Stefan’s blog

Something for the coming weekend and all the people working in creative industries.

iPhone is fancy, it has great web browsing capabilities almost as good as on your desktop, but… No SKYPE, and you CAN NOT use it as a modem to connect your laptop to the Internet. That is a big failure.

I just moved to a new house in Nottingham and unfortunately I end up without the Internet connection and with no phone line. I began to look for quick, cheap and easy broadband solution and found Skypephone S2. This is a great phone, it keeps amazing me. It has HSDPA, so access to the Internet is really fast. I have got 300 Kbps download speed. It is good enough to watch YouTube videos. The 3G speed and the fact that you are getting it through your mobile phone is really amazing. Especially when I remember those old days of dial-up modems.

Skypephone has got three things out of 4, which I use the internet for. That is email, Skype and internet connection itself which is possible to share with laptop or other device over bluetooth or cable. Skypephone has got web browser itself, but it is poor compared to the iPhone one. However it is good enough to check your email, or browse your RSS feeds or get the latest news. I will not count the built in web browser however it is usable for 50%. 3 out of 4 features than. iPhone on the other hand got just 2 things out of 4 things I use and that is just solid web browser directly in the phone and email. You can not use the phone to connect your laptop to the Internet unless you hack it and there is no Skype.

I am very happy with the new Skype phone. I got features which I need, mobile internet, ability to connect my laptop, skype and email on the go for just €60 one time payment. With the iPhone (around €500) you can’t get this, you will get just decent mobile web browser. No free Skype calls, no fast Internet for your laptop. Apple should do this right, at least enable full potential of 3G inside the iPhone, should make it possible to share the connection with the laptop and enable VoIP services like Skype to use the iPhone. When these things will be done iPhone will be very good device, till than I stick with my cheap Skype phone.

PS: I had a bit of trouble to make Skype phone work under Mac OS X Tiger. So here is a quick note for people using it on Macintosh. Forget about System Preferences : Networking. I set it up over System Preferences : Bluetooth and run wizzard for setting up Bluetooth device where you can choose it to act as a modem for the Internet connection. Turn off wait for dial tone option.

This theme song is great. However I do not understand 99% of it… it is sticky and sounds great. Well done Beijing!.

Embrace the unknown! This should be the slogan of every physicist, biologists, doctor… Well everybody. When was the last time you heard: It can not work. It is this way… Sometimes it works also the other way and probably it works even better.

In traditional chemistry, you can not create new elements without an enormous energy. True or false? Imagine a test. Feed chickens with a diet free of any calcium but containing potassium (element single step below calcium). Hen will lay perfectly normal eggs. Feed them without calcium and potassium and they will get sick and lay soft-shelled eggs. It seems that chickens can convert potassium into calcium without any trouble or use of enormous energy. Yes. Living systems are able to change one element into another without the use of enormous energy.

Always look at new things with open mind, do not get stick to what you already know. Challenge it.

More to find here.

Today I came across interesting article asking a question whether college education is necessary. Sure, you do not need education to be successful. Many of successful people do not have any college or university education and the ones who do are more likely to have just basic safe job with daily commute rather than making big impact to the world. But for many, higher education means something more than knowledge which you can find through Google. First you must know what to search for, so you need to discover options and possibilities. Second, it is about people. You meet a lot of people at the university, I came across thousands of people during my studies and keep in contact with around hundred of them. This is a huge network. People inspire! Most important think is that for me it is a life style. Maybe you are lucky, and you enjoy sports and conferences even without university. But university is great place if you want to discover many different things alongside subject you are studying. It is great travel agency, I have travelled much of Europe throughout my studies (almost for free!)… it gives you plenty of free time for travel and your hobbies. So you can run a company like Clever Leap alongside it .

College, university, or any higher education is big advantage. It is perfect life style full of free time, traveling, parties and enjoyable moments. It is the best place to enjoy your life. I definitely do not agree that school is for people without internet access and you can find all the necessary information on the web. Google is for information, college is for experience. Now it is your decision, if you are searching for knowledge, information, or experience. I am definitely on the experience side.

When do you realized that knowing too much is too much? With broader knowledge you have, it is constantly harder to start even simple single thing fast. You plan, you design, you start. But many times you end up doing nothing because you find your idea to be too complicated to realize. It is all because of this experience and assumptions of how things need to be done that we sometimes don’t do them at all rather than doing them wrong for the first time.

When I was on secondary school I just sit down and start a web site for students to share papers and home exercises online (studentske.sk). Didn’t know anything about search engine optimization, marketing, usability, design… Just came sit down and did it the best way as I could at that time.

It turned out to be very good. I improved the site week by week. I learned so much while building it. I learned about PHP, site navigation, different styles etc… After two years studentske.sk became the most visited student site in Slovakia. It was just great, it was spontaneous.

But now I would not be able to do such a site again. Too much knowledge, too much willing to do things right for the first time… too much wanting it to be perfect. You think that to make site perfect it must be combination of good marketing, perfect design, quality content, usable navigation, SEO, user experience and interaction…

Putting a simple goal ahead and doing the first step, being foolish and having a clear mind is the only way to start something. Forget about all the things that can occur or need to be done. Focus on one thing, make the first step and you can improve the rest - step by step while you will be walking the stairs.

After a year or two? I start-up another blog. (Here is the old one). Why? Again? The need to share some thoughts and words came to me again. But now I want to write blog more professionally, there will be less from my personal life and more of information which can be valuable to you. I want to write preferably about entrepreneurship, business, web development, marketing and other topics which I find interesting. And moreover I want to promote my blog better. The formula value content + benefits must equal more readers. I very much want to make from this blog central share point of my knowledge which may be helpful to you. Hopefully I will manage to do it.