Two things are on my mind, and tweeting about them just isn’t enough.
1. The new government Copyright Treaty. This article from Wired sums it up very well. The Obama administration has been so obsessively secretive about the drafting of this legislation, and the leaked memo shows why. It’s as if all the RIAA lawyers have teamed up with the Department of Justice to determine how much they can screw the internet companies. Now, I don’t advocate for piracy and copyright infringement, but give me a break. The treaty would require ISPs to actively employ policies to “combat the flow of unauthorized copyrighted material through their pipes”, and the implement a “graduated response program.” At issue here is the ability to remain in business. In case you didn’t know, piracy exists, and there is a ton of pirated material out there. Further, there is a large amount of infringing content that is unintended. So when you place the responsibility on the ISP to check all material flowing through their system, you are placing an undue burden on a company and will likely drive them out of business. Innovation, as usual in Government regulate, will be stifled, and we, the consumer, will be harmed. The problem here is that the RIAA spends more money that I can comprehend fighting to keep the world of technology status quo, rather than adopt new technologies that would lead to a larger revenue stream for them. And the US government gladly becomes their lackey because of the money they spend.
2. Net Neutrality has been in the news a lot quite recently. I won’t spend a lot of time here talking about it, but check out savetheinternet.com. John McCain has recently introduced legislation titled the “Internet Freedom Act”. Wow! Definitely can’t vote against freedom, right? Wrong! McCain has received more money than any other Congressman from the telecommunication industry. Just over $900k. His bill would take the regulation of the internet from the FCC and allow large telecommunication companies to deem what we, the consumer, should have access to. The problem here is that it isn’t in their, the large telecommunication companies, best interest to allow me to make calls of Skype (free) or have access to podcasts (free) or use the internet for gaming or bit torrent. Rather, they want to control which content I receive (theirs) and charge me if I want more. The internet has been the largest technological innovation and has had more impact on freedom and democracy that any technology I can think of. It is an open architecture that is agnostic to the type of content shared. People around the world can learn in a heartbeat what is happening in the news. Ideas are shared instantly. Learning and growth is fostered. But yet, our all-knowing government believes that we should allow the internet to be controlled by entities that have a vested interest in limiting our access to content. Seriously?!? Please visit savetheinternet.com and let your voice be heard. This is a fight we cannot let go, or all the innovation and flow of ideas will be negatively impacted.
I think I’ve started and stopped this process a few times, but I’m going to start teaching myself software development again. With the explosion in web based applications and more particularly mobile web I figured I need to sit down and play around with it. I’ve decided to start on the Apple platform with Cocoa, Objective-C, and iPhone development. I don’t have a real plan in place, other than to dive in and start figuring it out. Worst case, it gives me a greater appreciation of what I ask my developers to do every day.
Last week the family and I went on a “staycation”. You know, that thing where you take time off for a planned vacation, only to realize the stuff you wanted to do was way too expensive, so you compromised with your kids that you’d buy them lots of candy if we skipped Disneyland this time around, and we just stayed home. After the tears were finally dry, we then planned out what we wanted to do/see/hear/run from and did it. We had a good time, spent some time in the outdoors and saw parts of our home state that I’ve never seen. The kids loved it…the wife loved it…and I loved it…
This week, however, I went back to work. Like the next guy, there always is a bit of time to spin up the engines again, and get re-engaged in the day to day grind of work. However, this time was a bit different. I’ve spent the week thinking about what is different, why I feel different, and most importantly how to keep it. I think it boils down to perspective. You see, I’m what you (and definitely my wife) would call a work-a-holic. I’ve always got my iPhone with me, checking email, making calls, checking up on things. I have a very hard time detaching myself from work, and tend to run around with the complex that the world will probably end if I don’t make that call or send that email. However, this past week, I was forced to “unplug” as many of the places we went I couldn’t get a signal, and what I discovered was that the world kept on going. Yes, I know, it’s quite the novel concept. However, I think it was enough of a nudge to put things into a different perspective. I like it. I think I’ll try to keep it.
The most important things are my wife, my boys, my faith, my friends, and how I treat them all. Getting wrapped up in revenue, gross margin, efficiency, call volume, projections, EBITDA, etc. is important and a necessary part of life (unless you just happen to be independently wealthy). However, it shouldn’t come at the expense of those things most important. I should have the energy and desire to spend time with my loved ones and not allow any job to suck that out of me like a vampire. So I won’t. I’m still passionate about being successful, and affecting outcomes such that those around me are also successful. I love solving problems, and creating long-lasting, innovative solutions. But if that is going to interfere with a little league game, date night with my wife, chilling with my boys playing XBOX, or developing a stronger relationship with my God, then that price is too high and I won’t pay it.
Just thought I’d share…
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Cell phone plan and features for families – my wishlist
0 Comments | Posted by bjvan75 in Uncategorized
I was recently talking with a co-worker about cell phones, plans, features, etc. See, she has teenage children, and we were talking about the needs of parents when it comes to cell phones, plans, and features needed in this day of technology enabled youth. I’ve got a few kids of my own, and they will soon be approaching the age where my wife and I will have to make a decision on getting my kids phones. With the advances in technology, as well as the concerns about the safety of my children, I wanted to make a list of what I would like to see a carrier create.
Shared Minutes:
While most, if not all, carriers have shared plans, I’d like to see the ability to allocate and share plans amongst the family. I have three children, all of which will be teenagers at the same time. I’d like to be able to allocate minutes to devices, or even group the minutes. Ideally, I’d like to buy a set of minutes for the family, say 3000 minutes. I’d allocate a group for my kids, and then split the rest for my wife and I.
