Dman's posterous

At Techcrunch Disrupt conference

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:02:22 -0700

Working hard at the Techcrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco. Pretty cool show with a ton of small new startups! Ran into a bunch of old friends here.

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SugarSync is on a TV commercial...

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:40:00 -0800

Sort of... Check out this Motorola commercial - you'll see the green SugarSync hummingbird icon flying around in the background (around 25s into the ad).

We recently upgraded our Free plans from 2 GB to 5 GB. Learn more at:

https://www.sugarsync.com/free/

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At the Kings of Leon concert

Thu, 21 May 2009 23:39:00 -0700

What? I can't hear you... :-)

We're at the Kings of Leon concert in San Francisco. Great show so far!

Sent from my iPhone.

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TajTunes saved Mother's Day

Sun, 10 May 2009 16:22:00 -0700

TajTunes for Mom.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Once again, TajTunes is a big hit!

We're in a recession, so I got my mom a very special (and affordable) gift - a singing telgram from TajTunes in India. These guys are great...

It's pretty cheap, it's fun, and they even send you the recording when it's done. Listen to the recording above - click the play button.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

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SugarSync launches FREE plans! Get yours today!

Thu, 07 May 2009 09:45:00 -0700

We just launched a new FREE 2GB plan. Sign up today!

We're really excited - this should make it easier for people to sign up and kick the tires. Check out the video we put together for the launch of the new plan:

Our service has been doing really well - but one complaint was that people wanted an easier way of trying it out. Prior to this, users could sign up for a 45-day trial only. Now, users can sign up for an ongoing, Free 2GB account with no expiration date!

Now my friends can finally see what I've been working on for the past few months... SugarSync is pretty amazing - you should try it out and let me know what you think... You can learn more at:

www.sugarsync.com

BTW - we now have native apps for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile devices.

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Advice: practice on other people's kids

Tue, 05 May 2009 08:52:37 -0700

We hosted Marcelo, Elisa, and baby Pablo Marcelo from Italy this past week. It was great taking care of the baby. He had a great time, although he was quite angry he couldn't stay in San Francisco longer...

We generally try to practice on other people's kids - when we have our own, we'll have made all of our mistakes on other kids :-)

Marcelo & Elisa hosted us when we were in Rome, so we finally got the chance to return the favor.

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BBQ with Marco & Maria

Tue, 05 May 2009 08:47:42 -0700

The GSB reunion fun never stops... Marco and Maria hosted a big BBQ for everyone who was still around on Sunday.

I definitely need to find some of that Italian sausage... mmmmm....

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GSB Reunion Photos

Tue, 05 May 2009 08:42:08 -0700

Great weekend - finally caught up with a bunch of my buddies at our 10 year GSB reunion. We seem to be holding up well after 10 years :-)

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Nephew Isaac in SF

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:07:49 -0800

My nephew Isaac (2.5 years old) came to visit us in San Francisco. We kept him really busy - we spent the day at Alta Plaza and the California Academy of Science Museum. He ran around all day and finally crashed hard - with Monica (I guess she played hard, too). He's a lot of fun - too bad he lives in LA...

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Kanye found a hammer; now everything is a nail

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:39:00 -0800

I'm a Kanye West fan. Actually, I *was* until his latest album, 808's and Heartbreak. Why have a I lost interest? Because Kanye West found a new hammer and now everything looks like a nail.

I can boil it down to two words: "Auto-tune". From Wikipedia (referencing Kanye's new album):

"The album relies heavily on the voice audio processor technology of Auto-Tune. "We were working on the remixes for Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" and Young Jeezy's "Put On" and he fell in love with the Auto-Tune," Dean explained. Towards this end, West enlisted T-Pain for coaching on how to properly utilize Auto-Tune. West himself openly stated that he loves using Auto-Tune and is dismayed that the term has been commonly associated with being "wack." He considers the technology "the funnest thing to use" and compared the situation to when he was a child and thought the color pink was cool until someone told him "it was gay." He went on to state how the views of society can rob people of their confidence and self-esteem. He later went on to state that he enjoyed the electronic feel produced by Auto-Tune and sought out to juxtapose the mechanical sounds with the traditional sounds of taiko drums and choir monks."

