Paul O'Flaherty

Dear Mandy. An open letter to Lord Mandelson

This open letter by Dan Bull to Lord Mandelson about the proposed Digital Economy Bill may appear more relevant, current and important to our English friends but don’t forget that laws passed in a the places like the United Kingdom often become a precedent or template for other countries.

An open letter to Peter Mandelson regarding the newly announced Digital Economy Bill.

If you disapprove of the Bill, sign the petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dont…

Chromium OS First Impression: The 90’s Set-top Box of 2010?

An Operating System. Supposedly.

As most of you are aware I am a huge Google fan but…

If Google’s Chrome browser went to the office Christmas party and had a one night stand with Linux behind the bar, then Chromium OS would be the resultant bastard child.

Unfortunately for this particular bastard child it would share none of the looks, speed or intelligence which makes either of its parents great.  In the chromosomal world of this coupling all of the good genes have been invited to a party and headed off to get pissed and enjoy themselves, leaving only the crud of the genetic pool to great baby Chromium.

Normally I take a great deal of geeky pleasure in testing a new operating system so today I enthusiastically followed Jorge Sierras quick post about how to run Google Chrome OS from a USB drive, edited my bios settings to allow booting from USB and in next to no time was looking a a big blue login screen. That was where the fun and excitement stopped.

Chromium (or Chrome OS) is supposed to be an operating system for connected folk. In fact about all you can do with the operating system is be online. Want to do something offline? Forget it, better go back to your Windows or Mac laptop, Chrome OS is not for you baby!

So being the connected chappy that I am I was surprised when asked to log in with my Google account but wasn’t presented with a place to enter the network password for my Wi-Fi.

I had to log in with the default username (chronos – no password) and then go about finding out where the network settings were. After clicking enable wi-fi a few times it still wouldn’t connect and never asked my for my password even though my wi-fi light was glowing happily away at the front of my laptop.

In the end I was forced to whip out an ethernet cable and connect that way (irony or what?).

Windows 95?

Inside the operating system wasn’t much of a better experience. The UI felt slow and very underdeveloped (although the browser itself was fast but that’s to be expected, it’s Chrome after all) and moving through the options menu felt like I was back in Windows 95 or NT.

To be fair, part of the slowness I felt could have been attributable to the fact that I was running the Chromium from a USB key but I have run other linux distros (and that’s what Chromium is under the hood) from USB keys before, as well as tested a lot of portable apps and none of them felt quite this slow.

It wasn’t terribly slow, just slow. Hard to quantify although as I said earlier the browser felt snappy enough actually surfing.

Chromium comes with a few “preinstalled” applications which are actually all shortcuts to web based apps such as Gmail, Pandora etc. There is actually nothing installed in the operating system. I suppose if living exclusively online is your thing then this won’t bother you but my love/hate affair with the cloud is well known and I don’t really want an operating system that is practically useless if  you don’t have access to web.

Everything about Chromium feels unfinished and even not particularly well thought out. It’s as if the guys at Google had a collective brain fart, decided to prototype an operating system, gave up a fifth of the way through the prototype to go for beers and decided to release it when they came back a full six sheets to wind.

Just won't open!

Take saving an image you find on the web as an example.

I visited the gallery on this blog and attempted to save an image. In order to find my saved image I had to go to the downloads section of Chrome where I could see that it was downloaded. Clicking on the link to display the file or open the folder didn’t work.

It didn’t matter how many times I clicked that link, it wouldn’t open and to top it off, the preview image didn’t display either.

Now, for someone like me that is not the end all of trying to access the file. The more tech savvy of you are aware that in most (all?) browsers you can get to the file system of the computer.

Browsing files

In Chromium this can be achieved by typing “file://” and hitting enter in the address bar. This results in a listing of directories and files much the same as you get when you visit an open directory on the web in your browser.

If you are familiar with Linux it’s easy to find the file image you’ve saved, once you’re prepared to click on “mnt” and then find “chronos” all the way to the “downloads” folder. Easy simple. No seriously, everyone will be doing it soon so you might as well get used to it!

Chromium isn’t finished. Not by a long shot. It’s shitty even for a Linux distribution of the incredibly lame ‘made by a 1st time learner’ variety. It has no file explorer, the interface is crap, finding saved files is a nightmare and even simple things like logging on and off or even just properly shutting down your machine are lacking UI menus and buttons.

Chromium may have a place in internet cafes and libraries where a locked down environment without much functionality is required, but even there it may have problems. Printing is not supported at the moment and for those of you intending to use it at home you can forget about hooking up your portable hard drive or that nice mouse you’ve got.

If you have a laptop or even a netbook and you install Chromium then you are cutting the functionality and usefulness of that device by about 50% (90% for a decent laptop) and that’s a best case scenario. If you do eventually buy a device that is Chromium only then I’d consider getting your head examined because there are better things to spend money on, like a descent coffee machine while you save for a real laptop that can actually do things beyond just surf the web.

