Kim Bach . OrgAssorted bookmarks from my web-travels
Apple launches new Intel Mac Minis, iPod Hi-Fi | CNET News.com
In a much hyped event, where some “fun” new products had been promised, Apple has announced the first Intel based Mac minis, as well as a set of powered speakers called the iPod Hi-Fi, and some Apple branded leather iPod cases.
The web had been overflowing with rumours regarding the possible “fun” products, but this clearly was intended to be a small announcement.
Computerworld – Computer-Nobel til dansk it-ikon
Det Danske ComputerWorld skriver at professor emeritus Peter Naur tildeles prisen “Turing Award”, der uddeles af Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Det må siges at være fortjent. Professor Naur har ydet en stor indsats for at udvikle datalogien som en videnskabelig disciplin. I det praktiske har jeg ofte anvendt metoder som professor Naur har været med til at udvikle, specielt Backus-Naur (BNF og EBNF) notationen.
Nedenfor er et citat fra computerworld.dks artikel:
Det danske it-ikon Peter Naur, der i 1966 opfandt ordet “datalogi” som en dansk version af “computer science”, er ifølge Københavns Universitet blevet tildelt den internationalt anerkendte hæderpris Turing Award.
Eksterne henvisninger:
I’m usually not promoting new Google services – since they promote themself – but Google has just launched a promissing new service, called Google Page Creator. Using Google Page Creator you can quickly create and maintain your own, simple, web-site.
All you need to get started, is a Gmail account, and a modern browser, and you’re ready to log in and start creating your home page, and with 100MB of storage you have a lot of freedom. Google Page Creator has the look and feel of all the other Google services, so you should feel at home if you’re familiar with, for instance, Gmail.
Turn any iPod into an iPod Shuffle in 3 easy steps! on Flickr – Photo Sharing!
This sent me LOL…Guess I was seduced by the Apple marketing hype as well, with my “ODE to the shuffle” from last week.
Now…I don’t think that I’d cry if Apple should decide to drop the shuffle, or even fit it with a screen. What I’d miss is the auto-fill feature and the 5 button user interface, which I love.
Saffo: essays: Why the Next Computer Is Like the DeLorean Automobile
Just stumbled upon this interesting essay, written in 1990 at the time NeXT launched their 2nd generation Workstations. The article compares the NeXT computer with the DeLorian. Good, almost prophetic points, are being made. The design concepts of the DeLorian was adopted by Detroit, and NeXT was eventually acquired by Apple, and the NeXT legacy lives on in the core of the Apple.
What hasn’t happened is that the computer industry, still largely in it’s infancy, hasn’t really seen a consolidation into a “big three”. Today we’re seeing an increasing amount of garage start-ups, thanks to the DIY software tools that are being made. Who could have predicted that an Open Source operating system offered for Free, made practical by a Finish student, could become a serious contender for a “big three” spot.
I’d rather compare the computer industry today, with the time following the rediscovery of mechanised printing by Guttenberg. Thanks to the Internet, projects – many of them with highly questionable business models – are made possible through a global, largely volunteer, work force, willing to invest time to make the projects happen.
At the time when the article was written, the computer industry was largely hardware driven, today it is software driven. The “big three” today are all software companies, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.
Computer hardware has been commoditised, and only Apple and SUN remains as suppliers of complete solutions, with branded hardware and software. SUN has already changed their strategy towards Open Sourcing their software, and offering Linux as the operating system. At some point Apple will have to follow suit, as the commoditised hardware and software bundles, catches up with the pure aesthetics of OS X. It will, in many ways, be a sad day, because what makes the Mac such a compelling platform, is the fact, that the hardware and software fits so well together.
Finally I return to the topic…It is true that there’s a lack of innovation in the hardware market, and the last real innovation we saw, might have been the NeXT cube, the clamshell configuration of the ordinary laptop, made popular by Toshiba.
Apple’s iWork emerges as rival to Microsoft Office | CNET News.com
According to this c|net report, Apple’s iWork office productivity suite is now the second best selling Office suite, out selling Corel Office, both of course being distanced by Microsoft Office.
This is very interesting news, but you can’t really compare iWork to Corel and Microsoft Office. For one iWork doesn’t include a dedicated spreadsheet program.
Like the commentaries to this article points out, what is driving sales of iWork is the Keynote application.
Again it is pretty amazing that a Mac only software package can compete with Corel Office in terms of units shipped, and I see it as a direct measure of Apple’s surging market share, which I for one welcome.
Guess I have to give Keynote a spin.
Now if Apple would only produce a full fledged office productivity package…
What stops them? Well they’re too snug with Microsoft. Just look at the billing Office was given at the MacWorld keynote, it looked a bit like the main reason Rosetta exists, is to make Office run on the new Mactels.
Well this had to happen, jeans with iPod support build right in.
Agoravox English edition ! – AgoraVox – le journal citoyen
AgoraVox is an important initiative, since I belive that their model could lead to higher quality grass-roots journalism and other content, by combining weblogging with a tradtional editorial process.
Below is a quote from the English AgoraVox Website.
AgoraVox puts together one of the first large-scale European initiatives for a totally free of charge “citizen journalism”. Our initial standpoint is simple: thanks to the effective democratization of multimedia and information technologies (IT), each citizen has the ability to potentialy become a “reporter” who can identify and offer high added-value information. With means of a simple phone, a computer, a camera or a a digital video camera, thousands of internet users or bloggers are now able to perform an incredible local work that no media, no organization, no association could ever accomplish.
The Fogscreen is a very cool new display technology, I doubt that it will ever enter homes, but it’s really well suited for convention displays. Below is a quote from the website:
The FogScreen is a new invention which makes objects seem to appear and move in thin air! It is a screen you can walk through! The FogScreen is created by using a suspended fog generating device, there is no frame around the screen. The installation is easy: just replace the conventional screen with FogScreen. You don´t need to change anything else – it works with standard video projectors.
Wired 13.12: Slacking Off in Science
I was really surprised by this article in WIRED Magazine. For years and years we’ve been told that Denmark is suffering from a “brain drain”, but according to this WIRED Magazine article, based on information from a number of US and international science indicators, for instance the CIA World Factbook; Science and Engineering Indicators, this is not true.