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Are You Subscribed to My Link Blog?

Posted on October 20, 2008 by jessestay

Some of my best comments are made via my Google Reader Link blog. I often avoid writing about already-written stories because there are so many better ways to do it. I often comment on FriendFeed, and where I have an opinion, I write about it as a Note in my Google Reader shared items, which goes to my Link blog.

I’ve added a small version of the link blog in the sidebar, but you can also follow it in Google Reader by subscribing here – or, you can just go there and check back often to see what else I’ve shared. Of course, the best way to follow my comments and shares is by sending me an e-mail, or brief chat to jessestay at gmail dot com, and that way I can read, and re-share your shared items as well!

Of course, if you follow me on FriendFeed, you’ll get all of this, and you can reply, too! You can follow me there at http://friendfeed.com/jessestay

Be Careful What You Post on Facebook. It Could Get You Killed!

Posted on October 18, 2008 by jessestay

In an amazing act of rage, a South London man appears to have killed his wife over a simple statement she made on Facebook about her and her husband splitting up. According to the BBC, Emma Forrester, mother of two, had posted an entry on Facebook (no word on where and how), stating she had left her husband and was looking to meet other men.

The husband, Wayne Forrester, found this, and in a drunken, drugged, rage, went after his wife, beat her, stabbed her, and according to neighbors was found outside his house covered in blood. He was jailed and sentenced to life in prison.

More on the stabbing can be found here. Photo courtesy BBC News

Stay N’ Alive – The Cure for the Common… Heart Attack?

Posted on October 18, 2008 by jessestay

According to a study by the University of Illinois medical school published on CNN.com, this very blog could be the cure to anyone suffering a heart attack. Okay, maybe not this blog, but the song that inspired the blog, which became popular the year I was born, “Stayin’ Alive“, from the movie, “Saturday Night Fever” and sung by the Bee Gees.

According to the study, the song, at a perfect 103 beats per minute, is the perfect rhythm in which to perform CPR. Studies show that those people that use the song to help establish a rhythm for chest compressions had a much better chance at hitting the perfect rhythm to saving a life than those who did not. The American Heart Association has actually been using this song as a tip to those studying CPR for 2 years, according to CNN.

So, the next time you are out there, saving the world and saving lives, think of this blog (without the “i”), and most importantly the song, Stayin’ Alive (with the “i”) and you could very well save a life! Who says this blog doesn’t save lives?

You can purchase Stayin’ Alive on iTunes here:

I highly recommend the N’ Trance version though:

Web 2.0 – A Strange New World

Posted on October 17, 2008 by jessestay

Luke Stay is my younger brother, and fellow geek like myself. I like his writing style so I asked him to start guest-blogging on Stay N’ Alive. You can follow Luke on his blog at http://lukestay.com, or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/afrowhitey, or FriendFeed at http://friendfeed.com/afrowhitey. –Jesse

About 6 months or so ago, my brother, Jesse, would not quit talking about some crazy new service he was using online called Twitter. One day, I got bored enough and decided to check it out. Little did I know, that service would serve as some sort of wormhole, propelling me helplessly through cyberspace into a strange new world, referred to by its own inhabitants as, “Web 2.0.”

I suppose I should start off with a little background on myself. I primarily work as a Stagehand in Las Vegas, NV for the local branch of IATSE. My area of expertise there is as an Audio/Visual Technician. As an A/V Tech, I am paid to install large screens, large digital projectors, large plasma screens, and many other audio/visual components for the various conventions and conferences that come to town. Sadly, I still use a 32” analog TV as my primary source of entertainment at home (yes, I did already get my free digital converter box, thanks for asking). I am an A/V geek, an A/V geek with debt that can’t afford any of the high-end components he installs on a semi-daily basis. It’s a sad existence, I know.

That being said, I am no stranger to computers or the Internet. I grew up trying to get my family’s ancient computer to do things it shouldn’t have been able to do and crashed it many times in the process. I learned computers by trying to get the family computer back up and running before Dad could come home to find out what I had done … again. I took programming courses in High School and Java in College, but ultimately decided programming was not for me. Instead, I chose to study film and have aspired to the life of a screenwriter ever since. I can’t write my own code, but I can understand most code and manipulate it to do what I want. In summary, I am a computer geek with a pretty lame disguise.

