J.Yang has slummed it in the valley with the Wakefield twins; slumber partied with Huey, Dewey and Louie; joined Krakow in stalking Angela; and climbed every mountain with the Von Trapps.

Originally from San Diego, he's lived and traveled the world (okay, not all of it) in pursuit of that most elusive of targets -- inspiration.

He's authored and published a book, written for online and offline publications, and maintained a variety of popular blogs on subjects ranging from movies and technology to personal stories and amateur musings. He's currently busy working on his second book, a fiction novel for teens.

You can reach him at digitaljon@SPAMgmail.com. He is BFF with his iPhone so he should answer promptly.

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K.I.T.  
Sunday, July 6, 2008 : 3:41 AM : 0 comments

Do you want to improve your immune system functions? Decrease your levels of stress? Cope better with trauma and past emotional experiences? Increase your attention span and memory capacity? How about having longer lasting relationships? All this and more can be had by simply writing in a journal for as little as fifteen minutes a day.

That's how Penzu.com breaks down the health benefits of keeping a journal. Strangely, the last bullet pointed benefit is "Finding a new job quickly if unemployed." I'd think that those fifteen minutes might be more valuable submitting an extra resume or two but we all know submitting resumes is a risky propsition anyway. Jobs come from people you know and people they know. Qualifications and past experience? All a wash if you have an in. That's the working world I've seen anyway.

I'll stop digressing.

Penzu.com is a novel journaling site because the interface is basically just a plain piece of college ruled paper. It feels so familiar and is much less intimidating than staring at a blank field. Penzu seems to focus more on keeping your journal private (as it should be) than integrating any of the features we'd come to expect in this blogging world. No cluttered sidebars, a slightly inefficient navigation system, and that's about it. Faced with a 8.5' x 11' it's everything you can do to NOT want to write something down.

Of course, if you need a little help getting started on topic ideas, Penzu's got a few suggestions too.

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Don't I Know You?  
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 : 9:51 AM : 0 comments

"[The People You Might Know feature] messes with the whole evolution of your social networking identity. There's a period at the very beginning of your Facebook life, after you first sign up, when you're madly friend-ing everyone in your address book. It's the needy phase: You're trying to establish and legitimize yourself as a user. Then you mature to a more placid state -- you stop accepting application requests. Maybe you even stop playing Scrabulous. It's a relaxing time.

But this new feature makes you feel needy all over again. Its infernal machine logic taunts you with people who could, theoretically, be your friends -- but aren't. Your page once served to document the extent of your social support network. Now it advertises the people you never connected to -- the friends you don't have."
-Facebook Gets Frisky...-

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That's What Friends Are For  
Friday, May 9, 2008 : 6:07 PM : 0 comments

For a long time we've talked about this concept of friend's "stocks." Something happens and we make a head nod and say, "Yup, her stock is definitely at an all time high." Or "he's such a loser, I can't believe he did that. Stock way down." I know you do the same thing with your friends. Just admit it. It's similar to the concept of Whuffie from Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom I was talking about a few weeks ago.

The other day, fueled by my recent foray into the real stock market, I was messenging Ameer and trying to figure out the best three letter stock ticker symbols for people we know. Some are obvious: AMR, JON, JMZ, LLY, RYN, DES. Just take out the vowels. Then there's a tough one, like Georgette, what do you do with that? GRG looks like Greg. GGT looks stupid. After some deliberation, George settled on GTE. Try this with your friends, it's super fun! No, I promise.

Anyway, the next night I decide to look around for a custom stock market application. Lo and behold, I found Friend O'Nomics. It's "a completely superficial, multiplayer, stock market based game, which allows players to trade shares of their friends, just as they would trade shares of a publicly traded corporation. The main goals of the game would be to have your personal stock achieve the highest value, as well as building a portfolio of friends with the highest value."

Um, yeah, that's exactly what I was looking for! Somebody had already created the perfect application for us and it was just launched last month. How incredible is that? The site is awesome because it's clean and easy to use and it's absolutely free. You create an account, make up your stock ticker symbol, and then you're free to create or join markets. Currently me and a few others are beta-testing the site but I'm going to figure out the best way to use this thing for sustainable fun and then launch a full scale assault on everyone I know.

For example, what if we used Friend O'Nomics to buy or sell someone's "romance" stock? "BET is looking awesome because she just went on a hot date. Buy buy buy!" See the many applications available here? I emailed the creators of the site and they have new features in the works so I'm excited to see what they are. Maybe an integration with Twitter feeds? They already have a RSS feed for the updates.

Seriously, check it out. Here's a screenshot of my JON stock.

For aesthetics, I think it's way cooler when the stock ticker names are in caps and three to four letters. I don't want nicknames, I want real names! The other thing is that I think there shouldn't be insider trading; you shouldn't be able to buy and sell your own stock. Anyway, to be discussed.

A key feature right now is creating a dividend for a particular stock. Basically, you can nominate somebody to be exposed to a market wide vote for something they did that week. For example, if AMR bought a new car this week, you could create a dividend that says "AMR just bought a grey car, now he owns two. Awesome?" People can vote Yes/No and each vote counts at +/-$1 to his stock at the end of the week. It's similar to the "Who had the best week ever" emails I used to send out.

If you wanna play, sign up!

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Bitchin'  
Monday, April 21, 2008 : 3:03 AM : 0 comments

I just finished reading Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow, editor of BoingBoing and also a well known scifi writer (pioneering giving his work away for free in every format imaginable). There's lots of fun things going on in this book's near future but two of the main ones are the obsolescence of death and the replacement of money as the most important currency.

People don't die anymore because they can, at any point, be restored from a mental backup and a physical clone. Some people die weekly, some people only die a few times; everybody lives forever. The only caveat is that if you forget to back up, you could lose the time between your last backup and your restoration. Sometimes, that's a great thing. For example, if you have had a terrible six month relationship you'd rather forget about, you can just revert to a backup copy from before that period.

The other thing is that since you can live forever, boredom is a huge issue. For those people, you can go into sleep mode, "deadhead," for a few decades or hundreds of years and then be resurrected when life might be more interesting.

The other innovation, Whuffie, replaces money by measuring how much respect you receive from people around you. The computer implant in your head -- you're always connected to the net -- automatically gives your stamp of approval to the people around you for good (or bad) actions. You think so-and-so is awesome? Their Whuffie goes up. With high esteem and a good rep, you get perks like better seats at a concert or a restaurant. It more or less functions like money but is centered around good deeds. It's a way to identify and tag assholes basically.

Looking around at most of the social networking sites, this constant measuring of personal reputation is exactly what is happening. Amazon, eBay, Xanga, MySpace, all of these things are promoting getting rep from your friends and fans and then using your rep as currency. Actually, that's pretty much how Google works. Your site gets ranked higher when people link to you and the more influential their site is, the more heavily weighted their vote toward your awesomeness counter is. Whuffie is probably right around the corner.

Doctorow is known for riding the technology curve out to a technological singularity, which is when, as explained in this review, "...sophisticated technologies like nanotech, biotech, life-extension, and human-level machine intelligence would transform life completely."

I, for one, can't wait. Given a chance, I'd deadhead right past this decade and into the next one.

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Monsters, Inc.  
Thursday, January 24, 2008 : 1:41 AM : 0 comments

Is your computer screen looking pretty boring and staid? Sure it is. I like to switch my backgrounds almost daily, since variety is good for the eyes. Plus, there are just so many great images out there that just one isn't nearly enough is it? If you have two (or more) screens, there's this great piece of software out there, Ultramon, that lets you put different wallpapers on each screen -- or one giant wallpaper across. Look it up, it's sick.

The next step to decorating your computer is doing up the folder icons. During our Leopard Party (Mac owners will know), I spent nearly all my time making my icons look awesome. My entire iBook dock is now filled up with pixelated video game icons. Plus I've color coordinated my various programs and important folders with some other sets. I'm partial to these icons called Creatures -- there's three sets so far.

