LukasRos' Blog

Blog Changes: Yiid.it, Facebook Comments, Design

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:15:52 +0100

I’ve integrated the Yiid.it Like/Dislike button on my blog, so you can like and recommend my articles through all the social services supported by Yiid (currently: Facebook and Twitter) - or you can dislike them if you feel I only post crap …

The second change I’ve incorporated: I’ve dumped Disqus. Nothing against them, they’re a really great service, I just noticed that almost nobody used it. Most of the commenting on my blog took place on Facebook. Thus: The Facebook Social Plugin for Comments replaced Disqus. Let’s see who’s the first to comment on that …

And third: After the redesign from February, I’ve killed most of it and went back to a minimalistic design, but with a wider content area.

This is how it looked like before:

And now: Back to work!

How 1954 imagined 2004 ... NOT!

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:33:14 +0100

Predictions about the future are rarely true. We still don’t have the flying cars that science fiction told us we’d have soon. But predictions didn’t always imagine more than we actually got, sometimes they imagined less. For example nobody thought of the computing power that an average “smartphone” has today.

Today morning I found this picture, which is supposed to be from 1954 and shows how a “typical home computer could like like in 2004”:

It was posted by German Twitter user @ennomane, was retweeted and soon became part of the toptweets_de. When I wanted to blog it, I wanted to find out the identity of the original poster. Good! Research prevents from spreading false information! Because by now this person had found out that this is not actually a work from 1954 but a hoax. About.com Urban Legends explains the hoax. If you understand German, you could read ennomane’s post “Twitter, die Hoax-Maschine”.

By the way, if you’re generally interested in future predictions from the past, you should check out Paleo Future. The blogs deals with “a look into the future that never was”.

Federated Social Web Summit

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:04:33 +0100

On 18th July, there was the Federated Social Web Summit taking place in Portland. This was an invite-only event for tech geeks involved in a lot of open technologies that I still owe you to explain. While I haven’t been there, I would like to link the coverage of this event on the blogs for you to read, if you are as curious as myself about it:

Ivan Pulleyn from Janrain writes “Mapping the Future of the Social Web”. It’s a beautifully written piece centering around a story that was the background to the event: What is the piece of data we exchange when we want to connect with a person we meet? Is it phone, email, IM or something completely different?! Exciting question.
Evan Prodromou writes his “Federated Social Web Summit Wrapup” on the status.net blog. It’s a detailled description of all things going on on this event along with conclusion and future plans. A good summary!
Finally, David Recordon writes a short piece called “Standards are best served second” in which he states that all the technologies like OpenID, OAuth, ActivityStreams, Salmon etc. are not a means of its own but the important thing is to find the use cases and then develop technology for it.

Did I miss anything interesting?!

Open? What's that?

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:13:48 +0100

Open is the opposite of close, what else?! Well, it’s not that easy. The technology crowd and web advocates have come up with a whole bunch of buzzwords. Open Source, Open Content, Open Data, Open Standards, Open Protocols, OpenID, Open Cloud, the Open Web … are you still following? Companies are bragging how open they are. Opening up, that means being transparent, allowing outsiders to look into things that are usually hidden from them. While non-profits and grassroots movements may develop so-called open technology for the good of everyone, companies will certainly look into how they really profit from opening up. Working with technologies and products that use the “open” label every day, I thought I should start a small series on this blog to solve the buzzword bingo and deal with potential misconceptions. So stay tuned.

Facebook and Skype

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:06:00 +0100

A few days back, I blogged this provoking question: Did Facebook sell our Data to Skype? Well, I found out that Facebook asks some of their members to import their Skype contacts. I haven’t seen the respective screen, but a friend commented on it on my Facebook wall, another person had sent me an email about it as an answer to this posting and I found it on Techcrunch as well. (By the way: This blog has a comment function. Of course you can contact me through other channels, but why not keep your comments along with the article for everyone to read?)

The girl from whom I had received the invite has confirmed meanwhile that she entered their Skype credentials into Facebook to import her contact list, so the invite displayed in the Skype alerts was coming from the same feature. She did not tell me any details but it was not like that she sent the invite on purpose (remember: we are already connected). I assume that Facebook makes sending invites the default option and either hides the opt-out or doesn’t provide any at all?! Anybody knows that?

This was my first step into coding computer software, the GRASP...

