Frags

Conclusion fragments of the research I've been doing over the last few hours:

(1)
Fragment: Fedora Core version 4 is out on March 16th.
Importance: May have to update the current version on the firewall (v3).

(2)
Frag: Livedoor edges up and gains 40% in the Fuji Media Group. 30-something CEO Horie says he wants to merge online info with news media.
Impo: If he starts aggregating blogs with real news, google.news-like, then you create an online-traditional broadcast merger. There is opportunity for NaviBlog to shift from an online-only-known LBS to TV fame and then out to the various secondary media, books, mags, paper, without any effort. This then loops back into blogs, into search engines, and again out into the media and so on.
If we get in quickly on this, maximum effect. If not, others will use this and the effect will be diluted very soon. The question is how do you get a foot in the door? Maybe just that, go there and put foot in the CEO office door and do elevator test (10s) for what it's worth.

(3)
Frag: KDDI "au" mobile users jump to 19m users, 17m of those 3G mobile phones. (New-generation flat-rate internet usage) WIN-series mobile phone users hover around 2m now, headed for 3m+ by end March.
Impo: Virtually all (90%+) latest phone models (WIN/not WIN) are GPS-enabled. Some are realtime GPS, some just spot-GPS. The problem with adoption of location services such as NaviBlog is you have to pay each time you go to the server to pick up information. With the new flat-rate internet rate WIN phones (they go up to 2Mbps of speed, which is more or less what I'm getting at home...), the barrier goes down and you can download freely anything and any number of times. This also means that WIN users now comprise nearly 2% of the Japanese population, and growing.

(4)
Frag: Japanese map-makers Zenlin offer a navigation service that gives you the fastest route, not only for roads, but also including park paths, underground passes, subway underpasses etc.
Impo: Mmm, interesting but only marginally. Right now few people see the "big deal" in GPS technology. They have it, use it once or twice and say "it's useful" but that's about it. We have to fill that gap with something addictive, fun, interesting, worthwhile and safe. Sorry, but moving from 2D to 3D doesn't cut it.

(5)
Frag: DoCoMo tests 3D GPS navigation in the central Marunouchi area of Tokyo
Impo: Well, that means that 3D navigation on DoCoMo phones is about 2-3 years away. But they don't seem to be in a hurry to include it on their phones: there are only 2 models (only 1 at the shop stands though) in their lineup that can do GPS.

(6)
Frag: DoCoMo offers the IT@SEA service, which offers point seafaring information, typhoon checks etc. on the only GPS phone still around (F505iGPS)
Impo: Very good application, but benefits from neither the WIN flat rates or realtime navigation. Nor does it add blog functionality, say leaving info for dangerous areas - such as invisible flats where ships could run ashore/scrape their hulls (=Yens in damage) - or just friendly updates (ie. good fishing spots that day) for the next fisher/sailor... All the more for us.

(7)
Frag: Apache Forrest, a free server environment built on the XML application framework Cocoon, built in order to make it very easy and extremely fast to setup small web pages.
Impo: Could use this as it works with the blog digest delivery technology RSS , and also works with numerous picture formats. Not sure if it works with movie formats, but it doesn't look as if that were a problem. Don't know how it connects to proprietary databases such as Oracle...

(8)
Frag: HP and Intel criticise Oracle for pay-by-core licensing
Impo: I feel the same: I just have one server and if I'm not careful and it is set up as 2 processors, then I have to buy double the licenses. So when you have 4 servers, it's a royal pain like for me. What do you do with a bank of thousands of database servers? The answer is simple. Either you buy an older processor server or you go and buy another database software... and if you don't want to do that, well you pay a lot more money (double or quadruple etc. depending on if you're getting the latest servers) and get frustrated and mad. By the way, Oracle is great but one of the most expensive packages on the market, so they could make it cheaper for all of us. Microsoft plays the same game. (http://news.com.com/2100-1006_3-5572958.html)

(9)
Frag: Red Hat for Enterprise new version out on Thursday
Impo: This is the newer version for the Linux we want to install on our servers. But to be honest, although it has more security built-in after working with the US National Security Agency (CIA anyone?), I think it's going to be sturdier, cheaper and more hassle-free to work with what's out there and there are a lot of books on the subject too.