In this case, the culprit was the Microsoft FolderShare beta. The concept of FolderShare is this: using your Windows Live account, you can install the FolderShare software on multiple PCs and even Macs. I had installed it on a laptop running Vista, a desktop running XP and a MacBook Pro running OS X.

Once installed, you can create a “share” between the computers and FolderShare will sync files across them. You have the choice between automatic or on-demand synchronization. In my case, I chose on demand. You also chose the corresponding container folder on each PC (they can be different on each).

Here is where my tale of woe begins…

I had just purchased and downloaded Big Blue Ball from Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records via iTunes on the Vista laptop. I simply wanted to copy the songs over to my desktop (all legal — it’s one of the devices attached to my iTunes account). I could’ve done this any number of ways, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to give FolderShare a real-world test.

After installing the software on the three computers, I created a Personal Library called “Music.” I added the iTunes folder from my laptop, and it added the files to that library (somewhere on a FolderShare server).

Next, I setup the desktop (where I wanted the files). Unfortunately, as soon as I connected to the new personal library, it started adding all the music I had on my desktop to the library as well. Not what I wanted at all.

Looking back on the laptop, I noticed that FolderShare had automatically created a long list of folders that matched how my music was stored on the desktop. Inside each folder was a special “shortcut” that if you clicked it, would fetch the requested file from my desktop and transfer it to my laptop. Likewise on my desktop, I saw new folders that mirrored the folders on my laptop, also with the little shortcuts for each file.

Well, that’s neat, I suppose. I tried to transfer a few of the files over from my laptop, and the were “downloaded” properly. So that part worked, but what to do with the massive, empty folder structure that was created on my laptop. Remember I didn’t want to copy my music from my desktop to the laptop.

At this point, I suspect someone will point out that FolderShare is in fact designed for folder synchronization. This is true, although I suspected by selected the “on demand” option as I did, I could control what got synchronized, when it got synchronized, and where it got synchronized. I was wrong. And I’m not the only person to have been bitten by FolderShare.

So moving back to the laptop, I decided I would never want to transfer all those files from my desktop to my laptop, so I selected all the folders that were created with their little FolderShare shortcuts and deleted them.

Holy shit…. what a mistake!

Yes, the folders were deleted from my laptop, but (as I realized later) the actual MP3s on my desktop were also being deleted — victims of a synchronized deletion. To add insult to injury, they weren’t even moved to the recycle bin. They were just… gone.

As soon as I discovered what was happening, I exited FolderShare and deleted the library. I don’t know if that was a mistake, too, but now I’m left with a massive music folder structure that is completely empty — no more music.

Some of this music was downloaded, but most of it I’ve got on CD. I can burn it again, but it’s going to take time.

The moral of the story: steer clear of FolderShare. It has promise, but the fact that it deleted files on another computer without warning or confirmation is entirely unacceptable.

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I’ve been using an HP iPAQ hw 6515 for the past two years. It runs Windows Mobile 2003 and can technically do a lot of the same things that an iPhone does. In practice, the iPAQ is clumsy, even when using as a phone. Add to this the fact that most of the new software won’t work on Windows Mobile 2003, and the hw 6515 can’t be upgraded to the newer versions of Windows Mobile.

So in order to support the research and writing on messaging, collaboration and social network technology on BigBlueBall, it was time for an upgrade. After some hemming and hawing, I became the proud new owner of the very sexy iPhone.

Saturday afternoon I walked into the local AT&T Wireless store and asked if they had the iPhone in stock (they did). I have an existing account with AT&T, and wanted to switch to a new cell number (local, since my old number still tagged me as a 909-er) and upgrade to the iPhone. The process was smooth and painless, and I was on my way home in about ten minutes.

This is where my story takes an ugly turn.

I unboxed my new iPhone and hooked everything up. I’m running Windows XP Pro, but iTunes recognized my iPhone and gave me a friendly “Let’s get started” message. I was asked to enter my Apple ID. Trouble is, I use my AOL ID for all my iTunes purchases, and I couldn’t find a way to enter it. I tried using my @aol.com email but no dice. Oh well, I had other things to attend to, so I’d have to activate later in the afternoon. I’d sort through those details when I returned… or so I thought.

When I came back later that afternoon, my activation session had expired. No surprise, really. I just undocked and reseated my iPhone to restart the process. WRONG! Instead, I was greeted with a message informing me that “iPhone activations are unavailable at this time.” There was an ambiguous message stating that they would be available after 3pm EST (it was much later already) but no date was given.

I tried several more times, shutting down iTunes and even rebooting my PC to make sure it wasn’t a local problem, but always got the same message. I tried calling 6-1-1 (customer service) from my old cell phone, but after navigating their voice mail maze, was summarily dismissed with a request to call back Monday through Friday during the hours of blah-blah-blah. I couldn’t hear the specifics over my cursing.

I finally went to bed, hoping that Sunday would bring better results. I was wrong again.

Sunday morning, same screen, same frustration. I put it aside and went for a bike ride with Lynn. I drove to Murrieta to review an offer I received on the house. I kept busy until well past 3pm EST, hoping that surely the activation process would be working by now.

I hooked up the iPhone and got the encouraging “Let’s get started…” message. So far, so good. I enter in the basic info about my current phone number, and after 30 seconds or so verifying, ran into another roadblock. The message was worded almost the same, but without the pretty picture of the iPhone to taunt me. This one simply said “iPhone activations are not available at this time.” No ETA whatsoever.

My frustration level was increasing in direct proportion to my compulsion to “try again.” I turned to the web, hoping to find solace in the company of other new iPhone owners. The AT&T Wireless customer support forums confirmed that many others were also having the same problem. We were all asking what to do with our $400 paperweights.

Fortunately, I did find a different customer service number for AT&T that took me directly to a representative — no voicemail maze to navigate! The rep informed me that yes, their activations servers were in fact down, and that no, they did not know when they would be back up. His advice? Wait a while, and try again later. The situation was now officially fucked up.

How can Apple accept this shoddy level of service? When a customer shells out $400 for an iPhone, they expect they’ll be able to use it that same day. I hope that they have a clause in their agreement with AT&T that gives them an “out” and allows them to offer the iPhone with other carriers sooner, if (when?) AT&T falls down on important issues such as activation. I’m keenly aware that things go wrong from time-to-time, but this reflects poorly on both companies.

On the bright side, on Monday morning the activation servers were finally up. My iPhone is activated and I’m all is well in the world again.

I still need some questions that maybe some other iPhone users can help answer.

1. First, what do you consider the essential iPhone accessories? A protective wrap? Apple’s bluetooth headset?
2. Second, what do you consider to be the most essential iPhone web resources?
3. Thirdly, what advice do you have for syncing my iPhone from two different computers?
4. And finally, does anyone know if it’s possible to merge iTunes accounts? I ended up activating the iPhone using an older, previously unused Apple ID that I had setup. Most of my purchased music used my AOL ID. Any advice?

I’m looking forward to reviewing the best of the IM options for the iPhone.

Blogged with Flock

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But… there is still a valid need for local analytics, particularly at large organizations with intranets that cannot be served by Google Analytics. This is where Urchin fit the bill nicely. Urchin is a commercial product. You can still buy Urchin from Google, though you must work through one of their certified consultants. Unfortunately, since Google’s acquisition of Urchin back in 2005, there has been little or no progress on updates.

Personally, I would love to see the charting and data presentation of Google Analytics integrated into their standalone Urchin product, but it appears that Urchin, like so many other Google acquisitions (remember Dodgeball?) is withering on the vine.

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I thought maybe an upgrade to the latest version of WordPress might fix things up, so I upgraded to WordPress 2.3. The process went quickly and smoothly, but the problems persisted. It turned out all of the problems were related to the Squid proxy I was using. Eliminate the proxy and all the symptoms disappeared.

Since there are times when I have no choice but to use the Squid proxy, this doesn’t entirely solve the problem, but at least now I know where to look (and how to get around it when I need to post here).

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Wordtracker publishes a report that shows the top search terms used on various meta-search engines like Dogpile and Metacrawler. Wordtracker’s Top 300 Surge Report shows the top results from the past 48 hours, and the top ten are:

1. saddam hussein execution
2. saddam execution video
3. saddam hanging video
4. saddam hussein
5. saddam
6. saddam hanging
7. saddam execution
8. saddam hussein hanging
9. britney spears
10. paris hilton

Apparently blood lust trumps plain old lust. Unfortunately, the complete list doesn’t get much better.

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What exactly is interestingness? Well, it’s a method of calculating which photos are the most interesting, using information such as the tags used to describe the photo, how many times it’s been viewed, how many comments it’s received, the age of the photo, how many times it’s been saved as a favorite, and by whom — and probably a few other factors. The combination yields delightful results. Whereas Google’s image search reveals what you expect (the mediocre stuff), Flickr’s interestingness factor delivers the exceptional. Tim O’Reilly recently described a perfect example of Flickr’s interestingness in action.

The beauty of interestingness, as explained by Yahoo!’s own Bradley Horowitz, is that it exponentially expands the pool of participation within a community. People participate in the process of establishing interestingness without necessarily doing anything. Which is exactly what community builders want; a way to get the lurkers and the consumers to share their knowledge and insights.

