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Category: zettel

scraps of paper

Commodities: Word and Number Editors

Published August 16, 2007 by cgerrish

With the release of Apple’s iWork, along with the continued improvement of Zoho and Google docs, it seems like word processors and spreadsheets are becoming commodities. Microsoft has kept users in the truck with their file format for years. Now they’ve opened up their format and the ecosystem is changing.

Except for some specific kinds of documents, I don’t really care which word processor or spreadsheet I use. I’d like them all to roughly work alike and have compatible file formats. The files should be stored in the cloud and I should be able to read and edit them with whatever tools are at hand.

It’s like the laptop computer. I no longer like carrying them around. No matter how small, laptops have become “transportable” and not “portable.” Give me either a smaller device like the iPhone, or let me access what I need from any where. In the future, I won’t need to own a my own computer or word/number editors. The data is mine and is valuable, the access and the tools will be commodities (or perhaps part of the commons).

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The Portable Web Page

Published August 15, 2007 by cgerrish

Forrester recently released a report stating that the iPhone signaled the “beginning of the end of the moblile Web as we know it.”

iPhone

Some interpreted that to mean the Web would no longer need to be specially formated for small devices. The iPhone has the ability to view regular pages—and the user can scroll and zoom to what she’d like to see.

But we’re starting to see optimization for the iPhone. Facebook has just released an iPhone version. I think this is the real “beginning of the end of the mobile Web as we know it.” It’s not that there won’t be a special version of the Web optimized for mobile devices, it’s that we’ll see the Web optimized for iPhone. It’s about the browser, screen size and interaction models. iPhone allows a the creation of a richer portable Web experience, and Web companies are complying.

The question is: Is Apple and the iPhone creating the new standard for the mobile Web. And will other vendors respect the standard or move in other directions? (Potential future headaches for Web designers).

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Gypsy Technology: Gogol Bordello & Topo Gigio

Published August 14, 2007 by cgerrish

I was watching Henry Rollins’s show on the Independent Film Channel last night. The interview was Gore Vidal and the music guest was Gogol Bordello, a gypsy punk band. To me it was a reminder of how much television has changed.

To have a show on one of the old three major broadcast networks was a big thing. What does it mean to have a show on one of 500 or 600 channels? And what does it mean now in the world of video podcasts? Which was more radical, The Ed Sullivan Show or The Henry Rollins Show? Ed introduced The Beatles to the country. Last night Rollins introduced Gogol Bordello to a small IFC cable audience. Although this is more similar to Sullivan introducing the little Italian mouse Topo Gigio to america. Mass media introduces the margins to the center.

I’m a sucker for gypsy music. I was very happy Henry Rollins made the introduction. Just as in Ed Sullivan’s day, media and technology is wonderful for introducing the new—which is not to be confused with the popular.

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Universities and Podcasting

Published August 13, 2007 by cgerrish

A number of universities have made lectures, and sometimes even full courses, available freely to the public through the internet in the form of podcasts. This is a valuable resource. I discovered it through Apple’s iTunes, they have a new section of their iTunes store called iTunes U.

Podcasts are available from Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, MIT and many more institutions. I don’t know if it’s because the podcasts are offered through Apple, but currently the most popular download is Steve Jobs’s 2005 commencement address at Stanford University.

It’s wonderful that iTunes is offering this resource, but I’d love to see some other directory of University podcasts. It almost seems like something our public libraries should do. There’s something wonderfully democratic about this. Of course, access to free education is only important if people take advantage of it. Somehow I can imagine a new immigrant to the United States thinking this is the equivalent of streets paved with gold.

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