Kai Mai's Blog - Take Back the Web blogs

Ruby MongoDB Geospatial Indexing Sample Codes

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 17:29:12 -0700

MongoDB has a geospatial indexing feature that allows nearby search. I was trying to get some sample codes running. But the example codes doesn't work as 'ensureIndex' doesn't seem to exist. The Ruby sample codes don't work either as db.create_index's parameters seem to have changed.

Peeking into the geospatial index test codes on the create_index method, it turned out that the first argument for create_index must be array of array for geospatial index(check out the documentation for the create_index method).

Tags: mongodb database geo

Gmail Becomes a Flawed App Platform - Google Adds OAuth to IMAP - Need Access Control By Filters

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:38:54 -0700

I wrote about Email as a platform one year ago. Now Gmail has finally allowed OAuth on IMAP which means you don't need to reveal your password to any app that accesses your emails through IMAP on your behalf.

Why would you want an app to access and act your emails? Because your email box is so overflowed. Here are a couple of uses:

get alerts on important emails
have an app scan through your order confirmation emails and keep a history of your purchases(this is how Blippy got your Amazon purchase history. I know Blippy sounds crazy. I don't think it'll ever succeed in consumer space. But for business users, there's a business case for auto-parsing out email order receipts and filling out expense reports.)

Tags: application platform email gmail oauth imap

To Twitter: Stop Replying on Developers Building Features using Your API. Take Control of Your Own Destiny

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:23:23 -0700

Twitter is famous for its openness on its API and have a lot of tools built by 3rd party developers. But many 3rd-party tools are built/abused to add automated spammy tweets, robots to Twitter.

Last month, Twitter engineer Alex Payne tweeted “If you had some of the nifty site features that we Twitter employees have, you might not want to use a desktop client. (You will soon.)"

I'd love to see the niffy site features! Twitter's web UI is just way too simple. Example: Where can I follow conversations(aka: thread of retweets, replies) on a tweet?

Twitter should surely use its $160 million funding to beautify its web presentation and blow away all the 3rd-party clients(whoever builds its entire business model on features that are core to Twitter should have seen this day coming).

Tags: api twitter

The End of Privacy: Who, Where, What to Rob

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:22:52 -0800

Now days, it's getting easier and easier for criminals to decide who, where, what to rob:

who to rob: pleaserobme.com
where to rob: 123people.com
what to rob: blippy.com, justbought.it

anyone wants to do a mashup of all these services + Google Street view so that we know who bought $X goods of what and is currently out of his/her home?

Tags: privacy people location robbery

China Mobile's Mobile Market(App Store) Report for Nov, 2009 - No Advertising Allowed in Apps

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:07:40 -0800

I've meant to write about China Mobile's Mobile Market(aka "app store") Report for Nov, 2009 when it first came out.

I finally got the chance!

Mobile Market has a approval process. The approval rate in Nov is 49.66%. 40.17% of the rejection was due to basic functionality not working. 29.84% of the rejection was because of apps not conforming to Mobile Market's standards.

One of Mobile Market's standards is no advertising inside apps(see page 6 of the report). Chinese don't have the habit of paying for software & apps. So China Mobile just shuts down one possible revenue stream for developers.

Tags: china mobile china-mobile app-store

Google Experiment - Alternate View For Search Result

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:31:21 -0800

Once you sign in your Google account, you can check out Google Experiment for potential upcoming features. I've tried alternate views for search results and really liked the timeline view and the map view.

Timeline view Example: postgresql vs mysql I just want to see the recent comparison between postgresql and mysql. so I can limit the timeline to show only pages from 2008 to 2009. But Google's first result is definitely wrong as the article was written back in 2003.

Tags: google search timeline

Google Pulling Out of China - How About AdWords, AdSense, Google Analytics, Android, Google Apps?

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:22:08 -0800

The huge news is Google is planning to pull out of China. Is Google going to pull out every service? Here's the big picture of Google ecosystem in China:

Adwords

Lots of companies(eg: export/import biz) in China rely on Adwords to drive traffic and get leads from Google outside of China via Google search and Google's content network. There are companies/agencies in China that provide training/consulting/reseller services on Google Adwords.

AdSenses

Lots of small/personal websites in China rely on Google Adsense to generate a few bucks.

Google Analytics

Lots of sites in China use Goolge Analytics because it's free. There are companies in China that provide training/consultingj/reseller services on Google Analytics.

iPhone(iPod Touch) vs. Android(Google Nexus One)

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:51:52 -0800

Google's nexus one is coming out this week. While most of attentions have been focusing on Android-based phones vs iPhone, Flurry shined some lights on the not-so-secret weapon of Apple - iPod Touch(which I own one): iPod Touch Downloads Explode on Christmas Day, Surpassing iPhone for the First Time!

iPod Touch is a great device for anyone that doesn't need a phone or can't afford all the expenses(monthly data/voice plans) associated with a phone. I am talking about teenagers/college students here. I bet many teenagers get their first tastes of apps through the App Store on iPod Touch. I am still waiting for companies to come up with a Andorid-based iPod Touch-like device(zii is supposed to be the one, but it's not yet ready for consumer).

