I'm enjoying the holidays and I hope you are too. Updates will be intermittent until 2002. Have a peaceful New Year.
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Friday, December 21, 2001

After hearing about the court ruling that Palm infringed on Xerox's handwriting recognition patent, I decided to search through Ye Olde Patent Database to see what Palm has for leverage. As the higher-ups are always fond of telling me when I start spouting my philosophical views about software patents, patents are like chits that companies trade off with each other, so you have to get some to counter your competition's claims of infringement (see Xerox vs HP). If Palm had had a patent to use against Xerox, I assume they would have pulled it out by now. The problem is, Xerox doesn't actually compete with Palm, so Palm can't say "well, your PDA uses xyz which infringes on our patent for abc." Instead, Xerox is cashing in on something they happened to have patented but do not use commercially. Well, they missed the boat with GUIs (Apple) and who knows what else, so this is a long awaited win for their research teams (ie PARC).

Palm owns a few patents on methods for synchronizing computer systems, their "cradle with combined status indicator light and stylus holder" (I'm looking at mine right now) is patented, their "method for securely transmitting a message between a wireless client and a proxy server" could be useful against other wireless device companies, an early patent is for their original backlight dispay, and it appears that the way a user moves the antenna to the up position on a Palm VII in order to start wireless connectivity is patented. One broad patent they have covers the separate alpha and numeric input areas on the Palm. It is phrased generically enough to cover any handwriting recognition areas that are designed to recognize specific character sets. But there isn't anything useful against Xerox, which has pretty much stuck to printers and scanners. (Note: the suit was also filed against Palm's former parent, 3Com whose 572 patents I assume were also no help.) (Disclaimer: I am not a patent attorney, nor do I play one on TV. But I did just break a company rule against not looking at patents in case I accidentally infringe one in the future. Whoops.)
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It is extremely handy when I'm too busy (or sniffly) to find unique things on the wonderful Internet and instead nice friends send links to me. Jen & Mark discovered the Flo Control Box from Quantum Picture. This computer controlled cat door was designed to prevent Flo (a cat) from bringing her captured prey inside (where she would then chase them for hours). A camera captures a profile of the creature at the entryway and an image-recognition algorithm decides if it looks like a cat without anything dangling from its mouth. Within a fraction of a second the door is unlocked for a prey-free cat. Nowadays, the device is doing its work for new cats Squirrel & Ellipse and a record of each day's camera snaps is saved for your viewing pleasure.
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Thursday, December 20, 2001

I have two excuses: I'm getting over a cold so my brain is at low ebb and I am tired from watching the three hour "Fellowship of the Ring". Therefore I am going to amuse myself (and hopefully you) by quoting from the NY Times review of the movie (you may choose to skip this; I don't read reviews before seeing movies): "evil — a word from which British stage actors can extract at least three syllables." and "Mr. Jackson apparently feels that the way to keep each of the fighting groups separate in the audience's minds is to provide them with hairstyles reminiscent of 1970's bands." He then goes on to describe which group goes with which 70's band and that "Gimli could be a roadie for any of them". This from the staid NY Times. I kid you not. My one word review of the movie: "Excellent."
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Wednesday, December 19, 2001

201 New York buildings are pictured and described in An Amateur Guide to architectural New York. The description for the Flatiron reveals the origin of the phrase "Twenty-three skiddoo". No opinions are held back in the scathing critique of Trump Tower. Discover lesser known buildings and reacquaint yourself (if necessary) with the vocabulary and time periods of grand architecture. (via Yahoo's Daily Picks)
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Long years ago, seven maybe, Apple launched what they termed a "ground breaking online service". Called eWorld, it was an interactive community with a characteristically Apple-friendly environment. I recall wandering through a life-sized depiction of it at MacWorld. Standing amongst those cartoon building and friendly people cut-outs I thought "could this be the future of online communities?" But within a year I had loaded up my first web browser over my Netcom account and never looked back. eWorld pressed on, as their list of press releases attests, adding content from various publishers, Apple & Claris support areas, NewtonMail, and O.J. Simpson coverage. They added World Wide Web access in July of 1995 (not shabby at all). But in March 1996 the happy world came to an end and the friendly people cut-outs were witnesses to an employee memorial.

Two days ago, courtesy of a random brain spark, I suddenly said to my husband (a long-ago Apple employee): "Whatever happened to eWorld?" His response? "It turned into AOL." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "turned into" is perhaps not the right phrase; Apple replaced eWorld with AOL as its preferred online service and AOL committed to an Apple client and WWW access. But Apple hasn't forgotten eWorld entirely. eworld.com, purchased January 1994 and last renewed in February 2001, takes you to Apple's home page.
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Tuesday, December 18, 2001

Alton Brown's online store has finally opened so you can purchase your very own Sodium Chloride Containment Unit. Unfortunately, the 200 (rumored 400) signed ones were probably all gone within hours.
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The SF Chronicle's look into "Who killed Excite@Home" brought forth these facts I had not heard yet: "board members never considered adjusting the price they charged cable companies" (much of the board was the cable companies), "as of a few months ago, cable operators owed the company close to $100 million", and George Bell, the chief executive in 2000, lived in Brookline, Mass and was rarely at the Silicon Valley headquarters.
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Guinness connoisseurs are already familiar with the widget that creates the proper foam when a can of the stuff is opened and poured into a glass. Now Guinness has created a rocket-shaped device that releases gaseous nitrogen in a bottle, and you don't need to pour it out into a glass for the correct effect. Purists, of course, will always insist on Guinness from the tap. And super-purists deride any that isn't from the source in Ireland.
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Monday, December 17, 2001

Long ago, in a place far away, I used to watch the WPIX Yule Log at Christmas time. Now, in this place, I often use it in the bonding part of the "hey I'm from [Connecticut, Long Island, Manhattan, etc]" conversation, as in "hey, did you ever watch the Channel 11 Yule Log?" The televised video of a crackling fire, accompanied by a soundtrack of carols was fascinating in ways I could not fathom. I'd stare at it, wonder how long the loop must be (the log never got smaller), and then realize I had just spent many minutes watching a fireplace on television. Gone since 1989, the log returns this year, but only for two hours on Christmas morning. The NY Times reveals background trivia (the first log video was a 17 second loop, the one I knew was a 7 minute loop), and this Bring Back the Log website helped get that log back where it belongs.
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The A2Z4Birders Online Guide has free access to their North American Shorebird and Warblers guides. The details for each bird include excellent photos, sound samples of their calls and videos of them in action. I used to see and hear many birds in the suburbs of Connecticut, but in the urban sprawl of California I rarely see more than pigeons, crows, and the occasional hummingbird. (via Yahoo's Daily Picks)
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Friday, December 14, 2001

Reading my old Usenet postings has brought up the old saying that I've forgotten more than I know. It seems that there was once this young female programmer who understood Macintosh Apple Events and Microsoft DDE, used something called VROOOM Overlays (a memory manager for DOS programs), and knew the difference between resistive, capacitive, and inductive digitizers used in pen computers. But she couldn't figure out how to install RAM on a Powerbook 500 or get her cat to stop chewing on plastic bags so I suppose she didn't know everything.
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Writing messages and drawing designs on cookies has become easier thanks to edible food coloring markers. "FooDoodlers permit food decorators to draw directly upon foods with pens utilizing various colors of edible food inks."
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The NY Times has a poignant piece on electronic remembrances of September 11 victims. Friends and relatives have carefully saved final emails and instant messages from those lost. A lawyer who would've been in Tower 1 if he had not been late for work published the archive of messages from his Blackberry handheld device which chronicles 14 hours of frantic messages as colleagues attempt to ascertain each other's whereabouts. The deep horror of that day comes through in 91 short emails.
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Thursday, December 13, 2001

The cat was mewling piteously the other day and I said "she sounds like a siren. Hey, did the Sirens have names?" Away we went to the Internet to find a page on the mythology of the Sirens. There are conflicts as to their names and number, but here are the most common names: Aglaophonos: one of brilliant voice, Thelxepeia: one who uses words to enchant, Peisino‘: the persuasive one, and Molpe: one with song. Good thing the cat already has a name.
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ENIAC programmer Betty Holberton died on December 8th. She contributed not only to the war effort, COBOL, and FORTRAN, but also made computers easier to use for programmers (and everyone else too). "Grace Hopper later described Betty Holberton as being the best programmer she had ever known."
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A reader sent in an update on the Swedish ultrasound study which quotes the Vice President of the Australian Medical Association. He says that the study is flawed since it only included men whose mothers had ultrasounds in the 1970's when they were only used for high-risk pregnancies. He also quibbled with the association between left-handedness and brain damage.
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Wednesday, December 12, 2001

