My Panther Can Take Your Longhorn!

I read a book last year titled The Second Coming of Steve Jobs by Alan Deutschman and I put it down laughing at the antics of millionaires, like Steve Jobs; and billionaires like Lary Ellison of Oracle and Bill Gates of Microsoft.

The book talks a lot about the childish antics of Bill and Steve. One part that I probably will never forget, describes a crank call Bill placed to Steve one evening. Bill was pretending to be Philippe Kahn, a Frenchman and a big player in the days after the big bang in Silicon Valley.

"Zeez eeez Feee-LEEEP Kahn! He apparently exclaimed, "Zeee Macintosh sucks!" hanging up and laughing hysterically. Bill was trying to impress a girl.

Bill was jealous of Steve's celebrity and "visionary" label and Steve was jealous of Bill's unparalleled success and wealth. They were then and they are now.

I started to wonder today if Bill and Steve are back at it, one trying to pull the spotlight away from the other. Steve launched Apple's (his) new operating system dubbed Panther last Friday. Bill, in turn, launched the PDC conference on Monday touting the supposed excellence and genius of his new operating system dubbed Longhorn. Did Bill need to put on the show this week? Or, was Bill fighting to pull the spotlight back in his direction?

My Panther can kill your Longhorn. They think like that when they're coming up with the names for their operating systems, really they do. On the same note, Microsoft (Bill) fired an employee for posting a picture of a pallet of Apple G5s arriving at the Microsoft receiving center in Redmond. That's embarrassing.

Axentra Server

It won't be long before I need a full-blown file server at home. Photos, mp3s, and video footage are consuming my ide drives fast and spreading the load between workstations doesn't make a lot of sense. mini-itx.com features a cool write-up or two on building your own file server but I ran into the Rumba server from Axentra on the same site. Why build it when you can buy it?

MobyDock - MAC Envy Relief

I'll admit it; I'm a Windows guy with MAC envy. The last Apple I owned (actually my parents owned it) was an Apple IIe. I learned BASIC on that Apple, battled fiercely in Droll, and huffed-it through the mines of Lode Runner; but I haven't had an Apple anything in my possession since.

Why? I think I'm just too practical. I however, unlike a lot of Windows users, am not afraid to admit that I have the occasional bout with MAC envy. For example, I was terribly jealous about not getting to take part in the release of Panther this week. Bloggers everywhere are talking about it and it looks cool. Apple knows how to put a nice looking U.I. together and that's at the root of my MAC envy condition.

For those of you, that like me, experience MAC envy from time to time; try sprucing up your Windows U.I. with a little product I found called MobyDock. MobyDock is a freeware application that puts a launchbar similar to the one introduced with MAC OSX on your Windows Desktop.

I haven't actually tried MobyDock for myself yet but you can read a full review on the Lockerknome site. I'll post a review after I've had a chance to use it. So, for now, deal with your MAC envy by putting MobyDock on your Window desktop. Or, make that Switch Apple is always talking about.

New York Times - Stealth Computer Article

PC MODS appear to be hitting the mainstream. The New York Times recently posted an article talking about the popularity and artistry of this once underground movement. Via, the manufacturer of the mini-itx board, the primary component in most of these systems, is basking in their success. mini-itx.com is a great resource for hobbyists hoping to join this movement.

FeedDemon RSS Reader

Once in a while I stumble into something in the computing world that refreshes my passion for technology. Oops, I did it again.

In a previous post I talked about my curiosity, specifically, my curiosity in RSS feeds and syndication. I discovered that RSS is an acronym for really simple syndication but I was still struggling to reach the benefit of it all. Why were all of these BLOGGERS asking me to syndicate their content? What was I going to do with it?

After some digging I began to realize that I was missing a critical tool. The piece of the puzzle that would hopefully deliver the benefit. I needed an RSS reader.

By accident, or maybe by association, I stumbled into an RSS reader called FeedDemon. Now that's a cool name for a software product. I say "by association" because I use Bradbury Software's only other product TopStyle Pro for CSS editing. TopStyle Pro is quality software so I downloaded a copy; pre-release mind you but it's in good working order.

