CNET's Brian Cooley talks with Joni Blecher about the Handspring Treo 600 smartphone.
Watch the video here. My goodness, that thing is small!
Editorial comment: After watching the entire video, one starts to wonder how Joni Blecher got that job. Could she know less about the devices she reviews?
Over at ExtremePumpkins.com, Tom Nardone takes his jack-o-lantern carving seriously.
"At what point did the carving of pumpkins turn into a "cute" event? When did boys stop carving pumpkins and moms start? Where did we lose touch with one of the years coolest events?Today is the day we seize back this ritual. Today. We will remove from our wives, mothers, and sisters' hands those safe, harmless, cute carving tools and throw them away. Today. We will buy a big, ugly, pumpkin so large a woman cannot lift or move it. Today. We will carve that sumbitch into something ugly and plop it on the front porch.
Today. We are reborn as men."
Tom employs such subtle gadgets as Sawzalls, jigsaws, and routers (the power tool variety, not the LAN gizmo) to carve up interesting and/or disturbing creations. His "Gunshot Wound Pumpkin" is shown to the right.
Cool stuff...makes me want to grab a 20-lb. punkin and a 7" chef's knife and have at it.
(Thanks to Lockergnome for the heads up.)
I just watched the first episode of Taken on the Sci-Fi channel and I'm already looking forward to the second episode. Yeah, it's that good (even better than V was way back in...um...1983).
In a nutshell, Taken is a fictional account of alien encounters with us terrestrials dating from the old Roswell events of the late 1940's to present day. It involves aliens with unknown motivations, shifty-eyed military types, and a host of other mysterious characters.
Taken is a Steven Spielberg production, meaning that it has a bit more credibility than your typical made-for-TV mini-series. So far, it's really enjoyable. The acting is pretty good and, unlike most TV fare, the production quality is top-notch -- on par with most movies I've seen recently.
As I always say, TiVo it if you can...watch it live if you have to.
I'm sensing that digital photography is slowly splitting into two groups with very different needs and equipment.
The first group is the serious consumer, prosumer, and professional photographer. These folks really care about the quality of the photograph and are concerned with (if not educated on) the specs of the camera beyond mere pixel counts (the importance of which I think is overrated anyway). This group cares about printability (where megapixels do matter) as much as anything. Digital SLRs and full-featured, dedicated digital cameras are the type of kit that this group goes for.
The second group is the snapshooter and whim photographer -- the folks who just want a quick image of some people or things and the most likely use is emailing the image to a family member or friend. For these folks, 2 megapixels is too much (that won't easily fit in an email or on a webpage) and even the mention of aperture settings is enough to induce instant boredom. This group loves the concept of the integrated digital camera -- phones and PDAs with cameras in them are the new hot must-have devices.
So where does that leave the middle-of-the-road digital camera? You know, that 3-megapixel, 3X zoom unit about the size of a hamster. It's too big to easily fit in your pocket (so you never have it when you need it) and it's too limited to let you take really nice photos. My prediction is that this segment of the market will slowly shrink and we'll see fewer and fewer of these rather mediocre standalone digital cameras. What we may see is this portion of the market start being dominated by cheap imports.
Most folks who can afford to get what they want, however, will settle either for the camera integrated into their phone or PDA (.3-1.5 megapixels) or will go out and buy a "real" (standalone) digital camera (5 megapixels and up) with more controls than the Apollo lunar lander.
So, which group do you live in...the serious photographers or the fun snapshotters? Or, am I all wet and you think there's more than enough room for the whole range of products and price points?
I think consumers generally overlook and underestimate the importance of one critical aspect of handheld and mobile technologies: the user interface. It is possible, in my opinion, that no other single attribute is as important to user satisfaction as this design aspect, yet we, as consumers, generally think very little about it (at least on a conscious level).
Now, I'm no graphic arts / design geek (but some of my best friends are! :-). However, I've come to appreciate the dramatic impact that interface design quality can have on my satisfaction with a particular device. Let me explain using a few personal examples.
My first PDA was an original Pilot 5000. The essence of Jeff Hawkin's original concept was simplicity -- the "Zen of Palm" was keeping simple tasks as simple as possible. This was achieved through extensive thinking and testing of how people interact with the device, both in the physical sense (e.g., hardware and on-screen buttons) and in the process sense (e.g., what do I want to do next?).
The result was one of the most efficient interfaces I've ever personally experienced. It allowed me to do a fairly large number of things in a relatively small number of highly intuitive steps. Palm OS today largely retains this design philosophy, but feature-creep has complexified things somewhat. For example, having the ability to rotate the screen means that the user now has to decide each time which orientation he/she wants to use. I think Jeff Hawkins would doubt that this adds significant value for a majority of users in a majority of use scenarios, but I digress.
When Jeff Hawkins started up Handspring, he took his "the interface is sacred" philosophy with him. The result was the Treo series of smartphones. I've used a number of smartphones and...er...dumbphones (?) over the years, and none have had such a nicely integrated, well-conceived interface as the Treo. It was almost as if the phone anticipated what you wanted to do next. All the applications were integrated such that the transition from one task to another was nearly seamless and the data just floated along, ready to be handled with whatever you wanted to use at the moment. It was Nirvana (the state of bliss, not the band). The new Treo 600 looks and sounds like it has even improved in this regard, meaning that using it will be just heavenly.
Another really good example of an excellent interface is TiVo. It is simple and intuitive enough for anyone to learn how to control, even without training, in just a few minutes. The menu system is pretty well thought out and easy to navigate. The remote control is a wonder of ergonomics, putting the most important buttons where they need to be and packing 100% of the functionality you need onto a very comfortable remote. In contrast is the Scientific Atlanta 8000 DVR, which does not have such a great interface.
In a car analogy, the Treos and the TiVo are like modestly powered but immaculately behaved (i.e., effortlessly controlled) and confortable sports cars, the kind that you love to drive every day and never get tired of.
Of course, there are dozens of examples of bad interfaces. My Kyocera 7135 is quite the opposite. It runs on Palm OS, but the engineers at Kyocera have utterly destroyed any sense of simplicity. They packed on application after application with almost no data integration across them whatsoever. For example, when in "Phone Mode" (yes, the phone display has a separate mode for making phone calls), the touch screen doesn't work. But, and this makes me both laugh and cry at the same time, if you touch the screen when in phone mode, it actually pops up a message that says "Touch Panel Inactive -- The phone applications is not touch sensitive...Please use <-OK-> (buttons) to navigate." Incredible. Overall, the phone is amazing, but sometimes I feel like I have to wrestle it into submission in order to get it to do what I want (very much the same way I feel about the Pocket PCs I've used).
