Yes, it’s a marketing slogan, but I think it illustrates the way we think of ourselves.

Each of us is the star of our own show. However empathetic we are, we only see through our eyes.

As the world hits 7 billion people, it’s time to realise that there is not “an over-population problem”. Rather, “we are an over-population problem!”

Each of us is contributing to over-population. There are many ways we can mitigate our impact – go vegetarian, recycle, practice energy efficiency – but there is a zero-effort solution.

Don’t reproduce.

How Not To Have Children

• Don’t have sex.
• Use contraception.

That’s pretty much it. It’s cheap (or free in many parts of the world). Reliable. And incredibly easy. It’s a positive choice you can make to keep the population at a sustainable level.

Child Free – Not Childless

Being child free is a choice. It’s not for everyone.

The use of the world “Childless” – as though there is a deficiency – is not applicable to me. If you can’t have the children you desperately want then, yes, you are childless – and my heart breaks for you.

But, for me, it’s a positive choice. I am free from the pain, heartbreak, responsibility, agony, and boredom of rearing a child. I am childfree

We’re Not Special

As I mentioned, we’re all stars of our own shows, but that doesn’t make us special. Every single one of us is here because every ancestor managed not to die before procreating. In a Darwinian sense, each of our ancestors was able to adapt to their environment and reproduce.

We have to think of our responsibility to the whole of our society, our civilisation, our species.

It is the act of a monstrous ego to assume that one’s genes are special and deserve to be passed on. Unless you have an extra-special mutation which will be useful to the species, you are just one of billions.

Some Resources

If you do decide to go down the child free path – and it is a choice – you may find these resources helpful.

BBC article with a good set of comments.
A selection of resources and blogs about being Child Free.
Bella has a (mostly female) section about modern Child Free topics.
Wikipedia article on being Child Free.
A (mostly American) forum for discussing Child Free issues.

Most of them are fairly biased towards the female experience. There’s usually some discussion from a male point-of-view, but it is in the minority.

It’s a really great series, and I encourage you to listen to it.

At one point in episode 4, Stephen sings the Nokia ringtone.

So, here it is for your edification, and delight.

Feel free to set it as your iPhone’s ringtone :-)

All together now, “Derr-nerr-nerr-nerr Derr-nerr-nerr-nerr Derr-nerr-nerr-nerr Nerr!”

Seriously, pack up the tools of your trade, go home, pour yourself a stiff drink, and weep at what you have done.

The Poster

Here’s a fun game for all the family! Play “spot the QR code” on this poster…

Bzzzzzt! Time’s up! Did ya see it? What? No! How could that be?

Let’s zoom in…

There! Right beside the warnings of “mild peril” lurks the QR code. Tiny, overly dense, and with no call to action.

Try scanning it. To make things slightly easier, I’ve given you a straight shot of the code.

Not easy, is it?

The Contents

It’s usually best to use a short URL in a QR code. The smaller the data, the less dense the QR code, the bigger you can print each individual square.

Let’s look at what this code contains

http://www.findanyfilm.com/Take-Shelter-custom_film~39285?
   utm_source=sonypictures&
   utm_medium=QRcode&
   utm_campaign=takeshelter  Cinema_BookNow

A few things to note.

• This code is ridiculously long.
• Is all that tracking data really needed?
• There is a space which hasn’t been URL encoded as “%20″

The Site

Let’s assume that you’ve seen the QR code. And that you’ve managed to scan it. And that your browser will open such a malformed URL. What reward awaits you? Something good, right?

Nope. This festering pile of shit.

A non-mobile site, flash heavy, poorly thought out, abomination of a site.

But, let’s play along and try to find a screening near me.

Oh great. A pop-up.

So, no easy way to find a screening, see a trailer, or buy tickets. Just what is the point of this site?

If I were one for conspiracy theories, I’d say this marketing campaign was generated by someone who hates QR codes and wants them to fail. Putting Hanlon’s razor in to action, I think this is more likely the work of someone who just doesn’t understand what they are doing.

If you’re interested in avoiding this sort of catastrophic blunder – give me a call. I can work with you to craft a QR campaign which doesn’t suck.

I’m not a massive fan of short URL services like bit.ly – but for shrinking the text you want to fit in a QR code, they are invaluable.

I want to take a look at a particularly interesting example from Nat West Bank.

The Poster

Despite having the QR too close to the ground (more of that in a later blog post) this seems like quite a good campaign.

The QR code is large and clear, it’s not too dense, and the copy shows the app is available on Android, iOS, and BlackBerry. A single scan on any device should redirect the user to the correct destination.

The Scan

This is where things start to fall apart.

The URL

I know some of the guys behind ScanBuy. It’s a good service, but I don’t think it’s suited to this usage.

http://SCN.BY/9T7N6HN0RDQPUO

1. No “https”. Users are being trained not to trust banking URLs unless they go via SSL. I wonder if people will notice on QR codes?
2. It’s not a Nat West domain. How does a user know that this goes to the real app and not some mobile-malware?
3. Nonsensical path. At the very least, ScanBuy should let this be customised to scn.by/NatWestApp or similar. That way, people looking through their history will know what the URL is meant to go to. (See scanning while underground).

That said, the code does successfully redirect users to the correct app store to download the app.

What I Would Do

I would use a url like

https://natwest.com/GetApp

It’s the same length as the previous, is human readable, and is secure. If Nat West can’t run the redirection and analytics service themselves, it could easily redirect to ScanBuy to do the heavy lifting.

The Good

One thing to say, if a non-compatible device scans the code, they get taken to Nat West’s mobile friendly site.

There’s one area where I think Scott Stratten is wrong – and that’s on the issue of QR codes where there is no signal.

It’s a common trope to bemoan QR codes on the tube, or on an aeroplane – but I believe it’s not a very good argument.

Firstly, take a look at the posters on a typical tube train. All of them have phone numbers, SMS activities, or URLs on them – even though there’s no way to use them Yet people don’t laugh at them. Why? There’s no way to place a phone call while on the tube, is there?

Secondly, most “underground” line have significant sections which are overground – offering plenty of opportunity to call, text, browse, or scan. And if you don’t want to do it on the tube, you can always save it for later.

Which brings us on to the third point, caching. Every QR scanner I’ve come across has a “history” function which will let you see all the codes you’ve previously scanned.

