Colossally Abundant

Blogging in Buzz

2010-04-12T20:27:00.001-07:00

Since Blogger is hard to access from here in China, I'll be instead using Google Buzz as my blog.

Feel free to follow me here:

http://www.google.com/profiles/josh.estelle#buzz

Shanghai

2010-04-02T12:34:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

Sadly the last time I posted on this blog was 4 months ago, when I was on my way to Australia for a week to work with the Google Wave team. Bringing me back to the blog is my upcoming trip to Shanghai.

I will be spending the next 3 months in Shanghai, working with the part of my team (Google Translate) that is based there.

While on this trip I intend to breath some new life into this blog, hopefully writing more frequently about my trip.

Adventure awaits!

PS... I stole that fantastic picture above from http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/a-travel-schedule-part-1/, who it appears stole it from Frank Giral. Here's the original.

Going to Australia

2009-12-01T11:10:00.001-08:00

I'm headed to Australia to work in the Sydney office for a week. Should be a blast! Crazy that the flight leaves Thursday and gets in Saturday. Ridiculous!

Google Voice, iPhone, and Voicemail Transcription

2009-08-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with Google Voice a lot lately, and for me, the killer feature is voicemail transcription.

Now it's not always perfect, but being able to read a rough transcription of a voicemail makes handling voicemail so much faster and easier.

I'm not quite ready to make the jump to using my Google Voice number as my primary number, I suppose I'm still a little attached to the number I've had for the past few years.

But I did manage to get Google Voice working just as a voicemail replacement, here's how I did it:

In your Google Voice settings, put Google Voice on Do-Not-Disturb mode. This causes all calls to go immediately to voicemail. More details

Use special GSM codes to modify where your calls are sent if you don't answer, are busy, or are unreachable:
- If no answer: *61*[google voice number]*11*[seconds delay]#
- Example: *61*14153331212*20#
- This forwarding rule is for when your phone rings, but you don't respond in any way.
- If busy: *67*[google voice number]*11#
- This forwarding rule is for when your phone rings, but you actively decline the call.
- If unreachable: *62*[google voice number]*11#
- This forwarding rule is for when your phone can't be reached, i.e., you have no service or your phone is off.
- More details

Now my iPhone still does everything like it use to, except when calls go to voicemail, they're handled by Google Voice. When I get a new voicemail, I get a text message with the transcript of the voicemail, and I can use http://www.google.com/voice to view those messages (in a visual voicemail sort of way) or dial my own Google Voice number to listen to voicemails the old fashioned way.

Pretty sweet.

Note: The methods described above should work for any phone on a GSM network, not just the iPhone. So if you're on AT&T, T-Mobile, or any other GSM network, then this can work for you.

Call Me

2009-08-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to more seriously test out Google Voice these days.

So far I'm super impressed.

Click this to call me:

Where is Routesy?

2009-08-06T17:22:00.000-07:00

When the iPhone App Store first came out, I remember fairly quickly finding out about the app Routesy.

Routesy is an application that provides its user with realtime updates on San Francisco MUNI (public transportation) schedules and timing.

It does so with great integration with the iPhone, using built-in Maps, location-sensing, etc.

It's as easy as opening the app, saying which bus line or train you want to take, and it knows what the nearest stop is and when you can expect the next bus/train.

All of this is powered by the realtime GPS data collected by the MUNI buses and trains.

Now when I first bought this app, I was kind of annoyed. The app cost $1.99, which for some reason annoyed me, because I could get the same information for free online, I was annoyed I was getting charged two bucks.

But now, after having paid for it, and used Routesy for quite some time, I would gladly pay more than that, for the excellent user experience the Routesy app provides. Routesy does a much better job than any of the other options available now, and for me, makes using SF MUNI a much more enjoyable experience.

But all of that ended, when NextBus Information Systems "claimed that an agreement from 2004 gives them full authorization to collect $1 per download from any application developer", and the got Apple to block Routesy from the App Store, and broke existing installations of Routesy.

Now SF MUNI already pays NextBus for their service. Our tax dollars already pay for this information. Now NextBus is trying to get Routesy to pay them again, or to get consumers to pay $4.99 every 6 months!

Ridiculous.

The service they offer doesn't even look like it's as good as Routesy. It'd be one thing if they offered an equivalent service, but now they're demanding I pay more, for a worse experience, for something that my tax dollars, through MUNI, already pay for.

Yea... not cool.

So, support Routesy. Routesy finally got a good lawyer and they're fighting the good fight. I for one will do everything I can to help make sure NextBus doesn't screw us all over.

Follow Routesy on twitter.

Steller Brewing Company

2009-07-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Check out http://www.stellerbrewing.com/ !

The blog has been quiet since it's inception, but it just got 3 blog posts in as many minutes! Whoa! I'm a blogging machine.

Michael Jackson

2009-07-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

In 1983 Michael Jackson gave the world the moonwalk. May his music and his dance live on forever.

Fleet Foxes & Blitzen Trapper at The Fox Theater in Oakland

2009-04-21T23:49:00.001-07:00

This was a really great show. Both bands were great.

Highlight of the show was when Robin Pecknold played one song completely acoustically, that is to say, no amplification.

