Happy Newton's Day

December 25th is a day everyone should rejoice, regardless of silly superstitious religious beliefs, simply because Sir Isaac Newton's birthday. Newton was one of the greatest thinker of all time. His work in mathematics and optics alone helped change the world. His book "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" is possibly the greatest or most influential book of all time. This is where he lays out the foundation of classical mechanics and formulates the laws of universal gravitation. Without Newton's work much of our modern world would not exist. So on this December 25th I am grateful for Sir Isaac Newton and not some fantasy nonsense about a virgin birth and a manger. Happy Newton's Day!

How to read a flowchart....

Some people have trouble reading flowcharts as they can be complicated and confusing. Below is a tutorial:

Enjoy!

Random

Was playing poker online and very randomly this song popped up in my head:

I don't think I know any other Finley Quaye songs and I am sure I haven't heard that song in years, but on a cold and dreary day it is a nice song.

I also heard "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed earlier and even though the song is about getting high on heroin it brings a smile to my face because I discovered it one random summer day a couple of years ago while I was in Central Park on Sheep Meadow and I still associate it with that day.

Enjoy!

Real Change

Here is a great presentation by Lawrence Lessig talking about his new focus for political activity. I absolutely agree with his thesis, which is if you remove the money out of our election process only then can we impact real change to the government.

Spread the word!!!!

Radiohead

Radiohead is doing something interesting, AGAIN. During their recent show in Japan they recorded the show with 12 cameras. The interesting part is that you can create your own video cutting between different camera angels for the song "15 Step". You can post your video and see how others have cut their videos. They show how the other videos' camera selection via fantastically nerdy data visualisation charts. See my mix visualized below:



So let's recap so far Radiohead has put out their whole album out for free (or pay what you want), allowed fans to create and distribute remixes (amplive is my favorite), broadcast a full concert live online, and now this 12 camera video. Why aren't more bands doing stuff like this and by "this" I mean trying to figure out different and interesting ways to engage their fans. 

Feed

Feed: The Razorfish Consumer Experience Report is a report put out by the interactive agency Razorfish. Avenue A umm no Avenue A-Razorfish umm no Razorfish has been putting out these reports for several years. They have been great for getting a view of the state of the industry, consumer insight, and media trends. I always enjoyed getting my copy while I was a client and my friend Julie got my printed copy earlier today. There are lots of interesting and smart topics discussed ranging from "Life After the iPhone" to "Twitterific: How Micro-Interactions Are Changing the Way We Communicate Online" to "What's in a Game?: A Look at Games As Tools, Not Toys" and much more.

Razorfish Consumer Experience Report

View SlideShare document or Upload your own. (tags: web advertising)

Evolution of the Cell Phone

This is a personal point of view...From 1999 (when I got my first cell phone) until June 29 2007 cell phones were basic communication tools. The launch of the iPhone really changed the game in the mobile phone industry (I know I am a broken record). Now my iPhone has nearly replaced my computer and has given me the ability to be always connected. But beyond that I am able to play some pretty awesome games:

Rolando launched today and so far it lives up to the hype it is a pretty fun game with great game play with the iPhone.

And in the very near future I will be able to augment my view of reality with applications like wikitude:

This looks awesome and the implications could be huge. Imagine traveling and having an encyclopedia in your hand to tell you everything about what you are seeing. In late 2001 I was traveling around Spain and then went to Rome and this type of application would have added so much more context to my sightseeing. And to think this is only a year and a half after the iPhone launch imagine what the possibilities are when battery life, storage space, and processor power are not barriers for developers and manufacturers. Now back to the wonderful world of Rolando.

random but cool

Watching the process is pretty cool.

Facebook Connect

Several months ago Facebook announced Facebook Connect as part of the Facebook Platform. FC is an interesting addition to the Facebook Platform because it allows other content producers to use the Facebook as a means of additional distribution. FC allows you to see how your friends have interacted with the site where FC is activated. It also allows for easy distribution and social sharing of the content. 

There are a lot of sites starting to use FC (Joost, Hulu, Digg, etc.) as a means of content distribution and sharing but I am interested to see how an advertiser will use it. Most marketers are having trouble trying to figure out what is the best way to engage with social networks; actually this is what most marketers should be doing when in fact most marketers are just want a specific segment or target to be aware of their message. I think FC allows some advertisers who are doing the old "share your moments with us" campaign to help with social networking and specifically engaging the Facebook user. If you see a campaign currently running that is doing this post it in the comments.

Copy/Paste for the iPhone

The biggest missing functionality of the iPhone is the ability to copy and paste. From day one this was a glaring omission. The video below was created as a proof of concept of how copy and paste could work but unfortunately Apple has not responded:

Pastebud has been trying to create copy/paste in a unique way using a javascript via a web app. They have finally been able to get cross application copy and paste for Safari and Mail. See demo below:

This seems like a great work around but still a bit funky and it sucks that it only works for Safari and Mail. I am not sure if this works if you need to copy from e-mail to paste to another e-mail.

