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Canadian government to require TV providers to unbundle channels
Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:12 AM PDT
| Canadian government to require TV providers to unbundle channels Posted: 14 Oct 2013 02:53 AM PDT The Canadian government has announced that it will soon require TV providers within the country to offer viewers the ability to pick and choose television channels. Lawmakers in Canada believe that cable and satellite TV subscribers should be able to purchase only the channels they watch, rather than being forced to buy bundles. The announcement […] | | LG G Flex renders show curve in Galaxy Round opposition Posted: 13 Oct 2013 07:10 PM PDT If Samsung wasn’t the first to bring a flexible piece of display technology to market, you’d better believe it was going to be LG. Today several renders of the LG G Flex have appeared via an anonymous source speaking with Engadget this evening with little information other than a suggestion of its specifications. It’s quite […] | | Netflix and US cable companies finally talk set-top app integration Posted: 13 Oct 2013 06:13 PM PDT US cable companies may finally be warming up to the idea of letting Netflix establish an app presence on set-top boxes, reports the Wall Street Journal. As we reported two weeks ago, no cable company had come remotely close to embracing Netflix’s long-standing advances, but it looks like Comcast Corp. and Suddenlink Communications are now […] | | Incredible Bionic Man himself appears at NYCC Posted: 13 Oct 2013 05:26 PM PDT The subject of the upcoming documentary The Incredible Bionic Man made an appearance at this year’s NYCC, New York City’s contribution to the comic convention scene. Bionic Man is made entirely of prosthetic body parts and systems, including a cardiovascular system made of a mechanical “heart” and iron-based nanoparticle “blood”. He can also walk—somewhat. Roboticists […] | | NYCC organizer ReedPop spams attendee Twitter accounts Posted: 13 Oct 2013 04:54 PM PDT The radio frequency identification (RFID) tags embedded in ID badges for this year’s New York Comic Con were used to spam attendees’ Twitter accounts the moment they walked into the Javits Center. The spam took the form of overly enthusiastic tweets like “#NYCC is the Best Four Days of my Year!” and “So much pop […] | | Oldboy remake trailer received with applause at NYCC 2013 Posted: 13 Oct 2013 03:46 PM PDT A trailer for Spike Lee’s upcoming remake of 2003′s Korean mystery thriller Oldboy was received with applause and cheers by attendees of this year’s New York Comic Con. The trailer and reception might very well waylay any remaining fears the remake will be unworthy of the original. “All of us involved were very much inclined […] | | Star Wars Rebels revealed: bridging the gap between two trilogies Posted: 13 Oct 2013 03:06 PM PDT The Star Wars Rebels art design we were hoping to receive a hint about back in May has arrived, and then some, by way of the New York Comic Con (NYCC). First came an in-film prop: a propaganda poster depicting three Stormtroopers, overlaid with a snippet of the Aurebesh language in a Borg-esque typeface. EDIT […] | | HBO Needs to Be the Next Netflix Posted: 13 Oct 2013 01:24 PM PDT Netflix and HBO don't like each other. Well, at least HBO doesn't seem to like Netflix. And Netflix? Well, it would love to have HBO content on its streaming service, but it's not fond of the fact that HBO has no desire to do so. In fact, HBO has clearly drawn a line between its […] | | Googlers reveal products Google uses, discourages, or outright bans Posted: 13 Oct 2013 12:29 PM PDT Google keeps a tight rein on which hardware and software Google employees can use, but chief information officer Ben Fried argues that his methods of doing so give Googlers the freedom to connect with each other and ultimately to innovate for the eventual benefit of customers, AllThingsD revealed in a recent interview. Whenever possible, Google […] | | Scientists pinpoint solar storms, exact impact time on Earth Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:40 AM PDT The solar storms that interrupt terrestrial and satellite radio signals, interfering with cell phones and other technologies, have been precisely observed by scientists for the first time. They have also successfully predicted the exact impact times of observed solar storms on Earth, possibly laying the groundwork for avoiding future radio communications and power outages. Using […] | | Android KitKat features include “always listening” expansion Posted: 13 Oct 2013 10:11 AM PDT If you saw the “always listening” feature on the Moto X this summer and wondered if it would be coming to all Android devices soon, you may be in luck: a leaked build of the next version of Android, 4.4 KitKat, has a clue. This version of the software will likely be released within the […] | | Unu living room gaming systems to ship by November 8th Posted: 13 Oct 2013 08:01 AM PDT The long-awaited Unu gaming system is set to ship in the next month or so and is available for pre-order now, Unu has announced. The system includes the Unu tablet with Android, a docking station with an HDMI cable for your TV, and the AirMouse remote control. A separate gaming controller is also available at […] | | Crittercism suggests iPhone 5s crashes twice as often as 5c or 5 Posted: 13 Oct 2013 07:47 AM PDT Apps on the iPhone 5s are currently crashing at twice the rate they do on the 5c or 5, according to a report by Crittercism of millions of app crashes. The crash rate for the 5c and 5 are both under one percent, but the crash rate for the 5s is about two percent. The […] | You are subscribed to email updates from SlashGear
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Blogs - ASP.NET Weblogs
Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT
| Blogs - ASP.NET Weblogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT As mobile devices are becoming more and more popular, web developers are also finding it necessary to target mobile devices while building their web sites. | | MSDN Blogs - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT Learn more about the MSDN Blog Platform at the MSDN Blogs - Help blog! Provide Site Feedback on MSDN Blogs | | Blogs : The Official Microsoft IIS Site Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT Read or subscribe to IIS blogs. Bill Staple's blog and other Microsoft IIS team blogs. | | Developer Tools Blogs - Site Home - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT Search this blog Search all blogs. Related resources. Visual Studio Developer Center Visual Studio Product Website; Buy an MSDN Subscription; | | .NET Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT The .NET blog (AKA: dotnet blog) discusses new features in the .NET Framework and important issues for .NET developers. | | Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT Official Microsoft Developer Network blog providing the latest news and information about the operating system. | | News & Comments Blogs - Site Home - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT Server & Tools Blogs > News & Comment Blogs. News & Comment