July 2004 – atmaspheric

7/31/20047/31/2004

Feel the speed

2004-07-31 10:36:54 EST: 1133 / 450
Your download speed : 1160888 bps, or 1133 kbps.
A 141.7 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 460839 bps, or 450 kbps.

2004-07-31 16:04:41 EST: 3705 / 479
Your download speed : 3794318 bps, or 3705 kbps.
A 463.1 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 490575 bps, or 479 kbps.

2004-07-31 23:16:49 EST: 4128 / 478
Your download speed : 4227174 bps, or 4128 kbps.
A 516 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 490208 bps, or 478 kbps.
Go Roadrunner, Go!

7/29/20047/30/2004

This week has been interesting for me on a variety of levels not the least of which is my switch to using Windows for work as I previously mentioned. As a result, I’ve been thinking about how to manage my digital bits across worlds and try to make things not only easy on myself but as seemless as possible.

For browsing I am using Firefox on Windows though on Mac I’ll stick it out with Camino instead as I like many of the Mac features embedded there. Email will be interesting to see… for now on Windows, I am running Thunderbird which can easily be run on Mac as well. I’ve been pretty partial to the Apple Mail program which I could easily continue to use thanks to IMAP, and will certainly use it for permanent local storage. This weekend I’ll probably spend my time in Thunderbird on Mac to see if I like it there as well. I could have certainly used Outlook as I am for my new work address, but figure I’ll keep the camps separate for now even though a small amount of personal connectivity is taking place.

RSS… This was a tough one at first. For the past few days though I’ve been living through bloglines and think it’s a total winner. While I really like NetNewsWire and have been actively working through the beta for the next round (exciting stuff coming!), the ability to seemlessly manage my subscriptions and what’s been read on any machine is very cool. There’s even a mobile version that works on the Palm which is even cooler allowing for total connectivity as well as total detail management with my pretty vast subscription file. Tonight I even discovered a nice feature which lets you use a random bloglines email address for newsletter (or anything really) subscriptions and pulls them through the UI as well. This rocks!! In an ideal world there would be a sync standard like IMAP for RSS but we’ve got a ways to go.

My Palm syncs to both well which is a nice bonus so I can maintain a sync to outlook as well as my mac on which I maintain a much more complex set of conduits. All good.

7/29/20047/29/2004

We are not very good drivers…

It’s been quite a few years since I drove to work, but I certainly recall the frustration of unexexpected and seemingly cause-less jams… seems we just suck at driving and that our cars will eventually handle the load for us through an adaptive cruise control.

A little more than a decade ago, scientists realized that vehicles behave like molecules in a gas. In the most notorious similarity, cars ahead of you that stop or merely slow down can cause a compression wave — a patch where the cars are jam-packed — to propagate backward until it reaches you. The wave can persist for hours after the initial bunch of cars hit their brakes, with the result that drivers who never saw that deceleration are totally clueless about why they aren’t moving. An estimated 75% of traffic jams are like this, having no visible cause. [WSJ.com (sub required)]

7/29/20047/29/2004

Hot Spot NYC

The cloud is coming…

City lampposts soon will light up cellphones and laptops as well as street corners.

Six telecommunications companies plan to fit about 18,000 lampposts around the city with cellular and high-speed Internet antennas as part of a franchise agreement worth up to $25 million a year to the city. [New York Post]

7/29/20047/29/2004

Missing Sync v4 Now Available

I won’t have a chance to mess with this until I get back from SF as I am using me issued Thinkpad at the moment, but I am excited at the future of Mac sync for Palm. The old way has worked, but is pretty tired. This week I’ve been syncing on Windows and the speed alone is a shocking difference…

Mark/Space today began shipping version 4.0 of The Missing Sync for Palm OS, their highly-anticipated successor to PalmSource’s HotSync Manager for Mac OS X, with support for PDAs and smartphones from companies including AlphaSmart, Garmin, palmOne, Samsung, Sony and Tapwave.

The Missing Sync for Palm OS v4 goes far beyond providing the basic functionality of HotSync Manager –the software component that allows data to be exchanged between a Palm OS device and a Mac — by introducing a host of new capabilities that Mac users have been asking for, such as network sync over Wi-Fi/AirPort, SyncMinder, which reminds the user when it’s time to synchronize, and wireless internet connection sharing over Bluetooth.

