nick davis - Technology

What Happened to Mark Cuban?

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:06:46 -0500

Call me crazy, but when given the choice of developing new applications for a deterministic platform connected to a specialty application box connected to a high definition TV with a remote control or a best efforts internet platform connected to who knows how fast a connection to a PC running who knows what operating system connected to a monitor and a keyboard, I will take the first option.

Duh?

But it's not about what is easier. Sure, it's easier for newspapers to keep the same business model as the last 100 years, but that's not working so well.

It's about leveraging the strengths of a given platform, not comparing it apples-to-apples against something completely different. It's about getting viral views, and having content worth spreading. Sure, that's much harder than controlling a network and forcing shows and ads into people's eyeballs, but the alternative is much worse. I can assure you there are people willing to do the hard work.

Tumblog

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:08:51 -0600

Check out my tumblog:

http://nickdavis.tumblr.com/

It is a combination of all my feeds: here, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Last.FM, etc.

Portfolio, 1996

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 10:48:19 -0600

I'm trying to remember all my old designs and dig them up through archive.org. This site, from 1996 or 1997, was for the Department of Student Life at Mizzou, who was probably my first paying web development client.

Keep in mind that this was probably a good design by 1996 standards (check out this list of other designs circa 1996).

My first time on the internet was about 1991 or 1992, using telnet to navigate to a university computer in New Mexico to download a MP3. Then the www started coming through the tubes and all was changed!

New Comment Provider

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:33:47 -0600

I have switched all the comments on this blog over to Disqus, which means all old comments (yes, both of them) are gone for now.

My next camera: Sigma DP1

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 20:50:02 -0500

Ever since I saw this camera (just after getting back from PMA, grrrr), I've been anxiously awaiting the release of the Sigma DP1, a small Point & Shoot with the same sensor in the SD14 - which is a DSLR. The 14 megapixels will be nice, but the killer feature is the sensor size, 10 times bigger than the best point and shoot on the market.

What that means is better dynamic range and low-light performance. And it'll fit in our pocket. Can't wait.

Posting Efficiency

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:14:55 -0600

I've been struggling with finding a good posting workflow system that fist well with how I picture my blog working. So, over the next couple days I'm playing with a way to take all the items I tag on del.icio.us with the tag "feed" and leeching them right into the blog. This version of Drupal has pretty rudimentary leeching functionality compared to the newer modules, so let's see if it will work without upgrading. If so, expect a lot more blog posts.

Google Checkout - STAY FAR, FAR AWAY!

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 17:11:54 -0500

Google introduced their new Checkout Service a few months ago. It was designed to be an alternative checkout system that an E-Commerce store can add to their web site. The benefit to the customer is that you can see all your orders and status in one place. I tried it because Google is offering $10 off $30 orders at participating sites.

The order was placed successfully for some clearance items on 10/10/2006. Everything seemed fine. I received a confirmation email.

But I've received no status update. The Google Checkout page shows the order as "in progress". After tracking down the merchant's contact information, they tell me they have no knowledge of the order. I need to contact Google.

Back to the Google Checkout page. The only option I have is "Have questions about this order? Contact [Merchant], Inc". There is no way to contact Google. The merchant has no way of helping me. As far as I know, Google has charged my card but never sent in the order, and now I can't contact them.

Being clearance items, there is no way the items are still available. Google has my money, can't fulfill the order, and now I can't even get a hold of them. What. A. Nightmare.

[Update: 3:00 PM] I was able to send an email to Google about the issue, but no other contact information, and more importantly, NO PHONE NUMBER. You have my money, which means I need to be able to call you. Simple enough.

Wikipedia Critics are Missing the Boat

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 08:52:31 -0500

There seems to be some back and forth between Dubner and Levitt over at the Freakonomics Blog regarding Wikipedia.

Dubner says it's inaccurate. Levitt says there is a ton of information on the Power Rangers.

And that's why the traditional critique of Wikipedia and other similar endeavors truly fails: when you compare the information in the Wikipedia to The Encyclopedia Britannica on, say, African Elephants, Wikipedia surely loses.

Now go look up "Power Rangers" in both. Who wins? Look up the Daily Show and see a list of every guest who was on the program and what date they were on! WOW! Who wins that one?

The Wikipedia is the embodiment of the long tail. The depth of information available is truly astounding. The traditional Encyclopedia will remain the encyclopedia on record for anything or anybody they deem fit to allow in the books. As for the other 99.9% of knowledge and information, Wikipedia will remain supreme.

Seth Violates the Rules of People Power

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:05:28 -0500

Seth Godin has a post brainstorming ideas about how Digg can monetize its user base. While the idea of letting marketers submit their new campaigns to Digg is interesting, it violates the basic people-powered premise of Digg.

Instead of this:

Then, go to the teeming masses of marketers out there and invite them to nominate their new ideas, their new posts, their new sites to your editor. The editor picks the ones that are good enough, that make the cut. Figure three or ten or a hundred a day, depending on the demand. Once demand goes up, charge $20 just to submit one, so the editor can hire a squadron of assistants.

What he should be saying is:

Then, go to the teeming masses of marketers out there and invite them to nominate their new ideas, their new posts, their new sites to the site. The masses pick the ones that are good enough, that make the cut. Figure three or ten or a hundred a day, depending on the demand. Once demand goes up, charge $20 just to submit one, so Digg can turn a profit.

The Digg Effect

Sat, 08 Jul 2006 01:15:47 -0500

OK, it's after 1am local time and my server coasted through being dugg. Showing about 6000 unique visitors from Digg, 3000 of those being from the first hour.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Meta-Digg: The Rules of People-Power

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 11:16:52 -0500

Dear Digg Users,

Welcome to Web 2.0! During this exciting time, there will likely be many new issues that spring up. We're all new at this, but if you keep in mind the following guidelines, every one's experience will be much better.

Some of you may have been Slashdot readers. I can tell because the same complaints are made at Digg. But let me let you in on a secret: the frontpaged stories are chosen by readers, not editors. So your complaints about duplicate stories are not only meaningless, they take up comment space. There's a lot of interesting comments on Digg, and yours just get in the way.
Following from the previous item: Digg is powered by people. If the masses think a story should be covered six times a day, then the masses are curious about the story. Your complaints do not help. Unpredictable things happen when you give people the power.
Digg was started by a few guys with little money. If you hate what people here are digging, recruit enough users and launch your own version. There is even an open source digg-like application you can install.

Can a Non-Programmer run a Software Company?

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 14:08:37 -0500

Joel writes a great post about his first review with Bill Gates. He talks about Bill's amazing ability to probe deep into his requirements document and test his employees' knowledge until he found their skill level.

Joel then posits that it takes a programmer to run a software company. While being a programmer definitely helps, it really just takes someone with an intimate knowledge of the details. The problem with most middle and upper management is that they want to just be "big-picture" people. The details are best left to the minions. The details involve actual work, and the ability to learn new things. Details are hard.

But the key to being successful is knowing the details. If you run a software company, you probably understand the details if you are a programmer. If you're not, you should immerse yourself into every bit of information that comes your way. Same goes for any other industry.

Wacom Technical Support is AWESOME!

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 17:22:56 -0500

As the proud owner of a new Wacom tablet, I am happy to report great news: Wacom has the best tech support I've ever called. With no wait time, I was connected to someone who had NO script and walked me through everything straight from his head. He obviously knew how to troubleshoot and easily adapted to a caller that was an advanced Windows user (ie, he didn't have to tell me the EXACT steps to open the Control Panel).

During a reboot he told me that Wacom hired 6 really good support engineers instead of an army of scripted Level 1 support personnel. It really shows. I applaud Wacom for this step and am now thoroughly impressed. I will recommend this company and its' products to any of my clients, family, and friends.

Thinking back, this is possible the most positive tech support call I've ever made.

The Gmail Spam Filter

Tue, 02 May 2006 18:19:43 -0500

The GMail spam filter has gotten so bad that the Outlook spam filter is actually picking up some spam!

Pandora is the Future of Radio

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 10:02:03 -0500

The creators of the ambitious Music Genome Project, which seeks to classify all recorded music, have launched a new internet radio service called Pandora.

Using Pandora is as simple as typing in an artist, or artists, or songs that you like and clicking the play button. The service searches the Music Genome Project for similar music, based on style, and presents you an audio stream of music it thinks you'll like. The album art and the song information are visible, and there is a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down rating that will further tailor your selections.

In my mind, there are two main reasons that Pandora can eventually kill commercial radio:

It helps me discover new artists. At this point, after rating dozens of songs, it has a pretty clear idea of what I like. Sometimes it pushes the boundaries a bit far, and I just thumbs-down it and it skips to the next song automatically (you can skip forward a certain number of songs per hour, and you can pause, but you can't go back). My first day of using Pandora, listening to a station of similar music to Iron & Wine, I discovered a great artist called Great Lake Swimmers. I looked up their website, and saw that they were playing here in Kansas City two days later. This brings me to point #2.
It gives the artist credibility. Because it gives you similar music, and not just generic popular music like commercial radio, it gives very small artists instant credibility. It has the full feel (except without the ads, for now) or a real radio station, so I assumed that the artists are popular. I went and saw an amazing show with a 75 person audience of an artist that may have just as well been playing to 5000 seats.

Here are my suggestions to make this amazing service even better:

Incorporate local concerts. Tell me when the artist will be within 50 miles of my home. Let me by impulse tickets on the spot, with a single click.
Incorporate a little bit of Last.FM-type functionality that finds other users with similar tastes, and presents new artists based on what they like. I think Pandora far exceeds Last.FM in its simplicity, but the only negative aspect is the tendency to stay focused on only one segment, with the possibility of missing some other great artists I like.