Back in the 90’s we had set top boxes for your TV that allowed you access the internet and had about as much functionality as Chromium. They were a gimmick. Cheap, cheerful and useless.

Do we really want to go back to that?

Who is Actually Live Streaming? Does Justin.tv Survive on Piracy?

Pirated sports. Bringing in the viewers?

Last week the announcement was made that CNN Live was laying off its four CNN.com Live anchors as well as “several production staffers,” and was shifting it’s focus to on streaming major live events, producing video packages especially for CNN.com.

Mark ‘Rizzin’ Hopkins asked “Is live video streaming dead?” and in his attempt to figure out where CNN is going wrong noted the fact that Justin.tv and Ustream.tv each have between 1.2 and 1.6 million uniques a month.

Those numbers are pretty respectable but a quick mental count of who is actually live streaming revealed that I know about less regular live streamers than I have fingers on my left hand (which is of course a pretty standard left hand with 4 fingers and thumb, although Sara says my fingers are magic).

This got me thinking about those 1.6 million uniques and I quickly realized that the vast majority of viewers on Justin.tv and similar platforms are there to watch pirated TV and sports events.

Just this week I was on Justin.tv twice to watch Ireland get robbed by France in the World Cup Qualifiers. I can’t access RTEs (Irish national broadcaster) streaming service when I am away but can usually find the matches on Justin.tv or Ustream.

I took the above screenshot during the first Ireland Vs France game. As you can see, when I took the screenshot there were over 5,204 viewers to that one channel alone. At one point there was well over 6100 simultaneous viewers of the stream and that was just one stream.

There were multiple streams covering the Ireland match, all with large numbers of viewers, not to mention a plethora of other streams covering the other matches that were underway at the time or any of the other sports events and live TV coverage that was being shown.

Chances are that if a sporting event is being shown and you can’t access it, or if a pay per view event is happening and you don’t want to pay for it, you’ll find somebody streaming it on sites like these.

Finding these streams, which are quite obviously displaying illegal content as the people doing the streaming do not hold the rights to the content, is a relatively easy and trivial thing to do.

If I can find the game I want simply by clicking on the sports section and scrolling down, then you can be sure that an administrator could do the same thing and shut down streams.

Yet, they don’t do it!

Why not? The only reason I can think of is that the vast majority of their viewers come for the pirated content and if they were to eliminate that then their numbers (and advertising revenue) would fall away to nothing.

The Cloud isn’t Everything

Which one?

John Gruber (Daring Fireball) has been arguing the case for PC manufacturers to build their own operating systems.

The essential argument being that with everything that we use every day already existing in the cloud it shouldn’t matter what OS we are running.

Apple has separated themselves from the crowd by developing their own OS and hardware, other PC manufacturers should be doing the same thing or just give up and die.

If Palm can create WebOS for pocket-sized computers — replete with an email client, calendaring app, web browser, and SDK — why couldn’t these companies make something equivalent for full-size computers?

If Apple and Palm can do it (and now Google) then why aren’t Dell, Sony, HP and the rest of the big gin PC manufacturers?

These PC makers are lacking in neither financial resources nor opportunity. What they’re lacking is ambition, gumption, and passion for great software and new frontiers. They’re busy dying.

Johns logic is sound as long as you are willing to make the assumption that the only reason personal computers are used today is to surf the web and be online.

The web is a great resource and has enriched or lives dramatically but is only of any value if you can actually connect to it. Admittedly, for most of the developed, world it is now easy to connect to the web even while on the move, but even when you do connect the service that you want is not always there.

Your email host may be down. Your web applications host may have server issues or simply shut up shop.

What about graphic designers or people doing audio and video editing? Photoshop on the web? Not likely! Not in a way that offers the power and options of CS4 running on my laptop.

As we’ve already seen most online applications are cut down versions, lacking the feature set and power of the their desktop “big brother”.

Can you imagine editing a high definition video and having to upload gigabytes of data to the cloud before you could begin editing your footage? Not to mention the bandwidth costs to the service providing the editing software.

What of the lowly PC gamer? Will Activision develop a version fo Call of Duty 2 for Sony OS, Google OS, HP OS, Windows, Mac and god knows how many other OS’s?

How about Photoshop, Firefox or iTunes for all these platforms as well?

I think not. It’s just not a practical solution. Most companies have a hard time getting versions of their software out for Windows, Mac and Linux at the moment.

The reason we have so much diversity in software at the moment and so much polished quality software that we rely on, is because the operating system arena is not saturated in the way that John wants is encouraging.

If it was, then talented developers would all be working on incredibly similar projects for a vast number operating systems, their talent and the programs they develop reaching incredibly limited audiences.

