Br.st is Giving Away 21 Wii Systems & 4 MacBook Pros
Announcing the Br.st 25 Days of Christmas Giveaway!
Last week we launched br.st. We worked hard to make sure it was the best place to experience Twitter on the net. We did not get the press coverage we anticipated. So, to get the word out we decided instead of buying advertising we would do a giveaway contest and give the money in the form of prizes to our users.
We are giving away 21 Nintendo Wii game systems every day (except Fridays) from December 1st through December 24th. AND we are giving away 4 MacBook Pros (13 inch) every Friday in December.
It is pretty simple to enter: login to br.st, click the Wii or MacBook button on the right sidebar, submit the tweet, and you are entered! You can enter each giveaway up to five (5) times per day. And you have to re-enter the contest every day for the Nintendo Wii and every week for the MacBook Pro.
Read the main giveaway page, the FAQs, and the rules. Here's to hoping you win!
Success (re)Defined (once and for all)
If you ask people what success is, you will without a doubt get a lot of different answers. We all define success differently and often we define it differently at different points in our life.
So what is success? What does it mean to be successful? Is it enough for us to just think we are successful or do we need others to view us as successful too?
Struggling with Success
Like most of us, I have a great desire to achieve significance in life. I want to get to the end of life and feel that I made an important contribution, that the world around me and to a greater extent those under my influence were changed and impacted for the good. And like most of you I work hard to be "successful" in life. The problem is at times I am not sure what that means, or where that is at.
At various points in my adult life I have stopped and asked myself, "Is this working out the way I hoped, expected, or imagined it would?" And after agonizing over not reaching certain goals or not being as far along in life or business as I would have hoped to be, I had to stop. I had to stop and ask myself, "What is this imaginary goal in life or business that I am trying to achieve?" Because I found that it wasn't really a goal at all, it was a constantly moving measurement of success.
Okay, I am not stupid... if I am trying to achieve something that is constantly moving or being redefined then I will never achieve it, I will never arrive, and I will never be satisfied. Is life some kind of ridiculous cat and mouse game? Why am I chasing something that I will never catch?
Do you know people with this problem? Nothing is ever good enough for them, no car nice enough, no amount of salary enough, no position high enough. We look at these people and wonder at what point in life they will be satisfied, at what point in life will they believe they have achieved success? I don't want to be like this... and I am sure most of these people are not consciously trying to be like this either.
The real problem with this "problem" is not so much the impact it has on us (as bad as it is), but the impact this unending race for success has on the people around us. Marriages are ruined, children are neglected, and people are run over.
Success (re)Defined
I found, I realized, that if my measurement of success was constantly moving - I would never achieve it - or I would die trying. I needed a definition of success that I could work towards that wouldn't kill me or the relationships around me. I prayed about this and here are the conclusions I came to.
- If you live by faith (in God), then you have to judge your life by faith. It will drive you bonkers to live by faith and then try to judge your life by the world's standards. Here is an example: God may direct you to give a large sum of money or time to someone in need. If you judge that by the world's standards, it may result in you feeling like it was a waste of money or time. If you judge that action by faith, you will always conclude that you did what you believed was best at the time, and the rest is up to God.
- Success is plainly defined as this: did I listen to God and do what He directed me to do. End of story, not how much money do I have, not what position I have achieved, and not even did I achieve what others expect of me.
Whats does this mean in real life?
It means that you can stop kicking yourself for missing the boat here or there. It means that you should set reasonable goals in life, work towards them, but not beat yourself up if you don't achieve them the first, or the second, or the third... or the twenty-third time. It means that you should keep trying, never give up and keep moving forward. Success in life is not about how much money we have or how big our house is, success in life should be measured by whether or not we listened to God and did what he directed us to do, whether or not we did the right thing and tried our best in the process.
And if you do screw up, don't worry, you're in good company, the world is full of screw-ups, under achievers and failures (that's all of us). Pick yourself up and try again. The best among us have usually screwed up more than the rest.
