MystOnline goes open source

From Cyan As you may be aware, Cyan’s situation has not improved on the “resources” front. We continue to work on small projects (including Myst for the iPhone/iPod Touch), and it looks like we will only be able to concentrate on projects that are fully funded for the foreseeable future. … So, Cyan has decided … Continue reading “MystOnline goes open source”

From Cyan

As you may be aware, Cyan’s situation has not improved on the “resources” front. We continue to work on small projects (including Myst for the iPhone/iPod Touch), and it looks like we will only be able to concentrate on projects that are fully funded for the foreseeable future.

So, Cyan has decided to give make MystOnline available to the fans by releasing the source code for the servers, client and tools for MystOnline as an open source project. We will also host a data server with the data for MystOnline. MORE is still possible but only with the help from fans.

To be honest, I’ve never spent a lot of time playing Myst but the content and way it was done were superb.

I’d be interested in finding a group of people who wanted to do something with this. We’d need artists, 3D designers and a whole slew of other people.

But kinda exciting, eh?

I did play MYST for a while and looked over shoulders while RIVEN was being played. I never got around to even looking at URU though. I am heartened by the news they’re making Myst for iPhone though.

NiMUG Meeting tonight, Monday 15th December

NiMUG (The Northern Ireland Mac User Group) is meeting tonight (Monday 15th December) in Windsor Lawn Tennis Club. Agenda Mixing Music – using Ableton Live (courtesy of Sonic Academy). Sonic Academy were one of the winners of the DETI Broadband Initiative. They provide standardised, accredited and bespoke training for aspiring DJs both face to face … Continue reading “NiMUG Meeting tonight, Monday 15th December”

NiMUG (The Northern Ireland Mac User Group) is meeting tonight (Monday 15th December) in Windsor Lawn Tennis Club.

Agenda

  • Mixing Music – using Ableton Live (courtesy of Sonic Academy). Sonic Academy were one of the winners of the DETI Broadband Initiative. They provide standardised, accredited and bespoke training for aspiring DJs both face to face and delivered from their web site. Sonic Academy also scooped the Creative Industries award at the Belfast Business Awards in November and were also interviewed on the Digital Circle podcast.
  • Troubleshooting and Housekeeping – keeping your Mac running during the Credit Crunch!

The venue is Windsor Lawn Tennis Club which is located on Windsor Avenue in Belfast. There’s plenty of parking.

We’ll definitely have tables, WiFi and seats. Mac-Sys did buy a Projector we can borrow as well. The meeting will starts at 7 pm and we’ll aim to finish up at 9 pm. The format is still very fast and loose. We still want volunteers to give demos. The turnout will be the best gauge of success!

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More on stolen time…

Following on from yesterdays post – how much time have you spent writing on Twitter? Add to that you’ll have to guess how much time you’ve spent reading Tweets. Are we feeling productive yet? Related posts: DE-clutter Twitter: so how does it make money? Ten Apps I Want… iPad Adventures in TwitterLand

Following on from yesterdays post – how much time have you spent writing on Twitter?

Add to that you’ll have to guess how much time you’ve spent reading Tweets.

Are we feeling productive yet?

Thief of Time! Stop!

Bob Walsh of 47Hats.com tells us to stop stealing: But I know you’re stealing – and so do your friends, your coworkers, the girl you’re trying to impress. We all know. What you’re stealing is time from yourself. You grab a few minutes here, a web site there, pop an IM with a friend, check … Continue reading “Thief of Time! Stop!”

Bob Walsh of 47Hats.com tells us to stop stealing:

But I know you’re stealing – and so do your friends, your coworkers, the girl you’re trying to impress. We all know.

What you’re stealing is time from yourself.

You grab a few minutes here, a web site there, pop an IM with a friend, check out a cool new and shiny thing online and you don’t even remember doing it 10 minutes later. When you do things that hurt yourself and you can’t remember doing them, you need help.

