As a continuation of a project I started last year, I have been experimenting with mobile computing doing things like putting an iphone-ish gui on an HP tablet and trying to get 3g to work so that I could walk around with a 3lb Skype enabled monster that allows me to get to key apps with a few button presses… well everything is working except.. yo guessed it… Vista… its making the project such a grind… last night I had to stop everything to install a driver for my Western Digital backup USB drive!… a plug and play drive, that connects to everything else in my home and office without a hitch, now needs a driver to be installed on Vista… stuff like this just ruins it for me…. I’m this close to going back to the XP tablet OS…

How do you all feel? Is Vista cuttting it for you?

Just a little update on the progress of my latest invention zkimmer. It is a concept built on map tiling but using publication graphics rather than map graphics… its working great.

Since I did the patent 4 months ago we know have some real support from an industry veteran and talking to big names in the newspaper and magazine publishing businesses.

As things develop we’ll keep you informed.

Update: 4/4/08 - Visitors please note… a new zkimmer site is up please have a look at http://db.zkimmer.com

Status: Dropped after much testing and brainstorming
Basic concept: Hotsync to online web server direct to act as an intelligent online conduit to favorite web apps.

One of the big frustrations of dealing with the Treo is being anchored to a desktop for syncing. I cant remotely sync unless its some kind of web based app service which ties me down to Cingulars ridiculously slow G2 service and everything being online… What I want is the responsiveness of Palm apps on my Treo and the accessibility, copy and paste and desktop convenience of online web apps…. If I could somehow link my Palm apps via bluetooth, wifi, USB, 3G to a network device (as if it was my laptop on a private or public network) but in fact have a server that emulates the hotsync request and then acts as a virtual conduit to may favorite services such as:

• Palm Calendar to Google Calendars.
• Palm To do to Google Base
• Palm Memo to Google Base
• Or to the similar Yahoo alternates…..

Denied :-(… if the idea was viable then I’d have a web based emulation of the Palm Desktop application written get it working properly… but. The roadblock seems to be Palm’s neck hold on using the desktop sync app as the sole means of allowing the Palm device to talk to third party data apps… what a pity… if someone out there has worked out how to emulate the Hotsync API.. especially the network hotsync API I think a lot of people would find new life in their palms… another nail in the coffin.

Seth Godin, commented on the abuse of free sauce packets at McDonalds by a few that ruins it for the many. While I understand the frustration of the situation it also would be a good idea to understand what’s happening in these cases… it may not be well known but a practise of homeless people is to horde sauce packets to make tomato soup.

That changes things.

The indignation soon is replaced by concern, but the problem remains… at least you are a lot closer to solving the real problem.

I don’t know about you but one of the big frustrations about technology is that nothing equals the organic feel of a pen and paper. Even then US letter size paper is sooooooo restrictive and investing the time to somehow get it into a digital form for archiving, retrieval, reference and sharing just perpetuates the great divide between the organic and creative inspiring analog and the powerful, shareable, flexible and retrievable nature of digital idea capturing.

Enter the idea of a Muse Station™.

Simply it’s the use of:

I use the station for capturing and refining ideas and concepts and fleshing them out. The large white space is inspiring and allows continual refinement and development of ideas.

Here is a picture of a concept outline I started on:

And another pic with a link to the sketch clipboard at Pearl art and craft.

The next stage of the project is getting this analog concept capturing into digital form which is the next phase of the project… Ill link the next episode to this article for those interested.

I wanted to clarify my idea which I have patent pending and am now in alpha.
It is to do a truly live (as in realtime) audio feed to a blog site with chat based feedback… its for when bloggers are at their computer… and they wish to welcome visitors as they come to their site…

Here is how it works:

A widget on the bloggers desktop goes to “live” when the widget senses that the blogger is using the computer. The widget can be set to do not disturb or bust also. A swf player on the blog page goes to “live” mode and waits for a visitor to open the page… upon opening the page a cue is sent to the bloggers computer in realtime with the ip of the visitors computer. The blogger can can have a script to read or can just say “hi, my name is xx im available if you want to discuss any article.”
There is a simple universal chat app on the page… one that shows the typing of all visitors to the page as they add comments in real time.

The blogger answers via streaming mp3 voice and the visitor comments via chat.
I am working on a simple streaming media server edition and also a plugin for skype.
What do you think of my idea?

Refer to: http://ricricho.wordpress.com/2007/04/18/idea-live-audio-feed-to-welcome-site-visitors/
Ric

Our latest project. This device allows you to swap laptop batteries WITHOUT SHUTTING DOWN. Everyone wants longer battery life and the next best thing is getting bigger or more batteries. The problem? The time it takes to start up and shut down… well this little device plugs into the power plug and allows you to keep your laptop powered up while you swap batteries… obvious? Well why hasn’t anyone done it… such is the calling of an inventor.

If you would like to be one of the first to recieve one of these devices from our manufacturing run in the next few weeks then please make a comment to this post and I will have someone email you the price and availability as we come online. The price will be around $19-$29 USD. And will allow you to run for up to 10 minutes while swapping batteries. Please aks if you need more details. Thx

Didn’t want to lose this one… a classic clip of Queen doing their song “Tie your mother down”. Dedicated to my brother in law Jamie :-)…

A video report from Byron Bay as my Australian visit comes to a close. Looking a bit haggard, but hey… I’m off the clock.