What a nice little video 
How to cheer people up, bringing a bit of happiness into their lives. Check out the switch from black and white, to colour…
Monthly Archive for October, 2006
I have read various articles about how you should not leave your old PC with just anybody, more specifically your hard drive, and use software like cyberscrub myself. I was not surprised to read that Smartphones retain extremely sensitive information about you, even after a reset. WashingtonPost explain how a Smartphone user had encrypted banking details but that emails, pictures and contacts were not properly deleted.
It seems understandable since the procedure of deleting files on a hard drive with a 3+7+3 type method or the Gutmann method to stop even hardware recovery are unknown to most people. Smartphones work in the same way as hard drives in that they use pointers a type of File Allocation Table to indicate where a file is. Deleting a file doesn’t actually delete the data, it deletes the pointer that indicates where the file is in the memory. This means the file is still there and some clever software can retrieve it.
BlackBerry devices are in theory among the most secure of smart phones, Schroader said. However, those used by consumers lack the same security features as those used by government and private companies, Laudermilch said. “Even though there may be some security features on the device, most people don’t know how or when to use them,” he said.
Checking the specific Smartphone company support site often reveals how to properly erase your data should you want to part with the phone. Don’t let your smart phone give away vital information about you !
The Washington Post writes about the iPod and how with iTunes it holds nearly 70 percent of the market. When I bought my first (and only) iPod several years ago it was a luxury product. The iPod has kept key functions and design concepts while getting smaller thinner and more powerful.
Even though the new iPods are without doubt the best designed portable music players on the market I feel that Apple has not provided as much innovation as I would have expected. The consistent attacks on developers providing software to transfer music from the iPod to your PC (yes computers do crash) and refusing to let iTunes transfer to anything else than an iPod is a real pain. I only own an iPod but I don’t like the way Apple is behaving at all !
When you look at Macs, PowerPCs, iMacs etc there is a real innovative strength that is sometimes breathtaking in new models. With the iPod, there is far less innovative strength in my opinion. It must be said, with such an awesome initial design, it may well have rendered innovative ‘next steps’ far more difficult. But when you think that the iPod is now capable of showing videos why restrict users with such a tiny screen ?
Adding the ability to have the full length of the handheld as a screen would have been a nice touch. Hopefully Apple will be back from the drawing board soon with a new dazzling design that will again be a really unique and luxury item among portable media players.
There is nothing like bad publicity the ad people will tell you. Well, You Tube is making the headlines with bad, good and excellent media coverage !
You Tube has made uploading video to the Internet in order to share it, a simple procedure. Sharing videos really is dead easy. Although tagging the content efficiently is still to come, their site is also full of interesting functions.
Media companies realising the potential
When you hear a successful entrepreneur saying this product is never going to work, while at the same time companies like Google, Yahoo, MySpace, MTV… trying desperately to copy them, you’re kind of left puzzled by such comments. The arguments of Mark Cuban are ‘You Tube is just allowing people to upload content they don’t own the rights to’. From a simple perspective though Cuban owns companies (like HDNet) that distribute content just like You Tube. All his content is with copyright owner’s consent though. Wouldn’t that make you mad too – especially if they are likely to be selling it for a lot of money soon ?
Now even though that may be part (even a large part) of You Tube’s content the guy is missing a point and a big one. Cuban doesn’t seem to have noticed how much the Internet is changing things.
You Tube has a massive audience, actually a real community behind it. It is a platform to broadcast a message on. The issues it faces are similar to those that MySpace faces. The big media companies realise this type of platform could potentially be a “highway to heaven” but certainly not a ‘pathway to hell’…
An example of this is the deal that You Tube has just signed with Warner Music Group “that will let users embed some Warner wares in their own music videos and amateur flicks”.
The main issue for media companies was the idea of losing money. Attacking the everyday Joe and making his life hell rather than looking for ways to distribute their content intelligently and easily, is slowly being dropped.
Warner’s deal with You Tube like iTunes’ numerous deals for series and films should pave the way for simple and accessible content via the Web.
It is easy to appreciate how a lot of people could miss the trend that led to this. The large media companies have realized that they can capitalise on these massive communities AND make money from it. Hey, they finally realised that the MP3 fiasco and all the legal mayhem surrounding it was really negative for them. The media companies have started to embrace the Internet as a medium to sell their products !
Forbes dossier on You Tube
So when Forbes magazines does a whole dossier on you, do you listen to some entrepreneur who got it right once or twice, or to Forbes ?
An example from the Forbes article (there is a whole dossier actually) on You Tube :
Miles Beckett, a creator of the fictional “lonelygirl15″ videos that lured 900,000 viewers in recent months, foresees the advent of “wiki-television”–where fans get involved in the story; those who provide the most clever responses get a cut of the ad pie. “If the fans generate enough revenue from their videos they can quit their day jobs, too,” Beckett says. “We think it’s such a cool way to tell a story. It is just something you can’t do with the traditional media.”
And this is the example used in the Forbes article, a video you can simply paste into your article just like I’m doing here :
Rewarding video makers
But You Tube receives criticism from companies that have built different models. The Forbes article also talks about Revver and how they distribute, just like Google a portion of the revenue they receive with the creators of the videos. In the same way Netscape is trying to pull away key participants of Digg and pay them to add content to Netscape this type of criticism seems valid :
The amateurs who filmed the geyser effect of Mentos candy jammed into bottles of diet Coke have reaped nearly $35,000 from Revver.
Just as money speaks to the media companies looking for profitable ways to distribute their content legally, video creators who provide real value will not need long to choose between ‘money and fame’ versus ‘fame alone’.
Although You Tube are making more and more big deals this issue will need to be addressed in the medium to long term ! Key community members and followers may feel (like the Digg example) that all their hard work is only filling the pockets of You Tube and turn elsewhere…
A verry funny video about how to behave when you’re in a male restroom aka public toilets :
Enjoy 
Madonna in a track suit draped across Il Duomo in Milan courtesy of H&M !
© Red Label
When you have been instrumental in changing the way a fashion concious country like Italy views value for money clothes then making a statement in one of the fashion capitals of the world probably seems acceptable (IHT) :
Both H&M and Zara have found success in Italy by convincing the fashion- conscious masses that you can look good even if the label does not say Armani or Prada. And that was not an easy feat.
…
H&M has become a Swedish success story to rival Ikea. Founded in 1947 as Hennes – “hers” – in Swedish, the company acquired Mauritz Widforss, a men’s clothing store, in 1965 and added Mauritz to its name soon after.
The Madonna advert is riding on a wave of a change in Italy. Many talk about the Euro and the way it has given people the distinct impression that prices have gone up far more than salaries across Europe. These types of feelings have undeniably helped fashionistas see the price versus value proposition from H&M and friends :
For more than a month the fashion conscious masses in this city flowed by the cathedral and peered up at Madonna in her track suit, and all indications are that it has become socially acceptable for the fashionistas to shop at H&M, at least some of the time.
And hopefully the proceeds of H&M’s advertising event will help speed up the renovation of Milan’s Il Duomo !
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