Archive for June, 2007

27
Jun

5 Freebase invites

By Randy Stewart 1 Comment
Categories: Geek Fun and Social Media

If you’re a data/information infrastructure nerd like me, you’re gonna love Freebase.

Here’s a bit from O’Reilly:

But once you understand a bit about what metaweb is doing, you realize just how remarkable it is. Metaweb has slurped in the contents of several of the web’s freely accessible databases, including much of wikipedia, and song tracks from musicbrainz. It then turns its users loose on not just adding more data items but making connections between them by filling out meta tags that categorize or otherwise connect the data items, using a typology that can be extended by users, wiki-style.

It’s really freaking cool.

Anyhow, I’ve got 5 invites, so if you are interested, let me know. I know there is a fair bit of pent-up demand for these invites, so if you’ve got an invite to Spock or some other invite only Web 2.0 site, I’ll probably favor a request with a trade than one without.

Leave a comment or send an email to randy@boxbe.com

21
Jun

In San Francisco, 6/25 - 7/4

By Randy Stewart Closed
Categories: Travel

Attention Bay Area peeps! I’m heading down to San Francisco for a wedding celebration of a good friend as well as turning up in the Boxbe offices for a few days.

I’m sending email out to folks to meet up while I’m around, but if you are around, I’d love to meet up.

15
Jun

Skitch rules

By Randy Stewart 1 Comment
Categories: Geek Fun

Thanks to Tara Hunt for giving me an invite to Skitch. I’ve been jonesing to use this ever since I saw Guy Kawasaki demo it back in the beginning of the year.

haircut
Uploaded with Skitch!

Nothing too meaningful to say about it yet, other they’ve just completely replaced the aging, somewhat Macintel compatible, slow-as-molasses Snapz Pro. God, I can’t wait to uninstall that app. This is already so much easier and useful to use.

06
Jun

Places to go while visiting Seattle?

By Randy Stewart 2 Comments
Categories: Seattle

space_needle.jpg

Not completely in the vein of the rest of the blog, but I thought I would throw this out to see what I got from all y’all.

So, my brother, his wife and their 4 year old are visiting Seattle for the next several days and my sister in law is worried we’ll just sit around the house and talk rather than going out and doing everything their is to be done while they visit.

While I’ve lived in Seattle almost 2 years, I still don’t know the area that well (certainly not as well as natives) and I came up with a counter itinerary to their original.

For first time visitors (with a 4 year old) to Seattle, here’s what I recommend:

City neighborhoods tour

There is a lot to see here that doesn’t involve going inside and/or paying anything.

This could include:

Downtown

  • Pike Place Market - ok, this one is dead obvious.
  • Downtown Library - one of the most interesting pieces of architecture I’ve ever seen.
  • REI Flagship Store - full rock climbing wall, outdoor track for test driving mountain bike. This may be the coolest store I’ve ever been to.
  • Seattle Art Museum Sculpture Park (free) - very cool outdoor park with large amounts of running around space.
  • Space Needle

Pioneer Square - oldest neighborhood in Seattle, hit Elliot Bay Books. I’m not sure if it’s the dirt or the old buildings that remind me of San Francisco the most.

Ballard
Chittenden Locks (free) - these are real, working locks for small, medium, large and xx-large boats. It’s really cool.

Fremont
The Troll, Lenin Statue and ICBM

Other trip ideas

Bainbridge Island Ferry (Free) - unless we take the cars.
I haven’t been to Bainbridge Island, but it sounds like a great place to visit. If nothing else, it’s a free ride across the Sound with sweeping views of downtown.

Snoqualmie Falls
Falls and town that were in Twin Peaks - taller than Niagra Falls

Golden Gardens or Alki Beach or Matthews Beach (free) -
in the city beach but only if it is nice and warm.

Discovery Park
Very large park (are we still in the city?)in Seattle with great views

Washington Park Arboretum and Japanese Tea Garden
As an aside, this is the first place I saw a bald eagle in the wild.

Rent Paddle Boats on Green Lake
Weather dependent.

Seattle Duck Tour
This is ridiculous, but maybe fun. Tour the city in vehicle that ultimately ends up in Lake Union and Portage Bay
$23 for adults $13 for kids.

Anything else?

Other thoughts and suggestions would be much appreciated.

01
Jun

Google Maps = Peeping Tom?

By Randy Stewart 0 Comments
Categories: Google

robotstalkingtorobot2.jpgSo, I’m digging the new street level view on Google Maps. It is very cool to be able to walk around the streets of San Francisco (although for some reason, they couldn’t make it down my old street). But apparently the Google Bus is getting a little too close for comfort for some.

Today’s New York Times is reporting on a woman who saw her cat in Google Maps, in her second floor window. Yow.

Now, I’m all for new technology (and I love the street level view), but I could see where this might give you the heebie jeebies. From a privacy standpoint, I’m not sure where I stand on this, but if Google had pictures of me in a bathing suit (oh boy), I think I might be asking them to take it down too.

Wired has a great collection of interesting locations and people doing strange things that people have found using the new service (where the above image is from, um, but the other ones are real-ish).

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