Gmail has been down for me for almost 12 hours now. And it’s only my main account. Seems like there is a documented issue, which is good to hear, but still not fixed. According to the Google Groups Gmail discussion board, they are working on the issue:
Update: our engineers have identified the source of the problem and are working to restore account access as quickly as possible. We know how important email is to our customers, and we are taking this very seriously. We apologize for this inconvenience, and we will provide updates as new information becomes available.
This makes somewhat glad about using my own domain for my email. Right now, any email you send me gets forwarded to my gmail account. However, if this gmail situation doesn’t get fixed, it’s a quick switch with my domain registrar to have my email forwarded somewhere else – either another gmail account, my own hosted webmail, or another email provider altogether.
Gmail 502 Error
**Update Update**
Google just updated the 502 error message, with more familar Gmail branding, and a very slightly more reassuring error message.
Update 2* – And… we’re back! Luckily gmail didn’t lose any messages. But those few hours were intense – also kind of nice.. like a vacation.
Update 3* – 2008-08-11 – Gmail is back down, but now it seems to be down for many more people. It’s down for me, too. Luckily, I’m still doing just fine with email. My email address is at a domain I own. I simply have it all forwarded to my gmail account, so I can use the great gmail interface and services – imap, etc etc. However, during the latest gmail outage, i fiddled with some settings on my webhost, and set it up to not only continue to forward to my gmail acct, as it has been, but to also use a locally hosted email box. So, for now, since gmail is down, I’m seamlessly switching over to my own hosted email box. Victory!
CNN is reporting that Anna Patterson, who sold her first web search technology to Google, is coming out publicly with a new, supposedly better search engine called Cuil. She claims it spans a much larger portion of the web than Google, and therefore gives better results. Read the full article on CNN here.
In Google’s defense, I don’t think that raw search index size necessarily correlates with a better search experience. Yes, having a complete index is good, but being able to parse out the index, decide what is relevant and valuable to the users, and ultimately deliver the best, most useful search results is what it’s all about. If Cuil returns a ton of random pages to me that yes, may not exist in Google, but are not as useful, it has no value to me. The golden balance is optimizing the index size along side content analysis and parsing, to reduce the number of pages in the searchable index to only those that are valuable to the user.
“It’s not the size of your index, it’s how you use it.”
In my quick test of Cuil, I didn’t find what I was looking for. “Cueling” my own name (with safe search on) returned nothing, whereas when Googling my name (with safe search turned on, at the default setting) returned 698 results. However, Cuiling my name with safe search turned off returned 25,110 results, whereas Googling with safe search turned off returned the same 698 restults. Honestly, although Cuil returned more restults with safe search off, I’d still trust google more. To my knowlege, there’s no content out there about me on the web that I feel should be restricted by a safe search filter – yet Cuil deemed all of it as “not safe”, and only showed it when safe search was turned off. This is exactly what I’m talking about – It’s not necessarily all aboutthe amount of raw data in an index, but more importantly, how a search engine parses out and organizes that data.
WordPress 1.0 for iPhone and iPod Touch was just released on iTunes. So far, it seems to be working well. I’m composing this post on my 8gb iPod touch. The installed app had no problem interfacing with the XML-rpc of my wordpress 2.6 blog backend. Additionally, it gives me full access to all of my old blog posts… A nice touch.
For version 2.0, I would love to see integrated, optional GPS location posting, comment moderation, and link creation – with URL copy/paste from Safari!
Over on pagetable.com, they managed to pull the original Apple I Basic off of its uber-old school cassette tape, and re-compile a working version of the code. And… it works! I managed to run it on my own computer, and re-write my first program. I actually remember writing this program, and many other similar programs back in 4th and 5th grade, in the elementary school computer lab filled with Apple IIe’s. Those Apple IIe’s managed to follow me up until about 8th grade, at which point they started being replaced by Apple Quadras etc.
This Photo Safe II from Digital Foci sounds like nifty gadget..especially for traveling. I’d use it to backup pictures on my memory card, and not necessarily to offload the pictures…. ie not deleting memory cards after copying to the it. That way,the camera is lost or stolen while traveling, there’s still a backup of the pictures, and vise versa. I feel like very very quickly, the value of the photos your shooting far outpaces the value of the gear you’re using.. in many many situations.
