First off, if it's really, really old, you might need to recycle it. However, if it has at least 256MB or 512MB of RAM (or could have, if you bought more memory), there are a number of things you could do with it. Use it in front of the TV or in your kitchen. Install […]
What to do with that old computer? Read More »
I really like how sometimes a small change, or a new technology meant to solve one problem, can end up making a huge difference in other ways. For example, a service called M-PESA allows people in Africa to pay each other via text messages on their cell phones. Households using M-PESA in Kenya have increased
Changing the world Read More »
One of the cooler things about Twitter is that friends are not necessarily mutual. You can listen to whomever you want and anyone can listen to you, and those lists aren’t the same. But I’m amazed at how many people want to keep it a mutual friends game. A game of tit for tat. And
Twitter’s friend strategy is not a popularity contest Read More »
I like twittering at conferences. It's a way to take notes, share insights and start interesting conversations. However, I'm always forgetting to append the event hashtag and I eventually get tired of manually typing it, so I wrote a Greasemonkey script to automatically append a hashtag. To use it, you have to: install Greasemonkey, install
Twittering from conferences Read More »
I was talking to a friend today. A friend that emails, blogs and uses web tools like ebay and paypal. I said, “hmm, that’s strange, my browser isn’t working. Twhirl is working though.” I meant to imply that since my browser was frozen, I was checking my internet connection to see if it was an
Why I know we need usability studies Read More »
At the Maemo Summit, Harri Kiljander shared a list of the features that are important to Nokia tablet (N800) users. Currrent users are developers who are very happy with their tablet. (9 out of 10 of them would recommend it to someone else.) From what I understood target tablet users are young, socially connected, into
What’s important to Nokia tablet users Read More »
Ubiquity was officially announced this week. I installed it and I find myself using it all the time for really simple, but very useful, stuff. I use a calculator a lot. Now, when I’m in the middle of typing an email or reading a web page, I just hit two keys and type "calc 3256/3+2456"
Ubiquity: turning us all into power users Read More »
Email etiquette is like any other kind of etiquette – it depends on what culture you are visiting. Just like table manners vary from country to country, email etiquette varies from community to community. For example, when I joined OpenLogic, I went home the first day and watched my inbox. I actually got quite worried
Email etiquette guides for online tourists Read More »
Google just announced Lively, a virtual world for all social networking sites. It immediately struck me as really cool and pretty scary. Here’s my 10 minute analysis. The idea is that you have a virtual room or home on the web with a virtual person. You can than decorate your room, hang out it in
Your “home” on the web Read More »
I did it. I broke down and bought a Kindle. I like it because: It’s light – it really does weigh about the same as a paperback. I can carry several books in a very small space. I always read at least one fiction and one non-fiction book at the same time and this way