It looks like the fake iPhones from China are here. Features include: 2 Megapixel camera for photos and movies in MPEG4 format 2 SIM-Cards, which you can switch between on the fly, WAP browser, 64MB of built-in memory, 256 MB micro SD Card in an expansion slot, Stereo speakers on the front face and two additional speakers on the back that boast “3D Sound”, USB-connector, and removable battery.
I woke up this morning and found 20 messages from Facebook in my email. I shrugged it off as “Facebook Spam”, as some other people have been telling me they’ve been getting unsolicited messages on Facebook. I didn’t bother to log on to check the messages.
Later in the day, I logged on only to find that they weren’t spam at all. They were all comments and suggestions on the Mood app that I made for Facebook. It turns out that yesterday, Facebook added my Mood app to the official applications directory. Overnight, over 4,000 people added my app. By my rough estimates, it seems to be growing by about 20 people per minute right now, and I expect to reach over 10,000 people by tonight.
Currently, it’s easily overtaking the neighbors in the ranking list, and I think this is due to how viral the Mood app is. It’s a dead simple application that adds a bit of customization to your page that is familiar to MySpace and LiveJournal users. I really believe that it’s simplicity that will win over these other complicated applications.
Things that I’m planning on adding:
Any other ideas?
I created my first Facebook application: Mood. You can now alert your friends of your mood. Add it and tell me what you think.
The overall experience wasn’t too bad. Facebook really opened up their API in a deep way. You can access almost everything that internal Facebook developers can.
I just submitted to the application directory — we’ll see how it goes.
Google recently launched Street View for Google Maps, which integrates a street level view into the map. You can view some of the streets in San Francisco (click street view in the upper right hand modes).
The technology, which was an acquisition from Stanford, allows you to virtually drive down city streets. They apply blurs and 3D mapping to the images that makes for a seamless and smooth navigating experience.
Currently, they have good coverage of San Francisco, including most of the major streets in the entire SOMA district. This brings us one step closer to being able to virtually walk down any street in the US without the computer.
Now, if only they had a real time view so that I could figure out where all the empty parking spaces are next to my apartment before leaving work.
After my brief post about HappyCampr ripping off Truemors yesterday, the people at HappyCampr replied saying
First and foremost thank u for highlighting that Happycampr is a ripped off from Truemors as mention in ur blog and truemors website.
Second do sharing ur secrets with others is the same as spreading rumors/news/gossips? Happycampr is about sharing of secrets be it ur secret place or hangouts. Does that means rumors=secrets ? What is ur definition?
[...] I did a mock up long before i got to know truemors.
So if what he’s saying is true, maybe Guy ripped off HappyCampr?
I feel like the whole rumor mill mixed with the Digg paradigm is a bit overplayed in general. Digg is clearly the market leader in social news, and, there’s nothing stopping them from adding a rumors section. Even if they don’t, rumors surface all the time in the form of blog posts that are pushed out to the front page of Digg.
It’s always amusing to see copycats in the Web 2.0 world. Mostly because it’s just so damn easy.
Is Happycampr ripping off Truemors. Both allow people to tell the world secrets that they know. And both use a Digg system to moderate the postings.
Even the graphics are similar:
Truemors is Guy Kawasaki’s newest controversial venture that was recently launched. It’s been met with criticism, mostly about how Guy has no experience in the rumor mill industry. My only criticism is that the system as it stands now is simply being used by firms promoting their own products. Not that I’m beyond that.
Sergey Brin is helping finance his wife’s biotech startup, 23andMe. In other words, Google is investing in your DNA. Scared yet? Many people already have a disdain for Google.
23andMe’s mission is
[...] to connect you to the 23 paired volumes of your own genetic blueprint (plus your mitochondrial DNA), bringing you personal insight into ancestry, genealogy, and inherited traits.
Google’s goal (other than advertising) is to organize the world’s information. And what information is more relevant than your own genes? Imagine a future where you would be able to query Google about your genetic makeup.
Query: Should I eat that fatty meatball sandwich?
Google: We recommend that you don’t. High cholesterol runs in your family. [Ad: Low prices on Lipitor!]
Query: Should I become an artist?
Google: No, we recommend that you become an engineer. Your genes have a high geek-level count. [Ad: Buy hard drives at Amazon]
Query: Should I have kids now or later?
Google: Immediately. Your genetics show that you have a low fertility rate. [Ad: Get free fertility counseling]
Okay, so maybe this is a little overdramatic, but I believe that we’re headed this direction in the world of genetic profiling. Unlike most other people, I’m optimistic about the benefits that we’ll derive from such a keen understanding of our genes. I don’t mind giving up a little privacy about myself to Google (which I am already) if it means the potential of discovering a threat to my health that would otherwise be overlooked.
And anyway, if I really wanted to become an artist, I’m not going to let a Google query tell me what to do.
Today, Technorati launched a major redesign, both in the look-and-feel and the data architecture. The company is moving in a new direction, one that is focused on searching the “Live Web”, rather than just a blog search. Techcrunch and Steve Rubel both put in their two cents, and are a bit bearish about the changes.
The elephant in the room is clearly Google and their increasing index of blogs and other social media platforms. I’m skeptical that the changes will divert Technorati on a collision course with Google, but they are at least moving somewhat in the right direction. The major positive news is that the site is faster and simpler to use. Gone are the multiple search verticals within Technorati, which are replaced with one search.
But, there are still some changes that are puzzling, including a ticker of search terms “on the move” hovering at the top of the front page. It’s useless to me, and the terms are clearly out of context. Another pet peeve is the ever present popular items tag cloud on the front page. Again, most of the time it’s useless. Finally, when I put in a search query, the results are quite shallow. There are only about 3 blog posts that are on the first page; you have to click again to reveal more. As a power user, this is unacceptable–at least return as many results as Google would.
With all the talks about internal conflicts in the company, it looks like Technorati’s fate is uncertain. I know I use the site less now than a year ago.
Perhaps it would be a good buy for Google?
I knew this would happen. I didn’t want it to happen. But Wikipedia is buckling under pressure due to scandals in their articles. Apparently someone had written an article suggesting that one of Robert Kennedy’s aids was involved in the assassination. The article was written by an anonymous user.
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, claims that this was an abberation in the system–a single needle in a haystack. He goes on to say that since the particular article wasn’t linked heavily to other articles, it was missed. They are now barring anonymous users to submit new articles.
Ouch. I think this may spell the beginning of great critisicm for Wikipedia. The crack is showing–even though it does have great moderation, just a single controversial error like this can make Wikipedia lose credibility. I love the concept of Wikipedia, but they have to have a much more extensive way to verify articles rather than on a randomly checked basis.
I really do like my computer. It’s a five year old AMD Athlon 1GHz–the machine that got me through undergraduate and graduate school. It truly was a sturdy workhorse, crunching those Fourier transforms, compressing videos, and ripping all those DVDs and CDs. During the first two years, I maintained it quite well–defragging the hard drive, cleaning the inside, and replacing broken fans. But alas, during the past few years, I have neglected it, and worked it just as hard. Suddenly, one day, I got the blue screen of death in Windows XP, which is quite stable for an OS.
During the subsequent weeks, my computer would restart, BSOD, or just halt with numerous errors. At first, I thought it was my RAM that had gone bad, so I checked it–nothing wrong. I started to notice that problems usually cropped up during heavy activity. I did what I had not done in at least a year–open the case. And this is what I saw.
This is most assuredly worse than images from any nightmare. Almost the entire inside had a thin film of dust covering it. But the most tragic was the fan and heatsink, which were inundated with piles of dust. I quickly used a handvac to suck up as much as I could. My primary concern was the heatsink, which definitely would not be as efficient with all the dust–this hopefully explains the recent problems I’ve been having.
After a frantic cleaning session, I turned on the machine to find my processor running about 5 degrees cooler. I ran lots of processes to try to raise the temperature, and found it to be quite stable. I’ll have to keep an eye on it during the next few weeks to see if I’ve solved my heat problems.
