jonwall.org

In the last days Verizon completed their work to bring FIOS to our street. All of a sudden we go from basically no choice for Internet tv and phone to having a choice. Woo hoo! This seems to be a hot topic in the neighborhood, so I can only assume that its a hot topic in places where you are lucky enough to have these options.

One of my neighbors asked me for my thoughts and I figured it makes sense to share those here too. Now I’ve had Comcast in a few different locations and Verizon FIOS for about 6 months before we lived where we do now. I’ve also done a bunch with FIOS at my in laws house in the past few months. So intend to think I’m pretty well informed.

The differences in each service are subtle in my opinionand in general they are very very similar. My overall recommendation is go with whomever will give you the best deal.

That said here are the pros of switching to FIOS that I can see.
1) Multi-room DVR – For us having one DVR to set and being able to watch from any room is a nice feature to have. We tend to watch most things on DVR and starting downstairs and continuing upstairs is something we like. However, if you currently have multiple DVRs and are taping multiple shows on different DVRs at the same time, then switching to the FIOS multi-room DVR may be a limit and not a pro.

2) Speed. Download speeds are, as far as I can tell, comparable on both services, but my perception is that FIOS may be just a bit faster on download. If you are ever uploading large files, comcast maxes out at 5 MB and FIOS can give you 25 MB. But this is really only a difference if you are uploading large files (like a movie). That said, FIOS is much newer technology and I’d imagine that over time the speed advantage will improve with FIOS.

3) Price – If you have cell phones on verizon, you can bundle this with your FIOS plan and save 10/month. its not a lot, but its something that Comcast can’t match.

4) Network access. Both companies give you a router to connect your computers to their network. FIOS includes a wireless router as part of that and Comcast doesn’t. Depending on your home setup, this may be useful, or may be a hassle. I do a bunch of stuff to keep my network locked down, so the FIOS router is a bit of hassle, but once I have it all setup its not an issue.

Comcast has a few small advantages when it comes to mobile apps.
1) If you have an ipad or iphone the comcast mobile apps I think are a bit better as you can get your home voice mail easily on an iphone with comcast and you can watch a number of shows on demand on iphone and ipad with comcast. I don’t believe you can do that with FIOS.

2) No digging. FIOS requires that they run a line from the street to your house. They do this by digging a trench in your yard and it may also need to go under your driveway or walkway. They are pros at this but I am a bit skeptical that they can run that line under my walkway without some issues around leveling. I haven’t ever had FIOS when they had to do this, but its something you should be aware of.

3) No big box in your basement or side of your house. FIOS requires a large box (probably 1 foot wide by 2-3 feet high by 3-6 inches deep) that centralizes the services to be installed. Its basically like a brain for your system, and comcast doesn’t have this. The FIOS install is long and complicated as a result. But that box is what makes the multiroom dvr possible for example.

The only other factors that I can think of are:

- that there are definitely some differences in on demand, specifically which shows are on which services. But I don’t have a lot of detail here.

- Signal quality overall is a good one to explore more. the FIOS rep said that FIOS is higher quality at 1080i. But I haven’t noticed a significant difference. Again though because FIOS is newer technology, I would expect them to have the advantage over time.

- Last thing to mention is to look at the difference in HD channels. there are a few differences, but nothing major in my opinion.

Did I miss anything? Did I get anything wrong? If so let me know.

Like many people, I’ve been thinking about the year to come, especially since I’m kicking off the new decade with a new job, and a new place to live. I’m also looking back at all the amazing things that have happened over the past 10 years, and a lot of people are doing that at well.  But I haven’t seen a list of the top technologies of the past decade that have gone mainstream and changed how people live or work.

So here’s the criteria:

- Technology could be created or available in the 1990′s, or earlier, but didn’t go mainstream until the 2000′s.

- Mainstream means that people that aren’t technology geeks first and foremost are using it.  If you parents use it, grandparents use it, then I consider it mainstream.  If you have a friend or acquaintance that doesn’t work in technology, or spend their waking hours playing technical support for friends and family, and they are using the technology then I categorize it as mainstream.

- Changing how people live or work.  Well that’s kinda obvious.  But for the purpose of this post, I’ll include it if it changed how I live or work.

And without further ado, here’s the list, in no particular order.
Some of the commentary may be a bit obvious, but I’m trying to document how my life has changed, and perhaps in 10 years, look back on this post with fond memories.

- Broadband.  In the late 1990′s, I still had to dial up to get connected to the internet.  But at the dawn of the new decade, broadband started hitting the streets and always on fast connections became a way of life.

- Wifi – Huge.  Absolutely changes the way I work and live.  Increases the impact of broadband significantly.   I don’t have to worry about where I put my computer in my house.  I can use it anywhere.  I can take my laptop with me anywhere I work and not have to worry about finding a connection.  I can take my computer with me to a coffee shop, a library, and be productive. And how do I know its mainstream, again that’s obvious, but my litmus test is my parents now have it in there house.  Now that’s not for them to use just yet, but its there if I want it.   If we only had wireless battery recharging, that would be awesome.

-Bluetooth – Like wifi, a very big deal.  Wireless headsets and mice help free us from the cords.  I don’t have bluetooth integrated from my phone to my car, but thats a high impact technology right there.

- DVR – A game changer. I think you could get a Tivo in the 1990′s, but this definitely went mainstream in 2000′s.   I’ll record shows even if I’m home when they are on, just so I don’t have to watch commercial.  I can now watch 3 hours of network/cable TV with commercials in 2 hours.   Pause a show and return in a few mins – that’s just huge, especially when you have a 4 year old who can interrupt whatever you are watching at any time.   Needless to say, this also has massive implications for the advertising market.

- On demand television- this was more or less available in the 90′s as pay per view, but its changed how consume television.  With the combo of on demand and DVR I can pretty much watch what I want when I want.  Now the question of is there anything good on is another story entirely.

- Netflix – Its like an extension to on demand.   This game changer has rendered the video store obsolete.

- MP3′s and digital music -  In 1997, on my cross country trip we had a mix of tapes and CDs.  But we needed a special adapter for the tape player in the car to be able to connect to a portable CD player.  Turns out that didn’t work, but that’s another story.   As the early 2000′s rolled around digital music became prevalent, and for me, by the mid 2000′s, my historic tape and CD collection was gone.  It was all digital.  (Man, burning 400+ CDs took a long time).   On a related note, in the mid 1990′s I had my car broken into and some of my favorite tapes and CDs were stolen. I was pretty upset as some the mixed tapes I made in college were really hard to replace.  But fast forward to today, and  now its all backed up, so the likelihood of losing any of my music is very low.  Makes me think that in addition to in home backup, I really should get an online backup service like Carbonite.

What’s also interesting here is that in the 1990′s most people had VCRs and the DVD was starting to come into people’s lives.  Like any media for music or video, it seems to have about a 10 year lifespan.  Records were around for a long time, but then we cruised through 8-track, tapes, CDs.  Video went from VHS, to DVD and now to blu-ray, but I’m sure that will all be gone in 10 more years for a completely digital on demand world.

- GPS – You could get a GPS in a rental car in the early/mid 1990′s.  But it didn’t become mainstream, with many car’s having it as an option or standard, and included on smartphones until the 2000′s.   Printed maps – gone.  AAA Triptiks (which I used extensively in my 1997 trip across the united states), done.

- Smartphones – These were around in the mid/late 1990′s.  And in the 1990′s Palm had a major market of 3rd party apps. So what we have today is nothing new in my opinion, except that the phones are faster, smarter, better and include wifi and GPS. .  But the smartphone didn’t go mainstream until the mid late 2000′s.  Its mainstream in my book because my mother is considering getting an iPhone so she can play games.

- Online banking – This was around in the early/mid 1990′s.  Today, I assume most people pay their bills online, but I know a number of folks that prefer to write and mail checks.   Online banking took a chore of managing bills that took people a chunk of time each week or month, down to a few seconds and clicks.  I think many people will say that this isn’t as impactful as some of the technologies above, but its definitely mainstream and definitely a game changer.  I’m hoping that in the next 10 years, I won’t ever need to get a bill or statement by mail.

- Digital photography and video – This is a late breaking addition after I originally published the post.  Thanks to Peter Conrad for helping me realize I overlooked a huge one.   This has completely changed how we take pictures, how we develop film (we don’t) and how we store our memories.   The biggest change for me at the end of this decade though is video.  When my son was born in 2005, I had a digital camera for taking still photographs and a tape based recorder for video.  I took a few early videos, but the conversion to digital was a major hassle, so I took mostly still photos.  Now I take videos first and pictures 2nd, mostly on my phone.  I wish I had better quality on my phone but that will happen over time.

Wow, that is just an amazing list.  In spite of all the crazy things that happened to us over the past 10 years, it was simply a mindblowing decade for technology.

Technology to watch for in the 2010′s.
These are things that I see as major life changers in the next 10 years, and I expect them to all go mainstream.

