Tag: review

Scheduled For World Domination

google calendarProbably owing to my background as a groupware purveyor (I used sell Lotus Notes solutions, and was also a Microsoft Product Manager and evangelized MS Exchange – for which I studied certification for), I am a heavy believer in the Calendar, the central focus of a groupware solution after the Inbox.

Company groupware is one of the most difficult to implement not only because of its complexity, but there’s also a great deal of politicking involved, forcing programmers to do the one thing they hate most – talk to the user.

Summer Brings Forth Dreams of Laptops

Summer Brings Forth Dreams of LaptopsMy long time client whose roots are deeply nested into the local I.T. Distributorship scene (she used to work in a major Distributor and now runs a Dealership for a well-known gadget brand) floored me recently when she agreed to offset my retainer for a laptop when I broached the idea recently.

Naturally this sent me scurrying off to several local websites, battling fatigue late into the night trying to make sense of what was available out there. My priorities were simple. 1. Cheap As Possible., 2. Lightweight, 3. As much RAM as possible. 4. Sturdy, and 5. Cheap as possible.

Nobody wants to read my basketball posts so..

dsc-w50Quick post. Happy to note my article about the Sony DSC-R1 SLR was well received, and by ‘well received’ I mean ‘noted’, ‘discussed’ and ‘critiqued’, which may or may not also mean that I was told I was wrong.

Let me put it this way. Imo, if someone takes time to tell you ‘dude, check out the Canon so and so model, better daw than the Sony’, I consider that ‘well-received’, because 1. they read it, and 2. they formed an opinion based on it.
Agreeing with what I said is beside the point really. The point is to make people lend an interested ear.

The New Year, The Geek, and Coppermine 1.42

new in coppermine 1.42Look, I know its the New Year tonight, but I can’t help being a geek. Yup, after so many years, I’m finally owning up to being one. This means I can add this atop my other nicknames such as world-famous raconteur, high-flying adventurer, swashbuckling debonair man about town, and all sorts of adjectives of the dexterously dashing and prodigious variety.

At any rate, here I am Dec. 31, installing Coppermine 1.42 (released Nov. 24, 2005), and I’m thinking. Hey, this is cool. Hey, that new feature is tight. Hey, I’ve always wanted that. And Hey, I gotta get a life.

Motorola ROKR Phonetools Setup

motorola phonetools setupI need to submit the Motorola ROKR review by today, but Saturday afternoon’s the only time I get to see Jill so I need to get this out this morning. It’ll also require an interview with Gary Ramirez, Managing Director of Digital Exchange at Glorietta 3, to get some quotes re the Motorola Store there, which is the only one in the country. At this very moment, he’s waiting for me to call.

SO WHAT BETTER TIME THAN NOW FOR ME TO UPDATE MY BLOG RIGHT?

Use.Firefox.Or.Else.

I’m not completely sure of what to make of the Explorer Destroyer movement, apparently a (over?)zealous groups of firefox user’s attempt to get people to switch from IE, making (good?) use as well of Google’s offer of $100.00 for every referral to Firefox.

Basically you slap on some code onto your site’s index page, and a IE visitor will either see a message encouraging them to download Firefox running across the top of the page (Gentle Encouragement option), a splash page before seeing your site, encouraging them to download Firefox and a link to continue on to your site (Semi-serious option), or IE users will see a message stating that they need to download and install Firefox to view your site, no ifs or buts about it (Dead Serious option).

Gadgets Galore

Me and Digital Exchange finally got our collective acts together to have all the gadgets I’m supposed to review over the following weeks delivered in one go. Not an easy task granted time and distance (they’re in Makati and I’m in Antipolo), the reported difficulty in dealing with the stores involved, occasional deadline issues and other nitty gritty details. Again, this is part of a 9 gadget writeup-fest to promote Digital Exchange (Glorietta 3), and so far I’ve finished with the Samsung SGH-e730, the Fujifilm F-810, and the iPod Nano 2gb, which should come out next week.

So anyway, here are they are!