Friday, October 27, 2006
A Great Headline
Politics aside, this is a great headline on CNN:
Bush uses ‘Internets’ to reach ‘The Google’
All CNN videos are in a pop-up, so I doubt many link directly to it (CNN’s loss), and the javascript that detects your Windows Media Player is very wonky in Firefox (allows me to at least watch on one machine, while it won’t let me in at all on other, despite having the latest plug-ins for both).
CNN news videos are nice, short segments and they have ads before you watch your first (and occasionally in between segments too?) so I assume they’re at least covering the costs of bandwidth. By limiting in-bound links (intentionally or not) they’re really stunting their own growth and popularity.
A New Gaim to Come
Linux.com has a preview of Gaim 2.0. I’m a Windows user, as well as a Trillian (Pro) fan, but recognize the program could use some improvements. I’m willing to give Gaim a test ride again, but there doesn’t seem to be much to pull me in. Trillian can be a little slow and clunky, but there are mentions of improvement in the yet-released Trillian 4 on the seldom-updated Trillian blog. Quicker load times and a smaller footprint would be nicer than any new feature I can think of.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Like Fluffy Crack
I’m not sure how else to title something about the sickeningly adorable stuff available on Cute Overload.
For some reason it came to mind after reading this post about Pablo Picasso and nervio.
The little guy (or gal) in the pic is from this page.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Stop Piracy
Don’t be a douche, stop piracy.
If I ever have to make a PSA, I hope it’s like this.
If Nancy would have said “don’t be a douche” instead of “just say no”, we’d have no more drug problems.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
MyESPN Hits Beta
MyESPN is here. I think it’ll get a lot of talk because it’s ESPN, it’s customizable and it’s RSS-friendly, but I’ve yet to find another reason why anyone will mention it.
Put simply: it’s a customizable portal, similar (very similar) to My Yahoo!. Outside of a few ESPN-friendly only options, there’s not much more to it (yet?).
I was clued into MyESPN via Reemer, who was expecting something more:
They’ve made some curious decisions, for example, not displaying links to outside sites (they’re one click away). Intentionally making the product less useful is an interesting strategy.
Reemer points to FatMixx, who worked on the project. If you’re as impressed as Reemer is, FatMixx says don’t be quiet:
Based on early feedback, people are happy but a lot of folks have suggestions. Leave feedback. I guarantee that the team is paying attention. Your feedback will shape what we do next and how we make this product even better.
Some thoughts so far:
* During setup I was asked to put in a zipcode to find teams close to me. I don’t think it said “or city”. If so, disregard this: due to the internet, sports tv packages and fantasy leagues many are now fans of teams in cities they’ve never been to. Chances are, they won’t know the zipcode, don’t make them look it up. Yes, I know you can add/edit later, but initial setup should be as easy as possible.
* The scoreboard isn’t sortable. It should be. Leagues and teams in whatever order I want and maybe even a “hide when no games are played” option. Things are collapsable, but having them disappear completely is even better.
* Some sort of feed search would probably be helpful to many.
* Adding a feed is quick and easy, the way it should be.
* An autoplay on/off option on the video module! Thank you to whoever implemented that.
* Having the television module probably seemed like a great idea to promote whatever’s on ESPN, but having one channel at a time in a module is basically useless. This need to be asked when making a “My” page: if this wasn’t automatically on the page already, would anyone add it themselves?
* I don’t use ESPN for any of my fantasy leagues. I’m sure this module is useful for some and just wanted to point that out.
* The team modules are nice, but relatively basic. Links to ESPN pages like schedule and rosters along with the next game listed, news on ESPN (which primarily is ticker stuff you see on other portals) and local links, which could wind up being the bread and butter of this module, but I’m not sure how ESPN will feel about having the one of the better features simply be a collection of external links.
* You can add more customizable pages, which does push it outside of the “just a landing page” type of portal, but it’s not a feature I played around with (because honestly, I’m not looking for a multi-page portal).
So would I use it? Well, I’m not in the market for any portal right now, so no, but if I was, I couldn’t see any feature that would make me switch from a portal like My Yahoo! or even Excite (still the best tv listings) to ESPN. I can add all my RSS feeds to anything now (Y!, Google, AOL, etc…) and the original content doesn’t seem all that original outside of the videos, which are available elsewhere. I’m not sure how much else is going to be added between beta and “true” launch, but without any other big features, it’s just like any other portal with an ESPN Video module.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Cats in Sinks
From the “why didn’t I think of that” file (or the “glad I didn’t think of that file”, can’t decide):
No, really.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
A Couple of My Recent Youtube Faves
Little Superstar
Chiru