Another in my series of non-sequitur titles. I’m not cashing out of anything (wish I had a Ponzi scheme going or something)…
This is a follow-up to the last two posts. I’m going to combine 5 or 6 posts into this single one, so here goes:
1) Am I Selling Out On Twitter?
Talking to people over on Google Buzz cleared my mind on this topic. It all comes down to “if I feel OK posting something, go ahead and post it”. The giveaways and other promo looking things I post, I don’t get any cash for, I’m either trying to make my followers happy (so I get more) or I just genuinely like a product and want to promo it.
2) Hacking Google Buzz
I’m gonna wrap this together with Gaming Social Networks. Most social networks have APIs public and private that you can use with a fun, handy tool called cURL. So in certain cases, you can either a) use tcpflow and watch what is going over the wire or b) set up a local proxy and capture everything there. The local proxy helps quite a bit when uncovering iPhone APIs. I’ll leave it to the imagination, what you have to do next.
3) More Google Evilness
This is just a suspicion at this point and I don’t think I could ever find hard evidence so I’m not going into it. The gang at Google is not dumb so they wouldn’t leave things laying around in the open for people like me to find.
4) Why Chrome Sucks
Just going to list one reason here and shut my trap about the others. In OS X, open about 20 tabs in Chrome, use your machine doing other stuff for a couple hours and come back. Click to a different tab, it reloads because during those couple hours, Chrome decided to purge memory and unload that tab (same concept of memory management seen in Android OS). Since I use 20 tabs all the time, I just can’t deal with the loading/unloading. I’m also using the dev channel build so this may be different for mainstreamers.
5) Google Buzz Still Leaking Personal Info
Whenever you look at someone’s friends or followers, up to 10,000 user profiles are downloaded (even if you just want to see the first 10). In this JSON stream, you can see account aliases which more often than not are email addresses. I was able to see all of Jason Calacanis’ emails. I’m not sure if this has been fixed or not (haven’t been wading in the Buzz JSON stream lately).
6) The Holy Secret Of Compiling Mod_Python
And this goes for mod_wsgi as well. More often than not, you’re going to get some bs about not being able to move mod_python.so because it doesn’t exist. Why? Because the shared/static library it depends on doesn’t exist? Why? Because you don’t have the apr-utils installed. Why? Because you didn’t compile them when you built httpd. Why? Because it’s not obvious at all this is what you need to do.
And if you’re on RHEL, just install the httpd-dev RPM and all is good.
And if mod_python works, but everything you run gives you a 500 error, make sure python and httpd are using the same libexpat version (the ldd tool is handy for this). Even if it’s complaining about something super irrelevant, check that libexpat.
And if this doesn’t take the award for the most boring post on this blog, I don’t know what would.
Oh yeah, I’m adding my résumé to my about page. You can download the pdf here. Comments appreciated. And this doesn’t mean I’m on the market.
Follow Me On Twitter!
This is a great image, by poopbear, of fictional vampires duking it out. There is no significance here, I’m not down, or out, or anything; just busy. Some topics that I’ve been meaning to write about:
- Hacking Google Buzz
- Google Buzz Still Leaking Personal Info
- More Google Evilness
- Why Chrome Sucks
- The Holy Secret Of Compiling Mod_Python
- Gaming Social Networks
These are just off the top of my head. I’ll write some of this stuff up soon, but if anyone is interested in something, let me know!
Follow Me On Twitter!
I have never been paid for a tweet. I just wanted to get that out there right away.
This doesn’t mean I haven’t had offers of a hundred dollars for a single tweet. I’ve just always refused, believing that the higher moral ground is more important to me and I don’t want diminish any social currency I may have.
If this post sounds like gibberish, the back story is that I have over 150,000 followers on Twitter and the growth is only accelerating. With this many followers, I’m getting approached more and more often by people wanting to promote their products. In the past, I have agreed as long as:
- It’s not a scam
- It’s a product or app that I genuinely feel has some value
As already mentioned, I don’t take kickbacks and in most cases, I don’t even receive the product I’m giving away. I would rather see a happy follower, than use that product myself (if they were iPads, the story might be different, heh).
So you may have noticed that I’ve been running a few giveaways lately and will probably continue to do so. If these are annoying, don’t hesitate to let me know.
I really want to hear your opinion on this. Is it annoying? Should I continue? Should I eat a rock?
image/flickr
Follow me on Twitter!
