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Welcome to the world of Socialonomics! (Part 1)

2010-03-23T07:40:00.000+02:00

Gartner, in its September 2009 Hype Cycle for e-commerce mentions that blogging has reached the plateau of productivity. Social networking is just a fad for the young, and frivolous in nature. Porn is the only thing that really sells on the web.

Did you say you agreed to any or all of those statements? Think again! Check the factoids that you might want to hear:

Social Networking is critical for Retail

Social media has overtaken porn as #1 activity on the web. And porn as an industry (on the web) did not do that well in 2009.
1 of 8 couples married in the US last year, met via social media
More people follow Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres than the combined population of Ireland, Norway and Panama
Over 200mn blogs, 54% bloggers post or tweet daily. 78% people prefer peer recommendations, than search engine results. Only 14% trust advertisements (including commercials on the telly). Most trust word of mouth!
96% of Gen Y (who have internet access) use social media of some sort or the other.

Facebook reached 100mn users in 9 months. If it were a country, it would be the 4th largest, though China’s Q-zone is larger.
Ipod app downloads hit 1bn in 9 months.
80% of twitter usage is on mobile devices. Youtube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world.
34% post opinions about products and brands35% book sales in the US are already on Kindle.
News is now pushed, to you. Same is about to happen to products, and brands. >1.5Mn pieces of content are shared of Facebook, daily!

Slide 4 Social media has overtaken porn as #1 activity on the web 1 of 8 couples married in the US last year, met via social media More people follow Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres than the combined population of Ireland, Norway and Panama Over 200mn blogs, 54% bloggers post or tweet daily. 78% people prefer peer recommendations, than search engine results. Only 14% trust advertisements 70% of 18-34 year olds have watched TV on the web. 25% Americans said they watched a short video in the past month, on phone.

[Via http://retailmagicindia.wordpress.com]

How to not be a facebook addict

2010-03-21T15:52:00.000+02:00

Most people these days are completly addicted to facebook. They spend more time on faecbook than in their cars. Instead of getting your work done, you end up on facebook talking to your friends. That’s not suppose to happen. Here are some ways you can hopefully cut down on your facebook addiction:

Does facebook send you emails? Turn all those emails off. Most of them are just notification’s which you can see on facebook. But once you go to check your email you get carried off into facebook. That’s exactly what facebook wants. You can turn all your email notification’s off here – Click here Be sure to un-ckeck all the boxes under the “email” column.
Don’t add people you don’t know… Adding people you don’t know is just a mess. You start talking to them and it’s a waste of time. After a while they will get sick of you and start calling you words like “creeper”. It’s just not worth the waste of time.
Avoid games, and 3rd party apps. The only reason those apps are there is because facebook wants you to stay on facebook as long as you can. Using apps will suck up your time before you know it.
Don’t share everything on facebook! There is no point of sharing every funny video you find on facebook with your friends. After you share it, your friends may start commenting on it and that will just get you back on facebook.
GET OFFLINE CHAT! Most people use people to talk to their friends. We all know how facebook IM conversation’s go right? It’s like: “Hey sup?” “Nm u?” “Just chillin” “yup…” ….. Don’t waste your time like this.
Have some self control! Time your self. Experts say you shouldn’t spend more then 1 hour a day on facebook. So time your self. If you use Firefox there is an add-on called LeechBlock which kicks you off facebook after a chosen time.
If all else fails, quit facebook.

[Via http://sarcasticblogger.wordpress.com]

Poignancy.

2010-03-21T07:20:00.000+02:00

I really wanted to be thoughtful tonight. Tomorrow is the last day of my last March Break of high school and I am not just not really handling things too well.

I am constantly reminded of high school experiences that I have missed, people I never got to know, friends I never made. It feels silly to regret that which was never meant to occur, but at the same time, I often wonder if I could have made an effort to be more of a teenager. Less responsible, more alive. I’ve had a lot of amazing experiences throughout high school, but at times, I also feel like I missed something. Something about that quintessential high school experience which makes it high school and not just another place to be for four years.

I won’t deny it. These past for years have been crazy. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing yet, but I do think I’ll look back upon them fondly. Did I miss out on not partying as much as I could have? Maybe. Probably. Did I miss out by staying at home and being rather hermit-like? Perhaps. Potentially. Does it matter? I hope not. I’m so ready to graduate, it’s unfortunate. As Kira would say, second semester senior. SSS. We’re so ready to get out of here, a pride of lions standing in my way at the door on Commencement day wouldn’t be able to stop me.

Lady Gaga is playing and strangely enough, I don’t actually mind. I’m wearing contacts for the first time in ages and haven’t even changed out of the clothes I wore to the gym this morning. Gross, I know. I’m still ish-covered in flour, extremely thought-filled and kind of wistful. Actually, a lot of wistful.

I feel like for once in my life, I should just fall asleep on the couch and not bother with the consequences of waking up there the next morning. Or perhaps go out right now and just lie in the street for a little while, taking in the night air. Perhaps part of the reason I feel like I haven’t had the high school experience is because I haven’t really lived. I’ve been that kid who moans about work and just sits at her desk, well… distracted and only semi working. I’m the girl who stays up really late and accomplishes less than everything else. I’d rather put my time into perfecting blending skills on photoshop than finished off a chem lab. Or on facebook because finding out about how that cuba trip went is just so important? not.

It’s pretty though, isn’t it?

I don’t know. Maybe I feel like I’ve wasted away my high school years on silly things like academics, even though I don’t spend nearly as much time on that as I should. I look at some of the people I know and I wonder how they manage. I feel like right now would be the best time ever to lie in that field behind that park and just fall asleep there. No. I’m not handling this well at all. I get the strangest feelings of deja vu, because I know there will be many nights like this in the future. Early sunday mornings where I feel lost because I suddenly no longer have a purpose. I’m resigned to the fact that I’m studying for at least the next four years, if not another three years after that. But I don’t have a plan anymore. I have no expectations of myself, no idea where I want to end up with all of this.

I used to. I used to be so self assured and confident about what I wanted to do, even if the dreams I had were well beyond what was possible. I don’t have dreams right now. I have bitter reality at my fingertips. The realization that all the easy stuff has passed and now, there is actually life beyond school is a frightening reality. Furthermore, I don’t know how I’m going to do this alone… and it feels as though I’m going to be walking a very lonely road. Perhaps because I am an innately private person, or perhaps just because I am particularly good at isolating myself; yet I know that however it turns out, I will be quite alone in my journey toward where I am going.

I have often told myself solitude is probably for the best. And as for my habits, I am rather good at working alone. I like being alone. And I know myself well enough to say that people are a distraction. Not that I don’t enjoy distractions, but I do know that distractions are bad. Unless of course they are taking your mind off of dilemmas, in which case, a distraction is lovely. I could probably use a nice cute distraction just about now anyways, since I don’t particularly feel the need to continue the thought about how I am going to be alone for a nice long time.

I swear to merlin, I’m not usually this lacking in self-esteem, or that’s what it feels like right now. It just feels like I have very little to look forward to in the next couple years, or in life as a general rule. I need a dream, something that makes sense — something that gives me hope. I’m surrounded by brilliance on all four sides. My friends are people who will be successful, no matter the kinds of challenges that face them. And perhaps I will be too. Success, I know, isn’t beyond me. The question is far more interesting than the answer, however. What will I find success in? I cannot see myself being happy in a career. Careers are boring. Day-to-day jobs are boring, going out for coffee on a regular basis is boring; life is boring. Routine is useless and I find myself in one of those spinning doors with no exit. Boring. I no longer find the spin of the door fascinating; I have been observing it for too long. The people that come and go are the same all the time. The same conversations. The same motions. The same encouragements, words of advice and awkwardly phrased well-wishes. I’m so tired of people asking where I’m going for university. Everyone does it. It’s a conversation pretty much ever senior has to deal with, and it has to be the most boring conversation on the planet of the earth.

So yes, I’m bored. I’m also not ready to leave behind the people who have given me those same encouragements, and words of advice because those are the people who have lent me a shoulder to lean on when I needed it most. (Because you know, I just cry around people so often. [/sarcasm]) Holden Caulfield had a pretty interesting view on phoniness.

So it’s poignant tonight. I want my life back. I’m calling 1-800-lifebackplease and filing a complaint. I want a refund — I haven’t gotten enough out of this. When they were handing out passes for the weekend, someone skipped over my name. Not that I would trade what I have for the world, but I also would to see what would have happened. Chocolate on a motherfucking strawberry. What is it about tonight that makes me just want to run? It’s the end of a good day. I’m just confused, not appreciative enough of the people around me and obviously just being a teenage emo child. Barefoot in the shards of glass in the streets; snow barely melted and hot asphalt burning the cuts of blood.

Someone tell me, did I miss something? Through all the late nights, early mornings, caffeine runs and chocolate, kisses and hugs, vodka shots and late night tear drops, did I miss something?

[Via http://blackinkpen.wordpress.com]

Facebook And Wall Street Still Just Dating For Now

2010-03-20T15:51:00.000+02:00

Facebook has been a staple in social networking since it’s debut in September 2006, and because of its reign, it generates upwards of $300 million in revenue per year. Due to its ever-increasing popularity and value, its move to Wall Street appears to just be a stones-throw away.

Surprisingly, Mark Zuckerberg, the Founder and CEO of Facebook, doesn’t see a marriage anytime soon.

“We’re going to go public eventually, because that’s the contract that we have with our investors and our employees,” said Zuckerberg. “We are definitely in no rush.”

Surely any chemically balanced entrepreneur in possession of a brand worth billions would cash in their chips by publicizing shares of stock. However, friends and co-workers of the Facebook founder know that Zuckerberg not only enjoys creative and financial control, but control in general.

Unlike other technology powerhouses like Microsoft, Apple, and Google, Zuckerberg’s Facebook is much more centralized and internalized—the goal: simply making Facebook the best possible social networking website possible. There are no warehouses, gadgets, or even competition (no, not even Twitter). Of course he’s in it for the money, but in his mind, he’s dealing with a very personal product.

Zuckerberg has built Facebook into what it has become, and he is rightfully fearful of the hypothetical direction Facebook may take once it falls into the hands of millions of public investors. Will those investors care more about the quick money in their pockets, or boasting more than ten billion tweets?

[Via http://benberkon.wordpress.com]

Why does a bully 'friend' you?

2010-03-20T07:10:00.000+02:00

Why does a bully ‘friend’ you? Why would mine ‘friend’ me?

Maybe it is Karma? In high school, I ended up being an aggressive person. I ended up picking on some people too. I hate that I did it. There are a few people I know I picked on. Should I seek them out and try to talk to them? It is likely I would get a similar response to how I feel right now. Guarded, unsure, a little displeased.

I think some of the people I picked on, picked on me back. Others, I am not sure. A lot of the people I picked were people who tormented me. Others, I am not sure. I regret that I ever did pick on anyone. Looking back, I know it was an attempt to deflect some of the abuse I was getting.

I know it is no excuse. I have thought about contacting a few people, but I do not know if they would appreciate it. I do not know if I do. Especially because I do not know what this person wants.

I have about five people in my graduating class on my Facebook page. A few of them I am not sure I remember. Two of them were not nice to me. I accepted their friend requests, with reservation. One, I may have been not nice to but I don’t think so. The other two, I am pretty sure I had no real contact with, but I could be wrong.

When I started this blog, I did place an apology in my status to anyone I may have bullied just because I wasn’t sure. Maybe I should seek out the others. It is likely they would feel the same way I do right now. How great would that be? At least I would place a message with the ‘friend’ request stating my purpose.

I do believe that high school was a horrible time for many people, and I think that memories and perspective change.

I never have asked for an apology, nor do I need one. We were kids after all. I just wish that I didn’t have to go through nearly as much of that as I did. And I don’t want my children to go through it at all. I don’t think it is a requisite part of growing up. And I don’t think that all victims feel the same.

What do you think? Should I seek out people I may have bullied or picked on? I would love to know. If you don’t want to leave a comment here you can always email kindergartenbully@att.net .

[Via http://acceptanceinschools.wordpress.com]

Facebook and the Shepherd's Dilemma

2010-03-18T15:55:00.000+02:00

So here’s the clunker dilemma of my week: When student leaders post foul language or snarky comments on Facebook, how does the responsible pastor, shepherd, or mentor respond? I don’t see it as productive to be a morals cop busting students when they run afoul. But, I don’t think I’m doing students–especially those marked for leadership–any favors by letting run off like they were unnoticed. Any best practices?

Mark 7:15 has been a good re-director in some cases…

Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean’.

I just don’t know where and when are the proper places to step in. I don’t want students to be afraid to be my FB friends because I’m constantly commenting on behavior. But I’m being a pretty poor mentor if I don’t address some cases. What have other people found that works best?

[Via http://couchradical.wordpress.com]

-Kepribadian Manusia Menurut Status FACEBOOK-

2010-03-18T07:47:00.000+02:00

kalian tergolong yang mana? atau nggak tergolong tipe mana pun?

1. MANUSIA SUPER UPDATE

Kapan pun dan di mana pun selalu update status. Statusnya tidak terlalu panjang tapi bikin risih, karena hal-hal yang tidak terlalu penting juga dipublikasikan. Contoh : “Lagi makan di restoran A…”, “Dalam perjalanan menuju neraka…”, “Saatnya baca koran…”, de es be.

2. MANUSIA MELANKOLIS

Biasanya selalu curhat di status. Entah karena ingin banyak diberi komentar dari teman-temannya atau hanya sekedar menuangkan unek-uneknya ke facebook. Biasanya orang tipe ini menceritakan kisahnya dan terkadang menanyakan solusi yang terbaik kepada yang lain. Contoh : “Kamu sakitin aku…lebih baik aku cari yang lain…”, “Cuma kamu yang terbaik buat aku…terima kasih kamu sudah sayang ama aku selama ini…”, atau “Aku kangen kangen kangen kangeeeeeeeeeeeeenn banget sama kamu, chyayank. Kamu kok nggak telefon aku sih malam ini?”….GUBRAK!!!

3. MANUSIA TUKANG NGELUH

Pagi, siang, malem semuanya selalu ada aja yang dikeluhkan. Contoh : “Jakarta maceeeeet!!! Panas pula…”, “Aaaaaarggg hujan, padahal baru nyuci mobil….hhuuh!!!” atau “Males ngapa-ngapain…cape hati gara-gara dia…” de es be.

4. MANUSIA SOMBONG

Mungkin beberapa dari mereka gak berniat menyombongkan diri. Tapi terkadang orang yang melihatnya, yang tidak bisa seberuntung dia, merasa kalau statusnya itu kelewat sombong, dan malah bikin sebel. Contoh : “OTW ke PARIS….!!”, “BMW ku sayang, saatnya kamu mandi…Aku mandiin ya sayang…” atau “Duh, murah-murah banget belanja di Singapore, bow.”

5. MANUSIA PUITIS

Dari judulnya udah jelas. Statusnya selalu diisi dengan kata-kata mutiara, tapi gak jelas apa maksudnya. Bikin kita terharu? Bikin kita sadar atas pesan tersembunyinya? Atau cuma sekadar memancing komentar? Sampai saat ini, tipe orang seperti ini masih dipertanyakan. Contoh : “Kita masing-masing adalah malaikat bersayap satu. Dan hanya bisa terbang bila saling berpelukan”, “Mencintai dan dicintai adalah seperti merasakan sinar matahari dari kedua sisi”, “Jika kau hidup sampai seratus tahun, aku ingin hidup seratus tahun kurang sehari, agar aku tidak pernah hidup tanpamu.” Capek deeeeeeehh!!

6. MANUSIA IN ENGLISH

Tipe manusianya bisa seperti apa saja, apakah melankolis, puitis, sombong, de es be. Tapi dia berusaha lebih keren dengan mengatakannya dalam bahasa inggwis gicyu low! Contoh : “Tie and chair…”, “I can tooth, you pink sun…” etc, etc.

7. MANUSIA LEBAY

Updatenya selalu bertema “GAUL” dengan menggunakan bahasa dewa… Ejaan Yang DiLEBAYkan… . Contoh : “Met moulnin all…pagiieh yg cewrah… XIXIIXI” Oh oh ohohohohoho…!!!

8. MANUSIA TEROBSESI

Mengharap tapi gak kesampaian, pengin jadi artis gak dapat-dapat. Contoh : “Duwh…sesi pemotretan lagi! Capek…”

9. MANUSIA SOK TAU

Sotoy tenarnya. Padahal dia sendiri tidak tahu apa yang ditulisnya. Contoh : “Pemerintah selalu memanjakan rakyatnya…bla….bla….bla.”

10. BIOSKOP MANIA

Update film yang abis ditonton dan kasih comment.. Contoh : “ICE AGE 3…RECOMENNENDED!!”, “TRANSFORMERS 2 mantab euy…”

11. MANUSIA PEDAGANG

Contoh : “Jual sepatu bla bla bla.”

12. MANUSIA PENYULUH MASYARAKAT

Contoh : “Jangan lupa datang ke TPS, 5 menit untuk 5 tahun!!” Santai, Jack.

13. MANUSIA ALAY

Ada berbagai macam versi, dari tulisannya yang aneh, atau tulisannya biasa aja, hanya saja kosa katanya gak laziim seperti bahasa alien. Contoh :

Alay 1 : “DUCH GW4 5AYAN9 BGT S4MA LO…7ANGAN TING9AL!N AKYU YA B3!BH…!!”

Alay 2 : “KAMUGH KOG GAG PERNACH NGABWARIN AQ LAGEE SEECH? KMUW MASEEH SAIANGS SAMA AQ GAG SEECH SEBENERNYWA?”

Alay 3 : “OUH MY 9OD..!! KYKNY4W C GW K3RENZ 48EESH D3CH…!!! (khusus buat tipe ini, gak usah dibaca juga gak apa-apa. Aku juga mikir dulu buat nulis ini, walaupun jadinya kurang mirip sama yang aslinya).

14. TIPE HIDDEN MESSAGE

Tipe ini biasanya tidak to the point, tapi tentunya punya niat biar orang yang dituju membacanya. (Bagus kalo baca…kalo nggak? Kelamaan nunggu) Padahal kan bisa langsung aja sms ya. Contoh :

“FOR YOU MY M***, I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT YOU…YOU ARE MY BLA BLA BLA…”, “HEH, CEWEK KURANG AJAR…NGAPAIN LOE DEKET-DEKETIN COWOK GUE?! KAYAK GAK LAKU AJA LOE.” (Padahal cewek tersebut tidak ada dalam jaringannya. Mana bisa baca??)

15. TIPE MISTERIUS

Tipe yang biasanya bikin banyak orang bertanya-tanya atas apa maksud dari status orang tersebut. Biasanya dalam suatu kalimat membutuhkan subjek + predikat + objek + keterangan. Tapi orang tipe ini mungkin hanya mengambil beberapa atau malah hanya 1 saja…dan pastinya mengundang kontroversi. Contoh : “SUDAHLAH…”, “TELAH BERAKHIR…” (apanya???), “TERMENUNG…” (so what gitu looh!!)

source:teen magazine 179’s bonus

[Via http://numzwizzle.wordpress.com]

Social Media: Your Next Personal Superpower

2010-03-16T15:55:00.000+02:00

New Post, Social Media: Your Next Personal Superpower (on Pro Photo blog)

In my earlier post about using social media, I discussed starting a blog and populating it with content that appeals to your customers. A blog is a great starting point. But don’t stop there, because you can use social media resources to reach tens of thousands of people in a way that builds your business and your understanding of your customers. –more–

[Via http://davidsaffir.wordpress.com]

Facebook

2010-03-16T07:56:00.000+02:00

Facebook has become, and I’m sure everyone would agree, the new social network for communication. A place where songs, photot’s, pictures & conversations pass freely, where friands can meet and be met, where realtionships can be found & mentalities uncovered.

But you what fascinates me about this new social network, this meeting ground for a new world? It’s the fact that no matter where you are, wether it’s virtual or real, you still get your village idiots. The people who don’t think before they act.

The darwins, as most people call them, are those few gifted individuals who will go beyond the boundriesof stupidity. Who will set new limitations for idiotic actions, behaviour. Why, I ask? I see this as a Dodo species. They lacked the self-preservation instinct, survival in tother words.

Do not fret though, I give it another couple years and there goes another Dodo species to the extinction line. guess it’s not that much of a loss.

[Via http://mystorys02.wordpress.com]

Carcinoid Cancer Foundation Thanks Silja Chouquet

2010-03-14T15:43:00.000+02:00

During a recent meeting in Berlin of the international Steering Committee for Worldwide NET Awareness Day (WNAD) on November 10, 2010, Grace Goldstein of the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation had the opportunity to hear a fascinating presentation by Silja Chouquet, owner and CEO of whydot GmbH, an agency that specializes in social media consulting, coaching and training. Her fields of expertise are the creation of patient-focused social media communications and marketing campaigns. Ms. Chouquet’s passion for helping patients was evident when she talked about how neuroendocrine cancer patients could use social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, e-newsletters, and online forums, to connect with each other and to bring about greater awareness of their rare cancers.

Silja Chouquet, social media expert, patient advocate, and CEO of whydot GmbH

In her blog, whydotpharma http://www.whydotpharma.com/, she writes: “The Internet holds the power to profoundly change the way healthcare is delivered. Millions of patients, caregivers and physicians turn to the Internet every day to look up the latest information on important health topics and find support from like-minded people.” Pharmaceutical companies, she says, have a unique opportunity to show patients how much they care by being open and transparent. Ms. Chouquet believes that “a pharma company wishing to use social media to improve patient outcomes can only do so successfully if it manages to build trust, credibility and collaboration with the online community first.”

On behalf of the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation, Ms. Goldstein would like to thank Ms. Chouquet for “her extremely generous offer to help the carcinoid/NET community with social media for Worldwide NET Awareness Day.” Ms. Goldstein notes that Ms. Chouquet has “a very large following within the European and international social media and healthcare communities and her outreach to the rare disease community will have a huge impact in helping obtain greater exposure for Worldwide NET Awareness Day.”

Ms. Choquet is cofounder, with Andrew Spong, of the Healthcare Social Media Europe community http://www.hcsmeucamp.com/, an organization of more than 140 healthcare bloggers, Twitterers, and social media users in Europe and the United States. These dedicated individuals share “a conviction that social media has the potential to augment the targeting of medical research, improve the quality and delivery of care, and advance patient education and empowerment.” They are holding the first hcsmeu conference on March 31st in Berlin. The event is free and, says Ms. Chouquet, “We would be thrilled to have as many interested people, in particular patients, attend the event.” See their website for details.

Visit Ms. Chouquet’s blog, find her on Twitter at @whydotpharma or on Facebook and LinkedIn at Silja Chouquet. Follow her musical choices at http://blip.fm/Silja.

You can also follow the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation on Twitter @CarcinoidNETs and at http://blip.fm/CarcinoidCancerFoundation.

[Via http://carcinoid.wordpress.com]

3 Day Waiting?

2010-03-14T07:44:00.000+02:00

So theres this guy I’m kinda really into lately, and he seems to be into me as well.

He was DJing at a club this weekend, and he told me like 3 times that he really wanted to see me and wanted me to come, so even though none of my friends were willing to go with me, I went alone. He finished his set and when he was done we hung out at the bar, and I thought things were going pretty well! We talked about all sorts of stuff, had some drinks, he even said he was really happy that I had come. He had his arm around me the whole time, and held my hand and stuff, and we made plans to go out the next weekend.

Now here’s the problem. This happened 2 days ago, today I am sitting on the 3rd day. I havent heard a peep from him since that night! Part of me wonders if the night really went the way I thought it did, or am I just remembering it wrong because of the alcohol? What if i said or did something, I don’t remember… Then another part of me thinks, wait, what if he’s doing that stupid guy rule of “wait 3 days.”

What do you think I should do? I’m just sitting here going totally crazy wondering what happened. I even invited him to my birthday event on Facebook ages ago, he hadnt responded to it, and then after that night, he put “Not Attending.” Gah! I wonder…

[Via http://pookieag.wordpress.com]

Second American female convert to Islam arrested in plot to kill Motoonist

2010-03-13T15:55:00.000+02:00

Jihad Watch Yet another that we know about. Read the Koran/Quran darlings, you don’t get to visit Allah because you are a ‘woman’. My only question, when will the FBI release similar evidence they must be gathering on Pelosi, Boxer, Feinstein, and Waters to name several? They have been waging Jihad against the United States of America long enough. Random thoughts while observing the passing parade, J.C.

Yet another convert to Islam misunderstands the Religion of Peace and gets involved in this jihadist murder plot. “For the Love of Islam: A Second American Woman Is Arrested in Cartoonist Case,” by Vanessa O’Connell, Stephanie Simon and Evan Perez in the Wall Street Journal, March 13 (thanks to Pat): Last Easter, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a 31-year-old mom with a $30,000-a-year job as a medical assistant, announced to her family that she had converted to Islam. A few months later, she began posting to Facebook forums whose headings included “STOP caLLing MUSLIMS TERRORISTS!”

On Sept. 11, she suddenly left Leadville, Colo., a small town in the Rocky Mountains, for Denver, then for New York, to meet and marry a Muslim man she connected with online, her family says. Ms. Paulin-Ramirez, who is 5-foot-11 and blonde, phoned her mother and stepfather in Leadville, providing them with an address in Waterford, Ireland, they say.

Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a 31-year-old mom, is in the custody of the Irish police, along with six other individuals, arrested as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to commit murder.

The face of jihad

Now, she is in the custody of the Irish police, along with six other individuals, arrested as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to commit murder, according to officials familiar with the case. The nature of the authorities’ suspicions about Ms. Paulin-Ramirez couldn’t be determined on Friday.

Ms. Paulin-Ramirez’s interest in Islam “came out of left field,” said her mother, Christine Holcomb, in an interview at her home Friday, wearing a blue sweatsuit with a silver cross around her neck.

Ms. Paulin-Ramirez is the second American woman to be linked to an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who made fun of the Prophet Mohammed. An indictment was unsealed this week against Colleen R. LaRose, 46, a suburban Philadelphia woman who authorities said used the Web alias “JihadJane.”

Next?

Ms. LaRose was accused of plotting to kill the cartoonist and attempting to recruit jihadis via the Internet. She was arrested in October and charged with providing material support to terrorists. The Justice Department kept its case under wraps until this week while investigators in the U.S. and Europe pursued their investigation against other potential suspects in the U.S. and abroad.

The main contact for Ms. LaRose is believed to be one of the men in Irish custody, an Algerian, who has a relationship with Ms. Paulin-Ramirez, according to a person close to matter. A person close to the Irish police couldn’t confirm whether Ms. Paulin-Ramirez and the Algerian are married. Ms. LaRose spent roughly two weeks in Ireland last fall, a person familiar with the matter said.

The Irish police are holding four men and three women, including three Algerians, a Croatian, a Palestinian, a Libyan and a U.S. national, according to a person close to the police. They are being questioned and haven’t been charged. A U.S. official familiar with the matter confirmed that Ms. Paulin-Ramirez is the U.S. national. The Justice Department declined to comment.

In the months before Ms. Paulin-Ramirez left Leadville, taking her 6-year-old son but little clothing or other belongings, she began “wearing the black garb so you can only see her eyes,” her aunt said. “We knew that she was dabbling in the Muslim religion. But for her to disappear like this was from left field–we weren’t expecting it at all,” said Ms. Jones, who until last fall would speak to her niece on the phone almost every day. Ms. Paulin-Ramirez had begun spending more time on the computer, her mother complained to the aunt. “All of a sudden, she stopped talking to me and she disappeared,” Ms. Jones said.

In 2008 or 2009, Mr. Mott said, Ms. Paulin-Ramirez enrolled in an online course about Islam.

By Easter 2009, she had informed her mother that she was a Muslim. At her father’s May 2009 funeral in Kansas, her aunts had to plead with her not to cover her head and hair with a hijab. Over the summer, her family says, she was spending increasing time on the computer and had begun to dress in the traditional garb, covering not only her hair and face but also her hands. Her current Facebook page lists her as Jamie Paulin, with a photo in which all that is visible are her eyes peering from slits in her full-face veil.

A few months before she disappeared, her stepfather says he confronted her: “What are you going to do, strap a bomb on and blow up something?” he asked her. He recalled that she responded: “If necessary, yes.”

[Via http://dancingczars.wordpress.com]

Sorry for side-tracking .............

2010-03-13T07:57:00.000+02:00

I realized that I had trumpled off to another irrelevant topic on my posting titled “GoodBye USA” . And, I just received a couple private comments regarding the post, therefore I have chosen to remove some parts of it . But don’t worry – for those of you who liked the Gladys Ave. picture.. it’s still going to stay right there. And I have decided to un-link my wordpress from LinkedIn and Facebook, in which my professional work shall remain separate from my personal one.

Cheers,

Gladys

[Via http://gladystong.wordpress.com]

Weird messages from strangers

2010-03-11T15:51:00.000+02:00

Nothing worth writing has happened to me this week. However, today I received a weird message from some guy on Facebook. This made me think of how many messages like this I’ve received since I’ve lived over here. Receiving messages like this has become pretty routine but it still amazes me that these people waste their time writing! Even, I’m not bored enough to even think of replying.

