On August 4th Google announced that it would be discontinuing support for the Google Wave web service at the end of 2010. This decision was due largely to the fact that the once lauded web tool failed to gain traction and increasingly frustrated users trying to discover a workable use case. Wave was a light that burned out quickly in the tech community, hardly even reaching it’s first birthday before Google pulled the plug. There are those that will mourn it’s demise, but for most it will pass unnoticed as another Google property allowed to wither and die on the vine. I however, feel that we need to give Wave a proper funeral. After all, this was the technology that was supposed to replace email.

I recently wrote an article for the Click Here Insights Blog describing the pitfalls of creating solutions based around using technology for technology’s sake. I used Wave as an example of this common mistake and for good reason. Google Wave utilized some revolutionary browser enhancements. So revolutionary in fact, that Wave never worked in Internet Explorer. Google handicapped it’s creation from the start by the simple fact that it did not work at all in the browser that over 50% of all people use to view the internet. Now, I hate IE as much as the next bloke, but when you want your product to be accepted by a wide audience then it might be a good idea to make sure that you aren’t limiting the reach of that product.

The argument for the lack of IE support is the advanced browser technology like being able to view others typing in real time. What follows is an example of the typical users reacting to real time typing.

“Wow, we can actually see each other typing in real time.” This was the immediate reaction which was invariably followed by the second reaction: “That’s really annoying, how do I turn that feature off?”

Of course you couldn’t do, although Google was kind enough to give us a grayed-out button just so we knew that someday in the distant future we would be able to turn it off. As if waiting to receive functionality that is actually the default behavior in hundreds of instant messaging clients wasn’t frustrating. Or perhaps the ability to remove someone from a wave? Such simple and most would say essential functionality failed to ship with the beta release of Wave. Yes it was beta, but let’s face it, the product was not in any shape to be released to public testing when invites started to go out last year.

And who can forget Dr. Wave? He was the annoying….err, I mean friendly mascot for Google Wave. He was so annoying….err, helpful in his tutorial videos that really didn’t explain much of anything about how someone should actually use Wave. I guess it didn’t really matter if the videos were helpful or not because any sane person couldn’t sit through the entire thing. Seriously, that guy made me wish for Clippy the anthropomorphic paper clip from Microsoft Office. Now that was a mascot that was worthy of all of my hatred and scorn.

At least once you got passed the broken or missing functionality, the lack of standard browser support and the super annoying mascot the user interface was intuitive right? Wrong! After using Wave for a year I still can’t easily navigate my way around the thing. Why must I browse for extensions in the same interface that I use for my inbox? How do I add a contact if they don’t have a Google account…or if I just don’t know what it is? Why do I continually click in the wrong place in a wave and then I’m only replying to one waver and not the entire distribution list? And when I do make this mistake why is it near impossible to delete my reply.

It’s not that Google Wave was a bad idea, if fact, I originally thought that the technology has some serious potential. I wrote an article after watching the I/O about how project managers could harness the new communication process presented in Wave to better collaborate with teams locally or spread out across the world. The problem was, like it is with so many of Google’s properties, that the tech giant did not support it. All of the issues I outline above could have been easily remedied if only Google had responded when users complained about them. Alas, Wave looks and acts today much as it did upon it’s birth just over one year ago. It’s major defects left unaddressed and it’s potential left unrealized. Personally I hope that Google incorporates some of the advances from Wave into it’s other web properties. Gmail, Google Reader and Google Docs could all benefit from the lessons learned from Wave. If Google can do that then this web tool need not have died in vain.

Let us all learn some valuable lessons from Google Wave. When the technology is so advanced that most users can’t operate it then it will make success more difficult. When one worries too much about what can be done and not enough about what should be done then users are likely to be confused by the product. Once mistakes are made, act quickly to correct them or users will just as quickly loose patience with the product. If Google had heeded these simple truths then Wave might not have died so young.

So without further delay I would like to officially say goodbye to Google Wave. So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, adieu. At least some of us will miss you. Now play him off Keyboard Cat!

I’m researching an upcoming article on the history of viral videos and in the process I came across some of my favorites with a tech theme and wanted to share them. Some of these have been around for a while, but they are all near and dear to my heart. Viral videos are one of the most interesting phenomenon in the digital age. It seems like everyone is constantly trying to recreate them, but nobody has found that secret recipe that makes one video take off and another fall flat. When something does explode everybody is fast to jump on the bandwagon and create parodies and remixes. The videos below all have achieved some degree of success and for good reason. I’d love to get reader reaction as well as some links to your favorite tech related viral videos. And without further ado:

Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton: Anything by Coulton is gold, but this one deserves a special place of honor in nerd lore. Who among us hasn’t tried to have a conversation with a pretty girl only to achieve all-time epic failure in the attempt. If only those conversations went as well in real life as they do in our heads.

