Funny Age Related Mistake

So I'm watching VH1 tonight and an advertisement for a show they have on Saturday night (it's not important what it's for), but the ad had a 'cartoon' image of a turntable with a record playing

.......only problem though was it was spinning counterclockwise (the arm was also incorrect in that it was dragging with the record anticlockwise as well).

I laughed to myself and realised - isn't that amazing - cd's have only been around for such a short time but whoever designed the cartoon has no idea that records turn clockwise and the arm dragsfrom the right.

It's funny no one else (older) in the production team picked it up......or maybe they didn't think anyone would notice.


Cheers,
Dean

The Web in 1996

People forget how far we've come and what we expect the norm to be today is so different from the past.

One thing I've learnt in my life is if you pay attention to the past it can guide you in the future.

Check out these websites in 1996 - it might give you some ideas for the future.
http://gizmodo.com/349333/old-websites-sure-are-funny


Cheers,
Dean

Clerks II

I keep wondering when I'm going to grow up.

I mean I love super serious deep and meaningful movies, I'll enjoy penetrating the most dense, intense plot you can throw at me.

But I'm sitting here watching Clerks II and cant believe how much I'm absolutely loving it. I don't know if it's because it reminds me of a simpler more fun time in my life (Clerks was originally released in 1994) but for some reason every second scene has amazingly wondrous connotations that just make me smile.

Question is do you need to grow up (watch the last scene) or should you revel in your life.


Cheers,
Dean

Snow Fun

Check out this video;
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2008/01/25/hardin.kid.creates.snow.katu
(sorry you need to click the link CNN haven't discovered embedding yet).















Kid decides to build his own snowmaking machine in his backyard and builds cool 'sledding park'. Who says winter weather sucks :)


Cheers,
Dean

Dell deploys Asterisk

http://vonmag.com/editorial/web-exclusives/fonality-teams-with-dell


Well it finally happened, Dell has moved into Asterisk.

The high margin business of Avaya, NEC, Nortel etc are going to take some serious beatings from this development.

It took a lot longer than I have been predicting/consulting on behalf of some of these legacy hardware providers but it's happened. May you live in interesting times as they say.


Cheers,
Dean

Heath Ledger - RIP

It's unfortunate to hear that Heath Ledger passed away this afternoon in New York at only 28.

Whether it was a accidental drug overdose or not it was sad thing to hear as he's been not only a great actor but a great Australian ambassador living for a number of years locally here in Brooklyn.

I didn't want to make a big deal about this as I'm sure they'll be a lot written about this but I did want to draw peoples attention to what I think was definitely his best but often overlooked movie "Candy" (check out this imdb link).

P.S. For those of you reading this locally in New York check out Candy this Friday on Ch 222 (showtime) at 11.00pm

who owns the customer?

Lol I loved this article this morning
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/21/nbcs-zucker-hints-at-content-returning-to-itunes/

Proves the point I had made in this article linked here http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/laurel-papworth-online-communities.html

He who owns the 'real estate' space (in this case the physical object space of the ipod) "owns the customer" and can therefor write all the rules.

You cant put too high a premium on being the front end of a food chain.


Cheers,
Dean

Hana Linux

Interesting development happening in Korea with Linux.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/17/linux.korea

I've been wondering when something like this was going to happen - actually I was thinking it would have been one of the Nordic countries.

The power of an entire country 'moving' to a free linux OS will have an enormous effect on the Windows platform. Creating the 'groundswell' or momentum to deliver paid support, additional applications, drivers and 'acceptance' can be easily delivered by a single committed government effort to move to linux and as we know governments that are prepared to 'plan' and not just worry about the next general election are the ones that can drive real change.

If you wonder about Korea's ability to deliver major change check out this report that suggests broadband penetration in Korea is about to cross 70% (USA is 20th in the world at penetration).

Watching how this one turns out with interest.


Cheers,
Dean

Trademarks

lol so after talking about protecting intellectual property.....today I'm here arguing for the other side.

So a couple of days ago an email flurry started on the Asterisk list about Google blocking any keyword purchases for Asterisk and Digium trademarks.

If you haven't heard of Asterisk the open source software search for it in the top left field of this blog as I've posted about it a number of times.

Basically Digium is saying they are just asserting their trademark, but this is preventing their customers (the people who sell their services) from buying advertisements on Google.

