Blogosphere Kicks Off April Fools Early

The very best April Fools jokes have just enough truth in them for somebody to secretly want them to be true, and to be delivered in such a way that the person being pranked isn't 100 percent sure the joke's on them.

On the Web, Google has made this a black art of sorts, between their "launch" of Google Romance and Google Mars, interspersed with their very real launch of GMail in 2004 that had everybody confused as to whether anybody in their right mind would offer a full gigabyte of e-mail for free. We all know how that turned out. It was real. Those of us (including me) who were sure it was a prank were fooled.

This year, it looks like the blogosphere couldn't keep quiet long enough for the calendars to officially flip to April 1 in the United States. TechCrunch kicked off the festivities by "announcing" they had acquired Phil Kaplan's F***edCompany.com, effectively bringing their coverage of the startup space full circle - from their launch to their eventual death. Many people, including Dave Winer of Scripting.com, were fooled. This was no doubt due in part to ValleyWag's earlier coverage that the famed dotcom deadpool site was up for sale.

That one was good. Very good. Mathew Ingram thought so as well.

Now, Robert Scoble is back from his self-imposed blog exile, saying that Apple is set to release yet another i-Device, called iReader, in collaboration with Cingular, Amazon and Google. I guess if you make up a rumor, you might as well go whole-hog and drop a bunch of company names in there. I'm surprised Nintendo didn't make the cut. He went the tried and true Apple rumor route, citing an unnamed Apple executive dumb enough to use it in public. It might have been too soon for Robert to return to the blogosphere, but hopefully his scoop won't rank among the best by the conclusion of tomorrow.

Last year's April 1 pranks were pretty good. My favorites were Slashdot.org's changing their look and feel from industrial green to My Little Pony pink and China offering to buy Google. (See last year's summary here)

We look forward to more silliness in this most silly of holidays.

Is Technorati Going After Spam Blogs?

The issue of spam blogs, or "splogs" is a big one. As blog software becomes ever more easy to use, it's no surprise that robots and scripts have been built to make fake blogs, and are engineered to look very real, as the splogs usurp other's content and present it either as their own, or as a summary, so that they take traffic away from the original author. Google's Blogger platform was recently given a bunch of grief for being the biggest generator of fake blogs, called on the carpet by no less than Microsoft, who knows quite a bit when it comes to the world of spam.

But of late, some curious changes on the part of Technorati have me wondering if the blog-focused search engine is trying to cull spam blogs from its results database. While obsessing over one's Technorati ranking can become an art unto itself, I've actually seen the total number of blogs linking to louisgray.com decreasing over the last few weeks, which doesn't make sense. In the month of March, as we've seen record traffic and a good deal of popular posts around Google Reader, Digg and Apple TV, the number of blogs linking to louisgray.com has dropped, from 60 last week, down to 55 abruptly, and now today, to 53. Puzzling.

I can only speculate that Technorati is working to delete a massive number of blogs from its database. Those most likely for deletion would be those who don't offer original content. It is certainly a difficult task for Technorati, as some incredible resources, like TechMeme and Megite, offer no original content, but instead, organize links from other authors. How do you determine what is a collection of RSS feeds and links, or what is a real blog?

I hope they first get it right, and second, that everybody's Technorati score is accurate, mine included. The next step would be in my court: increase the blog's community and see if I can accurately, naturally, raise my ranking.

A's and Giants Fit to be Tied

After an extended weekend earlier this month to enjoy the A's at Spring Training, last night offered the first chance to see our team playing something resembling a real game, in the final exhibition warmup series, against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park.

Though my father-in-law laughed at me on my ride up to San Francisco, saying "I would freeze my butt off", we had come prepared, with A's jacket and cap, not just to show our colors, but to protect us from The City's elements. Not as bad as Candlestick Park, AT&T Park also presents the option to sit in cool temperatures for three or so hours with the occasional wind gust whipping through. It was clear that the food vendors weren't going to move many chocolate malts or ice cream sandwiches on the night, but they certainly tried.

The A's presented a solid lineup with Eric Chavez, Jason Kendall, Mark Ellis, Bobby Crosby, Mike Piazza, and Nick Swisher making the start, and Rich Harden throwing heat from the mound. Only injuries to Milton Bradley, Dan Johnson and others kept the team from looking fully intact. We were pleased to see A's newcomer Shannon Stewart, and hot rookie prospect Travis Buck (see ANtics below) also playing. The Giants countered with their veteran-filled lineup, including Barry Bonds, Omar Visquel, Ray Durham, Pedro Feliz, and Matt Cain pitching. The game promised to be a solid pitching matchup and didn't disappoint.

