i've noticed..

http://instaplac.es - Instaplaces is a tool for finding cool things around you that you may have never knew existed. By using your phone’s GPS or your computer’s location, I’ve listed below the places near you where people are taking pictures most frequently using the popular Instagram app.

I was playing around with Instagram and noticed that there were locations for each picture, but seemingly no way to look at images taken at that location. So, instead of worrying about this missing feature… I built it.

I don’t know what got to me, I don’t really have free time, but I really wanted to get this done because I’ll be moving to a new city in the next few weeks and will be looking to do all kinds of exploring. With Instaplaces, I can figure out what places are fun just by looking how many pictures are taken there and of what.

There are a few issues - like a lot of pictures going un-tagged with a location and a limited amount of images, but Instamatic grows every day and hopefully this will encourage people to tag their photos with a location ;). I also noticed it didn’t work when I tested in Safari, but it works fine in Safari for iOS - so I’m just chalking that up to a gimmick for now.

Behind the scenes, Instaplaces is built with sintra and obviously powered by the Instagram API.

On the road here, to search for the new headquarters of Self Compete in beautiful Raleigh-Durham. Well, not exactly… I am on the road, headed toward Raleigh-Durham (which is beautiful), and Self Compete is a thing but it’s not a thing that’s ready for a headquarters. So… what exactly is Self Compete? Self Compete is my entry into the wonderful world of web applications. The idea started as a personal motif - a mission for each day, to improve upon the day before. It felt good. It felt like personal growth. It improved self confidence because I was growing and able (and willing) to take on new things.

This way of living wasn’t without its drawbacks. There was the risk of overdoing it and causing myself to degrade rather than improve. Also, it was difficult keeping track of where I had already been. I want to run further than the last time… but how far did I run last time? Around the time of realizing these issues, I was also a big fan of playing games on my iPhone. I would get 2 stars on Angry Birds and think to myself, “well I will definitely get 3 stars if I break 100,000.” That was the moment of realization - these high scores were what I needed for every day life.

Self Compete is my solution to these problems. It is an application that creates a way to measure any goal, break new personal bests and even do a little bragging. Through measuring where I had been, I was able to set realistic goals that were both attainable and still an improvement. Through incremental and controlled improvement, I could get better without over doing it and risking degrading myself. Along with the ability to set goals, I gained an emotionally valuable understanding of myself.

My newest goal is to bring those things to you and to make them fun. I’ve already begun to develop and hope to have something out very soon. In the meantime sign up for early access at www.selfcompete.com and I’ll post regular updates on this site. I’ll be listening for your feedback!