CaroKann's Periscope

Predicting the future

CaroKann — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:50:00 +0000

Humans have always wanted to predict the future.

The internet introduced “wisdom of the crowd”. Under certain conditions the crowd is more correct in estimating and predicting things.

So what is more natural to use social media such as blogs and Twitter for predictions!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627655.800-blogs-and-tweets-could-predict-the-future.html?full=true

Here is a site that is actually trying to do exactly this:

https://www.recordedfuture.com/how-it-works.html

Some problems might arise here. One of the conditions for “wisdom of the crowd” is that individuals shouldn’t affect each other so much that the result is changed significantly. Blogs and tweets are constantly referring to other blogs and tweets so they are really affecting each other. So can we really rely on these results? Hard to predict, the future will tell…

Finally, we have the well known contradiction of predicting the future and being able to change our destiny. If I can predict for instance my own death in a car accident I will not go by car that day. My prediction would be wrong.

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Who needs an operating system?

CaroKann — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:42:03 +0000

I use a local search for my desk and Google on the net. Well, with Google desk I can use the same search engine. I use Office programs on my local data and Google Docs (or even better in my opinion is Zoho.com) for the same type of documents on the net or in the “cloud” that it is called these days. An OS (operating system) is very local and only helps me with things local on he computer. The modern web browser is very capable and can work both locally and on the net. I would prefer that the browser is my interface both locally and on the net. If I have a folder it is not so important if it is local or on a server or both. I just want to find it easy with the same browser and the same search engine. Of course I have to set up if I want to force it to be local or in the “cloud” but after that I don’t care. I just want to use my data. There may be many reasons for why I would like to have it here or there. Today I have to remember if the document is on Google Docs, or Zoho.com or stored locally and use the web browser on the net and Office programs for local office data and so on. Let’s use the same browser and the same search engine even locally. In the next step let the web browser organize and start applications as well as understand file types etc. The the applications can of course also be located locally or in the “cloud”.

Just one step further, let the CPU be local, in the “cloud” or both. Now we are really talking cloud computing!

(picture from akakumo)

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How to get rid of spam – once and for all

CaroKann — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:45:09 +0000

Are you tired and bored or even upset of all the spam in your inbox?

There are many good spam filters these days but you can never be sure if they will tag some email is as spam even if it is ok. You need to take a look in the spam folder now and then to be really sure…

I have almost no spam at all. I mean I don't even need a spam filter. Almost no spam at all!

How come? Well, the number one method is to never, means NEVER, give out your email address to any one, except the one that you can trust 100%

But still you want to register on sites and some of them are not trustworthy…

Here are 4 free methods to be completely free from spam and still give away your email address to any site.

Get yourself a special spam email address. It can be any free email service such as Google email, Yahoo email or anything else. Whenever you give away your email address to some site or unknown person you will use this special spam address. This works like a charm but it has one big problem. This email address will be flooded by spam and maybe you want to keep in touch with some of these contacts. You can never find out if some of them gave away your email address to a spammer.
mailinator.com It is an excellent service if you just want 1 or a few emails from your contact. For instance you just want some code or or confirmation email once. Just give the address x@malinator.com (where x is any text you want). No need to register this address, just use it. There are some pros and cons with this. First anyone can read the emails. The trick is to use a strange name with little risk that someone will find. If you use peter@mailinator.com you can be sure that hundreds or thousands of people will read the emails but peter1043493470@malinator.com will probably not be read. The email will disappear after a few hours. Any given mailbox will only hold 10 emails at once. All attachments are stripped out.
www.whspr.me is a similar service. You register at their site and you can set how long that email address will live. It has similar problems as mentioned in the first bullet.
This is my real favorite: spamgourmet.com have it all. First of all you register once to get your own private email address. You also link it to your normal email address. For instance you register the address obama@xoxy.com (there are some predefined domain names to use, such as spamgourmet.com, xoxy.com, antichef.com etc) but you will never use this address. Instead you will prefix text in front of it to build up a unique email address each time. You will get an excellent way to track who got your address. For instance if you register at the site strange.com you can use strange.5.obama@xoxy.com This means that you only want 5 emails from strange.5.obama@xoxy.com. The emails will come to your normal email inbox, remember? After 5 emails you will never see anything else coming. You can use any number up to 20. Furthermore, if you will get emails from some other place to strange.5.obama@xoxy.com, you will know exactly that only strange.com received it. You know who to trust. There are many other functions. You can reset the counter if you want more emails, you can set a from-address that will not be counted and so on. Read the FAQ for yourself! I have used this service for several years now and never had any problems with them, except from one thing. Sometimes it will take a long time before the email reaches your inbox. That can be annoying during a registering process.

