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I caught wind of this website and their collection of speaker video’s through some contacts at work. I’ve watched or listened to several of these speakers so far and I have to say that they’re fantastic. The first I watched was the John Doerr presentation and it left a lump in my throat. Julia Sweeney made me laugh out loud with her reflections on encountering Mormon Missionaries, and Gabriel makes a passionate statement about human rights. Bono bowled me over with a powerful and eloquent plea for recognizing the plight of Africa as a global emergency, and Dawkins presses the scientific community on the boundaries of faith with some humorous analogies.

What is TED? Per the TED website:

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

This collection is in no means narrow in their focus. There’s a broad palette to choose from, everything from Technology, Entertainment, Design, Business, Science, Culture, Arts, Global issues and so much more.

You could spend hours here. And you should.

The speeches are available on the TED website to watch online or to save to your desktop, as are the audio files as well. In addition, a large number of the videos are available as free podcast downloads on iTunes. You can even subscribe to receive future postings as well.

Having seen only a handful so far, I wanted to recommend the following. Mouse over for a brief description.

Everywhere I look today, around every corner I turn, in the hands of numeous people I see walking about or in meetings or sitting in a cafe, I see iPhones. And it’s not just my imagination or my eyes playing tricks on me. They are everywhere. Some in hands, some in desk cradles, some still in boxes. For today is the first day of the iPhone distribution at work, and by the looks of things, there’s not many waiting until day two. It’s quite an exciting day. So far. Earning have not been announced yet so we’ll see how that goes in a short while.

Everywhere I look today, around every corner I turn, in the hands of numeous people I see walking about or in meetings or sitting in a cafe, I see iPhones. And it’s not just my imagination or my eyes playing tricks on me. They are everywhere. Some in hands, some in desk cradles, some still in boxes. For today is the first day of the iPhone distribution at work, and by the looks of things, there’s not many waiting until day two. It’s quite an exciting day. So far. Earning have not been announced yet so we’ll see how that goes in a short while.

I think it just might be an option to use my iPhone as a writing tool. Seriously. I realize that might seem like a bold statement, given the fact that the keyboard is considered by many pundits to be it’s greatest limitation. But I recently found myself responding to an email on the iPhone, and my response went on much longer than I’d expected, with startlingly accurate results. Was it as natural or easy as a keyboard? No. But it was far easier than I’d ever expected it would be. The predictive typing technology is a huge benefit.

After that email effort I started playing around with typing on it a bit more. It’s definitely not as easy with two hands as one might think. Yet using two fingers of the same hand is actually quite easy to pick up and run with.

I’m going to try working with It further. I’m going to see if I can develop a natural enough feel for the software based experience of the keyboard to be comfortable writing lengthy passages.

This post is an example of the effort. It’s been completely authored on an iPhone. With relative ease. Frickin’ amazing!

Anybody wanna buy an AlphaSmart Dana? :-)

Now that I’ve got my iPhone, I’m using again. I’ve slipped back into the habit. I’ve got a click-wheel on my back. Yes, I’m using again… an iPod, that is. That makes the span of time I was “podless” just over 17 months. I consider that quite an accomplishment, given that I’d made a resolution back in January 2006 to set down the obsession for awhile and allow myself to focus on more important things. Secretly, I didn’t anticipate going more than a year, and so I’m proud that I was able to hold out for as long as I did.

It feels good to be back, though. I got along quite well with my wonderful trusty treo [Thanks for all the years of support, Jess] and a 2GB memory card’s worth of music, when it comes to MP3 playback the iPhone kicks it’s butt clear across the valley floor. Much of what made using the Treo as an iPod substitute possible, and what makes the iPhone as a music player possible as well, has been a “rating” practice I’ve been using since ratings have been an option. I’ve had an occasional chat with friends about the methodology and I thought I’d take a moment to document it here for all to see and consider.

In addition, after 3+ years of walking by the shop window and envying the potential integration of an iPod into my car stereo, I’ve given into the desires and put a small amount of the money formally earmarked for an iPhone towards buying one, and thought I’d share the experience as well.

