Shared by Moah
life imitating art, almost! what a sculptural piece of vegetable. Would you not eat this cool looking broccoli when your mom had served you this with her usual “eat your vegetables”? maybe I was just a geeky kid.
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Original source : http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1312-brassicaro…
John McCrea of Plaxo has written a cleverly titled guest post on TechCrunchIT, Facebook
Connect and OpenID Relationship Status: “It’s Complicated”, where he makes the
argument that Facebook Connect is a competing technology to OpenID but the situation
is complicated by Facebook developers engaging in discussions with the OpenID. He
writes
You see, it’s been about a month since the first implementation of Facebook Connect
was spotted
in the wild over at CBS’s celebrity gossip site, TheInsider.com. Want
to sign up for the site? Click a single button. A little Facebook window pops up to
confirm that you want to connect via your Facebook account. One more click – and you’re
done. You’ve got a new account, a mini profile with your Facebook photo, and access
to that subset of your Facebook friends who have also connected their accounts to
TheInsider. Oh, and you can have your activities on TheInsider flow into your Facebook
news feed automatically. All that, without having to create and remember a new username/password
pair for the site. Why, it’s just like the vision for OpenID and the Open Stack –
except without a single open building block under the hood!
…
After the intros, Allen Tom of Yahoo, who organized the event, turned the first
session over Max Engel of MySpace, who in turn suggested an alternative – why not
let Facebook’s Julie Zhuo kick it off instead? And for the next hour, Julie took us
through the details of Facebook Connect and the decisions they had to make along the
way to get the user interface and user experience just right. It was not just a presentation;
it was a very active and engaged discussion, with questions popping up from all over
the room. Julie and the rest of the Facebook team were engaged and eager to share
what they had learned.What the heck is going on here? Is Facebook preparing to go the next step of open,
switching from the FB stack to the Open Stack? Only time will tell. But one thing
is clear: Facebook Connect is the best thing ever for OpenID (and the rest of the
Open Stack). Why? Because Facebook has set a high bar with Facebook Connect that is
inspiring everyone in the open movement to work harder and faster to bring up the
quality of the UI/UX for OpenID and the Open Stack.
There are a number of points worth discussing from the above excerpt. The first is
the implication that OpenID is an equivalent technology to Facebook Connect. This
is clearly not the case. OpenID just allows you to delegate to act of authenticating
a user to another website so the user doesn't need to create credentials (i.e. username
+ password) on your site. OpenID alone doesn't get you the user's profile data nor
does it allow you to pull in the authenticated user's social graph from the other
site or publish activities to their activity feed. For that, you would need other
other "Open brand" technologies like OpenID
Attribute Exchange, Portable
Contacts and OpenSocial.
So it is fairer to describe the contest as Facebook Connect vs. OpenID + OpenID Attribute
Exchange + Portable Contacts + OpenSocial.
The question then is who should we root for? At the end of the day, I don’t think
it makes a ton of sense for websites to have to target umpteen different APIs that
do the same thing instead of targeting one standard implemented by multiple services.
Specifically, it seems ridiculous to me that TheInsider.com will have to code against
Facebook Connect to integrate Facebook accounts into their site but code against something
else if they want to integrate MySpace accounts and yet another API if they want to
integrate LinkedIn accounts and so on. This is an area that is crying out for standardization.
Unfortunately, the key company providing thought leadership in this area is Facebook
and for now they are building their solution with proprietary technologies
instead of de jure or de facto ("Open brand") standards. This is unsurprising
given that it takes three or four different specs in varying states of completeness
created by different audiences deliver the scenarios they are currently interested
in. What is encouraging is that Facebook developers are working with OpenID implementers
by sharing their knowledge. However OpenID isn't the only technology needed to satisfy
this scenario and I wonder if Facebook will be similarly engaged with the folks working
on Portable Contacts and OpenSocial.
Facebook Connect is a step in the right direction when it comes to bringing the vision
of social
network interoperability to fruition. The key question is whether we will see effective open
standards emerge that will target the same scenarios [which eventually even Facebook
could adopt] or whether competitors will offer their
own proprietary alternatives? So far it sounds like the latter is happening which
means unnecessary reinvention of the wheel for sites that want to support "connecting"
with multiple social networking sites.
PS: If OpenID
phishing is a concern now when the user is redirected to the ID provider’s site
to login, it seems Facebook Connect is even worse since all it does is provide a pop
over. I wonder if this is because the Facebook folks think the phishing concerns are
overblown.
