Testing ScribeFire add-on for FireFox

Hello dear reader, this post is written in an add-on for Firefox https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1730. It seems to be very useful, especially when you post to multiple blogs. Plus you can save drafts of posts. And it works in my beta release version of Firefox (release 3 beta 5), which at this time is quite special.

checking LiveCastr....

Are you too one of those people who tried video-call on your mobile and hardly ever since?
LiveCastr gives video-calling a new spin by offering you a way to broadcast and store your video-call online.
There's a cool embedded streaming object, but it messed up my page layout...
I'll try to put it on the right-side column...
...and that messed up the page even more...
How cool services can be ruined by poor usability details...
...so I created a separate page here

Skyhook (the one that feeds location into the iPhone and iPod Touch)

Steve Jobs told that the Maps application on the iPhone (and iPod Touch) works with Google Maps. The third element in the solution is SkyHook Wireless. They have a databse of WiFi Access points and their location. So when the iPhone's WiFi is turned on and it receives signals from an access point, it will be able to find out where you are.

Skyhook has a piece of laptop software of it's own that works as a browser plug-in.
It'll show me where I am, based on the same access point database.

The mash-up below is a logical next step:

first mobile Google Maps Mashup?

My Google Alert notified me about Myrimis today.
( Myrimis )
It really looks very promising if you 'take the tour' on their website.
Social networking-like capabilities, Geotagging photos, Geofences, a mobile client.
So I registered and downloaded the client (Symbian only, Windows Mobile 'coming soon'. It's the other way around most of the time)
To my great surprise I noticed that Google maps and satellite images are being used.
I thought Google did not allow mobile usage of those yet.
The downside is that the client is so cluttered with functionality and the maps work so different from Google Maps, that the Wow-effect soon diminished.
But it's yet another example of the direction in which we're heading.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: location based services are on the verge of a major breakthrough.

recording four tv channels at once, while watching two others

I finally got it working properly:
my two home theatre PC's (HTPC). One upstairs, one downstairs.
Until yesterday, the 'real' TV's image got blurred as soon as I turned one of the HTPC's on. And the one upstairs had never shown a clear image.
My guess that I needed to really split the cable signal and boost it with a Hirschmann amplifier turned out to be correct.
So 150 Euro and some tinkering with high quality Coax cable later it all works.
Downstairs I built two digital TV decoders (from FireDTV) into a Windows machine, so I can watch and record digital TV. Windows Media Center still doesn't understand high definition TV (streaming h.264 to be precise) so I'm using software called DVB-Viewer together with CoreAVC to watch and record the three High Definition channels on my cable.
Upstairs is a more traditional setup with a dual analog tuner built into a Windows Media Center PC.
Ironically I hardly ever watch TV, but hey, I'm an innovator so I did it just for fun.
Next up: streaming live TV wirelessly from my HTPC to my MacBook.

Mobile Google Maps in the train

I filmed Mobile Google Maps in action during my train ride to work.
The Nokia N95 is on KPN's network and the TyTnII (MDA Vario III) on T-Mobile's.
Apparently it only works well when the phones are set to use the GSM instead of the UMTS network.
What surprises me is how well it works.
Most mobile operators considering location based services are thinking in terms of checking every several minutes.
Whereas this product seems to check every one or two seconds. And in effect notice every hop from cell-tower to cell-tower.

Mobile Google Maps works shockingly good

This will make it harder for Mobile operators to do their own Location Based Services: Google just launched version 2.03 of their mobile maps application.
'Into Mobile' article about another blogger's experience with pictures
No GPS needed.
Apparently Google gained access to or accumulated themselves the location of Cell towers.
The video below explains it in plain English.
What strikes me most is that it works so smooth and local search works like a breeze too.
This app proves to me we will soon see a really cool buddy finder function.

an interesting day

While I did a micro-lecture about Location Based Services at the Waag Society in Amsterdam, Yme Bosma presented at The Hague Telecom.
Too bad I can't be in two places at once, but luckily there's cell phones, mail and RSS feeds.
Anyway, Hyves' anounced cooperation or should I say compatibility with Google's OpenSocial is something really interesting.

