DeepDarkSee

Two interesting projects hatched from the availability of open telephony servers (one is Asterisk).

Popularity Dialer - setup a phone call to yourself for some time in the future!

eVoice - get a phone number that takes voice messages and emails them to your phone!

>>Late addition:

geoPhoneTag - leave an audio message on a tag on a map (thanks Jenny)

A republican speaks out against republican corruption. This is an important article.

I registered republican in 1985, describing myself as a moderate, leaning liberal on social issues and leaning conservative on fiscal policy. I’ve always voted for candidates, not a specific party. Over the last 10 years the replublican party has become fiscally irresponsible (what’s worse, tax and spend, or borrow and spend?), and swung so radically conservative, that it has left me. Add the corruption and lack of integrity of the republican leadership, and it paints a bleak picture for the party.

OmniNerd offers an analysis of the economics of buying and operating an Hybrid from a purchase price, loan, and fuel expense only point of view.  Hands down more economical to go with conventional.  I do value the lower emissions of the hybrid, and the effect of pushing the technology envelope (and lowering costs with volume).  I’m mostly trying to build an understanding of myth versus reality.

If you find this interesting, check out my post earlier on another article on overall energy cost (dust to dust) of hybrid vehicles.

From SEOmoz: “Group intelligence is multiplicative when idiots are involved - combining a half-wit with another half-wit does not result in a full-witted person, it results in a quarter-witted person (1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4). Combining a full-witted individual with a half-wit still only yields a half-wit. The more of these “wrong kinds of people” you have involved in the process, the worse things get.”

Smart people can be “idiots” - talking strategy or design without the background or eye. My favorite is execs that think they are user experience experts.

This article from the Reason Foundation describes the Dust to Dust report from Art Spinella, the uber-auto analyst and President of CNW Marketing Research. Spinella looked at the total energy cost of vehicles, including design, manufacturing, transport, fuel usage, and disposal/recycling at the end of life.

Spinella’s findings put the energy cost per mile of a Honda Civic hybrid at $3.238/mile due to manufacturing costs of special alloys and components, shipping, disposal, and the short 100,000 mile lifespan (conception to scrap). Ironically, they put a Hummer at $1.949 due to commodity parts, US manufacture, basic steel, and a 300,000 mile lifespan. But even a ‘normal SUV’ comes out much better than Hybrid Civic or Toyota Prius. A regular Ford Escape comes in at a third less total energy cost than the hybrid Escape.

I’ve done a little digging, and the Reason Foundation seems to be a well regarded Libertarian think tank with pretty high credibility.

Lots of interesting things have been happening in the area around BiM Active and GPS. Things I find most interesting…

Nike + iPod Sport Kit - a step sensor in your running shoe that talks to your iPod - but they key is the implication of a low power wireless body network between the iPod and multiple sensors on and near your body. Step sensor now, but I’m waiting to see the iPod start communicating with things like a heart rate monitor, body temp and respiration, a GPS puck, and devices in exercise equipment. The implications of Apple making a strong play for owning the “body server” complete with a wireless network and path to the internet (USB docking today) are huge. And their entry point is only $29 plus an iPod.

Trimble has acquired AllSportGPS (a lite and Java only version of BiM Active without the strong web support). Congrats to Dave Sutter - couldn’t happen to a nicer guy! Between Trimble Outdoors and the AllSportGPS acquisition, Trimble has declared itself clearly in the mobile phone GPS space. Garmin is in with a navigation handset entry and a ‘GPS device on your phone’ entry. So how about the rest of the GPS space? Time to get in or be passed by. Should be interesting.

ADEO Fitness GPS by MotionLingo is a $149 stand alone GPS receiver with headphones, music, activity recording, pace/progress/goal feedback, and a web site back end. I’m not much for the “have to connect a cable to your PC ” issue, but I’m biased because I love the wireless saving/update of BiM Active. But it’s an interesting looking product, doesn’t have cell phone network issues, and is at a pretty good price point. You can mark laps, and it’s getting great press.

Gotta love coverpop.  Themed mashups of hundreds of graphic images, displaying details when you hover, and affilliate links to Amazon.  Great thinking!  Fun, interesting, and will probably make some money!