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MoleskineCity

Our site of the week is dedicated to you Moleskine notebook toting geek hipsters.  MoleskinCity.com is a collaboration created by Moleskine and their new CityGuide Books, guides which you write yourself and share with others.

The blog takes on the same approach, each section dedicated to a particular city, its travellers, residents and independent and free thinking people. Each city blog features updates, curiosities, traveller experiences and links to other blogs and communities.

Off the Grid

Ok...I've been off the grid.  I have assumed a new role producing video for the "world largest online media company" and they have me rather busy.   It's been somewhat crazy with travel, shooting and editing but I enjoy it. Now that I have my routine locked I can devote my attention back to the site.  But....

I have been thinking a lot about what to do here.  Lately I have been trying to formulate an idea that would make TDG.tv more of a culture/lifestyle blog rather than just "geek" stuff.  Although "Geek" is a huge element, I want to try and take an approach to a brand that encompasses everything I enjoy.  Culture.  Travel.  Tech.  Video.  Fashion.  Luxury.  Gadgets. 

So what does it mean for TDG.tv?  Not sure.  Possibly a name change.  Maybe a re-design.  I'm still thinking....

Vacation!

It's vacation time!!!  We'll resume back on Monday Sept 24th.

Suicide --The social network way

Stephanie Painter’s death was swift and painless. At 9.10pm on February 11 she bid her 121 Facebook friends goodbye with one last “poke” (mood: sorrowful), then left the virtual world peacefully with a quick click of the mouse." -- So begins the article in written in the London Times' piece about social network suicide, and that is...deleting yourself from Facebook, MySpace or any where you may possibly have created a virtual place for yourself and friends. 

It discusses how being placed in a virtual social environment proved to be too much for them, thus causing them to commit a new phenomenon that is spreading across the internets: social network suicide.

Disclaimer: The image above is some guy trying to zap his brains out with a laser tag gun. 

[Read article]

Help Wanted: TheDailyGeek Contributors

I'm scouting for editorial talent. Particularly people who can write wittily about geek culture and all things hip: geek hipsters!. If you have a blog on either subject, or know of a good writer, email me. I want to hear your ideas: what you think is missing.  Correspondence to ricky [at] thedailygeek

Y! Video on the front page

Seems like I have fallen into a "test bucket" for Yahoo!.  I woke up today and found that on the frontpage of Yahoo! you can now watch video directly from the news module rather than having it load another separate window.  Initial thoughts: I like. 

Skype 3.5 Beta

I love Skype and I've been a huge fans since living in Munich, Germany last year.  And for just $29.95 per year (you read it right) you can make unlimited calls to anyone, any phone in the US & Canada.  Skype has just released version 3.5, so give it a whirl and start making those international calls to your friends abroad.

YourTrumanShow.com

Ready to tell the world something via video?  Then visit YourTrumanShow.com where Your Truman Show extends personal storytelling into a compelling social network of tomorrow's online reality stars and their fans.  Think of it as plain ol' story tellin'  for the web.

The Fempire

Our website of the week: wwwTheFempire.com  FEMPIRE is an online multimedia magazine with elements of video and blogs and plain ole' girl talk.  Fempire is what "The View" should be.  Each issue covers a topic with supporting content including interviews, photo essay and a regular show titled "Cocktails + Conversation".  You may recognize some of the folks in the videos including Jessica Corbin from Revision 3's "InDigital" show. 

Blog of the day: PlopCulture

Imagine if you worked in a job where all you did was give cool stuff to the A-list of Hollywood?  And what if you simply didn't care?  Visit PlopCulture to read about a fashion and industry insider's look at the inside.  It's a fresh perspective from someone who ACTUALLY works in the 'biz" and not from the many wanna-be's out there, like those with pink hair who doodle on copyright photos. 

Gubb - 1. Start Here

Meet the virtual list maker: Gubb.net  Web 2.0 at it's simplest. 

Get rid of those pieces of paper and save your hands from ink.  Gubb.net is a new service enabling users to organize their personal and professional lives through an easy-to-use Web-based list making and sharing application.  Collaborate and share you lists with others.

Say goodbye to "analog" notes.

Although I am still a Moleskin fan, I use Gubb to organize and share when I am collaborating on an upcoming idea for TheDailyGeek or if I need to "virtually jot" something down when my notebooks are no where to be found. 

Founded by two guys in New York, Joe Bergeron & Josh Weinstein who created gubb to address a single question: What’s with the total perplexing absence of Web-based software built around our
ceaseless obsession with lists, lists, lists?

Honerable mentions: rememberthemilk.com, tadalist.com, backpackit.com

Facebook Appz

Facebook has finally opened its platform to third party developers for the creation of applications (widgets).  This is very exciting since users like myself are now able to expand their profiles beyond pictures and text.  Most of the widgets are simple data gatherers for various subjects like sports, music, concerts, classifieds, etc.  Some are more powerful and allow users to display videos, play games, and share files.  The list keeps growing and growing.

It's clear that the Facebook team was able to execute this feature efficiently.  However, my question is should they have pursued this at all?  In my opinion Facebook's advantages over other social networking sites were its simplicity, uniformity, and speed.  All three of these positive qualities have been eliminated as a result of this upgrade.  As more of these applications are added to profiles, the interface will become increasingly complex since users will have to learn to interact with the changes in their friends' profiles.  Adding more applications will lead to profiles that look increasingly unique.  Previously, profiles were different because of the details people used to describe themselves, the number of friends they have at different schools/networks, the number of posted photos, the length of their walls, etc.  That sounds like a lot of possible changes, but it's minuscule compared to what is happening now.  Lastly, adding multiple Flash applications to a profile inevitably will slow down users' computers. 

What does this magical combination of negative characteristics sound like?  You guessed it.  MySpace!  Ugly, complicated, brutally slow pages will not create a backlash like the News Feed feature.  I predict that people will complain after adding these applications, but the community will continue to grow.  The feature is cool, but I'm not sure it was the right choice.  However, I have faith that Zuckerberg knows what he's doing. 

We'll see what happens.  Facebook hasn't failed us yet.  MySpace failed us long ago.

Related links:

CNET

Hip Mojo

Schmedley.com

Schmedley.com is by far the most impressive data gathering product I have seen.  Instead of widgets they use "schmidgets."  Isn't that just adorable?  They are fast, pretty, and powerful.  For example, the search schmidget displays search results from Google, Yahoo, and MSN on one page.  How cool is that?  The Amazon search results are also displayed in a very efficient and enjoyable way.  Schmedley is definitely a step up from the other aggregating products out there today.  I can't wait to see the site once it is promoted to a beta version and more schmidgets become available.  Try it out.  I guarantee you'll be impressed.  As I said in a previous post about web 2.1 speculation, data aggregating is the future of the Internet. 

Cali Lewis from GeekBrief.tv deserves credit for this discovery, watch: Click Here

Privacy != 2.0

There's something I don't understand about Internet users.  Every day I read about privacy concerns, identity theft, and electronic stalking.  What amazes me is millions of people publicly post private information about themselves including personal blog entries, pictures, and videos.  How is this possible?  If people are so concerned about privacy then why do they post pictures of themselves with their first and last names right below? 

Remember in 1996 when people were terrified about personal information becoming available on the web?  Remember when people were terrified about shopping online because their credit card number might get intercepted?  It appears that there has been a complete reversal in how people view the web.  What was once a dark, intimidating place (and in many ways it still is) is now a highly trusted shopping and blogging haven.  If you don't think it's trusted, check out Amazon's revenue and MySpace//Facebook//SixApart's membership list. 

As for social networking sites, there is an extreme level of hypocrisy from users.  For example, when the Facebook introduced their News Feed feature, the community had tremendous backlash.  What surprised me was the data that became so easily accessible was already there the day before!  You choose what personal information to write, you choose your friends, you choose your privacy settings, but you complain when people look?  That makes absolutely no sense to me.  If you don't want the people you choose to read the data you submit, then be more careful about what you say.  How is it possible to complain about privacy when you upload pictures of yourself to a public website?

Basically, my point is that privacy and security are difficult to incorporate into a realm where it's so easy to publish information for the world to see.  Maybe we need to rethink how these products should work to make future users more comfortable when using the web.  Warnings, parental controls, and passwords are a start but they have not been perfected.  Developers must innovate to make users feel safer.

FixedGear Gallery

If you live in SF or even NY, then you are used to seeing people get around on "fixies", those one-geared bikes that Kevin Bacon rode in Quicksilver as a bike messenger.  I own one myself, a Bianchi Pista with a vintage Brooks saddle and it's a great way to move around the city.  So if you are a fixedgear junkie, visit FixedGear Gallery for your portal to all things fixie. 

photo by Samuel Campbel

100 web apps for everything.

Yoav Ezer posted on his blog an interesting piece on 100 web apps for everything.  Yoav currently holds the position of CTO at Cogniview.  All 100 items are categorized.  Read them here.

Web 2.1 Speculation

We all know what web 2.0 means.  Collaboration.

