Paypal and SMS - a goldmine waiting to be exploited

Some months ago I ran into a real breakthrough technology called Paypal "text and buy". It was something I ran into after working out how to send money using my cell phone to a virtual assistant I work with hear in South Orange County from time to time.

The text to buy service is another thing entirely. Basically it means that any company with an SMS address ie a 7 digit SMS id, can then link a product id with a number and have customers pay for the product immediatly with their cell phones using their Paypal account.

See how this works: You see an add in a magazine for a product you want to buy, the add has an SMS number to call and a product ID, you make the SMS, the seller responds with a confirmation SMS and then Paypal SMS's you for a confirmation of the transaction. Done deal.

This looks like a particularly sweet methodology for smaller items like music and videos. Imagine hearing a song on the radio and at the end a voice says dial 44672 with code 2243. How cool is that!

Google Search’s Achilles Heal

After reading the first few chapters of the book Search, it is now dawning on me how truly innovative the Google Search algorithm is. The whole analogy of treating web pages as if they are technical whitepapers with their citations and references is a true masterstroke.

But therein also is its weakness.

Over the next few weeks I intend to test some base theories about how Google does its ranking. One test is to involve one of our latest projects called zkimmer. Theoretically this is a graphics based mapping engine that has been adapted for publication display… I will be testing my theories ability to make specific zkimmer publications climb quickly up the Google Page ranking list.

I will also experiment with the name of a person that has allowed me to experiment with his mention on Google page ranking.

If these two experiments work out successfully then I fully intend to capitalize on it with the zkimmer publication list and then role out a separate standalone company to capitalize on the discovery. Come back in two weeks for updates.

Relevant research links include the original Google Algorithm white paper by the Google team called The Anatomy of a large-scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine. Further research uncovered this gem about citations in Wikipedia and how to reverse engineer citations in that incredible resource.

Followup projects for this entry:

1. Find out how to publish in an educational whitepaper database like stanford.edu.
2. A basic test to see how citations boost pagerank... possibly by using a citation engine that looks for appropriate highly ranked reference points within key words for a given web site.
   

Another attempt at digital publication

During the course of our constant due dilligence to track competing or similar technologies to zkimmer we run into various winners and losers… unfortunatley DigiPage is a big loser. Junky slow user interface and a really junky web site… zkimmers variable zoom level just beats all these kinds of attempts hands down.

Digipage. Create stunning Flash page-turning brochures online in seconds from a single PDF upload. Video and dynamic content available. State-of-the-art Flash-based control panel. Dedicated servers, automation services and bespoke client work available on request.

digipage - online flash page turning brochures created from PDFs and dynamic data.

The pass in Byron Bay after the storm just went thru... looks incredible

What a wonderful aqua green that is… makes me so homesick.

Contenders for the Darwin awards

Thong floaties for a live power supply!

Australian dollar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Interesting quote from Wikipedia... shows how much currency has devalued in my lifetime...

Australian dollar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Value of the Australian dollar

The highest value of the Australian dollar since it was floated was 96.68 U.S. cents on March 14, 1984.[3] In 2001, the value of one Australian dollar went below 50 U.S. cents for the first time, touching 47.75 U.S. cents in April 2001[4]. On 1 November 2007, the Australian dollar reached a 23-year high against the U.S. dollar, peaking at 93.43 U.S. cents.[5]

In 1966, when the Australian dollar was introduced, the International gold standard still operated. The dollar was at that time worth 980 milligrams of gold. As of December 2006 the dollar was worth 38 milligrams of gold.[1]"

My latest favorite pic from the Byron Feed

Every now and then a really moment capturing picture turns up in my feed from Flickr for photos tagged Byron Bay....

Digital paper breakthrough

LG.Philips Announces 16.7-Million Color Electronic Paper, Teases World Again [Epaper]

By Jesus Diaz on Lg.philips

Oh LG.Philips, you are a cruel cruel mistress. You teased us with your flexible 4,096 A4 electronic paper last year and now you are at it again with a new bendy model of the same 14.3-inch size, now with 16 million colors, 1.280 x 800 pixels and 7,000 hours between charges using a typical battery. You say that the "penetration of the technology would be fast in Korea," but we know what you mean. You mean we will have to settle with just licking it in Vegas, along with the rest of the other always-coming-never-arriving cool technologies. I just hope it tastes better than it looks in the front photo:

Myvu's newest eyewear: the Shades and Crystal

From Engadget: Yet another pair of heads up displays that overlay VGA over a seethrough lens... looks like this problem is going to get fixed without the need for the Polaroid HUD project... another project goes on hold for the moment... Posted Jan 7th 2008 12:01AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: CES, Displays, Wearables

YouTube - Arnold Schwarzenegger gives advice for careers in Hollywood

Arnold Swartzenegger gives some lucid and simple advice. Alsways keep your goal in front of you... every decision ask yourself, will this help me get to my goal?

