gdp's Comments

Tech IT Easy : Is there room for pull-based cinema?

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:26:04 +0000

I'm on the road, but by voting I mean with their wallets, i.e. Paying in advance for a viewing.

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Sent from a phone, so apologies for any spelling mistakes.

Tech IT Easy : 2G, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, 5G, 6G...cleaning the mobile telco standards mess

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:18:03 +0000

Lmao

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Sent from a phone, so apologies for any spelling mistakes.

Tech IT Easy : Blogs are to Books are what TV-Shows are to Movies?

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:32:29 +0000

Thanks for your comments, Penelope. Big fan! :-)

Tech IT Easy : 2G, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, 5G, 6G...cleaning the mobile telco standards mess

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:31:58 +0000

Thank you for your wonderful comment. I felt it would be more wonderful without your URL, because it seemed a little spammy.

Tech IT Easy : Robots At Our Doorstep

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:49:38 +0000

Yeah, the blog post by Paul Miller refers to both as well.

Tech IT Easy : Splendor and misery of the knowledge worker

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 09:17:20 +0000

Nice post! I like this quote: "The problem with digital tools : almost anything can be done in less than two minutes." The problem that knowledge workers face, is that their work can no longer be qualified as widget-work with predictable productivity levels. That also creates the problem of compensation, of how you quantify the work that a knowledge worker does. And as your post(s) implies, we are all increasingly becoming knowledge workers. My own approach is to try to understand what processes contribute to what approximate portion of a businesses' bottom-line. Then it doesn't matter how much you work, but how much your work contributes to part, a whole, or multiple processes. And price appropriately for that. Widget-work is dead, so it the idea of a 9-5 job.

Tech IT Easy : Instapaper 3 is out

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:07:43 +0000

I mean search in the sense of searching your existing content. At this moment, I have over 100 pages saved in Instapaper, which makes for a long list. And it's hard to tell which article you came from when you leave it to check for something else (like what your friends liked). So sometimes I end up searching for the last article I was reading for several minutes…

Tech IT Easy : Radiohead's King of Limbs Album Review and a new look at Indie Music Distribution

Mon, 7 Mar 2011 20:12:14 +0000

Wow, the difference between the iusethis top-list and the app store one is quite stunning. Pretty clear divide between open source and Apple source, not a good thing!

Tech IT Easy : Is Steve Jobs the Michelangelo of our times ?

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 11:15:35 +0000

I kind of dream about MS Visio and OneNote :) RE: market testing. Having developed pretty complex hardware for over a year now, I can say that it's really tricky to do market testing prior to building a product. People want to feel something tangible and find it hard to imagine something that doesn't exist yet. Even we had that problem, but hoped for the best. I can't speak for Apple, though I imagine they had the same problem when they started, but the risk of market influence on the building of a product is that adjusting features is very, very, very tedious. We had to work with suppliers that just wanted a single specification at the start and if a mistake was made in terms of what we wanted, that was our problem. So you want to release a simple product early, have people use it, and then can innovate on top of that. I think the culture of hardware building is probably to use a lot of engineering talent from the start, talent that knows how to visualise and build competently. Market testing comes at a later stage. For the iPad, however, much of the market testing happened on the iPhone! I can't speak for software, though I'm hearing development is much simpler, more flexible, and collaborative, which (if true), I am very jealous of. Of course, there are different problems that come with that, such as the simplicity for the competition to do what you do.

Tech IT Easy : From the silo enterprise to the networked enterprise

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:23:17 +0000

This is a very contextual point of view. I've worked in a financial institution, where plenty of valuable information existed on the intranet. I've also worked in startups, where plenty of valuable information still had to be found—on Google or elsewhere (better results from experts or carrying out online surveys). Generally, for it to become usable, however, it had to be integrated into processes that generate value for the company. Related reading: - The knowledge-creating company: http://www.techiteasy.org/2009/05/29/the-knowledg... - Process-coding for entrepreneurs: http://www.techiteasy.org/2008/07/08/entrepreneur... My critical comments aside, I like your blog posts a lot, keep it up!