Another good example of a bad interface is my
In a car analogy, these two devices are like suped-up muscle cars -- they're really powerful and full of features, but hard to control and they take a real effort to "drive." Initially, there's a real "wow" factor, but over time this wears off. As a result, these devices don't elicit the long-term enthusiasm that the devices with a good interface elicit, at least in me.
So, we, as consumers and users, need to think about this aspect more than we have in the past. Every time you use something with a designed interface, start to become aware of characteristics that you like or dislike. Does your digital camera have a menu system that makes it easy to get to those controls you need to change on a regular basis? Does your portable music player have buttons that are easy to manipulate without looking? Does your PDA take as few taps as possible to get to the data you need? If you start thinking about these things, you may begin to appreciate aspects of these devices you never even consciously noted before. Also, you may begin to see new reasons to explain why you look forward to using certain devices more than others.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC) and Segway LLC have announced the recall of the Segway human transporter (HT), after three people were injured in falls from the scooters. One person sustained a head injury, requiring stitches.
Resembling a souped-up reel lawn mower, the Segway HT can hit top speeds of 17 mph.
However, under certain conditions, primarily when the batteries are low, some Segways may not deliver enough power. In that instance, if the rider speeds up abruptly, encounters an obstacle, or continues to ride after receiving a low-battery alert - the Segway forgets its auto-balancing tricks, and the rider can fall.
The recall affects some 6,000 vehicles. Segway customers can receive a free software upgrade that will correct the problem.
Either that, or customers can turn to an alternate mode of transport, the Megway.
I just found out today that a local OfficeMax is actually selling the Tungsten T3. A co-worker just left to go pick one up and hopefully, this afternoon, I'll be able to fondle one in the...er...flesh?
Even though Palm SG has an embargo on any information and actual products being provided or sold prior to October 1st, many of the details have already leaked out (e.g., the recent post by Sam).
While product leaks are common, actual sales aren't. Obviously, Palm SG needs to do something better to keep retailers on their (Palm's) launch schedule. Don't know what to suggest, however -- it's a tricky spot to be in.
The Tungsten T3 sounds really yummy, by the way -- I can't wait to check it out.
Pretec, a leading CF manufacturer, has just announced that they will be shipping 6GB CF cards starting next month. 12GB CF cards are scheduled for release sometime late next year. According to Pretec, their new CF cards are 3 times stronger than regular plastic CF cards, and they have the sustained read speed of 8MB/sec and write speed of 7MB/sec. Now hold onto your hats! The cost of 6GB cards will be $7499.
C&A Electronics has begun listing two new Tungsten models from Palm (aka palmOne) - apparently ahead of the official October 1 launch date.
According the the catalog listings, the Palm Tungsten E sports 32MB of RAM, Palm OS 5.2.1, and SD expansion slot, and comes in at £169.99 (~$280).
Similarly, the Palm Tungsten T3 sports 64MB of RAM, a 400 MHz XScale Intel processor, Palm OS 5.2.1, and SD expansion slot, built-in Bluetooth, all at £339.99 (~$560).
As of this writing, the "Buy" buttons on the C&A Electronics site are functional, but orders are only being taken for the UK and the European Union. If you're in the right geographic area, order away - and send us a review!
CNN reports today that scientists at Phillips Research in Eruope was successful in displaying high-definition video on a paper-thin screen. Furthermore the light-weight screen only needs low voltage to power itself. Sounds like a sure bet for our next generation PDA's.
On the other side of the Atlantic, AMD introduced a new 64-bit processor the AMD Athlon™ for PC desktops and notebooks. Since the 64-bit processor can process information 64 bits at a time and supports bigger internal memory, it sure promises definite speed gains from PC's running 32-bit chips. Microsoft also announced Windows XP beta that supports the new chip at the same time. However, the best news might be that AMD's intense competition with Intel is going to keep the chip price down, and that will be good for speed and game enthusiasts.
PDAFrance.com has a whole gallery of photos from the PalmSource European Developer Conference that ended yesterday. It looks like anybody with a penchant for handhelds would be on a virtual sugar high. Take this photo from their gallery as an example:
Some of my favorite photos include:
• the Treo 600 side-by-side with the Samsung SGH-i500 (neither of which have been fully released yet)
• The GSL Xplore G18 (a really tiny Palm OS phone from China) next to two "normal" mobile phones
• A photo of the Tapwave Zodiac in action (drool, drool)
OK, check 'em all out at PDAFrance.com.
Everybody seems to remind somebody of someone else, usually someone famous, at some point in his or her life. I find this pretty curious as the comparisons can run from the obvious to the bizarre.
One of the funniest look-alike instances I've encountered recently was as shown in the above pics -- my fraternity brother Dan was drinking a beer and it suddenly struck me how much he looked like Teddy Roosevelt. Why I thought that, I have no idea.
As for myself, I've been told I look like several folks -- these are the comparisons I actually remember:
| Roddy McDowall -- my father-in-law told me that I reminded him of this actor who starred in Planet of the Apes |
| Andy Roddick -- yesterday, the lady who works at the tennis desk of the health club I play at told me that someone mentioned to her that I looked liked Andy Roddick. Um, yeah, whatever. I doubt anybody who has abs like that spends nearly as much time as I do on his blog. ;-) |
| Calvin -- Perhaps the most frequent comparison I get is that I remind people of this loveable, but mischevious, comic tot. I take it as a compliment, regardless of intent. |
Bizarrely enough, more than one person has told my wife she reminds them of Connie Sellecca (yes, from Greatest American Hero fame), and my high school buddy Dave was mistaken for Tom Cruise on a couple of occasions.
So, who do people think you look like?
Gizmodo has a snippet on a forthcoming TabletPC from Tatung, the TTAB-B12D. The specs sound really exciting:
"It's just 2.3 centimeters thick, weighs only 2.2 pounds, and has a 10.4-inch display, a 900MHz Centrino processor, built-in WiFi, a 30GB hard drive, 256MB of RAM, and a docking station with a keyboard and an optional touchpad."
