a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself
Stretched Out Software Inc. has released a Mac-compatible data driver for the Sierra Wireless AirCard 555 — a PC card that enables laptop computers to communicate through cellular telephone networks.
What’s more, Stretched out Software indicates that it’s working on a Mac OS X driver for Sierra’s AirCard 750, a tri-band card that supports global networks using GSM/GPRS. [MacCentral]
I spent some time tonight reading up at A List Apart and was immediately interested in implementing the tip (and code) for an image randomizer. As you can see (unless of course you are reading this in your aggregator), there are now images on the left side bar. So far I’ve got 16 in the folder… all shots I’ve taken in my travels. I have many more and will be adding more as I go. Enjoy!
Thanks to a very helpful tip from Chris, I’ve resized the images appropriately so loading should be nice and bandwidth won’t get too crazy too quickly.
Ladies and gentlemen, A List Apart 3.0. The magazine has been redesigned from front to back. It features three XML feeds and three new articles by three of our favorite writers: Joe Clark on Facts and Opinion About Fahrner Image Replacement; Douglas Bowman on Sliding Doors of CSS; Dan Benjamin on Random Image Rotation. Much more. [Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report]
Microsoft Watch has posted a number of e-mails from readers who say they are considering switching to Mac OS X due to the delay of Longhorn, Microsoft’s next major version of Windows… [MacMinute]
I discovered that I can stream my home iTunes music to myself while at work… I’ve previously mentioned the SliMP3 which I still love and use both at home and on the go, but today I discovered I can stream my existing iTunes library.
A bit about the home setup…Our home iMac is set up to handle some sharing tasks so I can serve the occasional web page and share the external firewire drives we have connected. That connects over Airport which is then connected to a Linksys router. Our net connection is a cable modem.
There are two users on the iMac (me and my wife) and I set up a symbolic link from the usual location for iTunes music – ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music to an external Firewire drive. This allows each user to import music and for the other to automatically see that new music when iTunes is open on either account. There did not seem to be a way for this to work any other way. We have way too much music for me to carry it around on my laptop so I have a copy of the iTunes Library on my PowerBook which also refers back to the external firewire drive. This allows me to mount the home machine and drives and have access to stuff when I want on my laptop. It also allows my iPod to sync over the home network, something I rarely do since it takes much longer that simply connecting to the home computer.
Anyway…quite a bit of background to get to today. I used AFP (Apple File Protocol) to connect to my home system. I use a dynamic dns service (no-ip.org) which makes this easier that having to recall what your IP number is assuming it changes. Once the usual drives are connected I can open use my iTunes library as I would normally expect to… all my music is available and can easily stream.
Not sure why I did not try this earlier… it totally works! There is the occasional hiccup as to be expected in any streaming situation, but for the most part completely enables my music on the go.
“Zinio makes money through three different sources, and really only two of them matter,” explains Bruce. “Primarily our money comes from deliveries. Every time we send a copy of BusinessWeek or whatever, we get a fee for that. That’s our primary business. Our secondary business, which will become much more important over time, is revenue from sourcing new subscriptions. We bring a new subscriber, and we get some remit on a percentage of the subscription.”
Bruce adds that the company also has production services, wherein it charges a basic price to convert the magazine to the digital format. “We add all the enhancements such as links and rich media,” he says. “We just charge to cover our cost for that, though, and the fees are very low.”
Because of the two main ways Zinio makes money, its four-person marketing department (out of a total staff of 45) has a dual role. “We’re pretty neutral on how strong our brand is or isn’t with the consumer, because they’re buying the publisher’s brand,” Bruce explains. “It only becomes important for them to know the Zinio brand when they’re using the software or getting customer service. On the other hand, making Zinio a known place to get digital magazines is important. Ultimately, our brand is an agent, and whatever helps more people read more digital magazines is the right answer.”
I rediscovered Zinio right before getting my new computer and think it really is a great way to read many magazines if you already like reading on your computer screen.
Palm has released a update to the WebPro browser, that ships with the Tungsten T3. The update makes a number of fixes and speeds up performance. Palm is also now selling a stand alone version of the browser for other handhelds. [PalmInfocenter]
Since the download was there I tried to install on my Tungsten C… no dice. It says I am not authorized to run the program which sucks. This seems like a much more robust browser than the one that came with my device but no way is it worth $34.99.
Seems ridiculous that Palm is releasing versions of software for certain Tungsten devices and not making this stuff more generally available for existing users of certainly compatible units.
Brian Peddle demonstrates how sites can track RSS subscribers using an image tag and a unique reader identification code. [Up2Speed]
New from Apple…
Welcome to iTunes Link Maker. Simpy enter a song name, album name, artist name, or any combination of the three to get started: [ITMS Link Maker]
You can also drag a link directly from the store if you are already there… For example Dave Brubeck’s Playlist
VeriSign CEO Stratton Sclavos explains why he thinks it’s time for infrastructure governing the Internet to go commercial. [CNET News.com]
No holds barred for VeriSign… it’s all business
it blows my mind how many cool things people are doing around MT these days [anil dash’s daily links]
This is pretty amazing… like an email filter, this one can learn what is and what is not Spam.
I can’t imagine this will be the only windows review of iTunes like this…
WOW.
I haven’t done much with it, but it improves the sound quality (somehow) of the MP3s I already have and being able to browse and play new music so easily is just mind blowing. How does the preview play so quickly?!?!! My god, I just click and poof, it’s starts playing a 20 second clip instantly!
Sooooooo cool. I need to buy a Mac so that my entire computing experience is like this. 🙂
[Russell Beattie Notebook]
It’s why we love the Mac.
The New York Times has teamed up with Vindigo to offer its news service through Verizon Wireless… [textually.org]
I actually saw this today on a Samsung BREW phone as well as the other apps from Vindigo Studio: Moviegoer, Vindigo and Mapquest. Things look good, and the apps perform as you might expect, but slowly. The phone is just not as fast (no where near) as the Palm and the screen is s serious limitation. That said the resolution was excellent and you are able to leave certain aspects of content cached on the phone in order to enable it if you are not connected… Vindigo has focused on the color screen based phones so if you have an older model, time for an upgrade. This should be available through the Get It Now! menu with Verizon.
Apple launched ITMS for Windows today… nice work! Let’s hope it kicks some serious ass!
I am updating my iTunes, iPod and Quicktime software at the moment through Software Update and will report back…
Seems that essentially the revised iTunes is basically the same but with some nice enhancements in the music store itself. First, Allowances and Gift Certificates which I think are a great addition and make it feel more like a real store – at least the GC’s do. Allowances are clearly set up for families to allow kids to purchase but within reason…
The addition of audio books is also very cool. I am not (or have not anyway) been a big audio book user, but with everything nicely inside iTunes and the ITMS, I can’t see why I would not check it out. I’ve got at least 40 minutes of travel time daily that I could use to “read.”
I can’t speak for how the Windows version works as I am just on a Mac here. The store itself seems to have been redesigned with some additions in content, including celebrity playlists.
One additional point of interest from the Press Release:
Apple® and America Online, Inc., the world’s leading interactive services company, today announced an alliance to provide instant, one-click registration to the iTunes® Music Store for AOL’s more than 25 million U.S. members starting later this quarter. America Online will integrate links to iTunes artists, albums and songs throughout its leading music site, AOL Music, which will give members the option to link directly to the specific iTunes Music Store page to preview and buy music as they browse and read music news and reviews.
wow – that is super cool. Go APPLE!
Researchers are increasingly putting computer muscle into a technique called text mining, hoping to find clues and patterns in a librarys worth of documents. [New York Times: Technology]
In particularly embarrassing disclosures, Microsoft warns consumers about four critical new flaws in Windows. The company acknowledged problems in its software-publisher authentication technology and in its help and support system. [Wired News]
We have launched RSS2Mobile as part of the growing set of RSS-related services on BlogStreet. RSS2Mobile is an RSS-to-WML service. It lets you read a RSS feed in your WAP enabled mobile. Benefits: read your favourite blog on the go, read any RSS feed, and no software download.
Many people have found this site searching for AvantGo information thanks to a few posts I’ve made. (You can search the side there if you are looking for an older one.) I’ve even posted the AvantGo 5 files on my own server but that seems no longer necessary as AvantGo has finally released the device executables so you can install the official files now if you have a wireless device.
Today I discovered a new twist which seems to solve the sync issue on OS X… AvantGo has yet to release an official version for some reason, even though many other developers have done so, and their old partner in crime, Vindigo was early to the game. Anyway… Malsync is a UNIX tool that enables command line connectivity if you have a serial connection – not something many of us have anymore. AvantGo USB Sync takes it to the next level enabling (as you might guess) USB connectivity for local syncing on OS X.
I can’t confirm yet that this works for AvantGo 5, as I cannot yet get my laptop to connect with my Palm, but it does seem to be a valid solution to a long outstanding ommission in Palm/Mac connectivty.
Update 10/18/03… I did have an opportunity to speak with the developer and so far it seems that only certain devices are actually supported by the current USB sync function above. Newer devices are not yet supported unfortunately, so Tungsten users (at least the C, the one I have) won’t be able to use this just yet. Support is on the way.
I had a strange crashing issue on my Palm while trying to run AvantGo this morning and had to re-install. Thought I’d give the AG hosted (above) files a shot and fouund them all corrupted in some way (all versions). I went back to my own posted file and installed again with no issue. Not sure what is up with the AG hosted ones… if you need an install, I’ll keep mine up there.
A possible solution for everyone?
The problem has intensified in the past couple of weeks, but the good news is that as more people have been hit by comment spam, actual solutions are beginning to emerge.
Specifically, Jay Allen’s MT-BlackList is a blacklist-based solution to comment spam for Movable Type weblogs. It checks the comment fields (body, URL, author, etc) for URLs commonly found in spam comments, and rejects the comment if it looks like spam. The core plugin is set to be released today (Monday), but one of its neatest features-in-development is the ability for weblog systems to share blacklist data using XML-RPC. This provides the basis of a collaborative system similar to Razor, with the option for more management over the items in your own system’s blacklist.
We’re deeply committed to finding a way to combat spammers and we’re determined to do it on a core system level so that everyone can take advantage of spam prevention. We’re working on integrating comment spam blocking for MT and TypePad, and the great thing about Jay’s solution is that it could be the start of a distributed spam blocking network for comments, an implementation of which could be included in multiple tools. But, like email, there isn’t one simple solution that can be switched on and end spam completely. Hopefully we’re moving a step closer.
[Six Log]
This is great news! I’ve been looking into MT-Blacklist and thought exactly the same thing… that it could serve as a universal spam blocker. It’s clear from checking blogdex and daypop that we are all getting hit by the same porn comment spam and (once this can be implemented) we can knock them out together.
Seems that Palm has nicely revised the internal core apps but has only made them available for new purchasers… existing Tungsten owners are out of luck for now. GearBits had a nice review which got me thinking we should be able to get this as well. They are afterall just OS 5 applications and I do have a high res unit…
I’ve emailed PalmOne via the customer support form on their site. I suggest you do the same if you’d like to see these become available.