YZ(Me): Did the laptop just die?
    
BS:
Not unless you like a device that can only do one thing at a time, doesn't run desktop application, doesn't have a replaceable batter and can't run flash
Yesterday at 2:32pm ·  
 
TR:
Maybe they should have come up with a name that doesn't evoke images of a feminine hygiene product.
Yesterday at 2:33pm ·  
 
YZ:
You want to tell me you do not use a sanitary slate?
Yesterday at 2:33pm ·  
 
RWK:
Not since I got an iUD! Badoomchoo
Yesterday at 2:42pm ·  
 
MB:
That was the sound of the now clearly overpriced Kindle dying.
Yesterday at 3:10pm ·  
 
CA:
Don't forget that it can only run approved applications, and view approved content. Who cares how "shiny" it is, or how it can (or can't) multitask, if you can't do what you want with it? I wouldn't pay $5 for it.
Yesterday at 3:25pm ·  
 
YZ:
I think Apple calculated the loss of the CA: population. They will go ahead and sell it anyway.
Yesterday at 3:26pm ·  
 
TR:
The Kindle is half the price of the iPad and maybe some of us just want to carry a thousand books around. Apples and oranges comparing the two, same form different function.
Yesterday at 3:29pm ·  
 
MB:
Half the price: single function, monochrome, passive display, no multi-touch. The market will determine whether the Kindle has a future at half the price, but to me it looks like a lot less than half the value.
Yesterday at 3:36pm ·  
 
YZ:
I am starting to like this new 'agreeing with MB:' thing.
Yesterday at 3:37pm ·  
 
TK:
iPad will sell like hot cakes, however I am really disappointed you cannot draw onto it with a stylus / pen. That would have made it extraordinary for me, and probably changed the way designers work. Also, no multitasking is crap. Someone will jailbreak it though, and make it a whole load better.
Yesterday at 3:41pm ·  
 
CA:
Why would that be revolutionary for designers? Wacom (and others) have made devices like that for almost 2 decades.
Yesterday at 3:44pm ·  
 
MB:
Two words, CA: direct manipulation. Wacom tablets are almost as disconnected as mice. The result of you intent does not show up under your stylus but on a separate screen. Had Apple allowed for use of a stylus, we would finally have a digital canvas.
Yesterday at 3:50pm ·  
 
CA:
I understand the difference between a tablet and a touch screen (and can see the advantages) – and Wacom (amongst others) makes both. For example, checkout the Wacom Cintiq series, HP's TouchSmart, 3M's single and multitouch displays, MagicTouch's product line, etc. Why would an Apple device be a "digital canvas" when other devices (even those that work with MacOS) would not be?
Yesterday at 3:58pm ·  
 
TR:
Maybe I don't want something that's multi-function, technicolor, and interactive, because I've already got a MacBook. I don't buy things because they're cool. I buy them because they work and do exactly what I want them to do – such as carry around a thousand books. If I'm carrying a MacBook, a Kindle and an iPhone, why would I add an iPad? "Mini" laptops have generally failed so far. Could the market already been too crowded?
Yesterday at 4:10pm ·  
 
TK:
Cintiqs have poor resolution, and are expensive. If iPad has same res as the iphone, it would be very sensitive and really nice to draw on.
Yesterday at 4:11pm ·  
 
MB:
Interesting, though design certainly matters, I don't think I factored "cool" into the price calculation.

You wouldn't add an iPad to your trio: you'd replace your Kindle (period) and MacBook (when you are not at your desk).

Lastly, I think the value of large screen, affordable multitouch UI has yet to be explored. I tried the Kindle but … See Morecould not get past the controls. The iPad solves that issue. Not sure whether I'll be version 1 (because I also already have a MacBook and an iPhone), but I can see the attraction.
Yesterday at 4:54pm ·  
 
NC:
sorry MB, you'll be disappointed…. What everyone seems to forget is half of what makes the Kindle a solid product is the e-ink. Without it, iPad users are just BEGGING for migraines… You'll be reconsidering the Kindle (or Nook) in no time… iPad === Newton === FAIL (Though we all agree it will sell a ton; then again, didn't the Phantom Menace sell a ton of tickets too? )
Yesterday at 5:12pm ·  
 
MB:
Maybe, NC. I stare at my computer screen for hours every day with no migraine. How is this different?
Yesterday at 5:30pm ·  
 
MB:
Also, as someone pretty attuned to user experience, I really felt that the Kindle must be succeeding *despite* the ui. I used it for a month and returned it.
Yesterday at 5:34pm ·  
 
