I recently needed to create a web service to provide coastal tidal predictions, i.e., the low tide and high tide times for a given day at a given location. The Web Service I decided to forego a traditional “web service” and provide a calendar feed (using iCalendar data format) instead. This approach allows devices such as an iPod Touch (or iPhone), as well as most internet-aware calendar programs, to grab and display the data on a calendar – perfectly appropriate for this kind of information. Internet-based...

I finally installed the Apple iPod Touch 3.0 software update and, to my surprise, my iPod has been greatly improved. I chose the word surprise because Apple has disappointed me (and the rest of the world) twice in the past, and I made the assumption they would disappoint again. You see, the iPod Touch is a nice little computer, disguised as a music player, with WiFi built-in. You would certainly expect it to be able to: Sync music with no wires Download audio and video podcasts from the internet...

The latest computer arrived today – an Asus EeePC 1005HA, the perfect Netbook Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz 2Gb RAM / 160Gb HDD / 1024x600 Wired 100BaseT / Wireless N Bluetooth 2.0 (stereo audio) Camera, SD slot, microphone $400 The Perfect Netbook The Asus EeePC 1005HA is a beautiful machine. For the same (little lower) price than Dell, Acer, HP, etc., you get the best in network screen resolution (1024x600), reasonable camera, great low-power CPU (hyper-threaded N280), super battery life (8+ hours real)...

What version of Windows 7 for Developers? It has become quite cliché to point out that owners of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition got ripped-off. True, the ultimate extras never really materialized (a poker game or two and animated wallpaper do not count), however, most software developers like myself just had to get the Ultimate Edition for seven simple reasons: We wanted Media Center, even though we did not need it We wanted DVD authoring, event though we could live without it We could not live without...

File sharing? – The desktop version of Windows can share files with up to 10 remote clients (same limit as WHS) Printer sharing? – Any version of windows can share a printer on the network; However, all of my printers are actually on the network themselves (wired and wireless) implicitly available. There is no need for “sharing” via desktop or server OS. Remote Access? – The desktop version of Windows contains a remote access client and a remote access server. You can manage security and access to...