Friday, March 24, 2006

Theocacao. This is probably the best looking blog I have ever seen. Sweetly clean and nice. Makes you literally feel your reading a book just by its appearance. Wonder if this iWeb induced? Of course this doesn't blend well with the monetizing your content crowd. It does win in the simplicity department.

Thats why Einstein is a genius. He gets it! Make complicated things simple but no simpler. Same reason why Apple is successful. Same reason why GNOME is better than KDE. Same reason why *BSD simple and consistent layout structure kicks linux in the butt from a SysAd point of view. Same reason why Ubuntu is rocking on desktop adoption. Same reason why lightweight frameworks like Spring in Java beat the old EJB shit.

Make complicated things simple == More likely chance of success

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Move along writely, here comes ajaxwrite!



The look, feel, and functionality of Microsoft Word, in a completely web-based AJAX platform. Try ajaxWrite today, and experience first-hand how AJAX applications are changing the way the web works, and redefining the software industry.

hmmmnnnn...

The *network* is the computer.
- Sun

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Brainshare, Winforms, MonoDevelop. - Miguel de Icaza



This Mono project is seriously rocking. It is even humble enought to admit that some ideas for the MonoDevelop IDE (IDE features are plugin based) is inspired by Eclipse's implementation.
Paypal Mobile launches? - Engadget Mobile


you can either text PAYPAL (729725) with the dollar amount and recipients digits (i.e. "send 10 to 2125551212"), or you can do it manually by calling 1-800-4PAYPAL (1-800-472-9725), which is obviously far less exciting. There isn't any official press release we could find on this yet, so caveat emptor, we don't know what (if anything) they're gonna charge you. Oh, and do especially mind your phone from now on, ok? As if using it as an e-wallet didn't scare you enough, now it's linked to all your bank accounts and credit cards.


This is great! Hoping they open up to PH. Wonder if G-Cash or Smart Money would resist assimilation? This is telco agnostic m-commerce. With the only drawback that it requires a credit card. But it would be great for B2B and B2C applications.

Take note of the sarcasm bit: "Mind your phone from now on. As if using an e-wallet didn't scare you.". While Paypal is a direct link to your account, G-Cash and Smart Money is indirect. Those two can be treated as mobile cash/debit cards so it lessens the risk a bit. The moment you allow reloading the e-wallet from a real account via mobile, the risk meter increases a bit just below the paypal model.

Once you get into m-commerce, you basically treat your phone with outmost care just like a regular credit card. That means reporting it ASAP when it gets stolen etc. I don't know if telcos still allow specifying the from field (ever got a text that contains a name instead of a number in the from field?), so be also careful that you don't show your pin to anyone who also happens to know your number. Same with credit cards you don't want just anyone who happens to know your billing address to also know your cardnumber and the digits at the back.

The good news is that m-commerce is now a reality nad slowly taking off. Who will emerge as the leader? Is it the new currency that will play a vital role in powering the next gen economy?

Its still a long way to go tho, access to the local m-commerce infrastructure needs some loving. Its still a hassle to convert from cash to e-wallet or e-wallet to cash. Also the typical counter/cashier scenario doesn't blend very well with the SMS based way of transacting with a merchant. Peer to peer payment (mobile to mobile) doesn't appeal that much to a dominantly cash based society where majority are poor. Remittance delivered via m-commerce inherits the infrastructure problem mentioned above.

The current way of doing m-commerce on the otherhand should match nicely with e-commerce type applications. I wonder why the current options are not focusing on that one? hmmmnnn...

m-commerce + e-commerce? the practical killer combo?


Some say, I'm a dreamer...
But am not the only one...
-John Lennon
Local Digg, or Digg pinoy style!

oKs! People-powered News & Links

Would anyone know when did this start? Wonder if this would still be relevant if sites like digg add country categories? or map the ip to country for each submitted story? hmmmnnnn....

