(Update: In case you’re wondering about FriendFeed’s pedigree, Marshall Kirkpatrick has this fortuitously timed piece over on ReadWriteWeb about the guy that built FriendFeed - Paul Buchheit, former Google employee, the guy who built Gmail in a day, and then built AdSense in a day. FriendFeed is no rickety side project.)

In the beginning, I didn’t really “get” FriendFeed. I signed up for it, piped in all of my stuff (Twitter, blog, photos, etc.), but never really used it much. Why would I go to yet another social network to read the stuff I was already seeing elsewhere? What changed it for me is when I happened to pop in to FriendFeed, and noticed that stuff I was sharing was being discussed on FriendFeed, a LOT, and I was completely missing out on the conversation. That’s when I decided that I needed to make it part of my “regular” routine.

I keep FriendFeed open all the time in one of my “standard loadout” tabs (along with Gmail, Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). I usually end up looking at it anywhere from once to a few times a day. One of the great things about it is that the order of stuff is not strictly chronological, like Twitter, but also weighted by activity/conversation - if something is getting a lot of comments and/or a lot of “likes”, it will bubble up to the top. This makes it REALLY easy to find what’s “hot” or interesting among the people I follow.

As far as the problem of duplicate posts from Twitter, “noise”, etc., one of the most brilliant features of FriendFeed is its filters, and ability to selectively hide stuff. For example, I still pay attention to Twitter, because I follow tons of people there that aren’t on FriendFeed (though I could create Imaginary friends for all of those, it’s not practical). To avoid seeing double tweets from the people who are on both FriendFeed and Twitter, I can tell FriendFeed to hide all tweets, UNLESS they’ve been liked or commented on. That way, I still see occasional tweets, but ONLY when there’s some extra value (likes or comments). Otherwise, I never see them. Hiding is VERY flexible. You can hide each type of message (tweets, photos, Facebook, whatever) from everyone, or just from specific people, and you can conditionally show them if they’re getting activity on FriendFeed, or just hide them altogether (I hide most last.fm updates from everybody - I just don’t care what you’re listening to. Sorry. ). It’s easier to show you how this works in person than to explain it in words, but trust me, it’s dead simple to hide stuff you don’t care about in FriendFeed. Mine is very tightly customized to show only the stuff that my friends are doing that’s interesting to me, and nothing else.

I use FriendFeed a lot on my iPhone, too. They have a nice iPhone web interface at http://friendfeed.com/iphone/. You can do most anything you can on the desktop web version. There’s also http://fftogo.com if you have a BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, or other web-enabled phone. I haven’t found any good iPhone apps for it yet, though I’d love to see one come out. There are a couple (BuddyFeed, I think, is one of them) that are kind of awful. But in the mean time, the iPhone interface is quite good - it’s often my “home” page in Mobile Safari (along with Google Reader).

Another feature I love is the “best of” view. Say I haven’t been paying attention to FriendFeed all day, but I still want to see if there’s anything “hot” that my friends are sharing or discussion. You can click “best of” to see the most shared/discussed/liked items for the day, week or month. It’s a GREAT summary, and really helps with my “Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO)”. Works on either the desktop or iPhone version.

You can also create lists of friends, to filter. So I have all of the people I know from work in one list, and I can view only their updates if I want. Same for people I know from the Portland geek world. And family. And developers. And “People I’ve Never Met In Real Life”. Friend lists are very powerful (and something I wish Twitter had!).

You can also create groups (these used to be called Rooms), which are good for discussion specific events/topics. I’m sure there’s going to be at least one good BarCampPortland3 room on FriendFeed somewhere.

Like Twitter, FriendFeed’s usefulness depends on having a clean, relevant list of people you’re following. If you’ve already built that carefully curated list of people on Twitter or elsewhere, you can take it with you to FriendFeed. Not too long ago, they released a Twitter importer that will look at who you follow on Twitter, and let you easily start following them if they’re on FriendFeed. Very handy. I wish they’d released it before I went and spent hours doing it completely by hand.

