wildflux

Why We Desperately Need a New (and Better) Google

2011-01-01T16:09:00.002-05:00

Interesting article @ TechCrunch which I didn't even realize was a problem until now.

Why We Desperately Need a New (and Better) Google

TechCrunch

This semester, my students at the School of Information at UC-Berkeley researched the VC system from the perspective of company founders. We prepared a detailed survey; randomly selected 500 companies from a venture database; and set out to contact the founders. Thanks to Reid Hoffman, we were able to get premium access to LinkedIn—which was very helpful and provided a wealth of information. But some of the founders didn't have LinkedIn accounts, and others didn't respond to our LinkedIn "inmails". So I instructed my students to use Google searches to research each founder's work history, by year, and to track him or her down in that way.

But it turns out that you can't easily do such searches in Google any more. Google has become a jungle: a tropical paradise for spammers and marketers. Almost every search takes you to websites that want you to click on links that make them money, or to sponsored sites that make Google money. There's no way to do a meaningful chronological search.

We ended up using instead a web-search tool called Blekko. It's a new technology and is far from perfect; but it is innovative and fills the vacuum of competition with Google (and Bing).

Continued at http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/01/why-we-desperately-need-a-new-and-better-google-2/

Setting up a Windows machine

2010-12-27T12:45:00.002-05:00

This is a solid set of advice that I would encourage anyone to follow, either with a new PC or an old one that never really had a geek set on it at some point:

http://lifehacker.com/5717628/set-up-and-get-to-know-your-new-windows-pc

The Ninite recommendation I've mentioned before.

PAX 2010

2010-09-05T10:11:00.006-05:00

Penny Arcade Expo was a pretty cool event, reminded me a lot of GenCon which I hadn't been to in over a decade. Wizards of the Coast appears to be making a huge push for the casual gamer to get into D&D, including trying to rekindle the old 'Red box' edition of D&D, although it is a completely updated set of stuff they are selling in that red box.

Guild Wars 2 looked VERY nice, and although it doesn't strongly break from GW1 (nor the WoW mold it came from), they look to add several new features and the graphics looked really excellent.

Settlers of Catan was running on a Microsoft Surface table and looked really well implemented.

There were lots of great Team Fortress 2 costumes, usually traveling together in packs, though never a complete team.

Tron is big again with the new movie coming out this December after 28 years since the original. Apparently (and obviously) a video game is being released soon as well called Tron:Evolution, the collector's editions of which contains a little light cycle that is awesome.

Portal 2 added co-op play and had a lot of attention, but I didn't check it out (long line). I'm sure it will be excellent.

Other stuff:

Duke Nukem Forever finally saw the light of day at this PAX, and by one of the original 3D Realms guys.

There was a booth devoted to NBA Jam and Hitz/hockey stuff that Jr and I checked out. He was humbled by my slapshot in a 1v1 duel.

I saw a really cool game called SpyParty where one player (Spy) tries to blend in with NPCs at a dinner party while another player (Sniper) is outside the party with a rifle, trying to identify the Spy within a time limit to take him out. Reminded me of an older game called The Ship that I always wanted to play.

Monaco looked cool and was getting a lot of attention-- I wanted to see it after reading an excellent preview in PC Gamer.

Dragon Age II looked cool but I still can't be bothered unless there is a multiplayer component.

I also played the new Castle Ravenloft cooperative boardgame, which was fun but a little oversimplified maybe.

Finally, Microsoft was demoing an amazing, newly announced Age of Empires Online.

habouji

2010-09-02T01:27:00.002-05:00

Gamer roll call.

Left-to-right: BonesJr, Lyle, Scifi, Elvar, Spinach, MoneyJr, SirSpeedy, Hunter, Tornado, Prentice

How-to quickly find the best ANYTHING

2010-08-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

I normally research the crap out of whatever electronics/device/product I want to buy in advance of heading to Amazon or wherever to buy it. As a good place to start, or if I just don't have time to do a full net scour, I love a little-known site called consumersearch.com. For each major product type, they do a compiled meta-review of the product sourced from across all the big sites (cnet, Wired, Consumer Reports, Epinions, etc.) as well several specialty sites (niche digicam review sites, for example) to give you a few short and sweet answers. I just used the site yesterday to decide to order a new Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset, but in the past I've used it to research things like HDTVs, dehumidifiers, power tools, digital cameras, and more.

The big positive for the site is that they actually evaluate and weight the quality of the review (e.g., ignoring Epinions that are shills for the company, determining if a self-hosted camera reviewer's review is any good, estimating whether the Consumer Reports article is too out-of-date to be still valid). Another bonus: If you don't have a CR subscription, you can still learn what that company recommended.

The main negative is that, like any review site, after a month or more, the information can be too dated to be of use, so just be sure to check the date on any particular product category article.

Amazon.com deals

2010-07-12T18:51:00.002-05:00

If you are a student, go to amazon.com/student to sign up for free Amazon Prime membership (free 2-day shipping) for a year. This is an excellent deal.

Also of interest: you can get a refurbished Kindle 2 for only $110, though I'm not sure how long that price will last.

iPhone launch infographic

2010-07-08T14:54:00.001-05:00

This excellent infographic was just posted at GigaOm:

Tech/iDevice blog coming soon

2010-07-06T12:56:00.002-05:00

I plan to replace this site with a true tech blog, either devoted specifically to the iOS family or to tech more generally. My goal will be to create a reference page that answers many of the questions I often get in person.

I'm still working on a blog/site name, as well as getting the initial batch of articles written, so I'm open to any and all ideas. What would you like to see? Please either email ideas/requests to me (msfleck at gmail) or comment on this post.

Thanks!

Now who's the genius

2010-05-28T15:14:00.001-05:00

Reiner Knizia's Ra

2010-05-05T23:06:00.001-05:00

A small group of us (three) recently put together under the Flexgames banner an online version of Reiner Knizia's classic bidding game Ra, currently playable at gourmetgaming.com. While we secured the rights to the game itself, we did not purchase the artwork from the physical copy of the game, requiring an entirely new set of art assets.

I was in charge of replacing the art, and did so by creating original graphics, gathering and heavily editing several photographs and bitmaps from Creative Commons licensed sources, and so on.

I recommend checking it out--- it is one of my favorite boardgames, designed one of the very top boardgame creators in the world (also a PhD in Mathematics). Other currently playable games on the site include the extremely popular Lost Cities, which I also contributed to user experience, some artwork, and testing, as well as Schotten-Totten.

Quick rules of Ra are in this small graphic I put together (click through for better resolution):

Come play Bad Company 2 with me and my group!

2010-05-04T19:06:00.004-05:00

Come play Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (for Windows) with me and my friends! I've recently sunk way too many late night hours into this game-- it is a blast! We have a Ventrilo server for speaking and goofing around, and are always looking for a few more fun folks to join us on Thursday and Sunday nights. We also rotate in rounds of Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Unreal Tournament '99. When Starcraft 2 hits in July, I imagine many more sleepless nights as well. The original was my favorite game almost immediately when it came out while I was in college, and I have great memories of screaming to guys down the hallway in the dorm trying to coordinate teamwork.

My dual-target search experiments reported in Scientific American

2010-04-26T11:15:00.001-05:00

Quick write-up in Scientific American of a paper of mine that just went to press at Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. This was the final and largest segment of my dissertation, and the main thing I really wanted to see published.

Gmail finally adds drag-n-drop for attachments

2010-04-15T16:05:00.003-05:00

Possibly my biggest gripe since switching from Thunderbird to Gmail a year or two ago is now fixed!

Pong clock

2010-02-28T14:20:00.003-05:00

This is so cool! This clocks plays Pong against itself and the score shows the current time. The upshot is that the right side is totally dominating the left side.

http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=39&products_id=204&zenid=59f2768b0a9c4df41d134cc1d6f15026

Favorite Windows Apps (2010 edition)

2010-02-26T11:45:00.006-05:00

I first posted this a while back, but now that I've moved to Windows 7 ($30 through student program, and I'm loving it!), it is time update the list as well as mention a VERY useful website for rapidly deploying the best of these. I'll mention that first: Ninite.com

Ninite lets you choose from many of the following, plus many others (iTunes, etc.) that you want to install, then in a single click it downloads all of them, installs them using default options, avoiding any bloatware add-ons, and it just WORKS. I use this even if I just need a single one of these.

