Everyone's not a photographer.
But today, nearly everyone owns a camera or, at least, a phone with a lens.
And everybody should be able to enjoy at will the infinite fun that photography has to offer.

Unfortunately, phone cameras don't often offer performances even approaching the ones of a good SLR.

Don't desperate! Limited means equals more learning opportunity, and and if you're just beginning, here I'll show you how take surprising pictures with nothing but a cell phone, and prepare them for the famous Instagram.

The premises

• If you don't have a good camera, find a good environment
• If you don't have a good model, find a good idea
• If you don't have a good idea, find a good environment (gotcha)
• Look for the light!
• Mind your background
• Mind the pause
• Use tricky angles
• Look for high contrast pics
• Think in 3 dimensions

The model

Ideas are everywhere, and starting with what is around you can always give you one good subject. Well, except if you live in a 1 dimension world. But then you're a dot. Dots don't take pics.[[posterous-content:pid___0]]

So there, my desk.
The light is horrible, and my phone (Optimus 2X) doesn't do well in low light. That's to say, a supernova wouldn't be bright enough for the bugger. Let's then focus on the model. A close up of the desk phone's keyboard could be interesting, but, Drawing Mannequin (we'll call her Georgette), I choose you!

Cleaning-up  the area.

[[posterous-content:pid___1]]

Now you don't want anything annoying in the background. That's a mistake very often found during first photo shoots. You don't want a trash bin to spoil your lover's smile at the park, and you don't want a cable to run behind Georgette.

The pose

[[posterous-content:pid___2]]

Everything can take a pose. You're shooting a lump of sugar? Break it in half, that's a pause. Fortunately Georgette won't need breaking, she's an accomplished gymnast.
Make sure that, just like her, your subject will stand out. Make it occupy some space, attract some light have an expression.
Here Georgette will do a handstand, or backflip, when later on we will rotate the image upside-down.

Composition: angle and lighting.

[[posterous-content:pid___3]]

The angle from which you will take your picture is extremely important. Notice the difference between this picture and the one just above. Same pause, same environment, but different lighting and much more depth due to the angle.

This part is a bit tricky, since it involves some rules of photo composition. Don't bother with all that though, just remember:

• A tricky angle makes for an interesting image
• The world isn't flat (so think about depth when you're shooting)
• Contrast is king, especially with phone photo
• Your subject will fill space better while occupying either 1/3rd or 2/3rd  of the pictures
• I personally rely on a little trick of mine: the main lines of your subject should follow the diagonals of your frame

See how the pictures compare:

[[posterous-content:pid___4]]Preparing for instagram

[[posterous-content:pid___5]]Here you see the picture taken from a different angle. Instagram will force you to crop your picture to a quare ratio, so all the rules above should be applied to the top of the photo. You can see here that most of the pause fits into a square.

Now, if you don't like Instagram, that's ok, it's also ok to not like Champagne wine or fluffy kittens, but it's the easiest way to quickly apply to your pics these little filters that will make your friend drool over your creativity an palliate for the lacks of your camera when it comes to contrast in low light.

The final result

[[posterous-content:pid___6]]I chose a filter that would increase the contrast and make us forget about the disgustingly flat lighting we couldn't get rid of in the previous pictures. As noted before, the picture has been cropped and flipped, and you should get out of the way, else Georgette's foot is going to badly slap your ear when she lands.

This, friends, is not the best photo ever. Far from it.
Nevertheless, look back at the first picture from this tutorial, and notice the sharp increase in mostly everything, without leaving a dull office environment.

To get my point accross, following the same rules, here is a shot of some curtains:

[[posterous-content:pid___7]]

Voila, all is said. Hope you guys found it useful.

If you want to share your shots or questions, get me on Twitter or Facebook, and have fun shooting stuff!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

[edit]

After having been asked several times: this is a true story, she received her sentence yesterday, she really needs help.

I can't tell her name here, it could endanger her in many ways, if you wish to know more, contact me by email via nojailforflashdisk[at]gmail.com

[/edit]

I won't tell her name here. What you need to know is that my sweet Balinese friend, who likes kids and crafts, has been sentenced to a jail time of 18 month for, basically, having used her flashdisk.

She works in Bali, in a small painting and craft shop.
What they do is, they build picture catalogs from examples taken in magazines or on the web, and commission them to painters on customers orders.

Last year, she thought she could start her own business, and built a small website using some of her shop's references.
Keep in mind, these references don't belong to anybody in particular, they are just the result of some image search.
But apparently her boss didn't appreciate, and asked her to close the website.
Which she did. [edit: She never actually used the pics, and cancelled the website's publication]

It wasn't enough. Maybe Mr. Boss smelled good money, and he sued her for unfair competition.
Time passed, and many parties got involved.
It didn't take too long to find out there was no harm done business wise, but hey, you gotta get the money a way or another, so Mr.Boss sued her again, this time for illegal copy of digital material.

