Off to Reboot 8 in Denmark
Posted on May 30, 2006
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Its about that time and I’m stoked. Good think Denmark is only a few hours away by plane, though seeing as I like to get to the airport early I should have a few hours to put in some coding on the lappy while waiting. Can’t wait to see you all there.
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Posted on May 30, 2006
Filed Under Business, Daily Thoughts, Productivity, Tech
7 Reasons Why Web 2.0 Apps Fail
Posted on May 12, 2006
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I found a great articled over at http://bokardo.com/ about why web 2.0 apps fail and have to agree with alot of the points. Especially working on my own app at the moment, I’ve thought about a couple of these and just wondered “Why do they do that?”
For example:
1.) Focus on social instead of personal.
Following up on my Del.icio.us Lesson post, this is a critical reason why web apps fail. Many apps focus on being the new social killer-app when, in general, people don’t have time to worry about what other people are doing, and will only use software that benefits them personally at every step…
7.) They don’t have an underlying business strategy of improving people’s lives.
Most business strategy is about making money. However, this is a short term goal. If you focus only on ways to make money, then you’ll make decisions that in the short term seem good for the balance sheet but in the long term actually work against it…
and especially:
4.) They sell it the wrong way.
Web apps are not about Ajax, tags, Web 2.0, SOA, REST, or any other technology. Why do so many startups and web pundits focus on these terms when talking about a product? To get a better frame of reference, talk about how your app empowers users to improve their life.
Its like “Seriously man, wow, Ajax, Gradients, RSS, Mashups OH MY! … What does your service do again?” I have definitely kept this in mind, you have to empower the users and sell what it actually is, don’t sell hype. Though yes, at times hype sells, see the difference? 
Check out the full article here: http://bokardo.com/archives/7-reasons-why-web-apps-fail/
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Posted on May 12, 2006
Filed Under Business, CSS/XHTML, Daily Thoughts, Design, General, Marketing, PHP/MySQL, Productivity, Quotes, Ranting, Ruby on Rails, Tech, Web
6 Hour Nintendo Wii wait line at E3
Posted on May 12, 2006
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This is just OUT OF CONTROL, yet incredibly awesome. Its pretty funny how everyone had their panties in a bunch over the name, now they are all on its nutsack because they see how cool it is. Check out the video: The Nintendo Wii E3 Wait Line
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Posted on May 12, 2006
Filed Under Daily Thoughts, Entertainment, Tech
HTC Wizard, Qtek 9100 & MDA Vario Overclocking and Single-Handed Usage
Posted on May 5, 2006
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Along from myself, I’ve seen two other main complaints from others about this great device is:
- The OMAP proc isn’t “quite” fast enough, depriving us of a real snappy interface
- No easy single-handed usage
I’ve found some REALLY great solutions for these issues and I’m really happy with the results. My Qtek 9100 is very fast now and I can easily use it one handed that rivals some Blackberry devices (But that is debatable 
)
I’ve installed an app called SmartKeys to provide single handed usage and an app called Omapclock to overclock the proc almost 50Mhz with no side effects. On top of that, the install was easy as cake. Mmmmmmm…cake. Anyway…
Smart Keys
With smartkeys, you can add an extra layer of functionality to your softkeys and volume slider (the keys right above the call and end buttons). What it does is if you hold down the right softkey, it acts as the close button so you can close windows (you can set it to close or quit) and if you hold the left softkey it acts to open the start menu. And then it programs the volume slider to work as page up and page down while your in any application. If you’re on the today screen, it acts as a regular volume slider again. The program autostarts and on top of that it directly integrates with Omapclock (which I will talk about next) so that also starts automatically on start up and sets the proc speed to whatever you please. There is a PDF install doc in the download below.
You can download the latest smartkeys here: SmartKeys 0.52
OmapClock
Basically this overclocks the processor and is completely transparent once you install it. The original proc runs at 195-200Mhz depending on the device, with this I’ve set it to a constant 240Mhz (I’ve read plenty of people setting it as high as 255-260Mhz with no problems) with no problems or side effects. Its not any warmer than before and the battery life is the same. I have it setup with smartkeys to run at startup and automatically set the processor speed (otherwise on restart everything is set to default.) Please also note if you’d like to speed up your device considerably then you should upgrade to the latest ROM update, (I’m running version 2.17.7.2 WWE release on 2/10/2006) the speed increase with that alone is ridiculous. Read the install PDF that comes with Smartkeys to integrate these two (you basically edit the config file and drop OmapClock i the same folder on your device as SmartKeys)
You can download OmapClock here: OmapClock
You can download the latest Qtek 2.17.7.2 ROM here: 20710_QTEK_WWE_Ship
For more info you can go to the discussion post on this: forum.xda-developers.com
Good luck and hope you find as much joy in these two little utilities as I have, it has really made this device an extra joy to use.
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Posted on May 5, 2006
Filed Under Daily Thoughts, Hardware, Mobile Tech, Tech
Ruby on Rails 1.1 PDF Reference
Posted on May 4, 2006
1 Comment
I found this excellent resource over at InVisible blog, its a Ruby on Rails 1.1 24 page “Short” reference guide. It’s collection of the most used calls, methods, functions across a wide range of Rails functionality.
Check it out: Ruby on Rails 1.1 PDF Reference Guide
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Posted on May 4, 2006
Filed Under Daily Thoughts, Ruby on Rails, Tech, Web
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I'm Marston and here you'll find my rantings, rhetoric and other useful info. I dig tech, photography, quantum physics and organic food. I'm the founder of SugarStats.com and thats my days developing.
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