June 2003 Archives

Tiger Woods wants the PGA Tour and the USGA to check players' drivers before they tee off in the PGA tournaments.

It's true that thanks to the technological advancement in drivers and balls, today's professional golfers are often hitting their drivers 300 yards plus. However, Tiger thinks that the increase in the driving distance performance does not come from improved players' skills and physical conditioning, but technology that is supposed to be illegal.

The core of the matter is the coefficient of restitution (COR for short). The coefficient of restitution measures the spring-like effect of the face of a driver at impact. In other words, when a golf ball hits the driver, the metal face (usually a thin Titanium sheet these days) flexes and then releases. The flex and release of the driver face can create a "trampoline effect." In other words, imagine yourself jumping from a trampoline versus from a concrete surface. It's obvious given the same force you exert on yourself, you would be jumping higher from the trampoline than the concrete surface. Well, the same principle applies. As a result, the USGA has set .83 as the limit for COR.

Well, the problem is that you can't know for sure if the player is using one of those hot (i.e., illegal) drivers. As is, any driver that is used in tournament play needs to be sent to the USGA for approval, but that doesn't guarantee that players will be using the drivers with the same specs during the tournament. Worse yet, those players might even be ignorant of their drivers being too hot. I mean you can't tell by looking at the driver whether the specs are within the limit or not. So, I could be hitting an illegal driver, and not know for sure . . .(If I'm hitting my driver 20 yards or more, I should suspect something though).

Does Tiger's claim have any merit, or is he simply crying foul? Let's look at some numbers to see . . .

Year Driving distance (Rank) Driving accuracy (Rank) Wins
2003 292.2 (T-29) 64.3 (T-114) 3
2002 293.3 (6) 67.5 (T-107) 5
2001 297.6 (T-3) 65.5 (T-145) 5
2000 298.0 (2) 71.2 (54) 9
1999 293.1 (3) 71.3 (T-49) 8
1998 196.3 (2) 67.9 (T-114) 1
*Results through the Buick Classic (Courtesey of PGA Tour)

So, Tiger's driving distance and accuracy are down since the year 2000. Let's look at how others have done in 2003 compared to 1988.

1988
Rank Player Driving distance
1 Tiger Woods 296.3
2 John Jacobs 284.9
3 Ray Arinno 281.9
4 Bob Duval 280.1
5 Hank Cooper 279.4

2003
Rank Player Driving distance
1 Tom Purtzer 299.1
2 Andy Bean 294.8
3 Tiger Woods 292.2
4 Jim Ahern 288.8
5 John Harris 287.1
(PGA Tour Statistics)

Well, it doesn't look too bad until you notice Tom, Andy, Jim, and John play in the Champions Tour (for players over 50 years old). In 1988, Tiger was far ahead of any "senior" players, but in 2003, he ranks #3 in that tour. In the PGA Tour, he ranks only 29th in driving distance.

Oh, to make the equation even more confusing, Tiger Woods switched his driver and ball during this period. You see Tiger used to play with a Titleist driver and a Titleist ball. Now he plays Nike. To make things worse, there was a comments by Phil Mickelson about Tiger playing with inferior equipment beginning of this year.

So, what's the conclusion? You be the judge. . .

Well, my Tungsten C is off to the Palm repair center at Laredo, Texas. I shipped it via UPS 2nd day (afternoon). With insurance, it came out to $12.06. I thought about sending it next day afternoon, but it would have been $26.27, and there was no way I'm going to pay that much after having paid $499 for my device.

Of course, Palm offered me an advance exchange for $39.99, but that to me was ridiculous as well. I can be without Palm for a few weeks (I still got my Treo 180 and Sony NX60, plus a few classic Palm's), but I can't imagine how other folks who don't have any spare device supposed to deal with this withdrawal.

I have a bunch of wireless adapters/cards, and this is the first time I have to deal with this issue. I suggested to Palm they should reexamine their repair/exchange policy, especially when it clearly involves "negligence" on their part, but don't hold your breadth.

Stay tuned for future updates.

A desire to put a computer in the kitchen motivated one talented guy to cram an entire PC into a 4-slice GE toaster body.

Based on the Mini-ITX mainboard that I wrote about here, this toaster sports such features as a Hauppage TV tuner card, Wi-Fi, a DVD drive, and a wireless keyboard and mouse.

While many Mini-ITX systems are creative or attractive, this may be the only one we can honestly say is better than sliced bread. Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week...

Thanks to BoingBoing.net for the link!

