Recent Activity

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  Google Wave

  Hey Marty, I'm sure you've all see Google Wave... and I've just watched the Google conference vid for the second time... but I just wanted to say, although its more "real time" communication, it reminds me a lot of the ideas and concepts behind Tangler and Tangler Live.
  
  I can't wait to get a google Wave account!! anyone got any invites?

  But I wanted to know because of the fact that Google Wave is open source with a large API for building HTML5 apps... are there any plans (without giving away your secrets) to intergrate Google Wave into Tangler and Tangler Live?

  Posted 29 Sep 09

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  Geek Shirts

  This is my favorite Geek shirt:

  

  

   

  But other than that, I do own and wear regularly:

  From Think Geek 

  

  And from T-Shirt Hell

  

  Posted 05 Sep 07

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  Will Ebooks Kill Publishing

  Funny you say that... I work for Oxford University Press Australia and New Zealand (OUPANZ), my Job title is Electronic Project Coordinator. I coordinate and in some cases internally develop the electronic media for OUPANZ... Like I was saying, its funny you say that, because we at OUPANZ have been researching into methods of providing e-books in a manner that is not easy to replicate, which is different to the current PDF based e-books, and would allow us to provide both graphic and textual information, and in some cases interactivity.

  So the above quote is not all entirely true, it's a bit of a race against the clock to see who comes out with the best solution first.

  Some areas that we are researching into, without going into any detail is flash (and flex) technology... thats Adobe Flash, not Flash Drive hardware. The new updated AS3 in flash is now a very powerful application level programming platform, and flash is already a very integrated technology on many platforms, from the phone to PC's.

  other technologies include secured PDF technology, and a custom developed idea of writing a tracker into the book, so each book (not just ISBN but each copy of) has a signature and can traced.

  These are just some of the things that we are looking into... So I would say, there is a potential for an "iPod Moment" for books. It's true, it won't specifically be 1 device, but it will be the application that allows a book to be read, and who has the most amount of e-books in that format to offer. In many cases it would be more like the battle between Beta and VHS, who has the better marketing.

  But all this being said, there is no plan near or future to replace books, only integrate e-books into an existing major revenue stream.

  Posted 27 Nov 07

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  Tangler themes

  Cant wait till we can make those custom skins <nudge, nudge>

  I look forward to it.

  Posted 06 Sep 07

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  Touchy Feely

  I want to see this.. on that table above (preferably Starcraft 2)

  Posted 05 Sep 07

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  Tough Decisions

  "If you have to guess, don't change your mind based on another guess - once you decide, stick with it until evidence changes it."

  I would say thats great advice... Being a project manager I rely a lot on the resources I have at hand be it technology, people, skills etc. And at times I have to make decisions based on those resources and an "educated" guess as to what I believe will or should happen with a project.

  That being said, I have made my share of bad decisions, however through making bad decisions I have learned that the best method is exactly as you said, only change your mind based on evidence against the first decision not on another guess. This helps with steering the project, and at times has help to justify other decisions made on the project before or after the educated "guess".

  Investors don't like guesswork, and tend to only reward results, so if you have to guess stick with it, and create some stable ground (justification for decision) before changing a decision.

  Its a pity they did lose $10M on the project, but I do agree: "This is a lot of money, but it is a small price relative to the costs that would be required to support two platforms going forward.". If they can re-coup the costs in the release of the Next-Gen Palm (which I believe they can, with the current R&D development of the platform) the loss of Foleo will be minor, and a good direction for Palm. I would also agree that it is better to put your resources into producing a product that is consistant with new developments instead of breaking off into 2 streams offering different aspects for the same type device "single, consistent user experience around this new platform design and a single focus for our platform development efforts."

  Posted 05 Sep 07