« June 2005 | Main | August 2005 »

July 26, 2005

This will be...

...the coolest phone ever.

Posted by toddkitta at 10:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 24, 2005

Suggestion for Google

Rethink your UI strategy.

It's time to make your stuff prettier. Also, embrace the desktop. One of the biggest reasons I am using MSN Desktop Search over yours is that I do not care for the web interface. Apparently, Jeff doesn't either (of course, he could be a tad biased since he works for Microsoft :))

The minimalist approach we all loved so well in ~1999 is still OK, but I think when people will just look at Virtual Earth and then Google Maps, book covers will be judged and you will lose out.

I would freaking love Google to remain neck-and-neck with Microsoft over the next few years, and I actually think they have enough smart people at their company to do just that. But I think Microsoft might be pulling ahead in some areas.

Posted by toddkitta at 10:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Posting Light

Sorry posting has been light the last few days. The end of last week was crazy and I've been out of town this weekend.

Posted by toddkitta at 10:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Virtual Earth

I just thought it would be cool to blog about this a day before the actual product launches. :)

A few first things of note:

Overall, very cool and very polished. Microsoft has known for a while that Google is big competition and this is just one battle in the war. Who won this time? Well, the consumers will decide very soon. My dad's favorite website in the world is Google Maps and I can't wait to see what he thinks of this.

I'm just glad that the times when I had to pick between Yahoo! Maps and Mapquest are over! Talk about a lesser of two evils. So check it out: Virtual Earth.

Oh yeah, when is Hotmail going to NOT SUCK!? Scoble? Anyone?

Posted by toddkitta at 09:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 21, 2005

Blog Ads

Dave Winer: "A blog without ads is itself an ad, interesting to a small number of people. Blogs with ads, like their print counterparts, strive to be as broad as possible, to reach as many people, and in doing so, lose their value as an ad for the author."

A pretty broad, if not weak argument. I've got ads on my blog, but pretty much just for the hell of it. I don't make crap from them, basically because I have no readers yet. I certainly am not blogging for the big bucks. But a sweeping statement that all blogs with ads are sell outs is likely not accurate.

Posted by toddkitta at 07:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 20, 2005

A Win for FeedBurner

Brad Feld: "VNU announced today that it is going to start using FeedBurner to help manage and monetize its RSS feeds."

Good for FeedBurner. I'm sure they have the potential to make a lot of money in the commerical market.

Posted by toddkitta at 01:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

John Roberts

Rex Hammock: "All his friends think he's a saint."

I haven't seen any holes been put in this guy yet. Anyone else?

Posted by toddkitta at 01:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 19, 2005

Windows Hosting

Eric Gunnerson is looking for a good Windows host.

The thread could be a good reference for someone looking to do the same.

Posted by toddkitta at 09:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Transparent RSS

Stephen Baker for BusinessWeek's Blogspotting: "Technorati's Sifry says RSS will succeed by disappearing."

I hope this isn't news to anyone in the RSS industry.

Posted by toddkitta at 09:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 18, 2005

NewsGator

Greg over at NewsGator gives some news on the new pricing model and promises more updates soon.

Posted by toddkitta at 10:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Danny Gatton

Doc, thanks for turning me on to Danny Gatton; that is some good stuff.

Posted by toddkitta at 09:59 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Yahoo! Parking Perils

Check out the travesty (on Flickr) that is parking at Yahoo!

I could not deal with THAT everyday.

Posted by toddkitta at 09:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

.NET Rocks in iTunes

I hate when I find something that I feel I should have known about. One such thing I found today is the availability of .NET Rocks! as an RSS podcast feed.

Now I know this hasn't been available THAT long, but I haven't run across it until today. SWEET! Run, don't walk, and subscribe today!

Posted by toddkitta at 07:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Safe a Life or Take a Picture?

Jeff Jarvis: "What's so wrong with anyone else having the same need to remember and share and report and witness?"

I'm going to have to at least partly disagree with Jeff here.

I would like to think that if, God forbid, another attack occurred and I happened to be in the vicinity, that rather than snap some would-be famous photos, I would do anything in my power to help as many people as possible. That is what is most important; not capturing the moment. People are more important than history.

Posted by toddkitta at 06:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mobile Video for the Birds

InformationWeek on mobile video: "Only one in eight respondents said they have any interest..."

Yeah, we'll see what the survey results look like when it actually works like it should in a few years. I'm sure a few people said, "Email? Why the hell would I would to send a note to someone on the computer when I have a perfectly good pad of paper and stamps?"