I started using Twitter mostly out of curiosity. At first, I just followed Jesse and watched, observing this strange society for a month or so. Then, I started to contribute, replying to some of Jesse’s tweets. This got his attention, and in turn, got me some more followers and a much larger society to observe. Things were pretty quiet at first, mostly Tweets about what people were doing, or what people were reading, or what new technology Apple was about to release, but then came a sort of uprising. I was witnessing a revolution.

These were the days of the infamous “Fail Whale.” Twitter was down and the natives were getting restless. The few tweets I saw actually come through were mostly complaints about their ruthless Twitter overloads. “Where did @replies go?” and “Why isn’t Twhirl working?” and “Can’t anybody do anything about this?” and “Will somebody PLEASE think of the children?!”

Just when things were looking the grimmest, new services began to pop up. Some began to move their discussions to FriendFeed, but that didn’t seem to work as a Twitter replacement. Others seemed to drop off the face of the planet, or at least the Web 2.0 planet. Others still stuck to their guns, pledging their allegiance to Twitter despite all its faults. Then, a new alternative emerged, Identi.ca.

Identi.ca billed itself as Twitter for the people; by the people, and quickly amassed an army of rebels set on taking down the evil, unreliable Twitter Empire. Among its strongest advocates were @JesseStay, @MarinaMartin, and @ThomAllen, and a majority of the small group of people I followed on Twitter. I decided to switch. My name is Luke after all, and Luke would never let himself be seen cavorting around with the supporters of the Empire. Not even Uncle Owen would do that.

In one month, I saw more activity and more of a community on Identi.ca than I ever had on Twitter. People were coding furiously, tapping into the new open-source API that Identi.ca offered. Bridges were built, new friendships were formed, manifestos were written, and new blogs emerged to welcome in the new recruits. Then, almost as quickly as it started, the revolution ended.

I came home from vacation and began to notice a lot of decreased activity on Identi.ca. Only one or two of the people I followed were posting regularly. I turned on my old Twitter account and there they were. The revolution had ended. The rebel army had lost. There would be no triumphant Ewok songs to welcome in the new era.

I learned a lot during my time on Identi.ca. I learned how to track certain terms. I learned how to find more interesting people to follow. I saw a lot of interesting conversations. Most importantly though, Identi.ca served as a sort of microcosm to the way this Web 2.0 world worked. There was a problem on the web, a shiny new service with lots of great features arose, and the masses followed like a swarm of hungry locusts. Then the old service, still much larger than the new one, fixed a lot of its problems, and the swarm came back home.

Since then, I’ve branched out a little on Twitter. I began to get my own followers and have my own little network of videographers, editors, and film geeks. I’m even following Dave Matthews (@DaveJMatthews) and Stefan Lessard (@SLessard) from the Dave Matthews Band (who are surprisingly active). My observations shifted somewhat to FriendFeed as I begin to utilize Twitter more and more, and I see the same sort of Identi.ca cycle on a much smaller scale almost daily. The Web 2.0 world finds some new product or feature, rushes out to play with it, review it, love it, or hate it, and then drops it completely as some other new product or feature is announced.

I remain a somewhat casual observer. I learned my lesson. In this strange new world, it’s better to wait out the flurry of hype that comes with the latest new web gadget to see if it actually takes root. If the locals drop it after a month or less, I don’t bother. Who knows, it may be the next Empire Strikes Back, or it may just be another Star Wars spin-off; a Star Wars Christmas Special in hiding.

I am such a geek

Facebook is Not the Top Social Network in America, Yet

Posted on October 13, 2008 by jessestay

Just yesterday, MySpace announced the release of their myAds Beta self-serve Ads platform. As part of it, similar to Facebook’s self-serve Ads platform, they released an automatic statistics engine, now available to any user that goes through the motions of setting up an Ad. The new engine allows a glimpse into the MySpace userbase. What’s even more interesting is that you can do the same on Facebook, now allowing very accurate comparisons of the two platforms when determining where you should advertise or build an Application. Based on these comparisons, it would appear that, while Facebook traffic seems to be going up and MySpace traffic seems to be going down, Facebook still has far to go before catching up with MySpace in North America, at least in regards to number of users.

