LIVEdigitally – Page 32 – Jeremy Toeman's Blog

Geeks Done Good!

Posted on December 29, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

Warning: semi-preachy post. Do not read if in the mood for fluffy banter about some new Web service or gizmo.

We live in a very interesting time. Technology is enabling so many things in so many ways it is truly impossible to keep up with it all. There are more ways than ever for us to spend our money on things that are supposed to make us happy, in the virtual world or the physical one. Yet countless studies have shown that when measured, the impact on one’s happiness from buying things (cars, TVs, gadgets, etc) is extremely short-lived. Volunteering, on the other hand, is considered one of the top activities we can do to directly contribute to our happiness.

Today I was proud to see 25 Bay Area (and 1 from LA!) people show up at the San Francisco Food Bank to spend a few hours of their time volunteering. We organized two shifts, one at 9am, another at 12:30pm, and at each shift performed various activities to help the Food Bank with their food supply. The Food Bank is heavily dependent on volunteers, so this was a great way for us to get involved with an organization that has a direct impact on the community around us. I have pictures online here (more on Facebook), and Robert Scoble took some videos: quick one with me, and an interview with George from the Food Bank (parts one and two).

The morning shift was responsible for sorting recently deposited food from Safeway and individuals. We rummaged through 44,000 pounds (not a typo) of cans, bottles, boxes, and jars of food. All the food donated from Safeway was there because something was ‘wrong’ with it (dents, ripped box tops, etc). It was a bit of an odd feeling knowing I was handling items I’d never consider purchasing, yet would end up in homes where it is desperately needed. Thankfully recent policy changes allow Safeway to donate this food, as in prior years it all ended up in the landfills.

The afternoon group was packing up boxes of food that end up in homes where the only monthly income is social security. The average check is $1005, and the individual is not permitted to earn any money from pensions, 401k’s, or other programs, so they are clearly in serious need of help. For those who don’t think $1000/month is too bad, please bear in mind that in San Francisco, a 2 bedroom apartment easily rents for $2000+ per month. The group’s pace of sorting apple juice, dried milk, canned pork, and other rations into a box was assessed after 10 minutes, and a target for the day was set (as opposed to the morning shift of sorting utter chaos), which was met. Go team!

At a personal level, I’ve felt wonderful all day. Considering 25 people gave 3 hours of their days today (Mehrshad actually stayed through two full shifts), that means my real contribution was to generate 75 hours of volunteering. If you’ve ever doubted your ability to make a difference, think about how easy it can be. Now imagine each of these people put forth the same effort next year, and manage to bring along a couple of friends each. And so on, and so on. If you don’t know me well enough that you think I am bragging here, please know I’m not – I’m just genuinely excited to have the satisfaction of feeling I can make a difference. It’s all too easy for us to shrug our arms and put our heads in the sand. My head’s well out, and I’m excited about it.

I’ve gone ahead and registered GeeksDoingGood.com (and GeeksDoGood and GeeksGivingBack). I’d like to use it as a place to coordinate future events. Further, I’m hoping it becomes a collective communal effort. I figure if nothing else I can start a blog there, and maybe do a little (shudder) Twittering. Okay, probably not Twittering, but definitely a cool WordPress theme…If you have any interest in helping out in any way, please get in touch.

Lastly, I’d like to thank Andrew Kippen for organizing with the Food Bank, and I don’t have the full list of attendees just yet, but the ones I’m sure of by name include (in no particular order): Flickr‘s Maya Baratz, Wired‘s Megan McCarthy, eHomeUpgrade‘s Alexander Grundner, Robert Scoble, The Point‘s Jeremy Pepper, my mom (hi mom!), AdBrite’s Joel Sacks, Ilana Gauss, Josh Einhorn, Macrovision’s Ben Tan, Josh Lazar, Mark Trammell, Jason Toney, Mehrshad Mansouri (x2), Patrick Scoble, Phonescoop‘s Eric Lin, Engadget‘s Ryan Block, Mahalo‘s Veronica Belmont, Bryan Whalen, and E-storm‘s Daniel Riveong. I apologize for those I’ve left out, but I don’t have your info nearby, I’ll update this post when I get it. But thanks, thanks, thanks!

I guess the morals of today’s story are:

Yes, one person can effect change.
Sony’s Vaio VGN-SZ series laptops still suck (although I just upgraded mine to run XP, maybe that’ll de-paperweight it).
There are lots of needy people out there and it’s easy to help, we just have to make the time to do the helping.
We can all just sit on our collective butts and complain about the sorry state of affairs in our world, or we can try to make a difference. It’s a lot easier than I thought, and I plan to do a lot more of it in 2008. I hope someday you’ll join me… Imagine.

Avi Greengart's Last Minute Mostly Non-Obvious Tech Holiday Gift Guide 2007

Posted on December 22, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

My friend Avi made a great guide last year, here’s the one for 2007 (sorry for posting so late!):

Once again I am going to try to avoid recommending obvious stuff like TVs, cellphones, or MP3 players – if you have someone who wants one, you know that, they know that, you don’t need me to tell you that a 50” plasma TV is a great gift. And if you’re a reader of this site, you don’t need me to tell you which laptop to avoid.

Top Five for 2007

1. Monster Power Outlets to Go (4 and 6 outlet versions launched late last year, the 3 outlet version is new for 2007). $15 – $25.
This is the perfect stocking stuffer for the road warrior – a tiny portable power strip. Typically you get to the hotel room and discover the lamp has just one outlet, but you’ve got more than one thing that needs power. Plug in your Power Outlets to Go and you’re all set. Another great use for this thing is at airports. Instead of wandering around searching in vain for a free outlet near a chair, find whoever is sitting next to an outlet and sit down next to them and share the power. The plug head lights up to let you know the power is active – solving another issue at airports, where most outlets were designed for vacuum cleaners, and may be turned off during the day – now you know before taking out the rest of your gear. The even smaller 3 outlet version is new for this year and has become a permanent part of my travel bag.

2. PowerSquid power multipliers ($15) and surge protectors ($25 – $80)
I test gadgets and I have tons and tons and tons of power adapters. Each power adapter has been designed specifically to make it impossible to place next to any other power adapter on your power strip. I’m convinced product designers do this on purpose, though I haven’t figured out why yet; perhaps there’s some evolutionary advantage to crowding out the other gadgets at the power source). I discovered that people who don’t test lots of gadgets have this problem too, and PowerSquid has the solution: a line of power strips and surge suppressors that look like a creature from the deep or Japanese manga. There’s a base and then a bunch of tentacles of different lengths that you can plug even the largest power bricks into. I recommended these here last year; the Calamari edition is new and adds basic noise filtering to the surge suppression. Any of them are a godsend to those with multiple power adapters of varying sizes.

3. Logitech VX nano ($69)
Another great gift for the road warrior, this time in the $60 – $70 range, the Logitech VX nano is a travel mouse with a super tiny USB transmitter that can stay put in your laptop at all times. This means you can leave the adapter in and close your laptop, put the laptop in a bag, take it out later, and go again without having to wait for drivers to load, or figuring out which side of the little USB thingie is up when you insert it over and over again. Of course, you can also hide the transmitter inside the mouse itself. The VX nano features Logitech’s “engine” – the same technology in Logitech’s bigger, more expensive MX Revolution mouse – that changes the way the scroll wheel works depending on what application you’re in. You can use free spin for zipping smoothly up and down Word documents or web pages, and the traditional ratchet-click mode which is better for things like moving cell by cell through a spreadsheet. It takes regular batteries which can be replaced at the hotel gift shop, though I’ve been using my VX nano a lot over several months and haven’t burned through the first set yet. I had no problem getting it to work flawlessly with both PCs and Macs and with a few limitations on Linux (Xandros distribution; the basic functionality works, but none of Logitech’s fancy software tricks).

4. Apple Personal Internet Tablet / Phoneless iPhone (aka, iPod
touch)
Ever watch TV and get into an argument over whether the actress you’re watching on Heroes once played a disappearing high school student on Buffy? You too? Well, you can save your marriage by finding the answers to these questions on the web site IMDB if you just had a WiFi web tablet on your couch. You could also read the morning paper online while eating breakfast. Or get directions to your meeting later that day.

Apple sells a nifty touchscreen gadget that does this for the low price of $299, and it’s called the Apple Personal Internet Tablet. OK, fine, it’s the iPod touch (this is where the “mostly” in “mostly non-obvious gift guide” comes in). Apple is marketing the touch for its main use, playing music, but it makes a handy web tablet, too. There are other Internet devices that are more appropriate for the technically inclined. For example, Nokia has the $399 N800 and $479 N810 Internet tablet that are Linux based, and Archos sells the $299 605 WiFi that you can add a web browser to for another $30. Both have Flash support, which the iPod touch and iPhone lack, and the Nokia has a webcam and Skype client for free VoIP calling. However, for a simple experience, the iPod touch can’t be beat, and I often find that browsing blogs in particular is easier on the iPod touch than on the others. The iPod touch is also perfect for anyone who wants to buy an iPhone but is stuck on a Verizon Wireless family plan – it’s basically an iPhone without the phone.

5. Shure SE530 Sound Isolating Earphones ($499)
I test tons of headphones and recommended its predecessor in last year’s guide (the e500, which has the same three driver arrangement). I’ve yet to find anything better, and Shure has improved it this time around with new foam earpieces and an excellent optional iPhone accessory that takes advantage of its modular cord system and Shure’s microphone expertise. The iPhone accessory also works nicely on other musicphones with 3.5mm jacks, so if you’re one of the few Nokia N95 users in the U.S. – or one of the millions in Europe – Shure has you covered, too.

