TouchCodes

This was just posted on LinkedIn about how TouchCode won the WSJ Innovation Awards

Proves once again that not all judges are the smartest people in the room.

How is "getting a code" from the location of 'touch" elements on a touchscreen any cleverer than "getting a code" via the act of taking a photo image of a qr code........but with the additional costs of the "special printing" and that TouchCodes are proprietary and can only be read on their specific reader  (....but if you've ever read any of my QR posts you know that i was going there already).

Spooky City

Just got back from walking the dog down near the promenade to see the damage from Hurricane Sandy ,its spooky seeing all of lower Manhattan dark like that due to the blackout of everything below 14th street.

Makes you realise how fragile our infrastructure is and its time to bug out and prepare for EOTWAWKI.

Cheers,
Dean
edit. this is the same shot the next day, almost all of that park near me was underwater including the large piers, just the winding footpath and the portable workshed offices were still visible.

 

 

and yes the dirt was all piled up like that before the storm, they are building a major addition to the park all along the waterfront here....will look great when its finished as long as it doesnt wash away first with global warming  :)

 

LinkedIN is so sucky these days

When is someone going to fund a competitor to LinkedIN....its BS that you can no longer see peoples profiles if you dont have any relation to them.

I know LinkedIN needs to make revenue but this bait and switch stuff is starting to irk me. Whats wrong with LinkedIn cant they come up with any additional features worthy of being paid for so they have to "take away".

We have about 20 different feature sets at www.LiveFanChat.com that we have mapped out on the development list that we are "holding back" for the paid service, taking away previously free features is lame.

Concrete Blonde

Sweet, scored tickets to Concrete Blonde for Dec 13. I didnt even know they were still touring.

I've uploaded some tracks in the Friday Mood Music box to share.

Tickets are available here - https://www.livenation.com/event/0000495527BB088D?SREF=SLfbk-056_0000495527BB088D

lol btw dont you love "bastard" LiveNation....builds an API so you can post to Facebook you are going to one of their concerts......doesnt build in an iCal API so you can enter the concert details into your calendar with a single click.

Butchering DVD

Just ordered some Butchering DVD's - http://www.thegourmetbutcher.com/index.html

Yeh yeh i know.....but i feel its a responsible thing to do at this stage of my life.
Here is a quick 60 second clip of the dvd i ordered
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFl-AVRBgsk

In case you dont want to shell out $29 fro some dvd's but want to know more i found a pretty reasonable longer video for how to break down a hindquarter that anyone who is not a vegetarian should watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lrDoEzppSc&feature=related

Any pussies who didnt click....where do you think your food comes from.....or dont you eat chicken either

IFTTT ...wtf???

WTF???  Twitter have allowed IFTTT to post Facebook status updates when they come from Facebook “to”  Twitter - https://ifttt.com/recipes/61978

…….But they don’t allow Twitter posts to be posted to Facebook.

Seriously next Twitter employee I meet at an event is going to get punched in the nose for douchebaggery.

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/09/20/ifttt-removes-twitter-triggers-comply-new-api-policies/

Friday Mood Music - Jus Post Bellum

Went to ZirZamin last night to listen to a band and ended up staying for the set afterwards, absolutely beautiful!! Check out Jus Post Bellum on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/JusPostBellum and have a listen to this video below or check out the Mood Music Box for a few tracks from their album (sadly not available on Amazon).

Be sure to click like on Facebook to see them live as they sound as good in person as they do on the cd.


Measure of a Man from Jus Post Bellum

Australia joins the UN security council

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/iran-israel-key-to-australias-un-win-20121019-27uny.html
Australia raced ahead of Luxembourg and Finland in voting at UN headquarters to win membership of the UN Security Council.

 

A triumphant Foreign Minister Bob Carr told reporters in the UN lobby: "It's always good to see Australia win - and this is a big, juicy, decisive win."

Australia's stint on the Security Council will begin on January 1 and will last for two years

Interesting, i wonder if Australia will make a difference and "vote with their own mind" of if they will kowtow to the USA for the next 2 years.

Its a great responsibility and will make us step up our level of personal responsibilty with how well/poorly the world is run.

You sir are a Militant

You know when you hear on the news about so many militants killed by a bomb in XYZ country....

Q. Do you know what this administration's definition of militant......
A. It's any male of fighting age.

Killed a family? Did you get a militant? No probs good job son.



