Windows is 21 - and MS-DOS is alive!

I’ve just started reading diggdot (which I really like), and I read yesterday the news that Microsoft Windows has just turned 21 (20 Nov 2006).

Kind of scary, because it reminded me I was using Windows 1.0 in 1986 -- almost from its birth. And I’m still using it now (mostly not by choice, though).

But, just now, using Windows XP, I was trying to copy a largish file (about 700MB), and I got an error which said “Invalid MS-DOS function”.

Huh? MS-DOS? I thought Microsoft said they had left all that behind in NT (New Technology, after all) and XP and all that...

(Fortunately my Mac had no problem copying the file -- nice to know that *nix, even older than MS-DOS, is still going strong!)

Perfomancing

One of the reasons I keep this blog is to keep up with -- and try out -- blogging technology. My earlier post about Flock is an example. This post is a test of a Firefox extension from Performancing, which allows you to blog directly from within Firefox. Very simple, works well, and great for those times when you are surfing and something worth blogging comes to mind.

Performancing also offer a blog site statistics tool, which is free and worth checking out.

Flock

Well, it's not much of a name, and it is still pretty much alpha stage, but the new Flock browser looks very promising.

Based on mozilla, it seems to be trying to build itself around webservices, which means a more interactive way of using the web. I'm writing this post in the Flock editor now, and there is built-in support of services such as flickr and del.icio.us. Not that all that isn't possible from, say, Firefox with a few extensions. It's just a new, integrated approach which may make some web-based applications more immediately useable for a range of people.

One thing -- writing and posting this was pretty quick and easy.

It will be interesting to watch.

How to Get Great Sleep

I have read a number of articles on sleep (and getting more), which perhaps is an indication of how much I love to sleep! This article provides good information on our sleep mechanisms, as well as common sleep disorders -- and the link between lack of sleep and depression. In terms of beating insomnia, the article suggests doing nothing, allowing the body's natural rhythms to right themselves.

read more | digg story

What makes a 'geek'?

In thinking about learning and technology, I’ve been wondering why it is that some people are more attracted to using and discovering technology than others. This leads me to think about that group of people often called ‘geeks’. There’s an extensive entry on geeks at Wikipedia, suggesting it has at least as much to do with obsession as technology.

Howard Becker opens his useful book, Tricks of the Trade : How to Think about Your Research While You're Doing It, with an anecdote from his student days about a discussion of what makes an ‘ethnic group’. The key point is that one cannot study an ethnic group in isolation: such a group only exists because another group has identified them as separate or different from them in some way.

So, in considering geeks we also need to examine those who aren’t geeks, and what it is the various groups think of each other.

Popular images of geeks often have them identifying as such, sometimes proudly, sometimes self-consciously. Certain stereotypical characteristics make them identifiable to others, and in this way they appear as a separate cultural group. Thus, it is an issue of culture as much as technology.

So, apart from recognising that there may be ‘cultural’ issues, how useful will this be in determining how individuals learn about technology?

Blogging again

I started this a couple of years back, mostly as a test. And since then, I’ve started other blogs and journals -- some with specific purposes, which continue. Most often, just to test features, ease of use etc.

However, what I haven’t really ever done properly is actually blog!

So, I’m starting over here, because it is just as easy as anything else, and will try to make something of it. Hopefully, this post will soon be buried deep in the archives and no one will ever have to be bored by reading it.