Writer

Brian Goodman

Website

105 posts

Google’s elegant ability to appear unfocused

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The notion that Google does not know what is doing is laughable. Peter Day from the BBC kicked off a recent article with that very premise – that Google’s lack of obvious direction might be the source of their genius. Everyone can see that Google has enormous ... More »

Getting SH-Autolink to do what I want

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I have always been torn about adding HTML to my blog posts. Clearly, there are times when you need it to point off to an image or to format text for emphasis. I know other markup exists, like Markdown, Textile or even Wikitext, but those carry the same undesir... More »

Empowering everyone to read it all

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My first real introduction to email was a local BBS run be a local users group in Connecticut ~1990. In 1994, I went off to college and was, excitedly, one of less than a dozen PC users on a Mac dominated campus – email was a given and I remember being able to... More »

The ambient matrix

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Ambient devices are seductive. They seem like they would have so much potential. I have an Orb from Ambient Devices – currently listening to a stock market index – currently yellow green. I got my dad the Executive Dashboard, also from Ambient Devices, which l... More »

Big companies work harder to show they are nimble

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I always find it interesting when internal memos allegedly leak. It is like reality TV, what actually happens inside of those corporate walls. So Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie star in this most recent memo exposure where “Internet services” services are... More »

Who gets to define the word defect?

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So it looks like the iPod Nano lawsuit has gone global, and yet, they seem to be flying off the shelves. Does that mean I can buy a Nano today and join the lawsuit? Who doesn’t get protective shells for this stuff anyway? I mean, it is razor thin (0.27 inches)... More »

Transfering technology at an organic pace

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Sirringhau’s research is in the area of organic transistors – plastics. Right away you would think, how will this ever be mass produced? Two words, inkjet printing. This kind of stuff is fascinating. “One of the things you learn when you transfer technology ... More »

Shifting to simple

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It is not new news that a current is underfoot, one that has us moving away from overly complex IT. Google is often associated with the desired model of application design. Gmail, Goggle Maps and the slew of other rich web and light client applications that ov... More »

Royalties

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This past Friday I received an email from a publisher about updating my contact information so I can receive a royalty check. Mind you, I have lived at three different addresses since the beginning of pulling the book together – New York City, Westford, MA and... More »