netzooid

I’ve been working off and on in the logistics field for a while now writing software. Logistics is fascinating to me – its one big optimization problem that never ends. But, for the most part logistics people aren’t tech savvy, so the software and logistics industries haven’t seemed to mesh well in my opinion. So its good to see logisitics bloggers like Michael Connor. He’s only posted two articles so far, but the one today on managing GIS data is chock full of useful information (at least to me…).

I’ve also noticed a couple other logistics news sites lately with RSS feeds:

• Logistics Today
• RFID Weblog
• Supply Chain Digest
• Supply Chain Systems Magazine

And if you’re really desperate, I have a del.icio.us logistics category.

If you know of any more good blogs or sites, let me know!

Dion Almaer has good article on OpenXource’s “Crossings” about open data vs. open source in then enterprise. He fights against the myth that “if it is opensource, it is better” – pointing out that what we really need are open interfaces.

First, the del.icio.us popular feed is one of my favorite things ever. I’ve discovered so many great things from it. The latest is RSS Calendar. RSS calendar allows you to maintain a calendar of events on the web. Once an event is entered, it’ll show up in your event feeds. For instance, I’m going to see HEM on Wednesday. The event will pop in my daily feed on Wednesday, my weekly feed a week beforehand, my monthly feed…you get the point. You’ll notice on the left hand of my website an aggregated feed of events which show this in action.

In the event description you’ll see that there are VCal and ICal files for the event. But this whole scenario is missing something : plugins for Outlook, iCal, Sunbird, and other calendaring software which looks at your feed and automatically imports the events. Then, I’d have a web calendar that not only integrated with my aggregator, but it’d sync nicely with all my different software.

I might be able to have a cut an Outlook plugin. Any other takers?

Robert Paterson has been writing on the future of TV. I have commented a little on it before. Presently I only see the channel model at work which we’ve inherited from TV. Even in the new web TV initiatives. The alternative that I see right now is the podcast model. Customers can subscribe to an RSS/Atom feed. While creating an open method for people to distribute content what about channel flipping? How do I discover new channels?

A couple ideas…

1. Recommendation engine (like Amazon’s)
2. Rating system (flip through top rated feeds)
3. Related feeds

How to explode TV news in four easy steps is an absolute must read on the future of TV for anyone in the media business (via thelongtail.com). Jeff outlines several steps to succeeding in the future:

1. Slice
2. Add
3. Link
4. Listen

All of these are absolutely critical in my opinion. I really like the idea of slicing media coming in smaller chunks. It allows many more possiblities in addition to the increase in viewership Jeff mentions.

In the following post on Dan Rather he says:

…trust is still important. In fact, in this new, distributed world of ours, it is even more important. Trust is our organizing principle. Trust is what makes weblogs, Technorati, eBay, Craigs List, RSS, chat, and email work: We pay attention to those we trust; we filter out the rest. We each decide whom to trust; it’s no longer decided for all of us.

Again, I think he is dead on. But, I would like to highlight that I think this is a naive sense of trust. We listen to people because they confirm our views and hence “trust” them.

Jeff Bezos says in a Wired interview:

“About three years ago we stopped doing television advertising. We did a 15-month-long test of TV advertising in two markets – Portland, Oregon, and Minneapolis – to see how much it drove our sales. And it worked, but not as much as the kind of price elasticity we knew we could get from taking those ad dollars and giving them back to consumers. So we put all that money into lower product prices and free shipping. That has significantly accelerated the growth of our business….more and more money will go into making a great customer experience, and less will go into shouting about the service. Word of mouth is becoming more powerful. If you offer a great service, people find out. ”

He’s talking about why Amazon would be a good fit for the video rental business. Now, I would just like point out some numbers which show how dead on Bezos is: Netflix, spent 16% of their net sales on marketing in the 3rd quarter of 2004. Amazon spent 2.3%.

What I want to know is what effect blogs have on a retailer like Amazon. How much does the linking drive up their sales?

Recently, I have been intrigued with the idea of a camera phone barcode reader. Unfortunately the idea is not my own. Semacode long ago (in internet time) created a 2D barcode reader for a bunch of camera phones. 2D barcodes are like the normal barcodes you see, but add a second dimension so they are a matrix of black and white squares. I had an Intermec Pocket PC a while back and I scanned in a 2D barcode on a UPS package. I was amazed at all the information it could hold. It contained my tracking number, name, address, phone number(s), and more. Semacode marketed it as a way to transfer information into electronic devices. Semacode was hoping people would start printing these 2D barcodes on business cards so people could read in contact information easily.

As I’m sure you’ve gathered not many people use 2D barcodes. However, there are an abundance of regular ol’ one dimensional barcodes out there. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a 1D barcode reader for a phone? Then, when I was at Barnes I could scan a book and get reviews off from Amazon. Or I could do a price comparison.

I think news on the content distribution is happening faster than I can read it some days. Today, MSN lauches their video downloads service. They have partnerships with NBC, Fox, IFILM, MTF, Food Network and more. Cost: $19.95/mo. Not bad compared to cable.

Whats more is that for us Pocket PC users we’ll be able to download it right to our device. AND, if you have a smart phone or pocket pc phone you’ll be able to get content on it wirelessly. While I don’t watch TV other than the occassional Futurama rerun, this still seems pretty cool.

(via paidcontent.org)

From an interview on CNET

What do you think of Apple’s success so far? I mean, they clearly have had a hit with the iPod.
Absolutely. They had a hit with the Apple II, they had a hit with the Macintosh, and they have a hit with the iPod, so this is a company that’s had three hits, and that’s very impressive. There are a lot of companies that don’t have three hits. And in the same way that Macintosh helped get people exposed to the graphical user interface, the iPod is doing a great job getting people to think about digital music.

Ouch.

Tivo released their TivoToGo service today. In summary, it allows you to watch shows from your (Windows) computer and burn them to DVDs.

This is very disappointing IMO. One, because you can’t stream it to other devices. Second, and more importantly, I think it’d be much better if instead they allowed you to download additional content over the web. Just like DVDs have extra features, so could TV shows. Or people could pull up information on the fly about actors by tying into IMDB. Or they could distribute original content and build their own branded channel of content. Or they could partner with one of the online movie rental providers. Or…. well, there are a lot of possibilities.