It is sooo annoying! I'm sure you know the effect - it does that wierd techno warbling of voice. Again, from wikipedia:

"Auto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies that uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise inaccuracies and mistakes and has allowed many artists to produce more precisely tuned recordings. In addition being used to subtly change pitch, with some settings it can be used as an effect to deliberately distort the human voice."

I think Cher was the first artist to really promote this effect on her song Believe. I didn't mind at that time - mainly because I don't listen to Cher. But I understand how an aging (read: senior citizen) pop star needs to reach out for that new shiny toy that might extend her career.

Cher |MTV Music

But Kanye? Come on... Kanye isn't using it to auto-correct a bad voice; he's just using it because some other rapper used it, who copied some other rapper, who copied Cher. It's the perfect way to turn a great song into a mediocre song. Here's an example of Kanye (over)using it:

Kanye West |MTV Music

Almost every single song on his new album is using this effect. I'm hoping this is a fad like Krispy Kreme doughnuts - maybe it will be gone within a year. Until that time, I'll pass on Kanye, Cher, Lil Wayne, and Young Jeezy. I'm starting to sound like some cranky old guy that remembers the good ol' days... But really, not everything is a nail.

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The rise of VeeJay.tv

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:25:00 -0800

Recently, I've been working a number of side projects to stay current with technology trends. For one of the projects, I've been working with a developer (Jon Bardin) to create VeeJay.tv, a social media site which allows users to create music video sets which can be shared with others. It's something we're doing just for fun - it's not something we're trying to monetize.

The video content is pulled from three sources: Yahoo Music, MTV Music, and YouTube. The content is made available through open API's, which VeeJay.tv makes available to users in a single, consolidated interface. We even pull lyrics from another service when available. The service includes integration to Facebook, using Facebook Connect, which allows integrated registration and posting of content. Although the service was intended to be an experiment to give us more experience with mashups and Facebook integration, the service is growing without any work to promote it.

The project originated at Mashup Camp a couple of months ago. Jon and I wanted to do something fun that would also allow us to explore some newly released API's and also get some experience with Facebook integration. Originally, we started with Yahoo integration, and later we added MTV and YouTube. The aggregation across all three sources results in pretty wide coverage of artists and songs.

The site is still a bit rough and we need some visual design help, but it's working well. Last night, we threw a going-away party for a friend and we put the site to the test. I created a bunch of music video sets to play as background entertainment at the party. It was a big hit! Check it out in the photos - I hooked up my laptop to our TV (using a DVI to HDMI adapter) and also to our stereo. We all had fun watching/listening and it almost turned into Karaoke night with a few of the songs.

Check out the playlists that I made for the party (our friend Michelle is leaving San Francisco for Paris, so we made it an American-themed party):

Party Mix 1 - America theme

http://veejay.tv/crossfader/watch/party-mix-1-america-theme

Party Mix 2 - Down home

http://veejay.tv/crossfader/watch/party-mix-2-down-home

Party Mix 3 - Good memories from the 80's

http://veejay.tv/crossfader/watch/party-mix-3-good-memories-from-the-80-s

Party Mix 4 - Nineties were nice

http://veejay.tv/crossfader/watch/party-mix-4-nineties-were-nice

Party Mix 5 - The other stuff

http://veejay.tv/crossfader/watch/party-mix-5-the-other-stuff

Party Mix 6 - The mellow stuff

http://veejay.tv/crossfader/watch/party-mix-6-the-mellow-stuff

Check it out and let us know what you think!

http://veejay.tv/

You can see VeeJay.tv playing on our TV in one of the photos....

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Back from Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and Vail

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:58:35 -0800

Whew... we just got back from a great holiday trip. I started the trip by driving to Utah, but stopping for a day of snowboarding at Heavenly on the way.

In Utah, we saw my family, and managed to ride at Snowbasin, Snowbird, and Canyons. Utah got a lot of snow and it was great timing to be there. We had fun watching my nephew Mackenzie opening presents on Christmas day - I miss being a kid! Both my bros made it to Utah, so the entire family was there. I also caught up with some old Utah buddies.