Anyhow, I highly recommend these critical Windows apps which I always immediately install on a new computer:

Launchy (Fast app launcher, I use this all the time)
Digsby (IM/Twitter/Facebook; despite questionable biz practices, the social connections are unbeatable)
XnView (Picture viewer, although Picasa keeps improving)
VLC (Movie player)
Gadwin Printscreen (Screen capture; I still prefer this over Win7's capture tool)
Chrome / Firefox (I literally alternate and interchangeably use these every day, trying to choose a favorite. I haven't yet, in the past 6 months of doing this)
Picasa (it just keeps getting better and better, and staying just as free)
Windows 7 built-in Antivirus and Firewall (I formerly recommended AVG and Kerio, but now I can't be bothered to replace the easy solution built-in. Anyone want to convince me I need to?)
Foxit PDF Reader
uTorrent
7-Zip (I still prefer WinRAR's interface, but no-nag freeware is better)
ImgBurn (handles all CD/DVD burning needs)
FileZilla FTP client (SSH, SFTP, FTP)
WinDirStat (hard drive space manager, to help you find where all the space has gone to)
Eclipse, iTunes, PuTTY, Notepad++, Dropbox, Evernote, Defraggler, and Steam also all get installed, and can be done so through ninite.com

iPhone development approval

2009-02-20T11:49:00.004-05:00

Flexgames, LLC was yesterday approved as a company developer for using the iPhone SDK to officially load apps onto an iPhone for testing and for submitting apps to the AppStore for distribution and sale. Should be fun to be able to play with things on the actual device instead of just the Simulator! Looking again at getting a Mac Mini to handle development. My old Toshiba laptop-turned-Hackintosh is frustrating me with a 1024x768 resolution stretching across a widescreen display, along with the weird lockup whenever I let it idle for too long.

Dropbox for cross-computer file syncing

2009-02-17T13:54:00.004-05:00

I've been porting my dissertation data, analyses, and document back and forth between campus and home on my USB stick, but yesterday I forgot it at home for about the 5th time this month, so I decided to find a better solution. I installed this free, cross-platform solution called Dropbox, and put my whole work folder in it. Uploaded very quickly, syncs any changes immediately, and shows me no lag whatsoever (because I'm working on local files, not net files). 2GB limit on content, but I'm nowhere near that kind of usage. Thumbs up!

I haven't even begun to explore its additional utitilies, like using it as a Password sync/manager and using the iPhone access. More options for Dropbox are discussed at Lifehacker, which is easily my current favorite blog.

New Simpsons Intro

2009-02-16T10:15:00.001-05:00

Now in HD and with several pause-worthy moments

Farecast update

2009-02-13T10:12:00.004-05:00

1/28/09:

2/13/09:

The price bounced around, but finally I have a price that is lower than when I first started looking on farecast.com. Then as I started to book the flight, I was on Continental's website trying to see if I had a frequent flyer number, and I found information about Flight 3407, which apparently just crashed a few hours ago and is now the deadliest accident in 8 years. Scary details, and just a horrible situation.

Took me a bit to shake the jitters about booking on an airline SO recently plagued by a crash, although admittedly this was 'operated by Colgan Airlines,' a different service.

But now, as I'm again about to book this flight, I have to wonder- do flight fares drop in the aftermath of an accident?

Big fish, small pond redux (+ TED talks)

2009-02-11T10:13:00.004-05:00

Below, a post from Seth Godin's blog. I always like his posts. He spoke at the most recent TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference, which bears a registration fee of only $6000, but which I would love to attend someday. Other links: Top 10 TED talks, TEDtalks iPhone app
Also, a Seth post related to the topic below, about how much time it takes to succeed in a crowded space rather than in a small niche: 10,000 hours

Make the world smaller

The secret to being the best in the world is to make the 'world' smaller.

Alan Scott was the best community-focused artisan pizza oven builder in the world. A niche that didn't exist before he got there, but one that spread, that engaged people, that created a tribe and that supported him.

Alan was passionate about his craft and wasn't shy about sharing it. He trained others, turned it into a movement.

It's entirely possible that you will choose a niche that's too small. It's much more likely you'll shoot for something too big and become overwhelmed. When in doubt, overwhelm a small niche.

Looking for: a new media center

2009-02-02T13:58:00.008-05:00

I canceled cable in the fall of last year to save money, and now I stream everything from my computer to the television by way of a media center. I have a rockin' RSS feed auto-grabbing all sorts of legal things so I don't ever need to go to abc.com to watch the latest whatever. This kind of setup is one of my favorite things in the world. However, I do need a new device to function as the media streamer.

XB360 is my current solution. But, it can't see .mkv files (where the hell did this format come from and why does everyone insist on using it?), and the interface is terrible. Also, it is a loud machine and consumes a lot of power, both of which I hate. Plus, would an auto-off timer be so troublesome to include??

XBMC (Xbox Media Center, on the old Xbox) was brilliant and awesome. But it no longer can handle HD files, nor .mkv files very well. I still have it hooked up for certain crazy filetypes (i'm lookin at you, matroska), and probably will eventually move it to be a bedroom player.

XBMC on an old Windows box could probably work to fix the HD issue, but i don't know if i want to deal with figuring out the best way to get video/audio from an old computer to the TV. Same applies to other HTPC software solutions, of which there are many.

WDTV looks great and is priced right ($100), but offers no network support. I'm positive they will release a new version of this in 2009 with network support, but who knows when.

Popcorn Hour looks interesting, but not cheap, and maybe not as popular/future-proof as other solutions.

Boxee (AppleTV or Mac Mini). Apple TV on its own kind of sucks, but with Boxee, an offshoot of XBMC with many new featuers, it becomes VERY interesting. Yet, Joe had a lot of weird issues when he demoed it for me. Seems to be potentially very expandable, just as XBMC was. Excellent that it supports Hulu and a bunch of other popular online stuffs right now, and it can only get better. No Windows support yet(!) Anyhow, I have set up a Craigslist Alert to immediately notify me if anybody in the greater Raleigh/Durham area is trying to unload a used AppleTV, just in case. :)

No idea which direction to go in, or if I'm missing some other good options.

Fighting Giraffes

2009-01-30T15:18:00.003-05:00

Youtube video of how giraffes fight.

[From Neatorama]

Farecast foretells flight fare futures

2009-01-28T11:27:00.003-05:00

I've never really tried Farecast, or rather, I've never had it tell me to Wait. Farecast examines historical data (just the last 7 days, maybe?) for a given trip and then tells you whether to Buy Now or Wait for fares to drop. This is the first time it has told me to Wait, and this time, I shall indeed Wait.

I like the idea of gambling on a flight to Vegas.

Seth Godin's blog

2009-01-27T14:20:00.006-05:00

I'm constantly impressed by what this guy has to say. He does marketing stuff, which I have zero direct interest in, but since marketing is a part of everything, I suppose this applies to everyone.

Here are some of his recent interesting posts:

Watching the Times struggle (and what you can learn)

Urgent personal finance advice

10,000 hours

The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

Beauty as a signaling strategy

Love (and annoying)

Why bother having a resume?

Awesome charity album coming soon

2009-01-23T16:22:00.003-05:00

Dark Was The Night

Next month a charity compilation album will be released for sale. The proceeds benefit HIV/AIDS, and the lineup is pretty amazing.

Here are the artists, and I've made some linkable to some favorite songs by those groups.

