He has created an informational survey to gauge coworking interests. I thought I would take this a step further, and try to help in the process.

If you are a Charlotte Area Freelancer, attended BarcampCLT, or both. Fill out the survey below. I will then share this information with Josh and we’ll get this ball rolling.

UPDATE: This project is cancelled. Checkout “Lightbulb Coworking” in Charlotte for all things co-working and creative meeting spaces.

I’ve been told this should be patented. It may already be patented. If not, feel free to steal my idea…

I originally drafted this post about three or four months ago. I simply didn’t post it. And since my original draft, people have gone iPhone 3G crazy. Even more so, other blogs have been posting what kind of devices they’d like to see in the market. (Techcrunch recently wrote about a web tablet they desire). So, I figure I should dip my toes in the water.

There’s a lot of talk with thew new Google Android open cell phone. Google is toying with creating it’s own phone. With all this talk about a new open phone system, and with all of these hot web applications like Facebook, Twitter, and the like, I am convinced that the future of technology will be about portability, high definition, localization, and aggregation of data.

Now, I’m just a regular guy. I’m not a cell phone exec, or a huge techie. But, here’s what I want my new phone to look like…

I want my online/offline/what-I’m-doing-now status to be changed when I change my ring type on my phone. So, when I change my phone from ring to vibrate, my phone should know that I’m in a quiet place, and should alert people who have my phone number that I don’t want to be disturbed by a phone call. There’s no reason why the cell companies can’t make these ring styles intelligent, and update my what-i’m-doing-now status with just a click of button on the side of my phone. This idea alone will bring Twitter like status updates directly to your cell phone. I don’t want to have to login to any settings page, I don’t want to have to open a browser, or use some widget to do this. I want a button on the daggum phone. Instant gratification, instant updates!

Phone books, or address books, would work much like your friends list like on Facebook or Myspace. Your friends’ status updates should be viewable right there on your phone’s address book. There are many companies who have developed social mobile apps, but these features should NOT be an ADDITIONAL piece of software. These features should simply be part of your phone.

To expand on this thought, if a friend or colleague were trying to call you, they would know before calling that you are “in a meeting”, “watching a movie”, “at school”, or “driving in the car”. And, your obsessive girlfriend or boyfriend would know exactly why you didn’t answer your phone, and subvert a potential argument, all by just by changing your ring style.

The next thing I want from my new phone is grouped messaging. In addition to the normal ways of retrieving messages, I want all my texts, voicemails, IM’s, and emails grouped by contact. When I scroll thru my address book on my phone to find that person I’m looking to call, I should be able to see the latest messages this person has sent me – all in the same place (ala Xobni). There are great things being done with voice mail recently (see the iPhone’s visual voice mail, and Pinger‘s new custom voice mail). There’s no reason why these features can’t be universal today. In addition to having messages grouped by contact, I should also be able to view the status of the contact I’m about to call. This way, before I even begin to call this person, I can see our most recent correspondence, and find out how busy the person may be. (think Facebook). Each contact in my address book will have the standard details, but the importance of the address book would be to see check the latest updates and messages from this person.

The other thing I want to be universally accepted is mapping by cell. Several companies like Dodgeball, Twitter, and the like have tried to make on-the-spot social events happen by cell phone. I like this idea. And 3G along with Apple’s new iPhone should make this easier. Using the ringer style what-i’m-doing-now button I described above, there should be a “broadcast my location” button which will allow others to be able to locate you if you are within a few blocks of each other. (this feature could just as easily be disabled as well with that ringer button). This way, if you are out running errands and looking for friends in the area you can share a cup of coffee with, just open your phone and locate who’s nearby. This could be creepy should the wrong person get your cell phone number, but nonetheless it’s a good idea as long as privacy filters are designed within the software – which is a simple thing to do. Note: Apple may have accomplished this with their newest iPhone release. I wouldn’t know – I’ve never owned an Apple product.

I want group texting (not via Twitter, but thru the phone itself). You can currently send text’s to multiple persons, but shouldn’t there be a “reply all”? I want group voicemail (like Pinger). I want always-on internet connections. I want unlimited use (texting too!), I want it cheap, and I want flat fees (like Sprint).

All of this is great for just a plain phone. But, this is my next generation phone, and I want more!

I want a cradle I can place my phone in, which adapts to my HDTV. When I place the phone in the cradle, it should automatically do a few things. One, it will automatically forward the cell phone to the land line. Two…

WAIT. I don’t think i want to divulge the rest of my wants. I’ll peruse the patent filings first. I think the rest of my ideas may just be THAT good.