Anyway, today’s message was:

“Hi friend, good morning , how Are you? really you so nice friend , i hope we will become best friend ,just i want to ask you, where you from?take care , you have nice day” It is amazing to me that this guy thinks I’m a “nice friend” and wants to be my “best friend” when he knows nothing about me and has never even met me!

As I really didn’t have anything more exciting to do, I decided to find a few older examples to include here too. I’ll start with the weirdest of the bunch:

“Hi Amanda,

I was looking on facebook about any one have read this book “The Sad Truth” to tell me what their opinion about it. I just not a very good since of picking up the right book and my problem is if I start to read a book I have to finish it even if it was boring!!

My favorite books are:

- A thousands splendid suns

- Angels Ashes

- eat, pray, love

Sorry to send you this message without any interdiction.

Mohamed Salah”

Less than 24 hours later, he wrote again:

“Amanda,

I know there must be a hundreds of men hitting on you here on the facebook obviously because you are look pretty, but I really wanted to hear your opinion about that book.

Ignoring me is really not nice and makes me feel bad, you don’t wanna makes me feel bad, do you?

Mohamed”

So, I blocked him after the second message. How in the world did he expect me to respond in a timely manner if he thought I had hundreds of other messages to respond to?

Here are a few more examples:

“u look so cute… my name is shakil…living at abu dhabi…can u make me ur frnd pls…thnx.” [Interestingly, the name on the profile was Nasir.]

“hi how are you…. u r sooooo adorable i’m so interested to be friend of u “

“I am from India and working in UAE from last 10 months..i am with construction co. where r u working? coming week i will shift to Abudhabi. Friends?” [Well, at least he told me something about himself. By the way, people here often say “shifting” instead of “moving.”]

“hello amanda. how are you? :) byyy”

[Via http://amandainabudhabi.wordpress.com]

Odd Misconceptions Part II

2010-03-11T07:46:00.000+02:00

OK so, yesterday I went through some odd/funny misconceptions from back when i was a kid, now I’m gonna go through some that I have just found out about recently.

I used to:

- Think Napoleon was short. (He was actually taller than the average Frenchman)

- Think the water spins in a different direction according to where you are on Earth when you flush the toilet. (This only happens in extreme weather, an example being a hurricane/cyclone)

- Think bats were blind. (I was blown away when i found out they weren’t)

- Think chameleons change colour to blend in with their surroundings.

- Meteorites are hot when they hit the Earth’s surface.

- Think putting metal in your microwave was a sure chance of stuffing it up.

- Think Humpty Dumpty was an egg! (He’s actually a canon!)

- Think you could see large man made objects from outer space, an example being The Great Wall of China. (You actually can’t see any man made objects from out of space).

- Think black hole’s suck everything in.

- Think goldfish have a memory of 3 seconds, they can remember things that are months old!

- Think humans evolved from chimpanzees.

- Think air was mostly oxygen, it’s actually mostly Nitrogen.

Anyways, that’s all i could think of. I Hope some of these facts blew you away, like they blew me away!

[Via http://magoshjosh.wordpress.com]

Cult Toyota Fights For Company's Honor

2010-03-09T15:55:00.000+02:00

Most view social media as a two-way dialogue between companies and customers. This means of communication is great for gaining valuable customer feedback. In the case of Toyota, it also serves as a great way to hurl insults and complaints at a company.

According to The Big Money, Toyota’s “fan base has actually grown by nearly 10,000 since the recall was announced.”

Instead of reflecting a Toyota pounding-session, where the conversation is dominated by the outraged and the disheartened, the Facebook page of the shamed company seems to reflect a mixture of anger and sympathy, with some loyalists vilifying the media for “over-hyping the recall.”

Across the world in Toyota’s birthplace of Japan, many locals echo this sentiment.

According to Advertising Age’s article entitled “U.S. ‘Overreaction Stirs Empathy for Toyota at Home”, these citizens are shocked by the amount of media coverage the recall is receiving.

Some feel that there is an ulterior motive for the U.S. media’s fascination with the recall.

Citing the U.S. car market’s demise, many Japanese automakers feel that the domestic U.S. auto market is seeking to profit from the woes of Toyota by exacerbating the crisis.

An article entitled “Toyota’s U.S. market share breaks down” supports this theory, stating, “The troubled Japanese automaker will probably see its market share drop to its lowest level in almost five years, giving the runner-up spot in the U.S. back to Ford Motor Co.”

Watching the auto-giant fall on its face as its reputation is dragged through the mud does not sit well with the Japanese, who fear the loss of confidence in Toyota will translate into a loss of confidence in Japan.

Given the lingering tainted perception of Chinese production after the toy and paint recalls, this concern is justified.

The drop in production quality is linked to the company’s rapid growth.

Abandoning its traditional, lengthier model of production, which included preparing the human resources division first and foremost, for a speedier one in which employees were often not properly trained, is the source of the problems.

As the company seeks to return to its basics of manufacturing excellence and its pursuit of perception, the values that gave the company its advantage, U.S. loyalists stand with their beloved company, battling those who dare denigrate the brand in the social media arena.

[Via http://lcooks1.wordpress.com]

Getting Ribbons in FarmVille

2010-03-09T07:57:00.000+02:00

Do you want an entertaining and exciting way to chart your progress in Farmville besides just counting coins or XP and levels? Of course, seeing your coins and XP/level development is one technique to indicate your achievements, but the ribbons in Farmville can be an enjoyable way to earn recognition for certain objectives in the game. Ribbons are accessible in a host of different groups. Everything from the “Flower Power” ribbon, where you make money from growing flowers, to the “Lord of the Plow” ribbon where you acquire recognition for employing a tractor to plow your fields. The ribbons range from the serious to the downright unusual, but they are just about all fun. And ribbons provide benefits beyond mere recognition. As you earn them, you are going to get extra experience points, coins and also exceptional items.

Currently, there are more than 25 various ribbon categories and each type enables you to gain four various colors of ribbons: yellow, white, red and blue. The colors get gradually tougher to acquire within each category. For instance, the Cream of the Crop Yellow ribbon, which you acquire for harvesting crops, is won right after farming just 30 crops in the game. But the white ribbon requires you to farm 1,000 crops. And the blue ribbon for Cream of the Crop demands a whopping 50,000 harvested crops to get.

Although some of the ribbons are really just intended to give you additional goals in the game to pursue, you can utilize some of them very strategically in the game to quickly earn significant XP and coins. Early on, ribbons can help you progress through your FarmVille levels very quickly.

You can choose from a lot of different ribbon earning strategies in the game. Two of the best ribbons to aim for early on in Farmville are the Local Celebrity and Good Samaritan ribbons. These ribbons give you rewards for adding neighbors and helping them out. You can earn quite a few coins and XP early on by adding friends and neighbors in Farmville. For example, if you add eight neighbors and help on their farms three times each, you’ll earn both the white Local Celebrity ribbon and the yellow Good Samaritan ribbon. The rewards from the combined ribbons are 55 XP and 3,500 coins. That’s a very large number of coins so early in the game. And don’t forget that the act of adding lots of neighbors helps out with more than just ribbons. It’s an important part of the entire game.

Once you’ve earned some levels and accumulated coins in the game, you might want to go for the Architect Ribbons. These ribbons recognize your accomplishments in putting various buildings on your farm. For example, you’ll get the yellow ribbon after you place just two buildings on your farm. But the blue ribbon requires 30 buildings. The problem is that most buildings are very expensive in Farmville, so the Blue Architect ribbon seems out of reach at first. Aha, but there’s an often overlooked little structure known as the Rest Tent. This building only costs 1,000 coins. So even if you don’t have any buildings on your farm yet, you can get all of the Architect Ribbons with just 30,000 coins. To do this, buy thirty rest tents at the market and place them all on your farm at once. Here’s the nice part: even though you’ll need to spend 30,000 coins, you’ll get back 19,500 as rewards for the ribbons. You’ll also earn 2,150 XP! This is one of the most cost-efficient ways to convert coins into XP in the game. Unfortunately, you can only do it once!

There are a lot of other ribbons to pursue, and half the fun is trying to accumulate as many as you can. Ribbons can be a great way to add more fun to your Farmville game and help you earn levels and coins even faster.

Get some more Farmville Cheats.

[Via http://farmvilleribboncheats.wordpress.com]

Four places to go

2010-03-07T15:36:00.000+02:00

1. This is the last week for the MRR Photo Show at Pens & Needles Gallery in San Francisco! If you live in the area and haven’t been yet, you should really go check out the awesome photography on display! (more info here)

2. I looove lomography (all I shoot besides my dslr). I’ve had a home on lomography.com for a couple of years now, but just started uploading photos in the last couple of months. I don’t know if you become “friends” on there or not- but my address is http://www.lomography.com/homes/kandi. Modified holga!

3. Speaking of modified holga, I now own the url http://www.modifiedholga.com. Why? Because I couldn’t believe nobody else did.

4. For anyone out there on facebook- there’s now a page for The photography of Kandi Cook (that’s me). If you “become a fan” you’ll get little updates with what’s going on with that… nothing more than what I post on here, just shows up on your facebook feed.

[Via http://superkantastic.com]

Reading @Social Media Today: Why I no longer do Free in my business

2010-03-07T07:56:00.000+02:00

Image by mcmortygreen via Flickr

Found at Social Media Today | Why I no longer do Free in my business.

I was in a conversation the other day with Miles Austin and he said the following quote: “Inform for free, how to for a fee.” Chris Brogan recently wrote a post on price points, and essentially pointed out that if you wanted his time you had to pay him what it was worth. Good point. The more you give away your services, the more you undervalue them, and the more people will take advantage of you. That’s what I’ve learned from the past year. And when people balk at paying my prices, it means they aren’t my clients, and if I try and take them on, I’ll be wasting my time chasing them.

To be continued at http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/179749?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+(all+posts)

The Pied Piper of Exotic Southern Cameroons upon Ambas. Translation by Ntemfac Ofege

2010-03-06T15:38:00.000+02:00

Southern Cameroons upon Ambas,

Below the soaring Fako Mountain;

The Atlantic Ocean, deep and wide,

Washes its wall on the southern side;

A pleasanter spot you never spied;

But, when begins my ditty,

Forty years and nine this day,

To see the people suffer so

From vermin, was a pity.

Frogs!

They swarmed the land by daylight,

And sneaked in by moonlight,

Conned Old Man Foncha with sweet talks of unification,

And took over the government,

And spread their nature of infamy, fraud and corruption,

Split up the land into provinces, divisions and districts,

And became the occupier,

Named vile tyrants or pro-consults in charge.

Brought in gendarmes by the truckloads,

To spread terror and mayhem,

Murdered the trusting citizens at Santa and Ebubu,

Slaughtered the country’s strong democratic culture and institutions,

Fired Augustine Ngom Jua who protested,

And named two-face Solomon Tandeng Muna in his stead

Corrupted the entire civil service with paper money,

And savaged the territory’s once buoyant economy,

They took over CDC and killed POWERCAM.

Buried the thriving Victoria Seaport underwater,

And tossed the Tiko Wharf into the Muck,

Erased the Bali, Tiko, Besonabang airports.

And turned our towns into ghost towns, when not war zones,

They stole the oil by the tanker-loads,

And lapped up minerals from the mines at lowly Bafaka,

And ate of the proceeds until they dripped with fats,

They placed a bomb within agreeable Lake Nyos

Causing horrendous deaths in the thousands.

Wasted a nation’s education organization,

And roared in mirth as the children to foreign lands escaped.

Gave the themselves choice spots in the administration,

Turned the good natives into beggars,

And called then fools or enemies in the fold when they protested,

And even spoiled the people’s open chats,

By drowning their speaking

With Merde! and croaking

In fifty different sharps and flats.

At last the people in a body

To the Mount Mary Maternity came flocking:

Led thereto by Munzu, Elad and Anyangwe,

“‘Tis clear,” cried they, “our leaders are noddies;

Yawning when not snoring!

And as for the stooge of a Prime Minister —shocking

To think we make regular complaints,

To dolts that can’t or won’t determine

What’s best to rid us of frogs!

You hope, because you’re old and rheumatic,

To find in your cricket coats ease?

Rouse up, Sirs! Give your brains a racking

To find the remedy we’re lacking,

Or, sure as fate, we’ll send you packing!”

At this the leaders of the people,

Pa Foncha and Solomon Tandeng Muna twain,

Quaked with a mighty consternation.

At having been found out.

Three days they sat in council,

At length, Pa Foncha broke silence:

“For the old British Southern Cameroons crown I’d my robe of office sell;

Grand Chancellor availeth me naught.

These people do have short memories,

They forget so soon,

That I was from my lofty positions as Vice President dumped,

Er yes, and as perpetual Vice Chairman of the Party too,

These people are like elephants,

They do not see my mighty efforts.

I wish I were a mile hence!

It’s easy to bid one rack one’s brain—

I’m sure my poor old head aches again

I’ve scratched it so, and all in vain.

Oh for some guns, some guns, some guns!”

Just as he said this, what should hap

At the chamber door but a gentle tap?

“Bless us,” cried Pa Foncha and Muna in unism, “what’s that?”

(With the Council as he sat,

Looking old and as skinny as a lath;

Nor brighter was his eye, nor moister

Than a too-long-opened oyster,

Save when at noon his appetite grew mutinous

For a plate of achu and goat-meat)

“Only a scraping of shoes on the mat?

Anything like the sound of a frog gendarme

Makes my heart go pit-a-pat!”

“Come in!”—Old Foncha cried, looking bigger:

Ay yes, and taller too!

And in did come the strangest figure!

His queer long coat from heel to head

Was half of Human and half of Peoples Rights;

And he himself was tall and thin,

With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin,

And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin,

No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin,

But lips where smiles went out and in—

There was no guessing his kith and kin!

But like a dispenser of justice he looked!

And nobody could enough admire

The tall man and his quaint attire:

Quoth one: “It’s as Old Abendong!

Starting up at the Ntamulung grave

Had walked this way from his painted tombstone!”

To wreak justice upon they that murdered him.

To be Continued…

A translation can stir all of the senses, and the subject matter of a translation can range from being funny to being sad. We hope that you liked this translation and the sentiments in the words of The Pied Piper Of Exotic Southern Cameroons Upon Ambas by Ntemfac Ofege you will find other works by the translator on google.

[Via http://ntemfacofege.wordpress.com]

For How Long Are We Hour Children?

2010-03-06T07:33:00.000+02:00

… This was written specifically to be published in print for the Nimbin Good Times, it was submitted a few days late like the previous month, February’s edition, however it wasn’t published…

*** ***

For How Long Are We Hour Children?

I write to the many parts of me with a question. Prior to this Marching into your awareness I thanked our elder generation for serving our life … and new opportunity. I was pleasantly surprised by the resounding sense of appreciation these words were written. A mutual feeling of strength and resolve to bring what we have to the table, for our family, who?

One lovely reflection I was approached with a friend request through Facebook (personal holodeck platform) by a local to Nimbin (universal town) called George whom I know his kind children.

George shared with me his own vibrant account on being at Woodstock near New York, USA in 1969 and how this event conveyed the superior power of love among diversity and the beautiful world of synchronicity. By George, what links, ask anyone who really was there …

I feel to reflect where our consciousness is trending with aged care. What is the law of karma? How do we transcend the negative effects of our past deeds? Is our DNA destined to degenerate or transmutate? How do we change the program?

Do we get higher marks by asking better questions? At school in a class room, teacher, what is a drug war?

Who is controlling your mind?

Is this good for U s?

Is this choice really my heart’s call?

How present are we with this question?

Ask David did Goliath go down with just one stone, who was the first to throw?

Oooooooh! Do we real eyes our true act you all sighs?

Ommmmmm

What was the hit between the eyes? Consciousness. C=Correct (tick)

Muse sick, what is sick about the muse, aaah music, sick as (sic).

Is an alien a shortened Australian, as antipodean as Atlantian or Lemurian or from a star system sounding Siriusly mammalian?

Am I the I am noun by the language spoken, translated by English from Pleiadean?

Do you know

The quest I on…

LOVE

SPIRIT

LIFE

For more lovely thoughts and feelings, look within.

[Via http://dpol.wordpress.com]

whyyyyyyy?

2010-03-04T15:51:00.000+02:00

Seriously, why???? I swear if I knew her, I’d bitchslap her Ari Gold-style and then forcibly delete her account. Some people just don’t have the minimum mental capability to be unleashed on social networks. This is by no means the worst I’ve seen, but I’m always forgetting to screen cap the atrocities. Actually, it is the worst. WTF?? Why can’t people just be normal online!!!!

[Via http://letsnotnsaywedid.wordpress.com]

JOB FINDER PRESIDENTIAL FORUM ON LABOR INDUSTRY (UNTV Exclusive Telecast)

2010-03-04T07:53:00.000+02:00

JOBFINDER PRESIDENTIAL FORUM on Labor Industry

JOB FINDER PRESIDENTIAL FORUM ON LABOR INDUSTRY (UNTV Exclusive Telecast)

TONIGHT! 7pm— After ITO ANG BALITA.

Only at UNTV, Your Public Service Channel

PARTICIPATE: Send your comments and questions at

POLLWATCH TEXTLINE: 09063196484

POLLWATCH Twitter Account: www.twitter.com/pollwatch

POLLWATCH Facebook Account: www.facebook.com/pollwatch

POLLWATCH CAN ALSO BE WATCH WORLDWIDE for FREE!!!! via live webcast at www.untvweb.com

[Via http://pollwatch.wordpress.com]

Top 5 Technologies I Should Be Using

2010-03-02T15:54:00.000+02:00

Last week, I listed the top 5 technologies that you should be using if you are an ESL teacher in 2010. Today, I present the list of the next 5 technologies I need to explore and possibly add to my bag of tricks. If you have experience with them, leave your opinions, suggestions, and tips in the comments. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the (near) future:

1. Google Wave – Occasionally billed as the Future Of Email, Wave combines email, IM, and the collaborative parts of Google Docs. Watch the full Google demo video or the lower resolution abridged version to get the idea. This is one of those really cool technologies that leaves you asking, “So what do I do with it?” I hope to have answers to that question soon.

2. Zorap - Like Wave, Zorap combines several disparate elements into one collaborative space. From what I’ve seen, a space can be set up for many users quickly and easily. That space can then be used for audio, video, and text conversations and files and documents can be shared to the group. See the demo for more. For a free application, it integrates a surprising number of interesting options for remote learning.

3. Ning - A social network akin to Facebook, but it’s not Facebook. There are many existing nings for topic areas such as The English Companion Ning (“Where English teachers go to help each other”) and Classroom 2.0 (“the social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and Social Media in education”). Plus, you can create a Ning for a topic that you like or a specific group of people, like the students in your class. Because it’s a closed system, Ning may be more useful to anyone who can’t (or doesn’t want to) use Facebook or other social networks with their students.

4. Screenr - A free, web-based screen recorder. Just drag a frame over the part of your screen you want to capture and Screenr will record a video of what happens inside that frame until you tell it to stop. Great for creating demonstration videos or capturing a presentation.

5. Prezi - When I first saw Prezi, I thought it was just another slide sharing application. Since then, I’ve seen some slick, remotely controlled presentations that use Prezi to great effect. One of the best features is the ability to smoothly zoom in and out on portions of the presentation. One large document can contain everything from headings to footnotes with each part zooming and snapping into place on the screen as it is selected. This works equally well if the presenter is guiding the presentation or if an individual wants to explore it on his own. For example, take a look at this Grammar Review Prezi. You can use the arrows to go forward and back within the presentation, but you can also take control by zooming in and out, dragging the page around, and clicking on the text to zoom to a specific point. Once you get used to this style of navigation (or, rather, every style of navigation simultaneously) many interesting ways to structure and organize information become possible.

Bonus: Sikuli - I’ve used applications with macros before, but Sikuli’s approach is unique because it can create a macro for any application using your computers GUI. Think that sounds geeky? Then the demonstration video might also be a little intimidating. The gist of it is, you can automate almost any multi-step task on your computer, just by writing a simple script for Sikuli to follow. While I can’t think of any tasks that are repetitive enough that I’d actually save time by learning how to use Sikuli (and, frankly, I’d rather play Bejeweled myself, thank you very much), the potential of this application is intriguing.

[Via http://esltech.wordpress.com]

A Mother has to share sometimes

2010-03-02T07:37:00.000+02:00

My son put THIS pic on his facebook page; he had just defeated the #1wrestler in the country, 184 lb previously undefeated, that is no surprise – BUT, with the many pics available, he chose THIS one! The surprise- there’s me – Mom, in the Red sweater with my dear friends above me & his H.S. wrestling buddy in the stands. Kids do the darnest things! He’s why I’ve been on he road a lot; he qualified for the NCAA’s, where he’ll be competing against the 16 best college wrestlers in the country of his weight class. I’m off to Omaha, NE in a couple weeks …. PIC below:

My son put THIS pic on his facebook page; he had just defeated the #1 in the country, 184 lb previously undefeated college wrestler in the country, so that is no surprise – BUT, with the many pic available – and the articles written w/pics available, he chose THIS one! The surprise- there’s me – Mom, in the Red sweater with my dear friends above me & his H.S. wrestling buddy in the stands. Kids do the darnest things. He’s why I’ve been on he road a lot; he qualified for the NCAA’s, where he’ll be competing against the 16 best college wrestlers in the country of his weight class. I’m off to Omaha, NE in a couple weeks …. PIC below:

[Via http://2cob.wordpress.com]

Snow In Helsinki

2010-02-28T07:49:00.000+02:00

(Back ground story)

A fellow Canadian I am in contact with here in Kuusankoski recommended me adding someone to my Friends list on Facebook. He is a fellow metal head and seems as though we would really get along. Well Derek was right. Lukas and I do get along. We met last weekend for a beer before the Korpiklaani gig in Kouvola, had some time to chat and get to know each other. It went really well. Lukas sent me a text Friday afternoon seeing if I would like to go to Helsinki to see the Ulver gig. Well I have heard of Ulver but wasn’t familiar with the music. But I love road trips, haven’t been to Nosturi in ages and thought, “what the hell? Lukas is a great guy!”

So we made the trip. I was re-modeling the office. Didn’t take nearly as long as I had planned and yesterday I managed to put up the shelves and curtains so Sanna can begin organizing her fabrics and working materials there. Still lots of organizing and moving of shelves to be done but eventually it will be complete. I hope to post some photos soon.

Helsinki was covered in snow. We have almost a metre of snow here (though we have warm weather now and it is beginning to melt) which meant that Helsinki had at least 50cm. Even though the weather has been quite warm as of late I know it will take months for this much snow to completely melt.

The narrow streets of Helsinki were filled with snow. All the parking spots had become areas to pile up snow. Some cars were absolutely covered in snow and still had little tractors pushing snow up on top of them. Those are the cars that don’t get used in the winter… or at least won’t be used now!

After we parked directly in front of Nosturi we were getting out of the car when six huge trucks drove by filled with snow. Are these dumping their loads into the Baltic Sea? I don’t really know but I can only imagine that they are working around the clock to get the snow out of the city. I wonder if it will cause a lot of chaos when the snow finally begins to melt.

I really wish I had brought my Nokia phone with me to allow me to get some nice photos of the amount of snow. I just don’t trust the iPhone’s camera… ever. With no plans to return to Helsinki anytime soon it seems as though the one opportunity has passed by. The gig itself was great. I really enjoyed it. Quite an odd David Lynch type atmosphere developed even before the show began. But after a few beers I was able to shake it off and enjoy the performance. It makes me want to get into Ulver and see what gems can develop.

[Via http://onnila.wordpress.com]

CNN Poll: Majority says government a threat to citizens' rights

2010-02-27T15:46:00.000+02:00

February 26, 2010

It would not be much of a reach to suggest that the 37% of Americans that don’t believe our government represents a threat to citizen’s rights are beneficiaries of government programs where wealth from those that work for a living is directly transferred to those that enjoy government-funded, with our tax dollars, programs. It’s also interesting to me that CNN would put forth the results of their poll. They must see the writing on the wall, with a plummeting audience maybe, they are waking up and deciding to tell the truth. I’ve noticed some good objective things come from CNN of late. This could be an ominous sign for the party currently in power. Random thoughts while observing the passing parade, J.C.

From CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser

Fifty-six percent of Americans say the government poses an immediate threat to individual rights and freedoms.

Washington (CNN) – A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.

Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government’s become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree.

The survey indicates a partisan divide on the question: only 37 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Independents and nearly 7 in 10 Republicans say the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans.

According to CNN poll numbers released Sunday, Americans overwhelmingly think that the U.S. government is broken – though the public overwhelmingly holds out hope that what’s broken can be fixed.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted February 12-15, with 1,023 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey’s sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the overall survey.

[Via http://dancingczars.wordpress.com]

5 good things I'm doing lately

2010-02-27T07:53:00.000+02:00

1. Being nice to service people

Often I’m unintentionally rude to those in the service industry. It’s a tic I’m actively trying to resist. I engage restaurant servers, chat with cashiers. The interactions are easier this way.

2. Homemade salsa

This is fast and easy. Chop the tomatoes, cilantro orange, yellow, and jalapeño peppers. Add salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Delicious and cheap. Store bought salsas are inferior.

3. Writing first thing when I wake

Before anything else in the morning I’ve been sitting down to write. I never tried this before, but I find it is a strategy that works. I’m more intuitive, less analytical. Confident opposed to critical. More productive.

4. Not accommodating others’ bullshit

I’ve been known to suppress thoughts and feelings. The reasons vary. It can people pleasing, feelings of indebtedness or other dynamics of powerlessness. Frankly there have been time I lived for years in a state of foggy guilt. I came to a year and a half ago practically blinking and found I had very little to identify in my life reflected back at me. That feels like lifetimes ago. And lately it is as if I’ve stepped up my ‘authentic’ game even more. Increasingly, if I’m ethically or personally at odds in a situation, I find I’m less accommodating. Depending on your point of view this comes off as: being an asshole, being negative, burning bridges, being assertive, being honest. There are downfalls (such as I’ve had to avoid our landlord because I think he’s a creep and it shows, but we need the reference when we move in 2 months. In that case it’s best for now I keep my ‘authenticity’ to a minimum) but generally this is a good thing. I feel lighter and clear headed. I feel at the helm in my life.

5. Spending less time on the internet

Last summer I axed Facebook. I started a blog based on Miranda July’s Learning To Love You More project in order to fill my internet procrastination void, but eventually even that felt obnoxious and I quit that too. I usually leave my tweetdeck application open so if I’m working at my computer I get a little notification every time something happens on twitter, but twitter is boring so that is like, who cares? Other than this blog and a few I follow, I find these daze the internet distracts me less and less. The result: I’m reading more. I’m writing new fiction. I’m scribbling in all these little moleskin notebooks I leave lying around the house. My thoughts are longer than 140 characters.

[Via http://aarongolbeck.com]

A Lesson from Aloft Hotels

2010-02-25T15:56:00.000+02:00

Aloft Hotels, the tech-savvy brand, owned and operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Inc. recently announced the launch of their new Smart Check-In pilot program. This new initiative caters to the “new generation of guests, who are more interested in high-tech than high-touch”.

Currently being tested in Lexington, MA, select guests, who opt into the program receive an enhanced Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) / Aloft-branded key card to participate in the program, which runs on radio frequency identification (RDIF) technology. On the planned arrival date, a text is sent to the guest’s mobile device with their room number, allowing them to skip check-in and go straight to their room.

The hotel plans on expanding the key cards abilities into an “all-access pass” for cocktail, food, retail and sundry purchases through the building.

What can a spa learn from this innovative approach?

With new technology, even the most remote spa can attract customers from far and wide. With Aloft Hotels, they entice people to stay at their hotels to experience their high-tech approach to comfort. With a spa, it could be something as simple as a text message appointment reminder or a web site that allows you to book and confirm appointments. You don’t have to spend thousands (or millions) to use new tech, you just have to keep an ear to the ground and understand what works best for you.

Whether it’s a group-purchasing site like DealOn; social networks like Twitter and Facebook; or RDIF technology-led keycards there are choices and those choices can help you stand out.

Click here to read the entire article at Hospitalitynet.org.

[Via http://robotm.wordpress.com]

AdAge: Why Culture Will Become Crucial for Success in 2010 and Beyond

2010-02-25T07:38:00.000+02:00

Here’s an article I co-authored:

It’s 2010: a new year, and a new opportunity to consider how the massive cultural and technological shifts of today are reshaping the way we think about tomorrow. These evolutions are not only changing how we navigate our public and personal lives, but the way we relate to businesses and brands as well. At this starting block of a new decade, it is imperative that we consider the cultural shake-ups and changes in how we work, think and play that will prove relevant to our business in 2010 and beyond.

1. AMERICA RE-ENVISIONED. As this year’s Census will soon show, we are a country comprised of increasingly diverse and expanding “nations within a nation.” By 2042, it is projected that non-Hispanic whites will no longer represent the dominant ethnic group in the U.S. — an evolution of our demographic makeup that will turn our soon-outdated dichotomy of minority/majority on its head. The 2010 Census will be, in many respects, a preview of things to come, and is primed to serve as a catalyst for the reimagining of our old conceptions of the American story and dream. Over the last decade, brands such as McDonald’s, Nike and Toyota have made bold attempts at targeting a growing non-”general” market, earning accolades and success for authentically connecting with a multi-dimensional U.S. audience. In 2010, we expect to see more brands rising to the challenge of understanding consumers that defy traditional segmentation and tried conventions — an emerging business imperative.