Here are the results I came up with – note that myAds only allows statistics for North America, so I was unable to do a comparison of the countries outside of the region. All these stats are North America-specific:

North America as a Whole:

Facebook: 33,3393,820 users
MySpace: 83,895,693 users

Males:

Facebook: 14,538,700 – 43.5% of total
MySpace: 37,653,707 – 44.88% of total

Females:

Facebook: 18,804,380 – 56.3% of total
MySpace: 46,241,986 – 55.11% of total

25+ Age Range:

Facebook: 12,649,720 – 37.88% of total
MySpace: 30,804,487 – 36.71% of total

24- Age Range:

Facebook: 20,722,540 – 62.05% of total
MySpace: 53,089,687 – 63.28% of total

Based on these statistics, as mentioned, MySpace dominates the North American market. Of the demographic break-up, the two sites seem neck-and-neck, so where you target your marketing and apps may really bring you over to MySpace first, and Facebook second. While minute, Facebook does seemingly have a stronger female to male ratio, as well as a ratio of those 25 and older. That would make sense considering Facebook reports their largest growing customer-base is the 25 and older generation.

What would be an even more interesting study would be why users come to each of the sites. Where Facebook seems to accommodate all businesses with their “Page” business profiles, MySpace seems to be targeting the Band and Movie genre. With categorized demographics, MySpace makes it easy to generate statistics based on these demographics, but Facebook doesn’t seem to make it very easy, relying mostly on keywords that pull from the Info section of a user’s profile. It would be hard to do a comparison in this area.

Now, if you compare actual traffic, it gets even more interesting. According to compete.com, Facebook has been increasing very steadily, while MySpace traffic is decreasing. It’s hard to tell if this is a reflection of the user-base, or of simple engagement within the site. If MySpace’s userbase has been growing, MySpace needs to do some serious consideration of how to increase traffic and PageViews within the site, because in this area in general, Facebook is about to overtake MySpace.

So while Facebook is hot on the tail of MySpace, it would appear that it still has far to go in North America. Facebook still needs to double in size in North America before they get even close. If I were to target Facebook I would target a more global audience for now.

Could Pandora be Leaking User E-mail Addresses to 3rd Parties?

Posted on October 12, 2008 by jessestay

UPDATE: See the comments below. Pandora’s CTO responded with the following explanation – while I haven’t shared much, I can see it being a spyware issue of someone I’ve shared having spyware on their computer – he has a good point.

“Hi there, I’m the CTO over at Pandora. Saw a link to this post on Twitter. I can tell you with absolute certainty that we never have and never will sell, give away, trade or disseminate in any way our listeners email addresses. We also do routine security audits; your email address absolutely is not available anywhere on public systems.

We do however hear of cases like this a couple of times a year and I’ve worked other places where similar complaints would come in. In my experience the cause is almost always spyware on a machine that at one time received an email from the address in question. For example, if you’ve ever used Pandora to share a station with a friend, or invite someone else to use the service, your pandora email address would be on the email we sent to your friend. If that friend has a machine infected with Spyware it’s likely that your email address made it into some spammers directory. Of course we also send you a welcome email, if there’s spyware on your machine that’s another possibility. The final (and least likely) possibility is a simple dictionary attack — since the email address you’re using is pandora@stayinalive.com it’s possible that some spammer was just iterating on dictionary words against your mail system.

It’s a terrible situation that we live in an environment where it’s nearly impossible to keep our personal email addressses out of the hands of spammers.

Feel free to write any time, with any concern. Predictably I’m tom-at-pandora.

Could Pandora be giving out or selling their users’ e-mails? They say they don’t, but I got a disturbing e-mail yesterday that I’m still trying to figure out. When I sign up for services, I usually sign up with the e-mail address, servicename@staynalive.com so that I can detect where my spam is coming from. Yesterday, I received a weird piece of spam from “news21.tv” in what I believe to be French. The subject states, “News21.tv des vidéos pour les Expatriés, DRH, Exportateurs… A découvrir”. What caught my attention though, is that it was sent to “pandora@staynalive.com”.

There’s only one site I ever gave that e-mail address to, and that’s Pandora. Could Pandora be selling e-mail addresses to spammers? Could there be a leak at Pandora, where my e-mail address somehow accidentally got out to spammers? Or is this just a fluke where some spammer decided to randomly send e-mail to pandora@domainname.com where domainname.com is all wildcard e-mail addresses they’re aware of? I can’t tell, but it’s troubling – I’ve never had a spammer actually use an e-mail address for a service I actually belong to. This makes me wonder if it actually is an issue at Pandora.

