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Aug
25
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I'm not one given to spreading fear and certainly believe that being afraid of terrorism is conceding defeat. But given the speed at which the world's authorities have been mobilized in the war on moisture and given the high profile cases of exploding laptop batteries (even without any nefarious intervention or design) - I'm pretty amazed that there isn't already a war on laptops - but by all reports it is still safe to be on a plane surrounded by laptops and other battery powered devices. Phew. A good book related to people's innability to assess and manage risk is "Against the Gods" by Peter Bernstein (Amazon link); Freakonomics also takes an interesting look at risk assesment.
Technorati Tags: laptop, exploding, war on moisture
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Jul
19
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I'm a self confessed gadget-head; I've always had an interest in technology and the art of "how things work"; often an innovation comes along that really gets my interest though probably a lot less than most people - it takes something pretty specical to pique my interest.
One of the most overlooked gadgets I'm exposed to on a fairly resular basis is the Sun Ray. I admit that it's not the primary device I use during my workday (ie. I don't have one in my office or at home [yet]) - I'm still "tied to a laptop" (I'll explain that dichotomy later). I typically use a SunRay when I'm in a remote office and just need to dive into my mail quickly (yes quickly) - unpacking, booting, connecting my laptop vs. plugging my card into the screen; I also use them when I'm giving a presentation (inside Sun, conference rooms have Sun Rays integrated into the A/V system) - I usually drop my preso. into a mounted folder on my laptop or home machine before hand; then simply plug my card into the screen and start presenting. I really hate it when you have to wait for a speaker to connect their laptop, change the resolution, plug in the power, mouse, etc. So when I present at Sun Executive Briefing Center - I'm always really amazed when I plug in my card and the session resumes exactly where I left off - usually the last slide of the last presentation I made.
OK, back to the "tied to my laptop comment". I'm lucky, I have a really small, modern laptop (a Vaio S170B) but it is still WAY TOO BIG for what it does - it does mail, browsing, blog editing and documents. I'm sick of lugging it around (plus all the associated cables). So, I have a plan to detach myself from it - soon I'll be able to pick up corporate mail on my Treo650 - so, I'll always have the option of dipping into my mail wherever I am (something the laptop can't do despite increasing coverage of 802.11) - when I'm in an office or at home, I'll have SunRays (when I join the WFH program).
One of the under-hyped aspects of Sun Rays is that they are extremely unintrusive - ie. they do what they do without you really having to invest much time in them - it seems that every time I turn on my home Windows machine these days I have to perform some kind of upgrade, malware eradication or virus scan of one form or another. I guess that's mostly a Windows issue but having my machine adminstered centrally is also a part of it - for example I'll no longer be responsible for backing-up my laptop (you all back-up your laptop regularly I presume ?)
So, where does this lead ? Eventually my laptop gets relegated to long road-trips without access to a Sun office (ie, writing documents, etc.) - this is a pretty infrequent thing these days. Amazing when you think I have been absolutely attached to a laptop for the last six years - that's progress.
Note - this was blogged on my laptop - I'll be looking at some blogging tools for Palm V this week.
Technorati Tags : SunRay, Treo650
