Tretakoff Musings

Thanks to my Amazon Prime membership, with it's growing catalog of free streaming TV and movies, I've recently been reliving the delight of what was the 2nd best show ever to air on US television, The West Wing . The first 4 seasons, with Aaron Sorkin pitching fastballs every episode, are some of the smartest, engaging, and emotionally riveting television I have ever seen, and they hold up, even today. One interesting phenomenon I've discovered, however, is that these characters, although off the air for nearly a decade, have gained a second life on Twitter, of all things. It started when I found the Twitter account for President Josiah Bartlet , the president so many of us wanted to be real. With great excepts like "Working with the Solicitor General to see if I can revoke citizenship for one Congressman an hour until a deal is reached." and "If we're making a list of the mentally ill in this country, start with anyone who remains a member of the NR...

Big thanks to my friend Lani Chin (who you should all subscribe to her blog ; great and insightful writing) for pointing out that, oddly, I am not the only tech geek trying to switch from iOS to Windows Phone 8 on a Nokia Lumia 920 AND blog daily about it. Mashable's Christina Warren, a professional blogger, took up the idea too, and is off and running. Her journal is educational, insightful, and entertaining. While she, presumably, made it past Day 3 (I did not, as my entry pointed out ), many of her observations echo mine. Now that I'm back on the iPhone 4 (temporarily, while the new 920 is shipped to me), I'm able to notice several key differences: Damn, that Lumia is FAST. Going back to my iPhone 4 is like using an old 386 PC. I miss the big screen and vibrant colors, as well as the live tiles.  I am stunned at how easy it is to operate my iPhone one handed. The Lumia definitely requires all hands on deck. I actually am surprised that I am as reliant on iOS...

Yep, 2009 brings a new look to the old Tretakoff Musings. First, answering some of your complaints, I've eliminated a lot of the slow widgets that were making page loads a beast. Second, I've moved to the 21st century with CSS instead of kludgy HTML. Finally, I've shifted hosting of the blog over to Blogger's hosted BlogSpot domain, to enable easier editing. Special thanks to the folks at InfoCreek for the gorgeous Aspire theme . It took some serious hours of monkeying around with it for a non-HTML pro like myself to make it just right, but I'm pretty happy with the result. I hope you are, too! I still need to add back in links for my fellow bloggers, but hey, I couldn't wait forever to post this. Of course, with migration comes a bit of pain. First, while the old RSS feed at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/TretakoffMusings should continue to work, if it does not, please update your RSS feeds to point at http://tretakoff.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default instead. ...

My friend Pete, who writes the popular Treough blog, has a post up on his exclusive opportunity to test ride the new Pi Electric Bike . As a cycling commuter who hates hills, I am thrilled about the possibilities of this transportation option. Not to mention how damned cool it looks. Pete, congrats on being a breaking transportation reporter!

Since the new iPhone apps don't have a "try before you buy" option, reviews become critical. Unfortunately, the reviews in the App Store seem to be more focused on declarations of how proud the reviewer is that he/she got their review done first, or complaining about the iPhone 3G, rather than extensive reviews of the applications, so it becomes even more frustrating. Luckily, Gizmodo has a " marathon liveblog " going, where they are reviewing all the apps they can get their hands on and updating constantly. True, it still has the typical Gizmodo smart-ass attitude mixed with childish humor, but the reviews are actually quite helpful, and already made me pull the trigger on a game I was considering. Nice job, guys.

I have no idea who MJD is, but I gotta love his short takes on the NFL in the surprisingly funny Yahoo Sports Blog, Shutdown Corner . Some absolute gems: - " I think the only appropriate conclusion to be drawn here is that Tom Brady, all season long, had been molesting Randy Moss. Nothing else make sense. The only way any receiver, let alone an elite one like Moss, would want to leave his current quarterback for Daunte Culpepper is if his current quarterback was touching him in inappropriate places. " - " And as soon as I hit "publish" on this post, the Browns signed Derek Anderson [you're a damn liar, Phil Savage]. Please disregard everything you've just read. You may still continue to enjoy the photo, though.) " - " The only way I'd understand was if the Cowboys were afraid that Barber's body would break down early because of the punishing, skull-bashing, child-frightening, wild mongoose running style Barber uses. " High comedy ...

I've been a fan of both, but Fortune gives us a behind the scenes look at The blogs of war: Engadget vs. Gizmodo in a remarkably fascinating piece. I always wondered who had the lead...

