Davezor’s Blog

Book review: Dracula

I read Dracula because I really liked Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot.  Most of the reviews on Amazon.com seemed to be positive, so I went ahead and ordered a copy from PaperbackSwap.com (which is an awesome site).

To start: I enjoyed it.  That said, it was not one of the best books I've ever read.  My real complaint with the story was it's pace.  This might be partly due to it's age;  it was written around the turn of the century, and as such, the language is a little old, and it sometimes delves into incredible detail for scene descriptions and the like.  It was not at all difficult to understand, it was just slow.

It was definitely worth reading to find out where all of the vampire and dracula lore comes from.  Changing form into a bat, sleeping in a dark space during the day, controlling animals, etc.  It's all there.  The most exciting part of the book is the beginning, which is unfortunate.  This portion of the tale describes Jonathan Harker's stay at Castle Dracula in Transylvania and his subsequent escape.  The rest of the novel is about the Count's journey to London.

One thing of note is that because of the age of the book, all the women are treated as fragile, pure, youthful, sheltered, and vulnerable.  Most of the dialogue surrounding Mina Harker (one of the main characters) is all about her beauty and how they must protect her womanhood from the evils of the world.  They talk about her as if she's a child that cannot be brought into the real world.  I got a little tired of it, but I suppose that's to be expected from an author from the 1890s.

Overall, I'd recommend it, if you can get through it.  It's extremely slow at times, but it definitely has a creepy, old-style horror feel to it.  This is where the legend began.

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Startup idea: running assistant

I recently started running again.  I haven't really been exercising much lately, so I figured it would be a good healthy thing to do.  Yesterday, I tried to pace myself so that I would run 3 miles.  However, I can never be sure. 

At first I thought about making it a website.  I did some quick searching, and this has been done: mapmyrun.com.  I tried this, and while it works, the interface is pretty cluttered.  About half of the page is advertisements and the other half is a google map with some quick functionality to add routes.  It works, but it looks bad.

I noticed mapmyrun.com allows you to import a route from a garmin GPS device.  I thought, hey, my phone has GPS!  Why can't I just take my phone and write an application that tracks where I've been?  Again, I searched on Android Market and found buddyrunner.  It does exactly this, and adds the ability to share your routes on the web (facebook, twitter, etc.).

I haven't used buddyrunner yet, but it's common knowledge that you don't need to create something original, just do it better.  If anybody's used either of these products, please let me know what you think.

Additionally, if you are a runner, what features would you like to see? 

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Pepsi Natural

I picked up a few bottles of Pepsi Natural the other day and really enjoy it.  It's made with cane sugar and kola nut extract.  Delicious and smooth.  It wasn't horribly expensive either.  I keep trying to find Pepsi Throwback (which is just Pepsi with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup), but it isn't anywhere in Champaign or Canton that I can see.  Anyone have it?

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On Hulu and free stuff

There's an excellent article over at Wired (http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/hulu-victim-success/) about Hulu.  If you aren't familiar, Hulu is a site created by Fox and NBC that allows viewers to watch TV shows online for free.  There are commercials, but typically only 15-30 second long ones.  It's a fantastic service, and truly seems to be the future of TV show delivery.

Sadly, the rest of the industry doesn't get it.  Several shows are only allowed to be on Hulu a WEEK after they've been aired, and even then only 5 or 6 shows at a time are allowed to be on Hulu.  I understand the motive behind these moves: to keep people paying for cable TV.  Instead, these restrictions basically force people to pirate TV shows (which is absolutely trivial to do). 

It's cliche to say that the web is affecting business.  It's been affecting business since the early 90s.  But that effect was just moving business online.  Now, we're seeing a different effect.  Now, companies are being forced to listen to their customers or face a certain death.  Cable networks are doing what they've always done, but they aren't listening to the users of Hulu.  They aren't giving them what they want.  What happened to "the customer is king"?

Many companies have the luxury of literally not caring what their customers think.  Cable companies, internet providers, and cell phone companies all spring to mind.  Customer service has historically been horrendous from these industries, because everybody needs what they have.  It's actually a simple cost/benefit analysis.  But if a competitor could offer the same services, but with great customer service, I bet they would do well.  This is exactly what we're seeing with Hulu.  The Hulu folks are giving people exactly what they want and making a profit.  The cable companies haven't been doing that in years.

You can see this in other industries as well, most notably the music industry.  The pattern of pre-web business trundling along, ignoring the potential the web carries of communicating with your customers has come to an end.  If you're a business that has competitors online, then you better make sure you're following the most important rule out there: listen to your users.

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Finding new music

I've been thinking lately about how people find new music.  I have a few friends that frequent different music blogs and basically inform the world of good artists via facebook status and twitter updates.  Every once in awhile, some of these friends even email me (and a few others) with a sample track and a message urging me to give them a listen.  And, inevitably, I can find the rest of the artist's music online for free, pirated.  Almost 100% of the time.

I worked at a startup last summer called Harmonize.fm.  The goal was to basically have a platform for sharing music you like with your friends in a social way.  It was tied to facebook so it knew who your friends were, and it contained a sort of music feed.  This feed had the music that your friend's had "spotlighted", or written a little blurb about.

