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Lucas Shaffer

Why You Should Go Social...No, I Mean All The Way

In the waves of online identities and our need to communicate, we are having a rebirth of society.  Societies functional aspect is beginning to open the door to many avenues of being connected.  I have been passing an idea back and forth in my head and it is becoming a common thread in which I revisit quite frequently.

We now have dozens and dozens of possibilities for each of us to experience.  Whether you place your status into your communities or participate in geotagging mobile apps you are actively participating in the the new society.

It's not hard to imagine why some people are more into it than others.  I mean, for what it's worth, its a bit revealing.  I sometimes get a feeling that everyone knows a little too much.  Maybe they know more than I would like them to know.  I am sure this is true.  But this is the exact feeling of insecurity and blinding faith that is driving the social driven communities to thrive so well.  It's not so much what you are putting out there but it is more about how much people are interacting.  It's a communal therapy session. Good times, sad times and middle times....all shared among friends.

Years ago you couldn't have told me that I would eventually be in touch with just about everyone I have ever met and more.  I would have said something crass and levitated to an idea of virtual worlds where everyone is a mask, hiding it all to misinform.  Virtual worlds failed because the real thing is much, much more interesting.

I understand why you haven't joined facebook.  Heck, I even understand why you can't remember your email address.  I know you don't really care about the things that I do.  It's why we are friends.  It's the ol', "Why do I want to tell someone what I am doing all the time?" question.  It's frightful, and new.  We don't like new unless it's something we can read reviews about it and get a 30 day free trial.

For the most part, participating in the online social arena is a healthy lesson in humility, honesty and altruism.  Facebook would not be so successful if people didn't have their own views and their own world revolving around them.  If you decide to join in the new society you must make the most of it and this may help.

When I say, "go social, and go all the way", I am merely making a suggestion to lend your hand in building the new society.  I have a few ideas to get your foot in the door in a small way.  Seemingly so, if you dive into the deep end you may drown in too much information and find yourself a slave to your online ego.  Let's begin...

Step 1
Your first thought should be about your audiences.  You should have many concerns. One of the most important is your current employer.  You family and friends play lightly on your visibility and enjoy your banter but your employer is quite the opposite.  Many people have lost their jobs due to excessive posts about extracurricular activities.  You are ahead of the game if you already think you should keep your personal life....well.....personal.  Be smart.

Step 2 
Define your goal.  My first experience with online communities were Beta versions of AOL in the mid 90's and all I wanted to do was learn.  Many people today chose to just stay connected with family.  Others use Twitter to stay ahead of breaking news.  Do you want to know something?  Chances are that with the right tools and the right amount of interaction you not only have the power to learn, but to participate.  It's important to know what it is you want to find by immersing yourself into a new community.

Step 3
Finding the best communities.  It is important you allow yourself to enjoy the communities that are already established and fun!  Facebook is a great example.  It is the benchmark in which most social communities compare themselves to.  You can find your friends relatively easy and it will be like playing an old video game you haven't played in years.  It's communicating and its fast.  Go play.

Step 4
No need to be shy.  You are here and you plan on staying around.  Speak up and often.  It's the sharing of info and news that make it a community.  Be helpful and engage people.

Step 5
Relax.  Social networking is easy.  Your willingness to interact with others should become second nature very quickly.  Don't buy into the hype where you need to be on all the time or you will miss something.  Keep your personal life and do not try and replace online relationships with in person relationships.  It's a new society now but personal friends are close to priceless.

Step 6
Expand who you are.  It is your responsibility to be the first person to post something about YOU on the web.  Google yourself.  Find anything interesting?  Well....you should have.  The new business card should be a Google search page.  No more paper squares.  Maybe you don't want to be found.  If so, privacy is a concern for any prevalent site.  If you can't find a privacy statement then maybe the site you are using is not concerned about it at all.

Last step
Start a blog.  Write about your passion.  Find people who share these passions.  Learn from the new structure of society and be there to help others.

I haven't made any assumptions here about who will read this but if the unassuming social media newbie runs across this entry then I wanted to give them a nudge.  I am not saying it is for everyone but there are a few things to keep in mind for the uninformed user.

The biggest tip of all is to be helpful.  Your online social presence is a result of your online relationships just as your in person network is a result of your personal relationships.  You are in control much as in everyday life.  Knowing the difference is a key to thriving in the new society.

Gus and the 1,000th Picture

I promise I haven't been avoiding my blog.  I have just been letting the dust settle from baby Gus's arrival.

I am a DADDY!  And a very proud one at that.  It has been a bit surreal.  I look at him sometimes and it seems as though I am looking at him through someone else's eyes.  I feel like I am rewarded at every milestone by the surge of support from our family and friends.  Gus is picking things up quickly and he surprises me every day.

Thanks go to my wife for creating such a beautiful baby in her belly!  I love my family and couldn't imagine life any other way.

I would write more but I am going to grab a nap so I will share a few of the 1,000's of pictures we have already taken.

Good Night and Enjoy!

One Man Band: Memoirs Of a Lone Agile Developer

I have heard it said it many areas that our projects are a product of community.  Projects begin with one person and end with another.  I have not had this pleasure.  On the brink of completing a transition to work with my first team I thought it fitting to profile my professional career up to this point.

I am not a pioneer, nor do I seek recognition for my work.  I simply want to take you on a journey from my inception as a professional developer to recognizing that the pattern of my habits had already broken ground and is well documented as an Agile methodology.  My code survives through many states, evolving over time from collections and the evolution of my skills depended on only two variables; time and output.  Here is my story on how I maximized both to wrangle thousands of lines of code and reach my goals.

Break.

In my collective mind, coding is simple.  I learn the rules and the understand my limitations and I can do anything within these rules.  This is not much different from life.  I am sure somewhere along the line, I made it my business to know the rules.  I learned that within rules, I can exist to my fullest potential.  The old adage, "You never know if you never ask" has been a mantra, of sorts, I live by.  Code is no different.  Understanding the limitations of your language and the existing operating system can create the dialog needed to build a successful application.