I have written several times about sports uniforms , and in particular, football uniforms. However, no one holds a candle to the UniWatch blog for the obsessive detail of this esoteric subject, but if you are the kind of person who wants to know what is up with the Redskins having a different helmet for home games, or why do some baseball teams wear vests, while others seem to have completely different outfits, UniWatch is for you. Now, Paul Lukas, Mr. UniWatch himself, has turned his full attention on my beloved Cowboys, and the results are not pretty. From exposing the three shades of silver, as well as the two shades of blue, America's Team goes under the UniWatch microscope, warts and all. There are some fascinating tidbits, including the reason the Cowboys wear white at home (most teams wear colors at home), the strange alterations the Cowboys uniforms have uniquely had (tie down panels? wraparound collars?), and even the time the Cowboys altered their uniforms for the Bicent...

It only looks that way. Work has been brutal, but the end is nigh: I have hired two new staff members, and one has already started. With trips to Chicago and NY coming up, the extra help could not have come at a better time. I've also been logging a lot of biking and other fun exercise, so blogging (and calls to my mother, father and friends) have suffered. I've been reduced to Facebook status updates and occasional snippets...but hopefully, I'll be back in a regular publishing groove soon. I owe a big post on Plaxo , as they worked through my issues to get me fully working. And man, is it sweet. Look for it shortly. I also need to point out the best PC deals ever in the Dell Outlet ; top of the line PC's for under $400. Plus my recent solution for podcasts on the Treo, syncing with iTunes. And that's not mentioning my recent transition to Skype . And finally, a review of Madden 08 on the Wii: the results will surprise you. For now, I leave you with an image of the ...

A while back, I blogged about how a person in my company was using his blog as a good tool to help better position himself and his job satisfaction in the company. Today, while perusing my Google Reader, I read his latest entry. This excerpt caught my eye: "I hope some of the candidates I interview run into this blog entry. In reality, the ones that are curious enough to try and Google some information about my company or SQL Server DBA interview questions will run into lots of more useful information before coming upon this blog. Unfortunately, those are few and far between." Damn, that's smart. I never thought to use my blog to define my perfect new hire. It makes sense: why not demystify the process, and let people know just the kind of person you are looking for? Hell, I know people Google me before an interview; why not see just how good and smart they are by leaving them the tips they need to ensure I understand they are the right person for the job? Thanks, Ed. ...

Remember when you used to actually enjoy getting emails? Well, I just had that feeling, as my Gmail let me know that I was just accepted as a Trillian Astra beta tester! Yep, I've just downloaded the ecstasy that is the next generation of unified instant messaging, so I'll be reporting on my impressions as they happen. Look out, world: I'm on the future of IM. ;-) Just a side note: over 4 years ago, I started converting a page of my website to a series of random ramblings and impressions of cool gadgets, things in my world, and more, for my family and friends to enjoy. Since then, blogging has gone mainstream, and many of my friends have started their own blogs, which are a blast to read. It's something I could not have envisioned, nor was I sure how long I'd keep up with it, but, despite several false starts, different blogging platforms, and long absences that my work enforces, I'm proud to celebrate my 500th post in this blog. I've enjoyed every bit of i...

Believe it or not, I actually contribute to another blog for my company, the Loyalty Dogs Blog . I tend to put sporadic entries in, but the comments from Mark, our CEO and one of my co-founders, are actually extremely insightful and well stated. Charles' comments are incredibly helpful, as well. If you're looking to see another side of me, come run with the Dogs.

It's been a crazy time. First, the move to the new house. Then, the arrival of the in-law family: first my sister-in-law and my mother-in-law, then the arrival of my brother-in-law, followed by the departure of my sister-in-law. Essentially, for the better part of a month, we've had houseguests. On top of that, work went crazy this week: growing pains from scale, along with the surge of the Mother's Day holiday, and several new clients (and a new team member!)...man, what a ride. The good news is that I survived. Now, to get back to this blogging thing. :-) I decided to finally listen to Charles and chuck the mountain bike for my daily commute: I'm now 8 miles, each way, to the Ferry. So, last Saturday, we headed to the bike stores for the test rides. First, I was amazed they let you test ride these things on the street: hand over an ID and a credit card, and away you go. With bikes that were, on average, well over $1000, and some stretching up to $5k, this seemed crazy...

