aza raskin, superman for UI

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Aza Raskin, the boy-genius son of famed "human-computer interface" developer Jef Raskin--responsible for Apple Pascal and the Macintosh Project for Apple Computer (and a few other remarkable things)--has struck a chord within the relationship between language and the Web. He has created an interface that allows you to use natural, informal language to call upon certain Web services in a very organic fashion. "twit this," "map this location," "translate this," "highlight." Very good stuff.

Aza, by the way, gave his first UI talk when he was 10 years old. He dropped out of middle school and high school, went to the University of Chicago to study math and physics, and researched Dark Matter (which he followed into an ultimately abandoned PhD program at CalTech). He also studied at the University of Tokyo, though U. Chicago was his only fully completed stint. He is also the founder of Algorithm Ink and Songza. Yeah, he's kind of a big deal.

update: students who hacked the MBTA get gag order lifted

Via SlashDot:

"Judge O'Toole said he disagreed with the basic premise of the MBTA's argument: That the students' presentation was a likely violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a 1986 federal law meant to protect computers from malicious attacks such as worms and viruses. Many had expected Tuesday's hearing to hinge on First Amendment issues and what amounts to responsible disclosure on the part of computer security researchers. Instead, O'Toole based his ruling on the narrow grounds of what constitutes a violation of the CFAA. On that basis, he said MBTA lawyers failed to convince him on two points: The students' presentation was meant to be delivered to people, and was not a computer-to-computer 'transmission.' Second, the MBTA couldn't prove the students had caused at least $5,000 damage to the transit system."

Nice.

weekly diy: ceral box to gift box

So you bought the perfect gift for your buddy's birthday, but realize a half hour before the party that the nicest thing you have to wrap it in is a Duane Reed grocery bag. I feel your pain (and embarrassment). Well, with this DIY you can cut open your favorite cereal box and a couple of folds later you've got yourself a box. Bueno.

The folding steps are relatively precise, so I'm sending you over to instructables.com to check out the exact method. There are about 8 folds, then a gluing step. That's it.

Materials needed: cereal box, sharpie (to decorate).

Tools needed: glue gun, dexterity.

Instructables step-by-step.
J.J. Abrams talk @TED on box design that seemed to inspire our DIY-er.

walmart noticing nobody wants to buy cd's...bingo

WalMart may have the exclusive release of ACDC's new album dropping this fall, but that might be some of the last music the retailer will carry. Like everyone else, they have finally realized the lack of demand of music through mediums such as WalMart (the decline began at those obsolete brick and mortar music stores like Tower Records, Sam Goody, etc). And the demand curve for music at WalMart is even more kooky, because it is based on the impulse purchase demand and not music listener demand. That's how WalMart, Target and Best Buy sell the vast majority of music in the US. People who want to buy music use iTunes and Amazon, people who want to buy dishwasher detergent and cereal and happen to walk past the music section and see Tim McGraw on the shelf for $6.99 buy music at WalMart. As soon as they start to take away that inventory, people will obviously stop buying, but those sales won't carry over to online music stores...they'll just kind of die.

Somber, just like to music industry. Bronfasauras, take note.

aside: aapl worth more than goog

Bam. For at least this moment, Aug. 14, 2008 @12:01pm, Apple's market cap is $158.93B, which just happens to be slightly more than Google's $158.61B. Ouch. They both look pretty shocked to learn it, too.

schmidt to cramer: mobile's gonna kick desktop's ass

Everybody has been talking about mobile advertising like its going to blow everything else out of the water. That talk's about ten years tired now, and still...nothing. Its a tough problem, one that faces all forms of advertising: how do we not annoy the crap out of our consumers? There have been examples of mediums that didn't solve this problem (who in fact used its existence as a means of accessing consumers). Those would be pop-up ads on your browser. The endless sea of pornography and gaming sites covering your entire screen...yeah, that builds great brand image.

So when Eric Schmidt goes on Cramer and says that Google will eventually make more money from mobile ads than desktop? Big statement, especially considering that the problem is still, well, a problem. Schmidt went on CNBC's "Mad Money" last night to discuss the mobile ad concept with Cramer (full transcript here), and was quite optimistic of the role mobile will play in Google's future. He also reiterated that, even though www.google.com is ranked #2 on the web in traffic (behind Yahoo), there will (hopefully) never be any ads littering the site's real estate. "We absolutely are not going to sell that page," Schmidt told Cramer. I think we can all understand the value of keeping that page, and by extension the company's image, clean.

But how to make money in mobile? Cramer poses the question with regard to the greed of wireless carriers (maybe Android is the answer??). Even if Google figures out a smart and non-invasive way of placing targeted ads (as they most certainly will), is it possible to structure the economics in a way that makes enough money (at least comparably to their desktop model)? AlleyInsider also brings up a good point: if Google were to make more money in mobile than desktop (currently bringing in over $20B for the company), the mobile ad market would have to grow from less than $1B to over $50B (SAI is assuming that Google takes about 50% of the market). That's a lot of growth. Just please, no location-based coupons like that hairbrained Starbuck's example.

weekly diy: time hater work around for VMware licensing bug

So this week's DIY is kind of an excuse to post on VMware's big licensing bug that is prohibiting users running their enterprise virtual ESX server from accessing their systems, but its a good lesson in workarounds and where to find them.

This morning it was discovered that anybody powering up their VM servers on ESX 3.5U2 in enterprise configs will be met with a brick wall. That's a big uh oh for companies running their systems nearly entirely over the virtual servers provided by the software (ESX doesn't require an underlying OS, it simply runs directly on the server hardware). So, when you go to boot up, and you get a general error message and have no idea what to do? First, talk to your IT guy. But if he doesn't know? Go to the community forums for the company producing your software. In this case, its VMware Inc, and their community boards today are buzzing with this bug. The workaround comes courtesy of LeoKurz2, and has to do simply with setting the date back to any day prior to August 12 (today). Apparently the licensing bug runs an expiration error once it hits August 12, so you can set the date of all ESX 3.5U2 hosts back to the 10th, or even 11th of August, and it should work just fine. There are a couple of ways to do this outlined on the forum.

The lesson is to always go to the source. IT help desks aren't always the most efficient (certainly with regard to time) way to fix a technology problem, so go to a discussion directly related to the issue: forums hosted by the software provider. You'll usually find a lot of people with the same problem as you, and solutions provided by intelligent people who don't get paid to sit on phones all day. Of course, the problem itself is usually fixed with a patch released to users within a day or so (sometimes within hours), but if you need that "quick fix," so to speak, go forth and forum.

virtual turnstile jumpers met with physical restraining order

So everybody knows kids from MIT are wicked smart. And when they hack systems, they usually like to brag about it and get as many eyes on the security flaw (embarrassing the architect) as possible. But these three kids who hacked the MBTA fare system? They're holding a conference on their hack.

DefCon, the world's largest "hacker conference," which takes place in Las Vegas this week, is host to the planet's most brilliant minds in computers. Late last week, Zack Anderson, R.J. Ryan and Alessandro Chisea announced they were holding a talk entitled "The Anatomy of a Subway Hack: Breaking Crypto RFIEDs & Magstripes of Ticketing Systems." Unfortunately, they hadn't quite warned the Massachusetts mass transit system authority--who operates the fifth largest transit system in the US--about their intentions. So they were essentially going to teach people how to hack their way out of subway fares, and not give the transit boys enough time to reengineer their system.

How did they halt the talk? Not through circuits and internet connections, but through a restraining order limiting their physical presence. Pretty sneaky, even for government boys.

According to Wired's Threat Level blog, the three students had figured out a way to reverse engineer the magnetic stripe on paper passenger tickets (called the CharlieTicket), and cracked the smartcard tickets, or CharlieCards (which accounts for almost $500,000 in revenue per weekday).

Maybe the kids shouldn't have taglined the talk "Want free subway rides for life?" Slightly conspicuous. Sidenote: the NY Transit Authority just upped the fine for jumping turnstiles to $200 (up from $100).

what does 60M downloads mean? its not a device, its a platform!

Though there may be a few rotten apples in the bunch (ahem, I Am Rich), what the App Store has proven is that iPhone is not just a device, a handheld, smartphone, or any other name for a mobile; it is an entirely new software platform. Steve Jobs is predicting "half a billion in sales...soon. Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time," he told the WSJ this morning.