- Kindle and e-readers – These haven’t gone mainstream yet, but will be there very soon.   We were in a bookstore yesterday, in addition to shopping locally, my wife browsed for a bit to see what she wanted to get on her Kindle.  I explained the theory as to why you shouldn’t do this.  But its a fact of life.  Will bookstores be around in 10 years?  I don’t think there will be a lot of them left…

- Person to person payments – You can do this today a bit, but its hard and costly.  I know banks have dabbled in this, Paypal is working on it and with new payment systems like Square, I think this will be a reality very soon.   The big question is, will you carry cash at all in 10 years?

- Wireless battery recharging – I’m not talking about the ability to charge a device by placing it on a special mat.  That’s very cool don’t get me wrong.  It cuts the wires for the most part.  I’m talking about a device to charge, or maintain power without any cords and without being on a special pad.  Its wifi for charging.  I want it and expect to see it in the next 10 years.

So what did I forget?  What are you looking forward to in the next decade?

3 years, 2 months and 7 days ago, we touched down in the San Francisco bay area, having decided to move out from the Boston area. My son was almost 18 months old when we arrived here. Before we decided to move, I was traveling from Boston to the bay area more than I wanted, but less than I needed to. It simply wasn’t what I wanted or needed. I really liked working at Adobe though and didn’t want to leave to find something new in the boston area.

Now, fast forward to today. Being in the bay area has been great. We love the weather, and when working in high tech, there simply is nothing like being in the epicenter of it all. We’ve made some amazing friends. But the draw of our roots, and being closer to immediate family made my wife and I realize that we just weren’t at home in Silicon Valley. Shortly after I returned to Adobe, (after a year at Palm – which was a great learning experience. I never would have learned what I now know about mobile any other way), my wife and I had a good set of conversations about where we wanted to be as a family. We decided at that point that it was time to start working to head back east, to the Boston area. Now I had no idea how long this would take. The economy was still in dire straits. People were losing jobs, not finding new ones.

I also knew that while I was really enjoying my time back at Adobe and being part of the Creative Suite team, that this unfortunately meant I would leave Adobe once again. Even if Adobe was willing to consider having me work from Boston, that wasn’t going to be the right thing. If Adobe would consider it, I didn’t think it was the best for the product team I was on, and nor for me and my family. That would simply get us back to where we were three years ago.

So here we were in late September 2009. I had a major milestone coming up, the Adobe MAX designer and developer conference, and I needed to stay focused on that. But the week after MAX, Adobe was on shutdown and I started to poke around a bit. One my earliest phone calls was with a former colleague who noted that in his experience, most people are either east coast or west coast, and that’s hard to change. I think that’s true. Of course having gone to school in the midwest, I think there are probably a few more geographic regions that define people, but the core concept is sound. Some people can make the change to just about anywhere, but for many folks, historical roots define who a person is. For my wife and I, we are east coasters, plain and simple. More on that later though.

During that same week, in mid October, after just a few phone calls to reconnect with former colleagues and connections in the Boston area, I talked with Phil Costa who I worked side by side with for years, at Allaire, Macromedia and Adobe. I have enormous respect for Phil. He was now at a company called Bullhorn, that makes hosted software for the recruiting and staffing industry. Simply put, if the company was keeping Phil intrigued, then I knew it must be interesting. That initial call then turned into an opportunity to join the Bullhorn team in a product marketing capacity and I readily accepted.

There were a number of things that I immediately found compelling about Bullhorn. First they are a SaaS company. Having worked on desktop or server software for a long time, moving to an environment that allowed ongoing iteration and improvement really seemed exciting. Now of course that also brings a whole slew of new challenges. Adam Berrey, who I worked with at Allaire and Macromedia, recently had a great post on this. Secondly, Bullhorn is creating software for an industry that really cares about the benefits that the software delivers first and foremost. Technology and the associated battles about which technology is best, Mac vs Windows, HTML 5 vs. Flash, iPhone vs. Android vs. RIM vs. etc, at times while a lot of fun, and always interesting can also be frustrating. So much of the battle these days in the developer segment seems to based on providing ammo or fodder for whichever camp a developer identifies with. At times, to me, that seems like it was getting away from the true benefit of technology, making it easier or faster to do something that would be very hard to do without great software.

As I met the Bullhorn team I was impressed by where the company was headed and their emphasis on and approach toward maintaining a great culture. I know that working there will be a lot of fun, especially in an environment that was much smaller than anything I’d been involved with in more than 10 years. I know I’ll learn a ton, help the company grow and have a lot of fun doing it.

Our lives right now are mired in a sea of moving details, but its also a very exciting time. While I have many mixed feelings about leaving Adobe again, and will miss all the great people that I’ve now had two chances to work with, I’m excited for all the cool stuff that the company is working on. There will be some great stuff coming out for designers and developers down the road. That’s for sure.

