December 2007 - Posts

• Switch #2: From PSP to DS

  When I got my PSP the DS was the ugly step-child with a limited selection of games and sub-par graphics.  The PSP was sexy, played videos, had better graphics, and a gorgeous screen. A lot has changed in the last couple of years. The Wii was sort of like a gateway drug into the world of Nintendo products for me.  Sure, the Xbox is king of connected games and entertainment, but there isn't one experience I've seen bring gamers and non-gamers together like the Wii for a party.  The DS has the same appeal. Pick up the Mario Kart version for your kids and the Brain Age edition with leather carrying case for mom.  Gret and I got the Brain Age edition. I'm currently 37 and she's 32. :-) I'm a little worried how quickly I'll improve my age since I have to steal practice time from her.  I guess I shouldn't have gotten the crimson "raspberry red" edition. I also reccomend picking up "my spanish coach". Flashcards have never been so fun. I'm not sure if I'll sell the PSP just yet, but I'm not sure I see much of a reason to keep it.  Any recommendations for DS games to get after we get our Brain Ages back down to normal?  Posted Dec 27 2007, 01:24 PM by Josh Ledgard's Blog Filed under: commentary, games, xbox

• Commentary on Recently Shared Items

  Dare has a great overview of the SimpleDB services.  Although there are some downsides to the service it certainly was the next logical step for Amazon in this space.  I can't help but wonder where MSFT is in this game.  That and if Penton will have to make this the next data provider for Graffiti? :-) Amazon SimpleDB: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Sometime last week, Amazon soft launched Amazon SimpleDB, a hosted service for storing and querying structured data. Via Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life As the social web grows and the interactions become more human it doesn't surprise me that women would be more social online.  Study finds girls eclipse boys in photo posting, other obvious web facts Filed under: Internet, Video, Blogging, E-mail, web 2. Via Download Squad I still think the best reason to make your reputation systems transparent is to enable self policing communities to point out the ones that game the system. Reputation: where the personal and the participatory meet up (installment 2 of 4) At the symposium, by and large, everybody agreed that your data should be available to you and that the heuristics used to generate reputation should be open. Via O'Reilly Radar No longer coming soon... :-) Live on Graffiti CMS Beta 1 I am pleased to announce that TerriMorton. Via Telligenti Online support communities become a "free market" for answers. SourceForge launches open source tech support Marketplace Filed under: Business, Internet, Open Source Open source project hosting service SourceForge is launching a marketplace for users to sell their services. Via Download Squad The best customer service in the cell industry right now is ATT.  Don't believe me? stuck on hold? Take your dispute into the store. It may cost ATT more, but every representative we  talk to always makes things right and generally gives us some service credits for our trouble. I can't wait to tell everyone who complains about ATT support these stories. The marketing doesn't get any better than that.  Thanks for calling, please go away Most customer service organizations are architected around a simple idea: interacting with customers is expensive, driving costs down is a good thing, thus getting people to go away is beneficial. Via Seth's Blog I love RSS Bandit, but what can a rich client do to complete against Google Reader? Should RSS Bandit become the offline front end via a Gears interface? Memetracking in RSS Bandit I had some free time last night, so I ported my meme tracker in IronPython over to C# and integrated it into the RSS Bandit source tree. Via Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life   In 2008 blogs and forums will merge with micro-posting. Instead of the medium defining the conversation the conversation will define the medium. MT Community Solution: Blogs Meet Forums 2.0 SixApart has launched a new version of the their Movable Type (MT) blogging platform, Movable Type Community Solution (MTCS) that takes blogging into the realms of forum hosting, with some nice 2. Via TechCrunch Posted Dec 22 2007, 12:58 PM by Josh Ledgard's Blog

• I've switched

  No, not that switch yet, although seeing ScottW get a 5.1 on the Vista experience score on his Macbook Pro sure makes it tempting. I've finally given up on IE 7 as a default web browser in Vista. Some some reason it crashes constantly on me. At first I thought it was the Web Developer Toolbar. Removing the developer toolbar solved a lot of problems, but then I had no web developer toolbar on my default browser and it was still freezing when I had more than five tabs open.  So it's a firefox world for me now. Firebug is much better than the IE equivalents anyway. I heard IE 8 just passed the Acid 2 test... so I'll give it a shot when it comes out if I'm not a part of the Mac cult by then. :-) Posted Dec 22 2007, 10:16 AM by Josh Ledgard's Blog Filed under: Microsoft, commentary, development

• Not from the Facebook Conference, but... Penny Arcade! - Facebookery

  Still funny. Penny Arcade! - Facebookery Posted Dec 05 2007, 03:16 PM by Josh Ledgard's Blog Filed under: Facebook, mindless linkage, commentary