I recently wrote an article for the Click Here Insights Blog describing the pitfalls of creating solutions based around using technology for technology’s sake. I used Wave as an example of this common mistake and for good reason. Google Wave utilized some revolutionary browser enhancements. So revolutionary in fact, that Wave never worked in Internet Explorer. Google handicapped it’s creation from the start by the simple fact that it did not work at all in the browser that over 50% of all people use to view the internet. Now, I hate IE as much as the next bloke, but when you want your product to be accepted by a wide audience then it might be a good idea to make sure that you aren’t limiting the reach of that product.

The argument for the lack of IE support is the advanced browser technology like being able to view others typing in real time. What follows is an example of the typical users reacting to real time typing.

“Wow, we can actually see each other typing in real time.” This was the immediate reaction which was invariably followed by the second reaction: “That’s really annoying, how do I turn that feature off?”

Of course you couldn’t do, although Google was kind enough to give us a grayed-out button just so we knew that someday in the distant future we would be able to turn it off. As if waiting to receive functionality that is actually the default behavior in hundreds of instant messaging clients wasn’t frustrating. Or perhaps the ability to remove someone from a wave? Such simple and most would say essential functionality failed to ship with the beta release of Wave. Yes it was beta, but let’s face it, the product was not in any shape to be released to public testing when invites started to go out last year.

And who can forget Dr. Wave? He was the annoying….err, I mean friendly mascot for Google Wave. He was so annoying….err, helpful in his tutorial videos that really didn’t explain much of anything about how someone should actually use Wave. I guess it didn’t really matter if the videos were helpful or not because any sane person couldn’t sit through the entire thing. Seriously, that guy made me wish for Clippy the anthropomorphic paper clip from Microsoft Office. Now that was a mascot that was worthy of all of my hatred and scorn.

At least once you got passed the broken or missing functionality, the lack of standard browser support and the super annoying mascot the user interface was intuitive right? Wrong! After using Wave for a year I still can’t easily navigate my way around the thing. Why must I browse for extensions in the same interface that I use for my inbox? How do I add a contact if they don’t have a Google account…or if I just don’t know what it is? Why do I continually click in the wrong place in a wave and then I’m only replying to one waver and not the entire distribution list? And when I do make this mistake why is it near impossible to delete my reply.

It’s not that Google Wave was a bad idea, if fact, I originally thought that the technology has some serious potential. I wrote an article after watching the I/O about how project managers could harness the new communication process presented in Wave to better collaborate with teams locally or spread out across the world. The problem was, like it is with so many of Google’s properties, that the tech giant did not support it. All of the issues I outline above could have been easily remedied if only Google had responded when users complained about them. Alas, Wave looks and acts today much as it did upon it’s birth just over one year ago. It’s major defects left unaddressed and it’s potential left unrealized. Personally I hope that Google incorporates some of the advances from Wave into it’s other web properties. Gmail, Google Reader and Google Docs could all benefit from the lessons learned from Wave. If Google can do that then this web tool need not have died in vain.

Let us all learn some valuable lessons from Google Wave. When the technology is so advanced that most users can’t operate it then it will make success more difficult. When one worries too much about what can be done and not enough about what should be done then users are likely to be confused by the product. Once mistakes are made, act quickly to correct them or users will just as quickly loose patience with the product. If Google had heeded these simple truths then Wave might not have died so young.

So without further delay I would like to officially say goodbye to Google Wave. So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, adieu. At least some of us will miss you. Now play him off Keyboard Cat!

LucyPhone works like a charm, but the one feature I would love to see the LucyPhone creators at Decogram add is the ability to automatically navigate the phone tree so I don’t have to waste time pressing the right button to get to the right place. Apps such as Fonolo offer this service already but without the ability to skip the hold time like LucyPhone. The phone tree is annoying and being able to navigate directly to a live person would make LucyPhone the perfect personal phone assistant. Just pick a company and let Lucy do the rest. Hopefully we will see this feature added once LucyPhone is out of beta.

