I’ve been keeping tabs the past couple weeks on the upgrade to Zooomr, a photo sharing site that I have started to use as noted in a previous post. During that time (still ongoing) I have received a quick education about the realities of running a website like that. The reality of running a fairly new site like Zooomr with only two people with a large number of users and is a daunting challenge.

Consider that the founder, creator, developer, coder is a 19 year old genius young man named Kristopher Tate. The CEO is a spectacular photographer with a day job as financial advisor named Thomas Hawk. That name is actually a pen name because if he used his real name he would not be free to share his opinions due to his day job restrictions (though he knows people can figure out his real name).

Zooomr went offline recently to port in the new version (Mark III). During the offline state, Kristopher and Thomas continue to stay in touch with the Zooomr community by streaming video live on UStream.tv almost 24/7 from Zooomr HQ, the data center where the servers are located, etc. This is a unique view of the struggles of running a site like that. Watch Kristopher as he wrangles some code or moves data. Thomas responds on the video stream to the chat room talking Zooomr, photography, tech, and does a little DJ’ing on the stream with his MacBook Pro.

After delays with the Zooomr update, it went live with Mark III earlier this week… For about 10 minutes. Then it went down. But this time it wasn’t intentional. Server hardware issues appeared and unfortuantely it has not been a quick fix. This wiki has updates from the Zooomr community as to the status of things so I won’t go into details. But I would like to highlight that the folks from Zoho.com, specifically Raju, have been of great assistance to Zooomr in the past 48 hrs, offering servers, data center space and technical know-how.

You may wonder, why in the world does this matter to you Jim? Well for one, I’m an amateur photographer and looking forward to using the new functionality of Zooomr. Many functions that flickr does not have. Also this 19 yr old’s talent and maturity for his age is amazing to see. Not to mention Kris and Thomas seem to be all around nice guys that have great intentions with Zooomr.

Thomas Hawk on a blog response today: “We are a two man team trying to pull off a dream. We want to build the first truly global photo sharing site and for the first time open up the $2.5 billion stock photography market to the entire world. These are big goals and ambitions. But we are just two guys. We are doing the best that we can and I think that people understand that.

It’s easy for people to take potshots at Zooomr when we are down. But we will be back up. We will get back online. And these growing pains will be a part of our history. But we will always remember the people who stood by us in our troubles and I think the support that they are giving us is something that you can’t understand because what they know that you may not is that we are doing this for them.

We are personally sacrificing much to make a better global photosharing site and to make it possible for everyone — even kids in India and China — to be able to sell photos to the rest of the world.”

I like to see stories like this end well. I think it will, but right now I’m sure its frustrating for them. I never had an inkling of understanding about what it’s like behind the scenes to create and run a site like this not to mention with just two people. Most sites would hide this kind of stuff from users, but I think being transparent like Zooomr has been in this case is actually building respect and people rooting for them.

Update: Robert Scoble is with Kris tonight to help out. Also an “unnamed company” donated two brand new servers.

Update 2 (8:20pm CDT): Thomas Hawk and Kris are live on uStream.tv and should be re-launching Zooomr Mark III tonight, possibly within the hour.

Update 3 (1:45 am CDT June 3): Zooomr Mark III is LIVE! Note that there will be bugs initially.

At one time or another many Americans have been shopping for a new digital camera. And its inevitable, whether searching for the a digital SLR or point-and-shoot variety of camera, the number one feature people look for is the number of megapixels per photo the camera sensor produces. While “the more megapixels the better” sounds practical and logical, in many cases it really does not make a noticeable difference to the eye above 5 megapixels even enlarged to poster size. To prove it, David Pogue wrote this article the other day that demonstrated in a practical way why megapixels (above 5) matter less than most think. Check it out sometime before you run out to by your next camera.

UPDATE: David Pogue has a follow up here to his column.

Yesterday Apple, Inc. announced the creation of iPhone. As a user of an Apple Mac desktop and laptop of course this interests me, however this device can sync with Mac’s and PC’s alike (though if you have a PC you should really get a Mac!).