The whole crowded ssshhhed each other a bit, and then got real quiet. He belted out a song while strumming hard and filled the room with sound. The huge crowd hardly made a peep while they listened intently. It was awesome.

The newly rennovated Fox Theater in Oakland was a great venue too. I'm psyched that I've already got tickets to see The Decemberists there. It's a great venue.

Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes

Blitzen Trapper

Xcode, Snapshots, and corruption

2009-04-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

So I really like Xcode's Snapshots feature. While it is really just a poor mans SCM, I like the ability to snapshot my code, make a bunch of changes, but if those changes end up not what I want, I can easily go back to the snapshot.

Being able to do that outside of the checkout-checkin cycle of using a SCM is useful to me.

At least until Snapshots destroys my Xcode project.

Last night I tried restoring back to an older snapshot. Xcode came back with this fabulous message:

Unable to Open Project

Project ... cannot be opened because the project file cannot be parsed.

Lame. Especially since it seemed to break itself after I restored back to the Snapshot, which was missing a lot of new code.

Luckily I was able to find the location of the Snapshots:

~/Library/Application Support/Developer/Shared/SnapshotRepository.sparseimage

Close Xcode, mount that image, and find your missing Snapshot. Phew. I'll be a bit more cautious in using Snapshots going forward.

I like hearing our president swear

2009-02-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.aprilwinchell.com/2009/02/05/barack%20-obama-is-tired-of-your-motherfucking-shit

Obama's Inaugural Speech - visualized

2009-01-25T15:28:00.000-08:00

Check out my sweet visualization of the words used in President Obama's Inaugural speech. The Onion somehow came up with a different count than me.

Special thanks to http://www.wordle.net/ that I used to create the word cloud.
Credit to Shepard Fairy for the iconic Obama poster.

Proposition 8 - The Musical

2008-12-03T11:05:00.002-08:00

Awesome.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Google Reader adds Feed Translation!

2008-11-11T12:20:00.000-08:00

Awesome.

Blog entry

Google Reader

And here's some text that won't be translated.

Seriously Jenny Lewis, you are awesome.

2008-10-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

Shelley and I went to the Herbst Theater Tuesday night to see Jenny Lewis and her band, and holy crap were they awesome.

Jenny Lewis has an amazing voice, terrific stage presence, such attitude, she's great.

With her man, the talented Jonathan Rice, and the rest of her band backing her up they were totally awesome.

You know when you go to a show and every song is awesome? That's how it was. Old songs that I knew by heart, new songs that I can't wait to know by heart, it was all great.

If you're not familiar with Jenny Lewis, or her other band Rilo Kiley, check her out.

Calling Canada should not cost $0.29/minute

2008-10-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

Why does AT&T charge me 30¢ a minute to call Canada? I mean, come on.... Canada is not far away, in fact, some people I call in Canada are closer than people I call in the US.

Ridiculous.

Or I can pay AT&T $3 a month for the pleasure of the fantastic rate of 20¢ a minute! Jeez. That's still mad expensive.

I guess it's not that much, but it feels silly. I feel wronged having to pay anything extra to call Canada.

So I've tried Skype, and that's good and all, but I frequently get lag which can be terribly annoying.

Grumble.

2008-10-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

How does John McCain get away with claiming he would better regulate the financial industry and then immediately following that with all sorts of small-government, deregulate everything rhetoric?

Ugh.

iGoogle Sidebar

2008-10-16T16:19:00.000-07:00

So iGoogle seems to have updated their look and feel.

For the most part I like it, but it seems that the sidebar where your tabs are takes up way too much space, and there's no way to hide it.

Now I imagine the iGoogle team might fix this, but until they do, I made a solution.

It's not perfect, but it'll get you by. Copy this bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar:

Toggle Sidebar

When you're on your iGoogle hompage, it'll toggle that sidebar. Sweet.

Another debate tonight

2008-10-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

I think TiVo should record it for me, cause I'm not going to be home in time to watch live.

Stupid East Coast and their "standard time".

If you're still at work, and not watching the debates yet, perhaps pass the time with these two terrific blogs:

Yes We Can (hold babies).

Yes We Carve

Brilliantly written

2008-10-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/10/helping-you-break-language-barrier.html

Biden wins the debate!

2008-10-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

Biden won that debate, for sure.

Who actually answered the questions asked?

Who presented convincing facts backing up his ideas and plans?

Who referred to himself by his full name a couple of times? Joe Biden. That's who.

He rocked that debate.

Get out there and vote!

Thermoses are cool

2008-09-25T13:54:00.000-07:00

Thermoses, and perhaps more generally insulation, are amazing.

Yummy coffee, nice and warm... ALL DAY LONG.

Yet the bottle doesn't even feel warm, but when you pour it, it's still steamy. Amazing.

Plus, you get to drink out of a cute little cup.

2008-09-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, wrote a great fictional interview between Obama and fictional president Bartlet. Read it.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

A new attempt at blogging

2008-09-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

I've made a few attempts at blogging before. None have worked out. Sometimes I blame on the tools I was using. Sometimes I blame on my laziness to write things. Sometimes I had nothing to say.

But lately, I've had things to say, and no where to say them.

So come faithful readers, get ready for the most awesome blog you've ever seen. Put this in your feed reader and prepare to have your mind blown.

Or something like that.