Just caught a deer snacking … More here
Fresh Pasta Tonight
Tonight’s dinner …
I just used my new KitchenAid Pasta Roller & Cutter
Jim’s
Yesterday I had to attend to some personal business in Philadelphia and as a former local I needed a fix … Jim’s was more than happy to oblige.
Trust me when I say this is absolutely delicious and that there is simply no such thing as a Philly Steak with Cheese. A Philly Cheesesteak exists only in Philadelphia and in my experience from only a few key institutions. My personal favorite is actually Pat’s but they don’t offer indoor seating and yesterday was way too cold to try and power though.
WordPress 2.7 Activated
I’m hoping you don’t actually see anything busted here which means everything is just working as it should, but behind the scenes I took the plunge and updated my install to 2.7 tonight. I had an initial issue with my upgrade … when I actually went back and RTFM, I decided to delete everything up on the server to give it a fresh go and then the update was quite smooth. I had of course downloaded all my stuff first.
Helvetireader
I just installed the Helvetireader Greasemonkey script for Google Reader and it’s awesome. I’ve been browsing in full-screen mode while on my work machine though using Chrome on and off with Firefox and this might be enough to get me to stick with FF for the moment. I can’t get the userscripts to work just yet with Chrome nightlies, but I think I’m just tired after consuming too much turkey.
My interview on mobiledivide
My friend Serko just launched a new project called mobiledivide and I’m honored to have been interviewed as his inaugural subject … check it out (now embedded) and be sure to stay tuned for more great stuff!
Technorati Tags: interview, mobiledivide, mobile
A DUN Good Travel Companion
I’ve been traveling rather extensively for the past month and it’s not always easy to find a WiFi hotspot which is not that much of an issue when you have a DUN capable 3G mobile. The Nokia CA-100 accessory (above in action) is a killer addition to my gadget bag as it uses my laptop’s power and charges the phone while it’s providing connectivity right back.
The Nokia CA-100 is designed to charge from USB to the Nokia mini-plug. It works with all of my gear which is quite excellent as I usually have an assortment on hand and it’s great to be able to top up without looking for a plug. As you can see, I have not even unbound the cord. The shorter length has been suiting me just fine and the whole thing closes back around itself making it very easy to carry around.
I’ve wanted one of these for a long time and it took a trip to Finland to finally see it in an electronics store. For some reason it’s not easy to purchase at a Nokia Store in the US.
Are they watching?
Sometimes things happen online that are simply too close to who you are not to believe that your data is being collected, collated and used for marketing (or observation) purposes. Â
For my recent  trip to Dubai, I spent quite a bit of time researching things via google and even spent some time on the local google site for Saudi Arabia (possible client there).  My ticket was purchased only a few days prior to my departure and when I arrived at the airport I was pre-flagged for security with the triple-S.  The guy at the Emirates check-in counter said it was a DHS thing which means either they simply chose me randomly (and not either of my other colleagues) or they are checking with the big G.
About 10 minutes ago, I clicked a webclip link from within GMail through to the IHT and see an ad for Emirates Air and the Airbus A380 – the very plane and airline I flew home. Â What an interesting coincidence… Â I’m not feeling too paranoid or anything, but that’s seems more than just random selection to me.
Facebook is finally drawing me in …
I’ve actively updated my status on Facebook for a long time, but really only casually participated even though I’ve added applications, pages and have several hundred friends. I’ve looked at Facebook more like AOL 2.0 than a place I really look to spend time, but recently a few things have happened that have gotten me to pay much more attention.
Many of the people I interact with are people I have known in person for a long time either from high school or college and more recently, work. In other social spaces, my friends tend to be virtual first though I’ve met quite a few people in person as well. The number of recent connections from old friends has greatly enhanced my desire to participate on Facebook. I know that’s the point, but I’ve had an account for so long yet really not had much discussion with long time friends until the past 6 months or so.
What really got my attention though was when I posted some pictures this week from my recent business trip to Dubai. As a long time Flickr user I have resisted Facebook photos. The people tagging is very cool, but there are many more features in Flickr and the focus in much more pure.
The recent pictures I posted received more comments on Facebook than I’ve ever gotten on Flickr and the fact that the people talking to me are mainly (some virtual buddies too) people I know adds more value to the conversation. Not to take anything away from my virtual friends of course, but sharing the experience with people I’ve known for a long time really does create a richer personal experience.
Technorati Tags: Facebook, socialnetworking, social, photos, flickr
Lifestream activated
I’ve looked for a few options to capture and share all of my online activities on the site and finally landed on David Cramer’s LifeStream WordPress Plugin.
Setting it up took about 5 minutes – excellent!
Technorati Tags: lifestream, wordpress
Enjoying the Digital Olympics
If you live in the US, the NBC Olympics site is really an excellent way to keep tabs on athletes and events. I can’t quite figure out how they determine what makes it to the site in video vs text, but the coverage has been excellent for the major events. I re-lived last night’s amazing 400 Free Relay this morning and plan to watch quite a few more events this way as the week progresses.
If you are on the go, Mippin, has created an excellent mobile aggregator of all the Olympic information. It’s really a great showcase of what they do and delivers a very useful tool for the Olympics as well.
Hooter Hiders Ship Free
Discovered in my GMail … While responding to something about the E71 …
love the close quarters of the commute
I don’t think this really requires any additional comment …
Trust
I don’t write to make money here though it’s certainly fun to drive traffic and see my adsense revenues grow. This blog has always been about my interests rather than rumors and breaking news. I have not leaked information through any employer, my clients or those who’ve reached out through this blog to share information. Actually, let me make one correction… I did actually share a very advanced preview of Rhapsody for the Nokia Tablet and enjoyed being first though that site has no ads and I was inspired only by my inner geek to share. I think it’s fair to say I have a far more mature view on things and would rather be able to have a collaborative and productive conversation around the product or service than purely leak information. I’m not operating under any NDA though I’ve certainly signed them for things in the past. I respect the people willing to share with me and share my opinion – that which they seek – openly whether positive or negative.
Recently Charlie Schick wrote a very thought compelling post on the Nokia Conversations blog about trust and leaks. It hit home for me then and again today because for the second time in a few short weeks I am seeing things discussed when I know they should not be quite so in the open. Granted, the mobile tech blogosphere is a small place compared to say the Wall Street Journal, but the point is that people are clearly violating the trust of those who are inviting us to share our opinions.
Charlie’s key takeaway is that leaked hardware and software products change before going public. As discussion builds around an early product, it can actually lead to negativity rather then the excitement companies hope to get when things are finally released.
I enjoy getting early and privileged access and am in no way looking to risk that access by violating your trust.
Technorati Tags: trust, honor, anger management
Nokia’s Home Sync
Like the Media Sharing I showed in a recent post there’s another new feature within FP2, that’s worth showing because I would bet that most N-Series users are going to be pretty enthusiastic about it … and that’s Home Sync.
Essentially Home Sync takes the UPnP (and DLNA Certification) to the next level enabling full sync of your content through dynamic sync lists which are essentially smart playlists letting you choose what makes sense to take with with you based on the device capacity.
There’s a demo video on the NSeries site which refuses to embed … You can watch it here.
I have not had a chance to test this and can’t see really running this via VMWare for now though the idea of an intelligently synced device is very attractive. As nice as UPnP is, it still feels very underutilized and passed over by Apple’s Bonjour which is how most of my media moves around my house. If anyone has this working, I’d love to know more …
Technorati Tags: home sync, nokia, n-series, upnp, dnla, apple, bonjour, itunes, smart playlist
Where is the iPhone’s presence?
While the Core Location API is a very intriguing aspect of the iPhone’s potential for LBS and social networking, there was no mention of Presence which you’d think would really be a key piece to making it all click together.
There’s been plenty of speculation about Android and the Google acquisition of Jaiku which could very easily deliver Phonebook 2.0 – an integrated view of location, availability and sense of status. In other words, you have a rich contextual view of who you know. I expect Android to deliver this …
Jaiku does this today on the S60 platform and offers a very rich view of your contacts including bits from their lifestreams. Jaiku is even smart enough to read your calendar and offer a busy view when you are booked in a meeting. Quite a few of my friends enjoy this view and we spend a lot of time interacting within the application rather than the native contacts. It’s just as easy to call or message but with more context and knowledge about the person.
There’s nothing preventing someone from writing an application for the iPhone to do something similar, but it’s interesting that iPhone has not gone in this direction natively. Given that Apple is pretty focused on closed systems (usually to enhance user experience) they could push an iPhone driven social network with their very active and engaged user base. With the global release for iPhone 3G, the potential for this to shake out against Jaiku, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed etc could be rather substantial and it would lead with mobile.
Presence is something that companies like Avaya, Microsoft and Cisco are pushing for within unified communications suites and mobile is a key component. With the iPhone’s new focus towards enterprise, I Apple could lead the pack with an very strong play here. They could be the new default over Blackberry with this type of integration … an interesting spin as RIM seeks more attention from the consumer. The iPhone is a consumer device first though – at least in this generation.
Perhaps this is still too geeky … though I think over the course of this current generation of mobile adoption we will certainly see something more along these lines.
Technorati Tags: apple, iphone, sdk, LBS, location, GPS, Presence, UC, Google, Android, Jaiku
Action Figure Slow Motion Video
Simply awesome!
Action Figure slow motion video from Stig Nordas on Vimeo.
via PSFK
Technorati Tags: video, slow motion, action figure, vimeo
Opera Mobile 9.5 on the HTC Advantage
I’ve never really been a fan of Opera or Windows Mobile, but Matt’s video here makes both look quite compelling. I had a few moments of hands on time with Matt’s Advantage when we traveled to Barcelona earlier in the year and it’s a very serious (in a good way) piece of hardware.
Street Art in Lower East Side
I just saw this via a recent Twitter follower and it’s awesome … Happy Friday!
A Great Internet Phone?
Alan Reiter poses quite the challenge to the wireless industry …
As tens of thousands of wireless aficionados (including yours truly) gather in Las Vegas this week to attend the CTIA Wireless 2008 conference and exhibition, there’s one product they won’t see: a great wireless Internet phone.
The best of the best wireless phones must have the ability to exploit the richness of the entire Internet. That means, not just superior Web browsing, multimedia viewing/listening, and text entry, but also superb ergonomics, ease-of-use for novices, and advanced capabilities for power users. [Internet Evolution – Alan Reiter]
I think quite a few people would say that the iPhone, Nokia N95 and perhaps an HTC device or two would come close … The biggest trick seems to be in nailing tghe required balance between ease of use for novices with the advanced capabilities to satisfy the power user. My choice has been the N95 for quite a while, but it’s not something I can just hand to my wife like the iPhone.
Technorati Tags: apple, nokia, htc, mobile, internet, ria, applications, iphone, n-series