Tuesday, January 30, 2007
So What Is Going On With The Machines?
Back in my industrial days...I was into SRL. I think I have posted about them before. An issue or two ago they were in Make magazine and I was excited to see the article. My son Tate likes robots and I was thinking that I should find some of those old SRL videos we watched in the early 90s. A quick scan of You Tube shows a bunch of stuff so I decided to sneak a look and see if this is age appropriate. Um, probably not but I highly recommend checking it out. The Tesla coil is amazing. I will give Tate a couple of more years before we think about making destructo machines...
30 Days of Deletion - Deleted
I began with much enthusiasm to delete applications from my laptop which was inspired by my annoyance around the practice of payloading applications that is not an uncommon practice. As fate would have it, I ended up coincidentally with some hardcore performance issues that I suspect was caused by 1 or 2 pieces of software that I won't mention since I don't really know the cause. Suffice to say, I sat down and over an hour last week I deleted no fewer than a dozen applications.
The majority of the deletions weren't because I had a problem but were mire because I just don't use the software. Examples of that would include Sharp Reader and Google Video player. Both of these are fine software packages that I just never used.
So the punchline for me is that I didn't walk through 30 days of deletion, rather I just got it all out of the way at once. I would recommend doing that yourself periodically, you know, just like those hard drive backups you do. :-)
The majority of the deletions weren't because I had a problem but were mire because I just don't use the software. Examples of that would include Sharp Reader and Google Video player. Both of these are fine software packages that I just never used.
So the punchline for me is that I didn't walk through 30 days of deletion, rather I just got it all out of the way at once. I would recommend doing that yourself periodically, you know, just like those hard drive backups you do. :-)
Monday, January 29, 2007
What's with Dave?
We have known Dave Harper for a while. It has always been my personal goal to get to know other people who are in the same space as you are primarily because if you believe in what "we" collectively are doing in a space, there are probably opportunities to collaborate, or disagree, or occasionally just grab a drink and hang out. In my opinion, all boats rise if we are collectively right.
In the digital music space, many of the people I met over time, repeatedly ran into each other down the road. A good example that comes to mind was when MP3.com was acquired and I subsequently ran the various music sites. As the strategy was determined at a corporate level I was required to adjust the companies and change the various approaches of business units. In some respects that was getting rid of people in other cases it was promoting people. From my perspective it was always important to do that with dignity. I can proudly say that most of the people with me would agree and that in general I have a good reputation.
When we started this company we spent a lot of time with some of the people who pioneered mobile data who Shawn had interacted with at Moviso. Guys like Fabrice Grinda and Greg Clayman. We also went out and hung out with people like Dan Melinger from Socialight and Tasso Roumelitos at Wavemarket. We also met Dave because we thought what he was doing is/was interesting and he had been going at it for a while.
This morning while looking over the server logs I saw a referral from Dave Harper's blog where he flames us for misrepresenting that we were first in a number of areas. I am not sure what the source of agita is with Dave and I am not sure what is so important for him to slam us in his blog. For the record though Dave, aside from the semantics, you don't do what we do and we don't do what you do. If our broad marketing speak has you upset then I don't know how to help you. We develop thick client applications. We develop platforms that support thick client applications. We currently support Brew, J2ME, J2SE. We are rolling out Windows mobile, Flash and Symbian. Oh, and we also support WAP and XHTML.
Ultimately the market will tell us who is right and wrong in terms of approach and I think that is more important than claims of first. From my perspective that is actually the more important metric. I feel pretty good about what we see in terms of how the market is developing but then hey, that's my opinion. I don't understand your business, I don't know how you make money and I am not really focused on that. When I look at people who compete with us, I look at the carrier's deck. You are not one of the companies that we think about. If you are on deck and I am mistaken, let me know.
I find it fascinating that bloggers, rather than picking up the phone, or sending an email or even hitting someone up on IM (Dave is on my buddy list), that one would resort to an "open letter" post and not give someone a heads up. I recall at Gnomedex how Dave Winer accused someone about not responding to a post on his blog and how dumbfounded I was that he assumed that we were all going to have a conversation on his blog. Did you ever think that we don't all read your blog?
So Dave, rock on. Best of luck to you and I am sure that we will see each other around. Please continue to post whatever you like but if you want a "conversation" with me, I'd recommend using one of the methods that most readily would get my attention.
In the digital music space, many of the people I met over time, repeatedly ran into each other down the road. A good example that comes to mind was when MP3.com was acquired and I subsequently ran the various music sites. As the strategy was determined at a corporate level I was required to adjust the companies and change the various approaches of business units. In some respects that was getting rid of people in other cases it was promoting people. From my perspective it was always important to do that with dignity. I can proudly say that most of the people with me would agree and that in general I have a good reputation.
