tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20603022131027905052024-03-05T15:48:16.351-06:00Digital ActivitiesBusiness, technology, marketing and other random stuff.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-13815231487329836762010-12-27T10:07:00.004-06:002010-12-27T10:20:11.890-06:00Evernote 4<p>If you haven't done so already, be sure to upgrade your Evernote client to the latest version. Evernote 4 is a much much better version of Evernote than any of the Evernote 3.x clients that were previously available. I've been using it for a couple weeks now and it is a lot faster and smoother than what I was using before. From the Evernote blog:</p><blockquote><p><strong>Starting from scratch<br /></strong>Evernote 4 is a major departure from Evernote 3.5 in every way. While 3.5 added tons of great new features, there were some problems we simply couldn’t fix: the blurry fonts, slow startup times, large memory footprint, and poor support for certain graphics cards were all issues that the technology behind 3.5 (Windows .net and WPF) was incapable of resolving. As a result, we ended up chasing down platform bugs rather than adding the great features our users wanted.<br /><br />So we decided to start over from scratch, with fast, native C++ that we knew we could rely on. As you’ll see, the results are amazing. This new version will set a foundation for rapid improvement.<br /><br />On our test hardware, Evernote 4 starts <strong>five times faster</strong>, and uses half the memory of Evernote 3.5.<strong> </strong></p><p><strong></strong></p></blockquote>The new Evernote is completely written from scratch and it acts just like it. After a somewhat lengthy install process (it has to un-install the old Evernote and replace it entirely, don't worry, you won't lose your old notes), I fired up the new Evernote and was shocked by how fast it loaded. Normally I would fire up the app and have to wait ~1-2 minutes for the clunky Java loader to bring the screen up, but now the Evernote client comes up almost instantaneously! That alone would make this new version a huge improvement in my book, but they've also gone ahead and upgraded the client design with a more streamlined user interface that makes it easier to navigate your notes.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://blog.evernote.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/evernote.jpg" /></center><br />The icing on the cake is an improved web clipper (especially for Internet Explorer) that makes it easier to save and organize notes on the fly. All in all this is a huge improvement for Evernote and I think this release will go a long way to appeasing <a href="http://digitalactivities.blogspot.com/2010/02/evernote-youre-so-slow-and-clunky.html">disgruntled Evernote users who felt that the software was slow and clunky</a>.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-43930307476324499122010-11-29T22:26:00.001-06:002010-11-30T12:31:22.837-06:00Six to Nine ScholarI mentioned last time that I was writing an article over on <a href="http://www.629scholar.com/">Six to Nine Scholar</a>, and lo and behold it's now published! Give it a read and let me know what you think.<br /><br /><center><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_hyggx0sd7uhwfkm66coHAbgdO2DcC-RPtdpPK2_xUe3vy6wy9Le9IMY2G2KlmA_ycAN_8-gWo05DZ9HIO4QiAr0BkgrhAXgGUdBI0zCavMOk9H0WR6yxF6rR_0Xgj_9QR_udnhGhKe3I/s400/3913680011_95a45c302f_z.jpg" /></center><br /><blockquote><strong>WTC Brand Crisis<br /><br /></strong>In the triathlon community, any controversy that arises is eventually discussed heatedly on the forums at Slowtwitch.com, the leading forum for endurance athletes. On the last weekend of October, the forums at Slowtwitch were active with a new scandal revolving around the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), the owners of the Ironman Triathlon brand. The negative outburst from the community, and the subsequent handling of the event by the WTC reminded me of a framework for managing scandals we learned about in our Marketing courses. I’m not certain if the WTC management used the exact steps we covered at school but the way they responded to the situation certainly fit into the framework provided. <a href="http://www.629scholar.com/2010/11/wtc-brand-crisis.html">Read more</a>.</blockquote>Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-14681892800449407122010-11-27T14:14:00.001-06:002010-11-28T18:30:39.410-06:00Blogging activitiesWell, I haven't been posting much here but I have been working on other blogging activities around the web:<br /><br />Tri Blog: My side project is coming along quite nicely and I hope to "launch" it over the next month or so. Nothing too crazy here, just a triathlon blog site. I'll post more about this soon.<br /><br />Work Blog: I'm trying to revive our internal blog at work and it's not going so well. I've added tons of content to the site and I'm encouraging others to blog but I haven't seen much activity. I even created a blog contest for the month of November which is NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) and offered a $25 gift certificate for the best blog entry, but I still can't get the team to actively engage with the blog. It's a topic I hope to bring up during our year end retro meeting on December 10th.