Keeping up with friends

I've been using twitter for about a year and a half, and other social aggregation services like FaceBook and FriendFeed, but recently I've found that there are a couple of developments that, combined, really make the service worth the time.

First is the growing convergence between these services. When I write post on twitter, it goes into my status message on Facebook, and is also aggregated on FriendFeed. When I comment on a post on FriendFeed, the comment can be sent to twitter as well, and when I write a post on my blog, it ends up on Twitter and FriendFeed.

Second is the number of people watching these services. From my point of view that number has finally reached a majority of the people I try to keep track of, and in many cases I'm starting to connect with old friends who I haven't heard from in years.

Third is the amount of activity on these sites. People are really starting to use them and even better, people are really starting to interact on these services.

I ran into Christina Kuhn today at work, and we got to talking about the fact that she knew I was in town because she saw my status on Twitter. The she mentioned that one of her friends just announced her pregnancy on Twitter. I had to laugh when she brought this up, because I follow the same friend, and found out about her news the same way.

Over the last few days I've had a bunch of replies from people I knew in high school, former jobs, and old friends. It's starting to feel like a real community. Do other people have similar experiences?

Google Translate for iPhone

One of the things I love about working for Google is the 20% time. While it's popularly touted in the media as "one day a week to do whatever you want", it's really just an acknowledgement that there are times when you get an itch, and have to scratch it. The company let's you do that on their time for up to 20% of your time.

This is a great way to explore new areas, and try new things. It's also a great way to get a product out the door that might not happen otherwise.

My latest 20% project is an iPhone interface for Google Translate. You can see the blog post where I introduced the feature over on the Google Mobile blog.

This was a fun project to work on. First I got to dive deeper into client-side javascript and HTML5 AIPs. Second I got to work with some great engineers like my friend David Singleton.

So far the response to the app is pretty good. There are about 1200 links on a relevant Google Blog search, and about 40 results on the same search in Google News. So far, I've seen a lot of great recommendations, and will have to plow through all these articles to see what people are saying.

I'm already hard at work on adding recommendations and incorporating feedback, expect to see more updates in the future.

Apple running away from success

When you are trying to create a new development ecosystem the number one thing you have to keep in mind is that the developers are the lifeblood of that system. Why was palm the number one handheld for so long? Because it had an incredibly strong development community. What kept that community so strong? The support from Palm in the form of development tools, and resources.

Why has the Mac and Mac OS X been so successful? Because apple has supported developers by giving away commercial grade development environments, and publishing huge amounts of information about the OS so that you can build any app you can think of.

How is apple screwing the pooch on the iPhone? Because they are messing around with developers income streams. I sight two cases from last week:

First Nullriver, which built a tethering app to allow you to use your "unlimited data" from your iPhone contract on any computer. It was a clever little hack, Nullriver got it into the app store, and downloaded by a bunch of people before Apple pulled the app from the store shelves. This in itself might have been OK, but Apple didn't see fit to communicate at all with the developer:

We still haven't gotten any answer from Apple as to why NetShare was removed from the App Store. Calls to ADC yield wait times of a few hours and we're forced to give up. E-mails to various contacts at Apple and the developer program have also given us no response. Is this acceptable business practice? We don't think so. When an application fails to be approved or even more importantly so, when an application gets removed from sale, Apple should be required to provide a valid reason.

Second Box Office is also pulled from the App store. This case may be due to a name change for the App, but the basic issue is similar, a lack of communication from Apple:

I'm currently investigating why Now Playing/BoxOffice was pulled from the app store. Hopefully i'll get some actionable information soon.

In each case Apple could have avoided trouble by responding to developer questions. In both cases the developers have tried to get in touch with Apple to find out what is going on with their applications, and in neither case have they received any information from Apple.

This is just poor customer service on the part of Apple for it's developer customers. These are the people that Apple is planning to use to make the new iPhone an unmitigated success, but Apple is going to find it a lonely road if they don't start paying attention to their developers.

Support is about more than splitting a revenue stream, it's about responding to issues as they arise, and answering questions. Support is about not leaving your developers out to dry when they are depending on you.

Googler to Xoogler Ritual

Change is inevitably part of life, but I find that the longer I stay at Google the more I feel the change that happens when friends leave.

