Saturday, November 22, 2008

Bleep

Randomness... just want front page to clear one day.

Random [Link] [link][link]

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Yakima!

Dear Blog…
Anyway, it’s been a while since I blogged about anything – I thought I should blog about my trip to Yakima. It’s a quaint little town 2hrs or so east of Seattle. I would describe it as “Small Town”, “Friendly”, and “With Character”. Just a hop away from the I-90 corridor, down I-82 and just past Selah, you’ll arrive to Yakima, WA.
The nouveau downtown-core is clearly welcoming to those out-of-towners stopping by. It’s fairly apparent that Yakima was one of those American towns that benefited from some agricultural development and the almighty railroad. There’s even a tribute to it – a mall composed of railcars.
I had some time to kill, so I decided to venture off and attempt to catch a glimpse of Yakmia-ites in their natural habitat. “All-America” and “The Palm Springs of Washington” are sprinkled all over town. I guess All-American these days means – there’s at least one Walmart, half a dozen McDonalds, Starbucks, xxx corporate retail-America in this county and classic Americana cuisine to be enjoyed by all.
Being from Seattle, Walmarts are somewhat foreign to me – as the sentiment is anti-K-Mart, Target, Walmart in the urban canyons, but rampantly available in the greater suburban sprawl. It’s keen to see how spoiled I am with free WiFi at any chic-boutique espresso joints available just around the corner in most neighborhoods. It’s been a struggle to find a free-WiFi spot here.
All-in-all, this hospitable town has greeted me with warmth, kindness presented in a gentle demeanor. Yakima is a chill-ax place to just poke your nose in.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Mini Essays of Office Life

Oh blog, how it's been a long long long while. I figure I'll come back to you with interesting tid bis of non-work-specific office culture. Hopefully, I can effectively share what I know about various off situational experiences through a few short essays.

Let's start with Monday inertia - otherwise known as the "Case of the Monday's" as fondly coined by "Office Space". Seriously though, why is this so universally experienced in office culture. Perhaps, a big part of it has to deal with the fffFFabulous weekend of doing nothing, or having done EVERYTHING but work. Or maybe, it's because work sends you deep into a pit of work related analysis, email replies, deadlines to meet, meetings to attend. Whatever it is, it certainly doesn't feel good to have to wake up (reasonably) early in the morning and get back into "gear".

Here's what my morning routine kind of looks like:
1) The wake-up, get-up, get ready routine.
2) The coffee ritual - preparing oneself to get ready to read a bunch of emails, requests, and issues with your favorite caffeinated beverage.
3) (If you've read material from Stephan Covey, or have just become an efficient/effective office worker) You start prioritizing/planning out the day. I really got to get X and Y and Z done before this so and so time.
4) The plunge - time to get things done.

It's really tough for me to break out of this routine - but every now and then, I have to remind myself that it's really the excitement of meeting or surpassing "Goals" - both personal or vocational related.

ALRIGHT, Let me experiment what I can do to make my next coming Monday more exciting - and less dreadful.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Update update! More Internet TV

Alright.. It has truly been a while since my last post. I think I'll just warm up to posting again for 2008. The last couple of years have been really good to consumers wanting TV over the Internet. I just came across www.veoh.com which seems to be a nice aggregate front end for www.hulu.com and various TV network web streams (yet another tv portal).

It's easy to use youtube-esque interface is inviting to use - however, the interface is already creeping with in your subtle online banner ads, flashing and animating, tending to distract the content watcher from the "Premium Content".

I can't wait to see what's in store for this year! With the writer's strike finally over, will this become an incentive for TV networks to pump out new episodes 'till early summer? I hope so - I certainly did not get enough Heroes, House, Nip/Tuck, Lost, ... TV for 2007.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Update your blog...

Hmmm... Update?!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Hulu!!! Internet Browers get ready!



Okay, okay, okay - I admit it - I'm a TV-aholic. Give me a solid TV series in a DVD box set and I'll devour through with it an insatiable appetite. First there was the Sopranos, then 24, The Office, Arrested Development, Entourage, Family Guy, (Ughk, err a brief rendez-vous with Grey's Anatomy), The OC, and lately House and Heroes. I've even found myself scraping through youtube.com looking for clips, browsing through tv.com to find out when the next episodes are going to air. I'm A TV JUNKIE!!

Alright, so where am I going with this?? TV, it's viral, it's addictive, its entertaining, intense, it gives you that oh so good point of momentary escape from reality. There's no doubt that TV is a popular thing, for me, its really easy to see why. Well, what happens when you bring it to the Internet?? Look at shows like www.purepwnage.com, they're viral, easy to access, and instantly available! No wonder all the telco's and cable companies want in on the action. However, on demand content is not without challenges its fair share of challenges. Distribution means, Distribution rights, which all have to be scalable - how do you supply a large population with on-demand content??

Joost has their innovative p2p solution which helps to solve the distribution problem (I mean, look at Skype and Kazaa) - why not use the technology that's used to help people "obtain" content, to distribute legitimate content. Sorry, I love your interface Joost, however, your severely missing content, there are only so many hours of music videos and Robot Chicken I can take.

Then there's Comcast on demand, Amazon + Tivo, Apple TV, stage6.com oh the list goes on and on and on... however, I think there's a diamond in the rough, awaiting a nice cut and polish.. wait for it.. HULU! Quite simply, it's badass!

Features:
1) Content
2) CONtent
3) CONTENT!!
4) Search-able CONTENT
5) Reasonably frequently updated with CONTENT
6) User friendly interface, no install, nice presentation and all the things we've grown to love about youtube.com

How did they do this?? We'll a quick look at trusty 'ol wikipedia tells that those generous studios and networks have been stepping in with the funding to get this puppy up and running.

Well, what does this mean to me?? It means - I never sleep! There's so much to catch up on! Simpson's, Family Guy, JourneyMan, Heroes!, House! Hulu's even nice enough to help index shows from other networks in their search engine - like CBS' Jericho, ABC's According to Jim and Clips of Extras!

OKAY! I'm hooked - "wait a minute.. it's a closed beta... how did you get access??" Well it's all about being one of the first few to public beta invites - luckily a buddy of mine help direct one in my direction via GigaOM's open 2500 invites.

Now.. it isn't perfect - what do you need.. hd content, less intrusive ads (overlaid like Joost, and cut the commercials), personalization! We need more factors like "What did my friends watch?" "How do i rave about the last epi??" "What's going to happen to Dr. Jack Sheppard??" - yayayaya... there are those "add user review" buttons, and ya, I can create a profile etc - but it's really missing the whole community thing - more importantly, a community with my friends.

Otherwise... I'm soooooooo close to saying good-bye to cable. Hulu, keep it coming :)