Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Find me on my new blog http://www.florianseroussi.com

It was time to adapt and Blogspot isn't very user friendly. I'm not going to trash Google's blogging platform here. I had great times for 5 years here.
Now you can read me on http://www.florianseroussi.com

See you there

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Monday, August 24, 2009

BlackBerry Loves U2 - I love both!

BlackBerry is definitely catching up on the awesomeness factor.

Posted via web from [blog.florianseroussi.com]

New York city portrait, HD time lapse

I love NY. This movie is incredible. You feel the city, the ambiance.

Posted via web from [blog.florianseroussi.com]

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Dancing and Stealing Caught on Camera

This sequence is shocking. I was standing on Broadway last week in NYC. A street group started a show, jumping and dancing. Guys were good and soon a huge crowd was all around them.
I took my webcam and filmed from an angle where supposedly one could see dancers. But instead I was the witness of pickpockets. While few guys are dancing, singing and jumping, few accomplices are going through the crowd to embezzled phones, cameras and wallets.

Check the screenshots below.

Guy on the right just stole a camera and hands it out to the street dancer.


Here you clearly see the dancer taking the camera


The guy on the right left to steal more and dancer is slowly inserting the camera in the backpack of a 3rd accomplice. You see the dancer in the center capturing everyone's attention.



Guy with the cap closing his backpack like nothing happened


A dancer catches me filming and moves fast towards me.


The video sequence in full right here:

Dancing and stealing from FLORIAN SEROUSSI on Vimeo.



I did not contact NY Police Department but I do hope they see this video and take necessary measures.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Facebook will be #1 this year before Google

Few months ago I read reports of Facebook to surpass Google -maybe- by 2012 or 2013. My gutt feeling - it will happen in the next 120 days.



Imagine a community website taking leadership of the WWW - yet this is happening as you read those lines.
Facebook is growing fast +220% this year reaching 122M uniques in July. Google leads with 147M uniques BUT it is absolutely inevitable Facebook will win this battle.




Google is facing serious attacks from Microsoft with Bing.com. Yahoo! has remained solid behind Google despite the Ballmer/Chen fiasco. Google's numbers are stable but no real sign of growth despite a rise in search queries.

Facebook has doubled its uniques from 66M in January 09 to 122M in July 09 and I see a peak of uniques starting right after summer holidays. Millions of pictures are going to be posted to Facebook. There is one ironical fact: 1st source of incoming traffic on Facebook is....Google. Maybe Google will react to that and start pushing Facebook results a bit further down.



FaceBook will be #1 site in the world by December 09. INCREDIBLE.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

You are so predictable

Few things continue to amaze me - or should I say amuse me when it comes down to human nature.
One of those things is predictability. Instinct takes over intelligence in most cases.
This is the difference between a chess player and a master. The ability to control emotion is often blurred by the need of vengeance. Action/reaction kind of theory.
I slap you – you strike back. Instantly. No second thoughts. Why?
Two reasons – 1st humiliation needs retaliation. NOW.
2nd your brain can’t think that fast.
Not so long ago I was engaged in a relationship where happy ending was not an option. Not only was it written danger all over it but blindness of the moment weakened my perception to the max.
Recovery is often judged by the capacity to think ahead in a cold-blooded manner.
Hopefully at 40+ I was able to resource myself surrounded by family and kids who cherish me with an incredible passion [THANK YOU].
It didn’t take too long before I initiated a series of behavioral experiences based on the same items that caused my fall. In a sick threesome relationship I was able to seed info and collect data – thank you Twitter. It was almost incredible to monitor demeanor and emotion of anger. Blinded by strong emotion and compulsive obsession my wannabe partner developed a transparent pattern of actions.
Anger became a motive to hate and defamation. It doesn’t matter who is right or wrong. I believe post relationship crisis management reveals a person.
During the course of my –very unreliable- study I found out there is a strong relationship between obsession and addictive behaviors.
Addicts are obsessed by nature. They need to kill the obsession to move past the addiction. There is no cure without containing the obsessive anger.
This post is not a personal note or subliminal message to re-engage into a conversation with past acquaintances. It’s a testimony on how changing my behaviors and demeanor, really improved my relationships with others both professionally and personally.
You can go from predictable to changeable. Adding rationality to life was my best move.

Friday, August 07, 2009

IceT is COOL


IceT is COOL
Originally uploaded by Florian SEROUSSI
Being a huge Law & Order fan I felt lucky seating next to "Fin" from NYC to FLL.
I've seen bunch of actors/actresses but few are NICE. Ice was shaking everyone's hand as we were seating upfront. At some point I felt sorry for the guy. Can you imagine 200 passengers shaking your hand?
He didn't blink and kept smiling.
Way to go Fin.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Update on New BlackBerry Messenger and Download Links

Here is a complete updated list of downloads found on the net. All downloads are OTA (Over The Air). If you don't know what it means - just don't try installing on your device :)

Here is what BBM 5.0 will add to your phone:

  • SMS support — You wanted threaded SMS? Well you’re finally going to be getting it!
  • PIN barcode scanning — Too lazy to add your friend to Messenger by entering in their PIN? Just have them click the Barcode option on their devices and, you guessed it, a barcode will show up letting the other party scan it with their BlackBerry camera and immediately add that contact to your list.
  • Backup/Restore Messenger list to microSD card.
Install at your own risk and enjoy!



Saturday, July 18, 2009

New BlackBerry Messenger available Over The Air

If you have a BlackBerry its probably because you want to BBM your friends. RIM is working on a much better BBM version. Like always first private release has leaked and here it is for you.


I took those links from the Internet.

THIS IS BETA SOFTWARE, INSTALL AT  YOUR OWN RISK. I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING LOST. MAKE SURE TO BACK UP YOUR PHONE FIRST.

OTA for 4.5
83XX/81XX
IT JUST CAME TO MY ATTENTION IF YOU ARE RUNNING 83XX/81XX WITH OS LOWER THEN 4.5.0.131 IT WON’T WORK. HAVEN’T HAD ANY OTHER DEVICES TESTED LIKE 88XX

OTA for 4.6
OS 4.6

OTA for 4.6.1
OS 4.6.1

OTA for 4.7
95XX

OTA for 4.7.1
Tour

THE 4.7.1 OTA WILL WORK ON 8900/9000 OS 5.0




Friday, May 29, 2009

Skype Beta for BlackBerry

I just got my hands on Skype official Beta for BlackBerry Storm.
It looks more like an Alpha then a Beta. First the app is not OTA and not packaged JAD. There are 2 files a .COD and an .ALX.
Both files are available for download here: DOWNLOAD INSTALL AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Once loaded through BlackBerry Desktop Manager you can add the application on your BlackBerry. I have tested with a Storm 9530 Verizon.
The icon is slick. Typical Skype logo.
To run the application you must disable compatibility mode in Options-->Advanced Options-->Applications-->Skype-->Menu [disable Compatibility Mode].
Say no: press P when prompted for update.

To navigate through options after you launch the application use:
O or Q to accept
P to decline
Space to open
You can scroll through touch screen but do not click and simply press A to option field.
Signin is quick. Contacts load rapidly.
Chat works perfectly and calling a contact using your Skype credit is flawless.
I didn't succeed to call a phone number yet because keyboard mapping is obviously not Storm ready.

Update: I have also tested on Bold running 4.6 and it works much better.

Here are the screenshots:









Sunday, May 10, 2009

National Beach - Miami

Sometimes you get lucky and grab an incredible shot. This picture was taken on April 27th 2009 in South Beach with a Canon 5DII.
Result is breathtaking. Check my photo-stream and leave a comment.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

TwitterFame

You are now familiar with my regular cyber squatting on Pat’s blog.
Today 1 year after this post we are going to see if Twitter can be mainstream and still be interesting.
In last few weeks celebrities took over our favorite social medium. Not that it bothers me. Twitter is a democracy. My issue is mostly with the exchange everyone is asked to make in any society.
You cannot invite yourself to my table and not share or entertain conversation. Celebrities- as much as I hate the term- have massively polluted our tool engaging themselves in a race for followers.
Ashton Kutcher aka @aplusk is now self-declared King of Twitter. Oprah will rule on top of the pyramid in a couple of weeks and I’m an inch away to drop out. To better understand what is happening I have to throw some figures.
Boring - I know…but it makes my case.

@aplusk ‘friends’ grow at a rate of 770 followers per tweet

@oprah ‘friends’ add up at a rate of 33.000 followers per tweet. She has nearly half a million follower after 13 updates.

And we want to ignore something is broken?

I wanted to believe Twitter is all about CONVERSATION not COMPETITION. It survived spambots, porn, escorts, solicitation, gaming but not fame…if not stopped now the race will get nasty. @michaeljackson, @mariahcarey, @robertredford, @hannahmontana, who is next?
I couldn’t figure out numbers of tweets related to the stupid challenge @aplusk vs. @cnnbrk but I’m sure it captured over 50% of total stream.

There is a solution to avoid social hijacking. Very simple solution. Make stats private. No more public count of followers/following. It will make the Twitter community much ‘cleaner’ and bring everyone back to sharing.
Celebrities are welcome to bring good noise. They will certainly get a lot of attention but they will have to follow rules of social engagement.

Last night I threw the idea –I’m not claiming to be the 1st who thought about it btw- on Twitter thinking it will be ignored. To my surprise it has been massively re-tweetted.

Twitter: you need to listen – we do not want popularity, we want quality content.

Ironically Twitter founders have engaged themselves in a race against Facebook so I guess we have come full circle. After all they ‘only’ need 200 Ashton Kutcher to beat them.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Blackberry OS 5.0 on a Curve 8900

This was made possible by a tipster on BlackBerry 8900.

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Inamo Restaurant London


Inamo Collage
Originally uploaded by Florian SEROUSSI
Paul Walsh recommended the place but I had no idea it was going to be so fun. An amazing restaurant located in the heart of Soho where the table is the center of attraction.
Overhead are space-age projectors that turn your table into a sexy kind of Surface. The tablecloth becomes a touch-sensitive screen. You can scan a menu, or hail a cab, at the click of a button. You can even change the look of your table (clouds, bamboo, etc) - a bit like wallpaper on your computer. It took few minutes to figure out what we wanted and amazingly meals arrived promptly in our plates.
Animo has great food presentation. Minimalistic fusion food but portions are ok.
Black cod menu was tasty and so well presented you don't want to take a bite.
Looking good is easy but tasting great is something else. Inamo wins this challenge from top to bottom.
Geekiest restaurant on earth. You can visit their website http://www.inamo-restaurant.com/.

Inamo
134-136 Wardour Street,
Soho, London, W1F 8ZP

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Did you know?

Amazing facts and figures. Please watch and learn something today.


Did You Know? from Amybeth on Vimeo.