If anyone is interested in doing a JV, is interested in mobile/HDTV platforms, and wants to know more. Please contact me. The powerful part of this, will require some software development and some financial resources. But, the market will be cutting edge!

My only gripe with Opera in the past were that Google doesn’t support it for their toolbar, and there really wasn’t a good SEO plugin or toolbar. Until now! Mike Samokhvalov has created a great tool called SEObar.

This a great tool which sits on your webpage, easily customized to hide on any corner of your browser. (I keep mine minimized in the bottom left of the browser, and simply hit the “+” sign when I want explore the SEO of a site).

Features Include

• Displays PR
• Alexa Rating
• One click Whois checks
• # of Backlinks for Google and Yahoo
• Highlights external links
• Highlights nofollow links
• …and much more.

It comes preset with a few Russian directories in the mix, but via the options tab these directories are easily turned off.

You really need to give this a try, and start using OPERA! Their upcoming release is going to be great. I’ve been trying it out for a month or so now, and many sites that used to not support Opera, now generate perfectly with the newer version. Now, with the SEObar, my surfing experience is perfect. So, stay tuned.

So, let it be know. Free tickets, or not, Mystere was an incredible show. Pure entertainment from the get go, and you left with a big, wide grin on your face. If you are lucky to attend a show in Vegas, you can’t go wrong with Mystere.

To be totally honest with you, all I knew about Cirque du Soleil perfomances is from what I’ve seen on TV and heard by word of mouth. I figured there would be some acrobatics involved and that was about it. Due to my getting settled into town a little late, I wasn’t able to get to Treasure Island early enough to check out the hotel’s shops or casino. But, from the little I did see, there was a lot to do, plenty of nicely dressed people, and the decor was impressive. Nonetheless, acknowledging my lack of preparation and tardiness, I was ready to be entertained.

From what I could infer from the show, Mystere is a peak inside children’s dreams. While you are being seated, two strollers are centered on stage under a glowing light. As the crowd is settling in, you randomly hear crying. I couldn’t figure out what it was at first, but it was obvious that the crying was coming from the strollers.

The performance itself is all about misdirection. While one performer is drawing your attention in one direction, suddenly another set of performers exit or enter the stage and begin their performance seemlessly. At this show, your eyes will never be bored.

As the last ticket holders entered the performance hall, an older man with crazy hair would take a couples tickets. He would act as if he was leading them to their seats, but after about 10 stumbling minutes of looking for the seats and walking through aisle after aisle and bumping over people’s knees, the couple realize there were in on the act. This happened about 3 or 4 times, along with some circus clown antics with popcorn. Then suddenly the show started.

You are immediately introduced to a big baby on stage with a huge orange ball. He quickly is attracted to one of the audience members and starts callin him “Pappa”!

Then the real fun begins. The music chimes in (all performed live by the way! the musicians and singers are all dressed in costume and perform live in the balconies above the stage) and then the acrobatics begin, and seemingly they never stop until the very end of the show. The show consisted of men climbing up poles, multiple trapeze and swing artists, jumping routines, crowd interaction, drum performances, stilt walkers, and all tied in with an incredible stage filled with lots of dry ice smoke and a continually fluxuating stage which would open up and close throughout the performance.

I was thouroughly entertained, and I really feel like I need to go again because there was just so much to see and to take in. I only wish next time that I can bring a few of my friends and family, because this truly was an event to remember.

Thanks, Joe! Thanks, Pubcon!

Here’s my favorite part.

He added, “the internet has allowed us many things which I feel truly blessed for. There was a point in my life where I was broke and was told I was dying. I made some of the best decisions in my life then. Sometimes when you have too much time on your hands you can also get clarity. Patience was the best lesson I ever learned, but I always ran from stagnation. I try to give where I can, learn from what approaches me and live life as a gift. My motto: Live – Love – Learn.”

Read the article, then come back here to let me know your thoughts.

Just to give you an idea of our traffic, the small link we have in the middle of this featured story is generating over 12,000 unique visitors per hour!

I plan on posting a recap of this week’s activities later this week.

Here’s a screenshot of today’s FoxNews site.

Head over to BadAssMarine.com and vote for this video now!!

Well, we’ve found him folks! At this time, we aren’t going to disclose his name or affiliation. But, earlier this evening my brother Matthew had a lengthy conversation with the man. After viewing other pieces of his work, and hearing Matt’s response to their conversation, you are going to be overwhelmed to hear more from this young man.

He’s already had people walk up to him in his hometown saying “you’re the guy from the internet!”. It’s all happening really fast, but we can’t wait to bring this classy gentlemen into the forefront.

