House of Kyle

End of the Line

2009-06-30T13:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a long run, but with most of my activity taking place on Twitter, Facebook and Reader, I'm closing down this Blogger blog and moving House of Kyle to this Tumblr site. Move along, nothing to see here.

Ning Apps

2009-05-06T14:02:00.001-07:00

Some press on the project that Ernie and I (and many others) have been working on for quite some time:

TechCrunch
CNET
Mashable
VentureBeat

Ning Creator Stories

2009-04-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

A few months back, we kicked off a project that has now launched. Ning Creator Stories is a way to learn about Ning through the people using it in their daily lives. Here are the first three stories:

If you're a podcasting junkie, you can also subscribe in iTunes to the SD or HD feeds.

The Longest-Distance Relationship I Ever Maintained

2009-04-20T21:01:00.001-07:00

And now we're married. Aww.

Weekend trips in my sweet Plymouth Horizon.

Ning in the News

2009-04-19T09:09:00.000-07:00

Having crossed a million social networks on the platform, Ning (my day job) has been getting quite a bit of press. Here's a roundup of a few stories from last week:

The Power of Social Networks (CNBC)
Ning Growth, Traffic Soaring (Silicon Alley Insider)
Ning Hits 1 Million Social Networks (CNET)
Ning: 1,000,000 Social Networks and Counting (Mashable)
Ning: 1 Million Social Networks Strong (TechCrunch)

Stay tuned for more cool stuff coming shortly.

Gina on CNBC

2009-04-16T11:16:00.001-07:00

American Triumph Coming Shortly

2009-03-01T12:33:00.000-08:00

When Did I First Start Using the Internet Regularly?

2009-02-05T12:23:00.001-08:00

Definitely dabbled in the late-80s/early-90s with MUDs, Delphi, etc. Probably first used it regularly around 1990 with Prodigy, CompuServe and AOL (my parents were publishers and into trying out new stuff).

An Andre-Style Friday

2009-01-16T17:25:00.000-08:00

My MIT Panel

2008-12-31T17:07:00.001-08:00

Time to Shut Down the Internet

2008-12-28T09:24:00.000-08:00

Game over. There's nothing more for us to do.

My HighEdWeb Keynote

2008-12-11T20:29:00.000-08:00

Three Years at Ning

2008-12-03T20:11:00.001-08:00

Just realized that as of this week I've been at Ning for three years. Intense! For posterity, here's my first (pre-employment) appearance on the Ning Blog.

Go Shorty

2008-11-26T16:05:00.000-08:00

Via the one and only A. Fishwick.

MIT Panel

2008-11-26T12:21:00.000-08:00

Last week I did a panel on Social Media at MIT. Here's the liveblog for those with a lot of spare time on their hands. I think a video might be coming at some point, not sure.

My first job: retail

2008-11-26T12:08:00.001-08:00

Worked a few weeks at Crown Books before getting fired for taking pre-arranged time off. By a guy named Thad. Enjoy no longer existing, Crown!

This response is powered by Plinky.

Name three overplayed songs that you love anyway

2008-11-24T20:07:00.001-08:00

Viva La Vida by Coldplay

That thumping drum part kills me.

9 to 5 by Dolly Parton

If you don't like this song you have no soul.

Back to Black by Amy Winehouse

Just epic.

This response is powered by Plinky.

MacGyver Punch

2008-11-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

No way to defend yourself. Via Alex.

Friday Mindblowage

2008-11-14T09:56:00.000-08:00

Via Huy.

Uptown Tuesday

2008-10-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

In related news, the new MTV Music is hot.

Today

2008-09-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

Epic. Via Rachel.

Whitney Countdown

2008-08-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal just did an article about hiking Mt. Whitney (which I'm doing on Thursday...gulp). Note that the link might go behind a pay wall after a few days (shakes fist), so act fast.

Social BBQ

2008-08-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

I was asked to do a guest post for the HighEdWeb blog (part of a conference I'm speaking at in October). Check 'er out if you're into such things.

