Personal WiFi Bubble

Oh, I gots to have this.

I can imagine how useful a personal cellular router will be when my rug-rats are old enough to have their own laptops, and we are all in the family van, driving across the state to Mee-Maw's house.

No doubt by then kids will be born with the WiFi DNA gene built-in- a true "cellular" router.

(OK, don't quit my day job, I get it.)

Mighty Ju-Ju

Mozilla has released a beta versions of an application/Firefox browser plug-in called Prism, which allows any Web site to be saved onto your desktop as a stand-alone application (albeit, one which connects to the Web). When clicked, the application launches in it's own little browser window, connects to the Web, and functions as you would expect from that Web site.

This is powerful stuff.

It turns the humble Web browser from a "portal", through which all applications must run, into a platform. Prism is based on technology created for Site-Specific Browsers, or SSBs.

I can easily see Web 3.0 applications using AJAX- the fancy code that enables drag-and-drop, desktop-like behavior on Web sites, like Gmail or Box.net- to turn Web applications into "Netware," similar to Apple's iTunes. Google Gears and Adobe's Flex are already moving in this direction.

Lightweight, net-aware applications that deliver the power and control of mainframe-type distribution, along with the speed, ease of use, and flexibility of desktop client apps? No more C#, Java, or Objective C, just JavaScript! Truly write once, run anywhere.

Oh, yeah. This is mighty powerful ju-ju. Microsoft, Sun, Apple? You hear that?

Update: Good article on similar technologies here. Thanks to Tanya for the link.

Steampunk iPhone?

No, wait... make that just plain "punked" iPhone.

Cube-dwelling colleague Eduardo Mena introduces his new "iPhony", which he used to gain access to iPhone Alley here at the office. Sneaky fox!

Upon second look, it's amazing that we were fooled by the dust-covered, doorless, AM/FM/Cassette tape boombox, state-of-the-art, circa 1981. And that phone- a prepaid Circuit City (r.i.p.) talkie, it's held on by Scotch tape!

Oh, how could we have been so blind?

Center for Disease Control recommends iPhone app

Some may call it morbid, but I sure wish I was this clever. Blogger Barry Schwartz has released the Swine Flu Tracker app for iPhone.

Now, if this isn't a great reason to own an iPhone, I don't know what is.

Robert Dugan, I'm looking at you.

No Sketchup for you!!!

Now, this is funny.

Google's Sketchup training videos, hosted on YouTube, went dark.  Note the "no longer available" message in the video screen.

Did I mention that Google owns YouTube?

Outsource your personal computing

I've used all versions of Windows, many versions of the Mac OS, and many other operating systems, including most flavors of Linux. As this article points out, they all have their pluses and minuses, and these days, switching between one and the other is not a really big deal. My main gripe against Windows was that I was always having to play Network Administrator at home, and I just don't have time for that.

A few years ago, I made a list (yes, I'm that type-A) of all the things that I do with a computer, like writing documents, doing my taxes, storing music, etc. Then, I made a list of all the programs (applications) I use to perform those tasks. Next, I made a list of all the file types that I use when using those programs (.doc, .xls, .html, etc.). Finally, I made a list of all the places I need to be able to access those files. I put all of that stuff in a spreadsheet grid, and checked off whether they could be done in Windows, Mac, or Linux, and with what applications.

It sounds complicated, but the idea was a simple one: what computer system and programs could I use most cheaply, reliably, effectively, that would be available wherever I need it?

With the advent of Gmail, Flikr, Google Docs, Ning, and other such services, the stuff I actually need or want to store on my computers at home has changed drastically. In fact, there is almost nothing that I want to store exclusively on my home comptuers. With secure lock-boxes in the cloud like Box.net or Amazon's S3, it makes much more sense to have at least a copy of your critical documents stored off-site, just like big companies do, in case of fire or other disaster.

Walking around with a portable computer in my palm has made the need for wireless access even more acute. I access and edit documents, photos, music, books, and Websites all the time, from everywhere. About the only thing I must have a home computer for is audio recording and video editing (I'm an actor, y'know!). But even that I would do online, if I could; sadly, that technology simply doesn't exist yet.

My impression is that our computers are becoming more "dumb terminals" to the cloud. Yes, it's cyclical, and we've been down this path before. But never have we had such a powerful mainframe as the Internet.

Is this true for you, too? What, if anything, do you HAVE to have on your home computers, and nowhere else?