...more recent posts
Bruce Sterling gave a talk at the Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference in San Fran on April 19th. Sort of rambling, but Sterling is always worth a look in my opinion.
I mentioned the new Apple Powerbook below. That is my dream machine. Really beautiful, I think. Some of the design team from that project left Apple and started a company, oqo, that has released a very small full powered computer. Their flash heavy (why? oh why?) web site is here.
These stats are from the internetweek article:
Smaller than your average paperback book, the standalone device measures 4 inches by 2.9 inches and weighs less than 0.9 ounces. It sports a 4-inch, super-bright VGA color LCD; Synaptics touchscreen; 256-Mbyte onboard RAM; 10-Gbyte+ hard drive; 13914 FireWire; USB; audio; OQO-link connectors; and 802.11b Bluetooth wireless networking.
The "ultra-personal computer," as its makers now call it, is still in development, but is expected to be commercially available from consumer electronics resellers later this year, said Jory Bell, OQO president and CEO.
Here's the news.com article with a tiny picture. I'll try to find some better shots. It really is amazing looking. It runs Windows XP, so I'm not interested in that, but I'm sure it will run linux before too long (if it doesn't already.) This is a good indication of the kind of miniturization that is coming to the market.
So much has happened while I've been away (well, I haven't really been away, but I've been too busy to write.) I'm going to try to catch up on a few highlights.
First up, the mozilla web browser has finally reached 1.0. They are calling it 1.0 Release Candidate 1 (RC1.) So while it's not the official we promise it's done 1.0 release (which should come in the fall) it is a maybe it's done 1.0 release. And really it is done. I'm sure they will do a lot of polishing between now and the final 1.0, but it's ready to go today. It really works well. I strongly encourage everyone to check it out. Moving away from Internet Explorer is very important for the future health (and diversity) of the web. You can download it here (9 to 14 megs, depending on your platform.)
I've been using Mozilla as my main browser since 0.9.4. I thought 0.9.8 was basically good enough - but it had some serious text area weirdness that kept me from recommending it. I'm all about text areas. 1.0 RC1 fixed that and other less anoying stuff. I still don't use mail, or news reader, or composer, or IM - but the browser itself is rock solid (on OS X at least,) renders fast, and once you use tab browsing there is no going back.
It took a long time, but this really is a triumph.
I'll also note chimera which is a project to build a native Mac OS X browser using gecko, the heart of the Mozilla browser project. (Mozilla is all open, so it's not only good in itself, but it enables all sorts of other creative projects.) While I think Mozilla looks good on OS X, chimera looks amazing. Native OS X apps have access to sophisticated text rendering, and this puts it to good use. Chimera is only at 0.2.6, and not really usable yet. But if it gets there I'll switch.
If you're on OS X and want some guidence, click through to the comments below...
I put the new backend on the site this morning. Had a few rough spots during transition, but not too bad. Or so it seems. We'll see after a little more use if there are problems I can't see yet.
Assuming it went as smoothly as I think it did, I should be back to posting again.
I'll start writing again soon. Been trying to figure a few things out. Almost there. Changes will be made.
New system is on schedule for release by May 1.
Dan Bricklin gets some extended time with a segway.
On Wednesday the New York Times did a big piece on the revitalization (foodie-ization) of Clinton Street. It wasn't called from heroin to hanger steak, but it might have been. It was very complimentary towards all the restaurants. Pretty much got the back story concerning the Nelson sisters correct. And in the print version (although not online) there were lots of big pictures, including one of MB and Janet and Susan standing in front of Alias.
We knew this would be one very possible outcome of having three places all together on the same obscure block. Add in the plans for Wylie's new place at number 50 and it would seem hard for them not to write. So it's definitely become a destination. I was sitting at the bar at Fresh Foods at 6:30 last night, before we went to midtown for Bill's birthday, and tons of people were walking in looking for tables. I think they turned away 20 people in 15 minutes.
I took a quick walk up to aKa to see how they were doing. I saw six people pile out of a huge SUV and one guy unfolded the Times article neatly ripped from the newspaper and started reading. They didn't really have a specific plan. Probably had never been to the Lower East Side before. He kept reading and the rest of the group looked around trying to match anything he was saying to an actual building.
Alias was completely packed as well. They shattered the previous record for most meals served by over 20%. Carly said there was a line outside the door when they opened at 6:00. This is all great, but maybe even too sudden. Hopefully it will die down a bit. I don't mean the business specifically, but just the sense in the street. So many people milling about. Felt like a vacation town in August. Or disney land.
Still, it must be nice (if a bit embarassing - at least to MB I know) to be recognized. They stepped out ahead of the curve, and it was scary, but it worked. And it's been working for long enough that now there is a big article in the Times official announcing that it worked. All in all I guess that's a good thing. Congratulations to everyone involved!
Given how much publicity the scientology vs. google (or vs. operation clambake) battle was getting a few weeks ago I'm surprised it took this long. Still I'm happy to see that xenu.net is now the 2nd result for a search on scientology (up from number 4 before scientology started throwing law suits around.)
Maybe the scientologist's play book is a little outdated in this ever more interconnected world. Political leaders and oppressors of all stripes might want to take note. Trying to squash criticism may no longer be a workable plan.
I had a little accident with my jimb at digitalmediatree.com mailbox. If you sent me anything in the last 24 hours I have lost it. Please resend. Sorry.
Yes, we're pretty sophisticated around here.