A New Man in London

Moon... our "postcard to eternity"

2010-09-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

Just read this comment online - wow, how true.

Dinosaurs ruled the earth for 160 million years and died out 60 million years ago. Our species has been here for 100 thousand years or so and will probably be extinct within a million years from now. We are to date, evolution's only experiment with technological intelligence that we know of. Maybe in another 60 million years another technologically intelligent species will evolve. If so they will find little or no evidence of our existence on Earth over such a long span of time. Our cities, metals, alloys, nukes - everything - will be just another thin strata in the rock. Nothing we achieve on Earth has the power to endure over geological time. A few fossils may remain and maybe some anomalous objects which may be interpreted as artifacts. But nothing of us and our achievements as a species will remain. Apart from on the Moon, where, barring direct meteor hits, nothing will have disturbed the remains of the Apollo missions since they landed there. There is no erosion on the Moon. The Lunar Rovers, the experiments, the launcher for the Lunar Lander, all of it will sit there in it's brand new state, as if just vacated by the departing astronauts. Would not future intelligent species not wonder at our achievements when presented with this evidence? Apollo is our postcard to eternity on which we have written, We Were Here.

Source: Guardian's 2009 article on "Return to the Moon" (after the jump, see bottom of the page).

How could I have missed this?! A singalong pop-up boat club in Cannes!

2010-08-06T09:48:00.001-07:00

Check this... very cool concept.

SingAlong by Singha w/ Loveboat Radio au Baron à Cannes

EU Commissioner for Innovation earmarks 6bn EUR to support SME innovation!

2010-07-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

See the video announcement below... good news for innovative SMEs in a period of still shaky and uncertain economic recovery.

Will you be at ninjatunexx bash in October?

2010-07-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Just got tickets for Ninja Tune label's 20yr bash in London, still can't believe the lineup - Coldcut, Bonobo, Roots Manuva, King Cannibal... the list just goes on!
More info after the link, see promo teaser below.

Gorillaz Rock the House - so cool on a Sunday!

2010-07-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

Check it out...

The Cove, Japan bashing and the dolphin's worldwide plight

2010-07-06T16:03:00.000-07:00

This film "The Cove"... watched the trailer and here is my response:

FACTS

Taiji Town dolphin catch / yr in 2010 = 2,000 dolphins
(source: Guardian)

1950s - 1990s: dolphins killed worldwide = 25,000,000 est.
1950s - 1990s: dolphins killed by US (Eastern Pacific only) = 4,500,000 (20% worldwide kill)
1950s - 1990s: dolphins killed by Taiji Town = 100,000 (2% US kill)
(source: US government)

* Today and every year, French & UK Fishermen kill 1 Taiji Town worth of dolphins in the English Channel (2004 data) - no Oscar-winning film on this one as of yet
* Today and every year, 150 Taiji Towns worth of dolphins, porpoises and whales are killed worldwide (2004 data) - no Oscar-winning film here either
(source: Greenpeace)

CONCLUSION

By focusing on the strange and barbaric killings of a tiny minority of dolphins (since when is Japan a big dolphin breeding ground?), an attempt is made to portray Japan and the Japanese as alternately ignorant of the dolphins' plight, lacking in the moral fibre to stop this happening in their own country, and apologists for ill treatment of animals generally, which is defamatory and discriminatory.

If you're going to make a film on a fishing village representing only 2% of Eastern Pacific Ocean US dolphin kills over the last 50yrs, let's see the Oscar-winning film on the remaining 100%. By all means make films about the plight of mammals worldwide, just leave the cheap Japan bashing out of it.

SUPPORTING DATA

Taiji Town dolphin catch / yr in 2010 = 2,000 dolphins
(source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/08/dolphin-hunt-village-defence)

* Total dolphin killed in the UK Channel in 2004 = 1,900 dolphins -> 1 Taiji Town /yr killed by French and UK fishermen
* Total porpoise, dolphin and whale population killed worldwide in 2004 = 300,000 dolphins -> 150 Taiji Towns / yr killed by fishermen worldwide
(source: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/dolphin-killing-trawlers-stopp/)

In the late 1950s, [US] fishermen discovered that yellowfin tuna in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (ETP) aggregated beneath schools of dolphin stocks. Since that discovery, the predominant fishing method in the ETP has been to encircle schools of dolphins with a fishing net to capture tuna concentrated below. Hundreds of thousands of dolphins died in the early years of this fishery.

It became significant in the 1950s when tuna fishermen began to exploit the unique relationship that existed between the tuna and the dolphin. In this zone, the tuna schools swam below the surface swimming dolphin. The fishermen took advantage of this by developing the purse-seine net fishing method. They also used the dolphins to track, chase, and encircle the tuna. Fishermen sealed off any escape routes, catching both the dolphins and the tuna in their nets and many dolphins were killed or injured in this process. While some suffocated due to flipper rostrum (beak), and fluke entanglement, others were crushed by the weight of the tuna or by passing through the power blocks during net retrieval.

Total dolphins killed by US fishing (in 1960s, in Eastern Pacific Ocean only) = 300,000 dolphins -> 150 Taiji Towns /yr killed by US fishermen
(sources: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ia/intlagree/aidcp.htm, http://www1.american.edu/ted/TUNA.HTM)

International Fisheries Law (valid for US and Central America only)

In the fall of 1992, the nations participating in the ETP tuna fishery convened at the annual meeting of the IATTC and signed the La Jolla Agreement, which placed voluntary limits on the maximum number of dolphins that could be incidentally killed annually in the fishery, lowering the maximum each year over seven years, with a goal of eliminating dolphin mortality in the fishery.

* Country quota of US dolphins killable / yr (in 1993) = 19,500 -> 10 Taiji Towns / yr killable by US fishermen
* Country quota of US dolphins killable / yr (in 1999) = <5,000 -> 3 Taiji Towns / yr killable by US fishermen
(source: http://www.temple.edu/lawschool/drwiltext/docs/The%20La%20Jolla%20Agreement.pdf)

Great Okinawa restaurant tucked away in downtown Kowloon!

2010-05-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

Was walking down Hong Kong's Kowloon area this evening and found this Okinawa restaurant "En Okinawa" tucked away on the 1st floor... amazing I even noticed it.

Great atmosphere and even better food, run by two Okinawans Tomohide and Rika just arrived from Okinawa a couple of months ago - had a great chat about everything Okinawan, even tried a 60-degree alcohol fiery Awamori with a bottle sheathed in its own tressed grasses cover. A little too fiery for me, so tried another 42-degree Awamori on the rocks which was just great! Couple more pictures below.

If you're in Hong Kong and want some great Okinawan, go here. You won't be disappointed. For more info, pictures and reservations, click here.

Liberal Democrat support in the press nowhere to be seen... need a new media strategy

2010-05-17T05:15:00.000-07:00

With 6 Liberals in the new UK coalition government, you'd think there was at least some support for them in the press but alas not. I have been rather bemused at the coverage for candidates during and in the aftermath of the UK's general election: Mirror resolutely Labour (so no change there), Times/Telegraph/DailyMail (all resolutely Conservative so no change, but now paint the Liberals in a neutral/good light as per current party diktat), but the only two newspapers that came out in favour of the Liberals during the campaign (Guardian) and openly endorsed their candidacy (Independent) are now actively undermining them.