The Giants posted a quick run on the board in the first, as Harden gave up a leadoff triple to Dave Roberts, and a double to the next hitter, putting the Giants up 1-0. The A's fought back in the next inning, in their own "special" way, driving in a run with a double play. I told my seatmates next to me that was exactly what they had planned. It stayed 1-1 for 4 full innings, until the sixth, when both teams scored again, making it 2-2. But no team seemed to really have the edge, and offense was scarce. The A's only managed five hits on the night, and the Giants scattered nine. The night's cool temperatures denied any balls leaving the yard, though the Giants tried to win the game in the 9th, hitting three fly balls hard off Brad Halsey, who pitched the final three innings.

Tied in the 9th, the game went to an extra frame, where both teams didn't score, and it was called. A 2-2 tie. In baseball. Those fans, including us, who had stayed the more than three hours at AT&T Park to watch the game in its entirety, stood up and walked out without a loss and without a victory. Empty. But in Spring Training, these things are not unexpected. Both teams want to be in good shape before the season, and don't see the value of hitting each other for 17 full, like the A's did against the Dodgers last season.

Still, it was great to be back at a major league ballpark to see major league teams play. We're only a little over a week away from starting to use our A's season tickets, and I'm ready for the season to start. Now.

The Power to Set You Free (of Power Cords)

In February, I stated one of my biggest tech wishes is to find a wireless power solution for my laptop or other devices. While we've grown accustomed to wireless Internet in most major locations (home, work, airport, hotels, etc.), we're still required to lug around power supplies which present issues themselves, as cords fray and connectors get bent or misaligned.

I've suggested the first company to make wireless power simple and affordable will have a major hit on their hands. GeekWhat's Tony Chung agreed.

Now, it appears others are waking up to the potential for wireless power to become a reality. A company called Powercast has developed a way to power low-voltage devices wirelessly, and Philips will be bringing it to market, according to Mathew Ingram.. Chris Pirillo is similarly excited, saying "Finally, a piece of technology that nobody will be able to live without."

Powercast has a major write-up in the upcoming April issue of Business 2.0, which any good geek should be subscribed to, BTW. Business 2.0 says the technology isn't any more sophisticated than AM or FM radio, as it converts radio waves into DC electricity.

The biggest drawback I could find in this early access product? It only charges to distances of 3 feet, for now. So it won't power large devices, and it won't power them over the distance of a room or a house, so there's still a lot more work to do, but I really like the direction this is going. I can't wait to ditch the power cord.

Unlimited Is the New Black

Earlier this week, Yahoo! made headlines for eliminating any restrictions on its Yahoo! Mail users. (Coverage: GigaOM, Richard McManus, Jeremy Zadowny)

Previously capped at 1 gigabyte of storage apiece, trailing Google's GMail offering, which queued up 2.8 gigabytes of e-mail space, Yahoo! took the plunge by moving to an unlimited model, in a hope of capitalizing on its strong user base, and possibly to start getting attention away from Google, who has been the assumed technology leader since the company's debut.

The move away from limited to unlimited has been seen time and again in the technology space. After all, it wasn't all that long ago that AOL and other dial-up ISPs charged by the hour you were logged on.

When AOL did switch away from offering hundreds of hours a month on widely distributed CD-ROMs, and moved to unlimited, it was a major change. You may remember that AOL in the first days of the promotion went almost completely inaccessible as the most hard-core users would dial in and never hang up, or set up autoscripts that would artificially keep them logged in after periods of inactivity.

The move from metered to unlimited is also taking hold in traditionally penny-tight industries like cellular phone service. While most plans offer several hundred minutes a month, others, including MetroPCS, are moving to basic monthly fees, regardless of usage. The business model there assumes that most won't exceed a certain threshold, effectively overpaying for the minutes they actually used, while the busiest of users won't bankrupt their provider.

On the Web, unlimited makes sense. Web hosting providers typically limit their customers to a standard amount of capacity space, and megabytes of data transmitted per month. But on the most popular of days, sites may be brought down because they had unforeseen traffic. That's like punishing your most successful customers. (See: Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher)

I expect that the Web providers who will win will offer unlimited accesses and capacity, and those offering limits will only be limiting their own potential growth. That Yahoo! saw this trend, and wanted to be part of it, is smart. It doesn't mean I'll ditch my .Mac e-mail address for Yahoo! Mail any more than I did for GMail, but some might.