Hug a Developer Today: What makes it so funny is how true it really is.

Pixels By Patrick Jean: This is great fun for all of us that grew up during the 80′s. I especially love seeing Donkey Kong on top of the Empire State Building. I remember thinking that graphics just couldn’t get any better…I mean we had 8 bits, what else did we need?

Windows 7 Party Time (Censored): One of the great things about viral videos is the way the public edits and modifies them to make something even better than the original. Microsoft’s lame video was funny by itself, but this version takes it up a notch and let’s your imagination make funny, funny for you.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us: Okay, this is an oldie but a goodie. It was one of the original viral videos to win our hearts and deservedly so. I don’t know why, but I always find myself coming back to All Your Base Are Belong To Us. It’s just a classic.

UPDATE

Office 2010 The Movie: Microsoft strikes again with this fake movie trailer for Office 2010. My favorite part is the tombstone to his dead partner Clippy!

How many hours of your life have you spent on hold? LucyPhone.com is a service that looks to put an end to the need to sit on hold for hours just to talk to a live person. All you do is select the number of the company you need to reach and enter your number and LucyPhone takes over from there. The service patches you into your desired number and you navigate the phone tree like normal. Once you get to placed on hold waiting for that ever-elusive human being just press ** and then hang up. LucyPhone will stay on hold for you and call you back as soon as the live person picks up. If for some reason you get put on hold again don’t fret; just press ** again and LucyPhone will call you back again when the wait is over, no matter how long it takes.

LucyPhone works like a charm, but the one feature I would love to see the LucyPhone creators at Decogram add is the ability to automatically navigate the phone tree so I don’t have to waste time pressing the right button to get to the right place. Apps such as Fonolo offer this service already but without the ability to skip the hold time like LucyPhone. The phone tree is annoying and being able to navigate directly to a live person would make LucyPhone the perfect personal phone assistant. Just pick a company and let Lucy do the rest. Hopefully we will see this feature added once LucyPhone is out of beta.

By handling the hold time for me LucyPhone places much needed time back into my busy day. Waiting on hold is always a drain on productivity. Automation is cheap. Any payroll manager worth his salt will tell you that phone support is a drain on profits. Companies are spending less and less on actual humans on the phones, opting instead for complicated phone trees and automated messages. This trend leads to longer and longer hold times. I know that I’ve spent well over an hour waiting on a real flesh and blood human before giving up in frustration. LucyPhone allows me to reclaim my serenity and productivity in the face of maddening hold times.

LucyPhone from Decogram Corporation on Vimeo.

Hunch.com is a recommendation engine based on user provided input. After signing up for Hunch users are asked to answer multiple questions to train Hunch about themselves. Surprisingly, the questions that provide Hunch with its data may be the most interesting part of the site. Hunch makes these questions fun and I easily found myself looking up from the monitor 30 minutes later not having realized how much time I spent teaching the app all about my likes and dislikes. Caterina Fake, the co-founder of Hunch, calls her service a “taste graph” in a nod to the ever expanding social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Fake formerly co-founded the expansive photo sharing site Flickr so she knows a thing or two about the social web. The genius of Hunch is when it’s decision time. Hunch culls down the fire hose of information and provides specific recommendations based on the information you provide. Are you looking for a new digital camera? Hunch can give you a list of options tailored to your exact needs. The questions that lead to a recommendation often seem completely irrelevant to the topic at hand and that’s part of the fun. Co-founder Chris Dixon states in the Hunch blog “Speaking of Apple, one of the best predictors of whether people agree they should switch to a Mac:  whether they like to dance.  PC users really are less fun.” I tested the service on some products that I have already purchased and it very rarely misread my opinion. Whenever a user purchases a product based on a Hunch recommendation the site receives a portion of the profits from the sale. Like any service based on user input Hunch gets better the more info it receives both on specific users and as a whole.  The service benefits from recommending the best fit for its users so they will continue to participate in the recommendation engine, provide more data and make the service more accurate.

Your taste in art can tell Hunch what kind of shoes you might like.

