Blog Migration

It was good while it lasted but you always move on to something better.


Cooler. Slicker. Snazzier. (Hopefully!)

Guns, Alcohol and Murder (Almost) --Dick Cheney Hunting Chronicles 2006

Truly, these Republicans sure know how to stir shit up, they are done shooting them up in Afghanistan and Iraq, almost complete racking up huge debts on the National Treasury to pay for their extravagant armies, and now with not much spare cash for another war, Dick Cheney, resident hawk in the Administration, couldn't bear the lull and decided to shoot his friend. lolz...

This one was quirkily funny. He mistakes a human for quail. Jon Stewart got all the comdeic elements of this covered though...




I love the reference in the video by Rob Corddry of the similarities in the hunting misfire incident to the Admin's policies on terrorism. These guys always take aim and shoot at the wrong target. Afghanistan was fine, Iraq? hallo?? anyone still rem where the WMDs are?

Another gem in a line of comedic drama to come from the greatest country's government on Earth. These guys are on a roll, and just can't stop being making fools out of themselves.

In a new peek into the weekend hunting activities of Dick, he mistakes his hunting buddy for a quail. Apparently, he drank beer too before his hunting trip. No big deal, just a small fact that this guy just had multiple heart operations before.

PR Disaster

So it seems that the communications strategy for this mishap took 18 hrs or more before the press and world media were properly let in on the details. Read more on the media clampdown here. Why, you might ask, for all the fancy gadgetry and well-oiled PR machinery of the White House, they had to take such a long time to reveal details of this incident that happened to the 2nd most powerful person in America? Did they have somethign to hide there? Huffington Post has a theory that since beer takes time to cleanse from the human system, the long time delay was quick thinking by the Veep's men on damage control to avoid embarrassing tests.

Lets also not ignore the fact the Vice-President actually thought it appropriate for Katharine Armstrong, a private citizen and also a ranchowner of the hunting ground, to be the first person to break the news to a local paper.

Found this off another blog:

Hunting party included Vice President + U.S. ambassador to Switzerland + American lobbyist for vaccine company in Switzerland + big fat Republican lawyer, and took place on the ranch of the American lobbyist for the vaccine company in Switzerland who also happens to be a huge Republican contributor.

Technorati Tags: Dick Cheney, hunting, Jon Stewart

The Brrreeeport Report

Just read Scoble's blog. I am taking part in his experiment. This is a test of the search engines to test how fast and comprehensive their search capabilities of the word "brrreeeport" are.

So, here’s the brrreeeport report. You can participate. Just add the word “brrreeeport” to your blog. Or, even better, do that and then give it a tag too. So, anyway, it’s 7:57 p.m. Pacific Time so let’s look at what the search engines have found so far.

Now for my own experiment at upping my web rankings:
Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport Brrreeeport

Technorati tags: Brrreeeport

More on the "Real" Video iPod

Just read that Apple will be celebrating its 30th anniversary this coming April 1st and might find it opportune to launch some new products too. Rumor has it that it could be a new iBook so that it makes it in time for the May K-12 school-buying season or a full-screen video iPod.

I wouldn't have paid much attention to such speculatio except for this comment:

In addition, he noted reports of Apple shutting down production of the current generation of the video-iPod.

"The other event that could signal the imminent arrival of the video iPod are reports coming out of Asia that Apple has materially reduced its orders of the iPod with video viewing capabilities that it introduced last October. One hypothesis is that sales of this model have fallen below Apple’s previous expectations for he quarter. An equally plausible hypothesis is that Apple is draining inventories of the iPod from the distribution channel in advance of its introduction of the new model."

Wtf. Maybe I shouldn't have bought that 1G video iPod last December. It doesn't pay to be a first-mover in Apple's Universe.

Some iPods with your Slurpees?

Are they trying too hard? Apple has apparently thought it to be a good decision to sell iPods in 7-11 convenience store. Exclusively only in Japan for now, it seems.




