OK, so we have had 2 months of rain 98% of the days and this was supposed to be summer in Ireland? Hellooo????... SomeONE forgot to change the switch to summer OR decided that as we had a great April and May and 2 good summers for the past 2 years we should not be spoiled and given yet another REAL summer. I can handle greay and miserable for 6 months of the year, but 10 months? That's a bit much, isn't it? Mind you, don't be fooled by some of the photographs on my Flickr pages. Read the comments I posted below some of the lovely cloudscapes. They are there because rain is on the way.... So that is my excuse for not having been more regular over the last few weeks - I've succumbed to grey weather depression.
Well, not really I suppose. Mostly I've been playing with my new Pentax and then tried to learn how to do layer work on photographs to get them to look bootiful. That has been keeping me busy and out of mischief. I have now NEARLY cracked it. Much better understanding of it using my recently purchased Adobe Photo Elements 5.0. You see, what triggered it was that I bought this Digital Camera magazine and they had there fabulous images and they showed you how to do it with layers. So I tried it after a quick glance through and, by accident, created the Pastel Rose image on my Flickr page. This has driven me demented for the last 3 weeks. I am too stubborn to go back to the tutorial on the disk, and just have not been able to get it right again. I NEARLY got it right once more, then nada, zilch and nix. Nothing! However, I THINK, I nearly have it now after spending several hours at my computer over the last week-end.
Anyhow, that is why I have been so scarce. I have been frantically trying to replicate my mistake. If I hadn't done it once by accident, none of this would have happened!
Got an email from someone in Colorado last week saying he had saved hundreds of dollars using a website called Yayah.com. be careful if you type in the URL and do not follow the link. There is a similar named site at Yahyah.com with an extra H in it. Had a quick look and it is quite interesting. You register and give them your details, then enter 2 phone numbers - your mobile and that of the person you want to dial and it connects the two for a few pennies. Not quite VoIP rates, but a heck of a lot cheaper than hotel phones or even calling cards and quite simple to use. It does assume you have broadband access and if you do and you have a VoIP account you could make cheaper calls, but it is an excellent option for people who travel and have their laptops and Internet access.
I am now fully switched over to Windows Vista AND Office Vista. I can't say that it is more stable than Windows XP, although it has some nice features and is a bit simpler when it comes to installing new devices and services, but when it fails, it gets a lot more complex. All the different versions can drive you nuts as well. My laptop came with Vista Home installed but I use it in the office as well. Only thing is, it won't let you log onto a Domain as out office network uses, without upgrading to Vista Ultimate for the Ultimate price. So I ended up having to fork out the extra dollars. And of course then Acrobat kept crashing Outlook until I upgraded to Acrobat 8.0 from 7.0, so more money (AND even MORE infuriating is the price discrimination - US$99 but in the EU we have to pay €132! Nearly 50% more! What a ripoff!) and now I find that my Password tool I use, AnyPassword, won't let me access my passwords unless I upgrade to AnyPassword Pro. So I downloaded the trial version, and it won't let me save my changes because I have more than 10 passwords in it.
*Sigh* this Windows Vista thing is going to be QUITE pricey.....
Since my daughter had been on vacation in Ireland with us and went back home I do find that I send her texts more often of small little things that I am doing, just to keep up the contact. Now what does that remind me of? Hmmm... now let me think?... Oh, yeah that's right - Twitter and Jaiku. Remember when I reviewed them aeons ago I said it is interesting but I couldn't really understand it yet Leo Laporte of TWIT and various others were avid subscribers? Well, I am starting to understand how, when you are away from people who are close to you, this can be a way of just keeping up that little bit of personal touch.
Anyhow, enough rambling for one day. Next week I am in Kiev, and no doubt I will have some interesting news to report from there!
Monday 13 August 2007
Friday 27 July 2007
A dull grey slow month....
Seems as if the dull 'summer' weather we have been having on the islands has been insiduously seeping into my very psyche and being. I have been awful at updating my blog. I guess, given the floods in the UK, we here in Ireland should be thankful. But, looking at all those chocholate brown people returning from summer holidays in Portugal it is just VERY difficult not to grumble (not that we are unthankful Lord, it would just have been nice to get just a tiny LITTLE bit of sunshine given that it is supposed to summer after all...). OK, that is my weather grumble out of the way.
We cannot control the miserable weather, but, we can control what we do and how we feel. My Stumbling buddy (StumbleUpon as some of you may know is one of my favourite Web 2.0 functions in my webbrowser), Knowth, who is a great fan of the ancient Celtic lands, recently posted a beautiful picture of the winter solstice lighting up one of the passage graves at Newgrange in Ireland. However, he also sent me a link to a new feel-good website of his - The Favourbank (Favorbank to our American colleagues..). It is just a simple webpage, with links to stories about deposits/withdrawals from the Favour Bank. It is delightful and a concept that I have long known and used in everyday life ( ah sure there goes another deposit into the favour bank!). It is quite probable, given the links on his page, that I picked it up in Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. The concept is simple, and, like Web 2.0 and life in Ireland, community oriented - make regular deposits into the Favour Bank by doing small and simple good deeds. When you need a withdrawal one day, your balance should be good enough. I know so many people who only make deposits because they expect regular withdrawals. That should never be the principle. If we all returned to the old way of living - being willing to help others without expecting anything in return, would that not improve our society so may fold over?
I think it would.
Whilst stumbling, came across another new favourite, 33 ways to oveclock your brain. Yep, that is what it is about. We have been talking about convergence for years in telecommunications, and now, finally, it is here! But, it is the convergence of our computer concepts and self improvement concepts that have converged! Don't believe me? Oi ye doubting Thomas ye! Go on get yourself over to this link then and see for yeself!
For those of you interested in renewable energy, I visited a windfarm in Texas last week owned by Airtricity, an associate company and took some lovely and interesting images of some Mitsubishi manufactured wind turbines. I will update my Flickr pages with them later on (first have to find them...). Uhm, so meanwhile posting some pictures of the wild orchids blooming on Bull Island, Clontarf, Ireland in July. They look huge in pictures but are mere centimetres in height. I had to lay down flat on my stomach to get some of the better ones.
Have to run. Will try not to let the weather get to me, will reprogram my brain more positively based on the Ririan Project 33 principles and be FAR more productive!
We cannot control the miserable weather, but, we can control what we do and how we feel. My Stumbling buddy (StumbleUpon as some of you may know is one of my favourite Web 2.0 functions in my webbrowser), Knowth, who is a great fan of the ancient Celtic lands, recently posted a beautiful picture of the winter solstice lighting up one of the passage graves at Newgrange in Ireland. However, he also sent me a link to a new feel-good website of his - The Favourbank (Favorbank to our American colleagues..). It is just a simple webpage, with links to stories about deposits/withdrawals from the Favour Bank. It is delightful and a concept that I have long known and used in everyday life ( ah sure there goes another deposit into the favour bank!). It is quite probable, given the links on his page, that I picked it up in Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. The concept is simple, and, like Web 2.0 and life in Ireland, community oriented - make regular deposits into the Favour Bank by doing small and simple good deeds. When you need a withdrawal one day, your balance should be good enough. I know so many people who only make deposits because they expect regular withdrawals. That should never be the principle. If we all returned to the old way of living - being willing to help others without expecting anything in return, would that not improve our society so may fold over?
I think it would.
Whilst stumbling, came across another new favourite, 33 ways to oveclock your brain. Yep, that is what it is about. We have been talking about convergence for years in telecommunications, and now, finally, it is here! But, it is the convergence of our computer concepts and self improvement concepts that have converged! Don't believe me? Oi ye doubting Thomas ye! Go on get yourself over to this link then and see for yeself!
For those of you interested in renewable energy, I visited a windfarm in Texas last week owned by Airtricity, an associate company and took some lovely and interesting images of some Mitsubishi manufactured wind turbines. I will update my Flickr pages with them later on (first have to find them...). Uhm, so meanwhile posting some pictures of the wild orchids blooming on Bull Island, Clontarf, Ireland in July. They look huge in pictures but are mere centimetres in height. I had to lay down flat on my stomach to get some of the better ones.
Have to run. Will try not to let the weather get to me, will reprogram my brain more positively based on the Ririan Project 33 principles and be FAR more productive!
Thursday 12 July 2007
Just a quickie....
Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated as the famous saying goes. Yes, I have been notably absent not just from my blog, but even the web. Only emails received some brief daily attention over the last 2 weeks. The reason? My 13 year old daughter arrived for a visit from South Africa, and I can assure you, keeping her entertained was a full time job, but an exquisite pleasure.
Anyhow, I am in recovery this week, have only just got back to listening to my podcasts and reading my daily websites. Next week I have to head over to the US for a brief one week visit to Memphis, Tennessee, Austin Texas and Chicago before coming back, probably more wrecked than what I feel right now. Have to visit some ethanol plants (and that hot on the heals of the Nestle Chairman stating in the Financial Times last Friday that food prices world wide are set to rise and remain high due to the competition for food crops from biofuel! All the more reason to switch to chocolate I guess?
One of the few things I found is an 'old' thing - Boing Boing. Dated 1988. Yup, before the official internet and broadband. How come? Well it was a real mag at that stage called bOING bOING. Then switched to the 'new' world after their published went belly up (clever huh? That I know all these things? Uhm, I listened to Leo and Amber on net@nite talking to the founder of Boing Boing...)
The other thing that I enjoyed was another 'old' thing on National Geographic - the list of the 'new' 7 wonders of the World. Interestingly enough, the Great Wall of China made the list, as did the Taj Mahal, and the Peruvian and Mexican Mayan and Inca temples. Brazil is also represented, as is Jordan! Go on.... you know you want to peak. Just click here.... no one will ever know you peeked....
And a last one, a bit creepy for the squeamish ones. National Geographic again - this week's Giant Squid that washed up on the beaches in Australia, and a bit older, seeing that we are on the topic, a Colossal Squid caught earlier this year. If you suffer from nightmares, DON'T go there!!! You have been warned!!!!
OK, have to head off. Will try to update shortly!
Anyhow, I am in recovery this week, have only just got back to listening to my podcasts and reading my daily websites. Next week I have to head over to the US for a brief one week visit to Memphis, Tennessee, Austin Texas and Chicago before coming back, probably more wrecked than what I feel right now. Have to visit some ethanol plants (and that hot on the heals of the Nestle Chairman stating in the Financial Times last Friday that food prices world wide are set to rise and remain high due to the competition for food crops from biofuel! All the more reason to switch to chocolate I guess?
One of the few things I found is an 'old' thing - Boing Boing. Dated 1988. Yup, before the official internet and broadband. How come? Well it was a real mag at that stage called bOING bOING. Then switched to the 'new' world after their published went belly up (clever huh? That I know all these things? Uhm, I listened to Leo and Amber on net@nite talking to the founder of Boing Boing...)
The other thing that I enjoyed was another 'old' thing on National Geographic - the list of the 'new' 7 wonders of the World. Interestingly enough, the Great Wall of China made the list, as did the Taj Mahal, and the Peruvian and Mexican Mayan and Inca temples. Brazil is also represented, as is Jordan! Go on.... you know you want to peak. Just click here.... no one will ever know you peeked....
And a last one, a bit creepy for the squeamish ones. National Geographic again - this week's Giant Squid that washed up on the beaches in Australia, and a bit older, seeing that we are on the topic, a Colossal Squid caught earlier this year. If you suffer from nightmares, DON'T go there!!! You have been warned!!!!
OK, have to head off. Will try to update shortly!
Friday 22 June 2007
Holy cow it's wet in Europe....
Just how much water does the heavens really contain? It has been pouring gigaliters over ireland and much of the EU over the last 10 days and now the weather forecast says it ain't about to stop. *Sigh* Where is our summer dear Lord? It is not that we wish to grumble, but was the 6 weeks we had in April and early May IT? That is as good as it gets as Jack Nicholson said? Ah go on, give just a few more weeks of the good stuff. Please?
Anyhow, back to technology and other related stuff. Been catching up on my podcasts still. Not quite up to date yet. Been listening to podcasts 141 to 149 of the The World.org, the BBC joint production from Boston. Urghh.... I thought I'm nearly up to date and just been to the site - they are up to podcast 156 this week. I am still miles behind... *Sigh* What is curious is that 3 of the podcasts contained bits on bioenergy and biofuel. It is as if fate is following me around. Anyhow, some really interesting stuff on it this week. One was on a South African that is an amputee and has been a medal winner in the paralympics with his steel legs and feet and wants to run in the mainstream races but there are some concerns that the material of his limbs will give him an unfair stride advantage! He is fighting this and the local University students in Pretoria are quite happy to race against him. Quite a reverse!
Anyhow, the Webbie awards are out, and the top 100 applications (10 each in 10 categories) have been voted for by Joe Public. The results are on Webware's site. Some of the sites that I have discussed here in the blog before have made it through which is great -this blog site, Blogger.com, my browser Firefox, my other browser,Opera, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn (which I use nearly daily), Me.dium, Flickr (naturally), YouTube (Surprise surprise...), Digg (which I check daily for exotic news) and last.fm. Whoopsie, nearly missed out on Wikipedia, which I often use for reference searches. But there are obviously lost more. Gazillions of Google apps made it through. Now I guess I shouldn't complain because they own this blog site. *Big smile on face* Nice Google, nice Google, nice....
I am going to be a bit scarce over the next 2 weeks as my daughter is coming to visit me from South Africa. She doesn't write a blog, but she has a page on DeviantArt (which also won a Webbie), but I am not posting the link to her site on this blog. Forget it. No way.
Will try to do an update over the weekend as there are some interesting stuff on the Webbies that I would like to explore. Got myself a new Pentax D10 camera a week or two back and have been updating myself on decent photography again. Posted some pics I took as a test, nothing spectacular, just to test different aperture setting etc. Whilst I was messing around, a fly was buzzing around against the window. he wouldn't pose for me so I had to follow him around a bit, but eventually managed to get 1 decent pic out of about 4 attampts over 10 minutes. It is on my Flickr page, way bigger than lifesize. Yuck!
Anyhow, back to technology and other related stuff. Been catching up on my podcasts still. Not quite up to date yet. Been listening to podcasts 141 to 149 of the The World.org, the BBC joint production from Boston. Urghh.... I thought I'm nearly up to date and just been to the site - they are up to podcast 156 this week. I am still miles behind... *Sigh* What is curious is that 3 of the podcasts contained bits on bioenergy and biofuel. It is as if fate is following me around. Anyhow, some really interesting stuff on it this week. One was on a South African that is an amputee and has been a medal winner in the paralympics with his steel legs and feet and wants to run in the mainstream races but there are some concerns that the material of his limbs will give him an unfair stride advantage! He is fighting this and the local University students in Pretoria are quite happy to race against him. Quite a reverse!
Anyhow, the Webbie awards are out, and the top 100 applications (10 each in 10 categories) have been voted for by Joe Public. The results are on Webware's site. Some of the sites that I have discussed here in the blog before have made it through which is great -this blog site, Blogger.com, my browser Firefox, my other browser,Opera, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn (which I use nearly daily), Me.dium, Flickr (naturally), YouTube (Surprise surprise...), Digg (which I check daily for exotic news) and last.fm. Whoopsie, nearly missed out on Wikipedia, which I often use for reference searches. But there are obviously lost more. Gazillions of Google apps made it through. Now I guess I shouldn't complain because they own this blog site. *Big smile on face* Nice Google, nice Google, nice....
I am going to be a bit scarce over the next 2 weeks as my daughter is coming to visit me from South Africa. She doesn't write a blog, but she has a page on DeviantArt (which also won a Webbie), but I am not posting the link to her site on this blog. Forget it. No way.
Will try to do an update over the weekend as there are some interesting stuff on the Webbies that I would like to explore. Got myself a new Pentax D10 camera a week or two back and have been updating myself on decent photography again. Posted some pics I took as a test, nothing spectacular, just to test different aperture setting etc. Whilst I was messing around, a fly was buzzing around against the window. he wouldn't pose for me so I had to follow him around a bit, but eventually managed to get 1 decent pic out of about 4 attampts over 10 minutes. It is on my Flickr page, way bigger than lifesize. Yuck!
Thursday 14 June 2007
Ireland is wet today.....
Well, I normally start off my posting with the weather update, so I thought I might as well put it in the title and get it over with. It has been miserable after such a brilliant week-end, but so be it!
