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Today I finally decided

Today I finally decided to have my external hard drive evaluated since it has not been working properly for some time. It’s an 80 GB firewire drive and for some reason it won’t show itself in the finder, but it does seem to allow data access through apps. Basically I can play the music on the drive from iTunes, but I can’t un-mount the drive when I am done, since I can’t see it. One other interesting oddity is that I can see the drive across my home network, from a second machine, but it will only mount on the desktop about 10% of the time. Disk Utility has been unable to remedy this and so I finally gave in…

I purchased the drive from TekServe a local NYC store that deals only in Macs. It was their design and I was hoping that they would in turn be able to fix it without causing the data (30GB MP3 Collection) to be lost. It turns out that they can’t do this without having to charge me a minimum of $1100 for data recovery! I looked on the board they have there and noticed I could buy a 120 GB drive for under $300… This service charge seemed absolutely absurd to me and so I left in a huff. It seemed that my choices were to try and save what I could and wipe the drive, or pay the unreal fee and and have them do the same. If it turned out to be a hardware issue, perhaps they will offer to replace or fix it at no cost since there is still some warranty left on it seeing as it is less than a year old. Argh.

On my way home I was pretty pissed off and decided that perhaps I should consider replacing the drive. Across the street was a Best Buy, but they only had one Maxtor drive and though it was FireWire capable, it was also USB 2.0 which seemed to make it more expensive that I thought it should be. Around the corner was as a Staples and I thought why not try one more place…

When I walked in I was greeted by a friendly representative from Palm. It seems that today is Tunsten T day. They had a demo unit out which I was able to play with and let me just say now that it is an amazing piece. Much smaller than I expected – great for a front pocket in jeans or shirt pocket with no problem. The screen was really very bright and resolution was excellent. Everything I had hoped for… suddenly my focus was shifting…

While I was checking the Palm out, a few customers were coming in and speaking with the rep… I was amazed at how little knowledge she had both about the product, and about the handheld space in general. The first thing I noticed was how she was patently anti-Sony, stating how they only used proprietary technology (like the Palm OS I presume…) and how Palm was much better anyway. Let’s just forget for a second that Sony makes a competing device (and yes I realize that Palm and PalmSource are not the same anymore) because how can you possibly put down any Palm device when there are so many PocketPC choices in the same store?

A guy then started asking about the differences between the new units and his old Palm Vx. The woman from Palm had never heard of the Vx, thought it had an antenna like the 705 and was just plain confused. She then used Bluetooth as the main point of difference, though she was really not sure to explain how short range wireless unit would get online. She also only knew of one phone that had this functionality. I gladly corrected her and helped the guy on his way. (yes I am great)

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Blog To Court: Check your Facts

Blog To Court: Check your Facts

When attorney Howard Bashman noticed a small error in the footnote of a 5th Circuit appellate court opinion, he quickly noted it on his weblog.

The next day, Judge Jerry Smith, who wrote the opinion and also happens to be a reader of Bashman’s blog (PDF), fixed the error in an amended version. The judge e-mailed Bashman, personally thanking him for bringing the mistake to his attention.

“It’s the first time that I’ve noticed a weblog credited for pointing out an error and causing a correction (in a court decision),” Bashman said. “This example is noteworthy because it’s the first time that something like this has come to light.” Source: Wired News

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At first blush

At first blush this news story might lead you to believe that the Redmond crew had figured out a way to block spam. All they seem to know, however, is how to limit your exposure to HTML in preview mode. This will only cut back on the number of return hits back to spam central, which certainly can limit the number of spams you might get in the future from that same source. With this method, you will still receive and be forced to manage the same number of spam messages you receive each day.

Thank goodness for Mac OS X and Apple’s Mail.app. I had 36 messages automatically filtered to my Junk folder this morning and I am sure there will be many more moved throughout the day. Filter and trash, never open or preview. Keep trying MS…maybe next time. Perhaps Office 12 in 2006 will be able to handle this.

New Outlook to give spammers the boot: “The first test version of Microsoft’s new e-mail software takes a different approach to handling e-mail formatted like Web pages, a move designed to cut down on unwanted messages.” Source: CNET News.com

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OSAF Chandler prototyping…

The link below was posted tonight on the OSAF Design list. After checking out, I am feeling good about the direction things are going. While not the most beautiful, it seems highly functional.

