Digijustin.com

June 8, 2009
by justin
1 Comment

Gearing up for WWDC Today

Today is the first day of the WWDC in San Francisco and the web world is all abuzz about what might come out. I’m really looking forward to hearing what they have to announce as I have recently joined the ranks as a Mac user. I still have my Blackberry Curve and I love it but the iPhones are just so damn sexy that I want one of them too.

Hopefully today they announce a way for me to get one. I doubt it but I can dream right? I just read a rumor that the new iPhones might just be available today after the keynote so that would be pretty cool. With all the buzz surronding this, I can’t tell what might happen. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what the next 2+ hours brings.

Let me know what you think and I’m surely going to post my thoughts post-keynote as well.

March 11, 2009
by justin
2 Comments

Phoenix .NET User Group Experience

Last night I was lucky enough to attend my first Phoenix .NET User Group meeting and enjoyed it. Microsoft is nice enough to let them use a room in their Phoenix office and gave away a keyboard/mouse set, a web cam, and a few books.

Tim Rayburn started it off with an Intro to WCF Services and for a guy who has barely touched these, it was very informative. Tim did an excellent job presenting and made it easy to follow along.

Rob Paveza followed up with a discussion on a new Facebook API that he has developed. I worked with Rob at Terralever and know that he does an awesome job whenever he has the chance to run wild in code and from the looks of it, this isn’t any different. It’s not released as of yet but it will be found here by the end of the week so check it out.

Thanks to Scott Cate and Rob Bagby for helping out with this. I hope to check out a few more of these in the future.

January 26, 2009
by justin
3 Comments

My Thoughts on the Future of Twitter

You can’t do anything online these days without hearing about Twitter. I’ve written a few posts about it in the past (found here) and I have to admit that I am impressed with how it has been “blowing up” the past couple of months. I have had discussions with friends and co-workers about the staying power of Twitter and wanted to share my thoughts with everyone else.

Twitter is a force; an unstoppable force I feel right now. The only thing standing in its way is itself. With its huge growth, it has hard times with big events that come with a lot of tweets at the same time. For example, at the Macworld conference, Twitter experienced a few “Fail Whales” for a couple of hours. The same with CES that same week. Other times, it goes down without much of a reason. But other than that, I really don’t see anything or anyone getting in their way.

I wrote a post comparing Twitter, Plurk and Pownce a few months back and since then Pownce has bowed out of the battle. Plurk is still just a blip on the radar. I have an account but don’t really ever use it. It seemed like a good idea but I never could catch on. Too many of my friends were on Twitter already and like most people I thought, “Do I need this twice?”

Twitter is not going away any time soon. I have heard others say that they don’t expect to be on it in 2-3 years time but when I hear that, I can’t help but to think “what will you be on?” To me, Twitter just has that “it” quality and will soon be mainstream. I mean, even my mom has an account I can’t think of anything taking its spot.

It’s one of those things I see people realizing how they lived without before it existed. Kind of like me with my DVR, I don’t know how I ever was without it. I feel the same about Twitter. I have met a ton of people and learned a lot of interesting things in the time I have used it. I think that Twitter has the power to be around for a while and only grow stronger, probably with the assistance of a bigger company buying them out. I just hope that They stay true to their initial idea and only imporove upon their infrastructure and stop all of the “Fail Whales”. Twitter can be a big force like a Google if it plays its cards right. I guess only time will see.

January 6, 2009
by justin
1 Comment

Getting Everything Together

Over the past view months, I have not kept a normal schedule with blogging and other things that I deem important in my online life. I want to change that as well as some other things for the new year. I have heard people talking about personal re-branding and that has interested me a lot. My online persona isn’t as organized as I would like. I have this blog as well as my site at kodedkreations.net. I have always treated the Kodedkreations site as my techy blog. I have had it like that for almost 2 years now and I’ve done quite a bit with it. While it’s not been as successful as I would have liked but I’ve had a few readers stop by every now and again. Now I feel it’s time to clean some stuff up and make some changes.

In addition to my Kodedkreations blog, I, of course, have this one. It’s a bit newer as I realized that I was using the same name on every site that I would sign up for, Digijustin. Seemed obvious that I locked up that domain name so I did. I have posted some of my personal thoughts but it’s not really that interesting so I thought what better time to reorganize than the new year.

So what I’ve decided to do is get rid of the Kodedkreations site for now and migrate it to this site. So as you can see, all of my old posts are here now and all links from Kodedkreations go here now. I don’t know what I’ll do with the Kodedkreations site for now but I still own it for a while so we’ll see. I look forward to a fun 2009 and hopefully more blogging.

October 8, 2008
by justin
4 Comments

Twitter Experiment

So as I’ve written about in the past, Twitter is becoming a bigger force in the Web 2.0 world everyday it seems. More so with people like me who work a little in the web field it’s considered a necessity these days to know what is going on and getting the latest, up to the minute news on Twitter minutes before it shows up on the traditional news sites. But the biggest thing with Twitter is getting your word out there. Finding as big of an audience as possible to listen to what you have to say. So I decided to try a little experiment.

Five days ago, I had roughly 150 followers while I was following about 250. Not a bad niche but I figured I could do better. I just needed to be a little more proactive. I realized that usually when I follow someone, they return the favor and follow me back. So I decided to up the ante and I increased the number of people who I follow from 250 to 1610 as I write this post. After the dust has settled, I am currently up to 780 followers. So basically about half of the people that I followed returned the favor. Not too bad.

I’ve realized that in this ever changing Web 2.0 world, you have to stay on top of the trends because in the blink of an eye, they change and you’re left in the dust of yesterday’s must join site.

So I’ll continue with my experiment and keep you up to date on what is going on with it. And hey, I always appreciate new followers so check me out:

http://twitter.com/digijustin

October 3, 2008
by justin
9 Comments

What is the Deal with Prop 102?

So the election season is once again upon us. Every year, there seems to be at least one issue that doesn’t really seem like it makes sense. This year it’s Prop 102. I really don’t get the purpose behind it. Its exact wording it as follows:

Amends the state Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. State law already contains that definition.

I don’t see where this actually makes sense. This is an utter waste of time and resources that this is even being brought up for a vote. This is already set in law; which in itself is stupid. The only reason that this is an issue is because the high and mighty homophobes can’t handle a same sex marriage. It’s really no one’s business what a person chooses to do in their personal life. I don’t care if your straight, gay or somewhere else, it’s not my business how you enjoy your life. And it shouldn’t be the state’s either.

This is basically a form of discrimination. There’s no other reason to put this up for vote except for the fact that some people just don’t like same sex activities. In my opinion, that’s not for the government to decide. What people do in their lives is their business.

In my mind there is no logical argument in favor of this. They say that it protects the traditional idea of marriage but what does that matter. For ages, homosexuals have been discriminated against and suppressed. Now that they are finally beginning to make strides, there are those who can’t accept that and will do whatever they can to squash them back down. I just don’t get it.

What do you think? I would love to hear from supporters of this proposition.

October 1, 2008
by justin
0 comments

$700 Billion Buyout??? WTF??

So all the talk these days is about the government’s potential $700 billion bailout of the failed banking system. I know that we are in for some tough times but these things happen from time to time it seems. It’s all part of a cycle. Ups and downs. But the government seems to think that they have the solution. Just write a $700 billion check.

Now the first thought that came to mind was where is this money coming from? Am I to believe that the government has that kind of cash just lying around? I kind of doubt it. They say it’s more of an investment in the companies that they are helping and I do believe that. I just hope that it works out and they don’t lose it all because if they do, we all do.

I personally think that the market will self-adjust and fix itself out. It won’t be painless but shit like this never is. I do worry about where the money will come from as I’ve said. The government just can’t make a $700 billion bill and hand it over or else this country will fall into some seriously bad times. I just hope that these law makers who we’ve voted to make these decisions make the right one. Not for their personal campaigns, but for the good of the country. That is what is often overlooked in politics and it’s sad. The good of the country should ALWAYS come first over anything else and that’s just not the case 100% of the time.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I hope that the government’s bill doesn’t pass again. We have too many issues with other things that I feel are more important than making sure banks have fat wallets again.

September 28, 2008
by justin
0 comments

My Son Andrew

So as a father, certain things excite me that I once didn’t have a clue that they would. My 2 1/2 year old son Andrew and my wife Karla made cards for people today while I went to the grocery store. When I came back home, I was amazed at what I found.

Usually when Andrew makes cards he just scribbles the way most kids his age do. But today my wife showed me 5 or so cards with names written by Andrew on them. He has known his letters now for a while but still to see actual names written out was awesome. Of course my favorite one was the one he wrote “Daddy” on. I’m a little biased.

But I am very proud of him and how he is growing into a young man right before my eyes.

September 24, 2008
by justin
4 Comments

T-Mobile's G1, the First Google Android Phone

Today T-Mobile announced the long awaited G1 phone. The first one using Google’s Android platform. I’m actually really excited about this because as a lowly T-Mobile customer, I feel that I have missed out on all the cool phones, especially the iPhone. For once, it’s nice to have my company be the big dogs everyone is talking about.

So right around 9:00 this morning, I get the news that the phone is $179 for existing customers. Not a bad price but I just did spend a few dollars on a new Blackberry Curve just 6 months ago. After the site being down all morning, I finally got in and checked out to see this $179 price for myself. Only it wasn’t $179. For me, I was lucky enough to get a price of $299. Not exactly what I had in mind. T-Mobile has a upgrade policy where you get the best rate after you are 22 months or more into your current contract. With me being only 6 months in, I am not a good enough customer. T-Mobile would rather me wait 22 months rather than get a 2 new phones in that span. Seems weird to me but what do I know?

But regardless of my troubles, I am still excited about this phone. It has a very open platform that will allow for users to improve things as they see fit. iPhone frowns upon that with the exception of the App Store. Also, rather than see this as a phone, they see it at an internet experience. Andy Rubin of T-Mobile said today that “This will transform how and where people can use the internet. Thanks and I hope you enjoy it!” I think this is cool because with the iPhone, there is a movement to move the internet outside of just the desktops and laptops to allow internet access anywhere you are.

Also, the G1 will have copy and paste, something will more than likely make iPhone users very jealous. Also, in place of iTunes, the G1 will use Amazon’s music service which offers 89 cent songs so that is nice too. One of the coolest features is the tie in with the Google Maps especially with the street view. You can stand on a street that is in Street View and as you look around, the screen will show where you are facing using it’s internal compass and GPS. Pretty cool indeed. And of course it has all the bells and whistles that we expect from Google with Gmail, Gtalk, Gmaps and the rest of their suite of cool. Oh and it’s going to work on T-Mobile’s new 3G netwok. Wish my new Curve did that.

Overall as I’ve already said, I am excited about this phone and how it takes the mobile phone another step forward. Google and T-Mobile have teamed up to deliver what I think is a step in a great direction. I really like the sound of this quote from the announcement today, “It’s completely open… no one says ‘you can’t do that’.” That’s a big step from the rules of Apple’s SDK.

So basically we’ll see if this is the phone that is the Apple killer. I don’t think it will be but it will be a solid #2 for a while. After that, who know? I’d like to know what you think about it so leave you comments below.