Been listening to my favourite but tiring podcast, TWiT. Some interesting stuff this week on their show number 100, well worth listening to, if you have the hour to spare. What has been interesting is the number of items we have discussed before making it back for discussion on the show as it obviously becomes more mainstream. Leo Laporte, the show's host, seems to be the eternal geek, absolutely unable to resist anything tech. He has a Tumblelog account (not to be confused with Stumblr, who had just been purchased by EBay, by the way).
What was more interesting was the discussion on last.fm which I recently commented on. It seems as if last.fm is trying to be a lot more than what my cursory overview found. It seems as if they are doing a bit of what Google and Amazon do - look at your usage patterns and make suitable recommendations for you based on your preferences. Now that could be interesting!
The other thing they were reviewing and commenting upon, is Audiblebooks.com.. It seems as if books in whatever shape or form, still remains a firm favourite!
My wife and I are looking at holiday in the south west region of France, and I came across this great site where people post their travel logs and pictures which gives a great overview of the destination - www.travelblog.org.
Also found a great website with some interesting, and curious...., bits and pieces on it. Got the link from Digg following a link on Steve Jobs - the New York Magazine (had to be I guess...).
Enjoy!
Been listening to my favourite but tiring podcast, TWiT. Some interesting stuff this week on their show number 100, well worth listening to, if you have the hour to spare. What has been interesting is the number of items we have discussed before making it back for discussion on the show as it obviously becomes more mainstream. Leo Laporte, the show's host, seems to be the eternal geek, absolutely unable to resist anything tech. He has a Tumblelog account (not to be confused with Stumblr, who had just been purchased by EBay, by the way).
What was more interesting was the discussion on last.fm which I recently commented on. It seems as if last.fm is trying to be a lot more than what my cursory overview found. It seems as if they are doing a bit of what Google and Amazon do - look at your usage patterns and make suitable recommendations for you based on your preferences. Now that could be interesting!
The other thing they were reviewing and commenting upon, is Audiblebooks.com.. It seems as if books in whatever shape or form, still remains a firm favourite!
My wife and I are looking at holiday in the south west region of France, and I came across this great site where people post their travel logs and pictures which gives a great overview of the destination - www.travelblog.org.
Also found a great website with some interesting, and curious...., bits and pieces on it. Got the link from Digg following a link on Steve Jobs - the New York Magazine (had to be I guess...).
Enjoy!
Monday 11 June 2007
Twitter causing quite a flutter
First the regular update on Irish weather - it has been hot! This last week-end it felt like I'm back in my native Africa, not in cool Ireland. And I must say, the heat is showing. The famous greens of Ireland are looking decidedly jaded from the heat, not quite as luscious as normal. However, the Irish and visitors were out en-masse over the week-end filling very scrap of local beach to bursting point with bodies and more bodies! Battled to sleep with the heat. Only cooled down to 17 degrees Celcius overnight. Decidedly un-Irish weather!
What has been interesting has been the explosion in twittering. Those of you who read this blog regularly may recall that some weeks back I wrote about the fact that Leo Laporte of Twit.tv moved from Twitter to Jaiku over concerns that there could be some confusion over the names. However, it seems as if Twitter is exploding all over the show and getting more and more mention everywhere! A colleague of mine, Simon had sent me a link a week back about an article in Business Week about the Twitterisation of Blogs. Well, they continue to be in the news with PhysOrg, a science website. It seems as if some people really get mesmerized by what other people are doing. However, it seems as if many others are using it for business as well. I just wonder how much these people are spending on their mobile phone bills?!?!? I know some of the people of the Twit podcast were talking about phone bills of several hundred dollars. So, it may be interesting, but the question is, is it worth that much in interest?....
You may remember that I signed up at Virb.com and have an account, and that my early take on Virb was that it is a social networking site aimed at music initially. Found another similar site if you're interested in music, called Last.fm. I initially thought it was an internet radio station, but it is not. It is about music only, so more 'purist' than Virb. The initial interface is very clean, but it somehow seems a bit amateurish and not really full of buzz. But that is a personal opinion I guess. I'm not sure why it gives me that feel. I think it is the red banner at the top and then the clean homepage. I somehow just feel that red at the top needs a jazzy page. The page itself seems more 'blue'. Anyhow, my opinion.
Another site in the same category is ILike.com, one of the Webware 100 nominees. It is very much the same thing, a dedicated music site with a listing of songs and bands on the front page with some free MP3's available.
They are both in the LaLa category, although Lala works on a different basis of free listen online, buy the CD if you like basis.
So there you go! Some music to brighten up your day! Enjoy!
What has been interesting has been the explosion in twittering. Those of you who read this blog regularly may recall that some weeks back I wrote about the fact that Leo Laporte of Twit.tv moved from Twitter to Jaiku over concerns that there could be some confusion over the names. However, it seems as if Twitter is exploding all over the show and getting more and more mention everywhere! A colleague of mine, Simon had sent me a link a week back about an article in Business Week about the Twitterisation of Blogs. Well, they continue to be in the news with PhysOrg, a science website. It seems as if some people really get mesmerized by what other people are doing. However, it seems as if many others are using it for business as well. I just wonder how much these people are spending on their mobile phone bills?!?!? I know some of the people of the Twit podcast were talking about phone bills of several hundred dollars. So, it may be interesting, but the question is, is it worth that much in interest?....
You may remember that I signed up at Virb.com and have an account, and that my early take on Virb was that it is a social networking site aimed at music initially. Found another similar site if you're interested in music, called Last.fm. I initially thought it was an internet radio station, but it is not. It is about music only, so more 'purist' than Virb. The initial interface is very clean, but it somehow seems a bit amateurish and not really full of buzz. But that is a personal opinion I guess. I'm not sure why it gives me that feel. I think it is the red banner at the top and then the clean homepage. I somehow just feel that red at the top needs a jazzy page. The page itself seems more 'blue'. Anyhow, my opinion.
Another site in the same category is ILike.com, one of the Webware 100 nominees. It is very much the same thing, a dedicated music site with a listing of songs and bands on the front page with some free MP3's available.
They are both in the LaLa category, although Lala works on a different basis of free listen online, buy the CD if you like basis.
So there you go! Some music to brighten up your day! Enjoy!
Thursday 7 June 2007
News, news, news and more news....what to read?
Have to start with the weather - has been quite decent over the last few days. Temperatures hovering around 15 to 20 degrees Celcius, and sun or near sun mostly. Getting time to dry out. There we go, I've confirmed my status of Plastic Paddy by talking about the weather. Now to things more of a cyber nature.
I find it amazing looking at the sheer volume of information out there that is available in the cyber library. I guess it is similar to walking into a research library on a University campus. Where to start? My normal day to day news is always CNN and Skynews or the BBC if they annoy me. For Euro specific news, where else but to EuroNews? For a quick browse around what has happened in Ireland, I head to the national broadcaster, RTE. For South Africa, I would head over to The Star, which used to be my daily hard copy read.
Then there is tech news. And here the confusion begins. At present I read a few, being Digg, naturally. Someone at Me.dium quite aptly likened social networks to the way in which a lot of people will look at restaurants - if there is no-one there, don't bother. If there is a queue outside the door, queue up - must be good. To some extent we use social networks in the same way. If we see a number of people buzzing around a site, pop around and see why. Me.dium works that way, StumbleUpon works that way, Digg and Del.icio.us work that way. I suppose the way Digg works is that lots of stuff is thrown into the pot, but as the pot churns and more people read things, that is read and gets lots of attention rises to the top. Sort of like the froth on a good beer!
But I digress, as always. Further Tech sites that I frequent would be TechMeme (recent addition courtesy of Mick on Tangle - thanks Mick!) and ComputerWorld, besides my normal CNet.
More than that is just not possible. I also listen to my podcasts on my daily trips to and from work, spending between 1.5 and 2 hours daily commuting, depending on the traffic, it gives me a great way of catching up. If you've missed the early blogs, I subscribe via my RSS feeds to FeedDemon and NewsGator to The World, TwiT, including Amber and Leo on Net@nite, Technology Podcasts and BBC daily news updates. I have a Sansa MP3 player and load it onto that. I have some music on the Sansa as well, but have never actually used it to listen to music.
Since the demise of Mother Jones Radio, I have not really found any decent sites with American news and politics on it. I REALLY miss Mother Jones Radio podcasts. If you know of any, send me an email or post a comment and share it.
And my colleague Simon reminded me of how good LifeHacker is for great technology tips! Simon is a ferocious reader of hte web. if it exists, Simon will find it. I might give him author status on the web and he can give you HIS take on life and technology! A site that I regularly read for updates on what is happening in Content and the Media industry is just that Total Content & Media. However, you have to subscribe (for free) to the daily newsletter, and there is just so much to read! However, to cut through this they have a blog, i-on-digital, which is updated as and when with just the essence of the site for those who want a flavour, but not the full gamut of news.
Lastly for today, just a quick one lala.com. A music site with a bit of a difference. They offer free streaming music (they pay a monthly fee per subscriber to the music industry) and then offer music for download fully iPod compatible. However, it is only sold by album, not per song. They also seem to offer a swap section where you can swap music. I haven't spent much time on it yet (corrupted the Registry file on the PC at home, so been spending 2 fruitless evenings trying to fix it, and eventually gave up - last night reinstalled windows and now going through the painful process of reinstalling everything because I did not do a?....... thats right - back-up....).
Will catch up a bit!
I find it amazing looking at the sheer volume of information out there that is available in the cyber library. I guess it is similar to walking into a research library on a University campus. Where to start? My normal day to day news is always CNN and Skynews or the BBC if they annoy me. For Euro specific news, where else but to EuroNews? For a quick browse around what has happened in Ireland, I head to the national broadcaster, RTE. For South Africa, I would head over to The Star, which used to be my daily hard copy read.
Then there is tech news. And here the confusion begins. At present I read a few, being Digg, naturally. Someone at Me.dium quite aptly likened social networks to the way in which a lot of people will look at restaurants - if there is no-one there, don't bother. If there is a queue outside the door, queue up - must be good. To some extent we use social networks in the same way. If we see a number of people buzzing around a site, pop around and see why. Me.dium works that way, StumbleUpon works that way, Digg and Del.icio.us work that way. I suppose the way Digg works is that lots of stuff is thrown into the pot, but as the pot churns and more people read things, that is read and gets lots of attention rises to the top. Sort of like the froth on a good beer!
But I digress, as always. Further Tech sites that I frequent would be TechMeme (recent addition courtesy of Mick on Tangle - thanks Mick!) and ComputerWorld, besides my normal CNet.
More than that is just not possible. I also listen to my podcasts on my daily trips to and from work, spending between 1.5 and 2 hours daily commuting, depending on the traffic, it gives me a great way of catching up. If you've missed the early blogs, I subscribe via my RSS feeds to FeedDemon and NewsGator to The World, TwiT, including Amber and Leo on Net@nite, Technology Podcasts and BBC daily news updates. I have a Sansa MP3 player and load it onto that. I have some music on the Sansa as well, but have never actually used it to listen to music.
Since the demise of Mother Jones Radio, I have not really found any decent sites with American news and politics on it. I REALLY miss Mother Jones Radio podcasts. If you know of any, send me an email or post a comment and share it.
And my colleague Simon reminded me of how good LifeHacker is for great technology tips! Simon is a ferocious reader of hte web. if it exists, Simon will find it. I might give him author status on the web and he can give you HIS take on life and technology! A site that I regularly read for updates on what is happening in Content and the Media industry is just that Total Content & Media. However, you have to subscribe (for free) to the daily newsletter, and there is just so much to read! However, to cut through this they have a blog, i-on-digital, which is updated as and when with just the essence of the site for those who want a flavour, but not the full gamut of news.
Lastly for today, just a quick one lala.com. A music site with a bit of a difference. They offer free streaming music (they pay a monthly fee per subscriber to the music industry) and then offer music for download fully iPod compatible. However, it is only sold by album, not per song. They also seem to offer a swap section where you can swap music. I haven't spent much time on it yet (corrupted the Registry file on the PC at home, so been spending 2 fruitless evenings trying to fix it, and eventually gave up - last night reinstalled windows and now going through the painful process of reinstalling everything because I did not do a?....... thats right - back-up....).
Will catch up a bit!
Tuesday 5 June 2007
Question: Just how social can social be?
Following a rather wet bank holiday week-end here in Ireland, it is finally working day Tuesday and the weather seems to be brightening up. Great. Just in time as we head back indoors into the office. Well timed. We wouldn't want to get any of that awful suntan stuff now would we? I think this is part of the Health and Safety conspiracy of the EU nanny state. They have taken control of the weather and send the sun indoors when we head outdoors to ensure we have sufficient sun radiation protection. This is Big Brother gone BIG! George Orwell, 1984, eat your heart out.
Had a diverse week-end. Our local parish priest (Catholic) is busy doing a PhD in Dublin and is looking at how the Catholic Church can/should tap into the use of the earthly power of the good old WWW to tap into the youth market. Helped him with some reviews and comments. I think it is a great idea. There is so much rubbish out there that it would be great to get some good to balance it out!
Have been catching up with all my podcasts. As you may know (if you have been reading this blog for a while), one of my favourite podcasts is TWiT with Leo Laporte. I have just finished listening to episodes 96 to 99, and they are getting more and more chatty and longer and longer and longer.... Leo seems to forget that podcasts are for people with shorter attention span. We all suffer from WADS (WWW Attention span Deficit Syndrome), that leads to that well known modern entertainment habit of 'snack culture'. 50 minutes plus for a podcast is getting right up to the limit of my attention span and time available to listen to it.
Anyhow, that is my gripe for the day.
Found something interesting on the web, that I suppose fits right in with the singles scene of today (I am happily married - or at least I am under the impression I am. I trust my wife has a similar impression). Going this way out. It is a site for local events where people can get invited to events. Perhaps the B,C & D-list of events for people who are not on the A-list?... :-) It is only for Boston, New York and San Francisco at present. In Dublin you have the Event Guide, that is issued weekly in hard copy, and of course we have all seen the trusty old Where magazine in hotel lobbies when we travel. So, it seems that, in addition to sites like Yelp, MenuPages.ie and MenuPages.com, there are different levels of entertainment guides, from those for the more mature set, to those for the young and younger at heart to the latest social scene interactive party animal stuff such as Going! Well, if you look at Going, and it is VERY local at present, and you look at something more mature such as Where Magazine, it would be great to have a Where with all the locations they cover, but with 2 choices - Fuddy Duddy staid (for me...) and Party Animal (the Going crowd)? I like the Where Magazine style, but I think something like Going has a lot of mileage. It fits into the whole Twitter and Jaiku scene with local presence messaging through nano-blogging. I can certainly see the mix working. If you're into Jaiku and Twitter, you could well enjoy Going.
So, the answer to the question iss that social can be VERY social indeed! I wonder if they ever sleep?.......
Had a diverse week-end. Our local parish priest (Catholic) is busy doing a PhD in Dublin and is looking at how the Catholic Church can/should tap into the use of the earthly power of the good old WWW to tap into the youth market. Helped him with some reviews and comments. I think it is a great idea. There is so much rubbish out there that it would be great to get some good to balance it out!
Have been catching up with all my podcasts. As you may know (if you have been reading this blog for a while), one of my favourite podcasts is TWiT with Leo Laporte. I have just finished listening to episodes 96 to 99, and they are getting more and more chatty and longer and longer and longer.... Leo seems to forget that podcasts are for people with shorter attention span. We all suffer from WADS (WWW Attention span Deficit Syndrome), that leads to that well known modern entertainment habit of 'snack culture'. 50 minutes plus for a podcast is getting right up to the limit of my attention span and time available to listen to it.
Anyhow, that is my gripe for the day.
Found something interesting on the web, that I suppose fits right in with the singles scene of today (I am happily married - or at least I am under the impression I am. I trust my wife has a similar impression). Going this way out. It is a site for local events where people can get invited to events. Perhaps the B,C & D-list of events for people who are not on the A-list?... :-) It is only for Boston, New York and San Francisco at present. In Dublin you have the Event Guide, that is issued weekly in hard copy, and of course we have all seen the trusty old Where magazine in hotel lobbies when we travel. So, it seems that, in addition to sites like Yelp, MenuPages.ie and MenuPages.com, there are different levels of entertainment guides, from those for the more mature set, to those for the young and younger at heart to the latest social scene interactive party animal stuff such as Going! Well, if you look at Going, and it is VERY local at present, and you look at something more mature such as Where Magazine, it would be great to have a Where with all the locations they cover, but with 2 choices - Fuddy Duddy staid (for me...) and Party Animal (the Going crowd)? I like the Where Magazine style, but I think something like Going has a lot of mileage. It fits into the whole Twitter and Jaiku scene with local presence messaging through nano-blogging. I can certainly see the mix working. If you're into Jaiku and Twitter, you could well enjoy Going.
So, the answer to the question iss that social can be VERY social indeed! I wonder if they ever sleep?.......
Wednesday 30 May 2007
Quick updates!
Well, got into the office this morning and two emails received related to last night's posting, that deserve a mention.
First of all was a quick note from a crazy Aussie called Mick ( allow me to explain the choice of adjective - I am a South African. By definition therefore ALL Australians are crazy. I am not sure why, it is simply a South African thing. Probably because they have been beating us at cricket and rugby more often than not over the last decade). Mick is on Tangler, and he has links to the broadest range of curiosities that I have seen in a while. Click here to see Mick's interesting list of links. From way up here in Ireland, from someone from the Southern Hemisphere, to that crazy Ozz down under - G'day Mate!!!
Next was a note from Greg Barton, CEO of Slick City Media in THE Big Apple, NYC. Greg pointed me to the original Menu Pages, of which the Irish Menu pages is a slick imitation he says - sincerest form of flattery as Greg was saying. Well, now why should the Dublin and New York City sites not have links to each other if their readers and followers hop across the pond for a holiday or business trip? Had a quick look through the New York Menu Pages and it is slick and great listings! Next time I am in the Big Apple, I sure know where I will be finding my restaurant guide! Had a quick look for African ethnic restaurants (I may be a white African, but it is and will always remain my birth place!). If there are any other really good restaurant listings out there - let me know. Perhaps we can create a mash-up with all the best listings for the frequent traveler or adventurous vacationers? Meanwhile I will put the links onto my Links on this page!
Isn't the Internet just great?!?!
First of all was a quick note from a crazy Aussie called Mick ( allow me to explain the choice of adjective - I am a South African. By definition therefore ALL Australians are crazy. I am not sure why, it is simply a South African thing. Probably because they have been beating us at cricket and rugby more often than not over the last decade). Mick is on Tangler, and he has links to the broadest range of curiosities that I have seen in a while. Click here to see Mick's interesting list of links. From way up here in Ireland, from someone from the Southern Hemisphere, to that crazy Ozz down under - G'day Mate!!!
Next was a note from Greg Barton, CEO of Slick City Media in THE Big Apple, NYC. Greg pointed me to the original Menu Pages, of which the Irish Menu pages is a slick imitation he says - sincerest form of flattery as Greg was saying. Well, now why should the Dublin and New York City sites not have links to each other if their readers and followers hop across the pond for a holiday or business trip? Had a quick look through the New York Menu Pages and it is slick and great listings! Next time I am in the Big Apple, I sure know where I will be finding my restaurant guide! Had a quick look for African ethnic restaurants (I may be a white African, but it is and will always remain my birth place!). If there are any other really good restaurant listings out there - let me know. Perhaps we can create a mash-up with all the best listings for the frequent traveler or adventurous vacationers? Meanwhile I will put the links onto my Links on this page!
Isn't the Internet just great?!?!
Tuesday 29 May 2007
Webware Software Nominations
Feels more like Ireland these days - had been raining a bit the last two weeks. Life has been hectic over the last two weeks since I last updated the blog. Have changed direction from wireless broadband to green energy, but more about that in the future.
I received email from two of my programs that I use - Me.dium and BlogRvr, to say they have been nominated for the WebWare 100 2007 awards! So, being the obliging user that I am I promptly toodled over and voted. I am way behind with everything at present. I have only just updated my podcasts this week and am catching up on all of May. Oh lord, my ears are ringing.
Anyhow, on to other things. A friend from South Africa sent me a link to an 8 minute video from South Africa on YouTube titled 'Battle at Kruger'. It is spectacular if you love wildlife, as any self respecting South African does. Some more great videos at the same area. One about poking a big cat (Leopard released back into the wild, and it got a bit upset...) and you should not do that to a leopard, unless you are willing to bear the consequences. And consequences there were alright.
On to WebWare nominations in the social networking section. Most of them are all old familiar friends, LinkedIn, Me.dium, FaceBook, Friendster, Bebo etc. One curiously named one that caught my attention was Squidoo. They allow users to create 'lenses' into their world and passions. You can build your own lense, or just browse others'. If you go over onto the site, look in the bottom right hand corner for 'things you did not know'. One of them is 'Where to find weird and whacky news'. Cute site. Worth browsing.
Next is Tangler. Now this is an interesting one. I haven't spent much time on it, but it seems to have a discussion forum on testing of Web 2.0 sites that I have never heard about anywhere. THAT is going to keep me busy for a while. LOTS of fascinating stuff! Anyhow. It is linked on my del.icio.us links page if you miss it. I will definitely be exploring some of these.
Now here is another one that most of us could use at some stage or another - Yelp! It is a review of restaurants or shops by the people for the people! Only one teensy weensy little problem. It is American only at this stage. There is one for Ireland though called MenuPages. It is super! It is not as extensive in terms of coverage as Yelp is trying to do, but for eating out, it is great! Would it not be great to get a site that links them all together?
It is great to see that Web 2.0 IPO's are successful again. Blinx has made its debut on the boards and seems to be going strong. That is fantastic because I think it is a great site with real products, not just proposals of what it is going to do. I still browse it regularly and I still think it is great. To me it is the Google of video.
OK, that is it for today! Happy browsing! And, if you get bored, head over to Virb and sample some music, or just go Stumble, else watch some videos on Blinx!
I received email from two of my programs that I use - Me.dium and BlogRvr, to say they have been nominated for the WebWare 100 2007 awards! So, being the obliging user that I am I promptly toodled over and voted. I am way behind with everything at present. I have only just updated my podcasts this week and am catching up on all of May. Oh lord, my ears are ringing.
Anyhow, on to other things. A friend from South Africa sent me a link to an 8 minute video from South Africa on YouTube titled 'Battle at Kruger'. It is spectacular if you love wildlife, as any self respecting South African does. Some more great videos at the same area. One about poking a big cat (Leopard released back into the wild, and it got a bit upset...) and you should not do that to a leopard, unless you are willing to bear the consequences. And consequences there were alright.
On to WebWare nominations in the social networking section. Most of them are all old familiar friends, LinkedIn, Me.dium, FaceBook, Friendster, Bebo etc. One curiously named one that caught my attention was Squidoo. They allow users to create 'lenses' into their world and passions. You can build your own lense, or just browse others'. If you go over onto the site, look in the bottom right hand corner for 'things you did not know'. One of them is 'Where to find weird and whacky news'. Cute site. Worth browsing.
Next is Tangler. Now this is an interesting one. I haven't spent much time on it, but it seems to have a discussion forum on testing of Web 2.0 sites that I have never heard about anywhere. THAT is going to keep me busy for a while. LOTS of fascinating stuff! Anyhow. It is linked on my del.icio.us links page if you miss it. I will definitely be exploring some of these.
Now here is another one that most of us could use at some stage or another - Yelp! It is a review of restaurants or shops by the people for the people! Only one teensy weensy little problem. It is American only at this stage. There is one for Ireland though called MenuPages. It is super! It is not as extensive in terms of coverage as Yelp is trying to do, but for eating out, it is great! Would it not be great to get a site that links them all together?
It is great to see that Web 2.0 IPO's are successful again. Blinx has made its debut on the boards and seems to be going strong. That is fantastic because I think it is a great site with real products, not just proposals of what it is going to do. I still browse it regularly and I still think it is great. To me it is the Google of video.
OK, that is it for today! Happy browsing! And, if you get bored, head over to Virb and sample some music, or just go Stumble, else watch some videos on Blinx!
Thursday 24 May 2007
So I didn't quite manage to be as productive as I intended
Just a quick note:
CNet's Webware 100 nominations for Web 2.0 applications is out.
Categories - Browsing, Communications, Community, Data, Entertainment, Media, Mobile, Productivity, Publishing and Reference. Here is your opportunity to let YOUR vote count!
Go and browse and cast your vote for your favourite applications.
Ah go on, you know you want to....
CNet's Webware 100 nominations for Web 2.0 applications is out.
Categories - Browsing, Communications, Community, Data, Entertainment, Media, Mobile, Productivity, Publishing and Reference. Here is your opportunity to let YOUR vote count!
Go and browse and cast your vote for your favourite applications.
Ah go on, you know you want to....
Tuesday 15 May 2007
Another week gone by
Tempus fugit is the time honoured old Latin saying. Well, it sure did this last week. I have no idea where the time went. Between getting back from Prague to Ireland midnight on Thursday and a wedding anniversary on Monday (I remembered, I'm OK..), the time flew past. weather has been mixed with fair bit of rain. Not complaining though because it saves me from having to water the garden!
I have spent some time looking for a way to 'spruce up' my tired old Windows XP interface other than just changing the wallpaper all the time. After all, XP is 5 years+. However, I'm nervous about Vista as there are some issues with laptops and batteries that seem to be the current debate, plus I'm not sure my programs I use are all Vista capable and I only have 512Mb of RAM on my trusty old laptop. Thus, no upgrade just yet, although for the past 25 years that I have been using computers, I have tended to be at the forefront. The last time I lagged behind was switching from DOS 6 to Windows 3.1 (Didn't like the idea of using icons, pretty much like the Linux community today, but I've mellowed). Therefore the million dollar question was what to do?
So, I found this nifty section on CNet video that explained how to 'upgrade'without changing your Operating System using WindowsX (one of my early blogs). However, over time I got frustrated with my system seemingly slowing down and I eventually bowed out and reinstalled Windows a few weeks back.
So, what to do?
OK, so today I installed some Yahoo! Widgets. Then I set Windows Taskbar to 'autohide'. My desktop was cluttered with Icons, and it looked yucky. Tacky and worn. With my new widgets I now changed the settings on the Desktop to not show the Desktop Icons anymore (right click/Arrange Icons By/Show Desktop Icons). Result? A neat clean desktop with some neat widgets showing the weather in Dublin, some stock ticker results, a small window showing Flickr photos, and of course the obligatory analog clock. Then you go and browse the Widget Gallery and it is mind blowing stuff. There is just so much, your head spins. But, what the heck, you can easily delete them again, so this is like 'window shopping' in the 'Yahoo! widget mall'!
OK, I must admit that I then decided that I wanted to change the WindowsXP theme for a more Vista look, mostly for my taskbar, but I wasn't interested again in going through the whole system file change thing. One small problem. Windows will prevent you from loading 'unapproved' Theme files. So, you have to modify the uxtheme.dll file in /windows/system32. There is a file changer that will do that to enable it to accept other Theme files. It is a bit risky, so I am not going to detail that here at present, until I am satisfied that my system is stable. If you want to you can run a search on Lifehacker. Anyhow, then I found some Theme files, and found that I could not install them from Desktop/Properties but had to select the Theme then open it for the system to 'install' it into Desktop. First time round I had some problems, but after a second reboot, it worked! So, now I have a neat desktop again, widgets to do stuff and the Vista Aero look and feel for my desktop. Great! And, it still feels 'quick'! One of the things I recently did was to defragment my hard drive (I do that weekly) and then use a security utility to wipe the free space by overwriting 'deleted' files on the hard drive to clean it up (Windows only deletes the reference to the data, it doesn't actually delete it from the hard disk, which is why you can 'undelete' files). And, as my drive was getting a bit old, I also ran chkdsk /R from the command prompts to check the hard disk for errors and fix any problems it finds. It can only do it on a reboot and it takes up to an hour depending on your disk size, so be sure to have a cuppa and something to read if you do it. But, the results are magic. My disk performs as new again!
Anyhow, Stumbled again, and found a few interesting ones. Browsed Lifehacker's blog again and he covered an interesting utility called 'Pistaschio' that allows you to tweak Windows.
Also found a site with some beautiful and unusual images taken in China, an area that few of us will ever see, and scenes that even fewer of us will get to. These images capture some spectacular moments in time that are worth browsing. I 'Dugg' it with Digg and saved it in my Del.icio.us list. All these magnificent images are making my fingers itch to get my hands on a really good camera again. I currently have a Canon Powershot A90, which is great for the price, but looking at some of the pictures people have taken, and some of the scenes I sometimes see early morning in particular when I'm driving to work, I am getting the photography bug again.
So, now I am using Pixmania.com to hunt for cameras again. Love the idea of a good Canon or Nikon, but previously had a Pentax, but also used to dream of an Olympus. However, the Olympus does not seem to have the same features and ISO range as the others.
I am still indecisive and browsing/windows shopping! Any advice, feel free to drop me a line. I am going to head over to Flickr and have a look see at some of the comments there and perhaps Yahoo! Groups' photography section and DPReview.com too.
I have spent some time looking for a way to 'spruce up' my tired old Windows XP interface other than just changing the wallpaper all the time. After all, XP is 5 years+. However, I'm nervous about Vista as there are some issues with laptops and batteries that seem to be the current debate, plus I'm not sure my programs I use are all Vista capable and I only have 512Mb of RAM on my trusty old laptop. Thus, no upgrade just yet, although for the past 25 years that I have been using computers, I have tended to be at the forefront. The last time I lagged behind was switching from DOS 6 to Windows 3.1 (Didn't like the idea of using icons, pretty much like the Linux community today, but I've mellowed). Therefore the million dollar question was what to do?
So, I found this nifty section on CNet video that explained how to 'upgrade'without changing your Operating System using WindowsX (one of my early blogs). However, over time I got frustrated with my system seemingly slowing down and I eventually bowed out and reinstalled Windows a few weeks back.
So, what to do?
OK, so today I installed some Yahoo! Widgets. Then I set Windows Taskbar to 'autohide'. My desktop was cluttered with Icons, and it looked yucky. Tacky and worn. With my new widgets I now changed the settings on the Desktop to not show the Desktop Icons anymore (right click/Arrange Icons By/Show Desktop Icons). Result? A neat clean desktop with some neat widgets showing the weather in Dublin, some stock ticker results, a small window showing Flickr photos, and of course the obligatory analog clock. Then you go and browse the Widget Gallery and it is mind blowing stuff. There is just so much, your head spins. But, what the heck, you can easily delete them again, so this is like 'window shopping' in the 'Yahoo! widget mall'!
OK, I must admit that I then decided that I wanted to change the WindowsXP theme for a more Vista look, mostly for my taskbar, but I wasn't interested again in going through the whole system file change thing. One small problem. Windows will prevent you from loading 'unapproved' Theme files. So, you have to modify the uxtheme.dll file in /windows/system32. There is a file changer that will do that to enable it to accept other Theme files. It is a bit risky, so I am not going to detail that here at present, until I am satisfied that my system is stable. If you want to you can run a search on Lifehacker. Anyhow, then I found some Theme files, and found that I could not install them from Desktop/Properties but had to select the Theme then open it for the system to 'install' it into Desktop. First time round I had some problems, but after a second reboot, it worked! So, now I have a neat desktop again, widgets to do stuff and the Vista Aero look and feel for my desktop. Great! And, it still feels 'quick'! One of the things I recently did was to defragment my hard drive (I do that weekly) and then use a security utility to wipe the free space by overwriting 'deleted' files on the hard drive to clean it up (Windows only deletes the reference to the data, it doesn't actually delete it from the hard disk, which is why you can 'undelete' files). And, as my drive was getting a bit old, I also ran chkdsk /R from the command prompts to check the hard disk for errors and fix any problems it finds. It can only do it on a reboot and it takes up to an hour depending on your disk size, so be sure to have a cuppa and something to read if you do it. But, the results are magic. My disk performs as new again!
Anyhow, Stumbled again, and found a few interesting ones. Browsed Lifehacker's blog again and he covered an interesting utility called 'Pistaschio' that allows you to tweak Windows.
Also found a site with some beautiful and unusual images taken in China, an area that few of us will ever see, and scenes that even fewer of us will get to. These images capture some spectacular moments in time that are worth browsing. I 'Dugg' it with Digg and saved it in my Del.icio.us list. All these magnificent images are making my fingers itch to get my hands on a really good camera again. I currently have a Canon Powershot A90, which is great for the price, but looking at some of the pictures people have taken, and some of the scenes I sometimes see early morning in particular when I'm driving to work, I am getting the photography bug again.
So, now I am using Pixmania.com to hunt for cameras again. Love the idea of a good Canon or Nikon, but previously had a Pentax, but also used to dream of an Olympus. However, the Olympus does not seem to have the same features and ISO range as the others.
I am still indecisive and browsing/windows shopping! Any advice, feel free to drop me a line. I am going to head over to Flickr and have a look see at some of the comments there and perhaps Yahoo! Groups' photography section and DPReview.com too.
