Saturday, October 01, 2011

Weekend Reading: The (Mostly Old) Tech News Edition

This will have to be short today- Petunia turns two tomorrow, and I have lots to do!

But I couldn't leave you without random links to read this weekend, could I?

First, an interesting post that postulates on possible involvement of Iran in the recent attack on DigiNotar, the Dutch certificate authority company.

Then, a post from Female Computer Scientist on the impact of face-recognition software.

Also, I pre-ordered a Kindle Fire this week- I've been wanting a tablet, and the low price tag was too much to resist. Also, I like the smaller size, since I intend to carry it in my purse sometimes.

So I found two articles in the Harvard Business Review on the potential impact of the Kindle Fire interesting. Also, this article in Tech Crunch on the new Kindle gives a good overview.

Finally, this has nothing to do with technology, but come on- talking birds! (As an aside, there is a flock of parrots in Brooklyn that have learned to mimic car alarms. That sounds cool until you hear them in the middle of the night....)

And if you haven't posted your tips and tricks for traveling with little kids yet- go over to my last post and do so!

6 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday to Petunia!

    I'd love to hear how you like your Kindle Fire. I, too, have been wanting a tablet, but with a desktop, laptop, dedicated ereader, and an iPhone, I am having a hard time justifying the purchase.

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  2. Anonymous2:51 AM

    Happy Birthday, Petunia!

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  3. Happy birthday to Petunia!

    I'm torn about tablet tech, esp as I have no good reason/excuse to ever get one. I'm a Mac girl, & love the various mac interfaces. But their stranglehold on their tech can be off-putting. And as a part-time bookseller at my local independent bookstore, Amazon's similar stranglehold--and weird tax evasion strategies--are also depressing. As a brick-and-mortar bookseller, my big question about the Kindle Fire (which I'm too lazy to just look up) is whether or not you can read google ebooks on it--some independents, like the one at which I work, now sell Google ebooks through their websites. I don't know much about the Fire, but if you can get to the web & google, can you use it to support independents with your reading habits, or have they locked that down, too?

    But, despite that lengthy ramble, the most important part of this comment is the Happy Birthday part!

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  4. Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone!

    @eta- I'll have to update my opinion once I actually get the Fire, but the press/descriptions indicate that it will be able to run most Android apps- so that would imply that you could read Google eBooks.

    I am also not too enamored with the tax behavior of Amazon. They recently cut a deal with California, and are supposed to start collecting sales tax next year unless there is a national solution before then.

    I actually think the best answer would be a national solution, but given the current deadlock in congress, that seems unlikely!

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  5. Happy Birthday Petunia!!

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  6. Really nice round up of news.

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