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The Power and Freedom of Money: A Simple Look

I posted an article by DJ Campbell here a while back, about tax-cuts and the negative aspect that people seem to be too naive to see. Well, I have another piece by DJ that I’d like to share on the power and freedom of money.

“The life, power and freedom you have are given to you by other people, and theirs is given by you. The way we give and receive power, freedom and the basics we need to survive is with money, and those systems created to exchange it: markets and the economy.

So those things we value are quantified by and exchanged for money. In real terms a person’s or object’s dollar (monetary) value is its real value to people, when that person or object is compared to other people or objects. And those humans we value more have a greater say in whom else, and what else, is valued.

There are three things I want to discuss on this topic. One is that money is always being wielded, and it is those who think about its effect on others that have their values realised. Essentially, if you want to end poverty or stop global warming you must think about how you spend your money, to whom you hand over control of it, and for whom you earn it. This is Power.

Secondly, I want to talk about the fact that money and the systems that transfer it (markets and economies) are beliefs. They are not physical things, but communal beliefs and can be controlled by will. If we change what we believe, our communal actions can change. This is Freedom.

Thirdly, a thorough knowledge of the first two can enable co-operation among large groups of people to achieve common goals, without using harmful economic and political strategies to enforce change. Revolution”.

To read the rest of DJ’s great article, check it out over at JeSaurai.net.

Howcast: YouTube for Instructional Vids

A New York City startup called Howcast is launching today that wants to be the YouTube of instructional videos. In fact, the three founders—Jason Liebman, Daniel Blackman and Sanjay Raman—are ex-Google employees who worked on Google Video and YouTube before they left eight months ago. They actually are going for a little more polish than YouTube, trying to bring some production values to the world of Web video.

Pajago is Alive, Just Busy…

Sorry loyal readers. I went from posting anywhere up to 3 threads a day to like one a fortnight. Apologies.

I have been bogged down with work; change of roles at work (yay!) and uni (sarcastic yay!).

Australian Technology Start-Ups [Up-Coming Reviews]

I haven’t really got much to post at the moment. As I have mentioned previously, I intend to up the quality of content on this site from basic commentary to essay-length posts. This post is a sneak-peak of a couple of technology reviews I will be doing in the coming weeks.

The sites I will be reviewing are WasabiTV.com.au and Tiinker.com. Both “Web 2.0″ type start-ups created here in Australia. I won’t go on in detail at the moment but do check them out for yourself.

Stay tuned for the full-reviews in the coming weeks. They are great sites!

Google.org’s Pledges for 2008

As companies make philanthropic efforts many are looked at as trying to make themselves look more ethical than they actually are. We have heard terms like ‘green wash‘ which is where a business presents themselves as eco-friendly when they are actually not. Well, I am quite fond of Google’s efforts in the philanthropic area and here are some examples why:

Google.org has announced five core initiatives that will be the focus of its philanthropic efforts over the next five to ten years. The philanthropic arm of Google announced $25 million in new grants and investments to initial partners as the part of the core initiative roll out.

Google.org’s five initiatives and partners include:

Predict and Prevent: supporting “efforts to empower communities to predict and prevent events before they become local, regional, or global crises, by identifying “hot spots” and enabling a rapid response.” Grants as follows:

$5 million to InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters) to improve early detection, preparedness, and response capabilities for global health threats and humanitarian crises.
$2.5 million to the Global Health and Security Initiative (GHSI), established by the Nuclear Threat Initiative to prevent, detect, and respond to biological threats.
$600,000 to Clark University, with equal funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, for Clark Labs to develop a system to improve monitoring, analysis and prediction of the impacts of climate variability and change on ecosystems, food and health in Africa and the Amazon.

This information was excerpted from TechCrunch (as usual) so if you would like to read it in its entirety, go here.

Cory Delaney (Worthington): Marketing Genius?

Marketing has changed dramatically from what it once was. One current example is social networking. Sites like MySpace and Facebook drive word-of-mouth like never before. The ‘buzz‘ epidemic is here, even for a little while.

What I find particularly fascinating is the Cory Delaney (Worthington) story. Cory is the 16-year-old who posted an invitation to his house party on MySpace. As a result, 500 people showed up; reeked havoc; and vandalised the neighbourhood. Since the event, Cory has become the guy you love to hate. He’s in the headlines day-in day-out and people are really ripping him to shreds. Funny thing is, he is still in the headlines. People love to read about him even though they call him a menace and arrogant.

