This would qualify as one of the most anticipated product releases for many a year - yet it has hit the streets with nary a word. I sort of stumbled onto it through an article within an article; it was kind of an afterthought really. Samsung's new FlashSSD drives are really pretty amazing. Lighter and faster than conventional drives they are likely to be the front runner to the next big innovation in computing. This will enable machines to get smaller, battery life to get longer and, hopefully, boot times to become dramatically shorter.

The comparison chart on their site says it all, and I would expect things to only get better. Okay, that's kind of a bonehead statement - duh! Naturally they will evolve and get better... well unless your XP getting replaced, then unreplaced by Vista that is.

I am excited that they are finally starting to make drives for computers out of Flash memory now. Hard disks are the most common point of failure, and one of the most fragile components of any device that employs a spinning disk for storage and function, so this should only lend itself to increase reliability and decrease load times of both laptops and desktops. I would probably only opt for a 60 gb or 80 gb (which are not offered yet, only 16 gb and 64 gb models are available) model for my boot drive, then go back to SATA drives for everything else. Unless I start to shoot and edit a ton of video, there isn't a need for it really. It would be ideal for backing up data though, and that's probably going to be the biggest market segment to benefit from the emerging technology. No more tapes, optical discs or huge SAN arrays that suck up power like a Ferrari sucks up gas.

We were all sitting around the other day after getting all fat and happy on some very excellent turkey, and Paul whipped out on a documentary type show with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman called Long Way Round.

The deal is, they hopped on 2 BMW motorcycles, had only another camera man following them, and the decided to ride those bikes all the way around the planet. It's a great show, and it was surprisingly riveting. I was a little skeptical just simply because anytime you get a huge star involved it has the chance to go so far to the left that I just simply gets ridiculous; fast. This was exactly the opposite though. Ewan and Charley were reduced to normal men on a really long journey that turned out to be insanely hard at times. Traveling by motorcycle through Mongolia; not something I would recommend unless you know how to ride a bike - great googily moogily! They were in the dirt just as much as they were on their wheels.

It must be a genetic amle thing, but we were just talking about doing this too the other night. I would have to.... oh, I don't know...learn how to ride a bike first, or would it be buy one first? I dunno. But I have never have ridden a bike for more than 2 seconds, so it would take a few classes and some major prep in order to get me comfortable on it. I mean, it can't be that much different from road ridding or mountain biking right? I have raced and ridden bicycles for about 20 years, so I think I could figure out how to handle it, but I'm not that naive, a motorcycle is a lot different than even the nicest mountain bike.

It's a intriguing idea, and it would most certainly be fun. So if you want to get sucked in to this show too, see if you can find the re-runs, get the DVD, and don't forget to donate to Unicef.

I can remember when I was working with a small Interactive Agency; back in the day; the thing that really set us apart from others - besides the fact that no one was doing what we were at the time - was the fact that the smallest details were always a big deal and didn't get over looked because of the lack of enormity of it. There was an enormous pride in ownership, accomplishment and the fact that details were important; so important in fact I would literally at time lose sleep over some mundane little thing that I forgot to finish or put in at the end of the day, even though I could still add it tomorrow. I am finding more and more that this trait amongst developers is a trait with one foot in the grave.

It's easy to spot. Take a look around and see how many sites don't have a site map, or buttons with no rollover effect or buttons where the mouse doesn't change and you have literally no visual clues that the thing you are currently about to click is a button at all. This particular offense is commonly a co-conspirator in Mystery Meat Navigation, and has become so pervasive that there is an entry in Wikipedia dedicated to it. More tragically, it is simply another symptom in the growing infection of poor design, and inadequate development tactics employed by those who would be called professionals. This disease isn't limited to one-man shows, big firms, little guys, corporate design teams or students - it's all inclusive and strikes without warning afflicting unsuspecting clients. Look at the Flash site for the new Movie Fred Claus, this is a decently designed site typically thin on content and lacking any impressive Flash work, but I want to illustrate here is that when I searched for it in Google, the description text I was immediately shown was horrid.

Please upgrade to Flash Player 8 or higher.

The team which developed the site had the good sense to use SWF Object, but unfortunately they implemented it poorly. By its very nature SWF Object was designed to allow the developer(s) to be able to introduce alternate content for viewers who didn't have Flash, the correct version or disabled Flash altogether, so they could still experience the site. To have only a single line of text stating to please upgrade is so... 5 years ago. Why even bother to use anything but the good ol' embed tag if you're not going to provide alternate content? Other sites are just as bad if not worse; another site went so far as to place the text requires Macromedia Flash in the title of the page. You have to design and develop for the client and the visitors.

I focus on Flash here simply because for whatever reason, Flash is still the whipping boy for what people perceive to be wrong with the web. There are several higher profile experts, who still like to take potshots at Flash whenever they seem to find time to pop up onto their soap box, and quite honestly it has nothing to do with Flash as a tool, instead these deficiencies fall plainly in the lap of the developer. In fact, developers and designers have been creating poorly designed and shoddily developed websites since day one - but it doesn't make for good SEO, or higher page views to pick on that.

I still reside firmly planted in the if it's worth doing; it's worth doing right camp, and take pride in trying to cover the details which other folks won't likely consciously recognize; and honestly, that's the way it should be. The design and development should just - seem right. Believing this, and achieving this are two entirely different things however, and I recognize that nothing is ever perfect, and there are many out there who believe done is better than perfect. There are times when this is true, and others when it is not, but the point remains that having no alternate content at all for your flash site simply means that it is neither done, nor perfect.

The Toto Washlet

I am quite sure you can deduce what the Washlet is by the picture, and if that isn't enough... read the title again. Got it? Good. It's a bidet. I am quite sure you have probably never used one, and if you have they probably seem like the strangest thing ever. I ran across this picture through explore on Flickr tonight and had to check the link to the washlet site, it said it would make me smile and it did. I mean, what's not too like?

The Washlet site is awesome. In fact, it's probably one of the best sites I have seen. It's simple, clear and very usable; and quite easily one of the best uses of Flash and Flash video I have seen. Ever. It's an excellent example of a website that is developed precisely considering what the purpose of the site serves, what information needs to conveyed, and carefully considered implementation, it illustrates the best way to get that information to the user in a way that everyone will be able to relate to and understand.

I don't know if it's enough to make me run out and try it, then buy it - but it's a nice site. I just can't see me letting my kids anywhere near this thing. It would wind up being a bathroom sprinkler....

Two now have fallen in my quest to find a good solution for folder syncing my systems. FolderShare flat out stopped working on my Mac today, it won't even open after an update, so I think it's off the table altogether since it doesn't work with Vista well either. This effectively cuts out half of the reason I wanted to sync these folders in the first place, so without these two systems being supported there's no reason to continue to use it.

After this debacle, I tried to install and run SyncBack and it really hosed something up with Kaspersky anti-virus; which basically prevented it from running at all - so I uninstalled it before I even had a chance to use it. If a program can't be bothered to play nice with my existing software than it gets the boot. C-ya!

I'm still kinda bummed about FolderShare though, I think I will reinstall it on the mac and keep it around for a bit. Having it work cross-platform would be a great thing; if it works.

I will be getting my hands on a copy of ThinkDesk and give it a whirl too. I have been sick this last week so i am still a bit off my game, so it may take me a while to get back up to my usual speed....