There are two ways to block out noise – cancel it or muffle it. Canceling noise (by sending inverse sound waves to cancel out the noise) adds bulk because you need a battery to power the electronics, and it usually negatively affects sound quality at least somewhat. The other way is to physically block it, and that’s what Shure’s in-ear headphones do. Shure has an entire line of sound isolating earphones derived from the getups that professional musicians wear on tour. The middle of their line is where the best values can be found, but the best headphones are able to pull out detail from music you’ve never heard before. Truth be told, that quality alone is not unique to Shure, and top notch headphones from others, notably Etymotic, manage this feat as well for hundreds of dollars less. Where the Shure SE530’s are unique is their astonishing ability to make badly compressed MP3 files sound better, not worse. Most super-revealing headphones expose every flaw, while these are smooth, yet detailed. I don’t know how they do it. No question, at Five. Hundred. Dollars. these are very expensive, and will almost definitely cost more than the MP3 player you use them with. I suggest you consider the headphones a long term investment – you may want to upgrade your MP3 player every year, but you can keep the same headphones. Shure makes this easy by using a modular cord system so that they can be used with optional accessories for the iPhone (which is an extension with a Shure microphone built in), or for letting some noise – and that nice flight attendant’s question – back in (Shure’s “Push to Hear” gadget). Different cord lengths also allow use at the belt or on an arm band with just the right amount of slack. Also new this year across Shure’s line are sculpted foam inserts, which Shure’s product manager told me were based on my feedback (I’m sure he says that to all the analysts). These inserts combine the best properties of foam (best sound blocking) and soft rubber (easy insertion and comfort). Still, this gift isn’t for everyone – no matter how comfortable they are, some people don’t like things that go in the ear canal. That’s too bad, because these are some exorbitantly priced headphones that are actually worth the money.

Honorable mentions for the Home Theater fan:

* Netflix Gift Subscription ($20 and up)
You know, you really don’t want to get in the middle of a format war – it gets messy. Right now it’s still too early to call a winner between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, with some Hollywood studios supporting one format and some supporting the other. The neutral party in the war is Netflix, which rents both. You set up your movie queue online, and Netflix mails discs to you. In fact, you can tell Netflix what kind of high def disc player you have, and it will automatically put that version of the movie in your queue. Netflix is happy to sell you a gift subscription and this is an incredibly easy recommendation.

* Dale and Thomas popcorn sampler ($15 and up)
What goes better with movies than popcorn? Dale & Thomas sells gourmet popcorn with flavors not found in Orville Redenbacher, such as white chocolate peanut butter drizzlecorn. They have stores in Times Square in New York City and in Hollywood, but they’ll also mail popcorn samplers anywhere around the country, and I can attest that it arrives fresh. I can also attest that it won’t be around for very long after arriving, because this stuff is delicious. I should also warn you that it will completely destroy any diet you might be on, but at least it is certified kosher, so you can safely send it to any Orthodox Jews who keep kosher or Muslims who observe halal.

What I want to recommend, but can’t, at least not yet:

* Asus eee PC ($399 for 512MB RAM, 4 GB flash drive configuration)
The Asus eee is an incredibly small subnotebook with a small price to match – usually size and price have an inverse relationship. The eee weighs less than 2 lbs., and passes the shoulder test with flying colors – I walked around with it all evening at a trade show and forgot I had it. Even the power supply is small and light, so there’s no question whether you should take it along in case you find an open outlet (just take it). Fast flash memory takes the place of a hard drive, and the unit feels solid, not cheap. It is not a speed demon, but can handle basic web browsing and document creation tasks without feeling slow. Upgrading the RAM is straightforward and inexpensive, but opening the hatch to do so inexplicably voids the warranty. The keyboard is definitely too small for easy touch typing, though I should note that I am editing this guide on it, so it is possible. Just budget for some hand massages to ward off carpal tunnel syndrome, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Where the eee falls short is on storage, screen size, and OS. The 800 x 480 screen needs to be scrolled vertically to see entire dialog boxes. 4 GB of flash storage is enough for the OS and either applications or storage, but not both. An 8 GB SDHC card from Kingston solved the storage problem temporarily, but starting with 8 or 16 GB on the main drive would be better. Of course, the Xandros Linux distribution doesn’t make it easy to add any of your own applications, so perhaps the notion is that the eee is intended primarily for web surfing, and the minimal storage is by design. In any case, I found the version of Linux included on the eee to be beautiful, and easy to use, and extremely constraining. The Office-like suite’s idiosyncrasies drove me crazy, and there aren’t enough drivers or software for Xandros – a Kensington USB video hub wouldn’t work, nor would the Maxtor OneTouch backup software for an external hard drive. The eee is Windows XP compatible, and I quickly decided that the Microsoft tax is well worth paying in my case. Versions of the eee with more storage, a bigger screen, and XP preloaded are on Asus’ roadmap, so while I cannot recommend the eee PC just yet, I hope to be able to in the future.

