This would have come in handy when we were looking to power the CatchPhrase timer on Xmas.
Why I Never Pay For "AAA" Batteries
(via Lifehacker)
And speaking of CatchPhrase, check out the new electronic version...
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Friday, December 29, 2006
2006 Zeitgeist
It's that time of year again...
2006 Year-End Google Zeitgeist
Still blows my mind that people do google searches for things like "myspace" or "wikipedia" rather than just using the URL. Plus the queries with "Who is..." or "Where is..." in front of them.
That said, I will concede the usefulness of "how to" and acknowledge the brilliance of the Google "define" command.
Should I be embarrassed I've never heard of Bebo?
2006 Year-End Google Zeitgeist
Still blows my mind that people do google searches for things like "myspace" or "wikipedia" rather than just using the URL. Plus the queries with "Who is..." or "Where is..." in front of them.
That said, I will concede the usefulness of "how to" and acknowledge the brilliance of the Google "define" command.
Should I be embarrassed I've never heard of Bebo?
Now with more spam!
Unbelievable. Or, believable that it's true, but unbelievable that it's come to this.
"On average, spam accounted for 87% of e-mail traffic this year, a 30% increase over a year ago. Spam rates, however, varied considerably by user and organization. Some small enterprises had spam rates as low as 45%, while large free e-mail providers got pummeled with rates as high as 98%. In general, business e-mail accounts received a smaller percentage of spam than consumer accounts."
(From InformationWeek, via TUAW)
"On average, spam accounted for 87% of e-mail traffic this year, a 30% increase over a year ago. Spam rates, however, varied considerably by user and organization. Some small enterprises had spam rates as low as 45%, while large free e-mail providers got pummeled with rates as high as 98%. In general, business e-mail accounts received a smaller percentage of spam than consumer accounts."
(From InformationWeek, via TUAW)
Saturday, December 23, 2006
#6
The annual DVD rip of the 24 "prequel" bridge between seasons is floating around the net. Most of the links I found to it were dead, but this one was still live as of last night:
24 Season 6 Prequel
Agree with most of the Internet chatter that the RAV4 product placement here is pretty lame. Otherwise it's entertaining to get a little sneak peek that's part of the official canon yet not as spoiler-filled as the trailers/commercials that I can't stand to watch, even if it has no "real" bearing on the story other than a couple of minor hints of background and timing.
24 Season 6 Prequel
Agree with most of the Internet chatter that the RAV4 product placement here is pretty lame. Otherwise it's entertaining to get a little sneak peek that's part of the official canon yet not as spoiler-filled as the trailers/commercials that I can't stand to watch, even if it has no "real" bearing on the story other than a couple of minor hints of background and timing.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Thursday, December 14, 2006
New Version of Blogger Ready...Almost
Psst...Bo. We're ready to upgrade to the new version of Blogger, but you have to initiate the change as the owner/admin. Pretty please?
Money from Home
How flippin' cool is this?
USAA Federal Savings Bank Allows Customers to Send Deposits Electronically from Home
"Starting today, home banking takes on a whole new meaning for members of USAA Federal Savings Bank ("USAA"). USAA is now the largest nationwide bank to offer an easy-to-use, secure new service that enables its customers to deposit checks into their bank accounts using a scanner and an Internet connection."
USAA Federal Savings Bank Allows Customers to Send Deposits Electronically from Home
"Starting today, home banking takes on a whole new meaning for members of USAA Federal Savings Bank ("USAA"). USAA is now the largest nationwide bank to offer an easy-to-use, secure new service that enables its customers to deposit checks into their bank accounts using a scanner and an Internet connection."
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Philosophy of Google
Never noticed this page on the Google Corporate site before:
Ten things Google has found to be true
"Google has persistently pursued innovation and pushed the limits of existing technology to provide a fast, accurate and easy-to-use search service that can be accessed from anywhere. To fully understand Google, it's helpful to understand all the ways in which the company has helped to redefine how individuals, businesses and technologists view the Internet."
Follow link above for a paragraph on each, but the list is:
1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There's always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn't good enough.
Pretty inspirational stuff...
Also amusing (and true) disclaimer on the bottom:
* Full-disclosure update: When we first wrote these "10 things" four years ago, we included the phrase "Google does not do horoscopes, financial advice or chat." Over time we've expanded our view of the range of services we can offer –- web search, for instance, isn't the only way for people to access or use information -– and products that then seemed unlikely are now key aspects of our portfolio. This doesn't mean we've changed our core mission; just that the farther we travel toward achieving it, the more those blurry objects on the horizon come into sharper focus (to be replaced, of course, by more blurry objects).
