I have an amazing friend who points me to things that change my life. Sometimes I check it out straight away, and other times I’ll revisit six months later. My introduction to TED.com falls into the latter category. Over the last couple of months I’ve downloaded several videos for my later viewing, and whilst all are quite amazing, there are two I’ve found so incredible that I just have to share them.

Whilst hardly a practising (in the traditional sense) Roman Catholic, I still retain an interest in matters of faith. Karen Armstrong’s Charter for Compassion rings true with many of my thoughts on the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) - there is a single unifying ideology of compassion which gets lost amongst a sea of commentary. Sometimes people add too much crap to a really great idea. Karen is truly engaging throughout and her wish of an open dialogue between the faiths is one that I share.

Which brings me to Dave Eggers. Apart from being a fairly prolific author (his first book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize), he was instrumental in opening a tutoring lab for young people in San Francisco’s Mission District called 826 Valencia. His TED Prize Wish outlines the setup and growth of 826 Valencia, and the subsequent implementation of the concept in other American cities. Entertaining and inspirational in the same breath, I couldn’t help but be amazed by the foresight of the project.

I wonder if I’ll ever speak before a TED conference. Guess I’ll have to do something worthwhile in the meantime…

Edit: at the suggestion of one reader, I have included direct links for downloading the relevant talks. Just means you won’t have to deal with auto-loading movies. And for those who enjoy watching video on their iPod, I recommend you download the zipped version and then use iSquint to convert it into iPod-friendly format straight into iTunes. Enjoy!

Karen Armstrong: Zipped mp4 or iTunes

Dave Eggers: Zipped mp4 or iTunes

I think all the other little bees are dead. In all actuality, I know they’re alive because I see most of them on a daily basis. Guess that leaves me to hold down the fort and try to punch out a post in a quasi-regular fashion.

I get my ADSL2 through iPrimus and my two main options for a download limit are either 6GB or 21GB. $10 difference in plans but I see no need for a 21GB limit that I have no hope of reaching. If I can’t use it all, I don’t feel like I’m getting value for money.

I got an email from iPrimus today, stating I was nearing my download limit. Actually, I wasn’t but that’s a completely different issue. I’ve thought about using a webclipping from Safari to turn my usage page into a widget, and have also considered using something like Fluid but both these options, whilst quite elegant in what they do, serve me no purpose when my information is behind a secure login. Enter Lemonjar.

This Melbourne-based tech company have put together several widgets for some of the major broadband suppliers in Australia. Sadly, they don’t have one for iPrimus and I don’t feel inclined to ask… yet. These widgets are donationware so if you can find a use for them, they make your life easier or they bring your cat back from the dead, strongly consider making a donation. Independent developers are the reason my Mac experience (20 years and counting) continues to rock.

Every Tuesday, I hang out for the IT section of The Australian. Most weeks it’s filled with crap I’m just not interested in or really techy articles that shoot way above my experience. This also assumes that someone has not stolen it from the café before I’ve had a chance to read it. Newspaper theft is, to this day, something that still baffles me.

My point of interest today was an article regarding business and Web 2.0 - or rather, their lack of a relationship with one another. To save some reading (though please do, just because) the general gist is that business isn’t quite sure of what Web 2.0 is or of how they can use it, but there are lots of businesses that want to. They’re just not sure of how to implement it. Oh, and some guy named Andrew Keen feels “the biggest danger in business terms is that everyone assumes they should be doing Web 2.0, so companies should be blogging and whatever, and a lot of it is just a waste of time. Companies should be maximising their profit.”

Perhaps if business is interested in the power of Web 2.0, it can have a look at Mini-Microsoft. Probably one of the more famous examples, Mini-Microsoft was instrumental in effecting change within management processes at Microsoft all through his blog. Read the blog if you’re interested in specifics but if you’re not, just know this guy openly and publicly criticised Microsoft and its business policy whilst still employed by the company.

There are times when I feel like Web 2.0 is my little secret. I had my eyes opened a few years ago by a good friend who gave me a copy of The Cluetrain Manifesto, probably one of the most amazing reads of my life. A concept so simple, yet so easily misunderstood. And then I wonder whether I should share this revelation with others, or keep it to myself Gollum-style. But that wouldn’t be very Web 2.0 of me, would it?

Then to business I offer this: if all you’re trying to figure out is how you can make money out of it, you won’t. But if you’re interested in enhancing the experience of your customers, well maybe we’ll meet you there…