I'm a bit confused, however, as the Tatung website lists the TTAB-B12D as a 12.1" TabletPC, and the Tatung Canada website lists the TTAB-B12D-2 (which seems to be a North American version of the same unit) at 1.6 kg (3.5 lbs) without the keyboard attachment. Hopefully some more definite specs will come out soon.
Some of our elected officials are caving into financially well-endowed lobbyists and waffling on the Number Portability Act that is slated to go into effect in November.
Consumer's Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, has a new website that makes it really easy to email your elected officials to let them know that you expect them to represent your wishes by keeping Number Portability on track.
EscapeCellHell.org is the place to go.
(Thanks, boingboing.net)
This year, I started doing something I've wanted to do for a long time: race my car. I'm no Paul Newman, and I don't own a track car, so the most reasonable type of racing I can expect to do is something called autocross (or auto-X) or Solo II, depending on who you talk to.
Autocross is basically individual timed racing around a course laid out with pylons (small traffic cones). There's usually only one (or two) cars on the track at a time, so there's no chance of careening into another driver. The courses are usually laid out in a big parking lot, an unused dragstrip, or any other large body of asphalt.
In June, I started racing with the Ohio Valley Region (OVR) of the Porsche Club of America (PCA). These guys are a real hoot, and some of them are pretty impressive drivers as well. Here's a pic of me in my first ever auto-X event -- notice the complete lack of any suggestion of speed in the photo (I've gotten a fair bit faster since then). :-)
Basically, anyone with a car in good mechanical condition (mandatory), no major health risks, and a desire to learn more about how to handle your vehicle in vigorous maneuvers can participate -- most car clubs don't require participants to be members. So, if you want to read up more on autocrossing, there is some good information at the PCA Autocross site and at the Tire Rack website. Now get out there!
I turned 40 this past weekend. (Thanks for coming to my surprise party, Craig!) I'm still sporting some bruises I took at the hands of a naked stripper who got a bit carried away with my belt during the obligatory "birthday spanking". (Made even more humiliating by my Mom observing the whole sordid affair.) But I digress...
I did come away with some cool stuff and this little Belkin Quadra 4-in-1 thingy is worth mentioning here. It looks just like a regular pen that might be carried by an astronaut or high-powered investment banker, but it's really much more. Twist the lower body one way and you get a nice ink pen; the other way gives you a PDA stylus. The top button on the upper body controls a very bright, white LED that can be a reading light, morse code signaler, or an aid to finding your way through a dark hotel room. The lower button controls a laser pointer and we all know what fun these can be. Here kitty, kitty!!! Ooooo, look at that spot on the wall...get it!
Americans and everyone around the world are spending $$$ to purchase/upgrade their technology in the past ten years. Of course, the reason for doing that should be obvious: improvement in productivity. Of course in education, the benefits are supposedly increased learning.
However, the latest productivity study shows America (supposedly the technological leader in the world) falling behind a number of our European counterparts, and I haven't really seen any study that shows that technology has really improved our productivity.
In fact, the prolific writer Stephen Jay Gould, a paleontologist and geologist, who recently passed away had been known to use his old Smith Corona typewriter to write and never used his e-mails for correspondence.
Also, the latest CNN article reports that schools are now facing an increasing problem of students using their PDA's and cell phones for cheating, playing games, surfing the web, and gossiping. When I was young, we used to pass notes in class, now students are wirelessly passing notes through their cell phones and PDA's. Worse yet, students can now cheat on their exams by passing answers and notes using these gadgets. One of my colleagues recently caught a student here on campus who was communicating with his roommate via SMS (Short Message Service) to get the answer to his engineering exam questions. I bet PDA and cell phone designers never contemplated these uses when they were first designing these devices.
So, my question to you this early Monday morning is "is technology helping us to become more productive, or are we learning more as a result?"
Recently, I became aware of something that really surprised me: a lot of people read the contents of Yahoo! Groups mailing lists on the web instead of receiving emails and reading the posts in an email client.
Yahoo! Groups' web interface royally stinks. It's slow to load, overly encumbered with ads, and doesn't provide a lot of functionality that you really should have when dealing with high-volume forums (e.g., threading). However, if you have all the posts routed to your email inbox and you use a local client (e.g., Eudora, The Bat, Netscape Mail, Outlook, etc.) then a lot of these weaknesses are mitigated.
I asked one person why he used the web interface instead of subscribing to the emails (or even the daily digest), and his response was, "I already get too much email." Huh?! That makes zero sense -- he's wasting loads more time by using the web interface. Besides, if he had a decent email client, he could filter all the mailing lists posts into a separate folder and read at his leisure.
However, I suspect his logic, as fallible as it may be, isn't that uncommon. My suspicion is that 90% of all email users aren't sophisticated enough to efficiently manage large amounts of email, so they try to minimize the amount they get. They don't realize that email can be one of the most efficient means of communicating in one-to-one and one-to-many scenarios that don't require real-time interaction.
Perhaps spam is to blame for the bad rep that email seems to have gotten with the uninformed and inexperienced...I don't know for sure. Whatever it is, I hope that two things happen. First, I hope that more folks get familiar and comfortable with a decent email client (and no, I don't include Outlook Express in that set) so that they can become more efficient users. Second, I hope that Yahoo! redesigns its Groups interface to make it more useful, usable, and user-friendly. If either of those things happen, I'll be happier. If both things happen, my head will probably explode.
It's amazing how Ebay has transformed the way I think about buying things. Most of the time, when I need something fairly common and can wait a couple weeks to get it, I turn to Ebay just to see what's available.
For example, I needed a sync/charger cable for my Palm Tungsten C. Best Buy sells the cable alone (pictured) for about $30. I could also order it online from a variety of companies for $18-$25. Then I check Ebay.
My choices for this rather standard electonic accessory are nearly unlimited. I settle on a USB sync/charge cable and a car-charger adapter and a wall AC adapter kit, all for $17. With 3-day delivery, my total expense was $22.50. Man, ya gotta love Ebay!
Interesting sidenote: What's funny is that the cable turned out to be an Innopocket branded cable. That cable alone costs $18.90 if you buy it directly from Innopocket.