Really this interests me more because I was hoping there was truth to the rumor that Apple was creating a cell phone device. Why? Well personally I just wanted a cell phone that was as easy to sync my data on my computer as an iPod, function like an iPod and also be able to handle email and web data. Really there isn’t a cellphone out there that sync’s seamlessly and I knew if any company could make such a device and take a cell phone to the next level it was Apple.

Well the rumors were wrong. What I mean by that is they predicted Apple was coming out with all these seperate devices: a phone, a widescreen/touchscreen video iPod, and a mini tablet-like wi-fi computer, etc. Instead Apple created ONE device with all of that and more! The iPhone exceeded even the most believable rumors and that takes a lot!

This is Apple’s quick abstract of the iPhone:

iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.

To see much more about its functions go to Apple’s iPhone demo page. Also watch Steve Jobs introduce and demonstrate the iPhone at his MacWorld Expo keynote. The intro video is worth it to see how amazing this device seems to be.

When Steve Jobs gives keynote addresses to announce new products, usually several different products are offered. This was much different. Besides the AppleTV device, the entire keynote was about the iPhone. And it makes sense, since this product would have been all of the talk afterward anyway.

I don’t think Apple will in one swoop, knock Nokia, Motorola, Palm and RIM out of the power user cell market however I do think it challenges them to come up with something better. As of now Apple just made the Treo and Blackberry look and function like something from a few years ago.

Unfortunately the iPhone won’t ship until June. The reason for the lag makes sense since all cell phones must be approved by the FCC and that takes a couple months of very public documentation. Apple didn’t want the FCC to be doing the announcing for them so they unveiled it now.

Only 6 months left for my ol’ clunky Motorola RAZR cellphone!

Ok I’m tired of Direct TV. Really tired. I have been a long standing customer, and really had no problems with their service until last December. I will spare you the gory details, lets just say it took over 12 calls to Direct TV, 3 calls to the local Direct TV technicians, over 11 hours of time on the phone/hold (including one time waiting 2 hours on hold with a Direct TV rep trying to call the local technicians), Escalated 4 times, 2 visits from the installers (who’s boss lied to me 3 times), 1.5 wasted vacation days from work, all over a month span to just get an upgraded satellite dish installed with HD receiver.

After all of that, it took 4 more calls and 3 more hours of time on the phone/hold to request a simple receipt for this transaction since it does not appear on my bill. Each time I was told they don’t give receipts and my request was “unusual”. Umm… for a simple receipt? I was promised one and never received one to this day. I gave up. Not sure what businesses do not provide a receipts if requested by a customer.

6 months have passed and now the HD receiver they gave me in this debacle, does not work, it is junk now. It took 3 calls to tech support, to finally get them to send a technician out. They had to nerve to try and charge me 70 bucks for the technician. Mind you the problem was not one that a technician needed to be sent. He arrived, looked at it for a minute and said “your box is kaput, call them to get a replacement.” Hmmm… um ok I told them that 3 times on the phone. What was the point of him coming out? Especially since he is not allowed to bring a replacement! So now a fourth call to tech support, They send out a new one. I get the new one tonight, hook it all up, press the power button and… (more…)

Welcome to jimporett dot com Version 2.0! If you are a returning visitor you will notice significant changes. I setup the site with dedicated pages for the Blog, Daily News, Links, About and Archives. This can be accessed by the new navigation bar at the top of the sidebar.

You may notice that the title header at the top of the page will change when you move to a new page or refresh the page. If you aren’t sure what I mean by this, click the “refresh’ button in your browser, or just go to a different page on the site. The image will not always change (hence truly random), however just repeat until it does. The photos in the title header are all shot by me. Right now there are only two, however I’ll add a few more to rotate in the near future.

As I mentioned before, I am using WordPress to power this site on my server. You’ll probably see some minor tweaks and changes go on every once in a while. Take a look around and let me know what you think!

UPDATE (11:15pm CST):  If you attempted to come by my site tonight it may have looked strange or had errors.  This was due to me uploading the new site.  It is now in place as appears to be stable.  The old version will hang out at jimporett.blogspot.com for a while, but will not be updated or maintained.

