Now blogging at diego's weblog. See you over there!

books for today's hectic lifestyles

Every few months I remember to re-read stuff from the great Book-a-minute. They do "ultra-condensed" versions of books. For example, this is the Book-a-minute version of 2001: A Space Odyssey:

2001: A Space Odyssey
By Arthur C. Clarke
Ultra-Condensed by David J. Parker and Samuel Stoddard

HAL

I'm evil. (kills astronauts)

Dave Bowman

I must shut you down now, HAL.

HAL

Daisy, Daisy...

Dave Bowman

Now I must finish this mission alone.

(STRANGE THINGS happen, and they MAKE SENSE.)

Reader

Wow. I understand the movie now.

THE END

Hilarious. There's also Movie-a-minute if books are not your thing. :-)

growth in mobile phone sales

The first big piece of news that came out of CeBIT (mentioned by Russ a few days ago) comes from a new study by Gartner group that says that:

In 2002 a total of 423 million handsets were sold, up 6% from 400 million units in 2001. Growth has been driven by consumers who replace their old handsets with new ones with new features. Finnish mobile phone producer Nokia is still market leader with 36.8% of the sales compared to 36.9% a year before. At second place is US-based Motorola with 15.6% en number three is Korean Samsung with 9.8%.

Link here, More details here.

6% growth is good, but I don't know if I'd call it "soaring" as the article does (or other articles that mention it). Certainly it leaves little room for all the players to grow without cannibalizing each other (or their own sales). Still, it doesn't yet answer the main question: namely, what I was wondering if the new handsets were selling well. The jury is still out it seems, since as the Yahoo! News article notes, most of the sales happened in basic handsets rather than the new ones, although the advertising campaigns for the new handsets were what drove customers to the stores in the first place.

the cluetrain manifesto

Was re-reading the cluetrain manifesto. Many things in it keep ringing true. Others are nice ideas that haven't really happened yet (although we can wish they had...) although they talk about it as actual facts rather than wishes. Always good to read it again nevertheless.

Java garbage collection algorithms

[via Matt]: an article on the JDK Garbage Collection algorithms. Interesting

An Office 2003 review

A short review of Office 2003 by PC World. More focus on OneNote than on InfoPath it seems. Probably because it is much more approachable.

Intel moves into wireless

A bit of hype from News.com on Intel's new wireless chip, Centrino. Obviously Intel is looking at WiFi with interest, but between that and presenting it as if it's something so crucial? C'mon. Intel is a huge company.

They do face some risks though, as a related Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) says:

Ten years ago this month, Intel Corp. thrust the word Pentium on consumers who had never cared about a computer chip. The company soon learned the perils of becoming a household word, after a mathematical flaw triggered harsh publicity and a costly recall.

Wednesday, Intel will take another risky step in brand-building. With Centrino, its moniker for a new bundle of chips for notebook computers, the company is linking its reputation to one of the most problem-plagued facets of modern computing: connecting to the Internet over a wireless network.

"If we do our jobs, you won't have to fiddle with it for an hour to make it work," says Andrew Grove, Intel's chairman. "It's pretty ambitious."

And pretty scary. Computer users are rapidly upgrading their laptop machines to use a new wireless technology, dubbed Wi-Fi, that is being installed in airports, cafes and other public places. But many encounter some sort of technical hassle along the way. Linksys Group Inc., a big seller of Wi-Fi networking devices, says three out of five customers call its technical-support line seeking help.

Yet Intel is betting that it can create a new image for reliability, and bring Wi-Fi to a much broader audience. That means heading off an array of potential headaches -- not just in its own chips, but in products and services from many other vendors that shape the wireless experience.

The effort combines ample supplies of cash and an army of engineers. Intel plans to spend more than $300 million to build the Centrino brand, including a flood of television ads based on the theme "unwire." Intel also is offering advertising and marketing subsidies to computer makers and wireless-service operators that submit to tests to show that Centrino-based laptops, which are available starting Tuesday, can easily connect with public Wi-Fi access locations, known as "hot spots."

Wireless is a good opportunity for them, they might make inroads by leveraging their PC hardware platform. What? If that is legal? Errr... well, it depends on what the meaning of the word is is ...

telling it like it is

Found this through Russ's blog: Arrest me, by William Rivers Pitt.