When we started this company we spent a lot of time with some of the people who pioneered mobile data who Shawn had interacted with at Moviso. Guys like Fabrice Grinda and Greg Clayman. We also went out and hung out with people like Dan Melinger from Socialight and Tasso Roumelitos at Wavemarket. We also met Dave because we thought what he was doing is/was interesting and he had been going at it for a while.
This morning while looking over the server logs I saw a referral from Dave Harper's blog where he flames us for misrepresenting that we were first in a number of areas. I am not sure what the source of agita is with Dave and I am not sure what is so important for him to slam us in his blog. For the record though Dave, aside from the semantics, you don't do what we do and we don't do what you do. If our broad marketing speak has you upset then I don't know how to help you. We develop thick client applications. We develop platforms that support thick client applications. We currently support Brew, J2ME, J2SE. We are rolling out Windows mobile, Flash and Symbian. Oh, and we also support WAP and XHTML.
Ultimately the market will tell us who is right and wrong in terms of approach and I think that is more important than claims of first. From my perspective that is actually the more important metric. I feel pretty good about what we see in terms of how the market is developing but then hey, that's my opinion. I don't understand your business, I don't know how you make money and I am not really focused on that. When I look at people who compete with us, I look at the carrier's deck. You are not one of the companies that we think about. If you are on deck and I am mistaken, let me know.
I find it fascinating that bloggers, rather than picking up the phone, or sending an email or even hitting someone up on IM (Dave is on my buddy list), that one would resort to an "open letter" post and not give someone a heads up. I recall at Gnomedex how Dave Winer accused someone about not responding to a post on his blog and how dumbfounded I was that he assumed that we were all going to have a conversation on his blog. Did you ever think that we don't all read your blog?
So Dave, rock on. Best of luck to you and I am sure that we will see each other around. Please continue to post whatever you like but if you want a "conversation" with me, I'd recommend using one of the methods that most readily would get my attention.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Shawn's Post about Anthem
Shawn wrote a post about our Anthem platform on our company blog that you can see here.
Thomas Ryan is blogging
Yet another smart digital media whore friend of mine is blogging. Tom rules. His blog is here. Subscribe. Tom just left EMI as one of their top digital guys. Tom was one of the founders of Cductive way back in the day. Tom is going to be doing some big things when he decides what he wants it to be. Check out his journey on his blog. Enjoy.
New Intercasting Website
We also just rolled out our new corporate website that provides a lot more clarity. Check it out at www.intercastingcorp.com.
Intercasting Company News
There is an AP story that just came out today that is getting pretty wide coverage that talks about some of our super secret platform strategy. You can see the story here. I will write up a post in the next day or two to talk about what we have been quietly working on for the last year in addition to Rabble.
Also the Business Week link is here.
Also the Business Week link is here.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Virb, again
I was chatting with a guy I advise tonight and we were talking about social networking sites, etc. and in passing he mentioned that he liked Virb but there were some things he didn't and I interrupted , "They launched?"
He said well not really but that he was into some hipster indie scene and got invited and had been checking it out. I said," Cough cough, invite me!' Which he did. Spent a few minutes on tonight. Will do some more tonight. The guys behind it are smart and it's been a long time in the baking. Can't wait to report my thoughts a bit later.
He said well not really but that he was into some hipster indie scene and got invited and had been checking it out. I said," Cough cough, invite me!' Which he did. Spent a few minutes on tonight. Will do some more tonight. The guys behind it are smart and it's been a long time in the baking. Can't wait to report my thoughts a bit later.
30 Days of Deletion - Day 3 The Venice Project
Ok, so I have been slacking. Today's deletion shouldn't count but I am too busy to be creative. Hopefully I get better this week. The Venice Project is now Joost so I need a new file and can delete my old build.
Get a First Life
Sean pointed me to this satire page that makes fun of Second Life - Get A First Life.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
MIT Forum Podcast
I am speaking next week in San Diego at an even called MIT Forum that I believe is being co-hosted by UCSD Connect. I will post more details next week, but in advance of that event I recorded a podcast with one of the organizers that you can listen to by clicking on this link. The interview is approximately 20 minutes and covers a lot of the background of what we do and some of the challenges we face. If you have any interest in what we do with Rabble I would recommend a listen.
Tablet Hotels
The good and bad about blogging for almost 3 years is that occasionally you repeat things. So here is one worth repeating. Tablet hotels rocks. I used to stay at The Standard in Los Angeles almost every week while doing a consulting gig. To book a room I had to use Tablet. Tablet is a booking service for a bunch of trendy as well as cheap chic hotels. When we travel for work, Shawn the Starwood whore usually books the rooms as he is super elite and we get some upgrades that make bunking not so bad. When I travel solo, I go with Tablet.
This trip in particular has been a pleasant surprise. I was looking for a room in Manhattan with little notice. Starwood had the Westin and Sheraton and the W Times square at rates from $275 to $375. Not bad. With the exception of the W though there is very little to do or see except the inside of your room. Since it is freezing this is definitely a consideration.
I checked Tablet and found a smoking hot deal on a hotel called the Hotel QT. It is almost across the street from the W and it was like $250 a night. And there is this really funky swimming pool and bar when you walk into the hotel. I will post some pictures on Flickr later which you can see on this page. The rooms are nice, there is free wifi and the hotel is owned by The Standard. I give it two thumbs up.
This trip in particular has been a pleasant surprise. I was looking for a room in Manhattan with little notice. Starwood had the Westin and Sheraton and the W Times square at rates from $275 to $375. Not bad. With the exception of the W though there is very little to do or see except the inside of your room. Since it is freezing this is definitely a consideration.
I checked Tablet and found a smoking hot deal on a hotel called the Hotel QT. It is almost across the street from the W and it was like $250 a night. And there is this really funky swimming pool and bar when you walk into the hotel. I will post some pictures on Flickr later which you can see on this page. The rooms are nice, there is free wifi and the hotel is owned by The Standard. I give it two thumbs up.
The Venice Project is now Joost
Early Monday morning, west coast time, I got an email that said that The Venice Project is now called Joost. Find it here. The email also said a lot of invites are coming so I will dish them out as soon as I have them.
On the road again
In NYC. I am behind on my 30 days of deletion. Will continue later on this trip. Flights give you lots of time to think so I have about 5 or 6 posts I am working on. More later...
Friday, January 12, 2007
30 Days of Deletion - Day 2 iLike
Today I came into the office and started ripping out some loud rocking tracks. A little Brand New, a little Coheed and Cambria and a little System of a Down. All the time to the right hand side of my iTunes there is this iLike thing. A couple of months ago a couple of my podcasting buddies sent me invitations to join iLike to see their music selections. I went out and signed up and installed the client. It is pretty cool but since none of my friends are using it, I think it needs to go. If I hear more buzz around this on the scale of Last.fm or Pandora then I will check it out again. Note my deletion isn't a reflection of the value of the software it is more that this kind of software has value based on the network associated with it. My network isn't so the value is marginal. Delete.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
30 Days of Deletion - Day 1 Viewpoint
Based on yesterday's exciting installation of the AIMSPAMLAXO client I have decided that for the next 30 days I am going to delete an application a day that is on my laptop. In some cases I will be deleting applications that I just don't use any more and in other cases I will be deleting things I never asked for that were payloaded through some other mechanism.
Since AIM is fresh I thought I would start there. What secret goodies came with yesterday's install? Well Plaxo wasn't installed so I am guessing that it is actually embedded in the AIM client or it has hooks to Plaxo through some APIs. Thanks for not cluttering up the hard drive. I did however get a new goodie called Viewpoint. Do a Google search on Viewpoint. By doing this I saw what appears to be a new Google feature. They cluster the direct results for Viewpoint and they insert a series of results for Viewpoint Spyware. Cool feature. It reminds me of Clusty.
If you click on the spyware link you find links to things like, Is it Spyware? Why is it on my computer? How do I remove it? I have to agree. Yesterday I had a firewall request for Viewpoint and mistakenly thought it was my mouse pointer. Today I know better. Rather than find out what Viewpoint is, I think I am going to delete it. So today's piece of software is Viewpoint. But let's make sure we take care of everything. Starting with my program list I see that I have not one but two entries for Viewpoint. Naughty, naughty. There is the Viewpoint Manager and the Viewpoint Media Player. Must delete both. I search through my browser and look for the various domains with cookies. No Viewpoint. Ok, good. I feel like it's going to a be good 30 days of improving the performance of my machine and becoming more aware of what people are doing with my Attention without my specific knowledge.
Since AIM is fresh I thought I would start there. What secret goodies came with yesterday's install? Well Plaxo wasn't installed so I am guessing that it is actually embedded in the AIM client or it has hooks to Plaxo through some APIs. Thanks for not cluttering up the hard drive. I did however get a new goodie called Viewpoint. Do a Google search on Viewpoint. By doing this I saw what appears to be a new Google feature. They cluster the direct results for Viewpoint and they insert a series of results for Viewpoint Spyware. Cool feature. It reminds me of Clusty.
If you click on the spyware link you find links to things like, Is it Spyware? Why is it on my computer? How do I remove it? I have to agree. Yesterday I had a firewall request for Viewpoint and mistakenly thought it was my mouse pointer. Today I know better. Rather than find out what Viewpoint is, I think I am going to delete it. So today's piece of software is Viewpoint. But let's make sure we take care of everything. Starting with my program list I see that I have not one but two entries for Viewpoint. Naughty, naughty. There is the Viewpoint Manager and the Viewpoint Media Player. Must delete both. I search through my browser and look for the various domains with cookies. No Viewpoint. Ok, good. I feel like it's going to a be good 30 days of improving the performance of my machine and becoming more aware of what people are doing with my Attention without my specific knowledge.
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