Tags: google apple iphone android nexus-one app-store ipod-touch

Journey in Android Development, Android Market - the good, the bad

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:36:36 -0800

Android Development - the good

Easy to extend/customize existing functions - a few examples:
- You can write a new dialer to handle calling - in fact, I am using StartContact because the default dialer sucks(no contact search function, need to scroll).
- Add your application to contextual menu of native functions(eg: handling the calling of a number)
- You can override the home screen lock. see FlyScreen
With the backing of Google, Android SDK evolves very quickly( this is really a double-edged sword).

Tags: google android android-market apple-app-store android-development

How not to contact potential customers for business development/sales?

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:43:39 -0800

Recently, there have been a couple of companies(primarily based in China) emailing me about having existing Android mobile apps list on their app stores.

Their proposals are that I submit free apps to their app stores, they'd localize them for free and distribute to millions of users so that I can make a lot of money. Sounds fishy? There are also to other fishy things:

Use CC instead of BCC in email - so everyone knows who else is being contacted(or spammed).
Claim to represent a legit and well-known company, but use an Gmail address to send the email. This is so unprofessional. Then I emailed back and asked why they'd use Gmail. Their response is that they have problems with their email system. Oh, good. If you can't ensure that your corporate email to work properly, how am I going to trust your app store?

Tags: email android professionalism sales

Notes on Meetup: Non-Profit, Rural Development, Land Right, Microfinance in China

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:17:36 -0700

Here are my notes from the meetup "Non-Profit, Rural Development, Land Right, Microfinance in China" on Oct 7th, 2009 in Redwood City, California:

A common theme is that the two presenting organizations are foreign NGOs(non-profit organization) in China, so they are not required to partner with local governments. They hand-pick their local partners and provide better transparency on their funds and operations in China. In contract, local NGOs have to work with local governments which have little accountability. Also, there's no tax saving for donors in China for charity-giving.

Tags: china meetup wokai rdi land right microfinance non-profit

Review of T-Mobile G1

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:59:56 -0700

G1's shortcoming:

need to mount SD-card to access its content when connecting via USB. This should be done automatically like iPhone
no built-in file manager/browser even though it comes with a SD-card
why does the "red" end call buttom lock the phone? that's so unintuitive as I am used to use it to "cancel" things.
the screen lock timeout setting is hidden under settings -> Sound & Display
why isn't there a Google Reader app?
no auto-complete when I search apps in Android Market
store all downloaded apps in tiny 74MB internal storage. No way to store them in a SD card(unless you root your phone). A game app can demand 10+ MB storage!

Tags: android t-mobile g1

Notes from Importing/Sourcing from China – Gotchas/Lessons Meetup

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:58:18 -0700

I organized the meetup Importing/Sourcing from China – Gotchas/Lessons on Aug 27th. The speakers Wensheng Li and Andrew Rizzo shared great insights, many tips, gotchas and stories. Be sure to check out their presentation.

Here are my notes:

Sub-contracting is dangerous as you don't know about the actual supplier, thus cannot ensure quality.

Alibaba has a gold supplier certification programwhere each gold supplier is inspected thoroughly by Alibaba's inspectors.

Tags: china meetup import business

Dumb Google Reader's Flurry of Features: Still Without Filtering/Recommendation Based On Current Interests

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:32:31 -0700

Google Reader just came out a flurry of features.

I don't understand why Google Reader can't have a filtering/recommendation feature that gives me what I want to read based on my current interests.

Stop giving me all the articles in my feeds. There are way too many(1000+). Let me tell Google Reader what my current interests are(say mobile apps, iphone, marketing). Then Google Reader should recommend the articles from my feeds that match my interests. My interests change over time. I don't want to spend my valuable time scan through feeds to find items that I am interested in. Can Google Reader be smarter? How can it be this dumb? Isn't that Google supposedly really understands content, index them and bring us relevant results?

Tags: recommendation google-reader rss

Resources and Notes for Jailbreaking iPhone 3GS

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:52:17 -0700

I just went through the process of jailbreaking iPhone 3GS 3.0 and 3.0.1. Here are the resources and notes:

for 3.0 OS, use super-easy purplera1n to jailbreak iPhone
for 3.0.1 OS, follow instructions. Just make sure that you download the correct and select the correct 3.0 firmware(3GS vs. 3G) when you jailbreak.
List of firmwares for iPhone and iPod Touch

Notes

Install MobileTerminal if you want to drop into a shell to issue some shell commands. You can do a search of "MobileTerminal" via Cydia to find it.

Tags: iphone jailbreak cydia skype ssh