<br /><br />School Blog: A couple friends from school started up a blog called <a href="http://www.629scholar.com/">Six to Nine Scholar</a> and they've invited me to write with them on the site! I'm a little nervous about publishing my first article to the site since they have pretty high quality material over there, but hopefully my article is up to par. Here's a sneak preview of the article (which I'm still revising a bit):<br /><br /><blockquote><strong>WTC Brand Crisis<br /><br /></strong>In the triathlon community, any controversy that arises is eventually discussed heatedly on the forums at Slowtwitch.com, the leading forum for endurance athletes. On the last weekend of October, the forums at Slowtwitch were active with a new scandal revolving around the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), the owners of the Ironman Triathlon brand. The negative outburst from the community, and the subsequent handling of the event by the WTC reminded me of a framework for managing scandals we learned about in our Marketing courses. I’m not certain if the WTC management used the exact steps we covered at school but the way they responded to the situation certainly fit into the framework provided.</blockquote>Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-27466897681388790692010-10-31T22:09:00.003-05:002010-10-31T22:30:54.572-05:00Design contestI mentioned my triathlon blog venture a couple posts ago, and my efforts to create something a little bigger around it. As part of that I've commissioned a design contest over on <a href="http://99designs.com/">99designs.com</a> to help me come up with a set of images for use on the site. The sets consist of three images, one for each sport in a triathlon (swim, bike, run). These images will be used as buttons, badges and icons on the site, and I'd also like to use them as a set for the main logo of the site. So far 60 entries have been submitted by 18 designers, which is just incredible. I've been really impressed by the images that have been submitted and by the overall time and efforts put in by the designers.<br /><br />The contest is nearing an end and now I need help deciding on a winner. I've created a poll over on 99designs and want your input on the 8 'finalists' I've selected. Which ones do you like best and why? You can give 0-5 stars to each entry and provide comments as well. Remember, I'd like to use the trio of images as a logo and also each image independently as an icon.<br /><br />Here's the link to <a href="http://99designs.com/buttons-icons/vote-ieigv1">vote in the contest</a>. Thanks a lot for your help!Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-70014216463101590882010-10-28T21:34:00.001-05:002010-10-29T17:43:25.322-05:00What I'm Reading: Bike edition Pt. 2<img align="right" src="http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/capital-bikeshare-thumb-02.jpg" />More bike service & app news! The first one is called <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/09/24/zipcar-like-bike-sharing-service-gets-a-major-test-in-washington-dc/">Capital Bikeshare</a> and is based around the Washington DC area. The service uses a technology called BIXI that allows riders to access the bikes via a special key card. It seems to be pretty low hassle and affordable. Definitely one to check out this weekend for everyone headed to DC for the <a href="http://www.rallytorestoresanity.com/">Rally to Restore Sanity</a> (like our friend Chuck over at <a href="http://chicagobike.blogspot.com/">Chicago Bike</a>!)<br /><br />Another bike-sharing system making use of new technology is <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/08/11/sobi/">SoBi, the Social Bicyle System</a>.<br /><br /><blockquote>SoBi is the first public bike share system to rely entirely on wireless technology for tracking, locating and unlocking bikes. The system is compromised of three elements: the social cyclist, the central server and the social bicycle.<br /><br />Here’s how it will work: after creating a SoBi account — via web, mobile phone or street kiosk — a cyclist will have unlimited access to bicycles in the bike share system, which will be equipped with GPS, a secure lock and wireless communications. Once the cyclist locates an available bike, he can use a pin code to unlock it. The central server will approve and track the transaction.</blockquote>Here's a video of SoBi <a href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/10/05/video-an-exclusive-look-at-the-sobi-system-in-action/">in action</a>.<br /><br />And last up we have an <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5646063/how-to-use-your-iphone-as-a-bike-computer">iPhone app</a> that lets you use your iPhone as a bike computer. This is pretty cool for casual techy bike riders, but as a more advanced bike rider I don't think this little app holds a candle to a standard power meter (although it is a lot cheaper, just a $100 kit).Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-35656921214532409982010-10-20T23:11:00.000-05:002010-10-21T14:46:40.408-05:00Chief Marketing TechnologistOh hello, I think I just found my next job title: <a href="http://www.chiefmartec.com/">Chief Marketing Technologist</a>. I don't think I've ever seen a title description align so closely with what I want to do next, but the CMT description does just that. Scott Brinker, president and CTO of ion interactive, explains the CMT as an executive who is:<br /><br /><blockquote>“… a hybrid between business and technology, a strong background in engineering and IT, is an early adopter of technology, but someone who also understands the pragmatic realities of scaling technology. But most importantly, someone who brings those skills and combines them with a deep love and passion for the marketing mix. This is a technologist that reports to the CMO, not the CIO.”</blockquote>The role is for an individual who understands both technology and marketing, who understands how one side impacts the other, and who can seamlessly move between both worlds.<br /><br /><blockquote>Your company may have seasoned marketers and top-of-the-line technologists, but it takes those who are dually knowledgeable in both marketing and technology to really make the right moves in Internet() marketing, as they are the ones who really understand the way the web works and what’s possible for marketing from a technological point of view.</blockquote>What are the main goals of the Chief Marketing Technologist? Brinker goes on to list the three key goals for the role:<br /><br /><strong>1. Translating Strategy into Technology </strong><br /><br />Working with the CMO and the marketing department and translating their needs into technology implementations. Being able to understand the needs of both marketing and technology and bringing everything together into a cohesive plan.<br /><br /><blockquote>“The idea of a marketing technologist is someone who’s natively versed in both<br />languages and understands the concepts of what’s in technology and what’s in<br />marketing, and they can serve as the translator,” </blockquote><strong>2. Choreographing Technology Across Marketing </strong><br /><br />Taking all the data that is available to an organization (web analytics, marketing automation, advertising behavioral segmentation) and bringing it together to make sense of it all. Having different systems talk to each other and work together to optimize the larger organizational strategy.<br /><br /><blockquote>“Choreograph the entire collection of marketing, technology and data that we see<br />throughout the organization. Find ways to tap the synergy between all of these<br />different components,” </blockquote><strong>3. Infusing Tech into the Company’s Marketing DNA </strong><br /><br />Bringing technology to the forefront of the organization and teaching others to leverage it to achieve their needs. Taking technology into consideration during the larger decision making process.<br /><br /><blockquote>“Perhaps most importantly, is to infuse technology into the DNA of marketing<br />itself — our practices, our people, our culture,” </blockquote>You can learn more about the Chief Marketing Technologist over on <a href="http://www.chiefmartec.com/">Scott Brinker's website</a> (via <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/10/19/chief-marketing-technologist/">Mashable</a>)Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-28087448245473366022010-10-16T09:35:00.003-05:002010-10-16T09:44:33.270-05:00Active blog workAlthough it looks like I haven't been posting too much on this blog, I have in fact been blogging quite a bit lately on another blog venture of mine. This other blog revolves around my other passion, triathlon, and it's something I've been quietly working on over the past year or so. Just recently I've decided to step it up a bit and create something bigger around it. I don't expect it to blow up or be the next big thing, but I do hope it's a fun way for me to combine my favorite activities together. I'll post more details as they develop.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-28974902884696305292010-10-02T10:49:00.004-05:002010-10-02T10:53:38.316-05:00New Evernote features and appsA bunch of new Evernote features and add-ons have popped up recently that have caught my eye. The first couple items are built into the web browser and the last one is a standalone app from the Evernote Trunk that I'm trying out.<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://blog.evernote.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sitmemory-buttons2.png" /><br />First up is <a href="http://blog.evernote.com/2010/09/09/evernote-site-memory-button/">Site Memory</a>, a new feature from the Evernote team that allows website owners to add an Evernote button on their website. The button works just like ReTweet or Share button, except the user shares it right to their Evernote account. I don't see how this is much better than the existing Evernote button I have on my browser's toolbar, but it does give the site owner more control over how their web content is saved. The site owner can customize the data that is saved to add additional content or frame it in a different way. This is a new feature that was just added last month so I haven't seen it in use yet. It should be interesting to see what types of sites take advantage of this new feature, since there's not that much benefit to adding this button just for Evernote users. It's not like a Share button where you're offering your user a chance to share your content with his/her friends, which then brings in more traffic to your site.<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://blog.evernote.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/simsearch4.png" /><br />Next is a cool Chrome extension called <a href="http://blog.evernote.com/2010/09/30/evernote-chrome-extension-gets-simultaneous-search/">Simultaneous Search</a> that allows you to search Evernote notes as you search on the web. This looks really useful and should allow you to really leverage your saved notes in your everyday routines. Right now to get any value out of my notes I have to actively pull up an Evernote client and search within it, but this new extension allows me to passively incorporate my saved notes into all my searches. Plus it should be a nice little shortcut for quickly searching saved notes. I use Firefox right now as my primary browser but this new Chrome extension might just be the push I need to switch to Chrome full time.<br /><br />Next up is a note-taking/organizer app called <a href="http://www.bridworks.com/anote/en/features/index.php">Awesome Note</a> that offers full syncing with your Evernote account. I just started playing around with the app this week (the free Lite version) and so far I like the To-Do list features and the calendar view for tasks. It has a much richer interface than the Evernote mobile app but it syncs with Evernote on the backend so that helps bring all my notes and whatnot together in a single location. I'm always on the lookout for new ways to improve my To-Do list process so I'm giving this app a shot for a couple of weeks to see how it delivers. There's a paid version of this app but for now I'll stick to the Lite version.