I had experience that most colleagues would think laughable when I began working at my first professional job, The Game Headwear.  My title was Website Support Technician.  I was a novice at best and my responsibilities were slim.  I made excitable HTML pages with my eyes on the trending areas of client side scripting and some Flash.  I didn't have to see much further than my own desktop to discover I enjoyed creating.  I snapped scripts together like the Lego's I built as a child.  There was an energy I captured writing scripts but nothing could prepare me for my first year at The Game.  I walked in and hit the ground running.  I was determined that no language was better than the other and set out on a journey that would mold me into the person I am today.

I spent a lot of time reading documentation.  Immediately, I was overwhelmed and it hurt.  My first "real" project was to redesign the intranet.  I think about it now as such a menial task but at the time it was my first chance to prove myself as a programmer.  I was done in just a few hours.  Considering there was not much to work with, I constructed a few static pages together and split the time with a lunch break and by the end I had made something.  It wasn't glorious and it wasn't something to share.  It was informative, and by any means, my goal was complete.

After a few months of hashing out redesigns for our flagship site, I began to notice there was a much bigger picture going on behind the scenes.  It wasn't familiar at the time but my new employer was doling out lots of money to a 3rd party development company in which to programming and create a order management application linked to our site.  At the time, I had no idea what ColdFusion looked like and similarly knew only the academics behind server-side technology.  After all, I had a degree in Computer Science centered around software development and I buffed my ego by knowing a little about a lot in tech-wise terminology.  It seemed that the demand for rapid changes and workflow intervention was about to open a new window for me.

There was a moment.  A brief instant where my manager mentioned we were hiring a new guy.  This guy was sold to me as a mentor type person and I was thrilled with the chance to jump start my professional career by leaning on the new-hire for his expertise.  I was surely going to learn from him as he began developing and managing an existing, 3rd party created, OEM.

The day finally came when he was going to show up for his first day.  I was attentive and aware.  It felt like I was going to get a glimpse into the teacher section of the study guide and get all the answers.  I was ready.

The day passes and nothing.  No one shows up.  The nest day comes and goes and still nothing.  Apparently, something was wrong.  Well, the short story is the new guys current employer caught wind and offered him something he couldn't refuse.  This meant no new guy for us.  It was still just me and my manager with a pile of work.  And that's when it happened...

I remember very distinctly the day when my manager brought me into his office and discussed the future of my professional career.  He simply asked me, "Can you do this?"  I looked at the plan and without any pause I said, "Yes."  At this point, the new guys initiative to create a position had turned into an opportunity to challenge myself with new technology and development.  I will admit, I was sweating when I walked out of his office and my wide eyed expression was only the beginning as I had never used ColdFusion before but I was about to get a crash course from myself.

The next 3 months were the hardest times I ever remember in my life.  I worked 10-12 hours a day to push for an inconceivable deadline on a project where I had no idea what I was doing.  It was tough and although I didn't see it then, it was the defining part of my work ethic and professional integrity.  It changed me.  I was not the same person I was before the moment my manager entrusted the responsibility of this project to me.  There were times early on where I wanted to go to my manager and say, "I can't do this.  I am just not there yet."  I spent days just trying to figure out code snippet I would consider simple today.  It was a revealing time.  All the while, I was doing this alone.  I was exactly alone, for instance.  I had friends who were programmers who provided support; both guidance and moral support.  I appreciated the help but there was no one who could look at my screen and walk me through.

Needless to say I stuck to my project and succeeded.  We profiled the ColdFusion OEM at the Sales Meeting three months later and I never looked back.  The high output and positive feedback began a new relationship with my manager where I had become a fledgling developer who knew no bounds and now had the gusto to tackle anything.

I was a lone, rogue developer setting up shop with my own way of doing things.  Or so I thought.

3 years later I was sitting on top of several successful projects and my primary responsibility had moved from Website Support Technician to a fully fledged Software Enginner.  I had literally wrapped my resume with all the leading programming skills from .NET to Actionscript to JSP to PHP to just about anything I could get my hands on.  My past projects had proven to my boss that I was capable of choosing the correct tool for the job and I used that freedom liberally.

My methodology for getting things done was dirty.  I gathered specifications for projects from meetings, phone calls and emails and this became the normal 1st step.  I was always a phone call away if the software needed to adapt to suit a Sales Reps needs or if management needed to tweak a report.  This kept me quite busy and it wasn't until I began my Master's degree that I began reading on a higher level of understanding of who and what I had become.

Apparently, my rapid engagement of project handling and code adaptation and low documentation output was already a mainstream methodology.  I had a similar feeling before.  I remember walking into a psychology class during my undergrad and finding out that my perspective and awareness to behavior that I regarded as my own way to decipher feelings and relationships were actual terms in a book.  It is both comforting and invigorating to find that something you had become aware of was so well documented and it only pushed me to know more.  I began classifying myself a an agile developer and sought after others for information and knowledge.

It's a milestone moment for my career to have the no-show new guy spin off a development career that has molded me into a strong software developer.  I often mention it to others as a 'what if'.  For example, what if the new guy came in and I was never asked, "Can you do this?"  I don't know where I would be but I have no doubt I would be good at it.  Maybe I would have just taken a longer road.

@Foursquare And Why It Should Succeed

I join a few sites here and there and check them out just to taste the diverse flavors the web has to offer.  One of my new favorites is @foursquare.  Combine all the 'dwindling' geotagging sites that are dull and uneventful and add a reward system and you have Foursquare.  Include a few goal-driven perks and make it super easy to access via my Nexus One and I am all in!

Foursquare isn't a 'new' social playground, matter of fact it's been around since March 2009.  It's a 'rapidly growing*' free service that allows location-based tracking of your destinations through-out the day.  You may ask why.  You possibly think that this is just another big brother site.  It's very close, but it also has the many privacy options you would require to fly anonymous and still enjoy the "game".  Yes, I used the term "game".  Don't be surprised because that is exactly what this is.  There is a score and other amenities that you can flaunt as you progressively move around your city and show off your achievements.

