Click here to check if anything new just came in.
February 15 2012
The iOS Address Book Fiasco Continues
The iOS address book fiasco that originally broke last week has gotten several new legs over the last few days. I originally covered the issue with a slightly different angle in my post on how Path’s misstep may hurt their upcoming health data features. Path quickly responded and apologized in a blog post but the story hasn’t ended there.
Path’s apology has been received in a mixed way. Many have applauded them on the quick and swift action, while others felt it was disingenuous and only resulted because they got caught. The truth of the matter is that apparently this was a standard practice that was being used by many more apps besides Path as Jennifer Van Grove covered on Venture Beat today.
But this story has taken another turn as well. It has spurred a volley of blog posts that attack tech blogging in general and have me likening the situation to something of a cross between conspiracy theories and a comedy roast. Ben Parr has done a good job curating these posts and trying to put some perspective behind the rhetoric which while in some cases has been amusing, has made my head spin a bit. Interestingly enough, Jennifer’s post illustrates everything that’s right about tech blogging.
This situation that has unfolded sparked me to create this.
Neither of the fires behind these two stories are flaming out just yet. While Address Book (gate?) continues to burn, I think there’s still more fuel that will be sprayed on the tech blogging credibility argument. This will be interesting to continue to watch.
*gets popcorn*
December 31 2011
7 Reasons to Consider a Boxee Box over a Roku
I’ve been on the hunt to find a web enabled media streaming box to add to my home theater. After much research I narrowed down my decision to 2 devices I feel that are the best out there. Those devices are the Roku 2 XS, the Boxee Box. The Roku and Boxee have a set of common features between them so I wanted to thoroughly test both to determine which was the one I’d like to keep. The Roku is a cheaper and simpler device to setup and use, so in my comparison I decided to focus on the distinct features that the Boxee box offered to see if it was a better choice for me. Below I’ve identified the unique features Boxee offers. 
1. You can stream your own videos, music, and photos on it I feel that this feature is a must for any home theater today. We have all now amassed personal collections of photos, music, and home videos. Some of you may have setup other boxes you already have such as an Xbox 360 or PS3 for streaming these files. I was streaming using my PS3 and the PS3 Media Server. But as you may have found, this method isn’t ideal. The Boxee was built for sharing your own media from its inception. They also offer you several different ways to get the content from external sources to it. I’m using the built in SMB sharing to access the files from my NAS. It’s nice not having to have a program running on a computer that needs to be on to share content. So while there isn’t a native way to do this on the Roku, if you’re willing to hack a bit there are several third party apps (private channels) to do this. Probably one of the best options is Plex which is also based on the same XBMC software that powers the Boxee.
2. The remote has a keyboard I feel this is a very important feature that shouldn’t be underestimated when considering a streaming box. I have experienced the frustration of the single letter hunt and peck process of virtual keyboards on enough systems to know that I don’t want to continue wasting time using that process in the future. You will need to type words more often than you think on these boxes. Whether you are logging into a service, or trying to type in search words for a movie you want to find on Netflix, or if you need to type in the url of a website into the browser. You will need a keyboard to do this without losing your hair. And speaking of browsers…
3. It has a web browser So you have a box connected to the internet. Might as well offer the ability to browse the web too right? Well with a Boxee Box you can do this and with the keyboard on the remote you can rest assured that it won’t be an awful experience like it is on other devices without one.
4. You can bookmark videos on the web to watch on it Boxee offers a bookmarklet for your browser that provides a feature called “watch later” which allows you to be on any web page and when you click on the bookmarklet it will add any videos on the page to a view later area of the Boxee box to watch next time you fire it up on your couch. These videos can also be accessed via the iPad app. Wait what? They have an iPad app?
5. They offer a full featured iPad app add-on for free There’s an iPad app that provides access to some of Boxee’s features. This includes the “watch later” videos you bookmark functionality I mentioned above as well as accessing your personal movies, photos, and music. Another feature offered here (and also on the Box) is the ability to see all the videos shared by your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. You can also start watching something on the iPad and easily resume where you left off on the Boxee Box or vice versa.
