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!

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."

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.

Remember my last great test, Famster, that I started up with such gusto? Well, it seems as if I am the only one in the family with the gusto. All the 'get-up-and-go' in the rest of the family got up and went I'm afraid. Texas, Johannesburg and Victoria, Canada have all failed to show any interest. So, I guess it only works if the rest of the family have an interest in sharing as well.

*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!