totally random

:)

So a few days back, one of my facebook friends backed a new Kickstarter project, i decided to check out the project as it had to do with photography.

The project was called ‘Cloudpic’ and promised to deliver a way to instantly stream photo’s from your DSLR to your Phone & Cloud, with no hosting fee’s for $35.

Yes, $35 for a bluetooth module, microcontroller and all other circuits. Sounds like something that would be useful does it not. I watched the video and looked at the images. However, the video and images used were inconsistent. I suspected something was fishy. 

I also suspect the technological claims were exagerated, see ‘Projektor’ another project that made exagerated claims.

Interesting, the more research and investigations done the more convinced i was this project was either a SCAM or the guy had no ability or skills to deliver. 

Some reasons:

• Claims experience in the industry, a user called cannon and they said they had no knowledge of him having ever worked there.
• He had an old myspace profile that had an employment history where there was no experience in technology or canon listed. When this was pointed out, the profile became private. Same with the linkedin profile
• The images shown on the project, are simply stock images with a logo slapped on in photoshop
• The ‘prototype’ shown in the video is never shown in detail, it looks simply like a mini usb to usb adapter. 
• The project creator claimed you would get 27mbps, which is why i asked the question “Would he support the iPhone 4s’ and he said yes. and claimed he started testing on an iPhone 4s. iPhone 4s only supports Bluetooth low energy, with max rate of +-200kbit, hence i believe a prototype was never even built.
• The project video is very clear, but when displaying or using the software it goes bad with the lighting changing constantly. Why is this? Most likely cos it was edited. 

It seems someone at kickstarter must have realised this project was suspect, as it was suspended this morning. The guy was about to walk away with $20,000. Some users are saying it’s due to me commenting and being negative about the project, but i seriously doubt that. There are plenty of projects were users moan but kickstarter does not suspend the project. I think they must have found some clear evidence of a scam. 

I have been a member of kickstarter since they around 2009, and i think while the community was small and mostly early adopters, passionate geeks etc. You were relatively protected from fraud, though i think due to their insane success, you are seeing more people trying to get in to make a quick $ to fund thier life or whatever.

My tips to ‘vett’ Kickstarter Projects:

• Do research on the guy, google his name, check LinkedIn,Facebook,Twitter Profiles. Does he seem like a real person?  
• Verify claims made in the project, is it technically feasible etc? 
• Ask questions, technical ones and see the responses, does it contradict something you know about the tech? 
• Study the video, does the guy show the prototype, show the product being used etc? 

I have always been into photography as a hobby. Ever since my dad bought me a point and shoot in high school.

I remember buying these phtography guides from CNA, every month you would get a new one that you could slot into a file (The gifts were awesome too).

It’s always just been a hobby that i do when i have the time. Other then a brief stint  where my Black & White prints were displayed at a Gallery in Rosebank it was never professional.

They were displayed for an entire month,  selling at the whopping price of..

R 1,500 (7 years ago).

I never sold a single print and had to give them away. Some are prominent displayed up to this day….

In peoples bathrooms

(Yes, it’s that crappy. Pun quite intended)

There is one place your art will always be appreciated:

In your own home

Your wife wouldn’t tell you it sucks, nor would guests for fear of being impolite. I finally decided to get a few stretched canvas prints. All pictures are original, and no fiddling done in Photoshop etc. 

Check them out below with original shots. Kudo’s if you guess where the black and white ones were taken. The colour shots are easy to figure out. 

* If you are visiting me, just nod and smile and pretend  that you like them, even if you think a 5 year old could do better. It’s the polite thing to do :)

 

Currently on an electronics course at house4hack. Good to play around with electronics after all these years. Last time I looked at resistors, gates and circuits was when I did pc engineering in 98.

A little while back i posted about kisses for kindess by @zakeeya , the funding goal was reached, equipment purchased and the kitchen has been kitted out. They are ready to start classes.

Came across a tweet by gibs_sa a little while back, a new service they are offering:

neXt – your online career mentor neXt from GIBS is an online career mentor designed to guide you in assessing, reflecting on and planning the next steps in your management career.

The comprehensive web-based tool helps you determine where you are in your career, and what steps you need to take to achieve your goals. Simple to complete, the assessments are immensely useful in planning and achieving your career objectives. Use them to assess yourself, review your options and take control of your career. Simply log in to neXt and provide the information requested about yourself while selecting your own password to ensure confidentiality. Then select from the following set of exercises to help you plan your next step:”

Sounds Interesting enough, thought i would check it out.

I attempted to register and got this.

Forget the error, which is a serious oversight. Was any testing even done?

The real kicker is the website is written in “.asp”, the last time ASP was used for any serious web development was when i was in High School (A very long time ago), yes ASP is about 14 years old.

I would love to know what was the cost of this development, and who was the company that did it. 

There is a meme going around, i am sure you have seen the pics on facebook/twitter

“What people think i do/Actually do”

Here is the latest about living in Jozi from the guys at ZuluTunes

From the website:

6.002x (Circuits and Electronics) is designed to serve as a first course in an undergraduate electrical engineering (EE), or electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) curriculum. At MIT, 6.002 is in the core of department subjects required for all undergraduates in EECS.

The course introduces engineering in the context of the lumped circuit abstraction. Topics covered include: resistive elements and networks; independent and dependent sources; switches and MOS transistors; digital abstraction; amplifiers; energy storage elements; dynamics of first- and second-order networks; design in the time and frequency domains; and analog and digital circuits and applications. Design and lab exercises are also significant components of the course. You should expect to spend approximately 10 hours per week on the course.

If you are not sold yet, check out the video below:

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via cnet

We already had the Nike Shoes from Back to the future:

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via cnet

Next up, flying cars and time travelling deloreans :)

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“Kisses for kindness is about blowing a kiss of life into a dream. A dream to be able to teach underprivileged kids a skill that we all take for granted.

Each large homemade kiss is for sale at R100 each. Please note there are only 50 for sale.

All the money made from the sale of these kisses go towards setting up a kitchen at a school in Umzinto. Please feel free to forward to anyone you think may be interested or contact @zakeeya for any further information.”