I don't know much about Japanese 7-11 stores, but its sounds like a great diminishment of the Apple brand for iPods to be placed next to candy.Have iPods started becoming a commodity? Lets start selling them in gas stations across those freeways, maybe its high time truckers start getting cool and wear those white earphones...

Here's more from a commenter on Digg, where i found this news from. Apparently, iPods have been sold in Japanese 7-11s since last year.

I currently live and work in Japan and can cofirm that the boxes are empty. Also the iPod + iPod Display has a message that mentions that you bring the empty boxes up to the counter so that they can scan the price and then they'll hand you the Actual "Well Designed" Apple Package with the item you have purchased. About the cash issue, it is popular for Japanese to carry large sums of money on them due to the low crime rate but this is increasingly being replaced the EDDY system, which allows you to wave your Cell Phone over an Electronic Plate, which automatically treats your Electronic Cell Phone Wallet like a Debit Card. It's really cool living in a country that actually has all this technology actually being used instead of just being showcased at shows as Prototypes.... posted by CLIFFosakaJAPAN (150)

Web-Traffic Stock Exchange

This is damn addictive! (only for those Web 2.0 trackers) Alexadex is an online stock exchange for listing the stocks of all web companies. The "stock" price fluctuates up and down based on their latest Alexa traffic rankings. You are given $10,000 to begin trading and forming your own Web-stock portfolio. I just started using the app and already found it immensely fun and wanted to blog about it, ahha... Its a great app for those who are into both investing and tracking internet news. I am curious as to what revenue model Alexadex might have, which appears to be none so far except for Adsense, and i am reckoning its just another of those hype-based, fad-reliant cool web service. Was recommended to this site by Techcrunch.

Click on the screenshot below if you want to try it out as well. I get an additional $1,000 for every referral! ;)

Blogging Pharma from Singapore

Thought I should give a shout-out on the blogosphere to my NUS dorm buddy Bronson. Bronson's a final-year NUS Pharmacy student who's patiently put up with so much of my evangelizing abotu Web 2.0 that he's fearing for the loss of his pharmaceutical heritage. hence, he took action decided to do something very Web 2.0 about it -- blogging. Pharmer was started 2 days ago and Bronson will be blogging about the pharmaceutical industry from a Singaporean perspective.

For the uninitiated, the Singapore government is making a big push into the life sciences, biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors, aiming to make Singapore the Asia-Pacific hub for research and business in this fast-growing industries by investing heavily in human talent, physical infrastructure and fostering closer collaboration between academia and industry.

Bronson will be aggregating a group of people with similar interests to blog about the industry. Lets support him on this endeavor!

ScreenHead -- The Web's Answer to Comedy Central?

Another blog from Gawker Media - the guys who gave us Gizmodo, Wonkette, ValleyWag and are competing head to head with WeblogsInc (WBI) for domination of the web-publishing sector. Personally, I like the philosophy and see immense potential for such a blog network to disrupt the offline magazine publising sector. Reader-attention/ eyeballs are shifting from offline to the web without a corresponding shift in terms of advertising dollars. That is bound to happen as companies like WBI and Gawker improve content and develop a model that harness the advantages of web-mased media presentation platforms such as vsocial.com and youtube.com to present an interactive media-reading experience for their audience.

I still remember talking to a friend from Columbia during my time in Berkeley attending the PlayConference last year. He flew from the East Coast, (says he came specfically for this event but i didn't really buy that) and simply loved the fact there was so much disruptive innovation for web and media startups in the Bay Area. He wanted to create his own Next-Generation Movie Studio creating straight-to-internet video content leveraging on lowered movie-making gadgetry and advanced software that made editing and producing much cheaper. How he intends to find the acting talent to do so at shoestring budgets remains unknown to me but it surely sounds exciting! After all, magazines can never carry more than photos and text but on the web, u can carry much more than that and deliver a whole new experience.

