Songbird

Play music. Play the Web.

“Songbird is a desktop media player mashed-up with the Web. Songbird is committed to playing the music you want, from the sites you want, on the devices you want, challenging the conventions of discovery, purchase, consumption and organization of music on the Internet.

Songbird is a player and a platform. Like Firefox, Songbird is an open source, Open Web project built on the Mozilla platform. Songbird provides a public playground for Web media mash-ups by providing developers with both desktop and Web APIs, developer resources and fostering Open Web media standards, to wit, an Open Media Web“

Just make sure you are ‘HiP‘ (Honor the IP) of others, pay if you decide to download.

Enjoy :)

Kiting a ship

I like anything that flies – I have few Prism kites, but this one (which I don’t have) does something really useful!

 

This one pulls a ship. An interesting illustration how this works, pretty simple and lame stuff, but more importantly it saves fuel, as much as 15-20% while the ship is in cruise, every pound of wind-pull counts [video]. Now that is interesting. Especially when the world is coming to an end – rising fuel prices due to depleting supplies. Just heard on radio, we have only 40+ years worth of petrol at the current consumption rate, 67+ years worth of LPG, and 100+ years worth of coal. WHAT! Yes it was shocking to me as well. I was taught in school that we are killing our environment by using fuel as if there is plenty, by pumping CO2 into air as if there is no tomorrow …but I never knew the end is coming so fast.

It feels good to see that lots of companies are doing their part in saving the environment, especially those who have larger carbon-footprint on this planet. Virgin Atlantic (+GE/Boeing) to fly 747 on alternative fuel this month. Amazing feat of humanity and aviation engineering. Maybe someday all airplanes, shipping, passenger cars, and machines will run on sustainable fuel. I hope so, I really do.

I am willing to do my part – waiting for the launch of hybrid cars in Singapore (Chevy models!), hopefully before my car runs out of its 10 year lifespan :)

 

 

Singapore Air Show 2008

Previously I said that I will write about aviation only when another big event happens – here it is > Singapore Air Show 2008.

Whats so big deal about it?

First, its about great airplanes and aviation.

Second, this is a result of a great air-battle itself! …how so? …here is the story:

For 26 years, Singapore hosted a great air show every two years. The last one in the series was in 2006, then the company that managed the Air Show decided to move its base to Hong Kong. Many aviation enthusiasts didn’t like it, for few reasons. For many, the air show was a great aviation event worth waiting for every two years.

Just now, on TV I saw the ad of Singapore Air Show 2008 – hosted by Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the Defence Science & Technology Agency, Singapore.

I wish the team all the best, I am looking forward to it (no, I don’t buy aircrafts, nor do I sell …ha ha ha, I wish), am just an aviation enthusiast.

Flying from 19th till 25th February 2008.

Selling Apples?

Match the following:
> Great products, lousy marketing?
> Lousy products, great marketing?
> Great products, great marketing?
> Average products, fantastic marketing?

Long long time back, I always thought, what difference ‘marketing’ makes for a company. Then I realized probably ‘marketing’ is the make-or-break tool for a company. My professor in school said right – marketing should be a function of the CEO.

Many times, I buy products which have great marketing promises, only to realize later that the products don’t cut at all. On the other extreme, there are those products that have great features, functions and usability, but they never last in the market, the companies fail to generate demand for them, and they [products] die. Some companies get it right. Apple.

Recently, found this presentation (available for download) from ex-marketing executive (Steve M Chazin) from Apple. If you always wondered what goes on behind those great marketing campaigns and advertisements [get this click here /PDF].

Business is Talking. [IT] Listen.

Revisiting Stage-fear!

Ever wondered how easy delivering presentations would be if the presenter’s desktop can still show the Speaker Notes, Next/previous slides, Time elapsed/remaining etc while delivering those difficult-to-do-presentations, especially those that are not authored by you.

Find out how to set up a Presenters View in PowerPoint [click here]

INNOVATION. Keep going.

 

Recently I visited the French super-mart Carrefour in Singapore (Suntec City), and was amused to see the electronic display tags on the shelves showing the price of the items. The tags looked trivial and cheap, but still were very interesting as this is the first time I have seen something of that sort in Singapore. These were little tags with a little monochrome green color LCD screen displaying the prices, replacing the paper based printed tags.

Super-marts are interesting businesses, here are some of the key Innovations underway read full feature here

These are my personal opinions, please let me know if you have another perspective.

Singapore’s New Pride – Airbus A380

This evening, Singapore Airlines spanking new airplane Airbus A380 arrived in Singapore.

Its a long time aviation tradition to give a water cannon salute to great flights and pilots.

The first commercial A380 flight is on 25th of this month, to Sydney, no, I am not on that flight, can’t really afford it, but I wish! Certainly, A380 is a marvel of technology, everytime I see a plane that huge, I still wonder how it flies, the laws of physics don’t seem be dependable anymore. But then, these planes take to the skies. Yes, Bernoulli’s principle works, without fail, lift generated by pressure differential overcomes weight, always.

Yes, I do have keen interest in anything that flies or falls, in control or out-of-control.

Hang on, let me share with you some great flight patterns ever plotted. Look at this:

Looks like a web! It is actually a flight pattern recorded over United states over few hours. Amazing. Check out the videos here. And those who really fancy flight, you can get wall-papers resolution images here.

Till another great flight event occurs (possibly Boeing Dreamliner), this blog will remain pure business and technology. Keep coming back!