It seems to be that the cake is on our own face. Cory has been a real entrepreneur about the whole thing. He’s created enough appeal to attract media attention and he’s capitalising on this. Whether it is the money he makes from media interviews or the job offers he has received as a party promoter. People, even only some, love him.

Be Seen Web Design defines buzz marketing as ‘a low or no cost method of marketing associated with people telling other people telling other people about a company’s products or services’. In this instance Cory is the product. He is and the media are creating enough of a spectacle that people are no-stop talking about it. This can be told by the fact that the news has reached overseas.

I think this is a great example of the buzz marketing we hear so much about nowadays. Sure, it’s a bit of an unorthodox variation but it’s buzz nonetheless. Lets see where it takes him.

Here is something fun, slap some sense into Cory. Look at the extremes people are going to with this.

Macbook Air: News from around the World

Today is a glorious day in the world of consumer technology for me anyway. Oh, and I am sure others. The new, much anticipated Macbook was announced at Macworld 2008. Branded the Macbook Air it is said to be the worlds thinnest notebook. Lets take a look at what all the popular tech sites had to say:

TechCrunch gave a blow-by-blow run down of the announcement…

10:27am: Macbook Air: it’s “green”. Mercury and Arsenic free LCD and glass, Aluminum frame can be recycled. PVC free on circutry, and packing is less

10:26am: First Air video demoed. The brown envelope is the key to the campaign to emphasize the size

10:24am: price: $1799.

10:23am: 5 hours battery life for Macbook Air, compared with competitors at 1 1/2 hours

10:21am: new feature: “remote disk” that will allow you to install software from another computer

10:20am: no optical drive, but you can buy a special external for $99

10:19am: comes with 802.11n and latest Bluetooth

10:18am: SJ says this is “awesome technology”.

Silicon Alley has the following to say…

As widely anticipated, Steve Jobs announced a sexy, super-thin laptop during his Macworld keynote: MacBook Air. Apple is billing it as “the world’s thinnest notebook.” The catch, at least for Apple’s less affluent customers: The Air is not cheap. Initial retail price will be $1,799.

But back to the gadget porn: The computer has a LED-backlit, 13.3-inch widescreen display, and ranges in thickness from 0.16″ to 0.76″. It has a full-size keyboard and, as rumored, a multi-touch trackpad. To keep things light, Apple did away with the DVD drive. Some more stats: 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo chip, 80-gig standard hard drive or 64-gig Flash storage, 5-hour battery life.

Dvice.com lists four reasons you need a Macbook Air…

1. It’s time to one-up those iPhone pansies. When Dale in the next cubicle got his iPhone on the first day last June, he was promptly mobbed like Jon Bon Jovi everywhere he went for a month straight. That memory still burns, doesn’t it? Well, it’s time you had a stint at BMoC, and the MacBook Air has the goods to elevate your status. If your officemates were impressed by Dale’s Google Maps, just wait till they see you play a DVD in one machine and watch it on another. That’s Air Magic, baby — you rule the day this time!

2. You don’t send enough gifts via interoffice mail. As demonstrated by Steve-O at the keynote, the Air fits comfortably in a typical interoffice envelope. That’s fantastic, since I often send gifts to my colleagues, and those gifts are often laptop computers. Now I can stop wasting all those FedEx boxes… it’s win-win-win, really.

3. Do something about that disc addiction. CDs, DVDs, CD-ROMs, Blu-ray… enough with the optical-disc storage, already. You’ve got tons of those suckers lying around, don’t you? And what’s on them? That’s right: movies, music, and files — who uses any of that? Time to get an Air and turn your back on this primitive era of “data.”

4. Modern décor. Get two. Put them back-to-back on a shelf. Open them so the screens are at right angles to the keyboards. You’ve just created the most minimalist bookends ever. Worth every penny!

More…

If you want to read more, I’d recommend clicking this link which will take you to Google News and some 2,085 (8:15PM, 16/01/2008) news articles about the Macbook Air.

Wikipedia does its thing for Macworld 2008

It was bound to happen; some joker has gotten onto Wikipedia and published a load of fluff about Macworld 2008. Here is an example of some of the so-called ‘leaked notes’:

New MacBooks!