That's were things got really wrong.
See, worldwide, the law is already blurry when it comes to digital material... but in Indonesia it's even worse. First of nobody gives a damn, then the law stops at the basic anti-piracy jibber-jabber.

You can consult it online,  and if you speak the language, what you will read there is asinine.
"Any data accessed without explicit permission of the owner is considered accessed Illegally", that's what the law says.
Which is funny since you don't see any definition of "permission" and "ownership".
In Indonesia, it seems, browsing the web is illegal.

I am not a lawyer, but looking at the fact with some common sense you can see that a person not contractually tied by an NDA (or, actually by any kind of work contract) copying from a computer accessible to anybody, not protected by a password or any other means, files that are obtainable everywhere on the web, and using them in a way that was never meant to arm and did not cause any arm should never be legally worried, in any country.

But she... received 18 month jail time.

There is something very wrong behind that sentence, especially since you consider that the murderers of three Ahmadi, in Cikeusik, earlier this year, received between 3 and 6 month of emprisonment.

Please look again.

Using a flash disk: 18 months
Murder: 6 months

As I am writing these lines, I am not sure of what will happen next, my friend had a very tough time, was involved in a pretty heavy bike accident just before being dragged to court and she's at ther very end of her strenght.
She told me once she would rather die than go to jail. In another context, I wouldn't worry, but today she is emotionally exhausted, with not a dime left in her pocket to appeal, and about to be robbed 18 month of her life.I am worried she might attempt to arm herself.

This post is a cry for help. If you are a journalist, a fundation, a lawyer, please spread the news, help her appeal or take her case pro-bono. Help her and undo something very, very wrong.

You can contact me on on any of my social account, or via nojailforflashdisk[at]gmail.com , she needs all the help we can muster.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Here is a very quick trick to add the Google +1 button to any site you visit by using a bookmarklet.
So far I have tested it on Firefox and Chrome without problem.

1. Copy the following code

javascript:function go(){var d=document;if(window.top==window.self){var oH=d.getElementsByTagName('HEAD').item(0);var oS=d.createElement("script");oS.type="text/javascript";oS.src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js";oH.appendChild(oS);var oB=d.getElementsByTagName('body').item(0);var oBu=d.createElement("div");var oBuS=oBu.style;oBuS.position="fixed";oBuS.zIndex="10000";oBuS.top="25px";oBuS.left="15px";oBu.innerHTML="<g:plusone></g:plusone>";oB.appendChild(oBu);}}go();

2. Manually add a new bookmark

In Firefox, you can do that either via the bookmark manager (Bookmarks -> Organize bookmarks->Bookmark toolbar) or by right clicking on the bookmark toolbar (make sure 'load in sidebar' is unchecked).
In Chrome, the fastest way is to add any page as a bookmark and click 'edit' when the confirmation pop-up comes out.

3. Paste the code in the 'location' field (Firefox) or 'URL' field (Chrome)

4. Give it a siny name and save the bookmark

Now any time you click on this bookmark, the +1 button will appear on the top left corner of your page.

Note: This post is a follow up to my previous post "Add Google +1 button to any site with this GreaseMonkey script".

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Foreword/Edit: I just realized that it is immensely easier to use the script as a bookmark, it only takes 4 steps and also works on Chrome.
Check it out here!

Yup. Now you can add yourself, from your browser, the Google  +1 button to every site you visit.
It's the very fisrt version, and it needs much improvement.
I'm thinking of triggering it from a keyboard shortcut and adding some more features.

If you don't know how to use it yet, just check out the tutorial I wrote here, the steps are the same :)

Here is the little bugger, just for you guys:

_______________________________________

// ==UserScript==
// @name           PlusOneEverything
// @namespace      PlusOneEverything
// @include        *
// ==/UserScript==

if (window.top == window.self)
 {

var oHead = document.getElementsByTagName('HEAD').item(0);
var oScript= document.createElement("script");
oScript.type = "text/javascript";
oScript.src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js";
oHead.appendChild( oScript);

var oBody = document.getElementsByTagName('body').item(0);
var oButton= document.createElement("div");
oButton.style.position = "fixed";
oButton.style.zIndex = "10000";
oButton.style.top = "25px";
oButton.style.left = "15px";
oButton.innerHTML = "<g:plusone></g:plusone>";
oBody.appendChild( oButton );
}

_______________________________________

I'll turn that into a Firefox extension soon. Stay tuned :) (Edit: ...not :D)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner has been quoted in the Business Insider, stating that users won't find time for Google+.
It would stop at that, I would call him a fool. But then, later in the article, he mentions that, for Google+ to work, another social platform will have to fall.  Let me tell you who will fall and what to get from it.

