March 26, 2009
Some Thoughts on the Kindle 2
We've had a Kindle 2 in the house since they were released--I actually bought one as a Birthday/Christmas/Promotion present for my wife last year, but it never shipped because of the Kindle 2 Launch. Recently, we added another Kindle to the house for my birthday. Here are some thoughts...
Things Amazon Got Right
Whisper Net. Holy crap. One click and in less than a minute, I have a new book. It's awesome. And between the free books and .99 books, I'm not spending a fortune, although, in the end I have a feeling I'm going to end up buying way more from Amazon than I did before.
The Dictionary. The dictionary integration on the Kindle is so much more useful than I ever would have imagined. I use it far more than I thought I would, and now that I do, I can't imagine not having it.
Battery Life. I don't leave the wireless on most of the time. And I haven't recharged the thing since I got it, despite heavy use. Awesome.
Things Amazon Got Almost Right
The Color. I'm not a fan of white gadgets in general, but I could live with that. The real issue here is that the background of the e-ink display is slightly grey, not quite white. If the Kindle were grey or black or even red I wouldn't really notice. But looking at the white of the Kindle next to the "white" of the display, and I realize there are still some improvements to be made in the contrast.
Progress Bar. I love that I can glance down and see how far into a book I've read. What I don't like is that I can't easily see how far until the end of the chapter I'm currently reading. When your wife is nudging you in bed saying, "Turn out the damn light" there's no easy way to say, "I'm only four pages away from the end of this chapter." Some chapter marker hash marks or something like that on the progress bar would be awesome.
Notes/Annotations. I suppose this is really a keyboard gripe, not an annotation gripe, but I would really like to make better use of adding notes to texts. This is especially true of legal PDFs that I convert to the Kindle. Right now, they work, but it's tedious to type of the keyboard and it's just not a smooth process. I suppose I'm pushing the envelop of what the Kindle is and is supposed to do, but hey, if you're going to make that a feature, make it a good feature.
The size. It's really comfortable in my hand, reading in bed at night. I thought that I would want a bigger screen, and I do. But I am really pretty happy with the screen size. If the screen were actually the size of the entire face of the current Kindle and were a touch screen, I think that would be perfect. As is, it is much better than I expected.
Things Amazon Got Wrong
Folders. Seriously, I already have dozens of books on my Kindle, and I'm just warming up. I've been hitting Feedbooks and Many Books and going crazy. Which makes my Table of Contents super long. Yeah, I can search it, but I would really love to have folders for reference, non-fiction, fiction, etc. C'mon, how hard would that be Amazon??! This is the major mistake on the UI, if you ask me.
Memory Card. I know, it will hold 1500 books or whatever. Yeah, 2GB isn't bad, but I don't care. Let me put my own card in it. That's a real no brainer. And since the Kindle 1 had a memory card slot, removing it double sucks. New revisions should add features, not strip away good ones!
The Cover. Yeah, I'd probably buy my own cover anyway, and the $30 cover Amazon sells isn't bad--but it should absolutely be included with the Kindle. Who wants to walk around with something that costs over $350 with no cover?! Selling it separately means that you basically pay $30 more for the Kindle, no matter what. Include a damn cover. And speaking of "covers"... it's cool the way the Kindle exploits e-ink's ability to display a persistent image to rotate the book covers that appear on the Kindle screen when it's powered off. But here's a feature request: let me customize those images. Sure, it's cool to have Lewis Carrol, Edgar Allen Poe, or Mark Twain on the screen even though it's off. But you know what would be even cooler? A pic of my family. That really shouldn't be a hard feature, Amazon.
In the end, I have to say I love the thing. When I was a kid, I was a reader. I used to stay up way past my bedtime, when I was supposed to be asleep, reading with a flashlight. I haven't done that in years. Well, the flashlight is gone, but the Kindle actually has me reading late into the night again. Why? It's hard to say. I still love books--the smell, the feel. But there is something to be said for having a library at your fingertips. For having the ability to look up a word at the touch of a button while never leaving the page you're reading that is compelling. I don't think the Kindle will ever replace books in my life entirely, but I also think I'm going to be using it (or some form of e-reader) for a very long time.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
August 3, 2008
ATT: Nationwide? Shamsionwide.
I have Sprint service, had for years, with no real reason to switch... until the iPhone 3G. My contract with Sprint was up some time ago, so I go to the ATT store today, to sign up and switch, but apparently AT&T are retarded.
You see, I have a family plan. I have my phone, my wife's phone, and one phone for her mother and one for her father. My wife and I live in Chicago. Her parents live in Columbus, Ohio. This is not a problem for Sprint. It should not be a problem for AT&T.
Every month, for years now, Sprint sends a bill to my house. It has all four numbers on it. I pay $10 each for the additional lines. We all share our "family" minutes. Easy!
So, the AT&T employee at the store insisted that AT&T couldn't do that. All of the numbers had to be in the same area code. Then he checked with his manager. His manager said, they have to be in the same "market". So they wouldn't do it. This couldn't be right, I thought. Surely, this must just be something that the 16 year old working the counter at the local store can't figure out.
So I go home, and call AT&T. No, the representative on the phone explained to me that "the system won't let us enter it that way, so we can't do it".
Am I the only one who thinks this is utterly ridiculous??! It's 2008. AT&T is a nationwide provider. OTHER CARRIERS CAN DO IT. It makes absolutely no sense to me that AT&T can't do it because they can't "bill across markets". I don't even care if I have to pay "Chicago" rates for them. The point is to have consolodated billing and share minutes. It's supposed to be about convenience for families Am I really the only/first person to want to do this with AT&T? Is AT&T really this clueless?
I'm frustrated.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
April 10, 2008
Whee!
Okay, I've been having way too much fun with the Wii lately. I got hooked when I played with one at a friend's house for their little boy's birthday party... but I was going to hold off on getting one--until I found out I could get guitar hero for the thing. It was all downhill from their.
I've had my Wii for over a month now, and it just seems cooler to me all the time. The games do not look amazing--far from it. The graphics are nothing to write home about and if you've seen an XBox 360 or PS3, you'll wonder how Nintendo could do it. But I know how: the games are fun. I mean, really, really, fun.
Yes, Guitar Hero is available on other platforms. But I'm having a blast with the Wii Sports and Wii Games stuff, too... and so is my wife. We even play a trivia game on it (Smarty Pants) that is so much more fun than you'd think. Then, the other day, I discovered you can buy (really cheap) games from old Nintendo systems and play them on the Wii! They are downloadable right from the Wii store, if you put your Wii online. There's a lot of classic stuff up there... Donkey Kong... Pac-Man, Zeldas... and Mario Kart 64, which is just a damn fun game.
I can't recommend the Wii enough. Nintendo really got it right with this one.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
March 13, 2008
Shake It Like a Polaroid What?
Update: Save Polaroid
Well, I knew it would happen eventually... last month, Polaroid announced they will no longer be manufacturing instant film. Many artists are mourning because Polaroid film had some pretty unique properties, which I don't think digital has managed to capture--yet.
I'm no luddite. I gave up 35mm film for my Canon EOS Digital SLR some time ago. And I used to shoot Super 16mm motion picture film, and traded that for HD video a long time ago, too. And in all honesty, I haven't shot with a Polaroid in many years, either.
But over the decades that I've dabbled in photography, Polaroid put out some cool stuff. Among my favorites were the instant slide film (yes, instant slide film... it was pretty damn cool stuff) and the beloved SX-70 (I own several), which is even today one of the coolest cameras ever made. Sadly, Polaroid hasn't made the SX-70/Time Zero stock for a couple of years now...
Things change, and digital cameras are capable of capturing truly amazing imagery. But for a camera nut like me, who was always attracted to photography partially because of the chemistry, equipment and science behind the craft, seeing the "old ways" go like this will always be just a touch melancholy.
Update: Save Polaroid is a group of artists and hobbyists who are trying to motivate some company to pick up where Polaroid is leaving off. If you love the medium, it's worth checking out...
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (3)
February 17, 2008
Wee!
Okay, I want a Wii. I am not a big gamer, but on two occasions in the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to play games that are seriously fun and relaxing...
First, there was just about everything I played on our friend's Wii... she has a 4 year old who got a Wii for Christmas, and man, that thing is just plain fun. The games are fun to play, and the controllers are great... it's not like playing a game with any of the other consoles I've owned in the past.
Then, last night, we went over to a friends house and played Guitar Hero. This is my kind of game! I could seriously enjoy rocking out... and when I found out it's available for the Wii, that clinched it.
I want one.
And they are still impossible to find!
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (3)
October 17, 2007
Wikipedia Ban?
Apparently, there are schools or teachers that are "forbidding" students from using Wikipedia for researching homework assignments. Why they would do this is beyond me.
Seth Godin brings up a good point: the way we find facts and information has fundamentally changed. Certainly there is value in learning how to do old-school style research. For example, in law school, there have been times when I've needed to turn to those curious bound volumes we call "books" in order to find original sources. Not everything has been cataloged in Lexis/Nexis.
But Godin's point is valid: synthesizing ideas is a critical skill; finding the facts is a small step on that way. So what if students use Wikipedia to do it?