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-50578376399634083112010-09-15T22:15:00.004-05:002010-09-16T14:59:43.556-05:00Microsoft's $1 Billion spendMicrosoft will reportedly spend $1 billion to launch Windows Phone later this year. That seems like a lot of money to launch a product but I guess Microsoft is showing that's its (finally) serious about mobile. Despite this large spend, it doesn't seem like analysts are too hopeful about Microsoft's chances in the mobile OS game. A <a href="http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1434613">mobile OS report out of Gartner</a> has Microsoft's Windows Phone market share dwindling down to 3.9% by 2014, with Android and Symbian battling it out for the top spot. Interestingly enough they have the iPhone OS market share holding steady and not flat out dominating the industry over the next couple of years.<br /><br />$1 billion seems like a lot of money to be throwing at a potentially losing product... but I guess Microsoft has to do it if they even want a fighting chance in the market. As Paul Thurrott from <a href="http://app.tech.pentontech.com/e/es.aspx?s=1481&e=31805&elq=f0221f8f95864ccaa67b703bbee17ce7">WinInfo Daily</a> puts it "How much of your own money would you spend if you had to save your own life?" (Love that quote!)<br /><br /><b>Forecast: Mobile Communications Device Open OS Sales to End Users by OS (Thousands of Units)</b><br /><table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td><b>OS</b></td><td><b>2009</b></td><td><b>2010</b></td><td><b>2011</b></td><td><b>2014</b></td></tr><tr><td>Symbian</td><td>80,876.3</td><td>107,662.4</td><td>141,278.6</td><td>264,351.8</td></tr><tr><td>Market Share (%)</td><td>46.9</td><td>40.1</td><td>34.2</td><td>30.2</td></tr><tr><td>Android</td><td>6,798.4</td><td>47,462.1</td><td>91,937.7</td><td>259,306.4</td></tr><tr><td>Market Share (%)</td><td>3.9</td><td>17.7</td><td>22.2</td><td>29.6</td></tr><tr><td>Research In Motion</td><td>34,346.8</td><td>46,922.9</td><td>62,198.2</td><td>102,579.5</td></tr><tr><td>Market Share (%)</td><td>19.9</td><td>17.5</td><td>15.0</td><td>11.7</td></tr><tr><td>iOS</td><td>24,889.8</td><td>41,461.8</td><td>70,740.0</td><td>130,393.0</td></tr><tr><td>Market Share (%)</td><td>14.4</td><td>15.4</td><td>17.1</td><td>14.9</td></tr><tr><td>Windows Phone</td><td>15,031.1</td><td>12,686.5</td><td>21,308.8</td><td>34,490.2</td></tr><tr><td>Market Share (%)</td><td>8.7</td><td>4.7</td><td>5.2</td><td>3.9</td></tr><tr><td>Other Operating Systems</td><td>10,431.9</td><td>12,588.1</td><td>26,017.3</td><td>84,452.9</td></tr><tr><td>Market Share (%)</td><td>6.1</td><td>4.7</td><td>6.3</td><td>9.6</td></tr><tr><td><b>Total Market</b></td><td><b>172,374.3</b></td><td><b>268,783.7</b></td><td><b>413,480.5</b></td><td><b>875,573.8</b></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Source: <a href="http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1434613">Gartner</a> (August 2010)</p>Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-85343578358437321162010-09-05T21:20:00.004-05:002010-10-21T13:17:26.975-05:00What I'm Reading: Bike editionAfter reading about a <a href="http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/redeye/2010/06/new-bike-program-is-sharing-on-two-wheels.html">new bike sharing program starting here in Chicago</a> (B-Cycle) I started reading about other bike sharing networks around the world and <a href="http://earth2tech.com/2010/07/30/putting-chips-to-work-for-sharing-pedal-power/">how technology is being used to power these movements</a>. There's a <a href="http://earth2tech.com/2010/04/19/10-city-bike-sharing-networks-to-watch/">top 10 list of bike sharing systems to watch</a> but unfortunately Chicago isn't on the list (yet). Ah well, we'll be on that list soon enough. If you're looking for more homegrown bike sharing options check out this high-tech meets lo-tech service called <a href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/08/11/bike-nerds-create-a-homebrew-bike-sharing-system-for-new-york/">Social Bicycles</a> that will soon be available in New York. I actually didn't realize New York had such friendly biking-in-the-city options until I read this <a href="http://chicagobike.blogspot.com/2010/07/hey-im-bikin-here.html">biking in New York</a> blog post over at <a href="http://chicagobike.blogspot.com/">Chicago Bike</a>. I guess it's not all crazy taxis and bike messengers on the streets of NYC.<br /><br />Btw, have you been following the adventures of <a href="http://yesiamprecious.com/">Precious the Bike</a> as it travels across America? It's a fun little social experiment about a tweeting bike as it rides from coast to coast to raise money for the Livestrong foundation to fight the "biggest douchebag of all", cancer. It looks like Precious is in Colorado right now. You can follow all the tweets at @yesiamprecious.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-85902410177669289392010-08-30T13:17:00.002-05:002010-08-30T13:23:50.993-05:00Evernote TrunkI don't know about you guys, but my Evernote Trunk is still sitting there unopened. Well, maybe not completely unopened, I've peeked into it a couple of times but so far nothing has really interested me enough for me to pull it out and play with it. Despite the fact that <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/17/evernote-4-million/">Evernote has hit 4 million users</a> recently I still haven't heard too many people talk about Trunk. For me all of the apps seem very specialized, and really all I want is better general purpose utilities, like a snappier Windows client or a more robust iPhone app.<br /><br />Take a look at this list from Lifehacker of <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5588232/five-services-worth-checking-out-in-evernote-trunk-a-marketplace-for-evernote-add+ons">5 services worth checking out in Evernote Trunk </a>and let me know what you think. The Doxie scanner is the only one that caught my eye but I'm not really in the market right now for a document scanner.