I really like Google Reader’s shared items. This way other people (hopefully with similar interests) filter the good stuff for free. For instance, I’ve noticed Crazy Bob shared several Chumby links. Which made me think…wtf is Chumby?

Chumby is a little clock radio that gets crap off the Internet via wifi. So I guess you are supposed to put it on the nightstand by your bed. When you wake up, you roll over and look at your Chumby. It’s fun explaining this to your Mom:

No, Mom…I didn’t say I had a “Chumby in bed”…I can’t believe we’re having this conversation. My Chumby is on the nightstand next to my bed.

When you wake up, you stay in bed for an hour to listen to the latest JavaPosse episode. OK, that seems weird to me. I never lay in bed and listen to my clock radio. The alarm goes off, I hit snooze a few times, and get up. Then again…the prospect of browsing certain kinds of craigslist ads while in bed may appeal to some people…if you’re into that sort of thing.

But wait…this article says Chumby is for your desk. That’s nice and all, but my desk already has a computer on it. A real computer with two big monitors, good speakers, a huge hard drive, and a fast wired network connection.

Using Chumby as a digital photo frame makes the most sense to me. The price is fair and they don’t charge a monthly service fee. This might make a nice gift for someone to better keep up with extended family pictures.

I dunno…I guess I’m not really sold. If accessing the Internet from a non-PC-equipped room is your goal, perhaps an iPod Touch makes more sense? At $299, the iPod is more expensive, but offers vastly better mobility. I can definitely see myself sitting on the back patio this summer with an iPod. But dragging a Chumby outside and plugging it in? That’s not nearly as convenient.

Maybe he should shave with this thing?

Check out my blog on Safari: (made possible by browsershots.org, thanks Alex!)

See the little blue “RSS” icon? That’s fascinating, because my blog does not have RSS.

Why not use the feed icon like everybody else?

Calling my Atom feed “RSS” is just plain dumb.

The Android SDK is coming on November 12. Woohoo!

See also: Schmidt

These posts from Dale are painful to read:

Part 1 - An out-of-box experience, where we learn that Leopard is *not* installed on new Macs. WTF?

Part 2 - Look, it’s a Tiger; no, it’s a paperweight; NO….., where we learn Macs have the “Blue Screen of Frustration” instead of the “Blue Screen of Death”.

Ouch.

Panic! Panic! No, wait. Let’s learn from history. I spent some time this afternoon putting together this timeline comparing Sun’s Java releases with Apple’s Java releases:

Focus on the right side of the timeline. It is perfectly clear that Apple releases major JDK updates on, or shortly after, major OS updates. I believe we will see Java SE 6 on Leopard within days or weeks.

Apple is not a slave to Sun’s JDK release schedule, nor should they be. Apple’s own operating system is its core business, and it makes perfect sense for them to schedule major JDK releases to coincide with major operating system upgrades.

Apple’s Advantage

This philosophy (keeping JDK and OS releases in sync) gives Apple a huge advantage because they have far fewer backwards compatibility issues to worry about. Each major JDK release can be optimized to take advantage of the very latest OS X features and optimizations. Windows and Linux JDKs do not have this luxury. When Sun releases new JDKs, they must support a wide variety of Windows and Linux OS releases, including 32 and 64 bit versions. The term “least common denominator” comes to mind, and not in a good way.

Striking a balance between backwards compatibility versus moving to new technology is a classic engineering trade-off. Apple chooses to move away from older technologies at a relatively fast pace, while Sun tends to be more conservative in its support of older operating system versions. Each has its pros and cons, but for now, this is what we are given.

Anyone wanting a faster JDK release cycle on OS X will have to look to someone other than Apple to give it to them.