6. You can send video to your Boxee Box from an iOS device using AirPlay This is an experimental feature and I’ve had some mixed results but it’s pretty cool. I’ve successfully sent videos from apps that support AirPlay to the Boxee box and this is a great feature that I hope improves over time. I also am not sure if they’ll support the mirroring function that came with iOS to send content to a TV but that would be great too.
7. You can watch live broadcast TV Boxee just announced their LiveTV $49 add-on which adds the ability to watch local broadcast stations (like ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC) for free. This feature will go a long way to attract cord-cutters whose primary concern for eliminating their cable subscriptions is the loss of being able to watch live news and sports programming.
There is one major feature on the Roku that the Boxee doesn’t have. The Roku 2 XS comes with a remote that includes a gyro built-in accelerometer for gaming. Included with Roku is the ever popular Angry Birds. It was lots of fun to kill the piggy’s on my big screen. Roku also aims to bring many more games to utilize this remote. So if this is appealing to you it may be something to sway you into the direction of a Roku.
So there you have it. A little deeper dive into the unique features of these devices. One thing to keep in mind when comparing them is that the Boxee does require a little more work to setup and access all of these features. The Roku is almost half the price so you need to determine whether these features offer enough value for you. Also, If your household has children or slightly less tech savvy users, the Roku may still be a better choice.
May 12 2011
Angry Birds Chrome App Version Running on Sharp 70 inch LCD TV
After today’s announcement that Angry Birds was released in the Chrome app store I just knew I had to try running it on my new Sharp 70″ LCD TV (model LC-70LE732u). I recorded a video to show this. Unfortunately even the HD version of Angry Birds doesn’t go full screen to take advantage of the full 1920×1080 resolution of the TV. I think I may also now hold the distinction of being the first person to run this on such a large LCD TV.
The Sharp is a great TV that costed less than every 65″ LCD that was on the market when I purchased it and is fully LED backlit as opposed to most that are only LED edge lit. I’m really happy with it and highly recommend you research it if you’re in the market for a large LCD TV. Here’s a great thread on the very popular AVS Forum if you want to learn more about it.
May 07 2011
My First Impressions Testing the Samsung Droid Charge on Verizon’s LTE 4G Network
My first smart phone was an iPhone 3G. While on AT&T I was loaned a Nexus One (Google’s Android phone) and tested it out to get my first chance to compare Android to iOS. As I wrote about this previously, I felt that Android still has some catching up to do before it provides the same seamless experience. I finally decided to upgrade to a new phone when moving to Verizon’s network earlier this year. I struggled on whether to get an iPhone 4 or wait for the upcoming crop of Android phones on Verizon’s LTE network. Well I couldn’t wait so ended up getting the iPhone 4.
This week I was given the opportunity to test out the new Samsung Droid Charge [Disclosure: I'm being given one to keep] which is their first entry on Verizon’s LTE (4g) network. I was very excited to read this favorable review over at Slashgear on the day I was to pick it up. When I finally got one in my hands the first impression that smacks you on the head is the beautiful 4.3″ Super AMOLED Plus display which is the same one they use on their new Galaxy S II. I know that this is either a plus or minus depending on personal needs, but this is my biggest complaint with the iPhone. How could Apple double the resolution of the iPhone’s display and not increase the screen size? It’s not just about having some more real estate, but I have some big hands and I can type much more comfortable on the Samsung. The image produced by the display is stunning and viewing photos and videos are gorgeous on it.
My iPhone connected to 3g vs. Samsung Droid Charge hotspot on LTE (4g) vs. Wifi on my Time Warner Cable
The next biggest feature difference on the Samsung vs. my iPhone is LTE. In the short time I’ve been able to test it thus far I can tell you that the speed is nothing short of awesome. It reminds me of the first time I upgraded from DSL to Cable. The speed at which apps that connect to the network and the browser operates is addictingly fast. Not only do you get that speed out of the phone, but you can also create a mobile hotspot to share that fat pipe or even tether to your computer to tap it. I get impatient now and it feels so slow when I revert back to the iPhone. The iPhone 5 better offer 4G on either AT&T or Verizon because it will be a huge handicap and seem antiquated out of the box without it.
