Mike’s ramblings

CNN Money reports that John Deere, the big tractor company, has found a way to make profits while developing rural America and producing green energy. They accomplish this by financing wind turbines in these areas.

A project with the size of about 5 windmills works as follows: John Deere pays about $4,950,000, the farmers pay $50,000 and another $5 million comes from a loan from a bank. John Deere gets all the revenue for the first 10 years or until their initial investment is paid off and they’ve made a profit. The farmers get $20,000 a year each for maintaining the turbines. After the 10 years, the farmers get all the revenue, which estimates to about $1 to $1.5 million plus another $500,000 federal tax credit. This results to a good profit for everyone that will help develop these areas drastically.

It is nice to see that with a good idea you can accomplish something valuable, in this example develop rural areas and protect the environment/produce green energy/reduce the dependence on foreign oil, and still make profits. Sadly good ideas don’t grow on trees and as long as one can make their profits easier without doing something good, people will go the easy path.

(via EcoGeek)

The Bahrain World Trade Center will be the first building in the world, that has wind turbines of a respectable size included in its structure and built in to support its aesthetics. News of this has been out for some time now, but lucky EcoGeek has received first hand pictures of the turbines getting installed and I have to say it looks as stunning as it did on the renderings from the architecture firm.

The three turbines, each measuring 29m in diameter, will produce approximately 11-15% of the buildings energy needs, which equates to 1100-1300 MWh per year. (This is about the equivalent of powering 300 homes for a year.) The buildings is facing the Gulf and is shaped aerodynamically so that the turbines fixed position is not a problem and they get enough wind.

It is kind of paradox that this is built with money that most certainly has its base in oil, but I am not complaining when something as nice as this comes out of it.
(For more pictures go right over to EcoGeek.)

Techcrunch brought my attention to this video, from The Meth Minute 39. It is a quite comprehensive collection of the fads that have (or have not) enlightened our lives during the years. It ranges from Andy Milonakis’ “The Superbowl is gay” over “All your base are belong to us” to the Star Wars kid. I don’t know of any collection that is (or claims to be) complete so I think we should try to start one. I will add links to the fads I remember in random order and would be very grateful if you would add your favorite fads in a comment. I will carry them over to the main post.

The internet fad collection:
Andy Milonakis - The Superbowl is gay
All your base are belong to us
Star Wars Kid original modified
Numa Numa
Chinese Backstreet Boys
geriatric1927
johnnyOnline - love two point oh (the key)
Fake Steve Jobs
Dancing Baby
Hamsterdance web archive, original but new
HOT or NOT
JibJab - This Land
Mahir

NBC did not renew its contract with Apple to sell and distribute its TV shows on the iTunes Store. The New York Times reports, that it is because of disagreements in pricing and piracy controls (which probably wanted a tighter DRM). Apple would have the right to sell the shows until the end of the year, but would then have to take them down from its store, mid season.
A spokesperson for NBC also stated “[The iTunes Store] is designed to drive sales of Apple devices at the expense of those who create the content that make these devices worth buying.” which basically means that they are not happy that Apple is making a lot of money with a good product. Of course it is true, that Apple mainly created the iTunes store for their iPods, but the reason was not, that their customers needed it. Most iPod users would be happy to continue filling their devices up with music from illegal sources or from their bought CDs. The iTunes store is more an excuse from Apple and an offering to the content companies, so that at least some content on the iPods is legally obtained.

As Techcrunch notes rightly, the content companies cut themselves with a strategy like this. Today everyone and their mom is able to download videos and music over BitTorrent. With sites like ThePirateBay, which adhere to Google’s no-frills strategy, offering a simple and easy to use way to get the newest content for free, why would anyone go through the hassle of fighting for their content? NBC does sell their content through Amazon now, but not giving the rights to Apple too was no smart move at all. iTunes simply is the one stop shop for digital media for most customers, especially because the main way to consume that media is Apple’s line of iPod (and now also iPhone) products. If people can’t get their content on their favorite device easy enough by paying, they will continue to get it illegally.