Hunch also provides some interesting tools to display the power of its algorithms. A “Twitter Predictor” game answers questions about users simply based on information gained by entering in your Twitter user name. After answering 50 questions the predictor was 94% accurate based on my username @esoterictechie. Services that collect large amounts of data from its users will always face privacy concerns and Hunch is no different. According to its privacy policy “your answers remain confidential and may not be viewed by other Hunch users, unless you specifically choose to share your answers.” Hunch says all the right things, but as Facebook is finding out now, saying the right thing and being seen as doing the right thing are not always the same. The fact is that the information Hunch is collecting and the seeming accuracy of its algorithms is a valuable commodity. Marketers begin to salivate when faced with such juicy data with which to target their advertising. Hunch will do well to remember that this information flows only as long as its users trust the service to be a good steward of their online identities.

The more you teach Hunch the better the suggestions.

Providing recommendations is a serious business. It’s one that e-commerce giant Amazon.com has buttered its bread with for over a decade. Hunch reaches beyond commercial products to provide these recommendations for every aspect of a users life. What breed of dog should I choose? What podcasts would I enjoy listening to? What color should I paint the bedroom? These are only a few of the choices Hunch provides help with. The internet is vast and ever expanding. Some estimates have 3-4 new websites being published every second. With this sea of information it could be very helpful to have an accurate aggregator that knows your tastes and reduces the noise. Hunch aspires to be that service. Initially, I am impressed with their attempt.

photo by pamhule

Google and China are at it again. Google announced January 12th that agents hacked into their system and attempted to access information stored on Google servers regarding Chinese political dissidents. While Google has been careful not to make any direct accusations, it is very clear that they feel these acts were carried out by or on behalf of the Chinese government. Chinese officials continue to deny their involvement in the attacks even when the hackers have been traced to a prominent Chinese technical university and vocational school with ties to the Chinese military. Google has subsequently stated that if it can not reach an agreement with Chinese officials to operate its search engine unfiltered it will close down its operations in China. The government has made it very clear that they currently have no intentions of lifting any content restrictions and that if Google removes censorship there will be “consequences.” As the fastest growing economy in the world, the profits that are available in China should Google stay and compete are substantial.

If they pull out, Google sends a message to other companies that currently do business in China.  Corporations now have a responsibility to act with a conscience. China has a long and sordid history of human rights violations. Even as the country modernizes the government continues to cling to its oppressive cold war ways. During the 2008 Summer Olympics the world witnessed first hand what marvels the Chinese people are capable of, but often times the plight of the Tibetan people or even Chinese citizens who speak out against the government were swept under the table. Google finds itself in a unique situation. The service they provide is directly linked to self-determination. The internet is the greatest collection of information in the history of mankind and freedom to access that information unfiltered is a necessary human right in the digital age. With well over 400 billion queries per day, Google is the lens through which most people view this information. When Google dilutes access at the request of any government it is adding a bias and becoming a tool of that government rather than of the people.

“Don’t be evil” is the informal slogan of Google and its meaning is cast in sharp relief against the China dilemma. After the January 12th ultimatum negotiations have been slow. Google is understandably nervous about removing the censorship from its Google.cn site without the consent of the government, because doing so could endanger Google employees working in its China offices. However, the stonewalling of Chinese officials makes it more and more likely that Google will be forced to do just that or else close its offices for good. While negotiations are ongoing Google continues to hire for its China offices, so obviously losing its foothold in China is a worst-case scenario. Considering the millions in advertising dollars the company stands to loose, Google remains hopeful that it can operate free and uncensored. However, doing so is going to require cooperation from the government.  If Google can secure this cooperation not only will it be a victory for their business, but a milestone for free speech in a part of the world that has long lacked such liberty. It will also set a precedent for the free market’s triumph over oppressive regimes. The ball is in their court; the eyes of the world are on Google.

Some More Good Articles:

Read Write Web – What Will Google Do In China

The New York Times – China Issues Another Warning To Google On Enforced Censorship Of The Internet

Ars Technica – China And Google Playing Game Of Chicken Over Censorship

Ars Technica – China Warns Google Partners As Censored Results Leak Through

Financial Times – Google ‘99% Certain’ To Shut China Engine

Read Google’s Original Statement:

Official Google Blog – A New Approach To China

Since time immemorial man has been undertaking great projects. The Pyramids, Stonehenge, Amazon.com just to name a few. All of these projects have had one thing in common; A lowly human with no superpowers was the one responsible for making sure that necessary tasks were accomplished in order to achieve the end goal. Whoever that person was, an Egyptian Pharaoh or a Celtic priest, that person was the project manager. The job existed long before it was given a name. Of course, as soon as society did name it we also insisted on implementing rules and regulations, guidelines and doctrine…a sort of project management dogma that must be followed. This process is often times pursued without question and with no consideration to its impact on the quality of the final deliverables.