For those readers that have read this far without any leanings towards technology or geekdom… God love ya for sticking around this long and I’ll try and write something more exciting next time around. For the rest of you….
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I fancy myself the inventor type. Several years ago, while driving back from MacWorld in San Francisco with Jon F, I related my vision of a key-fob sized wireless network detector. I got tired of seeking a network by going into a coffee shop or other establishment, sitting down, opening the computer and seeing if I stumbled across something. It was hit or miss, and typically miss.

We decided to try and bring it to market. It didn’t go well. We both had significant other demands on our time and no capitol with which to fund the prototyping. About a year later they started to appear on the market. And most of them sucked. The biggest shortcoming was a failure to identify closed vs open networks. Something ours would have done.

Along the same time a practice called ‘warchalking‘ caught on. Geeks would mark the sidewalk with symbols that told other geeks where to find open or closed networks. In addition, software became available that detected signals from your laptop. But that required opening and driving about with your computer secured in the passenger seat. Not effective either.

Well guess what? Along with being everything from a phone, ipod, email client, web browser, camera, photo album, cheese grater, floor wax and dessert toping, my new iPhone functions as a wireless divining rod! A click on Settings, a click on WiFi, and you’re able to not only see all available networks, but their lock/unlock status as well. In addition, as you drive or walk, it updates along the way!

We took the kids to downtown Los Gatos today for the 4th of July celebration. The last time we went was 2004, and the event was far more vibrant and with far more attendees. The gathering today had all the excitement and enthusiasm of a bathroom break between shuffleboard games at a convalescent home. Come to think of it, about 2/3 of the people there would have fit into that scenario quite naturally.

Perhaps it was the heat that peaked at 94 degrees. Perhaps it was that we got their too early. Or perhaps it was the complete and utter distain the majority of the community has with the current president and administration, combined with an embarassment at things that have been done in the name of the United States without majority support, that instilled an apprehension to “strike up the band” and wave old glory.

I suspect a mixture of all three.

Do I believe our system is highly flawed, that our government is driven by special interests and greed, the our leadership is the worst we’ve had during my lifetime, and that we blindly accept more inequity then was cause for our revolution in 1776?

Most certainly.

Yet do I appreciate that I have the freedom to say this, to express my opinion, to exercise my freewill and to rouse the rabble without fear of severe retribution from a governing body?

Most certainly.

Independence. Although I’ve never been a patriotic person, it seems worth celebrating to me. I’ve never viewed the day as one tied to the government or administration of the time, but as a remembrance of a break from tyranny, and the principles of justice and freedom that were the basis of a new nation. Come to think of it, nothing about my view of being grateful to be living in the US changed in the last 10-20 years. Just my views of the leadership. And that’ll change soon too.

Meanwhile, being far from a flag waver, it seemed sad that there was such a small turn out today. The flag’s still the same one that there was a shortage of during the latter part of September 2001. As are the principle’s it’s intended to represent.

Ideological? Perhaps. But is that necessarily a bad thing?

It’s been a day for Apple events for me. First there was the communications meeting at work today marking the launch of the iPhone. Very exciting stuff. Yummy yummy kool-aid :-)

Then, tonight, while en route to The Great Bear coffee shop in downtown Los Gatos to do some writing, I stumbled across the boarded frontage of a new Apple Store, right next to Andale’s and the Great Bear, both places I frequented heavily when I lived on Wilder Street downtown. How cool is that?

Yes, one might ask, “Dude, you work there. What ever would you find in an Apple Store of interest?” Plenty. There’s always something interesting to be found in the store, and more then that, just the experience of being a fly on the wall is entertaining.

Finally, due to a reference by a friend via SMS on my Treo, I stumbled across a reference to “line sitters” on ifoapplestore.com, and I thought I’d check it out myself. Damned if it’s not true, there’s actually people SELLING iPhones, or their spot in line to get one, on Craigslist. Ultimately, they’ll make a couple of hundred dollars for standing in line. Uh, just standing in line for 24hrs = $8.33/hour. And it’s likely there’s more then 24hrs involved. Clearly these entrepreneurs aren’t math whizzes.

