Tretakoff Musings
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
When You Wish Upon A List...
This holiday, I was struck by an attendee at our house for the annual holiday feast, who watched the frenzied opening of gifts. See, most of the folks who were opening gifts were delighted to see items that they had asked for on their Wishlists, mostly from Amazon, so they were not just excited to have the gifts, but which of their wishlist items they were. My friend watched the excitement, and hear the constant cries of, "oh, good, you got me THAT one!" She asked, "Wait a minute: you all bought each other things off of lists you all made?" When we laughed and said yes, she shook her head and admitted it was a pretty good idea.
Wishlists: only took us 5000 years to tell each other what we want. As fate had it, my wishlist item arived:my very own Doomsday USB Hub. Now, I can end a meeting in style. Thanks!
Wishlists: only took us 5000 years to tell each other what we want. As fate had it, my wishlist item arived:my very own Doomsday USB Hub. Now, I can end a meeting in style. Thanks!
First Class Movie Theaters
Courtesy of my nephew, Jeremy, I learned of the next foray by movie theater owners to attract patrons to the overpriced movie theater experience: First Class. Called Lux, National Amusements is piloting the program in it's Randolph, MA, location. The premise? Pay an additional $10, and you get a perk-filled evening, including:
- In-Seat dining, from a menu that ranges from Chicken Satay appetizers, to panini sandwiches to personal pizzas, which you order from your seat and summon your server with a push of a button. Prices are unknown, but you do get $5 off with your ticket.
- Alcoholic beverages. Great applause; now I can finally tolerate seeing Adam Sandler.
- Lux Level preferred parking area exclusively for Lux Level patrons.
- Ultimate service, brushing your car off in snowy winter weather, or offering an umbrella on those unexpected rainy days.
- Escort to the Lux Level auditorium
- Coat check service available
- Deep-cushioned, custom designed seats.
- Wait service at the push of a button; with wait staff utilizing special wireless ordering devices that send your order instantly to the kitchen devoted to Lux Level dining
While the menus are visible, there are no prices listed, so don't look for any bargains here, but it can save you dinner out elsewhere. This continues, and expands the trend we've seen for the last year, but adds a level of service that I might actually take advantage of. Now, if they'd only add those privacy barriers or curtains, imagine how fun the movies could be again with alcoholic drinks, big plush seats, private seating area, and darkness? ;-)
Courtesy of my nephew, Jeremy, I learned of the next foray by movie theater owners to attract patrons to the overpriced movie theater experience: First Class. Called Lux, National Amusements is piloting the program in it's Randolph, MA, location. The premise? Pay an additional $10, and you get a perk-filled evening, including:- In-Seat dining, from a menu that ranges from Chicken Satay appetizers, to panini sandwiches to personal pizzas, which you order from your seat and summon your server with a push of a button. Prices are unknown, but you do get $5 off with your ticket.
- Alcoholic beverages. Great applause; now I can finally tolerate seeing Adam Sandler.
- Lux Level preferred parking area exclusively for Lux Level patrons.
- Ultimate service, brushing your car off in snowy winter weather, or offering an umbrella on those unexpected rainy days.
- Escort to the Lux Level auditorium
- Coat check service available
- Deep-cushioned, custom designed seats.
- Wait service at the push of a button; with wait staff utilizing special wireless ordering devices that send your order instantly to the kitchen devoted to Lux Level dining
While the menus are visible, there are no prices listed, so don't look for any bargains here, but it can save you dinner out elsewhere. This continues, and expands the trend we've seen for the last year, but adds a level of service that I might actually take advantage of. Now, if they'd only add those privacy barriers or curtains, imagine how fun the movies could be again with alcoholic drinks, big plush seats, private seating area, and darkness? ;-)
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Great/Horrible Art in Lego
My friend Steff is visiting Legoland USA right now, and pointed out with delight the Lego rendition of San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza in Lego, complete with it's trademark love-it-or-despise-it water sculpture. The sculpture, entitled "Fountain," by Armand Vaillancourt, has been inspiring adoration and hatred since 1971. Some think it's a set of sewer pipes, other see it as an Escher drawing come to life.
In any case, Charles's reaction was priceless upon seeing the photo:
"I like how there's a firetruck there to help evacuate those that have viewed the sculpture and need to be rescued."
