Snappy title here

Japan gets Android Xperia X10 SmartPhone first

2010-01-24T21:56:00.000-06:00

Japan gets Android Xperia X10 SmartPhone first: "The device will recognize up to 5 faces in your contacts from your camera shots and will automatically store them under the appropriate contact.

You can tag a photo and the device will scan through every other photo in the album and provided 75 percent of a face is captured on a photo, it will also tag those it recognizes as the same person. Like it!"

How tech is changing banks

2009-08-08T11:12:00.000-06:00

How tech is changing banks: "The United Services Automobile Association, a financial services company for members of the U.S. military and veterans, plans to launch a free iPhone app that lets you deposit checks via your iPhone camera. The service will be called USAA Deposit@Mobile. To make a deposit, you use the app to log onto your account, enter the amount of the check, snap a picture of the front and back of the check, then touch the 'Send' button. The bank sends a confirmation. Here's a video demo."

Amazon Web Services Secrets Revealed - Plug Into The Cloud - InformationWeek

2009-07-23T17:52:00.000-06:00

Amazon Web Services Secrets Revealed - Plug Into The Cloud - InformationWeek: "Rosen plans to provide more data and analysis sometime soon around the growth rate of AWS. Here's a sneak peek: Rosen tells me that EC2 is experiencing monthly growth of 'almost 10%.' If accurate, that's huge growth, and it reinforces our general impression that cloud computing is out-pacing the rest of the IT industry. I've got a query into Amazon to check Rosen's estimate, but no response yet. Financial analysts should press Amazon for details on AWS revenues and growth during its upcoming conference call on results for the second quarter of the year."

Heroku | Pricing

2009-06-17T21:13:00.000-06:00

For hacking - this is too nice. A full Ruby on Rails environment, with hosting, and ssl, and domain masking, all for FREE. Heroku is a cloud-like scalabale Ruby offering, and this level is worth a try.

Heroku | Pricing

VIDEO: Suicide Micro Air Vehicles - Flight International

2009-06-17T18:15:00.000-06:00

Truth is certainly stranger than fiction... this is a video about the near-future Air-Force Unmanned Flying Vehicles, which look alot like birds, can fly through hallways, and get recharged by landing on a power line.

VIDEO: Suicide Micro Air Vehicles - Flight International: "Watch this video, care of the Chicago Tribune newspaper�website, about the US Air Force Research Laboratory's computer generated vision of bird and insect-like Micro Air Vehicles (MAV) of the future including a suicide MAV that explodes on making contact with its human target"

Find movies, TV shows matching your taste watch online - Jinni

2009-06-17T17:58:00.000-06:00

Just came across jinni which is a Pandora-like site for movies. Supposedly, you can just put in a plot you like, and it shows you movies that match that plot (like " sci-fi movies that save the world"). It's not perfect though, and you have to make sure you get genres and plots exactly like they are categorized. For example, my first two searches, "awesome action movies" and "boobs" both returned no results. Damn, and here I was thinking it would read my mind.

Find movies, TV shows matching your taste watch online - Jinni

Hip Hop Schools Silicon Valley

2009-03-31T21:45:00.000-06:00

All good advice here...

Hip Hop Schools Silicon Valley: "-4- Be Happy Working It.�� Chamillionaire, drove 200 miles to sell 200 CDs… on consignment.� They don’t pay you to rap. They pay you to promote."

3 Free Ways to Geolocate By IP

2009-03-31T16:14:00.000-06:00

For future reference...

3 Free Ways to Geolocate By IP

What is the minimum viable product? - Venture Hacks

2009-03-31T16:00:00.000-06:00

This is a fantastic article/interview... It's exactly what I think about the viability of products you dream up. Several "tests" are also suggested, such as a quick AdWords campaign. It's chock full of wisdom.

What is the minimum viable product? - Venture Hacks: "Again, you’ve got to remember that 99% of the time nobody wants it. Most offers that appear to an entrepreneur as a good idea are actually horrible, horrible ideas. By making the offer and having it be rejected by customers, we learn not to waste time building stuff that nobody wants.

Nivi: Right. Maybe the right definition of a minimum viable product, like you were saying, is, essentially a test to see whether people will actually want the product that you’re imagining in your head."

Slashdot | Android Scans DVD Bar Codes, Downloads Movies

2009-03-27T15:42:00.000-06:00

Too cool -

Slashdot | Android Scans DVD Bar Codes, Downloads Movies: "A new Android application called BarTor (formerly ScanTorrent) can scan any DVD bar code and then signals either uTorrent or Vuze on your PC to download the movie from BitTorrent. How long do you think this will last?'"

BankerMLS.com | Welcome

2009-03-27T14:54:00.000-06:00

Worth a look if you live in Birmingham :)

BankerMLS.com | Welcome

Britain seeing decline in rude names - UPI.com

2009-03-25T10:24:00.000-06:00

Britain seeing decline in rude names - UPI.com: "By comparing the population of 2008 with Britain's initial census in 1881, Webber found the number of people named Daft has decreased by more than 50 percent. Individuals laden with the name Balls have also fallen by more than half, while the number of people named Cock in Britain has decreased by 75 percent."

