Commentary – Page 56

“We’ve been profitable from day one”

This is easy for service-based businesses which operate in a cash transaction world. When I started Mac-Sys, we were earning money from Day One but that’s not the same as being profitable. When you can do a piece of work and then get paid for it, that’s being profitable. In this TNW article about “Why … Continue reading ““We’ve been profitable from day one””

In this TNW article about “Why should you want to pay for apps“, Tapbots co-founder Paul Haddad says “We’ve been profitable since day one”. I’m not saying he’s wrong but in the months that it took to build their first product, I’m presuming they had living expenses while they worked on their first product, WeightBot.

This is why so many companies start out as a second job. Smart developers and designers who have time on their hands and an itch to scratch.

In a depressed region with salaries 20% lower than the UK average and an economy dependent on low wage jobs (call centres etc) and public sector subsidies and with higher living expenses (due to shipping costs, lack of economies of scale), it’s going to be harder to start things. And it pretty much eaves folk who are not designers and developers by trade out in the cold. Maybe these folk without the requisite skills have no business in starting technology businesses?

Maybe that’s the problem. We have subsidies in place to help people who are not technologists with skills to create technology businesses. Maybe we’ve been looking at this the wrong way.

IPad Theft in Lisburn update

A few weeks ago I mentioned on my Twitter stream that an iPad had been stolen in Lisburn. Two of the lads identified as thieving that iPad from a young man with learning difficulties in Lisburn were ‘Darren’ and ‘Luke’, the latter was driving a small silver car, apparently a hatchback. Three of the four … Continue reading “IPad Theft in Lisburn update”

A few weeks ago I mentioned on my Twitter stream that an iPad had been stolen in Lisburn.

Two of the lads identified as thieving that iPad from a young man with learning difficulties in Lisburn were ‘Darren’ and ‘Luke’, the latter was driving a small silver car, apparently a hatchback. Three of the four lads were dark haired, one was fair haired.

They talked their way into the house and when his back was turned, they made off with his iPad.

If you know of where the iPad went, please send along some information. We are all deeply saddened by this.

Location: it’s a feature, not a bug

Apple came under fire this week as it was revealed (by a research paper dating back to 2010) that a file is created and maintained on the iOS system which contains location data for every time you have queried location services. For me, as you can see from previous posts), it presented a way to … Continue reading “Location: it’s a feature, not a bug”

Apple came under fire this week as it was revealed (by a research paper dating back to 2010) that a file is created and maintained on the iOS system which contains location data for every time you have queried location services. For me, as you can see from previous posts), it presented a way to map my movements. No big deal as you can also see, I publish my movements live on Latitude.

At no point is it true (at the moment) that this location data is sent anywhere. It is stored on your phone so if you lose your phone to a wily thief who cares where you drink coffee more than he or she cares about your contacts database, browser history, cookies and access to your email, then you may be in trouble. But it’s not stopped quite a few journalists from making the accusation that Apple knows where you’ve been and is obviously using this to beef up iAds or something even more sinister!

It turns out that Android does the same – the difference being that they only store the last 50 entries. This is entirely sensible and highlights an error in the way Apple was handling this data. It’s not clear whether this data is transmitted to Google (and with their recent history, it would not surprise me) but we should probably wait until it’s confirmed. A sceptic might suggest that Google only stores the last 50 entries on device because it uploads them to their secret Texan datacentre constantly anyway but I’ll not accuse here.

The bottom line is that Google is handling the caching of the data correctly and Apple is not. But it makes me really want desktop and mobile apps for visualising my location data over time and having this as an opt-in service or better still ‘an app’ is obviously what I want. Latitude does a half-assed job of recording and a worse job of reporting and it’s the reports that I’m interested in. I want to see where I go. At what speeds.

So where are the apps that really do Location well?

So how come my Phone has been to places I have not?

Following on from my last post which described my consolidated.db location database: My guess? Wifi-positioning. When we were on the cruise last year (on the Independence of the Seas) and connected to the WiFi on board, every time we launched maps, it would show us a location somewhere near Florida/the Caribbean. I think that’s where … Continue reading “So how come my Phone has been to places I have not?”

Following on from my last post which described my consolidated.db location database:

My guess? Wifi-positioning.

When we were on the cruise last year (on the Independence of the Seas) and connected to the WiFi on board, every time we launched maps, it would show us a location somewhere near Florida/the Caribbean. I think that’s where the WiFi access point had last been surveyed by whatever lookup was being used. So while connected, we must be where the database said we were.

As access points are now more mobile (there were hundreds of them in the WWDC keynote hall last summer), WiFi positioning is likely going to be quite accurate but have a few outliers like this as you are triangulating on a WiFi access point which was surveyed (by chance) in a different place. Normally there will be enough access points to correct for this error but not on a ship in the middle of the Mediterranean.

Likewise, if your phone has connected to a very weak signal on a distant, elevated cell tower, it may use that for positioning rather than more local sources. It does happen, just infrequently.

Plus – this only records position when you ask it to record position. On my iPhone, that’s a constant thing. On others, it may only get accessed when launching maps. And, of course, you can turn Location Services off.

