It's just struck me that there is an issue with DRM that goes to the core of the way the open source and free software movements run, but not in the way that you might expect. In the following, please read DRM to mean "digital restrictions enforcement", since that's largely all the people who say they need DRM are really thinking about. And whilst we're at it, what should a public broadcaster's policy be? (article is relatively long, so most of it is after the fold)

Essentially, there are two schools of thought with regard to copy protection:

• Let the user act responsibly. Apply a license to the content, but expect the user to be good and adhere to the spirit of copy protection and not to make copies. Sites like emusic and a growing number of others essentially work this way. It seems also to be a model kinda applied in myspace, where music is littered everywhere, but some musicians do seem to be able to use this as a way to promote their music - as an enabler for creating income. Is content copied? By definition it will be, perhaps even by accident, largely because it's so easy to accidentally copy content.
• The other school of thought assumes that there are a sufficient number of malicious users out there able to lead the good user astray. That content needs to have a mechanism to enforce its protection.

Which is right? Altruistic people tend to think/hope the majority of people are in the first camp. The less altruistic amongst us would be pessimistic and think the world is generally in camp 2. Now if you allow people to choose between these two you will get a preference for one or the other. Zipf distributions of everything prove that. However, if there isn't choice involved, and its something inherent, you can expect a bell curve. Essentially you have a bell curve of likelihood of the average user to engage in an activity that is not necessarily directly financially beneficial to the originator.

Before carrying on though, lets step to the next stage regarding the equivalent with open source and free software. There are two basic premises in the open source and free software world.

• One school of thought is to trust the developer. Release your code under a license that allows the recipient to do almost whatever they want with it, but trust them to do the same, or something equivalent. It tends to be used by developers for a number of different reasons, but among them two commons ones jump out: a) "I don't want to go chasing people for infringement, since there's enough out there already anyway" b) "I believe that developers should have the freedom to choose the license for their own code". This school of thinking is typified by the BSD style licenses and similar that actually power much of the code that runs web.
• The other school of though essentially says "the choice of being able to license code under a non-free license is not an acceptable choice". In this scenario, the most common example is this: if you create derivative works of this code, then your code must also be licensed under the same license as this code. Essentially this says that developers cannot, generally speaking, be trusted, and must be co-erced into releasing their code as free. That's a very gross way of stating it and massively simplifies the issue, and might not be how you view it, but it is essentially how this works in practice.

  There are some more subtle versions of this as well, which aren't quite as restrictive, but fall into this camp. The most prevalent license of this type is the GPL. Sometimes the choice of using the GPL comes from the fear that some unknown developer will come along, take their code, close it and make a fortune, without sharing either code or even revenue.

Essentially the same question arises - which group is right ? Well unlike the world of unprotected content, we've found after 30 years of BSD-stye open source and free software. One thing we do find is there is a bias here. In both groups the spirit and letter of the license gets broken. In the case of the GPL it's more often the letter, in the case of BSD it's more often the spirit (even then with a BSD license it's a general spirit of hoping for rather than requiring collaboration rather than closing code).

ie at the end of the day, people generally appear to want to do the right thing by those who gave them something. ie People can generally be trusted. This personally gives me some hope for the future, and also the GPL/BSD issue also points to me to a future.

• There will always be people who believe that those who recieve their content must be forced to follow the license or the spirit of the license. In the case of code, this means the free software movement appear to believe that developers should be compelled to release their code and compelled by a license given the weight of law. I have a certain sympathy towards this group. In the case of non-code content (eg music, video, audio) there will always be those who believe that they have to use mechanisms that actively prevent the recipient from breaching the license using some for of restrictions enforcement. (I wonder if I'll get lynched for putting DRM & the GPL in a similar place due to neither group really trusting the recipients to "do the right thing"... whatever that means)
  
• There will however also be those who believe that recipients of their content can largely be trusted to follow the license and the spirit of the license. In the case of code, this means that the BSD-style open source developer will give their code out freely, largely unrestricted, and trust that the recipient will treat that with respect. In the case of non-code-content, this is the scenario where you release the content as is, or perhaps tagged or watermarked with its license, but nonetheless restriction free.
  

