Save Internet Radio

August 18th, 2008

For those of you who have not had the privilege of using Pandora it has one of the most innovative internet radio services I’ve used. It seems that almost 1 million users daily agree. You can type in names of artists that you enjoy and it creates a personalized radio station to listen to songs that are related to the genre that you enjoy. Most of the online radio programs I’ve used are clunky and not very intuitive, but Pandora seems to eliminate these issues with a snappy UI and smart song categorizing.

Sadly, Pandora is getting hit with music licensing fees that equal almost 70% of their revenue that is generated from visual flash advertisements. They are currently in negotiations with the Copyright Royalty Board with the hope of having them agree to reducing the fees. Pandora says that it is loosing money daily and will have to pull-the-plug if an agreement is not made. Join us in signing the petition to reduce the royalty fees and keep Pandora alive.

Joe Liu

Posted in Web2.0 | No Comments

The New Wordpress

July 25th, 2008

We just upgraded to the latest and greatest version of the Wordpress publishing framework.

If you’re subscribed to our email list you probably noticed a symptom of our latest upgrade. We installed the iPhone app that allows us to post from on location. It seems that during setup a blank post was created and sent.

Well as with all cutting edge technology there are always quirks to work out and we would rather they get worked out with our systems than at the expense of our clients.

Welcome to the freshly updated blog.

Joe Liu

Posted in web development | No Comments

Fitness

July 18th, 2008

This week we started a new training program suited perfectly for people who are too lazy or too busy to workout. We try to get out and jog a few times a week, but hitting the gym in the summer is particularly tough. We came across this program yesterday that advertises you can train to do 100 push-ups in 6 weeks.

First you take an initial test and then you are associated with a specific tier of the 5 tier training program. People who can do fewer push-ups initially have to do more during the training. They even have videos of what a proper form push-up looks like and alternatives for people that have a tough time just doing 1.

  Check out the site and let us know if you want to join the push-up challenge. We’ll report in periodically to let everyone know how we’re doing with our training.

Joe Liu

Posted in Fitness | 4 Comments

Celebrate!

July 10th, 2008

Today is a great day. Not because its beautiful weather outside, not because tomorrow is Friday, but because today the first of the series of webisodes airs for the show The Office.

Some of you may wonder the appeal of this show, but anyone that has worked in a corporate environment should relate to it perfectly. It accentuates all awkward personalities and interactions among office personnel. The eccentric humor can be watched in full length on Hulu. The first webisode will air on NBC starting at 2PM CST today.

Joe Liu

Posted in The Office, Thursday | 3 Comments

July 4th Vacations?

July 2nd, 2008

So, I came across this site while looking for a flight to DC and I thought it was a really useful presentation of data. Everyone wants to know when the right time to buy airline tickets and this site provides a tool for you to see pricing history as well as predicts pricing trends for the next week.

This idea of aggregating data from other sites using APIs and creatively presenting it in such a way that benefits users is a growing field. Another site that follows this same general web trend is Mint. Mint.com is an online financial data site that connects to your various accounts and presents your transactions in a various of useful charts and graphs.

Joe Liu

Posted in Web2.0, web development | No Comments