Archives for February 2006

JP of Designtastesgood.com seems to have scooped Scoble on this. Then it hit Digg. So what is the Origami Project? Why does Microsoft Have the domain registered? Well, if you take the time to read through the digg comments, you will find that Origami is the code-name for a device that was introduced in 2001 at Comdex. Press Releases here and here. NSC Product Page here.

About the size and weight of a small digital camcorder, the National® Geode ‘Origami’ Mobile Communicator is a flexible unit that folds and unfolds to perform eight popular consumer electronics functions in one easy-to-use device.

hmmm… Sounds interesting. Take a look at the site for a quick flash demo. After taking a look myself, I get the feeling that it is most certainly a mobile device of some sort. Why? Lets take a look at what the site tells us.

Do you know what I can do? (Circuitry, speed, networking, etc…)

Depicts connectivity. Speed in connectivity.

Or where I can go? (Clouds, Office Building, Beach, Home, etc…)

Depicts several different “spaces”. Depicts Mobility. Also says “use me anywhere” global reach.

Or how I can change your life? (nothing)

I’ve tried to decide what this phrase is supposed to mean, but really just think it’s a hook. So what is it… A mobile device. I’m guessing that it has email, cell, browser capabilities. Not exactly walking in left field here. What else though? It’s gonna have to be fairly revolutionary for it to unseat anything available.

Are you Ready? I think that it must include RSS. The name infers that it will be able to twist and turn and change functions. Interoperability. I’m thinking of a treo on steroids. And it’s making me excited.

And this picture doesn’t do it justice…

Keep an eye on the origamiproject website, as it would appear that they will be posting a new flash animation each week leading up to the 3.2.06 unveiling.

UPDATE: Please read my newest post on the subject for updates including a link for video of the real origami.

Technorati Tags: Origami, origamiproject, scoble, microsoft, digg, NSC

Other Links:

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Josh Teeters has an excellent post on Tagging in an OS and it’s wonderful uses.  I can’t believe I haven’t thought of that.  It’s a brilliant idea.

I haven’t really wanted a feature in an OS for a long while, but I really want this. Instead of digging through folders going “where the hell did I put that report”, I want to be able to click “word documents”, “+reports”, “+sociology”, and open the file I had in mind.

This could work on a network, i.e. in an office. Workers in an office could tag files and folders with relevant keywords; in your ‘Tag Browser’, there could be a local view, and a ‘tags on all network systems’ view. It’d be del.icio.us on a (much) smaller scale.

Any chance of it being implemented in Vista?  I love the idea of a tagged OS to help find all those lost and hard to find documents and other files.  As a sysadmin, it has a solid application in a network setting as well.  Just so long as the tagging follows previously set security settings.

Second Opinion: ALLIED

Technorati Tags: tagging, OS, tag cloud

I happened to notice it last night while I was sifting through all the stuff I had ignored while on vacation this last weekend, but appearantly it became announced news this morning. Technorati has a new feature that they have appropriately dubbed “Favorites“. Scoble and Boyd seem to be excited about it. I happen to agree with TDavid at Make you Go Hmm.

Too bad it is only blogs though and doesn’t include RSS feeds. If you try to add an RSS feed it barks back in red text. Also there is a maximum of 50 blogs. I have a reading list of nearly 400 RSS feeds (perhaps 300 of which are blogs) and I’m supposed to whittle that down to 50? Though I probably should do this, Technorati isn’t about to force my hand.

While I don’t have quite 400 feeds that I read on a normal basis, my list is at nearly 100 and growing. Asking me to pare it down to 50 is kinda silly. Sure it’s supposed to be just favorites, but come on now. That’s what those are. I have nearly 100 favorites out of nearly 29 Million! Technorati of all places should realize the scale of the blogosphere and realize that 50 just won’t be enough for most of us. I also noticed that the lists are default public and there is not ability to make them private. I guess that leaves out my pron list. 😉

At this point the favorites ability in Technorati gets a C/D grade from me. I’m hoping that this is the “released beta” version and that Sifry is watching the blogosphere closely to see how we all react. I’m sure that some minor changes will be happening soon and that the product will gradually become better and better.

Stowe Boyd mentions another interesting point.

Dave also tells me that they at work on a dynamic version of the favorites, based on what you are linking to in your blogging. Now that sounds really optimal. I don’t have to think about updating my blogroll over time, no value judgments: its just based on the empirical realities of what I am linking to. I can’t wait.

Now that would be interesting. My own link cloud. I’m sure that there probably is someone somewhere that is already doing this. And really, don’t we all use our favorites list as a hunting ground for new info? Posting material? Then this really would be nice to have. Wouldn’t have to go to the trouble of adding a site/blogger to my list, Technorati would just take care of it.

Second Opinion: Josh Teeters

Technorati Tags: Technorati, favorites, second opinion

I won’t bore everyone with the constant rehashing of the Netscape story.  If you haven’t heard the it in it’s totality, try google.  But I have noticed some similarities between FireFox and Netscape.

The most obvious and biggest similarity is the main competition.  Microsoft.  I’m beginning to believe that some people discard Microsoft simply because they don’t like the “Corporate Giant” feel of Microsoft.  The problem with that thinking is that Microsoft has a very large amount of money to throw at a problem.

Take Firefox for instance.  Not a great big problem, but all of a sudden Internet Explorer 7 beta comes out and works almost the same as Firefox and is almost as stable.  And it’s in beta.

So let me explain the way that Microsoft handles these things.  A threat like FireFox comes along and Microsoft notices immediately.  Don’t be fooled into thinking that they don’t.  They stay quiet about it, but they take that threat and disassemble it.  Study it piece by piece.  Take the bits and pieces that people like and re-engineer them.  Add them into their current software and viola!  Microsoft software is just as good as the competitor and it already has such a market share that it wins handily.  It happened to Netscape and it just may happen to Firefox.

Technorati Tags: Netscape, Firefox, Microsoft, Internet Explorer