Something no one has mentioned so far is that Google made a similar transaction by buying Grandcentral before coming out with the Android Mobile OS. I don’t remember what Google paid for Grandcentral, but I think it was somewhere around $50 million. I know it wasn’t anywhere near a Billion, or the $8 Billion that MS paid for Skype. It would seem that Google made out like a bandit if you compare what MS paid for Skype. Granted, Grandcentral was in it’s infancy compared to Skype, and the same can be said for the userbase.

I still don’t see a logical business plan with Google Voice. I use it because it’s a free business number for me, a free click to call App that I use on my website, and I use it for my voicemail as an alternative to Verizon’s voicemail service. It’s not intrusive and so far I don’t see Google trying to push ads my way via the service.

In light of Microsoft’s recent purchase of Skype a question comes to mind about Google’s acquisition of Grandcentral. Why have they never integrated the features of Google talk and Google voice into a Skype like client? All the pieces are there (Instant Messaging, Video, Voip, and Phone Numbers). It makes no sense.

Now that Microsoft has bought Skype it might put some pressure on Google to do something like this. It would definitely make a lot more use of Google Voice, which I am sure operates in the red (free number, free calls, etc.).

I see Microsoft integrating Skype into Email (like Google Talk), into their Mobile OS (like Google Voice), and into their Office products. Hopefully this will push Google to integrate Google talk and Google Voice more tightly into their products as well. I don’t see Google Talk or Google Voice ever competing with Skype as long as they are separate products. It should be easy enough for Google to do.

Heck, if it costs Google another $50 Million, they’ll still have made out like bandits by having a similar product for $7.9 Billion less than what Microsoft paid.

Couldn’t agree more on most of the issues you mentioned. I could dig deeper actually. Major issues with groups. They have removed most of the “old” group features such as discussions, photo page, etc. One of the most useful things about groups IMO. It’s almost like they are pushing everyone to use pages because they are Open?? Can’t take candy from a baby Facebook, because there is gonna be some whining involved.

The new photo viewer has an unfinished feel to it. Almost like they threw it out there before it was ready. I personally thought the old photo viewing pages were just fine. However, I do like the ajax part of it and that when you close it you are right where you were and don’t have to navigate back.

Considering that I usually like most of Facebook’s changes (up until the last few months), I decided to opt-in to the new messages. ONE SIZE does not fit all Facebook. Really disappointed with the lack of options, but I am stuck with it. Give your users some options. I don’t want all my chats archived in my message folder. Give me an option to go on or off record like Google Chat/Talk.

Regarding Tabs, I agree wholeheartedly. I don’t won’t the stupid configuration options that MySpace has (never used MySpace btw), but at least give the user some options. It’s common sense. If a user’s profile page is more useful to them THEY WILL USE IT MORE.

It’s like Facebook doesn’t even look at the popularity/analytics of some of these features they have removed.

I think IFrames for Pages is a great idea, but why do you have to choose between FBML and Iframes? Can’t they both co-exist? Iframes is the way of the future no doubt though. Will allow business to sell directly from their FB pages, which before was very difficult, and not many companies at all had managed to keep the whole transaction within Facebook.

My .02.

After creating the group I notice that none of the features I was expecting are available. What in the world is Facebook doing? Are we all being pushed to use Pages because they are “open” and, therefore, so is the content? A little privacy is a good thing Facebook. That’s the reason bathrooms have doors.

I have never had a problem with changes that Facebook has made up until now. Ok, I sorta hate how the new “Messages” archives everything (messages, chats, etc..) without giving you an option to opt in or out of that feature, but I can live with that I guess. Anyway, I don’t understand how you give everyone something with all these features and then take it away without expecting some seriously pissed off users. I noticed the older groups still have those features, so maybe that’s why this hasn’t become a big deal yet.

It’s all about options Facebook. As hard as you try, not everyone fits into the same “mold”. Give us the options back regardless of whether we use them or not.

In all three instances that happened to me this week my ticket was correct but the person that put it in the bag just messed it up. I understand the occasional mishap, especially when you are working minimum wage employees, but honestly that is NOT the consumers problem.

What I propose is that these Fast Food Chains offer the consumer a money back guarantee if their order is not right. Do something to show you value our business and are going to offer us a guarantee that it’s right.

Maybe just maybe we’ll see one of these fast food chains step up to the plate.

I have never had another smart phone so I don’t really have anything to compare it to. However, so far I am really impressed. It’s pretty snappy, and with the ever growing Android Market the Apps available make the phone just that much better.

I have only downloaded about five Apps and I use them pretty much everyday (Facebook, GMail, Twitter, Google Voice, etc…). There are a ton of Apps already, but there’s so much cheesy stuff in their marketplace right now. Maybe I have a wrong perception of Apps, but I see all the IPhone commercials, and I want some Apps like that. Maybe they are out there and I am just missing them.

Anyway, the Eris is a quality phone with plenty of features for most users. I am not overly impressed with battery life. You better keep a charger handy because this phone is not gonna get you through the day on an overnight charge. For that reason I will probably turn it back in before my 30 day test period is up and get a Nexus One.

It’s worth mentioning that I got a smoking deal through Amazon on a Home & Car Charger, Case, and Screen Protector for $4.99!

I know that won’t be popular with most of my Republican brethren, but then again I don’t really care. I am a Republican mainly because they side with my Religious beliefs, Environmental issues, and Capitalistic ideas. That may not be your American dream, but it is mine.

President Obama doesn’t “check every box” in my list of requirements of the ideal President. Sorry if this offends you, but I wish he wouldn’t side with the gay rights community. Don’t get me wrong, I believe every human being should be treated equally and with respect, but from my standpoint that is more of a moral issue than it is about equality. I don’t like his ideas about abortion either. I think the legalization of abortion is the biggest travesty that our Nation has ever perpetrated.

With those strong differences it would seem that I could not stand the man, and if you think the respect I have for him has come lightly you are wrong. Idealistically I wish he was everything that I wanted him to be. Unfortunately we don’t live in that world. I love and respect my wife, my children, my parents, my family, and myself despite shortcomings and beliefs, and I would dare to say that most other people feel the same about the people in their lives. So, why do we put these idealistic goggles on when we look at our Political leaders?

I loathe the attitude that someone is different from us and therefore we, and our group, are obviously superior and the other side and their leader must be evil incarnate. I loathe the blind, ignorant criticism that both sides spit out. Have we regressed into a Country that labels everyone and every group without actually listening to what they have to say?

I am not saying we should not question each others ideas, and even have the right to disagree with those ideas, but we have to be careful about what we say, and how we treat each other in light of those disagreements.

So why do I like Obama? He’s the first President other than maybe Reagan that I actually have confidence in. The man is wicked smart, and I believe he means what he says. I believe he genuinely cares about the American people and their plight. I believe if most Americans would take those idealistic goggles off and listen to him that they would be inspired, and that they would have hope. I believe they would see an imperfect man simply striving to make our Country better.

In case you can’t see it below, here is a link to the video that inspired me to write this post. http://tr.im/M79P

Ever since RSS feeds came out I have wanted to be able to pull those feeds in and display them on some of my websites. I have tried many different ways but never came up with a viable solution. A week or so ago I ran across this free script RSS2HTML.

RSS2HTML is a php script that you upload to your server. It pulls your feed in and gives you the code to display that feed on any website. It allows you to choose what parts of the feed elements to display, as well as how many entries you would like to display from the feed.

I didn’t want to be pulling the feed every time that particular page loaded though, so I needed to find some kind of cache script. RSS2HTML has a cache script but you have to pay for it. I am a cheapo so that wasn’t an option for me. After a few google searches I found an old PHP cache script that fit the bill. It worked, but it was really slow to load. The script actually creates a static html page that’s rewritten if it’s past the time frame that you set, so what I did was load the actual html page versus the cache script. That alone will not produce an html page/php include that updates at your given time frame, but what I did was create a cron job that “hits” that cache script at the time interval that I wanted it to.

Long story short, I finally have a RSS to Html solution that works like I need it to.

To be more accurate I should say, “How I cut my cell phone bill $100 per month.”

The first of this year we switched from Sprint, whom we had been with for 6 years. It seemed our bill kept going up, and honestly it was becoming a burden financially. We were trying every way possible to lower our bills, and although we had a “good run” with Sprint it was time to make a change.

We switched to from Sprint to TMobile. This immediately saved us about $40 per month. We had less minutes, but with TMobile’s Fav5′s we only came close to going over our minutes once in the 6 or 7 months we were with them.

The savings were great but what we didn’t necessarily like was the coverage. There were a lot of dead spots, and we just put up with the below average coverage to save a little money. However, the last straw so to speak was when I went to work one day and didn’t have any coverage in a 20 mile radius. I don’t mind being somewhere that is in a dead zone if I know I can drive up the road if I absolutely have to make a call.

My wife had found this company called Page Plus Cellular a month or so before. She mentioned it to me, but I had never heard of them and really did not want to take that kind of risk with an unknown company. After a month or so of doing some reading and hearing how others had switched I made up my mind to give it a try.

Long story short, I am thoroughly impressed. We got the best possible coverage and the absolute cheapest rates I have seen anywhere. Our bill came down another $55 per month from what we were paying TMobile ($95 total savings), and we had more minutes than when we were with Sprint or TMobile.

Page Plus has a 1200 minute $30 plan and an Unlimited $40 plan. Pretty much any Verizon phone will work with their service, and the coverage is nearly identical to Verizon’s as well (they use the same towers).

If there is any downfall to the service it’s their Customer Service. It takes a long time to get through to them, but once you do they are courteous and handle your issues. We have only had to contact them to initially setup our service.

Have you saved any money with a new cell phone plan, or a new cell phone service? Let me know.

It’s also worth noting that WalMart has partnered with Tracfone and come out with a new service called Straightalk. Straightalk has a $30 plan and a $45 unlimited plan.

Testing posterus.

Posted via email from Trai’s posterous

Recently I found a Firefox plugin/add-on for Google Voice. It’s pretty amazing! It finds phone numbers in webpages that you visit and turns those numbers into click to call links. As far as I can tell it’s never been submitted on Digg before, so a few nights ago I submitted it. I check back in tonight and it’s got three Diggs. Three Diggs? What?

Am I a little sore? You are darn right I am. I don’t think Kevin Rose could honestly say the current state of Digg is what he had in mind when he dreamed up this user generated content site.

I will still visit Digg because sometimes I get bored and there are some good stories posted there, but I’ll never submit another story there. It’s pointless, and I am sure thousands of others have already realized that.

By the way, don’t dare digg this post.