FCHouse

Net Neutrality? Ask Virgin Media!

Posted by Carlo - 14/04/08 at 11:04:08 am

Virgin Media new CEO decided to give us his Illuminated Vision on the net neutrality:

“This net neutrality thing is a load of bollocks” [digitalspy.co.uk]

Nice to know which digital media provider we should avoid. A company that approaches the problem of net neutrality in such a way deserves to lose all its customers. They already cut the speed of the connection during peak hours, so it would have been logical to think about this other thought.

What can I say? Dear Mr Berkett, it is not the net neutrality to be bolloks…

Alltop: web content aggregator, but…

Posted by Carlo - 11/04/08 at 11:04:04 am

Sometimes I do not focus only on the feeds I have in my reader, but I want to read something different, something I do not constantly monitor via RSS. Alltop is one of the site that I found very interesting to find relevant stories. I use photography.alltop.com to read more and more about photography, without pretending to care about every single story.

 

I think Alltop is a really interesting site, but there is one HUGE problem in my opinion: The site does not show you what are the story you have already watched.

From a long time the message boards highlight the new posts since your last visit. I would love to see this on Alltop as well. Just save the time of my last visit in a cookie and highlight every news that is more recent…

I will send an email to the Alltop guys, who knows, maybe they will make the website better!

Flickr goes Video: how to lose credibility

Posted by Carlo - 09/04/08 at 10:04:58 am

Flickr is one of the site I check and update daily. I like taking picture, giving and receiving feedbacks and this is why I decided to signup a PRO account with Flickr.

Yesterday the great(!) news: flickr.com now supports video!

Wow(!), and this is a good way of going out of business(!) Do we really need another YouTube? Do we really need to focus on having a website that does what other thousands already do? I joined flickr because it was about Photography. Were I interested in video I would have joined YouTube.

The wrong thing in this decision is that the same amount of effort spent to do YAVSNS (Yet Another Video Social Networking Site) could have been better spent in improving the photographic part, that is the core business. Why not implementing a rating system, or creating new way of enhancing the most beautiful photos? Anything, but this…

By the way… this announcement did not receive much interest, maybe because more people than simply me are not so interested in a company that does not support their core business…

…my 2 cents…

Google App Engine: a few thoughts

Posted by Carlo - 08/04/08 at 02:04:03 pm

When I read about it I was very interested. An integrated solution to rollout web applications in a solid and easy framework? That is nice! I know that some similar solutions already exists, but if Google does something like this…

I took my time to watch some video, read some documentation, and have some personal thoughts about Google App Engine.

My first question was: why Python? It is not widely used… well, I do not know why, but I think Google will roll out solution for different languages. It is just a detail.

My second question was: why Django? I love XML/XSLT. I love it because it is standard. It merges standard data form (XML) with a standard stylesheet (XSLT). Well, another detail.

The first concern, however, was of a different sort. Even if the example posted in the video was a sort of “Use me like a Front End Controller”, the App Engine is not MVC. I think Model-View-Controller framework for web applications are very stable and flexible. I am a little concerned about it. I believe that a wider set of requirement to support a dictionary and an MVC implementation would have higher the initial learning curve a little bit, but would have speed up the real development. Did not they choose Python, that is not precisely the best language to keep low the initial learning curve?

My second concern is about the data storage. I believe that every data interaction should be done via objects, as it is done in Google App Engine, but with a difference: I think that mixing SQL code with programming code is Evil. Having a persistency layer you can implement a object-oriented way of retrieving and manipulating data, SQL can be avoided.

Apart from these technical digressions, I believe that the solution has been moved in the right direction: removing some barriers.

Clearly the move is very intelligent if you think that one of Google targets is to remove IT from companies: you will not need an IT guy to manage your server any more.

 

The Half-Entrepreneur

Posted by Carlo - 02/04/08 at 08:04:17 am

This morning I am quite active in researching. In one hour I have subscribed to some interesting blogs I have found on startups.alltop.com, I have written few twitts and I have read tens of posts. I have been hit b a post by Tony Wright.

