Mitchell Hislop » Thoughts/Visions

Developing the Developer’s Mind

Mitchell Hislop — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:52:08 +0000

As many of you know, I have been spending much more time developing than consulting. I have been working more on my PHP skills, while also learning Ruby on Rails and Python.
This is partly because much of my work has been both working on developing @SMCpros social media tool and with developing Facebook apps and contests.
When I first started developing, I was a freshman in high school. I wrote PASCAL, and was instantly hooked. These programs were basically long scripts, and used long control loops. This is the class that I learned how to scan things for exploits, write self-replicating programs, and generally be a geek.
Fast forward to 2 years ago, when I started with PHP. I was still writing long scripts, with big ass control loops, and they worked. However, they were slow, and bucked all major conventions.
Now, I write OO PHP. I am learning Ruby and Python, both of which use OO and the MVC ideas extensively. I am going from a script writer to an app writer. I am having to develop the developer’s mind.
This also means that I am taking debugging to a new level, writing tests, focusing on my tools and coding process, and actually acting like a developer, rather than just someone who writes code.

The developer’s mind is an interesting thing. It is the point when you go from script kiddie to an actual software writer. Its when your webapp needs work to keep it up and running. Its when you get the 3am calls about server issues. It is unlike any other mindset.

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On Ideas

Mitchell Hislop — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:29:55 +0000

Ideas are a fickle thing. Sometimes, they manifest themselves as the best thing ever, only to be an idea that has already been had some number of times.

I recently got into a discussion at CoCo about ideas. We were talking about how interesting it is that they can get lost. For example:

The Romans had plumbing and elevators, which then took several hundred years to get “invented” again
Several people have had similar ideas at roughly the same time, many miles apart, each thinking its their own
Similar ideas always end up at the same end

We were also talking about how there should be sattalies orbiting the Earth, storing and backing up the internet, so that we dont lose our place in the world should something happen.

That was what got me thinking.

It is not that we are running out of ideas, or that we are using them up faster in this day and age. Since we can all communicate instantly, wirelessly, we are just finding out that the idea is used faster.
We have fewer and fewer ideas happening simultaniously, since we find out that they are already being worked on.

This is going to lead to a drought of ideas, until some innovators really kick it up a notch.

This post is just something for you all to rattle around.

Will you be that innovator?
Where are your ideas coming from?
How can we protect knowledge better?

(p.s. This is the first post on my new server. I now rock a Linode VPS, and am so pleased thus far. Be nice to it, everyone. And let me know if you see issues. )

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My Android Homescreens

Mitchell Hislop — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:49:35 +0000

I figured it was time to do a post on what my homescreens look like, especially after upgrading to android 2.2. So, here you go:

Center Screen:

This is the default screen on my Droid. From top -> bottom, L -> R:

Search Bar: It searches things

NewsRob: Google Reader app, works very well

Mint.com: Keeps track of the money

Listen: Google’s podcast app, works very well

Dropbox: File sync with my Mac, and the cloud. One of my favorite companies

Facebook: Facebook App

Twitter: Twitter app

Foursquare: Foursquare app

Voice: Google Voice app, for managing my GV number

Gmail: Duh

Gallery: Duh

Springpad: Online notebook/task manager/external brain. Replaces an old love, Evernote

Assistant: Keeps track of some accounts for me, like my frequent flyer miles and netflix. Serves as a backup to Mint too.

At the bottom, you see something new from FroYo, which is the launcher. The phone and browser icon are VERY nice to have there, and the app launcher is now the 3D scrolling one from the Nexus 1, rather than the drawer it used to be.

The rest of my screens:

Have a question about any of these apps, or need a recommendation? Let me know in the comments.

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The Whole Privacy Debacle

Mitchell Hislop — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 02:27:31 +0000

So, tons of people have been all up in arms over privacy online. This is mainly headed by Facebook, but it comes up anytime information is shared, whether it is being shared with other people or with advertisers.

However, I have a huge problem with this. Like, boil my blood, go crazy frustrated. Users seem to miss a few MAJOR points when they get mad about this:

Ultimately, it is the users fault. If they dont sign up, nothing is shared. If they dont share something, it doesn’t get out in public. If they dont read the notices on their accounts, its their fault.
Sharing information is GOOD for the person. I prefer to share things like my location and information about my interests. Why? Google Latitude will tell me about my traveling. As will TripIt. Facebook will serve me more relevant ads, and Google will tailor my search results to my location. All networks, knowing my social graph, will allow me to leverage my friends even more.
The downfalls of sharing have not shown themselves to me. If you are able to point them out, please post them in the comments.

