August 22nd, 2008 Downtown Los Altos

This is the view from outside my window at work in Los Altos. It’s summer and people are getting ready to see a movie outside on Main Street.

Posted in Internet | No Comments » | August 22nd, 2008

August 21st, 2008 Testing WordPress on the iPhone

I recently downloaded the WordPress application for the iPhone and was quickly disappointed to find that a bug with WordPress 2.6.0 made the iPhone app useless. However the release of 2.6.1 seems to have fixed this problem and I am able to blog away from the beach, car, train, plane, in line, or even a restaurant, where I currently am.

I plan to test TypePad’s iPhone app, as that looks pretty slick. While WordPress for the iPhone is an application, TypePad for the iPhone is a web app.

Still, I definitely recommend WordPress for those that blog from the road and require frequent updates to their blog. Taking pictures and including it into your blog post is nice and easy, and if you need to make any HTML adjustments to your post, that is easy as well.

Happy mobile blogging!

Posted in Internet | No Comments » | August 21st, 2008

August 7th, 2008 The word “catharsis” is #51 on Google Trends

Barack Obama today used the word ‘catharsis’ in reference to talk about a potential floor battle with Hilary Clinton at the Democratic Convention this month.

“I don’t think we’re looking for catharsis. I think what we are looking for is energy and excitement about the prospects of changing this country, and I think…”

I guess most people don’t know what the word ‘catharsis’ means, hence a large amount of quick searches on Google for the search term. As a result, the word ‘catharsis’ is number 51 on Google Trends for August 7, 2008:

‘Catharsis’ is one behind ‘jesus ortiz’ and one ahead of ‘jianghua chen’…

————–

Update: ‘Catharsis’ has now moved up to number 13 on Google Trends…

Posted in Internet, Politics | No Comments » | August 7th, 2008

August 7th, 2008 MerchantCircle Numbers and Statistics

On the heels of MerchantCircle’s new feature of “Instant Websites”, many blogs around the web are commenting about the feature and the company.

- http://venturebeat.com/2008/08/06/roundup-brocade-protects-sonsini-after-payment-russian-ads-boom-and-more/
- http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/merchantcircle-creates-instant-websites/
- http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/08/06/merchant-circle-launches-web-site-creationhosting/
- http://www.inquisitr.com/2202/merchantcircle/

The last link in the list above shows MerchantCircle’s latest numbers and has some nice comments:

…the company is going gangbusters in terms of numbers.

Posted in Internet, MerchantCircle | No Comments » | August 7th, 2008

August 6th, 2008 Creating a Website on MerchantCircle

MerchantCircle released a new feature today where one can simply buy a domain and immediately have a website posted for them within minutes of purchase. Having a website is a must for any business large or small, and MerchantCircle’s new feature makes it easy and cheap. Prices start as low as $6.99 per address.

Learn more about this feature at MerchantCircle by reading it’s most recent press release at:

http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/press/2008-08-06.html

Posted in MerchantCircle | No Comments » | August 6th, 2008

July 26th, 2008 MobileMe disaster…

I find it incredible that Apple has such a major problem with the release of MobileMe.  They release a large new product and then experience major issues.  Of course, if they had pre-released the product to, say, 1,000 test users, they may have avoided such an embarrassing episode with a product tied in with the iPhone 3G.  I’m still sticking with MobileMe, as I know Apple will eventually find out a way to deal with this and other issues related with MobileMe. But I have to say, it’s pretty sad…

Here’s the email I just received from MobileMe:

Dear MobileMe member:

On Friday July 18, we experienced a serious issue with one of our mail servers that has prevented you from accessing your MobileMe mail account for the last week. We apologize for this service outage and the frustration it has caused you.

As a first step, we have enabled limited web access to your email account so you can check for messages you may have missed since the outage began, and send and receive new email. To access webmail, log into www.me.com as you would normally. Please note that this interim solution does not provide access to any email messages received or saved before the outage began on July 18.

Your remaining messages and folders will reappear when the restoration of your account is complete, at which time we will also re-enable access from desktop mail applications, iPhone, and iPod touch. We expect to be finished with this process by next Friday but you may have complete access sooner.

While the vast majority of your email messages will be fully restored, in the affected accounts a small percentage of email messages have regrettably been lost. This includes approximately 10% of messages received between 5:00 a.m. PDT on July 16 and 10:20 a.m. PDT on July 18. For more information, please visit this support article.

Please accept our deepest apologies for this service interruption and any messages you may have lost. We will do everything in our power not to let you down again.