My First Weekend With Apple TV

On Friday, the Apple TV showed up, much to my delight. By Friday night, we had the box up and running, and by Saturday morning, more than 30 gigabytes of video and audio had been synchronized from my PowerBook to the Apple TV device. Now, I can watch TV shows and listen to my music through the TV set that were previously "trapped" in my computer or iPod.

To see pictures of the setup, take a look at the post I made to The Apple Blog this morning, covering my first 48 hours with Apple TV. (See: Life With Apple TV: The First 48 Hours) In addition, the ease of use of the Apple TV really got me thinking about where else Apple could go to take the technology. With a little tweaking, and a much bigger hard drive, Apple could be a serious player for home network storage. (See: Will Apple Ship Wireless Network Storage?)

Per agreement with The Apple Blog, I will not be cross-posting the piece, but instead, have provided links. Enjoy.

ANtics Episode 3.07: Buck Mania!

Cross-posted to Athletics Nation...

Forget about the 5th starter battle. The most drama around this year's Spring Training has been the emergence of Travis Buck. With his wild Swisher-esque hair and a Wade Boggs/Tony Gwynn-like .366 average, while leading the team with 6 doubles, Buck is taking Phoenix Municipal by storm. Hold on tight, and get ready for Buck Mania!


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The Trouble With RSS: I'm Not Involved

Don't get me wrong, RSS is a fantastic way for me to keep tabs on all the news and all the blogs rapidly, in one place. But the technology is in itself passive, and I keep finding myself missing out on the full picture, as the RSS reader (Google Reader in my case) scrapes the feed, but doesn't give me some very important elements to the blogosphere, including context, community, comments, and presentation. In effect, I am losing my participatory role in the blogosphere, making it less of a conversation, and instead, much more passive.

As I push through the 500 or so articles a day, if I stay in the RSS reader mode, I don't get an indication as to who is commenting on what articles, from any of my 100 or so feeds I follow. Even those feeds that list the total raw number of comments don't speak to who is commenting and the tone of the discussion, and there is no way to see without visiting the site directly.

Instead of adding to the conversation myself, I'm hitting "Add to Shared Items" for my link blog and moving on, not commenting and not alerting site owners and content generators that I'd been by. To those site owners who generate the RSS feeds themselves, I'm a mere number in their Feedburner statistics. I don't show up in their page views, my name doesn't show up in the comments, and I may as well be invisible. And as Robert Scoble and Shel Israel's "Naked Conversations" and other new media books will tell you, often, the comments are more interesting than the original post itself. Blogs are for community, not for a pulpit.

Given I don't have the time to control-click each of the URLs to see them in their own right, to see if the comments and those commenting will encourage my being involved in the conversation, how do I break through the RSS barrier? I don't see that the RSS standard is going to be enhanced such that comments are optionally displayed for each feed, so I should be much more diligent to selectively pursue conversations with top bloggers and top conversations. Otherwise, I've cut myself off from the blogosphere.

Taxes Completed Online, As Always

Intuit's TurboTax is a life saver. Every year around this time, and often earlier, my wife and I take all the last year's financial papers, sort them and then push them through the TurboTax program online, counting income statements and then (crossing our fingers), hoping we have enough deductions so that the government finds itself needing to send us a quick check and thank us for our efforts.

Every year, it seems to get just a bit easier. TurboTax stores our prior year's data, and imports it so I don't have to go through the mundane tasks of telling it where I live, where I work, what my name is, etc. It assumes nothing has changed from the previous year, and gives me the option to update. Additionally, the ability to import my brokerage account data from eTrade is dramatically easier than saving the data into Excel or Quicken or some other tool, then going one by one to add my gains and subtract my losses. (Funny how all year I root for gains, and come tax time, I root for losses...)

This year's efforts took the better part of the afternoon. I had two piles - the "To Do" and the "Done" piles, and I methodically moved from one to the next, with the A's spring training game playing on the radio in the background. By mid-afternoon, we were all done for yet another year, and can store away our papers until the IRS comes calling later to see if we got it all right. But that hasn't happened yet, and we've relied solely on the Web version of TurboTax for more than 5 years. I can't imagine going any other way.

Now, in the next few weeks, I expect an e-mail to confirm everything went through, and a quick bump in the bank as the refund goes through via direct deposit. It just works!

Beyond Syncing: My Data Is Flowing Everywhere

It seems we have moved beyond the point of having all data in one master location, but data is being prioritized such that some pieces are backed up in 3 to 4 places simultaneously, while other data is not backed up at all.

