Who wants an Ultra Portable?

There is a lot of news about companies coming out with an ultra portable laptop.

Who needs them? They are too small for business use and too big to take wherever you go.

The keyboards are too small for the normal person to use, especially people like me that have gorilla hands.

I remember an IBM laptop from a while back that had a butterfly keyboard. Here is a pic

Companied should be working on those kinds of ideas to make smaller laptops more user comfortable. (I think I will trademark 'user comfortable')

-Matt

Speaking of a word:

antidisestablishmentarianism
an ti dis es tab lish men tar i an ism


That is a great one to throw out in conversation, especially if you are trying to pick up chicks. Count 'em 11 syllables.

-Matt

I really love a dry wit!

Some of my favorite TV shows of all time were when Chandler was so sarcastic, that was at the beginning of Friends....before he got fat and started doing all the drugs IRL.

Microsoft running your car's systems?

I just saw a commercial that highlighted speech recognition for your car's audio system. What was interesting was that there was a blurb about how it was powered by Microsoft.

I wonder what that means, did they just use Microsft speech recognition software, or is there is Windows Embedded somewhere on the car? Should that bother me...well not me, but someone who owns one the cars. I am just happy will all my embedded system running VxWorks.

What is the next of the technology? I can imagine being able to control the wipers, head lights, and most other non essential things in the car.

-Matt

What happened to the $199 Walmart Computer?

Checking Walmart's website, I was unable to find the $199 PC they were selling earlier this month.

The least expensive PC they have online is $278. The specs look the same, just a bit more RAM & Windows Vista Home Basic. You can get a 512MB stick of RAM for less than $15 on sale.

I would imagine this PC runs sloooooow with Vista & a 1.5GHz proc.

For $299 you can get a PC with Vista & a monitor.

Hopefully they will bring back the $199 PC.

-Matt

New controls for iPhone and iPod Touch

I have started development on a revolutionary way to control an iPhone and an iPod Touch. It takes advantage of two key developments:

1. No spinning media in the iPhone or iPod Touch
2. An accelerometer is built into both devices. The accelerometer allows the devices to change between portrait and landscape depending on how the device is being held, upright or on the side.


The problem being solved is that to control play, volume, and track you have to look at the iPhone and iPod Touch; with a click wheel you could keep your device in the pocket of your hoodie and make any changes by feel. Using a good flick of the wrist we will be able to control playback of the devices.

To go to the next track, flick the top of the device to the right
To go the previous track, flick the top of the device to the left
To up the volume, flick the bottom of the device to the right
To decrease the volume, flick the bottom of the device to the left


To play and pause the device you would flick the top of the device up

Once I have the basic operation working, I will allow users to build macros; i.e. left-right-up-down will unlock & play the Celine Dion you have hidden on your device.

I really think this will make the devices a lot more useful, without the tactile feedback of the click wheel the iPhone and iPod Touch are a lot less user friendly.

-Matt

Just how many people use 4.2.2.2 as a DNS Server?

Raise your hand if you use 4.2.2.2 as a DNS server or a ping target.

That's what I thought.........most of you!

-Matt

This was a laugh out loud picture!

Click to expand the picture

Why can't Time Machine use wireless disks?

I have to wonder why Time Machine can not use airport disks.

This is how I imagine the data would flow:

Time Machine <> OS <> Disk Services <> WiFi <> Remote Disk

How is Time Machine different from iTunes, or any other high throughput application?

I can only think that the data integrity is an issue with airport disks. Anyone that is storing critical data on airports disks should be worried!

-Matt

Great site that lists Windows Freeware

Be sure to check out the comments at the bottom of the page, there are a lot of other suggestions.

Link to site

-Matt

Bumper Stickers

This a site with tons of great bumper stickers.

Someone should have a site where you can print these up! I wonder if there is a site that does on demand bumper stickers.

Link to site

-Matt