Web 2.0 Databases

One thing I noticed in interviews recently is the shift in focus for the candidates. It’s been a while now that tech has shown itself resilient to the overall downturn in the economy, so we have been living in and with a candidate market (vs. employer market). One of the many reasons cited by people to turn you down is simply lack of technological fit. In particular, people are really fond of their infrastructure. Continue reading

Frustration = Opportunity

Thinking about it, people move into something new only if the old is not working for them any longer. If that’s the case, then frustration is the driver of innovation to a much larger extent than the realization of opportunity. The interesting thing about this notion is that frustration is measurable, while opportunity is not. You can ask people what they don’t like about the world around them. Usually they won’t give you accurate information, since they have no understanding of their own pain – but that still beat asking yourself what opportunities there are out in the world. Continue reading

Open Services

Frustration is the mother of open source and has always been. You have a problem that is solved in a deficient way by the free market (which is not free as in beer or as in speech, it’s free as in fall). You think to yourself: I can do this better. You start working on it but quickly realize you really can’t do it by yourself. So you enlist a bunch of people to work on it for free (as in beer) in return for complete freedom (as in speech) to divulge what you have collectively built. Continue reading

Facebook apps - personals

I have been following the ascent of Facebook, just like everyone else in the Bay Area that likes technology. The advent of a company that does so much so well is astonishing, especially after considering all the competitors that didn’t do so well. In particular, Facebook opened up their own application to third party app developers. They provided a series of APIs that allow geeks to create add-ons that use the Facebook database and integrate into its user interfaces and communication mechanisms. Continue reading

Autonomous Surveillance Camera

An interesting project for the house in Hawaii – something totally exciting because it’s easy to use, yet very marketable. Something I would need myself, and something I absolutely know how to build. It’s the perfect project for the time after I quit, hopefully tomorrow. My frustration with surveillance of my place in Ninole is growing. I never have the slightest idea in what state the house is, and it’s something I’d really like to know. Continue reading

Open Source Phone Network

Granted, this is not originally my idea, but I cannot find where I read about it, so please get in touch with me if you know the source. My frustration with mobile phone networks is growing. My own provider does a few nasty things: Voice mail setup is idiotic: you have to enter your password even if the call dropped and you get in again; you have to listen through the introductory message even though you know the menu options Contracts are bizarre: if you like the two year option, you’ll be happy, but why? Continue reading

Running iPodLinux

Call me crazy, call me a fool, just don’t call me late for dinner! I just bought a 30GB iPod Video 5.5G for the sole purpose of running iPodLinux and RockBox on it. I am sick of my iPod (Nano), and I am more than interested in creating something that is more user-friendly than the thing I am using. iPodLinux is a fairly new project, and it hasn’t been successful in porting a lot of stuff. Continue reading