Brian Zhang Larsen’s Blog

A couple of weeks ago I was at the danish technological institute to see a demonstration on RFID and to hear about the current state, problems and obstacles with the technology. Peter Skovborg showed us Gartner’s hype cycle for different emerging technologies, mainly to show us where RFID was at the moment. The model shows at which stage a technology currently is in, and essentially: a technology gets overhyped in the beginning, it starts to disappoint because they fail to meet expectations and in the end they reach the plateau of productivity. Here the technology becomes widely adopted and accepted. On the model I noticed several other interesting technologies that to some people is known as web 2.0. buzzzz buzzz buuuuuzzzzzzz….

On the model it seems that wikis and corporate blogging currently is on the “Trough of Disillusionment”. This means that the hype is on its way down, and that the technologies ( concepts is maybe a better words) now has disappointed in some way and now waits to get it realistic benefits revealed so it can become widely accepted. I think the model makes a very realistic picture of these concepts, and most of all i am glad to see that the hype is over… although though i am not quite sure about that. And i would love to see the term AJAX up there, because it seems to be what the main hype is all about at the moment.
I have a feeling that the term/buzz about the term web2.0 is mainly to attract venture capitalists, and to create another famous bubble. Jeffrey Zeldman has on that note a very amusing article about the hype. The term is still very intangible and has many different definitions, but to my surprise I found that some people have already mapped several news versions of the web. According to Alex Krupp the different versions of the web differs by the following:

Web 1.0 is about allowing individuals to create and share ideas
Web 2.0 is about allowing groups to create and share ideas
Web 3.0 is about allowing societies to create and share ideas
Web 4.0 is the singularity

His article is somewhat paranoid about the trust aspect, which the group paradigm is build up around, but has some good points. But when it comes to the new versions his arguments and illustrations fall flat. Or maybe it is just me that doesn’t get them.

Somehow this title reminds me of an earlier post, hmm well. But some good news has lately appeared on the Futurama fan site www.gotfuturama.com. Futurama might be back on screen, which surely is the greatest news since the invention of fried pork skin. But it is still only a rumor and unfortunately there has been a lot of those rumors before. The articles written about it are very unclear and imprecise, so nothing is really decided yet. But some people are optimistic though…

They (we… (I)) are hoping that the family guy model could work with futurama as well. What happened with family guy was that the large DVD sales after the show had been cancelled, made the network revive the show. The show is now still running and after the initial cancellation there has been a movie and two seasons so far. And in the same breath I just have to mention the incredible show, American dad.

Last month i incidentally fell over the Futurama magazine which made my December… It was really a positive surprise, and i didnt know about it at all until I found myself standing in the comic book store Fantask with a major hangover by the way. I bought all they had, which unfortunately only were a few copies of the excellent magazine. I can surely recommend it to every Futurama fan out there.

I now start off my new category “3 of a kind”. Posts in this category will contain three short reviews of movies which is similar in some way. The similarity can be of different kind and can be about the nationality, genre, plot or whatever. I think i owe to say that i am normally very uncritical about movies, and enjoy most genres no matter the budget, plot or kind of digital sound (although this one is important!). I love hollywood blockbusters, and i am certainly not to posh to say that a large budget (mostly on CGI) and nice effects can save a movie from an awful plot, and still make it cool. So you should take this into consideration if you should happen to get influenced by my recommendations. I start this off with three Chinese movies which is relatively new, and worth noticing. They are all action movies and epical/historical in some way, and none of them is starring the Chinese actor Andy Lau, who normally appears in every movie produced in China.

I watch a lot of asian movies partly due to interest, and partly because of my Chinese girlfriend. She is the main reason why i fell over these three movies. An obvious Chinese “3 of a kind” would be Crouching tiger hidden dragon, Hero and House of flying daggers which all are great movies, but you have surely already watched those… Instead i chose the following:

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Battlestar Galactica is finally back after the long winter break. I just watched the new episode (11 Season 2), and it doesn’t dissapoint. And now they also release the episodes on iTunes music store for download. It is quite a good iniative, and off course probably profitable too. And in addition, the directors comments is availabe too as podcasts. This is quite cool, allthough I must admit that i am getting a bit tired of the word podcast, but i guess it is shorter than walkmancast.

Well, about the episode… (spoiler!)
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Last fall i went to Turkey, and i tastet some türkish specialties which actually tasted pretty good, although the consistency is nothing to celebrate in any way (clearly adds to the downside of this snack). Then recently I tried to buy some in the local greengrocer, but I was quite dissapointed. The consistency was even worse than remembered and the taste was… well not very good. But then i saw the text written on the package, and i don’t mean the words “Super Delicious”. Right there in the middle of the package i saw the word “Lokum” which is a rather bad word for toilet in danish. Apperently the turkish meaning of Lokum is not directly linked to the danish meaning though. But maybe, somehow the etymology behind the danish word may stem from this foreign snack anyway. It is not hard to imagine how a foreign word for some kind of food kan be linked to a danish word for Toilet. After all the danes are not known for their strong stomachs and physical adaptability to foreign foods.