You may find that you still don’t have any use for FriendFeed, and that’s totally cool. But for me, it’s become an extension of Twitter, Facebook, and Google Reader. My theory of “social gravity” (”go where your friends are”) applies here - a LOT of the people I am interested in following, and am already connected with in some manner, are on FriendFeed. It makes sense for me to be there, too. I suspect you might find that’s the case for you as well, but if not, there’s no real reason to force yourself to use it, or try to convert all of your friends to FriendFeed.

Anyway, I hope that helps you understand how I use FriendFeed, and why I love it. Have YOU tried FriendFeed? Are you still scratching your head, trying to figure out why you should keep using it? Or have you given up on it? Give it another chance. Try configuring it the way I’ve described (a good friends list, filter what you don’t care to see), and you just might find that the conversations and ability to easily see “what’s hot” are interesting enough to stick around. It took me a while, but now, I’d have a hard time living without it. I’m jabancroft there - feel free to follow me, and leave a comment here, or there, and let me know what you think!

I never used the old "blue button" ones because they acted like a frame, and wouldn’t let me bookmark my "tags" page in Reader directly, which is where I like to start. Now I can. Excellent!

Tonight, my dream came true.

I noticed (on Twitter, or FriendFeed, I don’t remember) someone wondering how page turning should work on the iPhone Kindle app. “Is that out?” I asked myself. A quick Twitter search for iPhone and Kindle revealed that yes, in fact, it was available in the App Store. After one super excited tweet, I was off to download it.

I’ve taken screenshots of most of the interface, and tested logging in and downloading at least one of my books. Here are the screenshots, with descriptions. I’m sure I’ll post more thoughts after I’ve used it for a while, but so far, it works perfectly, just like I hoped and thought it would. Major kudos and thanks to everyone at Amazon and Apple who made this happen! You’ve made me one happy bibliovoracious geek!
Kindle in the App Store:

Kindle App Splash Screen:

“Archived Items”, things in your Kindle account but not downloaded to your iPhone:

Downloaded books show on the “home” screen:

Reading a book - the main interface. Haven’t used this much yet, but I was super impressed that it knew exactly what page I left off reading this book on my Kindle, and too me right there:

How to Get Books. Basically, you have to browse and buy on a Mac or PC (or a Kindle, of course), though that link will take you to…

The desktop version of the Kindle Store web page in Mobile Safari. This works, but is obviously not optimized for the iPhone. Last time I tried, you couldn’t browse or buy Kindle books in the iPhone version of Amazon.com, or using the Amazon iPhone app. Maybe that will change.

The Options Screen. Pretty basic, only real option is to deauthorize your iPhone from your Kindle account (important to remember, since you have a 5 device limit).

In conclusion? This is awesome, long awaited news, and I can’t wait to play with it some more. Am I going to read less on my Kindle and more on my iPhone? Maybe, maybe not. I’ll likely end up reading more in general, now that I can access my Kindle books (and my saved place!) on my iPhone, and I can’t wait.

One interesting thing this opens up: now, people can download this free iPhone app, and spend money buying Kindle books from Amazon, without ever buying an actual Kindle.

What you do think about this news? Do you have a Kindle and an iPhone? Or no Kindle at all, but willing to try Kindle books on your iPhone? Post a comment and let me know!

Here’s an outline of what I plan to talk about, but please add your ideas, links, and recommendations in the comments. I really appreciate it!

Web Tools and Techniques

I think a web savvy lawyer (well, actually, I think this applies to everyone) should be versed in the following basic web and social tools. That’s not to say you have to be an expert, but you should at least understand what they are, and how they work in general terms.