Andrew Bird, Antony, Arcade Fire, Beach House, Beirut, Blonde Redhead, Bon Iver, The Books, Buck 65, David Byrne, Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues, The Decemberists, Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner, Devastations, Dirty Projectors, Kevin Drew, Feist, Ben Gibbard, Grizzly Bear, Iron & Wine, Jose Gonzalez, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Kronos Quartet, Stuart Murdoch, My Brightest Diamond, My Morning Jacket, The National, The New Pornographers, Conor Oberst, Riceboy Sleeps, Serengeti, Dave Sitek, Spoon, Sufjan Stevens, Gillian Welch, Yeasayer, Yo La Tengo

Freakonomics interviews Guitar Hero

2009-01-20T12:33:00.003-05:00

"Listening to the original studio multi-tracks is often full of fun surprises, many of which relate to the human elements of the recording process being exposed. For example, you’ll sometimes hear back-up singers chatting with each other between their sections, or you’ll hear one of the players screw something up (but the screw-up gets left in, because it’s sufficiently hidden in the final mix), or you’ll hear laughter or banter among the musicians before or after the take. There’s something very cool about hearing these people being actual people."

Link (NYTimes)

Ustream iPhone app

2009-01-20T10:46:00.003-05:00

Ustream offers a live stream of the inauguration today, and looks to be a useful app for other video viewing as well. But honestly, who will be streaming this to an iPhone if they are within 100 yards of a computer or television?

Rock Band DLC: Steve Miller Band

2009-01-16T16:18:00.004-05:00

Next week's Rock Band Downloadable Content is a three-pack from Steve Miller Band, including Take the Money and Run, a song I've been learning for on the drums for real! Should be fun to see how much I've learned transfers over to the game... and also to see how quickly I complete learning the song thanks to the videogame. I chose that song for the fun, short drum solo intro (the only time the drums get to solo, really). And of course, I therefore haven't really learned the rest of the song.

Also next week's DLC includes a song by Belly which I taped off the radio about 15 years ago and listened to on repeat.

iPhone Development 101

2009-01-16T12:35:00.005-05:00

Joe got me this book for iPhone development for xmas.

I'm slowly getting through it... perhaps I won't need a job if I can churn out the next Trism. ($250k in 2 months)

Trying to generate ideas for very simple apps to try to create. Although my top ideas right now are mostly front-ends for other sites, I'd like to avoid needing to tie into another site's database until I get good at programming it.

Mates of State

2009-01-09T12:05:00.005-05:00

My current album on repeat is Mates of State : Re-arrange Us

I love: the first 6 songs on the album, but can't get The Re-arranger out of my head particularly. I really like the vocals and drums on that one. Nothing complex, just very catchy. In fact the whole album is just a bunch of simple hooks, but this duo seems to be able to churn them out consistently and effortlessly.

I don't love: the tendency on some of the songs to do a call-and-answer style of singing, but that's my only real complaint.

I'm mad because I didn't try out the album until right after they came through town at the Cat's Cradle. In fact, I think reading about it in the Independent Weekly is why it reminded me to try it out in the first place.

Anyhow, I also like that they are just a husband/wife team, touring at the moment with two kids in tow no less. Their blog suggests that they do so responsibly and sanely, which is surprising. I like that the blog seems more like just any parenting couple rather than some indie rock band, complete with tons of kid pictures and random home events (bat in the house).

Currently installed iPhone apps

2008-12-04T16:47:00.005-05:00

A list of my currently installed, legitimate iPhone apps. The majority of these are free, or they were when I downloaded them. The list is loosely organized in the order in which they appear on my phone.

Google : New voice search feature feels futuristic, and has about 80% success rate for me, which is not bad. I also like the shortcuts to the iphone-formatted versions of all their apps. (8 out of 10)
The Weather Channel : The default weather app is kind of skimpy, but this one is almost too much overkill. Still, I use it once a week. (5 out of 10)
Pandora : Until recently, my iPhone was music-less for the previous 4 weeks, thanks to Pandora and Simplify. Pandora is stable and has excellent execution of a great idea, but I fear it won't stick around forever because of legal reasons. (9 out of 10)
Easy Wi-Fi : Free download until tomorrow, so get it immediately. This lets you use the WiFi for free at any AT&T hotspot (airports, Starbucks, ...) without the hassle normally involved. (haven't used it yet)
Wikipanion : Useful reference for the times when I know Wikipedia will generate more useful information than a Google search. Quick and useful access, though I think there might be an alternative Wikipedia option I should also try. (8 out of 10)
Instapaper : The idea of this app is that you browse and find a bookmark on your main desktop/laptop, and you can bookmark it for later viewing on your iPhone, even while offline. I like the idea of this app, but I rarely rarely ever use it, preferring instead to just go to Google Reader to check for new things to read. I bet this app is exponentially more useful for an iPod Touch, when offline access is a lot more important. (5 out of 10)
Twinkle : A nice Twitter interface, but I never bother with Twitter anymore. I guess it comes in phases for me. (7 out of 10, if ones Twitters)
IGN Reviews : A quick and nicely formatted guide to any of the latest videogames. You only get to see their review, and you can't browse by category or platform, but this is fun to check often to see what games are rated above an 8. (7 out of 10)
NY Times : Handy to check quick big news headlines. I rely on Google Reader for my main news sources, but sometimes those are too niche-specific. This app gives me a quick look at headlines, though often the quickness is quite literal: this app crashes nonstop. I don't use it much, but I look forward to when they update it and fix this thing. (3 out of 10)
Simplify : I got this when it was a free download. This lets you access music from a computer and stream it to the iPhone/Touch. This is a really cool app, though it is pretty hardware intensive, at least on the desktop side, and sometimes the streaming isn't perfect. Overall, I'm very impressed, and glad I got it for free. (8 out of 10)
Joost : Just downloaded this. It seems pretty flaky and unstable, but I do hope it motivates Hulu to get in the game here. (3 out of 10)
Palringo : A multi-client IM app. I haven't yet set this up or used it, but this should be useful in the future.
Now Playing : This is by far my favorite Movies application, simply because it checks Metacritic for scores. In fact, I have so far used it entirely to check out Metacritic rather than for the movietimes. It also lets you look up Rotten Tomatoes scores, which is nice. I would love to see a pure Metacritic app, and might need to write it myself. (9 out of 10)
2 Across LE : A basic free crossword app, for when I don't have my DS and its excellent NYTimes crosswords with me. (4 out of 10)
reQall : A cool free note-taking program that gives you multiple ways to take notes, including voice record on the iPhone, phone it in, AIM-messaging (!). I used this a lot at first, not so much recently, but maybe because I have fewer notes to take. (8 out of 10)
Jott : I loved this til they made all the useful features for paying people only. Only still on here until I can conclusively decide that reQall does everything I want, for free. (8 out of 10 before they went pay, 5 out of 10 now for its remaining free features)
LineRider : The only app I've actually purchased. While it is a cool idea, the novelty wore off quickly. Useful now only for entertaining neices and nephews. Hopefully an update makes something a little more out of this (sound effects, maybe??) (4 out of 10)
Flashlight : This is just a bright screen to use as a flashlight. Very handy sometimes. (5 out of 10)
Goodrec : Local restaurant finder/review page, similar to Yelp. I haven't actually used this to find a restaurant yet, but it is nice to see what things I might be overlooking wherever I am. (5 out of 10)
i.TV : Look up TV guide info. This seemed to be more useful pre-install, but I haven't given it a full chance yet. (4 out of 10 at the moment)
Google Earth : A fun, idle diversion, and useful to look up crazy parts of the world or to zoom around a little, but the Google Maps app is far more useful. (5 out of 10)
Trace : Another little game, haven't tried it yet.
AirSharing : Another app I downloaded when it was free, this lets you use WiFi to upload files to the iPhone, and this app even has its own little web server to let anyone access the files, even if they aren't on the same wireless network! Pretty cool. Though honestly, I haven't used it much. (7 out of 10)
Flixster, Showtimes : Only installed at the moment to compare with Now Playing. I don't know if they will be able to beat out the Metacritic feature, but I will do a full comparison sometime.
FlyCast : Internet radio program, which I haven't yet signed up for, but this is one I plan to check out because it could be a good alternative to Pandora when necessary.
Backgrounds : Free backgrounds for iPhone. Nothing spectacular, but makes it easy to change it up a little. (4 out of 10)
eBay : I rarely eBay things, but this is useful whenever I am. (5 out of 10)

Should be installed but isn't:

Evernote : I love this idea, and tried to use it for a while, but a bug in the desktop version of the app made it tricky. I need to try again.