Just a random post to share, of some great tidbits. - I always like to use this blog to share the new and cool online applications I find. Well, today I've found a blog that does nothing but this: I bring you MakeUseOf , a directory/blog of some of the coolest sites on the web for free things to make your life interesting. Although the visual style is closer to a wiki than a blog, it definitely offers a great, constantly updating collection of some of the more interesting sites that provide useful services to the consumer. Think Original Signal without the (ahem) noise. - Yahoo has released version 4 of Yahoo Widget Engine , promising less memory hogging, and new mini-docking, to allow your widgets to be displayed in an intuitive collection, for neatness. It also introduces a drag and drop upload widget for Flickr , as well as support for just about all old widgets. Seems like a worthy download, and is definitely sucking less of my precious resources. - Speaking of Flickr , they mi...

Yep, it's now here. dnScoop lets you type in whatever domain you want, and it will tell you how much it's worth, based on traffic, views, and links. The interesting part to me was the Yahoo feature that lets you see who's linking to your domain ; I had no idea I had so many links. While many were flattering and fun (Pete's blog, Lani's blog, Leslie's blog), a surprising amount were because of my post on the Jet Pack , some months ago. On the Blog Value side, dnScoop also helpfully tells me that the estimated value of a single link on http://www.tretakoff.com is $5 /month, and that if I were to sell 8 spots on one page, I could generate $40/month in revenue for your website. Yeah, I'm retiring off of that . Oh, yes, the value? Get ready: My Site is worth $2,921 How much is your site worth?

This last week was an interesting one. After all the dust settles, I may well share some insight on it all, but the situation is still in flux. Suffice it to say, this week determined my career, my home, and my mental state. It's been a busy one, to say the least. One odd experience was with the power and peril of social networking on the web, and blogs. I am a passionate LinkedIn user, as it has always yielded me great results for professional networking and hiring. When you are a LinkedIn user, as you make updates to your profile, your linked contacts are notified of the changes, through email. I received one notification of a change, from someone I work with: he added a link to his blog. Curious, I checked it out. The first entry I saw? A time for change? It's been over 3 years that I've been at my current company. I have never stayed with one company this long, and I'm getting the itch for a change. I've got several reasons why I want to change, and several reas...

"Blog" is short for weblog. Weblogs started as short online journals, for people like me to post their thoughts, and share with several people at once. But now, we have short-form weblogs: Tumblelogs, courtesy of Tumblr . I feel like the old man I am for saying this, but has it really come down to this? No context, no setup, no storytelling: just brief excerpts of consciousness. For instance, have a look at this tumblelog. I love the formatting, and the visual treatment, but the content? It's like walking into a movie halfway through. I pride myself on keeping up with the latest web trends, but this one might take a while.

Always nice to occasionally remember the biggest charm of the Web is to encounter people with like philosophies that you might not have ever encountered. Case in point, I blogged about Brass Goggles in the past, a British blog devoted to all things steampunk (think Jules Verne). I've enjoyed reading it, and dropped the blogger a line to let them know about a steampunk Yahoo Widget, Steam Gage . Imagine my joy to see that the wonderful blogger added a whole entry on my submission , and thanked "Mr. Tretakoff" for the information! My thanks to Brass Goggles for immortalizing me as such. I am honored.

Most people, when undertaking a project to build a house, think wood, brick, concrete. Then there are the dreamers. The iconoclasts. The people who think they can make a real difference and blaze a new trail. They build a house from straw. Yep, you read it right. Meet Leslie Miley, the man of vision in question. I've had the pleasure to work with Leslie and call him a friend. But make no mistake about it: Leslie is a man of vision. He also is a man who is driven. Why, you ask, would a man of Silicon Valley buy a property in Paso Robles (in San Luis Obisbo county, about halfway from San Francisco to LA) and build a straw house? As Leslie says: In the year 2000 I started straw bale dream house that would be ecologically sound, environmentally friendly, and a place to finally call home. When Leslie explains it, in his uncompromising way, you actually get it. You believe it. And then you read the incredibly detailed blog of everything that went right, wrong, and in between. From the ...

The content for the right side of my blog is provided, mostly, by Widgetbox . It's easy: you pick widgets you want to feature on your blog, configure them, and voila: they appear. Heck, I've even created widgets: that IM one (plugoo) came from my hacking their Javascript. Needless to say, I like the flexibility and variety of Widgetbox, and I have been very happy to see them grow. Now, they've gone one step further: Blidgets. Essentially, you can take any blog and make it a widget. Then, you can put that widget on your blog: decide if you want headlines, articles, colors: you name it. For instance, I created Blidgets for Pete's Treough Blog , Lani's Fog Blog , and, of course, The Sports Guy . See them all on the right? Best of all, YOU can have them, too. Anyone can. Sign up for a Widgetbox account, and subscribe away. Already have one, and want to feature Tretakoff Musings? Got you covered: