MonkeyCity

Ugh

2007-11-27T23:46:00.000-05:00

http://exo-blog.blogspot.com/2007/11/update-re-testing-vista-w2gb-ram-office.html

I have nothing else to say.

Speaking of OpenSocial ...

2007-11-07T00:16:00.001-05:00

I'm working on exposing Random Photo of Me like functionality in OpenSocial. It's mostly just an exercise, but it will allow you to display photos that you're tagged in on Facebook on any site that's acting as an OpenSocial container. Given that Facebook isn't participating in OpenSocial, I'm definitely interested in doing more of this type of integration. Should be fun. Sessions are a challenge, but such is life.

What I've missed ...

2007-11-07T00:04:00.001-05:00

OpenSocial - Google's new "Facebook Platform killer." After spending a weekend with it, I can say it's currently a nightmare. It's like they shoved their Google Gadget API into Orkut, and then called Orkut an "OpenSocial container." RockYou was one of the first to have an OpenSocial app up and running, and it was hacked within 45 minutes.

Facebook Ads - Ads that are both targeted and viral. I honestly have no idea how this is going to impact Facebook. In general, ads don't directly benefit the user.

Facebook Beacon - This is actually kind of cool. It's a way for external sites to publish your actions into Facebook. So, if I buy a movie ticket at Fandango, I can optionally have it post in my news feed that I'm attending the 9:30pm showing of Enchanted. It's hard not to look at this as a small response to OpenSocial, even though I'm sure it's been in the works for quite a while.

Windows Live - New services were officially released today. I'm using Windows Live Writer to compose this blog post. It's pretty slick, and was completely plug and play. Windows Live Mail also offers some slight improvements over Windows Mail, such as stationary, photo mail, emoticons, and other less flashy things I haven't noticed.

Apple is working on an SDK for the iPhone/iPod Touch

2007-10-17T11:33:00.000-04:00

From http://www.apple.com/startpage/:

"Third Party Applications on the iPhone
Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers. It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target. Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs. We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones. Steve P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch."

All I can say is: awesome.

Popfly is the bomb!

2007-10-16T21:11:00.000-04:00

If you haven't checked out Popfly yet, you must.

http://www.popfly.com

To prove it's awesomeness, here's an embedded mashup that took me 30 seconds to create. It's pulling in photos that I'm tagged in on Facebook.

2 out of 3 Wii owners do not play with their Wii

2007-10-16T18:28:00.000-04:00

I knew it would happen. The Wii will not survive long term.

From the article:

"It's not all good news for Nintendo, though. Hamamura noted that the Wii hasn't seen a second big hit at the level of Wii Sports, and cited figures that suggest 67% of Wii owners haven't used the system of late. However, he admitted that Wii Fit is drawing attention, and added that it's possible that more games make the platform switch akin to Monster Hunter 3."

http://games.ign.com/articles/827/827313p1.html

Sox are in the playoffs. Know what that means?

2007-10-12T15:27:00.000-04:00

Traffic!

It looks like the iPhone apps are finally running on the iPod Touch

2007-10-11T20:29:00.000-04:00

It's about time! It looks like someone has finally hacked the iPhone apps on to the iPod Touch. The problem is that they've used an exploit that will likely be fixed in a future firmware update.

What's a hacker to do? Enjoy the apps while they last, or hold out for a better solution?

http://www.touchdev.net/wiki/Jailbreak_Guide

What I'm Playing: The Orange Box Edition

2007-10-11T13:39:00.000-04:00

The Orange Box is a new collection from Valve that includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. It's really the last two that are the most interesting.

Portal is a single player game that is a bit mind bending. It's like a first person platformer, but you're equipped with a "portal gun" that allows you to create a portal that connects one surface with another. For instance, you can shoot one side on the wall, and one side on the ceiling, walk through, and you'll be falling from the ceiling. It gets really interesting when you start thinking about momentum, which the game handles really well.

Team Fortress 2 is the sequel to, you guessed it, Team Fortress. TF2 is class based, and as you can tell from it's name, is very team orientated. What's somewhat unique about it are the cartoon-like graphics. Given how wacky the classes are (Pyro, Demoman, to name a few), it actually seems to work better than life-like graphics would have.

Anyway, I'd highly recommend the The Orange Box. It's out for the 360 and PC, and a PS3 version is on it's way. Portal and TF2 are worth the price of the game alone, and if you haven't played any of the HL2 games, that's just an added bonus.

http://orange.half-life2.com/

Here it is!

2007-10-11T12:19:00.001-04:00

My feeble attempt to start blogging.