Ten things Google has found to be true
"Google has persistently pursued innovation and pushed the limits of existing technology to provide a fast, accurate and easy-to-use search service that can be accessed from anywhere. To fully understand Google, it's helpful to understand all the ways in which the company has helped to redefine how individuals, businesses and technologists view the Internet."
Follow link above for a paragraph on each, but the list is:
1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There's always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn't good enough.
Pretty inspirational stuff...
Also amusing (and true) disclaimer on the bottom:
* Full-disclosure update: When we first wrote these "10 things" four years ago, we included the phrase "Google does not do horoscopes, financial advice or chat." Over time we've expanded our view of the range of services we can offer –- web search, for instance, isn't the only way for people to access or use information -– and products that then seemed unlikely are now key aspects of our portfolio. This doesn't mean we've changed our core mission; just that the farther we travel toward achieving it, the more those blurry objects on the horizon come into sharper focus (to be replaced, of course, by more blurry objects).
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
No More Answers
Google is shutting down Google Answers.
Adieu to Google Answers
Remember the buzz around iNet when this service was born? We encouraged all of the Surfers to utilize their skills and sign up as a side project (I registered too), but not a single one of us was accepted.
Is this the first Google product to be retired?
(I mean actually retired, rather than never graduating from the lab or being banished from the front page.)
Adieu to Google Answers
Remember the buzz around iNet when this service was born? We encouraged all of the Surfers to utilize their skills and sign up as a side project (I registered too), but not a single one of us was accepted.
Is this the first Google product to be retired?
(I mean actually retired, rather than never graduating from the lab or being banished from the front page.)
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Deja Vu (and Internet too)
Saw Deja Vu on Friday. Eagerly anticipated after the teaser trailer due to my well known time travel fascination, but went in skeptical based on the big budget blockbuster vibe and a feeling that the full trailer gave it all away. (Both trailers are here.)
My thought process during and after went something like this:
-Loved the movie while I was watching it, but thought the ending was lame, too Hollywood, and obviously a rewrite.
-Started to deconstruct the time travel in my head and felt it started to fall apart and not make any sense.
-Picked apart the time travel a little bit further and suddenly realized the underlying story and plotting was absolutely brilliant (including the ending, but excluding the laser pointer), and especially impressive given the big budgetness of it.
-Probably the best non-indie time travel flick since 12 Monkeys and BTTF, and even holds it's own against Primer and Donnie Darko.
The other tangential thought I kept having during the movie was this:
How the heck did Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives end up as part of the same government agency? Wikipedia to the rescue.
My thought process during and after went something like this:
-Loved the movie while I was watching it, but thought the ending was lame, too Hollywood, and obviously a rewrite.
-Started to deconstruct the time travel in my head and felt it started to fall apart and not make any sense.
-Picked apart the time travel a little bit further and suddenly realized the underlying story and plotting was absolutely brilliant (including the ending, but excluding the laser pointer), and especially impressive given the big budgetness of it.
-Probably the best non-indie time travel flick since 12 Monkeys and BTTF, and even holds it's own against Primer and Donnie Darko.
The other tangential thought I kept having during the movie was this:
How the heck did Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives end up as part of the same government agency? Wikipedia to the rescue.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Slippery Ships On Air
This is a more scientific article than usual, but it does have implications for energy conservation and global commerce.
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=mg18925391.600&print=true
"YOSHIAKI KODAMA is weaving a magic carpet large enough to carry a ship. Conjured up from thin air at the flick of a switch, this slippery blanket will help transport a fully laden tanker or container ship across the ocean at higher speed, and using far less fuel, than ever before."
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=mg18925391.600&print=true
"YOSHIAKI KODAMA is weaving a magic carpet large enough to carry a ship. Conjured up from thin air at the flick of a switch, this slippery blanket will help transport a fully laden tanker or container ship across the ocean at higher speed, and using far less fuel, than ever before."
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Choices = Headaches
I read this blog frequently, and I liked this particular article.
The fellow runs a software shop, but they get other aspects such as UI, marketing, etc. Maybe a little like 37 Signals.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/11/21.html
The article discusses the many choices in turning off a computer using Windows Vista.
