MindMap of Topics presented in this blog thus far.
example mind map

Page Popularity for Site: 5% [?]

Macworld: News: Cebit: Samsung shows its first Origami device

Samsung let its ‘Origami’ device out of the bag at CeBit.

The device measuring in at about half the size of a sheet of paper is touted as an Ultramobile or a hybrid between a PDA and a tablet PC running a specialized version of XP

In general the idea is not terribly surprising. I guess the question for me would be “Where would you put it?”

Would it go in a docking station? In a specialized mini-back pack? Its too big to go on a belt clip, so all of us would be Batman tool belt characters would be out of luck.

So where do you put this thing when your not lugging it around. Does it come with a protective case or cover, in case you want to throw it into a larger back with some books or something?

The other question is will it record movies like a TiVo such as many of the PMP’s that are coming onto the market right now?

Lots of questions and due to the spin doctors at Microsoft there aren’t a lot of answers just yet.

We’ll have to wait a couple more days before the wizard pulls back the curtain entirely, and even then it will take us a while to digest the import or lack of importance of what the wizard looks like.

origami mavenmapper
origami
Samsung Origami

Page Popularity for Site: 3% [?]

Microsoft Buys Apptimum To Aid Vista Transition

Microsoft has purchased Alohabob software to add to the new Microsoft Windows Vista Operating system due out later this year. After previewing the system at CES in January, I believe that it will have a phenomenal impact on computer users.

First it appears to be a very powerful operating system. Anyone that has experienced a major windows upgrade will interpret this to mean, that they will need to buy a new more powerful system to benefit from the upgrade.

That doesn’t bother yours truly as I need little excuse to buy more computing power. Some will complain that they don’t want to spend the money on a computer w/ 2 Gigabytes of RAM, but I say there’s not time like the present to increase your computing capacity.

As an analogy ask yourself, if you had the chance to increase the computing power of your brain today would you say no? How many people do you know that would choose to opt for a slower less capable brain on any given day.

In the stock market, every day you keep ownership of a stock is a day that you have decided to buy the stock. So every day you decide to keep your brain at its current level of intelligence is a day that you have decided to buy at a slower dimmer brain than is available.

OK, analogy is over. Not everyone needs a supercomputer, however, after viewing the Vista setup, organization, and intuitive transitions I think that most people will find it a vast improvement over XP, 2000, 98, 95, 3.0 or DOS.

And let’s face it, what we are really looking for in a computer is a computer that gets better over time. We want a computer that isn’t as difficult or troublesome or problematic as the computer we used yesterday, last week, last year, last decade etc. So kudo’s for Microsoft for continuing to evolve their products (to stay alive). Kudos to Alohabob creators for graduating to the club of software companies acquired by Microsoft.

Overall computers are slowly moving into an area where they help us capture our ideas or intentions and translate that into computer action. This doesn’t mean that computers today are learning from us and re-engineering themselves. However, smart product managers, inventors, business people and a few hackers, are cutting down the square stone of a problem, one corner at a time, and eventually they end up with a wheel.

As an example, I say Kudo’s to TiVo for inventing a VCR that does not have a clock on the front of the device to remind their customers that they are probably incapable of programming a clock. Obviously, they have found a way to satisfy the age old customer satisfaction problem of the clock flashing the time at 12:00. (’If the customers are too stupid to program a clock, then get rid of the clock’)

This verges on condescension but the whole point is to find things that are not easy and simplify them, speed them up or automate them to make the human condition easier.

If this means adding an idiot light on your car to tell you that the air pressure in your tires is too low do it. Or better yet, include an air pump that re-inflates the tire and charge a premium. If it means that you include a file transfer option for consumers upgrading from one computer (without enough RAM to run VISTA) to another computer (with ample RAM to run VISTA) then include the software that makes it easy for the consumer to trade up both the chassis and the OS of their vehicular computer.

One of the purposes behind this blog is to identify the things in life that need an overhaul, an improvement something to improve the human condition. So gather up those things, that are needed or are used already to make life better and Post them herein.
alohabob
Bill Gates
vista
Microsoft
vista operating system

Page Popularity for Site: 3% [?]

USATODAY.com - Earlier Mount Vesuvius blast should be warning to Naples

Following up on a theme, we gather information on the results of a volcano from 1780BC. One of the researchers in the area predicts that another volcano is likely to occur anytime. This is made from the inference that the volcano blows every 2-3000 years and its been almost 2000 years since Mt Vesuvius’s last major eruption (not counting a minor eruption in 1944).

The researcher thinks that an eruption of equal size to the 1780BC eruption would kill everyone living within a 7 mile radius. (Naples is 8 miles away.)

So we ask again, what would be practical in preparing for such a situation.

Mt Vesuvius is monitored more closely than any other volcano.

So what would you do if you lived in Naples?

Bon Jorno!

As a quick follow up to this post, I saw an article at EurekAlert.org that talks about the risks of developing a type of lung cancer called mesothelioma from exposure to volcanic dust mineral (erionite). So again proximity to a volcano would seem to be an unwise move.
Volcano Danger
Mesothelioma

Page Popularity for Site: 3% [?]