Duck It Up

Photos from our tour of the Coca-Cola Archives

Fri, 11 May 2012 18:49:00 -0400

Photos from our tour of the Coca-Cola Archives

Video from the Spotify/Coca-Cola hack den event that my team,...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:18:43 -0400

Video from the Spotify/Coca-Cola hack den event that my team, London Calling, won this weekend!

Our #openhackiness team theme song…

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 16:56:47 -0400

Our #openhackiness team theme song…

Video from the “Reinventing Local” hackathon that Jeff Novich...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:00:25 -0400

Video from the “Reinventing Local” hackathon that Jeff Novich and I participated in back in November and won the Small Business Award. I did actually answer some of the questions but Jeff’s points were, as usual, far better than mine.

My Future of TV

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:33:00 -0400

Back in the summer of 2007, I was the best man at my friend’s wedding in Delaware. At the hotel the entire wedding party was on the same floor and there was a relatively constant flow of people coming in and out of my room to drop something off, pick something up, ask questions, etc.

During what I thought was a lull in activity, I took out my iPod Video (or what is now known as an “iPod Classic”) and plugged it into the TV in my hotel room so I could watch some downloaded episodes of this new show called ‘Mad Men’. (The iPod was connected via the RCA audio/video input sockets in the front of the TV.) Some people came in and, without meaning to, stuck around to watch the show. At some point during the program a key piece of dialogue was missed and I, momentarily, shocked and amazed the small crowd in my room by being able to rewind the video. No one realized that we were not watching live TV, and after the brief surprise revelation, no one really cared.

Why am I bringing this up? Is it to show how cool I was for watching ‘Mad Men’ before all the hype? Is it to immediately negate any of that potential coolness by admitting that I owned (and took with me, like a travelling Radio Shack) the RCA connector cables required to hook my iPod into a random TV? No and no. Well, maybe a little, but my actual point was this: In general, when people are watching a show or a movie on a TV they don’t really care how the program is being delivered to the TV screen. The program could be live, DVRed, on VOD, or on some OTT channel or TV app such as Netflix, but once the show starts I don’t really care where it is coming from because watching TV is supposed to be easy. The addition of new digital video content channels available directly through my TV should be making the TV watching experience easier and not harder.

I don’t claim that these ideas are necessarily what everyone wants from the TV experience or that these are some grand prediction of what TV will be like for everyone in the near future. These are just the innovations I personally would like to see from TV… as soon as possible.

Vastly improved TV search

I should be able to easily search for any and all video content that is available through my TV. The first problem is with the basic interface and the second problem is the inability to search across multiple platforms.

There are few things I find more frustrating in than trying to search my MSO’s VOD offerings. Earlier (and many current) set-top boxes tried to solve this with really annoying on-screen keyboards. Google TV tried to solve the interface problem with awkward, large wireless keyboards and the cross platform video search problem with a on-screen layout that left most users confused as to what video platforms were actually available. Microsoft ending up leading the way with Kinect, which brought both gesture and voice control to the Xbox, however it looks like Samsung might be taking the lead by bringing this easy to use interface to the general TV viewing experience. (Apple is also the subject of ever increasing rumors around Siri-esque voice-controlled TV sets.)

Imagine being able to say “Search ‘Mad Men’” and immediately your screen displays an easy to navigate dashboard of all the various ways you could watch an episode of ‘Mad Men’ based on whatever video outlets are available through your television, not only live TV, DVRed, and VOD programs but also anything available on TV apps you have installed and/or any OTT devices you had hooked up to your TV such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, Apple TV/iTunes, Roku channels, Amazon VOD, etc. Samsung, and soon other TV manufacturers, will have the hardware interface ready and I recently saw a demo at NY Tech Meetup of a start up called WatchIt (http://www.gowatchit.com) which seems close to getting the 3rd party cross-platform video search problem solved. I would suggest MSOs open up their VOD catalogue data to 3^rd parties to allow for outside innovation but that seems pretty unlikely. (A Comcast or Time Warner Cable-sponsored hackathon? Maybe someday, but probably not.)

A social TV channel

In addition to being able to easily search for all the content available through my TV, I want to find out and then possibly watch what my friends are watching and recommend. Basically, I’m looking for a live channel and/or VOD-type offering that is like Shelby.tv, but for long-form video content, on my TV. (And, for those of you who don’t know what Shelby is, think Flipboard but for video clips. It is particularly nice on the new iPad.) Integrating social TV check-ins directly into MSO set-top boxes is apparently not very far off. The most popular TV check-in service, GetGlue is partnering with DirecTV in the US and Shaw in Canada for on-screen check-ins and the ability to see what your friends are watching. Additionally, GetGlue has announced it is working with Facebook to integrate “frictionless sharing” of TV check-ins on that platform. Admittedly, viewers will need become more comfortable about sharing what they’re watching. While not everyone is proud to announce to their social graph EVERYTHING they watch on TV, they should be able to get comfortable sharing the shows that they really enjoy, which could make for a great TV channel.

A TV that knows me

Lastly, and hopefully the most simple problem to fix, the TV should be able to figure out me. This could be as simple as tracking what programs I regularly watch and making sure that I know when new episodes are on live TV or available on all the various VOD/OTT channels available. I’ve clearly searched ‘Mad Men’ enough times for my TV to realize that I like the show and I would rather not miss an episode.

Putting it all together: My TV dashboard / homepage

With all three of these improvements in place, instead of turning on my TV and seeing the last channel I happened to be on, my TV should be able to display a simple dashboard that shows me:

Available new episodes of shows I usually watch and/or search for, across the various sources accessible through my TV
Available shows my friends/social graph are watching and recommend

I certainly welcome other TV related innovations such as second screen apps (though personally I think they are better for certain types of shows, Walking Dead, sure; Mad Men, not so much) but the issues that I covered above struck me as somewhat fundamental. However, for any attempt at altering the TV viewing experience I think it is best to keep in mind, as I said before, watching TV is supposed to be easy.

Given the subject matter discussed above it is probably worth repeating that the thoughts expressed here are my own and not those of my employer.

The “final challenge” at the 2012 Hacker Olympics in...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 09:45:17 -0500

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

The “final challenge” at the 2012 Hacker Olympics in NYC

How I learned to stop worrying and love the Chromebook

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:15:35 -0500

There were two common questions I got after purchasing my Chromebook: 1) What is like to use it? and 2) Would you recommend it?

If you want to know what it is like to use a Chromebook just open the Chrome browser on your laptop, maximize it so it takes up the entire screen and don’t allow yourself to use anything else.

For the uninitiated, Chrome OS is basically* just the web browser. Chrome OS doesn’t allow you to install actual applications. There is a Chrome Web Store where you can “download” web applications, which are really just links / shortcuts to web sites that appear whenever you open a new empty tab. The user is kept in a sandbox, not allowed to install applications directly or change system settings. (Unless you activate ‘Developer Mode’, more on that later.) This creates a very secure environment for the everyday user without the need for malware or virus scanners.

Google built the OS under the (completely accurate) premise that increasing amount of what people do on a computer is done through a web browser. However…

Major Problem 1: Internet Connectivity

Chrome OS’s largest asset is also its obvious weakness: “The Cloud”. If you don’t have any Internet access there’s not much you can do with a laptop that only runs web applications and so the Chromebook basically becomes paperweight.

Major Problem 2: Applications

Chrome OS excels at the everyday stuff. If you want to check your webmail, browse some news sites, visit a social network or two, maybe watch a streaming video on Netflix or Hulu, check your finances or even play Angry Birds the Chromebook is great. I would imagine that for many people that represents 90%-95% of what they need to do on a personal computer, especially at home.

For work, in place of Office applications like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Google offers Google Docs. While Google Spreadsheets does appear to be able to handle pivot tables and some of the more complex functions required for some of the larger data / business case models I’ve had to build, it is still slow and clunky. And, I have never been able to properly convert a PowerPoint into a Google Presentation without it needing to be almost completely re-edited. (Additionally, if you require heavy computing power for resource intensive applications like video editing, Chrome OS is probably not for you.)

Enhancements to HTML5 and back-end web coding may one day make it possible for all those applications to operate on the cloud, but we are not there yet.

Minor Problem: Resizing Windows

This is more of a personal peeve but I don’t like that you can’t re-size the windows / tabs in the Chrome OS. Sometimes I like have two browser windows open at once on the same screen.

