I just saw this today: http://www.unwiredview.com/2007/02/26/sharp-vga-touchscreenfingerprint-reader/#more-372

The screen will be used in cellphones and will add touchscreen and biometric sensor functions to them.

For more details:

http://www.unwiredview.com/2006/12/19/samsung-sch-v960-optical-joystick-phone-how-does-it-work/

Clever image processing algorithms allows to detect not only the placement of the finger but also the angle at which the finger is placed. Thus just by leaning the finger in particular direction you can make the cursor go there. Just like with a joystick or pointing stick.

Just saw this fly by. Thought you might be interested… == Graphical Toolkits for OS X: wxPython == http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2007/04/24/graphical-toolkits-for-apples-os-x-wxpython.html (from O'Reilly Network Articles) In this new MacDC series, Jeremiah Foster presents an overview of graphical toolkits for Apple's OS X. This first article looks at wxPython, including installation instructions and breaking down some sample code. If you've been wanting to use your Python programming skills to develop for OS X, you'll want to learn about wxPython.

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http://www.walkerscarbonfootprint.co.uk/walkers_carbon_footprint.html

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If you're ever in Sellwood on a Saturday afternoon – lunch at the Adobe Rose is really good. We had a salmon taco special and flautas. They also have margaritas that come in pint glasses, on the rocks. That was the main reason *we* went there, but I imagine the food would taste just as good without the tequila.

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== Five favorite podcasts == http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/103701733/five_favorite_podcas.html (from Boing Boing) Mark Frauenfelder: Here, in no particular order, are five of my favorite podcasts. Radio Oh La La MacBreak Weekly Kasper Hauser Comedy Podcast The Sound of Young America Moldawer in the Morning

you probably already heard the details about this one, but this writeup was pretty funny anyway. == Alaska and Dell team on $38bn bungle == http://go.theregister.com/feed/http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/21/alaskan_billion_dollar_wipe/ (from The Register) When storage specialists attack A database service call went rather awry when a network specialist accidentally wiped a hard-drive containing Alaska's $38bn Oil Fund. The multi-billion-dollar boner was performed under the watchful eyes of a Dell storage specialist working on a remote desktop session, a report obtained today by The Register has revealed.…

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Very interesting for history classes: http://www.davidrumsey.com/

New – Rumsey Historical Maps are in Google Earth! See 16 historical maps in the Featured Content layer of the Google Earth 3D Globe. The georeferenced maps wrap the virtual globe in their modern spaces, allowing explorations of both time and space. Read more.

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http://www.foldschool.com/_objects/objects_rocker/objects_rocker.html

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I spent most of yesterday walking around with Scott. We walked to the max and took it all the way to the Zoo. We stopped at PGE park, though for some bento. There is a trail, called the Wildwood, that goes from the Zoo down to the Japanese Garden. It was muddy, and there were quite a few people out. After an hour or so in the garden, we took a bus back down to the max, stopped off at the Bike Gallery, and then caught a movie at the Fox Tower. It was _letters from iwo jima_. I hadn't heard much about it, other than it was the counterpart to _flags of our fathers_. Wow, it was really good.

“That's What We're Here For” Sunday, 9:50 AM by Mark Graban My main point here I think is “Tech Support should NOT be part of the normal process.” I needed to register for an internal company tech support website (for teleconference support) and was trying to log in to the website. I have a card here with the following info: Owner Name Owner Number Conference Code Leader PIN To log in to the website, it asks for “Owner Name” and “Password.” Since nothing I has says “Password” I tried the “Leader PIN.” Didn't work. It says “If you are visiting here for the first time, click on forgot password.” The “forgot password” screen wouldn't recognize me as a valid user, so it was time to call tech support. Turns out, tech support had to give me a 4-digit “Web PIN” to be able to start the registration process. I went to another screen and created a “User Name” and “Password.” I got kicked back to the main screen, the place that says “Owner Name” wants you to enter the “User Name” or it doesn't work (these are two different things). I said to the tech support rep, “You know, the website is very confusing. I'm good with computers and I couldn't figure it out because things are labeled wrong on screen and it seems every new user has to make a tech support call, which costs us all money.” The tech support rep was sort of irritated and said, “Well sir, that's what we're here for.” I told her, “It shouldn't be that way, I'm just trying to help, if you don't want to do anything to fix the website, then fine.” I can't imagine the tech support rep passing any of this along because, in a way, the poorly designed and poorly implemented website is job security for her and her co-workers. Fewer tech support calls probably means somebody loses their job. It's too bad that organization can't have everyone on the same team in a way that improves quality (and reduces cost) for the company and the customers. How many people tolerate a bad process out of self-interest and/or fear? Management's job is to create an organization where people aren't paralyzed by fear, where they aren't punished for doing the right thing. Please check out my main blog page at http://www.leanblog.org Check out the new LeanBlog Podcast at http://www.leanpodcast.org

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