Thursday, June 08, 2006
That Sidekick Guy
Perhaps you have heard of him. A man who, on behalf of a friend's lost cell phone, started a website. The site is kind of like a blog. It is a blow by blow account of his dealings with the people who picked up the lost phone.
He called the phone, offered a reward for its return. He was rejected. The friend bought a new phone. The phone is called a sidekick and it stores all the pictures it takes on a server. When the friend bought the new sidekick and activated it all her old pictures were safely loaded to her new phone, as were a few new ones. Yes, those people who picked up the lost phone had taken pictures of themselves with it. And used their aol IM account to text message.
The thieves unwittingly published their faces and aol screenname.
The website is an interesting read.
Rant
On the advice of arron, I am using this blog to rant.
Google just released an online spreadsheet application. The press has been going wild talking about Google taking on Microsoft. It's Google Spreadsheets versus M$ Office.
While I think the Spreadsheet offering by Google is neat, and potentially useful, I am irritated that OpenOffice.org gets so little press. The Google app lacks some huge features like the ability to make charts and graphs or to support macros (I am sure these features will be added later -- this product is still in beta phase). The main selling point is that the spreadsheets can be shared with anyone you wish to, simply send them an email. I am not sure if they need to be part of the gmail network or not, but I assume so. Well that, and it is free.
OpenOffice.org has a suite of products from word processer to spreadsheet, drawings to databases, presentations to formula writers. It is also free. I personally have used the word processor, spreadsheet and presentation applications and have been impressed with them all. The word processor and the spreadsheet software has had all the functionality that I have ever required. Definate rivals to Word and Excel respectively, I think. The presentation software was not as good. In my opinion, Powerpoint has it beat.
Anyway, I think that OO.o is worth the download. I recommend that anyone thinking of buying office try it first. It is as good or better for the average user. And it is free. ¶ 7:00 PM
Perhaps you have heard of him. A man who, on behalf of a friend's lost cell phone, started a website. The site is kind of like a blog. It is a blow by blow account of his dealings with the people who picked up the lost phone.
He called the phone, offered a reward for its return. He was rejected. The friend bought a new phone. The phone is called a sidekick and it stores all the pictures it takes on a server. When the friend bought the new sidekick and activated it all her old pictures were safely loaded to her new phone, as were a few new ones. Yes, those people who picked up the lost phone had taken pictures of themselves with it. And used their aol IM account to text message.
The thieves unwittingly published their faces and aol screenname.
The website is an interesting read.
Rant
On the advice of arron, I am using this blog to rant.
Google just released an online spreadsheet application. The press has been going wild talking about Google taking on Microsoft. It's Google Spreadsheets versus M$ Office.
While I think the Spreadsheet offering by Google is neat, and potentially useful, I am irritated that OpenOffice.org gets so little press. The Google app lacks some huge features like the ability to make charts and graphs or to support macros (I am sure these features will be added later -- this product is still in beta phase). The main selling point is that the spreadsheets can be shared with anyone you wish to, simply send them an email. I am not sure if they need to be part of the gmail network or not, but I assume so. Well that, and it is free.
OpenOffice.org has a suite of products from word processer to spreadsheet, drawings to databases, presentations to formula writers. It is also free. I personally have used the word processor, spreadsheet and presentation applications and have been impressed with them all. The word processor and the spreadsheet software has had all the functionality that I have ever required. Definate rivals to Word and Excel respectively, I think. The presentation software was not as good. In my opinion, Powerpoint has it beat.
Anyway, I think that OO.o is worth the download. I recommend that anyone thinking of buying office try it first. It is as good or better for the average user. And it is free. ¶ 7:00 PM