So, it’s perfectly possible to see a QR code on a tube train, scan it, and then open the URL when you reach civilisation. QR code scanners do not require an Internet connection to work.

I have finally heard back from Switchfire, the SMS gateway who sent the message.

According to them, the originator of the message was PeekabooTV.com. Take a look round that site – it hasn’t been updated since 2007, and the Contact page leads to a 404.

A quick wander into the DNS registration produces this rather stale information:

GPRS Solutions LTD
   David Berney
   11 Gower Street
   London
   WC1E 6HB
   phone: +44.8707414151

So, using the utterly brilliant WhoRunsIt I can get their latest information from Companies House.

GPRS SOLUTIONS LIMITED
MASONS YARD, 34 HIGH STREET
WIMBLEDON VILLAGE
LONDON
SW19 5BY
Company No. 05966632

Why! It’s exactly the same as our friends at EKASure! And identical to Peek A Boo TV Ltd. And, indeed, identical to a whole web of companies run by Md Shamimul Haque.

All roads seem to lead back to EKASure. I’ve contacted them for an explanation – but so far none has been forthcoming.

All very curious. With so many different companies, each supplying domains, redirects and services to each other – all registered out of EKASure… it’s almost like they’re trying to hide something.

Because of Greg Barker MP’s idiotic decision to scrap the Feed In Tariff with only six weeks’ notice – we’ve had to get this done in rather a rush.

Thanks to Angi and Philip at Sunny Future Solar, we were able to get our system installed before the deadline. Yesterday, we received confirmation that panels were installed and working and had generated their first 15W of electricity!

Total cost of installation: £12,000. Ouch!

How Making Money From Solar Works

Once solar panels are installed, there are three main income streams.

1. Reduced electricity bills – when the sun is shining, your toaster and computer are powered by Earth’s yellow sun.
2. Any electricity you generate but don’t use is sold back to the grid* at 3p / kW.
3. For every kW the panels generate, you are paid 43.3p.

*Rather than actually measuring this, it’s assumed that you only use half the electricity generated.

All the prices are index linked (so they should rise with inflation) and guaranteed for 25 years. Any money generated is tax-free.

The Economic Reality

There are two main sites which will tell you how much energy you are likely to generate over the year. The calculations are based on where the property is, which direction it faces, inclination of the roof, etc.
The Energy Saving Trust Solar Power calculator estimated around 2,500 kWh per year
The Europa Solar Calculator estimated around 2,700 kWh per year.

Even at the lower estimate, that’s ~£1,100 per year from generating the electricity – and a further ~£40 from selling electricity back.

We’re in a slightly unusual situation in that we’ve installed the panels on our rental property. So our tenants will be getting the benefit of reduced electricity bills.

At the moment, that’s only around one hundred pounds per year. But if there’s another energy crisis, the amount saved would be higher.

So as greedy landlords, could we charge a premium for a property with cheap electricity bills? Say…. ooooh… £50 per month? Well, probably not that much – and we try not to be evil bastard landlords. Especially as we’ve been on the receiving end of scummy landlords in the past.

The idea is that the property is more attractive and so isn’t left vacant for so long between tenants.

Even if we were making a full £1,200 (tax free) from these solar panels, is that an unreasonable subsidy as the government claim? Let’s do the maths.

Total earnings (excluding money saved on bills) = £1,140.
The solar panels are meant to degrade by a maximum of 1% each year. Assuming they do so, that’s a total of £25,000 after 25 years.

So, 25k on an investment of 12k. That’s pretty good, right?

No. Not really. That’s about a 3% rate of interest. Even if we were really lucky with the weather and the panels didn’t degrade, we’d be looking at a return of 30k – which works out as a 4% interest rate.

Hardly the deal of the century! To give you a comparison, the government predicts a 7% interest rate if you stick your money in a pension.

Now, it is guaranteed – assuming the government doesn’t renege on its promises and we don’t enter a period of nuclear winter – and it is tax free, but is it really a generous subsidy which needs trimming?

And, even if it is; how can giving just 6 weeks’ notice be remotely fair?

A Better Way of Subsidising Solar

Barker has announced huge cuts to the solar subsidy. Whereas before the cut, the FIT would have paid off the capital cost of the panels in 10 year, after the cut, it will be more like 20 years. And that’s assuming you haven’t taken a loan out to pay for the panels.

Personally, I don’t understand why the government doesn’t just pay for the damned things themselves. It seems bureaucratically perverse to agree to pay a subsidy, via energy providers, to people who have paid installers, who have purchased the panels.

Surely just simpler to buy the panels and give them to anyone willing to pay for installation. That way there would be vastly less paperwork, no worrying about how to keep track of who needs to be paid what, etc.

Even if you ignore the environmental impact, energy security is one of this countries most pressing problems. We cannot depend on volatile foreign sources of energy.

Surely finding a sane and simple way to subsidise should be one of this government’s priorities?

I didn’t know anything about the tax issues while I was working there – other than the fact I had some colleagues working in Luxembourg – otherwise (I like to think) I may have raised the matter internally. Not that the accountants would have listened to me…

Since leaving Vodafone, I haven’t felt able to criticise it too harshly. Partly because many of my friends still work there, partly because I still do business with Vodafone, but – mostly – because I felt like a hypocrite.

As is normal in large, publicly traded companies, employees were awarded shares. Every year part of my remuneration was in the form of shares or share options. When I was made redundant from Vodafone, many of those shares vested.

However, for rather boring tax reasons, I wasn’t able to sell all of them to help fund my new business. So I hung on to them. Until this week.

Two days ago, I sold every last share I had in Vodafone.

I don’t know if you’ve ever sold shares before – but it’s incredibly stressful. The easy way to do it is to set a sell price. So you say “If the shares hit X, sell”. Then you sit back, relax, and wait for your target to be hit.

That’s not what I did. I did it the scary way.

You say how many shares you want to sell, hit a big scary button, then you get given an offer for your shares. You then have 15 seconds to accept the offer!

That 15 seconds passes really fucking quickly. Is that enough? What if I get more next time? What if I get less? It’s like a giant slot machine of doom. You hit “spin” again. In that 15 seconds you’ve lost £37.50. You hit spin again. You’re now up £50 – all in the blink of an eye. So you spin again – it must be on an upward streak, right? Wrong! Down a tenner – all in the space of a minute.

It’s enough to drive you insane. But that’s not the worst part.

Eventually, you hit sell. It’s an elating feeling. All those years of hard work. All that patience. All the times you silently said to yourself “one day… one day”. Now suddenly realised as cold, hard cash. No more waiting. No more worrying. No more little nest egg.

The next day I did the stupidest thing imaginable. I checked the Vodafone share price.

Fool! It was up. Only a single point. But it was up. Had I waited a day, would I be richer? If I’d had the courage to wait just five more minutes? Would I be happier?

What if they went up the next day? And the day after that? Far from being a canny investor, was I just a schmuck? Every time I saw the share price would I silently curse myself for being an idiot? Oh no!

The next day, the Vodafone share price was down nearly 4%! I’d done it! I’d beaten the stock market! I was one of the masters of the universe! I was a share trading genius. Time to pack up my job and become a trader.

Or not. That single minute of panic was enough for me. I don’t think the highs of the occasional win would offset the inevitable, terrifying losses. It wasn’t pleasant gambling with my own money; I can’t imagine how I’d feel if I lost someone else’s hard earned cash.

So, on the one hand, it’s good to know I’m not an utter psychopath. On the other hand, I’ll never become one of the 1%.

I am indebted to Interactive Investor for making my share dealing as cheap and hassle-free as possible.

What am I going to do with my money? Go on a massive blow-out bender? Piss it up the wall? Stash it in the Cayman Islands?

Nah! I’m going solar powered! And that, dear friends, is a tale for tomorrow’s blog…

Last night, I received this unsolicited message.

Now, I can try to unsubscribe using STOP ALL – and I have forwarded the text to VSPAM. But that’s not enough for me. I want to stop them sending any more spam SMS to anyone.

Let’s do a little stalking investigating and find out what we can.

Who Supplies Their SMS Gateway?

The people who provide the SMS gateway services ought to do a better job of policing who uses them.

PhonePayPlus allows us to look up any SMS short code and see to whom it belongs.

We can quickly see that the people responsible for sending the message are

Switchfire Ltd

2nd Floor
66 Wilton Road
London
SW1V 1DE

Tel: 020 7798 2800
support@switchfire.com

I rang them and got them to block my number from their system.
I also asked them where they got my number from – they are going to try and find out.

They wouldn’t tell me who they are sending the campaign on behalf of, so I set about trying to find out…

Where Do They Live?

The domain name “hoho.me.uk” redirects to the not-exactly-confidence-inspiring “blablabla.me.uk”.

A quick WHOIS gives us

    Domain name:
        hoho.me.uk

    Registrant:
        EKASure

    Registrant's address:
        Masons Yard 34 High St
        London
        UK
        SW19 5BY
        United Kingdom

    Registrar:
        eNom, Inc. [Tag = ENOM]
        URL: http://www.enom.com

    Relevant dates:
        Registered on: 07-Oct-2011

    Name servers:
        dns1.registrar-servers.com

The results are identical for blablabla.me.uk

A little dig around Companies House gets their phone number.
So, the registrant is EKASure of 34 High St, Wimbledon, telephone +44 208 946 6739.
Main URL http://www.ekas.co.uk/.

Who Provides Their Web Presence?

Again, from the WHOIS, and a little gentle pinging, we can see who the domains were registered and hosted with.

I’ve sent some abuse reports.

Other Complaints

PhonePayPlus are the regulators for these services, they have a handy complaints form.

Who Is Behind This?

Although I can’t find out who has authorised the sending of these spam messages, it would appear that the person who has registered all these dodgy sites is one “Stephen Clive Hedley Jennings”.

Various official filings have him either as “Stephen Jennings” or “Clive Jennings”.

Jennings – who is the owner of HotSexChat.info among many others – is the director of several companies.

A phone call to the Ekas offices confirmed that – although they are accountants – they do register domains for some of their clients.

I’ve dropped Mr Jennings a mail, linking to this blog post, to try and find out more information.

Bitcoin me! 1JDDn6cHgzqsRtgQJZwhToJPAX4oYZg19T

If that “sentence” makes any sense to you – you’re not a muggle. Muggles (for want of a better epithet) don’t want to invest a lot of time into things which don’t fit with their mental model of how the world works.

Without getting into a philosophical discussion on what money is and how value is generated – let’s look at how Bitcoin works in practice.

Failing to Design is Designing to Fail

Bitcoin is doomed to fail. Pick a reason why.

• Governments will ban it.
• A proprietary alternative will spring up.
• An EMP will destroy enough Internet infrastructure to seriously disrupt it.
• Naughty hackers will commit massive fraud.
• Normal people will be too confused to even start consider it.

All are a possibility. The most likely is ignorance and apathy generate by crappy execution on lack of focus on the normal user.

PayPal

Before it became big and a bit crap, PayPal started off with a very simple idea.

1. Send money to an email address.
2. Receive money sent to your email address.

Pretty damn simple. If I have money in a PayPal account, I can send it to alice@example.com .
Alice receives an email saying she now has money in her PayPal account (and if she didn’t have one previously, an account has been created).

Now, there are caveats, and charges, and edge cases, and multiple points of failure. But the idea is simple.

How Bitcoin Works In Practice

1. Install software onto your PC.
2. Configure it.
3. Find some way to convert cash into BitCoins.
4. Copy and paste long, incomprehensible random strings, with no user-friendly error detection.
5. Use the software to send coins with no out-of-band communication for confirmation.

Now, each of those points in of itself isn’t insurmountable. But taken together they present a rather formidable challenge. With PayPal, Google Checkout, or regular bank transfer, the flow is

1. Get recipient’s ID (either an email or a short string of number)
2. Create an instruction via web, mobile, voice, SMS, or in person.
3. Recipient receives confirmation.

I’ve left off the “set up” stage because most people already have at least one method of payment at their disposal. Even if they don’t, setting up a PayPal account is trivial compared to setting up Bitcoin.

Designing For Humans

Bitcoin, at the moment, isn’t designed for normal people. It’s designed for geeks like me. And even I can’t be bothered to set it up.

But if Bitcoin – or any other currency – wants to fulfil its destiny and revolutionise “money”, it needs to be easy for normal people to understand and use.

Banks are fucking us over.

They gamble with our money, lose it, ask us for a bail out, lose more money, then ask us for yet another bail out!
They are resisting even the very modest changes the government is imposing on them.

No more.

