Using the Hedge Cuttings from 2011

I finally got to use the hedge cuttings I took in 2011. It's been a while. In fact three years since I took the cuttings! They have survived three winters and, if I am honest, a fair bit of neglect these past three years! Still, happily, they finally had a need and found a permanent home!

There are actually three sections of dead hedge in our border and the ones used today served to fill the largest area of concern. The steps for use:

1. Saw out the dead piece of hedge, and dig out the roots
2. Remove the existing dirt from the area. It is very likely that the hedge died from honey dew fungus so best get rid of the offending dirt.
3. Fill the resulting hole with water and really soak the area.
4. We then used five of the cuttings in the gap. Three in a line across the front and two in a second line in the gaps behind the first three.
5. Fill with a decent topsoil.

Will have to soak really well, probably daily for the next two weeks, and then let them take ownership of their new found home!

Next steps are to re-use the pots that the cuttings came out of. I need to pot on several smaller pots and allow the smaller cuttings to grow in larger pots before using those to fill some of the other gaps in the border!

A couple of pictures along the way. The front line,

Planting the second line

Cheers

M

An Important Life Skill - How To Make A Works Burger

Today (26th of January) is Australia Day. As this is the case I think it important that the knowledge of building a Works Burger is shared. This delicacy should not be only be available for those from the Antipodes. So here is the 12 step process to build your Works Burger. If you feel that this sounds like too much to attempt, rest assured that the effort required, results in sheer joy and immense satisfaction at having climbed such a behemoth! (For proof of this look at the sheer joy in the last photos of this post!)

Step 1. Get a bun. Preferably very large.

Step 2. Add Tomato, Mayonnaise or BBQ sauce. This one is your choice. It's freestyle

Step 3. Add the burger, with melted cheese and bacon. Some call this step 3, 4 and 5. However for recipe simplicity and to remove the sheer terror of the recipe I combine into one step.

Step 4. Add a slice of pineapple. The order is important here, as will become apparent in the next step.

Step 5. Add a runny fried egg. So you can see here why order is important. If the egg breaks, the pineapple ring provides a well for the yolk to collect in, as opposed to squirting out the back of the bun on first bite.

Step 6. Add fried onions

Step 7: Add fried mushroom

Step 8: Add salad leaf. This is an incredibly important step. It's important to eat your greens.

Step 9: Add beetroot. Order again is important. Beetroot should be last in this process, as will be explained in step 10.

Step 10. Add the top of the bun. So the beetroot order is important, as by adding it last, the beetroot juice that squeezes out, is soaked up by the top half of the bun. Again it doesn't squirt all over the shop when you take your first bite

Step 11. Celebrate the behemoth that you have created. Look at the sheer joy on that face! However this is the daunting thing. At this stage you have actually only climbed half the mountain! The second part of the climb is actually consuming the beast!

 

Step 12. Eat 

Some suggest there is a step 13, although amongst connoisseurs this is often debated. However if you have managed to make it though step 1 to 12, then quite often a step 13 is required, which is sit still for a long period of time. This is sometimes required as it is difficult to breath, or indeed be active in any way, shape or form, post consumption.

So now you know how. Now you know why - again look at the joy it brings. Now go ahead and create. You will no be disappointed!

Cheers

m

 

Why Are Carriers Not Supporting Developers?

It filled me with great sadness when I visited the BlueVia Developer Portal yesterday to find that all developer APIs have been removed from the site. I used to work with the BlueVia team and for some reason we were unable to make a business case out of supporting access to Telefonica resources to developers.

I had been campaigning without success to expose developer APIs to all DT resources - something that Developer Garden does for developers who want to engage with DT's German customers - for ages before moving to BlueVia. BlueVia for me was a chance to succeed at providing simple access to carrier assets i.e. SMS and Voice services. We had limited success with BlueVia Voice in that we were able to launch a beta service to provide access to these services for a limited number of developers. Unfortunately I was not able to convince those that needed to be convinced that there was a business case that would support the necessary investment required to make the service profitable.

At the same time. companies like Nexmo on top of $4.83 million in funding are now expecting total revenue of around $40 million for calendar 2013. According to Crunchbase Nexmo:

Currently seven of the top ten messaging platforms rely on Nexmo to route SMS and Voice calls to over 200 countries globally. The Nexmo platform handles over 250 million messages a month, with 20 percent growth monthly.