Here's two sites for quality, and free, icons for your computer: Pixel Girl Presents and Icon Factory. Check'em out.

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The Oneders  
Sunday, December 30, 2007 : 5:52 PM : 0 comments

Over Christmas break (I still refer to this period as break although I'm many years out of school), I've finally fallen prey do the addiction that has been sweeping the country. Yes, I'm a wannabe Guitar Hero. I thought it would never happen since the game looked semi-lame and I was more of a Bustagroove dancing rhythm kind of guy. But after being exposed to Guitar Hero for more than ten minutes, I got hooked. Big time.

Everything they say about the game is true; you really do feel like you're playing the guitar. We played co-op mode for hours on end and after each successful song, I would scream, high-five, or pump my arms in celebration. It was a rush.

Apparently I'm a real jittery type of player and I have to stand up and bop around to play. I can't just sit there on the couch since real rock stars would never do that. It's funny to see other people's "styles." George sits there still as night and Star Powers in super slow motion. James and Victor are cool, calm and collected. Des has the whole rock starlet stance down.

As a truly cross-gender game, Guitar Hero (and Garage Band) is the perfect party game. Heck, my mom started playing it and is addicted as well. Sure, she can only do a few songs on Easy but she loves it. She had to take a day off from playing because the movements were causing her bad shoulder to get too sore. Still, with the help of some Salonpas, she soldiered on.

Tragically, my skills may have already peaked. I've also been pigeon-holed as a bass player. In my learning stages, I played too many songs as bass so now I'm only good at that. I'm an Excellent bass player but only a Hard guitar player. It's a real shame because I feel like I have so much more to give to the world. I'm not just a bass dammit!

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El amor en los tiempos del internet
(or)
Cien anos de soledad  
Sunday, August 12, 2007 : 3:43 AM : 0 comments

With my copious amounts of spare time, I've got a few projects in the works. "In the works" is synonymous with "probably won't ever happen." The first of these must-make projects will be a dating site for Asians. It's totally racist, I know, but it's potentially very lucrative. In fact, I'm afraid to look around for competitors because I'm sure they already exist. Asians like to date Asians. Like attracts like. With the semi-recent collapse of MTV World, it may be time to try K-Date, C-Date, and I-Date. Perhaps Nintendo can pick up the slack with a Wii-Date.

And if Asians don't want to be segregated from the rest of the dating community, then at least there'll be an online space for Caucasian males to gather and poach. Can you think of a better idea? Probably not. And trust me, after dating a few sexy Orientals, these guys will lose that exotic sense of mystery real fast. (Most) Asian women have serious issues, you knew that right?

The other target demographic for this site would be Asian parents. Imagine how happy they'll be to find a site where they can easily recommend each other's children. It'll give that whole "Kid Test, Mother Approve" slogan a new spin. No more discreetly but clumsily introducing your son to her daughter. Just push the "Your Mommy Thinks We Should Date" button and voila, instant communication and connection -- forever, with lots of grandchildren in the near future or your money back. It's a real shame the Internet is too much to handle for most Asian parents, otherwise I'd focus exclusively on parents' desperate needs to marry off their children. It's a burgeoning market.

Speaking of recommendations, my other big innovation for the online dating scene is user generated reviews. Think about a Match.com combined with a Yelp, with a bit of Friendster thrown in. What do you really need to know about a person in order to date them? Their favorite books, movies, hobbies? Please. Stop right there. Wouldn't it be much easier if you could just read how their past dates went?

We need accountability in online dating. Ebay has buyer feedback, why can't TrueDating.com? Catchy name isn't it? Too bad that URL is already being squatted. Anyway, the idea is solid gold. Allow people to comment on profiles of the dates they've recently been on.
Sample comments might be:
"The picture tells a thousand lies."
"Didn't offer to pay for the meal, yet went in for the good night kiss."
"Not right for me, but maybe perfect for you (if you're desperate)!"
"His mansion in the hills belongs to his parents; they still live there."
"She didn't mention the baby (and baby daddy) at home."
There will be a list of easy drop-down comments for those daters who don't have much time to dedicate to responding. We could even work in a pro membership that allows you to see the comments. Pay to see comments or take your chances with an unrated and uncommented version of the site. Mix in premium comments from ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends, plus advice from an in-house psychologist about their issues (or yours), and everybody will choose to go pro.

