Can't...fight...early...adopter...syndrome...

I'm trying, I swear.

Really, I am. I even wrote a post about how unimpressed I was with the second generation iPhone on AT&T's 3G network. Look, it's not my fault, okay? I've been diagnosed with early adopter syndrome.

I was doing just fine, you see, until my friend dropped his stupid phone into the ocean. When it became clear he'd need a replacement, he asked me if I knew when the next iPhone release was going to be. And that's when I relapsed.

See, the thing is, it doesn't even matter to me that I could care less about 90% of the new applications on the phone. Nor am I really affected by the advent of the 3G network, because I spend most of my time in a free wireless cloud anyway. But none of that matters.

I have to have it. Oh yes, I will be in Union Square on July 11, I can guarantee you that much. I'm not asking for your sympathy. Just please understand that it's hard for me to say "no."

And if you really want to know the truth, the hardest part was when Sansserif casually asked me when I was going to get the new phone, as if it were a matter of course that I'd eventually buy it. I mean, when you put it like that--it just seems so obvious. I have to accept who I am.

Unfortunately, it is by its very nature a contagious condition. Don't worry. I will keep myself in isolation while I play with my new smart phone. If you need to reach me, you know my number. Or just send me an email, or post a comment to this blog for that matter because I'll be checking on the connection speeds pretty regularly. Just please remember that it's hands free in California after July 1, so if I'm driving you may just want to text me and I'll ping you back.

So if the first step to recovery really is admitting that you have a problem, then let me proclaim far and wide: My name is Youareyou. And I am an early adopter.

My Kindle Feedback

For graduation I was ecstatic to receive the Amazon Kindle from a certain beloved friend. I've had it for about a month, so I'm finally ready to give my review. (Despite studying for the bar this summer, I've probably read my Kindle 5 days a week since I got it.)

Likes:
Wireless downloading. The e-books cost a few dollars less than the print versions. The Whispernet network is "free;" like a GPS navigator, you basically pay for it in the price of the device. Every book I've searched for, Amazon has available as an e-book. Getting a book immediately fulfills all my Gen-Y instant gratification needs. I'm reading a fantasy series by Robin Hobb at the moment, and it's delicious being able to download the next book instantly.

The scroll wheel selector. The scroll wheel controls the selector, which runs along a channel on the right side. It's a beautiful cluster of 4 giant, shiny silver pixels that bubble around in a circle when it's 'thinking.' I adore it.

Quality of the print. Brilliant. It gets clearer in bright light, which is fantastically eerie in this laptop-screen age. Personally I'm completely comfortable reading on my computer screen, but it's undeniably wonderful. I wish they would backlight it with a green glow for the darkness. Understandably, they were trying to make it as book-like as possible, but a backlight would be sweet.

Issues:
Buttons. Speaking of book-like, they erred with the page turning buttons. Like a real book, the Kindle has page turners (next page and previous page) along both edges of the device. I'm constantly bumping these buttons (which have a soft 'snick' type click) and accidentally turning the page. I'd like to see buttons that are inlaid, preferably with a sharp and definite click, and which don't extend the entire edge.

Relatedly, the space to actually hold the device while reading is very limited because of the page turners and keyboard. The page turners also contribute to a certain awkwardness in the device. It doesn't rest well in my hands because the edges are sharp and beveled, so that they press uncomfortably against the webbing between my thumb and pointer finger.

DRMS. The Kindle uses its own file format, which functions as a DRM system. The idea that such a system will last is laughable to me. That's what iTunes has, and it's gotten them into device/format wars and is easy to decode. E-books are in their infancy but I think that like MP3s, there will soon be a brisk market of free e-books. Until then the price will be high. It's like ringtones: absurdly priced now ($2.99 for a 30 second snippet of a song I already own?!), but when the markets mature they won't be able to charge that much.

You can also get subscriptions to blogs and newspapers, delivered automatically. That's nice, but I get those free online, so I don't feel a need to pay even 99 cents a month for them.

You can get a document sent to your Kindle in the Kindle format for 10 cents, which is ok, but really, I should be able to do that myself, for free. If Amazon were smart they'd launch a subscription model: pay X dollars a month to download X number of books, at varying levels.

What I love about the Kindle is the software, and most of what I dislike is about the physical aesthetics. Rather than make it a palatable crossover from a book, they should redesign it with the actual needs of a e-book reader in mind.

Other Comments:
The Kindle has "experimental" features, such as the ability to listen to music (in a continuous playlist, like a Shuffle) and a clumsy sort of internet access. I think they should abandon these projects. The audio feature might be OK for audio books, but personally if I want music or an audio book I'll use my iPod. (Speaking of which, only MP3s can be added, not iTunes' AAC format, which has led me to flirt, for the very first time, with other music player possibilities. But that's another post unto itself.)

While it would be awesome to check my email, it's definitely not practical to write an email on the Kindle. If you want a computer in your pocket, use your smart phone, which is made for those purposes. The Kindle's scroll wheel is extraordinarily ill-suited to browsing the internet (you can only select a line of type, not an individual word or link).

I think Amazon would do better to stop trying to make the Kindle satisfy every need, and focus on what the Kindle really is: a good read.

A Slight Margin of Error

After once being wooed by both Microsoft and News Corp, it looked like Yahoo was going to be the big winner in a tale of two futures. But their algorithm for playing one bid off the other was apparently a bit flawed (they thought they could get $37 per share out of Microsoft's initial $33 offer).

Today, Yahoo faced a 13 percent drop in share price over the news that Microsoft "unequivocally" wants nothing to do with the company. Ironically, Yahoo now finds itself paired up with an unlikely partner for ad revenue sharing--Google.

It may not be the dream deal they were hoping for, but at least it should help improve their algorithm.

Mixed Messages

YouAreYou and I had an odd experience the other day. We were heading to dinner at rush hour to a place we'd never been, so we both checked directions on Google Maps. I looked it up on my laptop, while he searched on his iPhone. Both had the same destination and origin. We were given different directions!

YouAreYou: "Maybe they're trying to protect their trade secret algorithm by confusing us?"

Mine said to take Van Ness, while his said to take Divisadero. If you live in San Francisco, you'd probably do what we did: obviously, take Divis.

It's all about the apps

The Mac Developer Conference is happening just a few miles away from me, and yet I'm not important enough to get my foot in the door (rumor has it that Al Gore's in attendance), so I must get my iPhone fix from MacRumors like everyone else. It's kind of like sipping a milkshake through a ten thousand foot straw...lots of anticipation, but not much substance.

I am still hoping that there's a big, tasty chunk of cookie dough or something (like the much anticipated 3G network) waiting at the end of the line, but here's all the news that has trickled in so far:

-they're opening the doors for developers to create new apps and user interfaces
-Loopt, the location-aware social network, will be an integrated app that works with the phone's GPS
-an eBay integrated app will allow users to participate in auctions (and spend money we don't have)
-there will be lots of new games and a 3-D fantasy adventure app (for all that free time we don't have)
-lots of web 2.0 apps to synch calendars, mail, transfer docs, and do pretty much everything you would normally do through a .mac account (too bad I use Google for all that)

And now, the moment we've all been waiting for:

(drum roll)
11:32 am - Introducing the iPhone 3G.

Yes, coming in at speeds 2.8 times faster than the EDGE network, the 3G is still slightly slower than a WiFi connection...but not much. The biggest development is in battery life (which had inhibited the introduction of 3G on the first iPhone release), which is a whopping 300 hours of standby and 5 hours of continual talk time.

Well, it turns out that my anticipation for something delicious was not in vain. Though I wasn't there to actually see the demo, the pictures on MacRumors tell me it was probably pretty cool. But ultimately, until they decide to unlock it and rid themselves of AT&T once and for all, there's nothing here to make me feel like my iPhone version 1.0 is approaching obsolescence.

It is, however, getting rather beat up after many months in my pocket. So while it may not be time to replace the phone, it's definitely time to get myself some gelaskins.

Even as a Mac guy...

...I gotta admit this is pretty sweet.



Hat tip to Tapan (and congratulations!).

A King of Infinite Space

I just got one of those text messages that you save forever--or, at least, for the life of your existing cellphone. The problem is that this particular phone happens to be an iPhone, which means that I automatically save all of my messages, regardless of how trivial or profound they may be.

This got me thinking that, perhaps, unlimited storage is not always a good thing. After all, there used to be a time when my SMS mailbox would fill up and the decision was thrust upon me whether a particular message was worthy of salvation. A select few would progress through multiple mailbox cleanings, but it required the most genuinely sincere expression from a friend or loved one to make it for the long haul.

And now I have one that fits the bill, but it is part of a never ending chain of messages including such deep thoughts as "Don't forget street cleaning," "Come over when u can," "Getting hungry?'"and my personal favorite, "K."

The same holds true for sent messages as well. Back when I had my $30 Samsung clamshell, I chose my words carefully. No predictive text. No QWERTY keyboard layout. Just the impassioned punching of 444 (space) 555 666 888 33 (space) 999 666 88 (exclamation point). These days, I'm nearly as wordy on my phone as I am in this blog. Punctuation is a must. I even capitalize proper nouns. And forget about abbreviations (excepting "WTF" and "OMG," which I've been known to use in ordinary conversation).

Eventually, we will all become kings of infinite space, though I suspect I won't be the only one who remembers back fondly to the time when we were bounded in our nutshells and our inboxes were nice and tidy.

Searching for Cash

Apparently I'm not the only one who has no idea about Microsoft's "Live Search" search engine. SiliconValley.com reports that MS is offering cash back rewards for using their search engine, redeemable for items like cameras.

One expert said, "The issue for Microsoft still remains in that will they be able to deliver enough scale in clicks for the top lucrative keywords, since that's a function of search market share which they have a very small share of right now."

SF Musictech Redux

It's been a long week of music and technology conferences in San Francisco. It began Sunday with a meet-and-greet "speed dating" session at NARM, and has not let up for three days of action packed panel after action packed panel assessing the state of the music industry in 2008. Well, that's not entirely true...there were a few low spots in the action, but more on that later. In any event, I will fight through the conference fatigue to bring you the latest from SF MusicTech (back by popular demand).




Morning Sessions: Digital Thought Leaders, Online Video, Artist Activism, and Copyright Issues in Music Law

The great thing about version 2.0 of MusicTech is that this time around I brought a colleague with me, which means that I get to be two places at once.

I was introduced to an interesting start-up called Plugged In, which provides high definition video streams for musicians. While YouTube offers an average of 700kbps streaming speeds, Plugged In claims to provide 1.5mbps which, for the uninitiated, is staggeringly fast. The most compelling aspect of what Plugged In offers, however, is an adaptive streaming technology that (in theory) sidesteps the frustrations of buffering and packet loss by automatically adjusting the quality of video based on the fluctuations in bandwidth in the user's endpoint. I haven't tested this theory yet on my own, but the prospects are tantalizing.

In short, I can summarize everything else we've heard over five days of music industry conferences in one sentence: any revenue model that relies on the sale of little round plastic disks will soon be completely, unequivocally, 100% worthless.

Nobody is actually saying this, of course, but it is easy enough to read between the lines. As the commoditzation of recorded music pushes prices closer and closer to zero, the old school players in the music industry are being motivated primarily by fear.

Everyone has a different way of expressing this truth, and in the case of the major labels this expression comes in the form of transparent denial. And that's a-okay with me. The most commonly asked question in terms of digital and other so-called 'alternative' revenue streams is, "How do we monetize this?" If you work for a major label, the short answer is: you don't. The second most frequently asked question is, "How to we stop people from stealing our music on P2P sites?" And to that the answer is the same: you don't.

The major labels all have eloquent representatives who are very good at framing the debate around the types of questions they want to ask and answer. But ultimately this amounts to arguing over the best way to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.

This is not to say that you can't make money anymore in the music industry. But lifeboats tend to be much more maneuverable than sinking ships.

Three Reasons I Use LinkedIn

A professor of mine recently asked me if I think LinkedIn is useful. Here's why I like LinkedIn:

Resume distributor. I use it to look up people I'm going to meet (for an interview, for example). It's a subtle way of essentially giving someone my resume, and seeing someone else's resume. If I meet someone at a networking event and exchange emails, by becoming my contact on LinkedIn they look at my profile - which has the same content as my resume.

Rolodex. After I meet someone, connecting to them on LinkedIn gives me a chance to reinforce the connection and keep the connection alive ("It was nice meeting you the other day..."). Down the road, if I ever want to contact that person, we each have enough information about each other to remember one another. It's an automatic rolodex in that way as well - I have someone's contact info immediately instead of having to hunt around for a business card. It's Facebook for professionals, and it looks impressive to have a bulging rolodex.

Connecting. Last reason - it actually is useful for it's core purpose, which is to connect you to the people who are two and three degrees away. Here's an example: a friend of mine wanted to talk to an attorney at a law firm to see what firm life was like. But he didn't know anyone at that firm. I looked up the firm on LinkedIn and discovered that a LinkedIn contact of mine had a LinkedIn contact at the firm. I asked my contact to email his contact at the firm, and my friend got connected. Don't get me wrong - I'd never use the LinkedIn "In Mail" to connect to someone through the site. But I definitely use it to connect to people in more traditional off-site ways.

Inblognito

Last month Cubans won the right to own personal computers. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Only foreigners (at hotels) and government officials and academics are allowed to access the internet, as the Washington Post reports.

But people are blogging about their experiences and criticisms of the government in Cuba; this blogger dresses like a tourist and sneaks into hotels to blog.

The government is blogging too - to improve Cuba's image worldwide, naturally.

Searching

I recently attended a conference on online advertising. A woman from Microsoft was seated at my table and we made friendly conversation. Around lunchtime, she asked if I knew of any local coffee shops. I didn't, but I had my laptop open so I offered, "Do you want me to Google it for you?" She let out a strained laugh and said, "Or you could Live Search it."
I laughed too, but I was confused. I'm pretty plugged in, but it took me a full two seconds to have any idea what she was talking about. Finally it clicked: Live Search is Microsoft's search engine.