As it stands now we have vast armies of developers working for a limited number of platforms which allows them to develop and innovate without having to constantly reinvent the wheel. They can build upon and learn from the work and code of others.

Lets not even bring the issue of software patents into the mix!

Imagine if every time you wrote an application you had to do it for 16 different operating systems with their own file systems, quirks and API’s? A nightmare!

In fact it is that nightmare that would bring us very rapidly back to a situation where we had only a small number of OS’s as developers would develop for the platform which is the most developer friendly.

This is turn would lead to end users choosing that platform as it would have the greatest choice of software and support. That in turn brings more developers to the platform because the money is where the users are.

As John notes this already happened in the early days of personal computing when we had a massive amount of operating system choices and they all whittled away as developers and users moved to the platforms with the most choice and users.

See where I’m going with this? Even if every PC manufacturer released an OS tomorrow, after a while we would end up with the vast majority of people using only 2 or three of those operating systems.

Everything is not in the cloud, nor should it be. The cloud is unreliable. Connections to the cloud are unreliable and the cloud can’t match the convenience or power of software running locally on your home PC or laptop.

Now I Can Move On

They're like me!

Cross posted to Paul and Sara.

I just got the call. My divorce is finally over!

It’s been two long years, involved moving from one country to another, changing everything in my life and a lot of trials and tribulations but it is finally over.

It’s less than an hour since I got the call that it is all done and it’s hard to describe what I’m feeling right now.

I’m overwhelmed.

I feel regret that it took so long to get done and that things were so difficult.

There is a massive sense of relief. It’s done. It’s like the elephant that has been sitting on my shoulders for the past two years has finally gone it’s own way.

There is happiness. I’m happy that it is all over. That I am now free to move on. That my now legally ex-wife has moved on with her life and that I won’t have to deal with legalities or the leech on ones soul that is waiting.

Above all I am overjoyed. I can now legally move on and be with Sara. We can push forward with our plans without waiting on courts or papers on my side.

Yes, above all I am overjoyed that everything is finally finished. Now I can build towards my future with Sara without the stress or uncertainties of waiting and not knowing if the courts would had me a decision today, tomorrow, next week or next month.

It’s done. I am happy. We can be happy.

Thank you to everyone who has stood by and shown their support while this has gone on. Friends, family, Sara, thank you! I love you all.

Shunning Convention with Cake

Full Irish Breakfast

My mate Brian (@Azhrei) is a funny old sort.

I’ve know him forever, almost 20 years now, and he definitely falls into the category of “über geek” and damn good friend.

This morning we dodged the raindrops to meet in town for coffee’ although what started out as coffee became breakfast and while we were waiting to be seated Brian was telling me about cholesterol and we were talking about how a full Irish breakfast was bad for you.

Even though I was having the “full Irish” Brian decided that it wasn’t for him and that he would take the healthier option!

The picture below is what he chose to have instead of the nasty fry up.

When asked how he justified his “healthy” option, Brian replied with: “It’s got some fruit in it”!

Thanks mate, for always putting a smile on my face

Aren’t Flash Mobs Supposed to be Flash?

Irish Flash Mob

According to Wikipedia a flash mob is suppossed to be a sudden event.

is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails

Odd then that the “flash mob” that happened on Patrick Street in Cork City on Saturday was anything but.

I heard about it early on Friday while I was at a LAN with Brian and the lads who had known about it days in advance. In fact, it appears that everybody who was there heard about it way in advance as they turned out with cameras and camcorders at the ready to catch whatever might occur.

I wasn’t there myself, but the video captured by Corks Red FM (a local radio station) shows that people are obviously waiting around for this to happen and when it does happen it’s not some major event. It was appears to have little participation or participants, which the “mob” mostly just standing around waiting for somebody to do something.

If this flash mob was organized to get peoples attention it didn’t do a very good job. Based on the video if it was a firework then it had damp powder because when launched it never took off.

Flash mobs are a cool thing to bring interest and attention or even just for a laugh but sometimes I see a video of one like this and I just have to ask myself “why did they even bother”?

I applaud people for trying to organize these things but a bit more planning might have a gone a long way to making this a success.

According to the Facebook page “Let Mr. Blue Sky In” (C’mon blue skies in Cork? Are you kidding me?) was supposed to promoted the “arts in Cork”.

A Cork staple

Well, if this is the extent and ability that we have to  promote, or the extent of support the arts have in Cork, then we are a bunch of uncultured neanderthals that can at best be soothed momentarily by the music.

They might have been better off trying to gain financial support and awareness by waiting until the nightclubs closed on Saturday night and publicly raffled off a “Doner Kebab and curry chip” (fries with curry sauce for the non-Irish).

I’m sure more than a few drunk adolescents would have paid to win that and if you could have gotten them to dance (I use the term very loosely) to the music then I’m sure you’d have had endless hours of footage to post to YouTube and Facebook to build awareness.