I feel that the Samsung Droid Charge’s screen size and speed on Verizon’s LTE network are the 2 major standout features when comparing this to my iPhone without even getting into any of the Android vs. iOS differences. I feel these 2 issues require serious merit in general if considering a new phone on Verizon or anyone else’s network for that matter. Beyond those two clear distinctions I’m also re-evaluating Android from my last experience with the Nexus one. Unfortunately the phone is running Android 2.2 Froyo and not the newer 2.3 Gingerbread. I do like the Samsung TouchWiz UI which doesn’t get in the way and works better than the app scrolling on the Nexus. The built-in cameras (both front and rear facing) seem pretty good although I haven’t A/B’d them to the iPhone. I also like all the built in photo effects available natively in the OS, especially the panorama mode (see below). Another huge plus is the native android ability to share photos from the camera app or gallery to other apps like Twitter, Facebook, Picplz, Seesmic, Tweetdeck and others. I wish that iOS had this feature. The other feature I need to investigate more is AllShare which on the surface seems like Android’s answer to iOS’s Airplay.
One of the biggest concerns having both the 4.3″ display and using the LTE network is battery life. Since I’ve only had the phone for 2 days I don’t have enough experience to comment much on this except that I haven’t noticed it to be terrible. Day one I ran out at the end of the day and on day two I still had 26% left at midnight but in both cases my usage was moderate and didn’t involve heavy usage of the mobile hotspot which I’ve read is a battery killer.
Here’s more info on battery life from the Slashgear review:
Having seen the HTC ThunderBolt chew through a full charge in short order, we were more than a little nervous about the DROID Charge’s appetite. Happily it seems Samsung has managed to balance performance and power – impressive given the size and brightness of the Super AMOLED Plus display – with us managing 6-8 hours of heavy use before it died. With more casual use, and some tweaking of things like social network updates and other power settings, you could comfortably get through a day. Still, using the Mobile Hotspot app for any length of time chews through the battery in relatively short order.
So I still have some more testing to do and need to see if some of the Android issues that have bothered me in the past have been improved or overcome but overall I’ve been very happy with this phone. My goal will be to see if I can upgrade my Verizon plan to add LTE and Hotpotting so that it can support my usage of both the iPhone and Samsung Droid Charge simultaneously on one plan. That way I can switch between both phones as my daily usage dictates. We’ll see if that’s possible.
March 17 2011
The Value of Sharing Tools and Resources Knowledge
image courtesy of Flickr user Nancy White
Today I saw a post at ReadWriteWeb about a Wiki started by Songkick’s Ian Hogarth so that startups could collectively share tools and resources used to run their companies. Here’s the link to the Wiki which is a good resource, but I once had a vision of something grander along these lines. I have actually given this quite a bit of thought in the past and even had a startup idea to actually create a website where companies could create profiles to share knowledge of web tools, services, methodologies and more, to collectively help one another. How meta right? When thinking this through further I had concerns about whether companies would actually be willing to interact and participate in sharing this knowledge.
From the Read Write Web Post (re: the Wiki)
That advice and openness makes this a valuable resource for startups, so they can focus on building their product and not get sidetracked on questions like “Does anyone recommend a CRM?” As Hogarth argues, “I’m a big believer of trying to focus on your core competency (in our case tour dates) and then partnering with the best class companies elsewhere.”
Primarily regarding web tools and services, it can be a pretty painstaking process to research and find the right one. In my work for X PRIZE Foundation I have to not only find great tools and services, but also have to consider many free, open source, or low cost tools. We are a non-profit so I do my best to try and limit the budget we allocate to these so I can put it to better uses. Recently I joined a really interesting service called BagCheck which is a community to share and discover interesting and detailed lists of items around a given topic. In testing out the site I create a “Bag” called Great Web Services to Help Run Your Business. In it I provide a list of many of the tools and services I use at X PRIZE. So basically my vision would be to have a site dedicated to this specific niche where companies, startups, nonprofits and even freelancers could collectively share their knowledge so that we could make tool and service discovery a much easier process. Perhaps I should rekindle this startup idea…if only I had the time.
January 11 2011
Deciding to Switch to the Verizon iPhone is not a Black and White Decision
In anticipation of tomorrow’s announcement of the iPhone finally making it’s way to the Verizon network the inevitable barrage of blog posts analyzing why you should or shouldn’t switch are starting to make the rounds. Gizmodo has flat out said “Don’t buy the Verizon iPhone“ and Zack Epstein of the Boy Genius Report states “Why I’m not switching to the Verizon iPhone: Need for speed“. While many of these posts will proclaim the correct decision one way or the other, it’s not going to be that cut and dry.
Here’s my case for probable switching, but everyone has different circumstances in which they need to weigh the pros and cons for themselves. I currently own an iPhone 3G which is currently unusable with the latest iOS 4.2. My contract with AT&T expired 3 months ago and my son’s contract as an added line just expired last month. So I currently have no contractual obligations to stay with AT&T. If I did that would force me to think hard about what I’m willing to pay to leave AT&T and depending on how many lines you have it could get really expensive to do that. If I was still bound to a lengthy term I would most likely ride it out and wait to see how the iPhone fairs on Verizon’s network. Now in my case I decided to wait for both what was announced at CES as well as the fact that all my contracts would be up right now and there would likely be an iPhone announcement on Verizon.
I was considering getting an Android but I was lucky enough to have a friend let me borrow their Nexus One for a while so that I could get a feel for the OS. I recorded a Cinchcast that summed up my experience (see below) and while I think there are some great things about the Android OS I personally feel the iPhone still provides an overall better experience. The announcement of Verizon 4G LTE Android sets were pretty exciting at CES but the way I see it is that I will purchase an iPhone and wait for these new devices to be released an mature a bit so they can get the kinks out. I’m guessing the second generation of these will be really nice.
I need a new phone now and the way I see it the iPhone is my current favorite. Another benefit for me is that I will most likely purchase the iPhone and then if I decide to switch to Android I can either wait until my 2 year contract is up or can switch earlier by selling my iPhone which will likely retain it’s value very well and then probably get a great price on one of the many used Android handsets that will be available. In fact I might even get a used Android to play with on Verizon as well. The rumor is that Verizon will offer an unlimited data plan while on AT&T there is a cap. But the flipside to that is that reports are that AT&T 3G speeds are faster than Verizon so you have to weigh that as well. The final kicker is that I have quite a few friends and family already on Verizon that are currently costing me minutes on AT&T that will no longer be the case when I switch to Verizon. This is another benefit to consider.
If I already had an iPhone 4 on AT&T and locked into a contract for the foreseeable future I’d just ride it out and wait to see what happens when the barrage of people start jumping on the Verizon network to hear their feedback and make sure the network doesn’t implode under the new usage. But I’m in LA and reception here while not great isn’t as bad as cities like San Francisco or New York. So location may be another swaying factor. Anyways these are some of my thoughts so take your time and make the best decision based on all the factors.
January 10 2011
6 Exciting Technologies at CES 2011 Which You May Have Missed
image courtesy of Flickr user Jaymi Heimbuch
Last year I had a great time returning to CES after a really long absence. This year I couldn’t make it but luckily the coverage has been amazing and I almost feel as if I was there (minus hanging out with so many of my geek friends). Sure you probably heard about all the Android Tablets, Verizon’s 4G LTE stuff and other high profile announcements but I wanted to highlight a few things that I really liked that you may or may not have heard about.