When I got home that night, I decided to compare Live Search to Google. (And I had to Google it to get the URL...) I was looking for a Thai restaurant, so I entered "Thai near 94118." Here are the screen shots of the results:




To be fair, they're both similar content-wise. Google's was more helpful primarily because the map was provided on the search results page. When I clicked into Live Search's results, the map they provided didn't have zoom functionality, a real disadvantage if you live in a city and need a cross street.

Off The Wall

Every once in a while, I hear about one of those phone calls that goes something like this:

"Hello, Joe? Hi, it's me, Jim. You remember...from high school? Well I just wanted to call because I'm feeling really bad about that mean trick I played on you at the tailgate party senior year. That was really dumb of me, and even though it's been fifteen years I can't stop thinking about what an jerk I was. I hope you'll accept my apology."

But these days, the mea culpa doesn't even need to come by way of telephone. Consider this recent Facebook wall post from one high school friend to another:


Now, when I saw this in my news feed the other day I naturally wondered what my friend could have possibly done to her that was so bad before homecoming in '93. After all, we went to the same school and I hadn't remembered hearing about any earth-shaking drama surrounding that particular dance.

The answer came a couple days later:



It's good to see that Facebook can not only reunite friends from the past, but also atone for the sins of youth--and publicly at that!

A Modern Take on Mass-Emails

After being on the receiving end of a recent mass-emailing, I got into a discussion with a good friend of mine about mass-email etiquette. YouAreYou's comment to this was: "How quaint!" It does seem a bit quaint to have an email etiquette conversation; after all, everyone is claiming email is old-school. But I soon realized that my reluctance over being included on a mass-email was actually fairly modern:

With Gmail, the other people on the email will end up in your contact list. That causes trouble when you use sites that scan your contacts for friends (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) or when Gchat updates your buddy list. You end up having all these people in your contact and buddy list that you don't actually know.

Of course I also feel a little hesitant when people I don't know have my email. Who knows how careful strangers are with their data?

However, my biggest beef with mass-emailing is actually pretty old-school: Snarky comments, inside jokes, people trying to be funny...who wants to get tangled in a reply-all thread like that?

Time Travel

All my prayers have been answered. Once again, those clever folks at Google have defied the laws of the universe to bring a top notch product to market: custom time. Just make sure you don't read their terms of use.

Okay, so maybe they aren't quite up to the standards of The Onion, but I give them a grudging smile for the effort.

The Loop Grows

It looks like I was a little hasty in referring to Loopt as an "early adopter" technology in my last post because the company just signed a deal with Verizon, which opens the GPS-enabled social networking device to approximately 65 million customers.

Naturally, we should prepare ourselves for the next round of discussions about our dwindling privacy and how this surely must be the end of the world (again). A fellow blogger, Ben Wright, made an interesting comment about the possibility of end-users publishing their own terms of service that impose privacy rules. I'm not sure how this would work in practice, especially in cases of lost or stolen cell phones where legal notices are not likely to deter stalkers and other such bad guys, but it's good to see innovative ideas applied to the question of privacy.

I just hope we don't have to endure a new era of commercials featuring the Verizon Wireless Guy: "Can you see where I'm at now? Good!"

OMG ...1GB!?!

Just got back from a trip to the Midwest with Sansserif, and I finally got around to downloading Picasa's web album uploader software on my home computer so that I could share the photos. As I waited for the program to download, I browsed some of the new Google products under development and found a new YouTube video uploader (along with an interesting 3D drawing program called SketchUp, but that's the subject of an entirely different post).

Coincidentally, I had spent much of the flight home making a "to do" list, and one of the items on said list had been to find the best software for compressing large video files to meet the 100MB file size limit on YouTube. I wondered if they had finally developed an application to automatically restrict video file size to meet these meager limits.

But what I found out was so, so much better: they didn't need to.

I blinked and looked again at the words written in bold. Could there really be a full gigabyte of delicious storage space available for each video I upload? Had I missed a memo or something? Granted, being on a ranch in Nebraska isn't exactly the best way to stay on top of the latest tech news, but I felt like I'd emerged from a black hole or something.

I really have to tip my (cowboy) hat to Google on this one. As Sansserif says, the best part of making a "to do" list is being able to cross off the completed tasks when you finish them. But the best part of my discovery is that I got to cross something off my list and I didn't have to do anything at all.

Divide

YouAreYou is only a few years older than me, but he technically falls under Generation X while I technically fall under the Gen-Y age bracket. While there is much teasing along these lines, occasionally the divide does indeed become evident, as the following example demonstrates:

YouAreYou is currently working on the interior design of his new office. He drew a floor plan of the space dimensions on graph paper. (As an aside, the software for that purpose that I found online didn't seem to capture his interest.) He scanned the floor plan and sent me a PDF copy to look at.

A few days later he said, "I'll make a bunch of photocopies so we can sketch out ideas." I looked at him quizzically and with perfect Gen-Y innocence asked, "Why don't you just print the PDF?"

In the Loop

I recently added the Loopt application to my Facebook account after a friend got a new cell phone featuring the GPS tracking software. Essentially, the lines between social networking and mobile devices are getting blurred. This, in turn, blurs a more important line between our semi-anonymous online personas and our so-called "real world" identities.

Now, before anyone gets all paranoid about their privacy, don't worry. This is nothing like that pesky illegal government wiretapping and/or other undisclosed terrorist surveillance activities that the telecoms can neither confirm nor deny the existence of. No, no, no. This much simpler.

Having Loopt on a cell phone just eliminates the need for the most commonly texted question in the world: where u at? You only invite your friends to be able to see your location, and you can always lie about where you really are if you want to go off the radar for a bit.

I am here, btw: (or am I???)



Of course, I could zoom the Google map to my exact location but, frankly, I don't know you that well.

While this type of technology is certainly the trend of the future, it does not necessarily simplify the social nuances of online living. Consider, for instance, a house party that starts at 9pm. You have ten friends who are going, and none of you wants to be the first one to show up. It's easy to see how staring at your Loopt phone all night could result in a stalemate while everyone waits for someone else to make the first move.

For now, anyway, there is time to puzzle over this newest chapter in the Book of Netiquette (7th Edition) as Loopt is currently an early adopter technology. But don't be surprised if you someday find yourself in a social network that involves interacting in the so-called "real world" we're hearing so much about these days. I know...scary, right?

Landscapes, pt. 2

Per Sansserif's recent post on the landscape along the Pacific Coast Highway, I couldn't resist looking up the google earth image of our approximate location. Had I paid for the full version, I'm sure the two photos would be all but indistinguishable. Of course, they haven't yet figured out how to digitally replicate the sea breeze, or the sun.


Yes, I know...it's so Gen-X of me to tout the merits of the "real" world, but I can't help it. I guess you just had to be there.

Landscapes

 

When I was at my childhood home this winter, my father encouraged me to take a book about cameras home with me. The book is from the 1970s and explains f-stops, aperture values, etc. I resisted at first, insisting I could find all that information online, but to please him I took it with me. I finally cracked it open and found it very accessible. The other day I told this story to YouAreYou, inviting him to sample the old book smell.

"You can't get that on the internet!" He teased. I had to agree.

***************************

Driving along the Pacific Coast Highway this week, I admired the terrain of the land.
"It looks like a topographical map," I said. YouAreYou glanced at me sideways.
"That's very Gen-X of you," he commented, meaning not techospeak, Gen-Y.
"Sorry!" I said. "I meant, 'It looks like Google Terrain View.'" We laughed.

But still - you just can't get that on the internet.

(Nearly) Live Blog - SF Music Tech 2008

Two things you learn early on at an event with over 50 panelists: first, you will have to make decisions about which events to attend (I'm still torn between the 10:30am presentations of "Artists, Copyrights & Technologies" and "Issues in Music - Tech Licensing"); and secondly, anyone who seems overly friendly at the reception breakfast is probably going to hand you a glossy pamphlet introducing their business after about 2 minutes of idle chatter (and will be off to the next target before the 5 minute mark). Click here for the Twitter feed.

Session 1: Recommendation and Discovery

The central topic of this first panel was the question of how to discover new music in an era of almost overwhelming choices, a discussion quickly framed as a battle of “man vs. machine.” On one side, there were the techies in search of that magical formula that would make the process of collaborative filtering on the internet more accurate and useful for the end user. On the other side were the humanists who lamented the digitization and automation of subjective musical tastes.

I have a friend who recommends good music to me almost weekly, and we joke that my responses to her selections will be entered into her algorithm for future picks. So far, so good. I’ve found myself exposed to an increasingly diverse and sometimes challenging palate of music, with only a few misses here and there.

The real issue of recommendation seems to be one of trust—regardless of whether you are inclined to listen to a computer or human algorithm for selecting “good” music, there must be a high level of credibility from the source. Personally, I’ve had enough off the wall recommendations from amazon.com that my policy is to never take advice from any machine that wants to sell me something. Besides, my human recommender burns me the songs I want for free. (Note for our friends out there at Sony BMG, EMI, Universal, Warner, ASCAP and BMI...I'm just kidding!! Sheesh...take a joke, will you?)

Session 2 – Licensing (or, "How To Slice the Royalty Pie Into 1000 Worthless Pieces")

Listening to representatives from Real Networks and Sony Computer Entertainment lament the difficulties of licensing and computing royalty payments for digital downloads, on-demand streams and internet radio did not immediately evoke my sympathies. After all, it’s supposed to be difficult. They’re applying 20th century business metrics to 21st century technologies.

In most cases, the copyright owners and distribution companies have tenuous agreements not to sue each other until the CRB finally makes a determination of the appropriate royalty rates for new technologies. Originally, the determination was set to come out in 2001, but has been delayed indefinitely as more and more special interests enter the discussion of who is to be paid what, and when. Of course, there is one group of people that has been cut out of the debate entirely: the artist.

Apparently, the best way to slice the royalty pie is by inviting too many cooks in the kitchen.

Session 3 - The History of Everything - John Perry Barlow

The highlight of my day so far was definitely shaking hands with John Perry Barlow and telling him that his discussion was a breath of fresh air. His response was too colorful for print, but here are some of the most quoteworthy highlights from his presentation:

On becoming a songwriter:

“You just have to find yourself in the middle of an argument at the right time.”

On the value of recorded music:

“If I have a diamond the size of a softball, it is no less valuable if nobody knows about it. But if I have a song that is the equivalent of a softball-sized diamond, it is valueless unless other people know about it.”

On bootleg taping of live shows:

“It’s bad for your karma to be mean to a Deadhead.”

On the value of art:

“The value lies in the relationship between the creator and the audience. Art for me is a verb, not a noun.”

On co-founding the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

“At this stage, I’m like John the Baptist. In the beginning Mitch and I didn’t think we needed an organization at all, but we didn’t realize that in cyberspace the first amendment was a local ordinance.“

On the value of copyright:

“The first thing that we have to get rid of is this idea that we own ideas.”

On change:

“Most of the people who feel the same way about these things are younger than me. Most of the people who disagree with me are about my age. And some day, the people my age will die. That’s pretty much how change happens.”

Well Said

From someecards.com, hat tip to my friend B.

I don't want to play Scrabulous with you.

Look, we’re friends, right? And not just on Facebook. I mean, we’re pretty tight in real life, you and I, aren’t we? So there’s something I’ve been meaning to say, and it’s kind of gotten to the point where we should talk it out. You see, I really don’t want to play Scrabulous with you. Not even a little bit.

And yet you keep inviting me to add the application to my profile in spite of the fact that I continually ignore your requests. At first I thought you might have forgotten you had already sent the invitation multiple times. But now I realize that you just really want to play Scrabulous with me, and I feel it’s my duty to tell you right here and now that it’s never going to happen. I hope this doesn’t affect our friendship.

Now, listen—don’t get all pouty on me. I’m not saying that I support Hasbro’s attempts to remove Scrabulous from Facebook. In my opinion, that’s just another example of big corporations trying to limit the definitions of “fair use” on the net in order to put more money in their pockets. And for the record, I did notice that you’ve already joined the Facebook petition to save Scrabulous, and I totally respect that. It’s your right to free speech and, really, it’s beside the point.

I just don’t want to play Scrabulous with you. Period.

If you must know, my objections are twofold. First, I already have enough internet-based addictions, and I see no need to stoke the fires with yet another Facebook app. But the deeper issue for me is that it just doesn’t look very fun. No offense, but I’ve played a little Scrabble in my day, and the only thing that made that any fun was the competition derived from having to come up with good words under extreme time constraints without the use of a dictionary. I mean, what’s the point of wondering if “quixotry” is a word if you can simply google it on your lunch break? Where’s the sport in that?

Anyway, not to belabor the point, but I just want to say that I really am firm on this. I know that Scrabulous is all the rage these days, and that it has even spawned music videos touting its penetration into popular culture. Fair enough. But sometimes, you’ve just got to sit one out.

I’m glad we had this talk. There was this other friend of mine once who always wanted to post Super Poke messages to me. I didn’t say anything at first, until sometime around Halloween when this person started throwing vampires, ghosts and goblins at me like every day. I knew then that it would never end until I said something, but I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t handle it very well. We still keep in touch, but somehow I feel that things will never be quite the same.

So I hope you know it’s only because I value our friendship so much that I tell you, once again, that I will never play Scrabulous with you. Ever. But don’t worry, we can still test our movie knowledge together sometimes, and maybe even write on each other’s Super Walls from time to time. But unfortunately, that’s where I’m going to have to draw the line. I hope you understand.

Scents and Subtle Sounds

Much fuss has been made of the seriousness or frivolty or inadequacy of Facebook relationship status changes.

Commentators ignore, however, other more subtle signs of the intertwining of two people that fall short of status changes. Examples:

1. Wall writing. Writing on someone's Wall is probably the simplest way to publicly flirt. One can even quietly mark one's territory, such as by referring to time spent together ("The show last night was awesome, it was fun hanging out").

2. Friending the Friends. Spending time with someone leads to the inevitable intermixing of social groups in RL. Eventually, you become FB Friends with his/her Friends. This can even lead to friending the boyfriend/girlfriend of the Friends, in addition to writing on the Walls of Friends, often with references to the targeted person that s/he is bound to see.

3. Friending the family. Becoming Friends with siblings is a high indicator of a budding relationship, especially if those siblings live out of town.

