Firefox has a hipper cousin: Flock

So I'm cruising facebook and looking at pictures from an artist, Marcia Furman, and I notice at the bottom of her photo "Uploaded by Flock" at the bottom of the picture, underneath the caption. This got me thinking; What the hell is Flock? Seriously?! So surprise surprise I typed F-L-O-C-K into that neat little lifesaver called Google. Which I might add... I've realized I've been using since 1999. That's TEN years! Anyways, I got distracted, back to the story. So then I see the results:

Flock Browser - The Social Web Browser
Feb 23, 2009 ... Flock is a free web browser. Built on Mozilla's Firefox, Flock enables you to
instantly upload photos, share photos and videos by ...

My immediate thoughts; holy crap how didn't I hear about this browser. Having prided myself for so many years on knowing the latest greatest hardware/software about to come out or whatnot, I was stunned. So anyways, with some further investigation (haha, jokes) this Flock browser has some social skills! Able to download in 18 different languages and two way 'conversations' between mainstream social networks like facebook, myspace, blogger, twitter, livejournal, and xanga. Video and photo site aren't out of the loop as youtube, flicker, picasa, and photobucket are supported. Mail isn't an issue either. As I enter the site, I am face to face with Download Now, Version 2.0 for Mac. (Yours may say something like for Windows, depending on your OS.) Wow, not only have I not heard of this, but I haven't heard of this for the duration of TWO versions. Mind you, yes, they could have realeased this version a week after initial launch, but that doesn't matter. I'm surprised none the less.

Okay did some research and it appears flock has been around since 2005, having seeming bought the domain in 2004 there were "No birds in this flock". The site gave developer preview in Nov of 2005, but not before hinting at user service: "We're doing something crazy for you and your friends. Just wait and see." Not sure anyone knew what they had up their sleeves. During the summer of 06' Flock had turned it on to more users in a beta format. November of 2007 was the completion of verison 1.0 and even then it was available as open source to Linux, Mac, and Windows. Less than a year later 2.0 was released and was a huge success for the company.

Wanna join the flock? Give it a try tell me what you think.

Alternative Photo Site

So it has come to my attention that there is a user friendly photo sharing (or private) site. This company made an immediate impact on me as being a small company on a big scale. If that makes any sense? Anyways your free to check it out at http://www.23hq.com/ Hope you like it and either way let me know how it went and/or goes.

Credit goes to Chris Pirillo, for bringing the site to my attention, even though I did see Thomas (co-founder) in a youtube video opening a beer-with a beer a long time ago.

Journey to USB 3.0 - SUPERSPEED

Remember when the USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard first came out? It was pretty sweet wasn't it. The first thing I remember it coming out for, at least the first thing I used it for, was the mouse, ball mouse to be specific. Introduced first in 1996 from collaboration between Intel, Compaq, Microsoft, Digital, IBM, NEC, and Northern Telecom. The device is used with a variety of devices including: Ethernet adapters, modems, serial port adapters, keyboards, mice, joysticks, digital cameras, printers, USB flash drives, memory card readers, media players, external drives, hubs, webcams, Wi-Fi adapters, and bluetooth adapters. The list is quite long and doesn't even cover all uses.

The architecture of USB has an asymmetric design. Which enables you to connect a root of devices (up to 127) from one port. The device will host a other devices and operate in a round robin fashion to orchestrate data between devices.

First there was Low Speed USB 1.0 which rate was 1.5 Mbit/s. It is intended primarily to save cost in low-bandwidth devices such as keyboards, mice, and joysticks. Also to smooth out the multitude of device specific ports previously used on the rear of computer towers.

Second came USB 1.1 nicknamed Full Speed. At a data rate of 12 Mbits/s. Which basically is faster and becomes the standard for hub speed.

Then comes High Speed USB 2.0. Which has a data rate of 480 Mbit/s or 60 MB/s, which is a great leap of improvement for speed. Devices using this standard are backwards compatible to previous standards if connecting a 2.0 device to a 1.1 computer. Original specifications were released April 27, 2000. Many changes and alterations were modified or added in the USB 2.0 over the next several years. These changes consisted of a variety including: mini-B, USB on-the-go, microUSB, power link, and microB.

USB is very common and versatile and the durability is hard to beat. The hardest trouble an inexperienced USB user would run into is which direction it plugs in. Although one hard push the wrong way and it soon becomes apparent that you may want to turn it around.

As of November 17, 2008 specifications for USB 3.0 have been released. The standard, nicknamed SuperSpeed boasts power and performance improvements while maintaining backward compatibility. With controllers expected in mid summer the USB product rollout is anticipated for 2010. The first devices to incorporate the standard will most likely be external hard drives, media players, flash drives, and cameras.

Data rate of SuperSpeed prides a 5.0 Gb/s with simultaneous bi-direction data flow(dual-bus). Features a six wire design, using four wires for dual-simplex SuperSpeed data path and the other two wires for half-duplex differential signaling used by previous USB standards. Another feature is packets are sent asynchronously to only devices meant for the packet. Compared to previous standards, in which packets were directed to all devices.

In summary, USB 3.0 products are basically already the shit, even if they're not even out yet.

Kodak Krap

It seems as if I have uncovered a Kodak secret (it was for me anyways). The terms of service have changed as of March 13th for their online storage site: kodakgallery.com formally known as Ofoto. While this affects previous users who were told it was totally free, and new members. There is a notice on the site at the bottom right of the main page, so it's warning isn't totally secret.

Now on to the actual changes. There is a mandatory minimum purchase of 4.99 a year for users. While users with more than 2 GB of disk space used must spend at least 19.99 a year. You ask what are the penalties? I quote: "If you do not meet the applicable minimum purchase requirement, your photos may be deleted." Now be careful, you can't rush this purchase and think everything is fine. You must ensure your purchase is in your "Kodak Imaging Network" cart and not another cart from a 3rd party meshed with Kodak services (ex: photostamps).

Thats not all folks, you better log on once every two months, because they may delete your account. Aww, so nice of them. They also delete your videos thirty days after you upload them, period.

If I convinced you to sign up... have fun.