Bitcoins

2013 was the year that Bitcoin’s became a hot commodity, rising from $60 just two years ago to peaking over $1200 for one coin.  The hot topic is what will be of these digital coins and will the come to replace currency as we know it?

My view is that Bitcoins will stay around and will have value in the future.  I don’t foresee that they will replace the current state sponsored money that we use to buy food and cars with, but I see it more as a tool for micro payments and putting a value on transactions online.

Back in the dot com boom years of 1999, eyeballs was the currency that IPO’s were priced at.  pets.com, Netscape and other sites of that era were based on the value that individual viewership of advertisements were trackable and accountable.  These were measurable by checking the logs and hit-rate of individual advertisements.  Research studies were put in place to analyze the best placement of ads on a website and further tracking technologies such as cookies were enhanced to be able to taylor websites to individual users.

After the dot com crash, investors came to their senses and realized that you can’t make a sustained profit of blanket ad viewership alone.  At this point, Google came about and developed it’s PageRank ad system by offering free services in return for displaying ads.  These ads were free to show on websites and on Google products (Gmail, search and later YouTube).  This business model was different from before because ads only were charged per-click, not per display as in the early dot com days.

Google’s model worked very well, until Facebook came about and became the next hot thing.  Now ads were tailored to be much more specific and marketing teams were able to influence and “convert” key people within groups with selected ads placed within posts from friends and family.  This interaction between the consumer and the company is much more dynamic than car ads on newspaper sites.  Facebook (and Twitter) are the platforms where the collect money for statistics of “Likes” and the ability for companies to more effectively multicast their message.  This adds to the Google model of per-click to put a value on “Likes.”

Now enter Bitcoins.  At first it’s nothing impressive, there have been many attempts to create a digital currency (remember Second Life?).  In short the system is just a bit database (around 12G now) and you end up owning a cryptographic string on this database.  You can trade it with others and it’s not really trackable (not easily at least).  There are exchanges where you can trade the bits of the database for real money, and also buy coffee in some shops.  That’s not the interesting part.  What is interesting is that Bitcoins are not owned or controlled by anyone.  There is no Facebook or Google to regulate it.  The system is shared and the database is distributed and constantly error-checked to verify it’s integrity.

One problem today with international payments is that it’s very difficult to send money across borders.  If you want to buy software or a widget from someone in China directly, it will cost you quite a bit just to perform the transfer.  Paypal and others have tried to simplify payments, but they are still expensive for small transfers.  Bitcoin can solve that.

Currently clicking the Facebook Like button only boosts the ego and reputation of the original post creator (such as a photograph or blog post), why not have an option to transfer a fraction of a Bitcoin for a viewing a great photo or reading a interesting article.  This new business model can change existing subscription models, let photographers make money and make ordering of small replacement parts from China easier by adding value to individually created content.

Will Bitcoins replace money as we know it?  I don’t think so, but I do think that they will replace the micro payments on Facebook, Twitter and Blogs to become a new currency we base online value with.

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Return to Simplicity

My previous post I wrote about the Samsung Siii Mini and the problems I had with it.  After giving it some thought, I decided to buy a simple phone and go back to the easier days.

Problems I had with the smartphone was this:
- Too distracting, at one point I was managing files on the train to debug crashes and clear up memory.  This started to sound like work.
- Too many bugs.  Google's music service is full of bugs, the cellular data reception is bad so it becomes frustrating trying to do anything while on the move.
-  I missed a few alarms already in the morning due to software crashes at night.  This is just unacceptable for me.
-  The navigation on system does not work, mostly because of the data problems.  Offline maps are also too slow to be useful.
- Battery management is a chore.

I started to compile a list of what I wanted and needed, the basics:
- Phone
- SMS
- Time and data
- Alarm clock with days of the week (so it does not ring on the weekend)
- Long battery life

Solution was the Nokia 105.



A simple phone for 20 pounds and with a month battery life.

After using it for a week (and charging it last week) I still have half a battery, managed to wake up on time every day and have not been distracted by any software problems or bugs.

Note that I do have a iPad with a data plan, so when I need maps or check my email I still can.  But I don't feel the need to be distracted by twitter, email and software management every 15 minutes.

Samsung S3 Mini Review

I've been using a old Blackberry for many years now.  They were the original smart phone back in the day, making devices with real keyboards and access to email systems.  The software on them was as solid as the physical design on the phone themselves.  It's no wonder that people all over praised them and thought they were the best phone on the market.

