Menu
katharsys blog
  • Subscribe2
katharsys blog

Category: Technology

Dyson hand dryer actually works

28-Sep-2007 • Technology • by Ken

The big joke is always how ridiculous those hand dryers in public bathrooms are. The age-old variety turns on the heat and makes you stand still for what seems like an eternity baking your hands. The slightly newer ones make you feel like you are standing behind a jet and you still have to hang around. The end result in either case is that we all leave the bathroom with our hands still wet. Or us guys use our shirts or pants, classy gender that we are.

The Dyson vacuum people now have a hand dryer. I saw one recently that I decided to try out. The damn thing actually worked. It looks, as Tracy says, like a big toaster. You put your hands in from the top and draw them back slowly. The Dyson web site says it takes 12 seconds but I think it took me probably just 7 or 8 seconds. The main reason we all hate the typical dryers is that it takes so much longer than paper towels but considering that the speed of this rivals that of paper, this thing might actually catch on. And I have to say that it didn’t dry out my hands even as much as a paper towel would have, never mind the old-school hand dryers.

It’s hard for me to get excited about personal care products. But from an engineering perspective, this thing is quite impressive. Well done, Dyson.

Sony ImageStation closing

10-Sep-200718-Sep-2009 • Technology • by Ken

I spent oodles of time figuring out which was the best online photo sharing and developing site and came up with Sony ImageStation. I’ve uploaded lots of pictures to the site and spent time organizing photo albums there. When I logged in today to upload some more pictures I saw their announcement.

According to their Transition FAQ, they are closing because Sony doesn’t want to compete in the photofinishing business. Geez, Sony, you get something right and you don’t stick with it? Shame on you. Sure there were things that I would have liked to have seen improved, but photo quality was top notch.

Now what? I don’t know yet. ImageStation will transfer pictures to Shutterfly automatically, so I may do that just so I don’t lose the albums and then I don’t have to deal with the upload task again myself. But I’ll probably have to do another test round to compare the latest. Oy.

iPhone price change

8-Sep-2007 • Technology • by Ken

As I’m sure everybody knows by now, Apple has lowered the price on the more expensive iPhone by $200 and dropped the less expensive one. Now Apple is offering a $100 worth of stuff from the Apple store for anyone who purchased an originally priced iPhone.

What happened? Did they not sell as many 4GB iPhones as they hoped? Did people realize that 4GB wasn’t enough? Had Apple agreed to launch the product at AT&T with a certain street price? Did the Apple marketing people actually goof? Was it planned all along? I really don’t even have a good guess. And what happens now that you can choose a 16GB iPod Touch or an 8GB iPhone for the same price? After all, the iPod Touch wouldn’t require the massive service agreement but still gives you WiFi access.

Looking at the after effects for the original buyers, people that bought the $600 8GB iPhone will have spent $200 more than they needed to and that $100 isn’t actually going back to them – they are just getting $100 worth of Apple swag and how often do you actually get to spend exactly the amount of the gift card? Right, Apple is probably going to take even more money from these poor souls. And what about the buyers of the 4GB iPhone? Suckas! They could have waited and gotten an 8GB iPhone for $100 less than what they paid!

Forbes has a good article on the topic: iSorry. And I like the take that the Fake Steve Jobs has too: Larry’s Bold Idea.

DVD Format Wars Continue

22-Aug-2007 • Technology • by Ken

The format wars for high definition DVDs continue. The latest news is that Paramount is dropping support for Blu-ray discs but will continue selling HD-DVD discs. Although it is probably a business decision made by corporate parent Viacom (or possibly the result of a corporate bribe), Paramount CTO provide some good tech reasons in an interview with PC World.

So does that mean HD-DVD will be the winner? Far from it. Besides Blu-ray being in every Sony PS3, Target will only sell Blu-ray players for the upcoming holiday season and the player prices will be aiming low to entice customers. (While Blockbuster is making a similar announcement, I don’t believe that Blockbuster is capable of swaying the market like Target can.)

Both sides have upcoming killer-apps. The titles being produced exclusively on one format or the other are pretty strong from a consumer perspective. So, will Shrek, Bourne, or Pirates provide a winner? Time will tell.

As far as I’m concerned, along with all the other consumers out there, we shouldn’t be in this position in the first place. But this is what capitalism has wrought. And that being the case, I’m going to be a wise consumer and hold my money until there is a clear victor. No point in gambling hundreds of dollars on the loser only to end up with a piece of gear that serves no practical function in 2 years.

Vostro!?

25-Jul-200718-Sep-2009 • Soapbox, Technology • by Ken

Vostro!? Are you kidding me? This is the plan that Dell thinks is going to solve their decline? This is the product that deserved an unveiling? All they’ve done is add a new name to their existing mess of products, and not even a good name either. (Even dumber than “Inspiron”.) According to Dell’s own comparison charts, the new Vostro line is not quite as good as their real business computers.