Let's start with the cool stuff: video, chat, mobile, and yeah... the circles.

The circles are one of the smartest dumb idea I have seen so far: A graphic version of Facebook lists. Nothing innovative, it's just easy to use.
You hear, Facebook? E.a.s.y.

Video and chats come next, while FB chat is heavy and erratic, Google serves us with their excellent implementation of the XMPP protocol we all know via gTalk. On the interface level, the chat is not intrusive and actually lets you CHOSE when you want to discuss. And it does it with video.

Where it surprises: 'sparks' and 'incoming', or the end of friending.

Sparks are a good way to get the information you need based on your interest, while 'incoming' will show you the streams of people who're following you but you're not yet following.
These features are already powerful when looked at individually, supported by the Google's long experience in feed reading and struggles with privacy and/or data relevance. When combined, they simply mean the end of Friending. Which is not a bad thing.

Where it bites: integration.

Google has everything: Search engine, e-mail, chat, apps, browser, calendar, maps and places, news reader, document viewers and more...
Now, that would be really stupid not to take advantage of all this pre-existing material, right?
What you can be sure of, is that Google+ intends to become a full fledged OS and Web integrated platform, stretching from enterprise integration to social gaming.
Just take a minute to look at their already killer notification system, accessible from their search engine or from gMail, you'll see what I mean.

Where it hurts: mobile

One circle to bring them all and into the darkness bind them.
One little mobile application, a framework to link G+ to android apps and there you go, you've got yourself an all in one solution.

Facebook and Twitter: punched in the face.

You don't need friending on Twitter, but the looking for relevant data is a brain torture. You like your good old Facebook, but not only it's getting more crowded with adds everyday, it also gets more complicated and, come on, it's so 2007.
The truth is, Google+ has the potential to do everything Twitter and Facebook do, but better, with a cleaner interface and all the additions listed above.

The coutdown: RIP, RIM.

Research In Motions has been launching betas of his social framework for BBM for a while now, and we're not seeing anything consitant yet.
This is too bad for them, since they don't have anything to offer save their 'exclusive' enterprise and messaging services.
Their primary mistake was trying to do it alone, sticking to their own closed systems and proprietary hardware. While they were trying to reinvent the wheel with the Playbook and their new not-so-innovative-anymore social feats, they jumped-in way too late, with too little to offer. Google just went around their strategy and did the exact opposite, offering a comprehensive app suite available for everyone.

I don't see them getting out of that situation unless they do something drastic, such as opening BBM or porting it to other platforms.

Collective Asses given a life lesson:

Trial and error. That's about it. We've been repeatedly laughing while pointing at Orkut, Wave and Buzz while big G was jubilating, watching the critics pile up in the shape of a nice how-to for there future product.
My skeptical self still believes (as, apparently, they do) in the 'wait and see' approach, but G+ is adding a million users a day and has a surprising level of maturity for a product so new. I see a huge success, cake for everyone.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Yeah yeah yeah.
I just stumbled on a Yahoo! article (in Indonesian) calling all internet users to arms, with a strong password as their weapon.

So, all along the article, they beat around the 'please do not use 123456 as a password' theme and leave it at that. Good one, Yahoo! I still have friends who never ever remember their passwords.

Chosing a strong password is good, but how the heck are you supposed to remember " h4Xxx0|2l337fgalFUb@r30" ?
Hint: you're not.

But here, I am going to give you a trick that will make you feel like you have some sort of super power:
I am going to make you remember D4nFr&&Bl0g11.

Just follow the rules:

1. Pick a name you're sure to remember, nickname or pet name : Dan
2. Pick your family name, or a second nickname in relation with the first one: DanFr
3. Pick a random separator: DanFr&& (and)
4. Pick a word that has someting to do with the site you're using: DanFr&&Blog
5. Add the date (birhday, year of creation, last 2 or 3 digits): DanFr&&Blog11
6. Replace all vocals with numbers: D4nFr&&Bl0g11

Why you will remember?

Because the password is separated is two parts: your name, and the context. You won't forget your name unless you had that many beers, and the context will be pretty obvious. Now, if you're not an used to the technique yet, you can still write down the template somewhere safe: NameOtherNameANDx2ContextYear.
Oh and yes, you can actually read it aloud: Dan Efer And Blog Eleven :)

I know it looks a bit complex, so here is another way to make your passwords hard to guess for both machines and humans alike, with passwords such as: donkey123&&098yeknod

1. Pick a word you like: donkey
2. Add the 3 first digits on the second keyboard row: donkey123
3. Pick a random separators: donkey123&&
4. Add the 3 last digit on the second keyboad row, backward: donkey123&&098
5. Add the word you just picked, backward: donkey123&&098yeknod

Why you will remember?

