A couple weeks ago, I launched a service called MyDashboard.Me.  At first, it seems like just another Yet Another Social Aggregator, but I believe I have some compelling, powerful features coming that will offer a competitive edge over other social aggregators…  In fact, I was hesitant to release it in an early phase because I was afraid of it getting lost in the noise.  However, I actually am using it, and I like to follow the tenet of open-source : Release early, release often.  One catch however… It’s not open-source, but that may change.

Currently, it supports simple feed aggregation of Flickr, Last.FM, Twitter, Digg, and RSS Feeds.  It’s very basic ATM, but it works, it’s extremely stable, so if you want an easy dashboard of what your friends are up to, feel free to try it out.

Stay tuned for those features that I think could become a FriendFeed killer

Tags: digg, flickr, friend feed, friends, last.fm, lifestream, lifestreaming, social aggregator, social networking, twitter

After a long, thoughtful process, I’ve decided to open-source my Facebook game, “Empire“.

I had originally intended to do this as I was writing the game, if nothing more than to serve as a tutorial, or breadcrumbs, for others who were trying to learn this new landscape.

Before I even officially deployed it to a public server, however, I noticed something unusual… A large amount of people were inviting their friends to the beta server I had left public, and it was growing at much faster rate than I expected.  Additionally, my constant readings of the facebook developers forums left a bitter impression about the less than ideal characters that were floating to the surface, and I didn’t want some cheap rip-offs to distract from the early growth of the game.

So I stopped making the SVN commits, added some more features, and set it up at the excellent Joyent hosting servers.

Indeed, the growth has been incredible, if not stable.  Some of those growth issues were due to some performance issues I ran into, which I finally corrected when I had the time.

Now, the game sits at a regular 1000+ daily active users, and it’s developed a hardcore fan base.  Indeed, there is an excellent user-generated wiki describing strategies for the game, and an enourmous amount of activity on the forums.  People enjoy the game, despite it’s simplicity and somewhat haphazard release process.

On the downside, the CPM rates for the application seem to suck.  It just maintains enough to pay for the joyent hosting costs, and that’s it.  Perhaps there are better strategies to employ to increase the CPM rate, but that’s not what I am in the businesss of doing.

So, as a dedication to the entire Empire fanbase, I’m opening up the source in a GPL, and others have already expressed interest in actively partcipating in it’s future development.

I’ll continue to manage the game, and I’ll be the sole release coordinator, at least for a while until I or somebody else trusted and clever manages to put the time and effort into properly manage the process.

Tags: Empire

On matters of style, swim with the current. On matters of principle, stand like a rock.
 — Thomas Jefferson

Tags: Quotes

There’s nothing like a picture of all the cousin’s together. Of course, there are a few missing (Ashley and Joseph, for starters!) Still, it’s great when you get a chance to get that many together

These pictures were taken from Saturday’s party to welcome back an estranged family member, David (He is the one at the top). He’s been gone for a while, and it was my first chance to meet him. Hopefully I’ll be blogging some songs from him in the future. (He’s another musician!)

Tags: Family

Yesterday I had the fortune to sit in on the first part of the mastering process of Ben Averch’s new upcoming album, Start at the Beginning at Panic Studios, with engineer John McCaig.

The process went surprisingly smooth, and it was really great to hear the latest mixes Ben made. Watching John McCaig work was an incredible treat, he’s definitely a pro.

I have to say, I already have some personal favorites off the album, and I’m definitely wishing Ben the best of luck in getting this album out to the masses!

For those of you who don’t know Ben Averch, you should really check out his site. Ben is a one-man musical wonder… He’s the sole artist on most of his material, and is an accomplished guitar player, drummer, vocalist, bass player, and keyboard player, and he performs all the instruments on the new album himself.  All that while he manages to carry a full time day job, he’s a very impressive guy!

I’ll definitely post a review of his album when it comes out, but I’m going to save that for his press release fury   Meanwhile, you can check out the rough mixes at his site.

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Tags: Music