In 1976, the first Apple was built in a simple wooden box. How fitting then, that 21 years later an OEM manufacturer for Apple is building a laptop in a bamboo casing.

Dubbed the Asus Eco Book, it is encased in laminated bamboo strips available in an assortment of shades. Bamboo is touted as eco-friendly because it is an abundant, flexible, fast-growing grass. It is less likely to harm the earth to process it than compared to trees, although glues might contain toxins. The laptop is still in the prototype stage and will face testing on how it faces heat and drops. Asustek had an earlier experiment using leather. They had a laptop that hit the market with a line that catered to high-end users with calf leather-bound notebooks and faux alligator-skin models. Asustek found success with the line and decided to experiment with other materials.

Asus makes some pretty sleek laptops I must say. The U1F is a laptop I wouldn’t mind owning myself. There’s still time to send me one before x-mas. )

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Google launched Google Gears today. Per their website,

” Google Gears (BETA) is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using following JavaScript APIs:

So you may be wondering what does this mean? Take Google Spreadsheets for example. Right now it is annoying if you are offline. When you are online editing your sheets, you need to remember to export it to a physical file on your machine so you can continue working on it. When you are online you have to upload it again. Google doesn’t know that it is the same doc or a new one. How nice would it be to simply open your sheet, work on it, synch online (if you are online) or keep it offline when you are offline? Tremendously easier and transparent.

This is big. This is another shot across the bow of Microsoft. The code is expected to be under 1MB!

The software itself has three components–a local Web server which runs in the browser, the open-source database SQLite for storage, and browser extensions that will allow multiple JavaScript jobs to run in parallel.

No doubt this is going to lead to new startups around this technology. Bad news yet again for Microsoft. The entire Office Suite is under attack. I use activeCollab, an open-source project management tool that is web-based. The biggest downside is I have to be online or have the entire thing running on my laptop. If someone took the software and extended it to a web/desktop model I would be tremendously happy.

Related Posts:

Some activeCollab Style

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Having multiple monitors can become confusing if you have only 1 taskbar. The stock Windows setup will show 1 taskbar on one or both monitors. This makes it hard to know which monitor your application window is displayed on. The solution is to have a multi-taskbar software app installed. I recommend Multimon.

Monitor 1: Only apps running on that monitor show up in its own taskbar

Monitor 2: Only apps running on monitor 2 show up in its own taskbar

From the authors site:

“What it does:

• It adds second taskbar to the extended desktop on Monitor 2 (either right or left)
• It can add third taskbar to the second Extended monitor if you have 3 monitors setup.
• It shows only applications from that Monitor
• It hides the applications on Monitor 2 from normal Windows Taskbar
• Adds a Move to Monitor button to all windows applications.
• Add Text Clipboard Extender (new 1.1.)”

Best of all it’s free!

Now that our taskbars are tidied up our next order of business is to be able to reorient our desktop from landscape to portrait and vice versa. The software iRotate will achieve this goal. No it is not some fancy white Apple product. iRotate will allow you to change the orientation of your screen from landscape to portrait. Portrait is quite useful for editing documents for example. You can’t just physically rotate your screen and have your screen reorient itself. You need some software to do so. Windows doesn’t do it out of the box.

You may not control the world, but you can at least now you can control your desktop.

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“If you look at this office, there isn’t much paper in it. On my desk I have three screens, synchronized to form a single desktop. I can drag items from one screen to the next. Once you have that large display area, you’ll never go back, because it has a direct impact on productivity. ” -How I Work: Bill Gates

It is common knowledge that multi-monitor setups are standard fair at Microsoft and Google.

Comparing is Easier

Comparing data becomes easier when you have two monitors. There are many situations when you will need to compare two spreadsheets, documents, websites, etc. Before I had a dual monitor setup on my computer I would have to switch windows over and over again sometimes getting lost in the process. Multiple monitors made it much easier than using alt-tab to switch back and forth between documents. By utilizing the dual monitor setup for comparing I saved tremendous time.

Programming is Faster

Programmers can work faster with two monitors. Code on one monitor. Display the output on another. For web designers this is especially true. This makes it really easy to make changes and test them quickly to see the results.

