Weaving Web Dreams

Things You Probably Didn't Want To Know - Google Earth

Google, in its never-ending-battle against the Evil Empire from Washington State, is rolling out the beta version of Google Earth. They already had Google Maps online, and earlier this week upgraded the Maps functionality to include a hybrid display that overlays the street maps over the satellite photos.

Google Earth is a totally different product that performs something like Google Maps on steroids. You can pan and zoom around the globe to your heart's content - or until you get motion sick - whichever comes first. Want to see a coast to coast route - say from San Diego to Florida? Just type in the start and end locations then click Search, and Google Earth goes off and does its magic. You can pan along the route, and zoom in to see an amazing amount of detail - with the streets and highways overlayed.

Then, under the 'layers' selections, pick what other features you would like to see overlayed on the map. Things like coffee shops, gas stations, schools, shopping centers. You name it and you can see it right on the map. Click on any of the overlayed features and you get a nice pop up that includes all the information you might need.

For example, want to see the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake along with the epicenters of all the other smaller quakes that have taken place in the region? Just Google Earth it-

Or, want to know the crime statistics for a neighborhood you might be considering moving to? Just Google Earth it-

Pretty cool, and pretty scary at the same time.

Connecting The Dots - Skype

My recent experience listening to the daily Kickbike podcast updates made a Skype believer out of me. So, early one morning I called Alan Stewart in Australia (using Skype of course), and got more of the details about using Skype for international telephone calls.

Based on Alan's comments, I setup a Skype US 408 area code phone number. I picked 408 because my children live in that area and I wanted to keep their costs as low as possible. Skype provides a voice mailbox as a part of the phone number package. Then I purchased some SkypeOut credits so that I could dial out into the 'real world.' To test and see if everything was operational, I called my home phone number - just a few feet away. When it rang, I let my wife pick it up. Of course she thought I was nuts - but she's come to expect strange behavior like this from me.

Then I posted my new 408 number on our family weblog and asked other family members to call and leave a message. My sister, who lives in Texas, was the first to read the post, and left a nice message in my brand new Skype voice mailbox! I happened to be sound asleep at the time, but when I found the message in the morning, I immediately called her back using the SkypeOut capability. She was busy, so her phone switched over to her voice mail, and I left a thank you message.

About two minutes later she picked up my message and called my 408 number. It rang through to me in Japan, and we chatted for close to 40 minutes. Amazingly enough the voice quality was excellent. No time delays, no static, no drop outs.

So, what did all this cost? Very, very little actually. I pay a flat fee for the 408 number package that is about 30 euros/year, and I buy SkypeOut credits as I need them. Ignoring those costs for the moment, my cost for the call to my sister was less than a US dime! And, since she has free long distance on her cell phone contract, she didn't pay anything extra to call my 408 number and connect to me in Japan. So, for about one thin dime, or less, we were able to talk almost endlessly.

Will I continue to use it? Absolutely. No question.

Brought To You By The Magic of PodCasting

During Jim Delzer's hpv trip across the US, I listened to his daily reports from the road - kind of a mini-reality real-time show. It was almost like being there, rooting for Jim every step/kick/pedal of the way.

So, how was it done? Especially on a limited, almost non-existent budget? I asked Alan Stewart (aka Mr. Kickpod) how they put it all together:

First Alan, who happens to live in Australia - literally on the opposite side of the world from Jim, setup a number in the US for Jim to call into while he was on the road. If he had access to a telephone or cell phone he could check in. No PC, modem, or other fancy technology required. Jim's calls into the US telephone network were then routed to Skype (if you don't already know what Skype is all about, then you will definitely want to check it out.)

Via Skype Jim's call was routed to Alan in Australia - almost completely free of charge since Skype leverages the internet. If Alan was available he would pick up and interview Jim. Otherwise his Skype answering machine (in software - not a physical answering machine) would take the call and record Jim's daily report.

Alan would then take the call recording and package it as a podcast, and send it out into the podcast universe via the internet and post it on his Kickbiking podcast website.  Real magic, and really cool to boot.

Tildenisms - Classic Quotes From Mark Tilden

In the Macleans Science section:

"People don't just want robots like the Roomba. People want their robots to be like Rosie from The Jetsons -- a wise-cracking New Yorker with an apron."

"What's a robot going to do? Steal your Visa card and go to the local Radio Shack for a party?"

Macleans.ca | Top Stories | Science | Robo-sapiens rising

Web Surfing Without the Training Wheels

Metadot, a small Texas software company, came up with a very intriguing keyboard design – no marking on the keys whatsoever. Totally blank. Flat black. Nothing to distract your eyes from the computer screen. No confusing matrix of letters to hunt and peck through. It’s kind of the computer version of going cold turkey – ripping the training wheels off your keyboard, and getting down to business. The only lettering on the keyboard is its name – Das Keyboard.

