Will Speaking

Job Openings on my team at McAfee

2009-02-06T13:29:00.000-08:00

My group at McAfee is hiring. I have a few different positions I am looking for... If you know of anyone, please send them my way!

In my group I have two product lines. McAfee SECURE and Siteadvisor. These products are in a great space - Web Security... As you know, many people today use the web as a way to communicate, shop, pass time, bank, and other things. This business unit within McAfee is focused squarley on web security, and helping consumers stay safe on the web.

McAfee SECURE is a SaaS based service that does daily web security scanning, to ensure your site is safe... This has some COOL technology behind it, that is here to make the web safer.

Siteadvisor is a browser plugin, responsible for keeping end users safe on the internet... It will tell you if a site is dangerous - maybe it is a scam, maybe it SPAMs, maybe it has bad downloads. Siteadvisor is there to protect end users, and a true Web security model.

I've got a few positions opened. Some in Sunnyvale, 1 in Waterloo, and some in our Bangalore office.

–1 Database Administrator in Sunnyvale (Postgres)
–1 Senior SW Engineer in Sunnyvale (Java, SAAS)
–1 Lead Engineer / Architect in Sunnyvale (Java, SAAS)
–1 Engineer in Waterloo, Siteadvisor (Windows, C++)
– 3 Development positions in Bangalore for McAfee SECURE (Java)
–3 QA positions in Bangalore (automation and qa for McAfee SECURE)

I'm looking for smart people, who are eager to drive this space forward... Technology in the most part is Java based on a Linux stack.

Let me know if you have any leads ;-)

Playing with 12seconds.tv

2008-11-09T11:24:00.001-08:00

Welcome, You've Got 12Seconds on 12seconds.tv

I've started using 12seconds.tv, a sort of twitter for video.. Really short video's (in 12 seconds or less).

New home, same content

2008-11-09T10:17:00.000-08:00

Well, AOL Journals - the home of the previous blog - has closed. So my new home is Blogspot.com. It was an easy transition, because AOL provided some nifty tools to transfer all the old posts.

So what is WillSpeaking? It's just me, writing random blog posts. You may find it interesting, you may not. Have fun!

AOL Journals closing, but fear not!

2008-10-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

It's sad when a product you worked on is closing it's door. AOL Pictures (soon), and AOL Journals (soon). But fear not, blogging is not over. We have a lot of choices out there :

onsugar.com - DRob pinged me on twitter about this. Looks promising, and some nice style sheets!

twitter.com - really short blogging - but it works.

blogger.com - john panzer went to google and he is on this project. so it's in good hands!

wordpress.com - old faithful... good thing about wordpress is it has ton's of add'ons and support.

Check them out!

AOL's Running Man gets a new job

2008-09-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

Early 2007 I was outraged that the dependable, the excitable, the fun, the running man was put out to pasture... The poor Running Man had been retired from AOL and AIM's brand. Poor thing.. The running man has always been associated with AIM, and later on AOL's flagship products.

So what is the Running Man up to now?

Well, he's got a new job.

He got a new color.

And is hanging out at football games. With cheerleaders.

Here is the new running man.

Tags: running man, aol, aim, the running man, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Go shopping with McAfee Secure Shopping. Fun, Safe and good value!

2008-09-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

I recently joined McAfee in a new web consumer area.

This group launched "secure shopping" about 1 month ago. It's in beta, and you can try it here.

What's it about? Well, it allows you to shop online, finding some great deals. Very easy to use, and what's more it's safe and secure.

Give it a try. I'd welcome your feedback !

Tags: shopping, ecommerce, e-commerce, secure shopping, secureshopping, safe, mcafee, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

12seconds.tv - Because anything longer is boring

2008-09-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

I'll be attending a Meetup in Santa Cruz tonight. One of the teams presenting is a startup named "12seconds.tv".

12seconds allows you to share video. It's upto 12 seconds long. Long enough, right?

You can share from your mobile phone, or using a webcam.

This company was created in the spare time by a few folks in Santa Cruz. It has some fun content on it already and is in beta.

Check it out.

Tags: meetup, santa cruz, 12seconds.tv, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Laughing, it's good for you. Just don't look at FS!

2008-08-23T00:03:00.000-07:00

About 1 1/2 years ago, I had one of my manager meetings and FS started to laugh. And that started it. We both laughed.   For a long time. Someone dialed in to the meeting room, and we put the phone on mute.    I had to end the meeting because we could not stop laughing.

That was the start. The start of the laughing frenzy.

Both he and I could just look at each other and laugh.

People thought we were crazy. Here we are, two grown ups.   One smirk from FS, and I cracked up.

We often tried to discuss a myAOL module not working, or how we can deliver all this work, or the state of the time warner share price. Sometimes we discussed why, oh why did the weather module not work. Or how come David Liu ran into many problems with the AOL Mail module.

We laughed. Not because it was funny. Just because.

The best time was doing a myAOL bug scrub. It was on a Saturday around 5PM, in my office. FS, Michael, Namita, me and I think Tracy.    We started to review those bugs, and suddenly we laughed.   And that was it! We couldn't get through those bugs at all.. We were all in stitches.

I don't know what happened to me in these moments. But it sure was funny. I had belly ache from it.

Today at another company, we were in a room talking about bugs. Serious stuff, as you try to launch software. Davoud, one of the managers, did the "FS" smirk, and started to laugh. So did I.    Yikes!

And here we go again.... oh my!

Tags: willspeaking.com, willspeaking, laugh, FS Nooruddin

Best iPhone App : Radio ga ga - AOL Radio

2008-08-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

I've downloaded a ton of apps on my iPhone and now a little overloaded with them, so started to remove some.

One that stands out is AOL Radio. It turns my iPhone into a little music machine. I love that it has a local feature, so I can listen to local radio stations as well as the global ones. It's really easy to use too.

One other silly application I like is Mr Shuffle, which I commented on before. But AOL Radio is the best so far!

Tags: willspeaking, willspeaking.com, radio ga ga, iphone apps, iphone, aol radio, aol

Suzie Austin's touch of class in a leaving note

2008-08-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

As I sit here at my Mum's house, looking out the window on a rainy day, I re-read a delightful leaving note that Suzie Austin wrote. You can read it here. It is done with a good sense of humor, a touch of sadness in some ways, but also how many of us feel. A great tribute to some wonderful years at AOL. Enjoy, and best wishes to Suzie as she moves to Denver!

Tags: willspeaking, willspeaking.com, suzie austin, aol

I want a business model like this....

2008-07-31T22:30:00.000-07:00

I want a business like this:

- sing some songs that are catchy
- sell lots of LPs and 7inches
- sell CDs
- sell Videos
- sell DVDs
- license to everyone

That's the success of this group... some very catchy songs that people hum for ever. Who wouldn't want a biz model like this?

Anyone want to make a remake of this video. I can be in the green outfit.

Tags: abba, business, success, catchy, kitchy, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Mamma Mia! Why did I ever let you go....

2008-07-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I did not go and see "The Dark Knight" at the weekend. Instead I saw "Mamma Mia".

And now I can't get those ABBA songs out of my head. Walking in the office today (yes, second week there!) humming Mamma Mia. Lots of fun looks.

Anyway, it's a good movie. Tongue in cheek, fun and some brief appearances from some of ABBA too!

