intendo’s profits are down by nearly 80% so worries about Nintendo’s vocation begin to resurface. The giant game maker has high sentimental value to many, including myself. Above is a screenshot that I took weeks ago while playing the classis Mario series from Nintendo.

Returning to the dysphoric news:

Reuters Japan passes on word from Nintendo of a 78.5% reduction in operating profits for the quarter ending June 30. Speculation from the news service on the reason for the drop makes perfect sense – the GameCube doesn’t have enough exclusives, first-party and third-party, and sales of GBA SP and GameCube have been declining.

Photo from around 1984

live a regular life, but not a normal life. In other words, my schedule is regular, repeatable, yet it varies significantly from the norm. This has come to the point where eating involves using the computer simultaneously. I rarely ever concentrate my mind on eating or cooking, I just do it motorically, much like the process of brushing one’s own teeth. I have recently come to realise that when I work out, my head easily wanders elsewhere. My body carries on with the exercise so some routines appear to have become instinctive. By the end of the day, I will not have grasped the fact that I worked out at all. Why? Because my mind is pre-occupied with computers and science.

I spend many hours a day on UseNet. I consider my role in cyberspace to be that of helping people as much as I am able to. I know several individuals with an identical perception and ideaology. I assist people in my daytime job for a mere income, which allows me to get by, and I do so all night for no profit whatsoever. If a person is unable to finish an urgent project, I feel obliged to help. If a person sobs about a faulty computer, I try my best at giving valid advice over the Net. I have no interest in money and neither do I expect to accumulate any. All my satisfaction comes from the thank-you’s that I get, as well as knowing that I contribute to society at a greater or lesser extent.

Female fan: “Oh, Bill, your floppy is so long”

hen there is nothing particularly interesting to post, the typical blogger will publish a photo. Shown above is Bill Gates posing for a teen magazine in 1985. The photo below is from WikiMedia.

“When nobody else is in the room, I sometimes get jiggy with it”

udovic Drolez has just reached out for nntp://comp.sys.palmtops.pilot and informed everyone that the Linux on Palm Tungsten E Project is now a success. Put in his own words:

Great news ! Some folks have managed to boot Linux on the Palm T|E.

A screenshot is available at http://palmtelinux.sourceforge.net/

This project might be confusing to some folks. Palm are committed to build upon the Linux kernel, whereas the project mentioned above is an exploitation of Palm hardware as to obtain a pure Linux device. It is rather encouraging to know that Palm handhelds are flexible enough to adapt to different environments.

Cited by: PalmAddict

Picture from InfoWorld

rofessionals have cowardly made discouraging statements recently. They will have you believe that Palm is lagging behind. They will attempt to persuade you that the future of Palm is uncertain.

Nevertheless, based on recent statistics, it appears obvious what grabs the attention of the prospective customer. Note that the figure do not refer to ownership of handhelds, but the acquisition of new ones. One must remember that operating systems other than Palm OS and Windows CE exist.

Cited by: PalmAddict

An intriguing and exclusive article from PESN speaks of a 4-foot-diameter solar dish, which projects light onto 1000 square feet in buildings without harmful UV rays.

The system’s 48-inch primary mirror concentrates light into a secondary mirror, which strips away the infrared and ultraviolet components, and directs the visible light into the receiver.

…

The tracking system itself requires very little power to operate. It could be supported by a small solar cell – equivalent to a 9-volt battery (which would last about a week).

The product is expected to reach the market in 2007. The product will be of great interest to those who have read about the dangers of deprived exposure to sunlight.

ail archives organisation is a topic which I addressed quite recently. However, good inbox (recent incoming mail) management is the key to efficient and uninterrupted work. Merlin of 43Folders agrees, even though his preferences differ from mine.

Each e-mail message in your inbox demands your time and attention. Filters and rules are great for reducing some of that demand, shunting easily defined mail such as e-newsletters and personal notes to their appropriate folders…

I think the advice given in the article is valid, but mail managements depends greatly on the nature of your work and interests. For example, not all people subscribe to mailing lists or get involved in forums and newsgroups. Moreover, people get hugely varying amounts of spam. Some get none, some get a few per day and some people get many hundreds if not thousands a day. What works for the author of the article will work for many others, but not necessarily for everybody. It is still worth a read though.

Horde Web-based E-mail management (click image to view in full size)

My related write-ups on mail management:

• Local or Web-based E-mail
• Public Mail Accounts and Filtering
• Urgent Mail Account
• E-mail Address Disclosure
• Managing Large E-mail Quantities
• Solution to Junk Mail
• Managing E-mail on a Personal Domain