McNugget Monday

2008-08-18T11:51:00.001-07:00

Hat tip to Dave.

The Good Doctor

2008-07-29T06:12:00.001-07:00

For those that haven't seen Joss' grand web experiment, Hulu comes through for you.

'Secret of NIMH' Monday

2008-07-07T20:31:00.001-07:00

8 Years

2008-07-01T09:11:00.001-07:00

WALL-E

2008-07-01T09:04:00.001-07:00

From this weekend's excursion. Evidently half of Owen's class was there, as he was quite the social butterfly.

Pixar Nine

2008-06-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

In honor of WALL-E (which was great), I thought I'd rank the Pixar films from #9 (my least favorite but still better than most animated films) to #1 (utterly amazing). Note that some of these choices might be controversial, but I've ranked them in terms of re-watchability and fun in addition to artistic merit. Here goes:

9. A Bug's Life

8. Ratatouille

7. Monsters, Inc.

6. WALL-E

5. Cars

4. The Incredibles

3. Toy Story

2. Toy Story 2

1. Finding Nemo

Mt. Baldy

2008-06-14T18:21:00.001-07:00

As part of my ongoing training to hike to the top of Mt. Whitney in September, today a group of us made it to the summit of Mt. Baldy, the highest peak in Los Angeles County. In related news, I'm doing mountain hiking now.

Terrifying

2008-06-06T12:17:00.000-07:00

JumpSnap!

2008-05-15T13:19:00.001-07:00

Triumph of the American Spirit

2008-05-01T19:54:00.000-07:00

I recently challenged Mr. Lloyd to a US vs. UK Nike+ challenge. I think I'll let the current results speak for themselves:

Lunch Errand

2008-04-29T12:28:00.001-07:00

Order Now!

2008-04-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

Mini Borg Sphere

2008-03-27T21:28:00.001-07:00

This thing just rocked me. Also, since when did The Borg give up cubes?

It's HBO Feature Presentation Saturday!

2008-03-15T14:53:00.001-07:00

Owen and Stewart's Leprechaun Trap

2008-03-12T19:03:00.001-07:00

Pretty standard. The leprechaun is dazzled by the ruby slipper and
gems, while simultaneously enraged by the sign. So he defiantly climbs
the makeshift ladder and seals his fate.

Eisner Interview

2008-03-12T18:57:00.001-07:00

A shot from the back of the totally-packed Michael Eisner/Mark Cuban
session yesterday.

We Have Arrived

2008-03-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

We now live in a world where I can embed Lebowski in its entirety:

'Doogie Howser' Pilot Tuesday!

2008-03-04T16:26:00.000-08:00

SXSW 2008

2008-03-03T10:14:00.001-08:00

I'll be doing the yearly nerd migration to Austin later this week. If you're doing the same, be sure to join the SXSW '08 Insider's Guide.

Casualties of War

2008-03-01T15:17:00.000-08:00

This Slate piece hits the nail on the head re: the feelings of ~~suckers~~ consumers that are now stuck with useless HD DVD players. This particular section is flat-out masterful:

"In three short months, I was screwed by every cog in the gadget-industrial complex. The tech blogs convinced me that the format war would drag on for years. Sony pulled sketchy backroom deals behind my back. Netflix cut off my HD disc rentals. Even Toshiba did me dirty. Remember those seven free discs? Two of them (The Bourne Identity and 300) came with the player, but I had to mail in a UPC code to collect the other five. Perhaps the cereal-boxlike nature of this giveaway should've tipped me off that HD-DVD was the Frank Stallone of high-definition disc technology. Or maybe the pathetic list of available titles—The Hulk, Aeon Flux, Darkman—should've alerted me to Blu-ray's back-catalog advantage. Anyway, the relevant point here is that I still haven't received any of these terrible movies. You can keep them, Toshiba. I'm sure there's someone somewhere who collects unplayable copies of Black Rain."

