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Google Groups have feeds!

I missed this on my first pass…

Now here’s one of the really interesting things. The new groups is an intersection of USENET and mailing lists, and every group has two Atom feeds, one for topic summaries and the other for message summaries. This means that you can now subscribe to USENET groups with your favorite Atom-aware aggregator. The format of the URLs for the feeds is:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/USENETGROUP/feed/topics.xml
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/USENETGROUP/feed/msgs.xml

where USENETGROUP is something like ‘comp.arch’.

It’s not quite perfect yet, but it’s a great start! [wingedpig.com]

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Google’s New Groups

If I was Yahoo, I’d be very nervous. First Gmail and now email groups… In my quick test and review, I’d say it’s very similar to Yahoo Groups, though slicker and without the crass ads you find all over the place. Its close in experience though without the UI of Gmail. Simple and clear which is good… hope it stays that way. I can definitely see moving groups from Yahoo to Google through this…

Called Google Groups 2, the service builds on Google’s archive of more than 845 million Usenet postings and adds the ability for users to create and manage their own public and private mailing lists. It also offers faster indexing of postings for search and features for joining groups and tracking hot topics, Google officials said. [eWeek]

I created a group and am inviting anyone reading this to join… I figure we can carry on a parallel discussion though more directly between readers if you like. Just a test, no feelings hurt if no one is game… we’ll see if it sticks.

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(not so) Great Customer Service

My most recent customer service adventure happened last week when I finally had to call T-Mobile and find out what the heck was happening on their network that was not only asking me to confirm timezone and time changes, but doing so multiple times in succession and even suggestion new timezones for me to try.

When I called TMO, I was greeted by a friendly helper who suggested this behavior happens when you travel between time zones. I agreed with her that in fact does or should happen, though perhaps it should not happen when I am in my apartment or having lunch — not traveling at all – in the same city.

(now the good part…)

She asked me if I was sure I was in fact in the same time zone throughout the city. When I mentioned I lived in NYC, she suggested it was possible for multiple time-zones to exist within a city. Perhaps, though …It’s not only the same timezone throughout the city, but through the entire east coast of the country. Completely undettered, she asked if I was sure and suggested again that there were cities in which parts are actually in different zones. I casually and politely (ok I was an asshole, but come on!!) suggested she might want to better familiarize herself with the country we are living in.

I was not able to detect any accent with this person, so I am assuming she is a citizen and living in the US. Just an idiot as far as I can tell… but at least she was not reading from a script — though perhaps in her case improvisation is not the best course.

At least I know I am not alone in my experiences with stellar help —

But in the midst of that conversation, George informed me (reading from boilerplate) that Sprint “cannot guarantee that your phone will work in an office building, in your home, or when in a moving car.” Are you kidding me? Who is this service designed for, the Amish? “Never a dropped call whilst thee is standing outdoors in a flat plain, scything wheat.” [ZDNet AnchorDesk]

PS – My phone still gives the updates a few times a day – I did not have the patience to wait it out with her on the line and have yet to call back.

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Best Way To Use Caffeine

You are probably doing it wrong… I guess my switch to doppios at Starbucks was the right move…

Researchers at the Sleep Disorders Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago along with colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School have shown that caffeine is best admnistered in a larger number of smaller doses with the doses coming later in the day. [FuturePundit]

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Playfair with Hymn

Apple will no doubt launch its lawyers again, but the useful “PlayFair” software, which let purchasers of iTunes Music Store songs remove Apple’s restrictions, is back online. It has a new hosting site and name: Hymn. Understand: You still have to have bought the songs in order to use this, and the songs are still tied to the unique ID created when you purchased. This is about fair use, not “pirating” other people’s work. [Dan Gilmor]

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Trouble in Tablet Land?

I guess Steve Jobs was right on about not pushing quickly into the Tablet space. I’d still love to a convertible Powerbook with handwriting recognition though if I had to choose where Apple was going to push things I’d much rather see a PDA/mini-computer device.

At WinHEC, Microsoft execs almost went so far as to admit that the company is now resigned to positioning Tablet functionality as just another notebook computer feature. (Or, if you prefer the Microsoft spin on this, for the Tablet PC to “assimilate” the mobile PC segment. [Microsoft-Watch]

Scoble responds on his blog…

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FireWireless

Aside from wondering when this is coming, I am thinking about how lame current batteries are and that we need to get come fuel cell action cooking (hopefully not literally). Without new types of power, this will be great for plugged-in data transfer only… no way you can sync without burning some bars.

