• Turn your iPhone into an office - CNET Reviews
  review of multiple iPhone productivity applications
  (tags: iphone productivity)

• How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains - NYTimes.com
  "As head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. David A. Kessler served two presidents and battled Congress and Big Tobacco. But the Harvard-educated pediatrician discovered he was helpless against the forces of a chocolate chip cookie."
  (tags: addiction health nutrition)
• Why a Mac is really the only option. Can your PC do this? – The Next Web
  Cool laptop ... Gotta take a look!
  (tags: mca pc transformers Humor)

• Review: Skooba Checkthrough Brief helps speed you through airport security
  Check out product photos of the Skooba Checkthrough Brief checkpoint friendly bag. From Garry Bartle
  (tags: Travel, TSA, laptop)
• Tweeting Freedom in Iran
  (tags: Freedom Twitter SocialMedia Iran)

Steve Benson, editorial cartoonist for the Arizona Republic, offered concise commentary this morning on the value of social networking in the Iranian freedom conflict.



Technorati Tags: Freedom, Twitter, SocialMedia, Iran

• Abacus Tech Support
  (tags: Abacus TechSupport TundraComics)

My daughter gave me a great card for Father's Day that shared a bit of technical support history from the wise folks at Tundra Comics.  I wonder how you do CTL-ALT-DEL on an abacus!



Technorati Tags: Abacus, TechSupport, TundraComics

• Mormon Channel / LDS Radio: New iPhone app is here
  "The new iPhone and iPod touch application is finally here! Get the new app for free in the iTunes store."
  (tags: iphone lds radio mormon)

• Timothy Karr: If You Love the iPhone, Set It Free
  "Nine of the 10 most popular phones are locked into exclusive deals with the few wireless carriers that dominate the market. That means that as long as carriers reserve the right to cripple the phone's best features, block full access to the Internet and stick customers with astronomical bills, you're not getting the real Internet from your shiny new handheld."
  (tags: iphone smartphone mobile mobility)
• iPhone and UPS: A Great Combination
  (tags: iPhone Apple UPS Logistics China)

Just before 10:00 Arizona time this morning, the doorbell rang to announce a much-anticipated delivery. The friendly UPS delivery guy dropped off my new iPhone 3GS that I ordered last week!  So, instead of standing in line at the Apple store, I now have the coveted prize in my hot little hands.

I was very impressed with the series of emails from Apple keeping me updated on the progress of my order and with the UPS tracking system showing daily progress of my package from Shenzen, China to Mesa, AZ, via Hong Kong, Alaska and Kentucky, including a purposeful delay in Louisville so it wouldn't arrive too soon.  I won't presume to understand the logic in that seemingly circuitous routing, but I find it fascinating that worldwide logistics works so smoothly over such wide distances in such huge volumes.

Next step ... crank up the phone!


Technorati Tags: iPhone, Apple, UPS, Logistics, China

• Does the U.S. Senate Want a Verizon iPhone? Sounds like government meddling to me.
  "Yesterday the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a hearing titled “The Consumer Wireless Experience.” "The hearing follows on the heels of a letter from s"ome of the committee members asking acting FCC Chairman Michael J. Copps to have his agency review the practice of exclusive arrangements between carriers and handset manufacturers such as AT&T and Apple, or Sprint and Palm."
  (tags: iphone at&t sprint pre palm mobile mobility)
• Evolving Absolute Truth, Twitter Style
  (tags: Twitter Blog SocialMedia Truth)
• Betting on the Cloud
  (tags: CloudComputing AmazonWebServices)

Poor Dilbert.  Will he ever find real happiness in an increasingly virtual world?



As geeky and shy as I was during my dating years (I actually walked around with a slide rule on my belt), I still preferred to talk to young women face to face, rather than on the phone.  I doubt I would have been very adept at virtual dating.

Technorati Tags: Humor, Dilbert, SocialMedia

To what sources do you look for truth?  Could it be that we put a wee too much credence in what we read (or re-tweet) on Twitter?  Thanks to Geek & Poke for the wry analysis.





Technorati Tags: Twitter, Blog, SocialMedia, Truth

I learned this morning of about a Isos Technology, a small Tempe, AZ, based company that is betting its business on cloud computing:

"Isos Technology has moved their entire server infrastructure into the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud.  All web, application and database server components have been installed and bundled in Amazon Machine Images (AMI), which can be used to create cloned instances of each migrated server.  All persistent data has been moved to Amazon's Elastic Block Storage (EBS) drives, ensuring the data is not lost if the servers are shut down.  An additional benefit is that any of these drives can be moved to new instances of the AMIs for instant scalability if the load on any of the components warrants the addition of a new instance.  The server instances are reserved instances which guarantee availability and decrease costs.  Elastic IP addresses have been associated with the new servers and registered with Isos' registrar to allow the outside world access to all of the content which was previously available from Isos."

With all the focus on cloud computing today, it is always interesting to learn of companies that are actually using this technology.  It will be interesting to hear from Isos in a couple of years to learn if they made the right decision.

Technorati Tags: CloudComputing, AmazonWebServices

• Kantara Initiative - Fostering Interoperable Identity-Enabled Solutions
  (tags: Sun Microsystems Identity IdentityManagement DigitalIdentity Kantara Oracle)
• "The Book of Jer3miah" - Not Just for Mormons Anymore - NYTimes.com
  "A tight, suspenseful little series wrapping up its first season today, may just have what it takes to get web audiences to utter the words “Mormon conspiracy thriller” without a touch of irony."
  (tags: video BYU JaredCardon mormon)
• Walt Mossberg Reviews New Apple iPhone 3G S and OS 3.0 - WSJ.com
  "Like a shark, Apple must keep moving. This week, it is introducing two new products designed to consolidate and increase its position as the leader in this new generation of hand-held computers."
  (tags: iphone mobile mobility)

Today market the official launch of the Kantara Initiative, "a new organization formed to solve the harmonization and interoperability challenges that currently exist among identity-enabled enterprise, Web 2.0 and Web-based applications and services. Kantara Initiative has been founded to collaboratively foster the innovation required for broad adoption of interoperable identity-enabled solutions across industries, regions and fixed and mobile networks."

Roger Sullivan, vice president Oracle Identity Management, has been elected president of the 2009 Kantara Initiative Board of Trustees.  Sun Microsystems is an initial member of the Board of Trustees.

I look forward to participating in this initiative as it moves forward.

Technorati Tags: Sun Microsystems, Identity, IdentityManagement, DigitalIdentity, Kantara, Oracle