mip's scan

Steve and Bill Chatting At D

I watched with pleasure this interview that took place yesterday between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.  I made me stop and think, pausing so to speak, that it has really been an amazing time with regards to technology.  Not just from a tech perspective, meaning, great software, feature rich gadgets, etc. etc.  What struck me most about this interview is the historical context that gets communicated and the sense that these two guys really have been risk taking visionaries, that they've enjoyed the ride and that good technologies come out of companies that are built well. 

Give it a watch and enjoy!

Microsoft's Surface Computer

Remember when I was writing about touch screen computing?  Well it seems that it isn't just Apple that has been looking at this (and using it in their upcoming iPhone).  Microsoft just announced their new Surface computer.  It is a tabletop multi-touch computer and from the three videos on their site, it looks pretty neat - very media and communications oriented.  Nice to see a slick new interface (GUI) rather than just some table version of Windows XP (or Vista).

To get more information, click here.

the mipcast: back on air

Good morning everyone!  Nice to be back in the podcasting seat here with you.  Join me for today's show where I talk about:

• where I've been
• Facebook
• development from Apple (like the new Macbooks)
• my experience using Keynote for a multimedia presentation I did
• my thoughts on iWork
• Mac penetration in the workplace - 12 months later

To listen to today's show, you can subscribe i iTunes or just click on the link below.

Download mipcast-may30-2007.mp3

My Facebook Experiment

Back on February 26 I first wrote about Facebook.  I signed up to test it out and see what it was all about.  I had promised to get back to you on it once I used it for a while.  Well, now, 3 months and 92 friends later, I'm happy to come back to this topic and write about it.

In short, the experience with this site/tool/service/network has been outstanding.  I love it.  I've met old friends from university, high school and elementary school.  My grade eight graduating class is planning a reunion, posting old pics from school trips and having lots of funny and reminiscent little conversations.  I've been in touch with old colleagues of mine.  Close friends of mine and I use it as part of our daily interactions.  My family, which is geographically spread out, keep in touch through it, giving updates on each other and our lives.   It has been a very positive social networking experience for me.

It goes further than that though.  It isn't just a social tool.  It is becoming more than that.  Facebook is really becoming more of an interesting application platform.  You can now build applications for Facebook and already there are numerous examples of interesting and useful apps - all leveraging the social networking capital that Facebook has built-up over time.

Ok...I'm Back...Where Have I Been?

Hello dear readers.  Did you miss me?  I have been absent but with good reasons.  Firstly, I went away in March, took my wife off to Florence for a week.  While I was away I decided that I needed to make a big push on some work I was doing for my next book and I began something I nicknamed 300 pages in 30 days.  You can see the outcome of that non-technical writing here.  It took me longer than 30 days...but I produced way more than 300 pages.  LOL.  During that time, I was spending my early hours and late hours working on those projects, and so the blog was put on hold.  Couple that push with some super busy times at work and time away from the blog flew by.  I missed it.  But now I'm back and I have a long list of things I will now be writing about:  my Facebook experiment and my thoughts on where it is going, updates on Apple Macs finding their way into the enterprise (a case study), new mobile apps I've been playing with, the latest being YahooGo and lastly, a detailed review of iWork. 

So thanks for patiently waiting for me to come back to the blog.  I look forward on getting back into tech mode.  Podcasts will resume this upcoming Wednesday.