Chris Szeto

Hack Day at Meebo

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:44:06 -0700

Featuring Psycho Donuts!

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Secret Santa at Meebo

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:07:33 -0800

Today at Meebo: Secret Santa and Holiday Party! Melanie gave me a DVD: FOOS - The History of American Foosball! Fantastic! Who wants to watch with me?

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Meebo Micro Kitchen

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:54:12 -0800

Yummy!

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Happy Birthday Meebo!

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:15:19 -0700

Meebo turns 4 today! Woohoo!

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Web 2.0 Tournaments

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:59:12 -0700

At Meebo, Foosball is one of our favorite pastimes. Because we're such a fun-loving bunch, we decided to host a double-elimination foosball tournament. While looking for an online tool to help manage our foosball tourney we came across a pretty cool implementation called Challonge! Very nicely done. I can imagine some fun stuff with player/team profiles, stats, records, office pools. What will you use it for?

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Palm Pre

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 09:38:42 -0700

No - I don't have a Palm Pre, but I saw one on the 85 as I was driving in to work one morning.

Do you think this guy loves the Pre, works for Palm, or both?

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TripIt FAIL

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:42:00 -0700

I am a big fan of TripIt.com and their latest iPhone application, but I was recently disappointed with my TripIt experience during what I consider my key customer moments.

Key Moment #1: 24 hours before flight
TripIt FAIL, Friday 4/17
On Friday night, the day before my trip to Japan, I tried to view my TripIt itinerary on the iPhone and saw an empty itinerary with a vague error message . I tried to sign out and back in again, but without success. What was wrong? I had thought that a printed itinerary would be unnecessary since I had a beautiful TripIt itinerary on my iPhone… but it wasn’t working and I didn’t know why.

I then resigned to print out an itinerary from TripIt.com. Ah ha! TripIt.com was down for site maintenance! What inconvenient timing! I couldn’t print out an itinerary either. I had moved all of my itineraries and confirmation numbers to TripIt, but now 24 hours from my trip, I couldn’t access them. When would I be able to? It would have been nice to see an ETA.
I searched through my gmail and yahoo mail for my flight confirmation emails and my hotel confirmation and jotted things down on a piece of paper…

Key Moment #2: Day of flight
TripIt OK, Saturday 4/17
On Saturday morning, I checked TripIt.com again and discovered that everything was back up again. Good. The iPhone app was working again as well. I printed the itinerary (just to be safe), and threw away the hand-written piece of paper from the previous night… Japan, here I come!

Key Moment #3: On the plane
TripIt iPhone FAIL, Saturday 4/17
There isn’t much under-the-seat storage, so I put my backpack up in the overhead storage, along with my printed TripIt itinerary. I had a window seat with another passenger next to me - a big guy.
An hour into the flight, the flight attendant brings by the customs cards. Hmm – my paper itinerary is in my backpack overhead. Ah, but my iPhone is in my pocket (in Airplane mode of course)! I should be able to just use TripIt to look it up – even in Airplane mode – just like other apps (Notes, Todo, etc). Sadly, the itinerary was empty. I would end up having to ask the big guy to step aside so that I could retrieve my paper itinerary. There’s no reason why the TripIt iPhone app couldn’t store the itinerary on my phone.

Key Moment #4: In Japan (Abroad without Coverge)
TripIt iPhone FAIL, Sunday 4/18
See above. A cached itinerary would be helpful.

Some Improvements for TripIt:
1. The iPhone App should cache my itineraries on the phone so that it is accessible even when I have no connectivity (Airplane mode or Japan) and even when the site is undergoing maintenance.
2. The iPhone App needs a better error message if the site is going down for maintenance. Also, please provide an ETA for when service should be back up.

UPDATED 4/20/09 at 7:41 PM: Thanks to Will and Scott from TripIt for reaching out to me and letting me know about a pending new version of the iPhone client - I look forward to abadoning paper itineraries. Also, the maintenance was only for 20 minutes. It would still be helpful for those people that hit the service during scheduled maintenance to have some sort of estimated downtime. Still a TripIt fan!

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iPhone Apps

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:32:39 -0700

I have had my iPhone for over a year now, and I've probably spent over $100 on apps. I thought it would a good time to list out my favorite iPhone apps. I should probably do this every now and then. Let me know what you think and what apps you think I might be missing out on:

Favorite and Most Used Apps:

Tweetie - fantastic Twitter client
Todo - full featured todo-list app. It desperately needs push notifications to become perfect
Facebook - required for every Facebook user. However, I have been using Twitter more and Facebook less lately
BeejiveIM - very good but very expensive IM client. I will replace this with Meebo's iPhone App when it becomes available
Flixster - the ultimate movie source. I use this to look up movies before heading to a theater
DVR Remote - a remove control for your tivo. I use this to browse my Now Playing queue without turning on the TV. I will also use this to input text
Flight Control - a fantastic, simple, beautiful little game.
USA Today - a well built app for news. I haven't tried the NYTimes in a while. But other news apps haven't been as easy to use.