- What would MacWorld be without a new Mac? (sorry about last year)

- Completely redesigned MacBook

- Completely aluminum body like MacBook Pro

- 13″ screen at 1440×900

- Two colors: Black and Silver

- Looks gorgeous at 0.8″ thin

- A major feat of engineering - patents abound

- DVD drive pops open on side when eject button is pressed

- New on all notebooks and iMac: iSight HD (720p)

- New backlit keyboard based on recent Apple Keyboard revisions (keys slightly lighter than that of laptop casing, colorwise)

- New matching MagSafe cable (Aluminum ends, cord color matches that of keyboard)

- New matching Apple Remote (slightly smaller with larger overall buttons)

- Intel GMA X3100 graphics

- 3 models

- Completely phasing out the combo drive on all product lines today

- BTO models can upgrade all the way to 2.6GHz/4GB Memory/320GB hard drive

- 4.5 hours of battery life

- Starting at $1199

Product Refreshes

- Refreshing Mac Pro and Mac mini today

- Mac Pro now with Penryn!

- Base model 2×2.8GHz dual-core/1GB/NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB/250GB(1×250GB)/1×16x double-layer SuperDrive

- Upgradeable to 2×3.2GHz quad-core/16GB/NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB/4TB(4×1TB)/2×16x double-layer SuperDrives

- Starting at $2,499

- Mac mini gets slight speed bumps and double-layer SuperDrive in all models

- Base model 2.0GHz IC2D/1GB/100GB

- BTO Upgradeable to 2.4GHz IC2D/4GB/320GB

- Starting at $599

One More Thing

- Been brewing for a while

- YouTube’s been in Apple TV and iPhone/iPod touch: now it’s in iTunes

- Download YouTube videos straight to iTunes or from iPhone/iPod Touch for later offline viewing (sync back to computer)

- Coming in iTunes 7.6 and iPhone/iPod Touch 1.3 updates

Lets see how accurate these rumours are…

MacWorld 2008

Tomorrow (14th January) marks the start of MacWorld 2008. I wonder what this will bring this time around. Previous MacWorld’s have seen the release of the iPod (many, many models), Apple TV, Macbook, Leopard and iPhone. In fact, all of the products.

This year I hope to see the unveiling of a 3G iPhone suitable for Asia/Pacific and the rumoured ultra-portable 13″ Macbook Pro.

I will provide coverage of any major unveiling’s via Pajago.com as they come to hand.

Please, please, please let the 13″ MBP be real.

The $2800 Car: How Will India Cope?

I remember reading, some time ago about the $3000 car. The notion behind it was to make four-wheels accessible to India’s fast-growing middle class. Some may ask how producing a vehicle at such a price can be sustainable. Well, profit-margins are thin but by shifting sheer numbers - numbers that are adequately supported by Indian’s population, it is quite a sustainable move; well according to the media reports by these car producers.

The way I see it is India has a demand for this car but I don’t know if they have the infrastructure to support it. How do people currently get around in India? Scooters and motorcycles are very popular due to their fuel efficiency and maneuverability in traffic. I would think they are pretty easy to park and store, also. So how will the country cope with a car that is set to ‘revolutionise the market of 1.1 billion people‘? To me, it seems like a situation of buying the vase first and table later.

Where are these cars meant to be parked? How will the roads cope in terms of both congestion and wear? How will the current refueling stations cope? How will the ports cope with bringing in fuel? Are there adequate service centres? I really could go on…

If the nation has, for so long counted on two-wheels as a primary mode of transport how do they all of a sudden cater for four? This is not to mention the already burgeoning environmental aspects.

[Side Note] It’s interesting what people have to say in the comments of the article, ‘$A2800: World’s Cheapest Car’ over at News.com.au. Concerns of how safe the Tata Nano is seems to be the general consensus. Doesn’t seem to be much thought into the safety of a moped though. Additionally, people seem to be critical of the cars chances in making it to Australian roads. Well that’s ok, as I don’t believe there are intentions. It’s built with a purpose and meeting Australia standards is not one of them.

I like this comment; it sums it all up:

“You nitwits are missing the entire point of the car. It is not meant for Aussies or any other western market. It is meant for third world markets where entire families manage to ride a 2 wheel scooter together. For them it is a step up. Safety wise also, it is far better than the scooter though very poor compared to a standard western auto. THINK, RELATE and stop being so ethnocentric. I can’t but shake my head at those who feel that third world populations should be denied products because they pollute. Why don’t you lot sell your cars and trash your air conditioning before you pass judgment?” - Thanks Andy of the USA…

Carpool on Facebook

I am not a great fan of regurgitating other peoples information but David Sag over at Carbon Planet had some interesting news over at his blog today:

Social network sites have traditionally been seen as either playthings for bored office workers, dating site equivalents for lusty students, helper kits internet-stalkers or fronts for the CIA, but today I think I actually found something useful in facebook. Carpooling.

Previously, online ride-sharing was a risky and difficult endeavour for any user. Finding a ride on a website like Craigslist (currently the most popular ride-sharing site) would be fraught with uncertainty and hazard. There was simply no way to find out about a potential ride-sharing partner - your driver could be your real-estate agent or a newly released axe-murderer. He (or she?) could come pick you up on time, or leave you hanging. There was no accountability, no trust and consequently no real step-change in the culture of ride-sharing in the real world. Car owners still prefer to drive empty cars over long distances, paying hefty gas costs, and passengers still have to desperately beg for rides, rent cars or suffer a long, expensive bus/train ride. Everyone still loses.

Social-networking has changed the game. This disruptive technology has made it possible for people to establish trust in an online environment, thereby shattering the bottleneck for online-ridesharing. And Facebook Carpool, the new ride-sharing application that is embedded into the Facebook interface, is the first sophisticated utility to take advantage.

Resource use optimisation is the name of the game here. If I can find someone already going past my house to the airport (tomorrow afternoon say) then, by sharing a ride with them I will save both money and CO2, and, to be honest, might even make a new friend to play facebook scrabble with too. — DS

Thanks David. Cool post; cool find.

Soundbuzz: The core of BigPond Music?

This is more of an enquiry than claim: is Soundbuzz the backbone of BigPond Music? I just read a post over at TechCrunch claiming that Motorola has acquired Soundbuzz. It mentions that Soundbuzz has partnerships with Hutchison 3, Motorola, Airtel, SingTel, M1, Optus Zoo, Telstra/ BigPond Music and Microsoft.

Copy Protection: More Trouble than it is Good?

I believe copy protection on audio CDs is pointless. Here is my rationale:

1. It is far from robust. If it can be done, it can most certainly be undone.

2. It doesn’t combat music piracy and file sharing. Scenario: I buy a CD and wish to upload it to my MP3 player. I cannot because of the copy protection. I end up downloading an illegitimate copy from a torrent just to be able to enjoy the music the way I like.

3. It is a waste of resources. I believe the resources that get wasted on imposing such micky-mouse defense mechanisms could be put into innovation and change. The likes of Prince, Radiohead, Issa - all those that have gone to new levels in record distribution - are cases to look at.

I don’t think for a moment that music should just be given away, not at all. But I also don’t believe that consumers should be restricted in their behaviours because of the bad guys. I feel that by not allowing people to upload the albums they pay money for to their MP3 device of choice, encourages illegal behaviour.

When will the iPhone arrive in Australia?

When does everyone think the Apple iPhone will available in Australia, or more accurately, Asia Pacific? I have my bets on late 2008/early 2009.

As most technophiles will already know, Steve Jobs - Apple’s CEO - is reluctant of a 3G model at this point due to problems with the battery-life. He doesn’t want to sacrifice any of the iPhone functionality by supplying a limited battery-life. Well, I don’t think they will release the iPhone to Asia Pacific unless it is a 3G model. What’s the point?

It has been said that people place too much importance on the ‘term’ - 3G. Most really don’t get the most out of what it offers to what can it possibly matter? Well, truth is, Asia Pacific hosts some of the worlds largest 3G networks. I believe 2.5 (GSM or EDGE) would be taking a step backward.

Who will win?

Next question, who will win the contract for the iPhone here in Australia? I have my money - not literally - on Vodafone. I believe, from a branding/marketing perspective the two companies align better than the anticipated Telstra/Apple partnership. After all, Telstra has always been rather Apple-unfriendly.

We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Pajago.com: Comment Function is Now Online

Ok, the comment function of Pajago.com is now back online. Thanks very much to Code Meister Paul Holmes.

Would you like to comment? Email instead

I have noticed that the comment thing on this site isn’t working properly. I have been getting plenty of spam but no legitimate comments. I am sure people are trying to leave them, since I get almost 100 visitors per day, but no cigar. If you have something you would like to say, please feel free to email suggestions@pajago.com. Thanks!

