Green Machine

I have a fondness for green. It feels different than reds and blues. It can be bright green or it can get more earthy. I like green, but I'm not a green freak who drives a green car, paints his bedroom three shades of green, or has an assortment of Green Bay Packers jerseys in his closet--uh nix that last part. What set me off was Sony's Vaio C series of notebook computers. I'm digging the "spring green" or "natural green" for those European readers.

The computer is slim and small with a 13.3 inch screen. I've been drooling over Dell's Inspirion 710m for a while. I could get a mighty mobile weblogging machine in a spiffy color... IF I had $1350 bucks lying around. Anyone want to make a donation to the TAM Spring Green Notebook fund? Someone? Anyone? Bueler? Someone leave at tip anyway. It's been so long I've forgotten to forget to say thank you to generous folk.

"Sony's Vaio C Series of 13.3-Inchers"

Intel Shows off 80 Core Prototype

Moore's Law continues. Instead of the number of transistors doubling on microchips every one to two years Intel looks to double the number of microprocessors periodically:

But the ultimate goal, as envisioned by Intel's terascale research prototype, is to enable a trillion floating-point operations per second--a teraflop--on a single chip. Ten years ago, the ASCI Red supercomputer at Sandia National Laboratories became the first supercomputer to deliver 1 teraflop using 4,510 computing nodes.

Intel's prototype uses 80 floating-point cores, each running at 3.16GHz, Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, said in a speech following Otellini's address. In order to move data in between individual cores and into memory, the company plans to use an on-chip interconnect fabric and stacked SRAM (static RAM) chips attached directly to the bottom of the chip, he said.

At this rate a Matrix-style shunt into the back of one's brain isn't too far off. And to pick another movie metaphor, will these powerful computers become sentient and strike back at their human "oppressors?"

"Intel Pledges 80 Cores in Five Years"

TiVo's Secret Origin

Who knew TiVo was alien technology? This "secret" government film tells us the truth. Too bad there's no word on if TiVo had anything to do with the JFK assassination, the sinking of the Maine, or Gary Coleman's fall from A-list celebrity status.

"Mysterious TiVo Origins Film" [via Engadet]

Web: Raging Teenager

Yesterday, 08.06, the World Wide Web turned 15. I don't know what I'd be doing without it.

"Happy 15th Birthday, WWW!"

Snag that Portable Music Player

Today's Woot is one sweet deal. It's a SanDisk digital audio player with 256 MB of memory. It's nice to pop in a few songs or podcasts to take with you on the go. But the real value is its built-in microphone. For webloggers you can take it with you to interview people, make on-the-go podcasts, or just to make audio notes for yourself. That it's $20 with shipping makes it a steal. I have a similar iRiver device that only has 125 MB of memory--more than enough for a recorder--and it cost me $60 six months ago.

Calacanis Will Pay You to Post

It could be a sign of a new net bubble, but Jason Calacanis wants to hire top users from social networking sites like diggs and Flickr to post stories on Netscape. That's a job less intensive and time consuming than weblogging.

"Paying the Top DIGG/REDDIT/Flickr/Newsvine Users (or "$1,000 a Month for Doing what You're Already Doing.")" [via Netscape]

Charter Crimps My Style

Charter is a mediocre ISP. It was down again last night, thus no Charlie's Show Prep. Since I'm out in the hinterlands with no DSL available my broadband options are limited.

The Good and Bad of Progress

Glenn Reynolds has written a whole book on how technology and markets have empowered an "Army of Davids." There is a downside to this progress which Glenn acknowledges: the improvements can be for both good and bad. The knowledge and ability to synthesize makes life-saving drugs possible it also allows someone to collect enough ricin in a shed to kill scores. Don't be surprised one day to read a story about someone producing weapons-grade uranium in their basement.

"FBI to Search House After Finding Ricin"

UPDATE: Texas governor Rick Perry wants an "army of eyeballs" scanning the U.S.-Mexican border:

The plan will allow web users worldwide to watch Texas' border with Mexico and phone the authorities if they spot any apparently illegal crossings.

Texas Governor Rick Perry said the cameras would focus on "hot-spots and common routes" used to enter the US.

Call it the 101st Pajama Division of the Minutemen Project.

"Web Users to 'Patrol' US Border" [via Engadget]

Apple's New MacBook

Drool.

Apple's new MacBook.

A 13.3 inch screen, Intel Core Duo, and Apple industrial design. This is my next notebook. Now, I just need to find some cash. If any Apple-loving TAM readers want to help me make the "switch" drop some coin into my tip jars on the left.

Back Online

My internet connection seems to be working fine now. I don't know what happened. Usually when I have connection problems I unplug the cable modem and plug it back in. If that doesn't work I do a combination of unplugging and plugging the modem and restarting the computer. That didn't work this afternoon. But tonight I just mess with the modem and *POOF!* I'm back online.

Don't worry, I didn't break into hives or start shaking because I couldn't instantly google something. This outage reminded me I can read quite a few pages in a book when I'm not staring at a computer screen.

Technical Difficulties

The lack of posts isn't because I've given up weblogging and ran off with the circus. For some reason my cable modem and/or cable company (Charter again) aren't liking me. I hope to be up and running as soon as possible.

Nintendo Goes Contrarian with Wii

One mantra of modern business management is "Listen to your customers." Nintendo didn't do that with Wii their new video game console:

The hard-core gaming community is extremely vocal--they blog a lot--but if Nintendo kept listening to them, hard-core gamers would be the only audience it ever had. "[Wii] was unimaginable for them," Iwata says. "And because it was unimaginable, they could not say that they wanted it. If you are simply listening to requests from the customer, you can satisfy their needs, but you can never surprise them. Sony and Microsoft make daily-necessity kinds of things. They have to listen to the needs of the customers and try to comply with their requests. That kind of approach has been deeply ingrained in their minds."

Sometimes good business is making something customers didn't even know they wanted. "Wii" will see if Nintendo pulls it off with Wii.

"A Game For All Ages" [via digg]

In Defense of Algebra

One would think a defense of learning algebra wasn't needed, but Kenneth Silber feels compelled since he points out a few pundits have bashed the branch of mathematics. The Washington Post's Richard Cohen told a high school dropout, "You will never need to know algebra. I have never once used it and never once even rued that I could not use it." I'm sure that's just what employers want to hear. Instead of finding workers who can employ algebra's analytic reasoning Cohen blows it off by leaving all that number stuff to the "computer or a calculator."

Here's a semi-important real-world application: look at a sales receipt and determine the sales tax rate. (I'll leave finding the formula as an exercise for the reader.) You would then know if the store was using the correct rate. You say, "Big deal"? Knowing how much the state takes out of your wallet is good citizenship.

There are plenty of on-the-job examples involving production yields or rates or some other unknown quantity needing to be discovered. Training manuals can only take you so far. Sometimes a problem arises that goes beyond any training or formula in a book. That's when a pencil, a piece of paper, and some high school algebra can do wonders. For Cohen sitting in his office bloviating on the latest Washington happenings that never happens.

Like any technology algebra (and mathematics in general) has its place. As an Austrian economics sympathizer heavily influenced by Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek I understand running an entire economy using mathematical models is a hopeless cause. The Soviets' attempt at that led to decades of suffering. Yet without abstract mathematics like algebra our control over physical forces would be quite limited.

It would take a lot of Cohen's literary reasoning to develop the technology needed to make the tools he uses to tap out his columns. Thankfully we have algebra and more advanced mathematics to help design the logic that runs computers and organize the flow of good and services. Cohen's admitted ignorance gives him no right to bash a foundation of the modern world. Instead he should be downright thankful someone learned their algebra in high school.

"Algebra and Its Enemies"

Net Neutrality Video

If you haven't heard the term "net neutrality" you soon will. It's a complicated issue involving property rights, economic incentives, and good customer internet experiences. Public Knowledge created a video to help understand the issue. I haven't decided where I stand yet, but the video explains part of the issue.

[via digg]

Wii Are the World

Maybe I'm just getting too old for video games but Nintendo picked a stupid name by calling their next game console "Wii" (pronounced "we"). Huh? The just named their next great hope in the video game wars after a mispelled French word. Ok everyone, being thinking up some urine jokes. Or think of something about "this little pigging going wii wii wii all the way home." Can you beat Joystiq's offerings?

"Nintendo Dubs New Video Game Console Wii"

Somebody Better Check Their Bot

Adding this humble weblog to this list of "The Best Global Sites XXX" will help my traffic but not do a thing for those in need of a little carnal stimulation.

BlackBerry Addicts Safe for Now

A judge hasn't forced RIM to shut down its BlackBerry service yet. Darn, I wanted to see what effects it would have on crackberry addicts. I'm envisioning shortness of breath, indigestion, headaches, nausea, and a wave of Treo and Sidekick thefts.

"Judge Declines to Shut Down BlackBerry"

Eight is Enough

Because of legal struggles and the loud, consistent outcry that users don't have enough choice in their operating systems Microsoft will release eight different versions of Windows Vista.

Victor Agreda, Jr. at Download Squad writes,

It is true that Windows offers choice for the consumer. You aren't locked into a music player like iTunes, and you now have 8 flavors of Vista goodness to choose from. But perhaps there is a such a thing as too much choice?

I thought "choice" was inherently good. The more choice the better. That's why the ultra-configurable Linux is crushing all opponents in the OS market.

Oh, wait. It isn't.

That's because "choice" in and of itself isn't what many computer users want in an OS. What users want is software that lets them do what they want to do as easily as possible. When looking at the combination of interoperablilty and ease of use Windows wins for many people. It's not perfect, and for many uses it's quite inferior, but it gets the job done for millions.

What Microsoft did with Windows was put together a software package that offered a lot of compatibility and features. More importantly they built a platform for third-parties to write software.