Also, this could prevent you from having to do the “many smaller cards” scheme of data protection, and instead shoot with that whopper 32b card, and just back it up from time to time in the field.
Digital Foci didn’t go out of its way to drastically redesign the original Photo Safe, but we ‘spose that’s alright in the grand scheme of things. Essentially, the Photo Safe II picks up where its predecessor left off by including a multicard reader (now with 100% more MS Duo and miniSD support) which automatically transfers photos from your flash card onto the built-in 80GB / 160GB hard drive. The integrated display tells you at a glance how much space is remaining and how much battery life is left, though it won’t show your stored photos in slideshow (or any other) fashion. A touch steep at $139 (80GB) / $189 (160GB), but that’s convenience for you.
WordPress.org just released, ahead of schedule, the 2.6 version of WordPress – the backend that runs this blog. Some of the new features are much appreciated – live preview of themes, wordcount, post revision history, and a more robust image control box.
I just did the upgrade, which went smoothly, for the most part. The only hitch I encountered was re-activating plugins. After re-activation, the whole admin backend crashed and started giving code errors. To fix it, I had to re-name the plugins folder (thereby deactivating all), and go through one by one and re-activate plugins, and upgrade them to the latest version.
One of the coolest features in 2.6 is the new usage of Google Gears. Gears is an add on for IE and Firefox, which lets wordpress store core files locally on the computer, instead of needing to load them up from the web for every page. This significantly increases interface responsiveness, especially for new AJAX’y features.
I’m glad to see that Google Gears is starting to gain a little bit more traction. Before this, my only regular usage of gears was with Google Reader, which will let you cache rss feeds for offline viewing. I always use this feature, especially when flying – hop on the web in the airport terminal before I board my flight, sync up with the latest news in reader, piece through it all on the plane, and re-sync when I land.
Tonight, between the GawkerMedia Meshing situation and dinner, I randomly met up with a friend and checked out sunset from the top of the New Museum in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. I think we got there just at the right time, because the sun was just below the horizon, giving great light. This little panorama is quick and dirty, as you can see, and shot with a 16mm lens. You can see at the edges the distortion is very pronounced, especially where building elements join at the end of one frame into the middle of another frame – the differences in magnification is intense.
Update on 2010-02-21 – BBC Radio One’s show “The Breezeblock” hosted by Mary Anne Hobbs has long been one of my favorites. Back in college, it was one of the two main influences in defining the sound of my radio show on Radio1190, “The Acid Lounge“, along with Gilles Peterson’s show “Worldwide”. Although I’ve listened to a ton of the Breezeblock mixes, I only managed to download and archive a handful of them. In the recent years that this post has existed, there’s been a good amount of traffic from people looking to download and listen to Breezeblock episodes so, I’m posting up as many of the shows as I can find. Also, here’s a listing of a lot more of the episodes on Mixes DB Cheers!
I recently took a vacation to Alaska. It was a great escape from the city, and an awesome return to the backcountry for my Brother and I, who have both spend time backpacking there. There are a few photos in this blog post, and the rest of them, including captions describing most of the trip, can be found over on flickr. Check out all the Alaska photos.
The view from our kitchen in the backcountry of Denali State Park
During the trip, I took about 700 pictures, along with a few videos. My father also took a couple hundred, as did my brother. I actually uploaded all the photos to flickr, but I think for the sake of time and giving you a good overview of the trip, I’m only making the top 50 or so publicly accessable. If you would like to see more photos from a particular section of the trip, or if you’re planning a trip to the AK and want to know more about any particular section of it, just let me know. I’d be happy to open up more photos and videos.
Throughout the trip, I carried my Garmin eTrex Vista HCx GPS with me, with rechargeable batteries and a 1gb micro SD Card. It was set to record a track log every 30 seconds, and was on for most of the trip. Additionally, for road navigation, I as using Garmin’s US Road Atlas 2008. The whole system worked very well. I made sure to synchronize the clock in my camera, as well as my fathers and brothers cameras to the clock in the gps, so that all time stamps line up.
We took a flight with Talkeetna Air Taxi around the mountains in Denali National Park. The maximum altitude for the plane was 10,000 feet, but Denali tops out around 20,000 feet. The whole flight we were flying very very close to the steep walls of the mountains.