Last night this became especially apparent with our setup of the brand-new Apple TV. At initial setup, the Apple TV synchronizes with a selected iTunes library, and effectively backs up the entire song and TV show collection to its 40 Gigabyte hard drive, assuming it fits. Over my 802.11g network (my PowerBook is not yet n-enabled), this can clearly take a considerable amount of time. In fact, while thousands of songs and my TV shows have been synched so far, my iTunes progress bar tells me we have a few thousand more to go before the first full synch is complete. Additionally, if the Apple TV is seen as "busy", showing media, the synchronization stops. This means to offer the ideal setup for syncing, I should keep the laptop open and not use the Apple TV for a bit.


The Apple TV synchronization, in progress

Meanwhile, as this has been going on, Apple's Backup service (from .Mac) asked me this morning if I wanted to complete my daily backup of personal files and data, consisting of Safari bookmarks, e-mail, documents in my Documents folder and more. As I approved that backup, I also noticed that at the same time, my iSync icon in the menu bar began to rotate, indicating that my Address Book, iCal appointments and Safari bookmarks were being synchronized, so I would have the same data with me at the office.

This got me thinking - are we so far beyond the point of having all my data in one insecure location that I need so many pieces of it backed up every which way? My iTunes media is now on the home laptop, the AppleTV hard drive and my iPod, while my address book and iCal data is on my home laptop, work desktop and via the Web, as well as on the iPod. Clearly, over time I've prioritized some data over other data, backing up some pieces 3-4 times, and others not at all. Apple's recent bias, given the company's focus over the last few years, is to save my purchased music and video, even if my professional life didn't depend on it. But to see my data flowing three ways, to iSync, to .Mac Backup and to the AppleTV, all at once, was an eye opener.

Welcome MacSurfer, MyAppleMenu Readers

Today is the day the Apple TV gets here. I look forward to synchronizing my geekery with my TV set even further than I have to date with the TiVo. Last night's post on how critics of the Apple TV have gotten the debate upside down has gotten legs, being added to Mac community sites MyAppleMenu and MacSurfer.

As can be expected, many are abuzz around the new Apple TV, not the least of whom is Robert Scoble of PodTech. Scoble writes simply, "Apple TV Rocks". iLounge also offers up 10 geeky details around the new device.

It's too bad MacSurfer and MyAppleMenu aren't Technorati enabled. That would help my score get out of the double digits.

LinkedIn Adds "Profile PDF Export", New Service Enhancements

I've been fairly vocal on LinkedIn's opportunity to expand its services, having first written about how LinkedIn can be made "even better", and second, writing a 10-point list that specifically outlined service enhancements to expand their user experience. As most great Web-focused companies do, they are listening.

Today, I received a comment from Steve Ganz, head Web developer at LinkedIn, who said some of the features I requested were available, and others were Imminent.

He commented, "These are all great ideas. Thanks so much for the great feedback, Louis! Stay tuned."

The first addition?

5. Allow Me to Export my LinkedIn Profile as PDF or Word

He writes:

Check! You will now find a link to download your LinkedIn Profile as a PDF right above your name on the profile page.

And it works too! You can download my LinkedIn profile here, complete with resume and recommendations, as I had outlined. My standard profile is here.

Also coming soon, an official LinkedIn blog. Looking forward to it.

The Apple TV Debate Is Upside Down

The early reports on the Apple TV, from Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal, David Pogue of the New York Times, and Engadget are all saying the device is simple, has a great GUI, and accomplishes the user's needs to sync their computer's media with their television set. But there's an underlying note in many of the pieces, saying that Apple has charged too much for a box that does too little. (For example: Gizmodo: Apple TV: Worth It?)

If this line sounds familiar, it's because the exact same grumblings were lodged against the iPod when it first debuted, and all those naysayers have been proven wrong. They will be again.

Engadget sums this up in an otherwise great-looking photo gallery by saying:

"For someone with a lot of cash invested in a collection of iTunes media, the Apple TV seems a solid -- if pricey -- buy, but for most people with more diverse media collections and saner pocketbooks, this is a hard one to recommend."

Certainly an easy summary, but still wrong.

When the iPod was first announced five years ago, it looked like an overpriced MP3 player. It didn't show photos. It didn't show movies. It was monochrome. It didn't even work on Windows computers. But what it did do was set the stage for what was to come, and redefined the entire conversation about how you interface with your music. What made the device ultimately win was iTunes. The iPod's marriage to iTunes helped Apple sell music to iPod users and sell iPods to iTunes users. Later, the iPod was made available for Windows, added color, added photo support, added video support, and then went through a myriad of form factors, from the postage-stamp like iPod Shuffle you see today to the more brick-like first-generation iPod Photo, and the soon to arrive iPhone.

Check out this quote from CNET in October of 2001:

The iPod has "good features, but this is a pretty competitive category," (Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD Intelect) said. "The question is whether people want that robust of a feature set with that high of a price."

Tens of millions of devices later, I think it's safe to say people warmed up to the iPod.

I believe Apple TV will see the same growth and has acted as a beachhead for Apple in the living room. And while Engadget says it doesn't matter much to people who may not have all their media on iTunes, it will absolutely change buying behavior - and will catapult the amount of TV shows and films purchased from the iTunes Store to date. There is no question. While today, we have been limited in our purchasing of TV episodes and movies from iTunes because of portability, picture quality, and viewability (on a laptop vs. the TV set), it all changes with Apple TV.

With the Apple TV connected to my flat-screen television, I will definitely go out of my way to find and procure content from the iTunes Store for anytime viewing. As Apple builds out the store's offerings, it will be offering one of the first, and most viable, Video on Demand (VOD) solutions on the market, one that may not have all the whiz-bang features (like DVR capability) just yet, but one that will grow to do all these things.

Those that doubt the Apple TV today, and mock its price or inferred limitations don't see the full picture. Like with the iPod, Apple is establishing the de facto standard in this market, and will further tie in iTunes as the go-to media store for near-instant gratification.

As for my own Apple TV? It's already in San Jose, according to FedEx, and I should have it tomorrow.

Expanding the Conversation, One Link at a Time

After about 14 months of consistent writing on this blog, with more than 700 posts on a variety of topics, often with a heavy technology slant, but plenty of sports, music, and media thrown in, we're only now getting some strong conversation here and through the blogosphere, as others are finding the content as a discussion starter.

Just today, I was pleased to see Bruce Stewart of the O'Reilly Network dive further into my comments around "The Neglected" iTunes playlist (mentioned below). The O'Reilly name carries significant tech gravitas for us geeks, and it was fun to be seen as a source that gave him ideas on how he could best address his own iTunes issues.

He wrote, "I’m going to go create a playlist of my own neglected tunes, which sounds like a much more effective way of getting to listen to all of the music I add to iTunes than my previous method."

Meanwhile, the recent hubbub over Twitter and its usefulness, or lack thereof, has driven some to my comments in January saying I'd sworn off Instant Messaging (IM) for good, and that Twitter only made the whole situation worse.

Eric Schwarz of SchwarzTech, in a piece called "The Uselessness of IM?" said my move ran contrary to his seeing that many corporations have adopted chat protocols for communication, but agreed that the whole medium could be a tad informal. Meanwhile, a "Lo-Fi Librarian" from the UK noted the post, counting me as one of the many who see Twitter as a huge time waster.

Given the entire discussion this week about whether us rank and file bloggers can break into the world of "The A-List" or not, it's good to see some traction. Blogging isn't about developing a pedestal for shouting or ego boasting, but instead for enabling transparency, communication and voice. If you're entertained or learn something in the meantime, that doesn't hurt.

Apple TV On Its Way

I asked my fellow Macoholics today, "Is it overly obsessive to be refreshing my FedEx tracking every 30 minutes? Every 5?"

So far, the resounding answer is no. One quickly responded, "Nope. Mine's in (Alaska)." As of 10 p.m. Wednesday, mine is as well. The Apple Store reports I should expect my newest gadget to arrive no later than Friday at the office, so we just might be visiting the FedEx tracking page a few times between now and then.

As I had mentioned on The Apple Blog Monday, I am continually running into new ways to use the Apple TV, once it shows up. Additionally, friends and colleagues are springing out of the woodwork to let me know they plan to buy one, and this goes for Mac users and PC zealots alike. Apple has a hit on its hands, one that may soon be thought of in the same breath as the iPhone and the iPod.

It's like Christmas in March. I can't wait to unwrap my new present.

New TAB Post: How Smart Are Your Playlists?

It's no secret I am a hardcore iTunes user. MusicMobs reports I've listened to nearly 30,000 tracks in the last three or so years, while Last.fm similarly reports more than 15,000 listens since early 2005. Doing the quick math, and knowing both services likely undercount, and don't include listens from the iPod or on other machines, we're looking at 20 to 30 songs a day, every day.

Meanwhile, we've amassed 4,000 tracks in iTunes, meaning the management of those tracks and my time to listen to them is fairly tricky. That's why I've turned to Apple's Smart Playlists feature in iTunes to help me rediscover tunes I've not heard in a while, or to remind me when I've not listened to one frequently enough.

That's the idea behind my most recent contribution to The Apple Blog, titled How Smart Are Your Playlists?. Per agreement with them, I will not be cross-posting the piece, but instead, have provided a link. Enjoy.

Hotel and Airport Internet Access a Must

I've ranted and raved here before on the number of times I've checked into a supposedly swank hotel, only to find the hoops I need to jump through in order to get a quality Internet experience can negatively impact the whole trip. For some reason, it seems that the more I pay per night in a hotel, the more I end up paying per day, and the less I pay per day for the hotel stay, the more likely it is that my access will be both fast and free. Being budget minded doesn't mean I have to give up something I believe to be a requirement.

In this weekend's trip to Phoenix, we stayed at the Doubletree Guest Suites, and had great wireless Internet access. I could turn on the laptop and get high speed Internet anywhere in our suite. But it wasn't perfect. Not only did I have to pay $9.99 a day for the privilege, but I had to call the front desk every day to turn on my access, as the password changed every day at noon. This made us have a daily ritual where I called the front desk around 12:02 p.m. to get the new day's codes, only to call back 24 hours later. Even the front desk said they were annoyed by the policy, but there was nothing they could do.

It could have been worse, for sure. In the last few years I've gone to hotels that didn't feature any kind of Internet in their rooms, but only in the lobby, I've gone to hotels that promised high speed wireless, but I could only get a fraction of the signal if I placed the desk chair and laptop in the closet or huddled next to the door, and I've found others that required me to run Microsoft Windows. I've paid anywhere from $4.95 a day to $19.95 a night, regardless of how much activity I had online.

I see the hotel Internet access issue as being graded:

A: Free high-speed wireless access in hotel rooms and the lobby
B: High-speed wireless access in hotel rooms and the lobby for a fee
C: High-speed access in hotel rooms via in-room Internet cable
D: High-speed access in the lobby or business center
F: Anything less than high-speed access

This issue is even worse when it comes to airports. For some reason, the Silicon Valley's major airport hubs, in San Jose and San Francisco, demand you pay ten bucks or so through T-Mobile for the privilege of synching up before the flight, whether you are just catching up on e-mail before boarding, or find yourself stranded for a day changing from airline to airline. Oddly enough, other airports, in Las Vegas and Phoenix (where I am now) don't ask for diddly squat - only that you agree not to do anything nefarious on their network. Given their courtesy, I promise to be good at least for an hour or so.

To ensure highest productivity, I need to have immediate access to Internet on all my travels. Those vendors which solve the access issue will get my business. Those that don't will find themselves passed by as the more technology-oriented of travelers choose alternatives.

ANtics Episode 3.06: A Rite of Passage

Cross-posted to Athletics Nation...

Depending on the stage of a player's career, Spring Training can be present wildly different goals, from hoping to reach the big leagues, to getting in shape, learning a new club or even trying to make a comeback with your old team. From the record-breaking heat of Phoenix, some of the A's are profiled for their own objectives.


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New TAB Post: I Want My Apple TV

I ordered my Apple TV on January 9th, hours after Steve Jobs said it would be available on the Apple Store. Everything pointed to a February ship date and early March arrival, but delays hit, which have been well documented. Now, MacRumors is claiming Apple TV will ship on Tuesday, March 20th, but it's still a "Rumor" and not "News".

If that Rumor moves into the News category, that's great, because we're still waiting a few months in, and keep running into times I'd love to have an Apple TV handy, to watch my shows and films on the big screen instead of my laptop's little one.

That's the idea behind my most recent contribution to The Apple Blog, titled I Want My Apple TV. Per agreement with them, I will not be cross-posting the piece, but instead, have provided a link. Enjoy.

Enjoying Time In Arizona

To read the headlines, you would think Phoenix had erupted in a big ball of flame and the residents had been scorched to their deaths. In a double-decker front page masthead, The Drudge Report railed: "WINTER RECORD SMASHED: 99 DEGREES IN PHOENIX..." as for the fifth consecutive day, the city broke heat records, topping 94 Sunday, after peaking at 99 both Friday and Saturday. But we're loving it. The balmy heat, even at midnight, where it's 75 degrees en route to a likely low of 65 or so, reminds us of the two trips we've taken to Hawaii, first for our honeymoon, and in an second trip the following year. And to make things better, today the A's finally won a game with us in attendance.

Both Friday and Saturday saw the A's make us roll our eyes with their incompetence. The team's starting pitchers, Joe Blanton and Joe Kennedy, gave up 4 and 5 runs respectively in the first inning, before retiring a batter. The A's of course went on to lose both contests, by scores of 8-5 Friday night and, even worse, 11-4 Saturday, when the team never even had a chance. So on Sunday, with Dan Haren taking the mound, we were more hopeful for a better outcome, but strongly considered delaying our showing up to the ballpark until the 2nd inning, as maybe we were the cause. But Haren avoided our curse, shutting down the LA Angels of Anaheim for four innings, and seeing the A's to an early 2-0 lead.

Yet the Angels came back and took the lead, holding a 5-3 margin going into the final frame. It looked like the A's were going to go 0-3 for us, but it was not meant to be. The A's came back to within 5-4, with two runners on and one out in the ninth. As we crossed our fingers, and hoped against disaster, Richie Robnett smacked a 2-run single allowing the tying and winning runs to cross the plate as fans cheered, players jumped up and down in the heat, and we headed home happy. Now, with a 1-2 record under our belt, we will see the A's for a fourth and final time tomorrow at 1:05 before heading home.

Even with the four games, we've done more than see just baseball in our stay in Phoenix. On Saturday, we carried off an unlikely pairing as my wife and I first had dinner at Hooters and then drove to the Mesa LDS temple to see the sights (arguably at both locations). The Mesa temple grounds were well cared for and the temple was beautifully lit. Tonight, we headed back to Tempe near the Arizona State campus and filled up at PF Changs and Coldstone Creamery. Unlike Saturday, which featured St. Patrick's Day revelers drowning in green beer, with some handcuffed by local police, the Sunday scene was much more serene.

It's a quick mini-vacation, but much anticipated. It will be tough to get back to the grind on Tuesday.

Weekend of Spring Training

I had hinted at it a few times earlier, but Kristine and I took Friday and Monday off from work for a mini-vacation, giving us four full days in the Arizona sunshine to see the Oakland A's take on four different teams in four days at home. Despite yesterday's airport issues, we made it in with plenty of time to catch yesterday's game. While the weather was outstanding, in the 80s throughout, the A's play left much to be desired, as they fell behind 4-0 in the first inning to the hometown Arizona Diamondbacks, and never recovered, eventually going down by an 8-5 margin.

Today, we'll see them try to even up their record with us in attendance as they take on the Milwaukee Brewers at 1:00 p.m. The temperature is already in the high 80s, going to the mid to high 90s, so we'll try not to get too baked.

Switching gears... in an interesting mini-case study of how blogs can achieve direct access to corporations, where e-mail and telephone calls have traditionally failed, check out the comment left on my US Airways post from yesterday. One man associated with the airline pulled overtime to explain why he thought our flight was delayed, and why he thinks I was premature in criticizing the airline. (Read his Comment) Of course, that doesn't take into account the issues we had on Christmas Eve, where a lot of my frustrations originated.

Hopefully our return trip will be easier... but until then, we intend to have fun, cheer on the green and gold on this very green holiday!

Tidbits from the Link Blog: March 16, 2007

The line between bloggers and journalists is blurring. While a blog's goals can be wide-reaching, from personal updates to breaking news, offering opinions, or collecting interesting items, former Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry is moving to strengthen bloggers' ability to get the information to make news, by further expanding the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Yet, it looks like some haven't graduated to the understanding of blogs' pervasiveness, even as the practice reaches a decade old. Steve Rubel of MicroPersuasion notes one particularly glaring example...

MicroPersuasion: Fired Without Cause for Blogging
MyDD: Kerry Sponsors Senate Bill Giving Bloggers FOIA Powers
Robert Scoble: Microsoft Tells MVPs “we’re in it to win” — Really?

We're so far enjoying our time in Phoenix, Arizona. It was a mere 98 degrees when we landed, and we saw the A's lose their ballgame 8-5. We'll be back at it again tomorrow, hoping the outcome changes.

To see what I'm finding interesting, bookmark or subscribe to my link blog.

Cisco Acquires WebEx, as Big Company Gets Bigger

From 1999 to early 2001, I got my feet wet working as the Web Marketing Manager at 3Cube, a Silicon Valley startup looking to enhance Internet Communications through Web-based faxing, conference calls, and Web meetings. While we toiled away trying to take on new customers one at a time, WebEx had raised tens of millions, asking RuPaul to tell the world in a best-forgotten Super Bowl ad that "We'd Better Start Meeting Like This". Needless to say, they won, and we lost, even if I still believe we had the lead in technology. Something about brand awareness and sheer execution really does work after all.

Yesterday, Cisco shook up the tech industry by announcing a $3.2 billion acquisition of WebEx, seeing the traditional switch and routing company further diversify its business model. Cisco and others lauded the deal as an SMB (Small and Medium Business) play, as Cisco is trying to become more consumer friendly, with a goal of being less associated with corporate datacenters than in years past. The company even swapped out its well-known logo for a rounder, more Web 2.0 look and feel.

But beyond the surface announcements, for many of us who make a living in the Silicon Valley, this type of corporate consolidation raises some concerning questions. When the Big company (Cisco) buys a Smaller company (WebEx), will they continue to innovate, and will we ever see the business again?

History is littered with companies being swallowed up by monoliths like Cisco, Sun, Microsoft and Oracle, never to be seen again. Founders and key employees leave, and companies lose momentum. The number of companies from whom you can get a solution is limited, and hitting closer to home, there are fewer companies where you can get a job. In almost every corporate merger and acquisition, you see overlap and eventual layoffs.

Shortly after I left 3Cube in a layoff that took out Marketing, Sales and Business Development at the beginning of 2001, the company and its assets were purchased by Oracle, who had big hopes of adding desktop sharing and conference calling to its iMeeting product. Apparently they did, but you wouldn't know it.

I don't know of anybody who turns to Oracle for remote meetings and collaboration. Everybody uses WebEx. Now that Cisco has WebEx under its corporate umbrella, will they operate it as a separate service, with the brand name staying intact, or will it turn into the Cisco Meeting Service, powered by WebEx, and see a complete stalling in feature innovation? I have no idea. I don't think anybody has the answers.

Stuck At the Airport Again, Thanks to US Airways

You know, I think I'd learn from the Christmas Eve "experience" that the merger of US Airways and America West has created the world's most inefficient airline. Yet, when Expedia suggested we take the airline to Phoenix for Spring Training, we didn't balk. Now, we're again stuck at the San Jose Airport for another ridiculous delay, and are again questioning our sanity when it comes to this ridiculous airline.

A mid-day flight in perfect weather conditions isn't exactly the prime target for something to go awry. My wife and I breezed through security, and were all set for an alleged 12:25 flight from San Jose to Phoenix. Yet, minutes away from the time we would anticipate boarding, all the numbers came off the board, and the flight's new departure time is 1:20. Guess why?

Allegedly, workers fueling the plane in Phoenix had opted to "take a break" during its fueling, and overdid it. Now, the plane, in transit to San Jose, will have to dump the excess fuel between here and there, making us wait. Now, if the workers wanted to go smoke away from the fuel, I totally get that, as a late plane is better than a charred jet carcass, but it doesn't exactly fill me with comfort as to the airline's professionalism and safety.

I don't think we will have to "call ahead" to the A's and ask them to delay tonight's game, planned for 7 p.m. in Phoenix, so we can be there at the start, but we're still annoyed. I've had it with this ridiculous excuse for an airline.

Tidbits from the Link Blog: March 14, 2007

We're only two days away from a four-day mini-vacation to see the A's do battle in the Cactus League for Spring Training, but until then, we are certainly chained to the desk. That leaves opportunity to highlight the day's prominent stories.

It's no surprise that yet another company is out to get the iPod and steal some of Apple's thunder, and even less of a surprise that Blackberrys can cause accidents just as mobile phones do, or that big companies are moving to advertise on the Web. Given that all those aren't the biggest of surprises, it's a real surprise there's some strong writing on those topics today.

Don Dodge: Why Search Engines Rank Blogs Higher than Web Sites
Internet Outsider: Advertisers Fleeing TV, Radio for Internet, etc.
Slashdot: Legislators Ponder BlackBerry Pileups
TechCrunch: Reckoning Day For Venture Capitalists?
VentureBeat: Slacker, the Real iPod Killer?

To see what I'm finding interesting, bookmark or subscribe to my link blog.

New TAB Post: Apple Adds “My Alerts” to iTunes Store

It's not intentional, but of late, my posts on The Apple Blog are increasingly iTunes-centric. I swear I use Mac all day long, but iTunes is where I see the action happening. Yesterday, I perhaps belatedly noticed that Apple had added "My Alerts" to the iTunes Store, making it that much easier to purchase songs from artists I like without waiting for a dedicated e-mail.

I believe that with time, Apple will increase their offerings in this space, much as TiVo has with its WishList. Some day, I'll be tracking actors and film-makers much as I do bands today.

That's the idea behind my most recent contribution to The Apple Blog, titled Apple Adds “My Alerts” to iTunes Store. Per agreement with them, I will not be cross-posting the piece, but instead, have provided a link. Enjoy.