Jefferson M. Stovall

Upcoming downtime

Hey folks, just a quick update. I’m moving this site to a new host, MediaTemple, during the next few days so there may be some downtime. After the move, I’ll be profiling the recent build of JimmyLeeBand.com and giving you a rundown of my soon-to-be-awesome, D.C.-focused specialty beer blog.

Google Wave Post on TIG Global Blog

Hey, I’m published!

The opportunity came up to write a post for TIG’s blog on Google’s new product, Wave. Having used Wave a decent bit since getting my invite, I think I figured out what Google’s trying to do (they’re pretty obvious about it): kill email. Email is something we can all relate to, and the “Q and A” format I wrote in provided a gentle entre for an audience that consists more of travel marketers than developers. Feel free to leave feedback either on here or on the TIG blog.

Did you know email was invented over 40 years ago?

Google does, and “Googlers” want you to know that too. It’s their argument for why you should adopt the latest “killer-app,” Google Wave. Combining the most powerful features of instant messaging, email and the Google suite of tools, Wave is “email rethought.” It’s a tool Google hopes is going to revolutionize the way you communicate online.

Read more!

Monopoly City Streets

I’m in! I’m buyin’! This is pretty neat…I’ll update you on the streets I successfully bought and the ones that slipped through.

And, finally, what I own:

My Monopoly City Streets Properties

Monopoly City Streets Chance Card

Monopoly City Streets Screenshot

Google’s Note In Reader!

Google's Note In Reader

Google’s added a “Note in Reader” button for my bookmarks bar, taking their efforts at socialization one step further. For me, it means simply that I no longer have to limit my pithy comments to only what shows up in my RSS feeds.

Just launched RumorsGolf.com

Today, I launched the Rumors Golf Tournament site after a couple months of build time. The tournament is a memorial to Mike Morrissey and benefits the Takoma Park Library. This is something of a milestone for me, as it represents the first full build I’ve done on my own. Built on Wordpress, I used and heavily modified a theme from PixoPoint and got a good deal of help and advice from the guys over at Giraffe. Full write up on the process coming soon, as well as a sneak preview of the “next steps,” but for the moment, take a gander around the site.

Another “What have I been up to” post

I realize updates on projects on this site are still slow to come, but there are a few (pretty darn good) reasons for this:

• DC365 and I got engaged. Woot! (Guess I’ll finally have to do that Wordpress site for her now…)
• Work is cuh-razy, though that’s nothing particularly new.
• I’m close to launching my first full-on freelance project and shooting for sometime next week. It’s a full site build, so it’s been challenging and has taken a good deal of time. Get your twitter feeds ready to follow @rumorsgolf.

So, more to come soon, but for the moment I’m working on getting the above launched and going.

The socialization of Google Reader

No, not in the communist sense. All the sudden today I’m seeing all sorts of sharing features in Google Reader. Are they making a move on Friendfeed/Twitter/etc? Interesting.

Where have all the updates gone?

For the (maybe) handful of you that follow the updates on this blog regularly, you’ll notice I’ve had big plans for posts and series for some time now. Updates which, I’m sure, you’ve been waiting on the edge of your seat for…and that haven’t appeared.

Fret not, they are on their way. Last month, I travelled to Portland, New York City, Bethany Beach and, finally, Atlantic City. That was all in one month, and although there’s only one trip planned this month, there’s a good deal of preparation I have to put in for it. Summer in DC is always an incredibly active time, as well, with a spike in activity over the at the girlfriend’s DC365 blog, and just enough outside time to remind my Irish side why we eat potatoes and stay inside most of the year.

On top of all this, work at TIG continues its fast pace and fantastic growth. With a heavy focus on growing business in recessionary times for our customers, a continually expanding online sales channel and new clients coming in at a steady rate, my team has stepped up the pace in recent months to keep up with the demand.

So, all of this is not to say I’ve done no Rails, map or CSS work. In fact, I’ve done a great deal and learned much, but have had little time to write posts on it. Once travel settles a bit and this month (June) starts to come to a close, I will be putting more together on my progress and writing more content. In the meantime, I’ve become something of a prolific twitter-er and usually manage to throw out a lot of the most interesting stuff I find in those 140 characters.

Take care, and look for updates soon!

The Scorecard

Alright, let’s scorecard my keynote predictions (I have a bad feeling about this):

New iPhone Hardware: Practically a given. Double capacities, RAM, speed, etc. Availability is the big question, but I doubt it’s immediate. That sort of thing requires a lot of very quiet inventory movement, a hard feat to pull off.

Well, I was correct on this one. Although they made the price drops immediately available, the iPhone 3GS will be available June 19.

iPhone 3.0: Again, practically a given. Availability, probably this evening. No hardware to move…let’s hope the servers can hold up.

I’m going to go with a solid no-score on this one, considering there were announcements on 3.0, but no immediate availability (unless you hang around in the darker corners of the Internet).

iPhone Nano: Possibility, but I have a hard time totally buying it yet. What does a stripped down iPhone look like? What are the differentiations in the product line? Does Apple really want to split such a wildly successful product (yet)? And where are the hardware the rumors?

Although Apple announced the $99 8gb version of the phone, it wasn’t an iPhone Nano. While I didn’t call the price drop, I did get the perspective on the product line correct, so I’m going to go ahead and give myself this one.

Tablet Mac: I want it, oh how I want it, but I doubt it’ll hit. Today, at least. There’s been a lot of talk about this thing for awhile now, including some pretty solid information on 10″ screen contracts, so I think it’s going to happen, but I don’t think it’s today. Within the next year, though, yes.

Probably the thing I would’ve been most enthralled about, had it happened. Mark my words, though, it’ll be here in a year or less.

Other things: Probably a bump to the unibody Macbooks, maybe some changes to desktops. Run of the mill stuff, otherwise.

I called this one “run of the mill stuff, otherwise,” but given the changes to the laptop lines, I’m not sure that was a solid prediction. I’ll go ahead and deduct one for missing that rather significant directional change. That and the $29 Snow Leopard announcement!

The final score here comes out to be +2, which is really a lot better than I expected. Perhaps for the next time around I’ll actually try making some riskier predictions…

Predictions for today’s Keynote

Big keynote today…just to put it out there, some predictions. In decreasing order of likelihood, I’m thinkin’:

• New iPhone Hardware: Practically a given. Double capacities, RAM, speed, etc. Availibility is the big question, but I doubt it’s immediate. That sort of thing requires a lot of very quiet inventory movement, a hard feat to pull off.
• iPhone 3.0: Again, practically a given. Availability, probably this evening. No hardware to move…let’s hope the servers can hold up.
• iPhone Nano: Possibility, but I have a hard time totally buying it yet. What does a stripped down iPhone look like? What are the differentations in the product line? Does Apple really want to split such a wildly successful product (yet)? And where are the hardware the rumors?
• Tablet Mac: I want it, oh how I want it, but I doubt it’ll hit. Today, at least. There’s been a lot of talk about this thing for awhile now, including some pretty solid information on 10″ screen contracts, so I think it’s going to happen, but I don’t think it’s today. Within the next year, though, yes.
• Other things: Probably a bump to the unibody Macbooks, maybe some changes to desktops. Run of the mill stuff, otherwise.

Next up…scorecard!