All the talk about Microsoft being an evil monopolists was fluff anyway. No one, not Bill Gates or Steve Balmer put a gun to anyone's head and made them use Windows. It was mainly griping from fallen competitors and users who crave the Platonic ideal of operating systems.

With Apple revitalized and drawing excitement with their Intel-powered computers (I'm waiting for $1000 iBook) and Linux geeks continuing to make that OS more user friendly we have a thriving, innovative OS market.

"The 8 Faces of Windows Vista"

Sticker Shock

A $600-700 PlayStation 3 is dead on arrival. If that's Sony's starting price kiss their video game console kingdom goodbye. About the only way I'd consider forking over that much money for a game machine is if there was a way to shunt it directly into my brain. If you own Sony shares sell, sell, sell then sell short.

"PlayStation 3 Costs $800, Sez Merrill Lynch Mob" [via digg]

Google Food

Google would be one of the few work places where someone could photograph their meals and not get any strange looks.

[via Valleywag]

Microsoft Car

Fiats using Microsoft's Windows Automotive will soon show up in Europe. I'm afraid these jokes [and here and here] will soon come true.

"Microsoft-Powered Fiats to Debut in Geneva"

Feeding My Habit

The info hose has been turned back on. After a long time ignoring RSS feeds because I got bored with SharpReader I'm now playing with Bloglines (after a 1 1/2 year hiatus) and Omea Reader. A positive with Bloglines is it's portable. Anywhere I can use a web browser I can check on my feeds. Omea Reader is a stand-alone program, but it's fast. Once a feed has been updated I can instantly read it. Both kinds of newsreaders have their place, and with both accepting OPML files I can have both sets of feeds synched. We'll see if I start preferring one over the other in daily use. I wouldn't be surprised if Bloglines wins out. Ever since I started using Furl for saving web pages I don't bookmark anything with the browser.

Macworld Bummer

My dream of an Intel-powered Apple notebook under $1000 will have to wait. Plunking down $1999 is not how I want to start playing with OSX. Plus they had to dump the "PowerBook" name. MacBook Pro is too clunky-sounding.

"Apple's MacBook Pro"

Website Makes Phone Calls

This site is cool in a pretty pointless way.

Not So Hip

It's bad enough to not watch Battlestar Galactica, the best show of 2005 (good choice), but Glenn Reynolds doesn't even own a TiVo. His geek cred has dropped significantly.

Money Making Opportunity

People in the U.S. really, really want an Xbox 360. Some want it so much they are shelling out $600 on eBay for these machines. Yet they're plentiful in Japan and running for a little over $300 (35,000 yen). I smell an abitrage play. If only I could read Japanese to see how much Amazon.co.jp would gouge me for overnight shipping.

"Need to find an Xbox 360? Buy a ticket to Tokyo"

Congressional Idiots

Somehow the House of Representitives thinks Americans have a God-given right to television. Thus, they want to spend $1.5 billion for converter boxes when TV goes all digital in 2009. I didn't know this was such a pressing issue. Heck, in four years most people's TV will be broken and replaced anyway. The Heritage Foundation's Andrew Grossman writes,

For most of the millions of Americans with analog sets, this switchover will mean “absolutely nothing”—85 percent of households have cable or satellite service and won’t even notice.

You'd almost think we weren't in the middle of a war.

"House Moves for All-Digital TV by 2009"

Xbox Insanity Soon to Return to Best Buy

If this information is accurate Best Buy will be selling more Xbox 360s on 12.18. Christmas shoppers plus gameboy nuts equals craziness. Best Buy employees have my pity.

[via digg]

Rumor Squashed

If Microsoft faked Xbox 360 shortages now would be a good time flood them onto the market. Nobody has them. That rumor's dead.

Comic Books Coming to Life

Coming soon to real life: Iron Man!

The battle suit has been invented. Now, all we need is a billionaire with drinking problem to make it fly and paint it red and gold. None of this Tron-glow.

"The HAL-5 Ready to Battle"

A La Carte Cable

Instead of getting a set number of cable channels the FCC is about to urge cable companies to let consumers pick and choose what channels they want to pay for. Style, Nickelodeon, and Disney would immediately get the ax.

"Picking the Cable Channel You Want" [via digg]

Ooo Pretty!

Colored bubbles.

"The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles" [via Gizmodo]

I Should Have Stood in Line

Some fool paid $1700 on eBay for an Xbox 360.

[via Professor Bainbridge]

Standing in Line for an XBox 360

After closing the store last night I drove my two Best Buys to see how many crazies took on a cold Wisconsin November night just to be in line for an XBox 360. In Wauwatosa I saw 30-40 people at 11:00 pm all bundled up in coats. At the Menominee Falls store there were about 20. One smart person had their truck running so people could jump in to stay warm. Two guys were tossing a football around in the parking lot. At the Wal-Mart in West Bend I arrived at midnight to see if the maddness has begun. Everything was calm. All the store's consoles were already in lay-away. People arrived as early as 6:00 am Monday morning to wait for their gaming machine.

