Radiohead Creep

Wow be prepared to be blown away.

This is an amazing rendition of RadioHeads - Creep.



more details here

Happy New Years Sydney!!

I just noticed that it just ticked past 8am here in NY and realised all my friends in Sydney would have just celebrated New Years.

This is the view from my office window this morning.

Although it's very pretty as just started snowing about 20 mins ago it makes me realise how much i miss you all. I think New Years next year will have to be spent on a boat in Sydney harbour surrounded by all friends i miss so much.

See you all in 365 days.


Cheers,
Dean

Brooklyn 8.30pm, "Feels like -19c"

Feels toasty warm inside the apartment (running around in shorts and t-shirt) but wow it's cold outside.

No snow or anything just windy and cold, just got back from taking Lou Lou for her nightly walk and even she was happy to come inside.

Enjoy Sydney for those of you reading this in Australia :)


Cheers,
Dean

Awesome script for image cropping

We've been looking for a better way of image cropping avatar photos for the new http://www.livefootballchat.com/ website.

Basically at the moment users just upload any photos and we resize it to the 60x60 image you see on the site currently.

Dave just found this awesome script for image cropping - http://deepliquid.com/projects/Jcrop/demos.php?demo=thumbnail

As you can see in the example below we have the two "fixed size" images that allow the viewer to see what their avatar will look like (the smaller 60x60 is used on the chat pages and the 90x90 is used on the profile popup).

The user can select the "location" they want to use and the quasi "zoom" is handled by them dropping and dragging the selector box.

Really pretty easy actually.

We'll be rolling this out to all of the http://www.livefanchat.com/ sites over the next few days after some further testing but if you find it useful be sure to thank the original developer.


Cheers,
Dean

Julia and Julia

I just watched Julia and Julia tonight. It was the most perfect little movie.

Pretty much everything you think it will be like, it delivers, but with a sweetness and sincerity that is just so lifelike.

It makes me want to run out and cook up a storm.

If you need a pick-me-up or to feel in love this is the perfect choice (lol as opposed to Revolutionary Road I watched the other night - if your relationship is on rocky grounds this is NOT the movie you want to watch with your partner).


Cheers,
Dean

de-latinisation of the web

So in case you didn't know; ICANN has de-latinised the web recently.


Some background links are
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125664117322309953.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories#printMode

and



Now that non-latin domain names are now live;

How are do you think this is going to be handled moving forward? is this is going to be a real problem. for example - I own the domains
http://www.mobileappstore.com/
http://www.mobileappstore.net/
http://www.mobileappstore.org/
http://www.mobileappstore.mobi/
(yeh i know pretty cool domains to own - i'm selling them if you are interested....)

I was recently contacted by the domain holder for
手机应用商店.cn
手机应用商店.com

Which is mobileappstore.com  in chinese  that he had just registered ????

How the heck is this going to work???

eg. I could register the domain for Paypal.com in Hebrew tomorrow and anyone who uses the Hebrew version of their keyboard would be going to a totally different website that i control and as long as i'm not phishing there is nothing paypal can do??


Cheers,
Dean



P.S.
UPDATE: There are much bigger issues than trademark at stake. As you can see from the facebook conversation below – my phishing concerns are worse than you think. It's way worse.

If you cut and paste the following text into your browser bar;


>                    раyраl.com                      <


it looks like paypal.com BUT ITS NOT!!

Some of the letters are Cyrillic and lead to this webpage - http://xn--yl-6kcb1fc.com/
(it's not registered yet - so it will lead to your isp's default null dns page).
This is a major screwup by ICANN

Regards,
Dean Collins




Alastair Bor
Yea and what about  >     раyраl.com       <  (I just typed the p and a in Cyrillic characters).

Try cutting and pasting the paypal.com text in my comment above into your browser :)

If you only have english qwerty keyboard check out http://www.translit.ru/

Easy way to use foreign characters... including Greek, Hebrew, Georgian, etc... helps if you can read a bit of Russian to navigate the site...
-Alastair


Dean Collins
This is a major screwup by ICANN - there is no way people aren't going to get caught by phishing techniques like this.

What can we do about this?

XMBC powered by Xperience

How sick is this demo of the new Xperience interface for the latest version of XBMC

(been living under a rock? no idea what XBMC is? - check out http://www.xbmc.org/ but basically it is a software application that will run on linux, osx and windows. It provides fully 'media center' functionality allowing you to watch videos, listen to music, watch tv etc).

Oh and it's open source so free......giddy up.




Cheers,
Dean

Everlast - House of Pain

Wow i had no idea, i just found out that the lead singer from Everlast eg "Black Jesus"


Is the same guy from House of Pain eg "Jump Around"


It could just be that it's 4am in the morning but that is blowing my mind, could it be any different???


Cheers,
Dean

WebTV 2.0

lol almost fell out of my office chair when i read this;
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_14066683?source=rss
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/16/AR2009121603916.html

I was almost humming along with Dire Straits "I want my MTV" and I want my WebTV.

lol everything that is old is new again.

What makes people think that it will be any better this time around? Do people really not remember?


Cheers,
Dean

Tasers being introduced in Australia

Very dissapointed to hear tasers are being introduced in Australia;

- http://www.smh.com.au/national/shot-three-times-in-front-of-family-20091226-lfm2.html

After seeing in the USA how they have become a 'first tool' rather than 'tool of last resort' this is a bad thing for Australians.


Cheers,
Dean

CyberPower

You have to love Jodie, she's the perfect Geek Wife.

Yes that is a CyberPower PR2200LCDRTXLTU UPS sitting underneath our christmas tree.

Merry 'Geek' Christmas everyone.