By handling the hold time for me LucyPhone places much needed time back into my busy day. Waiting on hold is always a drain on productivity. Automation is cheap. Any payroll manager worth his salt will tell you that phone support is a drain on profits. Companies are spending less and less on actual humans on the phones, opting instead for complicated phone trees and automated messages. This trend leads to longer and longer hold times. I know that I’ve spent well over an hour waiting on a real flesh and blood human before giving up in frustration. LucyPhone allows me to reclaim my serenity and productivity in the face of maddening hold times.

LucyPhone from Decogram Corporation on Vimeo.

Your taste in art can tell Hunch what kind of shoes you might like.

Hunch also provides some interesting tools to display the power of its algorithms. A “Twitter Predictor” game answers questions about users simply based on information gained by entering in your Twitter user name. After answering 50 questions the predictor was 94% accurate based on my username @esoterictechie. Services that collect large amounts of data from its users will always face privacy concerns and Hunch is no different. According to its privacy policy “your answers remain confidential and may not be viewed by other Hunch users, unless you specifically choose to share your answers.” Hunch says all the right things, but as Facebook is finding out now, saying the right thing and being seen as doing the right thing are not always the same. The fact is that the information Hunch is collecting and the seeming accuracy of its algorithms is a valuable commodity. Marketers begin to salivate when faced with such juicy data with which to target their advertising. Hunch will do well to remember that this information flows only as long as its users trust the service to be a good steward of their online identities.

The more you teach Hunch the better the suggestions.

Providing recommendations is a serious business. It’s one that e-commerce giant Amazon.com has buttered its bread with for over a decade. Hunch reaches beyond commercial products to provide these recommendations for every aspect of a users life. What breed of dog should I choose? What podcasts would I enjoy listening to? What color should I paint the bedroom? These are only a few of the choices Hunch provides help with. The internet is vast and ever expanding. Some estimates have 3-4 new websites being published every second. With this sea of information it could be very helpful to have an accurate aggregator that knows your tastes and reduces the noise. Hunch aspires to be that service. Initially, I am impressed with their attempt.

In my own experience setting up these environments, especially for multiple sites, has been a challenge to say the least. Usually it involved configuring my profile file  and adding lines to my host file, not to mention a good deal of time messing with commands in Terminal. It took time, and sometimes I just couldn’t get it to work.

That is where MAMP Pro comes in. Before I continue, I will note that MAMP Pro is a paid version, and that there is also MAMP, which is free. MAMP Pro is worth the price ($30) for many reasons. It has a simple yet powerful GUI, I can set up a local environment in three clicks, and Pro allows the management of multiple environments simultaneously. Other features include: MySQL configuration, Apache modules, the ability to select between PHP 4 and 5, an email server so that dispatching emails by PHP scripts is possible, and dynamic DNS.

I’ve been using MAMP Pro for a couple of weeks now, and it has quickly become an invaluable tool in my web development toolkit. If you are on a Mac and you develop sites in the Apache environment I would highly recommend this application.

Requirements: Mac OSX 10.4 or later

Movies are one on the only things that should be listened to in surround sound. When audio engineers sit down to record the sound track to a movie they spend a lot of time trying to make it feel as if you are immersed in the film. This can be done with little things that make a big difference, a bird chirping behind you, or a car driving by on a busy street passing from front to back. At the same time if this is over-done then it can be just down right distracting. One of the most common mistakes made when hooking up a surround system, just as often by a professional as a consumer, is turning your side and back speakers up too much. This will became more of a distraction then anything else.

Music should never be played in surround sound. If you are watching a live concert on Blu-Ray then you may be able to get away with this, but if there is no video to go with your music then never use the surround modes and under no circumstances should you ever use the BULL S@#* mode 5 CH stereo.When an engineer sits down in a studio with an artist his goal should be (notice I said should) to make as clean of a copy as he can that will also make the listener feel as if the music is being played right in front of them. Stereo is the way to pull this off. When you are listening to music on a stereo set up, it should sound like there is a third speaker in the center playing also. You should hear the main vocals if not directly in front of you, off to one side or the other just slightly, as if they were trying to make it sound like they stand when they are playing live.