• Feeds and Readers/Aggregators - Know what an RSS feed is, and how to subscribe to one in a a feed reader. Example: Google Reader. Know how to organize your subscriptions into folders, unsubscribe from feeds you don’t want anymore, and share interesting items with others.
• Social Network Sites - Under the skin, most of them are alike. Facebook is the most popular example. Know what it means to “friend” someone, what a status update is, how to share photos and video, and how to behave yourself well, so as not to annoy all of your friends. Know what a social network site is good for and what it’s not. See also: LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.
• Sharing and Tagging - Know the popular sites to share photos, videos, and other stuff online. Be familiar with the way some sites allow people to organize and categorize stuff they’ve shared using tags (Example: Delicious for bookmarks and links, Flickr for photos, etc.). Know what a tag cloud is. Bonus points for being able to explain “folksonomy”.
• Blogging - In general terms, know what a blog is, some features most blogs have (comments, feeds, categories, etc.), and be aware of the best (free!) places to start a blog, like WordPress.com, Google’s Blogger.com, etc. Be aware that it’s also relatively easy and cheap to set up and host your own blog, if you want more freedom that what you get with a free hosted blog.
• Twitter - Know that it’s a “microblogging” service that lets people sign up and post short (140 character) messages that their friends/followers will see. Know what it’s good for (conversation, asking and answering questions, getting to know and keeping in touch with people) and what it’s not (pretty much anything that doesn’t work well in short 140 character messages).

People

There are a few people I consider to be very wise when it comes to understanding and explaining the intersection of law and the web. I highly recommend reading and digesting the things that they say.

• Cory Doctorow - link goes to his blog, but he mostly writes elsewhere (Boing Boing, columns for other publications, etc.). Luckily he usually links to stuff he’s written, so his blog is the best place to start. He’s published several sci-fi books that, besides being completely and utterly excellent, are prefaced with Cory’s thoughts on why he releases all of his books for free under a Creative Commons license, and why giving his stuff away for free actually makes him more money.
• Lawrence Lessig - Again, link goes to his blog. A lawyer, professor, and founder of the Creative Commons movement, Lessig is simply “The Man” when it comes to The Law and The Web. I HIGHLY recommend reading his books (which are available for free, thanks to Creative Commons). Start with Free Culture, and move on to, say, Code v2 and The Future of Ideas. Great, great stuff that will make you think hard about copyright and digital rights in general.
• Bruce Schneier - Famous for his books on security and privacy, he posts great essays, thoughts, and examples of smart (or silly) security practices on his blog. I don’t know of anyone who explains more clearly the risks of giving up our privacy and making dumb, knee-jerk-reaction decisions about security. And privacy is a HUGE part of how the law and the web come together.

Foundations/Movements

• Creative Commons - every web savvy lawyer should be versed in what Creative Commons is, and how it relates to the future of the web. Creative Commons has changed my life in many ways. It affects what I read, listen to, and watch, and how I share the things that I create.
• Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - Again, a web savvy lawyer should be familiar with what the EFF is, what it stands for, and cases it’s won (and lost). That’s not to say that you have to support the EFF. But you’d be foolish not to be informed about it.

Sites and Communities

There are a few online communities that do a great job of covering and providing lots of discussion around legal issues on the web.

• Slashdot: Your Rights Online - The YRO category on Slashdot provides a regular stream of internet-related legal and privacy news, along with vigorous commentary.
• Groklaw - Applies Open Source principles (interested volunteer experts) to not only provide journalistic coverages of legal issues in the tech field, but also to collaborate on cases, like SCO vs. IBM.
• Reddit Law - members of the community submit links, vote, and comment on them. There are many, many Reddit communities (go ahead and look - there’s probably one for your favorite topic, and if there’s not, you can start one).

What Would YOU Teach a Lawyer?

Those are the things I plan to share, if I have time for them all. What about you? What web site, book, expert, or community can you think of that a web savvy lawyer needs to know about? I’d love it if you leave your ideas in the comments. I plan to share this post when I give my presentation to the law firm, and it would be great if they could come back once in a while, and see it growing with your suggestions and ideas. Thanks!

Google Earth 5.0 Adds Oceans, More

Google Earth got updated to version 5.0 today, and gained a couple of nifty features: 3D imagery of ocean floors, historical imagery, which lets you see how an area has changed over time, and better ability to record audio and video “tours”.

