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A Darwinian World?

Someone commented on Twitter that if you believe in Evolution then you should be in support of a Free Market. (I am going to ignore the difference between Evolution and Natural Selection for this discussion because the commenter at the time didn’t seem to grasp it). The premise here is that because I believe, as … Continue reading “A Darwinian World?”

Someone commented on Twitter that if you believe in Evolution then you should be in support of a Free Market. (I am going to ignore the difference between Evolution and Natural Selection for this discussion because the commenter at the time didn’t seem to grasp it).

The premise here is that because I believe, as a humanist and a scientist, in the theory of natural selection, that I must therefore apply the process of Survival of the Fittest to every walk of life.

This is an obvious non-sequitur.

I believe natural selection exists because I have seen evidence (such as the Peppered Moth) to support it. However, I would not wish to live in a truly Darwinian world where the only method of survival was to be the strongest, the toughest, the most capable.

As a race, humans have permitted their intelligence to create civilisation. We have worked together to create a society where pursuits such as art, poetry, writing and the playing of games, have become valuable. These pursuits act directly in the face of traditional natural selection (though they themselves may be selected for in a population depending on the social trends of the time).

So how does this relate to a Free Market?

Well, it doesn’t. The position that a belief in Natural Selection should mean the application of this theory to every walk of life is typical of someone who neither understands society nor evolution nor natural selection. Humans do not wish to live in a Darwinian society – we have laws to prevent this. We cannot kill with impunity to gain prestige or power, we choose to restrict the ability of those who have an undue advantage. We believe in fair play, in following rules, in applying compassion and mercy. These are not the agents of Natural Selection – quite the opposite.

For the individual, evolution and natural selection is meaningless. When we try to apply it to human constructs such as the economy of a nation then we end up creating meaningless applications which serve to undermine what, in my opinion, is the core of civilisation: overcoming our nature.

Growing a Mo for charity

I’m growing a Mo for #Movember to help the fight against prostate cancer. Pls donate: http://www.movember.com/m/293694 I’ll be documenting my Mo on the blog here. This is my hairy face two days after shaving – I last shaved on Saturday afternoon (31st October) so it works out well that I’ll not be shaving my moustache … Continue reading “Growing a Mo for charity”

I’m growing a Mo for #Movember to help the fight against prostate cancer. Pls donate: http://www.movember.com/m/293694

I’ll be documenting my Mo on the blog here. This is my hairy face two days after shaving – I last shaved on Saturday afternoon (31st October) so it works out well that I’ll not be shaving my moustache area for the month.

NHS Innovation Fund announced

The E-Health Insider reports on a new fund for NHS Innovation Health minister Lord Darzi has unveiled a package of measures to encourage and spread innovation in the NHS. … The Department of Health is creating a Â£20m prize fund to encourage people working inside and outside the NHS to combat â€œthe key health issues … Continue reading “NHS Innovation Fund announced”

The E-Health Insider reports on a new fund for NHS Innovation

Health minister Lord Darzi has unveiled a package of measures to encourage and spread innovation in the NHS.
…
The Department of Health is creating a Â£20m prize fund to encourage people working inside and outside the NHS to combat â€œthe key health issues facing the nation.â€
…
It is also creating a Â£220m fund to distribute money to strategic health authorities to encourage the spread of innovation over the next five years.
…
DH information says: â€œThe funds will focus largely on promoting innovation in healthcare delivery, health improvement and patient engagement rather than the development of new medicines or devices, for which funds are already available.â€

While this is very unlikely to result in amazing innovations, there is hope for ‘open standards, open data’ reforms for the NHS. Referring to “Information Technology” and the NHS in the same sentence is a poor joke for UK taxpayers. Projects have uniformly been failures – partially due to lack of experience of massive scale deployments of technology and a dependence on certain proprietary technologies which have scalability issues. Part of the reasons for the failings seem to be the precious need for security of our medical data.

One of the things bothering me about the “security” of NHS data is that it always seems stored in one central location (which is then burned to DVD and left in a taxi somewhere). Pardon me but I’d like to keep my own medical records on a USB dongle on my set of keys so that if something happens to me, it’s easily viewable. It would be an easy and cheap way of storing records. Add a bit of digital rights management (rather than trying to lock away our MP3s) and you’ve got a solution that will please most of the people most of the time. If I lose it, it’s just my records not mine and those of a thousand others. And this solution is used in other countries in Europe. Why are we so scared of it?

