06.27.08

iphone frenzy: location, locating, located

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:47 am by Colin Steele

So like many others, I am developing iphone applications.  If it didn’t already seem perfectly clear to you that we technology people are just as lemming-like as say, commodities traders, or art collectors, well, I hate to break it to you.

Yeah, so I’ve gotten sucked into the iphone hype too.  Frankly, I can’t wait to get my hands on one, even if lil’ ole Charlottesville lags piteously behind the rest of the world with no 3G network.

I’ve been noodling about what location really means, especially in a user-pull application environment like the iphone. (I’m with the crowd that says, “Thank God iphone apps won’t run in the background - and dry out my battery in 15 minutes flat.”)

Rather than trying to come up with some New New Thing by smooshing together social networks, location and a handwave at a business model that involves trying to convince businesses to advertise “on the spot” sales to iphone users  (ummmm, nrme, anyone?)… I’m wondering instead, “What things are truly location dependent?”  I guess I mean something beyond just “Where’s the closest Starbucks?”

A few things have come to mind:

• tides
• sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset
• stars’ locations in the skies
• cheapest, nearest gas
• local food (http://www.localharvest.org/)

Hmmmm…. more ruminating is called for.

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Twitter: I laughed, I cried, I cried some more.

Posted in Tech at 4:13 am by Colin Steele

Once upon a time, I p’shawed twitter.  “Who needs this goofy one-line blog thing?  It’s like an IM away message, only without any notion of presence… duh.”

Then for the hell of it, I signed up.  And it hit me.  “This is brilliant.  It’s like IM away status, only it’s syndicated!”

Now, I am a dishearted twitter convert.  When will our beloved twitter get its legs back under it?  Maybe their new financing will help.

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06.10.08

Myspace, meet Facebook

Posted in Tech at 4:45 pm by Colin Steele

After the nausea-inducing trip to Myspace-customization-land, building a custom Facebook application (using Ruby on Rails and rFacebook) is a picnic.  Two and a half days to a working prototype.  Not bad.

On a incredibly geeky side note, why doesn’t IE support CSS selectors properly, even in IE7?  What year is it?

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