Lately, I've been all about social networks. As a self-proclaimed Twitter addict for close to a year now, I hear about lots of different sites each day from the many tech people I follow. Listening to tech podcasts -- especially the shows on the Revision3 and TWiT networks -- also ensures that I hear a lot about social networking sites. Whenever I hear of a new site, I usually make an account and try it out. Sometimes I'll check back often, other times I'll never look at it again.
One of the best social networks I've ever had the pleasure of using is FriendFeed. At first glance, this site looks an awful lot like Twitter. But it's so much more than that. FriendFeed aggregates statuses, comments, messages, and posts from dozens and dozens of sites and puts them all in one place. By checking your FriendFeed profile, your friends can see updates from your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, GTalk, Digg, Delicious, Amazon, StumbleUpon, and Google Reader accounts, as well as many more. Plus, there's RSS support, so you can share your latest blog or podcast entries as well. Plus, you can have all these entries published to your Twitter, so your friends there can stay up-to-date with your lifestream. Personally, I would prefer it if everyone on Twitter would move over to FriendFeed. For one thing, the site is much slicker and more useful. The page auto-updates instantly, so you never need to refresh it. Plus the site is much more stable. I've never known it to crash, while Twitter crashes on almost a daily basis. Finally, FriendFeed was just bought by Facebook (FaceFeed?) so hopefully more improvements will come.
A really neat site that I ju
st joined a week or two ago is gdgt. I think gdgt is really interesting because of how different it is. Members browse or search the site for gadgets and gizmos that they currently own, used to own, or wish they owned. When you find something that falls into one of those 3 categories for you, you add it to the appropriate list. Your profile consists of those three lists, as well as any other information you choose to share. There are also forums, a news page, and a feed of recent member activity. I think gdgt is really pretty innovative because I've never seen a site quite like it, and I must admit there's something almost addicting about looking for anything I own that might be considered a gadget and seeing if it's listed. If a gadget isn't listed, you can add an entry yourself, but there are still a limited number of categories because the site really is brand new. So far I've got 15 Haves, 15 Wants, 1 Had, and made 1 new contribution. Definitely check this one out.
There are also a ton of sites you can use to supplement Twitter. Twitter is my favorite social network by far. I've met hundreds of new people on Twitter, a handful of whom I consider close friends, even though we've never met in person. Some great sites that make use of Twitter include Dailybooth, TwitPic, and Blip.fm. Dailybooth is sort of a Twitter for self-portraits. Each day, users snap a photo of themselves and upload them. Links to these photos are sent out on their Twitter accounts, where their friends can view them and leave text or photo comments. It's a fun project to try and take 1 picture of yourself every day while keeping it fresh and interesting. TwitPic also auto-tweets links of uploaded pictures, but it's more of an all-purpose site. Use DailyBooth to take a self-portrait each day, but use TwitPic to share something funny, interesting, or just cool that can't be described in 140 characters. Finally, Blip.fm indexes links to MP3s and YouTube videos of popular (and obscure) songs for your listening pleasure. It auto-tweets a link to each song as you listen to it so your followers can listen along with you.
Posterous, while not inherently a social network, has some very cool potential social networking applications. At its core, Posterous is a blogging service. But what sets it apart from other services is the fact that you post blog entries via email. In fact, you don't even need to make an account to start using the service. All you need to do is send an email to their address, and the contents of that email will become your first blog post. The neat part is that if you send audio files as attachments, they will be uploaded to the server and a flash audio player will be generated. This allows for easy audio blogging and even podcasting. The social networking aspect of Posterous is that it allows you to auto-publish links to your entries on any number of social networking sites. This means that by sending a quick email, even on-the-go, you can share virtually any kind of content on Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, or whatever other site you like, have all your friends and followers view it, and keep an archive of it all. How great is that?!
There are so many other sites I could list here, but I've already rambled quite a bit, so I'll just end by saying that if you want to see my updates on all these sites and more, you can visit my Google Profile.
This is going to seem stupid to many of you, but here goes anyway. When it comes to spelling and grammar, I have a pretty serious case of O.C.D. I'm not very forgiving of those errors, mostly because spelling and grammar come very naturally to me. I know if a sentence is grammatically correct or if a word is spelled properly just by reading or hearing it. It usually doesn't take very much effort on my part. That's why I was so surprised today when I read Green Lantern #45, written by the illustrious Geoff Johns, and ran across the following grammatical error from the mouth of Hal Jordan's on-again, off-again love interest Carol Ferris:
"Hal and I broke up more times then he's charged his ring."Maybe some of you don't even see the error, but to me, "then" stands out like a sore thumb. So what's the point of all this? I mentioned it in passing during a conversation with my friend Faith, and the following dialogue came out of it. I thought it was funny, so upon her suggestion, I'm posting it here. (Forgive our grammatical laziness, specifically the lack of capitalization. This was just a private instant message conversation.)