Tags: abba, mama mia, mamma mia, movie, music, stockholm, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Zig Ziglar - Attitude Makes All The Difference

2008-07-17T22:35:00.000-07:00

One of the things I always try to do is have a good, positive attitude. I try to get rid of that stinkin'' thinking. Here's a good video from Zig Ziglar on this very subject.

Tags: zig, zig ziglar, stinkin thinking, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Picture of the week: Bad Hair Day

2008-07-16T23:24:00.000-07:00

Poor little doggy. When I had hair, I often felt like this.,

Tags: bad hair, bad hair day, doggy, dog, picture of the week, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

iPhone apps : Photo fun with Mr Shuffle

2008-07-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

I've played just a little bit with the new iPhone apps on my old iPhone.. Some really good ones, including AOL Radio.

One that is fun with photos is "Mr Shuffle". This adds fun images to photos, as in the picture below that you can then share.

What else do you like?

Tags: iphone, iphone apps, mr shuffle, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Techcrunch Elevator Pitches

2008-07-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

I have not seen this before (where have I been!), but this is an interesting site that allows startups to pitch - in 60 seconds or less - the startup idea.

Check it out. Lots of ideas on this site, some great videos and great people pitching.

Tags: elevator pitches, elevator pitch, techcrunch, web 2.0, startup, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Webook.com : Fancy writing a book or contributing to one?

2008-07-11T07:46:00.000-07:00

Webook.com, based in Maryland and Mountain View, allows you to take your creative spirit to the next level. Write a book, publish, sell it. The web site is nice and easy to use. What's more it has alot of books already written by it's community. You can also contribute to a book as a community (e.g. "101 Things Every Man should know how to do" is one).

Check it out. Book publishing has been hard to crack, and this may help aspiring authors.

Tags: webook, writing, webook.com, publishing, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Online Privacy : The debate heats up [Newshour report]

2008-07-09T18:56:00.000-07:00

On tonight's News Hour, a special report on Online Privacy. Companies like Facebook, Google and Yahoo were at Congress today to discuss the concern of cookies being used for tracking purposes. Interesting debate, that could shape further laws down the road.

"Jeffrey Brown speakswith guests about whether individuals should have a right to controlwhat information companies store about their Web-surfing habits."

Listen to the debate here.

Tags: privacy, online privacy, news hour, debate, internet, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

What do points make? Prizes

2008-07-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

Stumbling around after such an odd day (see previous post), I found this video of Bruce Forsyth and a show from the 1980s named "Play Your Cards Right".

The grand prize is funny to view - it's a brand new car. But it's so small... I guess I am used too the USA now :-)

Yes, this is an oddpost, but this was a primetime show from the UK. We had 4 channels you know, back then!

Tags: bruce forsyth, play your cards right, mini, willspeaking.com, willspeaking, what do points make, nice to see you, to see you nice, television

In Memory: Leo Pot

2008-07-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those days that feels "empty" or "numb".    I attended a funeral for Leo Pot, who died on July 4th from Cancer.     Such a nice man, very successful with his businesses, and a great family. Funny, sharp, witty.

He shared a glass of wine or two with me, and gave me thoughts on life after leaving my last job.    More important, he has a wonderful family.    It's hard seeing his 3 young daughters at the funeral, each dealing with grief.

Live each day to the fullest. Make sure you get the most out of what you do, and spend time with people you care about.

Rest in peace, Leo.

"OnJuly 4, 2008 Leonardus Leo Josephus Pot, loving father and dotinghusband, left his earthly existence peacefully, at home, in the companyof his family.

Born in the fall of 1956 in Oegstgeest, TheNetherlands to Martin and Joanne Pot, he would go on to complete aBachelor's degree in Business at Nyenrode University in theNetherlands. He would receive his Masters degree also in Business atTemple University in Philadelphia. As his career progressed, he wouldeventually start his own marketing and public relations firm, TechwireInternational, where he would put his fluency in five languages to gooduse.

An avid reader, voracious traveler, capable pilot,epicurean, and wine connoisseur, his loves would lead him to travel theworld over. As a host, he was as unrivaled as his wine collection. Hissense of humor was appreciated by everyone, even those who were attimes a victim of it. He will be greatly missed.

Leo is survivedby his wife, Trenise Pot, his three daughters, Alicia, Stephanie, andDominique, his parents Martin and Joanne Pot, and his four sisters,Marianne Van Dijk, Brigitte Wolin, Carolina Pot, and Sonja Meeuwsen,"

Tags: in memory, leo pot, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Picture of the Week: Cat says "Give me 5!"

2008-07-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

Picture of the week : Coal the cat...

Tags: picture of the week, willspeaking.com, willspeaking, coal, cat, photos

Showdown: Photo Editors - which is best?

2008-07-03T17:45:00.000-07:00

The web has loads of photo editors - in the past year many have sprouted up.
But which is best? Which one is easy to use, and can bling up your photos?

You are no longer tied to your desktop to edit photos, as this "Showdown" shows you.

Mostallow you to upload a photo, or use one from an existing site likePhotobucket or Flickr. You can then edit the photo, add text, and addfun borders or art.

Links:
http://picnik.com
http://fotoflexer.com
http://picture2life.com
http://splashup.com
http://pixenate.com

Tags: showdown, web 2.0, web, photo, photo editing, picnik, fotoflexer, picture2life, splashup, pixenate, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

AddThis.com : 20billion buttons served ! - interesting widget, but is it overwhelming

2008-07-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

Addthis.com has filled a niche that does need filling : how do you allow users to share the content they are on given so many different services? E.g. say you want to bookmark this post - well you could do that with myAOL, My Yahoo, Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and on and on.

Addthis.com solves that, by allowing a small button to be added to your web page or blog post. When a user clicks the button, they get an option to "share".. Here's the catch, you get another dialog with at least 30 different services... Isn't that overwhelming?

The other feature that AddThis.com offers is stats on who has clicked on the button - useful for aggregating this information.

With over 20 billion buttons served, they are solving a problem.

Tags: addthis.com, addthis, sharing, bookmarks, web 2.0, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Picture of the Week : Einstein the dog, at the Car Wash

2008-06-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

This is Einstein the dog. He was spotted at a local car wash in Santa Cruz, with his owner. What a cute little dog. However, 2 years ago he got into a bit of a mess, and his back legs got burnt. So from behind, he's a bit bald on his legs and his tail not as bushy as it should be. But 2 years on, he's a bundle of joy.

Tags: dog, einstein, dogs, pets, car wash, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Create your niche on Mixx.com

2008-06-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

Mixx.com continues to add interesting new features.

Right now, you can create your own "niche". From the mixx page:

"A Mixx Community is the ultimate in personalization, making it easierthan ever to energize an audience passionate about your particularinterest or cause. With just a few simple steps you'll be up andrunning with your own sub-domain and content you choose already inplace."

It's a great idea, and brings "digg like" features to the masses.   The other twist - they do a 50/50 rev share on the google ad's on your niche.    I guess the idea here is for you to get it going, and drive people towards it.

Mixx.com seems to be doing well. It's got a good team behind it, including Kerry Parkins. Go Mixx!

Try out my niche (guess what's it's about...)   or start your own.

