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Thoughts and things I care to sharelinks for 2007-09-28
- Stowe critiques the new “Tracing” feature in Twitter.
- For those who like to get their tech fix via screen caps – here’s a fix for Friday.
- While Facebook is “growing up”, there are many, many things that are wrong with it. Things like CircleUp will help in that process, but you can’t beat a good blog, Twitter, Plaxo, Outlook, and maybe LinkedIn for business.
- Of course I couldn’t let this slip by. Cool shit.
- It seems Alex Iskold makes my point for me. This reflects one point I was making in my “Blog as a social network” post a week ago or so. And yes, the axiom “less is more” does hold true to social networking.
- Ooo, daddy like…
- In case you hadn’t checked out Amazon’s new online music store.
- Hurry update your LinkedIn profile with your favorite pic! Well, it’s a new feature isn’t it?
- You’re warned, don’t update an unlocked iPhone. I’ve been reading quite a bit on this one all day.
Reasons why I can’t buy an iPhone
It’s not because it’s Apple.
I’ve been reading and thinking about the iPhone a lot lately. I’m coming up on needing to upgrade my aging, failing, but fantastic T-Mobile MDA. I’ve been fascinated by the features and simplicity of the iPhone that has, of course, been the center of mobile tech hype for months now.
The reasons are simple and have little to do with the iPhone itself. Here they are.
- Not T-Mobile This is a big deal for me, I’m not going to change my number over – all my family and friends are on T-Mobile and my calls to them are all out of the unlimited "mobile to mobile" pool that doesn’t cost me a dime extra.
- No WMA support. Yep, 18 months ago I converted our entire library of tunes to WMA. I’m not going to do it again. I had to pick and there were upcoming WMA players at the time, my Pocket PCs were my player and new Nokia’s are compatible with the Windows Media Player sync tool.
- Software I have literally hundreds of dollars of software that is designed for Windows Mobile. I’m not going to through that away just for because I got a new mobile device. I am glad that I bought only Bluetooth hardware accessories though – that move has paid off big time.
- 3G Yeah, you who know will point out that T-Mobile doesn’t even have a 3G service for their customers (it’s in deployment/testing yet), so I shouldn’t bring up the lack of 3G in the iPhone. Fine I won’t. But other devices on the market have had long experience with 3G implementation, so I won’t loose sleep over that.
- Keyboard I’ve often scoffed at the keyboard on the face of the BlackBerry for a long time, but they are very handy to craft messages. My beloved MDA had a sliding keyboard, which I would buy again, but having one on the front of the device would be nice in several ways.
- Control I must have control of the device. From the selection of the firmware to software to the network settings. Traits from being a true techno geek. I know how the devices work and I can create a better configuration for my work/usage habits than anyone else can for me.
Well I can’t think of any other things at this point, and this is not to crap on the iPhone. I really do want one, compared to my initial reaction when it was released. The device is indeed an advance in design, engineering, interface and usability. It’s just not on my list this year when I go shopping for a new device.
What will I be looking for? Probably going to be another Windows Mobile device. Will need to support 3G HSDPA, all the usual wireless support, keyboard, good camera (3MP or better), video capabilities (record and playback), sync with WMP, more memory and a faster processor…
What’s your take – should a person switch carriers just for a hyped (albeit good) device?
Rebuilding my browser
I’ve been a longtime Firefox user, using many of the excellent plug-ins to extend the experience as I find more services that I use online. Like many people, I’ve let myself get a bit overloaded with added features, and yes there were several that I no longer use.
So tonight I went through my entire browser, bookmarks, organization, toolbars, plug-ins – the whole works. I’ve stripped down to the bare essentials and gotten rid of ALL the toolbars I had loaded. I never used them. Only the bookmark toolbar is left, and that went from about 50 buttons down to 14 buttons – it may loose even more, we’ll see.
