Category: Technology

Overall, i wasn’t that impressed with the ads that played during the superbowl but there were a couple that still make me chuckle, awww, or phene for a dorito or lunch. I believe the first commercial that I really enjoyed was just before the game started and it was a play on the Jordan/Larry Bird commercials from back in the day except with Dwight Howard and Lebron James. Although the dunking was impressive, it was the end that got me laughing. Next I’ll focus on the two commercials that have stuck in my head since seeing them. While I enjoyed others also, it takes a good commercial to have you thinking about it 12 hours after seeing it. The first was the Doritos commercial where the dog with the bark collar as it was hilarious and now after writing about it feel like eating Doritos. The second one was a surprise to see as Google doesn’t really show TV ads but it appeared to be a huge success. Not really sure why they felt the need to place an ad as they are king in all their core areas but hey, I liked the simplicity and cuteness. So there you have it, if the ads really worked, today I’ll be snacking on Doritos while googling where the nearest McDonalds is for lunch.

M2 Revolution recently got a weird looking treadmill called the Alter G. As fate would have it, it would be around the time when I would be needing a way to run while recovering from my first ultramarathon.

The Alter G is a great way to recover from a  race or from injury without putting running on your full weight. I was able to keep a 6:00 pace for 25 minutes while varying the body weight percentage from 85% to 90%. Towards the end of the workout I started to get tired but overall it was amazing to be able to go that fast a week after running a very hard and long race. Next time I try it out I will definitely make sure I don’t have to go to the bathroom as it puts a lot of pressure around your midsection.

There have been quite a few articles written about this treadmill that is based on NASA technology.

Guess what!!!!

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dr. Ryan Lee
To: john.hayato@gmail.com
Subject: Your ultrasound

Attached is a link of your ultrasound from this afternoon. View the rest here.
See you at your next appointment.

Dr. Ryan Lee, MD. Pediatrics.

***I’m not really having a baby.

So a couple years ago I looked into a company called Dash which was/is providing a GPS product that incorporates user-generated content (UGC) which helps the driver decide on the best route to take from A to B. The problem with UGC products like these is that you need a certain amount of users to really gather good data. And with Dash’s product costing more than I was willing to spend, I decided not to go ahead with the purchase. Oh, and I didn’t own a car
Fast forward to today and I now have a car and also a commute that takes about an hour if there’s no traffic. After the big rainstorm that we had in SF and the ensuing problems with flooding, accidents, and traffic, I decided to take a look  into what’s out there. Before embarking on my journey to SFO to drop off a friend, I scoured the twitter feeds to see what areas were closed, where there was accidents… Although it gave me information, I had to search beforehand and plot out my course. Enter Waze. I’m hoping that this FREE application that I downloaded onto my iphone will help me plot the quickest and easiest way when I drive around. I haven’t tested it out and I’m guessing that initially it won’t be helping me out too much as it’s a new app and there needs to be more traction before I get any good information. I’ll fill you in once I’ve used it for a couple of months. I’m also intrigued by their business model which allows people to use the app for free and once Waze has gotten a good amount of data, then they will be able to license the data to other bigger mapping companies. Here’s a TechCrunch article I read about the company and also here’s a demo:

This is pretty sweet. これ欲しい。

I’m playing around with Google Sidewiki which launched last week. It basically allows you to contribute helpful information next to any webpage. It appears as a browser sidebar, where you can read and write entries along the side of the page. So far there’s nothing next to my blog but I’m not exactly surprised… there’s one entry now

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an example of how it’s used on a more popular site such as TechCrunch.

—————————————————————————————————————————————-

To learn more about Google Sidewiki, check out the Google Blog

I’m not sure if this will actually be useful as it looks to be a comment section and when I read articles or look at videos, most comments tend to be either irrelevant to the article or rude, mean, snotty… you get the point.

Feel free to leave a comment

So I was lucky enough to attend TechCrunch50 with a client and while I’m doing reports for them I’ve decided to share with you some companies that I found interesting from a consumer point of view. There will be no talk of business models, novel technology, distribution, market penetration, road maps… I’m going to try to keep it simple so that even my mom even understands the company. Without furter ado, here’s the first company.

Story Something – storysomething.com.

I’m hesitant to write about this company right now because they’re still in private beta and if I tell you about a company or service I want you to be able to go try it out right away. This app is basically for really busy parents who would like to still be able to provide their kids with personalized and customized stories. You can either have the stories on the web or have them sent to your iphone. It’s hard for me to know if this type of product will become a big hit, esp. since I don’t have kids, but in my experience as a teacher, new and exciting things are great for keeping a child’s attention and the ability to read the stories on different form factors is cool. This provides another way for parents to spend quality time with their children and  IMHO, a much better option than having them fall asleep to the tv…

So most of you know I’ve checked out a couple of online dating sites but have done it more in the name of research as opposed to searching for somebody to date. This is evident in the fact that I won’t pay for the services. I’m mostly interested in the different UIs, the algorithms for setting ppl up, the business models and the mobile apps. Apparently yesterday an app launched at DEMOfall 09 which gives a person the ability to look up people that they will possibly date. Although the app is free but you have to pay extra (I hope it’s written clearly how much and at what point) for information regarding criminal records, social networking info… This is an app I will not be purchasing. When looking at companies or services, I usually research the management and it appears that this one has a sketchy history. Kinda funny if you think about it since they probably wouldn’t want allegations of fraud to be brought up when requesting funding or trying to get a date but with their app, it’s possible.

Where I was going with this is that yes, I sometimes google people that I’ll be meeting up with or going on a date with but in the end, I look forward to getting to know the person by actually talking to them as opposed to researching everything about them first. Unless of course you’re an ax murderer…

So Google’s been down for a little while now and it appears nobody knows why. My twitter feed is filled with people letting me know that they can’t access gmail or gchat but that’s basically all they’re saying. I googled “why is google down” and that brought up mostly results having to do with old news. So then I decided to try out a couple of real-time search engines; OneRiot, Collecta, and Scoopler. Most of the results appear to be from twitter and they seem to be focusing on people not accessing gmail but nobody seems to be telling me anything besides the fact that they can’t get on. This is where I feel there’s a problem. I do find it comforting that I’m not the only one with this problem but I’m annoyed that I can’t find actual news. I’m surprised Google hasn’t come out with information on their blog as the popularity of real-time search provides an opportunity for a lot of mis-information to be spread. Oh well, was hoping that somewhere I would be able to find the answer to my question but it looks like I’ll just have to wait. Patience is something that has gone by the wayside as technology has gotten faster and faster. Not only technology, I guess: everthing. I wonder who we told about #FAILS before twitter and SNS came along. Did we call people or just do something else? Here’s some screenshots of my results:

One Riot:

Scoopler: Collecta:

Twitter Trending Topics: Appears Google really isn’t that big of a deal