Irony for Me

Yahoo! Pipes and YQL: Perfect together

2011-01-14T12:16:00.008-05:00

I wrote a guest blog for the Yahoo! Developer Network on combining Yahoo! Pipes and YQL.

I was asked to write a post after my FaceTheMusic bookmarklet earned an honorable mention in the YQL + Kynetx app contest.

It was very cool of the Yahoo! team to invite me to write something. Special thanks to Havi! I was worried about writing too many exclamation marks in my emails because I was so happy to get this opportunity, but then I remembered it's Yahoo!

FaceTheMusic: Bookmarklet to find similar artists using Facebook

2010-12-16T20:23:00.012-05:00

I made a fun and, dare I say, useful bookmarklet using the awesome Kynetx Appbuilder and YQL.
First, drag this link to your bookmark bar:

FaceTheMusic

Next, log in to Facebook and go to your favorite band's Facebook page.

Then, click the bookmarklet.

Voilà! A handy list full of links to similar artists you can check out. Some you may know, but others you may discover.

UPDATE: FaceTheMusic earned an honorable mention in the YQL + Kynetx app contest!

What if Facebook turned into a music-startup?

2010-11-02T00:06:00.008-04:00

It's no secret that creating a music start-up is incredibly hard and to make it profitable is next to impossible.

You know what would be funny?

If Facebook dropped everything it was doing and decided to turn into a music start-up.

Say it took all that data about your favorite bands, combined it with an API for related music and filled your news feed with just that information. They could allow bands to buy postings that will show up in your news feed. Would people stop logging in to Facebook and feel betrayed? Or would they like the new music they discover?

This is a great presentation explaining the difficulties music-startups face:

Watch live video from Startup School on Justin.tv

iMade an iPhone app: UpDownNYC

2010-10-22T23:16:00.000-04:00

It was hard to figure out the best tag line for UpDownNYC -- the iPhone app I developed that lists the MTA's elevator and escalator outages.

"Finding the MTA's elevator and escalator outages before you do."

"If you're going uptown or downtown, check UpDownNYC."

"Is your elevator up or down? Check UpDownNYC."

"You won't know if you'll being going up, down or nowhere without UpDownNYC."

Ultimately, I decided on the first one and kind of slip in the second one when I can.

Click here to open iTunes and download the simplest, sweetest, and most free iPhone app ever made by me so far.

eHarmony and Ashley Madison commercial parody

2010-10-14T22:49:00.003-04:00

I had a lot of fun writing, filming and editing this. This was the greatest reward of all though.

Apple Fanboy sticks with Roku over Apple TV

2010-09-02T19:24:00.019-04:00

One of the only times I had a problem with my Roku.

I've had my Roku for more than two years and I still use it all the time. It changed the way I watch Netflix by offering instant streaming right to my TV.
One reason I was an early adopter of Roku was because I was an Apple Fanboy who wanted to try out Netflix's Instant Streaming. In the summer of 2008, if you didn't own a Windows computer, the next best way to stream Netflix was with Roku since Netflix wasn't offering streaming on Macs yet.

Today, Apple Fanboys have a tough decision; abandon our beloved Roku for Apple TV or stay behind Roku and renounce our Fanboy title.

I'm keeping my Roku and here's why.

The main reason is you can't purchase movies or TV shows on Apple TV. I love renting, but sometimes I want to own a TV show and if I can use my Roku to purchase TV shows on Amazon Video, I'd prefer that to renting.

Roku recently opened itself up to developers so anyone can write screensavers and channels/apps for it. Developers use BrightScript to write applications that can be private or public. Public applications need to be approved by Roku. Only people who know your private application's code can access it.

To access Roku's Developer Mode you hit this sequence on your Roku remote:
Home 3x, Up 2x, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right
If someone discovers something similar for Apple TV when it's released, we could assume Apple is planning apps down the road, but so far Apple TV apps have not been announced.

There's lots of other competition out there for putting streaming video on your TV like PlayOn and the soon to be released Boxee Box, so time will tell if all these products can coexist.

Prediction: Photo tagging and what it means for our privacy

2010-06-08T15:43:00.008-04:00

Imagine being able to take a photo of anyone, whether you know them or not, and instantly finding out their name, where they are from and their occupation.

