Jeffzilla

Over on pagetable.com, they managed to pull the original Apple I Basic off of its uber-old school cassette tape, and re-compile a working version of the code. And… it works! I managed to run it on my own computer, and re-write my first program. I actually remember writing this program, and many other similar programs back in 4th and 5th grade, in the elementary school computer lab filled with Apple IIe’s. Those Apple IIe’s managed to follow me up until about 8th grade, at which point they started being replaced by Apple Quadras etc.

Wordpress.org just released, ahead of schedule, the 2.6 version of Wordpress - the backend that runs this blog. Some of the new features are much appreciated - live preview of themes, wordcount, post revision history, and a more robust image control box.

I just did the upgrade, which went smoothly, for the most part. The only hitch I encountered was re-activating plugins. After re-activation, the whole admin backend crashed and started giving code errors. To fix it, I had to re-name the plugins folder (thereby deactivating all), and go through one by one and re-activate plugins, and upgrade them to the latest version.

One of the coolest features in 2.6 is the new usage of Google Gears. Gears is an add on for IE and Firefox, which lets wordpress store core files locally on the computer, instead of needing to load them up from the web for every page. This significantly increases interface responsiveness, especially for new AJAX’y features.

I’m glad to see that Google Gears is starting to gain a little bit more traction. Before this, my only regular usage of gears was with Google Reader, which will let you cache rss feeds for offline viewing. I always use this feature, especially when flying - hop on the web in the airport terminal before I board my flight, sync up with the latest news in reader, piece through it all on the plane, and re-sync when I land.

The possibilities for the more open, developer-friendly iPhone 2.0 software just keep getting better, especially on the speedier iPhone 3G. TechCrunch reports that Qik just announced that they are coming out with an iPhone application, to allow users to stream live video direct from their iPhone. Pretty cool feature, and that will also mean that the iPhone will now be able to capture and record video, since Qik records your video streams.

They’re not the only ones doing live streaming, and I hope sites like Ustream.tv and Mogulus.com get on the bandwagon for over-the-air streaming too. Especially considering Mogulus’ capabilities for real-time mixing of multiple video sources, it could make an intensely robust control studio for remixing and re-broadcasting multiple live remote video streams. Live-mixing/streaming the next Tumblr Rock Band jam from multiple roaming cell-connected audio/video sources? Sure.

**Update - Max Haot, of Mogulus, just informed me via comments that Mogulus is actually already integrated with Qik, so users can do live mixes of multiple remote video streams - awesome!

How about “Geo-tweeting”? Automatically posting geo-tagged updates to Twitter via iPhone 3G’s GPS chip, cell data coverage and wifi coverage? Maybe a Google Maps geotweet maps mashup?

Needless to say, I’m very excited about the new iPhone 3g, and can’t wait to get my hands on one and try out the GPS, high speed data, and new applications. Regarding iPhone 3G’s features - I’m dissapointed that there is still no native picture messaging, iChat AV integration or video capture. However, I’m hopeful that 3rd party software developers will be able to fill this gap - an all network IM client that could get on AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber, GMAIL, IRC, Skype, Facebook and Myspace instant messenger networks (who sometimes share the same protocols…) would be fantastic.

Would it be possible to get super accurate gps reading via multiple gps readings? Use iPhone 3G’s internal GPS and Bluetooth connection to connect to a secondary, external GPS, maybe even one with WAAS land-based location accuracy augmentation? That, coupled with data network access could make for some nifty scientific, surveying, research and field applications…

Finally, the obvious application for a phone paired with gps paired with camera - automatic photo geotagging and upload. Flickr already supports geotagging and uploading via email (as well as third party apps). I’m almost certain this will be coming out of the gates soon after iPhone 3G launch, and almost certain I’ll be using it immediately!

Looks like the free 2 hours of wifi at starbucks is real. I just walked into a Starbucks in Soho, bought a $5 starbucks card, setup my account at starbucks.com, and got on the web. For free, unless you count the $5 of credit on my starbucks card as payment. The speed is pretty decent, although right now I only see about 3 other people in here with laptops. Hopefully starbucks and AT&T will keep this feature around. Also of note, the ISP is registered as “Starbucks Coffee Company”, and the IP address resolves to Seattle, WA. (I changed the test server to NYC, since I know where I am..)

I’m a huge fan of RSS, and preach it to my clients continuously. Additionally, I’m hooked on Google Reader for checking out RSS feeds for all the sites I track - Check out this page of my “shared” headlines, or subscribe to my headlines feed.

Like this blog? Subscribe to the Jeffzilla RSS feed, powered by Feedburner!

I just read over on Gizmodo, by way of Macrumors that the AT&T/Starbucks wifi access deal is starting up offering free Wifi internet access to iPhone customers. Sounds great to me - IF I actually had an iPhone. I do, however, have a Macbook Pro, with the latest version of Safari, Apple’s speedy fast web browser.

Can I get leverage the iPhone deal to get free wifi on my Macbook Pro?

One little known feature of Safari is the “Develop” menu bar. You can use this option to change the User Agent Safari presents. I think that by changing the User Agent of Safari to “Mobile Safari 1.1.3 - iPhone”, I could trick the Starbucks router into giving me free wifi. What do you think?

To enable the “Develop” menu, go into Safari’s preferences, then advanced, then check the box next to “show Develop in menu bar”. Then, when you go back to using safari, you’ll see a Develop menu in the menu bar. Open that menu, and under the “User Agent”, select “Mobile Safari 1.1.3 - iPhone”.

I haven’t directly tested this yet, but it would be great if it actually worked! Anyone had a go at this yet?

**Update Update**…. 

The timestamp doesnt lie. I reported it first. Just saw over on Engadget and and Macrumors Forums they are also reporting the same hack for starbucks wifi access with safari by switching the user agent. Did they get it from me? Who knows.. but look at the timestamps.. I put it up first! Wheee…

Instant Messaging while on the go - It’s increasingly more essential, yet with many current software/hardware offerings, increasingly more frustrating. 

I carry a Blackberry Curve 8300, which has its strengths and weaknesses. The hardware is actually decent, well built, good screen etc. The software, however, is absolutely worthless. It honestly feels like a 1st try beta version. There are random menu items where they’re not needed (example: “call voice mail” option in the camera options menu - why?!?!), and the UI is so un-optimized that despite reasonably powerful hardware, the thing still crawls doing the most basic tasks. One of those basic tasks, which you’d think the curve would be able to do easily is instant messaging. The Blackberry Messenger does work well, but not everybody has a Blackberry - probably for the better. I use AIM and gChat mostly. While there are decent clients for both of these networks, when running either one of them, it causes the rest of the phone to grind to a halt - text takes 5 seconds to come up after you’ve typed it, and it takes till the 4th ring for the os to catch up and allow you to actually take a call. Amazing how they could actually sell a product like this.

(more…)

My blog runs on the Wordpress platform, which works great. Lately, I’ve been trying to open up as many avenues for posting as possible. I want to make is as easy as I possibly can to publish - including what I’m reading, viewing, notes from my office, from home, from out and about in the city, all the way to remote regions I hope to explore soon. Being able to post from anywhere also ties into this story I read today about a kid who used Twitter via SMS to alert his friends of his arrest.  

Here’s a list of my current and future posting methods:

• Direct wordpress post - done
  • Easy - its the core of the basic wordpress interface.

• Writing/formatting posts offline, for posting when online - done
  • I’m using Qumana for Mac OS X, which offers great integration with my blog categories, posts, formatting etc. I can compose a post offline (such as while flying, etc), format it up, and then just hit the “post now” button when I get an internet connection. It even handles pinging for me.
     
• Posting Photos - Done
  • Another otherwise complex task, made simply by Flickr. I can use the “post to blog” button in flickr to post a selected photo direct to the blog. I went through a few setup steps, and that was it
  • Additionally, I can email Flickr photos using a specially formatted email address, and have Flickr add the photo to my Flickr photostream, and also have it post the photo directly to my blog. Great great for getting a photo up asap, and even better for posting photos “from the field” - IE quick snaps taken with my cameraphone. Action as it happens, baby.

    (more…)

Recently at the Beet.TV Executive Summit in Washington, Wall Street Journal writer Walt Mossberg spoke on the convergence of computer and TV entertainment, internet bandwidth, and the importance regulation/deregulation from the top.

I’m with Walt on this. The critical step for converging TV and computer content/entertainment, and allowing us to take the next step in rich content delivery, communication, and integration is bandwidth. Insuring that access to network bandwidth does not become more metered, restricted and taxed, and that it becomes increasingly more plentiful and open is critical.

Also in this talk, Walt foreshadows the release of the 3G iPhone in the next 60 days - I’ll be the first in line when it does come out! As for bandwidth and 3G - I think that when the 3G iPhone does launch, AT&T seriously needs to get their act together with the 3G data network throughput - having all those users able to browse the web, directly download/stream media, and use other data intensive applications (iChat AV?) is going to put a serious strain on the network.

Here’s the video of Walt Mossberg speaking on Beet.TV about broadband speed, rich media, and the iPhone.