"Best Buy Opens Their Doors - Mayhem Starts"

"It's Here!"

Now We're Doomed

Imagine internet connectivity in everything: cars, stoves, clothes washers, even doorknobs. That's the future in a new ITU report:

Machines will overtake humans to become the biggest users of the Internet in a brave new world of electronic sensors, smart homes, and tags that track users’ movements and habits, the UN’s telecommunications agency predicted.

In a report entitled “Internet of Things”, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) outlined the next stage in the technological revolution where humans, electronic devices, inanimate objects and databases are linked in real time by a radically transformed Internet.

Now, let's ratchet up the paranoia by imagining all these things talking to Google.

All you tin foil hat-wearing Terminator fans invest in a big supply of tranquilizers and work on stocking that fallout shelter if you haven't started already.

"Machines and Objects to Overtake Humans on the Internet" [via Ghost of a flea]

"Wireless: Creating Internet of 'Things'"

UPDATE: The future is already upon us. Wifi-enabled mosquito-catching machine will soon be available:

The coming smart magnet system harkens back to the early days of networked PCs, [American Biophysics CEO Devin] Hosea said, when people came up with the idea of "LAN-tastic," for a local-area network or a ring of network connectivity.

AmBio plans to create an electronic self-diagnosing network of magnets all communicating with one another through the 802.11b wireless standard. Centralized servers in the middle of the network, or what AmBio's chief technology officer calls "brain machines," will record and analyze data transmitted from the computerized magnets on air quality, humidity, wind direction and pollutants. The data is transmitted to AmBio and its client for remote administration.

If it's raining on a magnet-wired golf course, for example, the system will shut down to save power and propane. If the wind is coming out of the north, the south line magnets will shut down and let the mosquitoes blow by.

"Wi-Fi Mosquito Killer Coming to a Porch Near You" [via Engadget]

The Google Internet

Robert Cringely spectulates on Google's big idea. Forget Google Base, G-Mail, or AdSense. That's all peripheral to something sitting in a parking garage:

There, in a secret area off-limits even to regular GoogleFolk, is a shipping container. But it isn't just any shipping container. This shipping container is a prototype data center. Google hired a pair of very bright industrial designers to figure out how to cram the greatest number of CPUs, the most storage, memory and power support into a 20- or 40-foot box. We're talking about 5000 Opteron processors and 3.5 petabytes of disk storage that can be dropped-off overnight by a tractor-trailer rig. The idea is to plant one of these puppies anywhere Google owns access to fiber, basically turning the entire Internet into a giant processing and storage grid.

While Google could put these containers anywhere, it makes the most sense to place them at Internet peering points, of which there are about 300 worldwide.

Two years ago Google had one data center. Today they are reported to have 64. Two years from now, they will have 300-plus. The advantage to having so many data centers goes beyond simple redundancy and fault tolerance. They get Google closer to users, reducing latency. They offer inter-datacenter communication and load-balancing using that no-longer-dark fiber Google owns. But most especially, they offer super-high bandwidth connections at all peering ISPs at little or no incremental cost to Google.

...

There will be the Internet, and then there will be the Google Internet, superimposed on top. We'll use it without even knowing. The Google Internet will be faster, safer, and cheaper. With the advent of widespread GoogleBase (again a bit-schlepping app that can be used in a thousand ways -- most of them not even envisioned by Google) there's suddenly a new kind of marketplace for data with everything a transaction in the most literal sense as Google takes over the role of trusted third-party info-escrow agent for all world business. That's the goal.

This is scaring the beejezus out of the geeks at digg. The days of geeks' crush on the company are numbered.

"Google-Mart"

Green and Yellow Laptop for Third World

Nicholas Negroponte unveiled the $100 laptop in Tunis. It's powered by a hand crank and has wireless capability.

It looks pretty cool. With 1 GB in flash memory (no hard drive) this should be a light machine to tote around. I'd pay $300 to get one for my mobile web surfing, e-mail, and weblogging needs. This has the potential of having lots of buzz on eBay and secondary markets. Negroponte sees this and wants to stop it:

"One of the things you want to do is make sure there's no secondary market," Negroponte said. He said one solution would be to make sure "the machine will be disabled if it doesn't log in to the network for a few days."

Hackers are already drooling at the challenge of finding way around Negroponte's technological road blocks.

Negroponte is missing an opportunity for rich Westerners to subsidize these machines. One way he will keep costs down is by taking orders in the millions to take advantage of economies of scale. What he could do is charge First Worlders $300 (or more) and use the profits to get more computers to Third Worlders. Interested people will find ways to get the green and yellow (is Negroponte a Packers fan?) laptops. By selling them to First Worlders Negroponte's One Laptop per Child organization would get the surplus instead of intermediaries.

