KungPowThinking

Crazy story but maybe not THAT crazy. I found out this weekend that a friend, was deported from China after filming protests in Tianamen Square. Noneck Noel was deported after filming this video:

Apparently, Chinese officials didn’t take too kindly to a non-credentialed reporter filming a protest (not exactly a news flash). Now, I don’t have the whole story, just a series of tweets from Noneck and some quick googling, but this whole thing seems pretty silly of the Chinese. As far as I can tell, the video lasts for about 10 minutes, shows a small group of protesters, a tiny crowd of disinterested onlookers, and has gotten more than 35,000 views since it was first posted. Presumably most of the views were after the deportation was made public on the blogosphere.

I wonder what would have happened if the Chinese had done what the U.S. government does with stuff like this - ignore it. The whole thing about freedom of speech is that you’ve got to decide what to ignore and what to listen to (signal vs. noise and all that). IMHO this protest was something the Chinese could easily have ignored without consequence. It’s not like the world decision makers don’t already know that college students, Tibetians, and the Beastie Boys don’t like the occupation of Tibet. Instead they went and forcefully removed these folk from their country, and in doing so caused a commotion. With all the care the Chinese have put into putting their best face forward for the Olympics, I just wish they had paid more attention to the heart of the issue many folks have with China. I don’t think anyone cares whether or not some people spit in the street, serve the occasional dog, or even have political relationships with countries un-friendly to the U.S. What people do care about is freedom of speech, human rights, and visibility into government. Two out of three were shown to be less than stellar in the video and it’s aftermath.

I will say this for the Chinese and in opposition to many of the protesters. The Chinese really have come a long long way in a very short period of time. Consider that a friend of mine grew up in Beijing w/out running water, that only a few years ago those protesters would have been jailed w/out the obligatory phone call or trip home, and it’s plain ol’ amazing that that video even made it to the interwebs. In the grand scheme that actually is progress in my book.

Oh yea on the topic of Tibet - it’s damn complicated. A hell of a lot more complicated than most people realize with likely 1000 years of history behind it. It’s a little presumptuous of us to jump into the middle of it just because we happen to like this Dalai Lama. Last time anyone tried to leave the Union that is the United States of America, it was a helluva lot bloodier than anything the Chinese have done recently. We need to be very very careful about being hypocrites.

coffee beans

I love reading the news and seeing an article that confirms what I’ve known in my gut all along. Basically this article from the NY Times Health section says that coffee isn’t bad for you and may in fact be good for you in moderate, non-Starbucks, doses. Anyone who has read anything about coffee knows that there’s a long standing debate about the health effects of America’s favorite stimulant. This article is basically a feel-good article for anyone who is as addicted to it as I am. I average 2 iced coffees per day using the Starbucks “grande” as my unit of measurement. Funny think is that I was thinking of trying to kick the coffee habit, but according to this article coffee is high in antioxidants and “Probably the most important effects of caffeine are its ability to enhance mood and mental and physical performance.” Everyone who knows me knows that I’m not really a morning person and without my coffee in the morning I can be a very cranky individual. That last benefit is probably the most important to me.

On a side note, one thing that really irks me about NYC is that the coffee here really does tend to suck. I KNOW you can find decent coffee shops around if you look, but I’m talking about the average cup of coffee. Deli coffee, diner coffee, 80% of the small cafes, and Dunkin Donuts all sell crap coffee. It really doesn’t surprise me that there’s a Starbucks on every corner. It looks to me like they filled a giant competition-less gap in the market. I just wish someone would figure out how to get a Coffee Bean or a Peets Coffee out here sometime soon.

New York Times reports today that the carriers are finally starting to understand why everyone hates them so much. Talk is that the carriers are making moves to open their networks for software developers in order to make themselves more attractive to consumers, or something like that. As mentioned in the article, a key factor in the decision making process for the carriers is obviously a product of the early success of Apple’s App Store, not to mention the pre-App Store buzz surrounding jail-broken iPhones.

