Planet PDX

March 10, 2010

Silicon Forest

Social media startups and shutdowns: Oregon tech week in review

Also: AboutUs closes its Lahore office and Clearwire runs into interference.

by Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian at March 10, 2010 11:48 PM

Silicon Florist

Creative crossover day: First Portland Lunch 2.0 then dMob dLux tonight at PIE

I’m a big proponent of getting the Portland tech scene—a very creative group in their own right—talking to the more established creative communities here in Portland, like graphic design, apparel, food carts, advertising, craft brewing, and film—just to name a few. It’s always nice to see different creative types getting together.

Well today seems to be a banner day for that. First, Oregon Film hosted a jampacked Portland Lunch 2.0 that brought filmmakers and tech folks together. And now 3">3" href="http://aigaportland.org/events/dmob-dlux-design-tech-3">AIGA Portland will be hosting dMob dLux, a gathering of graphic designers and tech types at PIE, tonight.

So if you didn’t get enough socializing at Lunch 2.0—or you missed Lunch 2.0 completely—take some time to swing by to mix and mingle with the AIGA types and other tech folks.

What’s dMob you ask?

This is our monthly gathering for the entire Portland design community. Social interaction and networking is the core of this monthly event. AIGA Portland wants to encourage discussion, business development, and help foster a more dynamic design community here in Portland. Plus, with such a plethora of independent breweries, our choice of venues and beverages is expansive.

Like Lunch 2.0, the dMob gathering is free to attend. What’s more, this time—unlike other dMobs which often take place at a local bar or restaurant—you’ll be getting your drinks free of charge.

Free drinks? Interesting people? Getting more creative crossover going? Sounds like a great time.

The gathering begins around 6:30 PM at 1227 NW Davis in the Pearl. For more information, see 3">3" href="http://aigaportland.org/events/dmob-dlux-design-tech-3">dMob dLux: design + tech = <3. For more on today’s Lunch 2.0, wait for Jake’s forthcoming write-up.

Related posts

by Rick Turoczy at March 10, 2010 11:00 PM

Lyza Danger Gardner

Today’s the day (stab stab stab)

A courier came yesterday with my first package of Humira®, which will, if everything goes right, take the place of the rather cumbersome Remicade infusions, which required me to spend half a day in the rather grim cancer center at St. Vincent Hospital. Remicade also required me to take a strong dose of antihistamine, lest there be reactions, which knocked me plumb out. Not to mention that Remicade has some fiercely fatiguing side effects.

Humira on the other hand can be injected at home, once we’re trained. I say “we” because my saintly David has offered to do the actual stabbing. I like the idea and hope it does not cause him too much trauma. If anything, maybe he can release some aggression! We are due at the GI clinic in an hour to be introduced to proper stabbing form.

Regarding cost, Humira, at about $800 per dose, will cost about $1600 a month in total cost to the health care system. Remicade properly taken (every eight weeks for me), costs about $2500 a month when averaged out. Our out-of-pocket costs are about $350 for each Remicade dose. The Humira package, which contains about three months’ ($4800) worth of doses, costs us considerably less. Due to a combination of good pharmacy coverage and Humira’s own co-pay subsidy program, it cost us five dollars total. Even the trip to the doctor today to learn how to use it won’t incur a charge.

This makes me a bit suspicious as to the possibly nefarious ways of Humira. I have a hunch that they are offsetting the cost of the training, and the co-pay reduction program is obviously in their best interest to keep folks using the drug. But, I should not look proverbial gift horse too deeply in its mouth.

I find it humorous that the package says “Crohn’s Disease Starter Kit” on it, as if it were some sort of yeast or fermented substance with which to make beer or cheese. Plus, I don’t want to start any more Crohn’s Disease.

Wish me luck.

Some previous posts about my experiences with Remicade:

Humira on Flickr

Humira

by Lyza Gardner at March 10, 2010 09:12 PM

~stevenf

I am one of those Dock-on-the-right weirdos and I hate that my desktop icons gradually drift out of...

I am one of those Dock-on-the-right weirdos and I hate that my desktop icons gradually drift out of alignment around the screen all day due to the changing size of the Dock. So I spent 30 seconds making cleanupd

Download it, customize the timeout if you like. Do a release build (or use the pre-compiled binary in builds). Copy it into /usr/local/bin. Run it backgrounded from the terminal: /usr/local/bin/cleanupd &

Hey presto, automatic desktop snap-to-grid clean up every so often, using whatever grid the Finder happens to be using this second.

Uh, enjoy?

March 10, 2010 07:19 PM

COLOURlovers

Vintage Romance Lasts Forever

While flipping through InStyle's latest issue, I was completely and utterly taken by Christina Hendricks & Geoffrey Arend celebrity wedding (Married October 2009). I mean, talk about the cat's meow of going vintage for your wedding. Absolutely gorgeous and done to perfection! The entire wedding party was dressed full vintage.

Vintage_Romance

I simply loved the variety of style, design, and color. With that being said, it all still coordinates nicely. Notice how the female wedding party (above photo) display's with two solids ( in colour) and two prints (or rather laces) and the prints compliment each other keeping within the same hues. Can you pick out the main colour that ties everything together? It's purple. Between headpieces, shoes and lace, purple is the colour that ties this into a picture perfect balancing act.

Geoffrey's rusty-plaid suit looks everything, but dull, when combined with that sharp looking vintage tie and kerchief combo which in turn compliments the lovely locks of his soon-to-be wife. They have his attire topped off with a simple fall-flower themed boutonniere.

Lastly, check out the simple details of the chandeliers using vintage kitchen hand-use appliances. Overall, a nicely done vintage wedding using the muted colors and lace of the 20's, 30's and 40's.

Vintage Wedding Palettes From the CL Library

Vintage_WeddingVintage_Wedding

Vintage_Wedding Vintage_Wedding_II

Vintage_Wedding Vintage_Wedding

Vintage_Wedding Vintage_Wedding

Photo's courtesy InStyle Magazine (scans). Handmade invitations Evaafter Desgins. Illustrated invitation from Bride.net

by mollybermea at March 10, 2010 07:09 PM

Chris Brentano

Tron Legacy trailer

But not until December. Can’t wait.

by ctb at March 10, 2010 05:20 PM

Jive Talks

What a Difference a Year Makes!

A year ago today, Jive laid out some pretty big plans for leading the Social  Business Software space:

 

“Social  Business Software is the first new application category to appear in over a decade that delivers a real breakthrough in cost, productivity, and competitive  advantage. Jive is the first SBS company with a complete strategy for meeting the needs of Global 2000 companies and governments.”

 

We were confident in our vision for Jive and the market we were defining—but how did it play out? Our strategy had three key elements:

 

We couldn’t have asked for better. A year ago, a lot of CXO’s were still skeptical about Social Business Software. They thought “social” meant employees weren't really working! Now they’ve seen the results. They understand the value that Jive SBS delivers: collaborating more effectively with employees, customers, and partners; accelerating sales cycle times and service delivery times; and increasing engagement with customer communities and the social Web.

 

Jive won them over because we’re solving big business problems, and our business has grown accordingly:

  • We doubled in size in 2008, then grew another 85% in 2009.
  • Major brands committed to and added to their Jive solutions including Booz Allen Hamilton, Bupa, EMC, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Kaiser Permanente, Life Technologies, Manheim, Musician's Friend, Qualcomm, SAP, Scheels Sports, Sling Media, Sprint, StrongMail, Swiss Re, and United Business Media Limited.
  • We made our first strategic acquisition—Filtrbox—in January.
  • We expanded our Portland HQ, and added offices in the SF Bay Area, Boulder CO, Germany, and the UK.
  • We’ve added numerous systems integrators and interactive marketing partners to the Jive SBS ecosystem—exactly as we’d planned.

 

The market clearly thinks we’re onto something too. Last year, the competition we were leading consisted of a handful of pure play vendors. Now, big guns like Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Google, and Salesforce.com want a piece of  the SBS action—and more are coming. They know we’ve been right all along: that  this is the next great enterprise software category.

 

Jive has come a long way in the past year but we’re far from done. Here’s what we have in store the next 12 months:

 

  • We’re going to be aggressive. We will maintain our  leadership position and establish Jive as the premium brand for Social Business Software.
  • Innovation is everything. We will expand our product through our own organic development efforts and through strategic acquisitions.
  • Extend our reach. We will be working with more enterprises  through direct and indirect channels.
  • Deliver customer success on a grand scale. Enterprises are using SBS to solve big business challenges, and Jive has the experience, and talent to deliver value.

 

And if you thought last year was fun to watch Jive, stay tuned!

by tony.zingale@jivesoftware.com at March 10, 2010 05:08 PM

Marshall Kirkpatrick

Why Big Data? Here’s Why I’m Interested

I just had my 2nd conversation this morning before coffee about this fabulous Economist special report on Big Data: Data Data Everywhere. The person I was corresponding with asked me why I was interested in this topic. Here’s my answer. If this is something you’re interested in, I’d love to know what it is about Big Data that captures your interest, too.

What got me excited is just that this is a topic I think is fascinating. I’ll tell you frankly: I think in big data there lies a lot of hidden patterns that represent both opportunities for action and for reflection. At RWW we’re working on trying to find ways to mine data to find news first (we’ve got some interesting methods employed already) and personally, I think the world is an awfully unfair mess and I’m hoping that data analysis will help illuminate some of the hows and the whys. Like the way that real estate redlining was exposed back in the day by cross referencing census data around racial demographics and housing loan data. That illuminated systematic discrimination against black families in applying for home loans in certain parts of town. So too I think we’ll find a lot of undeniable proof of injustices and clues for how we might deal with them in big data today.

How about you? Are you interested in Big Data? Where does your interest come from?

Related: Check out Ta-Nehisi Coate’s critical analysis of one of the most prominent recent examples of social media data analyzed. I’m still reading it, myself.

by Marshall at March 10, 2010 04:58 PM

Panic News Channel

Noby Noby Panic Wallpaper

Keita Takahashi, the creator of Katamari Damacy (the “roll stuff into a ball” game) and Noby Noby Boy (the “stretch a thing around other things” game), is an interesting study: he’s an artist in the traditional sense, making non-traditional video games, for a very traditional Japanese company.

Of course, you know we’re huge fans — we even improbably made a whole series of Katamari and Noby Noby Boy t-shirts together.

Recently, Keita and his team shipped Noby Noby Boy for the iPhone. What is it? Wh.. where do I begin? Take basic iPhone utilities — camera, music player, notes, etc. — then press them through the mind of a toddler, squeeze a couple drops of comedy, sprinkle a little ground physics engine, then coat them in pastel fondant. I’ll say this: the built in GPS function has the best music of any GPS, ever. Give it a try for $1.99.

Anyway, to celebrate, Keita drew the following Panic/Noby wallpaper for readers of the Panic Blog.

Enjoy! We can’t wait to see what Keita comes up with next.

by Cabel at March 10, 2010 04:53 PM

Cooking up a Story

A Important Case of Preserving Food Sovereignty and Avoiding Green Revolution Calamity

March 109, 2010; Don’t overlook Malawi! In Seedling Magazine, a recent article about this tiny east African country that faces big battles ahead with how it feeds its people, and whether it can forestall the pressures of “Green Revolution” style assistance from the international community. At stake a nation, how it can reliably feed itself, and to do so, without undermining its food sovereignty, and its fragile environmental underpinnings. Are proposed high tech solutions with required dependency upon high cost farm chemical inputs, and GM hybrid seed technologies, the right agricultural approach for poorer nations? Who gets to decide?

Go To The Original Post…

Related Posts:

Share and Enjoy: email Twitter Facebook Digg del.icio.us StumbleUpon Reddit FriendFeed Google Bookmarks Netvibes Ping.fm RSS Yahoo! Bookmarks

by Cooking Up A Story at March 10, 2010 12:00 PM

Cloud Four

Voices that Matter: iPhone and iPad Developers Conference

Join Me at Voices that Matter: iPhone Developers ConferenceUnbeknownst to me until now, Spring is conference season. For the next two and half months, I’m attending a conference every two weeks. I’m already looking forward to June when the conference gauntlet ends.

One of the conferences I’m looking forward to the most is the Voices that Matter: iPhone Developers conference on April 24-25 in Seattle.

Why am I looking forward to it? A few reasons:

  • There are some great speakers like Erica Sadun (who I had the pleasure of meeting at Foo Camp and is an absolutely brilliant iPhone developer), Aaron Hillegass, August Trometer, Suzanne Ginsburg, Erik Buck, Michael Daley, Joe Conway, Jonathan Rentzsch, Kevin Avila, and the list goes on.
  • The schedule looks very focused and intensive. It is focused on getting people up to speed on building apps.
  • It is only three hours away in Seattle so I get to see my Seattle friends and attend the conference.
  • It is the only conference on my schedule that I’m NOT speaking at. I’ll actually get to relax and enjoy this one!

If you’re interested in attending the conference, I recommend signing up soon. The early bird rates end on March 12th and the conference organizers gave us a discount code that they said I could share with Mobile Portland and readers of our blog. The priority code PHBLOGS saves you $100 off the registration.

If you sign up before the early bird rate ends and use the discount code, the conference only costs $395 which is a great price for a two day conference. If you end up attending, please say hello.

In the interest of full disclosure, the conference organizers have given me a complimentary pass. As a general rule, when people offer discounts or good deals to Portland’s mobile community, I like to pass it on. I’ve done so in the past for other conferences and webinars that seem relevant.

While the complimentary pass is unrelated to passing on this information to you (I would would have shared it regardless), I thought it was important to disclose.

by Jason Grigsby at March 10, 2010 12:03 AM

March 09, 2010

COLOURlovers

MAC Cosmetics' Spring Color Forecast. What's Yours?

MAC Cosmetics has released its spring color trend forecast, and all hands on the radar are pointing toward saturated brights: cheery, popsicle pink; citrusy coral; rich, reddish plum; and warm amber.

macspringforecast

hot_pink avilluk_lovers_red

plum_wine Amber_E28129

The pale side of each spectrum is represented as well for those who prefer a subtler attitude:

pale_pink pale_coral

light_plum peach_purr

What colors are in your spring palettes? Will you be working with MAC's jewel tones or are your sights set on cooler shades? We'd love to know how you're playing with and pairing colors in your wardrobes and makeup bags. In the meantime, we've got culled some of the community's patterns using variations of MAC's colors to get you going.

Madonna summer_wind

smoked_salmontancho_koi

bloom!ng_wallpaperplum_wine_buds

Amber_Inlay AMBER_is_the_colour.

Header photo from jungle mama.

by heroinepretend at March 09, 2010 05:40 PM

Silicon Florist

ActiveTrak (formerly GadgetTrak) lands first round of funding for thief-nabbing technology

One of the most interesting boostrapped companies I’ve followed during my tenure here on Silicon Florist has to be ActiveTrak (the startup formerly known as GadgetTrak). And honestly, I always saw them as a dark horse around here.

They have a compelling consumer-focused product that helps people recover stolen laptops and mobile phones. They get major media coverage more than any local startup I know. And they continue to pitch as hard as any company—they’ve presented at OEN’s Angel Oregon three times—I’ve seen. And yet, they couldn’t really seem to land funding. Until now.

Today, ActiveTrak announced that they had secured their first round of funding. [UPDATE] John Cook at TechFlash has pegged the investment at $500,000. [/UPDATE] And while an amount was not provided, they did provide details on where the investment will be channeled:

The round is led by strategic investor ProtectCell a leader in mobile phone insurance and handset protection, based in Michigan. The investment provides ActiveTrak Inc. capital to accelerate development of its enterprise and mobile security solutions, as well as provide ActiveTrak with direct distribution through 1,300 wireless retailers at the point-of-sale and other sales channels and opportunities.

This has been a good year, so far, for capital in the Portland area. ActiveTrak joins startup peers Urban Airship and ShopIgniter who have also raised money in 2010.

Here’s hoping more Portland startups join them in the near the future. And that those investors who have begun to dip their toes in the Portland startup scene find return in the current investments and gain confidence in the promise of what’s happening around here.

For more information on ActiveTrak’s products, visit GadgetTrak.


Related posts

by Rick Turoczy at March 09, 2010 05:17 PM

Lyza Danger Gardner

Mmmm, Fragrant: The dangers of the distillation season

With the early arrival of “magnolia season” here in town, I’m looking ahead to the year’s bounty in terms of things I can heat up a lot and force oil out of. Yep, it’s almost time to take the big ol’ Portuguese alembic copper pot still off of the shelf.

The great hurdle with distilling your own essential oils is obtaining knowledge. This is something you can’t really google. First, even owning a still is illegal in many states. Second, distilling anything but plant matter without license/permit/legislation is pretty much entirely illegal, and, though I give it to you on my Word that I’ve never made booze with my still, I’d wager to guess that an awful lot of people probably do, such that the group of everyday folks who own alembic pot stills who legitimately want to generate, merely, things that smell good is likely a narrow demographic indeed.

This is unfortunate, because mistakes are not always benign in this craft and I could sure use a strong guiding hand. Distilling the wrong kind of cedar can make your lungs bleed. Being a doofus about your condenser setup can get you exploded. The one time I was exposed to the master distiller (or whatever his title might be) at The Essential Oil Company (which, miracle of miracles, is here in town), I spewed out dozens of questions in rapid-fire demand, both annoying the hell out of him and also eliciting a couple of compliments as to the relative advance of my knowledge. Again, relative. Because not much of this is written down.

Here’s a good and typical story about how I might end up killing myself accidentally. I have a passionate love for Ponderosa pine, which has bark and sap that smells like butterscotch. I like to smell the trees. And they are great to look at, with that plated red bark. My idea was that maybe distilling the sap would give me some sort of wonderful ambrosia. Unfortunately, research led me to what it is you get when you distill Ponderosa pine sap. Turpentine. That is super not what I’m into.

As an entertaining side note, there is a species of pine, Jeffrey pine, that looks nearly identical to Ponderosa and often grows in the same groves (stands? Whatever.). If you try to distill the sap of Jeffrey pine, zut alors.

Occasionally the backwoods turpentine makers in the 1800s in California would mix up the two, “with explosive and sometimes tragic consequences.” Jeffrey pine sap contains heptane, a flammable hydrocarbon so potent that it was a basis for the octane scale in gasolines.

Sydney and the Alembic on Flickr

Even the dog looks dubious sometimes.

All I can say is, fire it up! It’s almost distilling season!

Sources

  • “Pinus Jeffreyi (Jeffrey Pine) Description.” The Gymnosperm Database: Home Page. Web. 09 Mar. 2010. .
  • “Turpentine from Ponderosa Pine – Industrial & Engineering Chemistry (ACS Publications).” Turpentine from Ponderosa Pine. ACS Publications. Web. 09 Mar. 2010. .

by Lyza Gardner at March 09, 2010 04:00 PM

Techcraver

Test post from N900

I am writing this post from the Wordpress app on a Nokia N900 running Maemo 5. The app uses Qt.
Nice!

Post from: Techcraver.com | Craving Tech, Craving Life!

Test post from N900

by Jason Harris at March 09, 2010 03:36 PM

Dorkbot PDX

Beginning Again

This is my first time EVER blogging so let's see if I'm doing this right.

I'm almost 48 years old. I started working with electronics just 7 years ago. After messing about with basic electronic circuits for a year I stumbled into programming micro controllers. Now the idea of building a robot of my own design that had been rattling around in the back of my head shot to the front. In the next 2 years I built 3 robots from kits. No new or novel additions made by me. But, alas, my ambitions of building something unique have been hindered in the last 4 to 5 years by one crisis after another. I learned what I could in the short segments of spare time that I was allotted.

But now....

Things and settled down. I finally have time to work on MY projects again!

I'm an now teaching myself how to get micro controllers to talk to each other. I picked up a Teensie board at the last DorkBot meeting. I've already got it happily blinking LED's in whatever fashion I choose. I've got many PIC boards built but I find those to be much more of a hassle to program than the ATMEL's. For the past several months I've been working with the Parallax Propeller chip. By far the most versatile and powerful chip in it's price range. My idea is to get lots of micro controllers to 'talk' to the Propeller chip. But it runs on 3.3v and the ATMEL chips on the Arduino boards run at 5v. To get two micro controllers to talk to each other they 'should' run at the same voltage level, and that indeed is the case with the Propeller chip. So while I wait for signal level converter solution to present itself, I'll get two Arduino/ATMEL boards to talk to each other.

Images to come later. Like you really expect images in MY FIRST BLOG EVER.

Onward into I2C protocol land....


by wbowers9000 at March 09, 2010 06:53 AM

Temperature Controller Board Soldered and Working

I populated one of the temperature controller boards, did some testing and then loaded the PID software and tried out the IR sensor. So far, everything seems to be working. I don't have any of the thermocouple chips to try out so that will have to await the next parts order. But so far, so good. I'll be happy to help anyone get their board built out and running.


by scott_d at March 09, 2010 03:33 AM

Panic News Channel

The Panic Status Board

This is probably the busiest year in Panic’s history.

This is good. But a lot of things happening means a high chance that I, the man who lives and breathes Panic and has a giant status board in my head, might not properly explain everything to everyone. Steve and I realized it was high time we made this Cabel Status Board public… using technology!

So, with partial inspiration, Neven, Steve and I built the Panic Status Board. Take a secret, sneek peek:

What’s on the board?