FeedDemon immediately made the benefit of RSS feeds clear, it completed the benefit puzzle and I experienced another one of those rare refreshes.

RSS feeds make it easy for the right tools to aggregate and organize large amounts of information. Notice I said the right tools. FeedDemon is a highly functional and well designed piece of software. You know software is "slick" when documentation is an afterthought and the menu structure doesn't need an explanation. It's just intuitive.

FeedDemon allows you to easily add new channels (rss feeds) to what the software creatively refers to as your newspaper. Channels can be aggregated into channel groups and each group has a group newspaper that aggregates all (or some) of the content from those channels into an easy-to-read and fully customizable executive summary of sorts.

The benefit of a really slick RSS reader like FeedDemon is that it makes it possible for the user to suck up and absorb the important stuff (news/content) in less time. You don't have to hop around from site to site to get your morning fix and you get to cut through the design clutter. I know, sometimes sites look nice too and FeedDemon makes it easy to pop the home site open within the application or in an external browser. FeedDemon even makes it easy to build wathches, sniffers that grab news based on keywords that you define. Slick!

FeedDemon is a slick tool that helps you realize the benefit of syndication real quick. Take a look!

Blogging - What is Syndication?

So I spent some time reading up on "Syndication" and how it applies to the BLOGGING world and this is what I learned.

Question: What's an RSS feed?
Answer: RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. RSS, a derivative of XML, was designed to support the needs of syndication.

Question: What do I use to read RSS feeds?
Answer: I just started to scratch the surface of this question, I don't actually have a RSS reader yet. Here's a list of popular RSS readers that I found.

I came across a news reader called FeedDemon, published by Bradbury Software, that looks promising. If it's anything like Bradbury's other product, TopStyle (a CSS, XHTML, HTML editor), it should be functional and well designed. I downloaded a pre-release copy today so I'll have something to say about it in the near future.

So syndicate my site!

Blogging - Syndicate

I'm still fairly new to the BLOGGING community and the more I BLOG the more I realize how much I don't know about this form of communication.

For example, it's very common to see a BLOG author promoting the syndication of his or his site. What's up with that? I spent a few minutes searching for aggregators via Google that can suck up RSS feeds with little luck.

So I think my 1st task will be to figure out what syndication is all about. I'm on the trail now, just found something interesting on the InfoWorld site.

Verdict - E740 Hard Case

I've been using the Innopocket Toshiba E740 Hard Case for more than a month now and the verdict is in. If you're looking for a hard case for your Toshiba E740 this is the one for you.

This aluminium hard case was made specifically for the E740 and the attention to detail shows. Cutouts for the IR port, scroll and record buttons, as well as the top and bottom access points decrease the amount of time I have to spend removing LIL' PIM (pet name for my E740) from the case. I actually only remove him from the hard case to charge him and sync him with my desktop via the cradle while I'm at the office. At home, my Belkin USB Travel Charger cable just plugs into the bottom so I can leave LIL' PIM protected in the case. The case, and the well designed cutouts, go a long way toward preventing the power-on while in the bag type problems that I experienced with the stock soft-case. Although I'm still having power problems with this thing but that's another post all together!

In my opinion a hard-case for a PDA is a must. LIL' PIM travels with me more often now because of his protective armor. I toss him in my pocket, in the glove box of the car, in my bag, because the armor actually makes him more functional. And he looks better in his new duds too.

So if you're still trying to find a case for your Toshiba E740 I highly recommend the Innopocket E740 hard case. It's highly functional and it looks good too. I don't have a single gripe to file against this product. The Gadgeteer review I mentioned in a previous post griped about having difficulty removing the E740 from the case but I suspect the author was stretching to find something to gripe about.

The Civilian Service

In a speech today, General Wesley Clark talked about a concept that I find interesting, he calls it the Civilian Service.

I actually think the "Civilian Service" is a great idea. After September 11th there were millions of Americans that wanted to reach-out and help the victims of the disaster but the infrastructure to organize millions of volunteers didn't exist. People found ways to help but the process was inefficient. If something like the "Civilian Service" had been in place things might have been different.

It's nice to see a politician (Clark wouldn't like that title) thinking outside the box. Bravo for the "Civilian Service" but talking about it isn't even half the battle.