Jamais Cascio wonders how useful this device will be for developing countries:

I have no doubt that the technology/price point is achievable, eventually. And certainly, for at least some of the students, a device like this will enhance learning and access to information. But whether this is a better solution than other solutions -- both technological and otherwise -- is a still-unanswered question. Books are less-costly and far less likely to be stolen, and community computers (akin to "Village Phones") would provide access with less risk of theft or misappropriation. They aren't even good models for the technologies that the students in the global south are likely to be using as adults: systems based on mobile phone-type architectures are already far more common, and can carry out many key economic tasks.

Thomas Barnett loves the idea: "They'll be surprised. We'll be surprised. The world will be a better place."

Raj Boora reminds us:

Of course you still need all the other infrastructure to get these machines online and more importantly an IT department that will accept and support them.

"$100 Laptop Expected in Late 2006"

Too Much Tech

The Beyond Smart Mill & Brew Coffee Maker may be a wonderful product. Combining a grinder with the brewer is a nice touch. The $49.99 Woot price is nice. But it has something called SANI Wireless Network Interface. You can hook up this coffee maker to the internet. Why? I don't know. What's it going to do, tell me there's a sale on Verona beans at my nearest Starbucks? Will it start complaining to me that I'm using the wrong kind of coffee filters? Technology is great. The internet is amazing. Can't live without it. But a wired coffee maker is a line I won't cross.

DRM Craziness

Last week, the news that Sony was putting digital right management software silently on people's computers marked a new low in companies trying to protect their content from pirates and free-loaders. They have lost the trust of many customers including me. The next time I consider buying a Sony CD I'll be looking at all the fine print to see if it says there's any DRM on it. Believing the packaging won't guarantee nothing bad will happen when I try to rip the songs to put them on my iPod. Sony's nafarious, potentially-crippling software demonstrates that.

The most vicious creature created by modern capitalism has now been unleashed upon Sony. Lawyers have filed suit in Italy. More are sure to sink their teeth into Sony's hide.

To say CNET's Molly Wood should get a grip is an understatement. With the vitriol she unleashed you'd think Islamists terrorists blew up her family. Molly, it's just music, computers, and gadgets. Sony's allowed to be total morons. If they want to implement highly-restrictive DRM that locks down their music too tightly so be it. What Sony can't be allowed to do is sneak a program unbeknownst to consumers.

Sony is in a whole heap of trouble when non-techies like Hugh Hewitt get bombarded with calls and e-mail on this story.

Today, after learning a cracker used Sony's root kit to put a virus on user's computers the company stopped making protected CDs. Once they find a different DRM method they'll start again. That I have no problem with. If Sony wants to make a lousy product it's their right. I'll choose not to buy what they're selling.

"DRM this, Sony!"

Yahoo + TiVo = Cool

Now, if you have a TiVo Series 2 box you can now program it through the web. Maybe I'll finally get around to upgrading.

Blast from the Past

This Digg post reminds me I have an Osbourne-1 sitting in my basement. Anyone want to make an offer?

"First Laptop Ever"

Go Old School

Target will be selling old-fashion (Yikes! I'm too young to write that) arcade cabinets.

Each unit plays 12 of the original arcade versions of the most popular Midway® games including: Defender®, Defender® II, Robotron®, Joust®, Bubbles®, Splat™, Sinistar®, Rampage®, Rootbeer Tapper™, Wizard of Wor™, Timber™, and Satan's Hollow™.

Damn it! I want Beer Tapper, not the prohibitionist version.

"Target to Begin Selling Stand-Up Arcades in November"

The Speculation Continues

An AP business writer thinks Google Base is an online classified ad service. The only people who know what it really is aren't saying much.

"Google Gives Peek at Classified Ad Service"

Free Web Database

Google is playing again. Google Base, a free, online database, will be announced at their Zeitgeist conference today.

Play, play, play. That's how the company seems to be coming up with new ideas. I wonder how management sorts through them to find the good stuff they think will help build profits?

"Google's Upcoming Database Service" [via Download Squad]

UPDATE: Ben Charny thinks Google Base could be an eBay killer. [via Milwaukee Blue Shirt]

UPDATE II: Google responds to the rumors:

You may have seen stories today reporting on a new product that we're testing, and speculating about our plans. Here's what's really going on. We are testing a new way for content owners to submit their content to Google, which we hope will complement existing methods such as our web crawl and Google Sitemaps. We think it's an exciting product, and we'll let you know when there's more news.

[via digg]

Furl's Not Sick Any More

Furl is working again. I have no idea what was wrong.

Furl's Sick

Furl hasn't been saving web pages for me for a few days. I hope it's just a server problem or some kind of upgrade. What I hope didn't happen is someone pulled the plug. For years I had been collecting web pages for posting to TAM in its own bookmark folder in my browser. That folder had gotten unwieldly. There are easily a few hundred bookmarks in there. It's daunting wading through them looking for that one item I'm inspired to post on at the moment. Another thing is these bookmarks are tied to a single computer. With Furl I can get to them when I'm posting from my desktop machine or when I'm out and about with my notebook. Plus, readers can subscribe to the RSS feed to see what's caught my eye but hasn't deserved a full-blown weblog post. I really need to get a link to that feed permanently on TAM. What I should also do is insert the feed into a sidebar.

UPDATE: I'm using [RSS] del.icio.us now. It doesn't save web pages like Furl does did, but it's faster. Now, is there a way to import my Furl links into del.icio.us using RSS?

Good Google News

Google announced Electronic Fund Transfer is out of beta. Those of you who try to make a few bucks off your websites by hosting Google ads can now have the cash put directly into your bank account.

For the rest of the world this news isn't as as big as Apple's news, this is more tangible news for me. (I'm happy with my "old" 20 GB iPod, thank you. And yes, I know EFT came out of beta last month. I just finally noticed the announcement when I checked my AdSense stats.

Apple's Big News

Apple is announcing new iPods that play video, iTunes will sell music videos and some TV shows, and some new iMacs. Engadget is covering it live.

"Live from the Steve Jobs Keynote — 'One more thing…'"

And the Winner Is...

Stanley, a Volkswagen built by a Stanford University team won the DARPA Grand Challenge.

"Stanford Team Clinches Top Spot in Robot Desert Race"

Grand Challenge Winner

This year's DARPA Grand Challenge actually had finishers.

Three modified driverless vehicles crossed the finish line and into the history books on Saturday after traversing 132 miles (210 kilometers) of desert terrain, guided only by laser sensors and onboard computers.

No winner was declared yet for the $2 million prize in the race, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to spur the development of driverless vehicles that one day could carry water, fuel and other supplies for the U.S. military in war zones.

Organizers said they were waiting for final race times from the three driverless vehicles that finished and two others still on the course, which would be paused overnight and restarted on Sunday.

A winner, based on travel times, would be declared early Sunday, said DARPA Director Tony Tether. "We have a winner, we just don't know who it is," Tether told reporters.

Last year, in the inaugural race sponsored by DARPA, called the Grand Challenge, every machine failed within sight of the starting line. The Pentagon decided to double the prize and hold the event again this year.

With the progress made in automated vehicles in just one year DARPA's Tony Tether thinks, "We could see [automated military] convoys deployed in as early as 5 years."

"Robot Vehicles Conquer U.S. Desert Terrain Race"

Winer Sells Weblogs.com

Don't fall off your chairs. Here's something completely un-Miers. Dave Winer, weblog pioneer, is selling Weblogs.com to Verisign. That's not to be confused with AOL buying Weblogs, Inc.

Winer gives us the reasons for his sale:

The bootstrap of weblogs.com is something a bigco should not attempt, it's hard to make it go, and most bootstraps don't, and it requires trust, something an individual is more likely able to inspire than a big company. On the other hand, running a serivce that other bigco's depend on (like Google, and Microsoft, to name two) is not something a person like myself should attempt. I think Verisign is the perfect company to do it. Their name servers, I hear, respond to 250,000 requests per second at peak loads. In comparison, weblogs.com's 1-2 million pings a day seems a drop in the bucket. Further, it will require great resources to tackle the ping-spam issue, and there Verisign's expertise, not just what's visible today, but what's coming down the road, will make all the difference. I was in no posiiton to do this on my own. And belive me, the Technorait's and PubSub's, even Feedster and Bloglines, weren't helping out very much. I belive they'll respect Verisign much more than they respected me. And this deal will free me up to work on new ideas around blogging, RSS, OPML, web services, podcasting, etc. I'm good at digging holes, I have to pass off to others to make the trains run on time when the service grows as big as weblogs.com has.

Me thinks Dave learned from his problems last year. Too he still doesn't know how to admit he can be wrong.

Public Bookmarks

Being the info junkie I am there are far more stories, essays, and weblog posts I read daily than I comment on. To get some idea of what's catching my eye here's my Furl page along with a link to the RSS feed.

Milt's Podcasting

Milt Rosenberg of the smartest show on radio, Extention 720, is podcasting weekly highlights. Even with WGN's powerful signal it's sometimes hard to get the station up in the Milwaukee area. This is a smart move on the station's part.

Music Social Site

For a few weeks I've been playing with Audioscrobbler and Last.fm. The latter is a music social website that tracks what songs you've listen to and connects you to people with similar music tastes as well as discussion groups. The personal charts is a nice feature simply because it's taking your most-played list out of iTunes and showing it off to the world. Musical tastes says a lot about one's personality. Two problems with Last.fm:

1. The site loads too slowly. I'm not expecting Google speed, but 10-30 seconds is too long for someone using broadband.
   
2. Recommendations should be more than what other Last.fm users suggest. An Amazon-like algorithm should suggest similar bands and songs to what you've recently played.
   

It's a nice start for Last.fm. It's intrigued me enough to wait and see how they'll improve.

