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Archive for August, 2007
Dr. Strangelove’s Game: A Brief History of Economic Genius by Paul Strathern
Finally, I’ve managed to complete the story of Dr. Strangelove! As someone who has had one bad experience with economic theory (a mandatory non-science subject at varisity), there’s generally little incentive to understand anything more than the balance of my bank account. And that can be challenging too 
If that’s your take on economics, join the club, but don’t think of Strathern‘s book as a book on economic theory. This fascinating historic journey of economic fundamentals and how they were discovered, put into practice and sometimes failed is an excellent read.
Dr. Strangelove’s Game: A Brief History of Economic Genius takes a chapter-by-chapter look at influential thinkers who have stamped their mark on many economic concepts that are everyday. The most amazing fact is that nearly all of them found their ideas decried by the masses. Where some of the theory was put into practice, disastrous results often ensued – no fault of the theory. In fact, many ideas took a long time to be perfected and are now so commonplace that we are unaware of how brilliant the original thought must have been. Paul Strathern starts us off in the year 1445 with the story of the monk Luca Pacioli. He must have been quite special: history indicates that Leonardo da Vinci referred to him as maestro. The book ends off with the tale of John von Neumann, inventor of game theory by the age of 25 and who was busy completing three degrees at various universities at the age of 18. In between, similar stories are provided along the historic timeline and include Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Maynard Keynes.
As a quick glance into history and a starting point for further research, this is highly recommended.
Nokia E90
Don’t you hate seeing a new gadget just after you’ve made up your mind and settled on something else? I’m perfectly happy with the N95, but have just had a chance to use the new Nokia E90 Communicator. The older Communicator never enticed me. Thick as a brick and not exactly very exciting. The E90 is a totally different animal, though. Sleek and thin, with a very sturdy build, this is almost a consideration for a desktop replacement.
The E90 is as wide as the previous Communicator, but much thinner with a fantastic screen and high-speed data network capabilities. Not quite the same Zeiss lens as the N95, but a nice keyboard and huge screen. That alone makes web browsing, terminal emulations and working with documents an absolute pleasure.
Had I known this toy would be available here so soon, I may have held on for a while…
Some new releases for the S60 platform
The past week has seen a number of updated software releases for the S60 platform. Two of them are absolutely indispensable, namely Mail for Exchange and Screenshot.
If you require synchronization of your calendar, contacts and tasks with an Exchange Server, you cannot go wrong with Mail for Exchange. Though the installation of the new version 2.0 to upgrade earlier installations requires a full re-synchronization of all content, there is little to fear. Mail for Exchange is robust and has been unable to mess up any of my data. Of course, I am always careful to select an appropriate master – to ensure that all information is retained as I expect, the Server becomes a good source after I have completed one last synchronization prior to the software download and installation. I’ve had a fair bit of misfortune with Windows Mobile and ActiveSync, which on more than one occasion managed to synchronize my data, but not quite. Having birthdays shifted out by a day or all appointments shifted out by an hour is not that much fun. Though not push-capable, Mail for Exchange is more than adequate. I generally have it check for new mail messages every hour. A new mail is sent immediately. Over weekends, the synchronization period is extended by twelve hours. It works and is free to download. Get Mail for Exchange here.
Screenshot is an excellent freeware application that is useful for creating screenshots. What else? The application is light and won’t grab too much memory. The location of new image files can be specified and various hotkeys defined. The new release is 2.8 and features a few bug fixes and additional hot key choices. Download Screenshot here.
25 years of CD
The Compact Disc is 25 years old and it’s scary to think that I can remember its introduction! The world’s first CD was manufactured by Philips on August 17, 1982. A co-development with Sony, it is estimated that over two hundred billion compact discs have made it to consumers in the space of 25 years. How many of those are copies of the first ever CD album is unknown. Not everyone likes Abba, after all
As we all know, the CD changed our listening pleasure from analog hisses and pops to quiet, unforgiving 1′s and 0′s. Also, it marked the start of a familiar marketing ploy: more durable media, more storage space, better quality. And yes, you do want to re-purchase all your favourite titles on this medium to take advantage, don’t you?
From the CD to the CD-R, the CD-RW and eventually the DVD with its myriad of +’s and -’s, we have still not arrived at the ultimate. Next up, Blu-ray and HD DVD, and after that probably a ton of others.