This might sound like something that only high-end, high-dollar gear can pull off. It’s not, I have been able to get some stock radios in cars to pull off some amazing stereo effects If you just work with the settings a little and you are listening to a good recording. The recording is the most important part of this process. Most of the brand new stuff I have heard recently is not the best because of the iPod Generation. We have lost a lot in recording quality because, lets face it, we can’t get great quality out of a credit card-sized device. Some of the stuff I like to show off with is music from about 10 years ago. My favorite is Sister Hazels Somewhere More Familiar, look for Starfish at the end of the album. Also you can never go wrong with Counting Crows August and Everything After. For some cool stereo effects with the drums look into Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and their bonus track. Now dust off some of your old CDs, close your eyes, and just listen.

It seems there is no end to Twitter integration applications. As such,?Twalkin should come as little surprise. Twalkin allows users to schedule and moderate ?Twalks? or Twitter integrated teleconferencing. Complete with an iPhone application and an Android version soon to come, Twalkin has several practical uses.

1.Host a private Twalk: This allows you to have chats with only a select few users. It’s a neat feature, but I can’t see what advantages it might have over a typical conference call.

2.Host a public Twalk: This is the real social networking aspect of the app. This feature presents potential for voice forums or large scale crowd-sourcing. Since users are identified by there twitter user names it is possible for a moderator to follow tweets and unmute contributors as they tweet intriguing ideas.

3.Broadcast Twalk: Broadcast is perhaps the most interesting aspect of Twalkin. With broadcast it is possible to only allow a select few speakers while the rest of the public audience can join in listen-only mode. This feature is almost like a live telecast. Companies could use it for announcements that don’t warrant a press conference, but still need a human voice.

Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur on?Net @ Night successfully tested the technology as a call-in solution for live podcasting. Obviously the technology has practical applications and great potential. As is the case with most social based software it is largely dependent on user adoption. Twalkin has done it’s part to ensure acceptance. The web application’s user interface is friendly, and the iPhone app is absolutely intuitive.

One day our phone book, email contacts and social network “friends” are going to be one in the same. That is one of many convergences that only lack timing and technology to be a reality. What is left to be seen is if Twalkin is a step in that direction or just a fun piece of technology that crosses over from social networking to telephony.

What is Twalkin? from Twalkin on Vimeo.

***Spoiler Alert***

As you will see, I am very hard to please. This is a review I wrote back when Star Trek was originally released. The more I think about it, the more I realize this is as much about one movie so much as it is about JJ Abrams. I’m just not a fan. Don’t get me wrong, he’s very good at what he does (hey, a mystery/shiny thing! … time passes, stuff happens … So what exactly is going on here? Never mind, LOOK! – a new mystery/shiny thing!. And stuff exploding!). He’s like a thinking man’s Michael Bay, sort of. I just don’t think he’s very good at telling a story that actually goes anywhere or has any real meaning.

It seems I’m the only Trekkie in my circle of friends not falling in love with JJ Abrams incarnation of the iconic 60′s TV show. To be fair, I think as far as summer action movies go, it’s pretty good. I also have nothing but respect for the task Mr. Abrams took upon himself: not only did he need to restart a franchise with 40 years of cannon behind it, satisfy a notoriously harsh fan base, and recast roles identified as much by the actors who played them as by their characters and catch phrases, he also had to tackle the notoriously difficult challenge of “the origin story.”

However, sci-fi has come a long way in the last ten years. Joss Whedon and Ron Moore (to name just two) have taken the genre into some really interesting places that are challenging, thought provoking and entertaining as hell. Star Trek is special for me, so when I heard it was being ?rebooted? I was cautiously optimistic. Like so many people, I think of Star Trek as a vision of what the future could be. It presents a future where Earth is united in a common purpose of brotherhood, scientific exploration and kicking Klingon ass as necessary.

As many have noted, this isn?t the 60?s. If you want to make a statement, you need to do more than have a Russian, a black lady and a closeted Japanese guy on the bridge. I?m not suggesting a return to the ham-handed moralizing of the past, but in my mind Trek is best when it has something to say about universal themes (revenge/sacrifice in Khan) or current events (the end of the cold war in The Undiscovered Country).

