The US Divided by Facebook
Rich has been a big proponent of Posterous for a long time. I’ve been meaning to try it out, so here goes.
I saw this link in my Reader today, pretty interesting stuff. I <3 data visualizations, as you know, so it was a gimme. Not sure how he got access to all the data though [...]
Are Blog Comments Obsolete?
I’ve been thinking about comments lately, mostly because several interesting points have converged to draw my attention.
First, Cult of Mac pointed out that John Gruber’s Daring Fireball will now have comments, via another site, i.e. DaringFireballWithComments.net.
Next, Engadget turned off their comments because the had “really gotten out of hand”.
Then today I see TechCrunch responded to [...]
Welcome VirtualBox
Have you noticed the subtle change to the VirtualBox logo? Probably not, but thanks to ReadWriteWeb for pointing out the change.
VirtualBox is one of several open source projects that Sun oversaw, and in his strategy briefing last week, Larry Ellison announced that VirtualBox images will be deployable on Oracle VM, which is great news.
If you [...]
Scoring Topper on the Tablet
Last week, you got not one, but two posts by authors not named Jake. I felt lucky too.
Matt (@topperge) gave us his rundown of “no brainer” features in advance of the iPad announcement. As a giggle, let’s score his accuracy:
Books in the App Store: Win. Apple announced a new app called iBooks, delivered through the [...]
What Do You Think of the iPad?
In case you were unplugged, Apple announced a tablet last week, called the iPad.
By now, the jokes have died down and the geek world has been furiously dissecting the pros and cons of the iPad. It’s what we do.
My quick take is the same as its been for a while: I don’t need a gadget [...]
The Importance of January 27, 2010
Wednesday was an interesting day, with two very interesting announcements happening at the same time, one in the consumer space, one in the enterprise space.
I’m talking obviously about the Apple event to announce the iPad and the Oracle-Sun strategy announcement.
It’s well-known that Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison have been friends for many years, and there [...]
Does Geo Location Matter to You?
As with last week, the geo news has been hot and heavy again this week, but before I get to the tidbits I’ve found interesting, let’s talk about why geo matters or doesn’t.
Unlike social, you shouldn’t be guilted into geo. Not that you were guilted into joining Twitter or Facebook, but the riskiness of joining [...]
Speed Data Pr0n
If you read here, you know I love data and data visualizations.
So, you won’t be surprised to hear this post from Hot Hardware immediately intrigued me: “TomTom’s IQ Routes Prove Americans Aren’t Speed Demons”.
Aside from the blatant advertising, the conclusions, initially published by Tele Atlas, TomTom’s map business unit, were great data points for me, since I’ve [...]
More WebCenter Goodness
Yesterday, Vince posted the third installment in his “What is WebCenter” series, and as promised, he dives into the design points with more detail.
After reading all three parts, it should be clearer that WebCenter is a lot of things and is therefore, difficult to describe in a terse manner. To date, we’ve been working to [...]
Oracle & Sun Strategy Webcast
Word leaked yesterday that the EU was set to approve the Oracle-Sun acquisition, and today, it’s official.
Justin announced that Larry Ellison will hold a live webcast on January 27 to unveil the corporate strategy for the combined companies. Here’s the official description:
Transforming the Way You Buy, Run, and Manage Your Business Systems
Find out how Oracle [...]
Would Better Online Ads Matter?
Earlier in the week, I posted about Next Jump and their use of data and algorithms to target offers at consumers who are most likely to buy.
Their results are impressive, 60% click-through on offers with a phenomenal 11% rate converting browsers to buyers. Apparently, 5% click-through with 2% conversion are consider very good rates.
I find [...]
Geo Me This
Wow, geo is a hot topic lately, with coverage, announcements and features dropping every day.
Here’s a summary of what I’ve seen lately that caught my interest:
Gowalla appears to be preparing an API.
MyTown has 500,000 users, even though no one talks about it.
Yelp is adding location checkins to the next version of its iPhone app.
Eric Butler [...]
The Evolution of Crayon Colors
As a lover of data visualization, I couldn’t resist sharing this one from Stephen Von Worley depicting the evolution of beloved Crayola crayons from their humble roots as an eight-pack of fun in 1903 to today’s 120-pack.
I’m a total data geek, which is why I love data visualizations. I couldn’t help looking for patterns and [...]
Next Jump and Why Data Win
Ever heard of a company called Next Jump? Me neither until I read this piece in the New York Times (h/t TechCrunch) last week.
Next Jump had stayed stealth for 15 years, raising $45 million in venture money and hiring 225 people, all the while signing 60% of the Fortune 500 as customers.
Not too shabby.
It gets [...]
What is WebCenter, Part 2
In case you’re following along at home, Vince has posted the second installment in his “What is WebCenter” series. You can find the first part here.
So far, he’s kept it pretty high level, which makes sense. I expect that in future parts he’ll dive into the nitty gritty details a bit more, e.g. he says [...]
My iPhone Dilemma
If you follow me on Twitter (@jkuramot), you might already know that my iPhone, the OG version, is failing.
I noticed last week it wasn’t charging or syncing over USB. I performed all the usual tests to trap the problem–swapped cables, swapped ports on the Mac and on my USB hubs, swapped ports on my Ubuntu [...]
You Asked What is WebCenter . . .
A little while back, Chet (@oraclenerd) asked the Oracle WebCenter account (@oraclewebcenter) over Twitter, “What is WebCenter?”
Makes sense since Chet, and many others out there, are general Oracle practitioners, meaning they may specialize in a specific product, but are always curious and eager to expand their knowledge to other Oracle products, which is very easy [...]
Email Address Matters
Thanks to Reader, today I found this piece (h/t Slashdot and Lifehacker) by a freelance writer asking whether her aol.com email address was hopelessly square and dated.
I noticed this post initially because I can’t think of a single contact of mine with an aol.com address. I used to help a friend with AOL about five years [...]
Twitter as Plumbing
Cue the jokes.
So, Chet (@oraclenerd) floated this notion, originally proposed in the NYT, and it’s completely true. Check the evidence: $25 million from Google and Microsoft to pump the firehose of tweets into search results, a full ecosystem built around the Twitter API, even an apps marketplace, Oneforty, built around the ecosystem.
Incidentally, Oneforty, the brainchild of [...]
Checkin to Foursquare by Taking a Picture
I know I predicted that geo would be left at the altar 2010, but I think there’s huge potential in geo services.
Dissecting my prediction, I’m forecasting gang-busting growth for the “where-am-I” use case. Along those lines, I give you Photocheck.in (h/t TechCrunch), which hits two of my favorite things: geo and APIs.
In very simple terms, [...]
