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Oct 012008
This post describes an interesting development over at Redmond.
The new trend among tech-nerds are low-end computers (recently dubbed “netbooks”). The specifications may be “soooo 2006,” but laptop builders can make them super small, super efficient (all-day battery life), and super slick. Pack it full of extras like bluetooth support, wireless internet, and solid-state drives that don’t blink when you bounce them, and you have a fully-functional computer that can go anywhere you do. Oh, and they’re about half the price of a “normal” laptop. These work perfectly in a Web 2.0 world, a world in which most of your data is online anyway, and all you need is a internet connection to access and manipulate it. (If you’re in the market, check out these).
These low-end laptops have Microsoft a little nervous. Why? Because they’re increasingly popular but not really powerful enough to run something as bloated as Vista, and Microsoft wants to discontinue XP. The solution most computer manufacturers (the best for these little comps are Asus, Dell, and HP) have come up with is to use Linux. That makes me happy, since I love Linux, but it makes Microsoft sad.
So the release of a low-level OS designed to interface with webapps is a good move for Microsoft, though it might be too little too late.
There are other opinions about the future of Web 2.0 and cloud computing, however. Check them out here and here.
I am repeatedly impressed by the work going on at Zotero. The latest feature: online access to your data. That’s right, the data that you have synced with Zotero’s servers can now be accessed anywhere in the world; all you need is a web browser.
And here’s the beauty of it: any browser will do, even portable ones. More particularly, you can view and update your Zotero data from your iPhone or iPod Touch.
This has enormous possibility for pastors and academics. Think of all the times during the day when you have that brainstorm idea for a sermon example or theology paper, and no where to write it down. I have been carrying a tiny (wallet-sized) pen and mini-post-it-notes to make sure no brain bubbles are lost in the course of the day, but now there is no need. Simply access your Zotero database on your iPod Touch, add a little note under your sermon/paper entry (I have a seperate Zotero folder for each paper I write or sermon I preach), and you have an instant and always up-to-date repository of analogies and ideas.
Now if someone would only donate an iPod Touch to Nerdlets, I could write a full review!
Read the details of the newest updates, including a link to get things started, here.
No one can dispute it: the iPhone is cool. But Apple maintains absolute control over the software you can install and the services you can use, so the iPhone is still tethered to your home computer. The problem with the iPhone is that it is not open-source.
Google has been working on an alternative platform for some time now, dubbed Android (for a summary and overview, go here, for more technical details, start here). Its not a phone; its a platform, that is, a collection of tools and software that runs a phone. Think of it as an operating system for your cell, and in this case that operating system is free and open-source (for the most part).
The Android platform has been in development for over a year, and today marks the official announcement of the first phone to utilize that platform: the T-Mobile G1, otherwise known as the HTC Dream, and includes a full slide out keyboard and a touch screen interface. Like the iPhone, it will play music (purchases are through Amazon’s DRM-free music store), support podcasts, and include an application store for community-produced software.
Ars Technica reports:
In addition to being chock full of Google’s open source goodness, the
companies have worked to ensure that the Android-enabled Dream is chock
full of familiar features and apps. Users will have one-click access to
all of Google’s mobile apps, such as Gmail, Google Maps (including
street view, a feature that is infuriatingly missing from the iPhone),
Google talk, Google Calendar, and more.
Check out the full story here.
Update: Read The New York Times’s take, complete with pretty pictures.
The most recent iPhone iteration (yes, there are still lines at Apple stores nationwide) has apparently inspired Vern Poythress to offer up some reflections about science and technology within a Christian worldview. Really interesting stuff, particularly the positive connection between technology and dominion, and the negative warning against technological messianism.
May 282008
If you’re anything like me you have a compulsive need to take notes on anything you read combined with a compulsive fear of writing in books. This has been a problem for me. Pencils are no good since the graphite eventually smudges and gets all over the place; colored pencils are better but are not completely erasable. 
Well, 3M just might have a solution, as noted here for a slightly different purpose. Underline away! And without fear that someday your notes will appear out-dated and silly! …. Someday I might actually post something about theology…
