The Zeitgeist

Apparently, the self-described International Intellectual Property Alliance, which includes perennial bad actors such as the  MPAA and the RIAA as member is now pushing a rules change in the US export/import controls that would brand Open Source Software as pirated goods and that in fact Open Source software is a “threat” to the very existence of [...]

Tags: apache, apache software foundation, BSD, copyright, IIPA, intellectual property, iPhone, Linux, open source, Palm, Patents

Life’s weird,  it puts you in odd, uncomfortable situations and occasionally out of the chaos potentially wonderful opportunities materialize when you least expect them.  For example:
This week I am winding down a consulting gig that got cut short by the client’s management who decided 2 weeks ago to cut the budget on the project I [...]

Tags: Angel Funding, anticipation, Apple, Business, consulting, crossroads, iFund, ipad, iPhone, iPhoneOS, jobs, Life, opportunity, Startups, unexpected, VC, Venture Capital

Golly, CEO’s say the darndest things!  Qwest CEO Ed Mueller‎ is quoted as responding to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s call for upgrading the US broradband infrastructure to 100Mbits to the home in the next decade saying: “100 meg is just a dream, we couldn’t afford it.”  He went on to add ”First, we don’t think the customer [...]

Tags: 100mbit, bandwidth, Ed Meuller, future, Google, Internet, qwest, telecom Act

Maybe one day I’ll be cool enough to get a TED invite and i can see stuff like Oblong’s demo of their g-speak interface.
As eye candy this is wickedly cool, and, naturally since its developed by the guy who did the design of the imagined interface for Speilberg’s Minority Report, everyone thinks it’s [...]

Tags: future of computing, GUI, oblong, TED

Iiiinteresting. Twitter seems to, despite previous assurances from co-founder Biz Stone that it wouldn’t, be going after app developers using “Tweet” as part of their app names.
Now, if Twitter actually had a trademark on the term “tweet” it would be one thing, but to be sending takedown notices for something you don’t own [...]

Tags: dmca, lawyers, Patents, penalty, trademarks, twitter, USPTO

I’ve been thinking more over night about the whole Google Buzz fiasco, and the more I think about it, the more horrified I am.
What Google’s done in not thinking through the implications of the auto-follow defaults for Buzz will not be known for some time – but exposing everyone’s social network in this [...]

Tags: buzz, data, data mining, Google, intelligence, Privacy, Social Networking, surveillance

So, Google is going after Twitter and Facebook it seems with Buzz.   Buzz could be an interesting platform, but here are 4 key reasons why it’s probably not going to take off just yet:

Google doesn’t get user experience.
People are already invested in Twitter and Facebook
APIs Matter
Poorly Thought Out Defaults

Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Google is a data driven [...]

Tags: api, buzz, client, FaceBook, Google, Privacy, safety, Security, sns, Social Networks, twitter

You’d think with a far-out name like ZEITGEIST, this site would see very few visitors.  I mean, with the exception of native German speakers, who can even spell it..?
Well, it turns out that for a variety of reasons, including a very wacky conspiracy-oriented movie of the same name, this site literally sees thousands of visitors [...]

Tags: paypal, user funded communities, User Funded Content