Random Hot Finds

Nothing is Safe from the Mark of the Beast (TechCrunch article via tputh.com): Facebook's Open Graph API project will have us not only sharing, but "liking" what's on the Internet. "Google spends billions of dollars indexing the web for their search engine. Facebook will get the web to index itself, exclusively for Facebook."

Luke Wilson Will be Out of a Job Soon: Why a $1 iPhone App is AT&T's biggest threat.

Insert Debby Downer Sound Effect Here: Worst Case Scenarios and their Domino Effect, in a fun map!

You Want to Fudge With Me, You Fudging With the Best: Even though this has 'stunt' written all over it (the woman who posted this is supposedly a Bible-loving Sarah Palin groupie), does that make it less outrageous? Little child actors were exploited to carry out this sick genius prank, yet those most outraged seem to be convinced it's real.

Ruby on Rails: Whether or not to join the cult.

Scaling: a network's ability to function as the number of people or computers on the network increases.
Ruby - coding language; Rails - the framework used to implement it.


Ruby vs PHP: What people are saying
"While PHP appears to be dominant today, the rapid growth in new projects in Ruby indicates that it is currently positioned as 'the language of the next wave of applications.'" - feld.com

"Not that one is better than the other, but PHP has a much more extensive library of extensions and modules, and it’s object oriented model has been implemented over time. Ruby on the other hand has been designed from the ground up as an object oriented language, and definitely has a very modern well thought out syntax." - nerd search blog

What Stephen says

Stephen is a software engineer friend at Viralogy building gnarly conversion rate optimization software.

PHP is NOT for scaling. Facebook has had numerous talks about how they've run into so many problems because of it. Java is made for scaling and maintainability. Ruby is about 20x slower than PHP. And PHP is about 20x slower than Java. Twitter was written in Ruby, not PHP. It was crashing so much they moved to *Scala. The front-end is still partial Ruby. Facebook is predomoninatly PHP with major building blocks in Java and C++ (the fast parts). Java is what every serious business uses now that isn't a start-up, because it takes longer to develop in, but start-ups usually have to move to Java once more developers come on board. Unless you reach Facebook scale, you will not have to worry about PHP. I'm actually building this new stuff in Java now. It's so... smooth.

*What's Scala?: It's a subset of Java. I actually LOVE the language. But it's brand new... like a year old. So there is very, very little support for it. There are seriously like... hundreds of people using it. and that's it. but it's very sexy.

What Mareza says
PulseJFK is currently rewriting its website in Ruby on Rails and a hot new version will be up shortly, according to entrepreneur friend Mareza Larizadeh.
Me: Cool. I hear Ruby is a cult, should I join it?
Mareza: Yes, join. Learn to code, then work with me :)

What David S. says
David is a New York Times web developer, blogger, cinematographer, and sometimes scholar.
I've met the Ruby freaks and to give them credit I've seen how fast they can pump out something really great. And I've also seen some of the nightmares that can come as the app grows. It is indeed easy to get something started, but you need smart people with real skill as it grows in complexity, it's not "easy" to run something that a million people want to look at RIGHT NOW.

Like a lot of guys I'm used to PHP, but in the newsroom the boys area all Ruby, so I've learned from them. [I think he was using "Ruby" as a verb here.] We did all the NYT Olympics stuff in Ruby on pretty short timelines. I wouldn't mind using it more.

What I've gathered
Ruby on Rails is essentially the Mac to PHP's PC in terms of its elitist groupies.
SEO pro and business partner-in-crime, Dave A., is convinced that Ruby people drink the kool-aid. Web developer, not the news correspondent, Brian Ross, explained to us his take on the PHP vs Ruby holy war. There is a huge push in the tech world to convert to Ruby on Rails. Mid-twenty something hot-shot Ruby disciples are coming into existing start-ups, and attempting to indoctrinate the rest of the team. Brian (Mac-owner) thinks Ruby is very interesting and logical, but he's a PHP pro and prefers to practice what he already knows. Basically Ruby is a cleaner way of coding the same shit. With PHP, you are writing more lines of code to do the same thing. PHP's language library is more extensive, through Ruby's is rapidly increasing. Websites run faster on PHP, though I'm assuming some genius will soon figure out a way for Ruby scripts to run equally as fast. The effects of speed are minimal on less complex websites. If you're building a massive ecommerce site - and have massive scaling needs - you'd go PHP. If you want to get a concept up and running and easily maintain it - you'd go Ruby. Right?

I'm starting to figure out that it has less to do with the language as it does the people writing it. When it comes to finding a developer - the Ruby cats (for the most part) got talent. PHP anyone can learn, but few have mastered. The idea that Ruby is easier to maintain only holds true if you have people maintaining it well versed in Ruby. If you want someone new to come in to further develop your website, or maybe even just bring on an intern, chances are they will know PHP. Moreover, the Ruby people typically are already well versed in PHP. So stick with what you know, or follow the trend, it depends on the project and the people. Beware of those who preach one doctrine, the good guys are nimble and can see the benefits in multiple.

Verdict: Learn Ruby if you want to get in the boys' area.

Dear Facebook, Here's What's Up.

Facebook Suggestions: Insult to Injury
Reconnect with your friend's sibling who shot you down. Friend a stranger who responded to your Craigslist ad. Be friends with a domain squatter you once emailed. Facebook your friend's dog. Reconnect with a PBR can. Be a fan of Parma, Ohio. A friend's Facebook status once stated that Facebook recommended that he reconnect with a friend who died, and it ruined his day. Does Facebook know how antagonizing this feature is? While recommendations for fan pages and groups like "See if this pickle can get more fans than nickleback" and "Anne Frank would be so pissed if she knew people read her diary" do make me laugh at my computer screen for a couple seconds, nearly all of their suggestions are completely unwelcome. The upper right corner of the Facebook Homepage is prime real estate. It should not annoy us, or at least have a better recommendation algorithm compared to the crap bombarded upon us. There is a REASON we are not friends with someone who shares 58 of our facebook friends. We obviously know that person, and deemed them facebook friendship unworthy.

Here's a suggestion:
Use this corner space for good. Give me music recs. Maybe movie recs. Facebook could be Pandora. Show me what friends are listening to. There is an iLike app on Facebook. iLike is MySpace's baby. Why doesn't Facebook have their own gig? They are effing EF BEE. It would be cool if you could build playlists with your Facebook friends. There are user friendly ways to profit here, so it boggles me why they rather use this space to harass people into writing on a random wall. The kid in your high school Spanish class and group partner in your Accounting project junior year do not actually care about your life, as we are misled to believe.

There is all this smoke about how Facebook may start charging users monthly fees to stalk one another. There are countless avenues they can pursue to profit without upsetting the proletariat.

Market Your Marketplace
Rhetorical Question:
Why does Facebook categorize the Marketplace as an "application" versus just having it as a key component of their website? Ask a person on the street to tell you what "app" means. Facebook apps have a bad rep. I fathom that over 90% of Americans believe it's something that steals your personal information and sells it to advertisers. You are the #2 website in the world. Your marketplace should be marketable, not (cr)app. The options to monetize are endless.

Easy as Pi:

For me to access the Marketplace, I typed 'marketplace' into Search. It took me to the Marketplace Fan page. I then clicked the button "Go to application" and was directed to a poorly designed amalgam of classified ads. Later, looking at my Application Settings under the "Account" tab, I now see that Marketplace appears on my Application list with the option to 'remove' it... essentially equating it with a third party app like What Disney Princess are You? (Pocahontas). In a world where we want to clear out any unused programs and spyware, why does Facebook depict their Marketplace as if it were an extra program taking up space on your hard drive? Does having Marketplace as an application, mean you have granted them permission to spam you with ads based on your interests? People don't know. Perhaps it's in the Terms and Conditions that everyone reads.

Sidenote:
When I have ever clicked on applications out of curiosity (usually without realizing they were applications), but pressed the back button when a pop-up window appeared asking me to "Allow Access," the app still appeared on my list of Applications even though I never clicked "Allow Access." Even if it's harmless, this pisses people off. People like to think they have control, so don't let them feel like they've been tricked over something silly, because they may retaliate by never clicking on anything that even looks like it could be a third party app out of paranoia. Be straightforward about apps, eliminate the mystery and avoid deception.

Photo Privacy Settings: Tag and Hide-and-Go-Seek
Facebook has an all or nothing approach, like that O-Town song. I had my privacy settings set so friends of friends could see all albums. I'm a team player, and I had it this way so my friends' friends could see the good photos they were tagged in. Then, I realized I had friends who were pretty important and knew other important (..and not so important) people who I did not want peering through my photos, seeing my "true colors."

A Win-Win Solution:
Provide a privacy option so that friends of a friend who is tagged in a photo can see the specific photo(s) your friend is tagged in without having access to the rest of the album (..there may be some incriminating photos). Your friend's friends can click on your name and see no photos except your default picture, though still see this one great photo of your friend under his or her tagged photos. Everyone's happy.

Red Flags, Blue Balls
This one is huge. You hope a hottie posted a link to a cool band on your wall. What actually happened was your coworker's aunt commented on her Facebook status update, that you indiscriminately thumbed up last week to show moral support. Is this event really red-flag worthy?

I long for the days of Old School (The)Facebook. You saw birthdays, pokes, and if you were lucky... a large envelope appeared on your screen letting you know someone had sent you a message. It was quite magical. And was from a person just to you. Now we get little red flags alerting us a friend canceled her birthday that you only 'Maybe' wanted to attend and when 8 invitees reply-alled to this message. I vote that we color coordinate alerts. Mass group emails could be yellow, personal messages could be color coordinated based on gender. The hotter the pink the hotter the girl. The technology is probably out there.

Best regards,
Liz Carlson

Who pays for us to play?

Social apps try to make money by selling the data they collect from users to businesses, the lastest: Foursquare.

Checking in with Tristan Walker of Foursquare (via Restaurant News)
Q: Some restaurateurs have said they’re testing an analytics dashboard for Foursquare, where owners can pay to create custom offers and badges. Is that coming soon?
A: Yes. We hand-selected about 30 of our most passionate venue owners to test this. All of them care about two things: retention and acquisition. We help with acquisition by letting you see who comes in where, when, and where they go before and after they stop in.

NYT Two Cents

When I wrote comments for The Times every day as a 22 yr old, my TimesPeople nom de plume was "Liz, NY" with no icon. I not-too-secretly longed for a gold star, or something recognizing that I was consistently the top readers' recommendation and highlighted by the editors.*

I believe they should incorporate Facebook's API but still allow people to create disguised identities of themselves.*  By not requiring users to log into Facebook Connect to participate, but rather providing it as an option, would not exclude potential active users who wish to remain anonymous.  Disqus, a widget platform for comments, allows users to log in with Facebook, Twitter, or anonymously.    It would have to be customized to enable ability to rank commenters *within* the site.

Having a leaderboard which gives readers more incentive to stay active on the site, simply by getting recognition from their peers, would definitely bring in more hits.

The NYT should also look at Opinion Space, a State Department project, in conjunction with Berkeley's New Media Department.  Users can rate others' comment quality as well as whether or not they agree. This is quite genius, while websites like Digg simply block alternative viewpoints with the thumbs down feature.

The Times editors highlight comments based on quality of argument and unique perspective. Its readers should be able to recognize quality content and then determine whether or not they agree. Such would foster a more meaningful discussion.

Fresh, unedited, and editors' selected:
The Next War President
A Way Out of Gaza
Twitters From Texas
What Iran Jews Say
Middle East Reality Check
Stage of Fools
Cars, Kabul and Banks
Connecticut Senator draws Voters' Ire for His Bonus Role
The Chess Master
The Destructive Center
Stuck in the Muddle
Magic and Realism
A Threat to McCain-Feingold
The Confidence Surplus (comment 1)
(comment 2 - new account)
The Year-End Quiz
The Lure of Opulent Desolation
Bigger Than Bush
One Singular Sensation
Roll Over, Abe Lincoln
To Tweet or Not to Tweet

And it would be nice if they gave you a 30 minute window where you could edit your comment.

*July 2010: Now this is called "Game mechanics"
**Sept 2010: NYT has majorly incorporated with Facebook.

T-Shirts, Trials and Errors (Reflections on Early Attempts at Entrepreneurism)

First Try
The Idea
My best friend Jennifer and I were part of the Business Club at our all girls Catholic high school. There were 30 other students who wanted the similar item on their college resume. We came to a consensus to sell Finals T-shirts, pending approval by the administration for the non-uniform item. On AIM that night the ideas started to flow. The Survivor logo. After all, our school was ruthlessly competitive and Ms. Stasio's Calculus exam was the equivalent to walking through fire. Tagline: Outsmart, outcram, out ?

Outtahere. Yes. We wanted to get the hell out of there. Slyly subversive to capture student sentiment, yet tasteful enough to get Dean approval. I can come up with a good line, just can't draw one. Jennifer, who is now a successful freelance graphic designer, designed the logo to hand to the t-shirt maker. A girl clutching her Starbucks cup centered within the Survivor insignia. The shirts were navy blue and long sleeve with white print, as our school was frigid cold, navy complemented our uniform skirt, and one color was the cheapest option.

Marketing
On top the teen beat, at the height of OC's popularity, I felt the only clear option was for the nerd-sexy Seth Cohen (played by Adam Brody) to sell these shirts. So we copied a cute photo of him and posted flyers on lockers and bathroom stalls that said "Seth says buy a finals t-shirt." His orders were followed and 40% of the student body bought shirts. Mission accomplished. While profits exceeded $1000, Jen and I each received $37.

Swing, and a Miss
Every sports team had a small budget for T-shirts. As a proud member of the golf team (my friends do not consider this to be an actual support), what I lacked in distance I made up for in style. "Dude, Where's My Cart?" was a hit sophomore year. However, my "All Tiger (Our mascot animal), No Flakes" concept resulted in failure. At 17, I wasn't versed in copyright law, so instead of Tony the Tiger on the back of our shirt, the t-shirts came back with a poorly drawn cat.

Wayne Gretzky has a Quote About This
In mid-September 2008 I came up with a cool idea. Obama "08" basketball jerseys. No one was making them. A basketball player had one specially made to present to Obama at a fundraiser. Some awkward t-shirt company made Obama Punahou t-shirt replicas. These babies would have made a killing (according to a straw poll of about 12 guy friends - number 13 said he would have purchased one labeled 'McCain'). The election would be over in a few weeks, and by the time I had a chance to design it, raise capital, find a manufacturer, and sell them it was over. Of course Obama (the man, the myth, the legend) was going to win. I did not exactly consider the magnitude of the situation - how campaign material wasn't just fan material, but rather memorabilia for such a momentous occasion and would continue to sell weeks past the inauguration. I had contacted a friend who worked for the Obama campaign for help, but he was not going to make it happen for me. If I wanted to do it, I would have to get it done. That involves taking a risk, and going balls to the wall. If you don't shoot, you don't score. Lesson learned.

Rad Unofficial Music Videos

I just want to make music videos.
Santogold - I'm a Lady (they had their chance.)


The Tough Alliance- Looking for Gold (perfect song to play on a boat.)


Say Hi to Your Mom- These Fangs and Band of Horses- Our Swords don't have official vids and would be awesome to make.

Hillary, Sadaf, and I could do this song more justice:
Discovery- Orange Shirt (download the Rock Remix, this is a side-project of Ra Ra Riot and Vampire Weekend)