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:51:00 +0100

This was my first step into coding computer software, the GRASP interpreter from the book Multimedia Creations on a 5.25 disk with 1.2 MB (!) storage! Found it today again.

Did Facebook sell our data to Skype?!

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:54:00 +0100

Recently, the blue Skype notification box popped out from my system tray. Previously I had only seen it when someone chose to add me on Skype, but this time it was something else:

An invitation to Facebook! How has this landed in my Skype?! In my Skype settings it says now that I can receive alerts from Facebook, but I don’t remember giving that option in the first place!

There’s also the next screen to show “my Facebook friends”, and this is the scary part:

I am already on Facebook but with a different email address, so there was no way for Skype to match my existing Facebook account. Therefore, the people listed there might be from my Skype contact list, but here they’re listed with their Facebook name, image and link to their profile! It seems that somehow Facebook must have allowed Skype to match the email addresses of their users!!

Has anybody else seen those alerts?! There’s something going on and I don’t know whether I “like” it …

Thank you!!

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 12:24:43 +0100

A huge “Thank you!!” goes out to all those thousands of people who have already gone to our site jadoos.com and filled the preregistration form! We never, never, never … expected this huge number! Our gratidute also goes to DEMO.com who made that possible.

Jadoos?!

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:17:00 +0100

Regular readers of my blog must have noticed that I’ve posted many different things, like places I’ve seen, information about web technology and just random thoughts and stuff I came across; but I never actually wrote about what takes up most of my days: my work! Most of you who know me may have heard that I am a co-founder and the CTO of this startup called Jadoos and that we are working on the “next big thing” for the social web. If not … well, now you know it!

There has been some silence since we first pitched our project at the DEMO Conference, but I can assure you that there’s been a lot of work done and we’ve iterated on the product multiple times since then. From our tests and feedback it looks very promising.

Now I can’t count how often the question “When will Jadoos finally launch for the public?” has been asked to me. Well, the launch date is moving closer, finally things are getting real! I will try to keep you updated through this blog, along with my regular postings. Stay tuned.

blog dot

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:17:00 +0100

From now onwards, my blog will have a subdomain. It’s no longer available under lukasrosenstock.net, all postings have been shifted to blog.lukasrosenstock.net.

The reason for this change is that I might add a few things directly on the domain which cannot be configured in Tumblr, so I thought this is better.

In you follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook etc. it doesn’t make a difference anyway …

And of course you can still type lukasrosenstock.net and will be forwarded. Permalinks also have forwardings and won’t be broken.

Been to a Big Band Concert of my old school, which I graduated...

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:31:33 +0100

Been to a Big Band Concert of my old school, which I graduated from in 2004. I even met two old school mates!!

Barbeque Season in Germany! Or “Grillen”, as we call...

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:07:35 +0100

Barbeque Season in Germany! Or “Grillen”, as we call it.

"1 Year"-Mail from Tumblr

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:04:02 +0100

Tumblr (where this blog runs) just sent me this mail:

I was like: Whoa! I didn’t know the blog was already one year old! Then I went to check my first posting and it was actually written on 23rd July 2009, whereas I thought I had only set up this site somewhere in September. Still it took me more than one and half months from account creation (which was, I think, just for testing purpose and without intent …) until actually using it, which means I can celebrate blog birthday twice :-)

Anyway, thanks Tumblr, it’s a nice idea to send reminders like this!

W3C Widgets?!

Fri, 21 May 2010 15:00:00 +0100

Recently I heard about W3C Widgets, a term I had not heard about before. As you may know, widgets are small-size applications, usually built using web technologies, that can run on our computer desktop, web browser, websites and of course mobile devices or TVs. These applications generally perform small tasks like displaying news, weather or a clock; but nothing prevents them from being more sophisticated. Some time back I had played around with the widget format of the Opera browser. Those widgets are basically just HTML, CSS and Javascript packed in a .zip file (renamed to .wgt) along with a configuration file, which is great if you already know how to develop with these technologies! If you’re interested, have a look at the specification. In the newest release, Opera widgets can run independent from the browser like a native Windows application! They also have a widget engine for mobile phones.

I’ve seen similar things (like Google Gadgets), so I thought there will be many proprietary, non-interoperable widget formats from different vendors. And now the W3C is trying to add one more on top?! I was skeptical at first, but after reading this article I felt excited. It seems the W3C specification is driven by Opera and Vodafone who want to extend and standardize what Opera is already doing. Let’s see who will adopt this format; maybe we’ll have a great open platform for lightweight applications soon.

Mantri Square, “India’s biggest Mall” is a...

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 05:01:47 +0100

Mantri Square, “India’s biggest Mall” is a good example for the modern, urban and rich side of this country.

Is a loss of reputation and privacy a good thing?

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:19:00 +0100

To many critics of the loss of privacy especially on the Internet, it has been told that it could be a good thing. Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington, for example, wrote a piece about reputation being dead and said it’s time to overlook our indiscretions. He thinks that we will just get used to having bad things published about ourselves and everybody will become more relaxed about things that used to create a big fuss.

I think he could actually be right. The norms of what is considered as socially accepted are always changing, and even today you will notice that they are different all over the world. A simple and comprehensible example for everyone are the interactions between unmarried men and women in different cultures. If you are a guy, and a girl who is your friend comes to stay at your place for the night and even sleeps in your room, it won’t be a big deal if you’re living in a Western urban area. In a more traditional or rural place you may not even invite the girl over to your place in daytime because you fear your reputation in the neighborhood and things that they might assume about you. Please, don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be offensive to a certain culture or trying to spread Western liberal values all over the world (in contrary, there are many things I would not like being spread)! From my experience, however, I have found that in a more rigid and limited environment, many people are not really different at all. They will still live the lifestyle they want. The only difference is: They are hiding it! Things are happening in secrecy. To stick to my example, you may still invite the girl to your place but you will make sure you both won’t enter the house at the same time so nobody sees you together. Or you will lie and tell everybody that she is your sister (it happens!). I believe in being open about who you are and what you do, I don’t like hiding things which are - according to my own values - not a big deal. Secrecy and hiding leads to lies, and lies are the killer of trust, which in tern is the basis of valuable human relationships.

So, does this mean that if we all lose our reputation by not being able to hide things it is a good cause, because the society will slowly accept us as who we are and in what we do, whatever it is? Yes! But it is up to us to make the decision to be open and transparent about ourselves. If we don’t want to that, we should be able to keep our small private secrets. And certainly it is not Mark Zuckerberg who should decide that making everything public is the new “Social Norm” that everyone has to follow. My example may not be something that would typically end on the Internet, but I think you’re getting my point and can draw your conclusions for other issues.

You must have heard of the following statement: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” I would like to adapt it for my opinion about privacy: “I disapprove of your secrets, but I will defend to the death your right to hide them.”

"Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life."

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:31:00 +0100

“Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life.”

- I saw this quote from Gabriel García Márquez circulating on Twitter and it made me think about privacy on the Internet. The current trend seems to push the private and even the secret life towards the public life. Stowe Boyd, how also quotes him on his blog /message, says that “the basis of future web culture and the social tools that enable it to exist will be publicy, not privacy or secrecy.” While this may be true and openness and transparency is a good thing, there needs to be a place for privacy and secrecy on the Internet as well and technology has to support users towards this goal. I will have to blog about it once.

Owl City - Fireflies (Music Video)

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0100

Owl City - Fireflies (Music Video):

From the moment I heard it for the first time, I liked the song Fireflies from Owl City. But just recently I discovered the video, and absolutely adore it. The idea is very creative, the imagery is beautiful and nicely matching the lyrics. Furthermore it’s appreciable that a pop music video turns away from typical love scene themes and omits the sexual imagery that is too frequently used to sell it. Therefore, it’s my suggestion for #musicmonday. I could not embed it here because it’s from VEVO, which means no Embed-Link on Youtube, but you can watch it over there by clicking the link title.

nerdigbynature: Ben Folds Plays Chatroulette Live in Concert...

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:17:43 +0000

nerdigbynature:

Ben Folds Plays Chatroulette Live in Concert [VIDEO]

Great idea!

'The Social Agent'

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:54:56 +0000

'The Social Agent':

Chris Messina is writing about the work of Mozilla Labs for an Online Identity Concept Series. The idea is to convert the browser into a tool that connects all social online services while keeping the user in control. Read the vision; and be sure to check out the mockups, it looks really great! Do you think we’ll all be using browsers like this in the future?! If so, how distant is that future?