All the industry is abuzz about the iPhone this week. Friday’s the day they go on sale, and we have a big communications meeting tomorrow about it as well. I’ve had the cash stashed away for this purchase for some time, yet as the day approaches I still don’t know for sure that I’m ready to scramble and stand in line for it.. I’ll likely feel differently after the meeting though, where I’ll walk away with a glazed expression in my eyes and kool-aid on my lips, muttering “iphone…must… buy… iphone….”. And you know, I’ll have one shortly thereafter. I just don’t see myself not. It’s about as unthinkable as my having lived without an iPod for the past 17 months.

I’m hoping there’s some special announcement being made by Steve tomorrow. Please be “free iPhones for employees”… Please be “free iPhones for employees”… Please be “free iPhones for employees”… :-)

I’m hoping there’s some special announcement being made by Steve tomorrow. Please be “free iPhones for employees”… Please be “free iPhones for employees”… Please be “free iPhones for employees”…

OK, if it worked once…. “Please win the lottery”…”Please win the lottery”…”Please win the lottery”…

All the industry is abuzz about the iPhone this week. Friday’s the day they go on sale, and we have a big communications meeting tomorrow about it as well. I’ve had the cash stashed away for this purchase for some time, yet as the day approaches I still don’t know for sure that I’m ready to scramble and stand in line for it.. I’ll likely feel differently after the meeting though, where I’ll walk away with a glazed expression in my eyes and kool-aid on my lips, muttering “iphone…must… buy… iphone….”. And you know, I’ll have one shortly thereafter. I just don’t see myself not. It’s about as unthinkable as my having lived without an iPod for the past 17 months.

I’m hoping there’s some special announcement being made by Steve tomorrow. Please be “free iPhones for employees”… Please be “free iPhones for employees”… Please be “free iPhones for employees”… :-)

I’m hoping there’s some special announcement being made by Steve tomorrow. Please be “free iPhones for employees”… Please be “free iPhones for employees”… Please be “free iPhones for employees”…

OK, if it worked once…. “Please win the lottery”…”Please win the lottery”…”Please win the lottery”…

You know you’re in touch with your “inner Felix” when you find yourself irrationally compelled to reorganize the dishwasher, ensuring that all like cups, bowls, and utensils are all grouped and organized. And all mugs have the handle facing in the same direction. Uh, so I’ve heard. Not that I’m that obsessive. No. No, not me.

A month or two back, I posted my open ‘confession‘ of betrayal… a full disclosure of having purchased a nock off copy of our own iPod Shuffle from an overseas manufacturer. I admitted feeling a bit slimy about it, but it didn’t stop me from continuing to use it. I even pondered the thought “If Steve Jobs were to walk in I don’t know if I’d hide it or show him an ask what they’re doing to prevent it?”

I just got to answer that question.
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I feel a bit like a traitor, sitting here in the campus cafe, drinking my coffee and wearing black ear buds, not white. That’s right, I’m at Apple, I’m wearing black ear buds with black cords plugged into a black shuffle cranking out the thumping drum beat of 80’s era Fleetwood Mac as Lindsey stammers and stutters his way through a marching band backed refrain…. “t-t-t-Tusk”. So where’s my white earbuds? Well, these Sony’s capture all the deep bone-vibrating bass and drum beats worthy of this 25th Anniversary re-mastered deluxe version of their recording, that’s why. And as trendy as it is to “walk the white line” when it comes to MP3 fashion, these blow away the packaged earphones.

But that’s not why I feel like a traitor.

Did I mention the color of the shuffle?
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I’m always looking for ways to make my daily life easier. And one of the things that’s toughest for me to do is to remember all the little tasks and to-do’s that come to mind at random times throughout the day. My pain point has been that a large amount of ideas and ‘notes to self’ come when i’m in the car, where it’s less then handy to write them down before they’re pushed aside by the next thought. Today, my friend Jess posted a must read entry on his website that captures the various ways we’ve all tried to address this need, and reveals a new one that looks very VERY promising. www.jott.com. You leave yourself a voicemail, it’s transcribed and sent to yourself as an email. There is even have a website you can use to track/organize the reminders as well. I’ve signed up for my free account and tested it. It’s pretty cool.

