This post by Matthew Prince is one of the most well thought out, measured pieces on net neutrality that I’ve read.
Category: Culture
My favorite line:
> As Brian Perkins, VP of Marketing for Budweiser states in that piece, this ad isn’t intended to skewer craft beer at all, despite the obvious, stereotyped characters of mustachioed hipsters sniffing flights of craft beer.
Categories
New Beer Bars Coming to Raleigh
Important information for the upcoming year.
Important information if it’s time for you to upgrade your Christmas lights.
Categories
What I Have Been Up To
My blogging on this site has always been somewhat erratic, but it has been even more so lately. Unlike the [previous life events](https://johnkiv.us/2014/04/25/months-that-lasted-years/) that kept me from writing here as frequently, these new developments have been very positive.
First, and most importantly, Elyssa and I [got married in May](https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.744964325544227.1073741837.121478204559512&type=1) and then went on an epic, 11 day honeymoon at Walt Disney World.[^note1] As you may have guessed, it was a fantastic month.
Speaking of Walt Disney World, I am happy to announce that I am now a blogger on [TouringPlans.com](http://www.touringplans.com). Unlike the Disney-related posts on this site, where I normally link to a news item and provide some kind of brief commentary, my TouringPlans posts are in-depth, analytical pieces about things at Walt Disney World that I am interested in. One of my main goals is have an on going series about staying *off-site* while visiting the World. I have already posted [one article in that series](http://blog.touringplans.com/2014/07/28/disney-world-annual-pass/) and have also done [three other posts](http://blog.touringplans.com/author/kivus/) that deal with value-based analysis of Walt Disney World vacations. To no one’s surprise, Elyssa has been editing my articles, and she is greatly helping their quality.
The other recent drain on my time has been the launch of [Kivus & Camera](http://kivusandcamera.com), a photography business that Elyssa and I are starting together. Both of us have a love for photography, and we both really enjoy capturing the moments in peoples’ lives where they are at their happiest and their best. It serves as a nice counterbalance to our work as attorneys, where we do not always see the best side of people. As part of the launch, Elyssa posted a (http://kivusandcamera.com/2014/08/meg-hunter-08-02-2014/) and a [photo album](https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.703938123025849.1073741830.677155332370795&type=1) of a wedding that we shot last month.[^note2] (Of course, if you are interested in our photography services for weddings, family, or even portraits for social media, please feel free to [contact us through the new site](http://kivusandcamera.com/contact/).)
Speaking of Elyssa, you might notice that both of these new activities are things that her and I do together. That is by design. Our skills really do complement each other in a lot of areas, and it makes working on projects with her super fun. For example, though I have put a good deal of time and effort into launching [Kivus & Camera](http://kivusandcamrea.com), my efforts pale in comparison to the work Elyssa has done to get everything off the ground. I leveraged some of my technical experience to get the website functioning, but Elyssa has spent nearly all of her free time making sure all the details on the website, the recently shot wedding, the logo, etc… are in order. That is the type of work that I am not a fan of, and she does it very, very well. I am looking forward to working with her on all of these things going forward.
Finally, I do still intend to update this site. I am not sure the exact schedule yet, and my upcoming court calendar might impact things, but I think I’ll always come back to this place. This site just always feels like my true home on the internet.
[^note1]: The honeymoon itself could and should be the subject of post. It included Star Wars Weekends, 24-Hour Days, and a sampling of Disney Dining beyond anything we have ever experienced. Of course, some of the items that stood in the way of me writing on this site also kept me away from finishing up a trip report and associated photo editing for that trip.
[^note2]: I also relaunched my photography website, which was formerly available at [Johnkivus.com](http://johnkivus.com) as a sub-site of [Kivus & Camera](http://kivusandcamera.com). It is now available at [photography.kivusandcamera.com](http://photography.kivusandcamera.com). I have been wanting to redo my old site for some time, and the launch of the new business finally gave me the motivation to get it done. I am still not 100% sure on the divide between this site and that one, but I anticipate that most of my photography news will be posted [over there](http://photography.kivusandcamera.com).
It takes about 2 days using a backup camera before you start to wonder “how did I ever survive without this?”
Having Google Fiber in the Triangle would be huge. At a minimum, it would put a lot more pressure on Time Warner Cable[^f4705] to upgrade their speeds, lower prices, etc..
[^f4705]: Who might have been bought by Comcast by the time Google Fiber rolls out.
In a sponsored post on *MacDrifter*, Gabe shows the power of my favorite iPad RSS reader, [Mr. Reader](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mr.-reader/id412874834?mt=8&at=10l5TL)[^f4236].
If you like what you see in Gabe’s post, I also recommend checking out Federico’s tips for [creating custom Mr. Reader actions and services](http://www.macstories.net/reviews/mr-reader-and-the-services-menu-for-ios/).
[^f4236]: Affiliate Link
How could someone think this is a good idea?
Their website now says the new location will be open on December 10th.
Categories
Mr. Reader Updated to Version 3.0
My favorite RSS reader for iPad, Mr. Reader, has just received an iOS 7 update. This means a slick new look and background downloads. It is [available in the App Store for $3.99](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mr.-reader/id412874834?mt=8)[^f1301].
[^f1301]: Affiliate Link (as is the post link.)
