March 2007 Archives

Wow, its been a year since TechCrunch showcased CoComment. I've barely used the service since its inception, but now I'm finding more utility in its existence. When you're farting around on the web, you tend to leave a trail in the Web 2.0 space. Personal blogs, websites like TechCrunch.com, Flickr, and other such services allow quick comments. And when you make a couple of comments a day... You can quickly forget what you've talked about. And when people respond to you. Enter CoComment as a solution. To start using the service you install a Firefox extension and setup an account. Now any time you run to practically any blog, you make a comment as normal and make sure it has a CoComment button near the post button. When you log in, you see recent conversations. The CoComment system monitors these pages and will index additional comments as they are posted and responses specifically to you. Now you can know when someone responds to you, without having to check the pages yourself. The Firefox extension also automagically notifies you when new comments are available. As you can see below, it also jumped on the tag cloud of the Web 2.0 shit. I'm not sure why; I don't envision a vibrant community around commenting on other people's comments. I have Technorati and general Google searching to find things of interest to me.

The Intertubes have been all atwitter recently about the launch of GrandCentral. The idea is that you get a unique telephone number and have it ring any number of phones at the same time. Revolutionary? Not so at first glance. But when you begin to play with it, other features begin to stand out. Miss a call? It emails you a copy of your voicemail (something anyone with VoIP or a newer business-class phone/connection at work has experienced). Want to screen a call? Hit 3 and listen as someone leaves a message; if you want to talk just hit star and barge into the line. And so far it is free. It stores a copy of voicemails on the GrandCentral servers in a nice flash interface that can also map callers (as seen above). Also unique hold music (I made a little auto-attendant that introduces myself, asks them to hold for a second, starts the jazz in the background, and if I don't pick up, goes into a continuing voicemail box). GrandCentral wants to force users to setup different priority groups for certain users. You can send all 'Work' calls to voicemail for an afternoon, or all 'Secret Lover' groupies to your cell phone only. Perhaps the most powerful feature is the one number but multiple endpoints. As a tech geek, I might pick up a new phone every once in a while or change a phone line. If this product stays strong and doesn't bug the shit out of my family and friends I'll tell them all the new number and not worry about it for a decade or so. (Do web apps stay around that long?)

Kara continues to have dreams about Leoben Conoy and the mandala she painted at her old apartment on Caprica. While on patrol in her Viper, she encounters a Cylon Heavy Raider. When Tyrol cannot verify her claim that the Cylon ship struck the Viper, Admiral Adama and Lee become concerned about her mental stability. But, of course, this episode will forever be known as, 'When Kara Thrace Died.' What. The. Hell. The best show on television just took a huge risk; a larger risk than when they jumped a year in time and settled New Caprica! At least that didn't have cast changes, and they rectified it within four episodes. Leoben has always been kind of creepy, and he played well to that trait in this episode. Along with his agency as the chorus to lead Kara to her destiny. The perennial, "she's that actor from Portland who went to my brother's high school!" girl just popped her television death cherry. What remains to be seen is what happens next... does show come back with the white-light space angels similar to the 1980's version? Does she reveal herself as one of the final five Cylon? Or does she just show up in flashbacks, or possibly as a ghost in Lee's subconcious (like Six in Baltar's brain)? We know Katie Sackhoff has a five year contract... They of course have character trap doors. She had her hand on the seat ejection. There was a white light. "They're waiting for me." Frack!