This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter).
Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon
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Drat the current budgetary constraints! I so want this! It will be available next month here in the US, it started being available last week in Europe. Of course I’d like to buy it right away. But even without the budget issues, I’m thinking I should wait until November when number portability happens, so I can keep the number I already have.
On the other hand, since my cell is a 609 number and I live in 215, every single time I call for pizza, the delivery people get all confused and I have to explain. So maybe I just want to forget about that and get a 215 number.
Anyway, this phone is cool.
New Treo 600 Rules (Walter Mossberg, Wall Street Journal)
I’ve been carrying a Sprint Treo 600 around for a couple of weeks and I love it. It’s a great phone, an excellent mobile e-mail terminal and a full-fledged Palm-compatible PDA. I prefer it to any RIM BlackBerry model I have tested, and it blows away any of the PDA/phones based on Microsoft’s Pocket PC operating system.
(via TreoCentral)
The “street price” is much less than I thought it would be, and reading this review on Joe Mehaffey’s gpsinformation.net website it just looks awesome. If I hadn’t completely broken the budget already by buying a house and going to Idaho, I would be ordering this by sunset. :-) As it is, I still may have to wait a couple of months for the budget to recover. Perhaps January.
StreetPilot 2610 / 2650 Car Navigator Product Review
The Garmin StreetPilot 2610 is in Garmin’s latest generation of GPS receivers with street level mapping and automatic route navigation for your car. It is their first model with Finger TOUCH SCREEN for data input and control -and- map storage (up to 1GB) using CF memory cards -and- USB data interface for map loading and NMEA data input/output. This sleek unit has the GPS antenna integral within the unit and is designed to fit on top of your dash and provide you with visual and audio directions for navigating your car on unfamiliar streets and roads. A battery powered remote control is provided so that passengers can program the unit even from the back seat. :) Unfortunately (for the kids), Garmin did not choose to put any games in this model.
Oh yeah, since the day Google News launched I’ve wanted this…
Google News Alerts
Excellent. I’m off to set up a bunch of daily alerts on random things of interest to me. :-)
(via /usr/bin/geek/)
HP is releasing a new updated high end calculator. Now, I have absolutley no need for something like this any more. I still prefer using RPN for basic caluclations, but as to all the high end features… I haven’t really needed or used any of those sorts of things, except maybe a handful of times, since I graduated with my Physics BS in 1993. But it still looks sweet… I have fond memories of my HP48SX, which I still have, and which back in college ran my life, as I used it not just as a calculator, but a PDA, and many other things. I had all sorts of wonderful things on it. I still have it now, but due to a tragic drop onto the floor in 1994 without a recent backup available, none of my old fun stuff is still there. But the memories are still there! :-)
New HP49G+ Calculator
(via Slashdot)
I send the email to people about the new house and the address and everything and then leave for a few hours, and when I get back there are several things about the Tivo in my email, and posted in the comments here on the blog…
So lets go in reverse order, last to the party first…
23:07 UTC – Erica
Hello Sam! Can I please have your tivo? I’ll love you always, even after the 6 months are up. I grew to love Tivo while staying with Rebecca and Chris and the past 6 months have been bitter television hell without it. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to watch commercials and miss Judge Judy.Â
Â
Ass kissingly yours,
Erica
But, Erica was not in the lists of qualifying people I mentioned, she has sent me almost no email in the last year. Actually, I think this was indeed the first email I’d gotten from Erica in the last 12 months. Perhaps in several years actually. She was sucking up well though… But this was of no import, because someone got in before her…
22:51 UTC – Al
Did I have to specifically mention your unknown Blog?
And before that Al posted a comment here:
22:49 UTC – Al
Am I too late?
Both of which were follow ups to his first email…
22:46 UTC – Al
Did I miss out on the free TiVO?
But alas, Al, you did miss out on the free TiVo, because you were not first. One person beat you.
22:23 UTC – Reb
Dear Sam,
Does my poor starving college student little sister qualify for the free Tivo offer? She loves our Tivo but she can’t afford it right now. She can’t even afford food. Maybe if she had Tivo, she would forget about how hungry she is always.
Reb
p.s. I’m digging your new site design.
Now, Rebecca herself does not qualify under my rules. Because she already has a Tivo. But she threw in a twist. She was not asking for herself, but was asking for her poor Tivo deprived sister Erica… Rebecca herself wanted to spread the joy of Tivo. Rebecca who once thought Tivo was a huge waste of money. And maybe still does, but her heart still goes out to poor Erica, with no Tivo! :-)
And, Rebecca complimented the blog, and became the first person to notice it and comment on it! Well… not quite actually. Lynn and Randy and Erikas and Brandy were first… but close I guess. She was fifth! And she said she was “digging” it.
Rebecca was the first one to respond to the free Tivo offer. And while she already has a Tivo, she offered it up to someone who did not. And then Erica herself added her own appeal on behalf of herself a few minutes later (although after Al).
So…
The Tivo goes to Erica!!! (via Reb)
Congratulations Erica!
I’ll be back down in the DC area in mid September. Probably the weekend between the 16th (my birthday) and the 22nd (my dad’s birthday). I can bring it down then. But that is a long time away. I can box it up later this week probably while I’m packing other stuff to move and mail it down if you would like. Or you could join your sister when she comes to visit my new place at some undefined point in the future. You just let me know.
I’m actually assuming mailing it is the way to go. Email me and let me know where I should send it. Oh, also let me know if you have a cable box it will need to control. If so, there might be an extra bit I left at my dad’s that you’ll need (the IR controllers). Otherwise I have all the bits you need.
Anyway, congratualtions Erica! Enjoy the next six months of Tivo! :-)
[Six months after it actually gets to you of course.]
Yes, if you are the first to respond to me about this post, then I will let you use my old Tivo in your house for six months. (Its in great shape despite being a couple years old.) Monthly charges fully paid by me. With an option to buy it and keep it at the end if you want. But, some conditions…
First of all, anybody finding this coming from a search engine or whatnot, sorry… this is a personal offer just to people I actually already know in real life. So if you don’t know me, have never met me or exchanged personal emails or phone calls with me, forget it. :-) In fact, I’ll go further than that. The only people eligible are the people behind the email addresses sending me the most email in the last 12 months worth of my email contest (including people who didn’t actually make the top ten) and as an added bonus to local people, the top 20 email addresses amoungst people living or working within 40 miles of me , even if they didn’t make the global top twenty. Although MAYBE if someone I know personally who didn’t make those two lists asks and makes a really good case, I might consider it.
Anyway, here is the deal. As of earlier today, I finished upgrading my Dad’s house to a couple of DirecTivo systems, replacing the Series 1 Standalone Tivo that they (mostly my little sister) had been using, and I had been paying the monthly fee on. Since they would no longer be using it, I took it back. But I also have a DirecTivo system, and don’t need a stand alone. (At least I hope I don’t, if I can’t get the DirecTV to work at my new place I’ll be pretty upset… anyway…) I have an extra Series 1 Stand Alone Tivo. 30 hours at the lowest quality setting, less on higher settings. (I never expanded the storage on this Tivo.)
In the interest of promoting Tivo (I love Tivo) I will *lend* this Tivo to someone for six months, during which I will continue to pay the monthly fees. Thus one of my friends or family who does not currently know the joys of Tivo can experience them. At the end of those six months, the person in question can either give me back the Tivo (presumably to buy a new one of their own), or take over paying the monthly fees and pay me 80% of the going rate on ebay for that model (used), and become the proud owner of that Tivo.
Only other condition besides making the email lists mentioned above is that the person can’t ALREADY HAVE a Tivo. And they must email me asking for the Tivo, referencing this post on my blog. Cause I’m not going to mention this directly in email to anybody, you need to find it on my website and ask about it. I am about to (within an hour) send out an email to the people on the email lists I mentioned above about me moving and my new address and such, which will have a link to the pictures of my new house which is on this site, so maybe someone will stumble onto this that way. :-) [Closing in less than 10 days now! Woo!]
If you’re local (within 40 miles of me), I’ll bring the Tivo over and help get it set up. If not, I’ll get it to you some other way, then help you go through setup over the phone if you need help.
Anyway, who will notice this and ask for the Tivo first? We shall see!!
Oh yeah, if you actually don’t know what a Tivo is, look here.
Giving Up on Enterprise-Wide Integration by Erika Morphy of newsfactor.com via Yahoo News
“Point-to-point integration is an excuse many companies use for their broader IT strategies,” he added. “Companies need to wake up and smell the EAI coffee; all those hand-built connectors cannot ever scale, over time, the way an application layer can.”
That from Lois Columbus at AMR research.
I used to be a big fan of fully thought out integrated solutions. They make “more sense” from a logical point of view, they are more scalable. They are more flexible. All those sorts of wonderful things. But after spending seven years at a company in the top 50 largest in the contry, more than ever I am convinced this is a counterproductive approach except in unusual situations.
The thing about integrated approaches is that to pay off you need time and money to do them right, and then they need time to grow and take root and start to bear fruit. This almost never happens.
By the time an integrated approach can be planned and implemented, the needs and priorities of the organization often have morphed unrecognizably. In the process of being built the integrated solution will have been compromized in order to meet time and budget goals. It will not be flexible enough to change to the new environment. Not to mention the fact that technology will have moved forward, already making the solution obsolete.
Now, perhaps some of this perception is specific to where I work and to my specific experiences over the past few years. Probably. Many people would probably tell me I am dead wrong and their experiences are completely opposite. OK. But I suspect that many of the underlying factors are widespread. There are certainly cases where large scale enterprise wide technical solutions are needed, and there is no other choice. In many more cases I’m convinced that need is just a phantom need. It sells software for the big vendors of integrated systems. Nothing more.
Yes, the spaghetti-like nature of just patching together systems as needed and making short term tactical projects to meet the immediate need done does not usually scale well, or provide a long lasting foundation that you can build on for decades.
But guess what? In most cases, it DOES NOT NEED TO. You solve the specific problem at hand, and move on. Yes, some of these “temporary” solutions end up living forever, but if they work, who cares? In most cases, the whole system will end up being revamped in favor of new technologies within a few years anyway, and/or the business needs for even the existance of the project at all will evaoporate.
So while the “Enterprise” quality solution would still be poking along trying to be planned and built, with ruggedness to survive for longer than it will ever be useful, the “quick and dirty” solution could already be operational and providing results now.
So yes… if you have a very stable organization, working on very stable systems and processes, and have a very long time horizon, and expect what is being built to last a very long time, and won’t mind operating on obsolete technology five years on, and have lots of time and money to burn… go ahead with the big fully integrated solutions.
But if, like most of us, you need to get results quickly, and live in a world where business needs and priorities change at least once a year, if not more frequently, then beware of the big solutions. They will suck time and money and effort and most likely result in less than what you wanted. If you can get a quick and dirty that isn’t TOO dirty, then go for it. You’ll get the results you need faster.
And yes, EXPECT to replace it every couple of years with something new and EXPECT to spend some time troubleshooting and figuring out the spaghetti later. But guess what, you’ll probably still end up spending less than the fully integrated mega-solutions.
The area where I’ve seen this the most is in content management, which has been my area for the last seven years or so. Perhaps I’ll have some thoughts specific to that area later.
Garmin just announced this a few days ago. With the house and everything else I don’t think I’ll be pulling one of these off this year… but next year… yes… next year it will be mine!
Garmin: StreetPilot 2610/2650
Garmin has raised the bar for portable automotive navigation with two new products: the StreetPilot 2610 and 2650.
Just choose your destination using StreetPilot’s touch screen or remote control to be automatically guided with turn-by-turn directions and voice prompts. Both the 2610 and 2650 feature color displays, built-in maps, and everything needed to download additional map detail and look up points of interest and addresses in seconds. Select maps and transfer data directly to the unit through a USB connection and onto a standard CompactFlash® memory card. These products are powered using the external speaker with 12/24-volt adapter cable or A/C power adapter (both are included in the purchase).
The StreetPilot 2650 also has dead reckoning capabilities, so you’ll continue to get navigation guidance even if you lose GPS reception, such as in intense urban environments with tall buildings and tunnels. To achieve dead reckoning, the 2650 features an internal angular rate sensor, an external speed sensor input, and an external reverse light sensor input. (Please note: The StreetPilot 2650 can only be purchased through auhorized installation dealers because the product requires a connection to a vehicle’s speedometer and backup lights. Customers will not be able to buy this product over the counter or install it themselves.)
Had my first video chat with the iSight today. Emailed Ivan and told him to install and hook up his video camera. It worked very well. Quite nice. Quite impressive. Now I just need to have more people on my buddy list with Macs and cameras. Right now Ivan is the only one. Jon has audio only but no camera. And that is it. Nobody else multi-media capable yet. Hopefully that will improve over time.
The quality was great though. (Once we put on headphones to eliminate feedback.) Almost as good as a phone call… but with video.
Kasp is ready to try again against another computer. I wonder if I’ll be able to get tickets again! These are fun to watch. And I always love rooting for the computer. They shouldn’t let the computer accept draws though!
Machine vs. Man: Checkmate (Steven Levy of Newsweek on msnbc.com)
Still, Kasparov is preparing to throw himself into the breach once more. In November he will play his third computer opponent in a highly touted match. The first, of course, was IBM’s Deep Blue, which in 1997 beat him in a battle that he insists to this day was unfairly stacked against him. Then, earlier this year, he fought to an unsatisfying draw against Deep Junior, programmed by two Israelis. Next up will be X3d Fritz…
(via ChessWatch)
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