Just realized that I could add a "share this" feature to my blog settings that lets guests use social networks, email, and blog platforms to share what they find on my blog. It is one of the things that I remember I liked about the New York Times site, the little box off to the side that let you email or get the permalink - it feels like they've had that up since my first year at UC Irvine; maybe not. Now lots of other sites have similar "share this" or "add this" features to help share, spread, promote, etc. what you stumble upon on the internet.
I happened to like the look of the ShareThis solution, and found it really easy to configure for my site. I added it to all of my blogs in about 5 minutes.
So, if you hadn't noticed it yet, take a closer look. At the footer of each post there is a rotating icon (by the Comments and Post information) that lets you click and select how you would like to share the content.
Go for it, share away!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
a Twitter tool
So I guess I've been on a Twitter theme lately. I saw this site the other day and wanted to pass it along to you.
Twitter will tell you when someone begins to follow you, but do you ever wonder how long they actually do? This site Qwitter, http://useqwitter.com/, allows you to set up an email alert that tells you when someone stops following you, and also the tweet that you sent right before they unfollowed.
In case you didn't have enough things to think about with your Twitter account between your updates, how many you follow, and how many follow you - now you can see why your friends ditch you!
.
Twitter will tell you when someone begins to follow you, but do you ever wonder how long they actually do? This site Qwitter, http://useqwitter.com/, allows you to set up an email alert that tells you when someone stops following you, and also the tweet that you sent right before they unfollowed.
In case you didn't have enough things to think about with your Twitter account between your updates, how many you follow, and how many follow you - now you can see why your friends ditch you!
.
Google, Twitter, and Innovation
I read an interesting article with a disruptive innovation slant focused on search-giant Google and social networking and micro-blogging upstart Twitter. [Most of you are familiar with Google. For a Twitter primer and history, go HERE.]
As search continues to expand, improve, and adapt, there will be many avenues for innovation. Already, the vertical search market of video searching is being dominated by YouTube. According to the article referenced, YouTube is the second largest search site. If you want to find something, odds are you can find it on YouTube.
* Want to know how to make guacamole? There's about 300 videos to show you.
* Just got a calling to work with the Scouts and need to brush up on some Scouting know-how before a merit badge clinic or camping trip? Re-learn how to make a log cabin fire, tie a bowline knot, or how to fold the flag.
* Have a question you've been dying to Ask a Ninja? Well, you can!
* Want to learn about the Bay of Pigs or the Cuban Missile Crisis?
All of these, and more, have videos online that relate to your search query.
Where is search going? Some companies are looking at Natural Language Processing (NLP) or semantic search to change the way we search and access information.
But search is also going another direction. Twitter has made the news for its nearly instant insight into current events as reported by its millions of users. And, with the application of "hash tags," tweets can be categorized and "followed" in a kind of group chat room way. We first discovered this during last October's LDS General Conference. Individuals using the #ldsconf hash tag made conference one of the hottest trending topics on Twitter. Going to search.twitter.com allows you to search by word to "see what's happening -- right not, and to follow trending topics.
The "Twitter in Media" section of the Twitter Wikipedia article has some interesting examples of Twitter being used to convey real-time information, usually ahead of traditional news sources. Go there to read about the
* UC Berkeley grad student in Egypt who tweeted his arrest and ended up getting help from his followers
* The passenger who used TwitPic to send a picture of the downed US Airways flight as it landed in the Hudson
* And how the American Red Cross uses Twitter and hash tags to spread the word about disasters and relief efforts
Read what john borthwick thinks about Google and Twitter. Is this the David that can take down the Goliath?
IMHO, search.twitter may have found its niche for search in real-time events, but it's not out of the woods, yet. Don't expect Google to fall by the wayside any time soon. Web search as we know it (largely keyword- and rankings-based) is comfortable for most users; change will be hard. Twitter has yet to find a business model that will make it profitable. It will be interesting to see how Twitter addresses this and where they go next. Will they try the Google route and run on ad-revenue? Will they just be bought up by someone who has monetizing plans in mind? For an in-depth analysis of Twitter's disruptive capability, visit the InnoBlog. Also, I think it's safe to say that people search for information for a reason. Although it may not be in style to always cite sources while chatting with your social networking crowd, I see a potential weakness with the search.twitter: with all the Re-Tweeting (RT) going on, how do you know who first put the information out there? What do you know about the person? Can you contact them? How do you know they were there? At least with "traditional" web searches, you can take pains to identify owners of the website, discover who is responsible for content creation, and provide a stable (mostly) URL for someone to re-create your research. I'm not sure how you would do any of this through a medium like Twitter.
