Tretakoff Musings

Many people didn't like Plaxo ; I'm an exception. I loved that it pulled everything together: contacts, social, even staying in sync. But, as I wrote before , they were permanently stung with the "bac'n" problem: they spammed your friends on behalf of you, to try to build the network: once that happened, there was little to recover. Luckily, Comcast purchased them for address book migration, so they soldiered on. Actually, they did far more: they built a FriendFeed like service, added premium options, and continued to innovate. Many people, myself included, wondered what the Comcast purchase would do to contribute to that innovation. When word leaked at TechCrunch's Disrupt conference that the team would be debuting a new service, TunerFish, it sounded like a perfect marriage: Comcast's TV and Plaxo's social media. The details were vague, but they promised "one click social sharing of what you were watching." I eagerly signed up, as it...

I'm cautiously optimistic about the approach that businesses are taking with harnessing social media to extend their brands and connect with their customers. Unlike the ham handed ways they have used before (uh...pavilions in Second Life?), They seem to be showing a surprisingly open and organic approach to this new medium. Peter Kim has put together a fairly comprehensive list of what many companies are doing, and the various forms that has already, for me, yielded great results. For instance, here are some of the highlights for me: - Comcast . Frank from Comcast is a one-man good PR campaign for this much maligned company. Got a problem with an installer? Twitter Frank . Bitching about your reception on Twitter? He's there to direct message you. Want proof? At my company, we recently received scattered reports that Comcast customers were unable to see the sites we host. I pinged Frank, and within minutes, he responded that he was unable to duplicate the problem, but offered ...

Comcast adding SciFi to their HD lineup: good. Ability to watch the last season of Battlestar Galactica in HD: great. Comcast compressing the HD signal to the point of my DVR acting like it's had too much caffeine in trying to keep up with the compressed signal: Bad. Comcast once again admitting that they throttle bandwidth, but refusing to tell anyone why or under what standards they apply it to : Horrific. You'd think they would learn, as they are facing $100 million in fines from the FCC on their broadband throttling. But messing with people's HDTV? I can see a big boost for Verizon, AT&T, and DirecTV...

Few brands inspire warm and fuzzy feelings in me. Of the ones that do, it's because they have the capacity to surprise and delight me with delicious unexpected gifts at the most opportune times. And I'm happy to say, one just has. Tivo, whose service I have awaited with endless frustration to come onto my behemoth of a clunker Comcast DVR, has just released TivoHD. Yes, there had been a Tivo HD DVR before....for the ungodly price of $1,000 (fell to $700). Instead, I was driven into the arms of that cheap tramp from Comcast, who promised me a "good (HD) time" for less than $20 a month. Well, as you might expect, I walked away with an empty feeling, pining for the luxury that was my Tivo, but knowing I was not willing to fork over the asking price. Today, the sensuality of my lovely Tivo in glorious two tuner HD, with Amazon Unbox service and web-based programming, can be had for three precious Jacksons , 70% less than before. Caveat: you have to argue with Comcast to w...

With the unbelievable noise that is the iPhone, an important news item slipped out unnoticed, except by the good folks at Ars Technica: Tivo is FINALLY coming to the Comcast DVR's, over a year after it was first announced. The best part of this is this quote: "Comcast DVRs based on the TiVo software should be ready in select areas as early as August." Comcast, I'm hereby DEMANDING I be in one of those select areas. I want my Tivo Comcast DVR before Heroes and Lost start again! Our long national cable nightmare for cheap(er) DVR's may finally be on the verge of ending.

Gentlemen, start your engines. As I blogged about before , if you want to know the speed of your web connection, SpeedTest has your back. But now, they have also introduced a new interface, making speed testing a downright participatory sport. Check out that interface to the left! But wait, there's more. Compare your results to those in the same state, or region, or with the same provider. Historical charts, averages of download and upload speeds, and the ability to customize how you prefer to have the information displayed to you. When you're done, you can post your results through HTML or email. Check out mine: Now how cool is THAT?

I'm the kinda guy who has LOTS of betas, bleeding edge programs, and other sundry things on his computer, looking for the next great thing. I'm also not necessarily one who associates reduced performance with those programs. Good example: the Tab Effect I recommended a few days ago : great idea, but really slows down Firefox's performance: I ended up jettisoning it. Not quite ready for prime time. However, I recently found out about other such programs, sapping not performance of my computer, but bandwidth. Remember when I mentioned about my aborted efforts to move to DSL? Well, my nephew Jeremy read that post, and IM'ed me this: Hey Josh...you know, Cnet's speed test is horribly inaccurate. Go retest with Speakeasy's. http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ I get (on average) 5.7 megs a second....6.1 or so on good nights. I'd stay with Comcast, I've only had a problem maybe 4-5 times in the 3-4 years we've had it, and the reviews on Yahoo and Verizon ...

Should I stay or should I go now? The quandary: I currently have Comcast for my broadband service; paying them about $60 a month. Speed, according to the CNet bandwidth measurement tool , is about 476.5 kbps. For my Phone service, I pay AT&T for their VOIP service about $30 a month: unlimited calls, great features. My router is starting to fail, so I'll get a new one, but it made me wonder: were there other providers that could do the job for me? Lo and behold, DSL has finally made it's way to my neighborhood. Looks like AT&T/Yahoo's system to determine if service is available at an address needs work. After a 45 minute chat online with a rep, she verified service is NOT available. Sigh. Read on for details for your research. AT&T/Yahoo will give me DSL that is 6 Mbps for about $40 ; 3 Mbps for $25 a month. Roughly half the cost of cable, and almost 10x the speed. Plus, they'll sweeten the pot with a $75 prepaid VISA. Potentially, I could save even more if I...