Technology

ᔥ NZ Herald

I pointed out with a video yesterday that James Cameron is a climate hypocrite.

And now he is set to mine asteroids in a new venture:

A US company, backed by film director James Cameron and Google’s top executives, has unveiled bold plans to mine asteroids for precious minerals and water.

Heralding a new frontier in space exploitation, Planetary Resources announced plans to send a swarm of robot miners into space to prospect resource-rich chunks of rock not far from Earth.

The firm’s co-founder Peter Diamandis said he wanted to “make the resources of space available to humanity”, and add trillions of dollars to global wealth in the process.

Among the goodies to be found on near-Earth asteroids are much-sought-after platinum, iron, nickel and sulfur as well as more obscure minerals that make excellent semi-conductors.

The equipment could also harvest water, which scientists believe holds the key to building propellants that will allow deep space exploration.

The first step will be to send a telescope into space within the next 18 to 24 months that can spot which asteroids may be useful.

Admitting the project was “difficult”, Diamandis and his colleagues tried to silence claims that it was a flight of fantasy, assembling a veritable fantasy team of investors.

They include Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt andTitanic filmmaker Cameron, as well as the son of one-time presidential candidate Ross Perot.

Quite how they are going to get all that stuff into space with out burning tonnes of noxious chemicals in fueling rockets is beyond me.

Perhaps James Cameron might like to tell us what the carbon footprint of this new venture will be?

ᔥ Boing Boing

ᔥ Ars Technica

Tim Berners-Lee the inventor of the internet:

“Record labels have a very strong voice when it comes to arguing for their particular business model, which is in fact out of date,” he said. “The result is that laws have been created which make out as if the only problem on the internet is teenagers stealing music. The world is bigger than that. The internet is bigger than the music industry. The economic impact of the internet is bigger than the music industry.”

ᔥ NZ Herald

iiNet in Australia has won a landmark case that could be a precedent for Kim Dotcom, the first get out of jail card. iiNet are one of the top 5 ISP’s in Australia

Top Hollywood film studios lost a landmark appeal against a dismissal of their claim that an Australian internet provider be responsible for illegal movie downloads.

A group of 34 international and Australian companies, including Warner Bros and Disney, had alleged that iiNet authorised the infringement of their copyright when its customers downloaded movies and television programmes.

In a world-first judgement in 2010, a Federal Court judge ruled iiNet did not authorise the downloads or have the power to stop them, thwarting the studios’ attempt to stem billion-dollar losses.

Smart Company has additional and more technical coverage:

The High Court ruled in iiNet’s favour this morning after years of court battles between the ISP and media corporations, saying it was not responsible for the actions of its users who downloaded copyrighted material illegally.

The ruling brings an end to the case, which has already been through two separate trials in the Federal Court, and quashes a move by the industry to attach the copyright violations of internet users onto those companies which provide them internet access.

The judgment – which was unanimous – said that iiNet had no direct technical power to prevent its customers from using the BitTorrent system to infringe copyright in the appellants’ films.

“Rather, the extent of iiNet’s power to prevent its customers from infringing the appellants’ copyright was limited to an indirect power to terminate its contractual relationship with its customers,” the summary read.

The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft has responded, saying that because the court ruled in iiNet’s favour, it’s up to the Government to legislate against illegal downloads.

“Both judgements in this case recognise that copyright law is no longer equipped to deal with the rate of technological change we have seen since the law of authorisation was last tested,” director Neil Gane said.

“They both point to the need for legislation to protect copyright owners against P2P infringements.”

Clayton Utz intellectual property expert and senior associate Timothy Webb told SmartCompany this morning the decision has ramifications for the entire industry.

“For the broader ISP industry, my view is that as long an ISP does not have the technical power to prevent the use of BitTorrent technology, and as long as it does not encourage it, even if the rights holders improve their notices the industry has a blanket defence.”

ᔥ Boing Boing

The Managing Editor of Boing Boing, Rob Beschizza, explains what blogging is to him and how to blog.

There are some good parts, great parts and gay parts of his post. But since Boing Boing is one of the worlds best blogs it pays to listen to what Rob has to say.

His comments about critics are interesting:

IGNORE MOST CRITICS

Even if you have thriving, dedicated, civil, reasonable, no-nonsense commenters, they’ll still be a tiny fraction of your readership. It’s true that they’re an important constituency; they build upon your work and buy your t-shirts. But losing sight of the 99.95 percent of readers who never talk to you is a bad idea–a bad idea that grows with your readership.

