Another Delco Guy In South Jersey

Friday Fantastic Four

I was fascinated this week but the outpouring af emotion over the death of Steve Jobs.  I had always considered him marketer, an organizer and not really a person of great substance.  On his death though, I found the sheer volume of his quotes from speeches and essays to be astounding.  My brother noted, "You have to wonder how he had the time."

Obviously, in retrospect, I was wrong on Jobs.  He was one of the most influential people of the last 50 years.  He made tech cool, revolutionized industrial design, was a game-change for the music industry and so much more.  The world will be a much duller, less beautiful, less classy place without him.

So, here's a Fantastic Four suggested by a loyal reader:

What Four People Accomplished More In The Last 50 years Than Steve Jobs?

1. Nelson Mandela - crushed apartheid, founded a new nation, changed the world.  A mega inspiration for Africa and the world.
2. Bill Gates - the anti-Jobs, created the operating system most of the world uses, uber geek now doing amazing work though his foundation.
3. Oprah - created a media empire, brought books to the masses, world is waiting for her next move
4. Mikhail Gorbachev - perestroika, glasnost, what more can you say? Had the courage to realize that the communist experiment was doomed and moved to free millions.

Jobs did a lot, but these folks did more.  Who are your four?

On Change and Facebook

Come on people.  Are you frigging kidding me?

From looking at most of the web today, and certainly at Facebook, the only thing that people did all day was bitch about the new changes coming at FB.  The first part of the day was spent complaining about the changes to the Facebook feeds that were rolled out yesterday.  Legitimate news organizations devoted entire programs to the changes and the complaining.  The second act in the Day of Facebook Change was the rapt attention paid to FB founder Mark Zuckerberg's unveiling of the real changes coming.  After an intermission of rejoicing that the 'Like button' survived the update, the final act of today's drama was a wave of whining and moaning by people who don't want others to see their comments or 'likes.'

It's not like nothing else happened today.  The stock market crashed.  The Republicans continued pandering to the lunatic fringe.  REM broke up.

But everywhere you looked today, or listened or read, it was all about Facebook.  I know most of the world is addicted to Facebook, heck I know I spend too much time on it, but this is insanity people!

Hello From 37,000 Feet!

I am sitting her in seat 11C (nice exit row!) on USAirways flight 1645 over Virginia on my way back to Philadelphia from a week long conference in Orlando Florida.

Thanks to the amazing technology of this Airbus A321 and GOGO In Flight Internet, I can say hello!

I hope that everyone has a great weekend as it seems like the Holiday party season kicks off in earnest.

 

More Thoughts on Social Media and Instant News

As you know from last week's meandering post thoughtful commentary, I have been thinking about the role of the internet on a personal as well as a larger level.  I meant the post to be more general in nature, but it was seen by some as a personal cry for help.

What I was really trying to get across is that the instant nature and omnipresence of connectivity has fundamentally changed damn near everything in today's world.  Everyone uses Facebook at work.  Your boss can email you on your iPhone or Blackberry at 11pm.  A news cycle might only last an hour or two. Malls are empty.  Newspapers get thinner and thinner.  Magazine are disappearing.

Who's Got The Time Anymore?

Obviously I write a blog.  And I have a Facebook page too.  And a Twitter feed.  I have a disused Tumblr site, an abandoned MySpace page (remember MySpace?), a LinkedIn Profile, about 8,000 images on Flickr and an entire website I manage at work.   I've got a pile of places on the web I try to get to every day and there are more than a few places where I used to post regularly and rarely get to anymore. 

My instant messaging platform aggregates my AOL, Yahoo, Google, and MSN instant messaging identities along with keeping me updated on FB status changes, Tweets and new email.  This was suppose to make my life easier.  Sometimes I just turn it off so the world doesn't seem so overwhelming.

I can post to my blog, Twitter or Flickr from my Blackberry as well as sent IMs, emails from all 4 of my accounts and also send photo and text messages.  I also occasionally use it to make phone calls.

I've got 2 kids, a new house, a significant other (not my laptop), a job, and a pile of other things to do that are not i- or e- or tech- or anything like that.  It's not like time is infinitely available to me.

I freely admit that I often find myself pecking away on my Blackberry posting from a cool restaurant or a kids' birthday party, with the nagging thought of "I HAVE to get the post up!!!!"

Recently though, I have been having that thought and then another right on its heels of "Or what if I don't?"  What would happen if I didn't? Would I become suddenly less relevant to the rest of the world?  Will my already meager posse of followers and readers dwindle to nothingness?

Would it matter?  Do they feel, as I sometimes do, that they "must" visit my site or comment on my latest status change lest they somehow be found guilty of not being an appropriately interested 21st Century Friend?

I am going to spend the next week or so thinking about my online media presence and usage as well as how it has changed in just the 3 years I have been blogging.  If you've your own thoughts on the topic, feel free to chime in!

What A Piece of Junk

I hate to shop. Virtually all the shopping I do is online. Over the years I have had pretty good luck. With the exception of some shoes that did not fit, and a watch that never got delivered, I have successfully spent thousands of dollars online without travail. Until I ordered the Smartparts SP15MWA digital picture frame from Tigerdirect.com.

The first one I ordered was here in two days. I ripped open the box and read the directions (yup! Sure did!!), put the memory card in, connected the power and ... NOTHING. It was DOA. The returns process was pretty easy and since I figured it was an isolated thing, I ordered a replacement.

The replacement came last night and worked flawlessly for about 3 minutes. Then the Smartparts frame began emitting the smell of melting plastic and went blank.

This time the Tigerdirect.com RMA guy was a bit of a jerk,but I still got the RMA. I am not blaming TigerDirect for the bad products. This thing is obviously a piece of crap. The images were pretty good for 3 minutes, but 2 out of 2 bad units is not a good record. Avoid the Smartparts SP15MWA. It's crap in a box.

We Saw This Coming

Microsoft has apparently gotten so unhip that they hired Jerry Seinfeld of all people to do commercials that make them seem hip.  You know.  The guy who used to be on TV? 

Apparently Paul Reiser was booked.

Now, in the most unshocking development in the history of Microsoft bonehead deals, the software giant is pulling the ad campaign after only 2 ads were produced. No wonder Vista costs so much.

The I'm a PC ads are much better than the Seinfeld stuff, but not nearly as slick as the Mac-PC ads.  Oh and they were made on a Mac.

Verizon FIOS

This made me LAUGH!!!!  From Verizon.com:

                        

System is currently unavailable

       

Packages & Prices             All About FiOS             About Installation             System Requirements              FAQs                       Contact Us

We're sorry.Online Ordering is Currently Unavailable                                                                                                       We are unable to check FiOS availability and process orders due to a system issue. Please try again later. If this problem continues, please call 888-933-3331 to speak with a Verizon Online representative. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Not a good first impression for a company trying to get me to switch from Comcast's Triple Play.  The Verizon commercials with the little kid and the Verizon tech are so good, i decided to stop by the website to see what the pricing is like.

Then they have a system error.  Puts them in the same category with the Comcast guys.

True QAM.  NOT!

Gift Giving Opportunity

As you may have noticed, it is currently June 5th, wich means you have only 12 shopping days left to buy my Father's Day present.  While my ex wife co-parent probably would not agree, I am nominating myself for Father of the Year and deserveto be rewarded properly.  Since my kids are too little to do much shopping on their own, I've got a few ideas for you all!

• Samsung's Deluxe Q1 Ultra - This thing is HOT!!!!  An ultra mobile 800mhz wireless computer with full keyboard and 7" screen.  A STEAL at only $1200.

• Apple iPhone - this is probably the convergence product that would break what my lil Bro calls my "PC brainwashing."  It's pricy, like everthing from Apple, but I am guessing that when Paris gets out of prison, she will be ditching the Sidekick for one of these and I want to be right there with her.

• Wireless XBox with 20 GB Harddrive - this one is more for the boy than me.  He loves his baseball on the Box, but ours is getting a bit elderly and needs to be kicked up a notch.  If ya can spare the change, spring for a pair of wireless controllers too!

• Jimmy Buffett is playing the Boardwalk in AC this summer.  And 2 tickets would be a SWEET Father's Day gift!!!  I will take care of the transportation, party supplies and grass skirts.

Just drop me a note and I will let you know where to ship these babies!  i'm really looking forward to it!

Have a good one!

09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

I know - it's a weird headline for a post.  But that string of numbers and letters is pretty powerful.  It unlocks the encryption on the new Blu-Ray and HD DVD discs, making them essentially downloadable.

But that's not why it's really powerful.  When the code became public on May 1st, Digg users started to post articles related to it.  (If you don't know what Digg is, go here.  It lets users comment on articles.)  Digg doesn't allow the violation of copyright, so they pulled it down.  That's where the power of this number and the internet community really kicked in.

Digg users basically shut the Digg system down by posting thousands of articles about the decryption string.  Eventually the founder of Digg relented and decided to let his users has their way, regardless of the consequences.  Some folks have decided that Digg is right on this one.  I would have to agree!

Amazing how powerful this Interweb thingy has gotten.