After Utah, we went to Los Angeles to visit the in-laws. We had fun, and enjoyed the nice warm weather. We drove to Mountain High ski resort (about 1.5 hrs out of LA) to get my nephew Isaac some sledding experience. (He's 2 and a half now, so he'll be ready for a snowboard next year :-)

After LA, we went to Vail for a few days. Again, nice fresh pow - we spent a few days at Vail and one day at Beaver Creek. Vail is incredible! It takes about 4 or 5 days just to appreciate the frontside and all of the back bowls. We spent a lot of time riding through the trees. A little bad news - Michelle, part of our snowboarding posse, tore her ACL and she's out for the season :-(

On a lighter note - follow the link to see something funny that happened while we were there:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0106091vail1.html

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Flip Mino - only for new parents?

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:55:00 -0800

I just got a Flip Mino video camera (it was a gift). I'm still trying to decide if it is worth it...

I knew about these video cameras from my friends with babies. For some reason, everyone I know that has a baby buys one of these things.

I just showed it to one of my other friends and he thought it was amazing. He even offered to buy it off of me (I refused). I'll run through what I see as the pros/cons, then I'll explain why I'm still not sure if it is worth it.

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What is it?

Small camcorder that plugs directly to your computer via a built-in USB plug.
Records an hour of video
The new model (Mino) has a built-in rechargeable battery
The device comes with software that helps the user do minor editing of the video (e.g., crop beginning/end of video). It also has some video templates to jazz up the video.
The software has a very simple upload-to-YouTube feature that doesn't even require saving the video to your computer first.
It sells for $159 on Amazon. (the HD version sells for $207 on Amazon)

Pros:

It is small and light. Definitely smaller than a normal camcorder.
It is simple. Just point and record, then plug into your computer. There aren't even any cables.
Even the software is simple. It provides some basic editing and simple sharing options.
The rechargeable battery is nice.
Users can share and upload videos without using a separate video editing app like iMovie.
It has a simple upload-to-YouTube feature, which makes it super easy to share videos

Cons:

It is light - feels a little plastic-y and cheap.
The video quality is ok, not great. And when using their upload-to-YouTube feature, it compresses the video first and the quality s-u-c-k-s when you watch it on YouTube. (I got better quality by doing a higher quality export from iMovie, then uploading to YouTube).
Unless you buy a separate cable, to charge the camera, you need to leave it plugged into your computer for a few hours.
The editing software is basic, which is good for some people. But for me, it is a little too wimpy. At a minimum, I like to add titles and transitions, but the software doesn't support this.

To buy or not to buy?

To decide if it is worth it, you need to compare it to something. Most people compare it to a normal camcorder. Yes, for the average person, it is much more convenient than a normal camcorder. A normal camcorder requires a video editing application which can import the video from the camera, then requires saving the right parts as a video clip. The Mino is much easier than that.

But I think that is the wrong comparison. What you should really compare it to is a point-and-shoot camera that also records video. Most people carry these around anyway. I have used my point and shoot camera to record a lot of snowboarding video since it is a small device - and it has the benefit of taking very high rez photos.

Compared to a point and shoot camera, the benefits of the Mino aren't so great. The transfer of video is already pretty simple with a point and shoot camera. The video quality of the Mino is equal (or maybe a little worse). And the Mino doesn' treally take still photos (but you can create a still photo from a frame of the video, but the quality is very bad).

So the real difference comes down to the software that comes with the Mino. If you want an easy way to go directly from the device to YouTube, this might work for you - if you are happy with very low quality video. If you never do any fancy editing, the software might meet your needs.

I'm going to play with it more, and I'm going to test the video quality vs. my point and shoot camera (for a future post). So far, it isn't compelling for a guy like me, but I already know my dad would love it for the simplicity.

Anyone have other opinions?

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Facebook badges - in case you can't get enough

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:08:00 -0800

I was surfing around Facebook and found that they can generate badges that people can post on other sites. Let see if it works:

You can find the badge generator at:

http://www.facebook.com/badges.php

I like Facebook as much as the next 19 year old college freshman - makes my life sooo much easier.

