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May 31, 2006
On May 24, 2006 SightSpeed introduced version 4.6 of their video conferencing solution and I must say that I was blown away. I have been patiently waiting for a video solution with quality as good as, if not better, than Apple's iChat AV which would also work cross-platform and be easy to use. Finally SightSpeed has come to the rescue.
May 30, 2006
The thing I like most about traditional web search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN is that they ask very little of me as a content creator. All I have to do is make my web site easy for to crawl by their search engine spiders. The beauty of this is that it's a fairly easy thing to do, and I don't have to change a thing if additional search engines are launched. New search engines can index my site's content and display results from my site without any additional work on my part.
TurnHere.com ~ The video insiders guide to neighborhoods across the world Watch videos of cities and neighborhoods produced by people in the know locally. (tags: movies reviews travel video neighborhood community) Free Image Hosting at AllYouCanUpload.com Upload and share...
May 29, 2006
Fitger's Beer RSS Feed - MNBeer A Duluth, MN brew pub is using RSS to keep their clientelle up to date on their latest batches via RSS. Nice work, Fitger's. (tags: beer rss) Why Google makes everyone else nervous...
May 28, 2006
Why we all sell code with bugs "Creating quality software products means knowing when to fix bugs and when to leave well alone, writes Eric Sink" (tags: business design security software)...
May 27, 2006
The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time "Our bottom 25 designees are all relatively well-known items, and many had multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns behind them. In other words, they were made by people who should have known better. In...
May 26, 2006
A little over two weeks have passed since we launched our WhoLinked.com contest to see who could move into the top-10 websites linking to Technology Evangelist according to our Wholinked.com report.
Here is where we started on May 10th:
Bipartisan Bill for Net Neutrality Passes House Judiciary Committee, 20-13: MyDD "This is an amazing turnaround, from a bipartisan stance against net neutrality, to a bipartisan stance for net neutrality." (tags: networkneutrality legislation politics AT&T cingular verizon) Top 7...
May 25, 2006
I spent a couple hours at a
downtown
Minneapolis Panera Bread today sitting outside enjoying the afternoon
weather while drinking a lemonade and catching up on a few emails between
meetings. At one point, I checked up on a few of my favorite RSS feeds in
Bloglines, including
The
Superficial for my daily dose of celebrity dirt so I can speak with
authority on "important" issues like the latest on Brit & Kevin,
Nick & Jessica, Angelina & Brad, and - of course - Paris Hilton.
May 24, 2006
I first heard about Blogburst when Frank Gruber mentioned it on his site in February, and immediately signed up. Blogburst, a division of the feed reader company, Pluck, syndicates blog content to news sites. Bloggers register their sites with the service and news sites then pick blogs to syndicate as additional content on their sites.
New Features at Live.com Local Maps: TechCrunch "Now, pushpins can be stored permanently by Microsoft if you sign in with your Live.com credentials, and can be categorized into any number of topics. The limit on the number of pushpins...
May 23, 2006
Have you ever noticed the tiny link at the end of blog posts called "Permalink" and wondered what that was all about? This is a look at where that came from and why it could go away if blogging applications would get their act together.
Click-to-play video ads for AdWords: Inside AdWords "We're very excited to announce the release of click-to-play video ads on the content network." (tags: video adwords google) Condo control: Noise level: StarTribune.com "Wouldn't it be nice to control noise in...
May 22, 2006
We launched the Technology Evangelist blog six months ago this past Friday, and have learned a lot about blogging over the past 180+ days. Here are a ten things we learned and/or wish we knew before we started:
Politicians Brave the Internet - With Help - Yahoo! News "Veteran politicians more familiar with turntables and typewriters are enlisting twentysomething computer whiz kids to help them brave the digital world of blogs, podcasts and the Web as they...
I posted a short
review
of the Delphi MyFi XM Satellite Radio at the end of 2005 after playing
around with it for a week. Now that I've had a few more months to get used to
it, I have a few more things to say.
May 20, 2006
How to you decide when is the right time to upgrade your gadgets? Do you have a trusted friend who you look to for advice on technology purchases? I'm talking about the kind of person who would help you make the right decision when it's time to upgrade your virus saturated computer or embarrassingly out of date living room computer.
May 19, 2006
I recently spoke to a marketing specializing in offline marketing strategies where sales are closed by phone or online. They're trying to figure out how to measure the effectiveness of offline advertising translating to online sales. This isn't as easy to track as traffic moving from a search engine or other link to a site where web analytics programs can easily measure the conversions.