Many people’s objections are not about the sharing itself, but how networks manage privacy. It more of a meta-getting pissed off about privacy. I cant describe how selfish and stupid that argument is. Facebook has 400 MILLION users. How is one, or even 30,000 (the number who participated in “Quit Facebook Day” ) user’s opinion enough to sway Facebook.

So people, figure out the settings. Look through the settings, play with them, and only share what you want. You are 100% in control of you, and your online persona.

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Grow up, and be honest with yourself

Mitchell Hislop — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:54:15 +0000

I am going to take a brief (read-1 post) departue from my covering of tech and geeknees to bring something that I try not to up-the state of social media, the web, and MSP.

I have been doing interactive here in the cities for 2 years now. Throughout this time, I have been observing, listening, and becoming opinionated.

Its time to voice that.

I want you to know that none of this is personal, and none of it means any sort of disrespect. I am simply trying to push everyone to see why they can become. No one is willing to be critical of anyone in this town-I blame MN nice.

People, stop the incessant back-patting and incestuous thought that has dominated the social media world here recently! Honestly, what was the last truly innovative thing that happened? All I have seen recently is people helping companies get on board. There is nothing wrong with this (I do it as a day job, along with other things). However, you are not innovating. You are not at the cutting edge. I challenge you to go into every new client engagement with a clean mind-create their strategy from scratch. It will take a little longer, it may cost a bit more, but unless you do this, you are not doing anything more than anyone else.

I cannot tell you how many posts I have seen that are nothing more than inside baseball bullshit. You are not covering anything new or different, you are just fawning over someone that is doing the exact same thing as everyone else. Sure, their client list may merit some lusting, but really, who has done something recently worthy of hero worship?

Also, if all you do is social media, please be honest with yourself and expand. However, as you are learning, dont try to oversell your skills. I know people that barely know HTML or CSS, let alone PHP or MySQL, calling themselves WordPress experts. No, you are not. Just because you read SEOMoz does NOT make you an SEO, just like you are not a doctor if you watch House.

The idea of a Social Media Expert/Guru/Ninja has really diluted the meaning of that word. Previously, you had to have experience and show results to get those titles. If you are just doing what everyone else is doing, are you really a guru?

I fully admit that I have fallen prey to this before. I used to think that just because I had a bunch of followers, I was an expert. I still see that today.

WRONG.

If you want to really be an expert/guru/ninja, and you really want to separate yourself, ask the tough questions. Don’t settle for just making twitter accounts. Innovate. I promise, if you try something new and fail, you will garner more respect than just sitting on the side, making Fan pages and saying “you should be on foursquare”. The talk about social media here in MSP has gone from a high standard to mindless drivel. Help me change that. I wish that more people asked “whats next.” So many times, people are talking about what is out there. I want to talk about what is coming next, what are we missing, and where is there value? I know that this cannot be all that social media has to offer, but for some reason, the majority is content with playing in this sandbox, rather than exploring others.

Social Media here in the cities needs to grow up. I want to help it, but I can’t do it alone. Push the SMBMSP, TCSMU, and the MIMA founders to go outside the box. Rather than just hold a panel with people doing it the same way, find people who innovate. I don’t mean someone who uses a different tool than someone else, but people who are really using social media in unique ways. Ask people the tough questions. Be a rabble-rouser. This does not mean be negative-this means that you are not blindly jumping on the bandwagon.

I was recently told that someone is making a calendar for social events in the city-just like the one that I used to have up. However, this one has “a year put into it, and the backing from all the major groups.” My response was that if I, a 21 year old college student, can create your massive idea in 2 hours with nothing more than his Mac, and no meetings or funding, is it that good of an idea? Is it worth it?

I know this city (yup, lumping them into Twincy) is overflowing with talent. However, many people are wasting their talents. There is no such thing as a client that you cannot innovate with, or do something cool with. Basically, pull your head out of the cloud, and get hungry. Get hungry to innovate, to push in industry forward, and to do really cool things each day.

Please, people, take this as me pushing you, rather than me hating you. I do not hold ill will toward any interactive here in the city.

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Why I am skipping sxsw

Mitchell Hislop — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:30:48 +0000

Another year, another missed SXSW.

But why? Why would a jetsetting, young, social interactive nerd and tech analyst skip a trip to Austin, TX in the middle of winter?

Well, the first reason is what I call the MV ratio-money to value.

SXSW would cost me about a grand, all things considered. For one, that’s a pretty big investment for a college kid working at a startup.

So, what would my ROI be?

Meeting other like minded people
Hangovers
Swag
Foursquare badges

Notice that I didn’t say “valuable content” on that list. Thats because I can get that same content, sitting in MN, on my MacBook.

I also dont know how you all are able to take off so much work for this. I am up to my eyeballs in client work-it would be nearly impossible to get out to SXSW, even for a weekend.

I would love to go one year. However, this just isn’t the year. I am looking forward to rocking out with the #notatsxsw crew, and following all of you in Austin.

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Why I got the Droid

Mitchell Hislop — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:16:08 +0000

So, I have now had my Droid for long enough to talk about it.

And I love it.

To get why it is so great for me, its important to realize that I live my daily life in WordPress, Basecamp, Google products (both regular and Apps for Domains), and various social media sites. On my laptop, I can basically live in my browser, Terminal.app, and a twitter client. Most of the other things that I run are desktop versions of webapps.

In my mind, the Android platform is the best for people who live like this. I knew that I was going to go Android from the get go, it was just a matter of what flavor. I am tied to Verizon in a big way, so an iPhone was not an option.

On Verizon, there is the Droid and the Droid Eris. The Eris runs Android 1.6, while the Droid is 2.0. There is also a lot of speculation over what will get updated-some think that the Eris will not get the 2.0 update, while we know that the Droid will get at least 2.1, and beyond. Along with the Nexus One, it is flagship hardware for the platform.

The specs on the phones are both close-processors were nearly the same speed. The Droid has better hardware, but the real kicker comes in the memory department-it has more onboard, and comes with an SD card that is 2x that of the Eris.

So, I went with the Droid. However, the Droid is not only about the hardware specs. I love the keyboard-I didn’t think that I would use it all that much (Chris Brogan described his as a vestigial keyboard), and the onscreen is great, but when it comes to typing out a full blog post, responding to comments, or replying to emails, it rocks to be able to slide out the full QWERTY and just fly.

11 days in, I still love it. I find myself using my laptop less and less, and my phone more and more. I have yet to have a single “I wish my phone could do X” moment-and it can do it all without daily resets, like my BB Storm needed.

Currently, I use:

Seesmic-for my Twitterings
WordPress-for writing and handling comments
Astrid-AWESOME task management app, and it syncs with RTM for free
NewsRob-a great Google Reader app, which finds use during any bit of free time
Beacon-Basecamp client. Its a paid app, and 100% worth every penny.
Wireless tether-I had to hack it first to make this work, but now it turns my phone into a MiFi. Again, worth every minute it took to root my phone.
Listen-Googles podcast client. It syncs with Google Reader, to make management a snap, and streams while it is downloading. Paired with my Jabra Stone, I can stream podcasts OTA.
Foursquare/Gowalla-I live in public
GDocs-full Google Docs on my phone. Create, edit, upload, share. Really helps the mobile GTD
Qik/Ustream-trying to decide which is going to be my main streaming client.

Now, the real fun comes in running the mindgame of having the iPhone as an option. Honestly, I cannot say which I would have gone with. Both have their pros and cons, and both can fit my life. I just know that, with the options that I had, the Droid was the best choice, hands down.

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Location based apps and privacy

Mitchell Hislop — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:05:07 +0000

Over the few months, I have been putting two of the top location-based mobile applications through their paces in our fair cities. The contestants were Foursquare, the location-based game from the creators of Dodgeball, and Gowalla, a startup that is new to the scene, but shows promise.

Before I get to the reviews of each, and how well they work in our cities, I want to write a quick word on the privacy issues that are coming up. Last week, people found out about PleaseRobMe.com, which aggregates all of the checkins from these location-based apps. The idea is that, if you are checked in somewhere else, you must not be at home, therefore making it a target. This also fits in with a story that I heard eariler on Twitter, about someone who was out to eat and received phone calls from “randoms” because they saw she was checked-in there.

As someone who has been using location-based games for longer than many, I can tell you that it can be dangerous, and it can be safe. Sure, boradcasting where you are can lead to your home being a target for theft, but so can having your answering machiene answer calls-its another signal you are not home. Same goes for putting wedding notices in the paper-it is a gaurentee that you will not be home. When it comes to getting phone calls, I would simply like to point out that no one can see your number unless 1) you are a friend of them or 2) you post it on Twitter/Facebook etc. If you use common sense when adding friends, you will have no privacy worries.

On the surface, Foursquare and Gowalla share many characteristics, namely the idea behind them-it is a good way to figure out where you friends are, what they are up to, and to join them in what they are doing. However, the similarities are only skin deep.

Foursquare is just under a year old, yet has gained a worldwide audiance, and plenty of media coverage. Despite not being the most-used location based network out there (that crown goes to MyTown), it is the one that has been getting the coverage. Foursquare is one of the few Web 2.0 companies that have a business plan, revenue, and are making money. They do this by making everyhing in the service into one big game-user compete to become mayor, get awarded badges for their work, and are ranked on a leaderboard. Sure, this leads to some gaming of the system, but it also paves the way for social media to get integrated offline into marketing plans: One of Foursquare’s best ideas is that of a “mayor special”, which rewards the user that has the most check-ins in the last 60 days with anything from a free drink to a free meal. This is a big shift for a few reasons:

It moves loyalty programs from a punch card in your wallet to and online experience
It turns a simple “Your 10th coffee is free” campaign into a game, which drives users to go to a location more often, in hope of either protecting or stealing the mayorship.
It encourages more interaction, rather than just a one-to-one transaction: I know of several places that I frequent that I have gotten to know others based on their check-ins, and am trying to go there more often to hold on to my mayorship.

Gowalla, on the other hand, is all about the social aspect. There is no real business model yet, and their application focuses on dropping/picking up items at different location, and going on “trips” with your friends. These trips consist of a set of locations to visit and check-in at. The founders see Gowalla as a way to find and share locations in your city. Not as game-changing as Foursquare, but still a really good idea.

The startups also differ on their technology, and this is where Foursquare really begins to shine locally. Foursquare relies on users and Google Maps to provide their location information, and Skyhook for figuring out location. This leads to having most of the places you vist show up in the database, ready for you to check-in at without missing a stride. I have only needed to add 3 locations since I joined nearly a year ago, and have checked-in about 500 times. Foursquare also uses its users to maintain the location database-if you earn “super user” status, you can remove closed venues, or merge 2 listings into one. This allows them to operate with a staff in the single digits, while maintaining a robust POI database.

Foursquare also has applications for Android OS, iPhone OS, and Blackberry OS, a mobile website for non-smartphones, and also a check-in syntax for text messages. If you have a mobile phone, you can play Foursquare.

Gowalla currently has an app for the iPhone (none for the iPod touch), an early beta app for the Android platform, and a mobile website that only works on Webkit-based browsers (currently the iPhone and Android, although rumors out of the Mobile World Congress suggest that Blackberry is getting one in 2010). Using it on my new Motorola Droid was a decent experiance, but you can tell that it is an early version-it is buggy, and missing several key features. Using the mobile app was ok, but the location feature was off-Google Maps would have me at my exact location, and Gowalla would put me several blocks away.

I was also not able to check-in anywhere that I went without creating the spot. I am not sure if this is because of the location issue, or if their database is that much smaller. Adding a spot is not hard, it is just rather annoying considering the simplicity that Foursquare’s large database provides.

If someone asked me to recomend one, it is Foursquare, hands down. Better experience, more users, and a bigger database all give it the win. This goes doubly so if you are a business-the integration of businesses into Foursquare’s model is top-notch. I was recently at CES, and the minds at Intel and Foursquare created a bunch of badges specific to the event, which is a really fun way to get people to both use their service and get them to brag about their trip to their other geeks, thus creating buzz.

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Get your skills

Mitchell Hislop — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:39:54 +0000

In addition to getting out and networking with other verticals, anyone in social media needs to get more skills.

You need to know web, or ppc, or analytics, or something. My litmus test for people who talk about social media is to ask them what else they do-if they only do social, I am weary.

Personally, I know web. I do websites, I am working on webapps, I do analytics, and I am integrating all of them.

Others may do things like pr. While I may diss pr from time to time, if you really know it, you are solid.

Social media is not a hard skill. Get those skills, or you will fall behind.

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Minnedemo quick hits

Mitchell Hislop — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:26:52 +0000

Here are my quick thought on the first three presenters. I will add new posts for the rest.

ArtsApp: online media application management for arts students. Really cool idea that you can check out at artsapp.com. I see a ton of uses or helping many schools application processes.

Relicloud: a cloud hosting service from visi. Launches Monday and looks decent.

Pedalbrain: super cool integrated iPhone accescories and app that turn the iPhone into an Amazing bike computer. One of the first really cool hardware addons to the iPhone I have seen.

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