So. Tons of “new” things happening in the world of Web Two Point Oh. Or are they, really? New? Google’s App Engine? Videos on Flickr. Ho. Hum.
Whoa! A new look for WordPress?
I’ve been sharing a few sad things recently but there is a new addition to life that I have neglected to share and maybe that’s why she’s acting really prissy on me lately. She’s two weeks old, unfortunately she came on a very sad week.
But she’s so beautiful as she sits on my lap and whirls quietly, waiting for my next keystroke.
Sorry it took a while, babe, but better late than never.
The rest…the last month in pictures, all taken from my iPhone.
Spent the night looking for and scanning pictures of dad. I’ve got to say we found some freakishly funny pictures of him.
This is my first experience with the iMovie integration with YouTube. It sucks. I had a scrolling list of his patents towards the end and all it shows is a blank white space. Lame-o.
But it’s 6 am and I haven’t slept. I’ll fix it another day. But here they are anyway…the missing list is after the video.
I’ve been neglecting blogging for a while due to certain personal events but this is too big to leave unblogged.
No, not AOL’s $850 million purchase of Bebo. But since I mentioned, it here’s my 2 cents. We’ll see how that plays out for AOL, but my personal opinion is that companies on life support should really stop looking at social networking sites to save them. Social networks are great utilities, but very difficult to monetize. Of course it always comes down to the size of your userbase but when the great conundrum of Web2.0 in my opinion is how to monetize that large userbase who 1) demands so much, 2) is unwilling to pay for jack, and 3) immune to traditional online advertising. The one who solves that puzzle, IMO, is the next big web thing. Whether that’s Facebook is still very much up for debate. I think Facebook has tons of unrealized potential still with its ecosystem of users and developers, but the question remains. I think f8 developers should look at enterprise-grade applications for the answer.
Enough with the food fights already and grow up.
On to bigger news…
Yahoo, as part of its open search platform, announced support for a number of semantic web standards such as RDF and microformats. As quick as I have been in the past to agree that Yahoo is a thing of the past, I’d have to say that Yahoo is finally doing something that will have profound impact on search, and definitely fitting of its search giant status.
As a user I expect this to give me a better, more organized search experience and with more relevant results. As someone who develops and serves content on the web I am definitely more inclined to structure my content using semantic web standards and from an SEO perspective, it’s not just all about Google anymore.
So there. I just wanted to take a break and say: Yahoo, you are relevant again.
My MacBook has a new bumper sticker. I found it in my father-in-law’s house while we were in Ventura County visiting.
I’ve always known what he did for a living. He’s a plant breeder for Driscoll Strawberries. He developed varieties of the strawberry plant. Some varieties were bigger, some less seedy, some had longer stems…some were resistant to certain pests, some were sweeter. One time he brought me a variety that looked like strawberries but smelled like peaches. It was called the Lido variety, which has been my favorite since.
I’ve been driving back and forth to Ventura County since he’s been sick and on our last visit there I got to meet some of the growers. Apparently my father-in-law is the reason Ventura County’s main crop is the strawberry. He developed varieties that grew year-round in that location and resistant to native pests, then acted as an adviser to local growers on which varieties to plant and when.
He never really talked about what he did let alone boast about his accomplishments, but the growers attribute their successes to him. As if the doctors didn’t already have enough pressure, they had a bunch of growers telling them that the future of Ventura County’s agriculture industry was in their hands.
Dad’s still very ill but he’s stable now. A lot of folks have been asking for updates on his condition and I really appreciate all the well wishes and the concern. I hope to have better updates the next time around.
Anyhow I was just looking through iPhoto and realized I don’t have a whole lot of pictures of him. A shutterbug, he’s usually the one taking pictures. As soon as he gets out of the hospital I’m going to take a ton of pics. Here’s one I found from last summer.
If you see this street and burst out laughing while the rest of the people in the car wonder what’s wrong with you…you’ve been seeing way too many kitteh and might need grammar and spelling re-edukashun.
It seems I have made it to someone’s list of favorite blogs which is normally a good thing except under my name was the description “all around geek.”
I have my support system of geeks who can pretty much answer whatever questions I have or help me code a few things here and there. I can throw a few buzz words here and there to keep a geeky conversation going, even know how to ask to questions, but I can’t exactly take credit for the tech know-how.
I saw a link to this illustration earlier in my Twitter feed. Illustration courtesy of David Armano. It is proof that I am not a geek, not even the 2.0 kind.
1) I don’t wear night vision contact lens. Reading glasses, yes. Night vision contact lens, no.
2) No leather wristband here.
3) I don’t have an Uber Mobile Device. I have an iPhone. It’s beyond Uber. It can’t make coffee, but you can order one with it.
4) I actually dress up for work. Dress, heels and all. Not exactly geekwear.
5) Alright. Wireless laptop. And that’s about it.
See teh truth. I s not geek. But srsly, geekz rool!!1! Kthxbai.
Finally got some access to my beloved MacBook for the first time in days since we arrived in Thousand Oaks.
Just wanted to update family and friends. It turns out I have quite a few friends, judging from the amount of tweetbacks and e-mails that I have received in the last couple of days wishing my father in law a speedy recovery.
He’s doing much better, we think. We still have no idea what he is going through other than Pneumonia, and he has tested negative for everything the doctors can think of, including Tuberculosis. They are suspecting that this is a case of Valley Fever, which apparently is a common illness among those in agriculture.
For now he is in the ICU and in isolation until the doctors can pinpoint what he’s going through. He’s got a feeding tube and a respirator, but it looks like he’s hit bottom and it could only get better from here. Thanks again, everyone…
An appropriate link for V-Day. Hilary, I was torn between you and Barack and was feeling like a fool, lovin’ both of you was breakin’ all the rules.
Don’t cry for me, Hilary. Yes, I love Bill, but this time I needed more than nostalgia to get me through. Oh yeah. Barack digs me, and I let him count the ways.
Barack set my voice as his ringtone.
Barack Obama recited a poem that reminded him of me.
Barack Obama spent the afternoon setting up my router.
Barack Obama follows me on Twitter.
Barack Obama subscribes to my feed.
Barack Obama gave me a puppy.
Barack Obama bookmarked my website.
Barack Obama added me as a friend.
Barack Obama parsed my error.
Lisa Amorao is employed as the Marketing Programs Manager for ATR International, a technology staffing firm. The views expressed here are her personal opinions and does NOT reflect those of her employer or any of its clients.
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