For those of you who don’t know, Moore’s Law, in simple terms, says that every 18 months, you’ll get double the performance of your processor. In recent years I think we’ve forgotten that a bit  because most computers are now so fast that only high end tasks, such as video editing, cause our kit to huff and puff a bit (not so much if you’re a Mac user though!)

Why am I rabbiting on about Moore’s Law? Well, it cropped up in my mind whilst I was mulling an up coming article about all the different places I can be found on line; website, business blog, personal blog etc.

The thought cropped up because I believe there is a new Moore’s Law when it comes to websites & apps:

The time it takes for a website/app to reach 1,000,000 users will half every 18 months*

(*Ok, that number is not based on scientific research but the trend is there)

Why is that important?

It’s important because it means that Twitter, Facebook etc will not last for ever & will be surpassed. Who cares that Facebook has 1B users?! It’s just the first to do so.

The future of social networking will probably evolve to a more distributed model; like email & websites. In this model we choose who we want our underlaying service provider to be; like our mobile phone is different to Orange or O2. In that world we can switch provider if we wish. Note: this is very different to say shutting down your Facebook account & creating a Twitter on instead.

The benefit for us users is that our social networking apps will be customised to our needs; simple facilities for some folks; advanced tools for others; but all inter-communicating via open protocols; where have we heard that approach before?

Pipe dream? Take a look at Tent.io

Joel

p.s. I’m not saying I’m the first person to think of this.

This blog has just been moved over from Posterous which, since being bought out by Twitter, has gone a little down hill and very quite. You never know, perhaps Twitter is brewing up its own blogging competitor to WordPress; who knows?

EIther way it felt the right time to jump ship.

This blog had stalled a little anyway as I was tending to put the more webby/techy stuff over on the Jojet blog, This sort of left me fumbling a little as to what to do here. However, that’s resolved now.

This Blog

This will be my more personal blog which will have any old thing on it. Indeed, some of the articles which are probably belong more on the Jojet blog will be migrated there.

This blog (which is temporarily hosted on WordPress.com) will also be moved over to a self hosted service; it’s then that some of the more techy pages will be redirected.

I’m sure you’re on the edge of your seats with the above

Joel

Apologies if you think this is rather quite, I’m tending to blog on my company blog more:

http://blog.jojet.com/

And you can always find me on Twitter

Joel

I’m big into Instagram so any news about the Apple App of the year 2011 is major news to me. Now something big cropped up today which on the face of it looks small but is actually good – Hipstamatic are the first external app which can post direct to Instagram (full story here).

This is big news because, up to this point, Instagram have tightly controlled which apps can post photos to the stream – mainly no-one but the official IOS app. Posting photos is not in the official API (you can only build gallery apps really) and anyone who tried to reverse engineer the photo posting process was clamped down on.

Note: ccompare this to Twitter where it was open season for any app to post tweets – later on Twitter decided to reign things back in and try to consolidate the apps which people used. Primairly to control the user experience – and it’s this experience which Instagram have tightly guarded up to this point.

So why do this now?

This is a good question. Instagram have been scalling up and with the recent news that the Android version is finally on the cusp, it looks like Instagram uptake is about to go into an even higher gear.

So perhaps Instagram are looking partner more as their remit goes beyond the closted confines of the current IOS only party.

Freemium

However, I see another clever move by Instagram here: an implicit freemium model. Hipstamtic aint a free app – Instagram is. Hipstamtic is an amazing app – in fact, it’s the camera app which first made me jealous of the iPhone (back when I had a Blackberry for my sins). But as my Instagram fever took hold, Hipstamatc (sadly) took a back seat.

This integration (which means that you can post direct into your Instagram stream from Hipstamatic) puts Hipsta right back into the front line for the IG camp. This deal has allowed Hipstamatic to dip into some of the frictionless sharing magic which Instagram has, up until this point, owned.

I’m pretty sure that Hipstamatic’s fortunes have been inversly proportional to Instagram’s; as IG grew in popularity; it kept stealing limelight (and usage) from Hipstamatic.This is a shame; Hipsta is a great app and I’m sure the IG team know this as well. This deal throws a lifeline to Hipsta, and I’d say that IG have a strong case to ask for a revenue share in new Hipsta purchases (and in-app purchases). This effectively gives Instagram a paid for “pro” version in everything else but name.

To End

The fact that pictures posted to Instagram from Hipstamatic are branded with a pretty bold link back to the Hipsta app tells me that not only is this about allowing hand picked third party apps to post to IG BUT also to encourage use of those apps – kinda like advertising.

A very interesting move…

p.s. I believe this also effects the other Hipstamatic camera app – the D-Seris disposable camera - tight IG integration here also opens the door to more seamless are interesting photo competition and meetup possibilities.

Ok, so here’s the first poem. Inspired by the increasing collection my
brother has on his blog. He fires
off at least one a day on his #speedpoem challenge – I’m not ready for
that yet, one every couple of weeks will do me for starters. Any way,
here’s the poem.

Ps I’m pretty sure I’ve bastardised & plagiarised a load of stuff here
(mainly Saul’s). This is therefore a compliment to that!

Varteg Hill

A thin, lonely road threads across the exposed mountain top,

Varteg hill.

Windswept, unforgiving and beautiful.

At a roadside point, not unlike any other, stands a battered and
dwindling clutch of flowers; mourning the spot of a not-so-recent
tragedy.

Probably a car misadventure. Providing the final stop for some unlucky
Saturday night revellers.

What scene confronted the ambulance crew that night? Driving rain &
strewn death? High up on that bleak track.

With the mountain looking passively on.

Unmoved by the daily dramas of our working lives.

Decided to take my brothers lead and do some more creative stuff like knock out the occasional poem. Stuff not normally in my comfort zone.

Note: I am under **no** allusion that these will be any kind of works of art!

# Why do it then?

Well, because it’s all to easy **not** to do things like this isn’t it?

All to easy to **not** have a go.

Especially for things which open us to criticism; or which makes us feel in anyway vulnerable. All to easy to dodge that bullet by not joining in.

But fuck that. I’m not playing that game any more. I’ll have a go at whatever damn well things I like, talent or no talent!