Startup Fuel and Rant: Technology and Startup Terminology List #1
link juice
Jargon that refers to the quality of a Web site’s link power, as in page rank, number of link votes, etc. - that are obtained from backlinks. This expression was coined by SEO consultant Greg Boser, for example “I need to get some more link juice for my latest site.”
modemhead
Slang for a person who is constantly connected and “has no life” other than that of being online.
I am a contrarian, or so it seems.
UPDATE: July 9 from Fast Company “5 Contrarian Lessons From Successful Entrepreneurs.“
I am a contrarian. At least that’s what a good friend told me a few days ago. Why? According to him because:
• I use an Android phone (check our Visual Serendipity, a weekly series of pictures taken with a cell phone) not an iPhone.
• I have a Lenovo tablet (read my good and bad reviews about it) instead of an iPad.
• I purchased a 60D the week AFTER the 5D Mark III was made available. I might write a post about this if enough people show interest.
• I have been using Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 well before Apple released Final Cut X, and not Final Cut Pro.
And the cherry on top? I am now seriously considering buying an HP Z820 (yes, a PC computer) instead of the iMac that I was planning to get for the past several months.
Now, you may be wondering why I am a contrarian in these matters. As part of my job, I spent a lot of time thinking about what will come next in terms of technology. I bet on Adobe Premiere Pro months before the flood gates opened. I also have the privilege to see many products, hardware and software, as prototypes or in their beta phases, so even though I can not talk about them, I can wait until they are commercially available or I can get something cheaper temporarily.
But perhaps the main reason to be a “contrarian” is that I don’t care much about brands or trends. What I do care a lot about is performance and reliability. The faster I work on my business, the more time I have to build the business. And there’s another nice plus in this—I also get more discretionary time to enjoy life off-line and out of the office.
Source: eduardoangel.com
How to optimize your reading experience.
Shocking but true: Once upon a primitive time, there were no ebooks. For the past 15 years or so I’ve read an average of 50 books per year, or roughly one book per week. Now, my annual average is close to double this number—all thanks to ebooks, and, more specifically, because of the Kindle reader app and the public library system.
If I buy a book, I’ll read it 20% of the time, since I always use the “I’ll read it tomorrow or next weekend” excuse.
If I check out a physical book from the public library, I’ll read it 50–60% of the time. This situation has an added bonus—since it takes time and effort to pick up and drop off the library books, I make sure that I only get the ones that I really want or need to read.
For the past six months I’ve been getting ebooks in the Kindle format, from both the public libraries in Manhattan and Brooklyn (for some odd reason they work as separate entities) and from Google and Amazon’s vast selection of free ebooks. I am reading them (and this means finishing them) about 80% of the time. So, not only have I doubled my annual reading productivity, but I am finishing 80% of the books I check out as opposed to 20% of the books that I buy.
A few things might explain this surprising improvement. First, I carry the books with me all the time, either on my phone, tablet, or laptop. The Kindle Cloud seamlessly syncs all the books, bookmarks, and even highlighted sections and notes!
Second, since there is a set deadline for the book to expire (you can read Kindle books for seven or 14 days with NO option to renew) I am fighting against time and (mostly) read them in “chronological” order, which means that I read them by expiration date.
And third, the wait time to get Kindle books from the public library can be REALLY long, especially at the Manhattan branches. Sometimes there are 15 copies available and 250 people waiting for them. Since people can check them out for up to 14 days, the wait to get a book can take years, so it’s best to read it while I have it.
Reading on a tablet is visually compelling, and highly portable. Nothing beats the romantic vision of reading a great book on a rainy day while seated next to the fireplace in that cabin on the lake. But reality is quite different. Being able to read on long subway commutes or while waiting for a boring presentation to end is a godsend.
What’s your take?
Source: eduardoangel.com
Hello Google Drive, bye bye Dropbox?
After years and years of false rumors, today Google has finally announced Google Drive.
Why is this so cool, you might ask. Well, so it happens that you get 5GB for free and you can get up to 100GB. Dropbox offers only 2GB for free. Is that enough to switch? Let’s see what Google has to say about the new service:
- Create and collaborate. Google Docs is built right into Google Drive, so you can work with others in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Once you choose to share content with others, you can add and reply to comments on anything (PDF, image, video file, etc.) and receive notifications when other people comment on shared items.
- Store everything safely and access it anywhere (especially while on the go). All your stuff is just… there. You can access your stuff from anywhere—on the web, in your home, at the office, while running errands and from all of your devices.
- Search everything. Search by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. Drive can even recognize text in scanned documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. Let’s say you upload a scanned image of an old newspaper clipping. You can search for a word from the text of the actual article. We also use image recognition so that if you drag and drop photos from your Grand Canyon trip into Drive, you can later search for [grand canyon] and photos of its gorges should pop up. This technology is still in its early stages, and we expect it to get better over time.
I just installed Drive on Mac, my Android tablet and my Android phone and everything is working REALLY smoothly. A PC version is already available, and Google says that the iOS version will be “coming soon.” You can download the app here and here.
I have been using Dropbox for a long time and I’ve been pretty happy. But it only gets you2GB for free, the system is confusing for most people who move the file thinking that they are copying it, the notification system (when someone adds or removes an item) sucks and does not have OCR technology.
Oh what to do, what to do. I’m planning to keep both, and dedicate Drive to documents shared by my team, and leave Dropbox for my music and personal files. That means 7GB of free Cloud awesomeness. Engadget put together this super handy chart.
On a related news, some friends are reporting that their Gmail storage was suddenly increased to 10GB. Unfortunately I have the same 8,271MB I’ve had for years.….I guess I’m not that special. Did you get a Gmail upgrade? How are you planning to use Google Drive ? Please put your comments below.
Source: edurdoangel.com
The Lion in the cloud.
The release of the new Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is approaching. Apple recently unveiled a “developers preview” to get programmers up to speed with the new platform. The shipping version will be available in less than 6 months. So far, some of the highlighted features are a deeper integration with Apple’s iCloud, new sharing capabilities, and improved security. It is believed that Rosetta will stay with us a little longer, while iChat will be replaced with “iMessages.”
As expected, iCloud will be the center of Apple’s universe, and all other devices (iPhones, iPads, desktops, and laptops) will simply interact with iCloud to handle media, messaging, calendars, reminders, settings, and even purchases. Everything lives in the cloud—the device is simply a way to retrieve and add information. Oddly enough, one of the biggest changes is direct integration with Twitter. iCloud’s Documents will be competing directly with Google Documents.
Applications like Safari, Mail, iPhoto, Reminders, and Photo Booth will be able to tweet directly without having to launch or manage a separate Twitter client. Tweets will be context-aware: meaning a tweet from iPhoto will enable sharing via Flickr, while a video tweet will display Vimeo or YouTube as an option. What will come out first, the new OS or the updated line of Mac Book Pros?
Source: eduardoangel.com