That's my prediction for the future. The very near future.

You may have heard of Google Goggles. It's Andriod software that allows you take a picture of just about anything and search the web for it.

Now imagine that for people.

You may be asking, "Where is this database of faces and names?"
Every time you tag a photo on Facebook, Flickr or TwitPic you're giving valuable information of not only who is in the photo, but where their face is.

Now you may be asking, "OK, but if I take a photo of someone, how will the computer figure out where their face is if I haven't tagged it?"

Facial recognition software already exists. Using that software you can easily identify where the face is in a photo you take.

Then the software would just have to take that face, match it up against a database of all the other faces tagged on the web and bada bing! A match with a name and profile.

See someone on the street that looks familiar, but can't remember the name? No problem.

Someone ruin your photo of Eiffel Tower by walking in front of your shot and you want to tell them as much? You got their number.

Want to pick up someone at a bar. Just snap a photo from a distance, pull up their profile and check out their interests. Approach and say, "This is a long shot, but I have an extra ticket to see [their favorite band]. You wouldn't know anyone?"

Privacy -- fun while we had it.

Safari 5 released: Now more HTML5y

2010-06-07T21:47:00.006-04:00

I spent a lot of Saturday night/Sunday morning reading through the code of Apple's HTML5 demos. I got very frustrated when I couldn't getting their CardFlip demo to work perfectly. Then I realized it doesn't work with Safari 4 or any other mainstream desktop browser. Today Apple released Safari 5 and I easily got it going in that browser.

Now here's the $24,000 question...is it worth it to build an HTML5 app if only Safari supports it?
I guess you just have to hope other browsers adopt the same features eventually.

Episode 201 of 'South Park' gets censored

2010-04-22T18:56:00.009-04:00

I missed the 10:30 airing of "South Park" last night. Episode 201. The one where you find out who Cartman's dad truly is. "Oh, no problem, I'll catch it at midnight," I thought to myself. "They always re-air episodes like that." But last night, they did not.

Today, this was posted on SouthParkStudios.com:

A Statement from Matt and Trey
In the 14 years we've been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn't some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle's customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn't mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We'll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we'll see what happens to it.

This New York Times article has all you need to know.

The Ghost Dad Audio: Analysis of the Nike ad featuring Tiger and Earl Woods

2010-04-08T22:06:00.040-04:00

The new Nike ad with Tiger Woods staring at the camera while his deceased father Earl Woods speaks has been called many things, but probably most often "creepy." ABC News revealed that at least most of the audio of Earl for the ad came from a 2004 documentary where Earl is talking about his wife and Tiger's mother Kultida "Tida" Woods. The Nike people must have crapped themselves with joy when they found this clip. In concept it is a great idea, right? They get to face the fact that one of their top sponsored athletes has a sex addiction head on because they can bring his father on to say all can be forgiven as long as you learn something. But the problem is they manipulated the original audio to fit this purpose. They wanted it to sound like he was talking to Tiger -- almost reprimanding him. Let's see how they did that. First, listen to both. Here's the original interview clip:

Here's the ad:

The first word in the ad is, "Tiger?" It's a very effective and deceptive tactic. The original did not have that in there because Earl was not talking to Tiger when he recorded it. It was spliced in, probably from somewhere else in the same ABC interview.

Next, where the fuck did those birds in the ad come from? Why did they have to include that? To prove that Tiger is outside? What's even odder is you only hear them for the first half of the ad. By the second half, the birds have shut up.

Now, let's look at the waveforms.

Here's the original:

"I am more prone..."
And the ad:

"Tiger? I am more prone..."

Look at how much time Nike put before the final line: "And did you learn anything?" Speaking slowly is a great way to leave a lasting impression. If you want, listen to the audio of the ad again. Earl takes a breath before each clause, except the one where he says, "I want to find out what your feelings are." Now check out the original, he doesn't just take a breath before that clause, he's gives an "Ah."

So basically, they took Earl's quote out of context. But he's dead, so why would he care?

If Nike had to do an ad, couldn't they have gone this route...hire a John Lennon impersonator to do the voice over forgiving Tiger?

