Live-streaming is available for GoPro!

picture from http://www.cultofmac.com/237862/gopro-can-now-wirelessly-transfer-photo-and-video-to-an-ios-device/

We are one little more step closer to the future, GoPro live-streaming launches via Meerkat.

Meerkat is a mobile app that enables users to do live video streamingover the web service Twitter, sending video to their Twitter followers.

check out the twitter account to see the announcement https://twitter.com/AppMeerkat

l GoPro will be connected to the app through bluetooth, and while you taking the adventure, either battling with huge waves or jumping into a cliff, people share the thrill instantaneous with you, it will be like your audience experience your experience, at the same time when you experience it.

Also, imagine what it can do for our benefit, some risky professions may require it as a instant message deliver. A fire-fighter rushes into a huge fire, people can see exactly what's going on in there and even to know the safety of the fire-fighter himself. Sounds like Hollywood movie, right? Special agent crawls into some building's tube with camera on his head and his assistants sitting in a van nearby to monitor the situation.

Beside that, it may help to spread some footages that are not easy to keep in some certain circumstances, like in an accident, people can learn what happened even if the GoPro eventually broke in the accident. There are a lot of scenarios that we can think of already, live-streaming with action camera, very sweet combination.

Let's see how big this thing is going to be.

Greece Bailout Crowd-Funding 2nd Round!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/greek-crowdfund#/story

so, the first call failed, of course, a goal of 1.6 billion Euro, simply impossible to achieve by crowdfunding, now second round is open, this time the campaign starter set a goal of only 1 million, meant to recollect the refund just got returned to every donor.

#Greecebailout #crowdfunding

so far 157 thousand Euro is raised again, with 8 days left it's not too hard to reach the goal this time however personally it's frustrating to see the first one fail, the goal was too big to be reached, yet now there might just be more frustrated people, feeling powerless in front of the huge number of 1 billion Euro. Also, more people are possibly attracted to this campaign, so, let's see how this will end up.

update on 14th July 2015, I got the 5€ refund.

Biodegradable plastic materials made in upstate New York

May.25 2015
Two factories located in upstate New York: using oyster mushrooms they grew themselves to find a new way to produce biodegradable  plastic materials.
Ecovative’s first major customer was Steelcase Furniture, which uses its materials for products shipped to customers. Other major clients, such as Dell and Crate and Barrel, quickly followed. While their operation is small, the company is already earning multi-millions of dollars per year in revenue. 
source:forbes

Where will the Vessel go? Vessel.com rivals YouTube | What is Vessel?

On January 21, 2015 the Vessel was launched.

I learned about Vessel on YouTube, already a lot of YouTubers are collaborating with Vessel to put their content on Vessel ahead of the schedule on YouTube, which means you can watch your favorite YouTubers' latest video one to three days ahead of other people before it comes out on YouTube if you are a member of Vessel. This new video streaming website will charge viewers $2.99 a month for their early access feature. But don't walk away yet, first year is free, go have a try!

Vessel is determined to rival with YouTube, but to my view it's really difficult. For the content creators Vessel offers much more favorable revenue conditions compare to YouTube, which is a big incentive for more creators to join.
"On Vessel, your superfans get exclusive, early access in a premium environment. During the early access period, you get 60% of subscription dollars and 70% of advertising dollars.
We estimate that videos will earn approximately $50 per 1,000 views while in early access. This is up to 20x more per view than creators earn from free web distribution."
However apparently the only benefit for the viewers is that they can access the videos earlier, which to some/most people doesn't matter that much. Also, imagine if Vessel grew big enough one day, it has to have its own original shows coming up, by then the "early access" advantage seems to be offset by itself.
 
The early access feature is probably just a early stage strategy to compete with YouTube, it must offer more than just early access to really succeed. After all, YouTube is free to watch all the time.

Personal experience is, the website design is pretty nice and simple, and so far I haven't seen any advertisement on it although there's supposed to be.
Actually another thought came to my mind all in sudden this morning, I wonder if Vessel is blocked in China yet?? As many people already know that most western social network and media websites are totally blocked in China by the so called "internet great wall", therefore people in China don't have the privilege to see what's happening on the world(outside China), and the rest of the world also don't have a good chance to see what's happening in China. If Vessel is available in China, hey, I'm sure I'm in!  That could be a competing point for Vessel to beat YouTube, who can open the door of China first?As Chinese, I'm very excited about it.

Since my Youtube partnership is suspended, there's no reason that I don't try out Vessel, actually while writing this blog, I've already submitted my application to become a Vessel creator. Let's see what will happen!

Just want to add another 2 points, first, I can already image once the Vessel started charging subscription fee (when the free trial finally expired), some people will definitely rip off videos from Vessel and post on youtube in advance! Second, are fans supposed to talk about the content put online in advance publicly or not? Considering it may be spoiling other people's viewing experience.

www.vessel.com

Riding a rocket?This plane is able to take you anywhere in the world within 4 hours

Just saw an article about this new engine that British aerospace firm Reaction Engines Limited is working on. They claim the new type of engine will be powering the plane to fly ... literally like a rocket! 4 hours you can fly to anywhere on the surface of earth, hm, that would save a lot of time for travellers and they don't have to suffer from being squeezed in the tiny seat space for 11 hours when they fly between Europe and Asia or wherever. People don't have to stay in line for toilet on the plane, they don't have to worry about the food on plane, 4 hours and you can sit in restaurant having a relaxing meal. But it would be some less fun, thinking of how much less movies you could watch in 4 hours compare with 11 hours.

Anyway, how is it possible to fly that fast? I'm trying to figure out. Apparently the secret is the cooling system:

"The engine system is called SABRE, and it relies on a device called the precooler - technology that cools down the air entering the engineer system by more than 1,000 degrees Celsius in .01 seconds. That corresponds to an unheard-of cooling rate of 400 megawatts, and will allow the plane to “breathe” oxygen.

This means that the engine system will be able to run at a much higher power than is currently possible."

Overheating is always a problem for any kind of engine, no matter in cars or aircraft... well, especially for aircraft. Overheating can lead to engine seize and damage, imagine if you design a rocket without cooling system, once it takes off, the engine is gonna burn itself first, and the whole aircraft would be like a firework show instead of transportation tool. My understanding is, it's not that modern engines can't reach a high speed like 4 hours go to the other side of the earth, but rather it's because the cooling system doesn't allow people to fly that fast. So here you go, SABRE engine, give you a super cool summer, you travel with that you also get served with some popsicles made by that engine.  

My popsicle is SABRE brand, aircraft engine coolant flavor, what about yours?

oh right, forgot to say, the first test flight is projected to be in 2019!

check out the article: http://snip.ly/tuIQ#http://www.sciencealert.com/this-plane-will-be-able-to-fly-anywhere-in-the-world-within-4-hours

and the video: