3 Ways To Hack Facebook

I'm not going to talk about hacking Facebook in the malicious sense, but rather I'm going to discuss ways to improve your productivity on Facebook with some simple steps each day.

First off, I'm assuming that you have some form of social life and value friends and people. From that, you should be aware that it is always better to be more connected with people. Therefore, it should be in your best interested to nurture that human connection so long as you can do it without taking too much time out of your day. The following steps will take less than 5 minutes each day, combined.

1. Set a time everyday to give a quick happy birthday wall post to each of your friends that has a birthday. I usually also try to include some way to further the conversation so that I can start a small dialogue with a friend that I haven't talked to in a while. Who cares if you're not close to them, it's always nice to have someone celebrate your birthday. I have started to do this first thing in the morning.

2. Surf status updates and comment on them. People set status updates because they have something to share and always appreciate the responses (just don't make them creepy). Status update comments are the new wall posts, which were the new e-mail.

3. Link Twitter and Facebook together. If you're a Twitter use, you know the power of microblogging. There is no reason why Facebook status updates will be anything less than Twitter updates. If people don't want to see your spam, kindly show them how to block your status updates on the newsfeed. Don't be afraid of letting the web 2.0 savvy you intermix with the regular social life you -- the reason we all love web 2.0 is because there is inherent value to improving communication and human relationships, this transcends just simply being a nerd.

How To Save Microsoft

Last week I had a heated debate with my friend Ben Tseng about how Microsoft is pure evil. While it is always fun to point fingers, I realized that it is probably more constructive to provide a plan to help them help us.

Here are some fundamental problems with the Microsoft model, how it will ultimately destroy them, and what to do now to solve them:

1. Inferior Products

Problem

Almost everything that Microsoft has tried to accomplish in the last decade has been a failure; Zune, Vista, IE, MSN, etc. The only reason why Microsoft is still pulling in huge numbers year after year is because the use of technology is increasing, not because Microsoft is producing good products.

Why it matters

The perfect case study of the effects of moving second, being complacent with inferior products is AOL. AOL moved to broadband too slow, and the once dominant Internet Service Provider is now stuck with a bunch of small fish web properties, hoping to hold onto anything that will keep it from drowning.

Likewise, Microsoft will not have any problems in the next year or five. People are going to buy Vista, people are going to buy Windows 7, but given a larger scope, they will become a GE or a Ford. Its lack of innovation is going to continue to give their competitors (Apple, Linux, Mozilla, etc.) leeway to continually chip away at their critical mass until one day Microsoft is going to wake up and realize that without its critical mass it is just a giant piece of fail.

Solution

The solution is simple.

Move first and push for innovation. Obviously Microsoft does this to some extent, but they need to be more vocal and evangelical. It has some cool technology in its labs (touch table, Seadragon), but nothing that is "game changing" like the new Macbook, iPhone, iTunes, Firefox Add-Ons, etc.

I know that just asking for a company to produce new and awesome products is a ridiculous task. The biggest asset that Microsoft has is its engineers, they're brilliant, let them showcase their brilliance. Here are some suggestions on how to do this:

• Use the Google 20% rule and let engineers work on their own projects for 1 day out of every 5


• Properly incentivize engineers. Microsoft has $9 Billion in the bank, it should give $50 million each year to the best projects. That's less than 1% of Microsoft's total cash to push out a ridiculous amount of "smart" ideas.


• Copy competitors and evolve their products. If Microsoft is bent on moving second, at least copy the good features and evolve the product. The UI of the Zune is archaic and unintuitive. Microsoft search results are a joke. Cash back for buying products, really? That's its big plan to salvage its billion dollar investment in web?

2. Closed Platform

Problem

Windows is a closed source platform. This is the most horrible and stupid decision that Microsoft has made.

Why it matters

There are hundreds of thousands of engineers, brilliant people, working on Linux. Every line of code is peer-reviewed by the best and brightest in the world. There are very few bugs, everything runs smoothly, at least relative to Microsoft.

Microsoft does not make its money from its kernel. Microsoft makes its money from the comprehensive operating systems package. Unless Microsoft disagrees with point #1 and is bent on selling inferior products with legacy support as a core business model, they have to agree that they want to produce a better product for less money.

Linux is a better product than Windows. The Apple operating system is the perfect showcase of this, it built its operating system (OS X) on top of BSD (a unix derivative with an open license to sell commercially). Microsoft can dramatically cut internal costs and development time by simply using a free and better product.

Open source engineers have basically agreed to work FOR F-ING FREE FOR Microsoft, and Microsoft works extra hard to turn them down. That is the stupidest business decisions, ever.

Solution

Microsoft should build its next operating system after Windows 7 using the BSD kernel. On top of this new operating system, build a virtual machine that will run old windows program so it can still have that precious legacy support.

This will open up the gateway of innovation because developers (ie. me) will no longer have to develop for 5 different platforms but rather focus their energy on developing a great application with one method of deployment.

If Microsoft is afraid that it cannot produce a better user experience than its competitors, then it is doomed to fail anyways. This is the only way for to survive in the long-run.

That's why Apple allows you to use Microsoft through Boot Camp. Apple knows that everyone will still opt for the Leapord experience because it is 5 million times more stable and enjoyable.

3. Attitude

Problem

Steve Ballmer is a jackass. He says so many stupid things that do nothing but infuriate and incite hatred. No one likes the company with the upper-hand, Microsoft is the epitome of the technological "man". That makes it inherently uncool, and when Steve Ballmer continually fuels the flames with his loud mouth, it just makes things worse.

Why it matters

Almost 50% of college students want to buy an Apple computer or laptop. This is no doubt a function of how uncool Microsoft has become.