* SmartShopper Grocery List Organizer ($129)
This is a great gadget you’ll find in catalogs like Brookstone that aims to do one thing and do it really well. In this case, that would be organizing shopping lists. This would seem to be a frivolous overpriced gadget for gadget lovers, but it’s actually a useful overpriced gadget for gadget lovers, or at least it would be if it worked properly.
It sits on your refrigerator door thanks to a powerful magnet which means that you always know where it is. You talk to it, it recognizes what you said, which means that anyone in the household can add things, even if they can’t write or can’t write legibly. The Smartshopper adds it to the list, and when it comes time to shop, it has an itty-bitty printer inside that prints out an itemized shopping list which makes shopping much, much easier. All the dairy items are grouped together, all the produce, etc. It’s a great concept and great fun.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t actually work that well. Voice recognition is hit or miss – and nearly always “miss” if there’s any background noise, like children whining that you don’t have whatever it is you need to add to the shopping list. There are not nearly enough entries in the database, and many of the entries are generic, when you may be trying to request specific brands. You can – and you will have to – add entries to the database, but it can be a pain because there is no keyboard, and, quite frankly, you may find that you need to add half of what you shop for. If there is more than one member of the household using the device, user-defined entries also lead to the hilarious speech recognition problem of pitch. Let’s say my wife added “Dale & Thomas popcorn.” If I say, “Dale and Thomas popcorn” in my usual voice, it will not recognize it. If, however, I raise my voice up a couple of octaves, and say it again in falsetto, “Dale and Thomas popcorn” chances of recognition roughly double. I’m sure there’s a great drinking game you could play with a list of common grocery items and the SmartShopper, but that’s not quite what its manufacturer intended. I’ve been assured that future versions of the gadget will improve the database and speech recognition, and I will hold off recommending it until then.

Happy Holidays,

Avi Greengart
Research Director, Mobile Devices
Current Analysis

About Avi: At Current Analysis I focus on testing mobile devices and advising clients how competitive they are in the market. None of the products I’m recommending here come from clients, and I do not own stock in any of the companies. I do not pay for review units, and while most devices I test get sent back (whether the companies want them back or not – I need to get them out of my house), I have kept some of the items listed below for… lets call it a long term loan.

kwiry launches a useful texting service

Posted on December 13, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

A year ago at this time I was mocking anyone my age who was texting. Today, virtually all of my peers use it on a more-than-daily basis. In fact, when I was moderating the recent Under the Radar Mobility event, I polled the (heavily biased) audience on their text use. Over 95% of hands went up when asked if they text, and the same amount stayed up when asked if they text for business-oriented purposes. Texting: not just for 15-year-old high school kids anymore.

I’ve tried a lot of mobile services, honestly I don’t like many of them. I’m not into lifecasting and I don’t need a morning horoscope, so the only extensibility I’ve done with my phone (Samsung uch740 – love it) is downloading a few games. Tetris is still the champ, and Transformers was a disappointment. When a friend of mine asked me to get involved with kwiry, my first step was to give a bit of a personal litmus test to their service. I liked it from the first time I tried it, and am pleased to see them launch today (official press releases are here and here).

Mid-post disclosure: Stage Two Consulting is doing marketing consulting for kwiry.

As you can read from other reviews (Engadget Mobile, VentureBeat, Geek.com, mocoNews, MobileCrunch, bub.blicio.us, GoMo News, The Unwired) kwiry is a service that lets you use your cell phone (no fancy iPhone needed) to text reminders to yourself. Once you’ve texted something, it’s waiting for me back at my computer in my email or saved online at kwiry.com, along with instant search results and some sharing/social networking features. If you are wondering when that’s useful, think about all the times you are out and about and don’t have a computer with you – odds are good you have your cell phone!

Enough of ‘the pitch’ – I’ve been using kwiry personally ever since meeting Ron Feldman and his team. It’s useful to me because unfortunately I’ve become ridiculously forgetful in recent years (which I, in a moment of irony, blame entirely on my cell phone). I also like the fact that it follow my normal lifestyle. I am used to texting, and I’m used to being online and checking out my various sites and feeds. With kwiry I don’t have to change any of that, and to me, that’s a big win for adopting any new service, product, or technology.

Geeks Doing Good: Volunteering on 12/29

Posted on December 12, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

This year I’ve seen a lot of geeks doing a lot of fun things. I’ve organized my geek dinners (which I will try to revive in ’08). There were myriads of unconferences and (blank)camps and meetups. Startups had launch parties, summer bbqs, holiday parties, and no-real-reason parties. There were photowalks galore. I think this is awesome. But for the past few months I’ve been really thinking about how much more the tech community could be doing beyond our technology contributions.