On the night of the election, when the Conservative count was outstripping the Liberal count, suddenly the Guardian flipped and started talking up the benefits of a Conservative government (huh? I thought, but thought it was just a blip simply reporting on the parliamentary numbers). During the campaign, even though the Independent only proferred its support in the last week of the election (why so late?), a certain John Retoul was raving negative about the Liberals on the paper's blog pages. You'd think this was common dissent on an otherwise Liberal-leaning paper, again, fair enough.

One week post-election and to my bafflement, the Guardian and Independent have moved resolutely into anti-Liberal, pro-Conservative territory. The Guardian has wheeled out Polly Toynbee the eternal Labour supporter commentator (what? they just lost) and delivers editorials on how Labour could do better next time, general comment is generally dismissive of Liberal efforts (although Mark Pack delivers somewhat guardedly positive comments but never gets to the website's top page), and Conservative developments are reported neutrally. On the Independent, John Rentoul openly undermines Nick Clegg and his party "file under childish, silly and moderately funny", old-Tory-leather-boot Bruce Anderson does the same "the average Liberal constituency activist is an angry fanatic, with shallow, thoughtless opinions, utterly unscrupulous on the doorstep, ready to spread any smear and tell any lie" and Labour is given the odd soapbox in the comment section to talk about "listening and reconnecting". Wow. With friends like this, as they say, who needs enemies?

A major priority of the Liberals should be to create an overwhelming media channel into the echo-friendly blogosphere because when the going gets tough, the Blue/Red press shouting match will drown out your message and you'll lose the ability to shape opinion to your benefit (or at least get your ideas through to people untainted by rival party propaganda). Better start soon while you're ahead!

Truckloads of freaks, strippers, art and noodles drive NYC’s Lost Horizon night market (RT wired.com)

2010-05-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

This is completely and utterly nuts:
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/05/lost-horizon-night-market/#ixzz0o8EkzUxY

Great quote from Theodore Roosevelt: the man in the arena

2010-05-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

- Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23, 1910.

Skunk Anansie back on tour!

2010-05-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

Be there at the Brixton Academy or be square! In the interim, a brief refresher for all those of you who may not remember it all that clearly from the pre-breakup days: check out "All I Want"... now that's what I call '97.

Saw IronMan 2 at the London IMAX, blew me away

2010-05-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

Just had to post this IronMan2 trailer again as a lot of the film's soundtrack was from the AC/DC songbook. Loved tapping away at AC/DC while the rest of the crowd gave me strange looks from the sidelines... but who cares?! Great movie, see it at the IMAX: you'll be blown away (expand video below to full-screen for best effect)!

Digging DJ Clipz's clownstep anthem "Rubbish"

2010-05-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

Been enjoying this regression into D&B over at last.fm: this video vaguely reminiscent of the Coldcut videos from 2007 and Banksy-esque references throughout. (Note to self: The yellow and red robots remind me of Gordon Brown pushing Nick Clegg around saying "Nick, get real" in Morten Morland's 15-second satirical video of the 2nd UK Election Debate but that's by the by.)

Also get a (rather DIY) how-to vid on how to create your own clownstep track: the sounds get really squelchy around @2:00 and then positively mad around @5:05!! And if that hasn't done your head in... maybe you need to plug your ears in first! Can definitely see a health and safety hazard if there ever was a DJ Clipz vs Part Chimp night: mad clownstep tweaks and ear-splitting noiserock. Ouch ;-)

European Innovation Chief comments on how the EU needs to innovate by 2020

2010-04-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

European Institute of Innovation & Technology chief outlines what the EU needs to do to catch up with emerging economy cultures (& US) cultures of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Guru dies aged 43, pioneer of thoughtful/lyrical hip-hop infused with jazz

2010-04-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

A great man has passed on... his sharp social commentary, virtuoso lyrical style and powerful jazz influences will be missed. Fondly remember the MC Solaar - Guru collaboration from back in the early 90s, he truly was an inspiration to us all. Guru, we will remember you! See the MTV obituary piece below, from earlier today.

Hilarious: the 1st (UK) Election Debate in 15 seconds

2010-04-20T03:10:00.000-07:00

You have to see this, very funny (via the International Herald Tribune's article here).

And now, time to Brush My Shoulders Off

2010-04-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

Blast from the past, but no less relevant. Go on, you know you want to.

Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek - Spaced out hip hop with "Memories Live"

2010-04-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

Another great track just unearthed over at last.fm... just kick back and savour the beats.

Immortal Technique - Speech

2010-04-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

More words by Immortal Technique on working in and for the community:

Immortal Technique - 4th Branch

2010-04-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

Ignore the conspiracy theory items, some amazing lyrical gems here - putting a harsh spotlight on the unhealthy collusion between the US media and its government.

Great night out at the world premiere of Iranian indierock movie Persian Cats in Brixton last night

2010-03-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

Not sure about the curry tortilla finger food at the afterparty upstairs, but the DJ did his thing (love those Iranian rap tunes!), quite a few arty/music world types but no snobbery to be seen for once.

Winner of Cannes' Un Certain Regard Prize - The Trailer

Hichkas Rap Clip from film

Part Chimp live

2010-03-23T02:49:00.000-07:00

This is pretty much what it was like last Saturday at the crypt under St Giles... except 3 times louder. I think this live was more like an 'unplugged'/acoustic version, so I guess at least you can hear the chords and some of the singing. On the night the singing was a nice visual touch, hopelessly lost in an ear-splitting wall of sound: just the right conditions for a mindless mosh pit upfront.

Hands down the maddest video I've seen this year

2010-03-20T08:49:00.000-07:00

Check the promo vid for the OK Go's single This Too Shall Pass from their new album. Setup by the mad and self-styled "high voltage debauchists" over at Synn Labs. You have two ways of watching this video: mad and madder. For madder, go fullscreen. You have been warned.

Do what you love. Stop doing what you don't. Right. Now.

2010-03-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

Check this barnstorming inspirational speech (courtesy of RebelCinema) from Web2.0 Expo New York!

I didn't think much of Led Zeppelin... until this

2010-03-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

Jimmy Page just blows me away here in their "Dazed and Confused": as always hit the full screen button for best effect!

More from AC/DC, now the soundtrack for IronMan2

2010-03-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

Check the 720p HD version on the video below, and expand to full-screen: you won't be disappointed!

AC/DC is on a highway to hell

2010-03-14T05:09:00.000-07:00

Gotta love those pyrotechnics... click on the expand button to view in full size glory!

A youthful B B King at his best

2010-03-13T18:29:00.000-08:00

Check out this rare footage: not just the cool blues guitar riffs, some barnstormingly good singing too!

red hot chilli from back when!

2010-03-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

Suck my kiss direct from Moscow's Red Place

The Fly, rooftop views of London included!

2010-03-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

Wake up people!

2010-03-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

Rage Against The Machine now heading up the Download festival in June '10 alongside AC/DC! A flavour of things to come...

Gorillaz Feel Good Inc flashback

2010-02-24T15:17:00.000-08:00

Stumbled on this again after a while... not too bad on the guitar either ;-)

David Cameron's deficit reduction: kickstarting the UK's lost decade?

2010-02-19T02:45:00.001-08:00

According to today's letter from the UK's foremost economists to the Financial Times, you would certainly think so:

The Treasury has committed itself to more than halving the budget deficit by 2013-14, with most of the consolidation taking place when recovery is firmly established[...] for the good of the British people – and for fiscal sustainability – the first priority must be to restore robust economic growth

protesting the UK Conservatives call to halve the deficit right now.

