Track of the day: Barely Even There by Losing Focus

Losing Focus
"Barely Even There" (mp3)
from "A Portrait for the Ransom"
(C4 Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

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Hosting Designed For Facebook Applications

Joyent has announced a new hosting service specifically targeting Facebook applications. Facebook doesn't host third party applications, that's up to the responsibility of the application developer. If an application becomes popular that can really put a strain on the applications server and the developers pocket book. Joyent, a start up web hosting and on demand computing services provider based in California, will be offering developers a place to host their Facebook applications for free. Yes, you read that right, free. Read the whole article on GigaOM here.

On the surface it appears to be a boon for developers, a fiber connection between the Joyent and Facebook data centers should improve the speed which applications load. According to statistics in the GigaOM post, most Facebook applications have less than 10,000 users. While that sounds like a significant amount that shouldn't put too heavy a load on most web servers. Once you get above that, traditional web hosting services just can't handle the amount of traffic and the applications starts timing out.

A couple of things developers will still need to do. 1) write tighter applications, because no matter how fast the backbone, poorly written code will timeout. 2) You may need to upgrade to Joyent's higher tier services, which is what they are betting on and the reason they justify providing a free service.

Amazon EC2 and S3 is an alternative to look at if your Facebook application is already beating up your current web server. The price is very reasonable and the service is very reliable.

The Joyent service hasn't officially been announced, supposedly that happens tomorrow. I would hope that's when we get to see what the limitations of the free service are. Tune in tomorrow for more information.

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How Do You LifeStream?

This is part 1 of a 5 part series on LifeStreaming.

Let me start off by giving you my explanation of Lifestreaming. To me, Lifestreaming is the collection and presentation of all the footprints I leave on or off the Internet. Things that may be part of a life stream are RSS feeds from your blogs, you bookmarks or photos. You may also collect things like web clips, video, audio, presentations, other blog feeds, chats and more. The amount of data you can collect in your life stream can be incredible.

My first introduction to LifeStreaming was justin.tv, this crazy guy who wears an always on video camera and streams it out to the Internet. I still think its a little over the top, but that's because I would never do it. But what I did learn was people are voyeurs. They want to know a little about you. They want to see what you do and how you do it. They want to see where you've been and what you did there. They might even find some type of social connection because of what you present in your life stream.

There are hundreds of ways to capture and present your life streams. I'm currently using Tumblr, which isn't 100% reliable, but does what I want. Together with Yahoo! Pipes I've created a Tumblr blog that reads a single RSS feed that mashes up all my blogs, links, social chats and photos. It's currently the number one offsite link on my blog.

So the question I'm asking, Do You LifeStream, is really something I want you to evaluate. First, is this for you? That's the big question. The second question becomes what will you present in your life stream? If you decide to create a life stream, you need to look at several things:

1. Where will I present my life stream?


2. What will I include in my life stream?


3. Who will I let see my life stream?


4. What can I do with a life stream?

Let's take #1. I suggest you take some time to look at lifestreamblog.com and learn about the various platforms available. It can be as easy as adding the links to your existing blog or building something completely separate. Depending on your blogs focus it may be worth creating a different site just for your life stream.

Item #2, What are you going to include? I would say start off small then build up from there. Include you blog posts, flickr posts, and maybe your Twitter tweets. Once you've had a chance to see how it works then you can expand to other options.

Item #3 is pretty important. If you are building a life stream that is public, you need to make more secure decisions on what you present. If this is a private life stream, maybe something only your family or friends have access too, you may be a little more liberal. In either case, just be careful what you present because once it's out there it's hard to remove it.

Item #4 is a great question. The initial thought of a life stream was just to collect all the various bits of information I created or was interested in presenting. But now I see people creating life streams on social sites where advertising or other monitization exists. If you're ok with someone else making money off your data great, if not find a solution you control.

LifeStreaming can be fun. I've learned a lot and am now expanding my life stream to include other data bits that create something I can make available as a personal journal for my family.

In the next couple of series we'll look at specific solutions and where you can find your bits to include in you life stream.

If you are already LifeStreaming, post a comment here with a link to your stream, or tell us how you life stream.

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Honoring American Veterans

I had the privilege of serving in the United States Marine Corps twenty something years ago. It was one of the best things I could have ever done. Countless thousands have served before and after me. But there is one common factor among all of us; our desire to keep America free. The reality of our time is the necessity of a strong defense. Whether it was you or someone you know, average Americans become extra ordinary by taking on the responsibility to defend the very freedom each of us enjoys.

We could get into a bunch of political debates about where our Country is, but that's not what today is all about. Honoring our Veterans is the moral and appropriate thing to do. If it were up to me all Veterans would get the day off with pay for the rest of their lives. It's important that we remember these people, where might we be without someone willing to put their life before yours?

Thank you, every vet, past and present, for your honorable service and sacrifice. Many are not with us and while it's heart breaking, we know that with out their actions we would not enjoy what we have today.

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Great Links From The Past Week

Here are some great links I came across during this past week.

1. Resolve Conflict Quickly with The Four Agreements. I've read this book before. It's fairly small, both in diameter and number of pages. But the content is very strong.


2. Blog World Expo - Day 1 Recap. My good friend Ash Buckles spent a few days at the Blog world Expo in Las Vegas. Here is his take on the first day.


3. Term Sheet for an LLC vs. a Corporation. This was a very relevant post seeing how I'm facing that exact question right now. Perfect timing and great advice.


4. Advertisers- This is Sexy. Chris caught an ad from Blackberry that was inconspicuously part of the layout. He didn't need to click on anything the advertiser was relying on the fact the name would stick with the reader.


5. Getting Too Old? Dye Your Hair Before The Interview! Jason caused some ruckus around the blogosphere with this post. It's pretty good.


6. Guy Kawasaki - 5 Books you Must Read. I'm glad Janet captured the books Guy suggested, I had to walk out of the presentation just as he was naming them off.

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