I’m also very excited about joining Bullhorn. And I’m very excited to touch down in Boston, be close to immediate family and reconnect with old friends, many of whom we’ve know for 20 years now or more. Plus I’ll have to put on some heavy sweaters. Perhaps I’ll need to put all them of on at once. Living in California makes you soft when it comes to dealing with weather. I will miss the mild climate here that’s for sure.

So that’s the big news. As I’ve shared this with people many people have asked me to send along updated contact information. That seems a bit of an odd request to me, as the primary way I stay connected is online. Yeah, some folks still send holiday cards, but thats about the only thing anyone needs a physical address for. Things like email address aren’t changing of course, and I’ll keep my cell phone the same for the foreseeable future. So if you and I are LinkedIn or connected via Facebook, you already have my email address. If we’re not connected there, but you want to be, feel free to send me an invite for whichever network you think makes sense. Note that I tend to use LinkedIn for professional stuff, and Facebook for friends and family. (If you are interested you can read more about how I use social networks.) Plus you can always follow me on Twitter too.

Yup. Big changes. I’ve loved living in California. As the Baz Luhrmann song goes “live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.” I don’t think living here makes people soft, (except when it comes to weather), but the sentiment in the song is right on. Living in different places helps you grow and rounds out who you are. It helps you understand more and experience different cultures. Living in a different place, in my opinion, is always a good thing. Living in a different place helps you know more about you and your relationships with others. And it always helps you head towards home.

One more thing. Adobe is looking for someone to replace me. Bullhorn has a number of open positions too. So if you are looking or know great people looking for a new job please let me know.

Recently, Kevin Hoyt had a great post about how he gets things done. I was very surprised at how much what he outlines mirrors how I work.

So rather then rehash that, I thought it would be interesting to quickly highlight the things that I use every day and a bit at how I use them.

On my Mac

I have Apple Mail, iCal, Tweetdeck, Adium, Things, and Firefox open pretty much all the time. Firefox always has a tab open for Gmail, and a few other tabs either to internal sites, or to links that I’m getting from twitter or facebook. I usually have Evernote running, as well as some combination of Powerpoint, Excel and Word. I also tend to have the AIR based company directory open much of the time.

The one thing that I also have started to really rely on is Dropbox. Recently its versioning capabilities really saved me from having to redo a few hours or work on a document I was working on.

On my iPhone

I really miss the multitasking I had when I worked at Palm on webOS. I spend a bunch of time on a train most days, so I tend to use email, calendar, Safari, Tweetdeck and Facebook. I rotate through that list, starting up and shutting down each of those apps as I work through all in the information inputs that start my morning, or help me wind down my business day. I aslo tend to check the Linkedin mobile app every few days more than anything because I just find it interesting to see professional updates and connections from the folks I’m connected to.

I also use ESPN scorecenter, which was particularly handy during the baseball playoffs, I use Things on the iPhone to ensure that I’m capturing all the things I need to do. (Now I just wish it would make me actually do all of them) The fact that Things syncs with my Mac is great. I just wish it would sync in the background, via the cloud, and not have to require me to manually do it via bonjour network.

I use the Caltrain schedule app a bunch to refine travel times. I can’t imagine not having Yelp or Tripit. I don’t use them that much, but when I need them, they are there and work great. I love the fact that Dropbox syncs to my phone, and use that every now and then. Same for Evernote.

I’m guessing if you are still reading this that there haven’t been any surprises yet. Here’s one that I don’t see a lot of people talking about. I’ve found that I use the Comcast mobile app more than I ever expected, mostly to check voicemails, forward home phone to a cell phone, or to look to see who called. Its amazingly useful. I also check TV listings periodically on it. It has this notion of a universal inbox, with email, voice mail, etc, but since I don’t use Comcast email, thats just a feature that gets in the way. But overall, its a very useful app. I’m really looking forward to the day when I’ll be able to set my DVR via the app. Hey Comcast, I hope you are working on that. If not, please start.

I also use the camera on my iPhone to take pictures of my son bunch. That’s not surprising, but what I find myself surprised by is how often I try to capture video. I love being able to take quick videos and share them with grandparents. Its finally become easy enough for me to do that I actually do it.

I also want to mention Shazam. I’m surprised how often I tag a song I haven’t heard before just to know who it’s by and what it’s called.

The one app I’m looking forward to is lala. I uploaded all my music to lala.com and now I can hear virtually any song I own on any computer as well as easily and inexpensively buy new ones. Having that on my phone would mean I’d never have to think about syncing a subset of songs to my phone unless I was going on a plane.

So that’s it. I’m probably forgetting a few things, but this covers it for the mostpart. What’s in your toolbox?