2. CULTURE AS A SELLING POINT. As the composition of the country grows more complex, brands must also rely on their understanding of culture beyond ethnicity to stay relevant, and must invent strategic ways of harnessing it. Anthropologist Grant McCracken sees culture as so integral to brands that it should have its own executive position (the CCO, or Chief Culture Officer) in today’s corporation: “Culture is an essential piece of the intelligence an organization needs in a turbulent world. …The corporation cannot hire in [or farm out] its cultural intelligence any more than it can surrender financial decisions to a visiting bookkeeper. Some things are too important to be left to outsiders. Some kinds of intelligence must be integral to the organization.”

A deep connection to culture has always been a necessity for brands but going forward, we will see it manifest in more lateral ways. One that we’ve seen building momentum is the mainstream adoption of niche-cultural branding: ingredients, foods and products with heritages rooted around the world (i.e. kombucha, acai, shea butter, matcha tea, Greek-style yogurt, bubble drinks) are gaining mainstream popularity, and global brands as backers. This embrace of the foreign points to a widening of our palates and growth of a cross-cultural consumer that sees “exotic” as refreshingly unique and bold rather than alien.

3. GAME ON. Gaming and gamers are more pervasive now than ever. The average adult plays games an average of 7.6 hours per week, and is followed by a generation of digital natives that grew up on PSPs, iPhones, and Farmville. Games are all around us — on our phones, desktops, in our living rooms and workplaces. But not only is gaming as leisure becoming more commonplace, many aspects of our day-to-day lives are starting to take the form of gameplay as well. Mobile apps such as Foursquare and the karma-building CauseWorld are adding a bit of friendly competition to nights out and visits to our favorite venues and stores, while the social sport of Twitter and Facebook continues growing more ubiquitous. Most brands and organizations have already put their chips in the social-media game, but savvier ones will look to the more nascent opportunities.

4. MICRO GOES MASS. Amidst the devastation of the Haiti earthquake and the aftermath of the economic collapse, the optimism that often accompanies the arrival of a new year (and new era) is running thin in 2010. And yet, we’re coming together to offer hope in smaller pieces, in the form of simple micro-actions. One of the most catastrophic natural disasters in recent history has been met with more than $22 million in $5 and $10 text-message donations, an unprecedented show of charitable giving made possible by the ease of small-scale mobile donations. And beyond these times of need, micro-support is gaining traction as a straightforward, accessible way for everyday people to support the causes they believe in, finance promising new businesses, and make their creative visions a reality in small, easy steps. Sites such as Kiva.org and Kickstarter.com hinge on this low-entry generosity and trust and have succeeded in bringing their users’ ideas to life thanks to their growing communities of micro-lenders and funders. Pepsi’s Refresh Everything campaign has given novice entrepreneurs the opportunity to do good on a large-scale as well as small.

5. A HUMANIST REVIVAL. The 2000s were a mix of highs and lows for Americans. We witnessed some of the most horrific, perspective-altering events in our nation’s history, as well as some of the most glorious, awe-inspiring, and unprecedented moments, the election of President Barack Obama perhaps the most unforgettable of them all. The first year of this brave new decade is the turning over of a new leaf, one we’re happy to see met with a defiant return of humanism. By choice or circumstance, many of us (individuals as well as businesses) find ourselves with the task of starting over. This moment has proven fertile grounds for experimentation in finding joy and self-definition (see Living Oprah and The Happiness Project), thoughtful business innovation (see the new agency for “(human) brands,” Lovely Day), and a return to the simple pleasures of life (see Coca-Cola’s Expedition 206 and The Art of Eating In). The victors in 2010 will be those who see in this challenging moment an opportunity to connect with the human spirit of reinvention, resilience and yes — hope.

~ ~ ~

Christine Huang is head of cultural trends at GlobalHue.

Ozioma Egwuonwu is VP-director of cultural strategy at GlobalHue.

http://adage.com/bigtent/post?article_id=141849

[Via http://culturepluscreativity.com]

UPSTATE HOMELESS COALITION OF SOUTH CAROLINA'S BLOG, TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK

2010-02-23T15:39:00.000+02:00

The social media group has created a blog, a twitter, and is helping with the Upstate Homeless Coalition’s Facebook Fan Page.

The upstate Homeless Coalition of South Carolina’s BLOG is here.

The Upstate Homeless Coalition of South Carolina’s TWITTER is here.

The Upstate Homeless Coalition of South Carolina’s FACEBOOK is here.

The Upstate Homeless Coalition of South Carolina’s WEB SITE is here.

I hope that you all will start linking to the UHCSC’s blog, following UHCSC on Twitter, and becoming a fan of the UHCSC on Facebook.

[Via http://madisonelizabethfisher.wordpress.com]

Web 3.0: Background and Understanding

2010-02-23T07:23:00.000+02:00

Tim Berners-Lee, pioneer of the Internet, refers to Web 1.0 as “read only” web. Web 1.0 was simple with very little available interaction. The purpose was to make information available for search and read.

Web 2.0 has been termed “read-write” web, allowing users to contribute content and interact with applications. Many Web 2.0 technologies rely on users, such as YouTube and Facebook. Web 2.0 applications are more user-involved with the information that has now been made available.

Web 3.0, the new web frontier, can be described as “read-write-execute.” The focus of Web 3.0 technologies is understanding. Semantic markup is language understood by software. Through semantic markup, computers can interact with other computers through web service. A combination of semantic markup and web service encourages applications and computers to interact directly. By adding meaning to data, computers can perform intelligent searches through reasoning and combining. Web 3.0 can potentially create broader searches through simpler interfaces.

Web 3.0 software is an evolution in technology with the goal of creating communication among applications. Web 3.0 is closer to completing the circle of developers, users and applications.

[Via http://dustinjharris.wordpress.com]

Blogging with Windows Live Writer. 9

2010-02-21T15:45:00.000+02:00

Adding some plug-ins.

What on earth are plug-ins? And why should you use them in Writer? Plug-ins are usually small additional programs that you can download to your computer to enhance the use of Writer. They add such useful additions as sending an announcement automatically to twitter or facebook as your new post is published, so that all of your friends/contacts on Twitter/Facebook etc are made aware of it. They add other features to Writer such as being able to show a picture as a Polaroid for example. There are quite a few Writer plug-ins to choose from, and there is certain to be at least one that you will find useful to add to Writer.

Let’s now take a look at some of my favourite plug-ins and how to use them in your posts.

In the choice of items to insert on the right hand side of the compose window at the bottom of the list you will see Add a plug-in next to a green plus sign. Click on it to be taken to the Windows Live Gallery where all the different Writer plug-ins can be found. At the top of the list you will see the Polaroid Picture plug-in. Of course Writer already has the ability to make your photo or picture look like a Polaroid picture by default, but this plug-in will also let you write a caption underneath your picture as well , so download it and then we can take a look at it. Don’t worry if you receive a warning before installing any of the plug-ins that we are trying out, I use them all the time and I can assure you that they are quite safe to use.

The next plug-in to download is the Twitter Notify one which should also be available from the first page, so download that one as well. Many of my readers know that I often insert an Emoticon into my blog posts and one of my favourite plug-ins to enable this is the Cool Emotion one so let’s download that as well. Yet another very useful plug-in for writer is the TweetMeme plug-in coded by my friend Scott, and this will place a button inside your post once its published that allows your visitors to click onto it in order to send a Tweet about that particular post. To find more Writer plug-ins, just type in the name of the plug-on if you know it into the search bar at the top, or alternatively select Writer from the Gallery list on the left hand side of this webpage. The plug-ins such as the TweetMeme and the Twitter Notify plug-in will not be visible in the Insert list in Writer, you enable them in the Edit Blog Settings under the Blogs tab. NOTE. The TweetMeme plug in will only work in Blogger at this time.

The Cool Emotion and the Polaroid Picture plug in will now have been added to the Insert list. Let’s try the Polaroid Picture one. Click on Polaroid Picture and all of your picture files will open in another window in Writer. Now simply choose one of your pictures from your files. When you click on it once it is placed into your post, you will see a familiar Menu appear on the right hand side. This is the Polaroid Picture Menu. At the top you can choose your pictures size, followed by a Caption box where you can add a caption to your Polaroid picture including choosing the font and the size of font to use, you can then choose to tilt your picture to the left or right by varying degrees, have the text wrap around your picture either to the left or right hand side, and lastly add some corners to your Polaroid picture so that it looks as if it is placed in an album. Try them all out in your blog post. The Cool Emotion plug-in contains loads of Emoticons for you to add to your posts. Just simply click on it and check them all out.

In order to invoke the Twitter/TweetMeme/Digg/or Facebook plug-ins in your blog post you will need to enable them by clicking on the Blogs tab at the top of Writer, choosing Edit Blog Settings from the list and then clicking on Plug-ins. You then just need to tick those that you wish to invoke as you publish your post. NOTE. At this time the TweetMeme plug-in will not work at the same time as the Digg This plug-in, you will need to choose just one of them.

So there’s a lot of choice in available plug-ins for you to add to Live Writer in order to enhance its already great features. Have a browse in the Gallery and try some more of them out.

[Via http://technograns.wordpress.com]

"Boner" Lost in Vancouver

2010-02-21T07:46:00.000+02:00

I thought it was a joke at first, but I guess this story is real.

Andrew Koenig, best known for playing “Boner” on ‘Growing Pains,’ has gone missing in Vancouver.

From Pop Eater:

Koenig, 42, was last seen on Feb. 14 and he missed his flight out of the Olympic host city two days later, according to a statement from TV host Dave Holmes on MaximumFun.org. Authorities are searching for the actor, who has recently been working as a camera operator on the comedy podcast, ‘Never Not Funny.’

While in Vancouver, he was staying with burlesque artist Jenny Magenta, who took to Facebook on Friday to ask for help in finding Koenig, whose parents told her he may be “severely depressed” about something.

[Via http://kreuzer33.wordpress.com]

(Some) blogs I'm following

2010-02-20T15:45:00.000+02:00

So far, I have only posted photos of my own work on this blog. As far as I know, I don’t have any followers yet. The real reason for setting up this blog was to have a free place to direct non-facebookers (like my mother and some friends) to see what I have been creating recently. This has generated quite a few orders, so it has definitely served its purpose!

The reason for this post, though, is to share some of the blogs/websites that I follow on a regular basis (through google reader – what a GREAT invention!!!). Most of what I read is about decorating, jewelry, crafting, etc – generally anything you can imagine that has to do with art, in any form.

http://makeandmeaning.com
www.bluecricketdesign.net
www.completely-coastal.com (because I LOVE anything that has to do with the beach)
www.trolleycards.com (great cards, all $4.95!, and they print your message and mail them for you!)
http://indiefixx.com
http://itsthelittlethingsthatmakeahouseahome.blogspot.com (the name is too long, but I love the projects she takes on)
http://thepioneerwoman.com/confessions – this is my current favorite because she is FUNNY! She’s pretty famous for her cookbook, too

I also follow several ADD/ADHD blogs, but I’m not sure any of you want to see that stuff, unless you have a personal connection to such a crazy problem – like ME!

Anyway, these are only a few of the blogs on my list. I’ll post more as time goes on, but this will give you somewhere to start.

Enjoy your day! Julie

[Via http://jevansdesigns.wordpress.com]

Some Days You Just Need To Have An Adventure With The Girls.

2010-02-20T07:31:00.000+02:00

Had the most awesomeest day today. I went to Bondi with LMS and Food, and we went shopping, i got the most cumfyiest pants from Peter Alexander, and we stuffed a bear at the build a bear factory and were gonna swap it around each week, its name is Bam Bam, and its sitting right next to me at the moment, i also got a cute little bracelet with the eiffel tower on it to remind me of my dream to live in paris, and we got one of those corny best friends bracelets.

it was sooo fun

took my mind of numerous other matter like shaun and brad and turtle (whom i got in the biggest fight with) , not the mention the sex case which we are yet to hear from the police and its killing me.

[Via http://see1saw2in3an4igloo.wordpress.com]

James Bond characters on Facebook

2010-02-18T15:56:00.000+02:00

The old tagline was “JAMES BOND DOES IT EVERYWHERE!” and that’s certainly true of Facebook, the social-networking site. It appears that even 007 characters feel compelled to set up Facebook profiles.

One of the most amusing is Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Under relationship status, we’re told, “It’s complicated.” And, of course, his birthdate is listed as May 28, 1908. Ernst provides frequent status updates such as, “SPECTRE always delivers what it promises. Our entire organization survives upon the keeping of those promises. We’re kinda like an evil UPS.” Or, “Catch me soon as the new band leader on ‘The Tonight Show with Ernst Stavro Blofeld’.” Ernst also regularly trades quips with his Facebook friends.

One of those friends is none other than Jane Moneypenney, listing her birthdate as Feb. 14, 1927 and being single. However for those who believe Moneypenney is “Britain’s last line of defense,” may be in for a shock. She inquired with Ernst about a job in SPECTRE. This Facebook saga has yet to play out.

Auric Goldfinger has also surfaced on Facebook (reports of his death, like Mark Twain’s, were apparently exaggerated. He lists his birthdate as June 5, 1917 and his relationship status is also listed as “It’s complicated.” Gold bullion is listed as both his reglious views and interests.

Felix Leiter is also around and, not surprisingly, is listed as a fan of the Felix Leiter fan page.

Others include Franz Sanchez, Emilo Largo, Carl Stromberg, , and John Kaufman. (There are others, but hey, we don’t have room for everyone.)

Finally there is Bond James, taking on the guise of the mid-1960s Sean Connery, who seems to enjoy trading quips with Ernst and playing Mafia Wars.

[Via http://hmssweblog.wordpress.com]

Just a long day!

2010-02-18T07:49:00.000+02:00

Well today was a long day for me, school and work. Also just to let y’all know, I have changed a few things on my site, so the header you will see says photography and blog. I am usually on facebook most of the time, but have decided to deactivate it at this moment. I really want to get into my website and trying to develop it more and more. I started a blog a few months back, and then deactivated it, I tend to have a problem keeping up with stuff and get bored quickly, but I have promised myself this will be it, so pray for me to continue to blog and post photos my favorite hobby thus far.

[Via http://jbonillaphotos.wordpress.com]

A week later. Are you buzzing?

2010-02-16T15:54:00.000+02:00

Almost a week ago Google released Buzz. It’s launch was met with a huge amount of criticism over Google taking our private contacts in Gmail and exposing them and their email addresses to the world. Google has sense implemented some privacy features and changed the auto follow to a suggestion system. They have also said that their implementation needed more beta testing. In my last article I mentioned I would be switching away from Gmail due to Buzz and I still am. I’m a Mac an iPhone user. I have 2 Macs at home and I’ve learned how wonderful the Mobile Me service is, especially when it comes to syncing multiple Macs. So my question is are you buzzing?

Even though I am working on changing email addresses which is a lot more difficult than I thought. I have clicked on Buzz to see how many of my contacts are actually using it. From the looks of it not many. Right now there are two people I know that use it. I am not following them but they are following me and have set up profiles most of my other contacts still have not set up profiles. From talking to my friends none of them are interested in using it. Why you ask? They all say the same thing. They have Facebook some use Myspace as well, and some use Twitter. They have no interest in posting the same thing so many times. I think we are hitting a social network overload. It’s beginning to feel like work to keep them all up to date.

Are you buzzing please post a comment or answer the poll below.

View This Poll

poll

[Via http://anotherboringblog.com]

facebook casebook

2010-02-16T07:55:00.000+02:00

Hey everyone I’ve started stalking all relevant business’ on facebook and have added their pages to my page. It’s a great way to learn new and exciting brands / labels and keep up to date with awesome events. Click it —- Shopping is my best friend p.s hope everyone had a good V day….as much as I refuse to ‘celebrate’ it

much love xx

[Via http://shoppingismybestfriend.wordpress.com]

How the smartphone made Europe look stupid

2010-02-14T15:52:00.000+02:00

The European giants that pioneered the mobile telecoms industry are now stumbling in the wake of American and Asian rivals

When Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, takes to the stage in Barcelona on Tuesday evening to deliver the keynote address to hundreds of mobile phone industry executives gathered for the Mobile World Congress the industry’s biggest trade show, the message will be clear: well done, Europe, for getting mobile communications this far. We’ll take it from here.

For two decades, Europe’s mobile telecoms sector has considered itself to be a world leader. It had the biggest names, the technological knowhow, the most customers. Over the past year, however, that hegemony has been smashed. At a time when Europe is mired in economic turmoil and facing a demographic timebomb, one of its great hopes for fuelling future growth is slipping away.

“Europe has become the ‘flyover states’ of the mobile industry,” says a senior European executive, referring to the disparaging term used to describe middle America by high-powered business travellers shuttling between California and New York.

“All the service innovation is being done on the west coast of the US, and all the manufacturing and technical innovation is being done in the Far East. All we’re doing is selling other people’s products.”

His customers now care only about access to services such as Google, Facebook and Twitter on their phones, and the devices they covet are the iPhone or the latest BlackBerry, which has proved a great hit with teenagers. This year’s hot handsets, the executive says, are being made by HTC, the Taiwanese manufacturer, which will use this week’s show to unveil its latest devices, featuring Google’s Android software. While Apple lords it over the high end of the market, China’s Huawei and ZTE are creating cut-price smartphones that will democratise the mobile internet in the coming years.

Sensing the change blowing in the wind, even Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer, is turning up in Barcelona to front the software group’s latest attempt to break into a market that it was once shut out of by Europe’s gatekeepers, Nokia and Ericsson. As for Apple itself, the iPhone maker would never do anything so vulgar as actually appear publicly at the event, or have a stand in one of the eight exhibition halls; but its executives will be in town, holding meetings behind closed doors with suppliers and networks as it looks for more wireless partners to back its latest invention, the iPad, outside the US.

After a week in which the turmoil in Greece has shown the fragility of the eurozone and a new acronym, “Pigs”, has entered the economic lexicon as a harbinger of doom, the evidence the Mobile World Congress will provide of Europe’s loss of control over the mobile phone industry is a harsh blow.

It leaves European policymakers, many of whom have bought in to the idea that the future lies in the creation of innovative technologies, to pin their hopes on new areas such as green energy or fall back on old stalwarts such as biotechnology. But the green sector has yet to prove the breakout success that will give Europe its own version of Silicon Valley, while biotech has always been the saviour that never quite seems to arrive. After the dotcom crash at the start of this century, biotechnology was looked to expectantly, especially in the UK, as the next big thing. In America, meanwhile, graduates from Stanford and drop-outs from Harvard were quietly getting on with building Google, Facebook and Twitter.

The impressive lead in mobile communications that Europe once held over the rest of the world was created by the European Union. In the 1980s, when wireless communications went mass-market, America’s Motorola vied with Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson for dominance of the nascent global market. Europe’s players were handed the advantage when the EU officially adopted and set aside specific wireless spectrum for a digital mobile technology called GSM.

The first networks appeared in 1991 and overnight the European technology players that had helped create the standard had a huge market. Seeing its success, other countries soon adopted GSM, expanding the market for Ericsson, Nokia and others throughout the 1990s. Even America’s largest network, Verizon Wireless, is switching to the super-fast version of GSM later this year. So where did it all go wrong?

“As soon as the mobile business opened itself up in such a way that internet technology could become available on mobile networks, that was the end,” according to Mark Newman, chief research officer at Informa Telecoms & Media. “Maybe Europe had a chance but it blew it, in my view, because there are too many sets of interests, each so obsessed with their own sphere of influence that they could not co-operate.

“You had operators and device manufacturers never pulling in the same direction, and I cannot see any way in which Europe can regain the ascendancy. Essentially the future of communication services is that people want access to the cloud of services called the internet.”

The industry did see it coming. It tried several times to create a mobile internet that was not going to be beholden to the American giants. In the late 1990s, a pared-down wireless internet service called WAP was being pushed by several GSM operators. Customers, many of whom were used to dial-up internet access, were unconvinced and soon started summing up the service by replacing the “w” with “cr”.

A few years later, O2 tried to create its own mobile web by importing the i-mode standard from Japan. Again, it was a dire failure. When the “true” web started turning up on the next generation of 3G phones, the operators tried to keep their customers within “walled gardens” – as they were called – creating content portals that offered customers what the operator thought was the best of the web. Usage was paltry. Having spent billions buying licences to run 3G services, the operators had to prove to investors that there was consumer appetite for mobile internet services, so they demolished their garden walls.

Ironically, the operators’ initial intransigence over the mobile web brought both Apple and Google into the industry. The former saw a way of bringing the vertically integrated approach that had worked so well in music – where it controls both the device, the iPod, and the store, iTunes – into the mobile market. The latter made its move because it feared that the combined effect of Apple and market leader Nokia could shut it out of the mobile internet altogether.

In fact, Google needn’t have worried about Nokia because the runaway success of the iPhone changed the game. The arrival of the 3G version of Apple’s device a year and a half ago dramatically altered the mobile industry and proved that consumers, given the right device, will do much, much more than use their phone to make calls and send texts.

Nokia is still the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. But the Finnish giant, a former rubber boot manufacturer whose success created hundreds of millionaires and helped pull the country out of recession when the Soviet Union collapsed, has been sideswiped by the success of Apple and the encroachment of Google’s Android platform. It has been forced to make Symbian, its own software platform, free to developers and handset manufacturers, as Android is, and last month took the desperate decision to give users of its smartphones free access to its satnav services to make its devices as attractive as the iPhone. Only three years ago it spent €6.5bn on the map firm Navteq but it is now effectively giving that intellectual property away as it tries to protect its market share.

The crisis into which Nokia has been plunged by Apple has pushed it into bed with another American giant, Intel. The two companies will use Mobile World Congress to announce new microchips that Nokia hopes will help it to compete with HTC’s latest devices. Apple already has its own in-house chip design team, having bought fellow Californian company PA Semi two years ago.

Ericsson, meanwhile, spun its handset business into a joint venture with Sony. However, after initial success with ”featurephones” based on Sony’s Cybershot (camera) and Walkman (music)technologies, Sony Ericsson’s share of the billion-device-a-year market has collapsed under the onslaught of Apple and BlackBerry, halving from about 10% three years ago.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, says Olaf Swantee, who runs Orange’s mobile operations across Europe. He reckons that Europe’s big mobile phone operators, such as Orange, Vodafone and O2, have the opportunity to leverage their huge customer service bases to get themselves back into the game.

“Yes, the [US] west coast and Asia have really taken very strong positions,” he admits. “If you take equipment manufacturing, companies like Huawei have grown really strongly and we have seen traditional software manufacturers like Google and Apple enter the mobile market as it becomes a more software-driven environment. But, as the market moves to a more mature phase, what is becoming more and more important is the customer interface.”

The importance of direct customer contact, whether that be through shops or call centres, was proved this year when Google launched its Nexus One mobile phone. It sold it only through its website, and those customers who had problems with the phone had to email Google, rather than talk to its network partner, AT&T. Many found themselves waiting days for issues to be dealt with.

In the race to increase revenues – not least to pay for the network investment required to deal with the traffic generated by devices such as the iPhone – the mobile phone operators have the chance to claw back money from the likes of Apple and Google, which aggregate other people’s content through their iTunes and Android marketplace stores.

“Once the markets top out,” says Patrick Bossert, director of strategy at global billing services expert Convergys, “and growth slows and margins get tighter, then those aggregators will be looking to solutions for local-language customer care and marketing.

“They cannot afford to establish a base in every market in which they operate, but the service providers are already there. They may not have a lot of leverage now but, boy, do they have a lot of assets that are actually quite desirable.”

It’s a theme that the GSM Association, which represents all these networks, will be picking up this week as it tries to wrest some of the initiative back from Google and Apple.

“I don’t feel that we are being left behind, but there are areas that the mobile operators need to address,” says Michael O’Hara, the GSMA’s chief marketing officer. “And getting their assets into the developer world, finding a way to get into the value chain, is really key.”

Being great at customer service is hardly the white heat of technology, but for Europe it might just be the start of some sort of fightback. For now, though, the story is going to be – for home-grown talent, at least – depressingly familiar. As Informa’s Newman warns: “In 2010, Apple is going to make hay. I can’t see anyone catching them up this year.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/14/mobile-world-congress-phones-networks

[Via http://virginonmedia.wordpress.com]

Google Buzz - a massive launch failure?

2010-02-14T07:47:00.000+02:00

On second thought, I should not put the ? in the title. I think it is universally accepted that Google Buzz launch was a huge failure. The concept is cool, and I somewhat understand where they were going (email is social, other networks show the notifications in emails anyway, etc.) but the launch itself was an utter disaster.

So let’s take a step back and see, GMail was launched many years ago as a beta, and an invite-only beta. Even though most people agreed that it was ready for prime time, and even though large businesses were using it as their company email system, it was still in beta.

Google Reader started as a labs project (“pre beta”?), moved to beta and then got out of beta.

Google Chrome, the browser, was in beta for some time, and perhaps for the first time, was hurried through the beta cycle and turned into general release overnight. But the point remains – it started as a beta.

Why then, was such a high-visibility project with such major implications as Google Buzz, hurried through its launch? Why was there no private beta? Why no beta at all? I am hoping someone in the Google Buzz team knows why.

And just like that, before they knew it, the risky move backfired on them. The launch was grand, with an event and everything but horrible events started unfolding. Some of the things that went wrong and were prominently discussed on the internet were:

Just like Google Wave, Buzz was enabled as a rolling launch. As a result, a lot of people saw it and had nothing to do with it. After all, a “social” app needs social ineraction! So the first impressions were mostly underwhelming.
Then came the outrage and more people started seeing what Google was trying to have us do – A public Google profile was required! Why? So that I could be found? It is one thing when you make your information available in the walled garden of say, facebook. But Google? No way. Especially because it was all automatically opted in, which brings me to the next point.
By default, all the people you frequently contact on Gmail, were added as your followers and you were set up to automatically follow them. This was of course pitched as “you don’t need to do anything to get started, it is all there for you already”. But the problem was, and I was not a fan of this when they did it with Gchat as well, I don’t want that! It is one thing to add frequently contacted email addresses in the compose window drop-down but it is completely different when it goes to chat and even worse when it becomes a part of your “social life” without your consent, and automatically, and with no real way to undo!
There was no good way to “start from scratch”. Meaning, I could not start with a clean slate of followers and people who I follow. I could unfollow very easily, but I think there is a bug, which keeps putting me back, perhaps because I was following some of the people on Google Reader. And there was no way to remove someone as a follower (“block”) if they did not have a public Google profile! What? So it is ok to set them up as a follower but there is no way to stop that? MY followers and I cannot control them? Kidding, right?
Since Google profiles were linked to gmail email addresses, not only was a lot of information becoming public by default, but the information INCLUDED email address. That is totally unacceptable. Messaging capability is one thing, but exposing email address “as a design” is ridiculous.
Not only that, using “@” notification in a buzz exposed their NON-gmail address to the world! Again, this is something that *should* have been thought through in design, but if not, it should/could have been caught in any sort of beta.
I got sick of the initial experience very quickly, so I went to find “delete buzz” but there was no such thing. There was a disable buzz which only made buzz disappear from my gmail interface, but I had to go through several steps to clean out my profile before deleting it. Another important design issue, comes as a shock since it is a company that prides itself in the statement “you can leave Google any time you want and take your data with you”.
There was no way to expand/collapse items or sort them in any way. Some items showed up expanded, and some showed collapsed and there was no toggle button. It is ok to have an algorithm to sort it “optimally” but at the same time, provide the option to see the river in some chronological order.

Hindsight is 20-20 so whatever I write now can seem like a Monday Morning Quarterback’s thoughts. Some of these annoyances are also being fixed rapidly, as we speak.

But the point of this post is not to talk about what should be fixed, or what should have been Google Buzz, but more about the fact that a product was launched by Google directly to general public, directly as “gold” version, with several HUGE privacy, usability and functionality issues.

Is Google feeling the pressure of say facebook with its upcoming WebMail product? Is Google unable to make any significant dent in the social arena (like Microsoft failed with the internet early on) so they feel anything is better than nothing? It is ok to believe in and practise rapid deployment, but it is very easy and convenient to apply a beta tag. Is Google trying to prove something to someone about their launches?

Whatever it is, it completely baffles me. And has increased my distrust in Google. I use Google’s mail (regularly), Reader (regularly), Picasa + Web (sometimes), Finance (regularly), News (regularly) and Blogger (regularly) and am actively looking at viable alternatives to make sure I have a plan to move away from Google if they continue this trend with other projects/products.

In some ways, it is up to us to realize now that Google is big and is trying desperately to diversify their revenue streams. Google Apps for Enterprise is one promising avenue but it does not have the power of millions of consumers which potentially directly influence the power of Google Search. But just like Microsoft started going crazy in the late 90’s and most of the 2000’s I am sensing a desperation on Google’s side, maybe as a combination of:

facebook and twitter being completely dominant in social networking
Bing constantly eating up search market share
The impending Yahoo/Bing tie-up
Increasing scrutiny from anti-trust lawyers, especially in EU
Wall Street’s expectations

Am I saying this is the beginning of the end of Google? Absolutely not. They have too many smart people to let the ship sink. As I mentioned above, they have already made some changes to the Google Buzz experience and will continue to react quickly because that is how they work. I just hope that they don’t take us consumers for granted.

ps: I am still having an issue, after going through CNET’s walkthrough on how to disable buzz in that when I log in now, I see “1 connected site” but when I click on it, it gives me 0 sites. It is very annoying!