Because the password is symmetrical. You type the same thing twice, but after the separator, you type it backward ;)

Why are these passwords safe?

• You can create your own rules and rely on the templates
• They mix lower case, upper case, numbers and special characters (neither machines nor humans are good at guessing all that)
• They use words that don't exist, limiting dictionnary based attacks
• They are long enough to discourage even a computer

You're still desperate?

If you're in search for the simplest solution... try that: &wakeupgrababrushandputalittlemakeup&.
These are the lyrics of a song you love, plus a couple of special character to frame them, like a nice picture in your mind.
It's not as strong as the first two methods, but that can do for an emergency ;)

Keep safe!

(picture source: http://www.worldofantiques.net/74.jpg)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I have been working in the web development industry since 1999, I kid you not.
During all these years, nearly everything has changed except for one: greed.

That was true while I was working in France and is a fact here in Indonesia: companies want "cheap internets".
Actually, when it comes to IT they want cheap everything, from their system admins to their online campaign.

The results of having a cheap sysadmin, pirated softwares, amateurish websites and apathetic marketing are a virus-ridden network, non-existent customer service, and a below average brand image.
The corollary of these results... is a technical/strategic bottleneck that can ultimately translate into a total failure.

Of course you could think "Well ok, if a company choses price over quality, it's their problem, let them fail".

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that.

When a majority of companies in an industry ends up preffering money to experience, the whole industry suffers, and on a larger scale, the whole economy, and there is why:

'Cheap' is given the wrong meaning.

When it comes to workforce and services, cheap usually means that you will pay less for less value.
What it should mean is that you will pay less than the actual value, that is, pay less for the same standards and quality.

Why is this difference so crucial?

Say you are looking for a graphic designer. If you are willing to pay less for less value, you will attract a crowd of less talented/productive/reliable candidates. These flaws can come from a lack of experience, and anybody has the right to a first job, so theoritically there shouldn't be a problem, right?
Well, there will be a problem if you keep on doing it: you will demotivate the more talented candidate, who will either drop their prices and deliver a lower quality work or find something else to do because their current occupation just doesn't pay the bills. Oh, and the inexperienced ones you started with... they will leave you once they've learned enough, and join the 'talented and jobless' club.
Their little brothers and sisters and cousins will see how disappointing it is to do such a job, and as another side effect,  will spend their precious education money on something else.

And one day, you'll hear yourself say: "I don't understand, I can't find a good graphic designer" and "Why are all middle sized companies' websites looking like they were made in 2000?".

This, is true for any kind of workforce you are going to need in your industry, and for any industry as well.
The popular saying goes "If you pay peanuts, you'll get monkeys"...

How I see it is: "If everybody pays peanuts, there will be nothing left but monkeys".

And if you still don't believe me, try to find a good plumber in Jakarta.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Yesterday, at the Mobile Monday Indonesia conference, was given a most interesting presentation about RIM's next step in BlackBerry Messenger's development, encased in some Playbook promotional speech.
Here: first hand report and reactions.

RIM is taking on pretty much everybody at once, from Facebook to Nintendo.

What was in the beginning a simple platform dependent messaging app is turning into a social platform on its 6th version.
Rumors of RIM opening BBM's API have been heard since the Bali Blackberry Devcon, confirmed since then in Poland and now in Indonesia.

Right after the devcon, I suspected them to take a shot at the social everything, and what's been said yesterday confirms my thoughts. BBM will soon be able to:

- Allow users to invite friends to play games, use BBM ID as a game tag.
It looks like Y!M for desktop but more importantly, like online gaming services untill now exclusive to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, with in game chatting features and achievements.

- Make it easier to share all kind of content
Nothing has been explained in details, but I foresee a revamp of BBM groups, where more several more types of files can be shared and accessed with more ease than now, and where more members are allowed. It would also be a good thing if these groups didn't slow down the phone up to comatose state.

- Be used on other platforms
This is only a rumor. When I asked about a confirmation, I was answered "we can't tell you that yet". Which, I guess, means yes. How will it work, I don't know. What I know is that I am ready to pay premium to use it on any device that's not a BlackBerry (or Nokia).

It's pretty interesting now to see that, in the gaming niche, RIM's direct rival is de facto Nintendo, since they are the only ones to offer the same type of 'social gaming' and persistent ID on mobile platform. I have discussed the potential of the API opening in a previous post. Mostly, this is a chance for RIM to become a major actor on the social/community based market.

RIM made a genius move, amongst major bloopers.

- Genius: get the market where it actually is.
From the mouth of Johan Kremer, head of Alliance for SEA at RIM : "We didn't build BBM 6.0 only thinking of Indonesia, but also South America". Acknowledging the market and responding to users's needs. Isn't that beautiful.

- Major Genius: bypass the local bottlenecks.
Indonesian users will be soon able to buy apps from AppWorld through premium SMS.