References: Matthew 6 (Holy Bible)
My first experience running Google Chrome OS
I came across a tweet that talked about running the new Google Chrome OS in a virtual machine. Since I was intrigued and excited from the video demos yesterday I decided to install it and give it a try. After a few hiccups I had it up and running. I followed this guide to get it running. To install is you can go here to get the downloads you will need.
A few first observations and then the screenshots are below.
- The OS does indeed load in less than 7 seconds.
- You login to it with an @gmail.com user name and password.
- Once it loads you are pretty much in/using the Chrome web browser.
- If you turn it off and then turn it back on you come back to the exact same "spot" you were when you shut it down.
- Because of the fast startup time it reminds me of using my iPhone.
- It appears you can do with/on Chrome OS pretty much anything you can do through the Chrome web browser on a PC.
Google Chrome OS Unveiled and Why This is Good News
In a press conference today Google released what they are calling the new Google Chrome OS (Operating System). Basically everything, all program you might want to run, all live within the Chrome web browser. This is good and bad. Google says this is good because you don't have to worry about all those annoying software updates you have to do with Windows and Mac OS. I say it is bad or different because although there are some awesome websites on the web, it still does not 100% compare to my desktop experience.
A few cool things about Chrome OS:
- It is supposed to take 7 seconds or less to load it up (from power button to typing in your login info).
- Simple Look and Feel - with tabs along top and everything done in a web browser format.
- No updating software, since it all runs from the Internet (and updates automatically).
- Ease of use (in theory) - there are these new things called "in place panels" that let you use things like instant message clients easily from small popup windows on the bottom of your screen.
My Take
A recurring theme you will hear from me is competition is always good - and this is the same in this case. Google coming out with an OS only drives Microsoft and Apple to improve their own OS's. If there was no competition there would be little motivation for Microsoft to fix problems and innovate (other than trying to minimize the myriad of complaints and nullify those now annoying PC vs. Mac commercials).
Another reason this is good is that variety of choice is a good thing. Your work desktop may work best with Windows, but your notebook computer for on the road use may work better on Chrome OS. I know that some people like having a Windows PC, Windows CE on their phone, Windows Media Computer, and XBox - and there is something to be said for continuity. However, I enjoy having a Windows PC at work, my Apple iPhone, AppleTV, etc. I believe in continuity in groups when it works well, like iPods for music, iTunes, and AppleTV all working together. I think you get my point.
Read Google's Official Blog with the announcement and what Mashable, TechCrunch, and Electronista had to say about it.
Chrome OS Videos
Here are some good videos about the new Chrome OS, starting with the most basic and easy to understand and progressing to the more technical.
Today br.st was Released
Today br.st was released. This project is near and dear to my heart. I conceived the original idea for br.st back in July as a leading URL shortener and then with my team evolved in to the killer twitter client it is today over the last several months.
Huge kudos go out to my team at @brinkster for help in designing and developing this tool: Nat, Clint, August, Jason and Marc.
Br.st truly has some unique features that we are very proud of. It is the first web based Twitter client to auto shorten URLs as you type them. It is the only Twitter client to have Text Shortening (the feature loved by all and derided by English majors). You can share images or files, see geo tags in a google map, view advanced stats on links/images/files shared. It has an awesome open conversation feature that works like no other Twitter client. AND you can email in from your mobile phone images to post and a tweet in the subject line!
See screenshots of all of these cool features here: http://br.st/features.aspx.
New ReTweet Makes Sense in the Context of Lists
The new retweet functionality on Twitter has received its share of negative reviews. What is it? Basically the old retweets would just show in your timeline, like this: RT @jaredstauffer : check out the NEW br.st Twitter client - with the user avatar and Twitter Username of the person who retweeted it. The new way is they show is like this:
The big deal with this is that now you may see people you are not following in your timeline. This is a big shock to some people and admittedly took a little getting used to on my part as well.
Why I think this is a good thing...
I think this new functionality is a good thing and only enhances your experience on Twitter for the following reasons:
1. It presents new people to you: One of the most exciting things about Twitter is finding new people to follow that you are interested in - and this feature only helps you do that.