Blogs. Microsoft News. STB News Bytes; Microsoft Leadership. Satya Nadella; S. Somasegar; Jason Zander ... | | Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT Official blog from the product group. Administrator, developer and end-user information, and announcements of new supporting products, updates and tooling. | | MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT In case you are capable of the German language, Christian Binder has posted an interview with me taken during TechED 2009 in Berlin, and we augmented it with an ... | | The Silverlight Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT Silverlight Show: Windows 8 and the future of XAML Part 7: The application lifecycle of Windows 8 applications | | MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT To follow up on our announcement of releasing Rx 2.1 , we'd like to let you know what changed in this release. We have updated the Reactive Extensions for .NET ... | | Official T4 team blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT T4 stands for Text Template Transformation Toolkit and is Microsoft's template based text generation framework included with Visual Studio. | | Business Intelligence Blogs - Site Home - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT Server & Tools Blogs > Business Intelligence Blogs. Business Intelligence Blogs. All About Business Intelligence. Microsoft Business Intelligence; Power BI. | | Windows PowerShell Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT In addition to being a scripting language, Windows PowerShell is also used as a platform in many applications. This is possible because the Windows PowerShell engine ... | | MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT Office hours: in-person help for US developers working on Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps | | The Visual Studio Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT The Visual Studio Blog. The official source of product insight from the Visual Studio Engineering Team | | IEBlog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT Microsoft corporate weblog about the IE browser. | | The Old New Thing - Site Home - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT Professor Hubert Alyea would be 110 years old today, if he were still among us. (He passed away in 1996 at the ripe age of 93.) LIFE magazine called him the science ... | | MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT My name is Jeff Cardon. I'm a member of the Microsoft OneNote team and I'd like to share some of the tips and tricks that are available in this fantastic product. | | Terry Zink's Cyber Security Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs Posted: 14 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT A blog about fighting spam and malware by a member of Microsoft Forefront Online Security anti-spam team | You are subscribed to email updates from Search Msdn
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Stream Mining essentials
Posted: 14 Oct 2013 01:32 AM PDT
| Stream Mining essentials Posted: 13 Oct 2013 05:14 PM PDT A series of open source, distributed stream processing frameworks have become essential components in many big data technology stacks. Apache Storm remains the most popular, but promising new tools like Spark Streaming and Apache Samza are going to have their …  | | Upward Mobility: Waiting for iWatch Posted: 13 Oct 2013 03:50 PM PDT By all accounts, we won’t be seeing the iWatch until sometime next year. This is giving the press lots of time to speculate about exactly what the device might be. Since I can wildly speculate as well as the next …  |
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"[…] the idea of the future being different from the present
is so repugnant to our..."
Posted: 14 Oct 2013 01:26 AM PDT
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Rage & Performance Art
Posted: 14 Oct 2013 01:20 AM PDT
| Rage & Performance Art Posted: 13 Oct 2013 03:04 PM PDT In case you missed the day's events, while high level negotiations sputtered on, a Tea Party rally including Sen. Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin succeeded in capturing some of the essence of the political world the rejectionist rump of the GOP is now inhabiting in scenes reminiscent of 2009's Summer of Teh Crazy. Read More → | | Operation Rescue John Boehner Posted: 13 Oct 2013 07:38 AM PDT Lindsey Graham doesn't want Senate Republicans to saddle John Boehner with a debt limit/shutdown deal that doesn't have the support of a majority of the House GOP conference because it could cost him the speakership.  | You are subscribed to email updates from Editor's Blog
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Second Impressions
Posted: 14 Oct 2013 01:19 AM PDT
| Second Impressions Posted: 13 Oct 2013 10:30 AM PDT Two summers ago, I had the privilege of assisting at a networking training session for Notre Dame student-athletes. The fifty student-athletes in attendance and were asked to participate in a practice networking event with twelve members of the local community, of which I was one. The event lasted for an hour and the men (amazingly, no female student-athletes signed up for the event?) were very impressive. Strong handshakes, good questions, and solid eye contact – a very impressive first impression was made by the participants.  At the end of the session, the event organizers asked the community members to provide feedback to the group. While all the feedback given to the student-athletes was valuable, there was one piece of advice, offered by an executive from a local non-profit, that I thought stood out. The executive stated he placed more importance on a good second impression when dealing with people. He noted that everyone can have a bad day or be very impressive at the initial meeting – a first impression does not differentiate or make/break people in his experience. The true measure for this individual is the second impression.
The second impression must be a continuation of the same personal brand that you championed in your first interaction. The second impression should further demonstrate the attributes you championed in your initial interaction. However, many networkers will not make a solid second impression: - Many people have initial conversations and then "drop the ball" and never re-connect with their contacts. The lack of any second impressions will doom the networking efforts of this group of people.
- Some people are very impressive at first and their contact will provide them advice/referrals to help them with a need. During the second interaction, if the networker has taken no action, has not furthered oneself and is asking the same questions that were asked in the initial meeting, a poor second impression will be made and the contact will choose to not offer further assistance.
- Other people will have an initial meeting and then schedule a second discussion to recap his or her efforts. This individual will make a positive second impression as he/she has reconnected with the networking contact and will have progressed from the initial meeting. This individual has further strengthened his or her brand with the contact.
Take this advice and know that if your first impression was not as stellar as you would have liked, the second impression will still allow you a chance to leave a truer image of 'You" and your brand with your contacts. Author: Kevin Monahan is the Associate Director of the Notre Dame Career Center. In this role, he leads the center's employer relations efforts in addition to coaching young professionals in career management and career change capacities. He combines career consulting services with employer outreach to help find opportunities for both constituencies. He is the author of the Career Seeker's Guide blog. | | Should Baby Boomers Care About Their Personal Brand? Posted: 13 Oct 2013 02:30 AM PDT Baby Boomers, should you care about your Personal Brand?  I have written a couple of posts on this topic in the last few months:
Each time I have posted links to these posts on a variety of LinkedIn groups. I have received comments like: Why do I have to post on social media? Face to face communication is far more important. You cannot build real relationships on Social Media! First, that's actually not true. I know many people who have met clients, customers and collaborators on social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn. They begin by commenting on one another's posts, having online discussions and getting to know one another. Then, after a period of this, one or the other recommends they meet off line. Frequently, the relationship they built online proves to be something fruitful for both of them. I also have many clients who work on large multi-national teams. They rarely meet face-to-face with their teammates. One of them has been running worldwide events for a large multi-national corporation from his man-cave for the last several years. His only interaction with his teammates was over the phone. And, like many people who get entrenched in a company, his business relationships were entirely with people who worked for the same multi-national corporation. It was an all-consuming culture. He is now looking for employment. He knows his stuff. The problem is no one knows that he knows his stuff. Had he been interacting with other people who do similar things in other companies, he would be a known entity. He would have connections outside of his own company. Now he has to start promoting his skills. He has to be a salesman where he is the product. Does this sound familiar? Had he been building relationships, reputation, answering questions for peers on social media, he would have a personal brand as an expert in this field. That's why Baby boomers should pay attention to Personal Brands! We, baby boomers, were raised to be employees and were expected to go to work for father like corporations that would take care of us. Those days are gone forever! Dan Schawbel's new book Promote Yourself is counter to the way many baby boomers were raised. Promote yourself? Many of us were taught that our work should speak for itself. Or we should let others speak for us. People who promoted themselves, unless they were really, really good at doing it subtly, were seen as arrogant. The world has changed. You now need to look at yourself as a product. A well-defined product that can be promoted worldwide! That well-defined product is defined by your personal brand. Can you afford to ignore developing and promoting your personal brand? If you want to stay employed for the next twenty years (which many boomers will need to do) your personal brand cannot be ignored. Should baby boomers care about their personal brand? You tell me! Author: Marc Miller is the founder of Career Pivot which helps Baby Boomers design careers they can grow into for the next 30 years. Marc authored the book Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for Baby Boomers, published in January 2013, which has been featured on Forbes.com, US News and World Report, CBS Money-Watch and PBS' Next Avenue. Career Pivot was selected for the Forbes Top 100 Websites for your Career. Marc has made six career pivots himself, serving in several positions at IBM in addition to working at two successful Austin, Texas startups, teaching math in an inner-city high school and working for a local non-profit. Learn more about Marc and Career Pivot by visiting the Career Pivot Blog or follow Marc on Twitter or Facebook. |
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How Do You Create Content For a Niche Audience? Tonight’s #Blogchat topic!
Posted: 14 Oct 2013 01:18 AM PDT
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Bing It On Challenge Hits London: Bing Still Finds Bing Superior to Google
Posted: 14 Oct 2013 01:14 AM PDT
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T-Mobile Rocks
Posted: 14 Oct 2013 01:13 AM PDT
| T-Mobile Rocks Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:27 AM PDT I was a T-Mobile customer for more than a decade from the late 90s until a year or two ago. I really enjoyed the experiece. I didn't know many other T-Mobile customers. That was fine with me. One by one, my family switched to AT&T. My kids went to AT&T for the iPhone when you had to do that. I am not sure why The Gotham Gal went to AT&T but she did. So I was solo on T-Mobile and managing two bills and two plans. So I joined my family on AT&T. It's been fine, as long as you think $2000 a month for a family plan is OK. I am going back to T Mobile. Not because AT&T sucks. It doesn't. Not because AT&T costs me a lot of money. It does. I am going back out of principle. T-Mobile is customer friendly. The others are not. Maybe Sprint, now that it is owned by SOFTBANK, will join T-Mobile in the customer friendly aisle of the mobile carrier church, but right now they are on the other side. David Pogue nailed it in this post he wrote in the New York Times late last week. Please go read the whole thing. It is great. But this quote from T-Mobile's Chief Marketing Officer sort of sums it all up: Those other companies sit around trying to figure out what customer charges they can get away with. We sit around and say, 'What can we get away with not charging the customer'? Here are some of the customer friendly things T-Mobile does: 1) no international roaming charges. those who read this blog know that i have tried many things over the years to avoid those massive roaming charges. it can be done. i now know how. but if you are a T-Mobile customer you don't have to think about it. 2) no 2 year contract. quit T-Mobile anytime you want 3) don't keep paying the subsidy once you've paid for your phone If you think all cellphone carriers should act like T-Mobile, I would encourage you to join me on T-Mobile. Because if all of us move to T-Mobile, the other carriers will have no choice to join them in being customer friendly. We can vote with our pocketbooks. We should. I will.  | You are subscribed to email updates from A VC
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One of my earliest creative memories
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:33 PM PDT
| One of my earliest creative memories Posted: 25 Aug 2013 07:13 PM PDT | | Curry Pod Reigns Posted: 22 Aug 2013 06:18 AM PDT It’s been a while since I’ve blogged on here. It’s been a busy summer for the E&I team at H+K. Lots of exciting campaigns, for clients small and large, near and far. The obvious topic of choice for today’s musings would be fracking, given how high it is on the news agenda at the moment. Or maybe energy tariffs and bills. But rather than either of those, I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some fun pics from last night's team out. Given how busy we’ve been we have had some rather lovely new joiners, two of whom have joined Chris and I in what is now affectionately termed ‘Curry Pod’. I’m not quite sure how this name came to be (something that was borne out of a cross-team night out with Crisis and Issues a few months back I believe), but given it resulted in a night out in what is deservedly known as the best curry house in London to celebrate a successful few months, that probably doesn’t matter. So it was that eight hungry team members ventured to Tayyabs last night. And oh what a feast was had! The meat platter(s!!) were divine, the naan was fluffy and the curry was delicious. What I really want to share with you are the photos of the after dinner game…. Ros was a clear winner but newbie Doug was a particular stand out performer in his own special way. Take heed and Be More Doug. Enjoy! 
