I wanted to create something to enter into Quova Dev Challenge, so I created Nearby Link.  Basically its a service that creates links that redirect users to different sites based on their current location.

If that doesn’t make sense, then just visit http://goo.gl/ydDZP and you will be taken to the contact form for the governor of your state. If a user in another state clicked the same link, they would visit the appropriate contact form for their state.  Get it?  One link, yet it can redirect to different sites based on the location of the user.

Or instead, let’s say your trying to get people to eat at your restaurant by using social media like twitter or facebook, and you want them quickly find a store location in their area.  Quizno’s for example, could just link to to http://goo.gl/dHYhc and it will automatically show locations around the user where they are at.

Thoughts?  Other uses?

There are lots of mobile location sharing products and many new ones everyday. Most of them appear to be centered around location check-ins and sharing with friends.  While this is neat, it seems like only a small slice of the use cases in which location data is useful.

For example, lets say that I take I-66 W to work everyday, starting around 9am.  If this pattern is established, and there is an accident on I-66 W at 8:50am, it would be great to know that before I start my commute.  The location and time of this event is important in that if it was another road or at another time, then I really don’t care to be informed regarding this event. Unless the event was at 9:30am and im running late.  In order to provide context aware alerts, you need to have sufficient data in order to have a good level of confidence that a user is likely to take an action at a certain time and place.

Certainly there are existing ways to be informed regarding traffic situations. However, it seems to me that we have not taken automation regarding similar use cases yet to a usable level.  Smart phones that are aways on, full of sensors and generally always with us, empower us to easily track, record, analyze and alert with minimal or no input.  I’ve started to explore how to implement this and I hope to discuss it more over the next few days.

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I often find myself forgetting my passwords and usernames to various sites. So recently, I decided to get serious about password management.  I use KeyPassX (or KeyPass if you are using windows) as a secure way to encrypt and record the urls, usernames and passwords to sites.

I also signed up for Google 2 step verification. This is useful for many reasons, but one in particular is that your gmail account contains a lot of information that can be used to access your other accounts.  Once you get past the initial setup, everything works seamlessly as it did before.  Enterprises have traditionally paid big bucks to implement this type of 2 factor authentication, typically requiring issuing RSA tokens or similar to all employees.  It’s great to see a more integrated solution being provided directly to consumers.

Dropbox has nothing to do with your password security, however it is a great tool to sync files between your computer, web, and devices.  So one way to always be sure that you don’t lose your KeyPass database or your Google verification backup codes is to place them in a private dropbox folder that you can reach from everywhere.

Virgin Mobile offers a great $25/month plan for unlimited data, text and web with 300 talk minutes with no contract to sign.  This works great for me, as I generally just have short phone conversations.  However there are of course times when I might get stuck on the phone for an hour or so.  Below are a few extra steps I took to help get around the 300 minute limit without spending any more.

First, I ported my number to Google Voice(GV).  GV has a lot of features, but the key feature is being able to indicate where to forward calls to when your phone number is dialed.  For example, when my GV number is called, it is then forwarded to my mobile phone number.

Secondly, I setup GV to forward to Google Talk within Gmail.  Im often in front of a computer, so this way I can easily make and receive phone calls for free without using my cell minutes or using a different phone number.

Lastly, to take it the extra mile, what about a VOIP call when you are on your cell phone in order to avoid using your minutes?  Might as well use that unlimited data plan.  Turns out that there are a few extra steps here, however it is relatively easy to setup.  I use a Gizmo5 SIP account for this and I won’t go into the details here, but there are plenty of posts on the web describing how to set this up.  Keep in mind though that the call quality of this often does suffer based on the quality of the data connection.

If you sign up for a Virgin Mobile account, feel free to use the Kickback Code IYFUMN7I for an extra 60 minutes of talk time.

Redmine.org is an open source project management application. It is simple to setup and works great. It supports LDAP authentication out of the box. We recently setup Redmine for a project to run behind IIS using fastcgi and wanted to automatically login using windows authentication. We didn’t see a option for this, so I created a simple plugin that can be used to add this functionality.

http://github.com/nanek/redmine_windowsauth

Prepared for tomorrow by downloading some iPad applications before the device has even been released.  Apple = Hype machine.  iPad will win for the same reasons the iPhone did.  For anyone not paying attention, it is the applications.

Last Tuesday, I attended CloudCamp in DC.  I’ve been meaning to go to an event like this for sometime and I was finally able to make it.  In particular my main takeaway from this event was how much better an unconference format is over a traditional conference.

This CloudCamp was ran by Dave Nielsen. There were over 200 people at my count, with standing room only at the beginning of the event.  I had my concerns with how effective the event would be based on its format with such a diverse and large audience.  However it was quite successful.  The audience members varied widely, from cloud vendors and consultants to government employees with no knowledge of the cloud and to those with existing or future cloud projects.

The event started with lightning talks, followed by a panel from the audience with questions from the crowd, followed by two audience lead break out sessions, ending with a wrap-up over drinks.

The best part about the event was that it was able to live up to the definition of an unconference.  Instead of going to a typical conference and hearing long presentations from just a few people, we were all able to participate, share experiences and learn from each other.  I look forward to attending the next CloudCamp and other unconference events.

Foursquare does not have a windows mobile version of their application, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to try and build an app.

Things that are working fairly well:

• Foursquare API access.
• JSON.NET is used to parse the JSON responses.
• sqlite is used for caching http responses.
• OAuth is used for authentication to foursquare.

• GPS lookup. Things that don’t work and have proved difficult to implement:

• Responsiveness.  At times the app stops responding and overall feels too slow for normal use.

• Cell ID lookup.  This is important as GPS often does not work indoors.  It appears access to this API may be protected on most phones.

• Good looking user interface.  Plus dealing with different phone resolutions, orientations, and sizes makes it a little more complicated. Things that would be interesting to implement but require a solid base application:

• Map integration

• Integration with other API’s such as Yelp You can find the source at http://foursquare.codeplex.com along with a CAB for installation on your phone if you want to try it out.  Look under the planned download section.  It works ok on my HTC Touch Pro.  If you are interested in contributing to this effort, let me know.  I’m debating spending more time on making this work better or building a HTML5 based mobile web application.

I recently completed the book, ”Life Inc. How the world became a corporation and how to take it back,” by Douglas Rushkoff.

The book tells the compelling history of how corporations have defined and controlled the world since their inception.  It might make you rethink some basic assumptions we have about how society has evolved the way that it has. One example used in the book is the concept of having a large suburban home while working in the city, being constructed by car companies to create a market and the need for cars.  He ends the book with a call to action, specifically mentioning creating local currencies and using Community Supported Agriculture.  I’ve considered trying a CSA that would deliver to Arlington, but I don’t really cook that much.  He also mentions Kiva.org which I use and enjoy.

Do you use a CSA?

Scott Hanselman http://www.hanselman.com/ Dan Wahlin http://weblogs.asp.net/dwahlin/ The Morning Brew http://blog.cwa.me.uk/ Jon Galloway http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/ Scott Gu http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/

I’m sure I missed a bunch.  What do you recommend?