NC:
Come on MB, you've seen heatmaps, you know that reading eye movements differ from typical computer use… Eyestrain ensues.
Yesterday at 5:43pm ·  
 
NC:
btw, I will concede that the UI on the iPad will be better than a Kindle. I'm saying that the core reading will be far worse…
Yesterday at 5:44pm ·  
 
MB:
I'm sure individual mileage will vary, eye strain wise. Clearly, when reading is the primary purpose readability is paramount; I just found the UX (UI + controls) of the kindle to be a dealbreaker.
Yesterday at 5:50pm ·  
 
TK:
Apple is well on the way to dominating the mobile devices market, not only through the device itself but the UI. All these systems share similar interfaces- total compatibility. No need to learn anything new, it's second nature. This has been Apple's strength always.
Yesterday at 6:04pm ·  
 
TR:
I agree with everything NC says. Also, am I the only person to have owned three touch-screen devices and hated them all? I'd rate the Kindle the easiest device I've ever learned to use – tremendously easier than the iPhone. Maybe I'm just too old-school for the paradigm. Also when I'm on 10-14 hour flights – as I oftem am – I could never read books on a computer-style screen.
Yesterday at 6:14pm ·  
 
MB:
TR, I think the UI paradigm of the Kindle and the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad are pretty diametrically opposed.

Also, I think nailed the ultimate difference between the iPad and the Kindle: the Kindle is (overwhelmingly) a single purpose device: reading. iBook on the iPad is just one other application, not the primary purpose of the device.

However, I do think the iPad will dominate the "ereader" market in the education space in a way the Kindle and Kindle DX hasn't.
Yesterday at 6:21pm ·  
 
TR:
Apple isn't on the way to dominating the mobile device market until they make a phone that's accessible to the 95% of the world that can't afford to buy an iPhone. They're on their way to dominating the smartphone market, but Nokia is still making a million cheap phones *per day*. Do you really think Apple is going to start supplying cheap mobile phones to Africa and China? No moreso that you'll see Ferraris on the roads of the Sudan.
Yesterday at 8:28pm ·  
 
TR:
For anything to dominate the eReader market in the education space (which is a tiny, tiny market), textbooks would actually have to be available in eBook format. Very few are. It's not a device problem, it's (if I may be so bold to say so) a format and content management problem. The worst thing about owning an ereader is that so many books aren't available in the format.

The best UX rareley makes for the most successful product. There are so many other factors.
Yesterday at 11:02pm ·  
 
MB:
An excellent user experience ALONE rarely makes for the most successful products, but an awful user experience can ruin a product's chances all on its own.
Yesterday at 11:06pm ·  
 
TR:
Most successful products have mediocre/passable UX, and succeed based on other factors. Top example would be the Blackberry.

What do you think?

The first thing you need is a good blender. Blenders are quite cheap and $35 buys you a decent one. I love Osterizers.

I also use soy milk. Better for you, no cholesterol and lower risk of heartburn. Still plain milk is just fine. On the same vein, I used to add ice cream to my smoothies for extra flavor and chill. Then I moved to just using ice cubes and surprisingly there was little difference while lowering calorie count and fat. Just make sure to crush the ice.

So now, finally to my favorite smoothies combo:

- 3 ice cubes
- 1 banana
- 4-6 strawberries
- handful of cantaloupe
- 2-3 cups soy milk

Blend. Drink. Enjoy!

The solution is essentially to install a new version of the open source driver set called Gutenprint. The problem I faced was that the version I tried to install, 5.2.4, did not install fully. I tried the Gutenprint uninstaller that comes in the same dmg file but it failed to work. Downloading the previous version, 5.2.3, and installing it worked just fine. All that was left to do was add the printer as usual (using JetDirect/Socket) and instead of using the default Brother HL-2070N drivers, to use the “Brother HL1270N – CUPS + Gutenprint 5.2.3″ driver.

Hope this helps and thanks to the folks from the Apple forums. This was a doozy to solve.

I was a huge fan of their Share on Ovi photo service until its redesign several months back. Instead of a service that empowered you to do more than anything Flickr could do, and integrated better than Flickr with existing services built into your operating system, it became a crippled photo album. It was bad enough that despite being a free service, I got a Flickr account for which I pay. I love Nokia. They are original, free thinking and build phones that unlike my iPhone, don’t lose the call about 20-30% of the time. If they only had a better operating system on the excellent hardware… but that’s outside the scope of this post; Ovi Mail is.

