Feb/10N/A
Apple embracing competition?
If Apple were to bundle the iBooks store as a built-in app, and it absolutely dominated the iPad e-book market as a result of that, Apple could potentially be accused of a similar abuse of power that Microsoft was accused of in the 1990s, when it got in trouble for bundling Internet Explorer as the default Web browser for Microsoft Windows. (Microsoft eventually settled, and still bundles IE with most copies of Windows, but it was a huge mess.)
By not bundling the iBooks store as a built-in iPad app, it seems likely that Apple would be in better shape. It can say that iPad customers have equal access to rival e-reader apps and e-book stores, such as Amazon's or Barnes and Noble's, and aren't being pushed into Apple's e-book store.
Apple giving competitors a semi fair shake on their device? I'll believe it when I see it....
Feb/10N/A
Location based fraud
There's been a lot of talk lately about a guy who gamed the competitive aspect of Foursquare. Basically he used the API and some scripts to create a bunch of fake accounts and repetitively check-in all over the place, stealing mayorships from angry players all over.
This is a problem Foursquare faces because of the competitive nature of the platform. Aside from the pride of being mayor of a place, many venues offer deals for the mayor. So it's easy to see why some bad apples out there might screw the system for their own benefit.
Of course that has no effect on the other aspect of the service, which is to update your friends on where you are and to find out where they are.
With an open API there is not a lot Foursquare can do to stop fraud. Certainly they can implement certain algorithms to stop users from checking in all over the place, and that may be the route they choose. But cheaters are creative, and they will constantly try to find ways around such algorithms.
I'd propose a different method of fighting cheaters: Only allow check-ins via official Foursquare applications (and possibly approved applications to be featured on the Foursquare website) to count towards mayorships and badges.
Though they don't do it yet, the official apps could ensure that you are close to the places you are checking in via GPS. Third party apps could be required to submit an explanation of their location strategy, some source code, and/or a version of the app for Foursquare to test.
It's obviously not a perfect solution because it won't be an easy task for Foursquare to approve applications if they become too numerous. It could also prove confusing for users who don't get why their application isn't giving them mayorships/badges.
However, Foursquare faces a tough problem and the faster they can react to it the better. It would be better to put these restrictions in place early and be able to lift them when good preventative algorithms can be developed than to put them in place later.
Feb/10N/A
Aren’t analysts good at math?
Jonathan says he "couldn’t find compelling evidence" that AT&T's contract with Apple ends this year. He gives it a 50% chance. Additionally, there's a 25% chance that AT&T would bid for -- and win -- another year of exclusivity. Add them up, you get 75%.
This guy is an analyst? Let's go for a quick review of basic probability. By his guess, there's a 50% chance Apple's contract w/ AT&T is over. And then, given that the contract is over, there's a 25% chance AT&T would win the bid for another year.
Basic conditional probability says P(A and B) equals P(A) * P(B given A). So the chance Apple stays w/ AT&T is 25% * 50% which is 12.5%. Pretty damn different from 75%....
Jan/10N/A
“Please make sure your friends are comfortable with any use you make of their information”. Really Facebook?
Jan/10N/A
Hulu Looking At $5 Monthly Subscription Fee For Older Episodes
Hulu is looking at charging $5 per month subscription fee to access older TV episodes, the LA Times reports.
One plan being considered would allow users to view the five most recent episodes of TV shows free but would require a subscription of $4.99 a month to watch older episodes. Hulu believes it will need at least 20 TV series -- both current ones and those no longer on the air -- to make such a pay service attractive to users. A firm pricing model could emerge within six months, the sources said.
Hulu has been thinking about a pay model for months now. In September, Chase Carey, COO at News Corp., said Hulu would have to charge for access to some parts of its business.
Following up on his comments, Carey said in November "Hulu will always have its core which is free, but we have to develop a dual revenue stream." Advertising revenue alone isn't going to support the site.
See Also: A Hulu You Have To Pay For Is "Not In The Cards" Says Comcast's COO
This is not a bad idea if they have COMPREHENSIVE archives of TV shows. Meaning every single episode of a lot of shows
Jan/10N/A
Spring 2010 Schedule
It's finally the eve of my final SPRING semester (still one last one to complete in the fall) of my undergraduate years in college. I'm so ready to get this over with. Just thought I'd take a look at the classes I'm taking this semester and what, hopefully, I will be learning about.
- COSC 365 - Programming Languages and Systems (Brad Vander Zanden) - language paradigms, language design, and implementation issues. Basically seems to be a in-depth look at the design of programming languages and it sounds pretty cool to me because I love learning all different languages. BVZ knows what's going on when it comes to CS
- ECE 313 - Probability and Random Variables (Michael Thomason) - Probability. Not terribly interesting but cool. Crucial if I wanted to use Reinforcement Learning in AI as one of my upper level electives next semester.
- ECE 316 - Signals and Systems II (with the tyrant Michael J. Roberts) - can't say I want to take this. At all. Here's the miserable catalog description
Sampling theory, theory and application of Laplace transforms, feedback, root locus, gain and phase margin, theory and application of z Transforms, digital filters, and discrete-time state variables.
- ECE 342 - Analog Communication Amplitude and Frequency Modulation (Paul B. Crilly) - More signals and such. Lots of electrical engineering that I'm not terribly interested in, but we'll see how it goes. I had Crilly for Digital Logic and I really liked him so that will be good.
- ECE 455 - Embedded Systems Design (Xiaorui Wang) - Embedded systems, assembly programming, and machine architecture. Should definitely be interesting because I loved assembly programming in 355.
- EF 402 - Just a one hour classes to prepare for the FE exam.
I'm also trying to get into CS 360 which is Systems Programming. Lots of user level programming with user control, file control, and memory management. Just gotta see if I can take it despite the fact that it's scheduled lab is at the same time as ECE 313.
Should be an interesting semester...
Jan/10N/A
Goodreads a good target for Barnes & Noble
I was reading a book on my nook earlier today (Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto
Then I realized, Goodreads is a very logical acquisition target for a company like Barnes and Noble. With the move into digital products business models change and a great way to stay relevant is to get social. B&N has clearly already seen that there is something inherently social about the books people choose to read by offering a lend feature on the nook.
Goodreads is really nothing more than a central location to get social about books. It offers the ability to put up a list of books you've read, are reading, and plan to read (as well as the option to put those books into whatever types of lists you want). You can update your progress in a book and comment on the book or a section of it as you go.
With nook integration they could make it really easy to share a section or quote in a book that you enjoy. When you're reading a book you could easily overlay all the public highlights and annotations that your friends have shared, making it an even more interactive and social experience.
Of course Goodreads offers users the ability to review books and share those reviews with friends. It would be tremendously helpful if, while browsing the store on your nook, you saw reviews from people you actually know and whose literary tastes you find in harmony with yours.
In addition to all of the Goodreads offers groups that allow you to find people reading similar books and discuss them with. Much like that of your friends, fellow group members commentary could be inserted into the book as you read it, allowing a whole new level of interactive reading.
On it's own Goodreads is a great site, but if it were combined with a big company like Barnes and Noble (or another big book seller - I only chose B&N because I think the nook has the best opportunity in this space), it could be leveraged to create completely new reading experiences.
Dec/09N/A
More on why the old retweet sucks
I'd like to add a little further add to my previous post on the old retweet. Frankly, I think the old retweet sucks. And I think those that argue that the new version doesn't allow for commentary are right, but wrong that the old solution is at all a good way to go about providing that commentary.
I'd say that in 90% of cases, a tweet is too long for someone to retweet and be able to provide any kind of additional comment that creates value. So what do you do? You either alter the tweet to make it shorter so you can add what you want or you say something brilliant like "agree" or "wow".
In the first situation you're changing someone's message. You are altering what they had to say, making it hard for your followers to REALLY know what they said. Someone could easily alter that message in a way that benefits their comment and it would be immediately apparent. The only way to get the original message is to go to that person's profile and find it, which is way more work than just including the link to the tweet.
In the second case, your commentary is not very valuable. Your users might know how you stand on the subject, but that's about the best you can do. There's very little being added to the discussion.
This is why I like the solution I provided. It gives you plenty of space for commentary, while making it pretty simple to get to the pure, unaltered, original content.
Dec/09N/A
What to do with the old retweet
There's been a ton of backlash with Twitter's new retweet functionality. Most of the complaint is directed toward the fact that, when you use the new retweet, you can't comment on what you're sharing. There are also complaints that seeing a tweet in your timeline from someone you aren't following is confusing. And some users don't like that they no longer have the metric of looking at their mentions and seeing how many times a tweet was retweeted (something I think will be resolved before long by Twitter).
Conversely, it's clear that the new retweet has a lot of value for Twitter. It allows them to really see how much a specific tweet was shared and has the potential to give them a way to rank tweets by their value. There's still a long way to go in making it happen, but, in my opinion, it's really hard to argue that the new retweet isn't good for Twitter and for users.
However there is the important issue of commentary. Being able to comment on something you're sharing can often be crucial. But it's not a simple problem to solve. If you just add the commentary to the new retweets you could get a long unmanageable stream of comments in addition to every tweet, completely defeating the biggest value Twitter brings: simplicity.
So what should Twitter do? No surprise, I have a suggestion. First I think they should acquire some short Twitter-esque domain (like http://tw.tr or something along those lines) and make that, through a partnership with bit.ly, the official domain for links to tweets. Then add some sort of functionality, keeping it simple I would just call it comment.
When a user clicked the comment button on the web, the short link to that tweet would be pasted in their box giving them plenty of room for commentary. For third party applications, Twitter could work some magic to make it really easy to make API calls via that link so that apps could show the tweet just the way the show any other individual tweet.
They would then have analytics they could use to assign value to a tweet as well as the commentary that makes Twitter great. This would also make viewing an individual tweet more interesting. When you go to the web page for that tweet, below it you could see all of the users who have commented on it (possibly even ranked by value due to the new retweet strategy).
I might try to make a few mockups of the idea. I'd love to know what you think of this strategy for improving the functionality of retweets. Like it? Have ideas to make it better?? Thank it's complete horse crap? Let me know.