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Upcoming NOVELL desktop video. Really showing exciting stuff for Xorg based desktops. Yummy XGL!. I really like the Novell's lead on this one. Opensource desktop finally gets it! Its not just the fancy eyecandy anymore, its about time to harness the power of your fancy video card to improve the desktop experience. Other stuff show are improved mono apps like beagle (desktop search), F-Spot (photo management) etc.

I'm a fan of the Gnome Desktop. KDE just doesn't feel right. Gnome rocks harder! :D
CocoaLab has released a free copy of Become An Xcoder Book. Perfect for newbies like me. Covers XCode 2.0. Nice!

Monday, March 20, 2006

Man vs. Machine

Dexter (first name basis :D), commented that Migs is already working on meme aggregation, and asks if that is what I have in mind.

I think Migs is doing the Google News like approach, where an application does the uber-cool meme tracking. While mine is contemplating on a simpler Digg/Slashdot, social network'ish like approach. For a quick background, Google News selection relies on a computer program running on top of several machines. Digg/Slashdot on the other hand relies on reproductive-determinism-end-result (humans), to submit stories that they think the world wide web should care about.

Mine is just an online application that lets me create my own planets/blogosphere. Grouping the blogs I like and apply my own naming convention.

E.g.

Group 1 (will spit out an rss aggreate of feed 1 to 3)
- feed1
- feed2
- feed3

Group 2 (will spit out an rss aggregate of feed 4 -5 )
- feed4
- feed5

...


It easily allows you to do recursion

e.g.
Mega Group (rss aggregate of group1 and 2)
- group1
- group2


Then you could now do some nifty (should be plugin like) context analysis per blog group. For example you analize the group and check which words are most often mentioned (lucene indexed?) and somewhat getting a pulse of your blogosphere. Or maybe analize the links and hook up with del.icio.us for some tagging goodness, technorati plugin? feedburner? tag cloud? rojo like?

The grouping would also help a lot of RSS-feed-dependent-space-shifting mobile applications like quicknews.

Maybe such a tool already exist? Or does the future belongs to A.I. algorithms which you can directly ask "What's hot on the Filipino blogosphere?". I think the whole RSS thing has reached the point of irrevesible complexity and is in dire need of simplification. Simplifiying it would mean more room to focus on complicating other things. :D
Globe GPRS (includes MMS) services down for the moment. Hopefully they are fixing the long standing problem of incorrect WAP charges. If you are on Globe and would to like to use WAP (to browse wap sites outside of globe) better inform (call cust care) before attempting to do so, else each WAP card/page will be charged to you at Premium MMS download rates. It takes about minium of 2 days for them to fix your settings. It boggles the mind why the fix can't be applied to all subscribers. Oh well, such is life...

Some say WAP has gone the way of the dodos. Subplanted with real mobile browsers for smartphones. The truth is, its still the most cost effective way for doing mobile apps, not for mass adoption but for internal mobile applications. You get the benefit of forms (UI) that would work on dinosaur grade (but cheap) WAP capable phones like the Nokia 6310i. Added bonus you can cram more transactions per peso, which your CFO would really like.


Cmon' and WAP me, WAP me, WAP me...
Baby, I'm yours cmon' and WAP me...
I'm gonna save you some money, money, money...
So baby....
- M.Y.M.P. (Make Your Mobile Proud)

Standing Still


Standing Still
Originally uploaded by nocs.
What's on her mind? Looking for Ken? Pondering the faith of the Filipino nation? Hungry? Happy? Wondering if the legend of Pinochio was true? Waiting for a silicon implant? Dreaming of Adobo? Lusting for cup of freshly brewed coffee? Puzzled with Sex and the City?



Sigh... Walang magawa. Waiting for my lovey to make up her mind. Ahhh... Women...



Love is real, real is love...

-John Lennon

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing - Google Video




A 1972 documentary of the pre-cursor of the internet the ARPANET. Checkout how they explained what it is via a chalkboard. A glimpse of the early ATM like machines! its nice to go back in time and see how things were. Fascinating.