The biggest problems with traditional project management are that it is bloated and complicated. The average person would have an easier time deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics than a Gantt chart. Scrum development is a lightweight project management solution that offers increased flexibility, efficiency, and innovation. Scrum works best when used in conjunction with agile software development, but the methodology can be applied to any number of products or processes.

Roles in Scrum project management are defined in two distinct categories, pigs and chickens. The group names come from a joke told about a pig and a chicken opening a restaurant.

A pig and a chicken are walking down a road. The chicken looks at the pig and says, “Hey, why don’t we open a restaurant?” The pig looks back at the chicken and says, “Good idea, what do you want to call it?” The chicken thinks about it and says, “Why don’t we call it ‘Ham and Eggs’?” “I don’t think so,” says the pig, “I’d be committed, but you’d only be involved.”

Pigs are the ones with “their bacon on the line.” There are only three different types of pig roles. The Scrum Master (Project Manager) facilitates the process and removes obstacles or impediments that prevent team members from achieving their goal. The Product Owner represents the client and speaks with their voice. Everyone else is simply a team member. The team members are responsible for doing the actual work that makes the project a success (design, development, quality assurance, etc.). Chicken roles are represented by people that will eventually use the product or have some vested interest, but don’t do any of the work and are not part of the Scrum process. Chickens include project stakeholders and managers or executives that must give approval on the work.

Scrum breaks the total project workload into smaller prioritized segments called sprints. At the beginning of each sprint a “Sprint Planning Meeting” is held to select which features are to be included. The idea is that at the conclusion of a sprint the team will have a functioning product ready to ship. Once a feature set or “sprint backlog” has been agreed upon, including time commitments from team members, it cannot be changed. Any new features/functionality that are added after the start of a sprint must be folded into the next phase. This is helpful for the team members that don’t have to deal with drastic changes to scope mid-stream. More importantly, it allows for and even encourages changes to the overall feature set or “product backlog.” These changes are no longer viewed as extra work since they can easily be folded into the next sprint. At the end of a sprint the “Sprint Retrospective Meeting” is held. The purpose of the meeting is to answer two questions and two questions only:

1. What went well during the sprint?
2. What could be improved in the next sprint?

What Scrum development is most know for is its daily scrum or standup meetings. The daily scrum is notable for it’s frequency. It happens every day at the same time and in the same location. It starts precisely on time without exception and has a hard stop at 15 minutes. Participants are required to stand because this encourages them to keep their comments brief and adhere to the time limit. All members of the team including chickens are welcome, but only pigs are allowed to talk. At each meeting team members answer only three questions.

1. What did you do yesterday?
2. What are you planning to do today?
3. What obstacles are preventing you from accomplishing your goal?

The daily scrum meeting serves to identify and address problems early in the process. It is the Scrum Master’s responsibility to resolve any impediments to a team member’s progress. This ensures that no team member sits idle while issues go unaddressed.

Adaptive project management using Scrum is a proven methodology, but it’s important to remember it is not a silver bullet. Despite its benefits, Scrum is not for everyone. Organizations committed to a traditional waterfall process will find it a dramatic shift in the way teams work. In order for it to be successful it requires a level of involvement from the client that is not always present. Also, each team member must understand and be committed to the process. However, when organizations are able to implement Scrum they are often rewarded with higher quality work in a shorter delivery window. Scrum teams are flexible and can easily adapt to evolving client needs. This is an essential skill in a marketplace where the only constant is change.

As any web developer worth his weight in JavaScript knows, you have to test your web sites and applications in detail, and in the environment where they will ultimately exist. This necessitates the need to recreate that environment locally, a sandbox for experimentation and testing. There are several server environments out there, and I don’t want to get into the strengths and weaknesses of them here, but suffice to say that the one most widely used on the interwebs is the open source Apache web server with PHP and MySQL.

In my own experience setting up these environments, especially for multiple sites, has been a challenge to say the least. Usually it involved configuring my profile file  and adding lines to my host file, not to mention a good deal of time messing with commands in Terminal. It took time, and sometimes I just couldn’t get it to work.

That is where MAMP Pro comes in. Before I continue, I will note that MAMP Pro is a paid version, and that there is also MAMP, which is free. MAMP Pro is worth the price ($30) for many reasons. It has a simple yet powerful GUI, I can set up a local environment in three clicks, and Pro allows the management of multiple environments simultaneously. Other features include: MySQL configuration, Apache modules, the ability to select between PHP 4 and 5, an email server so that dispatching emails by PHP scripts is possible, and dynamic DNS.

I’ve been using MAMP Pro for a couple of weeks now, and it has quickly become an invaluable tool in my web development toolkit. If you are on a Mac and you develop sites in the Apache environment I would highly recommend this application.

Requirements: Mac OSX 10.4 or later

Photo by tanakawho

By now everyone is aware of the anticipated announcement tomorrow by Apple. Rumors are flying and it seems everyone has a “reliable source” that can confirm that the new Apple tablet will have a 10 megapixel camera powered by pixie dust. Wild speculation might be fun, but I will be abstaining in this article. Instead, I would like to focus on my wish list. The below are features that very well may not be included in the final design, but I feel would be invaluable in any computer with a touch-screen tablet form factor.

1. Accessibility to 3G/4G network – The true value of the iPhone is in having a computer available and connected to the Internet at all times. At least that’s the theory; AT&T isn’t exactly the most reliable network in the world. With only a wifi connection, any tablet would be severely handicapped. On the other hand, I’m not sure I’m willing to pay another monthly rate to a wireless carrier for connectivity. The tablet should follow the Kindle model and incorporate free wireless subsidized through content purchases.

2. USB port(s) - Apple will try to convince me that a 30GB hard drive is all the storage space I would ever need. They’ve been trying to convince me that I don’t need storage for years and I’m still not buying it. The ability to connect to an external hard drive is a must. I want to be able to have instant access to all of my media. A possible solution could be a polished streaming app that would allow me to connect to my external iTunes library, but until I see that app a USB port is a must.

3. Ability to pair with Bluetooth keyboard/mouse - 80% of all my interaction with any tablet would be through the touch screen, however there are times that I need to be able to quickly type up an article or create a complicated spreadsheet. In this kind of situation a virtual keyboard is still cumbersome and frustrating. I firmly believe that we will eventually move away from traditional keyboards as an interface device, but we aren’t there yet.

4. Removable battery - This one I can guarantee will not be included. Apple favors longer battery life over interchangeable batteries. Maybe they are right, but that doesn’t stop me from coveting my cake and wanting to eat it too. A removable battery unchains me from electrical outlets for a theoretically unlimited amount of time. Alternately, the internal battery should at the very least be able to stand up to a full day of moderate to heavy use without needing to be charged.

These are just the tippy top of my wish list items for this device. All I want, really, is for Apple to make all of my wildest dreams come true. That’s not too much to ask right? But seriously folks, Apple rarely gives users exactly what they want. In fact, what makes Apple so special is finding innovative solutions to problems that transform the way people think. I’m sure this new product will be no different.

BumpTop is a creative 3D interface that changes the way you think about a computer desktop. After installing BumpTop users find themselves looking at a three quarter perspective view of the desktop, complete with four walls. Files and folders can be dragged around and now react with other objects in real physics. Features include the ability to group items into piles just like a real desk. The difference is that these piles are sortable and searchable. Files easily pin to any of the walls and can be stretched or shrunk to help signify importance. This can all be done using Multi-Touch gestures on the Mac trackpad.

Photo by cliff1066™

Social Networking has changed everything. Anyone who is still not convinced of this truth either has been hiding under a very large rock for the last 5 years…or they’re disagreeing with you just to be contrary. People communicate today in ways like never before. If the internet was the most important shift in communication since the printing press then social networking is the digital age’s equivalent of the first newspaper. It is difficult to understand exactly what the communication landscape is going to look like once all of the dust settles, but I think it’s safe to say that it will be vastly different than the static one-way communications of the twentieth century.

The things that tend to change the world are usually misunderstood or even taken for granted at the time. Social media is no different. The brilliance of Facebook and Twitter isn’t their complex nature, quite the opposite. The simplicity is what takes people by surprise. People don’t comprehend Twitter when they first sign up. “What’s the point” is the question I get most from friends registering for the microblogging service. These are intelligent people who simply don’t understand. I can’t blame them. I didn’t get it at first either. To be honest, I’d be lying if I told you I completely understand it now.

It’s okay not to fully recognize what social media means for the future. The common Virginia militiaman could not fathom how his actions and those of his countrymen would change the world in 1776. He was probably just mad at the redcoats for burning his crops and looking for a little payback. Only a handful of visionaries in Philadelphia had a glimmer of recognition.

Okay, okay…maybe Facebook and Twitter aren’t as important as the founding of a democracy that has survived for 200 years as a beacon of hope to the world (cue patriotic music), but it is undeniable that they have triggered a fundamental change in the way people interact with each other. History has a funny habit of changing things in ways we don’t expect.