I've been at other companies where people left, but in those cases it was a lay-off or a terrible place to work. So, you either felt sad for everyone getting laid-off or happy for the person who 'escaped'. My first job was with Indiana University, where it seemed like people fell into two categories. First were students, who were expected to leave in a few years, and second were lifers who never left. I did leave, and went to work for Cisco in the late 90s. That company ended up doing big lay-offs, and many of my friends ended up going elsewhere. After Cisco I did a couple of statups, where people came and went. In early 2005 I joined Google, and have been content since then.

My point is, that most of the places I've been turnover was either expected or catastrophic, and therefor easier to deal with.

Today, my friend Greg Stein announced that he has left Google, a few months back another friend announced that she was leaving, and of course awhile back my good friend Chris Sacca left. Of course there have been others who left in that time, some I've know only by name, and some I've chatted with a few times.

While I'm happy that each of these people is getting the chance to go do new and exciting things, and I'm also glad that the company has such a deep talent pool, so that new people get a chance to take on the jobs that departing Googlers have left open.

There is still a little sad feeling when I see one of these announcements, and I change the label in Google Reader for that person's blog from Googler to Xoogler.

Why does an iPhone need a computer?

The iPhone is a bridge device that is moving away from the tethered computer model. It's about time. If you look at the latest version of the iPhone, you have several features that all rely on a data connection to work:

• Maps
• YouTube
• Stocks
• Weather
• iTunes Store
• App Store
• Email
• Safari
  

There are applications which require the GSM network:

• Phone
• Text
  

Then there are some features that can either rely on a data connection or use a tethered model:

• Contacts - Sync with Address Book, or sync over the air.
• Calendar - Sync with iCal, or sync over the air.
• Photos - You can email your photos or use iPhone to transfer them.
  

There are applications which do no syncing at all:

• Notes
• Clock
• Calculator
• Camera
  

Finally there is one application which requires a tethered computer to be useful:

• iPod
  

It makes you wonder why Apple has chosen such an inconsistent approach to their data model. Why can some data be synced over the air (OTA), some only over WiFi, and some requires a computer? I'm surprised that they haven't simplified this to at least WiFi and OTA.

The specific inconsistency that really bothers me though, is why do I have to download PodCasts on my computer before I can put them on my iPhone? Usually the Podcasts are the same size as a large audio file, and most are under 10MB (which is the limit for OTA App Store downloads), so what gives here?

I think Apple should take a look at their sync strategy, and figure out what the iPhone is supposed to be. Is it an accessory, implying that it should be tethered, or is it a stand alone computing device that happens to share music with your computer?

Great opening lines

I've been thinking about great opening lines for books ever since I saw this post. My favorite opening line for a book has always been from Stephen King's, The Gunslinger:

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

It's a simple line, direct, to the point, and uncluttered. Yet, it sums up the entire story, and sets the path for King's greatest literary work (The Dark Tower series).

Grupthink, has a thread on this very topic, currently they have 1984 at the top of the list:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

Of course, Dickens is on the list as well:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

I disagree with this entry. Yes, what is quoted above is a great line, but the first line in A Tale of Two Cities actually reads:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

I understand what he's doing here, and it is a fine piece of writing, but it is a little wordy, and I'm pretty sure that if I had written something like this in high school I would have been marked down for it.

It seems that there are several lists of this type online, I like the list from American Book Review, and another on bestuff.com.


What I'm really interested in though is you people reading this. What is your favorite? Leave it in the comments.

Randy Pausch Last Lecture

Randy Pausch was a CS professor at Carnegie Mellon University who was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year. Just after that diagnosis, he took part in a lecture series at CMU that was described as what you would say if this were your "last lecture". This was Professor Pausch's last lecture as at the time he was expecting another five months of life.


The lecture is on the topic of childhood dreams and how to fulfill them. He tells several great anecdotes from his own life, and includes helpful advice on how anyone can make their own dreams come true.




Professor Pausch died last week, ten months after doctors gave him six months to live. For the rest of my life, when I hear someone talk about "dying with dignity", I'll think of Pausch. In life he taught thousands of students, in his death he taught millions.