Disqus - Latest Comments for kevnull

Re: Livestreaming DJ Sets in 2020: A Complete How-To Guide

Kevin Cheng — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 19:11:09 -0000

More more technical in-depth step-by-step, a couple of us wrote up a guide with troubleshooting tips: https://medium.com/@k/how-t...

Re: Photos From Burning Man 2016

Kevin Cheng — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 13:22:09 -0000

#24 is The Śiṣya by Krisra Sanders and Rob Bell

Re: The Wirecutter Is Always Wrong

Kevin Cheng — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 20:48:40 -0000

I still have my Monster OTG400 from years ago and it's still the best powerstrip to have by far. I use the Anker Astro E4 which is 13000mA for $30. Not as slim but very portable.

Re: Evernote CEO Phil Libin: Don’t bother making friends with people you can’t start a company with

Kevin Cheng — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 21:03:04 -0000

Main article:
"startups shouldn’t have co-founders that you wouldn’t be friends with in real life"

End of article:
"In short:[…]don’t be friends with people you can’t build things with."

These are two very different statements.

Re: The Importance of Benevolent Dictators

Kevin Cheng — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:35:07 -0000

Great post. My only nitpick is this part:

"It’s 2013 and I’m supposed to believe in the “wisdom of the crowds.” We’re supposed to all allow side projects. 20% time. Total transparency. Everyone has a say. Free food. A chef. An on-premise masseuse.

…

Except that all of this “can’t we all just get along” mentality produces slow decisions. Group think. Compromises that lead to mediocrity. Avoidance of bold moves."

I'm not sure how those things are associated. The things you mention are perks or some (debatable) ideas to create a positive, trusting, and attractive work environment for those who earn it. Even transparency isn't mutually exclusive from being a decision maker. Jeff Bezos saying he's building for the long haul is transparency AND being decision maker.

Re: Reflector.app: iOS AirPlay mirroring to computer

Kevin Cheng — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:47:41 -0000

I've been using AirServer and have found it to be decent. Not "play video games" good, but workable for demos.

Re: Ideas aren’t worthless

Kevin Cheng — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 18:26:47 -0000

For the most part, ideas may sound the same coming out of people's mouths, but how they're interpreted (read: executed on) vary greatly. That's why there may be good ideas (and there are plenty) that aren't done at all (people who like to talk about ideas) or done well (people who don't have the ability to execute in a measured, motivated, or driven manner).

Ideas ARE cheap, both good and bad. Your description goes beyond ideas though, to how those ideas are executed on, which then becomes closer to execution. You can change the definition of "ideas" to make your statement true, but I think the original still stands.

Re: New Mission Theater Possibly To Become Five-Screen Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

Kevin Cheng — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:59:43 -0000

So. Excited.

Re: http://kevnull.tumblr.com/post/13147585291

Kevin Cheng — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:22:39 -0000

Yeah, now I am as well.

Re: Screw the Idea, It’s the Execution That Really Matters

Kevin Cheng — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 21:24:43 -0000

The examples you give heavily localized their ideas and aren't really the copycats people scoff at. Sina Weibo is definitely respected for its features and execution. The copycats that are questionable are those that also copy the execution—colors, layout, branding, even code. For example, the copycat Apple stores, or the Air BnB clones or the Flickr and Upcoming clones from back in the day not only copy their originals but are almost trying to capitalize on the brand, having few qualms about being misconstrued.

Re: http://kmtam.tumblr.com/post/7752213166

Kevin Cheng — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:36:53 -0000

Isn't there a whole section in the post about that? ;)

Re: http://www.danentin.com/post/5809544184

Kevin Cheng — Tue, 24 May 2011 18:02:12 -0000

It's people you follow or recently mentioned.

Re: My New Setup

Kevin Cheng — Sat, 21 May 2011 10:35:13 -0000

I just took another step towards having everything online yesterday by giving Evernote another shot. I realized I had a ton of PDFs and text files I keep for receipts, recipes, resumes, boarding passes, itineraries, meeting notes, etc. Not all of these are things I record in Google Docs. So I dumped it all into Evernote. Let's see how that goes.

The two other pieces I've moved online are photos (Flickr) and music (some combination of rdio and grooveshark).

Re: SXSW 2011 Post-Mortem

Kevin Cheng — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 03:56:24 -0000

First time I missed it after a 7 yr streak and it sounds like I chose the right year. As you said, the saddest part about not going is not seeing you, Glenda, the Brits, and many others. Checking out Music with you for a couple of straight days was some of the most fun I'd had at SxSW.

It's interesting to hear your thoughts around 4SQ vs. Twitter vs. Group Chat utility at events like these. I'm not surprised that Twitter didn't work for this use case but I wonder if it could be improved such that there's complementary utility.

PS My favorite part of this post is that you provided a sountrack.

Re: Why You Should Try Raptr (Again)

Kevin Cheng — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:59:15 -0000

Raptr doesn't run on AIR now, too. So the memory load is much lower.

Re: http://chinoisfemme.tumblr.com/post/914466664

Kevin Cheng — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:38:56 -0000

Thanks, Angie =) Don't forget to bring the paper part of the invitation to the wedding…

Re: Mentoring and Me

Kevin Cheng — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:46:59 -0000

Personal advisory board is how I've been doing it unofficially. I never called it that but I had people I would talk to for different things. Jared being one such person when it came to my public persona / presenting / etc. I'd talk to product managers to learn more about that side or to founders to learn more about starting a company, etc. Yahoo! had a mentorship program but it was difficult to utilize well because no one person matches exactly who you want to be.

Re: Building a game in Unity…

Kevin Cheng — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:21:00 -0000

Shouldn't the game come before the technology? I mean I agree it's awesome but considering how amazing some game have been w/o using awesome graphics engines, it feels like the game should come first. I know you mean for it as a learning "hello world" exercise. I just would love to see a week of your time be spent on a cool game with crap graphics than Pong in Unity glory.

Re: What if interviews poorly predict job performance? What if dating poorly predicts marital happiness?

Kevin Cheng — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:55:25 -0000

The flip side of that is do it like Zappos or Netflix where they offer a severance of some sort when they let people go and that makes it easier for managers to let someone go if it's not working out. Zappos in particular, have the great notion of offering people the ability to fire themselves in the first few months and still get severance.

Re: So You’re Thinking of Becoming a Designer

Kevin Cheng — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:13:43 -0000

Thanks, Steve. I wasn't skilled enough to record while driving so I had to compensate! ;)

Re: Virgin America: How a Bad Website Can Kill Goodwill

Kevin Cheng — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:37:21 -0000

Because there was no confirmation number, no reservation number and nothing showing on the website. That's the whole point. There was no indication ANYWHERE.

To quote from the post:
Two days later, we still hadn’t received any confirmation emails. We checked our spam folders to no avail. Coley logged into her VA account and the website said “no pending flights”. No charges had been made to the credit card, either.

Re: Improving User Retention with Achievements

Kevin Cheng — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:08:41 -0000

As euwyn mentions, Foursquare's implementation has a few aspects that most sites that attempt this system didn't do: personality, external validation, and a design worthy of coveting. I've come to find the design of the badge and the uniqueness of it has a huge impact personally on my desire to acquire it. Following that, there's a desire to show that off.

It's funny you should talk about a central place for achievements. A few of us from Yahoo! Brickhouse launched a product called BravoNation in December 07. In the system, we explored exactly what kinds of achievements exist on sites today and also created a mechanism to "covet" achievements.

If you look at http://bravo.yahoo.com/docs/ you'll see hints of the direction it was meant for. Unfortunately, the project only lasted for a few months and all of the project team has since moved on.

Ultimately, when it comes to achievements, what matters most is, "do your users care?" It won't make a useless site more interesting and it won't even help a useful site be more engaging if the achievements are not designed to appeal to various base gaming psychology profiles.

Re: Last.fm Tumblr Weekly Top Artists

Kevin Cheng — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:13:33 -0000

Yay! Pipes! Woohoo!

Re: Raptr.com makes Your gaming habits more social

Kevin Cheng — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:19:14 -0000

Hi Shawn,

Thanks so much for the detailed write-up! Glad you're liking the site so far. What you're seeing is only the beginning so please feel free to make suggestions or give feedback on our forums at http://raptr.com/discuss so we can improve it for you. Let me know if you have any questions!

Kevin

Re: I can’t unfollow you.

Kevin Cheng — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:28:12 -0000

I somehow only just saw this now. It definitely resonates with me and if it's any consolation, it's difficult no matter which side of the fence you're on. In fact, experiences of my own and others lead me to set up a panel at last year's SxSW (which eventually lead to Keely's one): http://breakups20.pbwiki.com/

Somebody really needs to write a book on it already. Or at least do a research project.

And I'm glad you wrote/painted that. Both are awesome.