Friday, February 28, 2014

Thursday, February 27, 2014

React Atom (trends in logo design)

Atom by GitHub:

React by Facebook:


[updated] Default icon for apps on Facebook:
[update Wednesday 12 March 2014]



Rocket Yoga by Michal Stefanow:

(actual design work by Mateusz Sarnecki)


I think that apple was first, I remember to use them as reference when crafting the brief:



If we go back to 2011:


I believe I was one of the first to use Cabin Sketch, soon after I started seeing it everywhere! See GoogleTrends graphs below:

Now I expect to see many more logos with atom / nucleus / source / origin / divine / pristine / indigenous / native touches in it :)

Monday, February 17, 2014

Windows Phone - app disaster #firstimpressions


I recently joined Qualcomm and I borrowed one of the test devices - Nokia Lumia 925 (one of the recent flagship models) running Windows Phone 8. First impressions - not so positive. I'm missing many popular apps.

Take for instance SnapChat - aren't they concerned about brand and trademark?







Want to use gmail?

(beware)

(none of these apps is official)

Want to install another browser?

(beware)

(would you like to pay for your Chrome?)


Gmail web

I had two more screenshots for you. But apparently I cannot share them. "Can't download tags at the moment" whatever it means.

This is a compose window in Gmail. Pretty disastrous, isn't it?



So who is Windows Phone for?

I believe it might be the Office integration / access / features. Haven't tried them really but for some it might be the key.

Shame I didn't become Windows developer

(I know my pattern of spending cash on domains and regretting it later, on this occasion I kept £32 for myself)

I regret for not pushing it forward. I got everything up and running really, I was just disappointed by quality.


G+



SO

Sunday 15th June 2014 update: 
I want to have more storage for recording videos.
So I want to delete downloaded maps.
1) I need to connect to WiFi (as if listing existing maps wasn't available offline)
2) There is no option to delete particular items, only 'Delete all'
(Not sure if I should leave it like that - maybe it's my job to save the world?)

(I just can't be bothered I'd rather be doing - hence the title of this blog: MOSTLY DOING)

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Being controversial doesn't help to initiate discussion

Today is a day:


Privacy overhype. Where does it come from?Ahhh... Whatever... 



Posting to Facebook doesn't help either:

Being controversial doesn't help to initiate discussion :( #disappointed

Friday, February 7, 2014

the origin - the source - sources of origin - origin of the source

By no means I take the credit, just saying that some ideas are floating in the air...

I really wanted someone to join me, living alone is not fun, see the post:


I believed what I wanted to believe and here are the results:

I lost three laptops, brand new Kinnect, Go Pro and whole lot of other gear. (couldn't care less until I've learn that someone, not me, left there valuable data)

=====

Did I coined "digital nomad" term? I don't think so, I believe it was Maneesh Sethi and his article that landed on hacker news that inspired me... Anyway - I wonder about provenience of certain term. It seems so obvious and natural to me but I'm not sure of anything anymore. Is it possible to invent the same concept independently? Take for instance wiki article on public-key cryptography:

In 1997, it was publicly disclosed that asymmetric key algorithms were secretly developed by James H. Ellis, Clifford Cocks, and Malcolm Williamson at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the UK in 1973. In the public disclosure it was claimed that these researchers had independently developed Diffie–Hellman key exchange, and a special case of RSA.

Some ideas are floating in the air. Everyone has a chance to discover. See Carl Yung and collective unconsious. In that manner even if someone misses a chance there will be more followers to ensure evolution stays on the path... Till later! :)

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Is Keepod really a revolutionary project?

TLDR: You should go and fund Keepod:

Keepod is a revolutionary project, I believe in their mission and I really want them to succeed!

Their primary target is Africa but I know some 1st world customers who may find it useful... (I would personally use it)

I like to travel light. I like to walk around town without carrying anything. For instance: I don't need a bottle of water, I can easily buy one for 50p or use a tap. The mental burden of carrying a bag / backpack / unnaturally filling my pockets isn't worth the effort.

But there are very few things I can do without a computer. Best I can do without it is type on mobile: "excuse brevity, I'm on the go, expect proper reply soon" (wish I could do better than that)

One essential part is not having to carry around, another one is to not damage your machine. UK is famous for "less than average" weather, electronic equipment and humidity are not the best friends. That leads me a question - how South East Asia travellers deal with monsoon rainfalls? (presumably travelling in wet season is no go)

= = = = =

When travelling around Cambridge I actually tried a few things:
•  using Time Machine - my review here - eventually sold it. Funny part - just before dispatching it to buyer I've reinstalled operating system and realised how much time I had to invest in retrieving all the software, all the settings. I actually wanted to keep it (yet posted it to avoid negative feedback on eBay)

• insuring via "my essentials" insurance package from American Express. I'm paying £9.99 a month to secure all electronic gadgets (up to £1500 worth), lost keys (flat, car) and some other valuable items I don't really appreciate (such as perfumes)

• 3D-printed holder for an iPhone - but it still requires carrying equipment around, it is not practical.

• still on search for perfect setup. Trying not fall into analysis paralysis, using what I have and keeping eyes wide open for emerging technology.

= = = = =

Once upon a time I used to work for Citrix - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrix_Systems - working in the company whose core business is virtualisation allows you to shift your mindset - separating software from hardware.
I don't understand corporate politics and legal consequences. Although I'm primarily Mac user there are circumstances I need to use Windows with native performance.

There are some alternatives:
• c9.io - they first arrived to my consciousness
• nitrous.io
• PocketVM from fonleap - I met with Alban Rustemi at Ideaspace and we discussed a few reasons why this project isn't successful (just yet). Think: have you seen any terminals scattered around town? :]

(I really want to de-attach myself from hardware)

= = = = =

Last night I was in the process of writing an email: "I really like our project"... Then I realised - it's all worthless until I show them my support. Giving money is the highest form of appreciation :)

Keepod - changes paradigm of computer access - go and fund Indiegogo campaign!

http://bit.ly/keepod

This is a link to Indiegogo campaign. The reason why I use bit.ly and yourls is because I am a control freak and I enjoy being in control of all links I post all over the internet.

I had some leftover US dollars on my PayPal account from sale of mobilefirst domain. See money as the only validation, eventually I got my cash.

It took me a while to complete my payment to Indiegogo, mostly because:
- I left my laptop at other apartment (no clubbing with laptops)
- I erased my iPhone (last day in the office)
- my Polish debit card has expired
- I use two-step auth literally everywhere
- session has expired while I was on the phone with bank customer service...
(5 levels of abstraction)





A tiny (tiny tiny) bit of social engineering, 3 attempts to guess the digit and somehow I managed to complete the payment.

Don't try this at home!

Something that should be a no-brainer, a smooth payment process took me more than 1 hour... But at least I know my stance in terms of account access and I consciously spent my leftover dollars from the domain transaction:

You should fund http://bit.ly/keepod as well! It's a revolutionary (changes paradigm) project and I'm willing to commit to make this happen!

Monday, February 3, 2014

Idea Overflow

http://productivity.stackexchange.com/questions/8182/how-to-cope-with-idea-overflow/8918#8918























I should also include:

HYPERSPEED - you don't just "cope with it", you have'em all! There are some tools - https://hyper.hackpad.com/ - that makes you hyper productive. Exponentially productive. All computer science is based on previous research. 


Regina was once at DARPA, now at Google. Everyone is at Google now.

• What are you working on and why is it cool? (February 2014) (hacker news) - source of inspiration or source of distraction? (not sure, not even going thru the list)
• Self-reliance meetup (makespace forum)
• SEIS - Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (makespace mailing list)

They say only 1 out of 10 companies makes it thru the five year mark. So I was thinking about forming 10 companies in 10 days. Do you think it is possible? Would you like to join me in this journey?

Why I dislike notion of "countries" on the internet?

Because you can either use VPN or spoof your location.

http://superbowl.foxsports.com/access-denied.html

It takes no longer than 2 minutes to get FREE VPN service. Upon installing I recommend checking location of your IP via 3rd party service:


Another useful trick is to install GenyMotion, GoogleApps and set GPS coordinates:

Link to my checkin:

(previously I used this trick to notify GCHQ about my iPhone loss here)


Too bad Instagram is not supported.







I've already forgotten what I was up to... I just enjoy playing with technology. Related: how to cope with "idea overflow" (my answer on StackExchange)

As you see GoPro does pretty good job in low light. Streaming via VPN is slow, or maybe it is 100m "legal" customers overloading servers?

Why I dislike notion of "countries" on the internet?

Because you can either use VPN or spoof your location.

I wonder if Mozilla Location Service will circumvent this? (location based on available WiFi hotspots)

Since there is no definition of "real" I am keen to solve this problem: Legal Screenshot (getting foothold in reality)