Mittwoch, 19. Januar 2005

License to seat. Steve Mann 's Seating License is an internet chair with magnetic stripe card reader and spikes that retract when you slide your credit card into a slot on the chair to download a "License to Sit". The chair illustrates what Mann calls deconomics, the sabotage economics. You don't buy the chairs. You instead buy the seating. Likewise, "pay per wear" clothing could also save money. Deconomics makes economic sense. So much sense that it's ridiculous! If you look at this on purely economic grounds with cold calculations you're missing the human element. Deconomics also provides for chip implants. Those without implants remain standing indefinitely. Thanks Rheinhold! In the chairs series: Communicating via chairs, How to have fun with a simple Ikea chair, Zizi the Affectionate Couch, Wearables for everyday objects, Heartbeat monitoring armchair and shirt, Remote furniture. ANyone has heard of others? [we make money not art] 4:36:36 PM    comment []

John Doerr at Web 2.0 Conference. Here are some notes taken from John Doerr's talk at the Web 2.0 Conference, held October 2004 in San Francisco. Thanks to IT Conversations for recording it! John Doerr is a well-known venture capitalist, who apparently had the foresight to back Google in 1999 when few others did. His Web 2.0 speech had a lot of insightful nuggets and tantalizing snippets of insight. I got the feeling he was holding a lot back, but that's to be expected from someone who is on the board of both Google and Amazon. Still, very worthwhile listening to. Or if you can't be bothered listening, here are my notes: Parallel Webs After about 10 minutes of banter and rambling, it got interesting at the 11.40 minute mark. That's when Doerr launched into his Web 2.0 theories. He started by saying "...take the idea of the string theory and apply it to the Web", which led to his suggestion that there are "at least 6 parallel webs." Although this caused a round of titters in the audience, I think everyone was on tenterhooks! So the 6 parallel webs are: * Near Web -> the PC upfront; "innovations are around services"; examples: Friendster, Visible Path * Far Web -> tv web; people don't interact with it as much; e.g. Akimbo.com, which delivers video to your tv set * Here Web -> one that is "ubiquitously pervasive"; e.g. phones * Weird Web -> "talk to and it talks back to you" e.g. 3D VRML where the perspective changes; An example company is TellMe, which offers voice recognition over your phone (e.g. directory assistance - AT&T uses it) * B2B Web -> the plumbing behind the scenes (xml, rss, web services - eg amazon); example: "companies building and promoting wikis". * D2D Web -> Device Web (e.g. RFID info, remote sensors, smart dust) He puts the 6 Webs under rubric of "EverNet". The most interesting one sounded like the "Weird Web", which John said had "opportunity for innovation" further into the future. Platforms Doerr talked a bit about platforms. The OS as a platform was followed by databases (eg p2p), and now we have web / web services / "search in particular" ("a very powerful platform"). He said browsers are not so much a platform, but "a great enabler". People in the Netscape era used the browser as a thin client. He said that "most of the old web-based services [Web 1.0] are in the process of being systemically reinvented - including the browser." He reckons "browsers are going to come back", but dismissed the likelihood of Google doing a browser. Opportunities When questioned what are the opportunities or markets open for entrepreneurs, Doerr said there is scope for "lots of web services-based companies". In particular "really targeted services for the explosive Hand Web" [aka the Here Web] - for example, social services and tracking services. "We live in time and we're assaulted by events", Doerr went on to say. He wants filters to be developed so that we're only assaulted by "the most relevant information". That's a "Google-sized" technical challenge, but an example of something he'd invest in. There are also opportunities to tackle information that is not currently on the Web - he gave the example of a video company that could aggregate all the backlist info about videos. But he cautioned that a lot of those types of opportunities will go to "the larger companies" and the smaller innovators should be wary of "getting in the way" of Google, Amazon, EBay or Yahoo!. [Read/Write Web] 4:25:25 PM    comment []

dmp3 CD Ripping Service Reviewed. LiveDigitally reviews the dmp3 CD ripping service, which stands out from mail-in services like RipDigital by also providing the option of a live technician to pick up your and deliver your CDs, as well as help you set up iTunes and your iPod and the like. It's cheaper to just mail the CDs in, of course, but if you've got the cash to drop (and you live in the San Francisco area), you can have a real nerd come to your door and walk you though digital music step by step. And it sounds like they will rip burned CDs, too, which is something Rip Digital will not, out of a desire to not get sued (I don't know the legality of ripping burned CDs; I'm just saying). dmp3 CD ripping services [LiveDigitally] [Gizmodo] 4:24:38 PM    comment []

iTorrent?. This may turn out to be nothing, but... A week or so ago, an app named iFlicks 1.0 was released by Helixent Technologies (of Mitchell, SD, of all places!) iFlicks was designed to help you organize digital movies, in much the same manner as iTunes does for music. It's unique in that it also integrates with Netflix to keep track of the movies you've rented. The app was available for download until late last week when Helixent mysteriously pulled the plug on downloads. Unfortunately, at this time, we cannot provide further details as to why we have made the decision to halt distribution of iFlicks. As soon as we are aware of further details which we can make public, we will post the information to this page. If you are concerned or otherwise interested, just periodically check back to the iFlicks web site. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but might Apple and Netflix be collaborating on offering an iTunes Music Store-like experience for getting movies and TV content, and politely (with a wad of cash in hand) asked Helixent to step out of the way? This guy is thinking along the same lines as me, that last week's release of the Mac Mini is the first step in a process to supplant the VCR, DVD, and TiVo in many an entertainment center. But perhaps Apple is thinking one step further, using the Mac Mini with BitTorrent-like technology to speed up access to movies and television content. Or maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part. This rabbit trail initiated by a MacSlash post. [Gadgetopia] 11:04:52 AM    comment []

