Trying to follow…

er is goed nieuws en slecht nieuws. Het goede nieuws is dat ze bezig zijn met de kelder, het slechte nieuws is dat ze niet hard opschieten.

Nee hoor, als ik nog enkele momenten kan vinden vanavond, na de kindjes in bad te steken enzo, dan zal ik nog enkele foto’s opladen. Er staan kleine muurtjes recht, de aannemer wil de komende dagen verder werken om wat tijd te winnen.

A new hype for a new P2P network tool to watch TV online. Used in Holland and created by a Dutch university, so not really from a consumer point of view. But maybe that is the advantage. Check it out, the link is on the right.

Working with the gadgets API of Google, it hit me that it is actually powerful code. The examples are clear, the API is good,… You can actually do a lot of stuff with the code. The widgets or gadgets that you can create with the gadgetmaker of Google are peanuts compared to what this stuff can do. Only I need the time because you have to be able to write code that runs through the DOM of the content provider.

If you compare that to the tools Apple has made to make Dashboard widgets or the tool on webwag to create widgets. Google has the right track here (no surprise) but the quality of the competitors is awesome. Maybe that is the only domain in which they can differ?

Something totally new is launched today. Microsoft, yes microsoft, has come up with a table and a touchscreen. Nothing special but watch the video. I want it, don’t know what to do with it but I want it….

Microsoft released their live platform a while ago (to react to the success of Gmail?) and now they copy something else of Google, the labs. But somethings are luckely different. The MicroSoft Live Labs have some other features they work on such as Photosynth. That is a tool in which you can load some photos and the tool makes a 3D image of it. Works great for panoramic pictures, check it at thisvideo.

You can find the link in my blogroll.

Microsoft released a new mash up tool like Yahoo pipes (pipes.yahoo.com).

The service is called PopFly and looks pretty nice. Not much storage space but nice anayway. For those who want to create their own mashup, checkt it out at http://www.popfly.ms

er is opnieuw nieuws. De betonplaat is gegoten. Vanaf nu zijn we echt vertrokken. althans dat beweert toch iedereen. Eens ze beginnen met metsen, schiet het normaal gezien goed op. Maar dat wil voor mij zeggen: veeel werk. Ik moet een aansluiting regelen voor electriciteit, voor riolering,… We moeten de vloeren beginnen te kiezen, zoeken naar kranen en lichtknoppen en stopcontacten. Klaar staan om tussentijds leidingen te leggen of wachtbuizen te steken.

Een drukke tijd voor de boeg dus. Ik heb hier nog enkele foto’s van voor de plaat en ik ga proberen om vandaag nog enkele recente foto’s te nemen.

Is this again a case of the big ones overruling the little ones? Aparantly Amazon has stopped working with ZLio because Zlio pays the customer back with it gets as discount from amazon. And the reply of amazon is

It has come to our attention that you may be paying some of your referral fees back to customers as a form of rebate. While we are certain that your idea would meet with some success, we have decided against working with any Associates who employ this rebate model.

Under the Associates Program, Associates may choose to recommend either individual products or our entire service to their visitors in exchange for a small percentage of the resulting sales. The goal is to introduce our services to new customers this way, helping them find us through sites that offer value-added editorial assistance or which provide trusted advice in choosing e-commerce sites.

Given our relatively slim retail margins and our strong discount pricing, the referral fees we pay can only be sustained as we meet new customers through our Associates. Many of these customers return to us later for items unrelated to those recommended by the Associate web site, and this future business helps to offset the referral fees we pay. For this reason, we’re able to pay nearly all of our margins to Associates in referral fees.

When an Associate re-directs these fees to the customer, it changes the entire relationship in ways we did not intend. Under the ‘rebate’ model customers actually have a disincentive to return and shop with us directly, undermining the expectation of repeat business that is necessary to fund the program.

In addition, Associates are prohibited from placing orders through their own Associate tagged links. Please note, per the Operating Agreement:

“You may not purchase products during sessions initiated through the links on your site for your own use, for resale or commercial use of any kind. This includes orders for customers or on behalf of customers or orders for products to be used by you or your friends, relatives, or associates in any manner. Such purchases may result (in our sole discretion) in the withholding of referral fees and/or the termination of this Agreement.”

I understand the amazon position but my favourite is Zlio. great concept, good site. Check it out at

the article

zlio.com

One of the best movie clips that describe web 2.0. fantastic.

last week, there was some commotion about a girl (?) that posted a little clip on Youtube. In the clip you can see a controller of the public railways give somebody a fine for using a non-valid reduction ticket. It was a correct fine, but the man in question wasn’t really polite. The person who used the non-valid ticket knew that and ‘acted’ digraced. But in the end it was a correct decision. Now that clip is posted…but with some added comments and in the end gunshots. So we are talking about more then plain journalism.

On tv, in the sunday morning show ‘De zevende dag’ there was a public debate about the movie. Most of the attendees agreed that the clip was to personal (the gunshots) but that freedom of speech was also allowed.

I don’t think you can call freedom of speech on this. Werner Ramaekers was in the debate team and called it civilian journalism, if the editing was not done. I agree but I still think that the movieclip even without editing was over the top. People can not just record a person in function and post it on the web. The person is in function and has to do something of which we don’t know what he thinks about. But he has to do it (like police on a demonstration for a cause they can support). While the moviemaker is often NOT in function and thus personal. A journalist making the movie is also ‘in function’ and so abstract to the case. He is neutral, but public clips seldom are. So if there are rules for journalism and you call people making movies as civilian journalism, then the rules should also count for them.

It is a difficult issue, and I’m not completely sure about my own stand in this. But I feel its dangerous to just let everybody film everything and then afterwards let the community decide. In this case the comments on YouTube were horrible for the poster, but that was too late for the controller and his reputation.

Feel free to comment

A link to the debate (in dutch)

Google video Full Version