Let me explain further...

I am not a big fan of geotagging my twitter updates with locations and neither do I care to float around on Latitude or Google Buzz like a balloon head with no body.  I set them up, looked around then disabled them.  I also had an interest in Loopt.  Loopt is a popular geotagging software based around SMS and friend proximity.  It also grew a bit tiresome.  No matter what service you choose to show people you are at the mall, you are just at the mall.  Your presence fades as the tweets and status updates flood over your modest comment and no one ever remembers you were there.  Here is where Foursquare comes in.

Imagine for a second you can leave you mark at your location.  In the past, you would have carved "LLS <3 WKS 2010" into the table with your dinner knife.  Future visitors gawk at how you spent so much time there when they see this archaic display of territory.  You are a part of that place.  You are linked to it's history.  OK, now imagine Foursquare as the table and your mobile device as the dinner knife.

Foursquare allows you to leave your mark via the web and even leave a comment or suggest a "To-Do" at this location.  The most interesting feature is the mayorship you can acquire.  A mayorship is the equivalent of being a local at one location.  To gain this status at any one location you need to have checked in more than anyone else.  When other's visit this location they can see that you are mayor and even connect with you.  It is quite possible the mayor has left a little nugget of knowledge that you can find out about a new place.  The mayor has no responsibilities as a real mayor.  Its purely social and says I have been here more than you and that makes me just a little bit cooler!  Well, maybe not....

Whether you are mayor or not, you still have other rewards to seek.  The other aspect of this location tagging adventure is the badges.  Even as I type, I know the excitement that takes over after receiving one of these coveted markers and it makes me smile.  I want them all.  There are some that seem impossible and take time like checking in at 50 different venues.  It's tough but fun.

With all that said the only thing that is required of you is to 'check-in'.  You will find areas where your local hamburger spot hasn't been added as a venue.  It's OK, just take a moment and add it.  Every mobile app I have seen allows for you to add venues on the fly.  In some cases, it will automatically find the address and you just give the name.  Besides, after you add a 'new' venue and check-in, you only need one more check-in at that location before you can claim mayor!  Yes!  If you obtain mayor of 10 locations at once, you get the Super Mayor badge.

What about safety?  The safety concerns of alerting your public status to others that you are not home is not a good idea whether it be from Foursquare or any other site.  Upon creating an account, please visit the privacy section and define the level of notification you want the world to see via Twitter or Facebook and even Foursquare.  It is ready to link to all your social sites and unleash gobs of info about your whereabouts.  Be careful!  Be SMART!

With all the geotagging ideas out there,  there seems to be something appealing about this to me.  Loopt, Gowalla, Google Buzz and Google Latitude are informative but I don't get much incentive to continually interact.  Every morning, I wake up, grab my phone and check-in for breakfast.  Check-in when I get to work.  Check-in at lunch.  Check-in when I come back to work from lunch. Then, I finally check-in at home. It seems a bit much and I agree it seems exhausting but it is quite the opposite.  One click....and I am checked in. The apps, which are available for any 'new' phone, auto-find venues close to you so you don't have to search.  I can start to see where other sites just missed the boat on reward driven experiences.

So, next time your out-and-about, think of all the places you are passing that presently exist on Foursquare.  Your city is already filling with a collection of 'local' mayors all supporting the city in a mini-marketing campaign.  Users 'swarming' concerts at arenas or speaking conventions.  Knowledgeable people leaving advice, or 'virtual carvings', to share with newcomers at a favorite restaurant.  I believe this hierarchy of active users can push other new users to 'want' these virtual status symbols.  This user competition may be the advantage that could bring Foursquare closer to center stage.  And yes, I will be there; as mayor of your favorite place!

Netflix: Make your decision wisely...

WAAAAIIITT!!  Just wait a second and read this before you dive (back) into Netflix.

I am recently trying to recreate my first impression of Netflix by answering one of the many emails I receive with a free 30-day (re)trial.  I was a previous member and canceled during the Netflix bloom around 2005.  With the recent addition to the XBox 360, I thought I would jump back in.  After all, $9 after the free trial may be worth it.  We will see....

Immediately, I created my account, picked up my XBox controller and began utilizing the new streaming access control panel named "Instant Queue".  This is similar to the Rental Queue basic users are comfortable with but you can watch the movies/shows instantly.  What a great idea!  Nope.  Wrong.  Not even close.

The catalog of movies looks like the pool of videos in the middle isles of a Movie Gallery.  You know, the ones you wade through to get to the new releases hanging on the walls.  The 1980-1990's cinema hits blend themselves into categories like Drama, Comedy and Thriller with a few more recent films, but not many.  I scan and scan only to find each category holds only 100  movies.  Yeah....  100.  To make things worse, I see movies I love and always remember as part of my childhood.  I start remembering tag lines that still get laughs and the great 80's sobbing teenage love films that made almost every encounter with the opposite sex awkward for my generation. This is bad because even though I love these movies, I don't have time to sit through "The Neverending Story" and watch Bastian fly the winged dog creature around Fantastica in an effort find his lost memories.  I want new movies and I want them now.

It never happens.

After a couple of days of perusing several hundred out-dated movies, I am beginning to realize that even the good movies that Netflix offers as New Releases are old (online).  I've seen them already or they are on TNT on Sunday, already.  Further digging turns up another interesting detail Netflix didn't make very clear.  When I try and select my 1 DVD rental and add it to my snail mail queue. the newest releases (the DVD's that released yesterday) aren't available for me to rent either or they are just hard to find.  This is a tough situation.  I have nothing to rent that is recent and my Instant Queue looks like a old film strip from my childhood, or what I remember from it!

