Slicksta is sick of hearing about beta releases. Limited beta. Private beta. Public beta. Closed beta. Beta invites. “Beta” is a label slapped on sites and used as an excuse for bugs, sloppy design or poor performance.
Launch when you’re ready and deal with problems as a natural part of running a website.
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Some companies make it really hard for their employees to use instant messaging programs at work. Slicksta thinks this is terrible and wants to help you stay in touch with your buddies! If you find your IM access blocked at work try one of the following sites:
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Looking to get into PHP/MySQL development? Building websites as a hobby can be fun and rewarding albeit time-consuming. These open source technologies make web development accessible to anyone with a computer and an idea. Here are a few sites and services that Slicksta found helpful when he was learning.
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Slicksta launched another project this week: OfficePicker.com. He was dismayed by the poor usability and lack of fun-factor on those other sports sites so he created his own, simple to use tool for football pools. In under two minutes you can setup a pool and invite your friends and co-workers to join.
The first NFL game is next Thursday, 9/6 so setup your office pool today!
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Steven Bochco, the creator of L.A. Law and Hill Street Blues joins other Hollywood heavyweights with the release of a series of clips on video-sharing site Metacafe called Cafe Confidential. Listen to everyday people (girls next door and guys across the hall) talk about embarrassing situations, weird family members and losing their virginity. It’s voyeuristic and Slicksta finds it incredibly addicting. Each clip runs between one and two minutes long which seems like just the right amount of time.
Slicksta applauds Hollywood’s efforts to bring professionally produced content to the web. This is a new medium and requires new formats. User generated stuff is cool but gets boring pretty quickly and Slicksta prefers professional story-telling.
» Read the LA Times artcle about Steven Bochco’s latest project (registration required)
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Business 2.0 has published an updated list of startups to watch in the coming year. The author predicts that there will be flame-outs with too many newbies chasing different ways to bring traditional media online.
The losers are likely to be those companies that try to make money by pouring old-media wine into the new Web bottles. The winners will be the players that invent new ways to tap into what the Web brings to the party: instant feedback, instant analysis, and the collective wisdom of a billion users.
ISHO it’s more about creating real businesses vs. cool products or features. Cool products and features get featured on Slicksta’s blog while businesses get written about in the NYT or WSJ.
StumbleUpon and Meebo are two of Slicksta’s favorites from the list.
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Christorpher Null does a good job summarizing five ways to watch tv online for Yahoo! Tech:
These are great options for viewing television on your computer and when away from home. Another option is Slingbox which Slicksta convered several months ago.
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Slicksta just got tipped off about a cool site that lets you rasterize any image whether saved locally or on the web. Use the Rasterbator to create giant posters that print out on regular sheets of paper. It’s a totally cool way to decorate your space.
» Visit the gallery to see how other people have rasterbated and get some inspiration.
» Download the desktop version to rasterbate with large images (the web version only works for images up to 1MB).
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This year YouTube is hosting a poll for the best spots from SuperBowl XLI. The top ads are ranked by users and overall results are updated hourly. Slicksta encourages you to visit Super Vote to see clips you missed and vote on your favorites. The winner gets a coveted spot on YouTube’s homepage tomorrow.
There is also a handy gallery of Super Bowl ads in case you just want straightforward access to the commericals. You can also find a collection of Super Bowl spots on MySpace.
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This is a little late, but Time has released a list of the top inventions of 2006. YouTube was named invention of the year. Did Slicksta call it or what?
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