Although NBC’s content makes 40% of iTunes video sales, Apple made a bold “we don’t need you” move by not adding the new fall season of NBC’s show to their store. They said in a statement, that they don’t want their customers to be frustrated because of not being able to download any more episodes mid-season. Apple states that “ABC, CBS, Fox and the CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.99 per episode,” so the video section of the iTunes store will go strong without NBC’s content. Maybe NBC just overreacted or someone ordered a wrong strategy because NBC’s own video startup Hulu is coming up, because the company is starting to think again. Cory Shields, exec VP-communications, NBC Universal said in a statement that NBC is “hopeful that we can reach a resolution” with Apple “before the existing contract expires,”.

I can only hope that the content companies will soon realize that to fight the extremely convenient way of illegally downloading their property, they will need to offer new and innovative ways that make the consumer want to buy it. The consumer does not want to pay more for online content, just because he does not have to leave his house. Apple is only trying to help these companies. While doing this, of course it has its own interest, but this makes sense because the iTunes store itself does not make a lot of profit.

Today Google Reader made a big step and is now, in my opinion, the best feed reader around. While it is still not very pretty (but simple), they added the possibility to search in your subscriptions and shared items. With regards to the fact, that Google is a search company, this is a feature that should have been ready since the products launch.

Besides the search box, there are several other features. The raised the bar for how many unread items it counts from 100 to 1000, which will make it a little nicer to catch up with all your feeds when you haven’t checked in for a while. You can also hide the sidebar, which gives you kind of a fullscreen view of the feed your currently reading.

They also moved the Loading box to the top and let the Google Labs icon vanish, which may be a sign that Google Reader will soon Google’s palette of non-beta products. (Or at least it graduate out of Labs.)

(via Techcrunch)

I’m sorry that you won’t even be spared with Apple news over here. Maybe we just have to surrender to Steve Jobs very good hand with marketing?

Wow! Today’s Apple event wasn’t hyped up as some others, but to me the announcements were far better than the ones on some of the other recent events. So not to let you wait, a short summary of everything that happened:

• Customizable ringtones, 99 cents in addition to the song
• iPod shuffle in all kinds of colors
• New iPod nano (most notably a very different “fat” form factor)
• “Normal” iPod now called iPod classic (80GB and 160GB)
• iPod touch (basically the iPhone without phone capabilities)
• iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
• Starbucks partnership
• iPhone 8GB now only $399! (the 4GB will be dropped)

For me the two most exciting things by far were the price cut for the iPhone and the announcement of the new iPod touch that everyone was waiting for since the iPhone launch earlier this year.
The iPod touch is simply an iPhone with ripped out phone capabilities. As you can see the form factor is absolutely the same. The home button is there too, only the speaker hole is missing. Sadly, because is has WiFi like the iPhone, on the back there is the very un-Apple like black field again, that serves the good reception.
Now the announcement that the iPhone 8GB will be sold for $399 and the 4GB will be dropped and sold for $299 as long as supplies last is in my opinion, a real game changer. The iPhone has serious mass market acclaim, but with a $599 price point it was simply too expensive for anyone but the gadget lover and the business person. $399 is in a whole new price segment and will give a big boost to the iPhone sales, but it will also make many customers angry, because in their eyes it will look like they just threw $200 out of the window. This is for once, not the PR finesse we are used to by the company from Cupertino. It would have not been too bad for them in terms of market share to wait a little longer before dropping the price, but now their most loyal customers, the early adopter crowd, will not be too happy. At least those that bought their iPhones not more than 2 weeks ago, will be able to get a refund, as CrunchGear reports. (And AT&T has a 30 day return policy.)

Besides that, there is not much more to say. I personally think, that the new iPod nano (or “fatty”) is not as appealing as the previous version. They made a step backwards in terms of design, but obviously they pushed the technological boundaries a little bit further again, which is nice to see. The WiFi store is a very cool new feature too and is one step into the future. I think it won’t be long until we will also see videos appearing in the mobile store, but the bandwidth and ubiquity of WiFi will have to make a little jump before that.

Steve Jobs was as always in his speeches simply great and sympathetic. He couldn’t resist to pick on NBC again; while playing “Give Peace a Chance” from the Beatles he said: “That’s when NBC calls.”. He gave us some of his famous “boom”s and brought everything through without a glitch.
I still think Steve Jobs keynote to announce the iPhone was the most brilliant one he ever held. He surprised everyone with the way he announced it and showed everyone off. If you haven’t seen it, you can after the jump along with some more pictures of the new products and a guided tour of the new Apple iPod touch.

