Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

I've been an Orange subscriber for a long time now, longer than I can remember. I've been through the whole WAP boom with them, through the first smartphones, and through more devices than I can remember.

However today I called up and asked for my PAC. Orange still hasn't launched a flat-rate data service, so it's time to go somewhere else.

I've decided to move to another operator with a lower-cost data tariff, and off-the-shelf mobile email. My current thinking is to go to T-Mobile with Web'n'Walk and Flext, and probably get a Blackberry Pearl. I did rather like the one I reviewed for IT Pro. The alternative is Vodafone's similar service, and a Treo 750W.

The one big question, of course, is the cost of getting mail while I travel....

It's a pity T-Mobile have't launched the Dash over here, as that might have tipped the odds one way or another. Still, I have 30 days to decide now.

Decisions, decisions.

I'd be interested in understanding what other folk have been looking at, and what you all recommend...

In a conversation in Another Place, pdcawley pointed me at this rather wonderful picture. The caption is just so right...

Now that's a picture I'd love to see in the flesh. Both the image and the landscape.

For a developer series I'm currently working on for a magazine, I have used the Google Maps JavaScript API to render a map in a Salesforce.com custom S-Control. My first cross-service web API mashup...

..and it works!

Huzzah.

Obligatory Geek Post

The Australian Federal Government is planning to phase out the incandescent light bulb.

The Federal Government estimates replacing the old bulbs with compact fluorescents in homes could cut greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 800,000 tonnes a year in 2008-12. Australia's emissions in 2004 totalled 564.7 million tonnes.

Now if our own government would do something similar.

It was interesting to note on a recent visit just how much Ikea was pushing compact fluorescents in its lighting department. And the prices weren't too bad...

link via dmmaus