Nintendo's Lost Me

For the Revolution Nintendo is coming out with a controller with a split personality. It looks stupid. I don't like it. I'm not coordinated enough to use both my thumb on the analog stick and my fingers on the buttons simultaneously. If I wanted some split controller I'd stick with PC gaming.

"The Nintendo Revolution Controller — No, Really!"

iPod Nano

Yesterday, Apple wowed us with the new iPod nano. It's smaller and thinner than the iPod mini (62% smaller according to the Engadget crew), has a color screen, and keeps the cool, minimalist iPod look. Apple shrank the sucker by replacing the hard drive with flash memory for storage. The thing won't skip. It's very cool. But it's going to destroy any reason to buy the iPod shuffle. The 2 GB nano sells for $199. The 1 GB shuffle goes for $129. Apple should slash the prices of the shuffle in half and make that their introductory music player. Kind of like free crack for the first-time user.

Just Like on TV

I need to lighten things up a tad today. This e-reader gave me a case of deja vu from the not-so-old sci-fi series Earth: Final Conflict. It was a pretty good show, but they never should have killed the main character, Boone, at the end of the first season.

Wi-Fi at the Fair

Wireless internet is no fad when rural Manitowoc County has wi-fi at their county fair. Kevin at Lakeshore Laments demonstrated it worked well at the local GOP booth.

"Fair Blogging"

Google Talk

Seeing stories on Google Talk in the NY Times and Wall Street Journal today convinced me this wasn't a rumor floating through the ether. So I installed it. Just one problem: I have no one to talk to. My IM is MS Messenger. And since my Gmail account is a secondary one I have no contacts to be used with Google Talk. It's really hard to see if I like this program when I have no friends on my list. If you have GT and want to add me to your friends list my Gmail address is sean--dot--hackbarth--at--gmail--dot--com.

P.S. If people need Gmail accounts I'll hook you up. Leave a comment or e-mail me at my primary address: sean--at--theamericanmind--dot--com.

UPDATE: The Time of London has a quick Q&A on Google Talk.

Michele needs people to play with it too.

[Added to OTB's Beltway Traffic Jam.]

Xbox 360 Prices

So Microsoft will sell two versions of the Xbox 360. For me the only difference I see is the $399 one will have a 20 GB hard drive while the $299 won't. But how many Xbox games were using the hard drive in the original machine? How many games will need one in the 360? I thought the point of the hard drive was so you didn't need to shell out a bunch of cash for those memory cards.

Probably in reaction to Microsoft's announcement Amazon is lists the PlayStation3 for $299. That's a price I could live with. Now, will Sony be able to make enough of them so they don't have a shortage like they did with the PS2?

"Official: Xbox 360 Prices are $299 and $399" [via Engadget]

Next Zelda is Stunning

Sure I just bought a PS2 (Destroy All Humans was good, cheesy fun), but I'm not dumping my GameCube because The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess comes out later this year. Wow. It's the most beautiful game I've ever seen on the GC.

An Ode to the Internet

Patrick Ruffini points out that today is the 10-year anniversary of Netscape's IPO. Wow. My life can be easily divided into BI, "Before Internet," and AI, "After Internet." But really I can't imagine my life without access to so much information, the access to so many goods and services, and the ability to communicate with so many people. As a conservative I don't like to spout, "revolution" often, but with how the internet has changed so many aspects of our society, economics, politics, and culture there isn't a better word. Just like Patrick, I have no idea what we'll be doing with the internet in 10 years. All I know is it will be one hell of a ride.

"A Wild Ten Year Ride"

NBC Doesn't Suck as Much

NBC will not be back in good graces with PVR owners:

Looks like NBC is finally going to be putting an end to one of their more odious practices: scheduling shows by a minute or two off in order to purposefully create the kind of scheduling conflicts that prevents TiVos and other digital video recorders from properly recording shows.

This was a pain-in-the-ass last season when I always missed the last minute of Desparate Housewives so Crossing Jordan could be recorded. Now, if the network could get some decent programing to watch.

"NBC to Stop Trying to Annoy DVR Owners"

Like Trying to Plug a Dike

NASA's embarassment continues. An astronaut yanked out the gap fillers and now might have to do another spacewalk to fix thermal blanket. Engineers are sure to spend many sleepless nights worrying that this new "problem" will raise the danger of the astronauts by 0.0006%. Because we can't have any chance of disaster with people traveling at thousands of miles per hour 100 miles above the earth. At this rate if the shuttle's toilet gets plugged they'll just have to abandon Discovery and let it burn in the atmosphere. Hey, that might not be such a bad idea.

"Astronaut May Face Another Shuttle Repair"

Repairing Discovery

Here's another post in my continuing rant on why the space shuttle is pointless. Astronauts might have to make repairs on Discovery's heat shield.

A couple of short strips of material dangling from Discovery's belly may require an unprecedented repair by spacewalking astronauts, if engineers determine there's even a possibility that the problem could endanger the shuttle during descent, NASA said Sunday.

Teams of experts were scrambling to understand just how serious the problem was, with heated discussions raging on what to do, if anything.

