Vicky Lalwani

I doubt this is real, but I thought it was rather funny.

Mark Cohen bought this article to my attention. It states that LimitNone, a company that developed an application, about a year ago, would allow users who use Microsoft Outlook to export all its contents into Gmail.

Back in 2007, LimitNone demo’ed the software to Google’s senior executives and were assured by Google that they would not roll out a competing product, but would instead work with LimitNone to roll it out.

However, all that changed when Google produced its own Google Email Uploader, an app similar to LimitNone’s gMove.

Originally LimitNone’s app was called MY GRATE, but on Google’s recommendation they renamed it to gMove.

“Google claims its core philosophy is ‘Don’t be evil’ but, simply put, they invited us to work with them, to trust them — and then stole our technology,” said Ray Glassman, CEO of LimitNone, in a prepared statement.

LimitNone claims the damaged to be worth US$1 Billion

Don’t be evil eh?

After dropping out from Harvard, and spending most of his day in a garage back in 1970s, multi-billionaire Bill Gates will be leaving Microsoft this week.

It has taken 3 people to fill the shoes of the man who started it all. Chief Software Architect will be Ray Ozzie, Chief Research and Strategy Office will be Craig Mundie and infamous Steve Ballmer will be the CEO.

While Bill will stay on Microsoft board as Chairman, his focus will be on his personal charity - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Analysts say that Bill leaving could impact the direction or image of the company. Bill Gates is the heart of Microsoft, and he pushed it to where it is today. With his departure, the executive directors are all responsible to preserve that image.

It has taken 1 year for Bill Gates to officially step out of this position to hand over to the above 3 mentioned successors. However, in that past year while Bill has stepped away from the operation management of Microsoft, several hiccups have been made. For example, launching the new Office and Windows platforms - it’s been a year since those products have been released, but the strategy of them replacing its predecessors haven’t been successful. In fact, customers prefer to stay on XP rather than upgrading.

It’s almost like Microsoft has no answer in what to do next - and all this while Apple’s OS is gaining traction.

Aside from the Desktop Market, Microsoft has to deal with it’s ever-growing competitor Google - who now offer free online document collaboration tools called Google Docs.

Then there was the whole failure of Microsoft - Yahoo takeover of nearly US$50 billion.

On the flip side, the server and tools division are the bread and butter of Microsoft’s profits. While it’s entertainment unit, which makes Xbox and it’s games are yet to record a profit.

A founder and CEO of a company has so much more value added that they are sometimes invisible to where the company is heading - though they are the ones making those little tweaks which are often never realised.

Did Gates leave at the right time? Will he ever come back? Where will Microsoft be positioned in 5 to 10 years time?

At first I was a bit sceptical about the Foxtel contractors turning up between their proposed hour of 7am and 12noon. It was 9:45am, and I had decided to call up Foxtel. After waiting for about 5 mins, I got through to a representative who confirmed that the contractor is due to come out today and will call an hour before arriving.
 
My intercom buzzes at 10:30 and it was the contractor (though he didn’t call me and hour before arriving). I wasn’t going to complain - he walked on in and checked my TV and set it all up in about 10 mins.
 
Since he had replaced the smart card with a new one, he had to call Foxtel technical support to make the change. At first I thought he would have his special number to get straight through to a support representative - wrong! He had to wait for 20 mins (a taste of their own medicine) before he could get someone at their technical support end to activate the card.
 
25 mins later, and he started his demo on how to record, pause live TV, schedule a record, and record a series of episodes. All in all, within 40 mins I was up and running with IQ2.
 
Am I pleased? Very much so.
 
Is it worth the money? Very much so.
 
So let me explain why:
 
1) Pause live TV.
You know the times when you are focused on watching something on TV but the other people around you just want to talk or if your mobile phone goes off, well I now do one simple thing - hit the pause button. That pauses live TV broadcast, and the room is silent to finish the conversation. Once you’re ready, hit the play button and you are back onto watching from when you paused.
 
If there are ads in this program that have been recorded in the background while you have it paused, you can simply fast forward through them (eventually you will catch up to live broadcast if you keep forwarding).
 
2) Recording TV
I love watching the F1, but I love sleeping even more. Given the time zone differences, the European F1 races are broadcasted here between 11pm and 2am. I simply hit the record button the scheduler and I can watch it at my own ease on Monday evening after work. And since you can watch the local HD channels through IQ2, I can record it at even better quality. I can keep my recordings for as long as I want, understanding that it takes up hard drive space.
 
3) Planning my TV from work
Foxtel has an online TV guide where you can register online and link your Foxtel account with your online profile. Therefore from work, I can log on and select what I want my IQ2 box at home to record while I am at work or remind me when I am at home.

4) HD channels
While there aren’t many channels on HD yet, all the local channels are available and the same with Discovery, National Geographic, BBC, Foxsports and ESPN. I never had IQ before, so not having to buy a seperate HD box is a bit of a relief.

The above 4 points are worth the extra $20 a month for me.