Writer/Comedian/Musician/Genius Brendon Small interview from about 5 years ago

2010-03-26T22:23:00.000-04:00

I got into a conversation at lunch the other day about cartoons and inevitably I decided to brag by saying I interviewed the amazing Brendon Small back in college. He created the shows "Home Movies" and "Metalocalypse." Now I'll brag even more -- it's a really super fantastic awesome interview. Brendon gives some tight advice for the aspiring comedian, writer, cartoonist, voice over actor -- pretty much anyone who intends to starve for a living. He even talks about the early development stage of "Metalocalypse," when it was still fresh in his head. The actual interview aired May 3, 2005 on WNYU radio. Hint: Back then, the show wasn't titled "Metalocalypse."

You don't want to be the Last Comic Standing in line

2010-03-22T22:28:00.005-04:00

On Sunday, Gotham Comedy Club in New York hosted auditions for "Last Comic Standing" -- the "American Idol" for comedians. It's a known fact that they have open auditions, but most of the people who appear on the show have scheduled auditions and do not have to wait in line. Still, people waited outside for days. I went there Friday night and met Angelo, who was first in line and had been there since Tuesday, and a few other fellow comedians (none of whom were from New York). What struck me most was how friendly they were. Here is Angelo explaining what it's like to be a comedian in Italy.

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Tom Green at Comix: A memorable night for fans

2010-02-19T22:11:00.010-05:00

Tom Green is one of those comedians you either love or hate. And after watching him perform for an hour, it is clear he thinks most people hate him.

But not the fans that filled Comix in New York last night.

When he was introduced, he didn't enter from behind a curtain. He came in through a door comedians usually use to make an inconspicuous and quick exit after their set. As Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" played, all you could see was Tom's shadow high-fiving audience members since the house lights were not up. One over-joyed fan hugged Tom and yelled "Welcome back, old friend."

Ten years ago, he had his own show on MTV that skyrocketed him to the top. But Hollywood doesn't give out directions and Tom got lost. The many, many people who did not get his humor make fun of him now. They say he's a has-been. They want to see his latest project, a live late night format webcast on tomgreen.com, fail.

It won't. His fans adore him too much. His set at Comix proved that to me. They sang along with "The Bum Bum Song." They cheered at his funny faces. They felt sorry when he brought up his divorce with Drew Barrymore. They were inspired when he talked about his battle with cancer. And they laughed their asses off.

He may have been too zany and friendly for Hollywood, but that's exactly the sort of character that the Internet loves. And soon, more people will only watch movies and sitcoms and talk shows on the internet. And Hollywood will have to turn to Tom and ask for directions.

Easy to understand PATH map -- Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

2009-12-06T09:32:00.004-05:00

I take the PATH train everyday. It is convenient, fast and reliable.
But no one understands the map the first time they look at it.

Literally, every single time I take the train on the weekend I find myself helping someone in my car. And there are 8 or 9 cars on the train. And probably more than 200 round trip departures during the weekend. So, as a rough estimate, every weekend about a million people are totally lost out of their mind.

The first thing they need to do, is make the weekend part of the map the same size as the weekday part. Currently, the weekend part is a minuscule box next to the larger weekday part. If anything, they should make the weekend part bigger because during the week there are more commuters who know what the fudge they are doing and during the weekend there are a bunch of tourists.

I also think they need to change the whole way they diagram it. So I made this map. No, it's not pretty. I need a graphic designer for that. But it does make it simpler than the one now.

Yankee Swap...a fun bonding experience

2009-11-28T21:45:00.001-05:00

This year my cousins are holding a Yankee Swap for all our relatives.

For those who are unsure what Yankee Swap is -- everyone brings in one gift. Depending on various factors, a limit is placed on the maximum price of the gift. This year it's $105. There is an algorithm our family uses to determine this number:
[((20 * household income of richest family members)/(The household income of the poorest family members)) - ((The cost per hour of the venue where event is held + The number of drinks the heaviest drinker put on the tab last year) * The Jewish calendar year)] * 1 = Maximum price of the gift

OK, so -- you each draw a number. The person with the lowest number picks a gift first. Then the next person can either take that person's gift or pick a gift from the unopened gifts. If your gift gets picked you must pick from the unopened gifts.

