Google Shows First Android GPhone Prototype

Android is the Open Source platform for mobile devices. With Google making the SDK available, we should all see applications and widgets popping up like mad from all those smarties out there who do this stuff for fun. Oh yeah, and the 10 million dollars for the best application development. I CAN"T WAIT!!

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/05/google_shows_fi.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_ALL

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Stick Figure Cartoons

This is pretty cool. It's got a bunch of random stick figure cartoons: http://xkcd.com

Brazil Discovers Uncontacted Indian Tribe in Amazon Jungle!

One of Brazil's last uncontacted Indian tribes has been spotted in the far western Amazon jungle near the Peruvian border, the National Indian Foundation said Thursday. The Indians were sighted in an Ethno-Environmental Protected Area along the Envira River in flights over remote Acre state, said the government foundation, known as Funai. Wouldn't life be so much more simple?

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8 reasons you'll rejoice when we hit $8-a-gallon gas

I'm not saying I agree with everything here, but I really like to see the different sides of this issue. I think what it comes down to is that there has to be a resolution, either getting oil from our own continent or pushing out all the other alternative fuel sources that have been developed since the 70's and making them mainstream. Our dependency on oil is simply lack of catalyst for change. Well, that catalyst is here, lets do something about it!

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At least 20 cars hit pedestrian on Arizona freeway

An investigation into a fatal car-pedestrian accident backed up traffic during the morning commute Thursday. The Dept. of Public Safety says the victim was apparently walking on the I-10 freeway when he was struck by as many as 20 vehicles. Westbound I-10 was closed during the entire morning rush hour.

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A Tiny Fruit That Tricks the Tongue

A small red berry called miracle fruit temporarily rewires the way the palate perceives sour flavors, rendering lemons as sweet as candy.This is pretty cool. I bet we could get kids to eat vegetables by adding this to the mix!

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Bond gadgets: never say they'll never work

Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was born 100 years ago today. But while his hero's Cold War concerns may have dated, some of Bond's gadgets have not. Some movies and stories used existing technologies such as jetpacks (Dr No), autogyros (You Only Live Twice) and GPS-capable phones (Casino Royale)...

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Flock

I am not a social creature. However, it seems like more and more these days, if I want to stay in touch, I really need to keep up on the sites that my friends and family members (mostly family members) are using.

With that in mind. I have decided to try this browser called Flock. Apparently it will let you keep track of all your social networking accounts and give you alerts and things when someone in your friends lists posts online.

This blog is being published with the Flock blogger plug in that automatically installed when I signed in to my blogger account. Also, it has a built-in spell check...I like that!! I think I'll try it out for a while and see what it's like.

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PHP Development

I am looking for a place that will allow me to work with coders to develop web apps for internal usage. I was thinking of posting the project on sourceforge.net, but I think that would ne a bit premature.

Basically, I have a program that connects to my Panasonic PBX phone switch. The program called Panalog logs all events in the system, allowing me to run basic reports against the data (in an Access database). The problem is that I want a web version so I don’t have to remote into the pc running Panalog in order to get the data.

I have created some simple queries that show total number of dials by extension, as well as total amount of talk time, but I really need it to me more robust and allow custom queries and grouping by groups and such.

I am not a programmer (as much as I want to be) and I only know enough coding to get in trouble. I am using PHP and an ODBC connection to a copy of the Access database to pull my info.

If anyone knows of a place that will let me work (for free) with coders to develop this idea, let me know.

Web Content Filtering

I would like to start this blog with a post on one of the greatest pieces of equipment I have had the pleasure to manage - the Barracuda Web Filter.

Before purchasing this piece of equipment, the only way I had of managing users and groups and the sites they were allowed on was either by much configuration of some open source software on a separate box, or using a software proxy (which is what I was doing). Don't get me wrong, there are many, many ways to go about managing content on your network, but nothing seemed very easy and I just didn't want to have to spend a whole lot of management time on it.

Then came the Barracuda! This device was so easily configurable, it came with a single page instruction manual! Simple install and integration with Active Directory through LDAP made this such a breeze to get up and running and all I had to do was take the network down for 5 minutes to get it installed completely.

If you are looking for a content filter and a way to track and manage users and groups by category, keyword or bandwidth, this is the only way to go. At $2500 plus yearly update subscription, it's not cheap, but it's done right. And when it comes down to it, that's what really matters.