When I got home, I successfully merged the GPS track log with the EXIF data on the photos, and Geotagged each photos. If you go to the flickr photo set, you’ll see a map link on each photo, which will show you on a map approx where the photo was taken. The gps is typically accurate to about 7 feet, and since it takes a track log recording every 30 seconds, if i was moving while shooting, depending on how fast i was moving (500+ mph in the air, 2mph hiking, etc), the location could be off a bit.
Extending the geocoding of the pictures a little further, I used Jet Photo studio to create this interactive photo gallery, with the Google Maps API. Each photo is placed on the map at around where it was taken. Additionally, all the (public) photos have map links, which will place them on the map.
These flowers were blooming in a recently burned down forest. Regrowth and renewal.
Media Links:
Flickr photoset of Alaska 2008. If you’re a friend of mine on flickr, you should be able to see slightly more pictures than what I’ve made public.
During the backcountry portion of the trip, my brother and I found a crashed NOAA Weather Balloon with an attached Radiosonde. I’m writing about that in a separate post.
We made a bunch of friends in Alaska. Here’s the blurbs on a few of them…
Andy Morrision runs Alaska Backcountry Access, his own outdoor guide company. Andy is a great guide, and does a ton of trips. We went jet boating up the river, and kayaking with him
Rachel Drinkard lives in Girdwood, and works as a reporter and writer. Her blog, Anarchy in the AK, covers all sorts of Alaskan issues and stories. She came boating and kayaking with us.
Ron Tenny and his wife Michelle run the Hidden Creek Bed and Breakfast, and were very hospitable to us. We had a great time staying there, an awesome breakfast, and fun discussing the area, and the industry with Ron and his son and daughter.
In Girdwood, we grabbed a relaxing dinner and felt like locals at Chair 5.
The marina in Seward, Alaska. The Chugatch mountains are jutting out in the background.
And for the videos – I’m posting up two videos to this post, but there are many more – including the full footage from the weather balloon. Those will go up in a bit, after I’m done editing them together etc.
Ermine Hill, Denali State Park, Alaska
Taking a break on after hiking to the top of Ermine Hill, a small peak within the Kesugi Ridge, in Denali State Park, Alaska. The view up there was incredible, and the terrain made us feel like we were on another planet. After finding a weather balloon crashed, I kept on expecting to find a lunar rover or something.
Flying Next To Denali
During our flight with Talkeetna Air Taxi, we flew right next to Denali, making sharp turns to weave in and out of the peaks, and through the clouds.
Wordle is a service that takes any text or rss feed, and parses the content down into the most important and most used words. It generates all sorts of nifty tag cloud-like graphics. Next step, I wish, would be to get a Wordle wordpress plugin that dynamically generates a real blog tagcloud, but with the cool, randomized Wordle stylings.
Found over on Current.com, an intense look at the Irtokte gun market in Mogadishu, Somolia, and how easy it is to buy an ak-47 Machine gun, or American m16. Apparently, this is the first time a foreign camera has every been allowed to film this gun market, and likely the last. Kaj Larsen and Christof Putzel are ushered away in the middle of the shoot, as the large crowd around them finally gets out of hand.
Why make software for an increasingly dwindling market – the 1st generation (EDGE) iPhone. Instinctiv is a new company that’s making iPhone software that purports to predict what you want to listen to based on a number of factors, and the smartly shuffles your songs accordingly. But it only shuffles your own songs. Only the music you have on your phone at that moment. No network listening.
I can see how this would appeal to iPod Touch and 1st generation (slow EDGE) owners, but, since the 1st Gen iPhone is no longer on sale, that group is starting to dwindle. On the new iPhone 3g, with speedy fast 3G network connectivity, is Instinctiv really necessary? (Or, does it have a viable future?) Why not just listen to real, genuine Pandora radio, if that’s the experience you’re going for? Although it’s not out yet, I’m almost positive a real, native Pandora radio application will be released for the new iPhone 3G, which will (or, should…) use not only the iPhone’s wifi connection, but the 3G cell data connection as well.
Better yet – ever shared with a friend a Pandora station you’ve made? Cool to be able to listen to the same batch of songs, no? How about allowing iPhones running the Pandora radio application to synchronize their stations, so two iPhone listeners can listen to a synchronized Pandora station? Why not push this feature to the standard browser based web player too? It might get dicey for the music licensing, but would be cool nonetheless.