Posted by toddkitta at 06:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

IPO Stories

Mark Cuban: "Getting up early to fly home the next morning wasnt easy, but as bad as my hangover was, and as anxious as I was to get to work, flying back reading the articles in the Wall Street Journal and NY Times describing how the Broadcast.com IPO had the largest first day jump of any IPO in the history of the stock market made my throbbing head feel a little better."

What a story to be able to tell your grandkids.

Posted by toddkitta at 12:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 17, 2005

Unfiltered Podcast #2

Randy just posted his second podcast. Dennis Kennedy was his guest. Eric Sink is coming soon. So is Brad Wilson.

Randy's also asked me to return sometime in the near future. Not quite sure Randy wants to dillute this all-star line up with a nobody like me, but it's his show! :)

Posted by toddkitta at 09:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

MS DRM

Randy took me to task on my Microsoft DRM comments.

All right, at the risk of playing semantics, Ballmer loves DRM because the content providers love DRM. :)

Per his additional comments, it will be interesting to see what content will be acceptable (in the public's eyes) as DRM enabled.

Posted by toddkitta at 08:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

del.icio.us links

On the lighter side...

What does everyone think of the del.icio.us links intermixed in people's blog posts? I have at least 3 or 4 people on my blogroll who are doing this. For the most part, I pretty much ignore them, so I guess even if you don't like them they are not invasive.

The cool thing about del.icio.us though is the fact that you can subscribe to virtually any list via RSS, so the blog posts seem kind of redundant. Thoughts?

Not a big deal, I just thought I would see if anyone else had an opinion.

Posted by toddkitta at 12:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Buy.com the next Dell?

Mark Jen writes about his horrible experience with buy.com.

I see a trend here. It's a bigger deal when customers discuss their bad experiences on blogs as opposed to message boards, etc. because more people will see it. At least that's my take.

These companies need to wake up! I don't think poor customer service will be able to slide as much as it has in the past.

The Dell issue caused a ruckus not too long ago, and it's gonna keep coming.

Per buy.com, I've had my share of issues with the company dating back to 6+ years ago, but generally I've been happy with them. Doesn't matter though, it will only take a handful of people like Mark getting the attention to really hurt them.

Posted by toddkitta at 12:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

CNET Podcasts

Anyone else not able to get the CNET Podcasts working in iTunes?

I've just got the little exclamation error icon next to the podcast.

UPDATE (7/21/2005): The feed magically started working today. I had emailed CNET last week, but received no response. Oh well.

Posted by toddkitta at 11:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

iPod on Caffeine

I haven't seen anyone talking about this, so I hope I'm not talking out my *ss. I love listening to podcasts or other "talk" content in Windows Media Player as I can just speed it up to one and a half times the normal speed and get done sooner. Great time saver!

However, it does not appear you can do this on the iPod or in iTunes! And with podcasts now a major part of Apple's iTunes store, I'm wondering why. Now before you say, "Todd! You're talking out your *ss!" let me state that I'm aware you can do this for audiobooks on the iPod.

Anyone know the deal with this? Surely Apple will eventually add this in. It's a big deal when I can listen to a 20 minute show in a little more than 13 minutes.

Posted by toddkitta at 11:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 16, 2005

National Ice Cream Day

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Nation celebrates Ice Cream Day."

A Jay Leno joke in the making.

Posted by toddkitta at 07:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Disposable PCs

NY Times: "Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine."

That is the dumbest damn thing I have heard in a while. How is buying a new computer cheaper OR faster than fixing your current one? Assumption: your current computer is not out of date.

The only extra time you would need to spend fixing your current computer (when comparing to buying a new one) would be reinstalling the OS. With a new computer you'd still have to migrate all your old data, etc. And the time it takes to install the OS is surely comparable to driving to Best Buy and purchasing a new machine! So, cheaper? No way. Faster? Uh uh.

Stupid.

I guess I can just use this as another reason not to read the Times.

Posted by toddkitta at 02:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Oh, Google, We Loved Ye

Marc Canter: "...word on the street is that Google is the new Netscape - and that's not a good thing."

Man, I don't know, that's a tough one. I'm torn. In some ways, I feel that way about search. If you haven't given MSN Search a test run, you should, it's going to give the search giant a run for their $301 stock price. However, Google is still turning out great stuff (i.e. anything ending in BETA... wait that's EVERYTHING). Personally, I think it's a little early to start digging Google's grave; we'll probably know a lot more a year from now.