Venture Capital doing it tough

I know i've commented before about how venture capital is doing it tough with so many web apps going cash flow positive/being bought out without the need for funding (or significant funding that angel investors cant provide on their own) but seriously this latest news that First Round Capital are doing without their chauffer driven cars and having to walk is a real shock to me.

I'm not sure that harden New Yorkers are ready to see the sight of skivvy wearing khaki clad VC's standing on the street corners of New York with tin cups and cardboard signs that read "please help"   :)


Cheers,
Dean

TV - how hard are you prepared to hunt?

Great article below

Debunking IPTV Myths
Online video adoption is constrained by the amount of premium content available in real-time, business-model challenges

My comments are;
Tara,
I think the curatorial value the networks/channels are providing is often overlooked and under valued.
When i first came across Akimbo several years ago i thought "this is the future of all tv" (all on demand, ppv via the net, to a tv connected set top box).
It lasted about a month when i realised that you really could have the scenario "1m channels and nothing good on".
People sometimes just want to come home from work, kick off their shoes and sit back and watch.
Boxee does make things a little easier, but at the end of the day hunting around various locations for your content may be a pain threshold thats too high to cross at 9pm at night.

Cheers,
Dean Collins
www.Cognation.net


So what do you think? how hard are you prepared to hunt for your 30/60 minute fix? Do you really want to watch anything at anytime or do you just want to be entertained.

If you could watch anything at anytime, how long would it be before you ran out of 'things to choose' and needed someone to recomend something for you to watch? (hmmm do i sniff startup business opportunity there? kind of like Del.icio.us but for tv – hold you smartphone up to the tv, let it capture a 30 second audio snippet and then it tells all your friends what you are watching on tv/online).


Cheers,
Dean

Enter the App Age?

Steve Smith wrote this great article "Enter the App Age"
........"I was curious," my daughter answers, as if I should be proud of her experimental spirit rather than scold her for wasting $1.99 on an app she really didn't want anyway. Now that she is armed with her SIM-less iPhone and going a little app-crazy, the regular receipts I get from Apple are a laundry list of weird downloads.



My Comment to his article is below;

lol your article had me racing to my registrars website to see if "InternetAppStore.com " was taken unfortunately it was (I already own http://www.mobileappstore.com/).


But i totally agree with you that apps and snack size media is the future, and even if you only use it a few times before it gets deleted you still feel satisfied.

My question however is why does everyone run around saying pay walls wont work and rupert murdoch is an old print fogey who 'has lost his marbles'?

Consuming content in snack sized pieces called apps sounds exactly like micropayments for content to me.

Cheers,
Dean

Warning about using PR.com for Press Releases

Just a quick warning about releasing press releases using PR.com ..... DONT USE YOUR REAL EMAIL ADDRESS.

I have received 30 pieces of spam from pr companies who have harvested my email address from the press release.


eeek! what was i thinking?

Russell lost survivor??

I cant believe Russell lost survivor - that is absolute BS crap.

Natalie did nothing to get herself through to the end - people are just pissed off with Russell and jealous that he makes so much money.


Cheers,
Dean

It snowed..... :)

The view outside my apartment window this morning, isn't it just like a freaking Norman Rockwell painting.

I cant wait to go ouside and play with Lou Lou but some grinch wont get out of bed yet :(

Now for the bad news, someone has to shovel the snow off the back deck.

Cheers,
Dean

Google gets out their checkbook

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/17/google-acquire-buy-yelp/
Google and Yelp are in advanced acquisition negotiations, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. And while the deal isn’t done, we’ve heard that it’s very likely to close. The price is supposedly at least $500 million.

Google buying Yelp
6 Reasons Google wants to buy Yelp.


Wow - who would have thunk it, $500m dollars for a resturant review site you could build with the most basic of CMS platforms.

I really wonder where the ROI is on projects being bought for this kind of money, i mean how does google expect to get paid back on this deal (albeit Yelps 2009 revenue is supposed to be about $30m - but do they really expect this business to be around for 14 years?)

Yelp raised $31m over 4 rounds so either way i'm sure there are some VC's having a very merry Christmas.


Cheers,
Dean

I'm looking for a date

lol it's amazing that online dating is as successful as it is, i met with some management from online mobile dating company MeetMoi this weekend only to find that they are now pulling in high 6 figures per month from their $9.99 per month mobile dating application.



BTW; ever wanted more dating statistics than you ever would need in one lifetime check out;
http://www.datingsitesreviews.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Online-Dating-Industry-Facts-Statistics


Cheers,
Dean

Early internet video rights

Interesting segment about "Early internet video rights" around the 18 minute mark of this video http://mixergy.com/openx-scott-switzer/

Reminds me of what i found when i was working with Akimbo finding Australian content providers, took less than 3 months to find 100 content providers (albeit Akimbo was a slam dunk business model.....shame about the eventual hardware outcome though).


Cheers,
Dean

(btw - we use OpenX to serve ads for http://www.livechatconcepts.com/ and love it, OpenX market...not so much love, it's a dog and i dont think we've ever served an ad from the openx market).

Justin.tv compared to Napster

It’s for reasons like this I’m glad we were never going to put video up on www.livebaseballchat.com and www.livefootballchat.com , it's just not worth it in this day and age.


Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel was grilled by members of the House Judiciary Committee this morning about what his site was doing to combat piracy.
Seibel told Congress that the site complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by taking down infringing material upon request. Additionally, Seibel says, the site offers a tool for copyright owners to remove their content and helped develop a digital fingerprinting system. Justin.tv allows users to post and view live streaming video.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=119278


Cheers,
Dean Collins
www.livechatconcepts.com

Zooey Deschanel

Watching the 2005 version of "Hitchikers guide to the galaxy" on Ch 717 SciFi; Zooey Deschanel in space shorts yum yum   :)

If you cant get enough Zooey then check out "She & Him - Why Do You Let Me Stay Here"

Rock Music in Beijing

Great article in WIRED this month about rock music in Beijing

http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2009/12/gallery-beijing-rock-underground/all/1

Below is also a sample track from a band called P.K.14

LISTEN:

“Some Surprises Come Too Soon,” by P.K. 14

Australian internet censorship

Guess I'm not moving back to Australia -
http://www.crn.com.au/News/162941,conroy-reveals-plans-to-censor-the-internet.aspx
(well not without my own personal vpn proxy server located here in the USA).

Comprehensive post with links about the issue here from Gavin Heaton.


Cheers,
Dean

Mobile Ad Networks - are they a scam?

Just got told i needed to have 100,000 minimum daily impressions in order to sign up for Moovoo mobile ad network; when i asked him how many click throughs were they getting on average for that 100,000 impressions he refused to answer - the call ended with him saying mobile advertising is a $400m business in 2009 and going to double in 2010 - yeh ok but how many people are clicking on the ads?

I see a ton of mobile ads displayed on free mobile apps on my Droid from AdMob but i dont think i've clicked on one yet (at least not on purpose - for some reason when i go to close the "Kill-All" app i keep hitting the admob advertisement).

Is mobile advertising a scam? eg, publishers getting rich from marketers spending money but little in the way of traffic.

Does it even matter with the quality of mobile screens these days (eg my droid goes to regular pages instead of mobile versions). Is google the next No1 mobile ad network provider? is there a decent mobile ad network that pays decent CPM rates which dont vary the minute you put their ads on your platform?
 
 
Cheers,
Dean

Nokia is Finland

Wow this is an amazing statistic;

In 2007, Nokia paid 18 percent of Finland’s overall corporate taxes, but that dropped to 9 percent last year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/business/13nokia.html

Link referrals

I was reviewing the results of the http://www.livebaseballchat.com/ referrals this weekend.

The one that really stuck out to me was http://www.chatterhead.net/   We've had on average 8 visitors a day visit our baseball fan application from this site





It's amazing how some of the smallest details continue to bring you the most opportunities.


Cheers,
Dean

Jurisdiction shopping

Super interesting court case happening in Australia this week.

In an internet defamation case that lawyers say could set an "extraordinary precedent", an American games company is suing a British blogger in the Australian courts.

Evony, an online games company registered in the US state of Delaware, is suing Coventry-based blogger Bruce Everiss for libel over a series of allegations made on his website. In a bizarre twist, however, Evony has decided not to pursue its case in Britain or America, but 10,000 miles away.

A hearing in Sydney on Monday will determine whether or not the supreme court of New South Wales has jurisdiction – with the potential to set a precedent for the way defamation laws are applied to the online world.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/dec/11/evony-sues-british-blogger
 
I hope that this doesn't go through as otherwise this could be the beginning of a massive wave of jurisdiction shopping;

I originally thought the "Gutnick V Dow Jones" case was allowed to go through 'because' he was Australian.

Imagine courts from all around the world 'buying' prosecutions to happen in their physical domain because they are known to swing one way or the other (kind of like Marshall Texas for US patent cases).

On the other hand the USA has been ignoring the WTO for years around online gambling and Antigua so maybe it's not that big a deal?

What do you think?


Cheers,
Dean
(Hat tip to Ross Dawson)

Hot Potato New York Times article

I just came across this article in the New York Times today on a competitor of ours

Hot Potato, which recently launched at the TechCrunch Crunchup, takes a different approach to creating conversations centered around places and events......
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/hot-potato-offers-tool-for-event-based-chats/?scp=1&sq=hot%20potato&st=cse#preview


Lol how about an article on the original “live event chat” company – http://www.livechatconcepts.com/


While you are it you can write about http://www.coveritlive.com/ and http://www.livefyre.com/ as well.


Lol and I swear we had the words “developing highly scalable chat technologies for interacting during live events” on our website the day we went public back in May 2009 though it's always a shock to see these words in the Hot Potato powerpoints and descriptions -lol.

Though to be honest after using the Hot Potato app for the last week since it launched i feel it's a closer competitor to http://www.foursquare.com/ and much more of a 'check in' style application rather than the "destination" chat website application that we have for http://www.livebaseballchat.com/ and http://www.livefootballchat.com/


Regards,
Dean Collins
http://www.livechatconcepts.com/

P.S. and yes I am jealous of the $1.4m they raised in their seed round - makes out $300k we are looking to raise look like a bargain.

Birds on my deck

I just caught this view outside of my home office window;

two birds just hanging out enjoying the sun

Cheers,
Dean

Google QR Decals

Google announced this week they are going to be sending out 20,000 QR code 'decals' to businesses across the USA this week.

Basically the URL embedded on the QR code is going to redirect to a proprietary google website.

I swear some people are as dumb as a stack of bricks.

Yes QR codes are a good idea, yes they should be more widely adopted, but go create your own free QR code leading to your own website instead of sending people to a proprietary website that google will want to start charging you for in a few years.



BTW in case you've been living under a rock and dont know what QR codes are about feel free to check out www.Cognation.net/QR for a "60 second Overview" to bring you up to speed.


Cheers,
Dean

Dragon's Lair on iPhone

Oh Wow this is too cool.

http://kotaku.com/5421051/dragons-lair-dares-to-make-leap-to-iphone

I hope they bring this to Android as well, i'd be the first to buy it.... plus the graphics would look way better.

Way too many hours playing hookey from school at Hurstville Westfield were spent playing this game.

Cheers,
Dean

Things you see in a New York subway

Things you see in a New York subway


They were pretty good at it too.