[Via http://rawmeeter.wordpress.com]

Valentine's Day for the Broken Hearted

2010-02-13T15:38:00.000+02:00

Romantic dinners at candlelit restaurants, Godiva chocolates, two dozen long-stem roses, sentimental Hallmark cards- the stuff Valentine’s Day is made of.

But what if your relationship is on the rocks and Valentine’s Day is just another painful reminder that your life isn’t what you hoped it would be? Then what do you do? I know, this isn’t exactly an uplifting topic, but the truth is, the vast majority of people in my practice are not exactly big Valentine’s Day enthusiasts. My practice generally consists of one spouse who desperately wants out of the marriage and the other who wants nothing more than to live happily ever after. So, February 14th often means hurt, confusion and loneliness. And I would venture a guess that there are many, many non-clinical couples who, though not on the brink of divorce, feel an emotional distance that has them wishing Valentine’s Day would just pass without fanfare.

So, what can you do if a romantic dinner and words of affirmation are not on the agenda for you this year? First, have a plan regarding how you will approach the day. Get some feedback from friends, family or a therapist regarding questions like, “Should I buy my wife a card or get her a gift when I know she is pulling away?” “Would it be a good idea to simply ignore the day or would my spouse take offense?” “I would love to plan a romantic dinner but I don’t know if my husband would feel too pressured.” “We’re separated. Should I even email or text my wife?”

Next, if you’re not going to be with the one you love, plan something nice for yourself.

When I asked people on my Facebook page about what they could do to avoid throwing a pity party on Valentine’s Day, here’s what some had to say:

On my own without kids, I would have a nice hot bubble bath with a good book. Perhaps go for a walk and maybe call my mom or dad and say I love you.

With kids, make it about them. Bake cookies and decorate them and if there is snow outside go sliding or have a snow ball fight.

I’ll get a pedicure, massage, fashion magazine and a bubble bath, single girls day out, good book and hot tea

Even in a relationship, I get myself something nice for V-day. That reminds me to love myself. A gym membership, a manicure/pedicure, a cashmere sweater. Just something nice for me.

And I like this one the most-

How about doing something loving for someone else who may not have anyone with whom to share the day? Bring lotion to a nursing home and give hand massages? Take a widow to lunch? Sometimes shifting my focus helps when I’m poised to throw myself a pity party.

So, while those of us who are fortunate enough to be with spouses who share our desire to celebrate our connection, years together, children, and history, we should be mindful of those who, for this year, at least, have missed Cupid’s arrow.

Michele Weiner Davis is the creator of the Divorce Busting Centers, learn more on how you can solve marriage problems and stop divorce. Follow me on Twitter @divorcebusting, add my Divorce Busting Facebook Page, and subscribe to the Divorce Busting YouTube Videos for more advice and upcoming marriage saving events.

[Via http://divorcebusting.wordpress.com]

Top 4 flaws in Google Buzz: Privacy, Noise & Integration

2010-02-13T07:23:00.000+02:00

Have you still not seen the Buzz icon

The best way to get the correct reviews on a product is start with a negative post and if the user like that product then they will contradict you using all the arrows from the quiver. I did the same buzz for Gbuzz on Gbuzz ….let me show you the response that I got from my pals…

The response I received from my friends shows that Gbuzz score 1 in “Simplicity of Usage” …But lets flash light on the points where Gbuzz not even managed a

O but -1 1. Privacy

The world’s number one search engine claims Buzz allows users to “share updates, photos, videos, and more”. But users have discovered that unless privacy settings are changed, Buzz publicly shares details of users’ contacts. Buzz automatically builds a buddy list based on names in Google mail account. It then makes this list public on your profile. It is a bit like someone being able to peek inside your email folders. Obviously this is the major concern raised by those who don’t seem to like Google Buzz and who are so concern about privacy.

Take my call all you privacy lovers

Gbuzz is not the utility you are looking 4

2. Noise

GBuzz Advertisment or Cheap Promotional Trick

When I checked my Gmail account my Buzz counter was showing an unbelievable number. I browsed through the buzz, this stuff caught my attention. I am pretty sure he is not friend or i should say nobodies friend….then what this buzz is doing in my buzz book. This is just the beginning, when the hackers get hand on this utility we will more often see such irrelevant buzz in our buzz book.

3. Integration

Something is Missing

You got it right…..Facebook is missing.

Why Google has not provided connectivity with Facebook while you can see twitter made the cut?

Have you ever seen a contestant putting publicity banner of other’s

Or IPL publicizing ICL

You will laugh on the face..n even question on my intelligence. Because the simple answer is – why would they…

Then how can you expect the same generosity from Google. It is an Open secret that Internet giant has launched Gbuzz to compete with Facebook, no ways they are going to provide connectivity with social networking giant, Facebook.

4. No Indicator for New Buzz

When a new buzz is posted on the Buzz link, Gmail Inbox shows a count of how many new buzz have been posted but the problem is when one open GBuzz, One has to scan and guess which are the newly posted buzz. And if your new buzz count has increased to a big number then this is a whale of a problem.

[Via http://kunalsingla.wordpress.com]

Hancock Fabrics

2010-02-11T15:45:00.000+02:00

One of my latest favorite pasttimes is sewing, so I was really excited to find out I could get a 10% off an entire purchase coupon for becoming a fan of Hancock Fabrics on Facebook. Once you become a fan, click on the “Special Offers” tab and click through until you get to the coupon. There’s also a “Free Projects” tab, where you can currently get three different patterns for free.

I just finished up sewing curtains for my bathroom, so now I’m planning to use the 10% coupon to get material to do a matching shower curtain!

[Via http://unitedwesave.wordpress.com]

Blackberry Facebook Application Issue Resolved!!!

2010-02-11T07:46:00.000+02:00

This morning at around 03:00 PST the Blackberry Facebook application issue had been resolved. I have to question the initial reasoning given by the Facebook team as no Blackberry update or fix was required. Facebook were adamant that the source of the issue was not within their control but rather that Research In Motion the developers of the Blackberry application would be required to provide an update for the application in order to resolve the issue.

My only assumption can be that when Facebook recently upgraded their website no compatibility testing was done with the Blackberry smartphone resulting in the connectivity issue’s we have all been experiencing.

[Via http://slash24.wordpress.com]

Full Moon Dinner at Back Forty

2010-02-09T15:45:00.000+02:00

To continue our Snail of Approval dinner series, Slow Food NYC presents a Full Moon Dinner at Snail of Approval winner Back Forty. Well known for both the caliber of its cuisine and its sustainable sourcing, Back Forty has garnered great press and a devoted following. The dinner will feature a four-course selection of seasonal plates for 8-12 people at Back Forty’s communal table, with optional wine pairing, presenting a great opportunity for members and friends to share an intimate meal that will most certainly be good, clean and fair.

Prices include service gratuities. Do not call Back Forty to reserve.

Where: Back Forty – 190 Avenue B (@ 12th Street); Manhattan

When: Sunday, February 28th – 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Four Course Market Dinner

With Wine Pairing:

Slow Food Member: $80

Non-member: $90

Without Wine Pairing:

Slow Food Member: $55

Non-member: $65

TICKETS: Tickets are available ONLY at:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/96281

[Via http://slowfoodnyc.wordpress.com]

To Friend or Not to Friend: THAT is the question!

2010-02-09T07:52:00.000+02:00

No, we have never met, but I love to meet people on line and share ideas, especially people who may have very different viewpoints or experiences from me, because that is how I grow and exercise my mind and understanding. And, you can easily un-friend me if I am boring or have views which you might find unsettling. Thanks for writing, and thanks if you take a chance and check out my posts and profile. As they say, everyone’s life is worthy of a novel or movie.

[Via http://williambuell.wordpress.com]

2010+ Technology Forecast: The Internet of Things Slowly Comes of Age...

2010-02-07T15:50:00.000+02:00

In this post I want to discuss some ideas about the direction technology may take over the next few years. As will all forecasts, I want to remind the reader that nobody can see into the future:

I believe a major theme continues to be the movement toward ‘The Internet of Things‘. Despite that this idea has been around for some time it is observable as a long-term, or over-arching, theme governing media and telecommunication technologies. Furthermore, irrespective of the mode (i.e. RFID, GPS etc…) that ultimately binds the ‘Internet of Things’, it is the theme of objects, services and individuals networked with one another that is important. The important point here is the transformation of a world of atomized objects into a world of objects capable of communicating with one another. In earlier posts I have suggested thinking about ideas such as (1) the “anthropocene” (i.e. the most recent point in the earth’s history where the earth itself is no longer ‘natural’, but conditioned by the effects of human civilization) and (2) the present age understood as, in Heidegger’s words, forcing “the world [to] appear as re-presentation ‘for man’ “. One also ought to consider Nietzsche’s 1863 comment that “As a “rational” being, [man] now places his behavior under the control of abstractions. He will no longer tolerate being carried away by sudden impressions, by intuitions. First he universalizes all these impressions into less colorful, cooler concepts, so that he can entrust the guidance of his life and conduct to them.” with the utmost seriousness. In this comment, Nietzsche spells out the theoretical desire for an ‘Internet of Things’: “the metamorphosis of the world into man.” Now, let’s move into more concrete territory and observe some of the ways this is being carried out:

One long-term trend is the Disappearance of the Screen. The last two years have seen a smaller, thinner and more interactive screens on iphones and other smart phones. But aside from this qualitative shift we have also seen a quantitative shift amidst concepts such as Pranav Mistry’s “SixthSense” device (featured in a popular TED talk). Rather than a screen, the SixthSense device projects visual information onto the user’s immediate environment. But less conceptual than the “SixthSense” are devices such as Light Blue Optics’ “Light Touch”, an interactive projector that transforms flat surfaces into a touch screen. Listen to how Light Blue Optics describe the Light Touch: “It frees multimedia content from the confines of the small screen, allowing users to interact with that content just as they do on their hand held devices – using multi-touch technology.”

On this theme of the disappearance, or transformation, of the screen, I’ll point out that a number of companies and research facilities are working on glasses – and even contact lenses – capable of superimposing a digital display over the wearer’s vision. Vuzix now has listed “The Wrap 920AR” among its new products. Vuzix calls the Wrap 920AR “the world’s first consumer video eyewear … that ‘looks’ into the world, bringing mixed and augmented reality to life. The stereo camera pair, … can be viewed in 3D stereoscopic video on the Wrap eyewear displays.” Future development of this sort of technology will likely not be glasses but some sort of less bulky and awkward contact lens. Prototypes of such a contact lens, that uses small circuits and LEDs, do already exist. Check out this concept for a digital contact lens by Babak Parviz who works with bionanotechnology and nanofabrication at the University of Washington.

There seem to be three possible futures for the screen. (Future 1.) Simply a continuation of the status quo. Think about how the iPad, for example, resembles a larger ipod/phone touch display. (Future 2.) Exemplified by the SixthSense or Light Touch. (Future 3.) Exemplified by digital glasses or digital contact lenses. But I believe we will not see a continuation of the status-quo. The screen, I think, is undergoing not only a quantitative, but a qualitative change.

What runs common through these possibilities for the screen is the importance of another likely long-term trend Augmented Reality [AR]. Over the past year AR has hit it big and app. developers have nowhere exhausted their possibilities. One of the finest AR apps this year, Layar, is an augmented reality browser. Its tagline – tellingly – is “Browse the World”. Layar allows the user to use their smartphone camera to lay digital data overtop the external world. For example, when I aim my iphone camera at a specific location/object, information about that location/object appears overtop it. Do yourself a favor and head over to Layar’s site and familiarize yourself with what they’re up to.

This, obviously, raises questions about the status of individual people and augmented reality. When will apps capable of identifying something like Facebook images/data from the faces of individuals walking down the street come into the mainstream? Here, we find a means of identifying people that does not rely on some sort of RFID chip or GPS tracking device, but the very architecture of faces: biometric image recognition apps. On this theme, I’ll note a clever image recognition search engine called TinEye. TinEye allows users to search saved photos for similar photos on the internet. One can imagine the many ways something like a TinEye smartphone app could be linked up with Flickr and Facebook accounts. One might also develop a headache at all the privacy issues such an app would raise!

Each of the themes I have suggested in this brief post (1) Augmented Reality Browsers, (2) Biometric Image Recognition Applications and (3) The Disappearance of the Screen (either into the eye [AR glasses/ AR contacts] or into the world [SixthSense/LightTouch]), is part and parcel of the burgeoning Internet of Things. The Internet of Things is part and parcel of what Nietzsche, and later Heidegger, diagnosed as the Modern drive to bring the world into the purview of the anthropocentric (human) will. Thus, at the outset of the 21st century, surrounded by the ‘death of nature’, the world we find around us is increasingly one created for, and meant to be observed by, technological apparatuses.

—–Cybject is only a thought experiment ——-

[Via http://cybject.wordpress.com]

In Defense of Obama 3 -- This No Longer Has Anything to Do with Obama

2010-02-07T07:45:00.000+02:00

Alright. I know what you’re going to say. “What are you doing talking to this guy still?” I have no good reason. I just have a bad case of the Schadenfreudes.

This argument no longer has anything to do with anything except the sick twisted pleasure I get from it. Here is the 3rd installment of the Gabe vs. Alan series:

Alan Lastnameremoved

I don’t argue with homess people either….as soon as I read your joke of a resume, I realized that you are pathetic and destitute and there is no point in trying to educate you. Its like you are a dog watching a TV….you know something is going on but you are not sure what it is.

7 hours ago

Jenny Lastnameremoved

This should cheer everybody up!!http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=108290565853047&ref=mf

7 hours ago

Gabe Caruso

Thank you so much for that Jenny. That was heartwarming and put me in a good mood.

Alan,

Few bullet points I wanted to shoot your way

• What are homess people? And why are you bringing them up? This is known as irrelevant material.

• That wasn’t a joke of a resumé. It was a joke resumé. If you would have read the whole thing you would have realized that.

• Why do you assume that I am destitute. I don’t have two cars, but what kind of jack ass would I be if I bought two cars? I can only drive one.

• I like how you say there is no point in trying to educate me. I’ve tried to educate you on multiple instances by showing you cold hard data from respected sources, and you’ve decided to turn a blind eye. How is it that you interpret this as uneducable?

• Great analogy. I like how you linked opinion to real life. Unfortunately, you still have yet to make one factual claim. You’re not gonna win a lot of debates this way.

7 hours ago ·

Alan Lastnameremoved

A guy who thinks “serving his country” is joining the Americorps” shouldn’t use the word “bullet”. Save your energy for finding a job Gabe…..that way you can pay some tax money and feel good about how the money is spent.

6 hours ago

Alan Lastnameremoved

OH, and your band….It sounds like someone is torturing a goat!!!

6 hours ago

Gabe Caruso

First off, you have never heard my band. If you’re talking about Jenny Sizzler, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you aware that your nephew plays in that band?

And you’re right. Working for a wage below the national minimum in order to help homeless Americans, some being veterans, surely isn’t serving your country. You have to kill people to serve your country, right? Volunteering in the most dangerous city in the country isn’t enough, right? Gotta have a gun to do good.

6 hours ago ·

Alan Lastnameremoved

OK, Gabby….either you name is pronounced “Gabby” or it should be spelled Gayb, like Gayboy…since your into english I though you might agree. And….really…go get a job…I’m sure you have 10’s of thousands of dollars in student loans to pay off. Come talk to me when you pay some taxes and we can debate how the money is spent. Since you got a degree in philosophy and english…good luck with that job thing…..back to stacking crates of veggies I guess.

6 hours ago

Alan Lastnameremoved

Oh, I’m sending Steve a check for more music lessons. See….you did do some good today!!

6 hours ago

Gabe Caruso

Alan,

First of all, working in a warehouse is a real job. Any job where you go home covered in sweat after working in refrigerators for 12 straight hours is a real job. You obviously don’t realize that many Americans wear their blue collars proudly.

Secondly, this is something like your third allusion to paying taxes. This conversation was never about taxes. And you’re contradicting yourself by bringing them up. First you showed that your mindset is one where nothing is more important than money. Then you reinforced this ideal by naming expensive possessions you have. Then you bring up paying taxes. Guess what. The really rich don’t even pay taxes. They influence government with the use of lobbyists. Your ideals have you chasing material possessions, and you’ll always be chasing these things because someone will always have a newer Corvette than you. (Even though everyone knows new Corvettes are garbage compared to what they used to produce.). So I wish you luck on your journey to everlasting jealousy and disappointment.

And go ahead and just start typing ur for both you’re and your. Sure it says, “I probably don’t know the difference between you’re and your,” but at least it holds onto that slim chance of doubtful intelligence. Better that everyone in the room think you’re stupid than for you to open your mouth and prove it.

5 hours ago ·

Rusty Russell

I have not laughed so hard in a very long time.

4 hours ago

Alan Lastnameremoved

Gabby, you are really so stupid that you should just stop talking. Get a job, pay back your student loans and contribute something to the country. I know your first instinct is to run your mouth then just grab your family and leave your country when things get tough like your relatives did…..refugees are different than revolutionaries….sorry to have to tell you that!

4 hours ago

Gabe Caruso

Alan,

I want you to know that no one who is reading this thinks I’m stupid, except you. Time and time again you have changed the topic to something else you know less than me about. My first instinct isn’t to run. Along with my ancestors, I usually wait until my life or one of my family member’s lives is at stake. One thing I don’t run from is ignorant people who result to name calling when they have been intellectually bested.

Refugees are different than revolutionaries, but they’re not mutually exclusive. One person can be one of these things, both of these things, or neither of these things. Therefore, pointing out that they’re different has not in any way shape or form shown that my ancestors weren’t both of these things. For example, a douchebag is something totally different than an asshat, but you are both of these things.

You’re digging your hole deeper and deeper. Ask Rusty Russel. He’s not laughing just at the situation. He’s also laughing directly at you, your incredibly fallacious arguments, and your pettiness.

Oh I get it. Gabby is a girl’s name. That’s the most clever thing you’ve come up with. I mean, barring making fun of dead people. That’s really clever. And it’s pretty hard to do, since they can’t stand up for themselves.

Now which one of us is the coward?

3 hours ago ·

Alan Lastnameremoved

If you are so smart….why are you a broke ass with no job? The economy is just as bad for me as it is for you. I have a job and got offered 2 more jobs last week both for over 120k a year. If you get much smarter I fear you might starve to death without welfare!!

3 hours ago

Alan Lastnameremoved

oh…and your the coward….come kick my ass….i’ll buy you a ticket!!

3 hours ago

Gabe Caruso

Once again, Alan, I am not broke. I’ve told you already that I planned ahead and saved up money to responsibly allot for my time being unemployed.

We all understand that you have a job, and I’m happy for you that you had two more jobs offered last week. I know how important money is to those who are phallically challenged, so I wish you the best with those opportunities.

And which of the Fox News members told you that having a job was a sign of intelligence. I’ve worked with people who were dumber than rocks, but they worked hard so they were allowed to keep their job. Please show me your equation or your premises that come to the conclusion of intelligence = employment.

Fuck it. Show me any equation. Any equation at all.

And I’m the coward? You’re picking a fight with someone at least ten years younger than yourself, insulting dead people, and I’m the coward. Why do I need a ticket? Pick me up in your 4×4 and your Corvette at the same time. And wear your Rolex. God, two guys in a Corvette… Everyone is going to think you like dudes.

3 hours ago ·

Alan Lastnameremoved

Your like one of those yappy little dogs, all bark no bite.I know you are proud to not have a job. Typical socialist. Its time to put up or shut up. Get a job or come kick my ass!!

3 hours ago

Gabe Caruso

See the thing about thinking rationally, Don, is that I can see beyond your little traps. You are convinced that there are only two sides to every dice. Well guess what. This is facebook, and showing the world how vapid you are doesn’t require me to have a job or come kick your ass.

Odds are I couldn’t kick your ass. While you’ve been doing pushups and lifting weights I’ve been wasting my time reading books and articles and filling my brain with facts, or at least well-formed intellectual opinions. I choose to stay right here and continue showing you up.

Also, hit me up on your real account, Don. We all know that you’re hiding behind your brother’s facebook mask.

And you would’ve gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for this meddling kid!

3 hours ago ·

Alan Lastnameremoved

Your so stupid…you don’t even know who you are talking to. What a complete fucking moron…you really are too stupid to live. Meddling kid gives you the credibility of scooby doo and shaggy….too bad that is light years beyond you!

3 hours ago

Alan Lastnameremoved

Dice is plural….its die Einsrein!

3 hours ago

Gabe Caruso

You did it. I was waiting for it, and it finally paid off. I knew that eventually you would start a reply with a grammatical error. It only took one word for you to prove your prowess as facebook’s greatest literary delinquent. Then you called me a “complete fucking moron.” Sounds like a great premise. Can’t wait to hear the conclusion.

“you really are too stupid to live.” Here we have what is called a self-defeating statement. The very fact that I am alive proves that either

a) i’m not too stupid to live, so being alive, I’m not stupid or

b) you’re too stupid to come up with a legitimate argument.

Meddling kid was a direct allusion to Scooby Doo, (again with the capitals,) so you pointing that out doesn’t really hurt my credibility at all. And how is that light years beyond me? Are you even aware that light year is a measurement of distance and not time? Please explain to me how Scooby and Shaggy are millions of miles beyond me. I’m confused. Not stupid, just having a hard time understanding your idiocy.

Then you clicked post, and then you realized that dice was plural. You had me! You had the opportunity to get on the scoreboard and set the score at Gabe 99 Alan 1, and you jumped at it! You had it too, until everything began to fall apart after three words. “Its” should have been “It’s” since you were trying to make the contraction of it and is, and not talking about the attributes of it, and then the wheels fell off. You went for a eight letter word and completely butchered it. Einstein was a great genius, but Einsrein was just a word created by an intellectual inferior to showcase his lack of genuine intelligence. It was a good try, but a complete failure.

Please, give me more ammunition. I look forward to further embarrassing you in a public forum. Not that you need my help.

about an hour ago ·

Alan Lastnameremoved

Say all you like…the facts don’t change…you are a broke ass with no job and worthless degrees. You are from coward stock that abandoned their country. Your Cuban relatives would be ashamed of you. Get a job, pay taxes and pay off your student loans! You are part of the problem not the cure!

about an hour ago

Jenny Lastnameremoved

O.K. you don’t like SIZZLER?? You’ll love this.http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4219322

about an hour ago

Alan Lastnameremoved

cute…

about an hour ago

Gabe Caruso

Why is it so important to you that I get a job and pay taxes? I’m pretty sure that this is a free country and it isn’t against the law to be jobless. You’re right about the facts not changing, but that doesn’t work in your favor. You’re still a homophobic materialistic racist who only finds self worth in possessions, and I’m just a college grad. I’d much rather be jobless in my shoes than be you. Now tell us how strong you are and list some more of your possessions. It won’t make you any more respectable or credible, or correct for that matter, but it’ll make you feel better.

Pretty sure this isn’t over. Pretty sure he just went to bed.

We’ll see.

[Via http://soygabe.wordpress.com]

Are We Connecting Enough?

2010-02-06T15:48:00.000+02:00

Don’t get me wrong. I love Twitter and Facebook. I have to put restrictions on my time or else I will be on Facebook all day long. But a few things got me thinking. In church last week the Pastor’s sermon was about staying connected. I read a headline about trouble spots in a relationship and on the top of the list was no longer texting each other during the day. And on Twitter I saw a post stating the cell phone was the new cigarette. What does all this mean?

Yes, we are a very connected society. We text, we post, we call. But is this really connecting? I think we can and should connect more personally.

So pick up the phone. Call you mother, your father, your kids, your BFF. Don’t just talk on the phone. Invite them over for dinner. Really connect – in person.

What ever happened to talking to your neighbor over the fence? I love doing this. It usually ends up with a big neighborhood cookout of some kind.

Do you own some sort of business? When was the last time you made visits to your clients? Sending out newsletters or postcards is great, but think of what could happen if you stopped by their offices. You might actually find out what they really need.

Staying connected is great, but take it a step further and really connect.

[Via http://adminetcetera.wordpress.com]

[BALADA MOCENK] lagi lagi mocenk

2010-02-06T07:53:00.000+02:00

[MOCENK MSH Di JKT] Mocenk naik bis kota. Dia ingat pesan teman2nya bhw di Jkt byk orang penipu, jgn percaya sm org lain. Waktu turun dr Bis Kota, kernet bilang kaki kiri dulu. Krn ingat psn jgn percaya org lain Mocenk turun kaki kanan. JATUHLAH DIA.

[MOCENk]: Bener jkt byk penipu, aku turun kaki kanan aja jatuh, PALAGI KAKI KIRI…!!!

—————————-

[SENYUM PAGI2]

MOCENK KE JAKARTA- Mau beli Buah…

[Mocenk]: Duku berapa sekilo???

[penjual]: Goceng…

[Mocenk]: (bingung) GOMENG boleh ga???

[Penjual]: (heran) Berapa tuh GOMENG…??

[Mocenk]: Kasih tau dulu berapa tuh GOCENG???

——————————–

[Mocenk Mudik]

Suatu hari mocenk diajak mamanya mudik ke kampung Neneknya di pedalaman…. Ketemu dia sam Nenek-nya, org pedalaman tapi gaul…

[Nenek] :Kerja apa kamu di Kota Cu???

[Mocenk] : Pengangguran….

[Nenek] : Syukurlah… daripada lontang-lantung ga jelas….

[Mocenk] :*&^&%$$^… (bisa juga mocenk bete…)

————————————-

[Mocenk di Bis]

Mocenk duduk di Bis bersebelahan dgn seorang pemuda…

[Mocenk]: Mas ini Pasha Ungu ya???

[Pemuda]: (tersenyum) bukan…

[Mocenk]: (tdk berapa lama) Mas ini Pasha ungu ya???

[Pemuda]: (mulai BT) bukan…

[Mocenk]: Mas ini Pasha ya???

[Pemuda]: (BT.. Akhirya) Iyaaa

[Mocenk]: KOK NGGAK MIRIP…???!!!

———————————————–

[Sarapan Senyum]

Pagi2 Mocenk sudah mainan HP buka FB… Tiba2 anda datang…

[Anda]: Lg ngapain Cenk???

[Mocenk]: Mancing…

[Anda]: Mancing?? Mancing Apa???

[Mocenk]: Mancing makhluk konyol tidak berotak…

[Anda]: (tersenyum heran) Wekekeke… (Iseng nanya lagi) Udah dapat berapa???

[Mocenk]: Anda yang ke-13….

—————————————-

Tiga orang calon ayah sedang menunggu istri mereka melahirkan. lalu suster memanggil mereka.

[Suster]: Selamat ya pak, bapak dapet kembar…

[Bapak 1]: Wah, kebetulan say kerja di PT. Dua Putri Dewi

[Suster]: Selamat pak, bapak dapet 3 putra kembar…

[Bapak 2] : Wah, kebetulan saya kerja di PT. SEMEN TIGA RODA…

Bapak 3 mendadak pingsan. Ternyata dia kerja di PT. BINTANG TUJUH…

———————————-

[BIASAKAN AWALI PAGI DGNSENYUMAN]

Mocenk mencoba motor barunya…. Dia ngajakin pacarnya untuk boceng…. Aneh si Mael mau aja di boncengin Mocenk yg terkenal sering tabrakan… (Wakakak piss cenk) Eeee bener.. Baru diomongin ga berapa lama langsung nabrak pohon…

[Mael]: Gimana sih kamu cenk… Bisa sampai nabrak poh…on begini…

[Mocenk]: Iiii bukan salahku… Tapi pohonnya yg nyeberang jalan sembarangan….!!!

[Mael]: toeng…!!!

———————————-

[cerita bonus nih]

seorang lelaki baru pulang belanja dari mall, ditengah jalan ia berpikir rasanya ada yg ketinggalan tp apa ya, diperiksa dompet, masih ada, HP, masih ada, daftar belanjaan, sudah semua dibeli, setelah yakin tdk ada yg ketinggalan ia pun pulang ke rumah…sesampainya di rumah anaknya bertanya, loh, pa, mama mana?

————————————-

Seorang pemabok pulang dengan sempoyongan. Istri yg setia berusaha meolong supaya tidak jatuh… [Istri]: Mas.. Sini aku tolongin.. [Pemabok]: Tidak usah Dik… Tolong pegangin PINTU aja supaya tidak goyang2…

——————————

Pulang Kerja Mochenk sakit perut…

[Mochenk] : Aduuuh Ma Sakit Peruttt…

[Mama] : Itu Karena Perutmu Kosong… Makan sana… bla bla bla… (Keesokan Harinya Mochenk ketemu pacarnya… Mail…

[Mail] : Aduh… Kepalaku sakit…..

[Mocenk] : (sok tua) Itu karena KEPALAMU KOSONG…!!!

