Nels Wadycki » Diatribes

Evidently AT&T Does Know What Kind of Phone I Have

Nels — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:35:17 +0000

This one is a much better sell than the previous marketing email. Still kind of odd they’re going for the upsell iof adding a line with the 3GS instead of the 4G, but perhaps they did some checking and saw that I’m not actually eligible for the 4G just yet.

Other Stuff Like This

Doesn’t AT&T Know What Kind of Phone I Have?

Nels — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:40:21 +0000

Maybe they make more off the BlackBerry since they don’t have to give as much back to the manufacturer of the phone?

Other Stuff Like This

Apple Shutting Down Lala, Another Great Startup Obliterated

Nels — Sat, 08 May 2010 00:07:16 +0000

First: I Was A Lala User
Second: Why Do Good Companies Ruin Startups?

I Was A Lala User

I’ll give Apple credit for giving a month of advance notice, but on the other hand (that first part was the first hand), why are they shutting down Lala before they launch iTunes.com? I must conclude that it means they’re going to change the business model and neuter features available on Lala.com and they don’t want to have to deal with migrating current users of the outstanding service. How very Apple of them. Not supporting legacy anything is a good deal if you can swing it. And – unfortunately for me – they can get away with it.

Now, I hadn’t bought all that many web songs on Lala, but it was not exactly a trivial investment – especially for someone like me who used to open up multiple BMG accounts to get 10 CDs for the price of 1 and 4 extra for “referring my friend.” I’m happy to give artists money when I feel they deserve it, and that’s precisely why I loved Lala so much. I could listen to every song on there – the full song – and then decide whether I wanted to buy it. For me at least, I think that probably led to more purchases than I’d made in a long time because I got sick of paying for music that I’d never heard and wasn’t sure if I’d ever want to hear again.

Now, I will get an iTunes store credit for the web songs that I’d purchased on Lala… better than nothing, but it kind of feels like buying stock and then having it exchanged for 1/10th of a share in a new company with the same stock price. I’ll use it, because it’s there and I hate losing money… but… then what? Use the new iTunes.com? Or…?

ReadWriteWeb evaluates a few alternatives including MP3tunes, MOG, Napster, and Rhapsody. I’m also going to check out eMusic since I supposedly have 35 free MP3s there… but, in terms of how I use Lala, I think that a combination of Pandora and Amazon will have to fill the gap… With Pandora, I can listen to unlimited full songs for free, and then when I find something I like, I can go over to Amazon and get the MP3. (I could do buy the songs from iTunes as well, since they do sell DRM free MP3s now, but I can’t help but want to avoid Apple since they are the ones who interrupted my music consumption system in the first place) The only issue with my new system is that I can’t just scan new releases, add them to my queue, and then buy the web song for any songs that I want to hear again.

Why Do Good Companies Ruin Startups

I never used Dodgeball so their acquisition and subsequent shuttering by Google didn’t really affect me. But then they took over Jaiku (My posts tagged: Jaiku) and basically shut that down (yeah, it’s still there, but there’s no real support for it any more). Now Apple has bought Lala and is shutting it down. Why?

The obvious answer is: talent grab. Everyone knows that these big companies are basically rewarding the talented developers who started the companies by purchasing their whole company for a significant sum of money. I can’t blame the developers for taking it. And I guess I can’t blame the companies for doing it. That’s just the way the business works. It just sucks for consumers who end up with a crappier end product (eg: Jaiku vs. Google Buzz) because the big company seems to restrict and/or slow the development of the new imitation products. As I mentioned above, the fact that Apple is giving people iTunes store credit for the web songs that they’d purchased on Lala is almost a guarantee that the web songs will not exist on whatever web version of iTunes Apple launches.

Another example: One of my favorite features of Jaiku was the ability to unsubscribe from specific feeds from specific people. So, if I follow someone on Twitter and don’t want to see their imported Twitter feed duplicated in my stream, I could unsubscribe from that and only get their other updates. I have not yet seen that in Google Buzz, and if it’s there, I haven’t seen a place to do it.

