When I finished the Facebook version of Muddl, it was clear the game wasn’t sufficiently viral to draw big traffic on it’s own, it needed a little boost. Zynga was present at GSP East and talked about their game network that developers could join for free in a link exchange type format. I’d heard about it before and even looked at it for a different application I work on — I signed up to give it a whirl. Since I’m not one to put all of my eggs in one basket I also looked at the game bar from SGN as well — here’s what I found. Read the rest of this entry »

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been developing and working completely remotely. Removed from my office, removed from my resources and often while in remote locations from the car with my family as we travel from destination to destination. It’s been enjoyable to be part of everything the family is doing but it has not been without difficulty. For example, it can be hard to debug complex problems with kids unhappy in the back seat or to read a terminal session with the sun washing out the screen. It can also be challenging to be working via SSH and have the connection drop because we travel through an area without data connectivity.

Those sorts of problems aside, the one thing I miss most is my reference library. I’ve amassed a number of books that are helpful references for obscure bits of knowledge I don’t keep locked away in my mind. Last year I travelled with my books and never used them. This year, however, I’ve found myself wanting them in a couple of instances while working. While I can use Google for the majority of the code snips and shortcuts I would need, it’s a highly inefficient, to continually switch windows. I’ve contemplated signing up for O’Reilly Safari but have found digital books don’t save any time over Google and the $22.99 or more per month seems expensive for materials generally available elsewhere and locatable through Google.

While at GSP East, I presented on Muddl, a light fun word game that is anagram like in nature. I received lots of great feedback on the game from folks and encourage everyone to check it out.

It’s currently available on Facebook and Bebo. I’ll be finishing the port to MySpace and other OpenSocial containers soon.

The game play is very simple. After you go to the app you’re presented with some scrambled up letters. You then try to figure out what the word is. If you don’t get the word correct the system gives you a clue. If you’re still wrong you’ll get the first letter of the word revealed. After 3 tries you’ll be provided with another word. The game continues to challenge you as you play by increasing the length of the word.

Photo of Erik © James Duncan Davidson used with permission.

This week at GSP East the big names in the OpenSocial space came forward and basically gave a brief sales pitch on why they’re the platform to build on. Allen Stern has a nice synopsis of the panel. As a developer making decisions on where to focus time and efforts it seems like OpenSocial itself is really just playing catchup to Facebook. Most of the development folks I know are focused on Facebook still and are waiting for OpenSocial. The philosophical discussion aside, OpenSocial is looking stronger and stronger each day. Facebook recently open sourced their platform, but they’ve yet to announce any partners (beyond Bebo) who are adopting it. So their late foray into openness may be moot now.

I’m an Apple fan boy. I switched with at dawn of OS X and haven’t looked back. I love the iPhone for it’s style and functionality - but when it comes right down to it - I’m not compelled to buy a new phone that’s really only moderately better than the last version. Sure GPS is great (I’ve got that now) and the touch screen is amazing - but I’m going to be sticking with my Blackberry for a while longer. I might go out and get that iPod Touch I’ve been thinking about instead because it doesn’t look like true improvements in the device are happening anytime soon. Information week has a few other reasons not to upgrade. If I do need a new phone (let’s hope not this one’s hardy 2 months old) I may venture over to the Nokia store and see what they have to offer.

2007 Facebook launched their platform. Quickly applications were built that leveraged the communication tools on the Platform and apps became viral. Virility for developers isn’t a bad thing. Virility means users, it means page views, it means eye balls, it means investment dollars. As we prepare to close Q2 in 2008 - Facebook is clamping down the communication channels open to applications. Slide has said publicly that they will stop creating “viral” apps and focus on generating good content and monetizing the massive audience they’ve amassed. Early 2008 MySpace followed suit releasing an OpenSocial platform. Their strategy was to allow no viral channels to applications at launch (although they are slowing opening the valves). This effectively crippled applications that didn’t have nice hooks.

So as I’m sitting at Graphing Social Patterns East this week, listening to speakers discussing the future of this industry it makes me wonder. Is this the year where applications that actually “do” something will succeed? What is the measure of success for these non-mass adoption applications? Will the money flow to these smaller more niche audience applications? My prediction for this year is that with the launch of applications on LinkedIn and more of the social networking platforms is that applications that provide real value beyond the “poke” type applications will succeed. The only question that remains, will the money be there to support the developers as they venture out into this brave new world?

