johnwilker.com

Why I bought an iPhone 3GS

I’ve got my 3GS (no space any more in the name) now. It’s great.

I just got it, literally, a day ago. No I didn’t rush out to order one at WWDC after the keynote. I didn’t go wait in line at an Apple store, or any other variation on fan boy-dom. Oh and I could have, because I nver bought a 3G and bought my 2G on ebay, so I’ve been contract free for a while.

No longer.

I wasn’t sold on the 3GS. for one thing, it’s still aesthetically ugly IMO. It’s plastic, which I don’t like. I don’t like it because plastic feels crappy. I don’t like it because when the 2G came out, Apple made a big deal about plastic sucking and the aluminum body being so nice. I agree.

I’m bummed that Apple (in a move very unlike them) didn’t change the outward appearance at all. Typically apple makes new models look a big different (I suspect so that the fanboy, early adopters can feel special, and be visually better/apart from the masses), if you sat a 3G and 3GS next to each other, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference (it’s not impossible).

What sold me, wasn’t the compass, the voice dialing, event the stereo bluetooth. It was the speed.

I read that it was (roughly) 54% faster than the 3G. That’s pretty substantial. It’s also got more system RAM, and more graphics capabilities.

I might have been ok with sticking with 2G and EDGE (or buying a 3G on Ebay), but Apple has made it clear to developers, that supporting iPhone OS 2.2.1 isn’t in the picture, they need to build apps for 3.0, which means apps that will be expecting more system RAM, better graphics, and faster CPUs. Things I didn’t have, and wouldn’t have in the 3G.

Plus as Tom and I do an iPhone developer conference, we figured one of us should be keeping up with the Jone’s, in this case our developer community.

So I own a 3GS, and it’s about what I expected, wicked fast, making the iPhone that much more an actually useful device. I’m sure next summer Apple will roll something out, and I’ll have to skip it or pay through the nose since now I’m back in a 2 year contract, but oh well.

Tags: Apple, Conferences, iPhone, Technology

360Flex Indy, done

I’m back home in Denver after 360|Flex Indy, and finally able to get my thoughts down on ‘paper’

The conference itself was a huge success, we had about 289 people with us in Indy, which you have to admit ain’t bad for “this economy”.

The hotel and conference center was awesome, i mean, an old train station? awesome! I’m not a huge fan of the layout we ended up with, but i kinda knew that going in. I just hate conferences that span floors, and we did that. Lesson learned.

The sessions, well what’s there to say but that we had 45+ sessions from some of the best minds in the community. Open source projects were launching like kites in a tornado. It was awesome, to be able to be the place where that kind of cool stuff was happening.

Oh and then there was Doug

Tags: 360Flex, Books, Business, Conferences, Kindle, Writing

Telemarketing is NOT something you have to do!

I’ve been stewing on this for a while now, and I can’t hold it in any more. Cold Calling, and in general telemarketing, SUCK!

I’m going to pick on conferences for two reasons. 1. it’s my business, and 2. Conferences most definitely should be be telemarketing, other businesses shouldn’t either, but conferences?!

My irritation started with Robo Ted calling about MAX. LAME! Not only was it not really Ted, it wasn’t a real person, it was a recorded message. Whatever that cost, should have been taken off of the price of registration, I’m sure it woulda had a better result on registrations.

Then there was CFUnited just the other day. The worst part (Actually there’s two) was that it was an Indian guy with such a thick accent I barely understood why he was calling and asking me to register. The other worst part, I was already registered! According to Liz

lizign @jwilker telemarketing is just something we gotta do. sucks i know.  don’t know what else to do except make the calls myself?

I call Bull Shit. Not only is it not something you gotta do, but if you took whatever you paid thick accent Indian guy, off the rpice of admission, you wouldn’t need to call and bug people to register.

And that’s the problem with this kind of crap marketing. I went to CFUnited a few years ago. I’m going this year on behalf of the Flex Show, different email address. I can only assume that’s why I got a “Please come to CFUnited” call, when I already was.

Weak Sauce. Tom and I would never in a million years call our attendees. We don’t even like having to send emails, since we feel spammy. Calling, hellz no!

Tags: marketing, sleeze

Is the printed book dead?

So I got a Kindle for work, we’ve launched an effort to help developers get their articles and content up on the Kindle (to start) and make a little money. The idea being we make some money too, and help us pay ourselves salary. Wanna write for us?

OK Pitch over. So I’ve bought two books for my Kindle and even experimented with Calibre a little. The experience so far, awesome.

I was a skeptic, I love books. I love the feel of paper, the weight, the act of holding it in your hands, all of it. I love traveling with books and putting ticket stubs in the book. My books are like time capsules.

The Kindle changes most or all of that.

The device itself (I have the Kindle2 obviously) is lightweight, and inside it’s little leather sleeve (separate price of course) is about the size of a Moleskine, and a bit lighter. So as far a footprint, if you carry a moleskine, you’re not gonna gripe about carrying a Kindle

The screen is very readable. When we got them Toms complaint was “There’s no backlight.” I laughed and pointed out that, that was the point, books don’t have back lights either. Sure it’d be nice if it was backlit, but my books aren’t so it’s not like I’m losing some sort of functionality.

I never tried a Kindle 1 but I heard that the screen refresh was terribly slow, the Kindle 2 is fast. Probably close to about the speed that I take to reach for a page, flip and start reading. I’m very surprised by how nice the E-ink screen is. it’s very crisp and easy to read.

I remember reading that one of the biggest complaints of the Kindle 1 were the buttons. Taking up most of the right side of the device, making it hard to hold and not flip the page. The Kindle 2 solves that nicely. The buttons aren’t very large, but just in the right place.

I’m finding that the Kindle is much more a game changer than I gave it credit for when it was released. It’s truly the iPod of books. Screw Audible and the whole audio book thing. Sorry ya’ll, listen to music in the car or whatever, reading is for the eyes, not the ears.

It’s amazing when a company creates a product that is by no means the first of it’s kind, and even by no means the best as far as features, yet still that company and their product completely kill the competition. Apple did it with the iPod, and I’m comfortable calling the eReader space for Amazon. I know there’s a lot of complaint about the Kindle not being outside the US, etc, etc. but the same was the case for the iPod, and still is. Each iTunes store is different, but I think it’s fair to assume, where ever there’s an amazon.* domain, there’ll be a Kindle store so long as the publishing industry doesn’t act like dill holes.

I think in the very near future we’ll see Kindles as frequently as we see iPods.

That said, it’s truly incredible that this device exists. Part of me is sad, that it spells the end (by and large) for printed books. The idea of a wall of books, ones I’ve read and need to read, lining my house just resonates with me. I’d have a real and true library in my house if there was room and money for it. It’s not. Like I said above, the printed book just feels special, and while the Kindle is awesome, it’s not a book, it’s a device and it feels like a device.

The fact that I can carry on a single device more books than I currently own (Ring any bells folks? the iPod allows the same thing with music) is a hugely mind wobbling thing. Though I wouldn’t complain if I could put content into folders, or sort by meta data or something. scrolling through thousands of titles…. no thank you.

One nice feature that makes the $300+ price tag more tolerable, is that for the most part, Kindle books are cheaper than their dead tree editions, so long run, you’re saving some money (and of course space in the house!). I do wish (AMAZON READ THIS) that there was some path where I could ‘upgrade’ books that I have purchased on Amazon as dead tree editons to Kindle editions. iTunes Plus style, there has to be a way to make that work. I’m sure part of the problem is the publishing industry, but come on!!!

My biggest complaint is the DRM. DRM sucks. It’s a terrible idea, that benefits no one, and punishes legitimate content owners. My hope both as a consumer, and now a publisher on the platform is that as more users get on board with the Kindle, Amazon follows Apple’s lead, and pushes the publishing industry (RIAA’s lost second cousin as far as fucking consumers and treating us like crap?) to wake up and drop DRM. I suspect it’s clearly working for apple, Amazon, don’t drop the ball. You’ve picked up the banner, it’s up to you now.

Join the revolution! If you’re feeling nice, click this link to buy it, kick back some coin my way to buy books :)

Tags: Books, Kindle, Publishing

This is why Journalists suck

I’m writing this on my personal blog because it’s my view not Tom’s and not 360Conferences. (I really hate that disclaimer)

We just got back from a really successful 360|iDev, it rocked! iPhone developers are a really cool group of folks. I’ll be writing up my thoughts on the conference in another blog post, but wanted to rail on journalists for a second. I won’t lie, my irritation is self serving.

I wrote to TUAW and iLounge a good month and some change about our iPhone developer conference, no reply. No biggy, we were unknown, they could care less. Done.

Then we got an email from a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, asking for a press pass to 360|iDev. She was interested in talking to Jay Freeman about Cydia. We extended our warm welcome, hoping that as “Beat reporter for iPhone” an iPhone developer conference (first of it’s kind since O’Reilly pulled the plug), put on by developers would be interesting. Turns out no, that’s not an interesting story.

As far as we know the reporter never showed at the conference (We work the reg booth, we’d know).

Jay announced that the Cydia store was coming at 360|iDev, it’d be here Friday after the conference (3/6). What really irks me, is that TUAW, Engadget, iLounge, and the WSJ can’t be bothered to mention where the announcement was first made, just that it was made.

Don’t get me wrong, Jay is the rock star! I’m this much closer to jailbreaking because of his work. Like I said my annoyance is purely self serving, but it is part of the story. “At a developer conference in San Jose, Jay Freeman announced the imminent launch of the Cydia Store.”  Props to Jay, keep up the good work, making the iPhone better!

