» Web http://seanhills.com/blog Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:03:18 +0000 en hourly 1 Personal & Privacy, where did you go? http://seanhills.com/blog/2009/07/12/personal-privacy-where-did-you-go/ http://seanhills.com/blog/2009/07/12/personal-privacy-where-did-you-go/#comments Sun, 12 Jul 2009 09:01:18 +0000 SeanHills http://seanhills.com/blog/?p=360

I feel that with websites like Flickr or Facebook our “personal” moments aren’t personal at all anymore. People fail to realize that uploading any pictures to these third party sites isn’t always the smartest thing to do. I realized this even more when I have been asked to see my wedding pics so many times by someone that really doesn’t need to see them anyway. So from this point on I refuse to upload any personal pics on Facebook and will only upload those pics to my personal server. Even a “personal server” or sending an email isn’t that personal being we have to use a third party site.

I was also inspired and impressed with my favorite browser Opera new add on called Opera Unite. They made things simple by taking away the third party websites and made it possible for two computers to share content with eachother directly from a web browser. To some this might sound weird, but trust me this will make a persons life so much easier. I’m not saying that this should replace all third party sites, but we shouldn’t trust so many with so much personal info. For that matter using Opera Unite is still using something third party, but obviously it’s a lot different from uploading my personal content onto a server that later stays with them even if I think I deleted that photo or info.

We assume the best, but that’s still a chance we are all taking. Opera Unite at least brings it up and gives everyone a choice. The more choices we all have the better. I think Opera Unite will make a lot of third party vendors upset and I can careless. At the end of the day it’s all about the consumer and making them feel safe. What do you guys think?

]]> http://seanhills.com/blog/2009/07/12/personal-privacy-where-did-you-go/feed/ 1 Kindle? mmm I’ll pass http://seanhills.com/blog/2009/03/10/links-for-2009-03-10/ http://seanhills.com/blog/2009/03/10/links-for-2009-03-10/#comments Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:01:38 +0000 SeanHills http://seanhills.com/blog/2009/03/10/links-for-2009-03-10/ Kindle is not the best iPhone e-reader | Webware – CNET
Kindle vs. iPhone

Kindle vs. iPhone

This is exactly why I don’t see the point in purchasing a Kindle at all. I can only see an older demographic buying this because they most likely wont have a smart phone to use any new technologies or enhanced applications that provide eBook reading. If you do have a Blackberry or iPhone try out these cool eBook readers and you will realize why I make that statement.
So many times I hear people say “oh the iPhone is just pretty blah blah”, but that’s the point it is pretty and its also a great device. In this business we learn that without some type of glamor the device will lack appeal to the general public even though its a great device on its own. Has anyone willingly wanted to purchase a G1 lately? exactly. The iPhone is pretty with its glossy icons and etc, but the applications bring so much to it that its makes someone’s life simple by having everything in one device. Well that’s my rant on this for the day, let me know what apps are the best ones.
]]> http://seanhills.com/blog/2009/03/10/links-for-2009-03-10/feed/ 0 What I’m Reading Today 12/09/2008 http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/12/10/links-for-2008-12-09/ http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/12/10/links-for-2008-12-09/#comments Wed, 10 Dec 2008 07:01:41 +0000 SeanHills http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/12/10/links-for-2008-12-09/
  • Google gives Gmail users a to-do list
    As much as this seems like a pretty cool idea to jump on the task list bandwagon I don’t think this will go anywhere. It’s a light weight feature and there are so many task list applications and websites that tie with the mobile devices no one will care enough to try to use this. I have tried Zenbe with Zenbe lists on my iPhone and it works great and there is others. I can only see this being useful if Google themselves release a iPhone applications that automatically syncs with the online version and calendar then that opens up the doors to competition since almost everyone has a gmail account.
  • Turning the iPod Touch into a Mobile Phone

    I think that it is amazing how companies are pushing applications on the iPhone and I guess this also shows that the iPhone dominance is here to stay because I don’t think any other device will bring this much excitement to the application world. That being said if you have an iPod Touch check the TruPhone application out, it uses VOIP for calls and users can chat with gtalk users also. The company is trying to add support for landline calls and I cannot wait for that. This would be cool if t evolves into a way that a person can use the iPod Touch as a mobile phone or maybe apple will just shut it down if it goes that far.


