November 2010
1 post
Aggressive campaign calling
Campaign workers are getting aggresive. Close to 10 calls from one campaign today then I finally picked up. Some dude instantly read me a script then asked if I’m for or against some legislation. Their campaign concurred with my off the cuff answer so the dude asked if he could transfer me to the representive’s office. Aggresive, annoying, but efficient.
September 2010
1 post
Always use the shorter language code
Was interested in why AddToAny gets so many repeat translations submitted for certain languages. Turns out that we were still only using the compound language+country codes for some languages; for example, sv-SE instead of sv. Analytics show that far more users around the world are using browsers that return the shortest language code, usually the two-letter ISO 639-1 variant.
July 2010
2 posts
To reply, or not to reply, to a rude Internet dolt
I love doing support emails for AddToAny, and I give everyone the benefit of the doubt… even the random Internet weirdos usually come around within a few responses. But over the last few days some rude Internet dolt has *really* been testing my patience. His emails have a bit of everything: fallacies, swears, insults, ignorance, hypocrisy, asininity. The best response is no response at...
2 tags
Dislike software patents, but they're a necessary...
I dislike software patents, but as Jonathan Schwartz outlines, they’re a necessary evil. While it’s relatively cheap to start an Internet company, obtaining the IP necessary to defend yourself against patent trolling is a prohibiting factor. Patents are so disproportionately expensive for a bootstrapped startup that they’re often disregarded; yet they’re vital for...
May 2010
1 post
Vegetarian food versus meat
What I like about vegetarian food is that almost everything has a standalone taste. Most meat is truly tasteless without seasoning or marination. Once you’re over the expected tenderness of various meats, you’ll find practically no difference between the two diets.
April 2010
2 posts
Jobs: Thoughts on Flash →
Great essay by Jobs. This is a kiss of death to Flash if Adobe doesn’t quickly find a way to open source, re-license, and standardize Flash. Letting go of their proprietary grip would be a boon for their creative products, and it’s something they should have done years ago for a better chance at true standardization. As of today, revenue from their once-ubiquitous technology is...
Facebook's EdgeRank
So “EdgeRank” is the algorithm that powers your Facebook News Feed, and it’s also what attempts to maximize your time spent on Facebook. Instead of delivering the quick-consumption updates you actually want to see (status, explicitly shared items), it barrages you with items that are likely to keep you engaged, attentive, and ad-click happy…
Update, July 27th 2010: A...
January 2010
2 posts
iPad versus e-ink
Real e-readers have e-ink on their side because I will never read a book that is blasting light at my face.
Unfortunately, latency is still a crippling problem with e-ink, and full color would be nice to have, but once these issues are resolved I’ll be a happy reader of e-books. That said, let’s see an LCD device that has e-ink on the backside!*
* Yes, the idea is that obvious,...
2 tags
iPad is neat, unremarkable
To me, iPad is unremarkable. Since I have a smartphone and a laptop, it’s as useful to me as Microsoft Surface. The plain merger of the two devices isn’t appealing, but I’ll concede and rebut the usual Apple points:
The display probably makes up for the lack of camera(s).
The UI probably makes up for the lack of 3rd party background apps.
The cool probably makes up for...
August 2009
1 post
1 tag
SEO crash course
A couple of friends asked me about SEO for their new fitness website. My brief response:
Books have been written on the subject, an industry exists, but my quick short summary… Think keywords with just about everything that goes up on every web page. What top 5 keywords do you want for your site? Pick ~5 in your niche based on what people are actually searching for the most, or what they...
July 2009
4 posts
2 tags
Early cancer detection
Wired: Why early detection is the best way to beat cancer
It’s been on my to-do since January to follow the Canary Foundation (see article), which focuses on early cancer detection. I’ve seen it noted fairly often that early detection offers the absolute best chances of beating it, but there is still no cheap, easy and safe access to detection technology for everyone.
I really like...
1 tag
Top 10 Widgets on the Web
ghostery:
This is the second in a series of posts coming this week on the Top Web Bug Trackers we saw at Ghostery last month.
Noteable:
It’s all about Sharing. 4 of the top 10 widgets (AddThis, DiggThis, ShareThis and AddToAny) are focused on letting users rate or recommend content.
Wow, AddThis is twice as large as its next 3 competitors combined.
Portable Social Networks: Facebook and...
“We are also in the process of developing an archive system to make sure that...”
– bit.ly FAQ. This is so good to hear from a critical url shortener. I hope they can deliver.
May 2009
4 posts
“Surprise is overrated. Surprise is the opposite of engagement.”
– John Lilly, CEO Mozilla
Contact form notices are funny
It’s always mildly funny to me when contact forms have a bold, sometimes all-caps, sometimes red line like, **NOTICE**: This form is for [this] and [that] ONLY. Please do NOT send us [The Kicker] using this form.
You can identify immediately what annoys them most, and wonder what odd # of email subjects they get that drives them up the wall. Do they have a breaking point before calling it...
1 tag
“FWIW, my feedback to those responsible for this practice: I’m not going to...”
– Me, regarding the DLC delay of Foo Fighters’ The Colour and the Shape on Rock Band 2 for Nintendo Wii
April 2009
2 posts
1 tag
Tumble iPhone App
Just testing!
December 2008
1 post
Add to Any →
April 2008
1 post
Test
test