I also have to give Yahoo! their credit. They have really sustained themselves as a top notch internet company through the years; not many have. What I do think is happening though is an evening of the playing field between the three giants, and I believe that's a good thing. From what I can tell, we've seen cooler stuff coming out of these companies in the last year than we have for the 2 or 3 years before that. Does anyone agree/disagree?

Posted by toddkitta at 02:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

RSS Search Innovation

Doc Searls: "How much invention or innovation to you expect to come from those companies after they're no longer independent?"

"Those" companies he is speaking about are Bloglines, Blogpulse, Feedster, IceRocket, Pubsub, Technorati; RSS search engines. His claim is that if these independents are acquired by one of the big boys (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!) the innovation will go down the tubes.

Interesting thought; not sure if I buy it though.

Let's say the GMY conglomerate (yeah, Google, MS, Yahoo!) is just a vacuum for innovation; anything they suck up instantly stops progressing. Even if that were true, the rest of the world is still churning out innovation. Technorati is not the only company capable of innovating in this space. Something better will probably eventually come along regardless of if they get bought or not.

Innovation will continue to come from independents and corporations just like it has been happening for a long time.

Posted by toddkitta at 10:51 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

OPM

The latest Microsoft outrage is the technology which is purportedly going to be baked in to Longhorn when it ships which will keep older (i.e. most) monitors from watching premium video content; at least at an acceptable quality. Read about it on Engadget.

Some folks are saying the won't upgrade to Longhorn if this is true.

I don't know enough about how this will work yet to make such a statement, but I really don't doubt it's true. I think most of us are aware that Steve Ballmer hearts DRM, and this is totally in line with other things I've seen him say. What do I think of this technology (if Engadget's description is accurate)? That's a tough one. On one hand, I think content providers have the right to protect their bread and butter, but on the other hand I don't think the industry should (by any means, ever, or any at time) be able to shove this down our throats. I shouldn't have to replace my perfectly good monitor to watch your stuff.

Then again, I suppose someone could make the argument that I don't HAVE to upgrade, and I don't HAVE to watch the premium content. But, damn, of course I'm going to upgrade to Longhorn. So in the end, I think DRM is OK, but I think there needs to be other ways to implement it than through forcing the masses to buy new monitors!

Posted by toddkitta at 10:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

RSS Desktop

Steve Rubel links to some images for your desktop. The artist has an RSS feed.

Hmmm, let's take the next step. I wonder if I will be able to subscribe to an RSS feed to update my desktop images automatically in Longhorn.

Posted by toddkitta at 01:46 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 13, 2005

Challenging Traditional Media

If Jeff Jarvis' post on challenging the US media's coverage of the war in Iraq isn't evidence that bloggers will change the way people look at traditional media, I don't know what is.

Way to go Jeff! We always need to be challenging what we are told.

Posted by toddkitta at 10:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The World of Blogs is (Becoming) Flat

I just realized what Technorati and all the services to follow it are doing: making the internet in to one big message board.

Posted by toddkitta at 08:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Cuban on Podcasting

Mark Cuban: "So in about 3 years, the Podcast phenomena will have run its course and will just be a normal part of the digital media landscape."

I started out reading Mark's post disagreeing with some of the things he said, but ended up agreeing with his overall point. Actually, I never really expected more out of podcasting than the quote I posted above. I don't expect any (I am using "any" liberally) individual podcasters to get rich.

With that said, I disagree with Mark's comparisons of podcasting to streaming. The cool thing about podcasting is that it is on demand, and not only is it on demand, but it's portable. So when he says "so what" about the things podcasting does that streaming doesn't, I think it's a big deal.

Now, do I think podcasting will change the way people consume entertainment, news, and knowledge? I don't know; but it might. I certainly think podcasting is a great medium, whereas not even that long ago I was not convinced. However, it remains to be seen if podcasting will just end up being "another" part of the internet or if it will make a large impact on the world.

Actually, if you think about what I just said, being just another part of the internet is a huge deal. Look how the parts of the internet have drastically changed lives in the past 10 years:

Podcasting is still too new to be proven as a viable contender against traditional media, but I think it's a big deal and it will be around for a long time to come.

Posted by toddkitta at 07:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Don't Store My Site

Slashdot: "Last week Healthcare Advocates sued both the Harding Earley firm and the Internet Archive, saying the access to its old Web pages, stored in the Internet Archive's database, was unauthorized and illegal."

If the plaintiff in this case wins, the precedent will be set for the banning of existing search engines' caching functionality. I wonder if this could affect bloggers as well, but maybe not as much since bloggers generally just include a small snippet of a potentially copyrighted piece. However, I remember when Scoble received some heat over his link blog.

