Posts Tagged ‘right’

You might remember the products. You might remember the hype. Then, you are tooling down highway 41 years later and all of a sudden you think to yourself – “Hey, whatever happened to…”

Failed ideas. Maybe it was a great idea, but wasn’t made right, or design errors brought it down. Maybe it was just a bad product. Well, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and see if we cannot repeat these errors again.

Oh yeah, why 16? Well because we could.

The Computer Watch: Whether it was the Ruputer, the MSN Direct ‘Smart’ Watches, the Timex Data Link Watch or another gadget watch – BTW – I remember having a “Transformers watch”. It was awesome!

Still, the Dick Tracey style communication watches, the “Computer on a wrist”, never really hit it off. I even remember a watch that gave you directions. You would put in the paper tape and turn a little dial to indicate where you are and where you are going.

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You’ve been working at your job for years. You’ve made lots of money for the company and are the most loyal employee they know of. Yet, tough times are ahead and the company decides you are one of the 10% they have to let go to stay afloat. It’s a frustrating thing to have happen, but what are you gonna do?

Now let’s flip that: You are at your job and survive the cut, but now you are in the position to take up a part of that person who was laid off.

As companies like Intel and Google are looking at trimming the fat, it makes the average consumer wonder – what will our customer experience be without 10% of the workforce?

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.1MB)

Wow. It was about a year ago I asked for people to send in thoughts as to what to expect in 2008. I also made some Technology predictions. But the real question was – How far off was I?

This is actually part 1 of a 2-part story. This first part reviews the predictions I made last year and how far off I was. Part 2 will have this years predictions, including predictions from CEO’s CTO’s TechPodcasters and even a Psychic.

So without any further ado, let’s pick apart my idiocy from last year:

OLPC will have some growing pains. The first part of OLPC will be the easiest. Maintaining the machines will be the trick. Microsoft coming onboard will muddy the water, but they might be able to do things like offer a better support network to third world countries.

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I got to play with a Developer Android G1 on Sunday (Thanks Abraham!). It was an interesting experience and something totally different from the iPhone. Here is what I saw:

Layout – Slider screen The phone only slides the screen to reveal the keyboard. That leaves the button layout on the right side (in landscape mode) in the way. I was able to palm a button while working on it, which ultimately took me out of what I was doing.
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No, I am not an advocate of Spam. I am an advocate of controlled email. If you ask for it, you should get it, but it doesn’t mean you should get your email shared for so called “3rd party” affiliates. For if they are no longer and affiliate, do they still have your email address?

Last week McColo, a webserver known for trafficking of Spam, was taken down. The result was an instant drop of unsolicited email. IronPort – An E-mail security firm, said the problematic email dropped from 153 billion messages to 64 billion: A drop of over 60%. Other sites also reported a down spike in messaging.

But is that a good thing?

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It was Ocober 6th 1997 that CEO Gil Amelio was asked to leave. Many people wanted Steve Jobs to come back, however it was a concern that it wouldn’t be the right move at this time. Michael Dell went on record saying that Apple should shut it’s operation down.

Today, even with the stock issue last week, Apple’s market cap is greater than Dell and even Google. Of course we have some great products out of the turnaround and eventual comeback of Jobs. All from a company that could have dissolved back in 1997

Hear about this and a bunch of cool stuff on Part I of This Week in Tech History.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.9MB)

Open Source seems to be a growing movement. Not everything is part of the “GNU General Public License” though.  Some have even gone as far to make their own Public License standard.

Microsoft does have some Open Source to them, but what would happen if they took their Operating System to that standard? Would people accept the Microsoft OS, or would they finally make the switch to Linux?

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.5MB)

Podcast (quickcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:22 — 2.5MB)

Bein a little lazy this week. It’s really a Geek thing, right? Anyway I started a new series on Bitstrips called “I Pity the Fool”. Here is one of the strips.

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Fakes. Throughout time we’ve had to deal with those who want to pass something off as an original. Sometimes we are not fooled. Other times we go years thinking that it’s the real thing until some new technology tells us different.
In the last week I’ve seen many fake photos of different items – most notably the Large GPS picture and Windows 7 screenshots. There is even a video out there that supposedly displays Windows 7 functionality. While impressive, it makes me wonder if someone is trying to pass these off to make a quick buck?
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.8MB)

Podcast (quickcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:05 — 2.8MB)

That’s great, it started with video tapes, movies in the home at 8, Lenny Bruce is still not afraid. I remember when we got our first VCR. It was a Betamax and we had some of the coolest movies. Of course, the Beta went the way of the do do bird. Then it was VHS. Come and almost gone.

Now it’s the DVDs turn. Earlier in the year the big question was “Who was going to replace DVD’s: HD DVD or Blu-Ray?” Now we know that answer – but does it matter? Blu-Ray players really haven’t been selling like hotcakes and if you have one, you know that it’s not the fastest thing on the planet. The ultimate irony is that Sony owned Beta and lost to VHS. Now Sony won with Blu-Ray, but will that only be a small win as alternate formats are entering into the market?

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.1MB)

Podcast (quickcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:33 — 2.1MB)