The past few days we’ve been cleaning up our house and removing things that we no longer use, or need. Much has been donated to Goodwill, but I’ve also sold a number of things on Craigslist.

So thats my first area to address in this post – Craigslist. Whenever I’ve gone through a period of cleanout in the past I’ve turned to Craigslist. And I’m doing it again. I’m simply amazed by the speed I can sell something on Craigslist. Sometimes it is literally minutes. Maybe I price things for value, or maybe some of these things are just in demand, and people are always looking for a deal. In general, most things I post move extremely quickly. Not all things sell, but most do.

But this gets me wondering. Why? I think part of it is about the fact that other folks are always looking for ways to save money and Craigslist, ebay and similar sites help people achieve that. But I also think there are two factors with Craigslist in making this work.

First is the site itself. The UI is stuck in the 1990s. It hasn’t really changed since then as far as I can tell. But thats what make it works. It’s easy to post, easy to browse, and easy to contact the seller via the way people still communicate online – email. (Not sure when that will be replaced by twitter or facebook status though). Once someone contacts the seller, you are then communicating directly, no need to go back to the site, etc. So at that point, you now have a relationship with that person. Plus when a deal is achieved the sellers usually meet. Maybe this is all well understood by lots of people, but I’m simply amazed at how the direct connections instantly create trust. It works incredibly well.

Now what I also have found interesting is that people don’t really seem to negotiate on most things. The experience really is designed for back and forth bartering. But most people find what they want, believe they are getting value and are willing to pay cash for it. I’m shocked by the lack of negotiation. Maybe I’m pricing my items too cheaply though. I tend to think I’ve priced them fairly and people are just happy they can find what they want at a price that seems fair to them.

Lastly, I simply love the cathartic nature of getting rid of something. I especially like it when I sell something quickly on Craigslist. My life becomes just a bit more uncluttered, and I have some extra cash in my pocket. I view it as free money. I did very little, gave up very little (something I no longer needed or wanted) and my wallet is a bit heavier. I find it oddly enjoyable.

Maybe I just need less stuff. I’m sure I could I find someone on Craigslist to buy it.

If you are planning on attending SXSW on March 12-16 in Austin, TX, and want to learn more about a wide range of Adobe technologies, then you can vote to help get these sessions included.  Even if you aren’t attending, you can still vote.

I’ve included all the sessions (at least I think I have, if something is missing please let me know) that cover Adobe topics below. The voting process is easy. Just go to the links below and click the “Thumbs Up” button.

And feel free to share with others in case they want to vote.  Here’s a quick link to this page http://bit.ly/i9j5x

• SoDA Pops! Best Digital Agency Advice and Practices –  <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3898?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fname%3ASODA>
• Pssst! New Secrets Revealed for Adobe Flash – <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3737?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fcompany%3AAdobe>
• Modern Solutions for Old Problems in Browser Testing – <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3751?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fcompany%3AAdobe>
• Web Content Management Systems from a Designer’s Perspective –  <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3774?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fcompany%3AAdobe>

• Online Video: What’s Hot and Who’s Not –  <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3034?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fcompany%3AAdobe>
• A Major Sports Entity Scores on the Web –  <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3660?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fname%3AMajor+Sports>

• Mobile Technology: What’s New, What’s Out, What’s Next? –  <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3434?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fcompany%3AAdobe>

• “Are Magazines Dead?” – <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3617?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fcompany%3AAdobe>

• Tackling the HTML5 Challenge –  <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/4099?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fcompany%3ARedmonk>

• Beyond the Browser – <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/4919?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fcompany%3AAdobe>
• Web Application Accessibility Showdown: Flash/Flex, HTML5 & Silverlight – Vote here <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3526?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fcompany%3AAdobe>
• Sustainable Design For A Multiscreen, Info-Overloaded World – <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3428?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fcompany%3AAdobe>
• Creative Youth: Organic, Collaborative, and Throw-Away Media –  <http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3849?return=%2Fideas%2Findex%2Finteractive%2Fcompany%3AAdobe>

How’s that for an all encompassing title.  Well its not really about the history and evolution of blogs, but more about the history and evolution of my blog.

It’s time for me to get back to periodically blogging.  As part of this I moved my blog from blogger to wordpress, but had a few problems doing that.   First the import from blogger to wordpress didn’t really work.  And when I tired to update my feedburner feed, it seems that my feedbruner account was so old that I couldn’t find the right credentials to update my feed in feedburner.  So I’m starting all over here…

If you are looking for anything on my ancient now defunct blog, you can find it at  http://jonathanwall.blogspot.com/.