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Google Wave: Better than Twitter for Conference Chatter?

2009-11-09T02:58:31Z

Google Wave debuted in a whirlwind of buzz and expectation, and yet few of us have managed to make it part of our workflow. What is Google Wave good for anyway? Those use cases are still emerging, it seems.

Here’s an interesting one: Charlie Osmond at the FreshWorks blog points out that Twitter hashtags – adding the conference name as a hashtag on a tweet – aren’t an ideal solution to tracking a conference. In fact, Google Wave can do a better job, as proven by the recent Ecomm conference, at which delegates were all given Wave accounts and collaborated on Waves relating to each presentation.

Rather than a stream of disconnected Tweets, the result was a wiki-like page of annotations which evolved over the course of a presentation. Conference organizers also created a Wave directory to aggregate all the Waves relating to each presentation, plus a Wave where delegates could submit their feedback to make the conference better next year.

The screenshots below make a pretty good case for using Wave at conferences. What other interesting use cases have you seen?

Google Wave from Audience Watching Presentation

Reviews: Google Wave, Twitter

Tags: Google Wave, twitter

iPhone App: Doom Classic

2009-11-09T01:44:14Z

= 4 stars

The classic action shooter comes to the iPhone. Blow up increasingly scary monsters with increasingly powerful weapons.

The Good

Straightforward port; if you played the game before, it’s exactly as you remember. The level design still comes across really top notch – you’re subtly guided toward specific goals – and there are various contrasting moments to induce tension: moving platforms, dark passages, poisonous floors, and suddenly charing enemies. I enjoyed recognizing once-forgotten yet immediately familiar rooms concealing scary surprises.
The serviceable controls consist of a d-pad on the left and a fire button on the right. An action (opening a door or flipping a switch) is initiated by tapping the top of the screen.
Myriad of other control schemes, available under settings.
Multiplayer mode over your local network.

The Bad

Tapping the top of the screen to perform an action is a bit awkward, since it means momentarily lifting your thumbs from the controls. Also, the basic controls don’t include the ability to slide-to-either-side while facing forward (if memory serves correctly, this was originally performed by holding down shift while tapping a left or right arrow key). You’ll have to delve deep into the custom settings to remedy either issue.
Would be nice to have multiplayer via the Internet, like iMech.
$6.99 feels a little high.

Conclusion

Despite my complaints, Doom Classic is more fun than not, as I’m presently determined to re-encounter the game’s boss, which I vaguely recall was a horrific brain on robot legs. And that’s the whole point of Doom Classic: another terrifying go-round with a barely remembered digital nightmare.

iTunes App Store Link:

Outsize Men Clothing

2009-11-09T02:08:04Z

Despite all the media and mass communication that globalization brings us, sometimes people decide to focus only on the reality of a minority. Actors in the movies, fashion models in advertising, and television hosts seem to suggest that the only right thing is to be skinny, and that there is no place in fashion for big men. Let alone the fact that clothing for the big man is usually more expensive and less fashionable.

Traditional style prom dresses also look good with flower corsages

2009-11-09T02:07:05Z

There are so many different party dress accessories to choose from. When choosing which accessories to wear with your party dress, consider the style of dress. It is important not to overdo the accessories. If you have a dress with lots of sparkle or embellishment,Cheap Evening Dresses then opt for a few low key accessories. If you have a simple style of dress then you can add a few more eye catching accessories.

How to Install a Bathroom Fan

2009-11-09T00:21:06Z

Okay, so now you have a bathroom fan — but how do you install it? The first step is to choose a location in the ceiling. Since a fan pulls away odors as well as humidity, the best approach is to place it midway between the shower and bathtub area and the toilet. This allows the fan to do its job with maximum efficiency.

If you have a steam shower, you’ll need a separate fan to handle all the humidity. The principle behind the steam shower, after all, is that the glass doors seal up, and so much moisture is pumped in that it literally becomes an indoor greenhouse; it’s like a human hydroponics experiment in the master bath suite. Though you want all the steam trapped in there for the duration of your shower, you want to make sure it evacuates as soon as you’re done. Otherwise, your bathroom walls are going to resemble a Chia Pet from all the things that start to sprout on them.