According to Silicon Alley Insider, App Store sales are up to $30M, with the top ten developers netting $9M. Remember, Apple keeps a third of that for placing your app on their platform and marketing it through the App Store, as well as providing the tools to develop (if you haven't played around with the new iPhone SDK, you certainly should).

As these web and mobile applications become more readily accessible for the average consumer (not that iPhone consumers are average), they become more pervasive. Twitter, Loopt, Evernote, who cares how they monetize? Google didn't know at first either. Once these guys can access a broad market, they'll have the customer base and data to do great things, whether its in advertising or whatever other business model they stumble upon. One thing is certain: the opportunity in the mobile device market is only just being realized, there's still a whole lot more to discover.

Some cool non-iPhone exclusive apps: BaseCamp, LiveJournal, GrandCentral, LiteFeeds, NextBus.

i'm rich, bitch! oh wait, you're just dumb and downloaded a $1K app

When you look at an App's details, and see "0.1 MB" listed as the file size, chances are its not gonna do a whole lot. The aptly named "I Am Rich" iPhone App delivers on that promise. At $999.99, you get a swirling, glowing ruby that gyrates around the screen. Yay.

Apple has finally pulled the App, adding to the two other yanked apps over the past few weeks. But at least the others (NetShare, which turns your iPhone into a wireless modem which, as you might suspect, violates AT&T's user agreement, and BoxOffice, which simply listed movie times) performed functions.

However, Armin Heinrich, the developer, may have just been attempting to market his other applications. If that's the case then bravo, because he got plenty of hype from a very simple, very cheap creation that displays his name overhead. This recent trend of controversial, borderline viral (with perhaps more sickness than spread) marketing is having mixed receptions. Burger King's Subserviant Chicken was a success measured by unique hits, but did it make people buy more Whoppers? Virgin Mobile had its famed "mangina" controversy, but did that many more people sign up for the service because they had more media impressions of "virgin mobile" next to "mangina"? Who knows, the data and tactics are all too young to measure any significant effect.

It is good to know that some companies are thinking a bit more outside the box. But c'mon Armin, enough with the worthless Apps. Seriously. Give us something useful.

Knock-offs inspired by "I Am Rich" per Adrian Kingsley from zdnet: "I Am Stupid" ($1999.99); "I Was Rich" ($10,000,000); "I Am Poor" ($.01).

sell sell sell

BusinessWeek has reported that many top-level execs--including one Mark Zuckerberg--have been trying to sell some of their shares in their still private company Facebook. And guess what? Its not at the same price Microsoft bought in. Boy that's a shocker.

Last October, Microsoft bought a small stake in the wildly successful start-up that implied a total value of $15B. There were rumors that the price tag of their stake was amped up by a faux bidding war launched by Google to force Microsoft to overpay as a kind of humiliation tactic, but however you look at it, they overvalued (though they did get preferred shares with special liquidation preferences). Mark & co have reportedly been brokering their shares at as low a valuation as $3.75B, and as high as $5B. Lower-level employees will be able to sell up to 20% of their vested options at $4B starting this fall.

So what does this all mean? Is Mark finally agreeing with the pundits that social networking might not be the next Google? Their growth, along with MySpace and others, has slowed considerably over the past nine months. And their advertising platform has yet to prove very effective, although its design is quite impressive. Maybe the Facebook users are just too desensitized to care about banner ads. I know I am. Sell away boys, while you still have ten figures to your price tag.

weekly diy: all-in-one device charger

These days the theme with regard to devices seems to be the more the merrier. I respectively disagree, but while you're holding your personal iPhone, company Blackberry and Bluetooth headset, you may be nodding your head. So, what do all of those devices have in common? They all run on batteries, which means, they all have to be charged. And that means three separate cords, and three times the clutter. What to do?

Get yourself a bread basket, measure a drill bit to the size of a rubber gasket, drill however many respective holes in the top, and gasket 'em. Drill another hole in the back of the container for the power source. Stuff your powerstrip into the box, plug your devices into it, and snake the cords out the top. Et voila.

Materials needed: powerstrip, rubber gasket, steel breadbox (or some other more aesthetically pleasing container), gaffer tape (or something close).

Tools needed: Drill with metal-drilling bits.

Check out the how-to video.

NOW the shape of that remote makes sense...

