Status-Q

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GMail is very cute, though I would never use it seriously until it has a supported way to export my email to somewhere else. I keep almost all my email, and I'm not going to put it into a system from which I might never be able to extract it. And that may take a while - they wouldn't want you reading your mail via IMAP and so avoiding the web-based advertisements.

On the other hand, there are various utilities which do let you interact with it other than simply through the web interface. Here are some for Mac users.

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SpaceShipOne has successfully been into space and back for the second time in a week, and has won the Ansari 'X Prize'.

I think this is fabulous. Since most governments no longer have the adventurous spirit that lets them do manned space missions, or since the people who elect them don't, we have to rely on individuals. One of the participants, (Burt Rutan, I think), said something along the following lines (from memory):

The way space travel has been done in the past makes people think that only governments could do it. Part of the importance of the Wright Brothers' flight was that they were just in a bike shed, and people thought, 'Hey, if he can do it, so can I!'.

Wilbur and Orville didn't have $20M of Paul Allen's money behind them, but the concept is right. This is still a completely different ball game from the Space Shuttle and I think it does mark the start of a new era.

[Original Link] If you have a car stereo from Alpine, you may be able to plug in your iPod and control it directly through the stereo.

[Original Link] Google not finding what you want? There are, of course, various competitors out there, but one that's had quite a lot of attention recently is Clusty, which emphasizes the clusters of pages around the topic you search for, as well as just ranking the pages found.

If you want to find out more about a person, when you don't know much about them, for example, it can be a good thing to try.

Just in case anyone thinks that I went to Seattle and spent all my time in a kitchen typing at my Powerbook, here are some photos from a wonderful hike in the Mt Baker Wilderness.

[Original Link] Aerial photography in the 1900s, from Engadget.

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Following my last entry about the absence of the BBC this morning, Dave pointed me at this site. There was a fire at the Peterborough transmitter last night, apparently, and the mast collapsed, and great, I imagine, was the fall of it.

(Click image for more photos)

It'll take them a while to get that back up.

That site has some interesting links, actually. I like Frequncy Finder, which will tell any UK readers about their local stations and where they're coming from, or alternatively, tell you about a particular frequency and how it's used around the country.

Update: This is what that mast looks like now, apparently:

I wonder how many people have realised that the iPod Photo could be a great way to carry Powerpoint-style presentations around? Or Keynote presentations, I should probably say. The video-out connectors would plug happily into most projectors. It'll be interesting to see what the quality of the TV output is like; it may be rather low resolution for presentations involving much text or many diagrams.

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Just watched the Quicktime feed of Steve Jobs doing the iPod Photo launch, with the aid of U2. I have to take my hat off to Apple - I'm biased by my enthusiasm for their technology, but even without that I can think of few companies with their marketing and branding skills.

I've sat through plenty of roadshows and product launches in my life, and, in general, I detest them. So why would I voluntarily give up an hour of my weekend to watch a CEO telling me about his latest product? If you need to ask that, I suggest you watch one. This latest isn't their slickest, and Steve Jobs, though on good form, is perhaps a little below his normal par, which is understandable after his recent major surgery. But there's still no other company that comes close.

Get a good connection, expand your Quicktime window to a good size, sit back and enjoy. And remember that it's Apple technology that you're using to view the stream as well....

[Original Link] The prefect Christmas present for all those Silicon Fen millionaires?