Thanks, Steff. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Tempo.
My friend Steff is visiting Legoland USA right now, and pointed out with delight the Lego rendition of San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza in Lego, complete with it's trademark love-it-or-despise-it water sculpture. The sculpture, entitled "Fountain," by Armand Vaillancourt, has been inspiring adoration and hatred since 1971. Some think it's a set of sewer pipes, other see it as an Escher drawing come to life.In any case, Charles's reaction was priceless upon seeing the photo:
"I like how there's a firetruck there to help evacuate those that have viewed the sculpture and need to be rescued."
Thanks, Steff. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Tempo.
Labels: fun, San Francisco
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Spokeo: Pulse, without Plaxo
As you may have noticed, I've been become more and more fascinated with the evolution of Web 2.0 to harness the "cloud" of the Web to make the online world more relevant. In other words, using the web to enhance the social nature of interactions. This hearkens back to my early days as a BBS sysop, and actually has the potential to make the web ubiquitous. I've been quite congratulatory towards Plaxo for recognizing one of the key tenets of this, the ability to automatically discover interactions, and display and classify them, in the form of Plaxo's Pulse, which gives you a "news feed" of what your connections are doing, all over the web. I've also mentioned that Plaxo sometimes, rightly or wrongly, gets a bad rap as being a Facebook imitator or worse, but I have to tell you, the Pulse is addictive: like all good "push" applications, it keeps you up to date on everything. But what if you could have Pulse, without Plaxo?
Enter Spokeo, which does exactly that. Enter your GMail, Yahoo, or other major mail service credentials, and it will scan your online address book, pull it down, and create a news feed of all of your contacts actions on the popular networks. Your college roommate posts some images to Flickr? Bam, there they are. Your old girlfriend Twitters on her canceled flight? Now you share her pain. That guy you went to high school with creates a new mix to listen to on Pandora? Tune in, and hear how Travis Tritt has invaded his taste. And so on.
Before you go all George Orwell, hang on: Spokeo only finds publicly accessible info on your friends. If your friend doesn't publicly publish their Twitter feed, for instance (ahem...Carlos???), you will have to authenticate before it can appear in your feed. If your Flickr account is inactive, for instance, it will denote as such. It uses a slick interface that neatly arranges your list of friends on the left, divided into those that have active and inactive accounts, and on the right is the latest activity from them all. You can drill down to the individual or service you want to see. The image to the right here is from my feed, today.
I've played around with it for a couple of days, and here's some observations:
- It's free.
- It's slow. They got slammed with a Techcrunch story that is pegging their servers, but hey, it's free.
- They seem to have a 1001 limit of friends, and it goes alphabetically by first name. For folks with over 8000+ contacts like me, that's a drag, since I get as far as friends with first names starting with "C," and that's it (sorry, Vasska; guess I'll just pick you up on Pulse). Pulse has that completely beat, with up to 10K.
- Their "spidering" of your Yahoo contacts seems flawed: it loses the first name of the contact, giving your contacts a fabulouso Hollywood "Madonna" one word name. ;-)
- Did I mention it's slow? Took almost 15 minutes to handle 1001 contacts, and pegged my CPU while it did it.
- It has one killer feature Pulse is missing: the ability to manually add any RSS feed to any contact. For instance, I could add the RSS feed for my corporate blog to my contact, and see new posts in that blog associated with me.
Overall, Spokeo, like Pulse, offers a glimpse into an entirely new way of perceiving the web: a personal feed. In many ways, this is a rudimentary first step to what my fellow high school alumnus, Nova Spivack, calls the "semantic web:" the ability to perceive not just data, but meaningful data. Overall, I still very much prefer Pulse, but if you are turned off by Plaxo for some strange reason, I encourage you to try Spokeo, and get hooked on what your friends are up to.
Enter Spokeo, which does exactly that. Enter your GMail, Yahoo, or other major mail service credentials, and it will scan your online address book, pull it down, and create a news feed of all of your contacts actions on the popular networks. Your college roommate posts some images to Flickr? Bam, there they are. Your old girlfriend Twitters on her canceled flight? Now you share her pain. That guy you went to high school with creates a new mix to listen to on Pandora? Tune in, and hear how Travis Tritt has invaded his taste. And so on.