Ok, so interestingness is a good thing, right? Well, now Yahoo has filed a patent application on interestingness.  Now I can understand that Yahoo! wants to protect their secret sauce, but isn’t that really limited to the weight factor they give each variable in their interestingness equation? If they are awarded the patent, does this mean I can’t take usage metrics to derive results in other arenas, like serving up the most interesting/salient/relevant knowledge? And really, is the concept of relevancy (however it’s defined) really new?
I love Flickr, and I like Yahoo! But this patent is too broad and filled with “uninterestingness.” Let’s hope it dies quietly.

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Anyone who’s blogged likely knows about blog spam. It’s the scourge of the blogosphere — automated programs that search out blogs and auto-submit “ads” as comments — usually for gambling, erectile dysfunction drugs and porn. It forces responsible bloggers to moderate all comments.

Fortunately, WordPress’ Akismet plug-in does a good job of detecting spam, but for some reason, it considers comments from my email (using my @bigblueball.com address) as spam! A quick search on the WordPress forums shows that, yes, Akismet may have some false positives, but if you flag it as “not spam” enough times, Akismet supposedly learns to stop marking your comments as spam. So far, we’ve tried it with over four comments, but Akismet is still marking my comments as spam. Any suggestions?

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What tipped me off was when I got an email receipt from Paypal for a $160 purchase from Jelsoft. I own two Jelsoft vBulletin licenses, neither of which is up for renewal, so that made me tilt my head to the side and go “huh?”

I immediately checked my Paypal account and discovered ten transactions had been made. I got on the phone and called their customer service number. While on hold with Paypal, I forwarded a copy of the purchase receipt from Jelsoft back to them, explaining that someone has fraudulently used my Paypal account for the purchase.

The customer service representative at Paypal was very helpful, staying on the line with me while I went through the process of filling out the online dispute form — something that is desperately in need of a process redesign. She explained the process and reassured me that I’d get my money back.

Sure enough, the next day, the refund process had begun. However, this process is broken. The criminals who stole from my account were able to instantly transfer and spend money from my bank account. I got the money returned, not to my bank account, but to my Paypal account within a couple days. Unfortunately, I don’t use my Paypal account often enough to warrant keeping funds in there. What I really wanted was to move it back to the original bank account. I learned that to do so takes 3-4 business days. Unbelievable. My money was held hostage for a week.

I learned a few things from the experience.

1. If you use Paypal, you may want to reconsider tying it directly to a bank account, or at the very least, use a secondary account with limited funds to protect yourself from potential losses.
2. Pay attention to your email. I caught it fairly early, but it could’ve been a very different situation if I hadn’t been alert to my inbox.
3. Use strong passwords. I’ll admit, my password wasn’t the greatest. That’s all changed.
4. Use unique passwords. Don’t use the same password for every website and service that you sign up for.

I know that these tips aren’t anything new to you, nor are they new to me. I personally hate the fact that I’ve got a million different passwords to remember, but I’ve learned the hard way that convenience and security are mutually exclusive.

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Yes, it happens to everyone. I went to digg an article this morning and found that Digg was indeed Down. No report on why or how long on their blog, but I was interested to see site recommendations from the Digg staff.

Amar recommends a BBC site about Planet Earth. As a long-time resident of this BigBlueBall, it naturally caught my eye, but it’s really more of a one-time visit type of site.

Rocketboom was Brian’s choice, which left me wondering if his selection was made in the Congdon days or afterwards.

Dan is apparently a big Oasis fan. All I remember them for is Wonderwall, but apparently they made other songs, too.

On the other hand, Daniel shares a site called Top Left Pixel, the wonderful photo blog of Sam Javanrouh. He posts one new photo each day.

Maybe his head is in the stars, but Eli gives us HubbleSite — with all things about the Hubble space telescope. I like the gallery, but I’ve never been a fan of astronomy.

Fearless leader Kevin gives us Ask a Ninja. Is this an insider view into the decision-making process of the Silicon Valley?

Jay shares one of my favorites, the Onion. Seriously, who doesn’t love good satire?

I have to wonder if Owen is the finance guy? His pick was Dealbreaker, an interesting blog on Wall Street. Did you know, for instance, that 60% of homosexuals rank online banking as important, compared to only 50% of heterosexuals. Neither did I.

If Owen is the finance guy, Steve must be the designer. He shares A List Apart, a great site for all things CSS.

They added a gratuituous, albeit “timeless” link to Wikipedia, links to the various LAMP components (hopefully they didn’t contribute to this downtime), and a plug for the Digg blog (which again, didn’t say why Digg was down). But all-in-all, an interesting way to share during that downtime. Maybe we could all take a page from their playbook.

technorati tags: digg, downtime

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Of course after got over the initial shock, I had to ask — what the hell is a plog? Sounds worse than a blog, for God’s sake!

Thankfully, Amazon kindly provided an answer:

"Your Amazon.com Plog is a personalized web log that appears on your customer home page. Every person’s Plog is different (hence the name) and just like a blog, your Plog is sorted in reverse chronological order. Each post also gives you the opportunity to provide feedback to the sender as to whether you liked the post or not. This feedback loop means your Plog becomes even more relevant and interesting over time. Your Plog will appear if you are logged into our web site and is visible only to you."

The whole thing sounds stupid to me, and raises an important question. If "blog" is short for "web log," wouldn’t "personal web log" be more appropriately abbreviated "pblog?" Oh no, that would be really stupid.   

technorati tags: amazon, plog, rant

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I’d send a complaint letter to their hosting service, but their identity is concealed. A WHOIS inquiry yeilded the following information:

Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.

DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: ILOVEIM.COM
Created on: 12-Feb-05
Expires on: 12-Feb-07
Last Updated on: 26-Jan-06

Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration ILOVEIM.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599

Technical Contact:
Private, Registration ILOVEIM.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.EVERYDNS.NET
NS2.EVERYDNS.NET

Registry Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK

Any suggestions on how to combat this?

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The idea of a pharmacological solution to the ‘problem’ of sleep isn’t so far-fetched. We already have drugs like Modafinil which allow people to wake up refreshed after just four hours of sleep. It’s regularly dispensed to soldiers and pilots, and though it’s intended use is to curb the symptoms of narcolepsy, business travelers have been known to use it to counteract jet lag.  

Does this sound good to you? How about the story of a Vietnamese farmer who hasn’t slept in 33 years. I’m skeptical of the authenticity of the report, but it does raise an interesting question. We love to joke about wanting a longer day. "There just aren’t enough hours in the day…" But if we could radically reduce the amount of sleep we required, with no adverse physical impact, would our lives be richer?

If you could live on just two hours of sleep, what would you do with the ‘extra’ hours?

technorati tags: sleep, circadian

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read more | digg story

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Aqeel at BigBlueBall pointed out this story on Wired about a guy who has started a company that will sell rooftop advertising, ostensibly for viewing via Google Earth and Google Maps and other sites with satellite imagery.

Colin Fitz-Gerald runs a roofing business in Massachusetts and has started a company called RoofShout to create promotional messages on rooftops.

“I’m currently launching RoofShout.com with no money, no real experience running a business on the internet, and no real solid business plan,” Fitz-Gerald said. “But I figure there’s a lot of blank roofs and a lot of advertising that could go on the roofs.”

No experience? No business plan? Sounds a lot like the bubble days.

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Times staff writer Susannah Rosenblatt interviewed me for a story titled Growing Remote Areas See Fringe Benefits in Gov.’s Plan. The article discusses Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to improve California’s roads and infrastructure, particular in the inland regions around Los Angeles and other coastal communities.

Software specialist Jeff Hester has lived in Murrieta since 1989, before the town had a single stoplight. He’s watched his southwest Riverside County community mushroom from 44,000 in 2000 to 75,000 and growing.

Roads and freeways have gotten so congested that Hester and his wife must carefully choose when to dine out in nearby Temecula because traffic on the 215 and adjacent 15 is so snarled.

“Do we really want to travel across town [to make] what used to be a 10-minute, what will be a 35- to 40-minute drive?” Hester said. “The traffic on the freeway has gotten so bad now, the surface streets that connect the two cities have gotten so bad, you really have to think about … do we have time to fight the traffic, depending on what day of the week or what hour it is.”

Though he enjoys living in Murrieta, Hester — like many of his neighbors — works many miles away. Hester avoids the worst of commuter gridlock tying up the 91 and the 215 freeways, but he still spends about 90 minutes each way on the Ortega Highway, winding 53 miles through the mountains to his job in Orange County’s Aliso Viejo several days a week, when he’s not telecommuting.

“We could use some improvements in our infrastructure around here,” Hester said. Widening the 215 would “make a huge dent” in the traffic woes.

So what’s interesting about this? Well, apart from the truth of the story itself (the freeways around here were never meant to handle the traffic they currently carry), there’s the question — How did the LA TImes come to interview Jeff Hester? Which is precisely where this blog comes in.

Ms. Rosenbloom faced an impending editorial deadline. She had talked to the government officials and analysts. She needed to talk to a “normal person” living through the problem to share their personal experience. The solution? Search the Internet. Somehow a search for people who commute from Riverside County to Orange County brought up a link to my blog.

What I appreciated was the fact that the Los Angeles Times confirmed what I’ve been trying to tell my family for ages; I’m a “normal person.”

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