Tags: mixx.com, mixx, create your niche, personalization, kittykat, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Consulting for Web 2.0

2008-06-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

It's been about 4 months since I left AOL, and now it's time to get back into the swing of things. I'm now consulting and advising for companies, as I continue to talk to companies. If you have companies (from early stage startups to bigger companies) that need help, let me know.

- Consulting and advising
- Strategies and Product
- Product feature set
- Technology and implemenation options.

Tags: web 2.0, consulting, early stage, startups, willspeaking.com

Showdown: Which is the best Poll site

2008-06-24T17:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a new segment - showdowns. Quick videos that highlight something we use on the web. The first one is the Poll Showdown.

You know polls, right... Polldaddy.com, Sodahead.com, iPoll and Buzzdash.com are four poll sites. Which is the best?

Enjoy, and let me know what is your fav Poll site.

Here's a quick overview I did for Toby a few months ago on Polls.

Tags: polls, web 2.0, gadgets, polldaddy, sodahead, ipoll, buzzdash, willspeaking, showdown

Top 8 reasons why API's fail

2008-06-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

A couple of people have asked me about building out API's for web services, and what the success of the API's were.       Reflecting on this question, it's been a mixed bag.

Some products (mainly enterprise ones) had decent API's - e.g. the LDAP client SDK - though I can't take credit for that - really smart people like Mark Smith and Tim Howes did that. Development tools I've worked on have done very well but they are all geared towards a certain segment of users anyway (Borland was known for it's super development tools - and quite right too). But in the consumer space, it's been a mixed bag of nuts.

Here's my list on why they often fail :

#1 Too late to market.    The #1 reason they aren't successful is they are too late to market. Someone else has filled the gap. Flickr is a good example - an entire eco system of add-on's and photo widgets have been built on the API.

#2 Not thought of as a "feature". You can't see API's. They have no UI, no shiny buttons to play with, no UI to debate. It's harder to write a product spec on them.     UI often means more chance to engage the user. API's don't (at first glance) appear to have that.

#3 Lack of examples. Can't think what someone could do with them, so why do we need them anyway?    Infact, you need just one or two examples to get it going, not 20 or 30.

#4 Can't "market them".    This is the case when you have API's, but adoption is low. Despite the fact you have 5 million unique visitors to the product,   that message doesn't reach the developer community.

#5 Can't monetize them.    Just can't think of a way to make money from them. But this is catch 22.

#6 Too complicated.   APIs can sometimes be very complicated.   Think of the different attempts we made onAPI's -- we made a big investment in SOAP for APIs only to see low adoption.

#7 Too many conditions.   If you are a developer and have to agree to 10 pages of legal terms of services, you probably won't sign up.

#8 No support.   "We've got APIs, read the manual to find out how to use them. Don't ask us for help".   The throw-it-over-the-wall. Yep, we've got them, but boy if you have questions no one is available to answer them.

Reflection helps. Moving on I'd say :

1. Build in simple API's to the product. Don't launch without them.
2. Develop a couple of examples.
3. Iterate and improve.
4. Listen to your community and respond. Don't go silent with them.

Welcome your comments.

Tags: why api's fail, willspeaking, willspeaking.com, developer community, top 8

Picture of the week

2008-06-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

This photo is a classic... A cute dog named Milou.

Discovered using

Tags: picture of the week, photos, willspeaking, willspeaking.com, stumbleupon

Cake Financial - you can have your cake and eat it too

2008-06-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

I met with the folks at Cake Financial 2 weeks ago. Cake is a startup in San Francisco. Cake exists to help you be a better investor. It's an interesting market to be in : think about the billions of dollars invested via 401ks, mutual funds, stock. And think about some of the companies that do the investing.

Then think about what most people do : they don't know what or how to invest. The 401K statement stays in the envelope, hopeful that it is growing.

It's an interesting idea - the basic principal is to help you make better investment decisions. The idea being that most mutual funds under perform, and beat the market. So why not bring community together to outpeform?

At the core, Cake will aggregate all of your financial data - securley - into one dashboard. So if you have accounts on Fidelty, Etrade, Charles Schwarb, these can all be viewed and accessed from one place. That in itself is very useful.

You can work with the community and see how you are doing against the rest of the community. You can choose to follow "the stars" those that have invested well and have a great portfolio.

Anyway, check it out at Cake Financial and see what you think.

Tags: cake, cake financial, investing, investors, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Youtube's new home page - recommendations work

2008-06-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

Youtube rolled out a new update to the home page. When logged in, it shows recommended videos (among other things).

Here's one video that it recommended for me:

This is a group from the 80's named "Five Star". I used to love this group. I have no idea how it new what I liked, but it certainly recommended the video and I watched it. What a laugh! "System Addict" - addicted to computers, dot matrix printers and more. What a flash back.

Tags: recommendations, video, youtube, five star, 80s, flashback, willspeaking.com, willspeaking

Happy Fathers Day

2008-06-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Fathers Day to all you dads, pops, fathers out there!

This is a picture of Tracy Highnotes English Bulldog. What a cutie...

Tags: happy fathers day, bulldog, photos, aol pictures, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Saving Silicon Valley : How Web 2.0 saved Silicon Valley

2008-06-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

Great photo on the cover of Metro Silicon Valley.

Article is a good read too. It's here if you want to read the online version. (Adapted from Sarah Lacy's book "Once you're lucky, twice you're good")

Tags: willspeaking.com, willspeaking, saving silicon valley, sarah lacy

Scammers lurking at every corner (trying to steal your identitiy)

2008-06-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

I got the following email to my AOL account and Yahoo accounts last week.

Essentially it was an email from the IRS that told me about my Stimulus payment.
It looked legit, and to most people I think they could give away identity information.

It was, of course, a scam.

It went to the website. It looked like the IRS. The URL had "irs" in it.

I checked out the page, which asked me to complete another page with information like SS# and Credit Card # so my rebate can come faster.

Then I contacted the website owner and got them to take the site down. The website owner had no idea this was hosted on the site - which was also hacked. She took it down very fast.

The source code for the pages actually used javascript from the irs.gov pages - essentially using form validation that was written by the government in the scam page.

From paypall, ebay to the IRS, these scams are far too common. What does a casual user of the internet have to combat against such problems? It's easy for me to look at the URL, but many people don't.

Thoughts?

Tags: scammers, irs, willspeaking.com, identity theft, willspeaking

Pixcetera : Phototalk blog replaced with new Pix etc site

2008-06-11T19:01:00.000-07:00

In a previous post, I wrote about re-discovering the Phototalk blog. It carried great photos each week - great to look at.

It has been replaced with a new site named Pixcetra.com. . It still has some awesome photos, so I recommend you check it out. However, the new site is a little overwhelming (lots of navigation on the side and the footer is six inches high). You can explore galleries and spend hours looking at photos though.

Remember for these products - it's all about the photo. Nothing else really matters, but the photo.

Check out Pixcetera.com and the Pixcetera blog.

Tags: photo blogs, photoblog, phototalk, pixcetera, picture of the week, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Urban Outfitters (you know that store, right!) : Fashion Show clips

2008-06-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

Urban Outfitters, that hip, young chain, held a Fashion Show in Santa Cruz. I was involved because Tommy did the hair. And I was the photographer and camera man.

Here are some video clips. I did a rush job on putting them together.

Note:
- I uploaded these to Youtube and Uncutvideo.
- The Uncutvideo transcoding is better with the video image, but sound is not good.
- The Youtube video has better sound, but the video is blurry. Very odd!

This was shot with the flip Video camera.

Tags: fashion show, urban outfitters, heat salon, santa cruz, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Disturbing : Man injured in hit and run. No one helps.

2008-06-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

I saw this on the news this morning, and boy is it disturbing. A man crosses the road, gets knocked over, driver speeds off.      Injured, laying flat out.

Guess what.

No one helps.

No one.

Cars drive around the person.    No one gets out.

Until about 1 min after the crash, then someone starts to help.

Can you believe it? Wouldn't you rush to dial 911. Stop the traffic. Comfort the person until they arrive?    No, No and No in this case.

It's not a good sign of the human race, if we can't help a fellow person.

The man injured is still in hospital in critical condition. The drivers have yet to be found.

Tags: willspeaking, willspeaking.com, distrubing, soapbox

Youtube adds a great new feature: annotations

2008-06-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

Youtube has added the ability for the producer of the video to add Annotations. These can be in the form of speech bubbles, popups or flickr like notes. It's a great feature to allow the producer of the video to add comments, or do some fun things.

See an example here, using the cheap mini me magnet video.

Tags: youtube, annotations, willspeaking.com, video, willspeaking, mini me, magnet

thefilter: movie and music recommendations for you

2008-06-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

TheFilter is a newish service that recommends movies and music, based on what you like.   It asks you the normal stuff - what genres, and then to rate the music before it starts giving you recommendations.

Similar to other services, but still very interesting. It reminded me a little bit of the pitch behind Magnet.    These concepts are interesting - it is really, really difficult to cut through the clutter and discover new content.   I like the name "filter" or filter out the noise, and show me what I really want/like.

I think "recommendations" in general is a hard sell to end users. The concept feels like you have to do a lot of work.   Most people don't have time and will move onto other things.      Far better is to go for the emotion of what's in it for you, whats the pay off.

TheFilter also had Peter Gabriel introduce the product ( a little long intro, but you get the concept).     For Magnet, we tried to get Mini-me, but I didn't have the budget. A budget free version of Magnet is also below.

Go check out theFilter, and see what you think.

Tags: thefilter, music, movies, startups, peter gabriel, magnet, willspeaking.com, willspeaking

Really great blog: Phototalk

2008-06-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

I'd forgotten about this gem of a blog from the photo editors at a well known internet company. I stumbled upon it today.

Each week, it is updated with photos of the week, along with a brief description on the photos.

This one struck me: (be sure to read the entry behind this photo)

Tags: phototalk, photos, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Om Malik interviews Jeff Bezo on Amazon Web Services

2008-05-31T09:09:00.000-07:00

Check out Om Malik interview of Jeff Bezo's at D6 Conference here. It's a quick discussion on Amazon's Web Services (why did they go into the software service business, and what's next).

Tags: jeff bezo, amazon.com, d6, gigaom, om malik, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Zig Ziglar - Prime the pump...

2008-05-30T21:37:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite lessons or stories from Zig Ziglar. I listened to this a lot on the CDs. Essentially it means - you get out, what you put in.

In this clip, you see an old fashioned water pump that Mr Ziglar used to carry cross country on flights with him, until 9/11.

It's a great lesson, and told in his normal energetic speed.

Tags: zig ziglar, prime the pump, ziglar.com, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Product Managers - How To Create Products Customers Love - Good lessons from Marty Cagan

2008-05-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

I attended a 2 day workshop on Product Management last week. Led by Marty Cagan, it was a great refresher, and gave some great insights into creating great products. Mr Cagan worked at HP, Netscape, AOL, and eBay in various positions. I did not know him directly at Netscape or AOL though. I'd met with several CEOs at startups in the past few weeks who all mentioned Marty Cagan and the product help he has given to the companies, so thought I'd attend this workshop.

The 2 day workshop was very good and inspiring. I'd recommend it for companies too, and send my Product, Engineering and UI teams to it. The cost is $1500 per person, and is a good investment.

Marty has a book that covers much of the content of the workshop - it's on Amazon.com. It's an easy read, so check it out.

Review the book on Amazon.com.

Silicon Valley Product Group

Tags: svpg, willspeaking, willspeaking.com, inspired, marty cagan, product management

Gas Price Widget

2008-05-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

If for no other reason, I'd use myAOL simply for the Gas Price Widget. Not even My Yahoo! has such a widget. Very cool, little widget - also topical and sticky (people love to find a bargain).

Get it on the iPhone as a myAOL iPhone special, and it will be even better.

Tags: willspeaking, willspeaking.com, gas prices

Goodbye Mr Gates!

2008-05-27T19:18:00.000-07:00

At the D6 Conference tonight, they showed the "goodbye video" for Bill Gates. It was shown earlier in the year (I think at CES). It's pretty funny.

It must be quite an emotional day, to leave Microsoft.

Tags: bill gates, last day, microsoft, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

And finally - Little Green men on Mars?

2008-05-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

From the News at Ten "And Finally" segment, a report on what has been found on Mars. It looks a little like an alien. Fans of Sir Patrick Moore will see him in this clip (and those who don't know him, he's a little eccentric and totally british).

Tags: willspeaking.com, willspeaking, itn, mars, news at ten, and finally

Face to Face : Congratulations to Keren and Sharon

2008-05-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

The Perlmutter team - Keren Perlmutter and Sharon Perlmutter - are the duo behind a new photo product named "Face to Face". It's a client application that can help you find photos but based on face, not just plain old searching. You know what it feels like to search and search and search for photos... This app will let you organize by face. All those pictures of Uncle Albert can be found very quickly!

Face to Face is fun to use... It has a nice, inviting UI, and scans in photos fast.

It is really good to see this innovative, fun product launched. Congrats to Keren, Sharon and the team!

Download it from here.

Tags: willspeaking, willspeaking.com, face to face, bluestring.com, bluestring, innovation, perlmutter

That farewell letter you don't expect....

2008-05-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

I arrived home tonight (after a great class in Cupertino - more on that another post) and got my mail, and opened it. Well, I opened the one from CCF (Christian Children's Fund) from Honduras... It was a letter from the child I had sponsored, and it was the "farewell" letter.

Ever got a letter you didn't expect, and stopped you in your tracks? This one stopped me, a few tears and a smile.

When I moved to the USA in 1992, I saw one of those commercials for CCF (the one with the man with the beard, looking very sorry - it still runs today).   Something gave me the urge to sponsor a kid who was less fortunate, and I've done it ever since. The odd letter is exchanged too on progress (school grades, living conditions etc).

The farewell letter came because "Melvin" had turned 19.   I never met Melvin or his sisters, brothers or Mum and Dad. But I like to think that every little thing helps.

By the way, my friends used to tease me about me doing this especially since I was not overly religious.

Anyway, just a tale from the mail that stopped me in my tracks.

Good luck, Melvin! And God bless.

Tags: willspeaking, willspeaking.com, ccf, christian children's fund

Life Lessons from Zig Ziglar

2008-05-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

Zig Ziglar, at the age of 80, continues to motivate, enginergize, have tremondous passion and energy. Here's a video-cast from ziglar.com.