To cite just one of the things that Dell says is different between the Latitude and the Vostro laptops: with the Latitude you get dedicated “North American” support and with Vostro – well, there’s no checkmark there, so let’s assume the support isn’t based in North America. With the off-shore support backlash that the technology industry is currently experiencing, introducing a new product line that is supposed to make things easier for small businesses without US-based tech support is just plain stupid. (I’m all for off-shore support, as long as it is done well – see my post on Symantec.)

Okay, Dell, here’s what you do. Throw away the “home”, “small business”, and “business” categories that are the gatekeeper to your web store. The store should start off with 2 paths – “know what you want” brings you right to the product selection and “help me choose” brings the user to a screen with some simple questions – 5 max – that then drives to the product selection. For desktops, offer 3 product lines – one for web surfing, e-mail, and word processing; a second for mid-level use; and a third for power users. You can even reuse the brands that customers are already familiar with: Dimension, OptiPlex, and Precision (respectively). For laptops, offer 2 product lines – one for mid-level use; and a second for power users. Reuse the Latitude name for the mid-level and come up with a new name for the power users – one that you haven’t already used. Then, everything that is named an OptiPlex shares parts with everthing else named OptiPlex so that when somebody is shopping, they know what they are going to get. (Instead of the current practice of slapping the brand on whatever the hell you source, regardless of it’s similarity to the rest of the product line.)

What does this get you? Well, you’ll be able to improve brand recognition within the Dell brand, you’ll have a smaller set of inventory and choices you need to manage, and a customer isn’t going to end up at your web site overhwelmed with the complexity of it all. Your product people have run amok and it’s time to rein things back in for your sake and for your customers’. While you’re at it, increase your funding to your post-sales endeavor by 100%. You want to keep customers? Let recent purchasers feel your love.

One more thing, Dell: Customers like me already feel like we have a famliarity with your product line. We go to a Toshiba product or a Lenovo product and feel a little disoriented. You need to capitalize on that before we start feeling as uncomfortable with Dell as we do with everything else and end up buying a Mac.

Windows 2000 DST

12-Mar-200718-Sep-2009 • Technology • by Ken

I thought I was done on Saturday after updating my OS and software to the latest patch levels. Then, I discovered yesterday that the Mac version of Office didn’t handle the DST change because it was out of support (see that post). But today, I discovered that my Windows 2000 computer also didn’t handle the DST change. Apparently, Microsoft isn’t bothering with Windows 2000 either. They have a huge Knowledge Base entry discussing DST which basically says that us Win2K users need to follow some ridiculously arcane steps. No, I’m not afraid of regedit but lots of Win2K users are. Isn’t there a better way?

Turns out there is. But Microsoft isn’t providing it. Thanks to the nice folks at IntelliAdmin, there is an easy DST patch for Win2K. It appears that Microsoft would rather write a lengthy article on the subject and put their users through hoops than provide them with a reason to continue using Windows 2000. I pity the poor Windows 2000 user who doesn’t find the simple update. Hopefully this post will help anyone who stumbles across it to find the update tool.

Microsoft DST for Mac

11-Mar-2007 • Technology • by Ken

Two months ago Microsoft ended support for Office X for the Mac. I’m sure there was no coincidence to the fact that as of today, Entourage (the e-mail/calendar/contacts program) is confused about DST. Appointments that occur after the new start (today) and before the old start of DST are being overcorrected and end up off by an hour. Fortunately, Entourage’s time zone management system uses a clear text file and The Entourage Help page has workaround instructions. The drawback to this workaround, as stated in the instructions, is you have to re-save any existing appointments in the 3 week window to get them to use the new data. Not really a big deal, and preferable to having 3 weeks of appointments at the wrong time. And way, way better than upgrading to Office 2004!

LCD Display shopping advice

8-Jan-2007 • Technology • by Ken

The way LCD computer displays are being marketed these days makes me crazy. If you believe the hype, any LCD ever produced is automatically better than every CRT every produced and even the bargain basement LCD display is something that you’d be lucky to have in your home – because it is flat and flat is where it’s at. (Sorry, didn’t mean to rhyme.) Hype!! So before you run right out and buy a flat panel to replace that “old, clunky, tube” do yourself a favor and think about the purchase. Here are some things to look for when shopping.

[ continue reading  »» ]

Shutterfly, Kodak/Ofoto, Winkflash, and ImageStation

8-Jan-2007 • Technology • by Ken

Back in April 2006, I did a comparison on photo sites and developing services for digital pictures. I did it for my own benefit and then e-mailed the results around to friends and family. That was before the blog. Since the blog seems like the perfect place for stuff like this, I thought I’d post what I had e-mailed around back then. Some things may have changed since I wrote this, but I suspect the basics remain the same. I tried four different sites: Winkflash, KodakGallery (formerly Ofoto), Shutterfly, and ImageStation.

[ continue reading  »» ]

  • Previous
  • 1
  • …
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16

Categories

  • Admin
  • Automotive
  • House & Home
  • News
  • Peeve Of The Day
  • Politics
  • Quote Of The Day
  • Really?
  • Review
  • Soapbox
  • Sport
  • Technology
  • Travel

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
©2020 katharsys llc