What would make you reach for your wallet faster than knowing that for only $49.99 a month you could use the power of peers to pre-screen your dates? Isn't this the greatest idea ever? Dating 2.0? Somebody fund me already.

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iLust  
Monday, July 2, 2007 : 5:11 PM : 0 comments

Here's what's going on right now. I have an iPhone. Well, I have an unopened box with an iPhone in it. I have an iPhone charged to my credit card. I haven't opened it because I'm not sure I'm fully committed to the wonder that is the iPhone. I thought I wouldn't have to worry about this since iPhone's would be in short supply and I'd have a 3-month window of waiting to decide.

But no, Jobs and Co. insured that there would be plenty of iPhones on-hand and my technology Moses easily purchased one at the mall on Saturday. So being the sheep that I am, I bought one at the mall on Saturday too. However, I need a week to think this out. The iPhone comes with a fourteen day return policy -- if it's unopened. Thus, I'm not opening it. Turns out I'm an indecisive, conservative gadgeteer despite touting the benefits of the iPhone for months.

I hate T-Mobile right now (no reception at my house); yet I love my Sidekick. If I could only keep the Sidekick but be able to make phone calls on it. It's a digital era Elizabethan tragedy. I have loved and lost and I'm about to dump my steady companion of many years. Here are the most important thing to me in a smart phone:
  1. Ability to type fast
  2. AIM
  3. Easy and efficient email client
  4. Ability to moblog easily
Guess what the iPhone doesn't do well? All the above. I'll get faster on the keyboard but there's no AIM on the iPhone. On top of that, the email client isn't easy to use and moblogging would require sending an email of each picture. That's retarded.

What do I like about the iPhone? Well, just about everything else. I mean, sure it's not that fast Internet-ing -- unless you're near Wi-Fi -- sure it's still got some weird little kinks in it, but there's no doubting it's an amazing piece of technology. $650 worth of amazing technology? Well, that's tough to say.

I've been researching other options, and I'm narrowing it down to the iPhone or Helio's Ocean. It's stupid to even doubt Apple but the things I need a smartphone for, the iPhone doesn't provide. Also, the reception on Cingular isn't that much better at my house than on T-Mobile.

This may not sound like a love letter, but it is. It's like I'm deciding between the hot girlfriend that makes no sense or the boring girlfriend that makes perfect sense. The thing is: Aren't I a senseless guy? Hasn't this been proven over and over? Should I even bother fighting myself?

I hope I have the mental fortitude to resist tearing open the box without considering every angle. God grant me the strength to resist technological temptation. Amen.

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Cast Off  
Tuesday, April 3, 2007 : 2:19 AM : 0 comments


Planning some summer getaways? Not sure when to purchase those tickets? Well, here's something that might help. Farecast uses a secret algorithm (or really smart people, whichever) that looks at trends in airplane tickets. Based upon the results of that research, the site will advise you when to purchase a ticket and where to purchase it from. I myself am headed to quite a few places in the upcoming few months so this could be useful information.

I'm not sure if this site is totally accurate but it sure makes me feel good to have super secret technology on my side. I'd feel much better committing to my impulsive travel plans once I'm assured by a computer that I'm getting a great deal. Wouldn't you? Always trust computers; never humans.

Now if only there was Datecast so you can figure out when to approach a chick you'd like to get to know. "Wait, Go, No, In Your Dreams, Run." I guess the first thing to do would be to stop referring to women as "chicks" right?

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All Aboard!  
Sunday, March 25, 2007 : 4:10 PM : 0 comments

This is one of the cooler services I've seen in awhile. Grandcentral.com allows you to have "one number...for life." Grandcentral gives you a designated number that other people will call to ring all your numbers -- home, mobile, business, etc. That's the most basic part, call forwarding.