Palm OS, and by extension, PalmSource and pa1mOne (ugh), may be seeing the beginning of a rebirth of sorts -- an era where things "go its way" far more helpfully than they have in recent years. Here are four examples:
First, Palm OS powers two of the hottest new devices that haven't even hit the streets yet. The Treo 600 (pictured) by Handspring (soon-to-be pa1mOne (ugh)) was just recently praised to the highest level in an article by Walt Mossberg, personal technology journalist for the Wall Street Journal. Also, the forthcoming Tapwave Zodiac, the device I've lauded a few times on this very blog, got a very favorable write-up in Forbes magazine. It wasn't that long ago when industry analysts were asking if there was any life left in Palm OS beyond Sony sticking a camera on a PDA for the first time. Apparently, licensees are starting to ramp up innovation once again -- definitely good news for the platform.
Second, Palm's stock [PALM] is setting 52-week highs while it extends above $20 per share. PALM was hovering in the single digits just a couple of months ago. Obviously, the vagaries of the market prohibit me from generalizing, but this expanded market price is likely at least a partial indicator that Palm OS is believed to be heading in the right direction. Moreover, yesterday's report showed Palm beating analysts' expectations for the quarter. While not profitable, the loss was less than many had predicted.
Third, there has been a bit of a reprieve on some of the lawsuits (many of which were completely frivolous, IMO) that have dogged the operating system and the parent company for years. For example, the NCR patent-infringement suit was tossed out by a U.S. District Court. While some lawsuits are still pending (e.g., Xerox's patent-infringment claim regarding Graffiti), the news doesn't appear to be as uniformly negative as it had just a few years ago.
Finally, we expect that Palm OS 6 will be arriving sometime in the next 6-8 months with devices using OS 6 available shortly thereafter. Palm OS 6 will address many of the shortcomings in OS 4/5 (e.g., multi-tasking and security) while maintaining that backward compatibility with most existing Palm OS apps that has been so essential to the ongoing success of the platform.
So, in a word, I'm definitely "bullish" on Palm OS right now, perhaps moreso than I have been in years. The big question has been whether Palm OS can survive the tech spending drought, but there are already signs that the skies (and pursestrings) are about to open up. Here's hoping for a deluge.
I'm still using two graphing calculators -- the Casio FX-7000 (pictured) and FX-8000G -- that I got in high school. If you don't know me personally, that was nearly 20 years ago. Given my obsession with the latest and greatest technology, why do I hang on to these relics? I've been wondering that myself and I've come up with two possible explanations.
First, since I used these calculators in high school and all through college (all 11 years of it), I learned a lot of the advanced math I know using these things. Therefore, I am intimately familiar with every shift-function and special calculation mode that they offer. I would hate to have to re-initiate that learning curve by trading these things in for a newer model, especially one that likely doesn't do all that much more than these do. So, my first hypothesis is that I'd like to stick with what's comfortable.
My second hypothesis is that calculators haven't really advanced all that far in the past 20 years. Sure, they have more memory and higher density displays than they used to (my two calculators have a combined total of 2 KB of RAM). But, given that 80% of my calculations these days involve the four basic operands (+ - x ÷), these tiny enhancements don't really help me that much.
Looking at these two possible reasons, I think the answer to why I don't upgrade is both, actually. What I have is good enough for my use and what is available doesn't provide compelling enhancements. So, what's different between the calculator industry and the consumer computer industry?
Well, I do believe that most of the computer gear I have is good enough -- there are relatively few problems or uses that I face on a regular basis that can't be solved with technology I already have. However, the PC industry is really good at coming up with technology that reflects compelling advances and interesting new capabilities. While the calculator industry is at the mercy of mathematicians to devise new functions (unlikely), the PC industry has basically an unbounded space in which to explore and expand their products' functionality. I think this is what causes me to be constantly intrigued by the latest and greatest consumer tech -- this sense of exploration and creativity that is associated with constant innovation.
Samsung has just announced the SGH-P705 GSM 900/1900 phone with WAP 2.0, MIDP 2.0 Java, multimedia messaging service (MMS), infrared and 40-chord polyphonic ringtones. Big deal, you say?
Well, this is the first phone of its kind with a built-in TV tuner. Along with the (now de rigeur) ability to do MMS and Java-based games, this baby has a hi-res TFT display which sports 262,000 colors and screen-capture ability.
Ultraportable TVs aren't new; but I never saw myself putting one of those in my jeans pocket and taking it everywhere I went. Now, integrate a TV with a phone - that I might bring around with me.... With this at your fingertips, you may never have to miss an episode of Queer Eye again!
Fifteen years ago, Porsche produced 230 examples of what many enthusiasts feel is the ultimate automobile. The 959 was and is superlative in every way. I will not repeat its specifications as most car people know them by heart already. Due to their outrageous cost and ultra scarcity, it's very unusual to see one in even the best car shows. Finally, until now it has been impossible to bring one into this country and drive it due to federalization problems. Bill Gates (yes that one) has been trying since 1990 to do so and seems to have finally succeeded with lots of help. Read this story from Autoweek for the full scoop. Did I mention that these new versions now have 585 horsepower versus the original 450? I need a drink. And $450,000.
Ahoy there, matey. Tomorrow be "Talk Like a Pirate Day" for all you land-lubbers. So dig that peg-leg out of your trunk and find yerself a suitable pirate moniker, or risk being broadsided.
If your piratin' needs more polishin' than a tarnished 12-lb. deck cannon, then tack over to talklikeapirateday.com for help on translations from office speak to pirate jargon and other info:
For instance, instead of saying something like this:"The commitee has decided to reallocate your time to the filing group. We look forward to the exciting new synergies between these departments."
You would say this:
"Aye matey, those scalawags in their fine breeches want ye' to move o'er with the scurvy dogs yonder. If ye' don't come back with some fine booty, we be keelhaulin' you next morn!"
Arrrr!
Yes, the Zodiac is finally available...at least for pre-orders. Tapwave has said that orders will be filled starting in October.
The newly updated tapwave.com website also has boatloads of new information on games, accessories, packages, etc.
I've got my pre-order in...what about you?
Nicolas Cage's latest movie, Matchstick Men, is a topsy-turvy tale of two con men trying to pull off a career grift. But there's more than one twist that upsets their plans.
A lot of the movie's best qualities come from Cage's portrayal of Roy, an obsessive-compulsive agoraphobe, who is simultaneously trying to run his cons and come to grips with finding out that he has a 14-year-old daughter by his former wife.
While the movie gets a tad maudlin in a couple of spots, overall, it's primarily a comedic action with a few dramatic and action scenes tossed in for balance. Generally, the story (no spoilers here) is pretty engaging -- I didn't notice that 2 hours had zipped by when the movie ended.
My rating: 8/10. Rottentomatoes.com gave it an 81% (fresh), and IMDB users rated it a 7.5/10.
The supreme nutters behind the "Getaway In Stockholm" videos are set to release number four in their infamous series this October 15th. The teaser trailer is available now via their website. If your jaw is still a bit slack reading this, let me fill you in. Several years ago, some soon-to-be Darwin award winners in Stockholm thought it would be cool to secure a really fast car, goad the local police into a chase and then film the whole thing. They did. It was very cool and it spawned sequels and copycats galore. At times the calls are so close and the speeds are so great that these videos are almost painful to watch, but impossible to turn away from. Don't try this at home.
Got a Nintendo GameBoy Advance? Instead of a videogame cartridge, clip on a Campho Advance from Digital Act, and turn your handheld gaming device into a videophone - complete with digital camera, microphone and earpiece.
For now, connections are via a regular phone jack - broadband and wireless connections are in the works. The GameBoy display streams live video of the person on the other end of the line, with your own image in a corner of the display.
Naturally, the other person requires a similar setup. And, for now, you both need to live in Japan, as developers aren't saying when (or if) they'll sell the Campho Advance overseas.
Ouch.
...but I think I can see it from here.
Possibly the most irksome aspect of mobile technologies is their voracious appetite for power. To feed this hunger, I've developed a system for maintaining a stable of various rechargeable batteries.
The case shown is one of 5 containers I use to maintain the various NiMH and Ni-Cad cells that we use in our mobile electronics. One case holds 12 'AA' NiMH cells that I use for various things (mostly my digital camera). Another identical case holds 12 'AA' NiMH cells for my wife to use for various things (mostly her CD player). A third container holds 12 'AAA' NiMH cells that I use for my MP3 player and various older PDAs. A fourth, much larger container holds all the cells that are depleted and needing to be recharged. A fifth container holds about 40 non-rechargeable cells of every type and size -- from 'D' cells for flashlights to some coin cells for my graphing calculator.
How do we keep all these recharged? Well, we have a system that relies on one 8-bank multi-charger (can recharge 'AAA', 'AA', and 9V cells) and two portable chargers that handle only 'AA' cells. At any one time, there are about 75-80 batteries of various type either waiting to be used or being recharged in my closet.
Man, there has to be a better way. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any real breakthroughs in battery technology coming down the pike. What about fuel cells? Nah, too big and bulky and we're still 10 years away from those being even close to ready for mass consumption. So, for the forseeable future, our little battery system will likely get bigger and bigger as more things require batteries.
Of course, there's all those things with internal (non-replaceable) rechargeable batteries. To handle all those, I, like you, have a small mountain of wall wart adapters and not nearly enough outlets. To help me use our power strip outlets more efficiently, I've had good success with a product called "The Liberator" (shown above) from Cyberguys! (who put out one of the few snail-mail catalogs I enjoy getting). It's a cheap, 1-foot mini-extension cord that basically lets you use 6 wall warts on a 6-outlet power strip. Pretty cool, eh?
So, in a nutshell, this setup keeps me sane, but it doesn't make me happy. Where are all those cool mini-nuke power supplies we were supposed to have? Shouldn't there be a Mr. Fusion for sale at my local hardware store by now?
Canon announced a new ultra thin compact digital camera. The PowerShot SD10 comes with a 4.0 Megapixel resolution with Canon's exclusive DIGIC (Digital Image Core) and ISAPS (Intelligent Scene Analysis Photographic Space) technology. The SD10 features a single focus 39mm (35 mm equivalent) lens with a 5.7X digital zoom.
This of course is nothing special except that the SD10 measures mere 3.5 x 1.9 x .7 inches and weighs 3.5 oz. For those of you who are more visually inclined, think of a typical business card, and you got the size just about right. The camera has a built-in flash, and a few photographer friendly goodies such as AF assist beam, 3 different metering system including spot metering, exposure compensation, ISO range from 50 to 400, and the shutter speed between 15 to 1/1500 seconds. The camera can also make video clips of 320 x 240 at 15 fps. The camera uses a SD slot and comes with one 32MB SD card.
The camera retails for $349 and should be available around mid-October.
Watching the weatherman on the 9 o'clock news, I sometimes say to myself, "Hey, I could do that."
Now, I can - and you can too. This weekend saw the launch of the world’s largest climate prediction experiment - one similar to SETI@home, which used Internet-connected personal computers to sift through reams of radiotelescope data in a search for signs of extraterrestrial life.
ClimatePrediction.net plans to use the combined power of participants’ computers - an application of grid computing - to establish what could be the most comprehensive probability-based forecast of climate for the 21st century.
During idle time, connected computers will run climate models from the U.K. Meteorological Office and its partners, simulating decades of the earth's climate. After each run, the simulations are sent back, with the results validating different versions of the model (or not). After the most realistic models have been identified, these will be used to make predictions about earth's future climate.
The organizers hope that the ClimatePrediction.net will have a strong appeal to educational institutions. Participants will be able to "fly" around their simulated planet earth to see the changing weather patterns, and compare their predictions with those of other participants.
For those who just have to have the latest hip kit in their messenger bags, the Tapwave Zodiac will be going on sale (pre-order) Wednesday, September 17th at 7AM PST. Pre-orders can be placed at www.tapwave.com as of that morning.
Avid readers of GearBits will know that I'm particularly excited by the Zodiac. GearBits blog entries about this new Palm OS powered gaming device cum PDA can be found in this list of search results.
The photo to the right came out of the FCC application that Tapwave had to submit for the Zodiac. Tons of additional information, including a user manual, many photos, and lots of active discussion about the Zodiac can be found at the Tapwave_Users Yahoo! Group. But, you have to be a member of that group to access all the downloads, so go sign up today (it's free) and join the 300+ others who are making this the most active place to find out new information on the Zodiac.
GermanCarFans.com has a new gallery of photos of the amazing...no, that's not superlative enough...awe-inspiring...no, too cliché...mind-numbingly impressive Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.
The SLR is a 2-seat supercar that looks like something you'd find in a country club parking lot (in the valet section, of course). While most supercars look like a cross between a jet fighter and an F1 car, the SLR looks, well, like a Mercedes-Benz street car. Well, a very nasty-looking street car.
This thing does 0-60 in less than 4 seconds and shoots to a top speed in excess of 200 MPH thanks to its supercharged 600 HP 5.5L V-8. The car is awash in high-tech materials too, including ceramic brake discs and vast quantities of carbon fiber (even the seats). The SLR is the result of a 5-year collaboration between McLaren and Mercedes-Benz. Thanks to Dan for the lead.
