This is bullshit.
I dont know how to effectively express my outrage over this action by the US government.
Check out these links for background info;
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-online8sep08,1,2052648.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&track=crosspromo
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/08/technology/08gamble.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
money.cnn.com
today.reuters.co.uk
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8K02SM85.htm?sub=apn_euro_up&chan=gb
So basically we have a UK citizen, operating a UK business (sportingbetplc.com board) who the moment he steps foot into the USA is arrested, not for crimes he committed but for crimes committted by US citizens.
Oh and arrested under ambiguous Louisiana law, that defines all interstate gaming as illegal.
I cant wait for the chairman of the NY Times to be arrested on a visit to China because chinese citizens were reading copies of the NY Times on the internet.
Oh and as for visiting 'unfriendly' countries, how about if Castro started shooting american tourists he found in Cuba for 'crimes of treason' in carrying US dollars in their wallets?
This is insane America. When are you going to wake up and begin to be a good 'world citizen'?
You cant just arrest people for 'crimes against the state' that dont even occur in your country........isn't that what terrorists do? Impose their will against the world at large.
I keep hoping I will wake up and the insanity will end? it's like a bad dream.
It's getting hard to tell who is the bad guys anymore.
Dean
UPDATE
On April 2nd, 2009, Carruthers pleaded guilty to 1 charge of racketeering charges after being "under arrest" since July 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Carruthers
On Sunday July 16, 2006 Carruthers was arrested at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas while changing planes. He was travelling with his wife, Carol, from the BETonSPORTS Annual General Meeting in the United Kingdom to his home in Costa Rica where the two lived since 2000.
So basically after almost 3 years he flipped and turned states evidence so he could finally go home.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601127&sid=auba1hZVXuAk
Chris Flood, an attorney for Kaplan, said today his client maintains his innocence. Flood declined to talk about any discussions with the U.S. Attorney’s office.
“I can’t comment publicly about matters that are supposed to be between myself, my client and the government,” Flood, a partner at Houston-based Flood & Flood, said by phone.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Compelling Art
I'm not turning my blog into a video blog however while playing around with the uploading of my YouTube video yesterday I came across this clip by Noah Kalina.
This has to be one of the most compelling pieces of art I have seen in a long time.
The url for Noah Kalina's website and the link to the music is at the end of the clip.
If this clip moved you to tears, show your support, go and donate via paypal to his site (I also donated to the Carly's music site as well before downloading the music).
Amazing dedication to his project, this is what real art is about. If this clip doesn't make you happy to be alive and human then nothing will.
Cheers,
Dean
This has to be one of the most compelling pieces of art I have seen in a long time.
The url for Noah Kalina's website and the link to the music is at the end of the clip.
If this clip moved you to tears, show your support, go and donate via paypal to his site (I also donated to the Carly's music site as well before downloading the music).
Amazing dedication to his project, this is what real art is about. If this clip doesn't make you happy to be alive and human then nothing will.
Cheers,
Dean
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Mexuar NY-Tech Meetup Speed Presentation
This is a video of a 'speed presentation' I gave at last nights NY-Tech Meetup for one of my clients I represent here in the USA.
I know I was a little short with some of the people in the Q&A session but you only get 4 mins to present and 1 minute for Q&A and there were about 40 people with questions (we only got through about 10 of them).
All in all not a bad presentation to a room of over 500+ people :)
Also I appreciate video isn't great I'm going to try and use a diferent encoding tool, but it was shot on a digital still camera from the audience so it's really about the audio, let me know if anyone wants a copy of the ppt.
www.Mexuar.com has just launched a server application called Corraleta, which will enables people visiting your website to talk to you using nothing more than their headsets.
There is no client to download, no click per call fees, nothing is required apart from a server for the corraleta application to be installed onto.
The main implementation for the Corraleta application is for people who run e-commerce websites that want to allow their consumers to 'call them' via the web. The most innovative part is that the call centre staff actually receive the calls on their normal telephones just like they would answering the calls from the carrier.
Because the calls are ip to ip all the way from the consumers browser through to the call centre PABX the calls are free.
If you want more information check out www.Mexuar.com or www.Cognation.net/Mexuar
Cheers,
Dean
I know I was a little short with some of the people in the Q&A session but you only get 4 mins to present and 1 minute for Q&A and there were about 40 people with questions (we only got through about 10 of them).
All in all not a bad presentation to a room of over 500+ people :)
Also I appreciate video isn't great I'm going to try and use a diferent encoding tool, but it was shot on a digital still camera from the audience so it's really about the audio, let me know if anyone wants a copy of the ppt.
www.Mexuar.com has just launched a server application called Corraleta, which will enables people visiting your website to talk to you using nothing more than their headsets.
There is no client to download, no click per call fees, nothing is required apart from a server for the corraleta application to be installed onto.
The main implementation for the Corraleta application is for people who run e-commerce websites that want to allow their consumers to 'call them' via the web. The most innovative part is that the call centre staff actually receive the calls on their normal telephones just like they would answering the calls from the carrier.
Because the calls are ip to ip all the way from the consumers browser through to the call centre PABX the calls are free.
If you want more information check out www.Mexuar.com or www.Cognation.net/Mexuar
Cheers,
Dean
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
MassMedia Studios Announced As One of Asia’s Hottest 100 Startups
Massmedia is one of my US clients. I'm helping them with their US sales strategies.
Congratulations guys, you've worked hard and deserve it.
Cheers,
Dean
MassMedia Studios one of Australia’s most innovative digital marketing powerhouses now with offices in London and New York have just been announced as one of Asia’s hottest 100 startups.
Their revolutionary ASP delivered multi channel digital marketing solution http://www.tractionplatform.com/ has rapidly been adopted by advertising agencies as the solution of choice to drive innovative interactive campaigns via email, sms, web, video and voice.
About Red Herring
Red Herring is the weekly magazine technology entrepreneurs, investors and industry observers read to stay ahead of the curve and to be better informed about the global marketplace. Red Herring covers technology, innovation, financial strategies, important personalities and trends that are transforming the world of business with unique insight, opinion and forward-looking analysis. Readers turn to Red Herring for knowledge to make strategic decisions, build companies and create a competitive advantage for their businesses. To learn more about Red Herring, please visit http://www.redherring.com/.
About Red Herring 100 Asia Conference
Red Herring 100 Asia Conference is an invitation-only event for CEOs, select senior executives, and Venture Capitalists. Red Herring 100 Asia will bring together executives from mostly private companies. These executives will be joined by senior executives from public companies and Venture Capitalists.
Congratulations guys, you've worked hard and deserve it.
Cheers,
Dean
MassMedia Studios one of Australia’s most innovative digital marketing powerhouses now with offices in London and New York have just been announced as one of Asia’s hottest 100 startups.
Their revolutionary ASP delivered multi channel digital marketing solution http://www.tractionplatform.com/ has rapidly been adopted by advertising agencies as the solution of choice to drive innovative interactive campaigns via email, sms, web, video and voice.
About Red Herring
Red Herring is the weekly magazine technology entrepreneurs, investors and industry observers read to stay ahead of the curve and to be better informed about the global marketplace. Red Herring covers technology, innovation, financial strategies, important personalities and trends that are transforming the world of business with unique insight, opinion and forward-looking analysis. Readers turn to Red Herring for knowledge to make strategic decisions, build companies and create a competitive advantage for their businesses. To learn more about Red Herring, please visit http://www.redherring.com/.
About Red Herring 100 Asia Conference
Red Herring 100 Asia Conference is an invitation-only event for CEOs, select senior executives, and Venture Capitalists. Red Herring 100 Asia will bring together executives from mostly private companies. These executives will be joined by senior executives from public companies and Venture Capitalists.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Congratulations to MassMedia Studios Part 1 (one of my clients)
RED HERRING 100 ASIA SHORT LIST
Congratulations! After a difficult evaluation process, the Red Herring editorial team is pleased to announce the selection of the 200 finalists for Red Herring 100 Asia for 2006. We would like to congratulate the following companies for being short listed as one of the most promising companies in all of Asia.
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Saturday, August 26, 2006
It's the little things :(
It's not the fact that the cheese is orange (and has no flavour), it's not that the streets are dirty.
I can live with all of these differences.
It's the fact that the coffee sucks and that Starbucks really is the best coffee you can buy in NY (ok almost there are 3-4 other favourite places I have found) however the majority of it sucks - but that’s not the worst part.
The worst part is that out of the 20 different American brands of instant coffee we have tried there isn't one that comes close to Nescafe Espresso.
Not a problem you think, considering Nescafe is an international company should be easy to find right?
Nope apprently it's a local brand and can only be purchased in Australia (and the UK of all places) oh and there’s a guy in Texas who sells it for a 50% mark-up.
So what do we do? Well every trip back always brings at least 6-8 jars of the stuff, and every time a friend of ours comes to visit....it's on their goodie list, along with Tim Tams and Vegemite.
Though this time our next trip home isn't until Christmas and we just ran out last week, so we had to get my sister to ship some to us at $60 for the coffee and $70 for the shipping (oh ok there were some dairy milk chocolate blocks in there as well which added to the weight).
It's given me a new appreciation to all the Asians you see trying to bring cured snake blood and other weird and wonderful things through Mascot customs.
At least for us it's just an email away and we can get some posted over. For them it's not a difference of orange cheese or real cheese, it's a totally different experience.
Travel the world people, it gives you a new appreciation for home but also gives you empathy.
Cheers,
Dean
P.S. Now thats how expats buy coffee :) 6 x 375grams all the way from Australia, thanks sis.
I can live with all of these differences.
It's the fact that the coffee sucks and that Starbucks really is the best coffee you can buy in NY (ok almost there are 3-4 other favourite places I have found) however the majority of it sucks - but that’s not the worst part.
The worst part is that out of the 20 different American brands of instant coffee we have tried there isn't one that comes close to Nescafe Espresso.
Not a problem you think, considering Nescafe is an international company should be easy to find right?
Nope apprently it's a local brand and can only be purchased in Australia (and the UK of all places) oh and there’s a guy in Texas who sells it for a 50% mark-up.
So what do we do? Well every trip back always brings at least 6-8 jars of the stuff, and every time a friend of ours comes to visit....it's on their goodie list, along with Tim Tams and Vegemite.
Though this time our next trip home isn't until Christmas and we just ran out last week, so we had to get my sister to ship some to us at $60 for the coffee and $70 for the shipping (oh ok there were some dairy milk chocolate blocks in there as well which added to the weight).
It's given me a new appreciation to all the Asians you see trying to bring cured snake blood and other weird and wonderful things through Mascot customs.
At least for us it's just an email away and we can get some posted over. For them it's not a difference of orange cheese or real cheese, it's a totally different experience.
Travel the world people, it gives you a new appreciation for home but also gives you empathy.
Cheers,
Dean
P.S. Now thats how expats buy coffee :) 6 x 375grams all the way from Australia, thanks sis.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Senator Coonan: A pipeline for "Hot Air"
http://www.crn.com.au/mobile_ban
Senator Coonan has made the statement "Mobiles A Pipeline for Perversion" and now demands the implementation of a R18+ set of laws to regulate the mobile industry.
Heaven help us, I thought when we got rid of Senator Richard 'Luddite' Alston things were looking up. What is it with positions like this....you must not understand technology in order to be nominated to the role otherwise go to the end of the line?
You know I laughed a few weeks ago when Cambodia decided to ban 3G because it was capable of porn, but that was because it's a technology backwater run by people who dont know any better. http://www.theregister.co.uk/cambodia_3g_ban/ (actually I have a lot of respect for Cambodians but thats a story for another time but if you have any interest you must read Pol Pot by Phillip Short it's sensational).
So would someone please go and tell the Senator that mobile content can be loaded by USB, or even shock horror browsed from a website outside of Australia's dictatorial reach, either way......Honey, we already have a law that covers it.....you know the one you pushed through last year that moved all the content offshore and had zero affect.
Now go and sit on uncle Fred Niles lap for a bedtime story.
Cheers,
Dean
Senator Coonan has made the statement "Mobiles A Pipeline for Perversion" and now demands the implementation of a R18+ set of laws to regulate the mobile industry.
Heaven help us, I thought when we got rid of Senator Richard 'Luddite' Alston things were looking up. What is it with positions like this....you must not understand technology in order to be nominated to the role otherwise go to the end of the line?
You know I laughed a few weeks ago when Cambodia decided to ban 3G because it was capable of porn, but that was because it's a technology backwater run by people who dont know any better. http://www.theregister.co.uk/cambodia_3g_ban/ (actually I have a lot of respect for Cambodians but thats a story for another time but if you have any interest you must read Pol Pot by Phillip Short it's sensational).
So would someone please go and tell the Senator that mobile content can be loaded by USB, or even shock horror browsed from a website outside of Australia's dictatorial reach, either way......Honey, we already have a law that covers it.....you know the one you pushed through last year that moved all the content offshore and had zero affect.
Now go and sit on uncle Fred Niles lap for a bedtime story.
Cheers,
Dean
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
How far will consumer generated media go?
Heads up on a great panel discussion if you are in this space.
http://webcast.goingon.com/session8
Well informed and most importantly fairly frank and honest. One of the more interesting comments about 20 minutes into the session is the discussion about why is it that the majority of TV video advertisements is so mediocre.
The comment was made that why is it that people are always year after year so excited by Superbowl ads but that the rest of the year people complain about the intrusion.
When is it that the advertisements will become the "entertaining content"?
Why is it that some ads interest and entertain us and become runaway hits and others just bore the heck out of us
With the cost associated in shooting a 30 second advertisement is it time that they start audience testing? What’s your favourite ad and why is it your favourite ad? What would/could you change about a boring ad to make it more interesting?
There was an interesting discussion this week on the Yi-Tan conference call about user targeted advertisements.
I mean, I live in NY. I've always owned a car or a motorbike and whilst when I lived in Sydney (or a few at a time at one stage) here in NY I will never own a car, the cost of garaging it at $2,000 per month is one I just cant justify. Yet the majority of ads I see on tv personally are for car insurance. I feel like I owe Progressive and Geico some money based on the amount they have spent on me in the past 2 years.
I've got a concept running around the back of my head on how this could be done based on some stuff that I've looked at in the past with my dealings with Myth-TV and Akimbo but the question is - is there really enough good video advertisements to make user targeted ads more relevant.
I’m also having a hard time deciding is it the clients or the agencies that are driving this “entertainment” issue.
Cheers,
Dean
http://webcast.goingon.com/session8
Well informed and most importantly fairly frank and honest. One of the more interesting comments about 20 minutes into the session is the discussion about why is it that the majority of TV video advertisements is so mediocre.
The comment was made that why is it that people are always year after year so excited by Superbowl ads but that the rest of the year people complain about the intrusion.
When is it that the advertisements will become the "entertaining content"?
Why is it that some ads interest and entertain us and become runaway hits and others just bore the heck out of us
With the cost associated in shooting a 30 second advertisement is it time that they start audience testing? What’s your favourite ad and why is it your favourite ad? What would/could you change about a boring ad to make it more interesting?
There was an interesting discussion this week on the Yi-Tan conference call about user targeted advertisements.
I mean, I live in NY. I've always owned a car or a motorbike and whilst when I lived in Sydney (or a few at a time at one stage) here in NY I will never own a car, the cost of garaging it at $2,000 per month is one I just cant justify. Yet the majority of ads I see on tv personally are for car insurance. I feel like I owe Progressive and Geico some money based on the amount they have spent on me in the past 2 years.
I've got a concept running around the back of my head on how this could be done based on some stuff that I've looked at in the past with my dealings with Myth-TV and Akimbo but the question is - is there really enough good video advertisements to make user targeted ads more relevant.
I’m also having a hard time deciding is it the clients or the agencies that are driving this “entertainment” issue.
Cheers,
Dean
Monday, August 21, 2006
Knock Knock..... Who's there?
Apart from Asterisk I dont use Linux persay (even though I've downloaded and installed various Unbuntu linux iso's to try it out from time to time) I've pretty much been a windows user my whole life and happy with all the neat software and functionality that this gives me.......until today.
Now I love geeks, I love the neat things that they can come up with that you wouldn't have thought of, and linux geeks especially so.
But this takes the cake.
The new ibm laptops have something called "Hard Drive Active Protection System" (HDAPS) built into their hard drives.....basically in english it means, your laptop knows when it is bumped or falling so that it can prepare to 'brace' itself for the knock.
Or thats what it was designed for.
So these geeks went out and wrote some code called knockAge.pl script. This is a Perl program that allows you to create knock sequences as well as listen for specific knock sequences and run commands.
http://www.ibm.com/Knock-Knock
Yep, you read that right, the hard drive can measure you knocking on your laptop and know when it is you versus someone who looked over your shoulder as you typed in your password last week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f_eU3huEG0
Want unlock your screen saver with a certain code.... no probs,
Want to log into your secure files ....whats the code :)
I know this is only going to appeal to a very small very unique audience but count me in for one - is it enough for me to swap to linux, no not really but it's certainly something to be envious of.
Cheers,
Dean
P.S. if you are still reading this far you're a geek and will love this video as well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbh_JGbPoJU&NR totally useless but uses HDAPS to move your active window around the display.
Now I love geeks, I love the neat things that they can come up with that you wouldn't have thought of, and linux geeks especially so.
But this takes the cake.
The new ibm laptops have something called "Hard Drive Active Protection System" (HDAPS) built into their hard drives.....basically in english it means, your laptop knows when it is bumped or falling so that it can prepare to 'brace' itself for the knock.
Or thats what it was designed for.
So these geeks went out and wrote some code called knockAge.pl script. This is a Perl program that allows you to create knock sequences as well as listen for specific knock sequences and run commands.
http://www.ibm.com/Knock-Knock
Yep, you read that right, the hard drive can measure you knocking on your laptop and know when it is you versus someone who looked over your shoulder as you typed in your password last week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f_eU3huEG0
Want unlock your screen saver with a certain code.... no probs,
Want to log into your secure files ....whats the code :)
I know this is only going to appeal to a very small very unique audience but count me in for one - is it enough for me to swap to linux, no not really but it's certainly something to be envious of.
Cheers,
Dean
P.S. if you are still reading this far you're a geek and will love this video as well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbh_JGbPoJU&NR totally useless but uses HDAPS to move your active window around the display.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
AO Top 100 for 2006
Well it's that time of the year again. Here is the Always On Top 100 private companies for 2006.
I'll post some comments on a few of these companies as it comes up but great to see a few companies I'm already working with listed.
I wish when composing this list they made more of an effort to include international companies but this is a great place to do some research on whats hot and up and coming in the tech space.
However – how come Digium isn’t listed but Sugarcrm is and Zimbra is? Surely Asterisk has made a bigger impact on the IT community than either of these companies?
I think next year we should coordinate a campaign to get Asterisk on the list and make sure we get more traction for an application that definately has to be in the top 100 cool technologies for 2006.
Does anyone on this email list know Tony Perkins directly that we can leverage in advance of next years selection?
Cheers,
Dean
I'll post some comments on a few of these companies as it comes up but great to see a few companies I'm already working with listed.
I wish when composing this list they made more of an effort to include international companies but this is a great place to do some research on whats hot and up and coming in the tech space.
However – how come Digium isn’t listed but Sugarcrm is and Zimbra is? Surely Asterisk has made a bigger impact on the IT community than either of these companies?
I think next year we should coordinate a campaign to get Asterisk on the list and make sure we get more traction for an application that definately has to be in the top 100 cool technologies for 2006.
Does anyone on this email list know Tony Perkins directly that we can leverage in advance of next years selection?
Cheers,
Dean
2Wire
3VR Security
Adknowledge
Agitar Software
Airgo Networks
Ampd Mobile
Application Security
Approva
Aruba Networks
Authentec
Axentis
Azul Systems
Barracuda Networks
Bharosa
BitTorrent
Blue Lane Technologies
Blue Lithium
BlueArc
Brandimensions
CafePress
CipherTrust
Claria
CollabNet
Comergent Technologies
Coremetrics
Danger
DataSynapse
Dave.TV
DemandTec
Digital Chocolate
DivX
Dust Networks
Egenera
Eloqua
EnterpriseDB
Facebook
First Hop
Force10 Networks
Fortinet
Glu Mobile
Hands On Mobile
Hellosoft
IGA Worldwide
Impinj
Infinera
Infoblox
InFreeDA
IP Unity
IronPort Systems
Isilon Systems
Jingle Networks
Linden Lab
Lingtu Software
LinkedIn
LogLogic
mBlox
Mental Images
mFormation Technologies
Mimeo.com
Mobile 365
MySQL
Narus
Netli
NewsGator Technologies
Omniture
Orb Networks
OZ Communications
Pay By Touch
Photobucket
Positive Networks
Pronto Networks
Qualys
RazorGator
ShotSpotter
Silver Peak Systems
Simple Star
Sling Media
SOA Software
SOMA Networks
Sourcefire
SugarCRM
TagWorld
Technorati
Tellme Networks
Teneros
TradeBeam
Trapeze Networks
Unicru
UPEK
Veraz Networks
Visage Mobile
Visto
Vocera Communications
Vontu
YouTube
Zanox
Zantaz
Zappos.com
ZettaCore
Zimbra
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