Companies like SimpleGeo, SkyHook are providing the important plumbing we need to build new geo-aware apps, and are poised for stellar growth. Niche players now have an opportunity to tap into the geo-service landgrab and stake their claim. We are very much taking an active role in this phenomenon and look forward to exciting new capabilities.

Stay tuned,

Infinitely Meta Team
team@infinitelymeta.com

Is your app geo-aware? #friendspider #geofencing

It's not about HTC EVO vs. iPhone 4/3Gs

It's not about HTC Incredible vs iPhone 4/3Gs

I have a problem with the telecomm providers in the USA and how they go about building out their network infrastructure. Here's an exerpt from a Friendfeed conversation sparked by a Ping.fm post by @ChrisPirillo. I agreed with Chris' comment, but I'm sick and tired of the fanboi bashing in either camp.

My comment:

That's pretty much an apples to oranges comparison, and therefore I agree. It's a stupid comparison. I ditched my iPhone 3G on AT&T's crappy 3G network for HTC Incredible on Verizon's 3G EVDO network. I bet my Incredible gets better battery life than the EVO. I don't need (want) a 4G wimax (sucky tech) modem in addition to Sprint 3G CDMA tech crammed into a single device. No wonder the EVO is so big. How many radios does it have anyway? The EVO is an intermediate device that will be relevant until the *REAL* 4G LTE networks come online next year. I'll take Verizon 3G over 4G Wimax (especially for the price) any day (especially given 4G coverage vs. Verizon 3G. I'll also take the Snapdragon 1Ghz chip over my old iPhone 3G. There. That's my position and I'm sticking with it. Anyone want to buy my iPhone 3G?

The conversation thread: http://friendfeed.com/l0ckergn0me/a10d7582/people-want-me-to-compare-iphone-4-battery-with

BOTTOM LINE: I'm an UBER GEEK. I use whatever works best for me at any given point in time. Right now, Android on Verizon is making me a lot happier than iPhone on AT&T.

Right now, my iPad is working better than my old ASUS 1005HA netbook. I am using my iPad for more and more business purposes each and every day and I consider it to be an integral part of my workflow.

I have a Macbook hooked up to my 56" Samsung DLP HD set that I use for music streaming and watching Hulu and Youtube. I run a copy of Windows XP in VMware Fusion on this laptop. I keep all the books for my businesses on Quicken running inside XP on Mac OSX.

I have a Dell Vostro 3300 running Windows 7 with VMware Workstation 7.1 running an Ubuntu VM for active prototyping and development.

#suckitfanboys

Coffee, breakfast, and some light coding / app config. Then bailed for home, which is where I'm at right now. As it's a holiday weekend, where many our out squeezing in one last extended summer weekend, I'm pretty well tied up with the reality that are my unavoidable deliverables. I've got no problem spending my weekend this way, as I know I am working hard towards something much bigger. So with that, here's a list of what I've got on tap this Labor Day weekend.

What are you all doing? @infinitelymeta me on Twitter or *Like* this post on Friendfeed to get in on the conversation. That's where I tend to hang out on socnets these days.

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Brian's Uber List

1. New range/oven delivery for unit 2214 (one of my new tenants stove broke so I replaced it with this:
   
2. Put out For Rent sign for my soon to be available 1BR apartment in Eastlake, Seattle WA 98102. It rents for $1400 and is the entire lower floor of an historic Victorian home that was built in 1908. An excellent spacious unit with great lighting. Email eastlakeassociates at gmail if interested or call 206.328.3379 and leave a message.

   

3. Java/JSF/AJAX - I'm putting the final interfaces and code tweaks in place for a project that I've spend a quarter working on. Final interfaces in place, but still have 75+ line item bug list. Need to go code complete by Monday evening to begin FTP transfer of Development VMware image from one side of our network to an internal only host. Still have A LOT of work ahead of me to finish this project and go into team only beta next week with Public Beta (internal corp net) on Sept 8.
   
4. Landscaping & trim to prep for fall. Luckily, I really enjoy this task. Especially when my 5.5 yr old nephew Logan joins me. He makes some pretty good coin and he's a GREAT helper.
   
5. Working with my friend Thom, the Ichthyogenius on our latest project, Reef In A Box that we are looking to launch in the coming months.
6. Working on the YTranslate.us engine. Coding in PHP/mySQL/Python/etc. Toying with new SMS gateway (thanks to Mona' Friendfeed post).
7. Meeting with contractor on some fix-r-up-r projects for 3 of my apts in preparation for Fall/Winter.
8. Looking for electrician to install some motion-sensor aware lighting in my back alley and in between my building to deal with my unwanted-persons-on-my-property challenge.
9. Water changes & general maintenance on my 300 gallon reef tank.
10. Prep/meet with GC on new reef tank project. Wait till you see what I'm going to build. It's gonna pop!
11. Shade garden v2. Part of the landscaping stuff I suppose, but definitely worthy of mention.
12. Replace fire extinguisher in common area to be in compliance with recent Seattle City Fire Department inspection.

That's all I can remember for now.

9. I've had breakfast AND lunch with Scoble.

8. I once strapped a camera on my head and pretended to be iJustine.

7. I got better Gadgets than Nik Cubrilovoic.

6. I got .flv video clips of Mike, Shel, Nik, Loic, & Calley talking all sorts of nonsense on Qik.

5. http://federatedclouds.com

4. http://reefinabox.net

3. http://infinitelymeta.com

2. http://refriend.me

1. http://ytranslate.us

0. UPDATE: I had to unblock Jason McCabe Calacanis before I sent my @reply on Twitter.

- ∞ +

Regarding my use of Linked In -

"I must admit that I have a LI account, but I have not updated it in probably 6 years. I've been working with the same team for 8+ years, having weathered 4 M&A events and countless reorgs. I've come to ignore Linked In because after having gone through the first M&A event, the only time I would get Linked In email would be when friends are riffed and forced to move on to other new positions in the industry."

*Expanding on comment here*

This became a recurring pattern after a while, where the only times I'd ever get email updates From Linked In were from people who were let go or less often just quit for other opportunities. I found myself trying to avoid accepting any of the "friend requests" or whatever their term is for adding people to your network, and I just stopped using it altogether.

I haven't logged into my account in years and if you check out my profile, you'll see that the last position I posted was "Senior Product Manager", which was 2 companies and three job title's ago.

I'm tempted to login to Linked In and update my profile, just so my stuff is accurate, but I have this recurring fear that all those people who tried to "friend" me and all of my CURRENT colleagues are going to come out of the woodwork and start picking my profile apart.

Many of my professional colleagues are not on Twitter, Friendfeed, or most of the other social networking sites I use regularly, and I'm not sure that I want them to "invade" the communities that I participate in outside of my dayjob.

I'm all for transparency, but I'm having a very hard time figuring out the right balance between personal vs my professional uses of these socnets.

What do you think? I'm very curious to hear what other people think and where I'll find the most valuealbe advice.

I've finally got some talent working on my personal & corporate brand. Mad props going out to Sean Blake (aka @bluefox) who has graciously agreed to help with this effort. Here's what he sent me after I briefed him on the idea / concepts behind Infinitely Meta. What do you think of the new logo/brand?

The possibilities are endless