One gem does rise from the plethora of 80's and 90's movies and that is the TV show archive.  It's just like the movie queue and you can hold them there for extended periods (I think!). So, what do you think is in my TV Show queue?  Well, of course, "The Office", "Dexter" and freaking "Law & Order".  That's about all they have that interests me.  All my queued shows but one are syndicated and air for 2-3 hours a day.  Not worth $9 a month.

My expectations were high, as usual, and Netflix is obviously doing what they can for a meager $9 a month.  I don't blame them.  This is a choice of apathy.  It's a trade off between having access to things you don't really want/need and not having access to things you want/need. On the other hand, we can keep our status quo and continuing wanting the things we 'think' we need and leave Netflix for the quantity lovers.  I want quality....and now.

Yeah, that sounds about right...

PS - Check out Zune.  Latest everything (movies/shows/cartoons) but it costs, so be careful...

Web Awareness: How To Protect Yourself Against The Web

We've all seen them, some of us have been unfortunate to have them.  Finding yourself with a virus or malware application that will run rampant on your computer is only a click away.  There are a few things you can do to give yourself the power to interact with the web and not worry about malicious attacks on your personal stash of family photos or media libraries.  I have been the victim once or twice and know there is no real advice that is full proof.  I will do my best to help!

These tips are provided for users who may have never thought about these type of issues and can be boring for the advanced web surfer but I will keep try and stay short and entertain as well.

First, lets set a few things straight.  You are to blame.  Your lack of knowledge about computers is what I want to try and drill into your mind.  Nothing, short of a blatant hacker who has isolated you for some type of gain or as revenge, is done to your computer without you either acknowledging the action by clicking the mouse or hitting the enter key.  Your actions are directly related to being safe on the web.  Understanding this, I will give you a few things to think about next time you see a pop-up window or a 'legit' site.  Giving you the knowledge to identify 'careless' tendencies and cure these bad habits on the web will keep your computer healthy.  It's in your hands.

---

Being an adventurous soul, as most of us are, we want to see, do and read everything available on the web and there are 'other' people who want prevent this or worse, steal from us.  Virus writers tend to be bored, intelligent beings that hold the idea of creating the most unstoppable bug and unleashing it on the world!  In other cases, malware coders want your stats.  They want your histories of web pages, your tendencies, your intimate details; all to be polled for Ad campaigns.  In some cases, these bugs can cause pop-ups or other website navigation issues.  In the worst case scenario failure of the computer altogether is possible.

Here is a checklist to better prepare you when using the Web.

1. Know Your Sites -  Your ability to observe is key.  The easiest way to lead yourself astray is to not clearly identify where you are.  Sure, everything looks the same and I remember this button and that button.  Your familiarity with your daily sites is the most common duplicated feature for attackers to take advantage of.
   
   My policy is to always have the URL (website address) clearly in view.  If I am on eBay, I expect to see http://www.ebay.com and not http://iwanttostealyourmoney.net/ebay.  Even a less obvious detail would be to find yourself looking over a URL that says http://www.ebaysite.com. You are indeed on the wrong site and need to leave this page immediately.
   
   
2. Clicking Your Mouse - Your mouse and keyboard are really to blame.  Some time ago, many browsers began supporting security features that prevented any action to take place on your computer without you first giving permission.  This is a tricky subject.  For example, how do you know when you give something permission to carry out an action on your computer?  Most attackers choose this ambiguous notion to misguide users to do things they normally wouldn't do.  If you have been presented with a pop-up that says, "My Site would like to do something.  Please click OK or Cancel." You may find yourself unsure what is about to happen and rightly so.
   
   As a web developer I know I can tie malicious actions to either the OK or CANCEL buttons so this is a no-brainer;  close the window altogether.  If you "know this site" and all is well, then go forward with your action.  Otherwise, leave the browser immediately and mentally high-five yourself; you may have just saved your computer!
   
   
3. Protect Yourself - It's a little late in the game to say you can't afford virus/malware protection because there are several leading edge applications that are FREE and very useful.  AVG, Microsoft Security Essentials  and Spyware Doctor are just a few that can help prevent the little nasties from your computer.  However, anti-virus software does not protect against YOU installing something you are not 100% sure is safe.  Frequently, attackers hide bugs in files that look like valid files.  What to do?  When it doubt, delete it out!
   
   I am always asked by friends and family who have 'unknowingly' obtained a nasty bug and my first question is always, "What did you last install?"  Ha!  Don't shrug your shoulders.  If you can't remember what you are installing on your computer, then you shouldn't be installing anything on your computer.  Screensaver packages, background wallpaper generators and unmonitored free software (in general) are breeding grounds for new malicious software creators.  This leads me to my next point!
   
   
4. Researching Software - Be smart, computers are awesome tools and can do great things.  Read about your software first and look for peer reviews.  If you find no information, then this is usually a bad sign.  No information is bad information.  Good, healthy software applications have robust descriptions and reviews mainly because their writers have paraded their new vision or new tool to many people.  The reviews can be numerous and whether positive or negative immediately may show signs of malicious actions and consumer complaints.
   
   How do I research software?  Google it.  Again, no search results means pass by this software.  Special cases include you knowing the person, or team who developed the site.
   
   
5. Spam - Your email inbox is an open invitation for anyone to contact you about sex medication, narcotics, russian brides, western union scams and just about everything you don't want.  It's amazing the amount of Spam that is blocked before it hits your inbox.  Millions upon millions an hour get cut off before it gets to you.  So, what do you do?  You don't open anything unless you are expecting it or you know the sender.  Everything else is white noise and should be 'Marked' as Spam for future filtering purposes.
   
   You can also help in building trust with your friends and family by not forwarding Spam.  For example,  other people's ideas on "How to prevent a heart attack by coughing" or "Skyway to Heaven"(untrue explanation of Disney ride) are considered Spam.  Do you ever wonder why some people never reply to these?  Because they don't read them.  Help all your friends, including me, by sending only pertinent messages that you expect replies to.  If you are the one forwarding me emails with "FW:FW>>>FW:FW:" in the subject line I will not open.  Matter of fact, the priority in which I open and respond in has now sent you to the bottom.  I understand you are trying to help. I understand you want to help others but by forwarding false information you are lowering your value as an email contact and this could cause issues in the future.
   
