Leave of Absense

I just wanted to let you know I will be taking a break from my business blog until I sort out some issues here at home. Thank you for being a loyal reader and keep me on subscription as I will be back as soon as possible.

Baby Mind Reading

In 1890, psychologist William James famously described an infant's view of the world as "one great blooming, buzzing confusion." It was a notion that held for nearly a century: infants were simple minded creatures who merely mimicked those around them and grasped only the most basic emotions; happy, sad, angry. Science is now giving us a much different picture of what goes on inside their hearts and heads. Where were these break throughs when Sebastian was a toddler?

Did you know your baby can feel a range of complex emotions like envy and empathy? Until a baby is 3 months old, he can recognize a scrambled photograph of his mother just as quickly as a photo in which everything is in the right place. Babies as young as 4 months have the advanced powers of deduction and an ability to decipher intricate patterns. The research shows how powerful emotional well-being is to a child's future health. A baby who fails to meet certain key "emotional milestones" may have trouble learning to speak, read and, later, do well in school.

Dr. Chet Johnson, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' early-childhood committee says, "Instead of just asking if they're crawling or sitting, we're asking more questions about how they share their world with their caregivers. Do they point to things? When they see a new person, how do they react? How children do on social, emotional and language skills are better predictors of success in adulthood than motor skills are."

Psychologists used to believe that emotions like jealousy were far too complex for babies to process. But compelling new evidence from researchers at Texas Tech University shows that the very young can behighly possessive, just like everyone else. In a Texas Tech lab, 8 month old Josephy McCarty plays and gurgles happily, reveling in mother Nancy's undivided attention. But when researchers pass Nancy a life-size doll, Joseph begins to look distressed. He watches his mother closely as she fusses over the doll. Becoming increasingly agitated, Joseph waves and kicks his legs in a big to win back his mother's attention, but she continues to play with the doll. That's it. No more Mr. Nice Guy. Joseph turns on the waterworks and opens his lungs, letting his mother know she belongs to him and him alone.

So what should you, as a parent, do with all this new information? First, relax. lol Just because your baby is more perceptive than you thought previously doesn't mean he is going to be damaged for life if he cries in his crib for a minute. It doesn't mean she will end up quitting school and stealing cars if she witnesses an occasional argument between her parents. A child's social, emotional and academic life begins with the earlies of conversations between parent and child; the quiet smiles you exchange with your infant. Your child is speaking to you all the time. It's just a matter of knowing how to listen.

Related Informtion

Jerk-O-Meter

Have you heard about the Jerk-O-Meter? No? Well it's coming to a cell phone near you soon the researchers over at MIT say. They are developing software for cell phones that would analyze speech patterns and voice tones to rate people on a scale of 0 to 100 percent, on how engaged they are in a conversation.

For now, the Jerk-O-Meter is set up to monitor the user's end of the conversation. If his attention is straying, a message pops up on the phone that warns, "Don't be a jerk!" or "Be a little nicer now." A score closer to 100 percent would prompt, "Wow, you're a smooth talker." However, the Jerk-O-Meter also could be set up to test the voice on the other end of the line. Then it could send the tester such reports as: "This person is acting like a jerk. Do you want to hang up?"

The program, which Anmol Madan (who led the project while he pursued a master's degree at MIT) said is nearing completion, uses mathematical algorithms to measure levels of stress and empathy in a person's voice. It also keeps track of how often someone is speaking.

"Think of a situation where you could actually prevent an argument," Madan said. "Just having this device can make people more attentive because they know they're being monitored."

Moving in a New Direction

When I originally decided I would start blogging I really wasn't sure what direction I wanted to take it. I'm involved in many different things; movie making, technology in general, my fire shows, my personal quirks.. just what direction should I take my blog?

Well after a few months of blogging things are a bit more clear on what I want to do with this blog. I have decided I will refrain from talking about my personal life here as colorful as it may be. I am seriously entertaining the idea of starting a New Orleans based audio podcast. Once I have at least 30 people subscribed to my blog I will start producing this podcast. In the meantime my blog space here will be used as an opinion column on today's technology and other things I do relating to business. This will include current technology news, my latest business ventures, and answers to any questions readers have (you can submit questions by visiting my contact page).