For those who missed it, one of the main reasons for Japan's "second" lost decade of economic growth (after the bursting of the post-war bubble in 1991), was the Hashimoto government assuming the recovery was back on track in 1997 and increasing taxes to reduce the budget deficit. Simply put, the tax hike depressed consumption and the fragile recovery dipped back into negative or zero growth which continues this day... Let's hope the Cameron government is not just a Hashimoto government in Savile Row suits.

After 20 years, Japan, as the 2nd-largest economic power in the world, has transformed itself into a low-growth economy by necessity. Lessons for the next UK conservative government? Don't head down exactly the same - technically laudable albeit premature - path to long-term low-growth.

Trailblazing handmade amps for guitar freaks

2010-02-17T01:15:00.001-08:00

Cool article at wired.com about the latest trend in handmade amps that are rugged enough for repeated gigging (and other abuse). Click here to go direct to the guys making the stuff. Wired.com's picturebook after the link.

Lithium rights deal for Japan to supply booming hybrid car industry

2010-01-19T15:51:00.000-08:00

Breaking story on the Nikkei just a few hours ago: the Japanese government has teamed up with Toyota Tsusho and an unnamed Australian company to land rights to Lithium mines in Argentina. Starting at 15k tons/yr in 2012, the move is a first step to guaranteeing supply to Japan's booming hybrid car industry and the broader automotive segment. The two companies will create a joint-venture that will be co-invested by all three partners, although all materials excavated will be managed solely by Toyota Tsusho.

It is unclear what role the Australian partner will have, although my guess is they could probably run the heavy lifting part of the process (drilling, excavation, mine mgmt) with the Toyota Tsusho trading company taking over the logistics, supply chain and processing part. In a world where China is securing large commodity deals left and right across the globe esp. on the African continent recently, this is still a rather small deal for Japan in one of its more high-profile emerging industries. Expect to hear more deals like this.

(original source in Japanese only: http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/main/20100120ATFS1903919012010.html)

Slim touchscreen Lenovo tablet at CES easily docks into lightweight "netbook skin"... flashbacks of Idoru

2010-01-09T14:15:00.000-08:00

One of the two coolest things I've seen at CES this year (other than the Sony 3D gaming booth). Major flashbacks of the multicoloured tablets Korean kids carry around in William Gibson's masterpiece Idoru. I've been waiting for this since the book came out in 1996... already that long?! We're still probably about 5yrs off that vision (ie. no eyeplugs at CES as of yet), but we just got one step closer ;)

Now all we need is the nanotech construction goo to make the tablet docking "netbook skins" all the more lightweight and organic... oh well, another couple of years to wait then.

Apple's Phil Schiller paints pragmatic cloud future to JP media (and warns Google): "customers not looking for web-based computers"

2010-01-04T08:46:00.000-08:00

In an exclusive interview to Japanese media a few hours ago, Philip Schiller - SVP of worldwide product marketing at Apple - warned that "customers are not looking for web display-driven computers".

Firing a shot across the bow to Google's all-encompassing cloud-based OS strategy, and making sure that Asian markets are listening, he predicts a more pragmatic approach to cloud computing with a growing distinction between cloud-friendly software, and other software that isn't and that will remain local.

"Lots of software and data, such as games, movies, and pictures, don't work well in the cloud [...][In the future,] high-performance computers loaded with software and browsers that are easily usable by the cloud will become mainstream".

(see the original Japanese article here).

Japan prime minister Hatoyama starts own twitter account on Jan 1st, starts tweeting few hours ago

2010-01-02T02:08:00.000-08:00

The Japanese prime minister has just started his own twitter account, according to offbeat Japanese blogger Vocaloid (see post here, JP only). See also the PM's first tweets at @hatoyamayukio...

#1 Jpn mobile carrier Docomo now lead shareholder in #1 Korean carrier KT, mull common mobile future

2009-12-16T16:29:00.000-08:00

After a largely unsuccessful foray into licensing its mobile internet technology i-Mode into Europe in the early 00s, and a number of minor deals with emerging market carriers, the leading Japanese mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo has upped its shareholding in the leading Korean carrier KT from 2.2% to 5% by switching its convertible bonds into common stock.

Now the largest shareholder of KT (after the Korean Pension Fund, Korea's largest govt-sponsored institutional investor), Docomo execs will join KT execs to form a new board/committee to oversee the adoption of a common mobile handset sourcing plan and common investment strategies into 3rd party carriers worldwide.

(for the original article in Japanese from the Nikkei, see here)

Cool x-disciplinary approach to replicating biological visual recognition systems using computer systems!

2009-12-06T06:25:00.000-08:00

See the inspiring and witty video posted by the Rowland Institute at Harvard:
(from their recent paper A High-Throughput Approach To Discovering Good Forms of Biologically-Inspired Visual Representation, orig. RT smartplanet.com)

hilarious promotion video for world's strongest beer

2009-11-28T16:38:00.000-08:00

Very cool product at 32% vol(!), hilarious promotion, recommended all round! (...and now to get myself a case of this stuff)

Tactical Nuclear Penguin from BrewDog on Vimeo.

Very cool camerawork and visual effects by Reza Dolatabadi

2009-11-14T04:57:00.000-08:00

Via my good friend "bahbah moshallah" Sepas! I really like the camera work here. It's not perfect, but genius is peeking out from quite a few frames here... enjoy!

Click here to view in full-screen HD mode (recommended).

Octo-Dancing from Reza Dolatabadi on Vimeo.

FT: China announces $10bn more loans to Africa

2009-11-08T13:47:00.001-08:00

This reinforces my hypothesis posted on this blog (towards the end of the article) two weeks ago:

China's recent resource grab over the last few years in Africa is basically covering for emerging market debt expansion denoted in Chinese Yuan. So Japan takes the debt market in Asia, China in Africa.

China now further buttresses its mid-to-long-term financial/currency, geopolitical and energy security with its Africa debt portfolio. More after the link.

Cool vid on the future of cloud computing

2009-10-29T01:26:00.001-07:00

...by a technical leader at canonical, the software services guy behind Ubuntu, and more recently behind Canonical's Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud product. According to the talk, this product allows anyone to create their own private open-sourced cloud with similar tools to that made available by EC2. Didn't catch if their infrastructure is currently running in Amazon's EC2 or whether they offer tools that are easy-to-use like EC2. Even had an example of SAAS mapping with APIs... right down my alley! See more below:

The Future of the Cloud by Simon Wardley from Carsonified on Vimeo.

Hatoyama defines Japan's powerplay with China for the Asian Century

2009-10-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

In yesterday's Oct 25th asahi.com article, it is becoming clear that Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is building a complex and highly profitable Japanese position for the 21st century.

1. Playing 21st century global institutions against 20th century institutions

Although Hatoyama is trying to mirror Japan's halfway-house position between the US and Asia, like the UK did during the 20th century, he is also positioning Japan to play off 20th century institutions against the emerging 21st century institutions. While he goes through the motions with the UN, ASEAN, IMF, War On Terror, all these 20th century European-US-driven diplomatic institutions, he is busy building the local institutions that will either supersede these or will compete with them as the economic center of gravity shifts to Asia.