We have a very easy way to stop the banks pissing about with our money. Take our money from them.

I’m not talking about taking out your savings for a few days. I’m talking about a permanent withdrawal of our consent. We take our money and we move it elsewhere. Move our money to somewhere safe, ethical, and local.

I think that it’s time to move all our money to Building Societies.

Building Societies Are Better Than Banks

Building societies are owned by their members. If you’re a saver or a borrower, you get a vote in how the business is run. That means there are no excessive profits, no fat cat bankers taking extortionate bonuses, and no gouging fees.

Building societies are safer. Banks try to make money by gambling on the stock market and the wholesale money markets. The Northern Rock bank gambled 75% of its customers’ money – the average building society has 30% from the money markets. By law, the maximum that a building society can gamble is 50%.

Building societies are friendlier. They’re all based in the UK, have UK call centres, and – because they’re not beholden to shareholders – dedicated to serving their customers.

Building societies offer the same services as banks.

Quick Comparison

Are There Any Building Societies Left?

Yes!

There are 47 Building Societies in the UK.

Chances are, you have a branch of the Nationwide near you – but there are many smaller, local institutions you can do your banking with.

Most of them offer Internet and telephone banking, all of them let you withdraw your cash from any ATM,

Didn’t Lots of Building Societies Become Banks?

Yes, many people thought that turning Building Societies into banks would be a great idea.

They were wrong.

There were several Building Societies which turned into banks. You can judge for yourselves whether they offer superior products or excellent customer services, but of those 10…

• One was acquired by Barclays.
• Two had to be bailed out by the government.
• Three were bought by Lloyds.
• Four were taken over by Santander.

What’s Stopping You?

Switching accounts is fast, easy, and free. The FSA has has an excellent guide, but here are the basics.

Your old bank will only have three working days to start to process of moving you to your new building society. Your direct debits and standing orders will be transferred.

Once your application has been approved, the building society will have ten working days to set your new account.

The whole process will take less than two weeks. A fortnight to make a change for the better.

I’ve done it – what’s stopping you?

Make the switch now.

Preamble

• Many people download BitTorrent files.
• There are no BitTorrent search engines which are mobile friendly.
• Users have to try to navigate non-mobile-optimised websites.
• This is slow, inefficient, and may cost the user money in bandwidth charges.
• People who run Bit Torrent sites are often sued.

The Problem

BitTorrent search engines have a nasty habit of being sued (not something I want to happen to me!)

Lawsuits arrive based, usually, on one of the following factors:

• The site is hosting material which infringes a complainant’s copyright.
• The site operates a tracker which tells users how to access copyrighted material without permission.
• The site distributes .torrent files which tell users how to access trackers.
• The site operates a search engine for Bit Torrent files.

The Challenge

Is it possible to create a mobile friendly torrent search engine which neither hosts, distributes, nor searches for .torrent files?

This is how the usual client / server relationship works

     +------------+           +------------+          +------------+
     |Browser     |           |Site        |          |Server      |
     +-----+------+           +------+-----+          +------------+
           |                         |                      +
           | Request for HTML page   |                      |
           +------------------------>|                      |
           |                         |Search Request        |
           |                         +--------------------->|
           |                         |                      |
           |                         |                      |
           |                         |  Search Response     |
           | Generated page sent     |<--------------------+|
           |<-----------------------+|                      |

The browser asks the torrent site, the torrent site asks a search engine, the search engine responds to the site, and the site returns a page to the user’s browser.

This opens the site owner up to all sorts of risks. She knows what her users are searching for and she knows what response the torrent provider is sending.

Is there a way around this? Well, using jQuery Mobile, I believe there is.

     +------------+           +------------+          +------------+
     |Browser     |           |Site        |          |Server      |
     +-----+------+           +------+-----+          +-----+------+
           |                         |                      |
           | Request for HTML page   |                      |
           +------------------------>|                      |
           |                         |                      |
           |                         |                      |
           | Generated page sent     |                      |
           |<------------------------+                      |
           |                                                |
           |                                                |
           | Search request direct to search engine         |
           +----------------------------------------------->|
           |                                                |
           |                                                |
           |      Response sent directly to phone browser   |
           |<-----------------------------------------------+

Here’s what happens:

1. The user’s mobile browser requests the search page.
2. The site delivers the search page to the browser.
3. User types “Ubuntu” into the search box and hits “search”.
4. The text “Ubuntu” is not sent to the site!
5. jQuery Mobile “intercepts” the request.
6. The browser sends the search query directly to the search server.
7. The browser downloads the search results directly. (JSONP)
8. The JavaScript on the browser renders the results on the screen.
9. The user downloads the torrent directly from the source.

So, in this way, all the service does is send some HTML and JavaScript to the user’s phone.

The majority of the logic is stored on the jQuery CDN.

It is the user’s phone which then communicates with the search engine. The user’s phone which receives the results. And the user’s phone which renders them.

In this case, the server doesn’t see any content – legal or otherwise – nor does it see any search requests.

Technical

The code itself is fairly simple.

There are no reliable Bit Torrent search APIs which respond via JSONP. However, Yahoo Pipes provides several “recipes” which query APIs and return correctly formatted data.

Here’s the skeleton code:

To reiterate, all of this runs on the mobile phone. There is nothing happening on my server.

Now, I’m not sure that this is a cast iron legal defence – hence I am not making the site public – but it moves the action squarely on to the user.

In this case, the phone contacts Yahoo, Yahoo then contacts a Torrent search engine, the phone does all the sending, receiving, rendering, and downloading. The server doesn’t even see the search request.

What Does It Look Like?

The initial page.

Searching

The results.

The user is then free to download the torrent. Of course, the only torrent client I know for mobile phones is SymTorrent – and that only runs on older Symbian phones. So this project is of no practical purpose.

I’ve been very impressed with how well Ubuntu runs on the Lenovo ThinkPad X200. Everything worked out of the box – with the exception of the fingerprint reader (AuthenTec AES2810).

Now, I know that fingerprint readers can easily be defeated by jelly-babies, but it annoys me when something doesn’t work.

The manufacturer of the fingerprint reader has a great developer community, so I contacted them. Here’s their response:

Linux support for AES devices is not yet available.

But based on the increasing number of requests we are currently considering to release the technical specification to the Linux community to be able to integrate selected AES sensor devices to the Open Source projects.

We still need to finalize the related discussions with our legal team regarding NDA requirement for the particular developers and clarify all remaining concerns.

I will make a note to let you know once we come to a conclusion and will be ready to move forward.

Another plan is to extend our BSAPI SDK (currently supporting our TC devices under Windows/Linux/Mac) with AES devices support. The BSAPI is available for free download in it’s Lite version.

However, it’s not all good news:

since it is hard to predict how exactly and when we will decide to provide the support at the end I would suggest to be careful when blogging about it to avoid false expectations in the community.

I realise that Linux is currently a niche OS – but lack of open software support is a serious omission from any hardware manufacturer. I learned this to my cost when Creative stopped supporting the Hollywood DXR3 card – it was a cracking bit of hardware, but Creative decided that they didn’t care about pissing off customers who had Windows XP.

If a hardware manufacturer won’t allow you to use their hardware with any software you choose – guess what; it’s not your hardware. You may have thought you bought it from them, but you didn’t. You are only renting it until they decide they no longer want to support you.

It appears to show a group of police officers gathered around a blue box. No one seems to know what the box is for. I’m sure it’s got a rather prosaic function – but that doesn’t stop the speculation!

As soon I saw it, I could think of only one thing; chroma-key! (Or Colour Separation Overlay if you’re the BBC). It’s more commonly known as “blue screen”. It’s the special effect which allows you to remove the background and replace it with something else.

So, using my rather unimpressive GiMP skills, I created this version of the image with the blue box removed.

Mike Stead created this quick image.

And I produced this (rather obvious) effort.

You can download the original image or my alteration with the transparency.

I nominally joined in and took this selection of some of the more humorous signs I found.

The photos seemed to go down well on Twitter – this one had 15,000 views and reached at least 26,000 users. If you’re interested in using / licensing them, please use the high resolution images on Demotix.

I emailed the manufacturers to see if they had any objections – and to see if they were releasing any updates. With their kind permission, I’m posting their reply in full.

Dear Mr Eden,

We are delighted that you love our game ‘Ex Libris’ and understand your frustration about the limited number of cards in the pack, but I’m afraid that we would strongly object to you creating ‘ unofficial’ new cards for Ex Libris that you either publish or post on your web site.

We have several reasons for objecting, but the primary reason is that you would be breaking all manner of copyright laws (UK and US) in publishing these cards without the permission of the author/publisher/agent of any work still within copyright. As I am sure you know, a book does not come out of copyright until at least 50 years after the death of its author. We would be exceedingly unhappy if you were to even suggest that your cards are ‘New Cards for the Game of Ex Libris’. This would create the impression of an association between Oxford Games and yourself, which does not exist.

As you may imagine, it took a considerable effort to obtain the necessary permissions for cards in the original deck. And some authors’ estates did not grant permission (Agatha Christie’s for one) even though we produce Ex Libris in association with the Bodleian and British Libraries.

Finally, please be aware that we are currently working on a new set of cards for Ex Libris, which we may make available online in some form or another. We will keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I trust you understand that , well intentioned as they certainly are, we cannot endorse your efforts.

Kind regards

Leslie Scott

Oxford Games Ltd

So, the good news is new cards are coming! The bad news is that I cannot (legally) create my own to share (freely or not). To make it clear, I did not intend to create an impression of any association with Oxford Games.

I am particularly indebted to Emily Goodhand – aka “CopyrightGirl” – for providing a some advice.

@edent mm interesting idea, looks like a fun game too! I wonder if the game is licensed itself? Well, given that Infopaq decided that 11..

08/11/2011 14:55 via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@copyrightgirl

Emily Goodhand

@edent words constituted a substantial part, the chances are that the reproduction of a paragraph is going to infringe if you sell it..

08/11/2011 14:56 via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@copyrightgirl

Emily Goodhand

@copyrightgirl fair enough. To give the cards away for free would also need permission?But, yes, great game. Worth buying :-)Thanks!

08/11/2011 14:59 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

@edent it'd have to fall under a defence but I can't think of one that it would count as... :-s

08/11/2011 15:13 via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@copyrightgirl

Emily Goodhand

The “Infopaq” comment refers to a European Court of Justice decision which stated that even an 11 words excerpt was copyright infringing.

Which, is a bit annoying, but there we go. There is nothing to stop me creating cards for my own private use – or even creating cards from books in the public domain. But nothing from works still in copyright.

Many thanks to Leslie at Oxford Games for the swift and courteous response.

Here are the rules:

• Everyone has to write the opening line of a novel, based on the novel’s summary.
• One player has the real opening line to copy down.
• One other player (the guesser) has to guess which of the opening lines is the real one.
• If you fool the guesser, you win the point. If the guesser is correct, she gets the point.

Simple and perfect. You don’t need to be well read – you just need enough of an imagination to write what you think someone else will think the opening line of a novel is.

There’s a minor problem – there are only a limited number of cards and none of them are very new. There’s no Harry Potter, We Need To Talk About Kevin, or American Gods.

As with any game, it can get a little bit repetitive – once you’ve played it a dozen times it can become a bit obvious which are the real extracts from the books.

So, what’s needed is a whole set of new cards.

The rules say:

Each card gives you the title, author and plot summary of a novel or short story.

The card also has the opening and closing sentence of the book.

So, for example, the new card for John le Carré’s “Our Kind of Traitor” would say (SPOILER WARNING!)

Title: Our Kind Of Traitor
Author: John le Carré
Plot: A young Oxford academic and his girlfriend take a holiday to Antigua. By chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. Dima propels the young lovers on a journey to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain’s Intelligence Establishment.

Opening Line: “At seven o’clock of a Caribbean morning, on the island of Antigua, one Peregrine Makepiece, otherwise known as Perry, an all-round amateur athlete of distinction and until recently tutor in English literature at a distinguished Oxford college, played three sets of tennis against a muscular, stiff-backed, bald, brown-eyed Russian man of dignified bearing in his middle fifties called Dima.”

Closing Line: “Was it sex? Was it drugs? Was it arms? For want of a shred of evidence it was none of them. Terror, the great catch-all these days, has also been considered, but rejected out of hand. No group has claimed responsibility.”

Making It Happen

I was planning on writing a Calibre Plugin to automate the generation of cards from my fulsome library.
It would be fairly easy to extract the author, summary, and cover image.
However, finding the first line from a book is a slightly tricky matter – not to mention how you determine where the last line is.

So I think I’ll stick to manually for the time being.

I think this could be a great way to revatilise a wonderful game. Only a few – non-technical – problems.

Would I face a massive lawsuit from the good folk at Oxford Games? Would the insanity of the UK’s copyright laws stop me?

More importantly, would anyone be interested in this? If you’re an Ex Libris player and would be interested in some new cards – please leave a comment on this post!

A great article discussing the role of the Wikipedian in residence and how QRpedia codes have taken off there.

Derby Museum using multilingual QR codes from Andrew James Sykes on Vimeo.

In 2011 Wikipedians wrote and translated 1200 new articles to allow the museums objects to read in over a dozen languages using QRpedia codes.

• Verizon Droid
• Stock Market
• Hotels

Errr…..? What? If you’re following me on Twitter for any of the above, perhaps you’d like to consider your life choices.

So, I opted-out of Klout.

Their opt-out page is full of feel-good nonsense to try and convince people not to remove their own profile. It didn’t work on me. They asked for my reasons for leaving, and this is what I told them:

Three reasons.
1) You think I’m influential about things that I’ve never tweeted about (Stock market? Verizon?)
2) I didn’t ask to sign up.
3) It’s taken you too long to offer this opt-out. If I’d known from the start I could have opted out, I would have been fairly relaxed. The fact that you’ve resisted for so long to offer the opt-out makes me think you’re not trustworthy.

I am indebted to LoudMouthMan for taking Klout to task. I’m sure that without his persistence, Klout would still be peddling lies about me.

For a good overview of why “influence measument” site like Klout don’t really work, read The Fallacy of Presumed Influence by Jonathan Macdonald.

You can see all the articles (and their QRpedia codes) – there is also a list of articles which need translating.

QRpedia’s Name

There is some confusion about QRpedia’s name.

@QRpedia please answer me, QRpedia = QR + wikipedia or QR + encyclopedia? I need it as a prooflink for [[ru:QRpedia]].

02/11/2011 20:32 via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@dslrave

Rave

The answer is very simple. The “pedia” isn’t from “Encyclopedia”. It isn’t from “Wikipedia”. It’s an acronym.

• P – Potentially
• E – Every
• D – Device
• I  - Interlanguage
• A – Access

The “QR”, of course, standing for “Quick Response”.

I hope that clears up the matter ;-)

12 months ago, I was working at IPC Media – doing all sorts of interesting mobile stuff for them. Launching around 28 mobile versions of their existing websites.

I then went and joined WAC for a few months, going of to MWC, and really getting stuck in to their standards processes.

I am currently at InMobi – the world’s largest independent mobile advertising network – where I work as the “Developer Community Manager”. Primarily for Europe, but also bits in Africa and the USA.
(As ever, this blog is mine and doesn’t reflect the views of my employers. If you want to, you can read my work blog.)

I’ve also been doing a bit of consulting for a wide range of clients – the Natural History Museum, B&Q, the FCO, and some smaller organisations.

Aside from working and running my own business, I’ve also been attending debates in the House of Commons, jetting off to South Africa, San Francisco, and … errr … Cologne!

I’ve helped launch QRpedia – which has been a fantastic experience.

Dabr is also going from strength to strength.

So, a busy year behind me. From the way things are going, looks to be a busy one ahead of me :-)

The “warning” alleges that a company put a flier through your letterbox claiming that they were unable to deliver a parcel – and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911. Apparently this will immediately charge your phone £315.

Before we go any further, this “warning” is a hoax. The original scam was closed in 2005!

So, why is this propagating now? One reason that I can find is that this misinformation is being spread by Surrey Police.

When people normally receive a chain email they – I hope – do a little bit of research before spreading it to their address book or social network. But when it comes from a highly trusted source like the police, most people would assume that it’s a legitimate source of information.

That said, there are a few “howlers” in this email that should cause anyone to think twice (and I don’t mean the use of Comic Sans!).

Firstly, the CrimeStoppers URL – http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/crime-prevention/helping-prevent-crime/scams/postal-delivery-scam – doesn’t work! Clicking on it redirects you to the front page of the website. There’s a tiny box on there about the scam.

That redirects to http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/fraud/types-of-fraud/common-scams/postal-scam-email-from-parcel-delivery-service-65455465 – which confirms it’s a hoax.

It would be really good if CrimeStoppers could make the hoax warning more prominent on that page.

Secondly, if the police, Trading Standards, and the Post Office all know about this scam – why haven’t they simply shut the number down?

Finally, it’s always worth double-checking, no matter what the providence. A quick Google for 0906 611911 shows hundreds of reputable sites (and the Daily Mail) showing that this is a hoax.

From the perspective of memetics, it’s interesting to see how a highly reputable source can be used for spreading the “infection” of a false meme.

Hopefully, Surrey Police will publish a retraction.

This has been a really tough NaBloPoMo for me. Work has been frantic – meaning that my lunchtime blogging has been restricted to a quick bit of copy editing. I’ve also had some wonderful new toys to play with – which has distracted my attention.

But the biggest problem? My Android phone. Don’t get me wrong, I love Android – but for typing, it’s nowhere nearly as good as my BlackBerry was. I spend a lot of my time on trains, so I’m used to being able to bash out a fairly lengthy post or email. That’s just not possible on my Nexus One.

There are three major problems with the Android’s onscreen keyboard.

• It takes up so much room, you can only see two lines of text. Annoying if you’re writing a long document.
• The accuracy is very hit and miss. It’s no worse than other onscreen keyboards – but it’s just not as good as a physical keyboard.
• The auto-correct feature is pretty good – but I miss the BlackBerry’s integrated spell cheque.

The general consensus on Twitter seems to be that the HTC Desire Z is the best Android phone touting a real keyboard.

I’ve yet to try it – but the keys look similar to the awful N97 “dead flesh” keyboard.

The Motorola Milestone has a better looking keyboard and is a similar price.

I could type around 60WPM on a BlackBerry keyboard – so whichever phone I get needs to be at least as good as RIM’s offering.

With that in mind, I’m also considering going back to BlackBerry – the new Torch 9800 looks incredible.

I’ve been playing on the most recent BlackBerry emulator (something more companies should provide) and it really could be the phone for me. Touchscreen for quick use, keyboard for long messages, I know the email and calendaring options are better than Android. But will I find OS6 too restrictive after the freedom of Android?

