CompuSchmooze

September 2009 Column: iPhone apps help you keep in touch with your spiritual side

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:50:25 PDT

This is the September 2009 column as published in the Jewish Community Voice.

Ten years ago, everyone thought they needed a website. So much so, that a popular way to get a laugh from someone was to take the sentence they just said and add "dot com" to it.

Now, it seems everyone thinks they need an Apple iPhone application. Some of them are very clever, but some seem like strange ways to get us to use a very expensive cell phone to avoid making an ordinary phone call.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not a huge fan of the iPhone. Yes, it's cool looking and all, but I've looked closely at the fees, and frankly, there are many more cost-effective cell phone and cell data plans from carriers with better coverage maps and phones nearly as functional as iPhones.

So I decided not to get an iPhone, at least not yet. Maybe when Apple's exclusive and expensive contract with AT&T expires in 2012, the options will be better. Therefore, iPhone devotees, please take these observations with appropriate grains of salt.

For those of you using iPhones, there is a good variety of Jewish apps so that you can keep in touch spiritually, even if you prefer not to phone it in.

Rusty Brick makes a wide array of Jewish apps, including a weekday Siddur that offers "Ashkenaz, Sefard, Sefarad Mizrachi and Nusach Ari (Chabad) versions of davening, including weekday Shacharis, Mincha, Maariv, standard Brachos and more," according to the company's website (http://is.gd/-2L1hE). The app uses the iPhone's GPS to calculate prayer times at your location, and if you need to find a minyan, a built-in database provides a list of nearby shuls. (Note to local synagogue membership directors: do you have someone assigned to making sure you show up in apps like this?) The only caveat, this app is not available in English yet, just Hebrew, so it may not be suitable if you're not fluent in Hebrew.

Rusty Brick's Tehillim for iPhone (http://is.gd/2L1z6) provides Psalms in Hebrew and English, organized by chapter or by day of the week or month. They also offer a free and simple Shabbat app that will check candlelighting and Havdalah times and parsha for the week around the world (http://is.gd/2L1H4).

We also must not forget Brad Kleinman of Cleveland, who has created iGavolt, "the iPhone app for Jewish Grandkids" that puts a Jewish grandmother on your iPhone (http://is.gd/2L2lp). A portion of the proceeds from sales of this app goes to the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

AAA (www.aaa.com/mobile) just announced a travel application for the iPhone that allows you to request roadside assistance without placing a call, and it will pinpoint your location. (Most modern GPS-enabled cell phones can pinpoint location without a special application, by the way.)

We described the PNC Bank Virtual Wallet Product (video podcast at http://is.gd/2KXv2) in the Oct. 8, 2008 CompuSchmooze column (http://is.gd/2KY6X). It's an effort by the bank to make savings and bill paying more like a video game in hopes that younger people will become customers.

The bank has extended the Virtual Wallet product to the mobile phone with a downloadable "app" for the popular Apple iPhone. The iPhone app also works on the iPod Touch and provides calendar views of your finances, as well as the popular interactive "Money Bar," a visual slider that makes transferring money between savings and checking as easy as dragging a bar on the graphic from one side to the other. You can also put money into a visual "piggy bank" by shaking the iPhone and watching a visual graphic of coins tumbling from a wallet into a piggy bank. (I thought we wanted them to grow up!)

The bank has set up a YouTube channel with video demos (http://is.gd/2KXTE), and you can open a Virtual Wallet account in person or online (http://is.gd/2KXX8). Oh, yes, you can also follow @pncvwallet on Twitter for updates and announcements about the Virtual Wallet service.

steve@compuschmooze.com

Compuschmooze Video Podcast #3: Demonstration of NeatDesk Scanning Suite

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:07:04 PDT

In this latest Compuschmooze vidcast, technology columnist Steve Lubetkin reviews the NeatDesk scanner and software suite, from the Neat Company. This vidcast supplements the current Compuschmooze column in the Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey.

National Museum of American Jewish History Opens 2010

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:01:26 PDT

I will be writing about the technology planned for the new museum in the Fall issue of Attitudes, our sister publication to the Jewish Community Voice. There will also be a video podcast associated with the article. Stay tuned!

For now, watch this video produced by the Museum.

Philadelphia "Sweetup" Tweetup, Manayunk Brewery, 7/20/2009

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:22:51 PDT

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PodcastSteve was one of 30-40 Philadelphia area Twitter users who got together in "meat space" for a "TweetUp" at the Manayunk Brewery on July 20. These short interviews introduce you to some of the top Tweeters from the Philadelphia social media community.

New Earth-Size Blot on Jupiter, Found By an Amateur - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:14:36 PDT

Last month, as part of our science press tour from which we posted the CompuSchmooze video podcast of the Galileo and Star Trek exhibits at the Franklin Institute, we had a chance to chat one on one with Derek Pitts, chief astronomer of the Franklin. We'll post some of his chat shortly, but our new awareness of astronomy stories led us to take note of this LedeBlog item from the New York Times...

New Earth-Size Blot on Jupiter, Found By an Amateur - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com

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CompuSchmooze Video Podcast #2: Tech Exhibits in Philadelphia

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:28:38 PDT

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Two exhibits at the opposite ends of the scientific spectrum are at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia through September. "Galileo, the Medici, and the Age of Discovery," brings one of Galileo's own telescopes to Philadelphia -- the first time the instrument has traveled outside of Italy. Spanning other centuries yet to come, "Star Trek: The Exhibition," brings artifacts, costumes, and full-size mockups of many of the sets from the popular Star Trek series of TV shows and movies. It's at the Franklin until September 20. In this video podcast, CompuSchmooze columnist Steve Lubetkin takes a brief look at both exhibits, and makes a stop at the new media wall at the Comcast Center building.

Read the CompuSchmooze column associated with this video at http://www.jewishvoicesnj.org/news/2009/0715/columns/036.html

CompuSchmooze Video Podcast #2: Tech Exhibits in Philadelphia

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:28:37 PDT

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Read the CompuSchmooze column associated with this video at http://www.jewishvoicesnj.org/news/2009/0715/columns/036.html

Drexel University PRSSA Panel: Breaking Boundaries, The Revolution of Social Media

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:04:40 PDT

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The Drexel University Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) presents "Breaking Boundaries: The Revolution of Social Media," a panel discussion held May 5, 2009 in the Bossone Auditorium at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Panelists

Gloria Bell, Red Stapler Consulting
Steve Lubetkin, Managing Partner, Professional Podcasts LLC
Valeria Maltoni, ConversationAgent Blog
Scott McNulty, Chief Blogger, Comcast
Katie Shields, Vice President and Managing Partner, Vault Communications

Moderator
Rick Alcantara, Tara Communications

CompuSchmooze April 2009: Surfing Safely on a Virus Laden Net

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:31:14 PDT

By Steven L. Lubetkin|
steve@compuschmooze.com
Copyright � 2009 Steven L. Lubetkin. All rights reserved.

WORD COUNT: 975

This is an extended version of the column that appears in the Voice this month.

I spent the better part of a recent Sunday eradicating a particularly nasty computer virus from my daughter Shelly's late-model laptop computer.

I was surprised to find that the computer had a virus infection, since we have a firewall and antivirus product on all of our machines.

I was even more surprised at the sophistication and extent of the infection when I opened up the patient.

When Shelly noticed the computer operating strangely and asked for my help, the first clue I had that something was wrong was in the log files of the firewall software.

For some reason, her computer was making repeated efforts to "ping" or contact a computer with a domain name somewhere in the Ukraine. The firewall was dutifully blocking these pings, but I realized that the computer had clearly become infected with a spybot or "botnet" infection.

These viruses are often called Trojan Horse infections because, like the mythical gift in Greek literature (http://tinyurl.com/2jjlkd), they get into your computer by masquerading as something more innocuous.

In my daughter's case, she downloaded a program for viewing videos, and it told her she needed a special "codec," or separate program for viewing high definition (HD) videos. I learned from a Google search on the name of the new video program that it was indeed the so-called HD codec that introduced the Trojan Horse into her computer.

I realized I was up against an especially devious infection when I tried to install my standard solution for spyware programs, Spybot Search & Destroy, a free program to delete programs that spy on your computer and protect it from further infestations (www.safer-networking.org).

The laptop's web browser reported that the program's website was not available. Then, it told me the copy of the installation program transferred over my network from another computer was corrupted and could not continue. When I successfully installed Spybot S&D from a flash drive, the virus blocked it from starting and simply rebooted the machine every time I tried to activate it.

