Commentary – Page 98

CoWorking: profit or non-profit

LaunchPad CoWorking An interview with Jerome Chang, founder of Blankspaces: Spike: Youâ€™re also using a for-profit business model (as is LaunchPad Coworking). How did you decide on this model? Did you take any heat for it? Jerome: Iâ€™m all for pushing collaboration and communities â€” if profit is what it takes to generate more participants … Continue reading “CoWorking: profit or non-profit”

LaunchPad CoWorking
An interview with Jerome Chang, founder of Blankspaces:

Spike: Youâ€™re also using a for-profit business model (as is LaunchPad Coworking). How did you decide on this model? Did you take any heat for it?
Jerome: Iâ€™m all for pushing collaboration and communities â€” if profit is what it takes to generate more participants and advance the cultural movement, then profit it is. Between the time and effort, money, and liability, we should be rewarded for that contribution and exposure. Besides, I didnâ€™t know about coworking at all until Iâ€™d already started construction, so I was not â€œinfluencedâ€ by the altruism.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that a Co-Working site needs to be a ‘company’ as opposed to a ‘charity’.

I’ve seen lots of non-profits fall by the wayside due to the founders needing to move on and it’s hard to find people with the right mentality to take over. I’ve seen non-profits founder because without the extra edge of needing to make a profit (and reaping benefits thereof) the good will can vanish.

I’m well aware that people working at a non-profit can draw salaries and that the non-profit moniker has been used in order to attract attention while the ‘workers’ draw insanely large salaries. I guess I’m not comfortable hiding behind the tax benefits of a non-profit while engaged in something that is creating things ‘for profit’.

But let’s run with the current school of thought. That CoWorkingBelfast will be a non-profit organisation.

That said – if I have anything to do with it, CoWorkingBelfast will have to be a shining light and not just a damp squib. I want it to be excellent, a model place to work and not just a set of desks in a dreary room above a bank. It has to make enough money to survive and prosper and not just be a half-empty space which has to resort to arcane marketing schemes disguised as trade shows in order to generate a bit of coin.

Part of the Co-Working Belfast ethos should, in my opinion, to create ‘industry culture’ in Northern Ireland. That’s got to be more than just creating a web portal (and how many of those have sprung up in the last year or so) but the creation of a lasting legacy, a tradition of fostering creativity in the technology sector. CoWorking is not about technology itself – it’s about connecting people where they were not previously connected.

Part of the culture of CoWorking Belfast should not only be the opportunities and connections which are brought about by proximity but also the potential for fostering tomorrow’s industry (you know, the people who will be paying taxes when you and I are in a home for the elderly). I have a plan which consists of nothing more than a couple of pledges, a holding page on a web site and a monthly bill which I’ll work to find sponsorship for – which will be wholly dedicated to finding people with energy, be they young in body or just young in mind, and giving them a place to work and express their creativity as well as providing mentoring (by using and abusing the people housed in the CoWorking building) – more on this later.

Through this meandering post I’m convincing myself that CoWorkingBelfast can be a no-profit. What do you think?

Blog by Train

Nigel Cooke (monkeynuts) was debating an eee PC or trying the iPhone out… So there you have it – full blogging on the train. I must admit Iâ€™m very impressed with how natural this feels. The whole post, including proof reading, has taken about 6 minutes (which includes ponderous moments of white wine intake) Monkey … Continue reading “Blog by Train”

Nigel Cooke (monkeynuts) was debating an eee PC or trying the iPhone out...

So there you have it – full blogging on the train. I must admit Iâ€™m very impressed with how natural this feels. The whole post, including proof reading, has taken about 6 minutes (which includes ponderous moments of white wine intake)

Monkey is gonna like this ! Oh and during this blog post Iâ€™ve taken 2 calls from the office, replied to 3 emails and sent a calendar invite to 10 people for Monday morning. Ladies and Gents I give you the future, and itâ€™s iPhone shaped!

I’m impressed as well.

HerIndoors has decreed that no laptops will be making the journey with us on our two week holiday after the wedding. None. That’s quite frightening considering that I’m used to having a multipurpose computing platform close by at all times. And being stuck with something that doesn’t have a keyboard, can’t print, can’t really transfer files around and has finite storage (though 16 GB is an awful lot).

But two weeks without an iPhone sync? Or a refresh of materials?

See, my intent is to spend the two weeks blogging from around the world. I reckon it will cost me an arm and a leg in terms of mobile data but it should be worth it in the end. How better to mark an occasion.