How do you serve people who aren’t in the habit of giving feedback? The answer’s simple:don’t stop doing whatever it is that brought them to you.

A habitual mistake of successful bloggers is to react to criticism from commenters and peers. First, we write about something in a certain way that builds an audience. Then the audience reaches a threshold at which criticism loudly presents itself. Then we make the critical mistake of thinking the critic represents the audience.

It’s hard to figure out how to respect a largely invisible readership, but the first step is respecting whatever you did to earn it.

and my personal favourite related to critics, but ones who are tits at blogging themselves:

IGNORE WHAT UNSUCCESSFUL BLOGGERS SAY ABOUT BLOGGING

Harsh, but true! Ignore bloggers, SEO experts, marketing gurus and other people who have figured out a traffic trick or two, but who have never built a large audience of daily readers.

A lot of people have a fixed idea of what a blog is: it’s something like Boing Boing, Gawker, or TechCrunch as they were years ago. A smattering of news, thoughts, links, opinions, random stuff. But you need to run where the ball is headed, not where it was in 2005.

At Boing Boing, we now pay experienced freelancers for original features on extremely obscure subjects. Long before becoming part of AOL, TechCrunch had a full-time staff of reporters who knew what was going on in Silicon Valley before anyone else. Gawker now occupies two floors in Manhattan, and has video monitors informing dozens of writers how their stories are performing.

Instead of trying to repeat others’ success, find something that no-one else is doing right. Find something close to your heart that no-one else is as interested in as you are.

Finally, stay away from cynics who see success in writing as a closed circle. I didn’t do a day of blogging before I got hired by Wired a few years ago; I posted comments on other people’s posts, on forums. Within a couple of years, I was an editor at Boing Boing.

So, people whining about the inaccessibility of the so-called blogging A-list can safely be ignored. They always were full of shit and they always were a bore. Be good at what you do, make friends with people who know a thing or two, and always be posting.

ᔥ Cre8D Design Blog

Rachel Cunliffe blogs about the differences between Blogging vs Twitter and Facebook. Rachel did the re-design of this blog and I credit that re-design as one of the reasons why I am now the number 1 blogger. During the design phase Rachel provided some insights into blogging from a design perspective that I hadn’t thought of, we implemented those and they have been a big success. the blog is ever evolving…and Rachel continues to provide great advice.

Anyway that is just preamble as away of saying she knows what she is talking about when it comes to Social Media, Blogging and design. Listen to what she says:

• Blogging requires more thought, reasoning for opinions, refining, details, deep expression and reflection than tweeting. Tweets are valuable for quick (incomplete) thoughts and light conversation but we often need more than that. Tweets are snacks between meals, signposts to feasts. The real banquets are blog posts. Drew McLellan, Sean Coates, Jon Tangerine
• Blogging helps you find like-minded people to talk to and work with and a sense of community (David Rhoden, Rian van der Merwe)
• Blog conversations don’t force you into an artificial relationship like “Facebook friend” or “Twitter follower” (David Rhoden)
• Blogs are in a database that you own and control – you can edit it or throw it away at any time. (David Rhoden, Anthony Killeen)
• Facebook and Twitter aren’t a replacement for your own personal history of things you want to say online. (David Rhoden)
• Comments and discussions are there in context. (Anthony Killeen)
• Blog posts are better indexed by search engines. When was the last time you Googled a question and got a Tweet or Facebook status update which answered it? (David Rhoden, Jeremy Cook)
• Blog posts are more educational, spread knowledge and are helpful to newbies. (Clive Walker, Rafael Dohms, Court Ewing)
• Blog posts are timeless: they don’t expire. (Rafael Dohms)
• Blog posts showcase your thinking as a professional and get your name out there. (Rafael Dohms)
• Blogging takes more courage: tweets are easier to correct. Blogging opens you up to real critique and criticism. Joe Leech)

There was a sense that true blogging was (and still is) about honesty, learning, growth. It was about opening yourself up to critique and trolls but also finding cheerleaders, mentors and fellow journeyers. There was a sense that we’re missing out on good insightful blog posts being written, and a proliferation of “Top 10 ways to get people to link up to your blog”.

There was a sadness that blog comments aren’t so lively any more: the comments are disparate, brief and shallow.