Mindblowing

2008-02-01T17:52:00.000-08:00

They re-aired my favorite 30 Rock episode this week, so I thought I'd share it here (thanks to the magic of Hulu). Alec Baldwin deserves an Emmy for the therapy scene alone.

In Case You Needed Your Mind Blown on Monday Morning...

2008-01-14T11:31:00.000-08:00

Tough Times for Ol' HD DVD

2008-01-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

So as suspected, Warner has gone exclusively Blu-Ray one week after I scored a cheap HD DVD player. Thanks, Bugs Bunny. Way to help a brother out. That said, here are a few reasons why I don't mind too much:

1. As mentioned before, The Big Lebowski is (as of now) exclusive to HD DVD. That alone pretty much ends the discussion.

2. You can get HD DVD players for around $150-$175 with a ton of free movies thrown in. Mine came with 10. Regardless of whether or not the format dies a quick death (and don't forget that Paramount, Dreamworks and Universal are on the HD DVD side as of this writing), there are still a ton of HD DVDs to be Netflixed, and the players double as great upscaling units for regular DVDs.

3. Blu-Ray players that support the 1.1 standard (for the latest special features) are still super expensive. This is not a problem if you have a PS3 (it can do firmware updates), but if not it's probably better to wait. Even if Blu-Ray does totally crush HD DVD in the next few months (which is certainly possible), it may be a short-lived victory if Apple decides to up the ante and start doing HD downloads in iTunes. The bandwidth's not quite there yet, but if anyone might be willing to take the chance, it'd be Uncle Steve.

We'll see how things shake out. If decent 1.1 (or eventually 2.0) Blu-Ray players come out later in the year for under $200 I'd certainly be tempted to check them out, but until then I'll be rocking out with Lebowski and Transformers.

Zelda Christmas

2007-12-25T20:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas '07

2007-12-25T19:43:00.000-08:00

Last-Minute Wishes

2007-12-24T12:22:00.000-08:00

In Defense of Apple TV

2007-12-23T19:19:00.000-08:00

Man, so many Apple TV haters these days. Sure, it hasn't set the world on fire, but it's a product aimed squarely at hobbyists and early adopters. Don't expect iPhone numbers right out of the gate. I'd argue that for the following tasks it really can't be beat:

Streaming your music library to your stereo while showing sweet cover art on your TV. Awesome for parties.
Watching video podcasts.
Exploring YouTube (Ning HQ in fact has an Apple TV in the break room to watch YouTube clips).
Watching movies and tv shows, especially when you have kids. Physical discs scratch if a child even looks at them, and the shows get watched so many times that being able to instantly start them (with no rage-inducing DVD menus to skip through or discs to switch) is killer.
Sharing photo slideshows with a room full of people.

If you want to judge Apple for something, it should be related to the lack of HD content (aside from podcasts) available via the iTunes Store (though as noted before, I suspect bandwidth is the main sticking point there).

Seconds After SWEARING That He Didn't Eat Any Chocolate

2007-12-23T18:01:00.000-08:00

Jingle Bells

2007-12-23T15:51:00.000-08:00

Right out of the America's Funniest Home Videos school of comedy. More clips here.

HD Quagmire

2007-12-23T15:01:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a nice holiday gift certificate I bought a cheap HD DVD player, despite the constant Blu-Ray evangelization that takes place at the office.

Why? Well, for starters I've realized that until superduper bandwidth is more widespread, my dream of HD downloads is still a little ways off. Microsoft is testing the waters with the Xbox Live Marketplace (and I'd love to see the iTunes Store dabble a bit too), but at the moment the experience is a bit too painful for mass adoption.

This leaves movie fans with HDTVs in a fairly crappy place. Since standard-definition DVDs look pretty sketchy (even upscaled), the only real options are to record televised HD movies on a DVR (not a ton of selection) or blindly take sides in the absurd Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD battle.