I suspect the ban is based on a fear of relying on inaccurate or questionable data. Especially when it comes to controversial subjects and given some of the scandals surrounding the "credentials" of some Wikipedia contributors, there may be valid reasons for that.
However, I think that represents another opportunity squandered. Learning to synthesize new ideas out of facts is one aspect of a broader skill that is essential in the world today: critical thinking. Instead of "banning" use of Wikipedia, research projects could actually utilize Wikipedia, and teach students skills about evaluating bias (who is the source of the article), accuracy (where is the data in Wikipedia cited to?), and fact checking (if an essential fact comes from one questionable source, wouldn't it be a good idea to get confirmation). Instead of banning great resources like Wikipedia, a teacher could embrace students using it, and teach how to use it as a proper and valuable tool.
In 8th grade shop I learned how to use a table saw. Table saws do have the potential for danger, but when taught how to use them properly, they sure are incredibly useful tools.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
September 8, 2007
Mod Blanc
Pilot G2 "Gel Ink" (4) for $8.
Mont Blank Rollerball Refills (2) for $10.
Cut less than 1/8" of plastic off the end of the Mont Blanc refill and replace the G2 cartridge.
Amazingly fine writing instrument for $7. Net savings of over $200.
I've been meaning to try this trick for a while, and tonight I finally did it. It took me longer to open the pen/refill packages than to do the hack.
Now, granted, the pen doesn't have the same weight in your hand as a Mont Blank, which is part of what makes them such a pleasure to write with. But for the difference in price, I'll take my mod-G2. It does write as smooth as glass. And if you're a dork like me who is always losing pens anyway, it's much better to lose a $7 "Mod Blanc" than a $200+ Mont Blanc.
Yes, I'm a pen nerd.
[Via Instructables]
Posted by Dave! Permalink
June 27, 2007
Positive Marketing and Positive Sales
Seth Godin has a good post today about positive markeing versus negative marketing with respect to Verizon's attitude toward fighting the iPhone. This reminded me of an experience I had last year with a new system we were purchasing for work.
The system was an expensive hardware/software combination. But that isn't important. What is important is that there were multiple vendors competing, each with different marketing approaches. Two sales teams stick in my mind from this experience: one was very positive, one very negative.
The positive team emphasized their product's strengths. They listened to our needs and they tailored every presentation to how their product's features met our needs, or helped us solve a problem in a unique way. Aside from a brief comparison to the competition's products in our initial meeting, I don't think they mentioned their competition once.
The negative team spent nearly as much time denigrating (or attempting to) the competition's products as much as they did promoting their own. They would talk up a feature for a few minutes and then waste our time and theirs telling us about which of the competitors didn't have that same feature, or implemented it in an inferior way.
The problem with this approach--and I think this scales for big or small purchasing decisions--is that as an educated customer, I'm doing my own research. I'm talking to the competition. I'm seeing exactly what features they have and don't have. So when you're pitching your products to me, I don't want to hear your opinion about the competition--I want to hear about your product.
It's not hard to see which team was more pleasant to deal with. And ultimately, which team do you think won the contract? It was the team with the superior product, of course, whose features best met our needs. But do you suppose that if the negative team's product really met our needs and was really best of class that they would have felt the need to spend so much time trying to cut down the competition?
Posted by Dave! Permalink
June 20, 2007
Ridiculous Disclaimers
I'm in California all this week for a conference, which so far has been kind of a bust. It's a regular annual technology thing, with some training seminars and a lot of vendor exhibitions. Unfortunately, there just haven't been many things I've seen here that I didn't already know about. The web and the speed of transmission of information has really changed what conferences should be, but that's for another post.
This post is about one of the training seminars. Now, keep in mind that most of the attendees at this conference are technology professionals. They make their living working with technology.
Today, I attended a session, which had typical PowerPoint handouts, but the second slide (after the title) was a huge "WARNING":
"Materials may not be recorded or copied or used for any for-profit purpose or any other event use without prior permission. Violators will be prosecuted."
First, the whole point of getting the information in the seminar is to use it for-profit: to expand your skills and increase your business. Now, I do realize that this disclaimer is really meant to try to discourage people from stealing the slides for their own presentations, but honestly, is this really necessary? More to the point, does the presenter think it's effective? It won't stop a real jackass from stealing the content, it doesn't really provide any legal protection (a simple copyright notice at the bottom would have worked) and it insults the intelligence of the rest of us.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
April 25, 2007
DLG in the ATL
I'm in Atlanta, blogging from the Emory Conference Center, which I might add is quite nice. The facilities are cool and the staff are just the friendliest and helpful people...
I'm here for a work conference, which sucks because I won't really get to see much (okay, any) of Atlanta, but the conference itself is pretty cool--met some really great people so far, very nice, in a similar line of work, so it promises to be a productive conference.
I don't normally blog about work, and this isn't really an exception. But I just had to say that so far, what I've seen of the Emory campus (which is limited to the Conference Center area and the Mill House) is just beautiful. If you ever have the opportunity to go to a conference here, I'd recommend it.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (2)
January 29, 2007
Un-Conference: LexThink
Over at LexThink they are undergoing some changes, with an updated logo (that still leaves _a lot_ to be desired, in my never humble opinion) and a new tag line, "the legal unconference company."
One of the LexThink principals, Dennis Kennedy has a nice roundup of un-conference posts and I wanted to throw in my two cents.
I've only had the pleasure of attending one LexThink event, Blawgthink 2005, but it was one of the single best and most productive conferences I've been to. There are some different opinions on what an "unconference" is or should be, but I think that LexThink does a tremendous job with their implementation/interpretation.
I think is important to realize that an "unconference" does not mean "unstructured". Instead, the structure is organic and comes from the desires and goals of the attendees, not a mandated structure from the conference organizers. The result is that you learn far more in an unconference session (generally)--at least I do.
That isn't to say that every session is a hit. It takes the right presenter to be fluid enough to work well in an environment that isn't rigid and pre-planned. That's one of the LexThink strengths--finding the right people. It also takes an open mind and a willingness of the attendees to take charge of their own agenda and not to settle for being spoon fed information. Sometimes, one or the other isn't there and the result is a lack-luster session.
But surprisingly often, the attendees are excited about having some input and step up, and the presenters are excited about the interest from their audience. The excitement is contagious, a feedback loop of sorts. When everything comes together, the result can be a fantastic, interesting, and *productive* session where more information flows in all directions and learning abounds.
I know I sound a bit like an evangelist, but seriously, give an unconference a try sometime, it's worth the risk. It won't cost you anything but time and chances are you've wasted plenty of that in traditional conferences already.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
January 23, 2007
Disposable Printers
My wife and I have a Samsung ML-2510 laser printer at home. It's a nice little printer--definitely not high volume, but for the limited printing we do at home, it's been great. Well, recently, the toner has started to fade. No big deal, it just needs a new cartridge. So I go on-line to order a new cartridge, and I discover this deal to purchase a new printer for $59.99. How much for a new toner? $77.Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
January 5, 2007
Delicious Library
I've been meaning to check out Delicious Library for a while, even more so after I went to the Evening at Adler last year. Well, as usual, I kept putting it off. And then along came the MacHeist bundle which included Delicious Libary, and so I didn't have any excuses anymore. Holy crap. What a fantastic application. Wow. This application is exactly why I went back to using Macs (after quite a long hiatus). The concept is simple: catalog your CDs, DVDs, Books, and video games. It's the execution that is brilliant. What makes it brilliant is the leverage of the iSight. You see, there's no typing in titles, song tracks, descriptions, and all that. You just fire up the iSight, and you get a video window "scanner" (complete with red laser lines across the window). Just hold up the bar code on the item and *blip* Delicious Library scans it, looks up the info for the item and imports it into your library. All the info you could ask for is right there... title, tracks, descriptions, ratings (from Amazon, etc. You can add your own ratings, locations, notes. And best of all, it's a great, straightfoward interface that takes virtually no time to learn. Amazing. This is the kind of application that makes computing a joy. My only regret is that I didn't play around with it sooner. Now I'm going to go on a rampage, importing everything I own.Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (2)
December 28, 2006
Microsoft: We can't even *give* Vista away!
Okay, that's not quite true. But apparently, after the flack they received for trying to buy reviews and snow the blogosphere give prominent bloggers a chance to preview Vista on swanked-out, fugly, yet free laptops, it turns out, Microsoft wants the laptops back.
Classic. Let's hope Microsoft executed Vista better than they've executed this PR campaign. Or maybe this is what happens when you try to buy a viral marketing campaign... and do it poorly.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
December 27, 2006
Microsoft's Free Laptops...
Apparently, Microsoft is handing out free laptops to prominent bloggers, hoping they will write up their (positive?) experiences with Vista. Of course, I wouldn't turn down a free laptop, Vista or not. But I seriously have to question their choice of machines... I mean, a Ferrari branded laptop? C'mon, Microsoft, that comes off like you're... well, trying to compensate for something. *ahem*
Posted by Dave! Permalink
December 14, 2006
As much as I like law school...
..when I am waist deep in final exams, and Sony releases something like this--it does make me long for the days when I was in production.
