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kayak
snowballs jukebox trust gas write |
In mid-December '08, I started working at Kayak, at first helping with their new, free iPhone app (which is now available in the App Store). Kayak is a great place to work, and a lot of fun. But far better than the fun is the team there. I am constantly in awe of my coworkers and the way they think. Work and innovation takes place at a very fast pace here, and we focus on users - the people. I love that, and I'm very grateful to be a part of the Kayak.com team.
-ca
This was shot the other day outside kayak.com offices. I thought I'd be doing the Internet a disservice by not posting it. Yes, that's me. Yes, I've had it coming to me.
-ca
It's done. We have it. For years I've loved the new touchscreen digital jukeboxes you see in bars everywhere now. Who doesn't want to search for any artist, song, or album on command? Especially at 2am. So one night, after coming home from the Sail Loft (one of Boston's premier establishments), I decided it was high time I get one of my own for my place. After working a little bit on it here and there over the course of several nights and weekends, my girlfriend got one hell of a christmas present. I call it "Audaq" mostly because I happened to own the domain name anyways, and it runs using functionality provided by Rhapsody music service. You can take an old computer and monitor that you're not using and buy a touchscreen conversion kit for $100-150, and then set this bad boy up, and voila - you've got your own touchscreen digital jukebox. Any song at any time, from the screen mounted on your wall. Oh yeah - you also will want the $45 wall mount. A couple pictures of this first version below. Sure, it needs improvement, but it works and is attached to the house stereo system. Some pieces of it were built on codesnap.com
At a later time, I'll post the software and the instructions on how to make your own here on the site, especially if I see there's some interest. -ca
I find this blog article about trust to be very interesting: http://paulenglish.com/trust.html -ca
This comic strip explains Google Chrome in a fun and interesting way: I'm continuously impressed with Google's ability to defy big company tendency to become boring and impotent. -ca
Recently, I've heard a lot of people complain about gas prices (I live in Boston, MA, in the US). I have also heard some interesting responses to this complaint. "Well, nobody's forcing you to buy gas..." is a common one. "Gas is still more expensive in other countries, so be thankful..." is another. "Switch to public transport...", "switch to a hybrid...", "get an electric car/cycle...", "bike to work..." - are all others I have heard. While these are all true, I think they are missing the most important point. What have we been doing for the past several decades? The internal combustion engine has been around for over 100 years, and most of the innovation on it took place in the 1800s (check out the history). We've been running predominantly on gasoline since the days of the Ford Model T, introduced in 1908 (which, incidentally, burned either gasoline or ethanol). During this time, we have all known that gas is a precious and limited resource - one that's not even that easy or safe to access and transport. There have been numerous price increases over the years, often met (not surprisingly) with consumer dissatisfaction. So why haven't we done anything about it? More importantly, why haven't YOU done anything about it? You might argue that gas was still cheap enough, and we weren't in enough of a crisis to react. But the light bulb wasn't invented because we were short on fire, torches, or candles. You might argue that you're not a mechanical engineer, and it's not your job or business to improve on such complicated mechanisms. But wasn't Einstein a patent clerk? And look at all the individuals that have recently converted their car to some kind of alternate fuel-burning vehicle. Are they not just normal people like us? Innovation is very much possible, even by you, person complaining about gas prices. In fact innovation - at least the kind we're talking about - is and always has been brought to the world by regular human beings, just like you and me. So be a little bolder, use your mind, and try to find a better way. Use the Internet - another brilliant innovation that regular people just like you and me came up with. Don't complain that nobody else has come up with a solution. You have only yourself to blame. One day soon, I'd love to hear somebody say, "I'm so disappointed in MYSELF for these gas prices. I could have prevented this." -ca
It's about time I started to use this site for something. I've owned it for about 7 years. When I bought christianallen.com, a domain name cost around $35/year. Now, this domain name costs me only $5.95/year to keep. I recently was contacted by another Christian Allen - a video game developer - asking if he could buy this domain from me. Of course, I intend to keep this forever, but I did promise to link to his site so that people could still find him. So if you're looking for Christian Allen, the video game developer, you might find him here: serellan.com -ca
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some things that i like
kayak.com is by far the best travel web site - super-fast and easy to use. they search hundreds of sites and show you the best fares - something i used to painstakingly do by hand when traveling. 
gethuman.com is simply the best tool for getting company phone numbers, shortcuts through customer service mazes, reviews, ratings, tips and help. one of the best utilities on the web. 
Partners In Health is a very inspiring non-profit organization doing work in several countries around the world. if you get a chance, read Mountains Beyond Mountains - the story of the doctor that founded it many years ago. 
i helped build this extremely fast-growing open source medical record system while living in East Africa for 3 years. unlike its commercial counterparts that cost 10s of millions of dollars, this is completely free. hopefully we will start seeing it used in big, 1st world hospitals within the next 5-7 years. 
i was able to attend this great school during my most formative years by virtue of their generous financial aid. i think we sometimes dissociate with our farthest back roots, which are arguably the most important 
codesnap.com is a site that facilitates software outsourcing. there are a few other choices out there, but this one is the fastest, easiest, and most useful. |
