Category: internet

Internet 2007 – predictions

On By Rick McIn Apple, Google, internetLeave a comment

This is by far the best I have seen.

(Amazing that such far-sighted visionaries make so many typos.)

Highlights include:

# Apple keeps its iPod monopoly and increases its OS 5% market share to 5.1%
# Google scores against Microsoft and Yahoo due to its massive marketing data advantage
# Blogs bloom, and prepare for the 2008 election
# Social networks become a place where members make money
# Newspapers open up
# Big ad investments start streaming in
# New Internet focused ad agencies open up
# Viruses and spam become an even bigger hassle
# Yet Digital ID initiates a major change that makes the web more reliable, user and investor friendly

Information Architects Japan » iA Notebook » Internet 2007 Predictions: Digital ID, Google vs Microsoft, growing Web Ad Budgets, Infolution in 2008

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Merry Christmas to friends and family

On By Rick McIn Cirque du Soleil, gymnastics, health & fitness, hiking, internetLeave a comment

mug2_2006.jpgHappy Holidays !!

Trust you are getting a change, a rest, some exercise. (A gift or two that you actually wanted.)

Year end update.

More of the same for me. I continue to focus on as few things as possible: gymnastics, hiking, fitness, travel, the internet.

2006 started with a family reunion in Mazatlán, travels through that country to Belize and Guatemala.

I made four different trips through the States this year. Still a love / hate relationship with the USA.

My new part-time work as a talent scout for Cirque du Soleil has taught me a lot. In fact I founded a gymnastics blog with a focus on other acrobatics sports including diving, sport acrobatics, circus, martial arts, X sports and more. It’s amazing what gymnasts can do.

My hiking website is doing great, as well. Certainly the best resource on the internet for those looking for the “best hike”.

I’ve been avidly following the wild, lawless internet where millionaires are literally made (and crushed) overnight. The future will be amazing. I am very optimistic My ruminations on the web (and other nonsense) I post on this, my personal blog.

That’s it.

Gone to Saskatoon for a catch-up with old friends over New Years. Then off to Australia in early January for a series of gymnastics conferences. Finally, some hiking in Tasmania.

And I’m waiting on Cirque for 2007 assignments. That is my highest priority right now.

: )

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hand-built website – $250

On By Rick McIn internet, product endorsementsLeave a comment

250.jpgI saw an interview with Shaun Andrews, the young guy behind XHTMLGenius.

He is going to do well.

Look at the pitch.

Get a unique, modern, standards compliant website in 3-days.

For sure site designers are going to sub-contract to him at this price.

XHTMLGenius.com // XHTML and CSS coding services for designers

my next phone – the Pearl?

On By Rick McIn Apple, internet, product endorsementsLeave a comment

165552.jpgApple phone? Google phone?

Or the one that is already here?

The ranks of BlackBerry-tapping customers swelled 14 per cent to more than seven million in the past three months, and should touch nearly eight million by the end of this quarter, RIM executives said yesterday. As the number of BlackBerry users increased, profit climbed 47 per cent and sales jumped 49 per cent from a year earlier, the company said.

About 875,000 new BlackBerry accounts were opened on phone networks in RIM’s third quarter ended Dec. 2, almost 10 per cent more than senior management had forecast in September. Yesterday, RIM officials set a target of another 975,000 net additions by the beginning of March.

globeandmail.com: RIM profit soars on Pearl sales

YouTube only 1 year old?

On By Rick McIn internet, product endorsementsLeave a comment

youtube_logo.jpgWhat did I do before YouTube?

(Can’t remember that far back.)

Video on the Web isn’t new—Nor are tagging, commenting on, or linking to videos. But combine those elements and make it easier than ever to play and upload video clips, and you have something that’ll take the Web by storm.

Officially launched in December 2005, YouTube did just that in the space of one short year. Sure, you can watch only so many clips of college students lip-syncing Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time.” But now instead of trying to describe that hilarious Daily Show episode to your friends, you can send them a link.

Instead of sending your relatives a 5MB QuickTime file of your baby’s first steps, you can simply upload your video and send out a URL. Groups, channels, playlists, and subscriptions make it easy to share your videos with the world. And it still doesn’t cost a dime.

Macworld: 2006 Eddy Awards – YouTube

chat for groups: Campfire

On By Rick McIn internet, product endorsementsLeave a comment

campfirelogo.gifHighly recommended is a web based service called Campfire.

Read the description below … or do what I do. Simply watch the 5-minute video demo. It’s a much more efficient use of your time.

>>> Campfire video tour

Campfire is a web-based group chat tool that lets you set up password-protected chat rooms in just seconds. Invite a client, colleague, or vendor to chat, collaborate, and make decisions. Link to a room on your intranet for internal communications.

… Chatting, file sharing, image previewing, decision making, etc. Up to 60 people can chat at once. You can even browse previous chats by person, room, or date.

Instant messaging is great for one-on-one chats, but it’s not ideal for groups of three or more. Further, instant messaging is network dependent — if you are on AIM, and your co-worker is on MSN or Skype, you can’t instant message. Campfire is network-agnostic, optimized for groups, and only requires a web browser.

Business chat for groups: Campfire

I want to try it the next time I am involved in a group project.

TIME Magazine names me “Person of the Year”

On By Rick McIn blogs, internetLeave a comment

About time.

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It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It’s about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people’s network YouTube ….

It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes. …

…, we also worked. Like crazy. We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software.

America loves its solitary geniuses—its Einsteins, its Edisons, its Jobses—but those lonely dreamers may have to learn to play with others. Car companies are running open design contests. Reuters is carrying blog postings alongside its regular news feed. Microsoft is working overtime to fend off user-created Linux. We’re looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it’s just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy.

Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I’m not going to watch Lost tonight. I’m going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I’m going to mash up 50 Cent’s vocals with Queen’s instrumentals? I’m going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

… Sure, it’s a mistake to romanticize all this any more than is strictly necessary. Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom. Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred.

TIME.com: Person of the Year: You — Dec. 25, 2006 — Page 1

switching from hotmail to Gmail

On By Rick McIn internet, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I’ve been wanting to get out of hotmail for years. But I won’t do it unless I can redirect all the hotmail I have now (and future email to come to that address) directly into the new software.

Looks like my time has (almost) come.

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Google quietly added a small feature to Gmail this week called Mail Fetcher. When that feature launched, Gmail became perfect.

Mail Fetcher allows users to access non-Gmail email accounts from within the Gmail interface. If you have a Yahoo email account, and a work email account, etc., you can simply access that email from within Gmail, using POP settings. Gmail will now work in a very similar way as Outlook does on the PC desktop.

This new service is being phased in and has not yet come to my Gmail account.

Every other webmail service is now inferior to Gmail. Gmail offers more storage than any other free service. They offer free POP access to Gmail from other email applications like Outlook (Yahoo and Microsoft charge for that). They offer access to other email accounts within Gmail (only Yahoo offers that). Gmail’s mobile client is killer (although not yet available for most phones). And only Gmail allows tagging of emails for categorization under multiple topics (I just wish it was a quicker feature).

I am seriously considering switching from using my desktop email client to Gmail. Since I work from multiple computers, using web mail eliminates the syncing problem. If Google implements an offline version of Gmail, in a similar way as Scrybe or via Adobe’s Apollo platform, it will become even more compelling.

Kudos to Google for finally implementing this. It’s just awesome.

Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Uh Oh, Gmail Just Got Perfect

I just switched from desktop software to Google Reader. I already use Google Calendar. A switch to Google’s Gmail would tie things together and put it all online.