Palm Foleo

Is Palm kidding with this thing???

Ok despite being a Blackberry user I love Palm, it was my first PDA with the Palm Pilot original. I love their OS and the multitude of programs you can get for it. But this Foleo device? This is just plane dumb.

I hate to be this mean but it looks like a child’s toy computer. I can think of a lot of ways to better spend $500. Simply applying that toward that laptop that you are already going to buy (face it if you are in the market for this device then you are going to buy, or have already bought a laptop). Spend the extra $500 souping up your laptop, or simply applying it towards buying a more compact laptop.

This is just another thing to lug around. Let me ask you this, do you have a bluetooth keyboard (small foldable one) for your PDA / Smartphone? Do you carry that with you? I have one, and I couldn’t tell you where it right now, and it is a tiny thing.

Sorry the Foleo does nothing for me: flop….

Google Streetview

Ok I am sure that many of you have heard about Google Maps new addition which is the streetview. Lets you look around 360-degree view from street level. It is really cool, really. But it is only in a few cities right now (a lot of work I am sure), and will it ever come to the entire world, or at atleast all medium to large cities? Who knows.

My question for thought is whether or not this is Google’s new approach to advertising. They could very easily say that they will block out company signage and billboards (blurring) unless those places pay them to show it. Heck they could even make it clickable so that it pulls up that companies info (much like how it works on Google Earth).

This could become very cool, and huge source of revenue for Google. Especially if this starts working on cell phones. Can’t wait for it to be GPS enabled on my blackberry. Then again if I am already standing there, why would I need it? Oh well it would still be cool.

Aoerture: Something to keep in mind

I opened my Mac Pro’s Aperture library on my Macbook Pro, via my Network. No problems! A little slow but no big deal for what I needed to do. The problem came when I tried to open that library back up on my Mac Pro. Aperture just would not open!!!

I was not happy to say the least. I searched around and found out that it could be a corrupt project causing this and that holding down CMD-OPT while launching Aperture would allow you to rebuild the projects.

This didn’t work on the first go around, but after restarting the computer it worked. Aperture opened up and I rebuilt the projects. BAM no problems at all, everything is back to normal.

So remember to keep CMD-OPT in your Aperture arsenal.

Quick Note

I have started using Backpack by 37 signals. I am already biased as I use their Highrise and Bascamp programs. But I decided to try out Backpack to organize my personal life, based on this post over at Webworkerdaily.

I will post up a review of it in a week or so.

Apple v. The World

The NYTimes has an article about Apple’s retail stores in comparison to the Sony Style stores. An excellent look at how Apple has created a success where no one though they would, and how Sony isn’t (atleast from what they can gather) even though many thought they would.

The point here is not for my to point out another story where Apple is ruling all. My point by showing you this article is to illustrate the power of brand, buzz, and style.

Put aside whether Macs are better or not for computer users, and look at the simple fact that they are simple. The laptop line has only 3 different looks, White, Black, and Silver. That is it. There are size variations and configuration differences but for the most part they look the same with different coloring.

When Digital Fails

I have a large amount of video files accumulated on my computer and up till now i have had no problems with it. Until this last week, I off loaded a lot of the files to an external HD and now I have a bunch of corrupt video files. GRRR

That means a lot of downloading again. This is just frustrating to me. There has to be a better way of keeping these files from getting corrupted. Does anybody know how?

Computer Calc, or regular Calc?

I am a huge proponent for using a computer and printing to pdf’s versus using any paper, at all. Not a fan of paper any longer if it can be helped. But there are still certain things that I could do on the computer, but instead I use another device for.

For example I keep no music on my computer, and when I am at work I use my iPod to listen to music. I could use my computer with an external HD and iTunes but I use my iPod, and I cannot explain it. I could justify it by saying that it would use resources but lets face it my computer is too fast and the way I use it would not affect me.

But why is it that I use a calculator:

Instead of using the calculator program on the computer:

This makes no sense to me.

Laptop Stand

At work I use a Macbook Pro 15″ hooked up to a 22″ Acer screen, and I use it to screen span. This works really well except i hardly use the larger screen because the keyboard does not face it. No big deal, hook up a Apple keyboard. That works, but now the laptop and the other screen are not right.

I went and bought the Griffin elevator stand to raise up the Macbook Pro, but it raises it to high. So now I need a stand that raises it the right amount.

Any suggestions?

PS I also determined that the laptop needs to placed on the right side of the monitor due to where the DVI connection is, you cannot get it close enough to the monitor (bummer). This is not what I usually do.

iBank a glance at your finances.

I have been using iBank and to a lesser degree iBiz for a few years now. Both are from the same company and are excellent pieces of software. As you can imagine iBank is like Quicken, a personal and business financial program. iBiz is the time tracking and project management counterpart. I used iBiz when i was doing a lot of freelancing, but it no longer has become important for me to track my time, so I have not used it.

iBank I have began to use more and more. At first I used it off and on, mainly interested in seeing where I was spending my money, by looking at the reporting that it has. I am not one for budgets, I cannot make them for myself, I do them all day long for business matters. When it comes to my personal finances it is a crap shoot.

A while back this got me into some fiscal trouble, nothing unmanageable, but certainly not comfortable.

Food for thought: Computers that Forget

Ars Technica is reporting about a paper written by a scientist that talks about data, and how it should be mandate to make this data expire. This is very interesting. In thinking about this there are very obvious advantages to having data that expires after a set period of time.

The most intriguing however is the effect that it would have on us personally and as a society. It is all very Mission Impossible sounding (this message will self-destruct in 5, 4, 3…).

Think about the ramifications this would have on the business world alone. Emails that talk of conspiracy, and monopolization disappearing after they have been read forever. That would get a lot of executives off of the hook. Not to mention politicians.