Most Used but Not-So Enjoyable Apps:

Bloomberg - for stock quotes, landscape graphs, and news! Ugly app though. I will try the new Stocks app when it becomes available
Weather Channel - the ultimate weather info. Hourly and 10-day views are great. Ugly app with ads.

Favorite iPhone Web App:

Google Reader - so good it doesn't need to be native.

Apps Wishlist:

TripIt - This would be fantastic to have when i travel
Slingbox - i have been patiently waiting for this one
Warfish.net - with push notifications and an improved UI, this could be a lot of fun.
Something to scan barcodes and check prices on Amazon...
Netflix - Something to manage my queue would be great. And actually, if I could watch instant movies - that would be fantastic

Bonus:

I wish there was a way in iTunes to manage my home screens! I very much dislike manually moving apps one at a time. Very painful. I should be able to see my home screens in iTunes and drag things around there and then sync it.

What iPhone Apps do you recommend?

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Sofie - After Grooming

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:51:51 -0700

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Sofie - Before Grooming

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:39:28 -0700

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DVR Remote for iPhone

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 13:50:28 -0700

I recently found DVR Remote, an App for the iPhone that allows you to control your Tivo over WiFi. I have a Logitech Harmony 880 universal remote which I love, but when I found this app, I became intrigued.

As a remote control for my Tivo, this is pretty lame:

The buttons are small and it's easy to hit the wrong button.
The auto-sleep on the iPhone makes it annoying when you when you want to say... Pause now.

It works, but it doesn't replace your Tivo or universal remote. However as a guide and keyboard, this app is great! These are a few of my favorite features:

Type using your iPhone!
This is the best reason to get this app. I hate typing things on the Tivo using the left, right, up, down buttons. But with this DVR Remote App, you can type what you want, hit enter and the app will send the correct sequence of buttons to type out anything. This saves you so much time and frustration.
Browse your Now Playing List
You can can also browse what has been recorded and read the summaries on the iPhone from anywhere in your home. If you are watching a show, you can browse the Now Playing without interrupting your show. The only thing missing is the ability to actually select a show from Now Playing to watch.
Favorite Channels
You can also setup favorite channels, which is very convenient

As TV's and DVR's become more connected, the remote is going to need to evolve. Text input and content browsing need to be overhauled. This will be an interesting space to watch as the smartphone market continues to grow and smartphones become the interface for other devices.

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Twitter

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:42:52 -0700

I am making a concerted effort of using Twitter. In the past week, I've had maybe a dozen people add me on Twitter - even though I do not "tweet" much. If you read this and you actually use Twitter (and you care enough to), you can follow me @szetopia.

So what client do I use to Twitter? Sometimes I simply use twitter.com. On my iPhone, I was using Twitterific, but am now using Tweetie ($3). On my mac, I am using TweetDeck, an AIR client.

I also think Twitter search is very cool. I sometimes keep an eye on #meebo to find out what people think about the latest Meebo release.

Everyone seems to use Twitter in slightly different ways. As I figure how I like to personally use Twitter, I'll post a few more thoughts about it here. If you stumble upon this post, please feel free to leave a comment as to how you use Twitter, or if you don't - why not?

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Macbook Pro

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:33:29 -0800

The new 17" Macbook Pro has some pretty amazing specs. To me the most notable feature is the 8 hour battery with 1000 charges! That's great. I have pretty much converted to Apple these days with my iPhone and older Macbook Pro.

There are only 2 things left that I think I need before I would get a personal Macbook Pro:

Please give me a 15" with 10 hour battery. 17" is too big. I can barely open my 15" on a plane. 13.3" is too small for my tastes. You would think that a bigger screen would have smaller batter life, but no - the new 15" has a 5 hour battery.
Blu-ray please. I like to watch movies on my laptop - particularly when when I travel. I have started a Blu-ray library and I would like to use them on my Macbook Pro. Even my wedding video is Blu-ray.

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Walking with Dinosaurs

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:19:03 -0800

What an incredible show! Life-sized life-like dinos! Highly recommended.

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Merry Christmas!

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 16:46:34 -0800

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Sofie, Destroyer of Flowers

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 13:11:18 -0800

Here's a picture of Sofie after a few minutes in the backyard

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Hearst Castle

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:54:09 -0700

Currently at Hearst Castle on our way to Disneyland! I want this pool!

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Cutting Back

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:03:00 -0700

In light of the economic situation, I have decided to cut back some of my monthly expenses.

Netflix
Downgrade my Netflix plan from 3 movies at a time ($16.99/month) to 1 movie at a time ($8.99/month)
Savings: $8.00/month or $96/year

Comcast
Downgrade my Comcast plan from the Digital Starter Package ($59.95/month) to Limited Basic ($14.30/month). So long Sci-Fi channel.
Savings: $45.65/month or $547.80/year

Tivo
Keep my HD Tivo, but drop the old Tivo. From $19.90/month to $12.95/month.
Savings: $6.95/month or $83.40/year

Yahoo! Web Hosting
Cancel my Yahoo! Web Hosting Plan for szetopia.com ($12.95/month)
Savings: $12.95/month or $155.40/year

Total Savings: $73.55/month or $882.60/year

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IM Presence

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:46:00 -0700

There are five basic states of presence for IM (Instant Messaging) that users commonly see and expect across a variety of IM clients out there. I wanted to summarize these states, discuss why they exist and what the user and the friend's expectations are, as well as suggest a few things that might improve our experience as users of IM. These five states are what I'll call: Available, Away, Busy, Offline, and Mobile. Typically you either set these states from a status menu, or you can see these states for your friends in your buddy list.

Here's a handy chart that summarizes how each major IM client represents the five states. I've included (in descending global popularity) MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Skype, MySpace IM, and I threw in Pidgin for good measure.

Available

Most commonly repesented by a green dot.
This means the user is online and generally available to receive instant messages.
As a user, I set myself to Available so that my friends can feel free to send me an IM
As a user, when I see that a friend is Available, I expect a response if I send an IM

Away

Most commonly represented by a clock icon.
Usually accompanied by an optional status message to explain where the user might be: "Out to lunch", "Be right back", or other user-defined message.
Away means that the user is online, but not here at the moment.
As a user, I set myself to Away when I am leaving my computer to explain to my friends why I may not respond immediately.
As a user, when I see that a friend is Away, I might still send an IM, but I should not expect an immediate response.
Auto-Away is when the IM client automatically sets the user to Away based on inactivity. Typically, this is 15 to 20 minutes of no keyboard or mouse movement.

Busy

Most commonly represented by a red Do Not Enter symbol.
Busy means that the user is online, but does not wish to be disturbed.
The user could be “In a Meeting”, “Giving a Presentation”
As a user, I set myself to Busy when I am doing something and do not wish to be disturbed.
As a user, when I see that a friend is Busy, I shouldn't send an IM right now.

Offline

Most commonly represented by a grayed out symbol.
A user may select "Invisible" or "Appear Offline" to be indistinguishable from other offline users.
As a user, I set myself to Invisible to appear offline so that my friends won't try to IM me.
As a user, when I see that a friend is Offline, I shouldn't expect an immediate response. I can still send a message but my friend will not receive it until the next time my friend signs in.

Mobile

Most commonly represented by a mobile phone.
Sending a message to a Mobile user means that the user will receive the message as an SMS message.
For some networks, the act of going offline will mark the user as mobile if they have associated a mobile phone.
As a user, I might assign a mobile phone number to my account so that when I sign out, my friends can still send IM's to my phone as SMS messages.
As a user, when I see that a friend is Mobile, I know that my message will be forwarded to their mobile phone as an SMS message. I shouldn't expect them to be able to respond so quickly either because its harder to type or because my friend could be doing something in real life that is inappropriate for IM (like driving).

Of all these states, I think Busy is the state that is not optimized for user needs. How many people have set their status to be "Busy" for a presentation or demo (or because a parent, teacher or boss walked by) only to still get annoying or embarassing IMs? It doesn't happen often, but if it does, that one time is enough to teach users to sign out of the messenger client altogether. If Busy is going to be helpful, then how about doing something useful:

Busy should disable sound. No blips or beeps. You're busy. You need to focus.
Busy should disable strong visible notifications. No toasts appearing or disappearing onto the screen. No pop-up windows. You might be giving a presentation! On the other hand, a counter somewhere to show that you have new messages pending is not bad.
Busy should visibly change the application to remind you that you are Busy. Sometimes you forget to return from Busy. It would be nice if perhaps being busy might do something to remind you that you are currently Busy. For example: the IM client could temporarily take on a red skin.

If you use IM, you know what I am talking about. Hope you found this helpful!
Chris

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Ning > Yahoo! Groups

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:09:01 -0700

I just started using Ning (http://ning.com) and I am enjoying it. I created a private Ning social network for my family. It was very easy to setup. I posted some videos from my Flip video recorder and the upload process and conversion to Flash was pretty good - better than the conversion that happens on YouTube from my Flip.

Back in the old days (2000-2005), you might have used Yahoo! Groups to keep in touch with different groups of friends or find various interest groups. Yahoo! Groups was rich with features like an event calendar, photos, and even chat rooms, but even still, it's primary use was as a mailing list. Yahoo! tried hard to draw users out of their inbox and onto the site. With the emergence of MySpace and Facebook, the shift towards the social web put the pressure on Yahoo! to extract the inherit social network that is burried within Yahoo! Groups. That hasn't happened.

Hello Ning! Ning does everything that Yahoo! Groups seems to do - minus the mailing list. It has a discussion forum, a blog, and the ability to display RSS feeds. Yahoo! Groups is still huge. Perhaps I'm no longer the target demographic: upon signing in to Yahoo! Groups today, all 7 of the groups that I am a member of have zero new activity. So what do you do if you're the guy running Yahoo! Groups? Groups = Mailing LIsts. Move it and integrate it deeply into Yahoo! Mail. Why should Yahoo! Groups and Yahoo! Mail be so different?

If you're looking to create a place online for a group of friends, try Ning.

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