Open Phones

Yesterday I was involved in a Yi-Tan conference call with Jerry Michalski on the broad topic of 'Open Phones', we meandered between the new OpenMoko (or FIC GTA listed a few posts ago) to Asterisk to Hosted IP-PBX and associated applications.

I think I got my point across in that what we are moving to is a new paradigm where the computing no longer needs to occur on the device itself, which allows us a lot more creative freedom when it comes to designing applications and their various interactions with external objects.

The MP3 of the call (about 45 minutes long) is available here for geeks who have an interest, feel free to comment below if you have any thoughts on the topic.


Cheers,
Dean

50 Most influential people in VOIP

Great article here about the 50 most influential people in VOIP.
http://www.voip-news.com/feature/voip-top-50-111306/

Couple of disagreements about ranking and a few names left off but apart from that well worth a look.

Cheers,
Dean

Bettie Serveert - bare stripped naked

This is with out doubt one of the best Sunday morning albums, nothing says cruisy Sunday morning like putting this on the stereo and whipping up coffee and scrambled eggs with the paper.

You can check out the album here at Amazon

Or even better listen to some of the tracks here

Some of their earlier stuff is a little 'raw' (lol - start this album and work backwards), but they seemed to have really made penultimate magic with this album.

They have a couple of videos online at their web site www.bettieserveert.com though you really do need to listen to the album beginning to end to get the 'chilled out effect'.

Definitely add this one to your collection and if you are ever in Amsterdam check out their gig guide.


Cheers,
Dean

Rollerman

Amazing French guy who has built a suit with 31 'rollers' that enable him to roll in almost any position.

I'm super curious to know more information about the actual construction but haven't been able to find anything online, if anyone sees something email me.

What is interesting is that some of the extremities are fixed while the back and front rollers appear to be pivots which allow for multi direction movement.

I'd also love to see some of the 'accident' B reel footage to see what can go wrong.

Either way he is a true entertainer and looks like he's having a blast.

Cheers,
Dean

FIC-GTA001

This thing is hot hot hot!!!!

Basically develop your own apps from scratch or apt-get a branch you want to upload to your handset. Will be interesting to see if this can crack the space that Savaje failed in.

First International Computing's (FIC's) "Neo1973" or FIC-GTA001, is the first phone based on the open-source "OpenMoKo" platform.

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35590
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2986976174.html
http://www.linuxdevices.com/files/article072/sld002.html
http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/06/11/08/004230.shtml










More as it becomes available.

Cheers,
Dean
P.S. Anyone wanting funding to develop apps on this email me.

2 "Comments of the Day"

Widespread reports of vote rigging and election fraud......yep another 3rd world gerrymandered election.....oh wait no it's not - this is 1st world America.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/727504.htm
(I love that i was able to find this link from the 'China Daily' even though plenty to choose from here in the mainstream USA press)

Maybe we should introduce thumb staining in 2008 presidential elections......














On the other side of the global spectrum India announced plans today for a 4 stage process of having an indian on the moon in 2020, beginning with the trial in 2007 and the first manned space flight in 2014.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/181.htm

JFK used the american space race to galvanise the nation in 1961, maybe this will be the 'trial by fire' to propel India forward. Remembering of course something India has a history of 'future future' that sometimes just never seems to materialise. I for one am hoping they can deliver.


Cheers,
Dean

Ibm - Linux - Future?

Now I'm a windows fan and I believe that money makes the world go around, but I also have my feet firmly in the open source community through my involvement with Asterisk...but at the same time most of it is in the commercial side of the spectrum with my work at Mexuar.

All that out of the way.....I cant help but watch this commercial and get shivers of excitement.

There is a power out there, it could be bigger than hummanity as we know it today ever was.

Lets face it blend 60's hippies with 80's wall street gumption and 2000's dot bomb rock bottom IT hardware pricing and the impossible is nothing.

Dream High,

Cheers,
Dean

Kitty Cloners Shut Doors

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=2556375
Genetic Savings & Clone, a biotechnology company that sold cloned pets, sent letters to its customers last month informing them it will close at the end of the year because of little demand for cloned cats. The company had recently reduced the price from $50,000 to $32,000.
The letters said the Sausalito company was not accepting new orders for clones because it was "unable to develop the technology to the point that cloning pets is commercially viable."

I cant work out how I feel about this, on one hand I'm a huge believer in Ray Kurzweils "Singularity Event" and eventually we are all going to live forever but I'm probably on the cusp where we need to hurry up on this research if I'm going to have a body worth keeping forever BUT on the other hand people who know me would know that I'm a huge believer that death isn't that big a deal and we waste too much of societies money on sustaining life for way longer than we should.

Either way I'm still surprised they couldn't make a viable business model out of it at $50k a pop, leads me to believe that cloning may be a little more complicated than they could deliver.

Maybe I should go for a jog.


Cheers,
Dean

Quote of the Day

Today's "Quote of the Day" for November 1st
(on my 5 year old 'but sometimes i still get a kick out of these quotes each time I flip over the page' calendar is)


"Lord, Grant that I always desire more than I accomplish"
........Michelangelo.


Man that guy new what he was talking about, I love my job, I cant wait to open my email in the morning and see what cool things people have sent me overnight to work with for the next 12 hours.

I wouldn't trade my job for anyone elses - Maybe I'm just lucky but that quote really resonates with me.



Cheers,
Dean
p.s. Thanks Meena