1TO10REVIEWS

My Review: 8

This was too funny to pass up.  I personally try to never do this to other people’s pictures, though I often make funnies in my own pics.  :)  Found the story first as a linkover from the Atlantic.com.  But the real source is the guys at ListOfTheDay They have some really funny posts.

The basic story is about messing with people’s pics, ruining an otherwise awesome photo:

I would check out the rest at LOTD.  And as I said, personally I try not to do that to others’ pics.  Though I am generally goofy in my own:

My Review: 9

Real quick, let me just say: this is my 100th post.  Yay 1to10.  Ok, now on with the review.

I’ve had the same Swingline stapler for 8 years.  I bought it in 2000 with my expense account when I was selling drugs (read: pharmaceuticals.)  I decided to review my stapler for two reasons:

1. I love Office Space and it was the best homage I could think of right now
2. This is hands down the strongest, ablest and most dependable stapler I’ve ever had the privilege of using

I think number one speaks for itself.  But regarding my second reason for this review, what makes it so darn special?  Well, I’ll tell you.  First, the aesthetics of the stapler alone make it stand out.  It’s sleek, silver, and the red plastic bumper on the front of the stapling mechanism really pops.  Don’t you think?

Also, the heft and feel of the stapler is impressive.  It’s solid and weighty in your hand.  15-20 pages of heavy bond paper at once is no problem for this king, this champion of office accoutrement.  And the long handle up top extends way past the business end, providing a great deal of leverage to the stapling.  Also, the bottom is a firm yet tactile black rubber that holds tight to a slick desktop without slipping, yet doesn’t mark or stain the surface.  Here are some pics of my shining prince of affixment:

I’m not the only person who cares about staplers.  Kevin, a guy trying to blog professionally actually put “stapler” into the header of his blog. That’s a big step.

I looked on Swingline’s website, and this is the closest I can find to the same model as mine.  They are selling this one for $44.78, and if it really is the same one as mine then it’s worth every penny.

What’s your favorite office tool?  Do you have a stapler (or scissor, pen, mechanical pencil, etc.) that you love and can’t live without?  Tell me - I want to know.

My Review: 2

twhirl’s website is down.  I can’t download the app from them.  download.com will let you download it successfully, though of course you need Adobe Air installed in order to open and run the app.  I’ve done a bunch of news and blog searches, but I can’t seem to find any information.  The twhirl blog is still up, and even has links to the home page to download the latest ( 0.8 ) version.  But that link is dead too.

I don’t know if I’m on crack and this is old news, or if I’ve happened on something new and troubling.  But I don’t like it.  So twhirl being down gets a 2 out of 10.  Boo.

UPDATE: The site appears to be back up and working fine now.  Everyone relax.

My Review: 9

A buddy I went to college with and was in AEPi with named Jason Nazar is the CEO of docstoc.  He just closed a $3.25 million B round from Rustic Canyon Capitol.  I saw the update via Twitterific from Michael Arrington, and then read Jason Kincaid’s full article on Techcrunch.

I’ve used docstoc a couple of times to find templates for various documents (I think I got a NDA off of there once.)  I’ve also uploaded some docs, including a really nice expense reporting template.  The service has worked perfectly well for me in that regard.  I’ve never had a need to embed a flash document before, but who knows what excitement the future may hold.

I don’t have a whole lot to add to TC’s article, other than my personal relationship. I reconnected with Jason last week at the Web 2.0 expo in San Francisco, and this is a great, exciting follow up.   Jason is a buddy and a brother (Nazar, not Kincaid.  I’m sure Jason Kincaid is a lovely guy, I just haven’t met him yet) and I’m thrilled for his success and wish him and the rest of the docstoc team the very best of luck.  A solid 9 for them, and my heartfelt good wishes.

One note: Jason, I do think you guys should update your blog and announce the news officially, take that tiger by the tail.

My Review: 6

Twitterific is an Apple-only application from Icon Factory that allows you to follow updates from twitter on your Mac.  You can download it for free here, on Apple’s download site.  Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb wrote an article about Adobe Air apps that covered Twirhl (a Twitterific competitor.)  So there are lots of options out there (free, paid, competitive apps, etc.) that will let you accomplish the relatively simple task of monitoring your Twitter friends.  But here I am focusing on Twitterific.

What’s the good?  The app is shiny and semi-transparent (always a lot of fun) and really easy to install and to use.  And it works great.  It will give you a brief pop up every time someone you are following updates their Twitter, but it is unobtrusive and self-limiting, so it doesn’t get it your way.  It has shortcuts to update your own Twitter status, and to reply to someone directly (i.e. @thesolster) if you want to send a direct Twitter messsage.  In fact, because it’s super simple, pretty and does exactly what it supposed to, it should probably get a 9 or 10.

So what’s the bad? It keeps breaking.  Every 20 minutes to an hour, I will get a “lost network connection” error message.  Supposedly it’s Twitter’s servers breaking down under huge and strenuous loads.  Either that or my internet connection is spotty.  However, since all my other online apps and services seem to continue uninterrupted, I don’t think it’s my connection.  And, whenever I try to update or refresh my twitter through Twitter’s own website, it seems to work fine there as well.  So what’s the issue?

