August 2007

iTunes with iPod library

August 7, 2007

One of the annoyances with iTunes and the iPod is that you need a music library to connect the iPod. I don't want to have a library setup. I want to just be able to plug in my iPod and listen to music as well as load tracks on to it. Sure there are some ways to do this like setting up a minimal library and using it just to connect a non-auto-sync iPod. That's a hassle I don't want to mess with. Because my iPod travels with me my iTunes library resides on an external drive which works reasonably well but there are times I just want to do an update at a coffee shop and be done. At least until we get the ultimate mobile system.

People love to sue Apple

August 6, 2007

People love to sue Apple concludes a note on one of the most recent suits today. I had the same thought over the weekend. My weekend found me paying a relatively large sum of money for a new electric razor. The problem is that my old cordless razor doesn't have a user replaceable battery. If it was an iPod there'd be folks lined up to the end of the block to report how unfair the treatment and wanting to jump on a class-action law suit. But suing Phillips isn't nearly as sexy as suing Apple.

Cars with WiFi

August 5, 2007

Dave Winer muses today on the possibility of cars with WiFi. I'm not sure I'm wanting to wait for the auto makers to figure this one out. His post expresses a thought I've had for a while. Our cars need to be able to connect to our houses and to other Wifi networks we might see along the road. Now with some tools like USB cable modems the possibility of being connected in more places is even possible (though doing much music syncing on EDGE would be slow).

Several folks have already done modifications to put Mac minis in cars. We already know that these little computers can drive the car on their own so why not expect a complete data system. At the end of the day I'm thinking I'd rather have an after-market system that easily plugs into the car over a system that comes with the car. The Prius has a great GPS but since it doesn't interface with the systems I use it is less useful than it could be. While an interface would make it more useful, it would still be yet another system and type of system to figure out how to integrate.

Vendor lock-in

August 3, 2007

Dave Winer has been blogging about vendor lock-in for quite a while now. It occurred to me earlier as I was reading about a really cool project and realizing that this project would never be possible with commercial applications. Would it be possible to put Microsoft Content Management on a flash drive even if the license permitted it? How else could one have a flash-drive based cross-platform web-enabled application?

When companies and organizations take the stand that open-source is not for them it is often a short-sighted view. Certainly there are organizations that can't deal with open source themselves but there is no upside from skipping the numerous vendors working with open-source and there is almost certainly long term risk. What does a business do when their system is no longer supported and their data is locked-in to a particular vendor's system? Just ask some organizations that are just now trying to migrate from mainframe systems to database systems and the years of work and millions of dollars it takes to make the move.

My soap-opera addiction

August 2, 2007

The saying goes that admitting a problem is the first step to recovery. Well I have a problem. It is one of those quiet little habits that nobody talks about. Serpent-like in its craftiness it lurks in the corners. The typical things aren't a problem being a non-smoking drug-free type those vices don't tempt. No, this is the voyeuristic joy of watching soap opera-like lawsuits meander through the legal process.

How can I own my domain?

August 1, 2007

Just last week I was busily renewing domain names without paying much attention. Then a friend wrote with a question that bears repeating and answering in a forum like this. This friend has a vanity domain and wants to make sure they keep it.

I want to own the domain, like I would own a piece of property. I recognize that I need to pay for the hosting, but I don’t want to pay regularly for the address. I want this address to be mine, until I die, or until we find something better than the internet.

Something better than the internet? OK so that wasn't the question. Especially with a recent spate of articles about domain names as the new real estate it would be easy to fall into a real estate model. Instead a more fitting comparison would be to business ownership. Ultimately the process of getting a domain name starts with having a registrar who can register the name for you. Often this may be bundled with website hosting but the two are separate (and I'll explain why they should be kept very separate in a few sentences).

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