Author: Jake

While I get why combining computer science and philosophy into a single program of study, I fear that these graduates may be disappointed in many of the jobs they land after college. Graduates of this degree will have highly marketable skills. Computer Science teaches you how to program computers, and how to design processes that… Read More

Wow. Someone please begin mass-producing these. Simple Genius: A USB Plug That Fits Even if It\’s Upside-Down | Co.Design

Glancing at my predictions for 2011, I wish I could get a mulligan on the reputation one, which is a like a wish that I keep hoping will come true. It won’t, at least not in 2011. If I had a do-over, I’d predict something awesome for sentiment analysis. After all, we’ve been talking about… Read More

Well, this is a fun rumor, especially since it jibes with my prediction for 2011 that BlackBerry and Nokia will surrender to Android. Exclusive: BlackBerry PlayBook and smartphones to run Android apps? | BGR | Boy Genius Report Makes a ton of sense for BlackBerry, but raises the same old fragmentation concerns for Android developers.… Read More

Time to talk business for a second. Chet (@oraclenerd) actually told me about the newly-formed WebCenter Enterprise Methodology Group last week. WebCenter Enterprise Methodology Group « Peter Moskovits’ Oracle WebCenter Blog This group was started by Yannick Ongena (@yannick_ongena), and it joins existing EMGs for ADF, OBIEE and SOA-BPM. The EMG concept was developed and grown… Read More

This is too cool not to share here. How To Build a $10 Android Wind-Up Charger The segment on the wind-up charger is only about five minutes. He goes on to elaborate on the original concept of charging while you walk, using your own motion to turn the crank. That doesn’t work out so well,… Read More

Maybe I wasn’t paying attention before, but it seems like a flood of multi-screen devices has be unleashed. The Kno was previously announced, but this is first I’ve heard of it. Kno Is Looking For Student Ambassadors And Are Paying In Hefty Tablet Discounts Check the video, pretty targeted use cases for college students. Makes… Read More

I flew Alaska Airlines for the first time this week, and something stuck out as odd to me on both legs. The flight attendants were very specific in their safety instructions that we needed to power off all our electronic devices for takeoff and that airplane mode did not count. In other words, don’t just turn off… Read More

After yesterday’s post and discussion about multiple screens, it’s fitting that another concept phone come across my Reader today. Meet Line Phone (h/t Core77). Skip the first 30 seconds to get to the phone stuff. The design extends the screen’s area all the way to the edges, eliminating the bezel. The edges have capacitive touch functions,… Read More

Lots of people are predicting and betting on the rise of the tablet in 2011. Here’s the most recent analyst version of that song. Interestingly, I got a chance to try living without my laptop this week when I briefly hit the road, forgetting my Macbook power cord. The battery on my old Macbook only… Read More

If you had asked me what I thought of multi-screen portable devices a week ago, I’d have been highly skeptical. Now, twice in the last week, I’ve been impressed (maybe even wowed) by a couple of these devices, one concept, one production. First, check out this concept phone, called the Flip, from Kristian Ulrich Larsen.… Read More

Maybe you saw that amateurs, i.e. those not paid for their financial acumen, outperformed professionals when challenged to predict Apple’s quarterly results. When it comes to forecasting Apples earnings, amateurs are better than the pros — Engadget The amateurs did uniformly much better than the professionals. Coincidentally, I’m reading Clay Shirky’s (@cshirky) Cognitive Surplus, specifically the chapter… Read More

Formulists (@formulists) isn’t new. I’ve just been meaning to try it out for many months, and I finally did. Basically, Formulists creates and maintains Twitter lists for you. It’s simple and quite powerful. Automatically Update Your Twitter Lists With Formulists This is exactly what I’ve wanted for a long time because of my organization fatigue,… Read More

This post has a very broad compendium of vintage (not old) magazine advertisements for computers. Oldest computer ads | Top Design Magazine – Web Design and Digital Content Aside from the trip down memory lane, for many of us, a few interesting nuggets pop: Multi-column layout, especially three columns, looks jarring. I’ve become so accustomed… Read More

Anyway, even though I don’t really use Facebook much anymore, I still read coverage about it, and this piece today about Amazon-owned Quidsi launching eCommerce for Amazon properties Diapers.com and Soap.com on Facebook struck me. I remember back in Facebook’s infancy, Mark Zuckerberg boldly declared that he wanted Facebook to be the new internet, all… Read More

In the wake of the sort-of confirmed rumor that Delicious was on shaky ground at Yahoo, Flickr users are understandably concerned about the future of their beloved service. Thomas Hawk’s (@thomashawk) speculation about Flickr’s value to Yahoo sparked a round of conversation, even if his methodology wasn’t terribly accurate. The obvious fear among heavy Flickr… Read More

This made me lulz. Literally. Long and loud lulzing. From the mind of Guy Collins h/t Geekosystem. The older I get and the more I work with real users, the more I hate myself for being such a turd. Computers are hard, but they don’t need to be. My personal mission is to make them… Read More

If you’re interested in mobile markets and patterns, I highly recommend reading Tomi Ahonen’s (@tomiahonen) blog Communities Dominate Brands. Tomi’s detailed analysis of the Verizon iPhone announcement from yesterday is well worth a read. Communities Dominate Brands: The iPhone for Verizon in USA, means some more CDMA sales in Asia too His thoughts mirror my own,… Read More

This is a fascinating look at gadgets, specifically their average prices and sales plotted over time. A gadget’s life: From gee-whiz to junk| The Washington Post (h/t FlowingData) Most interesting to me, given today’s news, is the path of smartphones, whose average price has fallen from $477 to $295 in seven years. I didn’t do… Read More

Now that the iPhone has finally come to Verizon (yes, I realize my prediction was wrong), a lot of the heavy rhetoric thrown around by bloggers/tweeters will be tested. It’s time to back up all the complaining about AT&T and begging for a Verizon iPhone, and it won’t be cheap. Buying your way out of… Read More