But here's where it gets fun. Grandcentral will store your voicemails indefinitely in an online voicemail box. Looks like email, works like email. You can forward the voicemail, save the voicemail, etc. You can also set up different voice mail greetings for friends, acquantainces, or businesses. Want to sound silly to your friends but professional to your co-workers? Grandcentral can do it. It also lets you upload MP3s to replace the *ring*ring* sound.

You can spam block numbers to your phone. You can also listen in to a voicemail as it's being recorded. You can switch from one phone to the other, seamlessly. So if you're walking in the door, you can switch from your cell to your home phone with no "Lemme switch phones, I'll call you right back."

Here's the kicker: you can record any phone conversation you're having by simply hitting a button. Yeah. Think about that. No more "he said, she said," it's all about "you said." Sure it's scary but it's also downright cool.

This service is also free. Yeah, free (up to two lines). If you want to say, set up a phone number that all your friends can call to ring your entire social network, you can. Call 212-123-4567 and hit up all your friends at once? Hello best drunk dialing ever.

Try it out. Get some Grandcentral numbers now and tell me how you like it.

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Do You Yelp?  
Wednesday, March 7, 2007 : 5:19 PM : 0 comments

Do you remember the first time you used Google? Me neither. I used to be a Netscape devotee but somewhere along the way, I just started using Google constantly. Soon, everyone was using Google. A bit after soon, Google became an empire.

The same sort of thing happens with Amazon, Craigslist, Friendster, YouTube, Digg, whatever. I'm sure M.Gladwell would say something here about the tipping point but really, I'm sure there's a very well orchestrated way websites like this enter our lives. Somehow, they solve the chicken and the egg problem of "we'll be great when everyone uses us, but how do we get big?" and are now market dominators.

Well now, the new up and comer website is Yelp. I think I'm even slow on the Yelp bandwagon. Until we moved to Fremont, I didn't really need to search online for restaurant reviews. Not being familiar with a new area, we were constantly Googling different types of food. A strange little site would always pop up: Yelp. I paid little attention to it. User generated food reviews? Yawn.

But then Ameer started selling me on Yelp. And he committed to Yelping. See, he's been collecting business cards and creating his own handy food database for awhile now. But he needed some way to take it online. Yelp was the perfect thing.

I decided that my views on local food were important information for people to know. So I started yelping (my page here). Sure, I've only yelped two places but that's because I haven't come up with my gimmick yet. If you're going to review something as a consumer, you need to stand out. Jon G has his "drawbacks?" at the end as his signature. I'm still trying to figure out what my thing will be -- not to mention waiting for a good way to install a personal rating system. I want my one, three, or five stars to mean something.

In the meantime, if you're already a Yelper, let's be friends! If you're not Yelping, get on it!

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Games Even Your Mom Could Love  
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 : 6:03 PM : 0 comments

Maybe you begged mommy for a Game Boy when you were twelve (or twenty) and got one for your birthday. Isn't it time to give her something back?

Start off by buying one of those newfangled Nintendo Dual Screens (DS) in grey, black, pink, blue, or oh so heavenly white. Avoid action adventure games that will make her sweat and squirm. Avoid games that take hours to complete. Pick something that she can enjoy for fifteen minutes at a time while waiting in line at the grocery store, the doctor's office, or curbside ready to give you a ride home -- yes, she's still taking care of your errands and carting you around while waiting for you to "grow up."

We present five DS games that are sure to make mom appreciate and treasure video games -- and you by extension. All these titles are kid tested and mother appproved. Now all your phone calls from home will involve "So, I'm on Level Three, what do I do next?" It's a win-win all around.

1) Brain Age
Simple arithmetic, reading comprehension, and memorization mini-games are fun? Sure is, when the goal is to get better and faster at each of the education based mini-games. It's a game that's not a game -- those of you familiar with Kumon will groan but this is actually fun!

The idea behind the game is that by giving your brain daily exercise and repeatedly doing simple tasks, you'll make yourself healthy, wealthy, and wise. Mom won't burn out on the game since it limits itself to only a few minutes of play a day. Brain Age has taken the world by storm and there are now dozens of spin-offs but nothing beats the original.

2) Animal Crossing: Wild World
In Animal Crossing, an entire self-contained universe sprawls out before you as a young human who moves into a town filled with cutesy, and industrious, creatures. You are tasked with exploring the town and finding a way to make money to pay back your animal benefactor. You can do this by running errands for people, digging for gold, harvesting vegetables, and randomly dropping by to visit your kid at college. Just kidding about that last one.

Best of all, every task can vary depending on the time of day, the changing of the seasons, and the timing of major holidays. For example, shops close promptly at 11pm, fish are more plentiful in the early mornings, and there's a New Year's celebration on the real December 31st, Earth-time. Additional money you acquire can be used to buy a house, spruce up the place, and invest in rare decorations and knick-knacky treasures.

Sanrio plus the Sims equals a game any mother will love. Give them a world to over-invest in; one that's not yours.

3) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
It's "Murder, She Wrote" for the DS. The titular character, Phoenix Wright, is a lawyer fresh off passing the bar and is thrust into a series of capital murder cases. While it may seem grim and oh-so CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), the unique concept and anime-inspired graphics make the game a joy to play.

The goal is to find contradictions between the court submitted evidence and the testimonies of witnesses in order to uncover the truth. Searching for logic gaps and putting two and two together will remind your mom of the good old days when she caught you "studying at Melissa's house." The game even allows you to yell "Objection" into the microphone during heated moments in court. Every mom is a detective and lawyer at heart, she'll love this game.

And if she loves it and can't wait to do it again, there's the sequel, Phoenix Wright 2: Justice for All.

4) Bust-A-Move DS
When your mom kept stealing your Game Boy to play Tetris and ended up setting the household record for it, you were embarassed right? Admit it. Now here's a similarly addictive game for her to try out. It's a classic and beloved by gamers everywhere but your mom may not be hooked yet.

It's Bub and Bob -- rosy cheeked roly poly dragons who first co-starred in Bubble Bobble (flash version here) -- hard at work using a two-dragon slingshot to bust similarly colored bubbles. It's simple and quick to play and your mom will be addicited within five minutes. You can also challenge her to a multi-player match by sharing a single cartridge of the game; but you need to bring your own DS to the party.

5) Pokemon
By now, everyone in the world knows about the phenomenon that is Pokemon, even your totally unhip mom. She may not be clear about exactly what a Pokemon is but any of the games in the series will educate her immediately.

All the core Pokemon games are role playing games-lite and involve running around capturing Pokemon for your collection and for battle with other Poke-masters. "Pokemon" is a Japanese contraction for the words "pocket" and "monster". We recommend getting the as yet unreleased Diamond and Pearl versions (April 2007), which will have a brand new story and an all-new collection of critters to capture.

For your mom, the hardest part of this game may be overcoming the misconception that this is a "game for children." If your mom is feeling uneasy about being seen playing a "kid's game", tell her to tell detractors that she's "using the game to bond with my grand-children." Then quickly give her a kiss and hug before she can ask you how that's possible when you're single, not dating, live at home, and are no closer to having grandchildren than she is to collecting each of the the hundreds of Pokemon available. It'll be a bonding experience, trust me.

BONUS) Trauma Center: Under the Knife
Went to school to become a doctor but came out with a sociology degree and a career in administration? Parents don't understand that your C+ in Orgo wasn't good enough to get you into a leading medical school? Tell them that it's not as easy as it looks and present them with Trauma Center.

You may never become a real surgeon, or live up to their expectations, but you can still save (virtual) lives together. Trama Center lets players wield the scalpel and repair all the (financial) damage that your six years of undergraduate study and three major changes have caused. The game might be a bit tough for all ages alike but as you now know, being a doctor ain't easy.

This concludes our look at six of the best DS games to get your mom involved in the digital age. This list also doubles as "Games A Wife (or Girlfriend) Will Love" if you're in a gift giving pinch. Got some other suggestions?

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