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | | CPP/QPP Increase: All Signs Point to Trouble Posted: 17 Jun 2013 03:33 PM PDT
Another project I did for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). I had to experiment to get the right look for the moving highway – opting for a simple green field over a row of trees. Also notice the slight texture on the signs and the whooshing sound effects.   This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | | Rejected Canadian Flag Designs Posted: 17 Jun 2013 03:28 PM PDT | | CO2 emissions of power plants in Germany – the role of coal Posted: 27 May 2013 12:06 PM PDT
In 2011 Germany's power plant fleet caused a good third of all greenhouse gas emissions. 82% of that stem from coal-fired generation. (left graphic). Gas-fired power plants were responsible for 10%.
Other fuels' contribution was under 10%. The prominent role of coal-fired power plants with regards to CO2 emissions is on one hand based on their relatively large share in power generation (43%, see right graphic) and on the other hand on the high specific emissions (≈800-1000 g/kWh).
Gas-steam power plants emit less than half CO2 per kilowatt hour
Today transport and heat are playing a similar role in CO2 emission as power generation does. Due to growing electrification in transport and heat, mid-term the share of power generation in CO2 emission will most likely increase.
The reduction of specific emissions in the German power mix is vital for climate protection. The statistics show that reducing coal-fired power generation can make an essential contribution in reaching Germany's climate goals.  
| | What do solar panels and the Ford Model T have in common? Answers on the back of a postcard please… Posted: 13 May 2013 10:33 AM PDT
And the answer is: you can have them in any colour as long as it's black…or in the case of solar panels, a sort of silvery dark blue. Ok, so the analogy isn't great, but the premise behind it is the same. Much like the iconic early twentieth century car, say the phrase "solar installation" to someone, and it's usually only one single colour that springs to mind. Images of a shimmering expanse of solar panels, spread like a sea over the countryside or shining from our rooftops, conjure up many well deserved accolades of sustainability and efficiency, but a thing of beauty? Not such a common first reaction. Indeed, solar installations are often criticised for their appearance. One of the most common objections to large scale solar projects is the visual impact. How are these futuristic looking developments going to fit in with England's green and pleasant lands?
It's understandable why people are worried, but they needn't be. The answer lies with changing people's perceptions of solar. It can be beautiful – it can be art. Solar artwork is a creative genre which challenges the common misconceptions of solar by creating solar powered art installations.  Solar Collector: Image credited to Gorbet Design Inc Take the Solar Collector, for example. A sculpture created by artists Matt Gorbet, Rob Gorbet, and Susan LK Gorbet, this large scale project features several shafts which create patterns of light performed at dusk each evening. And yes, it's entirely powered by solar. You can even create your own pattern online. Or take the beautiful works of Sarah Hall – photovoltaic installations that look more like stained glass. She captures images of waterfalls cascading down buildings, or leaves floating across a wall, and makes you forget that this is a working solar installation. It's generating electricity as you look at it.  Leaves of Light by Sarah Hall: Image credited to Sarah Hall The possibilities for combining solar with aesthetically pleasing design are endless. Take the Blue Forest project in Abu Dhabi, for instance. Working in collaboration with Solar Artworks, Blue Team Architects are creating a public area, shaded by solar panel "trees". When the sun goes down, the clean energy that has been collected can be used to power LED lights to illuminate the space after dusk. So solar plants and visually appealing installations need not be mutually exclusive. Whether on a large or small scale, with a bit of ingenuity and a whole lot of creative talent, I envisage it won't be long before the phrase "solar installation" conjures up a very different image indeed. | | What is the Significance of Earth Day? Posted: 22 Apr 2013 01:14 PM PDT Follow me on Twitter @DrSchwark With Earth Day activities in progress across the Unites States and the rest of world, I am wondering what relevance this day of activism still has. In an excellent blog post, my colleague Lena Davie rightly points out that it is great that people dedicate a day to the environment, but action on just one single day each year is hardly going to have much effect. This is a timely reminder. While Earth Day has become part of American national culture and as such is important on a symbolic level, it is questionable how effective it really is in light of today's environmental challenges. Historically, Earth Day certainly was significant. A recent study by the historian Adam Rome, The Genius of Earth Day, reminds us of the scale of the original 1970's event, and tracks its impact. Rome shows how the idea of a nation-wide environmental teach-in, proclaimed by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson on September 20, 1969, inspired more than 12,000 events across the country on the original Earth Day on April 22, 1970. This success was largely due to the fact that Nelson was smart enough to hire dedicated staffers to organize the teach-in but also allowed his idea to go viral by not insisting on top-down control of the individual events and their messaging. And so a diverse group became a movement, consisting of liberals looking to better the quality of life; scientists concerned with, and documenting, the level of pollution of water, ground and air; middle-class women worried about their deteriorating environment; young activists interpreting the fight for the environment as just another incarnation of the fight against the 'system;' and conservationists active since the era of Teddy Roosevelt. Nelson didn't mind these groups taking ownership of his idea, and this helped the idea to go viral and ultimately to form a generation of environmentalists and environmentally conscious citizens. So nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come, it seems. And indeed: Earth Day 1970 highlighted an environmental crisis in the U.S. that quickly became apparent and tangible to every citizen. Remember, this was before any efficient regulation of polluting industries was in place. Rome's study also shows, however, that the original Earth Day was about much more than these tangible quality-of-life issues. While pollution of rivers, lakes and the oceans, of air and soil certainly stirred up much attention, it was also largely noncontroversial that this was not a good thing. The questions posed by the movement in 1970, however, were more fundamental. I find two points are of particular interest today: What I would call the question of a sustainable way-of-life, and the question of sustainable growth. Inquiring about a sustainable way-of-life, for instance, was largely questioning the suburbanization of the United States. A lot of attention in the late 1960s was given to the fact that with the growth of suburbia the natural land is shrinking, and often valuable habitats are destroyed. This criticism of suburbia has great implications, because suburbia is the home of hydrocarbon man and to a large degree based on the availability and affordability of cars and fuel. With suburbia come motorways, and traffic, and the national fixation on the gas price. Living in New York City it is easy to forget, but my impression from recent travels is that the Earth Day movement did not succeed in changing this, but that the development of ever more suburban sprawl continues today. And with it, the issue of sustainability. The question of sustainable growth is even more interesting. The argument was that gross national product (GNP) is an insufficient indicator of wealth because its logic suggested that polluting and cleaning up would