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October 31st, 2009

EEEEEvil Twitter ;-)

Twitter

 

How appropriate on this Halloween that I have 666 followers on my Twitter.  Although that is just a coincidence, it is a little creepy.  If you look at the top right of the photo above you can see where I circled it. Last night I noticed this and asked for one more person to follow and no one would.  Then this morning I removed someone that I did not know just to make it 665 and then I came back in here to find that I had another follower.  If I had just left that one person on there, it would be 667.  Cue up the Vincent Price scary laughter. I thought this was funny so I had to make a screen shot just to share on my blog.

By Paul • Posted in Personal, social networking • Comments
October 26th, 2009

Twitter or Facebook?

A question that I hear frequently is “Which is better, Facebook, or Twitter?”  I do not think this is the proper question to be asking because they complement each other.  In fact Twitter by itself may seem less useful although I disagree.  It is the ability to use Twitter with Facebook and other social networking sites is where the real value comes in.  With Twitter, you can post either by SMS, or by using a smart phone.  I think that if you really want to get the most out of all these sites is to have your own site that does not move.  This site is my attempt at doing that.  If you put together a permanent site, preferably a  personal domain, everyone will know where to find you. At this point, you can put links to other sites that you use.  Social networks come and go and though you may have many friends/contacts on all of them, you need a place that is always there.  It does not have to be a blog.  Some people just put together a site full of links.  As you may have seen technology writer John C. Dvorak does this very thing.  He put together channeldvorak.com so people have a central location to find him.

Once you have a presence that is all yours and that is not going anywhere then you can sign up for other programs or social networking sites.  These sites often have plug-ins that can be installed on your personal page.  Many of your friends will only participate on Facebook, or Myspace.  Many will only get on Frienfeed, or Twitter.  You can see the dilemma where you find yourself jumping from one site to another.  With the advent of the really simple syndication (RSS) feed, many systems have been established where all social site feeds can be fed together on one site.  Friendfeed is one of these as well as Google Reader.    Facebook is the big rave these days with more than 200 million active users so that is where many people gather.  The problem with that is popularity comes and goes with these sites.  You may remember Xanga.com when it was the big thing.  Then it was Myspace and so on.   It is only a matter of time before Facebook will be supplanted as the number one place.  By having your own page that is always there,  people can find you when one of the social sites goes under.  Secondly, by having your own site, search engines can find you allowing people to search for you.

If you have a Twitter account and use it the way it was intended, you will see that it is far more than just an instant messaging (IM) system.  Most of these social sites have a feature built in that allows your Twitter updates to automatically update your status on their sites.  Twitter is so light weight that you can use it even if you do not have a smart phone, or one capable of data transfer.  They allow you to send text messages to a short number, 40404.  As long as you do not post more than 140 characters in a single message, it will be posted on your Twitter page located http://www.twitter.com/yourusername.  Not only can you follow your updates on the Twitter page in real time, but it also updates other social sites simultaneously.  I have found that with many Twitter updates that I send, I get responses on Facebook, Myspace, and Friendfeed.  Since all of these sites notify you via email when someone responds to you, it makes it easy to immediately respond back.

If you ever find yourself bored at the doctor’s office, you can just send a text message that you are waiting for your doctor and someone on Facebook responds and it starts a conversation.  It helps when you are bored and stuck doing something you are not that excited about doing.  So to ask whether Twitter or Facebook is better, you should be asking how do you use them together.  I have met many ham radio operators online that also communicate using these tools.  It is really fun once you learn how to use them.  I hope this helps to explain a few ways to use them together.

By Paul • Posted in blogging, opinion, social networking • Comments
October 4th, 2009

Friendfeed Sidebar

I took the Twitter activity sidebar off the right side of this blog and replaced it with the Friendfeed sidebar.  This is because every time I send a Twitter message, it goes to the Friendfeed anyway.  Secondly, any time I send a Facebook, Flickr, Delicious, Youtube video, it also goes to Friendfeed.  I figure this is a better way of keeping the web site updated because whatever social networking program I post on, it will show up on the side bar.  Also, with the Friendfeed side bar on my page, I can post right from my page without even having to go to the other page.