————————————

>>>>>>>>> GABUNG DENGAN IDE KONYOL on Fesbuk >>>> klik sini: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Balikpapan-Indonesia/Ide-Konyol/191317230893?ref=mf

[Via http://idekonyol.wordpress.com]

Ian Ziering Engaged

2010-02-04T15:55:00.000+02:00

Beverly Hills 90210 actor Ian Ziering announced his engagement on his Facebook account when he changed his status from “In a Relationship” to “Engaged”. Ziering, now 45 years old, was previously married to Nikki Schieler Ziering and they were divorced in 2002. In and out of various relationships, Ian hooked up with Erin Kristine Ludwig on Labor Day in 2009. Gee, that’s so long ago.

At least she has met the one of his prerequisites, which is to have 3 or more letter I’s in their name. That is just weird. None of my dozens of close friends have more than 2, but yet he has three in his name (Ian Ziering) his ex-wife Nikki has a whopping FIVE in her name when she was married to him (Nikki Schieler Ziering). And when he gets married to Erin, she will also upgrade from four to five I’s (Erin Kristine Ziering) and if she does that multiple name thing and does Erin Kristine Ludwig-Ziering, then she’ll have them all beaten with SIX. Is it strange that I noticed that? Must be a German thing.

Anyway, their shooting for a Spring wedding. Erin a nurse and Ian is obviously a well known teen star from the original Beverly Hills 90210 back in the 90’s (when he wasn’t even a teen) and he made a comeback on the 4th season of Dancing With The Stars with dancing partner Cheryl Burke. Everyone seems to think the couple is happy together and well, the “I’s” have it. Sorry. I had to do that one more time.

[Via http://weddingpros.wordpress.com]

Barrett Hawker

2010-02-04T07:45:00.000+02:00

Barrett Hawker

Proof of Avatar Existence: http://world.secondlife.com/resident/53b08ae5-cc93-451b-bfd1-18aa315508b0

Paste: This person is using a fake avatar name from Second Life. Please see proof at http://world.secondlife.com/resident/53b08ae5-cc93-451b-bfd1-18aa315508b0 Please uphold your TOS and remove this fake profile that is not using a real name.

How to Report

[Via http://banfakefacebookprofiles.wordpress.com]

The Big Bang Theory - The Einstein Approximation

2010-02-02T15:54:00.000+02:00

Sheldon has been up all night trying to view his work peripherally. Penny says she’s not any good until she has her coffee. Leonard walks in as Sheldon is now running around in weird loops around his board. He tells Penny, “Penny, I told you, if you don’t put him in his crate at night, he just runs around the apartment.” Sheldon then tries to look at his board through a peephole made with his hands, and Penny asks what he’s doing now. Leonard says he’s either trying to focus in on one aspect of his work, or he’s trying to find the alligator that ate his hand after Peter Pan cut it off. Sheldon corrects him by informing them that it was a crocodile, and if you’re going to mock him at least get it right. “Aye, aye, Captain.” Leonard suggests that Sheldon may want to get a fresh start to his work, as that might help him get unstuck. Sheldon thinks this is a great idea. He takes the board, opens the window, drops it out, and grabs a new one. In the background you hear cars crashing and horns going off.

In the breakroom, Sheldon is still working on his problem. Wallowitz asks how long he’s been stuck. Leonard says that it’s been 30 hours on the problem, but emotionally about 29 years. Wallowitz asks if he’s tried rebooting him. Nope, it’s a firmware problem. Raj wants to go to Disco Night at a rollerskating rink. Leonard and Wallowitz decide to turn it into a double date, but now Raj is disappointed that he’s not going. They look back on Sheldon. He apparently used butter as deodorant, and hasn’t been this stuck since the third Matrix movie. He’s willing to use lima beans and peas to work on his problem, but not corn.

After skating, Bernadette and Penny are talking about how horrible it was. Penny says the worst part was that people saw them leaving with them. Then you see Leonard and Wallowitz extremely happy about how well it went, their killer movies, and their boogie zone. They’re even wearing sequins and headbands. They walk into the apartment, and Sheldon has covered the floor in marbles to symbolize his formula. Penny and Leonard fall on their coccyx(s), and Bernadette realizes that it’s been at least three days since Sheldon slept. She uses science to force him to realize that he needs to go to sleep. When he says he doesn’t want to go to bed, she starts counting to three. After one, he goes. Penny and Leonard are asleep when a creepy laugh wakes them up. It’s the Joker from Batman. It creeps Leonard out, but he paid $3 for it. The call is about Sheldon. He’s escaped and is terrorizing the village. Penny tells him to go and have fun. Leonard finds him in a kids’ ball pit. The size ratio was too small, and he needed bigger carbon atoms. Sheldon refuses to leave, and starts hiding in the balls. Leonard goes after him, and he keeps popping up and “Bazinga”ing him.

Sheldon wakes Leonard and Penny up standing over their bed. He apologizes, and lets them know that Leonard’s cellphone is off. Leonard says he knows, he turned it off because they wanted privacy. Sheldon mentions that it didn’t work too well. He then tells them that he’s figured out the problem. It’s not the formula. He figured out how to figure it out. Penny tells Leonard that she knows she told him that she could handle his roommate, but she can’t and they have to break up. Sheldon has decided to work in a menial job to get his creative juices going – just like Einstein. He then leaves, but has a parting comment about how the snoring is better when they sleep on the side.

Penny says that Leonard doesn’t snore, and Sheldon says “I know, I wasn’t talking about him.” Leonard says a quick told you so. At the employment office, Sheldon says that he wants a menial job, like the interviewers. She thanks him for noticing – she was menial employee of the month. They start talking positions. He likes the idea of construction, but doesn’t know what sheetrock is. A floral delivery person is shot down, because he doesn’t drive. She asks what his last job was, and he tells her. She heads off for security. At the Cheesecake Factory, Sheldon shows up in an apron and starts bussing tables. He gives an explanation to Penny, and she’s just flabbergasted. Bernadette takes the whole thing in stride. Penny can’t believe they just gave him a job there. He says they didn’t, because he doesn’t need to get paid, he just grabbed a tub and started. When Penny points out that she’s not a busboy, he agrees with her, and starts waiting tables. The guys show up and he handles their orders perfectly. Penny gets upset. Then you hear a crash. Sheldon has dropped his tray, and suddenly he’s figured out what’s wrong with how he’s been working on his formula. He leaves. Penny stops him and asks him about the mess. “I don’t work here.” It’s Disco Night again. You see Raj and Wallowitz at the rink. Wallowitz is skating in neon pink spandex pants and you hear “One Night in Bangkok” in the background. Raj says he’s on a cloud, and they start spinning each other and doing the Saturday Night Fever poses.

We also got a final shot of the ball pit with Sheldon “bazinga”ing Leonard.

Giggles all around on this one.

What did you think of this week’s episode?

Comment below!

Be sure to become a fan of The TV Duchess on Facebook! Or follow me on Twitter (@TVDuchess)!

[Via http://tvduchess.wordpress.com]

The Two disease

2010-02-02T07:30:00.000+02:00

“Hey take my picture” said my friend. I clicked. After some time he ran to other place and asked me again the same. I was not irritated but was confused “is he here to take the picture only? If he wanted to do this he should have gone to a photo studio those people give much better background”. Now people are more interested in taking picture at that point and not seeing it after they go home. I don’t get there state of mind they lose the moment at that place and then regret that thing. I still remember when I used to go with my parents they used to make sure the reel the camera is new and also the battery. And the whole 15 days trip used to get over in that one reel of camera. I agree those days the camera used to expensive as compared to now. Now I have also seen people taking picture of the bride and groom in their marriage. When there is no place left for the Photographer whom they called. And yea those people delete the picture the very next day. I don’t get a point why people try to spoil the moment where they can enjoy and be the other side been shot in the picture with bride and groom. I call this disease call as mear-pic-lo-too.

People try to find something which they can put as a Facebook status message. When people go on a trip they try to think what all can I put up as my facebook sm and how could I make it more funner. This disease I call as sm-forgeto-phobia.

There are many more disease coming up like twitterify and you-me-tube. People I request you live like Human not like a machine. As we human tell the machine what are doing what have we done.

PS: this is not intended to hurt anyone. I am not sorry if it does. But ya I am also into these diseases Please Help !!!! .

[Via http://arjitgupta.wordpress.com]

3 Facebook settings you should know

2010-01-31T15:52:00.000+02:00

1st of all i like facebook and i have always limited the amount of stuff i throw online and cheked my privacy settings.

So i dont like the conspiracy theory psychotic panic generating kinda people that spread garbage that we all are living in a big lie. Well if you don’t like something then do something about it !

And if somone is concerned about his or hers privacy and suddently realizes that until now he wasnt doing the right things to protect himself, here is a very nice New York Times article that explains the basics of it

http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/01/20/20readwriteweb-the-3-facebook-settings-every-user-should-c-29287.html?em

it also provides links to other articles, a online petition from ACLU American Civil Liberties Union

https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageNavigator/CN_Facebook_Privacy_Petition

and you can also file a complaint even if you are not american because facebook is an american company , you can do so here

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en

Well i have done all of the above except complaining because i was always aware that Facebook uses a advertisement based business model and needs to make a living from posting user tailored and directed advertisements.

How would facebook ever survive as a service, a free( tax-free) service without using money? well you try and manage online accounts of more than 200 milion users without money. If you succeed you will have all my respect and all our gratitude for providing a facebook looking/standard achieveing solution with no fees and no advertisements.

Untill that happens im ok with facebook as it is

[Via http://alincostin.wordpress.com]

Twitter and Facebook Wedding

2010-01-31T07:50:00.000+02:00

Talk about your life being an open (face)book and how you could be tweeting your life away…I came across this wedding video on Youtube where just after the couple have exchanged their vows and are married, they both whip out their mobile devices to update their status on their social networking sites!

I don’t know if that’s cute or sad…

One wonders what their friends will hear of next…what they did on their honeymoon, their first quarrel, what they feel about the in-laws, etc, etc…Talk about how new media is so entwined in one’s life!

[Via http://blogscapes.wordpress.com]

3 Financial Dangers of Social Media

2010-01-30T15:52:00.000+02:00

Anyone who doubts the power of social media to affect finances need look no further than the example of Kansas City Chiefs football player Larry Johnson.

The all-pro running back cost himself $213,000, and ultimately a job, by posting anti-gay slurs on the micro-blogging service Twitter — in 140 characters or less, of course.

Career trouble is just one way a badly managed social media presence can hit your pocketbook. Following are three areas where social media could damage your financial life, and how to avoid such pitfalls.

Employment

Andy Beal, CEO of the social media monitoring platform Trackur.com, says jobseekers should assume potential employers will do a Google search of candidates’ names. Social media profiles typically appear near the top of the search page.

If you have questionable pictures or posts on a public profile, take them down or make the profile private to avoid trouble.

Also, steer clear of negative talk about a prospective employer on any social media platform, Beal says. Many companies monitor mentions of their brand throughout the Web, he says.

He cites the case of a Twitter user who posted about a new job offer from Cisco, but expressed doubt about “the daily commute” and “hating the work.” A Cisco employee noticed the tweet and demanded to know the name of the user’s hiring manager.

Even employees who think their jobs are safe can sabotage themselves by being too honest online about their personal lives, or by posting feelings regarding a boss, client, co-worker or company for whom they work.

“We’ve seen a lot of cases of people publishing status updates that have gotten them in trouble,” says Justin Smith, founder and editor in chief of Inside Facebook. ”People have said things that have caused problems with their boss because of what they said about their work or because they’ve shared some other kind of private information about work online.”

Caroline McCarthy, a staff writer at CNET News, says the best defense against such mistakes is to use plain old common sense. Remember, anything that appears on the Web is just a screenshot away from spreading quickly, despite the best efforts of social media users to keep it private.

Debt Collection

Social media has become a key tool for collection agencies trying to track down debtors, says Michelle Dunn, CEO of the American Credit and Collections Association and author of “Do’s and Don’ts of Online Collections Techniques.”

“If they don’t have a good phone number or the mail’s being returned, a lot of them use Facebook to find out if they have a different address or their employment information,” Dunn says.

Many bill collectors who think they’ve found a debtor on a social media site will keep an eye on that individual’s online presence, Dunn says.

“They don’t necessarily have to post anything to them; they just watch what that person is posting,” she says.

Setting a social media profile to allow anyone — not just friends — to look at postings can make your profile a particularly rich source of information, she says.

“People post things about if they’ve gotten a new home or a new vehicle,” Dunn says. “People just post such private things about their lives, and the whole world is watching.”

Privacy laws should preclude a collections professional from contacting and humiliating you on your social media page, Dunn says. However, some debt collectors violate those legal and ethical boundaries and assume false identities as a means of getting information, she says.

Scams

Social media sites ask for, and often get, a large amount of personal information from users. Unfortunately, identity thieves may use that information to perpetuate scams, especially if you use personal information when creating security passwords, McCarthy says.

“If you have a public Facebook profile that gives your birth date and your parents’ names and that kind of thing, they can provide the answers to security questions that your bank might have on its Web site,” she says.

Even if your profile is private, identity thieves may find other ways to get your information, Beal says.

“We see spammers, we see hackers, we see people trying to sell products using fictitious profiles,” he says. “There was a study done a few years ago where one group created a specific fictitious profile and the number of people that accepted their friend request … was pretty high.”

For this reason, be careful about adding social networking “friends” you don’t know in real life, says Beal.

“Social networking is not a popularity contest,” says Beal. “I don’t add anyone to Facebook or LinkedIn unless I know them.”

And remember, just because a social media site asks for information doesn’t mean you have to give it, Beal says.

Finally, McCarthy recommends never sending money to someone who asks for it over a social media service. Smith says that there have been reports of scammers hijacking accounts and posing as friends.

by Claes Bell

Thursday, January 28, 2010provided by Copyrighted, Bankrate.com. All rights reserved.

[Via http://elliekravets.wordpress.com]

Lady Ga-Ga or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Facebook

2010-01-30T07:30:00.000+02:00

The western world ended quite suddenly.

The news, and pictures, about Lady Ga-Ga actually being a man, were first reported by Steve Jobs as he presented Apple’s new iPlot gadget at a secret location.

127 journalists immediately tweeted the story , and it was soon re-tweeted by 13,068 followers.

The tweets were automatically converted 1675,042 LinkedIn notification which turned into automatic 300,000 WordPress Updates.

Than Google picked the news up and sent alerts to 1,020,068 Lady Ga-Ga followers and 1,002,900,3 day traders.

However, the big problem started as the new automatic “Google Alert” to “FaceBook comments” mechanism kicked in.

Since Facebook comments are automatically generting Tweeter alerts ,a vicious positive feedback cycle was created.

Tweeter->LinkedIn->WordPress->Google->Facebook->Tweeter.

Soon, 95% of the computing power of the western world was targeted at breaking the (false) news to the same people again and again.

When New York lost its electric power, due to the high consumption by data center. Google decided to cancel Google wave and create a super algorithm to solve the problem.

They took five of their Nobel prize winners, who have been working on JavaScript optimizations, and asked them to solve the problem.

Google Geniuses quickly realized the problem is similar to solving the “ipartite graphs with no induced cycle of length > 6″ problem, but just when they were ready to solve it, the network on their Android t-Mobile crashed. The only person to hear about Amazon’s EC2 explosion was President Obama, with his secure Blackberry.

As San Francisco,Tel Aviv, Rome and London lost all electric power the mob started rioting the food supplies. Unfortunately they starved after two days because all of the food was organic.

Luckily , China was saved, as Google decided to block them, or vice versa.

[Via http://ophir.wordpress.com]

Social Media to the Rescue

2010-01-28T15:51:00.000+02:00

In the last few years, social media has been a controversial topic of conversation; but last week, it saved thousands of lives. Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti two weeks ago, millions of Twitterers, Facebook users, and even text messengers spread the word about the crisis. A charity was established that allows individuals to text a certain number and donate money to the relief efforts in Haiti. This charity alone has raised nearly 10 million dollars so far. Social media not only informed people about the crisis, but gave them a way to help. While several aspects of social media are accused for being more of a detriment than a benefit, it’s wonderful to witness the power of these networks providing help to those in need.

Link to Article

[Via http://sethhrogers.wordpress.com]

Why do we comment on Blogs!!!

2010-01-28T07:41:00.000+02:00

This morning I was going through this post, an Amazing post by Robert Bravery – http://is.gd/7cx5x

Robert had asked a question, why we comment on Blogs!! It seems an easy question, with may be simple, yet complex answers. But it’s a very important question.

Why?

Well, this is my version of the answer.

As far as I am concerned, I comment on blogs on topics of my interest. That includes anything written about Twitter, Facebook and majorly about Social Networking sites. ( Social Media is my Favorite ) There is a list of Bloggers (Amazing Bloggers) that I follow.

They have some amazing piece of art on their Blogs. The reason I mentioned art is, because its really amazing to go through their content and their views on various topics about Social Media, Blogging World and Social Networking.

Following is the list that I follow :

- Author: Robert Bravery – http://www.integralwebsolutions.co.za/Blog.aspx

- Author : Amybeth – http://researchgoddess.wordpress.com/

- Author: Rick Mans – http://dontmindrick.com/

- Author: Darren Rowse – http://www.problogger.net/

- Author : Naomi Dunford – http://ittybiz.com/about/

- Author : Ileane Smith – http://bloggingwire.com/podcast/

- Author: Daniel Scocco – http://www.dailyblogtips.com/

- Author: Hesham Zebida – http://www.famousbloggers.net/

The list goes on and on…. But it’s just an amazing experience to follow them, and read their posts.

Your list could be different, and you might also have different reason to comment on Blogs.

At the end of the day, it’s all about sharing Views, comments, knowledge to the Blogging world out there.

Looking forward to know your views on the same and also to know why you comment or don’t comment to Blogs.

Regards

Rambling Recruiter

[Via http://ramblingrecruiter.wordpress.com]

10 social networking tools for fashion professionals.

2010-01-26T15:37:00.000+02:00

Web2.0 toolbox for fashion professionals: 10 social networking tools which could be effectively used for professional networking in fashion industry.

Social networking became a fact of life and it offers a huge potential for professional networking.

The topic of this post is selection of the best way to use social networking site by a fashion professional for self promotion.

This posting is not an overview of social networking and blogging sites in general, there are plenty of such very comprehensive and thorough overviews on the web today and there is no need for another “dissertation” on the topic.

It is, however, a common sense overview of online social networking tools for fashion professionals whose social networking experience and web experience overall could range from nonexistent to some use of social networks as a personal hobby.

Thus the focus is: services applicable for

“real people”, not Internet geeks who ” know everything”.
fashion professionals who want to promote themselves on the web in order to get a job, expand customer base or just advance or expand personal/fashion brand.

criteria for selection of social networking services to be included here:

criteria #1: all of them must be genuinely free: no obligatory charge, no mandatory service fees, no cost for basic service.

Thus , all services included in this list are basically free. There may be some “for fee” advanced features, however. In some cases fees for these “for fee advancements ” are priced so moderately and they are so effective that it makes perfect sense to consider such “for fee” upgrades (Flickr Pro would be a good example), but this list includes only sites which offer sufficiently good service in their free level.

criteria #2: all of them are easy to use: no special training needed, no unreasonable extra time for handling and maintaining account.

well…to be clear you cannot find 100% effortless services on the web. All services would pose some challenge and require some time which you have to spend to get a result. My criteria is that results obtained from a web2.0 service far outweigh amount of efforts and time spent on it. However, each of you can judge it for yourself because each of us has different understanding of what our time and efforts are worth.

In anyway, all services included in the list are fairly easy to use. Practical standard for this ” fairly easy to use” criteria is that all services included in this list are intuitive enough to work with without buying a book or a manual. You are still encouraged to use web based tutorials and, first of all, read carefully “help” pages and all documentation of services. In the meantime, all services selected for this posting are reasonably simple and need no “rocket science” to learn.

criteria #3: they are really necessary.

All services included in the list are designed for practical use with a purpose of promoting your professional agenda, marketing, personal branding and self promotion. Some tools included in this list are intended for professional networking (LinkedIn , Fashion Industry Network) but some of them (Facebook, Twitter) are social networking sites which could be used for professional networking but were not originally designed for such purpose. My criteria is to include in the list only services which are intended for professional networking or services which are potentially efficient and effective for professional networking .

method of classification:

tools are listed in the order of their importance as I see it according to criteria listed above
I separated tools into three groups :
- must haves
- discretionary tools
- tools to consider with caution
each service included in this list will have a special overview. The purpose of this post is a “big picture” , a context in which you can see hierarchy of services and potential of their joint usage.
all “how to use” , “advantages” and “disadvantages” notes are limited to the potential in fashion professional networking. In other words, the purpose of this comparison is not to compare these services from all possible points of view, but from professional networking point of view only.

Must have tools:

Tool # 1: WordPress.com

Genuinely free, state of the art blogging/hosting platform which is the best free social networking service around.

website features include :

excellent built-in statistics and analytics – counters of hits and visitors, showing referral links, where your visitors came from, breaking down data posting by posting ( separate statistics for each posting ) and much more
features which allow you to include all necessary metadata when you post your images to make images more searchable on the web
very effective tagging of the posts, a feature which increases traffic on the blog significantly
allows multiple pages (although additional pages are limited, they are still extremely useful)

how to use: you can post your portfolio with your commentary, make a professional blog with your vision of fashion industry, or combine those two making it essentially a substitute of your personal website

Tool # 2: LinkedIn

Superb professional networking tool which allows you to present your resume.

Disadvantages: it does not have any portfolio presentational features, so it works the best only for fashion professionals who already have visuals and portfolio posted somewhere else and can include a link to portfolio from LinkedIn profile.

How to use: create account with a resume and all required features, get endorsements and recommendations as well as participate in professional groups. This will kill two birds with one stone: keep you up to day on what is going on in your niche of the industry and will give you necessary professional exposure. Features such as “my website”, “my portfolio” , “my company” offer you opportunity to create outbound links to your portfolio website and/or your personal website . You have to have them to make the most of Linked In membership. This problem could be solved quickly and with no unnecessary expenses by using WordPress.com blog/blogs (read the portion about wordpress.com).

Tool # 3: Flickr

Flickr originated as online photo management and photo sharing site but it definitely grew into a phenomenally powerful and easy to use portal for sharing any visuals including illustration , art and video. Unlike LinkedIn, Flickr is not intended as a professional tool so you have to “reinvent” Flickr to be effective in your professional networking efforts . Good news is that Flickr could be easily used as a professional networking tool because it has all necessary features for that:

on Flickr you can

create and maintain contacts
you can participate in groups by interest and make your visuals available on the web ( photos of your designs, or your styling photos as well as images of your fashion illustration projects)
collect endorsements and testimonials
organize your Flickr visuals in albums and collections and use it as an extended portfolio when you need it.

Your visuals from Flickr are easy to integrate in a variety of other social networking services

how to use : put your portfolio on the site, organize it in collections and submit into relevant groups. Make a link to your Flickr page from your linked in account and WordPress.com blog.

Tool # 4: Fashion industry network: is a “fashion industry LinkedIn”. Despite the fact that it is less powerful than LinkedIn , due to the very fact that it is strictly fashion oriented makes it a must have for a fashion professional. Also, since it is genuinely free, it is essential for any fashion professional to have a FIN account. This service is easy to use, easy to maintain and it could be extremely useful for fashion professional networking.

how to use: FIN offers all essential professional networking tools ( groups , contacts ,résumé , links to portfolio and personal websites) and ,what is very important, you are updated via email with news about all relevant contacts which makes networking process efficient and less time consuming.

Create account , sign up for relevant groups , post your resume and links to your portfolio ( wordpress.com blog , Flickr gallery), participate in relevant discussions.

useful discretionary tools to consider if you have time and interest

Tool # 5: Blogger.com

Another state of the art genuinely free and very easy to use (easier than wordpress.com) blogging service.

disadvantages:

there are no embedded statistics and analytics tools (however, you can set up Google Analytics which allows you to track statistics but it requires special efforts while wordpress.com has that functionality built-in)
tags for your posts on blogger.com are much less effective than tags on wordpress.com.

Obviously, Blogger.com is an excellent service that has its own advantages and it makes perfect sense to have both wordpress.com and blogger.com powered blogs/websites. The thorough side by side comparison of blogger.com and wordpress.com could be found on the web . My commentary is limited in scope by application in fashion professional networking only.

Tool # 6: Squidoo

Very interesting concept which allows you to create a hybrid of a blog and a small website ( they call it “lens”) which could be an excellent hub incorporating links and blurbs of all your other networking instruments. You can have all updates from your blogs, slideshows from you Flickr account in one place.

Squidoo lens could be an excelled networking tool of its own because Squidoo is a community and any lens is appealing not only to web in general but to relevant groups and audiences of Squidoo members.

Squidoo lens could be at the very least an excellent traffic driver to your blog or Flickr gallery, or, at its best, an excelled networking tool by itself.

Disadvantage of Squidoo is that this service offers extremely limited control of appearance of your lens.

Tool # 7: Slideshare.com

Very interesting concept which is a sort of “Slideshow Flickr” which allows you to post your PPT presentation or PDF on the web. It is a relatively new service and I personally did not have time yet to use it effectively , however I am going to do so. So far it seems that a slideshow posted on the slide share is very visible on the web and that the slideshow is an excellent vehicle for a fashion portfolio. So, two plus two together it seems like a promising service which yet has to be tested in action for fashion networking.

Tool # 8: Facebook

Most commonly used social networking service, could be an effective social networking tool if used properly. Options for creating your own page (not just a Facebook profile), creating groups and participating in groups offer some potential for professional networking.

However, it is very difficult (although, not impossible) to get through Facebook “noise” with a meaningful professional message, so I would consider a Facebook page (do not confuse with a Facebook profile) as a secondary and optional way to reinforce your professional networking efforts.

Tool # 9: Twitter

Is a very effective micro blogging and social networking tool of keeping your audience informed about your new updates. As I see it, Twitter is effective when/if you have already established an audience that maintains interest in what you do. It is hardly a starting point for a professional networking and may be considered as another supplemental tool which could amplify your overall professional networking efforts.

tools to consider with caution:

Tool # 10 Style portfolios.

Advantages:

Excellent concept of fashion portfolio site where portfolios are posted across of fashion industry niches and fairly well categories by these niches.

Placing together jobseekers and prospective employers creates excellent potential for both.

Disadvantages: it is not really free. Even worse than that, it is unpredictable in its policy: “DURING OUR GRAND RE-LAUNCH, ALL PORTFOLIOS ARE FREE! WE WILL CONTACT YOU WHEN THE FREE PERIOD ENDS. CANCEL AT ANY TIME.” What this practically means is that at anytime the site owners can approach you with a bill and you will have to either take off your portfolio (to which you possibly pointed a lot of links) or you will have to pay a fee.

[Via http://onlinefashionstudio.net]

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do!

2010-01-26T07:47:00.000+02:00

Like the title says, breaking up is hard to do! For many of us, breaking up is one of the hardest things we have ever had to do. Some people are pro’s at it and can break up as easily as tieing their shoelaces. I’m certainly no pro at breaking up. I always second guess my decision and wonder if I’m just being too picky or critical. I ALWAYS feel guilty after the deed has been done but sometimes, there is just no other choice. If it’s not working out and your not happy then it just HAS to be done. Still, it’s just so hard to do! I mean, sure it was great at first. Everything was new and exciting. Unexplored territory if you will. That anticipation of what will happen next was always exciting but as time went on, you start to notice little things. You try to ignore them and live with the little annoyances and succeed for a bit, but after a while you just can’t do it any longer. The little things over time start to become bigger and bigger until you can’t take it anymore and you have to break it off. Still, it’s just so hard to do!

No dear reader, I am not publically breaking off my relationship with my wife nor my mistress. Wait, that came out wrong! I’m definitely NOT breaking up with my mistress. Wait….I don’t have a mistress so how could I break up with her? Oh hell, you know what I mean!

I am having a breakup of another sort. Yes dear reader, I am vowing to limit myself to playing just ONE game on Facebook. *GASP* This is so hard for me to do!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t take this personal Cafe World, My Town, Island Paradise, and Tiki Farm! I have enjoyed every minute we have spent together and I have no regrets. It’s just time for me to concentrate on other things during my day. I have noticed that we are spending TOO much time together and I must devote more time to a few other things. I enjoy spending time on my blog and my friends’ blogs more than I enjoy playing with you. Please don’t blame this on my blog. Remember, I had my blog well before I started spending time with all of you games. Blogging was and still is one of my favorite things and I just can’t keep up with my blog AND you time sucking games. My blog or you games have to go and I have to choose what makes me happier. That choice is my blog and reading my friends’ blogs!

The other big reason I am for now keeping a secret because I have a blog post coming about it very soon. Please be strong and try to understand.

To Cafe World: We have cooked up some pretty mean shit over the past few months in Gary’s Cafe! Peking Duck was always our favorite. We served virtual customers left and right and even virtually employed some of our friends and relatives. Every time I cook I will think of the fun times we shared together! It’s been grand!

To Island Paradise and Tiki World: Thank you virtual islands for making me feel like I virtually owned my own little island in the middle of the pacific where I planted and harvested various crops for my eating pleasure. Thank you for all the virtual money you supplied me for these virtual crops so that I may buy virtual Tiki’s, comfy virtual chairs, virtual radio’s to virtually listen too, virtual coolers filled with virtual ice and virtual cold drinks, etc etc etc. You will be missed!

To My Town: Although we have not known each other long, we certainly had some fun times together. We built virtual houses and streets together in the hopes of making one hell of a kick ass town. Unfortunately, I will never see that happen. You keep on building without me and I sincerely hope you all the best in becoming a virtual New York or LA.

