Is Blogging Dead?

So, judging from my personal blogging habits and online observations Facebook and Twitter definitely seem to be taking the place of daily blogging.

I ran across a great article and I thought I would post it as somewhat of a transition to TwitBook

Blogging Is Over With

Analysis: Online trend chronicler says blogging "feels old" -- says he's moving from a blog to a "lifestream."

It's hard to remember that blogging was once deemed faster, less formal and often shorter than typical online prose.

These days, the online experience is often about Facebook updates and 140-character Tweets. More stream of consciousness, fewer essays with links.

Google Killer?

So, there has been some buzz lately about the next big thing, Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha LLC announced Monday the general availability of Wolfram|Alpha, a "computational knowledge engine" available on the Web that shares code with Mathematica, Wolfram Research's renowned technical computing software.

I've been following this a bit myself and I think it will take a very big leap to topple Google, and an even larger leap to replace it as my home page. That being said, it may have some future advantages over Wikipedia. I would love to have a bit more organization in the data on Wikipedia. Inevitably I do find what I'm looking for but sometimes it's in no logical order and 3 pages deep. Google gives me too many results and Wikipedia makes me work to find it.

The next big leap will be the one that can almost anticipate what you are looking for and then bubble those results to the top. Here's an example of where I hope technology is going.

The iPhone has an app called Shazam where you can simply hold the phone up and it will identify the song it hears, let you buy it, share it and watch the video. Damn cool if you ask me and almost reason enough for me to buy one.

How does this relate to online search software?

Well, I would like a similar experience when finding information.

1. Take me to the facts
2. Bring up recent news items
3. Find related youtube videos
4. Find related products to buy from places like Amazon

For example, let's say someone just told you how cool "Angels and Demons" is so you search on it and...

Hey look at that, through a Google search;

First link is the official site
Wikipedia page
YouTube video trailer
links to Books.google.com and Amazon.com
and even a news article on how this movie will damage the Catholic church

Good luck finding anything better than that, I don't anticipate my home page changing anytime soon, no matter how great a few people say something is.

Hat Tip: Bex

Woo Hoo Summer's Here

As many of you know summer for me kicks off in May with the start of the movie season.
So, if you were paying attention you probably noticed that I hadn't wrote about the 09 summer movie season yet? Well without further ado I bring you my

Top 5 movies of 2009

UP
Ok, not that one but I would go see that too.
Real trailer, UP in case you live in a cave, in which case I wonder whose internet you are stealing

Ahh, Disney & Pixar the perfect relationship. There's absolutely no reason to think this movie won't take in buckets of money. Once again John Ratzenberger will provide his voice for the movie, being the only person to have a role every Pixar movie.

If you doubt the success, Pixar movies have grossed $4.8 Billion and won 30 Academy Awards. I think they have the formula figured out.

Star Trek
Well, originally this was #4 in my list but after seeing it last weekend, I am moving it up. Yeah, I know that's cheating but I don't care. This was one amazing movie. Best Sci Fi movie since Revenge of the Sith in my opinion and some people didn't even like that one. JJ Abrams truly has a gift for directing and I can't wait to see his next project.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 95% rating, that hasn't happened to a sci fi movie since The Truman Show(98), or Terminator II(91) for a true action sci-fi movie.

Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince
Really? Harry Potter? Aren't people sick of this franchise yet?
Well, how about this little fact. As of Nov 2008, the Harry Potter film franchise is the second highest grossing film franchise of all time, with the five films released so far grossing $4.48 billion worldwide. Without adjusting for inflation, this is slightly behind the 22 James Bond movies and the 6 Star Wars movies.

This movie has been complete for months, originally scheduled for fall 2008 but after the huge success of Dark Knight Warner Bros. executive Alan Horn noted that the move went ahead "to guarantee the studio a major summer blockbuster in 2009"

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
In 2007 the first Transformers movie was #3 taking in $319 million, with Harry Potter close behind at $292 million. This time I think it will be the other way around with Emma Watson unfortunately edging out my girlfriend Megan Fox. Just seeing if anyone is reading this.

This one is bigger, badder with an even more obscene budget.