Posted by toddkitta at 12:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hacking Google, er Netflix

Mike over at Hacking Netflix writes about his frustration with Google.

Has anyone else had these issues? I have a hard time figuring out how Google does its thing, and I guess that's why they are still #1 in search, but things like this will leave a bad taste in people's mouth. Hacking Netflix is a pretty high-profile site, so I hope this gets some attention.

Update: Mike is back up and running on Google.

Posted by toddkitta at 10:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 12, 2005

Claria a No-Go

Microsoft will not be acquiring the infamous Claria. Just doing my part to spread the word.

Via Ed Bott.

All right folks, what's next???

Posted by toddkitta at 07:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 11, 2005

The Mobile Net

Blogspotting: "Since January, according to M:Metrics, Inc. of Seattle, the number of Americans using a mobile browser for news and other information appears to be falling."

Does this surprise anyone? The mobile internet now is more like a novelty than anything. To put it bluntly, it sucks. I have a nice phone, probably one of the better phones for internet access, and it still sucks. Isn't the technology there to make for a faster and richer user experience? I think so. So I think Stephen is right when he says that the industry has just been failing.

I think the mobile net has the potential to be as big as "Internet 1.0". Here's what I want to be able to do:

I think you see what I'm saying; why can't I do these things today? And if I am able to do some form of this stuff, why can't I do it with lightning speed and a whiz-bang UI?

How long do you think it will be until this come to fruition?

Posted by toddkitta at 08:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What a Rip Off

Someone's been ripping off blog posts and Fred Wilson (A VC) blogs about it.

Posted by toddkitta at 07:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Life Games

Slashdot pointed to real life Tron.

These guys were doing real life Pac-Man over a year ago.

Posted by toddkitta at 07:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 10, 2005

My First Podcast, pt. II

Well, I did the podcast today with Randy. Check out the show notes over on his blog, and subscribe to his feed in iTunes.

Take aways: I had a great time; I can see the appeal to doing this on a regular basis. I definitely liked the two person conversation format Randy chose for his podcast; it makes for a more interesting show and helps things move along. I want to thank Randy again for inviting me to his first show, hopefully the first of many.

Check out the sweet bumper music. Big pimpin' yo.

Posted by toddkitta at 09:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 09, 2005

My First Podcast

I will be recording my first podcast tomorrow with good friend Randy Holloway. Well, it's Randy's podcast and he's invited me to be a guest. I'm pretty excited.

Not sure when it will be up, but watch mine or Randy's blog for more details.

Posted by toddkitta at 11:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Google Maps for Planes

The route I was given is pretty interesting...


Posted by toddkitta at 05:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Rally == Agile Software Development

Rally: "...the first on demand subscription Web service for managing the entire Agile software development lifecycle."

Jason Groshart is working on a project for a tech start-up and they are using Rally. He gives some good feedback on the product, agile development, and their project in general.

Products like Rally are very interesting to me and I think they will start picking up traction very soon. Visual Studio Team System will be in this space. FogBUGZ rocks, but it's not the whole picture.

This is via Brad Feld.

Posted by toddkitta at 02:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Doomsday

Seth Godin: "We're in the middle of the biggest shift(s) of the last century--whole industries are disappearing, worldviews are changing and the rules are being rewritten."

Is Seth right? The whispers are certainly there. I don't want to be left out of the "next thing", and I don't want to be too blind to see it coming. There are a lot of folks hinting that the IT software industry is slowly dying. Is this like when automotive assembly line workers were told machines would be doing their jobs? Again, I don't know. The IT industry could be strong for years to come; or not. There are certainly signs that people need to keep on their toes and not be too complacent with where they are at, but isn't that how it always is (and should be)? I think that now, more than ever, if you are in this industry you need to stay ahead of the game by keeping on the bleeding edge of technology. But what more can you do? I think that is the question people need to be asking themselves because that might not be enough. Will there be a fundamental shift in how all technology workers earn their paychecks over the next 10-20 years? I don't know. But I'm not smug enough to say there won't be. I'm going to be watching for the "next thing" and trying to make sure I'm not stuck with whale oil.

Posted by toddkitta at 09:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Dell is Stupid

Steve Rubel discusses Dell's customer relations policies; specifically relating to blogs.

This blows my mind for a couple reasons. First, it is EASY to monitor blogs; especially with services like Technorati, et al (Steve links to another post on how easy it is for PR professionals [or anyone] to monitor blogs). If I can monitor things I'm interested in my free time, someone at Dell should be able to manage it as their job. Second, how can you look at the successes companies like Microsoft are having with listening customer feedback with such enthusiasm and just ignore bloggers all together? Is Dell just getting arrogant? I wouldn't think they are that stupid.