Cheers,
Dean

Apple Skeeball iPhone application

Wow $181,000 in one month – that’s insane

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/technology/06apps.html?_r=1


Cheers,
Dean

Mike Walsh - Fourth Estate Domain interview

So how does Mike keep his hair so silky smooth :) I've been living in New York for 5 years now and he looks exactly the same as when i met him at Newscorp.

Good video - well worth the 30 mins to watch it; http://play.viostream.com/?play=a16a3be4-57fa-4a1a-893f-9b95d8af2651

Cheers,
Dean

How many tweets does it take to make it onto the Twitter Trending list?

Apparently about 100 per minute or so;

Tony Abbot ascended to leader of the liberal party on Tuesday after a Malcolm Turnbull was unceremoniously booted from the top spot. It was an upset victory, most expected Joe Hockey to come out on top, and the Australian twitterverse went a little crazy with the news, with tweets flying think and fast. At one point both the #spill hashtag and 'Tony Abbott' making it to the Twitter's fabled trending topics.

But how much excitement to you need to make something trend on Twitter?
http://www.digital-media.net.au/article/How-many-tweets-does-it-take-to-make-a-spill-trend/507590.aspx?utm_source=20091204&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletters


Interesting..... so if 100 of you post "I Love http://www.livefootballchat.com/" in the next 60 seconds we can make it onto the trending list :)


Cheers,
Dean

NHL trying out Tweetmixx dashboards

Was reading this today;

The National Hockey League (NHL) on Wednesday becomes the first in a handful of companies scheduled to launch a white-label platform from Mixx that aggregates tweets from Twitter on Web sites and blogs. TweetMixx Channels creates a distribution channel for tweets both off and on Twitter. The platform comes with a widget that bloggers can embed on a variety of sites. A plug in to Facebook will launch in two weeks. The product roadmap also includes a snippet of code to personalize iGoogle and other Web pages. The platform has filters to monitor chatter, too.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=118262


Wondering if there is there any manual 'curation' of the comments? How are they going to prevent another "skittles effect"

One of the reasons that we dont pull Tweets about games into www.livechatconcepts.com websites is that fans want dialog, not lots of "one way shouting".

Technically it is very easy to do (we already do outbound tweets and posts from the chat) just not sure if we would 'want to'.


Cheers,
Dean

Fifa world cup 2010

With the 2010 south african world cup coming closer i'm not sure if we are going to do anything around this yet.

It would be a great way to get real time international interactivity between multiple countries..... but the fifa lawyers scare the heck out of me (compared to those wussy Twitter lawyers :)

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afmarketing/marketing/2010_fifa_public_guidelines_0714_12016.pdf

cant use the terms;
• 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa
• 2010 FIFA World Cup
• FIFA World Cup
• World Cup
• 2010 World Cup
• World Cup 2010
• South Africa 2010 or SA 2010 or ZA 2010
• 2010 South Africa
• Football World Cup
• Soccer World Cup

It appears according to this

we should be ok but then in the same document they say we cant publish the schedule for a commercial use (which is think is BS here in the USA anyway)

Either way no need to make a real decision yet.

What do you think? are Americans ready for a 'football' game that uses a round ball or is soccer still an alien concepts to them?


Cheers,
Dean

Embrace your wobbbly bits....or not.

A friend of mine posted in facebook how she would never do plastic surgery because Miss Argentina just died from it.

A 38-year-old former Miss Argentina has died over the weekend from complications resulting from cosmetic surgery, friends say. "This woman who had everything is dead because she wanted to have a slightly firmer ass".
http://bit.ly/4M7bDz


My counter intuitive advice is do you know that more people die from coconuts falling on their head each year than shark attacks..... yet no one fears coconuts.

The point being if you worry about death from palstic surgery you should probably also stop driving your car...walking across the road... flying is ok but eating the hamburger is definitely out.....

People are lousy at judging risk....but great at judging fat.

Bring on the lypo, and the lasik and the titanium hips and who knows what else when i get that old.


Cheers,
Dean

Is a 'remnant' radio advertisement worth 4 x an online ad?

So i read in Fred Wilson's blog post post that one of his portfolio companies http://www.targetspot.com/ was looking for a SEO and i thought hmmm i wonder how much it does cost to advertise on radio?

So I found out the answer....... "Lots".

Basically for a basic 15 second advertisement, running in the 'sports' genres radio stations with no ability to choose 'what stations' it ran on (in otherwords bottom of the barrel remnant including aol radio) it costs a minimum of $3.74 PCM.

I'm not sure how the 'stations' are estimating their listeners at 3-6pm each afternoon but i wasn't able to actually select what days it could be run on either - just what timeslot (i would really want sat/sun afternoons to target sports listeners for http://www.livefootballchat.com/ and http://www.livebaseballchat.com/ ).

This $3.74PCM amount also didn't seem to go up or down based on total budget either. In fact the flash demo about 'tweaking' your campaign showed a lot of functionality that wasn't possible when it came to setting up the ad spot.

So I'm putting the question to you - is it worth 4-5 X to advertise on radio compared to online?

Do you pay anymore attention to radio ads than online ads?


Cheers,
Dean
P.S. Something that confused me about their 'close the order' page was it automatically selected was even though i put in $500 as my monthly budget....they auto selected $50. I think they might not be taken seriously for this amount alone.

Toyota Yaris

A friend of mine in Australia Laurel Papworth really castigated Toyota and their Yaris social media innitiatives .
http://laurelpapworth.com/australia-toyota-yaris-social-media-campaign-downfall/
Toyota have chosen 5 or 6 agencies and have asked them to spend $15,000 each on a “social media marketing campaign”. Think “stunt” and you have a better idea of what they are talking about.. And while traditional media pitches means war to get content into banner ads, on TV and radio, when it comes to using the same tactics in online communities, there’s damage done. What happened to engagement, respect, conversation, collaboration, dialogue?


