What I like: It has got to be the most efficient invitation request site out there - I got an invitation for 8apps, Pwonce, Moola and Spock within the next hour. But I strongly suspect it has got more to do with its recent hype and surge in traffic than anything else.
What I hate: The site is buggy and its AJAX features are somewhat suspect at times. After someone has sent you an invitation, you are supposed to log back into Invite Share to verify that THAT someone has sent you an invitation. That doesn't sound like the brightest idea out there but it is better than nothing. My qualms - It is buggy. An AJAX dialog box appears that I have to click multiple times. Yucks. Anyone from the site listening to my complaints - please do something about it.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
What I Like And Hate About Invite Share
My Confession
I am a loser. I admit it, I am a loser. Internet traffic - the one thing that caused me to lose myself. Let me confess, I started this blog with the belief that if I post hard enough, if I post fast enough, I will probably get enough traffic and thus get AdSense working. I was probably thinking that was what made TechCrunch and Mashable popular. Just post about every social networking site out there. Just entitle each post as another 100 ways to do this and that. That is the sure way to attract attention and get onto Digg, Delicious, Reddit and every other bookmarking site out there. It has been 24 hours since my first post and after waking up this morning, I told myself, enough is enough.
Enough of all these nonsense. Enough of the lose of my identity. I am not going to play by others' rules. I am going to play by my own rules. From now on, no more nice words and good comments about this website and that website. I am going to say what is on my mind. I am going to blast the website if it just isn't good and I am going to post my own opinions, my views. If there is one way to get attention and make a lot of true friends in the process - it is to say the truth, tell the truth. People will learn to appreciate it. People will learn to treasure my honest comments.
I am going to say the truth about my views on technology and society and no one is going to stop me.
30-Love For You
Took me a while to figure out the reason for its name but tennis buffs will probably not find the name love30 too weird a name. Launched just a few weeks ago at the Wimbledon Championships in London, the social networking site allows users to share and upload their favorite tennis-related video clips.
The site is officially sanctioned by the ATP and the leading male tennis players BUT notice the catch - the WTA (the Women's tennis association) and basically the female tennis players are not lending their support right now. So although the site does feature a lot of behind-the-scenes clips featuring the top male tennis players, there are no official ones involving the female players, which in my opinion, is a big big negative point for the site.
The site is open to anyone right now and there are already a couple of clips floating around.
InviteShare For Sale After Short Debut
Invite exchange InviteShare has about 4000 users after it made its debut this week. Guess what, it is already putting itself up for sale. The highest bid thus far - $16,000. I am not in a position to say whether the owners are doing the right thing, but it does seem like a smart move - get popular and sell it.
For any potential buyer, this is my question. Google AdSense daily revenue for the site is reportedly $6. You would need 10 years to get back that initial investment if nothing changes. So it isn't as simple as it seems.
P.S. I just tried InviteShare. I got a Pownce invite within a few minutes of requesting. It is efficient in this respect.
Social Voting...For People
Gleamd is a social networking site where users submit profiles of people and vote on their relative popularity. Reminds me of college and the various popularity contests.
It is currently a closed-beta. Matt McInerney is the founder.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
List Of Applications Running on the Adobe Integrated Runtime
- Pownce by Leah Culver, Daniel Burka, Kevin Rose, Shawn Allen
- Pownce Desktop Client by the guys above
- San Dimas by eBay
- mxnaQUBE by Phil Chung
- VEED by Ben Honda-Rottler
- Apollo Twitter Application by Lee Brimelow
- MyMovieMatch beta by matchmine
- Kuler Desktop by Adobe
- Tweetr by Bluespark
- SearchCoders Dashboard by Searchcoders
- StudioCloud by StudioCloud
- yourminis.com Desktop Widgets by goowy media, inc.
- Finetune Desktop by Finetune
- CodePeek PureMVC Demo by PureMVC
- Apollo 3D Test Application by rost
- Employee Directory by Adobe
- Fresh by Adobe
- MapCache by Adobe
- Maptacular by Adobe
- PeekAgenda by Adobe
- PixelPerfect by Adobe
- Salsa by Adobe
- Scout by Adobe
- ScreenPlay by Adobe
- Signet by Adobe
- MINI DIGG by Joe Johnston
- D'Lite by Thai Huynh
- DiggGraphr Desktop by Arpit Mathur
- AppleCare Search for AIR by Jack in The Box Software, Inc.
- Apollo Picasa by Denis V.
- OnAIR by Edward Mansouri
- AddressBookExtreme by Edward Mansouri
- Adobe-Announcements by Razvan Andrei Surdu
- AIR in Flight by Mike Givens
- AIR Flex by Mike Givens
- AIR Math Quiz Bowl by Mike Givens
- Adobe AIR Music Player by Peter Ent
- AIR Video Player by Mike Givens
- Air's eyes by lafabrick.com
- AIRTV by Edward Mansouri
- Apollo Desktop Photos by Janvarev Vladislav
- CleVR Stitcher by Sphex LLP
- DiggTop by gskinner.com
- EarthStats by Xe-Media
- Educator Desktop by Edward Mansouri
- FlexManiacs by Edward Mansouri
- Flickrin by Ashwinee Dash
- FotoBooth by Rich Tretola
- HTMLExample by Edward Mansouri
- iPhone by Knoware 2007
- Limitless Quest by Andrew Wooldridge
- MAX 2007 Countdown by Mike Givens
- Mii Editor by MiiEditor.com
- Model Selector by Kaushik Datta
- MonitR by Brandon Ellis
- MyVacation by Edward Mansouri
- NabAIR by Niels Bruin
- Onyx-VJ by Onyx-VJ
- Project Tracker by Jacob Wright
- Qurl by Ronnie Liew
- scripKeepR by Chris Seahorn
- Spirograph by Kaushik Datta
- StudioCloud by DaVinci's Desk Inc.
