TRRAM : don't miss this one !

The KAIST1 just announced the creation of Transparent Resistive Random Access Memory (TRRAM)2.

Transparency means light somehow manages to pass, (s)which can be really interesting for open minds...

I'm not necessarily talking about the Geeks who'll love to expose the guts of their latest gizmos ("I'm not just purchasing a Rolex, look at this Swiss marvel of a mechanism !") : on one hand, transparent chips could pave the way for see-through devices, but on the other, TRAAM could turn transparent things into smarter devices...

You want to keep an eye on this one before it disappears.


1 - Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology , an almost frequent flyer on these lines.
2 - see Yonhap News ("S. Korean scientists develop transparent memory chip" - 20081215)

PlayStation Home, Sweet Home - Virtual Dissociative Identity Disorder

As Home hits shelves, employees hit home.

With a weird sense of timing, Sony launch PlayStation Home, a free 3D social networking service, a few days after inviting 16,000 of their staff to rediscover their own HomeSpace - provided they're lucky enough to avoid foreclosure (bonus: a fourth dimension included - time)...

Air France - KLM's Bluenity is taking off the same week. Yet another 2D, 2.0 social networking scheme. But there, you can pal around the terrorist who'll take the same plane as you, and even learn from him about the charms of Afghan mountains.

I suggest a new social networking concept : with VdId (Virtual Dissociative Identity Disorder), I will make all my online aliases meet each other. Who knows, they may find out some kind of common ground / common sense.

Credo, loyalty and royalty

I bumped into Joe Lieberman this morning:

For those who can't read the banner, there's a big "switching is easy" next to Joe's face, and below an invitation to join CREDO mobile : "more people are changing to CREDO mobile for reliable services and reliable values (NB : the "and" is not only bold - I mean the typo - but also underlined). We've been a loyal supporter of progressive causes since 1985".

Unfortunately, I didn't keep the M-VNO's campaign promising handcuffs for Karl Rove (see "CREDO mobile vs Karl Rove"), but I'm joining this comparative ad featuring W. as AT&T (it splashed over my computer screen a couple of days before one of the most glorious days in American history) :


Apparently, the Lieberm'ad has been running for a while, and was part of a scheme to strip America's most famous political weather vane of his Homeland Security Committee chairmanship*.

Everybody knows Joe The Switcher eventually kept his chair. This campaign is now focusing more than ever on promoting one cause : the CREDO brand.

Anyway, either by trickling down on its own, or because Working Assets have this thing for spreading it around, part of this wealth will end up benefiting other causes**.


* "Jaws (not calls) drop as Credo Mobile uses Lieberman’s mug in ad" (Chris Steller - Minnesota Independent - 20081124)

** I still don't know how many subscribers CREDO mobile have, but The Courage Campaign claims that they gathered over a week "200,000 signatures on a pledge to repeal" the Proposition 8 ("Join the Impact: California’s Prop 8 Discrimination Becomes a National Issue" - Rick Jacobs - The Courage Campaign / California Progress Report 20081116).

Orange Money Live

Tested earlier this year*, Orange Money is officially launched in Ivory Coast.

French giants Orange (Orange CI) and BNP Paribas (BICICI) found the perfect spot to try the concept without meeting much resistance from regulators / rival lobbies. Beyond the country and the region**, the aim of the game is naturally to advertise on a potentially global platform.

Opening a Orange Money account enables the Orange customer to make secured transactions with the operator (buying call credit, paying bills) and far beyond (deposits and withdrawals up to 150 euros, transfers from one person to another).

A killer app if any for emerging markets where very few people have a bank account, but more and more use a mobile. Significantly, BelkoFinance (microcredit) is also a partner, and this commercial launch happens the same week as the full launch of Payez Mobile*** in France.


* see "Orange Money: a new service tested in Ivory Coast" (france telecom) and "Orange, in partnership with BNP Paribas, is launching Orange Money in the Ivory Coast, the first mobile phone-based payment and money transfer service in Western Africa" (20081204 BNP Paribas)
** Jordan, Mali and Senegal were announced for 2009 last may in an interview on STMR. The USSD based solution was officially approved by the BCEAO (Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest) which operates in Ivory Coast, but also Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
*** see "Payez mobile, at last"