I’m sorry I could not provide a title for this article. It’s really something in my mind, but I could not find a small number of words to describe exactly what I have in my mind. Someone would probably say that it means it’s not clear in my mind. That’s probably true, actually.

I was on Slashdot and read an article about NBC going to provide some movies through P2P.

This article made me think of people who works in big companies making big money with some product. In this case it’s movies. It happens the same with software applications, games, etc. It is not limited to software and computers though. These companies are seeing internet and the simplicity of connections and the simplicity of creating communities taking away some of their money. People is getting into communities and sharing data, software, movies and not paying the companies that produced this. This is not very different from when in the Eighties people copied tapes and did not buy the originals, the difference is that it was once local, while now it’s worldwide. I live in Italy and can get a movie that was just released in USA yesterday for free. The distribution company in Italy might not have started to play it at cinemas and I already have it in my computer.
This is not good for their business.

Now I think of some employee at NBC or other companies that wonders how he could help his company regain a part of that money. It’s obvious that the solution can’t be to give it for free and legally. So they must go half-way, the only solution is to provide the same product, possibly at a higher quality than the illegal version and for a reasonable price. Getting that piece of software, movie or content in general must be simple. P2P and downloading is not something for hardcore computer users, geeks and nerds. Everyone can install eMule and download, or get BitTorrent, get on a tracker and download in a matter of minutes or hours.
So companies must find a way that is simple, fast, offers a better quality and is also cheap. How much is cheap? There isn’t an exact amount of money, some people is ready to pay the full price (those who wait for the movie to be distributed and go the cinema even if they could have downloaded it for free, those who go to the nearest shop and buy it, those who download a game, test it and buy the original because it was worth!). Some other people is not willing to pay anything. There is probably no way to get any money from that people, companies should probably try to educate some other way that someone payed for that content and if you read, watch or use it, you should pay something.
So how much is the money you are ready to pay for a content? How far is a company ready to go to get some money out of the people that is downloading for free? Offering something at a lower price will also mean that those who were ready to pay the full price will now be able to get the same for a lower amount (in many cases).

Now I think back to that employee who is thinking a way to make his company get some of that money. He is probably going to some big manager and say:”we need to get some money out of those pirates that steal our movies. If they steal them, it means they want it and if they want it they will be ready to pay something. Let’s set up something and we give them the movies for 5 dollars”. The big manager will start saying that they can’t give the movie for this little that all renting companies such as BlockBuster or Netflix won’t be so happy. Companies selling DVD’s won’t be happy.
This is all true. But that employee want to do something good. Wants to get some of that money back. They start talking and the final result is this idea from NBC. It is not how it is today, but it’s not as “cool” as the employee originally thought, but at least it’s something. It’s a step forward.
The first one who will be able to get on the correct path will make money.
To me, iTunes did this. They got the big names, they got the simplicity, the got the install-base thanks to the iPod and the Mac computers and they got an amount of money that people is ready to pay.
I remember when cdnow.com (later bought by Amazon) used to sell “custom CD’s”. What are they? You would go on cdnow.com (used to sell audio CD’s) and pick 10-15 songs you liked. They burnt them on a CD and you’d get it in the mail. It was all legal and you paied a little more than 1USD per song. IT WAS GREAT! iTunes is the same with the simplicity of a click.

Now back to the article…. I read a bunch of negative comments from readers of slashdot, I am very happy that NBC might be going this way. It’s a step forward, it’s a step in the right direction. I hope it’ll happen and wish all the luck to those employees that try new paths.

This post is also for my “friend” James. I hope he won’t mind if I refer to him as a friend. 😀

Today I was reading the AdiumX‘s blog and found an interesting reference.
Karelia software is going to promote open-source development specifically for Apple’s WebKit. If you don’t know it Apple released the webkit open-source. The webkit is a tool to render web pages but also do more things also integrated with OS X. As soon as it was released open-source a public bugzilla and more tools were made open.
Karelia is using the webkit for a software they are developing and are offering some money to whoever can fix these bugs. It’s not a lot of money, you’re not going to become rich with this, but I have to admit that this is a great way to promote the open-source development. If you get a bug fixed you will get $250 and you will contribute to the entire community.

So happy coding to all Mac developers.

I took this quiz and answered that I would have published the result on my blog, so here it is:

I initially thought I would have been a Super-geek, but while answering I realized that I’m not THAT much a geek… maybe I lost some of my geekness in the years.. Especially the questions about “what are you doing at 3am”. 😀

enjoy the test. Takes just a few minutes. Save your body from an extra coffee and take this test instead.

I haven’t used blog servers for a long time even though I have known about them for a long time.

I eventually decided to start this blog to see how it is. Sometimes I think I have something interesting to say, some other times I am not entirely sure how much people really cares about what I write.

Now I am writing this post just to let you know that I have started enjoying this so much that I took a chance to also write on the W3C MWI BPWG’s public blog.

Take a look at my post about WML.

I found MobileGirl’s blog a few months ago. She wasn’t posting daily, but frequently, every week or so.
I found about about Anita, the MobileGirl, reading on Russell Beattie’s blog.

It was nice reading her blog, most of the news sites I browse and the blogs I read offer a technical point of view. Most of the times are developers or written FOR developers.
Her blog is/was different. She had a “UI perspective”. She was not interested about HOW it had been realized and what the technical peculiarities are, but rather how it looked, if it was usable, if the user would have been satisfied and would have enjoyed the application.
It was a different point of view. Not so common.

It is sad to see that she hasn’t posted for more than a month now. Where is she? Anita, where are you?

I just read a really funny post on the keitai-l (mailing list about i-mode sites).
I don’t know if it’s true, but the site really looks real.
Thanks to Mika Tuupola for posting:
Keitai KunKun

In short, you hang a little puppy on your phone and when you receive a call or an email (it’s for i-mode devices) it emits an odor.
I wonder how it would be on a bus, morning, crowded and a nice girl next to you suddendly smells bad… And you wonder that she’s so cute, but could at least take a shower sometimes.. And instead it’s her phone that is ringing.

Oh well…

When I was a kid I used to buy and read a comic book (weekly) called “Topolino“. It was the italian version of Disney’s comics.
On that comic book and others, in the last page there was a list of items that you could buy and get in your mail.
EVERY kid who was born between about 1960 and 1980 has seen those commecials. You could buy many things among which the most curious was a number of “secret agent tools”. The most famous was, of course, the X-Ray glasses. The commercial said that you could see in people’s pockets with those glasses.
They were also selling a number of other tools such as a tiny lamp, a tool to look through the door key-hole, etc.

Well, it might be a joke (just like the glasses) or maybe not, but it looks like the dream is still here, picturephoning brings us a reference about a new lens that everyone will want:
http://www.textually.org/picturephoning/archives/2005/11/010487.htm

Who wants one?

Eventually Google has launched a “Local” service for mobile users.
Check it out

Unfortunately it’s for the US only and works on j2me devices, which is actually the majority of the devices on the market (at least the ones sold in the last couple of years) so this should not be a problem.

I am pleased that Google is launching such service, location based services have been available in theory for years but operators did not like very much the idea of providing that information to service providers and did not even develop any service themselves. I remember many years ago some company from Nothern Europe promoting a game to played on your mobile phone and based on informations about your position. People would walk around the city and meet other players and were supposed to virtually shoot the other player. I think it was SMS based.
Google is offering the most obvious service location based, which is find places near you such as a restaurant, a farmacy, a shop, but there could be tens of other services that companies could developed based on your position.

I read the FAQ, or at least part of it. I was curious to see any information about how they do it. There isn’t much information, of course, but I thought it was funny that one of the first questions was about privacy and taking pictures from the satellite in real-time. This is so dumb in my opinion. People wants to know their position and know shops near him, but don’t want to have pictures taken and maybe Google should delete the information immediately. This sounds to me like going to the doctor and asking for a medicine but not telling him about what you feel and what’s your ache and expect him to be able to provide a cure. I know this can sound like a paradox and someone might jump up and shout at me, but I reall think it’s like it. Like people using a credit card and then be upset because the bank knows that you purchased something in a specific shop at a certain time. It is OBVIOUS that if you want that kind of service you will HAVE to share that information and MOST OF ALL the bank does NOT compel you to use it. You are not OBLIGED to get and use a credit card. If you want to put your money under your bed you’re allowed to, but then don’t complain that to buy a new car you need to bring a bag full of money. 😀

Browsing the web always brings to new discoveries.
A few days ago I was browsing one of my favourite sites (sorry I can’t remember which one, otherwise I’d certainly give you credit for it!) and noticed this tiny application.
You can download it here:
http://liferack.free.fr/noteit

I am sorry you will need a Mac to use, but this could be an excuse to upgrade, if you haven’t understood that it’s much better than Windows and looks much nicer than Linux while still sing a *nix core.
In two words, this application automatically sends notes (post-it notes) on your bluetooth phone. You will need Bluetooth on your computer and on your phone, OF COURSE!

I haven’t tried it so I really don’t know how well it works, but I thought it’s a funny application and might be of use to some of you.

A few weeks ago we bought four little plants: basil, mint, rosmarin and lavander.
About 3 days ago my girlfriend noticed some little dark drops all around the base of the mint plant. Some leaves were beaten. We initially thought that the cat was going to rip the leaves and scratching out the earth. The drops were tiny, but there were PLENTY all around the pot.
We cleaned the drops and then went to have dinner always keeping an eye on the mint plant. After about 15-20 minutes we saw some drops around the pot again, but the cat hadn’t been around!
As soon as we were done eating we went to check the pot and the plant again. I moved it, I squished the pot. We were now sure that it must have been some kind of animal.

The day after, in the afternoon when we came home from work MANY leaves had been cut in pieces and we had a TON of drops all around the pot.
That same night my friend Sid was coming for dinner. During the dinner I decided to ask him if he had any idea and described what had happened.
All the three of us went to look at the plant once again. He confirmed our suspicion of some kind of little animal or insect, but didn’t know much more.
After we had dinner we went again to check what was going on and suddenly noticed a caterpillar!
A big FAT green caterpillar was hung on branches. He was quietly eating a leaf. We stood there looking at him eating the leaf. He was amazingly fast and ate half of the leave in a few minutes.
It was really impressive how fast he could eat… and then we saw where the “little drops” came from.
At first I had even thought that some tiny insect was inside the soil and popping out pieces of earth while digging inside or something like that.

Later during the evening I went to the kitchen to get something to drink and happily discovered that the big fat caterpillar (that we named Pedro) was not alone. Pedrita was there too.

So here’s one picture I took of Pedro. (Note: I have NO idea how to distinguish the two caterpillars)

A little research on internet taught us that the caterpillar will turn into a month.
Yesterday we moved the plant on the balcony and now it seems they are gone. Probably moved to a new plant with more leaves as they hate SO MANY in just 3 days!

Special thanks to Sid for helping us in the research!