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jsmcallister's comments

jsmcallister | 13 years ago | on: Movie recommendations are broken, try couchpotato.be

Crowd-sourced recommendations are inherently flawed. People just aren't the same. My favorite movie of all time is There Will Be Blood and no matter how smart an application may be, it will never connect the dots to realize that my second-favorite movie of all time is Lost In Translation. People are strange and recommendations are an educated guess at best.

jsmcallister | 13 years ago | on: US Census API now available

I've been hammering code on this all weekend. If anyone is interested in discussing, feel free to contact me. I'm mainly working on queries for county information regarding age, race, sex, occupation, and income.

jsmcallister | 13 years ago | on: A bold but simple login system

I had to read this article twice to make sure I was understanding it right. I honestly see zero benefit in this approach. It does not speed up the login process at all. The only thing it accomplishes is not requiring the user to remember a password. Additionally, it puts way too much power in the hands of random email servers. What if my email system at the office goes down for a few hours. Am I locked out of all websites too?

I do agree with his point that memorizing passwords can get cumbersome, especially with different sets of rules for different logins. However, the majority of people store their passwords in their everyday browser or just stay logged in indefinitely.

The real solution to "doing away with passwords" lies in recognition technology on devices. What if my keyboard could recognize my identity and pass that along to authorized sites as login credentials? What if my iPhone could do the same? I'll defer the argument of privacy in visiting sites where you don't want your identity revealed for another time.

jsmcallister | 13 years ago | on: A Day without Programming

Good post. One thing I like to do is take a bit of my time each week and sit down with a person who has never used my product. In fact, ideally they've never even heard of it. Shut off the programming-mindset and just watch an average person do their thing with your product. Some amazing insight there.

jsmcallister | 13 years ago | on: Investors finally realizing Facebook has no clothes

Getting into the online dating scene would be a great money move for FaceBook. It's such a simple and obvious move that there must be something/someone internal that is preventing it. FaceBook has access to millions of people listed as "single", a large % of which are already using a pay-service like Match or eHarmony (which collectively boast around 35 million members).

jsmcallister | 13 years ago | on: Investors finally realizing Facebook has no clothes

"Advertising effectively in the mobile experience" is basically Taps on a trumpet for the FaceBook app. I don't know anyone who actually enjoys using the existing app. It's clunky, poorly sorted, and extremely hard to navigate. Why does FaceBook want to make the experience even less enjoyable?

jsmcallister | 13 years ago | on: JavaScript Ninja

Props to the Cicayda team, I know Cox from way back. Any time you get a group of really smart people like that in a room, good things will happen. Great place to be if you're a developer.

jsmcallister | 13 years ago | on: Show HN: Get a perfect elevator pitch

Good value for what you get. I know I've personally spent an entire day with my partners trying to hone those 3 types of pitches that you offer for $45+.

One thing I'd like to see in a more forefront position on the website is actual pitches you've created, even if they are for fake companies.

jsmcallister | 13 years ago | on: Get all the photos your friends took with you, forward and backwards in time.

"Flock is not just a brand new app; we see it as a brand new kind of app. While most apps today jockey for our ever-dwindling time and attention, attempting to become one of the apps that we think about the most, Flock is different. We designed Flock so you don't have to think about it at all."

Great quote that really stands out after downloading the app. Fiancee and I are going to give it a try this weekend with some friends. I'm assuming, now that I've used it for a few hours, that it combines location AND time to make a best guess on what an event was. Very cool.

One thing that would be nice is to block out a certain location. For instance, we both take a ton of pictures at our house on a daily basis. For me, it's pictures of delicious things I'm pulling off the Big Green Egg. For her, it's pictures of our dog and her freshly-painted nails.

However, the instant combination of our travel photos earned a phone call from said fiancee. She loves it. Big props.

jsmcallister | 13 years ago | on: Simple Is Now Available To The Public, Cofounder Alex Payne Moves On

I use ING Direct + Mint as well for all banking. I was interested in Simple because it seemed to be the combination of the two - with a drive to improve both formats. However, I was disappointed on not being able to find any details on how their banking works. I'd love to track my finances from within my banking website, but not at the expense of interest rates and multiple/joint accounts. (Do they offer that?)

jsmcallister | 13 years ago | on: Twitter down?

Not accessible from mobile or web. Hand raised for being "that guy" who tried to check on whether Twitter was down, by going to Twitter.com.
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