Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
...and The Quiet Whispers to the Not So Distant Thunder, "Let the Truth be Told".
What? Inspired by It Might Get Loud
and a sense that Jimmy Page can still rock with the best of 'em. Art is everywhere. Right Banksy
? And after the storm (or was it enlightenment?) there's laundry to do. Have been watching Tunisia and Egypt and Stuxnet
. So Egypt hits the kill switch and if you go to twitter.com/speak2tweet you can see what Google is doing about that:
and a sense that Jimmy Page can still rock with the best of 'em. Art is everywhere. Right Banksy? And after the storm (or was it enlightenment?) there's laundry to do. Have been watching Tunisia and Egypt and Stuxnet. So Egypt hits the kill switch and if you go to twitter.com/speak2tweet you can see what Google is doing about that: "Like many people we’ve been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground. Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection.
We worked with a small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company we acquired last week, to make this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet."Egypt and Tunisia. Egypt and Tunisia..and Julie Assange/WikiLeaks have been called Twitter revolutions ..of sorts (Twitter helped..but we're not that important you know).. and Assange is really less dangerous and influential than someone in the mainstream media said he was.. or was it Roberts Gates who said he was dangerous? The New York Times executive editor Bill Keller wrote about the Times dealings with Julian Assange in the Times Magazine on 1.30.11 and 60 minutes' Steve Croft (Laura's dad?..) did a job on the piece aired on the same day as the NYT article. Presentations preceded by Raffi Khatchadourian's No Secrets as reporter at large for the the New Yorker. And another excellent site by Dave Winer (@davewiner) has lots more: Wikiriver.org. And then a little mud slinging by FOX news(?): The New York Times' Sloppy Defense of WikiLeaks and Its Journalistic Standards. ("There is a laugh-out-loud moment. It comes when Keller writes that "it is our aim to be impartial in our presentation of the news.")
Maybe the traditional media is just taking out all their internet frustrations on WikiLeaks (via @holmser).
Davos is over and so is the Sundance.. just in time for the Super Bowl. It's Steelers vs Green Bay this year if you didn't know.. the venue may be the star. you might know who's gonna do the halftime show...more diversions to take our minds off of what's really going on but underlying all these sometimes dangerous human activities our fears drive us to what may be a solution to all the chaos. I heard a young man tell his story about that point where the voices in his head just wouldn't stop and all he'd done up to that point was aimed outside of himself. "It was time to pay attention to the one we all wake up with everyday. It is my brain after-all". Mas tarde que nunca. I'm just catching up..seems there is a lot to drain and disinfect. There is a purpose in Egypt and like so many incidents we forget easily what it's like to really have to take a stand. Money remains a great motivator. Freedom follows. There is Class Warfare in Egypt.. and in the USA. Eve knows! You'll really need to watch "Inside Job
"... they could hit the kill switch here. Whoever they are. They are scared. The internet allows Truths to be told... It's a good album too. Don Henley's Inside Job. 
"... they could hit the kill switch here. Whoever they are. They are scared. The internet allows Truths to be told... It's a good album too. Don Henley's Inside Job. Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior - WSJ.com
Julian Assange: The making of the 60 minutes interview
If you believe in Freedom and If you believe in Justice
- this is the 60 mins Overtime story about doing the Julian Assange interview.. Assange may not be as important, great or dangerous as some may think, but to me what he represents matters a good deal.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/fBYSvD
Thursday, January 27, 2011
cdixon.org – chris dixon's blog / Predicting the future of the Internet is easy: anything it hasn’t yet dramatically transformed, it will.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Watch Live Streaming Tennis Online - ESPN3
good quality sports streaming... been watching the Aus Open Tennis at my desk a bit this week...basketball, cricket..etc...
See this Amp at http://es.pn/gq2YHo
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Friday, January 07, 2011
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Kevin Rose - blogg - The fforward podcast is now
Monday, January 03, 2011
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Signal, Curation, Discovery - John Battelle's Searchblog
the future of the internet..hwta we want. what we'll need..
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/idsv
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Monday, November 08, 2010
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
What is Easy to forget about Water
All part of "BlogDay" (see the ad on the right please) from the great folks at Change.org... go there and let's work together for a kinder, healthier Planet. If not us, who?.. if not now, when?
One basic fact:
Right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s one in eight of us. Charity:Water
One basic fact:
Right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s one in eight of us. Charity:Water
Monday, October 11, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
In Praise of Andriod and some Mobile Thoughts
Have been dabbling.. Love iPhone 4 (see previous post if you dare) and had a Blackberry Torch for 3 weeks... but this is about Android and what I find to be a clear winner. If you use gMail (and why wouldn't you?) there are some obvious winners (like CloudMagic) but setting up an Android phone is as simple as your gMail address and password.. everything is done... sync'd. Instantly in business.. Address book and more. Apps are amazing (for the most part).. I have downloaded over 60.. I use them all ..from wi-fi manager to bar-code scanner. Voice Search and Goggles are especially facinating. And there is a wonderfully helpful crew of users that have made it very simple to Google a problem and get an answer. Blackberry might consider going to Android. At least on a couple of devices. Or make it an option.
While I'm at it, it appears that the best "deal" for mobile is with Sprint here in the USA. I posted a bunch of tweets over the last few weeks to see what people are thinking about mobile and of course the iPhone wins all races... but so does Sprint... They have some great phones. We are still trying to sort out their service here and have brought an Airade in to use Voip technology for mobile via what is commonly refered to as femtocell technology. The rap on it is that you are paying for the call twice as they send your voice call down your broadband line that you are paying for and then they charge you for the call out of your call minutes. You might as well just use GoogleVoice and Skype when you are at home. Google voice integrated with gMail is certainly the way to fly these days.. you do have a Google Voice number right? Even if you only use your computer and a Mobile Phone to make calls. The best reason to have a Google Voice number is that then you have a number for folks to call you back on that you can program to work with your computer (through Google Talk) and your Phone.. not to mention any other phones you might have.... the evolution continues.
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
ATT and Apple-how to really piss off a customer...
I'm over this just enough to have a little perspective.. ATT really Sucks and Apple really Rocks.. I should have taken a picture, but suffice to say I smashed my iPhone. I was Wazing around Salinas Golf and Country Club this afternoon working on getting my index above 10 for the Senior Championships later this month ( I got a chance folks ;)).. and I used to be a 3 so this is upsetting and I am not getting any younger..but... Back to story... I'm pretending to be road munching (blazing the new trail for Wazers) when all I'm doing is driving all over the golf course.. cart signs? common this is a very private club. So up I go over the curb on 4 and the iPhone of our dreams slips through the cup holder and onto the concrete and hits said curb and has a nice big crack across the back and two snowflakes on the front.. I whine and finish the 9 holes and think that ATT will take care of this no problem. I do a lot of business with them (unlimited domestic calling, DirecTV, Internet/DSL, two blackberries and an iPhone for $350 a month plus any International roaming I might do now and then) and have been a very loyal customer for over 20 years and I've got insurance..BUT: they very politely (too, Too, TOO f'ing politely) explain I have no insurance because I didn't buy something they never told me about called "mobileprotect". They keep calling me Sir and this nice looking young lady keeps nodding her head as this Puke of a sales rep does absolutely nothing to try to help me except explain the brutal facts and about how little he could care about "my problem" and then at about the point I'm ready to hit him and spit in his face, he offers up that maybe apple could help.. Have had an iPhone for nearly 3 years (maybe?.. there are some posts back a bit about my first iPhone 3G) and this is the third time some jerk from ATT has told me the same thing.. Maybe they could help if I were willing to drive to Monterey in rush hour traffic (not too bad here really) and ask them (someone else who might give a ship), but he couldn't have cared less and ATT really hires jerks and trains them to be worse.. didn't used to be this way friends.. they were better.. I think.. So I email my Good Buddie RR who is an Apple Expert in one of their sweet stores and ask when they close and explain el problemo. 2 minutes later I know I have enough time and am on my way. I roll into Del Monte mall and head to the store. I just happen to have to walk by the ATT hole in the wall and get to see some fake concern by another ATT employee while their customer shakes his head in disbelief.. I might mention I have a Buddie who loves Blackberries and would have a Torch were it not for the fact that you can "only get one from those F%$ks at ATT"... "never again for those 'holes" ..so in I go to a nicely lighted, good vibe of a store and am greeted. Can we help? I show the patient. Genuine sadness. I can get you together with someone who can explain your options to you in 10 minutes. OK..I'll amuse myself with iPads and MacBook Pros. I walked out of there 20 minutes later with a brand new iPhone. ..a one time good guy we love you and hope you love us please come back Bro 32GB iPhone.. set-up with my gMail account and my sync'd contacts just waiting for me to sync it up with the master playlist on iTunes when I get home. The guy was tired and distracted by a very good looking 20 something on her way to a concert who had spilled nail polish on her keyboard and we hoped she took a lot of time to explain the problem to us, but he was gonna take care of me.. Next time It'll set me back $200. But this time, it's a Bro deal.. I will buy an Apple laptop the next time I need a laptop. No doubt.. and questions remain unanswered, but I hate ATT with a passion. They are corporate pukes... and apple are corporate pukes too, but they have the good sense to keep most of their CPs (I know you guys ...remember? ..we used to be friends.. we may still be) in Cupertino kissing the feet of Steve ..who really could change the world someday. I've heard the rumors...(spying?) OK. But I don't care. A Great Big Thanks. I have been down the road with Apple before and know all there is not perfect.. but compared to ATT , Sony and Dell? Wow.. It's not so much the lesser of evils. It's that at this moment of truth when I had made a mistake, these guys were willing to feel my pain and help me out...we could use more empathy in business these days. Today I found it. ATT got the first shot and missed by a mile.. then Apple hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer for the Championship.
I'm typing this on a custom PC made by a guy named Evan.. no one will ever approach his level of service and I'm not female, good looking or a gamer.. just a guy who really wants to do business with "friends"... partners to patronize.. I found some today. Thanks Apple!
I'm typing this on a custom PC made by a guy named Evan.. no one will ever approach his level of service and I'm not female, good looking or a gamer.. just a guy who really wants to do business with "friends"... partners to patronize.. I found some today. Thanks Apple!
BTW: all apple stores are not equal.. it's not 5th Ave or SF, and whoever runs the Monterey store gets my vote for Exec of the year.. it's the unsung hero who takes the time to build a great team that has the right attitude when it counts.. Go see them the next time your here.. easy to find. Worth the trip!
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