More soon…

If you like the good ol’ USA, and want to promote and vote for the nation’s top stories, head over to BadAssMarine.com!

Notice the screenshot of the marine at the bottom.

Here’s the full text of his Spoken Word prose, titled “FREE”.

Free

and She called…
Blacks, Whites…wait
African Americans and Caucasians, Asians, excuse me.
Vietnamese, Philipenes, Koreans and Jamaicans or
Haitans, waitin’ Hispanics y’all.

Please be paitent
Mexican, Puerto Ricans, Venezualean, Cuban, v Dominican, Panamanian Democrats
I beg your pardon, you partied with the late, great Reagan?
Republican, Independent, Christian, Catholic,
Methodist, Baptist, 7th Day Adventist, 5 Percenters,
Hindu, Sunii Muslim, Brothers and Sisters who never seen the New York city
skyline when the twin towers still existed.
But still She called.

From the bowels of Ground Zero she sent this 911 distress signal.
Because She was in desperate need of a hero,
and didn’t have time to decipher what to call ‘em,
so she called ‘em all Her children.
The children of the stars and bars who needed to know nothing more than the fact that she called.
The fact that someone attempted to harm us
this daughter who covered us all with her loving arms.
And now these arms are sprawled across New York City streets.
A smoke filled lung, a silt covered faced,
and a solitary tear poured out of her cheek.
Her singed garments carpets Pennsylvania Avenue and the Pentagon was under her feet.
As she began to talk, she began to cough up small particles of debris
and said, “I am America, and I’m calling on the land of the free.”
So they answered.

All personal differences set to the side
because right now there was no time to decide which state building the Confederate flag should fly over,
and which trimester the embryo is considered alive,
or on our monetary units, and which God we should confide.
You see, someone attempted to choke the voice
of the one who gave us the right for choice,
and now she was callin.
And somebody had to answer.
Who was going to answer?

So they did.
Stern faces and chisled chins.
Devoted women and disciplined men,
who rose from the ashes like a pheonix
and said “don’t worry, we’ll stand in your defense.”
They tightened up their bootlaces
and said goodbye to loved ones, family and friends.
They tried to bombard them with the “hold on”, “wait-a-minute’s”, and “what-if’s”.
And “Daddy, where you goin?”.
And, “Mommy, why you leavin?”.
And they merely kissed them on their foreheads and said “Don’t worry, I have my reasons.
You see, to this country I pledged my allegience
to defend it against all enemies foreign and domestic.
So as long as I’m breathin, I’ll run though hell-fire,
meet the enemy on the front lines,
look him directly in his face,
stare directly in his eyes and scream,
“I AM AMERICA! WE WILL NOT BE TERRORIZED!
WE WILL NOT BE TERRORIZED!
I REFUSE TO BE AFRAID!
I’LL FIGHT YOU ANY COUNTRY, ANY CONTINENT, ANY TERRAIN.
I’LL FIGHT TO MY LAST BREATH!”

And if by chance death is my fate,
pin my medals upon my chest,
and throw Old Glory on my grave.
But, don’t y’all cry for me.
You see, my Father’s prepared a place.
I’ll be a part of his Holy army standing a watch at the Pearly Gates.
Because freedom was never free.
POW’s, and fallen soldiers
all paid the ultimate sacrafice
along side veterans who put themselves in harms way.
Risking their lives and limbs just to hold up democracy’s weight,
but still standing on them broken appendages anytime the National Anthem was played.
You see, these were the brave warriors that gave me the right
to say that I’m Black. Or white.

Or

African American or Caucasian,
I’m Asian, excuse me.
I’m Vietnamese, Philipene, Korean, or Jamaican.
I’m Haitan, Hispanic

Y’all, Please be paitent.
I’m Mexican, Puerto Rican, Venezualean, Cuban,
Dominican, Panamanian, Democrat
I beg your pardon, you see I partied with the late, great Reagan.
I’m Republican, Independent, Christian, Catholic,
Methodist, Baptist, 7th Day Adventist, 5 Percenters,
Hindu, Sunii Muslim,

Brothers and Sisters We’re just Americans.
So with that I say
“Thank You” to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines,
for preserving my rights
to live and die for this life
and paying the ultimate price for me to be…FREE!

As indicated in the videos below, this technology isn’t exactly new, it’s just the first time it’s really been implemented into a computer system. I actually can think of three places in Charlotte which have touch technology. The 7th Steet Parking Garage has large colored neon lights which light up and give a “ding” when you touch them. The Ballantyne Village Theater has interactive movie posters. And the new Bobcats arena has an interactive floor display which allows people to interact with games by simply making shadows on the floor.