Update: Tom’s Guide at least got it.

Tags: Conferences, iPhone, Journalism

360Coldfusion, very interesting

Tom and I thought about doing a CF conference, after I think 360|Flex Seattle. The reason we never went forward with the ideas was CFUnited and CF.Objective().

I’ve thougt CFUnited was over priced and didn’t really offer enough to be worth the price, since I attended in 2005. I’ve never attended CF.Objective(), since by the time it got started up, I was moving into Flex development, but since it bills itself as the Enterprise CF Conference, I found it odd that it was dribbling extra technologies, moving away from CF.

All that said, we thought the CF Community was happy with it’s options. I think we might have been wrong. We got a DM the other day, “any chance we can see 360|ColdFusion?  the existing conferences are a big bag of suck”

To make sure that wasn’t a single sentiment we through out a simple survey, which is still open, but as of the writing of this 86% those who’ve responded would like to see a 360|CF event.

I think a 360|CF would be hella fun! I love CF, and when the need arises for back end stuff for 360Conferences, it’s CF. Tom and I met each other as CF Developers at Ameriquest Mortgage, and we definitely still love the technology.

We’re not rushing into anything, ‘09 has seen us add 360|iDev, to our line up, but if the community is interested in a 360|CF, we’d love to get involved!

I wonder if the CF Community would know what to do with a conference that was 3-4 days, and cost drastically less than the alternatives… mmmm.

Tags: 360|CF, Conferences

Ignite Denver 2 Don’t miss it!

360|iDev is in a week and a half and then…. IGNITE DENVER!

It’s gonna be cool! We’ve got some cool submissions for topics! Learn to fly, Why you suck at driving, RJ is gonna try to do the history of Rome in 5 minutes again, and Dude where’s my solar powered car?

I’m glad to be back in the Ignite Saddle! It’s been too long, and Denver needs some more Ignite love! The Denver Tech community needs to show Boulder we’ve got interesting things to talk about too :)

Make sure to register, Forest Room 5 isn’t very big, and space is limited! We’re going smallish to get back in the saddle, but make no mistake, I’m not lapsing this time! Ignite Denver is a staple!

Tags: Ignite Denver

Community on and off line

On Monday Tom and I participated in the Program for the Future Conference. He was onsite at the Tech. I was at home working, and watching the event in Second Life.

I’m not a fan of online only conferences, I think they’re aims (stated) are good, but the experience is bad. Conferences are as much networking, hallway conversations, as much as learning, sit in chair experiences. Let’s be honest, sitting in a chair, at work or at home for 8 hours watching online video of a presenter, is not exactly a great user experience. Sure it appeals to some folks, that’s fine, but I think until we’re all wearing helmets and truly interacting, it’s more a gimmick than a serious endeavor. Case in point, I couldn’t get anyone at my office interested in Aral’s conference. Sitting at home on a weekend, to watch a breeze preso, was not at all appealling to them, and since the local hubs were in NY, London, and a few other places, the RL (Real Life) networking wasn’t.

So this event, took a different approach, which I think makes more sense. Tom registered for the RL event, paid his fee (not much either, which was nice) and was in the room. I paid nothing (it was free to attend virtually), and sat in 1 of three Second Life gathering places.

The one I was at, “Tech 2″ had a good turn out, I’d say 50ish avatars. Not bad at all. The other benefit was that Second Life provided an awesome back channel for the event, a few people that were physically present, were also in SL. As were “moderators” so to speak.

The RL to SL interaction actually left a bit to be desired. The mural in the screen shot, had SL post its that we could use, and in RL there were post its, but no inter relation. Obviouslya touch problem, but still made it a little isolated feeling.

Also to ask questions, SL users had to visit a website to submit a question. It would have been a much more interactive experience if, say there was a screen at the event with SL on it, or that the in world moderator folks could pass on our questions, it made for a kind of disjointed experience.

Overall the attempt was awesome. They did a really good (as much as can be done I think) job of merging SL and RL into a single event. I have to give kudo’s to SL or whomever does the tech behind the video, that video and audio seemed very well in sync, which was nice. Tom and I were chatting a bit, and I wasn’t like “What? that hasn’t happened yet”

Are events like this the future? No I don’t think so. Maybe the distant future, but not any time soon. There’s too much signal loss. I was sitting watching my SL screen, it was very hard to do my work (since I wasn’t ‘at’ the conference I still had work to do) since leaving SL I miss the chat, which is the backchannel of the event.

I do think however this type of Rl and SL offering helps expand and encourage community. There was hundreds more people talking, sharing ideas, etc, that wouldn’t have been able to, since they weren’t phyisically present. The networking is nil, which is why these virtual events are not a replacement, but still as a way to augment an event, they’re awesome!

