Kirsty Maccoll

You know who i dont think gets enough credit Kirsty Maccoll :)

Sitting in the office late tonight doing some stuff for the NBA finals this week and noticed my foot was tapping away to Kirsty Maccoll (especially the "You Caught Me Out" track).

A few years ago i bought the "From Croydon to Cuba collectors anthology set" which beautifully documents london girl growing into woman of the world but you could do worse than spending 30 mins watching a few of these Youtube videos

BTW had to edit this in later...lol just watching the Walking Down Madison video, i dont think i've listened to it since i moved here, big smile on my face. night all.

Prague Astronomical Clock - 600th Anniversary Show

Doofuss with the video camera: Well that was pretty anti climatic
Building: Oh really.......


Make sure to watch this in full screen with your speakers on - (btw remember when you were 7 and watching fireworks was cool..... prepare to have your mind blown)



More details located here http://themacula.com/index.php?/projection/old-town/

This is why i love Reddit

This is why i love Reddit, somehow the coolest, most evil, devious people found the same part of the interwebs, it makes me feel like home.


http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/hmyp7/what_do_you_do_with_2000_stainless_steel_teaspoons


Read the story...which is cool, but read the comments....which are even cooler.
I love the superglue idea and the Will them to you children idea.

State level hacking

Apparently Lockheed has been hacked at a "state level" through their RSA tokens.

Maybe Iran worked out that if the USA/Israeli's want to screw with centrifuges using Stuxnet that having a F35 fall out of the sky using internet hacks is probably "appropriate retaliation".

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303654804576350083016866022.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/29/rsa-secureid-hackers-may-have-accessed-lockheed-martin-trade-sec/



It's probably a very naive view of the world but can you imagine how much money we could save if the human race actually got along and worked for a common goal.

It's a very star treky view of the world but i look forward to a time when we move on from the current system.

Certified Copy

Went to see Certified Copy tonight.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1020773/

I love Juliette Binoche, and although she's aged over the years she is still as endearing and classy as ever.

Warning dont read the IMDB reviews before seeing the film as they have spoilers. You can watch the trailer though....but the film is actually very different from what is portrayed in the trailer.

Similar in nature to the "Before Sunrise/Before Sunset" films this is very dialog driven, the tuscan atmosphere could have been more panoramic, but as the couple wander through the film you understand context is everything. (i loved the mobile phone scene near the fountain, dont worry you'll know what i mean).

Highly recomended.

Geothermal wells

Came across this
http://www.brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2011/05/geothermal_in_p.php



Wow really interesting read
http://www.nyc.gov/html/ddc/downloads/pdf/geotherm.pdf

I had no idea that they were sucking in ground water in geothermal wells, i always just thought it was some kind of closed loop where the ground was coming into contact with water in pipes and this was sucking the heat off.

CLEAR Wireless internet isn't.....really "clear" :)

Just a heads up in case you were thinking of using the CLEAR 4g wireless internet service as your broadband provider.

A friend of mine from newtech just posted this comment.


-----Original Message-----

From: newtech-1@meetup.com [mailto:newtech-1@meetup.com] On Behalf Of "noneck" noel hidalgo
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2011 11:53 AM
To: newtech-1@meetup.com
Subject: [newtech-1] Thoughts on TWC's Wideband / FYI on CLEAR/ "ClearWire" Internet service

Over the last few weeks, my clear internet started to putter out with a consistent up but a varying down. While I wouldn't say that my use was excessive with some days bursting up to 8 gigs of downloads in a 24 hour time period, @CLEAR thought that it was too much. Through a number of troubling calls, I discovered that CLEAR has an automated throttling mechanism that will either hit the tower or the node depending on "congestion".


Once your node or tower is flagged, you are at the mercy of the algorithm. Painfully, this means that "unlimited" isn't "unlimited". Additionally, if you want to cancel before the end of your billing cycle, you will not get a pro-rated refund.

All in all, CLEAR is good solution if you're one person who does "light" internet use. If you're a heavy internet use, and want a device that can be your go to provider on the go or as a backup to your home internet, CLEAR is a good alternative.


If you want to go cable-box-less and download all your movies, tv shows and entertainment, keep on trucking.


Tomorrow, I'll get TWC's Wideband installed. Does anyone have thoughts on their TWC Wideband service?

n


My comments were as follows;
________________________________________

From: newtech-1@meetup.com [mailto:newtech-1@meetup.com] On Behalf Of Dean Collins
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2011 12:05 PM
To: newtech-1@meetup.com
Subject: RE: [newtech-1] Thoughts on TWC's Wideband / FYI on CLEAR/ "ClearWire" Internet service

So basically unless you are using CLEAR for light browsing or email it's not the solution for anyone who wants to backup files, view videos or other "broadband' interaction.


What a piece of junk.

I hope there is a lawsuit about what "Unlimited" entails unless they mark this quite clearly in their advertisements....i've seen the "real estate girl ad -uploading her photos" but I've never seen anything mentioning don’t upload too much or we'll cut you back to dial up speeds.

