Playing with Google Wave and Embedded Blogs

Well One Year and 3 Months Ago on this Jaiku post (gotta love Jaiku) I wrote

"What I've always thought would be good was to be able to use a microblog embedded into popular blogs as comments. This wouldn't work if you set up your own microblog but a feature such as Jaikus channels that you could have member posting and guest posting (using a Capatcha or something) would be ace. Maybe some open source guru could build that into Laconica/Identi.ca"

There was more to it than just that, but read the post if you are bored and you'll see. Anyway I was alerted to Disqus which was sort of getting there and has improved since.

Anyway, Jaiku had its issues, but seems to be coming back into its own and I moved to Twitter (the shame). I still however like the idea of threaded conversations embedded into blogs, but built around a community.

Could Google Wave be the answer?

Hopefully below is an embedded wave on which you could comment. I'm not sure if those not on wave can see it. Either way add your thoughts and comments to Wave or Disqus below.

What Is On Wavey's iPhone

I've spent a good couple of hours adding, deleting and re-ordering applications on my iPhone today. Nearly all 'home screen' bookmarks gave been removed and I've tried some reorganising loosely into themes.

In honour of Gerrymoths Nokiaaddict regular posts on what he installs on his various phones (see E71 example here)I thought a quick post of what is on my iPhone now would be of use.

Of course I'm a lazy a**e so there are no links, no real descriptions or anything. However Gerry, even poor imitation, is a form of flattery.

There are many so Apps, (this is just a snapshot of mine), and many ways to organise them, here are some screenshots of my layout.

Firstly the Front page, (not so important now the iPhone has Spotlight).



Next up Social Networking - I'm trying out lots of Twitter Stuff at the moment.



Office Applications - I don't wear a tie that often ;)



News and Music (including Music Based games.



Photo and Video Stuff - All good, but the one thing that makes me miss the Nokia



Games I Play - Peggle is SO ADDICTIVE



More Games lined up to try



Sport - Wimbledon was on here a week ago.



Finally Travel and Location based stuff.



So there you have it, this is how I've organised my iPhone and what I've installed. How do you manage yours? Leave a comment and let me know.

Lomo Fisheye #2 photos

While in Hong Kong we bought a couple of Cameras from the Lomography Store. One was the Supersampler which I've yet to run a roll of film through, and the other was the Fisheye #2.

This was the first time I've used a Film Camera in over 10 years, (the last time I remember was firing a couple of shots off on Mrs Waveys APS camera on our Honeymoon).

The results were mixed and because of the extreme range of the lens a couple came out with fingers and thumbs in the shot.

I tried a few experimental night shots with double exposures, flash (built in, ring flash and external) but they were all dreadful.

Hopefully I've learnt something, but have a lot more to learn


Click here to see this set on Flickr

Běijīng a short stop over

It was Mrs Waveys special Birthday in November, (shh don't tell her I told you that), and I decided to take here on a surprise holiday. I'd heard about Harbin and the Ice Festival (more about that later) and thought I'd couple that with Chinese New Year in luxury in Hong Kong.

This is how I packaged it up for the birthday present (photos of the Ice and Snow festival were inside the Ice Sculpture which had melted by Birthday Morning).



Anyway. I couldn't get a direct flight to Harbin so it meant that we had to have a stopover in Beijing. This was a bit frustrating, because we knew we wouldn't be able to do the place justice at all, but we did get a little look around to get the flavour of the place.



You read about the Traffic in Beijing, but it really is amazing. The rules of the road seem to be that you can do anything as long as you beep your horn a lot. If you are a pedestrian or cyclist your job is to ignore the horn. It wasn't uncommon to look out of a taxi window and see a bike driving towards you. It was a good job that the average speed in Beijing was only 15KMH. Talking of Taxis, none of the drivers had done the knowledge. Many times we drove around in circles looking for our hotel. Even with a Taxi Card it wasn't that easy to find.



Whilst walking through the city we saw a number of people were going through a particular door, and being curious, we followed. We found ourselves in the Olympic Souvenir shop and experienced our first taste of Chinese shopping. We selected our item from one Girl who wrote us a multi copy receipt. We were then walked by another person to the payment counter. Having paid the receipts were stamped and then we were give 2 back and were walked back to finally get our present from the original person. There is something to be said for full employment!



Anyway, we didn't see any Olympic Venues, we didn't go to the Great Wall, (but saw it from the plane), and we didn't do a hundred other things, but we did go to Tiananmen Square and walked into the city seeing some good night markets. I only wish we could have stayed a little longer. What came next, however, was well worth leaving Beijing for



To see more photos go to my Beijing Flickr Set

Help - The problems of relying on a service

Those of you that know me probably know that I tend to spend my time in the on-line world on Jaiku. Jaiku appeared around the same time as the much more well known Twitter but whilst Twitter opened up to the general public quickly, Jaiku stayed an invite only service, and therefore Twitter grew quickly and Jaiku, despite the best intentions of users and services like Jaiku Invites became the forgotten service.

