Google rolls out a new flight tracking feature: just type your airline
and flight number into the search box, and get the departure and
arrival location and estimated time. I really love these guys.
Google lets you put a + sign in you email address that it ignores but you can use to create filters. For example, when you create an account at buy.com, just I just tell them my email address is BenShoemate+buy.com@gmail.com. If I start getting ads for “V I A GR A” I know who to boycott, report, complain, filter. Cool.
Also, gmail ignores the . in your name. So even if you signed up for FirstLast@gmail.com you can tell people at work its First.Last@gmail.com and set up a filter to auto tag those as work. Also cool.
I am trying to install Office 2007 onto a clean install of Windows XP (on a friends eee PC – it is really a sweet little laptop.. anyway), I get the error above about protected files. Here is the solution. (This may have happened because in optimizing XP down, some files were deleted).
1. From Windows install disk goto E:\I386 folder and open open (Double click) on the FP40EXT.CAB file. It should open.
(or – if you do not have the disk, find a working XP computer and go to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\40\bin).
2. find fp4autl.dll in the list and copy it (ctrl-c)
3. go to c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\40\bin and paste it (ctrl-v)
4. Restart the 2007 office install
Viola! (thanks guys over at http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=627360)
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Picasa – Google’s picture browsing, tagging, sorting, viewing, uploading, sharing, free software – has been redesigned for the iPhone interface. Google has also introduced an iPhone-only slideshow feature that automatically flips through a user’s favorite photo albums. iPhone users simply need to navigate to Google’s site (www.google.com) using the Safari browser of the iPhone (and iPod touch) will find a navigation bar that lets them switch between Google services. Really cool. Apple + Google = BFF!
http://www.google.com (with your iphone)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140576-c,iphone/article.html
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2007/12/picasa-redefined-for-your-iphone.html
The Linux community has done a good job of copying Windows. Open Office does a pretty good job of copying Microsoft Office. Now there are open source versions of YouTube and MySpace. But where is the innovation? Firefox and its multitude of plugins seems to be the one exception. Meanwhile, companies like Apple – a company that is incredible closed, and secretive has created one innovative product after another. Why is this?
I have been looking at how communities like digg, slashdot, wikipedia, and other smaller forums operate. There does seem to be a conservative nature to large crowds. Mainly because the urge to contribute is high. So high, that people want to comment or tweak something even if they have no real expertise. Another issue is that as soon as some one mentions a novel or creative idea, there are 50 people eager to chime in with why its a bad idea. The burden then falls on the innovator to defend their idea. Without sources or previous examples they can cite (we are talking about innovation after all), the idea simply drowns beneath an ocean of criticism. Anyone surveying the discussion will conclude the idea was shot down.
This is all just speculation on my part. It will take more than just a few case studies to uncover any true underlying pattern.