I hope now that the blackberry storm is out with copy/paste Apple will add this functionality in the next firmware update. This missing function will get the iPhone closer to perfection.

50th Post

Just got back home from Atlantic City playing mostly poker and didn't get anything good going this trip. Oh well that is how tournament poker goes. I think I played good for the most part and can analyze and learn from my mistakes. I was able to make a little money playing craps when a girl was rolling and hit a hard 4 for me which I had $5 and I parlayed the $50 and later in the roll she hit the hard 4 again which paid me $500. Weeeee, I love craps it is a fun game when someone is rolling hot.

I love the feeling of coming home from a trip mostly because I love this city so much. The t-shirt above is a limited edition shirt that was designed for the new Standard Hotel above the High Line that will be opening soon. It was designed by Eric Haze, a legendary NYC graffiti artist (you can see some of his work here). I want one of those t-shirts.

I have a ton of stuff to read as I didn't do much google reader checking the past week and so I am sure I will have a lot to post/comment on. 

In the mean time I am off to wholefoods to get some cookies and eat some dinner and you can listen to some of these random songs below:

and

and

and

and

and

and

and

and

OK I'll stop now cuz I can go on and on.

Randomness...

I haven't been able to get much going playing poker. The two tournaments I have played so far have been kind of frustrating watching people play really bad and get rewarded. Oh well, tomorrow is another tourney hopefully I can make a run and go deep.

I saw this via curbed, A Self-Guided Brooklyn Graffiti Tour this focuses on Williamsburg.

and this is brilliant...

African-American Boycott of L.L. Bean Enters 80th Year

This week..

...I will be at Harrahs in Atlantic City for a WSOP Circuit Event so I will not have very many opportunities to post. This will force me to try posting more via my iPhone. There are a couple of things that are happening this week in NYC that I am disappointed to miss:

1. The Thrilla in Manila @ the Jen Bekman Gallery - although the drawing is done the exhibition event is tonight.
2. How Do You Like the Bowery - Short film about the art made on the Bowery on Thursday the 11th @ The New Museum
3. Art Deco Design - Free lecture @ the NY Public Library - Art Deco in NY
4. What is Real: Documentary Photography and the Politics of Truth @ the International Center of Photography.

Enjoy NYC.

Update at 2:40 - Just got an e-mail about a comedy show at the Knitting Factory benefiting NY Cares featuring David Cross and Eugene Mirman and a bunch of other NYC comedians. 

Happy Birthday Noam Chomsky

I first came across Noam Chomsky's political writing when I was in college. This was in 1996 at my University's first computer lab with an internet connection. I was reading the famous article in the San Jose Mercury News about how the C.I.A was facilitating the drug trade. From there I found a link to Z-Mag and a bunch of Chomsky's articles on political dissent. I found it absolutely fascinating that he was not a full time political writer even though his political writing is prolific and he is just as prolific a linguist and that he revolutionized the field. I have yet to read his most famous Manufacturing Consent. Today is his 80th birthday hopefully he will have many more.

iPhone as a Game Controller

iPhone as a gaming device is pretty cool here is a proof of concept purely as a controller. Makes perfect sense since these types of games are played with the accelerometer and I guess they just use the video out to play on the big screen. Pretty cool, I wonder what else they will be able to do with this. 

(found via advertising lab)

Netflix on Xbox

Yesterday I activated my Netflix account on Xbox and I am really impressed with how good the experience was. The movie started streamed right way and played nearly flawlessly, considering it was streaming the one hick up was totally excusable. Although, the whole Netflix library is not online there is a healthy selection and about half of my queue was available for instant view. This will definitely get me to use my Netflix account more often.

Netflix has a much better strategy than their main competitor Blockbuster as they are trying to go with flawed model of providing a set top box for movie downloads. Many have tried this model and none have been successful mainly because no one wants another box with just one purpose sitting next to their TV.

iPhone instrument

OK this is really really really dorky but still pretty cool when you think about the implications. Ocarina is an iPhone app that is a music instrument that uses the microphone, multi-touch screen, and the gyroscope to create a flute like sound. 

This is just another example of how the iPhone is truly a revolutionary product. We have Steve Jobs' high standards to thank. Hopefully the rest of the handset manufacturers can catch up (although right now they are just trying to copy what apple has done). I think they will need a significant change in the way they think about hardware and software in order simply catch up. Google's Android mobile OS definitely helps but Apple, with the iPhone, has such a head start that it will be difficult for the Nokias and Motos and HTCs of the world to come out with a device that will leap frog the iPhone

Look, up in the cloud...

...it is not a bird or a plane it is gOS. gOS is a cloud computing operating system that is really light weight and beautifully developed. But first lets talk a little about cloud computing, it is a pretty simple concept that people have been talking about for years, the basic premise is all you need in a computer is basic hardware, an internet connection, and  a browser. All your applications live in the cloud and you can have access anytime on any machine. Google currently provides most of these service as does Microsoft with live. For example with Google I can have my e-mail via gamil, my documents on (excel, word, powerpoint) via google docs, my calendar via google calendar, my rss reader via google reader, well you get the picture. There is very little that I do on the actual hard drive. The biggest thing for me on my HD is my music and I am sure it is just a matter of time when Apple or Google will allow me to upload all my music to their servers and I can update my iPhone from any computer.