Protect Yourself When Writing References

2009-11-09T05:07:20Z

There was a time when human interaction seemed to be a lot simpler, when we were able to pass our opinions back and forth and consummate agreements on a handshake, without fear of any protracted legal ramifications. Those days are long gone and when you are in business of any kind you need to be very careful, especially when dealing with personal issues, how you approach and how you cover yourself from all angles.

Employment can be a very thorny area and we have many different laws to take account of and best practices to maintain. It can always be difficult to take on new employees and to know how to best gather the information necessary upon which to base your decision. Employers often rely on information being passed by other employers in relation to a potential new hire. While you want to receive as much information from a previous employer as possible, you understand the difficulties that they might face when putting together truly accurate and informative material. You also understand the difficulties you might face when other organizations contact you to ask you for references about a former employee. You want a lot of information coming in, but are very careful about sending a lot of information out!

Within the litigious environment that we live, every employer must be extremely careful about providing references. On the one hand it is expected of you to do so, but on the other hand you must be very careful that you do not provide any information that could be construed as defamatory, or otherwise incorrect.

To cover all eventualities, put the task of providing references in the hands of one trustworthy individual within your organization, if not yourself. This will ensure stability and help to maintain a standard practice. Compose a template and restrict the information that you send out to the facts. Never give any personal opinions as to whether a particular person is “good for a particular job” or would be hired again.

Make it a point to keep a comprehensive file for each employee and one which is frequently maintained. Whenever any incident takes place involving the employee, make sure it is documented and the information kept in the file. Any regular review should also be notated and contained within.

You have a duty of responsibility to let others who seek information know if anything particularly negative should be brought to their attention. If the person concerned was involved in a legal or conduct issue of some kind while in your employment, if you do not bring the facts to the attention of another probing employer then you could lay yourself open to further action. Once again, stick to the relevant facts.

It might be a good idea to compose a reference letter prior to the employee’s departure from your organization and have him or her sign off on the content before leaving. If it is not possible, make sure that all documentation is up to date and that you have made copious notes within the file.

If your organization has many employees, you would do well to seek the advice of legal counsel when it comes to drafting a template for future references. An attorney would be able to give you the best pointers, relevant to current case law and thinking.

Do you have any stories, good or bad, to share?

Adam Toren

Verizon Holiday Ads Mock AT&T and the iPhone [VIDEOS]

2009-11-08T22:05:59Z

If the iPhone is indeed coming to Verizon in 2010, as rumors suggest, is it odd that the network’s latest attack ads on AT&T put the iPhone front and center?

The new holiday ads from the company tackle AT&T’s (lack of) 3G coverage yet again, in a theme similar to the “there’s a map for that” campaign. It’s possible, however, that Verizon is attacking AT&T rather than the phone itself, essentially saying: nice phone, shame about the coverage.

Nonetheless, the ads are a slap in the face to AT&T, which just filed a lawsuit over the “there’s a map” campaign.

What do you think: are the new Verizon ads effective?

Thanks to EricTric for the tip.

Boot Your Mac to 64-Bit Automatically

2009-11-08T17:40:49Z

Apple made two decisions when launching Snow Leopard this fall. One was to make the entire kernel 64-bit, and the other was to have it default boot to 32-bit mode. I’m not quite sure why they did this, especially with their new line of macs having at least 4GB and in some cases up to 16GB. I always want my machine booting to 64-bit so I can take advantage of the extra memory and because I’m starting to use more and more 64-bit applications.

There has been the much documented solution to hold the “6″ and “4″ buttons down at boot-up, but since I reboot quite often and turn my machines off at night, I’d like an automatic solution. The best solution I found after doing a lot of Googling around was to edit a small file found in

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

In this folder look for the file named

com.apple.Boot.plist

Edit this file in a programming editor such as TextMate or Script Editor. The file by default should look like the following:

<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>Kernel</key>
	<string>mach_kernel</string>
	<key>Kernel Flags</key>
	<string></string>
</dict>
</plist>

Change the 6th line to the following new entry so it appear as follows:

<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>Kernel</key>
	<string>mach_kernel</string>
	<key>Kernel Flags</key>
	<string>arch=x86_64</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Now you can reboot you Mac and it will automatically boot into 64-bit mode. If you have a better or different solution to this please post it in the comments.

First iPhone Worm Targets Jailbroken iPhones [WARNING]

2009-11-08T19:47:52Z

If you’ve got a jailbroken iPhone, listen up: a worm is reported to have broken out in Australia that targets owners who have not changed the default password after installing SSH.

The worm’s behavior is somewhat amusing: it changes your background to a photo of Rick Astley, then looks for other phones on the network to infect. That said, the exploit could easily be used by hackers with malicious intent for more nefarious purposes.

If you have a jailbroken iPhone and you’ve installed SSH without changing the default password (from “alpine”) you need to do so to avoid such attacks. If you have not jailbroken your iPhone or iPod Touch and installed SSH, you are not affected.

Sophos writes of the exploit:

SophosLabs is analysing the worm’s code, which suggests that at least four variants have been written so far. One of the attributes of the latest variant (labelled the “D” version) is that it tries to hide its presence by using a filepath suggestive of the Cydia application.

The source code is littered with comments from the author suggesting the worm has been written as an experiment. One of the comments berates affected users for not following instructions when installing SSH, because if they had changed the default password the worm would not have been able to infect them.

You have been warned!

Tags: exploit, iphone, jailbreak, trending, worm

Testing Those Blog Ideas

2009-11-08T19:00:55Z

Written by Rob Starr from Rob Starr

If you’re like most blog writers, you have more ideas for blogs than you can possible use. Especially when your blog is personal and subjective, you find that ideas for that latest entry are everywhere.

The problem isn’t coming up with those ideas. The problem is deciding which of these fragmentary ideas to develop into full blown blogs that will keep readers coming back to your site again and again. That said, here are some great ways that you can test and develop these notions or discard them and start looking at new ones.

Write About That You Know

Now that’s fairly common advice that you might have heard associated with fiction before, but it apply to blogging too. It’s important to remember that not all blog ideas are ones that are right for you. Here’s an example of what I mean.

I don’t really care for horses. Now that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t enjoy reading a well written blog written by someone who really cares about those animals, but I’d have a hard time writing even one convincing post on the subject. It’s really simple. I could research a blog on the topic and write about it, but at the least the readers who love horses would be able to see those animals really aren’t my cup of tea.

Remember that many of the ideas that you get for blogging posts will be like that as well. They may be momentarily interesting, but they won’t be of great importance to you. When you write about what you know or at least care about, you’ll come across as all the more convincing.

Don’t Get Too Personal

Now right away I can hear the uproar of people who are saying that’s what blogging is all about. That you need to get personal and share at least something yourself or there won’t be any connection with the reader. Partly, those people are right. While a large part of effective blogging is certainly self expression, there should be an emphasis on communication the longer you write.

This all means you need to ask yourself if the idea that you’ve had for a story is too personal—if it means something to you but would more than likely bore a stranger that you were sitting beside on a bus. Remember that there are personal experiences that are too close and too emotional. They are the things that we have been through that are too delicate and haven’t really been digested yet. These things might be little too exotic as well. Something that matters intensely to you but will not matter to most other people.

Still that doesn’t mean that good detail should not have a place in your blog. Part of the job of coming up with good ideas for your blogs and being able to execute them is in being able to discern between the merely personal to you and the vivid images that you can share that are experiences you readers will be able to relate to.

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Testing Those Blog Ideas

A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

Written by Rob Starr from

Weekend Vid Picks: The Good Trailer, Bad Trailer Game

2009-11-08T20:00:35Z

I’ve mentioned previously that I’m a movie trailer junkie, and because I don’t get out to the movies that often, most of the time I’m watching trailers online on sites like joblo.com). Will I see either of these? Honestly, probably not — the trailers were enough to get the taste, for good or for bad. But the trailers, they are so good!