  • Delicious goes mobile finally
    It’s about time you guys! Out of all web 2.0 apps Delicious should have been mobile since th ebegining. And now since the iPhone has a huge share in the market I’m sure many iPhone users have wanted to have their bookmarks better optimized for their phone. Next up should be a native application, which would be extremely useful.
    • ]]>     http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/12/10/links-for-2008-12-09/feed/ 0     Voice enabled Search engine? & more stuff white people like http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/07/links-for-2008-10-07/ http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/07/links-for-2008-10-07/#comments Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:01:12 +0000 SeanHills http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/07/links-for-2008-10-07/
  • iPhone app lets you search the Web with your mouth ?

    • A quick overview from the folks from webware about a new iphone application that uses your voice to search the web. Honestly what is the purpose of this ? Do I really need to use this at all, like things can sound cool, but please make them useful.

    • #111 Pea Coats « Stuff White People Like
      I find this website hilarious due to the fact that most of its mentioned “stuff” are accurate. I think this writer is always on point and is a good read lol. I wonder if someone can create a website called stuff black people like without it being taken as offensive?
    ]]>     http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/07/links-for-2008-10-07/feed/ 0     A Few of my Favorite things PT 2! http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/03/a-few-of-my-favortie-things-pt-2/ http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/03/a-few-of-my-favortie-things-pt-2/#comments Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:54:39 +0000 SeanHills http://seanhills.com/blog/?p=270 If you don’t know me well by now I am the person who is alwasy trying out new things even when everyone else is using the norm or so call best. So here I will just list some webware and software products that in my eye are worth the shot.

    • OPERA 9.5 – I have for the past two years been using camino web browser instead of firefox for mac because of it’s sluggish ways, which is very annoying and can make a user unproductive. After a while I just wanted more choices in my web browser and more spead since I average 25 plus tabs a day. So I started using Opera 9.5 and surprisingly it has out performed all of those browsers in speed and memory usage, which are important to me.
      Opera Web Broswer 9.5

      Opera Web Broswer 9.5

      A lot of people have just bypassed Opera but with this new version there is no way I am going back to firefox at this time. It’s new interface, updated email client, custom rendering engine and it’s amazing Opera Link, that syncs your bookmarks and Speed Dial between your computers and mobile phone are built in and just make using it great. There are plenty other items tied in with the browser like better fraud protection, but Ill let you check it out for yourself.

    • OPERA MINI 9.5

    If you are going to use Opera 9.5 on the computer using it on the cell is a must. Opera mini is the best web browser on the mobile phone and I think will continue being so because of its innovation and anyone with less fancy cellphones and even blackberys can enjoy full websites on their mobile device so check it out.

    • Clicky Web Aanalyics – One day I was getting annoyed with google analytics lack of live updates to its web stats. To me I just wanted to see the habits of the users in real time and maybe even get organization names and get something extra about my future client, employer etc. I stumbled upon a blog discussing several sites that are better than google analytics and I was amazed right away. Here is a list of thing sthat are offered by Clicky.

    Track outbound links
    Track downloads
    Bounce rates
    Visitor organizations (e.g. Microsoft Corp)
    Visitor hostnames (e.g. comcast.net)
    Most active visitors
    Track custom data for every visitor (usernames, cookies, etc)
    Email reports
    IP tags
    Real time data
    Widgets of Mass Deliciousness to put on your web site
    Get your stats via RSS feeds
    View popular data in a TagCloud instead of boring tables and charts
    Aggregate (multi-day) view for all data
    Data export to CSV, XML, and JSON
    Spy (a live view of your web site)
    Works with visitors who have disabled JavaScript
    White label as your own product
    Official WordPress plugin for easy integration with your blog
    FeedBurner RSS stats integration
    Google Maps integration
    Clean, modern interface
    Public statistics
    Updated constantly
    Free service
    Insanely affordable premium service
    (starting at less than $2/month) n/a
    Affiliate program to earn you cash or free premium service

    There are more products to come! I figured I would start off with a quick post, but it ended up long so I will make daily updates about new products you might be interested in so keep an eye out.

