Jon Udell on synchronizing data transactions: visions of Microsoft and Google

Jon Udell: Dueling simplicities

A deceptive title. No Udell essay is truly simple. He's looking at some big issues in this blog -- Google and Microsoft's dueling visions for the semantic web. Interesting background on Google Base as well.

Note Jon's hint about what he thinks Google will do with Firefox -- embed data services into the browser, so it will be tightly bound to GoogleBase. Both IE and Netscape have had similar visions at various times. Application developers are always looking for persistent stores, here we're talking about a secure persistent store that would be available anywhere. Start your work on one machine, continue on another ...

On the other hand Microsoft is tackling the synchronization problem that killed Palm (Microsoft used Outlook/Exchange sync to kill the PalmOS, and Palm helped them.). Using an open source class license.

Note also Udell's method for integrating GoogleBase and del.icio.us views of his bike trails. Cringely and Udell are my two favorite tech writers, but Jon Udell strains my brain more...

Yes, this feels like 1995 again, when a thousand flowers bloomed (only to be cut down @1999 ...)

Finding coders for small IT projects

A review of RentACoder. These sites are not necessarily offshore.

The Healthcare IT Guy: How to dip your feet into offshore custom development of medical/clinical software

I’ve been using an auction-style service known as RentACoder. Their business model is simple: if you need software related work done you create an account, describe what you want done, and within 24 to 48 hours you will have a bunch of developers from all over the world bid on your project. You take your time to decide on what you want and RentACoder (RAC) will provide ratings, previous work history, etc. Once you’ve selected a “coder” RAC will escrow the project funds and tell the developer to initiate work; during the project you can keep contact directly with the developer and through the RAC website’s messaging system. Their website isn’t the friendliest in the world and the messaging system is a bit difficult but if you dispute anything they want you to document it through their system to ensure non-repudiation.

Interesting IT blog, I need to review the back issues. (I just realized last night that I would be better served reading back issues of the best blogs than reading current issues of so-so blogs. Duhhh.)

Cableyoyo

About Cableyoyo

Cableyoyo is a small, ultra-thin product with a big mission: to reduce cable clutter and bring order to your desktops or floors. Designed and produced by Bluelounge, Cableyoyo's minimalist casing relieves the eyesore of unmanaged cords, and protects them from damage due to twisting and tangling.

We all need one. Lovely web site too.

The iPod Updater is model specific -- how dumb is that?

i'd wondered why my hard drive had several vesions of iPod Updater on it. For all I know I've deleted some of them as rendundant. It turns out that that updateres are iPod specific.:

MacInTouch: timely news and tips about the Apple Macintosh: "We've run into a common problem with iTunes refusing to transfer purchased music to an older-model iPod, and the answer is unintuitive to the uninitiated. The issue, it turns out, is that the iPod user must manually update the iPod's firmware to support Apple's latest digital content control system, and this is a confusing process.

The iPod owner runs Apple's Software Update, which finds a new iPod Updater utility and 'installs' it on the hard drive, so the iPod owner thinks the job is done and can't understand why the iPod won't accept purchased iTunes. In fact, though, you must search your disk for 'iPod Updater' and run that program while the iPod is connected to the computer, following its instructions.

To add to the confusion, the latest iPod Updaters display misleading error messages when used with older iPods, and the only 'clean' way to do the job is to go to Apple's support site, locate and download an older iPod updater and then run that.

This is really, really, dumb.

An OS X application that can import MacDraw and similar vector graphic images

EazyDraw "is a vector-based drawing application for technical drawings, illustrations, icons, logos, and similar graphics, with support for Claris Draw, MacDraw, and MacDraw II formats including conservation of all vector information. This release adds a new tape measuring tool, smart guidelines, an interactive cursor, expanded support for multi-layer drawings, cloaking of full layers, an Align to Grid palette, new Enabled Actions for layers, and more. EazyDraw is $115 ($95 download) for Mac OS X 10.2 and through 10.4. (Macintouch)"

Firefox Bug: rendering page incorrectly

I'm using FF 1.5. It's a great OS X browser -- very fast and pretty reliable. Despite being RC 3, however, some sites aren't rendering correctly. My hunch is the fault is Firefox's.

For a bug report I'm sending in, here's a screen capture:

Disposable Email Address Services - a review

An good survey of Disposable Email Address Services. They may be used for good or evil.