Colin Charles Agenda

On 19 April 2010, I did some quick research to see which Linode host was right for you, if you were serving mostly Malaysian clients. I did traceroutes and looked at the output of curl. Linode provides speedtest files for you (they’re 100MB in size). I tested it against Streamyx 512kbps and 4mbps accounts (something that I can say was popular in Malaysia back in 2010). I intend to repeat this test again soon, but I have no longer got any Streamyx accounts available, so I expect all this should be much faster.

From the table above, you want the highest average download speed, with the lowest time spent. Upon multiple tests, on a 512kbps link, London was the quickest in terms of delivery (it also only took 8 hops to reach). However on the 4mbps link, its clear that Fremont is the best, even though it took 9 hops to reach.

Conclusion for me back then was that Fremont is a clear winner so choose a server based in Fremont. Tokyo didn’t exist before. Go on, host at Linode, they’re a great VPS provider.

The business of making music compilations are changing. Ministry of Sound. NOW That’s what I call music. 

Today you can make compilations as a playlist, and share it with the world on services like Rdio and Spotify. It’s clear that the Ministry of Sound isn’t too happy with this – read more about how the Ministry of Sound is suing Spotify.

Listen to the quotes from the MoS:

• “What we do is a lot more than putting playlists together” – Lohan Presencer, CEO MoS
• “A lot of research goes into creating our compilation albums, and the intellectual property involved in that. It’s not appropriate for someone to just cut and paste them.”
• “We painstakingly create, compile and market our albums all over the world. We help music fans discover new genres, records and classic catalogues”
• “Millions trust our brands, our taste and our selection. We give them great listening experiences at a good price.”

I call bullshit on all of this. Yes, people like a curated compilation (I for one enjoy it – like dance hits of the year or something). But everyone can now curate compilations. This doesn’t make the MoS special any longer.

The commercial business of making compilations will go away in time to come. We will soon get to federate playlists so you can take your compilations with you, so it wouldn’t matter if you use Rdio, Spotify or something else. DJs will share their mixes that they played in a club and attendees and others will get to listen to the mix – this will eventually decide how “hot” a DJ is.

This is the future, and compilation manufacturers will find something else to do. MoS has nightclubs to fall back on. Embrace sharing.

A few days ago I received a credit from Indiegogo, because the USD$600 that I pledged for the Ubuntu Edge didn’t work out (I pledged on day one not because it was cheap but because I felt I needed the device and thank Canonical for the wonderful work they’ve done in addition to being brave about going into new markets; I would have paid $895 if need be – we don’t get heavily subsidised phones where I come from). There was a lot of buzz about how this is the largest crowdfunding experience ever, and so on, but to me, as a believer in opensource, I feel this failure to get an Ubuntu Edge more than ever.

It was by no means a shoddy amount that was pledged, in the sense that it raised USD$12,813,501 out of the USD$32,000,000 goal. I was curious with who pledged, and this is quite public as well – see the pledges list. But what you see is that a lot of people pledged not for the phone but smaller amounts which I guess is a huge problem.

Simply put, you need about 50,000 people (community members/Ubuntu users/etc.) to pledge to buy the phone (at an average sale price of USD$695). A mere 50,000. I planned to analyze the data, but its great that The Guardian did most of the work for me, so read: Ubuntu Edge: how many phones were really ordered – and the mistakes.

14,577 individuals pledged to order the phone. Enterprises were shy by the looks of it.

Out of the 14,577 individuals, I expect many of them to be Ubuntu users to some extent (if not lovers of opensource). Where are the rest of the Ubuntu users?

The public stats for Ubuntu are quite impressive – generally it is the most popular desktop Linux distribution out there. Just look at the adoption & reception: in June 2009, it was estimated that there are 13 million active users; in fall 2011 Canonical itself estimated more than 20 million users worldwide. This number must have grown tremendously, but even at a 20 million base, you’re looking at 0.073% conversion rate to buy an Ubuntu Edge.

