Posts Tagged ‘levelator’

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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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.

It’s been a year and a few months since the first iPhone was sold. Since the release of the 3G model, I’ve been seeing people with iPhones I would have never expected have one. The iPhone has brought up a new way to use the internet, the phone and a computer.

Apple is under a lot of scrutiny: AT&T being the sole carrier, the Apps store program take downs and the 3G services being poor. Yet the iPhone still is the 2nd best selling phone behind the Motorola RAZR. Apple itself is set to continue through these tough times.

There has been a lot of good and bad said about the iPhone. I have seen a lot of Forum posts, even more twitters and more. I decided to go ahead and ask a small group of people over at Help A Reporter what their thoughts were. I asked to send me 1-2 paragraphs as to why you like, don’t like or are neutral about the iPhone. Here are the responses:

Open Source seems to be a growing movement. Not everything is part of the “GNU General Public License” though.  Some have even gone as far to make their own Public License standard.

Microsoft does have some Open Source to them, but what would happen if they took their Operating System to that standard? Would people accept the Microsoft OS, or would they finally make the switch to Linux?

Brought to you by CareerSaver.com – 25% off Training materials if you use code “Geek08”.

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

Podcast (quickcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:22 — 2.5MB)

Another Awesome show is in the books. We talked about a lot. Dan got a new iMac. We talked about the H2O car. We talked about websites and Yahoo Builder. We talked about recording podcasts and Audacity. We talked about turning your smartphone into a 2nd video monitor for your computer.

Basically we talked about a lot of stuff. But check it out for yourself!

Hour 1:

Hour 2:

Google Sky up. Is it wrong?
No Blu-Ray for XBox
The Dirty Jobs of IT
You mean that’s not Brittany?
Feature Content:
Another Sub Laptop?

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.4MB)

*Updated 03-13 -08. See Below

Snafu.  Freedictionary.com defines it as “A chaotic or confused situation”. The word SNAFU is an acronym, in which most of it I cannot decode here, so I’ll fudge it a bit. Situation Normal All Fouled Up.

If you were to go through a snafu a few years ago with a company, you would most likely grumble to your friends and family and then move on – Little impact on that. However, in this day and age, a Snafu can really come back to hurt. With Social Networking rising 47 percent year to year (according to Nielsen Netratings), this can really give companies a tough time if problems arise. But still, can social networking cause a company hardship because of a single or series of transactions?

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

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