Friendly Technology.........

IT Conversations - Best Tech Audio Web Site

I am getting a lot of great information from interviews and recordings at IT Conversations.. If you want to hear some of the best minds and hearts in technology today, look no further. You can also often read transcripts. I love the feature that allows me to download an mp3 file of a recording on to my computer. Drove for 4 hours yesterday evening on an out of town trip, and had burned CDS of really insightful and interesting interviews and seminars.

Ad Free Version of Real Player

The download page looks a little shady, but the program works very well. If you are sick of all the ads and pop ups with Real Player, try Real Alternative. You will never go back.

Robert Cringely on revisiting promising 1990s tech

Robert Cringely, in talking about search technology, also talks about how the 16X increase in the average power of computers since 1998 might make some "old" ideas worth revisting:

"What has changed is that, through the relentless passage of Moore's Law, computers are on average 16 times faster today than they were back in 1998" ... "This makes me wonder, in fact, whether there aren't hundreds of promising technologies from the late 1990s that are worth another look today. It would probably be worthwhile to start a company just to specialize in this type of digital archaeology."

Viva Voice Recognition!

I recently picked a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 voice-recognition software. I'm actually dictating this post rather than typing it. And this is working relatively well. Dragon NaturallySpeaking works really well while dictating, and less well when formatting. I also am having some trouble giving my e-mail program voice commands. I can dictate an email OK but when it comes sending it, I have to move my mouse or use my keyboard. A few months ago, I asked here why voice recognition software wasn't more popular. Maybe it's because we expect voice recognition to be perfect, rather than just better than what we do currently. Even though Dragon NaturallySpeaking doesn't work well in all circumstances, it still makes me more efficient overall.

In related news, I found a great web page with links to various voice recognition resources online.

Fun with Excel...

Anil Dash: Excel Pile

Weekend lightness from champion blogger, Anil Dash . Folks sharing obsessive behavior through the use of Excel Spreadsheets. Some selected comments:

I have an Excel sheet that meticulously tracks my TV viewing schedule and the 3 PVRs that record shows. This way I can tell what PVR to add a new show to, to prevent conflicts, and I can review the past week and make sure I watched all the shows that I wanted to watch. I watch way too much TV.

Sorry for posting anonymous - I'm a tad embarrased by this one. When I was 18 I made a spreadsheet of every girl I had hooked up with, and what exactly we did.

Never in excel, but I've got an RDF/XML file documenting every beer I drink, with the brewery and beer name, size of the beer, and the date, time and place where it was consumed.

Read more by clicking the first link in this post.

Text messaging to Canadian Political parties

In an effort to involve people, especially youth, more in the political process in the runup to a Canadian federal election, the Dominion Institute has launched an intiative to allow people to text message the headquarters of the major political parties through their cellphones. The idea is that their questions and comments will get a response within 48 hours.
(Via Darren Barefoot who tried it and blogs his results)

Tim Berners Lee awarded. Money not important, but likely nice.

Through the spirit and genius of one man (or possibly one more, if memory serves) who I think truly wanted to help, without consideration to monetary gain, we have the World Wide Web and the huge growth in popularity of the Internet. Tim Berners Lee has been awarded the 1 million Euro Millennium Technology prize. I know money isn't Berner Lee's primary motivation, but if its used for good causes, wonderful.

Great Personalized Group Email

For personalized group email, I really like a program called Group Mail Free. The usefulness of personalized group email has been made apparent me to yet again as I am part of a group of folks promoting ticket sales to a fundraiser dinner and dance. We are getting great replies as a result of taking care to personalize emails to people - in large numbers. People like to get emails with Dear "their name", rather than a generic. Personalized email merge works wonders!

Leo Laporte on Google's Gmail

Thanks for all the Tech TV stuff Leo and hope to continue to get the benefit of your passion and knowledge about technology...Leo explains well the interest and fear about Google's new Gmail

I can't figure out if this one is a joke or not. As widely reported by many serious journals, Google is getting into the email business. And here's the part that sounds fishy, Gmail will offer each user a gigabyte of mail storage and feature Google style searching of all messages, free. In a move guaranteed to make privacy advocates' noses quiver, Gmail will automatically include Google Adsense messages tailored to the content of outgoing messages. In other words, if you send a message to your buddy telling him how the fishing is in Montana, the mail will be tagged with ads for fishing rods and hip-waders.

Quiver...

A Canadian Judge, Puretracks, and The Future

Judge Konrad von Finkenstein is being toasted and roasted today. The Judge just ruled that Canadians who make music files available for sharing over the Internet are not necessarily commiting an illegal act. That's how I read some reports of his ruling.

I think the larger issue is not whether its legal or illegal. The larger issue is that how music has been distributed traditionally does not work for a huge mass of people. And the recording industry, if it is not to die in its present form, needs to recognize this...like yesterday.

I also think for pay legal music download sites are going to thrive, despite this Canadian ruling. Sites like Puretracks and itunes are giving people music how they want it, with no moral or legal issues to worry about.

I do wish there was an easy centralized online place that would let you know which artist was represented by which for pay service. Would make things a lot easier