Summary of this week:

Oracle is buying Sun
The New York Times loses $61Million in the first quarter of 2009
The Gameboy is 20 years old
Windows 7 will have an XP mode
Apple has a good quarter financially
Microsoft has its first down quarter ever, but still making profits

Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday

Monday April 20, 2009

I drove around the beltway today. That eats a lot of day, so I didn't have much time for viewing.

Now Oracle (not IBM) is buying Sun. The deal is for $7.4Billion.

Washington D.C. will be the first city in America to have mobile digital TV. So if I wander into Washington, I can watch TV on my iPhone. Wow, I wonder why I would want to do that?

Computer voting machines - more folly. Go back to CP/M - single user, single task, secure.

An 8 TeraByte disk drive. I would have to calculate how many full length motion pictures it would take to fill this.

I should look into this further - "279 days to overnight success."

I like this idea for exploring outer space - for now and for a long while, just send tiny robots. Far more affordable.

Small windmills don't work (at least these didn't).

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Tuesday April 21, 2009

This writer tries to break Windows 7 Starter Edition - the OS worked just fine on a really small portable computer. The announced limitation don't show. But yes, you can break the software if you try hard enough.

Computer security? Someone has broken into the Joint Strike Fighter Project. Electronic voting? National electronic health records?

The U.S. Army moves into social networking. I recall when the Army moved from downtown to shopping mall recruiting offices. That moved worked and this one will probably work as well.

And the U.S. Army is giving iPhones and iPod touches to soldiers. People can write useful applications for these now.

The New York Times lost $61Million in the first quarter of 2009. Many implications to follow. Please, let's not nationalize the newspapers.

Here are a few good tips to avoid being a boring writer.

Good use of technology - a wirless heart monitor that does not involve an implant.

Running shoes? Run barefoot.

The university classroom will be obsolete by 2020(?). Why so slow? I thought it already was obsolete. See, for example, the newspaper.

The Nintendo Gameboy is 20 years old. It just seems like yesterday...

Different places to offshore. Does anyone want to do that right now with 11% unemployment in Silicon Valley?

The 25 most dangerouse cities to offshore. Lagos, Nigeria is not on the list. I guess that is because no one will even consider it.

In six months, Microsoft will drop support for Office for the Mac 2004. My company uses Office 2003. Why? Because we are a Defense contractor and the U.S. government uses Office 2003. Change?

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Wednesday April 22, 2009

Too much happening today.

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Thursday April 23, 2009

Apple continues to do well. They sell enough computers and lots of iPods.

The Apple-AT&T partnership with the iPhone is doing well, too.

Microsft's sales fell from a year ago, but nothing catastrophic. This is the first drop in 23 years of existence.

Here is more on the Department of Justice have another 18 months to monitor Microsoft. Hassle American successes and give billions to failures. I just don't understand.

Some research into measuring the credibility of content in blogs. I would like to know how they measure that.

A nice case for a portable computer - and only $120.

This is an ultrasound sensor that attaches to a cell phone for display. I guess there are some applications in ambulances and military medics.

Ubuntu 9 is now out.

Amazon is doing well with Kindle sales.

Apple and Microsoft will be updating their operating systems soon, so buy a computer with enough power for the next system

Apple has sold one billion applications for the iPhone. They created an economy by making their phone programmable. That is the American way to create jobs. Washington D.C. could learn something here.

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Friday April 24, 2009

Too much happening today - this week.

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Saturday April 25, 2009

The Irish are going back to paper ballots. Computer voting costs too much. I thought computers were supposed to ... never mind.

The "average" stolen portable computer costs a company $50,000.

Better camouflage - I think. It is hard to tell in the photo given. I have learned that my daughter-in-law's brother has a form of color blindness, but he can spot camouflage-clad people. They stand out like glowing pink.

The next iteration of Appl's operating system will have screen video recording in it. Great!

Stowe Boyd writes about "webfulness" and "unmarketing." Good thoughts as usual.

Can we write software smart enough to get rid of captchas? Maybe one day. I am hoping. I had to put captcha on my blog because I was delelting 50 spam comments a day.

Here is a market ready for the taking - personal home health monitors that just work, you don't have to remember to use them.

Technology stocks are supposed to pull us out of this recession. Makes sense. One thing is for sure, newspaper stocks won't help us any (see below).

Windows 7 will have Windows XP running on a virtual machine. I think that will be the case.

Microsoft saves money by cancelling the annual summer picnic.

Not a surprise - the New York Times nears bankruptcy. It is not the event, but the reaction to the event that is important. What will the current Congress and Administration do now? The Times has favored the Democratic Party. Will the Democrats come to the "rescue?"

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Sunday April 26, 2009

Software running on the web - available to everyone - often has unintended consequences. This a good one as a family finds the site of a plane crash via Google Earth.

An excellent question for journalists: what value do you add?

A book about Twitter from Tim O'Reilly. I have been using Twitter for 6 or 8 weeks now to learn what it does. I haven't made any conclusions yet.

Put your computer in sleep mode to save power or have it on full power to be ready to do useful things. As every open thinker knows, there are other possibilities. Here is one - "sleep talking" mode. Put a much smaller computer on the interface of the sleeping computer to catch and hold messages and wake the computer at the right time. Other possibilities?

Bob Sutton considers how groups of smart people can make bad decisions. Be congruent. Ask "obvious" questions. Understand that there is always another alternative AND as adults, we are free to say it, hear it, think about it, discuss it. Taboo is for four-year-olds.

Lip reading software - I can think of excellent and awful applications. I hope we choose the excellent ones.

Here are some excellent pieces of advice for freelancers and everyone else. I won't repeat them. Just please read.

Where do you write? A good question to consider. Find a place where you can write and go there. The trick is not to become dependent (addiction) to that one place as it can go away through no fault of your own.

Should you be good at a specific trade or "versatile?" The No Secret blog considers this question. A look at being versatile - good at several things - as being good at one thing - general systems theory or generally solving problems. Some one who can do that is invaluable to an organization or to other people. One problem is that general systems thinkers are usually only recognized by other general systems thinkers. A rare person.

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