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MTV discovers music (again)

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:19:00 -0800

How 'come no one tells me these things? I just found out that MTV just launched a music site at the end of October that puts a ton of their music videos online. This includes traditional music videos, concert footage (including "unplugged" sessions), and interviews with the artists.

The selection is good, but not great. I couldn't find material from a bunch of smaller artists. But it's still handy since I never watch music videos on TV.

Check it out at www.mtvmusic.com

They also allow you to embed the videos - here are a few songs I like:

Ben Harper - With My Own Two Hands

Ben Harper |MTV Music

Rage Against the Machine - No Shelter

Rage Against the Machine |MTV Music

Matisyahu - King Without a Crown (Live)

Matisyahu |MTV Music

Kasabian - Club Foot (Live)

Kasabian |MTV Music

Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire

Kings Of Leon |MTV Music

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Social enterprise and me (New Door Ventures)

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:40:00 -0800

I'm now volunteering as a tutor / mentor at New Door Ventures. They are a really cool social enterprise (non-profit) organization in the Mission district in San Francisco.

New Door Ventures’ enterprises exist to provide jobs and job training opportunities for young people with high risk factors and little to no work experience. They operate their businesses with the complementary goals of being financially self-sustaining and graduating youth clients who are ready to work in mainstream jobs and/or pursue higher education.

They provide job skills by employing the youth in two successful businesses: Pedal Revolution (bicycle sales and repair shop) and Ashbury Images (t-shirt printing and silkscreening). If you're in the area, send some business their way!

Check out this really cool video that they made:

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Coupon on best iPhone case

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:28:50 -0800

I did a lot of research on iPhone cases, and I decided on the Seidio case. You probably haven't heard about it, since it isn't sold by many companies and the Apple Store doesn't carry it.

Seidio Innocase II

http://tinyurl.com/65lvwk

$24.95 on Amazon

http://tinyurl.com/6mju5y

It's a great case. In fact, I had the same case for my 2G iPhone and bought another case when I upgraded to the 3G iPhone.

Here's what I like:

It's a hard case that slides easily in and out of my front pocket. Long time ago, I had a rubber case and looked like I was having convulsions every time I struggled to get the case out of my pocket.
Even though it is a hard case, there the exterior layer is a grippy - it's not a hard shiny case that can easily slip out of my hands. It's enough to give me a good grip even when standing in the 1BX bus in San Francisco, typing and reading with one hand while I hang on for dear life with my other hand.
It comes in two pieces - the lower piece can be removed if you want to dock it on something where the case would get in the way. Ironically, I have a speaker dock and it works with the case on it, so I never have to take it off.
It comes in a bunch of colors for the fussy people out there.
You can buy an optional belt clip, but that's exactly what I wanted to avoid. It's not exactly considered cool to wear your phone on your belt in my 'hood. I have a protective film on the screen, so I just keep it in my front pocket - even if I have keys and change in that pocket. So far, so problems since the case and the screen film protect the phone.

I did a lot of research and when to a bunch of stores to check out their products, and I thought this was the best. Seidio just sent me a coupon, so feel free to use the code (see the image below).

With the coupon, the price on Seidio Online would be the same as Amazon - take your pick on who you decide to buy from (I'm a big Amazon fan for the ease of returns).

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YouTube to iPhone ringtone

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:28:00 -0800

Check this out - www.audiko.net allows you to create a ringtone from the audio in a YouTube clip.

Here's one from that amazing kid on guitar, Sungha Jung.

Compare the audio track to the YouTube video (the ringtone is below the video):

Sungha-Jung-Smells-Like-Teen-Spirit.mp3 Listen on Posterous

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Funny or Die - Hilarious

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:17:05 -0800

If you don't already - you need to spend some time on Funny or Die. There are some funny clips of some guys that make fun of David Blaine, the illusionist.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

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This kid is amazing!

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:00:00 -0800

What are they feeding kids in South Korea? This kid is amazing - he's only 11 years old. He's got a lot of clips on YouTube, but this is one of my favorites:

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