Rugged Elegance, LLC: Internet and Technology

Wed, 04 Jun 2003 20:41:54 GMT

The Rugged Elegance Inspiration Network Is Moving! Due to the tremendous response we've gotten, we've decided to give The Rugged Elegance Inspiration Network site room to grow by moving it to a new, improved location: http://www.ruggedelegantliving.com Please re-set your bookmarks as all new posts will occur on the new site. As part of the move we are also transitioning to a Moveable Type content management system, which will allow us to add more editors while providing better search and categorization capabilities. Thank you your continued support. Growth is good. -Tim

Your life at your fingertips -- courtesy of the Pentagon

Tue, 03 Jun 2003 00:17:45 GMT

Your Life at Your Fingertips -- Courtesy of the Pentagon

San Francisco Chroncicle:

Coming to you soon from the Pentagon: the diary to end all diaries -- a multimedia, digital record of everywhere you go and everything you see, hear, read, say and touch.

Known as LifeLog, the project has been put out for contractor bids by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the agency that helped build the Internet and that is now developing the next generation of anti-terrorism tools.

Sounds like the ultimate weblog -- in a 1984 kind of way.

-Tim

[RE: Change]

Comcast set to roll out high-detail TV format

Mon, 02 Jun 2003 23:20:59 GMT

Comcast Set to Roll Out High-Detail TV Format

Mercury News:

The Bay Area's largest cable TV provider will begin offering high-definition programming to 800,000 subscribers Tuesday, in one of the nation's largest rollouts of the emerging television format.

... Nearly all the region's 1.6 million Comcast subscribers will receive high-definition programming by the end of next year, the cable operator said, as it completes equipment upgrades.

Fri, 30 May 2003 22:34:20 GMT

Pinpoint Weather Technology Review:

Cheap computer power and high-tech observation systems mean precise forecasts, offering consumers personalized reports and saving weather-sensitive businesses millions

Quite an advance from the days when 24-hour weather forecast models took more than 24 hours to run on the supercomputers of that time! -Tim

Thu, 29 May 2003 18:26:36 GMT

Home-Schooling Families Have a New Option: A Public Education, Online The New York Times:

MADELINE NELSON of Steubenville, Ohio, has been in the third grade since last fall but has met her teacher only a few times. She has plenty of schoolwork to do, including book reports and her favorite, art projects. She gets her assignments online through the Ohio Virtual Academy, which she attends along with her sister Therese, 7, and brother Gabriel, 5, from the dining room table at home. If Madeline, 9, were a traditional home-schooled student, her mother, Gretchen, would be instructing her (her father, Mark, works full time outside the home). But even though Mrs. Nelson believes home schooling is best for her children, she does not feel capable of teaching them.

For those friends who have chosen to homeschool their children, I hope you find this article inspiring. -Jen Keywords: Computers and the Internet, Teachers and School Employees, Children and Youth, Equal Educational Opportunities

Thu, 29 May 2003 02:43:55 GMT

Apple Finds the Future for Online Music Sales New York Times:

Apple Computer seems to have the future of online music in its hands for the moment. Its new service, iTunes Music Store, has been the first real success story in the long effort to sell music over the Internet. In just its first month of operation the service, by the company's estimate, has sold three million songs online, at 99 cents each. This is an impressive figure considering the limited access that music fans now have to the service.

Wed, 28 May 2003 22:58:18 GMT

Online Music Price War Begins BBC NEWS:

The cost of downloading songs from the internet has been cut in the first round of a price war. Listen.com, which provides internet radio broadcasts for $9.95 a month, is slashing the price for burning music onto CDs from 99 cents to 79 cents. This comes just a month after Apple Computers launched its online iTunes music store, which allowing Mac users to download songs for 99 cents with no monthly subscription fee. The Apple service has been far more popular than expected, with two million songs downloaded in its first 16 days.

This is obviously good for all of us who are consumers. -Tim

Wed, 28 May 2003 04:53:23 GMT

A Radio Tuner Remembers Which Songs You Loved New York Times

Like most mobile audio players, the Kenwood KTC-H2A1 Here2Anywhere is small enough to carry in one hand. But the Here2Anywhere is a satellite radio tuner that works only when it is resting in a somewhat less portable docking station. When it is plugged in, the Here2Anywhere becomes a broadcast node for the Sirius satellite radio service, which for $13 a month gives subscribers access to 100 streaming stations.

Wed, 28 May 2003 04:51:57 GMT

Prospecting for Gold Among the Photo Blogs New York Times:

Photo blogs are the colorful offspring of blogs, or Web logs, written diaries posted and updated regularly on the Internet. For a half-dozen years people have been posting text blogs to rant and to ponder the events of the day and the dust beneath their feet. Then, sometime in 2000, people started posting photographs to go with the text. The photo blog was born. Now photo blogs often are posted with no text at all. And there are thousands of them.

Fri, 23 May 2003 05:49:15 GMT

PC Gaining in Entertainment Value Mercury News:

The personal computer is overtaking the television, stereo and other home entertainment devices, now that digital content -- MP3 music tracks, digital photos and digital video -- has become mainstream, according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive for Microsoft.

Fri, 23 May 2003 02:20:28 GMT

First Ever: Earth Seen From Mars MarsToday.com

Have you ever wondered what you would see if you were on Mars looking at the Earth through a small telescope? Now you can find out, thanks to a unique view of our world recently captured by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft currently orbiting the Red Planet.

Thu, 22 May 2003 04:19:50 GMT

Camera Phones Send a Pretty Picture Business 2.0:

In the quest to stay one step ahead of the law, organized crime syndicates have become the quintessential early adopters. Thus, it came as little surprise last week when the Mafia was accused of using camera phones and next-generation wireless networks to rig elections in Rome. Mobsters allegedly coerced voters into photographing themselves in the voting booth to prove they had cast their ballots for the Mafia's candidate. Morality aside, the scheme highlights one of the wireless industry's fastest growing, and most successful, trends: mobile photography.