I’ve made a super conscious effort to remain as productive as I can and this week, it’s come out in the form of finishing off a heap of blog post drafts I’ve been neglecting, finally sorting out the AdSense stuff I meant to do ages ago, getting my Paypal account in order, re-writing another chapter of the book I’m reprinting in the new year and tomorrow I’m going to de-procrastinate on two important things I’ve put off too long (one of them being to get new tyres on the car).

I think it is important, however, when you’re comfortable with the new social media networks like FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, that you use them to your benefit. It’s important to realise that a lot of data which flows through these networks is just like a river. You walk up to a river and appreciate the beauty of the water flowing but you don’t lament the water which flowed yesterday and you’re not concerned about missing the water which will flow tomorrow. That’s what Twitter and these other networks should be – it’s about the present – and not about what you missed and what is yet to come (and highlights the utter stupidity of using an @message to pass important information).

He follows up with “5 Strategies to stop stealing time from yourself”. There’s no secrets here. It’s why apps like WriteRoom did so well – people know they need to remove distractions to get things done – (which is why I sequestered myself in a side office the other day and why I spent today away from the office. I needed to think and didn’t want to get involved in the day to day banter and allow myself to get distracted.

TED: reviving Creativity

Via Stut: Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity. Larry Lessig, the Nets most celebrated lawyer, cites John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights and the “ASCAP cartel” in his argument for reviving our creative culture. Related posts: Take a couple of minutes … Continue reading “TED: reviving Creativity”

Via Stut:

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

Larry Lessig, the Nets most celebrated lawyer, cites John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights and the “ASCAP cartel” in his argument for reviving our creative culture.

WiFi Shakeup in Norn Iron needed

Another day another small WiFi company – all of them scrabbling for pennies with hotspots measured in the ‘tens’ as opposed to the ‘hundreds’ and the value they bring? Access WiFi in hotels for a few quid an hour. There has to be a better way. Related posts: I honestly can’t remember the last time … Continue reading “WiFi Shakeup in Norn Iron needed”

Another day another small WiFi company – all of them scrabbling for pennies with hotspots measured in the ‘tens’ as opposed to the ‘hundreds’ and the value they bring? Access WiFi in hotels for a few quid an hour. There has to be a better way.

Experience and Attention

Matt Gemmell writes about the complaints about the iPhone NDA, DRM and requirements for certificates. You’re talking about Linux, for christ’s sake. What the hell is wrong with you? If that’s your bag, sod off and install SUSE on your brick and have fun writing your own GPL’d Bluetooth stack. We’ll all still be here, … Continue reading “Experience and Attention”

Matt Gemmell writes about the complaints about the iPhone NDA, DRM and requirements for certificates.

You’re talking about Linux, for christ’s sake. What the hell is wrong with you?

If that’s your bag, sod off and install SUSE on your brick and have fun writing your own GPL’d Bluetooth stack. We’ll all still be here, using our teeny-tiny touchscreen motherfucking sex-phone which is actually going to still be around and commercially viable in 2 year’s time. With AppleCare

This is definitely how I feel about the iPhone when related to OpenMoko and the LiMo linux-based phones though I’m somewhat more confident about the Android efforts. While I think Android will have it’s own job cut out for it by entering a marketplace already hard-fought with Nokia’s Symbian, Windows Mobile and Apple’s iPhone (I suppose we can add Palm in there? Maybe?).

Android brings with it a glut of software. Some will be good, some will be bad. What’s missing from the Android solution seems to be a viable ‘business plan’ other than making money from advertising. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again – I’m the only altruist I trust and Google, with their massive advertising network, is not going to be giving an operating system away free. They care about making sure that as the web goes mobile, they own the sidewalk.

The fact remains, however, if you want handset ‘freedom’ then develop for Android or Symbian. But you take your risks when you do that, like anyone else. We don’t know how that market will play out, whether there will be a market for non-free software at all. And being paid in ‘eyeballs’ doesn’t ring right to me.

By ‘market, of course, I mean ‘money’.