- Sorta blooper:
Announcing things several month in advance and going back two steps when asked about their development (I am talking about the API) is probably not the best way to communicate. I also don't understand the way they propagate the news about BBM 6.0 through conferences instead of being more open about it.

- Major blooper:
Staying mute about the cross-platform compatibility features of their next products. RIM has already implemented an Android virtual machine (sort of) on the Playbook, we see where they are going. Stop playing hide and seek and tell us what to expect.

The Playbook: A joke to be corrected in the near future.

Kremer brought a Playbook with him, making sure he wore special pants to conceal it in his extra huge pockets.
He demo'd it for a while after the show, and I wasn't impressed at all.

• The device had to be re-booted before demoing it
• There is no 3g support. How am I supposed to use internet if I'm not near a wifi hotspot?
• Way too much BlackBerry tethering (bbm, contacts, calendar)
• No physical keyboard support, limited accessories support
• A version of the PlayBook supporting 4g features is planned for the near future: buying now is a ripoff.

Conclusion: I am patiently waiting for a BBM app for android. RIM is making efforts to penetrate the Indonesian market, but the stiff communication and the lackluster hardware can't convince me to keep faithful to the brand. We'll see later this year if it changes.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

For fun.

No, seriously, in the beginning I was doing it just for fun, it made my gamer self laugh. Even if I dearly hate the sound of my own voice (Morgan Freeman, teach me, please). Also, I'm a really bad guitar player, so there. Just.For.Fun.

But there is more to the story.

It happened almost by accident. Found myself displayed for the public to see, and I couldn't stop it since I wasn't the one uploading the video.
For those who don't know (all of you, probably), here it is (trauma ahead, you've been warned) :

To be honest, when it got the first views, I wasn't really happy I was scared lifeless and quite depressed.

But then I read some of these comments on twitter and around:

His video got my grandma laughing so hard she got a cough - @leetabulat

I've not watched it for one minute and I can't stop laughing - @nchuNurindah

My little sister won't stop singing it! -(Friend on YM)

And I though... ok that's not many people, but I'm actually making people happy? Man that's great!

So that's it, I have decided to go further and give a million rupiah to a charity I'll reveal the name of when I get there, if I get a million views.
What's in for me? Nothing. I'm not sponsored, I'm not a brand. I'm just thinking that if that video can make people laugh and feel better, it deserves a chance to be known, and if it helps people too, it's two hits with one stone(d singer).

Call me narcissist so I can kiss myself, but that's really what I'm thinking :)

Oh, and I'm available for autographs. XD

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I used to think, naively, that appearance didn't matter at all.
After all when you really can perform, what's important is the result of your work.
That's a logical thought, one that makes a lot of sense.
A thought no one should deviate from... in a perfect world.

I've been playing with my looks for a while now, so much that my hair has aquired sentience. In my line of work, which doesn't include much public speaking, if at all, I can take the freedom of  proudly harboring, at work, a blonde streaken mohawk and a pink t-shirt.

When it comes to communicating to a wider public rather than a keyboard, though, a little experiment I did with a certain pair of sunglasses showed me that things are completely different.

See for yourself, the difference with and without.

Now... I remarked several things while wearing these:

• I can't do eye contact
• I have to smile the whidest grin ever to show that I'm agreeing or happy
• The said smile makes me look like an angry wholf
• People look at me a quickly look away
• I am given more seats in the bus than ever before, and it goes with a body language indicating fear, yes, fear.

To put it simply:

Where am I going?

Well, think: such a little detail as a pair of glasses can change the behavior of people all around you. What if your face were a website, what if the glasses were a feature, and add, a video? Something you would think innocent, but would definitely change your audience's behavior?

A popup means spam, background music means amateurism, flash splash screens mean you're stuck in 2002... maybe not to you, but to your visitors, whom are either born in the internet era or using it since long enough to know the patterns, it will make the difference.

Be open to critics, show your work before publishing, make closed alpha and beta test, and you'll know if you look killer or look like one.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

On the 29th or March 2011, was uploaded on YouTube what's about to become one of the biggest viral video in Indonesia.

Briptu Norman, from the province of Gorontalo (population +- 1 million) instantly got internet famous.
To date the video has a total of more than 500,000 views.

Of course, things being what they are, we all expected the this talented lip-sync artist to be punished for turning the good name of the local police into a mockery,
On the 5th of April, the press was officially informed that, in spite of the overwhelmingly positive reception of the video, bridagier Normal was to receive due disciplining.

Today, 6th of April, the sanction received by the prancing policeman came to pucblic knowledge. Here you go:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we were all expecting him to be set on fire while flogged with a spiked paddle dipped in vinegar... But there, they made him sing!.
This, is a superb PR move.

The Indonesian police doesn't have what you'd call a good reputation; all in all they are mostly reputable for receiving extra bribes to make the ends meet at the end of the month.
Their reaction here proved that they both have a good sense of humor and some real common sense, bringing them one step closer to the people.

Norman's superiors did everything right:

• They understood the context of the video
• They monitored its reception on the Indonesian web
• They took in account the public's reaction
• They issued a response that took everybody by surprise, taking a stance diametrally opposed to their reputation

To PR all over the world who still think that censoring message on a facebook page is the best way to control a brand's reputation: take lessons from brigadier Norman and the police force of Gorontalo, Indonesia (population: +- 1 million).

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Once you read the article past the title, you will find some points that are interesting if you go over their marketing garble.

- "As of April 1, Nokia will have two main business units: Smart Devices, led by Jo Harlow, and Mobile Phones, led by Mary McDowell."

- "MeeGo will be an “open-source, mobile operating system project.”

Here we are witnessing the separation of church and state, it could work.

Symbian OS is one of the main reasons why Nokia is seen as 'your dad's phone', and keeping its core to aliment the cheaper mobile phones that made possible for Nokia to sell around 100 units in 2010, while coming back to a the innovation-oriented strategy that made their success, sounds like the right thing to do.

It could result in a hardware that's not a total waste of potential like the n97 and launches on time unlike the N8.

Nokia has been buying market shares like crazy in Q1 and Q2 2010, and it started plummeting, not because of Symbian, not because of the N8 or the iPhone, but because it just had to happen. They wouldn't have been able to keep with their pricing policies at the time, and they chose to fire their CEO and opt for a more sustainable strategy, can't blame them.

They are still leading the market, far from being doomed, and they could surprise us in the month to come.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

This morning I received an email from a very dear friend.

The email:

Dear,

Hope all is well with you? sorry to bother you at this time, please I need your urgent assistance, I had a trip to United Kingdom yesterday for a program, and I was attacked last night by some robbers on my way to the hotel and they took all my money from me, including my phone, right now I don't have any cash on me and I need to pay for a return ticket and make arrangement back home. I want you to kindly assist me with £750 (GBP) or any amount you can afford to help me, I will pay you back when I return. I had to walk down to a public cafe to quickly send you this mail as I do not have access to any phone.
I will be waiting for your urgent response.

She is a music reporter, so she tends to travel a lot. We hadn't been talking for a little while and the story was kind of plausible.
After I replied, I received another mail containing this:

Thanks for the mail and concern, I am somewhere in London at the moment and I have lost contact with everyone ever since the incident took place. I am still not in total control of my self and the bad news is that, I cant access a phone at the moment.

That's where common sense came into play. My friend is smart, way smarter than that. If she's in a hotel, she can use the phone there, she can call the police, the ambassy... She has a twitter account, a facebook account, she cannot have lost contact with anybody at all.

Passed the knee jerk reflex of helping a friend in need, I smell fish and give a try to her BBM, which I should have done in the very first place. She replied.

I know, my email has been hacked

It's sad when you have to doubt your best friend's words. And it's sad when you are rewarded for your lack of trust.
But that's the reality of things, especially on the internet.
So, one more time, I'm giving you a checklist here, in case of doubt.

The anti scam checklist:

• Doubt everything councerning money
• Call your contacts on their phone
• Check their social media account as well
• Ask for proof of identity, something personal
• Use common sense
• Never communicate sensitive info online

Happy I didn't fall for it, happier if you don't ;)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Ever received a weird message from one of your friends mentionning some bizzare malfunction of your instant messenging service business plan or claiming to have uploaded pics of you poledancing with a lobster?
That's a hoax.
Here are three patterns you can learn about, so next time, I swear, you don't fall for it.

1) Facebook/Twitter/Yahoo!/YourDog/BBM is going to shut down

I you have used an IM service for more than a couple of month, you have already seen this one.

How it usually looks like:

• The big boss of your favorite IM service woke up this morning and decided to commit corporate suicide
• He took the decision to close/charge for it's star service because it's not making enough money/their servers are full/they are fed up of being rich
• Unless everybody forwards the message they are reading right now

Ask youself:

The smallest number for an IM service I know of is about 33 million users worldwide, and that's BBM. , Twitter must be around 200 million now, Yahoo! has around 250 million users, Live Messenger more than 300 million and Facebook 500 million.

All these service have more users than many countries have inhabitants.
We're not all supposed to know about these numbers, but look around you, isn't literaly everybody you know already using them?
Why would they close the gold mine? Wouldn't such a decision make the news, be documented?

Oh and yes, why would the CEO of Big Fat Internet Company bother sending you an...IM for something that important, instead of caling a press conference and making it a headline on the first page of their website?

Because it never happened, the CEO/Message/Broadcast/Cake is a lie.

