner, or spilled in your lap. The Starbucks coffee, though, would materialize perfectly every time.

Would Victor’s Coffee be able to compete in a world like that? How many people would jump through the flaming hoops to get a cup of their coffee through the magic coffee machine instead of just accepting whatever Starbucks gives them? Even if Victor’s coffee was head and shoulders better than what Starbucks handed out, most people would figure that the Starbucks coffee was good enough to justify not going to the extra effort to get Victor’s.

This is the world that independent software developers face today. The magic coffee machine is Windows, and Microsoft is Starbucks. You can go to the extra effort to try to brew something better than what they’re brewing, but at the end of the day you still have to serve your coffee through the magic coffee machine to reach the 95% of people who are locked up inside it — and since Microsoft owns the magic coffee machine, they have advantages in delivering coffee through it that you don’t have. You can be positive and say that their advantage is that they know its innards better than you do, or negative and say that they can add speed bumps to keep anybody else from using it as well as they do (“DOS isn’t done until Lotus won’t run“), but either way the effect is the same: every fifth cup of your coffee ends up in somebody’s lap. Open-source products can survive that because people expect them to be unpolished and clunky — hey, it’s free, what do you expect? — but if you’re charging good money for your product people are going to start getting upset the fourth or fifth time their morning joe tastes like drain cleaner. Only the most motivated are going to stick with you through that, and most people just aren’t that motivated.

That’s what Scoble is missing when he critiques Kidd by telling him that if he had a good enough idea he could compete with Microsoft: no matter how good Kidd’s coffee is, it doesn’t matter when he’s competing against the guy who owns the magic coffee machine.

Revisionist History

Posted on June 20, 2003

Wondering why we made such a fuss about WMDs in Iraq when they’re nowhere to be found? Wondering why the President says that anyone who wonders that is practicing “revisionist history“?

Never fear! Neal Pollack has the answer.

Too Much To Ask?

Posted on June 19, 2003

I want a girl with a mind like a diamond
I want a girl who knows what’s best
I want a girl with shoes that cut
And eyes that burn like cigarettes
I want a girl with the right allocation
Who’s fast, and thorough, and sharp as a tack
She’s playing with her jewelry, she’s putting up her hair
She’s touring the facility and picking up slack…

I want a girl who gets up early
I want a girl who stays up late
I want a girl with uninterrupted prosperity
Who uses a machete to cut through red tape
With fingernails that shine like justice
And a voice that is dark like tinted glass
She is fast, thorough, and sharp as a tack
She’s touring the facility and picking up slack…

I want a girl with a short skirt,
and a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong
jacket.

— Cake, “Short Skirt, Long Jacket”