BRYSMI

Yesterday, in its latest data-dump of documents, WikiLeaks released over five million emails from the security-analysis company, Stratfor. You may remember that name from a few months back when Stratfor’s website was taken down by hacking group Anonymous. Apparently the two amorphous collectives (WikiLeaks and Anonymous) have been working together to set this information free.

via marketplace.org

There had been a pretty quiet bit of news about them being hacked a couple of months ago. I can’t help but think it was targeted, given their attention to various geopolitical interests. Must have touched a nerve somewhere.

I really enjoyed George Friedman’s [books](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/529579.The_Next_100_Years), which I find to be sobering and insightful. The titles tend to raise a bit of skepticism, but he is up front about how he is only looking at trends, not making predictions. I will be disappointed, whatever the outcome of this debacle.

[[posterous-content:tceixbEhHtimJfrsmriD]]Twilio, the cloud communications platform, is arming app makers with the ability to add Voice over IP (VoIP) features to their iOS apps. With a new Twilio Client for iOS, the company is making it easy for any app with connectivity to incorporate Skype-like functionality.

This should help give rise to even more VoIP apps that can offer free or cheap Wi-Fi calling and even replace traditional phones. But it can also can help transform existing apps that want to add voice interactivity.

via gigaom.com

Hooray for local heroes Twilio. I went to a talk Jeff Lawson gave a couple of years ago, and I was really impressed with him, Twilio, and especially with their technical processes. A/B testing, smart switching between builds (with great tests!) and production, as well as redundancy between Amazon AWS and their other cloud service provider.

ALSO, I had a desktop shortcut that would cause my phone to ring with the TTS message “undifferentiated mucous” (a quote taken from Andy Richter Controls the Universe, for you really weird trivia buffs). I shared it with some people that would use it to get out of conversations — “I have to take this call!”

Later, the bookmark was pulled in to an automated process that would ping URLS on a regular schedule, and one of the devs would get a phone call whenever the script ran.  Hilarity ensued.

• Twilio SDK for iOS Lets Any App Offer VoIP Services (technocraz.com)
• Twilio bringing voice chatting to any iPhone or iPad app (news.cnet.com)
• Twilio makes it a breeze to add voice calling to iOS apps with a new native SDK (thenextweb.com)

Twilio, the cloud communications platform, is arming app makers with the ability to add Voice over IP (VoIP) features to their iOS apps. With a new Twilio Client for iOS, the company is making it easy for any app with connectivity to incorporate Skype-like functionality.

This should help give rise to even more VoIP apps that can offer free or cheap Wi-Fi calling and even replace traditional phones. But it can also can help transform existing apps that want to add voice interactivity.

via gigaom.com

Hooray for local heroes Twilio. I went to a talk Jeff Lawson gave a couple of years ago, and I was really impressed with him, Twilio, and especially with their technical processes. A/B testing, smart switching between builds (with great tests!) and production, as well as redundancy between Amazon AWS and their other

That is the kind of whiz bang future we now live in. Hooray, indeed.

Hooray for local heroes Twilio. I went to a talk Jeff Lawson gave a couple of years ago, and I was really impressed with him, Twilio, and especially with their technical processes. A/B testing, smart switching between builds (with great tests!) and production, as well as redundancy between Amazon AWS and their other cloud provider.

ALSO, I had a desktop shortcut that would cause my phone to ring with the TTS message “undifferentiated mucous” (a quote taken from Andy Richter Controls the Universe, for you really weird trivia buffs). I shared it with some people that would use it to get out of conversations — “I have to take this call!”

Later, the bookmark was pulled in to an automated process that would ping URLS on a regular schedule, and one of the devs would get a phone call whenever the script ran

That is the kind of whiz bang future we now live in. Hooray, indeed.

via Ash Maurya  

A popular solution is launching as a “private beta” – allowing you to incrementally rollout your product, keep early customer expectations at bay, and defer the pricing question under the guise of gaining more learning first. While this approach certainly appeases our inner fears, it is often the cop-out approach.

The purpose of the MVP is getting your product in front of customers to start the process of learning but not all learning is equal. You need to prioritize learning around the riskiest parts of your product first.

• There’s Plan A, and then there’s the plan that will become your business(radar.oreilly.com)

[[posterous-content:pid___1]]

This infographic from Jess Bachman at Visual.ly comes The Rise of Minecraft. The vertical timeline shows the meteroic rise in popularity of the new game from Mojang.

November 18, 2011 marks the Minecraft release out of beta. Follow the rise of Minecraft, from it’s humble beginnings as a one-man experimental project to its overwhelming success in the gaming industry accruing over $1 million in weekly sales.

The best/worst $40 I have ever spent — the two licenses for Minecraft that now haunt my children’s dreams.

Image via Wikipedia

Hooray!

• Mojang: No plans for Vita Minecraft port, Scrolls possible (vg247.com)
• More world types coming to Minecraft, says Mojang(vg247.com)
• Mojang creating a Humble Indie game in 60 hours this weekend - Geek (geek.com)
• LEGO Minecraft Is Ready For Pre-Order (forbes.com)
• Minecraft Lego Announcement of the Day(geeks.thedailywh.at)
• LEGO ‘Minecraft’ Set Coming this Summer(gamerant.com)

Image via Wikipedia

It once promised to redefine music, politics, dating, and pop culture. Rupert Murdochfell in love with it. Then everything fell apart

“I tried to cling to Myspace for a long time, hoping that someone there would come up with some idea to keep it alive,” says Jackson, 30. “But my assistants and business partners finally beat it into my head that it was a dead horse. It’s done. It’s a joke. If you do stuff on Myspace, you just look sad.”

via businessweek.com

A great read.  Even funnier now that my friends at MySpace have jobs again.

• What would you do to save MySpace? (thecontentlab.icrossing.com)
• Rupert Murdoch admits News Corp. “screwed up” with MySpace (digitaltrends.com)

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman

So far, very cool. A nice book to pick up after finishing John Medina’s Brain Rules.

In this sparkling and provocative new book, renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman navigates the depths of the subconscious brain to illuminate surprising mysteries: Why can your foot move halfway to the brake pedal before you become consciously aware of danger ahead? Why do you notice when your name is mentioned in a conversation that you didn’t think you were listening to? Taking in brain damage, plane spotting, dating, drugs, beauty, infidelity, synaesthesia, criminal law, artificial intelligence and visual illusions, Incognito is a thrilling subsurface exploration of the mind and all its contradictions

• “The Neuroscience of Teaching and Learning” - David Eagleman (indianajen.com)
• A neuroscientist imagines life beyond the brain (3quarksdaily.com)

Here is another bias confirmed!  That’s 29 for the year!

So, while I have been known to go on (and on) about this, The Oatmeal makes a much more compelling case, which is also funny (BECAUSE IT’S TRUE!)

This is an irritating aspect of having to navigate the verticals.  In simple terms, why the current state of watching stuff online is stupid. The media content providers are making the same mistakes the music industry did.

The good news is, tools to bridge garden walls are coming along — http://canistreamit.com/, etc.

Also …

WINK! ;-)