China's third-way institution-building (both political and resource-driven) in Central Asia and Africa is a great asset and one more reason why Japan needs China to build this more than ever. Regardless of whether the Central Asian Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) or the emerging African Union are actually going to have any clout in the near-to-mid term, these are emerging institutions that are increasingly being driven by a Chinese agenda borne of strategic necessity not a need for status or prestige or ideology. Japan can leverage the existing trust it enjoys with the defence, financial and ideo-political institutions of the 20th century; China, those of the 21st.

This is a bond made in heaven, and Japan has very little to lose, very little political capital to expend, and receives an immense power gain in return. To possibly miff some in the American bureaucracy about the demise of the "special relationship" is irrelevant, considering the US has made it abundantly clear since the Nixon days that China is whom it needs to work with, and considers Japan as its Asian geopolitical insurance policy.

This benign neglect is perfect for Hatoyama as he repositions Japan for the next 50 years. What the US does not realise is that it is dealing with China for reasons that are still embedded in the Cold War, China is only in it for economic development and to hedge its internal & currency security. It is clear that it shares very little cultural heritage with either Europe or the US (including the UN), and cares even less for it as it grows stronger.

2. Mirroring Europe's integration: from ECSC to EC to EU

Trying not to read too much into the proposed name "East Asian Community", it does seem that Hatoyama is looking at recreating the European EC model by currently including the ASEAN group of South-East Asian nations into this "Community" plan. I would argue that in reality, he is looking to a prior Community model: the European Coal And Steel Community (ECSC).

According to Wikipedia's entry for the ECSC:

The ECSC was first proposed by French foreign minister Robert Schuman on 9 May 1950 as a way to prevent further war between France and Germany. He declared his aim was to 'make war not only unthinkable but materially impossible.' The means to do so, Europe's first supranational community, was formally established by the Treaty of Paris (1951), signed not only by France and West Germany, but also by Italy and the three Benelux states: Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Fast-forward sixty years: in 2009, Hatoyama announces plans to create an East Asian Community. To draw a simplistic parallel between this and Japan-China-Korea-Taiwan is rather compelling, and I would argue the right way to go. It makes both a (likely) future war/conflict on resources between Japan and China unlikely, but also draws on the historical parallel between Germany-France and Japan-China to set aside enmity in the interest of future gain, again, a very Asian preference.

I would suggest that East Asia take things one step at a time and starts with an ECSC-like core (Japan-China-Korea-Taiwan), then progressively extends it to the Asian ASEAN members to create an EC model. Eventually, they should extend these to non-pancultural groups such as Australia, UAE and Russia. I suggest the US stay out, or on the sidelines as an observer. There are enough global institutions where the US has a stranglehold to leave this one open to Asian manoeuvering and leverage building.

3. Towards a new Asian Bretton Woods by 2018

China's suggestion for an upgrade to the dollar as world reserve currency, to be replaced by SDRs (Special Drawing Rights) as a supranational basket of currencies, is pointing to a new Bretton Woods by 2018. This was made clear by Xiaochuan Zhou, the head of China's central bank, in a statement earlier this year in March 2009, when he pointed to the need to beef up these SDRs as a hedge against future global financial/economic instability.

7 months later, secret negotiations are revealed between the UAE, France, China, Russia and Japan to pay for oil using a basket of currencies as made clear in the October 2009 article in the Independent. The negotiations suggest:

[...]moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council[...]The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong[...] augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.

Note the perfectly-timed parallel move by the other heavy-hitter in the Gulf region, Iran, just one month before this revelation in September 2009 to switch from dollars to euros for all oil dealings:

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the replacement of the US dollar by the euro in calculating the value of the country's Oil Stabilisation Fund (OSF). The edict, issued on Sept 12 [2009], follows a recommendation by the trustees of the country's foreign reserves[...]

Consider also the fact that Japan owns much emerging market debt (including debt to China) and has been aggressively promoting Japan Yen debts across emerging markets and its economic development aid recipient countries since the 90s. China's recent resource grab over the last few years in Africa is basically covering for emerging market debt expansion denoted in Chinese Yuan. So Japan takes the debt market in Asia, China in Africa.

As a recap:
- China, Japan, Russia, UAE, France: discuss move to first SDR basket by 2018
- UAE and Saudi Arabia/Qatar/Kuwait: plans for a weakly coupled single currency by 2015
- Iran: moves to Euro for oil trade as prelude to alignment with first SDR basket
- Debt: Japan takes Asia, China takes Africa, this coopts deviation from Japan/China's agenda for the first SDR basket
- Second SDR basket in 2028, as the EAC integrates more deeply with ASEAN/Middle East members??

Note the conspicuous absence of both the UK and the US... the center of gravity is shifting.

4. The start of the Asian Century

Imagine for a moment that at the end of the 2nd world war, West Germany and France owned much of the US debtbook, and then announced the creation of a European Community. Imagine they set the agenda for most emerging capital, resource and political power with both industrial, and debt-/currency-driven financial clout. Imagine they set the scene for a new Bretton Woods, setting the financial and currency agenda for the following 30-40 years. Imagine the sheer power of this. Now replace "West Germany and France" with "Japan and China". This is happening has we speak.

I think it is safe to say that Hatoyama's plans for a Japan tag-team powerplay with China mark 2009/2010 as the official start of the Asian Century.

Newmaninlondon says: Apple, are you sure about the haptic UX on your new mouse?

2009-10-22T22:15:00.000-07:00

Video of the new upgraded Apple Mouse below, which allows finger motion horizontally and vertically like you would on your iPhone, but on your mouse instead (in addition to the regular left-button/right-button clicks). I was suprised that the zoom function doesn't work the same as on the iPhone, and to flip through iTunes tracks or Safari tabs, you need to use two fingers instead of the iPhone one. Although the concept makes sense, why only integrate 50% of the haptic UX? Don't get it, and it's certainly not intuitive across the product portfolio which is strange again... I thought that was Apple's strength!?

NB: I am not an Apple fanboy, but neither am I an auto-detractor. I think they have cool stuff, just have to point out the obvious sometimes...

Cool vid of Donald Putnam, quant investing veteran

2009-10-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not a hedge fund manager, but this is very well-articulated interview. An in-depth view of the hedge fund industry, its role in the financial economy, and the changing face of the computer model/AI-driven quantitative investment clan. According to the video, after a fairly painful recession it is (finally) received knowledge that computer-driven modelling doesn't replace human interactions with the market. It is a tool to refine the investor/manager's workflow and determine when to use the gut, when the machine, and when more time is required by a more nuanced analysis. See more here.

Satnavs in the spotlight: Satnav tells driver to drive off cliff

2009-09-17T05:39:00.000-07:00

(excerpt from today's Independent newspaper (UK) here)

A driver whose car was left teetering on the edge of a cliff after following his satnav was ordered to pay nearly £900 for driving without due care and attention.

Robert Jones, 43, nearly plunged down the 100ft cliff in his BMW after obeying instructions which sent him along a steep, narrow path, in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, on 22 March.

[...]Speaking after the incident earlier this year, Jones, who works as a driver, said he trusted his satnav system and relied on it for his job.

He said he continued to follow the instructions when it told him the footpath he was driving on was a road.

Police officers were called to the scene after reports that a BMW was hanging off the edge of a cliff off Bacup Road.

Snatch wars... absolutely hilarious

2009-09-16T16:43:00.001-07:00

Rediscovered this after a long time: got to be the funniest movie on YouTube...

Does Apple have rather large cloud ambitions?

2009-09-09T16:36:00.000-07:00

Cloud computing is definitely the buzzword of the moment, extremely necessary to many software businesses and their delivery of easy-to-use software services over the internet, but also rather overhyped of late. It was refreshing to read an interesting piece in the CultOfMac blogsite from a few weeks about an amazingly large computing facility that Apple is constructing in North Carolina in the US. This story has now resurfaced among the bloggers in the last few hours and gaining visibility.

The facility, which apparently will be one of the largest such facilities in the world, as large as Microsoft's new Chicago facility, does seem to mean that Apple is looking to cloudize at least some of its services in the future. Rumors aside, this does show how the larger players seem to be gearing up to a future that's probably more cloud-based than not. Will Microsoft play catch up with Google in offering cloud-based Windows OS in this manner with Azure? Probably. Will Apple do the same? Known for their secrecy and protectiveness of brand and product development integrity, probably not to the same degree.

But the facility sizes mentioned do start to illustrate the amount of investment required to really provide economies of scale in this space. Those without the deep pockets - and the robust business models to power those deep pockets - will increasingly have to pack off part of their infrastructure to 3rd party cloud providers, and retain the core assets that would be most at risk in case of an (unlikely but finite risk of) catastrophic systemwide provider failure.

I mean, if even Google grid/cloud computing maestros can have increasingly common cloud blackouts as demand increases for their GMail/GoogleApps cloud services, then this scenario should be in the standard contingency handbook for the rest of us, and not to be dismissed just because it says "on-demand" and "unlimited" in the marketing blurb.

It seems that beyond the hype, the reality of cloud/on-demand computing is already here. It is no longer a heated debate over if, nor over when, but over the rather more pragmatic "what".

FT somehow misses the DPJ triumvirate

2009-09-04T15:03:00.000-07:00

According to the FT today, new Japanese premier Hatoyama's position was "weakened" due to his nomination of Ozawa to the post of DPJ secretary (not too dissimilar to the vice-presidential post in the US). Unfortunately for the FT, Japanese politics does not work in blacks and whites, and is a dense forest of greys, where one grey seeks pole position over other greys. And the Ozawa nomination was the best thing Hatoyama could do.

The new ruling party of Japan, the DPJ, is run by a triumvirate of 3 men, none exactly what the electorate want, but that between them pull together the opposition to the Japan-one-party-system of the LDP. Hatoyama, Ozawa and Kan are the triumvirate and no-one can convince me otherwise. Kan wrested power from Hatoyama a couple of years ago, then got embroiled in a scandal and had to step down, but the wounds of Kan's backstabbing were too fresh at the time for Hatoyama to take over and Okada, a midweight party leader took the interim job. It is possible Hatoyama engineered the merger with the Liberal Party chief Ozawa that led to the current enlarged DPJ. In hindsight, this was a smart move, but wasn't seen as such at the time.

After the merger, Ozawa became top-dog at the DPJ but subsequently got embroiled in a scandal and had to step down. Only guy left of the triumvirate was Hatoyama who had licked his wounds and waited in the wings patiently as gen-secretary. He was thrust into the position of leader, and as ex-PM Aso took the rap for the worst economic recession since the war, Hatoyama's squeaky clean position made him the new PM of Japan, even though he is not charismatic, displays no particular affection for showbiz politics, and can't really connect with the average Japanese. But by default he has been chosen as the guy to lead Japan out of the recession.

Back in the day, Ozawa was a LDP new-kid-on-the-block whose meteoritic rise led to resentment within the ruling party, and all his various political machinations eventually led him to be shut out of the party and his new and depleted Liberal Party a minor party kowtowing to the LDP with no real gain. Having managed to create unhealable rifts within the LDP that led to its demise in the general elections this week, he is a great political mover and shaker in Japanese politics, but has never created a lasting legacy. You could say he is one of the pillars of the new DPJ, but it is difficult to brand him as a "heavyweight", either in the ascendant or the descendant... he is there full stop and until he gives away his sphere of influence to the open-source community under GPL license, he's going to be around. At the end of the day, Hatoyama created the DPJ in 1998 with his family funds, and seems determined to get even well-known opportunists with large spheres of anti-LDP influence to consolidate his party's still-tenuous hold on power.

Thinking about it for a moment, it is almost the opposite gameplan to the Obama campaign: build up the grassroots, win the election, leverage the new grassroots infrastructure to lead the people. The Hatoyama campaign has been: leverage the LDP's infrastructure that the electorate has handed to them on a plate, win the election, and build up grassroots support for the future.

To say that Hatoyama's position is weakened by Ozawa's nomination is superficial and the best thing Hatoyama could do. By cementing a Machiavelli squarely behind him in a kingmaker position, Hatoyama can work on upgrading the LDP's grassroots political infrastructure to serve his party and turn his party's historic win into lasting action.

Peridot short on Garmin's GPS future

2009-09-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

The investment firm Peridot Capital Mgmt's blog - the Peridot Capitalist Market Blog - has made clear in a post today that it is short on Garmin and its upcoming nuvifone smartphone introduction.

In the medium term, as GPS handsets will become (even more) ultra-competitive and even more hardware players enter the already crowded field, the blog suggests to think of moving off already highly-priced Garmin stock and into other, more revenue-generating and less risky, investments.

Food for thought for the other GPS players out there, both in the mobile and auto industries. Quite a tough market out there considering Garmin has a zero-debt/high-cash position, has a reasonably high PE ratio, and is still getting this kind of rap...

JBOWS, cloud computing and security

2009-09-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

Just been reading up on cloud computing, and came across the JBOWS (Just a Bunch Of Web Services) idea, that was more or less derided here by Joe McKendrick at ZDNET for being too ad-hoc as compared to SOA. As the sheer complexity of SOA goes the way of SGML (and the dodo), I think that on the contrary, ad-hoc stringing together of web services to usher in a new age of web-driven services is a good thing for organisations learning to internalise the skills of this new paradigm/environment.

The problem with turnkey solutions is that you do not get the benefit of experimentation or immersion in building organisational knowledge of the technology. In a short-term world of quarterly expectations, you want to focus on what you're good at and what makes you different. If cloud computing and software as a service is not your core business, and is not likely to be going forward, I agree one shouldn't think about it too much and go ahead with SOA and other initiatives.

But if your company is going to offer software as a service as part of the portfolio going forward, you need this JBOWS attitude to gain long-term expertise about cloud computing and web-driven online software services understanding more generally. It's a longer term play but that boosts organisational knowledge, expertise, confidence and capability, leading to market-leading innovation and distinctiveness.

The other thing I have been reading about are the drawbacks to cloud computing, such as the lack of control over your own IP and risk of decreased security for your cloudised assets. I would argue neither of these problems are issues that are dependent on putting applications, source code and other IP into the cloud as opposed to keeping it behind the company firewall, but a good example of mitigation for the risks of cloud computing for SAAS/PAAS/IAAS players is HP's new Cloud Assure.

This service offers cloud computing assurance services against the main 3 concerns of cloud computing: cloud security, cloud performance and cloud availability. It will be interesting to see the uptake of such services by blue chips or IT companies that have already made the leap. Maybe it is too early to tell or maybe we will need more major outages a-la-Gmail, over at Amazon (Amazon Web Services/Marketplace), Microsoft (Windows Azure) and Salesforce.com and for prolonged periods of time to highlight the need to pay for these services. This movement would help establish industry standards for cloud assurance, and ensure safety, consistency and compliance for the upcoming mass-scale adoption of cloud computing services predicted over the next 5 years. So cloud computing assurance looks more like an emerging market within the next 5 years, but with limited revenues until then.