Now
Playing: 2Pac – Mind
Made Up (feat. Daz, Method Man & Redman)
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Original source : http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/2008/10/24/SomeT…
Hands down my fave iPhone app: Instapaper (created by Marco Arment).
Whenever I come across a long article online that looks interesting — Bill Simmons’ list of the best sports pieces ever written is where I started — I click Instapaper’s “Read Later” bookmarklet and then the app automatically stores it on my phone so I can read it later.
The offline storage makes it great for subway rides in NYC.
Left: List of saved articles on Instapaper’s iPhone app.
The app downloads a text-optimized version of each page which removes the need to zoom or horizontally pan. No more accidentally side-scrolling from a long text column.
Left: How a stripped down article looks onscreen.
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Original source : http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1318-instapaper…
I’ll never forget my online correspondence with Comcast’s Frank Eliason earlier this year. The small Twitter message I sent chronicling my woes in setting up my new Internet connection got an immediate response from him. As “Director of Digital Care” for Comcast, Eliason frequently goes above and beyond the call of duty by tracking and responding to nearly all mentions of his company on social networks and blogs (you can track his efforts here).
Most companies don’t have a Frank though, and in a time when layoffs mean deep cuts in staffing, sometimes it’s the customer service that gets the axe first. To help take some of the pressure off of trying to stay on top of your company’s online reputation, there’s a tool called Brandwatch that does the work for you.
The idea is simple. Like Google Alerts, you simply give it the name of your company and it starts tracking when and where it’s showing up. This includes online newspapers, blogs, forums, and even social networks. You can monitor these mentions one at a time in list form, or see them combined together in a central location, which includes an analytics engine to weed through what’s important.
In addition to your own company, you can use the tool to track competitors. For fledgling companies, this could be an easy way to figure out how your competitor is failing in some areas and where it’s getting noticed for others.
To cut through this massive influx of data, there’s a tool that figures out how much influence each source has. Smart users can take advantage of this to figure out which places are worth targeting for the appropriate follow up. This includes individual writers at multi-author blogs, and how far positive or negative their mention of your company went.
All this work doesn’t come cheap. The beginning subscriptions start at $477 per user, per year, although anyone can get a free, weekly analysis of any company name sent to their e-mail in-box by signing up on this page. If you want to know more, you should watch the demo video I’ve embedded below.
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Original source : http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/webware/~3/43117721…
Mashable is pleased to announce that four of us (Adam Hirsch, Alana Taylor, Brett Petersel, and Tamar Weinberg) will be attending the Future of Web Design on November 3rd and 4th in New York City. The conference will ask and answer some key questions related to web design:
Speakers include Hillman Curtis, Ryan Singer of 37Signals, Khoi Vinh of NYTimes and Subtraction, Daniel Burka of Digg, Nick La, Derek Powazek, Joe Stump of Digg, and Dan Mall of Happy Cog, among others.
The event has only 95 seats left, but you can book tickets now. Better yet, if you want to win a free conference pass, all you need to do is take a look at the speaker list and let us know what question you would ask to any of these speakers and why. Two individuals who write the most creative answers will get a full conference pass.
Winners will be contacted on Tuesday, October 28th.
—
Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:
Google I/O Developer Conference in San Fran: Ticket Giveaway
Google I/O Ticket Winners Announced
Reminder: Enter Now for the Google I/O Conference in SF
Announcing the Winners of the Google I/O Ticket Giveaway
Announcing Our Recent Ticket Giveaway Winners
Mashable Web 2.0 Expo Winners Announced
Future of Web Apps Miami – Vote for 4 People to Win Tickets
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Original source : http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/Q7lxDJQ…
Shared by Moah
This post makes me happy UNLIKE the other gazillion articles that make me want to cry. And yes I fit into the category of those who can afford to go broke. No kids, no mortgage, no student loan, no car loan, cheap rent. My burn rate is as minimal as possible if I stop buying clothes and cancel my expensive vacation trips planned. That’s hard but I could do that.
Still this economy makes me Scared!
There's more happening in start-up land than just a shedding of personnel. In talking with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, I'm picking up on the beginning of a shift in attitude: a move away from the panic reaction that had set in last week, and towards more thoughtful plans.
The shakeup in big public companies is actually driving people towards start-ups, according to Rob Hayes of First Round Capital. "You've got an environment where big companies are in flux," he said. "Yahoo is having layoffs. Google options are under water. Even the good people there are saying, I'm not going to be able to get things done for the next six to 12 months. People who want to get something done are going to want to shift out of the large companies to small ones. If you're going to suffer the death of a thousand cuts, why not go somewhere where you can shape your destiny?"
