Assorted musings

My partner insisted that I not throw a mass of candles on his birthday cake this year (why, I'm not sure exactly; it might have had something to do with not wanting our guests to do advanced math), but it just didn't feel right to leave it without any illumination.

So, I decided to call on my trusty iPod Touch.

I launched the Zippo lighter application, flicked open the lighter, and promptly stuck the iPod Touch right in the frosting.

The iPod as candle was a hit with the guests, one of whom was a CNET-er who immediately … Read more

With the fail whale cropping up even more than usual, I think I have found a good backup for Twitter.

The folks at humorous paper products company Knock Knock have come up with an entirely analog variant of the microblogging service.

The company sells notepads billed as "Paper Tweets," where people can use pen and paper to jot down their witticisms of 140 characters or fewer. There are check boxes to indicate whether you are retweeting, replying, direct messaging, or just updating your status. And even a place to write in one of those silly hash tags. The … Read more

Ten years ago, the next big thing in tech was supposed to be the Internet appliance: a device that offered tech newbies a simpler and cheaper way to get onto the Internet.

Within the span of only a few months a host of such devices hit the market--products such as 3Com's Audrey, Netpliance's I-opener along with machines from Sony, Gateway, and Compaq. They were all aimed at trying to offer the Web without the cost and complexity of a full-fledged computer.

Around the same time, makers of other products like the Kerbango Internet radio saw an opportunity for products that tapped the power of the Internet for a single purpose. Some predicted that the industry was poised for rapid and dramatic growth.

Unfortunately, the products ended up being either too limited or far slower than a PC and nearly as costly, and the category disappeared as quickly as it had emerged.

Still, it was a nice idea. And, the funny thing is, now people are actually buying these things.

Devices like the iPad and the Kindle, along with game consoles and Net-connected televisions have shown that there is a market for both devices that are simpler than a PC as well as for products that connect to the Internet for a single purpose.

The notion that prompted the Internet appliance category--that the Web is a powerful tool and there should be many types of on-ramps--was a good one. Unfortunately for the Audrey and her sisters, the timing was all wrong.

First of all, the devices arrived while most people still used dial-up to get on the Internet and few people had a home network. That meant that such devices needed to replace, rather than augment a Web-connected PC. Also, computers were coming down in price thanks to aggressive cost-cutting by Intel and rapidly falling component prices, while the economics of trying to start a new category meant that Net appliances couldn't be sold for less than several hundred dollars.

Today, meanwhile, the Internet flourishes, connectivity abounds, and the cost of building Wi-Fi into a device means that it is possible to sell Net-connected devices for well under $200.

Although born of a completely different heritage, one of the devices that best represents the completion of the Internet appliance vision is Apple's iPad. Press a button and the device is instantly on and with one more push of a finger one is on the Web in seconds.

The Kindle, meanwhile, shows how the Internet can be used, almost invisibly, for a single purpose, such as buying and reading books.

Other devices that one might not think of as Internet appliances nonetheless can also trace their lineage to those clunky devices of old.

Game consoles like the Wii, Xbox 360, and Sony PlayStation all can take advantage of the Internet to a greater or lesser degree to allow for things like Netflix and online gaming. Net-connected televisions using widgets from Yahoo or Google's upcoming Google TV are also borrowing some of the same notions that powered early devices, including WebTV. … Read more

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--Joseph Gordon-Levitt has certainly benefited from Hollywood.

As a young actor, he made his debut in the movie "Beethoven" and had roles in "Third Rock From The Sun" and the movie "10 Things I Hate About You." More recently he starred in a leading role in "(500) Days of Summer."

But, despite being a product of Hollywood, Gordon-Levitt also thinks that there are plenty of good ideas from people with no access to traditional filmmaking technology. The good news, he says, is that today anyone with a laptop can … Read more

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--Though best known as host of "American Idol" and "American Top 40," Ryan Seacrest is also a big techie.

In between spinning songs on the radio, Seacrest is nearly always checking his BlackBerry, reading the latest tweets and e-mail from his staff. He's also a former CNET Central host and one of the handful of people that Bill Gates follows on Twitter. But the most important thing about technology, Seacrest said, is the way it allows him to have a closer relationship with his audience.

"'The amount of information [you get … Read more

Now, it's no secret that I am a Settlers of Catan enthusiast. Just ask the kind folks at TechFlash who made the mistake of letting me play in their tournament.

So I, like many devotees of the German board game have been hoping to see it make its way to Microsoft's Surface tabletop. Well, the good news is that it is indeed happening.

