Is change good or bad?

I always thought that change, especially when it comes to big technological leaps forward, is a good thing. I ve come to believe that this is not true.

I think that people dont want to see changes unless they re a part of it. And they rarely are a part of it.

People should know when the world is changed around them. But they dont have time and they dont have the need to do so. And they reject change. They believe that the world is the same as it has been in the 20th century. They refuse to see that we live as citizens of the world. They refuse to understand how this changes everything. They refuse to see how our lifes are extended everyday by a few minutes. They dont want to see that the world is a nice place to live, and it wasnt always so.

It s this change that makes people frightened and anxious. But it’s a good thing to me. It’s hard to embrace everytime but it’s good to know that change is good.

Google buys YouTube

Breaking news..

In this article it says it’s confirmed , while here you can see the rumor spreading!

I am not sure if that’s true – however I think it was ( or will be) the right thing to do for Google.

1) Videoblogging is definitely going to be a big part of the future of the web. Google videos was a failure, while youtube is the most popular of its king right now. They re stepping into the market of the future big time – acquiring the market leader of the present time.

2)Google has already failed bigtime with some ideas. Why not buy somebody else’s ideas? ( I guess it’s becoming like Microsoft afterall)

3) Google will figure out some way to make money out of it. I am pretty sure about that. They are the leaders in ads and that’s their main source of income. I dont have the slightest doubt they ll find a way to drain more cash off youtube.Right now youtube is losing 1$ million per month, but google could make a cash-cow out of it in the next year.

Ig Nobel Awards

Here you can see the famous Ig Nobel Awards.

MEDICINE: Francis M. Fesmire for his medical case report “Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage”; and Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan, and Arie Oliven for their subsequent medical case report also titled “Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage.”

 

The patent for hiccups cure should be awarded to Steve Jobs… The Mac is the digital machine that cures hiccups in the first place. (not yet rectal )
ORNITHOLOGY: Ivan R. Schwaband and the late Philip R.A. May for exploring and explaining why woodpeckers don’t get headaches.

Woodpeckers with a headache… at last a piece of research that makes sense. In fact I care much more about headaches than how Universe was formed.When the creation of Universe stops giving me a headache maybe I ll think about it again.

BIOLOGY: Bart Knols and Ruurd de Jong for showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet.

Even if you can’t get a girlfriend due to unpleasant feet odour, no need to worry. You can get a date named Anopheles gambiae. That’s a cool name. Nobody cares if it’s a mosquito after all.
CHEMISTRY: Antonio Mulet, José Javier Benedito and José Bon and Carmen Rosselló for their study “Ultrasonic Velocity in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature.”

Ultrasonic velocity of cheddar and temperature? Is there anything we need to know before using this cheese? “This recipe is gonna blow you away! “

(Steve Jobs was talking about transition to Intel CPUs, in WWDC 2006)

Open Source vs Communism

I am really sick and tired of people comparing open source software to Communism. This doesn’t make any sense at all to me.Is OSS the rage against free market? No. Open source software is the cure from the free market for overpriced end-user software . Open source promotes groups working together and open standards. Nothing to do with communism, nothing to do with socialism. No free-market supporter objects cooperation!

Proof Number 1 : Open Source commercial software is probably more expensive than windows.It’s not a free contribution to society.Even if it was, that would be charity – nothing to do with marxism. Check this out. They re not charging for the use, they re charging for support. Different model, still want to make a living.

Proof Number 2: Eric Raymond , anarcho-capitalist open source movement founder.

If Ubuntu for instance was communist, it would be funded with the money of all of us, we would have to use it everywhere (monopoly, no other distros) and the poor coders would have to persuade for the “social need” for the kernel to reach the next version.

Another youtube competitor?

I must have listened to that a trillion times. A new competitor for youtube.

This time it’s different. When you have the two guys who shook the world with Kazaa and then took it over with Skype, then it’s definitely different. It’s Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom . They plan to make a big p2p TV Station on the net. And it’s called the Venice Project.

I guess it’s the channels that make sense in the name. They re probably going to offer plenty of channels. The article in Business Week is pretty clear, they ll introduce quality video. But will the money from the commercials be enough to support it ?

P.S. I don’t know if I am getting it right , but there’s somebody who would like to “consume” this service in the consumer’s den… yes! Apple!

Social Networks is the answer. So what was the question?

Here Ebrahim Ezzy is talking about social networks

He says that social networks are hot and indeed they are. But what I was really wondering about is if there’s a need for social networks, then which need is that ?

What “Read / Write Web” says is that “people mentor each other through the formation of communities”, ” they network and inspire each other by example and input” ” Social networks protect people from the vastness of cyberspace and offer tools to find each other, organize and share information, or just keep in touch with friends.”

I like the second sentence. People network and inspire each other. We need inspiration , we need to copy an idea and move it a step forward. I guess we don’t want to “organize and share information”. At least I don’t remember myself saying “I like internet because i enjoy organizing and sharing information” .We need places for meeting other people and for inspiration. And that’s a part of freedom I guess.

Quotes for Programmers

 

I think I have at sometime listened to better than these, but they re still nice.

Quotes for Programmers
there’s a link for other quotes too.

My favorites:

Physics is the universe’s operating system. (Steven R Garman)

What is a crash? A paranormal phenomenon? Is this the “magic” of Windows?

1943 I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. (Thomas Watson of IBM)

That’s a classic.

1988 I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating system, and possibly program, of all times. (Bill Gates)

That’s nice PR. What was he trying to do ?

1994 I see little commercial potential for the Internet for at least ten years. (Bill Gates)
rofl

1995 To see tomorrow’s PC, look at today’s Macintosh. (BYTE Magazine)

Kind of right.Macs are beautiful. Reborn after 2001…

How to shoot yourself in the foot

Very funny but only for coders …

How to shoot yourself in the foot

My personal favorites:

Assembly
You try to shoot yourself in the foot only to discover you must first reinvent the gun, the bullet, and your foot. After that’s done, you pull the trigger, the gun beeps several times, then crashes.

ASP.NET
Find a gun, it falls apart. Put it back together, it falls apart again. You try using the .GUN Framework, it falls apart. You stab yourself in the foot instead.

Politics and the net

Should we get ready for huge changes in politics caused by the Internet?

Eric Schmidt , the boss of Google Inc. wrote in Sun tabloid explaining how life will be much harder for politicians. It will soon be easy enough to check if the statements made by anyone is factual or not. So is that the end of lies? I don’t know.

However I am absolutely certain that the Internet will immensely contribute to everyone’s information. Maybe we should be even more suspicious of the governments who censor or block Internet access.

One more competitor for bluetooth

Wibree is the name of the brand new wireless LAN technology launched by NOKIA. The most impressive fact is that this technology cuts down the energy required to 1 / 10th compared to regular Bluetooth.

Wibree will most probably be used for a personal area network for entertainment, sports and healthcare applications.

It is an amazing thing that a few wireless network technologies are launching together. We knew that this would happen, but looks like it’s accelerating. Zune will have wireless sharing too. Google is providing wireless. I think that given time wireless technology will  expand vastly and allow networks to slip away from any attempt for control.