Wednesday 9 May 2007
Greetings from Prague
Mixed weather in Prague this week. Threatening rain all the time and chilly, similar to Ireland. According to the cab driver that brought me in from the Airport, the weather pattern had been very similar to Ireland. Must be a European thing. When I was here a few weeks back, the local pizzeria that I seem to be frequenting when I go foraging for food, had the outdoor section open and jammed with clients. Last night and tonight the outdoors section is closed and the doors are shut to keep out the draft! A bit of a change...
Anyhow, I am staying in the Andels Hotel in Prague, if you are interested. Very modern hotel, but well located and extremely functional in terms of design. I don't mind 'modern', but all too often it is an excuse for minimalist design cramped into a broom cupboard. I weigh 202kg or 16.5 stone and am 6'1.5". I don't do cramped too well.
Anyhow, been spending my time catching up on my podcasts. Had enjoyed Leo and Amber on Net@Nite so much that I subscribed to the Podcast on FeedDemon, so I had some back editions to catch up on. In the latest edition, they finally copped onto Stumblr!
Another interesting blog that BlogRvr 'fetched' for me, was LifeHacker. If you are technically minded and looking for ways and means to enhance your technical life, this is just the site for you!
You know what? I have few friends, and it has never bothered me, because I am not the gregarious type. I prefer a few good quality friends of like minded people, rather than be surrounded by people who are just acquaintances. Now don't get me wrong, I am not anti-social or a snob (I think?.... or am I perhaps?...hmm.. leave that question unresolved at present), it is just the way it is. And it has never bothered me. My wife has lots of friends from childhood and school still. Prime difference is she lives about 3 miles from where she grew up. I am about 6,000 miles away. Well, it has never bothered me until I started testing all these sites. And Virb, like other social nerdwork sites... oops sorry, NETwork sites, have all these 'Friends' bits and links. And mine stubbornly remains empty. *Sigh* I am the nerdy little kid in the corner of the playground eating his little sandwich. NOW it is starting to bother me. John has 4,301 friends, click here to view all his friends, it says. Why? Why do I want to look at his friends, unless I am one?!?! OK, now I am doing my sulky kid in the playground corner act, I know, I know. Maybe this has not been such a good idea. Next thing you know, I am going to start feeling LONELY because of all the friends I DON'T have! I feel better now, I see some people ahve viewed my profile. That would have scared them! Now I feel lots better. If I can't have friends, I'll just scare them!
Anyhow, enough ranting, lets ramble! Has your memory been failing recently, or are you just into self-improvement and you want to help exercise the grey cells? Head on over to MindTools. They will have just the right medicine!
OK, I've linked my Del.icio.us account to my blog, so if you're really really bored, feel free to check out the things that fascinate me (either they fascinate me or they're work related. You go figure which is which...). I'm really getting into this Web 2.0 thing, despite the friends thing that bugs me just a tiny little bit, not much really.
Some humour - someone that was interviewed by Amber and Leo - Doug from DoogToones. These are Flash based cartoons that Doug creates. Some are quite funny plus his selection of other sites with humour. That should lighten up your day!
OK, last one for tonight - lets end on some beauty again. Recommendation from StumbleUpon tonight is TimeCatcher. Magnificent photos from various places in the world. Stunning is all I can say. It reminds us that despite the poverty, war and misery that man has created on this earth, there is still so much beauty in the midst of it all. Enjoy.
Anyhow, I am staying in the Andels Hotel in Prague, if you are interested. Very modern hotel, but well located and extremely functional in terms of design. I don't mind 'modern', but all too often it is an excuse for minimalist design cramped into a broom cupboard. I weigh 202kg or 16.5 stone and am 6'1.5". I don't do cramped too well.
Anyhow, been spending my time catching up on my podcasts. Had enjoyed Leo and Amber on Net@Nite so much that I subscribed to the Podcast on FeedDemon, so I had some back editions to catch up on. In the latest edition, they finally copped onto Stumblr!
Another interesting blog that BlogRvr 'fetched' for me, was LifeHacker. If you are technically minded and looking for ways and means to enhance your technical life, this is just the site for you!
You know what? I have few friends, and it has never bothered me, because I am not the gregarious type. I prefer a few good quality friends of like minded people, rather than be surrounded by people who are just acquaintances. Now don't get me wrong, I am not anti-social or a snob (I think?.... or am I perhaps?...hmm.. leave that question unresolved at present), it is just the way it is. And it has never bothered me. My wife has lots of friends from childhood and school still. Prime difference is she lives about 3 miles from where she grew up. I am about 6,000 miles away. Well, it has never bothered me until I started testing all these sites. And Virb, like other social nerdwork sites... oops sorry, NETwork sites, have all these 'Friends' bits and links. And mine stubbornly remains empty. *Sigh* I am the nerdy little kid in the corner of the playground eating his little sandwich. NOW it is starting to bother me. John has 4,301 friends, click here to view all his friends, it says. Why? Why do I want to look at his friends, unless I am one?!?! OK, now I am doing my sulky kid in the playground corner act, I know, I know. Maybe this has not been such a good idea. Next thing you know, I am going to start feeling LONELY because of all the friends I DON'T have! I feel better now, I see some people ahve viewed my profile. That would have scared them! Now I feel lots better. If I can't have friends, I'll just scare them!
Anyhow, enough ranting, lets ramble! Has your memory been failing recently, or are you just into self-improvement and you want to help exercise the grey cells? Head on over to MindTools. They will have just the right medicine!
OK, I've linked my Del.icio.us account to my blog, so if you're really really bored, feel free to check out the things that fascinate me (either they fascinate me or they're work related. You go figure which is which...). I'm really getting into this Web 2.0 thing, despite the friends thing that bugs me just a tiny little bit, not much really.
Some humour - someone that was interviewed by Amber and Leo - Doug from DoogToones. These are Flash based cartoons that Doug creates. Some are quite funny plus his selection of other sites with humour. That should lighten up your day!
OK, last one for tonight - lets end on some beauty again. Recommendation from StumbleUpon tonight is TimeCatcher. Magnificent photos from various places in the world. Stunning is all I can say. It reminds us that despite the poverty, war and misery that man has created on this earth, there is still so much beauty in the midst of it all. Enjoy.
Monday 7 May 2007
Posting photos is exhausting
Well, I've spent a lot of time now linking all my bits and pieces on Virb, updating my photos on Flickr, and I am exhausted. It is the end of a long week-end in Ireland. The weather had been generally pretty good this week-end, so it meant lots of activity.
OK, I have not Stumbled much this week-end, however, I found some curious blogs, using my new FireFox addon, BlogRovr.
One thing though, I am really enjoying the Net@Nite podcast with Leo Laporte and Amber McArthur. It is rapidly becoming my favourite show to listen to. They give some really nice coverage of various websites and technologies.
Not quite my scene, but if you read the various girly magazines with the latest Hollywood gossip, here is one for you, Socialite. I browsed through it, and if you are interested in what celebrities are up to (I'm boring I'm afraid, it has no interest for me, but my wife is bound to love this one...), then this should definitely go onto your Favourites list.
One I Stumbled:- Now, if you've moved out of the house and do not live with a partner and are not married, but would like someone to nag you, here is just the page for you! HassleMe! Ah go on! Read it! You KNOW you want to.... Go on... be a little devil... just a quick peek...
And the very next one on my Stumble was clever advertising photos. There really are GOOD! They are all outdoor advertising and they look really good! I smiled, and again and again.
Back with my new bestest friend - BlogRovr:- Very much in the vein of Socialite, is PopSugar. I am not good at this Hollywood celebrity stuff. If you are, drop us a comment on which one you prefer?
I will be a bit scarce this week, as I am off to Prague again for another conference. This time on my standard topic of Wireless Broadband. I might do a quick update during the week from Prague, just for fun, but broadband in hotels is pretty pricey.
OK, I have not Stumbled much this week-end, however, I found some curious blogs, using my new FireFox addon, BlogRovr.
One thing though, I am really enjoying the Net@Nite podcast with Leo Laporte and Amber McArthur. It is rapidly becoming my favourite show to listen to. They give some really nice coverage of various websites and technologies.
Not quite my scene, but if you read the various girly magazines with the latest Hollywood gossip, here is one for you, Socialite. I browsed through it, and if you are interested in what celebrities are up to (I'm boring I'm afraid, it has no interest for me, but my wife is bound to love this one...), then this should definitely go onto your Favourites list.
One I Stumbled:- Now, if you've moved out of the house and do not live with a partner and are not married, but would like someone to nag you, here is just the page for you! HassleMe! Ah go on! Read it! You KNOW you want to.... Go on... be a little devil... just a quick peek...
And the very next one on my Stumble was clever advertising photos. There really are GOOD! They are all outdoor advertising and they look really good! I smiled, and again and again.
Back with my new bestest friend - BlogRovr:- Very much in the vein of Socialite, is PopSugar. I am not good at this Hollywood celebrity stuff. If you are, drop us a comment on which one you prefer?
I will be a bit scarce this week, as I am off to Prague again for another conference. This time on my standard topic of Wireless Broadband. I might do a quick update during the week from Prague, just for fun, but broadband in hotels is pretty pricey.
Friday 4 May 2007
I am Flickr'ed, too!
OK, end of another beautiful week in Ireland. Spent some time Stumbling. Again. And, as seems to happen so often I landed on a photography site (I set Photography as one of my preferences in Stumbler), so I decided that if they are going to flaunt it, I might as well join them. So I did. Some of my many images of travels across Ireland are now available on Flickr for your enjoyment. I will upload some more over the week-end.
Having had to spend two days last week reinstalling Windows XP and reloading many of my programmes, one of the problems that I suddenly faced was synchronising my Sansa MP3 player with Windows Media Player this week. So, I decided that I definitely did not like the new interface that Microsoft had put into it as what used to be a simple process had now become painful when I wanted to update my Sansa with my latest podcasts. Must be a byproduct of some in-house genius trying to make it more Zune-able. So off I went in search of a simple tool that would allow me to sync again. I could set up Briefcase on my desktop, but I was now highly annoyed with Big Brother. And I found something very simple to set up and use - GoodSync. Moreover, best of all, it is free, gratis and for nothing! My kind of tool. Why could the rest of life not be so simple. First I told it which folder I wanted to sync (My Downloaded Podcasts) and what the folder was I wanted to sync to. Selected my Sansa MP3 player with ease and the Music folder on it. I then selected that I wanted it to sync whenever I connected my Sansa (the only reason I connect it to the computer is when I want to sync). And off it went! Brilliant! I can highly recommend it.
Then, next I had been browsing around some other blogsters. Following my earlier overview of Christoffer Allan of Alactrity's page, was similar site that did a summary overview of video websites - the DVGuru! A great overview to get a quick summary overview of the most popular sites and their good and bad points. I've commented on a number of them already, but this is just a neat summary.
Next, given all my comments anout photography and my trip to Flickr - here is the page and photographs that did it. Absolutely gorgeous images with clean crisp colourful images. I have linked it to the slideshow so you can see them all.
One of the problems that you have if you're in Ireland, is that although Amazon will happily sell me books, CD's etc. However, when it gets to electronics - nada. Nothing. Will not ship to Ireland. However, there is a site that has great cheap prices for electronics and ships to Ireland - Pixmania! They are present in a number of countries. I checked prices for camera's and laptops, and they compared extremely well to the local discount stores and they ship for delivery within days. That was great! More online window shopping for me to do - drool over some great cameras whilst I battle to make up my mind.
Then I found a curious little add on for Firefox which I will explore a bit more - called BlogRovr. Your faithfull cyberdog that fetches blogs that match what you're browsing. Haven't done mcuh with it just yet.
And the reason I haven't been able to get round it? I am back on Virb. I decided to give it a bash, and guess what? I got it to work tonight after right clicked and messed around with the settings. I right clicked on the video, clicked Settings, clicked the Folder Icon, changed the space it can use to 10Mb, clicked OK, hit refresh, then right clicked on the video and clicked Play. After that it was plain sailing - they all work! Watched a trailer, and really enjoyed it. The quality was excellent (I have a 3Mbps wireless broadband connection at home), and the size was more comfortable than most other sites I have visited recently. More important, Matt from Virb came back today, not having given up on me, and said they were working on it. I was most delighted to tell him I got it to work! It streamed great and the buffering worked very well. So I decided I might as well join it and test it more. I did. JeremyNel is now officially on Virb. I have linked in this Blog, as well as my Flickr account. I must admit, I kind of like it. I can understand why Leo Laporte and Amber McArthur on Twit.tv liked it. I think, like StumbleUpon.com, this can become one of my favourites.
OK, Friday night, I am tired, so that is it for tonight. There is still so much I want to share with you, but it will just have to wait. I will make some more time over the week-end!
Having had to spend two days last week reinstalling Windows XP and reloading many of my programmes, one of the problems that I suddenly faced was synchronising my Sansa MP3 player with Windows Media Player this week. So, I decided that I definitely did not like the new interface that Microsoft had put into it as what used to be a simple process had now become painful when I wanted to update my Sansa with my latest podcasts. Must be a byproduct of some in-house genius trying to make it more Zune-able. So off I went in search of a simple tool that would allow me to sync again. I could set up Briefcase on my desktop, but I was now highly annoyed with Big Brother. And I found something very simple to set up and use - GoodSync. Moreover, best of all, it is free, gratis and for nothing! My kind of tool. Why could the rest of life not be so simple. First I told it which folder I wanted to sync (My Downloaded Podcasts) and what the folder was I wanted to sync to. Selected my Sansa MP3 player with ease and the Music folder on it. I then selected that I wanted it to sync whenever I connected my Sansa (the only reason I connect it to the computer is when I want to sync). And off it went! Brilliant! I can highly recommend it.
Then, next I had been browsing around some other blogsters. Following my earlier overview of Christoffer Allan of Alactrity's page, was similar site that did a summary overview of video websites - the DVGuru! A great overview to get a quick summary overview of the most popular sites and their good and bad points. I've commented on a number of them already, but this is just a neat summary.
Next, given all my comments anout photography and my trip to Flickr - here is the page and photographs that did it. Absolutely gorgeous images with clean crisp colourful images. I have linked it to the slideshow so you can see them all.
One of the problems that you have if you're in Ireland, is that although Amazon will happily sell me books, CD's etc. However, when it gets to electronics - nada. Nothing. Will not ship to Ireland. However, there is a site that has great cheap prices for electronics and ships to Ireland - Pixmania! They are present in a number of countries. I checked prices for camera's and laptops, and they compared extremely well to the local discount stores and they ship for delivery within days. That was great! More online window shopping for me to do - drool over some great cameras whilst I battle to make up my mind.
Then I found a curious little add on for Firefox which I will explore a bit more - called BlogRovr. Your faithfull cyberdog that fetches blogs that match what you're browsing. Haven't done mcuh with it just yet.
And the reason I haven't been able to get round it? I am back on Virb. I decided to give it a bash, and guess what? I got it to work tonight after right clicked and messed around with the settings. I right clicked on the video, clicked Settings, clicked the Folder Icon, changed the space it can use to 10Mb, clicked OK, hit refresh, then right clicked on the video and clicked Play. After that it was plain sailing - they all work! Watched a trailer, and really enjoyed it. The quality was excellent (I have a 3Mbps wireless broadband connection at home), and the size was more comfortable than most other sites I have visited recently. More important, Matt from Virb came back today, not having given up on me, and said they were working on it. I was most delighted to tell him I got it to work! It streamed great and the buffering worked very well. So I decided I might as well join it and test it more. I did. JeremyNel is now officially on Virb. I have linked in this Blog, as well as my Flickr account. I must admit, I kind of like it. I can understand why Leo Laporte and Amber McArthur on Twit.tv liked it. I think, like StumbleUpon.com, this can become one of my favourites.
OK, Friday night, I am tired, so that is it for tonight. There is still so much I want to share with you, but it will just have to wait. I will make some more time over the week-end!
Thursday 3 May 2007
Virb is virby awake!
I guess I may have to eat some of my words tonight. Last night I commented on the problems I had with getting the video on Virb to stream. Well, guess what? I just received an email from Matt at Virb a while back asking if he can help. Now, THAT is impressive! :-)
Well I tried it again tonight and am getting the same effect in both IE 7 and FireFox, then realised I can get some seconds of it. I have sent Matt some screenshots and info, because I suspect it may have something to do with Flash 8.0 because I have tried it even with my firewall disabled. So, it is still not working for me, but I am very sure that I will be able to report soon enough that it is working, if the service so far is anything to go by! Will keep you posted.
