I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.
– Augusten BurroughsIt is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
– Arnold Toynbee
Digital/ Analog Book Hybrid
I just came across this interesting post from O’Reilly’s Tools of Change conference.
Manolis Kelaidis‘ idea is to embed hyperlinks in traditional books, or as the website puts it:
The blueBook created at the RCA and pictured here is a traditional book over-printed with conductive ink. This conductive ink creates hyperlinks on the page which, when touched by the reader, activates a processor concealed in the cover of the book. This processor then connects via bluetooth to a nearby computer, triggering different actions.
It is rather Ingenious , with a capital I. I can see this technology going places. For example: I’m currently reading ,yet again ,the lord of the Rings. The book could sense as I move from scene to scene and bring up the appropriate artwork, or music from Howard Shore’s excellent score, or bring up trivia, etc. Obscure names could link to an online glossary of all of Tolkien’s books.
In a technical context, links could be provided to get updated code samples, errors or updated technical information that adds to or supercedes the text.
This is a true hybrid since we get the best of both worlds: a user experience that has yet to be surpassed, and the functionality of eBook readers.
Question is, will it take off?
PS In response to Tim O’Reilly’s question in the comments:
But Sarah’s comment is also really crucial to understand: “people made a real emotional connection.” Why was that?
The emotional connection comes in because of the format: books. People can and do form emotional connections with books, I mean, I still have my Famous Five books in a cupboard – I refuse to throw them ( no matter what the improvement to the order in said cupboard). I can’t imagine forming such an emotional attachment to an eBook reader, laptop or webpage.
Windows Server Centro
According to Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft’s mid-market server is approaching the CTP stage.
Centro is bundle of
Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, System Center Essentials 2007, SQL Server 2005, ISA Server and other Forefront security technologies.
Sounds rather good.
Its a pity that I’m out of machines to beta ( err, CTP) test on.
The funny thing is that this is the first that I’ve heard of Centro.
The significant thing is that this is a 64-bit only product. Which is interesting when taken together with the rumor that Windows Home Server 2 is also to be a 64-bit only version.
Its a possibility that this [is part of] a push by Microsoft to get people to adopt the 64-bit architecture. A rather chicken-and-egg problem. Do you wait for a larger x64 install base? Or do you force people to move by releasing x64 only products?
It depends largely on a) the current size of the x64 install base in terms of the x86 install base and b) the barrier-to-entry in terms of architecture transition costs. The you have to factor in multi-core machines into this. Question: Is it even possible to get a multi-core x64 machine?
It’ll be interesting to see where Microsoft goes with this
iPhone Addiction Help
Steve Rubel passes on this hilarious collection of advice for people with iPhone-on-the-brain .
Get a black light poster of Mr. Jobs. Put it up in your bedroom. Close your eyes and chant softly: “Oh Steve, all-powerful maker of the most beautiful iPhone, please send me my wonderful gadget. Please send it, Steve. Please send it now.”
If the poster actually responds, you’re in deep trouble. If your room remains silent, you know you have the mental health to wait at least one more day.
Since I’m in the UK, I’ve given up all hope of even seeing the iPhone until late next year.
Blog Clean Up
If anyone has been looking for my previous posts and can’t find them, there’s a reason.
I’ve done a spring clean ( not that its really spring) and removed quite a few posts. As part of my aim to focus this blog on technology, all the politics stuff is gone. I did keep the Quotes and Bushisims as well as a few funny items. This’ll also apply to my Link blog.
And to reflect this new change in direction, I’ve altered the tagline to “Random Technology Musings”. If anyone thinks that its too random, suggestions are welcome.
Quote for the Day
From the moment a soldier enlists, we inculcate loyalty, duty, honor, integrity, and selfless service. And yet when we get to the senior-officer level we forget those values. I know that my peers in the Army will be mad at me for speaking out, but the fact is that we violated the laws of land warfare in Abu Ghraib. We violated the tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we violated the core of our military values. The stress of combat is not an excuse, and I believe, even today, that those civilian and military leaders responsible should be held accountable,”
– General Antonio Taguba, tasked by the military to investigate Abu Ghraib without looking up the chain of command and subsequently fired anyway.
HD versus Blu-Ray
Note: I’m far from an expert on this subject, but have been watching from the sidelines
I was at ASDA yesterday (that’s Walmart here in the UK) and found a few titles in both HD and Blu-Ray formats. It was exceedingly modest compared to the huge “normal” DVD collection that surrounded it. It seems to drive home the point that a single, unified format that runs on all devices works.
My collection of DVD’s ( about 100) can be played on any capable device I can find. From my PC to the my laptop to the DVD player to the Playstation 2. The only thing that changes is the screen size and controller format. Simple – no thinking require, literally.
As far as I could tell (and I didn’t look that hard to be honest – I wasn’t planing to write this post), the only device capable of playing either format was the PS3 (of which there were only 4 on sale). The reason for the lack of a) players and B0 titles to choose from comes from the confusion over which title is going to make it to the big time. Its a rather chicken-and-egg problem. Do you take a risk and back one over the other and hope that it will make it with enough pushing? or do you sit it out and wait for it to make it to the big time.