I’ve donated to DonorsChoose this year, bought an OLPC, and gave to numerous of my friends’ good causes. My consulting firm is committed to taking on pro-bono projects for non-profit companies. I’m also putting aside a percentage of all gross revenue to give to charities. I feel that this is a good first step for me personally, one that I’d like to build on in the years to come.

After our morning at the SF Food Bank with Bug Labs last month, we decided we wanted to try to rally up the tech community to do something similar. So here we go, its time for Geeks Doing Good (I even own the domain – if this works, we’re going to try to make it a recurring event)! We have reserved two slots of 3 hours each, one at 9am, the other at 12:30pm, helping at the SF Food Bank. As volunteering goes, it’s a fairly “easy” event. You won’t get really dirty or smelly (well, no more so than you normally might), and you won’t really have to interact with anyone that might be unnerving.

Please consider taking just 3 hours out of your holiday season to help those in need. The stats on impoverished people in San Francisco are unbelievable, and I think we all need the occasional reality check from our generally cushy lives (yes, odds are pretty good that if you read my blog you lead a fairly cushy life – nothing wrong with that at all). If you can’t make it, how about donating even a few dollars instead (although my goal is really a full house, the money helps too)?

Let’s make this a success, and turn it into a recurring one, shall we? Also, if you want to help us out with planning other events, please email me or leave a comment here!

Game wanted: Lite Rock Band

Posted on December 11, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

I totally love Rock Band. It’s awesome. My wife plays. My friends play. It’s crazy addictive. Gameplay is good, fun to play, etc etc. I got to play a sneak preview several months back, and it’s the only game I’ve ever pre-ordered for my Xbox 360 (for those curious, the last time I pre-ordered a game it was Ultima VI for my Commodore 64). So I like it. But as with all things I like, I have gripes.

First up, I am already a little tired of the songs available. Too much hard rock, not enough “fun” songs. I understand the game is called Rock Band, and I know that the kids today like the louder music. But it could use some more lite rock. It could use some ballads. It could use some more classic rock. Here’s some songs I’d love to get/download (incidentally, I am not trying to impress anyone with my music tastes. Don’t like? Don’t care. I do, and it’s my blog):

anything by the Beatles or U2
The Doors “Break on Through” (or for creepy factor, “The End”)
Don Maclean’s “American Pie”
Green Day’s “Time of Your Life”
Dave Matthews Band “Crash Into Me” or “Ants Marching” (would need a violin instrument tho)
John Mellencamp “Jack and Diane”
some 80s music – The Reflex, Tainted Love, a little Bryan Adams, some Kenny Loggins, some Journey, Def Leppard,
etc

My only real gameplay gripe is on the difficulty of the songs. I understand in World Tour it needs to have cascading difficulties, but I think the game is missing a true Party Mode (although this code is invaluable to unlock all the songs for fun – doesn’t count to your score). When my friends who have never played before come over we inevitably play the same first batch of songs. I’m stuck on guitar so I can revive my fallen bandmates should they fail. It’s a bit repetitive. I think a party mode that has an intro-level version of each song is essential for catching more users.

Next up is the between-game controls. Every controller is ‘live’ which means if you are picking a song while your buddy tries to explain to his wife how to use the guitar, two seconds later you are back in the main menu. Annoying! The ‘leader’ should have complete control up through the ‘select difficulty’ screen.

Lastly, the system for dealing with profiles is a mess. Playing the Band World Tour forces you to make new profiles for each person who wants to play. Playing Solo World Tour requires new characters for each instrument. So bizarre and so frustrating. My friends watched on as I created 3 profiles and (accidentally) 5 characters just to try to have the World Tour let us unlock new songs (until I discovered the above code). Really annoying.

That’s it for my complaints, ultimately it’s an awesome game (so much so that when I had problems with my Amazon pre-order, I purchased the only copy on the island of Kauai during my vacation last month). Playing live with other folks online is super-fun, and anyone who wants to jam, get in touch!

A note to Nancy Pelosi regarding the PRO IP act

Posted on December 6, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

To The Honorable Nancy Pelosi,

This morning I read about Chairman Conyers’ proposed PRO IP act, and as others in the technology industry have, I lowered my head sadly. While I only recently became an American citizen, it seems quite clear to me that this is yet another sad sign of how our government continues to lose its way. Instead of taking the clear, high road and working to protect the needs of its citizens, the government is instead taking the low road and protecting the needs of big business. I call this the low road as it is the only one paved with the campaign contribution dollars represented by big media.

