Jason Thibeault's Blog: From My Pen, page 70

I’d Pay Cash to Get that {Blank} for My Farm…

And that is exactly what Zynga is banking on:

http://gigaom.com/2011/07/08/zyngas-road-to-riches-infographic/

Of course, it’s not the only one but it is, by far, the most successful. Companies like IGE have been selling in-game currency for years. But what we are seeing is a growing trend within the gaming community to purchase in-game items for real money. And that’s where companies like Zynga and IGE make the lion’s share of the revenues.

But this isn’t surprising. I have written before about...

Why Startups

Having spent the last 10 years or so of my life in a “startup” capacity (whether with jdpower.com, or with my consulting company, or most recently with GoWare.com), I have been forced into a position of self-reflection, especially with GoWare shutting its doors recently. In this position of self-reflection, I have reached a critical juncture: why do I do startups?

I am sure that some entrepreneurs would say that it’s for the thrill of it, for controlling your own destiny (and not answering to...

Goodbye Flash for Mobile…Hello Platform!

In the ever evolving world of software development, there has always been a nirvana: writing code once to deploy across multiple operating systems. Not only does this greatly reduce the complexity of the development workflow but it also enables software companies a better ROI on resources.

This need for a cross-platform development paradigm has been exacerbated by mobile. Different operating systems, different browsers, different everything. Developing for this exploding world is a headache fo...

Quote: Are You a Geek?

More evidence my 14yr old is a Geek: after prompting me to ask them if they knew any jokes about sodium, the reply: “Na”

– Anonymous

Solving the Challenges for Personal Media

We all have personal media: pictures, videos, music, documents. And the amount we have is growing.

As I wrote about in a previous post, I believe the cloud will be a great solution to help us make that personal media available anywhere and anytime. But there are challenges inherent in that which will slow adoption and usage. I’ve put some thought into this and identified 6 critical issues that must be addressed. This might be through a single software solution (maybe it’s Real Network’s Unifi)...

One Codebase to Rull them All

The recent announcement by PogoPlug (a device that turned your personal computer into your own cloud) to a software model (http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/06/22/pogoplug-software-turns-your-computers-into-cloud-storage-hubs-early-access/) brings to light the growing fragmentation of the cloud industry. It seems that everyone is trying to build a cloud and many providers are pointing them in the direction of the consumer. Store your videos and music here. Access everything from every device....

Quote: Writers Write About People, Not Characters

“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.”

– Ernest Hemingway

Integrated Messaging: A Quick Look at Windows Phone Mango

Although some would say that there isn’t the need for a third mobile OS (iOS and Android dominate the market right now), others argue otherwise.

I’m a little betwixt and between on this. I think market fragmentation is good for the customer. It drives the OS developers to create innovative features. Ultimately, it makes for better operating systems and better applications.

Case in point: messaging within the new Windows Phone Mango.

It goes without question that messaging is a critical feature f...

Packaging the Cloud

Dell has recently launched a product that enables out-of-the-box implementation of the OpenStack cloud software:

http://gigaom.com/cloud/dell-wants-to-make-openstack-as-easy-as-1-2-3/

This is a very interesting development in the cloud market as it enables enterprises to build and operate private clouds within the need to enlist third-party service providers. It will be interesting to see how this model disrupts traditional IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS service companies as the cloud continues to evolve...

Data Visualization is Poetry…Even if it is Self Flattering

Although this is total marketing speak, presenting data and information graphically has so much more impact that just stale old bullet points or slideware. Thanks VMWare.

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A note about the image used for this post on the home page:

Looks Del.icio.us is a collection of different Delicious bookmark visualizations. They’re created with a python-based graphics library and layout engine. The image used is from a blog post at Webdesigner Depot talking about data visualization.