Localizing that, how can I create my own web media publishing enterprise? I believe the market here is under-developed for this new content publishing model. But the money is there and advertisers around the world are always looking for bang in their buck. As awareness, understanding and recognition of such new marketing channels take off, I must ensure I am ready to ride this wave/ tsunami when it comes. Are you a content creator, budding movie-maker or have i struck a chord with your brainwaves? Drop me a mail at lee.bjorn@gmail.com if you concur with my thoughts. =)

Technorati Tags: Gawker, screenhead, gizmodo, wonkette, valleywag, web publishing, nick denton, weblogsinc

Great Article on India vs China

The tortoise vs the hare:

Here's my favourite line that probably summed it up:

that China’s growth is coming via flashy financing (foreign direct investment, the equivalent of VC financing at a startup) while India’s is coming through organic, sustainable growth (the equivalent of revenues).

Click here for link.

Technorati tag: India, China, venture capital, Asia, economic growth

The REAL Video iPod?

Apple always launches significant changes to its iPod offering every year. Now that we are past the 2005 hype of the "video-or-not" iPod evolution, 2006 is no different as the marketing guys start building market buzz on what they "may" release this 2006 holiday season for the 6G iPod.

Here's a teaser:



Yup, a full-screen display that is controlled by multi-digit/(finger) touchpad interface. Think of a tablet PC with touchscreen controls by the user and apply that to the iPod. I own a video iPod myself and yes, although the screen is 2.5 inches small, i can live with it, but I will kick myself if they launch a souped-up iPod with 3.5 inch full-screen video capabilities this year. Just exactly when will the Mp3 player stop innovating so i have the best digital device out there to watch videos and listen to music? lolz.. Great innovation fuels even greater revenue models, some part of me wishes they keep doing this forever... hhaha (but please hire me!)

Digg has been raving the past weeks about the new multi-digit-touchscreen-control patent Apple submitted to the authorities. TIME OUT: For engineers, more info can be found here on the actual patent application. In addition, Apple also submitted a patent for the Apple Tablet Mac that was reported in August 2005 here. You can sort of see how the innovations sequentially build up to a 6G iPod that has full-screen video.

Otherwise: here's a simpler demonstration of how you use the 6G iPod.



In stores X'mas 2006? I wun bet my money on it NOT happening...

Technorati tags: Video iPod, 6G iPod, MP3 Player

Brutal Consequences for Cracking the Great Firewall of China

Falungong, an outlawed political-spiritual organization outlawed in China, has resorted to high-tech means to spreading its philosophies in CHina via the Internet. Forbes reports more on how the chief tech specialist was bound, gagged and assaulted in his home in Georgia by Asian men.

"NEW YORK - Peter Yuan Li--a key figure in the Falun Gong's technologically sophisticated attempt to undermine the Chinese Communist Party--was brutally attacked and beaten in his home in Duluth, Ga., as Forbes was going to press with its cover story on how the spiritual movement is penetrating the Chinese government's hi-tech censorship. At 11:15 A.M. on Feb. 8, according to the Fulton County Police Department Incident Report, Asian men stormed the house of the Princeton-educated information technology technician, bound and gagged and beat him, before fleeing with two 16-inch Sony laptop computers, Li's wallet and yet unknown material from his files."

It appears this Firewall really mirrors what the real Great Wall of China was intended to do -- fend off foreign invaders that endanger CHinese territorial (in this case, virtual) interests. There's a price to pay for subverting the Chinese government and US-owned search engines such as Google should do well to toe the line if they want to survive in this walled garden. But will Google hence be deemed as "committing evil" and becoming fait accompli in the CHinese government's clampdown on civil liberties and right to free speech? I think so, and with more of such articles that demonstrate the backlash against individuals/ organizations who attempt to crack the "Digital Iron Curtain" of China, even if they are not sponsored by the Chinese government, Google's "Do No Evil" rhetoric will wear thin. As akin to what has happened in the wake of Google stock falling back from stratospheric numbers to more decent numbers.... Ahhhh... how the mighty always succumb to reality...