Vudu, the relatively expensive set-top box for movie rentals, has been chugging along at a meager but positive rate. The problems lie, as AlleyInsider points out, in its high price (relative to AppleTV), and its closed-system (AppleTV accesses iTunes and Youtube).

But they may have found a valuable addition to their movie libraries (which at the moment consist of about 5,000 titles): porn. And not just any porn, but HD porn. The Adult Video Network (AVN) is now a channel on Vudu, and titles can be "rented" the same way normal video titles are. Whether or not this venture will be profitable in the face of massive amounts of free porn available on the internet is anybody's guess, but maybe people will appreciate its subtletly ('Honey? I'm just gonna go, uhhh, rent a MOVIE on Vudu, see you in an hour and a half...'). All I know is that already questionable remote just got a bit more suggestive.

Gizmodo Report
Vudu.com

canuck telcos get punched in the moose lips

Gotta love mobile carriers. The crazy contracts, hefty cancellation fees, insane hidden data transfer rackets, and it only gets better. A couple of lawsuits have turned up in Canada against two major service providers, Bell Canada and Telus, regarding the newly imposed incoming text message fee. Yes, when you receive a text, you get charged (in addition to outgoing, of course). While there has been plenty of hub bub over the fees, its starts to get legal when they impose these fees mid-contract, and kill ya with hefty penalties when you attempt to cancel as a result.

Oh, and those spam text messages that pop in unsolicited? You're charged for those too. And that, my friend, is illegal. Slashdot provides a great rant against this situation. Check it: "Because service providers are aware of the volume of unsolicited texts, we feel they are liable for the inconvenience to their clients for preventing spam charges, and more importantly under no circumstances should service providers profit from spam. We also feel that requiring us to buy text bundles to avoid the inconvenience of reversing spam charges constitutes extortion. They can charge me for texts when they stop the spam."

Keep up the rants Slashdot, they're very becoming of you. As for Bell and Telus? Stop extorting your customers and start providing value. While you're at it, tell your friends, they could use a lesson in customer satisfaction as well. That is all.

finally the killer mobile app?

We may finally have a competitor to iPhone's mobile web browser. Skyfire, which has been peaking our interest for quite some time about their ultra-capable mobile browser software, has finally found a medium. The software debuted on Windows Mobile and is in private beta on Symbian's S60 compatible Nokia phones (including the N95, pictured above) as of today.

The browser has all the capabilites of mobile Sarfari on iPhone (zoom, dragging, sliding, etc), but with one big enhancement. It runs Flash and Ajax sites, and it does it all without the need of downloading separate apps. How? As TechCrunch reports, "[i]t does this by offloading most of the heavy lifting to its servers rather than the mobile client." Youtube and fancy websites, no longer a problem.

Check out the video run-through on CrunchBase, pretty neat stuff.

how to lose $15.5B in one quarter

On SeekingAlpha's "How is GM Still Alive?" post, blogger Felix Salmon points to the "Financial Highlights" section of their most recent 10-Q. $57B total shareholder's deficit. Quite the highlight indeed. Oh, and that's up from only $4B last year.

So in addition to losing their shareholders a shitload of money, what else does this company do? Well, they sell 12 mpg SUV's while gas and crude prices are at all time highs. They take on debt like they're pulling cash out of an ATM. They slash their workers' pension plans and benefits. Oh, and have Rick Wagoner as CEO. I would say short but the big guys already took care of them, there's nothing left but scrap metal and oil.

GM on Google Finance.

move that gigantic cotton candy

Well, its not cotton candy, but its certainly just as obnoxious. Think of all the things that bother you on an overcrowded commercial flight these days. Ok, now add 15 self-important pricks yelling into their mobile devices, attempting to be heard over crying babies, intercom prompts and, oh yeah, jet engines. Well, Congress just eliminated that nuisance for you. The new bill, bizarrely named Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace Act (or HANG UP), puts a moratorium on in-flight cell phone use, at least for now.

The bill comes at a strange time though, seeing as how most domestic carriers are putting WiFi access on their flights in the very near future. Slashdot reports that Orgeon Representative Peter DeFazio believes "it won't be long before the ban on voice communications on in-flight planes is lifted. Cash-strapped airlines could end up charging some passengers to use their phones while charging others to sit in a phone-free section of the plane." Yikes. What a mess.