Tech IT Easy : Platforms, innovation and Nokia

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 15:09:43 +0000

I like this quote from an article: " HP, Microsoft and Nokia are in the throes of fundamental disruption. Even if these moves may not be all in the same direction, they each react in ways that make sense to them." (http://j.mp/gN2aHt)

Tech IT Easy : Platforms, innovation and Nokia

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:05:10 +0000

You really assume that people have 45 minutes to read your post, don't you? :) So I think I read 2 points out of your post: - Nokia jumping on the Windows mobile / Android bandwagon won't save them because then they're no longer unique. - Symbian is not the problem, but Nokia's problem to execute on these innovations is. Also: - Nokia is blocked from entering the US market, because they are trying to become a service provider and that pisses of the locals. If you ask me, that paints the situation as Nokia having to repeat the past over and over again. The way I imagined (!) the Windows relationship is as somehow exclusive (but that's obviously not in Microsoft's interest. It perhaps also draws a parallel to when Palm decided to put Windows on their devices and the company going down soon after. The problem many Android smart-phones have is that they continue to be dumb phones with a smart OS installed on it, with the exception of a few manufacturers that try harder. Nokia could try to have the best Android implementation ever. Again, a short-lived advantage, unless their hardware is drastically better. Yeah, after reflection, Nokia is screwed no matter where they go. :)

Tech IT Easy : Is Steve Jobs the Michelangelo of our times ?

Sat, 5 Feb 2011 11:52:14 +0000

Nice ode to Steve, but I think your comparison to Michelangelo is a little on the light side. You can basically replace his name with any major historical figure like Genghis Khan or Henry Ford (none of which are, incidentally, the right answer to my Facebook quiz). I think that what I appreciate most about Steve Jobs is something that is hard to describe or copy, which is taste. Apple products are tasteful to a fault and as a visionary, he is stubborn to fault about executing on that taste. As far as no user-testing is concerned, I don't believe that this is the case for all products, just the new category-defining ones. In the case of the iPad, we'll never know the real back-story, except that it was invented prior to the iPhone, but took plenty over from what the iPhone offered (multitouch, single focus apps, app-store). So there was user-testing and training of a sort. You often see this interplay with Apple hardware, that new products use innovations and standards that came forth from other products in their portfolio. E.g. the new Macbook Air, which is expected to integrate features into other Macbook lines in the future. From the mashing up or remixing of product-sub-innovations to improve new ones, to the value chain integrations, to the minimalist philosophy of the look and feel of products, to the cult of Mac and how it both garners costumer worship & consumer hate, competitor turmoil, to Timing (Apple was really launched at a great time for IT), all of which adds up to an Apple that has enough strengths to continue to exist beyond Steve Jobs—the only people being insecure about it are those over-inflated its stock price, far above companies that make much more revenue (incl. Microsoft).

Tech IT Easy : Overpopulation in Facebook

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:02:15 +0000

One area where Scandinavia is well-known for is connectivity. I'm wondering if this is a factor that has an influence. Also interesting to see such high penetration in Luxembourg, which, just like Iceland has a small population, though culturally it's more similar to Belgium and France (ca. 50% of the population is expats, though many of those would be over 20, for sure). Germany, as I mentioned to you before, is very strict about registrations, even at times comparing names & addresses to governmental records, thus preventing fraude. I don't know if Facebook goes that far, however. More when I think of it.

Tech IT Easy : What's social, anyway?

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 17:23:21 +0000

I can only slap you around on wordwithfriends, though you have a good left hook as well. In any case, if the social network is to be believed, Zuckerberg's search for a hug lead him to create the greatest network of them all. So perhaps we should all stay miserable and take it out on the code… There must be a matrix quote in there somewhere.

Tech IT Easy : What's social, anyway?