While there are some good intentions described in the external “spin” of the bill, it seems clear that it is nothing more than a vehicle to enable the 5 major media companies to further harass and persecute Americans. This is an unfortunate trend that Congress seems to follow, and I write this letter to implore you to try to get deeply involved, learn about, and ultimately break.

Historically, Congress never used to side with major media companies. Throughout the 20th century, our leaders addressed new issues based on the wants and needs of the American people. Lawsuits have emerged over virtually every technology innovation as it pertained to media and content, from vinyl through compact disk. In virtually every case, Congress always put the pressure on the traditional companies to learn how to grow and change based on new technologies. That is, however, until the emergence of the broadband Internet and the MP3 music compression format.

For some reason, still not clear to me, these two technologies together caused the government to effectively switch teams. Instead of protecting the wants and needs of the many by forcing big media firms to evolve and adapt to the new technologies, the laws sprung up to protect these companies and allow them to live in the older world. PRO IP is yet another example of such laws.

It is bad enough that we have so few major media companies. It is bad enough that they can exert financial pressure to dominate the movie theaters and the airwaves. It is bad enough that they control the enormous quantities of media we as Americans consume. One could argue oligopolies, but that is a big enough topic on its own, and frankly, individual creativity combined with the distribution power of the Internet is finally allowing people to slowly retake control of the media they consume.

Historically it is this effort, individual creativity, that our government has helped protect and thrive. Not the demands of the rich and famous. It is in fact ironic that the major media companies of today were built on the shoulders of enabling laws, not crippling laws.

Now truth be told, I am no legal expert, nor am I an expert in copyright. But I am pretty good at common sense. Common sense tells me that the maximum penalty for transmitting an MP3 file should not be over 1000-fold the maximum penalty of shoplifting a CD from a store. Common sense tells me that if over 80 MILLION people are transmitting files to each other, there is something wrong with our system that makes such an activity illegal.

To be pointedly clear, I very much believe that record labels, TV studios, networks, producers, actors, writers, and everyone else involved in media production deserves their fair share, or even more than their fair share. I do not believe that these peoples’ livelihoods should be infringed simply because the American public is doing a lot of free downloading. What I do believe, on the other hand, is that when faced with new business challenges that technology innovation has spurred, these companies should be forced to meet these challenges head-on. They should not be sheltered and coddled by Congress, with their proverbial heads in proverbial ostrich holes.

I highly recommend that you take this issue up personally. I further recommend that you and your staff become familiar with the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, a gentleman who understands these topics with much greater depth and clarity than I ever will. My government is elected to protect its citizens and our rights, not to protect big business. There will always be big business, and as the multi-hundred-billion-dollar Google has proven, there will always be new big business. Congress is not protecting newspapers as they are faced with massive business challenges due to technology. The same should be true in big media.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Toeman, concerned American

To my readers, you are welcome to copy any portion of the above content in an attempt to reach out to your elected officers. Click here to write to your representative.

Bug Labs visits San Francisco

Posted on December 1, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

OK, that’s a bit of a misnomer since a few of us live here, but Peter Semmelhack (CEO) and Ken Gilmer (head of software) came out to SF this week for our BUG+SF event. From 6-9pm on Thursday we had a big turnout of people interested in seeing hands-on demos of the BUGbase and a few modules. We had a great time, and thanks to everyone who could come (here are some pix on Flickr).

Friday morning Peter, myself and the rest of the Stage Two team, and some of my officemates (and colleagues and friends) from Echo Marketing went to the San Francisco Food Bank to volunteer for a few hours . With each BUG+ event we like to follow it up with spending some time directly giving back to the local community (I missed the one in Boston, but here’s Matt’s excellent writeup). Prior to joining Sling I was doing a lot of regular volunteering, but due to insane traveling those two years I really hadn’t done much since. It felt really good to get involved again, and it’s something we plan to do a lot more regularly. For those of you who need any incentive (beyond the fact that volunteering makes you feel really really good):

ONE in FIVE (aka 1/5, one-fifth, or 20%) of FAMILIES in San Francisco (the city, not the Bay Area) earn under $25,000 per YEAR. That’s 150,000 people. They need our help. Click here to read more and get involved.

Our group of 7 people was paired up with another larger group of 30. In under three hours we boxed and sorted 5 tons of food. The SF Food Bank has less than 60 people on staff, so it’s pretty easy to feel the impact that small groups like ours can have on helping getting things done. You can see more pictures here.

We went back to my office to get some more work done, and my friend Robert Scoble came by for a chat. And for those of you who know Robert, when we told him we had a working BUG to show, out came the ~~video camera~~ cell phone, and he got a bunch of fun, casual footage of Peter and I doing demos.

Overall, great trip at so many levels. Especially playing a little Rock Band before Peter caught his flight back to NYC.

Why Amazon's Kindle will fail.