Now back to the gOS Cloud, which they will be launching at CES. This is the first cloud operating system that is launching and it seems that the developers have put a lot of effort into design and usability so that it doesn't look like a first version of the OS. As you can see below the browser is the hub of all activity with an application "dock" at the bottom for easy access to all the essentials (mail, calendar, docs, etc.).

(You can see more screenshots here)

The gOS Cloud had fully integrated most of Googles applications in a really simple way that is modeled after the Apples OS. Below is a quick video via engadget.

I really think in the next 2-3 years as the netbook (really small striped down computers more here and here) market gets bigger and the gOS Cloud develops and devices like the iPhone get better at word processing functions (like formatting and cut & paste) cloud computing will become more main stream. Hopefully, this will push public wifi into the spot light as well, because I don't think this will happen until there is a huge public need/outcry. Lots of chicken and eggs happening here or maybe it is something about carts and horses.

livestation

wow livestation looks like a really cool product and they are developing an iPhone app. Livesatation brings live TV (right now focused on news content from BBC, Bloomberg, C-Span, Al Jezeera English, etc) as well as streaming content into one site/application. Since this is live streaming the ads stay in tact so the original network gets the benefit of expanding reach. The iPhone demo looks pretty impressive and it seems that livestation also has an opportunity to monetize with ads of their own that don't seem too intrusive. All in all if livestream can get more content partners (especially beyond news) this would be the perfect application. The only other comment I have for livestation is clean up your website, it just seems very cluttered. This looks like an example of design by committee as everything is jammed on the front page.

Astroturf

Astroturf is the crappy fake grass we use to see in so many sports stadiums in the 80s but in this post it is something slightly different. In the online/marketing world astroturf is when a company or marketer tries to generate hype for one of its products by posting fake positive messages on blogs or in other social media. 

This usually ends up generating negative feedback to the company mainly because it is pretty obvious that the positive comments are fake. The most recent example was with Motorola, when they posted comments to gadget blogs like CrunchGear (first comment) or Gizmodo. It was discovered pretty easily because the same comment by the same person was left on several high profile blogs. Once discovered the negative publicity was pretty rampant; if you google "Motorola Astroturf" you will see hundreds of other posts also social sharing sites like twitter, fiendfeed, etc spreading the story like wildfire. 

The funny thing is, all the people seeing the negative feeback are the people (gadget influencers) Moto is trying to get on their side meanwhile they have also generated horrible reviews about the product that was mentioned. The obvious lesson here is when dealing with social media be authentic and don't try to pull a fast one. This should be true of all media all the time but in the online social media world it is so much easier to get caught doing stupid things like this than in the offline world.

The Great Cookie Debate

Hello my name is Sahu and I am an addict. My addiction is chocolate chip cookies. I probably eaten more chocolate chip cookies in a week than most people have in a lifetime. It kind of freaks me out if I think about it for too long, then I usually shove a cookie in my face and all the bad thoughts go away.

Most people know this about me and consequently recommend that I try different cookies because they think that was the best cookie they ever had. I am not saying I am the arbiter of all chocolate chip cookie taste but people always insist I try their recommendations and are generally disappointed when I give them my review because I usually don't pull any punches.

Below is a run down of the places and brands I have tried and my thoughts (in no particular order):

• Wholefoods Market chocolate chip cookies - Right now these are my gold standard. They are baked fresh everyday and the freshest will have a sell by date 4 days out. I don't even remember how I came across them but it was about 3-4 years ago and I haven't gone a week without at least one tub (usually 3 or 4)
• City Bakery - These cookies were recommended my poker playing friend Carl (who you can find here and here and here). He has recommended several places and these are the best of his recommendation. Overall the cookies was OK they are pretty big and baked fresh everyday. Unfortunately, it seems like they are baked at the same time or in the same oven with a bunch of other types of cookies and so the chocolate chip cookies end up tasting like some of the other cookies.
• Levine Bakery - This was another recommendation from Carl. It is a tiny place on the upper west side and their cookies are over the top huge. I feel like it is a cookie I would get if I were in Minnesota. Also they don't have a pure chocolate chip cookies their have a chocolate chip cookie with walnuts and a double chocolate chip cookie.
• Insomnia Cookies - This is another small place located on 8th street between 5th and 6th ave. The cookies here were not very memorable. I only remember when I was eating them how bland they were. I am not sure if it was because of the chocolate chip or the cookie.
• The Grand Lux Cafe @ The Venetian casino in Las Vegas - These cookies were discovered and sufficiently hyped up by Jeff and Jenny while they were on their wedding/WSOP trip. These cookies very nearly lived up to their hype. They were freshly baked and you had to order them when you first sit as they take 30 min to bake. Generally, I hate any type of nuts in my cookies and these cookies had pecans but they were not overbearing and for the most part not even noticeable.

