How well are you familiar with YouTube celebrities – Numa Numa, the Star Wars kid, leave Britney alone, Coke and Mentos, etc? If you missed any, of if you want to refresh your memory, here are they all on one page. The first clip is a music video “Pork and Beans” by Weezer band. After that, each and every one of them in a separate, original video. Loads of fun!
Category: Technology
I work in technology sector. And I do round a clock, not only from 9 to 5. It is my bread and butter, it is my hobby, it is the fascination of my life. And with the current rate of change particular in information technology (IT), there is always something new to learn, to try, to talk about. I often post news, thoughts, and reviews. And when I do, this is the category I use.
Cities and ambitions
Paul Graham continues writing down his thoughts and observations – “Cities and ambitions“:
No matter how determined you are, it’s hard not to be influenced by the people around you. It’s not so much that you do whatever a city expects of you, but that you get discouraged when no one around you cares about the same things you do.
There’s an imbalance between encouragement and discouragement like that between gaining and losing money. Most people overvalue negative amounts of money: they’ll work much harder to avoid losing a dollar than to gain one. Similarly, though there are plenty of people strong enough to resist doing something just because that’s what one is supposed to do where they happen to be, there are few strong enough to keep working on something no one around them cares about.
Wakoopa – one of those things that I don’t get
There are things that are as obvious as daylight. There are things that I need to research and think over to understand. And there are things that feel like I’ll never understand. Wakoopa is one of them.
I first heard about Wakoopa back in April when I was in Amsterdam, at The Next Web 2008 Conference. Wakoopa is a European social network that unites people who want to share the information about software they use. If you are one of them, all you need to do is register at the network and download client software to install on your computer. Once you are done, Wakoopa will track which software you use and how (often). It will then upload these information to the social network, where you will be able to find other people who use the same software (advice? shared experience?) as well as other software that people similar to you use (expanding horizons?).
The booth of Wakoopa startup was one of the busiest at the conference. And the company went through a few investment rounds, one of which I just read about in The Next Web blog.
And I still don’t get it.
First of all, I have the feeling that software moves to the web. Not all of it and not as fast as I’d like it to, but the future seems to be pretty much web-based. Secondly, those people who are technically literate enough to find, download, and install Wakoopa, are, I belive, literate enough to figure out their issues with current software and find similar software if need be, using nothing by Google and IRC. Thirdly, there is this evergrowing privacy concern, that itches every time words “tracking” and “sharing” are used. Fourthly, there is the question of licensed software vs. pirated software, which needs to be addressed by way too many Windows users (primary target for Wakoopa software and social network). Fifthly, there are likely to be quite a few conflicts between people at work and corporate sysadmins. Sixthly, …
With all that, I can still see that there will be a few people here and there who would probably like to participate in this experiement. But, the thing that I don’t quite understand is how this experiment became so large. I mean, there are millions of investment, thousands of users, and lots and lots of hype. I don’t get it. Anyone care to explain? Or guess maybe?
P.S.: Not that I am jelous of Wakoopa or anything. They are doing something that apparently has a lot of demand, so I wish the best of luck to them.
Virtual presence with Twitter
Twitter is many things to many people. It’s a lot of things to me too (status updates, communication channel, notes application, self-reminders, etc). But for the last couple of days I am having a new experience with it – virtual presence.
Last year I attended Greek Blogger Camp. It was a lot of fun. This year however I didn’t manage to get in due to some work obligations. However those guys who are there, they twit a lot (particularly Stefanos himself). That sort of brings me there without any travelling.
Yes, I miss a lot, I know. But getting SMS updates with pointers to what is going over there helps quite a bit. And not only I get a part of the atmosphere, but also some helpful tips from the presentations that are going on. Then, with Google in my hands, I can dive deeper into the subject, and even somewhat participate in the discussion there by twitting my questions and getting answers.
This digital world sure is amazing!
Eff.org needs more PR
I’ve recently made a donation to Eff.org and also bought some stickers from them. Since I put the sticker on my laptop, I am getting this question all the time: “What is eff.org?“. I even get this question from people who I thought were very familiar with EFF’s work. Well, here is an answer to that question from the eff.org web site:
EFF is the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world.
EFF stands for Electronic Frontier Foundation. In a nutshell, they are the good guys. They’ve done a lot of good over the last few years, and they are still at work. Check their web site for what they have done, and see if you can help in any way.
And if you want a sticker, I have a few to pass around.