It seems like Twitter is gaining in popularity. I was watching CNN the other day - and they actually showed a reporter posting tweets - on the air! What the ??
If I'm watching CNN - I don't want to see people Twittering... or checking their email... or writing a blog post... I want to watch people report the news. If I want to read the CNN tweets - then I'll go on my mobile device or computer and read the tweets.
Some people are just NUTS when it comes to what they tweet. Take the guy who did a "lifecast" of his wife giving birth - yeah... on Twitter! Or what about reporters who get inside access to special briefings from the White House or on an analyst call? If they Twitter the juicy details before the others can write up and file a story - is that "fair?"
How about Twossip (Twitter + Gossip)? Does saying something about a person and then broadcasting it to all your "followers" constitute slander - or are you just doing a "really wide-reaching IM"?
What about the people that use Twitter as a stream-of-conscientiousness tool? I hate those type of people - and they only usually last one day on my "follow" list. I really don't need to read 40 (or MORE!) posts from you a day. I do NOT need to "hear" every single thought that crosses your mind - nor do I want to.
On the other hand - some folks don't tweet enough in my opinion. There are some folks who tweet maybe 2-3 times per day (or sometimes less) - that I actually look forward to seeing a tweet from (Tech show host and radio guy Leo Laport and Servoy developer Greg Pierce to name a couple).
So if you DO Twitter - say something funny, outrageous, whimsical, controversial - it'll just be more fun for everyone. BTW: You can follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bobcusick as well...
Showing posts with label Microblog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Microblog. Show all posts
Monday, February 02, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Microblog: Yeah, and Cars May FLY
No, really. A four year old Massachusetts company called Terrafugia that was founded by some MIT graduates is almost ready to take their flying car (or driving plane, if you prefer) out for it's first, real life test flight late this month or early February.
If all goes well - the $148,000 little two seater called "Transition" will make some history. Not quite Wright Brothers stuff, but hey, how many times have you seen that 1950's stock footage of that one guy that did the same thing (along with the footage of the dishwasher that pops out of the middle of the kitchen) - and wonder - hey, that's pretty cool.
It may soon be your chance... but you'll have to get in line. Apparently, the company has received more than 40 pre-orders for the thing. Huh. Who would have guessed?
If all goes well - the $148,000 little two seater called "Transition" will make some history. Not quite Wright Brothers stuff, but hey, how many times have you seen that 1950's stock footage of that one guy that did the same thing (along with the footage of the dishwasher that pops out of the middle of the kitchen) - and wonder - hey, that's pretty cool.
It may soon be your chance... but you'll have to get in line. Apparently, the company has received more than 40 pre-orders for the thing. Huh. Who would have guessed?
Monday, January 12, 2009
Microblog: Facebook #1?
According to Comscore - Facebook because the largest worldwide network back in the middle of 2008 - but it's still lagging behind MySpace in terms of page views - 76 million unique visitors for MySpace versus 54.5 million for MySpace.
In the US - Facebook's growth was 3.8% per month (a big number when you're talking about those kind of pageview numbers) - versus MySpace's growth rate of just 0.8% (still - a great number given the sheer volume of page views). Assuming that growth rate continues, Facebook should overtake MySpace sometime in 2010.
The question is - who cares? I think the most important social media site is the one that people are using. The one where you can connect with your customers, employees, friends, and colleagues. So it's important to be on the social network they use as their primary contact point. Most people, if they're on social media at all - are NOT on 6 different services. They're on ONE - or maybe TWO...
It sort of comes down to the age-old "cool kid" factor. A few years ago MySpace was the cool kid - and now, I believe, that Facebook is the new cool kid. What do you think?
In the US - Facebook's growth was 3.8% per month (a big number when you're talking about those kind of pageview numbers) - versus MySpace's growth rate of just 0.8% (still - a great number given the sheer volume of page views). Assuming that growth rate continues, Facebook should overtake MySpace sometime in 2010.
The question is - who cares? I think the most important social media site is the one that people are using. The one where you can connect with your customers, employees, friends, and colleagues. So it's important to be on the social network they use as their primary contact point. Most people, if they're on social media at all - are NOT on 6 different services. They're on ONE - or maybe TWO...
It sort of comes down to the age-old "cool kid" factor. A few years ago MySpace was the cool kid - and now, I believe, that Facebook is the new cool kid. What do you think?
Friday, January 09, 2009
Microblog: Killing Facebook Friends for a Burger
So in the "what the hell?" category - Burger King as announced a new promotion whereby if you install their Facebook application called "Whopper Sacrifice" in your profile - and you "sacrifice" 10 of your friends - you'll get a free Whopper.