   
6. Simulated Actions - Twice today, I have already been in contacted by two people who have been duped into downloading Software to help "clean" the bugs supposedly reported.  I have seen this so let me explain.  Out of no where, a window pops up and the status, address and navigation toolbars are hidden and it looks like a valid Windows application.  Some cogs spin and a progress bar about half way down the window shows progress.  Alongside the progress bar a counter is increasing and the number is alarming.  Add to the fact that beside this rising number is the term "Security Risks." Immediately, everyone is alarmed.  Even me.  BUT, I quickly see this is a web page designed to simulate something real so I think I am in imminent danger.  How tricky is that?  There are some smart people out there trying to spread their bugs.
   
   Be careful to take your time to make decisions that could penetrate your computer.  This simulated action is going around fast because it states you must make a decision or your computer will be no good anymore.  That is simply not true.
   
   
7. Backups, Backups, Backups - Do this today.  You will eventually download and install a virus.  The ideas of trickery and misleading designs are getting stronger and smarter.  You will use your back up several times PER computer.  Yes, you will own more than one computer and you data collection will grow as you move to each new system.  It is imperative your data is transferable and backed up regularly.  It's just smart.  Don't let those 11 years of digital photo albums get erased by a bug that you, yourself, downloaded.

Some of these are basic ideas that can help even a novice computer user.  You need to be the responsible one in the relationship.  The computer will not install a virus or download a malware program by itself.  Understanding that you are the gatekeeper can be a powerful tool in helping you navigate web.

Good luck out there!

Hurry Up and Wait! If Patience Is The Key, Then Time Is The Lock...

It's 3am and my wife hasn't made it to bed yet.  I worry she isn't getting enough sleep but I know she is able to rest when needed.  This deadline of March 15th is hanging over our head as we grow closer and closer to the birth of our first child.  It is amazing the way fear turns to excitement, excitement turns into doubt, doubt turns back into excitement.  It's exhausting...

Ever since the "We're Pregnant!" moment, I have dealt with many emotions.  The ability to calmly resolve issues with my wife has become my newest skill; one of which I will never forget.  Now, in these last few weeks, the feelings have turned into a grey, murky fog with this beacon of light in the distance.  We know that like everything else, things of most importance are worth waiting for.  We continue to hurry up and wait while baby Gus takes in his last days in the womb.

I suspect the day he arrives I will be unbelievably inebriated with love and happiness.   I will flurry about until I catch my breath while my angst grows wiry trying to learn quickly the in's and out's of parenthood/fatherhood.  I have heard the warnings and the expectations of others and waded through them fairly easily.  Loss of sleep and mountains of poopy diapers in the coming years are the least of my worries.  I worry about being a father.

I can only hope to challenge Gus and give him the tools to navigate this world in his life to come.  I am never one to worry about things but I do not want to miss the opportunity to do everything I can to make sure baby Gus is prepared for what lies ahead.  The friends that are for life, the friends that become enemies, the heartbreaks, the good times, the bad times.  Of course, these are all before he is 2 years old, right?!

So, we sit around the apartment, waiting for the day our lives to change forever.  Man.....I can't wait!

Nexus One: Day 14 - Andoird 2.1 & my Fav Apps

Here we are again.  Only this time, I am no longer overwhelmed by my thick thumbs and have conquered the touchy-feely HTC touchscreen.  I now utilize the haptic feedback for the keyboard and can navigate this device with my eyes closed. Well.....almost.

In this demo I take 4 examples of ways to help yourself with the Nexus One.  This is not without saying that this functionality is also found in other mobile devices (especially other Android-based phones) but I feel the Nexus One has made it usable and easy and HERE is proof.

Whether you have seen these options before or possibly never seen them, this demo can give you insight on how to make the Nexus One more useful for you.  Get rid of the TomTom and put away your foreign language pocket dictionaries.  This phone (on phones like it) may very well do both and it's all free.



Thanks for checking out the demo...!

Please Rob Me?! 8 Ways To Be More Responsible Online

What?  Really?  A site dedicated to informing the public of your adventures?  You can not just walk out of the house and take the same non-precautions your parents did.  C'mon people, this is the 10's....uh, ok.  ;)   I fall into the range of kids that our parents rarely locked the door so this could be a tough sell.

Being responsible online is a bigger issue than one may think. Sites like http://pleaserobme.com/ stand for awareness (more than information) about a growing issue with the unbeknownst user wanting to graffiti their new Buzz update on the latest diner.  Or becoming mayor of the local Waffle House on http://foursquare.com.  It is this carelessness that can get your house uncovered, smothered and robbed!

Being proactive about your location safety can come in many forms.  One of most important no-no's is a series of updates stating an upcoming vacation or long absence.  With the uprise of twitter and Buzz, we have become maddened by the clouding of the non-essential, blotter style news that we are drifting into a pirates haven.  Thieves can have a twitter account, right?!  @iWantToRobYou......suprisingly not taken!  Makes me feel a little warmer inside....

Here are a 8 safety topics I would recommend to learn more about.  Take a second, buckle your social seatbelt and stop punching away on your phone for one minute.  We really don't need to know every time you pass by the boutique or tech shop to tout your thin, online ego...