Maemo now supports Twitter

Maemo now supports Twitter Still looks gawdawful. Especially compared to Twinkle, the latest of the iPhone Twitter apps: I still find it hard to justify breaking out my N800 when I have an iPhone. The UI is still like wading through molasses. Related posts: Nokia N800 versus iPod touch Google Calendar? 30 Boxes? Yahoo!? Entourage … Continue reading “Maemo now supports Twitter”

Maemo now supports Twitter

Still looks gawdawful. Especially compared to Twinkle, the latest of the iPhone Twitter apps:

I still find it hard to justify breaking out my N800 when I have an iPhone. The UI is still like wading through molasses.

The Office iPhone

Rob from SMSTextNews writes about the iPhone: I used to work for an agency that believed that Macs were better at everything. It would spend a fortune on a Mac and then only use it to do MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the interweb. It did seem like a waste of money, especially as the … Continue reading “The Office iPhone”

Rob from SMSTextNews writes about the iPhone:

I used to work for an agency that believed that Macs were better at everything. It would spend a fortune on a Mac and then only use it to do MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the interweb. It did seem like a waste of money, especially as the company in question wasnâ€™t the best payer out there.

Oh man, when you read this, you know that the article is going to be more fluff than content. Obviously you don’t need a Mac if you’re just using email, a web browser and office productivity applications. I mean why would you want a Mac – aren’t they just the same thing?

No, Rob, they’re not. Even if all I did was use Word and Powerpoint and Excel and Interweb, I’d still want to be doing it on a Mac. Inability to fathom the difference this would make just means that the rest of your post can be easily categorised into “He just doesn’t get it”.

You see, apparently the iPhone is now being adopted by more companies as an all-purpose communications device.

Iâ€™m not that surprised that itâ€™s being adopted. Having tried both I think Iâ€™d still rather have the CrackBerry 8120 especially as it has WiFi on it. Itâ€™s not pretending to be something else.
I have an iPod (two in fact) and so never listen to music on the phone. I have a camera. I have a phone. I donâ€™t really check the web on my phone because itâ€™s rarely that urgent. So, that leaves me with the need for email and, quite simply, Blackberry is perfect for this. Especially as it has keys to easily type one.

Having used both BlackBerry and iPhone within the last two years, I see little evidence to suggest that having keys makes it easier to type. In fact, the presence of keys just seemed to eat up real estate on the device. For someone who wants to carry two iPods, one camera and a phone and who has no need to web browse on the phone, a BlackBerry might make some sense. For me, the availability of my media, the ease of use of email and the web, the flexibility of the App Store, the sheer screen real estate and even the fact it has a camera, albeit a poor one, make the iPhone the convergence device for me. I don’t carry other devices out and about (and when I do, it’s the full gamut of 17″ laptop, solar chargers, maybe even the N800).

I guess “He just doesn’t get it”.

Belfast Image Rip Off

This is an absolute disgrace, never mind that it seems this logo was probably ripped off from http://www.rebtel.com/en/ or http://babyboom.bigcartel.com/ Related posts: Holiday plans in June: Roaming Data Roaming in the EU. And not in the EU. Location-aware OpenGov & Crowdsourced Data Pixish: a new site where you can create image contests.

This is an absolute disgrace, never mind that it seems this logo was probably ripped off from http://www.rebtel.com/en/ or http://babyboom.bigcartel.com/

WordPress for iPhone

The WordPress client for iPhone was released today. This is a test though as you can see, it’s missing a bit of spit’n’polish but otherwise seems to have hit the nail on the head. Maybe I’m a bit stupid but while I can add images to the WordPress library on the phone, there seems no … Continue reading “WordPress for iPhone”

The WordPress client for iPhone was released today. This is a test though as you can see, it’s missing a bit of spit’n’polish but otherwise seems to have hit the nail on the head.

Maybe I’m a bit stupid but while I can add images to the WordPress library on the phone, there seems no obvious way to add them to the posts.

[Oh. That sucks. It just puts the images in at the end. There’s no formatting for them. Ew.]

Going Solar: first steps

A couple of weeks ago I bought a FreeLoader solar battery which is expressly designed to recharge your little tech gadgets. This week, I added a supercharger to it (that’s the large green thing). The whole kit itself costs about Â£50. It’s not terribly sunny here but the freeloader battery charges in about 8 hours … Continue reading “Going Solar: first steps”

It’s not terribly sunny here but the freeloader battery charges in about 8 hours by itself and in about 3 hours with the supercharger. This battery will then (in turn) provide about a half-charge to a Nokia N800 or iPhone 3G.

Having the unit in direct sunshine charges it quicker, having it behind glass in my living room (which is sheltered) makes it recharge much slower. You can also fast-charge it over USB which you would think defeats the purpose but this is about being able to get your gadgets power when you need it.

