Industry showcase at U of T

Via Greg Wilson: Check out the computer industry showcase at the University of Toronto from 4 - 6 PM on Tuesday, September 5. Confirmed attendees:

I'm looking forward to the showcase and to the pub night afterwards!

If you want your company to be part of the event, you might be able to get in touch with Greg Wilson through his blog.

By the way, gotta love the tagline for Greg's blog: "Data is zeroes and ones — software is zeroes and ones and hard work."

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I heart ultraportables!

The power adapter for my Fujitsu Lifebook P1110 gave up two days ago. With the funny way my life works, an inconvenience like that turned into a great opportunity to try out the Sony Vaio U1.

My dad used the Vaio as a wearable computer, strapping it into a customized belt bag during his aerial photo shoots so that he could preview pictures on an 8" screen. When he bought a camera with a better built-in preview, the Vaio languished on a bookshelf. The Japanese version of Microsoft Windows didn't make it easier to use, either. I installed Ubuntu on half of the disk and for a short while toyed with the idea of making it my main computer, but I found the Lifebook's size made it better to typing. Still, my parents felt I'd probably find some interesting way to use the Vaio, so I packed it in my carry-on when I moved to Canada last July.

With the Lifebook out of commission, I needed some other way to compute, and I thought I'd dust it off and try it again. Besides, I'd been meaning to use it as the VPN machine for IBM anyway, as it's the only gadget I have that still runs Microsoft Windows. ;) I spent all of yesterday just getting back up to speed and setting everything up the way I liked it.

The Sony Vaio U1 turns out to be a totally sweet ultraportable that's just perfect for reading blogs in transit and even writing a few entries along the way. My thumbs are just a little bit too short to use the keyboard as a thumbboard, but I can type with one or both hands even while walking around. The scroll wheel is well-placed, too.

It's just transformed the way I think of transit time. Now, transit time is blogging time—and I can even be more productive doing that in transit than sitting at a desk.

Now there's technology for you. =)

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Secret knocks

Now that's a cool application of technology. Seen on Slashdot: "Knock" Some Sense Into Your Linux Laptop describes how to set up Lenovo Thinkpads to respond to a series of knocks on the computer case. I'm sure someone will turn that into a totally small-scale authentication system ("What's the secret knock?") or maybe a totally hacked up drumming system... ;)

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Getting my own domain name

I want my own domain name. Can anyone recommend a relatively cheap but reliable domain name registry for .com addresses? Thanks!

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