So for tonight I went Stumbling again. Found this site with a really a great name - Grumblebum! One of the utilities allows you to convert video, sound or other media files to any other format! There was another one that I reviewed earlier on 11 April - Zamzar, that does the similar thing. Must say that on a quick overview, there does not appear to be any significant variance. So remember it if you find yourself stuck and you want to convert some files.
So, after stumbling for a little while I decided that I still have an unfinished review of the 25 Start-ups to watch from CNN Money. So back I went and the next on the list was BlipTV. Nice design. Their mission? According to them: "Our mission is to make this even easier by taking care of all the problems a budding videoblogger, podcaster or Internet TV producer would run into. We'll take care of the servers, the software, the workflow, the advertising and the distribution. Your focus should be on creativity." The content is split between Episodes and Shows. I decided to have a look at some episodes of the Ministry of Unknown Science video podcasts. Very amusing. Not an unusual site I guess as various others are doing similar things, but I guess that if they support the various different formats they state they do, they will enable more people to use their service for hosting their shows, for people like you and me to watch. CNN commented: "A deal is already signed with Web TV service Akimbo, which lets producers send their videos to TV sets." So, this may be an interesting one to watch.
I am being distracted a bit by my wife looking at Grand Designs on Channel 4. She is fascinated by the houses people build or refurbish.
Anyhow. I decided to Google "Social Networks" and came across a few interesting blogs that discuss Social Networks. One that I enjoyed most, was from Christopher Allan of Life with Alactrity. He has signed up with various networks and gives a great detailed overview of the UI (User Interface) and ease of use of each of them on the link I gave. One of the first he details is Ryze, which I had not yet come across. I clicked through to it, but it seems very similar to LinkedIn that I use, except that LinkedIn is more business networking oriented, and does not use the term 'Friends' which is very popular with social networking sites and tools, such as Twitter and Jaiku.
What is interesting when you read other people's blogs, is that we all have a few favourites, happily browse around with others, but seldom delve deeply into too many. And I suppose that is the reason for so many different sites surviving - each appeals to something within us and when we find the one or two that generally hits the sweet spot of accord within us, we settle down with them and only depart when pushed or prodded by peer pressure or other influences.
I guess if you're reading this, you may still be browsing, or you just enjoy finding something different every now and then! Happy hunting, and, if you do find something interesting, please feel free to share it via a comment.
Well I tried it again tonight and am getting the same effect in both IE 7 and FireFox, then realised I can get some seconds of it. I have sent Matt some screenshots and info, because I suspect it may have something to do with Flash 8.0 because I have tried it even with my firewall disabled. So, it is still not working for me, but I am very sure that I will be able to report soon enough that it is working, if the service so far is anything to go by! Will keep you posted.
So for tonight I went Stumbling again. Found this site with a really a great name - Grumblebum! One of the utilities allows you to convert video, sound or other media files to any other format! There was another one that I reviewed earlier on 11 April - Zamzar, that does the similar thing. Must say that on a quick overview, there does not appear to be any significant variance. So remember it if you find yourself stuck and you want to convert some files.
So, after stumbling for a little while I decided that I still have an unfinished review of the 25 Start-ups to watch from CNN Money. So back I went and the next on the list was BlipTV. Nice design. Their mission? According to them: "Our mission is to make this even easier by taking care of all the problems a budding videoblogger, podcaster or Internet TV producer would run into. We'll take care of the servers, the software, the workflow, the advertising and the distribution. Your focus should be on creativity." The content is split between Episodes and Shows. I decided to have a look at some episodes of the Ministry of Unknown Science video podcasts. Very amusing. Not an unusual site I guess as various others are doing similar things, but I guess that if they support the various different formats they state they do, they will enable more people to use their service for hosting their shows, for people like you and me to watch. CNN commented: "A deal is already signed with Web TV service Akimbo, which lets producers send their videos to TV sets." So, this may be an interesting one to watch.
I am being distracted a bit by my wife looking at Grand Designs on Channel 4. She is fascinated by the houses people build or refurbish.
Anyhow. I decided to Google "Social Networks" and came across a few interesting blogs that discuss Social Networks. One that I enjoyed most, was from Christopher Allan of Life with Alactrity. He has signed up with various networks and gives a great detailed overview of the UI (User Interface) and ease of use of each of them on the link I gave. One of the first he details is Ryze, which I had not yet come across. I clicked through to it, but it seems very similar to LinkedIn that I use, except that LinkedIn is more business networking oriented, and does not use the term 'Friends' which is very popular with social networking sites and tools, such as Twitter and Jaiku.
What is interesting when you read other people's blogs, is that we all have a few favourites, happily browse around with others, but seldom delve deeply into too many. And I suppose that is the reason for so many different sites surviving - each appeals to something within us and when we find the one or two that generally hits the sweet spot of accord within us, we settle down with them and only depart when pushed or prodded by peer pressure or other influences.
I guess if you're reading this, you may still be browsing, or you just enjoy finding something different every now and then! Happy hunting, and, if you do find something interesting, please feel free to share it via a comment.
Wednesday 2 May 2007
Da Vinci Code cracked - musically speaking
Stuck away in a corner of CNet's news today was a small piece on Rosslyn Chapel. Yes, THE Rosslyn Chapel of Da Vinci Code fame. It related to the code that has been cracked. Not the Da Vinci code mind, but a music code that is embedded in the roof carvings. Read the story and download the music from the Telegraph here.
Now, as promised, I am trying to be a little more diligent. OK, so I've spent some time on Virb, having a quick gander at it. Interesting. It is still in the starter phase, and as with most sites, it has major ambitions, but is only halfway there. As per my previous blog, Leo and Amber were discussing Virb extensively. Leo commented that MySpace had failed to develop since it became such a phenomenon. Sites like Virb are looking to fill the space by adding features that take up where MySpace leaves off. I must admit to not being overly familiar with MySpace, so I cannot comment. So, I shall rely on the expertise of Leo and Amber, and they were both seriously impressed with Virb. What I liked about it was that it had a nice look and feel to it, and it had some music from various bands that I was clueless about (I guess they were mostly American), but I enjoyed browsing through some of them. If you enjoy music, even if you're not quite a fan of Indie/Rock, then head over and have a look. I tried to look at some of the videos, but something didn't work for me. I got loading..loading...loading and nothing. Zip. Might be my wireless system in the house, although it doesn't have a problem with CNN and other video. Maybe it will work for you, or perhaps it just happened to be a glitch when I tried it.
Oh, headed over to Uvu again (Video site that promises to revolutionize web video with great quality). Site has been updated, and now looks like a video site, but great promises, but when you try to download the player (you have to have THEIR player), then it tells you it is not yet available. Will keep checking.
Tried to play with Joost again (managed to get an invitation to the Beta). It obviously doesn't really like my laptop, or my wireless connection. It did seem to say it needed around 512Mb of of RAM, but my guess is that 1Gb is better. The quality is pretty good, but I am still not able to really tell. The problem too is that the licenses that they have for the various programmes are split between USA only, USA and UK and Worldwide. Being out in Ireland, my choices are pretty limited. The one that I REALLY wanted to try, was National Geographic. Guess what, not available to me. *Sigh*
I must admit that I am more and more reminded of the good old days in the early nineties when Microsoft used to sell Vapourware. Concept software that wasn't developed just yet, just to see if the market was interested in it before they spent the money developing it. Sound familiar?
Anyhow, that is it for tonight. Oh, one last thing. I referred to Google's search history bit in my previous blog, based on Leo's comments on TWiT. So I went into Google and did some checking and don't worry, they are not accumulating billions of searches just yet. Have a read over on their site if you're interested. However, you need a Google Account to access it (I have an account as they host my blog...). Essentially you need the Google Toolbar installed and Page Ranking turned on. Then you can activate Web History, which will give you the stats that Leo was talking about. I can stop feeling uncomfortable now everytime I type in a search. Apologies to the folks in Google for jumping to conclusions in my earlier blog!
Now, as promised, I am trying to be a little more diligent. OK, so I've spent some time on Virb, having a quick gander at it. Interesting. It is still in the starter phase, and as with most sites, it has major ambitions, but is only halfway there. As per my previous blog, Leo and Amber were discussing Virb extensively. Leo commented that MySpace had failed to develop since it became such a phenomenon. Sites like Virb are looking to fill the space by adding features that take up where MySpace leaves off. I must admit to not being overly familiar with MySpace, so I cannot comment. So, I shall rely on the expertise of Leo and Amber, and they were both seriously impressed with Virb. What I liked about it was that it had a nice look and feel to it, and it had some music from various bands that I was clueless about (I guess they were mostly American), but I enjoyed browsing through some of them. If you enjoy music, even if you're not quite a fan of Indie/Rock, then head over and have a look. I tried to look at some of the videos, but something didn't work for me. I got loading..loading...loading and nothing. Zip. Might be my wireless system in the house, although it doesn't have a problem with CNN and other video. Maybe it will work for you, or perhaps it just happened to be a glitch when I tried it.
Oh, headed over to Uvu again (Video site that promises to revolutionize web video with great quality). Site has been updated, and now looks like a video site, but great promises, but when you try to download the player (you have to have THEIR player), then it tells you it is not yet available. Will keep checking.
Tried to play with Joost again (managed to get an invitation to the Beta). It obviously doesn't really like my laptop, or my wireless connection. It did seem to say it needed around 512Mb of of RAM, but my guess is that 1Gb is better. The quality is pretty good, but I am still not able to really tell. The problem too is that the licenses that they have for the various programmes are split between USA only, USA and UK and Worldwide. Being out in Ireland, my choices are pretty limited. The one that I REALLY wanted to try, was National Geographic. Guess what, not available to me. *Sigh*
I must admit that I am more and more reminded of the good old days in the early nineties when Microsoft used to sell Vapourware. Concept software that wasn't developed just yet, just to see if the market was interested in it before they spent the money developing it. Sound familiar?
Anyhow, that is it for tonight. Oh, one last thing. I referred to Google's search history bit in my previous blog, based on Leo's comments on TWiT. So I went into Google and did some checking and don't worry, they are not accumulating billions of searches just yet. Have a read over on their site if you're interested. However, you need a Google Account to access it (I have an account as they host my blog...). Essentially you need the Google Toolbar installed and Page Ranking turned on. Then you can activate Web History, which will give you the stats that Leo was talking about. I can stop feeling uncomfortable now everytime I type in a search. Apologies to the folks in Google for jumping to conclusions in my earlier blog!
Tuesday 1 May 2007
So much and so few hours in a day....
Well, I seem to be slowing down, or things are getting ahead of me. Not sure which. However, the beautiful weather of the last 2 weeks here in Dublin may have just something to do with it. Had to do some gardening to keep up appearances in the neighbourhood, haven't touched the camera for ages, and have only just today finished my presentation for the next Wireless technology conference in Prague on the 9th and 10th of May. In fact, in the last 2 weeks I hardly had time to listen to my podcasts, so for the last few days I have been in catch up mode.
So, now I have some time to get back to looking for some interesting new sites to comment on.
A reader had posted a comment recently and invited me to look at a new site that I have not yet looked at, namely Viewmy.tv. So I did. For someone such as myself, living in my new 'homeland', and knowing so many expatriates living in other countries, this is an excellent find, so thank you for bringing it to my attention. What the site does is to deliver what appears to be 'free-to-air' TV feeds of various countries categorized into genres such as news, sport, music, drama etc. and into various continental locations such as Africa, Asia and Americas, and then specific countries. Pure IPTV. The quality is acceptable for what appears to be terrestrial TV rebroadcast for mobile TV. It can play reasonably well in full screen, but is designed for small screens, my guess is mobile TV. The sound quality was fine. To test my theory, I logged onto the site with my PDA, but although the video may be designed for the small screen, the website is not and it proved impossible to negotiate it on my PDA (an O2 XDA IIi). Well, I guess it is in beta and undergoing improvements, so I presume at some stage they will produce a PDA/Mobile version.
I watched BBC News and some French TV (I cannot speak French, but that doesn't stop me...). Then switched to some Aussie sport channel. The Chelsea vs Liverpool football game is on and is now entering penalty shootout, so if things seem a bit disjointed, it may be that I was distracted. OK, it is all over. Liverpool has done it. Let me get back to business here. Quite funny that the Aussie channel happened to cover a football game when I watched, not rugby. Well worth exploring if you're living away from home, or even if you just have an interest in the rest of the world and other cultures. I watched this from my wireless connection on my laptop, and the quality was fine. Not to the level that Joost promises to deliver, when it eventually gets going, nor to the level of pure WebTV, but a welcome addition. I have seen something similar recently, but cannot find it in my del.icios.us bookmarks. So, for now, this is it. All the other sites that I have looked at is more about videos and WebTV, therefore the quality was generally slightly higher. Different media for different audiences I guess.
Been listening to Leo Laporte and Amber McArthur on Net@nite talking about the web on my podcasts again. The show is a bit long for my liking ( around and hour plus, I prefer 15 to 20 minutes, 30 minutes tops, as it fits in with my driving schedule), but very interesting and both very likable presenters of the show. I think I will subscribe to this one as well for a while. The discussed a number of YouTube videos, a list of most hated sites/words on Google, then most loved etc. On another show Leo referred to his Google account, which gives him access to all his online searches with Google. That made me feel just a bit uncomfortable. When I buy from Amazon, they use cross references with others who have bought similar items to recommend other things I may be interested in (mostly books on religious history - my current pet fascination). However, the idea that every search I type into Google is stored on a server somewhere is a bit scary and enough reason for me to switch my searches onto other search engines such as Yahoo and Ask.com. Leo was fascinated by it because it showed him his most frequent searches, the days and times he uses Google most. But to me this all smacks just a little bit too much of Big Brother thank you very much. I like to search for things, but I like it to be anonymous. If it can't be, then I will rather spread it around a bit, so as to sow confusion.
One of the other things they discussed in the middle of the show, was Leo's move from Twitter to Jaiku. Leo explained his concerns about the confusion. You will recall in one of my previous postings I gave a quick review on this as Leo had made some comment on it in the weekly TwiT Podcast. He gives some interesting differences between Twitter and Jaiku, which you can examine a bit by going to his Jaiku page, Essentially Twitter is pure and simple locational communication - 'Where are you' or 'What are you doing?'. Jaiku seems to take this to a slightly different level, allowing comments to be posted , RSS feeds to be linked in and various other links to be connected to it. It becomes a bit of a mini dairy for daily activities I guess. he stated that it becomes addictive, so watch out if you decide to dabble! You have been warned by no less a lofty public figure as the ChiefTWiT himself, so pursue it at your peril. ;-)
If you are interested in music, Leo also discussed a new site on the show for bands and their music, called www.virb.com. I have not yet had a look at it, but will let you know more about it in my next blog. I will be a bit more industrious this week, I promise.
So, now I have some time to get back to looking for some interesting new sites to comment on.
A reader had posted a comment recently and invited me to look at a new site that I have not yet looked at, namely Viewmy.tv. So I did. For someone such as myself, living in my new 'homeland', and knowing so many expatriates living in other countries, this is an excellent find, so thank you for bringing it to my attention. What the site does is to deliver what appears to be 'free-to-air' TV feeds of various countries categorized into genres such as news, sport, music, drama etc. and into various continental locations such as Africa, Asia and Americas, and then specific countries. Pure IPTV. The quality is acceptable for what appears to be terrestrial TV rebroadcast for mobile TV. It can play reasonably well in full screen, but is designed for small screens, my guess is mobile TV. The sound quality was fine. To test my theory, I logged onto the site with my PDA, but although the video may be designed for the small screen, the website is not and it proved impossible to negotiate it on my PDA (an O2 XDA IIi). Well, I guess it is in beta and undergoing improvements, so I presume at some stage they will produce a PDA/Mobile version.
I watched BBC News and some French TV (I cannot speak French, but that doesn't stop me...). Then switched to some Aussie sport channel. The Chelsea vs Liverpool football game is on and is now entering penalty shootout, so if things seem a bit disjointed, it may be that I was distracted. OK, it is all over. Liverpool has done it. Let me get back to business here. Quite funny that the Aussie channel happened to cover a football game when I watched, not rugby. Well worth exploring if you're living away from home, or even if you just have an interest in the rest of the world and other cultures. I watched this from my wireless connection on my laptop, and the quality was fine. Not to the level that Joost promises to deliver, when it eventually gets going, nor to the level of pure WebTV, but a welcome addition. I have seen something similar recently, but cannot find it in my del.icios.us bookmarks. So, for now, this is it. All the other sites that I have looked at is more about videos and WebTV, therefore the quality was generally slightly higher. Different media for different audiences I guess.
Been listening to Leo Laporte and Amber McArthur on Net@nite talking about the web on my podcasts again. The show is a bit long for my liking ( around and hour plus, I prefer 15 to 20 minutes, 30 minutes tops, as it fits in with my driving schedule), but very interesting and both very likable presenters of the show. I think I will subscribe to this one as well for a while. The discussed a number of YouTube videos, a list of most hated sites/words on Google, then most loved etc. On another show Leo referred to his Google account, which gives him access to all his online searches with Google. That made me feel just a bit uncomfortable. When I buy from Amazon, they use cross references with others who have bought similar items to recommend other things I may be interested in (mostly books on religious history - my current pet fascination). However, the idea that every search I type into Google is stored on a server somewhere is a bit scary and enough reason for me to switch my searches onto other search engines such as Yahoo and Ask.com. Leo was fascinated by it because it showed him his most frequent searches, the days and times he uses Google most. But to me this all smacks just a little bit too much of Big Brother thank you very much. I like to search for things, but I like it to be anonymous. If it can't be, then I will rather spread it around a bit, so as to sow confusion.
One of the other things they discussed in the middle of the show, was Leo's move from Twitter to Jaiku. Leo explained his concerns about the confusion. You will recall in one of my previous postings I gave a quick review on this as Leo had made some comment on it in the weekly TwiT Podcast. He gives some interesting differences between Twitter and Jaiku, which you can examine a bit by going to his Jaiku page, Essentially Twitter is pure and simple locational communication - 'Where are you' or 'What are you doing?'. Jaiku seems to take this to a slightly different level, allowing comments to be posted , RSS feeds to be linked in and various other links to be connected to it. It becomes a bit of a mini dairy for daily activities I guess. he stated that it becomes addictive, so watch out if you decide to dabble! You have been warned by no less a lofty public figure as the ChiefTWiT himself, so pursue it at your peril. ;-)
If you are interested in music, Leo also discussed a new site on the show for bands and their music, called www.virb.com. I have not yet had a look at it, but will let you know more about it in my next blog. I will be a bit more industrious this week, I promise.
Monday 23 April 2007
More technology - enough yet?...
Oh dear Lord. I cannot get away from 2 things - the weather in Ireland and technology on the Internet.
OK, lets do the weather first. It has been brilliant weather here in Dublin for the last few weeks - very little rain, average temperatures of around 15 degrees celcius and quite balmy frankly. Was in Prague last week for a day at a conference. Weather was great too... :-)...Sorry...couldn't help myself...
The conference was on the new buzzword for big ole Telco's - NGN (Next Generation Networks) and was hosted by Marcus Evans. It was one of the better conferences I've been to in ages. The interesting bit was that a colleague, Karim from AD Little consultancies in Austria, asked some of the Mobile Phone companies when they were going to make money from 'Content', and when they were going to abandon their 'walled gardens' which limits what users can do with their mobile phones. Telenor from Norway was the first one to bravely open their network to 3rd party developers and to open the garden gate so to speak. T-Mobile from Austria stated that they were opening the garden gates, but slowly.
And the reason for all of this you may ask? Well, we have been looking at all the content being developed aimed at community rating, social networks, WebTV and video content over the last few weeks. Well, this is the very stuff that is buckling the knees at the big Telcos. They have invested millions in developing their walled garden content, and the web has just passed them by...
So, now we have NGN. The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) developed a standard for NGN's (browse Wiki for some definitions and descriptions if you're interested), and part of it says that it should enable third party applications to work and integrate across it. So, now many conference organisors are arranging conferences on NGN, and everyone is trotting out theirs. NGN should enable all these applications that I am examining here to run smoothly and seamlessly across these new networks. The only issue is - they will not be making any money out of it.
This conference was about the underlying new wondrous technologies being invested to create NGN at the heart of all our favourite Telcos. It was not about figuring out how it will make them make money. The purpose is to reduce the cost of operating and managing the networks, so that we can continue to enjoy all these new wonders that the web is dishing up for us at better speeds and smoother than ever before, whilst the shareholders of these wondrous companies figure out how they can make money from it.....
Anyhow, I finally managed to get an invitation to the beta test of Joost! I have installed the beta on my laptop, but it is not working all that well in the sense that once I start it, I can't stop it, so I will have to install it on my desktop machine (a bit more horsepower...). However,the concept seems good, and quite frankly the quality is good enough for most. My bet? I think it will work. It will definitely gather a following and a chunk of market. It needs a good bit of bandwidth to work well though, at least 3Mbps. I have downloaded a video accelerator from DAP (Download Accelerator) which is supposed to speed up and improve the streaming of videos from YouTube. Must surely work for Joost video as well! I think.... Well, I will keep you up to date on my trials and travails with Joost.
Something I found that claims to be as good as Joost is Babelgum. Haven't figured it yet. The site does not appear to be that user friendly. It invites you to 'join' the beta, but it doesn't really want you to.....
The one program I am using regularly is Stumbler - I am enjoying 'stumbling' the web, because it means I have access to a whole community of people out there who are browsing the web and finding all these great little things for me to look at and report back to you about!
I go to the gym regularly, and whilst I am not quite one for star worship, t he one person I really admire for having achieved so much in his life is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And what I am enjoying is some funny videos of a VERY young Arnold on MetaCafe. Type in 'Arnold' and see what you get. Some really cute ones of him making his pectoral muscles jump, and an old interview of him in 1977 (yes, I know, 30 years ago)...
Anyhow, that is it for tonight!
OK, lets do the weather first. It has been brilliant weather here in Dublin for the last few weeks - very little rain, average temperatures of around 15 degrees celcius and quite balmy frankly. Was in Prague last week for a day at a conference. Weather was great too... :-)...Sorry...couldn't help myself...
The conference was on the new buzzword for big ole Telco's - NGN (Next Generation Networks) and was hosted by Marcus Evans. It was one of the better conferences I've been to in ages. The interesting bit was that a colleague, Karim from AD Little consultancies in Austria, asked some of the Mobile Phone companies when they were going to make money from 'Content', and when they were going to abandon their 'walled gardens' which limits what users can do with their mobile phones. Telenor from Norway was the first one to bravely open their network to 3rd party developers and to open the garden gate so to speak. T-Mobile from Austria stated that they were opening the garden gates, but slowly.
And the reason for all of this you may ask? Well, we have been looking at all the content being developed aimed at community rating, social networks, WebTV and video content over the last few weeks. Well, this is the very stuff that is buckling the knees at the big Telcos. They have invested millions in developing their walled garden content, and the web has just passed them by...
So, now we have NGN. The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) developed a standard for NGN's (browse Wiki for some definitions and descriptions if you're interested), and part of it says that it should enable third party applications to work and integrate across it. So, now many conference organisors are arranging conferences on NGN, and everyone is trotting out theirs. NGN should enable all these applications that I am examining here to run smoothly and seamlessly across these new networks. The only issue is - they will not be making any money out of it.
This conference was about the underlying new wondrous technologies being invested to create NGN at the heart of all our favourite Telcos. It was not about figuring out how it will make them make money. The purpose is to reduce the cost of operating and managing the networks, so that we can continue to enjoy all these new wonders that the web is dishing up for us at better speeds and smoother than ever before, whilst the shareholders of these wondrous companies figure out how they can make money from it.....
Anyhow, I finally managed to get an invitation to the beta test of Joost! I have installed the beta on my laptop, but it is not working all that well in the sense that once I start it, I can't stop it, so I will have to install it on my desktop machine (a bit more horsepower...). However,the concept seems good, and quite frankly the quality is good enough for most. My bet? I think it will work. It will definitely gather a following and a chunk of market. It needs a good bit of bandwidth to work well though, at least 3Mbps. I have downloaded a video accelerator from DAP (Download Accelerator) which is supposed to speed up and improve the streaming of videos from YouTube. Must surely work for Joost video as well! I think.... Well, I will keep you up to date on my trials and travails with Joost.
Something I found that claims to be as good as Joost is Babelgum. Haven't figured it yet. The site does not appear to be that user friendly. It invites you to 'join' the beta, but it doesn't really want you to.....
The one program I am using regularly is Stumbler - I am enjoying 'stumbling' the web, because it means I have access to a whole community of people out there who are browsing the web and finding all these great little things for me to look at and report back to you about!
I go to the gym regularly, and whilst I am not quite one for star worship, t he one person I really admire for having achieved so much in his life is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And what I am enjoying is some funny videos of a VERY young Arnold on MetaCafe. Type in 'Arnold' and see what you get. Some really cute ones of him making his pectoral muscles jump, and an old interview of him in 1977 (yes, I know, 30 years ago)...
Anyhow, that is it for tonight!
Wednesday 11 April 2007
I'm back! : More Cool Web apps!
OK, I've been a bit busy, and the brilliant weather in Dublin has not been a great help. Seems like summer has arrived in Ireland, and the Paddies (including plastic Paddies like myself - cheap imports...) are out en-masse, basking in the sun, because, with typical Irish optimism - "It won't last. Better enjoy it whilst we can." Dear lord, I think this 'optimism' is contagious - I seem to be saying/thinking this myself!
Well, OK, although I haven't updated my blog in a week or so, I have stored some really interesting stuff, and have some interesting updates. Remember I have been reporting on this Twitter thing and said that I was quite confused as I though it was something to do with TWiT?
Well, it seems as if Leo Lapporte of TWiT thinks so as well, and he has defected with all his 'friends', to Jaiku, a similar 'What are you doing?' type nanoblog. Read this report on WebWare - REALLY interesting reading if you're interested in the web and all its strange happenings! How to win in the Twitter vs. Jaiku battle
Leo's side of the story is posted here : Goodbye Twitter. Hello Jaiku. - LOL: The Life of Leo
This shows the power of some of the web's podcasters and the draw of their actions, and how this can have an influence on start-up technology companies. TWiT has a strong following and several hundred thousand downloads. And, given the impact of Social Networks, this spreads very quickly.
I have to admit that I have become a bit of a Stumbler. Remember I said I had installed it on my FireFox browser when I reviewed it? Well, I discovered the Friends section, so it creates its own communities and Groups, as you may remember. And then I discovered it had a section under Personal to check your personality, so being of a compulsive nature I just had to do that!
Well, it described me as personality type ISTJ (see here for the descriptions - hope I'm not giving away too much about myself here! ISTJ - Jung Type Descriptions) But, with all the stumbling I have come across some really interesting stuff. Here is one I found last night:
Tubes. Connect Instantly.
They say "Today's digital world has little to no breakpoints between work, family and friends since, for the most part, you computer is the center of your digital life. No doubt by now you have experienced the power of email and IM - now Tubes is there to pick up where these apps left off. Tubes snaps into your world by letting you create or join simple sharing communities with everyone you already know. Use Tubes to share pictures, videos, documents - anything digital, with anyone you want - anytime."
*Sigh*
I guess I might have to can that one. I have obviously failed miserably to enthuse the rest of the family!
Oh, a last quick one - if you have any interest in Ireland's history, check out a fellow stumbler's website: Celtic Historic Sites near Dublin His Stumbler profile can be found at Stumbler
Well, I'm going to be off line for a few days again as I head out to a conference in Prague, but I am bound to find some more interesting stuff, and I haven't finished the CNN.Money start-ups yet!
Well, OK, although I haven't updated my blog in a week or so, I have stored some really interesting stuff, and have some interesting updates. Remember I have been reporting on this Twitter thing and said that I was quite confused as I though it was something to do with TWiT?
Well, it seems as if Leo Lapporte of TWiT thinks so as well, and he has defected with all his 'friends', to Jaiku, a similar 'What are you doing?' type nanoblog. Read this report on WebWare - REALLY interesting reading if you're interested in the web and all its strange happenings! How to win in the Twitter vs. Jaiku battle
Leo's side of the story is posted here : Goodbye Twitter. Hello Jaiku. - LOL: The Life of Leo
This shows the power of some of the web's podcasters and the draw of their actions, and how this can have an influence on start-up technology companies. TWiT has a strong following and several hundred thousand downloads. And, given the impact of Social Networks, this spreads very quickly.
I have to admit that I have become a bit of a Stumbler. Remember I said I had installed it on my FireFox browser when I reviewed it? Well, I discovered the Friends section, so it creates its own communities and Groups, as you may remember. And then I discovered it had a section under Personal to check your personality, so being of a compulsive nature I just had to do that!
Well, it described me as personality type ISTJ (see here for the descriptions - hope I'm not giving away too much about myself here! ISTJ - Jung Type Descriptions) But, with all the stumbling I have come across some really interesting stuff. Here is one I found last night:
Tubes. Connect Instantly.
They say "Today's digital world has little to no breakpoints between work, family and friends since, for the most part, you computer is the center of your digital life. No doubt by now you have experienced the power of email and IM - now Tubes is there to pick up where these apps left off. Tubes snaps into your world by letting you create or join simple sharing communities with everyone you already know. Use Tubes to share pictures, videos, documents - anything digital, with anyone you want - anytime."
Sooo... being CO (compulsive obsessive according to my dearest loving other half, with which I naturally strongly disagree as I merely have a curious and open mind), I loaded it. The video is very interesting. For a video on how to use it, click here. Basically it is Drag and Drop Instant Messaging for your files. If you remember in the 'old day', some shops had vacuum tubes that they sent things from one part of a shop to another? Well, this does it across the Internet. Now, as per usual, I am busy recruiting my guinea pigs to test this with!
Oh, and tonight I found another interesting site: Zamzar. REALLY way-out name, and what does it do? Online file conversion from various types to others, and then it emails it to you. They have a privacy statement, and I PRESUME it means they won't add you to some spammer's database, but you never know... Anyhow, as with all start-ups, it is in Beta. If you decide to test it, there are Google ads discretely tucked in below it which can be confusing as it relates to software for file conversions. You can either select files on your PC to upload, or you can paste in a URL. It even claims to convert YouTube URL's. It can handle images, documents, music and video formats.
*Sigh*
I guess I might have to can that one. I have obviously failed miserably to enthuse the rest of the family!
Oh, a last quick one - if you have any interest in Ireland's history, check out a fellow stumbler's website: Celtic Historic Sites near Dublin His Stumbler profile can be found at Stumbler
Well, I'm going to be off line for a few days again as I head out to a conference in Prague, but I am bound to find some more interesting stuff, and I haven't finished the CNN.Money start-ups yet!
Thursday 29 March 2007
Stumbling through the web
Spent a lot of time last night browsing the web. well, OK, most of it was just stumbling along really. A few blogs ago I commented on Stumbler, and had downloaded and installed the toolbar into Firefox. I have occasionally stumbled, but last night my wife was watching a murder drama (Blue Murder if you watch Irish/UK TV), so I decided this was boring and I would browse the web, but then I kind of deviated and started to stumble. It was a lot more interesting once I got into it.
I found that they had recommended some 'friends' to me that shared similar interests. A number of them were from Canada, some from the US of A and a surprising number were from Ireland. I then discovered they had groups you could join. Sort of like Yahoo! Groups. So I decided to join the Ireland and Photography groups. This is real community web stuff if you want to meet like minded people. It shows who are online, what their preferences are and you can contact them if you wish. With your Stumbler registration it creates an Inbox for you so that when you log on you can see from the mailbox flag whether you have mail or not. It does not come to your personal mail address, unless you obviously choose to provide that to people. However, I think it is safer keeping it insulated from the rest of your life. I browsed some categories under photography, and found some really excellent pages with absolutely magnificent photos, which I gave the thumbs up, meaning I like it. You can send pages to friends, rate them, add them to your favourites, or just stumble around. Curiously I found that the Photography Group has been around since 2004. So, that means Stumbler has been around since then at least, so not nearly that new. Anyhow, I spent a delighful evening stumbling around.
So much so that I forgot to update my podcasts on my Sandisk, so I ended up listening to music coming into the office. The podcasts for the last week had been from the BBC Archives, entitled Rice Bowl, and it dealt with rice production in China, Bangladesh and Japan. It featured discussions with farmers for their views, ordinary young people about what they eat and how much rice they consume and why, and then a general view of life in the area and the crops. For someone born and bred in a city and who eats rice maybe once or twice a week, it is fascinating, particularly as I had only been to Bangladesh, and had seen what the monsoon does to that country, and had never been to either Japan or China. I also listed to part 1 and 2 on the history of slavery and the period leading up to the emancipation of the slaves with the abolition of slavery. Eyewitness Iraq dealt with the effects the war has had on the lifes of ordinary people in Iraq. The news always focuses on the soldiers that have died and the carbombs, but we tend to forget about the humanitarian aspect of it - how it affects the ordinary people who are simply trying to live their lives and survive. I guess that is what I like about the BBC Archives - it helps me maintain a balanced outlook on the rest of the world that is out there, so that I do not just immerse myself into the wonders of technology and the Internet, but that I remember that the world is more than just me and my computerised view of it.