be more desirable than not polluting because the cleaning-up effort would also contribute to total GNP and thereby factor into the national wealth. If this 'wealth' includes negative environmental impacts, the argument goes, it is questionable that 'wealth' is so desirable after all. Sustainable growth would need a combination of quantitative and qualitative measurements which would allow marking pollution and counting it as a negative. Again, as fascinating as this argument is, I am not sure that this idea has much traction amongst economists and the informed public today. (It would certainly create a number of issues on its own.) Coming back to the question of Earth Day's significance today, I'm afraid it is a mixed bag. While it is great to have a dedicated, nation-wide day to think and learn about the environment and about sustainability, tangible action would be much preferred. I personally think that the only way to achieve real change would be an adequate price on pollution. Recent experiences with carbon trading in the European Union do not support much optimism. | | Why Germany is against the Solar Trade War with China Posted: 16 Apr 2013 01:23 PM PDT Follow me on Twitter @DrSchwark The German government is unlikely to support import tariffs for solar panels made in China despite domestic opposition to their policies. Veterans of the German renewable energy community, such as Hans-Josef Fell, have suggested that the German government's decision to significantly reduce Feed-in-Tariffs for solar photovoltaic energy would be destroying the German solar industry. While it is true that the entire sector has come under increasing pressure, this is hardly a phenomenon that is limited to Germany. China, in fact, currently seems to suffer just as much as any other country, as the recent bankruptcy of Suntech suggests. And despite the recent stock price surge for First Solar, this doesn't seem to be much different in the U.S., despite the trade war the country started with China. It is important to keep in mind, that behind the push for protectionism in the U.S. is a German company, SolarWorld, which has a significant manufacturing footprint in the United States. In a paper published last year by Germany's Heinrich Böll Foundation as second installment of a series on the German Energy Transition, Craig Morris explains why. The quick answer is, as a leading exporter Germany cannot afford a trade war with China. Morris quotes Fell acknowledging that. More importantly, however, is the business case behind it. And Morris lays out how Germany benefits economically even if the panels installed are made in China. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, the German solar industry is strong all along the value chain which leads to the fact that products made in China will likely lead to some value creation in Germany. Germany is particularly competitive in the equipment sector which exports production lines to China which is a more sophisticated technology than producing solar panels. Secondly, the value of services and components that are needed to install and connect the panels is actually higher than the value of the panel, and the services can only be sourced locally. Morris estimates that more than 50% of the total value creation is local. So far, so good. Morris states that a large solar market helps Germany to secure these advantages. And here is where I would start questioning his very positive assessment of the economic benefits on Germany. The fact is that the solar boom in Germany is paid by all consumers of electricity, with energy-intensive industries paying a much-reduced fee. The size of the German market is driven by the level of Feed-in-Tariffs that the German renewable energy law guarantees. So to answer the question whether Germany really profits from local installations of solar panels made in China, we would need to consider the question whether (a) the subsidies are necessary and (b) efficiently allocated. It seems to me that while German electricity consumers are doing the world a favor by driving down the cost of solar with the demand created by the Feed-in-Tariffs, they may not profit that much themselves as the total cost is still quite high. Morris is right to call for the U.S. to jump into solar now, because with the more beneficial weather conditions the cheap panels make even more economic sense. The U.S. would only need to brush aside bureaucratic hurdles, and a solar boom may be coming. As to the question of why Germany is against a solar trade war, I think Morris is right: The question of Feed-in-Tarrifs aside, free trade is Germany's best option. | | Alberta PCs: Some Party That I Used to Know Posted: 15 Apr 2013 07:55 AM PDT
My first music video – a satire of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.”   This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | | The roots of German nuclear skepticism Posted: 11 Apr 2013 02:12 PM PDT Follow me on Twitter @DrSchwark The Washington, DC office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, a think tank close to Germany’s Green party, recently concluded a series of short papers on Germany's Energiewende (energy transition) which aims to explain what is going on with Germany’s energy policy, and why. As the question what the world could learn from Germany's experiment, if anything, is a major concern of my blog posts, it is worthwhile reviewing the articles individually. The first installation of the series, Angst or Arithmetic?, by Paul Hockenos, a Berlin-based American writer and author of a well-received book on Joschka Fischer and the German green movement, is looking to put the German energy transition into perspective. The author is making the case that Germans are neither irrationally afraid of nuclear energy nor is the nuclear phase-out driven by "postwar angst". Quite to the contrary, the author claims, Germany finds itself in the midst of other European nations such as Sweden, The Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland, all of which are phasing out nuclear as well. What does make Germany's energy transition unique in the author's eyes, however, is the fact that the country is aiming to phase-out nuclear while maintaining its status as an industrial heavyweight and meeting ambitious decarbonization goals. To make his point, Hockenos skillfully lays out the development of the anti-nuclear protest movement in Germany, starting with demonstrations in the early 1970s in Wyhl, where conservative farmers were joined by conservationists and left-wing environmentalists to force a powerful utility company to cancel plans for a nuclear power station. This headline-making success catapulted the movement to national prominence and consequently helped to form its national footprint. Decisive then, in Hockenos' eyes, was the fact that experts, some from Germany's nuclear industry, like Klaus Traube, joined the movement to create a fact-based approach which was, if you want, political education based on liberal enlightenment ideas. These experts published widely read bestsellers and also formed think tanks, such as Öko-Institut, or Institute for Applied Ecology, which still exists today. Finally, Chernobyl, which almost created mass hysteria, with closed playgrounds, destroyed produce, and kids and pregnant women ordered to stay inside, made the risks of nuclear energy obvious to everyone. The author concludes that the nuclear phase-out is not "the reaction of a spooked people to Fukushima" but that it "has arguably been part of Berlin's energy agenda since the early 1990s." While the historical facts are correct, it strikes me that the initial question is only superficially answered, if at all. Hockenos is certainly right when he claims that the German anti-nuclear movement was well entrenched in Berlin's political class, if not hegemonic, before the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Just think of the first Atomausstieg (nuclear phase-out), which the Schröder-Fischer government ("red-green" coalition) negotiated with the nuclear power utilities in 2000 and which became law in 2002. But he fails to address the question, why this was the case. Here are three factors which I believe need