The virus had more surprises for me, though.

Internet-connected computers, as well as websites, are identified by a string of numbers referred to as an IP address, like the string 161.111.2.105.

Most Internet service providers like Verizon, Comcast, and others, maintain a network of computers called Domain Name Servers to translate those strings of numbers into the familiar www.google.com or www.jewishvoicesnj.org.

This virus, known as a Trojan DNSChanger, gets into the deep inner workings of a PC and changes the settings that tell your computer which DNS server to use to find websites.

Alone among the computers in the house, this one had its DNS server settings pointing to a suspicious IP address somewhere in Europe, instead of the correct Verizon settings.

Because of that nearly invisible change in the way the computer accessed the Internet, it took control of the computer's ability to access the Internet, and blocked access to sites or software that would threaten its existence.

By rerouting the computer's Internet access to the rogue DNS server, it seemed to anticipate my efforts to install every major antivirus program, like McAfee (mcafee.com) or Symatec's Norton Antivirus (Symantec.com).

The existing installation of ZoneAlarm Internet Security was blocked from updating its virus and spyware data files. A new installation of Kaspersky Antivirus was also blocked.

The only program that it failed to block - and which ultimately helped me defeat it - was an obscure program called ComboFix. ComboFix found and eradicated very obscure program changes the program made deep in the computer's software. Once ComboFix had completed its scan, I was able to get the computer pointed to the right DNS servers again, and updated and ran my other antivirus and security software several times to make sure the virus was gone.

By the way, this story is a cautionary tale. Trying to remove a Trojan DNSChanger virus is not recommended for inexperienced computer users. Contact a professional for assistance unless you are really familiar with the innards of your computers.

And so, with news stories warning of a new virus threat called "Conficker" possibly striking computers worldwide in April, what can you do to protect your computers?

First and foremost, make sure you are running the latest version of your antivirus and firewall software on all your computers. Update the virus "signature" files from the antivirus manufacturer. New updates are transmitted several times a week, so pay special attention if you try to update them and the update fails. And yes, you need to install it on every computer in your home network, not just the one that provides Internet access to the rest of the network.

If you have a wireless network, be sure to activate the network's security features and limit access to computers you know.

Also, periodically check the log files created by your antivirus software or firewall for suspicious activity. There are few legitimate reasons for your computer to be trying to make unattended contact with Internet sites in Russia, the Ukraine, or China, unless you are visiting such sites to do family research or research for homework assignments.

Scan your computers with Spybot S&D, it's a free program and finds a lot of marketing type spyware that websites add to your system that you don't need.

Most importantly, before you download and install that new cool program that the computer says you really, really need for the live online chat with Rob Pattinson or Kristen Stewart, the stars of "Twilight," do a Google search on the program's name.

If it's a legitimate program, you'll find lots of search results describing the program's features and how people are using it.

If it's a rogue program or a virus of some sort, you'll almost certainly find warnings from other people, and may save yourself a wasted weekend trying to remove a virus.

# # # #

Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey Celebrates "Israel @ 60"

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:25:45 PST

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The Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey celebrated Israel's 60th birthday with "Israel #@ 60," a daylong festival involving Jewish organizations in the community who paraded, sang Israeli songs, and enjoyed Israeli arts and crafts at Cooper River Park in Pennsauken, Camden County. This video was produced June 1, 2008 and shows the performance by Studio Balance of Givataim, Israel, a troupe of young performers who depicted biblical stories in an interpretive dance routine.

Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey Celebrates "Israel @ 60"

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:54:11 PST

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CompuSchmooze Podcast #29: Online Video Demographics Skew Older, and Harvard's Take on What Newspapers Need to Do

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:25:28 PST

In October, Ipsos Insight, a Canadian market research company, learned in its market research that "the popularity of online video services has grown significantly with women and older consumers, helping close the age and gender gap within the burgeoning online video audience in the U.S." (See the Ipsos news release here.)

Adam Wright, Senior Research Manager at Ipsos, who conducted the research, joins us to discuss what it means for online video content creators and marketers.

Read Adam's bio here.

Then, we speak with Persephone Miel, a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at The Harvard Law School, about her groundbreaking study, Media Re:public: News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age, a series of papers exploring the potential and the challenges of the emerging networked digital media environment.