What do I bring as a gift you ask? Simple. I get a really big box and place one pack of cigarettes inside and fill the dead space with shipping Styrofoam blocks.
(Reminder, $105 is the maximum. $5.75 is below that max.)
Why do I do this? Because my uncle pays me $20 to do it. When its his turn, he lets his daughter pick his gift and knows she'll always pick the biggest box, but he wants something he'll enjoy.

One year we held a Secret Santa, but that didn't go over well, you know, because of the whole being Jewish thing.

Esquire -- man at his best?

2009-11-27T11:32:00.008-05:00

Esquire is a magazine for men, I think. I never read it before, but this month they released the first ever Augmented Reality magazine. And if you know me, I'm all about AR...with all the holding up images to your webcam to start a video. I really liked what it added to the magazine. What I did not like was the magazine itself.

This magazine made me feel incredibly unmanlike to say the least. At one point calling a 5'8" guy vertically challenged. I'm 5'6" and I do not consider myself vertically challenged. Maybe I am to most people, but I never really thought about it like that until now.

As I turned the pages, I noticed a noxious smell wafting up my nose. A scented ad? IN A MEN'S MAGAZINE? What planet is this?!

They did have a good gift guide, even better than the guide in this year's Wired in my opinion, but that didn't make up for how awfully pretentious the magazine was. And honestly, what made the gift guide good was that it was very pretentious.

Perhaps this is well-known; Esquire is for pricks. Now all the people on the subway totally think I'm a prick for reading it. This makes me feel worse than that time I pretended to read the Wall Street Journal in public.

I should have known better from the tagline, "Man at his best," but like a trout in a fishing video game, I bit the AR bait.

Whiteboard of Black Friday netbook fury

2009-11-25T00:15:00.012-05:00

My friend and I are obsessed with getting the best deal possible on a netbook this Black Friday. Check out his whiteboard:
Here is what we decided to do.
Buy this Gateway netbook from Best Buy for $280 via in-store pickup now.
Then, on Black Friday, go to Best Buy to try to get this Compaq netbook for $230.

If I get the Compaq netbook, then I don't pickup the Gateway. The order will be canceled in eight days, according to my friend.

If I don't get the Compaq netbook because it's sold out, then I pickup my Gateway.

Two other tempting deals are Target's $199 Acer, which expires today, and Radio Shack's $250 Acer Black Friday deal.

Whatever you do, don't go shopping without a game plan!

UPDATE: I got this one.

Steve Martin music video: Another contest I entered

2009-11-23T01:24:00.012-05:00

Despite losing the last music video contest I entered, I've decided to enter another one. This time I had to create a music video for Steve Martin's song "Wally on the Run" featuring a dog.
Voting 5 stars would be awful nice of you.

Wally on the Run - Darren's contest entry
by gurudarren

Comparison: Submitting an app to iTunes App Store vs. BlackBerry's App World

2009-11-06T01:03:00.025-05:00

It's a very different process between developing for and submitting to the iTunes App Store and BlackBerry's App World.

Here are the basic steps to get an app into iTunes:
1. Go to the iPhone Dev Center.
2. Register for free.
3. Login and download the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK). This is free and includes everything you need to start writing iPhone apps on your Mac.
4. Join the iPhone Developer Program. The Standard Program is $99. The Enterprise Program, meant for companies designing in-house apps, is $299. It took me less than 24 hours to get approved for the Standard Program.
5. Develop, debug and test your app.
6. Submit your app through iTunes Connect found in the iPhone Dev Center.
7. Wait for approval.
8. Promote your app.

Now the process for App World:
1. Go to the BlackBerry Developer Zone.
2. Register for free.
3. Figure out what you need to download. If you're starting from scratch, you can download the BlackBerry Java Development Environment. To make the JDE work, you'll need the Java SE Development Kit (JDK). Then download the Mobile Data System (MDS) simulator. You'll need this to make the BlackBerry simulator connect to the internet. Next, download the BlackBerry simulator. All of this is free to download and requires Windows.
4. Develop, debug and test your app.
5. Request signing keys from RIM. This process took me several days. First, their web form wasn't working, so I had to fax in my application form. The good news is that it only costs $20 and allows you to distribute your apps on your own site. But, if you want to get a spot in App World...
6. Apply to be an App World Vendor. This costs $200 upfront, paid through PayPal only. From there, you'll have ten application submissions. After those ten run out, you'll have to pay another $200 to submit ten more times. Rejected submissions count against your ten.
7. Wait for approval.
8. Promote your app.

Eight magical steps for both, by my count, but you be the judge if they are equally developer-friendly. True, there are a lot of resources out there for BlackBerry developers, but they are much more scattered than for iPhone devs. Apple gives you pretty much everything you need once you sign in. Try navigating BlackBerry's dev site, and you'll probably get overwhelmed. Apple did everything it could to make developing as easy as possible, bummer RIM couldn't do the same. If you want to check out the selection of apps for BlackBerry you can visit App World. The site Uquery.com lets you search iPhone apps without iTunes.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Apple gets very poor marks when it comes to having a clear app acceptance policy, since many developers complain their app was rejected for no good reason...including Google.

'I'm Gonna Vote' (ft. 'I Am T-Pain' iPhone app) - Explicit

2009-10-29T22:54:00.011-04:00

Here's my entry for Smule's "I'm On A Boat" Contest. It's a parody to The Lonely Island's "I'm on a Boat." I curse a lot. Election Day is November 3.

Please help out by rating and commenting on the YouTube page here.

Conan O'Brien and Newark mayor to end fake feud

2009-10-16T20:26:00.008-04:00

Today, Conan O'Brien welcomes Newark Mayor Cory Booker to "The Tonight Show." This is the most attention late night has given to New Jersey since the prom night dumpster baby.

In case you haven't been following it, on September 23, O'Brien ripped on Booker, saying the mayor's health plan was a bus ticket out of Newark. Real original, Conan.

So Booker had enough of the jokes. He made this video in retaliation, banning O'Brien from Newark Airport.

The charade did not end there. O'Brien banned Booker from Burbank Airport. Then Booker tried to ban O'Brien from all of Jersey in another video. But the Mayor of Elizabeth Chris Bollwage sent a letter to O'Brien saying he would temporarily name the part of Newark Airport that resides in Elizabeth to Conan O'Brien Terminal, if he came and visited. Of course, O'Brien said he banned Booker from all of California. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even made an appearance on "The Tonight Show" to bring peace. Conan milked the joke last night saying he won't make any more Newark jokes and will fill the void by making fun of Detroit instead.

As a Jerseyan, this makes me proud because for once we're not in the news for our corrupt politicians, mafia ties or annoying accents. Instead, people are thinking of us and saying, "You pricks have no sense of humor."

The curmudgeons are talking. Now that we have the spotlight, will Booker have a serious conversation with O'Brien about the issues facing Newark -- and trust me, there are plenty -- or will he make Jersey look even more like the Rhode Island of America?

The pressure's on, Booker.

UPDATE: O'Brien, his wife and NBC donated a boatload of money ($100k) to Booker's charity, Newark Now. I would say during the appearance they joked a bit, but it's nice that something good was done. I hope the money is put to good use.

Should I make t-shirts out of this?

2009-10-01T20:36:00.005-04:00

I don't think it screams geek enough.

Someone told me some good advice

2009-09-29T23:44:00.003-04:00

That when writing songs I need to have the whole plot laid out before I write the lyrics. This probably seems obvious, but it is tempting to just write a couple funny lines and try to base an entire song off just that. Thanks, drunk guy at the party.

- Posted from my iPhone.

How to: Watch Hulu on your Wii using PlayOn.tv

2009-09-21T23:32:00.013-04:00

I'm working on a new persona -- Frinkey! Right now, he can be described as a really geeky person who blogs about the tech he loves so dearly. It's a big stretch for me.

UPDATE: Holy malted milk balls! Thanks to everyone who Dugg, Up voted, shared and watched this video. I guess I'll have to do more.

Kanye West vs. Taylor Swift: A Remix

2009-09-17T23:06:00.005-04:00

I made this in about 8 hours, which is about 7 and a half hours more than I should have put into it.

I really needed a little project like this to get my musical juices flowing again...I hope I can pump out a parody song soon.