Found: Singapore Web 2.0 Community

In a correction to my previous blog: (which proves I should do some research first before i write off the top of my head next time, and also how valuable Google is)

here is a simple search result of the miniscule Web 2.0 community so far thrown up by Google.

Blogs:

* Nick Pan
* Kevin
* Adrian Lee (Adrian started up on Feb 9, 2006 to form an internet marketing company specializing in SEO, something like what i wanted to do last time, except this guy, before Feb 9, was the MSN Head of Marketing in Singapore =D )
* Yanime - who built this

Companies:
* Bezurk - a travel search engine
* PetValley (hopefully a dogster.com competitor, proudly started by my friend and ex-colleague from NOC Silicon Valley, Sheryl Chen)

Still searching for more to compile a Web 2.0 Singapore directory... Back to Google...

The Sad State of the Internet Sector in Singapore

It is depressing sometimes to be reminded how backwards Singapore is compared to Silicon Valley in terms of our awareness and innovation in the Web2.0 space. There are almost no Web 2.0 startups, it seems in Singapore, nor are they many pple who even know what Web 2.0 means. I have become numbed to blank looks from many of my fellow S'poreans.

Web 2.0 may be a fluffy concept hard to be understood by the uninitiated, and there are many others who have explained this better than I do, such as Don Hinchcliffe, Bill Graham, Scoble, Arrington, Schwartz, whatever, but contextually, with regards to Singapore, I will venture an explanation (critique if u want to, but applaud the effort, for i am a business student, lolz):

Web 2.0 is a conceptual re-positioning of the web from an "information repository" to a community space. It focuses on the idea that web-surfing is an activity best done in groups/ web communities. Web 2.0 incorporates innovative approaches toward web programming, user interface design and feature sets. These innovations are intended to deliver a better user experience through social-sharing features that enable users to share their web experiences with their friends, family, colleagues and the wider global internet community. Examples of such features include tagging Flickr, social bookmarking del.icio.us .

Many internet startups have also targeted the consumer space and integrated web 2.0 features into useful applications such as online video-viewing at Youtube, online news service such as Digg, Reddit, peer-to-peer financial management, Billmonk, music-recommendation service (amazing! highly recommend!) Pandora, online document collaboration ( i never fail to amaze anyone i recommend what this svc can do, click on it, u r missing out!) Writely among others. For more examples on Web2.0 startups, visit Mike Arrington's amazing Techcrunch, a blog that tracks and profiles all exciting Web2.0 startups in this world that have come across his attention.

As I lament on the sad state of Web 2.0 in Singapore, I decided to do something about it. Hence, after much discussion with Justin and Billy, and with the kind help rendered by our friend from Silicon Valley who founded the Entrepreneur27 network, Noah Kagan, we have launched what we believe to be the first Web 2.0 community meetup in Singapore -- Entrepreneur 27 Singapore.

E27 SG, for short, will focus on the convergence of youth entrepreneurship and Web 2.0 internet technology within Singapore. We hope to promote awareness of Web2.0 among web developers within Singapore, through greater interaction with Web2.0-savvy individuals, startups, corporations, in an effort to put our nation at the forefront of this next wave of internet Revolution that will inherently impact our social evolution. E27 SG is intended to be a community-powered, collaboratively-organized event that will tap on the vibrant energies of our young, web-and-mobile-savvy generation and hopefully contribute to the emergence of successful enterprises out of our lil' island Singapore. I truly believe Singapore is well-positioned to take advantage of our nation's connectivity to the digital world and I will be testing the government's (particulary the Media Development Authority and People Association) resolve over the next week as i attempt to get funding for this project.

In the mean time, for more information and to RSVP for our inaugural E27 SG event, click on this wiki.

For more information on what Noah Kagan's Entrepreneur27 network is about, click here.

E27 SG does not have a website here, but dun worry, we are pushing to get it rolled out ASAP!