Anyhow, enough philosophy for today. I also browsed through some of CNN Moneys other start-ups to watch. The next on the list was Revision3. The overview said it was a production studio for geek oriented online shows. Well, I couldn't have said it better myself. They produce a series of video podcasts (or vodcasts as some would have it be) which you can download to your MP3 player or iTunes. Some names: Diggnation (Revision3 was started by the Digg founder Kevin Rose...), Geekdrome, Ctrl-Alt-Chicken, NotMTV, The Totally Rad Show etc. As you can see by the names, very geeky and cheeky. They also have individual sites for the shows, where you can browse the backlog, read the discussions etc. iFanBoy does some book reviews - this week is Michael Moore. From my own experience I suggest you download the show and not try to watch it online. I have a great connection that I work from, yet using Qtime, which it requires, I found it very intermittent. They make their money by selling sponsorships for each episode to companies like Sony, Microsoft and Go Daddy. Well, I guess I finally found where the production house is!
It is very interesting, being part of a business that sells broadband connections off its own network. The payments made by users are declining in real terms (prices staying static) and the bandwidth provided is increasing each year. Therefore for the operator of the network, costs are increasing by inflation, prices are fixed and the only way to make money is to increase the subscriber base. The big debate is net neutrality and how to monetise traffic across the Internet and increase ARPU (Average Revenue Per Unit - that is right, we are all measured as units...). The problem for carriers is that the traffic originates at one point and terminates at the other, and flows across their networks, using the bandwidth they sell for very little money at a fixed price, to generate money at either of the end points for someone else. And, to add insult to injury, one of the end points would be a services server, delivering content from any number of the sites we have been looking at. And, although many fail, and more slide into oblivion, the question for these sites too has been how to monitise their services. And the answer generally is that if you generate enough traffic, you can use advertising. Advertising on the Internet as a marketing medium is growing rapidly again after the lull caused by the Dot.com bust around the millenium. Led obviously by Internet advertising giants, Google, this moves revenues around the Internet across multiple sites in small amounts at a time. Now, if your site gets enough footfall, you generate revenue and survive, or, you may be lucky and become one of the giants, like YouTube, MySpace, Flickr etc. And still the network operators are left wondering how they can make some of those cents moving across their pipes sticky, so they can trap some.
And the answer is they can't. WebTV and video is made possible by broadband and bandwidth. Operators have chosen to move away from charging for usage to flat rate for as much as you can eat as a competitive advantage. Now they are complaining that people are starting to eat too much, and the original 'competitive advantage' is becoming a revenue restrictor. Not really. It is simply the nature of the beast. Operators will need to find ways of layering services on top of their operations, or find ways of partnering with content and service providers to try to get some pennies per connection to stick. And it will only be the bigger ones with scale that will survive in the long run, unless the broadband business moves back to charging for usage, by selling consumption in chunks.
Reality TV showed the way, Social networks then became the next big thing with taking reality TV to the Web. And now WebTV is adding content to it for the Internet to become the entertainment channel of choice for many already and more in time to come. Parental allowances of total screen time per day for young people will increasingly move to the Internet, and old fashioned TV will have to change to survive and compete with WebTV to capture the audiences and the advertising money in time to come. The evolution is taking place, and it can't be stopped.
I found that they had recommended some 'friends' to me that shared similar interests. A number of them were from Canada, some from the US of A and a surprising number were from Ireland. I then discovered they had groups you could join. Sort of like Yahoo! Groups. So I decided to join the Ireland and Photography groups. This is real community web stuff if you want to meet like minded people. It shows who are online, what their preferences are and you can contact them if you wish. With your Stumbler registration it creates an Inbox for you so that when you log on you can see from the mailbox flag whether you have mail or not. It does not come to your personal mail address, unless you obviously choose to provide that to people. However, I think it is safer keeping it insulated from the rest of your life. I browsed some categories under photography, and found some really excellent pages with absolutely magnificent photos, which I gave the thumbs up, meaning I like it. You can send pages to friends, rate them, add them to your favourites, or just stumble around. Curiously I found that the Photography Group has been around since 2004. So, that means Stumbler has been around since then at least, so not nearly that new. Anyhow, I spent a delighful evening stumbling around.
So much so that I forgot to update my podcasts on my Sandisk, so I ended up listening to music coming into the office. The podcasts for the last week had been from the BBC Archives, entitled Rice Bowl, and it dealt with rice production in China, Bangladesh and Japan. It featured discussions with farmers for their views, ordinary young people about what they eat and how much rice they consume and why, and then a general view of life in the area and the crops. For someone born and bred in a city and who eats rice maybe once or twice a week, it is fascinating, particularly as I had only been to Bangladesh, and had seen what the monsoon does to that country, and had never been to either Japan or China. I also listed to part 1 and 2 on the history of slavery and the period leading up to the emancipation of the slaves with the abolition of slavery. Eyewitness Iraq dealt with the effects the war has had on the lifes of ordinary people in Iraq. The news always focuses on the soldiers that have died and the carbombs, but we tend to forget about the humanitarian aspect of it - how it affects the ordinary people who are simply trying to live their lives and survive. I guess that is what I like about the BBC Archives - it helps me maintain a balanced outlook on the rest of the world that is out there, so that I do not just immerse myself into the wonders of technology and the Internet, but that I remember that the world is more than just me and my computerised view of it.
Anyhow, enough philosophy for today. I also browsed through some of CNN Moneys other start-ups to watch. The next on the list was Revision3. The overview said it was a production studio for geek oriented online shows. Well, I couldn't have said it better myself. They produce a series of video podcasts (or vodcasts as some would have it be) which you can download to your MP3 player or iTunes. Some names: Diggnation (Revision3 was started by the Digg founder Kevin Rose...), Geekdrome, Ctrl-Alt-Chicken, NotMTV, The Totally Rad Show etc. As you can see by the names, very geeky and cheeky. They also have individual sites for the shows, where you can browse the backlog, read the discussions etc. iFanBoy does some book reviews - this week is Michael Moore. From my own experience I suggest you download the show and not try to watch it online. I have a great connection that I work from, yet using Qtime, which it requires, I found it very intermittent. They make their money by selling sponsorships for each episode to companies like Sony, Microsoft and Go Daddy. Well, I guess I finally found where the production house is!
It is very interesting, being part of a business that sells broadband connections off its own network. The payments made by users are declining in real terms (prices staying static) and the bandwidth provided is increasing each year. Therefore for the operator of the network, costs are increasing by inflation, prices are fixed and the only way to make money is to increase the subscriber base. The big debate is net neutrality and how to monetise traffic across the Internet and increase ARPU (Average Revenue Per Unit - that is right, we are all measured as units...). The problem for carriers is that the traffic originates at one point and terminates at the other, and flows across their networks, using the bandwidth they sell for very little money at a fixed price, to generate money at either of the end points for someone else. And, to add insult to injury, one of the end points would be a services server, delivering content from any number of the sites we have been looking at. And, although many fail, and more slide into oblivion, the question for these sites too has been how to monitise their services. And the answer generally is that if you generate enough traffic, you can use advertising. Advertising on the Internet as a marketing medium is growing rapidly again after the lull caused by the Dot.com bust around the millenium. Led obviously by Internet advertising giants, Google, this moves revenues around the Internet across multiple sites in small amounts at a time. Now, if your site gets enough footfall, you generate revenue and survive, or, you may be lucky and become one of the giants, like YouTube, MySpace, Flickr etc. And still the network operators are left wondering how they can make some of those cents moving across their pipes sticky, so they can trap some.
And the answer is they can't. WebTV and video is made possible by broadband and bandwidth. Operators have chosen to move away from charging for usage to flat rate for as much as you can eat as a competitive advantage. Now they are complaining that people are starting to eat too much, and the original 'competitive advantage' is becoming a revenue restrictor. Not really. It is simply the nature of the beast. Operators will need to find ways of layering services on top of their operations, or find ways of partnering with content and service providers to try to get some pennies per connection to stick. And it will only be the bigger ones with scale that will survive in the long run, unless the broadband business moves back to charging for usage, by selling consumption in chunks.
Reality TV showed the way, Social networks then became the next big thing with taking reality TV to the Web. And now WebTV is adding content to it for the Internet to become the entertainment channel of choice for many already and more in time to come. Parental allowances of total screen time per day for young people will increasingly move to the Internet, and old fashioned TV will have to change to survive and compete with WebTV to capture the audiences and the advertising money in time to come. The evolution is taking place, and it can't be stopped.
Tuesday 27 March 2007
Video, technology and life
I must say that I wondered why people did blogs, so I started this one. As much for myself to understand what it is about, as to force me to look at what is happening on the web, what people are using, and why they do, could or should, as for any possible readers out there who may have the same interest. And, the conclusion is - it is addictive!!!
An update on Dabble - I managed to get onto their website (did the initial review during some freetime at the office, and Sonicwall decided that this was unsuitable content as it was rated 'Mature Content/Pornography', probably because it had to do with videos. You sometimes have to wonder how Sonicwall and other content filtering devices at offices 'rate' sites. Even my daughter's space on DeviantArt gets rated Mature Content and is blocked every now and then. Anyhow, enough about SonicWall and more about Dabble - it does have some interesting aspects to it, it would seem. If you are interested in online videos to snack on, this can give you some guidelines. It is not, as I had thought initially, just for sorting your own videos, but allows you to sort videos you like across the various video web sites, and contains lists of peoples favourite videos from various sites. Some that I browsed were from YouTube (naturally...) and others from various other sites. Staying with the whole concept of community rating, it is I suppose a video form of de.licio.us, showing you videos that have been aggregated by others, and in that way getting to the most popular.
Something in the same line is MetaCafe, but only for own content. They claim to serve the best videos! They are rated by viewers, and the site works on the basis that the producers of the videos get paid, based on the popularity of their work! Browse around it and see if you think it is well rated by the community! It is different in the sense that revenue is shared with those that submit popular content. In that sense it becomes an incentive for people who produce good content, to register and post onto this site. The prime difference between this and say YouTube is that the people who post content can make money out of it if it is good. For instance, I am being totally honest here now, I browsed, yes I know..., a Star Trek/Monty Python mash-up. A mash-up, for those who don't know, is a mix of two or more videos and content to create a different version to what the directors had originally intended. Generally to introduce humour of some variety. Sad to have to admit it, isn't it? Ah sure. I liked the concept and some of the material. Will it compete against YouTube? Don't think so, but it will attract a different market - people looking for interesting produced content rather than wanting to watch someone singing a current pop song in a crackling voice dressed in their grandma's dress. (Ooohhhh, I can just imagine a fervent YouTube fan reading this and can picture it raising his/her hackles..)It is not about personal videos, but something that has been created. Call it a showcase for amateur personal WebTV production houses.
However, what these start-ups demonstrate more and more is how the Internet is delivering WebTV and video content to the users and gradually eroding the traditional TV market. People have been watching whatever traditional TV stations have been serving up, because there was no alternative. The Internet is delivering an alternative. Big Brother and other reality TV shows have shown how this can attract audiences, and the reality TV show to beat them all, YouTube, has shown just how this can draw viewers and change viewing habits. Most news stations now have video content on their sites, so you can catch the breaking news on your desktop better than on your telly. And, with the new LCD screens having become so dominant since prices dropped, you literally have a screen the size of your old TV on your desktop. All these changes are combining to dramatically change the way in which we interact with our world and source our entertainment.
These new start-ups are all a reflection of these changes. They have to be approached with caution, and for those with children, it is a blessing and a curse at the same time. Children now divide their total screen time per day between mobile phone, telly and Internet, and parents are well advised to ensure they teach their children how to surf responsibly. My own experience from the office with SonicWall demonstrates the fallibility of content filtering devices and software blocking entire sites, rather than specific content. However, if I had young children browsing the web today, I guess I would prefer to err on the side of caution, rather than exposing a young child to the vagaries of the web.
An update on Dabble - I managed to get onto their website (did the initial review during some freetime at the office, and Sonicwall decided that this was unsuitable content as it was rated 'Mature Content/Pornography', probably because it had to do with videos. You sometimes have to wonder how Sonicwall and other content filtering devices at offices 'rate' sites. Even my daughter's space on DeviantArt gets rated Mature Content and is blocked every now and then. Anyhow, enough about SonicWall and more about Dabble - it does have some interesting aspects to it, it would seem. If you are interested in online videos to snack on, this can give you some guidelines. It is not, as I had thought initially, just for sorting your own videos, but allows you to sort videos you like across the various video web sites, and contains lists of peoples favourite videos from various sites. Some that I browsed were from YouTube (naturally...) and others from various other sites. Staying with the whole concept of community rating, it is I suppose a video form of de.licio.us, showing you videos that have been aggregated by others, and in that way getting to the most popular.
Something in the same line is MetaCafe, but only for own content. They claim to serve the best videos! They are rated by viewers, and the site works on the basis that the producers of the videos get paid, based on the popularity of their work! Browse around it and see if you think it is well rated by the community! It is different in the sense that revenue is shared with those that submit popular content. In that sense it becomes an incentive for people who produce good content, to register and post onto this site. The prime difference between this and say YouTube is that the people who post content can make money out of it if it is good. For instance, I am being totally honest here now, I browsed, yes I know..., a Star Trek/Monty Python mash-up. A mash-up, for those who don't know, is a mix of two or more videos and content to create a different version to what the directors had originally intended. Generally to introduce humour of some variety. Sad to have to admit it, isn't it? Ah sure. I liked the concept and some of the material. Will it compete against YouTube? Don't think so, but it will attract a different market - people looking for interesting produced content rather than wanting to watch someone singing a current pop song in a crackling voice dressed in their grandma's dress. (Ooohhhh, I can just imagine a fervent YouTube fan reading this and can picture it raising his/her hackles..)It is not about personal videos, but something that has been created. Call it a showcase for amateur personal WebTV production houses.
However, what these start-ups demonstrate more and more is how the Internet is delivering WebTV and video content to the users and gradually eroding the traditional TV market. People have been watching whatever traditional TV stations have been serving up, because there was no alternative. The Internet is delivering an alternative. Big Brother and other reality TV shows have shown how this can attract audiences, and the reality TV show to beat them all, YouTube, has shown just how this can draw viewers and change viewing habits. Most news stations now have video content on their sites, so you can catch the breaking news on your desktop better than on your telly. And, with the new LCD screens having become so dominant since prices dropped, you literally have a screen the size of your old TV on your desktop. All these changes are combining to dramatically change the way in which we interact with our world and source our entertainment.
These new start-ups are all a reflection of these changes. They have to be approached with caution, and for those with children, it is a blessing and a curse at the same time. Children now divide their total screen time per day between mobile phone, telly and Internet, and parents are well advised to ensure they teach their children how to surf responsibly. My own experience from the office with SonicWall demonstrates the fallibility of content filtering devices and software blocking entire sites, rather than specific content. However, if I had young children browsing the web today, I guess I would prefer to err on the side of caution, rather than exposing a young child to the vagaries of the web.
Friday 23 March 2007
Our changing Universe?
It is amazing what you can find on our little WWW each day. I have just found our whole universe stuck on a web page. Yup. It is titled Universe. What does it do? It represents the news and other bits of information in constellations, just like the stars. See the story detail on CNet (OK, I admit, I get a lot of my stuff from CNet.)
It is not easy, but with a little maneuvering you will get the hang of it. Pick for instance on the home page, under Times, say 'the past week'. It now opens a new window as a Java applet. It asks you to click on the window to 'give it focus'. When you do so you start seeing little dots appear like a evening sky in a rural area filled with stars. As you hover the mouse over it, they start to form constellations. Click on any constellation, and it gives you a name. Could be a place name or person. At the bottom words are displayed (look carefully...) Stars, Shapes, Secrets, Stories, Statements, etc.
Now click on Statements or Stories and the screen fills up with rows and columns of stories or statements. Click on one, and it moves to the centre of the screen, and words from the story float around it, which you can click to find more stories or statements.
It becomes quite involved, and I think for some personality types, it could be addictive! For others, it could cause physical violence inflicted on the computer screen out of sheer frustration.... :-)
Enjoy.
CNet carried an interesting story this week on Photobucket. the most popular unknown site? The statistics on the site are quite amazing. It is a photo sharing site allowing you to post pics to websites, blogs etc, which seems to store quite a bit of info for sites like MySpace and others. Its unique US visitors exceed that of Flickr (double) and even FaceBook according to ComScore, who tracks the monthly visitors to websites.