Since this issue has been creating such a buzz in the blogosphere over the past week or so, we'll really see how much Dell is listening to bloggers by their (in)actions.

Update: looks like Dell has made another stupid decision; they are shutting down their customer service forums. More here and here.

Posted by toddkitta at 12:26 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 08, 2005

Despicable

News.com: "Less than a day after the explosions in London, a Trojan horse has appeared that poses as news footage of the attacks, MessageLabs said Friday. The malicious code arrives in an e-mail with the subject line "TERROR HITS LONDON" that is designed to resemble a CNN newsletter, the e-mail security company said."

Sick.

Posted by toddkitta at 10:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 07, 2005

Getting Podcasting

Ed says he doesn't get podcasting. I used to (and in some ways, still do) feel the same way as he does.

Most of the podcasts I have checked out are not for me. I'm apt to listen to stuff more like .NET Rocks on my iPod rather than listen to someone's blog in audio format (which is most of what I've found). However, I can see the appeal of widespread podcasting for folks who do have a lot of time to sit and listen to hours of stuff (long mass-transit commutes, etc.). Blogs and news are great for text aggregation; it's easy to filter out the garbage and noise. Podcasting: not so easy. I can subscribe to a large number of text feeds and still have it be manageable; it becomes difficult with more than a few podcast feeds. Not to mention the fact that it takes longer to listen to someone talk than it does to read.

I'm more likely to listen to podcasts with very directed topics. Examples would be interviews, quick news briefs, and the like which fit better in to an audio format.

On a related note: Randy is suggesting that Channel 9 put some of their stuff in audio format. Put me in for one vote!!!

Posted by toddkitta at 01:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 06, 2005

Spyware Aware

InformationWeek: "The threat of spyware and viruses being secretly downloaded on their computers has caused the majority of consumers to stop opening e-mail attachments, among other things."

The article goes on to say that 9 out of 10 adults have modified their internet behavior in at least one way and that 80% of consumers are aware of spyware. I would have not thought the numbers would be this high, and I have to wonder if they are accurate. I am consistently warning friends, family not to download this garbage.

If these numbers are accurate, then wonderful!

Posted by toddkitta at 08:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

No Cool Apps?

Chris Pirillo should also check out imeem. imeem == slick social smart client app.

Right now it's invite only, so if you want one first you need to make friends with me, and then I'll hook you up. :)

Posted by toddkitta at 08:14 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 02, 2005

Project Aardvark

If you have not been following, Joel Spolsky's company, Fog Creek Software, has had a group of employees blogging about some mystery project over the last few months. (Project Aardvark)

Well, stealth mode is over and they've announced the product: Copilot. Seems like Windows XP Remote Assistance, except you have to pay for it.

I'm sure there will be more information to follow, but I will be interested to see why people are going to pay for this when such software is built in to their OS.

I will hold off on commenting further until I see more information about the product.

Posted by toddkitta at 10:16 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

War of the Worlds

In one word: disappointment. I remember when I was young I could count on the fact that when Spielberg was attached to a film, it was going to be great.

I don't know if everyone assesses movies like me, but even if I'm able to enjoy a movie until the ending is a complete stinker, all the good is negated by 10 minutes of garbage.

What were you thinking Steven?

At least I still have E.T.

Posted by toddkitta at 04:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 01, 2005

Google on Windows

Randy Holloway counters Doc Searls' stance that Google should be writing client-based applications for Linux and OS X in addition to Windows.

I tend to agree with Randy. If Randy's 95% Windows market-share statistic is correct (I didn't bother to check), then Doc's argument would go against my instinct. Google doesn't need to be a niche player, and right now Mac and Linux is a niche. While I don't think it would be inherently bad if Google developed client apps for Linux, I don't think it's going to hurt them if they don't.

When Doc says, "I still think Google should commit publicly to making its client apps cross-platform", I'd like to know why.

Posted by toddkitta at 04:09 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Windows Desktop Search API

Dare discusses the new Windows Desktop Search APIs which were just released.

Essentially this will allow developers to implement IFilter and create code to search different file types. Dare says that if MS would have provided C# wrappers to the clunky COM interfaces, he would have written an IFilter for RSS Bandit. I'm going to urge him to do it anyway... that would be uber-hot.

Posted by toddkitta at 03:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Slingbox

This thing looks freakin' sweet! I saw Brad Feld (a VC) talking about it on his blog.

I have to read some reviews on this...

Posted by toddkitta at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack