Category: Information Technology

These appeal to my manifest geekiness, thus are awesome. I wonder, though, if one is of greater geek cred than the other.

Anyway, I’d delight in either one.

Ah, Negroponte is at it again! Stirring up the masses with a prediction. This time, the doomed in focus is our old friend, the printed paper book. Negroponte points to the fact that ebook sales have overtaken hardcovers, and are expected to outpace paperbacks within the year. Of course, this statistic is solely for Amazon. When Barnes and Noble makes such a prediction, this might be more valid…at least from a larger, macro-social perspective. I expect there will long be a market for paper based books. I expect a good many things need to happen before e- truly replaces print as the way books are consumed.

Before print ‘dies’, first more and more materials will be printed solely electronically (I expect many top tier/NYTimes bestsellers, for instance). Also, the cost of readers will need to come DOWN. Until there are <$50 versions available, i.e.: until the e-reader has become commoditized, will this distribution method truly become mainstream. With that, I expect that the cost of e-publications will need to come down further in price before attaining true mass-market appeal.

Anyway, I see many challenges before Negroponte’s prognostication about print books being dead in 5 years (with whatever qualifiers you mix in there). Really, this is very aggressive and likely vapor. I do expect e- to replace paper, but slowly and iteratively. Printed, paper-based materials will be with us for quite some time.

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Edit: I felt the need to adjust this sentence: “Anyway, I see many challenges before Negroponte’s prognostication about print books being dead in 5 years (with whatever qualifiers you mix in there) is very aggressive and likely vapor.” Mid-sentence as I type, yet my mind is well on to the next topic. When I lose focus, sentences merge.

The folks over at Lifehaker found this clever little item to help control those constantly tangling earbuds. If you have a laser cutter laying around, you can download the plans and build one yourself. These tips might be more useful to the rest of us.

After I left my magnanimous former employer, I was out access to Photoshop. Now, I suppose I could manage with the Vista built-in tool, or Picasa. But I’m not one to do things the easy way. I chose to mess with Gimp, the illustrious open source image editing tool. More specifically, especially since I have a PhotoShop background, I went with Gimpshop, which gives me a Photoshop-esque experience. Better, I suppose, than downloading CS3 from bit torrent or something. Though I’m not a power user, I find the thing quite nice. Some day, I hope that I’ll be able to turn the most grotesque face into a supermodel. We all have our dreams, eh?

I spent a good chunk of my day, yesterday, on a skills inventory for a temp firm. Now, some would hate this. I, however, actually enjoy this. These give me some great insights into the job market’s software needs and expectations. Also, as someone who tries hard to be cutting, if not bleeding edge, I always tend to be well ahead of the curve. There were only a few areas I didn’t know strongly, particularly with the Office suite. Of course, I hold myself to a high standard here. Not knowing how to code a macro in Word 2007 bugs me. I know how to get to that screen, but it’s different enough from 2003 (where I haven’t coded a macro in years) that I was puzzled how to actually code the thing.

I’ve been wondering these past few days whether the iPhone’s huge array of applications will be THE driving force for it. Or, on the other side, whether the seeming dearth of them for the Blackberry might keep folks away. Will the average user be satisfied with a few key apps, or will they be swayed by the masses available for the iPhone? I’m not sure, myself. The main things keeping me away from the iPhone are the lack of a keyboard (I’m just not convinced that the touchscreen is that grand – know too many people who hate it) and not being able to swap out the battery.

For those put off by the price, here’s an option for you: the Peek. A pretty basic device, but should really help move people into the mobile email space. If they allow apps to be developed it would be a solid game changer. We’ll see.