Japan - 4th Post

Day 6 of our 13-day Japan trip and we've been busy. All of the walking and back and forth on the train between Yokohama and Tokyo is tiring us out so we spent most of the day today tooling around in Kikuna - visiting a local park and stuff like that. I spent the day yesterday in Tokyo visiting Akihabara - electronics central. Akihabara was amazing - I've never seen so many gadgets in one place before. We also spent some time in Ginza at the Sony Building.  To top-off the day we travelled to Shibuya to see the nightlife - Shibuya is a supper popular shopping and entertainment center - kind of like Times Square in New York.

We've also seen: Minato Mirai and the Landmark Tower (great view), Yokohama's Chinatown

Japan - 3rd Post

Japan - 2nd Post

I’m in the air somewhere over the Pacific on my way to Japan – flying at 575MPH. We’re flying NorthWest airlines and the trip has been pretty good so far - especially considering that my wife and I are travelling with our two small children. This is the 1^st time (that I can remember) I’ve flown NorthWest and the service and accomodations have been excellent so far. An Aibus A330 with all of the modern gadgets, include AVOD, is taking us to our destination.

We’re flying into Narita and should arrive on the 25^th around 4pm – we left on the 24^th around 12pm PST. From Narita we’ll be driving over to Yokahama to stay in a home with some family friends.

More to come.

Japan - 1st Post

Xbox

- they like me, they like me, they really do like me.

More Ipods for Christmas Says Jobs

Just in time for Christmas - more Ipods - and they're little things. Jobs announces.

TRENDWHORE Bracelet

It's about time. Support an entrepreneur - makes a great stocking stuffer - goes with the Xbox 360.

[Trendwhore]

WordPress.com

Chris Pirillo

I started paying attention to Chris Pirillo (bio) back when he was hosting TechTV -- now I subscribe to his PodCast (iTunes) as well as his blog feed. I enjoy Chris' commentary and and I've enjoyed following the progression of his career -- he's a Web celebrity -- he's achieved a-list Blogebrity status. Oh, did I mention he has some pretty interesting service ideas? For example - http://www.rentmychest.com/ - great idea. The Chris Pirillo Show.

Recommended.

Off to Japan

I'm off to Japan next week (Yokohama and Tokyo) for some fun - I'm really looking forward to the trip. This will be my first visit to Japan and there are lots of things I want to see and do. I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to think about the trip at all so I'm going without an itinerary. I'm planning to take lots of pictures and I hope to keep some light blogging up while I'm there.

Place I'd like to see:

• Akihabara Shopping District
• Hard Gay Guy
• Sumo Wrestling
• suggestions?

Things I should do:

• suggestions?

I really should spend some more time thinking about this but then again it might be fun to just go. I'll have people with me that have spent a lot of time in Japan so I think I'll just go along for the ride and see what happens. Just being in Japan will be adventure enough. Can't wait to see the gadgets!

Blogosphere Smackdown or Calculated Marketing Effort

Set the stage by announcing a product or a service that bloggers might have an interest in.
Audible - WordCast Announcement

Hire Allow somebody with zero PR skills to represent you in the Blogosphere - somebody more interested in promoting their technorati profile than your product or service: Mitch Ratcliffe

Blogebrity (top bloggers) blog and podcast about the announcement:

• Jeff Jarvis responds 11/11: Measuring Podcasts
• Dave Winer responds 11/12: If it's not MP3, is it still podcasting?
• Om Malik 11/13: Audible's unPodcast effort?
• Doc Searl 11/14: The Past of Podcasting

Blogger-for-hire posts the post that really heats things up (roasting Blogebrity) and the Blogosphere Smackdown begins 11/13: See More on the future of podcasting - the good stuff is in the comments.

Or, was this a calculated marketing effort that unfolded exactly the way Mitch and Audible wanted it to. Mitch's inflammatory posts and comments created a ton of free buzz around the Audible announcement. Did Dave, Om, Doc Searl, and others play right into a calculated marketing effort? I guess it would be a form of viral marketing - or, does it deserve a new name.

Rejected Ipod Engravings

Apple censors - rejected Ipod engravings.

Google Analytics

Google launched Google Analytics today - a web-based stats program for slicing and dicing the traffic that visits your website. I registered palmit.com with the service and added the appropriate scripts to my pages to get a 1st hand look at the service in action. I've been using Awstats, and it meets my fairly limited needs for this website, but the Google Analytics U.I. looks more user-friendly. Based on technology Google Purchased - specifically, Urchin Web Analytics.

Related:
BusinessWeekOnline - great summary
TechCrunch - Google Analytics Swings at MeasureMap
GoogleNews

Sucks to be:
MeasureMap and other Web Analytics companies

Google Speculation and My Two Cents

Lot's of speculation in the blogosphere about what Google's next move will be. See below.