This solution isn’t innovative, it’s just sense. It’s not going to need hundreds of millions to implement.

DevDays – initial thoughts.

DevDays is now over and I’m left tired and glad. The theme of the two days, one in Dublin and one in Belfast, was definitely ‘where design meets software’. Whether the talk was about your first app, or different interfaces for iPhone apps or even the vast opportunities in some vertical markets for well designed applications – there was a definite undercurrent of the importance of design. Which is entirely appropriate – the days were originally supported by Digital Circle, a sub-group of Momentum – and it’s to the credit of other organisations like IntertradeIreland, Create Ireland and the Digital Media Forum that we managed to pull it off. I would definitely think that a Software UI/UX/Ix track at the 2010 InvestNI Design Conference would be essential.

As for the Hack Track – it didn’t happen. Next time we’ll have some workshop leaders to distract the attendees from watching tracks all day. We had the room but the talks were too good and, frankly, there weren’t enough hours in the day.

We’ll be posting links to all content at XCake.org

iSuppli: waste of oxygen and carbon

iSuppli came out with another cracker this week. All told, the cost of the shuffle’s components, the headphones, and the packaging it ships in comes to $21.77, according to iSuppli’s estimates. That’s about 28% of the device’s retail price. The smaller the component cost as a percentage of price, the higher the potential profit. This … Continue reading “iSuppli: waste of oxygen and carbon”

iSuppli came out with another cracker this week.

All told, the cost of the shuffle’s components, the headphones, and the packaging it ships in comes to $21.77, according to iSuppli’s estimates. That’s about 28% of the device’s retail price. The smaller the component cost as a percentage of price, the higher the potential profit. This suggests the per-unit profit margin on the shuffle is higher than on other iPod models. The component cost for the first iPod touch released in 2007, for instance, amounted to about $147, or about 49% of its $299 retail price. The component cost of the third-generation iPod nano, also released in 2007, amounted to about 40% of its retail price.

DavidBelfast from Twitter reckons this is okay when I suggested my displeasure at “measures” like this:

@cimota irrational hatred won’t help justify away the cost! 😛 #whyphone #trolling

It’s not irrational.

Macrumors writes:

iSuppli’s calculations consider only the actual parts of the device and do not include research and development, manufacturing, distribution, and patent royalty costs.

Because evidently, in the world of hard components, all of these things are free. It was free to develop the software, the folks working on VoiceOver and the packaging worked for free. The truck drivers who delivered the components and also who delivered the finished product to stores worldwide worked for free. The building in which these things were designed, built, stored and sold, were all built for free and are free to maintain.

Justify the cost? iSuppli are a waste of space. They add nothing to the conversation except providing headline soundbites. Surprise surprise, the basic hardware components of a device are only a fraction of the actual cost of the device.

Carrier Canute

MacRumors writes: T-Mobile in Germany, however, threatened that it may take action to prevent its customers from using Skype on the iPhone. On the flip side, an open-Internet advocacy group is asking the FCC to see if AT&T and Apple are violating federal rules by restricting Skype to just Wi-Fi. This is serious. On one … Continue reading “Carrier Canute”

MacRumors writes:

T-Mobile in Germany, however, threatened that it may take action to prevent its customers from using Skype on the iPhone. On the flip side, an open-Internet advocacy group is asking the FCC to see if AT&T and Apple are violating federal rules by restricting Skype to just Wi-Fi.

This is serious.

On one hand we have carriers moaning that they don’t want to be relegated to being a dumb pipe and on the other hand they’re screaming and shouting and pulling their hair out trying to stop the future.

It’s that obvious. They’re trying to stop the future.

The future is data. It’s web, it’s email, it’s RSS, it’s Twitter and it’s Voice over IP. While the carriers hang desperately onto their precious voice minutes, limited texts and capped data plans and try to block voice data (like Skype) and SMS rebroadcasts (like Twitter) but the writing is on the wall.

Carriers need to look out. The Future called. We’re coming for you.

Sling yer ‘ook

I’ve been waiting for SlingPlayer for iPhone for a while. Last November, I plied a Sling exec with question on when it would be available – the man was inscrutable 🙂 But while I’m pleased that it’s coming out, I’m not happy that my Slingbox Classic isn’t going to be supported. TUAW writes: A page … Continue reading “Sling yer ‘ook”

I’ve been waiting for SlingPlayer for iPhone for a while. Last November, I plied a Sling exec with question on when it would be available – the man was inscrutable 🙂

SlingPlayer-4

But while I’m pleased that it’s coming out, I’m not happy that my Slingbox Classic isn’t going to be supported.