An interesting sidepoint here is that the strongest proponents for a "trust the consumer" model, is actually the same group that has the strongest proponents for the "we can't trust the developer" model. However, last time I looked developers and consumers are the same people, and can either be trusted or they can't which is it?

The real point though is that in the end content falls into 2 sets of 2 camps:

• Stuff you want to enjoy and everything else
• Stuff that is (and I suspect will continue to be) DRMd and everything else.

Unfortunately these are never likely to be clean sets. You can almost guarantee that many members of the audience will be interested in Stuff they really want but is also DRMd. And yes, on average, people only put up with any restriction, until it becomes too irksome. If the restriction becomes too irksome, then people will tend to seek something in the more trusting camp. The same applies with open source/free software vs proprietary software as well. If the restrictions are too irksome people seek something more trusting. You even see BSD people reimplementing from scratch systems that perform the same function as a GPL one simply to avoid the GPL licence restrictions.

Furthermore, even people implementing DRM systems for Vista seem to understand this. They realise that it is too irksome to require everyone upgrade their monitors merely to watch content. As a result they merely require the OS to downgrade the content for playback. Is this sufficiently non-irksome? We're about to find out.

Given this, we have a problem. Unlike software where you can find something that performs the same function, it is very difficult to find a replacement for certain things. There will only ever be one Superman Returns (aside from various edits). There will only ever be one Spiderman 2. There will only ever be one version of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (thank heavens). Those things exist. They are enjoyed.

Whilst we can expect people to use open source and free software versions of applications they know and love (after all there's good reason to do so), you can't expect everyone to give up the next Harry Potter or One Night at the Museum, and so on. If the restrictions of use placed on the media are too odious then people simply will not buy, but if they're light touch, and people can use them on their OS of choice, then people will buy.

This is a hard thing for many people to listen to: restrictions enforcement will not go away until it is no longer economically viable to keep technically and legally (as in enforcing legally things like anti-circumvention laws) viable.

So the harder thing is this: unless people can enjoy such content on free and open source operating systems, like Ubuntu, then Ubuntu's number one bug will likely never be quashed by free and open source software - in the same way not all software is GPL. (Apple might achieve it though, given long enough). For example, do you know of a DVD player for Linux that is legally licensed? Yes, you can play back DVDs you've bought in the shop on Linux, but do you know of a legally licensed DVD player? No? Just how old are DVDs again? (Wikipedia claims 1995)

Also, whilst I might personally prefer it to be signifcantly sooner, I suspect DRM (or rather DRE) will not actually completely disappear for up to 2, maybe even 3 decades... What then - how do you explain to a 2 year old why their copy of Happy Feet won't play on your system?

So, how should a public broadcaster deal with this issue - especially when facing the lack of a cross platform restrictions enforcement system? Tough question. (Note, I don't set any policy, I can have an opinion, and provide options, but I don't set any policy. I am curious as to people's thoughts however!

I've been doing some reading recently on how to deal with procrastination, in an attempt to deal with my own procrastination better. Along the way I've discovered a few interesting things which I'm finding useful, so I thought its worth blogging about. The post is longer than anticipated so the content is after the fold, if you're willing to spend 5 minutes on it :)

OK, the things I've found out:

• Firstly, it seems there's a theory that states it's related to the "fight", "flight" and "freeze" strategies that some animals use when faced with a predator. Specifically it's thought that it's related to the "freeze" strategy of when faced with something frightening, some animals just freeze and play dead.
  
  The thought is specifically when faced with what we percieve as too much to do - either too many options or something too large -that we simply shy away and do something else instead - effectively freeze.
  
  Clearly not everyone acts that way, and some people thrive on having too much, and perhaps that's an element of a fight response, but what turns that into a freeze? Either way it's a useful idea.
  
