Hello World: Hierarchical Tagso
An interresting post about two evolvements of taggings: hierarchichal and clustered tagging.
Scripts & programsSeptember 26, 2006 2:24 pm
Proximate, proximity peer-to-peer framework
Here we go! One of the most interresting study project I’ve done in Australia is now online! It’s a chat program on top of a peer-to-peer framework for Pocket PC. Check it out and tell me how you like it! BE CAREFULL though, it’s quite unstable!
Proximate, proximity peer-to-peer framework
Proximate is a framework/middleware that empowers proximity communication applications using peer-to-peer technology. Designed for mobile devices with wireless connectivity, this platform can host pluggable applications sharing the same network and user identification layers. It can be compared to MSN/Windows Live Messenger in the way it integrates diverse modules in a common environment, allowing people to communicate and interact.
The current (UNSTABLE) version allows to chat with online users around you, using your stylus either to type or scribble.
BlogSeptember 25, 2006 9:39 pm
(only french people are concerned)
Pétition pour exprimer son ras-le-bol concernant la qualité de connexion en zone non dégroupée chez Free.
BlogSeptember 20, 2006 11:38 am
In France, up to now, we were very in advance with domestic Internet connections: many ISPs were providing very fast connection (up to 20 Mbps) with plenty of free services (phone-over-IP allowing unlimited free calls, TV access, wireless "boxes" with routing capabilities…) for a cheap price (30€/month in average). Unfortunately, the quality and usefulness of the actual internet connection is getting worse and worse now…
Many users complained about big problems with their ISP: Free. The new fashion for some French ISPs is to restrain the bandwidth for some internet services including newsgroups, bittorrent and other P2P sharing networks. Ok, let’s face it: most of these services are used in a illegal way, for the sake of sharing copyrighted content for free. Hence, we have to admit it’s a huge highway for domestic piracy. But unfortunately, these networks are also used for legal activities. Some websites (including Jamendo and ratiatum) use Bittorrent or eDonkey to distribute files, in order to avoid investing in expensive file servers. Free’s limitations prevent us from using these services now.
Last but not least, not only the peer-to-peer transit is restrained but also instant messaging services like MSN/Live Messenger, Google Talk and others!!! Sometimes it becomes unusable: some messages "disappear", making the conversation very awkward and misunderstandable, this is very very frustrating!!! And for this case, I see no reason at all!
The ironic thing is that, while they save bandwidth with such restrictions, they’re installing fiber cable in order to allow bandwidth up to 60Mbps! What’s the point if we can’t download anymore??
Interresting readings (in French):
Blog 10:03 am
Microsoft SoapBox - stop the stupidity!!!
I just read that Microsoft is launching a new product: "SoapBox", a service that allows users to exchange videos. Yeah, like YouTube, Google Video and many others. Of course it’s "in beta", to follow the web2.0 hype invented by Google with its Google Mail. It’s a shame that everyone does the same thing, especially Microsoft.
You could think that it’s too late, Google Video and YouTube are having too much success already, but you would be wrong: even if Microsoft’s service is limited (only 100 MB of space for personnal videos while the others are unlimited) and private (you need to be invited, just for the hype "à la Gmail" I guess), they will take profit from its links with their so-called "MSN/Live Spaces" that are already integrated with the very popular Live Messenger!
I’m sorry to understand that we live in a world in which success is based on vertical expansion of services instead of basing on innovation. Damn, Microsoft could afford to create innovative services instead of simply copying other’s ideas, and being so late!!! Moreover, they dare to call them "Live Ideas", they’re not even theirs!! But you know, it’s so easy for them to package all their dumb shit with the so successful messenger so that everybody will use their services for the sake of integration, and hence simplicity…
Again, we can observe a "trust" problem: Microsoft do all they can to turn us into sheeps who use MS "Live" services with MS "Internet Explorer" browser on MS "Windows" operating system. You know, it’s so easy for users that way; why should they switch to something else?
As long as all these services are not fully interoperable, Microsoft will always win.
BlogSeptember 15, 2006 9:34 pm
Thomas, I’m afraid you were not the first one who had the idea… of testing and reviewing toilets all around the world! It’s amazing how much we can learn with the Internet everyday!
Let me introduce three websites:
This personal website is quite cultural. It shows pictures of toilets from all around the world: many different kinds of toilets! Some sample categories proposed on the site:
- Loos with views
- Benjamin Franklin’s Privy Pits
- High-tech toilets
- and many more!
This website is more informative: for many countries, it shows photos of many local toilets with a description, and the way to ask where to find them in the corresponding language!
More than a map, this Australian website features:
- the whole list of public toilets for each state of Australia
- find toilets by address, point of interest and even longitude-latitude!!! don’t forget your GPS device!
- toilet trip planner, to find your way to the toilets!
Tips & tricks 4:02 pm
A smart alarm clock should exist!
Ah! I’m not the only one thinking that our alarm clocks should take our sleep cycles in consideration!
ShouldExist || Alarm clock which wakes you based on how long you’ve actually been asleep
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