Udell: InfoPath, Adobe and others

InfoWorld: Next-generation e-forms: January 23, 2004: By Jon Udell: E-business Strategies

Microsoft's XML-oriented InfoPath, which shipped with Office 2003 in October, is now deployed and in use. Adobe plans to ship a beta version of its PDF- and XML-oriented forms designer in the first quarter of this year. And e-forms veterans such as PureEdge and Cardiff, whose offerings are built on an XML core, are lining up behind XForms, an e-forms specification that became an official W3C recommendation in October 2003.

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Nice Udell article on InfoPath, I need to send this ref to Andrew.

Canon PowerShot Pro1 (the "G8") Disappoints

DCRP Review: Canon PowerShot Pro1

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Reading between the lines, this is a downer. The Pro1 CCD is just too small with current technology to capture 8 megapixels properly. Canon's last great camera in this lineup may have been the G3 (I have a G2 which I'm very fond of).

I'd been hoping they'd use their Digital Rebel CMOS in the f/u to the G5, but maybe it didn't fit the form factor.

john

Why I hate computers: "Unexpected error ($80080005)" with DataViz BeyondContacts

DocID: 13208 - During the synchronization, I recieve an error in the HotSync Log "Unexpected error ($80080005)"

...Restart your computer and try the synchronization againl.... Uninstall and then reinstall Outlook. After uninstalling and then reinstalling Outlook, restart your computer and try the synchronization again.

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1. Chapura KeySuite is hosing my Outlook data when I sync to my Tungsten E. I paid $50 for it a few months ago.
2. I switch to DataViz BeyondContacts. In two days of testing it works ok. I have to stop at day two for irrelevant reasons.
3. I pay for BeyondContacts. $30.
4. BeyondContacts starts failing to sync. It can't connect to Outlook 2003. Retry fails. Outlooks is "busy":

$80080005 - A possible conflict involving Beyond Contacts and another application has occurred. Please see http://www.dataviz.com/BCConflict/ for more information on this error. There was an error attaching to Outlook. Restarting your computer often corrects this problem.

I am developing a visceral dislike for:

1. PalmOne (hacked up Palm conduits and databases)
2. Chapura (only because they've caused me great pain for years)
3. Outlook (every version)
4. Microsoft (ok, I always disliked them).

I wonder if I could figure out a way to get a piece of desktop software to suck in the Outlook calendar and then sync from that software to the Palm ...

PS. BeyondContacts spells "canceling" "cancelling" and "receive" as "recieve". It doesn't help my confidence in the product.

Googles fragility

The Register: "Google's IPO is expected in July, but doubts are already being raised. 'IMHO, they made a huge mistake in not having their IPO earlier as their 'superior technology' is increasingly being compromised,' a Slashdot poster noted at the weekend. Google is still the world's most popular brand name , but the deteriorating quality of the results raises questions of whether it can get to the finishing line in time. Google's greatest threat is not the competition: but that it appears to have no Plan B. We certainly don't hear that 'Google is God' so much these days.

From its omniscient authority of just a couple of years ago, Google already looks like one of Silicon Valley's most spectacular burn outs. Only by popular folklore, they're supposed to burn out after they've IPO'd, or been destroyed by Microsoft. Google hasn't even IPO's yet."

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The fear is that Google has run into some pretty severe technical problems. Their infrastructure may be too big to fix ...

Invision Power Services: Inexpensive conferencing/community software

Invision Power Services

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They provide hosting services and open-source based commercial proprietary software. The missing pieces is an RSS feed for RSS client monitoring of forum activity.

Bloglines | Free, Web-Based News Aggregator

Bloglines | Free, Web-Based News Aggregator

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Seems to work fine. I use NetNewsWire on OS X, and I could use Newsgator or FeedDemon on Windows, but a web based solution makes more sense. Yahoo is adding an experimental service, but when I tried it was out of order. So bloglines looks interesting.

David Allen: Blog of a productivity guru

David Allen

Talk about reputation management. He comes highly recommended by a very interesting guy I've been reading. Another one to add.

Marc's Outlook on Productivity: Blurring the lines

Marc's Outlook on Productivity: Blurring the lines

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Some interesting references. Need to add to my RSS collection.

Lookout for Outlook: another outlook search tool

Lookout for Outlook Download

Toshiba - Digital Media Server (DVD Player/TiVo DVR Combo) - SD-H400

Toshiba - Digital Media Server (DVD Player/TiVo DVR Combo) - SD-H400

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Public TV pledge week broke me. We need a PVR to get our family through fund raisers. This doesn't zap commercials the way we want, but it is very nice to have a DVD player in the package - so we can drop one set of plugs. Of course we really need VHS/DVD/PVR player ... I wonder if I could use the PVR to digitize our 8mm analog home video? Techbargains also points to a rebate on Tivo service.

Of course I hate rebates ...

Gormish Notes on JPEG 2000: very nice (and unique) March 2004 summary

Gormish Notes on JPEG 2000

I found this by Googling on "Kakadu" and "Fnord". This is a classic Google technique for finding diamonds among the dross. Only a superb site would mention both. The search produced about 2-3 english pages, of which only one was relevant.

Pegasus Imaging JPEG 2000 Adobe Photoshop Plug-in: $50

Pegasus Imaging | ImagePress JPEG2000 Photoshop Plug In | JPEG 2000 Adobe Plug-in

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Five free trials, then $50.

JPEG 2000 on Mac and PC: ICC issues and fixes

Google Search: jfaughnan

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From a Yahoo Groups posting of mine:


I have since upgraded to 10.3.3 and it's the same issue [some PC generated JPEGs render as black box on OS X viewer, Safari, etc]. It looks like Quicktime/Mac has problems with some of the ICC headers [color profile] that some windows photoshop plug-ins insert into a JPEG 2000 file. GraphicConverter doesn't have the problem and when it saves the files the headers are accepted on the Mac.

BTW, I think the JPEG2000 world is really starting to pop. After years of quiet I see a lot of Photoshop Plug-In out there -- from free to $50. QuickTime supports it (sort of, see above) as does GC (very well). Due to QT support Safari and iPhoto show JPEG2000 images.

Acrobat Distiller 6.0 supports JPEG2000 compression, as do the Acrobat 6.0 readers.

For document scanning there's no real alternative that's not totally proprietary. (JPEG2000 is "standard" but patent encumbered.)

I'm going to try some other PhotoShop Plug-Ins until I find one that renders JPEG2000 images that QuickTime can open. GC will be one way to test problematic items.

JPEG 2000 Photoshop Plug-In from ColorUtilities - $16

Catalog

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One good "anonymous" review. Cheap, free to try.

Mark/Space: Outsourcing Mac Synchronization

Mark/Space

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Interesting development. Apple, Palm and various phone companies have basically outsourced sync functionality to this small company. Good all around I hope.