Download the podcast file here (52.2 mb stereo MP3 file, 00:38:01 length).

Keywords: compuschmooze, lubetkin, cherry hill, jewish, voice, harvard, miel, news media, ipsos, wright, online video, streaming video, video

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Produced in the studios of Professional Podcasts LLC, Cherry Hill, NJ

Jeff Pulver Welcoming Remarks, Philadelphia Real-World Social Media Tagging Breakfast, 2/5/09

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:05:17 PST

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Jeff Pulver's Real-World Social Media Tagging Breakfast in Philadelphia on February 5 included short remarks by Jeff about why he began creating opportunities for social media participants to meet each other in the real world, and the tools he thought might be helpful to get people to engage each other in real interactions and conversations.

CompuSchmooze Podcast #28: A Conversation about Using Social Media in Public Diplomacy, with David Saranga, Israel's Consul for Media and Public Affairs

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:26:39 PST

On December 30, 2008, the Israeli Consulate General in New York hosted a "citizens' press conference" and invited interested parties to send the Consulate questions about the recent Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip, using the social media website Twitter.com. This is probably the first time a country's diplomats have embraced the use of Twitter for outreach to audiences for their messaging.

For those not familiar with it, Twitter is a microblogging website where users communicate with their friends or "followers" in terse, 140-character messages designed to fit the text messaging function of cell phones in a way that makes the communications tool highly portable.

Social media initiatives embraced by the Israeli Consulate also include a Facebook page, a MySpace presence, a blog about Israeli life and culture, a blog about Israeli politics, and a YouTube channel. The transcript of the Twitter press conference is hosted on the political blog.

In this podcast, we talk with David Saranga, Consul for Media and Public Affairs at the Israeli Consulate General.

Before joining the consulate, David served as Deputy Spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel, and was responsible for contact with the foreign media. He previously served in Israel's embassies in Romania and Spain.

As Consul for Media and Public Affairs, David Saranga is responsible for having direct contact with America's New York-based national media, and for public relations. One of his job's main goals is to show the real face of Israel, that which lies beyond the news headlines. One of the innovative tools he uses to do this is the isRealli Blog.

Consul Saranga has both extensive academic and private sector experience.
He was a Manager of the Direct Marketing Department, Visa-Israel Credit Cards and worked as National Sales Executive at Kidum Ltd.

Consul Saranga has been engaged as an academic since 1989, when he worked as a Teaching Assistant at the Hebrew University. Subsequent work has included one year as Director of Studies and Lecturer in Marketing Management at the Open University in Israel.

Read the CompuSchmooze column in the Jewish Community Voice here.

Download the podcast file here (28.8 mb stereo MP3 file, 00:21:00 length).

Keywords: compuschmooze, lubetkin, cherry hill, jewish, voice, saranga, twitter, israel, consulate, social media, citizen press conference, public diplomacy

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Produced in the studios of Professional Podcasts LLC, Cherry Hill, NJ

PopJudaica.com website

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:14:43 PST

Thanks to Peter Shankman for the heads up and copywriting on this. It's a pretty cute site, not like the traditional holdiay stuff.

Ever wish they lit a giant menorah in Rockefeller Center or aired a Charlie Brown Hanukkah Special on TV? PopJudaica.com www.popjudaica.com is a retailer that's like a festivus-for-the-rest-of-us this holiday season. PopJudaica.com has loads of cool Hanukkah gifts like a Motherboard Menorah with LED Lights for the techie and the High Heel Shoe Menorah for the Sex and the City type girl. Even if you aren't Jewish, PopJudaica.com's selection of funny T-shirts and gifts (like the yarmulke and tallis for your dog) will have you laughing your tuchus off! Follow @popjudaica on Twitter.

CompuSchmooze Columnist Steve Lubetkin participates as a sesssion facilitator on Successful Corporate Podcasting at Jeff Pulver's "Social Media Jungle Conference" November 13, Melville, NY

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:19:20 PST

Steve ("PodcastSteve" on Twitter) joined more than 60 social media experts in Melville, NY on November 13 for the "Social Media Jungle Conference organized by Internet entrepreneur and investor Jeff Pulver.

Steve was one of 15 session presenters/facilitators for the all-day conference, focusing on how companies can reduce their marketing expenses through effective use of audio and video podcasting. Much of the conference was streamed live over the Internet through UStream.tv.

You can see part of Steve's presentation as broadcast on UStreamTV and Blip.TV in the players below.

You can see the lineup of Social Media Jungle speakers at Jeff Pulver's Blog.

For videos of many other presentations, go to the Social Media Jungle channel on Blip.tv here.

Photo by Jeff Pulver

Free TV : Ustream

CompuSchmooze Podcast #27: A Conversation with Bill Rush about FireKing's MediaVault HD fire-hardened backup drive system

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:00:03 PST

Backup for important business data now can benefit from additional protection from fires, with the FireKing MediaVault HD fire-hardened backup drive.

Underwriter's Laboratories^® has tested the MediaVaultHD container according to standard UL72 and approved the MediaVaultHD as a 1-hour Class 125 fire rated container. To pass this test, the container must not allow the internal temperature to rise above 125°F or relative humidy above 80% with an exterior temperature of 1700°F during the test. Only a Class 125 rated container will protect sensitive computer disks from a raging fire.

In this podcast, we have a conversation with MediaVault HD product manager Bill Rush about the features of this backup system. More information on the product is at http://www.mediavaulthd.com/Index.html.

Download the podcast file here (20.9 mb stereo MP3 file, 00:15:10 length).

Keywords: compuschmooze, lubetkin, cherry hill, jewish, voice,mediavault, backup, hard drive, fire protection, underwriters laboratories

Produced in the studios of Professional Podcasts LLC, Cherry Hill, NJ

CompuSchmooze Podcast #26: A conversation about the Icelandic Economic Collapse with Hjortur Smarason, Social Media Consultant in Reykjavik

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:57:14 PDT

In June, the International Association of Online Communicators (IAOC) held its international conference in Reykjavik, Iceland. In October, the Icelandic economy collapsed, the three largest banks were nationalized, and tens of thousands of Icelanders found themselves unable to withdraw money from their savings accounts to pay for ordinary expenses. Mortgages and car loans written in foreign currencies became impossibly expensive, and the country's government went hat in hand to the International Monetary Fund and even to Russia for foreign aid.

In the forthcoming Fall issue of Attitudes, the semi-annual color magazine of the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey (on newsstands in early November), I'll have an article about Iceland as a travel destination. In this podcast conversation with Hjörtur Smárason, we update the economic situation in Iceland and talk about how Icelanders are coping with their changed status. Hjortur is an Icelandic social media and marketing consultant who also authors several blogs in Icelandic, and one, Marketing Safari, in English. Recently, he's focused some of his blogging on the emotional and economic impact of the credit crunch on Iceland.

Photo taken at Hotel Holt, Reykjavik. From left: Steve Lubetkin, Belgian blogger Luc Van Braekel, Hjörtur Smárason.

Download the podcast file here (19.3 mb stereo MP3 file, 00:14:02 length).

Keywords: compuschmooze, lubetkin, cherry hill, jewish, voice, iceland, iaoc, reykjavik, attitudes, smarason, hjortur

Produced in the studios of Professional Podcasts LLC, Cherry Hill, NJ

CompuSchmooze Video Podcast #1: PNC Bank Virtual Wallet

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:09:42 PDT

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PNC Bank has launched a new online banking product targeted at Gen Y customers, young people who've grown up with the Internet and prefer to manage their finances online. The product incorporates spending, short-term savings, and long-term growth accounts into a single online interface, making transferring money between the accounts simple. Steve Lubetkin reports on the Virtual Wallet from the PNC Bank branch in the Erlton section of Cherry Hill, NJ. You can read the print version of the CompuSchmooze column at http://www.jewishvoicesnj.org/news/2008/1008/columns/039.html

Reader question about cell phone radiation

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:58:38 PDT

We received an email question from a reader about cell phones and Bluetooth headsets:

We read in Newsweek that Bluetooth headsets minimize radiation to the brain, as opposed to holding a cell phone to one's ear. We got the children Jabra Bluetooth VBT185Z headsets. The kids read that only 2nd and 3rd generation Bluetooths have less radiation than cell phones. Is the VBT185Z a 2nd or 3rd generation Bluetooth? For obvious reasons, we'd like to minimize cell-phone radiation to our children's brains...
We'd appreciate any information you can give us, on this product or on any better ideas.

