via Storify http://sfy.co/f9mq -- September 28, 2012 at 12:32PM
Friday, 28 September 2012
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Patents do not work
What do I know about patents you might think, personally I don't have any registered, nor do I have any plans to. But you cannot escape the world of recent media, the press is full of legal battles and messy court cases, especially two of technologies largest - Apple vs Samsung. This case was down to disagreements over technology, similarities in design and application of phones and the software.
I did actually start writing about this a few ago before the final decision was made in favour of Apple, so please just bear with my idea for resolving patent disputes.
I have a quick easy, sure fire, simple method to alleviate any claim of this magnittude, it is not like either side will be happy with any result or like paying any such royalties thereon. What is my solution are you thinking, and why hasn't this already been used, who am I to put such suggestions forward, a mere speck on the horizon, a meloncholy man at best. Actually I have two suggestions:
a) MAFIA STYLE
This entails a broker (lets call them the iPodfather) having a one to one meeting with the head of Apple and Samsung. He/she then suggest they don't leave the room until a mutual solution is made, otherwise one of you will end up in a suitcase, henceforth a mafia style resolution.
b) PISTOLS AT DAWN
Yes the age old ceremonous act of bravery, each leader is given a (virtual) gun each, they are to take their devices and the first to kill an angry bird wins the cause and the other surrenders in true honourable fashion.
I did actually start writing about this a few ago before the final decision was made in favour of Apple, so please just bear with my idea for resolving patent disputes.
I have a quick easy, sure fire, simple method to alleviate any claim of this magnittude, it is not like either side will be happy with any result or like paying any such royalties thereon. What is my solution are you thinking, and why hasn't this already been used, who am I to put such suggestions forward, a mere speck on the horizon, a meloncholy man at best. Actually I have two suggestions:
a) MAFIA STYLE
This entails a broker (lets call them the iPodfather) having a one to one meeting with the head of Apple and Samsung. He/she then suggest they don't leave the room until a mutual solution is made, otherwise one of you will end up in a suitcase, henceforth a mafia style resolution.
b) PISTOLS AT DAWN
Yes the age old ceremonous act of bravery, each leader is given a (virtual) gun each, they are to take their devices and the first to kill an angry bird wins the cause and the other surrenders in true honourable fashion.
A new religion, devotion through donation.
Again, my musings turn to the world's largest company, the one and only Apple. There have been a few stories relating to this situation (like here BBC article), I'm sure you have seen it due to the importance of the implications and the fact its another by product of Western culture.
Well in case you have not or could not remember, I refer to some residents of that large country in the east, you know the one, its one that makes all the Apple products. It's a place where people work hard to help us poor westerns accumulate computer wizardy to enhance our pathetic lives with non-meaningful assets. Yes its true, people and even children are selling their body parts (like organ donations) so that they can buy iPADS's and such like. This is truly amazing for 2 reasons, the first would be they are risking their health and indeed the article mentions someone having renal failure, which obviously means vast sums of money in care (no such free health care remember). The second reason is, its only a computer, at least buy a car or something more worth while, a flight to somewhere else?
Obviously an appalling situation to us in the west, with our moderate wealth, most of us could not say the Ipad is beyond our financial means, sure its expensive but so are new televisions and computers. So let's delve deeper, is there more here than meets the eye? Think about the philosophical angle of this situation, where on this earth would people donate body parts to come away with something useful to them, something they could admire, use and devote their time to. Is this sounding like religion, hours devoted to a cause, you believe in something, just like these poor individuals believe the Ipad will benefit their lives in some way.
Therefore, does owning a Iproduct compare to religion or a cult? Most religions rely on people parting with donations to help the greater good, i am not sure Apple can be defined as the greater good. I therefore submit to these policies and look forward to discussing their Adonis - the great Jobs!!!
Well in case you have not or could not remember, I refer to some residents of that large country in the east, you know the one, its one that makes all the Apple products. It's a place where people work hard to help us poor westerns accumulate computer wizardy to enhance our pathetic lives with non-meaningful assets. Yes its true, people and even children are selling their body parts (like organ donations) so that they can buy iPADS's and such like. This is truly amazing for 2 reasons, the first would be they are risking their health and indeed the article mentions someone having renal failure, which obviously means vast sums of money in care (no such free health care remember). The second reason is, its only a computer, at least buy a car or something more worth while, a flight to somewhere else?
