Win an iPhone 3G from TSheets.com!

Jun 30, 2008 by Dan Taylor    26 Comments    Posted under: Technology

Oh snap!  Ok, if the new iPhone wasn’t enough to get you juiced, how about a free one?  Right.  Let me say that again…how about a free iPhone 3G?  Un huh…and no, it’s not a scam.  This is the real deal folks, a good ol’ fashioned down home competition that isn’t all about some skeevy marketing company trying to get your email address and then repackage it.  It’s about change.  The iPhone 3G makes change in one’s life possible.

So here’s how it shakes out:  What’s the craziest/coolest/awesomest(?) thing that you do at 10 after 5?  Ok, before you start whining, yes…some of us do leave the office at (or pretty darn close to) 5pm everyday.  Which reminds me, ed. note: Remember, life is short.  Work hard, but also remember to leave the office at a decent hour.  Too much time at the office and/or working is not a good thing.

Ok, with my public service announcement out of the way, as Eminem said it best, “Let’s get down to business”.

The rules to bring home the bread are simple.  Photograph it, Film it, Blog it, hmmm…is there another media I forgot?  Anywho, you get the point.  The guys at TSheets what to know what you do at 5:10.  5:10 or Five Ten or 5ive 10, etc. must appear in your image (still or moving) or your blog.  They also need you to give ‘em a shout out here, and link yo’ junk up to TSheets.com (think SEO love).

Here’s the official skivvy from TSheets directly:

“5pm is possibly one of the most celebrated times all around the world. You’re free. Great God almighty, I’m free at last! Granted, at 10 after 5 you may or may not be calling it a day, but by most standards you’re free to go if you so choose. And this is exactly what we want to hear about. How do you rock it at 5:10? What’s the coolest, craziest, most creative thing you do at 5:10? Tell us all about it…maybe you load up the iPod and have your favorite DJ slam your subway ride home? Is 5:10 the time that you slip the wingtips under the desk, strap your Specialized shoes on and blaze through commuter traffic all the while chasing Lance Armstrong along the Champs-Élysées? Send us as many entries as you’d like. Talk to us!

All Entries must Include:

Something indicating that it is 5:10pm (examples = Picture with clock in the background, Video with clock, or blog posted at 5:10pm). Rockin’ a Flava Flav style clock is HIGHLY encouraged.

A link labeled “time tracking” linked to http://www.tsheets.com and a comment on this page so that we can find your entry.

You’ll score mad props from the judges by getting the most views or comments on your entry or if you give a shout out to TSheets. Props where props are due, but ultimately the most creative/crazy/cool post will land the ice.”

That’s it!  So now there are NO excuses NOT to have the year’s hottest bit of techno love riding in YOUR pocket.  And let’s be honest here folks…anyone that reads this blog on a regular basis MUST be slightly creative/crazy/cool…..Let ‘em hear about it!

Disclaimer: I am currently employed by TSheets.com as a copywriter (that copy was HOT wasn’t it?) and find an ethical conflict of interests, so I will not be entering this contest.  However…all of YOU are permitted to enter…so get movin’!

Ballmer to Yang: WTF Mate?

May 5, 2008 by Dan Taylor    1 Comment     Posted under: Technology

In case you’ve been living in a cave for the past few days (or on one heckuva drinking binge) Microsoft withdrew it’s offer to purchase Yahoo! on Satuday.

Not surprising, as this merger had red tape written all over it, but what really gets me is even as he’s trying to be polite in his letter to Yang, Ballmer still manages to end up sounding like a douchebag. In his official letter to Yang, Ballmer slams Yahoo!/Yang for considering outsourcing search advertising to Google (which is a whole other can o’ worms in itself), sighting that it would cause Yahoo! engineers to run for the hills, ultimately raising prices for advertisers (douchebag).

While I’m no huge Yahoo! fan, Jerry’s gotta be thinking; Hey Steve, “Go F#( yoruself!”

The whole letter:

May 3, 2008

Mr. Jerry Yang
CEO and Chief Yahoo
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Dear Jerry:
After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!.

I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo!’s Board of Directors for your consideration of our proposal. I appreciate the time and attention all of you have given to this matter, and I especially appreciate the time that you have invested personally. I feel that our discussions this week have been particularly useful, providing me for the first time with real clarity on what is and is not possible.

