Fark is great.
Jack Thompson finally loosing his license?
The Florida Supreme court is having a disciplinary hearing on Jack Thompson following a recommendation by the the Florida Bar which could lead to him loosing his license to practice law. Could this be the beginning of the end for Jack Thompson?
Database pioneer Jim Gray missing at sea
David Pescovitz:
Database pioneer James Gray, winner of the 1998 Turing Award and founder of Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center, is missing off the coast of Northern California. On Sunday, he set out alone on his 40-foot sailboat to the Farallon Islands where he intended to scatter his late mother's ashes. He hasn't returned. The US Coast Guard is searching for Gray by boat, plane, and helicopter. Gray is known for such groundbreaking projects as the SkyServer and TerraServer. From the San Francisco Chronicle (photo from Wikipedia):
Gray's wife, Donna, told Coast Guard officials that her husband last contacted her by cell phone at about 10 a.m. Sunday and spoke of his plans. When he did not respond to her cell phone calls Sunday evening, she contacted the authorities at about 8:30 p.m.Within an hour, the Coast Guard sent out a radio message alerting ships in the area to watch for Gray's vessel. On Tuesday, the search extended west 78 miles past the Farallon Islands...
Gray's yacht was a Canadian-made C&C 40, a sturdy fiberglass vessel with the dual capability of racing and offshore cruising. The Coast Guard said it was well-equipped with high-tech communications and safety gear, including a marine radio...
"Jim is a giant in the computer industry but a generous giant who will always take time to collaborate with other scientists or help students in their career," said UC Berkeley computer science professor David Patterson.
"We are hoping against hope he's tied up in a some cove with a dead cell phone."
Link (Thanks, Eric Paulos!)
(Via Boing Boing.)
Spanning Sync announces public beta
Filed under: Software, Productivity, Internet Tools
Charlie Wood from Spanning Sync, the 'missing link' software we mentioned back in November that can keep iCal and Google Calendar n'sync, just let us know that a public beta (version 1.0b11) is now available (zip download link). Getting started with iCal + gCal syncing bliss is simple:
- Download the aforementioned zip file
- Install Spanning Sync, which runs as a System Preference pane
- Enter your Google Account credentials, or go get one (they're free, and if you already have something like a Gmail address, you're good to go)
- Select which calendars from iCal you want to sync with Google Calendar (and if you haven't signed into Google Calendar at least once, do so now)
- Press "Sync Now"
- Sit back and marvel at the wonders of desktop + Google Calendar syncing
I've been participating in their private beta for the last couple of months, and Spanning Sync has shaped up pretty well. The ability to keep my desktop synced with Google Calendar has been quite a life-saver for me, and I definitely recommend taking it for a spin, as I couldn't find any viable alternatives. The one catch that Spanning Sync has run into so far is alarm/reminder syncing. Since Google Calendar only supports alarms in your main, personal calendar, Spanning Sync can't include this feature until the gCal team shape up and fly right. Still, while I find myself using reminders for some of my key events, I didn't find this quirk to be a deal-breaker.
As of this writing, a price is yet to be announced, though there will be two plans. The first is an annual subscription rate, while the second is a one-time, lifetime purchase for those who want to get past all the riff-raff. Stay tuned for more details.
[Update: Woops - looks like servers fall down, go boom. Spanning Sync has temporarily closed the public beta to new users due to the veritable river of interest overrunning their servers. If you recall your 'Internets 101' lessons, water and server hardware don't mix well. However, users who got set up before they closed the beta are still in - the doors are simply closed to new users until Spanning Sync can add some equipment to handle the load. Their blog post announcing the bad news also states that they hope to re-open the public beta by Wednesday, so we'll keep our eye on things and let you know when new users can begin signing up again.]
(Via TUAW.)
iWoz: I cant put this book down….
Due to our slow-ass mailroom here at GMU...I started reading iWoz last night and I cannot put this book down. Its captivating to hear the story of how this son of an engineer grew up in the 60s and 70s and basically invented the personal computer using spare parts he could get his hands on. I HIGHLY recommend this book. Granted: its been out for several months now but if you have seen it and haven't bought/read it yet - DO SO!!! It is the story of Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple, (the one who did most of the work BTW), and all around kick-ass geek. The book is by far one of the most interesting nonfictional books I have ever read. Obviously Steve has never written a book before because it doesn't follow a standard autobiographical/biographical format. Its more like a collection of stories that he has been telling people his whole life about himself. Very entertaining.