Saturday, January 01, 2005

Dave (not Pollard): One of my predictions for 2005 has already not come true. McDonald's has extensive wifi support. This is amazing to me, because while driving I make regular stops at McD's for coffee, ice tea and bathroom breaks. Not once did I see signage for wifi, or anyone using a computer. This led me to conclude that their experiment with wifi in SF and Silicon Valley a couple of years ago went nowhere. Far from it. There are hundreds if not thousands of McDonald's with wifi. On my drive up the east coast in a week or so, I'm going to evaluate their service. If you have any experience using their wifi, please comment here. [Scripting News] 3:43:03 PM    comment []

Personal Productivity a la Dave Pollard. Another classic post by Dave Pollard setting out the core issues in personal productivity and the development and sharing of useful content (also known as Knowledge Management). It's been clear for a while to us here at Qumana that, theory notwithstanding, many people have developed work habits based on the early tools first available in the computerized work environment - MS Word, email, cut-and-paste, hierarchically structured file directories, and so on Dave Pollard is one of the world's best thinkers on knowledge management and personal productivity, and has a lot of valuable insight and practical wisdom to share. [Qumana Blog] 3:39:38 PM    comment []

Tsunami. Photo-matching service online. A website which will allow families to identify loved ones in the Thai resort of Phuket went online yesterday, reports the Associated Press [Smart Mobs] http://peoplematch.rc.tv/peoplematch/ 3:38:54 PM    comment []

Hobbyists Fill Out the Weather Map. Thousands of armchair sky watchers are pairing computers and consumer-grade meteorological equipment to share their observations of local conditions online. By TIM GNATEK. [NYT > Science] 12:03:07 PM    comment []

The Ends of the World as We Know Them. The Unites States is seemingly at the height of its power, but how long will our ascendancy last? By JARED DIAMOND. [NYT > Opinion] 12:03:03 PM    comment []

The Seller of the Goose That Laid a Golden Egg. After a long career in the liquor business, Sidney Frank has turned to giving away his fortune, making a $100 million gift to Brown University, the largest in its history. By FRANK J. PRIAL. [NYT > Education] 12:02:35 PM    comment []

The last Gillmor Gang of 2004, a huge tech-mashup on identity. [Scripting News] 12:02:26 PM    comment []

Mark Cuban agrees with The Grumpy Girl, in Do the Right Thing - Cancel Inauguration Parties. (Mention here previously of The Grumpy Girl's idea - she said, just remember that you read it here first.) 12:33:40 AM    comment []

EPIC Experience. Whoa. Fascinating future history. [via MetaFilter] When I first started watching it, it was like a summary of shiftedness, a timeline of topics my site has covered. By the end, though, I felt like I was watching Terminator 3. [The Shifted Librarian] Go to a random miror, or check a transcript. And also: Happy new year! 12:09:45 AM    comment []