RockMelt + Fb Email Could Rip Space Time Continuum

In this post, we'll take a look at what happens if two social media software forces on the horizon merge onto some hapless citizen's computer screen. Heaven help us all.

RockMelt Gives You More Stuff To Do At Same Time

Netscape-person Marc Andreeson is backing a new internet browser, RockMelt, that's driven by the power of social media. It's built off of the same thing that gives us Google Chrome, but this time the sides of your screen will be loaded down with all the social media shortcuts you could possibly need in a hot second. Hang on... I need to Tweet that, Like it, and Post it to my profile right now.

Google Chrome = Gas Powered Mini-Cooper
Fun, lightweight, and gets you
there without costing battery life

One RockMelt tester reported that all the excess live activity made him feel twitchy, like having too much caffeine. It seems that for everything you might do on the internet there are 30 responsive actions you can take to let everyone know that you did it. One second... I need to Share it, Friend it, and save it to my queue right now.

Well, imagine if this was combined with other news, like say for example:

Facebook Awakens Sleeping Gmail Killer

In a move that's called “Project Titan” by those on the inside and the “Gmail Killer” by those on the outside, Facebook seems to be opening up a new portal into a seamless social-media-driven email client. This will let you have an email address ending in @facebook.com, and it will presumably further merge your personal and your social lives, so everyone will be all up in your business.

Caution: Checking Facebook Email on RockMelt May Rip Space-Time Continuum

If you find yourself with plugs running from your upper spine down one arm to a USB port while in the other arm you have a coffee needle slow-dripping into your arteries, you may be going too fast. In fact, your brain speeds may reach critical mass and threaten the fabric of space and time. A tiny black hole could invisibly open, right behind your computer screen, and it will suck all of your brain power through it to the other side of the unknown reaches of the universe.

Is All This Constant Brain Activity Making Me Better?

According to some reports, excessive and constant multitasking can actually make you do everything worse. One family suffered from burned cookies, dropped grades, and a $1.3M business deal nearly lost. Think about it: Are you getting more done? Hold up for one minute... I need to poke it, Buzz it, Yelp it, and tell everyone I know. Right Now. 

Thirty of your friends like this. Do you like it too?

Choice Tech Headlines from Nov 7-13

1. Make your email end in @facebook.com

2. Graphics card company CEO: next round of Android tablets will be “magical”

3. Google gives $1k bonus and 10% raise to all employees; fires the one who leaked the news

4. Google steals engineer from Facebook at $3.5M

5. Blackberry coming with its own tablet PC

Brief Illustrated History of Google

Based on a True Story

(Click on a picture to view larger version)

Larry Page and Sergey Brin conceive the idea.

They hire Craig Silverstein and name the
company after the number 10 to the power of 100.

Starting with a gift of $100k from the cofounder of Sun Microsystems, they try to
sell the company for as little as $750k. They are turned down, but they subsequently
receive about $25 million from other companies to keep going.

Google expands rapidly by buying lots of other good ideas, including a
3D Earth software and internet upstart-turned-sensation YouTube.

Google begins hopscotching around several different
industries and services until it just about offers everything.

Justin Bieber vs. Level 19 Fire Troll

Now you can choose on Google's free in-flight WiFi

Need to play World of Warcraft in the sky between JFK and LAX? Or review the YouTube library of Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga music videos before the peanut cart arrives on the aisle? Let the fight between two of your favorite WiFi options begin--maybe even before the seatbelt sign turns off!

For most of the year, you can pay just $11 for 24-hour access to Google's WiFi internet at certain airports and on certain planes. However, recent news reports let us know that Google is once again offering free WiFi at certain airports and on certain planes during the holiday season.

Free?!?!

Wait a second, you're saying. There's no such thing as a free lunch, and certainly there's no such thing as free WiFi.

How does a big ticket company like Google get its millions if it spends its days offering free, high-quality, and useful items? I feel like Microsoft charges for nearly every little thing it can offer, so to me they're not on board here. What's the business strategy in offering free stuff?

