Nick's Noodlings

All the World's a Library

 

Reading

Another cool new Internet concept that I learned about through listening to Inside the Net.  The site is called BookMooch and was built by John Buckman.  I would describe it as a internet book swap.  You list 10 books that you are willing to give a new home and you get a credit to "mooch" another person's book that is listed.  You also get a credit every time you send someone a book.  The cost - just the US post office's book rate that you use to send the book to the requestor.  What a great way to recycle reading material.  Check it out!

Watch out babies, Daddy's looking for a bib

BusinessBib

The world of Jane Jetson is coming soon to a home near you.  Good Morning America today highlighted a new product that the New York Times mentioned this past Sunday - The BusinessBib.  Now you are only a velco enclosure away from being ready for your video call.  Of course, this won't work for all - no gesturing allowed.

 

Hey Dad is this going to be on your X-mas list?  Now you can really work from the beach : ) 

Starbury, Starbucks, Starburst

Sm_wall01

Looks like some new shoes could burst onto the scene and end up on the wire someday.  Stephon Marbury + Steve & Barry's = Baby's got new shoes.  Nice to see some 'ol fashion competition in an area other than technology.  A little pressure in the world of Nike, Addias, Converse, and Reebok.  I like the message and wonder whose brain is behind the concept.  I found two good articles on the "release" - both from newspapers.  The first from Cincinatti and the second from Pittsburgh.  I often hear about the demise of the traditional newspaper, but one thing that seems to be missed is that the papers do have some quality writers.  I think the Net just gives the papers more exposure and I really love the fact I can get numerous views on the same subject.

Kudos to my Dad for sending me the original blurb that got me searching,

Shuffle then re-deal

Shuffle-06-1

I am an Apple fan and I enjoyed hearing all the SHOWTIME Apple news today.  I do think that Apple will have some challenges to overcome with their latest introductions. 

The most radical and unexpected news (at least I didn't see any speculation on it) was the 2nd generation Shuffle.  The new Shuffle seems to fit well into the new lineup being the sole 1 gig option and I assume the clip design will be well received (I never did like the necklace concept) by the gym crowd.  BUT at the same time we have lost the best feature of the Shuffle - integrated USB.  I loved the fact you didn't have to keep up with a cable or dock to charge and update the shuffle.  The shuffle was a USB drive that could also play music.  The 1 gig version was well suited to transport files as well as store music.  Now it is "the world's smallest MP3 player". 

Something I find interesting is the orientation of the button with respect to the clip.  I would love to hear the inside scoop on the debates that had to occur over this design point.  I think most would want the volume control on the vertical axis which means the design tendency is clip to the right.  What are you going to clip it to if you are at the gym?  My guess is the waistband, which means you would want a clip down design.  By using the pictured orientation the volume up ends up on your right side.  It also means the cord points out to the right as well - I guess it won't be long before there are earbuds/headphones available/marketed with a 90 degree elbow in them.

The other challenge I see is the download time of the movies. This of course isn't unique to iTunes.  I saw the slides assumed a 5 Mb/sec connection leading to a download in 30 minutes.  Does anyone know what the real average broadband speed actually is?  When I was downloading iTunes 7earlier tonight, my browser transer was indicating 50 Kb/sec.  At that rate, it would only take 3000 minutes !! I've been looking for a free utility to give me my download averages in real time and historically, but haven't found anything yet.  I know my perception is that just downloading a 5 minute video podcast seems to take an eternity via my Comcast cable modem plus a WiFi router.  Sure they claim you can start watching the video as soon as a minute after the download begins, but that only helps if you aren't going to watch on an iPod.  I can't see the Movie downloads catching on as easily as music downloads - its all about bandwidth.  

The games via iTunes is a definite sign of future iPod designs.  I think the games will catch on quickly.  I love how Apple plans the maturation of the product line.  That would be one fun place to work.

 

BTW I have not posted in quite some time due to technical difficulties.  Apparently the Verizon FiOS installers clipped my cable line just enough to knock me off the Net.  Amazing how much you can miss Internet access.