Desperate times call for desperate measures:

• Entenmann's Cookies - These are an old stand by when I don't have wholefoods accessible to me and I am in desperate need for a cookie these are perfectly serviceable. 
• Pepperidge Farms - They have several chocolate chip cookies and the best ones are the soft baked dark chocolate chip. But I generally stick to the double chocolate milano where pepperidge farms is concerned.
  
• Chips Ahoy! - When I was young and ignorant I crushed these cookies like there was nothing better in the world and now these are barely serviceable only if there is absolutely no way of getting any other cookie and you are starting to get the shakes.

I will update this post as I try different cookies and as I get other recommendations but if you ever tell me to try this I will have to give you a stern back handed bitch slap.

Joost iPhone App

Joost just launched an iPhone app with access to about 46,000 videos. I have been using it over my wifi and have not tried it over 3G or EDGE and so far the application is pretty smooth and the videos play without any issues, although VentureBeat had some issues. Overall, the app is pretty impressive and Joost has done broken some ground but as content is king Hulu on the iPhone would be much more compelling. Also, as I have stated in my "Interesting Companies" post when Orb and Sling come out with an iPhone app they will truly have the killer apps since they will allow you to be the content aggregator rather than the programmers at Joost or Hulu.

I kind of wish someone would create an iPhone app that would get video from the web via Joost, Hulu, or whatever new content creator puts their content online (like Criterion announced recently) mainly because I don't want to download multiple apps that do the same thing. For me there is still a space issue on the iPhone and I don't want apps that I am only going to use once in a while to take up valuable space.

Nikola Tesla and NYC

I didn't know that much about Nikola Tesla (just something about electricity, a car, and a band) but yesterday as I spent 2 hours traveling to my sisters for thanksgiving dinner I was listening to Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson and this weeks program focused on the "Strange Genius of Nikola Tesla." I would really recommend you listen to the program as Tesla was a very fascinating man.

(Hear the whole show here)

The thing that most surprised me about Tesla was that he spent most of his life here in NYC. Tesla spent a lot of time feeding pigeons in Bryant Park and 40th and 6th Ave is Nikola Tesla Corner. Tesla's first lab was on 175 Grand Street. He lived in the New Yorker Hotel in room 3327 and 3328. And there is lots more that he did in NYC (including his earthquake machine that he created in his lab on Houston). 

There is a great interactive map with pictures and audio clips on the WNYC page (the Mayor Fiorello La Guardia eulogy of Tesla is a great listen). This is one of those times I really wish the iPhone supported flash as I would really like to take an interactive tour of Tesla's NYC. I guess I can visit and read the stories, I just can't listen to the great clips.

Riding

I have been riding a fixed gear for about 2 years now and it is pretty fun/intense riding a bike with no breaks in NYC. Below is a pic of my bike a Bianchi Pista:

The video below is a series of 63 pictures I took while riding from Broom Street up West Broadway to Union Square (see map below).

It was a fun short ride slightly over a mile. My camera work definitely needs some work but I am happy with the first effort. I need to play around with my camera to figure out some of the settings to make some of this automatic.

I also took these 2 videos with my camera riding on 25th street to lex and down on lex to 23rd to broadway and down broadway to union sq.

and 

PSFK's Good Ideas in 2009 in Design

This is worth watching and reading:

On Tuesday the 2nd PSFK will host Good Ideas in 2009 in Digital.

Graffiti vs. Brands

Graffiti artists and Brands have one thing in common, they both would like to be ubiquitous. What happens when graffiti artists start attacking brands' ubiquitous logos? 

The artist attacking these brands is Zevs and his intention is to force the passer by to pay attention and question to these images rather than just letting them slip into our subconscious.

Another graffiti artist attacking advertising here in NYC is Poster Boy, you can read about him here and see his all of his work here. 

Poster Boy slices and mashes 2 or 3 different ads to create a composite image, which still remains brand heavy but adds cheeky irony to it. 

What does this mean for marketers/advertisers? Well we need to be much more cognisant of what media we are buying and where our message will be going. Brands that are socially conscious and accessible for dialogue will get attacked much less than brands that are closed off to 2 way communication and only interested in spreading a message. Social media/application, when done right, can be a great way to foster communication between brands and consumers. A good example is Comcast which was getting attacked for is poor customer service by a rather famous advertising critic, Bob Garfield of Ad Age and On The Media. Comcast started a twitter account in order to be more responsive and to start a dialogue with customers. Marketers need to realize that consumers and advocates have a lot more power to spread their message weather that message is positive or negative is up to the brand.

Enjoy your thanksgiving holiday.

Walking

As a small hobby I have been taking photos for some time and I mostly upload to flickr. I have played around with trying to do some different things with photos like my highline montage with 36 different photos layered on each other to create one huge piece or this photo which was 10 different pictures stitched together using software to make one panoramic photo. Now I am trying to create a type of stop motion movie with photos. My first attempt is below of me walking.  I used movie maker and it seems kind of crude but it will have to do since I don't want to invest in software.