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-78269562429850362412010-08-10T09:47:00.005-05:002010-08-10T10:22:52.576-05:00What I'm Reading: August 10th 2010<a href="http://mashable.com/2010/06/21/apple-stores-iphone-location/">Apple Now Stores and Shares Your iPhone’s Location</a> - This kinda creeps me out, it's going to feel like I'm carrying a tracking device at all times now. So much for privacy in this age of technology.<br /><br /><a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/14/evernote-trunk/">Evernote Launches Trunk, A Showcase Of Evernote-Enabled Products</a> - I haven't had a chance to play around with too many of these Evernote enabled products but it's on my to-do list when I find some time.<br /><br /><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/07/21/netiquette.cyber.stalker/">How to handle a cyberstalker</a> - Funny article from CNN about dealing with cyberstalking on Facebook and Twitter.<br /><br /><a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/08/02/hey-newspaper-paywall-fans-news-is-not-like-hbo-or-talk-radio/">Hey, Newspaper Paywall Fans: News is Not Like HBO or Talk Radio</a> - Unlike subscription TV or radio, consumers simply won't pay for news that's readily available elsewhere.<br /><br /><blockquote>The reality is that most of what newspapers offer is a commodity product, something that has a relatively short shelf life and therefore is difficult to sell as unique or different. Until newspapers solve that problem, their paywall attempts are likely doomed.</blockquote>Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-66129015224195432622010-08-04T15:36:00.002-05:002010-08-04T15:58:38.535-05:00What I'm Reading: August 4th 2010To kick it off I'm going to link to a couple fun articles that I've had in my Evernote for a while now.<br /><br /><a href="http://mashable.com/2010/06/18/dc-universe-online/">“DC Universe Online”: Be a Superhero with Your Friends [VIDEO]</a> - Oh man, I want to play this game so bad. If I get my hands on this game I can kiss my social life good bye... Back in college I played Doom/Quake for hours on end and then I swore off video games for a while. I still allowed myself to play Street Fighter-esque games every now and then (I love those types of games!) but I can't start playing a campaign based game that could take weeks or months to complete. This game looks like a combination between World of Warcraft and the Marvel Superhero/Street Fighter video games, and I know I wouldn't leave the house until I completed all the missions in it.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/02/10/hands-on-dd-on-the-microsoft-surface/">Hands-on: D&D on the Microsoft Surface</a> - This just looks pretty cool and is a fun utilization of Microsoft's Surface technology. I can't wait until Surface usage becomes widespread. Hello cool "Minority Report" technology (minus the creepy invasion of privacy).Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-88849873576572570382010-08-04T15:26:00.003-05:002010-08-04T15:36:38.451-05:00Summertime Pt. 2I've kicked up my triathlon training lately and that has really cut down on my blogging time. I've been keeping up with technology news and trends but I just haven't had anything to write about lately. So, keeping inline with my recent trend of not adding much value though my blog, I'm going to start a new segment I like to call, "What I'm Reading", where I will simply link to an article that I found interesting and comment briefly on it. Hopefully this will help me ease back into posting regular blog entries.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-60757728865486426702010-07-05T21:52:00.000-05:002010-07-05T21:56:30.751-05:00Quick updates 7/5Alright, since I haven't posted in a while, here are some quick updates:<br /><br />Evernote count: I've cleared the 1,000 note mark on Evernote! That's a lot of notes if you ask me... which means I may have to do a little bit of spring cleaning soon. I have 77 different tags in use right now, so I may have to consolidate that into a more manageable list.<br /><br />Twitter organizer: Progress on my <a href="http://digitalactivities.blogspot.com/2010/05/data-analytics.html">Twitter organizer</a> has stalled a bit. I thought I was close to creating a nice view of useful tweets from my feed but I can't seem to filter out the "junk" tweets. If only I could have someone curate my Twitter feed for me ... Oooh, new idea, post a job listing on Amazon's Mechanical Turk and pay someone pennies a day to filter my Twitter feed for me.<br /><br /><a href="http://digitalactivities.blogspot.com/2009/12/tri-toys-wish-list.html">Tri Toys Wish List</a>: I finally picked up the Garmin Forerunner 310XT! I've been running with it for the past few weeks and I've slowly begun accumulating workout data on it. The 310XT should be the perfect companion to my PowerTap in collecting raw data from my training sessions. I must confess though, I don't think I'm getting the best usage out of this data since I don't analyze it as much as I should to learn stuff from it. <a href="http://digitalactivities.blogspot.com/2010/05/data-analytics.html">Like I've said before</a>, I love collecting data but I don't like analyzing it. I'll scan it for obvious trends and patterns, but I won't necessarily run comparisons between various sessions looking for key drop off points or other problem areas. I should probably start doing that though to get the most 'bang for my buck', both in terms of money spent on these fun toys and in time spent while training.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-16775234369449155602010-07-05T21:29:00.003-05:002010-07-05T21:31:40.108-05:00SummertimeSummer is here and the sun has been shining so brightly outside I'm finding it hard to spend too much time indoors, which explains the lack of blog posts lately. I'll try to post some quick updates here and there to keep my blog alive, but I can't promise too much!Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-77019024151794837472010-06-13T19:06:00.004-05:002010-06-13T19:16:01.869-05:00Best of the 90'sI've had to do a bit of clean up lately on my Pandora profile as my top station has started to resemble a "Best of 90's Rock" soundtrack. I guess when you 'thumbs up' a couple Weezer and Smashing Pumpkin songs the Pandora algorithm thinks you'll also like any rock before 1999, even though all the other music on your station is pretty current. If only Pandora had <a href="http://digitalactivities.blogspot.com/2010/02/pandora-stations.html">advanced controls</a> or a way to <a href="http://digitalactivities.blogspot.com/2010/05/pandora-music-map.html">visually map</a> the changes on your stations...Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-4764228721238688332010-05-30T20:16:00.003-05:002010-05-30T20:58:16.028-05:00Data AnalyticsI have a bit of a love/hate relationship with data analytics. On the one hand, I think there's a lot of value to be drawn out of analyzing data and looking for trends and patterns to assist in decision making. On the other hand, I think the process of analyzing the data is tedious and time consuming. I don't like crunching and poring over all the data. I'm all for collecting as many data points as possible but ideally I would have someone that analyzes the data for me and finds all the useful nuggets of knowledge.<br /><br />I bring all this up because lately I've been doing a lot of data analysis in and out of work, and unfortunately right now I'm not in a position to have others do the analysis for me. So that means I've been crunching a lot of data lately. This actually hasn't been too bad because I've been focused on the results and the payoff that might come out of the data.<br /><br />At work I have two data analytics tasks on my plate. Now normally I would not be too happy if my boss put me to work crunching data, but both of these tasks have come from my own initiatives and are part of the 'innovations' task force that I'm leading. Unfortunately the innovations budget only covers me right now so I have to provide the hard data to support my initiatives on my own and that means crunching rows of data. One of the tasks is to prepare quoting sales data that our system has been collecting for years and use this to improve our consumer profiling process. The other task is to analyze data from a project tracking system we've been using for the past year and look for opportunities to improve our project portfolio management process. I've found some solid actionable areas of improvement here and I'm now preparing a write-up to present my recommendations to management. (I'm actually using a lot of the ideas and concepts from my Technology Management class for this initiative. This whole MBA thing is paying off already!)<br /><br />Outside of work I've been <a href="http://digitalactivities.blogspot.com/2010/04/api-fun.html">playing around</a> with Twitter data and digging into the area of content curation. I've tested a lot of the Twitter clients out there and I haven't really found anything I like that presents my Twitter feed to me in a way that is manageable and still enables discovery of timely and relevant content. So I've been making my own Twitter curator that tries to organize my Twitter feed and shows me exactly what I want to see based on several different data points. Some of the points include friend quality, follower quality, post frequency, list memberships and link quality. It's not production ready by a long shot (and it may never be), but I'll try to post screens of my Twitter curator sometime in the near future.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-68871193825660016412010-05-16T15:57:00.003-05:002010-05-16T16:11:33.949-05:00Music moodsJust last week I wrote about a new feature I'd like Pandora to add (<a href="http://digitalactivities.blogspot.com/2010/05/pandora-music-map.html">music maps</a>) and this week I've read about some new music sites that have this and other cool features included. I stumbled upon these sites through an article in Mashable called "<a href="http://mashable.com/2010/05/06/music-sites-mood/">5 great ways to find music that suits your mood</a>".<br /><br />A couple sites, like Musicovery, have the music map feature, but more interestingly all the sites listed try to match the music to your current mood. I think this is a great idea that would suit me really well. I have my 'Rock' station, and my 'Hip-Hop' station, but sometimes I want my Rock & Hip-Hop to match the mood I'm in right now. Am I in a mellow rocky mood, or a hard party rock mood? Do I want Hip-Hop that I can nod my head to, or do I want Hip-Hop to get me pumped and ready for the night? Sure, I could make Pandora stations for each mood, but overall I think the artists (and even albums) would overlap. It's really the individual songs and the feelings they invoke that would be driven by the "mood" settings.<br /><br />I'll probably give one or two of these sites a spin and see how well they categorize "mood" at the song level. I wonder how their music catalog selection holds up against Pandora and the other bigger online players. Really I just want Pandora to add this feature so I don't have to keep track of multiple music sites and can keep all my musical preferences in one spot.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-36945571037138822552010-05-16T15:33:00.003-05:002010-05-16T15:55:51.811-05:00Evernote users, let's hear from you"Evernote" and "slow" continue to be the top Google search keywords leading to my blog. My site is actually one of the first ones that come up when you Google "Evernote slow". I find this a little funny considering I've only written about Evernote 3-4 times, but I guess I've struck a chord near and dear to frustrated Evernote users.