1. The Demise of Cable Set Top Boxes
I was really excited when I heard several stories coming out of CES about partnerships between cable companies and hardware manufacturers to start allowing their content to be delivered directly to their devices. It appears that Time Warner will offer this soon to both Sony and Samsung devices. What’s even better is that it looks like there will also be support to get cable access on iPads and Android tablets. The Samsung TV’s that will have support are the D8000 series of which the UN65D8000 is the model I’m dreaming of. I’m so looking forward to consolidating hardware wherever possible in my home theater setup. On the Sony front my dream would be to use my PS3 to access Time Warner as well as use it as a DVR but no details of that type of functionality have been made available yet. Currently you can use an Xbox 360 to as a set top box for AT&T’s uVerse and here’s a video demo. Engadget did a nice writeup asking whether this is the year we ditch the cable box.
2. Streaming Your Media to iOS, Android Devices, Game Consoles, and the Web
Streaming your media to the web and other hardware devices has been around for a while but usually it takes quite a bit of work to set it up, it doesn’t always work right and usually only limited devices were supported. Also, there hadn’t really been a good solution for mobile devices. That’s all starting to change. I’ve recently started using Libox which streams my media to my iPad via an app as well as the web. Another similar one I haven’t tried yet is ZumoCast. You may be familiar with Orb Networks which already has a service that streams your media to iPhone, Android, the web, and a $99 hardware device. Well at CES they announced they will now release support for the PS3 and other Blue-Ray players with an app for $20. With all the different media devices out there I have yet to find anything that can match the power and flexibility of a PS3 with PlayOn and PS3 Media Server. Now by adding Orb or one of these other mobile device apps I truly can access my media anywhere.
3. Mobile Devices Becoming Smart Remotes
I’ve been a huge fan of the Logitech Harmony universal remotes over the last several years. You can use your computer to program these using macros to have simplify the setup of multiple devices in your home theater for different viewing activities. But now these dedicated devices that are costly to the point of reaching iPod touch pricing aren’t making much sense to buy. Especially since you can do so much more with mobile devices. I’ve been keeping my eye on the development of hardware and apps to offer universal remote features for the iPhone but they haven’t yet gotten great. Well at CES popular accessory maker Griffin announced a dongle free universal remote solution and app for iOS devices for $79. This sounds like it may finally be the universal remote device we’ve been waiting for. I also hope to see such developments on the Android platform as well.
4. Analytics Tracking for our Bodies
At CES Nike announced their new Nike+ Sportwatch GPS device that will record your running pace, distance route, heart rate, and calories burned. You can then upload the data to the nikeplus.com site to generate a history of your workouts. There are other devices in this area that can track our workouts. Some of the more popular ones are the Withings wi-fi body scale, Runkeeper fitness tracker, Fitbit fitness & sleep tracker. These are just some of the devices out there marking the start of many new ones we’ll continue to see being released in the near future to provide ways for lifelogging various aspects of our lives.
5. Smart Home Automation for Mobile Devices and the Web
I always keep my eye on developments in this area, hoping with excitement that I’ll soon see something cool announced when reading the eHomeUpgrade blog, I continue to wait. While nothing magical was announced at CES this year, there are some signs that things are starting to ramp up in this area. I was listening to TWIT interview someone from GE that was talking about many of the new technologies they were showing at CES. He discussed smart meters you can put in the home to monitor power usage and other functions. There was also a home automation device from HomeSeer to control your thermostat, appliances, lights, and window shades. Then also in keeping with the pattern of wanting more functionality in my mobile devices there were announcements from Somfy and Verizon showing home automation controls that can be done on an iPad as well as the web. I’m telling you pretty soon we will be running everything in our house with a tablet.
6. [Bonus] The iPad iCade
I remember last April Fool’s day drooling over this gag product on ThinkGeek thinking OMG I would actually buy one of those. Well our dreams have come true. ThinkGeek must have gotten some huge response from it because they were showing the iPad iCade at CES. I can’t wait to get more info on this and I’m pretty damn sure my $99 bucks will be rushed to them as soon as this thing comes out.
November 25 2010
I’m Thankful for My Family, Computers and the Internet
So surely many of you also have similar things you are thankful for from my list above but another thing I often think about is having been so lucky to grow up and be living through the age of personal computers and the internet. [you can skip to the last paragraph for my main thoughts if you want] My first experience with a computer was visiting a friends house when I was 13 living in Chicago and watching his brother typing words on a keyboard that he was copying from a book that appeared on a black and white screen. I remember asking him what it was and what was he doing. Well the machine was a Radio Shack TRS-80 and after he continued to finish typing all the information in the book he typed the word “run” and hit the enter key. The result was a game that began to display and the birth of what would become my life’s obsession.
We moved to California shortly thereafter and I continued to try and follow the world of computers through magazines and finding friends that had them. Finally for my 15th birthday I was given a Commodore Vic-20 which was my first computer. I was so excited. I was buying copies of Compute magazine and typing in the programs and running them and just continually being amazed. I remember the first piece of software I ever bought was a terminal program at a store called Future Tronics in Westwood CA that created a custom font to give the Vic-20 a 40 column screen since it only displayed 28 characters. Ah yes, computers were very cool but now I had a modem and I was connecting my computer to other computers and discovering and becoming friends with new people I met on BBS’s. It added a whole new world to what seemed like a pretty solitary hobby of mine at the time.
So I continued through high school were I was a bit of an oddity being both a nerd with my computer hobby and a jock playing football. This wasn’t very common in the early 80′s and I struggled being accepted by either group. I continued learning more about computers and upgrading to a Commodore 64, and then an Atari 400 and then an 800 and my school got it’s first computer lab while I was there made up of Apple 2′s. I also ran a BBS of my own and delved into the world of phreaking and hacking and pirating. The BBS scene was great but felt somewhat limiting. I mean it was only a one to one relationship between your computer and that of the BBS where you could read what others had posted and leave your responses. I remember auto-dialing the popular BBS’s just waiting to not get a busy signal so I could get in. Sure there were also multi-line BBS’s emerging around this time but they all seem to be for dating sites. I also believe it was around this time that I first discovered Compuserve. This opened yet another world for me were I could now expand my connection with other computer users from all over the country. This was amazing and opened a new chapter in computing for me as later AOL would do the same by bringing a visual experience.
After graduating high school I continued playing with computers and ended up getting a job at a computer store. This was interesting because strangely enough I had never really though about turning my hobby into a career. After working at the store for a while one of the customers approached my friend and I to co-manage a new store he wanted to open up. That was a great opportunity and I was there for several years where I got to learn every aspect of running a business. Unfortunately learning meant that we made many mistakes and eventually that business did not survive. I was looking for work and had interviewed to manage an Egghead software store. I also had a friend that wanted to start his own computer store and wanted me to manage it. I got the call from Egghead that they wanted to hire me. At that point I hit an interesting cross-road in my life. Do I take the safe bet and go work for Egghead, or risk trying to build a business from scratch again. I ended up choosing to work with my friend if he made me a partner of this new business.
We had to take on another 2 active partners to have enough funding to get started which also worked with us full time at the store. These were some of the funnest times in my life. We were a niche computer store that primarily sold Atari ST computers for desktop publishing and music workstations. My friend and initial partner was an amazing technician who repaired and upgraded computers while I managed the front-end. We did pretty well for 4 years but then ran into a problem with one of the partners. We tried to resolve our dispute amicably but in the end decided to dissolve the business.
So now my initial partner and friend decided to start another computer business but focusing more on service and consulting. Another major event would occur that would expand my computing horizons to a whole new level. We went to Comdex that year as we had many years previously to see what was new in the world of computers. We happened to walk by a booth that was demoing something I can’t remember but they had a computer screen with the mosaic browser on it displaying a website. This was the first time I had ever seen either so I spent some time with this person who was nice enough to explain the basics of the internet and world wide web to me. My eyes were so lit up after that I can’t even begin to explain it.
My friend and I came back and I immediately wanted to get started learning more. I picked up a Microtimes and saw an ad for an ISP called Earthlink. I remember signing up for the service and having been one of the first few hundred that had. The setup process was pretty complicated. They had to mail me disks to install the TCP/IP stack for Windows 3.1 and then faxed over all the settings for DNS, Gateway, etc. Eventually I got it running and for the first time since watching that game on the TRS-80 I felt that mountain of excitement again. I saw so many amazing possibilities and felt that this could change our world as we knew it.
My friend and I began diving in trying to learn everything about networking, TCP/IP, setting up web servers, mail servers, etc. We saw this as the future and wanted to get in on the ground floor. After some time we began doing work for a small magazine publisher. We were helping set up their network and working on their website hosted by a third party. After a short while the owner of the company wanted us to come on board full time to run all of his network and internet operations. I like to tell the story that he bought our company but he effectively offered us 3 year contracts with a very nice salary to shut our business down. And as they say, the rest is history.
[resume here]
When I first began writing this post I wasn’t planning on telling you that full story, but I guess the context is to show why I feel so thankful to have grown up in these times. I love computers and the internet. I think we spend so much time nowadays discussing new web technologies and talking about the future of the web that we now take things for granted. I think on a day like today it’s nice to take a step back and look at this from another perspective. I think at a high level the two major things the internet has brought us is knowledge and communication. The ability to quickly and easily tap the world’s information to learn anything you want about any subject matter is amazingly powerful. The tools that now allow us to not only easily communicate with each other, but also provide the glue to discover new and interesting people and become friends both online and in real life based on mutual interests and other factors is mind blowing. I’ve met and become friends with so many people that would have been seemingly impossible to build those relationships without the internet. On top of that I’ve been able to build a career and a hobby because of the internet it. I feel so lucky to have grown up during the birth of these technologies. I often wonder what I’d be doing with my life if neither of these were around. Today I just wanted to spend a little time looking back and reflecting on why I’m thankful for computers and the internet.
November 09 2010
Some Great 2011 SXSW Panel Selections from the 200 Added Today
Below is a list (using Storify) of some of my favorite panel selections from the 200 that got added to SXSW 2011 schedule today. You can view the full list on the SXSW site here.
November 04 2010
Klout is a Good Start But We Need More Ingredients for an Influencer Recipe
There is much talk about measuring influence lately. Most of the discussions surrounding it are based around people’s activity on social media services. Klout is a service that has emerged as a current leader when it comes to trying to determine influence for people. They do a pretty good job of calculating this based on many characteristics of user activity on Twitter and now Facebook. Unfortunately this only tells a small portion of the influence story for people.
Yesterday I wrote a blog post and over time I watched some activity surrounding it on Twitter. There was one tweet from Jesse Newhart that also got retweeted by 3 other folks, all of which have some significant influence according to Klout.
So what’s the problem here? None of this activity will affect my Klout score. While the secret sauce to Klout’s algorithm isn’t public, we know that they factor retweets in the scoring. But a tweet needs to have the originator’s @ referenced within it for any inclusion in the scoring. So as far as Klout is concerned these actions around my blog post are invisible. Making some assumptions about the tweet example above, Jesse Newhart will gain some influence scoring whereas I (the creator of the content that Jesse shared) would gain none. I gave this some thought and it elicited all kinds of issues around user activity that Klout is missing as well as trying to determine how a service like them could go about including it.
While Twitter is a great service and definitely has its place as a factor in calculating influence, there are so many other factors that need consideration. Blogging is a social media activity that arguably should garner a larger level of influence over a tweet if measured in a similar fashion. So I started to ask myself what metrics could be used to calculate blogger scoring and how could a service like Klout incorporate this information into their scoring?
My influence summary on Klout
So I started to do a brain dump on some ways that you could aggregate some data points from third party metrics to try and create an influence score for blogging. There are quite a few ways that this could be done.
