Jan

21

Amazon Kindle opening up for Active Content, or Apps

Filed Under Education and Love for Learning, Technology | 1 Comment

I didn’t expect this move from Amazon until the Kindle had a color screen and a touchscreen. Apparently, they’re going to open kindle up for developers. I’ve been hoping this kind of move will help developers to implement some more powerful education tools into the Kindle.

Jan

9

eInk, Marisol, Liquavista, Entourage Edge - Color Reflective Screen Technologies

Filed Under Technology | Leave a Comment

Anyone who knows me realizes how excited I am about reflective displays for computers, laptops, ereaders, phones, etc. I bought a Kindle and a Motorola F3 just because they use eInk.

I love the Marisol screen technology that I read about a month ago but rediscovered in the CES news this week.

Apparently, it reflects much better than the Pixel Qi screen.

The only problem with this demo is how bad it makes me want one of these screens.

I found a competitor,  to the Pixel Qi screen before Mary Lou Jepsen was able to get a product out the door. It’s called Liquavista.

I have yet to see a product that is launching soon with any of these technologies, but I’m considering the Entourage Edge as a useful alternative. It provides an eink display and a color display in a book form factor.

Dec

25

Kindle Replacement

Filed Under Education and Love for Learning, Ideas and Thoughts, Technology | Leave a Comment

I’ve been searching for a replacement for my lost Kindle.  I’ve honed in on one display technology, the Pixel Qi screen, and I’m watching the outcome of the following devices:

  1. Plastic Logic Que
  2. Microsoft Currier (this one currently sounds like it most fits my life, but I’m worried it has back-light screen)
  3. Notion Ink Tablet
  4. Apple Tablet

My requirements are:

  1. Non-emitting light screen (I like Pixel Qi because it supports video and text editing so I could do all my work on it)
  2. Web browser
  3. Wi-Fi
  4. Text-editing/file system
  5. Kindle reader program (this may be optional depending on the availability of a digital library on the device)
  6. Full-text search of both books and my personal notes
  7. Pen or written input

We’ll see how the different systems stack up.  I would appreciate any insights into new options to fulfill my requirements.

Dec

15

Lost my Kindle…what’s next?

Filed Under Favorite Books, Technology | 1 Comment

I lost my Kindle on my last business trip and I’ve been super upset about it. I need my screen back for doing research because normal computer use causes me a great deal of grief. I nearly turned around and bought another Kindle, but hesitated because I believe the next wave of these products is coming out 1st quarter next year, thanks to the Pixel Qi screen that I’ve been following. I’m also hopeful that the Plastic Logic Que’s form factor will serve my purposes better than the Kindle (and I think that the reason for the profile shots of the Que are because it’s going to sport the Pixel Qi screen itself).

Yet, in the long run, if I like the Pixel Qi screen and Microsoft or Apple launch a tablet I can use for reading and for my email, I’ll probably head that route over a dedicated reader.

In the meanwhile, the wait and staring into the flashlight of my flat screen are both killing me.

Sep

16

Kindle Hint - FREE Mp3 Audiobooks that use the audible player

Filed Under Business Ideas, Resources, Principles, etc., Home, Family and Church, Ideas and Thoughts, Technology | Leave a Comment

Thank you Robin for letting me know that the Audible folder supports Mp3 files. Thank you Paul for the great place to find FREE Mp3 audio books.

I dream of the day when Kindle is opened up for developers and someone creates an application that combines text-to-speech, Audio books and the actual text. What a killer application for teaching my children to read. I know the technical difficulties of syncing the actor’s voice with the actual text. But one can dream :)

Aug

28

Favorite Kindle Web Services - kindlefeeder and FeedBooks

Filed Under Education and Love for Learning, Technology | Leave a Comment

I recently discovered two excellent web services for the Kindle.

It’s been a while since I’ve looked over the Kindle space (even though I use my Kindle more than my Blackberry) and I’m pleased to see innovation and interest growing around the platform.

Apr

11

Evaluating Open Source Software Projects and Companies

Filed Under Technology | Leave a Comment

Undertaking evaluation of open source software for the ? time (too many times), I decided to look for new insights into evaluating software.

As a little background, I always try to understand first what I absolutely need for my personal project. Then, as I compile a list of software that most closely solves the needs of my personal project, I’ve always reviewed open source software projects for a business model to drive growth and hints of momentum. I comb in the search engine indices and the projects’ forums (one great gauge is that many of the projects with the best momentum are inside my CPanel, and others are on simplescripts via Bluehost). But I’ve never compiled a list of criteria to systematize my evaluation and this morning I decided to tackle the problem for a couple hours.