I really want to try to mount my camera on my bike and set it to take a picture every 5 seconds and see how that works out.

Zune Phone

In the past week I have read several articles here, here, and here about Microsoft creating a Zune Phone. I think it will be yet another mistake for Microsoft. I know they have more money than god but they really need to learn a valuable lesson from the Zune and not dump more money into a product no one really wants. 

If they do develop a Zune Phone or a non windows mobile phone they are clearly focusing on the Xbox chapter of their history lesson rather than the Zune chapter. The Xbox 360 was unique in that it was the first next gen console to enter the market the only competitor is Sony with the PS3 and they didn't come into the market for a full year after the 360 launch (Nintendo Wii is not really a next gen console although it was a smashing success Nintendo was going after a different market than the 360). The game console market is also unique in that gamers are a very engaged market segment and are willing to provide a ton of valuable feedback to help improve the product and clearly the Xbox development team used this info to its fullest extent. 

The Zune and now the Zune Phone have a much bigger barrier in front of them. iPhone and now Google's android have established a market and whatever MS is going to try to do with a Zune Phone will seem like a me too product. The market is also broader than the gaming market and we have seen how MS does when they try to provide a product that is all things to everybody (where is my freaking WOW). They don't seem to be giving up on the Zune so I guess when you have buckets of cash laying around you can afford to live with 4 % of market share and I am sure the barriers with Zune Phone will be much higher. I suppose MS could create a MVNO and push the Zune Phone out on their own without being attached to a specific carrier. But even this has been an impossible business model if Helio, ESPN, Amp'd, and Disney couldn't create a market I don't think the Zune Brand will be able to either.

iPhone as a gaming device

So far the iPhone has been a pretty good gaming device with its accelerometer and touch screen. I have been loving Ms. Pac-Man and was hooked to Spore Origins but I really think Rolando from Hand Circus is going to really revolutionize the iPhone as a gaming platform. See below for the newly released trailer:

It looks like a fun game that almost anyone will enjoy. I can't wait.

A Great Conversation With Jan Gehl

Streetsblog had a quick but meaningful chat with Jan Gehl the urban planner who is working with the City and the DOT on creating a more livable street.  Definitely worth a watch total conversation is about 9 min.  Enjoy:

Display Ads, Dead or Alive?

There is an interesting article I just read in media week asking the question "Is the end near for Display Ads?" I came across the article via Darren Herman's Blog and totally agree with his assessments. I think if done properly display ads can effectively deliver branding messages and direct response messages and when done concurrently the branding messages can lift the DR campaigns significantly. While I was at Verizon we saw this over and over and we were executing 3 levels of campaigns DR*, Product Awareness**, and Overall Corporate Awareness*** so we could look at cookies**** which had been exposed to any combination and see how they preformed vs. the traditional DR campaigns. I do think as budgets get tighter clients will have to look very carefully at their objectives and how they spend their budgets and unfortunately the easy answer is going to be cut the online awareness because it doesn't deliver immediate and actionable results.

*Buy now low price

**Our product rocks and is better than competitors

***We are a broadband company not a telecom

****I really need some wholefoods cookies the ones I have a 2 days old but they will have to do for now

Facebook Data Visualized

This is a pretty cool video of Facebook data visualized of how people interact with each other across the world.

I am a total nerd for simple and efficient ways to visualize complex data.

Via Greg Verdino

Wired Store

Every year wired magazine hosts a pop-up store during the holidays to showcase some of the technology featured in the magazine. The store is not all about commerce they also host events that may be interesting:

We’re All Game Designers Now – Thurs, December 4, 7:00pm

Beyond Hollywood: Indie Sci-Fi in the 21st Century – Thurs, December 18, 7:00pm

An evening with John Hodgman and Jonathan Coulton – Fri, December 19, 7:00pm

The opening event was this past Friday you can see some photos from the event.  Last year the store was down in SOHO at an empty store on Wooster and Houston but this year they are on 18th Street between 5th ave and 6th ave. The City Bakery is right down the street on 18th for some reasonable chocolate chip cookies and excellent croissants.

View Larger Map

I will probably stop in the store tomorrow or later today.

Interesting companies

On Saturday night YouTube did a live event for which I have only seen basic traffic data and the event seemed to top out at approximately 700,000 concurrent viewers. I wonder if this was a marketing success for YouTube. They had several sponsors (LionsGate, Guitar Hero, Virgin America and Flip Video. As I didn't watch live I am not sure how and to what extent these advertisers were integrated. I think we will see more of this type of event programming from YouTube. But this is not what this post is about. I wanted to take some time to and talk about some companies I have been following for the past year that are doing some interesting things.

The YouTube event was a mass broadcast and as I said I think there will be more of these to come but I think the larger trend will be micro-broadcasting. People have been broadcasting what they have been doing for several years via microblogging applications like twitter, tumblr, Facebook Status, etc. and I think the following companies will bring the next evolution which will bring mobile video to the masses. Kyte, Qik, and Seesmic these applications allow you to micro-broadcast video of what you are doing live. Each of these applications allow you to not only broadcast live but they also allow you to have an IM like conversation live as you are broadcasting.  Qik is working on an iPhone app with for now will only work with jailbroken iPhones.  Here is Kevin Rose showing off the app on his iPhone:

These applications are very early on the Gartner hypecycle so there will be lots of time for evolution especially as mobile phone cameras get better and/or if one of the carriers embraces the application:

Since the title of this post is "Interesting Companies" I don't want to limit the discussion to the mobile space.  Sling and Orb (although Orb work with any media on your computer) allow you to bring your favorite TV shows with you anywhere you have access to an internet connection. Both companies are working on iPhone apps.

The last segment I have been following are social browsing companies. 

FriendFeed - Allows you to aggregate all your social application/sites into one feed. I have been using freindfeed for about a year and it definitely is an interesting application but it can get overwhelming if the people you are following overshare.

Me.dium - No longer exists but I always felt this application had a lot of promise. The app allowed your friends to have a shared browsing experience allowing for comments and IM/chatting experience. Me.dium has evolved to OneRiot a search engine with a social aspect.

Flock Browser - Is a full browser that allows for a shared experience, although I think this is probably the right model for social browsing experience Flock probably does not have enough users to make reach critical mass. 

Ultimately, I think Google has the best chance for doing something major in this area.  With google chrome browser, gmail chat, gmail video, and with the addition of search commenting/ranking google has all the elements and the large enough user base to make social browsing a mass application.

These are some of the companies I have been following that I think have huge impact on technology, social media, and/or the way we interact.

Mapping Street Art

I found this via PSFK it is a social mapping site that uses google maps to chronicle street art around the world. I have been taking pictures of street art here in NYC for the past couple of years and uploading to my flickr but I will start to use this site as well. The UI is pretty simple and they allow you to upload your flickr pictures directly. I like the ability to segment the pics into the different categories (graffiti vs stencil vs gallery, etc.).  All in all a pretty useful site to foster a hobby. I wish the wooster collective had a good mapping function like this.

Lawrence Lessig

Lawrence Lessig is a law professor at Stanford and is the founding board member of Creative Commons board a different way to look at copyright and licencing law. He is really smart and in the interview below with Charlie Rose talks about a range of topics from free culture to the hybrid economy (think flickr not prius) to this thoughts on abolishing copyright law.

The part of the discussion on free culture is really interesting and if you just want to watch that click here. 

Lastly, I am really impressed with the Charlie Rose site and PBS in general with how much content they have online and allow users to share.  With Charlie Rose they even take the interviews and break them up based on the topics. It is funny that if you ask most people what their perception is of PBS or NPR they would think that is stogy or old but they both are very progressive in embracing the online culture and technology.

BBC is Smart

Last week the BBC announced that they would broadcast all their channels live online. They have been doing this as a test with some of their minor channels and now they are rolling out to BBC One and BBC Two. This is a really smart move and clearly they are not afraid of online like US broadcasters seem to be. Just the other day the major networks were scoffing at Hulu as "just reruns" See NewTeeVee interview with Hulu CEO Jason Kilar below:

Apparently the networks think that if you are not watching their programming when they want you to watch it you are of little value. I really think Hulu is and now the BBC are proving them wrong and what they need to realize that if they let people access to their content any/all the time they will have much more success and "long tail" programs will make them a lot of money.

iPhone 2.2

I downloaded and installed the updated iPhone firmware. There are several updates, the one that will be most noticeable is to the maps function.  The Apps Store as well as the iTunes Store are updated and there are a bunch of smaller updated to make safari more stable, resolving some drop call issues, and you can now turn off auto correct on the keyboard (I have no clue why anyone would want to do this as it is one of the best features on the iPhone and allows me to type almost faster than on my computer keyboard).

Maps - On first impression google street view is awesome. If you search a location or drop a pin you can tap on a little person looking icon and it drops you into street view. It runs pretty fluid but I am on wifi so that is expected but I would imagine it would render pretty fast on 3G; edge will be the biggest question. You can e-mail a location to someone, which is pretty cool. There are public transit directions (which gives you the bus/train lines and a departing time and arrival time) and walking directions (gives you distance and approximately how long it would take).

Apps Store - The biggest thing I see here is that the categories tab has icons representing each category.  Also, when you select an app there are multiple screen shots vs. just one and you have the option send via e-mail to a friend.

iTunes Store - The biggest addition to the iTunes Store is the ability to download podcasts. The rest of the store looks pretty much the same.  I wonder why they didn't add a share or send to a friend option here for music? There seem to be 2 ways you can get podcasts; the first is through the iTunes Store when you search something and download the available episode(s) and in the ipod podcast section you have the option, for already downloaded podcasts, to get updates. I wonder if it will prompt you when there are updates available?

