iPod Mini Pricing Backlash What costs nearly $300 and only holds 1,000 songs? Backlash against the iPod Mini's hefty price tag is mounting. Forrester Research claims that a cheapo iPod is unlrealistic thanks to hard drive prices. To become the next Walkman, the price needs to get to $199. Just not there yet. # Permalink
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Outsourcing? Try "Insourcing" Buzzword Alert Department: Interesting article from Wired on an upcoming trend. Instead of taking advantage of Indian workers who will work for peanuts, why not exploit ex-cons who will work for peanuts right here? # Permalink
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4:13 AM
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Innovative Laptop Alarm Three Canadian engineering students have developed a new laptop anti-theft device targeted to busy travelers. By pocketing a small beeper-ish device, the laptop goes into "alert" mode and will emit a piercing death siren if someone moves the laptop more than 15 feet. I guess it seems odd to me that if you are forgetful enough to walk away from your laptop in a busy place like an airport or restaurant (where most thefts occur), wouldn't it be just as easy to also forget the beeper when you wander off? And can anyone bear to carry more battery-operated devices? # Permalink
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Friday, February 27, 2004
Alice Meets Prince Charles Ok, so meeting Prince Charles last night may not qualify as a high tech event, but I did spend some time chatting with England's future king about computer viruses of all things. "Are they geting worse?" HRH asked, "and can anything be done?"
The best part was telling him the theory that viruses are actually created by the anti-virus companies. He not only was blown away by the concept (which I assured him was totally unproven), he actually kept on the topic for some time, wondering if this was some modern way of "creating work for the workers." # Permalink
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Thursday, February 26, 2004
Microsoft may jump into cell phone market Unnamed sources on the Internet claim Microsoft was poised to pounce on the cell phone market as early as last year but the software giant ran into one small snag: It couldn't get FCC approval to have cell phones equipped with Ctrl-Alt-Del keys or a restart button. "Also," a Microsoft spokesperson is rumored to have said, "cell phones such as Samsung's that use the 'End' button to both start up and shut down a phone are just too confusing for the average consumer." # Permalink
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1:59 AM
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Intel to Shake Up Cell Phone Industry In a move sure to shake up the cell phone industry, Intel announced that it was going to begin moving seriously into the world of cell phones. Conviced that cell phones have the same properties that PCs do - meaning you buy a new one all the time - the company plans to flood the market with chips that will get more powerful and cheaper. Intel is also backing the new WiMax standard that works up to 30 miles. # Permalink
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Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Formerly "Lindows" According to Newsfactor: "In compliance with court orders in Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, Lindows has changed its name to Lin---s -- pronounced 'Lindash.'" Microsoft has been fighting the Windows/lindows battle for three years now and actually was dealt a blow when a judge ruled that the term Windows was generic enough to be the "kleenex" of the 90's, but recent rulings have forced the new name change. Or as we like to say, Lindows, you're scr---d. # Permalink
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When Your Name = SPAM Prince Albert in a Can Dept: What happens when your last name traggers spam filters or worse, strict corporate firewalls? Siliconvalley.com has a great story (true) on the plight of poor Craig Cockburn and his struggle to literally get the word out. # Permalink
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Monday, February 23, 2004
England cozzies up to maggots! Hopefully you haven't just finished a meal. Doctors in England have completed a study that makes them very hopeful about maggot therapy. No, it's not putting a bunch of little squirmy whites on a couch. As we have all been told, antibiotics are becoming less effective as we take more of them. The solution? If you get a cut, clamp on a few maggots and they eat the dead skin and bacteria in the wound. I'm starting to hurl just writing this.
"It's got global appeal. It's ludicrously cost-effective and low-tech," says Dr. John Church, an orthopedic surgeon. He, along with Dr. Rogers and fellow entomologist Dr. Paul Embden, aim to launch magot therapy in Oxford. It is already up and running in one U.S. hospital. "We just have to get past what I call the Yuck Factor," says Dr. Church. "It's this immediate reaction of disgust."