The SF Chronicle rounds up more information on the business of cell phone ring tones. EMI Music Publishing has banned the ring-tone versions of 300 songs while two rappers have been amongst the first to release new record tracks as ring-tones. These personalized rings are catching on fast in the U.S. with Cingular, AT&T Wireless, VoiceStream and Sprint ready to sell cell tones. But, thanks to EMI, it looks like cell-toting fans of "The X-Files," "Star Trek" and "Buffy" won't be able to go legal ringing their theme songs.
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Great Performances' Art of the Violin airs on PBS stations this month. The website has interesting tidbits including an interview with Hilary Hahn and a Flash depiction of the internals of a violin. The program's archival footage of violinists such as Fritz Kreisler and Yehudi Menuhin should be of great interest to those who have surmised about their technique by listening to recordings, but never actually seen it.
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Tuesday, December 11, 2001

Although AT&T Broadband Internet swiftly transferred our service over to their own networks, our cable modem has regularly stopped working each evening for anywhere from one to "I don't know because I fell asleep while I was on hold with tech support and when I woke up the sun was shining and it was working again" hours. When it is working, our speeds are one third of what we used to get. I expected glitches, and some is better than none, but I hope they are intending to make things much better, not just tolerable.
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Aerie Networks, who acquired the remains of Metricom's Ricochet assets, has plans to launch wireless broadband service early next year. One way they are running their business smarter: "To avoid the $4 to $10 fees Metricom paid on each pole-top transmitter, Aerie is negotiating with municipalities to exchange free service for pole space." (via RandomWalks)
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Is this enough evidence to stop common practice? A study in Sweden showed that ultrasound may disrupt fetal brain development. Their evidence: of almost 7000 men born between 1976 and 1978 who had ultrasonic scans in the womb, 32 per cent more were left-handed than would be expected. A 1999 study on females showed no difference.
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Monday, December 10, 2001

The oldest known working lightbulb hangs in a Livermore, California firehouse. Its 4 watts serves as a nightlight over the firetrucks. You can see it gleaming on its very own webcam. It hasn't been burning continuously since its 1901 installation, as it has been moved a few times, but I bet it wouldn't have lasted this long if it had been turned on and off a lot.
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Violinist Joshua Bell recently acquired a Stradivarius with an intriguing past. Stolen multiple times, the Gibson Strad was missing for 51 years until it surfaced in 1987 after a dying man confessed to having bought it for $100 following its theft from Carnegie Hall. The insurer's finder's fee became embroiled in inheritance bickering, but the violin itself was bought for $1.2 million by British violinist Norbert Brainin. Bell discovered Brainin was about to sell it to a German industrialist, and quickly made a deal to purchase it himself for $4 million. A page on his website has a photo of the violin and reprint of the article.
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Friday, December 07, 2001

Perhaps you're getting your female sweetie this year's Victoria's Secret Fantasy Bra (90 carat diamond, 1200 pink sapphires, 2300 diamonds, $12,500,000)? Well then I have the perfect accessory for you: an 18K gold, diamond-studded cell phone for a mere $39,882. If that's too pricey for you, they also have 18K gold faceplates in common styles and can make one to fit your phone. And, since, with those prices, you are probably an early adopter, when you upgrade your phone, they will take the materials back to use to make your next model spiffy too. (via Wired News)
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From Not Martha, a neat find: Relan uses old billboards to make handbags, totebags, messenger bags, makeup bags. Billboards (unless they are the old-fashioned painted kind) are printed on vinyl-laminated nylon fabric and, as befits their use, are extremely durable. They are cleaned and ironed before being cut and sewn into new forms for their second lives.
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Thursday, December 06, 2001

ZDNet has nicely cleared up my confusion over who was responsible for what in the world of cable modem service. Their analysis of Excite@Home's fatal blunder reveals that although @Home spent millions of dollars and a few years building up their network, their former customers (AT&T most notably) will be able to replicate their network in a short amount of time and with much less capital. Excite@Home provided a small part of the cable modem's physical network (as far as the network "route" was concerned) along with their ISP duties of email and user web hosting. For AT&T, a switchover to their own systems was easier than Excite@Home may have anticipated. Some say AT&T called their bluff and came out ahead, although AT&T spokespeople still say they would have rather spent $307 million to acquire Excite@Home's assets. That would have allowed them to gain future profits from Excite@Home's other customers.
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London's Victoria & Albert Museum has pulled out of a funk, as noted by the NY Times, and also stopped charging admission. Decorative arts museums are often the mini-holy-grails of my vacation trips, but I hadn't developed an urge to try for London and the V&A, fearing, perhaps unfairly, that I would find a stodgy setting and an unsettling journey into the history of the cultures conquered by the once mighty British empire. But Victoria & Albert has been able to generate some kind press in the past two months with their new British galleries, free admission, and plans for even more contemporary galleries. It could soon become, for me, a destination to plan a trip around (not that there aren't other interesting and more important things to see in London).
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Wednesday, December 05, 2001