I hoped that by 2009 some one had put together a reliable, systematic way of evaluating open source projects. I got excited when I discovered OpenBRR, backed by the likes of O’Reilly and Intel.  Then I realized my excitement was premature as the last news on the initiative was in 2006 and the home page hadn’t been updated since May 2007. Finally, the phpBB forum powering the community section of the website wasn’t even working.

phpBB : Critical Error

Error creating new session

DEBUG MODE

SQL Error : 1016 Can’t open file: ‘phpbb_sessions.MYI’ (errno: 145)

INSERT INTO phpbb_sessions (session_id, session_user_id, session_start, session_time, session_ip, session_page, session_logged_in, session_admin) VALUES (’7900ec6a20082801c3ed5e2cc176727e’, -1, 1239455790, 1239455790, ‘d839a34e’, 0, 0, 0)

Line : 187
File : sessions.php

It’s a little ironic that an initiative established to help companies know which open source projects have momentum and are trustworthy has neither momentum nor reliable, up-to-date information. Oh well.

I was much more encouraged by the direction and momentum of Coverity’s Architecture Library. It provides quick insights into a project’s feature set, but not exactly what I’m after. I’m looking more at how to choose from my list of potential solutions.

Hands-down, David Wheeler has compiled the most comprehensive document for evaluation.  It’s also the most up-to-date (revised March 14, 2009). It’s a little overwhelming for the scale I’m working on, but has a well-thought out methodology for a high-stakes decision with the budget to do this level of research.

On a pratical level, my favorite insights came Matt Johnston, a JAVA engineer. He suggests:

  1. studying the documentation
  2. checking the community for activity outside the sponsoring company
  3. reviewing the project lifetime and release cycle
  4. and looking for signs of momentum (this is much more important for younger projects)

For example, with last release date of 2005, osCommerce, by his criteria, is dead and does not have momentum. Magento Commerce, on the other hand, is backed by a business model and has had two major version since it’s 2007 launch. It is also being talked about a lot in the community.

I found some great insights from the comments on a CIO article, Evaluating an Open-Source Project’s Business Model. In addition to Matt’s ideas, these insights included:

  1. checking for formal support
  2. a roadmap that can be influenced by the community
  3. ISV endorsements
  4. partners
  5. and local user groups.

Interestingly, the comment authors’ companies (Pentaho, Alfresco, etc.) I’ve seen pop-up in articles in many places online, signs of active, vibrant open source companies.
Finally, Keith Harrison-Broninski recommends:

  1. looking for a standard license (especially important for corporate adoption)
  2. number of committers who post regular updates
  3. and whether the project is backed by major VCs or companies.

I’m now going to conquer my current problems with these insights. Enjoy.

Mar

5

New Facebook Homepage and Status Updates on Pages

Filed Under Business Ideas, Resources, Principles, etc., Genealogy to Family History to FamilyLearn, Technology | 3 Comments

If you’ve logged into Facebook recently or have seen this webcast, you know a new Facebook home page design and status updates on Pages are coming this week. The new homepage is centered around sorting information from people important to you — family (I’d be nervous if I were We’re Related on this one as this level of integration might render them a lot less relevant), coworkers, friends and public figures (new home page tour). The new page design allows page owners to communicate to their fans via news feeds.

AllFacebook.com represents the new change with the following graphic.

You are at the center, viewing the information you want. We are already working on great ideas for integrating these features into our new Facebook application, Status King (as status updates are now more central to Facebook, there are real benefits for Status King) and our future application, MemoryPress. I want to mention a couple things on both here.

Immediate Status King Changes

Appropriately, the text prompting status updates is becoming “What’s on your mind?” rather than “What are you doing right now?” I suspect this is to reflect the way people are sharing links, information, insights, jokes and more via their status updates. Our hot new Status Tees will need to have an option to include the new phrase.

MemoryPress

MemoryPress fans know that we’re planning to bring MemoryPress to Facebook. Used for years for retirements, weddings, anniversaries, etc., we’re anticipating some great ways for MemoryPress to leverage the new segregation of friends, family, coworkers and public figures on the home page, because that’s the way our books have naturally organized themselves over the years.

We’re excited for how these changes will roll over into the API and what developers can do with the Facebook platform.

Dec

1

Jing Project

Filed Under Technology | Leave a Comment

I started using the Jing Project for screen captures and voice over and I’m very pleased with it. The sharing integration is fantastic, simple, and easy-to-use.

May

24

My Library, Classroom and University for Life - Could it be the Amazon Kindle?

Filed Under Education and Love for Learning, Technology | 2 Comments

This post covers my initial thoughts on the Kindle, a few usability suggestions I haven’t seen mentioned and what would make the Kindle THE educational device of the future for me and many others.

Thoughts

When D&H, LLC bought me an Amazon Kindle so that I could work on a consulting project (I originally refused the extra work due to headaches on a computer screen) for their new entity, I finally got to try out the gadget I’ve been anticipating for a long time.

