Inside View

Zoho Notebook

ZOHO NOTEBOOK offers some interesting features, including a whiteboard function, straightforward "add" buttons for adding text, graphics, photos, audio, video, RSS feeds and documents to your notebook. You can combine and add Notebook pages from other applications such as Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet and then share the notebook through a very efficient versioning control. Like Google Docs, Zoho Notebook offers real-time simultaneous editing and sharing of content. You can integrate Skype into the pages for instant chat and telephony. After using the Zoho Virtual Office, I wonder if there's any compelling reason to buy dozens of computer-bound Office applications.

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Zoho Virtual Office

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Ireland Has a Category

SKYCON GETS THE FIRST mention of Ireland on O'Reilly's GMT blog. I wonder what's needed to get a regular newsfeed from Irish geeks accepted by O'Reilly GMT? At Barcamp Southeast, I heard several important tech developments that would interest O'Reilly GMT readers. We podcast some of those presentations and we will record a podcast at Skycon.

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O'Reilly GMT -- "Skycon at the University of Limerick"
Tim O'Reilly -- "O'Reilly GMT Blog Launches"

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Maker Faire 19 May 07

WANT TO PLAY in the Bay Area Maker Faire? See the Call for Makers. More than 15,000 people attend last year's Faire. It's a brilliant show of creativity.

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If you cannot go, you should buy Make Magazine. It's the only magazine addressed to me that gets stolen more than delivered to my door.

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Why We Hardwire Entertainment

IN OUR CONCRETE block house, certain wireless features fall over. We bring problems onto ourselves through a combination of the house structure and the stuff we use: four wifi computers, one microwave oven, two wifi phones, two DECT phones, two 3G phones, two neighbours splashing over the fence when using open 802.11g, a wireless light switching system, a wireless motion-detector and a mixing desk that somehow contributes to the line noise of a 5-1 speaker system. Hearing what this mash-up sounds like through wireless headphones makes me believe that nothing beats hardwired entertainment systems.

Microwaved Sponges

WE RECYCLE some of our household sponges by blasting them for two minutes in our microwave oven. A shot of microwave radiation can sterilise most household sponges, US researchers report. That conclusion comes from a team of engineering researchers at the University of Florida. They found microwave ovens running on full power killed or inactivated more than 99% of bacteria, viruses or parasites, as well as spores, on a kitchen sponge.

Wondering if Irish Hosts Resist Takedowns

AFTER READING HOW computer security guru Fyodor (pictured) lost his web presence (SecLists.org)  when his domain registrar (GoDaddy) rolled to a request from MySpace, and violated its own Terms of Service for a customer. I wondered how much protection Irish ISPs, Irish DNS hosts or the Irish domain registrar would give to a private party. It's not unusual for little guys to get bumped around by big agencies--or even erased from the internet.

Still Snapping

UPDATED 25 JAN 07. Started decoupling Snap preview because several readers want it scrapped. We write to be read so we'll meet reader preferences.

I STILL USE SNAP preview because it gives me hover-over web intelligence. But I might disable it if the chorus of disapproval continues.

Monetising my tags

AS A PAYING CUSOTOMER of Flickr and Yahoo, I've got some first-hand social networking experience inside both of those networks. Flickr convinced me to store some of my best images online because they offered easy ways to share, comment, tag and group them. It feels conversational. I no longer felt my photos were inside a digital shoe box. They were part of a shared experience and I liked that from summer of 2004 when I first started uploading files to Flickr. I like the other sharing systems inside Yahoo! I use del.icio.us and upcoming.org to good effect. Yahoo! wants to gain traction from this successful stab at social networking, something Erick Schonfeld calls "The Flickrization of Yahoo."

AS A PAYING CUSOTOMER of Flickr and Yahoo, I've got some first-hand social networking experience inside both of those networks. Flickr convinced me to store some of my best images online because they offered easy ways to share, comment, tag and group them. It feels conversational. I no longer felt my photos were inside a digital shoe box. They were part of a shared experience and I liked that from summer of 2004 when I first started uploading files to Flickr. I like the other sharing systems inside Yahoo! I use del.icio.us and upcoming.org to good effect. Yahoo! wants to gain traction from this successful stab at social networking, something Erick Schonfeld calls "The Flickrization of Yahoo."

Survived Blue Monday

BASED ON EMPIRICAL data, Dr. Cliff Arnall of Cardiff University developed an equation to predict the most depressing Monday of the year. He considers weather, unfulfilled New Year's resolutions, debt and days since Christmas. These data make 22 January the most depressing Monday of the year. And I have survived it by engaging in some deep thought, spurred by my collection of things that make the noose all the more easier to approach.

Garmin GPS Out of Box

UNPACKING A NEW Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS meant moving aside eight promotional brochures in the Nuvi's packaging that described how to pimp my car with gadgets, surround sound, and detailing. One pamphlet offered suggestions about leveraging the proceeds of my SSIA, the state-subsidised savings programme that matures just in time for the next Irish election. These minor distractions do not degrade the thrill of my first experience with the Garmin Nuvi. I switched it on and it showed three bars of battery power. While inside, I pressed a few bars, icons and letters on the screen and it told me the direction to go to find my house. Still inside, I pressed the top of the screen and it told me my current latitude and longitude. This makes the Nuvi 360 the most powerful GPS I have ever held. Its flip-up antenna acquired at least three satellites while I was inside on the ground floor of a three story building. I'll bet it works really well when I put it in a car. Stay tuned. The adventure will be podcast.

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Image of first shot of Garmin Nuvi GPS fresh out of its box.

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