Our response:

The research on this topic is controversial, but the government's scientists at the FDA say that wireless phones are probably not a hazard. See http://www.fda.gov/cellphones/qa.html#22.

Obviously, you do reduce exposure to the radio frequency emissions from the phone if you hold it away from your head. Bluetooth headsets do allow you to keep the phone at a distance from your head. The amount of radiation from either the phone or the Bluetooth headset itself is probably not going to be problematic from a health standpoint. But obviously, having a hands-free headset is required for use while driving in NJ.

Hope this is useful to you. Enjoy your new headsets, and don't worry too much about holding the phone to your ear. I've been using cell phones against my head or with headphones for about 20 years and as far as I know, they haven't affected my health, just my ability to pay attention to conversations involving the people I'm with!

CompuSchmooze Podcast #25: GrowVotes.org, social networking site for local politics, and Mishare, device to copy contents between iPods

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 05:45:08 PDT

In Episode #25 of the Compuschmooze Podcast, we interview Travis Todd and Scott Scheyer of GrowVotes.org, a social networking website devoted to local politics across the US; and Nathaniel Wice, co-founder of Mishare.com, which offers the Mishare device that enables iPod owners to copy the contents of one iPod to another one, legally.

Sponsor: The CompuSchmooze podcast is brought to you by GoToMeeting.com. Try GoToMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts.

Download the podcast file here (41.9 mb stereo MP3 file, 00:30:32 length).

Keywords: compuschmooze, lubetkin, cherry hill, jewish, voice, ipod, mishare, growvotes.org, scheyer, todd, politics

Produced in the studios of Professional Podcasts LLC, Cherry Hill, NJ

CompuSchmooze Podcast #24: A conversation with Jewish Community Voice Editor Harriet Kessler about the new Voice website

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Tue, 06 May 2008 02:31:15 PDT

In epsiode #24 of the CompuSchmooze podcast, we speak with Voice Editor and General Manager Harriet Kessler about the Voice's new website at http://www.jewishvoicesnj.org. We also speak with Stephen Larson, founder of Our-Hometown.com, the service that builds and maintains websites for community newspapers like the Voice.

Sponsor: The CompuSchmooze podcast is brought to you by GoToMeeting.com. Try GoToMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts.

Download the podcast file here (34.4 mb stereo MP3 file, 00:25:05 length).

Keywords:

del.icio.us Tags: compuschmooze,jewish community voice,kessler,harriet,larson,our-hometown.com,website,jewishvoicesnj.organizing,lubetkin

You can read the full text of the related "CompuSchmooze^TM" column as it appeared in the Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey.

CompuSchmooze Podcast #23, 4/17/2008: Interview with Jeff Pulver about investing in Israeli technology companies

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:40:44 PDT

In epsiode #23 of the CompuSchmooze podcast, social media and internet entrepreneur Jeff Pulver discusses his commitment to early-stage investments in startup technology companies in Israel. We spoke with Jeff during a recent social media breakfast gathering he hosted in Princeton, NJ.

Steve photographed with Jeff Pulver at the Philadelphia breakfast.

This podcast is based on an interview conducted at the Princeton meeting.

Sponsor: The CompuSchmooze podcast is brought to you by GoToMeeting.com. Try GoToMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts.

Download the podcast file here (20.0 mb stereo MP3 file, 00:14:36 length).

Keywords:

del.icio.us Tags: compuschmooze,lubetkin,cherry hill,jewish,voice,pulver,internet,entrepreneur,Israel,angel,early stage investing,vc,venture capital,high technology

Here's the text of the related "CompuSchmooze^TM" column as it appeared in the Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey.

CompuSchmooze March 2008: Internet Entrepreneur Supports Israeli Start-Up Tech Companies
By Steven L. Lubetkin
Copyright © 2008 Steven L. Lubetkin. All rights reserved.
WORD COUNT: 660

Internet entrepreneur Jeff Pulver discovered the Israeli high-tech sector as an early adopter of technologies that enable web surfers to transmit voice conversations over an Internet connection.

Pulver, founder of Pulver.com and a millionaire who sold several Internet companies, recently launched PulverTV, a 24/7 Internet television channel.

He became an avid user of voice technologies in the late 1990s, and a company he started, Free World Dialup, obtained a milestone decision from the Federal Communications Commission in 2004 that protected Internet-based voice technologies from additional federal and state regulation. The decision is often referred to as the “Pulver decision.”