Now I like Twitter just fine.  I don’t agree with Andy Ihnatko’s blog post that Twitter is the best web app ever, but he’s for damn sure entitled to his opinion.  Myself, I’m a recent and reluctant new twitterer, sucked in along with my friend Jeremy’s recent explorations.  And it is kind of fun and sometimes useful.  But that’s not really the point of this post.

The point is, Twitterific is a good app and I like it, I just wish it would stop effing breaking. And until it does stop breaking, I can’t in good conscience give it more than a 6 out of 10.

My Review: 6

I like muxtape.com.  Sol told me about it (more or less) when he sent me a muxtape that he had made.  It was good (we like similar music) and it inspired me to make my own.

The idea is super cool.  You can upload as many as 12 .mp3 files to muxtape, name the “set,” and even configure the header bar color.  Then you can share it with friends.  They can opt to buy the songs on your set list (presumably the founders are getting a cut.)  It’s neat.

However, it’s also sort of cumbersome.  It would be a huge improvement if you could pick multiple songs and do a bulk upload.  The current setup requires you to upload a single song at a time, which is annoying.  I also found that quite a few songs failed.  I don’t know if it was because the files were corrupt somehow, or if maybe the meta data was too ugly to deal with, or what.  There are clearly stated restrictions that it must be a .mp3 file, and that it must be under 10 MB (all the files I attempted met those criteria.)  Having my chosen songs be un-uploadable was annoying.

They have a blog up on Tumblr and seem very interested in and open to feedback.  I like that openness a lot, it’s the right way to go.

The UI is pretty plain-jane, but I kind of like that. It certainly wasn’t confusing, and that is a huge plus in my humble estimation.  I think the concept rules, the product is cool, and the implementation is pretty-ok-kinda-good.  A solid 6, though the idea is really an 8 or a 9.  Just needs some more work.

UPDATE:

You know what else would be sweet?  There should be some kind of “Number of times this mix has been played” hit counter.  Currently there is an RSS feed meter that tells you how many people have favorited your mix, but not a total number of times it’s been played.  Everyone thinks their own mix is rad.  Muxtape should take advantage of that.  Come on muxtape, feed my ego.

My Review: 5

Google either dropped or lost IMAP support today.  Techcrunch’s Mark Hendrickson reported it here.

Now it’s back up - it seems to look fine and work fine.

It’s lame that it failed and/or went down and / or was taken away - lots of businesses rely on it.

It’s good that it is working now and seems as though it’s going to stay there.  If it was a bug then it’s weird that it actually disapperaed from the settings tab itself (as opposed to simply not working.)

But, since it’s there now and appears to be working, we’ll just call it a 5 and keep an even keel. 

My Review: 10

OK, so maybe it’s biased to give your friend’s blog a high rating just because they’re your friend. But I don’t really care. Shaan writes a cool blog, and you should read it. And then go watch the movie he recommended, because it sounds awesome.

Yum.

My Review: 8

In 1996, my first year of college, the musical RENT, by Jonathon Larson, came out on Broadway in New York.  I was lucky enough to go see it with my friends David Neufeld and Aliza Etlin nee Katz.

I loved this show.  I saw it in New York that year, and then again in San Diego two years later, with Neil Patrick Harris (go Doogie / Barney) playing the role of Mark, one of the lead characters.  He was great.

I think the music, the dialog, and the message in this play are outstanding.  Seasons of Love is an amazing song, just one of many throughout the play.  My friends may make fun of me for writing a post expressing my appreciation for (and love of) this play, but I can take it.  RENT gets an 8, and it’s worth every point.

My Review: 9

I first read about Hulu, as usual, on Techcrunch. I also go my invite to the private Hulu beta back in January by reading an article Mark Hendrickson wrote for Techcrunch.  Many people across the blogosphere have now written about Hulu, largely with good things to say.   I don’t plan to be unique in this instance - I have good things to say too.  Below is a brisk, bulleted battery of reasons why I think Hulu is excellent and likely to be a winner in this space.  Note to developers and Hulu competitors: most of my likes have to do with, you guessed it, user experience.  Try to keep up.

• Hulu has lots of good content, most importantly: full length movies as well as TV shows
• Great selections from multiple networks (Fox, NBC, etc.)
• Fun, old school TV content as well as new / popular content: lots of old school shows like Battlestar Galactica (the original), Knight Rider, and Flipper
• Incredible Selection of full length movies
• User Interface and User Experience:
  • The in screen player shows video in very high quality
  • There is a full screen mode, still very good quality
  • There is a pop-out player, so you can arrange your desktop as you like - the pop-out size is adjustable
  • Outstanding memory features: I watched 1 1/2 hours of a movie, and then had to close my computer.  I came back the next day and as soon as I logged into Hulu, it the movie restarted from the exact same spot where I had stopped
• Queues and Favorites - you can easily set up a list of favorites or shows / movies that you want to watch

The site is clean, easy to navigate, and well thought out.  There are some basic social features, for instance you can set up a profile with your favorite shows, movie, books and music.  And you can rate content as you watch it, and see feedback from other users.  I’ve used many other video sites before, like Veoh, Daily Motion,  and obviously YouTube.  None of them even come close to Hulu in terms of content variety, content quality, or user experience.  Huge thumbs up and a resounding 9 out of 10.