Jajah webphone

Jajah is a killer phone software. I feel it ! If it works just like Robin Good says, it's my pleasure to have calls over Jajah . At the moment, I am still downloading Jajah so haven't tried yet.

Skype was pain in the ass, it drained my resources, bandwith over dial up, voice was distant. The community on Skype is most valuable, and seems that Jajah is interoperable in terms of buddy list.
Must look at Jajah rates for calling on regular phones.

Can't wait to ring my home phone. There are 5 minutes free prepaid.

UPDATE:

Thanks to the Jajah team for contact and warm response. I know they are surprised with the adoption of Jajah and are busy handling the whole operation. Thanks for your additional explanation. Now, I am more convinced that good people are behind these project.
My review of Jajah expect sometime in the future. Currently , I am busy.

Apple +Intel Inside

R.Cringley thinks Intel and Apple are posed for merger. The reason : Microsoft.
Interesting speculation. Apple announced this week that it will use Intel processors, starting 2006.

Super feed cheating

Google is super star on financial markets in US. Impressive indeed. But what then ? Take a look at this - SuperFeedSystem, new type of software available for automatic publishing and syndicating content ( via rss format ) , found over at Svakodnevica blog
How will that fit with various ad programs on the web like Google AdSense etc. ?

Lessons about nuclear weapons

Robert McNamara: Article in June's edition of Foreign Policy.

Robert S. McNamara was U.S. secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968 and president of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981.

The crucial words are here:

If the United States continues its current nuclear stance, over time, substantial proliferation of nuclear weapons will almost surely follow. Some, or all, of such nations as Egypt, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Taiwan will very likely initiate nuclear weapons programs, increasing both the risk of use of the weapons and the diversion of weapons and fissile materials into the hands of rogue states or terrorists. Diplomats and intelligence agencies believe Osama bin Laden has made several attempts to acquire nuclear weapons or fissile materials. It has been widely reported that Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, former director of Pakistan’s nuclear reactor complex, met with bin Laden several times. Were al Qaeda to acquire fissile materials, especially enriched uranium, its ability to produce nuclear weapons would be great. The knowledge of how to construct a simple gun-type nuclear device, like the one we dropped on Hiroshima, is now widespread. Experts have little doubt that terrorists could construct such a primitive device if they acquired the requisite enriched uranium material. Indeed, just last summer, at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry said, “I have never been more fearful of a nuclear detonation than now.… There is a greater than 50 percent probability of a nuclear strike on U.S. targets within a decade.” I share his fears.

Intro podcast

Title: Short intro to my Zec Online podcast [ Listen now ! ]
Length: 0:21
Format: MP3

Description: Acctually, not my first podcast. Nobody knows here in Croatia I've put some of my audio files into RSS 2.0 available format long time ago, but nevermind...I don't expect someone will make big deal out of it. My ego is happy without any media attention. Who cares! Those in the know will...well, know !

Just a short voice intro, let's hear how it sounds. It's my pure real-life voice without any sound effects. The background music is Morcheeba.

Stay audioblogged....

Notes

Some quick reminders on the news I left behind, I need to read them more carefully. Later.

Another RSS format for mass adoption>
Yahoo and its media RSS.

The talk Simon Waldman gave in Seul:

Slashdot:
Internetwork start up companies.

Celebrations

This news got me into deep thinking in the afternoon :D
Here's what happened:

Doctors had to be called to separate the bride and best man after they were caught in the act during a wedding in Croatia.

The couple were trapped together by a muscle spasm after a friend of the groom walked in on them as they had sex in the toilets.

Oh , boy, someone won't get married so soon :-))

Finishing my thoughts about podcasting/audioblogging

My thoughts regarding ''podcasting'' or audioblogging aren't finished.

Lately, I've been exploring above mentioned subject . It was sometime in October / September last year when I heard about podcasting during Web 2.0 conference . The meme spread like a wildfire since than , mainly good-old-techno -hype and mainstream press furiously got on the board ( latest news are that ABC and NBC introduced podcasts ). And all that even we had mp3 files available for downloading for years.

But hey, more people got MP3 players that it was ever before. RSS is here, broadband is ready, little laziness about automatic downloading via podcastcher. Perfect ingrediends for another exciting thing.

I was skeptical. We heard sentences like ''move on blogging, podcasting is here''. Crap. There was even revolution on some minds. Crap. One doesn't exlude other in this case. They say ''it's TIVO for radio''.
Oh, very lean technology indeed, just not much people need to use it.

The biggest crap, IMHO, is when I hear people saying ''podcasting is synonim for audioblogging''. Far from true ! Audioblogging is posting audio files on your web/log/site ( can you make distinction; posting your simple voice-talk recording within template driven page with simple commands and interface for doing so ).

Podcasting is producing audio files/shows/broadcasts ( in MB sizes ) enveloped with RSS 2.0 distribution mechanism including music mixes, effects, screenplay, concept etc ( can you see distinction how is this richer, harder to make, just not simple and for average user) .

Here's why.

I remember very well how it was when I opened my first ( text ) blog over at blogger.com. It was fast, instant and published in a second. I could do edits very fast and they were simple. It was all that simple. Nice user interface helped a lot. Write, bold, add a picture and publish onto your free blog space under choosen subdomain.

The process of creating audio file and publishing on the web requires some resources. Knowledge comes at first.
Here how it goes creating and publishing podcast:

- create audio file with audio editor (desktop app), learn how to do it if you do not know
- don't make fool out of yourself and record crappy file :))
- convert that file to MP3 format
- assume you have a storage place on the server to host these files ( yes, I know about Our Media, Lybsin, Internet archive )
- open your FTP program and transfere mp3 files on the server
- assume you have blog/web site with RSS 2.0
- post it on your blog with short notice, and relevant links on the mp3 file
- optional- have enough storage space and available bandwith, and be prepared for slashdotting effects to pay all your hosting bills.

Too many processes, too many handlings and too many knowledge and resources ( bandwith, storage ).

Where are web based audio editors for creating mp3 files ? Where's simple user interface ? Where's javascript generation of ''badge'' as a choice to link podcast list on your domain of choice ( remember how Flickr has badge option so I can paste as a list of my pictures on my blog of choice for quick showing- granulation and transfere is important here) ?

Conclusion: Podcasting isn't convenient yet. It is not synonim for audioblogging as some implied. It's not popular among average internet user ( it's elitists, broadband is still lagging for most people ) and everyone doesn't have need or purpose to do so few times a week. But it's fun. It saves time for listeners sometime .

It's good for learning, music discovering, creativity triving, info junkies, presentations and relevant content will show up .

Audioblogging should be simple, web based, modular, and transferable. Podcasting should be just as it is, but needs to invent simple interface and accept open standards.
Podcasting won't create craze about mp3 players and have in mind that mp3 players compete with mobile phones sometime in the future. That's where I see opportunities .

Only then, eventually, audioblogging and podcasting will come closer . But who cares !

Why suddenly ''No'' ?

France is voting today about EU constitution and is ready to say --No--.
An excelent article about EU constitution and why is it not much different from Treaty of Rome ( 1957 ) , why is it worth to have such constitution and say ''Yes'' explains Paul Reynolds - World Affairs correspondent for BBC News website.

Saudi Arabia awaits new ruler

What is the state of oil prices in financial markets ?
I've looked for it after reading BBC report for the health condition of Saudi King Fahd.
Latest news are telling that markets aren't jitter about possible Saudi Arabia power swap.
US summer season drives prices up, according to agency news reports.

Some say the rush on oil is over and one should stay away from oil investing.
For commodity markets, there's apparently an opportunity for sugar and cotton in the following years.

Podcasting your blog content

These two software pieces translate blog/news content into ready podcasting files : Talkr and Speakwire to remember as a solution text-to-podcast.
Does someone has experience using it ?

Odeo will try

Article to read about simplifying podcasting. Time for Odeo.
It needs to be really simple.

Podcasting and individualism

Thinking today about podcasting and audioblogging. Then mix up radio. Internet and radio are different. Let's see, one has a mp3 player. It's a deep individualism ( only you can hear files , not other around you) , It's a democratic process by nature ( you don't force people to listen what you're listening and likes ) .
Even when there is proliferation of mp3 players, how do you set up mass audience for podcasting ( from the view of producer ) ?
You don't.
The answer should be ''Long tail'' approach.

Audio homework

Integrating podcasting concept into education is a brave and inovative act. Canadian professor might be one of the first who will ask the students to make another audio files as a education task. Bring your MP3 player and learn. Wooh.

Via I Love Radio. Org

Personalized Google, again

The Google Lab shows how personalized page should look like. To me, it looks very poor. Like they are trying to bridge time-to-market with services that Yahoo and MSN already done.

Soic, your mail was blocked

My friend Soic from Zagreb read my blog about month ago and send me an email . I replied but seems the message wasn't delivered to him because of some strange server issues at his part of the chanel.
So, Mr. Soic, if you are reading these lines, drop me another mail to make it work better this time.
Hope to hear soon !

Hedge funds on german

I had noticed over at del.icio.us nice link that points to coverage in today's german newspaper Die Welt dedicated to hedge funds. These are heavy weight ( and heavy unregulated ) financial entities that are moving every day a lot of money in the capital markets all over the world.

One identity, one person, all the web

Another distributed identity system called OpenID. It should be something decentralised. I didn't play much, but I'm posting this as a reminder to try it in the future and look how it works.

I am annoyed lately by the constant need for logging when using various services on the web. Would be nice that web could have more simple and secure systems for identity and authorisation. It seems to be utopia for some time, or I 've missed something ?

To be ''Seamless'' in digital world

What they were talking about ?
Chief technology officers of Microsoft, Sony and Yahoo gathered for an evening in Sillicon Valey to discuss technology development of the coming years.

Groupware for small teams

What to choose when looking for open source groupware app ?
The place I am currently looking is OpenSource CMS site with demo showcase of every app.

I need small, flexibel, modular and useful app for managing small teams over the web. Groupware app will be web based workplace, central point of interaction between team members.

It's only one small piece in the puzzle of so called ''virtual company''. If possible, why not.
After then, I'll be looking for outsourced solution for accounting and finance reporting.
After that...who knows.