Handspring, which was recently purchased by Palm, has announced the new Treo 600, a completely redesigned PDA/Phone running Palm OS 5, a QWERTY keyboard for easy text entry, an integrated digital camera, SD expansion, and other cool features. Price and release date are unknown, but expect to see them in stores by mid-July for around $500.
This man has his finger on the button.
Who do you want controlling the largest assemblage of military-industrial killing machines in the history of the world? I may never sleep again. Kinda makes you long for Gerald Ford. Or even Chevy Chase.
Little-known Neal Stephenson short story
When looking for information on Quicksilver, I came across this archive of Stephenson’s work, including a great short story I’d never heard of: Jipi and the Paranoid Chip.
“Havoc has already been in touch with the entrepreneur in the Baksheesh-Free Zone who started this whole thing. He was able to trace the serial number that was sifted out of the debris of that mall. It was one of four dozen car alarm systems that were assembled by a particular jobber based in Libya, who, it turns out, received an inordinately large drop-shipment of high explosive—Cold War Semtex, way past its expiration date.”
Interview with a Giant
Music isn’t our usual fare here on the front page, but UGO.com is running a great interview with John “One of the guys from They Might Be Giants” Linnell. They talk about the new TMBG documentary Gigantic, action figures, and theme songs. And if you’re into music, be sure to check out “The Ever Recurring Music Topic” in the Geek Pastimes section of Shop Talk, our discussion area.
Watch TV while putting on makeup
PCWorld reports that Philips has announced a new PC or TV display that can be incorporated into a mirror. This would allow you to have a portion of the mirror become a digital display while you are using the rest of the mirror for something else.
The technology will first be marketed to hotels. Philips doesn’t plan on marketing to home customers until around 2005. Fortunately, you could make your own by putting an LCD display behind a 2-way mirror.
Intuitive Is As Intuitive Does
“The Segway HT is designed to be operated by a wide range of people after receiving Segway orientation — no special skills are required.” — Segway.
Apparently the Segway is not for use by just anyone. President Bush tried to take a spin, and took a spill instead. Click link for bigger pics from Reuters.
Wasted on the way
A nice article on WASTE by MIT’s Technology Review. Includes links to quality mirrors.
WASTE not, want not…
Torrez points out a discussion group for people who use the rescinded WASTE.
Torrez’ Touching Tribute
What was your first experience with a computer?
Being the one who lobbied hardest for a computer, I felt the most responsible. So that summer I set out to show my mom that she had made the right decision. After all, I still needed to break the news to her that she had to buy a disk drive.
She’d be in the kitchen making dinner and I’d call her over. “Look mom! If I type ‘sys 64738’ it will reboot the machine!” Or she’d be paying bills and I’d coax her over to see this program I wrote that would turn the screen red, then black, then flash white, and then reboot. (which was tough to test because not having a disk drive meant I’d have to write the program all over again if it worked correctly.)
I remember those days. Good times.
Marth Stewart wants to upload her soul into your home.
Wired 11.06: Martha Stewart is Editing Your Life (That Includes You,
Is there anything that you think ought to be invented to make all of us happier?
I have a dream – a computer screen that can be anywhere. It would be voice-activated – I’d like to be able to talk to my screen, on my refrigerator or on my wall. I’m busy, I’m always running around, so I want instant on/off. I know it can be done. The homemaker doesn’t want to wait. She wants to make time to do other things. Have you talked to anybody about this? I’ve talked to Steve Jobs, and to Bill Gates’ crew, about a technology for the homemaker, but they’re not interested. So I’m developing my own software, a home organizer. It tells you what kind of curtain you could make and gives you a pattern and the yardage. It gives you proportions with which you can design your room. It also tells you how much water your house used last August – no need to go back to the paper file. I want my utility company, my insurance company, to send me everything via computer. I call it living by synopsis. It’s very simple, but I think it will be very big. I’ve been thinking about this for five years, and we now have an outline for it. I presented it to John Doerr’s guys [at the VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers], and they said, well, that’s rather ambitious. It’s not ambitious, it just takes a long time.