Day 5: No junk software? Looking for a MBP 13" Unibody case...
Some information about various things discussed in class yesterday.
Use Dotster.com, it is only going to cost about $10 a year for a domain. If you are interested in a branding opportunity online, it starts there. Dotster.com has a fast, and easy, interface. Minimal push sales through the domain registration pages. This is NOT like goDaddy. I don't like their interface at all.
If you are curious about trademark issues, visit USPTO.GOV, there is a search function on the left hand side. Pretty straight forward. Do a search if you want to minimize the risk of a lawsuit for trademark infringement or a cyber-squatting fiasco.
Those two are where I go when I start a project. I currently have 100 domains, each relate to a project with a specific purpose/goal in mind. I've had greater and fewer than 100, but I have always had this goal of launching 100 businesses in a year. We'll see if that happens... moving on.
Social Media sites are pretty much centered around the users interacting with the service instead of the service providing itself to the user. YouTube, for instance, is a social media site. Reddit is as well, so is Digg; the left and right of link aggregation. Search engines like the one Mahalo wanted to be, was powered by people to provide quality increases in the results. It shifted to a Wikipedia format this year. Seems good intentioned, but I don't like the idea of compensating users with something other than cash/goods on a 1:1 ratio. Mahalo has an interesting business model. I'm interested in how it works for the management team.
In all of these cases, and more, like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn; You have to capture YOUR brand as an individual. Not just your business identity. If you want to maintain your brand recognition [search for James Hatch on Google, depending on your search trends, I'll be in the top 5, usually behind the Professor], you must capture your name. So, I own my name www.JamesHatch.com and my spouses name. I own the domains for my projects, as well as some of them on Twitter. I also own my name on Google. Albeit sometimes it requires me to include my middle name... I'll be first in line to grab my non-full name when the opportunity arises with other services. If you look to the right, the third panel contains the places I visit or own, and have my name brand.
One of my projects: MobWatch.com [which I don't advertise] is an online reputation manager. Basically, the idea is to allow individuals to link to the profiles on other sites, and discuss the personality and actions of the user outside of that site. I intend to make it so that identical names can be pulled up, and everyone can analyze the tone and nature of the online persona's to see if they are one in the same. Obviously it is not a scientific analysis, but is might present some interesting results.
Another project: JDrater.com [again, I don't advertise] is a rating and review site intended for individuals to comment on how they were treated by attorney's and firms. It follows on the same platform as MobWatch in terms of interface. I love social aggregation, the idea of mob rule is fascinating. Attorney friends say that the jury gets it right whereas individual decision making fails due to bias. The problem is that the jury sometimes gets its wrong. I'm interested, as an offshoot of JDrater development, if the size of the jury makes a difference. According to my marketing research professor, as it applies to sampling... the size of the sample shouldn't make a difference.
More to come... I just needed to break from reading code. I'm starting to respond in a series of short beeps and whistles.
TEDtalks - Go visit the site.
Day 4: Look Mac, don't give me that stuff about your battery.
Seems true enough, my desktop fell asleep, and instead of sitting down and letting it boot up. I left it to sleep quietly on the floor and grabbed my MBP. Since I'm putting in somewhere between 3-8 hours a day to learn Objective-C and the iPhone SDK, it makes more sense anyway. It is pretty hard to learn the Apple coding routine when you boot to Windows 7.
So, I'm sitting at school going through some tutorials and reading all things mac and notice my battery draining faster than the desired 7 hours on the 13" MacBook Pro unibody. Yes, it was just because I had the screen on max brightness, the Wi-Fi was running, as was bluetooth [just because I can] and I was watching video while listening to my iTunes library. I was still there, without power umbilical for about 4 hours. Yah, my HP Tablet would have done one of the following: Died due to battery failure, or exploded due to over working.
So, everyone needs a break from studying... I play World of Warcraft. The only game I've ever played for more than an hour as an adult. It is a fun distraction, and brings me back to my youth when I played AD&D with 5-8 people around a large table with *GASP* pen and paper. Yah, I don't know what those even look like now. Warcraft puts the MBP through the paces. If I turn everything down, I get anywhere from 22 frames per second up to a whopping 140 frames per second. But in all instances, the MBP heats up to the point where if you were doing this on a park bench and had it on naked thighs, you would be in the hospital with a nice third degree burn. At least, that is my perception of things. The case becomes so hot, you can't help but warm yourself by the fire. Unfortunately, the place it heats up most [over the AWSD portion of the keyboard] is where you put your hands most often while playing WoW.
I paired my iPhone to my MBP as well... nothing happened. I'll have to go back. I coded [with a tutorial] a ToDo list which will evolve now into what I wanted to fix a little issue I have, more on that if it develops. I say if, because although Obj-C is very straight forward in terms of how to code, you really have to know what is available to code. Otherwise you are just going to sit around coding "HELLO WORLD" type of basic software. I want more. I haven't seen the inside of software in over 6 years though, so we'll see how long this takes.
One last thing... EVERYTHING needs a cable/adapter/dongle/thingy. I can't connect my monitor(s) from my Desktop without a cable [for one monitor] and I need a smart splitter for two, but there is no Mini-DisplayPort splitter for two monitors without paying something like $400. That isn't going to happen. I want the Cinema Display 30" but that comes in at $1500. I better find a job or start selling blood.
Day 5 is now here... I'll post something if it is interesting to me, and I don't know if it is interesting to anyone else. My first few months of blogger without telling anyone I blog is more an outlet for me than an inlet for readers.
Day 3: MacBook Pro, Transition is nearly complete. Kool-Aid refills wanted.
That being said, the inside of the MacBook Pro is pretty sharp. The small hard drive I got with the purchase was replaced immediately with a 500GB HD. It was a snap to install (10 external case screws, 7 of which were short, 3 were long and I don't know why). There were 4 screws holding bars in place that acted like shocks/pressure plates to keep the hard drive in position. Easily removed, and restored with the application called "Time Machine" that is built into OS X. It took a short bit of time to do the deed, but it was done perfectly.
Since I didn't know anything about the Mac, I had BestBuy install the iLife application for me, along with a MobileMe subscription and some rebates as a deal by the Apple Kool-Aid drinker in charge. (Paul, I said it twice while we were talking, and now I'm drinking it too.) I wish they hadn't named my directory as my full name. It is a pain to change from what I've gathered [it being Unix, I can see why] But I'll figure it out and change it to what I want. I don't really like the idea of people looking over my shoulder and reading my name in the top left corner of my brilliantly bright monitor. This thing could probably double as a small sun to power a solar power array.
Enough for now... Day 3 is nearly done, I'll update if anything amazing happens today.
ps... keyboard commands are slightly different. cntrl-c = command-c on a Mac. I have a lot to learn.
Day 2: MacBook Pro, iPhone, platform transition in progress.
I'm learning to use Xcode now, along with learning the ins and outs of the entire platform. Office is no longer a necessity. But I miss my Tablet already. The new owner will be happy with it. It was put on eBay, and was scooped up within two days. Takes the sting out of dropping money for an entire hardware platform change. More to come from days experiences...
ps... I have not used "Shareware" since I was first introduced to the PC market back when I was half my age. The Apple site links to all kinds of shareware products, and that brings back memories of software I didn't like, but didn't know it until I tried it out. This was before 15% restocking fee's. When I was working in the software retail industry, they would reshrinkwrap hardware and software after making a slight effort to verify everything was there. And then it would be restocked at full price. NOT worth a 15% restocking fee, and the reason we were told it was going into effect, was to minimize people purchasing and returning software just to see if they liked it. I hated that policy. I wouldn't be surprised if that is part of an increase in software, movie, and music piracy. I might have to do a study on that.
Day 1 : Working with the MacBook Pro (Happy 4th)
I'm considering this my Independence Day... I'm going to learn programming, and the MacBook Pro seems pretty easy to work with. It even connects to my Piano to help me learn to play better. My wife wants me to learn to play the guitar, and GarageBand is built into the OS, so I don't need to purchase another application. It even has free lessons to download. And so much more, I'll have to start breaking this up into individual blog posts. HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!
Big Change here at Hatch Central...
Saw this with xFeed today - Chevy Volt + xFeed quick review.
Trying a new App called xFeed.
This shiny little black car is the first real Chevy Volt—the first of many hand-built but bona-fide production-intent prototypes that will roll out of GM's pre-production workshop in the coming weeks. This car is the next big step in the production process after the testing of the Volt "mules"—test cars with a Chevy Cruze body and a Volt powertrain. (We drove one of the mules last month; see our full review here.) <-- That "We" is not Me, and I am not them. It was just part of the submission. Since you can't remove anything from the web once you submit it; even if you tried, it is usually cached somewhere within the blink of an eye, it usually pops up somewhere.
Although it doesn't format my submissions the way I like them [Full Justification], this application is pretty good. Look it up on the AppStore. xFeed, a free RSS reader that appears to be gathering a following. And, you can check out the Chevy Volt as well.