Month: November 2006

Microsoft likes municipal wi-fi too

Post ImageBy now you’ve probably heard about the wifi network that Google built in San Francisco with partner Earthlink. Now Microsoft wants in on the game, and has partnered with MetroFi to blanket Portland in wireless Internet bliss. The deal is more than just a “me too” reaction:

Content providers who capture the growing municipal Wi-Fi market will be in a better position to enjoy higher traffic to their sites and greater customer loyaltyand, as a result, grab a greater share of online advertising dollars, expected to reach $16 billion in the U.S. this year, according to consultancy eMarketer. “It’s a battle for eyeballs,” says Matt Rosoff, an analyst with consultancy Directions on Microsoft.

I could care less what the battle is about, as long as they keep building these networks. I have to agree with John Battelle:

All I can say is, please, keep up the competition. I’d love a chance to select from three different Wifi carriers in every major city, each of them free/advertising based.

Entire cities covered in free wireless Internet access can only lead to goodness. Bring on wireless everywhere!

Read: BusinessWeek

Podcast: Making a Quiche

Post ImageIf you think I can’t cook, think again! I’m an absolute whiz with the microwave! Heh, but seriously, a few days ago my friend Sharon and I got together to make dinner. She suggested quiche, and I said what? Haha! It actually turned out pretty good. We took a bunch of pictures of the cooking process, mainly because we don’t cook with any regularity. The next day it occurred to me that I could turn this into an interesting podcast episode!

It turns out that I rather like the format of this episode, so I intend to use it for future episodes. I am calling them photo stories, for obvious reasons. Have a suggestion for a topic? Let me know!

Enjoy!

Read: MasterMaq’s Podcast

Amazon.com could power the new web

Post ImageI have become really interested in Amazon.com over the last little while. The stuff they are doing with their web services platform is just amazing, and it is already having a huge impact on how web businesses are created and operate. We are using Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) in Podcast Spot, and I absolutely love it. Taking the guts of Amazon and making them available as services to other companies was a very smart decision in my opinion, despite what the investors on Wall Street might think.

Here are some excellent resources if you’d like to learn more:

I’m definitely watching to see what else Amazon launches because chances are, it’ll be useful. So far companies like Yahoo and Google have received far more Web 2.0 attention, but I think that will begin to change, and people will realize that Amazon.com is actually one of the most interesting tech companies around.

How could Zune's software suck so badly?

Post ImagePerhaps you’ve heard on the news recently that Microsoft’s new digital media player, the Zune, is hardly flying off the shelves. I guess that’s not too surprising given the early reviews the device has received. Now I know Microsoft is pretty good at hardware (Xbox, mice and keyboards, etc.) but they are still a software company. How is it then, that they could have screwed up the software side of the Zune so badly?

Now I haven’t seen or tested a Zune, so I can’t say I have had similar experiences. And granted, not all of the reviews are so negative (indeed there are quite a few positive ones), but still. A software company should have gotten the software part absolutely right, don’t you think?

Coming together to support Sitemaps

Post ImageAs much as I enjoy reading about how Microsoft plans to defeat Google and how Google has trumped Yahoo and started on their way to ruling the world, it always gives me a good feeling when I read about the three giants working together. Sitemaps are the latest technology that Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo have come together to support:

The goal of this effort is to improve search results for customers around the world. This protocol enables site owners everywhere to tell search engines about the content on their site instead of having to rely solely on crawl algorithms to find it.

Interested in the gritty details? Read more about the Sitemaps protocol at the official website: http://www.sitemaps.org.

As I understand it, Sitemaps do not replace they very common crawling algorithms, but instead augment that data and help improve the crawlers. Seems like something that should have been developed a long time ago! It’s amazing what can happen when you work together isn’t it?

Oh, and the coolest part of all – Sitemap 0.90 has been released under a Creative Commons license.

Read: Live Search Blog

Website Changes

Unless you read my blog in an aggregator of some sort, you probably noticed an updated color scheme and picture on my website today. I was getting bored with the blue so I decided to change it. I also tweaked things a bit so that it’s easier to change this sort of thing in the future. Thanks to everyone who has commented on the look already – some of you like the changes, some of you don’t. The picture is a little too formal for my tastes, so my Dad has agreed to take some new ones for me when he’s in town in a couple weeks.

I also added a find me online feature recently. Basically it’s a list of links to my various profiles around the web. I haven’t done it yet, but I am going to clean up the sidebar as well. It’s horribly out of date, and I think I could be using the space better.

Any other feedback, suggestions, or requests?

Startups don't need to be ruthless

Post ImageGreg Linden asked a very interesting question today: Is ruthlessness the key to success for Web 2.0 startups? He cites examples of Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and others using spam, porn, or other “ruthless” means to become successful. While the idea might be intriguing, I think it is far too simple.

First of all, being “ruthless” is relative, right? What’s ruthless to me might not be ruthless to you. More importantly, I’m pretty sure Facebook and the others did a bunch of other things that contributed to their success. Saying they became huge by “spamming Harvard students” makes for an entertaining article, but probably avoids the more boring reality of why they are popular.

Secondly, the idea doesn’t hold true in all Web 2.0 startups. As was suggested in the comments on Greg’s post, there a bunch of other companies that did not rely on such ruthlessness to make it big – Flickr, del.icio.us, and 37signals, just to name a few.

It’s pretty common to hear that you need to be ruthless to succeed in business, but I don’t think it’s the kind of ruthlessness that Greg is suggesting. Perhaps instead of porn and spam making them ruthless and thus successful, it’s working long hours, making sacrifices, cutting costs, and being creative that made them “ruthless” in the pursuit of their ideas.

Read: Greg Linden

FutureSex/LoveSounds

Post ImageNormally when I listen to music, I listen to a playlist I have created, not a specific artist or album. This is primarily because I find there just aren’t many albums that are excellent from start to finish, or that I would want to listen to over and over again. Justin Timberlake’s new one titled FutureSex/LoveSounds however, is one such album.

I’m completely addicted to this album, and it kind of surprises me. The first time I heard “SexyBack” on the radio, I wasn’t that impressed. The song really grew on me though. Same for “My Love”. Actually I think you could say that about most of the album – the more you listen to it, the more you’ll like it. If I had to pick a least favorite track on the album, I’d say “Chop Me Up” which features Three 6 Mafia (and I don’t care for them). My favorites are the title track, “What Goes Around…”, and “Pose” which features Snoop Dogg.

It appears I am not the only one who likes the album either:

The album became the fastest in 2006 to hit 2X Platinum, making it after only a couple of weeks one of the biggest hits of the year. Timberlake will begin touring in January 2007 to support the album.

It has already set some records too:

The album debuted in the number one position on the Billboard chart, selling 684,000 copies its first week. The album is also the biggest album ever for pre-orders on iTunes, and beat Coldplay’s record for the biggest one-week sales of a digital album.

FutureSex/LoveSounds is Justin’s second studio album (Justified was released four years ago). All I can say is that I am glad he made it. And if his next album is anything like this one, I hope it comes sooner rather than later!

Read: Wikipedia

Notes for 11/12/2006

It’s Sunday, which means time for notes!

  • Yesterday was Remembrance Day. Just another Remembrance Day. I agree with Darren – this holiday/event/day/ritual is stale. We need to somehow breathe new life into it.
  • Tom was up from Red Deer with a friend for the weekend to visit. It was nice to see him! We sure played a lot of Xbox 360 this weekend. He totally schooled me in NHL 2K7…I’ll have to practice for the rematch.
  • Speaking of video games, Engadget has a really great coverage roundup post for the three newest consoles.
  • Last night my good friends Jane and Andrew celebrated their birthdays in a joint dinner at The Mongolie Grill. I had never been there before, and while the food was good, the service sucked. Here are some pictures from the dinner. Looking at them just now, I realize I don’t look very open and positive – my arms are crossed in almost every one!
  • At first I wondered why NBC gave the green light to a full season of “Studio 60”. Then it hit me: they’ve got nothing better! That said, Mark Cuban makes a good point. If funny videos like Mentos in Diet Coke are the future (and maybe they are), why is Google/YouTube spending money to license content? The answer is that right now, they need it. Crappy as it might be, millions of people still watch “Studio 60”, and advertisers are all about eyeballs.
  • The Xmas season officially started for me with the arrival of Starbuck’s red cups this past week.

What would Apple do without any content?

Post ImageImagine for a moment that the record labels restricted or entirely removed Apple’s access to their catalog of content. What would Apple do? I’m not suggesting the record labels are going to do this anytime soon, but it seems Microsoft has gotten smart and come up with a way to attack iTunes, and it’s not related to the hardware:

Nobody partners like Microsoft. The company is one of the shrewdest deal makers on the planet, when it isn’t competing with partners…There has been buzz for sometime that labels were unhappy with Apple’s single pricing and were looking for a cut of iPod sales…Seems to me: Microsoft is looking to suave labels’ hurts as it seeks to get the deals that could make table stakes for taking on Apple. After all, Apple doesn’t control the content.

When you consider Microsoft’s deal with Universal Music, the possibility of similar deals with the other record labels, and it’s recent Xbox Live Video moves, it becomes clear that access to content is at the heart of Microsoft’s new strategy.

Apple’s strength is hardware, it’s what they do best. Without any content for that hardware however, it becomes a much tougher sell.

Read: Microsoft Monitor