Then the iPhone came out.  At first it was a toy then the App store changed it all.  The Blackberry was a solid workhorse that kept on working, but the iPhone and later Andorid phones were sexy with their glitzy apps.  Blackberry were seen as for work and iPhones for fun.

But is it really the case?  After my wife's Blackberry Curve was stolen in Rome (a true indication they are valued!) I got the green light to get a new phone as my wife gets my old phones.  So I did a lot of research and originally wanted to get a iPhone 4, but the price tag was a little too steep for a phone.  The Android's look interesting and I liked the form factor of the S3 Mini.

About the thickness of two pens

This review is after owning it for a few months.

Things I like about the Samsung S3 Mini:
- Small and compact.  I don't like the full size S3 or S4 as it's just too big for my liking.
- Replaceable and expandable battery.  This is a major selling point for me as I travel often and forget or don't have time to charge.  I've also managed to get a expandable 3-day battery for 10 pounds on Amazon.  It makes the phone a little fatter and it's easier to grip.
- Android OS and all the apps.  I already have a iPad and was using that as my mobile data source, so the S3 Mini was to replace the heavy iPad as my mobile computer.
- Mifi feature works great and the Giff Gaff unlimited data plan is fully compatible.

The camera indent is a handy grip point

What I don't like:
- Android OS is buggy.  I've already missed a few wake up alarms due to the phone crashing in the middle of the night.  The phone also looses it's mobile signal quite often and have to reboot it.  This is just unacceptable.
- Keyboard on the Samsung version of Android is terrible.  I have a hard time writing SMS's and forget about emails or notes.
- Design is too slippery.  I feel like it's going to break by the end of the year.  Already had it stepped on now just waiting to drop it.
- Battery life on the standard model is terrible, get yourself the expanded pack and enjoy the phone for a full day without thinking of charging it.
- Maps are bad.  I use to think Apple maps are terrible but somehow Google managed to make it's maps bad on the mobile phone too.  I may just come down to the data coverage in the UK, but I ended up buying a Tom Tom for my car and not using the phone for navigation (as originally I bought it for)
- Camera is bad.  Almost as bad as the Blackberry.  Only use it for taking notes and carry my Canon S100 for real photos.

Note the red indication, that's when there was no mobile signal and had to reboot the phone.

I've thought about going back to the iPad and getting a Nokia 105 phone for SMS, Alarm and Phone.  After all, when I need to text and call I want to be able too.  Don't want to have an expensive device that doesn't work.  If I need mobile Internet I can use my iPad that works and has a proper keyboard and screen.

Royal Observatory in Greenwich

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich has trove of history, including setting the standards for units of measurement and also making astronomical observations discoveries.

As you can see in the photos, the definition of a foot, yard, longitude and time was defined here.  Later when the international organizations standard were developing the ISO standards, Paris got the measurement of length and weight (with meter and gram as the base units) and Greenwich got to keep time (GMT) and Longitude (latitude is measured with the angle of sun and stars, but longitude is a man made measurement)

A childhood dream to stand along this line

Printing Press

At the Mannheim technology museum they have this old and amazing printing press.

Concorde

At the Sinsheim Technical Museum in Germany, one can visit the Concorde and also the Soviet version, the TU-144, also known as the Concordsky.

Both are amazing planes, both flew and both carried passengers   Even thought both programs were criticized for being too costly, it's still amazing to think that the US never have a super-sonic passenger aircraft.

Network installation for Commerzbank

I think this was one of the coolest networking projects I've worked on.  These new switches were undergoing firmware testing for the new Commerzbank tower in Frankfurt.  There were 100 Cisco 6500 switches and my job was to install firmware and software to do QA testings.  Basically a lot of scripting with multiple CF cards.

This was back in 2008, I'm sure these modules are sold as scrap on ebay now.

The cures of mobile email communications

How often do you get an email from a coworker that is vague and pointless, only to see that the last line says: Send from my iPhone.

Really, are some emails that important that need to be answered quickly and can't wait till your at a real computer where proper research can be done to write a proper email?

I guess part of the problem is that the iPhone can't mark email.  SNMP/POP/IMAP (protocols used by email) don't have a provision for flagging messages.  Almost all email clients have this built it, but you can't share this little flag among clients.

Perhaps it's time to write an RFC to incorporate the flag feature into IMAP?

Solid IBM printer

I needed to do some work on my car and needed something solid and durable to put the car on.  Near the trash, I found this old IBM laser printer.  I don't think a modern HP printer would be able to take the weight of a car!