Rohdesign | Mike Rohde, Designer : SXSW Interactive 2009 Sketchnotes

2009-03-24T15:48:00.000-06:00

This is too cool...

Rohdesign | Mike Rohde, Designer : SXSW Interactive 2009 Sketchnotes: "SXSW Interactive 2009 Sketchnotes are Posted!
I've just finished processing and posting 70 pages of sketchnotes from SXSW Interactive 2009 on Flickr.
This year I doubled the amount of pages I was able to capture to 70, up from 34 pages of sketchnotes in 2008. Having done more sketchnotes since last year helped as did my position of official SXSWi sketchnoter."

The Open Company - Running your business as if it were an Open Source Project.

2009-03-24T15:44:00.000-06:00

Being the Change � Blog Archive � The Open Company - Running your business as if it were an Open Source Project.: "“Totally open. No concept of bosses or employees. Anyone could join in at any time, doing whatever task they found interesting, for whatever time they found appropriate.”"

Should An iPhone App Developer Charge Or Run Ads? (Galaxy Impact Case Study)

2009-03-23T18:23:00.000-06:00

Should An iPhone App Developer Charge Or Run Ads? (Galaxy Impact Case Study): "Conclusion

In the case of Galaxy Impact, we have done absolutely no marketing and did 2 updates with new features.

1. Free downloads vs for fee downloads ($.99) is 400:1
2. New downloads vs updates is about 3:1
3. If you decide to go with ad support, do it from the very beginning.
4. Updating does not help much
5. Ad revenue in the long run is higher than sales revenue
6. It’s hardly a sustainable business for most common app developers (with average apps)."

FACEBOOK COULD KILL GOOGLE -- Analyst (GOOG)

2009-03-18T09:55:00.000-06:00

I disagree with the premise of the article, but it's an interesting read nonetheless. I did have an epiphany of sorts on Facebook recently (during my birthday, when a bunch of people I never hear from wished me a happy one). Here is the epiphany -

For people like me, Facebook is useful and "neat" as a way to find old schoolmates and others from your past that you lost touch with, and immediately get a little caught up before ever trading some emails. The Birthdays were an extra bonus I ignored.. until now. Losing touch with people from the past is just a fact of life right?

Then it occured to me, for all the current high school and college students out there, they never have to lose touch with current friends, that will later become old friends. Even if someone moves to another continent, their life, and a communication channel into it, is only as far away as the internet. As they get older, they will know when people get engaged, get married, have kids, get divorced, change jobs, feel sad, need support, need to celebrate, have a mid life crisis, have grandchildren, grow old, get sick, etc, etc and know it as it happens. There will be no more losing touch in the new world that Facebook is. Things taken for granted as "that's life" to people of my generation will be unknown to the new one.

That's big. Real big. Not a doubt in my mind people will form businessess and social service groups in ways none of us can currently imagine right now.

FACEBOOK COULD KILL GOOGLE -- Analyst (GOOG): "Complementary (For Now): Google and Facebook are two of the fastest growing and largest companies on the internet, and thus far, Facebook's ascendancy has likely helped Google gain share. 45% of monthly unique users go directly to Facebook (as a starting page), up from 39% a year ago. At the same time, Google is now driving 64% of Facebook's uniques, up from 51% a year ago. Google.com, on the other hand, has a consistent 66% of its uniques as a starting page, same as a year ago. Google's uniques via Facebook are growing at 188% y/y, and� now represent 19% of Google's traffic (up from 9% 12-months ago)."

Top 10 Reasons to Start Up in the Recession - Starting a business in a recession - Entrepreneur.com

2009-03-17T20:36:00.000-06:00

Top 10 Reasons to Start Up in the Recession - Starting a business in a recession - Entrepreneur.com: "People are looking to change suppliers.
From a cost perspective, everything is on the table for most companies. Even if your prices are higher, if you can come in with greater value, you have a good chance at winning new business. You also have the advantage of being the new kid on the block when it comes to pitching your products and services. Many companies are desperate to find new partnerships with new companies that have a different, better or more innovative way of delivering those products and services."

Small Business Online Accounting Software

2008-07-13T15:40:00.000-06:00

Looking around online for some good solutions, I found there's a few options out there. Now QuickBooks Online Edition is the leader of the pack for small business for good reason, and their platform is worth every penny, especially if you send out invoices as it will auto-generate them for you. Add in the ability to give your accountant access, never worry about backups, and be assured that you can grow with what you are using, and it's a winner.

Ther cheapest plan is 9.95/month - what if you want to find something comparable, but free? Turns out there are a couple of options.

First, both MicroSoft and QuickBooks offer free, watered down versions of their desktop products, and both ave received many positive reviews.

First, MS offers Office Accounting Express for a free download. QuickBooks has Simple Start.

I prefer the online editions though in my quest to free myself from the desktop and be as mobile as possible. Here are some reviews I found of a few web based QuickBooks alternatives.

I chose to try out Saasu - it looked a little more robust to me, with payroll support for the future, and more. It is 100% free for the accounting packages, with a max of 15 transactions/month, plenty for me.