Back to Patent Law.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
December 5, 2006
Suing Edgar Bronfman
It's probably because I'm studying for Business Organizations and have derivative suits on the brain, but when I saw this little tidbit where Edgar Bronfman, CEO of the Warner Music Group, admits that his kids have broken the law and downloaded music. Of course, unlike those parents suffering lawsuits at the hands of the RIAA, Bronfman preferred to "keep [their punishment] within the family".
Now, I don't know what kind of (legal) entity the RIAA is (and don't have time to look it up), but it sure would be killer if some of the "artists" or labels they are supposedly representing were to hold their feet to the fire and make them file suit against Bronfman. Why shouldn't he and his children suffer the same fate of bogus lawsuits that other parents face?
Posted by Dave! Permalink
November 30, 2006
Banning Laptops in the Classroom
Since law professors who blog seem to bring up banning laptops at least twice a quarter, I thought I should bore you with a law student post about law professors who want to ban laptops in the classroom. I’m just coming off of a long business organizations class about dividends, so let me assure you, this post will probably be just as rambling and incoherent as most of my posts.
I do understand that the vast majority of professors want students to be involved in discussion and to be attentive and engaged in their class. Professors, on the other hand should understand that most students want to be involved in discussion and to be attentive and engaged in their class. When that doesn’t happen, I think it’s a personal dynamic, not a technology issue.
I think it’s important for faculty to step back for a moment, to the pre-laptop days, and ask themselves these simple questions:
- Were all of your students diligent note takers, not scrambling to copy your lecture verbatim?
- Did they never pass notes, whisper in the back row, daydream out the window, or doodle in their notebooks?
If you can honestly answer yes to all of those questions, then by all means. Ban laptops. You win. But I doubt anyone can honestly answer yes to those questions.
I do support professor’s rights to manage their courses as they see fit. But I think they shouldn’t be discriminatory against the class of students who have piss-poor handwriting. Yes, we’re a class, and I think it’s time we were protected. If you’re going to ban laptops, ban all note-taking. Let’s face it, note taking itself is pretty distracting. Provide your lecture notes to the class as a handout after each class and forbid note-taking altogether. Then everyone in the class is on equal footing.
Okay, maybe that’s extreme, but it illustrates my point: banning laptops has a negative impact on all students who use the technology properly just to try to reach a very small number of students who wouldn’t be paying attention anyway.
Now, I’m sure there are some unique reasons for faculty to ban laptops in the class, but it seems like every article/post/rant I’ve read from a professor who was banning them fell into one of three broad generalizations:
Laptops create a "physical barrier" to discussion.
Several professors have claimed that the “picket fence” of laptop screens creates a physical barrier that inhibits discussion. But being in a horse-room shaped lecture hall with 150 seats isn’t a physical impediment to discussion at all. Nope. I love to have lively discussions with the back of my classmate’s heads. Very conducive to intellectual discourse.
Maybe, maybe, this would be true in a small seminar, with only a dozen students or so. Although, I think that’s more of a generational gap. I think faculty see the laptops as a physical barrier, but that most students don’t see them. Students today are comfortable with technology--it's been a part of their education for most, if not all, of their lives. There might be a few students who think they are intrusive as well, but I’d also wager that there are a few shy students who are glad to have the shelter--and may even participate more because they have that shield. Either way, I think the actual impact is much more minimal than it’s often made out to be. In the end, I think it’s a wash.
Laptops encourage people to take verbaitim notes instead of writing down just what is important.
First, why is it necessarily bad to take down notes verbatim? I’ve encountered a few students who do this, and yes, I think some of them are missing the forest for the trees. But I know of one classmate in particular who was a very good and diligent student who took “verbatim notes”. She did it because it was part of her learning process. It’s just how she learned. She internalized what was being said as she was transcribing, and it helped her later during the distilling process of outlining.
Second, are there really that many people in your classes with their fingers flying on the keyboard trying to take down every word? I’ve only ever seen a few people doing this, even in large 1L required classes. This is just a guess, I don’t have the data to back this up (although, I haven’t encountered a professor who did either), but I suspect if you took away their laptops, those same people would be scribbling away, filling their notebooks with your every word. Only now, they won’t be able to read half of it. So what would banning the laptop accomplish?
Well, for starters, it would penalize those, like me, with poor penmanship. But more important, it doesn’t accomplish the goal you’re trying to achieve, which would only “benefit” a handful, and instead penalizes the vast majority of people who take notes effectively with a laptop.
Laptops create a tempting diversion from paying attention or participating in class.
They do. I’ll acknowledge that the diversion offered by a networked laptop are multitudinous. Between instant messaging, the web, games… it’s a non-stop cornucopia of distraction. So what?
Laptops have increased the distractions, but they are hardly the first distraction in the classroom. In the days before laptops, I have it on good authority that students would sit in the back row and on occasion, whisper. I also have discovered in some boxes in my mother’s attic, some form of primitive instant messaging that she called “notes”. Apparently, these “notes” were constructed of paper and then deviously passed from one student to another--all during the course of a lecture!
Sarcasm aside, I’m sympathetic to the frustration of competing with a laptop for students attention. But the reality is that it is a part of the job. Your job as a faculty member is to organize and present the material in a comprehensible and engaging manner. I’ve had some outstanding professors over the years, and those who were passionate about their subject matter, well prepared for class, and dynamic speakers never had to “compete” for the attention of their students. Period. There will always be one or two (or six, in a class of 150) people who are “checked out”. But you kind of just have to ignore them. Making the other 144 people in the class suffer while you try to reach those six is doing a disservice to everyone, yourself included. Here’s my advice: write them off. Maybe they will fail your class: but it will be their own fault. It’s the best gift you can give them--they don’t want to be their anyway.
But, if I may make a gentle suggestion… if you find yourself consistently competing for your students attention in class, you should revisit your organization of the material (if not the material itself) and you should get some brutally honest criticisms of your speaking skills. Some academics are outstanding in the classroom. Some are outstanding in print. Some are gifted in both, but that rare. There’s nothing wrong with that--but recognize your own limitations and work on improving them instead of focusing your misplaced frustration on technology that actually helps a great many students.
Laptops are being used by the government to emit thought controlling radio waves to track my movement.
Okay, no professor (to my knowledge) has ever proffered that argument. But if they did, they’d be the coolest faculty member ever. Or insane. Or both.
So where does that leave professors who want to ban laptops in the classroom? Recently, a professor posted his laptop policy, which essentially allowed students to use them for notes, but if they were found using them for other purposes, they would lose the right to use them.
At first, it sounds like a good compromise, but it’s still really discriminatory against laptop users, and it still is only treating the symptom, not the disease. Would students taking notes on paper “lose the privilege” if they were caught passing a note? Or doodling in the margins? Or actually writing fiction instead of taking notes? (I knew a student who did that in one class… I noticed he was writing a whole lot during one not very interesting lecture. I asked what he was working on, and he said, “A short story.” Since all lawyers secretly want to be writers, it seemed like an okay idea to me.)
I do use the net during class. In fact, it saves me time and my back. When we’re looking at a statute in class, instead of flipping through the 1200 page supplement, I pull it up on Westlaw/Lexis. Nifty! But that would (technically) violate such a policy. And it wouldn’t be possible with an all out ban. And what reasonable argument can be made that it’s better to lug around a 10lb. book to get the same information?
The problem professors are really struggling with here is not the laptop. The laptop is the symptom, not the disease. In fact, the laptop is the symptom of a few diseases, not all of them afflicting students. There’s student apathy, boring material, poor speaking skills, the list goes on.
So I would ask that any professor considering banning laptops try these steps first:
-
1. Make a note of how many people are really “checked-out” in your class. What percentage of the class is it? Is it really that high? Or is it just the percentage of people who are going to be checked out anyway?
2. If the percentage is high, re-examine your class. Review your course materials--is the material interesting? Can it be made more interesting by doing something out of the ordinary (role playing, incorporating current events, interesting hypos?)
3. Finally, take a good, honest look at your lecture skills. Videotape yourself and see if you would be interested while you were lecturing. Or ask past students who did well in your class what you could do to improve. I’ve had one or two classes where I checked out, simply because the professor was a very poor lecturer. And in both cases, I actually enjoyed speaking with the professor one-on-one, they were very different in that type of interaction. I have no doubt that if they made a real, concerted effort to improve their skills, their classes would have improved dramatically.
If you’ve tried all of that, and you still are having problems in the class, try the laptop ban. But be fair about it:
-
1. Make your policy known in the registration bulletin/course descriptions so people know your policy before they have to register.
2. Consider using a “compromise” ban--that is, laptops only for notes but a violation of that policy results in a total ban for that student.
3. If you do decide to ban 100%, and your course is a required course, make sure there is at least one other section taught by someone else for those who depend on the ability to actually read the concise, type-written notes they do take.
And of course, if you’re banning laptops to escape the mind control radio emissions of the National Security Agency, try a tinfoil hat first.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (2)
September 21, 2006
MT 3.32
Well, I made the jump and upgraded my MovableType installation. So far, it looks like the upgrade went off without a hitch, but this is a test post to check it out.
If you read the blog, either via the site or the RSS, and notice any problems, please drop me an e-mail. Thanks!
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
May 4, 2006
Jane Siberry Gets It
Jane Siberry gets it. Not only is she a great musician, she's obviously on the ball when it comes to electronic distribution, too. Her on-line music store offers four different levels to pay:
- Free (A Gift From Jane)
- Suggested Price (.99)
- Pay Later (Download Now, Pay Only If You Like It)
- Pay a "Self-Determined" Amount (More or Less Than Suggested)
You know what? The store stats show that only 17% download for free, while of those paying, 79% paid the suggested price, 14% paid above the suggested price, and only 8% paid below the suggested price. And all of this is for MP3s with no "Digital Rights Management" restrictions, etc.
Record companies should take note: people want to do the right thing and compensate the artists they love. But they want to be able to use the songs where and how they want. See what happens when artists trust fans? They make money.
[Via Boing Boing]
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (2)
April 2, 2006
To my Hoosier Friends...
Since I grew up a Hoosier, I think this whole "Daylight Savings" stuff is total B.S. It doesn't save me any daylight. But today, poor old Indiana will have to arbitrarily change their clocks, just like the rest of us.
However, don't forget to update your computers... No more is the "Eastern (Indiana)" Timezone applicable! You get to use "Eastern" or "Central" as appropriate. (How's that for screwed up? Hoosiers have to suffer DST with the rest of us, but the state can't be on one timezone... poor suckers. Oh well, they voted in Daniels, that's what they get.) Also, don't forget that if you use Outlook, it will "conveniently" update your appointment times for you into the new timezone! Effectively making all of your appointments an hour off! Hooray!
Finally, I'll leave you with this piece of advice: spring forward, fall back. Now you have to remember that with the rest of us. And yes, it sucks.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (8)
March 29, 2006
Steve Balmer: Idiot
"My children--in many dimensions they're as poorly behaved as many other children, but at least on this dimension I've got my kids brainwashed: You don't use Google, and you don't use an iPod."
So, Steve wants to be in the gadget market, competing with the likes of Apple, but he's not even smart enough to leverage the focus group in his own house? I guess it's not hard to see where Microsoft adopts it's attitude towards listening to what customers might actually want vs. telling them what they need.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
March 5, 2006
Hey, Dumbass, Secure Your Wireless Network
For the idiots featured in the NYT article, Hey Neighbor, Stop Piggybacking on My Wireless I offer the following, Securing Your Wireless Network, as a PSA.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (5)
January 10, 2006
IntelMac!
Well, they are here: Intel Based Apple Laptops.
They feature:
- Intel Core Duo (Dual Core CPUs)
- 667MHz frontside bus
- Serial ATA hard drive
- SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
- Built-in iSight Camera
- Cool looking MagSafe power connector
- The same stupid piece of sh*t one button track pad
Oh yeah, and a price only a Mac fan could love. Me wantee, but me not wantee that bad for Apple first gen hardware.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
December 1, 2005
How do you know...
...that you spend too much time using a computer?
When you are organizing the papers on your desk and you encounter one that can be thrown away, and you mutter to yourself, "that one I can delete".
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
November 29, 2005
Firefox 1.5
I just downloaded the new version of Firefox and so far, I'm very impressed. I was disappointed that in breaks several extensions that I use on a regular basis, including:
- Bloglines Toolkit
- Copy Plain Text
- ChromEdit
- Greasemonkey
SpellBound
None of them are deal breakers--well, SpellBound would have been but reinstalling the libraries fixed it. Living without the others will be a pain, but I'll cope. And one of the things that will help me cope is the new del.icio.us extension! It's awesome!
Update: Ken hipped me to two new extensions that have become indispensable as well. The first is NoScript which allows you to have Firefox only run JavaScript from whitelisted websites. The second is SessionSaver, which I can't believe I lived without; it allows you to have your current session saved whenever Firefox is closed, and then restores that session when you restart. Awesome!
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
November 9, 2005
BlawgThink 2005
I have been meaning to write about
BlawgThink 2005 for weeks now... ah, the joys of law school: copious amounts of spare time.
Anyway, I'm super psyched for this event. The speakers and attendees sound fantastic, featuring such blawg luminaries as Dennis Kennedy, Brandy Karl, Evan Schaeffer, Carolyn Elefant, Matt Homann, Ernest Svenson, Rick Klau. Matt Homann is even reviving his "Five by Five" feature at the conference with "Five by Five Live".
Although the tracks look interesting for the first day, it's really the second day--the open collaborative/brainstorming/freeform discussion that I'm really excited about. After the really great "Evening at Adler" (for Mac Developers) that I went to last month, I've been really excited about (1) how blogs can bring real people together to do real things; (2) how great it is to meet interesting and intelligent people and hear new ideas; and, (3) how great discussions/brainstorming can be for generating new ideas and motivating work on old ones.
With so many great legal bloggers assembled in one place, there's bound to be great stuff coming out of BlawgThink this weekend. And there's still space, I think, so if you aren't coming yet, sign up!
Posted by Dave! Permalink
November 4, 2005
Site Updates...
Well, I just moved my site to a new host. All in all, it was a prettys smooth and painless transition, once I got some of the database quirks worked out. It was pretty easy to restore the MT db and so far, everything seems okay. But as is always the case, I'm sure I missed something, so if you notice any problems with the site, archives, commenting, etc. please just drop me a line.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (4)
September 4, 2005
Looks Like It Worked...
Well, it only took an hour or so... and it appears to have worked. There were a few glitches, mostly upgrading database drivers. And as usual, the docs sucked. As much as I love MT, SixApart writes some awful documentation--I know it's hard to cover all aspects for all systems, but really, if I didn't have experience from another life as a UNIX admin, it would have taken me forever.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
MT 3.2
I just sat down to upgrade to Movable Type 3.2... and now I have the hiccups. Perhaps this is an omen. Oh, well. Back soon--hopefully!
Posted by Dave! Permalink
June 16, 2005
Kodak Ends B&W Paper
I know that digital photography rules... I haven't shot film in ages. But I can't help but feel a little sad about this one...
Kodak Announces End Of Black And White Paper Production
There is something to the process of being in a darkroom, developing your own prints. I haven't done it in years, but still, it does impart a sense of wonder which I think adds to the experience. Of course digital is cheaper and the end result is often great, but I still have a soft spot for film.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
June 8, 2005
The Best Commentary on the Apple Switch...
Can be found here.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
June 6, 2005
It's Official: Mac OS for Intel
Steve Jobs is on stage at the WWDC right now with Intel CEO Paul Otenllini. Jobs is demoing all of the new Tiger features, etc. on an Intel based Mac... some highlights include a port of Mathematica and the fact that every Mac OSX update for the past five years has been compiled and compatible with Intel processors.
There you have it... For more updates, check out The Mac Observer's Live Coverage.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
April 28, 2005
Yipe! Skype!
John Dvorak is ga-ga for Skype. I just tried Skype for the first time over the weekend with my friend, Ken. In addition to Skype, we also tried out SIP Phone both over software and with hardware, and finally hardware based BroadVoice.
Honestly, I was blown away. VOIP is so much better quality than I could have imagined. Skype sounded absolutely fantastic. SIPPhone had some bad interface issues, but was still quite good. And BroadVoice was also pretty amazing. My jaw really dropped with all of them... POTS phones are in big trouble. I will never have a land-line based phone again.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (3)
April 18, 2005
Adobe to Aquire Macromedia
Adobe announced plans to acquire Macromedia in an all-stock transaction, valued at $3.4 billion.
Of course the impact on tools like Flash and Acrobat could really be something... but I'll bet we can see Freehand disappear. And maybe GoLive, too? :)
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
April 13, 2005
Google Video!
Could Google be any cooler? They just launched Google Video.
You can use it to search current shows, which is nice and all... but the cool factor is that you can upload your own video. They even have a mechanism for you to charge for downloads of your video.
But it's not all wine and roses... Examine some of the fine print of the TOS and learn that if you have a really popular video... Google might bill you for the bandwidth!
Still, this could turn out to be super cool...
[PVR Blog]
Posted by Dave! Permalink
March 20, 2005
Tivo Series 2: The Sequel
My wife and I have been wanting to get a Tivo for the bedroom for some time now and with the current Tivo promo program, there was no time like the present. I have an old Sony Tivo (Series 1) which I love and has been with me for many, many years. We unpacked the new Tivo and moved the old one into the bedroom... but now, I'm thinking about getting another Series 2 Tivo for the bedroom. Wow. I mean, wow. The Series 2 has some great features:
- Networking... So you can sync over the net.
- On line scheduling.
- Program sharing
- The Home Media Option
It's really the Home Media Option that was the real killer app for me. Wow, it is completely kick ass. Wow. It is. Wow.
First, it supports the PC and the Mac. But I use it with my Mac. In less than 30 seconds, I had the "Tivo Desktop" software installed and up and running on my Mac. It allows me to share photos from my iPhoto albums, and music from iTunes. So now, all 25k+ songs in my music library and all 5k+ photos in my photo library can be shared to the Tivo. And a quick output from the Tivo into my amp, and viola! My entire music library, on-line, and browsable. It's amazing. I love it. I'm in heaven.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
February 23, 2005
Firefox Tips
Having left IE some time ago for Firefox (and never looked back) I found this page very helpful. Still, I managed to miss this one, and it's great:
You can use "/" to search, via the "Find As You Type" search! Just hit the "/" key and you get the search dialog, in focus, type in your term and it finds the result... just like vi!
Yeah, I know it's an old feature, but it's new to me... :)
Posted by Dave! Permalink
February 12, 2005
Frightening Dream...
I had a dream last night where I was older, and my memory had begun to fade. That's not the frightening part. The frightening part was that medical science had discovered that you never really loose any of your memories--they were all intact, in your mind, just awaiting retrieval. It turned out that the reason we became forgetful in old age wasn't failing memory, it was an inadequate retrieval system. As we got older, we had so many memories accumulated, that our minds just couldn't search them fast enough.
So we all had personal Google interfaces to our minds.
Yes, I dreamt that I had a personal Google interface in my own mind, and I was using it to recall my own memories.
Frightening.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (2)
February 9, 2005
Mac Users: Advice Needed
Calling all Mac users... you know you're out there... :) I need some advice. Two things, really:
1. Do I sell my G4 and get a Mac Mini?
I have a dual 800MHz G4. I do love it, but damn is it big. And I have a tiny condo and a tiny office. My PC is a Shuttle, so you know I love the small. I used to do video editing on the G4... but now I have a G5 at work, and well, with school, I barely have time to do much else.
If I sell the G4, I could offset the cost of a sweet little mini that would look great on my desk, and use my existing monitor, etc. However, I would like to occasionally run Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro on it. What do you think?
2. Does anyone know of a good KVM switch for USB devices?
Okay, not necessarily Mac specific. But I have a USB Keyboard and a USB mouse that I would like to use for both my Mac and my PC. Most of the KVM switches I've seen are for PS/2 devices. I have found a few, but none that look, well, very good. Any pointers?
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (5)
January 24, 2005
iPod Shuffle vs. SanDisk MP3
I am still lusting a Mac Mini, but the iPod Shuffle struck me as kinda lame and a bad deal when it was announced, and now, check this out:
Cheaper, about the same size, and more features... including a screen!
The Mac Mini is cool.. the iPod Shuffle is, well, diluting a really great brand (the iPod).
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (2)
January 13, 2005
I am Nerd King!
How nerdy are you?
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (2)
January 11, 2005
New stuff from Apple
Posted by Dave! Permalink
January 5, 2005
Would you like to put your penis on a diet and play some poker?
I'm not sure where I went wrong. Maybe it was my choice of titles for the blog... "Preaching to the Perverted" does sound like some kind of weirdo porn site these days, I guess. It's actually a reference to a PWEI song.
Maybe it's the fact that when I was visiting my brother in Japan, we were asked to take an "English Tourist" survey at Nijo-jo by the Hachigaok Jr. High English Club, and I foolishly took their picture and posted it on my site. Now, the most common search bringing people to my personal web site is "japanese school girl". Of course, it fluctuates. Last month it was "atheist" because of this photo.
Whatever the reason, I've apparently been targeted as a compulsive dieter with a small penis and an addiction to Texas hold 'em. There must really be something to spam because anyone who knows me can tell you that description is dead-on.
So recently, in between hands of poker and poping diet pills while applying for a super-low rate second mortgage, I decided to add a CAPTCHA test for comment submissions. Not because I want to stop you, gentle reader, from taking advantage of these great offers people have been posting to my site, oh no! I want you to get your diet pills, card games, sexual enhancement devices, porn, mortgages, car loans, etc. I just want my cut of the action, like Evan.
And it did work... for about two days. The CAPTCHA test cut my daily comment spam down from 25-30 per day (yes, you read that correctly) to zero.
Alas, all good things must come to an end... and I came in today to find that I've already received 15 spam trackback pings today.
*sigh*
Posted by Dave! Permalink
December 29, 2004
SCode
Well, I arrived back from my honeymoon on Monday to find a *ton* of comment spam here... over 250! So I decided it was time to install SCode. I *think* I finally have it working. If you try to comment and it is not working, please let me know. It was a royal pain in the butt to install.
SixApart *really* needs to do something about this... they should integrate a CAPTCHA test into the standard install. I mean, Scode does the job, but it was way too hard to install for the casual blogger. C'mon SixApart, we're paying good money for MT now... get with the program!
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
November 17, 2004
Using del.icio.us
I've been using del.icio.us for a little over two weeks, and in that time it has become absolutely indispensable to the way that I get things done.
For those who might not be familiar with del.icio.us, it is essentially a "social bookmark" manager; that is, it allows you to bookmark a page and set some meta-data "tags" to describe that page. Then it lumps all of your bookmarks together, or you can view them separately by "tag" you used. Very useful.
However, an almost equally, if not more useful feature, is that you get to access bookmarks added by other people and their tags. For example, I have a category called "design" and I add bookmarks. I can also see other bookmarks other people have tagged for "design". Even better, I can see how many other people have bookmarked that same site, and peruse their tag category for other useful sites along the same lines. You can even subscribe to RSS feeds for link categories... we're talking cool as hell, folks.
It takes a few days to get the "zen" of del.icio.us, but once you do, there's no turning back.
And today, courtesy of the del.icio.us "popular" feed, comes this:
Us.ef.ul: A beginner's guide to The Next Big Thing
It's a handy reference to the power of del.icio.us and a great guide to getting started. Check it out!
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
November 8, 2004
Hey PalmOne and Sprint: Fuck You!
My first Treo was a 300, which I liked, but when the Treo 600 was announced, I was chomping at the bit to updrage. Sure enough, as soon as it was available, I moved on up. Sprint offered a decent upgrade deal, so I took it. I was a bit irked that it didn't have a 320x320 screen, but hey, it was a major improvement over the Treo 300.
So I've been salivating over the Treo 650 for weeks now, waiting for that offer from Sprint and PalmOne to upgrade. And today I got it. I can upgrade for a whopping $449. Actually, as a "reward" for being an existing Sprint customer, I can't use the $150 credit either, so it's actually $599 for me. Yeah, the same price as everyone else. Oh, but as a reward for being a "loyal customer" I could get a free Jabra Bluetooth headset, a $99 value!
Hey Sprint: Fuck you.
Hey PalmOne: Fuck you, too.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
October 7, 2004
GMail. Enough Already!
Okay, I have, like so many GMail invites it's pretty sick. If Google can be handing out invites like this, why not just open GMail to anyone??
Bottom line, I think I've already given a GMail invite to everyone I can think of who would actually use it, so if you want one, drop me a note.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
September 7, 2004
Phew.
I have to stop doing admin tasks when I'm tired and distracted! I just noticed that Six Apart had just released MT 3.11, a bugfix. I had about 15 min before class, and usually upgrades like that are trivial... But in the rush, I accidentally, once again, blew away my MT install. Thank god I had already converted it to run from a database; otherwise I would have been one sad, sad man. Anyway, I have a new rule: do not engage in blog administrative tasks when the beginning of torts class is imminent.Posted by Dave! Permalink
August 26, 2004
Gee! Mail!
I've been using GMail for a while now, and I do really like it. It's pretty much replaced YahooMail as my "public" e-mail address. (The one I use for mailing lists, registering for websites, etc.)
Anyway, I've pretty much invited all my direct friends and family who I thought would be interested, and I have three invitations left. So in the spirit of Ernie the Attorney, if you're reading this, don't have an e-mail account, and want one, drop me a note and tell me your favorite thing about my blog.
First three respondents who aren't spam bots get the invites... :)
Update: All the accounts are gone... thanks!
Posted by Dave! Permalink
August 2, 2004
Wireless MP3s
Ernie the Attorney has been going on again about his AirPort Express, and the other day Scheherazade was talking about her wireless MP3 music solution, which made me start looking into what's available.
I do love iTunes and I run it on both my PC and Mac, so I did think about the AirPort Express. I was really disappointed that it doesn't have any kind of remote control, though. I know, my place isn't that big, and I have a laptop with wireless, but you know, I don't *always* want to have to fire up or walk to a computer to listen to music. Sometimes, I want to plop down on the couch, and turn on the stereo with a remote, and change the song on a whim, all with a remote. The AirPort Express's lack of remote is a *huge* oversight in my book.
Anyway, here's what I'm looking for: a way to stream MP3s from my PC where they are all stored directly to my stereo. It must be wireless, it must have some sort of remote control, and ideally, it would cost under $150, but I'm willing to go up to $200 to make life easy.
I started doing some research and I've found these offerings:
I'll be looking into all of these in more detail, but in the meantime, if you know of one I've missed, please let me know.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
August 1, 2004
Windows Tabula Rasa
I'm in the market for a new laptop. I had a Dell 4150 that I absolutely loved, but it was heavy. Well, not by conventional standards, but by my stringent laptop standards. I have a huge brick of a machine for work, it's a loaded Dell, which weighs nearly 8lbs. I was considering using that, but the idea of lugging it back and forth to school/home/work, well, that isn't appealing.
So I've been debating about a Sony PCG-TR* but I waffle back and forth. Then I had this idea about a tablet PC... I thought, maybe the convenience of changing the form factor, combined with the svelte design would be cool. As luck would have it, we have two table PCs at work for evaluation, so I checked one out this weekend.
At first, I was really impressed with the versatility of the table, but honestly, the mystique wore off pretty quickly. After you get over the "cool" factor of being able to flip the screen around to any orientation, the little roughness around the edges of the OS start to grate.
