Smalltalk with James Robertson

Looks like Apple has gotten big enough to get the attention of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic:

The European Commission will ensure that devices with always-on connectivity, like Apple's iPhone, don't lock consumers in to proprietary technology, Neelie Kroes, EU commissioner for the 'Digital Agenda', told EurActiv in an exclusive interview. A yearly scorecard will measure the industry's progress.

I'm not sure how well Apple will deal with this - when Microsoft got run through the wringer back in the 90's, it sure didn't help them much. Worse, I'm not convinced that anything the regulators did helped anyone else, either.

Technorati Tags: apple, interop

I woke up to a conference call this morning, so today's screencast will be a bit late arriving. Probably lunchtime :)

I just thought this was a nice sunset view, although being in a parking lot detracted from it:

Then once I got home, I got a piece of good news:

My wife has had such good things to say about the device, I decided to get one. I'm hoping to cut down on the additions to the piles of books around here :)

If only my local carriers would do the same:

Yellow Pages Group Co. said last week that it would no longer deliver residential phone books in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal and Quebec City, except to customers who request them. A Yellow Pages spokesperson said Winnipeg could soon join that list.

Every year the residential listings go straight from my driveway into the recycling bin. I can't remember the last time I looked up a non-business number in a printed phone book...

Technorati Tags: phone book, yellow pages

It took me a few days of separate efforts - buying the flowers, spreading the dirt, getting the trees delivered - and finally, getting new garden hoses, as a weed whacker seems to have done in the old one - but it finally all came together this morning. I have two photos below; if you're on Facebook, I posted an album.

Technorati Tags: gardens, flowers, patio

I updated my book review page recently - there's still a lot to do there, as I've been doing short reviews since the early 2000's :)

Technorati Tags: books, reviews

Ok, this is from an ancient Windows XP box, but still: a windows update rolled by last week, and didn't auto-reboot the machine. It did leave it unable to print to anything though. So I rebooted it, brought up Excel, and tried to print an expense report. Here's what came out on take one:

4 pages of that later, the top part of the spreadsheet came out. Things worked fine when I printed again, but what the heck was that???

We've had issues with dishwashers in the past, but now I think it's just a "time in the house" thing. We had to have the furnace repaired in March; today we had the washer repaired, and tomorrow there's a bit of dryer maintenance. Thank goodness we don't have the roof issues our neighbor has had though - every time it gets windy, I find bits of their shingles in my yard...

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If your slides look like this:

Then you lost your battle, or war, or sale - whatever it was you were attempting. Based on the graphic, it's not entirely clear what was being attempted :)

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I ran across this speculative post, and think that it makes a ton of sense:

I see the big breakthrough in the back seat, and it could prove to be a serious problem for automakers that charge a ransom for rear entertainment systems. The base iPad costs far less than most DVD options offered by automakers. Ford charges $1,995 for a dual-headrest-mounted DVD system in its Flex crossover. The Acura MDX is $1,900 for its single screen system, which has three wireless headsets and a 9-inch screen that was impressive in size when compared next to the iPad. These prices are par for the course for similar systems from most manufacturers.

Most new cars have multiple charge ports as well, so even when the battery ran low, you would be ok. Now, someone is going to say that any laptop (especially a Netbook) could do the same thing, but: the iPad is simpler. In this space, I'd say that simpler is better.

Those cash cow car entertainment systems might have to start pricing themselves realistically.

Technorati Tags: iPad, travel