Probably delete.
Want to work for Google?
This seemed like a good time to dust off the ol’ blog. I have some ideas to get this going full-swing.
For now, take a look at Google’s latest offering — Now Hiring Autocompleters!
http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/uslocations/mountain-view/autocompleter/index.html
Dracula Lives in the Blogosphere!
I sense a disturbance in the blogosphere. The immortal fiend walks among us.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula was a novel told in the format of a series of journal entries and letters, all with times and dates attributed to them. This type of work is called an epistolary novel. In a brilliant move, blogger Whitney Sorrow (quite an appropriate surname for this project, no?) has set up a blog to publish each journal entry, letter and so on that makes up the story of Dracula on the dates listed on those letters. One, this lets you follow along as part of the story and will give you an unprecedented sense of the time interval over which the story unfolds. Two, you get to read a classic novel in small, manageable snippets over a period of time. *Brilliant* work.
Check out the Dracula Feed and subscribe to follow along with the story. You may need to install a garlic or stake widget to your blog for safety reasons after visiting this site.
There are other journals and other “Real-Time Literary Blog Projects” underway, some live now, listed on the Dracula Feed that look well worth checking out. Henry David Thoreau’s Journal for example.
How To Take Advantage Of The Social Powerhouse Called Twitter
Twitter: What Is It Anyway?
Twitter is a nifty little micro-blogging platform, allowing you to express anything and everything, as long as it’s under 140 characters long. It now looks like Twitter may become part of the Google suite, including such services as Blogger, Picasa and YouTube. Why would Google be eager to pick up Twitter? Twitter holds many advantages for both the lay-user and professional. Let’s go over a couple of the former first, then we’ll get into the real power behind Twitter for professionals.
For the individual, Twitter is a quick and easy way to keep in touch with others. A lot of famous people, celebrities, news anchors, authors, singers, government workers, scientists (including members of NASA) and so forth are using Twitter and you can interact with them directly through this wonderful website.
Many social applications have “friend” options, where you add someone as a friend. In the case of Twitter, they’re refered to as “Followers”. Particularly clever term for anyone needing a boost of self-esteem. On your Twitter home page, you have a news feed that shows the latest posts by anyone you’ve chosen to follow. Post regularly, and post useful information, and through no effort of your own, people will begin to follow you.
Google To Buy Twitter?
Anyone else see this one coming? I’m preparing a post on some of the valuable elements of Twitter, but in the meantime, rumors are gaining credence that Google is in the process of acquiring Twitter. As you may know, Facebook made an offer of $500 million, which was turned down a few months ago. Facebook is now mounting an effort to compete with the micro-blogging platform.
Twitter just celebrated its 3rd birthday a couple weeks ago and it’s already one of the fastest growing websites ever. The move for Google to acquire Twitter is an obvious one from a logistical standpoint. Google and Microsoft are strong competitors. Microsoft acquired Facebook not too long ago, and Facebook is currently targetting their efforts in competition with Twitter for micro-blogging, “status updating” dominance. With Google wanting to stay ahead of the game with Microsoft, and currently having no micro-blogging platform, it’s an obvious choice that Google should want to buy Twitter at any price.
If you’re weighing the odds of whether Twitter would come to an agreement with Google — consider this. Twitter is currently owned by Biz Stone and Evan Williams. These are the same guys that created Blogger around 5 years ago. As you know, Blogger/Blogspot was purchased by Google. So these guys are on familiar ground.
Why would Google want Twitter at any cost? Market Research. To go into detail would take too much room here, so look for another post regarding that this afternoon!