Me: I saw a spelling/grammar error in a comic todayFaith: no way!Me: yeah. my previously unwavering faith in geoff johns was shaken.Faith: oh no!Me: it'll take some time but I think we can patch things upFaith: so sadFaith: I know you two will make it work outFaith: you're made for each otherMe: I hope you're rightMe: things have been so great until nowMe: I don't want it to end so suddenlyFaith: it's the first stutter in your relationship, give it time, things will go back to normalMe: just because he used "then" when he clearly meant "than"Faith: oh, that's not as bad as I thoughtFaith: it's just one bad issue. It'll go back to normal next timeMe: that shouldn't get past the proofreader!!Faith: see, that's not himFaith: that's an external forceMe: but he wrote it in the first place!Faith: honey, you're arguing semantics in a one time situationMe: this is sounding too much like a real almost-break-up so I'm going to stop before I seriously frighten myselfFaith: everyone slips up a bit
No, it's not the Governator. It's my take on the Beatles' "I'll Be Back"
Until about a year ago, I was staunchly anti-iPod. I thought Apple's super-dominant portable media player had some good points, but overall I felt like it was meant for non-geek consumers who just wanted a small device that would play their music and a few videos without requiring too much tech knowledge. To me, that meant a less powerful device that would limit me too much. So I turned to Creative Labs for my PMP. The Creative Zen Vision: M is an answer to the iPod Video. It plays MP3s, WMAs, WAVs, and a plethora of video formats that the iPod still doesn't even approach.
Though I'm now a huge fan of my iPod Touch, I still turn to the Zen from time to time for its superior compatibility, especially with video. I could buy the video output equipment for my Touch, but I don't really see a reason to do so when I already have the Zen Video Cable, which conveniently plugs right into the dongle already included with the player for USB and AC power. It might be old and sluggish by today's standards, but with a 60gb hard drive, my Zen serves as a more portable Apple TV of sorts. I can load almost any video format I want onto it and watch it on my TV. It's also great for photo slideshows, and of course music. In fact, audiophiles won't be surprised to hear that the Zen's signal-to-noise ratio still puts the iPod to shame. Another small, but neat feature is the programmable wild card button that you can set to perform any function you want. I use it to play the entire music library on shuffle.
Sure, the Zen has its flaws too. The interface is a copy of the iPod Video interface, with the exception that it allows for custom wallpapers and a choice of color schemes. Also, instead of a click wheel, the Zen has a vertical-only touchpad. The Zen is pretty thick, about twice the thickness of a 30gb iPod Video, but if you just use it as a stay-at-home video player, as I now do, that won't matter much at all.
All in all, I still love my Zen Vision: M, if not for its form factor and GUI, then for its compatibility with virtually all popular audio and video formats. I'll continue to use it as my own version of an Apple TV until someone convinces me there's something better for my needs, or until it stops working. Whichever comes first.
Not to make a big deal of it, but I've just realized that this is my 100th post. I set out to write a semi-regular blog and stick with it for as long as possible for a change. I've blogged before, but this is easily the longest-running blog I've ever maintained, and I've been far more interested in this project than in my previous attempts. I owe this mainly to the support I've gotten from readers who have commented here, on Twitter, and on Friendfeed, so thanks to all of you! I hope to keep this going for a long time to come.
I'm sure readers of this blog have noticed that I haven't been posting as frequently as I'd like to recently. That's partly because I've taken on lots of hobbies (possibly too many for my own good), but it's also because whenever I do think about writing, a suitable subject doesn't come to min as readily as it once did.
When I first started this project, I had a few staple features to fall back on whenever I couldn't think of something original. There was the "Podcastin' " series, which I never officially ended and might start up again some time. Then during the 2008 Presidential Election, I wrote opinion pieces and posted news stories here.
So maybe what I really need to do is resurrect the Podcastin' series, come up with some new regular features, and then plug in the gaps with whatever pops into my mind. Part of the writer's block I've been experiencing comes from a feeling of pressure. I'm committed to keeping this blog afloat, and sometimes my desire to keep it going makes it hard to decide what to write about because I want it to be of some quality. So I'm rededicating myself to this blog and updating it at least once a week. I look forward to writing more often!
Very cool! Free download of a great McCartney song recently featured in the Adam Sandler / Seth Rogen comedy Funny People.
