Itty Bitty iPod Shuffle — so cool
I needed a spare MacBook Pro battery for my trip to PodCamp West this week, so I visited the Apple Store in The Gateway. As I was checking out, there it was: the cute, little, new iPod Shuffle. At $79, it was a total impulse buy. I couldn’t resist. It called out to me. The postage-stamp-sized MP3 player.
It’s still in the case. Perhaps I’ll keep it in there as a museum piece.
Being part of something bigger than money
I realized today why I don’t understand the Open Source community as well as I should. I love money. It pays for my house. It gets me food when I’m hungry and want to drive through Wendy’s. It even helps straighten my kid’s teeth.
However, money doesn’t motivate this younger generation of coders in the same way it did/does me.
“I’m not looking for money,” says Mr. Holder, whose contributions became part of Zimbra’s instruction materials. “The incentive is that five years down the road, I can say I helped those guys.”
Today’s front-page Wall Street Journal article, “Trolling the Web for Free Labor, Software Upstarts Are New Force,” highlights the motivations of open source developers and is a great read. Why? Because it shows how startups today are after more than a check and a handful of Microsoft stock options that should mature as nicely as a US T-bond over 5 years. They’re filled with a community of developers, many and most of which are paid by other means.
The new startups are filled with energy to change the old guard by overturning it. All of the old timers, including myself, can take the advice from The Flaming Lips,
I’ll tell you right now
You oughta change your mind
All of your friends are standing in line
They’re getting tired of your attitude fast
You better move it
When out on your own
How long would you last?
Not long
You think you’re radical but you’re not so radical in fact you’re fanatical
– “Free Radicals,” from the album At War with the Mystics – Flaming Lips
Interviews from the Utah Technology Council’s Hall of Fame Award Ceremony
I mingled and mixed in with the techie crowd at the Utah Technology Council’s (UTC) 2006 Hall of Fame Awards event for Rocky Mountain Voices. Of course we had our mics rolling. Hear short interviews from:
- Eric Smith — Control4
- Bruce Law — Sprout Marketing
- Roland Whatcott — Symantec
- Senator Orin Hatch — US Senator from Utah
- Coleman Barney and Willy Donahue — Cogito
- Paul Ahlstrom — vSpring Capital
- James Divver and Thomas Lund — Zions Bank
- Mike Levinthal — Independent Venture Capitalist
- Congressman Chris Cannon — US Congressman from Utah
- Senator Bob Bennett — US Senator from Utah
- John Valentine — President of the Utah Senate
- Richard Nelson — President, Utah Technology Council
- Clay Olsen — Timeline Films
- Ken Knapton — ContentWatch
Moto back to the future with Good Technology Acquisition
It was only a few years ago that Motorola had acquired a vertical solution all wireless needs — from hardware to software. While at SalesLogix, I worked closely with Starfish when they were acquired by Moto and became the sync solution for PIM data. Then the hard time for Moto came and they spun off everything that was not core and making money, including Starfish — which was picked off by Intellisync.
Now Moto is back on the rampage to stack up the whole product solution with their acquisition of Good Technology.
Good is cool. I like what they have. I thought they did a great thing by focusing on the software solution and leveraging the Treo. I think they’ve taken a cool approach to their enterprise management of mobile data and devices with remote provisioning. Even better is the solution that syncs all relevant Exchange data over-the-air.
It’s interesting that Nokia would acquire Intellisync and not snatch up Good too. Sure they overlap. But Good is the modern — Intellisync was the old.
Do you dislike the “Mac” guy in Apple’s ads?
Radar is reporting that Apple is ditching Justin Long, the actor who humanizes the Mac in the commercial series. Sad. Personally, I like them. While I’m not fully convinced that the ads connect better for the Windows computer (John Hodgman) than the Mac (Long), calling the Mac a “smug little twit” certainly feels a little over the top.
Does being productive from the first use experience make him smug? Maybe. As for me, I was certainly sold that Apple knew how to connect with me as a user (even a somewhat technical user). Does catering to core messages that differentiate the Mac make him smug? Does catering to user needs with a start-to-finish software and hardware solution make him smug? Does offering consumer friendly, not techie messages make him smug?
Geek is in? Well ya. But I don’t see that these commercials truly cater to the “geek” on either the Windows or the Apple front. I like the ads. I like the non-suited, hands-in-pockets casual in the Mac personality. But then again, I guess I’ve moved into the “Apple Fanboy Camp.”
Mac Mini Tablet PC Mod
Peter Green’s mod on the Mac Mini is quite a feat. He’s added an 8 inch screen and batteries to an Intel-based Mac Mini. Interesting. However, after spending time down the Tablet PC road, I’m past that gadgeteering. The challenge to get user, developer, and retail adoption is enough to make me tired.
Interview with InsideUtah.com
As you may be aware, I’m one of the Rocky Mountain Voices podcasters. You can find all those podcasts over at the Rocky Mountain Voices site.
Jennifer Napier-Pearce interviewed Tim Kapp, Kip Meacham, Cydni Tetro, and good’ole me for her Inside Utah Issue #62, Friday, 10/27/2006. You can check it out on her site or listen below — Rocky Mountain Voices is covered beginning at 20:08 into the podcast.
Rant and rave: layered tight tee-shirts
Sorry, but this is a quick rant and rave. I just got the Utah Valley magazine. I’m really amazed the flock mentality here in Utah. It’s culturally impossible to be different — to think different, look different, have different opinions.
It used to be that everyone looked like Eddie Bauer models. Now it seems that every woman must wear layers of “tee” shirts, each layer a different color, each layer with a different accent showing (i.e., lace, sequins, something). There must have been 10 “companies” advertising their tee-shirt products for women.
In my humble opinion, there are few women that can pull-off the wearing of tight tee-shirts. Secondly, just because you add another tee-shirt layer, it doesn’t mean that you’re able to “hide” what was exposed by binding your torso with spandex enhanced cotton tee-shirts.
Please, can we please move onto a new phase. I’m really looking forward to winter. Perhaps we’ll get a few more sweaters to cover up this “look.”
Google in the client software business?
Google’s effort to add new functionality for mobile devices is a natural and killer evolution that shows the web’s migration from destination to service. Today’s announcement of an email client for mobile devices enables highly-functional software as a service. This is a great SOA play. First Google maps, now email. Cool.
However, I must confess, I prefer to use my own client. But I hate POP since I’m always on different computers and devices — give me IMAP and I’m a happy camper.
My 8 Mth Old MacBook is now 39% Slower than New Machines
Bummer. My “old” MacBook Pro is now up to 39 percent SLOWER than the new machines. The new Core 2 Duo is faster. The machine now has Firewire 800. Support for up to 3GB RAM and 200GB HD. It’s so hard to have a dinosaur that’s only 8 months old.
Technorati Tags: Apple, MacBook Pro
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