Harmonize was good for two things: Listening to music away from your own computer/ipod, and finding new music to listen to.  The thing that really kept Harmonize from ever getting any kind of user base (I think) was the catch-22 of doing a music startup.  VCs won't pay attention to you unless you have record company contracts, and record companies won't pay attention to you unless you have VC funding.  I wish I could analyze Harmonize more, but the truth is, I think it was a fantastic idea that got stuck in the sludge of current copyright laws and record company neanderthal thinking.

I don't have any numbers or statistics, but I would guess that most people who discover new music don't take the chance and buy it.  They pirate the music.  It's absolutely trivial.  Some folks will, on principle, pirate the music and then go out and purchase the album if they really enjoy it.  I don't think this is enough to sustain the current system. 

It's a well-documented fact that bands don't make money on album sales, record companies do.  The band really makes money on live shows.  There are a few startups that help bands get off the group by having fans listen to demos and donate money, in exchange for an album and a note inside the album (once released) with the name of all the people who donated money.  I know these have been moderately successful, but not enough to overturn the record company's stronghold on the music industry.

So what's it going to take?

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Fishing

This is the new reel I got for christmas.  I went out today and got a fishing license for Illinois.  Now I just need to find a good spot.  Any suggestions for good fishing in Urbana/Champaign?

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Startup idea: video debate site

People seem to enjoy arguing on the internet.  Well, some people.  Take a look at youtube, reddit, slashdot, digg, engadget, and hacker news.  They all have comments that often spawn quite heated arguments/debates. Some of these are civil debates, some are juvenile arguments.  But it seems that certain folks enjoy this activity.

Is it possible to make a place where people can discuss and debate their views in a more organized way?  Would anyone use such a site?  There was a thread on reddit where I first saw this idea: http://www.reddit.com/r/idea/comments/75b1n/hot_topic_debate_site_go_there_to_debate/ .  Since then, I've rolled the idea around in my head a bit and think I've come up with some additional tidbits.

For example, the site could be primarily video based.  You would be able to debate any topic you wish, as long as someone is willing to take the opposite view.  Once you find a topic you like, you could somehow claim that position and wait (or be notified) when someone has taken the opposing viewpoint.  These debates could be impromptu or scheduled. 

Each debater could have a "bucket" or just a place to post links and source information during the debate so that viewers could check them out and verify their claims.  The viewers could also rank each side (similar to the way mass media let viewers rank the presidential candidates during their debates). Each debate could have an associated chatroom for viewers to comment and discuss the arguments.

I just don't know if people would use this.  Do users debate at places like reddit and slashdot because they like to debate?  Or do they do it because someone says something they disagree with?  Both?  Would there be enough users motivated to stay civil?

I think a site like this could be incredibly valuable at alerting the public to important issues.  If it ever became widely used, it may also allow politicians, government officials, and businesses to really get a good pulse on what consumers think and want.  The data behind a site like this could prove to be valuable as well.  Imagine tying this together with something like facebook, plus a reputation system so users could recognize top debaters.  Harnessing social media and adding a bit of legitimacy to online arguments would be cool.

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Activities, etc.

Note to self: play more ultimate frisbee.

I haven't played ultimate frisbee since approximately 10th grade, the last year I played soccer for JHS ("played" being a relative term).  I'd already run 3 miles this morning in my Vibram Five Fingers and then headed to the ACM picnic.

Also got to play bocci.  I think the last time I played bocci was with Folger, Kumpf, and Perez before the Motley Crue concert (which was unexpectedly badass, if I recall correctly).  I also remember that Blossom Music Center doesn't allow you to bring your own alcohol, so we brought our own and enjoyed it in the parking lot beforehand.  That was an awesome day.

I digress.  Bocci was awesome, and then the aforementioned ultimate frisbee was equally cool.  It just reminded me of how out of shape I am, which is one reason I've been trying to run more lately.  We'll see how much I keep it up.

Props to Brian for delicious food and a damn good ACM picnic.  I'll link to pictures when I have them.

UPDATE: pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/njr/sets/72157617524633337/ (thanks njriley)

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'Salem's Lot

I just finished reading 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King.  I've read the Dark Tower series, which was fantastic, so I figured I'd give another King book a shot.  I did not regret it.  Stephen King is definitely growing on me.  His characters are incredibly realistic and that's part of what makes his books so good.

'Salem's Lot is about a small town in Maine in the 1970s.  The town is actually called Jerusalem's Lot, but the shortening of the name does something to make the town creepier.  Ben Mears is a writer who grew up in the Lot and comes back after years of being away.  He's looking to write a new book (he's an author), and he draws his influence from the Marsten House, a mansion that sits on a hill overlooking the whole town.  As a young boy, he had a creepy encounter in the Marsten House, and the whole town avoids the house because of it's history.

Even if you don't normally read horror stories, give this one a shot.  It isn't too scary and it's definitely thrilling.

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Trying out posterous

Posterous is a YC-funded startup that makes posting to a blog pretty darn easy.  I've decided to give it a shot, we'll see how it goes.  Things I plan on writing about soon:

• School
• Startup ideas
• my projects
• travels

Stay tuned.

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