Is Social Media a Cry for Help?

Social media is an odd thing. Well, to be more precise how we use Twitter and other microblogging platforms is odd.

Have you ever stopped to think about how much inane crap we pump out everyday. Every little detail of some peoples lives are shared for the world to see without a jot of thought spared for decency, privacy or the simple considerations of T.M.I (too much information) or “who gives a crap?”.

Yet we continue to pump this digital diarrhea out into the ether in hopes making some sort of a connection in this, perhaps, over connected world.

Have you ever wondered how people from a time before the interent would react to concept of a service like Twitter? Wondered what they would think of us today as we tweet about our latest bowel movement instead of actually doing something productive.

I’m thinking about that tonight because of the picture below, which I unfortunately have no source to credit.

Have we lost our collective minds?

We spend all day online looking for a connection to others, or pimping ourselves and our “brand” while the people that we really need to be talking to, meeting and connecting with, are in our homes and passing by on the street right outside our front doors?

Is the popularity of social media an addiction or a massive cry for help?

Is it a long drawn out wail in the night at the despair and depression at the increasingly lonely and isolated lives people lead in this ever more digitally connected world? A world where we are pseudo friends with everyone but know nobody. A world where we talk to 100’s of people a day but connect with no one.

Could Twitters New Retweet Feature Make Twitter Less Valuable?

Shut up!

Having read Evan Williams description of how and why the new retweet function of Twitter works I find myself torn between liking the idea and downright hating it.

My issue lies with the idea of redundancy as described by Evan:

And because they’re trackable, we can take care of the redundancy problem: You will only get the first copy of something retweeted multiple times by people you follow.

It might sound like a wonderful thing that I will not be inundated by 20 rewteets of someone claiming to see Elvis alive at a Taco stand in Guatemala but in many ways this is the key to what makes Twitter great.

We pay attention to things because we see them multiple times.

If one of my Twitter buddies retweets something awesome I might miss it because I spend most of my Twitter life in Seesmic, so tweets are constantly scrolling by even if the application is in the background (just like it is as I’m writing this post).

As Twitter will now only show you the first instance of your friends retweeting something, I will have missed the fact that Aliens have landed on the North Pole and are systematically slaughtering polar bears and Eskimos alike. It won’t matter if all 600+ of the other people I’m following retweet it, I won’t get to see it because it scrolled by while I was still wiping my backside in the bathroom.

Most of the value in Twitter is wrapped up in the ability to see the latest news and what’s going viral because all of your friends are talking about it or retweeting it. The more of your friends retweet something the more likely you are to pay attention to it. The more likely there is to be conversation about it.

That value is about to severely curtailed because most tweets that would other wise be retweets many hundreds or thousands of times won’t even be noticed because they scrolled by once.

That is going to have a major effect on traffic for everybody.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 vs The Video Game Nazis

I will protect your kids!

The release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has all the parents and computer game Nazis up in arms again. I’ve been listening to all the wing-nuts on Liveline (a radio show here in Ireland – here’s the

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

.). Once again they’re calling for the banning of violent video games, for the restriction of our rights and civil liberties as adults because, and to put it as midly as I possibly can, they suck as parents.

Let’s make something perfectly clear CoD: MW2 is rated as 18’s in Ireland. That means that anyone younger than that should not even be able to purchase it. If you go into a games store or video store like Blockbuster to buy it you will be asked for identification to prove you are over 18. Asked for ID in the same way as if you were buying alcohol or cigarettes and similar penalties apply to those stores caught selling over 18’s game to minors.

It is not targeted at anyone younger than that and it is not intended for anyone younger than that.

If your child is playing a game rated for people 18 years of age and older you have to ask yourself some fundamental questions as a parent. Questions such as, how did my child get this game? Where did they get the 55+ euros ($82) to pay for it? How did I not know they got it? Why am I continuing to allow them to play such games when they are clearly underage?

Why am I being mad at the computer game industry when the clear and simple fact is that I have failed as a parent? Why do I expect the government to restrict the rights of adults because I fail to enforce existing rules on my children?

At least some sanity has been shown by British politicians with the bitch slapping of  MP Keith Vaz by Labour MP Tom Watson, when he attempted to make it an issue before parliament.

‘Nuff said.

This is Why Network Neutrality is a Big Deal

I don’t know how I missed this during the week, or who created the original image but this goes a very long way to graphically illustrate one of the possible scenarios in a world without network neutrality.

Imagine an internet that worked like a cable TV subscription, with different bundles and packages. Where most of the content is locked off unless you pay your ISP to allow you get to it regardless of whether or not the site you want to access is itself free.

Imagine having to choose between one telco and another because one gives you access to Google but the other doesn’t.

I don’t know who created the orginal image, but hat-tip to Gizmodo and Packet Life.