It’s tough because, on the one hand, I am very happy for the developers and I do think that they deserve to be rewarded for their hard work. I just don’t understand why, if a site is so successful that it warrants being bought out, it doesn’t continue to be run in that successful manner. Okay, I actually do understand why. I already said it in the second paragraph of this section. The big companies want to pull the talented developers off the successful site to recreate the site for them. So really, what I don’t understand is why the big companies don’t continue to run the successful site and do a better job of integrating it and turning it into what they want instead of just shutting it down and rebuilding.

Other Stuff Like This

As the iPhone evolves, so does Gmail

Nels — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:10:13 +0000

But none of the recently announced innovations are making my eyes light up like a kid first gazing on his Easter basket.

First, from the Gmail Blog: Nested Labels and Message Preview. The Nested Labels thing actually did have me excited as though it were a chocolate egg or perhaps a Peep. But then I read this:

Please note that this lab doesn’t play nicely with the “Hide Read Labels” lab. You might not get exactly what you expect if you have both labs enabled; for example, the collapse/expand icons won’t always appear when they should.

and all the twinkle in my eyes was snuffed out. I tried it out and found it to be true. It didn’t work.

Honestly, the “Hide Read Labels” lab experiment is more important to me than sub-labels ever could be. Since I make extensive use of the keyboard shortcuts, I can navigate to any label I want with a simple “g + l” or “/” and the name of the label. I use the “Hide Read Labels” so that I only see labels with unread messages, which gives me a visual indicator of what has been filtered out of my Inbox and placed under another label for later viewing. Thus instead of viewing 44 labels, I can collapse my chatterbox (which I don’t use anyway since I have Trillian) and see my Calendar Gadget. Viewing Unread Messages and Upcoming Events is easily of more value than being able to have labels under other labels. Of course, the whole labeling system was designed so that you don’t really need nested labels at all. I know there are people who have not given up the folder hierarchy mindset, but it’s too bad that they’ll have to give up their hidden read labels in order to get it.

Another thing it’s too bad people have to give up in exchange for something else: Flash. We all know Steve Jobs hates Flash, and since Apple can do whatever they want, they’re free to disallow the use of Flash on the iPhone and iPad until a court of law says otherwise. It just seems kind of mean and pointless. I mean, even if Flash goes the way of Cobol, Adobe isn’t going to die. They have a suite of graphic design and image editing tools that is basically unparalleled. Photoshop : Graphic Design :: iPhone : Smartphones.

It really just seems like another iPhone “because we can” move. Much like the we don’t want a porn store excuse for not allowing unsigned apps on the iPhone. At least with that one they have a reason, but really it’s just another “because we can” move. It’s not about porn on the iPhone, it’s about apps which provide no revenue for Apple.

It’s certainly not a dumb move by Apple, and in this case (as opposed to the Flash case), they at least have a legitimate excuse to hide behind. I’m sure Google is betting that once they hit a tipping point in terms of number of apps, normal people (i.e., the non-geeks) will get outside of the default “must buy iPhone” mentality and at least consider that there are other possibilities.

The other iPhone point I wanted to make was more related to the point I was making about addition of new Gmail features and concerns iPhone OS 4. Honestly, Multitasking isn’t something I think I actually need. It seems great in theory, but I’m not sure what I would actually use it for. Since I can already listen to the iPod through the native app and then go do other things, I’m not sure what else I would want running in the background that doesn’t already provide push notifications (e.g., email, phone, etc). I would consider streaming internet music if there were a Lala app available, but since Apple bought Lala, I think that multitasking use case has all but died.

The folders thing will be nice, but again, not something I’m jumping up and down about. I have a pretty stable set of apps on my phone now, and while grouping them will probably make life a little easier, I’ve gotten pretty used to things as they are so I’m not singing out for joy at the thought of being able to reconfigure them a little bit more now… It’s a nice feature, but it’s also something that I would have already had if I’d gotten an Android phone. And if the Motorola Droid or the Nexus One had been around at this time last year, I probably would have.