The fellow runs a software shop, but they get other aspects such as UI, marketing, etc. Maybe a little like 37 Signals.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/11/21.html
The article discusses the many choices in turning off a computer using Windows Vista.
Monday, November 20, 2006
My New Movie
I'm Gonna Kill You Saturday Night is a short film I shot in September. It's a dark comedy described as follows:
"When Jimbo and Stu, two stoner roommates, receive a threatening card in the mail all hell breaks loose as the clock ticks down to Saturday Night."
Check out the website and trailer, linked above. You can get to the trailer quickly by mousing over and clicking on the remote.
We're having a premier in Hollywood on December 5th in the evening (time TBA) so please keep that free - you are all invited!
Yes, shameless plug. BTW, my director designed the website as well -- pretty slick, huh?
"When Jimbo and Stu, two stoner roommates, receive a threatening card in the mail all hell breaks loose as the clock ticks down to Saturday Night."
Check out the website and trailer, linked above. You can get to the trailer quickly by mousing over and clicking on the remote.
We're having a premier in Hollywood on December 5th in the evening (time TBA) so please keep that free - you are all invited!
Yes, shameless plug. BTW, my director designed the website as well -- pretty slick, huh?
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Features: "A Collection of Hacks"
Great article about the creator of Firefox's next project -- untangling the loose alliance of applications and hacks that hold the web/desktop interface together to create a more unified system.
Thought this was appropo and similar to Google's approach of making what they have work together better.
Parakey
The answer, he and his programming partner, Joe Hewitt, decided, resided in the gap between the desktop and the Web. “Right now, people want to shuffle around content,” he says, “but the world’s fused together by a collection of hacks.” Something that should be simple, say, getting photos from a digital camera onto the Web, is a Sisyphean task for most people. “Step back and ask, ‘What’s wrong with this picture?’” Ross says.
The problem, according to Ross, is there’s no simple, cohesive tool to help people store and share their creations online. Currently, the steps involved depend on the medium. If you want to upload photos, for example, you have to dump your images into one folder, then transfer them to an image-sharing site such as Flickr. The process for moving videos to YouTube or a similar site is completely different. If you want to make a personal Web page within an online community, you have to join a social network, say, MySpace or Friendster. If you intend to rant about politics or movies, you launch a blog and link up to it from your other pages. The mess of the Web, in other words, leaves you trapped in one big tangle of actions, service providers, and applications.
Ross’s answer is named Parakey. As he describes it, from a user’s point of view, Parakey is “a Web operating system that can do everything an OS can do.”
Thought this was appropo and similar to Google's approach of making what they have work together better.
Parakey
The answer, he and his programming partner, Joe Hewitt, decided, resided in the gap between the desktop and the Web. “Right now, people want to shuffle around content,” he says, “but the world’s fused together by a collection of hacks.” Something that should be simple, say, getting photos from a digital camera onto the Web, is a Sisyphean task for most people. “Step back and ask, ‘What’s wrong with this picture?’” Ross says.
The problem, according to Ross, is there’s no simple, cohesive tool to help people store and share their creations online. Currently, the steps involved depend on the medium. If you want to upload photos, for example, you have to dump your images into one folder, then transfer them to an image-sharing site such as Flickr. The process for moving videos to YouTube or a similar site is completely different. If you want to make a personal Web page within an online community, you have to join a social network, say, MySpace or Friendster. If you intend to rant about politics or movies, you launch a blog and link up to it from your other pages. The mess of the Web, in other words, leaves you trapped in one big tangle of actions, service providers, and applications.
Ross’s answer is named Parakey. As he describes it, from a user’s point of view, Parakey is “a Web operating system that can do everything an OS can do.”
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Features, not products
Wake up call over at Google? Though a little saddened that the quick surprise releases of new cool things will slow down or stop for now, I do agree that some fine tuning and improving of their core will be very welcome.
Interesting how it somewhat mirrors the old Surfboard strategy too. At first it was more sites, more categories, more sections. But later it turned to more automation, tighter Zuma integration, better usability.
Google Puts Lid on New Products
In another sign of Google Inc.'s growth from start-up to corporate behemoth, the company's top executives said Thursday that they had begun telling engineers to stop launching so many new services and instead focus on making existing ones work together better.
The initiative's primary goal is to make Google products easier to use, especially by packaging disparate products. For example, said Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, Google plans to combine its spreadsheet, calendar and word-processing programs into one suite of Web-based applications.
