Warpjam

Oh this is crazy goodness!!

Favorite Line…”PC’s are for nerds and Mac’s get you laid!”

I have nothing to add other than my juvenile photoshop hack and this little dialog:

AZ> So Steve Jobs wants DRM to go away…He’s so awesome!

VR> Ya after all these years of being told that its for our own good, what a tool!

AZ> Ya, isn’t Steve awesome! He’s really sticking it to them.

VR> Dude are you kidding me? The only person he’s sticking it to is the consumer, we’re just little pawns in his epic ego trip with the RIAA and soon the MPAA.

AZ> Ya he’s really fighting for us…he’s like the king of the digital chess board and we’re his little pawns….Isn’t Steve awesome?!

VR> Riiiight…So how many Whuffie points do you think Steve scored with Corey yesterday?

AZ> Oh, like too many to count…Steve is so Awesome!

VR> You’re and idiot! Hey did you hear that Steve is coming out with the iKevorkian? You might want to get it….Fast!

AZ> Oh for real? I didn’t read that on TUAW! Cool…I gotta get one! Steve is so Awesome!

Update: Microsoft rebuts Jobs’ memo calling it naive! Nice! But my favorite part in this NYT article is this gem…

“irresponsible, or at the very least naïve…It’s like he’s on top of the mountain making pronouncements, while we’re here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen…”

I hadn’t read that when I made my little Moses/Stevus homage. But I freely grant it to anyone who wants to use it for some more good old fashion mudslinging.

QTech Inc. recently Demoed at DEMO07. Another company that gets the concept of Voice to Text thought transmission perfectly and executes incredibly well. I love the fact that they leverage their IVR to use voice recognition instead of fumbaling around with the keyboard. I must “borrow” that feature for DictaBrain.

Speaking of Good old DictaBrain, the reports of its slumber have been greatly exagerated. We’re chugging along very nicely thank you. In fact I expect to have an annoucement next week regarding some rebranding efforts that we’ve undertaken. Watching this space emerge into a bonefide industry have been both insiring and scrary. It goes to show that ideas are worthless and execution is everything.

And I say…Meh!

In October 2001 when Windows XP was launched, I stood in line at a store event to be one of the first to receive a copy of the latest OS from the Redmond giant. At the time I owned a small Outsourced IT firm called NetStorm IT and not only did I buy a copy for myself but I bought 17 licences and spent the next week installing the OS on various customers PC’s. Well apparently this time around things are different for me but a whole lotta other people.

Flash Forward five and a half years later. I have two kids, 3 fishes, sold my OSIT business and own 4 Macs. What happened?! where’s the love, the excitement of running a brand new OS, learning all the cool new tricks, buying up every books and magazine on the subject and making sure that I knew all the latest hacks and possessed the best Kung Foo? Well Microsoft obviously lost me as a customer but how?

Heavy handed, that’s how I view how Microsoft operates, they are like that fat kid at the public pool who keeps jumping in cannonball style and that’s no fun for the rest of us. Proof of this is their cannonball style of  advertising which apparently people are not finding too appealing.

Apple needs to tread very carefully. Yes its important to get your brand out there but just make sure that as you’re gaining in popularity you dont end up being that fat kid constantly doing cannonballs into the pool.

I’m sure that at some point I’ll end up having to use Vista for one reason or another. It might be a great product for all I know. Time will tell.

Tom notes that coming this February a BarCampBank will be held, in France no less. I mention this because of my recent rant about how clueless and “evil” I think banks are generally. I wish I could go to this and see what comes of it. Depending on how “heavy” the attendee’s are and if any of them could actually act as change agents within their organizations this might really be a good starting point. Customers of banks (I think we’re all that) should participate as well so that the discussion gets a more holistic view of the problems and subsequently the opportunities.

I’ll offer this. Doctors have a “raison d’etre” known as the Hippocratic Oath. Its something that every doctor must abide to no matter where they are from. Banks and their employees should have a similar oath. Seriously. Screw mission statement, give me an oath, start living by it and then I *might* start to trust you.

