Vidal's Site

Flock — The web browser for you and your friends

One of my friends recently took a position at Flock. He showed me their browser and I decided to try it. After about 1 week, I have pretty much switched to using it as my primary web browser both at home and at work. Flock is based on the Firefox browser which I was already using and so the transition was easy. Almost all the extensions I use are available for Flock with the exception of Colorful Tabs which I miss. You have to re-download your extensions because Flock cannot import them from your Firefox installation. Some nice things that Flock adds are the photo, newsreader and blogging integrations. I like the way you can see Flickr photos from within the browser and it includes an uploading client as well. I exported my OPML file from Newsgator and the integrated RSS reader in Flock was able to import it without any problem. I am enjoying the integrated RSS reader better than what I had a Newsgator. Flock is only at version 0 .7 so I'm sure there's a lot more that they are planning to add to it. I could go on about all the cool things I discovered about it and some of the minor annoyances it's just easier if you try yourself. This is a cool product and it's free of course.

Blogged with Flock

I purchased a "TV Timer BOB" last week, and started using it with my kids. It is a small, very simple to use, household transformational device that sits next to your TV. You plug the power cord from the TV into the back and it locks in place, then you plug the device into the wall. You can program it to allow your kids to only watch so many hours of TV per day or per week. You can set up as many as 6 different accounts each with a different PIN code. It has a lot of nice options. When time is up, the power to the TV shuts off.

What was really interesting was that even though I gave my kids a generous starting allowance of TV per day, their actual TV time dramatically decreased. Before when TV time was free and uncontrolled, they didn't mind killing time by watching it. Now that TV is measured and limted, they don't want to waste their time allowances watching shows that are not worth it. They don't even use their whole allowance. And oh, TV Timer BOB keeps your timer running if you forget to turn the TV off!

I am attending Mashup Camp 2 today and tomorrow at the Computer History Museum in Mt. View. This is a really amazing event with almost 300 developers, entrepreneurs, VCs, etc. What really strikes me is how this is in effect a free, open source-style conference similar in spirit to open source software. There are no pre-planned sessions. The participants come up with the sessions the day of the event. The facilities, wi-fi, and the food are completely provided by the sponsors and donations. The event free to attend which amazing compared to high-tech conferences like SuperNova and Web 2.0 which cost many thousands of dollars to get into. These "camps" like FooCamp and BarCamp have been going on for a while, but this is the first one I have attended. I'm impressed, and in fact, there should be more events like these for things other than Web 2.0 technology. If these camps take off, it is bad news for commercial conferences and I don't think I am going to be paying to go to too many more of them.

I am looking to hire a Rails developer for a new project. Please contact me if you are available, or know someone who is. Thanks.

I was talking with my friend Ellen today who just launched a new website this March called “Bits du Jour.� This is a one day discount site where you can get incredible deals on software. It is similar to the popular woot.com, except that Bits du Jour is focused on software. Bits du Jour got mentioned last week in the Wall Street Journal. Ellen has done a great job on bringing up this site. I love the look of it. If you want some great deals, or have downloadable products to sell, check it out!

Please leave me your message, and I will reply as soon as possible

or my mailing address is:

4970 El Camino Real
Suite 210
Los Altos, CA 94022-1441