  It suggests that the very act of taking on too much can lead to not being able to function, which is a useful thought. (It certainly rings bells with what you hear about stress). The idea that it can cause you to fall into "bad" behaviours like procrastination though is intriguing.
  
  After all, it suggests that by taking on less at a time you will actually achieve more.
  
  
• The second thing I picked up was related. How many times have you known what you should do next, but haven't. You've put it off by doing X for 10 minutes, another thing for 1/2 hour, then gone off and helped someone else with their thing for 2 hours, and several hours (let's pick a random number - 6) later you get back to what you should have done originally and realise you haven't even spent 5 minutes on the task?
  
  What if you recognised in yourself you'd taken on too much, were overloaded, and were likely to do this? What if you said to yourself - "I'll do 5 minutes on it now". There's some consequences about this - you're accepting that you do procrastinate, and that the chances are unless you spend 5 minutes on it now you'll go several hours without doing anything on it, and just feel guilty about it.
  
  However, if you spend 5 minutes on it now, and still follow through the same behaviour, you'll've done at least 5 minutes on it. And its true, you might still end up spending 5 minutes on that task - but it will be more time than you would have spent anyway.
  
  Also, it breaks a major problem - getting started. Getting started with a 5 minute task is conceptually easier than a task that mighttake 8 hours. However, there is something we all know - once we get started, often its very easy to keep going. The very act of picking *something* to work on for 5 minutes helps you get started.
  
  
• Finally there's a really nice thing - procrastination can be good. Rather than check your email constantly, or look to check your intray,how about procrastinating that? If you're in the middle of a task and you get the urge to check your email (a typical thing that happens), procrastinating that check can actually be useful.
  
  After all, if something is urgent, people can always phone you, right? (or instant message you if it really is that urgent)
  
  Furthermore if you switch of interval mail checking, what do you lose? You can actually use procrastination of email checking to make yourself more productive (and more importantly, I think it reduces stress).
  
  About 6 months ago I dropped my mail auto check time to once every 2 hours. These days its now back on manual check, and I think it's made a big difference. However if I combine it with this trick, I find I'm much more effective. "No, I'll check it in 5 minutes after I finish this".
  

All this said, it's also made me wonder about something like climate change. It's a huge problem, probably the largest humanity has every faced - will we procrastinate and find something else to do? Will we bomb our neighbours because it's easier than solving global warming? Will we discuss the ins and outs of celebrity big brother because its easier?

Looking around to find a good rss writing library, I can't find one that I like. I can fund several functional ones, but I'm curious to hear of any suggestions anyone has...

I don't know about anyone else, but I find this relatively scary - Zoominfo trawl the web to find out who you are, collate all the information and put it on the web - all completely automatically. I came across my entry by mistake, and personally I find it relatively disturbing. I know it's one of those things that can't be avoided, but it's really quite an unpleasant thing to see, and makes a complete mockery of privacy laws. On the other hand, it's really quite impressive.

Probably one of the more scary/cool aspects is the way I was tagged by the system - at Foo Camp, I was manually tagged based on the results that Tim O'Reilly and friends could find out about me by searching - zoominfo's tags are actually, in my opinion, more accurate (though still not how I'd tag myself. (Sorry Tim, I couldn't help linking to your zoominfo!)

Brady has a post asking what people think about the apple TV vs Mac Mini. I started writing a reply there, but it grew massively in length, so I've posted it here instead. (most of the post below the cut!) Why the long reply? I've got a Mac Mini plugged into the TV video the composite video connector and can see arguments both ways. At the end of the day though, my take is a Mini rather than Apple TV - I prefer a computer to be a computer rather than an appliance (Actually I'm very tempted by a Dreambox 7020, but can't justify it right now).