Posted on November 18, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

First, let me say I very much like Amazon, and about 90% or more of my online shopping goes through them, in virtually every category. Used books, new games, my soon-to-be-replaced 32″ Olevia LCD, baby apparel, rechargable Xbox controllers, and even Kangaroo Ribs – all from Amazon (sorry, the kangaroo meat vendor seems to have disappeared, but its hopefully temporary. tastes like chicken). But no matter how much I may like them doesn’t change my belief that their new electronic book reader device will fail, and fail terribly.

Electronic readers are one of those categories that sound really great in a boardroom. They demo great, and technologists tend to love them (yup, that includes my friends). I’m sure they even test well in focus groups, and will rapidly admit that there is *some* market for them. But that market isn’t the masses, it’s a small niche. And unfortunately, small niches are hard to sustain if you are a gadget maker.

The way I like to look at a new gadget is generally inspired by the language Pip Coburn uses in The Change Function. Is the market today “in crisis” when it comes to books? No. Next, is there a perceived pain in adopting electronic book readers? Absolutely. Now that’s not enough to completely rule out the category, but it certainly is a quick and dirty way to see why it’s not quite a slam dunk either.

In my eyes this is one of those technologies that is still searching for a problem. At $399 + $9.99 per book, it’s certainly not a cost-competitive solution to purchasing books, unless you are comparing solely against new, hardcover prints. Further, it’s not exactly a challenge to find and buy books, whether online or offline, new or used. In fact, it’s pretty hard to argue that an electronic reader will vastly improve the book discovery, purchase, and consumption experience (unlike how much an MP3 player was able to do that exact thing). The only really viable argument against physical books is they are bigger and bulkier, but that really only applies to hardcover books.

I can go on at length about all the different use-cases for why an electronic reader can’t win, but then I think this would become one of those all-too-wordy posts I tend to use. So, I’ll jump into quick bulleted list format for the rest:

Unlike newspapers and magazines, the content of books isn’t about timeliness, so digital versions do not offer an advantage. While those industries are in a change-or-die crisis, books aren’t.
Book consumption is unlike any other form of media, and cannot be compared to music, videos, news articles, blog posts, etc.
The “barriers” to buying a book today involve knowing where to buy a book. Anyone savvy enough to buy Kindle knows where to buy books, and it is highly unlikely they are in massive dissatisfaction with that process. Compare this to the perceived barriers about an electronic reader.
Most positive comments on e-readers have tons of “ifs” in them. IF it has good battery life. IF the screen looks good. IF buying books is easy. IF its very “booklike”. This isn’t a sound argument for a product, it’s instead presenting a very narrow window and how to look through it in order to see the light.
For the most part, consumers do not buy technology products because of technology. They buy products for the services they provide, and the experiences that go along with them. Kindle would have to literally knock it out of the park to pass this criteria, not to mention everything I’ve mentioned above. The reality is the mass market of consumes tends to resent most new technology, since it tends to be overly hyped and well-marketed, yet do little more than frustrate and fail to deliver on expectations (much like the Sony Vaio VGN-SZ460N, an utter failure of a laptop).

Lastly, it’s most prudent to think about the real-world use case for reading books. How many people are really in a position where they need a mobile library of 200 books with them to choose from? Few. In my years of experience designing products for consumers, they routinely react to new device categories extremely poorly. I obviously don’t know how much money Bezos & Co is willing to throw at the Kindle, so I can’t possibly predict how long until it disappears from the catalog, but I’m definitely willing to predict it doesn’t go the distance.

UPDATE: I just read Seth Godin’s thoughts on Kindle. One of the marketing blogs I definitely enjoy, and his post on the topic is pretty good. But he mentions something that again shows me how off the mark even “industry experts” can be. He writes “The challenge that my hero Jeff Bezos has is that if he’s really really lucky, he’ll sell a million of these things in a year.” I think he’s missing about 5+ “really”s here. If he’s lucky he’ll sell 50,000 in a year, really lucky is 100,000, and really really lucky is about 200K. Moving 7 figures worth of hardware per year is VERY VERY hard! VERY hard. And that’s in an established category, let alone a speculative one.

Any (specific) tips on a new flat-panel TV?

