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Posts Tagged → social networking

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
August 18th, 2009

Update August 18, 2009

View Larger Map
I just tried Google Maps for the first time in a while and it is really nice. I was amazed at how well I could see our home in England when we were in the Air Force.  The above address it 34 Adastral Close, Felixstowe, Suffolk, England.  It is phenomenal how clear and close you can zoom. I am not talking about Google Earth, but rather http://maps.google.com. It lets you save your own maps publicly and private as well as trips. If you make them public, others can search and find your own maps. Also I have been playing around with Google Reader, and Friendfeed since there has been so much hype about the Facebook takeover of Friendfeed.

It is interesting that despite my many railings against Google Fanboys, I have become one.  It seems that every time I turn around there is another free toy that I can play with.  In fact I am typing this using the Google Chrome browser.  My phone has a Google sync application that syncs my Gmail address book, and calendar.  Anything that I put on the web, suddenly comes to my phone.  This pains me to become a fanboy because I have always had a soft spot for Yahoo since I have been with them from the  beginning.  It seems that Yahoo has decided to join forces with Microsoft’s Bing.com.  Bing is also pretty good at search.  I do like to have all of them succeed because I believe competition is always good for the consumer.  If you have one dominant player then creativity can suffer.  This is funny that I talk about creativity when I am the least creative person on the face of the earth.  I am hoping that Bing and Yahoo can finally get to a point where they are competitive again soon.

This morning it rained as I went to work but as usual it was clear and sunny when I got off work. I really hoped that it would stay around until I got off work so I could enjoy it. Our lawn mower broke down or maybe I should say it was purposely destroyed this weekend.  I will not elaborate on here as to not embarrass the person that did it.  Now we need a new mower just so we can mow the lawn and it is getting tall.  I am just hoping that we do not get a fine before we can get the mower replaced.

UPDATE: 19 Aug 2009

I owe this person an apology.  No one broke the lawn mower but rather it vibrated some screws out.  Since the drive shaft is slightly bent, the mower runs out of balance and vibrates as it runs.  I tightened that bolt and mowed three strips and the bolt came back out.  So I just wanted to say that I was wrong.

I will be going to Illinois in a couple weeks on a personal trip.  I will only be spending the night and then heading back the next day since I need to get back to work.  I was supposed to be going to San Antonio on a work related trip this week but I was cut from the list due to financial concerns.  I am actually glad I was this time because there are things going on at home that need to be dealt with.

My work has been so overwhelming lately because there are so many things going on as well as having new trainees.  It is interesting that I am supposed to be training them and I am a trainee myself.  I guess on the bright side, it shows that my supervisor has confidence in me.  I will think the glass is half full :) .  With so many things going on at work I often forget where I was.  I am the kind of person that likes to take notes and do things in an orderly way.  Unfortunately I work in an environment where we put out fires through email and the phone.  There is always a crisis going on somewhere in the world that needs our immediate attention.  My orderly notes and to do list has degenerated into a pile of yellow sticky notes all over my desk.  I hate disorder and confusion.  I like to complete a task before starting another but that is impossible in my office.  It is amazing how a letter from a General can get our whole office in an uproar.  It is similar to stepping on a red ant bed and then watching the swarm.  Everyone stop what you are doing and focus on this hang nail the General has.  I say this with some humor but there is some truth to it as I guess it should be in this type of environment.  Despite my talk about being outside of my comfort zone, I love my job.  I feel that what I do is important and I try to do my best.  I just wish everyone could be as blessed as I am.  I will be in class the next two days so I should be able to see some calm before returning the hyper crazed zoo that is my office. :)

Well I thought I would post a few words since I have not posted much lately.  I love blogging just for the heck of it.  Sometimes I vent like a crazed lunatic and sometimes I just want to tell the world about my day.  It is funny how I come across people that are polar opposites.  Some people are so private and think I am crazy for posting my personal thoughts online.  I have people that tell me that “Big Brother” is listening it so you should not post online.  I got over that long ago when I found that you could search for ham radio call signs online.  Also the County Assessor’s office has pictures of everyone’s home online.  There is just too much going on in the world to worry about “Big Brother”.  Others think it is cool and wish they could do it themselves. I considered taking the blog down a few days ago but I think I will leave it up.  If nothing else, it can be used as comedy when I get into one of my rants.  For those that do read, I appreciate it.

By Paul • Posted in Google, Personal, Technology, opinion • 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
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
May 26th, 2008

Twitter!

In a funny attempt to get seen on Techmeme, Michael Arrington posted a one word blog post on Techcrunch last night and it has spread across the Internet.  That one word post was…

“Twitter!”

This post was though meant to be a joke, actually made it on Techmeme, along with about every other tech hobbyist’s site including mine.  I wasn’t sure exactly what it was about until I read his Twitter page.  I would not have posted about it myself except that I love Twitter.  This Memorial Day weekend was a perfect example of how wonderful Twitter is.  We went to Lake Eufaula this weekend to visit with my father in-law.  Although I did have a great time, I was missing my connected life with the Internet.  Even on the third floor of his house, I could not receive any wifi at all.  I felt like a smoker trying to survive the first day of no smoking.  At least I could send and receive Twitter messages through SMS on my cell phone.  Even at the water I could stay in touch with those friends that I have online.  Call me an Internet Junkie but this started way before the Internet.  As a ham radio operator of 25 years, I have been accustomed to communicating to remote places.  Now that the Internet has so many communication tools, it fits right in with me.