How To Optimize Facebook With Friends Lists, Part 2
In the last post, we established Friends Lists so that we can easier navigate our ever growing list of contacts. The new Facebook homepage accommodates this quite well. Just below “News Feed”, you’ll see all the Friends Lists you just created. Click on any one of those, and you’ll only see the parts of the News Feed that pertain to them. Now, let’s take this a step further…
Adjusting Privacy Settings For Your Friends Lists
Once you have your lists, you may want to configure a few privacy settings for those lists. For example, let’s assume you create a list of business contacts. You can then adjust the privacy settings on this list so that none of your business contacts can see the more personal areas of your Facebook profile. You can keep some of your friends at a more distant professional level, while keeping your personal friends in the know. Here’s how:
How To Optimize Facebook with Friends Lists, Part 1
Tough to keep up with everyone in Facebook? Have you added a lot of friends, and now everything’s a clutter? Facebook has an often unexplored feature called Friend Lists.
Friends lists are a little more obvious and easy to find in the new Facebook design than they were in the old one. Clearly, it’s something Facebook wants to emphasize. So, why do you need to use lists? How will they help you?
It’s easiest to demonstrate this by example. Among my Facebook friends, I have fellow marketers, fellow science enthusiasts, classmates, people I went to high school with, family members and people with whom I’ve entered a joint venture or two. About a year ago, I started categorizing all my Facebook friends into lists. If the same person fit multiple categories, Facebook would let me put them in as many categories as I like. If a family member was also a classmate, I could put them in both my Family and Classmates lists.
What makes this so great?
“Just Cook This!”
There’s a great show still in its first season on FitTV (owned by Discovery) I wanted to take a moment to note to everyone. It’s called “Just Cook This!” and it’s currently airing at odd hours like 6pm Saturday night and midnight early Monday. Times when people with social circles are either out having fun, already out eating or asleep.
Still, this is one of my favorite shows. It’s hosted by a guy named Sam Zien, or Sam “The Cooking Guy”. He’s not a professional chef, just a guy that knows how to and likes to cook. It’s filmed in his house, as is, no pre-arranged already-finished meals waiting in the oven or any of your typical cooking show hyjinx. If he drops something, they don’t cut it. If a dog or cat or family member wanders by, they don’t cut it. Sam’s main goal is to get people to stop going out for dinner, especially fast food. So the focus of the show is quick meals that taste great and are at least a little better for you than the hurried meals bought when eating out. It’s a half hour show, with commercials, and he still prepares 3 recipes from beginning to end. So there’s not a lot of steps, it’s all pretty easy to prepare, and he’s not afraid to use store-bought items to speed things along, like de-veined frozen shrimp still in the shell for example. It helps the show’s pace that he’s a bit ADHD.
So if you get a chance, check it out, it’s one of those shows that I’m hoping stays on the air.
Final Fantasy VII, The Real Remake
I’ve stumbled across something very interesting I’d like to share here briefly. For those unfamiliar, Final Fantasy VII is a role-playing game (rpg) originally released for Sony Playstation (PSX) around 1997 or so. It went on to become the best selling game of all time. The Final Fantasy series has been known for its epic storylines, typically involving someone arising from nothing and growing in understanding of the more subtle layers of existence to become a central figure in reshaping the destiny of the world. Often times, those more subtle layers involve such eye candy as summoning eldritch dragons…or the occasional ostrich-looking creature. “Wark!”
The trouble is, time has passed since the release of Final Fantasy VII. 12 years to be precise. While the creators of the series have gone on to make great games since then, they’ve also made a few that received less than favorable reviews. The fan-based demand for a revamp of the game for the modern generation of consoles has been huge. Ever since the release of Playstation 2 (PS2) nearly a decade ago. At present, such cries have fallen on deaf ears. Why update the best selling game of all time for a new generation? Surely, no good can come of this. Its own sales history alone suggests thus. Instead, let us release side stories based on the game. Tricksey.
Playstation 3 has since been released. As was a tech demo of PS3′s capabilities. This demo? A revamp of the original opening scene from Final Fantasy VII. Just to twist the knife a little further. Or perhaps to gauge the response?
Well, if you’re tired of waiting, do I have news for you…
“Lost” Dharma — *Potential Spoilers*
Simplified Dharma Wheel
I want to post about “Lost” and something that needs to be pointed out, but I realize it will contain spoilers for anyone not up-to-date on the series, therefore, don’t click to continue reading unless you don’t mind a brief analysis of the current situation on the show.