What if you do what they say?

Someone, at one point, will come to your office with a fully loaded chicken launcher and chase you around untill you collapse.
Seriously, chain messages are pointless and everybody will end up hating you for relaying them.

What to do?

Don't forward, and tell the contact who forwarded the hoax to try and think about it for two minutes. And to never do that ever again. Ever.Again.

2) Hey is that you in that terrible picture/video ?

This one is a bit trickier. It usually comes via a legit contact, is not a broadcast and provides you a link to check what terrible deeds you have been immortalized doing. Man these blackouts are annoying.

How it looks like:

• A contact has tagged/seen you in a photo/video
• What you did is often either terrible or wonderful, or both
• The links points to a website you never use, or worse, it's a shortened URL full of crunchy garble

Ask yourself:

What have you been doing lately? Do you really pass out that often that you don't remember who takes your pic and puts them on totally unknown websites hidden behing completely incomprehensible urls?

If week long hangovers are not your favorite hobby, there are hudge chances that message is a scam.

What if you do what they say?

You're in for a whole lot of trouble. Sometimes these links are just there to attract visitors to badly coded, ugly ad-ridden website about poultry dating and the likes.
Most of the time, a virus is patiently waiting for your click to turn your computer into a scam broadcasting zombie machine.

What to do?

Do not, under any circumstance, click on the link.
Copy-paste the message and send it to your contact, followed by the questions "Did you just send me that?" and, to be extra sure, a more personal question such as "How many Swiss cheese can I ingest before turning into a dafodil?".

You'll know wether the answer make sense. If not, your contact is infected already, advise her to use a better anti-virus and to stop clicking on random links.

3) Just a random link

I won't develop here, the scams use the same methods as the photo/video links, they are just too lazy to ellaborate: A legit contact sends you a random URL without any other information.

The consequences are the same, you'll end up infected or redirected to avianDating.info

Again, same method, check with your contact: Did she really send you that?

Bonus advices:

Just because I'm a good guy, here are some bonus tips when in doubt:

• Never give away your password, websites never ask for it
• Never give away any sensitive information (bank account number, phone number...)
• If you believe the contact is legit, use the phone
• Never forward a message when you're asked to
• Use common sense (would your mother send you a link containing " \/iag|2a" ?)

Hope it helped. Forward this blogpost to 400 of your contacts or your dog will get his car stolen.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

For those who don't know, an API is a kind of middle-man interface between to programs, so they can communicate with each other.
For instance,  a Facebook app for iPhone and the Facebook website communicate via Facebook API.

RIM announced during the last Devcon Asia they would open Blackberry Messenger API later this February.

Here is why I think it could be game changing:

Let's start with some facts and figures:

• The key features of BlackBerry services are push email, integration with enterprise services and instant messaging
• BBM offers features pretty similar to social media services (photo sharing, calendar, etc...)

• BBM is used by more than 33 millions users worldwide
• RIM, by now, ties with apple when it comes to the amount of sales (behind Nokia with ± 14 millions units end 2010)
• The brand is available from approximately 565 carriers and distribution partners in 175 countries

Now with the crystal ball.

A daring bet

Where will the new users register, and how?
Through BES (paid) only, that would mean they would allow a one way only communication, potentially discouraging potential buyers who would have opted for their products for the IM service.
Making it free would mean even more potential loss, and the possibility for the BBM protocol to fall into oblivion.

Both methods are risky. Why taking this risk?

RIM could be the new Yahoo!

If now yahoo claims to have around 260 millions users, we all know where they're at.
Their innovation strategy toward the public as a disaster, and they are resting on their main services awaiting an epiphany that might as well never come.

RIM, though,  is in a similar situation as the early Yahoo!, with a powerful e-mail service (even if only push) and a fast growing IM protocol, but with the enormous advantage of being already well implemented in the mobile market and enterprise culture.

So yes, RIM could very well be the new Yahoo!, leading IM and e-mail for the next decade.

RIM can take on Apple and Google, frontally.

RIM can go where Apple and Google can't.

On the mobile market, they tie with Apple and best Google, that's no secret already.
But when you think about it, they have an advantage on one decisive aspect: the social factor of their user base.
Google has been desperately trying to get social with the failed Wave and Buzz experiments, and Yahoo! as done... practically nothing about it.
RIM has integrated many social features in their messenger already, statuses, media sharing and commenting, message broadcasting, and, of course, groups.
That is to say, BBM user base is social-media ready by nature, and already has a platform.

What could they do with it?

At that point, everything is but speculations. But there are some possibilities:

Opening the API in an OAuth kind of way (single shared log-in for several services) would provide a centralized and portable ID to access multiple services. Data monitoring, from that point on, looks like a logical source of revenue/information.

