Disqus - Latest Comments for papa

Re: 5 Reasons You Need to Know Why You Want to Write a Book

papa — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 11:32:47 -0000

Yong, you offer so much clarity in your articles. I really enjoy what you teach us about writing (and the motivation behind the writing) on your blog.

The more I read and learn from others the more I realize how important having a plan is. I guess it's obvious, but I so often give this part of the process lip service. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Overcoming Obstacles to Launch Women Taking the Lead – Part Two

papa — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 11:26:24 -0000

Nice post Jodi, I love that you really gave us the first-person perspective of the fears and anxieties that entrepreneurs face. Congrats to you for facing those fears and conquering them!

Re: 4 Reasons Why You Need Passion and Not Discipline

papa — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 10:54:49 -0000

Thank you for this Dean. And thank you for your article Yong.

I think Dean hit the nail on the head. Discipline is the focus/balance for passion.

I know that for myself, discipline is the the thing I need to work on constantly. the passion is always there, but man, do I have a hard time taming it at times!

Re: 3 Simple Tips to Beat the Winter Blues

papa — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 10:47:31 -0000

It's been sunny and warm in San Francisco this weekend! So despite not experiencing any winter blues in California, I love love love the ideas for taking up a new hobby and the tips for starting a healthy habit.

Personally, I started daily meditation and early morning reading and journal writing this year and these habits have had an amazingly positive impact on my life in a short time. I need to work on my quality sleep though!

Re: Master Your Mind: 3 Tips to Help You Achieve Your Big Goals

papa — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 23:16:31 -0000

Thanks for all the exercises. I spend time exercising my body regularly, why oh why do I neglect the mind? I'll give these a try...

Re: What to Do Even Before You Start to Write Your Nonfiction Book

papa — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 13:23:28 -0000

Yong this is great. Having recently finished a book, I should have read your article first! I agree with you that structuring the book is a big challenge and something that I, not used to long form writing, was not ready for.

What did you use to write the book? I started with Word and ended up using Scrivener (I'm a big Evernote fan too). I found that the way Scrivener works really helped me organize the chapters better. I can see how the post-it note board approach might also work really well.

Re: Haven’t Watched All That Many Blu-Ray Movies

papa — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:51:57 -0000

Hey, at least you didn't buy an HD DVD player!

That being said, for disc based viewing, I mostly watch Blu-Ray at this point. I agree that the format has limited appeal though. And were it not a secondary feature of the PS3, it's doubtful I would've purchased a stand-alone player. Large screen HDTVs and projection systems likely see the most benefit, of course.

Speaking of DVD and Blu-Ray annoyances this image really sums it up: http://i.imgur.com/GxzeV.jpg

Why oh why must I have to fast forward through 10 minutes of dreck to even get to the annoying DVD/Bluray menu?!?!

Re: Hitler Responds To The iPad

papa — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:26:13 -0000

Put "Downfall" on your Neflix queue now before these damned Hitler videos ruin it forever ;-)

Re: danieltenner.com — iPad: an Apple for Mom

papa — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:33:15 -0000

Spot on Daniel, the only thing I'd change is your title: "iPad: an Apple for Mom AND for Grandma!"

Apple really does need to add a front-facing camera to the iPad with the next iteration...my mom still can't get video calls on iChat working without a lot of hand-holding from me.

Re: Billion Dollar Business Idea: Email With 100% Uptime

papa — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:27:12 -0000

@Dan - That the rant was "passed for something authoritative" isn't the fault of the author of this blog. Blame ComputerWorld if they misrepresented or misappropriated Webomatica's post.

The length and style of the blog post above make it clear that it's just a short, off-the-cuff rant and nothing more.

That others want to read more or make more out of it is what's truly silly, not the post itself.

Thankfully we do have some "services" with 100% uptime (at least at present). The sun is one that I can think of. Yeah, yeah snarky commenters, I realize the earth's rotation might cause some relative downtime depending on how you're measuring things ;-) Many boastful, young-adult males might also claim 100% uptime for their libidos...

Re: Apple: Yeah, Snow Leopard Is Worth It

papa — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:48:41 -0000

Thankfully I only installed it on my mini so far. It broke a bunch of apps which are slowly releasing patches and getting updated. My mp3 squeezecenter server software broke rendering my stereo impotent :-(

I dread having to go back and reinstall 64 bit ruby, rails, mysql, imagemagick and the like. I may hold off on upgrading the macbook for a few weeks while I see if there are any other kinks with the desktop.

Re: Movie Notes: Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

papa — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:43:16 -0000

I've always wanted to watch the "Phantom Edit" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... which, from what I've read, actually turns a mediocre film into a decent one.

Your post certainly makes me want give it a go. Maybe you can review it at some point?

Re: Hitler Is Pissed About Facebook Buying FriendFeed, Too

papa — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:45:47 -0000

That was pretty funny and I don't even use Friendfeed (or FB all that much). "We still have Plurk".

Also, if you haven't seen Downfall (from which the film footage is from), despite all the ridiculous riffs on this scene (the Starcraft 2 one was funny) it's a really, really powerful film. I'd highly recommend watching it. It's mentally brutal to watch though. I felt psychologically bruised after watching it and couldn't stop thinking about it for about a week after watching it. But it's definitely a must-see film.

Re: What’s Your “What The Heck” Price?

papa — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:12:06 -0000

Kalea's favorite games right now are:

Tap Tap Revolution 2 (free, and free song downloads)

Sally's Spa ($.99)

Scoops ($.99, but I got it free on "National Ice Cream Day" when they had a promotion)

Koa's favorite games are:

Farm Animals ($.99, pictures of animals, animal sounds and a quiz to match sound and animal)

Koi Pond ($.99, touch the fish, lol)

Re: What’s Your “What The Heck” Price?

papa — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:32:17 -0000

When I first got my iPhone I swore I wouldn't buy any apps. But then I got hooked on the 99 cent and $1.99 apps. So I guess you could say that for a mobile app, $1.99 is my "what the heck price" (actually it might be $2.99).

Kindle is an interesting one. I think my what the heck price is $99 like yours, with the added hurdle that I'm wary of "yet another platform/device" and would need to overcome that.

I've been wanting to get my daughter an iPod Touch. And right now it's just way too expensive for me to consider for a kid. I do think that I'd seriously consider one for her if it was $99 or lower.

I don't subscribe to many magazines these days, but I've always enjoyed Wired. So when they sent me a subscription card for the $10 Wired subscription, I said "what the heck". I think I got a couple of other magazines at the 5 or 10 rate.

There's probably other good examples, but I can't think of them right now.

Re: WWDC 2009 Predictions

papa — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:46:35 -0000

Very exciting keynote. Lotsa good stuff so far.

Wish Apple would get off the single US carrier. That's my one big wish (unlikely to come true this time around).

That was a fast refresh on the MBP line!

Re: I Don’t Like Wolfram Alpha Because It Makes Me Feel Stupid

papa — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:10:33 -0000

Agreed. I also think that part of the problem is that if you are gonna give me a blank field and tell me to plugin something, you really ought to give me answers most of the time. If the product/db is constrained, there should be a clearer explanation as to _what it is I should do_

Wolfram Alpha is like a dude standing in front of you saying "go ahead, ask me something, do it, do it..."

I ask a question and Wolfram says..."Oh, but not that question. Try something else!"

That leaves me with the taste of disappointment. I, the end user, shouldn't have to work so hard to tease out a valid response.

(hey I know it's a new service and it will get better, but that initial user-experience is still uneven as of today)

Re: Movie Notes: Star Trek 7: Generations

papa — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:16:45 -0000

Yeah, can't say much about TNG films. Poor Kirk.

SPOILER ALERT for JJ Abrams Star Trek...

I guess the one upshot to the new Star Trek movie is that now Kirk's lame death is theoretically undone...

Re: Movie Notes: Star Trek 3: The Search For Spock

papa — Sat, 09 May 2009 12:50:36 -0000

Jase...I think you mixed up your bad-guy Christophers by accident. Christopher Plummer (noted in the credits and synopsis) was in Star Trek VI. Christopher as correctly noted in the section on "The Bad" was in ST3.

Re: How Much Is Too Much For An iPhone App?

papa — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:21:55 -0000

I've purchased a handful of $10 apps -- some have been worth it, others not.

After talking with you at lunch yesterday and seeing that iPhone virtual mouse app, I thought I'd test the boast of Apple's TV commercials -- "yeah, there's an app for that!" -- and see if there were any Slimp3/Squeezebox controllers available on the iPhone (Squeezebox is an mp3 hardware/software streaming system now owned by Logitech for home audio use). I figured there *might* be one. But much to my astonishment, not only was there one...there were actually THREE different solutions for this niche product on the app store.

I ended up purchasing the one that had the best reviews on the app store and on web forums. It was 10 bucks. The hardware controller that it replaces would probably cost a hundred or more if purchased alone. The hardware controller, unlike the mp3 receivers and software is not great. So for $10 I was ecstatic that I now had an iPhone solution that actually IMPROVES my overall slimp3/squeezebox setup immeasurably.

Yet another reason why I love this device so much. So yeah, the pricing is all relative. In this case I felt like I was getting a huge upgrade at a relative bargain.

On the other hand, I bought a Chinese dictionary for 10 bucks last year. It was ok. Recently I found another app that was only 2 or 3 bucks. Downloaded it and it was way superior to the 10 dollar app. So the mileage varies sometimes on the value of differently priced apps.

Re: Still Haven’t Gotten On Board With Blu-Ray: YADF

papa — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:47:08 -0000

Imho, the only thing truly worth watching on blu-ray is the BBC's fantastic "Planet Earth" series. Anything less than 1080p for that program is inadequate. But you can easily rent that sucker -- no need to buy it. Beyond that, I don't see any reason to buy a dedicated player, though I will admit that it's a nice benefit of the PS3 and worthwhile in the context of a gaming system.

Re: General Webomatica Update

papa — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:32:33 -0000

I also use this Nextbus/Google map page a lot in conjunction with Fluid (on the desktop):
http://www.nextbus.com/goog...

Fluid
http://fluidapp.com/

Fluid is a great little app that makes "standalone applications" out of websites for you. I find it very useful. Maybe you are already doing something like this, but if now...check it out. And Fluid is free too (woot)

Re: General Webomatica Update

papa — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:37:23 -0000

Jase, I look forward to your Arrested Development reviews. I'm almost done with the series and it's still forcing audible laughter from me on the really good episodes (which are frequent). I think you will enjoy it.

On the iPhone front, this is the app that I *highly* recommend:
http://www.routesy.com/

It is an essential app for Muni commuters. I know a lot of stops now have arrival times, but with Routesy I can better plan when to get to the Muni stop and determine if I should take one line or another (b/c no vehicle is coming or b/c vehicles are bunching, etc.). I use Routesy daily and the info it provides has made regular Muni riding much more bearable (it's not a cure-all though!)

Re: Random Stuff: Pepsi Logo, Cat Piano, Nazi Bankers

papa — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:50:06 -0000

It's worth noting that the average American household watches over 150 hours a month of Tv (according to a recent Nielsen report). So if you want to talk pricing that's 40 cents per hour of programming (based on the $60 bill you suggest)...maybe that's cheap to some?

And no...I'm not even gonna comment on the sociological implications of watching 5 hours of TV a day on average (holy crap is all I can say to that).

Re: Random Stuff: Pepsi Logo, Cat Piano, Nazi Bankers

papa — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:21:47 -0000

I hear you re: cable. I'm certainly not rooting for them but I think they still have the strongest hand at this point in time. I asked another friend a few minutes ago why he went with Comcast DVR even though he said Tivo was superior (and had used it in the past). He said the $5 extra for Comcast DVR is a "no brainer" (and this is from a tech savvy guy).

I'm still a big fan of Hulu despite any misteps they've had recently with removed content.

I do think that it's interesting to see the ongoing tussles between Hulu and CBS/Tv.com. We sometimes romanticize the online players but there's as much brewing territoriality going on there as there is in the more traditional media playgrounds (such as Hulu disabling embedded content on CBS/Tv.com properties).

As consumers we just kind sit there and try to scurry whatever the best, easiest, cheapest will be whatever our needs. At least that's how I operate. I think the iTunes a la carte approach is fantastic. But at the same time, if I can watch the show on Hulu, there's just no way I'll be buying an episode. But that's just me. Obviously other consumers have a valid need/use to buy one-off episodes.