It has been a few months since the last post here. The major thing that has happened in my life is that cycling has become a consistent part of my exercise routine daily. I have tried everything to reduce weight. Nothing sticks better than cycling. I had a Christmas - New Year break over in December - January and I have been cycling consistently and almost daily. When I first went for my 15km bicycle ride back in November, I came back panting, muscles aching, head spinning from lack of air. Basically, my stamina was wrecked. However, what was good, is that the next day I feel better than usual. I thank God that my body heals quite rapidly. It's just my lung capacity was wrecked. I thought to myself that my Body is great, i can ractify my stamina. 

So I set out a plan to start cycling during my break in December. The first week was tough, but because there are not just measurable improvements to my fitness level, there are visible improvements as well. Everything gets better when you start exercising. So i am hooked. I kept going further and further and then the sky is the limit. Yes I have thought about using the bicycle to fly - Human Powered Flights were attempted as early as 1923 : Source: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-powered_aircraft

The more weight I lose, the more I want to ride, the more I want to ride the more I lose. So in just 3.5 weeks. I lost 7.5kgs and in the subsequent weeks, I would lose another 2kgs. I also went further and further. The farthest I have been is 75kms around Singapore, East Coast Area. I also started to prep my bike to tour to Tanjung Pinang and got my panniers and such. Link - http://wecyclesg.com/2012011462-tanjung-pinang-ride-to-elly-kelong This was the ride to Elly's Kelong in Tanjung Pinang, Indonesia. You can read all about it there. The prep lead to me riding to work on a daily basis. More about that later.

Right now, I am planning for another bicycle tour. A one day 200kms loop from Singapore to Johor via Tanjung Pengelih by boat from Changi Village. Will update what, when and who of the trip.

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Intricate moments of passion,
through the posterity of your feelings and emotions
A drop int he ocean of your creativity
Let it fly, Let if fly

Let it take wings, hold nothing back
explore with childlike curiosity
Let go, Let is sink, set it free

Amaze our world, let us feel your soul,
your heart, your desire
your love, your losts,
your joy, your pain,
your journeys, your music

For in your thoughts, words and deeds,
these expressions of lasting impressions
brings life to life

- mf

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So that's my excuse. What's yours?

Overheard in the train today, I only caught two words. I am amaze how
the brain works in the whole mambo jambo of a conversation two words
managed to cause my mind to pay attention to it and then in a sub
processing cycle came up with with a whole connection relating to the
human condition (eat your heart our A5+Siri).

The two words were:

"Human Planet"

What the brain derived:

"what would it be like if there is such thing as a human planet, where
only humans exists"

The earth we live in is an ecosystem. The flora and fauna provides us
with food and shelter. What happens when we do not depend on anything
else but ourselves?

Grim thoughts?

Maybe.

But we seem to live like that these days. Like we never depended on
anything in this world.

Each living creature no matter how big or small deserves our respect
even more so these days. We better, before they start building an
immune system for us. Before we become the plague to their existence.

Domo.

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Hey guys, Need your help. I want to find out about what makes co-working spaces work in Kuala Lumpur. Please take 7.5 mins to help fill up this survey? Thanx Mike

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I saw this on Sunday

Immediately I went to do my research and I have uncovered that there
are quite a number of platforms you can use today and found that the
quadcopter is actually steadier and easier to fly then then actual
twin rotors. I ha to check the range and it seems impressive as I
remember loosing an airplane because the transmitter range was too
short and it flew without a pilot. I never saw it again.

So I found that there are 2 popular quadcopters. The Walkera UFO#5 and
the Conrad 450 ARF. From my research the Conrad is bigger and carries
a higher playload. But I ordered the UFO5 so that I could practice to
fly a quadcopter before mounting everything else on.

Next up I research into the video mount and type of video cameras to
use. As you might have guessed the GoPro Hero HD are possibly the ones
opted by everyone. It records 720p and has a wide angle lens that will
fit most flight video recording needs. However it doesn't like
crashing without it's housing.