[Missing Sync for Palm OS v4] Other new features include Conduit Profiles that allow the user to easily turn on and off groups of conduits, drag-and-drop install targets that send files directly to the internal memory or expansion card and a standalone MemoPad application that allows Address Book and iCal users to synchronize handheld memos. Longtime Missing Sync favorites, such as desktop mounting and iPhoto/iTunes integration, are also included. [PalmInfocenter.com]

7/29/20047/29/2004

Apple Investigates RealNetworks

This is hardly a surprising move after Apple stiffed Real with the lack of unity on support for AAC, but amazing as well…

CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple Computer Inc. said the company is “stunned” at a move by RealNetworks Inc. to distribute software that lets customers play music from Real’s song download store on Apple’s iPod.

Apple said it is investigating the implications of RealNetworks’ actions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other laws.

The company said it was “stunned that RealNetworks has adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod.”

Apple said it is highly likely that Real’s Harmony technology will cease to work with current and future iPods when the company updates the music player’s software. [The New York Times]

7/28/20047/29/2004

Road Runner to 6mbps

This is most excellent news!! If truly available next month, it will mark a 3x (down) speed boost…

Time Warner Cable said on Monday that it will begin offering broadband connections at higher speeds–up to 6 megabits per second for downloads, and 512kbps upstream. Called Road Runner Premium, the cable Internet service will become available on Time Warner Cable’s 31 systems across the United States beginning next month. [CNET News.com]

7/28/20047/28/2004

Nintendo DS — It’s Official Now

Nintendo has officially released the final images of the DS and it looks good – like something the big kids will want.

Nintendo DS, originally chosen as the code name, has been selected as the official product name. The Nintendo DS name evokes the idea of a portable system with “dual screens,” providing the rationale for the final name. The hardware also has been redesigned to sport a slimmer, sharper look. The retooled Nintendo DS features a thinner, black base and an angular platinum flip-top cover. The face buttons and shoulder buttons are larger, and some have been reconfigured for optimum use. The unit includes a new storage slot for the touch screens stylus, and the speakers now broadcast in stereo sound, with or without headphones. [Nintendo]

7/27/20047/28/2004

Getting re-acquainted with the other 97%

Today I officially started my new contract (aka Freelance) position and was issued an IBM T41 laptop… It’s been quite a few years since I switched to Mac and needless to say it’s taking some getting used to in order to adjust to some of the differences. The damn second mouse button keeps getting tapped and the trackpad automatically being activated as a clicker are two things which have busted me continuously today. All in all, it’s not that big a deal to switch though many of my core apps are no longer around or are quite different.

Office is similar enough, but now I am in Outlook and not Apple’s Mail or even Entourage. One thing, when you are on an exchange server, you’ve got to hand it to MS, the damn thing works pretty well. I was able to defeat the IT lack of support for Palm, by using T-Mobile as my remote mail proxy for wireless access which rocks. It’s only POP3 rather than full outlook, but it works and I can easily receive mail when away from the VPN. This company only supports blackberry officially… Palm is on your own and yet it took about 10 minutes for me to rememeber tha TMO was capable of this trick. I last did it with Lotus Notes… nice.

My main organizational stuff is what I am immediately missing. OneNote looks good… have to check the demo to see if it will do what I need for meeting minutes and project organization. I’m used to Notetaker as a mainstay and will definitely miss it’s capabilities. I will also miss NetNewsWire for my RSS feeds… I’ve been messing with FeedDemon which is close in how it works, though it feels more liek Shrook to me… I may end up going over to Bloglines so I can view everything through Firefox.

One thing I like a great deal about this Thinkpad is the keyboard… it’s got excellent feedback. the battery also seems to be better than my PowerBook (not too surprising there)… have to see how it handles an extensive day of being unplugged through some meetings and using wireless.

So far so good here on the left coast…tired tough. Time for some reading and sleep.

7/27/2004

What would you do?

I just watched a (seemingly) homeless guy steal about 5 pounds of coffee from Starbucks. It was casually done and did not appear to be the guy’s first time. Perhaps the store even knows? They restocked the missing inventory within a few minutes…

I did not say anything… just observered quietly. I definitely have mixed feelings about the whole thing.

7/27/20047/27/2004

The Empire Blogs Back

Nice piece on maintaining the dialogue… Six Apart and Microsoft are highlighted.

Companies are finding that small-scale Web publishing — blogging — reaps big benefits when it comes to customer feedback. Just ask Microsoft. [Wired News]

7/27/20047/27/2004

Cellphones, Say Hello to iTunes

I imagine this is only the beginning…

Starting next year, users of Apple Computer’s iTunes music service will be able to play songs on some Motorola cellphones. The new cellphones will ship with new Apple software, called iTunes Mobile Music.

