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Kevin Kline
Track: Let it Rain[3:44]
Boot Camp and Costs
Comments
–by Andrew McCaskey
Probably one of a number of comments that you will be hearing in the next few days on main stream media as well as the podcasting world – concerning the announcement of the Boot Camp capability on Apple products that use the Intel Chip set - the 30th Anniversary present from Steve Jobs.
In moments of aggravation, especially the past year or two, I have speculated that many if not most business level users of computers would be able to justify the Mac price uplift simply by looking closely at the value of their time. Especially small businesses or the now out of favor term Free Agent Nation.
The disposable $800 laptop – a compromise in weight, battery life and performance – looks very attractive compared with the list price Apple offerings. The costs, however, remain just hidden as the weekly virus, spyware, adware, hoax and corruption patrol takes its toll in aggravation and time. Even if you enjoy that sort of thing.
This immediate cost savings appeal costs a lot. And as a small business owner, it comes out of your hide in a less than obvious manner. Much like the idea that companies can save time and money by eliminating their travel staff or travel agents and have their employees do their own booking through the net. Extending that to web engines peaked to select carriers, routes and fares results in short term savings but longer time hidden expenses – expensive employees tweaking and gaming the system for hours to get the flights, hotels and routes they want cost more in lost productivity in the long run.
The Apple dual boot will suddenly make the 80/20 rule far more practical: With Intel Mac hardware, the 20% of the time that an XP application is essential, it’s available. the 80% of the time that you aren’t using XP, you have the benefits of the low cost of ownership of the Mac OS . Sounds like a pretty good combination.
Two other items of note to mention: Of course, the U3 Developer contest for TPN listeners continues, with over $800 in cash prizes for developers who port their applications to the U3 USB drive.
And, the Ajax crew have outdone themselves this time: Two weeks ago, MS Word compatibility in a browser – a pretty good application at ajaxwrite.com . Last week, a drawing program, similar to MS Paint – novel but not ready for prime time. This week: Video editing, using Ajax in a browser. Just saw the notice, and will wait for the server storm to die down tonight and have a look in the morning. Editing Video. In a browser. Kind of like the speaking dog who only knew German. Just be amazed that he is speaking, don’t worry about his choice of language.
U3,as you know, enables USB drives like the GeekSquad Series from Best Buy to contain applications, data, configurations and passwords. These prizes will be awarded to TPN listeners who download the U3 SDK and port their application to the U3 environment and are selected by a panel of judges.
Go to U3.com, register, and download the U3 Deployment Kit, which includes the SDK and other Developer information. You will receive a confirmation email from U3 with a Username and Developer Company ID number. Cut and paste that into an email along with your contact information and email it to contest@techpodcasts.com .
That’s it – you are officially entered in the contest, and officially equiped with the tools you need to port your application to the U3 environment. You can submit up to three entries, one per category by email at any time prior to May 15, 2006.
The complete rules and entry detailsIt’s going to be fun !
Don’t forget that you can get Slashdotreview by email, with a built in flash player, arriving in your email inbox each day. Just sign up for the free FeedBlitz service in the box at the bottom of each day’s posting. Plus you can then forward that email, and introduce someone new to podcasting to SDR – without having to explain a thing.
You can download the Iotum.com Voice 2.0 whitepaper that was summarized the week of March 27 linked on SDR.
A Monthly Newsletter called ‘The Filter” : The public-interest Internet news and commentary from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. Here is the newsletter signup link for the Filter
The Go-Daddy Catalog Page is here.
The audio and recorded versions of the TechPodcast Roundtable from March 11. The video of the event contains both the U3 and Podtrac presentations.
CES CD Now Available
The official package of the entire SDR coverage for the CES Convention available in data CD form at the SDR CD Store page.
The book that I spoke about on 3/2 is called “Amusing Ourselves to Death” .
The preface to the book gives a good idea of the basic premise, and specific comments on television. (Remember, this was in the early 1980′s .. the hundred channel universe was not yet revealed )
A more lengthy summary is found at WikiPedia.
Interactive Touchscreen Demo: a video of a really cool touchscreen interface – about ten times better than the Bill Gates demo at CES. Hard to describe, about three minutes long.
Save $10 on any order of $50 or more at GoDaddy.com!
Now a really useful guide to Fixing Windows with Knoppix has appeared online, a reprint of a chapter in the book Hacking Knoppix from Scott Granneman . You might want to plan ahead, print out the chapter and put it alongside a fresh burn of Knoppix STD when you get the call.
I came across Google SMS again today- a way to pull all sorts of useful stuff from Google with the fast SMS from your cellphone.
Be sure to sign up for our upcoming roundtable. We will be using GoToMeeting. Also, be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techroundtable.
If you happen to own a Motorola ROKR or RAZR, Nokia 6620, 6630, 6683, or the Sony Ericsson k700, s710 or k750i, check out the Melodeo Mobilcast cell phone podcast player. .
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