A note to the organizers, for 8 people, the event was not very smooth. If it’s going to be an annual event, I suggest hiring pros to do the organizing, or put a little more into the little things. Just my thoughts.

Tags: community, Conferences, Second Life

MAX ‘08 Day 1 Recap

Looooooooong day.

I’m about to pass out, but wanted to get my thoughts on MAX ‘08 day one down on paper.

For Tom and I, MAX San Francisco, started on Sunday. We ran some errands, put stickers on our fliers for 360|Flex Indy, and then headed over to Moscone for some socializing. We hit up the community leader mixer thing, which was awesome. Congrats to the team that organized it.

Monday morning we hit up MAX bright and early, setting up our 360|MAX Unconference area, which is a cool area.

Enter the Keynote. So, oddly enough the keynote didn’t start until 9:30 am, yet the doors opened at 7am. I found it a bit weird since breakfast was just sandwiches.

The keynote was good, I gotta admit, The pre show dude was AWESOME! (video above). Shantanu and Kevin are both great presenters I have to say. Kevin more so, he’s very casual, and seems to be pretty unflappable, even when things don’t go the right way.

The information in general was pretty much what you’d expect, “State of Flash” type stuff, blah blah. One cool thing was some future tech they demo’ed as strictly early labs internal, but really sweet! Screens that know what’s going on around them, even where they’re pointed. I’d post a video, but then it occured to me, it might not be fully “open to the public” I can’t imagine why, but ya never know. It was cool though!

OK, the rest of the day.

Tom and I were pretty much tethered to our unconference area, which went really well. Slow start, but I think we’ll start seeing more people as the word gets out more.

Our sessions were all kick ass, especially Mate and Degrafa, which really pulled folks in. Tuesday has a bunch more killer sessions!

The bummer is not being able to wander around as much as I’d like. MAX for me is walking around the halls, finding people to chat with. This time around, I gotta chat with those who come to us.

The general session for TUesday is supposed to be Gumbo, Thermo, and future goodness. We’ll see. I’ve got my Thermo and gumbo installed to play with.

360|Flex Indianapolis MAX discount!

Also for MAX attendees, make sure to swing by and see Tom or I. We’ve got 100 tickets to 360|Flex Indy, for only $100 each. That’s $150 or so off our lowest possible price. Available only during MAX, so there’s only two days left to get this price!

Tags: Adobe Flex, Adobe MAX, Conferences

Defrag Conference ‘08 Day Two

Charlene Li’s preso, AWESOME. Slides here. Among the best guotes, and there’s a lot of them, “Open will be the new norm”. Charlene did a great job of describing what the next few years in web 2.0/social media are likely to entail. Talking about trusting Google was big for me. I put everything up there in the google cloud, for lack of a better option really. Google is ubiquitous now, sure I could roll my own, use Yahoo, etc, but no one else does. I really do worry that not only could google decide that doing evil is easier and more profitable than not doing evil. A few months ago we all saw what a gSlap would look like when gmail was down for what? 4, 6 hours? People, including me, were freaking out! We’ll see.

Neeraj Mathur from Sun, not so awesome. I think only Sun, could turn Social Media into a rather boring, over equationed, enterprise-ified concept. Not “friends” but contacts. Equity built by some formula, and displayed like a progress meter. Kudo’s to Sun for trying, but I think they’ve taken it too far and made it “too Much”.

Eric did the sponsor bingo card raffle, great prizes. I’ve never been a sponsor bingo’er, but the idea does appeal to me, especially if you have each sponsor pony up a prize valued at $250 or more, awesome idea Eric!

Eventvue was in the house, literally and metaphorically. Defrag used Eventvue’s cool community building site to let all of us defraggers connect, and talk. It was cool to follow the defrag08 twitter stream, and interact with people I’d never metn and never heard of, but who are clearly thought leaders! I do wish Eric had set up a twitter wall, I’ve found that those are hella fun to watch. People invariably end up standing there staring at the screen for a few minutes, seeing the tweets fly by.

So overall, Defrag = good times, great conversations! Thumbs up. Eric did a bang up job, keeping things moving along. An extra special hard task since there weren’t any breaks between sessions.

As is usual for conferences, the best part was the conversations in the hallway. I had a great conversation Jonathan Yarmis about the music industry and the future or lack there of for them. It was cool to sit and throw ideas back and forth, talking about all the ways the RIAA has completely screwed the pooch, by fighting tooth and nail for $1 now rather than work towards the $2 they’d get if they embraced the current technological environment.

I also had a great conversation with Rob, and Adam from Eventvue, and Fraser from Adaptive blue; talking about twitter, Facebook, and Glue over beers. That kind of conversation is just so great and can’t be replaced. I can’t imagine attending a conference and not having these types of conversations with people that I’ve just met.

Tags: Conferences, Defrag, Technology