Amazon Enters Search with CloudSearch, Next Up: Facebook

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As predicted, Amazon is now in the search game. Their solid eCommerce infrastructure led them into the cloud computing field just a few years ago. Now, their dominance in the cloud computing market, coupled with their solid search algorithm (built and honed for Amazon.com), makes them a strong Google competitor.

At less than $100/month, I can’t see anyone who uses Amazon S3 not switch/set up Amazon CloudSearch. It’s only a matter of time before Facebook joins the game.

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Lawsuit: US vs. Apple and the Book Publishers

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The official complaint document (PDF) is short and easy to read1. But if you don’t feel like reading it, and haven’t read any of the many articles about it, here you go:

  1. Pricing model for e-books is the same as physical books: retailers buy at wholesale prices and set the retail price. This allows for competition between retailers and lower prices for consumers.
  2. Amazon.com releases the Kindle and starts selling e-books—often at a loss—for $9.99.
  3. Book publishers do not like this and think this retail pricing will bring down the wholesale price of both digital and physical books.
  4. Apple is about to release the iPad and wants to strike a deal with book publishers for 30% of every e-book sold through iBooks.
  5. Apple and Book Publishers conspire to switch the industry from a wholesale pricing model to an agency pricing model, allowing Book Publishers to set the retail price of books2.
  6. Result: Book Publishers don’t need to worry about prices dropping and Apple won’t need to compete with Amazon’s prices.

And check out this quote from the complaint:

As Apple CEO Steve Jobs described his company’s strategy for negotiating with the Publisher Defendants, “We’ll go to [an] agency model, where you set the price, and we get our 30%, and yes, the customer pays a little more, but that’s what [the Publisher Defendants] want anyway.”

Yikes.

  1. Unlike many other pieces of legal writing. ↩
  2. Not just for Apple, but for all retailers, including Amazon. ↩

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Move Your Brain Online, Get A Bigger Hard Drive

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I had a problem. I would constantly find an interesting or helpful article/website/bit of information but never had any good place to store it. I’d tried bookmarks, social bookmarking sites, Evernote, and every other tool that would pop onto my radar. While many of these tools are great, and work well for a large number of people, none of them ever worked for me.

Snippits of websites, tags, text recognition, all lacked one vital element for my needs: a greater sense of context. I didn’t want to just save a website; I wanted to put that website into a larger context. It needed to fit into a comfortable nook within my existant knowledge. It needed to be a flexible and robust encyclopedia for my brain.

That’s when it clicked. I needed my own personal Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is powered by the free, open-source application MediaWiki. MediaWiki is super easy to install (especially with Softaculous) and new information can be quickly added. Plus, if you already have a hosting account, you can setup a subdomain1 for your MediaWiki install and it won’t cost a thing.

The Setup

First, set up a subdomain and install MediaWiki. Most hosts will have an install script for MediaWiki, but the install is still super easy even if they don’t. Now you have your own wiki.

Keep in mind, your new wiki will be public to anyone who stumbles upon it. You may want this, but that didn’t really suit my needs. I wanted this to be a private place, available only to me, to store all of my uncensored thoughts, unformed ideas, and any other information that may only make sense to me.

Luckily, MediaWiki makes it super simple to create a private wiki. Just open the LocalSettings.php file in the main directory, scroll to the bottom, and paste in this code:

$wgGroupPermissions['*']['read'] = false;
$wgWhitelistRead = array ("Special:Userlogin", "MediaWiki:Common.css", "MediaWiki:Common.js", "MediaWiki:Monobook.css", "MediaWiki:Monobook.js", "-");
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = false;

This does a few things: it disables reading/editing by anonymous users while still allowing access to the login page and prevents new user registration. Now you have a private wiki, easy as that.

Using Your Wiki

As with any organizational system, the real power comes from constant and consistent use. If you haven’t read Getting Things Done by David Allen (affiliate link) stop right now and get that book2. The best way to think of your wiki is as a super-charged “filing cabinet.” Not only can you store important information and resources as you’re “processing your inbox,” but you can link bits of information or documents together and leave yourself notes.

Again, your use of this tool needs to be consistent. If you stumble upon a piece of information that you want to remember later, always add it to your wiki. If you’re in doubt, add it to your wiki. You can always delete things in the future as your needs change. But if you constantly turn to your wiki to thinking that you saved a certain link and it’s not there, you’ll quickly get discouraged from using your new tool.

Create pages for topics that are relevant to your needs, and start filling them with information. I’d had my wiki for over a year now, and have created quite a few pages in that time.