Those of you who frequently or infrequently visit this site will notice big changes beginning the evening of June 1 if all goes according to plan. The rollout of jimporett.com version 2.0 is about to go live. Notice I’m using all of the terms like “launch”, “rollout”, “go live”, etc… Ha! This explains my lack of posts the past month. Lots of work configuring.

As I may have mentioned before I am going to be using WordPress instead of Blogger to power the site. Nothing against Blogger, it has served well, but with WordPress I have complete control over the look and function of the site, adding more pages of content and flexibility to change in the future. Some of the same features will remain and some have been updated or removed.

I spent a lot of time making sure the new version of this site looks consistent in browsers: Firefox, Safari, Opera and dare I say Internet Explorer 6. Though I must say if you are at home and still using Internet Explorer 6 for most of your web surfing. Stop now! Switch to Firefox 1.5! It’s much more secure than IE6 and is much better than anything Microsoft has come up with.

All of the posts and archives from this version will be on the new version. I have yet to find a good way to properly migrate the comments over, but that’s a minor concern at this point.

The home page is still jimporett.com, but the content will be in a different subfolder. Going to jimporett.com will take you there directly so no worries!

Time for a change of pace since the last few weeks has been all about the hurricanes in my blog.

Using Tivo, I watch fewer network TV shows these days. Only specific programs that I have setup for a Season Pass. The one show I became hooked on last year was “Lost” on ABC.

My first thought before I began watching last season was this show won’t last. How can a TV series last about people stranded on an island? Hmmmmm… Lets see… seems the last one was Gilligan’s Island. But this is a drama not a comedy. Well my initial thoughts have been proven completely wrong and it deservingly won an Emmy.

I enjoy how the show keeps me on the edge of my seat with the twists and turns the plot takes. Less predicable than most. I especially like the under currents of absolute truth and lessons learned. Right from wrong is clearly defined and treated as such. The current situations or backstories display subtle or sometimes very clear parable-like qualities.

The character development is well done and pieced together in a refreshingly different formula than standard TV shows. They give brief glimpses into the past of characters that have some correlation to what is happening in the show currently or explains why they act a certain way.

Ultimately, it is a high quality, unique show in a sea of junk TV.

Google has come out with one of the coolest, free programs ever! It’s Google Earth. I have heard about it but just now had time try it out. It utilizes satellite images and 3D imaging along with GPS coordinates and altitude. It’s a free download, for PC’s only right now (Mac version on the way!) It is addicting to use. I have been pulling up satellite images flying in from space and maps of all kinds of stuff.

Here’s the link: http://earth.google.com

In my 31 years, I have been a part of a generation that has seen the digital age grow exponentially. As I sit outside writing this on my 12″ Mac G4 Powerbook using wifi from inside my house, the technology that allows me to do this is frankly amazing. Not that I am naive or do not keep upon technology, quite the contrary.

I remember playing one of the first video games “Pong” on a TV using a box consisting of 2 dials to control the pong players (Rectangles really…). I also remember using one of the first personal computers the Commodore PET in 3rd grade. Atari and Intellevision, Commodore 64 and 128, Apple IIe, the IBM PC, the original Apple Macintosh, on and on to today.

My generation was the last that grew up without a true personal computer/video game console during our lifetime. Albeit a short part of that lifetime since I don’t remember seeing a computer until maybe the 2nd grade. Now look where we are.

Today’s world relies heavily on things that didn’t really exist in any functional form outside of the government and universities until about 30-35 years ago. Though I do not have the exact date, you see my point.

What a tremendous gift from God! The significance of which we take for granted today.

My moblog is up and running! See the moblog section in column to the right for the cool link to it! Click on the moving pictures or the standard link. I’ll try to update it often.

Url: http://jimporett.textamerica.com

FYI… For those who may be thinking, “What in the world is a moblog?” A moblog is a photo album with a mixture of cell phone pictures and regular pictures. The fun thing about a moblog is you can take snapshots with your cell phone and e-mail them from the phone to the moblog directly! Hence the “Mo…” for mobile!

Many use it to capture a variety of moments, scenes, life going by and share with the rest of the world.

I will be using it for all of the above.