Authors Guild Sues Google

I predicted this several months back. While I totally agree with Google's defense as articulated in this post, there is clearly a fine line here. This issue is not so dissimilar to copyright issues surrounding music. Is it OK to copy a book, as long as you don't distribute it? What about using the underlying information from copyrighted materials to answer questions? I do wonder if the Authors Guild has adequately thought through their issue with this...on the surface, it seems to me that authors stand to benefit significantly from Google Print.

Motorola Unveils Nano Emissive Flat Screen Technology - 5/9/2005 - Electronic News - CA600183

There are lots of new Flat Screen technologies out there, but Motorola's Nano Emissive Flat Screen Technology is interesting for 2 reasons: 1) it's using nano technology and 2) it's cheap! The article highlights that Motorola's nano emissive display technology could enable the manufacture of 40" HD flat screen TV's less that 1" thick that are comparable to plasmas for only $400. That's about 1/10th of current pricing without sacrificing any of the picture quality or performance. I don't fully understand the technology and there’s a big difference between building a tiny panel in the lab and mass production (as Intel would be happy to not be reminded of), but the possibilities are cool. Motorola is positioned to release more details towards the end of the month at the Society for Information Display International Symposium

On another note, while in business school I met with Jim O’Connor, VP of Motorola technology incubation and commercialization, to discuss Motorola's technology incubation strategy and I was a finalist for a position in his group. It didn't work out, and Motorola has continued to struggle with performance, but they have some really cool next generation technology under development. Check out the Motorola Labs website for a description of some of their research programs.

Alcohol Without Liquid??

Check out the new technology Alcohol Without Liquid designed to allow users to inhale instead of drink their alcohol. Sounds pretty crazy, but it's supposedly hangover free. Part of the hangover free aspect may be the fact that it takes considerably longer to absorb the liquor. The website suggests that it takes about 20 minutes to inhale the equivalent of 1/2 a shot of alcohol...at that pace, you need to spend hours on the machine to get the same impact of 3 or 4 regular drinks. Plus, for $299 it may be a bit pricey for the mainstream drinkers. Regardless, interesting concept.

Google Maps

I know I've written about Google Maps before, but if you haven't used it yet, you really should. It's by far the most user friendly GUI interface I've seen for directions. It's very easy to use and even offers satellite imagery of the actual streets. Put in you address and zoom in. The detail is simply amazing.

Google Maps and craigslist Combine

Google's new map service (which is cool in it's own right) has joined forces with craigslist (Listings) to show properties for rent/sale by location. Craigslist is limited to only selected cities, but the idea and user interface is still very cool.

Google Q&A

Google recently announced a new question answering service. There's lots of other search engines that offer similar functionality (Ask Jeeves for one), but they typically just show links to sites with potential answers. In contrast, google actually shows the answer itself with a link to websites that could provide additional information. According to an InfoWorld article:

Google feeds this service with information from Web sites it considers reliable, but it hasn't established formal relationships with any content provider whose information is being used for this feature, Norvig said. Google doesn't expect that the owners of the Web sites will complain over the possibility that this new service will steal traffic away from them, Norvig said. On the contrary, being featured at the top of Google's results list will give these Web sites great exposure, and will likely result in increased traffic, he said.

Seems to me that Google is dangerously close to some very serious content ownership issues. Based on the InfoWorld explanation, it sounds as if Google is taking proprietary, unauthorized, content from "reliable" sources and publishing it on its website in answer to users questions. While this probably isn't an issue for most fact based questions (e.g., what's the capital of California?), who determines what the cut-off is?

AntiSpyware

I figured I had some spyware running on my home PC because pop-up ads were getting out of control (despite using Google's pop-up blocker). Anyway, I downloaded Microsoft's AntiSpyware free (Beta) software to test it out and try and clean things up. While I knew I had a problem, I was shocked to find that over 20 spyware programs were running on my PC. If you don't have anti-spyware protection I would definitely recommend getting some...you'll probably be surprised by what it finds.

Monday, Jan. 24, called worst day of the year

A U.K. psychologist has definitively determined that Monday, Jan. 24, is the worst day of the year. I guess everyone should focus on enjoying this weekend because the bottom is going to fall out come Monday. Apparently, this guy specializes in "seasonal disorders"...who knew that was even a legitimate specialty? My favorite part of the article is the formula...which definitely gives the analysis an air of legitimacy!

HD Wireless Media Player

I noticed that Buffalo Technology has released an HD media player (Buffalo Technology�s PC-P3LWG/DVD HD Wireless Media Player - Engadget). Sounds like a pretty cool device, but not too mainstream as yet. To be honest, outside of hi-def television, what other HD content is even available. I know Microsoft is promoting the WMV HD format, but I don't think a lot of content is available yet. Apparently, Atom Films also supports the WMV HD standard, but again I don't see any real compelling content. Buffalo's media player also supports DivX HD, which is all well and good if you want to watch a movie trailer in HD, but you seem to be out of luck as far as full length feature content goes. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of HD...comparing HD and regular content is akin to the difference between VHS and DVD. But at this point, I just can't rationalize investing in an HD media player. Maybe once all the standard wars between HD-DVD and Blu-ray are settled we'll start to see more HD content.

RSS News Feeds

I recently signed up for NewsGator Online, and I have to say I'm a big fan of RSS. I used to be one of those guys that would spend the first 30 minutes of each day surfing various websites just to catch up on the latest news...espn, wsj, etc., plus assorted other weblogs I enjoy reading. Now I get all this news aggregated for me and I'm updated when headlines change so I don't need to "recheck" all the same websites throughout the day. MyYahoo has similar capabilities and there are several other free readers out there. If you're not familiar with RSS it's basically a standardized XML format used for syndicating content. If you're really interested, XML.com has a more detailed description and history.

Mark Cuban

Just found Mark Cuban's weblog. I'm a big Cuban fan...if for no other reason then I love basketball and we both went to Indiana (and Dirk is on my NBA fantasy team). I also think he's a pretty smart dude. Not just from founding broadcast.com or selling it to Yahoo, but also for some of his investment moves post sale. Anyway, check out this blog entry on tracking NBA statistics: Stats that make you go hmmmm� - Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com. I didn't go through the actual numbers or calculations because, frankly I don't really care. I just find it fascinating the real world applications of statistical analysis. You see it a lot in baseball, but my guess is that it's largely absent in most other sports. Most basketball is coached based on instinct and experience.

TiVo

First off, anyone that knows me would verify that I'm a huge TiVo fan...after all, I have the sticker plastered on the window of my car. It sounds like TiVo is really looking to take their service to the next level. First they're developing TiVo togo which will allow you to transfer programs to a laptop or multi-media device and burn programs onto DVD. I just noticed this article on teaming up with Netflix from some kind of VOD application (PCWorld.com - Netflix, TiVo Team Up on Broadband Movie Delivery). Granted this sounds like it's a ways off, but talk about cool. Despite Blockbuster's move towards eliminating late fees, VOD is the future and it looks like our TiVo boxes are going to get more powerful.

Namco II: Ms Pac-Man with 5 TV Games

While I've missed the xbox/playstation craze, I recently purchased one of those 5-in-1 game consoles where you get 5 classic games built into one joystick (Namco II: Ms Pac-Man with 5 TV Games - RZone.ca). Let me tell you, these things are AWESOME. Talk about old school...they just don't make games like Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position and Galaga any more. It's amazing that what once required a whole game console and 5 different cartridges can now be built into a simple joystick selling for only $20. It really puts technological advancements into perspective.