"what's the most important thing as you turn 80 years old", "to turn 81!"

Tags: zig ziglar, willspeaking.com, life lessons from zig ziglar, ziglar.com, willspeaking

3 fab websites to keep an eye on...

2008-05-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

Three interesting web sites, that each offer value.

Blurb.com add's a new twist for authors. It allows you to create your own book - just one or as many as you like.   You can then sell them on the Blurb bookshop (and in many places). It's an awesome site that allows you to create books - visual and welcoming.How many people out there are authors that don't know how to get published.   Check out this cookbook, an example of many books.

Popjax.com is a game site - for folks that like game shows. You can win prizes. It has been put together very well, and uses Youtube videos as a basis for an interactive game. E.g. 80's trivia, Movie trivia...    This one has a lot of potential, since many games on the net are aimed at true gamers, not people who love the price is right.

Tripiit.com will help you organize your travel - keep up with your travel plans.   It works like this: book a trip, send the itinerary to tripit, and it will organize your many plans into a master itinerary. It works with bookings from all the popular travel sites. The nice thing is the automated way it puts it all together.   Great mobile access too.

Tags: willspeaking.com, willspeaking, blurb.com. popjax, popjax.com, tripit, tripit.com

Hot days. Very nice. Traffic Slow. Not nice.

2008-05-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

What a hot day we had today. As I was driving back from meeting with recruiters, I snapped this. Don't worry, it is ok. It was hot, and traffic moved slowly on highway 85. I also was not applying make up, speaking on the phone, or video taping. So I could snap this - 100 degrees! Yeah!

Tags: willspeaking, willspeaking.com, hot, weather, driving

Frank Gruber asks "How Does Friend Connect Put Users In Control?"

2008-05-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Frank Gruber asks how Friend Connect can help users.

I don't see a clear end user benefit yet, but will look into it a bit more. I can see a benefit for website builders though.

What do you think?

http://www.somewhatfrank.com/2008/05/how-does-google.html

Tags: willspeaking, willspeaking.com, somewhatfrank, friend connect, frank gruber

Cereality is here - and it's great! Get your cereal in downtown Santa Cruz

2008-05-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

Here in Santa Cruz we have a new store named Cereality. Yes, that's right - a cafe bar that serves cereal.

It is really interesting way to get your cereal and not just for breakfast. You can also make your own cereal box. Interesting concept. The place is fun with cereal as art on the walls.

Time for you to visit Santa Cruz.

Tags: willspeaking, willspeaking.com, santa cruz, cereal, cereality

The 5 Stages of a Consumer Web Startup - GigaOM

2008-05-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

An interesting read, especially the comments others have written.

http://gigaom.com/2008/05/09/the-5-stages-of-a-consumer-web-startup/#comments

Tags: willspeaking, willspeaking.com, startups, gigaom

A discussion about Yahoo and Microsoft - Charlie Rose

2008-05-06T22:31:00.000-07:00

Lots of discussion on Yahoo | Microsoft this week. Michael Arrington (of techcrunch) appears again on Charlie Rose. This time speaking about Yahoo and Microsoft, much in the news.

Of course, we don't / won't really know what will happen here. But it doesn't stop us all thinking and chatting about this.

I have watched quite a bit of Charlie Rose, and IMO he is a great interviewer.

Tags: yahoo, microsoft, charlie rose, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

And over on magic smoke....

2008-05-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

The community of bloggers on this platform amazes me... Right now, the "magic smoke" blog has been opened, so anyone can write a blog post. For those of you who have no idea what this blog is, up until recent times it was used to blog about the blogging software (features, outages, answer questions, guest bloggers). Now it is open to all.

And the community steps up, and blogs on various things.

Each week they have something very funny yet very simple called "Guess the Caption". It is fun - you submit a picture, captions and vote. What is really good is people contributing, commenting, answering polls, coming together.

Community = Engaging = People = Interaction.

Wonderful to see.

Tags: magic smoke, caption, willspeaking, willspeaking.com

Microsoft | Yahoo news.... at an antique fair?

2008-05-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

I was at a very large Antique Fair yesterday and stumbled across this... Not an antique, but on people's minds! And the price tag was a lot cheaper than the deal.

Tags: yahoo, microsoft, alemda, willspeaking

The Human Race of Silicon Valley and Santa Cruz is May 10

2008-05-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

Reminder that once again you can walk or run in the Human Race of Silicon Valley. It takes place at the Google campus on May 10th.http://www.vcsv.us/humanrace/

If you are in Santa Cruz, you can also join in and run on West Cliff in the Human Race Santa Cruz.Have fun! http://humanracesantacruz.kintera.org/

Tags: human race, volunteer, silicon valley, santa cruz, willspeaking

Flip out with Pure Digital - a great example of "keeping it simple"

2008-04-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

And "it" in this case, is the Pure Digital Flip Camera. The flip camera is great. It's simple. It does the job.

It's simple.
It's easy to use.
It's selling like hot cakes.

Read the article on businessweek to find out more.

These cameras are very good. I take one with me on trips, and snap little videos. They are good, because they are just so simple and easy to use.

We often try and build lots of features and whizz bang things. But this device shows you, that what you leave out can build an audience.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_17/b4081076893508.htm?chan=search

So don't flip out!

Tags: flip, pure digital, flip camera, video, willspeaking.com, business week, innovation, theflip, theflip.com

A conversation with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch - Charlie Rose

2008-04-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Charlie Rose interviewed Michael Arrington, who is the Editor and founder of Techcrunch.com. An interesting discussion on the internet, changes, and how he reprsents this area. Interesting interview.

http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/03/06/2/a-conversation-with-michael-arrington-of-techcrunch

Tags: willspeaking, willspeaking.com, charlie rose, TechCrunch, TechCrunch.com, Microsoft, msn, blog, Yahoo, internet, code, web, Google, blogs, YouTube, start ups, dot com, website

Toot out to my old team: great updates to myAOL!

2008-04-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

Wanted to give a shoutout (or toot out) to my old team... They just released a nice update for myAOL. A great new experience for first time users, and to customize your page. Most important, it loads very fast.

I tried the new experience on a 24inch Mac at the Apple Store in Berkeley. It looked great.

This product is the default home page for HP and Compaq machines across the world.. That's quite an audience who get to use this product.

Great work!

Tags: my aol, hp, willspeaking, toot toot

Good news: Thank goodnes for the post office - Mail Carrier saves falling baby

2008-04-22T10:49:00.000-07:00

For any parent out there, this is something that makes you smile, but could easily have gone the other way. Thank goodness for the mail person being there.

(see more here)

Tags: mail carrier, baby, willspeaking, good news

A conversation with Mickey Drexler - Charlie Rose

2008-04-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

A great interview with Mickey Drexler, CEO of J Crew. Prior to that, he was CEO of the gap. Good and insightful interview.

http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/04/21/2/a-conversation-with-mickey-drexler

Tags: charlie rose, mickey drexler, j crew, gap, willspeaking

Comic Relief Video 2007

2008-04-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

Peter Kay and Matt Lucas star in this Comic Relief UK Video from 2007. It raised a lot of money for charity, and is a familiar tune. It also has a host of British stars from yester-year in it. Peter Kay is a very funny actor and comedian, and Matt Lucas is one part of the duo behind "Little Britain".

