Week of 2011/01/28

[Comment]

The Daily on the iPad .. kind of ok .. but does it showcase the future in news reading?

No, it is too slow, and too little articles, too little information. I want to "speed-browse" thru millions of articles and pictures. I want it to be "DIRTy", DataIntensive and RealTime. I want to swipe and cut thru a data cube of information in high speed. And for the ads, I'm fine with watching some while my data cube in the cloud does its warm-up. But afterwards, while I'm flying thru the news, don't interrupt me.

.. for now, I stick with my favorite newsreader .. the Reeder.

[NyTimes]

• "At Apple, the Platform Is the Engine of Growth" [nytimes]
• "Apps Customize How Users Read Content Online" [nytimes]
• "The iPod Gets the Dick Tracy Treatment" [nytimes]

[Links]

• How does Etsy manage development and operations? [link]
• Video: Art Project - Behind the Scenes [link]
• Video: Cady Coleman, astronaut, at EG [link]

Week of 2011/07/23

[Comment]

Who does "videophone-ing" in front of a TV?

Just came across another ad for a home videoconferencing system. I'm probably still missing something here. But I really can't understand why people want to sit in front of a TV (nicely groomed) to talk to other family members via some videophone.

[NyTimes]

• "Egypt Cuts Off Most Internet and Cellphone Service" [nytimes]
• "Once Popular, Car Pools Go the Way of Hitchhiking" [nytimes]
• "How to Choose a Small-Business Incubator" [nytimes]

[Links]

• The Economics of Self-Publishing via Kickstarter (so far) [link]
• Frog Design: Flying Blind in the Free Info Economy [link]
• What Startups Are Actually Getting Money? [link]

Week of 2011/01/16

[Comment]

What is the value of a vault filled with gold, gold that you aren't allowed to sell?

The same interesting question must be bothering people surrounding Facebook. Facebook is currently the largest repository (vault) for personal data. Valuable personal data that is highly protected by privacy laws.

.. the temptation must be strong to sell some data "by accident".

[NyTimes]

• "Stuxnet Worm Used Against Iran Was Tested in Israel" [nytimes]
• "Auto(in)correct" [nytimes]
• "Patch.com and AOL Bet on Hyperlocal News" [nytimes]
• "News Is Power in Washington, and Aides Race to Be Well-Armed" [nytimes]
• "Goldman Limits Facebook Investment to Foreign Clients" [nytimes]
• "Brooklyn Decker Featured by Esquire in New Promotion" [nytimes]

[Links]

• Toontastic - A Creative Learning and animation app for the iPad [link]
• Smart Phone Zombie Apocalypse [link]

Week of 2011/01/09

[Comment]

How does Google measure their Search Quality?

Lately, looking at my Google search results, it feels like their PageRank algorithm got replace by some "AdSenseRank" algorithm. Which of course, based on their ad-driven business model, would make sense. Why not optimize the ranking for optimal profit, increased shareholder value?

.. pretty sure there are some heated discussions going on between Google's ad-sales team and their search-engineering team.

[NyTimes]

• "Will Cable and Satellite Bless TV-Internet Union?" [nytimes]
• "Cyberspace When You’re Dead" [nytimes]

[Links]

• What Went Wrong at Borders [link]
• Infographic of the Day: Is Bottled Water Really That Bad? [link]
• A VC: When They Are Throwing Money At You [link]
• Online Resources for Learning About JavaScript [link]

Week of 2011/01/02

[Comment]

Foundation of a sustainable business model ..

It is all about "Big Data". Owning the data, owning the technology to acquire and process large amounts of data, and also having the knowledge and technology to mine and distribute it afterwards.

.. a good example would be Netflix.

[NyTimes]

• "China's Race for Patents to Build an Innovation Economy" [nytimes]
• "Electronic Trading Creates a New Financial Landscape" [nytimes]
• "Forecasting the Mashup of 2011 — The Media Equation" [nytimes]
• "More Schools Embrace the iPad as a Learning Tool" [nytimes]

[Links]

• Why the iPad is Destroying the Future of Journalism [link]
• If You Didn't Blog It, It Didn't Happen [link]
• RSS: Not Dead Yet [link]

Week of 2010/12/25

[Comment]

Food for thougt ..

We just bought "Donkey Kong Country Returns" for our Wii. By the way, a solid cool arcade-type of Nintendo game. We sit on the couch and play it on our big-screen TV. Seems like an experience that only console based games can offer. A market that is currently clearly dominated by Wii, XBox, and Sony PS.

But what if Apple would allow game developers to use Apple's AirPlay functionality? What if Apple would allow game developers to send the video output and sound of their game from an iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch to a big-screen TV via AppleTV?

.. Nintendo should start to migrate their games to the Apple's 'iDevice' platform and stop building their own hardware?

[NyTimes]

• "Gadgets Bring New Opportunities for Hackers" [nytimes]
• "Etsy, Site Selling Crafts and Vintage, Draws Fans" [nytimes]
• "Stranded Travelers Find Relief in Twitter" [nytimes]

[Links]

• Video: AT&T Don't Text While Driving Documentary [link]
• Video: The Joy of Stats [link]
• Los Angeles Times: Looking at the cloud from both sides now [link]

Week of 2010/12/18

[Comment]

The power of me, the power of Apple's cloud offering ..

It all happens in the background, it happens ubiquitously. My bookmarks, my address-book, my calendar, and even my notes get constantly synchronized between my MacBook, my iPhone, and my iPad, wirelessly. I use it to share pictures with my extended family. And I just started to load research papers into iBooks via iDisk.

.. I really like me.com.

[NyTimes]

• "Wall St. Computers Read the News, and Trade on It" [nytimes]
• "Computational Photography May Help Us See Around Corners" [nytimes]
• "Book Publishers Expect E-Readers to Create a Christmas Spree" [nytimes]
• "Wearing the Right Stuff: Evolution of the Spacesuit" [nytimes]

[Links]

• Video: Epic Docs Animation [link]
• A real-time translating app [link]

Week of 2010/12/11

[Comment]

Closed against open .. Macintosh against PC/MS-DOS .. iOS against Android.

Reading about the Android phones, about the variety of Android devices, about the "openness" of the Android platform, about the preinstalled craplets, it feels like a deja-vu. Will Android take over the mobile-market as MS-DOS took over the personal computer space? Will the "closed" platform be losing again?

I'm not so sure this time. There is some openness in the iOS/Apple platform too that can't be underrated. The openness of the "hardware-connector". There is already a huge variety of accessories available that fits and connects to all the iPhone/iPod/iPad devices. And there is the world-wide and open "market-platform" for iOS applications developers. This platform makes it pretty easy for iOS developer to write and distribute an application that runs on all the iOS devices world-wide.

.. any bets who wins this one? I really hope it won't be the AdSense platform.

[NyTimes]

• "Let It Dough!" [nytimes]
• "Should You Google at Dinner?" [nytimes]
• "Time Warner Takes a Shot at Netflix" [nytimes]
• "OpenTable's Success, and Fees, Rankle Restaurants" [nytimes]
• "Gran Turismo 5 From Sony - Review" [nytimes]

[Links]

• What Caffeine Actually Does to Your Brain [link]
• Apple iPad is the New Investment Management Tool of Choice [link]
• 10 Best Data Visualization Projects of the Year – 2010 [link]
• Video: How do Japanese multiply? [link]

Week of 2010/12/05

[Comment]

In application development it currently all comes down to dirt .. "Data-Intensive Real-Time" .. dirt-y as Google Search or LinkedIn Signal.

[NyTimes]

• "America's Most Vulnerable" [nytimes]
• "Hackers Defend WikiLeaks, Testing Online Speech" [nytimes]
• "Web Advertisers Fear Effects of Do-Not-Track System" [nytimes]
• "Romance Books Are Hot in the E-Reading Market" [nytimes]
• "Lockerz’s C.E.O. Sees the Dangers of Cynicism at Work" [nytimes]

[Links]

• New York Times Event Shows the Promise of Big Data [link]
• Strata Gems: Write your own visualizations [link]
• Video: DaVinci prototype on Xbox Kinect [link]

Week of 2010/11/28

[Comment]

A "hacker"-site gets attacked by hackers. Who is behind those attacks on WikiLeaks' site. Who controls those bot-nets, those illegally hijacked computers? .. Governments (foreign), patriots, secret agents, school-kids? .. One thing is for sure, they control a powerful virtual army .. Warfare 2.0.

[NyTimes]

• "WikiLeaks Struggles to Keep a Step Ahead of Hackers" [nytimes]
• "Investigators Reveal Drama After Jet Engine Blast" [nytimes]
• "Gawker Hopes to Transform 'The Blog'" [nytimes]
• "Netflix Partner Says Comcast Fee 'Threatens' Open Internet" [nytimes]
• "Now a Giant, Google Works to Retain Nimble Minds" [nytimes]

[Links]

• Is the Internet Sustainable When Everyone On Earth Uses Over 3 Gigabytes of Data Per Day? [link]
• Invest In The Mess [link]
• Video: Marcel The Shell With Shoes On [link]