Last week Apple didn't just release the iPhone. They also released Apple TV, a single use appliance that allows you to play music, watch movies and view your pictures from your home PCs or Macs. ... Both are small, both have iTunes -- what are the exact trade-offs? ... Of course, I wouldn't make my choice just between these two devices. Microsoft's Media Center or Ubuntu on a Shuttle PC would have to be considered as well.

The original reply I was posting:

I've got a Mac Mini in my living room, but suspect that the Apple TV box would make for a better TV only appliance, however it is a computer dressed up as an appliance - what if you want a computer?

Whilst the Apple Blog mentions, for example, "S-Video and composite video with optional adapter", the video quality is extremely saturated I've found, and whilst you can make it a bit better, it's less than ideal. The positioning of the traditional mac menu also means that you can't use overscan sensibly, which results in greater flicker (qualitatively). As a result you *can* watch things like DVD's and so on using a normal TV using the video adapter, but you'd probably prefer to use a DVD player. Due to the quality of video output, I've found that even at the lowest line res (480 lines), the quality still isn't really good enough for day to day use. (Which makes sense, PAL isn't really fields of 625 lines anymore than than NTSC is fields of 525 lines. Being visually reminded of this is a pain though)

It's certainly fine for occasional use though, and the filtering caused by the less than ideal video output (IMO) actually can mask some low bit rate video codec's problems which can make watching (for example) video trailers off the net nicer on the TV than on a laptop screen. (Which makes sense really - if you consider TV quality is really 625/2 lines or 525/2 lines for a stable/crisp image (if you're happy with less stable, you can treat it as 625 & 525 :-).

By comparison, plugging the Mini's DVI-out into a DVI-input or VGA input into a flatscreen TV is obviously a lot better and really quite nice.

However, the lack of an HDMI connector means that certain plans for HD content distribution simply won't be enabled by default. As a result I'd expect the Mini to be less useful in the general HDTV arena. (Simply because of the lack of the trusted display)

Personally, I think that's a pity, since the Mini is a really nice machine, *and* it's quieter than my PVR or DVD player (even when playing DVDs).

It's a pity really that the colour conversion (despite playing with the colour/display settings) to compositive video is through the Mini is as bad as it is.

At the end of the day, I'd suspect the question is really: what's your use case for it - sit back or lean forward? If the former (you can use a laptop for the latter), then Apple TV makes sense. If you're thinking of a useful machine (eg as a server & running apps) then a Mini makes more sense *if* you have a TV with DVI or VGA in, or your own DVI/VGA to video converter.

These area all minor hardware issues though. The real change is from a general purpose computer where the software is upgradeable to machines where you can't change the software. In the words of Ratchet from the film "Robots" "upgrades, not parts!".

Incidentally if you haven't seen it, you should see Robots. You might think the part of the film where the new shiny, brushed metal, robots are being talked about, keynote style, is rather reminiscient of certain styles of tech keynote talks.

Not all my spam is automatically filtered. On one account I've started resorting to automatic filtering, because it's become untenable - however a different one I still manually filter. As a result something caught my eye. I post on usenet periodically about different things on different topics in different conversations (all sorts). That means there are also some names I naturally recognise from others, and I think "ah that's not spam".

After all, if you get an email with the subject "My New Year's resolutions", and on the surface it's from someone you know, you don't mentally mark it as spam. Anyway, what struck me was in the past 48 hours I've recieved about 8 spam emails (with the same content) from email addresses I know and recognise. Given email addresses can't be spoofed so trivially (insanely so), this made me wonder - how come this spam *only* comes from people I know and have been in conversations with on usenet?

And then I realised - have spammers  finally have started resorting to building automatically the social network of people who have chatted on usenet and then send spams whilst spoofing being inside that network? If so that's really quite nasty/inventive. There's no way of knowing if that's the case, but it could start causing real problems for people using whitelisting.

