Category: Uncategorized

Saw the Capitol Steps on Friday night… don’t miss them. A public radio regular, the Capitol Steps are equal opportunity musical satirists on political topics, skewering red and blue states almost equally. Of course, in San Francisco, George W. gets most of the “love” when it comes time to poke fun at the politically powerful. The Lirty Dies! section of the show left our cheeks sore with laughter.

Despite knowing that The Da Vinci Code movie had not earned great reviews (Metacritic score of 48), we took it in late last week. I only read the book one year ago, so it’s relatively fresh in my mind. The movie was tolerable, but just a bit slow. That (lack of) pace is certainly a major reason for the poor reviews. Nothing characterized the book more than headlong pace and action… fast enough that you didn’t care about the nature of the writing. When the movie slows down, you start to notice its other weaknesses (the historical imaginings are a bit wild). But, are for so many worldwide, the book earned the movie a viewing.

Just posted my old 802.11b router to Craigslist, as I want to get it out of the garage. Not asking for any money, but I don’t want to ship, either, so this is San Francisco only (or Bay Area). Figured I’d let a few folks know this way, too, just in case, despite the geographical disconnect for many. Still, blog readers come higher in the priority list than random strangers!

I’ve been following the blog of Xavier Casanova because he spends some time on analytics. His company, FAQ, it’s about private, direct, easy file-sharing, focusing on Windows first.

This feels like Slide, which is not without its own competitors already. And, following the thread, I find that there are plenty of others launching to try and re-create filesharing.

Broadly, I think this is a waste of time. A solution in search of an actual problem. File sharing is a form of communication, and these startups understand that, but I don’t imagine their networks (of people, not computers) have much chance of supplanting the large communities which exist already in the instant messenging world or (wait for it) e-mail.

It’s not enough to be better than e-mail (which isn’t easy). You also have to be easier and I fail to understand why any client software is going to solve this problem. If I want to share a photo, why wouldn’t I use one of the dozens of photo services already available? I know this isn’t about photos alone, or even video, which some of these startups are explicitly tackling. But since these teams are using the current popular media types to launch their services, I don’t recognize significant innovation.

I’m not being analytical or thoughtful about this reaction, I know. I just look at the spread of similar services, and I shake my head.

One of my worst purchases ever? The Ambient Executive Dashboard. This device, with its three faceplates, and swinging indicators, promised to open up analog, real-world display of information which is normally constrained (not locked) in digital arenas.

The problems?

First, the device’s wireless coverage was miserable, in an office building in the heart of San Francisco’s business district. My indicators would either not move or swing inconsistently.

Second, the 30 included faceplates are for non-personal information, like weather, traffic, and market indices. Weather and market indices are mildly interesting, but traffic isn’t generic… which route, etc.

Third, the basic device cost $150.

Fourth, the opportunities to customize what information was displayed were limited. You can pay extra for some faceplates which can be tailored via a dedicated website (# of Yahoo Mail messages, etc.), but true personalization is not available. I bought this device well over a year ago, and even today, the developer specifications are still “in preparation” — that was the case when I bought the device, too.

When I left CNET last month, I left the Ambient Executive Dashboard behind. I hope someone else either found a better use for it or threw it away.

I was reminded of my wasted money when I saw mention a few weeks ago of Violet, a French company whose tagline is “The Smart Object Company.” As long as a device is seen as a toy, or a fashion object, I suppose Violet may deliver up to (lower) expectations, with a digital “rabbit.” At least Violet offers an API (look on the right, for a link to the, sigh, PDF).

Ambient and Velvet are among the few companies I know of that are innovating on analog displays of digital information. I haven’t searched/shopped around, so maybe I’m missing entire industries (not just companies) who are delivering great products and services in this category. Am I? I hope so.

There’s something marvelous about the concept, so although I’ve been burned once, I’m still anxious for someone to amaze me. Think about how many digital displays mimic analog displays because of the comfort and immediate comprehension which results. We’re seeing a promise of more realistic analog control of digital devices with new products like the Nintendo Wii, with its motion-sensitive system (photo). So there is hope for the reverse… digital control of analog displays. Yes, our planes are turning into “fly by wire,” but I’m looking more in the personal gadget realm.

Digital displays themselves open new possibilities, of course, at times far beyond what you can do with analog devices. I still hope that CNET News.com does more with What’s Hot, for instance.

But we’re all still human, with more senses than just sight and sound, so engage us!

I’m not satisfied with my current webhost, TextDrive.com, and I’m looking for suggestions/alternatives.

TextDrive has provided good support, mostly, and the $25/month for shared hosting is reasonable, though clearly not the cheapest out there. I have a handful of domains (<10), and pencoyd.com, running clock is the only active one. The 2GB storage and 10GB/month in bandwidth are fine, and I do want to run WordPress (at least). I’m hardly a power user, but my vanity appreciates the opportunity to make bigger mistakes to challenge myself technically, so more features are appealing (if not truly important).

The two major failings of TextDrive?

First, the shared hosting goes down too often. There was a stretch in the spring of this year where the server I was on (bidwell, for any TD customers… but hardly the only one with problems) went down at least once a week for 1-3 hours. This went on for ~6 weeks. When that server goes down, clock goes down (unfortunate) and our e-mail goes down (very frustrating, and what’s pushing me over the edge). The TextDrive forums are full of frustration.

Second, the webmail default set-up (and the rest of the control panel) is poor. TextDrive gives you enough control that I should probably be able to install something better myself…but I suppose life is too short, or my priorities are elsewhere, or something. Anyway, it’s been a persistent pain point. I’ve been told about Fastmail, which would be a separate solution to the e-mail issue (for an additional price).

But I think it’s time to solve both problems at once, if possible. TextDrive isn’t the worst I’ve used, and the individual, real support contact I’ve gotten along the way is impressive. But I don’t want to need it!

The webhost recommendations I’ve gotten so far are, in no particular order:

• MediaTemple
• Network Redux
• Dreamhost
• Lunarpages

I haven’t done my research yet on any of these. Hoping, before I start, that the LazyWeb will throw me a bone and short-circuit/accelerate my research.

I watched X2: X-Men United mid-week on DVD. The impetus was the release of the third X-Men movie. Although box office numbers have been great for the one in theaters now, I don’t want to see it without having seen both of the previous films.

Pretty solid film. Magneto (Ian McKellen) is quite a villain, and the plastic prison (which we saw briefly in the first film) is well executed. I don’t think I missed anything by seeing it at home versus the theater, though. Metacritic score of 68, although users were much higher, at 83.

During Memorial Day weekend, I finished Orson Scott Card’s final novel in the Ender series, Shadow of the Giant. Ender himself is almost nowhere in this novel, as Bean is once more the lead character. The spotlight is shared with Peter (the Hegemon) as post-alien war Earth continues to shake out. As an exercise in geo-political possibilities, Shadow of the Giant shouldn’t be dismissed.

Card doesn’t always hit home runs, but after reading all eight of the Ender novels, I’d say that five or six are definitely worth the time, with one all-time classic. Card has written dozens more… I may dip in later.

The Ender novels

Focusing on Bean and (to a lesser degree) Peter:

• Ender’s Shadow (First close look at Bean, and his upbringing. Almost as compelling a character as Ender himself.)
• Shadow of the Hegemon (Close look at Peter, Ender’s older brother.)
• Shadow Puppets (The end game begins for post-alien-war Earth.)
• Shadow of the Giant (final book of the eight)

Focusing on Ender:

• Ender’s Game (The must read epic which started it all. I’ve read it three times.)
• Speaker for the Dead (Ender’s post battle life begins.)
• Xenocide (Following Ender further.)
• Children of the Mind (Skip it.)

(Thanks, Vin, for the loan.)

I’m a huge iSight fan, and I’ve converted three other family members (though it wasn’t hard). The more challenging video chat issue remains going between my Mac and my mother’s Windows machine. The camera doesn’t appear to be the problem, but so far we haven’t succeeded in getting video and audio. That’s trying AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Yahoo Messenger. The latter doesn’t work well (for video) on the Mac, although I’m generally a fan of YM (for anything but video).

Jason Levine has the same problem, and hasn’t found the perfect answer, although there are some suggestions in “QDN: Macs and PCs warily eye each other over the ‘net.” In the comments, SightSpeed gets a recommendation or two.

I don’t like a product, though, where the prominent Download button takes me straight to a page that asks me to register, and doesn’t give any other information. Not expected, and I’m still not clear on whether this is free or not.

Poking around a bit more, I see that it’s free for what I want, video calls. After reading a bit more of the FAQ, I proceeded with the (free) Sign Up, and downloaded the software. The confirmation email ended up in my Junk folder, but I pulled it out of there. I’ve invited my mother, despite the spelling error on the invite page (use separate instead of seperate… these tiny details matter).

Install was smooth and easy… I just hope iChat and SightSpeed don’t have camera contention when the time comes. We’ll see.

Slashdot CSS Redesign Winner Announced…and it doesn’t look much different. Oh well. Still, kudos for trying.