Data transfer via Light
Wired news article about Using Visible Light for Data Transfer.
“Ultimately this technology will make it possible for households in small communities to reach an enormous amount of information, at the speed of light, of course.”
More interesting discussions about this on Slashdot (Thanks for the links John)
Switch this;
Patrick from TechTV tries the “Switch”
“The biggest problem with switching isn’t the Mac or OS X. It’s when you have to deal with the Windows-centric parts of the world. If you can avoid them (most folks don’t need compatibility with odd applications in the office), you could be all set right out of the box with your Mac.”
The Slashdot thread about the article is also interesting
Three degrees of sarcasm
Yoz reviews Microsoft’s Three Degrees Beta, which is a new IM/chat/P2P/MP3 player designed for and apparently by teens.
Great quote: “As you’d expect, it’s all wrapped up in the kind of huge lurid skinnable UI that will have Alan Cooper wandering around the Redmond campus with a rifle.” (link via Ben)
Spammers Cannibalistic Pyramid Scheme
Wired News: “The human gene pool should be incapable of producing enough idiots to financially support the vast number of spammers whose scat litters so many inboxes. ”
“…most spammers make money selling e-mail addresses to other spammers, who then sell those same addresses to others. It’s like the legendary snake eating its own tail. “
Downloading dreams
According to this Cnet article, I may someday soon be able to download my dreams and review them later (TiVo style) <grin /> (via Slashdot)
Cheap DIY Tablet PC
Wei-Meng Lee and Brian Jepson over @ O’Reilly detail how to convert your Laptop into a Tablet PC (cheaply!)
Fax machines are evil!
Today Doc posts about retiring an old “1980-vintage Panafax PX-100 fax machine”.
However, I have a bigger request. When will we rid the planet of fax machines entirely? I mean, technically do they really have a purpose these days?
It seems that the workflow for faxing is ridiculously wasteful for most fax transmissions.
Basically, I print something just so I can fax it. Why waste the paper? When all I really need to do is email or “remote print” the document.
The computer pond is shrinking
Quote pulled from a Slashdot thread about Engineering
Careers Short-Circuiting:”The computer pond is shrinking, but
that’s because it’s been overstocked for quite a while. The talented,
smart, crafty, dedicated fish will always be in demand, the ones who are
simply looking for a paycheck will be walking an unemployment line.”
XBox commercial?
I’m not sure if this MPEG Movie is a real XBox commercial, but either way it’s just plain bizarre.
UPDATE: Well, I guess this is old news, because the commerical was banned in the UK back in June.
AgoraPhone: free, uncensored, communication place
Oh man! It would be such a coup to route all my telemarketing calls through MIT’s new AgoraPhone