Om Malic - Tis a Season to Copy

Jeremy Zawodny - Google is Building Yahoo 2.0

Tristan Louis - Reading the Google Tea Leaves

I.M.H.O. (I'm sure I'm not alone in this) it's all about the Ad Network - at least for Google vision. Everything they do is about driving traffic through their Ad Network - cool technology happens along the way. Google's next big move - Wi-fi everywhere and Geo-based advertising. They'll start with the blue states and make their way into the red states when it's safe.

Got 2 Extra Hours for Your E-Mail? - New York Times

Workplace efficiency in the age of instant messaging and always-on e-mail is something I've been interested in lately. The New York Times published a related article today.

Got 2 Extra Hours for Your E-Mail? - New York Times

"You have to be smart about how you use e-mail," said David Strom, editor in chief of Tom's Hardware Guide, a technology review Web site. "Otherwise you let it ruin your life."

Newsvine

A lot of buzz coming off of Newsvine [Mike Davidson project] right now. Private BETA. Another Web 2.0 company - heard they hate that

Read: TechCrunch, Om Malik

Technorati

It's easy to waste a lot of time on a visit to Technorati. I like browsing their Top 100 Blogs list. Browsing the list motivates me to keep blogging - if Wil Wheaton can make the Top 100 Blogs list I can too. Browsing the top tags is even better.

Update: Ten Technorati Hacks via Micro Persuasion [Steve Rubel]

Profit from Flickr Content

 [image removed - apologies ahyc - firm believer in protecting ip]

James the doorman (III), originally uploaded by ahyc.

Flickr should develop ways for its members to make money off of the original content they post. Maybe they've already done it (I'm not exactly a Flickr power-user) - it isn't exactly an original idea either. Give members a way to tag photos they'd like to sell - buyers could buy a license to use the image etc. There's a lot of high-quality content on Flickr and it's very searchable. The image in this post would make a great addition to a PowerPoint presentation.

Amazon's Mechanical Turk

I'm going to follow the development of Amazon's Mechanical Turk service closely. I'm not sure if it's an original idea but Amazon is implementing and branding it well. I wonder how much you can make an hour working the Turk? 

Amazon's: What is Amazon Mechanical Turk 

Amazon Mechanical Turk provides a web services API for computers to integrate "artificial, artificial intelligence" directly into their processing by making requests of humans.

Complete simple tasks that people do better than computers. And, get paid for it. Learn more.

This is a good example of how the service can be used.

Some of the tasks currently in the marketplace benefit Amazon’s search subsidiary A9.com. Amazon Mechanical Turk is being used to increase the quality of A9’s BlockView pictures that show users street-level pictures of businesses. These HITs ask people to select from several photographs the one that best presents the front of a business. Thousands of these HITs are still listed on the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site.

Slingbox

Switched On: Let Freedom Sling - Engadget - www.engadget.com Ross Rubin (Engadget contributor) wrote a nice piece on the Slingbox for Engadget. 

Last month, Sling Media provided a sweet-tasting update to the software that provides the window into that its flagship product — the $250 Chunky-bar-inspired Slingbox. The product was conceived when founders Blake and Jason Krikorian became frustrated that they couldn’t catch live sporting events when they were traveling.

I've had my eye on one of these for a while - might just be time to click the Buy Now button. 

Ipod Photos on Flickr

Just for fun I searched Flickr for the tag "ipod" and I was amazed by the results. There are over 15K photos on Flickr tagged "ipod." This is the 1st time I've used the Flickr search feature - a lot of fun to be had here. Photo posted by doji

Ajax Brief

Adaptive Path Executive Brief: Ajax

Adaptive Path coined the term - high-quality executive overview of the methodology. 

Too much of a good thing ...

I feel like the Web jumped into overdrive this quarter and I'm having a hard time keeping up.

The battle raging between the three giants - Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! is responsible for most of the speed increase. Web 2.0 companies represent potential feature morsels for the giants - a few, if any, will ever evolve into real companies.

In a year we'll be begging for a good old fashioned monopoly. Windows Vista might do better than everybody thinks. 

Yahoo! Maps BETA

Yahoo! is fighting back against Google and they're starting to get a lot of stuff right. The new Yahoo! Maps BETA launched tonight and I'm really impressed so far. It's Flash powered (good I'm sick of hearing about AJAX this and that) which is better for some reasons - for example, the back button still functions. Watch out Google - Yahoo! is getting back up and Microsoft is waking up.

Jason Fried - Less as a competitive advantage

Jason Fried from 37Signals says some really smart things about why

"Less is More."

for today's entrepreneur. Click here to read Jason's Less as a competitive advantage

Techcrunch - tracking Web 2.0

Really liking Techrunch these days for keeping up on Web 2.0 happenings. Mentioned it in my Web 2.0 post but it's a little burried so I thought I'd mention it again. Michael Arrington is running the site and he's keeping up with it for the moment. He recently started Cruchnotes as well - also worth a look. Both are an almost daily read for me at this point.

Gates Dynamite

Bill Gates teams up with Napoleon Dynamite to produce a PDC recruitment video. I came acroos this a while ago and re-discovered it while I was cleaning out my Bloglines Clippings Folder. Watch!