To Yoville: You were my first love Yoville and STILL my favorite. Because we have been through so much together, YOU are the lucky game I have chosen to continue playing. I love you Yoville!

I would like to end this post on a happier note so please enjoy this little video from Mr. Neil Sedaka!

[Via http://wideworldofgary.wordpress.com]

Weekly Must-Reads: January 24

2010-01-24T23:02:00.000+02:00

A list of the essential articles that I posted to Twitter from January 17, 2010 – January 23, 2010. This week’s categories: Crisis in Haiti; Nonprofit Governance & Strategy; Internet, Social Media & Fundraising; Israel & Jewish Nonprofits; and Israel Economy & Finance.

Tizku LeMitzvot [May you continue to merit doing good deeds],

Shuey

Crisis in Haiti

RT @fundermentalist: New post: Where to give for Haitian relief http://twurl.nl/kak4nz

Nonprofit Governance & Strategy

New blog post: “Dear Mr. Foundation, Please Reject My Application.” http://ow.ly/YUFM

->@eJPhil: NPO investment committees want more direction & accountability from investment consultants. http://ow.ly/Xrwt

How an org can conduct a Self-Evaluation on a shoestring budget (Good tools, tip sheet & slides). http://ow.ly/XVoN via @LJacobwith

College president receives %-based bonus of money he raised, sparking controversy http://ow.ly/Z9mF via @Philanthropy // Good incentives?

Internet, Social Media & Fundraising

->@nonprofitorgs: 5 Simple (and Fun) Ways to Promote Nonprofits on FourSquare http://ow.ly/XroS

If it’s the right tool for you…10 Great Tips for Facebook Fan Pages. http://ow.ly/XrBc via@lblumenthal @ppcnyc

Looking to measure ROI from Twitter? 5 great sites to measure your Twitter reach.http://ow.ly/XUMA via @guykawasaki

RT @nptechblogs: ->@socialbrite: 12 steps for compelling Facebook Page by @johnhaydon http://ow.ly/XUQJ // Practical info, not general advice

RT @AlisonRapping: Harvard Study: 30 Key Findings on How The CEO Engages With Social Media. http://ow.ly/XVj0 via @davidcoethica@irenemalin

->@eJPhil: “Reaching Donors in 2010: Old vs. New Ways” & specifically, what’s best for Jewish donors. http://ow.ly/YjO2

RT @johnhaydon: Are Online Vote-for-Me Contests A Good Idea? A guest post on @kanter blog. http://ow.ly/ZagQ // Personally, I’m not in favor

RT @askdebra: The real cost of social media by@dannybrown http://ow.ly/ZMDa // Numbers might vary, but principle is true – it ain’t free

Israel & Jewish Nonprofits

Donations to Israel Foreign Min. for Haiti aid NOT tax-exept. Expert: Why is gov competing with NPOs? http://ow.ly/YUul

Fighting the Handout Culture: What solutions available when 50% of eligibles for free food don’t take? http://ow.ly/ZY9U #Israel

RT @religion_state: -> @eJPhil: Is Start Up Nation Also the Big Lesson for Jewish Nonprofit Sector? by @GaryWexler http://ow.ly/Yu1P

Israel Economy & Finance

RT @Israel_News: Bank of Israel will raise interest rate to 3.25% by end-year (current rate is 1.25%). http://ow.ly/XrkL

The best test to judge Israel’s economic health: The Beer Index (it slipped into the negative).http://ow.ly/XAqz

RT @Israel_News: Globes: Shekel-dollar exchange rate at 13-month low. Dollar now trading at 3.689. http://ow.ly/Y7zK

Israel Gov Ministries now on Twitter. Answers back almost immediately! http://ow.ly/Yvrt The list: http://ow.ly/YvHq

Israel is poorest of OECD countries (if it joins). 9 recommendations from OECD, incl. cutting child allowances. http://ow.ly/YUz8

[Via http://nonprofitbanker.wordpress.com]

First round conclusion (w. vietnam bracket)

2010-01-23T15:44:00.000+02:00

I want to start an app on facebook. It lets your plauge farmville farms with locusts or whatever other farm distroying thing you want. It ONLY happens if someone hits you with a farmville update that clogs up your news feed. It will keep my new feed condensed to just normal old stalking…AND punish those that are more concerned with telling me about their lonely brown cows.

Before we start this…You want to know what the worst possible headline a man could read. ”Woman Gets Pregnant Through Blowjob”

And with that its time to kick off the second half of the first round.

I’m your announcer Mitch Richmond….and am happy to be with you during day two of the tournament.

We kick it off in Western Vietnam with Kenny Powers throwing out the first pitch!!!

How the fuck do i get roped into this…a first pitch REALLY!?!? No baseball is being played…no ball will be used…what the fuck..this is the most unprofessional thing i’ve ever been involved in(mutters under his breath)

(sighs) Right down the plate…for some fucking reason…

Ok lets get this over so i can get paid (you hear crinkles and a pop and realize he has just opened a beer and pork rinds)

Match 1: Dead Celebs Vs. New Years

What’s this?!?! a treat for the fans…looks like we are re-creating thriller!!! Oh wait…..its just Michael Jackson before he died…that’s sad…and disapointing…(the fans quickly die down as they realize mj is just waving) For the first time in his life Jackson is upstaged….BUT WAIT….THERE’S MORE……LIFE BEYOND THE GRAVE!!!!! Zombie Billy Mays bursts through the curtains and the crowd goes fucking APE SHIT….he’s throwing out many of his products…sure to change lives…..

Mich Richmond: If Billy Mays was alive the crisis in Haiti would be over….all the houses would already be mighty puttied back together…end of fucking story.

Billy Signs a few pairs of breasts and blows a line off a stripers ass *smack* billy gives it a quick spank and flips over the top ropes

Jackson is wearing his Harry Potter/court attire and just keeps blowing kisses

Suddenly some smoke and lasers start……the room gets dark….10…9…8..7…6…5…4…3…2..1..!!!!!2010!!!!! Pyrotechnics go off and “tonights gonna be a good night” starts playing from the Black Eyed Peas…and drunkards start stumbling through the curtains half dancing…half making out.

Jerrad eats a hand full of chips…throws the rest at the dead celebs…and then passes out…this is going to be interesting…

NYE participant Ant starts with a running clothesline that takes down both Jacko and Mays….The crowd ROARS with approval…while ant is celebrating though he gets taken down by “Godzilla” who popped out of the other side of the ring and litterally eats him….Tough break ant…that’s what you get for looking so delicious to women all the time..

Pox picks up the daybead and annihalates godzilla. put just then!!!!

fwap! two Hercules Hooks slam into pox and billy mays throws him into the crowd…..He then says…BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE….he Zorbies up the blood and rings it into Rudy’s eyes…blinding him….and without rudy’s knowledge he had a mighty switch installed into his heart….Billy states “this is an offer to die for” flips the switch and the defective product not only shuts off rudy’s heart but burns him.

JMU mike slams two Monster and Vodkas and then jams the empty cans into Billy’s eyes blinding him….Billy is bleeding profusely….

He does the unthinkable and hocks another persons product by putting on the (bullshit) HD vision glasses…solving all of his problems…

Mike is astonished and its about that time Jackson ties their wrists together and starts cutting him to ribbons with a switch blade all while inexplicably changing into a orange leather coat

“that’s why he’s the greatest performer ever to live….or die folks” Richmond states

As they start to celebrate some unexpected music starts over the speakers

“I am a real american” starts BLARING over the loud speakers…..WHAT’S THIS!?!?!?

ALL 5′0″ nothing of crass and blue singlet with a purple overcoat appear….THE FANS GO FUCKING NUTS…

ITS LAST YEAR CINDERELLA….STEEEEEEEVE!

She’s waiving her same old flag….just like before…stumbling to the ring…She hands her flag to Hacksaw jim duggan and executes the coat check dive on both MJ and Mays….

only problem….Steve is a small lady….and the celebs catch he in mid air…They both slam her to the ground….mays shoves mighty putty in her nose and mouth….it hardens and the match is over.

“OOOOOOOH, A NEAR UPSET BY NYE 2009…but mays and jacko show why they are a top seed”

Winner: Dead Celebs by multiple homocide

….meanwhile in a pool in Saigon

the second match of the W. ‘Nam bracket is set to go…in a public…pool…that’s right…this match will be decided by marco polo

FFX Evo Vs. BB Incident

They call the coin toss for who is going to be ‘it’

These are of course…”hardcore marco polo rules” meaning that while “fishy out of water is legal” the people being sought out can retailiate….of course as a standard hardcore match..the fish out of water has access to a harpoon gun…and also the people being chased…if they touch the person who is ‘it’ can inflict any damage they wish with total immunity.

BB loses the toss and finds out he is going to be it this puts BB at a distinct advantage seeing as though the BB incident only includes 3 people and one can’t run….FFX Towers EVO has a shit load of people…but will not be able to use sight.

The match starts right away…

THUNK!

“Oh dramatic starts as Rudy as a fish out of water eliminates a FFX EVO team member with a dart to the head”

SPLASH!

“and he makes it back in before the “outta water” call”

Marco? …POLO!

POP POP POP….Rudy has had both limbs wounded and is now laboring back to the shallow end…

BRAAAAAASSSSSSH! Ant has caught a FFX team member and slamed them all the way to the bottom of the pool

Marco? ….POLO

you hear alot of furious splashing (its obviously pox and his water wings)

POP POP….Pox is down a water wing and is swimming in circles…

OHHHH out of nowhere a FFX team member wanders into rudy’s clutches…kind of like watching a fly land in a spider’s web…a quick sweep and four punches and they are out…

THWUNK!!! Another FFX team member is down as ant fires the bolt and it decapitates the opposing team member he then dives in and palms two heads driving them to the bottom…defeating two more….but we all know water is ant’s weakness…he breaks his neck on the bottom and is out…

Finally it is Rhondie Vs. Pox….Rhondie is wandering around the pool an easy target…both hating water and staying way too visible…scared to get her hair wet…who would have thought the pre-match relaxer would come back to haunt her???? She just wanted to look good for the match.

Marco? BAMMM! Pox connects and downs the last foe.

Winner: BB INCIDENT by drownings, decapitations and so forth

Match 3: 617 Vs. Cruisin for a bruisin

Cruisin for a bruisin are all backstage…hung over…and trying to get readjusted to land…

617….rookie of the year candidates are pumped!

Wasting NO time… “hanging tough” by New Kids on the Block starts playing as Marissa and Linds start executing beautifully synchronized fist pumps…

Cruisin stumbles through the curtain…Rudy pukes….JMU Mike and Megabear are trying to pick up chicks with fake professions….Ant is hampered by a woman on his back…This looks like its going to be easy.

Add to the fact that this match is taking place on a moon bounce and things aren’t looking good.

Megabear states that “he teaches professional shooters how to shoot professionally” and immediately is taken down by a SWAT sniper who refutes the claim

JMU Mike is in tears as someone actually thought he was “doctor mike” and he failed to resessutate an injured civilian.

Pox is too busy throwing up in his snorkel to make it to the ring….

Its a pathetic sight really

BWAAAAH! Rudy is still throwing up…

that leaves it to ant…

he enters the ring and 617 time a jump sending a shockwave across the Moonbounce knocking down ant and his dance partner….

Their ferocity well documented….Marissa locks ant in a rear naked choke and Linds goes for the triangle choke on his dance partner…

This match was over before it started…

Winner: 617

Last match…215 Vs. Key West II

Rudy and the AL are blacked out and don’t make it…so gays from Duvall St. sub in. Too bad its a softball game…

“I guess this would have been the time for the first pitch…” states king of the obvious Mitch Richmond

Its about that time a limp wristed pitch leads to Kates knocking a foul ball into his nose…

A few pitches later and its a solo homer

Drew steps up…its all the same…

Christmas is drinking a strawberry mojito on 3rd and can’t seem to be bothered fielding the ball…also…you expect him to break his nails…pssssh

Ray is getting ready for his latest stage show and could care less to stop the fly ball heading towards him…he misses the ball….but spills NONE of his martini…

They call the game after the first inning…but Key West II puts on a stunning rendition of “Single Ladies”

Winner: 217

Second round brackets will be announced on monday….the tournament will be reorganized because i fucking feel like it…so read this shit so it doesn’t spoil it for you!

[Via http://nocturnalrudy.wordpress.com]

Is it 'High Noon' for Google, China?

2010-01-23T07:46:00.000+02:00

NEWS

Is it ‘High Noon’ for Google, China?

By Kevin Voigt, CNN

January 22, 2010 4:29 a.m. EST

Hong Kong, China (CNN) — Now that the big guns have waded into the public standoff between Google and China, who will be the next to blink?

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton made a pointed speech on Internet freedom, while Chinese press have labeled the American search engine “White House’s Google.”

The tit-for-tat continued Friday, with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posting a statement slamming Clinton’s speech as an inflammatory statement “that goes against truth and damages U.S.-Sino relations.”

Speaking to reporters on a conference call Thursday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said “in a reasonably short timeframe now, we will be making some changes” in China.

The public standoff between Google and China — over censorship rules, the hacking of Chinese dissidents’ Gmail accounts and a related cyberattacks on dozens of other U.S. companies — has been unprecedented.

“The fact that multiple very large corporations indicated they had all been victims of this … and many issued public statements and took a stand, that’s not something we’ve seen before,” said Eugene Spafford, a computer security specialist at Purdue University who has advised two U.S. presidents and numerous companies and government agencies.

“The most likely possibility is that Google will actually leave China and lose a few hundred million in revenue,” says Haim Mendelson, a professor of electronic business at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “From Google’s perspective, it better aligns what they say and what they do.”

Another possibility, Mendelson believes, would be a compromise where Google would no longer be required to self-censor search items on the Web — but Chinese censors could still block controversial topic searches such as those onTibet dissidents or the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual group through routers and local Internet service providers.

“But I can’t imagine there will be a compromise because of the impression that it will be yielding to pressure from Google, which is a sign of weakness,” Mendelson said.

Both Google and the Chinese government appeared to take steps Thursday to ratchet down the rhetoric in the dispute.

“Our business in China is today unchanged. We continue to follow their laws. We continue to offer censored results,” Schmidt said. “We’ve made a strong statement that we wish to remain in China.”

“The Google case should not be linked with relations between the two governments and countries; otherwise, it’s an over-interpretation,” said He Yafei, China’s vice foreign minister, at a press conference on Thursday.

Questions over the origins of the cyber attack — and whether it was directed by the Chinese government — are the most troubling of the case, Spafford said.

“Are they private citizens acting out of patriotism? Is it government operated? Or government tolerated?” Spafford said. “From Google’s point of view, it could be argued the Chinese government isn’t reining in their criminal element very well, even if they are living by the rules (in operating in China).”

[Via http://dominicstoughton.wordpress.com]

The Paradox and the Detox

2010-01-21T15:48:00.000+02:00

So I found this via @ScepticGeek and I think it is an interesting article. The author does make a point at the start that presenting this theory elegantly is a problem. I agree. This is a problem statement that needs to be up there straight. I am a near-victim of this situation. What’s going wrong with social media services?

Put simply, I think that each new social media service that we start using makes it harder to keep up with things in general. At first, the cornucopia of Web offerings seems really great and we start using them as soon as we hear about them. We’re exposed to lots of different people, new knowledge, and generally enjoy ourselves. Each new website seems like a shiny new toy. Sometimes we get caught up in the thrill in making new connections and our friend lists grow.

But it doesn’t seem to be like it used to be. People don’t seem to connect with each other as much or follow each other’s work.

I keep trying to relate Barry Schwartz’s book The Paradox of Choice to this phenomenon. It’s not a perfect fit, but I think there are some things to consider about this.The paradox of choice is that something that should make us feel happy and fulfilled (having great flexibility of choices in our lives) often leads to stress and anxiety. [Via A simple theory on why social media is losing its mojo | Broadcasting Brain - different thoughts about thinking differently]

I’d recommend reading the entire article for a full perspective.

On a personal note, I have been at loss to make sense of the social media services that I have signed up to. A few remain that make some sense. And here are a few thoughts on why I think so:

Most of the new services you may join would come recommended from a friend you already know on an existing service. A simple logic — social media services needs communities — they depend of folks to invite their friends. After a while, you join more services — and find the same people all over. What different are you going to talk about.
There is too much of fear-hype over privacy and security. For example, when I see a ‘new” service asking me to connect to Twitter or Facebook without using OAuth or something similar, I generally leave, without signing up. I love OAuth because it helps me keep my password counts to a minimum.
(As has been mentioned in the quoted article), there is sameness of content all over the place. A friend uses Tweetdeck and updates Twitter as well as Facebook. Another, shares Google Reader items, which are also posted as Tweets. Yesterday I read Rohit Bhargava’s article that said, “in just a few years we will reach a point where all the information on the Internet will double every 72 hours.” I think you will understand when I say I am not surprised.
I do not know how many people are asking this question, and if this is a question at all, but — to what end. There are these cartoons all over that talk of how social media has made us anti-social in quite a few respects — in meatspace (I like that term).
The other thing that has been irking me for a while is the amount of money and intellectual resources that are being “wasted” in developing even more similar services that are blurring differences. While ersonally don’t believe in spending trying to cool the earth, there are enough places where money could be put to good use — for profit.

There is more, much more. And while this is not a “Why Quit the-social-media-service-ending-with-r” kind of a post, it is a statement of stuff that has been going on in my head for a while. Phew!

[Via http://selaphor.wordpress.com]

Farmville Commercial Parody

2010-01-21T07:44:00.000+02:00

Facebook users either love or hate farmville.

What is Farmville?

FarmVille is a real-time farm simulation game developed by Zynga, available as an application on the social networking website Facebook. The game allows members of Facebook to manage a virtual farm by planting, growing and harvesting virtual crops, trees, and livestock.Since its launch in June 2009, FarmVille has become the most popular game application on Facebook with 73.8 million active users in January 2010.FarmVille started as a duplicate of the popular Farm Town on Facebook. – Source

If you’ve played farmville you’ll know how addictive and mindless the game is, stealing hours of your time waiting for fruit to be ready for harvest. If you’ve resisted the invitation to join the ever growing mob of farmers, you are still plagued by invites and farmville gifts from your network of friends. Here’s a hilarious look at farmville.

[Via http://icanbuyhappiness.wordpress.com]

Inbound Marketing - The Only Social Media Book You Need To Read This Year

2010-01-19T15:30:00.000+02:00

I just finished reading a great book on social media and I strongly recommend that anyone interested in social media and market. In fact, I would go so far to say that:

if you only read one book on Social Media this year, read Inbound Marketing!

The book is “Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs (The New Rules of Social Media)” by HubSpot co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. I am not the only one who is praising this book. Of the 67 reviews on Amazon since the book came out in October, 61 people rated the book as 5 stars out of five, 5 rated it as as 4 out of five and there’s just 1 contrarian moron.

Wikipedia describes inbound marketing as a style of marketing that focuses on getting found by the customer. According to the HubSpot website, Brian Halligan originally coined the term inbound marketing and which others have described as relationship marketing or permission marketing. On the other hand, traditional marketing or outbound marketing is the process by which companies find customers by advertising. The two types of marketing could not be further apart. One analogy in the book refers to the divide as “spending with your brain” (inbound) or “spending with your wallet” (outbound).

The book presents the all information in a very clear and concise manner – and each chapter includes real life examples and tips, and ends with a checklist of relevant to do items.

There are 4 main parts of the book:

Part 1 – Inbound Marketing: discusses how shopping has changed, asks whether your website is a marketing hub and whether you are worthy.
Part 2 – Get Found by Prospects: focuses on creating remarkable content, and getting found in the blogosphere, Google and social media. There is a very simple description of SEO (search engine optimization) along with hints for using pay-per-click and organic means to drive traffic to your website.
Part 3 – Converting Customers: talks about how to convert visitors into prospects, prospects into leads and leads into customers.
Part 4 – Make Better Decisions: describes how to make better marketing decisions, how to pick better marketing people and measure them, picking and measuring a PR agency and watching your competition

Not only did Brian and Dharmesh write a compelling book, their company lives what they preach. In addition to their corporate website and blog, they provide several great (and free) tools such as Website Grader and Twitter Grader. These tools provide a numerical score of how your website or Twitter account is performing along with suggestions on how to make improvements. They also have a related website called Inbound Marketing University. Inbound Marketing University is self-described as a “a free marketing retraining program for marketing professionals—as well as marketers between jobs—looking to gain new skills to get ahead in the competitive workforce.” The site provides marketing resources, webinars, news and a community forum. along with a series of 15 online/downloadable courses that will prepare you to take the Certified Inbound Marketing exam.

A free chapter from the book titled “Hiring in the DARC Ages” is available on the site. This is one of my most favorite chapters as it talks about the 4 key types of people you should be hiring – digital citizens with analytical chops, marketing reach and content creators. From my experience, many marketing teams need some serious overhauls to get people who understand and contribute in an age of inbound marketing and social media.

The authors conclude with a very strong call to action:

You have in your hands the playbook for getting found by your prospective customers and have no reason not to get started…now, today, this minute.

In the meantime, I found this Inbound Marketing 101 presentation provided by HubSpot Marketing on SlideShare and it presents a good overview of what is covered in the book. This should be enough to whet your appetite until you get a chance to run over to the book store and get your own copy (or read it on your Kindle/iPhone like I’m doing).

[Via http://tomhumbarger.wordpress.com]

Boring Days

2010-01-19T07:51:00.000+02:00

Okay i dunno, but the lastest days are (The boredom it’s still on), having a big rest from performing is getting me freaking bored! i wanna party! i wanna make something… haha, so if you wanna party and have a big time this thursday (and if you are in Bogotá) i’ll be @ Christian Hard B-day Bash

Check out the facebook event page, and go!

Have a nice day

Andy

[Via http://andyochoamusic.wordpress.com]

Charities :)

2010-01-17T15:50:00.000+02:00

Want to help? Well, thanks to the lovely technology of Facebook you can. A friend I’ve known since the age of about 6 started a charity when we graduated. His charity has made it to the top 100 out of 500,000 on a Facebook competition. Chase Community Giving is giving the winning charity 1 million dollars. Here are the charities I voted for and why: 1) Eyes on Africa Foundation- Jeff’s charity. I believe in what he can do. http://www.EyesOnAfricaFoundation.org 2) Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Inc.- My dad died of Pancreatic Cancer. Not enough is known about this type of cancer and it would be a God send for them to have money to research. http://www.pancan.org 3) To Write Love On Her Arms- Depression is always shunned. But the honest fact is that a LOT of people struggle with it. It’s real, let’s learn about it and how to help people with it. http://www.twloha.com 4)Manna Project International- My aunt and uncle work for this company and they have done some wonderful things for underprivileged children all over the world. I’m actually hoping to go on a trip with them this summer! http://www.mannaproject.org 5) I haven’t decided on my 5th vote yet. It will be a good one though. If you want to vote as well you can go to http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/top_100 Love

[Via http://potentiallypossible.wordpress.com]

A Future and a Hope for the UK's Christian Bookshops

2010-01-17T07:30:00.000+02:00

The call goes out to keep Jesus on the High Street

Today I’d like to offer my thanks to Rebecca Paveley for her superb write-up in Saturday’s Times outlining both the crisis facing and the future hope for the UK’s Christian bookshops: The call goes out to keep Jesus on the High Street.

In it, Rebecca highlights the ironic fact that whilst many are blaming the internet for the trade’s difficulties, it’s the internet that’s allowing us to campaign for the trade’s survival:

In Christian bookshops up and down the country books are being cleared from shelves. But this is no ordinary January sale — it is further evidence of a trade in turmoil after the travails suffered by the big secular booksellers such as Waterstone’s and Borders.

The Christian bookselling industry was hit before Christmas with news that its largest remaining chain, Wesley Owen, was going into administration. Of its 40 shops, 14 have been bought out, but the remaining 26 have not found buyers and some have already closed.

Booksellers fear another SPCK debacle, as when the well-known Christian bookseller collapsed between 2007 and 2009 amid acrimonious claims of mismanagement and employment tribunals.

Wesley Owen is the biggest but by no means the only Christian bookshop to have fallen in recent months — smaller chains of bookshops such St Andrew’s are splitting up, and scores of little, independently owned shops are quietly closing their doors for good.

Yet some staff and local Christians and clergy are not giving in easily. They have turned to the internet — which, ironically, is blamed by some for the trade’s downfall — to campaign for a future for Christian bookshops as churches on the high street.

The piece has already prompted some discussion on facebook after Eddie Olliffe posted a link, with questions about what and who Christian bookshops are for and what we should be stocking: are we here to serve local churches as resource centres? Or are we there to bridge the gap between church and community, community hubs providing a space where people can explore questions of faith and spirituality without feeling like they’ve wandered onto another planet?

Bookshops are not churches and I for one am not arguing for them to become churches. But can they be church outside of church: part of the Christian community that extends beyond the church buildings, Sunday services and house groups?

And what about our range of stock? Should we be focusing on books? Or should we be thinking more about being Christian retailers, majoring on cards, gifts, music and other items? Can we do both? How do we get the balance right? Can a bookshop without a café survive let alone thrive in the 21st Century?

My view — as summarised in the article — is that churches and bookshops need to work together. One of the reasons, I suspect, that some branches of Wesley Owen haven’t seen the support of local churches that others such as South Woodford and Walsall are receiving is that that rapport has never been there: the bookshops were stocked largely by decree of the former IBS-STL empire with its global ambitions and scaleouts driven by USA influences that mostly ignored local interest.

The challenge for all of us, it seems to me, is to think global but act local. Biblica were right in what they affirmed: it’s a global marketplace and we need to come to terms with what that implies; but they were wrong in what they denied: at street level, where bookshops operate, it’s a local marketplace and we need to serve our local communities. Shops that attempt to impose their own agendas upon their customers will inevitably either drive them away or be doomed to watch them drift away; but shops that work with their customers will become places that people want to come to — and if we get it right, places they want to bring their friends to.

Much of this, of course, is more or less the same thing that Melanie Carroll keeps saying, so I close, for now, with a quote from her contribution to Eddie’s facebook discussion. Another contributor suggested that one way forward for Christian bookshops might be to operate from church premises. Melanie replied:

I have to say this to me seems like a form of Ghetto-ism because all were doing is hiding the books in the churches and what about the unchurched, or even the churched but ‘not our type of christian’ who would be rather unlikely to want to visit the shop if housed in the xyz church or centre?

Seems to be we want to be out of the churches reaching to all comers and that those in the churches should be moving to be supportive – if the only outreach is in our house then it’s not much outreach, and if I’m only going to support it because it’s in my church and convenient to me on that level what kind of ethos is that> questions we all need to be asking ourselves – and not just in regards to christian bookshps but in regards to what it means to be christian, to be a servant, to be true community instead of just a commune.

Personally I think we should be looking to stay in the marketplace where everyone regardless of race, creed or culture can find us and feel welcome! so I think we should consider seriously looking instead at moving away from the model of pure christian bookshop and move into broadening the appeal of the shops, more product that is not christian, general books, gifts etc that appeal to the wider community and encourage them in. let’s make our bookshops/retail outlets community places not just christian places.

Perhaps then we’ll really see a growth and outreach beyond what we have, more people coming in and meeting the idea of christianity in a way that does’nt stereotype, that doesn’t preach and that doesn’t close the door before they step over the threshold. But in a way that does say, here it is, it’s real, it’s me, it’s you – it’s here and you know what it’s probably not what you think – but it might well be what you need!

That’s my vision, I want to see christianity grow and flourish in a positive inclusive way – in a real joe blogs man on the street way, and to do that I have to be the person on the street, I have to be in the street – or in my case in the market – and so does my christian bookshop :0)

[Via http://christianbookshopsblog.org.uk]

6 Secrets you Must Do to get more Business in 2010!

2010-01-16T15:04:00.000+02:00

6

Secrets you MUST do for your Small Business to Succeed in 2010!

No Mystery here! And many of you may know some of these “secrets”. But are you doing ALL? And are you doing them with commitment and longevity?

Doing these things all the time and keeping it up is essential for 2010!

1. Website/Social Media/Blog

 Your website is the “Mother Ship” of your marketing plan for 2010 and the Social Media shines spotlights on it! Your website’s primary function is to drive or PUSH traffic to your business. Social Media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn PULL traffic to your business. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook have revolutionized the ability for businesses to reach out and touch former customers as well as finding new customers and referrals.

 If you don’t have a great website…GET ONE! Prices have come down if you shop around.

 Look at your Website with your developer and evaluate any improvements that need to be made for 2010. Can you capture emails on your website? Phone number and contact information on every page?

 Videos This year start making videos and post them to all of your internet venues. Twitter, Linked In and Facebook

Complete your profiles with pictures.

Add content at least twice a week or more

Post all of your blogs here

Post all of your videos here

Use *keywords unique to your industry in all of your wording on these postings and blogs

2. Networking Business to Business

 Get out in the neighborhood and meet your business neighbors!

 Networking is a two way street, ask your neighbors what you can do for them first!

 It takes 5-7 visits to make and impact and develop a reciprocal referral source.

 This is a long term commitment and will result in lasting relationships, good will and referrals.

