Punkin’ – 15july90-21aug06
Originally uploaded by schickr.
A dear old friend had to be laid to rest. It was hard for us, but our selfishness would have only caused her more pain.
She was much loved, and gave back even more. She endured our countless
adventures and tought us much along the way. From dying stray to old
grand queen of the household, she had a good life.
We’ll dearly miss her.
I’ve been doing a bit of reading into audio streaming lately and someone mentioned a term that I had to look up just to make sure – Sideloading, or transferring files from server to server or from server or PC to mobile device or memory card (as opposed to uploading or downloading – device-server actions). Two other definitions here and here.
The funny thing is that this has been one of the main ways that I listen to podcasts on my phone. So I’m a sideloader. 🙂
Some folks think downloads, some think direct connection from mobile device network. I think they are all interlinked and all the options should be there. We should make it easy for users to choose which method suits their style and budget. Such a versatile and integrated way of transferring large files is really only part of that fusion of PC-mobile-Web I keep harping about.
So, if you are building services that use large files, such as video or audio, think of all the ways someone wants to get that stuff on their device and make them all available. Of course, your biz model needs to be amenable to such things, too.
And practical surveys are showing that people do not always want to download stuff over the air (sometimes slow and expensive!). See blurb below.
Link: Research Weighs Mobile Music Downloading, Side-Loading // Zeropaid.com.
Just recently, San Francisco-based Telephia released a report comparing OTA track downloading and side-loading among British consumers. The company found that 27 percent of 3G users downloaded content to their phones, and the average user grabbed 4.1 files per month. In terms of the preferred method of music delivery, though, some other findings emerged. In the survey, 44 percent of 3G subscribers preferred side-loading ripped content from their computers, while 49 percent of non-3G subscribers preferred the same. Comparatively, 14 percent of 3G users surveyed preferred downloading tracks directly from a carrier or non-carrier service, while 16 percent of non-3G subscribers preferred the same.
*And something tells me that most folks download phone apps to their PC and then ‘sideload’ them into their phones. I think that’s mostly because it’s easier to find apps via a PC browser. Ja?
This little clip from Gary had a few film critics I know at work to snicker unkindly.
Well, pooh-pooh on them.
Link: Gary Oldman Premieres on the Nokia Nseries Studio – Softpedia*
A new short film, by award-winning actor and film-maker Gary Oldman, shot on the new Nokia N93 multimedia computer has made its premier recently. The movie named Donut, is being screened on the Nokia Nseries Studio, a groundbreaking online mobile movie community where future directors can upload and showcase their own mobile videos.
*The article mentions Gary’s work in Dracula and Potter. But he was also Oswald in Stone’s JFK and rocked as Zorg in Besson’s Fifth Element. And can you imagine the tame role he had in the latest Batman? Ah, I digress.
Edging a bit off-topic, here’s another thought from Cringely (link below). I bring it up because it is a clever repurposing of existing relationships, clever understanding of how local Internet networks work, and related to the whole idea of decentralization of communications infrastructures.
Link: PBS | I, Cringely . June 8, 2006 – Local Heroes.
What I advised the station general managers to do was to serve their traditional audiences as much as possible over internal, rather than external, connections. This means colocating a server down at the telephone and cable TV companies, which isn’t hard to do since most communities have just two broadband providers, and the PBS station manager probably knows both of them from Rotary meetings or from the local United Way board.
It made me think. What about you?
File this one under ‘Interesting thoughts from interesting people’.
In Bob Cringley’s columns in the past few months, he has been discussing issues around Net Neutrality. In the column linked below, he talks to Bob Frankston (creator of VisiCalc) about some ways Microsoft could use the Internet to fix the mess we’re in and fix he Bell-head mentality of our communications networks.
It’s a good read, as always. I particularly like Frankston’s comment below.
Link: PBS | I, Cringely . June 29, 2006 – If we build it they will come.
"Another [example of the collateral damage in the way out communications networks have been built] is that we have redundant capital-intensive bit paths whose only purpose is to contain bits within billing paths," Frankston explains.
Indeed, this a direct description of what many folks think is the power of telephone networks, wireless or wired. And this is the mentality that is creeping back into the Internet in the whole Net Neutrality discussion.
Then, Frankston restates a common disruptive idea – just bypass the damned gatekeepers and build your own network.
Concentrate less on womb-to-tomb and more on end-to-end by embracing
the idea of community-owned networks. One billion dollars each in seed
capital from Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, and Google would be enough to set
neighborhood network dominos falling in communities throughout America
with no tax money ever required. And they’d get their money back, both
directly and indirectly, many times over.
