I got home today and started my usual half-hour’s surfing, checking email, forums, etc. and saw that Jason Calacanis had posted on Twitter to say he was streaming live video on Ustream and I thought I’d check it out. Jason is the CEO of Mahalo, a start-up search engine with a difference – instead of crawling the web and picking up every site out there (including the SEO’d link spam) Mahalo is a “human powered search” where the results are crafted by hand. You might think this is a little odd but Mahalo aims more at handling the most common searches very well and eschews the more detailed and technical searches like specific error messages or code fragments. Mahalo also has a hint Wikipedia to it in that users can create pages, edit text and recommend links to go with certain search terms.
On the Ustream page Jason decided that as a collective (the room had around 150 members) we should start building some Mahalo pages and he kind-of walked us through the process, I myself signed up whilst on the call. Now I was cooking dinner during this period but I still managed to participate in the pages for “Home Theatre PC“, “Home Theater” and “Eye TV“, submitting a handful of links I thought might be useful.
The whole experience was great fun and really demonstrated the point of Mahalo but the amazing part was just the buzz and excitement of over a hundred people collabarating live, being orchestrated by Jason who was intermittently addressing the room and hollering at Mahalo staff in the background, some of whom he also put on air. All in all this was definitely one of those “wow” moments I still get on the Internet from time to time, proof that amazing things are possible if people work together and whilst I’m not ready to give up Google I will lean a lot more towards Mahalo if I just want an overview of a particular topic.
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: Jason Calacanis, Mahalo, streaming live video, Twitter, Ustream
Yesterday I got another email from Facebook telling me that <insert random name here> has added me as a friend, so I diligently log in (and it seems to ask for my details every damned time) to see who it is and despite the photo and location and other scant details I have no idea who the hell this is. The question I find myself left with is who is the guy, why does he want me to be his friend and more importantly why do I even give a toss? The last 4 or 5 people to add me as a friend have been random people who I had little or nothing to do with at school and back then probably wouldn’t even have pissed on me if I were on fire. The other thing that bothers me significantly is the absurd number of bloody applications you get on there, I had to remove over 100 invitiations to be a zombie, werewolf, post on this wall, that wall, be a member of the christ-knows-what group, rate this, complete that, etc. etc. and it’s way too much for any sane human to bother with. If this is what the 21st century is going to turn friendship into then I’m out.
I find the most disturbing part of Facebook relates to it’s revenue model, sure advertising works and I’m sure that the founder Mark Zuckerburg (sickeningly named ‘Zuck’ by adoring fans) will end up being mightily rich if he sells at a good time but it’s the violation of privacy and the open mauling of personal data that really gets to me. The problem I have is that many of my friends use Facebook as their primary communication tool so I’m basically shafted if I don’t continue to use it. You never know, I might change my mind and I might have a renaissance – I’m always willing to give things a second (or third) chance so maybe one day I’ll be back on there but deep down it’s not the principle of Facebook that annoys me, more the execution and they seem to be sticking with the design they have so for the time being I’ll stick with Twitter and the Gamercast Network for my social networking needs.
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: facebook, Facebook Applications, gamercast network, Random Friend Requests, Twitter
I’ve heard talk to Twitter for so long but resisted because of my lazy stance on blogging and the fact that I thought it was just for trendy tech types, well this week I finally gave in and signed up and I love it! For those of you that don’t know, it’s a micro-blog – basiclly like a normal blog but only the post have to be less than or equal to 140 characters. Because of this it lends itself more to throwing up little comments about what you’re doing or where you are and often just URLs of interesting videos, articles or blogs you’ve found. The simplicity of Twitter makes it perfect for filling those little spots of time you have free such as train journeys, waiting for data to load (occupational hazzard) and walking down the street (looking both ways when crossing roads mind you), even better is the fact that it’s availably via the web, instant messaging clients, mobile web, SMS and RSS (supported by the Sony Ericsson W910i). In the service you choose people who you want to follow and then other people choose to follow you, I’m currently wondering how I might increase my number of followers but I guess like any medium that if you build it – they will come.
Well, that’s enough real blogging now – I’m going to get back on over to Twitter and try to find more people to follow.
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: blog, Twitter
So everyone’s buzzing about Microsoft buying Yahoo and I’ve been trying to work out what my opinion is. My first thoughts were that (in Search at least) it’s just one ‘also ran’ buying another ‘also ran’, nothing too inspiring. I still think that’s true but it’s worth underscoring the fact that Microsoft are betting their business on Search and in turn on advertising. Over the last few years Microsoft have started transitioning to a ‘Software as a Service’ model and services in general (think Xbox Live), this is clearly an important extension of that. A lot of people see this as a bid to rival Google in Search but if you start applying the advertising model to IM, Flickr and perhaps even gaming.
As an industry gaming has grown to be larger than both the movie and music industries and the power to be able to sell-through ads into the Xbox dashboard and even into billboards and scenery inside games could be a huge market. I’m not sure that we (the public) will find out but look for signs of an API allowing developers to integrate Yahcrosoft ads into games, the buzz about in-game ads has been building for a while but it’s been crying out for a standard for developers to work to, well – here it is. On top of all that remember that there’s plenty of other cool stuff in the deal including Flickr (note that things like this are exactly the reason I stayed away from Flickr). It’ll be a while before this actually make a difference but keep your eyes open…
This blog post has also been cross-posted on my specialist gaming blog, hosted on the Gamercast Network.
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: gaming, Merger, Microsoft, Search, xbox, xbox live, Yahcrosoft, yahoo
How well does your name Google? Who are you up against? (Celebrities, etc.)
Submitted by Matt Blank.