Martha Stewart is making her omnimedia business even more omni by adding finance and domestic travel to her growing content subject areas (second item, via MediaNews). What won't she be willing to peddle? I'm expecting to see a Segway on her show next. It's the perfect way for her to travel around her sizable estates, and she can create a special handlebar basket for lugging around her gardening implements (if the extra weight doesn't confuse the gyros).
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Someone on the Motley Fool discussion boards wrote up an observation on how Costco is cornering the champagne market. Citing a friend who works at a large West Coast wine distributor, the writer details a failed transaction with Trader Joe's, which, before Costco came along, would've been a big deal for the distributor. Costco buys large quantities of Veuve Cliquot at $28.00 per bottle and sells it to customers for $29.95. They have not been aggressive about asking for a lower price from the distributor. A typical store would pay $30.67 per bottle. Trader Joe's asked for 2000 cases at $26.67 per bottle. This pricing would allow them to match Costco's retail pricing (after delivery and other overhead costs). The distributor declined, but, before Costco, that would've been a super opportunity. If their biggest customer is willing to pay more, everyone else must too. The writer's analysis is that Costco has a long term strategy to drive their liquor competitors out of the market. Competitors can't afford the prices Costco is willing to pay, and Costco can easily match any prices competitors can make profit on. Costco, therefore, is developing the ability to dictate pricing on certain goods. That's the power of their massive customer base and lower overhead.
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From the Molecular Expressions site, here is a 100 micron wedding announcement from the Silicon Graphics MIPS R10000 microprocessor. Many more silicon doodles can be found in their Silicon Zoo.
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Tuesday, December 04, 2001

Hip hip hooray! Our cable modem service has been restored. We've lost our static IP and there's a 1.5 Mbps download speed cap (there was already a 128kbps upload cap), but once you've had always-on broadband, you take what you can get.
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I've been known to experience yearnings for a buttery soft leather purse or a finely tailored pocketbook. These coveted items are typically $200-$300 in comparison to my usual budget of $30-$50 for a handbag. But way up within the range of the high and mighty, or the less well-off victims of fashion, the bag that is currently deemed worthy of desire is $5,300. That is the price of a Birkin from Hermès. The lofty price tag is not the only barrier. There is an eight month waiting list, and the list is often closed unless, perhaps, you're a Mrs. Seinfeld as Kate Betts reveals for the NY Times. Artificial or not, the scarcity does have some basis in the intensive hand manufacturing methods employed by the Paris saddle manufacturer that, like its counterpart Gucci, discovered the gold mine in luxury goods with a horsey provenance.

Hermès trains their leather craftsmen for five years before they can begin a Birkin. With the labor intensive work and the 35 hour work week imposed by the French government, output is limited. A UK Observer article goes behind the scenes, with not-for-PETA peeks at how the ostrich, calf, crocodile, and shark hides are carefully cut to provide only the highest quality materials. Workers hoard their tools, passing them onto favored apprentices. The result is a product that lasts generations. It is the heirloom silver of handbags, passed from mother to daughter, sent back to the factory for careful refurbishing. Despite the current trendiness and bloated pricing, the old world craftsmanship does demand respect.
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Monday, December 03, 2001

Walrus, cobra, koala, or penguin? Vote for which animal should be added to Barnum's Animal Crackers. (penguin. penguin. penguin.) I think your vote gets counted even if you don't enter the private info for the contest. (penguin)
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With @Home having cut off AT&T Broadband customers, I am back to a 56K modem. It is interesting to discover how my habits had acclimated to "always on, very fast" Internet access. Doing a little research to spur on a thought for a dinner recipe no longer has low enough overhead to maintain my train of thought. And I have visited the foodtv.com home page twice and left before it had a chance to fully load. Checking my email is back to being more of an event than a side activity. AT&T is claiming that they will restore service within 10 days. 850,000 users provisioned in 10 days. If they pull that off and the speed is back to what it was before, I'll be very impressed.
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The SF Chronicle is declaring that Krispy Kremes have made the "crossover" into "capturing the carriage trade", which is a rare feat for a doughnut. With a wine pairing of Silver Oak Cellars' 1997 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and availability at high-end supermarkets, this Southern comfort food is conquering the West Coast yuppie palate.
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Saturday, December 01, 2001

40 million people are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS.
28.1 million of those people are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
47% of the adults living with HIV or AIDS worldwide are women.
2.7 million children have AIDS (2.4 million in Sub-Saharan Africa).
AIDS caused the deaths of 3 million people in 2001.
21.8 million people have died from AIDS.
Today is World Aids Day.
(data from the UNAID's latest statistics, all noted as estimates)
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