Well, it looks like I may have this thing resurected...maybe. I don't think this is the latest version of the software, I will have to check on that, maybe even upgrade to the latest.
My google maps no longer work. There are some other issues as well. But for now, this is what it is.
Sitting here in the park, kiling some time with the ducks and the radio before work, and I hear another one of the miriad of 'Big Game' ads come on...ads relating to the game whose name we do not speak. hmmm...Superbowl Superbowl Superbowl Superbowl. Nothing happened, no lightning, no fire from the sky...although, for just a moment, I was reminded that the Superbowl is this Sunday, and I might want to watch.
It's silly how these terrestial companies think. I would love it if I read 'Excio' all over the web, free advertising being free and all. Could you imagine not being able to say Google or Microsoft? Would we have to say 'The evil one' and 'The All Seeing Eye' every time we wanted to speak of them? ~sorry Robert 'The Open One'~ Maybe I just don't see the harm in thousands of people pimping you event for free, go figure.
BTW, this is another post from my iPaq hw6515. Interested? Get in touch, I'll hook you up.
I ran across Rick's blog again today, again it was via Scoble,
but the topic is near and dear to my heart, maybe I should follow
Rick's blog a little more closely. Rick is a venture
capitalist...he's the guy with all the money that I so readily desire
in the pursuit of my 4 million dollars.
The thing is, that while it seems so easy to start up a little web 2.0
empire in Rick's world, I find the whole thing to be dishearteningly
difficult. I'm not quite sure where I am going wrong.
The idea is brilliant: Create a blogging portal where bloggers can tie
geographical information to individual blog posts, then let readers
aggregate said posts via location as opposed to user or group. I
could subscribe to the George R. Brown convention center to see who is
blogging the home show, and then remain subscribed to the location, and
let the variety of people from other conventions ebb and flow through
my aggregator.
The patents: probably shouldn't talk about that....so I won't.
The marketing efforts: If you are here, you probably discovered me
through a link to either Rick or Scoble. You may have come in as
a result of my spot on one of the streaming rv radio sites that I have
been on, or the geocaching sites, or the forums....or any one of the
gazillion places that I have gone to in an effort to get people
interested in GeoBlogging. I built it, and they are not
coming. Maybe a dozen people have signed up, and then flittered
off into the darkness. It makes me sad.
So Rick, what am I doing wrong? Where is the effort I'm putting
out disapating into the ether? I don't get it. I don't
think that the idea is the problem, it's cool tech. Is the site
ugly? Is it hard to navigate? Is there someone else doing
this that is doing a better job of it that I may have missed?
These are questions that you could answer for me Rick, questions I
can't answer with my Amex, or my Visa, or my line of credit.
Maybe the easy road out would be the quick buyout by another company,
but then what would I do? The idea is gone, the code is gone, the
list of ideas to improve it is worthless, because it's not my idea any
more. My idea now belongs to company "X", and they will do with
it as they please. What if you're a guy who actually wants to
build stuff, watch it grow, pour your soul into it....and you just
happen to be a little web 2.0? We don't need alot, but we could
use some help. I hope you figure out whatever it is that you need
to to get the price points in line to make us worth your time. It
sounds like you're trying.
Chillin outside the Toyota center waiting for the doors to open. We showed up a bit early tonight so Brandon could get in some rehearsal time, he'll be singing the national anthem tonight with his class before the game. They won't be opening the doors for another 15 minutes o so, so we're killing some time in the car...trying to keep warm.
I was just cruising through the web and found this little gem over on Scoble's site. I'm jazzed about all of the activity on the new phones, infact I love what I can do on my hw6515. The GPS functionality was part of the inspiration for this site in fact, and the geoblogging ability that I have coded into it. I have also gone as far as to have written a location aware Windows Mobile Aggregator / Blog Posting application that I use for many of the posts you see here on my blog. It's the best.
I still don't do a heck of alot of surfing on it though, it's too slow in the North Houston area, and the screen is truncated on this model. I also gave up some stuff like personalized ringtones on a per caller basis, and have some issues with the un-speedy speed dial, but all in all....it's a cool phone. Take away the GPS though, and I would probably shelve it for a more compact model. GPS *IS* the killer app for me. Anyone else have this phone?
I Love living in The Woodlands, seriously I do. The whole idea of this community was to create a well planned, heavily wooded, family oriented place for people to call home. Well...mission accomplished. The location I have geocoded is a small playground located off of a trail in the woods near our home. The Woodlands area is full of little tucked away areas where you can go play with your kids, or your dogs...or both, like I am ight now. --This post is from the hw6515-- I'm told that there are something like 200 miles of maintained trails in this area, most of which I don't use enough of.
I got conned into buying one of those new cinnamon latte drinks over at starbucks this morning. It wasn't te best by any means, kinda like dinking a cinnamon bun. In any case, I wouldn't recommend it, especially at 4 dollars and change for a grande. Damn!
This morning I added a Google MAp control to the headers of the
individual posts as a refrence to where the post is actually taking
place. I love the way that the Google Map api works, and am
excited to share this functionality with all of you. If you are
going to sign up for a new blog, use the LuxInterior skin for the time
being, it is the only one that has the mapping code on it for the
moment.
*UPDATE* All of the skins now have the Google Maps.
This right here is exactly what I had in mind when I built this site, that somewhere a guy, just like myself, could sit at a park bench and leave his thoughts about the place where he was. Today, here at the H.E.B. I got some soda and grapes for lunch, after a nice walk from the office. Such a nice day for a walk. I was thinkin on the way over, that it would be cool if I gave a distance from the provied location in the feed to that of te post, to kind of give a topigraphica!...spatial reference between the readers and the blogger. Something like"26hrs ago and 212yds from this spot Hank said:" That might be helpful, no.
Now with configurable user info. This mobile app is coming along so nicely. As a web developer, I really have to say that I enjoy working on this pocket pc platform. It reminds me of the old days when you tried like all Hell to keep your total page size below 20k...images and all, kidohs. Back in the day, we didn't have no fancy shmancy broadband. We had to walk uphill in the snow to get our web pages, both ways mind you :)
It looks like I'm ready to beta the spatially aware feed reader/blogging tool that I have built for the iPaq hw6500 series phone. It has the ability to aggregate posts based on your current location, and also to post entries to your blog with your current location recorded back at the server.
If anyone is interested in testing this app, and being the first on the block with a gps based blogging tool on your cool new phone, you can contact me at hank@excio.com
Very exciting stuff happening here today, this will be the first post
from my custom ipaq app. Looks like there ae no angle brackets on this
keyboard, and I havn't added the virtual keyboad to the ap since the
phone has one. Might want to rethink that one...
Sitting at the pub at The Summit at Snoqualmie ski area while the boy has his first ski lesson. Nice area up here, lots to do. We were up yesterday for snow tubing, and back again today for the skiing. I'm sad that I don't live someplace like this, but I can work at it I guess.
If you find yourself in the pub, the Sumit coffee is quite good, and they treat you good as well.
So much to do up in this part of the country, it makes Texas look as if it were lacking, and for the most part...I believe that it is.
Sitting in he observation deck at the paradise ranger station on Mt. Rainier. I can't put into words just how cool this is up here. The lounge has a 360 degree view of the snow covered mountain peaks and valleys that surround it. The tall pines are occasionally topped with some varieties of eagle or hawk, I don't know one from the other, I only know that they are magnificent. I love this place, and I dislike Houston more for having come here.
We are staying at a lodge situated a few miles down the mountain from here, it's nice, but rustic. No phone or television in the rooms, or in the common spaces, but they do have a pay phone, since there is no cellular service either. We all played Monopoly in the common room of the lodge last night. I dominated with the patented Hank hotelier strategy. I expect the same this evening.
Birthday lunch with Brandon. My reccomendation would be to make lunch reservations, you'll see more, and save some money. Observation deck included with lunch, $125 for 3 with tip, but a unique experience for all.