DIKtations

How I make friends at work

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:01:15 -0800

How I make friends at work

Norman wouldn’t be impressed I saw this at Starbucks....

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:22:36 -0800

Norman wouldn’t be impressed

I saw this at Starbucks. Who knew doorknobs would someday require written instructions.

Splash page for tehdik.com This is a screenshot of Naveen...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:16:45 -0800

Splash page for tehdik.com

This is a screenshot of Naveen Selvadurai’s website. I think it would be cool to do something similar for tehdik.com. People often verbally bash splash pages, but perhaps people who want to learn more about me shouldn’t be exposed to my blog without choice. Right now I have a “You can find me here” section with a list of online profiles. Is that enough?

What do you think?

New Expose style Found this tip on TUAW. Very cool.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:01:08 -0800

New Expose style

Found this tip on TUAW. Very cool.

Cornell Alumni Sake Tasting Last week there was an alumni event...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:40:00 -0800

Cornell Alumni Sake Tasting

Last week there was an alumni event at Nombe in the Mission. What did I learn? Sake, like wine, has been around for hundreds of years and is taken seriously by many. Obviously, I already knew that but my exposure to sake has consistently been combined with chopsticks, beer, and embarrassing behavior. Sake can be paired with food, and should be enjoyed one sip at a time. There are lots of varieties, and most should be served cold.

I actually asked the sommelier about sake bombing and whether or not it’s insulting to Japanese culture. He made it clear that he absolutely is insulted when people order them at Nombe. He serves them, but he usually accompanies bombs with a sample of something worth appreciating. He also asked me if I ever throw a good Chardonnay into the microwave for thirty seconds and then dunk it in a beer. Good point indeed.

The food was delicious, and I plan on paying attention to the sake offerings next time I’m in a Japenese restaurant.

Complicated conversation Yesterday I tweeted that I didn’t...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:44:00 -0800

Complicated conversation

Yesterday I tweeted that I didn’t think an Archos device running Android would doom the iPad. Ricky immediately jumped on me for being an Apple fanboy. A discussion about Archos, iPods, and touch screens resulted involving myself, Ricky, and Jordan. I was fascinated by how the discussion spread across three mediums.

The result? Yes, Archos did some cool stuff before Apple, but Apple made those technologies global successes.

Note: I used cacoo to make the diagram.

This needs to stop Seriously. It’s 2010. I don’t...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:25:06 -0800

This needs to stop

Seriously. It’s 2010. I don’t understand why people still do this. I saw several people/sites this morning mention Forrst so I thought it was worth checking out.

Come on people. Either make it private or make it public. This 90% committal thing is just annoying.

TV and Web 2.0 Don’t Mix I saw this on Hulu this morning....

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:44:00 -0800

TV and Web 2.0 Don’t Mix

I saw this on Hulu this morning. I’m sure Fox is thrilled.

Evernote Notable Tech Event: I caught a ride with Caroline and...

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:40:27 -0800

Evernote Notable Tech Event:

I caught a ride with Caroline and Ziv, two Eye-Fi employees, to check out the Evernote Notable Tech Event at 111 Minna Gallery in SF. I didn’t realize Evernote’s service had been integrated into so many other products. It was cool seeing how other companies are increasing the value of their products by including the ability to link data to Evernote.

The panel, titled Managing Competition in Tech, was moderated by Guy Kawasaki (wow you really see this guy everywhere when you attend tech events), and the panelists were Phil Libin, Loic Le Meur, and Adeo Ressi.

Here are my takeaways from the panel:
Good VCs don’t sign NDAs
Do the opposite of what your feelings tell you to do
Do what you love
Make your great product - ignore your competitors
Meet your competition

And a special lecture on TechCrunch’s lack of importance:
Coverage on TC = ~1500 users
90% are gone 2 days later
Remaining 10% become your alpha users - use them to grow your product

Lastly, Loic introduced himself by saying, “Hi my name is at Loic.” He was also wearing a shirt that said “@loic” on it.

Vinturi Deluxe Aerator Kit: What a beautiful product. I love...

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:54:00 -0800

Vinturi Deluxe Aerator Kit:

What a beautiful product. I love glass.
Yes, that is Sebastiani’s flagship wine: Cherryblock. If you haven’t tried it, let’s go to Sonoma and taste.

Make a Personal iPhone App: …only to see it get rejected...

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:14:00 -0800

Make a Personal iPhone App:

…only to see it get rejected from the app store.

There are several startups (Mobile Roadie, MobBase, iSites) empowering small businesses, musicians, and bands to create their own iPhone apps without knowing any Objective C (the programming language used to build apps). You create an account, upload a few photos, enter your Twitter username, enter your blog’s RRS feed URL, and write a couple background paragraphs.

It’s so simple.

Pricing for a custom app can be anywhere from a $20 to $500 activation fee, and $8 to $29 in monthly fees depending on how many people install it. What are you paying for besides avoiding programmers and designers? You don’t have to worry about communicating with Apple. These companies handle everything.

As an experiment, I thought I should try it out. I spent a couple hours arranging the menus to my liking and excitedly clicked “Publish.” My original intention was to take lots of screenshots and describe the process of building an app. That idea was trashed once my app got rejected. Apple claimed that they don’t want to become a “yellow pages” store.

At first I was upset by this decision, but after some time thinking about it I realized that they made the right choice. Why should there be a “David Klein” iPhone app that only provides my tweets and blog posts? Who would download it? My mom? She doesn’t even own an iPhone (although she’ll soon own an iPad)! In my opinion personal apps are a waste of space in the app store.

140,000 apps and counting, but your personal content needs to stay on Twitter and Facebook.

Dark Cherry Mocha: DCM. Dark… Cherry… Mocha…...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:58:00 -0800

Dark Cherry Mocha:

DCM. Dark… Cherry… Mocha…
Starbucks’ latest drink.

Delicious.

There’s a certain emotion I rarely feel, and when I do I...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:26:41 -0800

There’s a certain emotion I rarely feel, and when I do I know I’ll never forget it. It’s a combination of both extreme happiness and extreme sadness. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. For example, at the end of a movie a man and a woman get together after waiting for a decade or two since one chose the wrong person to marry and the other was forced to move on. You’re happy that they finally made it, but also sad that they wasted so much time with the wrong people. I can’t explain why I get tremendous pleasure from this. Only a few books and movies have helped me achieve this emotion.

I can add a new item to that short, special list: Splendor in the Grass. It stars Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood as young adults who fall in love.

Look at her. She’s so beautiful. (He’s not too shabby either.) This movie has qualities I don’t really see anymore from Hollywood: acting, spirit, and passion. Not only did it move me, but I finally got to feel that emotion again.

Rent it as soon as possible.

The coolest t-shirt I own: Remember Napster? Yeah it was weak...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:46:00 -0800

The coolest t-shirt I own:

Remember Napster? Yeah it was weak compared to Scour Exchange which provided both music and movies. It was reliable and extremely fast. These were the days when 40 gig hard drives were enormous and people had a thirst for collecting ones and zeros over T1 lines using Hotline servers. I got this shirt when I was working at Gig, my first job when I was 16. I’m pretty sure my awesome co-worker at Gig gave me the shirt (along with many other life lessons).

Adina coffee energy drinks: I love trying new coffee-esque...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:30:00 -0800

Adina coffee energy drinks:

I love trying new coffee-esque drinks.

These claim to be Transfair USA certified, contain natural caffeine, nothing artificial, and the antioxidant equivalent of 4 servings of fruit (hmmm).

Delicious.

Wearing my Google Buzz t-shirt to work

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:21:00 -0800

Wearing my Google Buzz t-shirt to work

Macworld media room setup: Macbook Pro, coffee, iPhone, Eye-Fi...

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:14:28 -0800

Macworld media room setup:

Macbook Pro, coffee, iPhone, Eye-Fi SD card reader.

Apple vs. Samsung: My new Apple remote. Tiny.

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:48:00 -0800

Apple vs. Samsung:

My new Apple remote. Tiny.

Sometimes a boy just needs to shop

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:27:00 -0800

Sometimes a boy just needs to shop

New homepage: fav4.org Very slick. You can customize from a...

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:39:00 -0800

New homepage:

fav4.org

Very slick. You can customize from a variety of popular sites.