Monday, February 28, 2011

Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight

Dont know how but i just realised a few weeks ago i'd never bought the "Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight" cd (only one of theirs missing from my collection).


Just arrived from Amazon on Friday and been hammering the neighbours with this all weekend, super upbeat music, kind of fresh like spring - but like with anything that Jenny Lewis does has a raunchiness that makes you feel good all over.

You should check out the sample tracks on amazon.


Cheers,
Dean

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Of Gods and Men

Went to see "Of Gods and Men", very powerful movie, slow in parts (but at a measured pace so appropriately slow) but there are some scenes in there that are just perfect.

I'm not going to give the storyline away (beware if you read the reviews in IMDB  you'll know what happens http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588337 ) but i just wanted to say this is definitely the sleeper award winning film of 2011, some of the insight you get to their thinking is portrayed with crystal clear clarity, one of my favorite scenes is with the struggle of the moment with the wheel barrow of wood or the cassette tape scene-the closeups deliver such magnification (it makes me wonder how many times they shot this).

You may agree or disagree but see it with a friend and you'll come out with a ton to talk about (interestingly Jodie and I thought the cassette tape scene meant polar opposites).


Cheers,
Dean
BTW how cool is Michael Lonsdale - i haven't seen him for 12 years since Ronin and he hasn't lost his touch at all.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Heath Ledger

Dar.fm

I was watching the webcast for Launch yesterday (all in all some great companies, my bet would be on GreenGoose)

What i did get a chuckle about was the launch of Dar.FM

Considering the Ivi.tv ruling got handed down this week (http://blog.collins.net.pr/2011/02/ivi-tv-legal-ruling-just-got-handed.html) the timing for the launch of Dar.fm counldnt have been worse.


What i did chuckle about was when questioned about the legal ramifications of his app the judges at Launch they accepted the Cablevision cloudification ruling example (http://blog.collins.net.pr/2008/08/cloudification-of-your-content.html ) which if any of them had spent even the most basic of time reviewing the case they would have known this is not applicable.
I cant even speculate what their end game is here.

If you are considering investing in this company may as well send the cheques directly to Dar.Fm's lawyers.

Cheers,
Dean

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The IVI tv legal ruling just got handed down this afternoon

The IVI tv legal ruling just got handed down this afternoon, though they’ve already said they’re going to appeal so who knows how this will turn out……



Legal Reprimand: Web Video Distributor Ivi Is Not 'Cable System': Granting a request by TV broadcasters
- http://bit.ly/gTJa59


Cheers,
Dean

Vivu web/video/desktop share

Just got an email from http://www.vivu.tv/ offerign anyone who used the code "DimDim" 12 months free use of their desktop share, http://blog.vivu.tv/blog/?p=393

I'd prefer a downloadable version i can run on my own servers but 12 months free use is good enough.

Been testing it out for the last hour looks/feels passible.....

Cant customise outbound invitation emails
cant set local time of email beign sent
cant initiate session from the desktop skype client to non skype users.
need to implement skype call to make voice session (eg why would i need to call from skype if i have a phone on my desk to the bridge


A friend of mine just posted this so i might check soem more of these out.
http://www.socialbrite.org/2011/01/19/comparison-top-web-conferencing-services/

Monday, February 21, 2011

LFA induced orgasm

lol tell me you didnt cum just a little bit at about the 5.30 mark when he starts the car and blips the throttle.


lol i want a digital redline guage that adjusts based on oil/engine temps and break in period.

Cheers,
Dean

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Money Won’t Buy You Health Insurance

Health insurance is one the biggest issues facing the USA way of life today as i see it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/opinion/20Dubinsky.html?
I thought Obama would pull it out of the bag - i dont see this being solved this term (or the next)


Cheers,
Dean

Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone

Wow, if this article doesnt make you sick to your stomach nothing will.


- http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Frustration

It's difficult listening to this cd...... knowing Jenny Lewis hasn't announced any tour gigs in over 12 months and wanting to go see her live in concert so much is just frustrating.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Google 10%

Any thoughts? http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/simple-way-for-publishers-to-manage.html

10% sounds like a bargain for what amounts to "a license server"

Am i missing something?


Cheers,
Dean
(some more articles on this announcement;
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-16/google-to-offer-one-pass-system-for-newspaper-subscriptions.html)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Cricket World Cup starts this weekend

Have you noticed your cricket crazy friends not scheduling meetings next month....ICC WC starts this weekend - send them to - http://www.livecricketchat.com/ 

See you all when it's over at the end of March
:)

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Sedo 2010 Domain Report

Worth a read for those of you interested in the space.

http://sedo.com/fileadmin/documents/pressdownload/2010Market_Study.pdf

Average sale in Q4 now topping $5k


Cheers,
Dean

hashtag speak #

lol need to spend less time on Twitter ..... I caught myself posting a hashtag into the conversation of an email to a friend.

Lessons from the Twitter API debacle

Some worthwhile lessons to learn about offering up an API and managing expectations below.
What does it all mean? no idea - i'm not that smart but the tide has turned.

Cheers,
Dean


-----Original Message-----
From: twitter-development-talk@googlegroups.com [mailto:twitter-development-talk@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Adam Green
Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2011 7:47 AM
To: Twitter Development Talk
Subject: [twitter-dev] Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose

The behavior on this group has changed significantly since Ryan
finally admitted that Whitelisting no longer exists. I've never seen
anyone discuss methods of getting around TOS before, well there was
Edward H., and we saw what happened to him. Now there are free flowing
discussions of MTurk and other tricks to go way beyond the rate
limits. I think this is great. Frankly, Twitter has done a good job of
offering free resources to devs, which I thank them for, but there was
way too much fear before. Now there are no extra benefits that can be
given and withdrawn "on a case by case basis." Boy do I hate that
phrase. Of course, they can ban people from this list, but maybe the
irony of Twitter blocking free speech on their own forum may restrain
that urge in the future.
Personally, I've treated Whitelisting like Social Security. It ain't
going to be there when I need it. That has turned out to be a winning
strategy. I don't really violate TOS, since I'm not as spammer, but I
have never tried building anything that would fail if Twitter didn't
give me Whitelisting "after it got into production", which BTW was the
most disrespectful thing I've seen from a platform vendor. Everyone
should assume that you need to use what is there by default, and
always be ready with a workaround if that gets taken away. My gut
tells me that things will get worse before they get better. Twitter HQ
will be under huge pressure to make money before the IPO, and we are
likely to get some of the cuts. The inevitable "they are parasites
leeching off of us" will surface. Anyone here old enough to remember
Ed Esber? But in the long run, I've never seen a global phenomenon
like Twitter, so I'm in it for the next 10 years at least. Then I can
retire.
Let's keep the discussion open guys. They've already taken away the
most important thing you wanted. Now we can build with our eyes open.
And don't be afraid to speak up. This is Twitter. Revolutions happen
here.


Adam Green
Twitter API Consultant and Trainer
http://140dev.com
@140dev
--
Twitter developer documentation and resources: http://dev.twitter.com/doc
API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi
Issues/Enhancements Tracker: http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list
Change your membership to this group: http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk


-----Original Message-----
From: Dean Collins
Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2011 12:19 PM
To: 'twitter-development-talk@googlegroups.com'
Subject: RE: [twitter-dev] Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
Adam,

Lol the writing was on the wall when they tried to shut down my app MyPostButler for providing end users easy access to the API in the early days. (August 2009)
I'm still a lurker here but I learnt my lesson early, nothing I build is reliant on Twitter, if they want to shut off our access we have facebook/google/email as alternatives.
I'm sure twitter will make a bundle of cash selling to someone, and I'm sure they will make a bundle of money through other methods so this post will fall through the cracks but when their lawyers on a recorded conference call said we're going to shut you down one way or another I knew it was time to spend my energy elsewhere.
I am thankful that twitter propagated the whole idea of api access* as a method to spread fast through the development community as it's made me money in other ways so for that I'm thankful.
(*didn’t invent but certainly enouraged/continued)

Regards,
Dean Collinshttp://www.Cognation.net 

Dog Act - Flux theatre


I randomly found Flux theatre ensemble on Facebook while looking for something else, reading a description of "Dog Act" described as "apocalyptic vaudeville" piqued my interest and at $20 i said why not.

Having spent $120 a ticket on so called "top line" shows i can tell you this was the bext $20 i've ever spent.

I was enthralled and couldnt believe my eyes and when it was over the only thought i had (apart from wanting to run off with Liz Douglas and form a german punk rock band with her) was how amazing the show was and why oh why was the performance run so short??

Cant wait for the next Flux Theatre performance to see if this was a one off or they can deliver again.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Facebook Pages

The voice from above high spoke in a booming voice and said "Ye shall have new pages - shazaaaaammm" and it was so.




So the good-

You can finally change the “Page Type” classification setting (I screwed up one of mine once and now it’s finally set as “a webpage” and not retail outlet).


You can choose the default now as to how your comments appear when you visit a page you are the admin of, eg your comments appear as coming from you by default and you need to switch into page comment mode OR default into page comment mode always.


Loving the new “Send email notifications when people post/comment on your page tool”. (Wondering if I can use this to build some kind of analytics – will have to see what the email output actually sends).

FBML is finally going away and now iframe is going to be the new standard for additional content; check out this fantastic iframe - http://www.facebook.com/HYPERARTS  


The very bad.

The fact that you cant control the order of the photos is a slap in the face of people who were going to use these as “branding tools” eg lining up 1 picture or another – they should allow you to control if people see these photos at all – it’s kind of dumb and superfluous for most facebook pages.

I hate that they removed tabs, it’s really hard to notice the “Today’s Chats” link on the left of the page for http://www.Facebook.com/LiveBasketballChat etc. At least when they were on the top people noticed them and clicked around.

Further info
- great example of the new changeshttp://www.hyperarts.com/blog/facebooks-new-fan-page-design-reduced-tab-width


BTW


Anyone started playing with the iframe functionality? Is there a limit on the vertical length? I’m thinking of pulling all the tabs and making it into one mega length iframe.



Cheers,
Dean Collins
http://www.LiveChatConcepts.com

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Window decal prank

Hmmm.... some very cool possibilities here with this idea  "ruh roh" i think i'm going to get in trouble with this someday.


http://socialbrainfood.com/window-decal-prank-at-kenneth-coles-soma-location/
Coilhouse was the first to report the prank and according to them, the decal appeared on the store window at 2 a.m. today (February 4th, 2010). @Mashable reached out to the camp of Kenneth Cole and confirmed it was indeed a prank.


Cheers,
Dean

Need a favor for http://www.LiveCollegeBasketballChat.com

Hey guys,favor time again-can you click "Like" on facebook at http://www.livecollegebasketballchat.com/  Need to get it past 25 this morning for a quick rename.


CBS closed down our other facebook page at http://www.livemarchmadnesschat.com/ for trademark infraction.... ruh roh  :(


Dont worry we'll have everything back up in time for the NCAAB finals.


Cheers,
Dean

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Twitter Hashtags #

I really wish more people would take a leaf out of the #CCbears book and when you come up with a hashtag you dont use soemthing that 20 other clubs from around the word use as well like #Raiders

Google translate

I seriously love being alive at this point in time of technology, i had this twitter account start following an account of mine today and wanted to know what they did but it was in Portuguese ...no probs fire up google translate and bing bang there it is, their entire website in english.

seriously wow how cool is that.

fuck it's good to be alive at the moment.

Cheers,
Dean

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Kellogs Crunchy Nut QR campaign

Roger seems to have got his nuts in a twist over this QR campaign.


Running a campaign, which is titled "It's Morning Somewhere" and the idea behind the campaign is that anytime is like breakfast time - a great time to eat and enjoy Crunchy Nut cereal. To promote the campaign, Kellogg's has placed a QR Code on the back of Crunchy Nut cereal boxes. When the code is scanned, the customer is brought to a very simple mobile page, which is divided into three sections. The top section displays a product logo, the middle section is a video screen which displays the copy "Right Now: It's Morning in Magnolia, Washington" and the bottom section displays an image of a cereal bowl with the words "It's Morning Somewhere."



I actually thought it was kind of cute concept (apart from the fact they used URL REDIRECTION!!!! which is a major outsourcing failure decision but hey thats just me)



I posted a comment to Roger that he hasnt approved yet.

Hi Roger,

I actually thought the campaign was cute idea.
Had potential to go viral so surprised i'm reading about it here.
Augme needs to implement viral tools in their product portfolio (though mybe they pitched twitter/facebook integration but go shot down.

Cheers,
http://www.Cognation.net/QR

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Road to Perdition

Watched Road To Perdition again, Sam Mendes is a fucking genius, there are so many "perfect scenes" that you could spend you whole life trying to improve even a single frame.

Friday, February 04, 2011

We just got a mention on AllFacebook.com :)

We just got a mention on AllFacebook.com :)


The cool part was even though i read this website at least once a week or so i had no idea they were going to write something about us.

Cheers,
Dean

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Logitech Harmony One remote

Just bought my second Logitech Harmony One remote control, this one is going into the bedroom for the tv/stereo/dvd in there.

You know logitech have solved the "remote problem" when the wife says hey how come we dont have one of those remotes in the bedroom as well.......

The one we have in the living room is driving the dvr, dvd, stereo, tv and projector. Apart from the fact that i dont have an automated "motor" for my projector screen this little remote handles everything.

Was a PITA to setup (eg even for me it took about 30-40 mins then about 20 mins of modifcations a few days later to rearrange some of the settings) but well worth it.


Cheers,
Dean