And you thought they were only good for catching carp.... # Permalink
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PalmSource Dropping Mac Support PalmSource Inc. just announed that it was dropping support for Macintosh computers in all future handhelds. They company did say that third party software would be able to provide this support, but it was another sign that the Mac is becming even more of a niche product. "We believe the Mac community will be well serviced by the Mac developers we have out there already," PalmSource chief products officer Larry Slotnick said. # Permalink
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Sunday, February 22, 2004
How VoIP is Killing Wiretapping Great article on Slate, "Thanks to the blistering growth of VoIP services, which have been adopted by approximately 10 million people worldwide so far, law enforcement officials now worry that wiretapping may one day become technically obsolete." It appreas that the feds are having problems with Vonage and Skype and it many cases tapping a VoIP line is tricky business. # Permalink
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11:48 PM
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Google Re-Design? Found this guy who has screenshots of a possible re-design at Google. It's not very dirfferent, abd even cleaner and more compact, but always fun to see where a familiair UI is going next. # Permalink
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11:38 PM
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Hacking the Pepsi iTunes Giveaway According to this website, MacMerc, all you have to do to snare free iTunes is to tilt the Pepsi bottle and read the cap. Pepsi printed "try again" so clearly that picking a winner is a cinch. This makes it almost comical when you consider the offline piracy aspect in what is noramlly an online problem. # Permalink
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The Horror! Scented Email Every few years a company tries to add scent to computing. Last time around, I wrote about Digiscent and its innovative scent portal, or something like that. Today Trisenx is working on a plug-in device to add scent to email. On top of a gut wrenching $300 price tag, just the mere thought of scented Spam is enough to put us off email entirely. # Permalink
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The RealTechNews Official Collection of Interesting
Technical Websites (In Alphabetical Order)
What costs nearly $300 and only holds 1,000 songs? Backlash against the iPod Mini's hefty price tag is mounting. Forrester Research claims that a cheapo iPod is unlrealistic thanks to hard drive prices. To become the next Walkman, the price needs to get to $199. Just not there yet.
Three Canadian engineering students have developed a new laptop anti-theft device targeted to busy travelers. By pocketing a small beeper-ish device, the laptop goes into "alert" mode and will emit a piercing death siren if someone moves the laptop more than 15 feet. I guess it seems odd to me that if you are forgetful enough to walk away from your laptop in a busy place like an airport or restaurant (where most thefts occur), wouldn't it be just as easy to also forget the beeper when you wander off? And can anyone bear to carry more battery-operated devices?
Ok, so meeting Prince Charles last night may not qualify as a high tech event, but I did spend some time chatting with England's future king about computer viruses of all things. "Are they geting worse?" HRH asked, "and can anything be done?"
According to Newsfactor: "In compliance with court orders in Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, Lindows has changed its name to Lin---s -- pronounced 'Lindash.'" Microsoft has been fighting the Windows/lindows battle for three years now and actually was dealt a blow when a judge ruled that the term Windows was generic enough to be the "kleenex" of the 90's, but recent rulings have forced the new name change. Or as we like to say, Lindows, you're scr---d. 
Hopefully you haven't just finished a meal. Doctors in England have completed a study that makes them very hopeful about maggot therapy. No, it's not putting a bunch of little squirmy whites on a couch. As we have all been told, antibiotics are becoming less effective as we take more of them. The solution? If you get a cut, clamp on a few maggots and they 
Great article on Slate, "Thanks to the blistering growth of VoIP services, which have been adopted by approximately 10 million people worldwide so far, law enforcement officials now worry that wiretapping may one day become technically obsolete." It appreas that the feds are having problems with 
According to this website, MacMerc, all you have to do to snare free iTunes is to tilt the Pepsi bottle and read the cap. Pepsi printed "try again" so clearly that picking a winner is a cinch. This makes it almost comical when you consider the offline piracy aspect in what is noramlly an online problem.