Here are the WebApps that I have saved to my iPhone as well, rated as well. (these are just useful websites that I have bookmarked as icons on my phone)

Google Calendar : Awesome, I never touch the Calendar app built-in. (9/10)
Google Reader : Awesome, I use this more than anything else on the iPhone, but it could be slightly improved. (9/10)
Google search : Yes there are a lot of different ways to search google, but this particular link seems to be the only way to actually get iPhone-formatted results. It blows my mind that they don't make the BUILT IN SEARCH function for MobileSafari default to these results pages. Same goes for the Google app. (8/10)
Picasa : Excellent interface, decent responsiveness. This links right to my own album. (8/10)
SeeqPod : Really handy for finding and playing a song that I don't otherwise have access to. I have about a 90% success rate when looking for a particular song I'm wanting. (8/10)
Chords : A really handy guitar chord webapp, with a cool customization for the iPhone. (8/10)
Book of Ratings : A funny site with a bunch of archived things to read. All are arbitrary ratings of a variety of things (Aspects of Santa, D&D classes, state quarters, etc). (7/10)

Craigslist alerts, round 2

2008-11-18T10:23:00.011-05:00

Craigslist is different from eBay in that a good deal could be here and gone before you realize it. When looking for a particular deal, you must either be vigilantly checking the site, or have an alert system in place. Ebay has its own alert system, but Craigslist does not. Here's how to create your own.

I mentioned before that you could do this with a mail and RSS app to get emails whenever things were posted which matched your criteria, but I've found a better solution. Yahoo Alerts allow you to monitor an RSS feed for any updates and then will notify you of changes.

Go to Craigslist and do a search for what you want. This can be searches on a particular category and can include price ranges and so on, but to cast a wider net, it is best to do the searches from the main page with few restrictions.

Now scroll to the bottom of the page and right click on the yellow "RSS" button and choose "Copy link address".

Now go to http://alerts.yahoo.com/ and click on "Feed/Blog". At this point you'll need to sign in with a Yahoo account. In the first option (A), paste the RSS feed into the box.

At the bottom, choose how you want to be notified (email, text message, IM), then Save Alert. Done!

You can see and manage the current alerts that you have active.

I use this to send email to my iPhone, so I get notified very quickly thanks to IMAP.

Advantages to this method include a fairly descriptive post, and the ability to delete/turn off the alert with a link directly in each alert that is sent.

If anyone knows a better method of Craigslist alerts, I'd love to hear about it.

Google app for iPhone released soon!!

2008-11-17T13:48:00.001-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/technology/internet/14voice.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Despite some weird delays, thanks to Apple's mysterious Appstore policies, we'll soon have a presumably amazing voice-control search app for the iPhone. I am extremely excited!!

Scott Bakula Jumps Into McCain's Body Just Before Election [The Onion]

2008-10-16T10:08:00.002-05:00

Witnesses said they first detected a difference in McCain's demeanor yesterday, when he paused suddenly in the middle of a speech about Obama's tax policies, shook his head and demanded to know what year it was. Others were reportedly confused when McCain abruptly left the stage to find a mirror and softly touched his face while whispering to himself, "Oh, boy. Who am I this time?"

[The Onion]

MyFavoriteStuff: A&L Acoustic Guitar

2008-10-12T23:11:00.004-05:00

Last year I started learning guitar, and my friend Jason recommended that I get a cheap but good acoustic dreadnought model made by Art & Lutherie, a Canadian maker. According to everyone who reviews it (harmony-central.com is a great site for all musical things review), it is essentially a $500 guitar for less than $200. It plays and sounds great, and I also like the bright finish like in this photo.

Inside Obama's Gmail [The Onion]

2008-09-18T10:18:00.003-05:00

From The Onion:

Article
Pictures

The Volt Isn't A Prius. It Might Even Be Better | Autopia from Wired.com

2008-09-18T09:20:00.005-05:00

The Volt Isn't A Prius. It Might Even Be Better | Autopia from Wired.com: "The Volt Isn't A Prius. It Might Even Be Better"

Guitar Hero World Tour Music Creation: my personal drum teacher?

2008-09-18T09:14:00.000-05:00

"One of the most unique features new to Guitar Hero World Tour isn't the inclusion of microphone and drum support, but the way the instruments can be used in music creation mode. Instead of just playing the songs packaged with the game and trickled down through DLC, players can now use the toolsets to create their own unique masterpieces or cover versions of songs not currently available. Activision is set on making the experience communal and players can download up to 100 different songs, but are limited to only five uploads. The latter of which can be expanded to 20, presumably for a fee."
GC 2008: Guitar Hero World Tour Music Creation Demonstration

I'm really looking forward to Guitar Hero World Tour's music creation mode, not because I like to free-form jam or create music, but because I really like using Rock Band's visual flow of information to learn drum patterns on Expert difficulty, to start to learn the actual song on a real drumset. With GHWT's music creation, I can input the drums for songs that I want to learn in real life, and then practice them with the visual cues cascading down. Presumably, when recording the song on a first pass, I just have to 'kind of get close', and then I believe there is a manual editor that lets you fix notes and timing. I can't wait to try putting in some of the songs I've been trying to learn on the actual drumkit.

Original iPhone quirks

2008-09-18T08:35:00.002-05:00

If you have an original iPhone, there are two things you should know.

1) Since Apple no longer sells these, they still have many 'behind the counters' at the Apple store. Consequently, if you have ANY problems at all with your first one (cracked screen, messed up camera, whatever), then you should go in to your Apple store and make a fuss ASAP, while these are still in stock. I know of multiple people, all past their warranty, who took theirs in to the store with minor complaints, and walked away with brand new (original model) iPhones. See my sister's example here.

2) The original iPhone can still fetch a great price on eBay. One week before the new one came out, I sold my original iPhone for over $450 (one year old, minor scratches, 8GB), and then bought a 16GB new iPhone for $300. I figured I needed to make that switch BEFORE the new ones came out, but it seems that is totally not the case. Even now it seems you can STILL get that kind of price on eBay, if not more! The reason is because the new ones require a contract when you purchase it, whereas the old ones' contracts can be supplanted by a purchase of the new phone. Buyers, particularly overseas, only want a contract-less, unlocked iPhone, and right now the original iPhone is the only version which fits that bill.

Modern games with Atari box art

2008-09-17T14:33:00.001-05:00

Atari Modern Classics : : The -Minus World : Your Distinguished Source For Video Game Comedy

Featured IPhone Application: Air Sharing Transfers Files Between iPhones and Any System

2008-09-09T08:43:00.000-05:00

Featured IPhone Application: Air Sharing Transfers Files Between iPhones and Any System

This looks very promising!

Free download of this app for 2 weeks only, after which it is $7

Picasa now has face-detection/tagging

2008-09-03T13:32:00.006-05:00

2 years ago, Google bought a company called Neven Vision to automatically process digital images, presumably for use in Picasa, to compete with the more advanced features of Flickr. It seems now that technology has come to light in Picasa and PicasaWeb.

This is the reason I've held off tagging my photos manually-- I knew there had to come a day where software would do it all for you. This goes through all your photos and finds similar faces, allowing you to tag them appropriately en mass. It is sooo much fun!!!! For some reason it had a particularly hard time recognizing Elsa-- perhaps this means she changes how she looks quite a bit.

This is why I love Google. Now if only they will find me a job there.

Logitech Squeezebox Boom

2008-09-02T21:46:00.000-05:00

This looks very cool, particularly for those like me who don't have home stereo systems

Logitech Squeezebox Boom

New Google browser approaches

2008-09-02T09:06:00.002-05:00

Google's new web browser, Chrome, is to be released today or tomorrow, and I hadn't even heard about it til yesterday! They did a really cool information campaign (seems info-based more than marketing-based), in which they hired the clever comic book artist Scott McCloud to render some complicated info into easy-to-comprehend layouts. See it here. Anyhow, I'm excited to see how it interferes with my love affair with Firefox (which admittedly cooled after I lost interest in all the add-ons I formerly obsessed over).