Visual Thinking – Free Mind Mapping Softwares

Many of us feel that it is getting increasingly difficult to write down our thoughts in words, especially as our thinking has become more complex, and as non-linear as it always was! Probably many of us were taught some point in time on how to put down our unstructured ideas using pictures and random messages, using a mind-map. Yes, it works, when an idea strikes – it comes like a lightening bolt, with many many follow up flashes and flickers. That moment, I just prefer jot down as it happens, and there is usually no time to structure it in any reasonable ways (that can be done later, and while eliminating non-sensible parts of it!).

Some software companies have obviously thought that Visual Thinking is a promising area, and they have created great tool (ConceptDraw, SmartDraw, MindJet etc). They cost money but. And then, there are those who are offering online tools (Mind42, Mindomo etc), great for collaboration work, but you have to be online, for now at least. But if these don’t cut for you – you want them free and be able to use them offline too, then, here are two great tools – FreeMind and Cayra. Below is brief overview, but try ’em yourself, its worth it:

FreeMind: This has been around for a while, fundamental tool for functional Mind Mapping. Basic but good stuff. Don’t get fancy with ideas to create pretty visuals, but use it as a tool to quickly note down your ideas.

Cayra: New tool released recently, has greater visual impact, especially with images and animated re-focus on nodes. Great to to play with and impress your audience. You can get creative. Additional features – it can import diagrams created in other tools, including FreeMind.

Another interesting fact – FreeMind is Java, and Cayra is .Net …err, if at all it matters!

Hack your Life, ‘Work Life’ I mean

[rockyou id=86756875&w=350&h=200]

Little utilities that I use to jazz up my Desktop and make my life easy at work :)

> find them all here

These are my personal favorites. Go ahead, play with them, enjoy, and let me know too if there are more great utilities out there that I should consider.

Catching the fiction curve : multi-touch, and Minority Report

For mainstream consumers – Apple was the first to launch a multi-touch device, the iPhone, Microsoft followed with the Surface. Whats next, someday we might give up our standard Laptops, and TVs, and home appliances – all we will have simple surfaces that allow intuitive interaction and tremendous possibilities. And how about making them waterproof and flexible too, so that we roll them up and go to the pool, and still enjoy connected life.

This post is not about any great philosophy on how do we interact with the ever complicating digital world around us, but a quick introduction to the multi-touch technology and some samples. Yes, multi-touch is definitely next step in user interaction and the big wave is coming.

 

Here is how it is done
Unlike the conventional touch screens, which can only register one point of interface, a multi-touch screen can register and react to many many points of touch, it allows you to interact with all your fingers at the same time, or more than one user at any time. Some multi-touch screens are sensitive to pressure as well, so it does matter how hard you press and the screen responds differently. Amazing.

Check out simple schematic on Apple iPhone page, shows how the iPhone interface is built. But here are some even greater possibilities, from Perceptive Pixel, this has really impressed me …reminds me of ‘Minority Report’ though, minus the personnel carrier jet-packs, and levitating cars – I will patiently wait for that stuff. or now the multi-touch is sufficient to keep me engaged.

 

Next in my wishlist
A multi-touch universal remote for my home! A remote that controls everythng in the house, with integrated application platform to browse internet, run Web 2.0 type applications, control my washing machine and owen, the temparature of water in the bath, flip thru my iTunes library, do Skype, integrate my mobile voice calls and SMS, watch TV channel guide and previews, and of course, when I like that channel then *transfer* it to my TV! …not asking for too much, hehz :)

Master Chief, let the great battle begin!

A while ago, not too long, just two-three years back – I was doing a paper on Electronic Arts, and I read a comment by an industry-expert that a few years down the gaming industry will supersede the movies industry. I was wondering, hmmm, may be or may be not – the target market of the gaming industry has always been a niche, while movies – yeah everyone watches them. So, how is it going to happen, and if ever, when! But, then I was also surprised by the amount of money being pumped into the gaming industry, be it Sony, or Microsoft, or Nintendo. It did seemed like it is a winning bet, in coming years, the games are going to be a strong contenders in the entertainment space along with movies.

HALO-3 does 17o million on its launch date, Spiderman-3 did 59 million on its 1st day (so far the biggest opening-day boxoffice hit). A game does 3 times more than any movie! Sounds like, yes the games are bigger than movies now. But, this is not the final verdict, because its a different matter altogether, that how much money a game and a movie make in its total lifespan, and if we also count the pull-through sales for games like consoles and peripherals etc. But still, games-vs-movies-battle …is an interesting one.

 

And, Team-XBox vs Team-PlayStation…

The gaming industry itself is burning with fierce competition, Microsoft XBox 360, Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii are the main players. Nintendo with Wii has carved its niche in cute, easy to play, just for fun, family entertainment type of games. So the real ‘battle’ is between PlayStation 3 and XBox 360, who is making money yet – not everyone! …well its a challenging market – trying to squeeze out money from the pockets of gamers who are still living out of their parents wallet, or summer jobs, is not easy. Microsoft claims that there will be profit next year – at least a dollar. Lets leave that battle into the corporate boardrooms, here is what I am thinking…

What is more interesting is that the players themselves have a clear affinity with each of the brands, rarely I have seen hardcore gamers switching loyalties. Each side claims that their console, games, online experience etc is the best, but finally its the gamer who decides by him/herself. If the gamers are the ultimate jury, then why not create ‘an ultimate battle’ – a game that brings XBox and PlayStation gamers face to face in livespace, and let the battle begin. Let the best gamers, armed with best consoles win!

Let Team-XBox battle against Team-PlayStation!

Microsoft, Sony, interested?