As always, you can follow me and my happenings by following my Twitter page.  These tools are becoming so widespread that more and more aggregate readers are coming along.  The newest one that seems to be the rage is Friendfeed.  With this new toy, it creates a news feed with all your Twitter, Pownce, Facebook, Youtube, Flicker, Tumblr, among others.  It is pretty nice as you can see my Friendfeed page here.  With Friendfeed, you can keep in touch with all the social actions a person makes on the Internet.  It seems to be pretty cool.  My favorite is still Twitter because of the SMS (text messaging) capability and it automatically updates my Facebook status.  I like that I can get messages through Skype, Flock, Google Talk (ughh).  If you get tired of all my new toys, you can just follow me on my Friendfeed page because it shows them all.  I guess I have sold out for these new toys and love to be able to communicate while mobile.  I just wish I could settle on just one.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: socialnetworking, Twitter, Pownce, Flickr, Friendfeed, Tumblr, Skype, Flock, Google Talk, Facebook, SMS

By Paul • Posted in Technology, opinion, social networking • Comments
November 13th, 2007

Twitter! How Cool Is That?

You know I am a little slow on some things and I know this.  I have been reading about Twitter for months and just did not get what the big deal was.  I never read the details of what you can do with it because I am always in a rush.  I signed up for an account back in January but just did not understand why those that were using it thought that it was so great.  Then I started hearing about similar systems like Jaiku, and Pownce.  These programs are like mini blogs on the web that you can update with your cell phone.  If your friends are on their, and have notifications turned on, then they will get notifications sent to their cell phone.

You can turn off the notifications by simply sending the text “off” to the number 40404.  You can text “on” to start them up again.  People can read your messages at your own website http://www.twitter.com/yourusername. In fact my Twitter page is http://www.twitter.com/plmccordj. You can be out on the road having fun and just send a text message to your 40404 and everyone can follow you in what ever you are doing.  You can go to the page and post from the web site or from your instant messenger as well.  I am quite impressed with it so far and can see how addicting this would be.

You can go to your web site and set a sleep time so it will never send you messages during that time.  I think this is very handy because it also gives you a running record of your conversations.  You can look back months ago and see messages that you posted.  If you have unlimited text messaging, you should try this out.  I think you will love it.

Technorati Tags: Twitter , Jaiku , Pownce , social networking , facebook , myspace

By Paul • Posted in Twitter, social networking • Comments
July 8th, 2007

Can you understand MySpace?

One thing that I don’t like about MySpace is that people do not even use the blogging feature but rather post comments on each other’s pages. Yes it is easier than trying to find the blog in MySpace but it is terribly inconvenient because sometimes you want to know what is going on in that person’s life, not read what their friends are doing. I never understood why someone wants to read half the conversation and have to bring up the other person’s page to get the other side of the story.

A blog allows you to post on your own page and see what is going on. This is a much better format.  If a person wants to reply, they can post replies to your comments directly on the page and keep everything in context.  MySpace does have blogging features but they are seriously lacking not that anyone even uses them.  My kids have MySpace and so do I here, but it is just not that user friendly to the reader as far as I am concerned.

I have a Yahoo! 360 page here and it is much better than MySpace’s blogging.  Then again, I talk to my kids and they do not like to use the blogging part.  Like I said, I  do not get it.  I would think  you would want people to know what is going on with you. If that is the case, you would want a place where the web site owner can post their own comments.  Maybe I am just not of this generation :-)   Maybe someone can show me where I am wrong about this.

Technorati Tags: MySpace, Yahoo! 360, blogging, blog, blogs

By Paul • Posted in Technology, blogging, social networking • Comments
July 1st, 2007

Sucker Punch

I was playing around with some of the new applications yesterday when I noticed that I somehow accidently sucker punched myself. Now how does one sucker punch themselves? I thought the whole premise behind sucker punching someone was to catch them off guard. I guess I caught myself off guard.

Can you imagine sneaking up on yourself and punching yourself? I guess that is what Jim Carey did in Me, Myself, and Irene. Anyway, I really like the food fight application. So fare I have been hit with a hamburger, chocolate sauce and nachos.

By Paul • Posted in Technology, blogging • Comments
April 14th, 2007

Popularity of Facebook

I must say that I have been amazed by the popularity of Facebook.  I have been on there for six of seven months now and really like it.  I like it better than MySpace because it has a cleaner look and not fillled with pop up ads.  I have every member of my family on there and even this blog feed is in there.  It is nice because you can create groups where everyone is kept up to date when you have announcements.  It is quick to post and read posts but can wait to respond until you feel like it.

Sometimes on instant messenger programs, the immediate pop up messages can be irritating when you are busy working.  Sometimes people do not know you are busy and so you have to speak with them when you do not have time.  With Facebook, you can have as much privacy as you wish.  I like the fact that you can choose who sees your personal information.  You can make your profile public, or only to your family or friends.  I love the convenience of being able to check my page on my cell phone.  It is very handy and better than email.  Also I read that 85% of college students use Facebook.  Whether or not that is true or not, I am satisfied. You can see my  Facebook profile.

The last few days Facebook has updated their look and features.  I have heard both positive and negative.  I like the new changes while I have read complaints.  It seems to me that most of the complaints stem from the normal reaction to change.  Human nature does not like adjusting to change.  As with anything, most things are just personal taste.  Some people like some things while others do not.  I personally love the changes.

Technorati tags: Facebook, social networking, blog

By Paul • Posted in Technology, computer, social networking • Comments