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This morning I got an email from the folks from Joost. The latest version 0.7.4 was available for download. So download I did.

We’ve incorporated a lot of your feedback - from better coping with certain
local configurations, firewalls and virus scanners, fixed crashes, added
locale support - all the way to user interface tweaks such as better fonts.

..said the email. Great. {Click on any of the images below for a bigger version}

So the old Venice project intro has truly gone now replaced by a funky new Joost intro complete with flashy logo and big men picking up cars and large boulders.

Little bits of polish (not Polish, they’re the ones picking up the boulders) have been applied to the edges of Joost. Channels now have a logo at the top of the screen (in the little half-circle you see) to make them more easily identifable.

The ‘My Channels’ page is largely unchanged but appears to be smarter looking and a little more snappy than the previous version. There isn’t a whole lot more content available but it appears that will be Joost’s next big push.

I’m pleased to say that the ‘World’s Strongest Man’ features as a key channel in the new loading video introducing Joost. Those Scandinavian types, they do love their Atlas Spheres. Infact European TV shows are very well represented in the ‘Welcome to Joost’ intro.

(Sorry Ashleigh I mistakenly said that Top Gear was available on Joost. It’s not it’s an episode or two of Fifth Gear, the Channel 5 rip-off version.)

Anyway there’s a nice film of Vicki Butler-Henderson thrashing a Porsche and a Lotus around a track. Which is not a bad thing.

I’m convinced the quality of the videos, mainly the audio and video sync has improved somewhat and even where there is a delay the sync catches up much quicker than it did in 0.7.3.1.

New channels are starting to materialise with the annoucement of Jizzy TV. “Get Jizzified” the chap in the video says, telling us about the concert reviews, interviews and general gumph that the channel plans to cover.

So having watched afew of these newer channel annoucements I switched to ‘My Joost’. I was forced to uninstall the previous version of Joost when putting 0.7.4 on so my preferences had been lost. But seeing as they only take about 30 seocnds to set up I’m not complaining.

 T-Mobile have taken to advertising on Joost in a big way. Their jingle can be heard playing between most shows ending and beginning. Perhaps there should be a Joost chat channel just devoted to talking about the T-Mobile jingle and how annoying it is.

The ‘My Joost’ page aloows you to chat with others who are watching the same channel. I put a RSS reader (by default it’s the Joost blog) and a nice analog clock on my My Joost page. The widgets (akin to what you get in Mac OS X or Vista) are very basic but are well designed.

By far the biggest piece of news is that Star Wars Episode IV is now on Joost (see picture). Lol. No it’s not. This was just a brief clip of Star Wars as part of a programme on South America highlighting the place where the scene shown on the right was filmed. He he. Would be cool though. I think it would compel me to use Joost more.

There is a new Manga style cartoon called GONG on Joost now. I didn’t watch very much of it though. The theme tune is catchy though even though I have no idea what they’re singing. Not as good as City Hunter, but then again few things are.

I’m inclined to say that Joost is growing on me. The performance is getting better, the quality appears to be improving and there is a steady trickle of content materialising. And with World’s Strongest Man, Vicki Butler-Henderson’s dulcet tones and the briefest of flashes of Star Wars across my screen it’s keeping my interest.

I’ve yet to try any of the social networking aspects of Joost - basically because no-one seems to be on it when I logon.  It’s an interesting concept though, but would be a distraction from whats’ actually happening on screen.

As the email went on to say:

We’re far from done - the zero in 0.7.4 still signals a beta - so any and
all suggestions are very welcome.
Stay tuned for more channels and more functionality in the coming weeks!

I certainly will.

Now I’m a fan of pretty laptops. The Flybook VM from manufacturer Holbe Dialogue is as stunning as a Ferrari 308 GTS.

If you’ve owned (and I still own) a Apple Powerbook G4 Titanium you know how iconic certain laptop designs can be. It wont be long before these machines appear on 24 in the CTU office. This notebook is crying out for product placement.