Peer-to-peer network-based location on the mobile phone in the mid-term?

2009-09-01T11:40:00.001-07:00

According to an article in the MIT Technology Review yesterday, Intel Research is working on a peer-to-peer protocol for exchanging data between handsets. There is already something called Bluetooth that could do this, but people are loathe to switch them on, although if this is something offered at the platform OS level, this could be very interesting.

My take on this: this could help devices position each other with greater accuracy and possibly transition to a more amorphous location-capture mechanism. As opposed to every single mobile device querying the mobile network/GPS satellites etc as they do now, you could have certain numbers of handsets pulling the data down and then broadcasting it to others in the vicinity. The broadcaster handset would perform triangulation on the fly at the ground-level, based on mobile phone density in the area. This could be sensed by measuring the ambient mobile phone signal strength in the area, or could be network-triggered.

Once the broadcast is finished, the mobile device would be released. The setup would be essentially similar to the DHT model used by the (much maligned) peer-to-peer network clients such as BitTorrent, Vuze, MuTorrent and others, where downloaders are much more frequent than uploaders. In this setup, every client is both a recipient of data, and a source of received data. The more clients are around, the faster the downloads. And you can switch it off at anytime, which apparently most people tend to do when they're done on the PC. If it was an OS feature, this would be more optimal as people would forget / have difficulty turning it off. Granted, this setup would probably work best in high-density urban areas with high mobile phone penetration rates.

An important element to this software feature would be anonymised & encoded handshakes so that although the data remains on the client, device-to-device anonymity would be preserved if hackers compromised a device to spread spam. Again, this is an issue that has already been looked at and taken care of to some degree with online peer-to-peer networks, provided tunnelling and other security features has been switched on.

This is mid- to long-term research here, but another example where the convergence of mobile and PC is allowing the porting of common software on the PC to better the mobile experience.

This may also help kickstart DARPA's attempts at building an interplanetary internet infrastructure to guide the numerous satellites and probes we have floating around in space right now, that are all guided by earth-centric - read centralised - communications. This is less than optimal as there is no failover mechanism, and an operational risk in case of temporary failure of data transmission from earth or "accidental" jamming from competing / unfriendly probes. DARPA's emerging DTN protocol, that I wrote about on my blog 6 months ago, may benefit from working with these groups as opposed to living in a box with the federal slushfund and creating stuff that is strictly limited to military applications.

Virtual economy booms to $5bn and rising

2009-08-21T04:02:00.001-07:00

Interesting post over at forbes.com that the $5bn global virtual (items/goods) economy is booming, although the journalist does mention that 80% of it remains rooted in East Asia (Japan, SKorea, China). I would say most of the mobile virtual economy would be firmly locked into the Japan-SKorea zone, considering their love of everything mobile, everything online and everything virtual/gaming.

There is a reason why the virtual economy is locked up in East Asia: imagine a world where your average joe has 100Mbps internet at home since 2005 and within 6 months will have 100Mbps internet on their mobile phone... now stop dreaming. That place is 10 hours flight time away from London, and it's called Japan.

Cue futuristic Denno Coil anime scene with 200 metatags virtual baubles being traded by primary school kids in the backstreets of an LBS-drenched near-future Tokyo? Yes, but people have been living in this virtual economy via online games for quite some time now.

Note the case of one high-ranking female player in the MMORPG World Of Warcraft game who offered sex in return for virtual money to buy a much coveted item in the game. She assembled real-life photos of the contenders, background-checked their characters in the game, demurred and chose the winner for her favours, and demanded the money upfront. The result was that the next day (!!) the player got her virtual money, another player got the sex. And that was April 2007 (2.5 years ago) and the blurring of real and online boundaries is only accelerating... more on the story here.

Paid-for LBS mobile concierge service nets $20m/yr

2009-08-07T12:33:00.001-07:00

It seems NTT Docomo, Japan's largest mobile phone operator, has cracked the nut of successful money-making mobile location-based services. Their recent location-based mobile concierge service "iconcier" has garnered in excess of 1.8m paying subscribers since its introduction last autumn, each paying a minimum of 105yen (ie. $1) a month. A simple calculation gives us $1.8m*12=$20m/yr with the current installed base alone. Does this signal a resurgence of interest in location-based services?

Although many imagine Japan as the natural birthplace of location-based mobile services (along with South Korea), we must remember that the dominant local-search-cum-public-transport-search application in Japan, Navitime, has been around for 9 years now and only just hit the 4m paid subscribers mark 2 weeks ago. Adjusting Navitime's subscribers for the importance of NTT Docomo in the Japanese mobile handset market (50%), the iConcier Docomo-only service is set to cruise past the efforts of 9 long years within the next month or two.

Is it the passive nature of the flash screensaver that streams local data based on where you are which is the killer feature? Introduced in 2005, Docomo's underlying iChannel infrastructure, using Adobe's FlashCast platform, allows feeds to be streamed into the flash screensaver from predefined external sources or from Docomo's news databanks. The iConcier takes things a step further by building on the open Japanese location APIs that allow any mobile phone to find its location from the network, and feed+location+flash=localised realtime feeds. The application is easy-to-customise, and can draw in basic info like traffic jams, subway delays, to local supermarket sales, local weather warnings and various coupons. Everything is buy-in, so potential spam becomes personalisation. I don't know how regular the updates are, but it's a slowly rolling text update, not a page of spam ads.

I guess this shows the rise of what I call "non-map LBS". There doesn't need to be a map there to convey location-based information. In some cases it's helpful, in others, I don't want to have to search a map, I want the information to come to me in the form of a simple buy-in streamed feed or in the form of a simple text sms. Wonder who will try to do this outside Japan, if indeed it was noticed at all...

Japan mobile services break $14bn barrier, shrug off recession

2009-07-23T16:36:00.000-07:00

According to the generally omniscient (about Japan mobile stuff anyway) site Wireless Watch Japan, the Japanese mobile services industry has broken through the $14bn market barrier in 2008, so with 106m mobile contracts, that's Average Market Revenue per mobile capita at $140-odd/yr. And we're talking mobile services here, not buying mobile phones and accessories. Only services!

It is interesting to see that the mobile services/commerce industry has expanded a full 55% over 2 years from 2006 to 2008 to capture 2/3 of the mobile software services industry market in Japan last year. The mobile content industry - once the cash cow of the mobile industry in Japan and still dominant in EMEA/NAm - only represents 1/3 of the total market now and only grew 30% over the same period. Alea jacta est... services/commerce are not going away anytime soon. They are now ready for prime time in the rest of the newly-awakening post-recessionist EU/NAm consumer markets. Watch this space.

Car-based auto detection of pedestrians

2009-05-16T02:59:00.000-07:00

Very cool video over at MIT Tech Review: see it here...

Rocket built from scratch makes it to space

2009-04-19T16:26:00.000-07:00

I hadn't realised this had happened last September until today, but it brought tears to my eyes... The first privately built spacecraft, built from scratch, now nestling into an earth orbit within 9 minutes of launch. It's finally a reality. Finally, this kind of thing is happening. Cheaper payloads into space in the next couple of years thanks to this. Very very cool, very very inspiring. The next wave is upon us!! See the video below for more...