The idea quickly grew beyond “Project Status”, and has become a hub of all sorts of internal Panic information. What you’re actually looking at is an internal-only webpage that updates frequently using AJAX which shows:

  • E-Mail Queue — number of messages / number of days.
  • Project Status — sorry for the heavy censorship — you know how it is!
  • Important Countdowns
  • Revenue — comparing yesterday to the day before, not so insightful (yet).
  • Live Tri-Met Bus Arrivals — when it’s time to go home!
  • The Panic Calendar
  • Employee Twitter Messages
  • Any @Panic Twitter Messages — i.e., be nice! They go on our screen!

Instant Pay-Off

Les, one of our support guys, said it best after a week: “That board is like magic.” Our support turnaround time is faster than it’s ever been. Just the simple act of “publicizing” those numbers — not in a cruel way, but a “where are we at as a group?” way — has kept the support process on-task and, I think, made it a bit more like a video game. (It helps that when all the boxes are at “zero”, a virtual bottle of champagne appears on-screen, and a physical one is likely removed from the fridge.)

We can’t wait to add more data in the future. Open bugs?

Implementation Notes

For the truly curious. Display: I picked the Samsung 460UXN-2 professional display for the thin bezel and lack of branding, airport-style. To my surprise, it had a built-in Windows XP Embedded computer (boo), which meant we didn’t have to waste a machine to drive the display (yay). We loaded Chrome on it, since it has a nice full-screen view — sadly, that meant we had to lose Safari’s beautiful text anti-aliasing. Display Mount: Hard to find a vertical mount! Wound up with the Premier Mounts RFM, and like it. Support Queue: I’m weird, and PHP IMAP libraries felt too heavy for just getting message counts, so I decided to do raw IMAP protocol calls over a socket. Bus Arrivals: this is using the fantastic Tri-Met real-time REST APICalendar: Steve used the PHP iCalendar library to parse our group Mac OS X Server calendarTwitter: feeds use Twitter’s simple (little-known?) blogger JSON service. HTML/CSS: Neven says, “This baby is all WebKit candy. The only images here are the icons. The rounded corners, the gradients, the animation – all CSS. Learn -webkit-transform and love it! Oh, I tried using Google Chart for the support graph, but it wasn’t flexible enough. Our little graph is infinitely scalable and stretchable.”

From start to finish, this was about a three-week project.

And no, it didn’t slow down development on [insert the app you want the most here]. Check the board!

PS: For one full year I’ve been promising a blog about the “new” office. If you can believe this, we’re still waiting on a guy to finish processing a couple of nice QTVR’s of the office under construction. With any luck, he’ll be done soon, and I’ll start writing…

by Cabel at March 09, 2010 01:18 AM

March 08, 2010

Silicon Florist

Reminder: Oregon Film, Beam Development, Hive-FX Lunch 2.0 is Wednesday

Friendly reminder, this Wednesday, March 10, Oregon FilmBeam Development and Hive-FX will be co-hosting Lunch 2.0 at Hive’s offices in the SE waterfront from 12 to 2 PM.

Hive is easy walking distance from AboutUs where we were last month, in case you need some geographical perspective.

This lunch should be interesting, since it theoretically combines several different local communities into a single room, sparking some unusual and enlightening conversations.

I say theoretically because you never know who will/won’t show up and what will/won’t transpire, but I’m pretty confident this one is going to be different.

And different is good.

A quick look at Upcoming tells me we’ve got a pretty solid number planning to come, including a lot of names I’m not recognizing.

Here’s a protip. With the Oscars last night, you have a ready-made conversation starter, sure to spark some interest among the entertainment and creative types.

Anyway, see you there. As always, if you haven’t already, please RSVP on Upcoming and drop a comment if you’re vegan/vegetarian.

Upcoming Portland Lunch 2.0s

Don’t fret. I’ll be announcing April and May soon, and I’m close to nailing down hosts for June and July.

Now, the boilerplate:

If you’re interested or know someone who might be interested in hosting a Lunch 2.0, drop a comment or hit me up on Twitter (@jkuramot). Also, check out the how-to primer.

Big thanks to all the hosts who have hosted or plan to host Lunch 2.0.

Most Commented Posts

by Jake at March 08, 2010 08:10 PM

Cloud Four

SXSW: iPad Panel and Mobile Monday Austin

See me speak at SXSW 2010 (http://sxsw.com) I’m traveling to SXSW for the first time this weekend. I’m speaking on a panel entitled iPad: New Opportunities for Content Creators on Saturday, March 13th at 11 am.

I’m looking forward to talking about the iPad. We had a great panel last month at Mobile Portland on the iPad that I moderated. I tried my best not to jump in and offer my opinion (sometimes succeeding better than other times). It will be fun to be able to talk iPad without trying to be a neutral moderator.

In addition, I’m going to be on a panel moderated by Carlo Longino of MobHappy at Mobile Monday Austin on Monday evening.

Immediately preceding the panel, Barbara Ballard of Little Springs Design will give a presentation on Mobile User Experience Design. Barbara is one of the leaders in mobile design. Her book and blog are must reads.

The Mobile Monday event is only a couple of blocks from the center of SXSW so you have no excuse not to be there!

Finally, if you’re also going to be in Austin for SXSW, I’d love to meet you. Either connect with me via the SXSW site, Twitter, or contact me directly.

by Jason Grigsby at March 08, 2010 07:03 PM

COLOURlovers

Tomer Hanuka's Reds & A Google Monster

Tomer Hanuka, a New York City based illustrator and cartoonist, recently created some attractive looking color compositions for Australian wine maker Wine by Some Young Punks. The labels were just a taste of Tomer's color recipes, as I discovered his entire portfolio was filled with rich, emotionally drawing palettes and strong contrasts.

D268B8_fullsize

Fierce_AllureLust_Collides

A1E1D1_fullsize

Tomer's Reds

Screen-shot-2010-03-08-at-1

E19FEC_fullsize

What started as a portfolio overview quickly turned into a study of reds...

A7CC0A_fullsize
Koistinen_Rose
FE850E_fullsize
Mother
E97BB1_fullsize
the_concert_ticket
AB4356_fullsize
Red_Cross

Artist Biography

Tomer Hanuka is an illustrator and a cartoonist based in New York City. He works on a range of projects for magazines, book publishers, ad agencies and film studios. His Clients include The New Yorker, D.C comics, Nike and Microsoft. He has won multiple gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and the Society of Publication designers, and was showcased in Print magazine and American Illustration. In 2008 a book cover he created won the British Desgin Museum award as part of the Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions. Waltz With Bashir, an animated documentary for which Tomer contributed art, was nominated for an Oscar in 2009, and won the Golden Globe that same year. Currently he teaches at the School of Visual Arts and is working on a graphic novel with his twin brother Asaf.

Tomer Hanuka in the CL Library

Tomer_Hanuka tomer_hanuka

Google Monster

Asaf, Tomer's brother, created a nicely colored editorial illustration for California Lawyer about Google's plan to scan every book ever published and build the largest digital book store.

googlemonsterN-1

Tomer was found via The Poster District.

by evad at March 08, 2010 06:26 PM

Silicon Florist

OEN’s Angel Oregon 2010 and the state of startups and capital in Portland from Carolynn Duncan of Portland Ten

[Editor's note: Thanks to Carolynn Duncan, Director, Portland Ten, for her assistance in covering OEN's Angel Oregon, last week. Her recap and insights follow.]

This year, I was invited to attend OEN’s Angel Oregon, chaired by Angela Jackson, and the Oregon Entrepreneurs’ Network, and to write a guest article highlighting the experience. My hope is that you’ll get a quick download of the day’s events and outcomes, a taste for what the experience of being at OEN’s Angel Oregon is like from a blend of perspectives, a status update on Portland’s startup scene, and finally, that you consider attending and/or participating as an entrepreneur or investor at next year’s event.

For OEN’s Angel Oregon 2010, 48 companies applied, with 15 final presenting companies: Second Porch; DeltaPoint; Fuez; Coherence Resources; Matradee; Copa di Vino; ActiveTrak; Athletepath; Enjoy Life (Divina Sangria); Gamma Therapeutics; Green Goose; Kablooshie; MobSpot; My Home Details; and Zubeo.

Notable to OEN’s Angel Oregon 2010, is the introduction of a $25,000 Seed-stage track for earlier stage startups, and participation from Portland Development Commission and Willamette University Angel Fund (run by MBA students), both co-investing in the $195,000 investment pool.

As for the live experience of attending, let’s just say that private equity conferences are not your mother’s barcamp. Typical attendees include hopeful entrepreneurs, seasoned investors, and a variety of participants in the startup/venture community– incubators, government officials, press, lawyers, accountants, etc., and as such, crisp, dark-colored power suits are a dress code minimum.

My first private equity conference, which I attended as a bootstrapping tech startup founder, provided perspective shifts such as meeting individuals at the coffee bar who introduce themselves, “I’m from X fund; we currently have $785 million dollars under management.” Those interactions give entrepreneurs a useful reminder that the economics of the established business world operate on a much larger scale reality than does a classic garage-based startup, and yet, responding, “I’m from X startup, we have no revenue, no product, not much ramen left, and no hope anymore, thanks, ” makes for interesting conversation dynamics.

For a first time presenter, giving a public investment pitch can be nerve-wracking, not that most entrepreneurs admit it. Founders are hard on themselves before and afterward, critiquing every statement, rehearsing endlessly for perfection, clarity, articulation, and ultimately, to convince and win the investment. Whereas award winners leave with $25,000-$170,000 to take the business to the next level, everyone else walks off the stage, visibly let down, though true to entrepreneurial spirit, already parsing through which backup options they’ll deploy while continuing to look for needed resources for the business.

Ken Westin, founder of ActiveTrak, a software product that tracks stolen electronic devices, is a third-time presenter at OEN’s Angel Oregon, and attributes much of his company’s progress to the process and help from other entrepreneurs, peers, and mentors in the startup community along the way. “What Portland lacks in venture capital, it makes up for in community,” said Westin, who brought the house down, closing his presentation with, “We’re not just a technology company, we’re super heroes”.

Particularly where investment stakes are involved, and in the case of OEN’s Angel Oregon, $195,000, Jackson and her steering committee spent months orchestrating the application and due diligence processes, coaching and streamlining candidates presentation materials and investment pitches, marketing the conference, hosting pre-and-post banquets and social hours, not to mention general event set up/take down.

Investors met weekly prior to the conference, holding due diligence sessions for 3-4 hours, evaluating companies’ potential and current status in management, market, product development, financial projections, and exit strategy. Finalists prepared formal pitches as well as a demo/exhibition booth to display the product, with executive summaries distributed to all conference attendees.

OEN’s Angel Oregon also included a keynote presentation from Rob Wiltbank, PhD., Willamette University, who covered investment stats from previous OEN’s Angel Oregon investments as well as angel investing in general. Regarding OEN’s Angel Oregon’s track record, “33 finalists have generated $85 million in revenue, attracted $67.5 million in investments, had two favorable exits and employed almost 550 people.” In addition, Wiltbank commented that while due diligence efforts are disliked equally by entrepreneurs and investors, doing a minimum of 20 hours of investigative homework on a potential investment can decrease the failure rate of an investment choice from 60% to 40%, with additional due diligence lowering the overall failure rate down to an overall 35%. (If you consider an average angel deal to be approximately $200,000, according to Wiltbank’s statement, doing 20 hours of effort provides a potential $10,000/per hour in saved investment risk.)

But for those entrepreneurs who guesstimate that it is easier or faster to raise capital in lieu of generating revenue to keep the lights on during the early startup phases, Wiltbank commented that running a sales cycle requires an equal amount of time/effort as does fundraising cycle. Said Wiltbank, “If you have to raise capital to keep the company alive, it probably means you don’t have customers. And if there aren’t any customers, then what do you have?”

By the afternoon, attendees-at-large begin critiquing startups as ruthlessly as fund managers; “There’s no way they can make it to $150 million by year 3, not with their current sales pipeline, or with advertising as the sole source of revenue…!” As such, OEN’s Angel Oregon provides the People’s Choice selection, which incorporates the use of text voting, and allows audience members to vote for their favorite company, with results and percentage rankings visible on double large screens at the front of the hall. This year’s People’s Choice winner was MobSpot, cofounded by Benjamin Jacobsen, Justin Heikkinen, and Chris Wesley, launching this Monday and presenting at the upcoming SXSW.

Finally, after deliberating privately, the investment committee returned to the ballroom and finalists were called up to the stage, with DeltaPoint, Inc., founded by Richard Lazar, Lyman Potts, David Nason, and Tony Scaduto, for the Launched Stage track, winning a $170,000 investment; and Enjoy Life, LLC, founded by Maria Corbinos and Magdy Salama, for the Seed Stage track, winning a $25,000 investment.

Closing out the day’s event, Jackson thanked her staff and passed the torch on (literally, a brightly colored cloth torch), to Jim Huston, of Blueprint Ventures, who will chair OEN’s Angel Oregon 2011, and attendees participated in a closing social hour.

So my overall thoughts after attending OEN’s Angel Oregon?

First, that the startup ecosystem in Portland, and the state of Oregon, is no longer in the stagnant zone we felt we were in 12-18 months ago. We have become energized; things have been and are changing, and seeing the climate at OEN’s Angel Oregon definitely confirmed this.

I left with an increased appreciation for the macro ecosystem of entrepreneurship: seeing the fundraising process at a glance; the careful analysis by the investment team, the angst of founders struggling to rustle up the necessary funds to move the business forward; all of the many, many individuals and organizations available to assist Portland startups now and ongoing, whether or not they have or can even qualify for funding currently.

Even a quick review of some of the attending and/or sponsoring organizations: OEN, PDC, OTBC, Willamette University, PSU-BA, Babson Graduate School of Business, SwellPath, Jive, Blueprint Ventures, Lane Powell, Ater Wynne, OnPR, Morgan Stanley, White & Lee, Oregon Business Magazine, University of Oregon, Davis Wright Tremaine, eROI, Starveups, NedSpace, Portland Ten, Silicon Valley Bank, Stoel Rives, Capybara, Madrona Venture Group, and many, many others… they’re available to entrepreneurs, to assist startups in getting up and running.

So, if you’re starting a business, or thinking about starting a business, here are my two takeaways for you: 1) Consider applying for OEN’s Angel Oregon next year, and let the screening process assist you in streamlining your efforts; and 2) If you’re not already engaging with some of the organizations listed above, get connected, and get going! If you get focused now, by the time applications open for next year’s event, you will have accomplished significant developmental milestones (team assembled, prototype built, first revenues in), and as such, you may even be a serious contender for OEN’s Angel Oregon 2011.

Related posts

by Guest at March 08, 2010 06:22 PM

Dyepot, Teapot

Sounds and Pictures

Last week, to follow on from the discussion of atemporality, I started sort of an essay/rant about the future being a fictional construct, the non-linear nature of “progress”, and how making and remixing intersect. I haven’t felt inspired to shape it into something actually readable, so instead, how about some music and photos? Above is a [...]

by Audrey Eschright at March 08, 2010 06:12 PM

Lyza Danger Gardner

Photos: Your Vote! Best photo of my goddaughter

Help me choose which of these photos from last weekend I should make a nice print of for the parents of this lovely young lady (my goddaughter). I’ll print and frame the winning photograph.

 on Flickr

 on Flickr

 on Flickr

 on Flickr



Which photo should I use?trends

by Lyza Gardner at March 08, 2010 04:30 PM

SplashCast Media

ABC Attempts Brand Suicide

I have no idea what the 11th-hour agreement between ABC and Cablevision was last night to bring the ABC singal back online to 3.1 million folks in NYC... But I do know that this stunt by ABC has majorly pissed off a lot (millions) of their customers. The 'bad light' is squarely on ABC, not Cablevision, from where I sit.

Here's a quick backgrounder on the situation.

It's amazing to me that ABC thought that turning off the lights to 3.1 million consumers would be putting more hurt on Cablevision than on themselves. Really?? Someone in Disney (ABC) PR should lose a job over this. Or perhaps the entire team. What a brand disaster.

Folks, don't hold your customers hostage to gain leverage with a partner! It is on the Business 101 "Don't Do" list. It is also brand suicide.

Amazing.

ABC, of course, will survive.  Generally speaking, the companies further upstream, closer to content (the TV networks in this case), hold the cards.  However, ABC's misguided stunt could now shift some of the power over to the cable companies.

 

 

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March 08, 2010 02:44 PM

Cooking up a Story

The Art of Food Photography

Cooking Up a Story: Stories

The pictures can be tantalizing. Some even cause us to stop and stare. Join us for a behind the scenes look at a food photographer and his team, as they create sumptuous images out of fresh ingredients that seem to jump off the page.

We’re surrounded by images through billboards, television, magazines, the internet…the list is long. And since food is a part of everyone’s life, in some form or another, many of those images are about food. Some are blah, some are tantalizing, and some go unnoticed. But the ones that do grab my eye make me wonder and I begin to dissect. Why did they choose that background, who designed the arrangement, how did get that cheese get to look so yummy, and the lighting, how was it lit? These questions lead me wondering exactly what is happening outside of that frame.

I visited a food photographer’s studio to find out for myself. And boy, was it an education.

ed gowan cherry tart pie onion tart

The day I spent at Ed Gowans Studio, he was doing a shoot for the Pear Bureau Northwest. In my naiveté, I thought everything was done by the photographer. Wrong. It’s a team effort. Besides the photographer there is a food stylist, or two, and the client pulled up her sleeves and was involved too. Each food item was prepared from scratch on site. Everyone put their 2 cents in. They took as much time as was needed for each shot, and then moved on to the next. It was a full day. Food that is prepared for filming purposes are not intended to be eaten. Food photography is one of the most difficult specialties of commercial photography, getting food to look just right on camera involves considerable skill and experience to get it right.

Ed Gowans with Client Christie Mather of the Northwest Pear Bureau Examining Image Monitor

I feel a kindred spirit with people like Ed and his team. They’re not just technicians, they’re artists. While there are so many images we are bombarded with daily, when it comes to images of stunning beauty, and artistry, there can never be enough!

Recipes from the show: Pear Bread; Ed’s Tangy Eggless Caesar Salad

—Rebecca

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by Cooking Up A Story at March 08, 2010 12:00 PM

March 07, 2010

Lyza Danger Gardner

Photo: Beach foam

 on Flickr

Everyone knows that there is weird scummy stuff on the beach. Sometimes it gets opalescent and piles up in a way that looks like it might make a good desktop background for one’s computer.

by Lyza Gardner at March 07, 2010 07:20 PM

Site Theme: Fragrance

I like stuff that smells good, effectively to a fault. I routinely mix up cocktails of essential oils and in ceramic vessels and then set them alight. My library often smells like a forest or a savanna or a citrus grove. We own our own copper alembic still and distill our own smells, with varying degrees of success.

I want to explore a few things about aroma. Though I am chemistry-ignorant, I want to wrap my head around the various -enes that make things redolent. I want to think about pine resin and the anti-microbial tendencies of certain distilled substances. And I want to figure out what plant matter to stuff in our still this coming summer.

Keep your eyes out for fragrance-related posts, soon.

by Lyza Gardner at March 07, 2010 06:47 PM

Fast Wonder

Dorkbot PDX

Temperature Controller Board Final Design

The temperature controller PC boards have arrived. I was amazed at the interest. In the end, fifteen of the boards were requested. There have been a few people who have asked for them since the order was placed so I'll probably do another order of the boards in the next PCB order.

I've attached the final Eagle files to this blog entry. I've also generated a bill of materials and a corresponding parts placement diagram which are also attached.

In order to put the system together, you will need to make a few choices:

First you will need a way to control the AC to your heater. The temperature controller puts out a strictly on/off 5V logic signal which is used to control temperature. I bought a solid state relay off of Ebay for around $7.00 (check with me if you want a pointer to the same unit). The specs were 3-34VDC control, 24-480VAC load at 25A. Since the hotplate is specified at 10A/120VAC that seemed to be adequate and I've run tests with holding a constant temperature for several hours with no noticeable heat buildup on the SSR. Alternatively, in his original Instructable on surface mount soldering, Jim showed an AC control circuit you could build. He has since designed a PCB for that circuit and is willing to put some on the next PCB order if people are interested.

You will also need one or more temperature sensors. If you want the IR sensor, you need to buy the appropriate IR thermometer from Harbor Freight and do the modifications shown in this Instructable. If you want the thermocouple sensor in addition to or instead of the IR, then you need to have a K type thermocouple and buy the parts for the thermocouple interface.

The parts from the LCD/AVR section of the board are all required. These are sufficient to build an Arduino compatible (Dorkboard) processor with an LCD interface. This hardware will read the IR sensor. You will also need a suitable LCD (something like this 16x2 backlight unit from Sparkfun or any other HD44780 compatible). Note that the contrast control potentiometer specified is a thumbwheel style so that it is easy to adjust the contrast from the side of the board when the LCD is mounted on it.

You also need to decide what kind of switches you want to use to control the unit. I'm using an encoder with a switch (specified in the parts list) which provides a nice way to set the temperature but you could choose other combinations of switches instead if you prefer. The current code is set up for the encoder plus one push button to reset the system to the initial state. Once you decide on the inputs you can figure out what headers you want to populate. I've brought everything out to header pinouts where you can solder male header pins onto the board to use with plugs or you can solder wires directly to the board and run them to the switches and sensors. All of the headers are on the part of the board which is unobstructed by the LCD with the exception of the two pins for the thermocouple input. Those two will have to be right angle header pins to clear the LCD. There are also headers for both the five pin Dorkboard programming connection and a standard 6 pin AVR ISP header so you can choose which you want to use for programming the AVR.

