Offline for more than expected :(

I'm feeling very isolated today :(

My server rack was damaged in the move yesterday so although Time Warner is connected I'm unable to mount my servers and connect everything back up.

Posting this from my cell phone browser sucks.

It's times like this running your own email and voip phone servers sucks.


Cheers,
Dean

Time to hang up my work boots

Well it's time for me to hang up my work boots and get back to my normal life.

Most of you reading this will know that Jodie and I recently purchased 2 apartments in Brooklyn heights and for the last 8 weeks and 3 days I've pretty much been working full time 6 days a week on the site.

I'll post a full debrief in the weeks to come but basically we gutted 90% of it and joined it into a single 1br + home office whole floor apartment and as today was the last day of construction some interesting thoughts.

There is something very powerful about manual labour. It clears your mind, all the minutiae that you normally worry about just isn't there any more.

It can also help you realise how much you appreciate your normal life.... and make you look forward to going back to white collar life.

There is also something very comfortable about not having expectations, knowing there is no pressure for you to IPO a company, or that the pickup truck you drive at the moment is practical and suitable and there is no need for you to make enough money to purchase a Maserati or something else superfluous.

There is also something cool about watching the little people scurry on the subway to their jobs while you sit in your work clothes....oh and if it's been a hard day and you stink you can always get a seat :P

Well I'll be offline for the next 2-3 days, moving servers and all my other gadgets that make my life sweet but look forward to having you all over for dinner at the new place soon.


Cheers,
Dean

3D augmented reality magazine advertisement

Read this article today on a 3D augmented reality magazine advertisement
http://gizmodo.com/5112176/new-magazine-ad-displays-3d-car-in-augmented-reality




If you are interested in implementing something like this you might want to check out Moseycode that I posted about last year here
http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/moseycode.html

O2 launches multi mobile OS App Store

O2 a mobile carrier in the UK are launching an App Store for mobile apps across multiple platforms (apps are available for Windows Mobile, Symbian, Java ME, Flash Mobile, BlackBerry, Linux and Unix)

http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-phones/news/2008/12/16/O2-Tests--Litmus--Multi-Platform-App-Store/p1

I love the quote "And no, the iPhone isn't part of this - Apple, doesn't share remember!"

Personally i dont understand why someone hasn't done this earlier. Using wurfl it's a snap to be able to monitor which handset is visiting the store and present the selections appropriate to the visitors handset model.

I purchased the domains;
http://www.mobileappstore.com/
http://www.mobileappstore.net/
http://www.mobileappstore.org/
http://www.mobileappstore.mobi/

a little while ago with the view to setting up an application rating community but for now have held off on doing anything with them as I've already had a few offers to buy them so i might flip them before implementing a destination site, I'm just waiting to see if i get some counter offers.

Either way I think 2009 is going to be a huge money spinner for mobile application developers....I'm just not sure if Apple will still be leading at the end of 2009 in the same way it is at the end of 2008.


Cheers,
Dean

Virgin Broadband rolls out 50mb home internet

:(

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/technologynews/3773928/UKs-fastest-broadband-service-to-launch.html

Virgin announced they are rolling out 50mb home internet service in the UK.

This is crap, especially on the same day that I called to transfer my cable tv and internet services to Brooklyn Heights to the new apartment.

I was told that Time Warner had dropped their 'extreme' 15mb service and the fastest service they now offer is only 10mb. How crap is that.

Aren't we supposed to be the worlds 'Internet' country, how is it that the USA is slipping further and further behind in home internet broadband speeds.


Cheers,
Dean

Breakout

wow - just watching a CNBC documentary on the early days of video games, I had no idea that Steve Jobs worked for Atari in the first few years and invented the BreakOut video game.

Cheers,

Dean

Steve Jobs points of wisdom

Check out these points of wisdom from Steve Jobs;
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0803/gallery.jobsqna.fortune/index.html

You can skip the first 5 or 6 as relatively basic PR bs.

But the one I wanted to draw your attention was slide 15

On managing through the economic downturn
"We've had one of these before, when the dot-com bubble burst. What I told our company was that we were just going to invest our way through the downturn, that we weren't going to lay off people, that we'd taken a tremendous amount of effort to get them into Apple in the first place -- the last thing we were going to do is lay them off. And we were going to keep funding. In fact we were going to up our R&D budget so that we would be ahead of our competitors when the downturn was over. And that's exactly what we did. And it worked. And that's exactly what we'll do this time."

This is something I totally agree on.

This 'crisis' should be seen as a huge opportunity to pick up some great people and invest in some great projects that will make you stronger and better once the spending does increase as people get more confident about the economy.

Think of this downturn as a chance to reset your processes, get leaner and better and use this as a chance to come out on top.


Cheers,
Dean

Filtered Internet Protests in Australia

Some of you might have seen my post from a few weeks ago. Today there were street protests in various cities across Australia to protest.

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/270896/pictures_aussies_rally_against_against_sanitised_internet?img=13164&ssid=1&fp=2&fpid=2

Cheers,
Dean

www.CommunityOfVeterans.org

Most people know that I'm anti-war and definately anti USA overseas imperialism and domination in overseas countries but this advertisement is on such a human emotional level it's perfect as an 'advertisement'.

I dont know anthing about www.CommunityOfVeterans.org but wow their advertising firm should really be congratulated - what a perfect advertisment.

Cheers,
Dean

wow less than 25% of us households have HDTV?

Wow less than 25% of us households have HDTV?

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081212-neilsen-says-hdtv-adoption-in-us-doubled-this-past-year.html

WTF are you people waiting for?

After my bitching last week about 16:9 I can understand why cable companies are waiting, with only 1 in 4 having made the switch I wouldn't either.

Is there the possibility that these figures/survey are mistaken?


Cheers,
Dean

Yes Virginia this is a recessionary Christmas

Yes Virginia this is a recessionary Christmas.

I felt sad for the local Christmas tree seller this morning and snapped this photo, he has been so bored the last few days and is just sitting there rather than being run off his feet like last year.

He's a really nice guy, we got to talk to him last year and found out he spends a few months of the year in Australia each year (actually near Tharwa in Canberra near where i did my Outward Bound hike).

Unfortunately as we are moving on the 23rd of December we wont be buying a tree this year.....i guess we aren't the only one.


