MacNoob

Anybody remember Friendster? How about AOL? Twitter? Bingo! I’m sure that last one rings a bell, even to the non-techies of the world. You can’t tune into a news channel these days without hearing the word tweet every few minutes. I know when my 56 year-old minister asks me about Twitter that its’ cool factor is nearing an end and the technorati will soon abandon it for the next big thing. Being of considerable years myself (53), and having spent the past thirty years in the computer field, I’ve observed and participated in this technical upheaval with more than a passing interest. As I’ve watched the crowds moving from AOL to Friendster to MySpace to Facebook I’m reminded of a similar phenomenon of the non-technical social networks, nightclubs. Although I haven’t been a “clubber” for many years, I have kids in their early twenties and their recounts of social behavior don’t differ much from my own recollection of post-pubescent revelry.
Social networks are only cool as long as the tech elite and others of the “in” crowd grace them with their presence, pronouncements and participation. I knew that Twitter had peaked when the mainstream world made Ashton Kutcher’s million follower milestone newsworthy and Mr. Kutcher proclaimed the event to be as epic as landing a man on the moon. Give me a break. Certainly, the “A List” found Twitter, making the most popular tech pundits like Leo Laporte with a mere 50,000 followers seem insignificant by comparison. About the only thing as certain as Twitter’s “king-o-the-hill” status is its inevitable decline to Friendster-like obscurity. It is just a question of how long it will take. That is largely a function of when a cooler replacement emerges and lures the fickle A-listers away. As with all things social on the street, tech-trendies flock to what’s hot in cyberspace. Today, AOL is about as relevant as Studio 54.
Facebook has almost sent MySpace to the waste bin much the same way MySpace replaced its predecessors like Friendster. To me, that makes Facebook’s Mark Zukerberg the biggest goof on the planet. While he may be technically brilliant for his design of the social networking giant, I think he was a complete idiot for turning down the reported $1.8 billion for his 30% stake in a company with only $150 million in annual sales. To put the numbers in mere mortal terms: If I owned a company that had total sales of $60,000 per year and turned down an offer of $720,000, my relatives would have me committed and rewrite my will. Assuming my company had no operating costs (a silly notion), that’s a factor of 12!
Maybe Facebook will will be different and nothing will emerge to displace its’ popularity. For Mr. Zuckerberg’s sake, I hope so but rather doubt it. Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps he has more technical brilliance up his sleeve and Facebook will evolve into something that keeps the tech-savvy enamored and engaged. History paints a very different picture though. Coolness is perishable. It’s almost like everything social is born with an expiration date and through no fault of their own they waste away just because the clock keeps ticking.

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Joseph Kelley Commentary, Web

Being a die hard Firefox fan, I never thought I’d ever say this:  Safari 4 is the browser for me.  Like I mentioned previously, Foxmarks is the “must have” add-in I use to keep my bookmarks and logins synchronized across all my machines.  Now that it works with Safari 4, the major roadblock to switching is no more.  Additionally, 1Password and Evernote work with the new beta just as well as they did with Safari 3.  I had a dozen or so add-ins installed in Firefox and really thought I’d miss them more than I do.  Obviously, they weren’t that important.  Beyond that, I find Safari works great with almost every site I visit on a regular basis (except Microsoft’s MSDN, naturally).  I do have the occasional misfire when trying to upload a photo to Facebook, but so far that’s been about it.

I spend over half my day within a browser environment and that’s when Safari’s speed really starts to shine.  Web services like Pixlr, GMail and others are noticeably faster than they are in Firefox and Google Gears seems to have adapted quite nicely.  In addition to its’ speed, Safari renders fonts and graphics beautifully.  After a month of steady use, I notice a definite loss of sharpness when I go back to Firefox.  Safari is just prettier.

As far as I’m concerned, the ball is back in Mozilla’s court.  They’re going to have to do something very, very good to unseat Safari as my default browser.

