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.

125 years since Ludwig von Mises was born

One of the most notable economists and social philosophers of the twentieth century, Ludwig von Mises was born 125 years ago on the 29th of September of 1881. I would like to quote some of his words in his essay “The Anti-capitalistic Mentality” . It is a non-economic , mostly socio-psychological essay studying the anti-market bias.

“What makes many feel unhappy under capitalism is the fact that capitalism grants to each the opportunity to attain the most desirable positions which , of course, can only be attained by a few.Whatever a man may have gained for himself , it is mostly a mere fraction of what his ambition has impelled him to win. There are always before his eyes people who have succeeded where he failed. There are fellows who have outstripped him and against whom he nurtures, in his subconsciousness, inferiority complexes. Such is the attitude of the tramp against the man with a regular job, the factory man against the foreman, the executive against the vice-president, the vice-president against the company’s president , the man who is worth three hundred thousand dollars against the millionaire and so on. Everybody’s self-reliance and moral equilibrium are undermined by the spectacle of those who have given proof of grater abilities and capacities….”

Rooster Report Trailer

Optimistic forecast: “this video will be a spark of life in greek videoblogs”

Pessimistic forecast: “this video will be a pleasant memory in the future, though nobody else will remember it”

For a new liberty

I have been reading Murray Rothbard’s “For a New Liberty : A Libertarian Manifesto” and I was amazed by some staggering views that are mentioned in there.

First of all, he sets the central axiom of the libertarian creed. “No man or group of men may aggress against the person or property of anyone else.”

This moral rule, according to Rothbard, should apply not only to the citizens but also to the state.

“…the libertarian refuses to give the State the moral sanction to commit actions that almost everyone agrees would be immoral, illegal, and criminal if committed by any person or group in society. …”

“… The State habitually commits mass murder, which it calls “war,” or sometimes “suppression of subversion”; the State engages in enslave ment into its military forces, which it calls “conscription”; and it lives and has its being in the practice of forcible theft, which it calls “taxation.”…”

What follows is clear-cut explanation of how this moral rule applies in everyday life leading to a “no-state” society.

I start to believe this book is not only an amazing manifesto of libertarian ideas, but also an interesting exercise for the mind.