Toluu

franticindustries - web 2.0, social networking, IT technology trends.

Summer Vacation - See You All in SeptemberJuly 17

Hi, everyone. The lack of updates on the site lately has been apparent to anyone who’s followed it from the beginning. There are several reasons for it.

First, I’ve devoted most of my energy to writing on Mashable. This blog, FranticIndustries, has become a vehicle for some web and technology related issues that are either very niche, or somewhat personal. Unfortunately, my Twitter and FriendFeed accounts are often good enough for these purposes, and thus this blog rarely gets updated.

All in all, I don’t think that anyone who follows and likes my writing has lost anything; it’s just not concentrated on this blog alone. I’ll see where I will take it from here when I get back from my summer vacation, which is the most important time of year for me: time when I go dark (very little internet and technology), time when I charge my battery and read some good sci-fi from real, paper books for a couple of weeks.

I hope you all have a nice summer; I won’t be posting anything until September, except perhaps an occasional tweet. Till then, bye.

The Secret Behind Twitter’s Success, In a Very Long PostJune 29

Hey, folks. I know my writing here has been a bit sporadic lately, but it’s mostly because I’ve been writing posts like these for Mashable. It’s so long that one might convert it to PDF and proclaim it an e-book *cough* Seth Godin *cough*, but I’ve refrained myself from it - this time.

Together with the secret to life, universe and everything, I’ve discovered that Twitter outages have been starting points for the most interesting discussions in the last couple of months. Perhaps we should pray for more?

Time’s List Of 50 Best Websites Is, Like, Totally RandomJune 18

I’m checking out Time’s list of 50 best websites of 2008 and I don’t get it. Sure, these are all nice sites, but I fail to find any criteria upon which this list is based.

A quick skim through the list reveals very different types of sites and services. Hulu is there, which means that the list isn’t global, since Hulu doesn’t work outside of the US. TinyURL isn’t really a destination site which you’re going to visit often; it’s a service you’re going to use through a bookmarklet. I’m glad that PixelGirl Presents, a long-time favorite of mine, got a mention, but that site hasn’t changed in years; why is 2008 the year when PixelGirl Presents deserves to be in the top 50?

In short, the list is a totally random assortment of interesting websites. Which is not that bad in itself, but I think that Time should try harder to establish some criteria for lists such as this, if it wants to stay more relevant than the next “I’m gonna make a big list, hit Digg, and go away rich” blog.

Road Tripping On My Favorite Google MapJune 10

If the standard way of watching Google Maps is boring you to death, a game in which you can drive several different vehicles all around the map might be a welcome refreshment.

The game, developed by Geoquake, is based on Google Maps API for Flash, which enables it to run at smooth 40 FPS (as always, it didn’t run smooth for me at all, but that’s probably just my bad luck).

Don’t expect hours of gameplay with this one, though: it’s just a simple display of what can be done with an API. You can choose between 4 vehicles and control them with the mouse or the arrow keys, but the fact that you don’t have to stick to the road and can drive over buildings somewhat kills the joy.

Tag Galaxy - The Awesomest Way To Browse FlickrMay 25

Usually, mashups and innovative, alternative GUIs for popular websites are slow and mostly unusable, but Tag Galaxy breaks that habit with being really functional, as well as being really, really cool.

Type in a tag - any word, really - into Tag Galaxy, and you’ll get a small solar system of related tags, with more relevant tags being the inner planets, their orbit decreasing with relevance. It’s a cute little 3D tag world, but what makes it so cool is how responsive and fast it is; for example, you can click and drag for rotation, or use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Click a tag, then click another tag, and you’ll get results for both tags combined.

Half of the fun is in discovering what this tool can do, so I’ll leave the rest of the exploration to you. Be warned, though: it’s addictive.