I will continue a personal blog. My personal blog will be located at myspace.com because I like the interface and I already have an account there. I warn you now my personal space will touch on issues you may or may not be prepared to read or deal with. You will definitely see two very different sides of me so read at your own risk.

If you are one of the 5 current subscribers to this blog I would like to thank you. As I watch my subscriber numbers rise it gives me encouragement to continue on this path of blogging. If you have friends that would be interested in reading let them know about me and feel free to use the link graphic, with auto updating recent posts, on your webpage to link to this blog.

Sony Sues Over PSP Sales

Hello again :) Soooo, New Orleans has been very very bad to me this last week or so! My car is broken, my baby sitter has disappeared and I'm in danger of loosing my main income source because they require 20 measly office hours a week to maintain the network. So if you have a babysitter that is reliable and wants to move to New Orleans.. Send 'em here! The wonderful laptop I currently use to post this blog will vanish like a puff of green smoke if I loose my main gig too.. which means.. All my other gigs get put on hold until I can scrape up the funds to get a cheapo desktop... So if you were having a bad week, now you know.. someone out there has it even worse than you this week lol. Oh.. and the whole reason of this post as the title implies.. Sony is at it again!

Lik-Sang.com, a retailer based in Hong-Kong, announced today the Sony Corporation has filed a law suit against them for selling Japanese PSP units to the UK via internet. The PSP is scheduled to debut in Europe next month so it's a minimal amount of time we are talking about here. This wouldn't be the first time Sony has sued over similar issues either, the company has targeted Lik-Sang.com before in 2002 for selling PS2 Mod Chips...

"This is the most aggressive move against its own customers that a console manufacturer has ever taken in the 30 year history of video games," said Pascal Clarysse, Marketing Manager for Lik-Sang.com. "Sony wants to completely cut hardcore gamers away from items released in Japan or anywhere else outside their own country. A very active part of the gaming community has been enjoying Japanese gaming culture for over two decades, and that's what the Empire is now willing to destroy."

Lik-Sang issued a public statement reassuring their customers sales will continue to be filled as usual so Europe cheers on as they order the PSP a month or so early. Why is it so vitally important Sony retain control of the exact date the product is available for a specific area, especially a gaming system such as the PSP? A game like Final Fantasy XI Online, where you have to manage server load balance, it makes sense to stagger release in different areas of the world to keep pace with the growth and power of the servers that are the backbone of the multi-player online games.

The question is, will the Sony Corporation win this legal battle over early release forcing Lik-Sang.com to take it off the digital shelf? Probably. But I'll bet by the time the court proceedings are over it will be PSP Europe Release time.

Until next time be good... Or be good at it!

Russian PenPal Part II

This is my Russian friend, Dinara. She is currently making plans to come visit me! I'm rather excited, I don't often get visitors, especially from another country. I'm looking forward to showing her New Orleans and introducing my son. I don't know exactly when she will be in town but I'll keep you updated. Geez I need to clean my house lol

Have you ever had someone visit from Russia? Is there anything I should know about russian customs or habits? Help me out here, to be honest about the only thing I know related to Russia is the capital is Moscow. This should prove to be a very fun and educational meeting! I hope she can sit thru my techi-babble lol

Sebastian is getting excited as his birthday gets closer and closer. His party will be Saturday, August 13th at a local roller rink. I can't wait to see all the kids flying around on roller skates while the adults hang on to the walls. I'll be sure to capture some digital images for your viewing pleasure. Be sure to check out Sebastian's Website on his birthday to see the automated flash birthday message. As soon as I have pictures from the party they will be posted on his site.

Holy MySpace Batman!

Have you been to MySpace.com yet? If not you are late and missing out on a lot of PR and popularity! This awesome example of a working dot com module was designed (and is still maintained) by Chris Dewolfe and Tom Anderson (the auto friend you are assigned when you sign up). The genius of the site is how it has incorporated multimedia. Users can instant message, look for prospective lovers, listen to music, add visual components such as photos or artwork, post video footage, play video games or simply read.

