mere funde

Category: Tech

  • Web2.0 and Manifestos

    Check out the Devil’s Dictionary and it’s definition of Web2.0. Pretty hilarious stuff out there. Particularly liked the definition of e-mail.

    A method of electronic communication, primarily used to inform you that your penis is too small.

    Also came across this collection of manifestos and other writings on entrepreneurship on the web at ChangeThis. This is what they say about themselves.

    ChangeThis is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread.

    Stuff by people like Hugh MacLeod, of Gaping Void fame, marketing guru Seth Godin, and Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple evangelist and entrepreneur par excellence. Damn nice stuff to read up there. I suggest you sure pay a visit.

  • Cisco blogs about iPhone!!

    Cisco has gone public with details of the iPhone deal with Apple Inc and seems to have made a good point for itself. This information comes directly from Mark Chandler, Cisco’s SVP and General Counsel. Also this comes on a coporate blog of Cisco which goes a long way to show the power blogging has in today’s world and how companies use it to manage its public relations. The post has excited a lot of bloggers and has won Cisco brownie points with them. Also if you read the post, it does blame Apple, but very subtly and in a corporate fashion, not a big deal coming from a senior counsel.

    Also during negotiations with a certain vendor a few days ago the sales personnel there directed me to their corporate website for more information on their product. Way to go!! How I wish some people would listen.

    I did some searching on this tussel myself this morning and summarised below are my findings.

    The interesting thing here is that whereas Cisco (through acquisition of InfoGear) holds the trademark for “computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks” (S.No. 75076573), Apple (through Ocean Telecom Services) holds the trademark for “handheld and mobile digital electronic devices…” and “hand-held unit for playing electronic games” (S.No. 77007808).

    If you actually check out the description the Apple trademark is more specific to hand held mobile devices and it is not difficult to see why Apple is not too concerned about trademark infringement.

  • APPLE vs RIM vs Palm

    The graph below from Google Finance actually does say it all about the impact (just the announcement of) iPhone has had on the traditional players in the domain!! I can’t want to see how these players bounce back and how hard Apple comes after them.

    graph.JPG

    Also interesting to see will be how Apple will name the product iPhone, which has been trademarked by CISCO.

    One thing is for sure, the customer is gonna be the king in the end with prices tumbling and improved services.

  • No iPod for me!

    iphonelockscreen20070109.jpgI have given up all ideas of buying an iPod or a funky new phone. No Sir. Steve Jobs has done it again and with style. Apple stocks went north and RIM (Blackberry) and Palm (Treo) went south.

    The biggest vaporware of recent years has come to life at MacWorld 2007 yesterday and I am all over it. I am gonna wait for the swanky new iPhone, now that they have finally launched it.

    The specs are as follows:

    • 3.5-inch touch-screen
    • 11.6mm thick
    • 2MP camera
    • Proximity Sensor
    • Accelerometer
    • Ambient light sensors
    • Quad-band GSM/EDGE + WiFi
    • Bluetooth 2.0
    • Battery life of 16 hours for audio and 5 hours for actual phone use.

    So all you tech lovers brace on and wait for the next revolution. Though I will have to sadly wait for the thing to be launched in India and to be supported by some carrier (which I hope is Airtel), I am gonna wait. It is being launched in the US in June ’07. I hope it comes to India by June ’08. Till then my Nokia phone should work.

  • CSS: The Definitive Guide

    CSS is the de-facto standard of web styling and is used to enhance the presentation of markup languages. Web designers everywhere use it to improve accessibility and maintain consistency amongst pages.

    cssdefguide1.jpg

    CSS: The Definitive Guide – Eric A. Meyer is an excellent place to begin learning about CSS. All you require to have is a beginner’s knowledge of HTML and you are ready to go. Meyer is a well known web design consultant, author and an expert on CSS.

    Meyer starts from the basics of cascade and inheritance and drills into details of not only how but also why of almost all topics. You would find details of how and why even on oft ignored topics as font and colour units used. The reader is not bored with details of obsolete or proprietary CSS properties. Instead, Meyer focuses only on properties (CSS2 and standard CSS2.1) which are supported by most web browsers and are actually in use today.

    The related properties are grouped together into separate chapters and they are well organized. For example, the chapter on font properties is followed by one on text properties and one visual formatting by a chapter on padding and borders. This makes it easy for the reader to find what he is looking for.

    A couple of interesting chapters on UI styles and non-screen media complete an exhaustive and informative book. This is followed by an appendix of various CSS properties references that you will find yourself going back to again and again.

    The book lacks only two things. Colour pages and problem solving. The book tells you about floating and positioning but does not tell how to use it to create a two column layout. Nevertheless, it is a very informative and useful book. Though not “definitive” it is certainly a great book for anyone, right from experienced users to complete novices.

    Disclaimer: I was provided the book for review by O’Reilly Media.