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Who will challenge Apple?

CaroKann — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:01:02 +0000

We all know that Apple’s computers have a given sector in the luxury-class PC.
They are not the greatest in sales volumes but in terms of design and quality they are among the foremost.
A similar development, we have seen in the case of smartphones. Their iPhone is 1-2 years ahead of all competitors in terms of design and usability. They are not the most technological advanced. They sacrificed for instance parallel background processes in favor of an easy to use interface. An interface that is often better (easier to use) than the corresponding web page for the PC.

iPhone sales volumes have constantly been growing and the App store is a success:
Apple responsible for 99.4% of mobile app sales in 2009

I hope that the iPhone will be challenged by Nokia, Sony-Ericsson and the others.

Tough competition is good for not only us users but also for the companies themselves!

How about Google’s Android and Nexus One?
See my previous blog post Who will challenge Google?
Google is fighting to get into the Mobile Internet market. They fully understand that this market will grow substantially and can even be a threat to their dominance. I can almost hear them talk to me: “Take care of the Mobile Internet in order to guide them to our search”

Here is an interesting graph showing how Android snatched market shares from the iPhone during Dec 2009. This was before the Nexus One launch and I am eagerly waiting for how the numbers will change in the future. Don’t forget Apple’s new tablet PC that soon is here. Another mobile Internet Device that can be tough for the competitors.

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Will Social Media make you live longer?

CaroKann — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:14:38 +0000

I am sitting here in Bangkok in the Baiyoke Sky Hotel at the 59th floor and writing on my book. (If you ever been in Bangkok there is a big chance that you have been having a dinner at the 78th floor where one of the restaurants are)

Looking out through the window gives another perspective than I am used to at home. Down there I can see small cars running around on small streets and all this makes me think about life!

I found this TED video that likely will not be popular amongst the transhumanists after his claim that there too many things that can go wrong. We have 35 Trillion cells in our body.

In this video Dan Buettner points out that small easy things will make us live longer and with less health issues and better life quality. In our hearts I have a feeling that we all know this but reject it in our modern high tech lifes. It is just to simple…

One of the things is to have a strong social identity within a small group of very close friends. People that support each other and share good and bad things together. These days when Social Media and Social Networks are growing the question is if they will help us to live longer.

In my view we are talking about completely different kind of social networks. The Internet social networks are based on the long tail phenomena. We expect to get more out from it than we put in. We make an investment of our time and knowledge and hope to get something better in return.

The kind of social networks that are mentioned in this video are not at all of the same kind. A small number of close friends in a group that are doing what is needed when needed for each other without thinking about what the return is for themselves.

So will Social Media make us live longer? I doubt it but don’t misunderstand me. I am a big fan of Social Medias!

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Voddler will (and must) get better

CaroKann — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:00:42 +0000

I have used Voddler beta for a few weeks now and there are many things still missing before it is ready for a wider public.
For you who are not familiar with Voddler, it is a site for streaming movies. Most of them for free, financed by advertisement.

First of all,it is still a beta!

Let us start with a little comparison with Spotify. There is a fundamental difference between music and movies. Music can be listened to anytime anywhere and if you like music you will always find some tunes that fits your state of mind. Movies are completely opposite. They occupy your time completely. You must sit down and focus on the movie. You can not look at a movie while you are driving your car or doing your work. That makes the usage of Spotify quite different from Voddler.

What Voddler miss so far

The content: They have about 100 movies right now and that is of course more than I can use for a long time. Maybe there are 25 movies that I want to see.
I am not so worried as others about this. New movies are continously added and now they have an agreement with Sony and there will surely be enough movies for most of us to look at.

The Interface: Is a complete mess. It is adapted to be used with your remote control for the TV but hey we are using the PC now. Arrow up, down, left and right, Enter and Esc are the only possible keys to use.
They have copied the concept of the Video shop. With different shelfs for different genres and one shelf with new movies and so on.
You must look around with the Arrow keys until you find what you like. There is no search, no memory of what I have seen so far, no comment field and so on. Each movie have a rank that people can set after the movie. Why not use the IMDB site? A link would give all the information you need.
This interface must get better!

Social Networking: There is a complete lack of social networking from the voting of movies. No forum, no blog, no Twitter integration, no Facebook intergration etc. Yes, there is a homepage but it is not reached from the Voddler client.