When the download is available, it will be at this location:
http://www.google.com/chrome

Burn video files to a playable DVD

2008-08-28T09:30:00.004-05:00

Burn almost any video file to a playable DVD with DVD flick [download]

Found this program through Lifehacker (my new favorite RSS feed). Seems to be a really nice and easy solution to a common need. Still looking for any better alternatives (preferably freeware, like this one is), which may also have better DVD menu options.

Worth its weight in gold?

2008-08-27T10:13:00.003-05:00

From evilmadscientist.com

Presentation skillz of Steve Jobs

2008-08-25T09:39:00.002-05:00

In giving talks in my department (Psychology/Neuroscience), a persistent fear of having not enough substance has made me focus on the other critical aspect of presentations: the presentation. When preparing, I looked to one of the best presenters I've seen, and studied his methods. Of course, many others have done the same. Here are some links to analyses of some business presentation mojo/hypnosis:

The Guardian's article 'Behind the magic curtain':

Another article on how to 'Present like Jobs':

Also really recommend this website for general info on presentations:
http://www.presentationzen.com/

Just paid for a resume-editing service

2008-08-15T15:10:00.003-05:00

I hope it is worth the money. Since they revise what you already have, I ended up spending much of the day just editing and polishing my own resume. And now it is looking pretty good, actually... so should I have paid all that money for a professional?

Kind of like cleaning a house before hiring a housekeeper, I guess.

we shall seeee!

Find out how much anyone's house or car is worth

2008-08-01T16:08:00.003-05:00

Which of your coworkers/professors/bosses has the most expensive car or house? The same info that we always hear about for political candidates during election season is freely available online, anytime, about anyone who has paid taxes on property. (actually, you can even see if they have PAID those taxes yet)

Inexplicably, my record shows that my home has somehow increased in value by $20k since last year, in sharp contrast to the $0 it increased between 2006 & 2007. Hmmm.. bad for my taxes this year... good for selling the place next year? Maybe they only reassess a place every once in a while? No idea.

Anyhow, as long as you know what county someone lives in, anyone can find this information about anyone. Feels sorta violating.

Durham Tax Lookup

NuevaSync syncs Google contacts/calendars to iPhone

2008-08-01T10:06:00.002-05:00

With the addition of Google's support of CalDev, the possibility to sync Google and iPhone has arrived, without the need for a multi-step process.

I'm still just trying it out, but as an avid fan of Google's cloud of software, I positively need some way to sync Google contacts and calendar with my iPhone. Previously I had used NemusSync on the jailbroken iPhone, but NuevaSync seems to be a webapp doing something similar.

I've only run it once, and run into some problems: it crunched all my iPhone contacts instead of doing a proper sync. I think I will restore my contacts from an iTunes backup and try this again. Judging by the positive feedback the service is getting, I'm guessing this is will end up being a pretty good solution.

Pengiun Comics

2008-07-31T08:38:00.000-05:00

iPhone 3G review (part 1)

2008-07-23T20:18:00.008-05:00

After 1 week, I have mixed feelings about the new iPhone 3g.

Even after skipping the first few days of long lines at the Apple and AT&T stores, I had to wait several hours last week before finally getting a white 16gb (the black was sold out). Activation was smooth in store, and altogether took less than 10 minutes from entering the store to leaving.

But, for as glowing a review as I could have given the 1st gen phone, the new one has yet to fully satisfy.

I'll start with the negatives:

3G issues
I live in Raleigh/Durham, but went to Chicago this past weekend, so I was able to try the 3G network in two locations. At the Raleigh airport, 3G service was very minimal, and I had to turn it off to get any access. Even when the service was completely out (reading "NO SERVICE"), I still had to go manually turn off 3G before it would give me the 4 bars of regular AT&T service and I could make a call. My understanding was that in the absence of 3G service, the phone would automatically switch to the regular service, but this was definitely not the case. When 3G WAS working, as it was in parts of Chicago and Durham, it worked pretty well, and definitely faster than EDGE. But, the coverage seems spotty currently. I have to leave it off to ensure that I'm getting phone calls.

Battery issues
I might need to wait longer and use it more on a 'normal' basis rather than 'playing around, downloading every free app' basis before actually validating this complaint, but I do think that battery life is restricted. Whereas on the 2g phone I could go the entire day and then charge overnight and never have any worries, I so far have to be careful about my usage of the 3G iPhone. This also may be because of the shortened cycle supposedly attributed to any new battery usage, which may increase with some more usage.

iPhone 2.0 instability
This is my biggest complaint. New applications that I install will often crash without warning, or act very sluggish. Old applications seem slower and now have long pauses where before there were none. This afternoon I started typing an email on the phone, and it typed out out no more than one character every 10 seconds. This problem went away after a reboot, but this is unacceptable at the moment. I trust that 2.1 will fix a lot of things.

Still-missing functionality

Cut-and-paste, and probably won't see it for a while still.
The ability to add a tapped phone number to your contacts instead of dialing it (in an email, for example).
The ability to search your email. Right now my workaround is to forward all my email to gmail, which does have search on its iphone webapp. Until the iphone email client is significantly improved, the Blackberry will continue to reign in this department, particularly because of the more efficient input device that hard keys represent.
Some way to notify you of missed texts/emails/VMs even while the iPhone is asleep. (Intelliscreen offered a stopgap for this for the old jailbroken iphone)
Ability to login to your Youtube account
Option to change your default search engine in Safari. (I want to use the great search results at www.google.com/m, because it awesomely formats all the results to fit the screen! Unfortunately it forces you to use the traditional Google search results when using the search field)

But, it isn't all bad. Here are my favorite new things:

App Store
This has soooo much potential that I can forgive any of the above. I'm curious as to how the official SDK will compete with the Jailbroken apps, and I'm somewhat skeptical that Jailbroken apps will continue for TOO much longer. I understand the restrictions placed by Apple in terms of official distribution, but I just feel that all the big boys of development will inevitably use the official channels and bypass the hacking. Location-aware stuff is gonna be extremely fun, I think.

Favorite free apps right now include: Jott, Evernote, AIM, Google, NYTimes, Yelp, Movies.app. I can't wait to try out: Remote, Pandora, Shazam. I think Evernote is going to really shine for me in the long term, as both a voice-recorder, note-taker, and general bookmarking app for all media types.

GPS and Location-Aware applications
The GPS is pretty cool, even though I'm about to complain about it. It still is a nice addition, and I don't blame it for my battery woes-- it seems to be unused when not on the Maps. However, while the current GPS/Google Maps combo is nice, a turn-by-turn guide while driving it is most certainly not, as I found when pitting the iphone against a car's GPS this weekend in Chicago. The problem is that Google Maps is unaware of your vector and heading, whereas the car GPS was able to take this into account.

Audio quality/speakerphone seem slightly improved
Rumors about this actually were significantly more important to me than the GPS functionality, and somewhat even the 3G functionality. I'm not 100% sold on this point, but supposedly people on the other can hear better through the new iphone than the old. Will update this with more testing soon.

Non-recessed headphone jack*
It is somewhat embarassing that this is actually a new feature. Yet, even while this hardware-level issue was resolved, the 3G iphone broke compatibility with a large number of chargers and devices which worked fine in the first gen iphone. I can no longer use my iPod speaker dock which I had used as an alarm clock by my bed, at least if I expect it to also be charging the iPhone. Also, my car adapter interface on longer charges the iPhone either. This is disappointing, and prompted yet another instance of me thinking to myself, 'maybe i should have kept the first gen phone' (which of course is the worst possible feeling after a significant purchase/upgrade).

Random things I next want to see:

Improved 2.0 stability
A chat client which can truly replace SMS functionality (i hear push apps come in September? not sure if that is the hold-up here, but AIM is a weak stopgap right now)
A Grand Central native app or a webapp/better integration with the website
Copy/paste (dreaming, i know)

Overall, I pray the 2.1 update brings about some much-needed stability. Also, I've heard that it will add the ability to track your GPS vector, which will alleviate my problems mentioned above with respect to Google Mapping a route. I like the new software, and am pretty confident that new apps will continue to make this thing even better. The 3G and GPS are the primary reasons to upgrade a first gen iphone, and I suppose that unless the 3G service is excellent in one's area, I can't entirely say that the upgrade is currently worth doing. However, I also have faith that AT&T will continue to improve 3G service across the country, so I think that all my issues will improve with time.

Quick update:
A new review at iPhone Atlas extends and clarifies all my issues with respect to the 'upgrade disappointment' I've experienced. In short, we share the same complaint: we upgraded to new hardware only to manually disable the new functionality. That said, I also agree with his statement that the iPhone is one of the greatest technology inventions of the decade. Take it as you will.

Micro Persuasion: Become a Knowledge Management Ninja with Google Reader

2008-07-18T19:54:00.001-05:00

Micro Persuasion: Become a Knowledge Management Ninja with Google Reader

This article describes how to create your own personal Google-able internet, populated only by the RSS feeds in which you have interest. Interestingly, the key thing here is that you don't subscribe to these feeds with the intent of reading any/all of them; rather, they simply represent the bulk of data to be searched at future timepoints.

My favorite Windows apps

2008-06-24T10:50:00.003-05:00

There are several critical Windows apps which I either always install, or always find myself in withdrawal when I'm on another person's computer. I highly prioritize freeware options, because there are sooo many good ones nowadays. I will update this post as I remember more of my crucial programs, and I'll also add URLs and descriptions when I get a chance.

Launchy (Fast app launcher, great!)
Digsby (IM/Twitter/Facebook)
XnView (Picture viewer)
Media Player Classic / VLC (Movie player)
Gadwin Printscreen (Screen capture)
Firefox
Thunderbird
Picasa
AVGfree (Antivirus)
Kerio Personal Firewall
Foxit PDF Reader
uTorrent
WinRAR
Winamp (but testing out a replacement, Foobar)
CDBurnerXP / ImgBurn
Mediamonkey (only for auto-tagging MP3s)
FileZilla FTP client
WinDirStat (hard drive space manager)

Currently testing out:

Copy Handler (improves Windows file copying)
Evernote (clip pictures, text, digital notes about anything)
Google Web Accelerator
Bullzip PDF Creator
DAMN NFO viewer

Not yet tried out, but plan to:

Paint.net (freeware Photoshop alternative)
Media Coder / Super (converts movies for use on iPods and PSP, etc.)

Finally, here are some of my links for finding the best available freeware:

IntelliScreen: The first iphone app I might buy

2008-06-23T13:50:00.005-05:00

IntelliScreen is an app for jailbroken iPhones which fixes something that has always nagged me about the iPhone even though I never quite vocalized it: the default view is useless and always makes you perform one step (the slide) to get to any functionality. Yes, with the default software you can see Missed Calls, VoiceMail, and Texts at the lock screen, but this page has the potential to be loaded with at-a-glance info.

IntelliScreen adds this info in a customizable format (weather, SMS, email, RSS, and Calendar), although it is slightly difficult to move things around the screen to place them exactly right. Once set, things looks and function very nicely, and you can swipe the items to immediately go right to that app. I recently never used the Calendar on the iphone, but when I found NemusSync to sync my GoogleCalendar, now this Calendar feature on my lock screen works very nicely, and I fill up most of the IntelliScreen with my Calendar (which you can also scroll through right on the frontpage).

A cheap version of this app costs $5, which I would easily pay if it weren't for the AppStore just around the corner. The developers haven't promised 2.0 functionality yet, but I'm sure they'll do it, or someone will. I guess I'll wait a week or two.

Before and after installing IntelliScreen:

Yes, cluttered, but also much more functional. Plus, I always have a hard time getting the swipe to work on my first try when I rush it.

Ambidexterity x 2

2008-06-21T11:12:00.003-05:00

Pretty funny video attached to this story. Thanks for sending this to me, Will!

What happens when an ambidextrous pitcher faces off against a switch-hitting batter?

Old newspapers online

2008-06-11T10:13:00.006-05:00

Google Archives and other online sites scan and do OCR on a bunch of old newspapers. Many of the links Google pushes you through are pay sites, but several of their links have the exact same content, but for free.

Try it out and go search for your own great-grandparents or other family members. I also found a neat little blurb in a 1974 paper which congratulated Troop 606 and mentioned a young Brownie named Mary and her mother Rosa (my older sister and mom).

I stumbled upon the following login info, which probably will be extinct before too long (an extinction likely hastened by my re-posting it here). Anyhow, I was able to find the above Indiana newspaper from 1907 which announces the marriage of my great-grandfather (who apparently also went by 'Mat') to one Anna Halfman.

http://ia.newspaperarchive.com/

EDIT: Login info no longer works. Hopefully someone offers some source like this for free eventually

Windows software: Copy Handler

2008-06-09T05:02:00.002-05:00

Copy Handler: speed up and control file copying and moving operations - review & download link | freewaregenius.com

This seems to fix a fundamental and persevering flaw in Windows-- really, really bad file copying management.

New ways to find new news: Alltop and Addictomatic

2008-05-21T17:35:00.006-05:00

I've just found out about two new fun ways to find new news. Previously I've depended solely on the dozen or so newsfeeds that I subscribe to through Google Reader, but those get stale after a while.

Enter Alltop and Addictomatic.

Alltop gives you a list of every major category you can think of, and clicking through takes you to a neatly-organized grid of all the best news sites for that topic, along with a brief RSS-type listing of the most recent stories in at that site. Very fast page loading and navigation, and it lets you both finding interesting news items as well as discover new blogs and websites to add to your normal RSS feeds.

Addictomatic is similar, but enables a more targeted search. It requires some search term (e.g., "Arrested Development"), and then scans a bunch of blogs and reports all the most recent hits along that search term, organized in a very similar fashion to Alltop. I used this to search for useful articles about my new laptop (Dell XPS M1330), which also informed me of a pricedrop right days after I purchased it. (I called them up and they offered to send me $220 back to my credit card).

Getting good with Google Reader

2008-05-16T11:42:00.001-05:00

Hack Attack: Getting good with Google Reader

Colbert / O'Reilly funniness

2008-05-14T20:35:00.000-05:00

Food fight

2008-05-14T09:58:00.004-05:00

OK i can't keep on linking to these PBF comics, but dangit I think they are so damn funny in the most low-key kind of way. this one is all about the slap.

Slimming down the wallet

2008-05-13T09:59:00.006-05:00

Comments from Lifehacker.com.

I had previously been using a small Magic Wallet, but after hearing about this smaller All-ett, and seeing all these comments raving about it, i will try it out. After all, one of the highest goals a guy sets for himself is to determine the ABSOLUTE IDEAL way to carry their cash and cards. It is a lofty goal, but all guys have it.

Also worth trying:
A way to combine all your scannable grocery cards

Wishing Well

2008-05-13T09:49:00.006-05:00

From Perry Bible Fellowship comics.
The consoling hand-on-shoulder is what nails it.

i love it

Optimus Prime ipod dock

2008-05-10T09:03:00.005-05:00

Why, exactly, is this a product? Why exactly hasn't anyone bought me one yet!?!

Transformers iPod Speaker Set

New chat client Digsby: excellent

2008-05-09T20:03:00.003-05:00

Digsby has, in about 10 minutes of usage, become my new favorite chat client. Major improvements over Pidgin and Trillian include: bloat-free operation (sorry Trillian), videochat (sorry Pidgin), Facebook integration (totally novel!)

Also handles collapsing multiple contacts into one meta-contact well, and the overall interface is very well done. Two thumbs up

Xylophone

2008-05-06T12:02:00.002-05:00

Ok, maybe this is a little mean. But I would've taped it too. Apparently the rug is the culprit.

Google Maps' driving directions with StreetView

2008-05-05T08:28:00.000-05:00

More Google coolness

Let me be clear: Google Reader rocks

2008-04-30T09:48:00.002-05:00

And I would love to get a job there.

1930s steam cooker

2008-04-19T12:28:00.005-05:00

This reminds me of when Marty's dad wrapped a pork chop in tin foil and put it on his engine block in 1998 to cook it as he drove up to U of Chicago to visit us at Regent's Park. Really?? A car engine COOKING something sufficiently?? Is a 40 minute drive the recommended cooking time for engine blocks/pork chops?? So then I was faced with the prospect of either hurting his feelings by not eating it or of getting fatally e. coli poisoned. i think i went with the former option, and felt very bad about it.

Job for me?

2008-04-14T08:29:00.000-05:00

User Experience Researcher - Santa Monica

This position is based in Santa Monica, CA.

The area: User Experience

We follow a simple but vital premise in the User Experience group: "Focus on the user and all else will follow." We're passionately interested in our users and strive to learn everything we can about their behaviors, attitudes and emotions to help define the products and experiences we create. The User Experience team is a critical driving force behind gathering these insights and then using them to inspire and inform design. We are a multi-disciplinary team of interaction designers, visual designers, user researchers, copywriters and Web developers who collaborate closely with each other and with engineering and product management to create innovative, usable, great-looking products that people love to use.

The role: User Experience Researcher

Help us find out about our users! Google is looking for User Experience Researchers at all levels, to design and conduct user research studies throughout the product cycle. You will use a range of methods, working closely with UI designers and product teams to define new products, assess the usability of prototypes, and influence the future direction of existing products.

You will have the opportunity to work on products of all types: web sites like Google search and AdWords, web applications like Gmail and Google Maps, client applications like Picasa and Google Earth, and mobile services like Google SMS.

Responsibilities:

On-line communities and social computing, Testing applications for mobile devices and eye-tracking.
Programming/scripting, Web design/HTML and analysis of web server log data.
Accessibility and universal design, International user research or remote user studies and Design and analysis of experiments or surveys.
Working with product teams to ensure that user research findings are tracked and acted on.
Early-stage user research methods such as contextual inquiry, paper prototyping, card sorting, personas.

Requirements:

B.S. in Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Psychology or Computer Science.
Academic or practical knowledge of user research methods, including lab-based usability studies, field studies, and usability inspections.
Excellent analytical ability, especially with regard to observation of user behavior and strong oral and written communication skills; can present findings concisely and effectively.
Training in research methods and statistics.
Can work independently and prioritize time between multiple projects, and be flexible by adapting to changing schedules and different types of products.
Can work well in cross-functional teams, including Engineers, Product Managers, and UI Designers.

Learning the phone

2008-04-11T08:36:00.003-05:00

Universal health care

2008-04-08T09:03:00.001-05:00

[Reuters] - More than half of U.S. doctors now favor switching to a national health care plan and fewer than a third oppose the idea, according to a survey published on Monday.

Many other countries have national plans, including Britain, France and Canada, and several studies have shown the United States spends more per capita on health care, without achieving better results for patients.

An estimated 47 million people have no insurance coverage at all, meaning they must pay out of their pockets for health care or skip it.

Certified Diskette

2008-04-04T13:34:00.004-05:00

Garbage and Junk

2008-04-02T10:38:00.003-05:00

365daysoftrash.blogspot.com is a little gimmicky, but it is something I've been thinking more and more about lately: how much garbage we generate, and what happens to it down the line. My sister bought me some cloth bags to use while grocery shopping (thanks Mags!) and now of course I give scathing looks at everyone else using those plastic bags that I was using just last month. (It's too damn easy to become judgmental when you are finally willing to make a change for yourself.) :) Anyhow, here's an interesting post from his blog, which I've just followed the steps through to reduce junk mail.. looks promising. Maybe I'll post an update in a few months to rate its effectiveness.

[365daysoftrash]

Head over to The Direct Marketing Association and for $1 (I think that's a legal requirement) they'll get you off a whole mess of lists. Your request will be active for 5 years at which time you'll need to renew.
Catalog Choice is a free service that will help get rid of unwanted catalogs for ya.
Optout will put an end to most unsolicited credit card and insurance offers.
If stuff continues to come in, rather than recycling it right off the bat, call the 800 number and asked to be placed on their "do not mail" list. Legally they have to and most will oblige.

Google Reader has changed my life

2008-04-02T10:22:00.006-05:00

Few technologies can make me claim such bold things, but I'm all for hyperbole. Between the great web reader and the tight iPhone interface, I have very few complaints with Google Reader and HIGHLY recommend it for obsessive-compulsive checking of favorite websites for news.

I love all the Durham RSS feeds, which give me news about the drought, new or hidden restaurants, or other things that traditional local media (newspaper, TV) are just horribly underreporting on. I also love these RSS feeds: Wired, Radar Online, Neatorama, Boingboing, Engadget, TUAW, NYT Opinion, Seth Godin's blog, Tim Ferriss's blog, and my sister's photoblog.

Any time I eat lunch by myself, I'm constantly flipping through the highly customized RSS feeds on my phone, and am never without new news stimulation. When I get a chance, I will post the full list of all my RSS feeds. Also-- I'm always looking for some new ones! let me know

Ebb and flow of movie earnings

2008-02-26T22:54:00.005-05:00

This is just too cool not to check out for a second

[NY Times]

Vampire Weekend

2008-02-25T14:23:00.008-05:00

This is a great new album! I bet they take off on the same kind of trajectory as The Shins. This band has similarly strong and clean vocals, catchy hooks, short songs, and unlike the shins, a very strong drumbeat, sometimes even African-sounding (a la Paul Simon?)

Here's a good one:
Cape Code Kwassa Kwassa

And another good one, about pretentiousness:
Oxford Comma

Very useful Gmail tip

2008-02-25T09:28:00.002-05:00

From makeuseof.com, a very interesting and useful tip about gmail:

Just about when I thought I got everything out of Gmail, I discovered my top favorite feature. We have published over 30 tools in Gmail RoundUp 1 and almost 80 tools and tips in Gmail RoundUp 2 but never mentioned anything similar to this one. Tribute for this one goes to my ‘I am not into computers‘ type girlfriend.

Let’s say that your email address is ‘GeorgeBush@gmail.com’, basically everything sent to any of the following email addresses will be forwarded to your primary email.

GeorgeBush@gmail.com
G.eorgeBush@gmail.com
Ge.orgeBush@gmail.com
GeorgeBus.h@gmail.com

GeorgeBush@googlemail.com
G.eorgeBush@googlemail.com
Ge.orgeBush@googlemail.com
GeorgeBus.h@googlemail.com

And that’s not all, you can place as many dots as you want, it can be even something like ‘G.e.o.r.g.e.B.u.s.h@gmail.com’ and you’ll still get it on ‘GeorgeBush@gmail.com’

Additionally, I just also found out that you can embed random text to your email ID using ‘+’ sign. That is to say ‘GeorgeBush+anythingyouwant@gmail.com’ can be used as your email address, as well.

Ok I got it. Now what ? ...

[makeusof.com]

RSS by email

2008-02-25T09:18:00.006-05:00

SendMeRSS is a service which lets you send RSS feed updates directly to your email. This could be overwhelming for certain kinds of RSS feeds, but this is perfect for things which rarely update, yet when they update you want to find out about them immediately. Case in point: Craigslist searches.

I found out about that service in the article '14 other ways to use RSS feeds'

Wired

2008-02-19T09:40:00.003-05:00

Doctorow's response after reading the first issue of Wired is identical to my own, each and every month I've read it for the past 5 years of school. Sigh.

From boingboing.net:
Filmolicious dug a 15-year-old copy of Wired issue 1.0 out and gave it a loving, thoroughgoing examination through the lens of history. My life was changed by that issue -- I read it on the bus on the way to university in Waterloo, Ontario, got off the bus, took one look at the campus, and thought, "Christ, why am I here, when all this stuff is going on out there?" A few months later, I'd dropped out to program CD ROMs for the Voyager company, whose wares had been reviewed in that inaugural issue.