I think this kit will be very useful during the next few weeks and after that I’ll be looking at a bigger project. Like powering the TV at home.

Oh, it also comes in pink.

Garden Leave

In the United Kingdom, Garden leave (or gardening leave) describes the practice of instructing an employee who is leaving an employer (following a resignation, or having been made redundant or otherwise terminated) to stay away from work during their notice period. The practice is often used to prevent employees from working for the employer’s competitors … Continue reading “Garden Leave”

In the United Kingdom, Garden leave (or gardening leave) describes the practice of instructing an employee who is leaving an employer (following a resignation, or having been made redundant or otherwise terminated) to stay away from work during their notice period. The practice is often used to prevent employees from working for the employer’s competitors for a period of time.

Today is the first day of my Garden Leave from $BIG_COMPANY and it started with a telephone call from the US-based 24/7 call centre wanting some help due to a failed overnight automatic job on one of the production systems. I had to tell him which team in New York to call because my pass, logins and remote access were all revoked Friday and there’s no-one left in Belfast since my leaving.

I’d only place an employee on Garden Leave if I thought there was a real danger of them getting pissed off during the notice period as anyone who has admin-level access and held a grudge would surely have placed all their time-bombs and stolen their secrets before handing in their notice. So, yeah, it’s kinda stupid. I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth however and have settled nicely into not having to get up at 05:30 and there’s a Cocoa book sitting beside me that I should get some time to open.

Nice to see that communication had gone through and the contact wiki pages were all updated. As some of these agents keep their own little contact lists, I’m expecting some more calls over the next few weeks.

Reading Google Reader offline

It’s taken me an age but I finally caught up with my feeds in Google Reader. Being mobile and not always with my laptop meant that Google Reader became an essential tool for managing my blogs. It meant ditching Vienna (which was my feed reader du jour). Moving all of my feeds to the iPhone … Continue reading “Reading Google Reader offline”

It’s taken me an age but I finally caught up with my feeds in Google Reader.

Being mobile and not always with my laptop meant that Google Reader became an essential tool for managing my blogs. It meant ditching Vienna (which was my feed reader du jour). Moving all of my feeds to the iPhone would have been a real pain which is why I was incredibly excited to learn that there was an RSS reader for iPhone which read directly from Google Reader.

Byline, by Milo Bird from London, is a cheap download and shows some amazing polish for a single developer. If it could show/play embedded Youtube links the way Safari does in the OS2.0 version, then it would simply be perfect.

MOT lawsuit validates Apple’s iPhone

From the Chicago Tribune: “Schaumburg-based mobile phone-maker Motorola Inc. has sued a former executive, accusing him of disclosing trade secrets to aid current employer Apple Inc. Michael Fenger in March ended an almost six-year career at Motorola, where he was a vice president for its mobile-device business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He … Continue reading “MOT lawsuit validates Apple’s iPhone”

From the Chicago Tribune:

“Schaumburg-based mobile phone-maker Motorola Inc. has sued a former executive, accusing him of disclosing trade secrets to aid current employer Apple Inc.

Michael Fenger in March ended an almost six-year career at Motorola, where he was a vice president for its mobile-device business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is now Apple’s vice president for global iPhone sales, according to a complaint filed in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago.

“He was privy to the pricing, margins, customer initiatives, allocation of resources, product development, multiyear-product, business and talent planning, and strategies being used by Motorola,” according to the complaint filed late Thursday.”

Couple of comments.

Fenger’s current work with Apple can’t have started before March of this year so he’s currently brought nothing to the company. I understand he may have ht the ground running but really he’s probably just managed to get his business cards printed

Does this not validate Apple as a competitor in the mobile space, albeit to a company which has lost $1.5 billion in the last 18 months and shows little or no promise of making a compelling product since sitting on their laurels with the RAZR.

Why does MOT even care? Same month as Fenger left, MOT announced they planned to rid themselves of the mobile phone division. Hard to believe that one is not linked to the other. And if MOT is getting out of the mobile phone business, then Apple can hardly be a competitor.

There is, of course, debate on whether Motorola’s strategies, pricing, initiatives, product development and resource allocation is something that Apple would seek to emulate. Or whether Motorola is simply emulating Apple of the 1990s.

But, most relevantly, California’s Business & Professions Code Section 16600 is quite simple and means what it says: California law treats as “not worth the paper it is written on” any provision, contract term or purported “agreement” that prevents them from working for a competitor or to work for him or herself. Whether he actually ‘stole’ information or not, this is going to be something hard to prove for by MOT.