Then I knew I had to take care of vibrations and tilt/pan of the
camera. I could always fix it at an angle and let the quadcopter
record it raw or as I found there are actually gyros youcan by to auto
balance the camera in flight. The tough part is getting the proper
mount for it. There is no such guide so I will just have to
experiment. Will post updates to this.

Next up, it would be cool to have a flight point of view. So I have to
attach a wireless battery operated transmitter (like those you find at
a spy shop) to the GoPro Hero HD and broadcast to a a Sony Glasstron
Personal TV viewer.

I would have my own personal drone. Hoping to build it before 11.11.11
where I will be participating again for the one day on earth project.

The Walkera UFO #5 arrived yesterday. Understanding flight controls, I
tried to stabilize the quadcopter so it can just float up. I had all
but 2 mins of airtime and It crashed and broke a propeller. I tried
to glue the propeller back and it held on just enough to for me to
fine tune the controls but it couldn't handle the stress. It keeps
snapping off at a certain height. So I went and ordered parts. Looks
like I won't have the fun of flying this weekend. Below are the
pictures of the quadcopter and the broken propeller.

More updates soon.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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I took a look at my iphone location tracking file. While I would love to dabble into the consolidated.db file and extract all the information and plot it into a map, i rather rely on Peter Warden's iPhone Tracker app found here - http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/

If you want to extract your own file you would need an XCode installation to execute the file. Then run it on the computer you have been syncing your iphone with. If you are trying out in another machine, just do a back up from iTunes and the file should be saved in your computer so you don't have to go looking for it on your iphone. You don't even need your iphone to be connected.

After lauching the application, it will read your iPhone Tracking file or Consolidated.db and creates a window that will bring up a map from OpenStreetMap, so you need internet access to view this. It has a player that will play your location based on the timelines.

i noticed that, although it stores all your location, it is not completely accurate and if you look at my locations in Singapore, you will see lots of huge blobs. I suspect that it is because i was underground or in a building. It is facinating to see what has been going on and yet, it reveals very little and they do get some of the locations wrong. I am also wondering if this will get any more accurate if technology enables it. Worse, if apple accidentally allows it.

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This is something I want to do. Thanks to the inspiration by photographer Jamie Beck and Motion Graphics Kevin Burg who gave us these amazing pictures:

Jamie Beck calls in Cinemagraphs. I want to create cinemagraphs. I can imagine the possibilities with this and would love to see my own work on digital photoframes. I am finally seeing the possibilities. I am not sure if a digital photoframe can play animated gifs but if it works, i think this is one of those unique things that would make a digital photoframe worth it. For years i never really see the need for one. Now I do.. I need to go claim one that SingTel owes me. 

Otherwise. I will now research into creating an animated gif again. 

For more cinemagraphs

http://fromme-toyou.tumblr.com/tagged/cinemagraph

http://oh-so-coco.tumblr.com/tagged/cinemagraph

Via:

http://laughingsquid.com/animated-gif-fashion-photography-by-jamie-beck/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+laughingsquid+%28Laughing+Squid%29

http://gawker.com/#!5795002/the-art-of-the-animated-gif

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Those were the days when we still sailed the 7 seas and the captains have a ship log detailing their journey. In the modern world we call it web log or shorted to (we)B LOG and Television has captivated us with Star Trek whose captain also has a log of their journeys. It is however dated using the stars and called it stardate. I got no idea how that works. Maybe I will just do some research on it and post the inner workings of a stardate. I would love to talk to an astronomer. If you are one reading the blog, let me know if I can do an interview.