Hmm, what could GYM do with all their cash? If only they could play together kindly.
I think such a GYM-owned network is as much a pie-in-the-sky as re-educating network operators the Net Neutrality and being a bit pipe and such is good for business.
Are you as cynical as I am?
Ok. So this might be old and beaten (see all the amazing discussion), but I just got back from holidays and I had to put it here.
This is part of trend of reports I’ve been seeing around. I remember one about Java games, too.
What to do, what to do? I guess education is a good start. Yo, Phil!
And to throw the firecracker in the flames:
Does it matter? Are these apps showing up in other ways, in other places? In the PC world, Apple and MS keep nibbling away at ISVs by adding the same functions into the OS. And do people actually want add-on software in the first place? How many PC users buy software after their first purchase? Also, let’s face it, the bulk of phone buyers are not computer folks but people who want a phone and then some. Smartphone, schmartphone – it’s all the same to them.
Link: Mobile Opportunity: Why are mobile application sales dropping?.
"Don’t bother doing a survey. Everyone knows it’s true." And sure enough, if you poke around on the web, you can find a lot of commentary raising questions about the viability of the mobile data market.
As part of a series of interviews of Apple notables for the 30th anniversary of Apple, Jack Scully, the CEO who took over from Jobs, made some great comments about Jobs’ way of building products.
He mentioned that Jobs had some strong first principles in creating a product:
– Start with the user experience
– Tune the hardware to the software
– Have unparralleled industrial design
– Market a tech product as a fashion statement
– Look at the complete system and building the ecosystems around it (as Apple did with desktop publishing and the iPod)
– Clarify and simplify complex business models
– Attract outstanding people
Scully continues to say that there were of course some personal attributes that allowed Jobs to pull off the things he did. For example, Jobs constantly sees things in a simpler way, he makes no compromises, he is willing to think differently how business can be built.
Another interesting comment by Scully, that I try to distill here is that Jobs is at his best when focused on right brain – creativity, art, music, etc. Jobs once called the Mac ‘a bicycle for the mind.’
Interesting perspective here.
The story I wrote for receiver is now out – ‘One Night’. The other authors were: Rudy de Waele, Mark Curtis, Lee Humphreys, Tim Cole, Karenza Moore, Frank Lantz, and Antony Bruno.
Let me know what you think.
Oh, and they read one of my works. Go listen.*
Link receiver magazine number 16:
This receiver issue wants to spark off some ideas about social networking the mobile way: clubbing, seeing your favourite band, sharing memories of a night out or playfully exploring the city, getting to know and experiencing, even creating, music – can mobile add to all these? And how does it affect how we get our friends together for joint action? Does it trigger emergent behaviour? Or is it the ideal means to pull it all together? What do *you* think?
Oh, and I guess I need to be intelligent over the next few days as people come visit my site after reading the story.
*The recording is well done, especially since I gave no direction. The guy reading did a great job, though more of a BBC feel. In my mind, it was in that pressed, urgent, beatnik style (think baret, black turtleneck, smoky bar, and on stage). 🙂
In my submission to receiver (coming later this week, I hope), I mentioned how RFID and barcode scanners on phones could allow for an invisible world, right under parents’ noses. It’s not original, as I recall hearing of games and such, where there are 2D barcode tags peppered around an area with game codes and such (indeed, another article in receiver mentions it as well). And there is Semapedia, which is hoping to tag the world with 2D barcodes that lead to relevant Wikipedia articles.
But, here’s my thought (and it could tie into all the stuff Dave and gang are doing at Winksite): Subversives can go to a Website that has a kit for them to create barcodes or order RFID tags with which they can hide any sort of info in plain sight.
Yeah, sites like that are available, but I have found them all to be a bit techy.
What I have in mind would actually be designed with the subversive in mind, helping them and teaching them how to use tags (or whatever sort) to leave tags all over. Also, the kit would help them make whatever links to other things, such as websites or content, that would be attached to the tag (heck, it could be just plain text without any online or SMS connection). Basically, it would have all they need to do their slinking about.
OK, so Semapedia and Winksite are on paths parallel to what I am thinking. Maybe I am just looking for a more overt subversive outlook. 🙂
Really, the whole subversive thing ties into what I think folks in alternative circles could hack for their own, in a sort of closed way.
Just a brainwave for the day.
Hungary for fruit?
Originally uploaded by schickr.
Are you an Apple or a Blackberry person? Neither of these can do email or iTunes, but, boy, do the taste good. 🙂