Michael Lockyear Blog - Soapbox

Zuckerberg: “Guess What? Nobody Wants To Make Lists.”

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:25:00 GMT

If you don't want friends and colleagues knowing that you are a secret leather fetishist (or whatever) at night, you should probably set-up an entirely separate profile...no risk of accidentally clicking the wrong box, or sharing with the wrong list.

Why I Turned In My iPhone and Went Android

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 12:57:00 GMT

One day every phone phone will be a smart phone, and the majority will run free and open source operating systems like Android. The only way Apple can compete in the long run is to open source their mobile OS and push i-tunes, app store and whatever other cloud offerings they can come up with. (The same might apply to Microsoft on mobile devices)

The Twitter Death Sentence

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:30:00 GMT

Treating customers badly is not generally a good idea...but...when you use a free service (like Twitter or Facebook) you are not a customer. The people who pay for the advertising are the customers.

Pakistan Court Orders Temporary Facebook Ban Over Prophet Caricatures

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:39:00 GMT

Somebody didn't "just one day" decide to "have a competition to draw blasphemous cartoons"...this was done in response to the censorship of South Park after the creators were warned that they were being "stupid" and would probably be killed if they aired the show. They were told, "...This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”

Pakistan Court Orders Temporary Facebook Ban Over Prophet Caricatures

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:07:00 GMT

I think the reason the competition started in the first place was because of Jihadist death threats made against the creators of South Park, which resulted in the censorship of that show. The denizens of the internet will not tolerate censorship. The more you complain the more you will be ridiculed (or drawn)! Welcome to the internet and the Streisand Effect.

Privacy Reboot Needed

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Sun, 16 May 2010 07:52:00 GMT

The lack of privacy, or the risk that privacy will evaporate, will simply change the way we use tools like Facebook. We will use other tools.

Best Bookmark Management Tool? [Hive Five Call For Contenders]

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:15:00 GMT

VOTE: Delicious

Google Buys BumpTop: 3-D Multi-touch Tablet Interface on the Way?

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:37:00 GMT

…and the Apple iPhone made it debut on 29 / 30 June 2007. This might give Google some multi-touch juice. Google should start chatting to Logitech, who hold an interesting touchpad patent filed in 1996 (patent #5,825,352) Personally I think the idea that a company can own a patent on finger movements a bit pathetic!

Google Buys BumpTop: 3-D Multi-touch Tablet Interface on the Way?

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:37:00 GMT

...and the Apple iPhone made it debut on 29 / 30 June 2007. This might give Google some multi-touch juice. Google should start chatting to Logitech, who hold an interesting touchpad patent filed in 1996 (patent #5,825,352) Personally I think the idea that a company can own a patent on finger movements a bit pathetic!

Google Buys BumpTop: 3-D Multi-touch Tablet Interface on the Way?

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Mon, 03 May 2010 12:20:00 GMT

I wonder if BumpTop have any patents, or if they can demonstrate “prior use” re: Apple patents. If so, may be useful to Google.

Google Buys BumpTop: 3-D Multi-touch Tablet Interface on the Way?

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Mon, 03 May 2010 12:20:00 GMT

I wonder if BumpTop have any patents, or if they can demonstrate "prior use" re: Apple patents. If so, may be useful to Google.

Judge Won't Dismiss Antitrust Charges Against Microsoft For Breaking 3rd Party Xbox Memory Cards

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Sun, 02 May 2010 08:59:00 GMT

Vote with your wallet. If someone sells you a product that is defective by design, return it. If someone sells you a product and then yanks functionality with a firmware "upgrade", return it.

Posterous Starts Automatically Inserting Affiliate Links Into Sites, Forgets To Tell Users

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Sun, 02 May 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Someone has to pay for "free"! If this approach is adopted fully, bloggers are going to need some serious disclosure statements to comply with the FTC.

Posterous Starts Automatically Inserting Affiliate Links Into Sites, Forgets To Tell Users

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Sat, 01 May 2010 08:20:00 GMT

Someone has to pay for "free"!If this approach is adopted fully, bloggers are going to need some serious disclosure statements to comply with the FTC.

Judge Won't Dismiss Antitrust Charges Against Microsoft For Breaking 3rd Party Xbox Memory Cards

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Sat, 01 May 2010 07:40:00 GMT

Unless the consumer is prepared to stop buying products from companies that mess them around, this sort of thing will continue to happen. The courts and the law are not the solution.

Finally, A Definitive Answer On Whether Cell Phones Cause Cancer -- In 20 Or 30 Years

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:12:00 GMT

I suspect that it will be very difficult to control for other factors which may give rise to cancer: diet, environment, etc. Heavy cell phone may also be linked to factors which may lead to cancer (example: stress), so it will be interesting to see how they separate causation from correlation.

How Engaging Is An Open Public Discussion If It Costs $20 To Enter?

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 06:39:00 GMT

This is a non-starter of an idea. Not enough people will pay for the site for it to be a "community". I would be surprised / impressed if they are able to get people to use the site for free. We are being flooded with information, and have limited time / attention. This is the real problem that the news media face - they are selling / giving away generic information in the age of the niche. If the news industry had woken up 10 years ago they might have been able to build a platform like Google, but they missed that boat.

Rumor: Apple Thinking About Buying ARM. iPhone Rivals To Sleep With The Fishes?

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 06:13:00 GMT

Eventually all phones are going to be smartphones, they will become cheaper and cheaper, and basically generic (much like the PC). Nokia, or a some Chinese outfit could be a major player in such a market, but probably not Apple.

The Economist On Why Copyright Needs To Return To Its Roots

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:08:00 GMT

The life expectancy in the UK 300 years ago was approximately 35 years. [source: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/seminarpapers/dg09102006.pdf ] This meant that a copyright period of 14 - 28 years was sufficient to cover the average person's lifespan (assuming people did not write books before the age of 7!). One could therefore argue that a longer period might be justifiable. Personally, I do not think that a reduced copyright period of 14 - 28 years would stifle commercial creativity in any way.

How To Piss People Off: Publish A Book Using Their Tweets Without Asking Them First

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:21:00 GMT

The publishers are creating a bad moral precedent...we should not (and in fact do not) need permission to quote something stated in public!

Eric Schmidt: Mobile Is The Future, And There’s No Such Thing As Communication Overload

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:40:00 GMT

Maybe the US is less relevant than it thinks! When everyone in the third world has a computer in their pocket the American masses will no longer be the masses. When every phone is a smartphone, the brand will not really matter either. (I had look under desk to determine the brand of the PC I am using to type this comment). If Nokia starts churning out cheap Android phones they will be fine.

Economist Assumes That The Problem Is 'Thieves' Rather Than Bad Patent Laws

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:57:00 GMT

I suspect because they generate comments!

Another Example of why Social E-Commerce is Awesome

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:42:00 GMT

For the goldfish it must be like living at the graveyard!

Is 2011 like 1994 for Apple, Twitter, Facebook, and the Web?

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 08:45:00 GMT

Apple's days are numbered. One of these days every phone will be a smartphone, and they will NOT be Apples. They will probably be running Android (as will your TV, GPS, etc) and while it is possible that no single device will have the market share that Apple has, collectively they will out-number Apple by a large margin. Already in some markets (USA?) the number of Android phones is approaching the number of iPhones. As for "Apps", the only native App I want to have to use is the browser, everything else should be in the cloud, accessible from any dumb device with a screen.

MLB Comes Out Swinging With MLB.TV, Yet The NFL Won’t Spend $3K on NFL.TV

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:21:00 GMT

The concept of “premium names” seems to be a bit of a scam. I am not surprised that companies are avoiding them.