Off-Topic

The demise of Bell Labs, a pictorial

Wired is running a photo gallery related to the history of Bell Labs. If I had to pick one word to describe the photos, it would be depressing.

Besides the fact that Bell Labs was one of the greatest innovation companies of all time, I worked in two of the buildings that are part of the photo collection. My first "really real" job was at a Bell Labs start-up based on the Inferno programming language (which was based on Plan 9, a very early open-source OS) that Lucent attempted to commercialize.

I was based in the Murray Hill, … Read more

Off-topic: LEGOs perform Metallica's Whiplash

Better get a look at this awesome stop motion video of a bunch of Legos performing Whiplash, a Metallica classic, before Lars Ulrich sees it and sues everyone.

BTW--I heard the new Metallica song on the radio and it sounds like they just chopped up 4-5 old songs.

Via GeekStuff

Why is Spotlight using 98% of my MacBook Air CPU?

UPDATED: August 19, 2008 7:42pm

Problem solved. It was a hanging process that got triggered when I installed a new VPN client. The weird thing was it could only be killed via the command line and didn't show up in the Activity Monitor

This MacBook Air goes from decent, to bad, to terrible, back to decent and now into the ridiculous.

Even when running zero applications there are pieces of Apple software that are doing very strange things. The latest issue is that Spotlight is somehow using 98% of my CPU horsepower and the total percentage used is … Read more

Zembly lets you create social apps for Facebook and more

I just watched this video demo of Zembly, a relatively new service that you create collaborative applications on the fly and deploy them to services like Facebook, Meebo, and the iPhone.

There's lots of widgets and Javascript involved, but it seems easy to use and overall Zembly is an interesting product as it lets users actually manipulate walled-garden content.

It's also interesting in that the company makes use of a wide array of open APIs and developed their own to create a networked effect of usage.

In a bit of a twist, Zembly runs on Solaris and Sun … Read more

Ten things that are not killing you slowly this summer (NY Times)

Over on the NY Times John Tierney brings us 10 things we don't have worry about this summer including killer hot dogs and cell phone radiation.

Could your vacation be interrupted by a sudden plunge into a wormhole? From my limited analysis of space-time theory and the movie "Jumper," I would have to say that the possibility cannot be eliminated. I would also concede that if the wormhole led to an alternate universe, there's a good chance your luggage would be lost in transit.

I'm just happy I can stop worrying about unmarked wormholes shifting … Read more

Microsoft funded Apache so I am going on vacation next week

Now that my work in convincing Microsoft to love open source is complete I can take a break. I will be on vacation next week. Blogging is doubtful. Go read a book.

Off-topic: Font Conference 2008 (geek humor video)

I got nothin today. Go watch a video.

Gadget lust: Premium drum set for Rock Band

We're still enjoying Guitar Hero at my office but I would be willing to move the Wii to a more spacious location in order to accomodate this awesome new Ion Audio drumset for Rock Band.

Drum Rocker for Rock Band

(Credit: Ion Audio)

Contrary to popular belief, San Francisco is not a great music town, at least not if you are a drummer and want to practice in your house. Unlike the east coast (and presumably elsewhere) where basements are plentiful, the bay area is lacking in-home practice areas.

Generally speaking electronic drums are not that satisfying, but bring … Read more

Fake Steve Jobs calling it a day

Fake Steve Jobs is no more.

Dan Lyons, the former Forbes writer and soon-to-be Newsweek writer, announced Wednesday in a rambling post that he's shutting down the tech industry phenomenon known as The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. After it launched in 2006, the blog quickly became a must-read for anyone intrigued by Apple, its mercurial founder, and Silicon Valley in general.

Lyons played up some of the well-known traits of Jobs and Apple, such as the CEO's preference for mind-altering substances earlier in his life and the company's obsession with secrecy, to great comic effect. But … Read more

Blackberry Thunder touch screen photos

I'm personally not too keen on a touch-screen keyboard but this new Blackberry Thunder looks to be a potential real competitor to the iPhone, at least for business users. And yet, somehow this new BB makes me like the iPhone even more.

I'm not convinced music apps matter as much to BB users and so far the iPhone still stomps every other device in terms of multimedia. It would be good if RIM would pick a focus area for BB to compete with iPhone.

Via BlackberrySync.com