Despite my issues with my HP G85, I decided to try out a new HP Officejet 6110 multi-function printer/fax/scanner/copier (pictured).
To my delight, the device has even a tad more scanning functionality than the G85 has. All the different scanning options I was used to have been retained, and a few new ones have been added, in the included HP Director management utility.
One thing that is a bit puzzling is why HP decided to remove the direct PC faxing capabilities that the G85 has (i.e., you can select the G85's fax function as a printer, bypassing a hardcopy). On second thought, it is pretty obvious. First, HP would like you to use as much ink as possible, so bypassing a hardcopy doesn't support that objective. Second, if the 6110 had PC faxing capabilities, I'm not sure why anyone would pony up the extra $100 for the Officejet 7110, which prints a tad faster with no other major advantages over the 6110 (other than PC faxing).
Overall, it's a nice unit. It's a fair bit smaller than my G85, yet does most everything it does faster and better. While HP's printer cartridges aren't the most economical, I'm glad to still be printing with HP.
I got an e-mail from BN.com (Barnes and Nobles) yesterday stating that they would no longer sell e-books in their site starting 9/9/2003, and I need to download all the MS e-books I have purchased in the past in the next 90 days.
Several months ago, I got a similar e-mail from Gemstar, maker of Gemstar e-book readers that they are stop selling their devices and e-books as well. Since Gemstar purchased both NuvoMedia (formerly, maker of Rocket e-book reader) and SoftBook Press, Inc., formerly, maker of the SoftBook Reader, it looks like the whole e-book industry is floundering.
The e-book concept is intriguing. You don't have to carry tons of books with you when you travel (go on a vacation) because one small device can let you store many books. You can electronically bookmark the pages, and also search the pages for the quotes or passages you are looking for. Sounds like everyone should and wants one. Well, apparently not.
I own a NuvoMedia's Rocket e-book reader, and I still find the device useful, but the problem has not been the device, but the lack of content (i.e., books). Is there a conspiracy going on here? Perhaps, but as long as book publishers do not make their books available in e-book formats, I don't think the market going to take off. Judging from copyright issues (piracy and illegal copying/sharing) the recording (CD) and the movie (DVD) industries have been experiencing lately, I doubt book publishers are in any hurry to migrate over to the electronic medium right now.
So, technology is here, but it is vastly underutilized. I'm still optimistic, but I'm not going to invest in any more stand-alone e-book devices or software.
What's been your experience, or what do you think?
Well, we heard that several lucky few who have gotten to fondle the forthcoming Sony Clie UX-50 (pictured) have found the keyboard to be rather pathetic.
While some liked it, a major complaint so far seems to be that the keys offer zero tactile feedback and are hard to distinguish from the surrounding metal without looking. This very concern has existed since the first time the photos of the UX-50 and UX-40 were released back in July.
The Sony Clie UX-50 is a clamshell form-factor Palm OS handheld featuring Wi-Fi 802.11b and Bluetooth built right in. Combined with a big 480x320 screen, loads of RAM, and the standard built-in digital camera, these devices looked promising. However, a few limitations have popped up. The keyboard is one, and the fact that the device can't be used in portrait mode (even when folded back on itself) seems pretty silly.
The lousy keyboards on Clies has been a pet peeve of mine since they first came out, and it's disheartening to see that Sony hasn't figured this out yet. I hope Clies get better keyboards pretty soon or the whole product line may be at risk.
An effective system for handling micropayments, or the ability to electronically pay someone really small sums (often in the pennies or fractions of a cent), has so far eluded designers. This has lead to a lot of really bad online revenue models being dreamed up to compensate for, or accommodate, this gap.
MIT Technology Review has a nice article on micropayments, "Selling Online Content—25 Cents at a Time". The piece reviews some new ideas, including a system offered by a company called Bitpass, that might eventually break down this barrier and let the easy flow of tiny sums of money finally happen as fluidly and efficiently as it should...and needs to.
Granted, when a robust micropayment system finally gets developed, you can probably kiss free content on the Internet good-bye. While it will take a while to get widely accepted, paying a 30th of a cent to read an article will likely become second nature and generally assumed. Heck, free content may even become the exception rather than the rule (wow...just like the real world) and advertising-based revenue models might start to seem charmingly anachronistic.
So, how much would you be willing to pay to get a weather forecast? 1 cent? 1/10th of a cent? 1/100th of a cent? Someday, payments like these might be automatically deducted from your "account," although figuring out what that "account" actually looks like will likely take a huge amount of work and coordination across the various financial industries. But, it will happen...sooner or later.
According to CNN, Disney is supposed to unveil disposable DVDs today. Unlike rental DVDs, you don't have to return the disposable DVDs, and that is sure to expand the retail distribution channel. Yes, now you can stop by a corner drug store and buy a disposable DVD for $5.
I don't know about others, but I'm not sure I'd like the idea of having the disposable DVDs yet. First of all, I'm not sure it's enviromentally friendly. Second, what happens if the DVD is defective (i.e., ages prematurely)? So instead of 48 hours, you only get 24 hours. I can't see myself standing in line arguing with a drugstore clerk that the DVD really expired prematurely.
Besides, what'll be next? Disposable CDs, rental cars, TV's, or how about a disposable book--after 48 hours, it mysteriously vanishes (talk about recycling). Although my head say it's Mission Impossible Cool, my heart says I'm not ready yet.
In my recent blog entry, I lamented how HP removed some functionality from the software it provides for my G85 multi-function (printer/scanner/copier/fax). While I could scan directly into an Adobe Acrobat PDF using the earlier version of the software on Windows 2000, the software that HP provided for Windows XP did not have this functionality.
Well, I just got off the phone with Joe, a reasonably polite but less-than-clueful tech support staffer, at HP about this issue. It appears that scanning directly into Adobe Acrobat is no longer possible with the software when used on a Windows XP machine. Instead, HP suggests you go buy Adobe Acrobat Pro, a $450 software package.
Yes, HP suggests that I spend $150 more on software than I originally spent on the printer just to regain a feature their software had before I changed operating systems. Something is totally screwed up at HP if they think this is an acceptable "solution." Apparently, for my new printer, I need to go start looking at other multi-function device makers. Any recommendations (other than Canon...thanks, Bob)?
