Not sure I can call these “disrupting” technologies, but I believe that they will have a huge, tangible impact on our lives (both home and work) over the course of the next couple of years.

Rising Worldwide Demand for UWB, ZigBee Chipsets - The Wireless Weblog - wireless.weblogsinc.com

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From Hack-A-Day, WeetHet - Boot from USB Flash drive. Now I just have to get a USB drive…but when I do, I want to be able to boot from it!

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In addition to the Google stuff, the other company I’m keeping an eye on is Laszlo Systems. Marc is too. I think they have a great idea, good execution, and now some financial backing. Way to go OpenSource!

I created a Gallery/Photoblox integration for the ANVL home page (top right) to show the last 5 pictures uploaded to my picture gallery. Pretty easy (the PHP was the hard part for me; Laszlo was cake), and I loved it. Check out the Laszlo demos for some serious eye-candy (well, for geeks). I wonder what that email client will look like…

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Mere minutes after I wrote the prior entry about Google Desktop, I’m scanning my RSS feeds (boy, I love RSS), and I found this — another “stealth” technology from Google. Check it out — a Google IM client from within the Google image app (Picasa)!

Read the entry, and draw your own conclusions. I’m really thinking that Google is positioning themselves well for taking over the desktop. After reading this, I checked the GOOG stock, and it’s at 145. From 100 on 8/19 to 145 on 10/15. 45% in less than 60 days. I might have to buy some even at 145…wow.

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So, I went for it. Sure, it’s Beta. But, after doing some blog research and reading the FAQ and privacy statement, I took a gamble.

And so far, so good. Initial indexing went pretty quickly (relatively painless), and ease of use is superb. It might not have the same level of integrated functionality as Blinkx, or the reputed nicer interface of Copernic,
but I do like the way it reports search results from my computer along with web results when you do a normal Google search.

BTW, I installed and tried Blinkx for about a week, but ended up uninstalling it. The indexing kept getting in the way when I didn’t want it (like when I came back from Hibernate mode, or when I was downloading email). High disk I/O stinks. Plus, although the ability to cross-reference web pages with web search, blog, local docs, and product searches is a nice idea, I ended up not using this enough to forgive the lame-ass I/O impacts.

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…filed under the “How the heck does the Average Joe deal with this?” department…

So, I have a scanner. A nice high-resolution full-size flat-bed scanner. A Umax Astra 1200S, if you must know. I’ve had it for close to 10 years now (I got it while I was working for Andersen Consulting).

It’s a good scanner (for what I need - scanning in pictures and documents and the like - nothing fancy). And until tonight, it was sitting on a corner of my desk, gathering dust.

The problem wasn’t that I didn’t want to use it, or was too lazy to hook it up (well, laziness played a small part in the equation, I must admit). The real meat of the matter is that Umax decided against publishing drivers for the dang thing (the ISA SCSI controller specifically) for Windows 2000. Win98, no problem. WinXP, maybe. Win2000, SOL.

And since the SCSI card that was shipped with the scanner is/was a proprietary model, I spent some time a while back trying to get the dang thing to work, but after a while I gave up.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, when I realized that my son is starting to churn out a large amount of artwork (some of it pretty good for a 4-year-old), and “wouldn’t it be nice to be able to scan this in for posterity?” So, my quest for W2K drivers began anew.

Luckily, this time around, things were a little easier. Through the magic that is Google, I got a couple of hits on the model number that I pulled off the SCSI card itself. Via those hits, I found a forum where I got a link to the German Umax site (mind you, the Umax USA site was very unhelpful, to the point where I almost gave up again).

Once I found the right page with info on the drivers and some basic installation troubleshooting (ok, most of it was in German, but hey! Google translates too!), I went to install the SCSI card in my new Dell SC400. Well, looky-there, it’s an ISA card, and my Dell only has PCI slots. So, time to dust off the backup machine…

Once I got the card installed and the scanner connected and the driver installed (which I had to force to install and then configure manually to use address space 340h), it actually all…just…worked! I was able to make my first scan, and now, I’m a happy camper.

Thus, my question: what would have happened if I wasn’t a serious geek who was driven to figure this out? Probably, the answer would have entailed plunking down another $100 or so for a new scanner. Not the end of the world, but I’m happier to have figured it out. More satisfying, even though it took a whole lot longer than purchasing a new scanner…

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Currently, I have Comcast cable modem service, with Vonage VoIP running on top which connects to my 2.5Ghz cordless phone system. This setup provides us with our “home phone number”.

Both Anne and I also have T-Mobile phones, each with a mobile phone number.

Ideally, if TMO had a little better coverage inside our house, I would scrap the home phone line and just go with one phone number per person (why do I have 1.5 numbers per person? You want me, call me on one number).

So, I’ve been looking at in-home docking stations / repeaters, etc. that will allow a mobile phone to connect into a home PBX. Here’s what I’ve found:

Telular has a “wireless terminal“. You need to swap your SIM card into the unit when you wanted to use it, but it provides voice and data capabilities to your home network when you’re there, and then (once you swap the SIM back to the handset), you’re mobile again. However, not exactly what I’m looking for…

There’s also the CellSocket product, which is basically a cradle and antenna booster for your mobile phone. This sounds more like what I want. (I think Ben K sent this to me). Unfortunately, support for my T-Mobile SE T610 phone is not available… CellAntenna also has a product like this, but again, no T610 support.

Other possible solutions include SpotCell, but I think this is a bit of overkill for the end-user home solution (better suited for a warehouse, or something commercial like that). Andy Seybold told me about the SpotWave solution.

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Excellent article, and I blog it here so I can follow the myriad of links that Om has in here (when I get the time).

Om Malik on Broadband: Whither Tech-Journals?

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…Springfield of “The Simpsons” fame, that is. While I appreciate the level of effort that went into this, it’s also a bit scary on the old anal-compulsive scale o’ things.

But, worth a look for sure.

Map of Springfield

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Okay, maybe this is old news to you, but it’s just SO COOL!

Check out this Honda ad.

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