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Joseph Kelley Apple Minutia, Software, Web Safari 4

I know Apple knows what I want and need better than I do.  Let me rephrase that.  I know Apple thinks it knows what I want and need better than I do.  In their infinite wisdom, the decision-makers in Cupertino have decided video of any kind won’t be allowed on the iPhone.  Maybe they think the toll on precious battery life will be too great.  Maybe it’s because they know the tiny ARM processor can’t process more than 15 frames per second and they don’t want people to gripe about poor quality…and you know they would!  Maybe it’s a combination of the two, who knows?  In any case, Apple makes its product decisions based on what they think will make the largest group of consumers pleased enough to shell out [usually a premium] for their goods.  For the more geeky of us, that usually means some features we’d like get left out for the greater good.  One can’t argue with Apple’s success.  They’re obviously doing something a lot of things right.

Everybody knows cell phone video is basically crap, right?  The old LG 8100 I bought four years ago recorded video and it was crap, but I’m not Steven Speilberg either.  I just enjoyed having the feature to capture small, impromptu clips of my kids doing silly things or of my drunken friends making asses out of themselves.  The point is, the iPhone’s lack of video is what sent me down the jailbreak path in the first place.  Having a phone that does so many other things well, yet can’t capture even crappy video seems like a huge omission on Apple’s part, but then I’m one of the “more geeky” outliers.  Enter the iPhone dev team.  Within an hour of downloading QuickPwn, my iPhone 3G was jailbroken, synced and loaded with the Cycorder app.  Viola!  Crappy video!  That’s all I wanted and all I expected.

Qik and Ustream have taken cell phone video to the next level by providing the infrastructure for live streaming, and it’s FREE!  Qik was the first and when I heard of them I thought it was cool, but didn’t immediately get why someone would want to stream crappy video to the internet.  A few days later, I was watching the news on TV and there it was!  A reporter in some war zone streaming crappy video.  Not via a cell phone, but crap none the less.  The whole point of this capability is the same as any other phone application, portability.  Now, anywhere I can get a 3G or wi-fi connection, I have the capability to stream.  Robert Scoble was one of the first tech notables to utilize the Qik technology when he shoved his Nokia in the faces of numerous dignitaries at last year’s G8 conference.  I watched a couple of his “interviews” on YouTube and while I admired the technology, the interviewees looked at Robert like he had a screw loose which gave the whole activity a comical flavor.  I think the idea was far too “leading edge” for the old codgers who make up the dignitaries attending the G8.  My uses for this tech aren’t nearly so ambitious.

Downloading the Qik and USTREAM apps from Cydia was a snap, and both let you sign up for their free service right on the phone, even though I didn’t.  Both sites also provide the embed code for your stream, so adding them to the MacNoob.net web site TV page was a snap.  On the iPhone, both apps automatically log you in, so streaming is as simple as launching the app and touching the “broadcast” button.  You can tell Qik is the more mature of the two apps.  It provides quite a few more setup options than USTREAM and even lets you monitor real-time stream data like frame rate and resolution.  One really neat feature of the USTREAM app is its’ ability to conduct a simple YES/NO poll while you stream and then their web service e-mails you the results.  I haven’t done any sort of deep analysis of the video for either app, but I’m guessing the [320 x 240] frame rate is somewhere around 10 and the sound is surprisingly good on both.  It seems to be the same on wi-fi and 3G.  Neither app will let you stream with an EDGE connection.  I’ve streamed (and recorded) a couple of videos of our daughter and me while the wife watched on her laptop some 2500 miles away on a business trip.  For her it was much more enjoyable than the usual phone call, even though the quality was less than great.  I also plan to live stream from some upcoming events I’m planning to attend.  WWDC will probably be the first.  I may use it to augment the MacNoob podcast once it’s launched.  One thing is for sure: My iPhone will stay jailbroken as long as Apple rejects video apps like Qik and USTREAM.  But I’m a geek.

