Spring ?

Has Spring sprung?

The weather is stunning in NY today!!!

Working on the computer this afternoon listening to http://bit.ly/JulieKathryn with the office windows open even though its 8 deg celsius and loving it.

Forced miners

wow had no idea that the UK conscripted 20,000 youths into being forced into coal mining not only during the war but they were forced to continue working for up to 3 years after WW2 was finished (over 500 refused and were sent to jail for many years).
- http://youtu.be/MEyiIgCAOig?t=36m30s

You've come a long way baby

….. or have we

-       http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/26/mitch_kapor_lotus_123_anniversary/

In many ways, the 30-year-old software package laid the foundations for the type of productivity app that's so ubiquitous in the modern computing experience and yet so important it has been thrown into the cloud by Google with Docs, Apple with iWorks and Microsoft with Office 365.

Any thoughts on our stagnation, is it really that Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston were they that much smarter than everyone else/were they visited by aliens who gifted humanity the trellis spreadsheet concepts/ or is this just the ebb and tide of evolution since the Babylonians discovered zero and the next “big development” isnt due for 50 years from now…...

 

 

Cheers,

Dean

Hashtags and Hate

Twitter Speech Problem:Hashtags and Hate
- http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/01/french-anti-semites-and-the-american-cloud.html
my preference has always been no censorship and prove ideology wrong on its merits, there is no other way that muzzling the people regardless of what they have to say will work in the long run.

Cold....what cold

......Do we really have to go back inside.

 

Rise of the drones

Was made sick watching Nova last night.

Think i'm being overly dramatic, watch this weeks Nova episode on PBS this week called "Rise of the drones"

The attitudes displayed (and the lack of disregard for how the technology is going to bite the USA in the butt),  Missy Cunninghams comments when interviewed a few days ago were insightful very smart and seemed to be totally aware of the double edged sword but doesnt try and change where this is heading.

The proof we have no control over where this leads couldnt have been summed up better by Abe Karem....'this wasn't my original intention to arm drones"...well no shit but as a scientist what did you think was going to happen.

Great reporting by Nova....but now what.

7Write

Neat tool for people considering publishing an ebook

 

-       http://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/0uf88rkaxf?autoPlay

 7write.com , just made the final 50 for Startup bootcamp Amsterdam

Cheers,Dean

Neat polling app

Saw this polling app regarding apple but clicked around and realized very neat polling app
 - http://gopollgo.com/is-$aapl-a-buy-at-$450

Check out how neat it is by drilling down through the results (eg split on votes by o/s)

Missy Cummings

Just watched the Missy Cummings interviewed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show....love her openess towards the issues drones are going to cause us in the next few years with people using it for nefarious means (even though she teaches and drives this technology forward).

The video isnt up on the comedycentral website yet but if you missed it be sure to check it out in the next few days, here is a link to the nova documentary on pbs next week - http://www.thirteen.org/programs/nova/rise-of-the-drones-preview/

They already know everything about you

Want to see something scary go to WolframAlpha - http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=facebook%20report - and get your facebook friend scatter diagram showing how everyone is linked.

Privacy....what privacy they already know everything about you, this graph is insanely accurate in how it presents the data and who is offline friends with who.

Everyone of those separate links dont know each other and (eg 6 groups) and those longer lines show how one person knows each other but doesnt know anyone else in the group.

lol probably plots this out better than i could if you gave me a card file for each person and asked me who knows each other.

Scary stuff.

Hey i've got an idea on how to create stimulus in the market

Hey i've got an idea on how to create stimulus in the market

Lets spend some of the "arms race money" on creating new roads/bridges/telecommunications infrastructure.

The United States spends more on defense than all the other nations of the world combined. Between 1998 and 2011, military spending doubled, reaching more than seven hundred billion dollars a year
- http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2013/01/28/130128crat_atlarge_lepore?

Freaking ridiculous.


Cheers,
Dean

So called Gay Rights

Ugh so disappointed in the Fed go, reading a NYT article about how legally married gay spouses are being denied  married quarter housing and access to on base activities (gyms, rec clubs etc) WTF!!!

How can this continue so long after don't ask don't tell was rescinded.

Terranea

Lol wonder what the weather in NY is like today.

Etrade barcode scanning app

OK now this is neat......Etrade have a barcode scanning app that allows you to scan the barcode of a product and have it show the companies financial details.

Cool use of existing technologies repurposed for a different use that adds a ton of value, almost worth changing brokerage accounts just for this feature alone.

to shoot or not to shoot

you know it never ceases to amaze me that people arent correlating the increase number of flu shots to then number of people sick with colds and flu.
- http://gothamist.com/2013/01/13/flu_mongering_citys_flu_shot_supply.php

What i find funny about my refusal to get big brother flu shots is i totally support child immunisation :~

The winds of finance

Immigrants abandoning recession-hit Italy
In Rome’s Chinatown the Blue Skies travel agency is selling more one-way tickets back to China than returns. The manager of the Mei Dan beauty parlour says Canada is the new dream, while the Golden Home property agency reports falling prices as immigrants sell up and leave.
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/Immigrants abandoning recession-hit Italy 

I totally dont get why people dont move with the financial winds more often. I think in years to come we'll look at "one country for life" like we do with one job for life these days.

It makes total sense to move and live in another country where the opportunities are higher.

I think it also makes total sense that the governments of the future will be encouraging "human capital" and doing their best to attract the resources that they think will make their countries better off in the long run through immigration/work visa's/enhanced taxation strategies.

Financial Times paywall...freaking amateurs

You have to laugh at newspaper industries attempts at monetization....where were these guys while the rest of the internet was growing up over the past 10 years.

So basically www.FT.com introduced a paywall a while back....fair enough everyone has to eat and i think 8 free articles a month is a reasonable amount though not sure who is paying $4.90 for a day pass but sure ok....

Now here is the laughable part.....these amateurs used your email address as the database key...as such you are unable to change your email address once you register...... FT=Fail