Other Stuff Like This

AOL Lifestream Might Be Totally Awesome

Nels — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:43:43 +0000

…but I may never know.

Part 1: Shock and Awe

I made a decision to try to just focus on positive things with this blog, but given my previous obsession with Lifestreaming, I can’t help but comment on this.

I read about AOL’s Lifestream earlier today on TechCrunch who, rightfully, said that it might be what Google Buzz should have been. From what Michael Arrington says, it may be all that and more.

The problem is, when I tried to sign in using Facebook Connect (which I would normally say is a great use of social network integration by AOL), I get this:

Whawhawhat? Really? No, really?

I’ve never seen that permission asked for before, and I hope I never see it again. While Facebook may be the Walled Garden with Reinforced Steel and Concrete Walls, I kind of like it that way. I can post stuff that I know only people I’ve friended will see.

Okay, so I could probably get past the fact that their sort of invading my privacy because, yeah, they’re trying to break down the Great Wall of Facebook. And since I’m sure some people will want to share everything everywhere, sure, ask for that permission. There’s that nice “Don’t Allow” button there that solves the problem.

Except… oh wait!

So, I can only use AOL Lifestream with Facebook Connect if I let them share all my Facebook updates with whoever they want. I… I… I can’t bring my self to say it, but it starts with F and rhymes with PALE.

Now, with all the privacy turmoil that Google caused when they launched Buzz, I wonder if AOL Lifestream will be similarly crucified by people who just click on through to the other side without actually paying attention.

Part 2: Rational Continuation

Just so I’m being thorough, let me say that I was able to log in to Lifestream using my AOL IM user name, and it looks like you are allowed to change your settings on a stream-by-stream basis using the options: No One – Private, My Buddies on AIM, Everyone – Public. There’s no way of knowing that when signing in with Facebook Connect, though. I tried adding Facebook again without giving them permission to grab all my updates and was again denied because I hadn’t given them enough permissions. I know for a fact that AOL doesn’t need that permission to connect my accounts because I’ve made a Facebook app that posts to people’s walls and I had never heard of that permission before.

I was able to authorize my Twitter account (since that’s my “public facing” status update app) and that appears to work very well, although, it looks like I can only “Like” my own updates and those from my AIM buddies, but not any tweets imported from my Twitter friends.

But it gets stranger… I decided to keep going, and give Lifestream the permission they so desperately wanted, and it turns out that sharing with Everyone – Public is not an option for the Facebook stream. So, they got it half right, I guess.

The one good thing that does come of this is when there’s a status update that I want to post both to Facebook and Twitter, I can use Lifestream to do it – and if I do it from my iPhone, I can even attach a photo and location information! Of course, after giving Lifestream access to my Foursquare account, it appears that posting to Foursquare with that location information, is not possible. It’s a river that flows into AOL with no salmon to swim the other way.

I’m still wary of leaving the app as it is, though, with all that access to my Facebook stuff, but I did set it to Private – No One, so hopefully that will keep it locked down. Oh, and another lockdown bonus: the iPhone app lets you edit your buddy list, which is good because I still had some buddies left over from when I actually used AIM.

Final Conclusion: iPhone app is good for posting to Twitter and Facebook simultaneously, but in the end, it’s just another social network that I doubt any of my friends will even deign to notice.

Other Stuff Like This

Web Apps = Automatic Upgrades

Nels — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:00:02 +0000

While it wasn’t one of the major factors I talked about in my previous post, the following is a quick and easy example of another reason that webapps kick ass: No Upgrade Cycle

Google launched Buzz 2 days ago, and already their making changes based on user feedback. But the best part is not that they’re making changes and responding so quickly, rather it’s that the update gets automatically pushed to everyone. No download. No install. Just, roll out, and boom, it’s there.

Other Stuff Like This

HTML Is The Future

Nels — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:02:50 +0000

I declare that emphatically because I want it to be so. I’m sure I’m not the only code monkey out there praying that “write once, run anywhere” doesn’t leave us like ###… Even now web developers have to test across at least 3 different browsers,* but at least things are trending towards standardization and it’s becoming easier to create a web app that will behave the same independent of a user’s choice of browser.

Smartphones pose a serious threat to that ubiquity in the same way that the differences between Windows, Mac OS, and Linux made developing desktop apps an elephant-sized pain in the ass. Web developers have long wished and advocated for browsers that run everything the same way. While that is probably never going to happen, the difference between developing for IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera is much (much much) smaller than the difference between developing for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

if (Portability > Usability) then ?

There is a reason that desktop-style web apps are popular. Yes, people still use Outlook, Thunderbird, and many other fat desktop clients for email, but there’s a reason that there’s 300 million people using Yahoo Webmail, Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL Webmail (I extrapolated that number from these percentages of market share), and that given the choice, 49% of people choose Gmail as the best email client. There’s also a reason that Google has basically given a big fat middle finger to native iPhone apps with their Gmail client in HTML5 (and now Google Voice web app, also in HTML5). There a reason that there’s a lot more “mobile touch” web sites than there are iPhone and Android apps. There’s a reason that I get practically all of my links from Read/Write Web and not Read/Write Native Smartphone App.

That reason is Portability. That is: I can run a web app from anywhere on anyone’s computer (or phone) as long as I’ve got internet access. So, while a client like Outlook or Thunderbird offers a slightly faster response time and some extra features, if you use one of those and don’t use a web-app version in addition to the desktop client, you suddenly sound like someone who doesn’t really know how the internet even works (do you really want to be the person who says: “I have to check my email on my home computer”?)

And for the second part of the equation: Usability – the gap between web app and desktop app is getting smaller every day. Web developers continue to push the limits of what web-based applications can do with respect to speed and user interfaces. Sure, web apps (even the good ones) are slow compared to native apps when they’re running on a (relatively) slow phone with a (relatively) slow 3G internet connection. But the speed of the phones and the connections is improving even faster than the speed of the apps themselves.

So, now take the difference in Portability (we’ll say this difference is a fairly large positive in favor of web apps) and add the difference in Usability (we’ll say this is slightly negative with respect to web apps) and then add in the fact that you can write a web app in one language and have it run on every single phone and computer with internet access and see if you don’t come out with a conclusion that says: HTML is the Future.

And, if you want some awesome tips for developing in HTML5, check out Alex Bosworth’s post.

* Yes, all you Opera and Safari heads, I said at least.

Other Stuff Like This

Hustle

Nels — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:55:04 +0000

Two hits from Lifehacker today: Hustle When You Want to Learn New Things and Ira Glass on Getting Creative Work Done.

The first is the key to the door, and it’s easy to insert and unlock: Hustle. Simple as that.

If you want to do something: do something. If want want to make progress towards a goal: do something. If you want to learn something (like Matt Nowack in the post): do something. Just keep doing something (hustling) and you will get things done.

So that pretty much covers that. Except, it also leads into the second post, which is: the reason you have to keep hustling.

That reason is, as Glass says, when you start out, what you’re making isn’t all the great. But you know that, and if you keep at it (keep hustling) you will get better, and the quality of whatever you’re doing will improve, and eventually (if you hustle long enough) it will rise to the level that you’d imagined in the first place. This is a good reason to follow the popular entrepreneur’s slogan Fail Early, Fail Often. You can replace Fail with Hustle and you have essentially the same meaning as long as you recognize that your first (and probably several subsequent) efforts at hustling will not be as good as you intend them to be.

For a more concrete example: I read a few blogs on writing (creative writing) and the idea is the same when writing a novel (or short story). The first draft of a novel is almost never the final draft. Most writers (who give advice) encourage others (“aspiring” writers) to write the first draft as quickly as possible and not to even worry if it’s total garbage that no one would ever actually read. Because, as Mr. Glass says, you know it’s not all that great. (I like how he avoids saying “It’s total crap.”) But if you know it’s not that great, then you can go back through it and revise and polish, and it will get better every time. If you fail on the first draft, at least you have a first draft. You can take that ~~crappy~~ not so great first draft, and you can edit it, fail again, and then edit it again.

At some point you have to release it into the wild, but that is actually another chance to fail (and improve). In this example, you release your book into the wild (say, to a publisher who then edits it further). You observe what they have done, and then you hustle to fix it, and send it back. You may fail again. And again. But eventually, they’ll put it out into the hands of readers where you will get a whole new set of complaints. Once again, observe, hustle, and continue hustling – in this example, on to the next book.

Or in the case of blogging: on to the next post.

Other Stuff Like This

Blogging is Easy

Nels — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:30:28 +0000

From a (sort of) recent Facebook status update:

While I agree for the most part with the “Tumblr > Twitter” sentiment, well, that’s kind of obvious. Twitter is definitely good for some things (mostly sharing short fleeting thoughts, but also sometimes for sharing links, and conversing with people who use Twitter as their main form of communication). I did not see “being a blog” in that list, though. And as Commenter #1 points out, you can view Twitter updates on your Tumblr dashboard while posting slightly longer commentaries on Tumblr. Of course, Commenter #1 also makes the fatal mistake of saying that he (or she) wishes they knew HTML.

I’m fairly certain that with a little practice, just about anyone could use a Wordpress.com blog without knowing any HTML.

I think what’s really going on here is: People have gotten used to posting status updates and they’re cool with that, but what happens when they want to post something a little bit longer and ~~actually well thought out~~ more introspective? They secretly want to write a blog post, but are convinced that a) they need to know HTML, b) that no one will read it, c) they’ll have to keep doing it (or look like a failure), and d) it’s hard (for many reasons that probably just depend on who you’re talking to at the time).

Tumblr is building it’s popularity off of these popular misconceptions, and, well, good for them, I guess. I just wish that instead of throwing out Tumblr as the next step up from Tweeting, we could enlighten people as to how easy blogging really is.

For example (again, not to disparage what Tumblr is doing – just as a comparison): One can post text, quotes, links, and embed video in Wordpress as easily as in Tumblr (plus you have Categories in addition to Tags). Posting a photo or audio file is more complicated, I can admit that, because Wordpress’ media uploader requires some a little trial and error to figure out (even in its current super-simple form). That said, it’s still pretty easy, and when you want to post multiple pictures, it’s significantly easier. You can select them all from a single dialog, and then insert them individually (and select from multiple size options), or just make a gallery. Like I said, it’s not bash-your-head-in easy, but it’s got value-added at a pretty high ROI. So, the only thing that Tumblr can do much more easily than a Wordpress blog is post a chat transcript. I don’t follow all that many people’s tumblr blogs, but I’ve never seen any of my friends post a chat transcript.

So, d) it’s not that hard, a) you don’t need to know HTML.

b) No one will read it?

You can have a Top 100 blog on Technorati just by picking a URL and posting photos that correspond in a somewhat ironic manner (or not at all) to that URL.

Finally… c) you’ll have to keep doing it. This is the One True Thing.

That said, you have to keep posting to your Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Anything Else or it will wither and attract tumbleweeds just like a regular old (brand new, awesome) blog.

And of course, this is also the rub. If you want people to read your blog, you have to post stuff. You have to post stuff even when it’s just your parents and the person you live with reading it. Even if your parents and the person you live with aren’t actually reading it. If you want people to look at and comment on your Tumblog or Twitter or Facebook or Anything Else, you have to put something there for them to comment on. I’ve already shown that using Tumblr doesn’t make it any easier to post content (although, it can provide the illusion that it does). But it doesn’t make you more creative or funny or insightful or emotional or powerful. That would be akin to saying “Oh, now that I can get the newspaper on my computer, I’ll actually read it.” Just because you can read it more easily on you computer without getting your fingers all dirty with ink doesn’t mean that you actually will.

Finally, if you use Tumblr, I’m pretty sure you don’t get analytics. While this is another somewhat in depth tool, you know you like checking how many people have visited your blog, and with Google Analytics it’s easy to see what people are searching for to get to your blog. I mean, how much more awesome is it when you can not just post something about vajazzling, but then also see that someone got to your post about vajazzling by looking for “how to vajazzle at home with swarovski”? Boom. Blogging FTW.

Other Stuff Like This

Kiplinger’s is really abstracting things this month

Nels — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:46:16 +0000

I’ve never been a huge fan of Kiplinger’s, but they do provide solid advice sometimes. I haven’t been needing as much financial advice (at least not the Hot Stock Top kind the magazines use to fill in around the stuff that’s the same every month) since I finally got most of my stuff automated (and invested in a single general mutual fund). But in the February issue, they’re really pushing it…

Here’s 3 headlines from the cover:
Double Your Income In Retirement
Saving Enough? Use Our Formula
5 Steps to Retire When You Want

I can summarize the first two in exactly 4 sentences:
1. Work until you’re 70 instead of 62.
2. Saving less than 5% of your pay? Work forever.
3. 5-14% – Work part-time.
4. 15% or more – You’re totally good.

Yup. I’m pretty sure it’s all that simple.

The third article (5 steps to retire when you want) is sort of decent, except the first step is: cut spending. Gee, thanks.

Next up: Get advice. Yes, from the internet where financial advice is not only plentiful, but free. Sure, it’ll take a little longer to do it that way… or you could buy a single book for $10 and go with that. That’s what I did, and I’m feeling pretty good about it.

Third step to “Retire When You Want” is to consider a Roth. Consider? Just consider it? They’re really aiming for LCD (Lowest Common Denominator) with this one. I mean, yes, people need this advice… but calling it “Retire When You Want”? If you really want to retire when you want, you need to be maxing out your 401(k) and contributing to a Roth and have a taxable brokerage account too. You cannot just consider a Roth. You need one.

Step 4 – Plan Your Exit – appears to be a cute story about how some couple went on a retirement cruise and rented their house. They’d saved up three years worth of living expenses, so they survived the Great Recession. I think the advice comes at the very end when they insinuate that you need to have a taxable brokerage account with a bunch of money in it. You opened one of those and put a bunch of money in it, right? Yeah, right after you considered opening a Roth IRA.

Step 5 is actually very good advice: Create Income. I’d argue you want to do this now as well as in retirement, but the fact that they mention it is good, because I think a lot of people do just focus on saving and don’t think about how much income their savings are actually going to generate. They provide a couple solid leads on how to provide a stable income during retirement.

Okay, since I hate people who tear ideas apart without making a positive contribution, here’s my positive contribution:

1 Step To Retire When You Want
1. Take action.

That’s right. Do something. Anything. But please, don’t just read another article and think “hmmm, I wonder if there’s other advice that would {contradict|further help|provide additional insight to} this advice?”

Ramit Sethi (my personal financial advisor) has this blog post which will tear you apart and provide the same positive contribution.

The amazing thing is, this applies to much more than personal finance. For example, if you want to start a blog, you can spend time reading about how to attract people, research good topics, look for lots of different templates and themes, evaluate a bunch of stat tracking packages, look for potential advertisers, or you can just start writing. That’s the core of blogging, just as the core of saving for retirement is saving money.

Final note, yes, I do understand that personal finance magazines would go out of business if they only published one article every month that just told people to save money. And there’s other stuff they have like what documents you need to keep in case of an audit, college rankings, FAQs on new credit card rules, etc. So, not a complete waste of money… I just thought this one was really stretching it for “cover story” articles.