That being said- I have found Twitter to be a useful tool. I enjoy the people -- both friends and random individuals -- that I follow, and continue to get pointed towards new things and hear about events I otherwise wouldn't have known about. Twitter is growing on me, and I'm sure I'll continue to discover new ways to use it as a tool. In the meantime, I won't be giving up my Google searches, but I may begin to sift through the millions of Tweets to see if there isn't someone out there who can help me with the next question that I have.
.
As search continues to expand, improve, and adapt, there will be many avenues for innovation. Already, the vertical search market of video searching is being dominated by YouTube. According to the article referenced, YouTube is the second largest search site. If you want to find something, odds are you can find it on YouTube.
* Want to know how to make guacamole? There's about 300 videos to show you.
* Just got a calling to work with the Scouts and need to brush up on some Scouting know-how before a merit badge clinic or camping trip? Re-learn how to make a log cabin fire, tie a bowline knot, or how to fold the flag.
* Have a question you've been dying to Ask a Ninja? Well, you can!
* Want to learn about the Bay of Pigs or the Cuban Missile Crisis?
All of these, and more, have videos online that relate to your search query.
Where is search going? Some companies are looking at Natural Language Processing (NLP) or semantic search to change the way we search and access information.
But search is also going another direction. Twitter has made the news for its nearly instant insight into current events as reported by its millions of users. And, with the application of "hash tags," tweets can be categorized and "followed" in a kind of group chat room way. We first discovered this during last October's LDS General Conference. Individuals using the #ldsconf hash tag made conference one of the hottest trending topics on Twitter. Going to search.twitter.com allows you to search by word to "see what's happening -- right not, and to follow trending topics.
The "Twitter in Media" section of the Twitter Wikipedia article has some interesting examples of Twitter being used to convey real-time information, usually ahead of traditional news sources. Go there to read about the
* UC Berkeley grad student in Egypt who tweeted his arrest and ended up getting help from his followers
* The passenger who used TwitPic to send a picture of the downed US Airways flight as it landed in the Hudson
* And how the American Red Cross uses Twitter and hash tags to spread the word about disasters and relief efforts
Read what john borthwick thinks about Google and Twitter. Is this the David that can take down the Goliath?
IMHO, search.twitter may have found its niche for search in real-time events, but it's not out of the woods, yet. Don't expect Google to fall by the wayside any time soon. Web search as we know it (largely keyword- and rankings-based) is comfortable for most users; change will be hard. Twitter has yet to find a business model that will make it profitable. It will be interesting to see how Twitter addresses this and where they go next. Will they try the Google route and run on ad-revenue? Will they just be bought up by someone who has monetizing plans in mind? For an in-depth analysis of Twitter's disruptive capability, visit the InnoBlog. Also, I think it's safe to say that people search for information for a reason. Although it may not be in style to always cite sources while chatting with your social networking crowd, I see a potential weakness with the search.twitter: with all the Re-Tweeting (RT) going on, how do you know who first put the information out there? What do you know about the person? Can you contact them? How do you know they were there? At least with "traditional" web searches, you can take pains to identify owners of the website, discover who is responsible for content creation, and provide a stable (mostly) URL for someone to re-create your research. I'm not sure how you would do any of this through a medium like Twitter.
That being said- I have found Twitter to be a useful tool. I enjoy the people -- both friends and random individuals -- that I follow, and continue to get pointed towards new things and hear about events I otherwise wouldn't have known about. Twitter is growing on me, and I'm sure I'll continue to discover new ways to use it as a tool. In the meantime, I won't be giving up my Google searches, but I may begin to sift through the millions of Tweets to see if there isn't someone out there who can help me with the next question that I have.
.
Losing the billable hour?
In all this talk of bad economy, the need to innovate, and the impact upon people across the market -- but what about lawyers?
I mean, the only things that are constant (besides change) are death and taxes. And those are two things that will keep lawyers around -- of all types.
DEATH
--homicide? You may need a criminal lawyer
--wrongful death? You may need a litigator
--natural death? Well of course you're going to need an estate lawyer
--death of a company? Get your bankruptcy lawyers
--death of a relationship? Plenty of divorce attorneys around
TAXES
--own a company? Get a good tax lawyer to help save you money
--forget to pay your taxes? Seek an appointment...
--can't understand the tax code? You probably have a law-maker to thank, and the team of lawyers that helped draft it
--and I'm sure there's others.
But I digress. This article from the New York Times caught my eye as it mentioned some law firms re-thinking the billable hour, and trying to come up with innovative ways to keep clients and keep money -- realizing that perhaps the old way of doing business just might not keep working in the current economic situation. Other industries have realized this in the past; others are slow to learn.
Now, several of my friends are at law school (or moving on to practice). What do you think about the potential to lose the billable hour? What's the "shop talk"?
I mean, the only things that are constant (besides change) are death and taxes. And those are two things that will keep lawyers around -- of all types.
DEATH
--homicide? You may need a criminal lawyer
--wrongful death? You may need a litigator
--natural death? Well of course you're going to need an estate lawyer
--death of a company? Get your bankruptcy lawyers
--death of a relationship? Plenty of divorce attorneys around
TAXES
--own a company? Get a good tax lawyer to help save you money
--forget to pay your taxes? Seek an appointment...
--can't understand the tax code? You probably have a law-maker to thank, and the team of lawyers that helped draft it
--and I'm sure there's others.
But I digress. This article from the New York Times caught my eye as it mentioned some law firms re-thinking the billable hour, and trying to come up with innovative ways to keep clients and keep money -- realizing that perhaps the old way of doing business just might not keep working in the current economic situation. Other industries have realized this in the past; others are slow to learn.
Now, several of my friends are at law school (or moving on to practice). What do you think about the potential to lose the billable hour? What's the "shop talk"?
The Answer to my number sequence post
I mentioned in my earlier post that "maybe you'll win something" if you could correctly identify the next number in the sequence of numbers that I gave.
The sequence was called the Robert Morris sequence, or the look-and-say sequence.
Basically, you read aloud the sequence, starting with the first number, and speak the count of, and name, each digit. It started with the number "1"
1: one [number] one, yields
11: two [number] one, yields
21: one [number] two, one [number] one,
and so on.
Congratulations again to Kallee and Jax for correctly identifying the next number in the sequence. (Did you cheat?)
I tried to think of something for these winners, and decided that since I like to see people share my posts (in Google Reader) or comment on my blog, that I would take the next few days to promote their blogs and hopefully get another reader or another person to comment.
[BTW, if you didn't figure it out, the number post was my intellectual attempt at de-lurking (explained by MommaMia). Although there are several of you that I know read my blog, very rarely does anyone comment.]
So, keep on the watch, and I'll try to work my muggle magic.
.
The sequence was called the Robert Morris sequence, or the look-and-say sequence.
Basically, you read aloud the sequence, starting with the first number, and speak the count of, and name, each digit. It started with the number "1"
1: one [number] one, yields
11: two [number] one, yields
21: one [number] two, one [number] one,
and so on.
Congratulations again to Kallee and Jax for correctly identifying the next number in the sequence. (Did you cheat?)
I tried to think of something for these winners, and decided that since I like to see people share my posts (in Google Reader) or comment on my blog, that I would take the next few days to promote their blogs and hopefully get another reader or another person to comment.
[BTW, if you didn't figure it out, the number post was my intellectual attempt at de-lurking (explained by MommaMia). Although there are several of you that I know read my blog, very rarely does anyone comment.]
So, keep on the watch, and I'll try to work my muggle magic.
.
The Ultimate Where's Waldo
Although we did not brave the crowds or the cold, millions did. January 20, 2009 once again showed the peaceful transition of power in American politics. It also introduced us to all sorts of new things:
--new cars
--new helicopters
--new administrations (complete with a tracker)
--and new websites
One other new thing that I discovered was this website called Gigapan. By visiting the link below, you can see a composite of images from the Inauguration. It allows you to zoom and pan and see an extraordinary amount of detail. I'm sure lots of fun things can be found in this image -- let's see what you can find, and then share them! (One blogger started a "Where's Waldo?" of sorts for several LDS Church leaders. I disagreed with the suggested solution, and upon analyzing the picture, propose that they aren't in the Gigapan image -- their seats were blocked by the press riser the image was produced from. Sorry folks!)
http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c
I've included some images I've found. Can you spot them in the big image? What did you find?
Weird camera worship? Crying over spilt '-Minolta?
Yo-Yo Ma taking a picture of the proceedings
.
--new cars
--new helicopters
--new administrations (complete with a tracker)
--and new websites
One other new thing that I discovered was this website called Gigapan. By visiting the link below, you can see a composite of images from the Inauguration. It allows you to zoom and pan and see an extraordinary amount of detail. I'm sure lots of fun things can be found in this image -- let's see what you can find, and then share them! (One blogger started a "Where's Waldo?" of sorts for several LDS Church leaders. I disagreed with the suggested solution, and upon analyzing the picture, propose that they aren't in the Gigapan image -- their seats were blocked by the press riser the image was produced from. Sorry folks!)
http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c
I've included some images I've found. Can you spot them in the big image? What did you find?
Weird camera worship? Crying over spilt '-Minolta?
Yo-Yo Ma taking a picture of the proceedings.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Can you guess the next number?
Ran across this today at work. Can you guess the next number?
Comment with your answer and maybe you'll win something!
.Submissions as of 02-19-2009.
Erica: 122111
Daija: 2212
Kallee: 111221
Jax: 111221
.SUBMISSIONS HAVE BEEN CLOSED.
.Jax and Kallee both answered correctly. I haven't thought of a cool prize, but I figured I could promote your blogs in my next post. And, I'll also write something about the sequence. Unless you want to tell everyone how you chose that answer.
cheers!
1 11 21 1211 ...
Comment with your answer and maybe you'll win something!
.Submissions as of 02-19-2009.
Erica: 122111
Daija: 2212
Kallee: 111221
Jax: 111221
.SUBMISSIONS HAVE BEEN CLOSED.
.Jax and Kallee both answered correctly. I haven't thought of a cool prize, but I figured I could promote your blogs in my next post. And, I'll also write something about the sequence. Unless you want to tell everyone how you chose that answer.
cheers!
Facebook limitations -- don't be too friendly
Besides the fact that Facebook changed its Terms of Service and will continue to keep the data that you post, even after you delete your Facebook account ...
Check out THIS STORY about this guy, whose account was disabled for adding too many new friends.
From his article:
His attempt to communicate with people at Facebook was cursorily responded to; he didn't receive attention until one of his new contacts that he made in a business setting offered to talk to one of his contacts, who happened to be a Facebook employee.
Apparently, in the web services/social networking crowd, it's still who you know, not just what.
[UPDATE 02-18-2009]
This just in from the Facebook team; I noticed it when I signed in via a browser and not on my Bb:
Terms of Use Update
Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.
If you want to share your thoughts on what should be in the new terms, check out our group Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.
Check out THIS STORY about this guy, whose account was disabled for adding too many new friends.
From his article:
I am not a shy man. I have been on this earth more than 50 years and in public relations for 30 years. Needless to say, I know a lot of people. Add to this regular media appearances, an aggressive speaking schedule, and the fact that mine is the first name on the door of the largest entertainment PR firm in the world and it’s safe to say a lot of people know me, too.
So I made friends. And when you make friends on Facebook, you get to see your friends’ friends. If I were home watching television or had a spare moment at my desk, I would ask people I knew, and interesting friends of friends, to add me as their friend. At the same time, literally hundreds of people were inviting me to be their friend—some I knew and many who I didn’t but I saw no reason to say no. After all, who doesn’t want a friend?
As I was adding friends, I would occasionally get a warning from the Facebook gods that I was engaging in abusive behavior and potentially violating their terms of service. But none of these warnings mentioned how I was being abusive. I looked at their terms of service and saw nothing about adding friends and decided to ignore these warnings. Last week, as I was inviting new friends at a vigorous rate, my Facebook page suddenly crashed.
His attempt to communicate with people at Facebook was cursorily responded to; he didn't receive attention until one of his new contacts that he made in a business setting offered to talk to one of his contacts, who happened to be a Facebook employee.
Apparently, in the web services/social networking crowd, it's still who you know, not just what.
[UPDATE 02-18-2009]
This just in from the Facebook team; I noticed it when I signed in via a browser and not on my Bb:
Terms of Use Update
Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.
If you want to share your thoughts on what should be in the new terms, check out our group Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Link Love
Give the gift of Link Love this Valentine's Day http://budurl.com/linklove
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Calling all Tweeple, and, check the side-bar
This post is a combined de-lurking post and a boost-up-my-Twitter-friends post.
FIRST
So, if you Twitter, let me know how to
follow you in the comments. (or, click follow-me on my blog homepage).
If you don't Twitter, but know what Twitter is, tell me what you think about it.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about - leave me a note and I'll send you some info.
SECOND
If you blog, and you don't see your blog listed on my blogroll on the right side (or would like to change how yours is listed), let me know and I'll make sure to include you (or edit).
Cheers!
FIRST
So, if you Twitter, let me know how to
follow you in the comments. (or, click follow-me on my blog homepage).
If you don't Twitter, but know what Twitter is, tell me what you think about it.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about - leave me a note and I'll send you some info.
SECOND
If you blog, and you don't see your blog listed on my blogroll on the right side (or would like to change how yours is listed), let me know and I'll make sure to include you (or edit).
Cheers!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Want to Succeed? Schedule a meeting with ...
Yourself.
As we continue venturing into uncharted economic waters, how can you keep your job on track and continue delivering your best? Schedule a weekly meeting with yourself. That's right: no matter how busy you are, this is not a luxury. It's essential.Every week, take a quiet hour to reflect on recent critical events -- conflicts, failures, opportunities you exploited, observations of others' behavior, feedback from others. Consider how you responded, what went well, what didn't, and what might be more effective in the future.Never cancel this meeting -- it's crucial.
Read the full article here.
From Gill Corkindale, "A New Year's Resolution: Schedule Regular Meetings with Yourself," HBPS, 5 Jan 2009.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Awesome.
18 minutes of toe-tapping, hand-clapping, clean fun and music.
check it:
Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy
From TED
check it:
Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy
From TED
Info: Street View stuff
Google's Street View came up in a conversation with some co-workers today. Apparently, there's still a few people out there who didn't know that you can view (an ever-increasing selection of) addresses at the "street level" - and "walk" the guy (I can't remember his name) around the neighborhood. Fun stuff. You can even incorporate the street views into your driving (or new walking) directions, and literally see the way -- drive the route virtually, if you will.
Anyway, we decided to go a quick Google search (of course) to find out about street view, and -- since I was talking to some of our science and tech guys -- decided to learn about the camera and the process. Here's a few links to get you started.
the wiki article
the camera
the funny streetview blog
frequent updates of random things you can find on street view. here's some fun ones
enjoy. and decrease your anxiety of driving to a new place by checking out the route before you go.
one last one -- let me know what you see here
...
DoJ employees failing spam scam test
Seeing if department employees would respond to spam requests, as part of an ongoing evaluation of employees, this email apparently caused some waves outside of the small group it was initially sent to. Even federal employees know how to hit FWD and pass along a juicy ... rumor. Kind of like a lot of stuff that hits my inbox.
Justice did not anticipate response to bogus e-mail
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090204_2057.php Report: Justice Department sends hoax e-mail to test workers
...
Two new Google tools
Sync your Google contacts with Blackberry
http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Now_Sync_Google_Contacts_With_BlackBerry/551-95558-643.html -my only complaint: there's not an option to keep calendar entries "forever" -- Google Sync for Calendar (included as part of this new Sync) continually deleted my appointments -- my colleagues were wondering why I canceled meetings in the middle of the night. My challenges came with trying to sync my Bb with my enterprise server and with Google Sync - I think the phone was having issues trying to figure out what to sync. But my other problem is that old events get deleted (I think 4 months is the longest it will let you keep on the Bb). Google is aware of this issue. http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=75095dc91f64c1ea&hl=en
And says that your Google calendar keeps the events, but deletes them from your phone because of "memory issues." Well, my Bb calendar is set to keep appointments forever, and I haven't noticed any space issues... It's helpful to be able to look back or search for past or future events that may be outside of the 4 month or 1 year span...
-but if this doesn't matter, Sync away
Stalk your Friends with Google Latitude
Just in case you don't think people can keep track of you through your Twitter or Facebook updates, let them "see" where you are. Haven't tried this yet, but I'll keep you posted.
**BONUS**
Google Ocean - a plug-in/layer for Google Earth. You have to download the program, but it will have you diving around the world before you know it.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Your little piece of knowledge for the day
Rival - from the Latin rivalis, meaning one using the same river as another.
Interesting, eh?
Interesting, eh?
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