3. Networking Business Groups

 Join one or two local business networking groups, BNI is a good organization, Chamber of Commerce is another.

 This is a once a week commitment. DO IT! It will pay you back hundred fold.

 Delegate one person in your organization who will be the “face” of your company, if you have to. But there is nothing like the owner/president/general manager being the “face” of the company!

4. Network through Community Service

 Pick one service organization, Rotary, Altrusa, Junior League or similar.

 Volunteer, attend the meetings, and develop relationships.

 Remember, even in service and volunteer organizations, referrals are a two way street.

5. Become a local Expert

Plan to hold some events at your place of business this year. At these events you will give a talk/lecture on your area of expertise. This will help to establish you as a local expert and provide great visibility and new networking opportunities for your business.

 Be Informative, Relevant and above all Interesting!

 Do a press release.

 Phone all the people you have invited two days before the event.

 Market your event to all the people in your business networking groups.

 Market your events to everyone in your database. Using Constant Contact or similar.

 Devote yourself to your DATABASE in 2010! Get it organized and keep it that way. This is EQUITY to your company. It will pay off in $$$.

 Have all of your employees practice a one minute “commercial” of your business that they can say when circulating with the guests at your event.

6. Advertising Cost Relief

Cut back your print ad budget in 2010. Go with Networking. One-to-one in person networking and Social Internet Networking. One-to-one Networking is inexpensive compared to print ads, and depending on your industry, more effective. Social Internet costs nothing except time. Value is HUGE!

 Expenses you will incur:

 Printing expenses

 Membership dues for professional business networking organizations

 Staff time and wages for the hours spent in networking planning and activities.

The dollar value of referrals and business gained through your efforts in early 2010 may be hard to estimate at first, but the return on investment in the long run is PRICELESS!

Author: Deb Durkey, President

Social Internet Expertise

Business Facebook ,Twitter and LinkedIn in DFW

Social Internet Marketing and Strategies

Email Blasts with Constant Contact

Business Blogging

durkey2@sbcglobal.net

Blog: http:// www.durkeygurl.wordpress.com

http:// www.facebook.com/SocialInternetExpertiseDFW

http://.Twitter.com/Durke

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedIn.com/in/DebDurkey

Website: http://www.SocialInternetExpertise.com

***KEYWORDS if you don’t understand what your keywords for your industry are, ask your web developer or your SEO manager.

[Via http://durkeygurl.wordpress.com]

Creating your facebook Badges

2010-01-16T07:39:00.000+02:00

we can create a Facebook badge in jus few easy steps .all we need to got editing Facebook profile badge page click the edit this badgethen simply this kind of badge will is prepared shown below

If you find my post interesting leave a comment.

[Via http://maventech.wordpress.com]

#Haiti

2010-01-14T15:52:00.000+02:00

A estas alturas ya todos sabemos lo que sucedió en Haití hace algunos días. Al inicio existe una gran impresión por darnos cuenta, primero, del gran poder de la naturaleza, y segundo, en que somos demasiado frágiles en comparación con ella.

Después pensamos en la necesidad de quienes viven ahí, e intentamos (sólo intentamos) comprender por lo que están pasando, y recordamos que en nuestro país han sucedido tragedias enormes y hemos recibido ayuda de diferentes países. Es en estos momentos en los que la paz surge y la caridad humana se deja ver, y muchos vemos como una obligación hacer lo que está en nuestras manos para ayudar.

A continuación hay información de centros de acopio en el DF y en Monterrey, y una lista de lo que se es necesario llevar. Por favor, piensen un poco y ayuden. Piensen que si están leyendo esto, es porque tienen internet, están en su trabajo o su casa, y en cambio la mayoría de las personas en Haití están incomunicadas, no tienen hogar o perdieron un ser querido. Somos muy afortunados. Hay que ayudar.

Centros de acopio:

Cruz Roja de Polanco
Juan Luis Vives #200. Col. Los Morales Polanco, 11510 México D.F.
Más información sobre donaciones se puede obtener con Ernesto Treviño, al correo electrónico Ernesto.trevino@undp.org.mx o en el teléfono 52639762 en la Ciudad de México.

Cruz Roja Monterrey
Alfonso Reyes #2503 Colonia del Prado

Productos necesarios:

Artículos alimentarios (Enlatados):

Arroz Bolsa 1 0 2 kg máx.
Sopa de Pasta (spaguetti)
Frijol Negro bolsa de 1 o 2 kg máx.
Alimentos para bebé (Gerber)
Cereal (barras energéticas)
Galletas
Verduras enlatadas
Fruta enlatada
Aguas embotellada 1 litro (específicamente)

Artículos no alimentarios

Medicamentos (verifar caducidad)
Material quirúrgico
Artículos desechables. Platos vasos y cucharas
Lámparas con baterías (baterías extras)
Pañales y biberones
Papel higiénico
Toallas sanitarias
Jabón de baño
Pasta dental
Cepillo dental
Toallas de cloro para lavado de mano

Cuentas bancarias para realizar depósitos:

Banorte Cuenta: 0000000065
BANAMEX Suc. 557 Cuenta:65

Las redes sociales están jugando un papel muy importante, Twitter se ha convertido en el principal medio de comunicación y organización de ayuda para Haití; pueden seguir la información con la hashtag #Haiti y en Facebook se han creado grupos como HELP HAITI DONATE NOW! EARTHQUAKE DISASTER RELIEF y EARTHQUAKE HAITI.

Los invitamos a que se unan en esta campaña de ayuda a nuestros hermanos de Haiti. Si no pueden ayudar con dinero o donativos en especie, pueden propagar esta información que, creanlo, muchas personas buscan y batallan para encontrar.

[Via http://gotgeek.wordpress.com]

Off to the Caribbean...Why do we miss people?

2010-01-14T07:50:00.000+02:00

I recently got a new job doing marketing for MakeItWork.com so I have already been Facebooking & Twittering for the past eight hours…. So I should have gotten beyond my fill of self gratification for the day right? But as I’ve already mentioned, Facebook & Twitter are not enough; they merely touch on whatever thoughts/ feelings you choose to put out there, without allowing you to explain or “work through” them, the way writing does. So I guess what I’m seeking by writing this blog entry is not just self-gratification (OK maybe like 90% of it is that), but I am also seeking a way to express my feelings fully in hopes that by doing so I will somehow understand my emotions, in turn making them easier to deal with…

So what the hell am I talking about? You’re probably wondering how does the Caribbean tie into all of this…? So two days ago a very good friend of mine moved to the Caribbean. He and I had only been hanging out since August, BUT we became pretty much inseparable from September till now because neither of us had “real jobs” (I teach surfing year round, if you can call that a job: SurfwithVanessa.com) & he worked on the Sunset Kidd Sailboat here in Santa Barbara (where we met). So all we did was road trip up and down the Cali coast, visit our families, buy lotto tickets and talk about all of the cool stuff we could do if we actually won. (We agreed to the plan of buying a yacht, paying our best friends each a couple years worth of salary to hang out with us & sailing around the world, going to all the best surf spots and places we’ve always dreamed of traveling to).

Because my friend, like most of us, can not yet afford to buy his own boat, he decided to do the next best thing and get a job working as a crew member on a boat sailing first in the Caribbean and then on to wherever the job could lead… Before he left I wrote him a letter and in it I confessed that I have been blessed to have many amazing friends but there have only been a handful of people in my life that that I have connected with on that deeper level where you both know you just get each other & appreciate each other and he was one of those people for me… I explained that after spending so much time together, going on our adventures and all our talks about life & relationships, I have really grown to love him very much- not in a creepy, doodle his name on a notebook way, but in a lasting, sincere, friends forever way…

This was hard for me to admit & even harder for me to let go of as I dropped him off at LAX last Saturday at 4:30am. I was and am excited for him but I miss him terribly already (aah but at least we have facebook ha ha)… So tonight, when I found myself beyond busy with a million things I should be doing for work, and still feeling that ache in my heart and loneliness that comes when you no longer have someone in your life that you had grown so attached to, I decided to do what I do whenever I need an answer for anything… Umm, yeah, I googled it (of course) and these are a few offerings I found…

Q: Why do we miss people?

Because when they are around you just don’t realise how much of your life they take up and when they’re gone the void is huge. ~ AnswerBag.com

Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated. ~ Lamartine

[Via http://vanessarivers.wordpress.com]

What You Need to Know About Facebook Fan Pages

2010-01-12T15:54:00.000+02:00

By Kim Moniz

It seems as though there is a Facebook Fan Page for just about everything – from Starbucks and Pepsi to Mr. Ed and Men in Kilts. Over the past year, I’ve learned quite a bit about creating and managing a brand’s Fan Page. Here are 10 things that I didn’t know about Fan Pages in 2008, but have become second nature in 2009. I wonder what 2010 will bring…

Choose the creator carefully – Until recently, I didn’t realize that the creator of a Fan Page can never be removed as an admin of the Page. Once a Fan Page is created, the creator will always have the ability to make changes to the Page. Moral of the story: don’t let the intern create your company’s Page.
Update often, but not too often – There is some debate about how often Fan Pages should update. Too infrequently and fans are disengaged, too often and they are inundated. I’ve settled on twice a week as a happy medium and I think that keeps fans interested without overpopulating their feeds.
Content is King – Status updates are great, but posting unique videos and cool photos is a great way to keep fans interested and involved.
Create a custom tab – The Static FBML application is a fantastic tool that allows brands to personalize their Page with the information that is most relevant for fans. Threadless is a great example – their “New Tees” tab gives fans a look at their catalog of shirts.
Land with a splash – The default landing tab for your Page will be the wall, but how boring is that? Take your newly-polished custom tab and make it the default landing tab. Check out Dunkin Donuts’ News/Promos tab – much more interesting than the wall. NOTE: only non-fans will land on the tab you set as the default. Fans will continue to land on the wall. Not sure why Facebook made this the case, but here’s to hoping brands can alter it in the future.
Don’t be a wall flower – If a fan writes on the wall asking a question or reporting a problem, by all means answer them. It can only improve your relationship with fans and show that you are actually listening.
Messed up? Fess up – Fans will know when you mess up, and they will call you on it. So if you mess up or there is a problem with your Page, let fans know you are working to fix it. Fans will appreciate knowing you are aware of the situation and trying to resolve it.
Beware of contests – Facebook has recently announced regulations for hosting contests on Facebook. Contests that require commenting on or responding to items in the News Feed are not allowed. It could be tricky to make sure your contest falls within the legal limits, so be careful while planning.
No easy way to get the word out – Want to send a message to your fans? It’s not as convenient as you’d think. Instead of appearing in fans’ inboxes, messages from brands appear in an almost secret “updates” location within the inbox. From my experience, no one checks these updates. I’d stick with communicating on the Page.
Loosen the reins – Let your fans interact with the Page by allowing them to tag photos, post on the wall and upload videos and photos. If you don’t like fan content, simply remove it, but fans will appreciate being able to contribute and interact with the brand.

[Via http://shifters.wordpress.com]

Facebook, GM lead 2010 IPO candidates

2010-01-12T07:51:00.000+02:00

Here is an article from CNN Money.

“The stars may very well align for the IPO market in 2010. Literally.

Following one of the worst years in recent memory, public offerings are expected to rebound nicely this year, with potentially much of the action centered around several high-profile companies.

Embattled automaker General Motors, for example, has hinted since last summer that it could once again become a publicly-traded company by year’s end.

Private equity giants Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Apollo Global Management, both of which missed entering the market at the peak of the buyout boom, have both mentioned as possible entries in 2010 recently.

And the IPO rumor mill has been working overtime since social networking giant Facebook introduced a dual-class stock structure in November, a move that often times has preceded a public offering. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) did the same thing before it went public in 2004.

0:00 /4:30Zynga CEO: ‘No hurry for IPO’//

“I don’t think it is a matter of if[Facebook] can or cannot, it is a matter if they want to,” notes finance author Tom Taulli, who has written extensively about the IPO market.

If Facebook, GM and other brand-name firms decide to enter the public markets, that could help push the number of U.S. offerings far beyond 2009 levels. Last year, just 63 companies went public as investors avoided wading into the market chaos that defined the first half of last year.

Those that did brave the turmoil included a rather strange group of bedfellows –including a Chinese online gaming firm, a company developing lithium-ion batteries for cars and nearly two dozen companies that were backed by private equity firms.

This year though, experts are betting that the IPO market will largely be dominated once again by companies that have been bankrolled by venture capital investors. These companies are typically younger firms as opposed to the mature companies that private equity companies often buy.

During the final months of 2009, 16 venture-backed firms filed to go public, according to Renaissance Capital, a Greenwich, Conn.-based investment firm specializing in IPOs, including drugmaker Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and solar panel producer Solyndra.

With that in mind, Linda Killian, a portfolio manager of the IPO Plus Aftermarket Fund at Renaissance Capital, said that more growth companies are likely to be in this year’s crop of IPOs.

Stock picks from 5 pros

And in the growth company category, there is no industry more buzzed about than social networking.

In addition to Facebook, social networking hotshots Twitter, LinkedIn and Zynga have all been rumored as possible IPO candidates.

Experts tend to agree that it is only a matter of time before many of these firms start considering acquisitions however. And with publicly traded stock, that would certainly give them the currency to do so.

John Fitzgibbon, founder and publisher at IPOScoop.com, said if one social networking company goes public and does well, then conditions would be ripe for the rest to follow.

“You need the trailblazer,” he said. “If Facebook goes into the pipeline, you will probably see more of its competitors start there.”

Read the full article here.

[Via http://boic.wordpress.com]

Facebook Fitness Drink [connect]

2010-01-10T15:19:00.000+02:00

Vitaminwater

unlike the never-ending debate over whether it’s rock-paper-scissors or paper-rock-scissors, based on your votes and your designs, the latest flavor of vitaminwater has FINALLY been decided… introducing the black cherry-lime flavored vitaminwater named… connect! check out this new package- flavor & ingredients, nam…e & label design- all inspired by you- our fans. it’s got 8 key nutrients plus caffeine. thanks for all your help- especially to the grand prize winner Sarah from Illinois and the four other finalist http://budurl.com/q27w. vitaminwater connect will be available in stores nationwide in march this year- so until then, stay hydrated- and keep your eyes here for news, updates and special offers for connect, including a possible sneak tasting opportunity. and btw… it’s rochambeau!

Read Full Article via Examiner.com

[Via http://jezzbean.wordpress.com]

Day 89

2010-01-10T07:18:00.000+02:00

Saturday, January 9, 2010

I marvel at some of life’s happy little coincidences: being introduced to someone who runs an affinity non-profit by a friend with whom I haven’t spoken in nearly half a year is pretty amazing

Reposted survey summary information on CharityFocus’s Facebook page
Recategorized blog categories
Emailed Parth to find out that our lunch is canceled
Edited the blog site: added links to Facebook, idealist and Linkedin on the navigation sidebar
Finally figured out how to add blog stream to the Foundation’s Facebook page
Musfikur (a researcher in Dhaka, Bangladesh) contacted me about work. I emailed him to set up a talk about volunteer positions
Juliet (friend in London) emailed me about her friend, Mary Lin, who is looking for information about starting a non-profit. I exchanged emails with Mary Lin and it turned out that her non-profit and the Foundation are affinity organizations
Saw the videos Mandar Apte (Art of Living Foundation) emailed me and read up on the Art of Living Foundation online

[Via http://globalcnporg.wordpress.com]

The Deep Red Aunt and Schoolgirl Cruelty.

2010-01-09T15:50:00.000+02:00

It is a great thing that the virtual straps showing onFacebook this week have generated more interest in breast cancer awareness, and, presumably, in donations to fight the disease. But the whole viral lingerie thing has raised the Crone’s awareness of something else that threatens the world’s female population: girls’ enduring tendency to form cliques and take a cruel joy in excluding others.

Ok, she admits it, the Crone was shocked and dismayed to discover that there was an in-joke she wasn’t in on earlier this week. She likes to be at the center of such enterprises, particularly when they involve wordplay. Posting a request for enlightenment in her Facebook status bar at 7pm on Thursday, she came home at 9pm to two cryptic counter-messages, one from a man in Thailand (even he was ahead of the Crone) and the other from Mistress Lube, an alleged friend for nearly 40 years. These messages had the giggling behind the hand tone of many high school encounters “She’s so lame, she has no clue, make sure nobody tells her”. No-one had shared the secret via the Crone’s inbox. In cyberspace, more than 200 of her so-called friends were keeping her in the dark and out in the cold. By the next morning the Mother Teresa of Takoma Park, had surreptitiously supplied all the details via an email. Thank you Lynn. But on the Facebook wall a cold message from the Cackler, the gist of which was ‘”Na Na De Na Na–I know and you don’t”. Sister turned against sister. It was an ugly thing. By this time, one of the Crone’s dear Aunts (not the wheaten bread aunt, nor the boiled cake aunt but the aunt who will henceforth be known as the deep red aunt) had posted a facebook message to the Crone the gist of which was that she was feeling left out too: if the Crone discovered what was going on, please would she fill in her? But did the Crone lift the phone, compose an email or otherwise extend a helping hand? She did not. Once she was in on the secret, she turned her back on even close relatives, joining the shunners, sniggerers and seclusionists. Shaming, but true. (It didn’t, of course, take long for her aunt to work it out–hence her new moniker)

Once the Crone had posted her own update (gold) the comments came back fast and furious. Siouxsie Sue (decadent beige) was among those who felt the Crone had made it up. ” Sure you don’t mean platinum?” she sneered ” That’s only the underwire” the Crone felt like retorting, and was tempted to add ” And don’t forget mine’s bigger than yours” Galling to learn this morning that Siouxsie’s undies made it into the Washington Post but then, as Trinny and Susannah always say, ” a good bra can take you anywhere”.

[Via http://blarneycrone.wordpress.com]

UK Christmas Day online sales up 29%

2010-01-09T07:07:00.000+02:00

More people are choosing to do their online shopping on Christmas Day than ever before, with sales rising by 29% to reach £132m.

Boxing Day saw even higher sales of £281m, according to IMRG. These stats are backed up by an eDigitalResearch survey (PDF) of consumers’ online activity over Christmas.

More highlights from the survey:

75% of the respondents said they were online on either Christmas Day or Boxing Day, with 15% and 23% respectively making purchases online.

Figures from John Lewis paint a similar picture, with shoppers making a purchase on its website every 10 seconds on Christmas Day, and a record number of visitors to the website between 11am and midday on Boxing Day.

Despite threats from the weather nearer Christmas, and the Royal Mail strike in November, the vast majority of deliveries arrived on time, and 97% said they intend to spend more or the same online next year.

Customer satisfaction with etailers

According to the Christmas Customer Satisfaction Index from ForeSee Results, customers are happier with online retailers this year, with the average score up 6.5% to 71.

Pureplays Amazon and Play.com topped the list with scores of 83 and 79, while Ticketmaster and B&Q were bottom of the class with scores of 65.

ForeSee ran the same survey with US consumers, and US sites scored an average of 79, which suggest that they are outperforming UK websites by 9%.

Which retailers had a good Christmas online?

Online sales at the John Lewis sale were up 23% in its first three days. The retailer experienced its busiest ever hour online when it launched the sale at 6pm on Christmas Eve.

The Hut, which runs Zavvi, as well as providing e-commerce services for Woolworths, Argos and others, said that orders rose by 188% in the six weeks to December 23.

Shop Direct Group reported that online sales over Christmas were up by 19% against 2008, while the internet accounted for 65% of all sales versus 56% last year.

Online sales at M&S were up by 32% in the 13 weeks up to December 27, compared with 2008.

Sales at Ocado rose by 49% in the week leading up to Christmas to £8.9m. Sales in the four weeks to Boxing Day were up 30% from 2008, reaching £40.8m.

http://econsultancy.com/blog/5194-christmas-day-online-sales-up-29?utm_medium=email&utm_source=topic

[Via http://koosjan.wordpress.com]

Around the Block: Jan. 7, 2010

2010-01-07T15:51:00.000+02:00

A look at some interesting recent articles and posts about law and technology:

New York case law on litigation holds is discussed by Attorney Mark Berman. From the article:

It is well established that the “utter failure to establish any form of litigation hold at the outset of litigation is grossly negligent.” A showing of gross negligence is “plainly enough to justify sanctions at least as serious as an adverse inference.”

BUT…

On the other hand, not every matter is ripe for e-discovery, and the decision in Kaiser v. Raoul’s Rest. Corp.,is illustrative of the fact that one still needs to sufficiently justify a request for e-discovery, and that overbroad demands will not be countenanced.

The Fulton County Daily Reporter posts the news that a Georgia Judge has voluntarily stepped down, apparently because of an investigation into his relationship with a defendant that began on Facebook. From the article:

Woods’ departure from the bench effectively ends inquiries being made in the circuit from the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission, which investigates complaints against judges. The JQC, whose workings are confidential by law, has made no public statement of any investigation regarding Woods.

From Ryley, Carlock, and Applewhite:

In Vagenos v. LDG Financial Services, LLC, 2009 U.S. Dist. Lexis 121490 (E.D.N.Y. Dec. 31, 2009), District Court Judge Brian M. Cogan denied defendant’s in limine motion to preclude plaintiff from offering at trial an alleged duplicate recording of an electronically-stored telephone message, but ordered an adverse inference instruction for plaintiff and his counsel’s failure to preserve the message.

From Law Technology News, an article examining how to Mine Web 2.0 for Evidence:

On Oct. 17, 2009, an armed assailant robbed two men outside a housing project in Brooklyn, N.Y. Almost immediately, the police focused their investigation on Rodney Bradford, a 19-year-old resident of the housing project who had been indicted a year earlier for a similar robbery. After one of the victims positively identified Bradford in a police lineup, the police arrested him and charged him with first-degree robbery.

Open-and-shut case, right? Wrong. It turns out Bradford was innocent and he had an airtight alibi to prove it. At the time of the crime, he was 12 miles away at his father’s house in Harlem, updating his Facebook status. After the district attorney subpoenaed Facebook and received the exculpatory evidence, Bradford was cleared of all charges and released.

Computerworld contributor Richard Power discusses how the Information Age has transformed the world the of the Private Investigator, with a Q&A with former FBI Agent (and current PI) Ed Stroz:

Stroz had served for 16 distinguished years in the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), during which he established the New York City FBI computer crime squad, one of the first two in the country, and directed several significant FBI investigations, including the high-profile international case of Vladimir Levin, a Russian hacker who broke into Citibank. In 2000, Stroz founded a private investigation (PI) firm in 2000, and has assisted his corporate clients in responding to Internet-extortions, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, hacks and unauthorized access, and theft of trade secrets. He has also pioneered the concept of incorporating behavioral science into the methodology for addressing computer crime and abuse.

Marica Coyle posts an article for the National Law Journal noting that the Supreme Court will hear a case to resolve a circuit split concerning the work-product doctrine.

Textron Inc. v. U.S. stems from a long-running legal battle between the corporation and the Internal Revenue Service over the government’s demand for Textron’s tax-accrual work papers. Those papers generally are prepared with the assistance of in-house and external counsel and relied upon by independent auditors to determine the accuracy of financial statements. They often contain legal analyses and evaluations of potential litigation risks associated with particular tax transactions.

Last August, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 3-2 en banc ruling, held that the papers were not protected by the work-product doctrine and had to be turned over to the IRS in a tax shelter investigation.

[Via http://postprocess.wordpress.com]

Everybody's Doing it!

2010-01-07T07:52:00.000+02:00

So, I could have been there all night, yo. (The Status History application on Facebook.) And instead of doing some lame story of 2009 or even posting a cloud that just shows the words I commonly use (SHOCKER: It’s Ezra), I’ve only selected some memorable ones from this past summer of unabashed excitement – Montreal, Disneyland, Frenches, More Montreal – and dental floss (which was the first of September but it couldn’t be left out). Anyway, they aren’t chosen for any reason but that they made me smile or something when I read them. More later? Perhaps.

Wed June 3, 2009, 10:39 pm: had to put her foot down after Ezra – for the third day in a row – prayed for a little sister named Raptor Lightflash Morrow. Wasted prayer.

Fri June 5, 2009, 10:57 pm: listening to son pray: “Dear God, why did I not get a sister named Raptor?” !!! WHAT?!

Wed June 24, 2009, 11:52 am: loves how kids educational shows always include one functionally retarded character so your kid doesn’t feel foolish for being wrong. Fail.

Sat July 4, 2009, 10:21 am: is mixing songs. “Good Morning, Baltimore…the earth says hello?!” Rewinding. Starting over.

Thu July 9, 2009, 4:28 pm: ’s hubby just tackled her and then her son said, “Mama!! Fight the power!!!” O_O KWAT!?

Thu July 16, 2009, 12:54 pm: can’t live in a world where the Canadian dollar is equal to the American. Don’t go there, Jesus!

Mon July 20, 2009, 6:48 pm: is listening to almost-five-year-olds debate the seating arrangement of imaginary princesses. O_o.

Fri July 24, 2009, 10:43 am: ’s son just discovered that the reason he seemed to be ignoring my call was due to his ears being “too small”. Creative. Oh and time-out.

Sat July 25, 2009, 7:06 pm: ’s sons said: “Mommy, on PBS kids they said parents should give kids flight. Have you given me flight? NO!” O_O What’s all that phonix then!

Fri August 7, 2009, 3:08 pm: : Once Josh slaps some new tape on my glasses, I’m reh-to-go!

Wed August 19, 2009, 2:10 pm: ’s son just said: “When you eat while you’re fighting, it’s better fighting.” Can’t put that Disneyland sword down. Not even for sustenance.

Sun August 23, 2009, 7:17 pm: just got sprayed on the arm. BY A CAT. ON MY NAKED ARM. SWEET JESUS.

Mon August 24, 2009, 10:47 am: has mixed feelings about the road trip. Intimate and fun vs. omg why are we still in this truck and who’s bleeding and I’m holding a knife!

Mon August 31, 2009, 12:27 am: has crossed over. Oh Ontario. You didn’t have to pull out all the stops and have that woman laying face down on a bench with her pants down!

Tue September 1, 2009, 1:22 pm: is grossed. OUT. WHO FINDS FLOSS IN THEIR BRAN MUFFINS?!?! *violently dry-heaves*

Mmmm. That’s the stuff.

[Via http://myspacearchive.wordpress.com]

What is Social Media and Why Should You Care?

2010-01-05T15:51:00.000+02:00

Guest blogger: Simon Newing, Focus New Media

2009 has seen the proliferation of a whole range of words and phrases that may have left many business owners scratching their heads – and we now find ourselves needing to Twitter, to ‘poke’ and to ‘ LinkIn’.

All of these strange terms are generally thrown under the umbrella of “social media”, which can be thought of as the use of a series of (mainly) internet based applications to spread ‘word of mouth’. They allow the sharing of opinion, thought, comments and – this is where it can get interesting for businesses – recommendations, ratings and referrals. If you’re not using these applications to talk to your customers, it’s a fair bet they’re already using them to talk about you.

Here’s a quick overview of how some of the most fundamental elements of social media can be used by businesses to communicate with customers and colleagues:

Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Facebook has over 300 million users and a business profile page can help some of them become “fans” of your organisation or your products. Nike currently has over 825,000 fans. Fans include links to your profile page as part of their profile, which can then spread to their friends, and their friends – and for very little effort you’ve hit upon an effective ‘viral’ method of spreading awareness of what you’re up to.
Twitte r is a popular ‘micro-blogging’ service that essentially allows you to climb to the top of a big hill and yell things at those who have chosen to listen. Helped by celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross, Twitter usage has risen dramatically this year and we at Focus New Media have just over 310 ‘followers’. Twitter also includes useful built-in tools that help you identify when your organisation is being talked about and by whom.
Founded in 2003, LinkedIn has become a leading site for online networking – acting much like a Facebook for businesses. The site now has over 53 million users in 200 countries and it can be used for connecting with past and present colleagues, posting projects and business opportunities, finding industry experts and according to some reports has become a crucial resource for HR departments.

That’s just a very quick overview of some of the core blocks that make up this new world of social media and they form an important part of your organisation’s digital strategy.

Simon Newing, MD Focus New Media 0117 9498008

simon.newing@focusnewmedia.com

This is an edited version of the full article which can be seen at our web site: http://www.focusnewmedia.com/blogs/social-media-and-why-you-should-care-about-it

[Via http://gwebusinesswestchambers.wordpress.com]

Too much to chat, too little time

2010-01-03T15:52:00.000+02:00

An article in last week’s Wall Street Journal showed how Linkedin is struggling to compete with Facebook. It pointed out that for the month of October, Linkedin visitors spent about 13 minutes on the site, while visitors to Facebook spent about 213 minutes. (MySpace visitors spent about 87 minutes.)

This is a problem for Linkedin. A problem of money. That’s because membership (and therefore profitability) is a function of time spent per person. The implication is that for Linkedin (53.6 million users) to attract members the way Facebook does (350 million members), users need to be given reasons to spend more time there. (More apps. is being suggested as the solution.)

Funny how in social media is measured by time spent. For me, social media is a technology (though not only a technology) – and I’m more likely to gauge its success in terms of time saved rather than time spent. Obviously using social media takes time. But I expect that, at some level, I’m getting more for my minute using social media than some other means of achieving the same goal.

On the other hand, TV is a technology and the more time spent (and wasted) the better. Which makes me wonder: Is social media more like TV than it is like Word or Google or even calculators or typewriters or printing presses?