The company does not plan to tell engineers to halt all new products, Google said, nor does it plan to kill little-used services.
Rather, the effort is more focused on future development. After launching the initiative this summer, Schmidt said, Google canceled several services in development — which he would not describe — and instructed their creators to instead make them features in other products.
Interesting how it somewhat mirrors the old Surfboard strategy too. At first it was more sites, more categories, more sections. But later it turned to more automation, tighter Zuma integration, better usability.
Google Puts Lid on New Products
In another sign of Google Inc.'s growth from start-up to corporate behemoth, the company's top executives said Thursday that they had begun telling engineers to stop launching so many new services and instead focus on making existing ones work together better.
The initiative's primary goal is to make Google products easier to use, especially by packaging disparate products. For example, said Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, Google plans to combine its spreadsheet, calendar and word-processing programs into one suite of Web-based applications.
The company does not plan to tell engineers to halt all new products, Google said, nor does it plan to kill little-used services.
Rather, the effort is more focused on future development. After launching the initiative this summer, Schmidt said, Google canceled several services in development — which he would not describe — and instructed their creators to instead make them features in other products.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Networking and LinkedIn
Newest episode of Venture Voice is an interview with the founder of LinkedIn. I found most interesting the discussion on what I feel is the biggest problem to the legitimacy of LinkedIn: Mediocre workers with glowing testimonials bringing down the value of a referral by mis-using the networking concept.
It goes into some interesting ideas on how they plan to handle it in the future and how they intend for it to be handled today if people utilize the tool properly.
(If you don't want to listen to the whole thing, this part starts around the 33 minute mark).
Venture Voice #40: Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn
It goes into some interesting ideas on how they plan to handle it in the future and how they intend for it to be handled today if people utilize the tool properly.
(If you don't want to listen to the whole thing, this part starts around the 33 minute mark).
Venture Voice #40: Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn
Monday, November 06, 2006
Simple Organizing: Scrybe
G. and I were just talking about organizer type applications the other day.
I came across this one, which seems like it's in closed beta currently.
http://iscrybe.com/main/index.php
They're doing a cool marketing campaign, where they're using YouTube to do different product demonstrations before they launch it to the public.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/21/scrybe-could-set-a-new-standard-in-office-apps/
I like the PaperSync towards the end.
I came across this one, which seems like it's in closed beta currently.
http://iscrybe.com/main/index.php
They're doing a cool marketing campaign, where they're using YouTube to do different product demonstrations before they launch it to the public.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/21/scrybe-could-set-a-new-standard-in-office-apps/
I like the PaperSync towards the end.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Time Machine Video
Found a great (though somewhat cheesy)time machine documentary on google video.
The theory is that time travel into the past on very small particles is now feasible. If we could encode information onto said particles, then we could technically send information into the past, but only so far back as the "time machine" has been invented.
Thus, when it is finally created, it may suddenly be flooded with messages from the future. This scientist's theory is that Einstein was correct about black holes - but that laser light itself is actually much more effective at twisting space/time.
Thought Jake of All Trades might really appreciate this. The video is 45 minutes.
Time Machine
The theory is that time travel into the past on very small particles is now feasible. If we could encode information onto said particles, then we could technically send information into the past, but only so far back as the "time machine" has been invented.
Thus, when it is finally created, it may suddenly be flooded with messages from the future. This scientist's theory is that Einstein was correct about black holes - but that laser light itself is actually much more effective at twisting space/time.
Thought Jake of All Trades might really appreciate this. The video is 45 minutes.
Time Machine
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Microsoft Installation Woes
Great SvN Post on the frustrations of installing software on Windows, including an almost comical screencast video.
Semi-related:
The 37Signals "Getting Real" $19 PDF book is now available in a free online HTML version, as well as a $29 print on demand paperback from my future publisher Lulu.com. Now there's no excuse not to read it if you've been too cheap or too lazy. (I'm the latter.)
Getting Real: The Book
Semi-related:
The 37Signals "Getting Real" $19 PDF book is now available in a free online HTML version, as well as a $29 print on demand paperback from my future publisher Lulu.com. Now there's no excuse not to read it if you've been too cheap or too lazy. (I'm the latter.)
Getting Real: The Book
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Small Number of Video iPods Shipped With Windows Virus
This little jab on the official Apple release about the iPod virus is awesome:
"As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it."
(via TUAW)
"As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it."
(via TUAW)
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