Jamie Jamison On Technology

Mobile Accessories for Laptops/PDAs and I would imagine Tablets

So I found this post via Scoble's link blog asking about a stand for Tablet PC's. There are a couple of sites that I have used to find things like this, and they have a number of stands for laptops and other devices in cars. The company that makes most of the things that I have found is Arkon Resources, but I have found there stuff being sold through (and bought them through) Your Mobile Desk. If you can't find them there, then I don't know who would have it.

FoxyTunes - Control any media player from Firefox and more...

This extension for Firefox is WAY cool!

Oh, and sorry for the hiatus. I am going to start posting again as time allows, but business has been crazy! To my clients and friends, I am terribly sorry for the delays lately, but I am going to have it together soon.

And one last thing - the site should have a new look soon!

The McGurk Effect

Ok, I have to start this post with the disclaimer that this is the freakiest thing I have ever seen with regard to illusions. The illusion that happens is auditory, which I didn't know was possible until now. All I can say is go watch it and see for yourself. I found myself a little frightened. I found this one through Mithras.

3 free watchlists on Technorati

For those of you that aren't using Technorati for searching through weblogs, you should be. Technorati indexes weblogs for both keyword searches and the ability to see who is linking to whom. This type of search is possible with Google, but it must be completed manually and isn't as up-to-date as Technorati, which can index a newly created post in as little as 10 minutes from the time it is posted to a site. Technorati has the ability to perform a search for you and provide the results to you in the form of an RSS feed, which until now has cost $5 per search. With the site's UI redesign that was debuted yesterday, they are providing all registered users with 3 free watchlists. For those of you with weblogs, I highly recommend using at least one of these to monitor who is linking to your site.

New weblogging tool - Blogware

I have been using Typepad now for a little more than half a year, and I have been impressed with the ease of use and features. They have recently been having some problems with performance and reliability that have given me cause to at least start researching alternatives that are out there in the marketplace. So, today I have started evaluating Blogware through their Blogharbor reseller. I will post more after I have had the opportunity to evaluate it more fully, but the feature list for the Blogware product is impressive, including user-level login for readers with secure RSS feeds and password protected portions of your weblog, advanced statistics and reporting, built-in search capabilities, and more. The folks at Six Apart should watch out for this one. Maybe Robert Scoble will pick up on this one and give it a look and/or some press.

DARPA Grand Challenge

Take a look today at the DARPA Grand Challenge site to track the progress of a 10-hour, 200-mile race by completely unattended vehicles. The race is a challenge from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to try and come up with ways to avoid putting soldiers in direct harm's way. At 4:30 a.m. PST today, each of the 15+ teams will be given a CD with waypoint data for a course across the Mohave desert. The teams then have 2 hours to load the data and prepare their machines for the trek, which must be completed in 10 hours or less.

When you think about the fact that these machines, the largest of which is a 20-ton truck, will be driving themselves across the desert at what would need to be an average speed of 20 mph, it is pretty amazing. The machines must independently navigate terrain and obstacles. If any of them actually complete the course in the allotted time it will be an amazing accomplishment.

Tmobile hotspot connection manager

Tmobile now has a piece of software that you can run on your laptop that will manage Wifi connections for supported cards. I downloaded and installed the connection manager today, and so far it looks pretty exciting. It will manage profiles and auto connect to networks that you configure manually for your home or office network, but the features that I am most excited about are its ability to auto connect to a Tmobile hotspot if you store your username and password and its ability to search for Tmobile hostpots with an integrated database of locations for the US.

TypeWriter released to the public

I am sorry that it has taken me this long to post about this application, but I suppose better late than never. For those of you on a Windows PC and posting to TypePad, Alex Hung has developed an offline posting application called TypeWriter. It is available from his development weblog for download. I have been beta testing it since its early iterations.

There are a number of offline publishing applications designed for MovableType, including Ecto, MovablePoster, and Zempt, but TypeWriter is the first application of which I am aware that was designed specifically for posting to TypePad. It has file upload capabilities, and it interacts with the TypePad servers in much the same way as the online posting features do.

My understanding is that the next things on which Alex is working for TypeWriter are Atom-enabled functions that may include comment management and the like. I have been using TypeWriter almost exclusively for writing my posts on TypePad since I started beta testing, and I love it. Keep in mind that this is still a beta app, but go give it a try!

Google wifi search

Google now has the ability to search for wifi hotspots located near a US address or zip code. This is a really cool feature. I found the link via Lockergnome.

Datapod - a new technology to watch

DataPod is a new service that was Demo'd this week. It doesn't look like the commercial version is quite ready for primetime, but their site indicates it will be ready soon - prospective users can sign up for updates and a discount here.

The underlying technology for DataPod is a peer-to-peer network with SSL encryption for the data being transmitted. The idea is that a user with multiple computers, for instance one at the office and one at home, could use DataPod to keep their files, email, address book, favorites, etc. in synch with one another. I am not sure if both computers have to be running all the time, but when updates happen at one location, they are automatically sent to the other.

Further, users can share portions of their data with other DataPod users, thereby allowing certain files and folders to stay in synch between partners or other colleagues. I am not sure how the software handles conflicts, though, for instance if one user updates a file while offline then connects and finds that another user has updated the same file.

The last major feature is the ability for a user to log in to a secure website from any computer with Internet access to access their synchronized data. This could provide quick access to links and files from any location while traveling.

There is, however, one potential pitfall for the technology. Businesses may find this product to be a HUGE security hole - allowing an employee to transfer sensitive business data outside the office, possibly even to a public computer through the web interface. Given that fact, they may limit users' access to the service to just senior management or partners. In the end, though, this product is one to watch, and it could provide help to small organizations looking for the ability to work from home without lugging around a laptop.

Here are some links to other sites that have discussed DataPod recently:

• PCWorld
• buzzmodo
• Tabula PC