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Thoughts and things I care to shareBusy Week
I’ve been really busy the last few days and haven’t gotten a change to post lately. Been reading a lot, and generating links to interesting stuff, but I’ve not had time to really do some good writing for the blog. I’m back at it today and should have a few good pieces this week. Talk to you later!
links for 2007-07-12
- My systems admin friends may be interested in the Active Directory Explorer from Sysinternals (now a part of Microsoft).
- Looks like a delay to Firefox 3.
- Have you been looking for just a few pics of the MS Office Roundtable product(s) in action – check this link out. It’ll give you a quick idea to back up the tech you may have read about. Cool stuff – saw some of this back in April.
- Bubble Guru seems like an easy way for the novice blogger to get video onto their site.
- Leo Babauta over at Web Worker Daily gives an overview of 6 online contact management apps.
- This picture of the Nokia N800 does bare a resemblance to the HTC Wizard, Hermes, and Kaiser. Very interesting…
links for 2007-07-11
- Ever wonder how much comment Spam is growing? Check out the stats at the Akismet blog, where Matt details the growth.
- My systems admin friends may be interested in the Active Directory Explorer from Sysinternals (now a part of Microsoft).
- Looks like a delay to Firefox 3.
- Have you been looking for just a few pics of the MS Office Roundtable product(s) in action – check this link out. It’ll give you a quick idea to back up the tech you may have read about. Cool stuff – saw some of this back in April.
- Bubble Guru seems like an easy way for the novice blogger to get video onto their site.
- Leo Babauta over at Web Worker Daily gives an overview of 6 online contact management apps.
links for 2007-07-10
- Google has agreed to purchase Postini, but I’m sure you’ve already seen this around the web.
- I happen to agree with Tony Hung on this – Pownce is a slick new service, but it doesn’t do what Twitter does. By the way, anyone want a Pownce invite? Email me directly – its somewhere on my blog.
- Looking for all those cool Silverlight Apps you keep hearing about? Tim Sneath has put together a list of 50 of them.
- Have you TwitterGram’ed yet? Well, don’t worry, many haven’t – but I think Rex is correct in his analysis of TwitterGram. The service has huge potential on many fronts – good article.
ProBlogger Post Series: What We Wish We Knew When We First Started Blogging
Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger has a series of posts this week dealing with “What we wish we knew when we first started blogging”. Five in total, and cover the gamut from building a blog to answering comments. Looks like a good read, which most of his posts are.
There are a million things a blogger learns over the course of their blogging career, and learning about the most common “gotchas” is an important one. Hopefully, this five part series will help identify some things for new bloggers, and provoke a smile for seasoned bloggers. Thanks Darren!
Via: ProBlogger – What We Wish We Knew When We First Started Blogging – A Series
Google Acquires Postini
So Google has agreed to acquire Postini, the email security company. Pretty cool. Here is the Official Press Release.
Via: Official Google Blog – Welcome, Postini team
links for 2007-07-07
- Chris Brogan usually has some good posts, but this one is one that everyone should read once a week just to keep the message fresh in one’s mind. Thanks Chris!
- Interesting concept demo for Windows Vista systems with touch screens or active digitizers. May be interesting utilities/tools coming to market sometime.
What Twitter has that Jaiku and Pownce don’t
Simplicity, purpose, people.
Yes, Twitter was there first and had all the technorati raving about it earlier this year at SXSW, but it also had something else. A singular purpose that 
didn’t pretend to be anything else. So
while Jaiku is interesting, and Pownce is feature-rich, Twitter continues to do what it was designed to do. Answer the one question: “What are you doing?”
Purpose
Of course the original purpose was to let friends know what your up to, and be able to do that from the web, IM, or text message. While Twitter still asks the same question, it’s users have continued to push the boundaries of what the service can be used for. Because of that user innovation, Twitter unknowingly launched the concept of micro-blogging.
One recent user-created innovation that brings value to the service is Dave Winer’s TwitterGram. Bringing the ability to leave ~30 second voice messages via the service, including by phone.
Another user-innovation is using a URL shorting service like TinyURL or urlTea to keep URLs to a short 25 characters. This of course allows the inclusion of links in Twitter posts.
Since the heavy influx of users back in February and March, the idea of micro-blogging has taken root. While Twitter still asks the same question, it’s users continue to expand it’s usefulness. In addition to telling everyone what you are currently doing, it also allows one to ask questions and get answers.
Simplicity
Twitter is also simple to use. There are no other controls or buttons on the site to take away from the user experience. You come, you post, you read. It’s a super fast way to post your thoughts. Also, keeping the text limit to 140 characters or less has done several things. It fits with nearly all SMS text messaging services field limits, it makes it fast to post, and it makes people think of how best to say something.
People
Of course the biggest reason that Twitter is better is the people that are already there. Yes, they are there because it was up and running first, but its the actual core group that uses Twitter every day, all day. The simplicity and single-focus on micro-blogging that keeps them using the service.
Most bloggers already have their day full, and adding new social networks that do the same thing are a poor use of time. We’ve got too many places to update our status, and trade notes with friends to add another service that really doesn’t enhance to core product in a efficient way.
Also, with a number of “A List” and/or prominent and well-known bloggers on Twitter, it is a wonder resource for news in your genre and getting to know each Twitter Friend better.
IMHO
It’s my opinion that Twitter simply rocks for these reasons. While it’s well documented to have problems from time to time, and there are a number of features that many Twitters request, it’s just too valuable to me in it’s current form to look elsewhere for the same functionality. I’ll be staying with Twitter.
More Bloggers on the Twitter vs. Pownce debate:
- Verge New Media – Twitter vs. Pownce and the Value Proposition of Social Media
- 1389 Mobile Blog – Twitter vs. Pownce – With Rolling Updates
links for 2007-07-06
- Flash for iPhone – according to a leak on Digg. Scoble is curious on the timing.
- Confused on the Net Neutrality issue? Check out PC Mag for an explanation. I don’t think anyone’s a nitwit about this, because to the uninitiated, it is very complex.
- Hey there all you corporate types – get ready for the MS security update for July.
Trying Flock
I’ve reading a bit about Flock lately, so I’m going to give it a try. I’ll let you know how that goes. I’m looking for any way to tie together the social networks better than they are today.
@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.