Backlog

Lots of work. Sadly, a lot of people still think I'm motivated by doing "neat things" and haven't caught on to the fact that I'm really driven by actual accomplishments, so things are a bit tense.

Want a free career tip? Even if you can do technical wizardry without any real effort, don't advertise that fact - people won't look past that to what you actually know about the business, or how you can improve the way it's run.

The good news is that I'll be getting my iBook fixed tomorrow (well, at least delivering it for repairs), so I'll be getting back to actually using all of my brain cells soon.

In the meantime, here are a few news items that I either wasn't paying attention to, or simply didn't have the time to publish yet:

• According to this, 23% of Canadian SMEs have already implemented some form of VoIP. Meanwhile, BT is switching some of its customers to broadband connections.
• My personal note on Project Gizmo: Despite all the current hype, the client is pretty damn useless, since it will only talk to Gizmo's own service. So much for their touting Open Source and standards compliance - it's impossible to establish whether or not it's truly standard unless it can connect to standard SIP servers.
• If you haven't come across Mobile GMaps yet, I suggest you take a look - it works fine on my Blackberry and screams on my 3G handsets, although it could do with some sort of location labelling (or, better still, a GPS interface and the ability to layer your own data a la Google Earth. Lucky people like pfig (who is in London) can actually use the search feature to good effect. The rest of Europe lingers on until Google sees fit to add street maps of other capital cities...
• Another creative use of Google Maps: an EV-DO network congestion map.
• Finally, something Growl-like for Gnome - here's a few libnotify screenshots.
• Virtual Earth. Yeap, it's virtual alright - all they have to show for now are screenshots and a video that makes it look like the site will never run properly on anything but IE.
• EU Software Patents Thrown Out. This is going to be even more interesting after the fact, since a lot of Open Source proponents will be strutting about acting like they actually accomplished something until their local governments figure out that they can set their own rules.
• Rumors regarding T-Mobile USA's acquisition are rampant. Some people worry about their Wi-Fi infrastructure, while others merely speculate about the sale.
• So, it's the XXIst century, and we're still throwing stuff. It will be a while until spectrometer readings are processed, though.
• All of a sudden, lousy broadband in hotels is responsible for the Blackberry's success. Gee, I thought it was the fact that it actually works as advertised (which is more than what I can say for the current competition).
• Oh boy, Mickey Club ringtones (more). I can't wait until they put up "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" for download. Has anyone told these people that mobile content (or, in fact, any sort of content-driven business) isn't what it used to be? Ah, wait, they'll be "in investment mode for the next several years", i.e., losing money. So they know.
• Now, this is interesting. Not the sort of PVR I'm looking for (I'm looking for either a truly open appliance or something I can hook up to my mini), but the fact that it exists (and at this price point) shows that there is a demand for this sort of "no frills" video input gear.
• Palm has finally announced their "Tier 1" licensee. Erm... Tier 1? I mean, they are ramping up production volume and quantity and have a few interesting products, but you've got to be kidding me, right?
• There's been a lot of static in the news about the iPhone. I'll be updating my page as news come in.
• Old hands will remember Window Maker, which has recently been updated to 0.92.0. I still configure all my virtual desktops managers to act as much as possible like it.