Tags: peter kay, matt lucas, comic releif, willspeaking

Check out Jason's latest interview

2008-04-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

Check out this fun video with Jason and a puppet. Very funny, and a good intro to Mahalo....

http://www.calacanis.com/2008/04/19/greatest-mahalo-interview-ever/

Tags: willspeaking, mahalo

Jim Barksdale on Charlie Rose... sound familiar

2008-04-14T18:09:00.000-07:00

Charlie Rose - a legend on PBS - spoke with Jim Barksdale.

Look at this video and it's a classic.

Start's off on Gas prices (out of control?). Nothing to do with Jim, and different guests. But the prices are going up and up... Familiar?

Then Jim Barksdale comes on. Starting at 25:30 mins. Lots of discussion on the business model of Netscape.

Rose asks "Describe Yahoo. What does Yahoo do".

"Yahoo is a search engine", Barksdale "We hosted Yahoo on our own servers... they go there way, we go our way. We probably will come back together"

Interesting stuff... This was in 1996.

Tags: jim barksdale, willspeaking, charlie rose

Feeding Crêpe to the birds in Paris

2008-04-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

I am back in the USA now, and it's good to be home. Santa Cruz is nice and sunny, a big contrast to the weather left in the UK (cold and snow).

I spent sometime uploading photos to AOL Pictures and Flickr yesterday. Out of the set, the photo above captures a moment in Paris of feeding the birds some crêpe . I love crêpe , and so do the ever so tame birds!

Tags: crêpe, paris, willspeaking

Wrapping it up - Snow and Smiling Bobbys :-)

2008-04-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

My last full day in the UK, and wake up to snow. It was a bit of a surprise! Also, in London yesterday the police smiled as mass of crowds went to see the semi-final of the FA Cup. Back to Santa Cruz on Monday.

Tags: england, snow, police, willspeaking

Daffodils mean springtime

2008-04-05T01:57:00.000-07:00

The Daffodil has got to be my favourite flower. It is a signal of Spring arriving. Another reason I like them is they make me think of England. Here in the UK, they are everywhere. In the garden, along pathways, freeways, parks. They look great!

Tags: flowers, daffodil, daffodils

Cats...

2008-04-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

Arriving in the UK today, after great fun in Paris and Barcelona, I got the photo above from folks looking after the cats in the usa. It made me laugh.... "Little One" loves to sit in front of the tv. We visited an awesome Pet shop in Barcelona, that had lots of cute puppies, dogs and cats for sale. They were well looked after....

Tags: cats

Michael Jackson makes a surprise appearance

2008-04-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

....in Barcelona. On La Rambla, he just kept on dancing.

Tags: barcelona, la rambla, michael jackson

Quiz solution: Malika and Chuck got it!

2008-04-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

Both Malika and Chuck commented on the quiz post and got very close. Kudos to them. The puzzle is on the entry to "Sagrada Famila" church. It shows 310 different combinations of "33", the age that Jesus died. It is almost like a question you should ask interview candidates to "find the number of combinations" (don't ask the religion part though). I will post an entry on this church, which is still under construction.

Tags: sagrada famila, barcelona, spain

Quiz - what does this represent?

2008-03-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

At a famous landmark in Barcelona is the picture above? What do you think it represents?

Tags: sagrada famila, barcelona, spain

Do you re-cycle? Plastic Man in Barcelona does :-)

2008-03-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

In Barcelona, this street performer proved he re-cycles. He wears bottles, including bottle tops for fingers. Some Kids laughed and some cried. Me being a big kid at heart loved it!

Tags: la rambla, barcelona, spain

Au revoir in the Jetsons concept car

2008-03-30T00:15:00.000-07:00

As I say bye to Paris, I had to blog about the new car from Peugeot. On the Champs Elysee, they have a wonderful showroom with this car. Looking like a car from the Jetsons, you wave your hands to get in. Then say the magic password and off you go. The showroom is like a fashion runway, music blasting but no Tyra Banks, just a neat looking car.

Tags: paris, france, peugeot

Pizza - with egg on it? A Paris delight!

2008-03-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

Tonight at a late night snack after lots of walking, pizza... And boy did it taste good. I have never had pizza with egg on it, until in Paris. But though it looked a bit odd, it tasted yummy. What's on your pizza?

Tags: pizza, paris, france

twiiddle : does anyone speak on trains

2008-03-28T04:21:00.000-07:00

Ever got on a train, and thought you were at the library? I noticed yesterday that people don't say much to other people. Someone sat next to me and I said hello, and startled the other person. Then I noticed that everyone is in their own "zone". In deep thought maybe, or just vegging out? Or remembering what Mum said "don't talk to strangers". :-)

Tags: twiidle

I love Paris

2008-03-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

"I love Paris in the springtime". What a great city. After taking the train from London we arrived in Paris. It is such a buzzing city. Quickly checked in, and then walked... Walking many miles, just taking in the sites, the people and the culture. Wonderful!

Tags: paris, france, i love paris

Fastcompany article on AOL

2008-03-27T06:07:00.000-07:00

During my train ride to France, I read the FastCompany article "Dead Man Walking". It is a look back on the history of AOL, and contains a critical narrative of the company.It's an interesting read, but nothing really new comes up.

Instead of looking in the rear view mirror or looking at past mistakes or mishaps, look ahead.

1) The Bebo aquistion is good. I've talked to different people in the UK and they are addicted to it! Did AOL pay too much ? I have no idea. But combined with AIM, it has lots of potential. It is also a clear indication of investing in Silicon Valley and (even more important) multiple brands.

2) Platform A can be big. Just tons of startups in this space, and as money continues to shift to the internet, PA has room to win $.

3) The continued bashing of Randy Falcon and Ron Grant should stop. Get to meet them, email them. They are bright people. My advice to them : If they can meet more with the employees, that would be very good for morale. Just my 2 twiiddles.

Tags: aol, ron grant, randy falco, fastcompany

AOL - Social Controls - parental controls for Social Networks

2008-03-27T03:35:00.000-07:00

Sitting on the train this morning, I noticed newspapers have coverage of new rules to help parents monitor kids activities online. This includes educating parents on ways to monitor social networks, as well as warnings on computer games.A great idea.

Time for AOL to go after this and use some of the gems it had many years ago, and bring them back.

1). Relauch free Parental Controls, but name it something like KidSafe or something less boring than Parental Controls. Make it free and get it out there.

2) Dust off AOL Guardian and relaunch as Social Network Guardian. AOL Guardian was awesome, emailing a log of emails, contacts and websites your kid went too, and allowing you to block or unblock. Get this working across the web.

3) Make bebo the social network that is kids friendly, safe etc. Got to be a major play here. Educate users on the benefits.The only problem with much of this, is kids actually setting up the computer for the parents. That still happens, which means a lot of this can be avoided. (Kids don't set up controls like this).

Just food for thought.

Tags: aol, safety

London Calling

2008-03-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

London is a great, big city. With many different areas from Camdem Town, Fleet Street, Oxford Circus, Brixton and of course Big Ben. Not to mention Soho.At 4pm, the streets are full. Lots of people walking around. Unlike the usa, everyone seems to walk into each other - seems no golden rule here to walk on one side. It adds to the fun.The other great things about London is the mix of people. From all parts of the world, it really is great. And of course the Queen is here. She's expecting me. Cheerio.