I've been pretty happy with the Tungsten C since I purchased it for my MemoWare Features review as well as personal use. It has been my primary PDA for the past few months. However, that is going to change (at least temporarily). You see I have to send it back for repair. Although there have been a number of issues I have discovered since the purchase (See MemoWare), I have tolerated those. Also, I have found quick solutions to those issues such as the Boxwave hotsync cable for the hotsync cable issue.

However, today I have learned that I have to return the unit for repair (at my expense), and it will take 7 to 10 days once it is received at the repair center. The funny thing is that this saga started on a positive note: Palm's newly released patch for the Tungsten C. I was excited to find that Palm released a new patch for the Tungsten C. However, when I read the update instruction, I discovered something was amiss. The update instruction says, "If the MAC Address does not match the MAC label on the rear of the handheld contact Palm Customer Support. DO NOT continue to step 3." So, I contacted Palm Customer Support, and then I was told that there was an issue (upon further checking with Palm Tech Support, the issue seems to be related to the device losing its MAC ID), and it can only be repaired at the repair site. I don't have any solid data, but I suspect that this issue might be more widespread than just affecting a few individuals. It's hard to believe that Palm would have overlooked something like this before the release (for me, if you have to send the unit back for repair, it's not a minor issue any more).

Well, I've had my Palm T/C for exactly 2 months, and now it is going back for repair. Needless to say, it doesn't bode well for me to have to spend extra $$$ and time (not having Palm for more than a week). I remember when I had my earlier Palm’s, Palm sent me a box for me to send back the unit overnight, and then I would have the unit back in 2-3 days. Well those days are forever gone I guess. I'll update my readers on my experience, and it will be interesting to see if my positive past support experience with Palm continues to hold true. Stay tuned . . .

I survived 48 hours in the back-country. It turns out that my cell did have reception, but it was roaming, so no data service was available. For me, a voice-only cellphone is pretty much pointless.

Once on the highway (the wife was driving) heading back, however, data service was regained. I spent an hour wading through 180 emails sucked down to my Kyocera using the excellent Palm OS email client SnapperMail -- definitely recommended if you use your Palm OS device for industrial-strength email duty.

While out camping, however, my most useful piece of tech was my Swiss Army knife. Maybe somebody ought to start looking into how we can toss in some Wi-Fi or Bluetooth into these things. Why? Because we can...of course!

Microsoft has aggregated its mobile OS products, including Pocket PC and Smartphone, into a new sub-brand called Windows Mobile. This will hopefully remove some of the consumer confusion over Pocket PC versus PPC Phone Edition versus Smartphone. Now, how does Windows CE fit into all this again??

Well, the wife and I are heading into the vast wilderness of Red River Gorge in South-Eastern Kentucky for a couple days of camping and hiking. While my trusty Kyocera 7135 will be with me, I seriously doubt there will be any cellular coverage anywhere in the vicinity. Kind of like having a Ferrari and no gasoline. At least I can get in some ebook reading if need be.

It seems that when it comes to redesigning the human-computer interface, there is no shortage of creativity. Sony engineers seem to have devised a working prototype of a computer that the user controls by bending it. It seems that Sony believes the future of pocketable computers will incorporate neither buttons nor stylus nor any traditional interface mechanisms. So, obviously, the only way to interact with these tiny devices is by twisting and bending them to manipulate what is displayed.

New Scientist has a nice story on this recent development, and there's even a short movie that demonstrates the prototype. Interesting stuff. While I'm no huge fan of the stylus, I'm not quite sold that this is the future either...

In this News.com article, Forrester Research is reported as suggesting that the current business models for public 802.11x Wi-Fi hotspots are inadequate. Forrester is quoted as saying, "We believe that much of the money being poured into public WLAN today to enable access...is being wasted." I have to disagree...somewhat.

The issue at hand is that current business models are proving unsustainable. Why? The first big reason is that current hotspot pricing is way out of line with what the market will bear. Stand-alone hotspots may require this type of pricing to meet industry ROI demands, but it's not a viable pricing strategy.

A second reason is cellular wireless access. 3G wireless technologies are giving most mobile business users wireless access that is good enough for most of their Internet needs (i.e., email). Mobile professionals often move from one high-speed wired connection to another (office to hotel, home to client office, etc.), so their wireless needs are often limited while in transit. That is, Joe business traveler can deal with having 40Kbps cellular access for a short while until he gets to a broadband connection.