I have no idea how long the market will continue to let both formats exist. Some say that Warner Bros. may go Blu-Ray exclusive soon, others disagree. Paramount is locked in to HD DVD currently, but who knows if that may change. Either way it's incredibly inconvenient for the consumer. I chose HD DVD simply because the player was cheap and it came with ten (!) free movies. Not to mention the fact that my favorite movie of all time is HD DVD-only at the moment.

My plan is basically to use it as a Netflix machine (I've set my queue to send HD discs for available movies). That way I can enjoy some high-def movies and not have to purchase a giant library based around an uncertain format. Not an ideal situation, but also not a bad way to blow a gift certificate.

Boxing

2007-12-23T14:00:00.000-08:00

The Greatest Video Piece Ever Made

2007-12-19T11:28:00.000-08:00

Say What You Will About Hulu, But...

2007-12-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

Dave informed me that they allow me to freely embed Weekend at Bernie's on my site. The entire movie. Game, set and match.

Why I Love Her

2007-12-13T09:15:00.000-08:00

Me: So I heard Ike Turner died.
Sarah: Oh, wow.
Me: Yeah, I guess he'll be remembered for...drugs and wifebeating.
Sarah: Yep.
Me: Really he was sorta the poster child of wifebeating.
Sarah: Yeah, he was truly a wifebeater's wifebeater.

Pardon

2007-12-07T17:45:00.000-08:00

Things may looks sketchy around here for a bit while I play with some WordPress/Ning integration action. Pardon our dust, and pardon me using the expression "pardon our dust."

Palo Alto Anniversary

2007-12-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

I just realized that (as of this week) I've been at Ning for two years. Yikes!

Wilshire Wednesday

2007-12-05T23:49:00.000-08:00

No Caption Needed

2007-12-03T13:05:00.000-08:00

Sit Tight

2007-11-30T17:19:00.000-08:00

I'm switching the blog portion of my site over to WordPress. An actual design coming soon.

A 'Charming' Thursday

2007-11-29T13:36:00.000-08:00

Early Morning Thoughts From Bob Hope Airport

2007-11-16T06:21:00.000-08:00

While moving through the terminal, I just ran into Dave's best friend, as well as this dude who I met at a conference earlier this week. Bizarro. On the way here I had my second female cab driver ever (both within a two-month period). Interestingly, both women have refused to drive until I put my seatbelt on, while the male cab drivers never care. Not sure what this means, but I'm noting it for posterity. I also had a long talk with the driver about HTML, and how she fell behind in a class since she typed the word "bracket" out rather than using the symbol. The whole conversation was like some sort of hallucination.

Strike!

2007-11-13T13:57:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday, Mr. Stew

2007-10-31T11:33:00.001-07:00

It's been quite a journey from that photo to the Stewart of today :)

OpenSocial, Google and Ning

2007-10-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

Marc and Diego (as well as the NY Times) have far better writeups than I could hope to produce, but in a nutshell it's going to be an interesting day tomorrow.

Day Man

2007-10-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Two reasons why It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is one of the best shows currently on TV.

Reason #1: The Writing of "Day Man"

Reason #2: The Performance of "Day Man"

In the News

2007-10-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

Nice New York Times mention of Ning in a story about start-ups being "awash in dollars."

Ning Video Piece

2007-10-11T16:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the segment! I wish I had half of this dude's energy :)

Sky = Falling

2007-09-19T09:47:00.001-07:00

No PC Should Be Without It

2007-09-11T11:16:00.001-07:00

8 is Enough (Jeez)

2007-08-27T22:39:00.000-07:00

Diego tagged me with an "eight things you might not know about me" meme, so here goes...

1) While I've used/abused computers since I was in grade school, the first one I bought with my own money (by mowing lawns, baby) was a Mac Color Classic.

2) I've seen Spinal Tap (the whole lineup) perform live.

3) I decided recently that I rate Arrested Development higher than Seinfeld as the best television comedy ever.

