"attaboys" entries

Waxy on "Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's" (playable samples included!)

Andy Baio strikes again: From an anonymous source close to the company, I've found myself in possession of the "Infocom Drive" — a complete backup of Infocom's shared network drive from 1989. This is one of the most amazing archives I've ever seen, a treasure chest documenting the rise and fall of the legendary interactive fiction game company. Among the…

Everybody gets the iPhone interface

I noticed two new web applications doing something interesting: serving their iPhone interface to everyone. Muxtape uses an iPhone-style interface for its playlists, which works great on an iPhone but for the fact that the MP3s don't play (at least, for me — doesn't the iPod app load MP3s from MobileSafari? I guess not). Instapaper takes this further, and makes…

Multiuser Backpack

Congrats to my friends at 37signals for their launch of multiuser Backpack, a great upgrade to a product I love. Their new features, which let you share calendars, notes, to-do lists, and reminders with other people in a group, look perfect for the "household schedule" I've been wanting. I continue to be very impressed with how the 37s do product…

Artistic License 2.0 and … REM?!

Very cool! REM have released 11 HD music videos in MP4 format from their new album, and they've done so using the Artistic License 2.0 and asking for remixes. Radar's very own Allison Randal spent years working on that license for The Perl Foundation. I'm not sure she had rock videos in mind when she was crafting the clauses, but…

evhead: "Will it Fly?"

Evan Williams put up a great post today on evaluating business ideas, "Will it fly? How to Evaluate a New Product Idea." Required reading for entrepreneurs. I think his last criterion, "Personally Compelling," is the most important for whether an idea will succeed or fail at all. The other criteria speak to how big that success can be. I find…

Dopplr Launches

Earlier this year, I posted about Dopplr, saying it was "the coolest app I saw at ETech, by far." This morning at LeWeb in Paris, Dopplr launched, so anyone can sign up for it now. Check it out. I continue to think Dopplr is an amazing product and, having had ten or more Dopplr-facilitated lunches or coffees while on the…

Tribute to honor Jim Gray on May 31st, 2008 at UC Berkeley

A tribute to honor Jim Gray will be held on May 31st, 2008 at UC Berkeley. The general session is open to all, followed by a technical session reviewing a small fraction of Jim’s lasting contributions. Registration is required to attend the technical session. General Session Program 9:00am – 10:30am, Zellerbach Hall Opening Remarks – Joe Hellerstein A Tribute, Not a Memorial: Understanding Ambiguous Loss – Pauline Boss The Search Effort – Mike Olson Jim’s Impact on Berkeley – Mike Harrison Jim as a Mentor: Colleagues – Pat Helland Jim as a Mentor: Faculty and Students – Ed Lazowska Why Jim Got the Turing Award – Mike Stonebraker Jim’s Contributions to Industry I – David Vaskevitch Jim’s Contributions to Industry II – Rick Rashid Technical Session Program 11:00am – 5:30pm, Wheeler Hall (Registration is required) IBM/Transaction Processing – Bruce Lindsay Tandem/Fault Tolerance – Development & Effect of TPC/A Benchmark – David DeWitt DEC, Architecture, Memex and More – Gordon Bell Writing the Transaction Processing book: “Is There Life After Transaction Processing?”

Rick Dalzell's retirement tribute from Jeff Bezos

Rick Dalzell is retiring today after 10 years as Amazon’s CIO. Rick is an exceptional leader, mentor, and friend to the hundreds of people privileged to know and work with him. Jeff Bezos has given him a public tribute the site (as an easter egg), which can be found by

Goodreads

My friend Rosaclaire was patient zero in getting a bunch of our mutual friends, and me, to join Goodreads today. So now I'm getting book reviews from my friends via RSS. Useful. I'm totally in love with the LibraryThing blog but haven't fallen for the product yet. I'm not sure why Goodreads drew me in; LibraryThing seems more my style….

Travelers Tales wins Lowell Thomas Awards Again

Most people don't know about my "other" publishing company, which I started in 1994 with my brother James and his writing partner Larry Habegger, Travelers Tales. Our first book, Travelers Tales Thailand, won the Society of American Travel Writers prestigious Lowell Thomas Award for best travel book of the year. We've won it numerous times since. James just sent me…