colinfitz.com

I love Google. They are a fantastic forward thinking and innovative company who have taken a fresh approach to almost everything they do, and excel at most of it too. From their humble start as a simple internet search engine, they have grown into a monolithic monopoly beater – by giving the people want they want – often doing is better than the incumbent, but for free. Many people could not disagree more though and think Google is secretly evil and they don’t trust the near monopoly they have and the power they could have over some with the amount of data they collect on individuals. But that’s a little too paranoid for me…

Today, Google announced some details of their “Project 10^100“. They invited ordinary people to submit their ideas for how we can collectively make the world a better place – unsurprisingly using technology to help with this. They collected 150,000 suggestions and grouped them into themes. They range from using software to better report on urban problems and how to fix them, creating better banking and financial tools for people and industry alike, and reforming income tax policies.

I love this – it’s classic” Croudsourcing” – using large groups of volunteers to pull together to solve a problem – but also using “The Wisdom of the Crowd”. You see, most people think that “People” (collectively) are stupid. Just think of when the townspeople of the Springfield or South Park get together and come up with hairbrained ideas etc. Mostly, this is true as they have no guidance, rules or direction. However, when do you put a structure and some rules around it, this technique can be very, very effective.

You may have seen how Derren Brown predicted the UK Lottery last week, using this exact method. If he can beat odds of millions to one, with a group of 12 people, just think what Google might be able to achieve with most of the worlds intelligent population, with the best software and some of the smartest minds behind it.

Personally I think this is very exciting. We’ve all seen how on a much smaller scale how almost chaos can become very organised when some direction, rules and technology are used to control and guide it. The ideas are mostly excellent, everyone would priorise them differently but mostly they will make this world of ours a better place to live. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this pans out….

Myself and some friends are starting a weekly Club Night in Dublin!! It’s a group of 7 of us – all DJ’s, all passionate about our music, a wide variance of backgrounds, but all very experienced – so we have got together to start a new weekly night of quality house, techo and Disco, and I think its going to be really great….

We are going to have a good varied mix of DJ’s – starting off with a host of well known Dublin DJ’s, along with ourselves, and we are also going to be bringing in International DJ’s approx once a month. As we all know its a recession so it’s going to be cheap in: €5 and probably €10 on International nights, with cheap drinks and further drinks promotions like free shots etc etc. And of course it goes without saying I’ll have all of you feckers on the guestlist anyway ! We’re not in this for the money – we just want to do what we all love, create a great atmosphere and fill the place with like minded people to just have a really great time!

Website is www.laundrydublin.com – stay tuned for updates!

Hope to see you there!

Nice little add from PayPal showing the future of things to come – they are soon to open up their API so any developer can integrate their super easy and safe payment method into, well, almost anything! Banking on the fact that microsoft-surface type gagets everywhere. Somehow I think it will be a while before we see them on bus shelter ads though!

Chrome seems to be all the rage these days. I remember seeing a car like many of the ones above, and apparently it was actually silver plated. Ridiculous.  Now you can get the same effect for a tiny fraction of the price. Many of these cars are actually  covered ina reflective vinyl substance, like a giant sticker, but it looks amazing and actually lasts too. Only costs 1-2k too!

Wow how things have changed! This is the first ever iPod commercial, boasting “1000 Songs in your Pocket” which was very impressive, and you only had t carry around something the size of a small brick to have them!

I do love the tune though -”Take California” by the Propellerheads – what a legendary tune, and album

Imagine encountering this on your way to work in the morning!

I’ve been waiting for this to happen for years – but they have now finally announced that Goggle will release “Chrome OS” – an Open Source Operating System. I remember thinking years ago how it would make a lot of sense for Google to do this, yes ok, they have Android the Mobile OS but its not the same. They needed something to Rival windows, and now that they have done it, Micro$oft should be shaking in their boots.

Right on the heels of their newest release, Windows 7, Google are going to release a totally open source browser, Chrome OS. It will be very simple, a Chrome browser sitting on a Linus Kernel – and mainly aimed at netbooks – the fastest growing sector of the PC Hardware market. In their blog post: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html – they say it will be live from next year, and I’m sure a massive developer community will grow from it, thanks to it being open source.

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome (Google Chrome) browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

Linux distros like ubuntu have been around for a while but my guess is that Chrome OS will gain a large following a lot more quickly than they did – for obvious reasons.

I can’t wait to see how this pans out.

Air New Zealand, the country’s national carrier, has made a safety video for its domestic routes which shows a pilot and cabin crew dressed only in body paint made to resemble their normal uniforms. The 3-minute, 28-second “Bare essentials of safety” clip, and a similar 45-second television advertisment introduced six weeks ago, have had passengers glued to their mini television sets.

They could have at least had hotter air hostesses!

This is just priceless. I mean seriously how retarded can an entire nation be!!!

Mobile phone operators in Pakistan & Afganistan have been deluged with calls from concerned users after they received a hoax message claiming a “killer virus” was being transmitted via their handsets. Kabul shop owner Ahmad Fawad advises: “Don’t answer any strange number because it contains a virus that will kill you.”

The message claimed that 20 people had already succumbed to the deadly plague, and proved so effective that some mosques in Karachi began advising would-be victims to “be aware of God’s wrath”, Reuters reports.

Farah Hussain, a spokeswoman for Warid Telecom, said the company’s customer service centres have been “inundated with panicky subscribers inquiring about the so-called virus”.

Operators issued a joint statement aimed at calming nerves, which explained: “These rumours are completely baseless. They do not make any sense in technological terms.”

http://www.carzone.ie/search/Porsche/911/CARRERA-/200927194463799/advert?channel=CARS

This car was 163k when it was bought new. Was 110k in another garage a few months ago. Now its down to €87,450 – but the sticker in the window says €77,750???

€86,000 of a loss since then, and it’s only done 8,000 miles? That’s over €10 a mile depreciation. Ouch!

Top Gear is Back! Here is a sneak preview of what is in store for us this Season!

Oh and if you missed it last night – they revealed who the Sig is!

But don’t be fooled, he’s not the “Real” stig, that was only just for a laugh.

His time on the FXX should not be counted either as its not a road legal car, and it was not the real stig Driving!

You may have heard that the new 3.0 software update is out for the iPhone – giving you much needed updates like Horizontal keyboard and Multimedia messaging. And sure enough only a matter of days after it was released, the iPhone Dev Team (a group of hackers) have cracked the software so that you can “Jailbreak” your iphone. Jaulbreaking your iPhone allows you to install apps that are not approved by Apple and the iStore. Apple put in certain restrictions that this can get around. E.g. The first apps I got after jaulbreaking were a video camera “Cycorder” – and “MXtube” which lets you download youtube video’s to your iphone to watch any time.

www.iclarified.com have a great tutorial on exactly how to jailbreak your iPhone using “RedSn0w”  which is the software that does it for you.

When you have done this, I recommend installing a program called “Installous”. It lets you get almost any apps on the iStore for free! To do this, add “http://cydia.hackulo.us” as a new source through Cydia (A program you get when you Jailbreak) and then search for “Installous”.

Borrowed from http://grahamchastney.com/

This is a very interesting video showcasing how Microsoft see “the Home of the Future” – its not like tose comical 70’s video’s but instead expanding upon the types of technologies we are starting to use today