- RSS Subscribers – Feedburner
- Blog Traffic – Quantcast, Google Analytics
- Comment Activity – Disqus, Echo, Intense Debate
- Social Media Activity – Postrank, Sharethis, Bitly, Tweetmeme, Facebook
The numbers generated around the above activities provided by the third party services could be used to provide a blogger influence score. For Klout to implement this they would need to somehow allow their users to claim blogs and associate them with their accounts or perhaps the data could be inherited by partnering with some of the above services.
Today I saw a blog post on the Top 10 Most Influential Independent PR Bloggers on Twitter. This top 10 list ranked PR bloggers calculated only using their Klout scores. I’m curious how these rankings would have been affected by using the blog activity metrics I list above? This list is a prime example of why only using a Klout score for ranking is troublesome and I’ve seen similar ones.
I would love to see a blogger score metric used as a calculation in a person’s influence. In fact I personally would put more weight behind this value in an overall influence score. Other areas of the Klout summary could benefit from this data as well including the topic summary to paint a better picture about a users knowledge. We are still in the early stages of measuring and determining influence. Using data to help calculate it is tricky, but I don’t feel the full story is being told and I’m looking forward to watching tools and services evolve in this area.
December 01 2009
My New ATI Sapphire 5770 Video Card and Other System Upgrades
I recently began planning for my upgrade to Windows 7. I usually buy a new system whenever upgrading my OS, however I did research on new systems and didn’t see the cost benefit of doing this even after having owned my current system for almost 2 years. The newer CPUs just don’t offer a large enough performance gain for me when compared tomy current Intel e6850 3GHz CPU.
Itching to at least get a few system enhancements I looked into where I could make some upgrade improvements. I started with my video card. I occasionally like to play games on my PC so this was a good place to start as I had an Nvidia Geforce 9800 GT with 512Mb of RAM which could use an upgrade now that I have a Samsung T240HD 24-Inch LCD HDTV Monitor
As mentioned in the video there were 3 cards tied in the $150 price range. There were a few key reasons I chose the 5770 over the others. It’s a newer generation card and the only one of the 3 that supports Direct X 11. Secondly I it was the only one that supported 4 video outs. It has 2 x DVI 1 x HDMI and a DisplayPort. Lastly the card uses the newer 40-nm semiconductor process technology which uses less power and produces less heat. This makes this card the quitest of the bunch as well which is an issue for me. My last several cards were pretty loud when playing games.
So having decided which card to buy I now had to decide which company to get it from. There are quite a few of them that OEM the card and each offers small distinctions between them and in some cases they will vary in speed. I headed over to Newegg since the reviews on there usually provide some good guidance as to which computer hardware to buy and I found the Sapphire to be the highest rated of the 5770’s on there. I headed over to Amazon
So I tested the card with Call of Duty 4 and it ran beautifully at 1920 x 1200 resolution giving me well over 60 FPS on average. It also ran very quiet the entire time. I’m very happy with this card.
I also decided to go from 4GB of RAM up to 8GB since I was moving to the 64 Bit version of Windows 7. This should offer me some more headroom to run multiple apps without worrying about gobbling up memory. For this I found a great deal on some Corsair 4 GB (2 X 2 GB) Memory Kits
I then decided to remove the 2 x 500GB Western Digital drives that were running in RAID 1 fashion to be replaced with a single 1TB drive. I figured I didn’t need the RAID 1 inside my machine anymore having recently built a RAID 1 NAS. I just need to make sure that I’m continually backing up to it. I chose the Seagate Barracuda ST31000528AS 1 TB SATA Version 12
Lastly I decided to replace my DVD Burner which was the only thing using the IDE interface. I wanted to replace it with a SATA version so I could remove that ghastly looking cable (which nobody will ever see) with a nice clean SATA version. I chose the Plextor PX-880SA 24X DVD Burner with LightScribe and 2MB Cache. This also was a high rated drive at Newegg and I purchased it there for a mere $39.
Maybe Soup is currently being updated? I'll try again automatically in a few seconds...