What a pretty morning with the rain coming down.  It is only 64 degrees and rain and I love it.  For once we can turn the air conditioner off and let the outside air in.  Unfortunately having the window open means hearing all the neighbor noises but since it is daytime, I think we can handle it.

By Paul • Posted in blogging, social networking • Comments
August 16th, 2009

Google Reader

With all the news lately about Facebook purchasing Friendfeed last week and everyone saying they were going to go to Google Reader I thought I would move some stuff.  For the last week we have been hearing “Friendfeed is dead” to a point that it is ridiculous.  The truth is that Friendfeed is NOT dead and continues to grow.  This has coincided with the recent update to Google Reader.  Many people on Friendfeed are whining about Facebook owning them and saying they are going over to Google Reader.  For this reason I have decided to give them another try.  My experience with Google Reader is that it seems too busy without a smooth flow.  Maybe if I just spend some time in there I will eventually figure it out.  People have told me that Google Reader auto updates just like Friendfeed but so far I have not been able to get that function to work.  If I am doing something wrong, someone speak up and tell me.

Everyone is telling me that Google Reader is more social now but the only social that I can find is in the settings it allows you to select which social sites you want your posts to go to.  Then on the bottom of each post it has a “send to” link where you can send that particular post to one of the social sites.  My Google account is paul.mccord and so if anyone can connect to me and give me a tour, I would appreciate it.  I am sure it has some nice functions but I have not had much time to play around with it that much.  As I do get some time, I will post back here about my findings.

Google Reader is going to have to be pretty good to “out do” Friendfeed.  I just love the way I can leave Friendfeed on the screen and things just automatically scroll across the screen.  I can be watching TV and see the stories scroll in real time.  This real time scroll is hard to beat.  This is one of the things that I am really looking forward to with the new Google Wave coming up in a couple months.  I watched the hour and 20 minute demo video that is on their site and it looks pretty cool.  As I said before, I will spend some time with Google Reader and give them a fair chance and maybe I will grow to like them.  About half or so of my Friendfeed user contacts also use Google Reader.

By Paul • Posted in Google, Internet, opinion, social networking • Comments
August 7th, 2009

Slimmed down Twitter

The last couple of days I have been removing contacts from my Twitter page because there was a lot of spam.  I went from 675 followers back down to 73.  I think I may have inadvertently deleted a few people that I did not intend on doing.  Since it took me several hours to go through there and remove contacts I deleted some that I did not recognize.  If you are one of the people that I speak to on Twitter and you find yourself removed from my list, please re-follow.  The problem is that when you delete users, you see their login name and not necessarily their actual name.

The reason that I did this was because I have found over time there are robots that are automatically connecting to users and posting spam. Secondly you get followers that search for certain political key words and then follow you.  Sometimes they agree and sometimes they disagree.  In either case, I do not wish to be arguing politics on Twitter. This is particularly irritating and so I usually try to un-follow them fast.  One of the strategies that has worked for me is when I purposely post something that I know will be offensive to certain political groups.  When they begin to lash out at me then I know who to un-follow.  It has been pretty effective so far.

In a given day, I will get 10 or so new followers that I do not even know.  It is clear these followers are not real people but robots because when you look at their profile they are following over 1,000 people and only 20 are following back.  Also they only have less than 100 updates.  Anytime someone has only a fraction of updates compared to how many people they are following, that is a pretty good give away.  There are some people that I genuinely enjoy hearing from on Twitter.

By Paul • Posted in Internet, Twitter, opinion, social networking • Comments
July 12th, 2009

Blogging Versus Social Networking

This morning I ran across a post on Friendfeed that proclaimed how Friendfeed was so much better than blogging.  He posted how he has thousands of followers on there and how it was real time for people to interact with the posts.  To my surprise, most of his respondents were in agreement with me in that blogging was better than social networking.  My stated reason was that a blog has a permanent address so that people can find you.  I use Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook among others just like thousands of others.  The problem with all of them is that they are vying for your time and attention.  They are all competing against each other in an attempt to unseat the other one as being the number one network.  Each time another network comes out, people go sign up for them and some stay and some keep their old network.  Many like myself keep all of them but have to divide my time among them.  Twitter wins out almost every time because I can post quickly from my phone and it automatically updates the others.

My blog keeps the same address and is not subject to the popularity of a particular social network.  Since these networks come and go within a two year period it would be easy to lose contact with some people.  If you do not actively use these networks then you could lose contact with those friends since the popularity of that network could dwindle and its followers would move on to another network.  For those that prefer to use these social networks as their primary interaction with friends, I would suggest you also maintain a domain hosted web site.  This can be a blog or just a static site where you have a permanent address where people can find you.  These addresses are indexed by search engines making them easier to find.  This way as the Facebook of the day give way to the newest social network, people will still be able to find you.

Also one of the benefits of having a blog over a real time social network is that you control the content and the duration of the post.  If you use a social networking site, the content is only visible as long as no one else is posting.  As new items are posted, these posts are moved down on the page giving way for new content.  Eventually your post is moved completely off the page.  In addition to this, there is another benefit to a blog over the social networking site.  Most social sites have limitations to how many characters you can post in a single post.  Like Twitter will only allow you to post 140 characters at one time.  These limitations vary depending on which site you go to but there are limitations.

Another problem with these social networking sites is that there seems to be a erroneous cultural attitude that email is obsolete and going away.  This idea is not very well thought out because email will never go away unless a newer “mail” technology comes into play.  This is because many or maybe I should say most employers require all communications to be made using the company email system.  At my work for example, they block access to all social networking sites and web based email systems.  If you would like to communicate with someone outside the organization, you must use the employer’s email system that is subject to monitoring.  You cannot control the content of a social networking site and therefore not allowed.  For this reason, many of those on social networking sites refuse to check their email.  To them it is an antiquated system that is not worth using.  They fail to realize that every one of these social networking sites requires an email address to confirm their identity.  Email is not going away.  These people discard their email and so you cannot leave them a forwarding address if you move.  By keeping a permanent web site that is available for search engines, you can still be found after several years.  These are just a few of the reasons why blogging is better than social networking. 

If you have not spoken to someone for five years, they can always go to their favorite search engine and search for you.  Your blog or permanent domain will be found in the search engine results while many of the social networking sites may not be.  You may not like to blog but having a permanent web address can be used to point your friends and family to your social networking site that you prefer to use.  I too enjoy using many of these sites and in fact use Twitter every day.  By having my permanent domain, people can find my Twitter page without having to search around all day.  I hope I have been able to explain a few things here so that you will understand why I maintain this blog even though I do not have time to get on it as much as I like.  On a social network, I would not have been able to post my information in such detail.  This makes it easier to fully explain my point.

By Paul • Posted in Personal, blogging, opinion, social networking • Comments
April 6th, 2009

The New Friendfeed

I have been sitting here watching the Gilmore Gang on http://www.twitlive.tv and they are talking about the new beta of the new Friendfeed.  You can get to it here http://beta.friendfeed.com.  There is Steve Gilmore, Mike Arrington, Robert Scoble, and Leo Laporte among others.  They are really passionate defending Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed.  I must say that I am amazed at the new Friendfeed but there is so much information coming my way that it is difficult to follow.  There are filters that you can set up to make the tons of information manageable.

The big argument is that Twitter has become so main stream and on practically every news talk show around while Friendfeed has so many more features.  They are arguing whether Friendfeed will ever overtake Twitter.  I think as of right now, I use Twitter the most.  I also use Twitter to update Facebook.  Friendfeed was the first to be able to allow posting stories, messages and allowing others to post messages to them.  Facebook had included that feature lately and I love that.  Friendfeed now has a notifier so you can read your Friendfeed messages right on your desktop.

I love the live updates on Friendfeed though it is very fast if you follow a lot of people.  If you follow a lot of people, you may want to use the filters or you are going to have a headache trying to follow all the information scrolling across your screen.  The incoherence of this post is a classic example of the information overload.  I am typing this at the same time while listening to the Gilmore Gang podcast, and reading the Friendfeed posts as they pop up on the bottom right side of the screen on the notifier.  I truly love it though I remember the nature and anonymity of Friendfeed in the past where it is very easy to be attacked in a very vicious manner if you post something that is not very popular.  If you have thin skin then you may want to be careful what you post because people are very aggressive when they disagree with  you. 