I’m always looking for ways to make my daily life easier. And one of the things that’s toughest for me to do is to remember all the little tasks and to-do’s that come to mind at random times throughout the day. My pain point has been that a large amount of ideas and ‘notes to self’ come when i’m in the car, where it’s less then handy to write them down before they’re pushed aside by the next thought. Today, my friend Jess posted a must read entry on his website that captures the various ways we’ve all tried to address this need, and reveals a new one that looks very VERY promising. www.jott.com. You leave yourself a voicemail, it’s transcribed and sent to yourself as an email. There is even have a website you can use to track/organize the reminders as well. I’ve signed up for my free account and tested it. It’s pretty cool.

I was reading some web info this am via RSS, which provides a stripped down text-only view of websites. It’s a great way to scan for points of interest, and even better for dodging ads, which are annoying but understandably essential for revenues. Unfortunately there’s been some situations where ads are getting placed into the RSS feed, defeating that work around. And it just got worse. On a website I was lead to as I followed a story, I found that they’re putting fake “hyperlinks” into the story and attaching ads to them. Although there is a modest difference between a “true” link’s appearance and the ad link’s appearance, being simply the color and underline settings, the rest is deceptive as hell. When you position your mouse on it, you’re presented with a little ad. Disgusting! I won’t name the site ’cause I don’t want to drive any visitors their way but as viral as the web and advertising is, I fear we’ll be seeing more and more of this in the next few months.

I was reading some web info this am via RSS, which provides a stripped down text-only view of websites. It’s a great way to scan for points of interest, and even better for dodging ads, which are annoying but understandably essential for revenues. Unfortunately there’s been some situations where ads are getting placed into the RSS feed, defeating that work around. And it just got worse. On a website I was lead to as I followed a story, I found that they’re putting fake “hyperlinks” into the story and attaching ads to them. Although there is a modest difference between a “true” link’s appearance and the ad link’s appearance, being simply the color and underline settings, the rest is deceptive as hell. When you position your mouse on it, you’re presented with a little ad. Disgusting! I won’t name the site ’cause I don’t want to drive any visitors their way but as viral as the web and advertising is, I fear we’ll be seeing more and more of this in the next few months.

I just walked over to the Cafe on campus to get some iced tea. I do this at 2pm a few times a week, in order to fill a large thermos with tea and a few packs of Splenda to give me instant refreshment throughout the course of the next 24-48 hours. Yet today, as I walked in, I crossed paths with Johnathon Ive, the renowned designer of Apple products. He was not watching where he was going, as he was focused on touching the small, slim silver & black device in his hand. An iPhone.

I stalled momentarily, as do most of us when we suddenly find ourselves in the presence of a luminary such as Steve or John. Then I hesitated long enough to rationalize that, if he’s out and about with it, he’s been approached by others before me. He was standing at one of the counters about to order some food. So I walked up and made obvious leaning/glancing gestures and said “Sorry, but I just had to get a glance while I can. It look beautiful.”. He’s known to be relatively modest and soft spoken and he smiled politely, but I could see a slight extra clutching and obscuring of the device at the same time. “I’m looking forward to getting one in my own hands” I said, to which he grinned, a grin that had a hit of excitement and pride, and said “It’ll be worth the wait”. I decided not to press any further, said thanks, and walked away, my valued Apple Badge still in hand. ;-)

… the excitement builds….

I’m as far from being a Microsoft fan as they get, but I gotta admit that, along with hiring great folks for their Mac Business Unit, this map implementation is freakin’ cool! http://maps.live.com gives you ‘Birds Eye Views’, being low angle, close up, 360º images that you can rotate in their maps website, leveraging ‘Microsoft Earth’. The fact that it does not work in Safari, though…. well that’s just not right. If you’re on a Mac you’ll need Firefox.

These smaller screenshots don’t do it justice. Go try it yourself to really get the full experience.

The image of the Apple campus below is a great view:

This is the house I used to live in… this is the house where i was born:

And stepping back in history, here’s a view of Florence, Italy. Specifically, in front of the ‘Duomo’, which has the honor of being the spot where I proposed to my wife. In Italian, no less! (Thanks Joe!)

