p.s.

I bought an iPhone.

But most of you reading this probably already know that via twitter, flickr, or *gasp* real life.

p.p.s.
Happy birthday to me. I guess the iPhone was just an early present to myself!

Flickr's new "Places" section

I don't know how "new" flickr's Places section is, but yesterday it was new to me.

The Places project is our way of saying thank you to all our members who’ve taken the time to put their gorgeous photos on a map. Browse the whole globe, from your hometown to your favorite place, or places you’ve never even heard of...

So go ahead, start exploring... Zambia, London, Jackson Hole, or even just Wyoming.

It's a pretty awesome little portal, and gets us one step closer to Tim O'Reilly's proposition:

Imagine wandering through the streets of Paris on a virtual site generated from thousands of images of Paris posted on the internet from different people! [Via]

IMAGINE! </sarcasm>

If you could mash this together with Google's Street View, I think we're almost there!

UPDATE: Turns out it's pretty new (flickr blog announcement, 11/20/2007).

Nerd

Nerd, originally uploaded by bayat.

Figured this was a pretty good shot for my first blog post in a while. Been super busy -- and super nerdy.

getting closer to breaking down

originally uploaded by spcoon.

So, last night (or was it the night before...?) I dreamed that my mom bought my brother an iPhone. Initially, I was pissed (read, jealous) and then I found three more iPhone cases hidden in her secret present spot. I was sure that I was getting one, too. Can't remember if I woke up before I actually had an iPhone in my hot little hands, but I remember the feeling. And it was good.

I think I may be getting closer and closer to breaking down. Main factors still standing in my way:
1) price
2) it's a Mac -- I know, I know...blasphemous!
3) since I'm on a PC I'll have to use iTunes as my contact manager
4) haven't liked the keyboard
5) AT&T sucks in San Francisco and I've been on Sprint for nearly 10 years

Main factors for (possibly) succumbing:
1) it's beautiful, small, shiny, etc.
2) it takes decent photos
3) web browsing is very slick
4) think I could get used to the keyboard
5) iPhone Web Apps!!!!

Number 5 is THE main reason I'm even considering it. Steve Jobs has once again revolutionized an industry and is making people finally take the idea of mobile content seriously. Consider the following sites:

http://iphone.facebook.com
http://iphone.meebo.com
http://getleaflets.com/
http://munitime.com/
http://twitter.thincloud.com/

All the iPhone-only web development is driving me batty (again, read, jealous). I knew I was in trouble after iPhoneDevCamp was so well attended and received. It's really exciting to see people pushing the envelope of mobile development.

However, there is a bone to pick here... What about the rest of us? Mobile content development is awesome, but it would be great if these sites worked on "normal" smart phones -- Pocket PCs, other phones with a browser, etc. The blue flavor crew was adamant that Leaflets works on other mobile platforms. They're not really lying, but it's not exactly a true statement. I can sort of surf through the apps, but it involves a lot of guesswork.

Anyhoo... all that to say, if I can get the expense approved for the corporate card it will probably happen sooner than later. If not, well... we'll see how long I can hold out!

heading to kansas, and it's gonna be hot

going to kansas for the weekend to raise a glass to my 85-year-old gram. she's still peppy, driving herself around, and in pretty good health, all things considered. as she would tell you, she's still "shakin' her tambourine!"

should be a fun (and hot) few days around the pool with the whole fam (sans wife). i'm hoping to get a bit of reading done, and as little work as possible (we'll see how long that lasts).

here's the weekend forecast:


see why i'm looking forward to the pool??

polyphonic spree

polyphonic spree, originally uploaded by flybutter.

still wishing i could see them again. have been listening to little else, besides tim's old band Tripping Daisy.

love this photo.

it's a good thing she's cute...

first time in the boat!, originally uploaded by hillary h.

<rant>
it all started with me losing my bday ski goggles. then i left my northface liner gloves on the top of the wood burning stove. oops.

last month, i left my favorite, amazing, wonderful, blue cloudveil windbreaker in seattle. no idea where, and the hotels have never gotten back to me. then my oakley sunglasses fell out of my shirt pocket and into the grass at the park. i found them... but they are mangled up something awful. i'm hoping a skilled glasses guru might be able to fix them.

and now, with the help of my hyper dog who's been cooped up all day missing her moms, i drop my new nikon digital slr. the dog jumps up, it starts to fall from my hand, i watch it in slow motion, and yell her name much louder than anticipated.

i think it's just the autofocus... "just." no idea how much it will cost to fix it. what the hell?? it sounds weird to namedrop all those brands, but i feel the need to commemorate what a craptastic few months it's been for me and gear.
</rant>

video killed the blogstar

Colin Devroe from Viddler took some video at WordCamp Day 2. Between some Digg traffic and the fact that Download.com started using Viddler for the streaming video, Viddler has had a bumpy day today. But as Colin said, these are good problems to have.