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 15:09:07 +0000

Sorry to disagree again, but I don't perceive there being much censorship on social networks, except for the same kind we see in real life: censorship against inappropriate content & censorship through peer pressure. 2nd point: there is nothing stopping anyone to share something more than they do today. But the truth is that just because the medium is there, people are more likely to NOT use it than to use it, perhaps grasping back to yesteryear "when things were simpler" or simply because they never were very outgoing in the first place. Just like human-to-human interactions are a combination of many verbal and non-verbal cues, we seem to place much more emphasis on the verbal ones online, which some people are simply not that good at. Also, being good at "social networking" doesn't exactly translate to being more social offline, so I'm not sure that there is an ideal to chase after either. The 1st (decentralised!) social network that I was exposed to was meetup.com, where every interaction had a purpose to set up real meetings. I'm a big fan of that on Facebook, which is why I wrote about setting up my reunion through it some time back. And I also appreciate tools that build on top of Facebook / Twitter that give these networks function. One example I'm using since yesterday is Quora.com, which is all about Q&As and a lot of interesting ones at that. Social networks are simply a way to find likeminded people and/or friends. But the only thing that makes them worthwhile is if members get value from them through interactions that create interesting outcomes. This is just a rant. I do believe in criticising the status quo and improving the technological tools that we currently have.

Tech IT Easy : What's social, anyway?

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 11:15:15 +0000

I should probably not comment on this, proving your point about this being just as valuable as a facebook note… Some points: - "doesn’t it really bother you that these services are designed to let us socialize using their objects?" In real-life, we interact in social environments that are either owned by us or someone else. But we have to respect the norms of that environment. In a club, we buy their drinks, in a public park or at a private party, we don't trash the place. So socialisation & ownership have a lot of overlap. - "Facebook: the available interactions are often limited to textual interactions (discussing) and liking." You forgot about picture & video-tagging, which does go beyond textual interaction. I previously considered farmville-gifting a form of visiting other people's gardens as well. In my opinion, complaining about social networks is equal to complaining about the shortcomings of phone and/or video calls. Every medium has its limitations and their criticisms make it seems like we all aspire to one massive orgy, where everyone is in *touch* with everyone else. Perhaps the next phase is an iphone app in which you can stroke your friends cheek on the multi-touch screen when she cries and she feels the electric tingling of the wires stuck into her skin… yeah, a little sick. So these were my two cents: ownership/politics/vision will always play a role in the way social networks evolve. And, social networking technologies are simply tools that can enhance an interaction, but nothing replaces the mass-orgy that awaits us in social networking heaven.

Tech IT Easy : Postling and how it's no more Mr. Nice Guy on social networks

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 12:01:12 +0000

Sure, but don't you think that twitter & facebook are platforms that are replacing the open web? And rather than welcoming companies that build on top of these platforms, they are scaring newcomers by taking over the features and business models others come up with? This wasn't always the case, but seems much more like it now.

Tech IT Easy : Can we accept piracy as a necessary evil already? [Cranky Rant]

Fri, 6 Aug 2010 15:02:01 +0000

Better to write a blog post explaining this than to nitpick :) My feeling on the Internet is that it's 1969 again and the only condom that will work is either the iTunes-iPod-credit card closed loop or something like OnLive.com, the streaming game service that completely keeps IP separate from those that want to steal it.

Tech IT Easy : Can we accept piracy as a necessary evil already? [Cranky Rant]

Thu, 5 Aug 2010 07:53:26 +0000

Thanks for your courteous reply, Rachel. I have no doubt that there are some pretty big challenges facing the embroidery business. I still think that any product that is digital will face the risk of piracy and that piracy is just a signal from the market regarding the real value of digital goods. About the local shops closing, I have my thoughts on that. I suppose it's because of competition from emerging economies with lower cost of production. There does appear to be a rise in highly customised products. such as embroidered ones, where a local shop that has close access to embroidery-designers around the web, can have a differentiation advantage and thus charge higher margins than cheap producers abroad can. There's also real-time, which seems to be a big deal today. Imagine seeing a design online in the morning and having a local shop deliver it to you in time for a party in the evening. It doesn't all have to be mass-production…