If hairdressers charged like mobile operators

2009-03-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

Having had a cut myself a couple of days ago, I found this piece absolutely hilarious... but true. See the article entitled "What if mobile phone operators ran hairdressing salons?" and learn!

North Korean missile flies over Tokyo as Japan stands by

2009-03-26T03:07:00.001-07:00

(click on picture to enlarge)

Shame on the Japanese leadership for failing to protect your nation. When missiles were sent over Northern Japan back in August 1998, no-one did anything. I watched from London, glued to the news feeds: when the missile sailed over mainland Japan, the Japanese Army and Navy did nothing. 11 years later, North Korea's missile will sail over Tokyo's 35 million inhabitants, and again Japanese leaders plan to do nothing but sweep up the debris.

In his daily interview today, the Japanese PM had nothing to say beyond "making sure we work together with the UN Security Council" (asahi.com). For any other country it would be as simple as, 'don't do it or we will take out the missiles and your missile capability, if not counter-attack with overwhelming force'. Imagine a missile blithely sailing over London and the South-East. Is that acceptable? In Japan, the answer is yes.

10 days ago, the response of the Japan Navy to this was "to shoot down a satellite that North Korea plans to launch early next month if it shows any signs of striking [our] territory" (see here), but today, mere days away from launch the response has toned down to insignificance "Officials in northern Japanese coastal cities today began setting up emergency networks and running drills to prepare for falling debris in case the launch fails" (Guardian). Hillary Clinton pontificates: "this provocative action [...] will not go unnoticed and there will be consequences" in case of launch. How different things would be if the launch was due over Washington DC.

Pages 143-144 in Yoichiro Sato's book Japan in a Dynamic Asia detail clearly what happened back in 1998: the attack took place in August 98, missile flew over Japan, Japan pulled out of the light-water nuclear reactor-cum-food aid program KEDO in political protest. Then they fell back in line before the end of 1998 (!) because of political pressure from the US for its new pre-North/South Korea reunification fever plans to bring peace to the peninsula... i.e. nothing happened. Japan complained that the US intelligence didn't give them the right information until after the missile had passed over the country, but that is hardly acceptable with such a modern Army and Navy. As a response, Japan launched their own spy satellite in 2003 so as not to rely on US intelligence.

The failure of Japanese leadership to protect their own people speaks volumes about the spine of the Japan defense agencies and their will to do the job they are paid to do. Shame on them if they let this through... again.

2009-2019: space tourism's lost decade

2009-03-17T03:44:00.000-07:00

Regardless of the best efforts of Richard Branson and a handful of other space entrepreneurs, space tourism is shutting down, at least for the next decade.

The Russians are shutting down their space tourist program at the end of 2009, 8 years and 6 passengers after Dennis Tito their first paying passenger. At $20m a shot, it was rather expensive for the average Joe, but there you go.

In 2010, at the same time that Russia shuts down their tourist program, the US will not have any space-faring vehicle available as the Space Shuttle goes into retirement. The US hope to bring their new shuttle online in 2015, but there are no guarantees regardless of Obama's guarantees that all will be well on the space front.

The UAE and Singapore have announced their own spaceports, but check either websites, and the last updates date from 2006 and nothing since then.

China has started building its own space station(s), but have no plans for testing their first unmanned modules before 2011 - and astronauts would come later - whereas space tourism remains a vague notion in the future, ie. 10+ years into the future, if you know how the Chinese government manages its announcements on large projects. So nothing from the Chinese until 2019, even though their container-style space stations will probably be the way of the future.

So this is sizing up to be the lost decade for space tourism, although Virgin Galactic-like trips up into the atmosphere for $200k a pop and better materials/suits via nanotechnology research may improve the lot of future generations going up in the 2020s.

Washington University searching for new AI paradigm

2009-03-07T09:54:00.000-08:00

Washington professor searches for a new AI language beyond LISP: more here.

Japan's ShinNisseki builds potentially carbon-negative house for mass market

2009-03-03T12:19:00.000-08:00

The Nikkei reports that Japan's ShinNisseki today finished building its first carbon-neutral, but potentially carbon-negative, house for the mass market today.

ShinNisseki, also known as ENEOS, details the calculation that makes the home carbon-neutral here and by increasing the efficiency of what they term "active usage of solar energy generation" (or defining it better so we have an idea of whether it is possible in the near-term or not), they could effectively have created the first carbon-negative home for the mass market home construction industry... Wow.

See also the (slow-loading) video.

Dead-easy primer on Cloud Computing

2009-03-02T07:04:00.001-08:00

A nice simple primer video on cloud computing, from the boys over at Sun Microsystems. Great for anyone who is looking to find out more about the new software infrastructure architecture of the next 5-10 years.

The video does take quite some time to load, for no reason whatsoever, so if you start getting irritated, a PDF version of the presentation can be found here.

Cool vid on the future of communication

2009-02-27T17:34:00.000-08:00

Although the virtuality emphasis is a bit dated in our credit-crunched and post-Second Life year of 2009, but much of it is thought-provoking, especially if viewed as part of the continued development of the greentech, gentech and nanotech revolutions... more below.

Cognitive algorithms for forecasting future outcomes

2009-02-23T13:14:00.000-08:00

Fascinating video about cognitive research at Microsoft, using large streams of data that are then analysed by "surprise algorithms" to send alerts based on sets of "learned" conditions that would "surprise" the user. Very very cool and though-provoking piece, although the interviewee is definitely looking a little nervous. Kudos to the guys over at MIT Technology Review for posting this!

Japan cosmetics defy consumer gloom

2009-02-23T12:38:00.000-08:00

According to Bloomberg, the economic engine of growth in Japan (that is, the 30s-40s female consumer) is defying the credit crunch by buying cosmetics to keep itself ahead of the gloom and doom. Some of the best performers are the high-luxury end of the spectrum with some pots of the stuff going for a cool 1,000GBP for 40g.

Apparently, Guccis and high dining is out, expensive cosmetics are in. So bad news for the luxury groups who only recently pumped money into setting up glamorous and (now empty?) flagship stores in expensive downtown Ginza. More money for local cosmetics producers, hoping to sell on to the high-end department stores of Korea, China, Taiwan, and HK. Is this the start of protectionism/buy local as people cut back on the superfluous?

Full flash on smartphones by 2010, but what about the rest of us?

2009-02-17T05:37:00.000-08:00

On Monday, at Barcelona's GSMA "mobile telephony of the future" Mobile World Congress, Adobe announced that its brand new latest version of video applications software Flash will be pre-loaded on most smartphones by 2010. As it is standard fare for viewing most animated PC websites, Adobe are rightly assuming that most smartphone owners will want to check the internet sites without hitches on their phones.

A lot of huffing and puffing over at bleeding-edge West Coast tech watering hole techcrunch.com about how terrible it is that the iPhone isn't in the smartphone list, but everyone knows that Apple is keeping a stranglehold on Flash in order to prop up its money-making walled garden called iTunes. The larger question that begs to be answered is: and what about all the non-smartphones that make up 88% of the total mobile phone market?

It is amazing that while Japan has FlashLite on most of its run-of-the-mill phones, and of course all of the Windows smartphones, the Western world is still mired in a with-us-or-against-us tussle by PC software players muscling in on the mobile action. In East Asia, mobile Flash websites are a dime a dozen, but you'd be lucky to get Flash to play inline on any website even on my slick Nokia N95 8GB here in the UK... When I try to check even the most basic of internet websites on my phone: if it senses even a sliver of Flash anywhere on the webpage, up comes the tiny blue question mark icon for "unknown object" sitting cosily in the centre of where the Flash animation should have been. Come on guys, why should I wait until 2010 for what you can get on the PC right now, and then only on one in ten phones worldwide?

