November 1, 2002

Microsoft’s Weblog Software

I wish I wrote this article because I had the same epiphany last year after I evaluated SharePoint Team Services, in that it was ideally suited to be a Webloging tool and many Office XP users didn’t even realize they had it!

Quotes:
“The one player which seems to be fully aware of both the weblog space and SharePoint’s potential is Ray Ozzie‘s Groove Networks, which has fully embraced the SharePoint platform…”

“SharePoint is probably not going to have an impact in the short term. It’s possible that Microsoft will realize the potential of their bCentral service hosting SharePoint sites, and that the MSN team will seize the opportunity to improve the friendliness of the interface and turn it into a commercial mass-market product. The likelihood of that, however, is completly negligible. On the business side, though, Microsoft has pieces in place that put it a full year ahead of any competitor in the areas of network identity integration, document management, and project management functions. “

October 31, 2002

Julia Grace Hackney

Congratulations to my friends Ed and Christine on their new baby girl Julia Grace Hackney

October 31, 2002

Giving WiFi equipment away?

This article on CNet almost sounds like it’s from 1999: “The nation’s oldest “hot spot” network plans to give away Wi-Fi equipment starting Friday, in an aggressive push to increase the number of urban areas that offer wireless Web access.”

October 31, 2002

Woof! Can you hear me now?

This is a fascinating article from NY Times: “A dog collar equipped with a wireless microphone that records a pet’s barks, interprets them as emotions and transmits them as text messages like “I’m bored, let’s play.” (I think I already know that bark all too well ;) …

However, “…could meow-activated cat doors or drug-sniffing police dogs whose barks can be decoded be far behind? “If you can classify the morphology of the signal, it can be synthesized,” said Marc Hauser, a professor of psychology and neurosciences at Harvard University who imagined a system that would let pet owners track down runaway dogs. Playing aloud recorded samples of Rover’s bark while canvassing the neighborhood would elicit responses from nearby dogs, whose voiceprints could then be analyzed instantly for a match. If this sounds far-fetched, remember that Americans spent $30 billion on their pets last year, more than twice as much as in 1994.” Woof!

October 31, 2002

Raising Jack

John starts blogging pre-Jack: 10 days until the baby’s due date … kind-a like vapor-real-ware ;-)

October 31, 2002

Brian Kernighan in Princeton

Brian Kernighan (Unix, C, Bell Labs fame) has set “to demystify computing for a classroom full of liberal arts undergraduates at Princeton.” Damn … that would be a cool course to take for anyone!

October 31, 2002

POPFile – Automatic Email Classification

I must add this to my to-test list: “POPFile is an email classification system that has a Naive Bayes text classifier and a POP3 proxy. It works with any mail client using POP3.”

October 31, 2002

The UltraPod II

After reading Top Ten Digital Photography Tips on O’Reilly I picked up The UltraPod II tripod and I must say that it is indeed a “compact, versatile, ingenious device”. In fact, I stuffed it into my CamelBak and took it on our ride in SoMo yesterday, where it worked very well.

October 28, 2002

Fun with faces

Eric Myer Photography: Stereotypes

October 28, 2002

Affordable networked set-top box?

“PRISMIQ has developed a high-end yet affordable networked set-top box that supports your personal media (such as MP3s and digital photos), digital television, IP-based video on demand, musical/digital jukebox, and web
access.”

All for $249.95 … not bad …

and … “[PRISMIQ has a] flexible architecture that can support a variety of additional components like a Personal Video Recorder (PVR). Our unique hardware and software solutions are built from the ground up to take advantage of the home network from Ethernet, to WiFi, to HPNA, to HomePlug. We put the fun in your home network.”