The top listing on Google for my name is that of an escort girl based in Sydney, Australia (It’s not me, honest) which I thought was quite amusing. Some of the links further down are related to me and one is even my own website, which is nice.
written by admin
\\ tags: australia, escort girl, google name, qotd, sydney
What websites do you visit every day?
Submitted by Chez Michelle.
I’m an avid gamer, techie and current-affairs junkie so I check…
- The Gamercast Network – website for a series of podcasts and a brilliant good-natured forum as well.
- Eurogamer – great news site for games and a rare gem of European based news.
- BBC News – my absolute favourite news channel and website.
- Digg – a superb social news site, excellent for highlighting the quirkier stories as well as good solid tech news.
- Xbox.com – I have a 360 but don’t use it every day, I visit the site to see who’s online, read my messages and send messages to my friends.
That’s all folks.
written by admin
\\ tags: 360, bbc, digg, gamer, gamercast network, qotd, Video Games, xbox
Well, after about 4.5 seconds worth of thought I’ve decided to put my words where my mouth is (doesn’t sound right but you know what I mean) and say what I think is gonna go down in 2007, this time in no particular order…
Print Media Feels The Burn
I may be mildly premature with this one, but I can feel it in my bones – the carcinogenic newsprint will hit the fan sometime soon and I think 2007 will be the beginning. I’m sure print media has already had some reaction to the Internet and most of the UK broadsheets have pretty decent websites these days but for certain classes of publications I can foresee a major decline. For instance, I hardly buy gaming magazines these days for two main reasons, (1) the news is usually 3-6 weeks out of date by the time they go to print, (2) the reviews and articles are so full of marketing bullshit and rubbish games regularly get good reviews because the mag got an exclusive demo/interview/shag and finally (3) the demos are all downloadable now so why bother paying for them? I’m absolutely sure that those points apply to most monthly tech magazines and one other ‘primary factor’ in the decline is that newspapers / magazines are full of writers who write about things they barely understand. Have you read any ‘generic press’ articles about IT, gaming or technology lately? If you’re really interested in something (anything) then you’ll probably find a decent, articulate and well-informed blog / forum / news site on the web that’s 100 times better than some pokey journo trying to meet a deadline.
Nintendo Kick Ass
With the recent launch of the Wii and the massive public interest coming from traditional non-gamers I really think Nintendo are onto a winner (see: I Love My Wii) and Sony have still not really got their act together. I’m still not ready to predict final winner in the battle but by the end of 2007 I would not be surprised if Nintendo are on top.
Watching The Computer
People are going to spend much more time in 2007 pointing their LCD-hungry faces at computers this year than ever before. This includes consoles, high-def video players, IPTV, mobile TV as well as the traditional fare such as YouTube, Google Video and the web.
The Corporate World
After some relative calm I can see things turning bad for a major tech company this year, obvious choices would be people losing their identity such as AOL or Sun but perhaps it won’t be such a good year for people like Dell or Yahoo. I predict that a few more social networking sites will be acquired by media companies this year, possibly bebo or facebook – also predict it won’t do them much good.
Operating Systems
Last year started the war of next-generation consoles, 2007 sees the war between next-generation operating systems. With the release of WIndows Vista and later in the year Leopard (Mac OS 10.5) this does look like an interesting year, I also foresee more manufacturers offering pre-installed (or embedded) Linux than they have in the past. As for the outcome, obviously Vista will win but I’m even more sure that it will be plagued with bugs and security issues throughout the year. I do however still think that Apple will notch-up their market share somewhat in 2007 – from people holding out for Leopard and people who just want something solid, dependable and easy to use and have been slowly wooed by the iPod.
Well, that’s the lot – I wish my predictive mental offspring well as they try and navigate the great wide world, and if you should meet one whilst you’re traveling through 2007 please stop and say hello.
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: aol, Apple, bebo, dell, facebook, journo, nintendo, prediction, print media, sun, vista, wii, windows, yahoo
It’s gotta be a classic story…
- Discover Internet, spend years reading other people’s content
- Buy domain, build website
- Website gets updated regularly and even has regular visitors and forum posts
- Website starts to show it’s age but still gets hits, gets a shot in the arm from being slashdotted
- Outdated PHP script gets pwned by some script-kiddie hacker with a chip on their shoulder
- Website falls so far into obscurity, owner far too busy to maintain
At this point in the story I feel sorry for our out-of-luck protagonist, and in fact that’s what happened in real-life so I’ve decided to give Website a happy ending by rebuilding it. It’s a modest beginning but I wanted to avoid use of overblown GPL scripts that I can’t even hope to understand so I build something I could write in notepad, albeit with a couple of acoutrements (what’s a main meal without a side-order, I ask).
Well, I hope you like it – it’s literally just been rebuilt so go easy on it and please leave feedback (either here or there).
http://www.thirtyfootscrew.com/
P.S. Depending on when you visit it may redirect to the co.uk domain – I’m still tweaking things a bit so bear with me!
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: classic, html, Internet, notepad, second chance, website
For me this was quite a big news item, I got into the DreamStation.cc Video Game Show podcast earlier in the year and have been an avid listener since. The podcast basically covers news, opinion and humour from the world of videogaming and was very well produced/edited compared to many other podcasts – basically think TWiT for gamers.
Well, now the host of the show Chris Paladino has secured a job working for Microsoft’s gaming community site Gamerscore Blog working in the community – a dream come true more-or-less. The rest of the crew have created a new podcasting network Gamercast Network to bring together a range of independent gaming podcasts, this could be good for gamers in general so watch this space.
As for DreamStation.cc, they’re continuing to podcast and will grow into their own style once more, I will definitely keep on listening and using the forums, if you’ve never tried I reccommend you have a look.
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: cpaladino, dreamstation, gamerscore blog, gaming, twit, Video Games, xbox, xbox 360
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