As I was listening to the many pod casts with techie themes I could get my hands on, one of them highlighted the podcasters daughter and her usage of myspace.com. How is it I, who lives on the internet, didn't already have a myspace account? I suppose it is because I control a number of domains already on the internet. I don't have need for a free webpage full of banner ads lining someone else's pockets, or do I?

As it turns out, yes I do. About 36 hours ago as of this posting I made a home on myspace. You can visit "my space" at www.MySpace.com/UberDragon/. At the time of this posting I have made over 100 friends. Yes you heard correctly over 100 new potential subscribers to my blog, 100 potential consumers of my digital products like webhosting or webdesign, if nothing else it is 100 new people to read about and get to know and actually maybe befriend.

Currently, MySpace has roughly 20 million users. In May, the site attracted 7.5 billion unique visitors. And Nielsen Media Research reported that 3.9 billion of those page views were from Americans, making MySpace the sixth most-viewed site in the United States behind Yahoo, eBay, Microsoft, Google and America Online. With numbers like that, it's no wonder that Fox magnate Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. purchased MySpace for $580 million in cash last week. Reportedly, he wants to cash in on MySpace's ad revenue.

So do I and I don't want to spend $580 million to do it. Every person that has asked to be my friend is accepted and promptly given a comment on their page. The initial comment I have adopted, is a pair of ASCII feet I have set to marquee scroll up. Just below my scrolling feet tag is the link back graphic to this blog (you can use this graphic on your own pages too! Details are along the right side of the page here). That is 100 live link advertisements to UberDragon Networks, almost personal endorsements since these are personal pages. If you've been playing the search engine ranking game, you know, the more links into your site across the internet the better you will rank on the search indexes. The higher you rank, the more hits you get, the more hits you get the more eyes you have on your website. This all leads to more subscribers, consumers and browsers all checking out my products and those that choose to advertise on my network of sites.

To sum this all up, if you haven't gotten involved with MySpace.com you better get on it. When companies buy these dot com's for $580 million dollars you can expect to see a lot of premium services being added in the future. Those that are already enjoying the free services will likely keep them with options to pay for more services, while the folks new to the community may have to pay premium prices for things we already get for free.

Pod Casting Movement

Hello again, the last couple of days I've been reading a lot about this new (ok so I'm a year off on this one) web format sweeping the internet by storm. It is called Pod Casting and I'm very very intrigued. In a nutshell this new format is allowing anyone with a microphone and internet access the ability to produce and promote a uncensored audio broadcast of... well anything you want.

The internet community is using the PodCasting tool for everything from cyber preachers to radio personalities. The format gained a lot of popularity with the advent of the mobile Apple iPod unit designed by Jonathan Ive. Until iPod the format was somewhat held back because you could only listen to the broadcasts while sitting in front of your computer. Now the Pod Casts can be listened to anywhere including the most popular place to listen to radio broadcasts, while driving in your car.

As you may or may not know I have a background in radio broadcasting and this PodCasting stuff has my mouth watering. I have long since given up the idea of being a live broadcaster on air. I've decided instead to make money off my passion for computers and the internet. But now... maybe... just maybe I will start my own weekly broadcasting with news and insights on current tech news and other information. Perhaps I can combine my love of broadcasting and internet and produce something new entirely! I'm already starting to look for digital mixing boards so I can produce commercials for some of my web projects and place them within the podcast. If I'm going to produce a PodCast it is definitely going to be something worth listening too, professional, complete with music, news and flashy sound effects (I hope I can find my old radio sound bite CD's).

You will be the first to hear of any PodCasts coming out of UberDragon Networks so stay tuned here on my blog. If we were to produce a PodCast out of UberDragon Networks what would you want to hear in the broadcasts? What should we call our podcast? It's content would be similar to my blog entries with a heavier lean on the technology side so I always have fresh weekly content. And finally if we produce a PodCast will you subscribe to it? Why or Why not?