Before you go all George Orwell, hang on: Spokeo only finds publicly accessible info on your friends. If your friend doesn't publicly publish their Twitter feed, for instance (ahem...Carlos???), you will have to authenticate before it can appear in your feed. If your Flickr account is inactive, for instance, it will denote as such. It uses a slick interface that neatly arranges your list of friends on the left, divided into those that have active and inactive accounts, and on the right is the latest activity from them all. You can drill down to the individual or service you want to see. The image to the right here is from my feed, today.I've played around with it for a couple of days, and here's some observations:
- It's free.
- It's slow. They got slammed with a Techcrunch story that is pegging their servers, but hey, it's free.
- They seem to have a 1001 limit of friends, and it goes alphabetically by first name. For folks with over 8000+ contacts like me, that's a drag, since I get as far as friends with first names starting with "C," and that's it (sorry, Vasska; guess I'll just pick you up on Pulse). Pulse has that completely beat, with up to 10K.
- Their "spidering" of your Yahoo contacts seems flawed: it loses the first name of the contact, giving your contacts a fabulouso Hollywood "Madonna" one word name. ;-)
- Did I mention it's slow? Took almost 15 minutes to handle 1001 contacts, and pegged my CPU while it did it.
- It has one killer feature Pulse is missing: the ability to manually add any RSS feed to any contact. For instance, I could add the RSS feed for my corporate blog to my contact, and see new posts in that blog associated with me.
Overall, Spokeo, like Pulse, offers a glimpse into an entirely new way of perceiving the web: a personal feed. In many ways, this is a rudimentary first step to what my fellow high school alumnus, Nova Spivack, calls the "semantic web:" the ability to perceive not just data, but meaningful data. Overall, I still very much prefer Pulse, but if you are turned off by Plaxo for some strange reason, I encourage you to try Spokeo, and get hooked on what your friends are up to.
Labels: beta, lifehacks, Plaxo, reviews, social networks, Twitter, Web 2.0
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The Treo 680 Gets Updated
Yep, it's here.
What's in it?
This software update provides device enhancements including improved Bluetooth® wireless performance for some headsets and car kits, audio quality, and media file functionality in Messaging. In addition, you'll get brand new features such as Push To Talk, for walkie-talkie functionality, and Microsoft's Direct Push Technology to get your latest email, appointments, and contacts sent directly to you, and more.
* Push to Talk – With Push to Talk, you can use your Treo 680 like a walkie-talkie to talk to one person or a group of up to 29. A quick glance at your smartphone shows whether family, friends, and coworkers are available to talk before you call.
* Corporate email as it arrives – Have your corporate email delivered to you with Microsoft® Direct Push Technology. Accept or decline meeting invites on the go and have your work calendar updated automatically. With the ability to access your company directory wirelessly, you can quickly address an email to a colleague just by typing a few letters.
* IM on your Treo smartphone – Access your instant messaging service from AOL, Windows Live Messenger, or Yahoo! A tabbed graphical Mobile IM interface makes it easy to log in to your instant messaging accounts and quickly switch between IM communities3.
* Easy access to additional services – Easily access extra services on your Treo smartphone such as TeleNav GPS Navigator and MobiTV for watching live TV4.
* Power saving enhancements – Helps conserve battery life with improved power management and updated default system power preferences.
* Supports larger expansion cards – Carry more of your work, music, photos, and other files, with support for up to 4GB SD expansion cards (including the SDHC format), sold separately.
* Enhanced ringtone support – MP3 and other sound files purchased from the web or sent from friends can now be set as ringtones and alerts. Supported ringtone formats include MP3, AAC, AAC+, MIDI, WAV, and AMR.
* Cingular, now the new AT&T – You’ll notice updated graphics reflecting the new AT&T branding, including a new look for the Xpress Mail application.
* Three updates in one – This update incorporates three previously released software updates: Treo 680 Camera Update (January 2007), Daylight Saving Time Update (February 2007), and Treo 680 Software Update 1.09 (May 2007).
Trying it now...
UPDATE: Well, after several false starts and the installer hanging, the upgrade is complete.
The good news:
- The apps are all installed
- The IM support is stunning: all three major IM services, with a slick interface to tab between them, and you can even leave it running while you make calls, etc.
