Colin Charles Agenda

The announcement for Mountain Lion came quite a while ago so I’m definitely late to the game. However one feature that excites me the most is AirPlay to an AppleTV. You can already do this AirPlay mirroring with an iPad (which I’ve not tested before). But why is this big for laptops?

Every respectable hotel I stay at has an iPod/iPhone dock. It may be from Bose or from some third party, but whatever it is, there is a dock. It started as an iPod dock, and now its pretty ubiquitous since many folk have iPhones. Solves the carrying a charger problem as well.

Many hotels I go to now have a DVD player. Some even have a BluRay player. I never use these devices. I watch TV sure, but I don’t carry physical media with me.

Imagine if every hotel room has an AppleTV? No more watching crappy Pay TV but mirroring my screen with some streaming video. Or just watching stuff off VLC (I hope AirPlay works with VLC).

You’ll say that no hotel will want this. But no hotel wanted to provide fast Internet either (long distance calling killed by Skype, Pay TV killed by streaming movies, etc.). It becomes a necessity after a while. In fact many hotels now give you a free Pay TV movie per stay if you’re so inclined.

I wonder if Apple will go into the projector making space? Or if AirPlay technology will be licensed to projector makers. After all, imagine seamless sync of your video out via AirPlay to a projector, with no cables whatsoever? Great for presentations, and one dongle less to carry.

I’ll admit to not using MegaUpload much or at all. There were very few times that I’d have to download something from the site, and it could never justify me paying for premium services. That aside, I think what’s happened to Kim Dotcom and his crew at MegaUpload is completely crap. He’s right — he’s an easy target, he’s not a big company, he has been known to be flamboyant, and while he’s immensely rich, he’s not as rich as a BigCo. All that said, I’m glad he’s fighting, and I hope he takes the government to the cleaners.

As I’ve said before, the piracy problem only exists because Hollywood thinks their old models still work. I’m all for finding new ways to entertain folk, and would love to see more indie movies, etc. Kim Dotcom thinks so too:

“If the business model would be one where everyone has access to this content at the same time, you know, you wouldn’t have a piracy problem. So it’s really, in my opinion, the government of the United States protecting an outdated monopolistic business model that doesn’t work anymore in the age of the internet and that’s what it all boils down to.” – says Kim Dotcom

This is a couple of weeks old, but I encourage everyone to go watch the first interview with Kim Dotcom on New Zealand TV as soon as he got out. If you don’t have time, read the transcript.

We’re reaching an age where digital rights are going to be very important to defend, and what has happened with MegaUpload and how a business has disappeared overnight is just bad news. It can happen to you. Always remember what Martin Niemöller said:

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Via NYT: Days Are Numbered for Unlimited Mobile Data Plans

In Indonesia, nearly a third of the population is younger than 15 years old. So Telkomsel, the leading mobile operator in the country, offers a data plan called FlexiChatting for customers who want to do just one thing: gain access to and update Twitter and Facebook accounts on their cellphones.

Once more of this starts happening, we’re looking at inspecting packets. Some sites are more free than others. Consumers will love this because they save money and access services that they believe are important to them: Facebook & Twitter.

However this stifles innovation. How will the next Twitter or Facebook start? The startups that are coming to disrupt will be the underdog and will only be available to data rich folk; not the average joe.

Today I read a re-tweeted tweet by a fellow Malaysian who said:

@etp_roadmap @IdrisJala_ c what I meant u all cant change. U only RT tweets that favors U all but never on negative tweets..learn 2b fair

This is probably true. You can retweet whatever you want. Naturally, you’ll only retweet things that you find are positive to you (or align with your points of view). This is the thesis behind things like Tumblr and other reblogging platforms.

This is the beauty of Twitter as a conversation medium. You can actually just search for a string. And with the @reply mechanism, you just end up searching for “etp_roadmap” and you see heaps of amazing commentary.

Granted, this is not something everyone would do. But with social media you get the choice. With traditional media, you’re forced to look at one point of view. Letters that get published don’t necessarily have to be “independent”. Social allows those that are interested to dig deeper. This is true power.

Do the cybertroopers know this? Its easy to figure things out, if you’re looking.