I watched the Apple Keynote today with Brian and Jess. As my prior post references, it’s something of a religious experience, and “Saint Steve” was in rare form at the pulpit today. Rare form indeed.

The introductions included a new Mac TV ad, announcing a shipping date of February for AppleTV, new movie downloads from Paramount, but the show stopper was definitely the iPhone. I’ve not been on the edge of my seat like that for some time. The demo of the features was spectacular, and it’s definitely going to be something I jump after as soon as they’re available. It’s beautiful, and it is a revolution in phones.
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I watched the Apple Keynote today with Brian and Jess. As my prior post references, it’s something of a religious experience, and “Saint Steve” was in rare form at the pulpit today. Rare form indeed.

The introductions included a new Mac TV ad, announcing a shipping date of February for AppleTV, new movie downloads from Paramount, but the show stopper was definitely the iPhone. I’ve not been on the edge of my seat like that for some time. The demo of the features was spectacular, and it’s definitely going to be something I jump after as soon as they’re available. It’s beautiful, and it is a revolution in phones.
Read the rest of this entry »

What follows will not only detail the excitement I feel each year at this time, as well as some historical reflections back on what has become a ritualistic gathering of the faithful along with a dedicated annual dining experience that continues to grow in participants each year, but it’ll reveal what a complete and absolute total mac-geek I am at heart.
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What follows will not only detail the excitement I feel each year at this time, as well as some historical reflections back on what has become a ritualistic gathering of the faithful along with a dedicated annual dining experience that continues to grow in participants each year, but it’ll reveal what a complete and absolute total mac-geek I am at heart.
Read the rest of this entry »

A colleague sent me a link to an excellent review of Vista on Information Week. Clearly, my alliance is to the Mac. And the predominant things I’m seeing published lately regarding Vista seem to echo two general sentiments:
1: They ripped off Mac OS X left and right, and
2: They did a piss poor job of it.

“I’ve yet to see anything in Vista that blows away the Mac OS, even a version of the Mac OS that’s over a year old. Microsoft still can’t manage to make something simple and easy to use. Vista reeks of committee and design by massive consensus, while OS X shines from an intense focus on doing things in a simple, clear fashion and design for the user, not the programmer.”

I’d been sitting on some ‘TiVo’ Rewards points for well over a year or two. Initially, I wanted the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones they had available for 3000 points. But just as I acquired 3000, the points required jumped to 3500. And when I got to 3500, I hesitated long enough for the points needed to jump to 3750. Talk about a carrot on a stick! Then, our little digital camera, a Canon Sureshot S300, 2megapixel deal I’ve had since circa 1999, has been having battery issues. Instead of just getting new batteries, I checked TiVo’s rewards and found they’d added the Nikon CoolPix S7c camera. I did some research and regardless of the mixed reviews, the price…. FREE… was right. The images are very decent for a point-n-shoot, and although it has the typical constrains of digital cameras, two features have me thrilled.

Feature 1: Wiresless 802.11b/g connectivity.
I am stunned at how easily this setup and started working. I’ve got wireless at home and with this camera, I can pick/choose the images, sounds or movies i want to move to the computer, press a few buttons, and they’re on their way without any cables or wires at all! It’s spectacular. On top of that, get this… I can print wirelessly too [don't have that setup in place but do have the equipment and might pursue it this weekend], I can ‘upload’ photos directly to a Nikon website for downloading later, and I can include email addresses of recipients that will get the link and be able to go download them immediately, I can ‘connect’ the camera wirelessly and perform an iPhoto sync, or, I can connect and start shooting photos, with every photo I shoot immediately transferring in the background as I continue to shoot! Freakin’ brilliant.

Feature 2: Movie quality.
This stunned me… the quality of the video this takes is beautiful. I shot a quick test and uploaded/watched on the TV and it’s on par with stuff I’ve used our existing video camera to record. A 2gb card can hold up to 30min of high quality video. This is really something else, and I’ll be getting a couple of cards to have so a family trip or gathering can utilize this little gem for photos and movies instead of lugging the 8mm camera around instead. The video in my ‘Gallop Pole‘ post was taken on this camera.