At the moment, Twitter and Facebook are leading the pack and looking at current trends I would say that Friendfeed would never take the lead.  I do know enough to know that you cannot judge by current trends because there was a time when Google was a small part of Yahoo before Google really took off.  There was a time when America Online dominated the online world and most people thought they would never be surpassed in the online world.  Over time you never know what is going to take off.  All I know is that in the last couple of hours since I saw the new beta Friendfeed, and seeing the rate of information flow, I am scratching my head in amazement.  On this one story, there are new posts appearing at a rate of about two per second.  Absolutely amazing real time information.  If you are one of those that must read every post you will find yourself mesmerized and hypnotized by the information overload.

You could literally spend 24 hours a day on Friendfeed where every news story in the universe is streaming across your screen from both political spectrums at the same time.  You could find yourself involved into a religious or political fight in seconds on Friendfeed.  I do like it though because it allows you to see both perspectives on virtually any topic you can think of.  As I said before you could be in a hostile environment easily so you need to be prepared for that.  Don’t let me give you the idea that everyone is ugly and unfriendly on Friendfeed because that is not the truth.  I am just saying there are thousands of people that actively follow these threads 24 hours a day and anyone can see it.  Due to the very nature of its fast and capable social connection, your posts are read very fast and responded to within seconds at times. 

Again, I think this is an amazing interface and destined to go far.  This has only been out a few hours and the traffic is just phenomenal.  Despite this, I am not likely to try to get all my friends to go to Friendfeed because it took me forever to get some of them to go to Facebook and Twitter.  I love all of them but some people do not like all the overload.  As people drift over, I will add them.  I use all three because there are different audiences.  If you are inclined to try these types of toys, then give it a try.  My Friendfeed URL is http://beta.friendfeed.com/paulmccord.  The one thing that makes Twitter so popular is the SMS, or text messaging feature.  This would be virtually impossible on Friendfeed due to the enormous amount of information. 

Again, I would like to apologize for the incoherence of this post, because I have too much information going on at the same time.  I hope you give it a try and see how you like it.  I think you will be hooked in no time.

By Paul • Posted in computer, opinion, social networking • Comments
November 10th, 2008

Veterans Day Eve

This morning I woke up around 7:00 AM and it was raining with a strong and cold South wind and I thought I was going to cry ;-D.  It is not often that I get to see rain when I am off work and I am loving it.  I decided to take off today so I could have a four day weekend since tomorrow (Tuesday) is Veterans Day.  I have five and half days of use or lose leave that I have to burn  up before January 3rd so this makes a good time to take off.  Sunday has to burn some leave too so she took off also.   Wow!  I just heard some thunder outside.  To me that is the equivalence of angels singing because after all, I just love rain.  I really should be doing some homework but I have been slow to get motivated this weekend.  I only have one more semester after this one and I will be finished and then I will have some weekends to do things again.

My dad just had cataract surgery done on both his eyes in the past couple weeks and he is very pleased with the results.  This morning he has an appointment with the doctor to follow up after the surgery.  I am glad he had it done since his vision was getting pretty bad.  He says that he can see without glasses.

It looks like Firefox has finally captured 20% of the browser market.  I really like Firefox though I really wish it was more automated to install Windows Media Player plugin.  I love the ability to customize the browser with all the plugins like mail retrieval, social networking, and photography.  Virtually anything you would like to do can be done with this browser.  I really love it when new web based toys are invented.

I am doing research to find a new 3G phone or third generation phone that can be used on a GSM system. I have been a T-Mobile customer since they were Voicestream back in 2000. They have been very good to me. Now that they have the broadband speeds, I want to get a new phone that has faster Internet and a full QWERTY keyboard. I know it will be sort of expensive but I like being able to have the Internet with me when I travel. The sad thing is that most of the phones that I find are not available in the United States. Having a good camera phone that can post directly to Flickr is real hand when you are out on the street witnessing a crime or something. I like to take my camera places with me so I do not miss anything but it is not convenient where I work. My office is in a very large bay with many cubicles in pods. I really do not feel comfortable leaving an expensive camera in that environment. The Google G1 phone is looking very attractive as an option.