4. Status removal. Changing one's status to "In a relationship" and linking to another person requires approval by the other person. As many have noted, going Facebook Official is a big and often intimidating step. A more subtle move is simply removing your status from your profile, so that nothing appears. Facebook needs to work on the News Feed for removal of the field. Currently your Feed will broadcast "Jane D. is no longer listed as single," (with the full heart icon!) when it would more properly read "Jane D. is no longer listing her relationship status." Facebook robs status removal of some of its subtlety, but perhaps it also forces more honesty?

Nevertheless, it should be noted that removing one's status can also be a polite and elegant way of avoiding unwanted advances from other Facebook Friends.

On Paper

I recently attended at a show at a small San Francisco venue. After purchasing the tickets online, I received this confirmation email:

You have bought ticket(s) to an event at Rickshaw Stop. There are no physical tickets; your name will simply be on the prepaid list. If you are the sort of person who likes to print things out, you may print this confirmation. But it is not necessary.

YouAreYou commented that this was kindness on the part of a Type B person for the needs of a Type A person.
On further thought, however, I think it's actually kindness on the part of a digital person for the needs of a hardcopy person...


The band, Bedouin Soundclash, from Canada:
 

Continental Drift

Follow me here:

Plate tectonics is based on the notion that the Earth is composed of seven or so large masses of crust floating atop layers of magma. Over time, the various points of tension between the land masses change due to the degree of volatility in the layers below, until at last the tension is released through a kind of awkward sputtering forward of the plates (better known as earthquakes). Then the process of gradual accumulation and release begins anew. We refer to this process politely as "continental drift" because, frankly, we don't know where or when or how it's going to happen next. In spite of all our knowledge and understanding, we're just drifting.

Now, by analogy:

The business world has its own version of "continental drift," specifically among large, multinational, public companies. To illustrate this, we could look at companies such as...hmm, let's say...Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and News Corp. The magma in this scenario is the volatility of market forces, and the tension is created by the need for these companies to not only "stay afloat" amid changing conditions, but also to deliver reliable, recurring profits to shareholders every quarter of every year into supposed perpetuity. Mergers and acquisitions tend to be one way that large public companies sustain this growth, often with unfortunate results. But every so often, the "continental drift" focuses into a highly acute tension that is intricate, fascinating and totally unpredictable. Consider our four case studies.

A tale of two futures:

The tech economy was rocked by Microsoft's announcement of an unsolicited (a.k.a. "hostile") bid to acquire Yahoo on February 1. As Google's shares fell, the company released this statement to argue (not unreasonably) that the Microsoft/Yahoo merger would raise "troubling questions" about the openness of internet search engines and the ability of users to make a choice. Rumors began to circulate that Google would make its own bid just to raise the stakes on Microsoft. Amid this tension, Yahoo watched its stock price appreciate dramatically, making the February 1 bid by Microsoft (which was locked into the end-of-day trading price on January 31) seem less and less attractive.

Enter News Corp. We now have a situation in which Yahoo's future could go either way, and each of the potential alternatives (though radically different) would make a lot of sense. On the one hand, a strong bid by News Corp may simply encourage Microsoft to make a more charitable offer to Yahoo in pushing the deal forward. Assuming that the regulators allowed the deal to pass, we would see the first real competitor to Google, and competition tends to spur innovation. On the other hand, it might make a lot of sense for Rupert Murdoch to merge his Myspace assets with Yahoo's search and infrastructure assets to form a truly dynamic information and content distribution portal. You can bet that something big is brewing beneath the surface. Behind the closed doors of boardrooms, there are numbers being crunched, scenarios gamed, meetings scheduled, announcements leaked to the press. These geysers serve as the prelude to a big finish.

So what does it all mean?

I know that I'm not qualified to know, and that's enough. But the bigger question is, Who cares? To me, this is the kind of drama that makes business fascinating. Ultimately, it will come down to a simple number, but that number will represent the dueling of ideologies about what the future of the internet will look like. So, as the WGA writers finally put down their picket signs and dust off their pencils, this real world drama is a safe alternative to reality TV. For my money, I'd take "continental drift" over Celebrity Apprentice anytime.

Warrantless wiretapping? What warrantless wiretapping?

We don't got no stinking warrantless wiretapping!

iReuse

A friend of mine gutted his second gen iPod and turned it into a cigarette case:

 

If you see me wearing this shirt...

...please don't take my picture. And if you do take my picture, please don't post it on Facebook.

September 16, 2007

I currently have 36 pictures in my profile, and I am wearing this shirt in no less than 20 of them. I kid you not. I mean, it's not like I only wear this shirt when I go out. I've got lots of shirts, and I also have a rotation method that has served me very well over the years, thank you very much. But somehow I've gotten into this weird spin cycle where all my friends post pictures of me on nights when I happened to wear this particular shirt.

Sometime in October, 2007

I wonder, is it proper netiquette to request photo removal on the grounds of creating the false impression that I only wear one shirt when I go out? Or, if I simply remove my name from the tags, will that remove the offending photos from my profile? But which ones to remove? This could get political.

November 17, 2007

Look--I mean, seriously--it's not my fault it's a comfortable shirt. It's 100% polyester, form fitting, and an actual vintage store find that's not one of those semi-replicated trying to be vintage sorts of things.

January 26, 2008

Please...I'm begging you. The only conclusion that a reasonable person can draw from my profile is that a) I went on one hell of a bender one night, or b) I don't change and/or wash my clothes all that often. So if you see me wearing this shirt--and especially if you see me wearing this shirt and the brown jacket--do not, I repeat, do not take my picture. And if you do, for godsakes keep it off of Facebook, okay?

Inherent Ettiquette

I had a strange experience with a robot the other day. I called UPS to have them hold a package for me instead of trying to deliver it. Like most large corporations these days, they have an automated voice-recognition system when you call. (Eg., "If you would like to check the location of your package, say, 'Location.'") I obediently spoke my tracking number for the female robot, but I was pleasantly surprised when she didn't repeat it back to me for confirmation.

In fact, during the entire transaction, she understood my words perfectly at every stage, never repeated anything, and was unfailingly polite. She flawlessly guided me through setting up my will-call pick up. The process went so smoothly ("Is there anything else I can help you with?"), and her personality and (dare I say?) etiquette were so well-designed that, when the conversation completed, I actually had to suppress the urge to thank her!

But to the designers and engineers of voice-recognition software, I don't need to suppress it: Thanks!

Post-Symposium Q&A

During the Net Neutrality Symposium, I had a lot of questions in mind for the panelists just in case there was a lull in the action. Well, there wasn't. In fact, the Q&A sessions were full of fireworks that were frankly more fun to watch than participate in, but since then I've had one question in particular running through my head.

So here goes:

The debate about net neutrality is largely framed around the limitations of bandwidth in distributing large files such as video. But instead of dreaming about bigger pipelines, why is the discussion not framed around providing greater levels of compression for these files, such as the H.264 video codec which provides near high definition quality at a fraction of the file size?

I have a bit of experience working with this method of compression, and I've been very impressed with the results. It seems to me that if Sony or Apple (or Google or Microsoft, for that matter) were to develop a codec that takes this high quality compression to a new level, they could not only bundle it with their proprietary software at a nice profit, but also make much of the debate about bandwidth restrictions an academic exercise.