After reading about Nokia introducing push email to the Philippines I was keen to see what Nokia has to offer in its mail service. This in light of the fact that Nokia still offers Nokia Messaging that consolidates emails from multiple accounts to a single inbox, which supposedly Nokia delivers to your messaging phone. Sadly, it appears that instead of a step forward, Ovi Mail is another step into ho-hum direction. In one sentence, Ovi Mail is another webmail service. Really. And like Yahoo! mail and Hotmail, it is accessible only from your web browser. There are no instructions on how to use this account anywhere outside the web.

One place where Ovi could have been great is integration with, well, the rest of Ovi. Namely, Ovi’s contact book. That would make sense. Those are extra awesome because they back up, for free, all the contacts from your Nokia phone, and sync with it. Great service, great idea. On an iPhone that would be extra cash for Mobile Me, unless you have a Microsoft Exchange email account. Sadly, your Ovi contacts are not present in Ovi Mail. Tragic, perplexing, sad.

I just wonder, what were they thinking? Is there a compelling reason to use Ovi Mail that I am missing?!

Inbox

Compose Message

Contacts

2. Old Java, new tricks?
Google appears to want to simplify the uptake and adoption. Therefore the tutorial uses old school servlets and JSPs. Need to test deeper to see if there is any reason not to use more modern Sping framework and templating engines like Velocity. Doubt that.

3. It’s JDO, JPA: not your average ORM
This will take some getting used to. To gain access to the bounty of ‘infinite’ no headache (supposedly) storage you will need to get cozy with JDO or JPA. These mainstream Java standards are less popular than Hibernate and other ORM libraries. You will need to learn yet another framework. Had one nit here with an annotation specifying the type of primary key causing a bug.

Overall, though, things appeared polished and working. Cannot wait to play more.

Go to your Worpdress installation directory, and rename the offensive theme’s directory to something else. Wordpress will detect the problem and revert to the original theme. You can then access the blog’s administrative area again.

Thanks to this post.

ETFs are simple: they are pegged against an index (eg S&P 500 or Spain’s Bovespa). The invest money in the companies comprising that index and if it goes up you win, down you lose. They have little overhead because they are managed by computer programs and not a person. There are very few ifs and buts.

I have iShares ETFs. Not many but it every bit counts. Dummy-proof and cheap for lazy folks. iShares is being sold to Blackrock. Fine. What’s not fine is that in the proxy statement they mention an opaque “change of investment goals from fundamental to non-fundamental”.

Reading deeper, I found the meaning: a fundamental investment goal is one that cannot be changed unless all shareholders are notified. For an ETF that seems to me like should be the case. As a plain index investment tool there no need for change and if it happens, I want to know about it. Non-fundamental goals only require board of directors approval. If the board of directors for the fund feels like it, the can change the goal of investing in, say Korea to investing Lesotho. That’s how it looks to me. The only motivation mentioned is that Blackrock, as the new fund manger, wants ‘condistency’ and less mailings, which cost shareholders. As a shareholder I want to know, all the more if you change what are really, my goals.

So I feel like actually returning the proxy vote card. Doubt it will have an effect. But at least I am reacting. Voting. Look into it, maybe you should do the same.

Yes, the iPhone camera is far from perfect. While the touchscreen is a phenomenal interface for setting the focal point for a photo, I would love having a photo timer or a way to reliably take self-photos without fumbling for the touchscreen photo button. Yet the iPhone’s photo apps make it so much better.

For about $10 (if you buy them on sale periods) these apps give you phenomenal versatility. The following is a not comprehensive review of the apps I bought and love.

PhotoGene
This app is a basic photo editor with the functionality you would most likely need and then some. This includes trim and rotate, contrast and saturation, basic filters, frames and title insertion. Very useful.

Pano
I love panorama photography. Getting full landscapes in a photo always gives you a much stronger impact and memory of the moment you were there. Pano is a straightforward tool that makes panoramic photos happen. You choose landscape or portrait orientation and start snapping photos from left to right. Overlap is simplified through a ghost image of the last photo you shot that is superimposed on the current view. Saved in full size as a total of its constituent shots, no skimpy resize. Love it!

CameraBag
This one is more of a play on photos that need extra help moving them from just bad to artistic. You can choose from 8 effect bundles to apply to your photo, including Lomo-like, 60s and 70s camera effects and others. Lots of fun mutilating iPhone camera mishaps or just any photo.
Fun.

TiltShift Generator
TiltShift photos make real photos look like they were actually toy or model images. For the real thing you could plunk hundreds of dollars for a tilt shift lens. There are also Photoshop tutorials on faking it and now there’s an iPhone app. It teaches you how to use its settings, tweaking photos to get the macimum effect. Well designed use of the touchscreen and plenty fun to use.

Which ones do you recommend?