Category: Family

A friend of mine reminded me of the Lynx text web browser tonight. Here’s a blurb from the download page:

Lynx has become quite popular as a “Universal Access” web browser for the Visually handicapped. Though Lynx is limited as it does not support JavaScript. Lynx was originally developed at the University of Kansas. In 1995 Lynx 2.4.2 was released under the GNU Public License by UKansas, since then it has been maintained and extended by a group of volunteers. This is the latest version, and has been compiled into an OS X package.

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A friend showed me this video over breakfast, and it is still haunting me:

It’s over 5 minutes long, but stay until the end. (It was used at an internal Sony/BMG summit in Rome last year)

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Check this out:

In a telephone interview today, Jobs said he won’t comment further on his health.

“Why don’t you guys leave me alone – why is this important?” Jobs said.

These guys give journalists a bad name. I mean, even as the CEO of a major company, the man is a human being. And last time I checked, there are bigger economic stories than Apple at the moment.

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Microsoft has announced Songsmith, a Windows app that creates music based on what you sing into a microphone. Honestly, it sounds pretty cool, and it’s not something Apple’s Garageband can do (that I know of), but the implementation is down right sad. The interface makes my eyes bleed, but the ad is even worse:

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The Times Online:

Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research.

While millions of people tap into Google without considering the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2 Boiling a kettle generates about 15g. “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power,” said Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.”

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TrendsSpotting:

Hence on an estimated ballpark - Facebook daily consumes 924,000 KiloWatt-Hours with per capita of 3.08 KWh . Annually the per capita figure would be 1124 KWh /year or equivalent to emission of 0.75 ton of green house CO2 (Carbon footprint) which is half of NY city’s carbon footprint. Sadly with Facebook adding more ‘horses’ (50K more servers) to cater to our photo addiction - this number would increase to 1 ton of CO2 .

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The Onion, in 1999:

In an effort to prevent such incidents of “excessive iconoclasm” in the future, Apple has developed a manual outlining the company’s rules and regulations regarding individualism. Permitted will be such unorthodox activities as removing shoes when seated or within four feet of a desk; whistling when given prior written permission from a direct supervisor; and kicking puddles, provided the kicking is conducted during one’s lunch hour and the puddle is one of the 35 on the Apple campus specifically designated for such a purpose. Prohibited will be such “gratuitously idiosyncratic” behaviors as singing out loud, flying kites and catching butterflies.

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ClickOn Detroit:

Beset by falling revenue, Detroit’s newspapers announced Tuesday that they plan to offer only three days of home delivery and will push their online editions instead, making the city the largest in the nation to have its daily papers undergo such a makeover.

“We’re here because we’re fighting for our survival,” Hunke said at a news conference. “We’re also here because we have an absolute resolve to not only save but rethink and rebuild two of the greatest newspapers in this country.”

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Rob Enderle is a name in technology circles that most people have a strong reaction to. He’s an IT consultant for companies like Microsoft, Dell, Intel, GM, and Ford.

Enderle has recently been on a writing binge of anti-Apple stories.

Here’s one from TechNewsWorld:

Apple remains financially sound with massive reserves, but many of their products are out of line with these hard financial times, and while they likely do have a netbook coming, it will probably arrive too late to help 2008. On the other hand, Dell suddenly appears better positioned for the hard year ahead, with well-timed netbooks and the most aggressive customization program in the market.

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I’ve never been a fan of e-books or electronic readers. But with the launch of the Amazon Kindle last year, the electronic book has never been more popular.

With the advent of the App Store for iPhone (and iPod Touch) users, I figured it would only be a matter of time before an e-book reader application was available. Today on Ars Technica, the applicaion Classic ( iTunes Link) was discussed:

“…as if Classics literally stuffed a paperback just below the iPhone’s 3.5-inch glass display, and its pages were somehow responding to the capacitive feedback from my finger… they (the program’s customer interface elements) come the closest to recreating the familiar analog experience of flipping through a real book in a digital age, and the simple act of swiping a finger to turn a page feels comforting and natural in both new and old contexts.”

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