So, the question moves from "how do we sustain stand-alone hotspots" to "how do we integrate wireless access into other services?" Wi-Fi access is a perfect ancillary service that can add value to various core services. Most services where the service provider wants his customers to "hang around" longer, or services where the customer is "trapped" there, are likely to benefit from offering free Wi-Fi access. Here's why.

Those services that generate revenue by virtue of customers being present in the system should provide Wi-Fi so that its customers have one more reason to stay (or one reason reason to leave). Coffee shops have already figured this out (the longer a patron stays, the more he/she consumes). Malls will probably be next to figure this out.

Public transit, hopsitals, and airports have customers that are there mostly because they have to be and would like to leave as soon as possible. However, while there, the customer would like to make the best use of his/her time as he or she can. Having wireless access to the Internet can make a big improvement in how these customers perceive their time in these environments, thus making them less resistant to spending time in these places. More time spent means more public support, better funding, increased maintenance and improvement, etc. -- all good things.

The cost of providing Internet service once the wireless infrastructure is in place is small, and the incremental cost (what it costs the service provider for each additional customer to use the system) is almost nil. This means that once the initial investment is made, the service is highly scalable and easily marketable without incurring large additional costs.

The rest of the story involves thinking creatively. It amazes me how rigidly business think of themselves sometimes. As an example, why aren't the airlines more interested in making the in-airport experience more enjoyable? It seems that most of the attention is being put on the time that the passenger spends on the plane, when often an equal amount is spent in airports.

In short, I do believe that public wireless Internet access will continue to grow, but it will require the rethinking of business models to make it happen. Just like any other new media, the early years are frought with bad models -- it is just a matter of time before the viable ones are developed and brought to market.

The recent discovery of the oldest human remains in Ethiopia dates the origins of modern man, homo sapiens sapiens, back to Africa.

This raises some interesting questions: wouldn't all Americans be African-Americans? Would that mean that a business owned by an African-American would no longer be a "minority-owned" business? Am I now allowed to wear FUBU clothing?

Curious questions, indeed. Discuss below via the Comments link...

The new Treo 600 from Handspring (soon to be Palm), shown to the right, looks like it might be one kick-butt mobile device.

In a nutshell, it is a Palm OS-based mobile phone, and Handspring expects to ship both GSM and CDMA versions of it. The 600 will feature 3G data connections (GPRS and 1xRTT, respectively), 160x160 color display, digital camera, SDIO expansion slot, huge 1800 mAh battery, and a full QWERTY thumb-board keypad.

There are both lovers and haters of thumb-boards, but I'm definitely in the "love it" camp. After using a Treo 180 and a Treo 270 for about 4 months each, I really miss the thumb-board on my current phone, the Kyocera 7135.

Notably absent from the Treo 600 is Bluetooth. Given the size of the device, this is more likely explained as an engineering trade-off than a marketing/product development decision. Naysayers will also point out that the display is "only" 160x160. While this is less than both the Microsoft Smartphone standard resolution (176 x 220) and much less than the forthcoming high-res Samsung SGH-i500 (320x320), it is likely much better than most mobile phone users are used to and it will do less damage to precious battery life.

Overall, it sounds like it could be an incredibly compelling device. Handspring's Treo 600 "sneak peek" preview page, complete with Jeff Hawkins infomercial, is now available here. Other reviews and articles on the Treo 600 can be found at Brighthand, Wired, InfoSync, and Palm Infocenter.

When I posted the contest notice a week ago, I challenged you to identify all the icons shown in my Windows XP Notification Area.

All but one of the icons were identified. Here is the complete list, with links to lesser-known apps:

1. Netscape QuickLaunch
2. Trillian
3. Zone Alarm
4. HotSync Manager
5. WeSync Desktop
6. WinVNC Server
7. ShoutCast Server
8. Apache Services Monitor
9. Creative Audio HQ
10. Second Copy 2000
11. ActiveSync (not connected)
12. iTouch (Keyboard)
13. Atomic Clock Sync
14. Norton AntiVirus Corp. Ed.
15. Volume (system)
16. Safely Remove Hardware (system)

Ed Dutkiewicz is a patent attorney who apparently has spent a bit too much time poring over the patent records at the US Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. Dutkiewicz has set up a website where he offers up a new wacky patent each month, and has been doing this since September, 1995. Some clear winners include the Device for Producing Dimples (1896), the Tapeworm Trap (1854), and the Apparatus for Facilitating the Birth of a Child by Centrifugal Force (1965). Definitely makes it easier to understand how Amazon got that "one-click" patent.

Guglielmo Marconi would have been amazed. A combination of two diminutive devices, shown to the right, now lets anyone walk around with a personal radio station in his pocket.

The white device on the top is the Belkin TuneCast FM Transmitter. It will broadcast on four frequencies: 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, and 88.7 MHz. Although it was designed to aesthetically match an iPod, it will work with any device that has a 1/8" headphone or line out jack. It runs on 2 'AAA' cells (rechargeables work fine).

The shiny device on the bottom is the MPIO/Digitalway FL100 MP3 Player (see that link for my blog entry devoted to the FL100). It plays MP3s, tunes FM stations, records voice notes, and records off of the radio -- amazingly versatile for a 1.5 oz. device. It runs on a single 'AAA' cell. The battery and the memory card in the photo are shown for scale.

So, imagine walking around with virtually unlimited music in your pocket (the FL100 takes SD cards up to 512 MB) and being able to broadcast it to any FM receiver. Granted, the range of the TuneCast unit is a bit short -- roughly 30' line of sight in my usage testing -- but the fact that you can do this at all is pretty cool.

So, the total weight of this personal radio station, including batteries and an SD memory card, is a smidge over 4 oz. (113 g). Granted, while any personal music player could be used in this setup, the FL100 is the smallest I've seen to include an SD card slot. Now, what happens if I set the FL100's FM tuner to the same frequency as the TuneCast is set to broadcast on? Hmm...

On May 1st, I wrote about the modem in my TiVo dying. This was the second time for this particular malady, which is quite common on Series 1 units. I didn't feel like giving another $99 to Philips, so after looking around a bit at alternatives, I found ElectricLegs, a gent in Corpus Christi, Texas, who repairs and upgrades TiVos at very reasonable rates.

So, after emailing the guy to make sure he could fix my TiVo, I disassembled my unit and mailed him the motherboard. About a week later, I got an email from him telling me the total price was $50 + $15 for postage and insurance -- quite a bargain. I PayPal'ed him the funds, and 2 days later, my neatly repaired TiVo motherboard showed up at my house.

After installation and some quick diagnostics, our house is now once again happily living in DVR-land. Thanks, ElectricLegs...my hat's off to ya!

A big hit with consumers and engineers the world over, it seems, is Honda's new television advertisement titled simply 'Cog.' It features a series of Honda Accord parts (valve stems, windshield wipers, etc.) composing a modern day contraption that Rube Goldberg would have been proud of.

If your browser is Flash-enabled, feel free to watch the video here. Afterwards, make sure to follow the link on that page to read an interesting article about the ad. Supposedly, it took 606 takes to get everything to happen just right. Keep in mind while you're watching that video that there's not a smidgen of CGI anywhere -- it's 100% authentic. And Tom and Jerry always seemed to make it look so simple.

Take a look at the image to the right. That's the Windows XP Notification Area from my main desktop at home.

The contest is to see if anyone can correctly identify all 16 icons -- if you think you can, post a Comment (below) with your answers. First person to correctly identify all 16 icons wins...um...well, something cool.

I'll give you a start: icon 15 is "Volume" (yeah, I know, that's a hard one). Anyway, I'll post the answers in a week, so get to work!

For its Zire 71 PDA, Palm has a pretty cool interactive movie-ad made using Flash (that link will open a new browser window).

With Palm's $50 trade-in rebate (good through July 14, 2003), a net-savvy shopper should be able to snag one of these nifty devices for under $225 -- a pretty nice deal for a PDA with all those features.

Some other good reviews on the Zire 71 can be found at MemoWare Features, Brighthand, The Gadgeteer, and Geek.com

Dan Gillmor of The San Jose Mercury News wrote a nice op-ed piece earlier this week. It covers the travesty that is the FCC's recent relaxation of media ownership regulations, the disaster-in-the-making that is the recent AOL/Microsoft settlement, and some irony associated with Barbara Streisand. While I don't really care what Ms. Streisand does, the first two issues should be enough to scare/outrage any conscious, media-loving American into an easily justifiable hissy fit.

The Economist has a nice article on the economic state of affairs of the technology industry. It discusses Moore's Law, the "life cycle" of industries and technological innovations, and how the outlook, while not all good, isn't all bad either. Interesting read, especially if your curiosity extends to theories on macroeconomics and corporate strategy.

One of the key accessories missing from the Sony NX lineup has been the portable "full-size" keyboard. As most of you know (it's also mentioned in my earlier MemoWare article), Sony changed the wiring of the NX devices, and as a result, the previous Sony portable keyboard was not compatible with the keyboard. So, the current owners of the Sony NX devices have been waiting for a new keyboard for a long time (7 months is eternity in the high tech world).

Well, the long wait is finally over. Fellowes has just released the Stowaway XT keyboard for the Sony Clie NR, NX, T, and SJ. I just received the review unit, and I was eager to try it out. I installed the driver and off I went. The driver is an updated version (1.96F) of the ThinkOutside driver for Palm OS5.

The keyboard and driver worked perfectly during my brief testing. The only thing I've noticed was that there was a slight lag when I typed fast (the screen display was delayed by a second when I typed). Since I type 70 words per minute, it is understandable, but I did not notice the same lag when I was using the Palm Ultra-Thin keyboard with the Zire 71 and the Tungsten C.

Anyway, it's great news for the Sony Clie NX owners--actually for other Clie owners as well since we now have the first thin Stowaway keyboard for the Sony Clie's.

Stay tuned for my MemoWare Features for the full review of Sony Clie accessories including several cases for the Sony NX devices in the near future.

I just saw Finding Nemo, that Disney/Pixar (or rather, Pixar/Disney) film about the fish having an adventure. All in all, it was pretty enjoyable -- kids 4-8 will just love it. Aside: For an interesting take on the Disney/Pixar relationship, check out this short piece by Chris Suellentrop over on Slate.

The most intriguing thing was a Pixar trailer for an upcoming movie of theirs called The Incredibles. The trailer, all animated (of course), featured an obviously out-of-shape ex-superhero attempting to put his old utility belt around a now-rotund belly. Pretty hilarious stuff. Looks like it will be great for adults...at least those who can wait till November 5th...of 2004!

According to this morning's press release from Palm, Inc., it will acquire Handspring immediately after spinning off its PalmSource division sometime this Fall. The photo at the right shows (L to R) Ed Colligan (Founder, President, and COO of Handspring), Todd Bradley (President and CEO, Palm Solutions Group), and Jeff Hawkins (Chairman and Chief Product Officer of Handspring, and inventor of the first Palm Pilot).

Stock issues seem fairly straightforward: Handspring stockholders will receive 0.09 shares of Palm, and no shares of PalmSource, for each 1 share of Handspring common stock. Since PalmSource will be spun off just prior to this merger taking place, this makes sense.

This seems to put Palm squarely on the map as a well-rounded device maker. Whether it has the muscle and inertia to carry its success in the consumer and enterprise PDA markets into the mobile phone market is something that we'll all be watching closely.

Another concerns is the people at these two organizations -- there is a lot of good talent that I hope isn't displaced because of this merger (especially some of Handspring's senior management).

Now we can also all debate what the name of the new company will be (assuming there's a name change for Palm SG in the works as result of this combination spin-off/acqusition). The running favorite seems to be "PalmSprings," but I'm thinking the community in California might have issues with that choice.

Read more on this story at CNet News.com, Brighthand, InfoSyncWorld, PhoneScoop, or CNN Money, and the cynic's view is (always) available at The Register.

Just about the time I thought that flash memory had completely taken over the handheld device market, new life has been breathed into magnetic hard drives by startup Cornice. Read the whole story on CNet News here.

It sounds like these new hard drives are perfectly suited to mobiles -- they're small (smaller than an IBM Microdrive), durable (can withstand a 1-meter drop when installed), and seem like they have reasonable power consumption. 1.5 GB for $65? That's a deal, especially when flash storage is still about 4-6X that price on a per-megabyte basis. The primary downside I can see is that these drives are not made to be removable -- they are hard-soldered to the mainboard in the device. But, as an adjunct to removable storage, this would make for a nice base level of memory for mobile devices.

I know I have been writing my MemoWare Features for more than a year now, but I haven't been able to turn any of my reviews into a portable document that I can carry with me and still be satisfied with the quality. That is until now.

Adobe has just released the new version of its free Acrobat Reader for Palm OS Version 3.0. So, I figured why not try to convert my latest Palmcorner review of the Zire 71 into a Palm OS pdf file and see if it can fly.

Of course, given the smaller Palm screen, it would be impossible to duplicate the identical format, but the new version did a good job preserving graphics and tables in the review. While it's difficult to read the table as it appears in the program (see the picture), you can zoom on the table and read the contents of the table. I was impressed!

The conversion was simple as adding a pdf file to the PC Acrobat Palm OS program and synchronizing to a Palm device.

Check it out by downloading the converted PDF (.pdb) file here: Palm Zire 71 Review