I know most of you are thinking that I am crazy for wanting to be connected all the time. That is who I am, I mean after all I became a ham radio operator for a reason. I think it is wonderful being able to keep in touch even when I am on the road. I can just send a Twitter message and it shows up on the website so you can keep people up to date where ever you are. Unlike many people, I am not concerned about privacy. As long as I am not posting my social security number, I am not worried about anything else. Your address and pictures of your house are already on the Internet whether you realize it or not. I can look at the front of virtually anyone’s house using Google Maps/Street View. For those of you not aware of this, Google hired a company to drive up and down every street with a pole on the top of the vehicle with six cameras on it.

Courtesy Davis Voice.com

You can zoom right up on your front door. I actually think this is exciting technology and do not worry about privacy at all. If you use Google Earth you can zoom up even closer. Now Microsoft has Virtual Earth and Yahoo has Yahoo Maps.

I know I have spent a considerable amount of time chastising the Google worshipers but I must say I am becoming a convert. I have been amazed with the integration of Gmail, with GTalk, Google Documents, Google Calendar, and the contacts. With the prospect of getting a G1 phone, the possibilities of syncing my Gmail contacts and calendar with the phone sounds pretty exciting. I am still in my anti-Apple mood though :) . To use an Iphone would mean that I would have to switch to AT&T. I really do not want to do that if I can get out of that. Secondly Apple products are way over priced and I cannot support them in their gouging efforts. Oh well… I will get away from my Apple bashing :) . I just received a Skype message from Larry, KD5MAF telling me there is a 40 meter net about to come on 7290 KHz that he wants me to join. I better send this post in so I can check in on the net. If you are a ham radio operator, join us.

By Paul • Posted in Internet, Personal, Technology, cell phones, mobile, social networking • Comments
September 22nd, 2008

Proclaim Jesus Proudly

I have noticed a pattern lately that does not surprise me but the results have been surprising.  It is not uncommon to find those that do not believe in Jesus as Lord and savior to put him down as a myth, and pretty much poke fun at those that do.  This should be expected if you are a believer and have read the Bible at all.  If you are called a Bible thumper, religious right, or anything along that line, you should not be surprised.  The world is against God by nature and cannot be expected to understand or even have a desire to understand (Romans 8:7).  In fact as a non believer, a person is not likely to just disagree but be militant and hostile toward Christianity over other religions as this is a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:12).  They will often say their hostility comes from people of faith forcing their views on them.  I think in some rare cases that is true but most of the time, they are hostile without even knowing why.  If forcing our viewpoints on them was the reason then if they applied the rule fairly they would have to get mad at themselves for doing the same thing they accuse us of doing.

The thing that does disturb me though is how effective the hostility has been in silencing those that do believe.   I am of the belief that it is mainly because we have not spent enough time in God’s word to have it in our hearts.  The Holy Spirit will speak for us, and through us if we just trust in him.  The Bible says that faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). If a person spends time in God’s word, then their faith will be strong enough to stand when persecuted.  The fact that the world has turned updside down on its morals should not trouble you because this was told many times in the Bible before now.  The world hates Jesus and if you follow him, you will be hated too (Matthew 10:22, Matthew 24:9, Mark 13:13, Luke 21:17, John 15:21).

To a believer it is beyond comprehension how a person could possibly be hostile to the free gift of salvation (Romans 10:9-10).  It would seem that people would have no reason to be hostile because this gift costs them nothing.  Again, this is spiritual whether they acknowledge it or not.  In a purely secular and logical point of view you could see why a person would not want to believe in God because it means there is a standard and that standard is immovable.  That standard requires us to live a certain way and if we do not, then we are in violation of that standard.  Denying that standard makes a person free and therefore no accountability.  If there is not a standard for right and wrong, then there is nothing that is off limits.  You could make this argument and it would be a valid argument.  I will go a step farther and say it is the name of Jesus that offends them.  There is POWER in that name and the world gets nervous when you say it.  If you go into  a room and mention God in a generic sense, people can actually tolerate it but if you say Jesus’ name, you will see them become irritated and want to leave or lash out.

This gives me chills just thinking about it because it is true.  I have seen it over and over again throughout my life.  I believe the Holy Spirit must move on a person for them to understand.  I remember in 1986 when I came to know Jesus how the Holy Spirit opened my mind to be able to understand the Bible in a way that has never made sense to me before.  I have read scripture so many times with the intent of proving it wrong and finding contradictions.  I was completely wrong at the time but when I came to know Jesus as my savior, the word of God was opened to me.  We need not be ashamed because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.  Do not be overcome by the world because Jesus has overcome the world.  The good thing about all this is that the same book that forecasts all this doom and gloom, also forecasts the endgame (Revelation 19:11, Revelation 19:20, Revelation 20:10).

This is not to boast because that is not the intent.  The intent is to see that no one is lost.  We have all heard John 3:16 a thousand times and become numb to it sometimes.  I think that many in the world have not hardened their hearts to the point of hostility.  Those are the ones that have hope.  There are many that will never be convinced and therefore will be a waste of energy to spend time with them if they just want to argue (Romans 14:1).  Just as a nation cannot negotiate with terrorists we cannot negotiate with those that actively work against our faith.  Christianity is not against the world but the world is against Christianity.  If the person does not want to hear Jesus, then do not force it upon them as they have made their choice (Mark 6:11).   My point in all this is to not become weary when the world persecutes us as we know this is going to happen.  When we fail, we repent and move on.  Let’s face it, even Peter denied Jesus three times and then when Jesus returned, the angel went out of his way to single Peter out to let him know that he had returned (Mark 16:7).  Jesus forgave him and he wanted Peter to know this.  This is very exciting because we are all sinners by nature (Romans 3:10).

The world is going to call us names anyway so we should give them a reason.  Let’s stand on Jesus name and not be afraid to claim that name, knowing the world will hate us.  You do it for the love of God and his desire to see the world saved and not as a form of boasting.

By Paul • Posted in Christian, Events, Personal, opinion, social networking • Comments
September 10th, 2008

Facebook

I went ahead and re-opened my Facebook account as it gives me more control over the content unlike Friendfeed.  I left all the other social networking sites closed.  Of all  the sites that I really do love to use, I would say Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook.   The rain is moving back in today and I love it.  I should have been raised in Seattle because it can never rain too much for me.  I just found that many of my church members including the Pastor is on Twitter as well.  I already had them on Facebook and they use it pretty heavily.

Looks like Obama made a comment yesterday that said something about you being able to put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig.  Everyone is saying it was aimed at Sarah Palin and I do believe it was though you could make the argument that since he paused before saying it, that it was a spontaneous thought with no calculation behind it.  They fired back and said that McCain had made a similar statement in 2007 when referencing Mrs. Clinton.  And the drama continues.  There is a reason that I usually turn the TV volume down the moment theys begin discussing politics.  Oh well, it is the same thing over and over again.  I will certainly be glad when it is over as you know that it will continue after the election regardless of who wins.

I have been attending a class at work and it has two more days.  It is called Item Unique Identification (IUID).  This is an initiative to assign a unique identification number to every piece of equipment that is either $5,000 or more.  Other items can be added if the program manager deems it necessary to keep track of them.  They used our government identification cards called the common access cards (CAC) as an example of how each of us has an unique number and no other person has this number.  This is reminiscent of Revelation chapter 13, versus 15-18.  I know this is not what it is but sure does give you the creeps.  The government has put this program into place that all items acquired by the government will have these scannable marks beginning 1 Jaunuary 2004.  What gives me the creeps is that never before in history has there been the technology for Revelation 13:15-18 to make sense.  The point being is that the technology is here. The next two days of this class we will be doing practical application.  I must say this overview class that I went to was easily the most boring class I have ever been to.  Razor blades should be issued upon entry for those that just want to end the pain ;-) .  Other than this and school there has not been too much going on.

By Paul • Posted in Events, TDY, Twitter, Work, digital photography, opinion, police, politics, reviews, social networking • Comments
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