Seen on www.smh.com.au this morning. On the above image, you see an article about obesity and then right below a recipe for making your own chocolate wagon wheels. I think that explains why Australia is obese.

Want to get active? Go to www.getmeactive.com/beta

See on

BMW has come up with a concept car built from stretchable fabric that moulds into any shape. The fabric covers a strong metal structure which is controllable by the driver. In essence it gives the driver the ability to choose how the hydraulic structure should be in order to change the outer look of the car.

This is another Chris Bangle design, and the below video has him describing about the car.

While driving, certain smarts can change the body structure and the fabric stretches to provide aerodynamic changes. One of the coolest things I liked, was the way the headlights come up. Have a look at the video and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

I doubt this will ever to go production, but it’s good to see where BMW’s profits are being spent - taxable R&D!

Over the weekend, I spent time at the Hunter Valley - and Robert’s restaurant is one that you shouldn’t miss to have lunch or dinner at.

We stayed at the Peppers Convent, and the restaurant is no more than 5 mins walk from the accomodation on Halls Road, Pokolbin.

Originally started up by Robert and Sally Molines, we hear that they are no longers the one running the show. They have apparently started a restaurant of their own called Molines.

This beautifully decked out restaurant has a more intimate style dining experience and the service is of good quality.

The difference I noticed about this restaurant compared to your standard, is the fact that you have a flat $90 set menu (drinks and sides are extra). $90 includes an entree, main and dessert.

I started off with a beetroot and cheese filled puff pastry which had such beautiful flavour. However, towards the end of the dish, I felt that the pastry started to feel very heavy.

My main course was a rack of lamb which to be honest was very meaty and I felt quite full by the end of it. It wasn’t as flavoursome as the menu described it.

Dessert was strawberry mousse in a fancy shaped martini glass. I felt that it was a lot thicker than your average mousse, however the berry flavours did leave a refresh taste in my mouth.

We had a bottle of Bremerton Verdelho during dinner, and it was actually quite an easy wine to drink with both my entree and main.

Compared to my last trip to Roberts in December 07, I feel that the quality of food has now somewhat dropped. Possibly because Robert Molines no longer works there and that the new chef needs a bit more training from the man himself.

Atmosphere - 9/10
Food - 7/10
Wine - 8/10
Staff - 7.5/10
Value for money - 8.5/10

An article I read during the week on SMH boasted Microsoft’s Surface application which is being used at a bar in Las Vegas.

Microsoft, together with Harrah’s Entertainment, allows it’s users to use Surface to order drinks, watch You Tube Videos, play touch type games and even flirt with other users.

Being all touch screen, there is not input devices besides your fingers that are required for the interaction. Each of these touch screen devices go for US$10,000

The system is smart enough to record behavioural patterns and can be used, for e.g., to track a user’s gambling habits.

Another application that was used in this Las Vegas bar is called Mixologists. Through touch screen selection, the user can create a cocktail with their choice of alcohol and send the order through to the bartender (that would be something I’d love to see at the bars in Sydney).

Harrah’s claim that they are trying to make systems more networked. So if you order a drink at a bar, and later use of the touch screen applications down at the casino, it will remember your profile and offer you the same drink again.

After making a deal with YouTube, Harrah’s entertainment systems allow people to access YouTube videos to watch on their touch screen devices.

Flirt, is another application used on these devices and it allows users to text or video chat, take and email pictures and exchange contact details - another dimension to meeting people in a bar.

Playing games, seeing the bar menu, getting local information, etc, are some of the unlimited capabilities of this system. You can only but imagine what sort of applications bars, casinos and retail shops can add on to this.

A few companies have signed up to this idea, including some casinos (imagine playing roulette on this!) as well as hotel groups such as Starwood Hotels and Resorts in conjunction with T-Mobile.

One thing I remember reading ages ago, was that if you put your mobile device (or camera) on the table on the Surface application, it will attempt to connect, via bluetooth (or otherwise) and be able to access content from your phone such as pictures taken and so on.

A brilliant concept, and a new way of digital interaction on your finger tips (literally!)

To view some videos by Microsoft, have a look here:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/videos.html

For those who do not know the infamous story of Kerry Packer and Alan Bond, here goes:

Back in 1987, Kerry Packer sold Australia’s Nine Network to Alan Bond for AU$1.05 Billion.

3 years later, Alan Bond’s company went down and the network was in trouble. Kerry bought it back for a mere $250 million.

Today Nine Network is still part owned and operated by the Packer family.

Now, James Packer (son of Kerry) has been on the Alan Bond side of a recent business transaction.

In 2007 James’s company, PBL, along with their partnership with Microsoft, bought Myhome.com.au from Shane Dale for AU$8 million.

A year later, and the site was recently closed down a couple of weeks ago. PBL is estimated to have spent $20 million on Myhome.com.au with no gains.

Media claims that Shane Dale, recently bought back Myhome.com.au for AU$1.8 million. However, Mr Dale said the numbers are not right, but did not confirm its accuracy.

It is apparent that PBL and Microsoft / Ninemsn had no real understanding of the online real estate market.

What are you going to do with MyHome.com.au, Shane?