Enthusiasts at this week's Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio, will be the first to see Catan running on the Microsoft tabletop computer, although the game is still in development. The final version is … Read more

If there's one device I count on working, it's my television. The rest of my technology can (and often does) go to heck, but I count on the TV to be the device that works while I'm on hold with customer support for the makers of all that other tech stuff.

But, like many Americans, my TV these days is actually powered not by a basic tuner, but instead by an automatically updating computer (in my case a DirecTV HD DVR). Like other similarly equipped DirecTV customers, I awoke Tuesday to find myself with a TV that … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended his company's approach to privacy, saying it makes sense for users to have a mix of information: some that's shared narrowly and some that should be made broadly available.

"There have been misperceptions that we are trying to make all the information public," Zuckerberg said, speaking at the D: All Things Digital conference here. That said, for social networks to link people to one another, some information must necessarily be public, he said. "There's some serendipity that can only happen if you are sharing," … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--The corner of Mission and 6th Street doesn't exactly look--or smell--like a hotbed for start-ups. The sight of pawn shops and adult movie stores and the stench of urine are just a few things that make it clear gentrification hasn't made its way to this intersection.

That doesn't mean the neighborhood lacks for good ideas, however. Indeed, one of the buildings on the block has become a top destination for socially oriented entrepreneurs bringing technology to the developing world. Mission Social, as the space is now known, is home to a total of eight organizations--with some room to grow.

Originally, the spot housed just Inveneo--a 4-year-old company that focuses on bringing broadband networks and computer connectivity to groups in emerging markets, particularly rural areas. However, when the company was looking to grow, its CEO Kristin Peterson decided to take the entire floor and open it up to smaller social enterprises willing to pay about $2 a square foot.

"It's really designed to be a space where there is a lot of opportunity for collaborations and a lot of like-minded organizations," she said.

So far the inhabitants of Mission Social range from Meedan, which creates crowd-sourced Arabic/English translations, to Blue Energy, which uses a combination of wind and solar energy to try to bring power to isolated areas of Latin America, mainly Nicaragua.

Other tenants include Web video start-up JustgoodTV; SparkSeed, a group that invests in ideas created by college students; and Green WiFi, which aims to equip schools in Africa with solar-powered wireless networks.

The result is that the space, which once housed a single upstart company, is now a center for a number of different ventures, united by the fact that each is made up of technically minded people looking to use their know-how to improve conditions in the developing world.

The idea of something akin to a "social Silicon Valley" isn't unique to Inveneo. Brazilian Journalist Gilberto Dimenstein had a similar idea, transforming a once-drug-filled neighborhood in Sao Paulo into a learning community filled with small entrepreneurs and educational institutions.

One of the first companies to move in with Inveneo was Catapult Design, a firm that focuses on designing products for emerging markets. The company's previous spot was in the city's hipper Dogpatch neighborhood in a space shared with other design firms, but founder Tyler Valiquette says he'd rather share space with those of a common mind than those that share a trade.

Valiquette admits he misses a few of the creature comforts and the tonier neighborhood.

"6th street is pretty rough," Valiquette said.

Valiquette's previous spot was an old canning company space that had been tricked out with stainless steel appliances and granite countertops by a dot-com start-up that eventually went bust.

"This place has a little bit more of the 'rough and ready' feel to it," he said of Mission Social. Plus, his old spot had a machine shop he shared with fellow tenants.

Still, Valiquette said, he values the camaraderie and common purpose over comfort as he designs products that range from LED lighting projects for Africa to small-scale wind turbines to stoves that reduce indoor air pollution.

That sense of fellowship is what the inhabitants of Mission Social say they value most.

As one of just two San Francisco-based employees of Digital Divide Data, Kathryn Doyle had been working from her kitchen table until she and her colleague moved into Mission Social.

"The idea of a shared workspace really appealed to us," she said, noting that both she and her colleague travel a lot, making a traditional space both impractical and expensive.

She also said being in Mission Social is personally gratifying.

"What we do can be really hard to explain," she said of Digital Divide Data, which aims to get businesses to outsource work such as book digitization to young adults in Cambodia and Laos who then go to college part-time and train for better paying jobs. "We are working with an intangible product that most people haven't heard of in lots of different countries that people can't point to on a map."

Doyle said her fellow tenants can appreciate--and even potentially help solve--challenges such as not being able to have enough electricity to do their work.

While most of the connections between tenants are informal bonds rather than business ties, there have been some more tangible collaborations. … Read more