Update: And that’s a… over. The iWrap giveaway is over!
I was convinced I didn’t need an iPhone, until I laid hands on one. That day I got the first generation iPhone and put it in the category of “most life-changing device” I’ve ever owned. I’m an absolute fanatic. Of course, I got the iPhone 3GS the day it came out and I’m sure I’ll get the iPhone A4 when that comes out.
Anyway, to the point. One thing I love about the phone is how easily it slips into the pocket. I’ve always wondered WhyTF people used these big ugly screen protectors on the device making it as huge as a brick. I’ve never used a cover and have taken excellent care of my devices. Sure they get minor scratches, but you have to look pretty close to see them. I once had an argument about this with a brick-cover user and finally won by pointing out he still had a large scratch even with the protector.
Anyway, back to the point. If I were to get anything for my iPhone, it would be a wrap/film cover so as to not make it bulky. And that’s exactly what I’m giving away, the iWrap.
I haven’t used this product, but looking through the site, reading about it, and reading the testimonials, the iWrap seems like the best option out there.
I have 10 iWraps to give away from now until 2/21/10 (maybe 9 since I want one for myself). Just leave a comment (you can say whatever, but keep it civil) and make sure to fill in your email address in the comment form. I’ll announce winners each day on my Twitter account - @clatko - so follow me to see if you win.
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Update: I started writing this post and realized I’m finding so much about the iPad on a daily basis, I’ll never finish this. I’m going make this sticky and continue to expand on it as I uncover new notions of what this thing is.
There seem to be two warring factions over the iPad, those that think it makes sense and those that don’t. I’m firmly in the “think it makes sense” group.
Flash
I hate Flash. I hate the AIR runtime. I don’t even have the browser plugin installed (my hatred extends beyond ClickToFlash). But most of the people that will buy this device will have some sort of affinity for it. I can just see my sister, buying this for use on the couch, firing it up and Farmville being a blue square. The lack of Flash matters most to those who don’t even know what it is.
This is the New Apple OS
Some fear that iPhone OS X, which will most likely be re-branded Mobile OS X, will creep upwards to laptops and desktops. Apple is not stupid, this will never happen. Do you think they haven’t noticed the huge developer community that lives and loves OS X? This is the community that create the applications and apps that make iP and Macs such a pleasure to use. Apple is not going to do anything to interfere with the love.
The iPad is for my Mom
Recently, my parents hashed it out over my mom’s desire for an Apple laptop. My dad was against it as he didn’t want to learn a new OS. She ended up with a Dell. The iPad would be perfect for her, no learning required. What we’re seeing here is the wii-ification of the game console. Bringing a somewhat arcane device to the masses. But my mom is going to be awfully pissed her genealogy software doesn’t work on it.
It’s Just a Big iPod Touch
And my iPhone is just a smaller, less powerful, less capable iPad. The only things that matter about the physical aspects are a) the size of the screen and b) it’s running Apple’s A4 chip (which I’ll get to later). Watching the Jobs announcement was boring, truly boring. I wasn’t there so I checked out the live blogs without the benefit of motion. It was the 7 minute iPad intro video that blew my mind. And the word on the street is that you “have to use it to understand it”. Watching the video was enough for me. It is the interface that allows this device to excel where everyone else has failed.
It Doesn’t have X, Y, or Z
I firmly believe that Apple has introduced what the market will bear, not what Apple is capable of. You can see evidence of this tactic with the camera in the iPod Nano and a lack of one in the iPod Touch. The iPod Touch can survive with its current specs, the Nano, not so much. I bet Apple is currently working on the 3rd or even 4th generation of the iPad right now. I also believe this product line will be pushed more aggressively, no once per year updates.
This is Not a “Hobby” Product
When we got the iPod Touch, it wasn’t called the iTouch. Same with Nano, Shuffle, and now Classic. The branding remains consistent - iP. The iPad fits into this branding mold, whereas a “Hobby” product does not - tv.
The Apple A4 CPU/GPU
I don’t have any knowledge that isn’t already out there, but I’m damn curious how many cores this thing has. Apple, with its PA Semi purchase, has brought us a screaming, power-sipping monster. We all know the next iPhone will be called the iPhone A4. I bet this is what has postponed the launch of the tablet for so long, Jobs just was not comfortable releasing an underpowered device that did not hold up well in battery life.
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