I am in a great mood right now.  Nothing is more boring than a happy person, sorry, I wish I had some deep issues to discuss, but I don't.  Just got back from a great ride - Rockstore (again), and met a fellow rider who pushed me to do it hard - and am now contemplating a nice dinner out with 4/5th of my family and then a weekend with nothing to do but code.  How great is that?

I reread my "platforms" post from this morning and got some email in response from some of you; this is going to be a good discussion, I can tell.  Important for me aside from the philosophy of it, too, because what we're trying to do at Aperio is create a platform, not only deliver great systems to customers but also create an environment for others to make our great systems greater, and the tactics employed by big successful companies like Apple, Google, Palm, and RIM make for instructive consideration. 

Apropos Palm debuted their House of Palm app store today.  Importantly the site is optimized for viewing on a Palm (!), and they have RSS feeds (!!) although sadly the feed items are truncated and lacking graphics.  I will be monitoring their progress with great interest :) 

MSN: It's all about the apps.  An interesting point: "With most apps now selling for nothing - 80% of the downloads from Apple's app store are free - the challenge for developers isn't writing software or even getting it accepted by Apple or Google. It's getting paid." 

Tim Oren: Is Nexus a Platform War mistake?  "I think Google's move is no mistake, and the analogy to the PC market is false in this case. Both for the same reason: Wireless carriers."  He goes on to cite two purposes for Nexus, a high-end exemplar of what can be done with Android, and a market test for smartphones not subsidized by a carrier.  I get the second move, it's cool and bold and perhaps only Google could do it (Apple couldn't or at least didn't, they used AT&T).  But the first motive seems false; putting the high-end exemplar out there competes with all your distributors.  How do Motorola feel about their would-be-high-end Droid now? 

Intel gets into the act with an app store (lamely called "AppUp"), but I don't get it.  These are applications for Netbooks, Linux-based.  I don't get Netbooks, and they've been flying off the shelves, so there's a lot here I don't get :) 

Think this augmented reality concept doesn't have wings?  Then check this out: the first iPhone-controlled augmented reality helicopter.  The first but not the last; this might seem like a toy but imagine the possibilities...  really this is a sort of Avatar.  (We need a 3D camera version :)  Stay tuned for a lot more of this sort of thing. 

Possibly one thing standing in the way of augmented reality is the term itself; something catchier and less geeky is needed.  <your phrase here>

This is beautiful: extended album art.  In which artists imagine the larger scene in which various albums were set...  Pink Floyd's enigmatic Animals is extended beautifully!  [ via Boing Boing ] 

A well-reasoned and informative rant: Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX.  If the "you" in question is a game designer, that is.  The availability of OpenGL on mobile platforms like iPhone and Pre has become important. 

Lost: What?  If you've lost a "what", you might find it here :)