Apr 30
I was wondering about anything really KILLER about the new Mac OSX Tiger. Lot’s of nice features, but nothing that really drew me in.
Now I see the ‘killer app’:
;)
Apr 29
If you go to Google Maps! you will see that the world has grown. Now, there is more than the US and oceans. Scroll to the right and you will see that Tony Blair has a place on the earth ;)
It was fun to visit the homeland. I was looking forward to seeing the satelite view of my old house, but that data isn’t there yet.
You can go to Google Maps! UK directly.
Which country will be next?
ps. I know Canada is there… but that is Bush’s 51st state right? :)
Apr 29
Karsten Januszewski, platform evangelist, spoke at the Flash Forward conference, and shows off Microsoft’s Avalon UI framework.
The bulk of the talk is demo’s and they really give a glimpse of the power of the platform:
13:11 XAML file presentation app.
21:50 3D composition app
24:00 skinning your app
25:50 Avalon notepad
27:30 Media Mania (you’ve seen this app on Channel 9 before, but here you get to see more)
32:50 Electric Rain’s ZAM 3D (amazing 3D to Avalon app)
44:00 Video in Avalon (a preview of a future version of Avalon)
47:30 Video on a 3D sphere
48:20 video on multiple 3D spheres
49:30 A “Halo strip” (multiple photos on 3D surfaces)
It is going to be very interesting to see how the boundary of the browser and the client side app blend together.
Apr 29
I had a double take when I saw the following show up:
Aspect-Oriented Analysis and Design at 30% off
Register – London,England,UK
Site offer Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) is a revolutionary new way to think about software engineering. AOP was introduced …
I want to get 30% off of my time spend on AO Analysis and Design!
Then I followed the link to find that this was for 30% off the BOOK on the topic ;)
Apr 28
WS-* is considered dangerous. Someone at the ebXML Tech Commitee meeting has a cut on his face that he got via a ‘flying condom’. He is having an interesting time explaining that to the wife ;)
The main discussion point of the day from someone who is there:
People are arguing over whether to use WS-Foobar or WS-Fubar
Microsoft doesnt support WS-Fubar
it’s really getting people fired up
Apr 28
Kayak.com is a website that allows you to search for airfare and travel needs.
It has an interesting search UI.
Go ahead and do a search for a flight, and you will see that instead of the usual:
“I am searching, be back in a minute”
you get:
- I have done x out of y
- Here they are
- Feel free to stop me at any time if you have enough info
- Oh, and I am done now so here is everything
The funky changing display on the left is fun too. This is a lot nicer for me the user. I get feedback at the right time (when available), and I am engaged.
Apr 28
Kinja.com is an interesting site that I was just pointed too.
They seem to be trying to solve the problem of managing the wealth of blog content, by adding a human touch, and summarizing the content.
This is similar to what we did with TheServerSide… adding the human touch to J2EE news.
As blog content grows, I think we are going to see more and more tools like this to help people who aren’t willing to spend 20 hours a day sorting through RSS feeds to find good content.
Sometimes technology can help do the sorting, but sometimes humans are pretty good at doing the job too ;)
Apr 22
Lucene is one of my favourite opensource packages. I often find that I do need to ’script’ it so to speak, and Jeremy Rayner has shown how Groovy fits in.
He has taken some examples from Lucene in Action, and made them Groovy.
Very nice.
Apr 21
David Coleman asked One day will all calls worldwide be free? after finding good ole Skype.
He talks about the fact that instead of listening to “ring ring, ring ring” while you wait for the other party to answer, you could be fed advertising.
If a service could offer *decent* targeted advertising, then maybe we would be up for it. Or, they could try to offer entertaining rings.
E.g.
*the system notes that you are calling a Pizza Hut*
The special for today is X…
Pepsi products are served here…
[insert competition here ;)]
The service would know a fair amount from the phone number, and could even offer other information, such as telling you that you have unread email, or even read off blog news while you wait.
Could be an interesting way to fund things, as well as other value add services, and paying to opt out of the ads.
The traditional phone companies are on the war path though….
Apr 21
I got to see a film that I have wanted to see for awhile now: What the bleep do we know?!.
This is part documentary, part story, part exploration.
It is my kind of movie. One where you are actually encouraged to THINK while you suck it all in. Imagine that.
I think that we are at a particularly interesting time, as we learn and start to think about Quantum Physics, and the affects of probability.
These ideas are so alien to us, that they can really help us think differently. From there I think we will be able to open up a little, and reach another level.
Everything is an illusion. Enjoy the mystery.
NOTE: Ugo Cei thinks that by liking the movie I have joined a cult ;)
He points to a skeptical document.We did chuckle a little at the woman wish the strange accent: Ramtha. She actually looked like ‘Stiflers Mom’ too.
I replied:
By thinking a movie is interesting, and gives you something to think about, doesn