And of course, it’s still free. More on the Google Lat-Long Blog. I wonder how long before these features trickle down to the iPhone version of Google Earth?

iPhone and Wii Games Coming from Tommy Refenes

Over on the Intel Software Network blog (where I work), Tommy Refenes, developer of the award winning threaded game Goo! gave us an update on two new projects he’s working on. First, an iPhone game called Beat!, which looks like a cross between Tap Tap Revenge and the old Simon game. Second, that he’s working with Edmund McMillen on Super Meat Boy, an upcoming WiiWare game were you play, um, a meat guy trying to rescue his girlfriend. I’ve been hearing lots of buzz about SMB (at Offworld and elsewhere), and have been looking forward to it. Now I’m even more excited that I know Tommy’s involved. Should be a great game!

8-bit Guitar Hero - Be a Lo-Fi Rock Star

Speaking of cool games, have you seen the 8-bit NES remake of Guitar Hero? If that’s not retro enough for you, there’s a text adventure version, too (I’m still trying to get that one to run in Plotz! on my iPhone).

Google Tasks on iPhone

I was pleasantly surprised to see Google release an iPhone interface to their Tasks feature (currently available to Gmail Labs users willing to put up with experimental quirkiness in return for new features).

I’ve been using Remember The Milk for tasks, which fits my requirement of being completely “in the cloud” (just like my Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calendar, etc.), and it’s way more robust (and has a very nice iPhone app), but I find that I don’t actually use RTM that much, and I bet I could get by with just Google Tasks now that it has an iPhone interface.

You can try it by going to http://gmail.com/tasks on your iPhone. More info available on the Gmail blog (found via Lifehacker)

iPhoto 09 Recognizes Cats’ Faces, But Not Dogs

Apple’s iLife ‘09 hit stores yesterday, and the wires are full of people reporting their experiences with its new features. One of the new new major features in iPhoto 09 (the other one being geotag/location support) is that it can recognize faces of people in your pictures. Apparently, it can recognize the faces of cats, too. But, for some reason, not dogs. Why does Apple hate doggies?

iMovie 09 Video Stabilization

The other iLife 09 feature that I’m excited about is iMovie 09’s new ability to stabilize shaky video. There’s lots of sample footage out there. Here’s some from from Beau Colburn (via Daring Fireball). It’s pretty impressive, and especially good news for owners of light little video cameras with small sensors, like my Flip Mino HD, which are extremely sensitive to camera shake. Can’t wait to try it out for myself.

Google Launches Measurement Lab - Tools to Keep Your ISP Honest

Via the Official Google Blog, Measurement Lab is a suite of tools to help you test your connection speed, see if your ISP is throttling bittorrent, etc. Great way to learn more about your internet connection, and see if you’re ISP is not giving you all the service you would like.

That’s all for today. This was fun! Let me know what you think in the comments. I’ll try to keep it up, but no promises.

Besides some pretty convincing photos of what Kindle 2.0 might look like that leaked on Boy Genius Report last year, there hasn’t been a whole lot of credible information on the subject. For most of its life, Kindle has been almost synonymous with supply problems. After it sold out in hours when it launched in November 2007, you had to wait 1-2 months for delivery of a Kindle. This persisted through April 2008, and happened again around the 2008 holidays (blame Oprah for that one). All year, the rumor mill has been on fire with Kindle 2.0 speculation - TechCrunch, Scoble, you name it, they’re predicting a new Kindle. Amazon has been typically coy, and has only said “the soonest we’d do a new Kindle is next year”. Well, now it’s next year, and there’s something afoot.

The New York Times reports that Amazon is holding a press event at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City on February 9, and that Jeff Bezos is going to be there. They haven’t said this event will have anything to do with a new Kindle, but given the fact that the original Kindle launch was held at a similar venue, this is like Apple saying “we’re going to have a music-themed press event, and Steve Jobs is going to be there, but we’re not going to tell you what we’re going to announce.” Everyone knows that means new iPods.

So what will Kindle 2.0 be like? The NYT blog post I linked above has some speculation about a new ebook reader chip from Epson and e-Ink (who makes the Kindle’s distinctive electronic ink screen. Called Broadsheet, it would enable smoother screen refreshes by breaking the screen into a grid of 16 pixel areas that can be individually updated, rather than having to redraw the whole screen (at the cost of 750 milliseconds) every time something needs to be changed. This sounds plausible to me (apparently Sony’s latest Reader device already has the Broadsheet chip), but it’s not mind-blowing. I expect this to be an incremental upgrade to the Kindle, rather than something revolutionary.

The big question on my mind is, how will Amazon treat the enthusiastic early-adopter Kindle community when the new device comes out? They’ve legitimately earned a reputation for caring about the people who forked out $400 for one of their devices. They’ve been really lenient about replacing accidentally damaged or destroyed Kindles. They encouraged and even help facilitate people staging “See a Kindle in Your City” events, which means they understand the value of an in-person, hands-on demonstration in order to help people “get” the Kindle. Almost every Kindle owner I know has become an enthusiastic fan and unpaid Kindle salesperson. So what, if anything, is Amazon going to do for us?

That sounds really whiny and “entitled”, I know. Tell me how stupid it is in the comments. It would be absurd to hope for “free Kindle 2.0 to all 1.0 owners!” or something that doesn’t make business sense for Amazon. But it would be in line with how Amazon has heretofore treated the early adopter community if they did something like “$100 of the new Kindle for previous Kindle owners”. They’re a big company, their job is to make money. But I can’t help but hold onto a sliver of hope that they might do something nice, even though they don’t have to (sort of like Apple did with it’s $100 rebate for 1st gen iPhone buyers).

Bottom line is, I’ll likely buy a new Kindle, sooner or later, regardless of what Amazon does. Can’t help but hope Uncle Jeff will help a geek on a budget out a little.

Nifty, but not incredibly useful. Although it is a handy way to find out things like your cellular AND wifi IP addresses, MAC addresses, and other stuff that’s hard to dig out of the iPhone OS itself.

iStat for iPhone also has nicely done Ping and Traceroute features, but what really makes it stand out, in my opinion, is the ability to remotely monitor a Mac computer. There’s a little free server app you have to install and run on the machine to be monitored, but after that, you can add it to iStat on your iPhone and monitor it remotely (even over the internet, if you set up port forwarding on your router).

So if you’re the kind of nerd that cares how much physical memory you have free at any given time, and what your CPU core utilization rate is (obviously, I am this type of nerd), you’ll probably get a kick out of iStat for the iPhone. It’s on sale for $1.99 in the App Store (normally $2.99). If you’re a Macminicolo user, they’ve got a special deal for you.

But I won’t give up! I’m going to try narrating my work. I’m too heavy on the learn/explore/research side, and not heavy enough on the “share what I’ve found” side. Twitter and FriendFeed don’t count (well, they sorta count), but I think I CAN use them as notes/reminders on what I did/saw/thought about each day. A cheat sheet to my life. We’ll see how it goes.

It’s obviously not a good thing. But what was surprising is that within 45 minutes, the other people on the team adopted the “bad apple” behavior. They started acting like the bad apple. Turns out it’s contagious.

This got me thinking about team dynamics, and the criteria we use when we build teams, interview people for a job, etc. When it comes to looking at the personality traits, and how well a person can fit within a team, it occurs to me that it’s crucial to avoid someone with those “bad apple” traits, because it will spread to the rest of the team.

Thinking back to teams that I’ve been on, I know this is true. I’ve seen it happen. And I’m really grateful that the team I’m on now at work, Intel Software Network, doesn’t have any Bad Apples to bring us down. I’ve marveled at how great the team dynamic is in this group since I joined almost two years ago, but only now do I realize that the lack of Bad Apples is one of the (probably big) reasons.

So keep Bad Apples away from your teams! It’s hard to make a person change behavior, and if you can avoid it, it’s probably better to not get into that situation in the first place.

Interestingly, the researcher on This American Life said they discovered an antidote to Bad Apple behavior - someone who exhibits strong leadership by asking a LOT of questions, of everybody. In fact, that person in the study was the child of a career diplomat. So if you do get stuck with a Bad Apple on your team, there may still be hope.