A genuine Silicon Valley Web Flyer | One line of code at a time...

Donate to Candice for Miss America

March 28, 2007 – 7:38 pm | View Comments

Candice and Me in the band.

From her website:

Hi, it’s me Candice!

I’m working towards becoming the next Miss Virginia, and I’m hoping to continue on to compete for the title of Miss America. This year the Miss America Organization is teaming up with Children’s Miracle Network to help kids in our community by raising much needed funds. I have set a goal to raise $250.00. Money raised will benefit both Children’s Miracle Network and the Miss America Scholarship Fund.

Please help me reach my goal and make a secure donation today by following the link to the left. I will immediately receive credit for the donation and be able to track my progress.

Also, please take a moment to view Marcus’ incredible miracle story, and see how he was helped by his Children’s Miracle Network hospital.

Thanks so much for helping dreams come true!

Posted in Uncategorized |

It’s a monkey with a camera

March 27, 2007 – 5:18 pm | View Comments

That’s what he says. That’s what the logo looks like. But how interesting could it be to watch a monkey with a camera?

It’s actually very interesting. Especially if this monkey is constantly being bombarded with media coverage. I’m talking about 23-year-old videoblogger Justin Kan and his website justin dot tv.

The reason it’s so addicting for me at least is the fact that these guys are diagramming how to build a startup company from the ground up. EVERYTHING is shown. Their successes, their failures, their hypothesis’s. I think watching justin.tv is more educational than a senior-level business class because it’s a real life, real-time example.

“It’s not an art project, it’s a business.” said Kan. “We are another attention-based startup. The idea is to popularize it and make a bunch of channels…”

Can you imagine? It really is “you tube”.

Justin’s blue screen of death:

Justin's blue screen of death

“I don’t really consider myself a journalist. I’m more of an entertainer.”

When Kan was asked if he plans to make his company a subscription service, he replied, “No. We want to make this an open phenomenon.”

Making money in the meantime is already taken care of. Companies can pay to put up advertising up in their house, in the bathroom, on the ceilings, even in the bedroom.

Kan is having a lot of fun he says, and he is excited to see how his experiment grows.

I am sure I will have more to say about this in the future. I better hurry and finish this so I can watch his live interview with G4′s Attack of the Show. This is the first time having a TV next to my computer screen will actually benefit me.

Posted in Uncategorized |

30boxes: Organize your life.

March 25, 2007 – 2:40 pm | View Comments

How organized are you? I spend a lot of time multi-tasking, especially on the Internet, and I have always wanted a central calendar to plan out my steps.

Microsoft Outlook is a pretty good calendar application, but I use Thunderbird for mail, and Sunbird isn’t really a solid schedule manager yet.

30boxes week view

This application blows Outlook out of the water. 30boxes uses a slick Ajax interface, and a few single clicks around your calendar and you can add events in your sleep.

You can also add friend’s calendars, and invite each other to events. 30boxes also utilizes a Flickr feed, and a twitter updater. It’s accessable anywhere on the web, and it’s easy to send and receive updates from your mobile.

30boxes

Posted in Uncategorized |

Justin.tv is on right now.

March 23, 2007 – 4:57 pm | View Comments

Let me clarify; this guy is wearing a camera on his head, and it’s streaming live… right here:

As I am watching at 5:38 p.m. EST, Justin seems to be in an office building, and everybody is looking at the camera. People have their camera phones out, and telling from Justin’s head movements, he is enjoying his time.

They also have a computer with justin.tv loaded up, and they are joking about the lag time. It’s kinda entertaining, and I really don’t know what to think of it.

The bottom of the web page has a smooth little chat client, users are tracked with the surname “justin.fan.###”.

justin.fan 712: A woman! Zoom in!”

Can you imagine the possibilities of this idea blowing up? Everyone would have their own .tv domain name, and we could watch anyone we want. I would want to watch jessicaalba.tv, or stevejobs.tv.

Justin.tv

Justin also has a status at the top of his page, currently reading, “Justin says: at wired playing wii posted 38 minutes ago”.

This is a very cool site. It’s been about 10 minutes, and I’m still here. Now Justin is watching people tobaggon across the room on office chairs.

I tuned in an hour later, and noticed his cell phone listed on the site. I sent him a text, and in about two minutes, he pulled out his cell phone, and said, “Shoutout to 540″, then replied, “High Five” with his Treo.

The best part about justin.tv is that he actually interacts with his audience. Someone from Scotland texted him, and the driver of his car wanted to know some of the local Scottish slang. Another caller working at a Chicago pretzel company called in and offered to send some boxes to Justin.

This real-time video blog is not boring either. Justin is making appearances everywhere. Take a look at his schedule from today:

10:00a – Send out tshirts that fans have ordered
11:00a – Trailed by film crew from G4
12:00p – Meet up with Reddit founders at Wired building
6:30p – Startup School Reception

He even wears it in the bathroom:

Justin in the shitter

Would you ever be able to wear a helmet cam 18-24 hours a day?

Posted in Uncategorized |

Visiting the Left Coast in April

March 22, 2007 – 8:55 pm | View Comments

I have been out of school now for about four months, and I have been trying to find a full-time job. That infamous question rekindles in my brain, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

A fireman, an astronaut, or a web developer? I would definitely pick the third choice. It seems that our world is changing so much that there are new job opportunities than ever for hypertext authors. As a wise professor once said, “The old media will never catch up.”

San Francisco

I have scored an interview with CNET Networks, the pioneers of the first dot-com boom of the late 90s.

The position is for Associate Web Producer, the same position I held as an intern at ESPN.com this summer.

Disney is awesome.

I have never been to San Francisco, but I am hearing a lot of nice things about the city. I know for a fact that the Tech community is robust though. Leo LaPorte lives there, Google’s backyard buzzes from the server farms, and Apple’s Cupertino headquarters is the factory of personal computing innovation.

I will keep you posted on what happens.

Posted in Uncategorized |