to be taken into consideration: Firstly, Germany's anti-nuclear movement is, to a large extent, a not-in-my-backyard coalition which prima facie is interested in (a certain understanding of) the good life, here and now, but does not necessarily act politically responsibly. Hockenos provides great insights in the local roots of the movement and its broad coalitions, from Wyhl to Gorleben (which was long planned to be the permanent repository site for nuclear waste), but fails to analyze this critically. I would argue that a small group of anti-nuclear protesters, mostly academically educated activists from urban areas with experience in previous protests (using tactics they learned from the American civil rights movement), used the protective instincts of conservative local groups and skillfully turned this into a movement. The nuclear power plant was not supposed to be built here. This legacy still resonates when, today, local "green" groups protest against desperately needed grid extensions to transport wind power from the North to the South because they literally do not what the pylons in their backyard. Politically, this is obviously not very satisfying, because it does not provide a solution to the problem but only criticism. (Arguably, the national leadership of Germany's Green party is aware of this now and addresses this critically and responsibly.) Secondly, the German perception of nuclear energy can only be understood in the context of the cold war and the fear of nuclear annihilation. This fear proliferated in Germany from the 1970s onwards and culminated in the Friedensdemonstration, or peace demonstration, in Bonn, the old governmental seat of West Germany, in 1982. Roughly half a million citizens protested NATOs "double-track decision" and, more broadly, American nuclear weapons on German soil. While the history of the so called Friedensbewegung, or peace movement, is complex, it is fair to say that is built on 1950s protest against German rearmament, 1960s radicalism and criticism of the Vietnam war, as well as specifically German ideas of a "third way" between Russian communism and American capitalism which have a long intellectual genealogy in Germany and which gained momentum in the 1970s. The German anti-nuclear movement is intimately linked to the peace movement, and managed to link the public's fear of nuclear annihilation with questions about the civil use of nuclear energy. So when German's think nuclear, they think death. I am not so sure that this is rational, even while I may have the same thoughts, as I am a (German) child of my time. Finally, Hockenos fails to address the German Technikskepsis, or skepticism of technology, which is deeply rooted in the country's political culture and crucial to understand the German debate on nuclear energy. While Germany has a globally renowned engineering expertise, there is also a long intellectual history of fearing the (unintended) consequences of widespread use of technologies. Note that the German term Technik only inaccurately translates into the English word technology. Technik it is much closer to the Greek τεχνικός (technikós) which includes human systems, and is distinct from the German Technologie, a distinction that is absent in the English language. Technikskepsis, again, is a complex matter, and while this blog-post cannot adequately spell out its genealogy, it is worth noting that it has roots in Martin Heidegger's philosophy from where it spread to political ideas on the left with Herbert Marcuse, a student of Heidegger who later joined the legendary Institute for Social Research. It's most influential rendition is arguably Hans Jonas' The Imperative of Responsibility (Das Prinzip Verantwortung, German 1979, English 1984) which lays out an ethical principle for the age of technology: “Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life.” And this imperative, of course, is precisely what the critics claim nuclear energy cannot meet. If, and how, these ideas are compatible with a sustainable energy transition in Germany is a different question which I will address in another blog post. For now it suffices to conclude that Hockenos short analysis is a great start of what should be a much bigger project: to bare the roots of the German anti-nuclear movement and the Energiewende. | | Napoleon and the Oil Sands Posted: 04 Apr 2013 03:49 AM PDT It is said of Napoleon that the key question he would ask before deciding whether to promote someone to the rank of General would be to ask "Is he lucky?" He believed that whether or not they had a track record of lucky breaks would be a good predictor of future success on the battlefield. Certainly, we all know people who seem to have one disaster after another and others who glide through life unscathed by the "slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune". In the case of the Canadian oilsands industry, recent events suggest they would fail Napoleon's test. There has been one unlucky break after another. The latest came on the eve of a Canadian government news conference, aimed at assuring the population of coastal British Columbia that the authorities had robust idol spill defences in place and therefore need not be unduly concerned about the prospect of bitumen exports to Asia. The event didn't quite go as planned, as you can read here. | | Dawn of the solar industry? Or is the sun setting? Chinese solar, trade duties and the impact on the UK Posted: 03 Apr 2013 10:30 AM PDT The UK solar industry has had an interesting time of late. From the rise of large scale installations and the important role for solar in the Renewables Roadmap, to the confusion over government tariffs and the lack of any new emphasis on solar in the budget, there's been a lot going on. If this has left followers of the market overwhelmed, spare a thought for China, where their booming solar industry is poised on the brink of uncertainty after two accusations of anti-competitive behaviour. In the beginning, there was expensive solar…
The issue began with the Chinese solar industry's ability to manufacture solar panels and components at a much cheaper price than any other market. And as the most attractive market for renewable energy in the world, this had quite an impact on prices globally. Chinese manufacturers were able to flood the market with solar components, all offered at a price that made it hard for US and European markets to compete. So why was China able to do this? Recently, the Chinese Government has placed great emphasis on cutting their carbon emissions and increasing the share of energy generated from renewable resources. As a result, solar panel production in China is heavily subsidised by the Government, making Chinese solar panels the cheaper option for installers in the US and Europe. This allows China to increase their share of the global solar manufacturing market at the expense of manufacturers elsewhere. Obviously, this was not an ideal situation for the global solar PV manufacturing market, and in May last year, the US became the first country to introduce anti-dumping tariffs on all solar imports from China. Dumping, in this context, is a form of predatory pricing which involves selling products in an international market at a price too low for producers in the export markets to compete with. US Senator, Charles Schumer, confirmed that these measures where tough, but also necessary if the interests of the American solar manufacturing market were to be protected. China's Commerce Ministry spokesman, Shen Danyang, counteracted this assertion by declaring their intention to fight this "unfair" ruling. The result of this is the setting of a precedent for other global markets to follow suit, with Europe being the most recent of these. Last September, EU Prosun, an industry action group, launched a campaign against Chinese imports into Europe, asking the European Commission to investigate any alleged anti-competitive behaviour. Despite a strong counter-argument that any tariffs would damage the global solar market by pushing up installation prices, the European Commission announced their intention to continue with their investigation into the Chinese market. So what does this mean for the UK?
