Author: Jake

There’s a ton of ink spilling around the interwebs about the Nokia-Microsoft partnership, which is looking a lot more like Microsoft pwning Nokia. Here are some posts that resonated with me that I recommend reading. I mean really reading, not skimming. Jason Grigsby (@grigs) of Cloud Four wrote Declaring Platform Bankruptcy: Does it make sense? before… Read More

Not that it matter, but I’ve missed on another of my predictions. By now, you’ve likely heard that Nokia is partnering with Microsoft to release Windows Phone 7 smartphones. Many, many, many people are seeing this as highly negative and disappointing for Nokia, and Nokia’s stock reflects this sentiment. I tend to agree, and here’s… Read More

Via Justin (@oracletechnet), there are newly announced Developer Days. Get Your Workshop Hands On! New Developer Day Cities What are Developer Days? Developer Day workshops are free, hands-on workshops that give you the software and skills to tame that learning curve and reach the next level in your technical knowledge. We have a range of… Read More

WebCenter product manager extraordinaire, Manish Devgan, has a brand new blog over at mdevgan.wordpress.com. So, if you want more WebCenter content, hit him up immediately. Today, he has a post about the latest guides to extending WebCenter 11g Patchset 3. Extending WebCenter Spaces Using JDeveloper | Manish Devgan’s Oracle WebCenter Blog And while we’re on… Read More

By now, you know we have a Facebook page. Like it immediately. I’ll wait. Ever wonder what happens when you like something on Facebook? Facebook Insights provides analytics for a fan page, a lot like any traditional web analytics package does, e.g. Google Analytics. But since this is Facebook, I can get data like these:… Read More

I found this very interesting. Top Reasons Why Consumers Unsubscribe Via E-Mail, Facebook Probably the top feature request we’ve had for Connect over the past three and a half years is for email notifications. We’ve resisted adding them for a number of reasons, mostly due to resources, but I’ve always thought the need was overstated.… Read More

Paul (@ppedrazzi) used to talk about a way to measure the cost of meetings. Pretty much everyone has had this idea, or if you haven’t, the people waiting for you have it. Photo: Bring TIM! (Time Is Money) is a clock that… – (37signals) Interesting stuff. I usually try to take (and make) 30 minute meetings,… Read More

I’m not a watch guy. At some point, I just got annoyed wearing a watch, and that was that. My wife complains about this fact because watches make nice and easy gifts for men whose wives say they are difficult to give gifts. Ahem. This watch, the ZIIIRO and its iOS app, is a watch… Read More

So tickets for Google IO (@googleio), Google’s annual developer conference went on sale today and sold out in 59 minutes according to Vic Gundotra (@vicgundotra), Google’s VP of Engineering. Sure, the payment system was reportedly janky, and many of us had early access to tickets. So, it’s not clear how many tickets were actually sold… Read More

If you’re stoked to get an eyeful of the hot new goodness in the latest version of WebCenter 11g Patch Set 3 (or as we affectionately call it, version 11.1.1.4), check out the recording of last week’s overview and demo. WebCenter 11g Patch Set 3 Launch – Overview and Demo « Peter Moskovits’ Oracle WebCenter Blog. If… Read More

Back in November, I decided to bite the bullet and open up a Facebook page for us. Despite my increasing distaste for Facebook, I had two simple goals: 1) Work through the process of building a Facebook presence and integrating it with an existing blog, 2) Make it easier for those of you Facebook junkies… Read More

A while back, I read about Seek Droid, a simple phone locating app, on Lifehacker. I finally got around to buying it ($0.99), mainly as a way to test buying apps using the new Android Market, and I’m impressed. There’s no magic with Seek Droid, or the now free iOS version, Find My iPhone/iPad. Basically,… Read More

Speaking of a well-spent hour learning from the best, I highly recommend watching the BBC special called “The Joy of Stats” narrated by Hans Rosling (@hansrosling), another smart person Paul (@ppedrazzi) introduced me to years ago; yes, there’s a trend there. Aside from the big brain on Hans, the man’s exuberance about data is contagious. Update:… Read More

Thanks to Paul (@ppedrazzi), I’m a big fan of Amy Jo Kim (@amyjokim). If you have an hour and want to learn from the best, check out her Tech Talk at Google on how to apply game mechanics to functional software. The message hasn’t changed much since I first saw her presentation “Putting the Fun… Read More

Given how much I adore data visualizations, it’s only fair to share the other side. Infographs are Ruining the Internet — Less Everything Blog Light on facts, but heavy on laughs. Seriously, did you know that 23% of infographs cause puppies to cry? I don’t feel 12% dumber . . . .

I remember about a decade ago reading about NTT DoCoMo and all the sweet things their customers could do with their phones. Around the same time, a newish wireless protocol called Bluetooth was on the rise, and aside from enabling printing over the air (squee!), it promised to empower these magical phones with mobile wallet… Read More

You may recall my struggle last year to assemble and document a WebCenter VM. Well, apparently other people thought it was a good idea because I noticed today via Peter Moskovits’ blog that there is now a VirtualBox VM available for WebCenter PS 3 (11.1.1.4), which was just released, including the AviTrust demo to get… Read More

And so begins the next development war. 37 Signals officially announced Basecamp Mobile today, and gasp, it’s a mobile web app, not a native one or ones. Launch: Basecamp Mobile Sure, 37 Signals isn’t the first company to make this decision, but they are well-known and well-respected for both their development chops and their relentless… Read More

Tim (@oraclebase) points out something Rich (@rmanalan) and I have previously discussed. Soft keypads foster weak passwords. Do virtual keyboards promote weak passwords? | The ORACLE-BASE Blog Having to shift for capital letters and switch keyboards for some special characters is bad enough, but when coupled with the inconsistent implementation of keyboards between OSes, a… Read More

Well this is interesting. Should Tumblr care? In response to issues with Tumblr, David Karp tells users to “go away” if they don’t like it I love what services like Posterous and Tumblr are doing, but after dabbling a bit, I quickly found that having as much control as possible was the way to go,… Read More