There were lots of minor annoyances, which might have been specific to the particular model, so I won't go into those. There was one major annoyance that would keep me from ever getting one: I type nearly 5x faster than I write.
The handwriting recognition for the Windows XP "Table" Edition, actually works pretty good. But honestly, unless you type painfully slow, it's just quicker to type. And yes, it was cool to lay in bed with my wife, surfing the web with nothing more than a pen, but that doesn't make it worth paying a premium for a feature that is nothing more than "cool". I guess the tablet isn't for me. I think that if you were in the position where you made a living off of presentations (the thing would rule for PowerPoint warriors) then it might be worth it. Otherwise, it's a cool idea that isn't quite there yet.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
Thank God for Comment Filters
Last week I made the jump to MovableType 3.0, and so far I'm very happy with the decision. I host a couple of blogs for friends, and I think the 3.0 interface is really great. Not that operation of MT was complicated before, but it's even easier now.
However, the best feature, bar none, is comment registration. I had noticed an increase in comment spam before the upgrade, and I was wasting a lot of time deleting comment spam. I don't know if the increase in spam means an increase in visibility for the blog, but I sure hope so. No matter, with MT 3.0, registered users can post comments to the ol' blog without my intervention, but all other comments are caught before they go live. That let's me stop the "Penis Enlargement" comments on my posts before the go live. That alone is worth the price of the upgrade.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
July 26, 2004
An Upgrade
Well, I made the jump... I've upgraded the site to MovableType 3.0. I did it for a couple of reasons:
1. I think the folks at Six Apart deserve some hard earned $$$ for building a very nice, robust blogging system, which I have enjoyed for a long time without paying them anything.
2. I needed better comment spam protection.
3. I just like futzing around with the site.
So there you have it. MT3.0. So far it's been a painless upgrade and smooth going on new features. I'll let you know if I run into any problems.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
July 6, 2004
The IE Switch
Wow. If ever there was confirmation that I'd done the right thing, switching from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox, this would be it: a CERT Vulnerability Note about IE, which actually lists as a security fix, using a different browser!
For those who may not know, CERT is the Computer Emergency Readiness Team, which issues security alerts about the most pressing computer security issues. For them to have released this about IE is a major indication that Microsoft needs to address these browser security issues post-haste.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
June 30, 2004
Leaving IE...
I was a dedicated Netscape user for many years, until finally, several years back, Internet Explorer eclipsed Netscape in functionality. Then I finally broke down and switched, but it's always bothered me. However, recently, I discovered there is hope...
I just installed Mozilla Firefox 0.9, and, frankly I'm blown away. Not only does it seem to render pages faster than IE, but it has more features (hooray for tabbed browsing!!) and extensions and themes! So now I have a browser that not only blocks pop-up windows, but also filters out on page ads! Thanks to a little extension called AdBlock. And honestly, I have only discovered a handful of sites that only work with IE (mostly due to Active X stuff) and they are sites I can either live without, or fire up IE just for dealing with those sites.
Oh yeah, and since Microsoft doesn't seem to care about making IE safe from a number of different security flaws, I'm glad not to use it. I'll report more later, after I've been using Firefox for a while.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (3)
June 28, 2004
Bloglines
Well, after taking Kleio's suggestion, I signed up for Bloglines.com, which is a web-based News Aggregator. So far, I do like the service... of course, I have a few suggestions:
1. When in the folder "Tree View" it is really annoying to have everything marked as read just by clicking on the folder name. It's instinctive to click on the folder name to expend the folder (since it is underlined as a link) and when that marks everything as read, well, it pisses me off.
2. It would be very nice to not have everything automatically be marked as read... when I open a subscription. Sometimes I want to skim entries, but come back later to really read them, and I don't want to "Save" entires, or use a pulldown to make them visible again. If you had a preference to be able to set "Mark As Read" to default to off with a "Mark Read" link, similar to the "Mark Unread" link in the Blog Title box, that would be really great. I think it would suit both styles of readership equally.
3. Nothing against the color scheme but it would be nice to customize it.
4. Making the "Saved Items" folder searchable would be the bomb.
5. It would be really cool if I could export an XML file with my saved entries.
I think that they are 95% of the way to my dream news reader... and if they go the distance and are able to add features like the ones I've suggested, I would gladly pay for this type of service.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
Radio Woes
I would really love someone to build a better news aggregator. If I weren't already up to my eyeballs in projects, I'd do it myself. I no longer use Radio for my blog, because it's a memory leaking, bloated application that slowly brings most systems to a halt. I just got tired of rebooting. However, the news aggregator feature is just about perfect. It can run as a web accessible service, so I can access it from anywhere, and on any machine, and it keeps track of things I've read. These are two features I've grown to love, and that aren't included in most other news aggregators.
After bouncing some ideas off Ken, he had another great suggestion, along the lines of GMail... why throw out RSS articles at all? Hard drive space is cheap, it would be cool to archive them, and make them searchable. Here's my dream news reader:
-
- Cross Platform (Windows, Mac, Linux)
- Accessible via the web (password protected, of course)
- Keeps all articles grouped by site, and ordered by date/time
- Tracks "read" articles and doesn't display them after they are deleted/archived
- Archives "read" posts, for searching later
- Supports RSS (.9x, 1.0, 2.0) and ATOM
I would pay for that news aggregator... I really would, and I think others would too.
Update:
Kleio pointed me to an new service called Bloglines which is an on-line news reader, and has many of the features I was asking for... I've signed up for an account, and I'm going to be giving it a try this week. I hope it's cool!
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
June 9, 2004
Drool.
Apple Introduced a Dual 2.5GHz G5 today. Liquid Cooled. How drool worthy is that?!
Posted by Dave! Permalink
May 24, 2004
Design Eye for the Usability Guy
Anyone who works with the web will most likely know the name Jakob Nielsen. He is the defacto usability guru for the web, and on his site useit.com he spouts off advise about making the web more usable. Ironically (apparantly, irony is not Jakob's strong suit) useit.com is one of the ugliest, most un-user friendly sites in the history of the web.
Enter Design Eye for the Usability Guy... five designers offer some tips for how Jakob can make his site less of an eyesore, which is long overdue, and preserve usability ala his rules. Thank god... maybe more people would care about usability and follow Nielsen's guidelines, if it weren't so damn painful to read them in the first place!
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (3)
April 20, 2004
My Annoyances
Okay, I know it's a little late to grip about this now... but I hate, and I mean absolutely hate, the whole "My Computer", "My Network" and "My Documents" thing with Windows. It's so condescending... I'm not a child, I'm very capable of organizing my files into the directory structure that I want.
So one of the first things I do is remove this functionality from Windows:
1. Go to the Start menu
2. Select Run
3. Enter regsvr32 /u mydocs.dll
4. Click OK
Now if you delete them, they won't come back! There's also another annoying one, if you install Adobe Acrobat, the application creates a "My eBooks" folder which the above trick won't fix. I wasted a good deal of time looking for a preference in Acrobat to disable this. Guess what? It doesn't exist.
Instead, to stop this "feature" you need to go to the Acrobat directory and delete a plug-in:
1. Go to your Acrobat Directory (usually C:\Program Files/Adobe/Acrobat x.x)
2. Go to the Plug-ins directory (Acrobat\plug_ins)
3. Delete or re-name the ebook.api file
That should do the trick. Microsoft, Adobe, and other vendors should be ashamed for treating their customers like idiots. You can also visit TweakXP.com for some more great hints on dealing with XP annoyances.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (2)
February 26, 2004
Voluntary Collective Licensing
The EFF has published a "Let the Music Play" whitepaper which outlines their suggestion for Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music File Sharing. It's a very well reasoned and workable idea. So the music industry will reject it out of hand. But it's worth a read, because to me, it's the most reasonable suggestion I've heard to solve the "filesharing" issue.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
February 19, 2004
JVC HD Camcorder...
Last night at the MCAI meeting, JVC was on hand to do a presentation about their new "consumer" High-Definition video format, tentatively called HDV. To make a long story short, the have basically taken an HD resolution signal and compressed it in the camera using MPEG-2 compression, to create an MPEG-2 Transport Stream which gets recorded onto a standard Mini-DV formatted tape. Pretty nifty, overall, but there are a few drawbacks:
- The compression is done in hardware, so you don't get a true HD signal, you get an MPEG-2
- You need a special HDV Deck (or to use your camcorder for editing) and the format is not widely supported.
- The cameras are only 1-CCD (more on that later)
JVC has two cameras out, the consumer GR-HD1, and the professional JY-HD10. Price aside, there are two really critical differences:
- The professional unit allows you to generate color bars
- The professional unit has XLR inputs
If you don't know why those are big deals, the consumer level camera is for you. Otherwise, go for the professional unit.
The camera can record in SD at 480i or 480p, compressed w/MPEG-2, it can also record in standard DV format, or in HD at 720p, also MPEG-2 compressed. JVC boasts that it can playback 1080i, but it can't record in 1080i.
The camera is also only a 1-CCD chip. For a one chip camera, it does take a very sharp, crisp image that doesn't blow out too badly on highlights and it doesn't crush blacks horribly. JVC claims to be using layer technology on the CCD to eliminate the need for multiple CCDs (like the Foveon chip) however, they either need to license the Foveon chip or do a better job implementing the technology, in the SD range, any 3-CCD camera I've seen produces a better image.