No, I'm NOT kidding. Could even I make this kind of stuff up?
At the time that I write this over 55,000 friends have been sacrificed... geez. Well, I guess Burger King found 5,500 people who don't have two dollars to come into their restaurants... This world really IS going to hell in a handbasket.
Oh, and if you get "sacrificed" by me - it's nothing personal - I'm just hungry.
No, I'm NOT kidding. Could even I make this kind of stuff up?
At the time that I write this over 55,000 friends have been sacrificed... geez. Well, I guess Burger King found 5,500 people who don't have two dollars to come into their restaurants... This world really IS going to hell in a handbasket.
Oh, and if you get "sacrificed" by me - it's nothing personal - I'm just hungry.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Microblog: WebEx Goes To iPhone
In the "damn, Gina!" category we have Cisco which announced that users of it's WebEx service can now initiate and join meetings via a free iPhone/iTouch application. That's pretty cool!
There is no extra charges to start or attend a meeting from the phone - and the service will even call the attendees to link them up to the audio (iTouch folks or iPhone users can also use a third-party conferencing service as well, of course).
The application already includes chat, and it's compatible with both portrait and landscape mode. You can't host a meeting from a iPhone/iTouch, but you can "pass off" the presenter "ball" to anyone else in the meeting.
Ummmm.... wow. I never thought I would/could attend a webinar on go (or at least as much of it as I could before the battery dies). Here's the link if you want the info from the horse's mouth...
There is no extra charges to start or attend a meeting from the phone - and the service will even call the attendees to link them up to the audio (iTouch folks or iPhone users can also use a third-party conferencing service as well, of course).
The application already includes chat, and it's compatible with both portrait and landscape mode. You can't host a meeting from a iPhone/iTouch, but you can "pass off" the presenter "ball" to anyone else in the meeting.
Ummmm.... wow. I never thought I would/could attend a webinar on go (or at least as much of it as I could before the battery dies). Here's the link if you want the info from the horse's mouth...
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Microblog: My Happy Place
It's good to take a break every now and then. I wasn't particularly looking forward to the downtime between Christmas and New Years - I wasn't against it by any means - but it usually means that my neglected "honey-do" list is the top priority.
Not this year.
I decided to actually take time off - and just relax a bit. Take a few motorcycle rides (thanks, hon!), read a couple of popcorn-for-the-mind mystery books (rather than technical and business journals), spend time with the kids, and just plain sleep.
I never realized I missed sleeping so much. I actually slept for 12 solid hours last night! Really. Me.
I'm usually the one getting up at 3:00am or 4:00am and getting a few hours of work done before going to the office - but not this week. I just actually watched some movies, went to bed early, and slept late.
I've actually been in a good mood - in fact, my daughter had a sleepover with her friend here the other day and I made some dinner for them. Both she and her friend asked "Why are you being so nice to us?"
Huh? That really got my attention. She continued on saying "Whatever you do dad, stay in your 'happy place'."
Kids say the most interesting things. I guess she's right - I've been "going" 10,000 miles per hour for so many years that I guess it just became "normal" for me to get out of my "happy place."
It's cool to finally get there again. I'm going to try to stay in my happy place more in 2009...
Not this year.
I decided to actually take time off - and just relax a bit. Take a few motorcycle rides (thanks, hon!), read a couple of popcorn-for-the-mind mystery books (rather than technical and business journals), spend time with the kids, and just plain sleep.
I never realized I missed sleeping so much. I actually slept for 12 solid hours last night! Really. Me.
I'm usually the one getting up at 3:00am or 4:00am and getting a few hours of work done before going to the office - but not this week. I just actually watched some movies, went to bed early, and slept late.
I've actually been in a good mood - in fact, my daughter had a sleepover with her friend here the other day and I made some dinner for them. Both she and her friend asked "Why are you being so nice to us?"
Huh? That really got my attention. She continued on saying "Whatever you do dad, stay in your 'happy place'."
Kids say the most interesting things. I guess she's right - I've been "going" 10,000 miles per hour for so many years that I guess it just became "normal" for me to get out of my "happy place."
It's cool to finally get there again. I'm going to try to stay in my happy place more in 2009...
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Microblog:: Twitter Spam
Deep breath.... deep breath... OK. For those of you that have a compelling need to Tweet more than 15 times per day - here's my personal advice: Step AWAY from the keyboard (or cell phone or whatever).
The whole point of Twitter, and Pownce and Tumbler and ______ (your social network here) is that you share something RELEVANT with your followers. It's NOT a free-for-all.
If you're posting more than 10 Tweets per day - then you're a Twitter Spammer (you know who you are). Stop it! No, really!
Rather than posting what you're reading - or the fact that you just posted and "can't believe it" - there's another medium for you - it's called a "blog." You can rant the whole day - and no one will care (trust me!).
But putting out 150 status "updates" a day is just too damn much. No one CARES! Instead, take a deep breath (get your HANDS OFF the keyboard - no one cares that you took a deep breath) and form some funny or interesting thing to say, and then (and ONLY then) post it to your followers.
We're (I mean I'm) tired of all the spam. If you post and see your own face (only!) on the the entire first page of your XYZ feed - just say NO. NO to posting inane details of what you're doing. NO to inane details of a trip or who you're @ hanging with. NO BODY CARES.
NOW, I'm going to Tweet this post....
The whole point of Twitter, and Pownce and Tumbler and ______ (your social network here) is that you share something RELEVANT with your followers. It's NOT a free-for-all.
If you're posting more than 10 Tweets per day - then you're a Twitter Spammer (you know who you are). Stop it! No, really!
Rather than posting what you're reading - or the fact that you just posted and "can't believe it" - there's another medium for you - it's called a "blog." You can rant the whole day - and no one will care (trust me!).
But putting out 150 status "updates" a day is just too damn much. No one CARES! Instead, take a deep breath (get your HANDS OFF the keyboard - no one cares that you took a deep breath) and form some funny or interesting thing to say, and then (and ONLY then) post it to your followers.
We're (I mean I'm) tired of all the spam. If you post and see your own face (only!) on the the entire first page of your XYZ feed - just say NO. NO to posting inane details of what you're doing. NO to inane details of a trip or who you're @ hanging with. NO BODY CARES.
NOW, I'm going to Tweet this post....
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Microblog: #$%& Microsoft!
So I installed the new IE 7 patch - or rather, I should say that Microsoft installed it FOR me. Then I did a restart - and got a HANG. Ok, no big deal - this happens all the time! So, I'll just restart.
Restart, get welcome screen. HANG.
Restart. Get welcome screen... hard drive spinning for 11 minutes... HANG.
Restart. Get welcome screen... pause.... hard drive spinning for 14 minutes. Login. Loading (except QuickLaunch toolbar not showing)... start up mail client. HANG.
Restart. Get welcome screen... pause.... hard drive spinning for 11 minutes. Login. Loading... loaded. Choose "Turn Off" from options.
Restart. Finally back and running. THANK YOU Microsoft - you've managed to push me even closer to buying a Mac!
Restart, get welcome screen. HANG.
Restart. Get welcome screen... hard drive spinning for 11 minutes... HANG.
Restart. Get welcome screen... pause.... hard drive spinning for 14 minutes. Login. Loading (except QuickLaunch toolbar not showing)... start up mail client. HANG.
Restart. Get welcome screen... pause.... hard drive spinning for 11 minutes. Login. Loading... loaded. Choose "Turn Off" from options.
Restart. Finally back and running. THANK YOU Microsoft - you've managed to push me even closer to buying a Mac!
Microblog: Short Attention Span Theatre
NEW FEATURE: Microblog entries. This is when something is just so stupid or insane, I must comment on it IMMEDIATELY. I'll label them as such, so you don't have to read them if you're not interested. Here's the first one:
12 Second TV! Are you kidding me? Has the whole world just gone to hell in a handbasket? I mean - are we going to all be reduced to a 140 character and 12 SECOND attention span?
According to TechCrunch - the site 12seconds.tv is coming out of beta - AND has a new iPhone application. This app will allow you to put 3 photos and - yep - 12 seconds of audio together and post it on their site. Ouch! I already have twitter feeds, yammer feeds, and social media to deal with - and NOW someone gets the great idea to have Twitter - but with video? Seesh... it's a sad, sad day, people.
DO SOME WORK! Spend some MONEY! Stimulate the economy! Quit watching 12 second ANYTHING.
12 Second TV! Are you kidding me? Has the whole world just gone to hell in a handbasket? I mean - are we going to all be reduced to a 140 character and 12 SECOND attention span?
According to TechCrunch - the site 12seconds.tv is coming out of beta - AND has a new iPhone application. This app will allow you to put 3 photos and - yep - 12 seconds of audio together and post it on their site. Ouch! I already have twitter feeds, yammer feeds, and social media to deal with - and NOW someone gets the great idea to have Twitter - but with video? Seesh... it's a sad, sad day, people.
DO SOME WORK! Spend some MONEY! Stimulate the economy! Quit watching 12 second ANYTHING.
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