Cheers,
Dean

Detachable camera on camera phone

wow how cool is this. what a neat concept.

If this is able to record not only still photo shots but video as well to the phones memory card what a cool technology, i hope they patent it and make a ton from other vendors licensing the concept.

www.engadget.com/2008/12/09/jingpeng-e1181-shoddyphone-harbors-totally-excellent-detachable


Cheers,
Dean

Fictional character human rights?

I came across a really interesting blog post today;

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/12/word-person-included-fictional-or.html

the background of the story is that a man in NSW, Australia was charged in this case http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24767202-2,00.html - I'm torn on this issue but based on this 90% of Manga is now illegal, and if I draw a stick figure doodle having sex on paper i can be charged with 'production' of pornography.

I love this quote "And, I should warn members of the Australian judiciary, fictional characters don't just have sex. Sometimes they murder each other, and take fictional drugs, and are cruel to fictional animals, and throw fictional babies off roofs. Crimes, crime everywhere."

Thoughts?


Cheers,
Dean

Borealis

Just watched a really interesting 'science show' (I love living in NY with how many cool 'niche' tv shows are on tv), anyway the thing that I learned is that Borealis are caused by weaknesses in the earths electromagnetic shield.

Because the earth shield is weakest at the poles this is why they are seen in the northern/southern most parts of the earth.

What was also interesting is that because of the continued weakening we could see borealis as far as the equator, of course is this happens we'll all be fried with deadly cosmic rays from the sun but at least it will be pretty.


Cheers,
Dean.
P.S. Something else I learned is that polarity (eg compasses pointing north - swaps about once every 800,000 years).

Mini - Augmented reality magazine ad

Shows the making of the new Mini augmented reality advertisement



I think this is very much stage 1 of a long road but great first step, expect to see more.


Cheers,
Dean

Wall of TV's - oh yeh

This image is so sick!!

Lol can't wait to get a wall in my house built like that.

Way cool.

Cheers,

Dean

P.S. Sorry about the crappy image quality, taken with my mobile phone.
P.P.S. A friend of mine who works for Samsung just told me to watch this space, the monitors above have a distance of 22mm between displays (eg 11mm edge on each monitor), they are about to release a line of monitors which will have a combined gap of only 7mm (eg 3.5mm per display). THIS WOULD BE REALLY COOL!!!!!

Australia the movie

We went to see Australia the movie last night.

Loved it, it was way better than i thought it was going to be. I can understand why some reviewers have given it a bad rap but basically it's just Luhrmann's quirkyness.

If you liked Strictly Ballroom then you'll like this as well. I guess some people just dont understand certain types of humour.

Definately worth seeing on the big screen as the scenery is spectacular.


Cheers,
Dean

Twitter is dead

I read Mark Evans twitter post and thought my response deserved to be posted here.

Twitter is dead.
http://www.markevanstech.com/2008/11/26/no-twitter-sms-for-you-canada/#comment-140964


Cheers,
Dean

Speed of light factoid

Here is an interesting speed of light factoid;

The distance travelled by light in 1 second;
is equal to
The distance i would travel riding a bicycle at 12 miles an hour, 24 hours a day for 22 months.

...... nothing to see here, feel free to move on.


Cheers,
Dean

Who exactly does CTIA think they represent

So the 2009 CTIA show agenda lands on my desk this morning.

I'm kind of perplexed, exactly who is it that the CTIA thinks they represent these days!!!

Sure putting on grandiose events with Al Gore and Billy Crystal (both of which have absolutely nothing to do with wireless but I'm sure cost a bomb in speaking fees) stroke your egos but how does this have anything to do with your charter.

How about spending members money on stuff that counts like better wireless access and encouraging more advanced carrier functionality/R&D.

Billy Crystal FFS!!! what were you thinking.

Cheers,
Dean

When is 16 x 9 going to become the norm?

16:9 HDTV's have been around for ages and 16:9 broadcasts have been around for a while as well.

So can someone please explain to me why 90% of tv is still being broadcast in 4:3?

I mean how hard is it to reformat all the old content into 16:9, i mean the do it for all the re-edits of the dvd's they release.

The other thing thats bugs me is why is all the on demand content on Time Warner still in 4:3? even the latest stuff which has to be cut from 16:9 to 4:3 is still shown in the old format.

With the changover in the USA to all digital in Feb 2009 do you think we can get all the channels to finally make the switch?


Cheers,
Dean

Studios bully the wrong ISP

lol - I love how Mark White the CEO of iiNet a major Australian ISP has told the studios to go 'f' themselves.
http://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-join-forces-to-sue-isp-over-bittorrent-081120/

Basically the Studios are suing iiNet and Mark personally because when they send him details of an ip address allegedly using 'P2P' for copyright piracy content his response is 'fine, go tell it to the police, until they get involved I'm not doing anything about it'.

I'm sure the studios would love for the ISP to turn over the data, no subpoena, no trial/jury or due diligence etc but the law is the law.

Why should iiNet be booting customers off the network on the three strikes law without any actual proof or official legal involvement.

I also laugh at the studious how they pick on a smaller isp rather than suing Telstra or Optus.

I think Mark should counter sue for vexatious litigation. If the studious are serious about piracy then they should take all the legal steps required, no shortcuts.


Cheers,
Dean

etherpad

So what do you think?

http://etherpad.com/LceljGu8bu

by Michael Arrington on November 19, 2008

<http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/19/etherpad-shows-google-docs-how-its-done/>
A team of ex-Googlers, with backing from Y Combinator <http://www.crunchbase.com/company/appjet>, the Friendfeed founders and others, have created what might be both the ugliest and most useful group productivity app we've seen. Etherpad <http://etherpad.com/>, a new product from Appjet <http://www.appjet.com/>, launches this morning, and you must try it out.
It's comparable to Google Docs or a wiki, but it's far more useful.
You start off by creating a new workspace. You type basic text on numbered lines at will. Then invite someone else in and have them type as well. Each user's edits are highlighted a different color.
Changes are made in absolute real time, something even Google hasn't been able to do (Google docs update every fifteen seconds).
Users can also chat in the sidebar, save versions and make a few tweaks to the settings like removing line numbers. One great feature optionally highlights Javascript syntax (making this a great way to write code collaboratively) And that's it for now. There is very little bling to the site at this point.
In the future, co-founder Aaron Iba
<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/aaron-iba> says that they'll have features for exporting documents into text files, Word format, etc.
Eventually they'll offer businesses premium features for a fee, like controlled access, private URLs, etc. They'll even offer non-hosted version that companies can install on their own servers for higher security.
This instantly became a must-use application for me. It makes phone calls a lot more productive - just open up a workspace and take notes together, in real time.
A screencast is here <http://etherpad.com/ep/about/screencast>

Cheers,

Dean

What Property Recession

So much for a property recession, was walking to the subway tonight and noticed a 'cocktail opening night' for a redevelopment in Brooklyn Heights.

Not sure if anyone was buying anything but looked packed out. Looks like really nice high end fixtures and fittings but on the pricey side, it's about 600 meters from our place (btw we closed in the last of the sheetrock today :) ....more on that later.


Cheers,
Dean

Virtual likeness contract contention issues

Interesting events in the UFC this week. John Fitch one of the top contenders has been dropped from his contract because he refused to sign over his 'lifetime virtual likeness' rights for inclusion in the UFC video games.
http://mmafrenzy.com/2008/11/19/fitch-wellisch-and-aurelio-released-by-the-ufc/

It's an interesting conundrum because whilst one wants to support UFC and Zuffa for establishing the sport of MMA to where it is now, at the same time these one sided deals are only going to fracture the sport.

I guess it's the old example of people getting greedy and blowing a good thing, who is being greedy and who is blowing the opportunity (fighters or zuffa) is yet to be seen but with lots of competing MMA leagues like Affliction etc there will always be the opportunity for fighters to practise their craft elsewhere.


Cheers,
Dean

iPhone is 'NOT' the worlds number one phone

I was reading this article - http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/11/is_the_iphone_t.html#community

I thought my comment waranted posting here as well.

Also your quote should state "when it comes to viewing 'admob' advetisements"
With only 6000 websites this is such a small sample that the data is a poor representation of the total market.

I know it's cool that Admob release this data but I really wish they did so with a more realistic explanation, iPhone definately isn't the number 1 phone in the world.

Cheers,
Dean

Z-wave?

Is anyone reading this using Z-Wave devices?

I’ve been checking out Vera from www.micasaverde.com and looks pretty cool for only $199

Waiting for the renovations at our new apartment in Brooklyn Heights to be finished but I think Santa is bringing me some zwave gadgets this Christmas.


Cheers,
Dean

IFC Media News Poject

I saw this subway advertisement last week and was wondering what is it all about as looked interesting.
Came across this article this morning - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/arts/television/18medi.html

Looks like it's worth checking out so have set up the dvr to save the series. Let me know what you think of it if you catch it tonight at 8pm.


Cheers,
Dean

The Return of Gordon Gecko

I was reading this article this morning http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/29911 and thinking this is the problem I have personally with the bailouts.


We need to have 'pruning'.


Allowing inefficient companies to fall off and for mergers to save viable assets is the best way to protect everyone and move forward strongly in the future.


When are we going to see the return of a 'Gordon Gecko' someone prepared to roll the dice and acquire multiple assets with the view to stripping off the fat and making money from taking the risk through mergers and acquisitions.

Cheers,
Dean

P.S. As a matter of self disclosure one of my favorite heroes growing up was Al Dunlap (don't know who he is....go do some research you might learn something) - My favorite quote of his was "Don't blame me for firing you from your job, if the previous management was doing their job properly I would never have been called in to solve the problem in the first place".

AT&T Fuze

Saw the HTC Touch Pro in the AT&T Brooklyn store today.

It’s marketed through AT&T as the “FUZE”

Great handset, if you are looking for the latest and greatest in windows mobile devices check it out, was surprised to see it is smaller and thinner than my HTC 8525.

Sensational screen and really snappy speed. Not sure if i like the gui but being a winmo device there will be plenty of roms that allow reconfiguring (unlike the iPhone).

Didn't sign up upgrade both our handsets at the store today because the staff there were clueless about how to upgrade my account but will followup with the AT&T corporate division that handles my account in the next few days.

Photos to come soon :)


Cheers,
Dean

V for vendetta talking head at heathrow airport

Does anyone think it's weird that the person they chose to do the security video message on the 'inter-terminal' passenger bus at heathrow airport is the spitting image of the 'voice of government news' from the movie V for Vendetta.

It's so freaking spooky in a 1984 Orwellian way. What were the producers of this video thinking?


Cheers,
Dean

A New Day?

7.30am Nov 4th. 2008 - A New Day?

Maybe..... I hate to be ominous on a day like this and I love the enthusiasm sweeping the nation but I worry that Obama can only fail to live up to peoples expectations.

I could be wrong (check out what LBJ managed to do in the first 4 years), but i think it's going to be a dissapointment like Mandelas term in SA.

Either way looks like turnout is huge which can only be a good thing.


Cheers,
Dean

The Internet of Things

Great article to read to understand why the Internet as we know it today is only in an ebryonic stage and that there is a lot more growth possible once we start enabling 'things'.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/02/digitalbiz.rfid/

Yes this is another article about how your fridge will be sending you emails or how IP enabled door locks eliminate the need for door keys. But more than that it's a great example of what is possible with devices that talk to each other over the internet - for another example check out this article about twitter enabled pot plants (personally i think SOAP or RSS is a better interface than Twitter but it's a start).

For those of you not into plants, how about running shoes that talk to your ipod which then uploads your running distances and speeds to a website (that you can keep private or share with other people if you want to show off).

Either way i hope you find these articles interesting and start thinking about what would help you in your life if it was 'IP enabled'.


Cheers,
Dean
P.S. Yes this post couldn't be complete without a plead for people to start moving to IPV6.....get to it people.

CPE Bluetooth Engagement

Interesting article in http://www.digital-media.net/ this week.

I dont know if http://www.breeze-tech.co.uk/ are the first company to offer CPE pricing for Bluetooth marketing but it's the first time I've heard of it.

Cheers,
Dean

One million .mobi domains registered

The promise of the mobile web, boosted by more web friendly handsets, is finally being realised, and the Dublin-headquartered dotMobi registrar has revealed that more than one million mobile domains have been registered.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/11699/comms/mobile-web-growth-explosive-as-one-million-mobi-domains-registered

Cheers,
Dean

Mobile Web 'click-to-call' advertisements

Anyone reading this implemented a ‘Mobile Web’ click-to-call campaign?

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=93819

Was surprised to see it state 7% of mobile advertising have a click-to-call component.



Cheers,
Dean

Baffin Island Wing Suits

Fly high you free spirits.


Cheers,
Dean

iPhone restrictive practises

This is why Apple will never win with the iPhone
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/10/30/opera-browser-now-allowed-in-iphone-app-store/

Restrictive practises like this damage not only the company but the consumer as well.


Cheers,
Dean

Thecus N7700

Mmmm Yummy, look what the lovely DHL delivery guy just dropped off.

The Thecus N7700 is a brand new 7 drive Raid NAS server.

Offers iSCSI direct disk support on Raid 0,1,5,6,10 (even multiple raid groups).

Allows network seperate configurable LAN and WAN ports. The eSata drive can be used for offloading onto another disk/tape solution. In addition there is a PCI slot that I've been told is there to create 'multiple N7700 clusters' though I haven't seen it done and not sure what the limitations are but I've been told you can stack 7 of them in a cluster!!!!

Unfortunately I'm still waiting for the 7 x Seagate 1.5 Tb drives ST31500341AS drives to arrive so at the moment it's just sitting there looking all hot and pretty.

Although I'm using it for my personal home use i'm sure it will be right at home in a SME without the high pricepoints for a Pillar or similar NAS solution.

If you are looking for a solid NAS and those puny 2 and 4 drive boxes are not enough for you :) then you should check out the N7700. Also they are coming out with an rackbased version in about 2 months if you want to wait for it.

This was one of the first 50 or so to land in the country this week so you might find it hard to get your own. Amazon have got some reasonable deals as well.

Cheers,
Dean

P.S. If you dont 'need' a 7 disk NAS you should check out the Thecus N5200BR
which is their 5 disk version. It has functions that leave the other vendors like Netgear and Drobo in the dust.

Monetizing the Long Tail

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081028-mtv-smacks-youtube-posts-almost-every-music-video-ever.html

If you have 'archive content' regardless of how crap you think it might be someone somewhere wants access to that content and this move by MTV is a great example of how you can use 'todays' marketing dollars to pay for access to your archive content for someone who wants to relive "Ah-Ha's 80's classic Take on Me" yet another time :)

a-ha MTV Music

What "archive content" do you have that could be monetized immediately, especially in these financially trying times.


Cheers,
Dean

HipLogic.com

I just came across this article
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/content/1967.html

Anyone using Hip Logic or had a look at the programming api’s?
www.hiplogic.com





Cheers,
Dean

Oil factoid

Was reading an interesting factoid in an investment magazine this week;

The average cost of extracting oil in the USA $63.71 a barrel
The average cost of extracting oil in Saudi Arabia $5.26 a barrel


Ouch.

Cheers,
Dean

HEART taxation act drives away green card workers

Basically what the HEART Taxation Act means for foreign citizens on greencards is that if we stay longer than 8 years that the USA government wants to tax our unrealised capital gains across our entire net worth, even money you might have earned 10-20 years BEFORE you even moved to the USA :(

http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=62884

I'm sure that the politicians who passed this knew what they were doing but anyone who employs foreign nationals to provide valuable services for their companies may not understand why people are going to be turning down good jobs to leave the USA before they reach the 8 year limit.

This is going to be a major major problem for USA companies and a brain drain on valuable skill sets.

If you are a foreign national holding a greencard what do you think about this?

If you an employer who has green card staff on your payroll what do you think about this and how are you planning to handle staff leaving your company to go back home (or more likely move to more favourable tax jurisdictions).


Cheers,
Dean

BTW can you believe the irony that fat slob Charlie "tax cheating" Rangel was the author of this bill that is going to drive expats away from the USA, lol bet you the NY Times never prints the irony of that one.

P.S. A couple of worthwhile links to check out;


http://benefitslink.com/articles/guests/washbull080630.html
http://robertschon.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/the-heroes-earning-assistance-and-relief-tax-heart-act

Explanation of $651,000 capital gains threshold - https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2012/12/01/high-cost-to-go-green-giving-up-a-green-card/#532ef010c08c

One of the best explanations of the entire S. 877A IRS Tax code situation from the view of a Canadian giving up USA citizenship (same position applies to most people having to pay Heart Taxation Act "USA Exit Tax") explains the calculations and implications over 9 different articles - http://www.citizenshipsolutions.ca/2015/04/01/renouncing-us-citizenship-how-the-s-877a-exit-tax-may-apply-to-your-canadian-assets-5-parts/
Difference between a “surrendered”, “relinquished”, and “renounced” U.S. citizenship https://1040abroad.com/faq/renouncing-u-s-citizenship/

A post for Aussies reading this;
https://atlaswealth.com/news/will-you-pay-a-us-exit-tax-because-of-your-green-card/?


Basically If you have a house or an apartment in Sydney and a little bit of Aussie super OR usa 401k....pretty easy to get caught up in the $2m limit....then you have to file/payup.....even though you spent 10-20 years working in Australia to create those assets......the USA IRS has wars to pay for so you are going to pay an exit tax on their ENTIRE value and not just the value that they went up while you lived here.

And keep in mind that if you get caught by "any" of the points pretty much anyone working a tech or finance expat job in NY/SF is going to fall foul of the income limts pretty easily.
(for more see - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8854.pdf )

"Definition Of Covered Expatriate
If you expatriated on or after June 17, 2008, the new IRC 877A expatriation rules apply to you if any of the following statements apply.
•Your average annual net income tax for the 5 years ending before the date of expatriation or termination of residency is more than a specified amount that is adjusted for inflation ($151,000 for 2012, $155,000 for 2013, $157,000 for 2014, and $160,000 for 2015).
•Your net worth is $2 million or more on the date of your expatriation or termination of residency.
•You fail to certify on Form 8854 that you have complied with all U.S. federal tax obligations for the 5 years preceding the date of your expatriation or termination of residency"

Twitter Valuation

Just read this article about Twitter CEO changing places….
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10068368-36.html?part=rss

Which got me thinking about how much Twitter might be worth.

Accurate numbers seem hard to find but best estimates are
Number of Twitter Users (TwitDir) : 3,183,544
Daily Twitter messages (Twiturly) : 200,000 - 250,000


What I don’t understand is how they took $15m in investment with zero revenue model. Even if they made 1c per message that’s under 1m dollars in revenue a year, or 15 x earnings just on the last investment alone forget about their total valuation.

Can someone point out to me their way of valuing this company based on the number of interactions per day.

Cheers,
Dean

Australian 'Net Nanny' is scary

Very scary article in Ars Technica today.

Australians may not be able to opt out of the government's Internet filtering initiative like they were originally led to believe. Details have begun to come out about Australia's Cyber-Safety Plan, which aims to block "illegal" content from being accessed within the country, as well as pornographic material inappropriate for children. Right now, the system is in the testing stages, but network engineers are now saying that there's no way to opt out entirely from content filtering.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081016-net-filters-required-for-all-australians-no-opt-out.html


Read this comment from an Internode engineer (Internode is Australia's third biggest ISP (and was my ISP in Australia)).

Well, it turns out now that those promises were only partially true. Internode network engineer Mark Newton told Computerworld that users are able to opt out of the "additional material" blacklist—which targets content inappropriate for children—but not the main blacklist that filters what the Australian government determines is illegal content.

This is scary enough, that if this goes through I would no longer consider Australia my home.

Looks like I'll be immigrating to Belize or some other latin american country where the sun shines and the beaches are good BUT if you want to visit internet websites where naked midgets lick peanut butter from each others privates while learning how to make pipe bombs and use PGP then the government couldn't care less.

My issue is the law should determine what is illegal not politicians of the day. What happens tomorrow if you get some idiot like Andrew Cuomo voted into Australian Parliament tomorrow and he decides that Usenet news groups should no longer be available in Australia.

It will be interesting to see how this changes Australian's condemnation of the politcial situation in China..... it's hardly fair for them to complain any more.


Cheers,
Dean

CPA or CPM?

This was posted on a newsgroup and i thought it warranted posting my reply to the blog.


--- In webanalytics@yahoogroups.com, "koded_730"
wrote:>> I am asking this question because of websites that use PPC as the
> major source of income generation. If you have alot of ad impressions
> with low click throughs, who do you blame? your website design, the
> advertiser, visitors? What do you think you could do to improve the
> click through rates on the banners or ads elements if you had the
> chance?


I blame people who market 'for call to actions', I think a more focused push to banner ads that promote 'awareness marketing' without immediate call to actions makes more sense for banner ads.

It doesn't make sense for people to 'abandon' what they are doing on a website in order to go off onto another action most times this is why i think PPC doesn't make sense.

Even though you may receive less initially I think it makes far more sense to implement a CPI or CPM standard then the onus is on the advertiser to create the 'lure' to pull away your website visitors through creative ads and efficient call to actions.


Cheers,
Dean

Verizon shutting down the SMS industry in the USA

Verizon have decided to charge everyone sending one of their subscribers a 3c charge for every SMS they deliver.
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/messaging/1879.html

Basically Verizon have slammed shut the SMS industry in the USA.

Yet another example of dumbass dinosaur carrier mentality. Sooner they all die out and get turned into fixed flat rate ip pipes the better.


Cheers,
Dean

Squirt-Gun Assassins

He had been sneaking around like a noir hero for two and a half weeks, finding new and shadowy exits to his regular places. He was tired from lack of sleep, and while it was early yet, he was looking forward to a stiff cocktail when he got upstairs.

Mr. Deane, a freelance audiovisual technician, was becoming a player to be reckoned with in this year’s StreetWars tournament. With only a few days left, he stood a fighting chance at being the last person standing, the $500 prize in one hand and his dripping gun in the other. But with the pool dwindling, his own would-be killer could not be far.

When StreetWars started on Sept. 7, each of the 250-plus contestants was handed a black envelope marked “Shadow Government,” with the name, home address, workplace, e-mail address, cellphone number and photograph of a player to kill by squirting. After each kill, the shooter acquires the dead rival’s target and begins stalking this new person, all the while looking over a shoulder for whoever is hunting him. It is permissible to shoot in self-defense.

(more)... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/nyregion/27wars.htm
How sick is this - No i didn't know about it otherwise I would have definitely been involved.

Next event in New York is June 2009 http://www.streetwars.net/nyc2009-signup.php so until then this video will have to sate your appetite.






Cheers,
Dean

1GB fiber in the home....in Japan

1GB fiber in the home....in Japan - makes dean cry :(

....and for only $56 per month I'm paying $67.94 a month to Time Warner for only 10mb/1mb, in otherwords 1/100 of the speeds they are offering.

http://gizmodo.com/5055965/1gbps-fiber+optic-service-arrives-in-japan-on-october-1


anyone thinking of running fiber in Brooklyn heights reading this...feel free to get in touch for a beta signup :)


Cheers,
Dean
P.S. Fios whilst faster at 25mb/1mb doesn't count as they block server ports in their TOS.

Great now any idiot cause can market using banner ads

So I'm checking out my website analytics this morning (I use http://www.sitemeter.com/ in case you are interested) and I see a banner advertisement on the right that says


"Price of Oil without Iran having a nuclear bomb"

and then showed a price gauge creeping up before showing this final graphic.

And I'm thinking like WTF?? who would create something like this, so of course i clicked through. It leads to a simple petition

Unfortunately there is no where to fill out a request to tell them that they GGF - i did however forward this blog post to henley_macintyre@yahoo.com

Whilst I fully support his right to free speech and his right to display advertisements like this - I also fully reserve my right to call him and any one else involved with http://unitedagainstnucleariran.com/ an idiot.

If you want to put together a petition that says that the USA will lead the way by destroying their own nuclear arms first then I'll fully support that.

I mean lets face it if the USA isn't prepared to give up their own nuclear ambitions then it's a little stupid to ask any other sovereign states to do so.

Seeing Henley is local to New York maybe he's interested in having a beer to discuss.
http://www.no-ip.com/whois/?domain=unitedagainstnucleariran.com&submit=1


Cheers,
Dean

Update - Wednesday the 8th of April, 2009

Hmmm the plot thickens.

Someone just sent me this link http://www.scribd.com/doc/179296/The-Use-of-RNC-EMail-Accounts-by-White-House-Officials - now i dont know who sent it to me, or what their motives are but it looks like the document is legitimate.

The Use of RNC E-Mail Accounts by White House Officials
The Oversight Committee has been investigating whether White House officials violated the Presidential Records Act by using e-mail accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee and the Bush Cheney ‘04 campaign for official

It appears Henley MacIntyre the person behind the banner ad and posted the comments saying my arguments didn't make sense Was a white house official who violated the Presidential Records act by using a secret email account.

It's a shame the banner ad campaign didn't identify who was behind the pr stunt.

Homebuilt Atom replica

oh wow - talk about a cool project, this guy built himself a homemade Ariel Atom replica http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/09/gearhead-builds.html

There are more pictures on his Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/25435483@N00/

It would have been a cooler build if he went through and detailed the project part by part - I also dont believe his claim that he could could get this car street legal, but even if it's not huge kudos (lol - I'm just jealous).

Btw in case you have no idea what an Arial Atom is check out this http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/ariel-atom-3.html

BTW for all the car fans visiting this page, have you checked out;
http://www.livef1chat.com/
and
http://www.livenascarchat.com/

Cheers,
Dean

Android Welcomes App Store's Rejects With Arms Wide Open

After being rejected by Apple, coder Alex Sokirynsky said he'd be an Android convert. The wannabe iPhone developer recently gained widespread attention when Apple rejected his application Podcaster -- because it allegedly "duplicates" iTunes. Then, Sokirynsky tried to sell his application through other means, and Apple shut down his operation. As a result, Sokirnysky on Tuesday announced in a blog post (before removing it, presumably in light of Apple's new non-disclosure policy regarding rejections) that he would cease developing applications for Apple and code for Android instead.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/will-google-and.html


Yep looks like Apple is blowing a major lead with their 'rough treatment' of iPhone developers.

It's not up and running yet but check out www.MobileAppStore.com in the next few weeks for a new community site that will be set up to provide a forum for reviewing and recommending mobile applications but also a community that will allow mobile application developers to communicate with each other without fear of retribution.


Cheers,
Dean

CTIA CSC 6 month growth chart

This ppt graphic shows you exactly what is wrong with the USA sms market - telcos who have no idea about how to implement a vibrant sms csc ecology, or are choosing ‘not’ to implement what’s required for various reasons.

A Common Short Code or CSC is the 5 or 6 digit number you text in for commercial sms 'interactions', so it may be text to vote, or text for information etc etc

Go to the UK and you'll find thousands of these neat campaigns, in Australia and Asia whilst not as many, also have a lot of them.

In the USA there are only 3145 for the whole country...... (and as shown below apaethetic growth for the last 6 months)


Carriers and CTIA already know what the issues are and how to fix them (hell i personally told them what the issues were when i met with them as part of the work I did for http://www.tractionplatform.com/ over 2 years ago)

- costs are too high (currently costs $1,000 per month to lease a CSC).

- implementation hurdles are too complex (currently 3 different 'people' have to sign off on the use and functionality of your CSC campaign).


Change both of these and you'll have both standard and premium csc campaigns booming and offering interesting and innovative content..... instead of just late night smut applications.


Cheers,
Dean

Skype and Asterisk 'kissing in a tree'

Just announced at Astricon a few hours ago Skype and Asterisk have decided to roll out a beta application for a special 'Asterisk-Skype client'.

http://www.digium.com/en/mediacenter/viewpress/Digium-and-Skype-Collaborate-to-Bring-Skype-to-Business-Phone-Systems

Basically what this means is that there will be a special 'Skype client' that can only install on to an Asterisk server.

This means that you will be able to receive 'Skype calls' directly on your Asterisk server, this is pretty cool because you can route these calls the same way you would an ordinary telephone call eg, drop it into an IVR, conference room, voicemail etc

The best part is I could set up a Skype user account for my business and when someone calls this number it will ring all of the Polycom IP phones in the office or if no one is here to answer will divert the calls to my voicemail or out another line to my cell phone - the person at the other end (eg the Skype user) wont even know that they are being redirected to a desk phone for answering.

Or of course I can just 'log in' to my regular Skype account from my SIP desktop phone handset but not sure how this would work when I'm roaming remotely on my laptop and want to receive calls there instead.

Pretty neat huh.

Also in case you are wondering this special Skype client wont be used for handling 3rd party Skype routing traffic, eg your Asterisk server will only be carrying your own Skype traffic.

Oh and you can also use Skype channel for your outbound call routing but as Asterisk users get their voip so cheap that's not really going to make that big a deal.

Beta sign ups being accepted now at http://www.astricon.net/skype .


Cheers,
Dean
PS in case you are an Asterisk newbie without a clue go spend 60's here www.Cognation.net/Asterisk

Do You Know What the Problem With CDMA is?

I'm a Cingular customer but i noticed that the HTC Touch Pro is only available from Sprint at the moment.

So when I noticed a Sprint mailer in the post box I thought I'd flick through it.

Take a look at this picture and tell me if you cant work out what is wrong with CDMA

Yep you got it.... world coverage includes all the countries of the world like USA, Canada and Mexico, and not something like USA and 212 other countries globally.

BTW I hear that Iraq also now uses CDMA (some senator shoe-horned it into a funding bill for the war that they had to use CDMA to 'support usa businesses'), of course that means that they now use a different handset type to all of their neighbours....... though I hear Iran will also be forced to implement CDMA once they are 'liberated' which should be any day now :)

Cheers,
Dean

Reasons why Android is better

ROLF - as good a reason as any.

Seriously though this gets to the core of why Android is better than iPhone - people don't like to be told what they can and cant do otherwise we'd live in zero crime clean and sterile cities.

Cheers,
Dean

Change in online music royalties

According to this article in MediaPost there has been a major change in online music royalties. This covers streaming only and not downloads.

This week, the parties disclosed the exact terms of the agreement, which remained confidential until a draft version was drawn up for the Copyright Board. The settlement effectively averted a lawsuit that threatened to disrupt the growth of online radio.

Per the terms of the agreement, online music services will pay 10.5% of their total revenues to the musicians and studios that own songs played or temporarily downloaded online.

Previously, the Recording Industry Association of America had demanded a per-play royalty of $0.0019 per song for streaming and temporary downloads, which many online radio services complained would drive them out of business.

So my question is, what happens for sites that have no revenue? Also how do they police sites like Yahoo that offer streaming music...eg. do they collect 10.5% of all Yahoo revenue or JUST the Yahoo music site?

