Posts Tagged ‘information’

You might remember the products. You might remember the hype. Then, you are tooling down highway 41 years later and all of a sudden you think to yourself – “Hey, whatever happened to…”

Failed ideas. Maybe it was a great idea, but wasn’t made right, or design errors brought it down. Maybe it was just a bad product. Well, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and see if we cannot repeat these errors again.

Oh yeah, why 16? Well because we could.

The Computer Watch: Whether it was the Ruputer, the MSN Direct ‘Smart’ Watches, the Timex Data Link Watch or another gadget watch – BTW – I remember having a “Transformers watch”. It was awesome!

Still, the Dick Tracey style communication watches, the “Computer on a wrist”, never really hit it off. I even remember a watch that gave you directions. You would put in the paper tape and turn a little dial to indicate where you are and where you are going.

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Last week in this place. I ate a lot of Brats this last weekend. Goodbye to friend ‘Supergirl’. Show Prep on Google Docs. Still need an iPhone App developer.

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I – S.U.N. (Straight Up News)
Lenovo S12 on ION
Kumo or Bing – Microsoft in a transition
The 10 TB Disc – All your music and movies on a DVD
Win 7 Netbook Strategy Rethought
iPhone Painting on cover of New Yorker
Hulu LIVE – Dave Matthews Concert is the first
Aneesh Chopra CTO – Senate approves
Apple Accepts Eucalyptus – a win for an iPhone App
Followup on Craigslist Lawsuit
Google U Libraries
Diamond Encrusted Nokia
- Palm Pre – $549

JOTW – I don’t know what I’ve been told… Vista is the Army’s Gold….

II
Twitter TV? – TV in 140 characters or less.
The Vista Army – What are they thinking?

QOTC – Will you or do you have a Netbook?

III
Will Netbooks Fail? – Will we find a Happy Medium?
Circuit City Return Policy – Be ready to give up Junior.

Extras:
Red Bull Diet – Good for you?
The New Soundwave – Transformers USB 4 port hub

Steampunk PC

Bud Adjustable Workstation

YouTubin:
Dell Mini 10v on Ubuntu, Android and XP

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:10 — 21.1MB)

I use Twitter a lot. I wanted to stay informed, especially from friends. I decided to port all direct messages to my cell phone. That way I didn’t have to install a Twitter client. At first that was great – I could respond to people I need to talk to.

That has all changed with the Twitterbot.

Now, if I “Follow” the wrong person, I get a direct message:

Thanks for following me. I hope to talk to you, but in the meantime: here is a free gift hllp://i.am.spamming/you.

I am not impressed – In fact, I am downright annoyed. You want to get unfollowed by me? Then all you have to do is send me a bot like that. I’ll unfollow you in a heartbeat.

I don’t mind @replies. But the direct replies are the ones that go to the cell phone too. I am glad someone is trying to open communication, but this is redicuous.

So what can be done to change this?

Twitter could block directly direct messages – Maybe set up a blocker to direct messages until the two have conversed or a 30 day grace period has passed. Maybe even an

“Allow this person to DM you” option. Just because I want to follow them doesn’t mean I want them to spam me.

DM Karma – If your Karma is below a certain level, you cannot DM anyone.

In the meantime, I am going to have to turn off the option to SMS me for direct messages. I guess what was a good thing last year might not be so much this.

I started a new group a couple months ago to not only get new podcasters interested, but also have existing podcasters get together and talk about different aspects. I decided that if it’s a meeting about Podcasting, it should be a podcast itself. Therefore, we recorded the first Madison Podcasters Group Podcast.

I decided that since this isn’t really a centric item and there is a lot of good information, then it will be added to the Quickcast. It will also have it’s own group, too.

The subject of the first podcast group – how easy it is to set up and make a podcast. We talk in general about setting up a mic to a computer and recording it, how much it’s going to cost you and how difficult it really is to set up a podcast.

There is some great information out of this hour. The sound is a bit ‘hummy’, I have tried to work out the noise. It is chuck full of some great material, so please bear through the hum and check out the show.

Next month’s meeting will be: How to host your podcast. 3-03-09

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (33.7MB)

So Monster.com got hacked again. Although there was no credit card info captured, they did get enough info to call or email you and make it sound pretty darn legitimate. Of course, you are encouraged to log in, change your password (don’t make it the same as your email btw) and check to make sure your information is correct.

I have completely changed my resume. Anyone need a Podcaster?

This week’s Bitstrips is about the hack. If you notice, Monster had moved on from the Monster “Monster”. Maybe he’s become a disgruntled Monster? Maybe this Monster will take retaliation? HMMM….

Wow. It was about a year ago I asked for people to send in thoughts as to what to expect in 2008. I also made some Technology predictions. But the real question was – How far off was I?

This is actually part 1 of a 2-part story. This first part reviews the predictions I made last year and how far off I was. Part 2 will have this years predictions, including predictions from CEO’s CTO’s TechPodcasters and even a Psychic.

So without any further ado, let’s pick apart my idiocy from last year:

OLPC will have some growing pains. The first part of OLPC will be the easiest. Maintaining the machines will be the trick. Microsoft coming onboard will muddy the water, but they might be able to do things like offer a better support network to third world countries.