Text Message Logs:
I know many would tell my I’m invading the privacy of my kids, but I want to know who my kids are texting and what they are saying. With the new phenomenon of ’sexting’ coupled with the lack of maturity that comes with the teenage years, there are too many issues that can come up if I don’t have my thumb on the pulse of what is happening in my kids’ lives. I’d love to see the carriers offer me the ability to download or view online the last 30 days of text messages of any device I specify in my family plan. I would hope that I have a relationship with my children where I wouldn’t need to view logs to check up on them, however I’m not naive enough to forget how I behaved as a teenager.
GPS Location and Tracking:
It seems like every phone you buy now is GPS enabled. I’d like to see that put to use for my kids. I’d like there to be a site I can go to in order to see where my kid’s phones are, and thus where they are. Call me archaic or controlling, but if my son tells me he is heading to the school for an extra workout with the team, I want to be sure he is there. The issue here is trust, and that it is earned. I remember my years as a teenager and I went through stages of being trusted by my parents and then not so much. This feature would allow me to occasionally check in on where my kids are, and that they are doing what they said they would. Of course, if this was enabled you would need to remove the option for disabling the GPS on the phone.
Time of day functionality:
I believe this is already available with some carriers, however I’d like to turn on and off features based upon the time of day. For example, no texting during school hours and between 10 pm and 7 am. Or, disable the phone during the same time excluding emergency hours.
I’m still a few years away from needing to worry about these features, however I’d like to see a carrier think a bit more about the need of parents when it comes to family plans. It needs to include more than just shared minutes, but create an opportunity for parents to better control usage
One of my favorite podcasts is Security Now with Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson. This past week’s episode (#213) Steve discussed how simple it was to crack GSM. You can scan through the show notes here. For those who don’t know, GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) is the cell phone technology for over three billion users worldwide, and has 80 percent of the cellphone market spread through 200 countries. In the US, if you are on AT&T or T-Mobile you are running on GSM. Obviously, this is a huge target.
By saying “it can be cracked”, I am actually saying that your conversations can be picked up by a radio receiver, decrypted using an open hardware solution that costs less than $1400 and managed with open source software. This is some really scary stuff. The GSM Alliance, the group responsible for the GSM standard, is burying their heads in the sand with respect to this breach. Apparently, the weaknesses of GSM have been known for years, but no one has attempted to resolve them but rather rely upon security through obscurity.
I would suggest downloading the podcast and taking notes. This could get ugly.
I got a cold this weekend that the rest of my family has had. I thought I had fought through it and then it hite last night. This sucks…memorial day weekend and all. I’ve got too much to do to be sick. Doesn’t it aleta work that way?
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Interesting solution for Green Energy in the existing infrastructure
0 Comments | Posted by bjvan75 in Uncategorized
I stumbled across this article today and found it very interesting. The idea of wind energy is appealing to me from it’s clean nature as well as the prevalence of wind. Check out this design. Should be a no brainer, shouldn’t it?
Why does the Federal government continue to make stupid choices with taxpayer funds…my money??? If companies don’t run themselves properly, if investors don’t make good investments, why do my tax dollars go to bail them out and put properly run and capitalized companies at a disadvantage? Check out the article here.
I have wanted to get a motorcycle for a while now, and though I’m looking more for a cruiser type, this BMW racing bike is pretty incredible. 193 horsepower and a mere 455 pounds. zero to 62 in 2.9 seconds, and they want to offer it mainstream, competing with other bikes in the $13,000 range. That is very cool. Check it out the article as well as the video below.
Yesterday I started the last class of my MBA course work. Yes, I know, its about time. The class is global strategy. Seemingly an interesting and applicable topic. However, here is the challenge. The professor teaching the class has had his PhD since 1975 and has been, essentially, in academia since. Yesterday he gave us his bio and stated that he had two short stints in the professional world early on in his life but found that the accountability for decisions wasn’t what he was looking for so he returned to academia. What?!?! So you feel that because you’ve written, studied, and investigated global strategy, yet have never actually needed to make, implement, and live with strategic decisions you are qualified to teach this class of business executives (it is an executive MBA program) how to make appropriate strategic decisions? It boggles my mind, and is incredibly frustrating.
My frustration has led me to think about the rest of the business world and how many people, in effect, state “do as I say not as I do or never have done.” I’ve read a number of business books in the last few months and have been inspired in many ways to make changes in what I do. However, I do research on the authors of these books, and look at their credentials and touch with reality. I’m not naive or arrogant enough to think that people can’t teach me if they don’t have more experience than I do. The are pieces of knowledge and wisdom out there for the taking. I also recognize there are areas of knowledge that require research and investigation, i.e. economic modeling, chemistry, biology, etc. However, I do expect that when I seek knowledge I expect to be taught by someone with valuable and applicable knowledge. The material for this class is primarily made up of books and articles that were written before 1995. Again, it is a global strategy class. Please raise your hand if you actually think that global strategy hasn’t changed in the last 10 to 15 years.
Anyway, the point of this rant is be careful where you search for knowledge. Be sure you have some background. Just because some knowledge makes you feel good doesn’t mean it is true or valuable. Buzzwords are far too often taken as knowledge in business. It’s like fad diets to lose weight quickly, when everyone knows you need to cut calories, eat healthier, and exercise regularly. There is no substitute for hard work, team cohesion, clear communication, and passion for success.
