A few weeks ago I fired off the random tweet that I’d be wasting some time on ChatRoulette and that fact garnered me a few snickers, snide remarks and general head-shaking.

I had no desire to see nudity or bad behavior (though you’ll definitely see both) but I did want to play around a bit. There’s no better way to waste an afternoon than on a simple, single-serving concept that’s fresh each time. Simply turn on your webcam, stare into the abyss and wait to laugh, cry, cringe or type with your new best friend.

To me, ChatRoulette offered the allure of all the things that made email (yes, email) so cool the first time I saw it.

Or BBS
Or MUDs/MUSHs
Or IM
Or HTML/The Web
Or Napster
Or … you get the picture

The first thing everyone does with a new internet toy is lurk. Lurkers/lurking is still the predominate mode of internet usage (even for “social” folks) and what better way to explore video (without having to make your own viral video hit) than to stare blankly at your webcam and wait for something to happen.

Seems pretty much standard operating procedure to me. No matter how “lean forward” some web experiences can be, we’d all like to just be entertained once in a while.

For my part, I was more than happy to play the part of the merry trickster, holding this candy wrapper up to the green-lighted eye of my webcam for folks to read. It got just as many leans forward and head nods as it did “Next” clicks.

Then I saw this amazing PianoChatImprov video (Via Brand Flakes For Breakfast) and my brain exploded a little bit:

What an awesome outlet for his creativity and a way to engage folks by giving them something (delight? surprise?) they didn’t even know they were looking for. And who knows, maybe some of those folks even decided to go do something creative themselves, either on ChatRoulette or off of it.

If the first step to getting more folks in the mode of creating things was text-based (BBS led to Blogs led to Twitter & Facebook) then the evolution naturally moves toward audio (podcasting, which is bigger than ever) and video, which is still growing.

Granted, the “content” (such an ugly word) won’t all be great, but that’s not the point. The point is the lowering of the barrier to entry so that those with latent talent and dreams can realize fulfillment (and fulfill others) where previously they couldn’t.

Democratization of media and whatnot.

For my part, I think I’m finally feeling the real urge to do a certain passion project that I’ve been rolling over in my head since last year’s SXSW. Stay tuned.

Are we likely to see some guy’s business or the random boob on ChatRoulette? Sure.
Will we see a live death (a real Russian Roulette) a la Abraham Biggs on Justin.tv? Probably.
Could we get the next Seinfeld or Tarantino or Shakespeare here too? Hyperbole aside, new mediums produce new stars, so yes.

I’m not saying this one site will change the world (or even the internet) but it’s a bell-weather moment, a road sign pointing towards a future where TV plays less of a creative, cultural role and people entertain one another, either solely friend-to-friend (see: Facebook) or in new creative venues/enterprises.

And if you don’t believe all the squishy hype (or don’t like the piano guy) at least you can geek out on a map data mash-up, watch videos from the site or see the “best” screencaps from the site.

Happy Webcamming!

I was already in the process of editing and composing this post when Bill’s “Annoying Lost Fans?” post hit Google Reader this morning.

*sigh*

I guess I’m *that* guy, so please forgive for sharing some links with the similarly obsessed among you. Everyone else, please avert your eyes (and ears) for the next 4 months or so.

(Sorry).

I’ll start out with my own tongue-in-cheek video, Previously on Lost: What?

From the sublime to the ridiculous: a petition (from fans) to turn DisneyLand’s Tarzan Treehouse (formerly Swiss Family Robinson) into a Lost attraction.

Here’s the first actually useful bit of video I have: Lost in 8:15. A clever recap a la Sopranos in 7 minutes.

Contrast that video with some of the Season 5 bloopers:

If you’re into more official stuff, check out Lost University (in its final weeks). It’s the last of the alternate reality lite “games” for Lost.

Finally, here’s a slightly spoiler-y article from EW featuring the cast, Damon & Carlton and a brief Q&A with JJ Abrams.

Enjoy!

See you on February 2nd!

I’m a forgetful son-of-a-gun most of the time.
I end up making lists like something out of Memento.
I’ve taken to clipping my business cards to my notebook with a binder clip (though I never got around to building a Hipster PDA).

To sum up: I’m the guy who usually says “I’ll email you my contact info” after you give me your card.

So, of course, last March at SXSW, I ran out of business cards before the final day. I only brought 75 (my mistake) when I could have easily brought 200 (about the number I came home with).

The inimitable (and very helpful) Amanda Lauter told me I should use contxts (though I didn’t sign up until yesterday).

A lot of folks have suggested Bump, but I only downloaded that back in October (and, at the time, I had biz cards at my disposal).

Then I became (rapidly) obsessed with acquiring a Poken, since I dig on the collectible, cute USBs.

So now that I’m everywhere all at once, which system will win? I’m betting on good, old fashioned cards (if & when I have them).

I can’t see myself bumping phones too often or touching Pokens (assuming other folks have them). Maybe the most useful of the three is contxts.

Easy to remember.
Easy to share (via txt or a little note).
Easy to import into your phone upon receipt.

The one additional thing I’d like to try would potentially be a custom QR code stored on my phone (Like this one that points to contxts or that one). It would have the same potential hurdles as Bump, but any phone that could snap/scan my iPhone screen could get the embedded information. Like CardStar for contact info. Or something.

I don’t know what I’m getting at, since I still use a glommed-together “system” of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn & a big stash of cards in my office drawer to keep up with folks, but at least the transfer of contact data should be better.

Of course, you could also peruse Mashable’s post on the same subject if you’re so inclined.

Happy New Year!

I am a tinkerer.
I can’t leave well enough alone, especially where technology is involved.

I’m the guy who just had to spend a week getting the wireless sharing working on the TiVos (TiVoes?) only to discover I’d broken the ability to upload DivX from PC.

I’m also the guy who just had to show the whole family how to get their iPhones to auto-download photos pre-synch.

And lastly, I’m the guy who has to try and run Linux at every opportunity. As true in 2009 (Jolicloud Pre-Beta) as it was in 1998 (Suse).

So it was that with a light heart and a devilish grin that I decided to take my perfectly functioning Dell Mini 9 (running a Dell-specific Ubuntu 8.0.4) and try to install Jolicloud. I say “perfectly” but honestly part of my desire to try something new came from the slowness of Firefox when running more than 3 tabs. And seeing as the machine only has a 4GB hard drive, the only use case I have for the thing is surfing while watching TV, so being limited to Gmail, CoTweet and one “” tab is pretty limiting.

My father-in-law had been pushing Kubuntu on me, but I found the USB creation a little wonky and I wasn’t sold on the interface. I wanted to move away from KDE (and GNOME) and focus on something truly unique for the Netbook form factor. I looked at Moblin, but the track record for supporting my Dell Mini 9 just didn’t seem quite there. I even briefly considered Ubuntu Netbook Remix but couldn’t justify staying with a Canonical project given the bugginess of Dell’s default Ubuntu distro.

Then Drew Olanoff tweeted this:

finally installing @jolicloud on my dell mini! oh im so geekily happy right now!

And I knew I had to check it out.

For those of you who don’t know @drew, he’s the Philadelphia blogger (I know him from my previous Metroblogs days) who has been very publicly battling cancer, working with LiveStrong, Lance Armstrong and using the Twitter hashtag #blamedrewscancer. He’s a hell of a guy and an avowed Mimobot fan to boot. I had no choice but to follow him down the Dell/Jolicloud rabbit hole.

I know enough shell commands from my regional ISP stint to be really dangerous, so it took me about 2 hours of fiddling to make the install USB using the Python script. I’m an idiot and a poor typist (especially on a tiny keyboard), hence the need for a distro that didn’t require me to know how to use a Terminal app or Synaptic. I don’t do dependencies: software, chemical or interpersonal.

After my brief wrestling match with install USB creation I rebooted and went through about 30 minutes of blissfully non-technical screens to install an operating system. I don’t think that’s ever happened to me before. Easier and breezier than any Windows or Mac OS install I can remember (though, to be fair, I’ve only upgraded Mac OS’s on work laptops).

I jettisoned the old OS and filled up the hard drive with Jolicloud and got a sizable space savings (around 700 MB on a 4 GB disk) and was greeted with happy sounds, floating heart clouds and full screen optimization (through Mozilla, I believe) for all the “apps”. Plus, it’ll install & run Linux apps (like Boxee or Seesmic Desktop [which is Adobe Air]) as well.

I’m no (true) technical guy (obviously) but the one-click install of web apps and utilization of the full 9-inch screen are home runs. The user experience – which doesn’t look like Windows through a fishbowl anymore – is more touchscreen smart phone than laptop and I love it.

I’m confident that if I were sneaky enough I could get it on my in-laws’ Acer Aspire to run alongside Windows and they’d have no trouble accessing their files OR using the internet – checking email/Facebook and uploading their pictures.

I’m certainly not pushing the boundaries of computing with my own netbook usage, I just wanted to feel happier about having a barebones computing device on my lap most evenings. I wanted faster performance, I wanted easier (installs, updates & mousing around) and I wanted something a little tinier (since my HD space is *so* limited).

Christmas came early. I got everything I wanted.

The only remaining issue is that Jolicloud keeps reminding me that the driver for wireless on the Dell Mini 9 is proprietary, but I guess that was the sticking point for Moblin users too. I honestly don’t care about open source or not so long as I didn’t have to jump through hoops on installation, which I didn’t.

Anyhow, I’m a much happier netbooker today.

I <3 Jolicloud

Hey and if you don’t believe me, listen to Engadget.

Enjoy your Thursday!

As a long time Atlantan, I’m used to the bad traffic and worse commutes and I’m also quite familiar with our fascination with weather. Be it rain or (god forbid) sleet or snow, we take our severe weather seriously, what with all the Doppler radar and meteorologists and “weather centers” on local TV. I’m looking right at you, Glenn Burns.

Today’s commute (oddly quiet down 75 from Smyrna to Midtown) got me to thinking about a little chocolate & peanut butter mashup of our car quagmire and our love of obscenely obsessive coverage: Traffic Forecasts!

It seems to me that we’re on the verge of 2010, we ought to have the technology. What’s stopping us.

Exhibits A & B:

• Predicting Highway Crashes

It’s a story from MIT. C’mon fellas. Make it happen.

• Google Maps Predicts Traffic Conditions

Teh Googles will save us! Too bad their maps on my iPhone are never right for more than 3 minutes. Same goes for you Georgia Navigator.

Where does that leave us?

If you’re like me, you absolutely love the Summer (when the kiddies are out of school), major holidays and any time you can take a back road.

Of course, if I lived in town I’d have different patterns and behaviors to love and hate, but the highways are my current touchpoints.

Still, I’d love to see Mark Arum or Captain Herb standing in front of the green screen doing the chroma key dance and talking about historical patterns, the tie-ins to the weather (cross promotion opportunities!) and construction.

It seems like a slam dunk. They can produce that kind of TV/Radio now, they know about all the events and they’ve got the weathermen on that angle. Plus, shouldn’t some kid at Georgia Tech be working on this for a senior thesis?

Anyhow, rant over. Enjoy your commute tonight.

Happy Monday!