If you’re reading this in a news reader, jump to the page, the looks have changed. I’ve been meaning to relaunch WeBreakStuff for a while with a different look for a couple of reasons: first, the old one (which can still be seen across the rest of the site) didn’t really do justice to what I do on the web (you can really get it from the page itself). Second of all, I don’t really know what got into me with the bubbles thing on the previous design - it was getting me tired (and probably most of you).

So I decided to use some of my little free time and work out a new layout that’s both easier on the eyes and uses a little more screen real-estate for better readability. Enough bragging, the point is, it’s supposed to look, and behave, a little better. The rest of the site will be brought down soon to surface later, meaning this will be a simple blog/portfolio for a while but will return in a couple of months as a place for a lot more - more on the plans later on.

Flying out for a couple of months:

I decided to eat my own dog food. The headline says pretty much everything, but I’m probably flying out to California in a few days and staying over for a couple of months to work on some really cool stuff, which you’ll hear (hopefully a lot) about soon enough. I will most likely be around for Web 2.0 too, so why not take the opportunity to have a chat if you’re around San Francisco at the same time? If we’ve talked before and you want to step up a notch and discuss some ideas face-to-face, drop me an email, lets talk.

This has been a decision going around for a few months but the deciding moment came yesterday. As I said earlier today to someone, I’m scared shitless but I’m excited as hell. And it’s funny, because it’s true. Fact is, this is something I want to do for myself, and since there’s no real risk, why not take the chance and stop thinking about it day and night? It’s a couple of months.

The way I see it is, there’s a lot to do, a lot to learn and hopefully a lot to teach, so I’ve decided to take the plunge. The only sad thing about it, is leaving some people and things behind that I care about. Well, that I care about too much to blog about it, anyway.

So, “wrapping up”, as always.

Welcome to the new site, I honestly hope you like it. And I hope to see you in California in a few weeks. There’s a lot in my mind right now to think about so I’ll leave this post at that, and conclude what seems to be the most personal “bloggy”-like post I’ve done, maybe ever.

As you probably know I’m still catching up on the blogging web (it moves faster than the wildfires allowed me to keep up with), so yesterday I was relieved that the business world is waking up to the global investment economy. Business2blog (the Blog for Business 2.0, who’s last issue isn’t bad at all) mentions in this post an article on Silicon Beat about a transformation in the VC land.

(…) the growing abundance of technology, labor, and entrepreneurial talent outside of Silicon Valley, which has become a global money center for venture investing. VCs are taking in more cash and now have to look abroad to deploy it.

If you’ve been following, you probably know about my unhappiness about Europe being a poor center for entrepreneurship and how much I’m willing to change that if I don’t bite the bait and fly out to SF. It appears things may be changing, though. I’ve been getting to know more and more people in the VC world who have shown interest in talking about some ideas I’ve been having, and I’m finally starting to see a way to push the envelope outside of the bay area and possibly help bring some of the tech goodness into my own shores.

Is there creativity outside the bay area? Yes. Is there funding available? There’s no clue yet but we’re about to find out in the next few years. My only fear is that investment doesn’t go beyond the new centers like India and China where labour is seriously cheaper. But since good ideas are global, I am predicting investment on those ideas is global too. It’s just a matter of getting out there with them.

When yesterday Google Talk was officially announced and I posted about it, I didn’t give much thought to how much of the Google-factor this would have. It’s true it doesn’t have much, but will it? Fact is, some people seem to be disappointed with the application because it doesn’t do anything new yet, seems rushed out and has no “Google wow”. But there’s more to it.

SearchEngineWatch in particular runs a story about their view of Google Talk. And they are wrong, too. Even though I’m not taking sides here (my idea of Google’s do-no-evil vision is changing by the day), the planned features for Google Talk actually do compete with many of the current Instant Messaging applications, particularly if you think about their upcoming VoIP implementation using SIP.

SEW complains that the voice call method available to GTalk users is not a VoIP implementation (fact). Google has, though, in their developers FAQ announced the details on both upcoming features and their VoIP partnerships on the SIP platform - I suggest a good read of this page.

Ongoing discussion:

Om Malik has a couple of posts (one, two) of interest to those who care about the relationship between Google/GTalk and competition like Skype. Truth is he’s spot on when he says Google doesn’t need Skype at all, a point with which Andy Abramson seems to agree. In fact, It might just be skype that will have to play nice and open their protocol to match everybody elses VoIP approach - SIP.

Mind the picture. You’ve seen it around, it’s a Sony Playstation Portable, probably the most modded handheld device ever. The PSP, with its amazing capatibilities and great hardware makes for an awesome geeky portable media player, gaming console and PDA. Something that’s bound to sell out if people can code for it, add new features and hack on it. Sony, though, doesn’t realize the potential market they have at hands (literally).

I can imagine their board of directors meeting the PSP product managers: Someone says: “People are using our console to do cool stuff besides gaming!”. Prompt reply: “*GASP* What you say? Someone set us up the bomb! Stop them now!”.

A little history and advice:

Ever since the console got out, people started hacking it to allow for just about anything. To a point where the console now runs games from lots of other gaming devices, runs linux and windows, surfs the web, allows for games to be played from the Memory Stick (saving loads of battery time), etc. In fact, possibilities seem endless with the device. But Sony is trying to stop the fun by releasing firmware version after firmware version, crippling the console and trying to stop the hacking masses from doing anything fun with their console. A tip - Sony, stop acting stupid.

If people are hacking a device, they’re finding more value in it. They’ll be talking about it to their friends, and since the console isn’t something you can actually “download from the web”, it means sales go up. I mean, come on, the console isn’t available here in Portugal yet, but I was planning on buying one this September just so I can have some fun. If all I can do is play games released by sony and watch mediocre movies, I won’t. And I imagine many others won’t either.

Sony really needs to see things from the other end of the spectrum or they’ll be risking their gaming reputation. How can they not see the value in allowing people to fully take advantage of the console’s potential? People are acknowledging the console is fantastic and they’re using it far better than Sony had expected - if it was my product, I’d be delighted. Sony, apparently, isn’t.

The new 2.0 firmware update, crippleware.

In a blog comment at this Make:Blog post, a commenter sums it (ironically) best:

Why in the world would I want a web browser, an SNES, an NES, a Lynx, a Gameboy Color, a Gameboy Advance, a Neo Geo CD, a Turbo Grafx 16, a Genesis, a Master System, a Game Gear, a Neo Geo Pocket, and Amiga, a Chip8 system, an MSX, MAME, a Wonderswan, a VMU, Nethack, Angband, ToME, an eBook reader, a calculator, a scheduler, a calendar, Scumm games, a Sudoku game, a portable VNC client, an X86 emulator, irda transfer programs, remote controls, vCard reader, FTP server, avi player, advanced music player, drum kits, file browsers, an easy to learn coding environment, graphic changing program, a fullscreen movie player, a scrabble assistant, a notepad, a dictionary, and all that other garbage. I’m totally upgrading.

If instead of crippling the console Sony announced how successful their console is due to the thousands of people using it beyond expectations they’d be doing a much better job at marketing their product. Some companies should really see things with 2.0 goggles - you know, the 2.0 that doesn’t cripple products.

Related Link: Sony PSP Buy cheap Sony PSP in Australia