Sean Walther's Blog

Memorial Day Weekend Bonfire

That’s not me in the video, I actually arrive right at the end of the video.

I love that a shop vac was used to feed air to the flames.

Tags: Bonfire, Coventry, Memorial Day, memorial day weekend

Google fined for Orkut user’s comment

Google was fined in Brazil for an Orkut user calling a priest a “pedophile”.

Ignorance and stupidity abound — around the world.

› Continue reading

Tags: Brazil, Google, Italy, judgement, Orkut, stupidity

iPhone OS 4 – Sneak Peek Video Demo

It’s not english, but interesting to watch.

Tags: iPhone, iPhone OS 4

iPhone HD: The new Apple iPhone? Also, WSJ reports Verizon iPhone in the works

iPhone 3G -- What will the iPhone HD look like?

Saw a few articles with “information” on the iPhone HD, and news on a Verizon iPhone.  The source of most of the information coming from Wall Street Journal (of all places!) … New iPhone Could End AT&T’s U.S. Monopoly.

Apple Inc. plans to begin producing this year a new iPhone that could allow U.S. phone carriers other than AT&T Inc. to sell the iconic gadget, said people briefed by the company.

The new iPhone would work on a type of wireless network called CDMA, these people said. CDMA is used by Verizon Wireless, AT&T’s main competitor, as well as Sprint Nextel Corp. and a handful of cellular operators in countries including South Korea and Japan. The vast majority of carriers world-wide, including AT&T, use another technology called GSM.

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Tags: Apple, AT&T, CDMA, GSM, iPhone, iPhone HD, Verizon

MIT Professor Dan Nocera: Presentation on Global Energy Consumption and a Possible Solution

Lucid and easy to understand lecture on global energy consumption, and our future.  MIT Professor Dan Nocera has integrated data from multiple disciplines to a single cohesive presentation.  Useful statistics on the various sources and consumers of energy.  Watch this, it’s worth it:

Dan Nocera: Personalized Energy from PopTech on Vimeo.

Summary

Leverage the energy density in water, to solve the world’s energy problems.  MIT teams have artificially created photosynthesis.

Is this a viable solution?

Tags: Dan Nocera, Energy, MIT

Google executives convicted in Italy, because of uploaded content!

According to an article on the BBC site, Google bosses convicted in Italy, three Google executives were convicted because they “allowed” someone to upload a video of an autistic kid being bullied.

From the article:

The Google employees were accused of breaking Italian law by allowing the video to be posted online.

Judge Oscar Magi absolved the three of defamation but convicted them of privacy violations.

The UK’s former Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said the case gave privacy laws a “bad name”.

The three employees, Peter Fleischer, David Drummond and George De Los Reyes, received suspended six-month sentences, while a fourth defendant, product manager Arvind Desikan, was acquitted.

David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google and one of those convicted, said he was “outraged” by the decision.

…

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Tags: Arvind Desikan, BBC, David Drummond, George De Los Reyes, Google, Italy, Peter Fleischer, Postal Service, Unabomber, USPS, Youtube

Google Buzz: Turn off the Buzz

A few days ago Google buzz launched.  This included automatically starting up Google buzz in your Gmail account, and automatically setting your followers.

While nice of Google (and scary), automatically assuming Gmail users would want Google buzz to share who you are following with your followers — was a poor assumption. › Continue reading

Tags: Arstechnica, Facebook, Gmail, Google, Google Buzz

iPad Makes Appearance at the Grammy Awards

For those of you who missed it (I didn’t see most of the Grammy Awards either), here is a video of the iPad making its television debut in the hands of Stephen Colbert:

Tags: Grammy Awards, iPad, Stephen Colbert

iPad, iPhone, Apple — and Flash. A Sad Story.

Anyone who regularly reads this blog (sorry) can see how optimistic I am that the iPhone will eventually support flash.  Today I read news that entirely dashes those hopes.

I just hopped over to MacRumors.com (I love that site) and saw this, Steve Jobs at Apple Town Hall Meeting on Google, Adobe, Next iPhone, 2010 Macs and More.

In the article MacRumors reports:

Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.

That is, what I consider to be, the final nail in the coffin.  Steve Jobs has shown his hand with regards to Flash.

A few weeks ago, news hit the internet of a clever developer who had implemented his own HTML/Javascript version of Flash — and it worked on the iPhone.  You can see this at the demos of Gordon – An open source Flash runtime written in pure JavaScript with SVG.

What does all this mean?  Flash won’t be allowed on Apple’s most cherished devices.

If Steve Jobs is experiencing headaches because of Flash and there is an alternative, why wouldn’t he pursue it?  HTML flash handle Flash like effects in an open format, a format in which Apple can control and mitigate the reach of Adobe into its own products.

It has been over a year since Adobe was able to demo Flash running on the iPhone.  Why hasn’t it made it on the iPhone?  Well Steve Jobs and Apple both believe the future is in the canvases of HTML 5.  Video can be properly (and easily) embedded, sound included, animation effects that surpass today’s AJAX packages, and many other facets that make HTML 5 a candidate to replace Flash.

This doesn’t make me happy.  I’ve come to love Flash as it has evolved.

Apple will use all forces it can to stop Adobe from growing their Flash install base.  While Apple has control over a large platform, the iPhone/iPad, they will force developers to adapt to the new technologies such as HTML 5.

Apple has zero intention on ever letting Flash hit the iPhone, iPad, or even any computer if they could do that.  I don’t foresee them stopping Flash from their full fledged computers, that would be suicide.

Say goodbye to the romantic notion of Flash on your Apple device.

Tags: Apple, canvas, Flash, HTML 5, iPad, Steve Jobs

On the Apple iPad: Problems I See

For the first time in years I think Apple has missed the target.  There are so many problems that I see, right now, with the iPad. › Continue reading

Tags: App, Apple, Droid, iPad, iPhone, iPod