2. It properly cites the author: I know this may not seem like a big deal, but quoting people the exact way they meant to and did say something is important. When you only have 140 characters it is hard enough to get your point across without someone else changing up your tweet.
3. It encourages the use of Lists: Lists are the coolest thing to hit Twitter in a long time and if you are not using them you are truly missing out. It someone you follow retweets someone else and you see it in your timeline you can add that person to one of your lists (in addition to or in lieu of following them).
Why it makes sense in the context of lists...
The new retweet makes sense in the context of lists because once people get it that lists remake how they read and use Twitter they won't mind seeing people they don't follow in their timeline. People will also understand that the new retweet actually enhances their experience instead of interrupting it.
Google to Release Chrome OS Next Week (rumor)
There is a reported rumor going around that Google is going to release for download its Chrome OS next week. But wait, word is that the drivers have not been written for it, so getting it to work on your DELL or HP PC will be next to impossible since the keyboard, mouse and monitor will not work.
Drivers or no drivers, it is exciting. I really like the way Google drives innovation through competition. The result has been some awesome new technology (think Google Maps and MSN Maps).
See what PCWorld and TechCrunch had to say about it.
Does Modern Warfare 2′s violence go too far?
Activision debuted its newest game this week called Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2. It was much anticipated and is already being called an instant classic selling almost 5 million copies on the first day. But what video game release would be complete without a little controversy? The heat in this video game is being generated by a "scene" in which you play an undercover operative that infiltrates a terrorist organization. The problem is that in the scene you are asked to massacre a bunch of civilians.
Now to be fair video games have long included the player commiting acts of violence (think Grand Theft Auto series), and even Mario had to squash the bad jumping mushrooms. However, there should be a limit, a line, things these game makers do not put in video games.
Putting a scene in a video game that has the player "act" as a terrorist and kill civilians is crossing the line. With the current wars in Afghanistan and Iran still going on and the memory of September 11th not too far off, I don't think video games should be including scenes of players acting as terrorists and killing innocent people. In some ways this glorifies it, desensitizes people and does not honor the memory of our fallen soldiers and the people killed on September 11th.
The game maker must have known this because they made this scene optional to play, allowing the player to totally skip it without any hit to their points.
Read what FastCompany, Game Informer and MyJoyOnline had to say about it.
Rent Movies on SD Cards??
Blockbuster, in an attempt to win back market share, is test marketing renting movies on SD cards. What? or more importantly, Why?
Where do I start with this one? First, I already have enough trouble trying to find the DVD that we rented for the kids, making that the size of a quarter is not going to help me. Second, I can't remember the last time I thought - I wish I could get this movie on an SD card so I can play it on my PSP... Third, how is this any better than stopping at Walgreens and renting a DVD for $1 from RedBox?
No thanks, I will stick with renting movies on my AppleTV, where I hate the 24 hr viewing limit and $4 per movie rental seems high, but you can't beat the convenience of it!
Why the New Droid Phone is Good for iPhone Users
When the iPhone came out several years ago it turned the cell phone market upside down. There was nothing that compared to it, nothing that even came close. We all celebrated, paid way to much for the first version, and never looked back... until we realized that AT&T's network sucks.
Then in the summer of 2009 we got the Palm Pre. The announcements of the Pre had some interesting and cool features that the iPhone was missing, but to this point it has not proven to be strong competition for the iPhone.
Along comes C3PO, err, I mean, the Droid phone, and its very cool Transformer commercials. With the financial and innovative muscle behind Google, and Motorola's desire to relive the glory days of the RAZR, we finally have a partnership worthy of competing with Apple.
The Droid phone is good news for iPhone users because it will finally provide real competition for the iPhone. Real competition means that things that really annoy us about the iPhone (camera, slow app store approvals, AT&T's network, not having 3GS functionality) will get fixed in sooner rather than later.
Now don't get too excited, the first version of the Droid will be, well, the first version. It will have its issues and it will probably not be until version 2 that it will really compare to the iPhone.
So hang in there, hopefully we will be able to switch to Verizon soon.