(more…)

GigaOM is reporting on the costs of the Chinese firewall for the industry of the country, because the team just noticed how annoying the system can be when one of their co-workers wanted to send a report from inside the country. The problem is well-known and it comes to our attention from time to time when our western companies like Google, Yahoo! or others have the difficult decision of obeying to the censorship laws or not doing any business at all in the country. The answer is not easy nor obvious, but I think the internet giants do the right thing by doing business in these countries anyway. Their presence will help a tiny bit towards the inevitable opening of the firewall (and eventually the whole censorship).

Today there are already several possibilities of going around the firewall that cost the Chinese government millions to develop. These systems are really needed, so the brave activists in the country don’t need to fear for their lives and can continue to do their important work. While Om Malik points out the Tor network developed by the EFF, this option is very often impracticable for the so-called “dissidents”, because it requires a software download.
Swiss TV recently brought my attention to another possibility, which was started by two Swiss artists (as an art project). It is called picidae, which means woodpecker in Latin, and is as simple as it can possibly get. They developed a server that acts as a proxy and translates every webpage into a picture that is then sent through the firewall. Links are mapped through hotspots and forms are overlayed with real form components so that the browsing experience is quite similar to accessing the sites directly.

There is a video online, that shows the two artists actually going to China to test their software. The results were astounding. You can see the two artists in an internet cafe (for which to enter they had to show their identification) how they access the forbidden sites and their attempt is successful. The report also shows Huang Qi, one of China’s most famous cyber dissidents. Qi is shown as he accesses his forbidden site www.64tianwang.com. He goes on to say that the technique could bring a “revolutionary breakthrough”, because it does not require the user to download a program and is therefore suitable for everyone without technical knowledge.

For me it is astonishing to see, that two artists can break the Chinese firewall with such simple means. You can try it out for yourself by going to http://pici.picidae.net and typing in a web address. If you like the project you can help them by porting their server to Linux or Windows or by setting up your own pici proxy.

For the German speaking audience, a small report from the Swiss TV station:

Die grosse Mauer der Zensur – wie zwei Schweizer Künstler die chinesische Firewall durchbrechen
In China wird das Internet stark zensuriert und kontrolliert. Innerhalb der letzten Woche wurden drei Internet-Publizisten Opfer des Regimes: Ein Cyber-Dissident wurde verhaftet, ein anderer zu vier Jahren Gefängnis verurteilt und der dritte wurde kurzum in eine psychiatrische Klinik gesteckt. Die Cyber-Dissidenten erhalten nun unerwartete Hilfe: zwei Schweizer Künstler haben eine Methode entwickelt, mit der weltweit jegliche Internet-Kontrolle umgangen werden kann. Da ist China natürlich das ideale Testfeld für ihre Art die Zensur zu besiegen. «kulturplatz» zeigt exklusiv wie der Test verlief und welche Sprengkraft dahinter steckt.
Bericht: Markus Storrer

Under the label Zero Punctuation on the escapist Yahtzee Croshaw made a funny video that sums up the differences between the three “next generation” consoles quite well. Check it out on the escapist.

With the recent problems at Paypal, this is already the second time in a month that an eBay company reports a major outage. The first one of these was the Skype outage, that reportedly lasted more than 36 hours. Now Paypal reports that their subscription service is out since August 30 and is going to be out until about September 5 or 6. That is more than a week of outage. These two occurrences seem far from normal for two high-profile companies with a strong track record such as Skype and Paypal. The fact that both companies are owned by eBay and that some of their servers probably are hosted in the same datacenters makes it even more interesting.

I highly doubt, that this connection has anything to do with the outages, but I find it very interesting, that companies like these two, whose products have worked for years without a problem can experience such severe problems all of a sudden. One would expect that if an entity with pockets as deep as eBay’s is behind something, that major outages should not be able to happen. Of course an outage is always possible, but with so much manpower behind, the companies should be able to reduce the out time to under a few hours.

We’ll see if over the next couple of month more companies won’t be able to handle the rising demand that is put on today’s web applications and there will be more outages.