Gchat Status Messages, Part II

This is the second of two-part post on Gchat status messages. In the first, I discussed the major categories of status messages. In this post, I'll address some of the dos-and-don'ts of a proper status message.

1. Recycling. I know this is asking a lot, but I really find it tiresome when someone recycles an old status message. In the case of "class" or "work," yes, that's appropriate. But your friends will thank you for giving them something new. I took the time to read that long quote a week ago; I won't do it again.

2. Fishing. This is a sensitive one. When someone makes a cry for help on his/her status message - "This sucks!" - s/he is asking you to message them. I know we all cave to this impulse from time to time, but if you want to talk about something - chat someone. That's what IM is all about, right?

3. Never changing your status. Feed me! Your status message has read "dingleberry" the entire time we've been chat friends (over two years). I'm ready to move on.

4. Ever changing your status. Some people scroll through messages constantly, sometimes several times in one chat conversation. When you're chatting with someone, they receive the changed status as a line of IM. I find this distracting and confusing. Is our conversation not enough for you? It's like watching someone else channel surf.

Conclusions: Give your friends a good reason to mouse-over your name and read your status. Value their time and net-attention span by giving them something fresh and creative.

If you can't think of something that fits the bill, leave it at Available. As far as status goes, there are worse things to be!

Live Blog - Net Neutrality 2008

Visit the conference webpage, www.netneutrality2008.org, for full information and schedules.

You can also click HERE for a live video stream of the event. Updates will be posted below the post-modern, self-referential photo:

Session 1:

AT&T's Richard Clarke began by stating that one's definition of fairness "depends heavily on where one sits in the Internet ecosystem." While this may sound reasonable, I can't help but believe that there is an objective notion of what is fair in terms of net neutrality. After discussing (briefly) his opposition to the proposed Dorgan-Snowe legislation, Clarke abruptly ended his presentation by stating the following: "By trying to satisfy all sides, as politicians often do, they end up taking the most extreme position."

I was glad that Tim Wu challenged this "classic framing technique" employed by Clarke which made AT&T's stance seem reasonable while making proponents of net neutrality seem more fringe.

It's easy enough to say that "fairness" is a matter of perspective, but that's a cop out. Clarke should consider reading up on his John Rawls (and specifically the "veil of ignorance") before imposing his (company's) take on what is "fair."

Final note: Lawrence Spiwak seems to think that commoditization of the internet will lead to fewer carriers and, therefore, higher costs. I challenge him to present a single economic model in which commoditization encourages anything other than lower prices and increased market competition.

Session 2:

The rock star here was clearly Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America. Overall, I thought the panel was a bit lopsided, with three libertarian-minded, anti-regulation economists taking most of the spotlight. But their PowerPoint presentations could not match up with Mr. Cooper's informal remarks about the history of a regulated telecommunications industry and the importance of providing correct incentives for companies like AT&T to open up their networks to non-discriminatory practices.

Mr. Cooper also wins the award so far for best extension of the toll road analogy: "It's appropriate for a toll road cashier to count the wheels on your truck, not what you're carrying."

What I don't understand yet is why nobody is talking about the fact that ISP's and content providers are often one and the same entity, or subsidiaries of a parent company, or so deeply entwined in content distribution agreements that they cannot be trusted to police themselves. The anti-regulation crowd would have you gloss over this little detail and ask you to believe that companies like Time Warner, AT&T and Comcast would willingly cannibalize their revenue streams in the interest of public welfare.

Keynote:

Rachelle Chong wins the award for quote of the day (so far): "You've heard of serial killers? Well, I'm a serial regulator."

Session 3:

Richard Bennett introduced his discussion by saying, "I'm against net neutrality because my job depends upon it." Enough said.

Fred von Lohmann put the smack dab on Comcast and AT&T for controlling innovation (a la BitTorrent) and invading privacy (a la copyright enforcement). I hope that someone produces a rough transcript of his remarks because they were that spot on. A new blog entry will be necessary for Fred's analysis of this little gem alone.

I would be remiss if I didn't commend one of the few female voices on today's panels, Colette Vogele, who illustrated beautifully the importance of net neutrality in stimulating innovation from upstart content producers such as Alive in Baghdad and Political Lunch.

The biggest takeaway from this session is the reinforcement of something I've long suspected: innovation comes from the fringe...always. Even in large corporations, it is the self-motivated "intrapreneur" who breaks from the pack. If we are not willing to support and defend innovation from the fringes, then we might as well be overt about our complacency and love of corporate mediocrity.

UPDATE: Maybe the highlight of this session (though for reasons not intended) was the fiery teleconference by Scott Cleland in which he basically concluded that proponents of net neutrality are all "naive and potentially disasterous" in their thinking. The best part was looking at the larger-than-life portrait of a smiling Mr. Cleland as he referred to Fred von Lohmann as a "two-year-old tantrum thrower." Had Mr. Cleland actually been here in person, he might have noticed the subtle but important difference between people laughing with him and laughing at him.

Session 4:

Well, since I still need to pack for a trip to London tomorrow, I will leave it to my colleague to summarize the highlights of this session. (I'm sure this is profoundly disappointing to the two people out there who are reading this blog!)

Residuals

Now that the WGA and AMPTP are resuming informal discussions, I thought this was a curious app to find on Facebook today. Note that the description explicitly states "this is not an official app of Comedy Central." And yet it allows you to "watch the latest nightly episode or any older clips tv-commercial free."



Hmm...I wonder what the odds are that "tv-commercial free" is the same thing as plain old "commercial free." But if there are web-commercials embedded in the app, and it's not an official app of Comedy Central, then how do you suppose they'll calculate those residuals?

Gchat Status Messages, Part I

In Gmail's chat feature (or independent chat client Google Talk or "Gtalk"), users have the option of creating a status message that appears below your name. In traditional IM programs like AIM or YIM, this would be the Away Message. In Gmail, however, the status is constantly there and has taken on some of the qualities of Twitter ("What are you doing right now?") and of social network "headlines" (as in MySpace).

I present the categories of Gmail status messages:

1. Strictly Utilitarian
The person's status reads "class" or "at work." Technically, there's nothing offensive about these status messages, except that they're pretty boring. They did get interesting around the holidays, however; I saw quite a few indicating the person's location (Austin, TX or Detroit, MI), which led to new insights on where people come from.

2. Quotes
These can be either stuffy (philosophers writing before Christ) or irreverent (TV shows). Entertaining, but the quote better be good. Otherwise you're forced to roll over their name to expand the quote to read it, and feel dissatisfied, having wasted precious internet surfing seconds. You also have to be careful using these because friends may read deeper into them than you anticipate. Avoid any quotes about love!

3. Inside Jokes
Totally incomprehensible except to another person. These are wholly annoying, unless you're in on the joke, in which case they're delightful and flattering. My friend's status the other day: "Let me put my poems in you." Thought-provoking, anyway.

4. Shout Outs
These reference another person and are cousins to Inside Jokes. Often, however, at least some fellow friends will understand the reference. For example, my friend's status read "Katz cheats," and I knew he was referring to an ongoing Scrabulous game on Facebook with our friend Katz.

5. Blanks
No status message at all, so it reads "Available." Boring! Occasionally indicating laziness, but there are worse things. I'd rather leave mine blank than bring an offensive status message into the world.