There’s also Windows Phone 7 to consider. I really like what I’ve seen of WP7 – but there aren’t any phone with keyboards available in the UK. Both the Dell Venue Pro and the LG Optimus 7Q may make it over here – but there are no timelines.

Finally, there’s the BlueTooth keyboard accessory. Amazon have Mini Bluetooth Keyboards from £15 – although some of the high end ones go for ten times that.

It would mean carrying yet another gadget – to go with the phone, solar charger, video glasses, Kindle and whatever else I have on my person – but could it bridge the gap? I find that I can’t type for very long on a laptop keyboard. The only device I’m comfortable typing on with all 10 fingers is a Microsoft 4000 Ergonomic (although I’d love to give a Maltron a try even if they are a bit pricey though). Would a BlueTooth keyboard be as easy to type on?

So, which phone would you go for if you needed to do extended bouts of typing or blogging?

There’s also a confusingly similarly named company called See Film First with broadly similar aims. I’m not sure what, if any, relationship the two have.

Show Film First concentrate mainly on bloggers – getting them to exclusive screenings in the hope that they will generate some online buzz about a movie before release.
To help you on your way to creating a blog, they’ve created a handy (if somewhat patronising) guide to blogging movie reviews.

I can highly recommend signing up to the services if you’re interested in movies. The films I’ve seen have been a mixture of blockbusters (which probably don’t need that much more buzz) and smaller films (which probably benefit the most).

On Saturday the 4th of December, Show Film First are holding an Online Opinion Former’s Showcase. 7 hours of movies, trailers, and panel discussions in The Empire, Leicester Square. There is an admin charge of £10 – but I think that’s well worth it considering what’s on offer.

• 8.45 – Intro
• 9:00 – Part 1: showreel of the next quarter’s trailers
• 9.30 – Film 1
• 11.30 – Panel discussion ‘Building an online film audience’ led by Charles Gant (Heat, Guardian and Variety)
• 12.10 – Q&A opportunity
• 12.30 – Short break (lunch is not provided but apart from cinema concessions there are several food outlets in close proximity.)
• 1.00 – Part 2: showreel of the next quarter’s trailers
• 1.30 – An important Film issue Q&A
• 2.00 – Film 2
• 4.00 – End

Writing about the films is embargoed until the next day, and they’re not releasing the titles of the films yet. They do say:

both films are previews, one releases later in December and one early 2011 and we’re confident you wont be disappointed.

My guess is that one will be Tron. Although I’d dearly love the second to be the next Harry Potter installment, I think it’s more likely to be one of the other upcoming films.

You can follow ShowFilmFirst on Twitter and register on their website.

Legend Of The Fist

I attended a bloggers preview of Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen last week. Here’s the trailer.

The film starts will a brilliant premise – Kung Fu vs the Nazis! What’s not to love about that? Who wouldn’t want to watch a couple of hours swastikas against shurikens?

Sadly, the film then diverts into a not very subtle “homage” to Casablanca. The plotting is confusing – especially if you’re not well versed in the lore of Chen Zhen – or the television series Fist of Fury, of which this is a sequel. I also found it to be highly nationalistic – almost to the point of propaganda.

There’s no doubt that Donnie Yen is a talented martial artist, but from the editing of this film, it’s very hard to tell. Kung Fu movies have traditionally relied on fast editing to make the action look more dramatic than it is. Legend of the Fist contains so many sub-second edits that it’s hard to follow the action – the viewer can’t even determine whose foot is kicking whose face. The speed at which the cuts happen mean that you lose all the majesty and beauty of the balletic battle.

Take a look at this scene from Jackie Chan’s “Rumble In the Bronx”

Yes, the editing is fast – but it lingers long enough so that we can see the sheer skill of the performers. Donnie Yen may as well not have been in Legend of the Fist – the fights are that quickly cut.

Overall, it’s certainly a “wait for DVD film” – and only then if you’re happy to put up with long gaps between the chaotic violence.

Planning what I want to have for dinner in the evening is an unfathomable prospect. I can’t comprehend how friends can have calendars showing every meal for the week in advance. To me, that’s a crazy, OCD-esque level of organisation.

I am simultaneously bemused and full of admiration for people like SpaceKate – she has goal to get to space in the next 10 years.

Comedian – and blogger for 9 years! – Richard Herring has asked readers what their goals are for the next two years, saying:

I will put it in tomorrow’s blog and then you can update me in two years and let me know if you’ve done it. Doesn’t matter if you fail. Try again, fail again, fail better.

I struggle to imagine what I’ll be doing two weeks from now. I’m dreadful at organising my own birthdays – and I have at least a year to plan for them.

But two years…. That’s sufficiently far away that I don’t really have to think about doing anything about them for a long, long time.

So, here goes. My hyper-exciting “To-Do” list for the next two years…

Personal List

• Give Blood
  • I’ve several friends who give blood regularly – yet I’ve never done it. I’m lucky never to have needed blood before. I don’t even know my own blood type. There’s no real reason not to have done so; I’ve not got a crippling fear of needles.
  • Likelihood: 5/5
• Learn Chinese Again.
  • I studied Mandarin Chinese at University and did rather well at it. I’d like to get back to the stage where I can read and write at a GCSE sort of level.
  • Likelihood: 2/5
• Visit China
  • A long international trip may be expensive, but I think it would be worth it. It would also spur on my re-learning of Chinese. Yes, I know they have an appalling human rights record – and that flying releases tons of CO2. But… errr…. No, I have no other real defence than “I want to.”
  • Likelihood: 3/5
• Not have children
  • Look, I’m sure your children are lovely, but I don’t want any of my own. Like Bruce Lawson, I was considering having surgery to ensure I remain child-free (not child-less) – but I’m not sure about the side effects.
  • Likelihood: 5/5 of no kids. 1/5 for having the snip. 4/5 if Ultrasound proves successful.

