Kurzweil, is there anything this guy can’t do? His book the Singularity is Near has spawned a whole new way of thinking about the future. He is a prolific inventor past and present. So what’s he go an do? Well remedy the bland existence of eReaders that’s what! —

One of Blio’s major advantages over current e-book readers is that the software offers a full color experience. E Ink, which is the black-and-white display used currently in almost all e-readers, works best for text, and even then most e-books still look ugly, thanks to design limitations in the readers.

Blio actually lays out the “pages” as they would be seen on paper, with typography and illustrations copied across. It also supports video and animation. In some ways, it’s reminiscent of the interactive magazine applications (also meant for upcoming tablet devices) shown off by the likes of Time Warner, Popular Science publisher Bonnier and Wired’s parent company Conde Nast.

Add to that some nifty features such as text-to-speech and the ability to synchronize things (like bookmarks, highlights and the page you last read) across multiple devices, and it makes for an interesting e-reader.

“We can take a PDF and an audio book and merge the two to get a combination such that you can hear the audio book and see the words highlighted on the PDF at the same time,” says Peter Chapman, an executive at Kurzweil Technologies.

For publishers, says Kurzweil the advantage is that Blio preserves the original book’s format, including typsetting, layout, fonts and pagination.

Wired goes on to mention stiff competition, etc. My guess is maybe not. First this has the attributes that most any student or researcher keeps in the stachel — marker, highlighter, sticky notes, etc. Then it supports color. Of course that’s more a hardware restriction than anything. But still color will probably be what separates the have nots from the haves in the ebook market very quickly once power issues are corralled.

What’s not to like? Well format for one. Got too many right now. Many non-Amazon systems were starting to gravitate around the ePub format. This will delay that for awhile.

Now the hardware makers need to step up. The merge of tablet and eReader will continue. Somebody will come out with a 8.5×11 formatted screen and the rest will be history. Whoever does it will have the same impact that IBM did when they introduced their laptop line oh so many years ago.

Linky.

Its never been done successfully with one lone execption — WSJ. The exception is an exception. WSJ is a single purpose nexus for all news financial (Sorry Bloomberg, you’re good, but not that good.) As such they mix their pulp with their bits in a bundle is you want it that way. But due to the nature of the content they feed on each other –

Media giant News Corporation Ltd intends to charge for all its news websites in a bid to lift revenues, as the transition towards online media permanently changes the advertising landscape.

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch told analysts in a conference call after News Corp released its full year results that the traditional newspaper business model has to change.

“The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive methods of distribution,” Mr Murdoch said.

“But it has not made content free. Accordingly we intend to charge for all our news websites,” he said.

He said News Corp would use the Wall Street Journal’s online vehicle as a model.

“The extended downturn has only increased the drumbeat for change,” he said, arguing that classified advertising for online news would never reach the levels once offered by print.

“Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content, is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting,” Mr Murdoch said.

Here’s the insanity of this.

• It has been tried with the editorial section of the NYT. The editorial section online essentially became persona nongrata to the larger national audience. Maureen Down had been stifled by her own publisher. Editorials have impact only when they have reach. After two years they quit.
• Good journalism does cost money, but publishers cut costs way back in their hey day to please Wall Street and the outcome proves Murdoch’s point. But the marginal gain in revenue from the Internet will not refill the news room with new staffers. So the decline will continue.

  Having abandoned the B & C local news segments the door was open for others to try and cover it. Third Pipe has been here before so I won’t belabor it.

• Following on the point above. To be a successful internet enterprise does not depend on massive number of bodies grinding out stuff. To be successful it depends on fewer people per impression than what WSJ garners. I point to the Michele Malkin site. Very successful, yet last count it only herself and 5 staff plus name contributors like Morrissey in the mix.
• Lets continue the cost angle. The internet blogs have the advantage. They don’t have the drag of a multimillion dollar press to keep fed. So lean and mean comes natural. Pulp media come from the other side of the cost equation and as a consequence everything they do is a cut. Cuts in material and personnel are heart wrenchingly painful. Many lacking the guts to do it like they should.
• Finally Murdoch assumes he has a product worth paying for. I don’t know the price that will be set, but I doubt if I will sign up for it. There is just so much material out there. And of course there is the ‘business ecology abhors a vacuum’ bent on the whole matter. If somebody can’t make it on ads for covering sports then some enterprising team of locals will do so and take the ad revenue to the bank.

I wish Murdoch the best. If anybody can pull it off it will be him. However my bet is on ‘Luck Lady’ in the 5th at The Downs. I would have as much better chance of winning.

Yes in my continuing saga of ‘wake up and look around’ against the dark forces of ignorance, distraction and lack of social skills fostered by the smartphone, I present you with another one –

Why didn’t she see it? You’re ahead of me here. She was too intent on tapping out a text message to notice the gaping gap in the sidewalk and just dropped straight on in. Idiotic, yes, but now Alexa’s parents are trying to blame someone else for their daughter’s stupidity while making a little money into the bargain. They’re suing the city.

I’m all for punishing people who walk the streets staring into the tiny screens of their cells. They’re a danger to cyclists, for one, and at the very best they’re an annoyance to normal pedestrians, the kind who actually look where they’re walking. That Alexa’s parents are not doing anything to teach her a lesson but instead are blaming city workers is quite ridiculous.

Life ladies and gentlemen is not a RoadRunner cartoon mixed with scenes from Matrix I. There are consequences and if you do something stupid you will get bit. Live with it. Parents, call off the lawyers. Take the smartphone away and make her get a summer job to defray the cost of the medical insurance for a couple of months.

Read the whole thing.

Or should I say, Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Corp. The man does have one saving grace. He is the last of the CEO’s who have ever climbed a telephone pole and worked his way up. That being said, he is just one of about 4 that are delaying our broadband futures. Just VZ does it better than their competition.

Source: Charlie Rose show.
HT: Consumerist

Look I am a live and let live kind of guy. But there is a point where actions of certain people have to be questioned even if they aren’t breaking any laws. Case in point –

At the office, in the car, even walking down the street, Nick Andes and Doug Klinger are constantly texting. They both have unlimited plans.

“Basically because of us being bored at work and just texting back and forth a bunch of times and we would try to bother each other,” said Andes.

Because they were already sending so many messages they decided to see what the standing record was for sent and received texts. They looked it up online.

“I think initially neither of us thought that the record was beatable; 182,000 texts is a lot of texts,” said Andes.

All told they sent 217,000 texts and ran up a $26,000 text bill. T-Mobile is supposed to have a unlimited that both these guys subscribed to. but the programming in the system was capped at 100k under the assumption that no one would go beyond that. If I were T-Mobile I would stick them with the bill.

Oh and guys I have a suggestion for your boss. They ought to fire you both. That should certainly liven up your life.

Linky.

Congratulations to Aneesh Chopra on his appointment as the first United States CTO.

Aneesh Paul Chopra
Chopra serves as Virginia’s Secretary of Technology. He leads the Commonwealth’s strategy to effectively leverage technology in government reform, to promote Virginia’s innovation agenda, and to foster technology-related economic development. Previously, he worked as Managing Director with the Advisory Board Company, leading the firm’s Financial Leadership Council and the Working Council for Health Plan Executives.

Since this is a newly created position, we’ll have to wait and see what exactly he’ll do for us or what he’ll do to us. To decide if a US CTO really is a good idea, I ask what would Jefferson think of this new cabinet post?  I’m certain he’ll have a staff and a budget. If he’s a real CTO, he’ll justify this expense by returning more in savings from new efficiency than is spent to run his organization. If that’s how this will work, Thomas Jefferson would approve. I sincerely hope that Mr Chopra is tasked on this criteria alone.

I remain a skeptic.  If this CTO can help protect our privacy, and perhaps get a little of the bureacratic fat out of our tax bill then then he’s been tasked properly. If instead, he uses technology to extend the reach of the federal goverment and further infringe on our constitional rights, or to game the system for political gains, then creating his role is nothing more than another misuse of power.

I sympathize with the feeling behind these protests, but they are directed at the wrong target.

The protestors rightly condemn the Authors Guild for demanding the removal of the screen reader feature, but the way they are doing it makes Amazon look like a victim. Actually it is the main perpetrator.

The reason that Amazon can turn off the screen reader capability is that the machines use non-free software, controlled by Amazon rather than by the user. If Amazon can turn this off retroactively (does anyone know for certain if they did?), it implies the product has a dangerous back door.

In addition, the Amazon Swindle is designed with Digital Restrictions Management to stop people from sharing. It is a nasty product with an evil goal.

I hope there will be protests against Amazon’s role in these events.

The topic? Why the yielding of Amazon to the pressure from the Authors Guild on the issues related around Text-to-Speech. Is Richard ‘GPL’ Stallman right. Well yes and no. Yes for the fact that in Amazon so disabling the technology it leaves a gaping hole and does not address the the fact that there are some 16 centuries of written material that is completely open to TTS that the Authors Guild has no relationship to. No, in the fact that there are issues related to audio books that are derivative works that authors should be compensated for.

All told though, the right solution is not to be found in the Kindle. The right solution is to be found in Open Source. Stallman ought to get together with Arrington and influence him to include ePub reader software in his tablet if he produces it. Then you go to the Artist Guild and tell them that TTS block is automatic but can be turned on with a software key that can be updated in the XML dictionary. Any public domain works will work with TTS automatically and can be shared.

Linky

[Update] More here on the issues of being a Kindle owner.

Alec Ross has been picked to fill a slot at the US State Dept. hand made for him. He is to fill the role of Techno-Diplomat at State –

Alec Ross arrives today at the State Department, armed with a new set of diplomatic tools including Facebook, text messaging and YouTube.

Ross is a senior adviser on innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — a role created for the 37-year-old nonprofit leader, who quickly rose within the Obama campaign, helping to craft tech policy under top technology adviser Julius Genachowski.

His new job will blend technology with diplomacy in an attempt to help solve some of the globe’s most vexing problems on health care, poverty, human rights and ethnic conflicts. And it is emblematic of the expansive approach the administration has taken to the role of technology in advancing its domestic and global agendas.

Before I start I should lay down a disclaimer that I have never met the man. The considerations given are based on a Bio search of Mr. Ross’s career and public statements.

Alec Ross graduated from Northwestern with a BA. From what I can find he is not a technologist in formal training. (I hold a BS in Computer Science, for example.) His work effort followed with a 2 year stint teaching in inner city schools. (Surprisingly I spent a year doing the same thing.) He also has served as flunky to the CEO of The Enterprise Foundation. Subsequently he co-founded One Economy an NGO that fosters internet access for low income participants in the US and around the world. He has now been appointed as the Man on technical-social policy at the State Department.

Sounds like a pretty stellar rise for a 37yo guy right? Well maybe. But lets consider some facts. Look at One Economy’s 2007 charity summary. Their 990 summary here. CharityNavigator only gives them a slightly better than average rating on charitable efficiency. Their total revenues for 2007 were just a little under $20m. Their total employee count was 21-100 depending on which set of data you view. Still sound ok? Well consider this –

* The average regional McDonalds franchisee with 10-11 restraunts is grossing $20m per annum.
* Your typical WalMart SuperCenter typically grosses in the $18-25m range. That youngist looking guy or gal running the place has more at risk.
* An average long haul truck driver pushes $30m in customer assets just to meet expenses and payroll.
* Fact is there are tens of thousands of micro cap stocks in the $20-100m range in this country. All of them doing so the old fashion way — they earn it in the marketplace.

My point is there are a flotilla of individuals with not only better experience but are so with a technology background and understanding. What Ross brings to the table is connections and how to work the NGO system. I don’t consider that a compliment. Lets call it what it is — political patronage. It is what it is, good or ill. But it is payback for picking the right horse. The way the Washington Post gushes you would think he was the second coming of Geithner. (Which when I think about it, might be true. Not a compliment either.)

Do I fret about it? No. But this is like handing an undersecretary of state position whose sole claim to fame is ’social entrepreneur’. Well Mr. Ross I have a challenge for you. Lets meet shall we? I will bring two PCs and 2 OS disks. The first one to get the system up and running in its stated role in a network environment is last man standing.

For a different perspective look here.

Linky

AUSTIN, Texas — Drummer Josh Freese’s musical skills have landed him gigs with major bands, but his marketing genius has generated a huge buzz about his coming solo release.

Freese, who’s recorded on hundred of albums and played with top acts like Nine Inch Nails, Devo and A Perfect Circle, roped in famous friends to offer extravagant, limited-edition packages to hawk alongside his new record, Since 1972, which will be released Tuesday.

For example, you can download a free song or buy the digital download of the whole record for $7. But $20,000 will get you a signed CD/DVD, plus you get to play miniature golf with Freese, singer Maynard James Keenan from Tool and Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. After the outing, Freese promises to “drop you off on the side of the freeway (all filmed and posted on YouTube).”

At a time when the music biz is struggling to come up with special-edition collectibles to spur sales, Freese has cranked the “freemium” concept to 11 with a wacky and creative tiered pricing system that he maintains is “100 percent” serious. Wired.com caught up with the California drummer/marketing whiz during the South by Southwest music festival in Austin to discuss the genesis of the idea and what surprises might lurk inside his closet.

First of all why not? The man has a right to sell his wares as he sees fit so long as he is not breaking any laws. Go for it. Though one would have to wonder about the sanity of anybody willing to pay $20k for a miniature golf lesson.

But there is the issue of exposure. Too much of a good thing can damage brand labeling as well. Not only that but the issue of value comes to play. Does a miniature golf lesson with Freese have more value than one with Jagger? And does album sales have any bearing on the value of the lesson? Finally one gets to the question of are we trading overpaid guys in suits for similarly overpaid guys in tights and grease paint?

All sounds like great theater. But to paraphrase someone mildly famous — “its about the music.”

Linky

[Update] Dear Readers, you won’t believe this! Freese SOLD the $20k record/mini golf package. He’s just waiting for the check. Unbelievable. The power of capitalism. Linky.

Richard Woods

In years to come, when mutated humans are born with mobile phones wired into their brains, it may be perfectly normal to converse with two people at once while texting a friend, checking your Facebook status and surfing the web.

For the moment, however, mobile multi-tasking is the plague of the day. You know the score: you are talking to a colleague and their eyes constantly flicker towards the BlackBerry for incoming e-mails. You are holding a meeting and half the staff are texting under the table. You are hoping for a hot date - as Jennifer Aniston, the American actress, was recently - and your boyfriend is hitting on Twitter, not you.

These are symptoms of OMD, obsessive mobile disorder, and the dread disease CPA, continuous partial attention, in which victims come to believe that life via mobile might be more interesting than life right in front of them.

Is this you? If it is conclude your conversation then turn IT off. Life is too short not to take advantage of those person to person contacts that present themselves. That ‘other’ took time to meet you. Whether it was next door, down the street, or across the planet they are there to see YOU. Give them 100%, they have already done the same for you by being there.

Full article here.
TimesOnline is to be commended for this article.