I am disappointed that Yahoo! has not moved towards accepting our offer. I first called you with our offer on January 31 because I believed that a combination of our two companies would have created real value for our respective shareholders and would have provided consumers, publishers, and advertisers with greater innovation and choice in the marketplace. Our decision to offer a 62 percent premium at that time reflected the strength of these convictions.

In our conversations this week, we conveyed our willingness to raise our offer to $33.00 per share, reflecting again our belief in this collective opportunity. This increase would have added approximately another $5 billion of value to your shareholders, compared to the current value of our initial offer. It also would have reflected a premium of over 70 percent compared to the price at which your stock closed on January 31. Yet it has proven insufficient, as your final position insisted on Microsoft paying yet another $5 billion or more, or at least another $4 per share above our $33.00 offer.

Also, after giving this week’s conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo! undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.

We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a “hostile” bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo! today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us for a number of reasons:

•    First, it would fundamentally undermine Yahoo!’s own strategy and long-term viability by encouraging advertisers to use Google as opposed to your Panama paid search system. This would also fragment your search advertising and display advertising strategies and the ecosystem surrounding them. This would undermine the reliance on your display advertising business to fuel future growth.
•    Given this, it would impair Yahoo’s ability to retain the talented engineers working on advertising systems that are important to our interest in a combination of our companies.
•    In addition, it would raise a host of regulatory and legal problems that no acquirer, including Microsoft, would want to inherit. Among other things, this would consolidate market share with the already-dominant paid search provider in a manner that would reduce competition and choice in the marketplace.
•    This would also effectively enable Google to set the prices for key search terms on both their and your search platforms and, in the process, raise prices charged to advertisers on Yahoo. In addition to whatever resulting legal problems, this seems unwise from a business perspective unless in fact one simply wishes to use this as a vehicle to exit the paid search business in favor of Google.
•    It could foreclose any chance of a combination with any other search provider that is not already relying on Google’s search services.
Accordingly, your apparent plan to pursue such an arrangement in the event of a proxy contest or exchange offer leads me to the firm decision not to pursue such a path. Instead, I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft’s proposal to acquire Yahoo!.

We will move forward and will continue to innovate and grow our business at Microsoft with the talented team we have in place and potentially through strategic transactions with other business partners.

I still believe even today that our offer remains the only alternative put forward that provides your stockholders full and fair value for their shares. By failing to reach an agreement with us, you and your stockholders have left significant value on the table.

But clearly a deal is not to be.

Thank you again for the time we have spent together discussing this.

Sincerely yours,
Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corporation

Douchebag.

New Balance: Made in the USA

May 2, 2008 by Dan Taylor    5 Comments    Posted under: Technology

I recently purchased and received two new pairs of New Balance kicks. The 570 for everyday city crossings, and the 8508 for some serious street pounding running. I’ve been a fan of NB for a long time now, and while it’s possible to get New Balance in Austria, finding them in a size 38 48 (US 13) can be quite a problem. I’m convinced that there are only a select number of men living in Vienna that have feet larger than a size 12. 12 is usually the max I can find. Maybe I should form the große Fußgemeinschaft (big feet community) and lobby for bigger shoes.

In any case, why I’m writing about them is not to tell you about how great they feel on my feets, and to be honest, how cool they look, but rather about the tag attached to the shoes. I had heard through the wind at one point that NB was made in America, and that they used as many American based materials as possible, and employed Americans to make said shoes. And while I’m not a supranationalist, and lord knows there’s things happening everyday in the US that I find extremely f*()#ed up (oh wait….heard about that Amstetten case in Austria?…Hmm…ok, so the world is f@&ed), I do find it quite cool to buy shoes made in the US, by Americans. I figure with so many jobs going everywhere else in the world (uhh…including myself actually), it might be nice to support a company based in the US, that makes shoes IN the US. However, I must admit, that both pairs that I purchased we NOT made in the USA but rather China. Regardless of this fact, the company is still US based, and they DO produce a number of models made in either Massachusetts or Maine, in stark contrast to Nike, Reebok and Adidas.

Without permission from New Balance, I’d like to reprint the copy of the tag attached to both pairs of my new shoes. Hopefully I’m not going to hear from any lawyer, as if you read between the lines here, I’m actually trying to encourage you to buy a pair of New Balance sneakers they next time you need a pair.

Many of our shoes are produced in one of six United States factories. While most of the footwear industry has moved its production overseas to take advantage of low labor costs and generally cheaper production costs, we continue to have many of our shoes made in the United States and have expanded production substantially. Since 1995, we have increased our manufacturing jobs by 65%. We at New Balance are proud to provide jobs to the U.S. workforce, and proud of our well educated, high quality associates who can compete with anyone in the world. Through their hard work, we are able to make many of our models of shoes in the United States despite the competition from lower cost imports.

Unfortunately, we are not able to obtain all materials and components that are needed for these shoes in the United States. In some cases, they are simply not available. In other situations, economic and quality considerations dictate foreign sourcing. however, New Balance remains committed to providing jobs for American workers. and to supporting domestic manyfacturers and suppliers where possible.

The Federal Trade Commission has attempted to determine what it means to say a product is “made in” the United States. While it seems like a simple questions, the answer is not always obvious given the global nature of the economy. We believe most consumers think “Made in USA” means that real manufacturing jobs were provided to U.S. workers in order to make that product. The shoes produced in our U.S. factories are made by U.S. workers using both U.S. and imported materials. Where the level of domestic value is at least 70%, we have labeled the shoe “Made in USA.” Where it falls below that level, we have qualified it as containing both domestic and imported materials. This determination is based in part on a survey of consumers conducted by the FTC. The Federal Trade Commission’s analysis of the Made in USA issue can be found on the internet at FTC’s website www.ftc.gov, or for a copy write to New Balance Athletic Shoes, Inc., Brighton Landing, 20 Guest Street, Boston, MA 02135-2088, Attention: Communications.

Given that there are a number of models made exclusively in America, I’ll forgo the assembled in China bit on my shoes, and keep on buying New Balance for the foreseeable future.

CSI, Facebook, and Method Man

Apr 30, 2008 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: News, Technology

Sounds like the intro to a joke eh? Bear with me, and I’ll tie these three together, and (try) to make a decent point.

I watched the latest episode of CSI last night (Las Vegas of course, New York doesn’t even register for me, and while Miami is ok, nothing beats the original). During the opening credits, I happened to catch ‘Guest Appearance – Method Man‘. Hmmm…ok, i thought. Given Mariah’s stellar screen debut, and Britney Spears’ oscar winning performance, I wasn’t expecting much from a Musician come actor (although, I did think that Eminem did a decent job in 8 Mile).

Well, shut my mouth, because Method Man (aka Clifford Smith) did an outstanding job. His role centered around a Vegas club owner who was serving a short 8 month sentence for a ‘weak ass weapons charge’. While he’s doing time, all hell breaks loose on the outside with a double homicide centering around the woman who raised him, a high priced prozy, a boatload of cash, and his baby mama. Method Man delivers an outstanding performance, completely believable, and never for a second did I think that he was pushing the boundaries of his acting ability. He’s even portrayed as the like-able criminal who stages a breakout, only to save the life of his future child, while never putting up a protest to return to jail after the scene plays out.

The Facebook tie in.

Ok, perhaps just because these are areas of interest to me, but this line jumped out at me like a red flag. During an initial interview with Captain Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) regarding the relationship between two of the female characters, Method Man is quoted as saying:

“…one minute, they’re sending each other cupcakes on facebook, the next, they’re trying to kill each other over a broken curling iron…”

After my initial chuckles died down, I got to thinking about this digital culture comment. Two years ago, this line might have been written a bit more like so:

“…one minute, they’re sending each other glitter tweety birds on myspace, the next they’re trying to kill each other over a broken curling iron…”

And while many others have already written about this topic, let me just put it here in writing; In 2007

“MySpace showed a yearly growth of 19 % Facebook grew at a rate of 125%.” – mybroadband.co.za

Clearly this facebook reference by Method Man (and respectively the CSI team of writers), is yet other subtle mention of what I’ve been preaching for a while now: Myspace is a dying horse.

Sure while myspace still enjoys a much higher share of eyballs, March 08 compete.com data puts Myspace at 68,339,999 visitors, with Facebook receiving 31,233,452 vistors (both figures based on US traffic only), the growth rate is the important factor to watch. In March 08, yet again, Facebook is the clear winner with a 9.3% growth rate, Myspace, 3.9%.

While I’m not sure that Facebook is ever going to overtake the eyball count that News Corp.’s Myspace has, in my opinion Facebook has already won the battle of cultural superiority. While Method Man/CSI’s cupcakes on Facebook reference was the first integration of Facebook that I’ve heard in a television series, I’d bet the farm that it won’t be the last.

nOqo world’s smallest mac

Apr 29, 2008 by Dan Taylor    2 Comments    Posted under: Technology

nOqo, makers of the ultra small, ultra hip mobile commuting solution have a bit to celebrate today. Over at the Oqo forum, OqoTalk, a user by them name of TRF has posted that he’s successfully managed to hack the OQO to run Leopard.

The OQO Model 02 is frequently used by a number of mobile professionals who need to capture, edit, produce, blog or access information in real time. The OQO Model 02 is used by professional photographers for example at the Superbowl to provide real time uploads of their images to media outlets who then in turn can publish these images within seconds.  By hacking the OQO to now run Leopard, profs can now use their subnotebook with an operating system that they’re most used to/familiar with.

While boot time takes about 2.5 minutes, once it’s all up and running, the user has virtually all functions of a standard notebook or desktop OS in the palm of their hand. The only component missing is WWAN access which TRF is now testing.  Watch the fuzzy cam video here.,  Skip MacBook Air…OQO now the worlds smallest Mac

25 mac apps you can live without, but shouldn’t

Apr 23, 2008 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: Technology

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think I might have accomplished my mission. Bigbluebottle has finally jumped into the game! Sure, he’s got bigbluebottle.com and a few other smaller blogs that he works on, but nothing that I would consider ‘taking the plunge’. Bottle’s got a head chock full o’ information about the tech and IT world, and I’ve been urging him for a while now to leap into the frying pan with the rest of us, and start contributing content to the world wide internets.

Let’s call this first entry a super soft launch of his new venture allogeneo.us. Spiffy URL name as well I might add. Very web2.0y.  Bottle’s managed to kick this one off with a bang, providing us with 25 mac apps you can live without, but shouldn’t. A selected excerpt:

Multimedia:

• ImageWell: If you just don’t have time for all the nuances and intricacies of Adobe Photoshop or GIMP, and just want to do some very basic image manipulation, use ImageWell.
• Audacity: At first, I’d have labeled this as a basic audio file editing tool, but since it supports VST plugins, you quickly learn that this little free tool has a LOT of power behind it.

• Blender: This one is a bit more of a niche product. Very powerful 3-dimensional modeling too.

Read the rest of this highly useful article over at allogeneo.us. And congrats B, welcome to the party!

Jason and the Golden AirBook

Apr 22, 2008 by Dan Taylor    3 Comments    Posted under: Technology

If the original 24k Gold Macbook wasn’t enough for you, Computer-choppers let their 24k Gold and Sapphire MacBook air loose on the market today.

This baby is bathed in 24k gold all the way around, and features the ‘classic’ mac logo with 86 multi colored sapphires. Even 86 Sapphires wasn’t enough to satisfy those krazy kidz at the ‘choppers and they’re also offering a polished gold superdrive to go along with it.

Maclust Realized

Apr 16, 2008 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: Technology

An ongoing review of Me and my MacBook Pro.

As Brent pointed out, I’ve not yet done a post about the shiny new bundle of joy that’s come into my life.  Well, let’s just say I’ve got a new toy.  More so than a toy, I’ve actually got my hands on a professional tool that’s going to allow me to be more productive, creative, and generally a better all around person (ok…that might be pushing it a bit far).  In other words…Maclust realized!

So dear readers, this is the first post I’m writing on the new MacBook Pro, and I’m sure you’ll understand and forgive me if the ‘screw doesn’t have a few posts for a few days….I’ve still got to use this darn thing. Biggest difference right off the bat; what’s the funny command key for, and I have to mount applications to install them?

I say a few days…probably more like a few hours. But all in all, thanks to all of you who’ve already sent me congrats messages. I’m incredibly happy already, and she’s only 6 hours old!’

A few days later (edit update) …

I’m just a little short of one week with my new MacBook Pro, and I’ve already decided that it’s (almost) the love of my life. I was talking with an uninitiated the other day, and she asked me why I love it. I honestly had to stop and think for a minute, as there are so many reasons, but I wanted to put it in plain and simple words she could understand. My answer? ‘Because it just works’.

Simplicity

Since this silver bundle of joy is brand spanking new, it shipped with Leopard, so I don\’t really have a version comparison to make, but all I can say is that OSX Leopard is probably the most intuitive OS I’ve ever worked with. Sure, it’s different from winblows and yes, it’s going to take you a minute or two to get used to it. But once you do…things just start making sense all of a sudden. There’s that lightbulb moment of, yeah…that was easy, why was that so complex with winblows?

Included Goodies

I’ve not yet done it, but I’ll be reformatting my old pc soon and rebuilding winblows xp. This got me to thinking, when I install winblows, what ‘extras’ and ‘goodies’ come with it? The core OS sure, along with solitaire, a calculator, and Internet Explorer. Oh wait…there’s defrag as well. If you buy your dell/hp/toshiba/sony, they often come preloaded with a boatload of crap that most of us go ahead and delete right off the bat anyway, so these do NOT count as goodies.

Upon booting up the Mac, I was delighted to find iTunes, iPhoto, Garageband, AppleMail, iMovie, Dashboard, Frontrow, (shall I continue?) preinstalled. Ok, I’ll admit it, one of the first things I unchecked as default was Safari in favor of Firefox, but hey…can you blame me?

It’s HOT!

Actually, quite the opposite. Coming off a 1.5gHz Centrino processor where I could more or less fry an egg on the keyboard after about an hour of usage, this duocore 2.5 gHz could keep my drink chilled. The secret? Aluminum. The mac comes in a super sexy aluminum casing. The aluminum acts as a heat sink and wicks heat away from the key components inside, thereby increasing overall operating stability and speed. Conversely, take a look at your PC notebook. I’m going to take a wild guess, and assume that it’s probably made from plastic? Plastic. Un huh…a heat INSULATING material. Along this same line, I was told before my purchase that one of the most frequent gestures I was going to make was to hit the shift key just to make sure that the machine was actually on. Whereas the fan on Compaq could sound quite close to a vaccum cleaner running at full speed, the Mac is virtually silent.

Power for Days

I think it’s no secret that I like to watch my American television here in Austria. That requires and download, and then a trip over to the TV to have a watch (the other monitor isn’t actually required, I just like to watch TV in the living room). Normally, I’d have another dedicated power source in the living room to plug the computer in, as I know it’d never make it through more than 1 one hour program. My first reaction after recabling my desk was, hmmm…I’ve probably got to go get another power adapter for the mac now as well. But I figured at least we could watch one episode of American Idol (I know…don’t hate, but David Cook IS seriously a good singer) before I’d have to recharge. Well, low and behold, I cued up 2 episodes, and watched them both back to back without the battery even flinching. Upon taking it back to my desk, the battery meter indicated that I wasn’t even half way empty. Doing a quick mathematical equation, this means that I could potentially get almost 4 hours of computing time from this battery in minimal conditions? WOW! Now that’s what I call power management!

BuiltIns

It’s just a bunch of the little things built into this quite possibly perfect mixture of function and form. Everything from the built in iSight webcam and microphone (making skype calls an absolute pleasure), to the magsafe power cable (I can be a bit of a klutz sometimes, and have tripped over a cable or two in my day). The environmentally sensitive ambient lighting feature knocks me out every time I watch it in action. The iSight webcam actually monitors the ambient lighting around you, and automagically adjusts screen brightness and illuminates the keyboard. I didn’t mention that already? Yeah, the keyboard f#(ing lights up in dim conditions. The 1440 x 900 display is absolutely breath taking (and I’m already trying to figure out how I can swing one of Apple’s 23″ cinema displays), and the 512mb NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT doesn’t hurt either.

Conclusion

I’ll keep this one very short. Have I mastered this beauty yet? Not even close. Has Apple made the (almost) perfect machine and OS, whereby I can get my way around and utilize some of it’s super fun and cool features within a few days? Absolutely.

A few moths later (edit update):

Things are still rock solid here at camp mac, chez DT.  Since the addition of a Vestax VCI-100 that I use to controll Traktor (thanks Ludwig), the mac now replaces my down dust collector Technics.  The Canon Vixia HF10 in combination with Final Cut Express is about as close as I’m going to get to Hollywood, and while I’ve completed the 12 step process for my World of Warcraft addiction, gaming on a Mac is still a heckuva lot better than my winblows experiences.

I’m still a VERY happy MacBook Pro owner, and want to buy the world a Mac.