Silent and tired, but ON !

It is been my fault for not writing much.
Silent again and with reason , here on the site. Busy, again, busy !

My day job is pretty demanding lately. Lot's to do in my spare time. But I have been researching and reading a lot. So not completely out of blogosphere .

Short summary of some latest news around me:

- researching business press issues ( digital publishing related ) in and around Croatia, still, I see, how we in Croatia are lacking of inside knowledge to current trends in digital publishing, content and media, how we dont follow best practices on the web for the ventures , in summary, we lack KNOW-HOW, ( if they ever ask for giving advice to them ( to whom it goes ) , it'll cost them many times more than they got chance when they refused first time, my time is costly ;)
- making brainstorming with Dario about enhanced version of Blog.hr,
- having been in contact with Kemal Mujicic Kemo, blog traveler around Croatia, making for him visit blog cards ( still not delivered to him ),
- the days are shorter , my mood is lower and my body exhausted,
- got new dress equipment for my football team, we are very successful and improving, my legs are in better shape and condition and I am satisfied with my capabilities,
- found out that I need to attend more of cultural events
- I've been busy compailing business plan for my new hobby venture
- my blood pressure is still too high, need to lower daily coffee doses
- I do rare podcasting ( need to make a new one )
- I am laughing at out local politicians, so stupid decisions ( since I am , so to speak , insider in my local community but silent officer that doesn't rock the boat ;)
- got my new mobile number by Tele2, new mobile operator in Croatia, but still not using it, it's so called ''golden number'', easly remembered,
- today make up new name for my future band, it's great catchy name and I am very pleased with how it sounds,
- my digital camera is broken

Google lost direction

From the first glance of Google Reader demoed today, I felt this is deep, deep beta version for one Google service. Google Reader  makes bad user experience. I haven't seen yet on their portal so weak and unprepered service ( yes, now they are acting portal-like ).
That's part of their strategy to announce the crowd at Web2Con - something, just not to be left out. Silly, I think.
I wonder whether there were some laughs on behalf of mighty Google.
Netvibes.com  is something more better, only lacks powerfull search module and some customization abilities.
Really surprising to me today, how company that aims to organize information of our World and Time ( quoting their mission statement)  can miss with RSS technologies so much.

Swik and LiveMarks

Swik.net, made by Alex Bosworth ( SourceLabs ), had a revamp. I already wrote about this neat site on ZOJ.
It looks fresh and straightforward.
Open source projects could have wikis, tags and blogs on board. Like to see two ''quick buttons''. It will lead you to some random project or latest edits.
One suggestion, if I may so, sort the directory by letters.
Somehow I realised I am using another web app made by the same author, namely, LiveMarks for checking those  popular bookmarks on del.icio.us.

Confession to make

I must confess, in deeply personal manner,  that my blog post are depersonalised since I began writing this blog in english. No more private parts and silly wording and pictures. Someone would said ''thanks god!''.

 My main preoccupation was commenting stuff from other media and opinions. I hope it'll change soon.
Oh, yes, soon. That's the word. Action is needed.

Now when blogger has ability to host pictures I rarely use it. True, my digi cam is broken currently, but there's a tone in my archives.
I hope to post some soon.
And what about podcasting ?
 It's so freaking time-consuming or I don't have inspiration. That's it.

Toxic blogging

Something's wrong.
Spammers are in front of the Zec Online Journal gates.

My last article got 9 comments. Hadn't have so much comments on my blogger blog since 2002 ;)
And all of them are spam comments.
Folks, I don't like it.

ZDNet UK has an article about toxic web. Spam and fake blogs are rampant these days.

Retail telephony

OpenWengo softphone should be clear winner among softphones in the future.
It is supported by Neuf Telecom, a french VOIP -to-PSTN carrier and worldwide community of developers. The concept which could bring more ''fruit'' so smart companies.

The main difference, for example, related to Skype or Gizmo is that it talks SIP , the source code is GPLed ( general public licence ) . Only the codecs are part of the problem which could be clear up with advent of free audio and video codecs.

Which brings me all to the old news that Skype was bought for 4 billions. Well, someone was smart and wise ;)
Let's suppose that softphone platforms are commodities. Is there a future for some sort of branding telephone services as a value added service ? Your favorite retailer or bank could provide you with telephone services in the future. Manufacturers of variouse devices could sell you device with telephony feature ?

Just some thoughts. We need still to get there. Best with open-sourced codecs in mind. Am I missing something or is it possible right now?