Sony Walkman Turns 30
Hard to believe it, but the Walkman will turn 30 on July 1. Thanks to the ‘tubes for reminding me of this, specifically to this 13-year-old kid’s review of the Walkman, compiled after using it in lieu of his iPod for a week. Well worth the read, if only for a laugh, and an interesting [...]
Wayback Machine: 24 Months Ago
It’s nearly over, you made it. I’ll be back soon to answer all your comments, right after I catch up on thousand or so emails. We didn’t really start blogging until June 2007, so technically it’s 23 months, but here’s the archive from June 2007. Googleforce.com Coming Soon?: My very first post and it still [...]
Wayback Machine: 18 Months Ago
Third installment, you’re past halfway there now. I know you miss me. I’m probably jonesing for the ‘tubes right now. Enjoy. Here’s the archive from November 2007. Talk the Talk: Even if they got it wrong, CSI was at least a year ahead of the curve with the Twitter reference. You can’t turn on the [...]
Wayback Machine: 12 Months Ago
The second installment of the wayback digest, a.k.a. the “I’m gone, but I want to keep the content fresh” series. Enjoy. Here’s the archive from May 2008, a mere twelve months ago. Feels like an eternity, looking over the posts. Anyway . . . My First BarCamp: I’m a fan of the unconference format. Hoping [...]
Wayback Machine: 6 Months Ago
So, I’m headed off the grid for a while. In my absence, I figured I’d keep the content fresh by recycling some old stuff. A bit ironic, but bear with me. Blogging for me is very tied to what’s happening right now. We’ve been around for a little over two years now, but it seems [...]
Where Are They Now? Top 15 Web Properties of April 1999
I’m trying out a new idea. If Twitter is mirco-blogging, then blogging is, well, macro-blogging? I come across lots of stuff I think is interesting and worth discussing, but not quite full-post-worthy. So, to combat my blogger’s block, I give you mini-blogging. It’s not quite micro in size, but smaller and probably less well-formed (if [...]
Requiem for the Computer Lab
Ever seen PCU? It came out while I was still in college, and being of that vintage, I relate to it. Remember the scene where Tom runs through the computer lab, where scads of students are cranking away on year-end thesis papers and trips over the main plug that supplies power to all the computers? [...]
It’s That Time of Year, Again
I hope everyone had an enjoyable week of holiday fun. As promised, here’s the first of those obligatory year-end posts, and as is customary, let’s look back at 2008 before we peer ahead into 2009. I would have done this anyway, but friend of the ‘Lab Jim dropped a note asking to see the top [...]
Oracle People and Alumni: Share Your Memories
Scotty gave me an idea with his comment on my nostalgic post on Oracle PowerBrowser. So many people in tech have come through Oracle in the past 30+ years, and there are more than 70,000 here now. That makes for a lot of nostalgia and memories that we can share among ourselves and with anyone [...]
Nostalgia Break: Oracle PowerBrowser
I’ve been thinking about this off and on for a while, and yesterday, while geeking out with VMWare Fusion, I decided to get it done. I’ll back up a bit. I’ve been working to install VMWare to get an Oracle image up and running; I’ve used Virtual Box predominantly in the past because it’s free [...]
Remember Music Videos?
My latest Intertubes distraction comes courteousy of MTV. Hard to believe, considering how far out of their core demographic I am, and yet here we are. Anyway, the network rolled out MTV Music earlier this week. It’s an archive of music videos, remember those? MTV infamously strayed away from playing videos in favor of reality [...]
The Complicator’s Gloves
Thanks to Chet “for great” Justice, a.k.a. ORACLENERD, for passing along this gem from the Daily WTF. Alex Papadimoulis lists three types of developers attacking good software development, the Amateurs, the Career Amateurs and the Complicators. The Complicators are the focus of the post; I love the description: They’ve acquired a sort of sixth-sense: the [...]
Your First Computer?
Rich’s semi-nostalgic post yesterday has some of our readers reminiscing about their first computers, ones they owned or ones they first used for geeking out, ahem, I mean programming. For example: Sounds like Floyd had a Radio Shack/Tandy TRS-80, but he says he worked with card batches in college. Raimonds used a real classic, the [...]
RIP Netscape Navigator
News came out over the weekend that AOL was killing Netscape Navigator. This one hits home for a certain age group, i.e. mine, since for many people, Netscape Navigator was the first window into the Interwebs. Navigator had all the important firsts in browsers, cookies, Javascript (obviously), frames, etc. It was the de facto browser, [...]
Remember the “Information Superhighway”?
This piece in CIO.com, “In Defense of Gen Y Workers” is the most interesting read I’ve had in a while. I highly recommend having a read, regardless of your generational affiliation, if only to experience the emotions it elicits. Setting the content aside, the author has definitely found a way to get her audience in [...]
Eight Cell Phones in Ten Years Part 2
Yesterday, I started a nostalgic trip down cell phone lane, recounting my first four cell phones. I think that took me from 1997 to 2003. By that time the Zoolander Nokia had a cracked screen, and phones were starting to get really cool. The Off Brand Freebie Phone The carrier I had at the time [...]
Eight Cell Phones in Ten Years Part 1
On the flight back home from SFO last Friday, I got to thinking about cell phones. I was fiddling with my iPhone, listening to music, wondering if it would get a signal if I took it out of Airplane Mode, then paranoid that it might crash the plane. Luckily, I didn’t have an Airplane mode [...]
