Month: August 2003 (Page 1 of 2)

Others have noticed this, but it’s starting to crop up on my weblog too: Seemingly vacuous, empty, or merely off-topic comments that appear to have no purpose — until you notice the URL of the commenter. For instance, today I noticed a new comment on this blog that said nothing but “I really agree with that last comment.”… Read the rest

Halley the blogger has new vision thanks to cataract surgery she had this week: Doctors removed the lens from her eye and replaced it with a new, plastic one, like an internal contact lens. She describes how rich and intense the colors are after this surgery, like an illuminated manuscript.… Read the rest

A man bought a used BlackBerry from a former Morgan Stanley vice president and discovered that it still contains the VP’s email messages, revealing a treasure trove of confidential information, according to this Wired News story by Kim Zetter.

In addition to personal e-mails that reveal the VP’s own Charles Schwab IRA account numbers, the name and phone number of his mother and the amounts he paid for his monthly mortgage, car and Visa bills, the e-mails discuss confidential information about loan terms for Morgan Stanley clients, debt-restructuring strategies for specific companies, preliminary talks for potential merger deals and even some creative ways of interpreting contracts.

The UK Telegraph reports on a matchbox-sized GPS receiver / mobile phone transmitter called the Followit, which transmits its location back to its owner using SMS (mobile phone text messaging). Strap it to your dog’s collar, or tuck it under someone’s dashboard, and then sit back and keep tabs on where they go.… Read the rest

Mercury News reporter Matt Marshall looks at what happened to ten telecom and networking companies that each received more than $150 million of investment during the bubble years of 1999-2001. These companies include such household names as Zhone Technologies, Yipes Enterprise Services, and Calient Networks.… Read the rest

Some stats on the wireless market:

U.S. Wireless Market Sees Surprising Growth (WSJ, 8/15/03)

Mobile phone sales encroaching on handheld organizers (c|net news.com, 8/18/03)

Notebook sales hit new highs (c|net news.com, 7/2/03)… Read the rest

Movable Type continues to impress me with its flexibility and power. Last week I decided I’d had it up to here with maintaining the list of links that appears on the right side of my home page (the “blogroll,” as some people call it).… Read the rest

Artist Daniel Rozin’s Wooden Mirror consists of 830 little squares of wood, a hidden video camera, and a Mac 8600. The squares rotate up and down individually, appearing lighter or darker depending on their angle, so the whole array can display a rough reflection of whatever is in front of it: your hand, your face, your body.… Read the rest

Journalist-turned-MIT pundit Michael Schrage takes on Nicholas Carr’s recent argument in HBR that IT doesn’t matter (link to $7 PDF reprint). Carr’s argument: as information technology has spread, it’s become a commodity utility, useful only for cost reduction, and is no longer a source of competitive advantage.… Read the rest

Canada.com has an interview with Pat Gelsinger, senior VP and chief technology officer for Intel.

Q. Do you have a personal goal?
A. To reach the entirety of humanity, every human on earth with our technology.

Q. Sounds nice but how do you do that?