Being Electrocuted
November 18, 2008
NYC
Went to New York for a few days last week in support of the Sanrio Luxe store grand opening. Brigitta was the project manager on this new concept store, and was getting all kinds of props from the people I talked to.
I worked from the NYC Google office for a few days, and at night we putzed around the city. We spent time in Central Park, Chelsea, the Village, Soho, and various other places to avoid the madness around our hotel in Times Square. We saw the giant Christmas tree on a truck in Rockefeller Plaza. It had just arrived.
Restaurants of note were Juniors, Hampton Chutney Co and Gusto Organics, and I can't forget cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery. mmm.
I worked from the NYC Google office for a few days, and at night we putzed around the city. We spent time in Central Park, Chelsea, the Village, Soho, and various other places to avoid the madness around our hotel in Times Square. We saw the giant Christmas tree on a truck in Rockefeller Plaza. It had just arrived.
Restaurants of note were Juniors, Hampton Chutney Co and Gusto Organics, and I can't forget cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery. mmm.
Labels: family, food, Google, vacation
¶ 7:21 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
October 30, 2008
Four Years later...Netflix on TiVo
I remember when TiVo and Netflix first announced that they were going to work together, i
n what seemed like the most logical extension of both of their businesses - rent movies, and stream them to your Tivo. I was excited, until it never happened, and TiVo partnered with Amazon Unbox. That was kind of cool, except for the fact that I had to pay $3.99 for most movies.
Four years later, it looks like it is actually going to happen. The best part is that existing customers of the individual services will be entitled to free downloads, so the next question consumers will ask is if they can get a packaged deal on subscription.
These are two of my favorite companies. Both created blue ocean opportunities and have been pretty successful at fending off generic attempts at competition from traditional industry players. When I finally set up an etrade account, these might be the first two stocks I purchase. ¶ 8:18 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
n what seemed like the most logical extension of both of their businesses - rent movies, and stream them to your Tivo. I was excited, until it never happened, and TiVo partnered with Amazon Unbox. That was kind of cool, except for the fact that I had to pay $3.99 for most movies.Four years later, it looks like it is actually going to happen. The best part is that existing customers of the individual services will be entitled to free downloads, so the next question consumers will ask is if they can get a packaged deal on subscription.
These are two of my favorite companies. Both created blue ocean opportunities and have been pretty successful at fending off generic attempts at competition from traditional industry players. When I finally set up an etrade account, these might be the first two stocks I purchase. ¶ 8:18 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
I'm Back
It's been a few months since my last post. Sorry. I've been caught up in school, work, remodeling our kitchen, football season, parents visiting, and voting. There are some funny stories to tell, but I'll save them for their own posts.
Labels: Life
¶ 8:10 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
August 28, 2008
YouTube on Tivo!
Got the new Tivo update yesterday. They added a YouTube menu and the quality is pretty good for getting stretched to 42 inches.
We watched the always entertaining "Cat attacks Pit Bull".
We watched the always entertaining "Cat attacks Pit Bull".
Labels: tech
¶ 7:27 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
August 8, 2008
Stop lying to me NBC
I don't really care that much about the Olympics, but I honestly thought the opening ceremonies advertised for this evening were going to be live, in the evening, for us and tomorrow morning in Beijing. That just didn't seem too far fetched to me.
This morning I am online, with the TV on in the background as usual, and I am reading about the Opening ceremonies while NBC is pretending they haven't happened yet. I think most Americans are aware of Time Zones, and it's acceptable to show events in the middle of the night (online or on one of your several cable television channels) to at least give us the opportunity to watch it live. I have a feeling this is going to be a theme this year: Read the scores before you see the games.
An article in the NY Times gave a live report of the events in the early morning, here are a few reader comments:
This is really weird, and there really is no good excuse. Either NBC is technologically incapable of offering live feeds online, or they are not business-minded enough to figure out advertisers will still pay to advertise in the middle of the night, then they will pay again when you re-play the bigger events in primetime. Focus on the user and all else will follow. Go Team USA.
¶ 7:30 AM 1 Comments
Links to this post
This morning I am online, with the TV on in the background as usual, and I am reading about the Opening ceremonies while NBC is pretending they haven't happened yet. I think most Americans are aware of Time Zones, and it's acceptable to show events in the middle of the night (online or on one of your several cable television channels) to at least give us the opportunity to watch it live. I have a feeling this is going to be a theme this year: Read the scores before you see the games.
An article in the NY Times gave a live report of the events in the early morning, here are a few reader comments:
Tape delay is becoming annoying in this day and age. We trade stocks 24/7 across time zones, we get news as it breaks, etc. NBC has got seven TV and cable channels, this ain’t 1988 anymore.
— Posted by Tom
I simply tired of NBC’s Olympic coverage. Over-exposure of American athletes, ridiculous behind the sport stories, and horrific timing. Remember Sydney? I was hopeful their online player would allow greater flexibility for schedules, but not showing the opening ceremonies online is further evidence of NBC’s “don’t worry, we’ll show you what we think is important” approach to the olympics. boo.
— Posted by killie42
NBC’s Olympic coverage is terrible across the board. Their TV stations don’t cover many events, case in point: this opening ceremony. Their Internet coverage is simply unaccessible.
I can’t say this is a bad thing as it further legitimizes and promotes piracy.
— Posted by NBC Dislike
July 28, 2008
Hey Cuil, Use a Robots.txt
Cuil.com is flooding my newsfeeds this morning. Reid already reported that their home page links are only periodically working. I, too, don't see my site on the first three pages of a vanity search. Also, looks like they need to add a robots.txt file to block other search engines from indexing their search results. This should work:
User-agent: *Honestly, who searches for search results? When I hear about a new website, the first thing I do, is a site: search. The second thing I do is check the robots.txt. Isn't that what all normal people do? ¶ 7:09 AM 3 Comments Links to this post
Disallow: /search
July 27, 2008
iPhoto woes
Sometimes iPhoto lets you import pictures, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you can find these imported pictures through Finder, sometimes you can't. Sometimes you can attach these photos using Gmail, sometimes you can't.
Apparently, this is is by design. I might be completely wrong, but from reading through a few forums, it seems that Apple wants you to use the Apple Mail application to send pictures, and only lets you access pictures from other applications if you first copy them onto the desktop from iPhoto. Seriously?
Trying to make iPhoto work better with Picasa Web Albums Uploader and iPhoto2Gmail plugins just doesn't cut it, especially since I have to re-discover them every time under the Export menu. I need Picasa for Mac! ¶ 8:26 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Apparently, this is is by design. I might be completely wrong, but from reading through a few forums, it seems that Apple wants you to use the Apple Mail application to send pictures, and only lets you access pictures from other applications if you first copy them onto the desktop from iPhoto. Seriously?
Trying to make iPhoto work better with Picasa Web Albums Uploader and iPhoto2Gmail plugins just doesn't cut it, especially since I have to re-discover them every time under the Export menu. I need Picasa for Mac! ¶ 8:26 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