These are major improvements and further separate the iPhone from other smart phone but there 3 updates that would blow every other device out of the water:

1. Cut & Paste
2. MMS
3. Flash

I think the MMS and Flash can easily swap order but cut & paste is by far the biggest missing piece and it would make so much sense for the iPhone to nearly replacing my computer.

If I see anything else interesting I will update.

Xbox 360 NXE

I downloaded the update to the Xbox 360, called New Xbox Experience, last night and have to say I am impressed on several fronts:

1. The speed of such a major download was great.  Because the Xbox run most of the software on ROM the updates (even major ones like this) are not huge files.
2. The flow of the software is great, it is easy to navigate mostly through text based menus with large visual icons.
3. The avatars are interesting, hopefully they develop free games that utilize the avatars otherwise they are pretty useless.  The reason people loved the Wii mii avatars is because they get used as part of the sports games. I can't imagine I would customize my avatar anymore than the bare boned options I already selected.  
4. Netflix partnership looks interesting, I think you have to have a streaming enabled account (min 2 per month netflix subscription) and Live Gold in order to use this feature but so far from what I have heard it works really great.  I have not tested it out myself as I have 2 discs from netflix I need to return, but this is definitely a feature I will use.

I will play around with it a lot more and give updates as I get a better handle on what are the true strong points and weak points of NXE. 

Blog writer

Just set up blog writer lite for the iPhone. On first look it seems very basic. I don't see how I would post a picture or a link. I need to see if the google app has a blogger part.

Update: In order to post pics and links you need to get the paid version (i think $4.99) and google app does not have blogger.

Subway Tunnel Tour

The Brooklyn Historic Railway Association is having a series of guided tours of the Atlantic Avenue Tunnels.  Just based on the pic below it looks pretty cool.  The next one is Dec 7th and I hope to be there with flashlight in one hand a digital camera in the other.

Snarky...

I hate when people have a computer in front of them and ask you a question they can easily look up. I had a girlfriend who would IM me questions that she could have easily googled...it really irked the shit out of me.  If this is happening to you and it bothers you now there are 2 perfectly snarky responses:

Just Fucking Google It - Tells people they are stupid and they should stop bothering

and 

Let Me Google That For You - Shows people what you did so they see how easy that was and they should stop bothering you

I love both of these sites.

Good Ideas - Mobile

PSFK is hosting a series of panel discussion called Good Ideas each discussion will be focused around a specific idea.  The first one is called Good Ideas in Mobile:

Overall, a pretty good discussion on mobile platforms and a lot focus on location based applications.

IPTV

I saw this post on NewTeeVee, a really good sister blog of GigaOM, Om Malik's broadband blog. The post is about the TelcoTV event, a conference all about the IPTV space.  Obviously Verizon (my former employer) and AT&T were both well represented.  As you can see from the post there doesn't seem to be much to report other than the proclamation that 2009 is going to be all about IPTV. 

I have my doubts while I was at VZ everyone who worked on FiOS talked highly about it but there seemed to be very little strategy that gave a distinct road map of where FiOS TV was headed and how it was going to get there. I wasn't involved in the day to day build out of the product so it could be that the strategy was never articulated to me or anyone in the group I worked in, which is a real possibility for VZ since there are lots of silos and information is power. I always got the sense that people were kind of flying by the seat of their pants in trying to figure out what the product should be and what they could do now. There were and still are a hodgepodge of random partnerships that seemed like spec sheet partnerships (in other words someone said music and gaming are big online so lets do these partnerships with content companies so we can cover that off and if anyone asks we can say we have it). This never seemed all that strategic to me. Ultimately, I think FiOS had a great chance of succeeding mostly because the cable companies are a mess. I only wish that VZ would open up the FiOS TV platform and allow other companies and developers to create applications that would live on the platform rather than having these hokey widgets that no one really cares about.

Longest run of the year

This isn't saying much mostly because I have barely run at all this year. I did a 4.5 mile loop and felt sluggish most of the way. Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks my runs get a little faster and I get through them easier.  Today I listened to the latest episode of Radiolab a fantastic show about science and social science on WNYC. The show is really smart and always interesting. Below is the map of my run:





I am going to do some research into iPhone apps that use the GPS to track runs and see how they work. Hopefully I can find a good one and use that to blog/log runs moving forward. Lastly, I am not going blog all my runs I am just doing it to start so that it helps keep my running and blogging on track.

NYC Streets

About a year ago I discovered a great blog called Streetsblog.org. The focus of the blog is bring attention to the livable street movement. The Bloomberg administration has done an amazing job making a lot of progressive changes to NYC streets making them safer for pedestrians, bikes, and cars.  

The intersections of 23rd Street, Broadway, and 5th Ave are probably the best illustration of this policy. Where once there was only space for cars, trucks, and buses now there is space for bikes pedestrians, tourists, and public use space.  You can see the plans and the thought process for the space called "The Madison Square Pedestrian Project."

Well now Jan Gehl, a Danish urban designer/planner and architect, has created a plan called "World Class Streets" that takes the DOT's and City's plans for livable streets and combines the best parts and makes recommendations for the City moving forward. What is really interesting about the plan is that Gehl looks at all aspects of what has been done like the summer streets, current trends in city planning, bike space, coast line space, etc. I am really glad that the Bloomberg administration was able to get another term as I think this Mayor has done a great job of creating progressive policy for making the city more livable for all of its residents.  

Productivity gurus...

I first started hearing about productivity experts about a year ago when I came across Tim Ferriss (although Tim is an expert on a lot of stuff) and his book called The Four Hour Work Week. The basic notion is that most business people are too wired and are in a state of information overload and so if they step back, prioritize, delegate (Tim has a bunch of MBAs in India doing some of his work for him), and unplug (his example is set up an auto response on your e-mail that says "I will only be checking e-mail at 11am and 4pm if this is urgent call" and he thinks your productivity will sky rocket). 

Yesterday, I watched the video below that is a part of the Google Talks series where Merlin Mann gives a talk titled "Time and Attention (Getting Things Done)".


I really think more people and companies need to look more closely at these techniques for how people better use their time. I really think most people are great procrastinators (me included) and checking e-mail or grabbing the crackberry are great ways to avoid what you need to focus on.  Merlin also makes a great point about the defaults within calendar applications for length of meetings.  When I was at Verizon every meeting was defaulted to 1hr regardless of weather it was a 5-10 min conversation and so it let people who had little to do waste a lot of other peoples time.  I know there are also a lot of agency people who could really benefit from some of these time saving/focusing techniques.

Day 2 run

My calves and quads were a bit sore from yesterday's run but I managed to do about another 3.5 miles.  The map is below:

I felt pretty crappy but I got through it OK with the help of This American Life.  I probably should invest in one of those arm bands for my iPhone so I can bring it along as the weather starts getting worse.  Hopefully each run will feel a little better.

I am The Resurrection

I had a really difficult day (I am pretty sure my really difficult day is probably a cake walk for lots of other people but my problems are my problems) and I decided that since nothing was going right I would heed my friend Bill's advice and go for a run.  

Running was always a good way for me to clear up what the crap that was floating around in my head and one of the things I really miss about it is the feeling of just flying down a street totally oblivious and at the same time utterly conscious of everything around you.  There was one time when I was still in pretty good shape I was running down 5th ave in the mid 40s and I was moving along tying to make sure I caught the lights as I was going to be finishing up at my office at that time at the Y&R building on 40th and Madison and I realized that I was running along side a Kozmo (I ordered my PS2 from them and the delivery guy gave me mad geek props) delivery guy on his bike.  He kind of gave me a look like "what the fuck" as I passed him and I realized that I was moving pretty fast, not a full sprint but comfortably fast, this was pretty close to the end of my run and much faster than my normal pace mostly because I wanted to get back and go home.  I recall this because of how bad I felt today running and how glad I was during the run to take my iPhone with me so I could have some music to distract me from the shitty feelings/pain I was putting my body through. One of the songs that got me through it was the title of this post "I am The Resurrection" by the Stone Roses.  Lets see if running can bring back some of those good feelings back.

Below is a map of the route I ran.  I hope I can continue and try to get that feeling back.

NYC

My love affair with this city is well known and I especially enjoy old pictures of this fantastic city. Below are some links with lots of great shots:

Via Kottke - These are pics from the 1930s.  This one is my favorite showing the elevated train on 9th ave.  Not too long ago I saw an old pic in the Kiehl's store of 3rd ave and the elevated train (unfortunately right now I can't find that pic online but when I do I will update).

Current Flickr - Mostly new pics from searching Flickr for NYC tag.

Forgotten NY - There are a ton of really interesting things here that can provide historical context for the city.

This post will get updated as I find new pics, I especially want to find good ones from the 70s.

Obey Obama

Shepard Fairy talks about creating the Obama poster that has become so iconic in the video below as well as in this interview with KCRWs Design and Architecture program called DNA

I think the interview with DNA provides more depth but both are good.

Video via PSFK

Radio on the Internet....

....or is it internet radio? I use to listen to KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic and KEXP all the time when I was working. KCRW is a great station from Santa Monia, CA and MBE is a fantastic show DJed by Nic Harcourt and he show cases indy music.  I discovered Tom Vek, Shearwater, Gotan Project, Okkervil River, and much more via Nic.  KCRW is a public station so they play a lot of different genres and also feature NPR.  KEXP on the other hand is a small independent station from Seattle that only plays indy music they range from rock to hip hop, to electrocia, to all kinds of good stuff.  The past couple of months that I have been away from the regular routine of work I got away from listening to these great sources of music and band discovery. Well today after I got Brunner (a combination of breakfast, lunch, and dinner; yes I know 1 meal a day can't be good for my metabolism) I was playing some poker and decided to pop on some KEXP and about 5 songs in the DJ played this awesome remix of a Radiohead song. I decided to learn more about the band "Holy Fuck" and bought their album on iTunes. This is why I am a nerd for the internet and technology in 10 minutes I found a new band to listen to, oh and also watched some Metalocalypse clips....good stuff.