Colin Charles Agenda

This weekend, I was introduced to a neat device, called a Poken, by my friend Preetam Rai.

What is a Poken you ask? A cute little device (that comes with several different characters, one of which is a geisha even), that is the business card of the 21st century! Its a USB device, that contains a “key”, which pairs to your profile online that you create on their website. It then uses Near Field Communications (NFC) to “beam” business cards over (you do this via touch – the term beam seems so 1998, ala what Palm used to call it). When you get back to your computer, you can now see all the contacts you’ve met, and connect with them on the social networks that they’re on. Limited profiles exist as well, so maybe all you want to do is share an email address.

Nifty, yes? The problem with traditional business cards is that when you get back after an event, you have to parse them. The Poken takes away this trouble, as its all point and click. The device sells for about USD$27 at Bic Camera in Japan, though if you get it in bulk online, its about USD$16 with postage.

Can this work in Malaysia? At a little over RM50 (RM100 retail), I might be a tad bit sceptical. However, its all the rage in Japan. Its not for sale in South East Asia (yet), and its much cheaper than a Palm device than can beam over business cards… What do you think?

The Poken itself, is not a social network. It just carries contact information. I found it interesting (in a limiting sense), that you could only carry 64 contacts at one time, before syncing. So if you happen to meet a 65th person, your first contact gets lost!

Elsewhere on the Web, Crunchgear has a review, poken.jp which is the Japanese site (they were smart – they sold Poken’s in night clubs! They even have Poken meetups, and more), and last but not least, check out a video, from a Google Tech Talk, titled Poken: Extending Online Social Networking Into the Real World.

And in case you can’t see the embedded video above (coming in via an RSS reader or something), check out the Poken playlist.

Program in Java? Want to be challenged? Want to work in a startup-styled environment, yet be happy, knowing that the company itself isn’t a startup (i.e. its backed by over a decade of work, and cashflow)? Well, they are looking for a Senior Software Engineer/Tech Lead and some Software Engineers, to all create an application for enterprise use. The requirements are here (in PDF), the salary is expected to be high (i.e. 15% higher than average Malaysian rates. at least — so think of a payrise!), and I’m happy to forward resumes over to the company, so drop me an email (with your resume) at byte@bytebot.net and tell me why you’d be a great fit.

Ready for a challenge?

Note: Company is based in Malaysia, so at this stage, I’m told, only Malaysians or those that have work permits for Malaysia, need apply.

A fan of TED? Yes, ideas worth spreading, question is when I can ever actually attend a TED event… And therein comes TEDx, which is an independently organised TED event. TEDx Kuala Lumpur is happening next week, on Wednesday, June 3, 2009, from 3-6pm, at the Plug&Play Technology Centre, at The Gardens, in MidValley.

I am so, definitely going to be there. If you’re in Kuala Lumpur on June 3 2009, you should definitely be there too! Pray tell, what else could be occupying your time then? ;-)

Bangkok is always an interesting place for me. For example, I was at the hotel, and needed to get to Asoke. It was apparently going to take an hour in a taxi, so I was advised to take the Skytrain. 20THB, and 3 stops later, I was at my destination. Win!

Coming back, was of course interesting. I hailed a taxi, and got in, but the first cabbie had no idea how to get to the Intercontinental. So I got into another, and he said the same thing, but had now moved me to another street. I got into yet another taxi, and it seemed like this guy seemed to know, but a little while down the road, he asked for like 500THB. I said no, the meter needed to be used.

He stopped me by the side of the road, to “negotiate”. I said nothing doing, I’d report him otherwise. He started using vulgaraties, so I took a photo of his cab, and told him to fuck off. He wasn’t too pleased, but I know my rights. Found another taxi, and this time, he took me to Siam Paragon, and another hotel completely. I mean, like, what the fuck, this should be easier. I paid him a paltry sum, and ended up getting into yet another taxi, to take me back to the hotel.

How many taxis did I take? Five.

Conclusion? This can be improved. Tremendously. Suddenly, taxis in Kuala Lumpur or Penang, don’t seem half bad.

Apparently, the whole idea behind registering bloggers is coming back. The esteemed Information, Communications and Culture Minister, Rais Yatim stated:

“The idea is good, but we have to see it from the legal aspects and from the aspect of freedom of Internet use.”

What is this? A world of X-Men, where there are mutant registrations, in where the special powers are that of questioning the current administration and providing a more balanced (or biased) view of the political scene? Ptff.

Curious I am, about the Multimedia Signature Act. I don’t think anyone in their right minds, is interested in registering the fact that they write a blog. But its great to see the threat of bloggers so mainstream, that they’ve been talking about registration for at least two years.

I’ve been a big fan of Evernote for a while now, but have found it lacking in some areas: no Symbian Series 60 support for my mobile phone (yes, there is a mobile interface, but I’d like a native application), and no native Linux support (yes, there are workarounds through WINE, but its nothing like a native application).

It seems like the API is open. It seems like a real popular request to get this going on Series 60, and it seems like there may be wind of such a client, especially since they’re also doing stuff for the Android platform, but nothing concrete.

Does anyone know if this is happening? Failing which, maybe a Nokia Nseries Widget (WRT widgets) might be what I’m after (seeing this working on the N97 yesterday, I was truly impressed).

At this juncture, I need Series 60 support, more than I’d need Linux support. I don’t have plans on carrying an iPhone anytime soon, just to make good use of Evernote (which I must say, is impressive – full integration with the hardware, is very cool).