Political fools

We need more articles like this excellent article from the BBC pointing out how foolish Ofcom are being


"When the MPs on the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport called for greater control over online content to protect young people from exposure to inappropriate material they were roundly criticised for failing to understand how the internet works.

Suggestions that content-hosting sites like YouTube and Flickr should review material before they were posted were especially ridiculed. Observer columnist John Naughton pointed out that at Flickr, "uploads have been between 1,400 and 4,500 images a minute", making the task somewhat less manageable than the committee seemed to realise.

But a couple of weeks later telecoms regulator Ofcom has agreed that content delivered to mobile phones should continue to be restricted. It suggested that although the current self-regulatory scheme managed by the Independent Mobile Classification Body is working it could be made a bit stronger in some ways.

Yet nobody is writing angry blog posts about how foolish Ofcom is, or how the mobile operators are taking away our online freedoms by limiting access to some types of material, and in fact the general view is that Ofcom and the mobile industry are doing it right, and the system just needs to be tweaked. "

(more)... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7558271.stm


As Australia is also wasting money in the process of building a "think of the children" netnanny as well I just feel like any politician not computer literate should be put out to pasture for good (that includes John McCain... not that I'm pro Obama either but I just think it's ridiculous that he can turn around and say no I dont use computers!!! WTF he should have been thrown out of the race as soon as this was made public).


Cheers,
Dean

branding done right

Check out some examples of user generated branding done right






http://www.mms.com/us/becomeanmm/create/














Great example of how it should be done.


Cheers,
Dean

Microsoft Live Search

If you are like me you are probably using your mobile almost as much for maps/location as you are for voice these days.

I love Google Maps and I love the "my location" look up (thought it's often unreliable) but using a keyboard is a little more restrictive than I would like at times.

Check out this video to see what Microsoft has been doing with all those Tellme engineers that are no longer available for speech recognition projects



Type http://wls.live.com into your mobile browser to get it today or download the application from http://www.livesearchmobile.com/windows_mobile.htm


Cheers,
Dean

135 Henry St Brooklyn Heights, NY, 11201

Yehhhhh we closed on our apartments today :)

Google street view link here

For those of you who missed the original post Jodie and I have bought two studio apartments in Brooklyn Heights that we are merging into a single 1 bedroom apartment.

Best part about it is that being on the top floor it has a large deck off the living room :) I cant wait to get out there and BBQ.

Construction to join them into a single apartment starts in 10 days and we'll be moving in about 5-6 weeks.

More photos to follow, I'm sure this blog is also going to be a cornucopia of DIY project posts over the coming months.


Cheers,
Dean

'Cloud'ification of your content

Cablevision wins on appeal: Remote DVR lawful after all
Does it matter where a DVR's hard drive lives? Hardware from outfits such as TiVo records shows onto a local disk, but the cable provider Cablevision decided to dispense with dedicated hardware and a local drive, and instead it rolled out a service where users could record shows through their existing cable box; those recordings stayed on a remote server in the central office for storage and playback. Content providers sued, alleging copyright violations, and they won a landmark injunction that blocked deployment of the system. But Cablevision appealed, and has now won a sweeping victory that may clear the way for the company to deploy its remote DVR service after all.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080804-cablevision-wins-on-appeal-remote-dvr-lawful-after-all.html

This ruling yesterday http://www.publicknowledge.org/pdf/cablevision-judgement-20070322.pdf allowing Cablevision to roll out their 'remote dvr' service where your dvr recordings are stored at a central location is a great win for common sense over Hollywood.

However...... I haven't seen a single press article yet about what this potentially could mean in the wider scope of things.

I'm not sure why, I guess the press isn't necessarily there to 'speculate on the news' or maybe I'm totally wrong but if I'm right this could be the biggest thing since Sony Betamax time shifting court case.

Basically what 'I' think this ruling means is that the United States Southern District Appeals Court has approved is the 'Cloud'ification of your entertainment content.


For the first time clear precedent now exists that I can purchase content and not need physical control of the content - it is there for me to access when and where I want - with the limitation that I'm the only person who is able to access it (limiting public performance).

So If I purchase a MP3, no longer does it need to be stored on my iPod but I might choose to listen to it on my desktop pc, or I might choose to stream it to my cell phone or even a laptop when I'm working remotely from my hotel room.

Does this cloudification open the possibility of a major competitor to the Apple dominance in music sales? Will Pandora implement a new version of their applications?

Or even does the newly merged Sirius/XM Radio satellite content company find themselves in a pivotal lead for a new class of 'anywhere anytime' content delivery hardware box?

What do you think? I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this.

Does this really even matter to you?



Cheers,
Dean


BTW The first vendor who will accept the delivery, encoding, remote hosting and physical safe storage of my already purchased cd collection with a monthly fee for streaming of that music content I have legally purchased 'back to me' anywhere/anytime will be sure to get my business.


P.S. Can you believe the domain http://www.cloudification.net/ wasn't taken.... I just bought it - any thoughts on what I should do with it now? :)

For Sprint unlimited means 5gb

Sprint have been pushing their $99 unlimited everything plan, unlimited voice-text and data heavily for the last 3 months......

Unfortunately today they announced as far as Sprint is concerned...."unlimited" means only 5gb of wireless data.

http://gizmodo.com/5033295/sprint-finally-makes-good-on-3g-data-capping

Lol - I hope they get their butts sued for breach of contract and everyone gets costs of purchasing their crappy handsets refunded as well as let out of their contracts/expenses for porting their numbers to another carrier.

https://esupport.fcc.gov/sform2000/new_complaints.action?request_locale=en

Cheers,

Dean

Apple pulls posted pulled iPhone modem app

The strange case of Netshare, the application that turns the iPhone into a modem - whenever it exists - became stranger still over the weekend, when it appeared and disappeared for a second time in the iPhone App Store. Apple and AT&T (widely assumed to be the bad guy here) remained tight-lipped, leaving the world trying to figure out the significance of the strange and brief manifestations.

Once could have been a mistake, but twice? Netshare was certainly visible in the App Store during its second materialisation on Friday evening UK, where it could be purchased for £5.99 ($9.99 US, standard crap deal, don't get us started). And it works - but in operation it is a way off of the ease of use and simplicity of your dull, old-style non-3-Jesus phone hung off your Mac via Bluetooth.* That is not the fault of the software's developer, Nullriver, and it is not (entirely) the fault of AT&T or of Reg HQ's local iPhone purveyor O2. It is the fault of Apple for borking the iPhone's Bluetooth stack, and of network providers whose 'all you can eat' deals will only work so long as customers don't get into the habit of using them.

(more)... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/04/netshare_in_out_in_out/

I think people are quickly going to realize they have replaced one evil overlord for another. Can you imagine the uproar if a carrier pulled an application like this?

It's only the iRose Colored Glasses that are preventing the fan boys from revolting.
Cheers,
Dean

TechShop

Just got this in an email; Thought it would interest some people here as well.

Way Cool, wish they were here in New York….. Brooklyn would be a good location :)
http://techshop.ws/index.html

Wish you had a workshop out back, but just can't find room for the floor-mounted plastic seam welder?

TechShop is betting that the DIY and Making trends are spreading everywhere, quickly. It's growing a series of well-equipped workshops for hobbyists and light manufacturers alike. Check out the class catalog for a taste of the tools you can use.

TechShop is a fully-equipped open-access workshop and creative environment that lets you drop in any time and work on your own projects at your own pace. It is like a health club with tools and equipment instead of exercise equipment...or a Kinko's for geeks.

Anyone can come in and build and make all kinds of things themselves using the TechShop tools, machines and equipment, and draw on the TechShop instructors and experts to help them with their projects.

TechShop is designed for everyone, regardless of their skill level. TechShop is perfect for inventors, "makers", hackers, tinkerers, artists, roboteers, families, entrepreneurs, youth groups, FIRST robotic teams, arts and crafts enthusiasts, and anyone else who wants to be able to make things that they dream up but don't have the tools, space or skills.


What a great concept - kind of like a tool rental company...but you get their space as well.

Cheers,
Dean

Laptop siezures at USA borders

Lol wait until Brazil or some other country starts seizing USA citizens laptops at the border and then watch them bitch and moan (I think it was Brazil who did the fingerprinting protest a few years back).

This is going to end badly.

I keep saying this over an over but no one is listening ….. treat others as you would like to be treated yourself and we’ll all get along.

Regards,
Dean Collins

DHS Allowed To Take Laptops Indefinitely

Washington Post story has details of Department of Homeland Security policies for border searches of laptops and other electronic devices (as well as papers).

DHS says such procedures have long been in place but were "disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter," according to the article. Here is a link to the policy (PDF, 5 pages).

"Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption, or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, US Customs and Border Protection and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement... DHS officials said that the newly disclosed policies — which apply to anyone entering the country, including US citizens — are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism... The policies cover 'any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form,' including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover 'all papers and other written documentation,' including books, pamphlets and 'written materials."

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole ~ Somewhere over the Rainbow

I still remember the first day I heard this song (Mark Green's death on ER - yeh I know it was in Meet Joe Black as well which I'm sure I had already seen but didn't register).

Anyway my point was this; I heard the song thought wow, jumped online with about 10,000 other people that night to find out more about it.

I had just ordered 3 of his cd's on Amazon when I came across an article mentioning that Israel Kamakawiwo'ole had died in 1997. It came like such a shock that it wasn't fair I'd just heard about this amazing singer and then lost them all in the space of about 15 - 20 minutes.

So my message to you today is - enjoy life, live life, you'll be gone sooner than you know it.



Cheers,
Dean