Handmark and Spiffcode are preparing a new game for handhelds: Warfare Incorporated (WFI). WFI is a real-time strategy combat game. As an employee of a mining company, your various missions require you to destroy the forces of a competing mining company and/or an opposing army of independent miners.
The image to the right is a little piece of a screenshot. With the game supporting graphics up to 480x320 (the max resolution currently available on handhelds), there is a lot of detail available on the screen at any one time.
Full-screen demo shots can be found here, and a downloadable movie of actual game action can be found here. It looks as if Handmark will be coming out with both Palm OS and Pocket PC versions of the game.
The game appears to be you-versus-the-computer through a series of scenarios. Head-to-head gaming doesn't currently seem to be an option, but that might be something that appears in version 2 -- who knows for sure. In a nutshell, however, this looks like it will be a really awesome game.
Full disclosure: Craig has a financial relationship with Handmark, although this hasn't kept him from criticizing the company when it screws up and praising it when it comes out with something totally kick-ass (like this game). :-)
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (who turned 110101 on August 11) has given the thumbs-up to Vince Briel, a computer technician and vintage technology enthusiast, who plans to hand-build replicas of the legendary Apple I.
Wired reports that orders are now being taken via Briel's website Replica I, which expects to ship the first machines on October 11.
Briel had been unable to get permission from Apple to reproduce the machine. He then wrote to Woz, who thought it was a great idea, and noted that the Apple I's schematics and ROM code had been freely distributed in 1975 at the Homebrew Computer Club, long before Woz and Steve Jobs formed Apple.
The Apple I "clone" uses different components from the original, but is functionally identical. Briel noted he spent ages "un-implementing" features offered by modern chips - such as backspacing - which were unavailable on the original 1970s-vintage chips.
Do you use a group calendaring system? If so, which one is it? What do you like about it? What do you hate about it? Does it work with handheld devices (if so, which ones)? Does it have a web interface?
I've been trying to find a good one and have come up short so far. Share your experiences here.
I recently decided to try updating the software on my HP G85 multi-function (printer/scanner/copier/fax) machine I have at my office. It turns out that was a really stupid thing to do.
The thing I use my G85 for the most is scanning multi-page documents into Adobe Acrobat PDFs so I can distribute the articles and documents to my students without making hardcopies (hardcopies are evil). The version of the software that came with the G85 made this task relatively easy: I start the scan manager, select Adobe Acrobat as the destination for the output, and start scanning (I can crop, straighten, and stuff as I go to each page if I choose).
Well, the newest version of HP's software has completely eliminated this option. Now, using the scan manager, I can only scan into either the HP Photo Editor (if I'm scanning a "photo") or into a word-processing program like Microsoft Word (if I'm scanning a "document"). Scanning directly into Acrobat is impossible from the scan manager -- how ridiculous is that?!
Well, it turns out that I can scan directly into Acrobat, but only if I use the hardware buttons on the G85's front panel. I select "Scan To" and then choose the destination program of my choice (in this case, Acrobat). However, this front-panel scanning eliminates any chance of straightening, cropping or making other image adjustments during the scanning process.
This is yet another example of a company totally screwing up a perfectly good piece of software by trying to make it simpler and easy to use. In this quest for "ease of use," HP has completely overlooked the other primary driver of technology adoption, which is "usefulness" (per Davis' Technology Acceptance Model).
While I can eventually get all this stuff into Adobe Acrobat, the process takes about 4X as long (from ~30 seconds per page to ~2 minutes per page). The funny thing was that I was getting ready to buy a new multifunction for home and I was all set to buy another HP. Unless HP's latest devices have a better interface, I think I might start looking at alternatives. Too bad, too...I've always liked HP printers. It's ironic that bad software might end up screwing up an otherwise great physical product.
Looks like the Dana Wireless is officially shipping. A recent brochure I received from Alphasmart shows a detailed description of the Dana Wireless as well as the new Internet software package including a wide-screen web browser and an e-mail client as well as a chat program.
The new Dana will also include the wide-screen versions of Documents to Go from Dataviz as well. Looks like I'll be leaving my laptop at home more often in the future.
I will be getting a review unit soon; so, look for the review in the near future.
A new video of the forthcoming Tapwave Zodiac is available at CNET TV:
Byron Connell, CEO of Tapwave, talks through some of the highlights of the device, including full SDIO compatibility for both expansion slots! Tapwave is also planning on supporting a community-oriented website once the Zodiac is launched.
Believe me, you will want one...you will need one of these things after seeing it in action. Tapwave will start taking pre-orders via its website on September 17th. You all can get in line behind me. Thanks to namorblah for the lead.
SanDisk has finally released its Secure Digital Wi-Fi 802.11b adapter (pictured).
The SD Wi-Fi adapter only currently supports PDAs running Pocket PC (SanDisk has a compatibility chart, which shows which Pocket PCs the adapter supports (apparently not even half of all Pocket PCs). Given that this card costs under $100 street (I saw it tonight for $94.95 online), it should sell well. Once Palm OS drivers are released, it should sell really well.
SanDisk has also promised that a combination 256 MB RAM / Wi-Fi card will be coming out this year. Yummy!
A few weeks ago I was sitting in a sweltering, decrepit former Coca-Cola bottling plant in rural Missouri talking with a good ole boy truck driver from southern Kentucky whose brother-in-law is a US treasury agent. How's that for a hook line? This driver was regaling me with a story about a run he had made from Atlanta to Richmond, KY driving a tractor trailer loaded with bales of money heading to the incinerator. He even had the M16-toting, stone-faced agent riding shotgun (literally) and several lead and chase cars escorting him on his non-stop run. "Great story", I thought. "I bet he's lying" was my next thought.
Then he said, "You know all those cops you see on the roadside pointing laser guns at you?"
"Sure, I see them everywhere", I said.
He leered a bit, moved in close, and lowered his voice. "They're not checking your speed you know. They're counting money."
Thinking I had not heard him correctly, I asked him to repeat himself.
"That's right!", he continued. "All of this new money has a little chip in it that lets the feds do a quick count with a special gun they aim at passing cars. Helps them catch the drug traffickers."
The story from there degraded into an argument with me calling BS in a big way. It's got to be BS, right?
Now go hit up Google with a search on RFID and money. Kind of scary isn't it?
Everybody is constantly bombarded by viruses, spyware, adware, trojans, worms, and a host of other cybernasties. You can protect yourself from some of this stuff using the excellent free utilities at Gibson Research Corporation (GRC).
