Second Thoughts Inc.

Napster is not the new Jesus

Wed, 30 Jul 2003 14:24:51 GMT

Napster to get Christmas rebirth. Download site Napster will relaunch as a legitimate service in time for Christmas, its new owner confirms. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

So what its a late xmas present

Tue, 03 Jun 2003 09:28:30 GMT

this is a uick spelldcheck tset

Its not that simple

Tue, 22 Apr 2003 09:21:32 GMT

The lack of IM interoperability reminds me of the dark old days of early email systems which required a host of proprietary gateways and MTA's to make them talk to each other - X.400 Lines are drawn between two protocols currently working their way through the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards body: the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)-based SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions) and the open-source, XML-based protocol XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol). Whereas Microsoft and IBM have thrown their weight behind SIMPLE, a groundswell of support is rising behind XMPP, as Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Hitachi , Sony, and others invest in the technology. Intel's Wireless Communications and Computing Group chose XMPP-based IM vendor Jabber last month. HP plans to deepen its XMPP support with a forthcoming distribution and systems integration deal with Denver-based Jabber. One key factor is the fact that the SIMPLE protocol is still incomplete, IBM's and Microsoft's implementations have required the addition of proprietary extensions to make their offerings work. Admitting that its forthcoming Microsoft Real-Time Communications Server 2003 contains propriety extensions to fill out the SIMPLE protocol, Microsoft steadfastly maintains its commitment to the SIMPLE standard as it matures. "We are absolutely committed to being SIMPLE compliant," said Ed Simnett, lead product manager of RTC Server at Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.

Here's Dave Winer's thoughts on why Google bought Pyra

Fri, 28 Feb 2003 08:13:45 GMT

Here's what Google can do for weblogs that would be a service to the weblog community -- classify them and group them according to purpose. Give me an accurate list of all the librarian weblogs, and all the lawyer weblogs, and all the weblogs of people who have implemented an XML-RPC stack.

You get the idea. They have been able to do this with news stories, it seems they should also be able to do it with weblogs. This is the biggest unsolved problem I see in this world, and I don't know how to solve it, it's not what I do. [Scripting News]

Thank god I'm not the only person who hasn't a clue as to why Google bought Blooger. But he's what Dave Winer thinks. It also reminds me I need to implement an XML-RPC stack so that this blog gets listed in Google and Weblogs.

From invincible to invisible

Thu, 27 Feb 2003 08:14:52 GMT

In the Sunday Times recently, there was an article by a reporter discussing why she was undertaking plastic surgery. Her reason for undergoing the knife was she believed that "women became invisible" at a certain age. Plastic surgery was her way of remaining visible!

I had never really thought about it before but can understand her point. Every man will admit {if honest} that they notice a pretty woman but at what age does that very same pretty woman become invisible i.e when she can no longer turn heads?

It made me think how long does it take for someone not working to become invisible? When I was working I was very visible. My role in business development & marketing meant that I was often quoted in the press, I frequently presented at seminars and trade shows. - my business card was in circulation. As a result I got calls from various headhunters and agencies who found it easy to track me down.

But following the closure of CMGi Europe, I began to notice the calls drying up. Even my calls to those very same headhunters proved fruitless. I was slowly becoming invisible. I was now just another CV on the jobpile.

How could I make myself more visible? My home phone number and personal email address weren't in circulation, I no longer presented at seminars or attended trade shows.

So last year I started trying to become more visible. I began by creating my own blog - www.samsethi.com - but like my email and CV how was I going to get anyone to read it?

At the same time I began to read various self help career books - What colour is my parachute?" , "Brand You" by Tom Peters and the best of all "Discover Your Strengths". { If you are interested here are my strengths.}

Having read them all, they confimed to me what I already believed, that I was creative, good at coming up with new ideas, had a positive nature and was good with people and that I still wanted to remain in the IT/Internet industry. The trouble was no one else knew this and I was sadly still invisible.

Luckily for me I wasn't totally invisible, some friends did remember my personal email and as a result offered me contracting roles which have enabled me to partially reapppear. And yet I suspect there are thousands of other invisible people still unable to be seen or heard.

Ecademy may well be their best and in some cases their only option because it enables them to start networking and with it slowly reappear ...

Voice the final frontier?

Tue, 25 Feb 2003 13:25:48 GMT

Dialing for bloggers. The latest Web-log trend is audioblogging, the posting of audio clips instead of or alongside text entries, which is inspiring software developers to raise a new crop of tools. [CNET News.com]

Is this the start of the process that will eventually make the words - "Captain's (b)log star date ..." become a reality for everyone?

Is voice really the final frontier? Thus far voice interaction with computers has failed to pass the Turning Test. Microsoft and IBM have done well thus far to provide some dictation capabilites but in many cases it is still quicker to type your thoughts.

My Orange SPV - Smartphone- has given me glimpses of the future or should that be the past? The grainy {camera} images, postage stamp video clips, cumbersome email, limited storage, poor battery life alongside the worldwide wait web browsing remind me of the early days of Windows on portable PCs.

Although less than 3 years ago this tri-band phone/PDA/MP3/IM/browser was everything I hoped for and imagined when I owned one of the original Compaq iPAQ's.

As with the early laptops things are set to improve. We are promised improved battery life with fuel cells and better storage. New compression technologies for video (MPEG4) and audio (AAC) combined with better bandwidth (3G or UWB) and faster Intel X processors. At the same time plans from companies such as Casio include combining a mini-TV into the phone. It is not inconceivable to see satellite and digital radio also being included once UWB arrives along with a PVR solution (TiVo) to pre-record our personal viewing habits.

And yet one problem still remains - inputting data. Txt msgs r ok 4 a while but quickly become annoying especially when trying to decrypt and make sense of some elses abbreviations.

Voice then is the final frontier and with VoiceXML 2.0 steps are being taken to make it easier for man and machine to communicate. I still remain unsure as to the value of audio weblogs but it is an exciting development.

And then there are Nanotech advances ...

Bloogle

Tue, 18 Feb 2003 16:04:18 GMT

Google has bought Pyra, the alternative blog software to the one I use here. The bigger question is what is Google trying to become?

AltaVista went down this route by trying to monetise their search traffic. This didn't work for AltaVista and it probably won't work for Google.

Thus far I have not used any of their new services - Google News, Scout or Froogle - and looking through Google Labs it is clear they plan to develop other services.

I would add that I have used their new Google translation service which is free. I am also experimenting with Google's web services which enable people to embed Google into their applications.

What I love about Google is that is is quick and simple. I hope they don't kill that!!!