Sincerely,

The MobileMe Team

Update:

Apple now even has a blog to update those affected on the latest fixes to this MobileMess.  I hope Apple does fix this soon.  Luckily my life isn’t fixed only on this email address, but for those that do, they must be fuming…

The URL to the blog is:

http://www.apple.com/mobileme/status/

Posted in | No Comments » | July 26th, 2008

July 6th, 2008 Munich Photo Blog 1

 Back in Munich after a year away.  I lived here for 5 years, and it’s a little strange coming back each and every time.  Insignificant memories come back after looking at anything from a building corner, a stairway to the U-Bahn, faces of people on the street, sounds usw…   … more

Posted in | No Comments » | July 6th, 2008

June 19th, 2008 MerchantCircle hits a milestone

MerchantCircle has hit a major milestone, crossing the 500,000+ member mark and 5,000+ of those are paying members.  That’s quite an accomplishment, I have to say. Read more about this news:

• http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080619/lath031.html?.v=101
• http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/merchantcircle-now-claims-500k-members/

Greg Sterling says that MerchantCircle is now “…in the “big leagues” in terms of the small business market.”

Posted in | No Comments » | June 19th, 2008

June 13th, 2008 Are people really this gullible?

Please show this to any of your friends or family who believe what they hear on Fox News or what they read on shady blogs and websites:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments » | June 13th, 2008

November 29th, 2007 MerchantCircle and Citysearch partner up

Citysearch formally announced yesterday its partnership and investment with MerchantCircle, which is very exciting for us. I thought I’d share some of the love that’s been posted around the web about this alliance. Enjoy!

• New York Times
• CNN Money.com
• ClickZ
• The Kelsey Group
• Fox Business
• Greg Sterling
• Online Media Daily
• 901am New Media News
• VentureBeat
• MerchantCircle

Posted in | No Comments » | November 29th, 2007

October 6th, 2007 George Washington On Torture

I saw this today on Andrew Sullivan’s blog at the Atlantic Magazine’s website. I figure it’s very appropriate for today, considering we have a president who SAYS he upholds the will of the Constitution and the country’s founding fathers. A quote like this shows Bush to be very hollow in his beliefs…

The day will come when Republicans realize that blindly following party doctrine was more important than preserving the true law of the land.

‘Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner] … I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause… for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country,’ – George Washington

Posted in | No Comments » | October 6th, 2007

August 24th, 2007 Classical music in public places…

Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog – music: Should music be used for crowd control?

A very interesting take on the trend of authorities playing classical music to scare away gangs and other undesirable gatherings in public locations.

Posted in | No Comments » | August 24th, 2007

August 14th, 2007 The Mahler Häuschen(s)!

Sexy snaps from the Mahler Häuschen!

I found this posting on Alex Ross’s blog “The Rest Is Noise” rather amusing. I myself was at Mahler’s second composing hut this summer. The first hut was at Lake Atter in Steinbach, Austria, as mentioned in his blog. The second was at Lake Woerth, just above his lake side home in Maiernigg, and the third was in Toblach, Austrian Tyrol (now Dobbiacho, Italy).

Probably the most significant of these huts is the one at Maiernigg where he worked on his symphonies four through eight, most of the Kindertotenlieder, Des Knaben Wunderhorn and much more. It is also where his daughter died, causing him to move to another location to spend his summers.

The quote I found most amusing in Ross’s blog is:

“If the view from inside the hut is anything like what Mahler experienced during his summers in Steinbach — and, in truth, there is so far no evidence that it is — scholars may have to reconsider their conception of the sources of Mahler’s creative inspiration.”

If you already don’t know about this blog, it’s one of my favorite, and it is frequently updated.

Posted in | No Comments » | August 14th, 2007

August 8th, 2007 Check out EdwinOutwater.com – great blog!

A good friend of mine, Edwin Outwater – conductor, pianist, surfer – has updated his website with a cool new design. I had designed his original website about 8 years ago (pre-blog), and after a tearful farewell to that design, no doubt, Edwin has updated the look and feel of the site by installing a blog where he writes about events in his life such as concerts, travels, social events and general musings.

In addition to the blog, he has stuff such as his conducting schedule, media downloads, press articles and more. He has some great articles there, and I recommend that you check it out. His most recent article talks about his impending meeting with the band Cheap Trick. How cool is that?

Check the site out now at www.edwinoutwater.com.

Posted in | No Comments » | August 8th, 2007

February 22nd, 2007 MerchantCircle on BusinessWeek.com

The company I work for, MerchantCircle.com, has just been written up in BusinessWeek.com. This is great visibility for the company and shows that there is growing interest in what we do. The article is a good and honest write up about MerchantCircle. To read the article, go here:

www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/feb2007/sb20070221_557514.htm

Other sites have been commenting on MerchantCircle as well. Here is a sampling:

http://localonliner.com/?p=323

WebPro News

Posted in | No Comments » | February 22nd, 2007