1. Privacy Settings - Find them quick.  From foursquare to twitter to Buzz to facebook, you have a ton of privacy concerns that have already been brought up by the above statements.  Trustworthy sites make it easy to protect yourself. Make yourself aware of the depth you would like to provide to the public, if any.  Once you begin looking around, you may be surprised to see how much is actually out there.
2. Mobile Settings - Yes, your phone has a GPS.  Yes, I see you on my Latitude.  Yes, I am now bored with your location.  All phones ask who you would like to see your location.  Spending time with this familiar feature can provide easy access to turning this ON and OFF quickly.  
3. Your Updates - My personal policy is to update statuses mentioning my attack birds frequently so a would be robber will be deterred from getting pooped on relentlessly by my birds.  They are well fed.  Otherwise, I stick to ambiguous comments about the locations I am at.  I have nothing worth stealing so most of my updates are open but the advantages to being open, as opposed to anonymous, are yet to show themselves.  Use your own common sense on this.  
4. Pictures - It's always best to post pictures of your vacation when you return.  This can be a heartfelt gesture to your family and friends but your social network can include many people who don't need to know you fell off your bike in Times Square and here's the picture to prove it!  Wait til you get home, organize them and then post!  At least mobile pictures can be ambiguous...use playful comments.  Post a picture of Burger King and say, "Man, I love this place!" Then post to facebook.  Don't say, "Man, I love this place....looks like imma stay here til dinner time.  (So you can rob me!)"  
5. Digitally Cleanse your following - facebook is safe(?).  Don't quote me but at least you can confirm friends.  Unlike facebook, twitter and Buzz can become a hassle trying to cleanse your followers by hitting 'unfollow, block, report' just so you feel better.  It's the comparison to barnacles on a boat.  Spam followers inflate your following but when real people come through and notice you are not tending your flock, you lose a little social capital.  Stay on top of your followers!  It's time to clean house! 
6. Easy Target Syndrome - Yes, you!  The guy in the red shirt who hasn't looked up at this thread one time.  You are so busy with all your friends business you are forgetting you need to take some time to protect yourself.  This point is really easy to explain.  BE CAREFUL!  The police will not respond to "@911 Help Me!"  Lock your doors.  Tell family, friends and neighbors when you may be out of town.  Have a safety net for times there may be problems.  Give your landlord notice, tell pops you will be gone and don't stay gone for extended periods and notify twitter of every move. Well, unless you have menacing attack birds ready to poop on anyone who enters your home!
7. Google Yourself - Nothing represents a good old fashion confidence boost like a Google search on yourself.  For the most part, you will likely find other people in the world that share your name and yes, they do exist.  Google is probably the most comprehensive search tool available.  However, using other sites can only improve your technique for finding out who is talking about you.
8. Google Alerts - If you are web conscious already you probably already use Google Reader or Google News Alerts to scan comprehensive results and spoon feed these reports to you at an alarming rate.  Setting up a Google Alert is easy and can immediately send you details of when your name is found on the web.  Don't be shy!  Try several types of searches.  For example, I use "lucaslshaffer", "Lucas L Shaffer", "Lucas Shaffer" and "Lucas Lamberto Shaffer".  If any of these terms cross the wire, Google alerts me and I can be there before anyone else.  Be Smart!  This is very useful on many levels...

Many of these are common sense but still reflect a big part of what you CAN and CANNOT control.  You pretty much have the power to handle your online visibility and it's 'your' responsibility to monitor your online social life just as it is to monitor your in-person social life (if you still have one, yikes!)

Nothing is more important than the safety of everyones family and friends.  Take the time to learn to protect yourself, as well!

Snow Day Getaway

It is rare we see the snow in the south and yet in less than 1 year we have seen an accumulation of the flaky stuff in our area. Seeing the south in the snow is a revealing glimpse of another world. A world in which the trees are different, the rooftops shine bright and you get the feeling as if this is the first time you have seen this place.

One of the many things I enjoy about vacation is the unfamiliarity of the areas I visit. It makes me feel like I have stepped outside my comfort zone and each place I visit is new to me.

I guess that's what snow does to me.   I feel like I am somewhere else and my world has changed into a dreamy wonderland right out of a holiday movie.

So, Cheers to snow! I imagine living with it everyday can make it more of a hindrance than a cognitive catalyst!  I was able to take a mini-vacation and never leave my home with all thanks to the snow!

Nexus One: Day One

I am glad to say I now own the nexus one.  I saw an interesting piece of data come across the twitter feeds that said that only 80k have been sold.  So, of course, this means that not many people have it.  I must admit, I know of no other in my circle of tech geek friends.  I feel priveldged to be at a point with T-Mobile service to add such a great mobile device to my arsenal.

Well, here it is.  My first person demo of the nexus one.  I had no idea I would spend over 5 minutes just walking through some of these 'simple' details.  I first check out the animated logo as the phone turns on and then dive right into the basic operations.

After a quick look around, I flip it sideways and enjoy the high quality screen on landscape and jump right in to a few Google staple applications including Gmail, Calendar and Goggles. Without further adieu...



I plan to do a more in depth look at the nexus one which will uncover some things you may not be aware of.  For example, I would like to profile some uses with the camera options (much like iPhone) and also the auto-connect to Picasa Web Albums.  Until then....

Getting 'Baby Ready'...

It's beginning to feel a lot like...a baby!  As we have been lavished by gifts and finding out entire life is being summarized by one event, I can get quite lost in the days to come.  We finally have our furniture up and ready.  We have our car seat.  We have a ton of diapers and we have no more patience!  Bring him on...

Here are some photos of Gus's room and a few necessary items to make life easier.  Most of what you see is ours because some of YOU helped!  We have a great support system with family and friends and we feel loved by everyone who has extended help or just flat out extended funds!  We love you and we are happy you are all in our lives!

Nexus One: The Arrival

Even as I sit here, I am thinking about the progress of phones and the ergonomic gadgets that I have used to enhance my life.  And yet, this is my first touchscreen mobile device.  So, if I sound incredibly in awe at times and mention something many are over already then just rejoice in my pilgrimage.

The nexus one was a bit of a mythic creature where the insides are working bits and pieces of a brand; a company of such importance in my life I had an immediate attachment to this out the box.  Needless to say the overnight shipping was a dramatic series of status updates and tweets to stir the excitement for myself, among others.  I refreshed the tracking screen on Fed Ex many times in an effort to electronically tap the driver on the shoulder and ask him to hurry.

