Well someone seems to think so (...and I have to agree).
(link probably not safe for work - those of you without a sense of humour please dont read....those that do click away).
Funniest thing I've seen on the web this week.
Cheers,
Dean
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Australian tax dollars hard at work
I was just emailed this video by a friend of mine in Australia.
Oh yeh, your Australian tax dollars hard at work.
What a dickhead.
The really scary part is look how empty all the seats around him are....obviously he wasn't the only one that spent a few hours in the bar over lunch...he was just the only one to come back early'ish', but not early enough.
Cheers,
Dean
Oh yeh, your Australian tax dollars hard at work.
What a dickhead.
The really scary part is look how empty all the seats around him are....obviously he wasn't the only one that spent a few hours in the bar over lunch...he was just the only one to come back early'ish', but not early enough.
Cheers,
Dean
RepRap
RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is the practical self-copying 3D printer shown on the right - a self-replicating machine.
Look at your computer setup and imagine that you hooked up a 3D printer. Instead of printing on bits of paper this 3D printer makes real, robust, mechanical parts.
To give you an idea of how robust, think Lego bricks and you're in the right area. You could make lots of useful stuff, but interestingly you could also make most of the parts to make another 3D printer. That would be a machine that could copy itself.
RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is the practical self-copying 3D printer shown on the right - a self-replicating machine. This 3D printer builds the parts up in layers of plastic. This technology already exists, but the cheapest commercial machine would cost you about €30,000. And it isn't even designed so that it can make itself.
RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is the practical self-copying 3D printer shown on the right - a self-replicating machine. This 3D printer builds the parts up in layers of plastic. This technology already exists, but the cheapest commercial machine would cost you about €30,000. And it isn't even designed so that it can make itself.
Not counting nuts and bolts RepRap can make 60% of its parts; the other parts are designed to be cheaply available everywhere. This is an interesting coincidence: we can make 60% of our proteins; the other parts are evolved to be cheaply available everywhere...
The primary goal of the RepRap project is to create and to give away a makes-useful-stuff machine that, among other things, allows its owner cheaply and easily to make another such machine for someone else.
To increase that 60%, the next version of RepRap will be able to make its own electric circuitry - a technology we have already proved experimentally - though not its electronic chips. After that we'll look to doing transistors with it, and so on...
Below is a timelapse video of the first RepRap device being built.
Website is located at ; http://www.reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome
Blog is located at ; http://blog.reprap.org/
Cheers,
Dean
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
NYPD
LOL New York's finest at it's best......
This reinforces my opinion that there is something wrong with a lot of NYPD cops.
It's probably stress related working in one of the worlds 'stressiest cities' but thats no excuse.
I'm not a fan of Australian cops etc either but if you interact with an Australian police person generally you'll get a happy smiling face at best, polite but short answer at worst. Asking direction of a NYPD cop you'll get a snarl at best and arrested and thrown into a van at worst.
Wonder what is going to happen to the cops job because of this.
Cheers,
Dean
This reinforces my opinion that there is something wrong with a lot of NYPD cops.
It's probably stress related working in one of the worlds 'stressiest cities' but thats no excuse.
I'm not a fan of Australian cops etc either but if you interact with an Australian police person generally you'll get a happy smiling face at best, polite but short answer at worst. Asking direction of a NYPD cop you'll get a snarl at best and arrested and thrown into a van at worst.
Wonder what is going to happen to the cops job because of this.
Cheers,
Dean
Flip this site
great article in the NY times.com about flipping websites
Dave Hermansen did not own a bird or a cage when he bought bird-cage.com, an online store, for $1,800 three years ago. He simply saw a Web site that was “very, very poorly done,” and begged the owners to sell it to him. He then redesigned the site, added advertising and drove up traffic. Last December, he sold it for $173,000.
Mr. Hermansen, 30, is among the latest wave of entrepreneurs who, like the day traders and real estate investors before them, are looking to make a lot of money without much effort.