Disclosure* I worked within the banking industry for about 7 years (Citibank and American Express)

Why is it that we bash technology companies like its a sport and when it comes to other services, oh I dont know like… Banking we give these companies an easier time. Listen I’m part of the problem as well, I love to make fun of Microsoft whenever I can. But seriously, there are tech blogs and there are political blogs but what about calling evil where evil lives. BANKS. Oh sure we flirt with bitching about our cable provider and big bad MaBells and our ISP’s (which is usually one of the formers err latters…you know what I mean)

We entrust our financial lives to these insitutions. There is a illness of service fee addiction that is running out of control in Canadian Banking (and I would guess Amarican banks as well) have a look at your bank statement and make sure that you complain when you see what a schmo your bank thinks you are. And how much money they charge for you to lend them your money. I’ll be writting about this from time to time. I wish we could 2.0 the whole banking system and make it less evil ING is trying. BMO tried and killed it because its customers (myself included) were far too happy (that experiment was called MBanx and I miss it dearly)

So let me ask you this…does anyone actually like their Banks? Who? Why? How?

Intention. What’s yours? What’s mine? Do you want to build a community? Why? Recognition? Fame? Fortune? What?

Unconferences & the various camps are phenomenal but until we start asking ourselves and sharing with each other what our true intentions are we will never have as diverse a community as we mostly all hope to have. This is my opinion but I think it might resonate with some folks I know.
For some its pure altruism. For others like myself les that and more a need to connect with others of like mind and also to create a place where I feel welcomed and valued. Because we all need a place where everybody knows your name…right?

I’m sure that back in both grade and high school I had plenty of unfinished or missing book reports. Strangely I really enjoyed doing book reports. So when I found the “now reading” Wordpress widget I decided that I’d share my eclectic and weird reading habits with folks. Nothing earth shattering about it, blogs have been doing this since blogs were created. This is just another experiment in me stretching myself and being more “out there”.

I got a tonne of great books for Christmas and I’m not the type that can just have one book on the go so my “currently reading” category will be a little long at times. I will also give books a quick review so if you click on the library link of completed books there they will be.

Mrs. Nichols would be proud! (my grade 8 home room teacher at James Robinson PS…a true gem!)

PS. Dislosure, if you buy any of the books though amazon I will receive a commission, kickback and or bribe.

To make sure that I’m balanced, I decided to follow up on my Super Hero Personality Test & try the Super-Villan test. This whole meme is kinda timely given my recent rekindled love of comic books. More about that later, for now peer into my dark heart and fear me…mhuahahaha! BTW! Doom! Sweet! I dig armor! Have you seen the Fantastic Four Trailer?! Check it! Rock!

Your results:

You are Dr. Doom!

Dr. Doom 84% Lex Luthor 81% Apocalypse 69% Dark Phoenix 66% Venom 65% Magneto 58% Juggernaut 58% The Joker 54% Kingpin 53% Green Goblin 50% Mr. Freeze 50% Mystique 50% Catwoman 44% Poison Ivy 40% Riddler 39% Two-Face 38%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz

As we’re about to ring in the new year I’d like to mark a place in my little time capsule that I call my blog and say so long 2006. You’ve been a bitch of a year but probably one of those that I’ll look back on as being one of the most defining years of my life. Its been a rough ride, but strangely I don’t regret one bit of it. The tough part has been keeping all these balls in the air without making too much of a mess of my life, and you know what, looking back I’ve done a pretty awesome job! Way to go me!

As rough as its been I can also look back to a lot of major achievements this year. Let’s flashback on some of the highlights:

1) Managed to keep my family together (long story)
2) Started a new company with a true Friend and Mentor

3) Made thought into reality ala DictaBrain

4) Said farewell to my friends at Tucows for the last time.
5) Started working with some wacky Italians

6) With a great group of people I helped put on a cool BarCamp Event and made some great new friends

7) DemoCamp (huge respect to everyone involved participants and organizers alike

Got a taste of being a New Yorker on several occasions (this’ll carry through 2007 as well)

9) Helped a good friend and mentor start his way to becoming a blogger (not the same dude as #2)

10) Mech, SES NYC, Domain Round Table, TechCrunch NYC and NO ICANN MEETINGS in 2006!

There you have it the good the bad and the ugly Happy New Year everyone! All the best in 2007!