Is there a place for Intel in a post-PC world?

Intel ‘Talking to Apple’ — But Is Anyone Listening?
[Via Cult of Mac]

Intel wants to be friends with Apple — or more specifically, Apple’s hoard of cash. As the PC industry craters and mobile devices seem to be the future, the chipmaker wants the tech giant to buy its Medfield design. Although Intel is talking is Apple listening?

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Both Intel and Windows have been late to the Post-PC or mobile world. Microsoft is trying to catch up but is so far behind that it appears to makes more money off of its licenses for mobile than its own phones.

The drop in PC sales, along with the critical needs for battery life of mobile devices, has put Intel in a bind, as it reacts to other processors in much the same way the Big Three car makers reacted to the Japanese imports – simply not seeing the tidal wave as it approached and hit.

Now Intel is , in many ways, trying to get back up on the top of the wave. It certianly has the engineers to do so. Will it have the corporate organization to do so?

We shall see.

SOPA will kick open a hornet’s nest of geeks

Congressman who wrote SOPA is a copyright violator
[Via Boing Boing]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the background photo on the archived, pre-SOPA version of US Congressman Lamar Smith’s website?

Jamie Lee Curtis Taete of Vice says:

I managed to track that picture back to DJ Schulte, the photographer who took it.

And whaddya know? Looks like someone forgot to credit him.

I contacted DJ, to find out if Lamar had asked permission to use the image and he told me that he had no record of Lamar, or anyone from his organization, requesting permission to use it: “I switched my images from traditional copyright protection to be protected under the Creative Commons license a few years ago, which simply states that they can use my images as long as they attribute the image to me and do not use it for commercial purposes.

“I do not see anywhere on the screen capture that you have provided that the image was attributed to the source (me). So my conclusion would be that Lamar Smith’s organization did improperly use my image. So according to the SOPA bill, should it pass, maybe I could petition the court to take action against www.texansforlamarsmith.com.”

The Author of SOPA Is a Copyright Violator

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I don’t normally include all of a text but this topic is too important. If SOPA passes, I expect a lot of people to hit politicians of both parties whose understanding of the Internet is so puny that they are about to pass a law they have little understanding of.

Every single company, politician, etc. who supports SOPA had better make sure they have all the rights and licensing wrapped up for every part of their site. Any little bit of plagiarism could result in their whole site being shut down, along with the inability to take credit card donations.

Godaddy has already seen what happens when geeks get ticked off. Very similar things could happen if SOPA passes.

And this really won’t stop the pirates or criminals. They will still be able to find what they want on servers the US does not control. It will really only be Americans who mostly follow the law that will be hit.

Nice discussion of how Google+ may degrade search

Real-Life Examples of How Google’s “Search Plus” Pushes Google Plus Over Relevance
[Via Daring Fireball]

Great explanation by Danny Sullivan:

The new Google “Search Plus Your World” feature — which I’m now simply calling “Search Plus” — has just gone live for me. Huge debate erupted yesterday over whether it somehow favors Google+. I can see now that it clearly does, even more than I thought. Here’s a closer look at the changes, including how they turn Google+ into an essential social network for any search marketer.

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So, the only way to get a front page link is to have a Google+ account. No matter how many Facebook friends or Twitter followers you have, only a Goggle+ account gets you placed high. In fact, only the Google+ page is suggested as you type in the search word.

Marketers are going to love this. One of the major reasons Google succeeded is that it had a simple interface with minimal space devoted to ads. Now, much of that space which used to be empty will be taken up by pretty useless information – unless you move everything and everyone you know over to Google+.

Then it might make better sense but it also means that much of the information on the screen no longer provides direct, unbiased information regarding your search.

That is how search gets degraded.

Learning just when and how to nap

How to Nap | Boston Globe
[Via danielmiessler.com]

via boston.com

Über.

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Now if we could just get business to accept afternoon siestas, we would all be a peak performance.

A wonderful example of how Kickstarter changes things

Kickstarter project for Skallops: clips that turn playing cards into building toys
[Via Boing Boing]

Evan sez, “This is a new construction toy on Kickstarter that uses clever laser-cut clips to assemble regular playing cards into almost any kind of sculpture. We hit our first production goal for the Skallops in the first 12 hours We launched on Kickstarter a week ago, and hit our first production goal in just 12 hours. We just finished deliveries of our previous Kickstarter project, the Trebuchette — which was on Boing Boing last April.”

Skallops: Build Big!

(Thanks, Evan!)

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You have to watch the video to get a good idea of what these are but they are very clever little clips that permit a deck of playing cards to be used to construct almost any sort of shape, sculpture or building.

All funded by the people who want them with no real middle man.

Sweet.

When Lifehacker is annoyed,Google should listen

How to Turn Off Google’s Annoying New Personal Search Results [Annoyances]
[Via Lifehacker]

Yesterday Google announced they were integrating Google+ into your search results, and this morning, you may have noticed the change. The problem: It’s cluttered, not useful for the bulk of searches you do every day, and enabled by default for all results. Even if you choose to hide personal results, they’re turned back on by default with each fresh search. It’s annoying, user unfriendly, and you should turn it off. Here’s how.

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Lifehacker has a huge audience and I expect many of them agree with this post. I know I do.

I’m sure Google will recover from this but it puts another dent in their system. It reminds everyone that Google lives by satisfying the ad makers, not the users. “Google has one mission in the world: to put a relevant, compelling ad in front of its users. Search, mail, Android and every other Google activity is somehow related to this goal. The average Google user has one mission when using Google: to get the best search results on the Internet.”

Those two missions seem to be moving along different paths now.