Marc expains how People Aggregator and "DLA" are not a marketing monikers but just generic terms.

We don't offer our technology directly o end-users. We design, architect, build and host solutions for customers who bring with them their own assets, resources, context, brand and checkbook. They can then choose ot have us help them host, maintain, upgrade and support this technology and in some cases - we’re even helping our customers market their solution.

In other words, once you get your own People Aggregator, feel free to call it whatever you like :-)

Tags: DLA, Marc Canter, PeopleAggregator

My MacBook Pro has some issues with graphic intensive applications, such as Google Earth or Aperture: while using these applications some strange screen artifacts appear everywhere, making these application impossible to use.

After trying the most obvious fixes (PRam reset, fixing proviledges, etc.), I called Apple support thinking that it might be a hardware problem.

A very efficient Apple support guy (who graciously understood that he didn't have to guide me trough the most obvious fixes procedure again), suggested trying to create a new user before sending the computer in for repairs. And the new user didn't have the problems I had.

Now, since I moved my user account from my old PowerBook, there are quite a few chances some old piece of code somewhere in a deep folder is creating problems. The Apple support guy suggested to re-install the operating system, which is what I started doing yesterday.

After a looong verification of the DVD contents (don't know what the installer has to verify since it got printed on the install DVD along the rest of the code and of course nobody has changed anything on the DVD) and a veeery looong verification of the destination disk, the installer quit saying that it could not install the operating system "because of an error".

So I tried checking the disk with the Disk Utilty application, which found a problem that can not be fixed on the disk.

Today I went to my office to get my copy of TechTool Pro, which previously helped my fixing similar problems. But the application crashes while veryfing the disk. I tried installing it on another drive, but I cannot startup from the other drive. Every round of tests takes about one hour.

I guess that my only remaining option is getting some large external HD, back up, format and reinstall everything from scratch. Which means that now I have something to do also for my next weekend.

Congratulations JY, some very very beautiful feet!

Michael Arrington today writes that Google might turn Google Earth into some sort of Second Life.

Business 2.0 speculated on this last month as well.

Fwiw I wrote this 6 months ago.

I'm at a conference about advertising and new media in Milano. Most presenters are speaking about "new paradigms" of some sort or the other.

Euan and I are sitting at the back of the room, using the free wifi connection to blog and do stuff.

Ours are the only two computers in the audience.

Marc welcomes IBM to the world of social networking, just like Apple did a few years ago.

Michael O'Connor Clarke found this old snippet of a conversation with David Weinberger where we were chatting about how it would have been cheaper for the US to buy Iraq rather then fight a war to conquer it. And this was almost 4 years ago, when the forecasted total cost of the operation was $75B. Now it's above $350B.

In his speech at Le Web 3, Mr. Shimon Peres said that the best way to avoid any conflict with Iran is investing in that country: they desperately need investments to fight huge unemployement rates, and helping people living a decent life is the strongest weapon against terrorism.

Imagine taking whatever budget the Pentagon might have for the next war and figure out how to finance new businesses in Iran or Syria or Afghanistan instead. It sounds naive, doesn't it? But does spending 350 billion dollars not to gain control of Iraq sound smart?

The current discussion about closed vs. open Apple products, especially after the latest spin by Steve Jobs himself, reminds of the freedom vs. safety debate: some very vocal people supporting freedom over control and lack of privacy. But then a majority ends up voting for a political leader, who, as the "commander in chief", is supposed to know better.

At Apple they think they know better. Probably Steve Jobs himself is sure to know better than his clients and most people in this business. And he has some remarkable stories to prove this point, starting back in 1984 with the very first Macintosh which, coming only a few years after "buying a personal computer" meant getting home with a plastic bag full of electronic components, was closed with special screws allowing only professional support staff to open it. And even if you wanted to write software on it, you had to stick with some strict UI design rules which were unheard of back then.

But Apple is about user experience, it's about getting people excited from the moment they hold in their hands a cardboard box with a logo printed onto it. It's not about choosing, it's not about running your own software on an iPod, it's about smoothness, cool materials and funky effects when windows collapse, and they think they need full control of the whole environment to be able to guarantee this level of consistency.

I don't think that Apple's will be the only software running on iPhones (my guess is that there will be some kind of widgets architecture, probably compatible with the one running on Macs, and most probably developers will have to go trough the iTunes store to distribute their widgets), but nevertheless if you want freedom of choice go with Palm, Microsoft, Nokia or any other vendor: Apple will not allow you to control their toy. But this doesn't mean that they won't be successful. It looks like their strategy today could be described as:

Ask not what Apple can do for you. Buy our products and STFU.

Technorati Tags: Apple

Just like Euan, I was pretty happy with Nokia phones. I was looking forward to the release of the new n95. I got a demo of a prototype in December at Le Web and was already saving money for it.

Now, forget about tech specs and look again at a picture of an iPhone. Now try looking at some pictures of an n95. Doesn't it suddenly feel kinda old?

Tags: Apple, Nokia

How comes Apple has figured out how to use a browser on a phone but not on a TV? I guess I'll go Dave's way and get a Mac Mini for my TV.

Technorati Tags: Apple, AppleTV, iPhone

Happy new year to everybody. And for those of you still trapped in 2006: this new year feels great!