You can check out Mohe's blog for more detailed information http://flatplanetphone.com/wordpress/?p=450

What does this mean? I don't know but if you are building an open source community and you rely on other people to help spread the word I don't know if this is the best tactic.

I guess some people are going to jump to outburst that this is the beginning of the end and what happens when open source communities get taken over by 'commercial minds' (btw did you see the mysql acquisition by Sun today) - but I think this is just a temporary 'mistake' and like all things 'life is a pendulum' Digium will work it out eventually.


Cheers,
Dean

Scrabulous / Facebook sued

It's about time. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7191264.stm

I've had it with the 'me see - copy you' attitude on the web. Pretty much every idea has been ripped off from somewhere else.

Intellectual Property has always been an issue since the dawn of time but lately it's just getting ridiculous. Facebook implements something MySpace rips it off, Amazon implements a feature and then every other ecommerce site has it up before the end of the quarter.

The internet isn't a law free zone, just because you're too small for someone to bother suing you today doesn' make it right to rip someone off - lets face it somewhere in your puny excuse for a mind you might fart out something creative someday......and there I'll be waiting to rip you off.


Cheers,
Dean

Apple AIR

Ahh crap – looks like I’m finally going to have to buy an Apple – this new Macbook Air laptop that they are demonstrating is insane. http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/01/15/apple.macworld.ap/index.html

I cant believe how thin it is.

It's things like this that drive me crazy about the lack of 'R&D' in the PC industry. Where are the PC/Windows version of automatic backup over the wifi network - where is the windows version of super thin laptops with solid state hard drives....?

Is this a reflection of Apples 'reasonable pricing' strategies (and by reasonable I mean pricing where they can still make a profit and therefor fund R&D). Is the problem with windows development a lack up profitability?


Cheers,
Dean

Lexus Convertible

http://jalopnik.com/344239/detroit-auto-show-now-we-know-+-lexus-lf+a-roadster-concept

How hot is this Lexus Roadster - it's only a concept car but wow I'd seriously be putting down a deposit on this thing.

Ever since the NSX got killed off there's been a lack in the high end japanese supercar - I cant wait to see this one on the market.


Cheers,
Dean
P.S. talking about 'interesting cars' http://jalopnik.com/344419/detroit-auto-show-fisker-karma-luxury-hybrid-only-80000 though i find this more interesting particularly with regards to financing...from Kleiner Perkins of all companies.

Global Reach

You know I started this blog to keep friends and family up to date with whats happening here in New York.

Although I still have lots of friends checking in but I also post a lot about work and technology which my geek colleagues read. It really hits home how widely spread people that visit this blog are when you check out this map;


















Each of those dots represent someone from somewhere in the world that people have visited my blog from.

This free widget from maps.amung.us (check in the right hand colum) tracks the ip address and location people visit from and then displays this information in a real time map.

I dont really know what this means in the long run but what it does mean in the short run is that peoples abilities to communicate widely with nothing more than an internet connection and a free tool like blogger is huge.

Got something to say....... you've never had a better time to do it than now.


Cheers,
Dean

Laurel Papworth - Online Communities - Australia and Global: Australia: The Foxtel killer?

BTW After my post on Monday about our new Sharp Aquos I thought a few of you readers might be interested in what I wrote on a friends blog about some 'direct to home via internet video technology'

Laurel Papworth - Online Communities - Australia and Global: Australia: The Foxtel killer?

I've got a pretty expansive background in this space that i didn't go into but needless to say I think that the delivery of content via IP has dramatically game changing potential and sooner rather than later.


Cheers,
Dean

Technology Functionality Stagflation

stag·fla·tion (stāg-flā'shən)
n. Sluggish economic growth coupled with a high rate of inflation

So Santa Claus obviously screwed up this year because he had me marked down on his list as a 'good boy' rather than a 'bad boy' and instead of lump of coal he left a Sharp Aquos 42" flat screen LCD TV.

The TV is great however that's not what I'm writing about.

What stunned me is how cheap flat screen technology has gotten over the years, there seems to be an amazing stagflation occurring in technology where features and functionality are skyrocketing on a quarterly basis while prices are falling rapidly.

Is this resulting in falling profits for 'off the shelf consumer technology' on a per item basis - I don't know but here are my personal circumstances and you can make up your own mind by 'shorting' consumer technology stocks.

So when we moved to New York 3 1/2 years ago we bought a 26" Sharp Aquos lcd - at the time 720P was the best technology you could buy and although you could buy bigger sizes at $2800 the 26" was as large as we wanted to spend (mainly because we use a projector with 110" display when we want the 'at home movie' experience).

