Post wdx chai (video)

#wdx Sweet hypnotic canvas+css3d animation by @balmer

sent from my android nexus s

Here’s why @Lanyrd needs to get into the conference booking business

I was just thinking how powerful a Lanyrd booking service would be. I gather a booking service is one of several paths to a sustainable business model being considered, and I believe it would have great potential.

One of the key things a conference needs is an early indication of interest (to help with booking venues, encourage speakers, and decide if the event will be feasible). Another is buzz. Lanyrd helps with both of these, and could do so much more if it had integrated bookings.

Imagine if Lanyrd could offer first right of refusal for tickets to people who registered as "I'm Interested" early on. Or, taking a lesson from Pinboard et al, increasing discounts based on when someone became "I'm Interested". What if Lanyrd gave someone "promoter" status for a conference if they tweeted about it and "super-promoter" if there were more than 10 retweets…leading to discounted or even free tickets?

I realise all this can be gamed and needs controls. But the principle, I think, is sound. Most conference bookings systems include "social" as an afterthought at best. In contrast, Lanyrd has social at its heart – every user ID is in fact their Twitter ID (a little trick from @simonw himself – try http://lanyrd.com/<twitter ID>/ e.g. http://lanyrd.com/mahemoff). And this bodes well for a Lanyrd booking system.

Meanwhile, their API (http://groups.google.com/group/lanyrd-api/topics) will lead to good things too.

Remote console logging with Android thanks to @paul_kinlan

1. Connect phone to USB

2. ON ANDROID DEVICE:

Go to Settings, Application menu, Development menu, and turn on (if not already) “USB Debugging” and “Stay Awake”

3. ON OSX:

With Android SDK installed:

$ ./adb devices 

List of devices attached 

123400000C

        device

$  ./adb -s 

123400000C

 logcat

Note you don’t need a rooted device for this. Maybe some devices are very locked down though, but it “just worked” for me.) And for bonus points, install Eclipse and you can run DDMS to get screenshots.