Night at the Museum 2
I'm going out on a bit of a limb here putting this at #4 but the first one made $250 million and there is a smaller batch of "family" movies this summer to choose from. I guess Hollywood expects everyone to take their kids to X-Men or Terminator. My kids happen to love the first one, watching it about once a week.

With almost all of the cast returning this looks to be a fairly entertaining sequel.


Honorable Mention

The Princess and the Frog and Avatar are both coming out in December but it will be too late to make a run at the top 5 but if I know Jim Cameron I predict Avatar will break $250 million before Valentine's Day

Have a great summer everyone

Google Does It Again

Never ceases to amaze me when something new shows up on Google.

So type in your favorite team followed by schedule and BAM! the current game stats show up.

How cool is that?

My Own Version of the Bucket List

So my friend Bex recently wrote about his Bucket List and since my big Four Zero is only a few days away I thought I would share my modified version.

Instead of listing accomplishments I would like to do before I die my list consists of things I have never done and want to keep it that way.


1. Break a bone, yes I even made it through the skateboarding and skiing years

2. Take any illegal drugs, I'm not trying to be a prude and I'm sure I'm missing out on something amazing but people that know me already assume I'm high as a kite.

3. Go to jail, I've visited but always from the outside

4. File for Bankruptcy, not quite as uncommon lately

5. Foreclose on my house, see #4

6. Get divorced for the 2nd time, done it once don't need to repeat it for the experience.

7. Get bit by anything requiring medical attention, snakes, bears, ROUSes

8. Eat Lutefisk, see #6

9. Own a riding lawnmower or snowblower

10. Have a gym membership, see #9

Friday video

Ever have one of those songs that you need the interweb just to know what the heck the lyrics are?

Well, in the case of Pearl Jam's Yellow Ledbetter, there are no official lyrics so people make up their own.

Google Grand Central

EDIT: Lookie what I got in My Mailbox today

Hello GrandCentral User,

We are happy to announce that GrandCentral has been upgraded and is relaunching as Google Voice. While not yet open to the public, we wanted to give you, our GrandCentral users, the first opportunity to start using Google Voice.

In addition to the GrandCentral features you already know, we've added voicemail transcription, SMS support, conference calling, Goog411, enhanced spam protection and low-priced international calling. We have also integrated GrandCentral with your Google Account and your Google Contacts list.

To upgrade your account to Google Voice, just log in to your GrandCentral account and follow the directions at the top of your inbox. Upon upgrading, your GrandCentral number, PIN, and forwarding phones will be moved to Google Voice.

Note that since Google Voice uses the Google address book, your GrandCentral contacts will not be imported automatically. You can import your GrandCentral address book with these instructions. You will also need to recreate any individual/group settings and greetings.

After you upgrade, all your new voicemails will be accessible at Google Voice, while all prior messages will remain available at GrandCentral.

Thanks for being a great GrandCentral user and we hope you enjoy Google Voice!

Original Post:

Ok, for all those that read this blog hoping to get in touch with your techie side I bring you another amazingly cool Google feature.

Grand Central

Excerpts from the FAQ;

GrandCentral is joining Google. We're excited about this. Being part of Google will helps us make our vision of improved voice communications one step closer to reality and bring innovative communications services to millions of users around the world. This will also ensure that your GrandCentral number is here for the long run, and that no matter how often you move, change jobs or phone providers, everyone can still reach you through the same phone number.

We have put together below a quick Q&A about the acquisition, but as always, we encourage our users to leave us some feedback through the feedback button above.

Craig Walker & Vincent Paquet, GrandCentral Founders

Background

Q: What is GrandCentral?

A: Based in Fremont, California, GrandCentral provides an innovative web-based voice communications platform that helps you manage all your phones and phone numbers through one simple interface. You get a single phone number that forwards to all of your phones, giving you one number for life.


OK in case you just missed that.

You get a single phone number that forwards to all of your phones, giving you one number for life.

That's right, one phone number in the area code of your choice that will automatically forward calls to a preferred list of numbers you choose.

I had a beta invitation and decided to try it out and I was immediately impressed.

You can check voice mail online, setup custom greetings, choose a routing preference. All for FREE (at least for now) I would imagine the service will cost the end users something eventually but who knows as long as Google continues to grow it may remain FREE forever.


Credit to Chris C for turning me on to this feature.