Well, I had a need to get two webcams, and whilst it wasn't necessary for them to work with linux, I was quite hopeful. Anyway I bought the Logitech Quickcam Chat (£20)and the Technika webcam ("techweb1" - £10) from Tesco. Both appear to work fine with linux. The driver I'm using for both cameras is gspcav1 from Michel Xhaard's website - specifically the gspcav1-20061216.tar.gz tar ball. The Gideo application he links to is also useful for testing.

Quite entertainingly you can use both webcams simultaneously. Personally I think the build quality of the logitech one is higher, but the automatic white balance kicks in with the Technika one resulting in more visually appealing  display (I haven't tested with windows, but I suspect the white balance kicks in there for the logitech).

Overall, I think I personally prefer the technika as a result since for me on my preferred platform, it just works. I'm very tempted now to see if I can create some python bindings for this (which would work with both cameras under linux) since it'd be nice to incorporate a video display into our Kamaelia based whiteboarding app. :-) (Hmm, reminds me, I should put the Kamaelia Whiteboard tutorial from Linux Format online now that the issue with the article in has gone off sale).

Some people started talking about predictions for 2007, so I decided to come up with some. These won't be in the RSS feed to avoid spamming various aggregators. Feedback and comments welcome :-) Topics covered: Digital Switchover, PS3, DRM, Linux, Windows, Microsoft, Apple, The Web, Politics, Environment, International, Media, Fashion, Gadgets, Predictions. As you might guess from the list, not all of this is entirely serious :)

Digital Switchover

At the end of 2007 we'll start seeing an increase in advertising saying TVs are "freeview", "top up TV" or "digital ready". The reason for this is because it will be the last Christmas before digital switchover in the UK begins - starting with the Border region in the latter half of 2008, and there's often a spike in electrical goodies being sold near Christmas (obviously).

Though I expect a magazine to put a DVB reciever as a freebie on the cover of a magazine (much like you can get digitally tuned radios on magazine covers these days and have done for over a year or two), I doubt that'll happen next year. (I'd give that 3 years or so)

PS3

The PS3 will be released in the UK, to a feeding frenzy, followed initially by disappointment, and the XBox 360 viewed as generally better. By the end of the year though this trend will be reversed. The 60GB model becomes the default model by the end of the year. Sony (or one of their game developers) release game for christmas based on visual object tracking - ie technology wise much like a much higher res version of the Eye toy, but with Wii like playability.

DRM

DRM will still be with us at the end of the year. Legalisation of ripping CD's for personal use will happen, but the tightening around the law on DRM will end up preventing this in practice. A workaround will be put in place (to meet legislation), but it will be cumbersone, manual, and probably charged for preventing people wanting to use such a service. Making us effectively worse off, causing problems politically  in 2-3 years time.

It's easily possible a major service or record label will go with a DRM free approach to music distribution.

Linux

People will still be asking "is linux ready for the desktop". For many people who have been using Linux as their desktop for many years will be bored of hearing this. People with distros not focussed on making a usable desktop will continue to claim "no". Reality will continue to be somewhere in between.

Ubuntu will continue making inroads towards their goal of a desktop more userfriendly than a Mac.

More companies like System 76 (http://system76.com/) will crop up making this aim more and more realistic, including one inside the UK.

Windows

People will start asking "is my desktop ready for windows vista?". They will conclude "no", and be much slower on the uptake than anticipated (Microsoft will still make a mint).

Microsoft

Microsoft will make a major release of something as open source, though not as GPL. They've dabbled with a few things over the past few years, and some of their redefined licenses in 2005 largely meets the OSI definition. Having chatted to people at OSCON, and seen attitudes at Foo Camp, I'd be suprised if they didn't release something as open source, perhaps something they don't actually sell.

Apple

This is Apple's 30th anniversary. They have multitouch technology as people have already mentioned, however, I doubt they would "merely" release something as mundane as a tablet PC with multitouch. Aside from anything else, a keyboard is still significantly more accurate than handwriting recognition, and voice recognition is not sufficiently reliable to get Steve Jobs' blessing.

What I *do* expect is a high end system where the large scale cinema display is replaced by a multitouch display on a pivot arm (much like the iMac a couple of years ago). I also expect them to unveil something more OTT for use in media production - specifically an edit suite based on surround-video ideas.  (this is due to Steve Jobs relationship with Pixar, who could make great use of such a system I suspect)
     (see: http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/projection/uprightdome/ )

I also suspect that they'll also debut a (real) minority report style display as a stunt for such a system. (This is tricky, but one way translucent glass provides a possibility here)

This might seem OTT, but Steve Jobs debuted the Apple Mac in 1984 when the common state of the art home computer was Sinclair Spectrum 128/Commodore 128.

If I lived in the US, I'd watch the superbowl ads this year very carefully. I expect Apple will have an "answer"/"reply" to Vista. (they might not, but it's a rivalry that's been interesting to watch for a very many years now :)

The Web

OpenID will take off. Trusted identity vendors building on Open ID will also emerge, as will trust metrics.

The need for a working *lightweight* semantic web will continue to emerge as a necessity, and many more new services based around scraping sites into the "right" format to work will spring up. (eg more sites like those in the US that scrape timetables to create unified travel plan sites)

The web will continue to become more personal. The two trends of web 2.0 (socially enhanced websites & increased use of application style websites) will continue to diverge. Somebody will name these two different uses, making it such that we can move on to a better name. (I suppose you could say the term will get forked)

There will also be a continued trend to push web applications offline. Specifically some form of Web Operating System will be released.

By Web OS I'm rather specific. I'm not thinking of things like You OS - that's "merely" an operating environment for running web applications from one site inside a browser. I'm more coming at this from the perspective of one of the definitions of an PC operating system.

For a PC an operating system is a set of abstractions that are co-ordinated centrally that provides applications with a richer set of abstractions for making use of the hardware, normally in such a way that allows those facilities to be shared by applications being run.

ie on a PC, the OS makes it simple for you to use the hardware to display a picture, play a sound, record some audio, etc, without directly using that facility. In a web environment this should be more about making the facilities that exist today on the web (and making it easier in future) to be made available in a way the user wants.

Why can't I *directly* link the facilities provided by Gmail, flickr & delicious to create a richer application composed of those three easily, without having to code the metal (the raw APIs of each) as it were?

Parakey is one such thing, but others will emerge, perhaps before parakey. Best description of parakey: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/nov06/4696 . Parakey will have the advantage of a known name behind it. (Blake Ross - the firefox kid)

Atom pub/sub & Jabber will grow in importance as a result, and RSS will be retrofitted to fit in with this.

People will be driven absolutely barmy by popup layers. Death by video adverts and dozens of flash objects on multiple tabs will drive up demand for faster CPUs.

Someone will recognise that there is a massive untapped online market - teenagers without credit cards who want to buy things their parents wouldn't approve of, and provide a purchasing mechanism that works for them. Splash Plastic - http://www.splashplastic.com/ - looks pretty good, but the fees are quite high. Charging the retailer seems more reasonable and sensible approach (since then the charge is absorbed at point of sale, rather than at transfer of funds). (much like some retailers accept paypal for payment)

Politics

The continuing saga of Blair/Brown will be resolved. Blair will step down, there will be a leadership challenge, and if Brown gets in it will be by a considerably lower margin than anticipated. If the faces change but the policies don't, one of the other two parties will gain in the polls dramatically. To mitigate this, there may be a suprise mid-term election immediately after the leadership change (Historically such a thing is incredibly risky, but can pay off quite amazingly well).

Environment

As fuel bills go through the roof, there will be pressure to reduce taxation on fuel, simply to keep sufficient funds in the economy. This will hit public services doubly - due to lower funding and increased bills (everyone gets hit by energy charges). A side effect of this is that the housing market will slow down by the end of the year, or possibly pop (though I'd expect that in 2008 especially if immigration controls become effective in 2007).  In the pre-budget report, further "green" measures will be introduced, along with something which will be considered radical. Bio-fuel will become economically viable.

There will be at least 3 major environmental catastrophes, freak weather will continue with no snow in place like Moscow until January 2008 (for the 2007/2008 winter). Freak high winds will cause major damage in the UK - probably to a wind farm (sod's law principle). The number of storm surges in the north sea will increase, making people start getting worried about the thames flood barrier.

B&Q will start selling a second generation of green energy products  - ie solar panels and wind turbines after modest but limited success with their first range.

A major political party will align with the green party (faith in human nature principle), and if there is a flash election, win votes as a result.

People will start questioning the environmental efficiency of download services that take all night to download, and require you to leave your PC on all the time, and similar concerns over Media PCs will start to be raised. Nothing will be done about it in 2007 though.

International

Iraq will be a greater mess at the end of the year than the beginning - whether or not external countries remain there.

China's ascendancy (as predicted by Cordwainer Smith over 50 years ago) will continue to grow as an apparently unstoppable force. The likely dynamic of the 21st century of China/India being the world's new superpowers replacing the 20th century surpremacy of East/West will become more apparent. (in the same way the East/West dynamic replaced the British Empire vs Germanic dynamic of the 19th century).

Britain will form a "special relationship"/alliance with India, probably sometime near the end of 2007. Hong Kong is a wild card that may play out in an interesting way.

Terrorism will continue to be used as a major source to generate fear (founded or otherwise) , as a means to push through unsavory measures.

Malta will win Eurovision.

Media

Harry Potter & The Deadly Hallows will be delayed and not arrive in 2007. 

There will be a blockbuster film curveball that no-one expected produced on pennies in comparison to films of its genre.

International talk like a pirate day will grow, dramatically, in popularity.

Nanowrimo will result in one readable novel.

Local newspapers will start their own ultralocal online (video) news channels/bulletins and perhaps partner with someone to centrally syndicate this. Either a large broadcaster or large newspaper.

A major print newspaper will start and actively promote an online video news channel.

Fashion

Oliver Stone was right - see Wild Palms for next year's men's fashions, and predictions of the state of the US (getting scarily close as we get closer to 2008).

Women's coats next year will have small buttons (They had HUGE buttons this year)

Rather than "shiny brushed metal" for gadgets next year's theme will be wood/woodland/organic.

Gadgets

e-Ink will be touted repeatedly given there are new products on the market now. However, until someone takes 100 sheets of flexible e-ink paper, puts on a spine or spiral bound and makes it USB enabled (for reprogramming the text) it won't take off. If someone does this in 2007, it will sell like hotcakes no matter how much it costs.

The full Optimus OLED keyboard will arrive finally. Probably in late December 2007, unless it's licensed by Apple first. If apple license it, it will probably end up as the keyboard of a laptop.

Predictions

All of the above are likely to be wrong, and I'll be told in detail why beforehand :)

Manchester Geekup - where all users of dynamic languages (and others) are welcome to come and share beer, knowledge, food happens againt next tuesday.
Where: The B-Lounge near Piccadilly (2 mins from station)
When: Tuesday 9th Jan, after work. (people tend to arrive from 6 onwards, talks start at 7)
Who: You, me, anyone with an interest in Python, PHP, Perl, Ruby, etc :-)
Talk format: Usually lightning talk or Pecha Kucha style - ie short :)

OK, so my superhero was the dubious (occasionally anti-hero) Hulk (which secretly I quite like :-) What's my Supervillain result?

Your results:
You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom 71% Magneto 58% Apocalypse 58% Juggernaut 56% Dark Phoenix 54% Green Goblin 52% Lex Luthor 51% The Joker 50% Kingpin 49% Mr. Freeze 46% Catwoman 45% Venom 42% Two-Face 36% Riddler 32% Mystique 32% Poison Ivy 25%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the Super Villain Personality Test

Must be new year - have a good one :-)
(Two nice quiz links courtesy of Steve Holden).