RouseWorld | Wayward Packet

For the Week of 2/3/02

Everything and the
Kitchen Sync:
A Rant

(RouseWorld Labs) — I'm the sometimes proud owner of three electronic gadgets — a Motorola StarTac, an Apple PowerBook and a Palm handheld. All three have directory stores, little built-in databases of information. The StarTac's directory keeps names and phone numbers, the Palm's stores that and street/email/web addresses, the PowerBook's stores all that and little photos of everyone (should you want that). Amazingly, the format of the stored information is nearly the same in each device — they all can understand a variant of LDIF/vCard.

Naturally, none of these directories talk to the other.

What I want is the ability to automatically syncronize data across all my gadgets. What I get is a half-day spent running through lists on each directory making sure that the information on each device is correct.

Sure, the Palm Desktop software for the Macintosh is a nice PIM, but it isn't the OS's standard directory — that job belongs to the Address Book application, and every well behaving OS X application that needs a local directory service should use it. A positive example is Smith Micro's FAXstf ™ X, this third-party faxing application uses the Address Book instead of creating its own fax number directory.

In Palm's defence, they do try. The new Palm Desktop can export information in the LDIF/vCard format. Sadly, the format is a little different than what Address Book expects. The result is that I can drag items from Address Book to Palm Desktop, but not the other way round.

But even if the export/import formats were different you would still expect to be able to use the Macintosh standard for automating transactions between applications — AppleScript. It shouldn't take a too complicated script to sync the two applications, especially if Address Book time-stamps changes to entries. Sadly, the Address Book isn't scriptable, a lapse I hope Apple will fix Real Soon Now.

Last but not least is the StarTac. Editing its directory is a real pain, given the small screen and limited keyboard — this is a gadget that cries out to be synced with something with a real user interface, like the PowerBook. The StarTac is capable of syncing with another device, but Motorola has made it very difficult to create software to make the syncing happen. I know of just one effort to build an application that can talk to the StarTac, and it hasn't seen any development since 2000.

All I ask is that our electronic gadgets learn to cooperate better and to give us a little more choice. I should be able to choose my central store of directory information (and calendar information!) and have all my devices that need a directory store use what I have chosen.

Is it really so much to ask?

For the Week of 2/18/02

I've got a vision of
The Future

(RouseWorld Labs) — They (and you know how they can be) are trying to make a microchip that would cost (hopefully) a nickle or less that could be put on every packaged good sold in America. The chips would start signaling when placed near a special transmitter and would contain a code that could, theoretically, uniquely identify every can of peas sold in America. How cool is that? First off, goodbye shoplifting. You could stuff crap all down you pants and in your coat and still be billed for every can of tuna you walk out of the store with. But there's lots more that could be done with those chips.

Imagine a smart guy making arrangements with a lot of cities and putting those transmitters in every recycling bin and trash roll-out. The city gets to know who's actually recycling what they should and the companies get to know stuff like how long do people hold on to Mac-and-Cheese before they actually use it. Well, those kinds of statistics and maybe a few other details.

Let's say that you live in Colorado and every year in late February or early March you buy a bunch of groceries. But these groceries aren't thrown away in Denver, they are thrown away in California — at, they find, your cousin's house. Checking with your cousin's records they find that you guys watch a lot of basketball during that time. And they know you own a crappy old Passat and you don't fly to California. Hmmm...

So next year in early February, not only do you get coupons for stuff that would be a bit of an upgrade over the crap you buy every year to go to your cousin's, but you get deals on car rentals, airline tickets and maybe even fear of flying counseling (since really you can afford to fly). Your cousin, meanwhile, gets talked into getting that new wide screen and maybe some patio furniture.

The question, of course, is this cool or just really creepy?