    ]]>     http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/03/a-few-of-my-favortie-things-pt-2/feed/ 0     New Pastures http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/02/new-pastures/ http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/02/new-pastures/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:33:09 +0000 SeanHills http://seanhills.com/blog/?p=265 What’s good people? I know I haven’t been bogging as much, but as you guys know with me relocating in June I have been on the grind trying to get interviews, contacts and redesigning my website. When I came to Austin I promised myself that my next job would be for me and only me and no settling by any means. After a long battle I have been hired to work at Charles Schwab as a Web Producer. This is a different role as me being a Web Designer for the past two years I have been more hands on with designing and hard coding. With my new position those skills will be used, but not as much and I will be working more with CMS, maintaining the websites content, side projects and etc.

    I love this position because I get to bring up new concepts and Ideas when I see fit and my opinion is being listened too for once!  To me this position is a stepping stone in developing my career as one of the elite Tech/Web minds. More and more I grow I know my place in the industry lies within developing a companies Tech and web presence to help clients, sales and etc.

    Other than that my coworkers are great so far and Austin is definitely my home for now and wouldn’t change it for the world. The weather down here around this time is so crazy I forget that we are in October at all.  I don’t think I have ever just been at peace in NYC as I have been here. So all of you guys definitely need to come visit soon maybe even come for SXSW!  Well till next time.

    ]]>     http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/02/new-pastures/feed/ 0     Ping & Pandora http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/01/links-for-2008-10-01/ http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/01/links-for-2008-10-01/#comments Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:02:22 +0000 SeanHills http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/01/links-for-2008-10-01/
  • Ping.fm / Blog
    pretty cool stuff if you want an all purpose social application updater.
  • Pandora to Congress: Vote now, we’re running out of time | The Social – CNET News
    It sucks to lose a great service such as Pandora, but I doubt they should be a main reason to sign a bill come on ! Sometimes I just wish companies and people would think before they make statements especially in a time like these.
    • ]]>     http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/10/01/links-for-2008-10-01/feed/ 0     Browser Talk http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/09/08/browser-talk/ http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/09/08/browser-talk/#comments Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:44:50 +0000 SeanHills http://seanhills.com/blog/?p=252 As you heard or read a million times already Google has developed it’s own browser dubbed “Google Chrome“. Everyone seems to think this is the best thing since slice bread but it isn’t by far. It looks decent with its simple design and UI and was pretty fast when I tried it, but of course its only a beta version and the first one at that. Unless they plan to just continue to call it Beta like Gmail for the next 4 years.  I still don’t see anything to go crazy over. It is built with webkit and it does add it’s own browser efficiency with how each tab uses their own sources, but it borrows from every browser that is already out. It takes Opera’s Speed Dial feature, address bar beneath tabs instead of above and from what I noticed Opera controls each tab slightly similar with it’s edit site preference pane. Then you will notice it also includes the so called “Awesome bar” used by Firefox and Opera, which gives the user the ability to type a simple phrase in the address bar to get to an old website without going through their history.

    I just don’t get the hype! I personally fear that google will track it’s browser users and dish out the info to their advertising partners because obviously they want you to stay online longer to make money off you. It’s understandable, but way too much power for one company.  Also, do you really think people are going to stop using Internet Explorer ? As much as I hate the thing I highly doubt people will stop using it. The average person is lazy and automatically uses what’s available to them, which in most cases is IE. My generation is getting smarter, but its the older folks who are just using what they have been for the last 10 years.

    Google I am also hearing way too many complaints about your browser crashing and etc, which you said it wouldn’t so get it together. If you guys and I mean every huge web company want to make the web a better place and competitve how about you improve your browser standards. Internet Explorer has always been on their own thing for so long they don’t care what users want nor care what the general public think. They have this dumb ass feature in Internet Explorer 8 that is basically a standards mode. A standards mode? why the hell would you give a user a choice? If we are to improve the web all the neccesary web standards should be the default of the browser and thats it. You see if all of these web browsers supported these standard functions and etc then it will make the playing feild even for all companies and browsers.

    No one should have to be subjected to seeing messages stating ” WE DO NOT SUPPORT YOUR BROWSER DOWNLOAD THIS”. And not only do the web browser companies have to improve on this it also falls on web developers, designers, web content publishers and so forth.

    ]]>     http://seanhills.com/blog/2008/09/08/browser-talk/feed/ 0