The market for web apps seems to be all about ‘attention’. It’s whether you can keep someone’s eyeballs focussed on the screen long enough to provide them with some advertising to look at. Looking at web based applications, I have to still wonder about the business plans and I fear the lonegvity of any business plan that relies on advertising. On the other hand, I can see people paying to avoid advertising, whether that’s to a service/software provider (a la Twitterific) or to a company which will block advertising using proxy/blacklist/DNS hacks.

In contrast, I would hope the market for mobile software (exemplified by the iPhone) seems to be in ‘experience’. I chose my Twitter client for the iPhone based on experience: Twitterific and Twittelator just didn’t cut it for me and Twinkle provides the right amount of access to my tweets with the added advantage of seeing everyone ‘nearby’.

I’ll for the experience and it takes hard work to create an app that provides experience rather than one that just demands attention.

Open Source Social

I meant to blog this ages ago. It’s a list of open source social platforms and tools – some of which would be very useful for Digital Circle or similar groups. Elgg– Social networking engine Elgg coming soon in two flavors – Classic Elgg and the soon to be released Elgg 1.0. Elgg looks very … Continue reading “Open Source Social”

I meant to blog this ages ago. It’s a list of open source social platforms and tools – some of which would be very useful for Digital Circle or similar groups.

ElggSocial networking engine Elgg coming soon in two flavors – Classic Elgg and the soon to be released Elgg 1.0. Elgg looks very ‘facebook’-y and might be useful for a group of real-world contacts who have a lot of interest together – perhaps a club around a community?

PliggAn OS content management system providing an interactive website for users to submit, vote and discuss web-based content. This is, more than anything,a DIGG/REDDIT clone. But it’s going to be one way for groups who would normally email each other with news headlines with an RSS-based web site which will provide all those features and more.

MaharaE-portfolio social networking software developed for the education community, and including a r̩sum̩ builder/digital CV. The Mahara project is based in New Zealand, with partner organisations in Japan and the UK.. This would seem to be the most suitable for something like Digital Circle Рpart of the plan is to create some sort of profile of the Northern Ireland industry so that if we need to find skilled people, we need look no further than down the street rather than looking across the seas and oceans.

There are other tools and platforms on that web site – these are just the ones which inspired me.

Contractual negotiations

Dealing with Governments Well of course a customer can ask for whatever they want and demand whatever they want and throw out whatever proposal they want. Fine, but it’s “their loss.” I’m just mystified why some organizations operate that way, but they do. When dealing with monolithic organisations you have the choice to do it … Continue reading “Contractual negotiations”

Dealing with Governments

Well of course a customer can ask for whatever they want and demand whatever they want and throw out whatever proposal they want. Fine, but it’s “their loss.” I’m just mystified why some organizations operate that way, but they do.

When dealing with monolithic organisations you have the choice to do it “their way or the highway” so the post linked above is typical and, frankly, a good pre-amble to going into any public procurement process.

It might even make you laugh.

Hypenotized?

Link “Macintosh share is still just a small fraction of Windows’ share, but Microsoft is treating Apple like not just a challenger, but as the opinion leader. Microsoft is responding to Apple’s marketing, and what’s worse, it’s bragging about it in public. What an incredible turnaround from Steve Jobs’ first days back at Apple, less … Continue reading “Hypenotized?”

Link

“Macintosh share is still just a small fraction of Windows’ share, but Microsoft is treating Apple like not just a challenger, but as the opinion leader. Microsoft is responding to Apple’s marketing, and what’s worse, it’s bragging about it in public. What an incredible turnaround from Steve Jobs’ first days back at Apple, less than ten years ago, when Bill Gates appeared on the big screen and Jobs publicly kowtowed to him.”

I’d have to agree that the transformation is amazing but I think it’s premature to think that Apple is really winning anything – but Redmond is correct to respond to them as a challenger. Microsoft knows they have traditionally been slow to respond to proper challenges which is, after all, how they managed to lose the Internet the first time round (to Netscape) and the second time round (to Google).

What else would you do in their position?

Of course, you’d be working on trying to identify possible challengers and killing them when they’re small. If you let them get too large then when you make your move everyone starts screaming monopoly.