words, words, words

Looks like our forthcoming trip to the States is going to be a gigantic half-price sale. We are going to buy so much useless crap….

I have been thinking. It seems like the folks at Google, with the combination of free WiFi in Mountainv Vew, CA and GoogleTalk, are positioning themselves as a telecommunications company. They have drank deeply from the well of mobile internet and see it as their next big market (their snazzy J2ME application for mobile devices is probably an indication of this).

So where does that put us? The consumers?

Well, ignoring the privacy issues for the moment (we can get back to that when there is a problem), if you use the WiFi on your mobile device to connect through the Mountain View or forthcoming San Francisco Google-brand free wireless Internet connection and then you use Google Talk to talk to people for free using VOIP, then you have the potential for never spending another cent/pence on mobile networks again. You will be able to make free voice calls on your mobile.

That should scare networks.

Especially, now that Nokia and Skype are getting into the game as well. Nokia Launches Skype Phone

See Google isn’t there yet. GoogleTalk is still on the desktop, not the mobile. They are also keeping things pretty quiet about when that application will be ported over.

I tried getting an answer for this question and some idea of future plans at a conference and was met with the Google Wall of Silence(TM). Normally they have a Q and A section at the end of their google engedu talks. My question was edited out.

KARL

“So, that’s it for my prepared remarks…”

CUT TO CREDITS]

I guess we will have to wait and see.

I think I am becoming Dwight Shrute.

I am attracting crazy people like crazy today.
I've had 3 different ones come up to me and start talking in the last half hour.
Lot of people forgot to take their medication today.

I have been wearing a watch cap (beanie) which has given me, as Susi calls it, “Teen Wolf hair”.

Sometimes in London I walk past someone or see someone on the tube that looks like they stepped out of the Dark Ages. They only difference is the wardrobe. Same face, same expression, same pestilence and violence. It can be a bit spooky.

Wow.

I’ve been watching a lot of Google TechTalks on Google Videos lately.
They bring in people from various industries to talk about trends and innovations, etc.
These are a couple that I particularly enjoyed.
Human Computation - This is a talk about using humans cycles to perform computation. The basic premise is that there are certain things that computers cannot do and that most humans can. The trick is to get people who are wasting part of the billions of hours a year spent playing on solitaire to want help with something useful.
Wave Energy - Electricity can be generated by oceanic waves. I thought this was a green-tinted fantasy, but it actually very much a reality. Basically you get a giant worm. Put it in the ocean and restrict it’s wave-induced wiggling to generate electricity.

I saw a woman wearing a burqa at the mall today. God I wish I had a better camera on my phone.
She was sitting on a bench in front of Burger King with three (3) Primark bags. She had her eyes covered so I didn’t know if she was watching me or not.
Primark, for you Yanks, is a like a Old Navy without their innocence and joie de vivre.
It has more a Chav (Council Housed And Violent) focus, however it has recently become a bit hipper.

In other super-important and earth-shattering news.
David Beckham was spotted wearing a cardigan at the wedding of Tom Cruise and that Katie Holmes. This is a HUGE deal in this country. If you recall, on January 02, 2006, my brother John and I led the charge of the cardigan in to the fashion world. Now, all of a sudden David Beckham wears one and it is a big deal.
Oh well.

(By the way, I will never write another word about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. I’m actually embarrassed that I have, but I needed a point of reference about the cardigan, I wasn’t name-dropping.)

I competed in the Copa Bitetti yesterday here in London.
Here is how it went down…
I lost my first fight to the guy who won my division (white-belt, under 85kg). That sucked. It wasn’t even like he was better than me. I wasn’t submitted. He just stalled for time and won on points. He did that all the way through to win the contest. If there were no time limits I think it would have ended differently. I timed it and literally he didn’t move for a 1/3 of the fight. Not exactly fair…. but I’m not going to whinge. He won. Period.
So basically I was out of my division after that.
I did get to enter the “Absolute” Division, though. In that one, each school enters 2 people and there are no weight divisions.
In the first fight I won on points.
In the second fight I lost on points. (To a guy who had been training twice as long as me. Basically he was just better than me.)

It was a lot of fun though. There were lots of dramatic moments and lots of good matches.
And I am keeping it in perspective.
Even if I had won the contest, I still would be the white-belt champion. The best of the worst, in other words.

The European championships are next. I’m not sure if I am going to go yet.