Obviously an appalling situation to us in the west, with our moderate wealth, most of us could not say the Ipad is beyond our financial means, sure its expensive but so are new televisions and computers. So let's delve deeper, is there more here than meets the eye? Think about the philosophical angle of this situation, where on this earth would people donate body parts to come away with something useful to them, something they could admire, use and devote their time to. Is this sounding like religion, hours devoted to a cause, you believe in something, just like these poor individuals believe the Ipad will benefit their lives in some way.
Therefore, does owning a Iproduct compare to religion or a cult? Most religions rely on people parting with donations to help the greater good, i am not sure Apple can be defined as the greater good. I therefore submit to these policies and look forward to discussing their Adonis - the great Jobs!!!
Friday, 24 August 2012
England team donate to my friend
Thanks to Rooney, Carroll and the England team with their goals scored during the 2012 world cup, my friend is a benefactor of their efforts. How does this work you may ask, what are you on about?
Well let me shed some light, after a recent purchase of goods from a national chain they ran a promotion where they would send you £10 for every goal scored during the world cup. Due to our goal scoring record we, therefore, received a cheque for £50. I have to admit I was quite negative about this said offer, whether the money would ever materialise and whether we followed the conditions correctly. Happily we did everything correctly and after a delay on their part we received a cheque.
After banking this cheque I realised we had never counted on this money turning up and thought what would could spend it on, after all money does not grow on trees - well okay it does really, sort of. We are not exactly in a great financial position ourselves but I could not help feeling a little bit charitable after recently reading a book. This book highlighted how a very successful Microsoft employee left the realms of business to work with under privileged countries and their fight to educate their children. I was completely taken in by his journey, he (John Wood) is a man of true honour, he finally set up a charity and worked around many countries to donate books to the help the kids. Anyway its a great charity, education should not be privilege, so check it out www.roomtoread.org.
So, with my charitable thinking musing through my head I remembered a conversation with my wife about a friend of ours who was really suffering hardship, far worse than ours would ever be and a person in distress for other reasons. I spoke to her about somehow using this money to buy her clothes, but she was in a country a long way from us and my wife came up with the solution, a gift voucher from a store in their country that sells clothes at very keen prices (along with lots of other useful items). So today the voucher has been paid for, we are £50 ish lighter (after currency charges) and waiting to hear from our friend. I may not donate to many charities, but I can say with true valour I have donated to charities I feel are important to mankind (like cancer research) and not just a select few.
I hope our friend uses the voucher wisely and spends it on their self, time will tell, charity gives you a warm feeling inside, so please give generously when you need to, its your job a rational human being.
Well let me shed some light, after a recent purchase of goods from a national chain they ran a promotion where they would send you £10 for every goal scored during the world cup. Due to our goal scoring record we, therefore, received a cheque for £50. I have to admit I was quite negative about this said offer, whether the money would ever materialise and whether we followed the conditions correctly. Happily we did everything correctly and after a delay on their part we received a cheque.
After banking this cheque I realised we had never counted on this money turning up and thought what would could spend it on, after all money does not grow on trees - well okay it does really, sort of. We are not exactly in a great financial position ourselves but I could not help feeling a little bit charitable after recently reading a book. This book highlighted how a very successful Microsoft employee left the realms of business to work with under privileged countries and their fight to educate their children. I was completely taken in by his journey, he (John Wood) is a man of true honour, he finally set up a charity and worked around many countries to donate books to the help the kids. Anyway its a great charity, education should not be privilege, so check it out www.roomtoread.org.
So, with my charitable thinking musing through my head I remembered a conversation with my wife about a friend of ours who was really suffering hardship, far worse than ours would ever be and a person in distress for other reasons. I spoke to her about somehow using this money to buy her clothes, but she was in a country a long way from us and my wife came up with the solution, a gift voucher from a store in their country that sells clothes at very keen prices (along with lots of other useful items). So today the voucher has been paid for, we are £50 ish lighter (after currency charges) and waiting to hear from our friend. I may not donate to many charities, but I can say with true valour I have donated to charities I feel are important to mankind (like cancer research) and not just a select few.
I hope our friend uses the voucher wisely and spends it on their self, time will tell, charity gives you a warm feeling inside, so please give generously when you need to, its your job a rational human being.