I've attached my current Arduino sketch to run the temperature controller and a list of how I'm using the pins on the Atmega328 (Note that the current code requires an Atmega328 to provide enough RAM space).

The parts for the power regulator section are optional. You can leave that whole section out and provide 5VDC power for the temperature controller board. If you are using the IR sensor, you can either supply 3V to the appropriate pin on the controller board or you can leave the battery in the IR unit. Or you can build out the 5V and 3.3V regulator section and provide power from an appropriate wall wart (at least 6.5VDC and 200mA or so).

by scott_d at March 07, 2010 06:07 AM

Cooking up a Story

Meet a Farmer: Joya Parsons, Chicken Farmer

March 07, 2010 Exposed to her parents interest in horticulture as a young child, Joya Parsons grew to embrace her green thumb. “By the time I reached my early twenties, I was bitten by the horticulture bug.” Her interest in growing things was played out on the land her parents went on to buy in the 90’s.

Joya Parsons and Toffee, a Ameraucana pullet; photo courtesy Joya Parsons

But wait, it wasn’t just vegetation. Parsons brought chickens to the farm – broilers for meat and several heritage breeds for their eggs. In Angela Tunner’s article, she goes on to talk about a typical day, some misunderstandings about free-range chickens, and the future of chicken farming…

“The other future for chicken farming is decentralization. It is many smaller farmers raising birds in a socially and ecologically sound manner, in the sunshine and on a natural diet, and with enough room to move. It is healthy birds, healthy farms and healthy communities. But it is going to take a lot of community support to get chicken farming back there. Currently, the industrial model has the upper hand and continues to expand while small, independent chicken farmers suffer from a lack of infrastructure, like rural slaughterhouses and shipping to larger markets. The only way the second vision is going to become a reality is if the consumer demands it and supports it with their buying power.”

Remember to support your local (chicken) farmer!

Thanks to @kubileya and @angelatunner

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by Cooking Up A Story at March 07, 2010 04:15 AM

March 06, 2010

COLOURlovers

Hitched on a Haybale

bride_country_1

What I love about this country-style wedding palette is the combination of the red, white and blue without making it too patriotic or "flaggish". You won't see any checkered table clothes or watering cans, but cowboy boots and jam jars are aplenty.

Weather for budget or just because you would like to keep things minimal, this is a great example of keeping things simple and seeing it work beautifully.

Gerbera Daisies are a perfect country flower and can demand a big splash of colour without being used everywhere! Notice how dramatic the daisies are in contrast with everything else, without making things off-balance.
Blue_Jean_Wedding
wedding_country_1
All Photography provided by and copyright DaveeBlu Photography (previously Ambience Photography)

by mollybermea at March 06, 2010 05:33 PM

Techcraver

An N900 Amazing Feature: Group Skype Calling

Skype On T-Mobile and Nokia N900

I’ve been using the Nokia N900 now for a month or so and I am finding so many cool uses for this phone.  You see, I do a lot of Skype calling throughout the day because I work with folks up and down the West coast of the U.S. and folks in the UK quite a bit as well.

The other day, we needed to do a Skype conference call with 3 other folks – 1 in San Francisco, 1 in Denver, and 1 in London.  I didn’t have my computer with me, just my mobile phone: that is, the all powerful Nokia N900.  We fired up a Skype call with between one other participant and myself…then added the 2 other folks.

It was awesome, I was doing a cross-country and cross-Atlantic VoIP call over Skype on the N900.  Oh and also, this was over T-Mobile’s 3G network, not over Wi-Fi!  This phone is amazing!

Also, the sound quality was excellent…no cut-outs or anything.

Post from: Techcraver.com | Craving Tech, Craving Life!

An N900 Amazing Feature: Group Skype Calling

by Jason Harris at March 06, 2010 03:12 PM

Silicon Forest

Angel Oregon picks two winners -- DeltaPoint and Enjoy Life

DeltaPoint is the overall winner in the "Launch Stage" category, and gets a $175,000 investment prize. Sangria maker Enjoy Life is the "Seed Stage" winner.

by Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian at March 06, 2010 01:12 AM

March 05, 2010

Silicon Florist

Open Source Bridge opens registration for 2010 event

If you like open source—and I’m betting you do—there’s no better or more affordable conference than Open Source Bridge, the entirely volunteer run conference designed for open source citizens. And the four-day event—held June 1 – 4, 2010 at the Portland Art Museum—is even more affordable if you act now.

That’s right. Registration just opened. And that means you can get a ticket to all of Open Source Bridge—and access to the 24-hour hacker lounge—for the early bird price $225. Or you can grab a one-day pass for $99.

Thinking about attending WebVisions as well? Well, you’re in luck. Because you can get tickets to both events for only $400. That’s a really good deal.

So who’s presenting at Open Source Bridge? That’s a really good question, you see. Because the Call for Proposals is still open.

And that means, it could be you presenting. How cool would that be?

Not interested in presenting? Well, you can take a look to see who has submitted talk ideas for Open Source Bridge, this year. And you can comment on how much you’d like to see them.

For more information, to register, or to submit a proposal, visit Open Source Bridge. Or follow @osbridge on Twitter.


Related posts

by Rick Turoczy at March 05, 2010 11:19 PM

Dorkbot PDX

Reprogramming your avr-usb device using atmel's built in bootloader

Getting code onto the MidiMonster or Benito device.

Midi Monster Button Locations.
Midi Monster Button Locations.
Benito 7g Switch Positions.
Benito 7g Switch Position
Benito 2010 Switch Locations
Benito 2010 Switch Locations

ckr.com/photos/7175086@N05/4404887926/in/photostream/">

ckr.com/photos/7175086@N05/4404887926/in/photostream/">

ckr.com/photos/7175086@N05/4404887926/in/photostream/">Benito Without Buttons.

Benito Without Buttons


All of the code on the Benito and MidiMonster devices is open source and references an open source library called the Lightweight Usb For Avr (lufa). Getting the code compiled and onto the device requires a few other open source tools.

AVR-GCC

The most current and stable release of the toochain for the AVR has untill recently been maintained by Eric Wedddington and released as WinAvr (http://sourceforge.net/projects/winavr/) Winaver integrates nicely into atmels avr studio http://www.atmel.com/dyn/Products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=2725 and I reccomend that you get both if you are running windows. Each Winavr Release is closely followed by objective developments CrossPack for avr http://www.obdev.at/products/crosspack/index.html and a script for building the current toolchain on linux which is hosted by AvrFreaks at present there is also a debian package that was put out last month http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=90172

HWB? DFU?

Most Atmel "atmega" devices have a pin dedicated to determining weather or not the device goes into the bootloader depending on the devices flag settings. This pin is labled HWB (for hardware boot) on most of the datasheets. The usb avr family has this mode set up by default. When you hold the hwb pin low and reset the device it goes into the bootloader. On these devices the built in bootloader uses a usb device class called the Device Firmware Uploader (DFU). Atmel provides a tool called flip for programming DFU devices on windows and linux. There is an open source programmer called dfu-programmer http://dfu-programmer.sourceforge.net/

That other guys stuff.

Those of you who have worked with the teensy boards from paul stoffregon will notice some subtle differences. Paul wrote his own (closed source) bootloader rather than use the bootloader tha comes installed on the chips. Then he uses a hardware trick similar to the auto reset hack to make a single button manipulate both the reset and the hwb pins to put his boards into the bootloader. I didnt feel that either the two button arrangement or the builtin bootloaders were broken so I like most people working with these chips dont fix them.

Using the dfu-programmer

All of the programs in Dean Cameras Lightweight Usb for Avr have a "dfu" target. Once you have the target into the DFU mode you can simply

$make dfu

This will cause the dfu-programmer to erase the flash reprogramm it with a new hex file and restart the chip. You can also do this manually with the following commands

$dfu-programmer atmega32u2 erase
$dfu-programmer atmega32u2 flash mycode.hex
$dfu-programmer atmega32u2 start

This will cause the dfu-programmer to erase the flash reprogramm it with a new hex file and restart the chip.

by feurig at March 05, 2010 09:48 PM

Lyza Danger Gardner

Book Review: “Ficciones” by Jorge Luis Borges

It took me nearly a year to complete Borge’s collection of short stories called Ficciones. This compilation, cited often as the best introduction to the Argentinian writer’s oeuvre, has about 20 stories, written in the mid-20th century, that range between fantasy and satire, psychological thriller and eerie psychosis.

The provenance of this volume (can you call a paperback book a volume? I’d like to) was my aunt Catherine, on one of her remarkably frequent visits (she travels between Ireland and the west coast of the US more frequently than I make it to Seattle). She wanted me specifically to read The Library of Babel, which describes a universe comprised of an infinite library, hexagonal chamber after hexagonal chamber of books.

These are the literary equivalents of M.C. Escher drawings. There is an emphasis on impossible figures, impossible logic, impossible sequence. Cause and effect are reversed, dream and reality switched. There are time loops and secret societies.

Much of the content was composed in the 1940s, and aches with the barbarities of the Second World War. Borges’ Europe is one of pogroms, his Argentina a surreal magic kingdom (not always benign) full of tall, dark strangers and wizards.

When you understand the twists of Borges’ stories, it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up in a thrill reminiscent of “I see dead people.” “Death and the Compass”, “The End”, “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” are creepy and fun.

If I understood Borges’ ideas consistently, I would love the entire collection. But sometimes I just feel stupid.

Some of the stories are so deeply erudite as to be in effect hermetically sealed against casual readers. “Three Versions of Judas”, though only a few pages long, is a tortuous marathon of theology, rambling footnotes in French (untranslated), and Scandinavian/Protestant 20th century political-religious satire. The majority of the stories require careful attention and an eye for the subtleties of Borges’ humor. As his reader, you are assumed to be well-read, to the point of making you feel distinctly under-read.

Borges thrives in describing off-kilter dream states. He explores sacred geometries—labyrinths, rhombuses—through which his characters move toward heroic or anti-heroic transformation. Weird stuff. Captivating, strange, difficult.


Buy the books mentioned in this post from Amazon.com now and help me maintain my rock 'n roll lifestyle.

by Lyza Gardner at March 05, 2010 09:00 PM

Open Source Bridge

Conference Registration Now Open!

Mark Building, Portland Art Museum

We are very happy to announce that registration for Open Source Bridge 2010 is now open!

This year we are thrilled to have an excellent downtown location, the Portland Art Museum, 4 full days of sessions (that’s one more than last year), and an on-site 24-hour Hacker Lounge!

Early Bird passes are available now through April 1st and are $225.

After that, conference passes will be $300. We are offering a student rate of $99 (you will be required to show current student ID when you pick up your badge).

Are you interested in attending more Portland conferences? Until May 19th, if you register for WebVisions or Open Source Bridgeyou’ll be able to attend both events for only $400, a significant savings.

Register now

by sherri at March 05, 2010 08:50 PM

Lyza Danger Gardner

The Color of 2010

Last year around this time, optimistically and foolishly thinking it was nigh spring, I bought a light (read: in no way insulating) jacket in a color the clothing label called “wasabi,” which was pretty funny because, first, wasabi doesn’t have a color if it’s real (the bright green is food coloring) and secondly, the jacket was bright red-pink-something; perhaps they confused it with the color (again fake) of the pickled ginger they put next to your sushi at sushi bars. Yes, perhaps that’s it.

The jacket was inordinately bright for someone like me. My closet, such as it is, is the color of a mild, torpid depression. I eschew especially the warm colors, figuring they’re better reserved for the flamboyant, the self-confident, the Floridian. Until I discovered this color. Or, more accurately, family of colors.

For several months I described this color as “hot red” or “rabid salmon.” But even the term “salmon” gives you the wrong idea. It doesn’t have that coppery, sunset glow of other things you might call salmon. It is, I realize, its own color. Here it is:

The color of 2010

The photo above is of a T-shirt, which I found at a local thrift store three or four months ago. Since then, I’ve come to realize that I irrationally love this color. It is counter to my tendencies in several vectors. It’s brave and cheerful and vibrant. It bespeaks tolerable weather and social interaction. And I don’t even know what to call it.

Fashion designers have decided it’s coral. Or maybe the color that has become popular this spring is coral and is slightly different than what I’m getting at. Perhaps that’s it: variants of bright colors that have just a bit of creamy sherbet mixed in to the palette. Every time I see another designer trotting out a coral-tinged collection this spring, I feel glad and prescient. I’m going to call this my color for 2010.

OPI Cajun Shrimp Nll64 by OPI Cajun Shrimp Nll64 by

Yes, it has officially gone too far. Here’s what I’ve been painting my toenails with.

What would you call this color? Aileen called it tomato, but doesn’t look like any tomato I’ve ever eaten (at least, before said tomato was simmered, spiced and mixed with cream).

by Lyza Gardner at March 05, 2010 05:00 PM

COLOURlovers

Technicolor Fashion: Breakfast at Tiffany's

Once a month, we'll taking a look at fashion in film--characters, colors and costume design. Working together to create a believable persona; in the movies, the clothes often quite literally make the man. And in some cases, they make the real life looks we love for years afterward, much like the iconic heroine of today's film in question, Breakfast at Tiffany's.

holly

Based on Truman Capote's 1958 novella of the same name, Breakfast at Tiffany's was brought to the silver screen by director Blake Edwards in 1961. The story follows the perhaps unlikely romance between writer Paul Varjak, portrayed by George Peppard, and gold-digger/wannabe-socialite Holly Golightly, portrayed by Audrey Hepburn.

Holly boasts an extensive wardrobe, and the most famous piece in it appears in what's one of the most recognizable scenes in American film history: the opening shot, in which we see Holly eating a pastry out of a paper bag, ostensibly on her way home from an all-night party.

tiffanysscreencapheaven

The black, floor-length dress Holly wears--paired with over-sized black sunglasses and a massive draped pearl necklace--are our introduction to the lineup of ensembles designed for Hepburn by Hubert de Givenchy. The Italian designer dressed Hepburn in nearly all of her films, and the idea of every outfit was the same: simple, functional pieces with an emphasis on line and shape.

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The majority of Holly's clothes are black, which makes sense--she's an aspiring socialite, and while glamorous clothing is a necessity, it's a luxury she can afford only so often. A variety of little black dresses and neutral separates get a lot of play with different accessories--in Holly's case, elaborate jewels and broad-brimmed hats as big as her personality.

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As the film--and the relationship between Holly and Paul--progresses, Holly wears more casual, colorful clothes when she's with Paul. In these moments, we see the "real" Holly who is both brighter and softer than the persona she adopts in social settings. Still, though, she is always adopting a persona: Her bold orange overcoat is appropriately playful for a silly afternoon, and her cream turtleneck sweater and black cropped pants seem more suitable for knitting and cooking (or attempted cooking) than one of her party dresses.

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Holly's pink party dress, worn on a date with a man she intends to marry, is a spot of hope and happiness--and a fine example of the Givenchy brand of youthful optimism. Givenchy used bright colors, intricate textures and airy embellishments with a light hand, which made his clothes elegant and wearable at the same time.

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In the film's final scenes, Holly is tightly wrapped in a light tan, twill trench. Underneath is another black sheath--another ensemble of staples, and another example of Holly's standard uniform. But as she searches for her unnamed cat in an alley--and when she locates Cat and slips him under the lapel of her jacket--it seems she just might be ready to let someone in.

Says Laura Boyes, film curator at the North Carolina Musem of Art and blogger at moviediva.com, the film is popular now because it "represents virtually the last moment in American movies where an actress was glamorized for glamour's sake. Audrey Hepburn is evoked as an inspiration by someone or other in almost every issue of Vogue."

Indeed, nearly 50 years later, we're still in love with the little black dress--no mean reds here.

A little color inspiration from the community:

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Screen captures from screencapheaven.com.

by heroinepretend at March 05, 2010 03:00 PM

Marshall Kirkpatrick

My New Bio, What Do You Think of It?

Working on a new bio, anybody got any feedback on how this reads?

Marshall Kirkpatrick is the lead writer at ReadWriteWeb, one of the top technology news blogs on the internet and syndicated daily online by the New York Times. Marshall has established himself as one of the web’s leading voices on bleeding edge technology thanks to his ability to find signal buried in real-time noise – primarily through the use of innovative research systems built for crowdsourced data mining and first mover’s advantage. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, two dogs, two cats and three chickens.


Above: Two thirds of said chickens.

by Marshall at March 05, 2010 06:58 AM

Silicon Forest

Silicon Forest Blog takes a break

The blog's on hiatus 'til next week. Keep up with Oregon business news while it's away at oregonlive.com/business, or follow the business team's Twitter feed.

by Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian at March 05, 2010 02:40 AM

Ignite Portland

Watch the Talks from Ignite Portland 8

Thanks to the awesome folks at Blaze Streaming Media, we’ve got the videos of all the talks from Ignite Portland 8 for your post event watching enjoyment. You can check them all out in this Ignite Portland 8 playlist on YouTube, or simply enjoy them in the embedded player below:

by Josh Bancroft at March 05, 2010 12:51 AM

March 04, 2010

Marshall Kirkpatrick

Some Nice Feedback About My Product Development Consulting

I regularly do one-hour long telephone consulting sessions on launch planning and product development. I really enjoy doing that kind of work. My most recent client in that capacity was a pre-launched e-learning platform called Nixty. Glen Moriarty, Psy.D., CEO and Co-Founder of NIXTY, had these kind words to share about our work together. I thought I’d share them here. You can find more information about my consulting services here. Drop me a line if you’d like to discuss our working together.

“Marshall provided us some great insight into our platform and user experience in particular. We had demo’d the product for a variety of different target markets, but we hadn’t really thought through the user experience for one of our main segments. Marshall pointed out this blind spot and then offered several very practical recommendations to tighten up these parts of our platform. In addition, he provided us with some great referrals and pointed us to some hard-to-find resources. I wouldn’t be surprised if one year from now, I reflect back on my conversations with Marshall as being pivotal to our success with acquiring and maintaining users. I strongly recommend his services, especially for those of you who
might be trying to navigate the social Web.”

Thanks, Glen!

by Marshall at March 04, 2010 10:03 PM

Silicon Forest

Mentor Graphics beat its revenue, profit forecasts in Q4

Mentor Graphics Corp. reported modestly lower fourth-quarter revenue this afternoon, but both its revenue and profits were well above the Wilsonville company's forecast.

by Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian at March 04, 2010 09:43 PM

Lyza Danger Gardner

Photo: Kea and Kes

Goddaughter and Kes on Flickr

Goddaughter and Kes

My goddaughter, Kea and daddy Kes at the beach (well, indoors) last weekend. Kea is old enough to be extraordinarily into the beach. “BEEECH? BEEEEEACH, P’LEASE?!” She grew gravely concerned when it grew dark. Where was the beach? It was sleeping.

by Lyza Gardner at March 04, 2010 09:00 PM

Silicon Florist

memePDX 027: Platial, Portland Lunch 2.0 with Oregon Film, ShopIgniter funding, Webtrends Facebook analytics, and a whole bunch of patents

It’s Thursday. Oh yes it is. And It’s a post Ignite Portland Thursday at that. So you’re probably dragging a little. Looking for something to make you “appear busy.” Well, if watching people talk about the hottest tech stories in Portland and beyond will help you look that way, you’re in luck.

This week on memePDX, Cami Kaos and I cover Platial calling it quits, upcoming Portland Lunch 2.0 with Oregon Film, ShopIgniter’s funding, Webtrends Facebook analytics, and then a whole bunch of patent stuff.

Let’s get to it. (We’re still waiting for the Viddler upload to complete. Once that happens, you’ll get the linked up version of memePDX that you all love so much.)

Want to subject yourself to this torture on a regular basis subscribe to this podcast? Get the video feed or the iTunes feed for the video of memePDX. We’re also on Vimeo, because of the whole Portland connection. And of course, if you’re interested in staying in touch, you can always follow memePDX on Twitter. Or you can become a fan of memePDX on Facebook.

(NOTE: For those audiophiles, we’re working on it. Stay tuned.)

Related posts

by Rick Turoczy at March 04, 2010 07:33 PM

.51

Radia Perlman Joins Intel Ranks As Fellow

Radia PerlmanWhile it’s hard to top a label like “Mother of the Internet”, Radia Perlman has added another distinguished title to her list: Intel Fellow.

Intel’s CTO, Justin Rattner, announced this week that Perlman will be joining the Intel team. Dr. Perlman, an MIT grad, was with Sun Microsystems (which appears to have been swallowed whole by Oracle) where she was a Senior Distinguished Engineer.

Perlman holds more than 100 patents in encryption, decryption and routing, is a published author, and has repeatedly been named one of the 20 most influential people in her industry. Perlman’s focus has been network and security protocol, and she talked about her work in this 2006 interview from Network World.

A few years ago, Perlman received one of the first Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision awards, specifically for Innovation.

People - techies and geeks included - like to throw around the word “genius” a lot and generally use it to describe someone of exceptional intelligence or unmatched technical skill. Consider this more precise definition:

“More than just originality, creativity, or intelligence, genius is associated with achievement of insight which has transformational power.”

Perlman’s work is the backbone of the Internet, the skeleton upon which all the other matter depends, and that construct has transformed all our lives. For that reason alone, Radia Perlman is a true genius.

Share/Save/Bookmark

by ubergeeke at March 04, 2010 06:43 PM

COLOURlovers

The Color Options I Wish I Had for My Home

While it would be nice to be able to switch up the color of your home instantly and automatically, like in the 'Paint My House' project–that would give our pattern maker a whole new purpose, its not an easy or cheap setup. But just by looking at these, and all the other great light projects we've seen, it can inspire us to realize the power lamps and lighting can have on our interior color schemes, and how they can transform a space every evening as the natural light begins to fade.

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So if you cant manage to set up your own lighting installation then try some of these other colorful lighting ideas.

Lamp Shade Color

To help you get things started, check out some photos of the impact different color shades can have in a room. There's a nice little gallery over at Apartment Therapy about just that.

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DIY Light Fixtures

Usually my first and last thought when changing up a space is, "I'll just do it myself." Here are two great DIY lighting projects from Design*Sponge & Addicted2Decorating, found via Apartment Therapy.

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Color Changing

The Yantouch Jellyfish led lamp filled with RGB LEDs is capable of creating 16 million unique colors and brightness levels, and it's all controlled though a touchpad. Unfortunately, it seems to only be sold in a few shops, none of which are in the US.

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Via technabob

Unique Shapes

Flat Lamp

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Upcycled Style

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Handblown Glass

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'Paint My House'

Thanks to flcikr user safeaim for sharing their photos.

The light artists, graphic designers and technicians from Skudi Optics, invited artists from all over Europe to project their fantastic creations onto the facade of the Berlin City Cathedral in August 2008. On February 25th a similar event will take place onto the most beautiful fasade in Trondheim: Nidarosdomen. The artwork will be from local artists and is meant to accompany the concert in Nidarosdomen the same evening. This will be a one-night only visual treat, both ad-free and independent.

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by evad at March 04, 2010 06:40 PM

Cooking up a Story

Waste Land: Does the Large Amount of Food Discarded in the U.S. Take a Toll on the Environment?

commercial compost from the bijou cafeMarch 4, 2010 Now if this isn’t a waste:

“According to the Agriculture Department, each year Americans toss more than 25 percent, of all domestically produced food. A 2009 study showed that a quarter of U.S. water and 4 percent of U.S. oil consumption annually go into producing and distributing food that ultimately ends up in landfills”

The recently published article from Scientific American goes on to say

“Once this food gets to the landfill, it then generates methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times as potent as carbon dioxide in trapping heat within our atmosphere. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, landfills account for 34 percent of all methane emissions in the U.S.—meaning that the sandwich you made and then didn’t eat yesterday is increasing your personal—and our collective—carbon footprint.”

After reading something like this it gets me to thinking how I might better improve my personal food waste. Leftovers from dinner? Eat them for lunch or create something different from it for the next night. Making a meal and have bits of pieces of carrots, lettuce, onion, and the like? Hold some for a soup stock. If you know someone with backyard chickens, perhaps they could use your unused greens. Forgot about that casserole you made 2 weeks ago? Composting isn’t too hard, or maybe start a worm bin. Sometimes it’s just a matter of changing a few habits on this road to living a more sustainable lifestyle.

Go to the Original Post…

Related Posts:

Share and Enjoy: email Twitter Facebook Digg del.icio.us StumbleUpon Reddit FriendFeed Google Bookmarks Netvibes Ping.fm RSS Yahoo! Bookmarks

by Cooking Up A Story at March 04, 2010 05:40 PM

Ignite Portland

Open Thread: What Did You Think of Ignite Portland 8?

Now that the event is over, it’s time to tell us what you thought about it.

After we do an event, we like to have a thread where you can comment and tell us …

What worked well? (We’ll try not to change those)

Where were the rough spots that we should improve for next time?

So this post is your chance - post a comment below, let us know what you thought of the event, what you liked and give us your suggestions for how to make it better. Just like everything else about Ignite Portland, we need you, our community, to contribute here to make the next one the very best it can be.

by Josh Bancroft at March 04, 2010 04:30 PM

Lyza Danger Gardner

Reader Question: Help me choose my next science title!

My personal library’s science section is looking downright pathetic. Unlike other subjects—like modern fiction and history—for which new releases find their way to me effortlessly, my science books just keep staling and aging over there, sadly. And there are far too few of them in general.

Please vote on which recent science release I should read next! You’ll notice a cosmology-physics bent to these titles—that’s because the fields intrigue me, a lot.

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (Vintage) by Leonard Mlodinow The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (Vintage) by Leonard Mlodinow

In The Drunkard’s Walk Leonard Mlodinow provides readers with a wonderfully readable guide to how the mathematical laws of randomness affect our lives. With insight he shows how the hallmarks of chance are apparent in the course of events all around us. The understanding of randomness has brought about profound changes in the way we view our surroundings, and our universe. I am pleased that Leonard has skillfully explained this important branch of mathematics. –Stephen Hawking

Or, how about…

The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by Anil Ananthaswamy The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by Anil Ananthaswamy

A lucid but not oversimplified popular account of 21st-century cosmology. In the late 20th century, work by Einstein and quantum physicists seemed on the verge of explaining everything when confusion descended. Astronomers discovered that galaxies were moving too fast. Their stars and dust produced far too little gravity to accomplish this, so most matter in the universe is not only “dark,” but it can’t be the particles, atoms and molecules familiar to us because even invisible normal matter is fairly easy to detect. No one knows the makeup of dark matter. If this weren’t frustrating enough, in 1998 scientists discovered that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. This requires immense energy; in fact “dark energy” makes up nearly three-quarters of matter-energy in the universe. New Scientist consulting editor Ananthaswamy traveled the world interviewing theorists attempting to understand this avalanche of distressing new information; all yearn for more details about the largest objects in the universes-galaxies and galaxy clusters. Turning to efforts at gathering these details, the author describes dazzling high-tech telescopes now operating or under construction from Chile to Hawaii to outer space. Because theorists also need to know about the universe’s smallest objects, ghostlike neutrinos and muons, Ananthaswamy devotes chapters to machines that produce them-the titanic new particle accelerator in Switzerland-or detect them from deep under Siberian lakes or Antarctic icecaps. A meticulous, accessible update of the latest ideas and instruments that contribute to the clarification of an increasingly puzzling universe. –(Agent: Peter Tallack/The Science Factory) (Kirkus Reviews )

Or, how about…

From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time by Sean Carroll From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time by Sean Carroll


“Unifying cosmology, thermodynamics, and information science into a refreshingly accessible whole, From Eternity to Here will make you wish time’s arrow could fly in reverse, if only so you could once again read the book for the first time.”
-Seed Magazine

“Carroll…takes his readers on a fascinating and refreshing trek through every known back alley and cul de sac of quantum mechanics, relativity, cosmology and theoretical physics. The best way to grasp the rich mysteries of our universe is by constantly rereading the best and clearest explanations. Mr. Carroll’s From Eternity to Here is certainly one of them.”
-Wall Street Journal

Or, how about…

A User's Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty by Dave Goldberg A User's Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty by Dave Goldberg

Answers to science’s most enduring questions from “Can I build a transporter, like on Star Trek?” and “Is there life on other planets?” to “What is empty space made of?”

In A User’s Guide to the Universe, physicists Dave Goldberg and Jeff Blomquist make good on two promises: you’ll get answers and you won’t have to decipher any equations to understand them. (Well, maybe just one very short and very familiar equation.)
This plain-English, plain-hilarious handbook ushers you through all of the major discoveries of modern physics, from relativity to the Large Hadron Collider, without furrowing your brow even once. Put your mind at ease and jump into modern physics in a way you never imagined possible—comfortably. Now is your chance to impress people at cocktail parties with your insights into the world of quantum weirdness, time and space, the expanding universe, and much, much more.



Which of these science books should I read?surveys


Buy the books mentioned in this post from Amazon.com now and help me maintain my rock 'n roll lifestyle.

by Lyza Gardner at March 04, 2010 04:00 PM

JanRain

Sears OpenID UX Summit Retrospective

Last Thursday over 60 OpenID advocates met at Sears World Headquarters in Chicago for a full day of discussions on progress to date and future plans for OpenID deployment and utilization. There is a summary of the event on the OpenID Foundation wiki. See Twitter coverage of the event with the hash tag #openidux

Who Attended:

Companies represented included Sears, NPR, PBS, AARP, MTV, Fox News, Universal Music Group, Kodak, Tribune Interactive, White Pages, OpenTable, Scout24/Deutsche Telecom, GameStop, Bank of America, Yahoo, Google, AOL, Microsoft, PayPal, Facebook, JanRain, Exact Target, Ping Identity, and others.

Updates from the Identity Providers:

The session kicked off with presentations by Google (Joseph Smarr), Yahoo (Allen Tom), Microsoft (Angus Logan), Facebook (David Recordon), PayPal (Andrew Nash), and AOL (George Fletcher). Copies of many of the presentations are available on the OpenID Foundation wiki. Some key highlights from these sessions:
  • Google is working on providing more API access to its OpenID Services, including Buzz, Portable Contacts, Activity Streams, OAuth WRAP, etc. Their OpenID service will also be certified by the newly formed Open Identity Exchange (OIX) for use on federal government websites.
  • Yahoo has deployed an OpenID/OAuth hybrid deployment model for access control to Yahoo data and APIs including Contacts (address book), Yahoo Mail, and Yahoo Updates (Activity Streams). Allen went through a case study of how Yahoo OpenID and OAuth services are being used on Huffington Post and the many benefits to users of this experience. Allen described how Yahoo Updates allows posting back to 300M Yahoo homepage, 300M Yahoo Mail, 90M Yahoo Messenger, and 40M MyYahoo accounts.
  • Microsoft reported that they have over 500 million active users across Windows LiveID, Bing, Xbox, HotMail, Messenger, MSN, and Office. They continue to making process in providing 'standards' based access to user data and services. Angus described how Windows LiveID is currently being used across Windows Live and Xbox. He also discussed MS' active involvement in OAuth/WRAP, Portable Contacts, OWF, and Activity Stream initiatives.
  • PayPal described their work with the federal government in launching an OpenID service for federal websites. Consumer policy and permissioning mechanism based on the UMA model will be integrated into the IDP operation. They are currently working with a limited number of "white listed" commercial websites for deployment of their OpenID services. Organizations wishing to discuss acceptance of PayPal OpenID on their websites are encouraged to contact Andrew Nash.
  • Facebook discussed the widespread adoption of Facebook Connect and how they have been accepting OpenID for logins for the past year. They continued to share user experience learnings from building Connect and stressed the importance of developer simplicity around OpenID this year. David demonstrated a killer multimedia demo where a video feed dynamically consumed and displayed data from Facebook profiles via Connect.
  • AOL reported that they will be upgrading their OpenID Provider service to V2.0 within the next few weeks. George discussed that they are pursuing a number additional enhancements based on emerging standards like XRD and webfinger. In addition, as an existing OpenID 2.0 Relying Party, AOL continues to expand the number of properties that accept OpenIDs.
  • MySpace was unable to attend due to some last minute scheduling conflicts. Monica Keller, formerly an OpenID Advocate at MySpace has recently transitioned to Facebook and is now working with David Recordon on open standards initiatives.

Some History and Recommendations:


JanRain
:

After the updates from the Identity Providers, Brian Ellin, Product Manager at JanRain, chronicled the evolution of OpenID UX. Brian made a number of recommendations to RPs looking to drive adoption and usage of OpenID registration and login:
  • Simplify the login and registration flow - rethink the process and optimize it for a third party approach, don't just bolt it onto your existing page
  • Avoid lengthy registration forms. Engage quickly, progressively ask for data as needed. Import SREG, AX, and/or OAuth data where possible to pre-populate registration forms.
  • Remember user preferences and present only the preferred ID provider upon return visits.
  • Consider a branded button-driven interface, select the ID providers that are most relevant for your user base.
  • Queue the users right at the register/login link with favicons or other visual images and text that makes it clear that they can use existing accounts instead of having to create an entirely new account.
  • Placement of elements of the workflow on the webpage can impact adoption and usage
  • Consider combining registration and login into one integrated service
  • Use the OpenID UX extension for a pop-up interface that keeps the login process in the context of the host website - avoid the full browser redirect. Use check immediate mode when possible so user achieves a "single click login" experience.
  • OpenID for mobile applications is great - less typing required, easier to import data for registration forms, no username/password to input. Don't use pop-up for mobile interface.
  • Use "verified email" from ID providers when available to eliminate the 2 step email verification registration flow that results in reduced success rates.
  • Use the OpenID/OAuth hybrid for access to rich user data including friends, address books, photos, etc.

By implementing these recommendations, Blink182.com saw that 60% of users opted for 3rd party registration over the legacy username/password option. Through a finely tuned implementation that evolved through iterative testing, Universal Music Group's Lady Gaga website was able to achieve an astounding 89% 3rd party login preference over the traditional username/password option.


"Voice of the Customer" - Input from Website Operators

Next up were Daniel Jacobson from NPR, Rob Harles from Sears, and Jonathan Coffman from PBS representing the "voice of the customer."

National Public Radio (NPR):

Daniel Jacobson, Director of Application Development at NPR, was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the OpenID Foundation and as the Chairman of the Adoption Committee. He reported on goals and priorities of the Adoption Committee for the upcoming year. Daniel’s vision behind these goals is to help position OpenID as a product that will make it easier for website operators to implement while providing a better user experience for the end users. The top priorities supporting this vision include:
  • Increased market research on the needs of RPs, OPs, and end users
  • Enhancement of the open source libraries
  • Marketing, education, and promotion
  • Improved ability to serve non-browser-based platforms, including mobile
Anyone willing to contribute to the discussion on how to increase adoption and usage of OpenID may want to subscribe to the Adoption Committee mailing list.

Daniel also described the research that NPR has been doing with OpenID and that their "end game" is shared identities across all public media. They are currently collaborating with PBS and the OpenID Foundation to determine the next steps in their identity sharing strategy.

Sears:

Rob Harles, VP Social Media and Community at Sears Holdings Company, presented a summary of Sears recent deployment on the MySears and MyKmart communities as well as their plans to roll out across all the Sears websites. Rob was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the OpenID Foundation and serves as the Chairman of the Online Retailer Committee.

Rob reported that Sears has one of the fastest growing retail communities, with 400% growth in 2009. They deployed JanRain's RPX integrated into the Viewpoints community platform to accept third party registration and login from Yahoo, Google, Facebook, MySpace, AOL, Twitter, Windows LiveID, and general OpenID accounts.


Additionally they surveyed their members to find out what drives interest in 3rd party login. The top two motivators were login convenience and the desire to not have to set up yet another username & password for a new account. When asked what would further improve user experience, the top two requests were the ability to share content and photos with friends.

Rob described their objectives as a combination of serving their existing customers better while also reaching out to a broader demographic than their traditional 35 to 53 year old female segment. He said that accepting registrations from a wide variety of identity providers definitely helped to expand their demographic reach.

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS):

Jonathan Coffman, Social Media Strategist and Product Manager at PBS, was also recently elected to the Board of Directors of the OpenID Foundation and serves on the Adoption Committee. PBS has launched an OpenID service for use across PBS websites.
Next steps for PBS include:
  • Enhanced user profiles, including allowing RPs to store extended profile data at the OP
  • Begin building out the consumer side of system, allowing users to connect with and use their 3rd party accounts across ecosystem
  • PBS has teamed up with the OIDF to investigate what a Public Media Trust Framework, modeled after the US federal government trust framework, might entail
  • Talking to Stations, Shows, NPR, and companies like Google and PayPal to envision a time when all of this might come together and to create a path forward.

Best Practices and Data Management


Finally, Allen Tom reviewed some best practices including account recovery/reset, attaching multiple identifiers, mobile authentication, and using WebFinger. Joseph Smarr discussed data management including updates on SREG, AX, OAuth, WRAP, Portable Contacts, and Activity Streams. Joseph acknowledged that there are a lot of moving parts and that things are changing quickly, so organizations who don't have sufficient internal resources or expertise might want to consider outsourcing to a solution provider like JanRain.

What was especially memorable for this event was the active involvement, questions, and recommendations from existing and prospective OPs. Representatives from Sears, NPR, PBS, AARP, MTV, Fox News, Universal Music Group, Kodak, Tribune Interactive, White Pages, Scout24/Deutsche Telecom, and GameStop provided lots of constructive feedback for the OpenID Foundation and the Identity Providers.

Thanks to the Sponsors:

Many thanks to Sears for hosting the event, Google for providing video conference access from DC and Mt. View, and to all the participants who braved the Chicago weather and airport challenges to attend this exceptional event.

by bkissel (noreply@blogger.com) at March 04, 2010 12:31 PM

Measuring Social Media Marketing Objectives with Social Publishing

MarketingSherpa recently conducted a survey of 2,000 marketers to gauge their measurement of social media marketing objectives. The survey measured the percentage of marketers who track various metrics as part of their social media marketing strategy. Results are charted below (click the image to expand):

The data shows that two of the most important and germane objectives for marketers as part of their social media marketing strategy are:
  • 94% target increase in website traffic
  • 93% target increase in brand or product awareness
JanRain's social publishing functionality helps marketers accomplish both of these objectives. As discussed in a previous post, this enables users on a website to share their activities (comments, purchases, reviews, downloads, blogs, etc.) with their friends on multiple social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Yahoo!.

Such functionality is helping our customers extend their brand on the social networks, increase awareness, and generate referral traffic back to their websites. Customers using RPX social publishing are reporting an average of anywhere from 6 to 20 new referral visitors from each social activity a user publishes from their site to a social network.



Implementing social publishing as part of a social media strategy is only part of the equation - metrics must be put in place to measure return on investment. The analytics built into RPX helps marketers make better decisions as they work toward increasing website traffic and brand/product awareness.

by Michael Olson (noreply@blogger.com) at March 04, 2010 12:28 PM

Ignite Portland

Save the Date and Submit Your Talk Ideas - Ignite Portland 9 is September 23, 2010

By now, it’s tradition. Even before the flames die down, we wonder when the next Ignite Portland will be. So mark your calendars and save the date - Ignite Portland 9 will take place on September 23, 2010.

Of course, we can’t have an Ignite without *your* burning ideas, and if you attended Ignite Portland 8 in person or vicariously, you probably have lots of great “I should do a talk about *insert topic on which you have passion and authority*” ideas floating around in your head. Now is the perfect time to submit your talk idea - you could get 20 slides and 5 minutes to share your thoughts at Ignite Portland 9! :-)

by Josh Bancroft at March 04, 2010 05:30 AM

Watch Ignite Portland 8 LIVE!

Here’s the live stream for Ignite Portland 8. Hang out in the chat, and check out the tweet stream as it flows by (use #ip8 or #igniteportland in your tweets). Enjoy the show! :-)

(removed the live player widgets - you can watch all 20 five minute talks from Ignite Portland 8 right here.)

by Josh Bancroft at March 04, 2010 12:00 AM

March 03, 2010

Open Source Bridge

Volunteer Sprint #2 – Stuff We Did

The volunteer work sprint on Saturday, February 27, 2010 focused primarily on logistics planning for the upcoming conference.

We had several enthusiastic volunteers help out with:

  • Preliminary Hacker Lounge Planning.
  • Initial draft of the Master Conference Schedule.
  • A review of open logistics tasks and filling in any missing gaps in Redmine.
  • We came up with some new ideas for Extras including Shanghai Tunnel Tours.
  • We talked about how to organize non-tech interest-based dinners — beer brewing, sci-fi fans and “war stories,” as a few examples — to make attendees feel at home socializing.
  • We started planning how we’d provide information to attendees about important topics like best local breweries.
  • Using the Hacker Lounge to do audio-processing so we can post session recordings the day after they are made

Finally, we took a tour of the Mark Building at the Portland Art Museum. Where, if rumors are true, this year’s Open Source Bridge is slated to take place.  There were many ooh’s and aww’s. Classy was another word frequently used to describe the Mark Building.

A big thanks to Scott Garman, David Cato, Jason La Pier, John Prohodsky, Jonathan Leto, Wendy Gabbe Day and everyone else who joined us for the work sprint and tour.

by jenred at March 03, 2010 10:15 PM

Jive Talks

Financial Services Get Social with Jive

During this roller-coaster economy, it’s crucial for financial services companies to provide innovative and cost-effective services to their clients. While some may think of financial services as being more traditional, Fiserv is turning this assumption on its head as they tap into Jive Social Business Software for communication, collaboration, and most importantly innovation.  Using Jive SBS, Fiserv introduced the Boardroom Series, a great, industry-first example of how bank and credit union executives can harness social technology to their advantage. Read more about it in Fiserv's announcement on the Boardroom Series and use of Jive SBS.

 

This new customer community is a key differentiator for Fiserv since there isn’t anything else like it within the industry today, and most importantly, it’s providing a huge value-add to their clients.  The numbers are telling of the momentum it has gained in just the past six months.  Fiserv launched the Boardroom Series in the summer of 2009 and so far has enrolled more than 2,300 executives, representing more than 1,000 banks and 600 credit unions, about ten percent of its client base.

 

Fiserv chose Jive because of our powerful scalability, customization, and flexibility options, as well as Jive’s thought leadership within the industry.  Since the launch last summer, we have witnessed great success stories from Fiserv and its customers as a result of the Boardroom Series.  Jive is thrilled to provide the technology backbone to help propel this success, and it is another great opportunity for us to continue to expand Jive’s versatility.

 

If you’re wondering if a bet on social software depends on smoother market conditions, consider Fiserv’s success. The reality is that SBS is a critical solution, no matter what the "stop and go" economy has served up.

by david.greenberg@jivesoftware.com at March 03, 2010 09:35 PM