TJ Allard

Abandoned Bikes in New York City - 2011

2011-10-22T12:29:00.000-04:00

True Gamer of the Week: TJ Allard | GamerFitNation.com

2011-07-29T15:54:00.002-04:00

Thanks to @GamerFitNation and Black Bible for the great write up about me! You can check it out here: True Gamer of the Week: TJ Allard | GamerFitNation.com

What do think about my cemetery workouts?
:)

Change again.

2011-07-24T15:24:00.002-04:00

I'll be moving toward more of a website format showcasing my videos, projects, etc. in the coming weeks.

My daily ramblings will continue on:

Twitter - @tjallard

Google+ - +tjallard

Long form posts, stories, and podcasts updates will still appear here but I'll be doing most of my "stuff" over at a blog I'm starting with a few other people called Eurekamatic. (The idea machine)

Go...check it out...now! (if you want)

Choices and New York City Street Cameras

2011-07-18T18:28:00.002-04:00

I've been testing out a lot of "stuff" these days. Mainly playing around with different forms of online publishing. I always come up with the same questions that I never really answer.
- Switch to Wordpress?
- Do I NEED another social network?
- What is the best video site for me to host my videos on?
- Should I just post everything here instead of on the social networks?

I don't have any answers right now, I just know that I have WAY too many options. If you have any suggestions at all please let me know in the comments below.

In totally unrelated news...I was amazed to find out just how many live traffic cameras there are in NYC. Go here: click on "closed circuit television cameras" pick one, and watch.

You can watch my little 15 second video about it below.

Testing out live broadcasting on QIK

2011-07-09T14:59:00.003-04:00

I'm running a 15K race and I'm testing out a live broadcast from my phone while I'm running. If you see a bunch of people running below you'll know its working.

The race is called the Boilermaker in Utica, NY and its on Sunday July 10th. This better work!

Evolution of Google Design

2011-07-05T19:08:00.000-04:00

If you're anything like me you have something Google related open on your PC at all times. Whether its Google Chrome, Gmail, Gcal, or even Google Maps. Design is really important and the slightest change makes a HUGE difference, especially if its something you use day in and day out.

Google has recently made a few design changes creating an even more minimal style, which I love! What do you think? Are the changes too much?

Take a look at their blog for more details.

Official Google Blog: Evolving the Google design and experience

Still need a Google+ invite...c'mon people!

Do You Game?

2011-06-22T09:51:00.002-04:00

Are you part of the ECA? If not...maybe you should be. Not sure what the ECA is?

Watch me tell you below...then go sign up for it here: Entertainment Consumers Association

Facebook photo tagging bane or boon

2011-06-14T16:46:00.000-04:00

Is it cool or creepy that Facebook is recognizing your pictures, adding you to a database, and judging you!

Personally I shut it off. Sure it might help your friends tag you easier and maybe even offer name suggestions for your pictures but at what cost? Think of your face map floating around the internet, atm machines, grocery store cameras, even car cameras will be able to identify you!

Yet another one of the great reasons Facebook is free. Now they have your FACE, whats next...retinal signatures or maybe your fingerprints extrapolated from a photograph?

If you want to disable Facebook photo tagging / Facebook facial recognition, do this:

- Go to “Account” on the upper right side of Facebook and choose “Privacy Settings” from the drop-down menu.
- Choose “Customize Settings.”
- Then pick “Suggest photos of me to friends.”
- Click “Edit Settings” and choose “Disabled” and click “Okay.”
(taken from http://blogs.reuters.com)

Read the whole story at Facebook photo tagging: Cool or creepy? | Reuters Wealth

Gmail People Widget

2011-05-27T14:17:00.000-04:00

I've been waiting for Gmail to integrate this for such a long time! Even though I haven't been able to enable it yet from what I can tell the Gmail people widget basically aggregates the latest relevant information from your contacts so you can easily find it.

Thing is, this has been around in some form or another for a long time but only as a 3rd party plug in. Xobni, Rapportive, Gist, etc. Finally Google has stepped up to make all your contact info more accessible and useful. Now if the de-duper would only get smarter and de-dupe fuzzy contact info it would be 1 step closer to a perfect contact manager.

Read all about it here:
Introducing the people widget - Official Gmail Blog

Angry Birds in Google Chrome

2011-05-11T14:00:00.000-04:00

For all 6 people out there who haven't played Angry Birds yet, no more excuses. Just fire up your Google Chrome browser and click the link. It launches the game inside a new tab, so you can sneak a few pig smashing levels in while at work.
Check it out here: Angry Birds

Does ADHD mean a bigger brain?

2011-05-09T14:15:00.000-04:00

For so many years we've called it everything from hyperactivity to ADHD. Now it looks like it could actually be "too much brain"! Ryota Kanai and his colleagues at University College London gave a quiz and compared the results of people who are "easily distracted" to those that are "hard to distract."

"...The most obvious difference between those who had the highest questionnaire scores – the most easily distracted – and those with low scores was the volume of grey matter in a region of the brain known as the left superior parietal lobe (SPL). Specifically, the easily distracted tended to have more grey matter here."

They also discuss ways to overcome distractions but since they didn't mention the ultimate buzz word of Gamification I stopped reading and started looking at my cat.

Read the story here:
Easily distracted people may have too much brain - health - 06 May 2011 - New Scientist

Guest on CNET Digital City Podcast

2011-04-05T19:38:00.001-04:00

This week I was a guest on the Digital City podcast over at CNET. Thanks to Dan Ackerman, Julie Rivera, Joseph Kaminski, and Scott Stein for having me on, I had a great time.

From CNET:
Digital City 122: Apple store shootout, the best TV shows on Netflix

This week: a brazen robbery at a San Diego area Apple store leads to a shootout, and we tune into the shocking TV news footage of the police chase. Joey joins the iPad revolution and explains how he spent $100 on iPad apps in one weekend, and the team picks the best streaming TV shows on Netflix.

Kudo Tsunoda talks about Kinect, Factoid, and a little bit o me.

2011-04-04T19:20:00.002-04:00

Great piece with Kudo Tsunoda talking about the Kinect. I make a few brief talking head appearances throughout the clip. Kudo is a great guy, and a total rock star! I'm sure we'll see plenty more of him in the years to come. Love the beard man!

Random Factoid.
Guinness World Records has named Kinect the fastest-selling consumer-electronics product based on its first 60 days, when sales averaged 133,333 units a day, Microsoft said. (Source: Bloomberg)

I was on the latest episode of Bloomberg "Innovators"

2011-03-15T11:38:00.003-04:00

4D gaming is on the way!
The "Quantum rebel" Shahriar Afshar's created a new technology called KOR-FX

You can see me talk a little bit about it in this clip from the Bloomberg TV show "Innovators" or just watch it below. I come in at about 1:45 into the clip.

It's a great device, still waiting for mine to come in the mail. The idea is that you wear it while playing a game so you can actually feel the game from the inside.

One step closer to the Matrix!

ECA in NYC

2011-01-26T14:16:00.001-05:00

Check out the latest video I did for the ECA. Its me...running around NYC asking people what the ECA stands for.

If you are interested in games, even a little bit, you should become a member!

Sign up and find out more info at www.theeca.com

*yes, the host was injured in the making of this video. :)

Happy Angry Birds Day!

2010-12-11T13:56:00.000-05:00

Looks like there's a gathering in Times Square, woohoo!

Rovio - Blog

ECA Supreme Court Rally.

2010-11-29T20:04:00.001-05:00

Earlier this month I had an opportunity to work with the ECA (Entertainment Consumers Association)in Washington DC. They held a gamer rally outside of the Supreme Court on November 2nd 2010, which was the day oral arguments would be heard for the Schwarzenegger v. EMA, violence in video games case.

There was a great turnout, which led to some really good interviews, you can check them out in the video below. Although no decision has been made yet, it sounds like things went well for us gamer types.

Be sure to check out the ECA's website too. www.theeca.com

I'm in a Star Wars game. Sorta.

2010-11-18T13:28:00.000-05:00

Many times in my life I've been called "That Guy". Sometimes its a good thing, sometimes its not. This time its a GREAT thing!

I'm in the promo videos fooooor....drum-roll please.....The First Augmented Reality Star Wars Game.

"Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner"

Check out the article on TechCrunch

Here's the first promo video

Buy it from the iTunes App Store
Falcon Gunner for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (2nd generation), iPod touch (3rd generation), and iPod touch (4th generation)

Xbox Live Fall 2010 Update.

2010-11-01T09:42:00.000-04:00

Still downloading...taking a bit longer than I had hoped. (mostly due to Time Warner Cable and their crappy internet service.)

First thing I did notice upon updating my Xbox 360 was sound and pretty new animated logo. Is this all there is? Obviously not...check out Engadget for more details.

Xbox Live Fall 2010 Dashboard Update preview: ESPN, Netflix search, Kinect, and more! (Update) -- Engadget

Why all the in-fighting?

2010-09-28T15:47:00.000-04:00

I just don't get it, whats the sense of insulting each other and bashing company culture? Maybe all this anger should be resolved through gaming tournaments featuring your own games? Putting employees from each company against each other to battle it out.

Winner gets bragging rights and get to place a logo on their packaging for the holiday season. I would love to see a sticker that says "We whooped Activision's ass 2010". That would be hi-larious!

What would your sticker say?

Video game industry giants spit insults at each other | VentureBeat

Gamers fight back.

2010-08-03T09:04:00.000-04:00

YouTube - Gamers fight back after robbers target PC Gamerz in Kaneohe

News report about a game cafe in Hawaii being robbed, and the customers fight back. It sounds like the news reporter is talking about an alien species when he refers to the shop owner and his customers as "gamers".

Best part is when the robber tries to steal a Nintendo DS, belonging to a rapid "gamer". Watching the "gamer" flip out and pummel the masked robber is awesome.

Change is good!

2010-06-13T13:52:00.000-04:00

Working on something super top secret...I can't tell you what it is...yet.

Ok FINE, its not super top secret, but I still can't tell you.

You'll see the updates and videos here.

Oh yea...and I'm on my way to E3

d'OH!

I think I've said too much.

Who woulda thunk Disney could make a racing game this good?

2010-06-02T17:34:00.000-04:00

The game.....Split/Second. The concept...8 cars go head to head, the more you draft, the more you power up. The more you power up, the more damage you can inflict on the other racers. The first time you see a helicopter come in and drop a bomb on the the 2 cars ahead of you you will understand just how many possibilities there are for destruction!

About the game from the official website:

"Split/Second is an intense action racing game set within a reality television show. Competitors will vie to be the first to the finish line in a made-for-TV city set rigged to blow with the ultimate goal of becoming the season champion. Players in Split/Second don't just collide with other vehicles to knock them from the track, but can also trigger devastating events that drastically alter the dynamics of the race. Players must use pinpoint timing to obliterate huge structures and towering TV set pieces to tactically alter the track or create entirely new routes."

The game looks really "pretty", I mean REALLY pretty.
The attention to detail for a "push the green button and play" kinda game is much better than you would think. I mean, its a Disney title....and you can blow stuff up!

You can play the free demo on X-Box live...but be careful...its addicting!

Who is Facebook sharing your info with, and how to shut it off. UPDATE

2010-05-04T11:14:00.000-04:00

With all the changes to Facebook's privacy settings it worth pointing out that even if you turn off your "Instant Personalization" settings you are STILL sharing your info with some other websites. You have to go to each application specifically and block it. Luckily there are groups out there like the EFF - Electronic Frontier Foundation which keeps tabs on these sorts of things.

It makes no sense why they force people to share their info with websites/apps/services that have you have no interest in. I know why they do it, what I'm saying is that there's a better way. If I'm not interested in sharing with those websites/apps/services and I receive an email from them...it becomes SPAM to me. I filter it, label it as SPAM, and now it gets treated as such from that moment on. In a nutshell Facebook is contributing to the MASS amounts of SPAM you get every single day.

The better way is for Facebook to simplify and consolidate the sharing options, let me know who is getting my info, and who they share it with. Facebook is like an STD these days. Once you share your info with them, anyone who they share with now has your info, and anyone that THEY share with, etc. etc.

Maybe they should be forced to put up a way to track the sharing. Like the "Sex Calculator" that tells how many indirect sex partners you've had. That way we could see how far our personal information has been spread around the maaaaagical internets.

If Facebook adds a new partner to their "sharing list" they should be forced to tell you when you log in..."Hey TJ Allard, would you like to share your info with our new partner "Company you have never heard of" select yes or no"

Their partner list is really hard to find. Are they trying to hide something, by giving it a long name and burying it in their FAQ's? C'mon WTF?! They call it Social plugins and instant personalization pilot program FAQ #17103 Plus, there's no RSS feed so that I can get updates to the list when it changes.

If you didn't know EXACTLY what to search for, you would have never found it. It all just seems kinda shady to me.

As of this posting, Facebook is sharing your info with:
yelp.com
docs.com
pandora.com

EFF has very simple instructions on how to block them, and a little video. Unfortunately you can't set it up to keep blocking any new partner sites. You will have to visit Facebook's awesome FAQ#17103 to keep up to date. Unless of course they add a new FAQ# every time they add a new partner.

Here's the link to EFF's instructions.
How to Opt Out of Facebook’s Instant Personalization | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Hope this helps.

Tumblr gets more money to burn.

2010-04-21T09:14:00.000-04:00

I've always loved Tumblr, and in my mind the simplicity and ease of use it brings to posting on-line should be used by everyone. Now, having said that, I'm not using it as much as I used to because of the simplicity. I hope that makes sense, its a great idea and it works really well but its lacking the name recognition or niche use community that could help it survive.

Unfortunately its another website that's burning money figuring out a way to profit from page views.

The article mentions "Founder and tech wunderkind David Karp" as the man with a plan. From reading the quote it sounds like he has an awesome buzz word generator...I believe its a model from the late 90's. Here's a sample “After looking over our roadmap, John, our team, and I all felt that staying on our current track – experimenting with new paid features and optimizing the ones with early traction – was the best way we could spend 2010.”

Huh? What? They're adding paid features? Really? That makes sense...charge for services that are free somewhere else. Don't get me wrong Karp is clearly intelligent and good at what he does, I just think that people forgot about the fall of web 1.0.

Maybe I'm the only one on the whole magical interwebosphere that's old enough to remember the bubble bursting. If a website isn't making money how many more rounds of funding are they gonna get?

I hate saying it...but "here comes another bubble"

Tumblr Raises Another $5 Million in Funding

Tumblr Raises Another $5 Million in Funding