Murdoch also sells "the family business" - two Aussie icons retiring in two days

Two business leaders in two days.....

Yet another major Aussie icon announcing selling "the family business" this time Fox selling to Disney.

You cant help but be inspired when you see how successful Murdoch and Lowy have been over their lifes work.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/14/568829541/this-mouse-swallows-part-of-a-fox-disney-buys-much-of-murdoch-empire

Frank Lowy hangs up his crown

What a legend....going out on top


- http://www.smh.com.au/business/property/australias-shopping-centre-king-frank-lowy-hangs-up-in-his-crown-20171212-h03fvd.html

Ag = ROI

Came across this article - http://business.financialpost.com/news/fp-street/deveron-brings-drone-imaging-to-farm-data-partnership-with-monsanto about the drone company selling drones into ag……that’s not what caught my eye though.

What caught my eye way this ”Climate Corps field view software is used by over 100,000 farmers in NA/Brazil all paying $1000-$3000 a year in software license fees…..”

- https://www.climate.com/features/field-health-imagery

Long distance radio vulnerabilities

Irony, thieves now using long distance radio "chirp" to use keys in your house to start your car in the driveway.....

http://metro.co.uk/2017/10/15/thieves-steal-bmw-using-dark-web-tech-to-bypass-central-locking-7000884

Clay Shirky back from China.....

Very worthwhile video to watch. Clay Shirky talking about China.

Fidelity mining Crypto as well

Would be good to know how much in cpu time/costs did 200,000 satoshis actually cost Fidelity?

What happened to basic journalism??

https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/28/fidelity-ceo-abigail-johnson-says-the-company-is-mining-cryptocurrencies

Cool story though.

CBS Browser mining

Whoops

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/25/showtime_hit_with_coinmining_script/?mt=1506379755407


Wonder if this hack will spin cable revs in a new direction when they realise it actually works.




Cheers
Dean

Remember when your "gym membership id card" was just a piece of plastic.....

Instead of an opportunity to sell data about you....?
https://digiday.com/marketing/equinox-using-mobile-app-data-strategy/

Nordstrom "fitting room"

Very interested to see how Nordstrom experiment goes.



Hopefully very well, i mean lets face it when was the last time you purchased clothes and needed "to wear them within 24 hours/out of the store with you?"


- https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/09/future-retail-experiences-juice-bars/539751

Amazon Lumberyard ?

Just stumbled across Amazon Lumberyard - https://aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/details/

Wondering about thoughts on this platform and its cost effectiveness to build a gaming business?

 

Considering the “out of the box pre-built functionality” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJiG2HAkUw0 there seems to be a heck of a lot of potential for a number of companies to consider this a no brainer out of the box so I’m looking for the gotcha’s?

Bad app design when losing WAN connectivity

Not sure how many people reading this were affected with yesterdays Time Warner sabotage in Brooklyn – https://www.facebook.com/LivePoliticalChat/posts/1667552873315820 

 

But just saw the daily email router graphs on my home network for Fridays 24 hour period and thought it might be a nice reminder of why we as app designers need to prepare and accept that connectivity will be lost from time to time……and retrying endlessly to phone home is bad design…..

I didn’t dig into the weeds to find which apps/devices but a 15 second overview was a good reminder (eg there are multiple phones/appliances/pc’s/servers accessing the Wan so could have been any of them not accepting a downed connection).

Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings?

Was watching CNBC this morning where they were talking about Hedosophia going public on Thursday with their “blank check” IPO
- https://seekingalpha.com/article/4103619-social-capital-hedosophia-holdings-files-500-million-blank-check-ipo


Who is Chamath Palihapitiya? And has he really “added enough value” at Facebook to be given $500,000,000 ??

Who is Ian Osbourne…..?
- https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=535225771


  Any thoughts on blank check companies going IPO on Day 1?

Google translate 'base corpus'

Was reading this reddit post - https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/6wqrgx/roy_hawthorne_usmc_former_navajo_code_talker_roy/

hmmm I didn't know that and wondered how it was done.

Google translate works by scanning the UN archive for partial matches of whatever it is you are trying to translate. when they do a speech or write a report everything anyone says gets translated into every language.

FW: A message from Senator Charles E. Schumer

I sent an email to Chuck Schumer to find out what he was going to do about the undermining of the FCC.... SFA was his answer......thought this would be of interest to some of you……read response below.

In other words….i’m just a senator…..

Sad news my fellow citizens…..

Cheers,

Dean Collins

 

From: Senator Schumer [mailto:senator@schumer.senate.gov]
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2017 3:51 PM
To: Dean Collins
Subject: A message from Senator Charles E. Schumer

 

Dear Mr. Collins:        Thank you for contacting me to express your support for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 2015 Open Internet Order. I share your belief in the need for strong net neutrality.        The new FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, recently announced the Trump administration’s plan to dismantle the Obama-era FCC rules that required Internet service providers like AT&T and Comcast to treat all internet traffic fairly. This would unravel net neutrality and the FCC is moving in the wrong direction. It will neither invigorate our economy nor spark innovation. Instead, it will limit choices for consumers and greatly increase costs for American start-ups. Keeping the internet open is critical to twenty-first century freedom and innovation, for both businesses and individuals alike.        In 2014, I joined my Senate colleagues in writing a letter to then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler urging him to adopt strong net neutrality. I will continue to press the Trump administration to support a free and open internet and maintain critical consumer protections.        I believe the federal government can help ensure that all American households have reliable internet access at a reasonable cost, and will continue to fight for protection of net neutrality.        Again, thank you for contacting me.  Please keep in touch with your thoughts and opinions.     Sincerely,   Charles E. Schumer United States Senator

Roger Mcnamee's USA today opinion piece

Im NowWatching CNBC interviewing Roger Mcnamee.

Claiming that SM is a drug and dangerous for society/children....you have to ask the question hasn't entertainment always been this way eg TV was an opiate to placate, and even before that 'talky movies' was a form of escapism that enabled a brief drug hit......

Aren't we all just rats in a cage?

- https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/08/08/my-google-and-facebook-investments-made-fortune-but-now-they-menace/543755001

Adelaide as Australia's startup hub?

Reading this article this morning got me to thinking.......

"What would it take for you to relocate your Sydney based startup to Adelaide?"

- http://www.yourinvestmentpropertymag.com.au/news/adelaide-unveils-its-ten-gigabit-city-network-239256.aspx


When you look at property prices in Sydney and the amount of snatch hiring (where other startups are stealing your staff) although neither are as bad as silicon valley you have to wonder "why don't more founders relocate to cheaper locations"? Especially if you have a state govt who is looking to promote themselves as the "smart city".

You only have to look at the success that has happened in Boulder Colorado (read up on how they became an oasis of startups from a few VC's like Brad Feld deciding....SF and NYC sucks - lets video conference from now on) to see that there is potential for Adelaide to rapidly leapfrog Syd/Mel to take the lead.

Blue Apron IPO

Blue Apron is filing for its USA IPO.


https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1701114/000104746917003765/a2232259zs-1.htm


Whats really amazing is Blue Apron is really nothing more than a CSA, admittedly a CSA with a million users, but old "Farm to Table" concept.

Lexshares

Is there nothing CrowdFunding cant do … ? 


- www.lexshares.com/pages/investors




You’ve got to admit you see something like this and think yep…..such a simple idea but makes great sense seeing private equity has been funding case development for years.


Though you have to wonder how much information is provided to make reasonable investment decisions, and how well its priced or is it just step right up and spin the wheel at $5k a pop.

Facebook camera augmented reality API's?

Anyone watching F8 live? Or have links to the explanation on the open API’s for Facebook turning their camera app into open augmented reality platform?
- https://thenextweb.com/facebook/2017/04/18/facebook-turning-camera-effects-open-augmented-reality-platform/#.tnw_et4UZHcH


Nice move....lots of potential here.


I still think the Doritos campaign is best industry example with real world marketing tie in - http://blog.collins.net.pr/2009/07/doritos-bag-augmented-reality-finally.html  

Basic Attention Token

Cant work out if I want to throw time and money at BAT or run away screaming as the path to "content micropayment monetization" is littered with good intentions and BAT may just be another BEANZ (lol someone somewhere has to have been keeping a running tally on investment burnt up with  FirstVirtual, Cybercoin, Millicent, Digicash, Internet Dollar, Pay2See, Blendle etc etc)


Having said that.....some serious money behind Basic Attention Token (and potentially wiping out Google AND Chrome AND AdExchangers) means has to be taken seriously.