I’m back in NYC, after a great trip through Alaska. Writing a blog post about the trip is no simple task, though – in addition to the description, here’s what I’m working on:
Collecting photos from my camera (3 sd cards, 4gb total, about 650 photos), my brothers camera (200 or so photos), and my father’s camera (300 or so photos)
Download continuous (30 second interval) tracklog from GPS.
Geocode all photos – update photo EXIF data with lat/long info, as well as nearest city info
Integrate with Google Maps API to generate custom google map showing trip track log, as well as selected photos
Generate similar Google Earth KMZ File, with slightly more data, including USGS topographic data from backcountry portion of trip.
Upload all photos and videos (I didn’t mention all the videos yet, did I…) to Flickr, arrange in album, assign permissions – most will be private, many will be “friends/family only”, a representative few will be public – make descriptions for public pictures.
Edit video clips from associated sections of trip (river riding, bush plane, crashed weather balloon discovery) into watchable videos. – Upload to YouTube, tag, etc.
Collect links/info for Alaskan friends and their websites.
Finally, write blog post, and post up links to various media items – embed some.
Sitting outside under the Brooklyn Bridge, at the old tobacco factory, to see the St. Ann’s Warehouse production of Macbeth. Presented in Polish with English supertitles.
Its nice to be outside for theater, fresh air etc. We all get headphones to wear so we can hear whatever special sounds they have, and there are weird green lights all over the place…
The possibilities for the more open, developer-friendly iPhone 2.0 software just keep getting better, especially on the speedier iPhone 3G. TechCrunch reports that Qik just announced that they are coming out with an iPhone application, to allow users to stream live video direct from their iPhone. Pretty cool feature, and that will also mean that the iPhone will now be able to capture and record video, since Qik records your video streams.
They’re not the only ones doing live streaming, and I hope sites like Ustream.tv and Mogulus.com get on the bandwagon for over-the-air streaming too. Especially considering Mogulus’ capabilities for real-time mixing of multiple video sources, it could make an intensely robust control studio for remixing and re-broadcasting multiple live remote video streams. Live-mixing/streaming the next Tumblr Rock Band jam from multiple roaming cell-connected audio/video sources? Sure.
**Update – Max Haot, of Mogulus, just informed me via comments that Mogulus is actually already integrated with Qik, so users can do live mixes of multiple remote video streams – awesome!
How about “Geo-tweeting”? Automatically posting geo-tagged updates to Twitter via iPhone 3G‘s GPS chip, cell data coverage and wifi coverage? Maybe a Google Maps geotweet maps mashup?
Needless to say, I’m very excited about the new iPhone 3g, and can’t wait to get my hands on one and try out the GPS, high speed data, and new applications. Regarding iPhone 3G’s features – I’m dissapointed that there is still no native picture messaging, iChat AV integration or video capture. However, I’m hopeful that 3rd party software developers will be able to fill this gap – an all network IM client that could get on AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber, GMAIL, IRC, Skype, Facebook and Myspace instant messenger networks (who sometimes share the same protocols…) would be fantastic.
Would it be possible to get super accurate gps reading via multiple gps readings? Use iPhone 3G’s internal GPS and Bluetooth connection to connect to a secondary, external GPS, maybe even one with WAAS land-based location accuracy augmentation? That, coupled with data network access could make for some nifty scientific, surveying, research and field applications…
Finally, the obvious application for a phone paired with gps paired with camera – automatic photo geotagging and upload. Flickr already supports geotagging and uploading via email (as well as third party apps). I’m almost certain this will be coming out of the gates soon after iPhone 3G launch, and almost certain I’ll be using it immediately!
Looks like the free 2 hours of wifi at starbucks is real. I just walked into a Starbucks in Soho, bought a $5 starbucks card, setup my account at starbucks.com, and got on the web. For free, unless you count the $5 of credit on my starbucks card as payment. The speed is pretty decent, although right now I only see about 3 other people in here with laptops. Hopefully starbucks and AT&T will keep this feature around. Also of note, the ISP is registered as “Starbucks Coffee Company”, and the IP address resolves to Seattle, WA. (I changed the test server to NYC, since I know where I am..)
RSS Feed of photo set
Looks like the free 2 hours of wifi at starbucks is real. I just walked into a Starbucks in Soho, bought a $5 starbucks card, setup my account at 