Surface makes this technology extremely cool!

See here for the Microsoft Surface site. Then watch the below videos.
This is probably the guy, Jeff Han, that probably got Microsoft interested in the technology. He presented at TED last February.

See here for other coverage.
Techcrunch
Channel 10

my-currency has received a lot of press recently. Some good, and some bad. They even gave their pitch in front of a big crowd at DEMO.

Ok, so we have another socially interactive website centered around home prices (see Zillow). And yes, instead of relying on Zillow’s “black box” algorithm, you the people have the power to provide your input as to what value you actually place on the home. Sounds great, but useful? Will people really care? Which people will actually care? Do we really want anyone controlling the valuations of homes?

The way I see it, this my-currency prediction model is significanly flawed. We all know that something is only worth the value of what you can actually sell it for.

The real predictive, wisdom-of-the-crowds valuations of home prices are already being done when a prospective buyer submits an offer on a home which is for sale. Multiple offers are evaluated, one is ultimately chosen, and these offers resultingly dictate the actual market value of the home.

Receiving input from non-participatory parties in the sale transaction simply creates a value which is unusable and unrealistic. This would be the equivelant of asking your taxi cab driver of what value he places on your stocks and bonds. True, trustworthy values are created by those in the trading arena – not the bystandards.

So, with this being said, what are the possible applications for this model? Instead of opening this application to the entire world via the wide-open internet, what if this software was modular and was available at open-houses? Give a survey box to every person who walks through, and allow them to grade the home’s valuation as they are there in person. (Kitchen outdated? Minus $10,000. Breath-taking view? Add $20,000).

I’m sure there is a benefit for this type of modeling system within the home buying industry, but I’m sure making home valuations this wide open isn’t the sweet-spot.

In her reply she challenged me to stop in to check things out. So, this weekend I did.

As I entered the store, I was impressed on how much it felt as if you were walking into someone’s kitchen rather than walking into a store. (This is not a Boston Market, or fast food joint). Walking in I was greeted by smiling faces and people wanting to help. Amy’s staff walked me through the store and gave me the run down of how things work there.

What makes this franchise unique is that you can actually walk in and make dinner for yourself and your friends and family. All the ingredients are waiting and ready to go with all the proper proportions and directions called out clearly for you at each meal station. And if you don’t want to mess with these preparations, Amy and her staff will gladly prepare the meal for you. If this is still not the route you want to go, then you can always come and buy what they call “Grab and Go’s”. G&G’s are fully prepared meals which sit in their refrigerators or freezers which you can easily walkin and buy, take home, and heat up.

After having a short laugh and getting the skinny on the store, I then turned the tables on her. As most of you know, I am selling my body for charity this year at the Cystic Fybrosis Guys and Dolls charity auction. Amy was gracious enough to donate a six person feast for the event. (Girls have to eat too!?! Right?) So, in addition to all the other great things which will accompany my date package, the winning bidder can now have a fresh made meal for their next dinner party.

I’m getting hungry already.

Hey, Amy! CharlotteSuppers.com and DilworthSuppers.com are still available. Grab those domain names before my friends try to register them and sell them back to you.

www.sscharlottedilworthnc.com

This could possibly be the worst URL ever chosen for their store’s identity. In the words of the famous Saturday Night Live skit…”who were the ad geniuses who came up with that one?!?!”

So, let’s disect this web address. The proprietors own a franchise of “Super Suppers” (who themselves actually own supersuppers.com – kudos!). This franchise is located in Charlotte, specifically the Dilworth neighborhood, and of course this all resides in the great state of North Carolina. Hence, www.sscharlottedilworthnc.com. HUH!?!?

Who in their right mind can drive by this banner and remember this web address? And if they do manage to disect the sign, how could they possibly remember all the correct terms in the correct order?

A quick domain search reveals that there were tons of other possibilities this firm may have chosen.
Why not something like:

www.CharlotteSuperSuppers.com
www.CharlotteSS.com
www.SS-Charlotte.com
www.SSDilworth.com
www.DilworthSS.com

This choice of domain names simply amazes me. So much for short and simple.

Until recently… Blockbuster has an interesting proposal by which Netflix can never compete. A few weeks ago, Blockbuster rolled out their “Total Access” plan. The basics are just like the Netflix service. You sign up online. You get your DVD’s delivered to you in the mail. You can keep up to 3 rentals at a time. You also can mail them back and wait for your next DVD to arrive – just like Netflix. But, in addition to this, you can also opt to take your DVD’s back to ANY Blockbuster store.

