Posted on

Gates roasts spam

In a letter to customers, Microsoft’s chairman highlights the company’s campaign against unsolicited e-mail. [CNET News.com]

“Spam is so significant a problem that it threatens to undo much of the good that e-mail has achieved,” Gates wrote in one of his periodic e-mail missives to customers.

I find that hard to argue… POPFile has categorized 2,221 ( 46.86%) messages in just over a week (I did a new install). I’ve had 69 false positives and 77 false negatives. I am currently running a 95.9% of accuracy with 7 buckets being used for classification.

46.86% of my email has been spam!! That is a pretty serious statistic and one that easily highlights the intensity of the problem.

Posted on

Design According to Ive

At the launch of Apple’s new Power Mac G5, Wired News was granted an exclusive tour of the new machines by Jonathan Ive, Apple’s lead industrial designer. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]

“It’s really much more potent when you don’t put on a veneer pretending to be powerful,” he said. “I see (the G5) as a tool. It’s an extremely powerful tool. There’s not a plastic façade that adds to the fact that it’s a really powerful tool. It’s very, very obvious that it is what it is.”

He continued, “From a designer’s point of view, it’s not an appearance game we’re playing. It is very utilitarian. It’s the use of material in a very minimalist way.

Posted on

Sorely missed in Palm OS 5 on my Tungsten C

When Pocket PC 2003 senses that a wireless network is available, it notifies you and gives you a chance to connect. If you move from one hotspot to another, or from one access point to another within your corporate campus, you’ll find this very handy. Once you’ve entered your login information for a particular network, the Pocket PC saves it and logs on automatically when it sees that network in the future.[ZDNet Anchordesk]

While it is easy to connect and discover wireless networks, I would like an option like on my PowerBook that saves the settings for my different locations, IP info as well as password if required.

Posted on

Verizon gives in

Not that they really had much choice in the matter after losing an appeal in Federal court a few weeks ago, but Verizon says it isn’t going to fight the FCC’s mandate for cellphone number portability and that it won’t charge customers any special fees for taking their number with them when they switch to another carrier.
Read [Via PhoneScoop]

[

Posted on

Sixty-eight new feeds from BBC News…

Sixty-eight new feeds from BBC News Interactive. [Scripting News]

Just a few more…

Posted on

Business Objects to support Safari

Business Objects, a leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced it is the first BI vendor to support Apple’s Safari Web browser… [MacMinute.com]

Good news! Not that I even use this stuff, but it’s great to see support for Mac specific browsers.

Posted on

Push to Talk demand may be less than expected…

Just as Nextel and two other carriers expand their services for the cell phone walkie-talkie feature, a new study predicts turbulent times for the technology. [CNET News.com]

The survey comes just a few weeks before Verizon Wireless is expected to launch the first of three new services that are similar to Nextel Communications’ DirectConnect and aimed at business clientele. Nextel so far is the only carrier to offer such a service.

Posted on

Broadband homes want faster, reliable Net

Households upgrading to high-speed Net access are basing their decisions on practical necessities rather than a desire for splashy graphics and streaming videos, a new study shows. [CNET News.com]

In a survey of 525 U.S. broadband households, faster Net access and a freed
phone line influenced consumers’ decision to upgrade from their dial-up
accounts significantly more than watching streaming video and downloading
music. The study, conducted by market research firm Strategy Analytics ,
also showed that broadband households check e-mail and search for
information more than access audio or video content.

“The broadband market today in the U.S. is still being driven heavily by
access and basic features and availability rather than a move to what we’ve
all been waiting for–where premium services and content would become more
important,” said James Penhune, a Strategy Analytics analyst.

Not for the reasons many have thought. It’s all about convenience and reliability — at least for now.

Posted on

Amazon, Intuit Team on Small Biz Apps Storefront

“Small businesses have a variety of different needs, and we’ve found with QuickBooks that some of these third-party software developers are able to create applications which meet the specific interests of particular small businesses,” Thacker says.

“Under the terms of the agreement, Amazon.com will process the transaction for the customer while the respective IDN (Intuit Developer Network) member will manage inventory and order fulfillment, and customer service and support with the software product,” the companies said in a joint statement. [internetnews.com]

Posted on

Where is it???

Where the heck is the revised 15.4″ Aluminum PowerBook? What is taking so long for this to make an appearance? I can’t believe that Apple would just EOL the middle size.

Posted on

note to my work colleagues…

When you know someone is going to phone in to a conference bridge, make sure they have the materials (ppt deck etc…) in advance or at least during the call. Otherwise it’s a complete waste!

Yes indeed I am listening right now to a room of people discussing a deck they all have in front of them, yet I am on audio only mode, due to my travel schedule. As you can tell by this post, it is not exactly a helpful call for me on my end…

Posted on

N.H. City Launches Chamber-Sponsored Hotspot

Unwilling to wait for large ISPs to build Wi-Fi access points in smaller cities, the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce activates a free downtown hotspot. [internetnews.com]

Campbell expects strong interest in the Portmouth hotspot. During the late 1990s, Portsmouth was the hub of the Granite State technology scene with a slew of Web design shops and other startups. While the Nasdaq crash caused several of these firms to fold, there are still many tech-savvy residents in the city.

“This is a huge (Apple) Mac town,” Campbell said. “And iBooks have had antennas (to access the Internet wirelessly) for years.”

Posted on

First high-definition DVR

hdr230.jpgTiVo’s planning to have this feature by the end of the year, but it looks like Zenith has the first digital video recorder that’s compatible with high-definition television. The downside to recording HDTV with a DVR is that saving a show requires huge amounts of hard disk space – the HDR230’s 80GB drive can only hold about eight hours of programming at highest quality.
Read

[Gizmodo]

Personally this “limit” would not bother me as my current Series 1 30 Hour TiVO, really only records 9 hours at highest quality which seems to be the only way to want to watch it back anyway. It has never been an issue for us though I guess we don’t really do any long term archiving. It would be great to burn to DVD if that can ever truly be allowed.