You know who also used to say "anyone who was 'there' deserved to die just because of the fact they were there"......yep thats right "Charles Manson".

........Think about that for a moment.

But you know "Hope And Change" and all that good stuff right......    :(

- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/29/drone-attacks-innocent-civilians_n_1554380.html

You killed me...so i kill you

"The man accused of being the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks said in a courtroom here on Wednesday that the United States government had killed many more people in the name of national security than he was accused of killing."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/us/accused-9-11-mastermind-calls-us-the-bigger-killer.html?_r=0

I just dont get why arent americans making a bigger deal of trying to reign in government imperialism? These politicians work for YOU not the other way around.

Blowback has been an issue for years and its like most of my friends still have their heads stuck in the sand on this issue.

China Currency Manipulation

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/world/asia/chinas-renminbi-has-strengthened-during-obamas-term.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

If China stopped buying USA debt tomorrow.......the US$ vs Renmenbi parity would sort itself out very rapidly....by having the USA dollar crash.

And this guy was the CEO of Bain a major corporate consulting firm advising Top 100 organizations....?

BoxeeTV announced

I noticed on Fred Wilsons blog today that the FCC endorsed "BoxeeTV" device has been announced
- http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/10/boxee-tv.html

This was sort of announced recently along with the FCC decision that cable tv providers no longer need to carry unencrypted cable http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/15/3506030/fcc-allows-basic-cable-encryption-protects-consumers-open-access   (guess those washington lobbying efforts paid off),

One point of note the FCC announcements indicated that cable providers only need to offer this for free for 2 years and then will be allowed to charge for this from then on http://www.slashgear.com/fcc-cuts-boxee-a-little-encryption-slack-but-not-forever-15251887/ , I cant find any information from Boxee about what these costs will be from the cable providers to make BoxeeTV work?

I'm also curious about "storage in the cloud" and whether Boxee expects any patent challenges around this? eg would be a shame if an injunction strikes down the cloud portion functionality.

Jumping from space....well sort of

I was watching the "Space Jump" today and wondered so if you can get a capsule that high into space with a simple helium ballon.......why are we spending so much on rockets?

....5 mins of googling i found the answer, he only jumped from 20 miles, the lowest a satellite orbits is 110 miles and the space station is at 230 miles.

BTW in case you are wondering...weather ballons regularly get to 26 miles but everything less than 62 miles isn't really considered space but "near space" - http://www.hobbyspace.com/NearSpace/index.html

The Anchor of Talent

Just got back from driving to Clairmont NJ to see Fiona Apple in concert.

Shocked was the only word i could describe myself when she walked out on stage, i'm not sure if she's on heroin or meth but if i passed her in the street i'd throw her a dollar in a coffee cup, she looks like death warmed up.

I honestly dont know much about her personal life but i somehow get the feeling that she has oodles of talent and apart from working when she needs cash could care less about fame and fortune......which is fine when you are young and pretty and have your habit under control but tonight "twitchy" would be a good way to describe it.

It saddens me that someone able to write "Every Single Night" and more importantly "able to sing it in such an perfect way" who obviously has so much emotional depth and so much raw talent just cant get their heads clear on "the rest of life".....but then again who amongst us really does "manage to get life fully worked out".

I'm going to think of happier times like this track below and just hope she gets her shit together sooner than later.



Dolly the Sheep creator scientist Keith Campbell dies

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/12/dolly_creator_keith_campbell_dies/
Probably died because he missed out on the Nobel peace prize recently even though he was the second leg of the three steps....between John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka in 2006 :{

Tracking is good for you

http://gizmodo.com/5951173/apple-is-tracking-you-again-in-ios-6-and-how-to-turn-it-off#


lol yeh stick it to the "man"......and wonder why you are being served Tampax ads or served MMA ads and there are no ads being served you are interested in.

Its time to change our opinions to tracking people. As long as the data is non identifying does it matter?

"3D printing industry asys dont be evil" - bah sure.....

Interesting article - http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/stratasys-followup/

Stratasys told Wilson, “It is the policy of Stratasys not to knowingly allow its printers to be used for illegal purposes.”

lol made me chuckle.

Bad bad bad product placement

lol watching #Homeland "there's a skype call for you Mr Secret Agent talking to HQ"

wow what a joke!!  Hey Homeland producers taking funding for product placement from Skype is a big big mistake.