More Desktop/More multi-tasking

You can start multiple projects easier. For example say I start budgeting on one screen for one project. On the other monitor I may do say budgeting for my new car. ) You get the drift. When I have time I can switch between.

How to Setup Dual Monitors

The first thing you will need is a video card that will support two monitors or two separate video cards so that one monitor can be plugged into each one. I recommend using a card that supports two monitors on it’s own to save slots in your PC. There are many inexpensive cards out there.

Next, you will need two monitors. Using two monitors that are the same brand and model is recommended so that the colors, brightness, and contrast match on both monitors. I would also recommend using two flat panel monitors will use less electricity and usually have a smaller bezel which makes it easier to place them close together. Flat panel monitors are easier on the eyes too because they don’t have as much flicker as CRTs. Once you go LCD you won’t go back. The other advantage is you’ll save deskspace.

Now, once you have both monitors hooked up to the computer there are a few different options to choose from.

You can setup your monitors so they both display the same thing. The way that most people set it up is to have your desktop span both monitors. This allows you to run a program and drag it to the other monitor as if it was one monitor, thus the term span.

Cost?

I mentioned that having a dual-monitor setup is cost-effective. Larger monitors are more expensive. Setting up a dual 17” monitor setup is equivalent to one 20” monitor. A dual 19” setup is the equivalent of one 30” monitor. The prices in the graphic are out-dated, but the principal holds true. 2 smaller monitors are much cheaper than one large monitor.

Conclusion

Using a dual monitor setup is a cost-effective way to increase your productivity. Once you use this, you’ll never be able to go back to a single monitor again (unless its huge).

I myself am going to be upgrading soon. I’m in a bit of analysis paralysis right now trying to choose between getting a 20.1″ with a 17″ wing. I’m going to eventually be using a 3 monitor setup – 1 widescreen 20″ with 2 17″ monitors in portrait mode.

Below is my target setup.

*Update: The price of the above system with the monitor stand is roughly $980 with shipping, Samsung LCD panels, and the stand.

$300 Center 20″ Widescreen Samsung 206BW

$180 Left 17″ Samsung 720N

$280 Right 17″ Samsung 720N

$220 MoView triple monitor stand

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$980 Total <– This is why I’m starting with the center screen then adding on later. The stand is the big ouch factor. To save you could just get 3-19″ regular aspects for roughly $550 and line them up with a single stand.

If anyone knows a good source for multiple-monitor stands please leave a comment or email me. I know a few people including myself that are interested. I know where to get good pricing on panels – tigerdirect.com or dell.com, but don’t have any good source for the stands (read cheap).

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Can you guess which one is Apache/Linux and which picture is IIS/Windows?

Click on the pictures to the left for a larger view.

Hint: Apache/Linux is the cleaner/fewer system call picture.

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“The company boldly claims that its system, a kind of battery-ultracapacitor hybrid based on barium-titanate powders, will dramatically outperform the best lithium-ion batteries on the market in terms of energy density, price, charge time, and safety. Pound for pound, it will also pack 10 times the punch of lead-acid batteries at half the cost and without the need for toxic materials or chemicals, according to the company.”

Silicon Valley venture firm, Kleiner Perkins, has apparently invested in $3 million in EEStor Inc., the start-up from Austin, TX. Here are a few highlights of the battery:

• Its a ceramic powder coated with aluminum oxide and glass battery capacitor so there are no chemicals. This makes it extremely safe and clean
• Estimated Range – 500 miles
• Fully charge in 5 minutes
• weighs 400 pounds – 10 times the energy density of a lead-acid battery
• Out performs lithium-ion batteries in power output (better pedal to the metal)

This is awesome. American ingenuity at its best. This has great implications globally to many industries, not just the automotive. Imagine your laptop battery lasting 25x longer and cheaper at the same time. This is an economic and technologic breakthrough with some big and smart money behind it.

Read the full article at Technology Review.

Also check out this nice article from Treehugger.com.

Looks like it is a Kleiner Perkins investment according to Businessweek.com

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Interesting when there are so many dot-com bombs that created millionaires. It is amusing to see what happened to this gang at a company that had such a profound impact on the technology world.

On a side-note, their barbers did not become millionaires.

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