And if i want to offer unlimited streaming of any music track ever produced for $10 per month on a subscription basis (as per my content cloudification article http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/cloudification-of-your-content.html ) does this mean that i only have to pay the RIAA $1.05 per month for each of my subscribers?

At that rate what about if I set up a P2P torrent company that encrypted the content so only allowed streaming from the proprietary player and not downloading so apart from the initial/ongoing seeding bandwidth charges the costs of delivery is born by the users and i charged a license fee of $1 per month.....would the RIAA be happy with 10.05c per month?


Cheers,
Dean

New York City May Raise Property Tax

The mayor is talking about increasing property taxes in order to cover the shortfall from the downturn in the financial market.
www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/nyregion/23tax.html

I have my own idea around this.

One of the differences I've noticed about New York compared to Sydney is the amount of fallow or under utilised space in New York.

Either buildings are left un-renovated and decrepit or are operating as a single level retail or renovated and in good condition but unlived in.

In Sydney especially as close to the CBD as we live here on 120th st pretty much 90% of the buildings have been renovated or maximum utilisation which is why we have have great suburbs as this is the natural expansion out.

In New York slum landlords counting on capital growth are happy to just let their buildings waste away until they hit 'the big payday' and sell out. In the mean time however both quality of life is lower and taxes go unrealised.

The other issue is that people keep an apartment in the city but they claim it as their second residence so that they dont have to pay income taxes as a NY resident. Now I dont care if you are or aren't fudging your taxes, I just mean you spend a substantial amount of time outside of the city and therefore dont bring revenue into the city through living here (eg. groceries, restaurants, sales tax etc)


So my proposal is this;

"If you own a property in New York BUT you claim it as your secondary residence eg. your home in CT or The Hamptons is your primary home" then you have to pay a factor of 2 x normal property taxes.

"If you own a property in New York BUT the building is abandoned and not operational then you have to pay a factor of 3 x normal property taxes.

This will take care of abandoned or under utilised buildings pretty quickly.

Cheers,
Dean

Charlie Gasparino

Charlie Gasparino just said one of the smartest things I have ever heard from a financial reporter;

"Wall Street as we know it has changed forever, it is now no longer Wall Street New York but Wall Street North Carolina (the HQ of one of the main 'retail' bank that bought one of the investment banks) and that this may not be necessarily a bad thing because the bonuses and salaries being paid to the Wall Street investment bankers are gone forever.

It is obvious that the risks being taken by these investment banks is not commensurately in line with the rewards (eg. interest returned) being returned by these exotic and highly leveraged investments.

Any additional risk has to deliver additional reward and the amount being returned just hasn't delivered, and these risks don't deserve the annual bonuses being paid".




I'm paraphrasing it a little but this is exactly the way I feel - you should sink or swim based on your roi. Dont deliver the roi......back to flipping burgers for you.


Cheers,
Dean

Cisco Acquires Jabber.com

Wow – now this interesting
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/19/cisco-acquires-jabber-for-enterprise-im/

I wonder what this means in the long run for the open development of this platform?

Just to be clear - they have acquired Jabber.com the company not Jabber.org the open XMPP standard.

So I guess they have bought 'developer expertise' and bums on seats by buying the company, and apart from obviously 'bringing industry and investor attention' on the other development companies in the space (Jive, Openfire,Tigasse etc) I'm wondering what this means for the long term.

As some of you know I've been working on a XMPP based website that I'm going to be looking for an 'A' round of funding in January next year so I'm not sure what this means for us at the moment.

BTW for those of you who dont know what Jabber is there is a great explanation on the ReadWriteWeb site below

Jabber Explained In Simpler Terms
In simple terms and to the best of my understanding, the http protocol used by web pages is said to be inefficient because it requires a user's machine to poll a server periodically to see if any new information is available.

Quite often there is nothing new and energy has been wasted. Think of how often Gmail checks to see if you've got any new emails (every two minutes) or how many times your RSS reader pings all of your feeds to see if they contain any new items. Meanwhile, the time between polling leads to a delay in updates.
That might seem like a small burden to you, but multiply that times everyone using these services and there's a lot of inefficiency. Sometimes that inefficiency can define the technical limits of what a service is able to do. On an individual level, I know I'm unable to use Google Reader because I have enough subscriptions that it times out checking every single one of them for new information. I wish it would just chill out and wait!
This is not a problem experienced in the world of Instant Messaging. While there are too many IM protocols in the world, a growing number of IM clients, including Google Talk, use the open standard Jabber, or XMPP.

XMPP lets one party signal to any XMPP server that it is available to receive any new information that's being delivered. When another party sends new content through the XMPP server, the message is passed on immediately and automatically to all recipients who are marked as available, basically.


There are also some major benefits to be gained when building data backbone platforms, eg trading desk applications where information is being 'sourced' from a site and updated across multiple interfaces.

One of the more innovative uses I've seen for XMPP over the last few months is the use in a web based game that chess moves are communicated via xmpp to ajax based web clients.

So i get that Cisco didn't buy jabber.com engineers to implement a Cisco IM platform for their retail clients and that they must have something much bigger in mind.

You could possible see different cisco devices communicating with each other (or even using an api to communicate with other manufacturers devices) eg, you might have an XMPP api to 'discover' appliance functionality or to communicate status updates.


Cheers,
Dean

AT&T devCentral Competition

Thought this might interest some of you.

Super curious why they are saying no iPhone apps can be entered?? Lol what just because a platform finally becomes easy to develop for it becomes disqualified :)


Regards,
Dean Collins






From: AT&T Developer Program [mailto:developer.program@cingular.com]
Sent: Friday, 19 September 2008 2:31 PM
To: Dean Collins
Subject: devCentral Alert: Turning passions into reality: AT&T's Fast-Pitch Contest

Have you developed a new wireless application that would be a great enhancement for consumers?* Would you like to win money and industry recognition for your innovation—plus showcase your application to more than 70 million AT&T wireless subscribers? If you're 18 or older and live in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or Vermont, you can enter the Fast-Pitch 2008 New England Contest for the chance to earn a cash prize and turn your creation into a commercial reality.

Enter by September 30, 2008, at the Fast-Pitch New England Web site.
If you're selected as a finalist, you'll be able to pitch your idea to a panel of AT&T business representatives and industry partners, who will determine the winner.
Want to learn more?Visit the Fast-Pitch New England Web site for contest rules and to learn more about Fast-Pitch 2008 New England.
The first-prize winner will receive:
• $10,000
• One-month placement on AT&T's devCentral and Choice Web sites
• PR coverage


Fast-track review for possible distribution via one of AT&T's wireless application distribution portals.
Two runner-up prizes of $5,000 each will also be awarded. The deadline for entries is coming up fast, so be sure to enter today!

*Note that applications for Apple iPhones are not being solicited for this particular event.
© AT&T 2008. All rights reserved.

The Digital Car Is the Next Big Applications Market

Interesting article http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/18/the-digital-car-is-the-next-big-applications-market/

I think anything apart from aftermarket would be a very tough sell though.


What do you want for your car?

Cheers,
Dean

EFF to sue Bush and cronies over telecom spying

http://www.networkworld.com/ — The president has decreed that they can't sue the phone companies over illegal spying on Americans, so the Electronic Frontier Foundation today will announce a class-action suit in behalf of AT&T customers against Bush, Cheney, the NSA and others "who ordered or participated in the warrantless domestic surveillance.

(more)... http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/32875


Gotta love the EFF
:)

Cheers,
Dean

iPhone: Big trouble in the App Store

iPhone: Big trouble in the App Store by Fortune Magazine

This week the company faces a full-scale revolt. The issue: Apple’s summary rejection of a program on the grounds that it duplicated a function on one of its own programs.

“Apple has gone too far,” writes Paul Kafasis for O’Reilly Digital Media. “Rejecting an application because it might compete with Apple is simply indefensible.”


Lol I love it - basically you do a better job than our own applications so we are going to block you.... lol bring on Android I say.


Cheers,
Dean

CTIA Code Scan Action Team White Paper

Well it's out - here is the CTIA Code Scan Action Team White Paper
http://files.ctia.org/pdf/WhitePaper_CTIA_WIC_CodeScan_9_08.pdf

After 2 years of lobbying and hidden agendas with lots of committees and discussions this is what they come out with, they should have titled it..."We're carriers looking out for ourselves and all you advertisers and consumers better bend over and touch your toes".

Someone at CTIA either took a bribe or failed an IQ test if they think this is going to work.

My phone has been ringing off the hook with people asking what does this mean and where does the mobile phone 2D code technology in the USA go from here.....my answer is simple.

This is paper is fubar and will die a stillborn death.

Basically all you QR code people go about your business, keep implementing really cool campaigns with no hidden charges, license fees or 'carrier taxes' on your creativity.

Ignore all the scummy scanbuy/neomedia/ctia cohorts with their closed mobile carrier mentality and taxes and charges. The world has already passed proprietary closed systems by, they had their shot 4 years ago and they blew it.

With QR codes now available on Apple iPhone and shortly to be release on the Google Android as well as all the existing already deployed readers from Quickmark, Kaywa, 3G Vision etc for Windows Mobile and Symbian readers there is no stopping the QR code momentum in the USA.

With the success of the recent Ralph Lauren campaign you've seen how quickly and easily marketers can engage their customers with innovative campaigns and totally ignore the carriers.

Hey CTIA this ones for you :P






Cheers,
Dean

Seinfeld and Gates visit ordinary people

well the next one is out and it's even funnier.



Lol crack up – I cant wait to watch the apple fan boyz flip over this one.

“ I don’t get it…when are the going to show us the cool stuff Microsoft can do so we can bitch Apple does it better” waaa waaaa.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/11/seinfeld-and-gates-get-in-touch-with-regular-folks/


Cheers,
Dean

www.MobileAppStore.com

woohooo just managed to purchase the domain www.MobileAppStore.com on a Sedo auction.

I can now talk about my plans for;

www.MobileAppStore.net
www.MobileAppStore.org
www.MobileAppStore.mobi

and not worry about someone else securing the domain from under me :)

Should have something online within the next 4 weeks and hope to have sold the company within the year.

Way cool.


Cheers,
Dean

Gravity is optional

You can tell I'm feeling old when I look at things like this.... and know it's too late.

Have a great weekend but try to remember gravity is a choice in your life not a rule.

Cheers,
Dean

Melissa Ferrick Concert

This is exactly what i love about living in New York, tonight I got to see Melissa Ferrick live and all for only $20.

It was in a divy little club on the lower east side with only 200 people (lol I think i was one of only about 10 guys in the room).

If she was touring Sydney she'd need a big venue and probably a whole band and in order to support to expenses she'd need to be charging two or three times as much (instead of just driving herself to the gig from where she lives 10 mins away in Brooklyn).

The best part about it is having such an intimate venue allows her to really communicate with the room in a way very few artists can. What was really amazing was how good she sounded live - you know how when you see some bands live they sound nothing like their cd's because of 'post recording' corrections etc - there was none of that she absolutely rocked her heart out and sounded great.

It's amazing how one person and one guitar can totally blow away a room like that - huge concert and if she's ever touring near you you should definitely go and see her.


Cheers,
Dean

Large Hadron Collider

In case it's the end of the world and we all cease to exist tomorrow morning....you may want to watch this video to understand what happened......

Not that I believe this is going to happen.... bet you $20 something blows a fuse on the first try and they have to postpone a couple of weeks... or it happens and then takes the next 20 years trying to exlain what it was that they actually saw.

Cheers,
Dean

Microsoft Live Image Search - wow

I always use Google for image search when i want to find an image of something, this is just the way it is (good example of first mover advantage for those of you who think the concept is over rated).

I don't know why I've never looked at anything else (though I do use Tom Gibara's Flickr color search when looking for a specific hue http://www.tomgibara.com/computer-vision/color-search/).

Anyway long story short, today I stumbled across the Microsoft Live - Image Search .

Wow way cool - you can scroll down rather than clicking 20 images at a time. You can also change the size of the images on the preview page (as little as 15 or as many as 70) AND when you click on the image you don't get that crappy Google interface with the image header box.

The best feature however is the scratch pad that allows you to drag your images to the right so you can compare.

Wow. They really have done an amazing job here. I cant comment on 'search' capabilities (found both searches really fast) but just on interface way better than Google image. Check it out you might find it becomes your favorite as well.


Cheers,
Dean