Archive for March, 2008
Can The World Hear. . . Us?
Not sure if any readers have noticed but the title of our blog is a slight flaw as it implies only one mastermind behind this idea and this dream. Although I am the primary writer, I want to make sure everyone knows that Josh is also intricate to the blog’s process with the backend work and constant discussions to further ideas and the future startup.
But beyond the naming problem, I realize this could lead to problems in the future over say copyright or ownership of this blog. As we go separate ways (I hope not), two roads diverge in a yellow wood, and we may never know where we may end up.
I hope when that time does come, this blog still stays alive and our memories and experience really advance us in wherever we are. I know thatsounds corny but the inevitable does happen so although the title says “Can The World Hear Me” I really want it to be “Can The World Hear Us” as I believe there are more people than just Josh and me that share this dream.
On forth!
~Kevin Xu
A whole new twist to your FriendFeed
While reading around my rss feeds, a lot of the top blogs have been mentioning a new little toy called FriendFeed. Apparently it aggregates all the top social networking sites together into the monolith of social networking all in a nice web 2.0 fashion.
I have never been the one to always follow the crowd so I had not joined yet until I read that Nate Weiner over at the Idea Shower decided to join so I knew something had to be up. I finally decided to give it a shot and I must say I am impressed.
The UI is nice and clean, the networking is strong, and overall it’s actually quite useful. It also brought to light just how many sites I signed up with which appears to be a lot. I don’t have too many friends right now but I hope to change that and this actually got me interested in twittering again.
If you add me as a friend, I’ll add you back, and let the networking begin!
FriendFeed - http://friendfeed.com/kevinx
~Kevin Xu
GoCrossCampus― Bringing Risk Online
Remember the traditional board game you used to play with your friends on bored weekends? Well a couple of guys from Yale and a guy from Columbia want to bring that same intense territory-conquering battle to the web, to your campus, dorm vs dorm. Meet GoCrossCampus (GXC).
This has created a huge stir across campuses as dorms get to make secret alliances and betrayals to battle for supremacy! All in the sake for bragging rights, exactly what college students love.
The game has recently hit the NYT and Techcrunch providing substantial coverage for an otherwise unheard of game beyond the college campus. They hope to expand their user base to even more universities and even large corporations for office vs office type battles. According to the NYT, it seems that Google has taken quite an interest. I hope they find their way to my high school next!
In my opinion, they have done all the right steps so far growing what was an idea into a full-fledged startup. Not many ideas have become more than an idea in a college dorm room (not everyone can be a Facebook) but GXC shows a lot of promise.
The one thing I always wished to see more of with Web 2.0 was integration with the real world. I always viewed the internet as the next “New World”, kinda how America used to be viewed with limitless possibilities, but we still need direct interaction in our current world. GXC involves optional planned meetups to elect commanders and spies for even more fun which is exactly what I wanted to happen. I bet this can be expanded for even greater depth!
GXC even emailed me and we chatted about ideas and such. Who knows, this might possibly turn into something. I’ll keep you guys updated.
So everyone go sign up! You don’t have to be affiliated with any colleges to play some games like the GoCrossPoliticalBash. Go Colbert! =D
~Kevin Xu
Always keep it simple
Uncomplicated, straightforward, austere, smooth, easy, simple.
Everyone likes it when things are simple. From web design to project assignments to blog posts. Simplicity has that rare beauty to delight the eyes and at the same time convey info.
Sadly the world is not always simple and but it is up to web designers to at least make the virtual world simpler. A favorite example of mine is Google, I mean have you seen their homepage? You go to Google to search and it lets you make a search without distraction. Easy, straight-to-the-point, simple.
Recently I received a certificate from Google for participating in the GHOP contest I mentioned earlier and I love it’s design.
Clean and simple, done
There’s absolutely no need for colorful backgrounds or random images to make it look “pretty”. It’s a certificate with my name, the contest, and a signature and I’m happy with it.
So with that in mind, we want to make “Can The World Hear Me” as simple as possible. Wordpress is the master at aggregating and automating many parts of the blog but sometimes it gets cluttered. Fortunately everything is customizable. Uncluttering the website and making the content stand out is our current goal.
And to our new readers and old readers― we have revised the point of this blog to its simplest form:
A chronicle of two boys’ journey to leave their mark on the world
~Kevin Xu
P.S. If anyone wants a really simple blog, Tumblr is the way to go. Simple design and simple posts give a whole feeling of calmness. I’m even considering creating a personal blog using Tumblr ;D