The Name Inspector in Seattle has posted an article entitled 10 company name types on TechCrunch: Pros and Cons, with a thoughtful analysis of categories the names fall into - he divides them into the following groups:
- Real Words - every day words like Apple
- Compounds - two or more real words together, like Firefox
- Phrases - combinations of clauses, such as StumbleUpon
- Blends - combinations of prefixes and suffixes, like Microsoft
- Tweaked Words - normal words with an odd addition, like iPhone
- Affixed Words - adding an odd ending, like -ster in Friendster
- Made Up or Obscure Origin - mostly meaningless inventions, like Meebo
- Puns - the names that annoy - such as Lickityship
- People Names - Using human names, such as the infamous Microsoft Bob
- Initials and Acronyms - Boring series of letters, like IBM
Debra Shinder wrote an article on the 10 Ways You May Be Breaking the Law with your Computer, which is a thoughtful recap of industry events that could have long term impact for computer users. Thoughtful because she doesn’t seem to pass judgment on each item she reports. On the other hand, its rare that you read responses other than from people who state their belief that any sort of federal penalty for intellectual property theft is wrong; that somehow its different than shoplifting.
I can accept that people have very little sympathy for very large corporations that derive exceptional, or obscene profits from intellectual property of all kinds (big pharmaceutical, large music labels), but that doesn’t jive with the photographer, musician or small content business that as a result of a lack of paying customers (but plenty of non-paying pirates) have to reduce or fire their creatives staff.
Day 2 of the core Revolution Live conference continues. (more…)
Easy Report Generation from the Makers of Valentina Database
Valentina Reports for Cross Platform Applications
Paradigma Software Inc develops the ultra-fast, cross-platform database system Valentina. Valentina Reports is a new client technology that lets you play back rich, formatted reports in your application.
Features for Initial Release
- Layout Visually Rich Reports in Valentina Studio Pro Beta (free during beta period)
- Drag Query Objects into Layouts
- Organize your data into Groups
- Add layout elements such as labels, lines, vector shapes, pictures
- Pull and display pictures from databases
- HTML/Web Object pulls pages from databases or live from URL
- Support for all major development environments on Windows and Mac OS X (Linux coming)
- Exports PDF and bitmap graphics of reports
- Royalty free application deployment
Examples of supported environments include Runtime Revolution, Adobe Director, Apple xCode, .net and more. (more…)
Revolution Live 2008 begins today. Revolution Live 2008 is a conference for developers that use Runtime Revolution, a cross platform development tool published in North America by co-sponsor Mirye Software.
Ill be updating throughout the day. (more…)
Barcamp is referred to as an unconference - put on by the tech community for the tech community - where you can suggest any relevant topic, reserve a space, then offer up a topic of discussion. I attended BarCamp Portland (Saturday and Sunday) after hearing about it from Harvey Matthews, president of Software Association of Oregon.
What fascinated me about BarCamp is that its an ongoing, social learning conversation. While someone may present an idea or a budding technology, the expectation is that its a participatory event - groups are small enough that its possible to do just that. This wasn’t just a geekfest for the twenty something set; there was an even mix of ages and experience. I truly felt I left the unconference carrying with me more useful new relationships and technology information than I had from the last few conventions I have attended.
There were quite a few who were happy to learn about Valentina and that we even offer a free version of Valentina Server on Linux to tinker with or utilize in academic settings. I didn’t go to this event with sales in mind; it wasn’t that type of event anyway. Yet in the course of the sessions, some products (of the free and open source variety and others of the proprietary type) naturally suggested themselves as solutions or stepping stones towards achieving some goal.
e-on software, the makers of 3D natural scenery software Vue and owners of the Cornucopia 3D content brokerage site have announced their support for Content Creators Guild by allowing CCG Independent Vendors to post their product releases on their Shop Talk forum. The only stipulation to posted releases is that the products are compatible with Vue, such as native Vue .vob objects, textures, materials or the like, or content that can be imported into Vue, including Poser props, characters - even more generic imports like 3DS.
Content Creator’s Guild is now launched and available. CCG is an online community and article site for digital artists that want to show off their creative designs as well as connect with independent, licensable content vendors. Content Creator’s Guild is, in fact, two sites:
Content Creator’s Guild Community. This is the social networking site. You can show off your music, artwork and videos on your own page or on a community page.
Content Creator’s Guild Magazine. This is the place to go where you want to look up facts, articles, links and the like. We don’t actually call this a magazine.
The why behind Why CG? you can find on my Content Creator’s Guild and Me page.