- The Push To Talk functionality is all there.
- Haven't been able to figure out how to use MP3's as ringtones yet, as it does not seem to recognize them on the SD card. Installing them to the Palm now, thanks to Filez.
- Overall performance seems a bit more sporty, especially when recovering from a soft reset.
The bad news:
- It wiped my Treo clean. Yep, nothing left. However, doing a restore HotSync brought most of it back. I used Resco Backup to restore the rest. Make sure you backup your Treo before you sync.
- There is definitely some lagginess. Sometimes the Treo simply locks, for up to a minute. On playback of MP3's, you get a skip and a stutter every 20 minutes or so.
- Bloatware. I don't want MobiTV. I don't need the TeleNav. Leave those "trial" apps off my ROM, please.
Overall, the functionality outweighs the bad stuff, so I applaud AT&T & Palm for releasing new functionality that dramatically enhances the Treo experience. Well done.
Yep, it's here. What's in it?
This software update provides device enhancements including improved Bluetooth® wireless performance for some headsets and car kits, audio quality, and media file functionality in Messaging. In addition, you'll get brand new features such as Push To Talk, for walkie-talkie functionality, and Microsoft's Direct Push Technology to get your latest email, appointments, and contacts sent directly to you, and more.
* Push to Talk – With Push to Talk, you can use your Treo 680 like a walkie-talkie to talk to one person or a group of up to 29. A quick glance at your smartphone shows whether family, friends, and coworkers are available to talk before you call.
* Corporate email as it arrives – Have your corporate email delivered to you with Microsoft® Direct Push Technology. Accept or decline meeting invites on the go and have your work calendar updated automatically. With the ability to access your company directory wirelessly, you can quickly address an email to a colleague just by typing a few letters.
* IM on your Treo smartphone – Access your instant messaging service from AOL, Windows Live Messenger, or Yahoo! A tabbed graphical Mobile IM interface makes it easy to log in to your instant messaging accounts and quickly switch between IM communities3.
* Easy access to additional services – Easily access extra services on your Treo smartphone such as TeleNav GPS Navigator and MobiTV for watching live TV4.
* Power saving enhancements – Helps conserve battery life with improved power management and updated default system power preferences.
* Supports larger expansion cards – Carry more of your work, music, photos, and other files, with support for up to 4GB SD expansion cards (including the SDHC format), sold separately.
* Enhanced ringtone support – MP3 and other sound files purchased from the web or sent from friends can now be set as ringtones and alerts. Supported ringtone formats include MP3, AAC, AAC+, MIDI, WAV, and AMR.
* Cingular, now the new AT&T – You’ll notice updated graphics reflecting the new AT&T branding, including a new look for the Xpress Mail application.
* Three updates in one – This update incorporates three previously released software updates: Treo 680 Camera Update (January 2007), Daylight Saving Time Update (February 2007), and Treo 680 Software Update 1.09 (May 2007).
Trying it now...
UPDATE: Well, after several false starts and the installer hanging, the upgrade is complete.
The good news:
- The apps are all installed
- The IM support is stunning: all three major IM services, with a slick interface to tab between them, and you can even leave it running while you make calls, etc.
- The Push To Talk functionality is all there.
- Haven't been able to figure out how to use MP3's as ringtones yet, as it does not seem to recognize them on the SD card. Installing them to the Palm now, thanks to Filez.
- Overall performance seems a bit more sporty, especially when recovering from a soft reset.
The bad news:
- It wiped my Treo clean. Yep, nothing left. However, doing a restore HotSync brought most of it back. I used Resco Backup to restore the rest. Make sure you backup your Treo before you sync.
- There is definitely some lagginess. Sometimes the Treo simply locks, for up to a minute. On playback of MP3's, you get a skip and a stutter every 20 minutes or so.
- Bloatware. I don't want MobiTV. I don't need the TeleNav. Leave those "trial" apps off my ROM, please.
Overall, the functionality outweighs the bad stuff, so I applaud AT&T & Palm for releasing new functionality that dramatically enhances the Treo experience. Well done.
Sentenced to the Mall
In this noble season of embracing consumerism, one intrepid reporter attempted to spend every waking business hour (and more) for a solid week inside the High Temple of Consumeria, the aptly named Mall of America, in Minnesota. The result? An epic descent of man along the lines of Joseph Conrad.
