This is sad news. I love Crichton's books. Jurassic Park was magical for me when I read it in high school, and it remains the only book I have ever read twice because I wanted to relive the experience. His other books always included the right amount of science and wonder, coupled with a great story that hooked me from start to finish, and I loved that I always learned something as I read his work. He made science fun and accessible to millions of readers and tackled subjects ahead of their time, bringing them to the forefront for scientists working in various fields. Every teenager should read his books. At the very least, it might get just a few more people interested in careers in science.

I'm going to buy every book he's ever written (that I haven't already read) and make it a point to read them all over the next year.
He was 66, a medical doctor and author, and died after a private battle with cancer.

I've been seriously considering the purchase of a 9-inch Eee PC for one primary reason: it's small. Right now, I have 12-inch iBook that I purchased in 2005. I love the look and feel of the notebook, although it could be a little thinner and weigh a little less. It's not in my budget right now to get a new notebook computer from Apple, and I have a Mac Pro that I purchased in 2007 for any tasks that require serious computing power. I only need a small notebook, and an Eee PC running Linux appeals to me.

I can sort of justify the purchase of the Eee PC. I need to buy a new battery for my iBook, and that's going to cost $130. The cost of the Eee PC is only $300, so the net cost, if I don't get the iBook battery is only $170. Note that you have to assume that I will never use the iBook again, which is highly unlikely, making the purchase of the replacement battery necessary anyway, if only a few months from now when keeping it plugged in all the time annoys me enough (it already does). Okay, so my argument here is a little thin.

I've decided, for now, to hold off on the purchase of the $300 Eee PC, and instead carry less. The biggest problem that I have with carrying a portable computer is the fact that I have an over-the-shoulder bag that carries everything I could possibly need. For one thing, the bag itself is too large. For another, I'm not sure I need to carry two external hard drives, regardless of how small they are. There are other miscellaneous things in the bag that have not seen the light of day in about a year. I simply don't use everything I carry with me.

I have a single-strap backpack-style notebook bag that I replaced pretty early on because it did not allow me to carry everything I thought I needed at the time. I dug this bag out of the closet tonight and decided to reorganize my portable computing equipment, eliminating everything I don't really need to have with me while on-the-go. I've managed to pack the essentials, I think: the iBook, its power block, an ultra-slim 30 GB external drive, some cables, a small mouse, a USB-based Bluetooth adapter, an SD/MMC/MemoryStick combo reader, and my USB-based Sprint mobile broadband card.

Maybe I'll never buy an Eee PC, and the time will soon come, within the next 12-months, when I'll purchase a MacBook Pro from Apple instead. I'm still not totally certain that the only reason I wanted an Eee PC was to lighten my load. I think a good part of me also wanted a new notebook running Linux to play with, and I can hold off on that for now, even if the price tag of $300 is so cheap it feels like a steal.

Since I started using iBlogger on my iPhone, I've begun to warm to the idea of using a desktop application for publishing new blog entries. I knew that the developer of iBlogger, illumineX, had a desktop app designed to do this, so I've decided to give it a try. This is the first blog entry using their product: ecto.

To be honest, I like the complete control over HTML and CSS that publishing via Drupal's Web interface gives me, but iBlogger is great for posting to my blog while on the road, or away from a computer, and ecto seems like a great option when I need to make a quick entry, include a few pictures, and move on. It also seems to give me enough control over the CSS of images I add to posts, so it's not without semi-advanced features. It also includes an HTML editor, for those times when the WYSIWYG editor may fall short.

But to say that ecto is just a simple blogging tool doesn't really do it much justice. The software has a plugin architecture that increases both its features and usefulness. Adding images, sound, and video is easy, but ecto's additional plugins integrate the application with Flickr, Amazon, Twitter, and iTunes. And, if you really want to get creative, scripting support is included as well.

As with iBlogger, one of the impressive features is ecto's ability to quickly gather two or three pieces of information about my blog (which is running on the Drupal CMS) and configure itself with minimal additional input from me. Settings are a pain, so any time an application does it for me, it quickly wins my affection.

Between iBlogger and ecto, I think I have found two easy ways to publish new content, whether on the road or in front of my computer, with minimal time investment and maximum ease.

Apple's App Store, which allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to purchase, download, and install applications, makes it super-easy to get new apps for my iPhone. In fact, now that the "long backups" and "long installs" issues have been resolved in firmware 2.1, installing apps on my iPhone is a pleasure.

It's gotten to the point where I have established a new rule: In most cases, one app must be deleted before a new app is installed. My iPhone's springboard (the set of screens that displays all the icons for the apps installed) is getting full. I have too many apps!

Apple has truly created an amazing vehicle for application delivery with the app store. Impulse-buying, at least for me, is far too easy. I'll just have to police myself a little better, I suppose.

This is a test post from the iBlogger app on my iPhone. I'm posting to a Drupal blog, and it supports adding categories, free-form tags, links, images (one per entry), and even a link to a map of my current location.

The software supports many other blogging platforms as well, but my interest was in using it on a Drupal site, and it certainly doesn't disappoint. The fact that it grabbed all my categories (taxonomy, in Drupal terms), and every previous blog entry, as soon as I added my blog was a huge "wow" moment for me. Being able to position images at the top, left, or right of the text is also great!

Previously, if I wanted to blog on my iPhone, I had to send the post to a special email address at my domain, and Drupal would go get it and post it to my blog. If I wanted to include a picture, I had to send it to a special Flickr email address instead, and Flickr would post it for me. Too much to remember! I actually have a note saved on my iPhone that tells me which method to use depending on whether or not an image upload was necessary!

iBlogger costs $9.99 and is available on the App Store right now. I haven't tested it with any other blogging platform, but I can say that it's great for Drupal blogs.

This is a link, obviously...

Sometimes, it is necessary to go back and listen to those who came before us in order to get an idea about where we are, where we are going, and how far we have come.

United States President Dwight David Eisenhower said:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."
- April 16, 1953

The above excerpt comes from a speech given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors as Eisenhower was running for the office of President of the United States.

The human race has come far since Eisenhower delivered that speech, but have we come far enough, and have we focused on what really matters in this world?

Via American Chronicle, May 06, 2008

Apple released iPhone firmware version 2.1, the third update to the iPhone 2.0 software, this past Friday. I updated my iPhone in the afternoon, and hoped for the best. I was not disappointed.

Spore, the new game from Maxis where players can create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe created by other gamers, is due to be released today. According to Spore Illustrated, it will be released in about nine hours (10:00 AM Eastern Time US).

Last week, I purchased Twittelator Pro, the mobile Twitter app for iPhone, from Apple's App Store. There were several features that Twitteriffic and Twinkle simply did not have, and I figured that the $4.99 price tag was worth the risk. Since then, I have not used either Twitteriffic or Twinkle once.

I just found this today, linked from an Apple discussion in which I've been participating regarding extremely long iPhone backup times. The discussion title is "Backup of iPhone takes around 2 hours!", but the timelapse video below shows that one user would be happy with a two-hour backup.