Here’s a recommendation for an iPhone app: Trapster. Trapster allows you to view and identify speedtraps. The application even provides a voice warning system to warn you of oncoming known traps.
I have to admit though that I am recommending it for my own benefit. Because trapster is a perfect example of Network Effects.
The standard example to demonstrate Network Effects is the telephone. The more people have and use the telephone, the more valuable the system becomes.
Well with trapster, as people contribute their knowledge of speedtraps, all local trapster users benefit. The application allows you to rate existing traps as well as delete ones on your map.
Even more critical is the ability to identify live speed traps in real-time. I won’t go into the details here of all the features. Best to check the site for that. I have yet to understand how Trapster Trusted Groups work. Perhaps someone can post a comment explaining.
I will however recommend it be used with a car adapter. I have seen it suck the life out of my battery when not connected to a charger.
Does it work?…
I was out for lunch one day with a buddy from work and wanted to demonstrate the voice feature. So we went in search of the closest trap identified, which wasn’t hard to do given the number of traps in the Markham vicinity. As we went approached the voice came on and warned “Warning, approaching common speed trap” or something to that effect. And as we went over the hill I said, “It says the trap is usually over …” and before I could finish my sentence, we both were stunned in silence as we caught the glimpse of a man in uniform pointing his laser gun at us…. Needless to say my buddy was convinced. :)
The app is also available for Blackberry, Andriod phones, etc.
Michael Jackson’s death reminded me of something I recently learned.
I attended defibrillator training at work, one of 4 in case of a medical emergency.
During the course, the instructor stated a fact that shocked me.
In the movies you always see people flat-lining (essentially dying) and being resuscitated using manual CPR or a defibrillator. But the instructor mentioned this is more likely during Ventricle Fibrillation (V-Fib), which is a twitching of the heart muscles which lasts only 6-8 minutes or so, and very unlikely after flat-lining or when the heart completely stops, at which point, according to him, there is roughly only a 0.0001% chance of survival.
Now that we know the goods about the new iPhone 3Gs and have seen the related Rogers pricing, time for me to make up my mind as to whether I will be upgrading my iPhone 3G.
Likely scenario is I’ll grab the new 3Gs for my birthday and my wife will inherit my old 3G (Thanks honey!). She is actually looking for a new plan so I’ll even get to buy it at the $299 price (yes I want my 32GBs).
Back in the 90s there was a big movement within Alternative, Folk Rock, and even mainstream Pop music that focused on songs in minor keys. Very complex and even dark minor chords brought us songs with deeper emotional characteristics, which made me appreciate them more than the standard 3 major chord songs that are fun and light, but not as “intelligent” as its counterpart.
It’s nice to see a few albums come out recently that seem to bring back this style of music, including Swoon by the Silversun Pickups:
With thousands if not hundreds of thousands of young teens addicted to the video games: Rock Band and Guitar Hero, I’m curios to see how this will influence the music scene in the next 5 -10 years.
There are many suggestions as to what Web 3.0 will be. Here is one from Google’s Eric Schmidt that describes it in terms of applications structured based on simple Web services in The Cloud:
Sure.. I’ll accept that. But what about Web 4.0? Here are my thoughts…
Web 1.0 helped connect people to information.
Web 2.0 helped connect people to other people through social networks.
Web 3.0 will help connect Web services in The Cloud to form meaningful situational applications
Web 4.0 will help further connect the physical world to the internet
The Web is often compared to the human brain in its workings. Google, the search engine of the web, was designed around cognitive scientific theory, with its creators fluent in artificial intelligence. If the internet is the world’s brain, then in order to create a Smarter Planet, we need to connect the brain to the physical world. I always thought IBM was behind when it came to Web 2.0… in reality they are simply looking ahead with Web 3.0 (SOA) and now Web 4.0 (Smarter Planet).
To accomplish this sensory devices will be required that can translate physical qualities into data, and log the data chronologically through feeds. This is nothing new. Weather stations provided this type of data for many years now. But we’ll see it more and more in our daily physical lives, here for an example is a plant tweeting its soils moisture condition:
…and the data will become more readily available, immediately, through the internet, The Cloud, in the form of feeds, and processed and abstracted intelligently through layers of Web services or pipes:
Yahoo! Pipes
… the same way our brain processes, translates, and abstracts our own sensory data retrieved from our eyes, nose, hands, tongue, ears, etc.
I may expand on this thought more in future posts… till then it will be stuck in my head.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme” – Mark Twain
Famous words by Mark Twain emphasize my recent observations…
In my previous post called re-80’s, I talked about the cycles of music. I think this cyclic nature is ubiquitous. You see it in music, fashion, politics, and the economy. Not an exact duplication, but almost a refinement. Not a repeat, but a rhyme.
Funny thing is the frequency of this cycle seems to be about 25 years or so. So if this is correct it could explain a few things.
If a parent generation has children in their teens or later in their 30s, a culture gap forms between the generations. If this happens on a large enough scale, say as part of a baby boom, then it’s recognized socially as a generation gap.
Wish I had the time and resources to prove this theory. Until then this theory will simply be stuck in my head…
Even more critical is the ability to identify live speed traps in real-time. I won’t go into the details here of all the features. Best to check the site for that. I have yet to understand how Trapster Trusted Groups work. Perhaps someone can post a comment explaining.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme” – Mark Twain