I know people that are Ubuntu users and wanted to buy it, but not at the price point. Over $600 for a phone with a computer that docks just isn’t feasible as a cost in many parts of the developing world. Without user registration, we can’t tell where Ubuntu users are located, but I’m willing to bet it’s a good mix between the developed/developing world, right?

I was hoping to hold an Edge in my hand come May 2014. I’m still hoping to hold an Ubuntu mobile device in my hand. While I am disappointed, I can imagine Mark Shuttleworth asking himself a lot of questions. He’s spent millions developing Ubuntu, the community that surrounds it and the commercial aspects around it. Apparently monetizing the userbase is harder than it looks.

I saw a moving video (which I can’t find now) featuring Nick Vujicic and how he overcomes challenges. Check out Leaps of Knowledge: FrogAsia presents Nick Vujicic. I don’t normally listen to motivational speakers but I’m kinda happy that YTL is bringing him to town because both parents and students of the system need to ensure that the next generation don’t give up no matter what challenges they face. Those facing challenges in Malaysia are only stronger in the world because you focus on overcoming it well.

I don’t know if the series Leaps of Knowledge is going to be like a Malaysian TED-equivalent, but from what I’m told this is just the first of the series. Its part of the whole FrogAsia push that YTL’s spearheading to ensure that all students end up learning with a Chromebook. You know I’m excited overall about the ability for students to learn beyond their skewed textbooks and education system. The power of a Chromebook with an Internet connection will help all students overcome challenges. 

Its FREE for 1BestariNet ID holders (so again, targeted at parents/students in the education system). No reason not to go IMHO, so register at yes.my/1bestarinet. 

Many parents I’ve spoken to talk about how the education system needs fixing. Public education might be free/cheap, but its so incredibly broken. 1BestariNet no matter what will help improve the overall education system because if a student has an inkling to learn more, she will thanks to the Internet. It is a powerful tool, for example there are 24 e-books that focus on Malays in Project Gutenberg. Vast bodies of information that even I am trying to chomp thru over time.

I was lucky to be educated in an international school, learning everything in English and taking the O Levels. Today I am told that even with more international schools, there are waiting lists and the costs have skyrocketed. Its something I generally have to think about going forward because I will have children eventually too. 

So the system might be broken, but you have to overcome challenges. So kudos to YTL for bringing Nick Vujicic to talk about this, to motivate the next generation to thrive in a tough world. Giving it away for free is a bonus; I do sincerely hope that it is eventually extended to more than just 1BestariNet ID holders.

With all the challenges life throws at you, we all can use a little motivation, learn something new, and more importantly be inspired to get ahead of the curve.

One thing you might have missed from the MariaDB 10.0.4 Alpha release announcement is that SPIDER is finally in-tree, inside MariaDB. I’ve been watching the SPIDER engine for quite some years and fondly remember the time when Kentoku Shiba dressed up as spiderman at a MySQL Conference.

There are many factors that plays to an engines success. Distribution is one of them. Having a company backing it with services is another, so it is with great pleasure that I also show you Spiral Arms Ltd by Kentoku and Goto.

Overall, a good time to celebrate and I’m very happy for Kentoku and Goto. Now to promote its use. There’s a lot of dated resources that we need to get back up to speed with, so I expect that in time the Knowledgebase entry will well populated.

Hactivist Richard Stallman takes on proprietary software, SAAS and open source – Tech News and Analysis: “‘Our ideals become forgotten,’ he said of open source eclipsing free software, and encouraged the audience to keep talking about free software.”

Richard Stallman is spot on. Read the whole article. I hope video makes its way online, because RMS is right. 

It further augurs well that I spoke with MÃ¥rten Mickos on Twitter today (he’s a former CEO of mine and a brilliant mind) and we got chatting on control. He says, “Every time you choose convenience, you lose a little control.” An interesting conversation followed naturally.

Every time you choose convenience, you lose a little control.

— MÃ¥rten Mickos (@martenmickos) August 6, 2013

Leaves me a lot to think about as I have over time chosen convenience over control and clearly it has come by because I need to refresh on my ideals.