This was such a touching story. I hope they sell video of the whole day and give the proceeds to Make-A-Wish.
Alex Knight explains how Feedly has ignored the requests of content publishers by refusing to identify the number of subscribers for a given feed:
> Feedly is an extremely popular news reader service. They claim to have 12 million users, so they are by far the biggest concern to us at the moment. Since they aren’t reporting their user agent, this makes it extremely difficult for content producers to tell if anyone is checking out what they do. We have made numerous attempts to contact Feedly via email and on Twitter (see our tweets here and here), however, they have yet to provide any promising information about if and when they will start providing this data. In September Feedly released an API, which we dutifully did all of the integration on day one with their provided sandbox access. We are now into November, and they still refuse to give us access to their production API. Meanwhile we don’t have access to anything and they make money out of your content.
That is just unacceptable for a company in the RSS space. Shame on Feedly.
I approve of them picking a guy with a computer science degree.
My favorite Mac podcast app, *Instacast*, is [now available in the Mac Appstore](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/instacast/id733258666?mt=12&at=10l5TL)[^f5317]. If you are someone who has avoided buying it simply because you prefer Mac App Store versions, now is your chance to pick it up.
[^f5317]: Affiliate Link (as is the post link.)
Casey Newton chronicles the rise and fall of *Everpix*, a great service for backing up and remembering your photos:
> The immediate concern in the room was a forthcoming bill from Amazon Web Services, which hosts the 400 million photos stored with Everpix; the team estimated the bill would be about $35,000. “Our AWS bill is going to be due on the third. We’re not going to be able to pay,” said Pierre-Olivier Latour, who had the idea for Everpix four years ago after a vacation left him struggling to organize the hundreds of photos he took on the trip. Behind him, a poster advertised San Francisco’s minimum wage of $10.55 an hour, which he had been paying his employees for the past month. “Amazon is going to reach out to us saying, ‘Your card doesn’t work.'” He paused. “So that’s going to be fun.”
> …
> The [Everpix] software was fast, the design was clean, and the service was simple to use. “The best part about Everpix may be its ‘set it and forget it’ nature,” TechCrunch noted at the time. “After the one-time installation and configuration, there’s nothing else you have to do.” To the team’s surprise, Everpix became a finalist at the competition. (They lost the $50,000 first prize to Shaker, a bizarre kind of Second Life-meets-Facebook social network that raised $15 million and hasn’t been heard from in a year.)
> …
> Unfortunately for Everpix, they went out to raise money in the midst of what has become known as “the series A crunch.” The number of initial (or “seed”) investments has increased dramatically in the past few years, while series A investments have plateaued. Many investors remain willing to write a $100,000 check to see if a startup becomes an overnight success. But when it comes time to write a $1 million check, or a $5 million check, they have become much more selective.
> …
> The founders acknowledge they made mistakes along the way. They spent too much time on the product and not enough time on growth and distribution. The first pitch deck they put together for investors was mediocre. They began marketing too late. They failed to effectively position themselves against giants like Apple and Google, who offer fairly robust — and mostly free — Everpix alternatives. And while the product wasn’t particularly difficult to use, it did have a learning curve and required a commitment to entrust an unknown startup with your life’s memories — a hard sell that Everpix never got around to making much easier.
It is disappointing to see just how the machines of Silicon Valley drive you to either play the VC game fully or try to build a business without any of their help. In this case, it appears the founders of Everpix tried to do a little of both and it burned them. I hope [Loom](https://www.loom.com) sticks around a little longer.
Reading tech news would be so much better if everyone followed these rules from Mr. Marks. My favorites are:
> **3. The only numbers that matter are real ones.**
> Wall Street is an enigma wrapped in a poorly tailored suit and a tacky tie. Its reality is different from our own and yet, the made up numbers coming from analysts and traders matter more than the actual numbers being reported by companies. Apple made $37 billion last quarter, but fell short of The Street’s imaginary math? Amazon’s stock shot up on a billion dollar loss because it has “potential” it keeps failing to meet? Doesn’t matter anymore.
> All journalists must henceforth report the facts. Unless a company reports a loss or does not meet or beat last quarter’s numbers, the word “disappointing” should appear nowhere in an article, nor a headline.
and
> **10. No more article rewrites.**
> It’s habit for large sites like Business Insider and the Huffington Post to take an original story from somewhere else and repurpose it for their own publications. What’s easier than actual journalism? Rewriting someone else’s work.
> Unless there’s new information or a unique take on a story, leave the original piece where it is and provide a link.
Doing just a few of these would be a huge leap forward.
Sigh. I was hoping they would get rid of these stupid things.
Amazon has launched their new [Kindle Matchbook](http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1001373341) service, which reviews your previous book purchases to determine if you’re eligible for discounted Kindle versions. As you would expect, only a few publishers are signed up at the moment, but hopefully this program will go as time goes on.[^fn1]
[^fn1]: Currently, I have about 20 books that I could get eBook versions for, ranging in prices of $1.99 to $2.99.
> If you see a job listing that doesn’t specify a salary range, assume it’s so low that they’re embarrassed to include it, they don’t respect you enough to tell you, or their heads are so far up their asses that they think you should just be dying to work there at any salary, none of which bode well for employment there.
I agree 100%.[^fn1]
[^fn1]: My agreement applies to *all* job postings, but it is especially true with programming positions.