Friday, May 29, 2009

Social network + online store = Sandbox

Don't know about you but after I've joined tons of Social Network Sites in the last 6 years, I realize that I go through the cycle of technology adoption from trigger to peak of inflated expectations all the way to plateau of productivity. In between, I also tend to sink into some sort of SNS fatigue. So when a new site turns up -- usually every six months, I routinely create an account, based on each one's relative novelty.

Most usually come within my online attention radar. This time, I came across Sandbox via a huge billboard among a bunch of others along the stretch of Highway 54 in Makati, EDSA to the younger generation.

Ok so I ask myself what else is new? You've seen one with a lot of videos. And another with a lot of pictures, and yet another one with loads of music. What else could be different with Sandbox? Perhaps, the following?

To the younger set it could be a provider of services like friendster but with online store.

To the more mature and sophisticated netizens, it could very well be a source of services like facebook but with online store.

Then again, probably the best thing that makes Sandbox different from other websites, is:

It's an online store that allows you to download music, games and movie-themed content to your mobile.

Hold on, give me time to create a new account and go through the cycle again. And good thing there are open APIs. You don't have to really abandon your other SNS so long as the accounts could cross-connect.

[Edit] - After creating an account and doing the usual validation steps, (Note: They are rather particularly stringent about the usrn@me + p@ssword specs.), I was taken to the site. One thing that caught my attention, the right-hand side application icons that move like those of the Mac during Mouse hover. Will give myself more time to explore its digisoria section. Looks interesting.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

It's ok here


Or that's how the site AyosDito.ph would translate to English. Site's title tells us it has something to do with buying and selling in the Philippines. A comprehensive nationwide buy-and-sell website is something that I've actually been looking for in the last 4 weeks for posting an advertising for a school to no avail. So I had to go via the usual route of newspapers for national reach plus the plain old community approach of handing out flyers. Turns out I missed this vehicle by two weeks. Still it might be worth mentioning in this blog post.

You might be interested to find out that AyosDito covers the entire archipelago of 7,100 islands. And that means you can even browse regions from CAR to ARMM. Check out NCR to see some used items. Now if for some reason you'd want to buy or sell a bicycle, you may wish to click on bike.

Currently, the site is on very active mode, to wit:

Post an Ad for FREE and WIN Big Prizes!

Weekly prizes: HP Mini-note, Sony Digicam, and iPod Touch
Check out the amazing prizes that we are giving away and find out if you are one of the lucky winners of AyosDito.ph Post and Win Contest!


Friday, April 24, 2009

For those following posts on Ad Astra

... seems like they'd have to do that on twitter for the most part.

Blogging could perhaps give way to micro-blogging for now.





Follow @joelogs

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Kairos has patiently waited on me

Image credits: http://www.masternewmedia.org/

Sometime in 2007, I discovered Yahoo Pipes. It's a service that allows one to "program" mash-ups using feeds and other inputs to generate custom feeds. True to form, I started toying with some sample Pipes, e.g. pulling word-of-the-day inputs from freedictionary.com and producing "interesting" photo-collections.

In 2008, I came across a protomnema-inspired vocabulary-building educational framework, and after vaguely mashing the two ideas simply gave them short shrift.

Then for some reason, I suddenly felt a need for Yahoo Pipes. So I picked the 2-year old mash-up and tinkered with it again. Click on the Word-to-Flickr Image Aggregator.

Get RSS results here.

For a moment there, it all seemed like a result of random collaboration.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Immersive gaming: Where is your reality?

Image credits:http://buffetoblog.files.wordpress.com

David Needle reporting on the Web 2.0 Expo says that according to Will Wright, the gaming industry legend perhaps best known as the creator of SimCity and Spore: "The richness of Web-based environments is starting to blur the distinction between games and reality."

Among other things, Wright talks about the possibilities for the concept "immersive". Here's his take on Nintendo's Wii: "Most of the entertainment around the Wii is watching your friend act like a doofus, swinging the thing (Wiimote) around."

More of the serious stuff here.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Nowhere to go but up?


Better yet, what happened to the American Dream?

This is part of Slate's Shoot the Recession Project.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Just so I can catch up ...

Image credits: http://huffingtonpost.com/

... on my blogging, I'll just piggyback, for now, on Michael de Percy's post about "New Media and the Future."

Monday, March 09, 2009

Not by any stretch?














Don't know about you, but I think it takes more than posters to draw parallels between the two.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Vectorizing in glass


... or at least that's how I call it. This high school student is creative. [understatement]

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Got cars, no buyers.

Photo credits: Christopher Furlong/Getty

So where will all those cars go?

"Japanese carmakers slash production by up to 50%. Thus reports the Guardian. This seems like a smart strategy (for now).

Am told that Toyota even had to rent a ship to store 2,500 cars off the Swedish port of Malmö.

See more photos of growing stocks of unsold cars worldwide here.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Headway School for Giftedness and 21st Century Learning

Image credits: www.ictlic.eq.edu.au/

Just parking a work-in-progress. HSG's website will undergo a major revamp. Will keep you posted. Meanwhile, you may be interested to read this article about 21st Century Learning.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Toying with Wordle and recurrent themes

Wordle: Ad Astra

These words were harvested from my recent blog posts.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Google Linux on your PC

Image credits: http://www.theimagecap.com/

Wow! Yes, that's what Jack Wallen's article seems to be trying to elicit from his readers. More here. I wonder who's running scared.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Monday, February 16, 2009

How does Google return a search about kids and Philippines?

Image credits: http://www.flashdaweb.com/

aka SEO basics.

Technically, the link kids Philippines should be able to show us the results.

Now if someone were to promote say, kidsahoy.net, then perhaps this post could make a little difference. Will check back in about 2 days to see how things play out. Meanwhile, remind me not to duplicate this post. I am told that Google, "penalizes websites that have different URLs pointing to the same page."

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Plagiarism or Reference?

Image credits via boingboing.net

Don't know about you but I'm aware that even just hotlinking an image is largely frowned upon. Read the larger context here.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

New Media > Old Media?

Image credits: wikimedia.org


Case in point. Gary Granada vs. GMA Kapuso. You be the judge. More here.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Call her $erena


Williams sets female athlete mark: $23 million, a record for career prize money by a female athlete. Not bad for someone who collected her first check of $240 from a tennis event in Canada in 1995. More here.

Just a side note: I'm tempted to think that $23 million pales in comparison with Manny Pacquiao's boxing prize money in his last bout. That said, I think it's unfair to call him ₱acquiao.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Is it the coffee or the ambience?

Image credits: reallynatural.com

Don't know about you but I'd like to believe that coffee should not be expensive. Now if I'm not mistaken then perhaps that partly explains why "Starbucks will close 300 more stores, and lay off 6,700 workers". Or is it solely because of worldwide recession? So who is your coffee?

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Is this a promise or a threat?

Image credits: mangee

Kevin Merritt, the CEO and founder of blist, a Web-based list manager and spreadsheet that was used on Change.gov, the Obama Administration's transition Website writes about how Obama will be using Social Media to create an open and participatory channel to his constituents.

Could be a "good" model for other politicians? Read more here.