However in some ways this was good for Jaiku. Whilst spammers and people who just liked their own voices hit Twitter, Jaiku formed real communities and real conversations formed. This was partly down to jaikus threaded conversations. There were stupid threads, games, heated debates, first dates, marriages and divorces documented on the "ku" alongside hurricanes, product announcements and the perhaps more obvious help with phones, operating systems and the like. These were all easy to follow, no searching was required, no third party trend following applications needed, it just worked.

Then something happened. Google bought Jaiku. Oh how we cheered. There were all sorts of rumours about how Jaiku would change. With the mighty power of Google behind it there was no stopping the service. Not only would it open up and eclipse Twitter, but it was to be an integral part of Android, or become part of Gmail. I began to get nervous that soon Jaiku would just be full of people spamming. Also that the Jaiku Mobile App for Nokia may never get out of beta with Android taking its place. Meanwhile Twitter was going down regularly, the fail whale a regular appearance, lots of Jaiku gloating going on.

Then in August last year Jaiku went down. Most people very patient but nerves started to appear. There was little info on what was going on and for the first time people began to wonder if Google had bought the service or the talent behind it. Having invested most of my time in Jaiku I was just a bit stuck for somewhere to go. I looked at Twitter (still suffering), Identi.ca (the new black) and Rejaw a new application. For me Identi.ca was all concept no substance, and being open source was a haven for those with a far more technical bent than me. Rejaw was the closest thing to Jaiku I could find with threaded conversations and a small but growing community.

I had a problem though, I like many of my Jaiku friends had a Nokia smartphone. One of the great ideas behind micro blogs (which admittedly Rejaw wasn't claiming as its main role) is that it is suited to the mobile phone, by text, application or mini browser. Rejaw had no mobile app (an iPhone app in the making) and didn't work in the Nokia browser. My Jaiku friends were scattering to the 4 winds.

Then Jaiku came back. Still no idea of what was going on but it worked. Calm was restored and although it wasn't quite the same it was good. I stayed with Rejaw as well because I like it, and it was a little easier for me having an iPhone. Many people had second services and had drifted off a bit.

Then come January 2009 it was announced that Jaiku was going open source. Some people thought this the beginning, some the end. I was just disappointed that Google didn't follow the potential of this service.

Then Jaiku failed again. The Robin has been showing up more and more and the service has got very frustrating. Many long standing Jaiku users are jumping ship (to the four winds). At the time of writing Jaiku is back up but it has left me with a horrible feeling.

Where am I going with this disorganised ranting? I don't know. It is more of a where I am going.

I have relied on Jaiku as a central hub for too long. I don't blame the developers who provided me with a FREE service. I don't deny them the opportunity to move on to bigger and better things and get paid to do so by a huge influential company that wants to use there talent. I'm pleased they are still spending time on it.

Whilst I love Jaiku I don't blame those who have got frustrated and gone elsewhere, especially those that use it for more than 'fun' social networking. It's just that I feel a little homeless and I am currently doing the thing I dislike most, spraying my digital scent around the internet territory with no real means of patrolling that territory well. Where do I go, where do I belong?

Rejaw is great, but under used and no good for Nokia users and possibly others outside the Web/iPhone world.

Twitter - Good for watching Celebrities, if that is your bag, and everyone seems to be on it. Lots of mobile apps to. On the downside it seems full of spammers and nigh on impossible to follow a conversation with any ease. Lots of shouts, little conversation.
Identi.ca - Actually coming on really well (the power of open source). Just a little technical for me, and if more people get using it then it will be as hard to follow a conversation as Twitter. I do believe it could grow and grow though.

So I'm lost. Trying out various things and applications on my phone and PC to try and make sense of the microblog community. I'm trying Tweetdeck, La Twit, Twitterfon and Friendfeed at the moment. I can't rely on Jaiku alone and I'm too lazy to keep up with everything unless it is easy.

Can anyone help me?

Mr and Mrs Waveys Pig

wavey3444, originally uploaded by psychlura.

This is our own pig lovingly photoshopped by Psychlura (http://www.flickr.com/photos/26307767@N08/) one of the Artists who has been heavily involved in the King Bladuds Pig Project and the creator of Piguana and Anubis.

This now has pride of place on the Mantelpiece in the Wavey Household (its only about 20cm long)

The Origins of Weblebrity?

The Best Thing I've Ever Seen - Number 1

Number 1 in a random series of... um well when I can be bothered really (I'm Pretty Lazy/Busy as you can probably see).

Ok I used to think Blogger Play was really great. This shows random photos/graphics as they are uploaded to Blogger which can be played at various speeds. Some of the photos are obviously personal, some swiped from elsewhere and some graphics. If anything takes your fancy you can click on it and it takes you directly to the blog in question. I believe it was developed as an internal toy for blogger staff to play with.

Go on try it its cool.

However between them Mario Klingemann and Oleg Marakov have created something so awesome that I've officially titled it "The Best Thing I've Ever Seen (until I find the next thing)".

Take Flickr photos that are random, but not completely, as each additional photo shares a tag with the previous one. Do clever flash things so that they fade and warp into each other, as well as other effects such as zooming and scanning. Add a random Ambient soundtrack made up of a series of clever samples that work together to create a never ending song.

What you are left with is an 'Art House' style continuous film which is quite hypnotic in style.

Its called "Islands of Conciousness" and it can be enjoyed by clicking here

Nokia N95 one year on - An assessment (Part 1)

Whilst rifling through my things yesterday, trying desperately to find some misplaced tickets, I stumbled upon my N95 documentation. Much to my surprise I discovered that today, "3rd April", is a year to the day since I first purchased the N95. I remember reading a preview of it in the Gadget Porn magazine Stuff, (it could have been T3), at the tail end of the previous year. Immediately I lusted after it as a replacement for my Sony K750i.

Without signing up to some ridiculous contract, I knew that I wanted one as soon as possible after it came out. I didn't expect it to take quite as long for it to emerge. I knew it would be a special phone, but I didn't quite realise it would change the way I use technology, and how much. The marketing term "Its what computers have become" was more than just marketing.

So looking at its features and how I've used them

Phoning

The obvious one, but it wasn't actually explained how to make a phone call until Page 93 of the manual (something at the time I described in a forum as the N95s hidden feature). I honestly probably make phone calls the least. I don't use VoIP (but don't have many foreign contacts or anything that might make me want to do this). I've never used Video calls and I'm not sure that I can try Push to Talk, nor have I ever heard of anyone doing so. I've made my own ring tones, assigned personal ring tones and played with the 3D settings etc.


Features 10/10 (not sure what else I would want)
Usage 4/10 (Indispensable but not used as much as other things)

Texting

Used a lot. Pretty good but no smileys (surprisingly). Easy to send texts to groups of people as well. A download from Nokia (Conversation) allows texts to be followed as conversations (a bit like a threaded forum). Multimedia Texts are easy as well and photos will be re-sized as needed. I also tried out an animated message application called Yoyap. Fun but most of my mates phones come from another era.

Features 8/10 (wot no smileys)
Usage 6/10 (could do more with Multimedia but I'm too lazy)

Email

Initially I set up my email accounts on the Phone and set it to auto poll. It was kind of great getting alerts to messages every 15 to 30 minutes when friends and colleagues only managed to log on once a day (got lots of free Cinema tickets this way). Two things though that annoy, battery life and not getting all of the email only the headings.

I also tried push email (I used emoze but there are others). Brilliant, but battery again is the problem.

I've settled on using more web based email services now, and the Gmail app is excellent, Yahoo Go is OK, and I also tried a Windows Live app. I tend to avoid windows. (so the Windows Live app may be good but only lasted a week).

Funnily enough you can also "just" log on to your web based email sites using the browser, but hey that would be too simple wouldn't it?

Features 7/10 (Headers/Battery)
usage 7/10 (Would beat blackberry to a pulp if the battery lasted)

Part 2 etc coming soon Happy Birthday My Little N95

Jogku (or Run Fat Boy Run)

Phones can get you into trouble.

You know, you fancy a really expensive model for no particular reason, you buy it, and then you feel compelled to find a reason to have it.

That's how I found all these blogs

...and that's how you find all these forums

...and that's how you find and try all these amazing free applications

...and thats how I found myself weighing myself and going for a run for the first time in 20+ years.

Firstly over at Nokia Geek Matt was trying an application called Nokia Sports Tracker and came up with the idea that he should undertake Geek Fitness in order to get fit. Willpower being the equivalent of the Nokia N95s battery (short lived) it didn't last very long.

Then over at Symbian Guru Ricky, in view of his impending nuptials, announced Geek Vs Guru thinking that the two of them would spur each other on. It was working, but due to other circumstances Matt is currently unable to partake. Therefore Ricky has opened up the offer to others.

I also have Nokia Sports Tracker (out of curiosity) but thought it was brilliant. Just needed something to use it for. I also have a brilliant little application on the phone, and use via the PC, called Jaiku. This is a brilliant microblogging application (a bit like Twitter) where MunkiMatt and Ricky just happen to hang out. Several guys were talking about also joining Ricky and Matt and thats how Jogku happened.

So I'm in, have taken my first, albeit short, run and it half killed me. Still there should be more to come, if others take up the challenge (come on you know who you are). They should get better and this fattish, nearly 40 year old will either prosper, die or more likely give up.

The Weigh In
This is the bit I hated most

The First Jogku

Click here to see the Route on Sports Tracker

Visions of the future?

This is what I really am



This is what I aspire to