For Apple, the deal could help it keep the lead in the online music market, which promises to get even more competitive later this year with the arrival of Microsoft.

Customers of iTunes will be able to transfer possibly a dozen to a few dozen songs from their PC or Mac to their phone over a cable or wireless connection, said Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive. [The New York Times]

7/26/20047/29/2004

iChatAV bring you home

Gotta love how technology can help close the distance of travel…

As I’ve mentioned I am in San Francisco, and for the first time I am away from my family since Hannah was born. Through iChat with our cameras though we can still talk and see each other which is really a great thing! Hannah can see me and I get my daily fix of my daughter…(and wife of course) 😉

7/26/20047/26/2004

I, Robot

Just got back from I, Robot at the Sony Metreon here in San Francisco…

While there seems to be some controversy in how closely the movie follows the philosophy of Asimov, I really enjoyed it. As I recently mentioned I had just read the book (eBook actually) and thought it was very cool. The movie takes clear influence and inspiration, but adapts from the stories to (of course) create something more akin to a Hollywood blockbuster popcorn movie.

The visual effects are seriously cool, though a bit too much of the matrix bullet-time is used for my taste. That withstanding, it was a fun ad action packed film. Will Smith’s character, Spooner, grew on me as the movie progressed. Initially he was actually too intensely anti-robot and anti-tech, but all is revealed in time…

The best part as the special matinee price – $7.95. I can’t recall the last time a movie was only 8 bucks.

P.S. Thank you annoying guy behind me for not speaking once the movie started… while I was not thrilled with your narrative of the previews I was quite happy you shut up when the feature started to roll.

7/26/20047/26/2004

San Fran

Just arrived in San Francisco…

Have a kick-off for a contract job I’ve accepted and will be working in the Bay Area this week. Feeling excited, tired (early, long and crowded flight) but pumped to start something new.

Been a while since I’ve been out here, feeling good about being back. I can see the bay from my window at the moment and will be checking into local time after a quick refresh. Blogging may be lighter this week… we’ll see. I’ll probably pop a few shots into the sidebar via Buzznet and Flickr.

7/25/20047/25/2004

eBooks for Palm and Pocket PC

Great news! As I had written earlier today… having an eBook handy is great and this resource makes it easy to always have something for free.

The University of Virginia eBook Library sports 1,800 eBooks for slurping down and reading on your PDA. While mostly overlap with the great e-library of Project Gutenberg, the UoV library’s books are all in Microsoft Reader and Palm format while the latter is mostly plain text and HTML. Together they make sure you always have something to read at the bus-stop or in the DMV line. [MobileWhack]

7/25/20047/25/2004

Summer Reads

I’ve been happily reading some eBooks lately on my Palm and just thought I’d share…

First, thinking about the movie release, I picked up a copy of I, Robot, which I really enjoyed. It’s a series of stories all involving Robots of different types with some character overlaps through time. The main focus is on the robopsychologist Susan Calvin, who comes in contact with the robots in most of the stories to help debunk issues that occur. She’s not in all the stories exactly, but she is telling about them, prior to flashing back into story mode. I’d definitely recommend it… From what I’ve gathered regarding the movie, there is not much in common other than the name and perhaps the 3 laws of Robotics:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
A robot must obey orders givein to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

I just finished reading Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. I actually had no idea he was the writer of the Da Vinci Code (which I am currently reading), and really enjoyed this one. It started out a bit weaker than I would have liked, but I quickly got sucked in… I was turning the pages pretty quickly as the pace of the book heated up. The premise is this… the NSA discovers an unbreakable code, which of course must be cracked in order to preserve not only National Security, but world order… There were some hokey parts, but I still could not put it down…

This is actually why I was pleased t o discover that Brown was the author of The Da Vinci Code. I had of course heard of the book, but had passed on previous opportunities to read it. Now, I am fully engaged with the book and looking forward to seeing where it goes!

One of the great things about using the eReader software is that I literally always have a a book handy. I’ve grown quite used to reading on the smaller screen and find that it’s easy to do in both well lit or dark rooms.

7/22/20047/22/2004

Photopeer

Looks pretty interesting…

Photopeer helps make photo sharing seamless by allowing iPhoto-to-iPhoto and iPhoto-to-Windows sharing over the internet. Sharing digital photos no longer requires complicated steps, resizing of images, bounced emails, etc. Photopeer allows you to “simply share”. [Photopeer]

7/22/20047/22/2004