Get ready for FireWireless: the 1394 Trade Association, the shadowy organization in charge of FireWire (hey, someone%u2019s got to be in charge!), has just laid down a specification for taking the connection standard wireless. Besides being able to sync your iPod wirelessly, there also plans to use this to connect together TVs, set top boxes, A/V receivers, etc. [Engadget]

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Gmail – quick thoughts…

It’s very cool… While you are totally in the browser, it really feels like an application rather than run of the mill webmail with a Google search engine behind it. While I only have a few messages going, the threads or conversations in the parlance of Gmail are easy to deal with and simple to follow. Spellchecker works well, though for some reason Google cannot recognize I’ve as a word. It thinks ‘ve is misspelled… it’s beta after all.

Well – much more digging and playing to do. Looks like a keeper though. I can definitely see using this to pull pop/imap messages through. I’d love to see Gmail work as my webmail for my domain’s mail, taking advantage of the search indexing and remote storage. I know in an interview I read remote IMAP is probably coming, though for now it’s just local Gmail only and only Gmail messages as well – no pulling in of other accounts just yet.

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Reverse Product Placement?

Watching 24 tonight the thought occurred to me that Ford asked/payed for Steven Saunders (the bad guy) to be driving with his entourage in Chevy trucks rather than the Ford trucks all the good guys drive.

Ford has been a marquee sponsor for all three seasons and has even gone as far as to present the opening of season 2 and 3 commercial free following a cinematic spot. Their product placement is hard to miss (as are the other products for that matter) but the Chevy emblems seemed too obvious not to be placed.

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The New Blogger

Douglas Bowman at Stopdesign writes about his work in the redesign of the new Blogger.

I was playing with it last night and think that the reworking of Blogger is terrific. Blogger really feels friendly, yet is now packed with advanced features (as well as the ones that should have always been there) and killer design templates. If the other services and systems are watching as I know they are, they really need to get in on this design action! Blogger can now offer professional design for those who interested in checking it out, with minimal time invested on the user’s end. A great job!

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Tivo Will Eventually (not) Deliver Video via RSS

While I want to belive that TiVO will support this and even become a leader in enabling such a technological breakthrough for consumers, I doubt it will ever happen. It’s clear that there is no way they want the wrath of the MPAA — just look at what happened to ReplayTV. They were leading edge, but got smacked when they launched sharing between users… if TiVO or any DVR was to stream out feeds from recordings it would have to be completely covered by some horrific DRM that would make using it near impossible. TiVO2Go which is rumored to potentially exist will use a hardware key to send the files around… but to one system only. Discs you burn, will only play on that one system… unlikely that this will be allowed to freely stream over RSS or Atom or any other syndication format without the hacker community getting involved.

I believe Tivo will eventually develop the capability to send entire recorded video clips to subscribers through RSS feeds. This will enable a consumer to truly time shift their TV habits beyond just when they have time to sit on the comfy couch. Tivo will eventually stream video clips – or even entire shows – via RSS or Atom or some other variant to TVs, PCs, PDAs or cell phones. [Micro Persuasion]

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On-Demand Games

This is a pretty interesting looking game service with a sexy box that while based on a PC, connects to your TV. Just hook it up to your broadband connection and you’ll be all set. Launches in the fall…

The Phantom Gaming Service starts with a specialized PC in the form of a set-top box attached to a broadband connection. The device taps into a library of PC video games that customers can buy or rent. Customers can get the hardware free if they sign up for a two-year subscription at $30 a month, or they can get the device for $200 without the commitment. A basic subscription will give access to relatively older games, while premium plans will provide access to the latest first-tier titles. [Wired news]

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Marketing products on your blog

So an interesting thing just happened …

I was reading about PulpFiction on Erik J. Barzeski’s blog and asked a question about the demo terms in a comment. He responded and we had a brief dialog until another reply of his came with some seemingly unprovoked attitude.

Jay Allen actually responded to it before I did. He and I are essentially on the same page with the thinking that a more full demo might be helpful rather than limiting the app to 10 feeds. All the decisions are Erik’s to make as it’s his product but the feedback Jay and I were providing seemed to represent a different user based opinion. Erik was clearly against a time based demo, but is also seemingly against any discussions about options or even hearing feedback on the decision.

Since comments were open it seemed that Erik actually wanted feedback on the post he made…However, a later comment I posted confirming my view with Jay’s and questioning Erik’s attitude a bit was deleted. I’m sure my last comment will also be deleted.

What you do on your blog is your call, and what I do on mine is my call. Though in this case Erik’s blog represents not personal matters but a pending commercial product. Based on the way in which I was handled by Erik, I am infinitely less likely to try, write about and certainly not buy any products that he represents. I am also now much more likely to tell others about the bad customer experience as I am now. Freshly Squeezed Software, might be developing the best newsreader for the Mac ever, but I plan to stick my my trusty copy of NetNewsWire. A basic sense of respect and understanding is all it takes to build customer loyalty. It’s quite easy to shift that in the other direction and build up a wave of shit against your products or company.