AND it 'finally' arrived in less than 24 hours.....I am already impressed.  I was heading to lunch as I refreshed my Blackberry and saw the "delivered" status.  I got that feeling my my chest where I can't think about much more than, "What now?"  My wife signed for it as the driver awoke her from her slumber. (^.^) I took a short lunch and swung by the apartment and BAM....

There it sits on my dinner room table.  Oh yeah.  I know what a Lithium battery warning mean.  Not my first overnighted tech gadget.  It might as well say, "CAUTION:  Lucas will be angry if you open this before he gets to open it!"  At least that's what Whitney sees.

I snatched it up, threw it in my truck and rode back to work.  It's like carrying a ticking bomb, except you cant want for it to explode and all the shiny screen bits get thrown at you like rice at a wedding reception.

I made it back to work, grabbed up a friend, Scott (G1 Owner), and we opened it up!

First thing Scott said was, "It looks like cologne."  He's right.  It was two boxes; one for the nexus one and the other for a docking station.  Both of these boxes share the same design.  A great idea or at least I like the prestige of the originality of the packaging as a whole.  Clearly, white is the obvious dramatic effect that reflects the google.com white space we all see every day.  "nexus one" in lower caps on the front and each shade of the Blue, Green, Red and Yellow bottom edge of the boxes match the "Google" logo colors and it's sharp; quaint, but effective.

As you can see here.  Very cool.  And just as Scott said, it does kinda look and feel like cologne packaging.  But it's heavy and solid and looks great as a desk display.  (lol)

Wasting no time, I pulled the phone box open to get my hands on this device.  Beautiful....peaceful, ready.  I stumbled through the directions only to find that the battery is bone dry and it needs to be charged.  Ok, no problem.  I have it.  I OWN it.

SO, I looked at the exterior and checked out a few more features and put it in my hand. It has a good weight.  Much like the iPhone but a bit more solid(?).  The matte finish makes the reflection of the screen stand out a bit.  The controls on the very button are part of the screen and not actually buttons as I assumed from the pictures.  I am impressed.  I haven't even turned it on yet.  This is going to be good.

The track ball is standard.  Nothing impressive, my Blackberry has a trackball and I have mastered the little rolling decision maker.

One of the offers was to engrave the nexus one with a statement or phrase or signature to the back of the case.  I thought for a moment and then decided on 'lucaslshaffer'.  I have recently focused all of my energy into creating a persona around this formal name cluster that I thought it fitting to put just that on my phone as it will be the point at which the world will connect to me.  And thru lucaslshaffer is what most people who know me now will see on the screen.  So, here it is...

Alas, this is just the arrival.  I have already began to put together the next post including video using my Flip (Thanks Whit!)  As for the charging station, it was standard. It was high-gloss and allows the nexus one to stand up and face the user at a slant.  It also has an audio output.  The 3.5 mm jack converts in to component L/R RCA jacks and is ready to play music at a corresponding input.  I will include some other pictures on the bottom of this thread.  

More to come as I struggle to find time to keep this blog and do many of the other things that are necessary to keep my head above water.  And my wife happy!

Baby Gus and the Restless Wife

33 Weeks and 2 days along and what to do, what to do!  Now it's "hurry up and wait"...

Our furniture has arrived and the nursery is buzzing with new toys and I have never been more excited than I am right now.  Gus finally has a bed and clothes and toys and everything!  I think to myself about how lucky I am to have a healthy baby boy growing inside Whitney and I am so proud of how well everything has gone.  We are very lucky....

The Game is throwing a Baby Shower for us soon and it feels great to have everyone around us, be it family or friends, care so much.  It energizes us and makes us calm our nerves.

It makes it easier to expect the unexpected.  I see the wholesome smile on my wife's face as she brings in bags of stuffed animals and books that I just know I will read over and over and over.  No matter what Whitney says and how many groans and grunts she makes I can not make myself stop asking if she is OK.  My alarms go off and I want to jump right into 'go mode'.  She is an elegant mess right now.  Happy about the baby, uncomfortable about the pregnancy and restless for some trouble free sleep...

I do my best with her.  I rub her belly and poke at baby Gus.  I think sometimes he hears my voice and tries to reach out.  It's amazing.  I keep rubbing the belly asking him if he wants to come out and play.  Not too much longer.....just have to be patient.

I can do that....

#FollowFriday - Downfall of a SuperTag...

If you know anything about Twitter you know about #FollowFriday.  This hashtag is one of the most commonly used on Twitter along with other favorites including #musicmonday and #fail.  This search pattern (#hashtag) allows the user to profile their favorite twitterers.  In many cases, this allows a follower to see other users that may be worth following.  It's a win win.  Right?   hmmph...

Lately, my feeds have shown this hashtag less and less on the past Fridays of 2010.  Where have they gone?  Why is something that once was a mainstream trending topic is now a seldom used triage for pinching at new followers?  I have addressed a few items here which may give light to why this is a 'weaning trend'.

My first observation is the sheer amount of time it takes to create a proper #FollowFriday.  To dissect a proper FollowFriday tweet you must adhere to a few rules.

1. The tweet must include #FollowFriday or #FF (or any combination of the capitalization you may find cute and unique that week)
2. You must use a mention to your follow worthy friends.  This often includes manually keying avatars or utilizing autocomplete functions that you find in HootSuite and Tweetdeck.
3. Optional:  Include a snippet of why your followers should follow them.  After all, you don't want to blindly lead someone astray if you think there is no 'real' value to be gained.  

It is simple to do, yet you can spend hours proofing and building these monster tweets while mentioning half the people you follow for different reasons.  A few of mine are simple.  I group my friends and offer them towards my speculative followers and in turn up their social capital for others to see.  I would simply mention all my photographer friends and say "#FollowFriday Fav Photogs @___ @___" and then serve this tweet to my followers.  Who knows what happened afterwards!  Sorry guys!  lol

It is very clear why #FollowFriday posts take time.  Large amounts of energy goes into this.  You can spend hours collecting your fav groups and sending them into this trending topic stream hoping they pick up a few value seeking followers.  