BlogShares - Technology Evangelist I don't really understand BlogShares, but based on the stats they're reporting for Technology Evangelist, I'd buy buy buy. :-) (tags: blogshares)...
May 18, 2006
I decided to try out Linux again. A couple years ago I gave SUSE Linux a shot for the desktop, and it was not quite ready for primetime. UI elements were all over the place, the system would not always respond as intended, it was a bit messy. Today I thought it would be fun to try Ubuntu and Kubuntu Linux (GNOME and KDE respectively). I could not remember which I liked better, so I gave them both a shot. My setup is a Fujitsu TabNote 4020d.
How We Got DEMOgod by Nathan MacNeill: Guy Kawasaki You can calculate the number of times you should rehearse a demo by using this forumula: (tags: presentation tips DEMOgod) Blogs now have a world of influence: USATODAY.com "In fact,...
May 17, 2006
This is a list of web sites and products mentioned during Roald Marth's presentation at Dynatek's 14th Annual User Conference at VisTaTech Center in Livonia, MI:
Mark Fletcher presentation at Startup SIG: Niall Kennedy Niall Kennedy's thoughts and recording of a recent presentation by Mark Fletcher of OneList and Bloglines fame. (tags: niallkennedy markfletcher onelist bloglines presentations) HOWTO: Bug Check Your Blog: Performancing.com John Unger...
May 16, 2006
We recently picked up a Sony SZ series laptop, and since the previous killer laptop on this site was the Fujitsu 4020d I thought it wise to compare the two a bit.
It's the links, stupid: Economist.com "From teenagers to corporate executives, the new bloggers all have reasons of their own for engaging in this new pursuit." (tags: blogs blogging economist) Among the audience: Economist.com "The era of mass media is...
May 15, 2006
Palm has now announced their new Smart Phone the Treo 700p. I am excited to see how this phone stacks up against the 650, 700w and PPC-6700. I typically don't like to review a product until I have been able to play with it for a while, but to get everyone excited, here is a grid comparing th 4 top Smart Phones on the market today.
Apple, Softbank plan iPod mobile phones - Nikkei: Yahoo! News "Japanese Web and telecom conglomerate Softbank Corp. is working with Apple Computer Inc. to develop mobile telephones with built-in iPod music players, Nikkei reported on Friday." (tags: apple cellphone...
May 14, 2006
Wow, this was a popular one. I would like to respond to a few comments left in yesterdays post. I think that either we have a lot of zealots or I’m completely on the wrong page… Or maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Creating Passionate Users: Popularity Breeds Contempt "They'll diss things because embracing those things might force them to re-examine thoughts and assumptions they care about, or because those things represent a change they don't want to make." (tags: blog marketing...
May 13, 2006
Apple users are willing to take a large amount of abuse from the mothership. They will forgive Apple for just about every problem, heck, they will even sing the praises of Apple for the pain they go through. I should know… I’m a hardcore Apple user.
Verizon sued for handing out records to NSA: Americablog "The lawsuit seeks $1,000 for each violation of the Telecommunications Act, or $5 billion if the case is certified as class-action." (tags: verizon privacy lawsuit) Blogging vs Traditional Media -...
May 12, 2006
Yahoo Finance has been a real stand-out feature among Yahoo's various products for almost a decade now. While it continues to be an amazingly valuable feature, some sections within Y! Finance are very overdue for a facelift including the message boards.
US House Republicans suddenly pull cell-phone privacy bill, Rep. Markey thinks Bush spy agency types may have gotten it killed today: Americablog "Did George Bush just kill a bill that would stop people from selling your phone records for...
May 11, 2006
One factors search engines use to determine what a page is about is the text used in the links to the page. This is the anchor text, in HTML terms. For example this link to Yahoo used the terms "this link" as the anchor text. If a lot of sites all linked to Yahoo using the same two words as anchor text for their links, Yahoo would move up in search engine rankings for that obscure and not particularly relevant term.
Web 2.0 Innovation Map Find out where Web 2.0 companies are based. (tags: web2.0 googlemaps business) Get a Flash World Map of Your Flickr Photos: Flickrmap Build a flash world map of your Flickr photos (tags: flickr map photos...
May 10, 2006
Wholinked.com is a new service that publishes a list of sites that link to your site on your site. It's designed to be an easy to add credibility builder that shows off who's found your site's content link-worth.
Optical Illusions and Visual Phenomena: MichaelBach "These pages demonstrate visual phenomena and ?Ǭªoptical illusions?Ǭ´ or ?Ǭªvisual illusions?Ǭ´. The latter is more appropriate, because most effects have their basis in the visual pathway, not in the optics of the eye."...
May 9, 2006
Have you ever taken a GPS reading of your current, stationary position to get your coordinates? Chances are, if you stayed in that spot for a while you would see the numbers change ever so slightly. Also the unit might tell you that you are moving with speed and direction changing all the time. To try it, take a hand held unit outdoors, pick up the satellite signals and watch the readout. Why the apparent movement?
Wi-Fi Hotspot Finder, Product Reviews, and Industry News "JiWire helps you locate free and paid WiFi hotspot networks, secure your wireless Internet connections, and learn how to use Wi-Fi products and wireless broadband services." (tags: wifi wireless travel internet...
May 8, 2006
Steve Rubel posted earlier today about the
problem
with blog plagiarism and the role full-text RSS feeds can play in this
annoyance. Rubel posits that full-text feeds may eventually die off due to the
ease of republishing them to plagiarist's sites.
How to Wow 'Em Like Steve Jobs "The Apple CEO is well known for his electrifying presentations. Here are five tips to make your next talk just as mesmerizing -- or close" (tags: presentation SteveJobs apple tips presentations) Alexaholic:...
May 7, 2006
I love Amazon.com, and use the site every day to at least check a price. Let's just say that a lot of smiling boxes have shown up at my house Amazon. However, there is one nagging problem with Amazon's service that really needs to be addressed: shipping opacity.
May 6, 2006
Mike Davidson of Mikeindustries.com and Netvibes.com recently published a thorough analysis of how MySpace could cut their page views by at least 2/3rds by optimizing their page serving using AJAX.
May 5, 2006
Blogs Will Change Your Business: BusinessWeek "Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up...or catch you later " (tags: business blogging corporate marketing) Greasemonkey will blow up...
May 4, 2006
I am not a huge fan of the Palm OS. I think its multitasking is pitiful, the GUI is not sexy, and in general it feels like its stuck in the late 90s. I have been waiting for a Windows Mobile or some other device to dethrone my Treo 650. There are two devices that caught my eye, the Audiovox/HTC PPC 6700 and the Treo 700w. While I could compare features and specs side by side, that’s boring. Instead I’ll talk about both devices being used in the real world.
US FTC sues companies for selling phone records - Yahoo! News "U.S. authorities said on Wednesday they had filed suit against five online companies, charging they had illegally sold confidential phone records." (tags: ftc cellphone privacy) Another Web Pioneer...
May 3, 2006
We are trying to build the ultimate HDTV media center. Part of this process involves getting live HDTV content, meaning over-the-air, cable or satellite. About a week ago we got digital cable and tonight we just finished deploying DirectTV satellite. So how do they compare? One word: MAH!
The Hardest Lessons for Startups to Learn: Paul Graham "We've now invested in enough companies that I've learned a trick for determining which points are the counterintuitive ones: they're the ones I have to keep repeating." (tags: webdesign business...
May 2, 2006
The Macintosh rumor site MacOSRumors.com is reporting that the next version of Mac OS X will employ a BitTorrent driven iTunes. The story is probably buried under online advertising, so you’ll have to work to read it… You know, close the pop-up window, now close the hover window, and it’s next to the 10 Google ads. Hmmm, knowing them it’s probably under 3 more pop up advertisements.
This is just a rumor and Apple rumors are rarely correct, but this particular item is very interesting and near and dear to me. At Technology Evangelist we have dabbled in distributing high definition videos online via bit torrent and have even highlighted a key application called Democracy Player. Lets make the assumption that this rumor is true (just go with it for now) and that Apple will be releasing a torrent engine in the Mac OS X 10.5 version of iTunes. What does this mean and why?
Technorati Top 100 by Google Backlinks A different look at the top-100 blogs based on Google backlinks courtesy of Phillip Lessen of blog.outer-court.com. (tags: technorati blogs ranking) Senator Reid asks Senator Frist to move ahead on cell phone privacy...
May 1, 2006
This is our 2nd edition of top blog posts from the previous month. Ben gave me a lot of crap after last month's report since he wrote only a few posts yet delivered 4 out of 5 of last month's top posts. In fact, he gave me so much crap that I changed the rules.
Stay tuned ... it's video in Google Reader: Official Google Reader Blog "In our never-ending quest to help you waste your day in better and richer ways, we've added support for video feeds that have Flash players. Mainly, this...
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