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Joseph Kelley Apple Minutiae, Media, Technology, Web, iPhone iPhone, Qik, USTREAM, video

I was listening to the Windows Weekly podcast a couple of days ago and Paul Thurrott’s pick of the week was a web service called Pixlr. According to Paul, Pixlr is a near-replacement for Adobe Photoshop that works through a web browser. At the time I thought, “Yeah right!” Since it sounded too good to be true, I went straight to my Mac as soon as I got home and tried it out. After a minimum sign-in, Pixlr was up and running in Safari (4 beta) and I was completely astonished! I’ve never found it necessary to dole out a grand for Photoshop. My editing needs just aren’t that great. I have, however, spent fifty or sixty bucks a few times on applications like Pixelmator that offer 75% of the functionality for 10% of the cost. I’ve also tried the free Picasa, Flickr and Windows Live editors and came away feeling like I’d gotten just what I’d paid for. Pixlr, on the other hand is quite full-featured and runs like a native app on my Mac. I think Safari has something to do with that. The experience on Internet Explorer on my newest Vista machine was a bit more sluggish (more like what I had expected).
I’m not going to do a full review here. First, I barely know enough about photo editing to get done what I need. Second, Pixlr is free, what does it cost to try for yourself? You don’t even have to install anything, just click here. Leave a comment. Let me know if I’m all wet.

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Joseph Kelley Apple Minutiae, Software, Technology, Web Pixlr, Web service

Apple just released Safari 4 as a public beta and I predict it will make Safari a force to reckon with in the browser wars.  Safari has always been a solid, fast browser in OS X.  Last year’s release of the first Windows version was an ipso-facto announcement by Cupertino that they can compete with any browser.  Safari 3, while a very good browser, didn’t offer a real differentiator to the two leading market share holders despite Apple’s claims of speed, safety and reliability.  It really was a “me too” entrance into the mainstream browser market.

No more.  Safari 4 is a true game-changer.  With it’s cover flow and “Top Sites” views, this browser will give Windows users a glimpse into the beautiful world of Apple core animation.  People who’ve never experienced OS X will get an eye-popping introduction to the most visually pleasing UI on the planet.  I downloaded the beta this morning and installed it on my Mac and Vista machines.  I opened it on the 24″ monitor of the Vista PC that faces my office door.  Within an hour, nearly a half-dozen people (PC users) stuck their head in asking, “What’s that?!”  Safari 4 is that stunning.

Of course, it’s too early to tell how robust, stable, etc. this new Safari version is, but if it’s just functionally “good enough” many will use it just because it’s so pretty.  Apple’s tag line for their new offering is “…the world’s fastest and most innovative browser.”  I’ll leave the speed tests for others, but I will attest to its innovation.  Putting the tabs across the top of the browser was genius, especially on smaller screens where real estate (room on the screen) is at a premium.  That, coupled with the views I mentioned are reason enough for most people to switch.  For me, I’ll wait and see just how much I miss my Firefox add-ins.

Let’s face it, the reason Internet Explorer enjoys a 70+% share of the browser market is because it is the default on the most popular operating system.  Firefox has continued to whittle away at IE’s share with its huge assortment of add-ins.  I have no doubt this will make Safari a real player in the browser market.  The interesting question is, at who’s expense?

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Joseph Kelley Apple Minutiae, Software, Technology, Web

Me & Bob Starner

My very best friend of 28+ years, Bob Starner, passed away this weekend losing his battle with cancer.  He took part of me with him.

I’m someone who doesn’t use the term “friend” lightly.  To be counted as a real friend, a person must pass the 2:00 AM test.  If you call or show up on a person’s doorstep at 2:00 AM needing help, knowing you can count on them, then [and only then] can they be counted as a true friend in my book.  Bob was all that to me and more.  Although we were physically separated by 1500 miles for the last 20 years of our lives, there was no person on this earth outside my wife and children that I loved more or felt closer to.  I have no words to express my sorrow.  Please keep Bob’s family in your prayers.

Joe

I’ve posted a photo album of some recent pictures of my dear friend here.

Joseph Kelley Commentary, Web friend