So let's dance, you and I. I have not really wrote about my stroke but I have spoken about it. Yes it was a mild stroke. Physically, mentally, asthetically I am fine. The only side effect from the stroke was that I lost feelings to my left side. My entire left side. I am like Harvey Two Face. Maybe I am and some memory lapses. There are days where i know the words but it just doesnt appear. You know the feeling where you know the words but it just doesn't come out of your mouth. There are parts of my memory that seems to have gotten lost somewhere. Faces and names, places and things, conversations. Ok i am going to explain this is a geeky kinda way, where you know you work on a version of a document on a a computer word processing software and then because of a hard disk or power failure you only manage to recover work that you have done up to last week. What you have done from last week up till now is gone. The bits are there, you just need to piece them up together to complete the picture. Some are truly gone, some are a like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle they are all over the place, you just need to join them up so that you get the complete big picture. It feels like that sometimes.

Act 1. This week been a busy week and i am stll uncertain where I will be. Someone is telling me to get out. Move on. Take the plunge and never look back. Need to cut those strings. So I produced another 3 videos I did not post since I was running Twestival. Got the Sony Ericsson Play and Arc Hands On demo out and an Interview with FlickEvents Founder - Yan. Which was recorded sometime back.

Act 2. Preparing for a Bi-Weekly Production of an Indi Musician Talk Show/Showcase. This is a bi-weekly event at The Pigeon Hole - a new cosy joint that I hang out pretty often just because of the company and the homely feel. It will be livestreamed and recorded. Also part of the network that i am producing.This would be the network's biggest live production and the first with a live audience. It will be hosted by Nicholas Chim. This is however not my biggest or the first with a live audience.

Final Act. Interviews, Interview, Interview. Spoken to an Asian German who started about 3 start ups. We started off such an interesting conversation that I decided to let it all sink in and left the recording for another day. It's the 3rd time I met him but the very first time I get to have a more solid one on one conversation with him. It's also interesting to have a conversation on the hardships of entrepreneurship. Unfortunately he won't be back for another 6 weeks. Will catch up with him then and follow up on our conversation and this time in a recorded format. 

I have another interview today. One with a good friend who has started a development house. 

Also I like this post - http://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/bootstrapping-with-kids

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Occasionally I ramble on my guitar for my own musings. Some of you might like what I play, some WILL notice the inconsistencies and mundane notes that i play. It usually depicts how my day is.. if you can catch it.. hope it brings you up too...

This is my first take, please forgive my terrible playing, my left hand is still recovering... :) 

Otherwise I don't really remember what number is this but I will just call this No88. Leave me a note if you like it.. 

No88.mp3 Listen on Posterous

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One thing Apple is good at doing is throwing a curve ball when you least expect it. This time round they threw it straight. Notice how all the predictions except 1 or 2 came true. Are people getting better at predicting Apple's moves, is Apple loosing it because Steve Jobs is not at the helm or am I expecting too much.

Everyone is expecting a curve ball and until this point everyone thinks the device is about them. After all, it's suppose to change our lives. Here is the thing. I think this time Apple balked. Apple for the first time had to respond to the onslaught of results of their own success.

First of all, dual camera. I think I've heard this one before. Traditionally, Apple will try to do it better. Remember cut and paste? So they introduce FaceTime. It's a great app, no doubt but it's no longer magical if you are doing the same thing all the other people are doing.

Secondly, HDMI mirror output and charging. I don't have to search very hard for this one, stereotypical of Apple, disabling that feature until they find a better way to use it, controlling the user experience. The only difference is that Apple have figured out ways to simplify the device. So I give Apple a 0.5 up over other tablets on this one.

They made a mistake making the anti-rotation lock a mute button, and now reverting to that same feature. When have you ever heard of Apple going back on their design. Did someone fall asleep at the wheel?

