Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Missing Internet Search Feature
Today I’ve landed on a huge feature that seems to be missing from major internet search engines. What if I want to search a keyword and be given results for only the past 5 years… 10 years… 2 days? To Google’s credit, under their Advanced Search options, you can filter by date up to a year. I’m pitching this idea to the interwebs in hopes that the major search engines will add this feature.
What do you think?
Facebook Developers Garage
I had a fun evening tonight at the FB Dev Garage in the San Francisco Hyatt Regency near the Embarcadero. You know you’re in the right place when a Ukrainian sits down in the seat next to you and you happen to sell Ukrainian Folk Music! It’s true!
Overall, it was a great event and networking opportunity. I’m really excited about Facebook Connect now that I now what it’s all about and I’m going to start using social analytic service Kontagent first thing tomorrow at work! Here’s a full list of speakers from the night. It would be interesting to take a class with Andreas Weigend in the future. He “gets it”.
- Albert Lai (Kontagent,co-founder/CEO), Intros
- Andreas Weigend (Data Mining Professor at Stanford and Former Chief Scientist at Amazon) – Keynote
- Eric Ries (Kleiner Perkers, co-founder IMVU) – Metrics for Social Engagement
- Jia Shen (co-founder/CTO RockYou) – Metrics of notifications
- Jeffrey Tseng & Fredric Newberg (Kontagent co-founder/CTO & VP engineering) – Viral tuning beyond conversion + insights across applications
- Josh Elman (Facebook) – fbConnect on Web & iPhone and others
- Justin Smith (InsideFacebook, Former Head of Products at Watercooler) – Social Gaming trends
- Andrew Mayer (Media Shifters) – Casual gaming metrics applied to social gaming
- Vikas Gupta (co-founder Jambool) – Virtual Economy Optimization
- Michael Hart (Netflix) – Netflix Facebook Connect Metrics
Not So Mighty Mouse
Let me start by saying, “Do not take apart your Apple Mighty Mouse! It will break!” Why did I do this? My scroll-ball stopped working properly and I knew all it needed was a good cleaning. I thought I had skills just because I completed a few lessons in one of those RadioShack electronics learning labs. In reality, I was quickly reminded how electronics illiterate I am. Actually, some might remember a time where you could actually remove the scroll-ball in a computer mouse to clean it. You wouldn’t believe all of the little components, chips, and other parts that go into making your web browsing experience possible! Anyway, I hope someone out there can learn from my mistake… or possibly even be inspired by it. Why not?
Update: I bought a new mouse by Targus that incorporates a touch-scroll wheel.
Apple Introduces MacBook Wheel
Via the Onion News Network:
Creative Vibrations Web App for iPhone
The new Creative Vibrations Blog iPhone web application is currently showcased on Apple’s website here:
http://www.apple.com/webapps/socialnetworking/creativevibrationsblog.html
Don’t forget to add it to your iPhone’s home-screen!
Snow Crash
I just finished reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson after being recommended to the book by a colleague. Although, I had trouble staying with Neal’s writing style. There was never a sense of “flow” for me. At times I felt he over-indulged with his descriptions; so much so, to actually detract from my experience and use of my own imagination. I loved the story as a whole, though, and considering the time it was written, Neal definitely foresaw conventions such as MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, Second Life, and more. My question is, “When will this book be made into a movie”?
Hire Me, Jonathan Ive
Of course, I am referring to the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple Computer. As if Jonathan Ive would have any reason in the known universe to hire me! Although, in a previous life as an Apple Creative, I remember being juxtaposed next to him and his “crew” at Cafe’ Macs in between training sessions. Not once, but on two seperate occasions! After hearing all of the new-hire horror stories, though, I never did have the gumption to approach him.
Well… here’s my new product idea anyway. The concept is that of taking a wireless keyboard along with the new laptop touch-pad technology and combining the two concepts together. In the minimalist vein, this would even alleviate the need for a mouse in most cases. This isn’t a new idea, but has yet to be accomplished in Cupertino style.
Artist rendering copyright ©2008 Creative Vibrations®.
A Day In The Life…
Today I became conscious of a cool iPhone App called Twinkle. Twinkle throws a nice interface and variations on the Twitter messaging service. It’s brought to you by the folks at Tapulous.
I also upgraded my blog to the latest WordPress release: 2.6.1. Easy as pie. In addition, I’ve slowly started to customize the CSS to be better branded along with my main website.
Then, when I was comparing a blog entry with its auto-saved version and mistakenly compared the post to itself, I was surprised to find that I was truly in the Matrix! You’ll have to try that one out on your own while I go chase the White Rabbit.