So here we are Christmas 2007 and we bought a top of the line Sharp Aquos 42" 1080i (yes here are 1080p lcds out there but with the lack of true 1080p content out there I was happy to pass), yes there are a lot bigger TVs than 42" (we almost bought a 46" but there is also the 60" units as well).

Grand total for our much better much bigger TV...... $995

Almost 1/3rd of our original cost 3 years ago with at least 3 times the functionality - I know we are used to dramatic increases in functionality in computing but it's hard for people to conceptualise the radically larger number of additional computer processing power but when you look at a consumer electronics product like a TV it's plain to see that there is no way Sharp is making as much profit off this purchase as it did from us 3 years ago.


Cheers,
Dean

MoseyCode

So I was hanging out this cold and dreary Saturday afternoon and being the geek that I am... :)... was just browsing around catching up on 2D bar coding developments.

I happened to stumble across this link about a new 2D encoding standard called "MoseyCode"
(in the first breath I went - Oh brother just what we need yet another 2D encoding standard.....even if he Tom Gibra is releasing it without any patent encumberances).

Have a read below
http://thenextweb.org/2008/01/05/moseycode-a-new-chapter-in-mobile-barcoding/

What was interesting however is this



Although Peter's blog post doesn't explain it very well what you are seeing is the the introduction of a 3rd axis.

Instead of 2d codes just having X & Y axis information, the Moseycode can tell when the information is 'tilted' and introducing a Z axis.

The Cube in the video above is being superimposed on the Moseycode Card itself, allowing for a 'visual superimposement' on the Android display of any object you decide to 'upload' (I have questions about this as per my post reply below-so looking forward to understanding the limitations).

Now whilst I have very big concerns about the 'functionality' of this and the usefulness in a number of situations about this - there are certain areas where this has some very neat uses.

I wanted to post on my blog the reply I sent to Peter. I will also be sending Tom Gibara some questions and will post below in the comments further information as it comes to hand but like I said.....interesting and I thought it might interest a few of you out there.



Peter,
At first I was prepared to dismiss this as yet another proprietary 2d code.

I read Tom's documentation (as brief as it is) and whilst it has some interesting points there I think (honestly it's only a guess as the information provided at the moment isn't enough to actually make a conclusion) that what is occurring in these videos is the android OS is downloading visual information from a web server and inserting it into the x,y,z axis.

Whilst this is neat and 'nice' (particularly the 3 dimensional cube demonstration- for reasons too lengthy to go into here), it doesn't allow for 'inbuilt' coding of any more information at 96 bits than other standards.

2d codes are often about providing information 'on the spot' in a self contained situation without needing to go 'out elsewhere' to gather information.

I love that Moseycode is going to be free of patent constraints and I love the 3d (really the Z axis) component but wonder if this is going to be enough......would also be very interested in understanding the ramifications of moving the code to other backward mobile OS (and what kind of physical constraints are required for the camera hardware).

Thanks for bringing it to my attention, will be looking with interest as this is further developed.


Regards,
Dean Collins
www.Cognation.net

madKast Share

Hat tip to Eran for this new neat widget which I stumbled across when reading the Hueniverse blog.

Checkout this neat widget from madKast

If you look under each of my post titles now you'll see a green 'share' widget (lol-love how they 'worked over' the rss symbol.

Basically just click this symbol and you can now forward a post from my blog out to your friends or colleagues (assuming what I say is actually of interest to anyone).

Cool part is the email they receive has the original post, the referral link, and your details automatically formatted. Way cool functionality.

Takes about 30 seconds to install using the blogger 1 touch installer option - so if you run a blog or similar you might like to add this to your widget list.


Cheers,
Dean

Weather.com

Holy Crap Batman – was just watching CNBC and they ran a story that the Weather Channel is up for sale – and expecting to attract bids of approx $5 Billion dollars (yeh Billion with a B).

I cant believe that they currently turnover $300million dollars a year. (I’m also questioning the multiple but who knows – as I’m not a user probably has a lot of growth left even still).

Apparently it’s one of the last ‘non network’ USA cable channels (check out what Oxygen sold for last year as well http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/eyeball-valuations.html)

They didnt break down the revenue into their TV/Web/commercial forecasting services – nor did they provide any profit numbers but seriously points out there is still some significant value tied to eyeballs.


Cheers,
Dean