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Anandtech.com is a very old, very popular, and very well respected computer related site ("your source for hardware analysis and news" is the tag line.) Anand Lal Shimpi is the proprietor. He's always been a Windows guy, but he just bought a mac with the intention of using it as his main computer for 1 month and writing about the switch on his weblog.

This is a great test for the mac since he isn't going to pull any punches, but at the same time I trust him to have an open mind and tell the truth. Plus I figure I'll learn tons about XP since that is what he is comparing it to. Not ever having used that makes my fondness for the mac rather ungrounded, so I'm looking forward to following Anand's experiment.
- jim 2-10-2004 11:08 pm [link] [2 comments]

On August 15, 2000 Bruce Schneier wrote:

What amazes me is the dearth of information about the security of this protocol [Bluetooth]. I'm sure someone has thought about it, a team designed some security into Bluetooth, and that those designers believe it to be secure. But has anyone reputable examined the protocol? Is the implementation known to be correct? Are there any programming errors? If Bluetooth is secure, it will be the first time ever that a major protocol has been released without any security flaws. I'm not optimistic.
From ZDNet, February 9, 2004:
Nokia has admitted that some of its Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones are vulnerable to "bluesnarfing", which is where an attacker could read, modify and copy a phone's address book and calendar without leaving any trace of the intrusion.
There is a more detailed look at the vulnerabilities at bluestumbler.org. I stole the Schneier link from a comment in the discussion over at slashdot.
- jim 2-10-2004 10:07 pm [link] [add a comment]

Looks like the Foveon chip will finally hit the consumer market in the $399 Polaroid x530. Here's the Foveon website, and here's the NYTimes story on the Polaroid camera:

This week Foveon will enter the mainstream market with a new camera priced at $399 that will be manufactured in China and marketed as the Polaroid x530 with Foveon technology.

The Foveon sensor chip, called the X3, is made using an industry standard semiconductor manufacturing process and has received good reviews for color fidelity and resolution. The chip is composed of millions of photo-detectors, each capable of capturing red, blue and green light. In contrast, most of today's digital cameras use a chip with individual color filters that correspond to each photoreceptor. Although the Foveon technology is generally thought to have advantages over the three-chip approach in image quality, cost, lower power consumption and adaptability to new photo and video applications, it has not been widely adopted. The challenge has been to compete with an older, more entrenched technology that is falling in cost.
Falling in cost is to put it mildly. I'm thinking the Foveon might be too late, but it will be interesting to see the quality.
- jim 2-10-2004 5:06 pm [link] [2 comments]

From here to VOIP

Here's a product I want: a cordless phone. No, not a cellular phone. Just a cordless phone. And yes, while there are tons of such phones on the market, the one I want is not available. Read on for my first draft of what it looks like.



Read the rest of this post...



- jim 2-09-2004 11:11 pm [link] [5 comments]

An Oregon restaurant is replacing wait staff with wireless touch screen ordering devices. I've been thinking about this for some time now. Doesn't seem like all the pieces are in place yet. But what about this idea: very soon (in the next 2 years) you could just let people order through their (wifi, bluetooth, GRPS, CDMA, whatever...) mobile devices. You could even identify repeat customers this way. Walk into a restaurant and todays menu is immediately sent to your handheld. Check what you want and send it back. Plus, you could store user preferences on the restaurant server, like: "I always want my hamburger medium rare."

I guess this is one small piece of my larger feeling that digital identity will be tied to our mobile communications devices.
- jim 2-09-2004 7:50 pm [link] [3 comments]

This is like a mini dream come true for me, at least as far as having fun watching corporate america goes: Jobs blasting Eisner in public.

"The truth is there has been little creative collaboration with Disney for years," Jobs said. "You can compare the creative quality (of Pixar films) with the creative quality of Disney's last three films and judge each company's creative ability yourselves."
And:
"We feel sick about Disney doing sequels," Jobs said. "If you look at the quality of their sequels, such as 'Lion King 11/2' and (the Peter Pan sequel 'Return to Neverland'), it's pretty embarrassing."
If you're not following the story, Steve Jobs is CEO of Apple and of Pixar (Toy Story, Finding Nemo, etc...) Pixar had a distribution deal with Disney which is now coming to a close, but the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on extending the partnership. So Pixar is going it's own way, apparently with some hard feelings on each side.

Although the real picture is probably a little more complex, from my perspective these two CEOs represent the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their visions for the future of digital media. Jobs wants the technology to empower people - as consumers, sure - but also as creators. Eisner would like to see general purpose computers outlawed so that all we could do is watch the crap his company produces (for example, he was a major supporter of the SSCA.) Both of these guys have *massive* egos, so the battle is fun to watch. To me the idea that someone can diss Eisner is just beautiful.

But it's even juicier than that. While these rumors have been around for a while, they have picked up a lot of steam lately. Could Jobs replace Eisner as the next CEO of disney? What would happen if a major global media company was run by someone who appears to favor the dissemination of technology?

Kind of makes me giddy...
- jim 2-09-2004 6:41 pm [link] [2 comments]

older posts...