My fix for the Chromebook

A couple of weeks ago I installed the latest version Unbuntu Linux on my Chromebook and it has solved all of the problems listed above. I won’t go though the various technical details of how I did this (there are links that I can provide if you are interested) but now I have the ability to very easily switch between booting up Linux or booting up the Chrome OS. When I know I just want to do web stuff I boot up the Chrome OS and when I know I need to do something like complex data modelling and/or I’m not going have an Internet connection I run Linux. Plus, as you can see in the picture above, I can run the Chrome browser in Linux, for those times I really need both functionalities at the same time.

The cool thing is that Google actually encourages this. There is page on an official Google website entitled “Poking around your Chrome OS device” that shows you how to activate ‘Developer Mode’ and thus allow you to install applications or change system settings. (http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/poking-around-your-chrome-os-device) Google has built something that is great, but they admit that it isn’t perfect AND they get that because I purchased this product I should be able to do whatever I want with it. (Apple, take note.)

So, would I recommend a Chromebook? Not yet. I think the Chrome OS might have been released slightly ahead of its time. We live in a world that’s not quite ready to live entirely on the cloud.

(* For the more geeky folks reading this [Shahid?], Chrome OS is actually a web browser built on top of a custom Linux-based operating system.)

"@shahidhussain: @pinzler PINZLER FOR PRESIDENT #duckitup"

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:30:21 -0500

“@shahidhussain: @pinzler PINZLER FOR PRESIDENT #duckitup”

- http://bit.ly/xHpEOk

"Duck it up!" explained...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:59:09 -0500

It all started during an IM chat with a friend of mine…

Friend: I have a lunch today with the new director and our VP today
do I want, Pizza with Ricotta and Spinach or a Seared Duck Breast Salad?

Pinzler: well, I would imagine the duck is more expensive?

Friend: actually, it’s not

Pinzler: oh, well then, Duck it up!

Friend: lol

… then a few minutes later ….

Friend: oh, but I smell something pizza-y now…

Pinzler: DUCK IT UP!

Not long after this exchange I realized that this wasn’t a half-bad life philosophy. A sort of portmanteau of “Do it up” and “Duck”. Take things seriously but don’t be forget to have fun too. Do something with purpose while not taking yourself too seriously. Duck it up.

Then I found (stole) the perfect mascot. The Cadillac Catera (1997-2001) was marketed as the “Caddy that zigs” and featured advertisements starring an animated red duck called “Ziggy”. According to Cadillac, “Ziggy has the sole mission of bringing fun to the luxury of Cadillac.” Duck it up, indeed.

So, duckitup.com will serve as my blog home for the funny, cool and/or interesting things I come across, usually related to tech or media, that I need more than 140 characters to explain.

Finally, as an added bonus, if you tweet with the hashtag #duckitup (after passing through a screening process enabled by ifttt.com) that tweet will be posted on this blog. Don’t abuse it.

It looks like the most “amazing” thing to come out...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:50:24 -0500

It looks like the most “amazing” thing to come out of CES this year is the iNuke Boom. Pictured above (yeah, that’s not the booth, that’s the actual product), the iNuke Boom is an 8-foot, 700-plus pound iPod dock that can push out a staggering 10,000 watts, and it only costs $29,999! I’ve always wanted an accessory for my portable music device that requires a truck and a team of movers to travel with. #DuckItUp!

So, I recently completed federal jury duty for the Eastern...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:18:57 -0500

So, I recently completed federal jury duty for the Eastern District of New York. (The Eastern District covers Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Nassau & Suffolk counties.) I’ve been going back and forth about how to write about this in a public forum. I decided that I don’t want to share some of my experiences here that, while I think are quite amusing, might in some way inadvertently unravel the outcome of the case I spent four days on. (More than happy to talk about it privately!) Also, the case was reported here: http://forward.com/articles/149459/

One of the many things in the “grab bag” of gifts I...

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:44:02 -0500

One of the many things in the “grab bag” of gifts I got for my secret santa at the office. That’s right, not one heart but double hearts! (Other items in the bag included a silver tiara, a santa hat, a DVD of the 1971 movie “Evel Knievel” staring George Hamilton, a pill dispenser actually called “The Pill Popper”, and some hot pink ear muffs.)