I have spent some time reading a post about starting a company keeping your day to day job. It is a very interesting post, and (sadly) I have read about the mistakes I have done in the past when I attempted to create my first company. I tried and I failed because I had no experience, no knowledge of some key details and so on. Even if I still have tons of things to learn, I have a bigger experience now, and I am going to use it for my next move! :D

I have always found a hard task to find co-founders ready to get busy as I am, soulmates who are believers. This is probably one of the hardest task I had and I still have. My capacity of creating a network of people is not as good as I would like it to be, but I am working on it.

BarCampBrighton2: RDF presentation

Posted by Carlo - 15/03/08 at 02:03:59 pm

I am following a VERY interesting presentation from Tom Morris about RDF. I had underestimated the potentiality until now. Still the syntax is NOT as easy as it should be (a little too geeky), but the Semantic Web is something getting nearer and nearer!

My mind is already running fast to catch some details and get it working in a real example…

Now it is the time for Android!

Posted by Carlo - 12/03/08 at 05:03:13 pm

After the great iPhone SDK announcement, after a hundred thousands download, right now it is the time for Android to show something… Different!

It is the time to distribute open applications, not linked to a Big Brother that defines what is right, what is wrong and who gets the money. It is time to think about how simple is the iPhone interface and how complex is to handle Apple.

Yesterday i was talking to a friend, and we were discussing about iPhone applications. In the end my point was that to create some innovative, mobile delivered service, you do not need the iPhone. You do not need it because tomorrow there will be another iPhone, and the day after a new Nokia, and than an Android. Mobile phones are like computers: they pass. The era of the death of software is here: Google, SalesForce.com and many others are teaching it. The fact that the SDK is finally out is tiring, because the iPhone hype is now something “cool“, but the market is much more than the simple iPhone.

So I will warmly welcome Android, I will welcome something different, something capable of destroying the iPhone. Our society is constantly evolving (or it should be), so everything is destined to be forgotten, and the Apple first phone will be no different.

I am quite tired of loving and hating Apple. Lately it seems to me that the Cupertino company is going nuts, playing the role of God more than ever in their little domain. Do they understand that they seem no “different” any longer. Do they realise that they are becoming the same as IBM thirty years ago (do you remember 1984, don’t you)?

Welcome, Android, whenever you will be here (soon, I hope)!

Think Different!

Startup Camp London

Posted by Carlo - 08/03/08 at 12:03:53 pm

I have spent the entire day, yesterday, at the Startup Camp in London. Today I am in for the second day of the unconference. There have been some very interesting session, and my desire for kick-starting my own business is growing bigger and bigger.

It has been extremely clear to me that nothing I want to do is as easy as it seems, and some of my ideas have been strengthen by the conferences I have follow.

Finally a great geek TV serie: Quarterlife

Posted by Carlo - 06/03/08 at 10:03:14 am

This morning I was reading some blogs and I ended up reading about a TV Show, Quarterlife, that was rejected by ABC. The producers decided to push the contents on internet, opening a website and broadcasting the episodes for free.

The trailer I watched hit me violently: a total geek TV Serie!

I watched the first episode (just nine minutes) before starting to work, but I had to write about it. Judge yourself!

StartupCamp and the Web 2.0 dreams

Posted by Carlo - 18/02/08 at 06:02:52 pm

Initially this post should have been like an announcement. “I am going to StartupCamp in London!” The fact is that there is much more than this going on right now.

From one side there is my job, and from another there is the dream of creating something different, something new. I cannot be alone in this. I need a team to create something new.

To pursue our dreams sometimes we are asked to accept compromises.

Right now I am looking at my dreams, and the StartupCamp is part of them. At the same I am evaluating the roads that depart from where I am right now. Some of them are easy, but without rock’n'roll, others are hard and without warranties, but fun and enjoying.

I will attend the StartupCamp also to understand if what I am looking for is feasible. I am looking for partnership that are very delicate and precious. By now I have missed the first step: building a solid and committed team.

The Startup Camp is another great networking event in which I will try to meet people whose interest in Startup and commitment to an idea is similar to mine.

I am trying to look myself from an external perspective. This is hard to realise, but I hope it will help me growing.

 

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

Gandhi

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Carlo Nicora is at home in London.