Archive for March, 2009
Google Street View Launches in the UK
Posted by Andrew Millne in General Bloginess on March 19th, 2009
Google has launched it’s 360° Street View functionality on Google Maps in 25 cities across UK covering over 22,000 miles of the road network. Heres a nice view of the Millenium Bridge and The Sage from the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle.
There have been numerous court cases in the US over privacy concerns and I’m sure it won’t be long before the first reportings of similar UK actions.
From what I’ve seen and heard it would appear that the majority of the imagery was captured last summer which was particularly poor weather-wise which may make it awkward to spot Wally of Where’s Wally fame who is hiding somewhere in the UK.
Be the first to spot him and don’t forget to comment on any unusual sightings while you’re at it.
Blank State – The First Entirely Open Source Project
Posted by Andrew Millne in General Bloginess on March 16th, 2009
Blank State aims to answer the question..
“what happens if random people are able to freely unite?”
So many companies and individuals boast transparency and the fact that they are putting the customer first. The new generation of companies like Google, Facebook and the numerous open source projects in the cloud often claim to be run “By the people, for the people” and publish philosophies containing phrases like “Focus on the user and all else will follow” but all these entities started out as closed projects until they reached a certain level of maturity.
With nothing to go off but some initial questions the first truly open source project has begun lets see where it goes from here…
Legacy Locker
Posted by Andrew Millne in General Bloginess on March 15th, 2009
What happens to all of your online assets in the unfortunate but inevitable event of your death? Who will own your domain names? Your PayPal funds? Who will control your Facebook account? Who will notify your online colleagues of your passing? Chances are the majority of these accounts and assets will simply evaporate into the cloud.
Launching in April, Legacy Locker is a fascinating new way to ensure your digital property is safely passed on to your chosen beneficiaries.
Robert Scoble recently interviewed co-founder Jeremy Toeman about the service, a video of which is included here which gives a great overview of the service. Read the rest of this entry »
Home, Plugs and Harmony
Posted by Andrew Millne in Home Automation on March 12th, 2009
I love my new Logitech Harmony One remote! At last a universal remote that actually accomplishes what it sets out to do and banishes superfluous remotes to the drawer.
To tell the truth I’ve been looking at getting one of these for some time but wasn’t quite prepared to sell a kidney to raise the RRP of £159 for the privilege. A recent cut price offer of £69.99 including VAT and delivery from Amazon and the fact I’ve been meaning to set up a Linksys DMA-2100 media centre extender in my living room and run the cabling for my surround speakers sealed the deal and incentivised the living room re-jig (Thanks to Automated Home for the heads up on the offer).