4) I have a terrible back and am often forced to sit in pretzel-like positions to relieve the pain.

5) I've been on board Serenity.

6) I detest skateboarding culture.

7) Remember that precocious kid that did his high school's website in the early/mid-90s? Yeah, that was me.

8) When I eat buffalo wings, I sweat like I'm wearing a winter coat in a sauna. Don't believe me?

Up next? I tag Sarah, Sal, Groves, Dave, Rausa, Big Rex, Bryan and Joe.

Call to Action

2007-08-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

Attention hipster t-shirt makers of the world! Someone needs to make a sweet Weber Gaming shirt. Get on the case.

California Snow Angels

2007-08-18T15:52:00.001-07:00

Amy and Sarah

2007-08-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

Amy and Sarah live at the Pig 'n Whistle in Hollywood last month. Apologies about the horrible video quality, it's upscaling from a clip the size of a postage stamp. And it cuts off at the end, so you're looking at a win-win all around.

30-1

2007-08-15T17:10:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to my lovely wife. Aww.

First Day of Kindergarten

2007-08-15T17:06:00.001-07:00

Better Late Than Never

2007-08-15T16:47:00.001-07:00

Here (a month late) are photos from our Illinois trip, as well as the Mr. Mom-style company picnic we attended as our neighbor's guests.

Bearforce1 Requests Permission to Land

2007-08-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

"Say hello to Bearforce1, the world’s first ever all-gay ~~boy~~ man group made up of bears." Via Perez.

Gamer Nostalgia

2007-08-09T15:53:00.000-07:00

If you're a big fan of the Wii's Virtual Console (which lets you download and play a ton of games from the past 20 years or so), join my little social network and share your collection/wishlist/etc.

Feed Update

2007-08-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

As part of my never-ending RSS housecleaning, I've separated/re-jiggered my feeds as follows:

House of Kyle
Same FeedBurner address as before (so no need to update), but it now contains posts from my Blogger blog, Twitter updates, Facebook updates and Pownce updates.

House of Kyle Links
A new FeedBurner address (add it now and it won't change again) that contains my Google Reader shared items and my del.icio.us links.

That is all.

Web Services Update

2007-08-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've done a "State of the Union" re: which web apps/services I'm currently using. I know it's been keeping you guys up at night, so here goes...

Ning: Duh :) In all honesty though, our product has been getting better and better with each release, and our latest release adds even more nifty features for starting/pimping out your own social network.

iGoogle: Still my start page, mostly due to its simplicity. I always debate about switching to Netvibes though. We'll see.

Gmail: I've been using a Gmail/.Mac combo to pump mail to my iPhone, while I wait (hopefully not in vain) for Gmail to add IMAP support.

Google Reader: My day-to-day feed reader, however I've had to set up a mirror Bloglines account since the Google Reader team hasn't yet set up a proper iPhone version (c'mon guys, there's even a Wii version...let's get this done).

Blogger: Though it's totally not "cool" to use Blogger (over MT or WordPress), I like to keep it real.

Twitter: These days I'm far more likely to update via Twitter than do a proper blog post.

Pownce: Pretty handy for sharing files, and will become even cooler once their API is released soon and more third-party apps crop up.

Ta-da Lists: I've ditched Backpack for the simplicity (and cool iPhone version) of 37signals' free product.

del.icio.us: Still cool (after all these years).

Facebook: Digital cocaine, despite the serious current lock-in issues.

MySpace: No thanks. Still have to log in once in a while though to check on certain friends.

LinkedIn: Still get a fairly constant stream of requests, though I have yet to actually use it for anything work-related.

Flickr: No-brainer.

YouTube: I'm not one of those guys that lives on YouTube, but I've definitely been using it a lot more since it's also on the AppleTV and iPhone.

Last.fm: Simple and easy.

Out and About

2007-08-01T00:55:00.000-07:00

Congrats to The Artist on his big announcement(s). Coming out via a video podcast gets a hat tip from me.