Same battery, through some searching, same amount of memory, same display and some additional tweaks. Nothing really much to announce. So they made it about Apps. Because this is where Apple shines and comes up to remind us what it is really all about but were they talking to us? Nope! this time, they directed their message to the industry. Apple is saying "Lookie here, it's the same device, but mine's sexier, oh and don't forget it comes with over 65,000 apps". They didn't throw a curve ball. They threw a fast ball. Straight and at blazing speed towards the competitors. It's not surprising but they are putting the energy of a well oiled movements of the pitcher forearm and all his weight for this one. The pitcher none other than Steve Jobs himself. (I apologize for all the baseball analogies) He threw that one hard.

Apple is vicious. They come out dominating the tablet conversation (yeap here is another post I am writing, adding to the already millions of articles about the iPad2). Now, once they have dominated the conversation, they teased you into wanting another a little more magical sexy device; they make another industry blow by making it available in strategically placed dates and locations, creating the virtual worldwide demand - (I actually asked a friend (@mikecapton) to buy and ship to me. I reversed my position to buy it)

The demand now in full swing, Apple priced the device USD70 cheaper than the nearest competitor and offered choices. Lowest entry is half the cost of the nearest competitor, making a wider affordability range and creating even more demand.

The tablet industry will never meet up to the standards Apple has set unless they can come up with a better word than magical. Apple still has lots up it's sleeve and being at the top they are definitely using it to their advantage.

But why did it not make me buy a new one. They would have, if they made it available in Singapore on march 11. I lost my iPad in February 2011 during Chinese New Year. I have been living without an iPad for 1 month now and it's excruciating. I really miss working on it, basically using it as my main computing device. So it is quite obvious the logical choice is to buy the ipad2. I really needed, yes needed one. But lowering the ipad1 by SGD300 Is more enticing bearing all the not so magical releases mentioned above than the ipad2.

As everyone including me has said "its the Apps". I miss using the apps on my iPad. Nothing much else, the lowered price allows me to get one today! So I pay for the highest spec'ed iPad1. Secondly, if my analysis of the iPad2 above is nothing but a standardization, I believe the real magic is yet to happen and I will follow my intuition on this one. The iPad 3 is coming. Maybe after the iPhone 5 or the magic will be revealed in the iPhone 5 and make everyone speculate the iPad3 (see what apple did there?)

Apple you win. I am sold.

Now I wait anxiously for the iPad to arrive any moment after I post this.

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We caught up with TJ a week fter WootFood Launched for an insight into WootFood. Here is the insight story. We found that that they started before foodspotting and they understand the huge F&B industry and eats in Asia a little better than most.

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We had a chance to interview Gambit one of the Windows Phone 7 Game Developers. They are a game research and development house in collboration with the Singapore government and MIT in the United States. We looked at what they do and  what makes them tick:

Here is a link to the previous post on the game they developed which was launched with the windows phone 7 here in Singapore. - http://mikefoong.com/theitchannel-vidcast-windows-phone-7-games-ca

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Past History
1. Hindi became the official language of India in 1958
2. India Republic Day
3. Uganda Liberation day
4. Juan Pablo Duarte y Diez Day or simply Duarte Day. Celebration of the Dominican Republic Founder's Birth
5. In 1784, Benjamin Franklin told his daughter he wasn't happy with the bald eagle Chosen as the national bird. He preferred the turkey.
6. Compaq and HP announced that they agreed to merge
7. In 2006, Western Union finally discontinues the telegraph service

Bon Jovi wrote these words:
I walk these streets, a loaded six pack string on my back
I played for keeps, 'cause I might not make it back
I been everywhere, still I'm standing tall I've seen a million faces And I've rocked them all
- Wanted Dead or Alive

Today is Australia Day. It celebrates the first fleet arrival at Sydney Cove in 1788.

I share the same birthdays with
1. Sara Rue
2. Ellen DeGeneres
3. Paul Newman
4. Eddie Van Halen
5. Anita Baker

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Quick someone tell the traditional broadcasters that Tv is dead. IPTV is dead. Long Live Tv. Let me rephrase. Linear programming Tv is dead. On demand Video content is the future.

MediaCorp Singapore Digital Strategy is an interesting one. They are pushing their broadcast content to interactive Tv and digital devices like game consoles, mobile devices and tablets. What they plan to do was to overlay digital/related content right on their streaming broadcast. Somewhat like IPTv with a difference. It's like reading a blog with links to related content.

They also push their content to digital devices. Since MediaCorp's content are free to air I am wondering what content is free and what are the premium content. I am assuming that MediaCorp's own production is free but would the premium content be worth it. How would they sustain keeping the infrastructure. There is also no avoidance in setting up the infrastructure as the future of Tv or Video is the Internet.

The push to digital devices are a great move well. At least for now, they are supporting the 3 main pillars in most businesses today. Internet, Digital Content and Mobile. How content could be repurpose is up to Media Corp to define. This however brings back the whole digital newspaper vs traditional newspaper debate and how it could stay relevant in the Internet age.

Facebook live is yet another interesting move. We all know content moving to video is definitely making it's way and everyone becomes a broadcasting station even from a tiny little room with an internet connection and a camera.

The odds that Facebook will become a broadcasting giant is huge and I would imagine that age of social video might just arrive with a huge bang. YouTube started the revolution of Internet video broadcasting I think Facebook will make it prevalent. I have yet to fully evaluate Facebook live and I might be setting my expectations too high and setting myself to be disappointed about this but at least I foresee some innovative usage.

Facebook have been challenging google at every front and they have been going after YouTube for sometime. This might tip the tables a little with live broadcasting. Also watch out Ustream, Qik and all you live broadcasters out there.

Interesting to see the different approaches taken by traditional broadcasters move to digital content and technology/Internet companies encroaching into the traditional media business. In the end, I think Internet/technology companies which have a shorter ramp up and who understands the whole digital age would be the one to come out on top. Like how newspapers were being slaughtered by digital media, broadcasters will soon find themselves in the same spot this year and the few years to come.

note: I believe there is still a place for linear programming and that would be for timely content (refer to my Content Theory post here - http://mikefoong.com/content-theory-part-1) Traditional Broadcasters need to adapt and change quite quickly to understand the new broadcasting strategies to be in this game. Timeless and archived content needs to be on demand.

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A guide to understanding the entire Internet

They say in the Internet that content is King. Those who manage it are the King's court jester. The King's most trusted advisor. In the Internet when content is captured, organized, shared and analyzed - it becomes knowledge.

In the content theory basically content can be classified into two areas. Timely and Timeless Content.

Timely content are content that are volatile and are usually time sensitive. These content that are short lived. It does not have any value after it's initial use. Let me give you an example: Weather information, Stock Information, Traffic conditions at a given location. The average person like you and I would probably won't care what the weather, traffic or stock information is at a given location. If it is raining this afternoon, you will probably induce yourself to bring an umbrella when heading out.

Timeless content are content that usually stays relatively the same for a long period of time and is usually not time sensitive, These content stays relevant for a long time and sometimes forever. These usually are information that forms a foundation for other knowledge like principles, theories, mathematics, physics. Other timeless content includes recipes, engineering concepts and calculations, programming techniques, novels and story based content like mini-series and movies and etc. Factual information are also timeless.

However there are exceptions as there are exceptions to every rule or theory. It can vary with different people and content consumption behaviors. For a weather scientist, weather information for the last 100 years are timeless to them. They need to understand the patterns from the past to predict the future. Any collection of timely information can eventually form timeless content.

Timely information holding threshold varies from 1 person to the other.

These fundamental theories form the basis of content management on the
Internet. How it can be applied (will be expanded on the next post):
1. How to manage the two different content types
2. How content consumption behavior changes based on the two different
content types
3. What is the best media for the two different content types
4. What is the most effective length for each content type
5. How to determine the validity of timely contents. How to estimate
obsolescence
6. When to archive
7. How to manage storage based on the type of content

To be continued

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