This feisty testarossa boasts some impressive internals too. An Intel Core Duo 1.66Ghz processor and up to 2GB of RAM. The svelte device has enough space for a CD-RW/DVD player. Having looked on Dynamism.com, the device weighs in at a very portable 1.6KG. Ooh it’s nice. Reg Hardware covered the Flybook VM in the middle of 2006 where it was announced at Computex and later in the year mentioning that Intel were demo’ing a ’tilt and lift’ notebook screen.

But the thing that attracts me most to the Flybook VM is the absolutely fantastic design of the lid/screen. This short video shows how the lid opens and how the stem extends to give the screen more height in relation to the keyboard. Notebook users the world over know (I’m typing this on a laptop now) that they’re not good for your posture. Most people who use notebooks sit hunched over the PC their heads facing downwards towards the keyboard.

The unique design of the Flybook VM means that the screen is raised to be closer to eye level. This means that your posture will be greatly improved and you’re likely to get less neck strain.

As both home users and corporates move towards buying more notebook compputers than desktop computers (as this IT Week article from December 2006 reports) innovations like this will only serve to drive further notebook sales.

One day, all notebook computers will be built this way.

It didn’t take long to happen. The enterprising Chinese have produced a phone which looks remarkably like Apple’s iPhone. In a strange twist, however, it runs Windows Mobile 6.

Vr-zone reports that the M8 produced by a company called Meizu is smaller, potentially lighter and has a greater screen resolution that the iPhone. The M8 supports both standard GSM and the high-speed TD-SDMA standard too. Having done a small amount of research into this 3G standard it appears to be prevalent in China. Nokia, for example, are not part of the TD-SDMA forum, so it’s widespread use in Europe is questionable.

Make what you will of this new device. The iPod was heavily mimicked and clearly the iPhone is being too (even before it’s out!). Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

[Update] 30-01-2007

Having looked at the Meizu forums and used Google to translate the Chinese (it does a surprisingly good job) I’ve come to conclusion that the actual hardware is something that the forum poster says is in development. The software, however, I see as being a mockup. It’s fairly obvios to see that a lot of the icons are directs lifts of the iPhone interface. J. Wong’s fourth post which translates as “/UI Planning software” would seem to point this out. Interestingly the rest of the posts are mainly about people asking how much the device might cost. The engadget post entitled “Apple lawyers, start you engines” would seem to be something that would certainly come to fruition should Meizu progress down this road.

…so the old Silicon Valley saying goes.

One of the first articles I remember reading on the topic of managing geeks was in Fast Company magazine in 1999. In the article Eric Schmidt, then CEO of Novell Inc. gave his viewpoint on how to get the best out of these talented, if somewhat unique people. Schmidt, himself a geek by anyone’s standards, is now CEO of the World’s most famous geek company, Google. Google also happen to have the World’s most famous brand. Google has a blend of techie geeks, marketing geeks and sales geeks. All in all a lot of geeks.

Outside of Silicon Valley or a Web design consultancy it seems that many older companies with older management values still struggle to understand how to get the best out of talented people. The again, even those companies that I’ve visited as either customer or partner or supplier that have ‘thinking rooms’ filled with chaise lounges or bean bags, table football tables, arcade
machines and all this innovative ’stuff’ have gone too far I think. It’s much simpler than that.

I’ll use an example which is close to my area of experience; software development. To me a software developer is a little like a footballer (for those readers from the US I’m referring to soccer here). They need to constantly train and to practice not just their programming skills but their thought processes, the way they communicate (whether verbal or written) and the way to optimise what they do. They do this because, like footballers, they are asked to perform at a specific time period. For a footballer it would more often than not be for 90 minutes on a Saturday afternoon at 3pm. For a developer it might be for a few hours on a Thursday afternoon, or a Wednesday morning when they need to cut the code. A a developer this is equivalent of going into
‘the zone’.

In football the goal posts, literally, don’t normally change. Ok so conditions may change. It could rain, causing a footballer to need to change the way they play, maybe even use different boots. But for a developer when the goal posts change it’s more like the equivalent of a footballer having to play a match in zero-gravity. Football is not rocket science.Software development is. So managing the people who make software is very important and is a skill in its own right.

It’s more complicated than that though. How do you balance the ’special’ treatment that geeks need to receive against the disgruntled ‘normal’ employees. Those normal employees that deligently and professionally do their job, day in day out. Geeks are regarded as weird by these traditional employees. But traditional is only based upon current perceptions. In a recent article by Louis Theroux for the BBC the TV presenter and journalist, generally regarded as an authority on weird behaviour, wrote “People sometimes ask who the weirdest person I’ve ever interviewed is - I’m not sure how you measure weirdness…on an odd-o-meter“. Theroux goes on to say “The truth is, like beauty, weirdness is in the eye of the beholder. Often, something is weird not for any intrinsic reason but simply because not many people are doing it. A practice that is considered eccentric or taboo in one time and place is quite normal in another.” This is the stuation that today’s geeks are in. They are the modern day eccentrics, especially within a traditional organisational context.

So, maybe, one day geeks wont be the social outcasts that they continue to be today. Ha! No way. Geeks will always be able to pwn your a$$.

Here are some more articles on managing and motivating geeks.

http://www.leadinggeeks.com

http://www.geekleaders.com

http://www.retrospector.com/2006/06/21/top-10-ways-to-motivate-geeks

http://www.johnwilker.com/j/index.cfm/2006/7/18/How_to_manage_Geeks

Mike Elgan wrote an article for ComputerWorld which was repeated on MacNN. It’s entitled “why Steve Job’s blew his iPhone keynote”. Fundamentally it boils down to raising too much expectation for a product which is still months away. Elgan also says that the iPhone will pretty much fail as it doesn’t deliver the technology that people will want failing from such things as not having expandable memory, a non replaceable battery, etc. etc. Apparently the iPhone wont sell.

I’m going to use two jackets in an example of why I think the iPhone will sell. Maybe not as in such massive numbers as the iPod, but it will still be deemed a success.

So I give you two choices. A $340 (USD) Scottevest Tactical 4.0 System jacket. The jacket is full of technology. The website states “The Tactical 4.0 is the ultimate Gear Management Solutionâ„¢. With 40pockets and compartments, patented Personal Area Network, DetachableCargo Cache+, Magnetic Closures, side seam zippers and more, theTactical 4.0 is sure to meet the needs of “techies,” law enforcementand those looking for the coolest jacket available!”

Sounds exciting doesn’t it?

It’s probably a quite practical jacket, maybe not the best for outdoor pursuits or heavy weather. The design is reasonably neat, although nothing special.

The second jacket is a £450 (GBP) Prada Black Gortex Hooded Jacket With Removable Lining. The spiel on the website says “Hooded jacket. Double zip. Two front slit pockets with zips. Velcro fastening on cuffs. Prada logo on zip pull. Red logo on sleeve. Zip off removable nylon lining with pockets. Gortex - Guaranteed to keep you dry.” Now we all know that that’s rubbish. That claim about Goretex is not right. I’ve had a Goretex jacket for a few years and in heavy rain I still get wet on the shoulders. Note that this item is in a sale too. The RRP is actually £675 (GBP).

So, do you go for the superior technology jacket, might not be that robust as a jacket but it has some incredible modern features, more pockets you can shake a stick at and can carry countless gadgets. It sports an inner fleece to make sure you don’t get cold too. Or do you go for the svelte designer jacket, very expensive, well cut but lacking in any real technology. I doubt it will really keep you dry and it’s likely not to be that warm either.

For me at least the answer is simple. It’s the Prada name. I’d go for the designer jacket. I like well cut clothes that are ergonomic and fit well. I’m not so bothered about the whizzy features, extensibility and cover all bases approach. I know that when someone sees that little red tag someone’s going to think ‘that’s a nicely cut jacket’. And it will be. It might have a few threads and it might not wear well over time, it will be prone to getting snagged. But it’s a designer label. It’s sort after.

That’s what the iPhone will be like. It’s not the best in terms of technology and specification, despite what Steve says. He’s selling cool.

My Prada analogy goes further though. Infact Apple are likely to be an even better design brand than Prada. Take the LG KE850 covered on Engadget. Regardless of which device comes to market first or who might have had that particular design before the other, it simply doesn’t look as good as the iPhone.

Not too shabby indeed.