The idea being that I put only the sites, services, and tools that I use every darn day on the bookmark toolbar. The rest of my bookmarks have been reorganized into one of (up to) ten categories – and yes I numbered them. When I click on Bookmarks now, I only see 10 categories. My apologies to Chris Brogan, I borrowed the term "rockstars" for the blogs I actually visit instead of reading their feeds.
I’ll be doing more work on the organization, but I had over 70 folders under my Bookmarks to begin with. Yeah, I’ll still have a hard time finding everything, but I believe that I can weed out feeds over time. This was to get the initial Bookmark menu so I didn’t have to scroll through it to find a folder.
So, I’ve got a ways to go before it’s fully organized to weed out the dead links and make it easier to find things but it’s a start. Wondering what add-ons I left in place? here’s a rundown that I use almost every day.
- Blog This in Windows Live Writer (Toolbar button to launch WLW with selections from currently displayed page.)
- coComment (Be able to add comments to my coComment account)
- ColorZilla (Color picker for on-screen, plus other tools)
- del.icio.us (Bookmark, add, and share links directly to del.icio.us. Yes there is a newer version, but I don’t like how it handles everything.)
- Download Statusbar (View and manage downloads in status bar)
- FireFTP (FTP Client runs in a browser tab)
- Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer (Synchronize bookmarks across multiple machines)
- Google Notebook (Quickly let’s me add things to my Google Notebook)
- GUtil! (Adds a quick link to all Google utilities and apps in one toolbar button)
- MeasureIt (On-screen ruler, use it to figure out how many pixels something is/should be)
- Twitbin (Twitter client for the Firefox sidebar)
Well, that about does it for my browsing environment. Firefox is my main browser, but I do keep Internet Explorer, Opera, and Flock loaded for testing purposes. I’m thinking of adding Safari, but it’ll have to wait for a little while.
Now, what is your browsing environment like? What tools, add-ins, and programs do you use? Let me know. 🙂
links for 2007-09-27
- New Twitter feature
- Wow, how quickly time flies!
- Steve Rubel comes up with more great ideas on how to leverage all that free space and search functionality that is GMail.
links for 2007-09-26
- Sometimes you just can’t win. More for Vonage.
- Hmm… tis an interesting twist. Gotta love how tech shrinks. Think Nokia will bite?
- Blogging pal Steven Hodson has a great post on Microsoft’s bid to purchase a piece of Facebook.
- Will Microsoft bring the next round of innovation to search?
- The Ultimate failing of Windows Vista. Where’s the value?
- Instant Message on Facebook? Looks like it could happen.
- Things are moving fast for the next release of Windows Server.
Facebook Relationships
I’m frustrated with how Facebook handles relationships. Set aside for a moment that I think it’s inferior to a blog for social networking. If I was to entrust my social network to Facebook, I’d have a hard time to keep track of all the different types of interrelationships.
We all have family, friends, associates, co-workers, employers, vendors, suppliers, and so on that we deal with on a daily or weekly basis. Why can’t we classify our "friends" according to type of relationship? There should be more choices, like following relationship types: family, friends, followers, & associates.
Doing this would allow us to organize contacts to be more aligned with groups, apps, and sort out what each type of "friend" could access. I’m one of those people who want’s all contacts to "see" everything I do on Facebook – but I would still like to be able to sort my contacts by type.
This is one area that Facebook and the rest of social network services will have a hard time to provide PIM functionality that many people still use. That’s my $.02 – what do you think? What other types of relationships could be included?
links for 2007-09-25
- Could it really happen? Could MS hook up with FB? That’s a blog post screaming to be written.
- ‘Nuff said.
- That’s right kids, the latest & greatest of your favorite flavor of blogging code is ready for consumption. Get ready, set, go!
- Hmm, it sure looks cool.
- Warner Crocker gives his 1st impressions on Vista SP1 (beta).
Bits & Pieces for September
It’s been a roller coaster summer for me this year. A lot of change and some uncertainty that has really allowed me to explore a lot of new territory online. Also, because of the not-quite-turmoil in my families summer, I’ve allowed myself to get behind on writing several times – this past week has been another one. We’re getting everything ready for the final move this upcoming weekend and it’ll be a full-tilt operation all the way through to Monday morning.
Meanwhile, I’ve found a lot of great new bloggers out there in all sorts of areas of expertise. It’s been a great month on the topic of social media exploration for me as well, I’ve really started thinking more in-depth on the topic. Branching out from the online SocNets to how social interaction in the real world is suffering, and that it’s not because of the Internet either.
I’ve got at *ton* of reading that I need to catch up on and even more writing to do. More later.
Why your blog is your social network
There are many good social networks to be a part of, but as I delve deeper into social media and personal branding I’m coming to the conclusion that your blog is becoming more important.
On your blog, you have a direct feed to your readers. Those readers can be friends as much as it can be potential employers or business contacts. Your blog can take on more of your characteristics, from the way you write to the theme that presents the information to your readers.
A blog can interact with other social networks, augmented with whatever tools you choose to bring into your branding strategy. Adding additional communications, video, audio and so on adds more value to your ability to network and share with your community.
The one big thing about viewing your blog as a social network is to remember the social aspect, which infers the interaction in a community. A blog’s comment system is there to enable the conversation, you are there to help drive the conversation. If you’re disabling comments because you don’t like some criticism, you may want to take another look. That feedback could help you grow in ways that aren’t readily apparent.
Also, your blog is your online hub. Use it to send information to other social networks that you frequent. It’s also the one place on the Internet that you can make sure people find out about YOU. You can make sure to let them know how to find you, to find your profiles and networks that you have left profiles, feedback, and articles on throughout the Internet. From your blog people can download a copy of your resume, talk about your latest work, and so on. Don’t forget that you can have an easier to remember URL to get to your blog than your profile on any service or social network.
Overall, the advantages of having a blog that you can interact with others is a statement about you. You took the initiative, you are reaching out, you are placing your ideas in a public forum, you are inviting feedback. Don’t get me wrong; in phrasing it that way it sounds like The Great You Show – but it doesn’t have to be. It’s up to you to be able to show it’s really about conversations.
On your blog, and through your interests and reading habits, you will find other bloggers in the same genre and begin to share links and comments with. This is one of the best ways to grow your network. No, it’s not like getting 250 ‘friends’ on Facebook in a weekend, but that’s because it’s more valuable. Having two or three blogging friends is more valuable and powerful than large numbers elsewhere. Your interaction in the blogosphere with others is what builds that value. It’s more than any number can represent because it’s real exchange of ideas, real interaction. And that my friend is social networking.
So what else am I missing? What else helps make your blog your entry point to social networking?
links for 2007-09-19
- Glad to see that Google Reader is a “shipping” product. Personally, it’s been over a year since I’ve switched to GReader, and I couldn’t think of a better feed reader to recommend. Notice how most of Google’s Web 2.0 software are coming out of beta?
@MAC_Arms Pay taxes when you make your money, pay taxes when you spend your money, pay taxes when you successfully invest your money, pay taxes when you save enough taxed money to afford a house, pay taxes to live in your house, pay taxes when you sell the house that you paid taxes on to
Yup, taxes are criminal and we need serious reforms. I've always said that if you want to see a tax revolt, make withholdings illegal and have Americans write a tax check every payday. They'll revolt for sure. You don't miss what you never had.
I think it’s safe to say that @GovEvers should stop blocking audits in Wisconsin and open the books…
“Only AMERICAN citizens should vote.”
Sen. @berniemoreno says voter ID and proof of citizenship are simply common sense.
“We’re talking about a very low threshold — identify who you are and prove you’re a U.S. citizen when you register to vote. I think we’re getting closer to
Wrong. Democrats are solely responsible for hours-long airport lines.
They voted to defund TSA three times and won’t even entertain a conversation about reopening it. Why?
They’re using it as leverage to stop enforcing immigration laws.