Windows Vista Licensing

Shoot me now.

I cant believe how insane some decision makers are, it makes me just want to tear my hair out. When I first heard this rumour a few weeks ago I just thought it was the linux zealots 'mis-reading' the wording of the EULA and hyping up the story.

Nope it's really true. I dont get it, I dont understand it, I dont believe it but it's true.

Microsoft Vista will only allow 1 major hardware change.....after this you will need to buy a new license.

So basically, I purchase Vista and then install it on my pc, 6 months later I replace the motherboard, no probs.

6 months later I decide to replace the hard drive......bzzzzt your Vista license is no longer valid, stops working and you need to buy another license. WTF!!!

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061030-8104.html

I hope this is just rhetoric that will never see the light of day if it is then I'm not going to upgrade from XP no matter what function is built into the new Vista OS.

Cheers,
Dean

Orative

You know when you have a really great idea and then someone comes and invents it at about the same time? Well thats the story with Orative. (www.Orative.com)

Earlier this year I was working on a project with Savaje and their all Java mobile phone operating system.

I was thinking wouldn't it be cool to have an application running on this mobile phone that could tell whether people in the office were on the phone/off the phone or logged off by using SIP presence status.

This would only be possible with companies running IP handsets like Polycom and Cisco but these are the defacto standard these days so within 3-5 years will be everywhere.

Well Orative came out with an application that did just that but it only works on the Symbian mobile platform (I guess they had to start somewhere - I'm sure they have a palm and windows mobile 5 coming soon).

Anyway well Cisco bought Orative today.

http://www.theregister.com/2006/10/26/cisco_buys_orative/
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/102606-cisco-orative.html

I'm not sure they couldn't have developed it in house for cheaper but I guess it's the old "Buy instead of Build" strategy.

Lol I love the comment at The Register saying 33 people $31 Million dollars and sobering up, considering it was only a few months from start to sale they should be.

My one concern about this is that Orative will now be "Borgatised" into Cisco and pop out the other end no longer supporting all SIP handsets but only supporting the Cisco proprietary standard MGCP (watch out Polycom - this is aimed at you) but I guess we'll see.

Eitherway good luck to the guys.


Cheers,
Dean

Mexuar Press Releases Go Out Tomorrow

Well these Press Releases go out tomorrow.

http://www.cognation.net/mexuar/CorraletaImages/CorraletaLaunchPR.pdf

http://www.cognation.net/mexuar/CorraletaImages/CorraletaLaunchMediaFAQ.pdf

I cant believe it's less than a week away before this project launches. If anyone out there knows some press now is the time to introduce them to the Mexuar Corraleta technology to help get the word out :)

Details at www.Mexuar.com or get them to try it out at www.Cognation.net/Mexuar


Cheers,
Dean

Day After Photos

Ok these are the last photos I'm going to post about the plane crash as I need to get back on track with work.

Thanks for all of your emails, it's amazing how many close friends from around the world called or emailed yesterday, even the ones that knew I just lived in New York and wanted to reach out not actually realising how close it was to our apartment etc.

Our thoughts go out to the families of the 2 people in the plane who died.

I'll probably post something next week about the media and their reactions etc but I'm going away for the rest of the weekend on a working conference retreat with some amazing people so i need to get ready for that.

These photos were taken at about 1pm this afternoon, the crash site investigators are still at work and 72nd is still closed off to everyone but residents.

It's interesting to see how much damage was done by the fire but not the actual initial crash itself. Thankfully the two people who were in the apartment that was hit got out into the hallway safely.


Cheers,
Dean
P.S. My photos made the front page of The Times in the UK http://www.scoopt.com/news/article.aspx?a=129

Warning over 'broken up' internet

Internet Governance Forum (IGF), set up by the UN, warned that concerns over the net's future could lead to separation.
"People are concerned about whether the system we have now will also work five years from now," he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6037345.stm

Interesting follow up article from my post the other day.

"If I look at the internet in five years from now there are going to be very, very, very more internet users in Asia than Europe or America. "There will be more Chinese web pages than English pages".

There are very real effects that will be felt globally through the balkanization of the internet, and I don't think politicians making these decisions at the moment can scope the ramifications of their short term decisions.

Hopefully the laws will be so ineffectual and behind the technology wave that apart from sourcing more voting dollars it wont matter.

Cheers,

Dean

Plane Crash video

New York Apartment Explosion due to plane crash

Just occurred 5 mins ago, photos are from my apartment window.

Will update as events occur. Both of us are fine.

Basically a plane crashed into building across the street on 72nd on the 38th floor from the north past our north west facing window on the 30th floor.

SMH Article

Freaky part is that it would have had to have flown past our apartment and the building next door which is only 50 meters wide.

Pilot NY Yankees baseball pitcher Cory Lidle and passenger (instructor- Tyler Stanger) are dead, but 2 people in actual apartment the plane crashed into are fine.

Who is 'really' in charge of the internet.

US laws to clamp down on online gaming show that the internet can be controlled, argues Bill Thompson.
The myth of the borderless internet, never very credible to those who had any real understanding of the interplay between politics and technology that underpins the network, took another hit last week when the US Congress voted to ban bank and credit card payments to gambling firms.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5412980.stm

I've posted about this topic before and I'll post again...and again... and again....

The USA needs to wake up to itself that they cannot impose their will on the internet anymore. This has outgrown the original darpa experiemental network that it was 20+ years ago.

Whats not mentioned in the article and outside of the scope of this post is that whilst the USA could hold the rest of the world at gunpoint in the past, there are now a number of alternatives that countries can/will be able to choose in the future.

The initiatives that Europe and especially the Chinese governments are taking around IPv6 may see the USA left behind.

So America, if you want to throw your weight around and control how people in other countries live their lives you'll have to do it the old fashion way and invade with an army.


Cheers,
Dean

BarCampNYC2

So I had the amazing experience of attending my first BarCampNYC2 this weekend.

For those of you not familiar with BarCamp check out their 'global event wiki' and go along to the next one in your city as they are relatively global. (also check out these 10 tips for getting the most from BarCamp)

Lots of Flickr photos here

It was a 2 day event from Saturday morning to Sunday evening where approx 180-200 people from New York and the surrounding area got together to have an "un-conference" about technology.

There are no specific agendas and most important the event is free being fully funded by local Sponsoring Companies (yes Cognation did kick in) however a big shoutout has to go to Microsoft who provided the venue, lets face it, any company who would let 200 geeks sleep over in their offices for a weekend cant be all bad, and I have to point out that apart from 1 session they kept a very low profile. Barcamp is everyone's event.


It's a two day self managed, self organized, self driven geekfest.

Where 30 minutes before it starts there are no agendas and it's not only suggested but actually required you get up and walk out of a session if you are not interested.


Everyone participates and often some of the best advice or experiential information comes from people in the 'audience' if you could call them that than people who are leading the sessions.


The sessions leant towards software development (with some amazingly cutting edge development techniques being displayed).

There was a general skew towards a younger group of people, I'm guessing that the average age was 22-24? However age certainly wasn't a reflection of experience or potential, check out the Session Page above to get an idea on what was being discussed, these people are the future of IT development, and let me tell you it was very bright indeed.

These guys, and quite a few girls, are pushing the envelop of technology further than most of us even think is possible.

Special mention has to go out to Dennis Crowley the founder of Dodgeball (sold it to Google) for his session on Pervasive Games (massive urban games). It made me realize that this is an area I think I want to pursue on a commercial basis, I've thought about it in the past (read my post on Mogi Mogi) but it's an area where I think I can develop some real value.

Not to downplay the rest of the sessions, I learnt at least 3 or 4 new things in every session and I learnt about two whole technologies I didn't even know existed Json and Amazon Mechanical Turk. Some of the implementations of "ruby on rails" / web mashups / web delivered interactive content / social networking that these people are implementing is amazing.

I saw at least 3 business concepts over the weekend that I would be prepared to put my money where my mouth is and fund.

I don't think I can succinctly capture enough in one post my experiences but it's basically changed my mind about the depth of talent out there.

Yes some of it needs a little structure and yes some need a lesson about how coming up with great technology or a business idea, doesn't a successfully ROI make'th', but the enthusiasm and excitement was unstoppable. Besides they might even teach some of us older people whats really possible.



Cheers,
Dean

Czech Women are No1?

My friend Dan from the Czech Republic (runs a very savvy web development /flash development company Unisona ) just messaged me because he wanted to let people who read my blog that Czech women are No1.

His ex girlfriend (joke) just won Miss World , now I'm not sure what he wants you to do with this information, he doesn't have any sisters that I know of, maybe the Czech's are trying to ramp up male tourism to their country.

He did go out of is his way to make sure I wrote that his current girlfriend (real) is hotter


lol.

At least they have great beer.


Dean