Dalton Trumbo

Watching #PBS American Masters episode on Dalton Trumbo love it :)
- http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/dalton-trumbo/introduction-to-trumbo/1165/



eloquent i know....but i prefer his other quote "Say hello to my friends, piss on my enemies"



P.S. WOW!!!!  I had no idea that Dalton Trumbo did the screenplay to Papillon - it puts the whole Steve McQeen solitary isolation starving scenes in a whole new light!!

Looper

Went to see Looper tonight. Loved it...well worth seeing.

What i do think is funny about humans is how simplistic we are whenever it comes to time travel we got all exicted and what if this and how would this work etc etc......i can imagine an alien arriving here and going yep...its not that complicated.

Wow really disappointed in SL Benfica Transportation

So as some of you know (i posted on twitter/facebook etc at the time) on the 31st of July we had a big semi trailer truck making a Foodbank delivery to First Presbyterian Church across the road from our apartment that drove off and in the process knocked over the 40' tall tree in front of 135 Henry Street

Although the driver left the scene of the accident we were able to track down who it was by going and speaking with the staff at First Presbyterian Church who then gave us the phone number of the people at Foodbank NYC who then gave us the details for SL Benfica Transportation inc in the Bronx.

When we got through to them after about an hour of detective work their comments were....yeh we know about this, the driver is on his way back and will be there in about 90 minutes.

By this time the fire brigade came and blocked off Henry Street at Clark and then New York City Parks arrived to cut down the tree to a stump about 10 inches high (as you can see in the photo not a chance to save this 40' beauty).

Unfortunately once the dust all settled the Parks Department said its not their responsibility to remove the stump or to fix the footpath and that they would be back in 3-5 years to plant a new tree.......

So by the time SL Benfica Transportation turned up (one of the managers and the driver came to take photos of what was now a stump but drove their personal car so i couldn't see the damage to the truck) i was really happy when the manager said dont worry, we'll take care of this, get some quotes and just send us the details directly rather than going via your insurance company etc etc.

The first few weeks of deal with SL Benfica Transportation seemed to be going really well, and they seemed to be a reesponsible trucking company and we were both learning about what was involved in planting a tree on the sidewalk in New York City..... ugh too much red tape.

Unfortunately ....and yeh i know you saw this coming already....basically we sent them a letter of demand for the total amount and SL Benfica transportation management are now refusing to pay for the replacement of the tree!

I appreciate that we were both surprised at how much the costs came out to but this isn't replacing a 40' tree that was there but just repairing the damaged sidewalk and planting a small replacement sapling that will take 20 to 30 years to grow back to what was there.

While both Foodbank New York and First Presbyterian Church management are well meaning in offering their apologies they say that the truck is not their responsibility and it’s a subcontract of a contract of a contract etc etc and that its not their responsibility to make good on this matter either.

All in all its a disappointing week

Dont look at clicks....think of the reach and frequency

http://www.adrants.com/2012/10/facebook-says-clicks-are-irrelevant.php

On a panel today at the IAB MIXX Conference during Advertising this week in New York, Facebook Director of Pricing and Measurement Brad Smallwood likened social media to the early days of TV which had no method of measurement until Arthur Nielsen introduced the rating point in 1950. He went on to argue that online marketers should focus on this system placing increased emphasis on reach and frequency rather than clicks.

lol ads not getting clicked ....think of the reach and frequency (lol that old chestnut).

So does this mean even with everything that Facebook "knows" about me that they still cant serve ads that are relevant to me and make me want to click on them...... what does this mean for the wider scope of Facebook/social media/advertising in general?

Thoughts?

Sensiva Symbol Commander Pro :(

Anyone else here use Symbol Commander Pro?

It has been one of my favorite programs that i've used on every pc i've owned for the last 6 years and one of the first apps i reinstall on every fresh format.

But today is a sad day, it looks like it wont run on Windows 7 (yeh yeh i know i'm late to the party and finally upgrading)

Here are some details about the app but basically you use your right mouse to "gesture" and cause things to occur based on the symbol you draw eg minimise, delete, exit, browser page back/forward etc - http://www.bestshareware.net/symbol-commander-pro.htm
The app is still working sort of the problem is its displaying the gestures at a crawl and running really really slow in Win7.

Any OS geniuses know what this can be? or how to fix it or do i need to finally accept this app is dead and finally try to move on   :(

Where "google auto enter"

Lol type "Where" into google.........

WTF "How is "Where is Chuck Norris" the highest entry??