"You are going to see a lot of interesting companies get started," Hayes says.
It's an open question as to whether these companies will be able to get funding. "The venture economy is not going to get worse than the economy at large," Hayes says. Unfortunately, that still leaves a lot of room for pain. VC funding is already reeling (see VC confidence level takes third-quarter hit) and the next quarter's results are likely to be much worse.
Even so, Hayes is looking to see where there are good people "loose in the socket" at current jobs that he can encourage to move to start-ups. "There are plenty of companies that have plenty of capital and are going to grow and take market share," he says.
The people most likely to be able to take advantage of the new reality, which carries both potentially high reward as well as high risk, he says, "are the stars and the people who can afford to be broke for a couple of months." Middling performers, he says, "don't work in this economy. But that hasn't ever been what built the valley."
Entrepreneurs continue to adjust in their own ways. Even companies that are not laying off staff are changing their hiring. Lorenz Sell, CEO of Blue Lava Technologies (which makes software for organizing digital photos called iLovePhotos), told me he has "reduced hiring projections," and has closed down some open job reqs without filling them. This is in part due to caution about the economy, he says, and in part because he's raising money for his company and doesn't want to appear profligate in front of a group of what he perceives to be increasingly skittish venture capitalists. "Your board doesn't want to see you hiring; your investors don't want to see you hiring," he says. It doesn't really matter what the market realities are. "VCs are flipping out about being efficient."
But Sell still believes it's a good time to be aggressive. The downturn, he says, "makes us smarter about where we go," but, "It's a good time to be aggressive." There's good talent available, and with marketing budgets getting cut there's, "less noise, so you can be heard more."
Still, his advice for the jobless or for those looking for a new job is sobering. He advises people to follow the advice VCs are giving to their companies: "Minimize your burn, get ready to ride out the storm."
Seesmic's Loic Le Meur, who laid off seven people last week, adding to the three he had let go in September, told me that the tough times are forcing him to focus. "We try a lot of different things," he says. When start-up experiments don't work, unfortunately, people can lose jobs. Le Meur says the downturn will enforce a discipline on the company as it drives towards revenues over users. Future hires will be funded from revenues, he says, not fund-raising activities.
"I have three years now to make it work," Le Meur says, referring to the cash he has in the bank. "Nobody should go into panic mode with three years of funding."
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Original source : http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/webware/~3/42687837…
Shared by Moah
Alex has been gushing about Lala for a while. I still don’t quite know the appeal since I don’t seek out music much. I listen to whatever. but for music lovers out there, check it out and see how it goes.
Lala is betting big that consumers will one day pay to store songs in digital music lockers.
(Credit: Lala.com)
Lala.com is finished helping users swap CDs and no longer is it interested in just being a Web radio station.
Stick with me here because Lala.com’s new business model, as well as its history, is kind of convoluted and that’s part of the problem.
The music service–on its third incarnation–is offering a way for consumers to store songs in digital storage lockers and access them from any Web-enabled device. For those of you who have been around a while, this may sound a lot like MP3.com or even MP3tunes.com, companies started by Michael Robertson, the serial tech entrepreneur. (MP3.com is now owned by CNET News publisher CBS Interactive.)
Robertson wanted users to upload copies of their own music into digital lockers. In contrast, Lala has licensed music from the four largest recording companies and a host of indie labels. Once a user downloads the company’s software, it will scan the user’s hard drive and maintain a copy of their music libraries in the so-called cloud. The beauty of this is it will even make copies of music protected by copy-protection software. The library can then be streamed to any Web-enabled device. Cool, right?
But there’s one big obstacle. I still can’t access the Web from everywhere. I take San Francisco’s Muni train. What happens when I’m underground and don’t have Internet access? That means dead air. And above ground, there are still plenty of places that lack Wi-Fi or network coverage.
–Bill Nguyen, Lala.com cofounder
Internet access will only continue to grow, but it’s got a long way to go before it rivals my iPod or any other digital music player. I download a song to my iPhone and it’s guaranteed to play regardless of my location. Bill Nguyen, Lala’s charismatic cofounder, disagrees. He sees a world dominated by the browser.
“Will you ever (in the future) use an electronic device if it’s not connected or doesn’t have a browser?” Nguyen asked. “Think iPhone/iTouch/iPod for a moment. They went from $200 for 60GB to $300 for 16GB. What did you get for the 50 percent increase in price and 73 percent drop in storage? We got a wireless connection and a browser.
