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Start spreading the news, I’m leaving today
I want to be a part of it - New York, New York
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it - New York, New York

I’m about to head out the door as I post this.  I’m flying out to see my girlfriend in New York City. I haven’t seen her since that night on Aug 9th when we said goodbye.  She left early morning on the 10th and has been gone since.  She moved to NYC for a fall internship at Harper’s Bazaar.  She’s having a great time and loves the city and the internship.

It’s been over a month and a half since we’ve been together though.  We talk plenty be it writing letters, sending email, chatting on AIM every day or the Sunday night phone call we have every week.  Still, it’s not enough!  You can’t have a relationship just with words.  Kissing her, holding her hand while we walk, curling up on the couch to watch a movie or just giving her a hug goodnight; there has to be the physical connection there too.

Anyhoo, Saturday is my birthday so I’m lucky enough to get to fly out to be with her.  I’m heading out this afternoon so we get all Friday and Saturday together.  I’ll be flying back Sunday afternoon so there really won’t be time to anything.
So far we’re planning to see all the usual junk; Empire State, Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Metropolitan Museum, visit ground zero and try to get tickets to see David Letterman.

That’s the plan anyways.  We’ll just have to see how much time there really is and how much walking my ol’ body can handle!

See you later folks!  I’ll be back Sunday!

After yesterdays entry I though I would point out something for those people interested more in the creation of Excite and computers in general.

Robert X. Cringely did a series of documentaries on computers.  The first was on the history of the PC and called Triumph of the Nerds.  Later he did a series called Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet about the history and present day Internet.  In Nerds 2.0.1, Cringely followed the guys, including Joe Kraus, who founded Excite.  It went from their early days in a garage all the way through the public release of Excite.  It’s cool to be able to see the stages of the business growing during the dot-com days.  I only wish Cringely would do a new series on the current post dot-com bubble burst computer industry.  Wouldn’t that be a depressing series!

Anyways, both series are a must have!  Anyone claiming to be a computer geek should own and watch them.  If you think you know the history of the PC industry because you watched that piece of trash movie that TNT made called Pirates of Silicon Valley you’ll be surprised how much you don’t! Do both yourself and rest of the world a favor.  Take a baseball bat and beat yourself in the head till you can’t even remember the name of the movie.  Then go get Triumph of the Nerds and Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet.  Watch them and actually learn something!

I swear if I see one more message board post where someone uses quotes and/or references from that movie as historical facts about the computer industry I’m going to loose it.  Sure the basic story theme and characters are close but many of the historical facts are not right.  For the joe movie watcher who wants to know who these Bill Gates or Steve Jobs computer people are it’s an ok movie to introduce them. 

I’m just going to stop right here and not go into a rant about the movie since Robert Cringely and even Steve Wozniak can point out the problems better than me.

Now get off your bum and go buy the documentaries!

You might notice I’ve done a bit of organizing on the Weblog links on the right side of the main page.  Just thought I’d help people out by separating them into their general themes.  The weblogs listed are ones that i do visit regularly and it’s an evolving list.  I add and remove based on what I’m reading.  Since I’m a rather selective reader you can be assured these are worth visiting so please take a moment and check them out.

And now onto the reason for today’s post.  I added a new weblog to the technology sub-list.  Technically, the blog is called Bnoopy but the man behind the blog is Joe Kraus.  Joe Kraus was one of the founders of Excite.  Excite back in the day was a major player in the web.  They started first as a search engine but during the dot-com boom became a large portal site.  It’s had a rather rocky history and has been bought and sold a few times I believe and is currently property of Ask Jeeves.

Kraus is working on a new project and has started his blog to share the experiences of starting a new company.  This is a blog worth keeping on your must read lists folks.  Hopefully, Kraus will update the blog often with lots of really great info on his new startup.  It’ll be very neat to be able to follow the progress he makes and get a few insider stories about what it was like to startup Excite back in the day.  So please check out Bnoopy.

Planet GameCube is reporting on the Nintendo DS Launch Details.  For those not in the know, the DS is Nintendo’s new handheld gaming device.  It contains two screens, one which is touch screen, built in microphone, wireless networking, and suppose to have the same power as the Nintendo 64!

The DS is not a replacement of the GameBoy though.  They claim it’s a third pillar.  There will still be a next generation console and a new GameBoy in the works.

The big news is the release date of November 21st and the price of $149.99!

Well here just read the press release…

quote:

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REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 20, 2004 - From the very start, Nintendo DS™ broke the existing rules of video game play. Two screens, not one. Wireless connection for game play and personal communication for the sheer entertainment of it. Flexible game control by voice and touch, not just with buttons. Nintendo’s newest innovation, Nintendo DS, will make its worldwide debut in North American stores on Nov. 21, and then in Japan on Dec. 2. It will sell at an MSRP of $149.99, making it an immediate mass-market attraction. Nintendo DS will become the company’s first system ever to make its sales debut outside of Japan.

“Nintendo’s mission remains unchanged: expand the game experience,” says Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Co., Ltd. “Nintendo DS is the road map to the future of video games, and most clearly demonstrates the type of innovation that players demand.”

Nintendo DS is the dual-screened, hand-held video game system redefining the idea of interactive entertainment. One screen allows for touch input using a stylus, while the unit includes both voice recognition and multiplayer wireless features. The sleek silver-and-black system sports a sharp, angular design.

Consumers immediately will be able to pick up and play the new system, as it comes with a free software feature, PictoChat, embedded in the system hardware. PictoChat allows DS owners to write messages with an on-screen keyboard or the stylus and send them wirelessly to other DS users nearby. Users can text chat, draw artistic messages or share secrets, all without saying a word. And a Nintendo DS in sleep mode will spring to life if it senses another DS in transmitting range, alerting users to each other’s presence and setting the stage for an impromptu conversation or game session.

More than 100 companies have signed on to create games for Nintendo DS, while Nintendo itself is already developing its first 20 titles. Electronic Arts, the world’s largest independent software developer and publisher, already has announced that its powerhouse franchises of Madden NFL, The URBZ: Sims in the City, Need for Speed Underground, Tiger Woods and GoldenEye will support Nintendo DS.

“Each time Nintendo creates a hand-held, it introduces new elements of play and sets a new standard for mobile gaming,” says Larry Probst, EA’s chairman and CEO. “The DS is no exception - Nintendo has another big winner with the DS.”

The complete lineup of games planned for the launch of Nintendo DS will be announced in the near future. In effect, Nintendo DS already boasts a library of more than 550 games because it is compatible with single-player modes of games made for the world’s best-selling video game system, Game Boy® Advance SP.

Nintendo chose the United States to lead the worldwide launch of Nintendo DS because of overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic reaction from consumers and to take advantage of the holiday sales season. After the subsequent launch in Japan, the system will be available in Europe and Australia in the first quarter of 2005.

Nintendo DS has a flip-top cover that protects both screens. Two speakers on the unit’s face let users hear virtual surround sound, while its dual screens open games to a multitude of possibilities. Nintendo DS sits 148.7 millimeters (5.85 inches) wide, 84.7 millimeters (3.33 inches) long and 28.9 millimeters (1.13 inches) tall with the cover closed. The new media format for games means that Nintendo DS has no moving parts that could be misaligned if the unit is dropped or jarred.

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Man I hope I find a job soon because I want one of these.  Heck I want a GameBoy, PS2, XBox and a new computer too.  I hate being poor!

This is another one of those old news but I still want to post about it.

I found this interesting entry called “Why I don’t recommend Firefox” posted at the Kalsey Consulting Group blog.

The blog entry is in response to a grassroots campaign the mozilla people are doing in which that email website owners asking them place FireFox buttons on their website.

This is the great quote that I love…

quote:

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Most Web users don’t know what a browser is. That blue E they click on the desktop isn’t a browser, it’s “The Internet.” Or maybe it’s “Yahoo” if that’s what their home page is set to. Tell them to download a new browser and they don’t understand what you mean. I put Firefox on my wife’s computer and removed the IE link. She asked why she didn’t have My Yahoo on the computer anymore. My wife’s not stupid — to her the IE logo is how she got to the Web. Without that, she didn’t know how to get to My Yahoo.

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I have to agree with what he has to say.  Many developers, open source in particular, I believe get too caught up in the fun of the development process and forget who they’re suppose to be developing for.  Too many products are full of wonderful features but are so unusable to the mass public that they end up failing in the end.  It doesn’t matter that your application is smaller, faster or has some cool widget that the other guy’s software doesn’t.  If joe user can’t understand how to use your product they’ll stick with that bloated, slow software that they at least know how to use.

Go check out the entry.  It’s a pretty good read and the comment discussions aren’t bad either.