Potentially the Greatest Interview Ever

2007-07-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

Back on the Horse

2007-07-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, Internet audience. Some recent developments:

We're back from a 2 1/2 week trip to Illinois. Pictures and videos to come.

I got an iPhone while on the trip. It's amazing, and my only real complaints are the EDGE network (though I'm on Wi-Fi most of the time so not a huge deal), the lack of voice dialing and the lack of games. I suspect the latter two issues may be fixed at some point.

I've realized that Big Love is one of the best shows on television right now. Flight of the Conchords is also no slouch.

Slow Clap

2007-07-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

He Ain't No Thief

2007-07-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Dave and company on this gold pilot.

Addams Groove Friday!

2007-06-22T10:21:00.000-07:00

Via Dave.

AppleTV Revisited

2007-06-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

There've been a lot of AppleTV haters floating around recently. I totally understand and acknowledge that the device is a bit ahead of its time, but after spending many hours with mine, I'm extremely impressed overall.

Let's start with what's annoying about it:

1) Lack of HD content on the iTunes store. Aside from some HD podcasts, you're pretty much out of luck. I understand the bandwidth issues involved with HD content, but I could at least see them dipping their toes in the water with some TV shows.

2) Tiny hard drive. This has already been remedied (after I bought mine of course). Curse you, Steve.

Now let's talk about why it rocks:

1) It's wireless. To watch my Mac's media content on my TV in the past, I had a horrible array of cords and switches that had to be flipped. Now it just magically works.

2) It's amazing for photo slideshows. We bust these out at least once a week when people come over and want to see the latest kid photos. Beats gathering around the computer.

3) It's an incredible jukebox. We can stream our whole music collection to the home stereo, and see beautiful album art/track information on the screen. Great for parties or just hanging around.

4) iTunes movies look pretty good on it. Handbrake-encoded stuff looks even better. I'm not sure if it's doing some upscaling or what, but it's pretty impressive (at least to me).

5) It's the ultimate podcast viewer. If you watch a lot of video podcasts, it doesn't get much better than this, though it makes you angry that more shows aren't available in hi-res formats.

6) You can watch the latest movie trailers on it in very high quality. It's a lazy man's paradise.

7) As of today, it has YouTube integration. And as you'd expect from Apple, it's fantastic.

CNN Piece

2007-06-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

Check out CNN's video piece on Gina and Ning.

Pumpkin Therapy

2007-06-19T14:24:00.000-07:00

Gold. I think this is like circa 1994 (ish)?

There's Ning in My Facebook

2007-06-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

While they've made it sound a bit more complicated/scary than it is, TechCrunch has the scoop on tonight's release.

UPDATE: Marc has a great post about the new release.

Catching Up

2007-06-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit slow on posting some recent photos (for reasons that'll become clear tomorrow morning). Here's an album from our camping trip last weekend, and here are some pics from Owen's preschool graduation yesterday.

Lunch 2.0 Recap

2007-06-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

Lunch 2.0 at Ning
A little video from our event yesterday.

Lunch 2.0 at Ning

2007-06-07T14:32:00.000-07:00

If you're near the Palo Alto, CA area next week, you're invited to have lunch at Ning HQ. Here's some info about the event.

Deconstructing Kyle

2007-06-06T23:31:00.000-07:00

I have a new blog post up on the Ning blog about the rationale behind turning House of Kyle into a social network (as well as a brief site history). If you've arrived here because of that post, consider your mind blown.

Ms. Jones

2007-06-05T17:31:00.000-07:00

Some songs from our friend Amy's new official site.

Marc's Blog Debuts

2007-06-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

At Ning HQ, a number of us have personal sites/blogs, but the latest addition to the mix might be worth a peek. Just a hunch :)

The Big Oh One

2007-06-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

Cake

Wilbur turned one yesterday, and as you can see from the clip above, he enjoyed his birthday cake. Here's a gallery of photos from his first year, as well as some shots from the party.