Peter Winer

Encyclopedia of Experiences

Today’s article, With Tools On Web, Amateurs Reshape Mapping in the New York Times explains some of the ways people are using mash ups to publish customized maps. The article has a number of interesting examples and includes some that use maps of geo-tagged photos.

All the mash ups I’ve seen show a collection of something. Obviously the variety of collections is very broad. One of my favorites is Skibonk. It shows you the location of all major ski resorts. When you roll over one, you get a popup showing how much new snow they have. How’s the Surf shows the current surfing conditions at beaches around the world. Ubilabs has an amazing map that shows the exact position of every biker in the current Tour de France stage. When you roll the mouse over a rider you see their speed, heart rate, cadence and the results of their last drug test.

Google Power Grab at 700 MHz

Google has sparked debate by saying they intend to bid for the 700 MHz spectrum that will be auctioned by the FCC next year.  Google claims they will only bid if restrictions are placed on the eventual winner requiring open devices, applications, services and networks.

Existing wireless operators are crying foul.  They are complaining that the restrictions would undermine the profit potential of the auction winner.  Various opinion leaders including TechCrunch, GigaOM and David Pogue are siding with Google and criticizing the phone companies for stifling innovation.

Tumalo Mountain Trail

Today we hiked to the top of Tumalo Mountain.  The white lines on the bottom and right of this picture are the ski runs at Mount Bachelor.  As you reach the top of Tumalo Mountain, you get a 360 degree view of the Cascade Range, the Deschutes River Valley and the Eastern High Desert of Oregon.  Click the picture to see my geocoded pictures from the hike.

Whitewater Rafting

Peter and Emma on the Big Eddy River

Pictures of Lava Cast Forest

Yesterday I walked the Lava Cast Forest loop trail in the Newberry Volcanic National Monument.  As you walk the loop you see places where the lava surrounded and ignited trees.  The trees burned while the lava cooled, leaving holes the shape of the trees.  The walk also has some very good views of the surrounding lava flows.

Alice took about a dozen pictures and later I geocoded them using a Gisteq GPS and PhotoTrackr software.  I added the pictures to my Flickr album and made a clickable map showing the pictures. 

When I display the Flickr map I can use the filters to show all geotagged pictures in my album.  The result is a map of the loop trail with a dot on the exact location for each picture.  Clicking any dot displays a very small thumbnail of that picture in a pop up window.

If anyone else visits the map, they can enter "lava cast forest" in the search entry and they will see my pictures along with all others posted by any other Fickr user.  In this case, switching to satellite view and zooming in many times makes the map much more interesting.  Alternately, you can just click this link and see that I've done all the work for you.

To me, the thumbnail images are too small.  Also, I want to customize the information displayed in the pop up along with the thumbnail image.  These pictures are from a hike.  If I was biking or back country skiing, the displayed information would be different.

Biking in Oregon

Alice, Sophie, Harry, Peter, Emma, Cousin Sam

Music Marketing 2.0

How do you find out about new music?  I mainly listen to the radio, get recommendations from friends and buy new albums from artists I know and like.  But I'm old.  More and more people today are finding out about music different ways and purchasing it through different channels.

Radio today is more homogeneous with fewer formats and shorter play lists.  Fewer bands get air time.  Also, people are spending less time listening to radio so the audience is smaller.  MTV has shows and plays fewer music videos.  Turns out that the growing ways to publicize a tune or a band are in commercials or the sound tracks of video games.

Securing Identity with RFID

In the San Jose Mercury News, Jim Sheire criticizes new California legislation that would limit government use of RFID-enabled identity cards.  Sheire is manager of government affairs for RFID vendor NXP Semiconductors.  This isn't mentioned on the Web site page.

Sheire describes the encryption and authorization features available with RFID.  He claims that these features will make RFID-enabled identity safe from hacking and misuse.  I agree that RFID for identity is much more sophisticated than RFID for supply chain management.  I spent years working with NXP's secure RFID products and they are very impressive.  I don't agree that such RFID is free from risk.  I have two basic concerns.

$900 iPhone

I've had my 4GB iPhone for exactly one week.  I love the user interface for Web browsing and it's great reading my email anywhere.  My kids love watching videos on it.

	iPhone Real Cost 4GB iPhone purchase $500 Cost of two-year commitment $250 One battery replacement $120 Car charger $30 Total $900

On the other hand, the network is slow and I'll never enjoy the virtual keyboard.  Also, the iPhone is too big and too valuable to take everywhere.  I still use an iPod Shuffle for workouts and I'm probably going to get a second - much smaller - phone for carrying in my jeans pocket.  So that means the iPhone will be used solely for Web surfing and reading email.  For those limited uses it's an beautiful but expensive gadget.

The real cost of a 4GB iPhone is about $900.  Why?  First, you have to sign a two-year agreement.  With any other phone, you get a $250 discount in return for your commitment.  Second, you should expect to buy at least one replacement battery during the life of the phone.  That will cost $120 including replacement phone rental.  Finally since the battery runs down faster than a typical cell phone you have to spend about $30 on a car charger.

Hats off to Apple.  Going forward I'm sure we'll see better deals on today's iPhone so Apple can stay competitive.  Also, I can't wait for an iPhone Nano, or even an iPhone Shuffle!

Withdrawal from Iraq

I am not focusing this blog on government and politics unless it relates to some other area of my focus such as RFID.  Also, if you know me personally, you know my political affiliation so there's no need to repeat it here.

With all that said, the New York Times published a remarkable editorial on Sunday.  If you agree with their position it is both worthwhile and interesting.  If you don't generally agree with them you should try to read it and separate the interesting observations from the opinions.

Most important is the incredible challenge we will face removing some or all of our personnel and equipment from Iraq.  Planning the departure properly will easily take six months and will involve extreme danger for our troops.  Democrats in congress should take note.  If they call for withdrawal in Spring 2008, they should also be driving intensive planning for the withdrawal process.  If not the results could be more disastrous than the war itself.