Join me, on this amazing voyage of the damned, will you?
Oh, and happy holidays! ;-)
In this noble season of embracing consumerism, one intrepid reporter attempted to spend every waking business hour (and more) for a solid week inside the High Temple of Consumeria, the aptly named Mall of America, in Minnesota. The result? An epic descent of man along the lines of Joseph Conrad.Join me, on this amazing voyage of the damned, will you?
Oh, and happy holidays! ;-)
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
"What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?"
Loyalty Lab is on the move, heading to the legendary 111 Sutter St., home to one of history's greatest literary detectives, Sam Spade. Talk about a building steeped in tradition, this one is practically dripping with it.
As the Fat Man from the black bird's tale once said, "These are facts, historical facts, not schoolbook history, not Mr. Well's history, but history nevertheless."
View Larger Map
See you in the funny papers.
Loyalty Lab is on the move, heading to the legendary 111 Sutter St., home to one of history's greatest literary detectives, Sam Spade. Talk about a building steeped in tradition, this one is practically dripping with it.As the Fat Man from the black bird's tale once said, "These are facts, historical facts, not schoolbook history, not Mr. Well's history, but history nevertheless."
View Larger Map
See you in the funny papers.
Labels: Loyalty Lab, San Francisco
Friday, December 07, 2007
Dog emails dog
Brian, as they say, be careful what you wish for.
Who is Brian? Brian is an intern at Box.net. Not familiar with them? They are an online storage company: a virtual drive, if you will. My Netvibes membership introduced them to me. I rarely use them, but thought they were generally fine for a free storage service.
Then Brian contacted me.
See, Brian noticed I was blogging about Picnik, a great photo editing tool for free online. Brian, out of the goodness of his heart, thought I might like to know about Box.net's service to do the same; he even took the time to email my Gmail account to tell me.
Gosh, that Brian. Such a nice, helpful guy. Yep, I might have fallen for this "aw, shucks" approach...had he not included the URL I boldfaced above. See, it's clear from the appending of "picnik" on the URL that Box.net is trolling for Picnik users to switch, and Box.net is using this as a crude viral campaign to go after a competitor.
As it is, Brian, I'll thank you for the helpful hint, and suggest that you switch to a less crude approach in the future, perhaps tagging links with a URL tracker that you build, for instance, or an affiliate network? Brian, you may be a very nice guy, and, as you claim to be just an intern, maybe you didn't know that this approach might be interpreted as ham-handed, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, and I'll suggest that you let your bosses know that they probably need to be a bit more subtle in their efforts to build awareness for a new product.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Brian, as they say, be careful what you wish for.Who is Brian? Brian is an intern at Box.net. Not familiar with them? They are an online storage company: a virtual drive, if you will. My Netvibes membership introduced them to me. I rarely use them, but thought they were generally fine for a free storage service.
Then Brian contacted me.
See, Brian noticed I was blogging about Picnik, a great photo editing tool for free online. Brian, out of the goodness of his heart, thought I might like to know about Box.net's service to do the same; he even took the time to email my Gmail account to tell me.
Hello,
My name is Brian, I'm an intern working at Box.net. I saw your post about editing photos online and I wanted to write to you in case you would be interested in knowing Box.net now lets users edit photos online as well.
Using our OpenBox platform, users can now right-click on any image and edit it instantly, for free. OpenBox is a platform which lets developers write software that can be installed directly on the Box.net website.
If you decide you would like to post something about this on your blog, please let me know if you or your readers have any suggestions for the service.
For some more information:
http://www.box.net/services/picnik
Sincerely,
Brian
Box.net
Gosh, that Brian. Such a nice, helpful guy. Yep, I might have fallen for this "aw, shucks" approach...had he not included the URL I boldfaced above. See, it's clear from the appending of "picnik" on the URL that Box.net is trolling for Picnik users to switch, and Box.net is using this as a crude viral campaign to go after a competitor.
As it is, Brian, I'll thank you for the helpful hint, and suggest that you switch to a less crude approach in the future, perhaps tagging links with a URL tracker that you build, for instance, or an affiliate network? Brian, you may be a very nice guy, and, as you claim to be just an intern, maybe you didn't know that this approach might be interpreted as ham-handed, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, and I'll suggest that you let your bosses know that they probably need to be a bit more subtle in their efforts to build awareness for a new product.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Cruise on down to Nokia Avvenu
Interesting news, as Nokia has purchased Avvenu. Not familiar with Avvenu? Not surprising, if you weren't a Palm OS user. They make a little program that lives on your PC, making the files available to be accessed with a mobile phone. The revenue model was invisible, so it was always a little headscratching. As to access, well, it was OK, but never amazing. And the idea of having all of your files open to be accessed by anyone hitting a URL and entering a username and password always seemed a bit harebrained to me.
On the odder side, Nokia immediately discontinued access outside the US and killed Avvenu's streaming music service in favor of their own.
Here's what they had to say:
Interesting news, as Nokia has purchased Avvenu. Not familiar with Avvenu? Not surprising, if you weren't a Palm OS user. They make a little program that lives on your PC, making the files available to be accessed with a mobile phone. The revenue model was invisible, so it was always a little headscratching. As to access, well, it was OK, but never amazing. And the idea of having all of your files open to be accessed by anyone hitting a URL and entering a username and password always seemed a bit harebrained to me.On the odder side, Nokia immediately discontinued access outside the US and killed Avvenu's streaming music service in favor of their own.
Here's what they had to say:
Dear Avvenu Customer,
As a registered user of the Avvenu service, we wanted to let you know that Nokia and Avvenu have signed an agreement under which Nokia has acquired Avvenu Inc.
Nokia intends to continue the Avvenu Access 'n Share service, and enhance Avvenu's secure remote access and private sharing capabilities moving forward. The sharing features of the Avvenu Music service have been discontinued, as Nokia already offers a separate music service.
During the transition it is necessary to limit access to those users based in the United States. We plan to resume service in most other countries within a few weeks. Until that time, if you reside outside the United States, you'll be unable to remotely access your PCs. If you'd like to be notified when service is restored in your country, please go to http://www.avvenu.com/countries.php and register for email notification.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact customer support at http://support.avvenu.com.
More information on the acquisition is available at http://www.avvenu.com/acquisition.php.
As all of us at Avvenu join Nokia, we look forward to bringing you improved access and sharing services.
Best Regards,
Avvenu Customer Support
RT: the re-emergence continues
The media spin on the re-emergence of Richard Thalheimer continues. First, a cover story in San Francisco Weekly. Now, the LA Times spins the tale of the fascinating mercurial man and his rise, fall, and (he hopes) rise again.
As I have said before here: don't count RT out. These articles aren't random, after all: it's clear he's positioning for a classic comeback story. And with the way The Sharper Image is heading these days...who knows how the story might end?
The media spin on the re-emergence of Richard Thalheimer continues. First, a cover story in San Francisco Weekly. Now, the LA Times spins the tale of the fascinating mercurial man and his rise, fall, and (he hopes) rise again.As I have said before here: don't count RT out. These articles aren't random, after all: it's clear he's positioning for a classic comeback story. And with the way The Sharper Image is heading these days...who knows how the story might end?
Labels: 80's, business, gadgets, news, San Francisco
Woot Off: get your REAL holiday deals on!
Last night's Woot-Off is going strong. In fact, I forgot to turn off the cell last night, so every 5 minutes a buzz awoke me to the newest Woot limited deal.
I've already missed a great PC for $250, but there's still more. If you are a Yahoo Widgets user, check out the Woot!Widget to keep track on your desktop of today's unreal deals.
I've already missed a great PC for $250, but there's still more. If you are a Yahoo Widgets user, check out the Woot!Widget to keep track on your desktop of today's unreal deals.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
'Tis the Season...
Yup, it is. And, although it sounds arrogant, wishlists have made life a LOT easier. Amazon is still the gold standard, but even they don't have everything. I looked for a universal wishlist that would give me the simplicity of the Amazon one, but alas, it was not to be found. Coming close is TheThingsIWant.com: it offers a universal wishlist that brings you to the etailer's page to complete the transaction, then mark the item as purchased in a companion browser window. While not automatic, it's pretty close!
So, here's a list of where to find suggestions (as you don't want to be asking me):
And Thanks.
Yup, it is. And, although it sounds arrogant, wishlists have made life a LOT easier. Amazon is still the gold standard, but even they don't have everything. I looked for a universal wishlist that would give me the simplicity of the Amazon one, but alas, it was not to be found. Coming close is TheThingsIWant.com: it offers a universal wishlist that brings you to the etailer's page to complete the transaction, then mark the item as purchased in a companion browser window. While not automatic, it's pretty close!So, here's a list of where to find suggestions (as you don't want to be asking me):
- Josh's Universal Wishlist (I'm listing things not on my Amazon list here for this year; let's see if it works out, and if it does, I'll move my Amazon list there.)
- Amy's Universal Wishlist
- Josh's Amazon Wishlist
- Amy's Amazon Wishlist
- Amy's Cooking.com Wishlist (Yeah!)
- Our Shop.com Wishlist
And Thanks.
Netiquette 2.0
Back in the pre-Web 2.0, pre-Web 1.0, pre-World Wide Web, and even pre-AOL, there were Bulletin Board Systems (BBS): isolated archipelagos of folks who shared their interests in forums and chat rooms to the point of obsessiveness. Like any isolated culture, each BBS evolves its own feel, with folks naturally gravitating to a certain form of behavior. And all was good in the world.
In the late 80's/early 90's, BBS operators started to connect their BBS'. Suddenly, you had an influx of new users participating in forums, violating unspoken rules and taboos, and the first "flame wars" erupted. Longtime BBS users were turned off: their vibrant forums were descending into annoyance, and their primary goals of connecting with like-minded folks were being thwarted. BBS participation started to drop. What to do?
BBS system operators ("Sysops") saw the threat to their nascent network, precursors of today's Web, and decided to take action. They drafted a set of guidelines for participation, to help new users ("newbies"), as well as establishing a clear set of rules that sysops could enforce. This BBS etiquette, or "netiquette," usually governed personal contact or posting rules, and sysops warned and booted repeated violators. And all was well in the world...at least until that pesky Web sprung up and crushed those BBS' out of existence. ;-)
Fast forward to today's hottest Web properties, social networks, and you can see the exact same issues developing. Each of the major social networks evolved to address a particular niche:
- MySpace for music lovers and young teens
- Facebook for alumni and shared interest groups
- LinkedIn for business networking
- Plaxo Pulse for people you actually know
Each of these networks has seen their growth skyrocket when they open the service up and it drives hordes of new users to join. As those new users eclipse the old-timers, the unwritten rules get trampled. Facebook becomes a site for people to prospect for jobs. LinkedIn becomes a haven for recruiters. Plaxo becomes a bac'n generator (some would argue it already was). At this rate, folks will get turned off and stop using the system. Less usage=less eyeballs=less ad revenue, which leads to the end of the network, and the bubble bursts.
The other day, I received invites to connect from one person on Plaxo, Facebook, and LinkedIn, in a 24 hour period. I did not know this person, nor did I seem to have any affiliation with her. I made the error of accepting her Plaxo request. In looking at her Pulse, I saw she was connecting with dozens of people an hour, all unrelated. Because her background was excellent, and seemed a pro, I emailed her, to tell her the negative effect she was having on me, in case others felt the same. She replied with offense and hostility, and, in a huff, told me she wouldn't want to connect to me anyway. I responded back, with a short comment, explaining again that I respected her background, and simply wanted her to understand the potential detrimental effect she was having for employment prospects. Mollified, she explained that my "old school" attitude was simply out of date, and I could simply decline her invite. And you know what? She was right: my unwritten understanding was not the same as hers, and the social networks do very little to enforce it.
Another example: I have been using Twitter for some time now for communicating my status. Because of the rise of the popularity of Facebook, with it's status updates, I decided to consolidate my updates: start at Facebook, and have them automatically syndicate to Twitter. About a month later, I received a note from a coworker who is also on Facebook, suggesting I should tone down the frequency of my status updates, since there were so many business contacts on Facebook who might be overwhelmed. Sure, I could have pointed out that they could simply turn off the status updates, but he's right: again, my "old school" understanding of the purpose of Facebook belies what it may have evolved into. The direct result? I participate far less on Facebook than before, keeping to Twitter, and relying on Plaxo to pick up and syndicate my info to people I actually want to communicate with. Less Facebook visits means less ads, less eyeballs...