Regards,
Dean Collins
 
 

GetAround car rental

lol you are kidding right???? wear and tear on rentals are the killer not accidents.


this is a fail. no way would i rent my car out for $100 an hour let along $15 an hour in order to be competitive with zipcar

http://venturebeat.com/2011/05/24/getaround-launch

SkyVega No.5

Well i've just found my next Android phone. How kick butt is this 5" display with dual core 1.5ghz !!
(the only thing that could make it better is a physical keyboard but i'll live with this).

BTW in case you've never heard of Pantech before they built the Helio handsets which were a great unit ahead of their time.

Square register

For anyone not watching Techcrunch Disrupt at the moment releasing live news about Square Register (it’s an ipad based app for replacing cash registers).


If not check it out now live on http://www.nyalpha.com/

Major announcements, google analytics for sales from the register.
Real time menu updates on end users iphones
Analytics of all history sales eg mint like history of purchasers
Replacement of wallets with photo identification on the register (eg pay with your name and register operator checks out your face versus whats on register).

I’ve got to admit even for someone as jaded as me I’m even impressed. Though waiting for steve jobs to announce he wants a cut of each coffee sale.

Also shame there is no Android love from Square inc though :(

Cheers
Dean

LinkedIn IPO

LinkedIn are about to learn that when you price at the high end you're in for a rough ride. my issue is it appears (i never actually reviewed the ipo docs) they have only sold 8% or so of the company.......


92% overhang, lol i'll pass.

Chumby now runs on Android

Is it just me or they have just made a flat panel touch screen large format version already.

When you see things like Android@Home being released you know that Chumby Industries missed a huge opportunity by not thinking bigger here.

Bring on the East India Trading Co private Army 2.0

Reading this today

Mr. Prince, who resettled here last year after his security business faced mounting legal problems in the United States, was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E., according to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by The New York Times.

The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts, the documents show.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/world/middleeast/15prince.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp


Makes you realise how "Un-normal" civilised society, as we know it is today.......Bring on the East India Trading Co private Army 2.0 ("By 1669, the VOC was the richest private company the world had ever seen, with over 150 merchant ships, 40 warships, 50,000 employees, a private army of 10,000 soldiers").

The Invention of Lying

Just finished watching "The Invention of Lying", dont get too excited boys, remember the bimbo married Ben Affleck in real life (though i think they're about the same IQ level so maybe it is a "Perfect Match").

Cheers,
Dean

Android@Home

I was reading this article this morning http://www.tgdaily.com/software-features/55881-now-google-wants-to-sell-you-light-bulbs

is it just me or does every time google open source something i shudder, more free R&D for the borg.

I wonder if they have done a better job with android robot than they did with google wave in that you can create code and monetise/license your work.

One of the primary issues with wave is there was no way to restrict your code being used on certain installations etc so basically google wanted developers to work for free.

Any thoughts?

QR Code's CSI "missed" Moment

lol i wonder who was funding that "product insertion", however talk about a missed opportunity to do social stealth branding like the DirectTV pet giraffe website

Can you believe that this image doesnt go anywhere (eg it's not a real QR code?)

Cheers,
Dean

Sunday naps

Sunday afternoon naps, lol-life is tough.

The GoGo's

Doing an 80's style trip down memory lane for this Fridays Mood Music

I was buying a cd on Amazon this week and out of nowhere popped up the Vh1 Behind the Music: Go-Go's Collection in the suggested cd list at checkout.

Man my head was bopping away to "We got the beat/Lips are sealed" before i could even click "add to cart" along the appropriate hair gel and glitter eyeshadow to match my acid wash jacket.

I mean who doesnt love the  GoGo's





Be sure to have a listen to the tracks in the Mood Music box, the new remix of these tracks from the VH1 CD sounds better than it ever did.

BTW wondering what happened to them check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Go-Go's they are about to kick off a world reunion tour if you can believe that (and could just be me but i think they look hotter now than when they were younger).

Buckle Up

Whilst i have my own personal opinions on the event this week and dont care to share them here.

Kudos has to be given to whoever the agency is behind this video clip.

Raspberry Pi

I love this idea. Sharing the expensive parts of a PC (eg the monitor, keyboard, power supply etc) makes total sense.

The very cool part of this project is you could buy an off the shelf USB/Bluetooth radio that would allow you to run a remote keyboard natively in the linux stack with existing code.


http://venturebeat.com/2011/05/05/computer-on-a-stick
Game developer David Braben has created a computer that’s about the size of a flash drive — and it’ll most likely cost less than your last date.

The device sports a version of Linux, an open-sourced operating system that has become increasingly popular in philanthropic causes like this because it’s free to install and distribute. It will likely ship with some variation of Ubuntu, a very popular Linux distribution that has a huge development community, according to tech news site Geek.com.

Image tagging incentives

Reading about Stipple today.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/03/stipple/
When we first covered Stipple in September of last year, it seemed like a really cool idea: tag people in images no matter where they reside on the web — not just on Flickr or Facebook.

Is it just me or do you think they need to offer better inccentives for people to tag? The current proposal is missing a component/piece.

My suggestion is a big incentive pie for taggers eg first gets 10% of all sales, 2nd/3rd round confirmation (amazon turk style) gets 5% a piece etc - then fingers crossed and hope to hell your reputation for payments runs strong.

What do you think?


Cheers,
Dean