<br /><br />I say 'frustrated' because overall I love Evernote, I just wish it was a bit more responsive at times. The Windows client continues to frustrate me with its constant hanging and memory hogging; so much so that I avoid opening it unless I really need to do extensive organizing or browsing of my notes. If I want to do a quick search of my notes I find it faster to jump onto the website and avoid the slow load times of the Windows client.<br /><br />Also, whenever I want to clip web content to my notes I always try to use Firefox and the Evernote plug-in because it's 10x better than the Internet Explorer version. Why is that? Well, for one, the Firefox client doesn't load up the Evernote client, instead it provides with you with a quick and easy interface to add in the content to your journal. The IE plug-in sends the content to your Evernote client, which then takes a couple of seconds to respond, and then takes a couple more seconds to load up the Evernote client so you can annotate the web content. Big FAIL for the IE Evernote plug-in.<br /><br />Alright, so those are my frustrations with Evernote and slow. What about everyone else? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below. Who knows, if an Evernote rep Googles "Evernote slow" and stumbles upon my little blog hopefully we can provide this person with detailed experiences and suggestions that they can use to improve their product.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-46316086030818368652010-05-02T18:31:00.007-05:002010-05-02T19:21:07.097-05:00Pandora music mapI've been fiddling around with my Pandora stations a bit lately, marking songs that I like and dislike as I listen throughout the day at work. Unfortunately this caused my favorite stations to destabilize a bit and I started to hear a lot of music that I didn't want to hear or that didn't belong in that particular station. I finally had to resort to going into the Pandora control panel and 'rolling back' all of the likes and dislikes I've given recently to get my stations back in order.<br /><br />This mini fiasco led me to wonder about Pandora's algorithm again. I'm not quite sure what action I took that caused some of the 'wrong' music to leak into my stations but I really wish I had visibility to the whole process behind Pandora. I've said before that I like the <a href="http://digitalactivities.blogspot.com/2010/02/pandora-stations.html">simple thumbs up/down model </a>but I wish we had more advanced features available to us. I understand Pandora probably doesn't want to reveal its algorithm to the public but I think there are certain features it can add that would make Pandora better and easier to use.<br /><br />One idea I like is adding a 'music map' view in Pandora. It would be pretty cool to see the music map representation of your stations and to see what sort of artists are at the core and fringe of your musical preferences. Maybe you want to hear a little bit more from a fringe artist, or a little bit less from a core artist? You could just drag the nodes of each artist in/out and have your station reflect that change. It would essentially be a visual representation of your music stations.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisiXVjxB0nwlVYedI9Hxb9z9_Y571O8SlaUJ3KEKDi0dkb3NXxjWuGhm9oGGusWlmKFogpo9qNavPIjoFHxD5LUvYvK2xYrsJSqOKd8RLsCHnBOgTBdHnvxuMx3wKK9dzAyEo6Ze7o8Ok/s1600/Pandora_Map.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 318px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisiXVjxB0nwlVYedI9Hxb9z9_Y571O8SlaUJ3KEKDi0dkb3NXxjWuGhm9oGGusWlmKFogpo9qNavPIjoFHxD5LUvYvK2xYrsJSqOKd8RLsCHnBOgTBdHnvxuMx3wKK9dzAyEo6Ze7o8Ok/s400/Pandora_Map.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466825197886289682" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Another cool thing you could do with the music map feature is to see what effect an action you take will have on your station's feed. For example, when you're about to like or dislike a song, it would be pretty interesting to see on the music map what new nodes appear or what existing nodes move around. That way you can get a better feel for the composition of your station and what influence your actions are taking on it. This feature sure would have saved me a lot of hassle lately!<br /><br />This new feature would also be really cool on the Pandora iPad app. The iPad's large interactive touch screen makes it ideal for playing around with a music map, and the feature would keep Pandora users more actively engaged while they're listening to their music. I think it would be a great addition to the "<a href="http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/archives/2010/04/pandora-on-ipad.html">ultimate lean-in Pandora experience</a>".<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2gdwx1lzBcwaOPvHzT2t8ncO7TJcvtTugyW4_zpBNfaLxwa0j9uVHMj4Ed_BxYGJJvJRyQ1EJYNT6ypALXpaL7IQWt5wIERyenyFHoxwrHORMs0w_2PtNAbh5Sr9rD2M6N9fnUpTlGmM/s1600/Pandora_Map2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 302px; height: 390px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2gdwx1lzBcwaOPvHzT2t8ncO7TJcvtTugyW4_zpBNfaLxwa0j9uVHMj4Ed_BxYGJJvJRyQ1EJYNT6ypALXpaL7IQWt5wIERyenyFHoxwrHORMs0w_2PtNAbh5Sr9rD2M6N9fnUpTlGmM/s400/Pandora_Map2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466830030068896930" border="0" /></a>Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-32422799428840086102010-04-25T22:47:00.006-05:002010-04-25T23:23:32.591-05:00Facebook in my PandoraAs part of Facebook's new <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/04/21/facebook-open-graph/">OpenGraph</a> initiative the site has selected a couple key partners to share information with regarding user's preferences. One of those partners is Pandora, and this weekend while I was listening to my music stations I started noticing the following pop-ups show up on various artists & songs:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmAErf78Pb5CqtA35qy6_3jiB_PJK0e-2Bv8Ic2Qe8acDhTzDEcRE1QoECVsYBhTT60M75d3-iroofHSI65F38pLINPcv3H5ObLOwOYddbLT6eoa_pQjSSACEmT0J1aoDfC3rwDYJ8FBA/s1600/FBpandora.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 254px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmAErf78Pb5CqtA35qy6_3jiB_PJK0e-2Bv8Ic2Qe8acDhTzDEcRE1QoECVsYBhTT60M75d3-iroofHSI65F38pLINPcv3H5ObLOwOYddbLT6eoa_pQjSSACEmT0J1aoDfC3rwDYJ8FBA/s400/FBpandora.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464288948590368674" border="0" /></a>Whenever one of my Facebook friends likes the song or artist currently playing on my station, Pandora lets me know with a little image like the one above. Also, I can see a list of stations that my Facebook friends listen to, and I imagine they can see the stations I listen to.<br /><br />All of this is pretty cool except for one thing: Pandora and Facebook never asked me if it was OK to do this! I don't remember ever telling Pandora to share my music preferences with everyone I know on Facebook. What if I secretly listened to Britney Spears or Miley Cirus and never told my friends about this shameful secret? All of a sudden everyone knows!<br /><br />This is somewhat of a silly example, but I think it illustrates the <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/04/21/open-graph-privacy/">privacy concerns</a> around Facebook's OpenGraph initiative and the amount of data that can be shared. Right now you have to actively opt-out of the sharing service instead of having to explicitly opt-in, which is a bit concerning. I wonder if there will be a huge backlash against Facebook just like with the Beacon debacle. Anyways, I'm off to review my Facebook privacy settings to tighten up the information they can share about me with others.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-35682973404165242812010-04-25T22:25:00.002-05:002010-04-25T22:28:28.503-05:00Back!I've been getting rocked all this month at work and haven't had time to post anything lately. Without getting into too much detail I've been working on a big product launch at work that just went live this Friday night, but now that it's over I should be able to start posting a bit more frequently.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-52709567173843749282010-04-04T18:48:00.000-05:002010-04-04T18:48:55.643-05:00Windows Phone 7: Better late than never?From everything I've read so far, it sounds like Microsoft has done a great job with the upcoming Windows Phone 7 platform. A complete reboot from the Windows Mobile series, the Windows Phone platform has <a href="http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20100315/windows-phone-7-series-even-more-impressive-than-previously-thought/">rich system features and technical specs</a> that rival iPhone and Android devices. Microsoft has even done a good job of building up excitement in the ever important <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/03/31/microsoft-successfully-courting-developers-for-windows-phone-study/">app developer community</a>. If Microsoft released this platform today it would give Apple and Google a good run for their money in the smartphone market.<br /><br />Too bad we won't see Windows Phone 7 available on devices until much later in the year. Apple and Google aren't going to stand still until then with their own products. This year several new Android devices will roll out to the market and Google is finally starting to take steps to address its Android <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/03/29/android-fragmentation/">fragmentation issue</a>. Apple is set to release a new iPhone model and OS this year (and possibly even on a new network, Verizon). Add on top of all this the entry of the new mobile tablet PCs that could steal away market share from high-end smartphones. All of these new mobile products entering the market in 2010 will steal away Microsoft's thunder and dampen sales of its devices. The Windows Phone 7 platform looks really strong, but as Palm's WebOS system has shown us lately sometimes that's just not enough to gain traction in the marketplace.Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2060302213102790505.post-14101900119254750932010-04-03T20:30:00.003-05:002010-04-03T20:49:14.294-05:00API funFun times playing around with the Twitter and Foursquare APIs. I've been brushing up on my javascript skills and putting my home server back into action in order to cook up 'proof of concepts' on a couple areas I'm exploring. I'm not one to start from scratch so I always look for samples first before I start.<br /><br />On the Foursquare front, someone cooked up this nice little site (<a href="http://www.checkinmania.com/">Checkin Mania</a>) that I've dug into for sample javascript & 4SQ API code. The site is a really slick mashup of Google Maps and Foursquare/Gowalla data. You can see popular checkin venues on the map and view how many people checked into each venue and other basic information. I think if you want more detailed information you need to use OAuth data to log in, but that's not incorporated into the site just yet. Still, I have to tip my hat to Rakshith and Init Labs, they've put together a pretty robust site with limited resources here. The site was "written using notepad :), hosted on Google App Engine". Nice!<br /><br />There's no shortage of Twitter API samples on the web so I'm up and running on this platform already. Here I'm digging into the issues of content curation and social discovery. How do I keep up with all the tweets of the people I'm following? Better yet, how do I keep up with all the 'good' tweets of the people I'm following, and let the noise fall by the wayside. Also, how do I find new people to follow? Based on my interests and the data that I've made publicly available, is there a way to find people who share my same interests and can add their 'good' tweets to my Twitter feed?Juanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16317763755860564034noreply@blogger.com0