Daz3D is offering the previous version (5.5) of their Bryce 3D modeling software for free. The best thing is, if you try it out and like it, you can upgrade to the current 6.1 version for an unheard of $20USD through the end of June!
Nokia Software For The Mac
Nokia Media Transfer was quietly released earlier in June but it is good that Mac owners are finally getting some Nokia love with regard to supporting software. From the NMT site:
The Nokia Media Transfer application enables you to transfer pictures, videos, podcasts, music, and files between your Nokia mobile device and your Mac.
Looks like it is limited to N-series devices for now and requires iTunes 7 and iPhoto 6 or higher. Works fine with my N75.
Of course, this will do nothing to stem the feeding frenzy of people buying iPhones on Friday, but it is nice to have the additional synch features available for the N75 and other N-series phones from Nokia.
It’s worth pointing out that you can get the N75 on Amazon for less than $25USD (with an activation plan) versus the $600USD that the iPhone will set you back.
taggraph
1,300,925,111,156,286,160,896 Ways To Spell V1@gra ?
An interesting perspective on spam that takes the point of view that internet email systems are like an immune system and spam like a virus — as measures are put in place to deal with spam, the spam simply mutates to attempt to sidestep the new defenses.
iPhone Development
While much attention has been paid to whether or not Apple will open the iPhone to development I think that a more fundamental question has been missed in the process — why are Steve Jobs and Apple afraid of opening the iPhone to third-party developers? Is it because they have a sense that the underlying OS is not terribly stable? How many times have you heard Jobs use the example ‘…well, when you install other apps the phone might crash’. Is it because there is not really a robust developer framework that includes exception handling underneath? What is the reason for their reticence?
I contrast to Nokia (and other phone manufacturers) approach of allowing, neigh, encouraging third-party development on their Symbian-based smartphones. Granted, Symbian is not perfect but it does provide a rich and relatively stable environment for the development of everything from games to productivity apps on mobile phones. An those are just the ‘native’ apps, there are a large number of Java-based apps available for those devices as well. No word on Java on the iPhone as of yet.
With the Apple WWDC revelation cum stopgap announcement that third-party development will be allowed on the iPhone, albeit thin applications that have their UI on the phone and heavy lifting is done off-phone via (presumably) web service calls of some sort. If truly limited to ‘Web 2.0 standards’ [sic] for iPhone app development, the applications will likely have very limited access to the device itself for integrating with the address book, camera and other built-in functions. To some, Apple’s stance on iPhone development will be taken as validation of thin-client/rich-client/services-based development. To others, it will just seem a cop out.
It will be interesting to see how this evolves and whether it will ultimately provide a satisfactory development and deployment environment for non-Apple applications and services. Of course, the resolution of that question won’t keep Apple from selling truckloads of iPhones on 29 June.
Technorati Tags:
apple, iphone, symbian, nokia, mobile, development
A Day Without Google
Altsearchengines is proposing that today (Tuesday, 12 June 2007) be a day without Google and encourages you to use any one of the hundreds of alternate search engines on the inter-webs.
Some ground rules:
1. All day Tuesday, June 12th, don’t use any of the 5 major search engines.
2. Avoid Meta search engines, since most of them include the major search engines. (for this day only! Meta search engines are important; see the Great Debate Tuesday night!)
3. Likewise, the specialized vertical search engines may be too narrowly focused. (for this day only. It’s the vertical search engines that usually search the best; within their niche.)
4. Consider changing your homepage or downloading their toolbar. You can always uninstall everything and change back on Wednesday.
5. On Wednesday, leave a detailed comment under this post and share your experience with the rest of us. Which alt search engine did you chose? How would you rate the experience?
Of course, the sheer irony of this is that anyone who might read this blog post probably found it using one of the ‘major’ search engines.
Technorati Tags:
webtools, google, search, altsearchengines
Hiring The Best People
There is a lot of good advice in this posting by Marc Andreessen about hiring the best people you’ve ever worked with. I am glad that he is quick to debunk one of my favorites: the companies that use logic puzzles and academic degrees as interview tools:
Specifically, I am unaware of any actual data that shows a correlation between raw intelligence, as measured by any of the standard metrics (educational achievement, intelligence tests, or skill at solving logic puzzles) and company success.
…
For example, a classic Microsoft interview question was: “Why is a manhole cover round?”
The right answer, of course, is, “Who cares? Are we in the manhole business?”