6. Busy
Coupled with the red dot with the white line, like a Do Not Enter/Wrong Way sign, this status conveys real foreboding. Sometimes combined with #1, which may help alleviate the curiosity of others.

This is Part I of a two-part post on Gchat status message protocols. Part II.

Grammar 2.0

Perhaps it's just the residual English major coming through here, but does it bother anyone else when software apps are blatantly lazy about grammar? Consider a recent Facebook news feed:




Sure, it may seem innocent enough. After all, it's merely the substitution of a third-person plural possessive pronoun where a more gender-specific and singular "his" or "her" would have been the grammatically correct alternative. But where does it end?

It may be a computer geek's world out there, but let's not forget that a good copy editor is also useful when writing code, and it just so happens that there are a lot of talented writers looking for some non-union work these days.

Does That Ring a Bell?

After more than three years, I finally got a new cell phone. It's my first phone with video/camera functions and a QWERTY keyboard. It does not, however, contain the more than 200 contacts I'd acquired over the years.

[Quick story: I went to Tahoe with a friend and his girlfriend, who doesn't snowboard. While we were on the slopes, she borrowed my phone, because she'd lost hers the week before. She did some slipping on the ice...and my cell didn't leave Tahoe.]

I forgot how disorienting it used to be to pick up a phone without caller ID! There's a mix of anxiety and anticipation particular to picking up a mystery phone call.

It got especially interesting a few days ago on my birthday when the anonymous text messages flowed in. I found myself wondering things like, 'Who calls me cutie? And kiddo? Where's an 858 area code?' I realized that I had exactly one cell phone number memorized: my own.

The new phone came with a free app from Verizon that automatically syncs my contact list to their network every night.

iBugs iStand Corrected

UPDATE: Sansserif has pointed out that iPhone's failure to notify Gmail users that their messages would be deleted is technically not a "bug," per se, as the software update still does exactly what it was intended to do. However, the damage control statement issued by Gmail indicates, at the least, an iGaffe on the part of Apple for not disclosing the change.

I was glad to see that Apple's software update 1.1.3 for the iPhone has implemented the new application which cleverly substitutes for a true GPS system. However, the first round of iBugs has arrived. In case you missed Gmail's public service announcement to iPhone users, I bring it to you in full:

Attention iPhone POP users

If you configured Gmail access on your iPhone by tapping the large 'Gmail' icon in mail setup, please note that installing software update 1.1.3 will automatically convert Gmail on your iPhone from POP access to IMAP access. This means that actions you take on your iPhone will now sync with actions in your Gmail web interface (i.e. messages you read on your iPhone will show up as 'Read' in the web interface). This also means that messages you delete on your iPhone will be moved to the Trash folder in the Gmail web interface, and thus deleted after 30 days. Please exercise caution when deleting messages, as this behavior is markedly different from POP access.

For more information regarding IMAP, visit our IMAP Access topic.

For additional information regarding this change, please visit Apple Support.

If you wish to use Gmail IMAP access without deleting messages on your iPhone, please follow these instructions.

If you wish to continue using POP access on your iPhone, please follow these instructions to manually configure POP.

DWT

Welcome to the 21st century. From the makers of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), we proudly present: Driving While Texting (DWT).

The Washington Post reports that Virginia's General Assembly "is considering a pair of bills that would ban texting while driving a car, bicycle, motorcycle, moped or even an electric wheelchair."

If this sounds absurd, consider the fact that six states have already considered anti-texting laws in 2007, with New Jersey, Washington and the city of Phoenix passing resolutions outlawing the practice.

I'm no fan of texting drivers, but this trend in lawmaking sounds more like a post-modern fad than an actual public service. After all, have you seen some of the things people do while driving? Just because it's technically not illegal to eat with chopsticks while operating your vehicle at 70MPH, that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

So remember, if you're walking down the sidewalk and see someone in an electric wheelchair trying to multitask with their cellphone, don't be afraid to make a citizen's arrest. Together, we can keep the streets safe from efficiency.

A Welcome Return...

I'll just say it: strike or no strike, I'm glad to see Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert back on TV.

I think they both handled the awkwardness very well by making it explicit that they were ad-libbing the entire show. Colbert was brilliant, even without the use of his teleprompter. And Stewart, true to form, was able to make fun of both sides of the issue. Just as he would normally be pointing out the idiocy of Republicans and Democrats alike, Stewart managed to walk the tightrope by ribbing his executive bosses and pot-smoking peers equally.

(NB: It's ironic that the links above take you to a Comedy Central owned page with internet advertising, which is exactly the dispute in question with the WGA writers).

The "A" Word

In case you missed it, the Bay Area got hit with the fiercest storm in over five years on Friday, leading to over 1 million power outages throughout Northern California. Around noon, the lights flickered valiantly as the power lines fought against hurricane-force winds, but ultimately I was left in the dark.

My first reaction was, of course, to grab my iPhone.

I looked on the list of available wi-fi networks and, finding none, deduced that the entire neighborhood was affected by the outage. It was then that I knew it would be a long day alone with AT&T's lackluster EDGE data network.

Hours passed, and I eventually stopped trying to be productive. It was nice (for a while) to read by the window, but as twilight settled in and the battery on my phone reached 20%, I knew that I had to take some serious action.

Fortunately, my brother's friend had invited us over for dinner. We forgot to ask if we could bring a bottle of wine or anything, but we did bring our laptops and cell phone chargers to plug in once we got there. While our host cooked, we would periodically check email or idly surf our favorite sites just because we could. At that point, I was just calling it a "guilty pleasure."

It was only when we went to a movie later in the evening that my brother mentioned the "A" word. I contend that it was his fault.

Two minutes before showtime, he said he didn't believe me when I told him that both Michael Cera and Jason Bateman (of Arrested Development fame) were starring in the film we were about to see. Clearly, I had to pull out the iPhone to correct him before the opening credits rolled. So once again, I found myself slogging through the EDGE network, searching IMDB for the cast of Juno (very good movie, BTW).

"I think you might have a slight internet addiction," my brother said. I didn't bother to look up as the Safari taskbar edged ever so slowly across the screen.

The verdict: I was right, but I had to wait for the opening credits to prove it.

Picking Scabs

Contrary to popular belief, the first great political event of 2008 is not happening tonight at the Iowa caucuses--it already happened last night on Jay Leno. A number of blogs sympathetic with the WGA strike are suggesting that Leno broke strike rules when he admitted that he wrote his own monologue.

"That's a huge problem," according to Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily, "because it violates the strike rules of one of his unions." As a WGA member, this makes Leno a "scab."

This is not only a potential problem for Leno, but also for Republican Presidential Candidate, Mike Huckabee, who similarly crossed picket lines to appear on the show. Though I suspect he was willing to sacrifice the union vote for the free publicity. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, performed a pre-taped appearance on Letterman. Unlike Huckabee and Leno, Clinton and Letterman come out on the right side of this argument. Letterman's own company, Nation Wide Pants, owns the rights to both the Late Show and the Late Late Show and was therefore able to strike a deal with the WGA.

This demonstrates the true value of owning your own company in this volatile environment. As Letterman climbs from #2 to #1, the Writer's Guild of America gains leverage against NBC to strike a deal, or watch their bread and butter Tonight Show fade into the background as new late night options arise (umm...Daily Show, anyone?).

Apparently, Hillary's appearance on Dave didn't have quite the desired effect in terms of poll numbers. But the ratings will speak for themselves. The first great political battle of 2008 has begun, and it's NBC's move.

The Great Debate

You might have noticed a new application on your Facebook homepage announcing the upcoming ABC News-Facebook Presidential Debates. Erick Schonfeld at the TechCrunch blog has some interesting analysis of the debate format, which apparently will not be similar to the CNN-YouTube Debates. "The exact tie-in details to the televised debate are in development," Schonfeld quotes an unnamed Facebook spokesperson as saying. "But this will not be a case where there will be direct questions from users like you've seen in other debates."

So what's the point?

Well, from a marketing standpoint it's sheer genius. After all, ABC will gather real-time data on how many people are watching the live debates from the Facebook demographic--which just happens to be the prized mid-20's, highly educated, young professional. Not a bad day's work, really. At a time when many young people are abandoning the reruns on TV for streaming content online, I'm sure that ABC was able to sell some nice ads for that little Facebook partnership.

But that still doesn't answer the question, what's the point?

I'm torn. In spite of the highly public nature of adding and dropping apps on Facebook, I am planning to add the "New Hampshire Debates" application in the name of social science. In my view, the real question is whether television executives actually have the stomach to utilize the internet for what it's worth. My hunch is that they're too worried about cannibalizing their traditional revenue streams to view the web as anything more than a means to an end. In the meantime, the question of when and how truly convergent content will reach our TV screens remains the great debate.

UPDATE: I suffered through a portion of the Republican debate, and there was no tie-in with Facebook other than branding. Same is true for the ABC News page on Facebook. There's no obvious reason why the partnership really matters to anyone other than the corporations.

RTFMS

My first conversation with my dad in 2008, and the subject was none other than how he really, seriously, honestly and truly, no joke, was going to take a shotgun and blow up his Mac. His language was a little more colorful, but it would certainly make this blog NSFW.

Speaking of acronyms, when I realized that all he really wanted was free tech support, my courteous response was RTFMS.

iModest Proposal

As the proud owner of an iPhone, I will be the first to admit that its capabilities are somewhat limited. For instance, the camera is a big disappointment. AT&T's EDGE network is an utter disgrace. The lackluster battery life is frustrating when you aren't afforded the luxury of re-charging every night. And, although the Google maps feature is quite handy, the lack of a GPS system on the phone itself makes it impractical for navigating unfamiliar roads while driving.

The thing is, all of these problems have easy fixes.

In fact, many hacker sites have popped up with innovative solutions to the shortcomings of the first generation iPhone. For instance, did you know that you can actually record video directly to your phone? Although the first generation application can only record approximately 5 seconds of video, the developer anticipates that second generation apps will be able to record at 15-30 fps for as long as the hard drive will allow. And for those who are sick of AT&T's EDGE network, did you know that you can access Skype directly through your iPhone's web browser? If you do install 3rd party software, you might experience decreased battery life (beyond the already limited scope of the unhacked phone). But never worry, there's a hack for that, too. And for those who have wondered why there is no GPS function installed on the iPhone, look no further: Navizon provides you with a pinpointed location in relation to Google maps based on your distance from cell stations.

Many of these hacker solutions will likely be resolved with the 2G iPhone to be released sometime in 2008. But the prevalence of these innovations to counteract present day limitations illustrates an important point, which leads me to my iModest Proposal.

Crack the iPhone. Allow for open source applications in the same way that Facebook licenses 3rd party vendors to develop solutions to unsatisfied customer needs. Embrace the fact that geeks will be geeks, which means that if there is a way to work around the limitations of a certain product, somebody will figure out how to do it. Help them be entrepreneurs. Exploit this potential and create the first open source platform for software developers to create 3G, 4G, and InfinityG applications specifically for a superior piece of hardware.

When Steve Jobs announced at the 1997 Mac Expo that he was opening the Mac OS to Microsoft Office, the news was met with a resounding chorus of gasps. It looked like the last, desperate act of a failing company. But it turned out to be a genius move that allowed Apple to focus on its core competency. Similarly, an open source iPhone could be the next big thing to revolutionize the cellular and mobile industry.

Mass-Slighting

Now I know this is a bit off-topic, but only slightly. I'm here to complain about mass-text-messaging. During the holidays, these mass-texts are especially prevalent: "Merry Christmas!" from someone you don't speak with all that often, or even from someone you speak to rather often. It's vague enough to make me wonder, is it a mass-text? I feel torn: do I text back in thanks, or do I feel slighted for the impersonality of a mass-message?

My Cromagnum cell phone allows me to send to multiple recipients, but not to mass-text. When I send a text to, say, two of my friends, I write, "Do you guys wanna go to the Elbo Room for reggae tonight?" I make it explicit that I've sent it to both of them ("you guys"). However I know other people have the mass-text capability. I propose that it's good etiquette to indicate when you're mass-texting through such contextual cues.

In the email context, you can tell when something has been sent to "undisclosed recipients." Is my phone too ancient? Do other phones manifest a mass-text? If other phones make mass-texting obvious, I wouldn't feel like someone was trying to pull one over on me.

Friendly Maneuvers

From Urban Dictionary:

"Facebook Limbo":

The electronic space between accepting and rejecting a Facebook friendship. In Facebook limbo, the user fails to accept or reject friend requests from would-be Facebook friends from a variety of sources (e.g., random annoying classmates, despised work associates, ex-girlfriends, etc), because the user is uncertain if he or she will have to interact with these individuals in the future.

Picture This

I have a Flickr stream, and I take a lot of photos of people, my friends in particular. It seems natural to tag their names in the photos - but I stopped doing that.

There are a few services out there working on facial recognition; one of them is Polar Rose (a Swedish company with $5.1 mill in funding). PR relies on users to tag the faces of people; the software can recognize that a face is depicted and, I believe, first relies on users to tag them. After some tagging, the software seems capable of matching a name to the face on its own.

I entered the name of a friend of mine; they didn't have him in the database, but they did refer me to an external website of a company he once worked for, where they speculated a photo of him might exist. They were right - there was a photo of him there. The majority of the photos in their database appeared to be celebrities. (Google Image Search, anyone?)

Anyway, I've decided to stop tagging photos on Flickr with my friends as a part of good netiquette. If people want their names attached to their faces where public search engines can tag them, I guess they should be able to choose it. (I need to think a little more about Facebook, but you can de-tag yourself there.) Could Polar Rose use Flickr title and tags as a shortcut? Will you be able to opt out of PR? Robot.txt for your face?

Despite my privacy apprehensions, I could imagine getting sucked into tagging like you get hooked to a game. What's that bar game with the half-naked people? Photo Hunt!

UPDATE:
I discovered this today from EPIC:

In September of 2007, Facebook introduced public search listings. Previously, only Facebook members could search Facebook for other users. Now, non-members will be able to search. Further, major search engines such as yahoo and Goggle will index the public search listings. The listing shows a limited amount of information such as name, profile picture, and Friends.