Blog Notes: May 2008 Contents Are Up

Contents: Month 05, May 2008

Month Five Is Dead

This is the final post of May. I went to YouTube to find something fitting. I had hoped for something Gerry Anderson-related. Or maybe music.

But I found my fingers typing in “Jeff Hawkins.”

And look what I found:

Computing Beyond Turing – Jeff Hawkins

I don’t put this here to continue snarking over the failed Foleo.

This is about his thinkware project, Numenta, which I find fascinating.

It’s a one hour and thirteen minute talk. And only 258 people have been smart enough to watch it.

I think you lot are smart enough to appreciate it.

So go watch.

Speakers UP! For kIM NOVAk

kIM NOVAk / Female Friends

I need to disappear to start wrestling with May’s Contents.

Let this be your solace.

What A Difference A Year Makes!

Palm Foleo in the sweaty paws of Ed Colligan

Palm Foleo
* 416MHz Intel / Marvell PXA27x processor
* Marathon 2700G graphics accelerator with video output
* 128MB of RAM (for running apps) plus 256MB of non-volatile memory
* Dual expansion slots (CompactFlash and SD)
* Dual wireless (Bluetooth and WiFi support)
* One USB port
* 10 inch 1024 by 600 pixel screen
* Proprietary Linux-based OS
* Couldn’t play YouTube or any FLV web videos
* Handful of specialized applications at launch
* $599 ($499 with initial $100 mail-in “rebate”)

MSI Wind in the dainty hands of Laptop magazine’s Joanna Stern

MSI Wind U100
* 1.6GHz Intel Atom (Diamondville), 512KB L2 cache, 533MHz FSB
* Intel 945GSE, Intel ICH-7M
* 1GB of RAM; 2GB maximum
* 80GB hard drive
* 4-type card slot
* Dual wireless (Bluetooth and WiFi support)
* Three USB ports
* 10 inch 1024 by 600 pixel screen
* Webcam and microphone
* VGA out
* Ethernet port
* Headphone and microphone jacks
* Open Linux OS or Windows XP
* Can play YouTube, FLV, and DiVX AVI videos
* Any damned Windows XP app you want, baby!
* Linux 1337s can morph the OS at will
* $400-$620 (estimated, depending on model)

Here’s an object lesson for every American company: the world no longer revolves around you!

Palm rushed the Foleo to market not because they heard of the Asus EeePC. They had heard about the Windows Mobile-compatible Celio Redfly, which was from another American company.

And then along came the Asian company Asus and pulled the rug out of the entire notebook industry.

All those Asian companies building all the stuff that goes into American products? Those Asian companies can put them together into cheaper and better systems themselves.

And as Asus has shown — and now MSI as well — they can generate their own cool.

There’s Only One Choice For President

And John McCain isn’t it!

McCain’s YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare

At time of posting: 1,615,888 YouTube views.

Meet, Support Ralph Nader For President!

New MSI Wind Blog Has Theme Music?!!?

MSI WIND UPDATER

Oh, so you’re going to play that game, eh?

Well, this isn’t a tech blog, but I’ve decided on its theme music:

Nobarbies – Nobarbies

Let’s see … five kick-ass killa women punk rock musicians from Argentina versus a few seconds of a weak sythesizer riff.

I win!

Still, have some charity in your heart and visit MSI Wind Updater.

And go visit Nobarbies MySpace.

Writer Nathan Singer Has News

I did brief writeups of two of his brilliant novels.

Now comes word that his latest novel, In the Light of You, has gotten a review.

The book’s cover looks like this:

I had hoped to get a ginormous image I could plant here at 440-pixels wide, but the publisher’s promotion department apparently never got around to that.

Hint, hint.

(And if they ever do get around to that, it’d be nice to know if it will also appear as an ebook!)

MSI Wind Video Review From Italy

Watch it! They show the insides! Plus they break the NDA by not only mentioning the Intel Atom processor, they also show it! Bravo, PC Professionale!

MSI Wind U100: il concorrente dell’Eee PC – video review

I just love this sentence in their (Google translated) write-up:

[…] the large keyboard that allows a beating sufficiently comfortable.

Yeah, that’s what I want. A keyboard that’s a masochist!!

Philips: You Suck And You Cheat!

It’s bad enough they’re charging US$20.00 for what is essentially crap. But they’re selling crap under the label of their brand — which used to be known for quality products.

And how sleazy have they become?

If you pop in “keychain” as a search item on their site, it won’t bring up the camera.

But I found a link on a forum and look at how these cheating bastards have disguised the fact they’re whoring themselves by shilling shit:

Click = much bigness

Here’s the important part:

Hey, Philips, that’s real nice. You can defend yourself when caught by saying you have been selling it but also hide that fact because people have to be as crooked as you are and type “keychain” as “keychn” to uncover your guilt!

Yeah, I didn’t pay for this crap. It was given to me. But that person shelled out twenty bucks. And what value did you give in return?

A camera that erases all photos in memory if hooked up to USB while off!

A camera that can’t survive a simple drop to the pavement!

You guys must be real proud of yourselves.

Let me help out by enhancing the slogan beneath your logo:

Previously here:

The Philips Crapcam Is Fatally Wounded
Photo Album: The Last Of The Philips Crapcam?
Note For The Philips Crapcam
When Signs Are Not Good

The Philips Crapcam Is Fatally Wounded

Bugger.

I pressed down near the lens to see if that would put right the optics.

I didn’t press hard, dammit.

And now it won’t take more than one picture!

Philips, you rot!