To me it seems like Google has long held a mantra of offering choices and, when possible, free choices. Their original search engine was famously simple to look at, not riddled with flashy banners and ads, and yet today Google is considered today to be a powerhouse in advertising.

Google acquired YouTube and kept the free service free: because free is a great word for building an audience. Today Google offers free WiFi all year round for a number of nearby Californian residents. From Google we get a free internet browser, a free desktop gadget utility, free lightweight yet powerfully adaptable email, and even an entire operating system (although this last one is admittedly not free; it does come preloaded on gadgets to be announced in the future).

The company's unofficial slogan at its inception was, “Don't be evil.” My thought is that the company seems to have spent its history making useful products that are either free (Google Earth is free, but its former competition wasn't), pleasant in their efficient utility (Chrome, Google search engine), or just a straight up challenge to the existing market competition (Buzz, Android).

To see evidence that Google is growing and succeeding, just take a look at the history of their investments, including stocks and acquisitions. I don't think that just because a company is enormous means that they are evil. So far Google has been pretty good to me.

Next time:

A Brief History of Google: An Illustrated Companion

Ug Goes Out: Self Publishing

Download the first half of the book here!

With this link you can view the first half of the book on Google Docs or even download it directly from there for your eBook reader.

Ug Goes Out is a children's book I published earlier this year. Here's the description on the back of the book: “When a caveman quits his job at the coffee shop, he takes a break to discover who he truly is.”

Nearly a year ago I leapt into the foray of self publishing, hoping against hope to draft a Newberry Award winning children's book on the first try.

Previously, for a college course, I had already mapped out a certain narrative about a caveman living trying to navigate life in a suburban neighborhood, a life in which he experiences everything from pet ownership to courtship and a career switch.

I spent the next several months drawing the pictures, whipped it up into a PDF, and uploaded it onto Lulu.com. This shouldn't sound so simple: I was able to complete this book mostly by using weekends and precious vacation days from work. It felt like a monumental task.

I marketed my book through word of mouth, using a blog, Facebook, and by passing out pretty fine-looking bookmarks (if I do say so myself) with my design of the book cover and where one could get a copy if one so chose.

Ordering about a few test copies, listing my book on Amazon and eBay, and ordering the bookmarks to pass out at work took a reasonable step of faith on my wallet's part ($138.98). Fortunately, my wallet's blind faith was satisfied for a net proft of $4.17, enough for a small sip of coffee at your local multinational coffee chain. After reading the dangers of self publishing, I considered this no small feat and patted myself on the back for a job well done.

When the process was completed, I wanted to do it again.

I had seen all kinds of potential for Ug and the world from whence he came, including the characters I've made but haven't used yet. A ninja learning patience. A pirate learning communication skills. A Western outlaw learning temperance. A knight learning bravery.

My work with students who have special needs showed me that Ug could be a great metaphor for their cause: a unique individual puts his talents into a real-world skill set while at the same time learning to connect with, for the first time, another human being.

Although Ug doesn't have a particular disability, I began thinking about how I could extend the metaphor while at the same time making it more particular. Could the pirate have Tourette's syndrome? Could the ninja have ADD? YES! A heart-warming series of children's books in which lovable mythical characters live in a suburban world and have to deal with issues that make them different and special—some of the same issues that many kids today have to deal with.

Raise your hand if this is a good idea. All I need now is to take a paid year sabbatical to work on these books.

If you would like to download the first half of Ug Goes Out in PDF to read on your eBook device, please follow this link.

If you would like to download the entire PDF for $3.99, please follow this link.

If you would like a paperback version of the book for $19.99, please follow this link.

If you would like a SIGNED paperback version of the book: let me know with an email to glowsandbeeps@gmail.com, and we can work it out.

Interview with a Youth Minister

Great sense of humor and understanding. "Youth Ministry" has post-graduate degrees both in Theology and in Making Youth Group Awesome. He has traveled far to bring home a greater sense of purpose and mission.


How do you use new technology at your job?
I am both a Youth Minister and a middle school teacher, and so I find myself using technology often. In YM it's mainly for communication to young people and their parents. Without using Facebook (and texting), I would not reach probably 70-80% of the kids I'm trying to reach. And email just makes it easier to stay in touch with parents. As a teacher, I use different media all the time in the classroom (short downloaded films shown on my projector) & mainly email to communicate with other teachers. 

Is there any new technology/website made in the last 5-7 years that you cannot live without?
There are three: my phone, Google calendars, and Dropbox. I recently dropped Outlook like a bad habit (which it is) and switched to Google calendar and my life has never been more seamless. ... (*sweet! Giants just won World Series!!!!*) ... It easily syncs with my phone and iCal on my Mac and updates in just seconds when I add an event. I also like that if I ever lose my phone I haven't lost my schedule for the whole year. Then there is Dropbox. I can access all my files on any computer I'm on...it's a great tool. And being able to use a SmartPhone where I can receive my emails and sync my calendar is priceless. It keeps me from spending 2 straight hours every day sifting through a bunch of email when I get to the office cause I can take them as they come.

Is there any new technology/website made in the last 5-7 years that seems useless to you?
Twitter. I still don't see the point, but obviously someone does since it's so wildly popular. Maybe I'm just not narcissistic enough to appreciate it.

What do you wish you could do with technology that you can't do now?
I'd like to think I'm forward thinking enough to come up with an answer to this question, but for some reason nothing is coming to me. I think I'm just inundated with figuring out how to bring the school into the 21st century with their technology.


[EDIT: Over the phone, "Youth Minister" and I discussed a new answer to this last question: a specific notification that all cars should give, alerting the driver what specific maintenance they should expect and why, including the last time such a maintenance was done and how frequently it should be done. We even pictured the Microsoft Paperclip, only this time it would be a wrench with eyes, popping up onto the windshield. "Did you know that your brake pads are close to needing a change? Would you like me to search for nearby auto repair shops now?" Why, yes I would! Thanks for asking!]

Interview with a Game Designer

A graduate of a major Virginian college, he packed his stuff to begin his new job at a major video game developer out on the West Coast. A few years later, he is recently married and has begun a new job at a software developing firm for social media.

How do you use new technology for your job?
We use Google to sync all of our emails, calendars, documents, and spreadsheets. It makes collaboration very easy at a fast moving company.

We use technology in many other ways as well to make our games, but I can't talk about it. :-)

Is there any technology/website made in the last 5-7 years that you can't live without?
Facebook. Cotton may have trademarked "the fabric of our lives," but that honor actually goes to facebook. Not just for time wasting antics; it has fundamentally changed how the entire modern world population interacts with the people closest to them on a regular basis. If you magically removed facebook from the world now you would remove a great deal of friendship and family interactions that carry enormous value and wouldn't happen otherwise. That's only going to become even more true in the next few years.

Is there any technology/website made in the last 5-7 years that seems useless to you?
This is a hard question, because technologies that disappear are quickly forgotten. Yahoo Answers and Hunch are equally useless; how often do they come up in search result answers to questions, only to act as a depository for hundreds of people who don't know what they're talking about?

What's one thing you wish you could do with technology but can't yet?
I wish that every application I interacted with was aware of all the data that I use in my entire life and then decide ahead of time what information I'd probably like to access. This is coming in the next 5-10 years through cloud computing and the social web but it's not here yet.
Some examples:
- When I look for dinner recommendations my phone, it should automatically tell me if any of my friends are eating nearby, or which ones nearby my friends recommend, and also know that I like variety and so I probably won't want Mexican tonight, since I had that last night
- When I'm shopping at the mall for something, I should be able to browse the shelf by what things my friends have bought and what products are recommended to me based on my past purchases in every store I go to. This should also happen on the mall directory, suggested stores for me to visit
- My mom should get notifications of websites that me and my brother have visited recently and tagged as interesting that are cross-referenced with her own interests and demographic, presented in "These are sites your sons were looking at that you might like" form
- When I wake up in the morning to get breakfast, my mobile device/computer/fridge from the future should be aware that I have recently become interested in longevity and nutrition because of books I've looked at online or at the store, and also aware of the fact that I normally eat breakfast at 10:30am, and print out a suggested grocery list for me to pick up. Better yet, my favorite grocer already has the list and all I need to do is go to the store and get it.
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You can read more about this game designer at his very own blog, seen here: http://thegameprodigy.com/

Prophet Speaks End Times for Microsoft, and I Don't Mind

Earlier this morning InformationWeek published an article spelling out the clues for the end of Microsoft, citing poor fiscal performance, failed fringe products including a blogger platform, and a lack of innovation in the new tech spheres that have become the main arena for thumb masters of late: “cloud, social media, mobile, and tablet.”

For the last several years, Microsoft has consistently seemed a day late and a dollar short in the tech world. Years ago Google skybombed members of Search Engine City (if you don't remember AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, Yahoo, then sneak a peek at some of the former citizens of Search Engine City here) and set itself up so strongly that its name was literally verbalized (“Verbalized? Let me Google that.”). In my mind, it was the search engine of choice because it gave not only fast and thorough results, but because its simple white page was easy to look at, its advertisements were not flashy color banners, and my search results for “how to get rid of poison ivy” weren't sidelined on the results page by news headlines for celebrities, sports, politics, and album releases. Google felt like a functional tool and not like a commercial machine. Not that there's no money to be made in being "anti" commercial. One search result suggests that the worth of Google is $153 billion.

People Named Bing (from left): Fan Bing Bing, Carmella Bing, Bing Crosby, favorite apartment neighbor Chandler Bing (played by Matthew Perry)

Microsoft's answer? Bing. I guess they wanted a name that would be quickly verbalized as well. Although originally loaded with news headlines for celebrities, sports, politics, and album releases (arg! I don't need another portal page!), the new search engine streamlined these features down to unassuming links available on the margins of the search page. Search results come up easily, showing results from wiki pages, eHow, and some suggested search terms. I can even easily switch my web search to an image search and be shown a grid of pictures gleaned from web pages according to my original search query, “how to get rid of poison ivy.” Hey, you know who had all of these features already? Google. Am I switching? No.

How about in the realm of computing? The article cited at the top of this entry has Microsoft claiming 90% of the operating system market when computers are sold, and this is supposed to be evidence for Microsoft's continued long-term strength. Too bad when it was time to upgrade from my Windows XP desktop to a shiny new laptop in 2008, Microsoft was just then getting on board (see: day late dollar short) with producing a system that looks good and offers some finger functionality as well, similar to the cool tricks that a Mac can do. Its name was Vista, and it had appeared on every single computer in Best Buy without me knowing about it until my poor self showed up at the store. I was not prepared to see a label that promised to double my PC memory and speed, only to find out that Vista runs like an old woman and needs all the rocket boosters you can strap to her.

Then of course, two days later and two dollars shorter, Windows 7 came out, promising to fix all that and add even more. The commercials for Windows 7, where Windows users each claimed to have created a cool feature in the software based on what they wanted before, really said this to my ears: “I've seen Macs do this ___________[cool feature], and I've wanted it for a long time. Microsoft, after years of deafness, finally listened to its customer base.”

If this is Microsoft's status pro quo, I don't mind seeing it die. Google has risen from the depths to provide a meaningful competition with Apple, and since I love both companies, I'm excited to see where it's going. What I don't need is Microsoft shouting from the corners in Round 3 that it's ready to start fighting.

Then again, as Paul McDougall says in his InformationWeek article, Microsoft might recognize that the future of computing lies in cloud, social media, mobile, and tablet. If Microsoft can stop producing knock-offs of great innovations and counting on its loyal customers to flock to it, and instead if Microsoft can become a true innovator in these new and fast-moving media, I won't mind seeing Microsoft stick around.

That's one teacher's opinion.