Posted on November 14, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

The time has come to replace my Syntax Olevia 32″ LCD. My decisions so far:

I’ll either get a 42″ plasma or a 45-47″ LCD. My rationale is that the room I’m currently in could fit below 50″ reasonably, anything else would be awkwardly big. No reason to go smaller than 42.
I’m open to either a plasma or LCD, as neither provide a conclusively better picture than the other for the content I watch (HD from my DVR, some SD hockey games, and Xbox).
My budget is under $2000, as I have seen enough screens in person to state, without a doubt in my mind, that anything more than that is a waste of money. The marginal returns on the more expensive set are exactly that: marginal.
I will not buy a Sony, specifically due to the poor experience I had with the Vaio VGN-SZ460N, the worst laptop I’ve ever used. Incidentally, I apologize for leaving this out of so many recent posts, I don’t know what came over me.
I’d prefer to buy a model that’s been on the market for less than 6 months, since I anticipate a less-than-one-year cycle until it’s outdated.
On the techie side, I want 2+ HDMI inputs and 1080p max resolution. I don’t need any other inputs than those since my Pioneer receiver handles video crossover itself. And while I know there’s virtually no content available at 1080p today, it seems silly to save a few hundred bucks and not be more future-ready (since future-proof isn’t possible, I’d at least like to be close).

I was at Best buy yesterday taking a look at a few sets in person. The ones I liked were a 46″ Sharp Aquos LCD, a 47″ Samsung LCD, and a 42″ Panasonic Plasma.

It really amazes me the challenge it is to make such a decision. I’ve researched and it appears there’s two types of advice: outdated (even worse) and/or too much irrelevant details. I tried getting help from CNET, but they categorized into 44-57 inches, which didn’t help me much (although they otherwise have great advice on the topic). I’m browsing through Amazon’s search results, but I literally need to weed through 120 sets that technically meet my needs since they don’t offer quite enough criteria. The other site I like for this is Wize, which I’m still browsing.

So if anyone has any specific advice to help eliminate a few units or consider more, would love to hear them. I’m also debating between buying online vs Costco, as online is convenient, but Costco has amazing return policies…

HP, please, just give me the darn drivers!

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

My MacBook came along with an HP Photosmart C4280 printer/scanner/copier/hot water maker. Seems like a nice device, especially for free. Setup was fine, until I had to actually install software that accompanied the printer. Here’s the stuff that got installed:

I understand that for 90% of the customers, this is desirable. The “HP Scan Pro” helps get you up and running with a scanner. HP Photosmart Edit is a nifty little tool for photo manipulation. Ink monitors help me… well, ok, they help HP sell more ink. But I get it, and again, for the majority of users, this is the absolute correct product decision.

However, it would take NO additional work for the company to include the drivers as a standalone file on the CD, or downloadable from the Web site. This option is not available. Granted, life is better than on Windows where I’d be scared to uninstall anything for fear of missing DLLs and whatnot. I have a hunch the thinking went like this:

We are HP, we make a lot of money selling ink. We should, therefore, include tools to help sell ink. How about an ink monitor? It’ll tell the user when they need ink.

Sounds good. Ship it. But wait, what if the user doesn’t want the application?

Doesn’t matter. Gotta sell the ink.

It’s the same kind of logic that had early-stage Internet portals debating whether or not they should link out. Of course they should make it easy to get ink, but the more they empower me and give me overall product satisfaction, the longer they’ll have me as a customer. When designing your product and experience, remember that short term wins are just that: short.

Must-see-TV: Lessig talks about our pathetic copyright laws.

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

New gadgets are neat. Social networking is neat. Congress passing terrible laws into place that arbitrarily restrict consumer rights is not neat. It’s a big deal, and the more passively we as society treat the topic, the worse the world we will live in.

It’s nineteen minutes long, and worth every second. You don’t even have to “watch” just make sure you hear. Actually, make sure you listen. It’s important. More important than Facebook’s ad platform. More important than Leopard. More important than Android. Much much much more important than social graphs, grafts, and starfishes (gah!).

Then go buy (and read) Free Culture.

Flickr bug provides cause for thoughts

Posted on November 6, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

Was just looking at some of my photos and watched them practically disappear before my eyes. After a mini panic attack, I found out I was not alone. I’m assuming it’s just a bug, and the photos themselves are a-okay. But it did make me think a bit about my personal reliance on Flickr. I use it as…

a backup for all my photos
a way to share with friends and family
a host for photos for all of my blogses (4 of em)

Regarding losing the backup – not a big deal, since I have TRIPLE backups of my photos (portable HDD in my laptop bag, Drobo in my office, Maxtor NAS in my home). There’s no question that multiple backups of digital photos are essential. If you don’t have a backup solution that has some form of offsite redundancy, find one immediately – it’s much more important than debating opensocial and facebook.

Regarding losing the sharing – not a terribly big deal, since I can easily re-upload elsewhere. I would be a bit annoyed at having to re-tag things that I’ve organized, but I’d assume the entire process would be less than a day’s work.
Regarding the hosting part – this is actually the biggest pain. Sure I can reupload, but I’d then have to go back to literally every single blog post I’ve written and redirect the links. This would be so time-consuming I can say right now – I ain’t doing it.

In the time it’s taken me to discover the problem and write the post, the Flickr guys have fixed the bug. But in a way I’m glad it’s happened as it gives me a bit of perspective on how much I should rely on any single technology/platform/service.

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