ProjectX Blog

I installed ubuntu fiesty (7.04) last night, in order to prepare to migrate all our debian boxes over to ubuntu.

I struck problems when I was trying to install mongrel. After a lot of Yak Shaving trying to figure out why mongrel didn’t install . I got in a stupid dependancy loop. mongrel needs libstdc which needs lib6c-dev which needs lib6c 2.5-0ubuntu14 which hasnt even been released as a package.

Its pretty lame that I can’t even install standard compliers and libraries!

End result. Have to defer rolling out Ubuntu until they sort their s**t out. It will teach me for install a new release of a distrubution!

Read Rod’s post about Google and Doubleclick this morning and I wanted to add that CNET has a couple of really good videos from theWeb 2.0 expo in San Fran.

Check out :

• Yahoo competing against Google
• To flip or not to flip.

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I downloaded Joost a couple of days ago. In short, its amazing. The streaming is very impressive (even on my clunky xtra broadband) and the interface is really fluid. Kudos to the Joost Team for a really polished beta version.

From my first look, the only thing that needs to be improved is the content. The selection of channels is similar to the “bundled” channels on sky / cable. eg. Fifth gear, national geographic, food channel, fight channel. It obvious that Joost is going to be huge and more channels will be added as it starts to gain momentum.

Advertisers must be licking their lips, TV advertising with web precision. It will be interesting to see how much Joost will tap into demographics and viewing behaviour to offer more targeted ads.
Definitely interesting times ahead.

Some Pics:

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Hmmm, now we have a reason for better broadband . Go Rod !

Update: For some reason, I have no invites 🙁 Once, I get them then I’ll offer them out or put them up on Trade Me 😉

I read in Business 2.0 magazine this morning about a new company Powercast which is creating technology to charge devices without wires. They have signed a deal with Philips to power a number of their appliances. (Here’s an article on Yahoo news.)

It works by converting radio waves into DC power. It has a 3ft charging radius. Imagine no wires for your phone, mouse or keyboard. They say that they will have power for laptops within a couple of years.

So this means in a couple of years, we’ll be hunting for cafes with free wireless internet and power !

Safari users are currently experienceing problems with ZoomIn. The latest changes to the ZoomIn Map API
has created problems for safari users. We are aware of the problem and working on getting it fixed.

Power Editing

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We have improved the way you edit place descriptions. Registered users can now add, remove, edit and change the content of a place description
without ever losing any of the previous changes. With the new editing software, you can easily add photos, links and styling to your place description. We have made the editing really simple by making it just like your word processor. What you see is what you get.

All Place descriptions are now public

We have also add the capability to enable public editing of places on ZoomIn. Now, anyone within the ZoomIn
community can edit public place pages on the site. We wanted to improve the content by allowing the ZoomIn community to update and maintain places on the site.

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If you don’t want public editing on your places, just unclick the option on the right hand on the page and
press the Save button to turn it off.

Note: By default, we have changed all places on ZoomIn to be publicly editable. If you do not want your content to be edited by the public, you will need to change the settings for your places.

We’ll be keeping an eye on the new features, and we’ll be fine tuning over the next couple of weeks as we get your feedback. If you have any comments or suggestions or would like to change your settings in bulk, please contact us

Google are offering a new product from April 1st 2007 – Google TiSP

So what’s it all about?

“Sick of paying for broadband that you have to, well, pay for?”

Why should I switch to Google TiSP?

• It’s fast. In our testing, TiSP delivers a 10x higher flow rate than basic DSL.

• It’s FREE. No more paying hundreds of dollars a year for Internet service that doesn’t even necessarily extend to your bathroom!

• It’s good for you. Your FREE TiSP service includes a Google Toolbar-based analysis of your dietary habits and genetic predispositions, along with recommendations for healthier living.

We’re happy to introduce some great new features added to the ZoomIn Mapping System (ZMS) API:

Minimap

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The mini map can be added to any ZMS map to give the users a quick overview of the area displayed on the map. It shows you more of the region and lets you navigate quickly around large areas. Find out how to use the mini-map.

Built-in projection translation

The API now contains functionality to translate between coordinates in WSG84 and NZTM projections. This is a great feature as it means that you don’t have to convert your coordinate data. We’ll do it for you. Find out more about Glatlong.

Text window

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This innovative feature lets you annotate maps with text notes. Think of it as leaving PostIt notes on the map. Look at the examples) and the API reference to find out how too take advantage of this feature.

Scroll wheel support

Now you can use the scroll wheel on your mouse to quickly zoom in and out of the map. You can control whether you want this capability on your map or not. Find out how to implement the scroll wheel..

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I was logging onto flickr this morning when I noticed that Yahoo has developed a simple approach to combat phishing.

Yahoo has added a user created seal that is unique for each user. (See the example above)
This looks like a simple way to ensure that a user is logging on a real yahoo page. (Note: It saves a cookie onto your computer, so you won’t see it if you log onto a yahoo service from another computer.)

Nice work Yahoo!

I’ve been reading a bunch of links over the past week that I’d thought I’d share…

I would suggest that if you are interested in Entrepreneurship then you check out Y Combinator Startup News Aggregator, its a fantastic wealth of Knowledge. They have a lot a great stuff to read every day.

Tech

• The birth of Ajax – an Amazing Story
• Ajax causing pageviews to decline
• Optimising javascript and CSS in Rails (Thanks Ben)
• The developer Video series – Some good video interviews with Jesse James Garrett, Jacob Nielsen and Steve Krug etc. (Thanks Lulu)

Entrepreneurship and Start-ups

• The Myth of a Great Idea
• Michael McDonough’s Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School
• Seth Godin offering more sage advice
• Equity math for Startups
• Seth Godin on The realistic entrepreneur’s guide to venture capital
• Shrink a Market
• The lesson I learned during Y-combinator
• Paul Buchheit – “My Start-up Path”
• Seth Godin’s Squidoo starts advertising
• How to improve your pitch process with entrepreneurs
• John Doerr’s Startup Manual
• Evan Williams on “How Odeo screwed up”
• Top 7 mistakes at Sampa, a Startup tale
• The first of two foundations to grow your business

Business

• Tim O’Reilly on “Honouring the Skunk Works”
• Seth Godin’s new book blog – The dip
• An interview with Jason Fried on web apps, cash flow and pricing
• The Effort Effect
• Guy Kawaski on the Effort Effect
• 7 reasons why web apps fail
• Summary of Hugh Macleod’s talk about blogs and the cluetrain.

Design

• Grid computing and Design
• An example of Grid design
• Jeff Bezo talking about usability
• The laws of Simplicity