Thu, 22 May 2003 04:10:15 GMT

Flat-screen Displays Outsell CRTs by 4:1 PC Advisor -U.K.

High street retailer PC World today revealed a huge increase in flat-panel display sales following computer maker Advent's first ever TV debut.

Looks like Steve Jobs was right when he predicted the end of the CRT. -Tim

Mon, 19 May 2003 22:50:43 GMT

Anti-Terrorist System to Use 50X More Data Than Library of Congress Guardian Unlimited:

To track and thwart terrorists, the Pentagon wants to give U.S. agents fingertip access to records from around the world that could fill the Library of Congress more than 50 times. The library's collection includes more than 18 million books.

Mon, 19 May 2003 17:09:50 GMT

Iris Recognition Could Mean the End of Physical Privacy PBS.org by Robert X. Cringely

Security and privacy always seem to be in the balance when we think about emerging digital technologies. Encryption vies with detection Entire industries are built around the opposite ideas of maintaining privacy and invading it. Ultimately, we have to decide how much we are willing to give up in order to feel safe. Or at least, it seems we have that decision when actually we probably don't. Get ready for a brave new world where someone will likely know where you are at every second, whether it is at the movies with your kids or at the Bide-A-Wee Motel with your neighbor's wife.

Sounds much like the future envisioned in the recent Tom Cruise's movie, Minority Report. -Tim

Sat, 17 May 2003 05:42:07 GMT

Has Technology Lost Its 'Special' Status? New York Times

Beyond the timing of any short-term recovery, however, is the longer-term question about the future of information technology: Is it still a growth industry?

Sat, 17 May 2003 01:49:55 GMT

Siebel Changes Course San Jose Mercury News

Siebel Systems will hold a live, in-person shareholders meeting after all. One day after the San Mateo software maker took heavy fire for announcing that it would hold this year's annual shareholders meeting only in cyberspace, Siebel reversed itself Thursday and said it will allow stockholders to show up at the Marriott Hotel in San Mateo, where the Webcast will be broadcast.

Sat, 17 May 2003 01:40:08 GMT

Instant Messaging Moves Beyond the Simple Chat New York Times by John R. Quain

America Online says 195 million people use its instant messaging service, their keystrokes generating more than 1.6 billion messages a day. For those users, instant messaging - or IM - has become an intrinsic part of their social fabric. "On the phone, you can only talk to one person at a time,'' Ms. Gittleson, a 15 year old in Colts Neck, NJ said. "Online, you can talk to a dozen people at once."

Fri, 16 May 2003 20:51:59 GMT

Yahoo! Needs Overture Motley Fool

If there's one thing Yahoo!'s just-released 10-Q makes clear, it's that Overture Services is very, very important to its well-being. At the same time, Overture's success could be harmful to its own health.

Fri, 16 May 2003 00:14:54 GMT

Web Changing European Travel Sector Reuters:

Europe's travel industry will be transformed in the next year or two as consumers increasingly seek the best deals online, the head of Germany's TUI, Europe's biggest travel firm, said on Thursday. TUI Chairman Michael Frenzel said at a conference of the World Travel and Tourism Council that more and more travellers were bypassing airlines, travel agents and package tour operators to check prices through the Internet. "This means that in one or two years the European industry will be completely changed," he said in a panel discussion about challenges facing the travel and tourism sector.

In preparation for prospective trips to Sweden and Italy this summer, we have been relying entirely on the Internet to book our flights, train tickets, car rentals and hotel accommodations. How did we ever survive before the Web and Frequent Flier Miles? -Jen

Fri, 16 May 2003 00:08:26 GMT

Online Retailers Broke Even in 2002 Associated Press:

In a sign of the vitality of e-commerce, online merchants collectively broke even last year as sales surged 48 percent, providing a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster retail environment, according to an annual survey released Thursday.

Thu, 15 May 2003 23:29:20 GMT

Siebel Shareholders Relegated to Web Mercury News:

Siebel said in its proxy statement Wednesday that it will hold this year's annual shareholder meeting via Webcast, with all questions to be submitted in advance. Siebel is the first major company to hold an Internet-only shareholder meeting, although some smaller companies have done it.

Thu, 15 May 2003 20:46:22 GMT

Cop Cams To Put Infractions On Record ZDNet:

IBM has developed a digital recording system for police squad cars that will capture sound and video from traffic stops and arrests. Designed to replace the videotape-based systems used by about 40 percent of police agencies in the United States, the new system can incorporate data from radar guns and information on location determined by a global positioning system.

Talk about reality TV! -Tim

Tue, 13 May 2003 21:31:41 GMT

Verizon Provides Customers Free Wi-FI Access In NYC AP via San Jose Mercury News

A service launched Tuesday by Verizon Communications Inc. that gives its Internet customers free wireless access in New York could accelerate the industry's plans for the burgeoning technology.

Tue, 13 May 2003 17:38:41 GMT

Is TiVo Next For Apple? Business 2.0 by John Battelle:

Everyone who has TiVo loves TiVo; it is to television what Macintosh was to computing -- a revelation. Which is exactly why Apple should buy TiVo and once again redefine the intersection of culture and technology.

Personally I think it is a perfect fit. TiVo has embraced Apple's Rendezvous networking technology which, together with TiVo's Home Media Option, allows you to stream music from iTunes and view photos from iPhoto. I can even imagine an iPod-like device with a nice flat panel display that would synch up with my TiVo, allowing me to view my favorite programs on cross-country flights. Let me know what you think about Apple buying TiVo. -Tim