Some of these pages only have one link, one fact, or one piece of information. That’s fine. You now have a page where you can add new information as you need.

Don’t worry too much about learning all the details about formatting your wiki3; just the basics will suffice. In fact, if you just learn how to do headers, bullet points, and links, you’ll be fine.

Within pages, you’ll want to organize things by topic. For example, there are a ton of things that fall into the category of “Design.” As you find resources and links on various topics, organize them as needed in a way that makes sense to your own brain. Don’t worry about making sense to anyone else. Here’s an example of the organizational breakdown of my Design page:

I’ve collection information that is relevant to my own needs. If you’re an architect who designs buildings, your design page may be completely different. You many want to create completely separate pages for different elements relevant to design. As someone who is teaching myself to code and build applications, many of my saved information gravitates towards development resources.

Using your Wiki

The best part of having a wiki is re-discovering your information. If you are working on design, open up your design wiki page and quickly browse all the information you’ve saved over the years. You may rediscover something you don’t even remember finding in the first place.

In addition to topics, create a wiki page for each of your projects. Use it to save information such as fonts, relevant links, brainstorming ideas, progress, inspiration, and anything else you can think of. Always keep that page open when you’re working on that project. It’s a great and reliable home-base for all your information. Plus you can easily link project pages to topic pages to quickly navigate to relevant information.

After Effects

Personally, I’ve seen a great increase and productivity and my ability to recall information since setting up my wiki. Having such a robust tool to record everything I find has proved invaluable for every project I’ve worked on since, regardless of size or scope.

I understand that these after effects aren’t necessarily unique to MediaWiki. Everyone needs to find their own way to organize and manage their thoughts. That can be Evernote, Omnifocus4, Clear, or old-fashioned pen and paper. I understand that MediaWiki may not be the right fit for everyone and you may need to experiment to find a system that works for you. But MediaWiki is the perfect tool for me and might be great for you as well.

Do you already use MediaWiki as a personal encyclopedia? Any tips or tricks you want to add?

[sc:newsletter]

  1. Or get overexcited and buy a new domain. ↩
  2. I’m completely serious, get that book right now. Here’s a non-affiliate link if that makes you feel better. ↩
  3. Unless you feel so inclined. Just remember, you’re the only person who is going to see your wiki, so it’s the content that matters, not perfect formatting. ↩
  4. Which I still use in addition to Wikidannia. ↩

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Imagining Google’s Glasses

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John Gruber:

Google’s transition into the new Microsoft is now complete: fancy-pants sci-fi concept video to promote stunningly awkward augmented reality glasses.

I am reminded of Bret Victor’s A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design more than I care to admit (although you’d never know that given how often I link to that article on my blog).

The hardest part about industrial design is working within the constraints of the physical world. The real world not only includes technology (which is constantly evolving, and not my focus for this post) but also includes the physical constraints of the users. The problem with a 5.3″ screen on a cell phone arises when a user wants to swipe from one side of the screen to the other while using one hand, a common occurrence for cell phone users. Usability is a major part of product design.

I’m not arguing against imagination. Conceptualizing a future free of technological and physical constraints is crucial for the advancement of technology. However, this sort of “brainstorming” should be kept internal. My problem with the Google Glasses concept video is that it was released to the public. Once you capture the imagination of the public with a video that shows one of the many directions the future can hold, innovation is effectively steered in a certain direction. Even if the technology itself wants to naturally evolve on a different—potentially better—course. The end product will be real world constraints butting up against idealistic vision. This product will be disappointing to everyone.

This “commercial” should have stayed within Google X.

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Let Me Build You A Blog

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I’m officially freelancing and building blogs! Not only that, but I can host your blog for super cheap. I just launched the official website, so check it out at Dann Berg Web Design.

As a special for all my blog readers, if you mention this post I’ll build you a blog for only $99 (regularly $149). That’s 33% off!

Check out the new site for more details and shoot me an email if you have any questions at all.

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Where the Girls At?

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From the New York Times:

[The iPhone App] Girls Around Me uses Foursquare, the location-based mobile service, to determine your location. It then scans for women in the area who have recently checked-in on the service. Once you identify a woman you’d like to talk to, one that inevitably has no idea you’re snooping on her, you can connect to her through Facebook, see her full name, profile photos and send her a message.

Yet another reason to be wary of checking-in places using location based apps. Yet, I can’t imagine how a company like Foursquare could cut off an app such as Girls Around Me while still keeping their API open for apps that are actually useful, such as Reserve My City.