Welcome.

Tell me someone got my New Jack City reference.

I live online. You probably spend a significant amount of time there too. But, the more spread out my online self becomes the harder it is to keep up. For many of the people I talk to, this is an increasingly common issue. Aggregators are all the buzz right now, but from my experience on Friendfeed.com and netvibes/pageflakes no one has it right yet.

Cullect.com is the best I’ve seen. Right now, I’m blogging FROM the article I just read, amidst my long collection of articles. See it here: Cullect is Not a Comment Silo - Garrick Van Buren

What’s cool?

1. I can aggregate feeds (no big deal, although the interface is nice and clean.)
2. I can embed the feed widget on my blog (coming soon, and I like it.)
4. The Keyboard shortcuts are sweet.
5. I can share my aggregated feeds (expected.)
6. I can blog, or Twitter, or Tumblr straight from an article in my reader, and…
7. I can log into multiple blogs, Twitter accounts, or Tumblr accounts.

Now that’s when Cullect got me. I can now aggregate everything, and then reply or blog about it from the what I’m reading. One web page open, much more organized, great for the ADD, and it allows me to be faster and more current.

What’s not cool?

1. I was a bit confused signing up. But I will chalk that up to being a user problem.
2. While clean, Cullect could stand to have some extra visuals. Maybe access to basic CSS would allow this. (Please!!!)
3. The navigation, to me, isn’t intuitive until I received support. Considering there are other options, I think this will need to be tweaked to reach a mass audience. It seems easy now that I know the layout.
4. Decent service aggregation, but could add more (pownce and facebook for specific examples.

I’m geeking pretty hard on Cullect right now.

David Stern was a genius. Past tense. He knew when he had a good thing, and how to tap into it. Magic vs Bird was awesome, and he marketed it effectively. And then came the Jordan era. But without Jordan, Stern has proven to be mortal (at best) and now, in the 2008 playoffs it seems maybe David Stern was never much of a genius to begin with. Let me provide a couple of key examples of why David Stern’s inaction may lead to the death of the NBA.

Example 1. Lebron James. Oh yes, the prodigal son. Only if you watch him play what you’ll notice is that Cleveland has no real rival (despite Washington’s best efforts.) Lebron has no killer instinct. Regardless of his undeniable natural gifts for the game of basketball, the difference between Russell, Bird, Jordan, and even Kobe - is that desire to demoralize you. Lebron doesn’t have it and in Cleveland, few of us have a reason to care. David Stern seems to be trying to hitch the entire NBA wagon to Lebron and it was a terrible misstep with so many other things going on (see: Boston, Lakers, Detroit.)

Example 2. Boston, Lakers and Detroit. The best of the past are surging, yet they fight for publicity with the prodigal son (See example 1.)

Example 3. Referees. Look no further than the Lakers/Jazz series and you’ll see that David Stern’s decision not to step in after game 3 will prove costly over the long haul. I’ve been an NBA fan my whole life. I’ve followed the Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, Hawks and would consider myself knowledgeable about the game and the rules. This playoff series is a travesty, and an absolute embarrassment to the league. Jerry Sloan has always encouraged flopping - so be it. Malone was an undeniably tough player who, at times, played dirty. Fine. But this year’s Jazz team, and players like Matt Harpring, are the dirtiest, roughest, un-sportsmanlike team since Zeke and the Bad Boys in Detroit. I can’t stand Bill Lambier to this day, nor can I root for Detroit because of their past. Likewise, the NBA has missed a chance to reward the fans’ patience over the last few years of image rebuilding by not shutting down the nasty play of the Utah Jazz.

I could go on, but honestly I’m beginning to think it’s not worth it. This may be my last year as an NBA fan. I’ve watched teams like Boston struggle on the road, and you can see them struggle with timing, energy, defensive tenacity, and confidence. But then when you contrast that with a team like the Lakers who, besides getting the shit beat of them are also getting called for any contact with the Jazz that changes a shot, is just difficult to watch. I’ve enjoyed watching the Lakers come together as a team. Just as I’ve enjoyed watching the Orlando Magic mature together (still a ways to go.) I don’t like Hockey, but apparently the Jazz are under the impression that it’s ok in basketball to just beat on an opposing team. I’m just sick.

David Stern - please listen. You have an opportunity to tap back into the “team” concept with teams like Boston, Detroit and LA. You have major markets coming to life before the eyes of the fans. Kobe seems to have rebuilt his image. This year came together before my eyes and reminded me how much I love the NBA. But tonight’s game took that all away. Knowing Jerry Sloan’s history, it should have been obvious after game 3. You needed to step in and remind the refs that a foul is foul, regardless of which city it’s in.

If I see one more game like this, I may just finally give up on the NBA. This is your last chance Mr. Stern. And I respectfully implore you to wake the fuck up.

My trip to Costa Rica was awesome (pictures coming soon.) Losing my Shure E3C earphones was not so great. I had all kinds of iPod trouble while I was traveling, making me musically impotent on this trip. But losing my good earphones was a terrible way to round out my travels. So now what? I could use my broken Ultimate Ears Super.fi Pros, which still work ok(ish) but stick out too far from my ears to be comfortable. The Shure E2C and E3C tucked in nicely and were less conspicuous than the Ultimate Ears.

Here are my thoughts so far:

Ultimate Ears - stick out too far. i need phones that are more discrete.
Etymotic - Also stick out. I like to fall asleep listening to music so I need something smaller.
V-Moda - not enough sonic quality to be worth the money. The E2C were too muddy, so the vibes definitely don’t cut it.
Jays Q-Jays - Maybe. They are definitely discrete enough and ilounge thinks pretty highly of them.
Shure - E4C can still be found, and are probably at the top of the list. SE310 or SE420 sound good, but they seem a bit big. Hm.

I love the sound quality of my Ultimate Ears, and the Shure E3C were pretty good (not great). Anyone have a recommendation?

Hey…programmers and engineers and industrial designers. You’re boring me to death. And I’m your market, or “audience” so you should probably listen.

Web 2.0 is boring me. Social networking is in a lull. My iPhone is…well, broken…but otherwise until the damn 2.0 update it’s a bore. What happened to technology in 2008. Give me a robot or a freaking flying car. Quit waiting on Apple and Steve Jobs to bail you out - if the Macbook Air is any indication it’s not happening anytime soon. Somebody…please…make something really cool. Kluster.com had me really excited for a bit. Then, it seemed no one was going to follow through on the cool ideas.

Maybe I need a logo project. I definitely DON’T need a new hobby. I’m reading about neuroplasticity and the power of the brain as a force on the body, perception, attention, etc. It’s awesome, and puts the reality of the mind into an almost “Matrix” like discussion. “Do you really think that’s air your breathing…” said Morpheus to Neo. But unlike Neo, I can’t fly or dodge bullets (which would probably keep me entertained.) No, instead I’m blogging and twittering and listening to people like Robert Scoble NOT create cool things (he just talks about cool things other people do, and frankly there hasn’t been much of that lately.)

So, here I am. Fucking bored. Thank god the TV writers strike is over.

People waste time. (See Perezhilton.com, Halo 3, nature photography, romance novels, etc.) But at a certain point the entertainment value wears off of everything. Video games build their business model around this. Movies, television and radio may have trained us to feel this way. Something that starts great and interesting and new and exciting before long is trite, played out, and stale. So some day very soon people will begin asking - what am I doing with my time on Facebook (or Myspace, Bebo, and Friendster?)

Why do I believe this? I have friends on Pownce, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Kluster, Behance, and other social networking sites (some that I’ve completely forgotten about.) I’m not alone. There will be a time, very soon, where the social world begins to consolidate. When that happens there will only be a couple of “entertainment” based networks left standing (my money says only one survives.) Facebook has ceased being the “new thing” and people will quickly figure out that most of the Facebook apps suck and start asking “now that I’ve tracked down my pals from 5th grade, what the hell am I doing here?”

To all the folks who think I’m just going negative - I hope you’re right. I hope there is some awesome wicked sweet widget or app that will sudden have me changing my tune about Facebook. Maybe I will come up with it myself - I love being contrary, even when I get to contradict myself. But I see the fatigue coming, and I hope Facebook is anticipating this. Google will always provide a valuable service by letting the world search for anything - but now that I’ve reconnected with Jill Smith from my 9th grade gym class I’m left wondering what I get back for all this time I’ve spent on Facebook?

Am I one of many to soon close the Facebook? Do I signal the inevitable downfall of Facebook, or do I just not have any interesting friends?