Of course, the technology is not designed to be a replacement for higher end HD Cams (like the Sony HDWF900 or the Panasonic AJ-HDC27 VariCam) but I think it falls a bit short on the lower end.
The camera features are extremely limited. You can do far more tweaking on a Canon XL1s or Sony DCR-VX2100 both of which compete with the JVC on price point.
Frankly, I think the "HD" aspect of it is a bit gimmicky, and if what you really want is a great looking NTSC picture, pass on this one. If HD is really what you want, don't jump into it with this JVC. The HDV standard is being adopted by other vendors, and there might be some announcements at NAB in April. I'd be very interested to see what Sony and Canon plan for the format (they are both supposedly developing with it). If you're a die hard early adopter, or have a clear project that justifies it, the JVC is okay, but I have a feeling in a year we'll have a lot more camera to choose from.
Posted by Dave! Permalink | Comments (1)
February 10, 2004
Multiple Protocol IM for OS X?
Now that I'm using my Mac more and more (Thank god for OS X!) I'm trying to find decent replacements for the applications I actually use regularly under windows.
One of those apps is Trillian, which is an Instant Messaging (IM) client that supports multiple connection protocols (AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, and Jabber). Trillian's not perfect, but I have some friends that use AIM, some that use Yahoo, and some that use ICQ, and Trillian allows me to run one client and chat with them all.
So far, I've found Proteus and Fire for OS X, but I've read both are shakey... I guess I'll find out. What I really wish is that the fine folks at Cerulean (who make Trillian) would see fit to do an OS X port. That would be sweet.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
Drool...
LaCie has announced a 1TB drive... :) Of course, it's currently $1299, but I remember when the first 1GB drives hit the market at $1000... three years later, we were all buying 30-40GB drives for $200...
Posted by Dave! Permalink
January 31, 2004
Microsoft Sez, "Don't click on links"
Wow. Apparently, rather than fix the security holes in IE, Microsoft would just rather you not actually click on links:
The most effective step that you can take to help protect yourself from malicious hyperlinks is not to click them. Rather, type the URL of your intended destination in the address bar yourself. By manually typing the URL in the address bar, you can verify the information that Internet Explorer uses to access the destination Web site. To do so, type the URL in the Address bar, and then press ENTER.
Why not just recommend avoiding browser security problems at all by watching TV instead??!
Posted by Dave! Permalink
January 28, 2004
Scoble is Wrong
Protect your investment: buy open. Scoble has written a weblog entry about, among other things, iTunes DRM and Microsoft DRM, and whether you should get an iPod. Scoble works for Microsoft, as do a number of good, sharp, ethical people that I know, and I know him in passing, and he seems to be a good guy. With that disclaimer out of the way, let me say that I think that this blog entry of his epitomizes the sloppiest, worst thinking about digital-media in the field today. From [Boing Boing]
The above is snippet from a post Cory Doctorow has written in response to this post by Robert Scoble. Unlike Cory, I don't know Scoble, even in passing. However, having worked for a company that was acquired by Microsoft, I can say that Cory is right about one thing: the vast majority of Microsoft employees are both highly intelligent and ethical folks. Cory is right about another thing: their intelligence and commitment doesn't mean they are right, in fact, they are often incorrect as Scoble is in this case.
In his article, Scoble falls victim to Microsoft's own internal marketing. The gist of which is this: Microsoft's digital rights management protocol (WMA) will be adopted by more OEMs/vendors. Therefore, there will be more devices on the market (portable audio players, car stereos, rocket jet packs, etc.) that can play music which uses WMA vs. other technologies such as ACC (Apple's DRM Solution).
The problem is that Scoble is missing the big picture here, which is what Cory pointed out. The true "choice" consumers should be able to take advantage of shouldn't be linked to a company at all. Neither Apple nor Microsoft should win in this battle of DRM. What should be created is either a consortium of vendors (ala DVD standards) or better yet, and open standard that anyone could implement. In spite of what Scoble seems to believe, consumers do not win when any one company controls the methods by which they can use their media. Cory raises the example of Betamax vs. VHS. Just for a moment let's forget all of Microsoft's past business transgressions, and assume that they are the most consumer loving, benevolent company on earth. Even if that were true today, that does not mean that it will always be true. In fact, history has shown it's not likely to be true as DRM becomes a more important part of our daily lives. If you need some examples of that, think back to Unisys and .gifs or take a look at SCO and Unix. Even though more companies might someday adopt the WMA DRM solution, that does not mean that it will always offer more choice for consumers.
There really is only one way to ensure true freedom of choice for consumers. Freedom to choose where and when they play the music they have rightfully purchased. That is to remove DRM from the hands of any one single company which could (reasonably be foreseen) to use a monopoly in DRM to their competitive advantage. Make it an open standard. Allow anyone to implement it. Period. Create an industry consortium of vendors committed to furthering and developing the standard and simply give away (or charge a nominal fee) for vendor licensing. That would allow a true, open playing field for device manufacturers and software developers, without being locked into any proprietary systems, and would, in the end, be the only way I can see to offer consumers real choice. But I don't really think choice is what Microsoft wants to offer consumers anyway.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
January 27, 2004
The Latest Worm/Virus: MyDoom
It's worm time... and because in my family I'm "the computer guy" I am being asked by many people how to deal with it. First, if you are getting lots of "Message Undeliverable" or "TEST" e-mails from people you don't know, they are probably the worm. Here's some good rules of thumb:
- NEVER OPEN ATTACHMENTS FROM PEOPLE YOU DON'T KNOW
- BE WARY OF OPENING ATTACHMENTS FROM PEOPLE YOU DO KNOW
Attachments are how these worms/viruses spread. But let's say you are infected, how do you recover? Three steps:
1. Get some virus software. There are a number of virus protection applications available. Norton AntiVirus from Symantec is one. McAfee's VirusScan is another. Both are fine, personally I use McAfee. VirusScan On-line is reasonably priced at $29.95 and since it's "on-line" it's very easy to keep up-to-date. Get it, install it, run it... and keep it running.
2. Get rid of the Trojans/Spyware. Yes, surfing the web can infect your machine. Ever visit a site and get a pop-up offering to install cool cursors for you? Spyware. Visit a site offering to change your homepage to a great new search engine? Spyware. Okay, so you've got it, now get rid of it. Visit LavaSoft and get Ad-Aware. It will scan your system for Trojans/Spyware and it will also keep itself up-to-date. Get it, install it, run it... and run it again periodically.
3. Keep your operating system up-to-date. These viruses and worms propigate by exploiting security holes. So if you use a Mac, be sure to periodically run the Software Update. For Windows users you should take advantage of the Microsoft Windows Update. Visit the site regularly and keep your machine up-to-date.
There is never any perfect way to ensure you will never get a virus, but if you follow the steps I've outlined above, you'll be a lot safer than most people. And if everyone kept their machines up-to-date, worms and viruses like this new stupid MyDoom would have a lot harder time wreaking havoc on us all.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
January 14, 2004
Blog Spam
Recently, Ernie the Attorney disabled comments from his blog. Fortunately, I don't have a visible enough profile to make comment spam a problem. But I did do some digging for possible solutions.
The easiest option (and one that many people take) is to simply disable comments entirely. Personally, I think that is a bit drastic. It kills one of the very features that attracts me to blogs in the first place: exchanging ideas. And even that is not foolproof... if you're using MT, you'll still need to disable the scripts that allow comment posting, or you could still be victimized.
A nicer, more community friendly solution (I think) is to require registration before posting comments. I don't think this discourages legitimate posters, but it certainly stops spam bots.
There are also some creative/scripted options out there. Check these links for more info:
- Jay Allen has the MT-Blacklist for MT users.
- Dive into Mark has some thoughts on ridding spam, and many links to some practical solutions.
- James Seng also has an MT-plugin to help stop spam.
Of course, nothing is fool-proof. But short of approving every comment post (who has that kind of time?!) or disabling comments altogether, registration seems like the best option to me.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
December 31, 2003
ZIPDeCode
ZIPDeCode is a very cool Java app that displays the location of a zip code, visually. Try it. It's very cool.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
December 8, 2003
Treo 600
Well, I got my Treo 600 a little over a week ago, so I've been using it and getting to know all the features. I have to say that this is hands down, the best phone/PDA combo I've ever used. It is a triumph of industrial design.
I thought the loss of the cover would bother me, but have screen protector, will travel. And I certainly don't miss the rocker on the side of the unit, which has been replaced with the awesome "four way" rocker, that allows you to just about everything short of typing with only one hand. Menu navigation, quick dialing, it's all a snap.
The keyboard is smaller than the 300, but honestly, it's still very usable for a chiclet keyboard. I can thumb almost 30 wpm. :)
There are some drawbacks, which are actually a little silly:
The camera has no flash
The screen isn't high-res
Considering how much obvious thought and effort went into this design, to leave those two things out seems really stupid, actually. The are the only things stopping this from being a perfect combo for me. I'm not sure what they were thinking.
