Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category.
August 11, 2009, 9:22 am
I’ve had a love affair with the Electric Vehicle (EV) for a few years now. I wish I could say I found it on my own, but I really only got into after watching Who Killed the Electric Car? Since then I’ve had dreams of building my own EV, and occasonally dreams of simply buying one. If you would have asked me two years ago if I thought we’d ever see EVs from major automakers, I would have told you “no”. Back in 1999, lots of companies leased EVs because of state mandates in California. As soon as those state mandates went away, so did the EVs. The Auto companies hated being told what to produce.
Continue reading ‘The Second Coming of the Electric Car’ »
July 9, 2009, 4:20 pm
With the recent announcement of Google’s Chrome OS, I think the dreams of many of us are beginning to show signs of reality. Those dreams have to do with computers, and how they work.
Right now, we’re in sort of a strange limbo when it comes to computers. Many many years ago, computers were not like they are today (duh, you say.) The most common computers were terminals, and they were basically screens, keyboards, and a bit of electronics that connected you to a machine somewhere deep in the bowels of your company or university. I never really had to use one of those. The benefit of these machines was that they were cheap. You bought one computer, and a bunch of dumb terminals.
Continue reading ‘Google Chrome is a good idea, but there’s a coming problem.’ »
June 8, 2009, 4:32 pm
First off: No, I was not actually present at the keynote this morning. I was watching updates flow in through the news feed while at work. I wish I had been because it was a busy day.
Continue reading ‘WWDC Keynote reflections’ »
May 29, 2009, 3:15 pm
A few years back I started to get more nerdy than I had ever been. By more nerdy, I mean that I began to take an interest in a wide variety of things that leaned on the technical and electronic side. I became interested in making, modeling, and very much the “DIY” (Do-It-Yourself) mentality about things. If you haven’t heard of this phenomenon, it’s more of less born out of the desire to be creative and productive. The availability of materials and the lowering of costs has enabled individuals to create things that weren’t practically possible ever before. It’s gained the name “Making”.
Continue reading ‘The garage you’ve always wanted: TechShop Portland’ »
February 26, 2009, 1:04 am
In a few words: I don’t like it… much
I need to be fair though. I need to offer at least arguments for why I don’t like Safari 4, and it’s important to note that in spite of the definition, a beta product can be changed. To clarify that, Beta means that it’s gone from internal testing to external testing. Internal testing is Alpha, External is Beta – usually controlled. A public beta, which has become the common-place these days, would be an external test open to everyone. I think the accepted meaning of “Beta” means to most people “Available, but not finalized.” It should mean essentially that they’re in bug squashing mode. On to the thoughts (I wanted to say review, but this isn’t a review.)
Continue reading ‘The Safari 4 Beta – some notes.’ »
