On being embarrassed
If you write for a living, expressing your opinion and making forecasts, you can be expected to make a few mistakes. When that happens, it can be embarrassing. In the extreme it can be damaging ...
Help, I’m shrinking . . .
If the markets we serve continue to consolidate I may have to go to work for a living—gack! What company would have me? I’m old, cranky, have an inflated opinion of my worth, and I’m ...
NAB exerts a mysterious pull
Companies need a venue—they are hungry for a place to speak I remember the party we had in 2001, the “Thank god we don’t have to go to Comdex” party. We had it several times ...
Balls for boomers
I went to the doctor the other day, to see about a persistent pain in my right shoulder. I told the doctor that my wife thinks it’s from lifting heavy weights (like suitcases into the ...
What do a barrel of oil and 3D have in common? They both came from dinosaurs.
That’s not technically accurate and maybe a little cruel, but it’s a great headline and not completely off the mark. The stuff that we take for granted today, mip-mapping, texture mapping, z-buffers, anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, ...
Portable media playersgeneric fashion statements?
Did you ever stop to think about all the portable media players we have? I’m not even a media freak and I have several. My phones, for example, will play MP3 tunes for me, if ...
Cebit 2006 dawns cold and gray but we came anyway
The nice warm press center at Cebit is packed with journalists testing the capability of wireless.. (Photo: Jon Peddie Research) This year Cebit and IDF fall at the same time so JPR is splitting up ...
IDF, Cebit, and GDC nextwhen do we have time to actually work?
The road goes on forever and the party never ends The party never ends at Cebit. (Photo: JPR) I can’t stand too much more fun. That’s all this is, y’know, fun, fun, fun, ’til daddy ...
Barcelona does everything on a grand scale
3GSM, the gathering of the mobile phone industry in Europe, opened with sunshine and big ambitions. The town is booked solid with big-shot executives begging for reservations for the hot restaurants on Valentine’s Day like ...
Why do we go to these shows?
To read the press and speak with industry leaders you’d think the whole world revolved around trade shows. They plan product launches, special events, and announcements, and even small stage shows for them. To give ...
I’m being well trained – I’ve learned to be scared by my own shadow
This last week I’ve been playing “F.E.A.R.,” a Sierra game, and so far (I’m about three-fourths of the way through it) it lives up to its name. More than once I’ve had the hair stand ...
Economic SARrowS
A software bug is an expensive mistake that can cost a company developing the software and/or its users hundreds of thousands of dollars to remedy. That’s nothing in light of the worldwide economic costs of ...