Great video and article about Surena 2 – the new humanoid robot.

Meet Surena 2, a human-sized, human-shaped (ish) robot that’s new on the world robotics scene. He’s capable of walking, and designed to perform the similar sort of human-assist role as other similar bots. He’s from Iran. What?

Earlier this year Cisco announced the release of their CRS3 Carrier Routing System. This system with its ridicules ability to process 322TBbps of bandwidth compared with the current 92Tbps (CRS2) will be responsible for the progression of internet evolution over the next few years. The easiest way to look at this is it’s like the change from 56K dial up modems to ADSL! These routers will help to improve the services of the internet over the next few years.

Bandwidth has been one of the most controlling factors of internet development. Bandwidth is one of the most critical elements of how the internet flows, low bandwidth / bottlenecks = poor / no internet it’s as simple as that.  Yes there have been a number of examples recently of very successful sites that have extremely low bandwidth needs such as Twitter and Facebook. However there have also been increased demands for bandwidth with sites such as BBC iplayer, hulu, BT Vision, all of these channels offer HD streaming of their programmes which requires at least 3.5mbps which at times of high contention can be a challenge to achieve a stable connection.

The implications of this new breed of carrier class routing system will also have a huge impact on the advancement of Cloud computing and SaaS. For these services to work you need a fast reliable and stable internet connection. With these new routers  helping to take the load of an ever increasing demand for bandwidth they could be one of the critical elements of the puzzle that could help make cloud computing and SaaS a better, faster and more viable choice for companies.

When the CRS3 starts to roll out through ISP centres it will help to open the flood gates for richer internet content. Think of what could be possible if you bandwidth to your home was increased 10x to 40mb and above. These sorts of speeds will be possible throughout the UK within the next few years with BT rolling out BT infinity and the UK government committing to ensure continued investment in the UK internet infrastructure.

Cisco have once again raised the bar to another level in not only providing a higher bandwidth technology but also providing one that will have a lesser impact on the environment per Gbps then other systems. All we need now is fiber to the door and the internet is going to get very fast with some great new services.

@.F{u:D£

I’m pretty sure articles for the next few weeks are going to be pretty much focused around the release of the iPad and various applications that will be springing up. We have already seen in previous posts by independent digital agencies that iPad application development or Rich internet application development is not as straight forward as many marketeers think it might be and there has been lots of stories covering the cost of licensing, development and the total cost of applications when they finally get to the end customer – You! So its very nice to see this article written this morning by Polly Becker on Lonely Planet bucking the trend and pushing out an app for free…

“Talk about over pricing the thing. Duh. Lonely Planet has made its Apple iPad app free after initially wanting $20 for thing.

The app brings together recommendations from its book “1000 Ultimate Experiences” allow you to “swipe, flick and thumb” your way through the top 1000 ideas, places and activities you can go visit on your travels. Basically it looks like a bunch of really pretty pictures which, you know, I like, but not $20 like.

Plus the reviewers are not impressed with the general gist that while it containts quality images it it is way overpriced:

“What a joke. The previous reviews have to be from employees of lonely planet. Basically you scroll through the deck, pick a topic, and then it shows you a picture which you can flip to have a little bit of info on the location. There is no detail at all, no further pictures once you click on the card. I have been had. For twenty dollars save your money. Lonely planet you should be ashamed.”

I’m hoping that like me people (and I mean Lonely Planet among others here) is that the iPad is not a licence to print money (which is illegal anyway, unless you’re the government).

Article originally written by Polly Becker

Twitter gets reset to day 1

If you felt you social status take a bit of a nose dive when you logged onto twitter on Monday 10^th of  May 2010 and you saw that you had no followers all the people you were following had disowned you and all of your listed posts had disappeared. In effect your twitter world had vanished! Never fear this was just a temporary fix by twitter to stop a shockingly simple exploit.

As you can see from the screen grab below my twitter world has vanished and I’m left sat in a corner wondering what I did wrong did I say I don’t like Mc Donald’s or that NDubZ aren’t the most skilled group in the world!

The exploit is one of the simplest I have seen in a while. Simple type “accept account_name” into the status box click submit and /Grats you have another person following you (Against Their Will).

Whoever discovered this exploit proved brilliantly how some of the best exploits don’t need acres of crays or super code. Loop holes are some of the best exploits on the net, just like the /clip or /godmode cheats of old.

When things like this happen on one of the biggest sites on the net it shows how worthy some penetration testing can be. I really could see how there could be a number of other exploits in the pipe line against twitter as this one has given us a key insight into how their system processes following acceptances. Could the next twitter exploit be del *.* with the simplicity of this exploit who knows????

Credit for breaking the news on this goes to softpedia.com / cyberinsecure.com

Remember - Always trust your technologist!

Another great article from Brad Egeland @ pmtips.net

Seven Ways to Manage Your Projects Successfully

In the past I’ve presented several articles on what I think it takes to be successful as a project manager including the characteristics of a successful project manager. I was recently looking over a book entitled “10 Minute Guide to Project Management” and found yet another take on a list of ways to succeed in project management.

This is a list of seven ways to succeed as a project manager. As always, I’m very interested your feedback and any items you think should be added to the list.

Next up – seven ways to fail as a project manager…. but first, let’s look at the ways to succeed….

If you have been reading the brand republic in the last few months or you keep a very close eye on the giant eBay then you may already be aware that you can now get high end fashion from the auction site with claims of up to 70% discounts. Ebay fashion site.

Brand republic writes: “eBay is to position itself as a fashion retailer in a national marketing campaign that moves it away from its core second-hand goods offering.”

A great incite about a new qualification for international project managers written by Elizabeth at pmtips.net. read the outline below and a link to the full article can be found at the bottom.

“Occasionally, someone comes up with a new qualification, like PMI’s risk certificate, or the P3O exam.  But sometimes you get the impression that the qualification bodies are not exactly breaking new ground.  The PMD Pro (Project Management in Development Professional) qualification launches today, and does get credit for being original.

The qualification has been put together by APMG-International and PM4NGOs, and it was successfully piloted in South Africa and Zambia in March.  It’s aimed at project managers working in the development sector, and this is a growing employment sector for project managers.

One of the biggest challenges faced by project managers working for NGOs is that they have to work with lots of different organisations – which all use their own methodologies and terminology.  Sometimes even within an organisation there can be different departments using their own language and tools.  The competency-based certification for NGO project managers won’t fix this overnight, but at least it will help address the lack of consistency.  Get everyone trained up as PMD Pros and

You are looking at Apple’s next iPhone. It was found lost in a bar in Redwood City, camouflaged to look like an iPhone 3GS. It’s the real thing, and for all the details checkout the guys who found it and read the the origional article. Thanks Gizmodo, but what do you think?

someone showed this to me a while back but I came across it again recently and made me wonder “its been about 10 months or so now, i would like to see how they are getting on at mobileUncle” If you have not seen this awesome piece of kit previewed at TED then take a few minutes to watch the video and post your thoughts below.