Saasu.com NetAccounts - easy online accounting » Automate, Connect and Simplify

Checking In

2008-05-16T12:20:00.001-06:00

Going to use this place to sort out some thoughts and post what I'm up to, as well as some development and business-focused experiments.

Getting Real: Free Web 2.0 ebook online

2007-02-08T12:42:00.000-06:00

37 Signals has released a book that is a collection of essays about starting and running a Web 2.0 company. There are some gems in here, and it is worth browsing if you have any interest. The also sell PDF and paperbacks, but the content is available online for free.

Getting Real: "Getting Real
Here are the 16 chapters and 91 essays that make up the book."

Blogarithms » Amazon for Infrastructure-on-Demand

2007-02-05T13:32:00.000-06:00

Anyone who knows me knows how cool I think Amazon web services are... here is a detailed, yet very cool example, with a diagram, of a website using all three.

Spend time on this if you want to know some of the future of computing...

Blogarithms » Amazon for Infrastructure-on-Demand: "The buzz is building around Amazon Web Services as an application platform. Don MacAskill has been using AWS’ S3 storage service for SmugMug, and according to Jeremy Zawodny, will be talking about it at this year’s ETech conference. Jeremy and others have been experimenting with S3 as storage backup for desktop and laptop systems. Even Dave Winer is experimenting with S3."

A VC: The Seminal Web 2.0 Service

2007-01-30T10:58:00.000-06:00

Great list....

A VC: The Seminal Web 2.0 Service: "Here are 10 things I've learned from using Flickr:
1) Making online content default to public instead of private creates community
2) Every web service needs to have a profile for every user
3) Users should be encouraged to comment on other user's posts"

... and 7 more.

New GMail features showcase Google Docs

2007-01-28T22:39:00.000-06:00

I've thought quite a bit recently about the feasability of going online 100% with hosted services, and I think it is possible with some planning and accepted frustration, but getting easier all the time.

I have a couple of domains that use Google Apps for email, and also have a space for docs and spreadsheets, and the ability to share docs easily (and the free email service) are quite valuable. Robert Scoble has mentioned that the company he is now part of does everything through gmail and shared google calendars, and I know it will only get easier. As much as I like Office 2007, what is Microsoft to do with these new services, where new features drop out of the sky every week?

Article below about some new features in Gmail... I'm not sure if gmail is out of beta yet, but if you'd like a GMail account, just leave a comment or email me and I will send you an invite.

Fugitive Thought -: "Gmail users receiving attached documents now have the ability to view them via Google Docs and Spreadsheets, which presents a sleek in-browser word processor interface. Emails arriving with a document attached will now display a 'open as a google document' in addition to the usual 'View as HTML' and 'Download' options. "

iTunes + Netflix = Cancel Cable?

2007-01-25T12:04:00.000-06:00

From The Consumerist....

iTunes + Netflix = Cancel Cable? - Consumerist: "A blogger over at ZDNet realized that he could cancel part of his cable, order his shows on iTunes, watch movies on Netflix and save $300 a year.

Last week I came to the realization that with Netflix and iTunes, I would be able to cut out the $50 portion of my cable TV bill and ditch the 80 or so channels I never watch, including 3 shopping channels, 3 sports channels, 6 family channels, numerous foreign language channels, and one Lifetime Channel for Women that my fiance tortures me with. Farewell Melissa Gilbert, Rachael Ray, and Paula Deen! You are thus banished from my home!

I'm currently interested in about 6 shows, all of which it turns out I can get on iTunes. Plus, Netflix handles all of my movie needs. If I'm generous with my iTunes figures, it adds up to about $300 in purchases each year, versus the $600 I pay for all of the 'variety' that Comcast provides me. The old model of just piping junk into my home simply doesn't make sense to me anymore."

The author goes on to say it might be a hard sell for most people, which is probably true.

FYI, I have not had cable for about 5 years now. I stopped not for financial reasons, but because I was plain sick of wasting an evening away on mindless television. I did watch a couple of shows, mainly the Sopranos and Sex and the City, but I downloaded them. Same with movies. Off bittorrent from time to time.

It just worked well for me, and I don't regret it. I do miss some college football, but I'll just head to a bar for a drink when I want to watch a game. So count me as one who saw the light a little early. It is suprisingly easy to drop cable when you want. Luckily, in Birmingham I can buy cable internet without the TV, so I'm not paying for the channels at all.

Ditto with the phone company... I haven't paid BellSouth a dime in a few years. Just went to cellular. That deserves another post.

New Year, New You - Editorial - CIO

2007-01-23T19:37:00.000-06:00

This is a very good article... whether you aspire to move up the corporate ladder or desire that "special something" that successful tech executives have.

New Year, New You - Editorial - CIO: "I speak to CIOs every day who confide that they would like their next opportunity to be something 'challenging' with a 'growing company' where they can provide 'leadership.' They have a generic understanding of what they want but no plan, no strategy, for achieving it. This never fails to amaze me. CIOs work so hard to be strategic in their technology leadership. Why not be strategic about your career?"