Hey Geeks

Powerset Semantic Search Engine Acquired by Micro$oft for $100 Million.

Sam Liu — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:21:05 +0000

The title says it all. http://www.powerset.com >> I was hailing this as a glimpse of Web 3.0 a little while back. I think Microsoft is thinking the same, purchasing it. Though, $100 million is really a bargain and many critics remark “It searches Wikipedia. Wikipedia already has a search engine. Therefore, it is fail.” We’ll have to see. Personally as a member of the closed beta I realize it is more than just a search and its actually quite a nice tool. It seeks to connect the meaning of phrases rather than use mathematical algorithms.

Django 1.0 Releases September 2nd!

Sam Liu — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:23:41 +0000

I’ve been waiting for [this]. I’ve decided to go with Django on my projects, mainly because I’ve heard that RoR does not scale well. If I hope to have a large and robust application, Django seems to be the way to go.

Of course, I could be wrong, but either way, I can’t possibly go wrong with either Rails or Django.

Spore Leaked

Sam Liu — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:36:25 +0000

Not much to say about [this] haha.

The One Page Wonder

Sam Liu — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:30:50 +0000

[Dech] addresses the interesting issue of simple websites. I have to say, its a well written piece and worth reading. I personally have a couple sites that could be simplified like this. In fact, HeyGeeks was designed to be a one page wonder. I have wordpress configured to display 100 posts. There are no “next” and “previous” buttons. This is about the now, so there is no need. Search? Ctrl+F and there you are. Everything in the world on one easy to read page. No frills.

As always, beauty in simplicity.

The 3G iPhone - I was right

Kevin Hsu — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:26:02 +0000

$200 for 8 gig with 2 year contract from AT&T. The only significant additions over last version in terms of hardware are the 3G antenna and GPS. The 3G is visually very similar to the original iPhone. It’s slightly thicker and has an all-plastic back, in your choice of white or black. Overall, this is probably the same crap you’ve seen all over the internet in the past few hours.

The iPhone 2.0 firmware will be free for all current iPhone users, but will be a $10 upgrade for iPod Touch users. Paying for firmware updates? Come on Steve Jobs! This is America! This is the twenty-first century! We might as well revert to monarchy and an aristocratic caste system if the commoners must pay for their firmware updates!

Sure, one could argue that the 2.0 firmware update adds many capabilities for the Touch and the iPhone, but just look at the Samsung P2 and its Blue Wave firmware updates. The Blue Wave updates have given the P2 its fair share of new features FOR FREE: bluetooth connectivity with phones, bluetooth file transfers, a dictionary, improved video functions , and many others. (btw, someone in my family owns the P2 and I can vouch that its screen is significantly prettier than that of the iPhone.)

What I would really like to see on the iPhone is increased codec support. I’m sure people are tired of converting all of their videos to tiny resolution MPEG-4. No matter how convenient it is to have iTunes automatically convert every video in your library, it still takes time and takes away from the portability if you can’t simply drag and drop your videos on a whim. Surely the almighty iPhone has enough power to downscale 800×480 Xvid files in AVI containers.

Still, it wouldn’t be right to discount the addition of 3G to the iPhone. One of the biggest complaints about the original iPhone was that the EDGE network was freakin’ slow. The addition of an SDK in firmware 2.0 is certainly welcome because we’ll begin to see an influx of useful third-party programs that will allow the user to unlock the potential of the iPhone without jailbreaking it and putting his warranty at risk.

Wifi Buses

Sam Liu — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:47:57 +0000

All I’m gonna say about this is: [$1 bus ride] with wifi beats $4/gallon gas.

T-Mobile AT&T Squabble?

Sam Liu — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:43:38 +0000

T-Mobile is upset that AT&T has [espoused certain Starbucks locations] in providing free Wifi. AT&T’s reasoning? Increased Wifi usage means less stress on its edge and 3G networks (largely due to the iPhone and in preparation for the 3G iPhone). What’s to do in this litigation prone environment? Sue. T-Mobile, sue Starbucks I mean.

What do I care as a consumer? I don’t. Give me more free Wifi, I’m lovin’ it.

3G iPhone - T-minus one day

Kevin Hsu — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:34:34 +0000

Despite the fact that I am vehemently anti-Apple, I am morally obligated as a tech blogger to post about the 3G iPhone when it breaks loose tomorrow at [WWDC]. I don’t really think the 3G version will bring much to the table for most consumers other than the faster speeds on AT&T’s 3G networks as opposed to EDGE. However, if AT&T subsidizes the 3G iPhone to bring the price for consumers right around $200, it will probably sway many buyers.

Stay tuned tomorrow for HeyGeek’s full coverage of the 3G iPhone!