Tom’s Hardware Guide – MacMiniVan Install Video!
Tom’s Hardware Guide has an article on In-Car Infotainment, including a detailed video of my Mac Mini installation into a Dodge Caravan (a MacMiniVan!).
April 2005
IBM calls for patent reform / “WikiPriorArtia?” “IsThisPatentNovelOrNot.com?”
“Because of the Internet, you can have thousands if not millions of individuals around the world share information about whether that invention actually took place years and years ago. You’ll find volunteers and others interested in a public inspection of patents. The technology [currently] exists for that.”
“We are saying that the granting of it, inspection of it, challenge, and post grant should be enhanced to take full advantage of new technologies and also the brain power of people around the world to make sure it is truly new things that are coming out.”
-Jim Stallings, vice-president, intellectual property and standards, IBM
Storage Technology – Perpendicular Bits – Hitachi
Good flash movie about promoting Hitachi 10x’ing the size of their hard drives with higher-density storage. Styled like “I’m just a bill” or similar 80’s public service announcements. Cute.
Using Skype as a Community Media Production Tool
Simple hack using Skype as an audio interviewing and archive tool. Instead of needing phone interview recording hardware (which you might not have) you can use computer tools (which you have in abundance).
AI Essay Grading
Article on a neat product for sale that automates grading of essays in school. Nifty. Took him 6 years. Yikes.
In-Car Computing
If you need a daily dose of information about in-car computers and computing (like I do), or want to help provide one, i’ve just kicked off carhacks.org and i’m looking for contributors (contact damien@robotarmy.com).
The site is tracking what’s going on in the car computing space from all angles: computer-like features going into the car; entertainment features such as satellite radio going into the into the car via computers; Mac Minis going into the car, iPods going into the car, Playstations and PSPs installed in the car, and pretty much anything that looks, smells, or acts like a general purpose computer in the car.
I’ve completed work on the upcoming book Car PC Hacks and I really believe 2005 is going to be the breakout year for in car computing (of course, I’m biased…)
VOIP over cellular – flat fee mobile phones!
I was consulting for a company a while ago that was predicting this – and now it seems like it’s going to go mainstream. Once you have flat fee data over your mobile phone, why not use a Vonage or a Skype over that link? And the first cell provider to dodge that bullet by embracing it will hopefully not cannibalize their own per-minute-billing business.
Streaming Media East 2005: New York, NY
I’m delivering an all-day tutorial on the first day of the Streaming Media East Conference (Monday, May 16, 2005) and I’ll be covering Windows Media streaming in depth. Like O’Reilly conferences, the Streaming Media conferences have a very high signal to noise ratio (i.e. few vendor pitches, only actual do-ers are there). It’s actually a very interesting time with MPEG-4, Windows Media, and the evolution of High Def DVD and media standards(*), so if you’re interested at all in net video I recommend it.
Do meds work? Yes, in fact, they’re now mandatory!
For a kid who grew up under the DARE program (drug abuse resistance education, aka “drugs are really expensive”) I’m amused that we’ve given up on drug abuse prevention and now we’re making drugs mandatory.