When you think “dark, dystopian sci-fi romance,” would you necessarily think of the title Boogie Town? Well, I guess I didn’t mention the part where it’s also a dance movie. Watching all of those elements get smashed together into one trailer…well, it’s special, I’ll give you that. Summer 2009 can’t get here fast enough! (The film is now set for a 2010 release.)

Meanwhile, I’ll be upfront about this and say that the reason the trailer for The Fourth Kind is awesome isn’t because Milla Jovovich tells us how to properly pronounce her name; it’s because by doing so, she breaks the fourth wall and sets up this alien abduction thriller as the most terrifying kind of truth.

Are there other awesome or awful trailers you’ve seen recently? Tell us in the comments!

Taylor Swift on SNL: Kanye West Fails to Interrupt [VIDEO]

2009-11-08T17:07:19Z

For those hoping for a re-enactment of the Kanye/Taylor Swift viral video that became an Internet meme, SNL didn’t deliver the goods last night. There was, however, a nod to one of the biggest Internet fads of the year, as guest host Taylor Swift included a mention of the event in her “Monologue Song” (video below).

For those wishing to relive the meme one more time, check out our Top 10 Kanye West Interruption Parodies.

For international viewers, versions of the clip are still available on YouTube.

Reviews: YouTube

Tags: kanye west, taylor swift

Honest Affiliate X Scam Review - Dont Be A Fool!

2009-11-08T16:34:17Z

Have you heard about affiliate x system yet? If you are not aware about affiliate x that just launched a few days ago let me tell you a bit more about it in my affiliate x scam review. Affiliate x has just launched and guess who launched it? You got it, Chris X ! Chris x is well known self proclaimed online get rich quick guru that has already released heaps of make money with google adwords and become a millionaire products. In fact, affiliate x is his latest after a product called google sniper and google assasin, google nemesis and day job killer.

Insiders Affiliate X Review -New Flaws Revealed

2009-11-08T16:32:53Z

Welcome to my insider affiliate x scam review. This affiliate x review will reveal all the secrets and flaws of this new get rich quick affiliate system by Chris X. Chris X is a well known guru for producing get rich quick and make millions with google adwords.

7 of the Most Inspiring Videos on the Web

2009-11-08T15:07:02Z

Stuck in a cubicle all day? Hit a brick wall on that project? Not sure what to do next with your life? You need some inspiration, and you’re in luck because the web is full of inspiring stories captured on video. Video is the perfect vehicle for an inspiring story because it can make the story come alive like no other medium.

Below is a list of 7 of the most of the inspiring videos on the web, embedded so you can watch them here. Each video, which range in length from 3 to 20 minutes, has an inspirational message to impart. If you know of any other inspiring videos, please share them in the comments.

1. William Kamkwamba: Harnessing the Wind

William Kamkwamba was 14 when he built a windmill from scrap parts in order to provide enough electricity to power 4 lightbulbs and 2 radios in his home in his tiny village in Malawi. Kamkwamba’s story first came into the global spotlight when he spoke at the TED conference. He recently did a followup TED talk.

Kwakwamba’s inspiring story teaches us to dream big.

2. Jason McElwain: Autistic Basketball Player

Autistic basketball player Jason McElwain spent most of his high school career cheering his team on from the bench as team manager — until the final 4 minutes of his final game as a senior. McElwain didn’t waste any of his opportunity to get in the game, pouring in 7 shots and finishing the game as high scorer.

McElwain, who never complained about being left off the roster, shows us that attitude is everything.

3. Cat Lainé: Empowering Local Communities

Cat Lainé, who is the Deputy Director at the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, talked at the BIF-4 conference last year about how she and her colleagues empower communities in developing nations to change from within. Lainé believes in using human capital already within local economies to solve problems and develop solutions that work locally.

Lainé teaches that solutions are often right in front of your nose.

4. Blake Mycoski: Creating Sustainable Charity

Blake Mycoski didn’t just want to start a charity to put shoes on the feet of children who needed them — he wanted to do something more sustainable, something that didn’t rely on asking for donations. So Mycoski started TOMS Shoes, a for-profit company that gives one pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair they sell.

