Monday June 07, 2004

I got a call from Apple Computer this morning asking me how I like my iPod. I was somewhat surprised they called since I bought it back in August of 2002, but hey, they were also asking me about new features that I'd like to see in future iPods, which was cool. But it became apparent at some point that I was being asked about an iPod I had supposedly bought this past January. Which I hadn't. Dismissing that as a glitch, we terminated the call.

But I've learned to pay attention to small anomalies like this and to root cause them. As when a bank mailing showed up at my home several months ago, addressed to someone who has never lived at my address. Odd. Throw it out, assuming some silly mistake? Long story short, I did follow up and determined that someone had opened a credit card account against my social security number and run up a bill that was now being sent to collection. Interestingly, while Capital One seemed completely unable to determine at the time they opened the account that the name, sex, and address of the person who opened the account did not match any of my particulars, it was not until they were owed real money that they were able to find my real address for collection purposes. A pox on them.

Back to Apple. A second call to Apple determined that not only was there an iPod on my account, there were two 20" flat-panel iMacs, too. After being told I'd need to have my police department or credit card company contact Apple's Security Department, I was eventually able to speak to someone at Apple who determined that no charges for those items had been made against my credit card and, in all probability, there had been some sort of corruption of the AppleCare database that intermixed other customers' items with my own. So, this one was a false alarm.

But these days, it pays to follow up and check out all of these seemingly small anomalies. (2004-06-07 12:02:32.0) Permalink Comments [0]

As mentioned previously, I'm an RSS convert; I get it. Being able to track a large number of information feeds quickly and efficiently is a Good Thing. However.

Client-side RSS aggregators are....limiting? Ultimately a dumb idea? I suppose they are okay if you lug the same client around with you wherever you go, but Please. How, 20th century. Your list of sites to be aggregated should live in the network, not on your laptop or PDA or cellphone or workstation. Accessible from everywhere. Preferably using a browser, which is pretty close to a ubiquitous access method at this point.

I spoke with Tim Bray about this and he suggested I check out bloglines.com, a free service that does just what I want -- browser access to my preferred list of RSS feeds from anywhere. The interface is clunky compared to NetNewsWire, but it's early days yet. Try it, you'll like it. (2004-06-07 11:36:50.0) Permalink Comments [0]

I put JDS on my laptop just after Winter Break. I've had this L470 Fujitsu machine forever or so it seems. It's a ~300 MHz P2 with < 256MB of memory and a small disk -- small enough that I had to wipe my Win98SE installation and switch totally to JDS.

Well, I've never looked back except to laugh. Switching to JDS was like getting a virtual processor upgrade. Admittedly, I'm using the machine for mostly e-mail and web browsing when I travel, but I also use it for creating and giving presos with SO7 and it works like a champ -- much more responsive and, heck, it's UNIX. No more swapping brain cells when I move from my SunRay to my laptop.

One quick installation story. First, I thought it overall went very well and I was impressed by the GUI. I did have to pay $15 for a modem driver, but I'm not complaining. My story starts at the start of the installation process. As the installer chugged through the first install CD, I got called away for a meeting and didn't return for several hours. At which point I found the machine totally non-responsive -- screen blank, system quiet, wiggling the mouse and pressing keys had no effect, etc. This had happened to me once before and I'd had to power cycle and start the installation again. This time I impulsively hit the Sleep/Resume button instead -- since this button had never worked correctly under Win98SE for the years I'd been using the machine, I honestly don't know why I even bothered. I was surprised I even remembered there was such a button. Poof. Please load the 2nd CD to continue the installation. Such a simple thing, such a happy user.

I've also been able to disconnect the CD dock, disconnect the machine from the network by unplugging the ethernet cable, put it to sleep by closing the lid and then bring it back to my office after a meeting and have it just keep working. Never, ever worked under Win98SE. (2004-06-07 11:35:11.0) Permalink Comments [0]

I didn't get Really Simple Syndication RSS until I installed NetNewsWire on my 15-inch flat panel iMac at home. It's very convenient to be able to track the new content on several favorite sites from one central application. BBC, The Register, and Slashdot all supply RSS feeds.

I hear the latest version of the RSS spec is starting to allow more than text content and I wonder where that will lead. If RSS channels can contain HTML, then doesn't an aggregator like NetNewsWire start to become a lot more like a browser? So wouldn't you want to use a browser for handling your RSS channels? And if channels become graphical, then doesn't dealing with RSS channels become sort of like dealing with channels in a portal server? Does this mean that RSS readers are going to become the moral equivalent of client-side, personal portal servers?

If that's the case, then why not do all of your RSS aggregation and management in a real, server-side portal server instead? That way, you can leverage the existing technology, and -- more important -- you can access your RSS feeds from any location and any device? Right now, my aggregator is stuck on my Mac at home, which is pretty limiting. (2004-06-07 11:33:21.0) Permalink Comments [1]