NASA doesn't have any idea how critical this is. For all they know gap fillers pop out on every mission. Only now are hyper-sensitive engineers looking for anything that slightly increase the risk to the astronauts.

Some wise man in Congress (yes, I'm laughing at that one too) should stand up and declare the shuttle program to be an embarassment and waste of money. No body on Capitol Hill has the guts to do that because they'd then be labled "anti-science" or "anti-space." And it would probably stick even though we know so much human knowledge is being gleaned from people closely studying heat tiles. Wow, I feel like we're getting that much closer to coloninzing Mars.

"Discovery May Need Unprecedented Repair"

No More HP iPods

Hewlett-Packard selling iPods didn't make sense to me. They didn't add any technological innovations and they didn't take on Apple on price. I have an HP iPod but I don't ever think about that company when I use it. iPod=Apple, just as Steve Jobs wants it to be. Apple didn't care since the deal put iTunes on HP computers. Now, HP is ending the reselling arrangement. No big deal.

"HP to Stop Reselling iPod Music Player"

Maybe a Shuttle Launch in 2005

Writing has taking my mind off current, personal events. I think of weblogging as comfort food for my mind. I'm going to pound on that dying horse that is the space shuttle program.

Today, NASA chief Michael Griffin said he really, really wanted to have another launch in 2005. That will depend on getting the foam on the main fuel tank fixed in time for the small launch windows in the fall. This is how risk-adverse NASA is now:

The launch windows later this year are very limited, however. The first is Sept. 9-24, and the second is a couple of days in November. That is based on the Earth's orbit and the hours of daylight a shuttle could be launched so it could be photographed to watch for problems.

Unless all eyes are glued to the shuttle to watch for flying foam they won't launch. Spectacular nigh time launches have been nixed. Safety is now the #1 concern. It's not about how much the mission could advance science and technology. If NASA engineers and big wigs find something slightly wrong a launch will be ditched. This isn't the same NASA that survived the accidents of Apollo 1 (who's investigation commission completed its work in only two months) and Apollo 13. NASA's new unofficial motto is "any failure is unacceptable." The agency is a ghost of its hallowed past.

"NASA: Another Shuttle Could Launch Soon"

[Add to OTB's Beltway Traffic Jam.]

Put It Out of Its Misery

The shuttle fleet--all three of them--have been grounded because foam flew off the main fuel tank. Continuing the shuttle program is pointless. NASA must cut its losses and move on. The shuttle had its time. Its now the past. Time to look to the future.

"NASA Grounds Shuttle Fleet"

A Useless Launch

Discovery had a successful launch. I have mixed feelings. I'm glad NASA pulled it off. I'm always proud of American resilence, but the shuttle is old technology. Man won't conquer space with the risk-adverse methodology of the space agency. It took over two years just to get the shuttle ready for launch. Then a fuel gage malfunctioned and that postponed the launch for two more weeks. The agency is too worried about another accident mothballing the shuttle program--not a bad idea. Engineers are staring at footage from 110 video cameras to see if Discovery was damaged during lift off. That's no way to run a productive, efficient space program.

Rand Simberg writes,

Right now, NASA's hypersafety philosophy has made spaceflight hyper expensive (though not particularly safe). Rather than unrealistically making failure not an option, we need to embrace the fact that failures will occur occasionally. What we have to do is make sure that failures aren't as expensive as they were in the case of Challenger and Columbia (and numerous other lesser NASA program failures). What that means is making it cheap to fail, which in turn means making it cost much less to make attempts. That won't happen until we develop much more robust systems, with much more activity. But investing further millions into Shuttle (not only in terms of money spent fixing things, but the costs of continued delay, which are substantial) in a futile effort to make it any safer than it currently is, is a fool's errand.

SpaceShipOne (at the EAA in Oshkosh) has shown entreprenuers going out on the edge can get Man into space. That's the path to take.

The shuttle program is 30-years old, and it hasn't gotten Man any closer to a permanent presence in space (three-month stays on the orbiting white elephant international space station doesn't count). The U.S. managed to lead the world in microprocessor production without the government creating the Semiconductor Manufacturing Administration. It's time for NASA to put the shuttle out to pasture.

"NASA Studies Debris Recorded During Launch"

Windows Vista

The next version of Windows has an official name. Forget "Longhorn" and say hi to "Windows Vista." Well, it rolls off the tongue and isn't clunky. It sounds a little too pleasant since you can expect a mess of problems when it comes out. There will be security holes, bugs, compatibility issues, and annoying new ways to do things. Then there will be the problem of trying to shove Vista on machines currently running XP. Expect the new operating system to be a resource whore.

"Next Version of Windows Named 'Vista'"

Gmail Invites

Anyone want a Gmail account? I'm in the giving mood. Just leave a comment and I'll hook you up.

Another Thing to Blame Karl Rove For

Deep Impact's success spawns an "unintended consequence."

"Seeking Justice" [via Instapundit]