“Since there is no key to look at when typing, your brain will quickly adapt and memorize the key positions and you will find yourself typing a lot faster with more accuracy in no time. It is amazing how slow typers almost double their speed and quick typers become blazing fast! “

Das Keyboard - UberGeeks Only

Nuvo makes the New York Times

There’s an interesting article by Mark Allen in the Home & Garden section of the New York Times. Allen shared his apartment with a Nuvo robot for four days, and reports his experiences – all positive - in some detail.

“When my home robot arrived last month, its smiling inventors removed it from its box and laid it on its back on my living room floor. They leaned over and spoke to it, as one might to a sleeping child.”

I, Roommate: The Robot Housekeeper Arrives - New York Times

Support Really Makes A Difference - A Huge Difference

I've been blogging for several years now. I created my first 'website' about six years ago, and then migrated to Blogger as soon as it appeared on the scene. It was a lot of fun - and a lot less work and hassle than trying to struggle with html to get my posts look semi-professional.

Still, Blogger didn't do everything I needed, or thought I needed, at the time. I really wanted to include images - photos, screen-shots, and scans - in my posts. I wanted more control over my blogs - things like changing some of the style attributes without having to have a PhD in html. And I wanted to track comments, page-views, and other statistics.

So, when the initial Typepad release hit the streets it took me about 10 seconds to decide to sign up. I started with a free trial, then quickly switched to the Pro level. Now, a couple of years later, I'm happy to say that I have no regrets. My Typepad blogs have grown both in number and in traffic. My online file storage is over 200 megabytes, and my traffic is close to 3 gigabytes/month.

I still keep a couple of Blogger based blogs alive and well, but a recent problem with Blogger reminded me how much I appreciate the excellent Typepad customer support staff. I was attempting to make some configuration changes to one of my Blogger blogs. Unfortunately, Blogger insisted on resetting the control screen into Japanese. It was probably picking up on the fact that my login ISP is based in Japan, and automatically setting the dialog to the 'local language.' And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I could have struggled through somehow since I am reasonably functional in Japanese. Nevertheless, my native language is English, and I find it much easier to do things like setting up system parameters in English. But, no matter how I tried, Blogger kept switching the display to Japanese.

So, I submitted a help request to Blogger describing the problem in detail. I was hoping that they would come back and point me to some link or parameter that I had overlooked. Or, failing that, at least tell me that they understood the problem and were working on it. Instead, this is the message they sent:

"Hi there,

Thanks for submitting your Wish List item. We greatly value feedback from
our users and review every submission.

-Blogger Support"

"Hi there"??? How about "Hey Dude!" or some other greeting right out of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

"Thanks for submitting your Wish List item"??? Did I miss something? I didn't submit a wish list item. I had, and still have a real, practical problem that keeps me from effectively using Blogger. If they wanted to tell me that it couldn't be done with the current software release, I would have been unhappy, but certainly would have accepted it as a valid response. Instead, they high handedly reclassified my real problem as a 'wish' and shipped it off to NeverNeverLand.

"We greatly value feedback from our users and review every submission"??? Excuse me but 'review' is very, very far from valuing customer feedback. Companies that actually do value customer feedback not only review it, they actually do something about it - even if it is only to communicate professionally with the customer. For some reason, Blogger seems to feel that they have "users" rather than "customers." My guess is that they won't have either if they don't start treating their users as customers.

"Blogger Support" - A really nice anonymous identity to hide behind. Nameless, but not blameless. Hit and run.

So, what's my experience been with Typepad support? Typepad support has been a whole different animal. They respond to my trouble tickets promptly, usually within an hour or two, sometimes less. They pro-actively offer solutions and workarounds. They call me by my real name, and they always respond with their real name. And, when they don't have a ready answer, they tell me so, frankly and openly.

Does that mean that I've never had any problems with Typepad? No - far from it. I've had quite a few problems with Typepad. Some of them were quite involved and at times frustrating. Still, no matter what the problem, the customer support staff has always been excellent. They treat me like a valued customer. And, as a result, I don't mind paying for the Typepad service.

Blogger, on the other hand, is free. I guess somehow in their minds that makes the lack of professionalism and support justified.

Robopet - Coming Soon?

Now that the Roboraptor website is live, the next website to be released has to be Robopet. The url is up, and there's a photo, but it's not quite ready for prime time yet. Hopefully, any moment now....

Robopet

Roboraptor Lives!

The 'official' Roboraptor site is up on the internet complete with a copy of the promotional television commercial and a downloadable pdf copy of the operating manual. I can hardly wait to get my hands on one. Unfortunately it may be a while since I haven't been able to find a release date for Japan yet.

The Official Roboraptor Website

Robosapien: Watch the New Roboraptor Robot Dance!

Edward Albro (PC World) was lucky enough to take a Roboraptor home with him, but it wasn’t long before his children adopted it and took it to bed with them . . . .

“The fact is this robotic dinosaur has more personality than you expect from either a robot or a dinosaur. If you stroke his head, he may nuzzle your hand and wag his tail--if he’s in his playful mood. If he’s in another of his moods--hunting, for instance--you may get a more ferocious response.”