First, let me say what I liked (in no particular order):

1. The cast. I think they all did a great job taking over from the old guard.
2. George Kirk and the death of the Kelvin. What can I say? Nice opening sequence.
3. The pacing was quick and the film never lagged, even during the exposition scenes.
4. The contrast between Kirk and Spock’s childhoods was particularly well done. It was a nice way of showing that Kirk and Spock are extremes who need and balance each other out.
5. Clarifications to old characters like why Spock went to Starfleet instead of the Vulcan Science Academy and why McCoy is called “Bones” were really nice touches.
6. They didn’t let the technobabble get away from them. This has been a real challenge in the last few outings on both big and small screens.
7. The view screen being a big window with a full size HUD. Nice idea guys.
8. The tie-in to the show Enterprise. I wasn’t a fan of the show, but it demonstrated that they were at least thinking about the fact that this is a universe with history.

Things I didn’t like so much, but was able to get past:

1. The Apple Store bridge and blindingly white hallways. I really didn’t care for either, but got past them pretty quickly.
2. Why are all the Academy cadets slumming in Iowa on their way to San Francisco? Is cow tipping a fad in the 22nd century?
3. I don?t get or care for Starships being built on the ground, but whatever.
4. It?s a design thing with me, but I don?t care for big open spaces in the Federation starships. Like real ships and submarines, I imagine spaceships need to be pretty economical in regard to building materials and efficient with their use of space. I don’t see how big, mostly empty rooms with no bulkheads or pressure doors will help keep Crewman Jones from suffocating to death or being sucked into the cold void of space in the event of a hull breach, but I digress…
5. Nokia/?Budweiser Classic? product placement. Cute, but if you?re going to that and you already have a Mac bridge, why not make the new communicators iPhones? Budweiser Classic does make me wonder if they have New Bud or Budweiser Clear in the future. Hell, they have transparent aluminum.

Things I hated:

1. So to tug on our heartstrings when their planet is destroyed and their entire race is wiped out, you set up the Vulcans as a race of intellectual jackasses who hate humans (who happen to make up 100% of the moving-going audience). Setting aside the fact that they?re pacifists who are among the greatest minds of the Federation, you decide to play up the bigot card. Even the kids are little shits. This is how you make them sympathetic to the audience when their planet is destroyed and the entire race is nearly wiped out?
2. For a genocide, the destruction of Vulcan was pretty damned bloodless. Sure, we saw sweeping city skylines before the carnage, but we only see 20 or so inhabitants. And even then we never see a market or family or given any indication that people have LIVES there. When Spock helps evacuate who he can from the planet, he runs into a temple with ten people in it (Including his Mom. But isn’t she supposed to be a pariah? Why is she in the Vulcan holiest of holies? Internal logic people, look it up. They don?t let Jews or protestants in the College of Cardinals.). For what was supposed to be the second most emotionally resonant moment of the movie, there was no? weight. If you want to see how something like this is done right, go back and watch the scene in the Battlestar Galactica pilot where the newly formed fleet of survivors must leave those ships without faster than light drives (and their crews and passengers) behind before the entire fleet is destroyed. You show me a little girl sitting in a park as her planet is consumed around her, and I?ll show you an audience without a single dry eye.
3. The engine room. The engine room is a brewery? Are you kidding me? I know what they were going for, but do you mean to tell me when they think of high-tech industrial looking setting, a BREWERY is the best they could come up with? Are Bob and Doug McKenzie co-chief engineers? (The, uh, warp drive is off-line, eh.) $150M budget and you use the Budweiser plant as your set for the engine room for the U.S.S. Enterprise? And what?s with the water pipes and the food processor looking thing at the end of the line? I?m all for not saying what every single thing on the ship does, but this smacks of ?We need something we beam him into that?s funny.? Why not beam them into someone?s bathroom or something? Put Scotty in the shower. That would be both funny and practical.
4. If your super weapon of choice is a black hole – the most powerful force in the known universe, so powerful that not even light can escape its pull, why do you feel the need to drill to the planet’s core before dropping it off? Drop it in the atmosphere. Put it in orbit. Fire it at the planet like the Genesis torpedo. Done and done. You don’t have to waste time or make yourself a stationary target in geosynchronous orbit. Fire, forget, and be done with it.
5. “In my time, this is a simple mining ship.” Really? Mining ships in your time are outfitted with missile launchers that fire multiple warhead delivery ordnance? What do the warships have? Black hole weapons? Wait…
6. Nero’s plan for revenge (full disclosure, this one is supposedly addressed in the DVD extras.) – I have lots of issues here. Go back in time? Check. Kill your enemies before they’re old enough to pose a threat? Check. Dick around in space for 25 years DOING NOTHING while you wait for Nimoy to show up with his black hole juice when you could be arming the Romulan Empire to the teeth with technology 150 years ahead of anything your rivals have? Are you kidding me? Dude, at the very least you could tell the folks back home that their sun is going to explode in the (relatively) near future ? give them time to pack and relocate.
7. Kirk?s career path. ?Hi, I’m James Kirk, shit-kicking ne?er-do-well. Wanna hit it?? (Three years later.) ?Hi, I’m James Kirk Starfleet cadet. I cheated on a test to prove a point and might get drummed out for it.? (Two weeks after that.) ?Hi, I’m James Kirk, captain of the Starship Enterprise. Flagship of the Federation fleet.? I don’t care how awesome he performed in the crisis (In which he failed to prevent the destruction of Vulcan. The whole planet. Founding member of the Federation.) his ass would have been a lieutenant at best. This leads me to my biggest complaint of the movie…
8. The whole point seemed to be “how quickly can we get everyone to their familiar places so we can make new movies that don?t have to worry about cannon?” This is a real danger with telling any origin story but I wish they?d paid more attention to how it was done in Batman Begins. He?s not even ?Batman? until over half way through the film. Take your time. Do it right. It would have been better to slowly bring the crew together, maybe not even on the Enterprise. Bring her in at the end too. The whole issue of the crew going to the Academy at the same time as the Enterprise is being built… it’s all too damned convenient.