Then the math is simple. Every year more people go to college and buy Apple computers in college, they realize that Apple is superior to Microsoft. Following graduation they will continue to use Apple. Given an infinite amount of time with the same trend, the young in college will be old in the workplace and start making the decisions necessary to change whole IT departments to be predominantly Apple or Linux based since they are better and cheaper products.

Microsoft needs to be more viral.

Solution

Fire Steve Ballmer or hire several aides to make sure he sticks to his talking points.

Microsoft has had some great PR campaigns (I am a PC, the Zune commercials, etc.), but they still need a lot more work. That means dumping Windows into rap videos, setting up college campus events, make cool products, focus more on creative ads like the Apple page-takeovers with similar undertones to their successful video ads.

Conclusion

Microsoft is the perfect representation of the Hare in the old anecdote of the Tortoise and the Hare. It is winning the race so now it is just napping, if it doesn't wake up soon, it is going to be crushed by this next wave of technological innovation.

Today Was A Good Day

I usually try and keep personal stuff out of my blog, but what the heck, I graduated from college today so I think I deserve some leeway. Here are 5 AWESOME things that have happened to me today, and I just wanted to share this with everyone because it's hard to have a good day and I think that we should try and appreciate/share the ones we do have:

1. I graduated. yay.
2. Saw Milk -- awesome movie, thanks Jenny (she bought tickets too!)
3. Thought I had no beer, I was wrong, I had 2 beers! (soon to be none)
4. Our next game is a little sketch, but today there was a NC-17 app approved for the iPhone app store. So that clears our way to launch as well.
5. Charles Hudson posted a new blog post about doing an iPhone gaming conference in nor cal. Yes!!!!

--
Edit:

6. Obligatory gangster rap background music.

An Interesting Anecdote About Monkeys and Hoses

I saw an interesting anecdote today describing Python 3.0. And while I have decided to proactively try to keep "nerd" talk out of my blog, I felt that this little narrative had a much broader and practical appeal than originally intended. Enjoy!

There’s an old joke, so old that I don’t even know for certain where it originated, that’s often used to explain why big corporations do things the way they do. It involves some monkeys, a cage, a banana and a fire hose.

You build a nice big room-sized cage, and in one end of it you put five monkeys. In the other end you put the banana. Then you stand by with the fire hose. Sooner or later one of the monkeys is going to go after the banana, and when it does you turn on the fire hose and spray the other monkeys with it. Replace the banana if needed, then repeat the process. Monkeys are pretty smart, so they’ll figure this out pretty quickly: “If anybody goes for the banana, the rest of us get the hose.” Soon they’ll attack any member of their group who tries to go to the banana.

Once this happens, you take one monkey out of the cage and bring in a new one. The new monkey will come in, try to make friends, then probably go for the banana. And the other monkeys, knowing what this means, will attack him to stop you from using the hose on them. Eventually the new monkey will get the message, and will even start joining in on the attack if somebody else goes for the banana. Once this happens, take another of the original monkeys out of the cage and bring in another new monkey.

After repeating this a few times, there will come a moment when none of the monkeys in the cage have ever been sprayed by the fire hose; in fact, they’ll never even have seen the hose. But they’ll attack any monkey who goes to get the banana. If the monkeys could speak English, and if you could ask them why they attack anyone who goes for the banana, their answer would almost certainly be: “Well, I don’t really know, but that’s how we’ve always done things around here.”

Nokia's N97 Does Not Kill iPhone, Here Is How

There is a lot of buzz today about the iPhone "killer", Nokia's N97 at Nokia's annual conference for themselves, Nokia World . As much as I would like Apple to get some real competitors, this is not it.

Here are 3 reasons why:

1. Price Point. This phone is priced to start at $700, the iPhone is priced at $200. Granted, post-subsidies it might come down to $350, but given two very similar phones, I think most people will still opt for the iPhone.

2. App store. The Nokia phone is allowing 3rd party developers to distribute applications through their traditional "Download" application. What this lacks is 1. deep integration into the phone and 2. a way to pay for applications. Might I suggest doing some sort of partnership with PayPal or Amazon?

3. Size. Bigger, fatter, heavier.

This is starting to get pathetic. The Blackberry Storm was a let-down, the G-Phone was a flop, and now even Nokia is completely paralized by a phone that was created almost 2 years ago. Come on guys, get your act together. If we want a mobile revolution, we're going to need everyone to chip in. Here is what everyone that wants a shot at Apple needs to do:

1. Worship developers.

None of the other big mobile manufacturers have a viable app store. Right now, the user has to know how to physically go around and find applications on their own. This is horrible, the reason why the iPhone App Store is so successful is because it caters to impulse buying and downloading. To one-up the iPhone App Store, the rest of you guys (Blackberry, Windows, Android, and Symbian) need to come together and create an app store and distribution channel together. You need partnerships with every payment processing service; PayPal, Amazon, and Google. It's not hard guys, stop being lazy and innovate.

2. Break the price point.

The only reason why Palm is still in the game is because they broke the $100 barrier. These smart phones need to be f-ing FREE. We do not need a 5 megapixel camera in our phone, we need internet connectivity at an affordable price point. Make the iPhone the premium product, not your own entry-level competitors.

3. Touch Screen EVERYTHING

Stop with the QWERTY junk. The iPhone touch screen is far superior to tacticle feedback. Like Henry Ford said, "If I asked what people wanted, they would have said faster horses." Apple succeeds because it knows that people are stupid and are going to want stupid features, like a keyboard. If you use my application, iType (shameless plug), you can see that people can get up to 40 WPM (my co-founder) on the iPhone, that's without spelling correction. Given that it is highly possible to type well on a touch screen and that screen space is the biggest value-add to any mobile device, it is STUPIDLY obvious that you need to switch off the tacticle keyboard.

Sources:
[Engaget]
[Gizmodo]
[Scobleizer]