Craigslist alerts to your email

2008-02-17T23:49:00.003-05:00

Craigslist really drops the ball in several areas, including presentation, scope, and basic functionality. Yet, it is also really useful, and an important alternative to eBay, particularly when it comes to large items or those things which demand inspection before buying.

One of the things it really lacks is something similar to eBay alerts, which will email you when a particular saved search finally hits. You can know instantly when something goes up for sale. Time isn't even as critical on eBay as it is on Craigslist, given the auction format difference, making it even more important to know as soon as possible when something of interest is posted to your local Craigslist.

Fortunately, there is a workaround, thanks to RSS feeds. Instead of searching every so often for a particular item/apartment, you can set up the search as an RSS feed, which can then be checked in an RSS reader (Firefox, Thunderbird, NetNewsWire, Safari, Google Reader), or it can be emailed directly to your inbox (with Thunderbird, Mail.app).

First, do a search, within your region, and within a particular category (or at the top level):

Click the 'RSS' button in the lower right corner.
Now copy the URL from the addressbar and paste it into your RSS reader.

At this point, you now have an auto-updating RSS feed which is useful in itself, if you already do RSS-checking. If you do not check RSS all the time (or don't know what it is), and still want to get email alerts for Craigslist, (for example, on your Blackberry or iPhone), then you need to add the RSS address into a mail program on any desktop which can run at all times. (Note: this is the main limitation of this process, and it would be interesting if there is some web service which could constantly monitor RSS feeds and then email you updates... I bet there is SOME kind of service which does this.) UPDATE: I found an email service called SendMeRSS which does this automatically, thanks to an RSS article here. Using that service, one could skip all the rest of this and just put the feeds into the web service, forwarding the right searches to your email.

In your Mail program, add an RSS account. In Thunderbird, here is how it looks:
Once that is set up, add the feed that you copied from the RSS page at Craigslist:

Lastly, set up a Message Filter or Rule (called different things, depending on the mail client), so that anytime an incoming RSS message has "Craigslist" in its 'FROM', it automatically copies it to your email box or forwards into one of your email addresses. This only needs to be done once, and then will be set for all future searches. Here, I am copying the message to a folder on my IMAP mail server labeled "RSS Feeds". You could also just have it forward the message to your email account.

Now, you will be notified by email, very soon after your desired search is fulfilled, giving you first chance at contacting the seller and snagging any good deals.

iPhone problems

2008-02-15T11:42:00.007-05:00

Current bugs/problems I need resolved: (to be updated for better or worse)

iPhone SDK wishlist

2008-02-15T11:01:00.006-05:00

With the new iPhone SDK coming soon, I was trying to map out what things I'd most like to see out of it. Here is a mix of necessary apps, plus other interesting possibilities, ranked approximately in order of desire. I'll update this list with any other suggestions. Depending on the complexity of the SDK, I might be inspired to try creating an app myself.

Mail 2.0 [including Search, Sort, and Flagging]
Internet Radio [something better than the current FlyTunes webapp]
YouTube 2.0 [account login, subscriptions]
Metronome
Guitar tuner
Call recorder

Other desired improvements (probably not from the application SDK, though)

Copy and Paste functionality [though I bet the SDK is more for creating stand-alone apps, and have doubts on seeing this anytime soon]
Hard drive functionality
Send-to-another-iPhone functionality
Wireless syncing of music
Better bluetooth support (syncing, playing music)

the iPhone rocks (still)

2008-02-06T10:48:00.001-05:00

The iPhone rocks.

7 months in, here are the main things I use it for, obsessively and excessively, in approximate order of frequency:

Check email
Read my RSS feeds [Google or NewsGator, both have functionality trade-offs]
Google calendar
Phone
Surf random websites
Check weather
Directions using Google maps
Use Google maps for yellowpages look-ups
Track weight & bodyfat [Gyminee.com]
Track exercise & lifting [Gyminee.com]
iPod
Playing any music that isn't already on the iPhone [Seeqpod]
Take low-res photos
Post photos to blog
Text messaging
Check eBay
Check wikipedia
Check stocks
Check Facebook
Watch video podcasts in bed
Show photos to others
Display guitar tabs
Lookup chord diagrams
YouTube guitar lessons
YouTube drum lessons
Check flight status
Watch TV shows and movies
Calculator
GPS
Use as flashlight next to my bed

It turns out, the internet functionality is far and away the most useful thing for me, and the iPod function is only occasionally used. It functions for about 80% of what I would do on a laptop, and is only truly prohibited by the inability to type long emails.

Webapps are turning out to be useful, but I still can't wait to see what is done with the upcoming SDK, ETA sometime this month.

frivolous photography

2008-02-05T23:26:00.000-05:00

In trying to figure out what kind of content i might like to blog about, i decided to try out something new - a photoblog kind of thing.

People only take photos and home movies of special trips, or events, or when others visit, and so, for those of us with a truly awful memory, it makes the daily life something only dimly remembered, years later.

So, here is a site i'm experimenting with posting some pictures to, mostly for mom to see what i'm doing, since she always says she has no idea and that i never say. Also, I'm somewhat just curious if it is something i could keep up, and if so, whether it might be interesting to myself, at some random point in the future. I like seeing in the background of an old photo what my college dorm room looked like, but it is the kind of thing that never merited any real photographic attention.

Anyhow, it might end up being a total bust, but i guess it is something new to try out, at least until i have real content to blog about.

wildflux

Why We Desperately Need a New (and Better) Google

Setting up a Windows machine

PAX 2010

habouji

How-to quickly find the best ANYTHING

Amazon.com deals

iPhone launch infographic

Tech/iDevice blog coming soon

Now who's the genius

Reiner Knizia's Ra

Come play Bad Company 2 with me and my group!

My dual-target search experiments reported in Scientific American

Gmail finally adds drag-n-drop for attachments

Pong clock

Favorite Windows Apps (2010 edition)

iPhone development approval

Dropbox for cross-computer file syncing

New Simpsons Intro

Farecast update

Big fish, small pond redux (+ TED talks)

Make the world smaller

Looking for: a new media center

Fighting Giraffes

Farecast foretells flight fare futures

Seth Godin's blog

Watching the Times struggle (and what you can learn)

Urgent personal finance advice

10,000 hours

The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

Beauty as a signaling strategy

Love (and annoying)

Why bother having a resume?

Awesome charity album coming soon

Freakonomics interviews Guitar Hero

Ustream iPhone app

Rock Band DLC: Steve Miller Band

iPhone Development 101

Mates of State

Currently installed iPhone apps

Craigslist alerts, round 2

Google app for iPhone released soon!!

Scott Bakula Jumps Into McCain's Body Just Before Election [The Onion]

MyFavoriteStuff: A&L Acoustic Guitar

Inside Obama's Gmail [The Onion]

The Volt Isn't A Prius. It Might Even Be Better | Autopia from Wired.com

Guitar Hero World Tour Music Creation: my personal drum teacher?

Original iPhone quirks

Modern games with Atari box art

Featured IPhone Application: Air Sharing Transfers Files Between iPhones and Any System

Picasa now has face-detection/tagging

Logitech Squeezebox Boom

New Google browser approaches

Burn video files to a playable DVD

Worth its weight in gold?

Presentation skillz of Steve Jobs

Just paid for a resume-editing service

Find out how much anyone's house or car is worth

NuevaSync syncs Google contacts/calendars to iPhone

Pengiun Comics

iPhone 3G review (part 1)

Micro Persuasion: Become a Knowledge Management Ninja with Google Reader

My favorite Windows apps

IntelliScreen: The first iphone app I might buy

Ambidexterity x 2

Old newspapers online

Windows software: Copy Handler

New ways to find new news: Alltop and Addictomatic

Getting good with Google Reader

Colbert / O'Reilly funniness

Food fight

Slimming down the wallet

Wishing Well

Optimus Prime ipod dock

New chat client Digsby: *excellent*

Xylophone

Google Maps' driving directions with StreetView

Let me be clear: Google Reader rocks

1930s steam cooker

Job for me?

New chat client Digsby: excellent