It's time for Netiquette 2.0. Each network needs to clearly outline the goals and objectives for the participants, and start to police the adherence of the members. Stalkers on MySpace? Terminate with extreme prejudice. Recruiters on Facebook? You're fired. Unknowns on Plaxo? Exiled. You get the idea. The key is that Sysops need to be recruited and unleashed to identify, and then let the population decide the fate.
When the Wall St. Journal advocates mining Facebook for employment, we know the network is at risk. Let's use history to help save it.
In the late 80's/early 90's, BBS operators started to connect their BBS'. Suddenly, you had an influx of new users participating in forums, violating unspoken rules and taboos, and the first "flame wars" erupted. Longtime BBS users were turned off: their vibrant forums were descending into annoyance, and their primary goals of connecting with like-minded folks were being thwarted. BBS participation started to drop. What to do?
BBS system operators ("Sysops") saw the threat to their nascent network, precursors of today's Web, and decided to take action. They drafted a set of guidelines for participation, to help new users ("newbies"), as well as establishing a clear set of rules that sysops could enforce. This BBS etiquette, or "netiquette," usually governed personal contact or posting rules, and sysops warned and booted repeated violators. And all was well in the world...at least until that pesky Web sprung up and crushed those BBS' out of existence. ;-)Fast forward to today's hottest Web properties, social networks, and you can see the exact same issues developing. Each of the major social networks evolved to address a particular niche:
- MySpace for music lovers and young teens
- Facebook for alumni and shared interest groups
- LinkedIn for business networking
- Plaxo Pulse for people you actually know
Each of these networks has seen their growth skyrocket when they open the service up and it drives hordes of new users to join. As those new users eclipse the old-timers, the unwritten rules get trampled. Facebook becomes a site for people to prospect for jobs. LinkedIn becomes a haven for recruiters. Plaxo becomes a bac'n generator (some would argue it already was). At this rate, folks will get turned off and stop using the system. Less usage=less eyeballs=less ad revenue, which leads to the end of the network, and the bubble bursts.
The other day, I received invites to connect from one person on Plaxo, Facebook, and LinkedIn, in a 24 hour period. I did not know this person, nor did I seem to have any affiliation with her. I made the error of accepting her Plaxo request. In looking at her Pulse, I saw she was connecting with dozens of people an hour, all unrelated. Because her background was excellent, and seemed a pro, I emailed her, to tell her the negative effect she was having on me, in case others felt the same. She replied with offense and hostility, and, in a huff, told me she wouldn't want to connect to me anyway. I responded back, with a short comment, explaining again that I respected her background, and simply wanted her to understand the potential detrimental effect she was having for employment prospects. Mollified, she explained that my "old school" attitude was simply out of date, and I could simply decline her invite. And you know what? She was right: my unwritten understanding was not the same as hers, and the social networks do very little to enforce it.
Another example: I have been using Twitter for some time now for communicating my status. Because of the rise of the popularity of Facebook, with it's status updates, I decided to consolidate my updates: start at Facebook, and have them automatically syndicate to Twitter. About a month later, I received a note from a coworker who is also on Facebook, suggesting I should tone down the frequency of my status updates, since there were so many business contacts on Facebook who might be overwhelmed. Sure, I could have pointed out that they could simply turn off the status updates, but he's right: again, my "old school" understanding of the purpose of Facebook belies what it may have evolved into. The direct result? I participate far less on Facebook than before, keeping to Twitter, and relying on Plaxo to pick up and syndicate my info to people I actually want to communicate with. Less Facebook visits means less ads, less eyeballs...
It's time for Netiquette 2.0. Each network needs to clearly outline the goals and objectives for the participants, and start to police the adherence of the members. Stalkers on MySpace? Terminate with extreme prejudice. Recruiters on Facebook? You're fired. Unknowns on Plaxo? Exiled. You get the idea. The key is that Sysops need to be recruited and unleashed to identify, and then let the population decide the fate.
When the Wall St. Journal advocates mining Facebook for employment, we know the network is at risk. Let's use history to help save it.
Labels: Facebook, Plaxo, social networks, Web 2.0