Today @ PC World - Watch the New Roboraptor Robot Dance!

Website Statistics and Random Events

We like to fool ourselves that we have some control over the visits and page views for our websites. To some extent it’s true. We can add meta-tags, write good content, do link exchanges with related sites, and do other things like setting up page title tags to try and achieve better search engine listing positions.

All that having been said, there are still totally unexpected, almost random, moments when something that’s posted attracts attention way out of line with the normal website activity. For example, here’s a chart that shows the actual visits and pageviews for the Isobe sites over the past year:

The July through September ramp was totally expected as new blogs came on line and developed regular readership. And the November through December slump seems to be seasonal as readership falls off during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. The February and March peaks were a total surprise. These were triggered by Terry Tate – Office Linebacker. I found the urls for the five Terry Tate videos and posted them before the Super Bowl – just because I thought they are hilarously funny. Much to my surprise the post got picked up and traffic started to ramp tremendously. Of course it died back down after about a week. Then, a few weeks later, it went through the same ramp again. This cycle repeated itself three times. I’ve experienced a similar peak in the past – triggered by a post about Bob Sapp.

Yesterday (July 1st), without any warning, visits jumped radically again:

Looking through the site logs the culprit this time is a very old post that I made more than a year ago that happens to contain a photo of some pastry with Hello Kitty’s image. Strangely enough most of the visits are coming from Taiwan.

Google Bucks

I'm not an over-the-top Google fanatic, and I'm sure that they will stumble or at least stub their toe from time to time. Still, the news that Google is developing an online payment system is really encouraging. The PayPal approach is okay - as far as it goes. I've used it with some level of success over the past few years. I've had the most PayPal success with paying for EBay purchases, which is understandable given that EBay owns PayPal.

Still the number of online retailers that accept PayPal is too limited, and many of those that do offer it place restrictions on it that tend to defeat the whole purpose of online transactions. For example, when I bought a software application a few months ago the supplier accepted PayPal but warned that it would take an additional two days before they emailed the software registration key code to me.  

The sooner Google fields a viable alternative online payment system the better. At the very least we'll have another choice when it comes to paying online. 

"Google has confirmed that it is developing an online payment system, although it says it has no plans to take on EBay's PayPal service. Following media speculation about such a move, the chief executive of the Web search giant, Eric Schmidt, told reporters in the United States that the company is working on payment services that would extend its existing online products and advertising services."

PCWorld.com - Google Confirms Work on Internet Payment Service

Persuasive & Pervasive Technology

Four years ago I spent close to an hour a day on the train commuting to the office - one way. And another hour in the evening getting back home. Every morning I would pull the newspaper out of the mailbox as I left the house on my way to the train station. Reading the paper was a good way to pass the time, and turn it to productive use.

Then we moved closer to my office. My hour long train ride became a 10 minute bus trip. Definitely not enough time to read the paper, even if there was enough space on the bus - which there isn't. As a result the papers started to pile up until I had time to read them in the evening or on weekends.

But, news that's a few days old is about as attractive as a dead fish sitting out in the sun for the same period of time. I started to realize that the vast majority of the 'news' I read in the old newspapers I had already read online. Then I began to question why I was spending a considerable amount of time and money every month to read 'news' delivered to me on reprocessed dead trees when I could get exactly the same news - often from the same sources - for free on the internet. It wasn't a huge decision to cancel my newspaper subscription.

I still by a newspaper from time to time. Saturday or Sunday morning with a newspaper, a muffin, and an iced caffee mocha grande is certainly addictive - something I look forward to every weekend. But, by and large, I've given up on newspapers in print form.

Instead I have the home page on my browser set to the Google News page, and I get daily news summaries from the Japan Times, the New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and a few technically oriented online publications. I also have newsbots setup on Yahoo and Google that alert me to breaking news on topics I'm particularly interested in.

Am I missing anything by not having a newspaper every day? Yes. Of course. My fingers don't turn black from the ink anymore. I don't have anything to use to start a fire in the fireplace - but then our current house doesn't happen to have a fireplace either. And if we move again I'm going to have to buy packing material since we don't have stacks of old newspapers lying around.

Am I less informed? Yes. There are tons of advertisements I'm missing, and a whole section of classified ads that I can't flip over anymore.

Yet, I tend to think I'm better off than before. At least I don't feel guilty anymore about needlessly killing forests to make paper pulp. 

"When Ed Chi wants to read, he turns to two of the six computer screens that surround his desk. One is devoted exclusively to e-mail; the other, to the rest of his reading material. The senior researcher is testing a theory: What if your "virtual desk" was as just big as your real desk? How would that change your behavior? Dr. Chi, of the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in California, has found out one thing already. Almost all his reading - text messages, e-mails, journal articles, even books - is done on-screen."

How the Web changes your reading habits | csmonitor.com