Mahola: Wikipedia/Google with a Twist of Human

I just realised there is another ‘competitor’ to Google that is worth a mention. The site is called Mahalo. It’s a human-powered search engine that looks oh so nice. I just had a play with it for a couple of minutes, to develop a first impression and I like it. I like it a lot. The reason I like it so much - if first impressions are anything to go by - is that it works like an expansion of Wikipedia. I tend to search for most things - like iPod Touch - by typing ‘iPod Touch wiki’ into Google. This ensures Wikipedia is the top search result and I go in from there. I guess I could search directly through Wikipedia but it’s not so friendly toward typos.

Mahalo has a touch of this. It is a Google-esque search engine that is loaded with good stuff. Stuff that has been vetted by humans and not tricked by algorithms written by inhumanly clever geeks. First thing I like is the Guide Note at the top-right which gives you a a brief definition/explanation of the search topic. Below this is some Fast Facts - 2-10 short facts about the topic-, again, a very intuitive, helpful feature.

The meat of the result page begins with a Top 7 section which generally starts with an official website of the topic searched. If you were to search, say, Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo, next you will find a section called Professional Profile - very Linkedin. I won’t go on an explain all the other features as it takes all the fun out of it for you. But I will paste what Mahalo has listed as the key features of Mahalo:

* Edited By Humans: Every search result you see was painstakingly handcrafted by a Guide in our workshop in sunny Santa Monica, California.

* Spam-free: Humans detect spam. Computers don’t. Our Guides keep your search results free of spam.

* Warnings: Tired of clicking on links full of pop-ups, information in a language you don’t speak, full of Flash animation and auto-starting music, or other problems? Mahalo Warnings tell you in advance. Just hover your cursor over the Warning Symbol Warning symbol to know before you click.

* Guides Choice: This symbol ( Nicole Gustas: It’s a shaka, used in Hawaii as a greeting) tells you which sites our guides especially liked. Hover your cursor over it to find out why.

* Fast Facts: We provide 2-10 quick facts about most search terms.

* Email This Search Result: If you’ve found a search result useful, you can email it to yourself, or someone else. See the sidebar.

* Recommend a Link: Think the search results page you’re looking at is missing an important resource? Click on the “Recommend a Link” in the Top Submitted Links section of the right-hand sidebar to tell us about it.

* Message Board: Discuss our search results with other people interested in the topic by clicking on the Message Board link to the right.

* Today’s Top 20 Searches: Look in the “Today’s Top 20 Searches” in the right-hand sidebar to find out what’s hot right now!

Blekko: Should Google be Worried?

I read today that Co-founder of Topix, Rich Skrenta is looking at taking on Google with new search engine, Blekko. I discussed this with a few people at work today and the response seems to be very negative. The responses I got: “Sif!”…”As if anyone can compete with Google”. To be critical of yet another so-called competitor of Google, I believe, is rational. It’s been tried before and giants like Yahoo! and Live haven’t even managed it. So what is so good about Blekko?

Well, one of the problems I think Skrenta and his team are trying to fix is when you type in a word like “Kylie Minogue” you get many pages of results: images, news, scholar, books, et al. Not to mention the hundreds of pages of search results. I feel, Blekko is trying to achieve a more integrated Google. One page and summaries of what you actually need (want) to know. And apparently no PageRank algorithm.

I’m really excited to see what Blekko has in-store. I am, admittedly a Google-aholic but I am also open to better ways of doing things. For example, I am looking at making the move from iGoogle as my home page to PageFlakes as the latter looks and moves a lot better, whilst still being integrated with the likes of Gmail.

Apparently, Blekko will not be live until 2009. At the moment by going to the domain you get a picture of some cute, puppet-looking creature. I wonder how cute and fun Blekko is going to be…

This isn’t a billboard. Its a power plant!

San Franciscan Pacific Gas and Electric, California, has just installed the first solar powered billboard in the world.

The billboard actually draws power from the grid, but the power output of its 20 PV panels is higher than what the billboard demands from the grid, keeping the balance positive. This is also possible due to the high efficiency LEDs the billboard uses for lighting.

Ranging from 2.5 to 3.4 kWh electricity produced during the day are actually close to what is necessary to power one family house.

Is this another great idea or is it just not worth the investment?