Again, for what it is (a summer action movie/money making venture) it’s pretty good. I like it when things blow up as much as the next guy. But it’s Star Trek, man. Yes, the money changers robbed it of it’s glory some time ago, but if the point of this exercise was to bring it back to relevance, couldn’t they have done better than this?

Don't let the cute graphics fool you!

Lately my Facebook news feed seems to be choked with status updates. Most of the time I use these updates to keep up with my friends and what’s going on in their lives. But that has become increasingly difficult because of a plague that is ravaging the social media community. Yes, I’m talking about Facebook games. First it was just the occasional Mafia Wars update that I would casually ignore, but now I’m inundated with updates from Restaurant City, Know-It-All Trivia, Zynga Poker, Bejeweled Blitz, YoVille, Fish World and the worst culprit of them all FarmVille.

FarmVille is the gateway drug of the Facebook gaming world. I’ve seen many friends, good people, slide down that slippery slope. It always starts innocently enough. They are online, chatting with a buddy or uploading photos. Then it happens. They receive a status update from a trusted friend, maybe someone they’ve known all their life.

Kristy just completed level 2 of Pumpkin mastery in FarmVille. Kristy earned a huge reward for being such a dedicated farmer and wants to share their success with you.

At this point curiosity sets in. What could the huge reward be? They wonder this thought to themselves as they move the mouse cursor ever closer to the link. Little do they realize that they have reached the tipping point of the Facebook gaming scourge. Once they click that status update, once they let curiosity get the best of them, then it’s too late. Soon their once rich, full lives are consumed with artichoke harvests, pig herding and beet farming. Too dazed to realize their own hysteria, they begin to set their alarm for 3:00 am so they can be up in time to check on their radish crop. Without even realizing it, these once sane people hand over real money for a larger fake farm. It’s no longer just a game; it’s an addiction.

In one of his latest podcasts, entitled Escape From FarmVille, technology expert Leo Laporte recounts his harrowing battle with this disease. A compulsion so terrifying it had him checking FarmVille 10 times a day. “I finally deleted it. At one point I got enough self-worth into me” He sighs, remembering the emotional strain,”I said I don’t need FarmVille and I deleted it.” Let this be a lesson to all of us. If it can happen to Leo, it can happen to anyone. None are safe from the menace of Facebook gaming.

Few of us are unaffected. Even if you’ve never experimented with Facebook games, chances are you have a friend or loved one who has. The afflicted should not be mocked, but pitied. Even now support groups such as FAA (FarmVille Addicts Anonymous) are gaining traction. These people need our support. So please, write your Congressmen, start a victims group, but whatever you do just get involved. Together, we can bring this dreadful blight to an end.