I finally registered for Northern Voice 2007 today. The annual conference has become a tradition for me, and this year the timing is perfect as it falls on the tail end of reading week. The organizers posted the schedule yesterday, and even though it is still a work in progress, it looks good. I don’t see a keynote however – perhaps it will fill the time gap from 9:30 to 10:15?
If you’d like to attend Northern Voice, you can register here.
Read: Northern Voice
Here are my notes for the first Sunday of the year:
Mini-Review: Next by Michael Crichton
He’s my favorite author and I had high hopes for his new book Next. And I was not disappointed. The book deals with genetic research and tells the somewhat connected stories of many characters, both humans and transgenic animals. I really enjoyed it! My only complaint, perhaps, is that it’s not long enough. There are a few plot lines that aren’t fully explored or explained, such as the sea turtles with glowing shells. Otherwise it’s very well done. There is even a pseudo corporate site as part of the marketing for the book. And here is the official site.
For the tenth time, Bill Gates delivered the Sunday keynote at CES in Las Vegas. I watched it tonight using the live feed supplied by Microsoft. He said he’ll be back to keynote again next year, and said future years are up to the CES organizers as it’s likely he’ll talk “more about infectious diseases than software.” The theme of the keynote was “connected experiences”.
Here are some of my thoughts (for much, much more see Engadget):
Some cool stuff for sure!
Some sad news today for anyone who has survived on instant noodles. Momofuku Ando, the man who invented the world’s first instant noodles, has died of a heart attack at age 96:
Born in Taiwan, Ando founded his company in 1948 from a humble family operation. Faced with food shortages in post-World War II Japan, Ando thought a quality, convenient noodle product would help feed the masses.
In 1958, his “Chicken Ramen” — the first instant noodle — was introduced after many trials. Following its success, the company added other products, such as the “Cup Noodle” in 1971.
Apparently he enjoyed his last Chicken Ramen on Thursday. I know I’ve survived on instant noodles at one time or another – they’re just so handy! Thank you Mr. Ando!
Read: Yahoo News
Think Microsoft has been resting on their laurels with the launches of the Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3? Think again. According to Engadget they are working on a new version of the Xbox 360:
Ever wonder why Microsoft hasn’t released an HDMI cable for the Xbox 360, or whether the AV port was really capable of digital out? Well, here’s your answer: we landed pictures of what appears to be the second Xbox 360 — the Xbox 360 v2, if you will — codenamed Zephyr.
The new version apparently has a cooler 65nm processor, an HDMI port for 1080p, and a 120 GB hard drive. They might as well include an integrated HD-DVD player while they’re at it!
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little perturbed when I first read this, but I realize that I sealed my own fate by purchasing my 360 the day it was released. And I don’t regret it. It makes perfect sense to update components as they improve (and it becomes cost effective to do so). The HDMI port would be nice to have, but I’d need a TV capable of 1080p for it to really make a difference. And I doubt I’ll be getting one of those anytime soon.
Bottom line: Zephyr (if it turns out to be real) is a minor update. Games on Zephyr will be identical to games on today’s Xbox 360, and that’s all that really matters.
UPDATE: Engadget links to some pictures and a video of the HDMI port and HANA scaler.
Read: Engadget
As I mentioned in a previous post, I learned a lot in 2006. One of the things I learned is that having an exit strategy for your business is a good thing. Ben Yoskovitz has a great post about this at startupspark.com:
To some an exit strategy sounds negative. Or, you might think you’ll never exit because that’s not the point of the business. That’s fine, you don’t have to give up the business (although eventually we all give it up) but thinking in terms of an exit strategy will help crystallize that goal nonetheless.
One thing I’d like to add to Ben’s post is that once you’ve spent the time and effort to come up with an exit strategy, you’ll find you feel much better about yourself and your business. Like Ben says, an exit strategy is a goal. Once you’ve defined it, you can stop worrying about it, and start working to achieve it.
Another benefit: having an exit strategy in mind will help you as you make business decisions along the way.
Read: startupspark.com
It’s hard to imagine that in just three years a single hard drive could store 300 TB, but we’ve been here before. Five years ago, who would have thought we’d have the 750 GB drives that we do today! Seagate claims the larger drives are on the way:
To pull the 300 TB rabbit out of the hat, technology comes to the rescue once again. This time, Seagate will use a technology called heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). These isn’t much detail on exactly how this works, but a single square inch of hard disk space will be able to store 50 TB of data.
It would totally suck to lose 300 TB of data, though like the article says, if they are the norm then buy two and back it all up!
You might wonder how you’d ever fill a 300 TB drive. I used to wonder that about my 200 GB drive, and now I have two of them plus a larger 300 GB drive. We’ll find a way to use the space. Always have, always will.
Read: iTWire
My brother bought me LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy for my birthday (which was Dec. 28) and we spent quite a bit of time playing it over the last couple days before he went back to Red Deer. I think I am hooked! I never played the original LEGO Star Wars game, but I almost want to go and buy it now. The concept always sounded kinda funny to me, but now that I’ve played the game, my laughter has been replaced with awe. The game is simple yet incredibly fun to play!
I was browsing around Wikipedia today, looking for information on the LEGO games, and I found this:
LEGO Batman is an adventure video game developed by Traveller’s Tales. It will be similar to the LEGO Star Wars series, in that it will both be a game based on a licensed property and have environments, objects and creatures made out of LEGO.
Awesome! That was the first thing I thought of while playing LEGO Star Wars – I thought, “they should make lots of LEGO games!” It’s such a wonderful environment for fun, light gaming.
Seems they are way ahead of me:
Upon being contacted, developer Jonathan Smith (games programmer) stated that they will definitely be developing more LEGO games in the future.
I don’t know what they have in mind, but I can think of some LEGO games I’d like to see! Here’s the movies/franchises I’d like to see turned into LEGO video games:
One of my favorite toys as a kid was LEGO. My brother, sister and I played with it all the time! It’s almost too perfect that LEGO is now playable on my new favorite toy, my Xbox 360.
Read: LEGO
Instead of predictions for the coming year, I’ve decided I’d rather just post some wishes. Lots of my predictions from last year were wishes anyway! So here they are, in no particular order.
I wish…
This will be a “living” list, which means I intend to come back and add to it later.
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