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If you’ve listened to the podcasts, you will hear the tag line:

…copyright Geekazine, and JMPEnterprise.

Well, in light of all the media moves, I have started a new website which will host all the media. It is called JMPEnterprise.com. I will be moving the audio this weekend as well as the main contact information for those interested in website design, graphic design and more.

The new website is www.jmpenterprise.com.

Yesterday on the Podcast, I talked about an email I received from iTunes. The story is an old podcast I ran up until last year was still  up on their site. I took everything down to make it go away and the listing stayed up on the site. I continued to get 404 errors (page missing) from my site error page, so I put the XML back up.

Finally on Monday I recieved the take down notice. It was really surprising since iTunes never really cleaned up the mess before. I had a few people ask me to post the letter, so here it is:

As a consultant, I use my own equipment all the time. When I get to a specific client, sometimes I am asked to sign a waiver that states I will not take company data. I sign it because I am not going to ruin any relationship by walking out with secrets or customer lists.

Data nowadays can be controlled. We at the Quickcast have talked about how that can happen many a time. However, the most important thing in a work environment is to make sure the data stays within the company – even after a person has left. Citrix Systems has given  Employees a bonus payment to buy their own laptop for corporate use. While it does give advantage, could the company lose control of the data?

Brought to you by CareerSaver – Download Free Certification Tests.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.0MB)

Digg grew to a powerhouse site in a very short time. The Popular News Aggregator service continues to be a great place for people to not only read news, but also contribute to what they think is news. Alexa reports that Digg has been fluctuating around the top 100 to 150 sites being viewed. 52.5% of those viewers are in the US.

The rumor mill is stirring up again that Google has put interest in buying Digg. TechCrunch reports that the “Rumor” is Digg will be selling for $200 million although CEO Jay Adelson denies it. Will this be a good deal for Digg, or can they grow and survive on their own?

Digg started in 2004 by Kevin Rose, Own Byrne, Ron Gorodetzky and Jay Adelson. The idea was to aggregate news items and put popularity to it. People would place a “Digg it” icon on their site in which you could easily send the article to Diggs news feed.  If another person liked the site, they would Digg it. Others could just as easily Bury it. Some sites get Dugg so much so quickly, the flooding of viewers takes down the web page. It’s a very powerful medium, and definitely something that Google could use.

There are other sites like this. Fark is one of the oldest in which we talked about in a previous article on Geekazine. Yahoo has their “Buzz”, which is awfully similar to Digg. Reddit, Technorati, Del.icio.us and StumbleUpon all have similar popularity systems. However, Digg seems to be more popular in the US. According to Alexa Del.icio.us, for example, actually has a decent popularity in Germany.

Why would Google want Digg?

Two things here. First is the voting system. It’s not only very sound but also comes with a ton of analytical widgets that can spot trends and keywords. Even more, a large number of people actually have the “Digg” widget located on their sites, some of them have multiple widgets just on one page.

Second, it’s the community. Digg has a lot of members that contribute countless numbers of articles. When a new article is submitted, it must first be verified so it’s not a duplicate. After agreeing it’s not and a quick CAPTCHA verification, it gets put into the Queue. Of course that is where the members really shine. They can rise that article up to the top, or drop it like a mobster in Cement shoes off the East River.

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What does Google gain in this?

Like I said, Digg has some cool systems in place to view trends and keywords. Their “Digg Labs” shows statistics as they happen in cool little flash pages. Trends and Keywords are big for marketing. Specializing ads, pitching companies with almost picture perfect statistics – All can give Google a better advantage in the market today.

It also can be great to see in search results. Maybe an “Article Trends” chart could be called up to find out when that information was most popular. It could definitely be put to use in their Webmaster Tools, Adsense and DoubleClick ventures.

What would that mean to Digg?

One of two things. The Digg Staff would either be incorporated into operations at Google – basically be called Google Digg or DigGoogle:  or Google would let Digg look like a separate being and cross platform with them. I would guess the latter is going to happen. Sometime full incorporation means job exodus and loss of creativity. Not to mention members jumping ship to other competitors.

On another front of this, Microsoft put in 11.3 Million in a 3 year advertising deal to Digg. If this acquisition happens, this contract could be axed overnight. If that happens, hey Microsoft – we at Geekazine have some ad spots you can purchase for considerably less. Give me a call.

Of course it won’t be the end of the world for Microsoft. Like I said before, there are other sites that are very similar. Digg will always have competition via Yahoo, Reddit, Technorati, Del.icio.us or on any of the other sites.

Bottom line, this merge would be great for both. Kevin Rose and the gang would get a boost for all the work put into Digg and maybe a shiny new title. Google would get a ranking system and analytical tools which in turn would also be bestowed upon the community of webmasters for their sites. It looks like a good Win Win situation for everyone.

That is, if it’s true…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.5MB)

Podcast (quickcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:26 — 2.5MB)

It’s no surprise I am on the web a lot. I work on a ton of stuff for Geekazine, Dorkazine and for other projects. I would say my web usage is around 12 to 16 hours in a day (computer usage being a little more). So finding the good websites is key and when I do, I stick with them. Here is an insight to the websites I go to daily to pass the info along. We’ll skip the obvious sites (Geekazine and Dorkazine).
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