It is just not true.  Another observation stems from the success rate or ROI of #FF.  I personally stuck my friends out there for others to see they are quality twitterers and the stats just didn't compute.  Is it worth it? How do you measure this? You really start asking yourself these question when you log into your Twitter application and start thinking of #followfriday posts and cringe at the thought going through these motions (again).  This may very well be the common dislike shared by the novice to expert level twitterers that seek value.  

As a beginner, you made the time and found pride in building your friends follower list.  It's new and your friends were doing the same.  Your name was mentioned with some great company and you like the attention.  Then a few months pass and your efforts were colossal and your 'ROI' is minimal at best.  How do you gauge your success?   Do you poll your followers?  Simply ask, "Who has followed me from a #FollowFriday mention?"  No....you don't.

I often wonder, "If I would have spent more time managing valuable content instead of posting FollowFridays, would I have gained more 'real' followers?"  It is a question to ask next time you lean on the #ff keys.  

Albeit, #FollowFriday will not disappear.  It is still fun to show your followers who you would recommend and for what reasons.  But, unless I have gauged this trend incorrectly, time is against it as new twitterers become old pros and think of this more as a game than a tool for gaining followers.  

I will admit....I like seeing my favorite brands tweet my avatar among the many loyal fans and of course the homage that is paid by friends when your expertise has been sought after and found.

I would predict to see less and less of this hashtag in the future.

Cheers!

How to create a Yahoo Pipe to add to @HootSuite RSS/Atom feed

I briefly touched on the realm of spamming when I decided to look into adding content, or more specifically value, to my twitter accounts.  I strung several RSS feeds into usable outputs that helped me transmit new blog posts moments after they are posted.  To my surprise, this worked very well and I wanted more.

This automation feature is a great addition to my social realm.  As I wrote in “@HootSuite and the Social Media captive” ( http://ow.ly/12rvG ), I explained that monitoring feeds can be exhausting, especially when finding content that could relate to others.  @HootSuite allows for this RSS/Atom feed monitoring but also limits the feed area to 10 feeds.  As this may be plenty of room for a modest twitterer, I found 10 feeds were not enough.  Let me explain…

My need is to semi-automate a Twitter account (@AgileColumbus ) to spawn interest in others in the area on Agile Development and Methods. (note This account has been active for 4 months with hardly any use. I thought @HootSuite would be great to get info from blogs out there for others in one location).  This would also help me, too!  As I follow this feed I would stay on top of some of my favorite bloggers who lead this methodology and at the same time add “value” to a Twitter account to help others dive deeper into agile development and other notable methods.

Ok.  So, I have a problem.  I have 8 blogs bookmarked.  I also feed my blog posts and other notable blogs into my twitter account and that is more than @HootSuite would allow.  #spamfail   ;) 

So when @HootSuite recommended Yahoo Pipes I was eager to try something new.  My knowledge of RSS and other feedburner-esque sites is very limited but I was sure it would not be an issue and it turns out it is very EASY.  I went to yahoo.pipes.com and jumped right in…

Immediately, I am intimidated.  The first line I read is "Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web."  This is exactly what I was looking for.

I went directly to the main page. Logged in using my Yahoo! account and selected "Create a pipe" and called it "Agile Feeds".  The GUI is awesome.  It is clean and I feel like I can do something really cool here and I was right.

I dragged the visual component "Fetch Feed" over to graph paper area and started adding RSS/Atom feed URL's just like @HootSuite. Once I was finished adding the URLs in the ‘easy to use’ feed window, I dragged the small blue circle on the bottom of the Fetch Feed box and dragged it over to "Pipe Output". Click save and it returns a URL that links to the Pipe.  SWEET, all your feeds from one link and only one spot from @HootSuite is used.

In the end, visit My Pipes and go to your created pipe.  Once it loads, click ‘Get RSS’ and copy that URL on the page.  

Take the URL from Yahoo Pipes to @HootSuite and add it as a RSS/Atom feed and then DONE!

Pretty sweet! I know Pipes has potential to run conditional statements, do math and all kinds of automation to many things. Can you think of any other uses?

Enjoy your spamming!  >.<        (please do not spam!  ever!)

Discussion - Understanding the explanations of rule-based expert systems.

The most significant disadvantage of a rule-based expert system is its inability to justify a conclusion from a sequence of rules. Due to the expertise required for a solution, the cost of a wrong decision can be costly and understanding the decision making process can be complicated, but worth diagnosing.

If we have a basic understanding of the domain we could possibly see a ‘human’ explanation but these systems are based in a narrow, specific section of the whole domain. It may be possible to attach appropriate fundamental principles of the domain expressed as character strings to each rule. We could attach this value to every rule or at least the high-level rules and store them in the knowledge base. Using the representation of the values as a guide we could closely examine (but possibly not understand) an explanation of fired rules by reviewing the textual lists created.

I gather if we could attach string values to rules, why not attach rules to rules. I may come off sounding redundant as the rules themselves move toward other rules but I am thinking more of validation rules instead of decisions. At each crossroad, the decision could possible check the outcome of the future steps to seek the best destination after X moves. An even better approach could be to spin off multiple threads that engage more rules at once and provides multiple results. If this were possible I would imagine a throttle to set the strictness of the rules allowing a less strict setting the ability to select a rule that was not the best option in the idea where a solution further down the results list. The opposite could be said for stricter results.

I fear this is beginning to sound like conventional programming. Of course all of the elements I listed may not be possible in expert systems but the one vital processing unit is based on a rule. It’s not based on how many times we can go from start to finish, if the overhead is not costly.



Negnevitsky, Michael. Artificial Intelligence:  A Guide to Intelligent Systems.. Publisher: Addison-Wesley. Copyright: 2005. 31-35p


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_system