Cuppacafe

OK, maybe we're exaggerating just a bit, well, perhaps more than "just a bit" but according to a new report, HP has developed a flexible Palm device. Yep, you read that part right, Last year HP purchased Palm, and well everyone seemed to think that the former Smart Device manufacturer was all but dead in the water. You see, at that time, the Pre was getting great reviews, but it simply wasn’t selling, (probably because it was on Sprint, which somehow managed to lose a few million customers a year).

Anyways, most folks seemed to see it as less of an acquisition and more of a mercy killing in order to spare the once mighty Palm the humiliation of imploding in public, however it's a year later, and HP has come out with the news that they’ve developed a flexible display that might be used in future Palm devices.

It’s pretty neat: sheets are infused with Mylar, as well as a rich garlic sauce, and the result is a screen that can play video but is also bistable: that is, if you hit pause on a video, instead of the screen slowly draining the battery, it either takes only a very little power, or no power at all, just like e-ink. Even better, HP seems pretty gung-ho about eventually getting this neat little bendy device into stores, both as HP brand products and as Palm brand products.

Yeah, we thought it was pretty cool too.

The Perfessor

Personally, I too hate getting out of bed, but apparently there are some folks who hate it so much they abuse their alarm clocks, so m much so that they actually break them by throwing them to the floor or against the wall, breaking them.

For the record, I don't believe that I ever broke an alarm clock because I had set it to awaken me, and then beat it senseless. Still, I've heard stories.

When you get woken up by your alarm clock, the first action that you’d most probably do is to lay your hand to locate the alarm clock, pick it up and throw it to turn it off. By doing so, you’ll definitely have damaged your alarm clock. And what you can do the next is to look for a replacement – buy a new one, as you’ll always need an alarm clock in your life in order not to be late for work.

Yep, the clock is designed to be tossed. I don't get it, but, well, some folks just don't want to get out of bed.

The Perfessor

There are days that I have a Hate/Hate relationship with computers.
Today is one of them.

I got up this morning, checked my email, then went to march in my local Memorial Day Parade, when I got back, I sat down to do some work when I noticed that Firefox (my preferred browser), had an update available so I chose to download and install it.

That was my first mistake.

I then spent the better part of the next four hours attempting to figure out why I now could not access the Intertubes via Firefox. Internet Explorer was able to access the net, so too was Safari and Chrome. Whey then couldn't Firefox? Well, I called my Internet provider, I called Walt and finally, I went on Firefox's website and did a help search on the topic and discovered that some anti-virus software sometimes don't recognize updates to software (like Firefox), and then (without asking), simply block the app. Well that's what happened to me, and with a simple "allow" I was once again able to see the Intertubes.

Man do I hate technology.

Harrumph!

The Perfessor

You know how I'll know when the future is here? We will finally have all of those wicked-cool gizmos that we were promised in the '50 (flying cars, sidewalks that move, spaceflight to the moon, robots, and well, stuff like this...

Unfortunately, stuff like this leaves me with just two thoughts...

1. Some folk have way too much time on their hands...
2. Why don't I have a jet pack by now?

The Perfessor

OK, my Father-in-Law emailed this to me, and well, I think it deserves to be watched, because it is, well, astounding. I don't know if anyone out there uses a table saw, but if you do,m then you WANT this product.

All I can say is "ouch."

The Perfessor

Yeah, yeah, we all love Facebook, but what we don't like is how cavalier they seem to be with our private information, and how fast they are to change things up in this area without telling us about it. Well, it seems that people are talking...

First, consider the changes it's imposed on its users. One turns many parts of your personal profile--your city, employer, hobbies and so on--into public links unless you remove that information. Another change can expose your endorsements of links at various sites, this one included, with a click of Facebook's increasingly-ubiquitous "Like" button. (Note that my first posts on these changes failed to capture their privacy implications.) A third, "Instant Personalization," shares some of your data, without your advance permission, with other sites.

Well, the article goes on to say that Facebook itself seems both unconcerned and, well arrogant about the problems and complaints from its users, still, we keep coming back, what else are we going to do?

The Perfessor