Its funny....if I was responsible for monetization at BAT....I'd cozy up to China and suggest a law that says ALL WEB CONTENT must be viewed using this browser.....would be an instant distributed ledger for all web traffic as well as monetizing content providers, but hey that's just me.





Checkout - https://basicattentiontoken.org  for more I guess.


Cheers,
Dean

Google Home blew it

Wow - http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/3/16/14948696/google-home-assistant-advertising-beauty-and-the-beast


How badly did Google Home blow it here.


I’d be shipping my device back to Google with a not so polite thanks but no thanks note on why its being returned.

FCC OK’s First Unlicensed LTE in 5 GHz

The Federal Communications Commission this morning announced that it had “just authorized the first LTE-U—LTE for unlicensed—devices in the 5 GHz band.” This was according to a tweet from @FCC on Twitter, and soon after, a rare blog post from Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering & Technology.

- http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0002/fcc-oks-first-unlicensed-lte-in-5-ghz/280413

I love this quote.....
"Coexist is hilarious. You can teach a canary and a cat to coexist, but you use up a lot of canaries".

So for anyone running office networks etc....having trouble with your 5ghz wifi range......might want to keep an eye out for a box that looks like this.

What you are supposed to do about it when you find it.....who knows, not my problem, call the FCC I guess.

Cheers,
Dean

 

p2p lending

I've mentioned him in the past but Jim Dahle is a blogger who I’ve been following for a few years on his blog The White Coat Investor for doctors and how to invest their personal income and the nuances that come from their career.

Anyway he’s posted a topic today that I think some of you might be interested in on p2p lending
- http://whitecoatinvestor.com/why-i-decided-to-liquidate-my-lending-club-account/

 

Its worth a read but in summary he’s liquidating his assets primarily due to diminishing returns….(12%+ in the past to sub 9’s now) but also due to the issues in managing the asset class.

Hopes it worth your time to read and interested in your thoughts.

 

WeChat Paywall

WeChat trying to monetise with content paywalls......has Beanz finally grown up?

- https://www.techinasia.com/wechat-paywall-publishers

Good to see they are offering monthly/annual automatic renewals, having been a subscriber to a few different Patreon content providers for the last year.....I have hope this actually takes off.( I suggest you check out Amanda Palmer as a "best practice" example).

Does anyone have any idea on the minimum payment amount?

The failure of all these micropayment systems previously seemed to be “transaction cost” versus the “content micropayment amount” eg 5c transaction for 1c for content though this is easier on WeChat because its a stored wallet transaction.

It will be interesting to see adoption rates. If you come across details please post updates as they come available.

A challenge to Australian techies

I was HORRIFIED with what Bill Morrow said on ABC Brisbane yesterday and cannot understand why the Australian government refuses to acknowledge the economic benefits of a faster NBN and the efficiencies gained in each and every instance of industry, basically making EVERY AUSTRALIAN MORE VALUABLE AND EFFICIENT.

- https://www.facebook.com/groups/sydneystartups/permalink/1388862927821650/?comment_id=1389497574424852&reply_comment_id=1394305407277402&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R%22%7D  

Bill Morrow's claim that this is a "loss leader" and "Of No Economic Benefits" was shameful and goes in the face of any rational economic modeling.

After listening to this video its obvious you need to change the party in power because Bill Morrow yesterday was saying he was delivering "as directed" at the lowest cost.

So i challenge Australian techies to either putup or shutup and quit your whinging. Work towards firing the current government in power and get a government in place who wants an effective NBN or suffer the consequences to your lives and businesses from falling behind the rest of the world.

E3 visa information (for Australians only)

For my tech friends in Australia looking for engineering roles in the USA (and finding problems with USA based HR staff) you might want to check this infographic out.

- http://gdaysf.com/e3-visa 

 

Happy to answer any questions but the comparison on the 2nd infographic between E3 and H1b visa covers most of it.