Jason Thibeault's Blog: From My Pen, page 68

Bringing Data to Life

If there is one trend that I am happy to see growing, it’s data visualization. In a recent project published by MIT called The Connected States of America, they have mapped out the connectivity between people (via mobile phone calls and text messaging) in a heat-map.

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I firmly believe that data analysis, intelligence, and visualization hold a huge key to the success of businesses in the coming years. As more and more data is produced, it is critical for businesses to be able to synthesize and a...

How-To: DIY Cloud Storage Redundancy

Although there are a lot of providers out there, the idea of having your data in just one (i.e., DropBox) doesn’t give warm and fuzzies when questioned about data protection. To ensure that your data is always available to you, it’s probably best that you branch out and connect your cloud storage providers together. The link below provides a few options:

http://www.itworld.com/storage/186547/diy-dropbox-alternatives

In my case, I use DropBox for all my files. I have this integrated with my iOS...

What The Aliens Will See First When They Invade

Well, maybe I shouldn’t be that dramatic but these videos (compilations of still photos taken at 1 frame per second from the International Space Station) really provide a great over-head view of our night-time lives. Beyond just the nervous-system-like arrangement of cities and lights, you can also catch glimpses of really cool atmospheric phenomena.

Forward Look: The Future of Content

In my current position at Limelight Networks, I get to interact with many of the world’s biggest content producers and distributors, from the likes of Netflix, Disney, AMC, and CTV to broadcasters and telcos like Bell Canada and Verizon. If there’s one thing that’s clear it’s that content is king…again.

Remember back in the days of the early Internet when everyone said you can’t charge for content. There’s too much free content on the web already, they would say. Users will never pay for conte...

8-Great Startups

It’s always interesting to hear about startup activities in local markets. Below is a link listing out 8 startups in the Chicago area. Just goes to show you that there is talent, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit everywhere:

http://thenextweb.com/us/2011/07/17/eight-chicago-startups-you-need-to-know-about/

Marketing Utopia: Opt-in Localization

As internet-enabled/bluetooth-enabled “always connected” mobile phones have become more pervasive, marketers have looked for ways to tap into them. In some cases, they have created elaborate services and applications (i.e., Loopt). But it’s often time the simplest of solutions that make the most sense. That’s exactly the case with LocalResponse.

This company utilizes two very popular social networks, Twitter and Facebook, in order to deliver targeted, localized advertisements. In short, users...

How-To: Eager for a Facebook app on the iPad? No need to wait…

If, like me, you’ve been waiting for Facebook to launch a dedicated iPad app, you may not be able to pass up the instructions below. Seems that when Facebook released their latest iPhone app update, they inadvertently made available a dedicated iPad app as well. Now although this can’t be enabled by simply clicking a button or installing something different, it is available for you to take a test run.

Disclaimer: this requires jail-breaking your iPad which is not only against Apple’s Terms of...

Now You See Me, Now You…Recognize Me?

It’s purported that Apple will be including facial recognition in the next version of its iOS 5.0 software:

http://mashable.com/2011/07/27/face-detection-ios-5/

Exposing multiple APIs for developers, you may soon be able to carry out activities in applications using facial recognitions. So perhaps the next time you want to add a smiley to an email, you just need to grin

How-To: Learn How to Self Publish

Interested in the landscape of digital publishing? Want to make a coffee table book? Want to distribute your works through Apple, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble? Self-publishing through either digital or print is a rapidly changing environment. New services are cropping up each day to help you distribute your words to the masses. And, of course, there are copious amounts of self-help books our there to teach you how to do it…for a price.

Your Words, Your Way: The Definitive Web-based Guide to ho...

Democratization Does Not Imply Trust

I recently wrote in a post on opinions vs facts and what I will pay for in the new landscape of “news publications” are the opinions, that I don’t care just about the facts anymore. I can get those anywhere. I want opinions. They spur my mind to think about the facts. They present me with a sounding board and, albeit invisible, discussion partner.

But it’s important to understand that I don’t want just ANY opinions. I have plenty of opinions. My friends have lots of opinions (that they share t...