Status-Q

[Original Link] Dan Bricklin, lucky chap, has had a really good play on a Segway and records his experiences.

Microsoft Hailstorm (aka World Domination v2.0) is dead!
New York Times story. [Memex 1.1] Bit of a non-starter, really. How many will mourn its passing?

[Original Link] Jolly good show, I say. Takes quite a lot to make us dash for anything! But as somebody on Slashdot commented, this map paints a less enthralling picture.

It’s that time again – I’m starting to consider a new mobile phone, with the added twist this time that I’ll have to pay for it myself.

I’ve looked at various offerings from Sony, Erricson & Motorola, but, as at least three different salesmen have said to me, once you’ve had a Nokia, you’ve been spoiled. I don’t know why it is, but no matter how appealing the various bells and whistles on the other makes, you can’t beat a Nokia for convenience and ease of use. The only reason, I think, that the others sell as well as they do is because many people have to buy a phone based on colour, weight and size. Few shops are able to let you play with the user interface for any length of time before you hand over the cash.

It’s a similar situation with Apple. Those who have had the chance to use a Mac for any length of time are often reluctant to go back to Windows – especially since the new Mac OS has sorted out the reliability issues – even if more bells and whistles are available for Windows machines.

Of course, Apple have only 5% of their target market, where Nokia have the majority of theirs, so buying Apple is seen as a riskier decision. But that’s changing, as the things you can do on your machine become less important than the things you can connect to with it. It’s like moving to a Nokia and finding that your old chargers, belt clips etc no longer work, and you have to key in your phone book again, but you can make phone calls to your Motorola-owning friends just as easily. Perhaps even more so…

JN on the problems in AOL/Time Warner. If you’re putting people in a walled garden, make sure the walls are high enough that they can’t see what’s outside.

Looking forward to seeing the next episode of the new version of the Forsyte Saga tomorrow night. Quite fun, but not having seen the original, I’ll need to wait until the end to comment on the plot as a whole. By then, of course, it’ll be the Hindsyte Saga.