Innovative listening

For the past 6-7 years I been listening to many books and podcasts while having my early morning sports (Running and Cycling).
I like and always liked reading books but due to increasing life demands (career and career...) I find it difficult holding a real book unless it a huge one that is no where to be found digitally. (I always try to maintain a bedtime one that takes ages and dust to complete).

Amongst the many podcasts I follow there is one I mostly enjoy and opt for every week. its the Stanford University's "Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar Series" - which is, in their own words...

"... a weekly speaker series that brings innovation leaders from the fields of business, finance, technology, education, and philanthropy, to share their insights with aspiring entrepreneurs from all over the world."

This morning I came across a fascinating speak made to Stanford University students by Tom Kelley (Writer of "The Art of Innovation")
Through his speak, Tom makes you hear, see and listen to innovation the ways you (the entrepreneur) usually do, but without the ability to define or express literally. Tom is the man behind the Apple mouse, Oral-B's tooth brush and many more. (In his voice and ideas I sometimes find a resemblance with with someone I know... http://www.brayergroup.com )


Tom Kelley's speak:
"Young at Heart: How to Be an Innovator for Life "

Link to podcast series where you can find more fascinating speaks from people like Guy Kawasaki, Steve Blank, Carly Fiorina, Shai Agassi and many many great others.

Enjoy!

New Web2.0 Outlook HTML Signature

...just edited ma self a new Outlook HTML Signature that incorporates my main web2.0 references. (sample can be see here although it may not render well in your browser but it does better in Outlook)

Not that easy, tricky a bit and satisfactory.
Inspired by a close friend of mine Joseph Dell whom i worked with in Insightix.

Under the hood

(basic HTML background is recommended for those who wish to keep on reading)

The phone, email and fax icons are based on the "Wingdings 2" font "7" and "'" characters that i believe to be included in any basic windows installation (so it may not be that compatible with WebMails, Mac and Linux - it'll be seen as "7" and "'" instead...)

To have a twitter or friendfeed icons, id suggest to browse through image.google, save locally, upload to flickr account as public images, and have it href'ed respectively.


If you wish to have one for yourself, see instructions below

Instructions

(Outlook 2003 compatible - i know it should work much the same if applied in 2007 although some labels and screens might have been changed)

Preps:

Right click HERE and choose "Save link as..." name it: "sig.htm"


1. Open Outlooks options from "Tools"
2. Choose the "Mail Format" tab
3. Click the "Signatures" button
4. Then "New"
5. Name your new signature
6. Choose "Use this file as a template", browse and select previously saved sig.html file.
7. Click "Next" and apply the new signature to an account of your relevancy.

KonoLive

Its been few months now that im working on KonoLive.

KonoLive is the first Instant Collaboration Application. Much like the traditional IMs out there, KonoLive aims to soften the cumbersome way we do while working and sharing documents and mostly, managing processes over them. (wanna see more? watch the vid below in which me and Yossi Dan present KonoLive in DEMO)

KonoLive takes Adobe AIR to its limits (and even crossing few boundaries yet not supported by AIR) not only its running on your desktop, it works up to the level of your desktop running applications and as such, KonoLive utilizes much of the AIR particles....

1. Creating application visual elements and binding them to ActionSctipt objects, even those that are server-side manipulated.

2. Online and Offline storing persisted objects into the integrated SQLite - a transactive SQL engine that weighs as much as 250KB (its already used by Google gears, Symbian, Apple's Safari and many more).

3. Elegantly and efficiently messaging objects or sending commands (RPC, Sub/Pub) to and from our J2EE based server using Adobe's BlazeDS. (choosing it over Comet)

4. Syncing your Storage in Box.net. KonoLive serves as a sophisticated drop box. Not only will you be able to access your files anywhere you go, KonoLive will make sure you have the up-to-date context of it.

5. Maintaining an always-on-top transparent layer on which the KonoLive "stickies" are displayed so naturally, as if created by the native OS window.

6. Intensively Working with OS files; reading, saving, uploading, downloading and archiving.

...and i havnt yet mentioned the heavy business logic and DAO frameworks that were easily built on top of AIR and the ActionScript3 language.

All in all, looking at the other offerings out there, im quite satisfied choosing Adobe AIR believing and foreseeing a strongly growing platform for desktop applications.

Adobe AIR 1.0 released

Adobe AIR version 1.0 has been released, yesterday?

nope!...Pour moi, a bit less than 6 months ago.

Its the first time for many years that im working with a an SDK that's so young and yet so mature. I remember the days and (mostly) nights that i been struggling with the non-documented and obscurely working APIs of the Windows Mobile platform. and yesterday, the newly born Adobe AIR is aimed on conquering 2 operating system desktops and soon to meet the third. Shappo!

Mazal Tov Adobe!