Diggnation: San Jose
I just got back from Diggnation live in San Jose at the Center for Performing Arts. It was hosted by Nvidia during their NVISION 2008 Conference. Enjoy the photos!
Before it started
Prager welcoming everyone
Start the show!
Diggnation!
Quicksilver Themes
I recently discovered a bunch of awesome Quicksilver themes developed by Julius Eckert and thought I should share them. I have been using “Showcase” because it provides a very clean interface, is visually striking, and uses Core Animation. Take a Look!
Viewing iPhone Logs
I couldn’t find this mentioned on the web anywhere, but it might be useful if your iPhone is always crashing.
- Download and install the iPhone Configuration Utility
- Plug your iPhone into your computer.
- Launch the iPhone Configuration Utility located under /Applications/Utilities/iPhone Configuration Utility
- Click on the name of your iPhone under “Connected Devices”
- Open the “Console” tab
- Debug away!
Hello, iPhone
I finally did it. I got an iPhone. I have been interested in purchasing one for some time, but still had about a year left in my T-Mobile contract. Using the advice from Consumerist, I was able to cancel my contract early because they were going to raise text messaging rates.
It took me two days to actually get the phone. Actually, it’s a funny story.
Day One
On Monday, I went to the Valley Fair Apple Store. When I arrived at 7:31pm I was told that the line had been capped and they would not be able to let me stand in line. I told them that I had taken the bus there, could not get off of work any earlier, and I was wearing an Apple t-shirt (thankfully). After some convincing, I was finally let into the line.
Then, my three hour wait began. At around 10:30pm, a group of six people and I were let into the Apple Store. At 10:35pm I was told, “Sorry, the AT&T servers have just shut down.” My response, “WHAT!?” Apparently, all of AT&T’s activation servers were unresponsive nationwide. Awesome. Thankfully, I was given a card that stated I had 24 hours to claim my iPhone with the guarantee that I would not have to stand in line again.
Day Two
I arrived at the Apple Store at about 9:10pm waited about 10 minutes for someone to actually be available to help me (the employees looked really drained by this point). Finally, I was handed by 8GB black iPhone and within 10 minutes my activation was complete. 
A Revolution in Music: Spotify
We have all heard of web streaming music services such as last.fm and Pandora, but I recently had the opportunity to use a desktop streaming music software called Spotify and was amazed.
Spotify, the company, was founded by entrepreneurs Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon and has its headquarters in Luxembourg. Spotify, the software, has been in beta for a little over a year, and gone through a number of revisions in the process. Currently, it offers an iTunes like interface for both playing music and searching through their extensive collection of songs. Songs are organized into playlists simply by dragging them from the Spotify music library. Playing a song is as simple as double clicking on it. Finding a song involves typing the title, artist, etc. into the search bar and then browsing through the search results.
Several areas of the product I especially enjoyed were:
Buffer Time
While using Spotify there was none. None while playing songs that had been streamed previously. None while playing obscure Seattle bands. It was incredible. Even my local music library takes longer to start playing songs when the hard drive has to spin up. I continued to test this with as many songs as I could and was not able to make it pause before a song started playing.
Overall Speed
Spotify offers clients for Windows and Mac OS X (could not find information about Linux). Everything in the interface was responsive. Search results were returned incredibly fast. Spotify felt solid and lightweight while being feature rich.
Library Size
The Spotify library had all of the popular music that I expected it to have, but it also included artists which many main stream stores have difficulty supplying content from.
Although I had the experience of playing with the Spotify beta, there were no ads in the version I was using. In the future, and for the final release ads will be added to the product, but they will be done in a non-instrusive manner outline here.
Although I am not a part of the beta, I was able to get a glimpse at software that I believe could change the streaming music market and possibly change the way I listen to music. While online, being able to play any song you want to, anytime, at no cost is extremely hard to resist.
Special thanks to Erik Hammar for showing me this software.
Google Transit: Seattle
I’ve known for a while that Google Maps has had the ability to plan bus routes in the bay area, but did not know that it also works for Seattle. This includes both King County Metro and Sound Transit. Here is a little how to on using the service.
Go to maps.google.com and click on the “Get Directions” link. In my I want to go from the Paul G. Allen Center to Pike Place Market. After I click the “Get Directions” button it shows me how to drive from my starting point to my destination. However you can click “Public Transit” directly below “Search Results” to be shown which bus routes allow you to get to your destination. Below is a photo showing my search results.
It tells me that I can take the 68 to the 73. Cool! Also listed are alternate departure times and buses that I could take to get to my destination. Under “Options” I can also specify my Depart Time or Arrival Time.
What I especially enjoy about this is being able to see exactly where the bus route will take me, as well as where I need to catch the bus and where it drops me off. A significant improvement over Trip Planner if you ask me.
For a list of all cities supported, go to Google Transit.
Hello, Twitter!
Two days ago, I joined a social network called Twitter. It functions through small (140 characters or less) status updates called “tweets” that you post about what you are currently doing. Think of it like Facebook status updates. Check me out at twitter.com/erikturnquist and become a follower! Join Now!
Firefox 3 RC1
Go and download the future of internet browsing here.
Building a Successful Startup
David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of the Ruby on Rails web development framework, gives an interesting talk about how to create a realistic startup through his experiences at 37 Signals and other projects. This was filmed during Startup School 2008. His main point is that not everyone should set their startup’s goal as becoming a billion dollar company, in fact, most people can enjoy their life more and be successful by creating a million dollar company with a couple thousand dedicated users. He also gives great advice about to how to be a more efficient software developer.
Open Computer
Recently announced, the Open Computer and OpenPro Computer by PsyStar comes with Apple’s Leopard pre-installed. What is amazing is that they offer this functionality for as low as $400.
This is accomplished by using the same x86 architecture that the majority of computers run on today, but faking the EFI firmware so that Leopard thinks that it is running on genuine Apple hardware. Interesting. Basically this group as achieved what the hackers at OSx86 have been trying to do all along.
The base model, the Open Computer has a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Processor, 2GB of DDR2 667 memory, Integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics, 20x DVD+/-R SATA drive that is Lightscribe-capable, 4 rear USB Ports and comes in white or black.
Furthermore, a former Apple patent lawyer thinks Apple may not be able to do anything about it (Wired).
“Basically, when people go to a store or download software, they have a license with Apple to use this patented software on their computer. But breach of contract is one of the weakest forms of legal disputes” - Raj Abhyanker (Wired)
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out; whether the reliability and robustness of Apple’s Mac line can compete against inexpensive third-party options.