Where have you been?

Using iPhoneTracker, you can map your movements on your last synced devices: Hot damn, I would PAY GOOD MONEY for an app that did this nicely. And then compared with other lifestreams… Related posts: Open Data Muni WiFi: escape the Dialup Dark Ages Top 3 issues… “Music: an aperitif for the maw of Digital”

Using iPhoneTracker, you can map your movements on your last synced devices:

Where has my iPad 3G been in Northern Ireland?

This was our holiday cruise last year. Good memories!

Also to Brussels and Amsterdam. For work.

And California..including a wine tour with mmalc

Fascinating pattern of checkpoints in San Francisco

Hot damn, I would PAY GOOD MONEY for an app that did this nicely. And then compared with other lifestreams…

Claim: Apple won’t make a TV

CDixon writes: The TV industry is a major segment of the consumer electronics industry and Apple is the leading consumer electronics company in the world. Thus far Apple has entered the TV market with a stand-alone device, Apple TV. There has been speculation about whether Apple might enter the TV market by creating an actual … Continue reading “Claim: Apple won’t make a TV”

CDixon writes:

The TV industry is a major segment of the consumer electronics industry and Apple is the leading consumer electronics company in the world. Thus far Apple has entered the TV market with a stand-alone device, Apple TV. There has been speculation about whether Apple might enter the TV market by creating an actual TV. The most convincing objections to that idea cite the unfavorable industry structure: the power of the cable operators, the low margins on TVs, the infrequency of people buying new TVs, etc.

As Chris says, Apple entered the mobile phone market and took over but that’s no reason to think they’ll do the same with television. Phones are intensely personal devices. You take them everywhere. But we’re still kind of tied to the idea that we “go to” a television to consume the content.

The only issue here is the assumption that ‘television’ is a thing and not a service. The cable networks are getting it. Deliver TV over IP to devices which can be played by the user anywhere in their home. It is essentially the opposite of Google TV. They’ll be able to deliver more content, in unskippable ad segments, to more people with more simultaneous targeting. No sense in sending tampon ads to JimmySmith123 and no sense in marketing high end HDMI cables to JennySmith1974.

Better still – let Jimmy send his video over AirPlay to the 60″ Plasma in the den with his brewskis and let Jenny enjoy SatC in the living room with a rum and coke. And when they change room, the video moves with them.

Remember the cut Apple takes from subscriptions? Apple will be making money off the subscriptions, I think they’re happy.

People have to remember that Apple used to be in the TV business. They built tuners into multiple lines of computers and their remotes were pretty nice too. But even for folk like me, two screens was a better way.

I’m prepared to say that Apple won’t enter the TV market the way they entered the mobile phone market. I reckon their move will be to license AirPlay to television set manufacturers and then enable iPad to output all video to AirPlay, negating the need for a long HDMI cable. So yes, Apple won’t make a TV. But they’ll do well in all of our living rooms and dens.

The RCs don’t get #BigSociety

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales describes David Cameron’s Big Society initiative as “toothless”. Archbishop Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, told the Sunday Telegraph: “It is all very well to deliver speeches about the need for greater voluntary activity, but there needs to be some practical solutions. He wants practical … Continue reading “The RCs don’t get #BigSociety”

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales describes David Cameron’s Big Society initiative as “toothless”.

Archbishop Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, told the Sunday Telegraph: “It is all very well to deliver speeches about the need for greater voluntary activity, but there needs to be some practical solutions.

He wants practical solutions from the government. The representative of a rich ‘benevolent’ nation which receives a tax from some UK residents wants the government to do more with a proposal which is all about the government being unable to do everything and about the high street punter taking personal responsibility.

Moron.

FEAR

From Lloyd Davis: Yesterday I heard someone say “Fear can either stand for ‘Fuck Everything And Run’ or ‘Face Everything And Recover’“ I get frustrated some times when things don’t go my way. And there are times when a lot of things don’t work out how you hoped. Like the time I invested in a … Continue reading “FEAR”

From Lloyd Davis:

Yesterday I heard someone say “Fear can either stand for ‘Fuck Everything And Run’ or ‘Face Everything And Recover’“

I get frustrated some times when things don’t go my way. And there are times when a lot of things don’t work out how you hoped. Like the time I invested in a startup and it took four years to show profit and never paid me a damn cent. Or the other time I invested in a startup and helped them get their first deal and I got bloody nothing out of that one too. Do I need to mention my publishing company that I pulled the plug on because I was sick of doing 90% of the work? Or any of another number of efforts that don’t stick because for almost everything, one man is not enough. Especially when that one man can’t write a line of code or design a straight line. So, yes, I’ve had my share of downs, I like to think.

@CraicDesign said:

you’re made of sterner stuff than me to be able to even try..

@IanRobinson wrote:

Sometimes King Sisyphus is a good role model. Giving up won’t fix anything.

The events today may have knocked me down a little but I’m unfortunately too stupid to give up. So I leave you with this.

Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology. Where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!