Get real: Adobe is waiving its fees for license use to speed up Flash adoption - what are telcos and handset manufacturers waiting for? You could have one in three handsets worldwide with Flash by 2011, two in three by 2013. The future is now.

Gulf satellite services company is born

2009-02-16T10:32:00.001-08:00

A new satellite company to serve the MENA region was announced just last Monday... Not sure how I missed this one. The company called SmartSat is a new $500m venture between a Jordanian and a Kuwaiti group, looking to capitalise on 350% estimated growth for the leased satellite market over the next 5 yrs. Their focus is on the Gulf and possibly Eastern Europe, according to the MD. They are to provide satellite services to the region, such as satellite TV, internet services, and - conceivably - infrastructure bandwidth to the larger telcos.

With the Gulf poised to see 250m mobile users by year-end, and unconventional powers such as Iran having become the largest mobile market in the Gulf region, the communications market in the area seems set for strong growth in the decade to come.

Japan bullet trains to be rolled out in UK in 2013

2009-02-12T03:48:00.000-08:00

According to the Times online edition, a Japan-led consortium has just won a 7.5bn GBP contract to build the next generation of high-speed trains in the UK. Although some reinvestment will be done in local plants and businesses, the details of the deal are fairly unclear.

There seems to have been some serious "British jobs for British workers" trouble behind the scenes, but in terms of technology, reliability, energy-efficiency, as well as the fact that the Hitachi/Mitsubishi duo were successful exporting their trains to other countries such as for the Shanghai-Nanjing line in China, Made in Japan has won the day this time around.

As a commentator to the article pointed out, why not let the Japanese take over Network Rail and fix some of the blatant inefficiencies in the service that has bugged the UK for years? Unfortunately for the UK, the rail network in Japan benefits from (1) strong infrastructure investment in the boom years when Japan had all the money it needed (and probably more to do with pork-barrel politics than strategic policy), (2) very strong R&D development and manufacturing excellence, (3) conscientious and hardworking labour force where punctuality and polished service is a social given. Some of those things you can export (ie. #2), but social mores and colossal infrastructure projects? Doubtful the economic timing is going to help things.

Tucking back into my prince 2 books

2009-02-11T16:22:00.000-08:00

It's been a long day, but I've finally sorted myself out. This time with a doable schedule, a doable timeframe... I can do this! Only three weeks to go now!

Why is foresight so top-heavy: towards the concept of IMS

2009-02-10T04:54:00.000-08:00

Delving into the little I know about foresight/future studies, it does seem that there is a lot of predictions, future-gazing, possibility branching & rationalising, lots of high-level snr management stuff... but is that it? Is this foresight only to be applied to strategic analysis, or brainstorming for new policy definitions?

How much does innovation management come into this? How about innovation development at the task, product or project level? We have risk management and quality management, our six-sigmas and our QMSes but what about the other end of the equation. Some sort of systemisation of innovation into a process model where the inputs are current process models and foresight analysis, and the outputs are bottom-up-percolating innovation. Something like an IMS: innovation management system. I found this which is a semantic innovation management system, but not exactly what I was looking for.

The top level would be current strategic foresight work and macro market analysis, the middle level would be tactical innovation with probabilistic branching analysis and competitive analysis ie. management consulting but at the tactical level, and bottom level would be brainstorming for priority tasking in a PRINCE2-like environment. This could also work in an agile environment all the same. The IMS would base its discoveries' validity on a set of parameters called the "foresight KPIs", whether it is market share, sales, product turnover, no. of regions, no. of users, mindshare, social network nodes, latent brand strength, or other KPIs.

There would always be a place for top-down strategic analysis forecasting, possibility gazing on a macro scale which would encompass society changes, but what about the micro stuff? Definitely something to look into, but not that I know enough about this yet.

Interesting new development on interprobe telcoms

2009-02-09T06:15:00.000-08:00

A fascinating article a few months old already, but interesting in that people over at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the States are developing a new telecommunications standard for probe-to-probe and probe internet communications. This new protocol called "DTN" is specifically designed for situations where there is no telco infrastructure and bad latency issues, such as outer space, underwater etc. Some tests have been carried out over the last few years, naturally in a military contingency context by people like Internet grandpa DARPA, but also with applications to the international space station in 2009 although the article doesn't mention when.

According to NASA's website, the goal is to get these up and running and tested by 2011. According to the multi-governmental Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems December newsletter, the first tests with the International Space Station using this protocol were successful last November, although from one well-defined, well-equipped station to another, this hardly proves much. The ground-based testing by DARPA looks good for now in controlled earth-based environments. The next two years promise much in terms of real-world applicability.

Hilarious: pure despair

2009-02-09T05:04:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry but while I was trawling (desperately) to find something juicy in today's web 2.0 postings (beyond the kindle2 launch later today)... and this is what I find! A very appropriate, very Dilbert-like black humor all through. I mean, it is supposed to be Monday blues, right? Check it here: hilarious.

Cool MIT phone projector

2009-02-08T02:48:00.000-08:00

Check this out: MIT are working on a mobile phone projector that returns information from the real environment. Checking ratings on books, food prices, people tags, and more. Check it here:

Avigdor, blatant anti-Japanese rant

2009-02-06T04:56:00.000-08:00

Welcome Avigdor Lieberman to the pantheon of Israeli politics: roll over Barak, Netanyahu, Sharon, Peres (!) and all the other extremist focus group-leaning Israeli politicians, this guy has outdone you all. Not only to enforce the apartheid politics a-la-Red/Orange/Yellow alerts built on fear and alarmism, nor just to prove Zionist credentials by degrading Arab ethnicity as a given, but now to smear the Japanese?

His words on Jan 13, 2009 - "A real victory can be achieved only by breaking the will and motivation of Hamas to fight us, as was done to the Japanese in the last days of World War Two." noted in the Guardian today, and previously on Bloomberg among others.

Wow, that's nice. If Hamas were a top-5 industrial, naval and military powerhouse nation, like Japan was in early 20th century, maybe you'd have a point about WW2. Hamas hold onto the most impoverished slice of land facing the sea this side of Eurasia, without enough economic activity to warrant even rudimentary corruption or piracy like other more established failed states in the region. But if extremism is good enough for previous Israeli presidents and prime ministers, I'd bet that Netanyahu is on the way out, Avigdor on the way in, liberal Obama or not.

Netmusique/Electrique - always the best

2009-02-05T05:33:00.000-08:00

Check these guys out over at Netmusique: the best electronica mixes I've heard recently. It's a change from CliqHop... that I'm now glued to 24x7!! Nuff said, back to work.

My first blog, now in London!

2009-02-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

I felt I needed to update myself online, after a hiatus of a couple of months which have been tumultuous, to say the least. London, Tokyo, London, Tokyo. Now I'm settling into a new, more focused rhythm.

Just checking a new article on the FT on quantum computing for IT security and it struck me how long it had been since I was manipulating all those quantum mechanics equations. How little those equations had been used since then.

Should be studying more about Prince2, refining, updating, memorising all the stages in detail with all the items necessary. But it will be done, I've already gone through the material once, just need to drill down now.