Andy Hertzfeld : “Vista is an experimental…: “Andy Hertzfeld: “Vista is an experimental prototype whose purpose is to quickly explore various design and feature ideas for Chandler, our networked personal information manager.”” Source: Scripting News

Just posted by Mitch Kapor on the OSAF list:

In the Chandler design process, we are going to think out loud. I promise you that. Some of the slowdown in OSAF responses and consequent new posts in the past two days is just a timing issue. Andy Hertzfeld’s has written long, illustrated piece about the prototype we did (called Vista) and what we learned. It’s just been posted to the web site and is linked off the front page. I think it will spark a new wave of discussion

ALSOP ON INFOTECH In the latest Fortune column, Stuart talks about Chandler as well. He makes it sound though like we are years away though from seeing some usable code. I hope it comes sooner and isn’t just for pushing Redmond into designing a better Outlook as he ponders…

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Bluetooth GPS bundle for Palm

Bluetooth GPS bundle for OS 5: “” Source: infoSync

This looks like a very cool addition to the few Bluetooth devices out there. Imagine a device about half the size of a credit card, though obviously thicker in your pocket or briefcase… On your Palm Tungsten T you are capable of location based services through Vindigo, or getting driving directions from Mapopolis.

The more I think about things like this, the more I really want the new Palm. While I don’t have a bluetooth phone, I would be able to take advantage of wireless sync and addressbook connectivity with my Powerbook…just need to add an adapter!

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Maybe it’s because

Maybe it’s because I work in marketing, but I get so pissed when I receive multiple mailings (email or direct mail) from a company because I subscribe or am a member to more than one thing. It seems possible and in fact quite easy to run a de-dupe process so that people only have to be hit once with a message.

Silicon Alley Reporter is the worst offender of this practice… I am not sure why they do it, but everytime there is some special offer I get at least 3 emails from them, each from a different list I subscribe to. I may be a bit harsh here so take it for what it is… SAR is a small business. Everyone knows this stuff is coming from the place and that the different messages are really just based on topics of interest – unlike their marketing which is generic. I actually emailed back to them some time ago, and don’t recall getting a response, nor have I seen a difference in their practices. A tip for them — simple desktop based spamware, does not let you send messages to the same address… why do they pay money for this low-end krap. (the k is for emphasis)

In the same way, ClickZ and their sister pubs at internet.com are also very guilty of this. When it is conference time, I will get up to four invitations to the same event. This is a marketing focused organization and they can’t get it right? Come on… Wake up! Think about the simple lift in response (not just how wonderful your open rate is from sending multiples to each address) would be if you lowered the total number sent.

My last example is Citi Bank. Today I received two messages about improvements to my online access to two different credit cards. Seems ok right? I mean you can have more than one card from a bank and expect more than one thing… The magic here is that I actually went through the effort of combining my access online so I only login once to see both cards. Why is Citi Bank unable to see this? I don’t know other than to guess that they have a very expensive CRM platform that no one knows how to use. ;(

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Google’s dominant position

Examines whether Google’s dominant position as the Web’s leading search

engine threatens the independence of the Web. The article: “So powerful

has Google become that many companies view it as the Web itself. If you’re

not listed on its indexes, they say, you might as well not exist. And if

you don’t advertise on Google or otherwise curry favor, critics add, you

may never find out what it takes to get a prominent listing.” Danny

Sullivan, who runs Searchenginewatch.com: “So many people are dependent on

Google’s free editorial traffic that it’s like food out of their mouths to

lose ranking. Search engines are not in the business of supporting

people’s companies. But if they are going to provide editorial, they need

to provide support. These are some of the issues they face.”

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Google Google Google. I love

Google Google Google. I love checking my referer rankings from both the Radio Community Server and through Site Meter and seeing that people are searching for things I have written about recently…

One thing though which must be frustrating for everyone searching is that once my blog changes days, the link from google, which only seems to be the home page makes it more difficult to find the entry being linked to. Sure, Google offers a cached verison, and that generally seems to solve the problem, but it is not to most intuitive way to get there. Shouldn’t there be some way for Google to recognize the permalink associated with each entry? I would think that the technical wizards of the world could solve this problem pretty quickly.

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Even though the Tungsten T,

Even though the Tungsten T, the first device with OS 5 is barely coming off the production line, details have been released on the pending Palm OS 6. This version will integrate technology and probably some UI from Be which was acquired by Palm last year.

The new OS will feature multimedia and graphics frameworks drawn from BeOS, PalmSource’s Michael Mace told us. Mace says this is real BeOS code, but Steve Sakoman, the team’s former leader at Be Inc, and now PalmSource’s “chief products officer” has denied that Be code would be incorporated into the new OS. More likely, we suspect, the new OS will inherit some algorithms and architecture from BeOS.

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I’ve noticed

I’ve noticed that my level of interest and participation in groups tends to quickly descend after a switch to digest mode. While it is certainly nice to recieve fewer emails, the format of digest news, tends to make it more difficult to participate – especially on high volume lists…. Thoughts?