…is from Gore Vidal:
Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.
My quote of the day…
April 5th, 2005
The truth about the IRA
April 3rd, 2005
Ruth Dudley Edwards’ piece in the FT is linked to on John’s blog. A great article.
Software Steadicam
April 2nd, 2005
Here’s a lovely example of the kind of software people can produce when you expose the API for a nice system like QuickTime. iStabilize is an app which removes camera shake from video by analysing the motion and then moving the image around to counterbalance the vibrations. It does a very nice job, too – have a look at their demo movies.
You lose resolution, of course, because it has to trim the edges, but I tried it on some clips that we’d taken while running(!) and it did a very nice job. If you’ve got footage which is a bit bumpy, this may be the app for you… It’s $60, but it’s fun to play with in demo mode. And re-shooting your footage might be a lot more expensive…
Return of the Mac
April 2nd, 2005
I recommended Paul Graham’s article “How to Start a Startup” a few days ago. Here’s another good one on the Return of the Mac
How to Use the Dial Phone
March 29th, 2005
Lots of interesting stuff to be found on the Internet Archive. For example, there’s a 1927 AT&T training movie on how to use the new phones that had just come out with dials. It’s a silent movie, of course. For more about the Internet Archive, I strongly recommend this great talk by Brewster Kahle, its founder.
Update: Ironically, coming back 18 years later to update some of the links, I had to use the Internet Archive to find things again… including the AT&T movie, which was still on their site but not under quite the same URL!
Pipe Dream
March 24th, 2005
A lovely bit of animation
Mouse adapter for those with shaky hands
March 22nd, 2005
This is cool. It’s easy to forget how many in our society can’t use the technologies we’ve come to depend on.
It’s also very interesting that IBM decided to release this as hardware when, presumably, it could easily be done in software.
PBTKATC
March 22nd, 2005
I came across this acronym in a posting to a mailing list by Susan Kitchens. PBTKATC is a neat description of one of the problems which plague so many computer systems today, cause so much lost productivity, and to which, sadly, nobody in the technical community seems to have a good answer yet:
Problem between the Keyboard and the Chair
iPod Camera connector
March 22nd, 2005
The iPod camera connector will be available before long. It’s on The Apple Store (U.S.). No details yet, though.
Mac Mini VGA contd
March 21st, 2005
Following on from my earlier post about the VGA output on the Mac Mini, there is at least a partial solution described here – there’s a hidden contrast control buried away on System Preferences under ‘Universal Access’. Tweaking that in conjunction with the monitor brightness & contrast controls certainly seems to help a lot.
In the meantime, we decided to order a Dell 2001FP display for Rose…. Should be here in a few days… but I don’t have any regrets!
How to Start a Startup
March 21st, 2005
I like Paul Graham’s essay on How to Start a Startup. An enjoyable read with lots of good stuff. For example, he says that having great people is more important than great ideas:
What matters is not ideas, but the people who have them. Good people can fix bad ideas, but good ideas can’t save bad people.
and this is an interesting viewpoint:
In technology, the low end always eats the high end. It’s easier to make an inexpensive product more powerful than to make a powerful product cheaper. So the products that start as cheap, simple options tend to gradually grow more powerful till, like water rising in a room, they squash the “high-end” products against the ceiling. Sun did this to mainframes, and Intel is doing it to Sun. Microsoft Word did it to desktop publishing software like Interleaf and Framemaker. Mass-market digital cameras are doing it to the expensive models made for professionals. Avid did it to the manufacturers of specialized video editing systems, and now Apple is doing it to Avid.
Henry Ford did it to the car makers that preceded him. If you build the simple, inexpensive option, you’ll not only find it easier to sell at first, but you’ll also be in the best position to conquer the rest of the market.
It’s very dangerous to let anyone fly under you. If you have the cheapest, easiest product, you’ll own the low end.
The Book Stops Here
March 20th, 2005
A very interesting Wired article by Daniel Pink on what I think is one of the internet’s greatest creations: Wikipedia.
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