Later, as chairman of PulverMedia, organizer of conferences under the “Voice On the ‘Net” banner, he recognized that the Israeli military and high-tech sector had made a major contribution to the growing success of Voice over Internet applications, but no one else seemed to be giving Israel due credit.

Israeli companies were attending the conferences regularly and chasing opportunities in the rest of the world, Pulver said.

Voice over Internet technology was largely developed for internal use by the Israeli Defense Force in the 1980s, Pulver explained in a recent interview during a “social media breakfast” in Princeton.

In 2005, Pulver organized his first high-tech mission to Israel that culminated with recognition ceremonies in Jerusalem for 23 Israelis responsible for making voice technology commercially viable.

“If I’m ever looking for inspiration or for what’s happening next in technology, there’s no better place that I’ve ever found to go,” he said.

Pulver runs what he calls a “dream fund,” a small investment fund to make early stage investments in Israeli high-tech firms.

“Typically it’s below the radar of any professional venture capitalist or angel investors,” he said. “I meet with people who are just absolutely brilliant, they have to have an idea that I can connect with, and I’m investing in helping them build their idea.”

During 2008, Pulver said he’s raising money for a microfund of $3-5 million for investment in Israeli technology companies.

Pulver says right now his investments focus on video embedded in Internet sites, social networking applications, and a new approach to information gathering called the semantic web, or Web 3.0.

The semantic web simplifies how a web browser will collect and display seamlessly all the different ways people refer to themselves online, so that a comprehensive snapshot of an individual’s online presence can be pulled together automatically.

Most of the small firms in which Pulver has invested are still in “stealth” mode, not yet ready to discuss their technologies.

“I’m hopeful that a bunch of the companies that we’re nurturing will be able to grow,” Pulver said. “What I really enjoy is seeing the seed of the idea, even helping to incubate it myself.”

Pulver makes his first of a planned seven 2008 trips to meet with Israeli startup companies in March. A VON conference is slated for April in Tel Aviv.

While he’s there this month, he will also host a Tel Aviv seating of his continuing series of social media breakfasts. At these informal gatherings, online devotees of Facebook, Flickr.com, and Twitter get to meet Pulver and each other face to face, often for the first time.

Pulver held the first of the breakfasts this year in Philadelphia and Princeton, later moving on to Washington, Providence, RI, and Fort Lauderdale.

Pulver acts as party host, and provides breakfast participants with “real-time” social media networking kits containing stickers, Post-It Notes, labels and markers to use for what he calls real-time social tagging. Participants write tags or keywords and paste them on each other, as if they were adding bookmarks and keywords in an online environment. By the end of the meal, everyone is adorned with multiple tags and labels, and some even have larger labels or “walls,” where people have written messages, like they do on Facebook or MySpace.com.

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CompuSchmooze's parent publication, Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey, launches new, newsy website

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:06:26 PDT

CompuSchmooze is thrilled to be part of the Jewish Community Voice, and now, the Voice Just Got Louder.

Try the new Jewish Community Voice Online. The Web version of the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey’s award winning newspaper is your one-click search for all that’s new and important about Jewish South Jersey.

At www.jewishvoicesnj.org you’ll find the entire current edition of the bi-weekly newspaper. News, features, columns, Federation and agency info, synagogue and social events are all there. Plus, you can search recent back issues to reread that interesting story or find your favorite photo.

You’ll also find Voice special sections, classifieds and advertisers on the site.
The new Voice Online is a one-stop shop for everything you need to know about Jewish South Jersey. Just click on www.jewishvoicesnj.org.

And be sure to read CompuSchmooze here at compuschmooze.com and in the Voice.

Contact: Harriet Kessler, Editor,
856-673-2548, hkessler@jfedsnj.org

Technology Types Whooping It Up...

steve@professional.podcasts.com (steve@professionalpodcasts.com) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:54:24 PDT

I attended the New Jersey Technology Council's Networking Party at Triumph Brewery in Princeton last week. Many people from the high-tech sector were there and the conversation ranged from solar power to software to tourists in space. Here I am with a couple of other attendees, (from left) Alan Rihm of CoreDial LLC, and Lazlo Laskai of Power Electronics Solutions.