::: Saturday, January 31 :::
w00t:
overflow

Don't call it a comeback.


11:54 PM CST  ::  tell me a story

::: Friday, January 30 :::
Cool:
musicplasma - the music visual search engine

It's a little slow, but interesting. I'm not sure exactly how Barenaked Ladies relates to Train (!) of all bands. I have every album and DVD released by BNL, if Train comes on the radio sometimes I won't change the station. But only sometimes.

[thanks to Ceej for the linl]


7:18 PM CST  ::  tell me a story
Shocker:
Microsoft CFO says Xbox will never be profitable

Oh, really? I wonder what tipped him off?


9:44 AM CST  ::  tell me a story
Odd:
Winamp guru leaves Nullsoft after v5 release

Although, we've heard this before, I think Justin might just be serious this time. As detailed in the article, AOL sounds like a pretty sucky place to work for programmers these days. Not that it was ever a utopia to begin with, but they at least had a little common sense back in the day.


9:35 AM CST  ::  tell me a story
Hmm:
IT giants criticised for running third world 'sweatshops'

This is an interesting counter-point to the last couple of Cringely columns. If companies are forced to offer their foreign labor the same wages and benefits as American workers, I wonder how long outsourcing will last?


9:25 AM CST  ::  tell me a story
Impresssive:
Real Life [1/29/04]

"Wait... why are we at the Quick Stop?" Heh.


8:28 AM CST  ::  tell me a story

::: Friday, January 23 :::
Kupo:
Final Fantasy - Crystal Chronicles

I sincerely hope that the single player adventure is worth playing. I understand the allure of GBA connectity, but it's a bit outside my demographic to have three GBA owing friends in the same room simultaneously. Much less for the 40-60 hours it takes to play through an entire Final Fantasy campaign.

I had similar fears about DoubleDash! before it was released and Nintendo didn't disappoint me. I'm hoping Square will be able to deliver as well.


10:41 AM CST  ::  tell me a story

::: Thursday, January 22 :::
Yep:
Spirit Rover stops sending data

I'll say it again for anyone who wasn't listening: at least they can't kill anyone this time around.


4:59 PM CST  ::  tell me a story

::: Tuesday, January 20 :::
Bookmark:
Blogzilla - Ad Blocking

For future reading.


6:56 PM CST  ::  tell me a story

::: Thursday, January 15 :::
Interesting:
The end of the PC desktop is nigh

We have, of course, all heard this before. I tend to apply Cringely's Law of Technology to such announcements. To paraphrase, Bob says that the adoption of disruptive technologies tends to be overestimated in the short term and underestimated in the long term.

To put it more simply, replacing 65% of the corporate desktops by 2006 is not particularly likely. It's not that this level won't be reached eventually, but more that they have underestimated the friction such ideas face in the real world. Adding to that friction is a relatively high buy-in for wide-spread deployment. Let's face it, PC hardware is almost free when compared with the other expenses involved.

If I were to hazard a guess I would say 2012 is doable. That takes into account Microsoft shipping Longhorn by 2008 and gives businesses three years beyond that point to get their money out of their Windows investment plus a year for deployment. In the meantime, there may be a "Killer App" for non-PC desktop devices which makes the move a true no-brainer, but I doubt even that would derail Longhorn plans for most Windows-centric environments.


7:44 PM CST  ::  tell me a story
Hmm:
Adobe anti-counterfeiting code trips up kosher users

I had a feeling something like this might happen. Just because the US Treasury thinks this is a necessary step doesn't mean the other world banks are going to fall into lock step. I wonder how much a PaintShop Pro license is going for these days?


7:20 PM CST  ::  tell me a story

::: Wednesday, January 14 :::
Hilarity Ensues:
No relief from Microsoft phishing bug

"The most effective step that you can take to help protect yourself from malicious hyperlinks is not to click them," [Microsoft] advises. "Rather, type the URL of your intended destination in the address bar yourself."

Uhm, yeah.

That's nearly as good as the General Manager of the Windows digital media division saying that "Windows is about choice". I suppose that's a true statement if we are talking about Microsoft's choice rather than, say, mine. Try uninstalling Outlook Express on an XP machine and then come talk to me about choice.

[Update: The NYPost has a photo of the spin-master and a few reactions from other vendors]


4:32 PM CST  ::  tell me a story
Wow:
Gizmodo Does CES

My favorite gadget site, Gizmodo, has been covering the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) for the past few days. There is too much to comment on specifically, but it looks like 2004 is going to be a really big year for portable audio and video. Perhaps even moreso than 2003.


4:27 PM CST  ::  tell me a story
Booyah:
eXtreme Segway

Just in case you missed it.


4:18 PM CST  ::  tell me a story

::: Friday, January 9 :::
Eh:
NASA trying again to clear Mars rover's path

I know that as a computer geek I'm supposed to be all enthused over this Mars stuff, but I'm completely and utterly underwhelmed by the whole thing. It's far too hit-or-miss and far too expensive to be justifiable. Particularly now that they may have paid $400mil for a "panorama" which looks like little more than a hacked together combination of really bad Photoshop textures.

Then again, looking on the bright side, NASA can't actually kill anyone on this mission.


11:17 AM CST  ::  tell me a story
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