Mycoski’s inspiring message is about the necessity of innovative thinking.

5. Geoffrey Canada: Closing the Achievement Gap

According to Geoffrey Canada the American school system is broken when it comes to teaching children in inner-city schools, and most people wouldn’t disagree with him. But Canada’s inspiring approach to fixing the problem is something that no one before him had tried — a complete overhaul of the social infrastructure. Canada created a “conveyor belt” in a Harlem neighborhood that touches the lives of children and their families from birth through college.

Canada shows us that sometimes you have to take a radical approach.

6. Ben Underwood: Seeing While Blind

Ben Underwood was blind, but while he was alive, he got around almost as well as people who can see, and even played video games with his friends. That’s because he had done something that’s very unusual: Ben Underwood taught himself how to echolocate. Underwood trained his ears to listen for the echoes that tongue-clicking sounds that he produced made as they bounced back off of objects. He then processed that information to figure out where physical objects lie around him.

Though Underwood sadly passed away earlier this year, his inspirational story proves that no obstacle is insurmountable.

7. Lewis Gordon Pugh: Utilizing Extremes

Lewis Gordon Pugh has swum in every ocean in the world, and was the first person to swim at the North Pole, where the waters are below zero degrees centigrade (which is the freezing point for fresh water). Pugh uses his extreme swimming feats to shed light on issues of worldwide importance such as global warming.

Pugh teaches us that you should strive to push yourself to your limits.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, cmisje.

Reviews: iStockphoto

Tags: inspiration, List, Lists, video

Do you Write Outlines for Your Blog Posts?

2009-11-08T14:04:15Z

Do you plan your posts or do you just write them free flow as they come?

This is a question that one of our members at ProBlogger.com (Mark Dykeman) started off a conversation with in the last week.

Mark talked in the thread about how he does both (sometimes he uses bullet points for his main points and then writes on each point while other times it just comes) – but I thought it’d be an interesting question to open up to everyone.

What’s your approach?

My own approach is mixed and sometimes starts with one approach and ends up as the other but in general the way I work depends upon the type of post:

Pillar Content – in most cases if I’m setting out to write what I refer to as ‘pillar content’ (or a big post that is on a central theme of my blog) I generally like to have some kind of plan before I start. Like Mark I’ll usually start out with a list of points that I want to cover that I’ve brainstormed (and perhaps a quick note or two on each). Then I work systematically through the points one by one and write a paragraph or two on each.

Other Posts – other posts that are not quite as structure in their form tend to be written in a more freely written way. For example if news breaks on something relevant to my niche I will generally bounce off a press release or another blogger with a few of my own thoughts. If the post is like this one and is more of a ‘reader question’ type posts I again will usually write it without a formal outline.

I should say that often my posts are a bit of both. Sometimes I’ll be halfway through writing a free flow/non outline post and I’ll suddenly be hit with inspiration for about 5 other things that I’ll want to say in the post. I generally stop writing at this point and capture the points that I want to cover and in doing so write a bit of an outline for the rest of the post before coming back to where I was.

Other times I might be writing a post that I’ve got an outline for and the post will evolve in a direction that makes a lot of the points I’ve outlined irrelevant and I’ll scrap them (or at least put them aside for a future post).

What about you?

Are you someone who plans posts in detail? Or do you write best when you’re writing in a more freely flowing style?

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Do you Write Outlines for Your Blog Posts?

Galleon scandal: just the beginning?

2009-11-08T09:09:15Z

The biggest prosecution of hedge fund insider trading went into overdrive this week with 20 people, including Galleon Group LLC co-founder Raj Rajaratnam, getting hauled up on criminal charges. Bloomberg has the rogue's gallery of all the names of the people behind the insider trading. We can expect a debate over the next few months over whether insider trading should even be a criminal offense. James Altucher writes in the Huffington Post that maybe insider trading shouldn't even be illegal, claiming that it ...

MBA turkeys and the market

2009-11-08T06:22:22Z

Earlier this year, I did a blog entry slating the business schools for helping create the market meltdown. The Women on the Web site followed up with a brilliant roll call of MBAs, or Masters of the Business Apocalypse, from Harvard. The rogue's gallery includes former Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O'Neal and his successor John Thain, bank bail out master Henry Paulson, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission Christopher Cox, former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines and his successor Daniel Mudd and ...

Blackberry Unlock Codes - BEST Way to Unlock your Blackberry

2009-11-08T07:45:09Z

There are basically three methods of unlocking a Blackberry or any other smart phones for that matter, the IMEI unlock code method, software unlock or unlocking using a cable (the hardware unlock).

Unlocking with the IMEI unlock codes is the fastest and the safest way to unlock a smart phone, really. Softwares and hardware unlocking are not reliable at all, on the other hand Unlocking with IMEI unlock codes is a genuine method to discontinue your contract legally without voiding your warranty, in fact you can even get the unlock code from your Network provider himself.

Vue: A Home Video Network That’s Too Simple

2009-11-08T08:00:45Z

Have you ever wondered what goes on at your house when you’re not home? Thanks to Avaak’s Vue personal video network, it’s now easy to find out. This $299 kit features wireless video cameras that you can set up almost anywhere and view over the Internet. It’s incredibly easy to use, and the hardware is well-designed.

Avaak says the system is designed for a variety of uses, including keeping an eye on pets or elderly parents; monitoring vacation homes; checking in on latchkey kids; securing a small business; and more. And it’s so easy to set up that anyone can use it. Unfortunately, the web-based surveillance tools are too limited to be a truly useful remote security system; at this point you can only watch live video, though the company says it plans to add recording scheduling soon.

The kit includes two tiny wireless cameras and a wireless gateway that connects to your router. You just turn the battery-powered cameras on, press a button to pair them with the gateway, and you’re good to go. The four included magnetic mounts are so well-designed — they’re the shape of a ball, cut in half — they impressed me with their simplicity. They grab the camera and hold it securely; it really couldn’t be easier.

Once the cameras are in place, you can log onto my.vuezone.com and create an account, with an identification number from your wireless gateway. Once you’ve created a user name and password, you can access your cameras from any browser that supports Flash. (That means you can’t use the iPhone’s Safari browser, but the company says an iPhone app is coming soon.)

The Vuezone’s Web interface is neatly laid out: Your cameras appear in a window on the left side of the screen, and you can drag them to the main window to play their video feed. The video quality is decent, but varies greatly depending on the lighting in the room. (And these cameras have no microphones, so the feed is video only.) You can change the settings to accommodate for low, normal or bright light, and to a certain extent, this helps. I used the “low light” setting in a room with a dim lamp, and the video appeared nice and bright. But when I tried to use the camera in a darker room, lit only by a nightlight, the video was so dark it was difficult to see — even on the low light setting. This is too bad, because this camera could really appeal to parents who want to see what their little ones are doing in their bedrooms when they’re supposed to be sleeping.

That’s not the only limitation of the Vue network. While the system comes with two cameras — and supports up to 50 (additional cameras are available for $99 each) — you can only see one feed at a time. You can drag all of your cameras into the main window, but only one will play at a time — if you have one camera playing, it will stop automatically if you start another one.

Another limitation: You can only watch live video. You can’t see what happened while you were away — so if someone broke into your house, robbed you, but put everything back in place, you might never even know that they’d been there. You can’t schedule video to record while you’re away from your computer, though Avaak says the feature is coming soon — and it will be a most welcome addition. (You can record video as you’re watching it, but I’m not sure why you’d want to.) And the Vue cameras don’t have any kind of motion detector that would cause them to turn on when something happens in the room, but the company says it is considering adding this to future versions. Scheduled recordings and motion detection would greatly increase the appeal of this product to people looking for a home or small business security system.

Avaak is off to a good start with the Vue personal network; it’s incredibly easy to use. Once the company adds the ability to schedule recordings, it will be far more useful, and able to compete with similar systems, like Logitech’s Indoor Video Security Master System. Until it has those features, though, its appeal is limited.