Category: Technology

I’ve just noticed that Writely has been renamed and further incorporated into the Google camp and is now Google Docs. I think I could get used to living in Google, between Gmail, Docs, Spreadsheets, Calendar and Groups life is looking pretty complete. While I use Picassa on the desktop, I’m not yet a big enough fan of the web album to switch my 1,000+ flickr photo’s over any time soon. But, then again, Picasa is free. Hmmm.

On a side not, I’ve written this in Google Docs and posted to my blog. The spell checker however thinks “Google” in not spelled correctly. Perhaps a dictionary update is in order.

As yet another note, the Doc title doesn’t make the trip as the post title and Doc tags, don’t yet catagorize the post either. I guess this is one of the “beta” things. I had to touch up this post with my tried & true Performancing for Firefox.

I’ve always thought of YouTube as an amateur video sharing service, but I think this is an interesting twist. IBM is using YouTube as a part of a marketing campaign to promote SOA. What are your thoughts on this kind of use?

SOA is like building blocks

Some of the other videos…
SOA is like musical notes
Service Oriented Architecture is like your wardrobe

Technorati Tags: YouTube, IBM, SOA, marketing

I’m watching NASA TV for the shuttle launch. Very exciting, T-8 minutes & counting!

NASA – NASA TV Landing Page

Technorati Tags: NASA, Shuttle

Just how many places can you participate in the online Internet world anyway?

I started with flickr then got into blogging with blogger and then hosting my own WordPress blog. If that’s not more that enough, I’ve started to look at Vox!  Along the way there was some lists and to-dos at backpack. Gmail has my mail, google calendar has our cottage schedule for the family and Writely and Spreadsheet are getting some of my documents.

Now Google Web Albums wants to take over from flickr and since I use Picasa they might get some traction, but I still like flickr way more.

As things tend to happen on the Internet, one thing lead to another and I stumbled upon (oh, yeah Stumble) 43 Things. That lead to 43 Places which lead to All Consuming.  That’s more that enough for me, in fact, too much stuff. I’d say less consuming is the way to go.

This Social Networking stuff is getting way out of control. Now we need something to do a meta-mashup of all this stuff so the average person can keep track of it all.

Technorati Tags: flickr, blogger, wordpress, google, 43things, 43places, picasa

A friend’s blog introduced me to TED, Technology, Entertainment & Design. You can learn more about TED here.

What is really cool is that you can see the videos of many of the presenters at the conference. They are very interesting and very well known folks such as Nicholas Negroponte, Rick Warren, Tony Robbins & Al Gore.  I’ve watched these and plan on watching a few more they are all very interesting. I was especially facinated by Nicholas Negroponte’s $100 One Laptop per Child Education Program.

At 18 minutes a segment they really pack in the content and deliver a solid message.

Some have been reviewing the presenters for their presentation capabilites, and while that’s certainly important and makes the presentation more interesting I prefer to focus more on the content and the message. Lots of food for thought here.

Well, here is one way. Thanks to Bill at achievable ends for pointing this out. Scott will be interested, but he has an iPod so this one might be for me!

Apple – Back to School

When you buy a Mac by September 16, 2006, you can get a free 2GB iPod nano after mail-in rebate. Or choose another iPod and enjoy big savings after mail-in rebate.* Plus, use your education discount to save even more.

Or is that Got Gmail?

Actually this is about your inbox. Do you read all your email? Do you file or archive everything? Or, perhaps you’re more like me and just let the clutter build up in the inbox and hope you can find stuff when you need it. And, typically with the Gmail search, you can!

Things must be a little boring right now. I actually read and/or dealt with everything in the inbox. Well, maybe not “dealt” with everything as some stuff was vanquished off to the abyss of the archive with a thought of doing something with it in the future. Really interesting stuff was marked with a star, but time will tell if it ever sees the light of day again.

So, what happens when your Gmail inbox is empty? Well, our friends at Google have an idea about what you should do next.

No new mail! There’s always Google News if you’re looking for something to read.

I’ve been thinking for some time about buying an iPod, but it hasn’t happened yet, probably for a couple of reasons.

One certainly is the price. At $349 for the 30gb video iPod + taxes + the required accessories like a case, dock, FM transmitter etc. this couple be a $500+ purchase. Seems like a lot for portable music.

 But, I like my music and I subscribe to a couple of podcasts and while riding the bike or walking it would be kind of nice. Plus I like the toys and this one certainly has the “cool-factor” going for it, perhaps too much, everybody has got one.

That lead to the next reason why I’m hesitating. Ever notices about how the web is big on building community as we sit in isolation looking at a little screen and interacting with people at a distance? I know I’m guilty. Next time you’re out and about, look at the people you pass. How many have those little white buds tucked in their ears? If it’s not that, how about the cell phone. Everybody seems to need to plug into something other that where they are and who they are with. Have you seen couples waling together where one or more of them are plugged into the little white device? I have, many times. The one that really gets me is the guy & girl walking together and he’s plugged in and she’s talking to him. Is he paying attention? I think not. That will cause trouble down the road buddy, trust me.

So, there is the appeal, perhaps the need to have the toys that all the others have. I can almost justify it for listening to work related podcasts and at IBM we’re really cranking them out. Everything recorded is being pushed out as a podcast. However when the voice says “as you can see on slide 23…” the podcast starts to fall apart and you know that some folks really don’t get the full podcast picture, but that’s another story.

Maybe I’ll just borrow my son’s Nano from time to time and get my iPod fix that way. Free is good.

Technorati Tags: ipod, podcast

You may have noticed the new look, I hope so as it’s quite different and a big improvement over the old theme. The new theme is Alexified and it’s working out great. Now the theme colours match my bike!

The previous theme was working OK in Firefox, but one day I looked at the blog in IE and OH MY, what a mess! There must have been some evil CSS or non-compliant or for sure non-IE friendly stuff in that theme. Rather that figure it out, I switched, it’s easier and more fun.

On another note, after being all excited about Pandora I’m now having a listen to last.FM. It’s a little early to tell but it’s interesting and has a plugin that tracks what I play in iTunes. Hey, that might be a bad thing eh? Where are the privacy police when you need them. Pandora still has the browser simplicity going for it and has served up some pretty good tunes. I’m still pretty keen on the Squeezebox connection, that looks so sweet.