Setting up a persistent social platform based on BBM features has a lot of potential.
With their e-mail client, RIM has shown its expertise as an content aggregator, and with such a user base the occasion is golden for them to become both a provider and a connector in the social media field, especially since they already have a whole ecosystem ready to sprout around it.

2011 promises to be very exciting.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I discovered the Q&A web service Quora just yesterday and I'm late as a Santa in June.
I got immediately sucked in, thanks to its pretty clean interface and the relevance of the questions.

One of the first questions I answered was :
Will Quora become the next big thing here in Indonesia, or will it become just like another Formspring.me?

My answer is there,  and you can check it out. But here I wish to develop further on why Quora, if not the next big thing, could be right on time to get an established user base in Indonesia, and why this could be a win-win situation.

Why it can work

Indonesians are not afraid of asking.
You can say the opposite all you want, but I find Indonesians much more prone to asking things than, for instance, my fellow French.
Ranging from "Is time travel possible" to "What did you have for lunch" (oh dreaded question), I've seen all sort of questions flying my way, witnessed many debates, and it convinced me that knowledge thirst is real in Indonesia.

Indonesian culture is about sharing.
Well, probably not just sharing, that would be reductive, but for a huge part of it, it is.
On Quora, the sharing/networking features are spot on, not too much, not too little, with a link to Facebook and Twitter that really works.

Just a niche?

Quora is what it is, a Q&A service.
You won't share everything there, no photo album, no marketplace, no emotional status about your hamster's last failed relationship.
In other word: not much small talks, and it's precisely that small talk aspect that propelled Twitter and Facebook on the top of Indonesia's internet usage.

Quora's penetration in the Indonesian market will also be slowed down by its lack of mobile app.
Yes, mobile broadband is huge there, with a penetration rate of nearly 77% in march 2010 (latest number I'm aware of).

English is compulsory. Too bad.
Many local Facebook and Twitter users communicate in their native language. Indonesian is the second language in Twitter's trending topics (or was last time I checked). This is not, of course, exclusive to Indonesia and is also particularly true for China, Japan and Brazil.

These three facts make the service more restrictive than the more comprehensive Facebook or the faster Twitter, and more likely to attract a crew of active hobbyists and professionals rather than the average internet users.

Why a win-win?

A win for Quora if they manage to keep on attracting local users: The Indonesian user base will be active, dynamic and very versatile, and bring to the site a steady flow of interesting questions about many topics.

A win for Indonesia, as they have a very active entrepreneurial scene, especially in the new technologies and social media field. Quora could be just the right tool to let them show their real potential to the world while getting even more in touch with the tech trends.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Earlier in this blog I've told you about things that irritate me on Twitter.
And, surprise I'm getting back with more.

1. The tunnel vision self-advertiser

Still human but barely so, they have one thing in mid. ONE.
They have achieved a ghost written e-book about the marvels of the gag reflex, and now they are going to let the whole world know about it.
They have developed a near-godly ability to relate any topic to their product, and whatever the cost they will do it to advise their marvelous e-pamphlet on the virtues of dried crab neck whenever you feel happy, suicidal, or your car broke down.

Block, choke with recycled e-paper.

2. The bloggers

140 characters are not always enough to express what you mean.
14.000 characters are still not enough for them.

They are the TL;DR kings of the TMI land, and will, not once, sir, not twice mam, but systematically, flood your timeline with novelettes about every single frame of their morning floss ritual.

Block, report for spam, poke in the leg with a hot needle for ever extra character.

3. The jokers

I'm inappropriate and often offensive.
But when it comes to be downright infuriating, I'm a baby compared to them.

Everything is laughable, everything is funny. They probably spawn from places such as /b/ (don't go if you don't know), and are always happy tobring the fun back in your agonizing grandmother, the last natural disaster or your sexual orientation.

Block, invite them to a lawyer-only rally and watch them melt in lava-hot lawsuits.

4. The dirties

Here I quote

" @porkknuckle ;) RT: @killmenow #ouch #Iknewit RT: @vampireunicorn Totally #mommy #eyebleach RT:@killmenow http://too.short...(snip)"

You really want to have a part in that. You know you do.

Block, force them to pay for the eye surgery they just brought on you.

5. The liberated army of sexual innuendoistas

Men and women who think sexual liberation equals tweeting about their genitals every other minute.

They usually try being smart about it and lamentably fail while letting all of us know about their renewed excitement for all the alphabeticvariations of the F-word.
They are not exhibitionists either, which make them totally unworthy of any interest.

Block, compliment them about the quality of their content, quoting them aloud, in a public place, preferably a church or a kindergarten.

Anything I missed?
I could turn it into a comic if you had an idea ;)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Well, we're near Halloween, this edition is the 13th, so, yeah, zombies, vampires and Robert Pattinson would be the creepy thing to draw I guess.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »