Recent blog posts

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Working in Cape Town - Part 3: The cool stuff

My month of working in Cape Town is over, and I'm fully back to the cold and wet reality of Slovenia. Needless to say it was an amazing ride, packed with ups and downs, and after writing about my first impressions about a month ago I'm slowly ready to present the final objective review, together with the highlights of my trip. The first week I was there was a bit of a struggle, as I was slightly overwhelmed by the culture shock. But after that I managed to adopt the situation and have grown to admire and love Cape Town. Today, sitting at home, I can say that South Africa is a beautiful country with amazing landscape and nature, but at the same time full of cultural contrast and racial inequality, a constant reminder of the things that happened in the past.

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written 9:20 CET on chronolog
3292 views   •   1 like   •   2 comments  •   Like   •   
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Working in Cape Town - Part 2: The culture shock

My month of working in Cape Town is over, and I'm fully back to the cold and wet reality of Slovenia. Needless to say it was an amazing ride, packed with ups and downs, and after writing about my first impressions about a month ago I'm slowly ready to present the final objective review, together with the highlights of my trip. The first week I was there was a bit of a struggle, as I was slightly overwhelmed by the culture shock. But after that I managed to adopt the situation and have grown to admire and love Cape Town. Today, sitting at home, I can say that South Africa is a beautiful country with amazing landscape and nature, but at the same time full of cultural contrast and racial inequality, a constant reminder of the things that happened in the past.

...more
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written 9:16 CET on chronolog
2998 views   •   1 like   •   2 comments  •   Like   •   
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Windows-branded computers on TV. Entering a new market or product placement fail?

Lately I've been noticing a lot of television shows that used computers with a Windows logo on their back. Classic product placement, where advertising blends with an event, movie or a TV show. The master of product placement in the mentioned segment is currently Apple, who also has suitable products for most occasions – beautiful and recognizable laptop and desktop computers. But Microsoft doesn't make computers at all. It does make some hardware (Xbox, Zune), but its focus is mostly on software (and lately on consumer electronics), so why the hell would they want to advertise something that doesn't even exist? Have they lost their mind or are they entering yet another market?

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written 19:02 CET on chronolog
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Apple has enough money to buy Slovenia's entire yearly production

Apple is currently hot like a chili pepper. Its products are well accepted, their sales and revenues are growing, and their stocks are going sky-high. A few months ago Apple even managed to dethrone Microsoft as the largest technology company in the world and second third largest according to market capitalization (behind Exxon and PetroChina). Their yearly revenues are currently around $65 billion, which is a lot, and that figure is even more interesting if put into perspective.

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written 23:00 CET on chronolog
4445 views   •   4 likes   •   9 comments  •   Like   •   
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Web 2.5: Looking for the missing link between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0

The great revolution of Web 2.0 is still here and well – it looks like it's not going anywhere. Actually, its name did change, making "social media" more widely used today, but I'm still sticking to the original Tim O'Reilly's term. It's been more than five years since that happened, and a few years ago Web 3.0 was also starting to get mentioned. Web 3.0 mainly stands for the semantic web, using mathematical algorithms and meta data for trying to understand the meaning of content. But the whole thing is getting kinda old, because we still didn't see any real great results or services online – or perhaps they just did not make it to the mainstream. So while we wait for that to unveil, we could discuss something in between.

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written 18:39 CET on chronolog
2582 views   •   2 likes   •   2 comments  •   Like   •   
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The chronolog now understands connections between content

I once made a promise that I will try to incorporate as many interesting features as possible into my blog. My previous development sessions were based mostly on interactions of readers with the posts, the peak of it being the Hot on the chronolog algorithm. But now, as the chronolog finally reached critical mass in the amount of content it operates with, the time has come to do something new. The next step is focused on a different functionality, and a few days ago, the chronolog received an algorithm for recognizing relationships between different blog posts.

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written 22:20 CET on chronolog
2183 views   •   3 likes   •   6 comments  •   Like   •   
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Working in Cape Town - Part 1: First impressions

I managed to be lucky enough to get invited to Cape Town to work on a project for a month. Neolab has been developing an information system for a client stationed here and the results are quite satisfying, both for us and for the client. Therefore they decided it would be best if I came around, so we could work on the system together, while at the same time plan new, advanced features to come. I must say this is one of the greatest projects we've ever did, and I really look forward to implementing the social IT 2.0 features into the system in the future. Clients back home don't seem to recognize the real potential in those services, so it's really satisfying to get real feedback from a client on the concept.