It is widely stated that the late Steve Jobs had a uniform: mock turtleneck, Levis jeans, and New Balance sneakers. He did this because he didn’t want to think about what to wear daily and there was a sense of everyone being in a uniform. It didn’t catch on at Apple, but I’m sure the many fanboys do dress like him.

I’m totally with Jobs on this. In school I had a uniform. I never thought about what to wear. My last uniform at high school was a short-sleeved white shirt (long-sleeved only on Mondays afaik), blue pants, and a pair of white-ish sneakers. Oh and a blue tie. There was not much thinking, and it took a load off for me.

Nowadays, I don’t have a uniform. For most part of the 2000’s, I was just wearing free t-shirts from the various opensource projects I was involved in. After meeting Sara in 2008, I learned about the Polo tee. I’d still have to pick what shoes to wear, what pants to wear (be it shorts or long pants or jeans). I usually just ended up with cargo pants due to the many pockets that come with it.

So, my uniform lately is that I usually have a Polo t-shirt on. I’ve not figured out how to ease the pants problem — sometimes its shorts, sometimes its jeans, sometimes its pants. I very rarely need to wear a suit. I’ve also not figured out footwear.

All that aside, the idea of a uniform makes sense. I’m still figuring out what’s useful for me. Here’s to cracking the uniform code!

This is my first time in Spain and I’m happy to say I’ve visited Granada and Barcelona all in one. Some quick notes:

• This is an EU nation, yet you’ll have to fill in some kind of landing form if you’re not an EU national. They don’t ask you to retain the departure card, preferring instead to keep the whole sheet. It proved no issue leaving the country either.
• Churros are meant to be eaten with thick hot chocolate. No wonder people gave me funny looks when I just ate it as is.
• The Spanish are friendly. A fairly good looking person just sat across me on my table at breakfast one morning. Upon looking up only did she realize she should have asked first.
• The cuisine is awesome. Lots of little dishes. Olives stuffed with anchovies in brine. Fried green peppers. Paella served with an obligatory sangria. The list goes on and on. Sometimes though I found some of the tapas a little too salty for my liking.
• Getting an English-language newspaper is a challenge in Granada, on Spanair, in the Barcelona airport lounges. In Barcelona though, international hotels and the Ramblas area will serve up some English magazines as well as the Financial Times.
• Siesta is something I cannot fathom/get used to. Yes, it is a significantly lengthy lunch hour, but I guess its something cultural.
• Speaking English is a challenge. Hotel staff too find it difficult to understand sometimes. And outside of Barcelona/Madrid, it’s going to be hard to find an international chain, so be prepared to speak slowly and explain yourself clearly.
• Pretty much everything (retail) is closed on Sunday in Barcelona. Save for shopping malls. Gasp!
• There are over fifteen Michelin-star rated restaurants in Barcelona. Make sure you get bookings in up to two weeks in advance. Many finer restaurants also have tasting menus (which really are set menus, IMHO).
• Beware the Ramblas area. Plenty of places tell you, you can get three tapas and a drink for a certain sum of money, but the tapas is always limited to what they choose, and the drink tends to be really small. In Barcelona you pay for your tapas, it doesn’t come for free when you order your drink. Don’t be fooled by paella on the streets either — ask what you’re getting (chicken paella is quite a common set menu dish). I found it a nice street to walk on, but eating I picked elsewhere.
• On a Saturday night, within a 10km radius of the Ramblas area, the most popular destination checked-in on Foursquare had 14 people. Not a huge number by any means. Recommendations are mostly in Spanish on the service, so it proved to be hard to decipher for me.
• Finding WiFi is not really common. Of course around the touristic areas many places offer up wifi with a drink.
• Cava is common. Its like Spanish champagne/bubbly. It is also cheap. Don’t hesitate to ask for a glass before lunch/dinner.
• Cafe Zurich at the end of Ramblas is a very nice place to sit and people watch. In fact people sit in a Parisian fashion looking towards the street.
• There’s a market in the middle of the Ramblas area. Reminds me of Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. They even give you a map. Very colourful, nice to take pictures of, and clearly its a destination in itself.
• Television here is all pretty much Spanish-based. English shows dubbed in Spanish. There usually is some variant of CNN or BBC though for an English-language fix.