Tags: london

And you think Gas is expensive in the USA

2008-03-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

It's even more expensive in Europe. In the UK, about 40 miles northwest of London, regular unleaded is around $10 a gallon. Ouch!That's why small cars (like my sisters in the photo) are more standard. I love the cars here - smaller, but have many different shapes and styles. Sort of like getting vanilla ice cream presented many different ways. Um, maybe not. I think we should get more smaller cars in California. It would be purrfect.

Tags: cars, small cars, gas, petrol

Chilly Will Speaking

2008-03-25T06:58:00.000-07:00

Sitting here in the UK, waiting to eat at Pizza Express. The weather has been spooky with snow, rain and then a little sunshine. I snapped this photo of a very old tree near a church. It seems it has a face and character. Also a little green.Enjoy :-)

Tags: high wycombe

Netvibes Ginger Public Beta - looking good

2008-03-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

Netvibes opened up "Ginger" for public beta this week. I've played with the site for a couple of weeks now.

At the basis of the update is a public profile page, that allows you to have a "Universe" for yourself. This is a page with widgets, including ones for myspace, facebook, aim, yahoo messenger etc.      In addition, you have the concept of "status" and "friends" so you can leave messages for people on the public page.

It's good, and has some nice features to it. The widgets are nicely done, the presentation of the pages feels "new" and feature rich.    Like My Yahoo, widgets are selected from the top of the page and no separate gallery to search for (nice - it feels integrated).

One confusion is the cross between your private page and public page in edit mode - it feels a little disjoined.

Here's some recommendations I would make:

- Many of these sites now make it hard for a user to put a page together. It's very much manual work. For example, in Netvibes case to create my facebook badge, I have to go to facebook, find the badge page, then cut and paste it into netvibes widget. It's like 5 steps, at which point it feels like alot of work.      For mass market, these things need to be "0 or 1 click" actions.   Ask "What are your 5 social networks", have the user select, then create the page.   They can customize further after.

- Make it easy to select fun themes. People love to customize the look and feel.

- Make the Facebook and MySpace widgets "sing". Connecting to other social networks is key for this kind of aggregation, so make these features look great.

Give it a try.

Tags: willspeaking, netvibes, ginger

The trouble with Blackberry - App Error 523

2008-03-01T22:11:00.000-08:00

I have really loved my Blackberry phone. Email, Web Surfing and calls generally good. Easy to use,   easy to call, nice stuff.

However, I've had the dreaded "App Error 523" 3 times now.   This error is the worst to get. You need to wipe the Blackberry clean using a java device tool named "JL_CMDR" (which is like a DOS command line program), then reload the software.   Everything is lost - contacts, photos, bookmarks.

This has happened 3 times now, and after investigation it can happen because a number of reasons. By far the worse is someone sending you a text (SMS) or photo (MMS) message. For some reason, this will cause the Blackberry to crash, and have this App Error 523 fatal error.

Aside from wiping and re-installing,   the Blackberry works great.

I just don't get how a phone could have such critical "P0" type problems.

Tags: willspeaking, blackberry, app error 523

Mix and Share: Technology Feed

2008-02-24T14:02:00.000-08:00

(Photo by Dallas Web Design)

One of the great features of AOL's Feed Reader and Favorites product is the ability to "Mix" feeds together, and then Share them. Kind of like your own personal newspaper . Say you like your news from CNN, your Business from Business Week and your Sports from ESPN. You can put together all of this content and "mix them together" to create your own content feed. Then, you subscribe to the feed in your feed reader, and you get the latest from each of the sources.

I've created a Tech feed, which contains Techcrunch+GigaOm+SomewhatFrank+Mashable+Valleywag+GoWeb20.

You can go direct to the page and subscribe to the feed. It's very useful on your mobile phone, so you go to one feed and scan the headlines, rather than 4 or 5.

Tags: willspeaking, feeds, mix n share

Garage lessons

2008-02-24T10:42:00.000-08:00

Check out "Lessons from a Garage" blog. It's got some great insights into your own company, pitching to VCs, getting funding. All written with a good sense of humor. Barry Spencer writes this blog. I met Barry 2 years back since we purchased our house from he and his family. What I slowly became to learn was Barry ran his startup (Reality Fusion) from the garage for sometime - so it's got a lot of history. And as I ponder my next move, maybe the garage will come in handy.

The startup garage

Tags: willspeaking, vc, startups, internet, lessons from a garage

Friday Fun : Extras - are you having a laugh

2008-02-22T21:54:00.000-08:00

Friday Fun : Extras - are you having a laugh

If you are fans of The Office, then get the DVD set of "Extras". This comedy, produced by HBO and the BBC, is a great laugh. It stars, and is written by, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

I've nearly watched season 2. I watched it on my treadmill, and nearly fell off it laughing. Season One was centered around the two main characters being "extras" in movies. Each show had a famous actor normally acting very silly and bad (Ben Stiller, Orlando Bloom, David Bowie). Season Two continues but Andy gets a sitcom on the BBC and he feels he has sold out with cheap laughs.

It is very funny, though some of it is British humour.

Are you having a laugh?

_______________________
William Morris
http://willspeaking.com
Mobile Blogging

Netflix - Video on Demand (i.e. "watch it now")

2008-02-20T18:28:00.000-08:00

I've subscribed to Netflix for many years now. It wasn't until I really had time to look at the website I started to use the "Play Now" feature. This is essentially the first step into movies on demand, and has been out for a few months now. It's part of youy Netflix membership (which I didn't know until I discovered the feature on Sunday).

It works well, and seems to have a decent library of movies behind it. I watched a very good 30 mins of "House of Cards", a great drama I had not seen for ages. Moveis, tv shows (Dexter, for example, The Office - both US and UK versions) - a good selection.

It takes some setup time. First you need to install the Netflix video player (which plays in IE), then Windows Media Player 11, which takes ages. Once that is done, streaming a movie or tv show is easy. Full screen mode looks great.

Obviously you don't get the DVD extras, but that shouldn't worry you since they are normally not that good.

The downside: 1) It can't play on TV, which is where I really want to watch shows, 2) Not working on the Mac (though I am sure that is being worked on), 3) It is streamed. So you can't save some on your PC and watch them on a long flight. Despite all of these, it's very good and I had no glitches at all.

Try it here. It's part of your Netflix membership.

Tags: netflix, video on demand, vod, willspeaking

Mobile Mail - Gmail, Yahoo, AOL - who is the best?

2008-02-20T05:33:00.000-08:00

Mobile Mail - Gmail, Yahoo, AOL - who is the best?

When it comes to using email on your cell phone browser, who has the best offering ?

I have been a heavy user for over a year now of mail on my phone. I use the browser to check mail often. For me, it is very important to get to new mail, reply, mark spam, delete and go on.

I have 3 email boxes - aol.com, sbc!yahoo and gmail. I must say that the wap version of aol mail is the best, with gmail close behind.

Aol and gmail are fast. You can navigate fast, get to new email, mark spam - all with one click. Yahoo is fast, but tasks such as managing are in secondary screens, so quick mail box clean up is not fast. This makes it more slow to use, less practical.