GRC gives out a bunch of stuff for free, and not just junk, but really useful (and sometimes unique) utilities to help you protect yourself and your computer. Plus, there's a ton of good useful information at the site -- very educational!
Along the same lines as Mitch's Axis 2100, Gizmodo is reporting that Linksys has begun offering a new wireless (802.11b) webcam, the WVC11B , that permits streaming of 320x240 video using its own internal web server.
One of the nifty features is that it can be wall mounted or it can stand in its cradle, which provides both power and a LAN jack for wired connectivity.
When Linksys gets into a market, you know things are about to become domain of the everyman. For under $200 (the Axis 2100 cost upwards of $500 when it first came out, and it wasn't wireless), the WVC11B may bring a whole new range of customers, and applications, to life.
Perhaps my recent thoughts on privacy, especially those related to webcams, aren't so far-fetched.
Michael Ashby has a nice blog entry about blogging with a Palm OS handheld. In it, he recommends an application called Azure. I gotta say, it works just as advertised -- I'm posting this entry using Azure. Read Michael's blog entry and then go try this terrific app for yourself.
Craig's blog on pointing a webcam out the window got me thinking about one of my best technology purchases ever. As soon as we knew our new baby was a reality, we began to plan how best to prepare her room. Being a techie, I bypassed the traditional wallpaper and cribsets and went straight for an Axis 2100 Network Camera. Since it has its own web server, all you do is give it power and an ethernet line. This little marvel has let me keep an eye on our little marvel throughout her first two years from anywhere in the world I happen to be (providing I have web access). It's also a wonderful babysitting tool as we can put her image up on any of the house computers including the HTPC attached to the bigscreen TV in the living room.
Apparently, PalmSource has decided to sell its Palm Digital Media division to PalmGear.com.
The graphic in the upper left of the Palm Digital Media website used to say "A Division of PalmSource, Inc.," whereas it now says "A Division of PalmGear.com." That logo graphic is pictured to the right, for reference only.
Palm Digital Media started out as PeanutPress, an online e-book publisher and seller. PeanutPress was acquired by Palm, Inc. and changed to Palm Digital Media (PDM). PDM then became part of PalmSource when Palm, Inc. split itself into the software (PalmSource) and hardware (PalmOne) halves. PalmGear.com is an aggregator and value-added reseller of software, and now e-books, for Palm OS handhelds.
What this means for e-book readers who are happy and content with using content in the PalmReader format is hard to say at this point. We hope that PalmGear takes this ball and runs all the way to the endzone. Otherwise, e-books just took a major step backward.
Update: Here's the press release on PalmGear.com
I love watches and I hate watches. They can be so beautiful and so useful, yet I detest the discomfort and inconvenience I experience when wearing a watch.
I really like the look of a fine watch. The combination of form and function is alluring -- aesthetic and pragmatic appeal in a single package. Brilliant. However, I found out long ago that wearing a watch bothers me when I type, which I seem to do at an increasing frequency with each passing year. Also, while I generally am able to keep watches in good working order, I'm constantly afraid that a stray smack on a desk corner or an accidental dousing in water will turn my timepiece into so much chronojunk.
I know I'm not alone in this love-hate relationship. I know many other computer users have no similar problem with watch discomfort, but running into someone with the same complaint is fairly frequent as well.
So, for the time being, I will continue to hold out for those retinal projections I keep reading about in William Gibson novels -- you know, the ones where you can pop up the time or temperature or some other bits of information directly on your optical nerve. Definitely better than a watch...definitely...
I'm sitting here messing with a webcam tonight and I began thinking about privacy. What exactly brought on this train of thought, you ask?
Well, I happened to be IM'ing a friend of mine who lives across the street. I told him about the webcam and how I was using the Timershot PowerToy to run it, and he was appropriately unimpressed. Then, I pointed the cam out the window at his place and changed the text above the image on the webpage to "If the light is on, ____ is home."
At that point, it struck me: what is keeping anyone from doing this to anyone else? I certainly wouldn't want someone doing it to me, but there may be no way for me to stop it if someone were doing just this.
I am not a lawyer, so I have no idea if this is legal or not. Given that all the equipment is in my house and I'm merely webcamming something publicly visible (the exterior of an apartment building), is that illegal? Whether it's right or not is a whole different issue...I'm just curious whether it's breaking some privacy law or not.
Moreover, privacy is quickly becoming the most concerning issue in perpetuating the technology advances we've made over the past several years. Think of concerns related to RFID. Folks are taking a relatively benign technology, one that could potentially make a multi-billion dollar impact on supply chains the world over, and effectively halting its progress because of fears about protecting their privacy.
Spam is such a volatile issue because it both creates enormous waste and hassle, in terms of technology and human resources, and it threatens our privacy. An email address is a personal identifier, like a name, a social security number, or a telephone number, and to have someone selling and trading it like so much contraband is an affront to our sense of personal privacy.
So, what privacy threats do you most fear? Would you be OK with your neighbor across the way pointing a 24/7 webcam at your window?
I hope the situation changes quickly, but I hate to admit that there is *still* far too little high-definition programming for your average consumer to care about getting an HDTV setup.
Of course, it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation: without HD viewers, there's not as much incentive for stations to make the investment, and without stations broadcasting HD content, there's not much incentive for consumers to buy expensive HDTV equipment.
Thankfully, the US government mandated that the change will happen. Of course, we're now fairly well behind the planned roll-out schedule, and I don't see that gap being made up any time soon.
Helsinki, Finland is host to the first Summit of Micronations, the first ever meeting of virtual nations.
Participants include the Principality of Sealand, Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK), the Kingdoms of Elgaland & Vargaland (KREV), Ladonia, the Transnational Republic, and a new state to be proclaimed at the summit - its flag pictured to the right - the State of Sabotage.
While hundreds of micronations exist, the six attending are pioneers. Ladonia, for example, is one of the fastest growing micronations, with over 10,000 citizens. It has a parliament, several political parties, a newspaper, and many other activities. Recently Ladonia received applications for asylum from ~3,000 Pakistani nationals. Ladonia recently declared war on Sweden, and may expand the front to include the US, as Ladonians "are sure that they have weapons of mass destruction."
High on the summit agenda will be the relevance of virtual nations to non-virtual nations. Delegations will reportedly accept applications for both citizenship and political asylum during the summit.