As far as I can understand they have been focused on 2 problems. 1) the technical challenge to distribute streamed full length movies to a huge amount of viewers. 2) The business challenge of negotiating with Disney, Sony and other big Dragons.
The interface and the social media aspect is not really covered yet. They probably don’t have the right skill within these very important areas. It is still not to late and I hope and believe that they will find out ways to make it better.

Because I like movies!

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Who will challenge Google?

CaroKann — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:54:33 +0000

Google has a good grip on most of the Internet. Right now they are using their dominant position to advance their positions further.

Most of us still associates Google with search and it is in precisley that particular area, which they earn their money but it is their interest in all the other areas that we should be mindful of. Quite new areas for them such as VOIP, mobile telephony, Internet browser, OS etc. As a small parenthesis, they recently announced free navigation software and Augmented Reality software. They just crushes the companies that live on these software. Their advent into the mobile area will give an impression, and perhaps one day they will dominate the telephony just as they do with the Internet today.

Google’s strategy

Their strategy is clear. Namely to focus as much activity as possible to the lnternet. That is where they earn their money. Just one more example is how they intend to solve the equivalent of Apple’s successful concept with Apps. For their Android, is of course the downloads directly from the Internet searchable as everything else.

What we know in the Automotive Industry

I must admit that most of what they developed, appeals to me and with no other account than my own cost, efficiency and usability, they are fantastic.

But we are facing a fairly common problem, but now in an ever larger scale. Namely, that they sweep aside all competition.

Within the Automotive business we are very aware of how tough competition makes us sharper, leaner, faster and better in all our processes. It would never happen without compteition.

Google have become even more dominant than what Microsoft was in the past and what IBM was before them. IBM dominated the business side. There was no PC:s then. Microsoft took over and dominated the PC market totally on the consumer-side and eventually much of the business side. Google takes over not only the Internet but in many other adjacent areas.Still, there are dragons like Microsoft and Yahoo trying to challenge. But for how long?

What kind of Google, we will see where all competition is gone? What are they doing with all the information they have on us? Will it only be used for targeted advertising? Could there be a hidden agenda? The questions are piling up …

Finally, who will challenge Google?

Right now no one…

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Top futurist, Ray Kurzweil, predicts how technology will change humanity by 2020

CaroKann — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:17:34 +0000

Sunday, December 13th 2009, 1:40 AM

Interesting reading about Ray Kurzweils view of the future 10 years ahead.
Ten years is not a very long time. As Mr Kurzweil points out, we will still have buses, subways and cars pretty much as before. The interesting thing is HOW they are operating.

Another thing I was thinking about was the memory chip integrated with our clothes. Well, I am changing clothes everyday and don’t want to synchronize content betwen my shirts! Maybe he was refering to something else…

Top futurist, Ray Kurzweil, predicts how technology will change humanity by 2020 via nydailynews.com

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What is Google Chrome OS?

CaroKann — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:09:01 +0000

via youtube.com

Google recently revealed the main ideas of the Google Chrome OS.

I like the concept with storing all (that means ALL) the data in the cloud. The cloud = a server somewhere in the world, hosted by Google of course.

The trend is of course that all the applications be in the cloud as well. In order to run applications and reach our data, we would need a device that can reach the Internet, it could be a PC, an iPhone, a Blackberry or whatever. Most of the CPU power in the cloud would suddenly stop the hardware race for clients with faster and faster hardware and more and more harddisk. Everything is in the cloud. The hardware race is moved from the clients to the servers!

To be realistic, we would probably want to have some data and applications locally and would probablay need some CPU and storage but it would anyway end the harware race on our Internet devices. When I think about it, there is another hardware race going on about bigger, flatter and better screens. For instance 3D TV’s are starting to show up. The Soccer World Chamionship will send some of the matches in 3D! E-Readers, flexible screens and so on. Well, the hardware race is changed but not stopped…

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Google gears up for attack on mobile-phone market – Times Online

CaroKann — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:04:16 +0000

via technology.timesonline.co.uk

Google’s mobile, planned for 2010, will of course be based on Android but more interesting is the intention to connect Google Voice with VOIP and deliver free calls. They bought Gizmo5 in order to make this possible. That means it would be possible to call other Google phones for free! What will the operators do now? How will they block that? They will try of course. The war will begin and I have a feeling that Google will be the winner here. Now we are waiting for some competition. Who can challenge Google?

Right now no one.

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