Koozie Notes

Computer Consulting

(via Slashdot) Steve Friedl wrote a candid piece titled, "So you want to be a consultant?" His post reminded me of some of the points Grant Barrett made in his two part series covering freelance tech support, that I reposted.

I got a kick out of Steve's use of the term, Warm Fuzzy Feelings. He makes sense: Give your customer the warm fuzzy feeling. Or better yet, just take great care of your clients.

-Chris

New York Times Link Generator

BoingBoing posted a story about a new tool that will generate non-decaying URLs to New York Times articles.  Dave Winer also post a story about the NYT's RSS feeds.

Now, I need a similar tool that will generate links to WSJ articles.

-Chris

Review of OpenOffice.org's Database

Rob Reilly writes a first look review with screen shots on OpenOffice.org's new database application. 

The new OpenOffice.org Base product has a lot of potential. It will take some time to mature, although if it's anything like other OpenOffice applications, the fixes and enhancements will come swiftly.

I'm really interested to see how this database application compares with Microsoft's Access product when it gets released under the 2.0 banner.

-Chris

Suing Your Customers

Stephen R. Walli writes about IP, patents, open source, and litigation in a piece titled, "When are you going to sue your customers?"

Customers have even been known to sue their vendors in specific situations when the vendor fails to deliver on the promise in a contract.  Oddly enough vendors never sue customers in any sort of broadly applicable way.  There is a really simple rationale behind this.  Once a vendor sues a customer, they have essentially told that customer they never want that customer's business again.  That might even be appropriate in a narrow situation where there exists some sort of explicit dispute between exactly the two parties.  If however the dispute is over something like “patent infringement” that can easily be applied broadly to many customers, then all the vendor's other customers are put on notice that this vendor does not care about the relationship and  continued business.

Mr. Walli even brings up the two suits SCO filed against its customers, Daimler-Chrysler and Autozone.  I never really understood why they sued these two customers. This action makes more sense when your business model is not really selling products and services, but a "legal play to siphon money out of the system."

-Chris

Reviews on Mac mini

Brian Czarski writes a review on Apple's new Mac mini comparing it to a home built computer in the same price range($500 with Linux or $700 with WinXP).

So how does it add up? The Mac Mini is a machine I might buy if it had a better video card and more/faster RAM. 256MB of RAM for OS X is just too little out of the box and 32MB of video is a real disappointment for anyone who was looking for a small form factor gamer of the PPC flavor. At least it isn't shared video RAM. The cool factor just isn't enough to push the purchase or make me advise the purchase to newbie users unless they were really set on Apple or had some knowledge of their product line.

 

Dan Frakes writes about some of the recent comparisons on the Mac mini and makes some valid points.

To be clear, I don’t advocate a Mac for everyone. As much as I’d like to, there are people whose needs would be better served by getting a Windows PC (although their numbers are shrinking every day). And even though the Mac mini is a stripped down Mac, there are going to be some people who don’t need the extra functionality even the Mac mini has over the cheapest Dell; these people may be satisfied with the even-further-stripped-down Dell for a bit less money. But for everyone else, the Mac platform deserves a serious look, not half-baked “comparisons” that aren’t, well, comparable.

I'm serious considering a Mac mini since I already use a KVM switch with three computers at home.

-Chris

Update
Walter Mossberg, tech columnist for the WSJ, posted his review on the Mac mini.  He recommends bumping the Mac mini's ram up to 512 MB and adding a USB hub.

Review of dmp3's Ripping Service

(via Gizmodo)  LiveDigitally posted a review of a new music CD ripping service, dmp3.  Like RipDigital, dmp3 will convert your music collection to mp3 on DVDs and/or an external hard drive.  New features include personal in-home tech support and quick turn around time.  Looks pretty reasonable at a $1.25 per CD.

-Chris

Bill Gates Teen Beat Photos

(via BoingBoing)  I received a much needed chuckle this morning after viewing these old Bill Gates photos taken for Teen Beat circa 1984.

-Chris

Update
- Slashdot thread
- Additional photos of Bill Gates

Catching up on DVDs

Yesterday, I picked up a copy of the extended wide-screen version of the "Return of the King" from Peter Jackson's wonderful LOTR trilogy.  I've been meaning to do this since December, but  I've been..uh..busy?

I must boast that I did finally watch all three of the Star Wars DVDs.  That took about a week to complete, squeezing in movie watching at odd times, without inflicting my geekness on other family members.  If you're a fan, you must watch "Empire of Dreams" on the 4th DVD.  I love the scene where the ILM worker asked "Wow, who did this?"

-Chris

 

New Gizmos from Apple

Chuck Toporak covers Steve Jobs keynote address at MacWorld, where he introduces what Apple been working on lately, like the Mac Mini and the iPod shuffle.

Looks like Steve's about ready to take the stage, so what follows here are the notes -- mostly unedited -- I've taken during the Keynote. Sure, you'll find some of this elsewhere, but along with the usual bullet points, you'll also get my thoughts on some of the announcements.

Walter Mossberg writes a detail review in todays WSJ on the iPod shuffle, covering storage size, batter life, and sound quality.

-Chris

Netflix Offers Multiple Queues

(via Gizmodo) Hacking Netflix posted an in-depth review of Netflix's new feature of setting up different queues for each family member.

Netflix today launched a new Web site feature that enables customers to create up to five separate "profiles" for family members. Internally called the "marriage saver," this should end a lot of arguments over rental choices. The main account is the administrator, and new users can be added in the My Account section of the Web site. You switch between users by using the new profile selector in the header graphic.

I can see another use for this new feature, watching a DVD series without inconveniencing your regular movie distribution. For example, I just finished watching the six DVD anime series, Cowboy Bebop. Since I'm on the three (3) movies out plan, I carefully orchestrated my movie queue so I would only check out a single Cowboy Bebop DVD at any one time. That way, my wife and I could still enjoy two regular movies during the week.

-Chris