OK, finally getting back to CNN Money's 25 start-ups to watch, and guess who is next? Joost. I've mentioned them in one of my earlier blogs this week in relations to WebTV, and that is exactly what they are aiming at. They have signed a deal recently with Viacom, then Viacom turned on YouTube to get their content removed and launched their law suit. Michi Knows reckons that Google wants YouTube to get sued to help get legal clarity on some of their other ventures. An interesting opinion, and not entirely without merit, but completely speculative. Back to Joost, their WebSite at this stage talks about what is to come. Apparently they have some 400,000 beta testers out there testing the software. So, like Uvu, nothing just yet, although Joost seems to at least have quite a large base of Beta testers, and have signed a number of high profile content deals so far.
The next Start-up is Dabble. A video sharing tool helping to organise videos into favourite playlists. They claim 12,000 users and partnerships with YouTube, MySpace, Grouper, and Brightcove. As I do not have much by way of video on my computer, this is not of much use to me. If anyone out there knows it, or uses it, drop us a comment.
Found another version of Web 2.0 stuff this morning on CNet titled 'A New Generation of Office Tools'. Or, as they so poetically claim, Work 2.0! :-) Looks very interesting! This is going to out some pressure on me now to finish the 25 Start-ups more quickly! Will give some overviews as soon as I get to it.
It is not easy, but with a little maneuvering you will get the hang of it. Pick for instance on the home page, under Times, say 'the past week'. It now opens a new window as a Java applet. It asks you to click on the window to 'give it focus'. When you do so you start seeing little dots appear like a evening sky in a rural area filled with stars. As you hover the mouse over it, they start to form constellations. Click on any constellation, and it gives you a name. Could be a place name or person. At the bottom words are displayed (look carefully...) Stars, Shapes, Secrets, Stories, Statements, etc.
Now click on Statements or Stories and the screen fills up with rows and columns of stories or statements. Click on one, and it moves to the centre of the screen, and words from the story float around it, which you can click to find more stories or statements.
It becomes quite involved, and I think for some personality types, it could be addictive! For others, it could cause physical violence inflicted on the computer screen out of sheer frustration.... :-)
Enjoy.
CNet carried an interesting story this week on Photobucket. the most popular unknown site? The statistics on the site are quite amazing. It is a photo sharing site allowing you to post pics to websites, blogs etc, which seems to store quite a bit of info for sites like MySpace and others. Its unique US visitors exceed that of Flickr (double) and even FaceBook according to ComScore, who tracks the monthly visitors to websites.
OK, finally getting back to CNN Money's 25 start-ups to watch, and guess who is next? Joost. I've mentioned them in one of my earlier blogs this week in relations to WebTV, and that is exactly what they are aiming at. They have signed a deal recently with Viacom, then Viacom turned on YouTube to get their content removed and launched their law suit. Michi Knows reckons that Google wants YouTube to get sued to help get legal clarity on some of their other ventures. An interesting opinion, and not entirely without merit, but completely speculative. Back to Joost, their WebSite at this stage talks about what is to come. Apparently they have some 400,000 beta testers out there testing the software. So, like Uvu, nothing just yet, although Joost seems to at least have quite a large base of Beta testers, and have signed a number of high profile content deals so far.
The next Start-up is Dabble. A video sharing tool helping to organise videos into favourite playlists. They claim 12,000 users and partnerships with YouTube, MySpace, Grouper, and Brightcove. As I do not have much by way of video on my computer, this is not of much use to me. If anyone out there knows it, or uses it, drop us a comment.
Found another version of Web 2.0 stuff this morning on CNet titled 'A New Generation of Office Tools'. Or, as they so poetically claim, Work 2.0! :-) Looks very interesting! This is going to out some pressure on me now to finish the 25 Start-ups more quickly! Will give some overviews as soon as I get to it.
Wednesday 21 March 2007
WebTV - more of it
Found this little interesting bit on a comment posted by a reader on CNet - uvu.com. This was in relation to an article on CNet about former Disney executive, Howard Eisner's investment in a brace of new media companies, Veoh and Vuguru. Veoh is an older investment and is an online video company, and Vuguru is a video production company which will, on 2 April 2007, launch 80 ninety second (thats right, 90 second) episodes of a series titled Prom Queen, aimed at teenage ladies. This moves more and more into the WebTV space of Web 2.0. And uvu.com, according to this reader, is better than the lot. However, I am not sure how he knows this, because according to the website nothing is available yet for download. Vapourware?.... I will keep looking back and see if the player actually materializes for download. I also read an article on Total Content + Media, which goes back to November 2006 about an Ofcom report which shows how broadband has affected out lives. 30 to 40% of Europeans watch less traditional TV, and around 30% read less national newsprint. Between 50 and 60% of broadband users have downloaded TV programs from the Internet. 73% of young people (70% in China) have watched videos made by others over the Internet.
WebTV and online videos are invading our lives in many ways. The comment in one report of creating a 'snack culture' certainly seems appropriate, doesn't it? We browse little snippets all over the web, rather than sitting for the full hour and a half watching that old movie on the telly, or like me, you sit 'watching' it whilst working on your laptop. Listen to most parts, and watching snippets,more likely! Drives my wife mad. :-)
Had been a little busy as of late. Decided to give Famster.com a try, given that the Nel family is spread out across South Africa, the US of A, Canada and Ireland. It is still in its infancy and I am awaiting the input of the rest of the Nel clan, but it is on Famster. It uses a Flash Player interface and is a bit slow from Ireland, which is a bit of a concern given that it probably doesn't yet have a large customer base. However, I found the interface relatively easy to use and to set up. Haven't yet used the full spectrum of utilities, but it seems to be easy to use and upload. I uploaded 2 videos and 21 photos with no major issues. It still seems to have some minor bugs, but when I loaded it tonight, all seemed fine. Now I am just waiting for the rest of the clan to use it to see how it pans out, then I will put some content into the public area. It allows you to wall off some content and to make other public. Nice feature.
On LinkedIn today someone asked a question about Twitter. I was delighted that I knew about it and could provide some feedback. I use both LinkedIn and Plaxo to keep track of my network and address book online.
There is just so much out there, what will survive and what will become the next big thing? Don't we all wish we had that answer?!?!? We are suffering severe information overload. How do we filter it? Read that it is estimated that there are 100 million blogs out there. How will we ever find relevant information? Googling it just doesn't seem sufficient. There are some new technologies and sites that claim to provide more relevant search results that good old Google. I still have to finish reporting on the 25 start-ups that started this Blog, but finding simpler search tools and reporting back will be next on my list.
WebTV and online videos are invading our lives in many ways. The comment in one report of creating a 'snack culture' certainly seems appropriate, doesn't it? We browse little snippets all over the web, rather than sitting for the full hour and a half watching that old movie on the telly, or like me, you sit 'watching' it whilst working on your laptop. Listen to most parts, and watching snippets,more likely! Drives my wife mad. :-)
Had been a little busy as of late. Decided to give Famster.com a try, given that the Nel family is spread out across South Africa, the US of A, Canada and Ireland. It is still in its infancy and I am awaiting the input of the rest of the Nel clan, but it is on Famster. It uses a Flash Player interface and is a bit slow from Ireland, which is a bit of a concern given that it probably doesn't yet have a large customer base. However, I found the interface relatively easy to use and to set up. Haven't yet used the full spectrum of utilities, but it seems to be easy to use and upload. I uploaded 2 videos and 21 photos with no major issues. It still seems to have some minor bugs, but when I loaded it tonight, all seemed fine. Now I am just waiting for the rest of the clan to use it to see how it pans out, then I will put some content into the public area. It allows you to wall off some content and to make other public. Nice feature.
On LinkedIn today someone asked a question about Twitter. I was delighted that I knew about it and could provide some feedback. I use both LinkedIn and Plaxo to keep track of my network and address book online.
There is just so much out there, what will survive and what will become the next big thing? Don't we all wish we had that answer?!?!? We are suffering severe information overload. How do we filter it? Read that it is estimated that there are 100 million blogs out there. How will we ever find relevant information? Googling it just doesn't seem sufficient. There are some new technologies and sites that claim to provide more relevant search results that good old Google. I still have to finish reporting on the 25 start-ups that started this Blog, but finding simpler search tools and reporting back will be next on my list.
Tuesday 20 March 2007
Back from Budapest
Spent the last week in Budapest and survived the riots on their national day, the 15th of March 2007. Was at a VoIP conference, boring people with my presentation and listening to some interesting ones and some less interesting ones.
How did technology impact on me with this visit? For one thing, I battled to get a decent connection at the hotel, and when I managed to connect through our VPN back to the office, Microsoft Exchange drove me demented trying to get my email. Arrgghhhh!!!!! *Sulk*
AND, to heap insult upon insult, they charged HUF125 (around 50 Euro cent) per MINUTE! When Microsoft Exchange acts up, it dents your pocket quickly....
Anyhow, I missed all the exciting Irish sport over the last weekend. Ireland (never realised they played cricket) drew against Zimbabwe, then went on to BEAT Pakistan. Then, to top it all, the Pakistani coach, Bob Woolmer dies of a heart attack following the loss. Incredible.
To make matters worse, after a dismal outing the last Saturday against Scotland, the Irish team have a great game against Italy, and it looks as if they will win the Six Nations cup, finally after 22 years. But, dear France snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the last minutes of the game against Scotland, and, once again, they carry away the laurels of the Six Nations. Anyhow it is amazing how the Internet enables you to get information, even when you miss the action on live TV, because it is not available where you are. You can of course use a Slingbox to move your TV via your broadband to where you are, provided you a) own one (I do), b) it is connected (it is not - I still have to run a cable to my TV from my broadband connection) and c) it is switched on (can't, it isn't connected). The alternative is to get the updates via the web! Neither cricket nor rugby is very big in Hungary, but, technology can bridge the gap! Would previously have had to wait for the next day's newspapers (remember the old media?...).
Updated my podcasts last night, and was listening to the Twit show no 91 (skipped 90, will have to catch up). The interesting thing that came up was this discussion about Twitter. They had mentioned it before, but I had assumed it had to do with the TWiT show. Today I was enlightened. It is not. It is a site which allows people to link to each other and send updates of what they are up to via SMS or IM, but has an open API (Application Programmable Interface) allowing other web services to interface with it. Apparently Jabber (the Power of Presence - great slogan huh? :-)), an Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM) application (download client here) can. With Twitter you allow people to become 'friends' and if they pester you, you can 'unfriend' them. One person mentioned that he had asked on the Twit show if anyone wanted to meet up at a show for dinner. Apparently 30 Twitters responded and they had a ball. This is a curious twist on community/social networking. Maybe someone that is a Twitter can post some comment on the reasons why and how? Leo, the chief TWiT, stated he had 58 'friends', but one of the guests had over 1,000! For some people this becomes nearly life consuming. The debate focused around how Twitter was the seemingly most useless program on the face of it, but grows because 'all my friends have it' so it expands its circle of friends! Amazing what the web gets up to!
The TWiT's also briefly mentioned Telcos and Joost in the podcast. Given that I am with a wireless broadband Telco (Irish Broadband), and speak at various conferences in Europe about VoIP. WiMAX and Wireless broadband, one of the questions that has been keeping my braincells active, has been about IPTV, the so called triple play. I could understand why cable operators moved into the broadband and telephony space, but could not understand the need for Telcos to move into IPTV. Video on Demand (VoD), yes, but IPTV? What is becoming clearer to me is that the whole triple play and IPTV debate is becoming more and more irrelevant. Web 2.0 is making it so for the younger generation through services such as YouTube, Blinx.tv, and now Joost etc. WebTV exists and is growing, is delivered via broadband, and has a rapidly growing user base. Why bother with traditional TV via IP? It makes limited sense, and does not justify the additional cost. WebTV and Web 2.0 is where it is at for the current generation.
Saw another interesting site on CNet today for closed family networks. Virtual fun with Famster. It is a video on CNet's site, showing you what Famster is all about. I think I am going to get our extended family (I have a daughter in South Africa, a brother in Texas and another in Vancouver island, Canada, and I'm in Dublin, Ireland) to connect on Famster. So, I will give you an update on that later again!
Anyhow, back in the saddle. Started this last night, finished it this morning, so time to do some useful work again! For those that missed the daily weather update - it is freezing bloody cold here in Ireland, after walking around in my short sleeves in Budapest last week. Grrr.... Well, it is supposed to improve. At least it is sunshine outside, and warm in the office!
How did technology impact on me with this visit? For one thing, I battled to get a decent connection at the hotel, and when I managed to connect through our VPN back to the office, Microsoft Exchange drove me demented trying to get my email. Arrgghhhh!!!!! *Sulk*
AND, to heap insult upon insult, they charged HUF125 (around 50 Euro cent) per MINUTE! When Microsoft Exchange acts up, it dents your pocket quickly....
Anyhow, I missed all the exciting Irish sport over the last weekend. Ireland (never realised they played cricket) drew against Zimbabwe, then went on to BEAT Pakistan. Then, to top it all, the Pakistani coach, Bob Woolmer dies of a heart attack following the loss. Incredible.
To make matters worse, after a dismal outing the last Saturday against Scotland, the Irish team have a great game against Italy, and it looks as if they will win the Six Nations cup, finally after 22 years. But, dear France snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the last minutes of the game against Scotland, and, once again, they carry away the laurels of the Six Nations. Anyhow it is amazing how the Internet enables you to get information, even when you miss the action on live TV, because it is not available where you are. You can of course use a Slingbox to move your TV via your broadband to where you are, provided you a) own one (I do), b) it is connected (it is not - I still have to run a cable to my TV from my broadband connection) and c) it is switched on (can't, it isn't connected). The alternative is to get the updates via the web! Neither cricket nor rugby is very big in Hungary, but, technology can bridge the gap! Would previously have had to wait for the next day's newspapers (remember the old media?...).
Updated my podcasts last night, and was listening to the Twit show no 91 (skipped 90, will have to catch up). The interesting thing that came up was this discussion about Twitter. They had mentioned it before, but I had assumed it had to do with the TWiT show. Today I was enlightened. It is not. It is a site which allows people to link to each other and send updates of what they are up to via SMS or IM, but has an open API (Application Programmable Interface) allowing other web services to interface with it. Apparently Jabber (the Power of Presence - great slogan huh? :-)), an Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM) application (download client here) can. With Twitter you allow people to become 'friends' and if they pester you, you can 'unfriend' them. One person mentioned that he had asked on the Twit show if anyone wanted to meet up at a show for dinner. Apparently 30 Twitters responded and they had a ball. This is a curious twist on community/social networking. Maybe someone that is a Twitter can post some comment on the reasons why and how? Leo, the chief TWiT, stated he had 58 'friends', but one of the guests had over 1,000! For some people this becomes nearly life consuming. The debate focused around how Twitter was the seemingly most useless program on the face of it, but grows because 'all my friends have it' so it expands its circle of friends! Amazing what the web gets up to!
The TWiT's also briefly mentioned Telcos and Joost in the podcast. Given that I am with a wireless broadband Telco (Irish Broadband), and speak at various conferences in Europe about VoIP. WiMAX and Wireless broadband, one of the questions that has been keeping my braincells active, has been about IPTV, the so called triple play. I could understand why cable operators moved into the broadband and telephony space, but could not understand the need for Telcos to move into IPTV. Video on Demand (VoD), yes, but IPTV? What is becoming clearer to me is that the whole triple play and IPTV debate is becoming more and more irrelevant. Web 2.0 is making it so for the younger generation through services such as YouTube, Blinx.tv, and now Joost etc. WebTV exists and is growing, is delivered via broadband, and has a rapidly growing user base. Why bother with traditional TV via IP? It makes limited sense, and does not justify the additional cost. WebTV and Web 2.0 is where it is at for the current generation.
Saw another interesting site on CNet today for closed family networks. Virtual fun with Famster. It is a video on CNet's site, showing you what Famster is all about. I think I am going to get our extended family (I have a daughter in South Africa, a brother in Texas and another in Vancouver island, Canada, and I'm in Dublin, Ireland) to connect on Famster. So, I will give you an update on that later again!
Anyhow, back in the saddle. Started this last night, finished it this morning, so time to do some useful work again! For those that missed the daily weather update - it is freezing bloody cold here in Ireland, after walking around in my short sleeves in Budapest last week. Grrr.... Well, it is supposed to improve. At least it is sunshine outside, and warm in the office!
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