TUAW writes:

A page on the SlingMedia website suggests owners of older Sling hardware get an upgrade because the new iPhone software “and future services yet to be announced will only be supported for customers using Slingbox SOLO, Slingbox PRO and Slingbox PRO-HD products or forthcoming SlingLoaded products.”

The fact that my current Slingbox works on my Mac (both use Cocoa and ObjC), the fact that Slingbox Classic works fine for Windows Mobile, Blackberry and even Palm handhelds – it just leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth.

Engadget previously wrote that previous builds of the app worked fine with the older hardware. So they’re not only looking for money when you buy a copy of the SlingPlayer for iPhone software (what? did you think it would be free?) but now a lot of folk are going to have to consider changing their Slingbox as well?

Well, fuck that. If it doesn’t work with my Slingbox, then I’m going to Sling it. There’s obviously a real need for a media-shifting platform which doesn’t tie you into a proprietary codec and player.

Do not use that word…it does not mean what you think it means…

Anssi Vankoji, Executive Vice President at Nokia wants the technorati to know that there is more to mobile phones than the iPhone. VB: Do you think you have a flagship device that will beat the iPhone? AV: I donâ€™t know if you beat a device with a device. What you have is a piece of … Continue reading “Do not use that word…it does not mean what you think it means…”

Anssi Vankoji, Executive Vice President at Nokia wants the technorati to know that there is more to mobile phones than the iPhone.

VB: Do you think you have a flagship device that will beat the iPhone?

AV: I donâ€™t know if you beat a device with a device. What you have is a piece of hardware. You need software. For the basic functionality, we are beating iPhone hands-down today with our N Series products. We have a big jump to take in usability to make it really user-friendly. If you compare an N95 with the iPhone, we have a lot more features. Not all of them are easy for the normal consumer. You have to be a geek to make use of them. But we are taking quantum leaps to get better usability, and we will have many applications. We also donâ€™t think the world is so simple that you just make one device for everybody. We know more about the consumers in the world than any other consumer goods company in the world because we have so many customers. We know they have different tastes and uses and so you have to offer a whole line.

OK.

quanÂ·tum n. pl. quanÂ·ta (-t) The smallest amount of a physical quantity that can exist independently

So, according to Nokia they are taking the smallest leaps possible to get better usability.

I’m going to have to leave the “features aren’t everything” rant until later. And the “it doesn’t matter if your platform is open if the foundations are sinking and no-one wants to develop for it” rant too.

What’s going on in your neighbourhood?

There are a lot of disconnected pathways in Northern Ireland. It’s plain we don’t talk enough and even when we do, we don’t spend enough time listening. In the Digital Media and Technology space, this means you can have weeks with nothing on and weeks where every day has something on it and in many cases, more than one thing. There’s been much talk about developing some sort of ‘open’ calendar platform that will allow people to book events from within iCal or Outlook or even by just sending an email to an address to try and minimise the number of conflicts – but that development requires investment from someone who’s passionate about it. (I’m passionate about it, I just don’t have the cash!).

So, I’m kinda staking my claim on a few days and letting you know what others are doing to the best of my knowledge. You can find a lot of this information on the NICreatives Calendar and some more on the Digital Circle calendar. Some of the things going on are going to be of interest to Creatives, some to technologists, some to creative technologists, some to other sectors as we find ways to extend skills in social and digital media creation, management and distribution into other non-traditional sectors.

Just remember these for April and you’ll not go wrong:

20th April: Refresh Belfast
23rd April: iPhone Dev Day Dublin
24th April: iPhone Dev Day Belfast
25th April: BarCampBelfast

May is also bringing us more xCake goodness, a Leadership Summit in Connected Health and a Geeks Meet Meds-type ICT event for Connected Health. They’ll be appearing on the Digital Circle calendar in the next few days. For this latter event, I’m looking for ‘clinicians’ (doctors, psychiatrists, whatever) who have an interest in what technology can do for healthcare. This isn’t about Â£10 million budgets, this is about small people, small devices, small changes and big impacts.

SIGNS

Got this through GAS: Watch, then read on… Related posts: The Broadband Blueprint (re DETI Telecoms Consultation) Streaming Video: who pays the cost? On The Box 18/100 Just Jump Into Podcasting – Heres How

Got this through GAS:

Watch, then read on…

Continue reading “SIGNS”