Biz Vision

I just checked my blog and interestingly my 12 Days of Christmas post got dated to "Saturday, December 16, 2006". I've had my Firefox open and logged into the Blogger interface for 5 days now so it used the original date.

But for Kimota94 aka Matt's benefit I really have posted 3 times today!

Just to satisfy Kimota94 aka Matt I thought I would splurge and write a whole 2 posts today!

Some time ago I added a couple of lists on the side of my page (and for all the Agilists, yes they are prioritized backlogs) to demonstrate how abysmal I am when it comes to watching movies. My intention was to cross off the movies as I watch them but last weekend I was disheartened to find out that the Blogger interface doesn't let me use HTML when managing those lists. So here's backlog item #3 getting crossed off:

Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest (2006)

It looks like everybody who's anybody (at least Jim Hinckley and the Man from Mars) are embedding YouTube videos in their blogs and I'm not one to get left behind!

My sister sent me this one and I just can't wait to find my true love... so I can get my 3 butter chickens!

Here's an excerpt out of Tracy Swedlow's [itvt] newsletter about a free HD IPTV service. The website is called MyTVPal.com and offers up channels such as ABC News, NBC News and a regional FOX station for free. There are also tons of international channels for anyone from abroad who is feeling a little homesick.

1080P HD IPTV Service, MyTVPal.com, Launches

A service called MyTVPal.com--which claims to be the world's first 1080P high-definition streaming IPTV and VOD service for PC player and IPTV set-top box clients--launched last week. The service, which is operated by IPTV content aggregator, BB Entertainment, and powered by technologies from MatrixStream, a Bay Area-based provider of IPTV solutions (note: to access the service, consumers must have a broadband connection of 1.5Mbps or faster), currently offers over 700 free standard- and high-definition channels from around 70 different countries, and plans to roll out additional channels on a monthly basis; in the coming months, it also plans to offer what it says will be a "wide range" of VOD titles "for a low monthly cost." In addition, it says that user-uploaded content and DVR features will be available as a software upgrade for PC and set-top box clients at some point in 2007. MyTVPal.com claims to be targeting 10 million users over the next five years, and is currently offering a free trial of its PC player to consumers who register on its Web site. In addition, it says that it plans to release 100,000 MatrixStream 1080P IPTV set-top boxes during its first year.

I've spent the better part of this afternoon ripping apart my parent's laptop to replace a hard drive in it. The hard drive cost me $100 and I have a feeling it's only a matter of time until something else decides to fail on the laptop. Perhaps the motherboard is next...

In any case, how long is it before upgrades no longer make sense and it's time to drop $2000 on a new laptop. They do still cost $2000 don't they?? (Goes to find out you can get a brand new one for approximately $800).

On a sidebar, here's the manual that I used to crack it open: Compaq Presario 1600XL Service Guide.

I'll need it again when I put it back together... And yes, I know it's an ancient hunk of a laptop!

I never thought I would start writing about work in my posts but here's my very first one. We've switched to using Agile methodologies and 4 months in, I'm still concerned about the quality of code we're churning out.

My team initially got a free lunch since we were supporting an already matured product and management didn't want us to invest the time in an automated test framework. Having switched projects, we're now behind the rest of the teams in the quality learning curve.

It's also an area I struggle with as a software developer. There's more to it than just targeted testing. One of the members on my team summed up the right QA mentality quite nicely:

When you're testing you don't want to just test the functionality works, that's boring. You want to get creative and think about the different ways you can make it break, that's a lot more fun.

Anyway, my reason for starting this rant was to post this video by Ken Schwaber on Agile Quality. I haven't watched it yet, but I will soon.

Feed: Agile Planet
Title: Ken Schwaber talks about agile quality

Ken Schwaber talks about Agile Quality: A Canary in a Coal Mine.

I've always dreamt of having a GPS receiver in my car or on my cell phone. It's not so much that I need it but it does rank high on my list of cool gadgets to have. In any case, the following article got me excited and then I realized the definition of "budget-priced" is USD 259.99. I would pay a $100 or perhaps even $150 for one but over $250 is still way too much for a toy to play with. I would rather put $250 towards a Wii.

Feed: Engadget
Title: Axion rolls out budget-priced GEO-632 GPS unit

Apparently there's a gaping hole in the handheld GPS market, as it seems a new manufacturer takes its first dive every other week or so, and this time it's none other than Axion. Diverting its efforts away from those portable DVD players and iPTV gizmos, the firm is unveiling a budget-conscious GPS that pulls double duty as a pedestrian guide when not relaxing on your dash.

YouTube is the combination of taking Hollywood, previously the only producer of video-entertainment, giving that ability to millions of people around the world and excellent timing.  By excellent timing I mean launching at a time when the Internet has become a necessity in most households and the bandwidth required for video streaming is no longer a limitation.  I find it fascinating and what Google can add to the combination can make it even more fascinating.  The following article talks about how Google may turn YouTube into a gigantic revenue making machine with the use of advertising...

Feed: Wired News: Top Stories
Title: The YouTube Effect

TV advertising is broken, putting $67 billion up for grabs. Which explains why Google spent a billion and change on an online video startup. By Bob Garfield from Wired magazine.

You would have thought that for a person working in interactive TV industry, I knew exactly what IPTV was all about. I knew a little but this article served as a good intro on the subject - An Introduction to IPTV

I'm not sure how mainstream payment via cell phones will ever become however I find the prospect of the following snippet becoming reality quite exciting:

"The NFC forum has recently come out with a standardized format for a so-called "smart poster" which will enable a handset user to obtain data such as a URL or a ringtone from a poster or other printed material. And downloading film promos and movie times is not far off, says Christophe Duverne, senior vice-president and general manager for identification at NXP Semiconductors, and chairman of NFC Forum. "

Feed: BusinessWeek Online --
Title: Contactless Payment Comes to Cell Phones

Flash your handset and buy. An industry group wants to bring that facility to the world. But is it secure? And who gets what share of the profits?

OTR claims to be a free online DVR service where the recordings are performed server side. I imagine you can then stream them using your PC. I'll have to check it out later: http://www.onlinetvrecorder.com

Feed: informitv news
Title: Online TV Recorder project seeks investment

OnlineTVRecorder is a free network-based video recorder project in Germany that claims to have reached nearly a quarter of a million users within three months. Its developers are now seeking further investor backing for the service, together with a peer-to-peer live network television system. They will be among a number of entrepreneurs pitching to investors at a Silicon Valley Open Doors conference.

BusinessWeek publishes MBA rankings for 2006.

Feed: BusinessWeek Online --
Title: The BestB-Schools of 2006

Our exclusive survey measures student and recruiter satisfaction

The purpose of this blog is to collect interesting information relating to business, the cable industry and technology.