I mentioned this on FriendFeed, and a Pandora rep actually did respond (Does your company track FriendFeed?). Here was the thread:

Me: “wtf??? I’m getting Spam and it’s to my Pandora address. Did Pandora sell my e-mail address? NOT HAPPY”
Pandora Radio: “Hi Jesse – We *definitely* never sell or give away listeners’ email addresses. Feel free to email support@pandora.com if you’d like. – Lucia, from Pandora”

I want to believe Pandora. They seem like a pretty ethical company, and have supported some good causes in the past. It makes me wonder however if somehow, some e-mail addresses got out of their system that they weren’t aware of. Perhaps my e-mail address is on a public profile somewhere on Pandora’s website? Has anyone else experienced this, and do you have any ideas how this could be happening? The text of the e-mail can be found here.

i.TV Hits #1 in 72 Hours

Posted on October 10, 2008 by jessestay

I’m trying to post a few more inspiring posts with the state of the economy and the sad state of the elections currently. I really believe much of the state of the stock market is being caused by negative reactions in the media. Hopefully I can help stop that. I started with my last post and a little perspective. I’d now like to share a little good news.

Today, at the company I work for, i.TV, we’ve announced that we’re now the number one Application in the iTunes App store! It took us only 3 days to get there. With 443 reviews in the short time we launched and almost all of them raving we’re really excited about it! We’re madly at work on our next features now.

As you can read on our blog, we’ve got some very exciting announcements coming soon, so stay tuned there to hear more. You can also read some of our favorite reviews on our blog. In the meantime, check out our Facebook, and Twitter profiles – be sure to follow and add yourself as a fan! Lastly, if you have any fan photos of your favorite shows or parts of the app, go ahead and share those in the “fan photos” section of our Facebook Page.

Here’s a little video of our launch and celebration music – you can buy the song on . We think it’s pretty inspirational. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel here.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4WMGZHewoQ&hl=en&fs=1]

Forget the Economy – The Burns Family Needs Your Help!

Posted on October 10, 2008 by jessestay

The economy’s in bad shape right now. Let’s put it a little in perspective – it could be a lot worse, and that’s the situation the Burns family is in right now. I was just contacted by my former colleague, Phil Burns, and he sounded quite troubled. I could hear the concern and worry in his voice. He notified me that one of his twins, Teran, recently had an appendectomy and was experiencing complications from Hemmoraging. He said there’s a strong risk of death.

For those that don’t remember, Phil and his family just in the last year experienced and are experiencing another setback with their daughter who was diagnosed with Leukemia. I’m told the circumstances are still difficult with her. So now, instead of the unimaginable one child with a strong risk of death in their family, the Burns are now experiencing the very immediate possibility of two children dying in their family.

I asked Phil how we could help, and he asked that we pray. If you could join me, I would sincerely appreciate your help. In addition, please feel free to leave your thoughts for the family below and I’ll be sure they get them. You can also follow Phil on his blog at http://phil801.com/wpblog/. Or Adria, his wife on her blog at http://www.chezadria.com. I won’t expect to hear much from them, as they obviously have much greater priorities to attend to.

Phil and Adria are prominent members of our blogging and Twitter community which have been set-back over the last year due to these amazing trials. Let’s continue showing them our support! You can help by re-blogging and re-tweeting the message about them – let’s unite behind this family and help them out. Phil and Adria – we’re thinking of you!

This Utah Texan’s Voting for Obama

Posted on October 10, 2008 by jessestay

I rarely pipe in with Political rants here because well, it’s a tech blog. However, with the change in the economy and lead-in to an election, politics seems to be the only thing people talk about these days. I’m going to make an exception today because I think, as an Independant, I’ve made a decision that is quite significant for me. For the first time, ever, I’m voting Democrat this election. Yes, “my friends”, I’m voting for Obama.

I grew up in a very Republican and conservative family. I have extended family that are very Democrat and liberal, but for the most part, my Mom, Dad, brothers and sisters all seemed pretty conservative growing up. I married a conservative, my brothers, father, father-in-law, and now sister are all accountants and for the most part, pretty fiscally conservative. I grew up in Houston, TX, and I currently live in Utah, 2 of the most Red states in the nation. So I’ve had conservatism all around me. I’ve always been a very “independant” person though. I hate the two-party system. To me, picking a candidate is about picking the best person for the job, not picking a person just because they belong to one party or the other. If I ever run for politics, then I’ll pick a party and pick where I stand on things. As a normal citizen, I get to be a learner, not pick sides, and choose the side that will be best for this nation. Why Obama? Let’s pick a few issues that have convinced me:

Healthcare

This was a big one for me. I used to work at UnitedHealth Group, and learned a lot about how large HealthCare companies work, and what the problems are that face this nation in regards to HealthCare technology.

What convinced me on Healthcare is in the last debate when Obama talked about “digitizing medical records in Doctors offices”. Obama, more than anyone else gets technology. His campaign has done an excellent job targeting people on Facebook, Twitter, via Youtube, and other means that McCain I imagine simply hasn’t touched. (Don’t get me started on McCain’s “disability” – if McCain really knew technology he’d know there are very good accessibility option on most Operating Systems these days. I know blind people better at computers than McCain.)

One of the largest and costliest issues facing our nation right now are old insurance companies and old doctors still using paper for most of their record-keeping. These papers at some point have to be converted to digital format, which in many cases leads to errors and costly mistakes. The large insurance companies are making money off of this, creating systems around leaving a flawed system in place. It’s wrong, and Obama understands this. Our economy will be better because of this. (and no, Obama isn’t doing “true” universal healthcare – he’s just keeping the stupid from costing us money by not having healthcare)

Economy

As a fiscally conservative individual, this was a big issue for me. Frankly, neither McCain nor Obama have good plans. The fact of the matter is, when Bush leaves office, our taxes are going to go up. Both Obama and McCain have ways to give back to the citizens, but economically speaking, they’re both the same. McCain gives back to everyone, keeping corporations from being taxed, and giving money back to the rich that may not need it as much.

Obama wants to do a weight-distribution of the money. He’ll tax corporations, which in turn will pass that cost onto the consumer. At the same time, the middle-to-low income consumer will have more money due to tax cuts and rebates given back to them. In the end, the rich still get paid because the consumers, now with more money, can spend money on their products. It’s simple economics – the wealth gets distributed either way. Both plans are near identical if you ask me so this isn’t a huge issue for either.

Abortion

As an Independant, I’m against the death penalty. I could never, in any way, imagine myself in a position to be responsible for someone else’s life, and for that reason I could never directly vote for it or agree with it. For that same reason, I’m against Abortion, except in the cases of rape or incest. I would never allow my daughter to have an abortion, would not support my wife in such a decision, except in very rare circumstances.

At the same time, it doesn’t affect me one way or another if you or your friend or your sister or mom get an abortion. That’s your business, not mine. Economically speaking, in Freakonomics it actually suggests that it is better for the nation to allow abortion – there has actually been less crime since Roe v. Wade than before. Allowing choice, statistically, has had an indirect affect on the crime-rate of this country. Again, I’m not saying I support it – I’m just saying it’s not that big of an issue for me.

For this reason, I don’t buy those that say bringing in a Liberal to lead the nation could enable the Supreme court to be tipped liberally, forcing Roe v. Wade to be enforced. One way or another, it’s your choice – we all have the responsibility to make that choice. IMO, this nation is not affected adversely by allowing it. So regardless of Obama’s stance, this is just a non-issue for me.

Foreign Policy

McCain scares the living daylights out of me in regards to Foreign Policy. ‘Nuf said.

Change

Obama’s “Change” theme has annoyed the heck out of me. However, I think I finally got it after this last debate. We are in a circumstance in this nation right now that is unprecedented. All of those running were not living the last time this happened. We simply don’t know how to solve it. Therefore, it requires an adaptive President to manage the situation. It takes someone who is willing to change and adapt with the circumstances. Obama showed that this last debate with some of his change in position. McCain is still doing the same things he always did. For this reason above all, I’m implementing “change” in my life and voting for Obama this election.

(Note, it’s not too late to convince me otherwise – if you think I’m wrong, and have solid reasons to back that up, I’m all ears! Again, I’m in this to learn!)