Personally, I think this is barely news-worthy (as in too little too late), and most likely misses the point all together. My take is that the success of iPhone applications has been in spite of the carriers (even AT&T), and that merely opening up the networks for application development is only the first step. As anyone who has worked on designing, developing and marketing mobile applications can attest, the problem Apple solves is much bigger than whether or not software can be developed for phones. Apple’s centralized and extremely consumer oriented approach to mobile software distribution is revolutionary, and I don’t see it’s success being repeated anytime soon. Let’s analyze the current problem:

• There are too many phones and too many platforms in the hands of consumers, and many are difficult to develop on (Apple’s Solution: the iPhone)
• Phone manufacturers (Nokia, Motorola, etc.) pretty much suck, at least as compared to Apple, when it comes to design and development of consumer friendly software (Apple’s Solution: amazing software design and developer tools)
• In most cases software is extremely difficult to install on phones (Apple’s Solution: iTunes already installed on millions of computers Mac and PC alike and the App Store)
• Distribution of applications is either centralized under the carriers themselves or completely decentralized in the hands of the developers. Neither of which is good at it. (Apple’s Solution: take the carriers out of the picture and give the developers a low cost or zero cost distribution channel)

Apple has made significant efforts to solve just about all of these issues and more by providing an end-to-end solution (from developer to consumer). I won’t argue that it’s perfect or that it’s impossible for someone else in the mobile space to reproduce (MS has a good shot). My argument is that it’s revolutionary in the same way the iPod and iTunes were revolutionary. Basically, the formula is similar to why Apple succeeded w/ the iPod and iTunes despite competition from manufacturers like Sony, ancient models for music distribution, and technology inept publishers. My gut feeling is that the mobile phone carriers will succeed in overcoming these hurdles just about as well as their counterparts in the music space - not at all.

From Engadget talking about the battle for wireless solutions to stream HD within a household (basically replacements for HDMI cables).

While WHDI does not compress the bits in the video, it does not treat them all equally. The technology looks for what are the least significant bits, say, in a dark gray pixel next to a darker gray pixel in the background of a scene, and assigns them a lower priority than, say, a bright yellow pixel next to a black pixel in a race car moving across the screen.

Who says a gray pixel next to a dark gray pixel in the background of a movie is less important? What do you have against gray pixels? This looks to me like color bias and prejudice. Shouldn’t the Network be neutral, shouldn’t all bits be treated equally? I mean the Network is like a series of tubes with a bunch of garbage trucks driving in it: it wouldn’t be fair for them to pick up your garbage but not someone else’s.

Anyway, my point - the Network should not be neutral. The Network should be smart and opinionated, but it’s opinion should be based on the true qualities of the bits to be transferred, not on superficial things like what company generated them.

From looking at Apple’s App Store you’d think calculating a tip is the most difficult thing in the world. Seriously, here’s a list of the applications I could find. I didn’t even bother to read the details of each because this is just freaking ridiculous.

• TipSY - $0.99
• TipStar - FREE
• International Tip Calculator - $4.99
• TipCalc (Finance) - FREE
• TipCalc (Utilities) - $0.99
• Tip Calculator - $0.99
• Tipper (Finance) - $0.99
• Tipper (Utilities) - $1.99
• Tip - FREE
• Tippety Split - $1.99
• Tip Master $0.99
• Check Please - FREE
• Tiptap - $0.99
• iTip - $0.99
• Tipulator - $0.99
• Tips - $1.99
• Tipster - $0.99
• Tip Calc - $0.99
• BigTipper - $1.99
• Gratuity - $0.99
• Meal Splitter - $0.99
• Meal Splitter v2 - $0.99
• ACTGratuity - $0.99
• mTip - $0.99
• QuickTip - $0.99
• TipBuddy - $0.99

Combine this list with the list of calculator apps (SalesCalc - $4.99) available and the fact that there are at least three applications that let you keep track of how much people owe when splitting dinners (DutchTab - $2.99, Meal Splitter, and Meal Splitter v2) and there are only three possible conclusions:

1. People are cheap
2. People can’t add
3. Developers have absolutely no imagination

Look people it’s simple 10% (for crappy but still tip worthy service) take the total and just move the decimal point to the left one. 20% do the aforementioned then multiply by 2. Or if you like to keep your credit card bills nice and neat, do what I do - do the math above depending on the service then round up to a friendly number with a 0 or 5 at the end of it. I know what you’re going to say - What about the old multiply the tax by 2 trick? Um if you know that one, then you don’t need my help or the help of 26 different applications now do you?

My question is - what the hell am I supposed to tip the folks at Starbucks for pouring a $2.60 grande unsweetened iced coffee? Hell if they get 20%.

Time to go buy a bicycle, cargo shorts and some candles, because according to this video there’s no hope. This video confirms my theory that Republicans and Democrats just represent two sides of the same wooden nickel.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer.