Gavin’s Digital Diner

Her name was Jane. We met, quite unexpectedly, at Zaventem Airport in Brussels. At the Avis counter. It was such a random thing, but when I saw her I knew — no hesitation — whatever the cost, I just knew. Some things are just meant to be. With Jane, it was meant to be. Jane. I [...]

I think it was Alan Kay who once said (and I’m paraphrasing here): the personal computer won’t really be personal until you can wear it on your T-shirt. I think of that quote every time I see an IPod commercial.
I find it phenomenal how much of what defines this connected age actually is actually pretty [...]

I was recently asked to dream up all the ways these new fangled information and communications technologies can save us from the carbon-based perils of flying. Flying dumps tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Not good, that. Technology, of course, that’s the answer, or so they say (who ever they are).
The litany goes something like [...]

At the risk of being Pollyannaish, I find it pleasing when “good” things are born from “bad.” One of these “good” things caught my eye recently. It something called reCAPTCHA. Not only is it neat, it also turns a sad state of affairs on its head. It helps create a public good, a silk purse [...]

You may remember my April adventures with a beta of Microsoft’s “Windows Home Server” (AKA: WHS). WHS is a neat little consumer product. I think it also has some applicability in the NGO-SOHO space. It’s perfect, for example, for a nonprofit with fewer than ten or so people in need of automated backup and some [...]

I didn’t set out to spend my pre-Fourth of July weekend playing with Microsoft’s “Server 2008 Beta 3,” but that’s how it ended up anyway. I’d been travelling too much recently, so it was nice to spend some time at home, curled up with a warm keyboard and a cold LCD screen. My goal was [...]

Over on the NTEN blog, there’s been a discussion of charitable giving — posing the question: “Does online engagement lead to more money?” A simple question, but further down in the discussion there was an implication that online engagement generated not just “more money” for the individual organization but “more in general” — actually increasing [...]

The Gilbert Center turns ten this year — that’s a hundred in Internet years. That’s something to be proud of — few things last a hundred years, especially in turbulent times.

Michael Gilbert and the Gilbert Center graciously host this blog. I think of Michael as my somewhat eccentric publisher — and true to publisher form [...]

I’m somebody’s perfect demographic. No doubt about it. I like gadgets. My house is wired top to bottom with CAT5, and I’ve somewhere between four and eight computers, servers, PCs, various other weird devices, along with all sorts of digital appliances in various stages of construction or deconstruction. That’s not counting the two phone systems [...]

While there are lots of consumer-level products to manage digital images, photographs and the like, institutional options, it seems, are not that plentiful. Moreover, those options that do exist tend to cost a pretty penny. I don’t mean Adobe “Album” and Picassa. They’re wonderful products; I use Picassa myself. It’s great for an individual, but [...]