I'm not sure I want to know what this is....
Seriously... what's going on here?
"Joe, did you wetvac the water off the scaffolding yet?"
"I got a bucket parked under it and a hose... its takin' care of itself... its a beautiful thing, you gotta see it..."
"Joe, what happens when the bucket gets full?"
"Full? Whaddya mean?"
Sprint EVDO through PPC-6700 finally working
First off, Sprint tech support sucks.
I spent two hours over various parts of the last week trying to get my phone to work as a broadband wireless modem, and... nothing. It took four days before the phone's internet was working just as a standalone. Using it with the laptop was another story.
Turns out I just didn't have the driver. It seemed like I didn't, but Sprint assured me that, by downloading their connection manager, that I had the driver. Not so much.
Seems I'm not the only one that was looking for the driver either.
So, if you need a USB wireless modem driver for a PPC-6700, or supposedly any Win Mobile phone, its right here.
I finally got going, and while the connection speed isn't overwhelming (currently in my office, with only two bars on the phone, its 230Kbps...a little slower than DSL), its definitely useable, and much better than searching for hotspots or paying T-Mobile at Starbucks.
So, until NYC goes WiFi, I'm mobile and Sprint gets an incremental $25 a month from me and my firstborn.
Graphic Design Opening at Oddcast
We're looking for someone... click the play arrow on the TV to hear about the job and then post a link to yourself, your work, etc. in the comments.
Postrolls done right
Totally agree with Fred here... Postrolls are are really an untapped opportunity. After you watch a funny baseball clip, a link to buy tickets or sports jerseys makes total sense. Even better would be if you let users pick the link.
Feedburner lets me approve or bag the ads that appear in my feed and on my site, and I've turned down a few penny stock links here and there... and I think that improves the overall quality of the experience and content on the site. YouTube should work the same way, letting me turn down advertisers I don't believe in.
MySpaceSoft
In a lot of ways, MySpace is sort of like the Microsoft of Web 2.0.
Its the platform that a lot of portable applications are going to get built on...or at least built to. Not every app will live in MySpace, but there has and will continue to be an explosion in the number of applications that are MySpace compatable, even if they'll wind up living on my blog.
And now, they're making overtures about going into the application development space, just as Microsoft did when it saw opportunities to build compelling apps that worked well together. There are a lot of key differences, though, that will make this roadmap a more difficult one for MySpace.
One, most obviously, not everyone needs or wants MySpace as it is defined as a brand. It trends younger because of the content that drives its network....the bands, blinking layouts, autoplay videos, etc. However, as a place to live on the web that is flexible and easy to manage, its pretty good. I think you have to wonder if there isn't some value in pushing the architecture into other demographics with some more "serious" content...like an "open" LinkedIn.
An operating system, on the other hand, was a necessary evil, and so the target market for Windows was much larger.
Another thing that MySpace lacks is a developers network...or at least an established/codified developer spec that someone who is looking to create MySpace apps could reference. This kills me. MySpace may see this as having the upperhand, knowing that all of the third party apps could be shut off tomorrow, but the reality is that will just stifle development over the long term. Venture backed startups don't mind taking a shot at building in MySpace the way YouTube did and risking getting shut off, but if it ever does happen, development will slow to a trickle. That was the beauty of Microsoft. They couldn't turn you off, but they owned the distribution channel, so they could make it pretty difficult for you to survive. At least it appeared as if you had a fighting chance, though, which was nice.
Still, a true developers network and access to more data (like the way Facebook opens up a person's movie and music interests to behaviorally targeted ads) would encourage more development and make the underlying platform more valuable. They should position themselves as very developer friendly. Statements like Web 2.0 was built on our backs create a very uneasy relationship with the people who are making your platform rich in content and applications at no cost to you. Fox execs should be wearing tshirts to work that say "We love Web 2.0. Come build here." Microsoft certainly seems interested in encouraging development, instead of saying developers are building "on our backs".
Interoperability of web services through APIs, RSS, etc also make this a different game than it was 15 years ago. Windows wasn't just a place to park your apps...it was a place to make them work together. Pasting an Excel sheet in a Word doc so easily made both programs more valuable and more sticky, not to mention the proprietary data formats they had. WordPerfect couldn't open a Word doc, so switching became really difficult. Data is more standardized now. We can take our blog feeds, tags, and our friends (conceptually, anyway) and port them wherever we want, and still benefit from integrating services.
The other big difference for MySpace today is that just being a platform is not a business model. Users don't pay for MySpace the way they pay for Windows. What they should do is to open the door to any and all ad supported or premium products and take a 10% cut across the top, sort of like the way NTT Docomo does in Asia, instead of the way the Carrier Mafia here takes your first born son for every piece of digital content sold. Carriers... there's another group of platform providers that do as much as they can to strangle innovation and be as unfriendly to developers as possible.
I'm not friends with Tom anymore, but as the Director of Consumer Products for a product that will hopefully find its away onto my MySpace profile, I'd love to be friends with MySpace...and not feel like I'm waiting for MySpace to drop the hammer on me.
I don't know what to title this...
An eldarly man had a heart attack on my train this morning. They got him to a bench on the Union Sq. N/R/W platform, but he didn't look too good.
I was sitting there writing a blog post on my phone this guy's wife just stood up and started patting him down with water. It took people a while to awaken from subway zombie mode to figure out what was happening.
I don't know if I have coherent thoughts here, so I'll just jot down some bullets.
- Subway cars are now locked. That's to prevent idiots from walking between cars. It also prevented us from reaching help right away. If you're old... try to ride in the conductor's car.
- Someone told me to pull the emergency brake. This is stupid. Had I pulled that brake, that guy's dead... b/c that leaves you stuck in the tunnel, locked in a subway car with no help. Never ever pull that brake unless you are at a station.
- Neither of these people spoke any English and we were lucky to find a cop that spoke Spanish. If you have a relative or someone you know who doesn't speak any English, or travels to a country where they don't, make sure you have a card or something on you that says, in a language people around you are sure to understand, whether you have any history of medical problems, allergies, etc.
- I hope that when its my time, I'm with someone who cares about me... unless I die in my sleep or something. I hate to think about how this would have turned out had his wife not been there to hold his hand and cradle him as he slumped around.
- Thanks to the other bald guy who held the train doors open and made sure the train didn't leave while I ran to the conductor... and to the person who helped this couple off the train to the bench.
Group Work... Sucky, and Unproductive
Nice... I never liked doing group work in college. Now Rob points out that it doesn't work anyway by quoting a recent Inc article.
"...the notion that individuals outthink and outdecide groups is so well
established among experts that they don't bother to study it anymore."
Template Changes - Now you can Meebo me, too
I made a few updates to my site template, mostly aimed at cleaning up all the junk (um.. widgets) I have on my sidebar. Of course, most of you read via RSS, so you've probably never even seen my page.
I added a third column and put some spaces in between all the widgets. I think it looks cleaner.
I also added a view widgets, like Meebo. Now you can IM me when you're on my page. I really like the concept, but I wish the IMs would go to my AIM client... I really don't like IMing through a browser, but its a neat concept that people can just stop in and say hello. I wish AIM would copy this functionality so I can just use my AIM client for this.
The more I think about it, the more just about every single piece of social software out there should integrate with Meebo, including Oddcast. I'd love to open up a Meebo chat right where my avatar is... and since they're both Flash, it should be really easy.
Other new widgets include a YouTube badge of some of my favorite videos, which is probably too small, a Facebook badge, and yes, some Google ads.
Although, I have to say, my most lucrative program so far, by far, has been my Sitepal affiliate badge. I've made $90 already from it... you get 30% commission on all the Sitepals you sell over the first full year of the accounts you sell. So, just selling one ten dollar account nets you $36 in the first year. That's pretty good. My Feedburner ads are doing pretty nicely, too... bringing in about $30 a month.
Ads keep Charlie powered by Jamba.
Pocket PC (6700) USB Wireless Modem Drivers
Does anyone have a PPC-6700 and have their USB Wireless modem drivers handy... or know one I could use with it?
I'm trying to use my phone as a modem and apparently, I need some more drivers for it... and who the hell knows where the original CD that came with the phone went.
Sprint Mobile Broadband on my Phone
So I signed up for Sprint's EVDO service on my phone and it was a pretty good deal in the end.
I had been subscribed to their Vision data plan for getting e-mail and sending pics and stuff, and that was costing me $15, plus $5 more for unlimited texts (I use about 300-400 a month).
They don't have an EVDO phone service that works with unlimited texts, but the EVDO is actually a Vision plan, so upgrading to the $39 service meant that I could knock off the $15, and now its costing me $10 for 1000 texts a month, just to be safe. So, in total, for an extra $34 a month I now have mobile broadband internet...
...but that's not really the cool part, because the real savings is that, by plugging my phone into my computer via USB, I can use the phone as a modem and get broadband on my laptop. For $34 a month, that's TOTALLY worth it, as far as I'm concerned.
I'll keep you posted on the coverage and how it works...
Kayakr: Nice visit from Mick from Zapr over the weekend
A lot of people ask to meet up to talk shop... coffee, lunch, Jamba... I definitely put myself out there for a lot of people, but admittedly its hard to accomodate all the people that I'd like to meet with. I mean, I do have parents and friends that want to see me once in a while, too. So, when TaraRogueCow :) told Mick to look me up, I sent him down to Pier 40 for a little kayaking, since I knew that was going to be basically my lone respit from work this weekend. Well, Mick was a good sport and in the Hudson River with a paddle he went. I learned a lot about Zapr and its a lot cooler than I first thought it was.
Actually, its a pretty good model for me for meeting new people or professional contacts. It does sort of prevent live demos of services, since taking a laptop on the water probably isn't a good idea, but if anyone ever wants to get some of my time, their best bet is probably to meet me at Pier 40 on the weekends for some kayaking. Its hard for me to make time during the week, but here, I have a few hours, my head is pretty clear for thinking, and I'm in a pretty good mood. Just drop me a line at charlie@oddcast.com to see if and when I'll be down there... or check back on the blog, because a lot of times I'll mention it on Thursday or Friday.
A Quote for Today
"I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. Particularly when one can't see the details. Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need? And then people tell me about pilgrimages to some dank pesthole in a jungle where they go to do homage to a crumbling temple, to a leering stone monster with a pot belly, created by some leprous savage. Is it beauty and genius they want to see? Do they seek a sense of the sublime? Let them come to New York, stand on the shore of the Hudson, look and kneel. When I see the city from my window - no, I don't feel how small I am - but I feel that if a war came to threaten this, I would throw myself into space, over the city, and protect these buildings with my body." - Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead