18th Moon Station

There’s a lot of web services in the internet. Quoting the release info from Windows Live Team:

For our partners, they’re great because just like other viral sharing mechanisms, they help new people discover each site’s content within the context of global services like Messenger and Hotmail that are already used by nearly 450 million people a month. And, the content being shared is more relevant and likely to be clicked on by the viewer, because it’s coming directly from their friends.

Web activities actually do more than that for me. The release assume that the users of Windows Live is already member of the services, and that it drives new peoples to come and visit.

In my experience, the availability of aggregation in sites I used is actually as important as alternate login (e.g: OpenID, Facebook Connect). If there’s aggregation for the service available, I’d be more encouraged to try those sites. For example, when I tried Fotolog,, Goodreads, Last.fm and StumbleUpon. Also, the reason I choose Digg instead of del.icio.us. Not just Windows Live, also Friendfeed (Backtype, Mixx, Tumblr) and Retaggr (CoComment).

Why? Just like the alternate login, I get something I can use for more than something in the closed garden. I can login using the key I bring from other place. For these websites, well, I can share it more widely, easily. It also gives a standard motivator to give that push on the back for curious me to try those services and try using it regularly.

The problem with the choices though. Windows Live now had more services supported than FriendFeed, but the choices is dominated by services popular in a specific local market. That’s why I find more than half are services I’ll never actually use.

最近は見なかったな. 忙しいのかな?

アプローチは激し過ぎかな? 別にそういうつもりは無いのに. でも, プライベートの日常を知りたいのもさすがに拙かった?

これは初めてじゃないから, いいか.

Went to watch 2012 today, or as I tried saying in Twitter, watch Roland Emmerich try to destroy humanity once more from the face of this planet.

Personally, the self-made comment I remember about… “Jackson, Gordon, you two could try and be danmaku pilot” Although the intensity of the projectiles and obstacles is nothing the level of Touhou games.

Anyway, after a long day with company-recommended medical check up, short date, oh, and stepping on dog shit (literally) in the morning to be troubled by it all day long; bought the ticket. I was lucky to watch it alone, because other than a single seat by the left aisle on the third lane from behind, the next available seat is at the front most, and even that is scarce.

In going to the movie, I’m welcomed by rain, I think rank 3 out of 5 where 10 is the hard rain with strong wind but still weaker than F-scales. I’m expecting to be greeted by… something not as spectacular as daybreak as in the movie, but at least the rain stopped.

Naah… met with an elementary school’s classmate opening a Blackberry accessories store in the mall and we get into short talk, although I think I’m becoming the annoying-talkative again. Must be my habit, compressing the whole topic to prepare for short time window even if I had more. But that’s it, the mood of welcoming the outdoor is gone :P

Timeline, stream, the popular format of conveying thoughts isn’t it.

From the time when blogs came, and change websites based on hierarchical document structure into long page going to the next long pages with articles stacked on another FIFO. Then Facebook’s feed, Twitter’s timeline too.

I guess, in BBS it’s called… “flat”, everything in one surface. I’d use the term, 1-dimensional, because like Timeline it is, this form has only length and simple back-reference to point on what is being replied.

What’s two dimensional? Well, Facebook and Friendfeed’s feed is an example. It has the option to comment/reply to an object and group the discussion under a single parent. It has the length (timeline) and width (reply ”timeline”). Personally, I enjoyed this type better, because unlike BBS, there’s no sectioning by Twitter. I prefer posting thoughts or sharing things in Twitter rather than having timeline dominated by replies. Friendfeed’s approach is part to blame on :P
But really, it’s a lot more comfortable that way, like Windows 7’s new taskbar grouped instances of different windows under same icon *winks*

True threaded BBS, where there’s a clear structure for reply-of-reply… what do you think? 2.5 dimensional, or 3 dimensional?

And in spirit of “what’s next”, what do you think of the next dimension in discussion? I don’t have strong visualization of it, but maybe, no… not the jargon “real-time” that’s popular recently, instead I think of, interlinking cross-platform discussion.
Some of it is visible now, with plug in like BackType can pull replies from Friendfeed, Twitter, etc. for a blog post. But we still can’t… for example.

Ann replied a blog article in Twitter, then Bob, seeing from his Tumblr make a reply blog post to it. This post by Bob can then be read as part of response to the original article, and received by Ann without the need of Bob to cross-post his response either manually or automatically.

Sounds impossible in the walled ecosystem of now though, and would give a headache if we try imagining the thousands of web services interlinking like the world wide web is not enough of a cobweb already.

BTW, I never tried Google Wave, so I don’t know how that thing would fit in (and no, I don’t know anything more than keywords: “Google, Wave, XMPP, real-time, collaboration, how is it relevant”).

I went to the Windows 7 tour event in Pondok Indah today. Since the first day is yesterday, I assume the representatives only came yesterday formally. But still, there’s a number of Microsoft Indonesia’s event crew on spot, I even met an acquaintance there. The stand looks interesting, at least better than Microsoft’s booth in Indocomtech 2009.

As expected, they had close cooperation with hardware partners like Acer and Gateway. The products shown are… well, the trend in Indonesia, notebook & netbook, and all-in-one PC (Gateway ZX series, although I like HP TouchSmart better). Anyone missed the day where they would showcase build up desktop PC and hung motherboards on the booth wall? I guess the visitors nowadays has been brainwashed to see those PC guts as too geeky to show.

But I do get the chance to play Virtual Earth using Surface interface (part of Windows 7 Touch Pack).

In the middle of the Gateway’s booth, there’s a small stand showcasing Windows Phone. They showed Samsung Omnia Pro, Sony Ericsson Xperia2 and Acer’s 3 units including one SnapDragon device.

The touch screen on both phone and PC is still unresponsive. But since I think even the iPhone’s display is not so responsive, I guess this is technology limitation.

Even so, on the other side, Windows Phone is never affordable (at least those that worth it). I avoid Standard device at all cost because of a simple reason. The popularity of touch screen devices made non-touch Windows Mobile into a marginal product not good enough for peoples that like to play with 3rd party applications. Developers want to ride the biggest bandwagon, touch screen devices. Non-HTC device is also not so worth it, because there’s not much ROM to be found in place like XDA Developers (yes, it’s shunned, but I’d rather pay for the OS than paying hardware tax just for software upgrade).

Anyway, the greatest story I heard today is that, they’re selling Windows 7 Ultimate at promo price of IDR 2.4M for 3 license key! Yup, gonna buy that. My desktop, my notebook. The other two, my dad’s notebook and my brother’s, which one should I install the 3rd ?