Have a look.. its more interesting than you may think.

Logarex logarithmic compression

Logarex is a patented technology for a new compression method based on numeric reduction of number string lengths using conversion of data to numerics and then to a series of logarithms that in turn represent a shorter (i.e. compressed) representation of the original number.

It is a compression solution that is "lossless" meaning that the compressed data when returned from a compressed state is identical to the original pre-compressed data.

There is very little research in this particular field since the great majority of research is focusing on "lossy" compression methods for video and music distribution such as streaming video. In the case of "lossy" compression the data need not be identical to the original pre-compressed data as long as a reasonable level of perceived quality of video or audio is evident.

While this may be possible with video or music data forms, critical data such as financial transactions, communications and computer applications will become useless unless faithfully and reliably reproduced with zero modification.

The first major milestone is a consistent demonstrable example of the technology, and then to refine the method to attain its maximum feasible potential. The technologies initial target customer base will include satellite, communications and media companies.

MaxOS - Voice based internet aware operating system

MaxOS is a voice based operating system that uses the Internet, a scripting language and user configurable macros to simplify use of computers in many day-to-day tasks. MaxOS is still in concept stage and will not be publicly displayed until patent applications and a fully working prototype are complete.

The basic premise is that the failure of voice based computer control to achieve wide adoption is due to a control vocabulary that is too large to manage and that the computers must cater to an accent/inflection range that is beyond today's internet connected devices to reliably compute.

By simplifying this process and adding an open software type "community" scripting and development, MaxOS is positioned to bridge and address these problems and start to fully explore a world that is for the most part unexplored... namely the ability to control and interact with computers using your voice and ears only.

What does this mean for the everyday person?

• Imagine walking into a hotel room and being asked by a little box (that senses when the lights came on that someone has entered the room) for your identity and secure password and then interacting with a simple scripted voice service to read emails for you, to get voice mails routed to you, to read calender events and dial telephones for you... all from a device where the smarts is 10% local computing and 90% net based.
• Being told when there is a visitor at your door when at home.
• Being told who is calling you and responding to your commands on how to respond to each caller.

This is where it all starts. From here an open community will be encouraged to add macros and scripts so that more functionality and capability is added to the system on a daily basis... Imagine being woken up by a virtual conceirge  using wording and accents that you can set and then scripting a work cycle and routine that can be customized to your every whim using everyday language and simple logic structures... these are cornerstones of what MaxOS is trying to achieve.

Ric Richardson - List of Inventions/ concepts

Note: All dates are approximate.

Significant inventions:

• Uniloc is a way of allowing software to be legally shared and also a way of limiting how many PC's can share the same serial number or license. Invented approximately 9/1992.
• Logarex is a radical attempt to derive massive compression form the use of logarithms. While Ric is aiming for a compression ratio of 200:1 his initial target is to reduce existing data files by 50%. This means that a DVD tomorrow may fit 2 DVDs of data onto the same space and eventually up to 2000 DVDs in the same space! Initially invented 3/2000
• zkimmer is a way to adapt mapping technology such as Google Maps to display digital versions of documents such as magazines, artwork, textbooks and novels. Invented 6/2007

Other by approximate date:

• Smog Eradicator CO2 scrubber - 9/08
• Commentz 9/08,
• MP3VM 9/08,
• Volyoum 8/08,
• Captains Log Recorder 7/08,
• Tazk Machine 2/08,
• Hotswap Batteries 12/07,
• Life Portal 10/07,
• Patent Machine 7/07,
• Secure Browser 2/06,
• Exoinstaller 6/05,
• One-time Credit Cards 3/04,
• Terremail 6/03,
• Track zero CD masking 5/94,
• Interactive Audio CD using Hypercard and Macs CD control software 9/86,
• PC Online 2/1985,
• Mac to Fairlight Automation 8/1984.