The feature that puts AOL ahead is quick reply. This is on all messages when reading them and saves a click to reply - important on mobile slower loading browsers. In addition it has "preset message replies" so you can quickly reply. This feels like thought in the design - putting features like reply on the same screen, with 0 clicks.

Feature Request to all 3 - Now only if I could spell check, that would save me even more!

Tags: mail, webmail, willspeaking, mobile

Zig Ziglar: Do it now, and don't get cooked in the squat

2008-02-17T20:59:00.000-08:00

"World-renowned motivational speaker Zig Ziglar in his book See You At The Top relates a story from his childhood growing up in Yazoo City Mississippi in which his neighbor’s cook, Maude, made biscuits. Ziglarremembers one occasion when Maude brought out a pan of biscuits thatwere no thicker than a silver dollar, he asked her what had happened tothe biscuits and she replied that “the biscuits squatted to rise, butthey just got cooked in the squat.”

Here's the video. It's fun, entertaining and has a good point : start today, do it now.

Tags: zig ziglar, willspeaking

What are you reading?

2008-02-16T11:58:00.000-08:00

What do you check out everyday?

For me, my startpage has headlines from various blogs that I scan at least 3 or 4 times a day. The startpage is my default page on the browser, so pops up, and I do a quick scan.

Here's my tech selection :

Go2Web20 Blog is a great blog that has insights into the Web2.0 world, and some great reviews of the latest technology. Written by Orli Yakuel.

Mainstream Web 2.0 Blogs : Techcrunch and GigaOm. Always lot's to read in these. I guess they shouldn't be called mainstream, but they are very popular.

Valleywag. I do a quick scan of valleywag, the silicon valley equivalent of TMZ. Always good for a laugh, and not to be taken seriously.

SomewhatFrank. Frank Gruber's insight into Web 2.0. Now with SomewhatFrank TV and some interesting interviews.

pmarca - Marc Andreessen's blog. He covers lots of subjects and is very insightful.

Calacanis.com - Jason's blog - I like this because it is very good at promoting his company, and I think others can learn from that area. He also has a good podcast show.

OK, so all of these are technology ones. I also look at non-tech stuff but that is all covered on my stumbleupon blog.

What are you reading?

AOL Food: A good example of user generated content

2008-02-14T20:14:00.000-08:00

AOL's Programming Channels look very good when compared against others. I think the key to this is the user generated content.

AOL Food is a great example. I bet many users don't use AOL Food. But it has lots of tips recipes, comments, ways to eat well. The look and feel of the content is very nice, the navigation easy.

User generated content is a theme across AOL Food. You can comment on recipes plus enter your own - and let other people comment on them. It is truly a nice 360 degree way of implementing content and getting users to contribute.

Check it out now

Tags: aol, aol food, food, willspeaking

Keep it light: Valentines Logos

2008-02-14T15:59:00.000-08:00

Valentines logos. Everyone's sending love!

Tags: logos

People that inspire: Zig Ziglar - See you at the top!

2008-02-13T17:19:00.000-08:00

For years, I have listened to tapes and later CD's of "Zig Ziglar". No, it's not the name of a group, but a person. Zig talks about setting goals, being #1 in sales, self image and many other things. I've learnt alot listening to these tapes on the way to work. Inspiring, funny, witty - and common sense.

I finally got to see Zig Ziglar in action in Dallas, Texas in 2007 as he prepared to retire. It was awesome to see him. A few weeks before the 3 day seminar, he fell down a flight of stairs. What a shocker to hear this - an 80 year old man falling down the stairs. But wow, he was right there at the seminar going going going.

If you get a chance, watch the video below. It is an example of Zig at work. He speaks fast, common sense and is very animated. This one is filmed in the mid 1990s, but Zig is still going today.

See you at the top!

You can learn more at ziglar.com

Tags: zig, ziglar, zig ziglar, willspeaking

Technology: How do they pull this together?

2008-02-13T09:42:00.000-08:00

I was looking at YouTube last night, and found this commercial shown in the UK last year. It was for a great cause (prostate cancer). The really odd thing is it starred someone (Bob Monkhouse) who had died 4 years earlier, but it seemed like he was back again. Bob Monkhouse was a well known entertainer in the UK, so it's fitting that this was made to help a good cause.

How could such a video like this be made? I wonder what technology is used to pull this together. Video editing has always been an interest to me.

Links: Give a few bob

Tags: prostate cancer, videos, bob monkhouse, will speaking

Philippe Kahn's new company: FullPower

2008-02-12T23:14:00.000-08:00

I remember seeing Philippe Kahn for the first time in 1992, when I arrived (not on a boat) in the USA and started at Borland.   He struck me as a tall guy, oozing with enthusiasm, and came across very well.     That was a long time ago. He founded Borland International, a company that built compilers (Turbo Pascal, C, Delphi) and then went head to head with Lotus and Microsoft with Paradox, Quattro .v. Lotus 123. It was a wonderful company to work for in the early 90's.

   After Borland, he started Starfish. The first product from Starfish was Sidekick for Windows, a product he purchased from Borland. Then it went into the sync business - syncing contacts, calendar and address books.   This was sold to Motorala.

After Starfish, came Lightsurf.   This was based in Santa Cruz, and pioneered the camera phone, working with Sprint as the provider for the end to end imaging. It was a great success, and this company sold to Verisgn.

So walking in downtown Santa Cruz today, above Borders, I notice is his new company. FullPower is the name. Not much more, except it takes quite a bit of space up (entire 3rd floor).      From reading the website, it looks like it will be doing some advanced development and innovations in motion detection for various areas - including games and health. Think the Wii, Iphone applied to many other areas.

I wrote in 2006 about Philippe Kahn and an old article from 2001 that dissed him for showing a very early camera phone, at JavaOne.   It was a marvelous example of how often people dismiss great inventions. In 2001, the camera phone demo at JavaOne worked well. But the press did not think anyone needed a camera phone:

Look at this quote... "And Philippe Kahn demonstrated some sortof a digital camera that could actually take a picture and send itacross a network. Get real. Maybe I'm jaded, but I don't care that he was sending it across a phone network, without downloading it to a PC first."

Isn't that just interesting to read? It was in 2001, reporting on ademo that Philippe Kahn did at JavaOne -- a demo of something we useall the time now - a camera phone. This was not that long ago, yetthe feedback from potential users was "can't do that" or "I'd have nouse for it, I've got a PC".

I wonder what he will invent this time.

http://www.fullpower.com

Tags: fullpower, willspeakinf, philippe kahn

And Finally : Cute, rare White tiger cubs

2008-02-10T09:42:00.000-08:00

Look at these little cubs.

Tags: willspeaking, and finally, itn

Thanks AOL, you rock!

2008-02-08T16:34:00.000-08:00

Though today is my last day at AOL. It's been a great experience and time.

I would like to say two things:

1) Thank you all so much. It's been great to work at this company, with such smart people delivering great products and programming. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

2) My blog moving forward will continue. Yes, I know that may be disappointing to some of you, but I will keep on going with my blogging.   (If you want to unsubscribe to the alerts for blogs goto alerts.aol.com)

Below are some photos from a skit Ed and Hamid did for me today. It was very funny.. Those guys should be on television!

Thanks team. You rock!

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Tags: willspeaking, aol