Discovering Autumn

The leaves are really starting to fall this weekend. Lucy likes it.
She walked all the way around the block yesterday, fascinated by all
she discovered along the way.

A Comma Worth Millions

Maciej directed me to this article. Why does this sentence haunt Rogers Communications Inc? Read the full story to learn what's grammatically inaccurate about it.

"The agreement shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.”

We got new Mobile phones

Magda got the LG Shine & I got an iPhone. So far loving them, except
I'm struggling to be proficient with the keypad & our Bluetooth is a
bit flaky. More reports to follow.

Advantages of NetBooks

Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPCs or netbooks) are catching on quickly. These smaller and cheaper laptops are actually being developed for "emerging markets" (i.e., developing nations), but they are capturing the interest of many educators who particularly like their price, open-source nature, durability and physical appeal. More and more educators are looking towards netbooks as an affordable and exciting way to achieve a 1:1 ration of students to computers. Jim Dornberg just posted a good review of his new Acer Aspire 1 netbook. It's a brief but good overview of many features and potential advantages of netbooks.

Google's Chrome Browser

David Pogue recently published a great overview of Chrome, the new open-source web browser from Google. As Pogue describes, many of Chromes features are neither new nor innovative--the same features have been provided by Safari, Firefox and Opera browsers. But that doesn't detract from the value or potential of Chrome. To the contrary, Google has brought together some of the best featues of other browsers AND expanded upon them with better security, performance, and some truly innovative and exciting new features. 

One of my favorite features is forehead-slapping simple--"create application shortcuts". This creates shortcut icons on the desktop, start menu or quick-launch bar of Windows for the current site. But these shortcuts don't just open a browser window. Rather, they open in a seemingly "browserless" window that makes web-based apps and Web 2.0 services look and feel more like traditional desktop-based software. Do this for sites like Picnik and Gliffy, along with Google apps like gmail, docs, calendar, sites, reader, iGoogle, Blogger, etc., and you've basically got a fully-functional computer that, as long as you have an internet connection, requires no other software than an operating system and Chrome. 

While I suspect only early-adopters and keen web developers have begun using it so far, I predict that future releases and word of mouth will garner Chrome a marketshare that rivals or suprasses Firefox and other popular browsers. I can't wait for the Mac and Linux versions of Chrome to be released soon.