Yme's post in Dutch

A KPN/Hi Location Widget seems only natural now.

My own AdSense account

About two weeks ago I filled out the AdSense application form. Just to see how it works. I didn't really expect it, but I received an email from Google today stating that I have my own AdSense account now. Amazing. Thanks LarryAndSergey. It must be the subjects, because traffic on this blog is not exactly spectacular.
Anyway, by now you should see relevant ads showing up somewhere on the page.
I'll probably have to tweak the colours a bit so visitors will see the difference between blog posts and advertising.

The AdSense configuration and monitoring pages are fascinating.
It's ready for mobile advertising for example.
I just might create some mobile webpages just to see how the ads will show up.
And I can add a local search button.
And I can recommend stuff.
One would almost forget to post something interesting ;-)

LBS Experiment

Olivia will be an astronaut

Olivia apparently likes 'Google Earth'-ing.
Completely absorbed by what she sees, she initially doesn't respond to me asking her where she's going.
Eventually she says 'I'm going home'
But when she doesn't get home quickly enough she decides to to go up, saying 'I'm going into space now!'

as seen at TED and now for sale ($100k)

I'd love to have access to one of these:

RSS for dummies

Google Reader is out of the lab. (I've been using it for about two years already). The brilliant short movie below explains what RSS is.
A must-see for people who are not using RSS readers yet:




(Eirik made me aware of this movie through his blog that I read with Google Reader even before Google posted it on their own blog, even adding more credibility to the message in the movie :-)

The Police at Amsterdam Arena, sept 13

Great to finally see the band live on stage.

I filmed the complete opening song ´Message In A Bottle´ with my Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ1

twitter is awesome

Getting serious about it

Just changed the sub-title of my blog:
'How technology can change your life'
It's very broad, but a good description of what drives me.
I'm fascinated by how things like radio, plastic, aircrafts, telephony, television, mobile telephony, and maybe most of all: Internet have changed our lives.
And continue to do so.
At an increasing speed (You don't have to read Ray Kurzweil's books to see that).
My posts to follow will be about news and developments of which I believe will have an impact on how we live.
How will it make life easier, cheaper or more fun?
What should you use and why?
(For the people who don't know me: I'm an optimist :-)
Topics that are currently on my mind:
- Google: automating everything from mail to pictures to blogs to infoporn
- the apparent breakdown of Digital Rights Management, at least for music
- mobile solutions, what should you want to squeeze in your cell-phone?
- home entertainment: my personal struggle to build the ultimate Home Theater multimedia experience.

Interested?
Hit the RSS button and find out.

even een posting per mail

Vandaag komt Harry.
Ik zal hem laten zien wat er allemaal mogelijk is met websites en blogs.

Interessant verhaal over Orb-achtigen

Helemaal mee eens, vooral de eerste alinea:

James Behrens: [Mr. Behrens is CEO of Orb Networks.] It's still early, but at Orb we believe that people will pay a fee for mobile access. That fee will probably be subsumed inside users' unlimited data fee. That's what it's looking like with two of the largest mobile carriers that we're working with. That's how they intend to roll it out. They're going to offer a remote-access service to enter your media, and they're going to charge for it, just like they would unlimited data. And they have 3G networks. They've got to monetize, and unless you give them media that they want to see, they're not going to be able to monetize those networks.

Premium content is also going to be significant—and that area is just a melee right now. What are people going to pay for downloads of music, videos, and network television shows? Are there going to be subscriptions? All of these questions play into what everybody on this panel is doing, and there's going to be something in there for us as well as the network operators.

We also have a model that's very similar to Google and Yahoo, in that we have people looking at screens, playing their music, looking at their photos, viewing their home videos, watching television (live and recorded)—and each time someone does any of those things on any device, we have an opportunity to present them with information that's very specific to what they watch and listen to.

Hier het hele verhaal

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