Friday, 17 August 2012
iRobot sponsored by Google
It's finally come true, Asimov law of robotics will now be enforced, forget the film with Will Smith, Google is going to conquer the world. Hey, what's this you are talking about you ask?
During May this year Google famously licensed an automated car to drive within the state of Nevada (USA), home of Area 42 and all things (supposedly) alien. So quite fitting really, but this has nothing to do with the Fall of Man and any impending invasion by robots, no, this is clearly about being lazy. The US (DARPA) millitary have been running competitions to see if an autonomous vehicle can perform a series of rugged tests (not just crossing a road or messing around) that involve roads, traffic and cross country. Recently more and more contestants have successfully completed these, with Stanford University being key winners and working in tandem with Google on their car. I believe to date, Google have driven this car like 200,000 miles or something higher without any accidents, which is quite amazing really.
I believe this could be aimed at the stupid, the lazy and useless, imagine looking forward a few years, your car takes you to work (if you have a job), it takes the best route and avoids traffic by listening to traffic information whilst you sit and do what? Play on you Ipad 7 or your Google sponsored chromebook, maybe watch a film on the dashboard, since there is no need for it you may as well appropriate this as a cinema screen and if your not driving why not swap the seats for beds??? You may also suggest that children will be able to drive themselves places to, so parents are free to do their own thing, knowing full well they will arrive safely at their sporting practise or dance class, so its all good then?
Well, lets think about this, its not really that simple, yes its autonomous, so it drives itself, however there is one large disclaimer here. The car works by using navigational information, so in other words you have to drive the car along everywhere first so it can remember it and save it for future. Obviously Google's journey across America has highlighted their reason for this project - safety. They aimed to save many lives caused by accidents with human drivers, so quite a bold step to replace us at the wheel.
I think it's a great project personally, anything that helps save lives is important, but there are massive technology issues to sort and how can a computer react to the unknown or changes in weather, road conditions or layouts? Also if it's using GPS what about in cities where large buildings block the signal, or tunnels etc.
In summary helping humans advance, but another skill set we may lose, our great great grandchildren may have no concept of what hands on driving is!
During May this year Google famously licensed an automated car to drive within the state of Nevada (USA), home of Area 42 and all things (supposedly) alien. So quite fitting really, but this has nothing to do with the Fall of Man and any impending invasion by robots, no, this is clearly about being lazy. The US (DARPA) millitary have been running competitions to see if an autonomous vehicle can perform a series of rugged tests (not just crossing a road or messing around) that involve roads, traffic and cross country. Recently more and more contestants have successfully completed these, with Stanford University being key winners and working in tandem with Google on their car. I believe to date, Google have driven this car like 200,000 miles or something higher without any accidents, which is quite amazing really.
I believe this could be aimed at the stupid, the lazy and useless, imagine looking forward a few years, your car takes you to work (if you have a job), it takes the best route and avoids traffic by listening to traffic information whilst you sit and do what? Play on you Ipad 7 or your Google sponsored chromebook, maybe watch a film on the dashboard, since there is no need for it you may as well appropriate this as a cinema screen and if your not driving why not swap the seats for beds??? You may also suggest that children will be able to drive themselves places to, so parents are free to do their own thing, knowing full well they will arrive safely at their sporting practise or dance class, so its all good then?
Well, lets think about this, its not really that simple, yes its autonomous, so it drives itself, however there is one large disclaimer here. The car works by using navigational information, so in other words you have to drive the car along everywhere first so it can remember it and save it for future. Obviously Google's journey across America has highlighted their reason for this project - safety. They aimed to save many lives caused by accidents with human drivers, so quite a bold step to replace us at the wheel.
I think it's a great project personally, anything that helps save lives is important, but there are massive technology issues to sort and how can a computer react to the unknown or changes in weather, road conditions or layouts? Also if it's using GPS what about in cities where large buildings block the signal, or tunnels etc.
In summary helping humans advance, but another skill set we may lose, our great great grandchildren may have no concept of what hands on driving is!
The future of business?
Another bold question, a new way to conduct business in the future, well this refers to a relatively new paradigm anyway. This blog pays homage to peer to peer principles (referred to as p2p) and is now used in different arena's, lending is a major game player and also venture capital (funding).