The thing is that once a format dominates, both manufacturers studios and retailers stand to make huge amounts of money since all the confusion will have cleared up and consumers will feel much more comfortable spending large amounts of money. Its not just the disks, its the whole eco-system that surrounds it. I’ll have to buy a new CD-drive capable to playing the new format. I’ll have to by a new player for the TV. I’ll have to by a HD-TV ( already done). I could go a bit further an by a HD set top box. And then there’s the disks (both with movies on them and for burning stuff to )
Since there is so much to gain, I don’t get it when manufacturers are prepares to duke it out to the death (or one or the other does a repeat of VHS’s move against betamax)
The thing is, a push is already happening:
On the one hand, it looks like Blockbuster is going all Blu-ray (in other words, no more discs that conform to the HD-DVD format). According to a story from the Associated Press as seen on Fox (there’s also a blog on News.com about it)
…
Could Blockbuster’s move mean the death knell for HD-DVD? Is Blockbuster even relevant in this market where people are getting their video on-demand and through outlets like Netflix?
…
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the Net, questions are being raised about Blu-ray discs engineering. Via Engadget comes a report that certain Blu-ray discs are “rotting” to the point that they’re unplayable.
I watch with interest, while I save my pounds and penny’s to spend on the winner – to the victor, the spoils.
Scoble, Facebook and Zoho
I’ve just been reading Scoble’s latest post. Its a long rant about Facebook (and maybe Social networking in general).
Now I don’t use any Social Network (Gasp!Say its not So! 🙂 )and its mainly because I prefer handling my friendships the old fashioned way – face to face. Any contacts go either on my phone, Outlook (Another gasp!! Outlook? OUTLOOK??? 🙂 )or Gmail.
But that’s not the point of the post.Its abut contacts in general. Outlook doesn’t do any sort of tagging. Gmail has tags. But not to the degree that Scoble suggests:
Let me define different behaviors for each tag. “LOVER” tag might go into one page with a password, for instance, that isn’t publicly available. That way Maryam and I could use a social network to send sweet nothings back and forth (I can’t use any of these networks for THAT kind of social networking). “BUSINESS ASSOCIATE” could have a form that includes why I care about that person, business wise. So I could put Fred Wilson there, add that he’s a VC, add his blog, add his Twitter account, etc.
Which is pretty clever.
They say genius is lightning across the brain. And as I read the above paragraph, a tool to do the job jumped instantly to mind –Zoho Creator.
Raffic Aslam, of Zoho, left this comment to my last Zoho post:
Dear User,
Thanks for your compliments
![)]()
I hope you would have checked out our scripting language – Deluge, which helps users to build powerful applications easily. I request you to try out Deluge Script and share your valuable thoughts.
Check out Deluge Scripting Video here –
http://static.zoho.com/creator/v2/collateral/delugescript/index.htmlThanks Again
~Raffic Aslam
The link is actually to a video of said scripting language in action, which you can view below (thanks to YouTube):
Its quite incredible. So this whole post is essentially a note to self reminding me to have a crack at this problem the next time I have a free afternoon. It’ll be more of a mashup than anything, but its a good idea to test Creator’s limits on.
Zoho Strikes Again
(via LifeHacker and Scoble’s link blog)
I’ve never seen something quite like this. I moonlight as an ASP.net Developer and this had me shaking my head in wonder:
Advice to Microsoft Corp. – buy Zoho before Google does (whatever the price, it’s worth it to beef up Microsoft’s web services). Imagine the power of Creator when merged with SQL and Longhorn Server (err, Windows Server 2008), for example.
Life as a Beta
Steve Rubel is right on ( for the philosophically inclined):
From adolescence onwards, you’re in a perpetual beta mode. As an adult you’re constantly learning new skills and capabilities, even as you age. The best and brightest among us are constantly growing. As a human being, you really don’t “ship” (as the technology parlance goes) until you’re dead.
For the geeks among us :
This week Apple, a company that certainly strives for perfection, launched a new beta version of its Safari Web browser. It’s buggy on both the Mac and Windows and lots of people are grumpy. It even broke several of my Dashboard widgets.
Yet, Apple, as a technology company, seems to be allowed to make such mistakes. They are permitted to learn and grow out in the open by slapping the “beta” label on products and services. Everyone else, however, is expected to be perfect. That’s like asking Curt Schilling to pitch a perfect game every outing. It’s ludicrous.
And so, in a eureka moment, I figured out why Google has two thirds (maybe more) of its software with a Beta tag, even though the software works perfectly well.
Seriously, people ( or should we say beta testers??) are more forgiving with Beta software. I mean, that’s why we’re testing the software in the first place.
This’ll keep me warm in the long hours ahead as I prepare my Windows Home Server for an upgrade to Release Candidate 1.
Random Musings 
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