Professional List

• Speak at more conferences
  • This is the easiest item on the list. I’ve already got a few lined up for this year and next. But it does require me pulling my finger out and start pursuing more opportunities.
  • Likelihood: 5/5
• Do more consulting
  • Since I started consulting, I’ve already bagged a few big companies and a few small businesses. Even if I do take on a full time role, I hope I can keep advising people about mobile related things.
  • Likelihood: 4/5
• Write A Book
  • I’ve been faffing around trying to write up my Mobile Badvertising posts as a (free?) eBook. I’d like to get that finished and (self?) published.
  • Likelihood: 2/5
• Maybe, perhaps, think about a Masters Degree
  • I have a Bachelors Degree (2.1 since you ask) – but by the end of studying, I really didn’t enjoy the degree experience. Since then, I’ve tried taking formal courses in other fields (marketing, programming) but I’ve found them unsatisfying compared to informal study. I don’t know if I have the discipline to do a part-time course, but I’m achingly aware that many of the roles I look at seem to require a Masters.
  • Likelihood: 0.25/5

What Else

These lists are crap. I know that. I’ve always lived without goals. I wait to see what opportunities present themselves and then I take them without much consideration of the next six weeks – let alone six months. Is that normal? Is that good?

Do you set goals? Do they make you feel happier? Do you feel that goals help you achieve more? Is there any thing else I should be doing? Do let me know in the comments.

I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar!

Regardless of what the book means, it is a beautiful and mysterious work of art. And I want to read it on my Kindle!

Archive.org has an ebook version of the Voynich Manuscript, but it has gone through a bizarre OCR process which, unsurprisingly, leaves it unreadable. So I’ve decided to roll my own!

Getting The Manuscript

The PDF on Archive.org is a bit cumbersome and doesn’t work very well on Kindle or other readers.
The Yale site has all the scans available as high-res JPGs or MrSIDs – but it’s a pain to download hundreds of images from the site.
So – I turned to a torrent. Don’t worry! These images are hundred of years old – they are in the public domain.

The Original Image

The images I obtained are extremely high resolution scans of the manuscript.

I’ve shrunk down the above image – here is a detail of it, so you can see just how high quality the scans are.

A typical page is 3MB – taking the whole book to around 700MB. There’s easily enough space on the Kindle, but the time to render every page will be prohibitively long.

Crop and Resize

Firstly, the image needs to be cropped to the same aspect ratio as the Kindle screen (0.75), then resized to 600*800.

From 3MB, the image is now 111KB.

Greyscale

eInk typically only handles greyscale images. So I dropped the colours out of the image.

This takes the file size to under 100KB.

We can make the image marginally clearer to read by dumbly removing the background colour.

As you can see, this doesn’t look wonderful – many details are lost and there are odd looking artefacts throughout the image.

How They Look On The Kindle

The images look fantastic on the Kindle.

The full page - click for bigger

The coloured image - click for bigger

Black and White Screenshot - click for bigger

Clear Background Screenshot - click for bigger

It turns out that there’s no real need to remove the background colours – although it does make it maginally clearer. Changing the the image to greyscale also has little appreciable difference. I think I’ll probably keep them in colour so that future ebook readers can see them in all their glory.

Incidentally, I tried the high-resolution file. The kindle took around 30 seconds to render it. Here’s a quick screen grab of it fully zoomed in.

Full Size Screenshot - click for bigger

TODO

This is a work in progress. Converting several hundred images will take a fair bit of time – unless I fully automate it and drop the cropping.
The Kindle can be hacked to display images (or use them as screensavers) – but I will convert the images into an ePub and Mobi so they can be easily read by all eReaders.
Once done, I’m sure the mysteries of the universe will be revealed to me!

Close Up of the QR Code

YouTube Video

The code immediately directs the user to YouTube to watch a video.

Two Ways To Make The Campaign Better

1. Use a smaller URL to create an easier to scan QR Code. Eastpak currently use http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1fBMmR103Q – they could drop the www to make it slightly smaller, or use “m.” so people know they’re going to a mobile site. Even better, use YouTube’s URL shortner and send people to http://youtu.be/V1fBMmR103Q
2. Ensure the content is suitable for mobile. YouTube makes its videos available – but doesn’t provide any extended functionality. For example, on the YouTube website, the user is presented with two clickable links.
   
   On the mobile video, the choice is presented, but the “Yes” and “No” aren’t clickable.
   
   It may well have been worth creating a video specifically for mobile.

Thanks to The 405 for picking me as one of their favourites.

You can check out the other entrants on Facebook – don’t worry, you don’t have to vote for me!

You can also find GeekOfTheYearUK on Twitter.

This prompted Steve Wallach to say…

“we could get 100,000 [Android phones], hooked up together, and we would have the world’s fastest Linpack that no one could exceed for a long time.”

What a thought! Would it be possible to organise a flashmob – albeit a humongous one – to create the world’s first Android powered super-computer? My mind started spinning. With the number of Android phones sold per quarter now exceeding Apple and gaining fast on Nokia – how long before a moderately sized group of people could gather and call themselves one of the 500 fastest computers in the world?

The Facts

The slowest computer in the Top500 list is ComputaCenter’s Cluster Platform 3000 with a mere 31.11 TFlops.

Hang on! What’s a TFlop?

A “FLOP” is, quite simply, a measure of how many mathematical operations a computer can make per second.

A TerraFLOPS is 1,000 GigaFLOPS which is 1,000 MegaFLOPS which is 1,000 KiloFLOPS which is 1,000 FLOPS.

So, 1,000,000,000,000,000 mathematical operations per second.

How Fast Are Android Phones?

Here’s a screenshot of my Google Nexus One.

Ah… Do I have a particularly slow phone? No, not really.
Linpack holds top 10 speed records for a variety of devices. The highest a normal Android device can get is usually under 60 MFLOPS. Some overclockers have managed to crank their devices to 90 MFLOPS and one has got up to 250 MFLOPS.

The Mathematics

The least fast computer in the top 500 rates at 31.11 TFLOPS – which is 31,110,000 MFLOPS.

Even at 100 MFLOPS per phone, we would need to hook together 311,100 Android phones to get within a sniff of the Top500 Super Computer list. A few more than can comfortably fit in Trafalgar Square.

But let’s not give up just yet. London’s new Olympic stadium will have a capacity of 80,000 – and Wembley Stadium has a capacity of 105,000 (90k seated).

Moore’s law states that we should see a doubling of computer power in the next 18 months. So, if we could get 105 thousand Android users gathered together with a brand new “Nexus 3″ running at 300MFLOPS – we’d just about edge into the top 500. Although that assumes that there were no new entries!

So, come on Google! How about that for an Android event? Over a hundred thousand Android users gathered in one place to set a super-computing record. That would be awesome!