Here is a video she created showing her displeasure;



My comments are;
Hey Laurel, first you castigate companies for not 'experimenting' and then when Toyota only throws $100,000 at a test project you castigate them for doing it wrong........

I think it's cool that Toyota are trying something innovative, and sure i think Yaris cars suck and nothing would make me buy one..... doesn't mean something cool isn't going to happen from one of them.

Personally i love the One Green Bean concept, i think it should be run for more than just one night....maybe something like you find the car via a mobile web app and you get to keep the keys as long as you are driving it, once you "drop the keys" someone else gets to take the car to where they want.....would be a great example of Toyota reliability having the car on the road for 24x7x30 days etc. you could have a dashboard where it tracks how many kilometers per day, how fast it was traveling on average and a map showing the trip route etc.

What do you think? is $100k a joke or a reasonable 'experiement'?

Cheers,
Dean

Is the time right to bring back something like Mogi Mogi to the USA?

I was reading an interesting article on Techcrunch about FourSquare and although i've never been a user it's been curious to me how viral the concept got (and what are the elements needed so I can replicate that success for LiveChatConcepts) and how long the 'checkin process' was going to interest people.


Over the last six months just about all of my tech friends have started using Foursquare, a geolocation-based game that was built by the creators of Google-acquired Dodgeball. Some of them will literally pull out their phones as soon as they enter any restaurant, event or even TechCrunch HQ and check in just so they can be named ‘mayor’ of that establishment (whoever checks into any particular location the most times becomes mayor of that location). It’s fascinating and a bit bizarre to watch, and it clearly shows that Foursquare has tapped into something powerful.


But all this time I’ve had a nagging feeling that Foursquare, at least in its current form, is not going to be the next Twitter, as some people have concluded. Because as good as Foursquare is at figuring out where and what your friends are up to, they can’t hope to compete with Facebook. That is, if Facebook does Geo right.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/28/facebook-foursquare/

So I'm wondring, if 'checking in' isn't enough to keep Foursquare going (and i'm not sure i agree with that statement anyway), Do you think the timing and technology is right to introduce something more complex like Mogi Mogi?
http://blog.collins.net.pr/2006/07/do-you-mogi-mogi.html

Something that introduces gaming/competition points and real time elements to the location based 'check in process'. Or are the FourSqaure guys onto a good thing and there is no need to mess with the success considering they only just launched their '50 city' major push?

What features would you want to add to Foursquare if you are a user?

And if you aren't a user what would convince you to become a user?

Cheers,
Dean

Windows 7 overtakes OSX already

ha ha -

Windows 7 passed the 5% market share milestone of OS X last weekend.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/183325/windows_7_sales_beat_mac_os_x_market_share.html?tk=rss_news

lol already? hasn't it only been out for a month or so?

Wonder how long before it overtakes the entire Apple market share?


Cheers,
Dean

PPV Tweets?

Would you pay to read my tweets? http://bit.ly/PPV_Tweets - i probably wouldn't.


Cheers,
Dean

Android apps dominated by small developers

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing but interesting article http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/11/27/big-developers-on-android-who-needs-em about how lots of android apps are being driven by smaller developers.

I've been saying for a while the reason why Palm took off, and iPhone, and now Android is because it was dead easy to develop apps for it.

When palm first launched it's dev kit for $35 (or thereabouts) this was a significant change from the 'pro charges' that were being levied before then (windows ce etc was a $1200 dev license).

When iPhone lowered the 'language' bar and made it easier this stimulated growth (albeit they are choking development with the iStore approval process).

So with android immediate deployment and an even simpler coding environment what does this mean?
Is there still a place for the large dev shop for Android?

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?


Cheers.
Dean

Associated Content

Interesting interview about Associated Content - what caught me was the comment at the 2.15 mark about how associated content has 300,000 'content providers', wtf?

So basically 300,000 people are creating this content that results in 27m unique users per month. (number 38 site in the USA).



So if you look at this page; http://www.associatedcontent.com/faq.html#B1 it appears they are paying $1.50 PPM, so for every thousand pages views you make $1.50, and it scales up from there.

So is anyone making any real money from this?

And at $1.50 PPM is associated content making any real money? with remnant advertising paying less than that how much are they making in arbitrage and is anyone advertising on associated content sites seeing any real ROI on their direct add purchases?


Cheers,
Dean

SVN SUCKS!!

SVN Sucks and it shouldn't be this difficult.

I'm going to bed......and not coming back for a long long time.

TouchDown exchange client for Android

i just downloaded the app - works great, well worth the $10.

be aware however that when you install it you need to slide the icons on the left to see the configuration icon.....lol took me 3 mins to find it until i closed the keyboard and shut out of landscape mode.

not sure how long the application will be $10 but grab it now. Althought there are several minor things that need to be corrected they have a healthy and fast support team turning around feature requests quickly.

There is a great installation guide here

Cheers,
Dean

All the cool kids use Droid

I guarantee Droid users have already overtaken the iPhone users when considering how much mobile content they consume/how heavily they use their device.


All the hard core hackers are now Droid users (or will be within 6 months).

If my mother asked what phone she should use i'd say an iPhone but for anyone thats relatively nerd/tech - Droid is the only choice.


Cheers,
Dean

Chumby One

Chumby One has the ability to be a 3g to wifi router - http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=611 (and board can be retrofitted to classic) hmmm soft and cuddly PAN  (Personal Area Network).

What i really want is the 'next version' (Chumby Two :) ?  basically all the chumby functionality but in a 'digital photo frame size.


Cheers,
Dean

Trademark 'Tacking' court case O'Neal V's One Industries decided

Really interesting article on Trademark and derivative trademarks, (known as 'tacking').

Motorcycle Apparel Company’s Efforts to “Tack” Prior Use of “O” Mark Not Sufficient, Ninth Circuit Rules
“We venture into the world of motocross racing to determine whether federal trademark law protects a motorcycle apparel company’s use of a stylized ‘O’ on its products.”


So begins the Ninth Circuit’s August 24, 2009, opinion in One Industries, LLC v. O’Neal Distributing, Inc., 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 18967 (9th Cir. August 24, 2009), in which the Court would answer this question in the negative. This case is significant for two reasons: (1) it serves as an example of how issues of “tacking” – the act of trying to prove earlier use of a mark in order to achieve priority over an intervening user – can play a crucial role early in a case before discovery has commenced; and (2) it reminds trademark owners of the high standard that courts apply when considering issues of tacking, and of the risks associated with such issues.........  http://www.manatt.com/NewsEmail.aspx?id=10624


I know most startups have enough to worry about already but this shows how basic 'on retainer' continuous legal advice can really help.


Cheers,
Dean

Tim Tams in the USA

Oh No..... this is going to be bad, very very bad. It seems Pepperidge Farm have licensed the rights to make Tim Tams in the USA from Arnotts.

.....and yes they taste perfectly and exactly the same.... YUM!!    I'm in so much trouble.

Cheers,
Dean

Bettie Serveet - Log 22

I've been listening to Bettie Serveert "Log 22" on my Droid headset almost nonstop for the last 2 days.

There is something about this track thats hypnotic.


(sorry i couldn't find a studio version of this song, so the one below is live)


Cheers,
Dean

Blogger iFrame screwup

As you can see there is a major problem with google blogger at the moment.

eg my blog isn't accessible via www.collins.net.pr/blog anymore
only http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/

They broke iFrame compatibility about 3 days ago and still haven't fixed it. If it's not fixed by this weekend I'm dumping blogger and moving to wordpress.


I think they need to turn this off until you find a work around rather than keeping us offline.


Cheers,
Dean
#Blogger #Fail

Matrox Octal Graphics Card

I just came in my pants;


http://hothardware.com/News/Matrox-Announces-Worlds-First-SingleSlot-Octal-Graphics-Card-/


Do you think Jodie would notice if i plugged one of these into my computer? :)

Cheers,
Dean

@ShitMyDadSays

"Oh please, you practically invented lazy. People should have to call you and ask for the rights to lazy before they use it."

lol - http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays


(and yes i know there is a team behind this with a tv series etc.... still doesn't make it any less funny).

PGA East

Lol the Producers Guild of America really know how to run a "tech" event.....they have wine and waiters :)

Google to buy Admob

Wow, talk about buying an overpriced pup.

It’s funny I was just commenting last week how mobile cpm’s must be in the toilet with the flood of mobile content.

http://www.admob.com/google



Cheers,
Dean

Yelp application on Android

Do you want to see a dedicated Yelp application on Adroid?

Send them an email like i did :)


Cheers,
Dean

Bought a Droid

Well I bought a Droid.

I'll update 'this post' as i find out things about it for at least the next few days otherwise there would be 50+ posts.

I've also been reading and commenting a lot at DroidForums


First thoughts....bye bye ATT - the download speed on the Droid leaves my 8525 and iPhones in the dust.

Second thoughts.... hmmm i really miss my 8525 keyboard. I can see myself ditching this for a 'Android based HTC Touch pro 2 style device' sometime in the future (and as i bought the droid on a 1 year contract.... probably in 12 months - so the clock is ticking Motorola/Verizon).

I really do believe the future of mobile is Android, there are so many free apps and hack capabilities (eg, i dont think 3 home pages is enough...no probs, hack it to 5 etc).

Without doubt there are some crappy setup issues, and Verizon/Google leave a lot to be desired as far as usability BUT being able to do anything and everything is far more satifying than any 'perfect handcuffs' Apple can design....dont like your music player...go right ahead and change it (lol or have 3 multi-tasking at once).

Anyway more later.



Wow holy crap, i just played the YouTube video from The Motels - Only the Lonely on my blog - i cant believe how good the audio speaker sounds!! (oh and a mjor negative - whats the deal Verizon not providing any headphones with this phone - I mean i did pay $269.99 for it.....).



I actually keep reaching for a stylus, because the pixel size of the screen is sooooo amazingly good the size of the fonts you can read are tiny....too tiny for my beefy fingers and a stylus would be great.

The screen really is amazing, have i said that enough yet?

My other comment...and this wouldn't be for suitable for everyone, is the handset feel so light and small that i wouldn't mind if they increased the screen at least 1" all around. It would probably make the handset too big for most people but for me i think it would be perfect.



You have to have an app just to kill other apps, tons of apps stay open, no way to close them upon exiting like on Windows Mobile. Ends up eating memory and killing performance and battery.



Selecting and copying text is one of the negatives about the Droid. It's turning out to be a painful experience.



Google Maps navigation is slow..... I think people shorted Garmin stocks for nothing. (BTW I also think the downfall of Verizon will be that you cant talk and use data at the same time like you can on GSM networks....but when data is so slow on ATT anyway....then i would call it a draw at the moment).



I'm a little concerned how much piracy there is on the android app store, basically looks like as soon as someone comes up with a good idea...everyone duplicates it for free. What does this mean for the lifecycle ans sustainability for application development (lol also considering how many are ad supported...admob cpm's must have fallen through the floor).



Re: Yelp application on Android
Do you want to see a dedicated Yelp application on Adroid?
http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/yelp-application-on-android.html



I cant believe how crappy the email client for Android is when connecting to exchange - putting aside sync issues etc, where is the multi-folder support, where is the nice looking visuals you get with WinMo etc.

I know google want people to use Gmail but it just inat going to happen for commercial people.

This has nothing to do with $29.99 plans and $44.99 plans, it's just the email client in android sucks. This is possibly a deal breaker for me unless i find another email client.



BTW there is a GSM versions (for everywhere else in the world apart from the USA) and the Verizon CDMA version. If i had my preference i would get a GSM version (because you can use voice and data at the same time which you cant do with CDMA technology) but i dont want to get a GSM version for use here in NY as ATT and Tmobile have less throuput than Verizon. I've had it with ATT.



Love Love Love voice driven search. I'm really hoping there are quite a few voice driven functions implemented by google over the coming months.



Re: Installing Apps onto SD cards - this is another misinformation about how Android works and I totally blame this on Verizon/Google/Motorola (in that order) as to not explaining this clearly enough, or addressing this issue.

It is NOT that the apps don’t install to SD. The standard installation for all apps 'drops' app data into the sd card folders.

What does happen though is that 'some' of the data while the app is running is being written into the 256mb ram.

Yes you 'can' hack Android so that 'all' of the data is only running on the SD card 'but' this isn't necessary.

Think of the 16gb SD card as being L2 ram and the 256mb being L1 ram. Does that make sense?

(oh and the advantage is that just by buying a bigger SD card you can increase your data storeage from 16gb to 32gb (to 64gb when they are cost effective etc etc) - try doing that with an iPhone.



I Love Love Love that you can 'auto create' a QR code for a contact. Basically if i meet someone at a conference and i talk to them about a friend who i think they should meet i can just 'auto create' a QR code for that contact on the fly for the other person to upload to their phone.

Of course you can also auto create 'your own details' on a QR code to pass along to someone but I've been doing this with a static JPG forever, being able to create a code for every contact is the new unique.

BTW - if you're asking whats a QR code? dont worry I have a QR dummies guide at www.Cognation.net/QR



Cheers,
Dean
BTW - XKCD voted Droid as well :) - http://xkcd.com/662/

Verizon International Rates

I'm thinking of buying the Motorola Droid this weekend so have been spending some time checking out plans and rates etc.

Accidentally stumbled across this gem of information.

LOL - yep you read that right $1.49 and $1.79 per minute to call Australia from the USA.

And you wonder why people hate mobile carriers.

Welcome to the new world fuckers - Skype calls cost me sub 5c per minute using your unlimited data plan.

You're greedy actions are what cause me to treat you like nothing more than a dumb fat pipe.



Cheers,
Dean

mmmm Cinabonns for breakfast

mmmm fresh from the can "Cinabonns" for breakfast..... this is the perfect example of everything that is right with living in the USA and dichotomously everything that is wrong at the same time.




and yeh they did taste surprisingly good for something that 15 mins ago was vacuum sealed in a can from the fridge.


Cheers,
Dean

The Motels

I really have to stop buying cd's - it's becoming an addiction, but when you come across a classic cd like The Motels you just cant help but to go back and search on Amazon and Ebay for more.

I've added 5 of the tracks in the "Mood Music of the Day" play box on the bottom right, hope you enjoy.



This isn't the official version of the music video - that can be found here but EMI banned embedding.


Cheers,
Dean

New Droid Advertisement

lol - love it.

Bye Bye ATT - I'm off to Verizon sometime this weekend (i'll skip the lines on Friday thanks).




Cheers,
Dean

Trump Real Estate Marketing Messages

Lol - do you think these Trump Property envelopes were left over from 2 years ago pre property collapse?

If you are going to buy a Droid get it before the 15th of November !!

It appears as if Verizon is going to be changing their ETF for for advanced devices on the 15th of November from $175 to $350.

If you are planning on buying a Droid make sure you do it before the 15th of November.

Basically if you buy your droid after the 15th of November if you leave Verizon BEFORE the end of 2 years they want to charge you a higher early termination fee.

So basically if you left after 1 year (to go back to ATT for the "iPhone V5" for example) then they will charge you $230 ($350 - ($10 per month x 12 months completed = $120).

If you buy before the 15th of november the amount they charge you is $175 - $5 per month completed any purchases before the 15th of November it would be $115 early termination fee ($175 - ($5 per month x 12=$60).

Hey Verizon looks like all the suckyness of you hasn't quite left yet.


Cheers,
Dean




P.S. For all those people hitting this site today - Wednesday the 4th of November

Come join us tonight for live chat during Game 6 - "Back in the Bronx" - at 8pm, http://www.livebaseballchat.com/CHUrl/2009-11-02/2830/713


Yankees in 6 baby !!!

Game 6 Phillies at Yankees is confimred

The www.LiveBaseballChat.com CHurl for Wednesday night -Game 6 is back in the Bronx - http://www.livebaseballchat.com/CHUrl/2009-11-02/2830/713


Cheers,
Dean

Walking robot at Dubai Gitex 2009

HT @mattspangler Sooo while you had your coffee this morning the real Terminator began in Dubai http://bit.ly/Z6oqB



Doesn't count as a real robot until it's has a pair of aussie designed MetalStorm rail guns.

Lol i can just see some of the sheiks in the background thinking how do i buy one of these to patrol my fence line for this weekend.



Cheers,
Dean

Phillies at the Yankees Game 2

Here is a summary of Game 2's chat from www.LiveBaseballChat.com

http://www.livebaseballchat.com/chat/churlchat.do?id=2825



Cheers,
Dean

Droid dock is a 'let down'

I got all excited about the DROID docking systems with auto application popup;

(about the 7 minute mark)


until i read this.

