Main Dish:

- now what would you do if you got a reply? This service lets you record voice messages that are transmitted into deep space.
http://www.mobiledia.com/forum/topic13215.html?sid=4d6138d5d74ba3e71ff1e385c4c89736

- new antenna technology shrinks size dramatically. This is good news for increasingly miniturized electronics like those Zoolander-sized cell phones. One of the first things you learn about these diminutive wonders is that the radio reception sucks.
http://www.eetimes.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=21401977

- the future is here... or at least it will be in 2-5 years. My favorite prediction, VC bankruptcies.
http://www.ventureblog.com/articles/indiv/2004/000632.html

- I guess it's like dating a supermodel.
http://news.com.com/Brief+fling+with+Microsoft+makes+SAP+almost+famous/2100-1012_3-5233000.html?tag=nefd.top

- This is spot on. Barry writes about how it's not about replacing email, but minimizing it. Email is a one-size fits all app that just isn't very good for most things, exceptionally good at one thing: pushing a message to another mailbox. I've been fooling around with iUpload's MailbyRSS service and Yahoo! Groups to see if RSS really can work as an email replacement, and have found that I can use it for some things. We are pretty adaptable creatures, us humans that is, therefore it's not that much of a stretch to assume that we will continue to have a basket of solutions for communicating.
http://www.edithere.com/barry/2004/06/11#a1175

- the history of programming languages. I thought the History of Unix graphic was pretty neat, here's another one that tracks the history of languages, over 50 of them. via Michael Smith
http://www.oreilly.com/news/graphics/prog_lang_poster.pdf

- Nokia n-Gage US launch slips... nobody notices.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/14/ngage_qd_us_launch/

- I hate linear thinking. This NYTimes article on VoIP proposes that traditional phone companies will dominate VoIP because they are perceived to have better quality. First and foremost, what quality is he talking about, cuz it sure isn't customer service quality. Considering that a VoIP company doesn't need to own the infrastructure, I think it's the new entrants that could end up challenging in a big way. Consider what happens in the market when Dell or Wal-Mart enters the VoIP fray? It's happening in consumer electronics right now, have you noticed that the Dell and Samsung are selling a shitload of televisions... much to the dismay of Sony and Panasonic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/14/technology/14voip.html

- Meet Joe Blog. You know, the interesting thing about this is that by the time I actually got to the Time article I had read about it in the blogs I read first, so I didn't feel any need to actually read the article. Maybe that's how blogging is changing traditional media :)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040621-650732,00.html

- I agree with Ed that personal media servers are going to be a big growth area for home electronics.
http://www.beyondvc.com/2004/06/a_personal_serv.html

- Brad gets skewered for blogging press releases. But that's not the real story I am getting in this post, in fact what find most interesting is the thoughtful way that Brad disects the issue and from that identifies a feature area lacking in the blogging platform. I think that anyone who blogs is tempted to sound the horn of their company, or in the case of VC's, all of our investments; I've thought about it, but have always struggled with how to do it. I also think that press releases are largely a waste of time anyways, so I'm not inclined to perpetuate something that I don't believe in. Sure, I do want to talk about all the great things my companies are doing, but how do I do it without sounding whore-ish?
http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2004/06/why_blog_not_fo.html

- the big deal with gmail? For me it was just the chance to get the email address I really wanted in a free email service.
http://onlyonce.blogs.com/onlyonce/2004/06/gmail_i_dont_ge.html

- it's a mad mad mad RFID world.
http://www.thefeature.com/article?articleid=100739