Top Startup » Rant

Tearing open facebook

Colin — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:00:12 +0000

That isn’t Zuckerberg in the picture… yet. Facebook continues to establish itself and gain a foothold in the online identity aggregation market. By that, I mean facebook is the most comprehensive place I can learn about my friends. As facebookers get superpoked, nerds with lofty ideals are trying to unseat Zuckerberg and Facebook.

I wrote a month ago about why facebook is doomed to fail. Ironically, in that past month I’ve been building facebook applications! Part of my time has been spent figuring out how to get you and your data out of the chains that bind you on facebook and onto the broader internet. We’re using the codename “Alien”. Like in the image above, we want to burst out of Facebook’s chest, rendering it dead.

There is some interesting discussion on the topic of getting out of Facebook on Slashdot.

In the meantime…
My personal favorite for getting info out of facebook is FSB Software’s Facebook Sync (Mac only). This actually makes you updating your phone number useful to me. It will automatically sync with my address book. If you’re on Windows or Linux, you can use FriendCSV to get your data outside of Facebook. I tried it and wasn’t too impressed.

Colin is no longer on Facebook
What I’d really to develop is a permanent alternative where I can install the “Im No longer here” application and tell all my friends that my data is free, and I no longer use facebook.

It will be a long time coming – expect 2 years from now or so, but it will happen.

Someone at facebook or microsoft is an idiot.

Colin — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:00:58 +0000

Facebook has a gold mine of user information to do targeted advertising really well. They have an ad deal with microsoft to monetize their site. Who is dropping the ball? Why in god’s name is a 25 year old unmarried male being served up the following ad:

Ad Council
Adopt Us Kids

You may have what it takes to adopt a teen from foster care.

Because teens don’t need perfection, they need you.

Learn more at adoptuskids.org

Excuse the cynicism, but are the teen and I supposed to become facebook friends before or after I adopt the teen? Who at facebook or microsoft doesn’t get the concept that if you have information about your users, you can serve up advertisements that are relevant to them?

37 Signals doesn’t understand Web 2.0

Colin — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:10:23 +0000

They may have helped define it, but they don’t get it!

I was reading a review by Robby on Rails about Highrise. One of the responders, Will had this to say about 37 Signals:

It doesn’t make sense to me. On the web (2.0) the mantra is integration, and yet here we have a single company releases compartmentalized applications that are an ideal extension of one another.

Will hit the nail on the head. I couldn’t have said it better.

I want to use Highrise as the contact manager for Basecamp. Why have contacts in Highrise and Basecamp? Why have Highrise tasks and Basecamp to-dos? What is the real difference between a “case” and a “milestone” or “project”. The lack of integration between the 37 Signals apps is shameful. Its as if they were all developed by separate companies! What is the benefit to me to use Basecamp and Highrise? I might as well be using Basecamp and Plaxo or Project (yuck!) and Outlook.

Don’t even get me started on what a pain it is that I can’t sync my contacts to my Mac address book (open APIs dont create applications, people do). 37 Signals should fix this stuff before I stop shooting my mouth off and start building a team to do it right! Anyone with me?

Should you rely on others?

Colin — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:01:26 +0000

In general, it’s much better to rely on other people for anything outside of your core competency. This goes for your business and your life. Upon a recommendation from Vishen at Mind Valley, I was relying on Zookoda for this site’s email list. Rather than build and maintain the software myself, I relied on their skilled programmers and support staff to do it for me.

Well, Zookoda is down right now, and that was causing my blog to not load correctly. Zookoda wants you to load Javascript from their site to embed the sign up form. When Zookoda goes down, so do you.

In general, it’s much better to rely on others (I rely on wordpress for my blogging platform). It is my responsibility however to make sure the site stays up. With that in mind, Im going to look for an alternative mailing list application that allows me to maintain it. Any recommendations?

How to get screwed by the airlines – my saga with Qatar Airways.

Colin — Sun, 20 May 2007 19:27:56 +0000

I just got milked for $1187.48

Im in Doha Airport, Qatar after my flight from London. From what I understand, Qatar Airways is aggressively pursuing business and is one of the world’s fastest growing airlines. Later this month, they are adding flights from New York and Washington to Doha. Both my parents have started flying Qatar Airlines and have silver status on their frequent flyer program. It appears they are doing a lot right. Qatar’s rate from London to Denpasar, Bali was competetive at GBP 570 (USD 1140). It was actually cheaper when I tried to book it initially, but my credit card company cleverly stopped the transaction due to “suspicious activity”. When I tried again the price had gone up!

No Consistency in Air Travel

Well, here’s something interesting to keep in mind – there is no consistency in air travel. The rules and regulations change from airport to airport… I remember seeing people in Stockholm having to dump out duty free they had purchased in Newark while going through transit to Kuala Lumpur, but that is another story.

Read on to find out how I got screwed!

Table of pain

Flight	Travel Time	Luggage Allowance
Virgin Atlantic (Boston – London)	6 hrs	Two pieces of luggage per passenger, each weighing up to 23kg (51lbs)
Qatar Airlines (London – Denpasar)	21 hrs	20 kg

The more astute among you will notice that the longer flight has a lower baggage allowance. So, let’s just say I have a full load coming across from Boston – which I did…

2 bags at 22.5 kg each. Unbeknownst to me, I arrive at the airport in London with the same bags I checked in in Boston for my flight to Bali. Put them on the scale…

Lady at check in: Oh, you’re 25 kg overweight sir… where are you going? Oh Denpasar… that’s GBP 40.11 (USD 70.17) per extra kilo…GBP 1002 (USD 1977) please.

Me: Holy shit! That’s more than my ticket – a lot more.
Me: Argue… argue… argue

After some negotiating, they ignored 10 kilos of it and agreed to only charge me for 15, but they wouldn’t waive the whole bunch. So, I paid the 600 pounds – I was already late for the flight and rushed to board.

Flight Quality

The flight from London to Doha was very comfortable. The flight attendant made me a proper bloody mary with worcestershire sauce, and tabasco! No celery though. Overall, one of the better economy experiences I have had.

Doha Airport

Doha airport is probably booming… there is a lot of dirt around it, and it was dark so I can’t tell if that is the landscape or a construction site. It is one of the few transit airports where you walk down the stairs rather than up a jetway. It’s ok. They have wireless, a busy duty free shop and costa coffee. Very few people are going to Doha but a lot of people seem to transit through.

Customer Service

In the airport, it’s quite interesting. Service staff seem to be from all over. The two girls at Costa Coffee were Filipino, the lady at the customer service counter was indian and I’ve seen many other nationalities too.

What the lady at customer service couldn’t do was refund my GBP 601.65 (USD 1187.48). Im going to keep trying and will vent my frustrations in this venue! So far, it appears it will be a saga. We’ll see if I have to pay another GBP 601.65 to get my bags on the return flight!