What's coming after 2.0?  I think we will soon see web 2.1 unravel.  Its theme?  Interconnectivity.  Web 2.0 has allowed us to create more data than we ever imagined was possible.  It appears that the growth rate for pictures, videos, etc. is only increasing as more people are connected to broadband throughout the world.  The phrase "information overload" has a whole new meaning.  We currently have tools to view all of this data, but they are generally disconnected and confusing.

Think about how many sites you must log into when you turn on your computer.  Think about how many sites you must visit to keep track of your friends.  Think about how many sites you use to share your personal life with the world.  My primary question is: how will we gather all of this data into one centralized location?  Or, how will we sort through all of it?  Photos, videos, blogs, discussions, news, music, etc.  Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Viddyou, Digg, etc.  It has become thoroughly overwhelming.

Advanced uber users have managed to create their own unique ways of manually setting up super-blogs to aggregate everything.  When will the average user be able to unite their creations and easily sort through their friends' creations?  RSS feeds are only the beginning.  They feel like a hack job to counter the overwhelming surge of data creation.  We need a solution that is both customizable and friendly.  Yahoo Pipes is a pretty decent upgrade from plain old RSS, but it's too complicated for the average user.

Web 2.1 will be the transition from information overload to web tranquility.  People will use one portal to both broadcast their lives and monitor the world.  Some sites claim to already accomplish this goal, but I think there is plenty of room for improvement.  What do you think?

Comic Life Windows beta

Comic Life, which allows people to publish professionally looking comics from photos and illustrations they’ve made is now available for Windows.  For you PC-only users, check it out.  You can create storyboards, comics, or just have fun with photos.  I often use Comic Life for storyboarding to give myself an element of style prior to shooting.

AOL is the New Yahoo!

Guess what!?  AOL is the new Yahoo!.  No wait. Let's try a better angle.  Yahoo! is setting the standard for other protals when it comes to "frontdoors", ie. frontpages.  This photo is on AOL's new home page beta.  And no, it's not a joke.  AOL looks like Yahoo!'s front page.

High as a Kyte.tv

Starting on Monday there will be a new a new service being launched by San Francisco-based Decentral. The service allows anyone to publish their own “television channels” which are available on mobiles, personal computers and eventually television. This is the latest start-up to capitalize on the MeTV trend. [via GigaOm]

Start uploading your videos to our channel:
http://www.kyte.tv/thedailygeek

Viddyou

Finally.  We now have access to a simple, elegant, efficient, and powerful video blogging service.  It is called Viddyou.com.  If you have a webcam, this is it.

Viddyou makes using a webcam as seamless as using a mouse.  To place content on the site you can either record videos using your digital camera or computer for future upload, or you can record directly onto the server inside the browser window.  After recording onto the server you can choose to watch your recording, re-record it if you aren't satisfied, or keep it.

There is a Friends page that lists all of your friends' latest posts.  Comments (or to use Viddyou's word: "responses") can be either text OR video.  Since this is a video blogging site, each user can choose to use a profile picture OR a profile video(!).  As a user you can also join or start communities (what would a social networking site be without communities?). 

Here is an example click stream to record a video:

• 1. Login.
• 2. Click Record which is in the center of the page. Boom. Your face appears.
• 3. Click Record to begin recording.
• 4. Click Stop to stop recording.
• 5. Click Keep.

That's it!  Could it be any more intuitive?!  I don't think so.  After step 5 you are automatically navigated to your profile page which lists all of your videos.  From this page you can also see your friends' latest posts.

The best parts of Viddyou are its speed and interface.  Recording, watching, and uploading videos within the browser can now be compared to any other daily internet related task.  The service launched on April 3rd.  Together, let's watch Viddyou climb the popularity charts.

Jott.com

Jott.com

I discovered an amazing new service called Jott.com. It has literally changed my life. I'm not sure how profitable it is, but it sure is impressive. Here's the question: These days what do you always have with you? Wallet, keys, and... a cell phone. The cell phone can be used for so much more than just making phone calls to people. What about calling computers?

Here's how it works.  You sign up for Jott and get a phone number to call. When you hear the beep you start talking. The service records your message, converts it to text, and emails you the transcript! Simple, right?! It's amazing. I love it. The best use I've found is whenever I hear a cool song I call Jott and say some lyrics I hear. Then when I get home I Yahoo! Search the lyrics, find out the name of the song, and buy it from iTunes. Great process. With a service like Jott you can always make notes that will be there when you get back to your computer. I'm surprised there aren't more useful services that are built around constant access to the cell phone.