Tao of Mac

Feb 6th 2006 · 2 min read

Post-Dinner Reading

So, here’s today’s news of interest, which won’t mention the fact that I’m dog tired, utterly annoyed (again) and that I haven’t even gotten through Monday yet.

E.T. FON Home?

But first, a word on the FON , so typical of venture capital endeavors. I’ll keep it short and simple, to get my main point across right now -

People who seriously believe a community-based service can replace a “normal” telco are just as seriously deluded.

I’ve written about this sort of thing , but here’s the longer version of the rationale against FON: No matter how much money , Skype and others pour into this sort of thing, it will still not be enough to compete on the same level of quality with standard carriers for years to come.

And yeah, I know that Martin’s goal isn’t head-on competition - he’s always thrived by riding paradigm shifts (not always successfully - I still remember Jazztel‘s plans for an Iberian fiber optics ring…), and having companies such as and Skype in the deal is likely to boost FON‘s credibility in the short term. And they get an interesting technology playground with (let’s face it) very little expenditure.

But I won’t consider them a valid enterprise until I see an annual report and shareholder stakes - those are results, no matter how many names you throw around.

The Actual News

  • Okay, VMware Server is out, and there’s nothing like going to the source to know more. My only serious gripe with GSX was that the remote administration tools couldn’t be used on a , so I’m curious to see how things work now. Update: Their registration page doesn’t work in , which isn’t an auspicious start…
  • SubEthaEdit has gone commercial (with free trial), and has a few enhancements - Here’s the changelog, here’s Martin’s post on it, and here’s Dominik’s, who writes a bit about their spanking new Bugtracker.
  • SonyEricsson finally cranked out the , which looks like the first UIQ device I’m actually interested in using (and not just because SonyEricsson also licensed ). I am not, however, looking forward to using that keyboard - I have always loathed the alternative keyboard scheme of the 7100, and it doesn’t seem like a good thing to take inspiration from. And then there’s the lack of a decent connector, and another memory card format… Ah well.
  • TiddlyWiki has been updated to 2.0.4
  • Via the spool, my spiritual guides to the darkest corners of geekness, here’s some Meaning.