Boot-up VS HibernateDecember 21, 2008
Something that has been driving me up the wall this year is how long it takes my computer to boot up. Perhaps the reason I've been noticing it even more is that in trying to be more energy conscious I've been turning my computer off. When booting up, my desktop takes roughly 10 minutes before the computer's hard drive stop whirling, and trying to use the computer before that point is an exercise in frustration.
Well duh, why have I never been using the
Hibernate feature. I use it all the time for our laptop: Close the lid and when you want to use it the next time, open the lid and you're up and running in under a minute. I tried hibernate on my desktop for the first time today and it works pretty well. Way better than booting up, anyway. Woo hoo!
Kitchen computingNovember 10, 2008
Something that I'm coming to realize is that my interests in natural language processing, voice interface, and home automation all converge on the kitchen.
And so this concept of "kitchen computing" comes to mind, which seems like a relatively untapped area. We've been using our PCs in the study, bedroom, or in the den for a couple of decades. In the last 10 years, computing has entered the living room in the form of the Media Center PC, Xbox, and PS3. But the kitchen has yet to change much. I think that the lack of progress in the areas of natural language processing, voice interfaces, microphone technology, and home automation are the reasons for this, and so as I explore these areas, I'm intrigued by the possibilities.
Some random thoughts:
  | I see kitchen computing as being much more "hands free" than in other areas, more so than the living room. More often our hands are busy or we're in the middle of doing something and don't want to walk across the room to use a traditional PC. (Or our hands aren't clean) This is where the need for better microphone, voice interface, and natural language parsing technology come in. |
| The kitchen is really the hub of the family's operations, and it's the place that most often brings us together, so it's an area that is ripe with opportunity. |
| Meal planning |
| Meal preparation |
| Purchasing groceries |
| Managing the family calendar |
| Email is a very efficient means of communication, and the BlackBerry and other hand held devices have pushed (hah) email to the next level. But there's still room to grow. Paired with a voice interface and home automation system, email can be gotten and sent on behalf of a person greatly extending their reach. For example, consider standing in the kitchen working on supper and saying "Grace, ask Meredith when she'll be home", or "Ask Billy where he is", or "Tell Billy that supper is at 6". A person with a BlackBerry receives the question within seconds, and their typed reply can be spoken to the person who asked the question in the kitchen: "Meredith has replied. She says: I'll be back by 6". There are many advantages to this kind of communication over making a voice phone call. |
| HD video conferencing: An LCD in the kitchen becomes a viewport into the world, and brings with it the possibility of "replacing" the phone with HD video conferencing, the next leap after VOIP. Back in the '90s we would imagine the day when we'd have video phones, and that day is getting closer. Both the broadband Internet and camera technology exist today to make this a reality. |
What I like about ChromeOctober 26, 2008
| Simplicity of UI |
| Prettier UI than Firefox and IE. More eye candy, but tactfully done. |
| It feels fast and doesn't make my hard drive spin. |
| I like how the tabs work -- that they're a the very top. |
Suggestions for improvements | Very annoying: Chrome seems to prompt me more frequently about re-submission of forms and out-of-date pages. |
| Weird: Sometimes Chrome will say a site can't be loaded (white screen) while IE and Firefox have no problems. |
| I like the one-click button for creating a favorite and how it lights up if a page is already a favorite, but the drop-down is annoying if you don't want to choose where to put it. Perhaps a long mouse click or right click could signify that. |
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