- test-browser by saumya ray
- toteNpost by Chris Seaborn
- Tweetr by Bluespark Interactive
- TwittAIR by theflexblog
- twitterAIR by Aaron West
- Vehicle Comparison by Kaushik Datta
- WebSnapshot by Daniel Wanja
The Most Beautiful Training Videos Online
Total Training Online is a video website that offers subscription to their array of online training videos. The topics on offer include Flash, Access, ASP.Net, Expression, the CS3 Suite and the list goes on and on. In essence, the videos on offer are very well-updated and comprehensive.
What is most impressive is the high quality of the streaming videos. I thought it looked to be shot in HD to me and true enough, according to Total Training, all their videos were shot in full high-definition. There is also a separate website tab that gives you access to all the project files that you need.
A free 2 day pass gives users the ability to watch 20 minutes of each course. An all access pass cost $250 annually while there are also separate passes for their Microsoft, Adobe and CS3 suites.
Check it out, the videos look gorgeous.
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| Total Training Online |
Windows Live Mobile Search Version 2.0 Gets Online
Version 2 of Windows Live Mobile Search adds movie showtimes, more local data, mobile virtual earth maps and directions.
The application is available for download free and provides coverage of both the US and the UK. Versions for three platforms are currently available - .Net for Windows Mobile devices, J2ME for other platforms and a beta Blackberry version.
Brain Games For The Web Generation
Started by a Stanford University graduate, Lumosity is a website that guides you through a series of brain tests that have been designed to increase your brain power (memory, attention, processing speed and cognitive control). A progress tracker records your progress while most of the tests are flash-based.
Lumos Lab lists are many as 8 Ph.D.s who are advisers to the cognitive fitness program. The fees for usage of the website, as expected, as not cheap. There is a 2-week trial after which users will have to pay $79.95 for a full year of usage.
The free Lumosity blog does provide very useful health information for free though.
Full marks for the creative use of technology and full marks for its health benefits. The yearly fee is still too costly in my opinion.
Auctomatic For Ebay Users
Auctomic is a tool that is aimed at online business owners. It was designed to give sellers the ability to monitor real-time inventory levels. At the same time, it makes use of listing
templates, scheduling and bulk listing to aid in the sales of items. The site is expected to work well with eBay.
The founders include Harjeet Taggar, Kulveer Taggar, Patrick Collison and John Collison. John and Patrick are brothers. Paul Graham and Paul Buchheit (employee 23rd at Google) are some of the investors.
Initial angel investing has already raised $400k on top of the funding Paul Graham's Y Combinator provided.
Interested users can sign up to be notified at launch.
The Best P2PTV Service You Have Never Heard Of
Before Joost there was Zattoo. Started in June 2006, the P2PTV service grants users access to European channels and licensed content. The project was started by researchers from the University of Michigan and the private company currently has offices in Zurich (Switzerland) and San Francisco.
Unfortunately, content is currently restricted to viewing in the following 
countries - Switzerland, Denmark, Spain and the United Kingdom. The video format is based on H.264 and is generally of very high quality. Clients area are available for Mac OS X and Windows 2000, XP and even Vista.
According to the company, one out of five broadband user in Switzerland currently uses Zattoo, which is amazing statistics for any internet company.
Using Technology To Make A Wish Come True
Wishood was first launched at the end of 2006. Co-founder Liar Katz was inspired to create the website after he realized how fun "wish exchanging" was with his wife. His current goal - to help people make their wishes come true.
Users can choose to make a wish or grant a wish. By describing their wishes in detail, users can utilize the website to make their wishes known. On the other hand, the website also allows users to browse through wishes and grant wishes. The user whose dream gets granted may then wish to write a testimonial about the granter of the wish.
A website that is simply just good karma.
I like the motto - "Behind every name there's a world of wishes"
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| Wishood |
Skiners Joins The P2PTV Crowd With Silverlight Solution
London-based Skinkers have been working on a P2P solution named LiveStation that gives users the 
ability to watch live television. Microsoft Research has a minority stake in Skinkers while the guy sat Skinkers have also done some work with the Redmond company before.
It is one of the first service to be based on Microsoft's Silverlight technology. Currently, there is only one channel but several broadcasters have expressed interest. It is envisioned to be able to provide audience the ability to watch TV on a variety of screens - at home, cell phones and at public places.
A beta version is available for Windows while a Mac version is currently in the works. The final version is due out this October.
A LiveStation video demo below:
Video: LiveStation Demo
