Going through the European Startup 2.0 list one has to say that we Europeans come up with crazier Web 2.0 names than our fellows across the pond. Whether that is through necessity as names become scarce or something else I am not sure.
Perusing the Oscar nominations list I realised how living in Waterford has pole-axed my cinema habits. Back home in Cape Town I had the choice of 7 or so cinema complexes all of which were good quality. Here in Waterford we have one dingy complex that I have been to two times too many. I saw more films at the cinema during my months holiday to South Africa than I have seen in over a year here in Waterford. Supposedly Dungarvan has a nice cinema but driving 45 minutes for a cinema is crazy.
Waiting for DVD is now my habit.
Of the Oscar list I have seen just 8; The Devil Wears Prada (good), Cars (entertaining), Pan’s Labyrinth (brilliant), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (entertaining), Children of Men (very good), United 93 (good), An Inconvenient Truth (very good) and Superman Returns (disappointing.)
I said those because with them you have an end-to-end solution that can do pretty much anything. You have the OS, you have the internet server and you have the client that can talk to the internet server. Missing, possibly, is a programming language and environment but I see less of a threat of death against programming languages than I do against the operating system, server and client.
Naturally the OS covers quite a range of sub-projects including all the bits that make TCP/IP, routing etc. go on the internet. Within Apache too you can argue what is integral to it and what are sub-projects or add-on modules. I also listed Mozilla and not just Firefox because an email client, Thunderbird, is quite important and Mozilla also covers XUL and other supporting frameworks that can be used to create new and existing client applications.
I would have liked to have included Ruby on Rails and Java in the list because they are why I am employed. But I am just one person and the other three projects have broader scope.
Though one could say if you just listed an operating system and a programming language and environment you would have everything covered as together they could create the server, clients and everything else. But that is a bit too high-level and so much has been already done in Apache and Mozilla that to loose them and start again would be a severe blow to computing technology.
Yes, more iPhone coverage. This time a FAQ from David Pogue who got to play with it; The Ultimate iPhone FAQ.
Here are the ones that caught my eye:
Can it run Mac OS X programs? –No.
Can I add new programs to it? –No.
Does it connect to iChat? –No.
Does it get onto the HSDPA (3G) high-speed Internet network that Cingular has rolled out in a few cities? –No. But Steve Jobs said a later version of the iPhone will — once there’s enough HSDPA coverage in this country to justify it.
Does the Web browser support Flash or Java? –No. (No Flash! That bites.)
Can it open Word and Excel documents? –No.
Does it connect to standard iPod accessories like car docks and speaker systems? –Yes!
Will it sync with Outlook? –No.
Won’t the screen get smudgy? –It does, but you don’t see it except when the screen is off. The one I played with was pretty streaky, but wiping it on my sleeve cleaned it completely.
Kenny Kerr tagged me with the 5 Things meme. So here you go, five things you didn’t know about me. Though I guess that depends on who you are. If you are my mum you know them all… probably. If you are from Texas you probably don’t know any of them. In fact you probably don’t even know who I am. All very odd I say.
I lived for 5 years in Zimbabwe. My folks moved there not long after my sister was born. I want to retire to Zim one day, if it comes right.
When I make tea for others I place my mug on the far left so I know it is mine.
I cut short my photographic ambitions because I realised taking photos of ducks, strangers and lightbulbs is a worthless life pursuit. Unless you are a photojournalist you are not contributing much. Sorry.
I really don’t think I am a good coder even though it is my career. I’m good with ideas but someone else should be coding them, really. Let me do the prototyping.
I still have to start at January to figure out what order the months of the year come in. January, February, March… ah, April.
And now my 5 victims; Brian Delahunty, Derek Lakin, Fiona Haughney, Jon Newman and Bob the Builder (imagine all his dirty secrets eh.)
“Below is a Science Fiction Book Club list most significant SF novels between 1953-2006. The meme part of this works like so: Bold the ones you have read, strike through the ones you read and didn’t like, italicize those you started but never finished and put a star next to the ones you love.” from mamamusings.
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien*
The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov*
Dune, Frank Herbert
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
Cities in Flight, James Blish
The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams*
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
Little, Big, John Crowley
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
On the Beach, Nevil Shute
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien*
Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester**** (probably my favourite)
Thanks to Coudal I won a Summer Reading List poster. Nicely done and the list itself is worthwhile going through. Along with the poster came a DVD featuring some short movies by Coudal and Veer which are pretty cool. Mainly though it highlights the very cool jewel cases that Coudal makes, called Jewelboxing. These are quality CD/DVD cases folks. Really solid, nicely designed and slick. I’d be very happy putting out my product in cases like this.
Don Dodge (via Jeff Clavier) reports on 7 features enterprise software needs. The interesting point is that they can just as easily apply to non-enterprise software. Isn’t this part of realising the independant and powerful nature of employees? Realising they aren’t cogs or resources? That we are demanding ownership of the tools we use in our companies.
The 7 features:
Instant Value to customers - solve a problem or create value with the first use
Viral adoption - Pull, not push. No direct sales force required
Minimum IT footprint, preferably none. Hosted SaaS is best.
Simple, intuitive user experience - no training required.
Personalized user experience - customizable
Easy configuration based on application or usage templates
Context aware - adjust to location, groups, preferences, devices, etc.
No more shall we use Lotus Notes because IT says we must.
Daily bits...