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written 16:33 CET on chronolog
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New York in spring - a photo story

This spring I was taken to New York for my birthday. I've have never been there, but this great birthday gift finally gave me the chance to discover and feel this huge metropolis. It's needless to say it's an urban jungle packed with variety of culture and people, living a much faster life than that in Europe. The city is impressive, but you usually get aware of that after you are back home. But then again, that's also the perfect excuse to go back for more. A half year after my trip I can say New York is an amazing city, with too many places to mention, and not enough places to rest. Here a a few of my impressions from the capital of the world.

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written 16:58 CET on chronolog
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Apple's strategy of becoming a content provider might simply be ingenious

Apple is an interesting corporation. Some love it, some hate it, but the fact is, Apple has become the biggest technology company in the world. An interesting turn of events, from a company that nearly went bankrupt a few decades ago, to a player that we know today. Looks like Steve Jobs really is one of the greatest visionaries of our time, as his comeback in 1996 together with the introduction of the iMac and the iPod managed to turn things around for Apple. Looking at these facts in 2010, the iPod may turn out to be even more important than it seems, creating a digital music revolution and providing the foundation for Apple's strategy of becoming the world's dominant commercial content provider.

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written 16:38 CET on chronolog
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Google 2.0, take infinity: Google Me

The past few months have been loaded with expectations and speculations about the new social service from Google that will be introduced soon: Google Me. Facebook is currently dominating the social market, with 500 million registered users and an expected 2 billion dollars of revenue in 2010. It's satellites, mostly in the form of social gaming providers, are also gaining momentum, e.g. Zynga, the most successful of the pack, could generate $500 million in revenue this year. Even though Google's revenue is still much much greater, more than $20 billion a year to be exact, this does not change the fact the future of the World Wide Web lies in social – and Google obviously wants to be a part of that.

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written 19:17 CET on chronolog
2234 views   •   3 likes   •   7 comments  •   Like   •   
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My 50th blog post. Time to contemplate.

It's been a while since I've started blogging. I'm proud of what I've achieved so far, but this is just the beginning and a prologue into greater things coming in the future. I did it on my own custom platform, which enables me to play around with features and information presentation, something I like to do whenever possible. I didn't expect it to be this hard, at least in the time it takes me to write a good post with images and references, besides the time I need to promote it using all means necessary. But it's definitely been a fun ride, and the need to express myself has truly been satisfied.

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written 18:33 CET on chronolog
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Twitfluence calculation version log

In the prototype phase, the Twitfluence calculation will probably be going through some major and minor changes concerning the application and the calculation. For better understanding, transparency and of course, to satisfy the curiosity of those interested, the simplified version log will be available on this link. Feel free to comment on all the issues below, any feedback will be more than appreciated.

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written 11:54 CET on chronolog
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Twitfluence prototype calculation for measuring Twitter influence

The prototype calculation of Twitfluence uses the data available form Twitter API to measure your Twitter influence and coolness. The basic technical specifications of the application is available, but I will also be supplying the basic information about how the algorithm works. The actual calculation is already online for beta users, and generally speaking, there are three major components that add up to the score: your followers, your mentions and retweets, and your lists, all accounted as ratios between you and others.

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written 12:54 CET on chronolog
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Twitfluence application basic technical specifications

Twitfluence is a registered Twitter application for calculating the "weight" and influence of your Twitter account, and is already accessible for beta users. It uses read and write permissions on your Twitter account. Perhaps it will be upgraded with write permissions one day too, so it will be able to post the results to your timeline on request, but for now, read permission is all it needs. The original idea was to have it done without Twitter authentication (by simply entering a user name), but then you're not able to access mentions and retweets, which are obviously a big thing in measuring someone's Twitter influence.

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written 12:53 CET on chronolog
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The Web is going rogue. The Web is going mainstream.

Times are changing, and the World Wide Web isn't any different. You've probably already noticed your mother on Facebook and it's not too hard to understand that interests of specific generations can be a bit different. The same goes for young people, who are obviously growing up in a world of their own, a confusing world overwhelmed with infinite amounts of information.

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written 18:16 CET on chronolog
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