(Followed by twisting in your chair to look all around, getting up, and leaving.)
In fact, I have blogged previously about how smug intelligent people frequently get it tragically wrong in a business environment.
I have been in several frustrating conversations with clueless hiring managers trying to convince them to hire very talented, driven and focused individuals who didn’t happen to have a specific technology buzzword on their resume. Hire motivated people and they can learn a technology; in fact, they will be eager to learn something new (it’s a warning flag if they don’t). Hire smug know-it-alls, and they have no motivation to learn anything (they know it all already) and tend to drag down those around them with their prima-dona attitudes.
Technorati Tags:
interviewing, hiring, techjobs, ideas
JobVent
JobVent is a place you can go to post anonymous rants about past employers (there appear to be few positive comments from what I have seen).
In some commentaries, the poster gets a little carried away and complains in such a great deal of specificity that it would be relatively easy for the company to identify the poster and possibly pursue legal action against them. The whole thing just looks like a lawsuit waiting to happen. In the meantime, I sure that posters feel at least a little relieved at the opportunity to blow off some steam.
No Evidence For Mobile Phones Causing Headaches
A double-blind test conducted in Norway reveals no evidence that mobile phones cause headaches and other complaints. It fact, it seems to indicate that people complained more about the devices that did not emit RF than the ones that did. Withdrawal perhaps?
India No Longer Cheap
I am not an economist or a CIO, but I called this one 5 years ago. It seemed pretty obvious that wage inflation (even then) would quickly make India less of a bargain. At that point your choice is to find ‘the next cheap place to develop’ or pull your operations back to the US. This is exactly the sort of thing that happened with Ireland before India was all the rage.
The other lesson that people have learned in outsourcing to India is that while the upfront cost appears attractive, the fact that you are going to have 5x or 10x the amount of re-work means the overall cost is much higher that doing the work in house. So that enticing $30 a hour work done offshore (versus $100 onshore) becomes more like $150 to $300 once you factor in the extra cycles to fix all of the low quality code you receive and the delays to your project by having work done 12 time zones away.
Technorati Tags:
india, outsourcing, ideas
iPhone — The Apps Go To 12!
Great, so now people are watching and dissecting iPhone commercials as if they were the freakin Zapruder Film…
It’s going to be tough to sustain this level of froth around the iPhone without some people being disappointed.
Technorati Tags:
apple, iphone, commercials, wasteoftime
Fantastic Spoof Site: Sporkk
Sporkk is a fantastic ‘Web 2.0’ spoof site that brings together all the tired elements of these sites: reflected logos, smiling-faces stock photos, even a list of quotes from industry ‘pundits’. As an added bonus, click on the ‘glossy submit button’ and it proudly proclaims that it is doing some AJAXy stuff behind the scenes. Brilliant.
And if you become inspired by sporkk, you can use sites like my cool button or Web 2.0 Logo Generator, to cobble together your own ‘me too’ design.
Amp’d Dead — No Surprise
Amp’d files for Chapter 11; I am really not surprised. In fact, called it even before they went live, back in 2005 around the same time that everyone else was raving about how amp’d were going to take over the world.
Technorati Tags:
ampd, deadpool, suckage, predictions
Buyer Beware: Magellan Maestro 4040
If you buy this unit, you had better hope that you never need support for it from Magellan. Their phone support direct-dial number merely dumps you with a ‘call cannot be completed’ message every time you call. If you actually do get to a human, they really don’t care much about customer support.
My unit shipped with a defective mounting bracket. After numerous calls to support I finally talked to someone in support who promised to send replacement parts. Several calls later I find that the parts are suddenly on back order and won’t arrive on the promised date. The support supervisor told me ‘I am under no obligation to do anything further about it’. When I asked the ‘supervisor’ his name, he made up some Anglicized name through his heavy accent.
Hello, Magellan, be careful who you outsource your support to — how hard is it to find people who actually understand support? Or does it count against them to actually provide support versus doing the classing dump and run. Immediately after this phone conversation, I returned this defective unit and will buy a Garmin. I have owned several Garmin products in the past and I have never had support issues with. Ever.
I took a chance on Magellan because of price and learned once again that you get what you pay for. And, yes, Magellan, I have related my poor experience to others who also bought Garmin. Not that I expect any positive response from Magellan. Buyer Beware — Magellan support sucks.
Technorati Tags:
magellan, gps, suckage, defective, crapsupport, buygarmin