News

I will write a better post later today, but I wanted to officially post these items:

I am now a writer for Minnov8! I am really excited to work with these guys-look for my first post coming in the next few days.

Also, I am going to be taking down the Twin Cities iMarketing calendar. I am working with Ian over at MM-UR.com. MM-UR is going to be the one-stop place for all of the meetups happening-whether they are ad-hoc or part of a huge group, you will find them here. Please go check it out, add your event, and help this grow!

This is one of those posts that is fun for me to write:

I am helping CoCoMSP as a “Co-Community Manager”. This is a very undefined role, but the part that I have to write about (screw you, FTC guidelines) is that we have a “material” relationship. So take note of this whenever I blog, tweet, or talk about CoCo.

Back to your regularly scheduled tech randomness.

I will do a more in-depth review in a few days, but this is the short version:
~it can connect to my server via ssh or ftp
~its easy to develop for
~its open
~the full qwerty is so nice to have
~I live in google, so having a phone that ties into that as well as this one does is a must

Basically, it is a device that makes me need my laptop less, and still be fully functional.

I will be spending a few hours later today at Caribou HQ, for my marketing class. Anything that you would want me to ask? I will update this post later with answers/what I learned from their marketers. (If there is nothing good, I will just put up a new post)

Post the questions below.

I am blessed with a semi-techy girlfriend. Last night we were talking, and stumbled on a use case for our favorite service to make fun of, Google Wave.

We are using it as our honey-do list!

This lets us keep track of all of our little projects-she just moved into a new studio, so we are getting everything ready.

This is what I love using google wave for. As you can see from my inbox, its mostly things for ad-hoc projects, side things, or shared to-do lists.

At SMCpros, we are using Basecamp, and love it. Wave fits perfectly in the slot right below it, for the times when Basecamp is too much for a project, but you still need to collaborate.

So, Tumblr is in a bit of a flap with some of its users, all over the idea of dormant accounts. Ill recap:

Pitchfork (the music site) wanted a Tumblr. pitchfork.tumblr.com was taken, so they email Tumblr asking what they could do.

Tumblr emailed the user, and with no response, gave the Tumblr to Pitchfork Media, as per their guidelines. From all accounts, the Tumblr in question was dormant, with only a few posts spaced several months apart.

This is the same as if there is a Twitter handle that you want. If it has been dormant for 6 months, you can have it released.

(If you want to read Pitchfork’s side, click here. The old owner’s, here. Tumblr’s, here.)

Naturally, people are all in a tizzy-mostly saying that Tumblr just sold out to a corporation.

My opinion differs. If you are squatting on a brand name, never post on it (the last post on it was 6 months old), and do not respond to their inquiries about it, you do not get to keep it. Notice what is between your witty domain and the .com? Thats right, its Tumblr’s name. Because it is theirs. You have a subdomain on your server, meaning you are renting their property.

Digital assets are very important to anyone online. If someone would have had my name, I would try to contact them. Especially if it was dormant.

Now, this all gets a little iffy if the person is using it. Luckily, I am 99% sure that this would not have been handled this was if the account was active.

Bottom line-if you have it, use it. Don’t just squat on it and plan to get rich selling it. Nobody like squatters-not online, nor the people who squat on patents and just sues people to make money. If you have an asset or a resource, USE IT. Make something. Do not try to get fame or money just by holding onto something. Make the fame and money by MAKING something.

What do you feel about digital ownership? It is something that we often take for granted, until it comes back to cause us issues.

Earlier today, Verizon announced that their smartphones (Blackberry and Android based) would all be getting Skype over 3G next month.

For any small business, freelancer, or anyone with one of these phones, this is a huge deal.

Owners of the phones will be able to make unlimited Skype to Skype calls, use the text based chat, and use Skype Out.

That last one, combined with one other tidbit, is the real gamechanger.

Forever, Cell companies have been charging fairly high international and long distance rates, and getting away with it. However, Verizon customers now have no reason to ever pay for an international call again, or at the very least never pay Verizon’s rate for it, and Verizon is ok with it. Here is the logic:

1. For people who have the smartphone, they can use Skype to call their international recipient for free. Verizon knows this, touted it in their announcement, and are leveraging this.
2. If the other person doesnt have Skype, simply use some Skype Out credits, which are much cheaper than what VZW charges.
3. If all else fails, get a Google Voice account, and use their international rates. Again, way cheaper.

The crazy thing about this all is that Verizon is OK with it. This is not some sneaky backdoor, this was announced by them!! What other company would do that?

So, to all of you loving your iPhones and defending ATT, maybe this will quiet you down for a bit.

Or maybe that quiet is your phone not having the service to make a call (ZING!!)

I was watching “Iron Man” last night, and had some revelations on HCI (Human Computer Interaction). Tony is constantly talking to his suit, and it is responding. It gives him the data that he needs, when he asks for it.

Clearly, voice is the way to go. However, there are no voice interfaces that currently really work. Ford’s Sync platform is gaining some ground, but when it comes to interacting with computers on a regular basis, it has not.

The major HCI platforms currently are keyboard and touch/pen based.

Why is it that voice has not taken off?

Easy: it is not natural. While I would love to be able to talk to my computer, it takes me learning a syntax that is not normal for me. I have to work with it, rather than it working for me.

Not cool when the computer is controlling me. It should be the other way around.

The Nexus One is taking this to the next step, where you can talk to the phone for any text field. However, you are still required to use another method to get to that text field.

The issue comes from lexicon, as well as dialect. I might say “Open my email”, but thats me. It would be a HUGE programming feat to make a computer actually comprehend.

The other thing that it got me thinking about was the idea of settings and data following you. When Tony Stark first fires up his suit, he has all his data and settings imported from his house.

We can sort of achieve this with portable apps, but it sucks running everything from the USB drive. Again, the Android platform does this really well, since it imports your Google preferences when you turn the phone on and log into your Google account. I wish that more tech recognized the user, and did all the configuring right away, rather than having to change everything.

Its funny that the closest thing to the Iron Man tech is coming out of Google.