A client once told me that a product was a wonderful failure (not sure that's the exact quote, it was pretty poetic at the time... perhaps a "successful failure"? Ack, can't remember...). We did our jobs too well and couldn't keep up with the traffic. That one still stings, but he was right. It was a success, just not exactly when it needed to be... November 2, 2004. Election Day.

I Was There -- WordCamp 2007

Post WordCamp resolutions:

1. possibly start using my wordpress.com account instead of my blogger account
   
2. finally fill out 3to5.com
   
3. blog more often - more than one blog?
   

WordCamp was great. Thanks to everyone at WP and Automattic for making it such a great (and cheap!) event.

Day One

Even though I thought day one dragged a bit, it was still absolutely worth my time and money to attend. I would've liked a little more "meat" from a few presentations; but truly enjoyed hearing more about podPress (trackback), Robert Hoekman, Jr.'s thoughts on designing the obvious (trackback), and Matt Cutt's tips for Google keyword optimization (trackback). Om Malik and John C. Dvorak were also very insightful and entertaining. They basically sat and had a conversation about blogging vs. journalism -- though the consensus seemed to be that there is no "versus," it is journalism (trackback).

Stephanie Booth live-blogged several of the sessions if you're curious.

Day Two

Since they extended the conference to a full weekend this year, they decided to break up the schedule a bit:

We’ve tried to mix it up a little this year, with the first day focusing primarily on user topics and the second day primarily on developer topics, but we also think there’s a lot of overlap.

I'm not a developer, even if I can create WP themes, but I enjoyed the overall content of day two a bit more. The presentations were simply a bit more up my alley -- I'm not a hard-core blogger, nor do I aspire to be.

The highlights of day two:

Rashmi Sinha of SlideShare.net on designing "massively multi-player social networks" -- i.e. how to balance the design concerns of the individual and the crowd when building a social app like flickr, slideshare, youtube, etc. Her background is in social psychology, and I really enjoyed her approach to and thought process about designing these massive systems (trackback).

Liz Danzico of Happy Cog NY presented some of their findings from a recent usability analysis of the WordPress admin pages (trackback). I love this stuff! And let's just say that a lot of excellent changes are coming to WordPress in version 2.4. Since WP has grown organically, some elements have taken on lives of their own. So glad that Matt and his team engaged Happy Cog -- it can only make their product better.

And last but not least, it was a real treat to see Dave Winer speak (trackback). He got really jazzed about the idea of an identity system -- possibly leveraging what he called "the beauty in" twitter's API. I was hoping he'd talk a little about OpenID, but instead the conversation revolved around whether facebook is the best thing since sliced bread, or whether it sucks. Dave thinks it sucks (my words, not an actual quote) because it's too restrictive. He wants "the whole toolbox," not just a few tools to build some cool stuff. Personally, I think Facebook is about to blow up. Those guys are smart -- Harvard grads, afterall -- and I think they'll realize it's in their interest to open up "the whole toolbox."

Thanks again to the WP and Automattic folks for organizing. Howdy to all the folks I met over the past two days. Give a shout! Hope to connect with you all in meatspace again soon. Until then, I'll be twittering. :)

OMG. The Polyphonic Spree.

The Polyphonic Spree @ the Great American Music Hall
Tuesday July 17

i don't have the setlist yet, but they played for more than two hours and did a six- (or seven- ?) song encore. tim told the crowd -- after the best live Nirvana cover EVER (Lithium) -- he wasn't "ready to bring it home just yet," and asked the crowed if they should play Soldier Girl, Hold Me Now, or Light & Day. the crowd screamed loudly for each one and he pondered a moment and then said, "let's do all three!"

i didn't think anyone would top The Arcade Fire this summer, but The Spree did just that. an amazing night i will not forget. this is a band now firmly planted in my "see them anywhere, anytime" list. fun, fun, fun!

for anyone interested, their recent show at the 9:30 Club in D.C. was recorded by Bob Boilen for NPR's All Songs Considered. get a little taste of the live spree experience: @ NPR, @ iTunes

i just found a great recap of their recent show in Brooklyn -- sounds very much like last night's show. tim was very emotional and thankful to the sold out SF crowd, saying over and over, "Thank you so much. We needed this." as patrick says in his review, i can't wait to see them again.

more glowing reviews (with photos): minneapolis, seattle (two nights ago)