This is the disease risk part of my genetic profile in 23andMe. I hesitated a great deal before posting it. It is normally a very private matter. In a way by posting this I am more naked than if I was posting a naked picture of myself. But then I thought, my objective in posting this is to gain more information to live as long a healthy life as possible. So if that is the case why not crowdsourcing my disease risk? This may lead to friends giving me tips on what to do about certain disease risks. So here it goes. I am open to good medical advise on it.
I know the image looks blurred but if you click on it you can see it well.
2010 19
Jolicloud and Netbooks
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Micro with No Comments
The OS world can be a bit daunting and confusing. Most people use Windows because it’s the only OS they know, but there are alternatives like Mac OSx or Linux that work better and are easier to use. The problem is people don’t know about them.
Another one of these great alternatives is Jolicloud, an OS for netbooks. Jolicloud was created by my friend Tariq Krim, who is also the founder of Netvibes. Jolicloud is free, and because it’s Linux-based there’s no need for an antivirus! It’s a social OS with more than 300 free open source applications, created and shared by the Jolicloud community. All your data gets stored in the cloud so you can access it from any computer connected to the Internet. The very best thing about this OS is its speed; does your netbook draaaag trying to run Windows? Try Jolicloud and watch it fly!
In fact, it works so well in netbooks that the British IB School in Costa del Sol, Spain, installed Jolicloud in the 400 EEEpcs they bought for their students. Initially, the kids were confused with the new enviroment, but as soon as they learned to use it, they realized that it was easier, better and more versatile than Windows in most aspects.
I’m really happy for Tariq, and I hope Jolicloud continues to grow!
2010 4
Fon reached 2.5 million hotspots around the world
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Is that a lot? Well huge companies like T Mobile have say, 70,000, France Telecom, Telefonica, ATT, Verizon, less than T Mobile. But we grow over a T Mobile every month. And we are happy because between you and I, 2 years ago, things looked awful at Fon. Laptops were not able to generate enough interest in WiFi roaming. But then the iPhone came along. The iPhone, that beautiful bandwidth hog. We were also helped by netbooks, Androids, iPods, iPads, tablets, game consoles and all kinds of smartphones. WiFi gadgets are everywhere. Demand for WiFi exceeds supply. And at Fon, together with our telco partners such as BT, SFR, Zon, and others we are working hard so there is WiFi everywhere as an accessible signal. As we like to say, with Fon you share a little WiFi at home and roam the world for free.
Are we happy? Contentos si, but not content. We want more WiFi. We are going for 10 million fonspots!!
Here are some pictures of Fon managers in Madrid I took this afternoon at our “cuartel general”. We need to add those of our managers around the world. Our Foneros. Viva Free WiFi.
2010 4
Fon Has Already Reached 20,000 Hotspots in Moscow
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
It is no secret to anyone that the Russian market has enormous potential. Hundreds of thousands of companies are trying to develop projects there, counting on many millions in return on their investments. At Fon, we’ve established a joint project with JSFC Sistema (MTS-Comstar). MTS-Comstar has around 100 million subscribers, making it one of the most important mobile operators in the region. Eugin Koryagin, who worked with Comstar, is now the head of Fon Russia and leads the joint initiative.
The aim of the project, which began in 2008, was to create a major WiFi network in Moscow. Today, I can say with confidence that we have achieved that objective. As of the 30th of September, Comstar–Fon has 20,000 hotspots, making it largest WiFi network in Moscow. That’s double the number of hotspots in just two months and quadruple the number we had at the beginning of 2010.
By the end of 2010, we plan on reaching 50,000 active hotspots in Moscow. We also plan to maintain presence in all the MTS Group of Companies converging products, and to start commercial operation of the Fon network in Moscow and all over Russia. All this will allow Foneros and non-Foneros worldwide to add Russia to the list of countries where they have seamless access to the internet!
2010 4
Poll: Ahmadinejad vs Netanyahu
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Micro with No Comments
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the current President of Iran. Benjamin Netanyahu is the Prime Minister from Israel. Both leaders are disliked by many of their own citizens and people around the world. But then very much liked by some as well. What follows is a poll focused on their image outside of their countries. The question is which leader do you trust more or dislike least for the region.
Based on what you have seen on the press, blogs, TV… everything you know about these leaders, if you had to choose between them, who would you like more or dislike least?
Polldaddy seems to be working poorly right now but votes are being counted.
This morning I read that most Muslims believe that 9/11 was a conspiracy created by the US government to justify the invasion of Iraq. This worried me. How could the majority of Muslims be so wrong?
But then I thought that the US government and some EU countries did lie to invade Iraq. They lied about the weapons of mass destruction conspiracy and the connections between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.
So if I were debating with any of those Muslims who believe that 9/11 was an excuse to invade Iraq, I would have to say “9/11 was not a US/Israeli conspiracy, there is tremendous irrefutable evidence that it was a terrorist attack perpetrated by Saudi terrorists and led by Osama Bin Laden”. And that part is true.
But then I would have to explain other painful truths. I would have to admit that we invaded Iraq despite knowing that neither the 9/11 terrorists nor the WMD where there. That in our countries we created the false impression that Saddam was behind 9/11 and that many believe this lie now. And this is one weak side of the debate.
If we can create conspiracies about WMD and “muslim terrorism” as if all Muslims act together (Saddam=Osama=Ahmadinejad), attack and destroy the wrong country (Iraq), torture their citizens, post pictures of how we torture them in Abu Ghraib, take some to Guantanamo and approve their torture, share the blame in the killing of 25 times more innocent civilians than those who died in 9/11 and admit to use white phosphorous (chemical weapon) attacking Fallujah; if we can commit such human right atrocities, why is it so far fetched that most Muslims believe that 9/11 was perpetrated by US and Israel in order to invade Iraq and control the second largest oil reserves in the world?
Moreover, in this Wikipedia entry you will be surprised to find out that one third of Americans actually AGREE with the majority of Muslims. They also believe in 9/11 conspiracy theories even though 2% of Americans are Muslims.
Can our argument just be “yes, we do horrible things but not precisely the horrible things you believe we do”? My hope is that, during this decade, we will truly gain the high moral ground against terrorism and cooperate with moderate Muslims to erradicate Muslim extremism without violating human rights in the region. In the end, terrorism is an industry that feeds on angry young men. We have to make it much harder for Muslim terrorists to recruit. As we have been behaving over the last 10 years, it is not surprising that terrorism has greatly increased since 9/11.