O’Reilly Graphing Social Patterns East starts tomorrow at the Hyatt Crystal City. I scoped it out a little this evening and it looks like we’ve taken over the hotel! See everyone tomorrow. Nice job @graphingsocial!

Flickr Photos of Venue here

Robert Scoble posted a tweet today calling out an interesting visualization of Twitter client usage up on Neoformix. Being a big fan of data visualization and of course the methods of Edward Tufte, I took a look. Unfortunately the graphs aren’t exactly of the same caliber as the work Tufte promotes - they were non the less interesting. There’s also another interesting visualization of usage patterns for the top Twitter users and how much they use twitter. It’s clear it’s increasing for all of them.

Despite my initial reaction to the contract, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase a laptop connect card from AT&T. The modem arrived early this morning via DHL express thanks to the complementary 2 day shipping that came with this modem. I opted for the Option GT Ultra Express 3G device which of course comes with limited Apple OS X support. I read the reviews on AT&T’s site about how the card stuck out 2 inches from the side of the computer. I found it to be slightly less, but it’s flush with the top surface of the 15″ MacBook Pro, so I was happy. With the antenna all the way out it extends just over 2 1/2″ but your milage may vary for the most accurate placement of the antenna. There’s also a port for an external antenna should you happen to have one. The other negative I had read about the modem was the blinking light was so bright they needed to put tape over it. While it is slightly distracting, it’s hardly blinding and I find it reassuring to know I’m connected - again YMMV.

For folks using a Mac, you’ll need to download the correct version of your software from Option. It’s a small file (1.1Mb) and downloads quickly - but don’t forget to do it before you head off into the land of non-access. You’ll get little help from the paper that comes in the box with the modem. Download the installation manual from Option as well. It’s not linked from the 10.4.11 and 10.5.x download page. Apple has the device listed in it’s configuration files so I’ll be spending some time looking for connection scripts to see if I can bypass the GlobeTrotter Connect software all together.

I was unsatisfied with the SIM card insertion - there’s nothing but friction holding it in. I have a feeling over time it will fall out. The other connection that felt weak is the actual slot in the Mac. I’m not sure if this is a issue with the card or the laptop’s ExpressCard/34 slot. The old style PC Cards seemed to have a more solid connection and the handy eject button that popped out let you know if it was in all the way or not.

I found it frustrating to have to create a new Network location instead of having it inserted in with my Airport/Ethernet etc settings. This also means I’m going to have to create all of my Parallels configuration again so I can use the network with Windows and WiFi and Ethernet so I can share the connection on vacation. I followed the instructions and set the APN value to isp.cingular as instructed in the 3G/EDGE/GPRS tab in settings. It never did connect although it may have been my lack of patience with the device’s initial network registration process. After removing that value it connected just fine - so it may be ignored anyway.

From my home office I had pretty dismal download numbers for the portion of the test that was able to complete. I tested via Speedtest using their recommended connection in Kansas City, MO. With the default configuration set to prefer 3G but use what was available. I was able to achieve a peak of 17kbps and then it slowed to 6kbps and then stopped 17% of the way into the test. The ping test yeilded 349ms which I feel was reasonable. I’d read that setting the device to only use 3G and not switch to EDGE as needed can improve this performance. I reconnected and sure enough I was able to hit 700kbps but averaged 650kbps download before the test failed at 76% completed. I ran one last test to my closest physical location, the Twin Cities and hit 900kbps before the test failed at 56% I’m unclear why the tests continue to fail before completion - but that’s for another day.

My last test was to upload a few photos (in fact the ones I took for this post) just to see how that all performed. My expectations were pretty low given the issues with the download test. I was able to upload all of these photos (~204Kb) in about 10 seconds which I actually found reasonable. The larger screenshot above (~188Kb) uploaded in about 4 seconds which was even faster. My conclusion is that this certainly won’t be replacing my broadband cable modem for daily internet access (not to mention there’s a data cap on the service) but it’s a viable alternative to going without and for those who travel sufficiently, it’s a cheaper alternative to pay as you go WiFi in airports and hotels.

Panoramio beat Microsoft to the punch. Techcrunch has an article on the software so I won’t steam their thunder. Executive version; they’ve launched a new featured called “Look Around” which gives users the ability to scan through popular locations and see the area from different angles etc. Does this sound like Photosynth? That’s because it’s the same idea. This example from the top of the Empire State Building in NY is really cool. It’s way cool because it works now - and it works on a Mac.