You need to have an understanding of the principles to understand peer to peer otherwise this argument may confuse. Basically it's people like lending money direct to people, but a company like Zopa finds you the customers, so acts as an agent for collecting the debt etc. However, it is an investment so you have to deposit a sum of money with them and they lend it too lots more people. This means in theory your investment is spread amongst 10's or 100's of different people, therefore, you don't have all your eggs in one basket and helps mitigate your risk (of non-paying customers). Some people call this crowd sourcing or crowd funding, but its the same thing really, that's just semantics.
Companies like Zopa have already lent approximately £223million (their figures) and is growing all the time and they are reporting very modest non-paying customers (bad debt), which actually forecasts this is reducing each year! This sounds great in principle, its all Internet based, no banks to make appointments with or over eager sales men, you look on their easy to use sites, get your credit status checked and bingo.
So this provides a stream for investors and provides a portal for a people to attain unsecured funds, however, there are serious issues behind their whole model. The regulation is limited, there is the Office of Fair Trading for unsecured loans, but this is nothing like the FSA. As an investor you have no protection over your investment, its not government backed like the banks are, so if ZOPA suddenly closes what happens? What happens if more and more people started skipping payments and defaulted on their loans? What would happen if more competition join this market place (surely this is inevitable), there will be fierce competition for lending rates and thus investors returns will shrink.
Personally I believe its a great platform for certain types of borrowers and context but the market share has limited potential without better protection. The industry cannot continue without thought as to how the finance industry has performed in the last century, especially our current economic climate and the near collapse of several banking institutions.
One useful avenue for P2P is sites like kickstarter, this website is truly marvellous. Its a home to aspiring talent and there ideas, creations and inventions, they pitch their idea, ask for certain funding levels and if they manage to meet their funding requirement there project gets the go ahead. There is one massive difference here, not the people no, its the reason it exists, people DONATE money to these ideas. Some of the projects you will earn a reward of a mention in there artifact or get a limited edition dependant on the idea. Basically its like donating to a charity but aimed at aspiring talent instead, I am a massive fan and watched the Kickstarter site for some time now. Have a search on the web at some of the ideas, some have funded very quickly and gone on to success. It's just a shame talent has to beg for this money to help them, there are such good products and innovative ideas to be hold, go look now!
So you can see P2P is hear to stay, with the likes of Kickstarter and Zopa using this for very different causes, there are interesting times ahead, so you have to wonder who will the banks lend to in the future???????????
You need to have an understanding of the principles to understand peer to peer otherwise this argument may confuse. Basically it's people like lending money direct to people, but a company like Zopa finds you the customers, so acts as an agent for collecting the debt etc. However, it is an investment so you have to deposit a sum of money with them and they lend it too lots more people. This means in theory your investment is spread amongst 10's or 100's of different people, therefore, you don't have all your eggs in one basket and helps mitigate your risk (of non-paying customers). Some people call this crowd sourcing or crowd funding, but its the same thing really, that's just semantics.
Companies like Zopa have already lent approximately £223million (their figures) and is growing all the time and they are reporting very modest non-paying customers (bad debt), which actually forecasts this is reducing each year! This sounds great in principle, its all Internet based, no banks to make appointments with or over eager sales men, you look on their easy to use sites, get your credit status checked and bingo.
So this provides a stream for investors and provides a portal for a people to attain unsecured funds, however, there are serious issues behind their whole model. The regulation is limited, there is the Office of Fair Trading for unsecured loans, but this is nothing like the FSA. As an investor you have no protection over your investment, its not government backed like the banks are, so if ZOPA suddenly closes what happens? What happens if more and more people started skipping payments and defaulted on their loans? What would happen if more competition join this market place (surely this is inevitable), there will be fierce competition for lending rates and thus investors returns will shrink.
Personally I believe its a great platform for certain types of borrowers and context but the market share has limited potential without better protection. The industry cannot continue without thought as to how the finance industry has performed in the last century, especially our current economic climate and the near collapse of several banking institutions.
One useful avenue for P2P is sites like kickstarter, this website is truly marvellous. Its a home to aspiring talent and there ideas, creations and inventions, they pitch their idea, ask for certain funding levels and if they manage to meet their funding requirement there project gets the go ahead. There is one massive difference here, not the people no, its the reason it exists, people DONATE money to these ideas. Some of the projects you will earn a reward of a mention in there artifact or get a limited edition dependant on the idea. Basically its like donating to a charity but aimed at aspiring talent instead, I am a massive fan and watched the Kickstarter site for some time now. Have a search on the web at some of the ideas, some have funded very quickly and gone on to success. It's just a shame talent has to beg for this money to help them, there are such good products and innovative ideas to be hold, go look now!
