06Oct 2011 by R&O No Comments

A Great Loss

Business, Of Interest, People, Technology
Rather than wax poetic about the revolutionary products and cutting edge technology developed and mass-produced under the tutelage of Steve Jobs, I'll defer to the short video below produced by Wired.com. It celebrates Jobs' accomplishments without narration letting the Apple founder tell you a bit about what he's done for us over the years. Goodbye Mr. Jobs. I've enjoyed your work.
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12Aug 2011 by R&O No Comments

Björk from Ork

Entertainment, Internet, Music, Technology
She's a bit wacky, a bit odd, and can sound like a scalded cat but Björk is anything but dull. I find her public persona a bit annoying and far too artsy-fartsy for my tastes but appreciate her talent and eclectic music sense. She's innovative and usually comes up with something that sounds little or nothing like anything else available. And that's a good thing in the midst of the bland, boring and predictable (yes, even YOU Gaga!) crap being spoon-fed to our young. A case in point is her newest music online offering which combines a cool iPad/iPhone app with her latest CD (does anyone even buy CDs anymore?). She's rolled the two into something called Biophilia which is available free from the App Store. Here's how Apple describes…
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25Jun 2011 by R&O No Comments
360 degrees of rioting

360 degrees of rioting

Of Interest, Technology
The recent riot spectacle in downtown Vancouver was the most watched event in our city's history. Well, other than the Olympics of course. More people were snapping photographs and video on smartphones and digital video recorders than I can remember at any public event and it's served us well by identifying the goons responsible. A number of websites sprung up the very next day to out some of the idiots and douchebags responsible using the images submitted by outraged citizens. Well played Vancouver. But one of the most amazing and fascinating use of video technology employed during the riot was by northstudio360.com which presented a birds-eye view of the proceedings in all its 360 degrees of glorious anarchy using something called Pixelcase 3Motion Platform. This video is a small sample…
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12Jun 2011 by R&O No Comments

Who gets the deal?

Business, Observations, Of Interest, Technology
I've tried a number of the daily deal services available on the Internet and even installed the Groupon iPhone app but have decided it's not for me. And it may not be suitable for customers or the participating businesses either. It seems there's very little transparency in this fledgling but over-crowded business and the only ones that may end up making money is the daily deal businesses themselves. Here's a bit of insight into my somewhat limited experiences as a daily deal consumer... First off, I'll admit I've never purchased a deal myself. The simple reason is I've never seen anything worth buying of real value or any services within a reasonable proximity to my home or workplace. Most are for relatively small service companies or one-off food and product…
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