Wikipedia Votes for Deletion. Wikipedia:Votes for deletion: Every couple of weeks, I go browse Wikipedia's "Votes for Deletion" page, which is where veteran Wikipedians decide which articles stay and which go. You wouldn't believe the things that people try to put up. You get a lot of comments like these on an entry for a band: A vanity article about a non-notable singing group. There's just no evidence that this group is notable outside of its immediate circle - no albums or even original songs are listed. [...] Delete, definitely not notable, even among college singing groups [...] weak keep apparently have produced an album Wolfman [...] Keep. They are slightly more than three men in a garage, selling CD-RW discs (as one recent VfD candidate was). They have to get to some things quickly, as the comments on the entry for "U.S. Nuclear Test Causes Tsumani" attest: Tin-foil hat POV BS [...] Speedily deleted as incoherent nonsense. Or [~] here's an odd one [~] some friends of some guy from Turkey posted a little obituary. Comments about the deletion were regretful: A very sad memorial page for someone who sounds like a genuinely nice man who was, unfortunately, completely non-notable. I'm sure that his wife and friends still miss him, and I know that his friend had the best of intentions in putting up this page for him. But Wikipedia can't have an entry for absolutely everybody ever. And, finally, an article apparently used by someone to write a college paper. The title: "Class assignment for Gov 337 at Berry College in Rome Georgia." Seriously. [Gadgetopia] 11:04:09 AM    comment []

Hotlinking. 'Just found this item from trying to click on a blogdigger enclosure link. This is an issue I was meaning to get into with my reBlog hack, but I planned it too soon - didnt have enough time to write everything up - still thinking about it. Anyway, reBlog displays images on their pages that are 'hotlinked' to the images on the servers of the referrers. Its not that big of a deal with reBlog, but actually may in some cases cause some problems and especially with video, which is where this message comes from - it's a questionable practice. It's a difficult question because sometimes hotlinking is more benifical for both parties. BTW, I hotlinked the image above instead of the usual method Julia Set employs which is to d/l the image to the parsons juliaset server folder. Why? I dont know, maybe it will door-bell the human behind the message to tell us here now more about how (s)he feels. Via juliaset [Eyebeam reBlog] 10:44:44 AM    comment []

Recycled phones and "blood Tantalum". Eric Lin explains why recycling mobile phones is important (Via Mobitopia) There is an even deadlier reason why it is critical that old phones don't get tossed away- people are literally dying for them. The legacy of "blood diamonds" is well known, however the fact that a similar arrangement exists to mine coltan (Columbium Tantalum) is lesser known. Tantalum is a superconductor, one of the best on Earth. It is used to coat capacitors to help them create more power from less energy so that your cell phone no longer needs a battery larger than the phone itself. In war torn central Africa, people are forced into modern day slavery to mine this rare element, which is then sold to fund the wars in this region. Recently the majority of Tantalum production has shifted to Australia, however it is a rare element, so decreasing demand helps decrease the likelihood that manufacturers will turn to African supplies. Sadly, it is very difficult to reclaim Tantalum once it has been manufactured into an electronic component. Because of this, and these other environmental factors, we strongly recommend that no matter how you choose to get rid of your phone, you donate it to an organization that will make all efforts to re-use it rather than simply "safely disposing" of it. Luckily current economics dictate that it is more lucrative to refurbish phones rather than safely recycle them. [Smart Mobs] 10:40:16 AM    comment []

Interview with founders of Dodgeball. The Future of Wireless interviews the founders of Dodgeball. (Thanks, Hylton) The gist of the service: Go to any restaurant, nightclub, or movie theater lobby, and you will see large numbers of people on their phones, talking to and text-messaging their friends. And if you happen to overhear these conversations, you'll notice that many of them involve spontaneous planning. A couple could be at a music club where the first set absolutely rocked - and they want to SMS their friends to come down for the second set. That's the premise that dodgeball.com is built on, enabling you to broadcast your whereabouts to friends by sending a text message stating your location. And if you have a camera phone, the service can send a photo of where you are as well as send you pics of nearby friends-of-friends or pics of users within 10 blocks that have a crush on you (we do not allow people to send photos from their cameraphone in a moblog type fashion). If your friends are registered with dodgeball.com and have their cell turned on, they get a message stating where you are, and where they can join you if they wish. [Smart Mobs] 10:38:44 AM    comment []