It’s all got me thinking about the relationship between social media and time. How much time does social media consume? Where does that time come from (what are people doing less of)? What is being achieved in that time? And how is social media affecting our actual experience of time?

How much time does it consume?

In a blog devoted to exploring the use of social media by museums, the author – Nina Simon – suggests in a post called What can you accomplish in one week of web 2.0? that about 1.5 hours a week gets you participant status – looking around, checking things out, perhaps doing a basic Facebook page and Twitter feed. For 5 to10 hours, you can be a “content provider”– writing a blog or doing podcasts. And at 10 to 20 hours per week, you’re a full-fledged “community director” – someone who undertakes online projects that are bigger and more sophisticated than simple blogs. (A recent Neilsen report found that Internet users spent an average of 6.7 hours per week online.)

This is probably a conservative estimate at the heavy usage end. While the following estimate is about institutional rather than individual use, Amber Nasland’s article Social Media Time Management: Resource Allocation (in Social Media Today) suggests a pretty significant investment is needed to run a social media program. She forecasts 4 and 9 full time equivalents to cover the spectrum of listening, engaging, and measuring. That’s between 150 and 337.5 hours per week.

Is it television watching (as one would probably think)? Apparently not. The same recent Nielsen report found that television viewing time has actually risen – to about 140 hours and 20 minutes per month in the U.S. That’s about 35 hours per week or 5 hours per day. (People are also spending about 3 and a half hours per month watching videos online.) It represents a marked and fairly steady increase over the last 20 years.

What about reading books? According to a 2007 study by the National Endowment for the Arts, book reading is indeed in decline. Fewer than half of Americans over 18 read ANY novels, short stories, plays or poetry. It found that Americans between 15 and 24 spent about 7 to 10 minutes a day on voluntary reading. (That’s about a half hour or so a week – compared with 35 for TV.)

What is being achieved in this time?

Since most of this blog is devoted in some form to exploring this issue, just a few questions rather than conclusions. Is social media making people smarter? Is reading online doing for us what reading books does? (That same Nielsen report says that, while internet use rises, literacy scores fall. Both writing and reading scores correlate directly to amount of time spent reading books for fun. As of 2006, less than one third of high school seniors in the U.S. were found to read proficiently – compare with 40 per cent in 1992.)

What about our experience of time?

A huge question – but some quick observations:

1. Social media compresses time. In the SM world there is no waiting. There is no night and day. There is no rest. One is always on, always available, always there. Immediacy is taken for granted. Email is a generation old because it doesn’t allow you to connect instantly. It doesn’t tell you whether your contact is there, ready, instantaneous. Time is obliterated. Gratification is instant. If you can’t get it done in minutes, it’s not worth doing. (This blog post is way too long.)

2. Social media accelerates time. Because all time is shared and social, the need to stay in touch just to keep up with the events of one’s community mean that there is no rest, that a day away from a computer can actually feel like weeks.

3. Social media flattens time. In the Web 2.0 world, the world of constant beta where there are no phases, no stages, but constant and consistent improvement, waiting becomes unacceptable. Time is no longer seen as divided into periods. There is no first and second. There is only now.

So much more to think about here. But for now I’m out of time. And so are you.

[Via http://earlyrelease.wordpress.com]

Highlights of the Decade

2010-01-03T07:37:00.000+02:00

Image by Timothy K Hamilton (Flickr)

2010 is finally here and as part of New Year’s Resolution, I’m going to try to update more often. In my effort to do so, I decided to start out the year by starting the decade. Many people have looked back at 2009, and pinpointed the highlights that made it great (and not so great). I could do that too, commenting on Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc. But I feel to generalize more, looking back at the decade. In some ways it’s easier to talk about a decade, because it’s more about the trends than the specifics, but than again, we’re talking about a ten times longer period of time (that’s why it’s called a decade). After much thought (mostly in the shower and sometimes in bed), I pinpointed what made this decade what it really is: Web 2.0, Google, and iTunes on Windows. Those three things are the sugar, spice, and everything nice of 2000s’ tech. Let me explain further. Web 2.0. For some, it’s the biggest buzzword of the 2000s. Before Web 2.0, the internet was about static webpages filled with annoying GIFs and awful background music. It seemed like almost everyone had one. It was the dot-com boom, but unfortunately (and in some ways, thankfully), it burst. Nowadays, we live in the era of Web 2.0 – dynamic webpages that personalize to us. Login to Amazon, and somehow it knows what we want, giving us personalized recommendations based on what we saw, just like a personal shopping assistant. Web 2.0 is also about interaction between you and your peers. With a click of a few buttons, you can share that adorable video of your kitten (or your heavily sedated child) on YouTube. Want to connect with your long-lost cousin somewhere in the middle of Africa? Facebook is your answer. Speaking of Facebook, these last few years of the decade also gave rise to a new social gaming economy with games like Mafia Wars and Farmville. Web 2.0 realizes YOU are important, and will do anything to recognize that. No wonder YOU were Time’s Person of the Year back in 2006, you’re just too important. The twenty-tens will be about reaching Web 3.0. There’s no exact definition of what that is, but I think it’s safe to say that it will involve the web knowing you better than you know yourself. Obviously, Google’s probably already there. Sometime during 2009, the popular, funny, and fake news source The Onion, released a video about the imaginary Google Opt-Out Village [link]. It was a Google Service where you are sent to a remote village in the middle of nowhere, a quaint place where Google couldn’t track you. Of course, you aren’t able to use the internet because that defeats the whole purpose. Eventually you would realize that you need Google to survive, and you were let out. The Onion pinpoints exactly where Google is today. If you have “gone Google,” like 60% of the Fortune 500 companies, Google practically owns your life. The search box we all of have grown accustomed to probably tells more about ourselves than our very own diaries do. If you use every single Google service, than Google probably has your search history, e-mail, calendar, documents, voice mail, videos, foreign language homework, photos, videos, health records, website, blog, financial portfolio, and credit card information, just to name a few. In the next couple of years, if not months, Google will also have your computer with their new Chrome OS. And it’s free. All supported by their monstrous AdSense economy that infects the deepest places of the interwebs. The only thing saving us from the mighty force that is Google is their famous motto: “Don’t Be Evil.” So far I have discussed the technology of the decade (Web 2.0) and the company of the decade (Google), but the last question is: what is the product of the decade? My answer is simple: if you have been paying attention, you would know it is the bloated, resource-hogging, piece of Windows freeware made by a fruit company on 1 Infinite Loop, iTunes (with a lot of emphasis on the Windows version). Why didn’t I choose the iPod? Because the iPod and Apple achieved their success because of the Windows version of iTunes. If iTunes wasn’t released for Windows, there probably wouldn’t be as many iPods as versions of Vista and 7 combined. iPods would flop, primarily because I wouldn’t be willing to pay $1000 for a computer just so I could get a personal MP3 player, when my “Windows-supported” Walkman works just fine. In a sense, iPods are like the infamous Lite apps of the App Store. They are feature limited (the one that acts like a phone is almost a computer) and significantly cheaper (couple hundred vs. couple thousand). Maybe Mr. Jobs only created iPods as a marketing stunt for their higher end products – if they were, it worked. Almost everyone has an iPod perfect for them – touch screen, colorful, talk-a-full, thick, thin, lots o’ memory, practically no memory, etc. If the rumored Apple Tablet eventually does come out, it would help Apple get more people to switch to Mac, as our lives become more Apple-centered and less Microsoft-cluttered (of course, Google would still own our lives). The 2010s have finally come (and still no flying cars or teleporters, hmmm). What this decade has in store, no one knows. Google will continue to do its thing, and Apple as well. Web 2.0 might mature and evolve into Web 3.0. As our society advances, so will our connections to those around us. Hopefully, gadgetonix will be there to report on it.

[Via http://gadgetonix.wordpress.com]

Friend-Padding

2010-01-02T15:34:00.000+02:00

I’ve got several lingering friend requests on Facebook. On the one hand, I feel kind of badly leaving anyone hanging. On the other, I don’t feel too badly, because I know the likelihood of me running into any of those people out here in the real world any time in the next few days is really, really, really small, so it isn’t like they are going to call me out for ignoring them.

I need a little time to come to terms with that sneaking suspicion that I’m not really a friend, but just part of a friend-padding strategy.

In the euphoric wash of whatever chemicals are released by high school reunions, I friended some folks I’ve not seen since graduation. Several of my FB friends are college students I was connected to only briefly for a project—they were the ones who brought me to FB, actually—who now probably wonder who I am and how I got connected to them.

Rarely does anyone admit to friend-padding, but I do think that my relatively modest 238-person friend list supports my contention that I have, for the most part, only friended people I actually know and could interact with unhesitatingly in the real world.

I’ll probably accept the friend requests, even if having me on their lists is more about them reaching critical mass for their message than their longing for a deeper connection to me. After all, I’m not afraid to defriend if push comes to show. Plus, now they’ll have to feign interest in my natterings and arch observations. And maybe they can help drive traffic to my blog . . .

[Via http://nonsequiteuse.wordpress.com]

Deactivated & Loving It

2010-01-02T07:19:00.000+02:00

So I consider myself to be a little “tech-savvy” and up on current technology. I’ve been on every public networking site you can imagine: MySpace, BlackPlanet, hi5, Facebook, Twitter and the like. I can confidently say that these sites are addictive and time consuming. There was a segment on the Tyra Banks show that featured a teenage girl who didn’t graduate high school due to being online so often. She began gaining weight, not going out as much, her boyfriend had to make time to come see her at home due to the fact that she was glued to her computer. She’s an extreme case but you catch my drift.

Fast forward to earlier tonite, I’m on Twitter and my friend tweets this “ok so every time I get on fb (facebook) I think….now why do I still have this”. To be honest I was thinking the exact same thing! I used to claim it helped me stay in touch with friends and family, which it did for a short time span. However I found myself with over 800 “friends” 90% of which I didn’t talk to on a consistent basis. It dawned on me that Facebook served me no real purpose anymore. With this new found knowledge I happily found the deactivate button and deleted Facebook from my life.

Goodbye Facebook, hello real world and human interaction =)

[Via http://bedspringsandbookbags.wordpress.com]

Errant Chinese smoker stops world's fastest train

2009-12-31T15:25:00.000+02:00

BEIJING (Reuters Life!) – The world’s fastest train hit its first speed bump in the form of a disobedient smoker less than a week after it began running in southern China.

A cigarette triggered an alarm that forced a two-and-a-half hour stoppage, nearly as long as the train takes to cover the 1,100 kilometer (684 mile) distance between Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, and the central city of Wuhan.

Managers of the bullet train, which debuted on Saturday, were unable to catch the smoker who fled the scene before the alarm sounded, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

“Smoking is strictly forbidden on the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed train, even in the toilet,” a spokesman with the Guangzhou Railway Group Corporation was quoted as saying. “It could trigger the alarm and even cause equipment failures.”

The train was in the Guangzhou rail station when it was delayed and had not yet begun its 350-km-per-hour journey, Xinhua added.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BT2TK20091230?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=69

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

There are a Few Things I am Thankful for but Make 2009 Go Away

2009-12-31T07:31:00.000+02:00

Maybe it’s just me, but 2009 was a difficult year. I am not sad to see it go away and be logged into the history books. As I have reviewed this past year, I have noticed that so many of my posts have been directly related to the things that I was experiencing or thinking about at the time. I have never written a post to get or gain attention. I write to clear my head and it relaxes me. With that in mind, I have attached links to previous posts to the various experiences I have encountered this past year. Please feel free to click on them and re-read some of my favorite posts of 2009.

It has been a year where I have had to deal with some serious health issues. A few surgeries later, I am in still in recovery mode, trying to deal with the results of the operations. Sometimes the cure is worse than the problem. More importantly, this year was a time when I had to endure the loss of the two of the closest friends I have ever had on this earth.

Within a short span of three months, I lost Bob Emrich and Bryan Blakely. Bryan was my closest childhood friend growing up in Oak Harbor, Ohio. There wasn’t much that happened to either of us from the time we were 6 to 18 that we were not involved in together. As life happens to all of us, after high school we went our separate ways. We always stayed in touch but we both lived in different parts of the country and we were on different paths. However, Bryan was part of a foundation in my life and when we were able to get together over the years, it was just like old times. Thirty years may have passed but it would only be a few moments and we were just like we were when we were 18. Good times. He was taken way too soon.

Bob was my mentor and he was the one person that could always point me in the right direction. He was an example to me of what it means to live a life that would bring honor to his family and to his God. He showed me how to truly live as Christian in this world. He taught me more about God’s grace than any preacher that I have ever heard. No, he was not perfect but he was a perfect example of what God can do in a person’s life if they allow Him to work in their life. Bob wasn’t a preacher but a truck driver. I cannot tell you how many times I would call him and he would be winding his way through the mountains of Tennessee or making his way through the corn fields of Iowa. He always made time for me and always had a good word to say. I still cannot bring myself to delete his phone number off my phone.

Performing the eulogy at their funerals was the most difficult thing that I have ever done. I cannot express to you how much I miss them.

This year was also a time where I had to deal with some major health issues. Without boring you with the details, I had to have two operations. The second surgery was much more serious than I was really prepared for and I am still dealing with the results of the operation. Those results have hindered my ability to write and to do many of the things I did and enjoyed so easily in 2008.

For example, I have completely lost hearing in my left ear and have a 60% loss in my right. I am on the fast track in becoming deaf. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love music. It is something that I have enjoyed my whole life and it is slowly being taken from me. I have also lost most of my ability to taste food. Most of my tongue is numb and I have limited ability to even taste what I am eating or drinking. Finally, my right hand is still asleep. This hinders my ability to write and typing is much harder than ever before. The doctor says that while there is no chance that my hearing will come back, I may experience some improvement with some of the other issues. So, while I am waiting to recover from this surgery, I am trying to do what my friend Bob would have done. He would have called me to talk about the things we were thankful for in spite of the circumstances that we are in.

In honoring his life, I am trying to put into practice what he would have done. In that process, I realize that I am extremely thankful for many things in my life, in spite of the difficulty of this past year. One thing in particular that I am thankful for in 2009 is this blog. Over the year, I have had over 150,000 visitors. Now I know not all of them read my blog and some visit my blog just to read what new ridiculous and stupid thing comes out of my mouth and spills out onto these pages. Like I always say, I love to write…I never said I write well.

One post that went viral this year was a post about things I am thankful for called “A Few of My Favorite Things… . This post has by far has been my most popular post with over 20,000 hits and still growing. I wrote that after my first surgery and just posted a few of my favorite things and things I was I was thankful for. I would like to update it and add to those things and really be thankful for what God has allowed for me to be a part of in 2009.

So here are a few of my favorite things to be thankful for 2009…

I am thankful for my lovely wife Pam, who always believes in me and allows me to be me. She is wonderful, beautiful, my favorite and my best friend. She is and will always be “My Exception”.
I am thankful for my children, Crystal, Nathan, Adam and Cassidy. I love them unreservedly and they bring me more joy than I could ever express.
My Mom. I am without question the biggest “momma’s boy” ever.
My Dad. Thank you for showing me, by example, what it meant to take care of your family and the importance of having a good work ethic. When the bell rang you answered and went to work.
My Grandfather, James Russel Lee, the only real hero I’ve ever known.
I am thankful for Clay, my son-in-law. Not just because he loves my daughter and treats her well but because he is my friend and he loves the Lord with his whole heart.
I am thankful for my in-laws. Hands down the best ever.
My Brother and Sister in Law. Mark and Lynn have been there for me and have supported me and will always be the one I turn to in difficult times.
Luke, Leisha and Colton, my favorites…I always will be there for them.
I love to listen to Cassidy sing, I will always be thankful for that.
I love it and am thankful when my kids call just to say Hello.
I am thankful that I am not the man I was 20 years ago. I am more than I have been.
I am thankful that God is still working to make me a better person.
I am thankful for good parents who told me “NO” sometimes.
I am thankful for family and friends that have stuck by me when others walked away.
I am thankful for God’s grace. I am a really, really, really big fan of it!!!
I am thankful for the Salvation I found in Jesus Christ. I am thankful that He never gives up on me, even when I fail.
I am thankful that I have a whole new day stretched ahead of me with its new opportunities and blessings, with my family and my friends and my God. I am thankful that I am forgiven and clean and that God stretched his love out towards me and rescued me from sin and separation from Him and brought me into His family.
I am thankful for my church and a Pastor who pursues God and His ways. He always presents God’s message with love and encouragement.
I am thankful that I have a Bible – that I can read the promises of God and discover who He is and His great love for me.
I am thankful for music and worship that draws our heart towards God.
I am also thankful when I get to see people come to know Christ – there is nothing like it in the world.

And finally, in no particular order, here are a few of the maybe or maybe not so important things to be thankful for…

I am thankful for a morning cup of coffee.
Dark Chocolate - MMMMmmm chocolate.
Fall – the best season. (the best weather, colors and the smells of the year)
Air Conditioning.
Harold “Mac Attack” McGilton – #81 My favorite Race car driver.
A nice Writing Pen (Black Ink only).
The Music of the Beatles.
Bernie Lutz – A teacher that inspired others to be more than average.
Cleveland Browns / Cleveland Indians (even though they frustrate me to death).
One victory over the Steeler’s every six years.
Paul McCartney.
A Good Working Water Heater.
Remote Controls.
A comfortable Chair.
The Tom Hank’s movie “That Thing You Do” (never get tired of watching it).
A glass of Cold Milk.
My MDR-NC7 Sony Headphones.
Being Young and in Love (Young Love)
Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant (Fremont, Ohio).
A good Pillow.
The ability to turn right on red.
Christmas Morning.
Diet Pepsi.
My 1976 Ford Pinto (if that car could talk).
A Three Dollar Box of Chocolates and the Valentines dance of 1975.
Eisley and Rooney (My granddogs).
High Speed Internet Access.
Parking spaces near the front entrance.
Jerry Falwell and Liberty University.
FACEBOOK and re-connecting with old friends.
MVP Baseball 2003 – My favorite PS2 game.
Indoor Plumbing.
Aretha Franklin.
Growing Up in a Small Town.
The State Highway Patrol Officer that showed me a little grace one day.
My Ipod (8,456 songs on it and still growing).
The Ability to Give Back.
Caller ID.
Motown Music (The Temptations, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, etc.).
The arrows that show you which way to insert the batteries.
Ronald Reagan.
A clean blank sheet of paper.
Re-runs of Tommy Boy on TBS.
You Tube.
Little League Baseball.
Chili from Wendy’s.
The Whopper from Burger King.
Seinfeld.
The acting ability of Tom Hanks.
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.
Randy Pausch and his “Last Lecture”
A good Steak.
Blogging and Writing.
The delete button on the keyboard and white out for paper.
Childhood Memories.
Sarah Palin.
Ohio State Football.
Golf.
Teagarden’s Swimming Pool.
The number 22.

So there you have it… a list of a few of my favorite things I am thankful for in my life. No, the list is not complete and I am sure that there are more things I am thankful for if I would sit and think for a few minutes. However, that is for another time.

In closing, I will not be sad to see 2009 go away. I am looking forward to what God has in store for me in 2010. The slate is clean and anything is possible.

I will not be surprised by anything that may happen…but then again, maybe it’s just me.

[Via http://thelegacybuilder.wordpress.com]

20 + mind-blowing social media statistics

2009-12-29T15:38:00.000+02:00

My friend, Steve (@Steveology) on Twitter posted this and it did just blow me away! Some of these numbers are amazing! It’s fun to read, but think about the implications: scary or wonderful? What do you think? And, please, tech-dinosaurs of the world, you cannot argue that social media is just a fad any longer!

This was originally posted 31 July 2009 10:00am by Jake Hird, a Senior Research Analyst for Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn or see what he’s keeping an eye on via Retaggr.

Social media remains the hot topic of the digital world and I often get asked about the various statistics involved. This in itself is fairly difficult, as this particular online sphere is constantly shifting, evolving and growing at an astronomical rate. But I’ve pulled together some interesting (and hopefully useful) data for a couple of the bigger players in the market…

Bear in mind that these are relatively recent figures – in a few months time (or even less) a lot of it is likely to be obsolete – but for now, I think they’re a great way of demonstrating the impact that social media is having in the digital landscape.

YouTube

If YouTube were a country, it would be the third most-populated place in the world.
20 hours-worth of video is uploaded to the site every single minute.
comScore recently announced that the site had surpassed 100m viewers in the USA alone. They also reported that this US audience consumed over 6bn videos at the beginning of this year.
According to Youtube themselves, over half of users visit the site at least once a week

Facebook

According to Facebook’s internal statistics:

The site has more than 250m active users globally
More than 120m users log on to Facebook at least once each day and more than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day. Combined, more than 5bn minutes are spent on the site on a daily basis.
The average user has around 120 friends on the site.
Every single month, more than a billion photos are uploaded to the site.
More than 50 translations are available on the site, with more than 40 in development.
Mobile is a big issue, with more than 30m active users accessing the site through mobile devices. It’s well documented that users who access Facebook through mobile devices are almost 50% more active than those who don’t.

MySpace

Although now overtaken by Facebook, MySpace is the second largest social network, experiencing in excess of 60m unique users each month.
MySpace apparently reaches 30% of UK adults aged 15-24 – it’s been suggested that its as common to have a MySpace account in the UK as it is to own a dog.
According to Knol, MySpace has more than 115m active monthly users globally with, on average, 300,000 new people signing up to the site every day.

Twitter

Over the past twelve months, Twitter’s year-on-year growth rate has broken the 1000% barrier.
The company holds exact numbers close to their chest, but it’s estimated that Twitter currently has between 6 – 10m global users and this is growing rapidly.
According to a recent report on Twitter usage by Sysomos, 5% of Twitter users account for 75% of all activity and that 72.5% of all users joining during the first five months of 2009.
The same report found that over 50% of all updates are published using mobile and Web-based tools, other than Twitter.com’s own website.
It also found that Tuesday is the most active day for Tweeting, followed by Wednesday and then Friday.
Hitwise recently reported that one out of every 350 website visits in the UK is via Twitter, but barely 5% of users currently go to an online retail service through the medium.
Not really a stat, but still quite a cool piece of info: Twitter is now officially a term in the English Dictionary.

I’m acutely aware that this is only the tip of the data iceberg for social media. If you have any other interesting stats, please share them in the comments below!

Learn more…

For background on social media generally, it’s worth reading our (free to registered users) Social Media Trends Briefing (June 2009). Econsultancy has also published Social Media and Online PR Template Files, which you can adapt and use for your own projects. For innovation in this space, download our Innovation Report.

[Via http://zgrouppr.wordpress.com]

December 2009 Exercise – Michael Rosen

2009-12-29T07:00:00.000+02:00

December 2009 Exercise – Michael Rosen, CEC, Executive Chef, The Speedway Club at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Concord, NC

Braised Certified Angus Beef Short Ribs with Port Wine Demi-Glaze, Local Cabarrus County Swiss Chard and Adluh Stone Ground Grit Tower with Corn and Goat Cheese

To participate in the next exercise, please send an e mail to: jeffrey@bauscherinc.com

See all your favorite chefs’ collections of past submissions at the Deep Plate page on Facebook. Please become a “Fan”.

http://deepplate.wordpress.com and “Deep Plate” on Facebook

[Via http://deepplate.wordpress.com]

twitter and facebook at zurich's hiltl restaurant

2009-12-27T15:47:00.000+02:00

Hiltl

I had lunch at Hiltl in Zurich today and thought this was pretty cool. They have projected the restaurant’s Facebook and Twitter streams onto a wall so that you can tweet at @hiltl and have it show up. I left a message on their Facebook group to see if it worked (it didn’t), but then I realized that it’s just for announcements. Totally should’ve tweeted instead.

[Via http://deanstattmann.wordpress.com]

Is Facebook impersonal?

2009-12-27T07:40:00.000+02:00

A friend who I was talking to was saying that Facebook was impersonal and perhaps not the best way to stay in contact. I think the most personal form of contact is talking to someone in person and failing that direct video chat. So what makes Facebook impersonal?

Broadcasting – instead of directly talking to one person, many activities, such as posting status’ or notes, are just broadcast tomany people.
Activity stream – Unlike email where each communication is acknowledged, only a few messages appear in the activity stream
Non-real time – When communication is real time, instead of asking a question and changing the message based on the information, often the answer or possible answers will be guessed. Also, a question may not be answered with much information, while in a conversation it would be natural to probe further.

These are just contributing factors. For example, letters are not real time, but are very personal and similarly a video broadcast can feel personal even if it is one way.

The broadcasting and non-real time are requirements of Facebook. As in, it is useful exactly because you can post content and many people will be able to see it even if they aren’t online at the time. That being said, Facebook (especially notes) could work more like Google Wave where it works well as either a real time or non-real time system.

I think the activity stream is the area to focus on. The fact that you can’t rely on your content being seen is the biggest issue to being personal. I mean, how can something be personal if the other party might not even be aware of its existence. How could this be fixed? At the moment, I pipe the status’ from everyone I want to follow into Google Reader and page down through them. I hardly think you’ll convince your typical Facebooker to do this, but adding an Twitter Client like system to Facebook might work, although some people would feel pressured to read everything. You could also try reducing the noise in the newsfeed (my thoughts on how to do this are currently in draft state).

At the moment, I believe that a method to follow certain posts could be invaluable. I don’t mean that you’ll only see these posts if you follow, just that you’ll almost definitely see them if you do. For example, I might split my posts as below:

Programming
iPhone
Power user
Christian
General Life
Random

This would add a certain level of complexity and a lot of effort following everyone, but it’d certainly increase how often and how useful it would be to post to Facebook. At the moment, you could try something like using the friend groups to restrict who sees what, but without it being opt in (and hence more visible) the conversation really won’t be that much more personal. Another option is to use a tool like Twitter and create multiple Twitter accounts, but managing and getting people to follow all of these ends up being a pain.

Yet another option would be to use Friendfeed. Friendfeed’s stated goal as a content aggregator was always going to be a niche area, only of interest to extreme social media enthusists. However, the ability to create groups to which everyone can post and have the content distributed to all members may be what Facebook groups would need to be truly engaging. Of course, this brings along with it the question of too much activity. Then again, this is probably just a matter of proper group management and defining rules such as no lolzcats.

NB. Facebook does have a similar option – when you post in a group any other friend who is a member of this group may have the post appear in their newsfeed, but I haven’t seen any such posts yet.

[Via http://casebash.wordpress.com]

Facebook - Goodbye

2009-12-26T15:33:00.000+02:00

Facebook and I are NO more.

My account is deactivated and our realationship is OVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Not only for the fact that this nutter is suggesting a £15 monthly charge,

but also for these few fact’s:

It’s boring,
Bejewelled blitz is the highlight of facebook [that say's something],
There’s loads of nosey bastard’s on there,
The chat always messes up,
When it does work, Un welcome people bother you,
I get loads of invites for shitty club night’s,
I get the most random add’s everrrrrrrrr,
You leave a comment on someone’s status then log off, when you return there’s about 1322312931 notification’s for that 1 status,
You set you’re account to private, yet some how people are still able to see stuff on you’re profile?
They make shitty change’s that basically are useless,
ITS SHIT AND TWITTER IS THE WAY FORWARD, THE END.

[Via http://keshiabee.wordpress.com]

Seven Days of Prayer

2009-12-26T07:22:00.000+02:00

Hello again Blog World! Ha! I haven’t blogged in quite a while. I have been lazy in the writing area. Hopefully that will change.

Starting today, I’m taking a break from Facebook, MySpace, & Twitter for a week (until January 1, 2010) to spend more time in prayer and studying the Bible. The purpose is to spend the amount of time that I used on those sites in prayer and studying. Check out “Seven Days of Prayer” on Facebook.

I will be keeping you updated on the progress that I am making this week through this blog. With that being said, I should be posting at least once a day for the next week. Who knows, maybe that will get me in the mode to blog more often after this week.

Pray for me. Encourage me. Anything is appreciated. I hope you have had a very Merry Christmas!

Your Brother,

Rod

[Via http://roderickpitts.wordpress.com]

Facebook decreasing Indian firms' productivity

2009-12-24T15:25:00.000+02:00

Noted social networking site Facebook is becoming a problem for employers at offices in India, as employees have started spending so much time on the social networking site that it is beginning to affect productivity, a new survey has revealed.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) have found in their survey that office staff on average spends an hour a day on sites like Facebook, resulting in a loss of productivity measuring 12.5 per cent.

The study noted: “Close to 12.5 per cent of productivity of human resource in corporate sector is misappropriated each day since a vast majority of them while away their time accessing social networking sites during the office hours.”

Seemingly, the workers use Orkut, Facebook, Myspace and Linkedin for “romancing”. As a matter of fact, [the] growing use of browsing sites can be dangerous for overall productivity and IT companies have already installed software to restrict its use,” the BBC News quoted Assocham secretary general DS Rawat as saying.

As part of the study, a total of 4,000 employees between the ages of 21 and 60 from different cities in India including Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai (Bombay), Pune, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Kanpur, were questioned.

It was observed that nearly half of office employees accessed Facebook during work time. Moreover, four in every 10 workers built their entire Orkut or Facebook profile at office. Also, 83 percent of the employees think there is no harm surfing at work during office hours.

[Via http://socioparivar.wordpress.com]