One last thought: all those 200 billion unwanted CD’s in a landfill surely can’t be too good for the environment…
Absolutely the last thought: fix a scratched CD using a…banana.
7th Son Book Two – Deceit
In less than a week, I’ve completed the second book in the trilogy by J.C. Hutchins. This is a real page turner, like Book One; Descent and I urge you to download it. You’ll be hooked, for sure!
One of my favourite things about the story so far is that the author has little regard for his main cast of characters. So far, we’ve seen a number of them being offed by their evil clone-template John Alpha. It makes for a lot of suspense and avoids those crappy plot elements that exist purely to generate tension and then find a lousy way of undoing that same tension and sense of reality. Six episodes of the last book are already available, and I can’t wait to get to them.
7th Son has introduced me to a world beyond ordinary podcasts – there are many other audio books available for download by a huge number of talented authors and voice artists. With the plethora of content out there, even you will find something you’ll like. And if podcasts and audio books don’t do it for you, check out the ever-increasing collection of webcomics. This one has caught my attention:
Crimson Dark, by David C. Simon.
The long tail indeed…
Get TechSmart
TechSmart is a monthly advertisement-driven magazine, available for free at many computer stores. There’s always something interesting in there, and now it’s even easier to get hold of. Issues may be downloaded directly from the site in PDF format.
More convenient than trying to remember to pick it up every month, you’ll now need only to remember to download it…
Nokia and the battery
I’m quite satisfied with the runtime I get out of my N95. Instead of charging the battery every night, for the whole night, I’ve tended to allow the battery to just about reach its empty state and then stick the charger in for about half an hour. From zero to full in about forty minutes tops, that’s not bad. And the battery lasts an average of 18 hours, which is more than I expected prior to committing myself to the N95.
So it’s interesting to see that Nokia have leaked some news of a special US edition of the N95. The primary difference between the US and the rest of the world? The battery, of course. For the US, the rear panel of the phone and the camera lens cover mechanism has been altered to permit the installation of a thicker battery, obviously with a higher capacity. The Symbian-Guru has the skinny on the altered N95.
The question then is whether or not the increase in the battery size will lead to longer uptime. Or is the American cellular network so crappy that a 3G connection will drain the juice out of the battery quicker than a European GSM network? Only time will tell…
…and then we hope that the N95 won’t also be a victim of the exploding battery syndrome. Worrying about short battery life and increasing battery sizes Nokia has an obvious problem in the anticipated recall a large number of batteries used in older phones. The batteries of model BL-5C are in use by many Nokia phones. The affected ones were apparently produced by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006.
The choice between a 100m extension cord and a battery that either explodes or doesn’t last long enough is a difficult one, it seems
No more Pocket Loox
4 years ago
The LOOX T830 is the last Windows Mobile device we’ll get to see from Fujitsu-Siemens. In fact, that’s it: no more PDA’s or GPS navigation devices will be manufactured by the company. Citing the prevalence of smartphones that contain both PDA and navigation as standard features, Fujitsu-Siemens also indicates low sales volumes in the PDA segment as a reason for its exit. The end of this year marks the death of the Pocket LOOX brand.
Personally, I think FSC had a bit of a bomb in the shape of the T830. Underpowered, buggy and at least a year late to market, it’s no wonder that they’ve been caught out. Nokia and HTC have moved along with a strong product portfolio and decent devices that actually ship on time and work most of the time.
I’ll hang on to my LOOX 720 now, simply because it’s one of the best PDA’s I’ve ever used and owned. A nice piece for a museum, maybe?
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Section 202c
Germany introduced a very restrictive law this past weekend. According to section 202c of German computer crime law, just the possession of certain software utilities and code can land the owner in jail. Of course, the distribution, coding, development and sale of such software is also forbidden. The introduction of the law has prompted a number of sites dealing in such software to either modify their sites or move their base of operations to locations outside of Germany.
The problem is that a number of system administrators rely on ‘hacking’ tools not for purposes of evil, but rather to test security and investigate potential vulnerabilities. Windows may not have a pre-installed library of software that could be categorized as hacking tools under this law. But Linux certainly contains a vast library of modules and software packages that land squarely in the illegal pool… It’ll be interesting to see how Linux distributions respond to the requirements of this new law. If you have the inclination, the text of section 202c may be found here (PDF link).
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