In essence, you get to bypass the long mail time waits, and get your next rental right away! No waiting for the hot new titles, no long waits.

Today, Netflix fought back. They can’t offer the same convenience of Blockbuster. But, they can be innovative. In an effort to stay ahead of the Jones’s, Netflix has rolled out a “Watch Now” service. As an added bonus to your Netflix membership, with no additional costs, each Netflix member can view full version TV shows and other content from the likes of NBC, Sony, MGM, 20th Century Fox, and others.

I’m all for online video. But, who wants to sit in front of their computer for more than 30 minutes at a time? Sitcoms belong on the television, not on the PC.

If I were a bigger couch potato, my money would go to Blockbuster. But, for now, I’ll stick with my Movies on Demand.

I’ve resisted this trend for a long while. Friends of mine convinced me to make a Myspace page last year. That experiment lasted just over one month. (I thought it was a waste of time. I mean, if you want to say hello or want to send me a stupid picture, just email it to me!) I read about Yahoo’s acquisition of del.icio.us last year, I was amazed. Why would anyone want to keep their bookmarks online? Why would you want to share your bookmarks? IE stores my bookmarks very nicely, thanks. And I don’t jump from computer to computer desperately wanting a central depository for my bookmarks. I have one computer, and that’s where I expect my bookmarks to be.

Then, there’s flickr. Flickr is a social photo sharing site. You post your photos. You can set them as public or private. And for those you let access your portfolio of pics, each visitor can comment on your snapshots. Users have a profile, and they can leave comments saying “cool!”, “nice pic”, or whatever. I didn’t get it. I still don’t get it to a point. It seems somewhat of a waste of time.

But, something has changed to where I am slowly becoming Web-2.0-ified. The main reason is the existence of this blog. Blogs are part of this 2.0 phenomenon. User generated content is what it’s all about. Along with my entries, people like you come to this blog and read my posts. And each one of you has the opportunity to reply and interact. This creates stickiness.

In addition to the blog, my position of developer of Realty.com and it’s properties requires me to recognize trends and to stay ontop of the happening of the web. This used to be easy. Up to a year ago, I subscribed to Wired and Business 2.0 magazines, and read about 4 tech websites daily to keep up on real esate and the web’s activities. Now, the number of must-read resources have expanded and I simply can’t keep up.

The number of websites I want to earmark are so numerous, that if I bookmarked them all within my browser my bookmarks wouldn’t be useful. I keep my bookmarks for certain topic, and limited use. But, for those other sites I simply want to ensure to note, I now tag them in ma.gnolia. Ma.gnolia is a geat bookmarking service with all the bells and whistles of it’s competitors. They make it very easy for you to store, search, and share all your web clippings.

To cut down on browsing web page after web page, I was using the FeedDemon RSS reader. I really like FeedDemon, but it too has become a burden. It still takes me too long to scan headlines. And recently, FeedDemon is randomly shutting down in the middle of tasks. It apparently is corrupting with interaction with some other program on my computer. I can’t figure it out.

So, to solve my RSS headline scanning needs, I am not sold on start pages. The best start pages that I have found are SnapURLs and OriginalSignal. With these two sites alone, I’m able to monitor all the web’s golden feeds in a very short amount of time. This activity probably takes 5 minutes or less. In addition to these start pages, but much less frequently, I also use and monitor the headlines on Digg.

As a bit of web indulgence (guilty pleasure), I now have started to keep an eye on Digg’s video page, as well as those from Tailrank and Megite.

If this wasn’t enough, I also have become a Google junkie. I’m now an active user of Google Reader, Calendar, Gmail, and have customized my Google home page.

I think you can say that I’m now officially a Web 2.0 convert.

This snapshot should give you a few hints. Keep tuned for more updates.

But, now two years have passed. We have YouTube. Video on Demand has become more available with digital cable. Cable companies, broadcast channels, and online portals are all working hard to deliver video to the consumer with more ease. Videos can now be viewed on iPods, cell phones, and a number of digital devices. Within the past two years video has somehow leaped from the TV to inside your pocket.

Technology is surging. Progress is moving at lightning speed. And within the past year, I realized that I rarely use my DVD player anymore.

Is it me, or has Blockbuster become more of a gaming store than a movie rental hub? HDTV’s have pushed cable subscribers to upgrade to the HD cable tiers which require both digital cable, and often are packaged with all the premium movie packages. (My parents must have 50 movie channel options with DirecTV). When wanting to watch the newest movie rental, I no longer head to Blockbuster. I simply use my cable company’s video on demand.

You get the picture here? (no pun intended)