randomup.blogspot.com

Share RandomUp Pages on Your Favorite Social Network

2008-04-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

Some of you would have noticed that Ads from the RandomUp panel are missing. I took it off last night. The Ads you saw were from a link exchange service adgridwork. In their own words,

"adgridwork is a free advertising network that lets anyone promote their websites, businesses, blogs, and organisations. adgridwork is the perfect way to build traffic, visitors and future clients for free."

The concept is simple. You display text Ads on your website and in return your Ads will be shown on other websites in the adgridwork network.

Given the amount of traffic that I get (around 400 yesterday) it didn’t make sense to insert real Ads and make 10 cents a day. Traffic from adgridwork constituted 0.5% to 2% of the total traffic. This might be significant for some mid to high traffic websites. We might revisit it sometime in future. But for now it has been replaced by AddThis button.

"AddThis spreads your content across the Web by making it easier for your visitors to bookmark and share it with other people, again…and again…and again."

Go ahead and share RandomUp pages with your friends.

-Random Guy

Useful for walking your dog, taking out the trash, getting your mail...

2008-03-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

iPhone Apps Wish List

2008-03-07T14:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we all saw glimpses of iPhone SDK. If you haven’t yet, it’s high time that you crawl out from under that rock and check out the following links:

Gizmodo
Techcrunch
Engadget
News.com

I was impressed by the possibilities it has opened up. Here is my modest wish list for iPhone apps

1. Games
Lots of games. We saw a couple of them yesterday and it looks awesome. I had no clue that the accelerometer in my iPhone was this sensitive. All along I thought it could only figure out if the phone was horizontal or vertical. The accelerometer alone makes it possible for some innovative games. Examples: Spore, Super Monkey Ball

2. WiFi Sync
I don’t know why Apple didn’t offer this from day one. My iPhone can be connected to my laptop over WiFi and data can be exchanged. So why didn’t iPhone have syncing over WiFi (music,)? I heard some concerns regarding battery life. Well, I charge it every other night and I can press the sync button when I place it in the dock for charging.

3. Messengers
GTalk, Yahoo, MSN, AIM… or just Trillian.

4. VoIP
Yay! Mr. Jobs said we can do it.

5. Social apps
Show all my friends on the map. I need to know where each one of are. Let me poke them (their iPhone goes into mad vibration)

6. Geo-aware app
I want to know see all the Starbucks around me. Click on one of them and show me direction to it. Let me place an order while I walk/drive to it.

7. GPS apps
This involves hardware and an app. Build an external GPS antenna that plugs into the iPhone. Fire up the software that uses the location info from the attached antenna and integrates with the “Maps” app.

8. Customization apps
Custom ringtones, custom wall paper, custom dock etc. While you are at it go ahead and make a whole shell.

9. iPhone pets
I want a pet rock in my iPhone. You think I’m weird? Watch out for a whole industry around iPhone pets.

10. ToDo List
I’m a simple guy with simple needs. Give me a plain todo list. I’m tired of using “Notes” app for my todo list.

Did I miss out some obvious apps? Add it in the comments.

-Random Guy

Rejection by existing search engines gave birth to Google

2008-03-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

"Larry and Sergey initially tried to license their algorithm to some of the newly formed web search engines, but none were interested. Since they couldn't sell their algorithm, they decided to start a search engine themselves. The rest of the story is well-known."

I found this piece of history here: http://randomup.com/page.aspx?id=194980

Mohandas Gandhi

2008-03-03T12:03:00.000-08:00

Some of history's greatest replies come from people we don't usually associate with great wit. In the decades prior to World War II, Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi led a massive campaign of civil disobedience designed to help colonial India win its independence from the British Empire. In 1931, shortly after being named Time magazine's "Man of the Year," Gandhi traveled to London to meet with British authorities. The entire nation was curious to learn more about this little brown man, as many called him. Constantly swarmed by press and photographers, Gandhi was peppered with questions wherever he went. One day a reporter yelled out, "What do you think of Western civilization?" It was a defining moment, and Gandhi's reply instantly transformed him from an object of curiosity into a celebrity. In his heavy Indian accent, he answered:

"I think it would be a good idea."

more:
http://www.drmardy.com/repartee/historygreatreplies.shtml#jbarrymore

Gmail Goes Life Size

2008-02-28T11:17:00.000-08:00

Gmail Live - Watch more free videos

Google Talk Turns Into a Chat Widget

2008-02-26T14:27:00.000-08:00

This is better than having a "call me" button and sending my telephone ringing with random calls from the interweb.

Get your own: http://www.google.com/talk/service/badge/New

more here: http://randomup.com/page.aspx?id=171654

Nokia Morph Concept

2008-02-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

More here: http://randomup.com/page.aspx?id=165176

Is it a recession when GOOG goes from $750 to $450?

2008-02-26T10:19:00.000-08:00

Yahoo!
Finance
Quote for
GOOG/

Reddit, Digg you disappoint me. I heard the 16GB iPhone news from my colleague.

2008-02-13T11:36:00.000-08:00

http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Google Hijacks 404 Pages

2008-02-12T10:28:00.000-08:00

Techcrunch is reporting that the new Google Toolbar Beta hijacks 404 pages.

Here are some facts that I gathered from the comments

1. The 404 page is not hijacked if the webmaster has provided a custom 404 page
2. The option to hijack is not turned on by default

Though these are some things that will help Google defend this option, the users are going to be up in arms against this. This is not rocket science and Microsoft could have bundled this option in IE. Imagine IE redirecting 404 pages to Windows Live search page. The same users that as saying “Google has done a good job of making 404 pages useful” would be bashing MS.

Here is something that Google could do to play fair. Allow the users to enter a URL to which 404 pages will be redirected. This will make everyone happy and will trigger a race for alternate 404 page.

-Random Guy

I found you guys a Valentine's day gift. You are welcome!

2008-02-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

Found it here: http://randomup.com/page.aspx?id=109606

How I Got My iPhone Calendar to Sync With Home Outlook, Work Outlook and Google Calendar in 10 Steps

2008-02-06T12:09:00.001-08:00

1. Googled for help
2. Bunch of blogs turned up with advice on installing various plugins
3. Followed advice and installed RemoteCalendars plugin for Outlook at work
4. Successfully wiped out my work calendar (yay... no more meetings)
5. Told my sob story to colleagues
6. Someone suggested Plaxo
7. Installed Plaxo plugin for Outlook at work
8. Repeated step 7 for Outlook at home
9. Synced Google calendar with Plaxo calendar on the Plaxo website
10. All calendars were in sync at this point

Bonus 11th point:
Sync iPhone with home laptop

-Random Guy

Didn't feel like showing up for work

2008-02-04T11:22:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning I went to the local USPS to pick up something and this is what I find taped to the door. I take a picture with my phone and go around to the back door and show it to the employees who were working hard. We all realize that it was probably done by some pissed off customer (with a sense of humor) who found the main lobby door locked. On Saturdays only the side door is open.

Apple.com: A life remembered

2008-01-30T08:50:00.000-08:00

No diggs for RandomUp

2008-01-25T10:48:00.000-08:00

I submitted the link to digg.

No diggs yet!

-Random Guy

Xobni Uninstalled (useful Outlook plugin but crashed too often)

2008-01-23T21:20:00.000-08:00

I first heard about Xobni on techcrunch. It sounded promising and I installed it immediately. It started our well. It told me it is going to make a small database for itself and it would take a while. While it sat there making sense of my emails I could use outlook like I normally would. Everything went smooth. We had a go.

What I liked:
1. Search for contacts quickly (list populated as you type)
2. All attachments from a contact presented as a list
3. Phone number for contacts sniffed out from their emails

What I did not like:
1. Grouped conversations confused me
2. Outlook crashed too often
3. Outlook took forever to load

What was offered but I did not need/use:
1. Graph of number of emails over time of day (occupies prime real estate)
2. Analytics package

I was finally forced to uninstall Xobni when my outlook started crashing every hour. Sorry guys (authors of Xobni), I liked your software and would have had it around forever if it did not crash so often. Also while you are at it please build in some collaborative features where we can create accounts and share contact/emails with the team.

-Random Guy

What a Day!

2008-01-23T11:49:00.000-08:00

With AAPL trading at $133 and GOOG at $540 I’m afraid to watch TV or browse financial sites. With all the talks about the economy slipping into recession everyone seems depressed. This looks like a day to tell everyone about RandomUp. I’m hoping that going to random webpages would cheer people up. I will start out with reddit to see if the love spreads.

-Random Guy