Not only did reading on the eInk display rid me of the headaches I’ve endured in recent years, but the Kindle has become a more integral part of my life than my Treo, which I use a lot.

In the months before possessing one, I read too many articles about the Amazon Kindle and know a lot about what has already been written. After having read dozens of articles and books, familiarized myself with the technology, purchased books in the store, taken pages of notes and developed a system to replace my Neal’s Notes previously on paper, I feel like I have enough of a handle on the Kindle to know what remains to turn it into my library, classroom and university for the rest of my life.

Usability

From my clippings file, first a few details that Amazon missed:

  1. Needless to say, #1 is speed. Amazon knows this…I’m sure. I can’t get to scriptures in Church faster on my Kindle than my neighbor can in print. Shouldn’t be that way.
  2. For searching, one search result in a title should take you straight to that section in the book rather than to a list of one result in the book. Similarly, if there is only one book with multiple results, go to that book’s list of results automatically. Every click on eInk is slow - let’s reduce the clicks.
  3. Why not take a note search result to the section of the book is AND open the note to the sought after words? I have many pages with multiple notes. My search lead me to my note, not the book text.
  4. On my Palm, Mobipocket talks link directly to my scriptures. These features are gone on the Kindle. Inter-book linking seems like a must in the future. Thank you for the links to the web!

The Educational Device of the 21st Century

I am already trying to persuade my old school to adopt the Kindle into their educational approach. I wish I had a database of all that I learned at American Heritage Academy about history, economics and government. I wish I had my insights at that time recorded in notes that stay with me. I would have been able to take that database into my University experiences to refute or backup what I learned in my classes. It would have grown year by year and become more valuable. Instead, I have piles of books and notes that no longer inform my life because I can’t quite remember which class, or which box contains the ideas I remember.

I want to see a school adopt the Kindle accross the board because of the way learning the concept of a personal database of knowledge will empower students in the future.

I know this has been possible since the laptop and PDA era, but I always had two limitations:

  1. No one had convinced publishers to let me search through the books I purchase. I want them digital. And if the publishers will only give it to me under a DRM, then so be it, at least I can search it now. Somebody please get Jim Colin’s publisher to put Good to Great on the Kindle, please - how I’d love to have that book searchable to me.
  2. No one had given me a way to have it as accessible as I need it. Portable and readable (for me a Treo or iPhone screen isn’t readable because it gives me headaches).

Since 2001, I’ve carried around a book I call Neal’s Notes where I write down flashes of insight, ideas and inspiration as they occur in my life. I’ve always wanted it to be searchable, alongside other important information I encounter.

So, with that background and bias on what I think the Kindle’s educational value could be, here’s what needs to happen:

  1. Create a way to store multiple clippings files and either select which file in the add notes screen or assign the notes of a book to a specific clippings file. This would allow me to easily put together notes for specific purposes (a talk or an essay). I would then transfer that clipping file to my computer to process my research.
  2. Bring the web and the book paradigms together so that I can take notes on web pages, highlight them, etc. As soon as I say a page is important enough to highlight and note, it should become part of my personal database (I love Kindle search, btw).
  3. Provide a service that backs up everything on my kindle, not just purchased books’ notes and marks (charge me if you want to…I want to back up my entire library and you don’t have it all and never will…Grandpa’s personal history doesn’t need to be on Amazon.com because it has no commercial value, but I read it and highlight stuff and I’d like all my knowledge backed up and searchable in one place for when I upgrade to another Kindle).
  4. Provide a way to save a dictionary word to a list of words that I’m learning. Make it possible to add these words right inside the lookup feature.
  5. Create a simple note editor that backs up on Amazon, but is not connected to a book, better yet, it is a book. I need a place to take notes not related to a book (my work-around is working for this for now).

Down the road, these would be really nice:

  1. Creating knowledge communities around books is a great idea (one that other’s share). Amazon’s Your Media Library is a fantastic start, but it doesn’t allow you to read notes or books for Kindle online. Nor does Kindle help you participate in Your Media Library.
  2. A programming API that would allow others to develop educational applications around the Kindle.
  3. Finally, and this could be covered by number 2, I’d replace my treo with this thing if I were able. I’d have my calendar and reminders on it. My contact database. Then I’d have a cheap cell-phone with an eInk screen for calls instead of a Treo or iPhone. But, I’m sure I’m in the minority on this one…I’m accustomed to carrying a book and I’m sick of my phone’s screen :)

I realize the folks at Amazon are smart, and have probably already thought of these ideas. I thank you for what you’ve done with this so far and I’m looking forward to the rate I which I can learn and grow using this new tool that has truly blessed my life. It doesn’t feel like a gadget anymore, it feels like part of me, part of my life. Thank you.

keep looking »