So you can see P2P is hear to stay, with the likes of Kickstarter and Zopa using this for very different causes, there are interesting times ahead, so you have to wonder who will the banks lend to in the future???????????
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Childhood visions of a dream job
This post I dedicate to my wife, basically because I have copied her level of randomness for a suitable topic.
Looking back to my childhood I wonder what I wanted to be when I reaching adulthood. Clearly you would assume empirically speaking I should know, because am I not already there? I propose a suggestion that maybe adulthood is not much different to childhood actually, only the semantics are different or the importance of decision making.
If I was to review my career paths from childhood I would clearly conclude there really was only ever a couple ever envisaged...... These were like most boys, footballer or astronaut, though looking back maybe I was old fashioned or just different?
I mean, comparing these careers to my current position I find myself somewhat distant from these goals! Was it the horrific injury that ended my playing career or defective genes that stopped my study of science and all things planetary? Well that would be the easy thing, blame someone else, but unfortunately no single person is to blame. I am just too poor at football to make it professional and after ending my career I actually realised how much I had done wrong, especially training and fitness wise. Luckily I played for over a decade and thoroughly enjoyed a cup final, once, and before hanging up the said "boots" i managed to run both 6 a side and 11 a side.
So am I an astronaut? No, sort of though as i have read many science fiction novels! Okay, okay, I dream of space and get excited watching the latest science fiction, surely that counts for something? I thoroughly enjoy reading about mans endeavour in space, the sheer scale of such an enterprise is really too vast for a simpleton like me. I don't think I would have survived the launch out of the planets atmosphere to be entirely honest, I get dizzy just spinning my daughter round (kids rides are far too hard core for me) and thus motion sickness is the vain of my intended path. Oh well I could always help them out, just need to become a genius, move to the USA and that's sorted.
Anyway back to the real world, to postulate I have no idea what role I will perform in the future. I would choose knowledgeable over wealth and success too, like most homo sapiens I want to be comfortable enough to support my family. Previously I had assumed by now life would not be so unpredictable and uncertain. I do wonder if the general population think the same, or is it just men who don't grow up?
All I know for sure is the journey has not finished,whether we are discussing job ambitions or life, in some ways it feels like it has just started..... Out with the old and in with the new.........
Looking back to my childhood I wonder what I wanted to be when I reaching adulthood. Clearly you would assume empirically speaking I should know, because am I not already there? I propose a suggestion that maybe adulthood is not much different to childhood actually, only the semantics are different or the importance of decision making.
If I was to review my career paths from childhood I would clearly conclude there really was only ever a couple ever envisaged...... These were like most boys, footballer or astronaut, though looking back maybe I was old fashioned or just different?
I mean, comparing these careers to my current position I find myself somewhat distant from these goals! Was it the horrific injury that ended my playing career or defective genes that stopped my study of science and all things planetary? Well that would be the easy thing, blame someone else, but unfortunately no single person is to blame. I am just too poor at football to make it professional and after ending my career I actually realised how much I had done wrong, especially training and fitness wise. Luckily I played for over a decade and thoroughly enjoyed a cup final, once, and before hanging up the said "boots" i managed to run both 6 a side and 11 a side.
So am I an astronaut? No, sort of though as i have read many science fiction novels! Okay, okay, I dream of space and get excited watching the latest science fiction, surely that counts for something? I thoroughly enjoy reading about mans endeavour in space, the sheer scale of such an enterprise is really too vast for a simpleton like me. I don't think I would have survived the launch out of the planets atmosphere to be entirely honest, I get dizzy just spinning my daughter round (kids rides are far too hard core for me) and thus motion sickness is the vain of my intended path. Oh well I could always help them out, just need to become a genius, move to the USA and that's sorted.
Anyway back to the real world, to postulate I have no idea what role I will perform in the future. I would choose knowledgeable over wealth and success too, like most homo sapiens I want to be comfortable enough to support my family. Previously I had assumed by now life would not be so unpredictable and uncertain. I do wonder if the general population think the same, or is it just men who don't grow up?
All I know for sure is the journey has not finished,whether we are discussing job ambitions or life, in some ways it feels like it has just started..... Out with the old and in with the new.........
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