A couple weeks ago, Marc Canter wrote a entry outlining the constructs of people, services and content. These are the central pillars around which collaboration software is structured.
Content, as a concept, encompasses a wide area. It could be a newspaper article, a radio program, a TV show, a spreadsheet or presentation. Creating and managing content has been one of the primary purposes of computers, ever since they came into existence.
With the rise of the Internet, and particularly social networking, there has been a renewed focus on people and the role they play in a system. Proper emphasis on individuals and groups makes collaboration more efficient.
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Rake has become a critical component of my development toolchain. So much so that I have developed extensions, such as Chrysalis, to assist with common aspects of the build cycle.
However, due to time constraints, Chrysalis does not support the latest version of Rake (currently 0.8.3). The 0.8 branch reworked some of the internals, and Chrysalis was developed against 0.7.3. As such, I often need to quickly switch between multiple versions of Rake.
Thankfully, the executable RubyGems places in the bin directory makes this easy. I had long been curious how this works, so I took the time to figure it out.
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John Doerr a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has written an article on Scientific American in which he suggests:
America is confronting three interrelated crises: an economic crisis, a climate crisis and an energy security crisis. The country’s best response to all three is a bold, coordinated campaign of investment and incentives to accelerate green innovation. Doing so will ensure that the U.S. becomes the worldwide winner in the next great global industry: green technologies.
After briefly summarizing the initiatives being undertaken by three companies that his venture capital firm has invested in, he notes:
Notice the trend. Two of these ventures came from outside the U.S. Of today’s top 30 solar, wind and advanced battery companies, American firms hold only six spots. That should worry us. In the race to save the planet, we are not winning.
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One of my priorities when setting up my new MacBook Pro was to allow VPN access into my home network. When I’m working in a cafe, it is occasionally handy to access files or data on a system at my apartment.
VPNs are notoriosly difficult to configure and maintain, and I wanted something that would eliminate most of these hassles. As such, I decided to use VPN Tracker from equinux to connect to my Linksys BEFVP41.
It’s not how I envision the ideal scenario, and it requires some geek-cred to set up, but it does work.
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Approximately one month ago, I received my new MacBook Pro and began the process of setting it up and configuring its software. One of the first things I did was use the discounted MobileMe activation key to renew my subscription.
Perhaps it was the clean, new sheen of the display, but I was struck by how even this simple process has received Apple’s design polish and refinement. I took a couple screen shots to document the process, which I include here along with my notes.
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