“PC’s are going the same way,” Nguyen continued, “with the hottest category being Netbooks that forego fancy hardware and big screens for an affordable price, light weight and a Wifi connection. You’ve got to face it, there’s nothing you don’t do in a browser.”
The novel way Lala plans to make money is by requiring people to pay for unlimited access to their songs. If a user wishes to listen to an entire song free of charge, he or she can but only once. To have unlimited access to the music in their lockers, users must pay 10 cents a song. Great price, but it comes with some serious strings. Remember, you can’t download these songs to any device. They have to be streamed.
For those people who want to own their music outright, Lala will be happy to sell tracks free of any copy protection software. But so do a lot of other stores, including Amazon.com, Rhapsody, and Walmart.com.
My point is that there are very few problems that this version of Lala solves in a unique way–plenty of companies, including MySpace and iMeem already offer streaming music. (I won’t even get into how difficult it likely will be to explain all of this to consumers.)
The biggest selling point Lala offers is that users can claim their music from a range of devices and that means they are not locked into one gadget or any DRM scheme. Where Lala fails–at least for now–is that it can’t deliver music where Wi-Fi or network coverage is spotty.
Lala has to hope technology catches up to its business model.
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Original source : http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/webware/~3/42716259…
Shared by Moah
scary but true. man, all these things are scaring the hell out of me. 🙁
It would be easy to come up with a list of why the current downturn sucks. In fact, who needs a list? You can feel it in your bones. But a lull in any battle, or economy, can be an opportunity for those with the foresight and resources to press it. And we’re not talking about lame cracks like the traffic getting better. Here are five genuinely good things about the current tech economy. Which ones will you be able to take advantage of?
1. The downturn will kill off your most annoying competitors
You may be in a crowded market now, but you won’t be for long. Companies are going to fold in this downturn. Less competition from silly companies that aren’t playing by the rules of good business means you can focus more on your product and on getting your message straight compared to the remaining competitors that really do matter.
2. You can hire cheap
See No. 1. There will be unemployment. The job market will change from a seller’s market to a buyer’s, which means you’ll be able to hire better people cheaper. Maybe not so good for them (be sure to salary up when things improve). But good for you.
3. You can lay off at will
Unhappy with your organization as it is? Worried about the effects on morale of shutting down that experimental project you keep in a corner? Worry no more! While a year ago layoffs might have been seen as desperation play and thus acted as a staff morale killer, if you do judicious layoffs today the remaining staffers will be glad to see you trimming the fat so they get to keep their jobs. Plus, it will get your investors and board members off your back.
4. Your customers will cut you some breaks
Users and customers who like your product are far less likely to give you hard time about minor flaws in your service. If they like you and want you to stay in business, they’ll understand that you have to focus on the core of your operation, and on generating revenue, to stay afloat.
5. Whatever doesn’t kill you…
Yes, it’s true. Tough times focus you on what really matters. You will have to spend the majority if your time on revenues, customers, and product, and far less time on offshoot projects and handholding nonproductive employees. On the other side of this economic phase–if you make it there–you will have a better company.
Related: “CEOs get paid for vision and holding to a budget.”
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Original source : http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/webware/~3/42778817…
Shared by Moah
ha. men. they wish it was still 1700s.
Guy #1: Women should be kept in pods like in The Matrix. And whenever we want one, we just pay a fee and rent them for a few days for sex and cooking. Then we put them back. They shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets…ever.
Guy #2: Or they should be put in a one big room where they sew and cook and sip tea until they get a call.
Guy #1: Yeah, that’s a bit more humane, I guess.
–Spring & Varick
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Original source : http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/016627….
Shared by Moah
The concept of ‘don’t be a wuss.’ pick one and go all out. Case in point, Apple products. Their attitude “Make things pretty. Maximize beauty even if it sacrifices many important things.”
Do one thing and do it extremely well.
As always, the truth lies in the cliches.
“Having the best of both worlds” is something that marketers shoot for all the time. They want the traffic that a community site will give them, but they also want the control they get by only having authorized employees participating. They shoot for their favorite parts, and get nothing. Always nothing. You can apply online to conduct a background check.
Instead, perhaps it’s worth hoping for the best of one world.
Compromise, by its nature, means giving up part of one thing to get part of something else. So you end up with a little of this and a little of that. The low fat of prunes and the shelf appeal of a cupcake. Sounds good on paper, but when given the choice, the diet conscious will pick a real prune and the gluttons will pick a real cupcake. And you’re left with an overstock situation.
When in doubt, maximize.
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Original source : http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainbl…