Category: Technology

I finally figured it out

Sure, I’ve been using RSS for a year or so now, using it to keep up on my favorite websites. I never understood the devotion to it that its proponents exhibited at Gnomedex, in blogs and on the Gillmor Gang. Then I wrote my own RSS aggregator as an exercise and it struck me. Sure, there is the “real-time web” and all that stuff, which is cute and fine, but what is more interesting is all the other stuff that you need to keep up with. All of the sudden, I see anything and I see the need for an RSS feed. It all makes a bit more sense now.

I got a fever… and the only prescription is more RSS feeds.

some links and stuff
The clicker has recently had some right-on takes on stuff:

In this article, Stephen Speicher makes a great point about how the next-gen DVD format wars aren’t about which is better for the consumer, but rather about which is better for protecting the profits of the content distributors.

In this article, he looks at the effect and aftermath of the recent legal decisions on the broadcast flag.

Also, via kottke,

notcomming.com did a nice tribute to Saul Bass’ title work which is some of the most creative motion design work ever. They do a nice trick with a slideshow, but it would be cool if they posted the actual video (probably didn’t want to get sued into oblivion)

Posted: Sat – August 13, 2005 at 04:55 PM

When product design forgets about real-life users

A co-worker of mine, told me something I hadn’t thought about around the feature in MSN messenger that lets people see what you are listening to now. It seems that Messenger will broadcast whatever it is that is playing in Windows Media player to all your IM buddies. ANYTHING that is playing. If you are watching a video that you would be embarrassed about and you have these feature on, well, you get the idea.

From a business perspective, I think that the feature itself is sheer genius. Why? Well, because when you do show what you are listening to, it adds links so that your IM Buddies can buy the music you are listening to over at MSN Music. It is amazing, it turns you into a walking billboard (well, IM’ing billboard) for MSN music under the guise of creating a better sense of Community. I want to consider it evil, but it is such a great idea, I just have to admire it.

I wonder if you are watching Porn if it will send people to the porn site…

I’ll tell you why Bill…

It is your fault. Well, yours and Carly Fiorina and pretty much every other high tech CEO. You laid-off employees in secret and in public and you opened campuses in other countries and made promises to staff them with cheaper labor. You drove American software development wages down and crushed start-ups where the cool stuff is actually happening. You bring in H1-B indentured servants and pay them less than industry wages.

I am an alumni interviewer for the top CS program in the country. In the last few years, I have been asked more and more frequently if it is a good idea to major in CS given where the industry is going.

Honestly, I’d hate to be one of the kids graduating today with a degree in CS. The industry may rebound and wages may go higher for a little while, but the writing is on the wall. Today’s software developers are yesteryears machinists and assembly-line workers. Those were once solid middle class jobs with good incomes and now they are getting squeezed on all sides by companies who don’t give a damn about their employees and foreign workers who just want to make a decent wage.

I think that there will always be good CS jobs in America, but not as many as there used to be. The industry destroyed the image of the industry…

The funny thing is that while Bill is bemoaning the lack of qualified applicants to Microsoft, I have heard from friends in HR there that they are getting so many resumes that they can’t keep up. What is wrong with those resumes? Well, most of them are from people with industry experience, not college hires. You see, Microsoft prefers college hires (and H1-B visa holders) because they get paid less, work longer hours, don’t have families and are more likely to stick around in a job they don’t like (because they don’t know where else they can go). A 40 year old is not going to work five 80 hour weeks in a row because a Program Manager made a promise without consulting development. Or if that 40 year does work those hours, those will be his last five weeks at the company because he is either going to quit or die an early death.

Bill, you want more college students interested in studying Computer Science? How about making Microsoft a fun place to work again with good wages? How about not laying off employees in secret while doing massive hiring in China and India?

some references:
Gates: You just can’t get the staff (The Register)
Gates Puzzled Why More Students Don’t Choose Computer Science (KOMO News)
Gates stresses need for qualified help (The Seattle Times)
India calls for big increase in US IT visas

the guys at Dailysonic figured it out

link

Today is a lot better than yesterday

Until we started talking about weatherbug, not only were the speakers good, but the questions have been great, and Marc Cantor has mostly kept his mouth shut. I thought Steve Rubel’s talk was pretty good, but then the audience just started complaining about the product he was using as a case study. I finally asked a question, so I’ll be preserved for eternity in the podcast, but of course I forgot to say my name. For the record, I was the one who asked about “bad employee” blogs.

In general today was much, much better than yesterday. The speakers were interesting, if they were promoting something, they were willing to wrap it within a greater topic, the questions were on topic. It was much more interesting.

On a side note, most of the MSFT people that were here yesterday weren’t here today, so there was also a lot less pro-microsoft propaganda in the room which was a relief as well.

So to sum up…

If Gnomedex is about users and developers partying together, as a developer, I think it was pretty much a waste. I learned nothing really new. I heard opinions that I’ve heard expressed before, expressed again. I spent way too much time hearing about specific feature requests and bugs in software that I didn’t happen to use, and I had to listen to a lot of self-promotion and ego stroking.

If Gnomedex is a people aggregator, then I think it is more successful as an event, just maybe not for me. While it was great putting faces to voices that I’d heard on podcasts, I’m a bit too much of a wallflower and I didn’t really make any useful connections. Then again, there wasn’t really anyone there that was worth connecting to professionally, and while I respect the hell out of a bunch of those attendees, I really don’t need to play sycophantic fan-boy to any of them.

Will I go to Gnomedex 6? Maybe, but probably not. It depends on what I’m doing. There are a lot more interesting technical conferences that would probably be a better use of my time. If I have something that I want to promote, it would make a lot more sense. maybe.

Chris Pirillo says that he loves us. Aww…

I’m doing a bit of a geek test today. I’m wearing my Dark Castle t-shirt that Delta Tao made when they resurrected the game. For those who aren’t aware, this was a way cool game for the 1st generation macs and then Delta Tao bought it and resurrected it in the mid 90s. This shirt is at automatic geek cred that is perfect because it selects out Microsoft people and the youngsters. We’ll see if anyone recognizes it.

I just tried the Lektora aggregator for Firefox OS X and it doesn’t work at all, so avoid it.

some links (mostly inspired by Phil Terrone and come from him or Make Magazine):
The PSP-Packs website
The iPod Linux website
del.icio.us
The Comic Art Effect in PSE3
Classic 78 RPM records MP3 feeds
PubSub – a service that updates RSS feeds of search results as new results appear (great idea!)
Engadget’s article on the new PSP bootstrapping
Edgadget’s article on a new low-cost media PC

Posted: Sat – June 25, 2005 at 10:09 AM