Wondering what the monthly growth in Carrier SMS is? Well here's a hint, unfortunatly mobile carrier SMS is peaking and starting to decline :-(. As I've long campaigned carriers have not innovated on SMS since it's invention, other than offering increasing bundles of SMS to Customers. It is developers who will lead any growth within SMS usage, but they will only do this via services that provide simple access to it. It is only the OTT players who are providing this access.

Another example is Twilio - who were on track for 50 million in revenue for 2013.

While Mobile Carriers are failing to expose their assets to developers, OTT players continue to grow and engage with developer hearts and minds.

Ho hum.

Cheers

m

The Power of SMS Marketing #SMSIsNotDead

This info-graphic was lifted from the Business2Community website. #SMSIsNotDead

SMS Revenues for carriers are slowly diminishing. I have long been a campaigner for carriers to allow others to innovate on top of their SMS asset. Carriers simply don't support this, which is why developers go to aggregators and emerging OTT providers.

SMS  is not dead, it simply has to be used in a creative fashion to engage with the users who are slowly starting to move away from using it. It's value as a consumer to consumer communication tool might be gradually diminishing (it isn't in emerging markets), but it still has far reaching legs in the B2C and M2M world.

If carriers want to continue playing in the game - that they created and owned, then they have to allow others to innovate on top of what they created. Open up your networks to people who would love to innovate on top of them. Or don't and watch the innovation (and read the fine print - the money) head elsewhere.

Carriers should not even have to think about this. Why then are there no simple to use developer API's exposed by carriers to support innovation within the world of SMS. For that matter, why are there no simple APIs to innovate on top of voice, exposed by carriers, either?

Cheers

m

Lending A Hand In The Garden

This past weekend saw some much needed time in the garden. The place is getting a little overgrown now the summer is finally upon us! Sort of!

Of course Peter had to get right in the thick of it. Really funny how he watched us and then copied what we were doing. He really wanted to be part of the action and join in the fun!

We are planning to start a raised bed for vegetables, which I hope he gets into as much as he has the pruning! Was great fun watching him try to get the garden waste into the recycling bin. He was just able to reach, although half of his handfuls ended back on the ground.

Got to love his dedication and effort though! Much fun!

Thunderbirds Jeff Tracy Communicator Built by Voxygen Using Raspberry Pi and BlueVia Voice

When I was a kid, and in fact even through high school, I loved the TV show the Thunderbirds. In fact if I am being honest I probably haven't gotten over this yet! ;-). So I was pretty happy that the Jeff Tracy style communicator above, built by Voxygen, uses the BlueVia Voice API for its communications needs ;-).

As Voxygen suggest in their blog post for the Tracy Island Communications Platform, they may consider putting a project kit up on Kickstarter. I strongly suggest if you need this in your life, and lets face it who doesn't, that you get in touch with them and convince them that this is a damned good idea!

I would suggest a name change for the product though. a Tracy Island Communications Platform, or TICP for short, rolls off the tongue like a brick ;-). Thinking through an acronym for F.A.B. for the product :-)

Cheers

m

BlueVia Voice API - One (Of Three) Key Service Differentiators When Compared to OTT Voice APIs

In the blog I posted on Tuesday about Using BlueVia Voice directly on calls between 2 phones, I think the key point to reinforce is that as BlueVia is an application layer built on top of the mobile network, it is actually possible to use that network in ways that our competitors cannot. The product demonstrated, see the video above, is not the key point. The key point is that it is possible to do enact any call functionality, supported by BlueVia Voice, on any outbound or inbound call to a mobile phone.

That mobile simply needs an Intelligent Network trigger set at the network level, to allow calls to be forwarded to an application server. The is the first key differentiator that carriers can have over OTT players, i.e. between BlueVia Voice and other Over The Top (OTT) Voice API providers. OTT Voice API providers have no control over the network, they cannot add in call functionality without the use of a Direct Inward Dialling (DID) number.

This means that for a Customer to engage with a service, build on top of an OTT providers Voice API, they must dial a DID, as opposed to directly dialling their friends number. The BlueVia Voice demo above shows a call being made directly between two mobile phones, not through a DID, and BlueVia Voice commands then being played on that call. This is the power of a telco being able to provide access to their own voice services to developers. Telcos have a unique opportunity to provide differentiated Voice API services - should they choose to.

Don't dwell on the thought that free calls based on advertising didn't work in the UK, as the product demo above shows. Remember there are still many billion mobile subscribers outside of North America and Europe who might just be interested ;-). But that is not the point.

Cheers

m