- http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/28/how-to-hack-your-own-droid-dock-with-magnets-and-cardboard/

Thats a shame, i was hoping it was some as yet undisclosed rfid reader functionality.
Just using magnets means their various location placement are going to be limited (eg you cant create your own version of the docking device to bring up other apps).


Cheers,
Dean

Interesting 'development' insider article http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/technology/companies/29moto.html?_r=1&ref=technology

P.S. I've since picked up my own Droid and have been posting comments about it here;
http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/bought-droid.html

P.P.S. I wonder if i can modify the 'dock screen' to have multiple panels so when i'm watching the game online i can have http://www.livefootballchat.com/ streaming while sitting in the dock?

Phillies at the Yankees Game 1

Here is a summary of the Game 1 chat from www.LivebaseballChat.com

http://www.livebaseballchat.com/chat/churlchat.do?id=2824



Cheers,
Dean

Mad Men

Mad Men is THE best show on television at the moment, the underlying depth of this show is phenominal.

Check out this review for some of the subtext: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116291

Only two more episodes for the season.... OH NOOOOOOO.



Cheers,
Dean

Game 1 of the World Series

If you dont have tickets to the game and are watching on tv, join us live for online chat at

http://www.livebaseballchat.com/CHUrl/2009-10-27/2824/650

Starts 8pm est tonight.


Cheers,
Dean

USA Stats

I was watching a news story talking about how the USA is slipping in stats for maternal death from childbirth so i went and did some research.

Death of the mother in the USA during childbirth is around 600 a year or approx 13 per 100,000 births.

Whilst sad and devestating i personally thought thats a pretty reasonable number a more outrageous number is "Number of deaths in the USA during 2004 from gunfire..... 29,569 !!"


Cheers,
Dean

Too Geek?

Thats funny, someone wrote an online article with "Cupcake" in the title....and i opened the article thinking "Android".

Too geek much?

lol

neat way to temporarily fake external ip addresses

I found out this weekend that if you connect your cable modem to a new ethernet mac address that Time Warner will change the ip address of the device pluggged into of your cable modem.... weird considering the 'cable modem' hasn't changed at all, it's just what... it was plugged into changed.

Now the cool part is i also found out that if you 'fake' the mac address using some cool software that you can swap around your address ad-hoc and when you 'turn off' the software if will go back to your original address... :)

Check out http://www.technitium.com/


Basically Technitium fakes the mac address change, you then simply power the cable modem back on, 30 seconds later you'll have a brand new ip address. As far as any sites are concerned you are a brand new visitor.

Turn off the software (eg mac address goes back to what it was before), power modem on....same old address.

Of course Time Warner will still have a record of who you are so dont go using this for anything illegal - but it certainly opens up some nefarious possibilities.

Also I'm not sure how long you can leave your fake software mac address on before the Time Warner dhcp server 'allocated' your old address to someone else though.

Also if you use this in conjunction with No-Ip domain registration/DNS software you can even setup websites on 'fake' ip addresses temporarily.

lol - like i said time warner will still have a record of who you are so dont do anythingyou shouldn't be.


Cheers,
Dean

The AHIP "Public Option" Singers

Wow how freaking cool is this video, I want to shake the hand of whoever thought of this publicity stunt, what a viral hit.


AHIP is the powerful insurance lobby that spends 5 million dollars a week trying to kill health care reform. Billionaires for Wealthcare is a grassroots network looking to stop them - with song.



Please pass this video on to everyone you know who you think would care.


Cheers,
Dean

google wave/asterisk/skype robot

Tim Panton’s 5 minute webcast showing the google wave/asterisk/skype robot that he demo’d at astricon.



Cheers,
Dean

Google re FCC

Google Re: net neutrality.
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_13631149?source=rss

in other words..... "We like what you are doing this time with your net neutrality but we dont trust you wont screw us over next time".......

Brooklyn promenade park

Just took a snap on my phone of the trees on the promenade from my cell phone. These are just in a temporary location but I think this park is going to look amazing eventually.


Cheers,
Dean

Al Franken for President!!

I cant believe we almost missed out on this guy becoming a Senator.

I'm calling it now - Al Franken for President !!

Cheers,
Dean

Pre-existing Conditions

Can you belive this crap from health care companies

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/insurance-companies-rape-_n_328708.html

Sigur Ros - Viorar Vel Til Loftarasa - English subtitles

wow i cant tell you how many times i've listened to this song on their 2001 Ágaetis Byrjun cd and had no idea what it meant..... the 'lyrics' in both icelandic and english actually enhance the music and make it even sadder than i once thought it was.



Cheers,
Dean

Top 10 requested iPhone Features

Ha ha ha, I hate to continue this argument and contribute to the signal to noise ratio but……

http://pleasefixtheiphone.com/

Problem 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 can all be done by my 2 year old Windows Mobile HTC 8525 handset.


Cheers,
Dean

Add external devices to your iPhone using just the audio jack

Eddie on the newtech-1 mailing list posted this article

"CNET: "Twitter co-founder's 'Square' comes into focus"Looks like a neat iPhone attachment that turns your phone into a portable credit card reader."

To which my reply was;
Hmmm “that fits in to the headphone jack of an iPhone” Oh really?
I wonder how they are achieving that?


Calvin was able to provide this link; http://bit.ly/iPhone_Serial_Hack

So technically I could build a keyboard for the iphone using it’s ‘audio jack’ or any other type of external device as long as it didn’t need anything more than a 1200 baud data rate.

Very interesting, wonder if anyone else is planning things along this line.


Cheers,
Dean