every day i write the book » technology

I Want a Chumby!

psd — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:31:19 +0000

So, I guess I’m a little late to the dance on this one. But how cool is this cuddly little gadget? It’s part digital photo frame, part RSS reader, part alarm clock and 100% time-wasting goodness. Must. Have. One. NOW.

You can buy me one if you want. My birthday is next week.

The RIAA uses Limewire

psd — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:10:32 +0000

Just read a post at The Chronicle (of Higher Education) about how the RIAA goes about identifying alleged music pirates. Apparently an anonymous representative of the organization stopped by the Chronicle’s offices and gave a rundown of how it’s done. I found it funny, and perfectly obvious, that they would use Limewire to identify people who share songs on the RIAA hotlist. Read more…

While sharing this article with a colleague, he tells me about a highly controversial act which just overwhelmingly passed the House – the PRO IP Act. Not bad enough that tax dollars may conceivably fund the ‘copyright police’, but how about hiring “a Cabinet-level “IP enforcement czar” that would report to the President and coordinate enforcement efforts across government”. Wha? Learn more, then call/write/email your congressman.

news from the inbox

psd — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:45:45 +0000

Finally, a reason to Twitter: A student at the University of California at Berkeley was arrested in Egypt for photographing a demonstration. His Twitter message, “Arrested”, sparked a series of events that led to his being released from jail. More…

A new social network on Internet2: Muse was developed by student Web programmers at the University of Washington for Internet2, an advanced computing consortium of colleges and businesses. Visit Muse.

Linked to in a uWedD thread: “…the web is a conversation. Marketing, by contrast, is a monologue.” Well said, Zeldman. The article this was taken from is a interesting look at why web is not a department of its own, but housed in IT or Marketing. Read…

2008 “Year Zero”

psd — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:06:02 +0000

Time travel is a pet topic of mine. I have said, and continue to say, that if there’s a way to travel in time, I’m signing up.

It’s being widely reported that a pair of Russian mathematicians say that a massive particle accelerator being built by CERN could be the first time machine. I’m particularly intrigued by this:

New Scientist says that if time travel ultimately proves possible, it could occur only as far back as the creation of the first time machine, making 2008 “Year Zero” (meaning there’s no need to contact your time-travel agent until at least 2009).

Kind of takes away the fantasy a bit, don’t you think? It also tends to nullify every piece of time-travel fiction ever written. I need to think about this a bit more.

New Scientist article via Positive Futurist

iOverkill

psd — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:17:02 +0000

iMarketing has just jumped the shark. iTunes was okay, iPod was okay, too. So was iLife. But now the iTouch? Even though I’d like to buy one, I feel dirty every time I say it. And the other day, Ross told me that Apple and Volkswagen are in talks to produce an iCar. I can’t see anyone approving the iBug moniker, but stranger things have happened. i[insert word here] is now forever associated with Apple, so you could argue that to lose the iMoniker would be to lose brand identity. But just like using animated gifs on a website, Apple, don’t do it just because you can. Put a little more thought into it.

Ross: “The iCar is going to run on Steve Job’s ego.” < Best. quote. ever.
Pam: “No chance of that car ever running out of juice.”

Overheard in the Lab

psd — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 00:14:56 +0000

Guy enters lab with two girls. Guy desperately wants to impress girls. Girls oooo and awww when they see the dual-screen Mac G5s. Guys says, “Aren’t these computers nice? They’re European.” Girls giggle in awe of guy’s underwhelming intelligence.

Freshmen.

Technology in Higher Ed: Trendwatch

psd — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:21:58 +0000

Two articles (quoted in their entireity below) in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Wired Campus Blog reinforce the notion that campus communications have evolved with the times. The first, regarding live online broadcasts of athletic events, is happening parallel to Cal’s own efforts to bring live streaming athletic events to the web beginning this fall. The second, using text messaging to push news to students, is an intriguing idea.

August 16, 2006
Small-Conference Football Hits the Computer Screen

Fans of the Oklahoma Sooners or the Auburn Tigers may never have to travel farther than a local sports bar to see their favorite college football teams in action. But supporters of the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks have no such luck: Small-conference teams virtually never show up on television.

So instead of trying, futilely, to negotiate TV contracts, the lesser conferences are taking their games straight to the Web. This season the Big Sky Conference, which features Northern Arizona, will broadcast all its football games (as well as its basketball and volleyball matches) online, according to the Associated Press. And the commissioner of the Ivy League predicts that almost all the league’s sporting events will air on the Web — for the benefit of alumni and proud parents — within seven years. –Brock Read

August 16, 2006
Campus News, on Your Cellphone

Pennsylvania State University will start using text messages to send news bulletins to cellphones and PDA’s, campus officials announced today. The text-messaging service, which starts Friday, is the latest high-tech expansion of Penn State Live, the university’s popular online news network.

Penn State Live already boasts 360,000 subscribers, and it recently added an RSS subscription service to its e-mail offerings. But more students are turning to text messaging, and university officials decided it was time to try out the technology.

Cellphone users can subscribe to receive information on three different topics, according to CNET News: campus emergencies, sports, and concerts. —Brock Read