But overall, I love the thing, and would recommend upgrading to anyone with a 180/270/300... and if you are considering a cell phone/PDA combo, the Treo 600 is definitely one to take a very close look at.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
October 23, 2003
Apple Can Bite My Shiny Metal Ass
Okay, I love my Mac. It's actually not even my primary machine, my laptop (PC) is due to some software issues for client compatibility. However, ever since I bought a Mac two years ago, I've been singing the praises of the Mac to anyone who'll listen. OS X is a fantastic operating system, no doubt about it. Final Cut Pro is simply amazing, and I hope it gives Avid the slow and painful death they deserve. DVD Studio Pro 2 is an amazing piece of software too. I think Apple is back, baybee...
However, when I bought my Mac, it came with OS X 10.0, which was useless and buggy as all get out. With 10.1 we saw major improvements, and I was satisfied. But then Jaguar came out. I'd owned 10.1 less then a year, and now I was forced to pay $130 for the "ugrade". I was pissed then, and I'm pissed now. Yes, Jaguar was full of great features, and I love it as an OS. But not having an upgrade price for users who've owned the software less than a year is just plain insulting. I suppose it's not surprising, coming from a Steve Jobs Apple, but Microsoft has more respect for users at this point! Here we are, another year later, and another $130 full price OS upgrade. For a .1 release. I read the reviews, I know Panther offers some cool new features, but once again, Apple is telling me "As a loyal Apple Customer, who purchases upgrades for our advanced software, like FCP and DVDSP, we think you should bend over and take it on our OS." This is getting ridiculous. So I'm not upgrading. Apple can bite my shiny metal ass.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
June 3, 2002
I want MTV: MY TV.
There is a lot of commotion in the entertainment industry as we approach convergence. We have a broadcast industry that can't seem to realize people care more about content and convenience than advertising messages, and a movie industry that can't seem to adapt to new technologies, spouting 20 year old rhetoric over and over. There will be time to address those backwards views later, right now, my grip is with cable.
I live in a major metropolitan area, where I have cable from a very large national provider. I have 90 some odd channels, most of which I not only never watch, but I have actually programmed out of my Tivo (yes, I'm one of those). But what gets me, is that there is currently no way for me to get some additional channels (specifically the Food Network) that I do want, all the while my cable provider keeps trying to push digital cable so they can pump more and more advertising laden drivel down my throat. You know what? I think this would be a good time for cable companies to consider that, just possibly, less is more.
You see, I don't want 150 channels. And I don't want advertising. I pay for HBO, and do you know why? Not for the movies� I have DVDs for movies. I pay a monthly fee for HBO every month to see programming like the Sopranos, and more specifically, Six Feet Under. And do you know what? I would pay for other channels too, if the quality of programming were desirable, and my programs were presented commercial free. I'd probably pay the same (maybe even, gasp, more!) to the cable company if they offered a simple way for me to have, not 150 channels, but say 10-15 ala carte channels, of my choosing. My personal line-up would consist of:
* PBS
* HBO
* FOX (Just until the cancel The Simpsons)
* Cartoon Network
* Nickelodeon
* IFC
* Sundance Channel
* Food Network
* M2
* CNN
Yes, I would pay for each of these channels� I'd even pay 5.95 a month for each of them, which would actually increase my cable bill. I'm sure the economics of that don't jive with the current broadcasting, advertising supported model of production. But here's the best part, by continuing to support channels that produce quality programming, and ignoring vapid sitcoms, my money goes to reward the content I find valuable, rather than lowest common denominator content designed to hawk advertisers' wares. I'm sure there are still many consumers that would pay to see Friends (someone has to be renting/buying those DVDs of the "Best of Friends" right?). Then my Tivo's advertising skipping features become moot. I think this would reshape the overall broadcast and cable market, to provide highly specialized channels, which could charge accordingly for the interested community they would serve. There are details to be worked out, to be sure, but I am still convinced that a network could make a profit, and a considerable one, with this model; provided that they had content which a segment of the population found valuable, and they produced quality programming. The bottom line is that we don't have this today because networks don't produce quality programming. They aren't interested in producing quality programming. They are simply creating vehicles for advertising, by lowest common denominator tactics to pursue desirable market demographics.
I have no problem with the broadcast industry crying over the loss of advertising dollars, but I think what the industry needs to realize is that the society in which we live is changing. Consumers are becoming more and more information savvy, and they value their time more and more each day. Instead of wasting all this effort fighting the growing movement of consumers who want content over advertising, or who want to be able to view shows on their own schedules, instead of a dictated schedule, why not put that effort into adopting business models that make sense for the golden age of information, and make some killer bucks in the process.
Posted by Dave! Permalink
July 12, 2000
The MP3 Saga...
Note: This letter was prompted by the outrage against Napster, and the absolutely silly lawsuit Metallica filled against them and Indiana Univeristy
All this controversy surrounding Napster and MP3s seems to have everyone barking at each other, accomplishing nothing. There appears to be a real lack of critical thought on the issue, and as a regular Napster user, an avid music fan, and a purchaser of albums, I thought maybe, just maybe, the recording industry and the artists might want to take a moment to listen to a consumer and a fan. I doubt it, but here goes.
Musicians who are business savvy will survive, and even prosper under the new digital age. Napster and the proliferation of MP3s available on the Internet does not have a significant impact on artists revenue, in fact, it could be a way for progressive musicians and artists to help take some control of their content back from the labels and cut out the profiteering middlemen of distribution.
You see, I am what I consider to be a very prototypical MP3 user. I listen to MPEG radio on occasion, and I use Napster everyday. Why? Because often there is an artist with a single that I would like to hear, and traditional radio or music television programming does not match my tastes in music. I also collect MP3s of some of my favorite artists, and am in the process of digitizing my CD library, so that all of my music is available as an MP3.
Now, am I cheating the artist out of money? No. I am absolutely not, and here's why.
First, I collect MP3's from MP3.com which are often local or regional amateur artists. Theses artists are generally not even available for purchase in my area, so they are benefiting greatly from the increased exposure the Internet provides. Even major label artists would exploit this type of exposure, if they were intelligent about increasing their audience.
Second, a number of the MP3s I collect are singles by bands that I would not purchase the CD regardless. I will freely admit that occasionally I succumb to the siren song of a top40 hit. Let's face it, some of them are quite infectious. However, these are not artists that I would typically add to my permanent music collection. When I was in junior high school, I might have taped the song off commercial radio. Now I "tape" the song via Napster. It doesn't really matter, I wouldn't buy the album regardless, no revenue is lost, and at best the artist has increased their potential audience, and I might at least give their next release a listen to. It increases awareness, just like a radio hit or a music video. Now, I understand that stations pay artists royalties via ASCAP, BMI or some other mechanism for broadcast rights, and I think perhaps a similar mechanism could be explored for MP3s. However, I don't think the artists are loosing millions in this market, just as they aren't making millions off radio airplay.
Finally, Napster and MP3's can actually *increase* the money an artist earns from a release. That might come as a shock to many artists, but that's because they are obviously listening harder to the RIAA then they are to their fan base. How do people get exposure to new music? I would postulate that there are three mechanisms: radio, television, and peers. Radio and television are both increasingly being marginalized by the Internet. Studies show that as children spend more time on line, that time is usually time they previously spent watching TV. Digital convergence means doesn't mean people will stop listening to catchy pop tunes or watching narrative movies. It means that they might not watch MTV, they might download from MP3.com just as easily. Who suffers in this scenario? It's the networks and the distributors, not the artists.
However, I think that a very large number of music fans actually learn about new music from their peers, I know I do. When a friend recommends a new artist to me, they might lend me the CD. Or increasingly, they might send me some MP3s of the bands material. I'll listen to the MP3s. Maybe check Napster for some more songs. And then you know what I will do? If I like the artist, I will go buy the CD. I have a CD collection of over 700 titles, and growing. And it will continue to grow. Why? Because CDs are convenient. I can listen to them in my house, my car, my office. They are portable and easy. In the future, if MP3s were to replace CDs, I'd *still* buy the albums. Why? I want the liner notes, the cover art. I want the experience of knowing what I bought is what the artist created, and as they wanted it presented. Does it matter if that format is on an 8-track, vinyl album, CD-ROM, or bits in an MP3? Hell no. I care about music. Not bits.
Since I began using Napster, my CD collection has grown steadily, and the number of new artists that I find everyday makes my wish list grow much faster than my paycheck can feed it. So why don't I just grab all those artists in MP3s and "cheat" them out of their hard earned paychecks? Maybe because I'm honest. Give the fans a little credit. We aren't all out to cheat our favorite band out of a royalty check. Maybe because often only a few songs by an artist are available via MP3s. I want to hear the whole work, not just the two singles. Maybe because I like the experience of listening to an album and reading liner notes and looking at cover art.
So do MP3's hurt musicians? Will they mark the end of the ability of an artist to make money from music? Not likely. In fact, there are already big artists who are intelligent and seeking ways to *exploit* MP3s for additional exposure and money (Chuck D and the Offspring jump to mind). Need some ideas? A special "web only" release of a few special tracks. Sell "MP3 singles" via a website, or partner with MP3.com or Napster. Put an effort into marketing and exposure in the digital community, and you won't end up on the bread line; you'll end up on the cutting edge and profit from it.
Posted by Dave! Permalink