Sunday, January 30, 2005

FW: joel - on hiring

Great post from joel on hiring the topn1%

Quotes-
I hear this from almost every software company. "We hire the top 1% or
less," they all say.

Could they all be hiring the top 1%? Where are all the other 99%? General
Motors?

The top 0.5% usually have jobs. They have jobs where they do very well, so
their employers pay them lots of money and do whatever it takes to keep them
happy'
'
I'm exaggerating a lot, but the point is, when you select 1 out of 200
applicants, the other 199 don't give up and go into plumbing (although I
wish they would... plumbers are impossible to find). They apply again
somewhere else, and contribute to some other employer's self-delusions about
how selective they are.




By the way, it's because of this phenomenon—the fact that many of the great
people are never on the job market—that we are so aggressive about hiring
summer interns. This may be the last time these kids ever show up on the
open market. In fact we hunt down the smart CS students and individually beg
them to apply for an internship with us, because if you wait around to see
who sends you a resume, you're already missing out.


http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2005/01/27.html

FW: WebEx Launches MyWebExPC: First Free Remote Access Service with Enterprise-Class Security

Worth a look .

http://detah.blogspot.com/2005/01/webex-launches-mywebexpc-first-free.html

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Building a new beast...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0125_050125_chimeras.htm
l

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Airbus - Aircraft Families- Introduction A380 Family

Listening to Adam Curry's on the 19th, this plane needs shorter runway, is more redundant and holds more than the 747.

Wow! Can't wait to be in one in 2006...
Airbus - Aircraft Families- Introduction A380 Family

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Robots in Iraq?

Didn't Hollywood already do this?

Saturday, January 22, 2005

FW: Next time you're thinking of killing yourself, you might want to wait a few...

Next time
you're thinking of killing yourself, you might
want to wait a few hours to see how it turns out.

http://archive.scripting.com/2005/01/22


Replacement for ms paint

http://blog.hundhausen.com/PermaLink.aspx?guid=c1a15104-a1db-41a1-975a-7
f94c373d18f


Alzheimer's reversed...in mice

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4188677.stm

Gates talks to BBC on the future of home entertainment

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/4195177.stm

Friday, January 21, 2005

We'll just call him Fez....

Boing Boing: Isn't he the new exchange student?

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Taking your temperature just went hitech and wireless

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000877026896/

Friday, January 14, 2005

Teen Web editor drives Apple to court action

Who knew?

ThinkSecret ends up being a teenager enthusiast for Apple. - the real question should be "Where is HE getting his information?"

MSNBC - Teen Web editor drives Apple to court action

Taking your temperature just went wi-fi

Ingestible thermometer provides accurate temp readings - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Monday, January 10, 2005

FW: Why Partners Need to Better Understand MTP

From ms monitor (jan/5):

Tonight during his Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote address,
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates helped demonstrate a Nikon D2X digital camera
supporting Media Transport Protocol (MTP). There is simply no way to
understate the importance of MTP to Microsoft's digital entertainment
strategy. If adopted as Microsoft would like, MTP would enable numerous and
disparate PC-to-device photo, music and video synchronization scenarios,
including rights-protected content.

Microsoft introduced the MTP concept
at last year's CES
and in September released the protocol with Windows Media Player 10
. Creative and
Samsung Portable Media Players support MTP. Newer and some updated portable
music players are slated for MTP support. In September, Canon committed to
offering MTP in future digital cameras
.

MTP is a superset of Picture Transport Protocol (PTP), which is widely
supported on digital cameras. Anyone using Mac OS X and a digital camera
would know that picture transfer is little more complicated than connecting
a camera. No driver is required, and that's because of PTP on the camera and
the operating system. I got a lesson in PTP last weekend. For reasons I
couldn't explain, Mac OS X and iPhoto wouldn't recognize my Canon EOS 20D
digital camera, even though the manual said no driver should be needed.
Previously, I had connected to Windows XP after installing a Canon-provided
driver. Turned out that, unlike lesser cameras where PTP is turned on, I had
to manually enable the transfer protocol on the EOS 20D. Once done, the
camera launched Apple's iPhoto and pictures easily transfered.

Superset MTP seeks to do so much more. The protocol enables video, photo and
music transfer, and with some rights protection, what Microsoft calls
"indirect license acquisition." In that scenario, rights are managed by the
media player software and no access is required to, say, a remote Internet
server. The rights support could enable a number of in-home content
distribution scenarios, including recorded TV programming moved from one
room to another. In fact, MTP's flexibility creates quite a number of
eventual usage scenarios--hence the video, photo or music synchronization to
a Portable Media Center and picture transfer from digital camera to PC via
Wi-Fi.

Still, MTP's promise has yet to be realized. Device support is scant and
work needs to be done on what there is. The first time I connected a
Portable Media Center to a Windows Media Center PC, confusion followed. My
daughter wanted to watch recorded "Sonic X" episodes on the PMC while we
traveled to a friend's house. I plopped down in front of the computer and
attempted to transfer three episodes. After 10 minutes of trying and my wife
honking to go, I gave up. I tried to transfer the shows, but couldn't.
Windows Media Player 10 showed no transfer. Except it had. MTP worked so
well, the transfer quickly happened and with no notification either. Had I
actually checked the PMC, I would have found the three episodes, despite
Windows Media Player's lack of visual cues.

Partners seeking to understand Microsoft's digital entertainment strategy
must get up to speed on underlying technologies like MTP. To its credit,
Microsoft has created a dynamic, flexible architecture that could create
many exciting usage scenarios. But with choice, comes responsibility--and
that means partners taking responsibility to understand exactly what
foundation Microsoft has created for them.

Related...
ww.microsoftmonitor.com%2farchives%2f005785.html>

http://www.microsoftmonitor.com/archives/005785.html

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Adtunes.com > Top 10 Ad Music of 2004

Adtunes.com > Top 10 Ad Music of 2004

Saturday, January 08, 2005

Philips WACS700 Wireless Music Center - Engadget - www.engadget.com

You know this looks pretty cool except that the foot print looks like it belongs in a VERY LARGE room.

What I want is something more like the Creative Labs are doing with a very slim (but powerful) unit that uses Wifi to connect to my PC.

And I DON'T want to require Windows Media Center - I have a DVD recorder and a PVR, I don't need one with an HP logo on it.

Maybe that iHome will do it instead...

Philips WACS700 Wireless Music Center - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Tnterview

http://news.com.com/Gates+taking+a+seat+in+your+den/2008-1041_3-5514121.
html?

What happened at CES

http://blog.seanalexander.com/PermaLink,guid,586bac82-e272-44f7-a439-a3d
1e6176aef.aspx

Monday, January 03, 2005

Coming Soon to a Retailer Near You: Custom Commercials

Only if they start being more consumer driven and friendlier will these work. Think the Gap in Minority Report.

"Welcome back to our store , ______. Did you enjoy that suit you bought last? We've got a brand new line coming in today that includes these great new looks...... While you're at it, you might want to stop off at Moxie's and enjoy their new salmon dish."

Now THAT would be convenient!!!

Coming Soon to a Retailer Near You: Custom Commercials