News item

Evan Sandhaus announces the New York Times's implementation of rNews, a semantic markup scheme for news articles. Curiously, the blog post itself doesn't carry the markup.

Home base

Back at Siteworx Reston after an extended stay onsite, and after a couple of moves and cubicle reconfigurations, here's what most of my work surface looks like now. Oh, and after receipt of peachy Valentine's Day flowers from Leta.

A really nice chair, a big Kensington trackball that they don't make anymore, a monitor and a half (the laptop), and a good-sized shelf for books above. Need to do something about that tangle of USB cables.

Keep trying

Jairaj Bhattacharya et al. give poor marks to DataWind's Aakash-1 tablet, the latest in a series of low cost computers designed for students in developing countries. The expected price point for this device, which is more than a prototype but not yet generally available, is ₹2500 (about $50).

Its limited battery life—a maximum of 2.5 hours, which falls to 1 hour and 20 minutes with video or other applications running—is disappointing for a device that is supposed to be used in villages where access to electricity is sporadic at best.