More here
Anyone know of any other Web Site Marketplaces apart from http://marketplace.sitepoint.com
Cheers,
Dean
Dave Hermansen did not own a bird or a cage when he bought bird-cage.com, an online store, for $1,800 three years ago. He simply saw a Web site that was “very, very poorly done,” and begged the owners to sell it to him. He then redesigned the site, added advertising and drove up traffic. Last December, he sold it for $173,000.
Mr. Hermansen, 30, is among the latest wave of entrepreneurs who, like the day traders and real estate investors before them, are looking to make a lot of money without much effort.
More here
Anyone know of any other Web Site Marketplaces apart from http://marketplace.sitepoint.com
Cheers,
Dean
Australians have great taste in coffee
Starbucks Closing Up More Than Two Thirds Of Its Australia Stores This Week
84 stores operate in Australia, 61 will close by Aug. 3 :)
I feel bad for the people loosing their jobs but with much better coffee being available this doesn't surprise me at all.
Will be interesting to see in the USA if this vacuum is replaced with more upmarket more 'european orientated' cafes to take Starbucks place.
For those of you in New York who have now idea what I'm talking about, go down to 643 Broadway at Bleeker and order a Latte at "Corner Shop" and tell me you cant taste the difference.
It's run by a guy from Melbourne and the funniest part about this story is that we just wandered in there years ago when we first got to NY. Ordered coffee and was like wow this is really good coffee, and was there about 2 or 3 more times before we heard the managers accent.
Not as good as City Grind in Bligh St Sydney but it's a beacon of hope in this wasteland of dishwater called New York.
Cheers,
Dean
84 stores operate in Australia, 61 will close by Aug. 3 :)
I feel bad for the people loosing their jobs but with much better coffee being available this doesn't surprise me at all.
Will be interesting to see in the USA if this vacuum is replaced with more upmarket more 'european orientated' cafes to take Starbucks place.
For those of you in New York who have now idea what I'm talking about, go down to 643 Broadway at Bleeker and order a Latte at "Corner Shop" and tell me you cant taste the difference.
It's run by a guy from Melbourne and the funniest part about this story is that we just wandered in there years ago when we first got to NY. Ordered coffee and was like wow this is really good coffee, and was there about 2 or 3 more times before we heard the managers accent.
Not as good as City Grind in Bligh St Sydney but it's a beacon of hope in this wasteland of dishwater called New York.
Cheers,
Dean
Monday, July 28, 2008
Gannett Invest in Mogulus
If you haven't come across Mogulus before then you've been living under a rock.
When they first came launched their 'tv station in a box' software technology i wrote about how this is a perfect example of how web 2.0 or whatever you want to call it is making all of us more efficient and more productive simply be effectively reducing the cost of tools.
Being able to mix/edit videos, provide graphic overlays etc and basically do everything that a reasonably priced video mixing desk is able to do....all for free (or for freemium eg 1 x 15-30second commercial every 8 mins) is fantastic.
(oh and if you want to do live mobile crosses to "in the field reporters" you can use QIK another freemium tool, to stream live cell phone video to the Mogulus mixing desk).
Interesting to read today that Gannett have just kicked in $10m investment into the company
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/7/gannett-investing-10-million-in-live-streamer-mogulus
What caught my eye was the quote at the end
In March, Max told us that he figured most video streamers were going to have to find a way to charge users, because advertising appears unlikely to pay the bills: "If it doesn't work, then I'm not sure how long their VCs will want to pay video hosting bills with no business."
So my question of the day is..... "Would you pay $10 a month to allow people viewing your YouTube content to view the content with better quality streaming?"
(eg publisher is subsidising better quality for the viewers looking at their videos).
When they first came launched their 'tv station in a box' software technology i wrote about how this is a perfect example of how web 2.0 or whatever you want to call it is making all of us more efficient and more productive simply be effectively reducing the cost of tools.
Being able to mix/edit videos, provide graphic overlays etc and basically do everything that a reasonably priced video mixing desk is able to do....all for free (or for freemium eg 1 x 15-30second commercial every 8 mins) is fantastic.
(oh and if you want to do live mobile crosses to "in the field reporters" you can use QIK another freemium tool, to stream live cell phone video to the Mogulus mixing desk).
Interesting to read today that Gannett have just kicked in $10m investment into the company
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/7/gannett-investing-10-million-in-live-streamer-mogulus
What caught my eye was the quote at the end
In March, Max told us that he figured most video streamers were going to have to find a way to charge users, because advertising appears unlikely to pay the bills: "If it doesn't work, then I'm not sure how long their VCs will want to pay video hosting bills with no business."
So my question of the day is..... "Would you pay $10 a month to allow people viewing your YouTube content to view the content with better quality streaming?"
(eg publisher is subsidising better quality for the viewers looking at their videos).
With tens of thousands of videos being uploaded every day you would have to think a reasonable percentage would be interested in paying more for better quality downloading?
Or are people that are concerned using Veoh and other platforms like that etc.
Cheers,
Dean
BTW: Do you think YouTube would really be as interesting if they got rid of the 96% as suggested by Ashkan Karbasfrooshan
Mobile Web Wars
For those of you interested in mobile web development check out the
ustream pre-recorded video link of the TechCrunch Mobile Web Wars
Roundtable - it's 2 hours in length.
The participants on the TechCrunch Mobile Web Wars Roundtable are:
David Rivas, Nokia, Vice President of Technology Management for S60 Software
Walt Doyle, CEO Ulocate
Tom Conrad, CTO Pandora
Greg Yardley, CEO of Pinch Media
Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous
David Hornik, partner, August Capital
Jed Stremel, Director of Mobile at Facebook
Guy Ben-Artzi, Founder of Real Dice and CEO of Mytopia
Jason Devitt, CEO of Skydeck
Gannon Hall, CMO of Kyte
Sam Altman,CEO of Loopt
Marc Davis, chief scientists of Yahoo’s mobile group
Omar Hamoui, CEO of AdMob
Richard Wong, partner at Accel
Andreas Weigend, people & data (former chief scientist, Amazon)
Tatsuki Tomita, SVP of Consumer Product, Opera
Mike Rowehl, chief architect SkyFire
Mary Ann Cotter, CEO, Cooking Capsules
John Faith , GM and VP of Mobile for MySpace
Interesting thoughts that 'i' took out of the video;
Not a single developer is going to be building iPhone only application development - they are ALL continuing to develop for other platforms.
That a lot of easy cross platform growth is being made by web based (eg browser based) applications.
The 'ease' of distribution of applications using the apple app store has been 'perceived' to be easier because the carriers got out of the way. The jury is still out as to whether one 'overlord' has been replaced with another.
Lol I loved at about the 40 minute mark how the editor of Techcrunch shut up one of the panelist who was 'poo pooing' Android and saying how much it sucked and how hopeless it was by saying in 6 months from now I'm going to put your face next to that quote when you are raving how good Android is.
One of the comments I really hadn't considered is why does Japan have a much higher rate of mobile content consumption....'and they dont have iPhones'. What exactly is it that has finally enabled an 'excited consumption of mobile content'.
One of the comments that followed that is possibly it's related to the simple fact that the iPhone was bundled with flat rate data. It's finally cheap enough and 'unthinking' enough to just jump online and access whatever you want without worrying.
There is a lot of concern that Android becoming fractured; because it's so 'open' the carriers and handset vendors have the choice of how it's implemented....what happens when variations cause applications to fail.
Interesting comment at 1.05 around Facebook and location based information.... they are concerned about not doing it right....so will err on the side of caution. Interesting that they are going to behind the scenes track that you are using an iPhone and therefor will be be 'floating up' into your facebook feeds what apps your friends are downloading.
Great comment at 1.10 around micro billing for transactions between 50c - $2, this i really really agree is fantastic. This is what I believe the developers are chasing.....whether they actually make money is yet to be seen. I personally think too many are expecting to advertise 'only' on the istore and be found.... I'm waiting for the pendulum to swing the other way and for people to realise that they are being lost in the wash and they need some other way of being 'found' by potential customers.
Carrier 'transaction taxes' for payments of offline goods using premium sms etc is solely being held up 'by short sighted carriers'.
Good comment by Richard Wong a VC at Accel about the 'ingredients' for really good enterprise vertical apps on multiple mobile platforms so he is looking forward to more of these being launched.
Wow i had no idea that you cant install a new browser on the iPhone. great comment about everyone being stuck on ie.5 without open competition.
Interesting question from Robert Scoble about the lack of travel apps - equally interesting response from the developer that stupid apps, games etc are the low hanging fruit. My personal thoughts are maybe this is where developers can 'differentiate' themselves from the masses.
lol funny European/USA juxtaposition at 1.45 around privacy and government overview.
Great comment about application and concept cloning/theft and how what keeps you ahead of everyone else is simply execution.
My own personal take is that it's simply processor speed and data speed and really no more than that. Yes iPhone raised the UI barrier - but there are other areas like multi-tasking apps where they failed.
Either way...may we live in interesting times :)
ustream pre-recorded video link of the TechCrunch Mobile Web Wars
Roundtable - it's 2 hours in length.
The participants on the TechCrunch Mobile Web Wars Roundtable are:
David Rivas, Nokia, Vice President of Technology Management for S60 Software
Walt Doyle, CEO Ulocate
Tom Conrad, CTO Pandora
Greg Yardley, CEO of Pinch Media
Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous
David Hornik, partner, August Capital
Jed Stremel, Director of Mobile at Facebook
Guy Ben-Artzi, Founder of Real Dice and CEO of Mytopia
Jason Devitt, CEO of Skydeck
Gannon Hall, CMO of Kyte
Sam Altman,CEO of Loopt
Marc Davis, chief scientists of Yahoo’s mobile group
Omar Hamoui, CEO of AdMob
Richard Wong, partner at Accel
Andreas Weigend, people & data (former chief scientist, Amazon)
Tatsuki Tomita, SVP of Consumer Product, Opera
Mike Rowehl, chief architect SkyFire
Mary Ann Cotter, CEO, Cooking Capsules
John Faith , GM and VP of Mobile for MySpace
Interesting thoughts that 'i' took out of the video;
Not a single developer is going to be building iPhone only application development - they are ALL continuing to develop for other platforms.
That a lot of easy cross platform growth is being made by web based (eg browser based) applications.
The 'ease' of distribution of applications using the apple app store has been 'perceived' to be easier because the carriers got out of the way. The jury is still out as to whether one 'overlord' has been replaced with another.
Lol I loved at about the 40 minute mark how the editor of Techcrunch shut up one of the panelist who was 'poo pooing' Android and saying how much it sucked and how hopeless it was by saying in 6 months from now I'm going to put your face next to that quote when you are raving how good Android is.
One of the comments I really hadn't considered is why does Japan have a much higher rate of mobile content consumption....'and they dont have iPhones'. What exactly is it that has finally enabled an 'excited consumption of mobile content'.
One of the comments that followed that is possibly it's related to the simple fact that the iPhone was bundled with flat rate data. It's finally cheap enough and 'unthinking' enough to just jump online and access whatever you want without worrying.
There is a lot of concern that Android becoming fractured; because it's so 'open' the carriers and handset vendors have the choice of how it's implemented....what happens when variations cause applications to fail.
Interesting comment at 1.05 around Facebook and location based information.... they are concerned about not doing it right....so will err on the side of caution. Interesting that they are going to behind the scenes track that you are using an iPhone and therefor will be be 'floating up' into your facebook feeds what apps your friends are downloading.
Great comment at 1.10 around micro billing for transactions between 50c - $2, this i really really agree is fantastic. This is what I believe the developers are chasing.....whether they actually make money is yet to be seen. I personally think too many are expecting to advertise 'only' on the istore and be found.... I'm waiting for the pendulum to swing the other way and for people to realise that they are being lost in the wash and they need some other way of being 'found' by potential customers.
Carrier 'transaction taxes' for payments of offline goods using premium sms etc is solely being held up 'by short sighted carriers'.
Good comment by Richard Wong a VC at Accel about the 'ingredients' for really good enterprise vertical apps on multiple mobile platforms so he is looking forward to more of these being launched.
Wow i had no idea that you cant install a new browser on the iPhone. great comment about everyone being stuck on ie.5 without open competition.
Interesting question from Robert Scoble about the lack of travel apps - equally interesting response from the developer that stupid apps, games etc are the low hanging fruit. My personal thoughts are maybe this is where developers can 'differentiate' themselves from the masses.
lol funny European/USA juxtaposition at 1.45 around privacy and government overview.
Great comment about application and concept cloning/theft and how what keeps you ahead of everyone else is simply execution.
My own personal take is that it's simply processor speed and data speed and really no more than that. Yes iPhone raised the UI barrier - but there are other areas like multi-tasking apps where they failed.
Either way...may we live in interesting times :)
Cheers,
Dean
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Instinct V's iPhone
lol I love that they actually offer video embed as part of this marketing campaign.
I'm not an Instinct user but here I am sharing with you and it's 30 seconds of your life you just cant get back :P
There's a few more including Live TV...also missing on the iPhone
http://www.instinctthephone.com/?id9=Ad_2008q2_instinct_launch_movieposter_300x250
Unfortunately as I'm a 'citizen of the world' you'll never catch me with an inferior cdma handset...though I hear Santa might have got my letter about the latest HTC :)
Cheers,
Dean
I'm not an Instinct user but here I am sharing with you and it's 30 seconds of your life you just cant get back :P
There's a few more including Live TV...also missing on the iPhone
http://www.instinctthephone.com/?id9=Ad_2008q2_instinct_launch_movieposter_300x250
Unfortunately as I'm a 'citizen of the world' you'll never catch me with an inferior cdma handset...though I hear Santa might have got my letter about the latest HTC :)
Cheers,
Dean
Friday, July 25, 2008
Foxconn F'cked
Lol Foxconn motherboards are screwed ....... this is why you cant f'ck with your customers in these hyper connected times.....your customers can bite you faster than you can say 'poor customer service'.
http://ubuntu-virginia.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869249
Foxconn deliberately sabotaging their BIOS to destroy Linux ACPI
Edit: Please tell Foxconn what you think of their behavior: http://www.foxconnchannel.com/support/online.aspx
Digg, Reddit, and Slashdot.
http://digg.com/linux_unix/Foxconn_deliberately_sabotaging_their_BIOS_to_destroy_Linux
http://www.reddit.com/comments/6tcv8...their_bios_to/
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl.../07/25/1150218
Lol someone somewhere is having a really shitty weekend.
Cheers,
Dean
http://ubuntu-virginia.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869249
Foxconn deliberately sabotaging their BIOS to destroy Linux ACPI
Edit: Please tell Foxconn what you think of their behavior: http://www.foxconnchannel.com/support/online.aspx
Digg, Reddit, and Slashdot.
http://digg.com/linux_unix/Foxconn_deliberately_sabotaging_their_BIOS_to_destroy_Linux
http://www.reddit.com/comments/6tcv8...their_bios_to/
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl.../07/25/1150218
Lol someone somewhere is having a really shitty weekend.
Cheers,
Dean
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