I know that every time I blog, I feel rewarded: I’ve thought things through, I’ve learnt things and I’ve worried a teeny bit about what other people are thinking in response.

The best text information I find online is still via blog posts.
The best way I find out about deep thoughts friends or strangers have online is still via blog posts.
The best place to find tutorials, help and ideas is still via blog posts. I may get there via Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest, but they’re signposts to the real content.

ᔥ Sydney Morning Herald

David Shearer thinks we should be more like Finland…there are some appealing aspects to this…the hot chicks…the naked beer runs…and top rifles they make…but it isn’t all good news out of Finland:

Samsung Electronics has ended Nokia’s 14-year leadership of the global mobile phone market in the first quarter of the year, outselling the struggling Finnish handset maker for the first time ever, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.

The poll showed analysts on average expect Samsung to have sold 88 million mobile phones in January through March, surpassing the 83 million which Nokia sold in the quarter.

Nokia had announced the sales total on Wednesday when it warned of losses from the phones business in the first and second quarter. Samsung is due to release quarterly numbers on April 27.

Nokia has struggled for several years in the smartphone race, but its dominance in the lower end of the market has allowed it to keep its rank as the world’s largest mobile maker by volume.

The fall of the Finnish firm has been rapid over the last few months as in a similar poll in January it was still expected to stay far ahead of Samsung.

“After 14 years as the largest global mobile phone maker, getting knocked off the top spot will come as a bitter blow to Nokia,” said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight, who has followed the industry since the 1990s.

“In contrast it will be greeted with euphoria by Samsung – they’ll be dancing from the boardroom to the factory floor,” Wood said.

ᔥ Mashable

Mashable is suggesting that the iPhone 5 is due in June:

According to a Foxconn recruiter, we’ll see a new iPhone in June of this year.

The recruiter suggested the iPhone would be headed our way this summer in an interview with TV Tokyo’s “World Business Satellite” broadcast Monday.

In the interview, a reporter asked the recruiter how many people the company was looking to hire, and he answered “We’re looking for 18,000 employees … for the fifth-generation phone.”

The reporter went on to clarify that the recruiter was talking about the iPhone 5, and the recruiter added that the next generation of the handset will come out in June.

The iPhone 5 — or, if Apple maintains the naming scheme it started with the iPad, the “new iPhone” — will actually be the 6th iPhone released by the company.

After the the initial iPhone release, the company launched an iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S.

The June rumor, of course, should be taken with a grain of salt. Rumors of the iPhone 5 started almost immediately after the announcement of the iPhone 4S last year.

ᔥ Mashable

The BMW i8 Spyder hybrid concept car has been caught on video. It certainly isn’t a gay Prius.

The folks at Bimmerpost have managed to get a hold of the fully functioning BMW i8 Spyder and drive it on the road in several scenarios, including a daytime drive on a parking lot and a night drive on the road.

The footage is of excellent quality, and the car (unsurprisingly) looks and sounds amazing. The fact that it looks fully road-ready probably means BMW will soon show it in the flesh to the general public, perhaps even at the upcoming New York Auto Show.

BMW i8 Spyder is an electric-gas hybrid, powered by a 96 kW/131 hp engine on the front, and a 164 kW/223 hp gasoline engine in the back. It goes from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 5 seconds and consumes 3 liters per 100 km (62 miles) on average, with 30 kilometres (19 miles) of autonomy on electric power alone.

Check out the rest of the videos, which include detailed exterior and interior shots, here.

ᔥ Andrew Sullivan

Check this video of a blind man going through a drive thru in his self-drive car, His autonomous car gives him freedom. something public transport will never do:

Steve Mahan is 95 percent blind. And yet he was able to get into a car and drive a pre-programmed  route from his California home to a Taco Bell restaurant. Mahan was driving a Google autonomous car.  For people like Mahan, who are visually impaired, this technology is liberating in a pretty fundamental way. It gives him the freedom of mobility, and the ability to be independent. While it will take a few more years for these vehicles to be widely available to the public, the video [above] gives us a glimpse of what the future will be like.

This is exactly why adherence to 19th century transport technology is not only a waste of public money but just plain silly:

Why drive to a train station, park, pay for a ticket, wait, hop on a train, sit for a while, then hop back in a car or other train when you get close to your destination, when you can just take a nap while your self-driving car carries you safely—and directly—to your destination?

Len Brown and other public transport adherents need to get out more. But Len already knows this…he hardly ever takes the train, preferring the convenience of his car.