Cutting Cable Television
The wife and I decided to give up cable television in favor for streaming television via the internet. Pure on demand.
Here’s Part 1 of a video series, describing how we are doing it.
Click here to view it full screen.
There’s a smackdown for that.
And the hits just keep on rolling.
Verizon launched a series of attacks against AT&T, showing the apparent holes in AT&Ts 3G coverage.
AT&T gave a lackluster response.
Apple got it right. Yes, Apple has jumped into the frenzy driving a hole right through Verizon. What hole is this? Verizon network can’t do voice and data at the same time. Something a lot of disgruntled iPhone users are probably not aware of.
By the by: these videos are schedule to start airing tonight.
Enjoy!
Video #01
Video #02
Ultimate in Collaboration
You can’t walk five feet these days without hearing stories about this being the collaboration phase of our economy. Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed are allowing businesses to interact with customers on a scale that has never been experienced before.
Without a doubt, the iPhone is the ultimate in collaboration design.
No, this is not to say that the iPhone was designed with the input of millions of people. But rather it was designed to allow collaboration between it’s customers to turn the iPhone into something more than a smart phone. Apple proved this by releasing their developer SDK. “Make any application you want.” People responded by creating over 100,000 applications for the iPhone.
Watch this. Using the iPhone on submersible vehicles on the ocean floor? That’s just cool.
Yes, one could argue that you could take any cell phone to the ocean floor. But if you watched the video, you saw the people using four different applications that you’d never find on a Blackberry. And those applications weren’t specifically designed for underwater usage. They were simply designed. The engineers at this plant simply picked the best applications that would help them respond directly to their customer needs.
The reason for this is that the Blackberry was designed for a segment of the market: business. Most people I know who have Blackberrys definitely fit the “business” aspect of this model.
The iPhone was designed, using Apple’s tried and true “Think Different” montra. Apple almost issued the challenge: “Business apps? Sure. But why not show us what you can really do.”
And people responded.
Warp Speed: Google to double internet speed
More bandwidth more bandwith more bandwith.
It seems that people, including myself, had always assumed getting faster bandwidth would indeed speed up the internet. Granted, it does increase download and upload speeds. But the real magic always comes with the programming behind the scenes.
But this doesn’t resolve the issues as to why some websites just take a long time to download. Fastest broadband connection in the world couldn’t make the websites server up on your browser any faster.
Google is taking aim and redefining the communication between browsers and the server. At their test labs, the results have been promising.
page load times increased 27 percent and 60 percent compared to HTTP, and between 39 percent and 55 percent when using SSL
And that’s not with one drop increase in bandwidth.
Now if we could only get rid of that nasty HTTP:// that repeatedly has to be used. Grrrrrr!
No need to study; grades for sale
Selling $1 candy bars didn’t raise enough money for the school. Rather than try and sell something people might actually find of value, school officials decided on a sure-fire tactic: sell test scores.
That’s right!
A twenty dollar donation gets your child not one, but TWO ten point bumps on their tests. Silly me: here I was thinking that education was about . . . well educating kids. But it’s all about the money.
The principal justifies this:
Extra points on two tests won’t make a difference in a student’s final grade, she said.
It’s wrong to think that “one particular grade could change the entire focus of nine weeks,” Shepherd said.
When was the last time this lady stepped foot into a classroom? Everyone knows, except her, that tests count for the biggest percentage of a childs overall grade. Often times between 60 and 70%. That is why they are called TESTS.
Guess what this shining example of leadership for our children just did?
- Students who actually earned an A (90 or above) just learned that their slacker C student companion got the same grade as they did. So why study?
- Students can now slack off because parents can simply give $20 to the school and all is well. Why study?
Actually I remember a time when students would get expelled from school for offering money in exchange for higher grades. Now it appears that schools believe this is an acceptable model. Hope and Change!
The school board argues that it needs the money because money is simply not available. OK, Fine. Sell t-shirts. Sell sweaters. Sell something that might be of value. But don’t send kids the wrong message simply because you’re facing a tight budget.
V is doing what it’s supposed to be doing
Last night, ABC launched it’s reboot of the V television series. As a kid, I remember watching the mini-series in complete awe. How would the rag-tag group of misfits defeat the all-powerful lizard aliens. To make the aliens that much more evil, they stole a page of Hannibal Lectre’s book and gave them a craving for all things human. Kind of gives new meaning to the word “Veal”, doesn’t it?
For months all we had to go by was a commercial that ended with a chilling line. Imagine the scene: a young reporter Chad finally got his big break. He gets to conduct the first world-wide interview with the alien leader Anna (who looks really hot for being a lizard lady). Just seconds before the interview begins, this exchange takes place:
Chad: OK, do you have any questions before we go to air?
Anna: Yes, just be sure not to ask any anything that would paint us in a negative light.
Chad now has to decide: don’t ask tough questions and advance my career OR do my job and destroy my career.
Instantly, I’m taken back to the series of interviews with Charlie Gibson between Senator Obama and Governor Sarah Palin. More recently, the White House’s complete shunning of Fox News.
But wait, there’s more. In the series, the aliens promise us “universal health care”. All our problems will be solved; universal health care will be free.
Is this series a parallel to the current administration?
Of course it is. This is what science fiction does: it challenges us by drawing parallels between their fiction and our reality. Star Trek did it and did it well. Battlestar Gallatica was right out of 9/11 attacks and subsequent political changes.
V is doing the same thing with uncanny parallel using quotes from the show:
- Gratitude can morph into worship.
- They are arming themselves with the most powerful weapon out there: devotion.
Science Fiction, once again, is standing up and questioning the world around us. V is a direct result of that. Hopefully this continues. At least until the administration decides to boycott ABC for allowing V.
Level Playing Field
To wax poetic for a moment: the internet is proving once again that everyone is on the same playing field. All it takes is a computer, some imagination and you’re ready to spread a message to a lot of people.
Nokia recently released a commerical squarely aimed at taking on the iPhone. Multi-million dollar budgets, teams of marketing experts.
Someone created a response. That someone is someone who has a computer and some imagination. They don’t have a multi-million dollar budget, they don’t have teams of marketing experts.
But they do have almost 250,000 views and growing.
UPDATE: 18 hours after this was published, views increased to 288,464.
Five Years Time
This last Tuesday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave a talk about what he believes the internet will be like in five years. If you’re planning a long term, online strategy then you may want to pay heed to what he sees coming down the road. Google is one of the largest online players and they do influence how the internet is perceived and reached.
If you have the time, watch the 6 minute highlight reel. Or the full interview can be watched here.
Of note during his speech were these points:
- Teens are the model of how the web will work
- Content will move more towards video
- Google can index real-time information
The last point there is powerful. Google can index real-time information. What is real time information? Social Media! Twitter, Facebook, etc. Your company launches a new product, you send notice out on Twitter and Google instantly indexes your tweet and ranks the information in its search results accordingly.
The internet is changing right in front of us. At break neck speed. Google is prepared. Are you?
What do you think the internet will bring in five years?