Following the EC's announcement, the European Union imposed the mandatory registration of all solar components imported into the EU from China. Between March 2013 and the predicted resolution date of 6 June, any Chinese solar imports have to be registered. This will allow the EU to retroactively impose anti-dumping tariffs should the Commission rule against the Chinese manufacturers. The impact of this move is already being felt in the UK market, where solar providers are facing cancelled orders from installers. With a high level of uncertainty over whether tariffs will be imposed retroactively, importers are unwilling to take on the risk, instead passing this on to installers in the form of price increases. In a report commissioned by AFASE, a body representing European solar manufacturers against the trade duties, Swiss analysts Prognos announced that the move could ultimately cut the UK solar industry by 80%, as well as costing the UK economy £3.46 billion and 38,600 jobs. The Solar Trade Association has voiced their opposition to any trade duties, asserting that any tariffs would damage confidence in what is already seen as an unstable market. Furthermore, the Chinese Government has announced its plans to retaliate if any duties are imposed. In short, the imposition of trade duties on Chinese solar imports will have a far-reaching impact on the European and UK market. Manufacturers will gain a level playing field and an increased ability to compete, but at the cost of a severely reduced solar industry. The end customer will bear the brunt of price increases, and, in a fragile industry, the fate of many wholesale solar importers and installation companies hangs in the balance. So the question remains, is the cost of this investigation, and the price of market intervention, simply too high? | | The rise of the Internet Posted: 19 Mar 2013 11:35 AM PDT In my previous two blogs postings, we looked at two of the reasons why so many energy companies have been getting into trouble and finding the implementation of infrastructure projects to be so hard in many developed countries: - The end of the Age of Enlightenment has produced societies less persuaded by facts and more swayed by emotion.
- The arrival of the Postmodern Age, in which there is a widespread acceptance of the notion that there is no such things as absolute truth and that "what is true for you need not be true for me".
The challenging environment has been further complicated by the rise of the Internet, which has profound implications for many companies, not least those in the energy industry. Every significant development in communications technology has had societal implications well beyond what the technical innovators could have imagined: - The fact that the printing press was introduced in Europe at the time of the Reformation was not a coincidence. This revolutionary technology turbocharged the spread of new ideas.
- More recently, it was the fax machine which effectively brought down the Iron Curtain at the end of the Cold War. This (very) slow-motion Twitter enabled like-minded individuals to network and the Communist authorities lost their monopoly control of the mass-dissemination of information.
If knowledge is power (and it always has been), then, in our own era, the Internet is moving power from institutions to networks. The Internet enables individuals who share a common interest to identify each other and then coordinate and organise at close to zero marginal cost. This is bringing tremendous benefits in areas such as medical research and less desirable outcomes for those engaged in anti-social or criminal activities. Many companies in the energy industry have yet to think through the implications of this shift in power. In their project management, for example, they still think in terms of linear, predictable regulatory approval processes, while the unfolding reality is something much more akin to political theatre as a number of hitherto extraneous actors make uninvited but impactful appearances on a stage which the companies thought they controlled. Many of these NGOs are small, but they are savvy in their use of the new technology and, like the mass of tiny Lilliputians, can tie a giant Gulliver down to the ground with their thousands of individually tiny strands. The creation of networks is of course, a game that two can play, but energy companies will need to completely re-think their approach to what now needs to effectively be a political campaign strategy in the light of this new reality. The Internet is also, counterintuitively, contributing to a feeling that, while many of us are more connected than ever before, we also feel more alone. This observable increase in alienation is one of the reasons why we're seeing a marked decline in trust in many types of institution: a subject we'll get to in the next blog posting. | | “Either / Or” vs. “All of the above”, Or is Germany’s Energiewende a Better Energy Policy than Obama’s Approach? Posted: 12 Mar 2013 02:42 PM PDT In a recent interview with the German business webpage manager magazine online, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Austrian-born bodybuilder, actor and former governor of California, sharply criticized U.S. energy policy, or, as he put it more pointedly, the lack thereof. Schwarzenegger, a champion of renewable energy during his tenure as governor, says he admires Germany's determination to switch to (a mostly) renewable energy production in a single generation, while he despises what he sees as a lack of strategy and coordination of energy policy in the U.S. Schwarzenegger's endorsement of German energy policy is pretty light on facts. He doesn't bother to discuss the Energiewende's issues, which committed readers of this blog may be familiar with. But he is not alone in criticizing the lack of vision and coordination in U.S. energy policy. In fact, both business leaders and environmentalists are united in their criticism of current policies. Tellingly, Schwarzenegger doesn’t offer any pragmatic proposals. He doesn't map out which fixes would help the U.S. to become more like Germany in energy terms. He suggests that the German energy transition is better policy altogether because it is a daring plan. While enthusiasm for planning in the realm politics has yielded mixed results in the past, there is an underlying question here which deserves some scrutiny: Is Germany's approach to energy policy more effective and more politically and economically sustainable (i.e. smarter and cheaper) than Obama's "all of the above" strategy? I.e., is the Energiewende, which could be dubbed "either/or" in policy terms as it plans to first phase out nuclear and then fossil fuels altogether, better suited to tackle climate change and cheaper than Obama's approach? Note that this question is asking for actual effects rather than lofty rhetoric and long-term planning objectives. The question couldn't be timelier, as with last week's nominations for the relevant cabinet positions, the outlines of Obama’s second term energy policy became clear. It is marked by three goals: (1) Provide affordable energy for a growing economy and a recovering middle class while (2) reducing the United States dependency on energy imports from unfriendly and/or undemocratic nations and (3) pragmatically tackling climate change. While Germany's Energiewende may tackle the latter more explicitly, and may render Germany more energy independent in the far future, it is certainly failing on the first goal and moreover relying on Russian imports for about a third of its natural gas. But let's have a look at the U.S.: Obama nominated Ernest Moniz, MIT physicist, as energy secretary, and Gina McCarthy to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, where she is currently working as assistant administrator. At MIT, Moniz currently runs the school's energy initiative, a position in which he oversaw research on pretty much any energy source known to mankind. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, he wrote an influential article in Foreign Affairs, defending nuclear power on environmental grounds: Nuclear power plants don't emit any CO2 which is why we need them to tackle climate change. McCarthy may be less outspoken, but her job at the EPA may require precisely that. Coral Davenport reported in the National Journal, that Obama remains quiet about Climate Change for strategic reasons, but his administration is determined to tackle the problem nonetheless: not through legislation, which is currently unthinkable in Washington due to Republican denial of climate science and their determination to kill any relevant bill, but through the regulatory authority of the EPA, and in consultation with industry and other business leaders. She writes: "Inside Washington, in a warren of back rooms at EPA, dozens of environmental officials are working to craft landmark climate-change regulations that they hope will curb industrial pollution—and withstand a tsunami of legal and political attacks. To help them do it, they're inviting in heads of the industries and businesses that will soon be forced to implement the rules. Business leaders, although they're not happy about the coming regulations, are jumping on the opportunity to communicate their concerns and perhaps help shape the rules they'll have to live by. And the Obama administration hopes that the dialogue will help defuse some of the opposition to come." If we accept that Obama will tackle climate change through enhanced regulation by the EPA, two major differences between the U.S. approach and the German approach remain: Nuclear power, obviously, but more importantly shale gas. While Moniz' nomination was sharply criticized by environmentalists because of his favorable position on fracking (even if DoE does not have jurisdiction over that issue, as some acknowledge), Germany is effectively rendering fracking in the country impossible and is instead using lignite to back-up the intermittent renewable energy production. This negatively affects Germany's over-all CO2-emissions, because gas burns cleaner than lignite. While the U.S. is reducing its carbon footprint by switching from coal to gas, Germany is struggling to do the same even though it invests heavily in renewable energy. This means, however, that despite the lofty rhetoric around Germany's Energiewende – and Mr. Schwarzenegger's endorsement, the de facto effects of these policies are not that convincing. The U.S. "all-of-the-above" energy policy may be better policy – if it includes serious attempts to tackle climate change. And it may be politically and economically more viable. | | Manning Conference Visuals Posted: 11 Mar 2013 08:29 AM PDT We just closed our annual conference. I (naturally) put a lot of effort into the visuals. The Pantone 274 U Blue turned out great! Booklet, branded agenda, pen, and bag 
Booklet spread 
Signage 
Projected backdrop 
Ads 
Website 
  | | FCM Project Posted: 11 Feb 2013 04:34 PM PST
An animation I created for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.   This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | | Red Tape Visualized Posted: 21 Jan 2013 11:21 AM PST
A clip I created for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.   This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | | Idea # 35: EXPRESSION OF SPEED Posted: 17 Dec 2012 08:05 PM PST | | Mobile Payments Visualized Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:34 AM PST A clip I created for Canadian telecoms giant Rogers.   This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | | This is amazing! Nothing like getting paid! Greeeat! Posted: 18 Nov 2012 12:44 PM PST |
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Last Week's 10 Biggest Posts
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 03:17 PM PDT
| Last Week's 10 Biggest Posts Posted: 13 Oct 2013 02:30 PM PDT From iOS 7 bugs to airport lounges and Android tricks, we had you covered. Kick off your Monday by checking out the ten most popular posts from Lifehacker Australia last week: More » | | Ask LH: Can I Use T-Mobile's Unlimited Global Data Permanently In Australia? Posted: 13 Oct 2013 02:00 PM PDT Dear Lifehacker, T-Mobile in the US is about to start offering unlimited data and texting worldwide at no extra cost. So can I get a friend or someone to sign up a plan there and then use that SIM card here in Australia for unlimited data? Thanks, Data Greedy More » | | Convert A Photograph Into An Excel Spreadsheet Posted: 13 Oct 2013 01:30 PM PDT A digital photograph is ultimately nothing more than a series of numerical colour values, which makes it ideal for presentation as a spreadsheet. The Pixel Spreadsheet service does just that, letting you upload a picture and then converting it into a downloadable Excel spreadsheet. More » | | The Power Of A Zero-Sum Budget Posted: 13 Oct 2013 01:00 PM PDT Among the many articles on budgeting systems and strategies, there has been very little written on using a zero-sum budget (which happens to be the budget that I use and love). So, here's to why I'm a zero-sum budget enthusiast, why I think it works so well, and how you can harness the power of this budget for your own financial well-being. More » | | Mercury Browser Comes To Android With Gestures, Passcode Protection And Plugins Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:00 AM PDT Android: One of the best third-party Web browsers on iOS, Mercury, has finally made its way to the Google Play Store. The free app is much like any other browser at first glance, but it has a few cool features that put it in the same league as our other Android favourites. More »  | | Access Blocked Sites At School Or Work With Google Translate Posted: 13 Oct 2013 09:00 AM PDT If your school or office blocks a large portion of the web for "productivity's" sake, Redditor sidewayssammich shares a useful tip: just plug a site into Google Translate to view it. More » | | Remove Or Replace The Windows Shortcut Arrow With This Tool Posted: 12 Oct 2013 10:00 PM PDT Windows: Shortcuts on your desktop (or anywhere else) are usually indicated by a little arrow in the bottom-left corner of the icon. A new tool called Windows Shortcut Arrow Editor lets you remove it, change it to the old XP style, or customise it with your own arrow. More » | | Protect Your Cookbooks In The Kitchen With Plastic Wrap Posted: 12 Oct 2013 09:00 PM PDT The next time you want to use your recipe book in the kitchen without messing it up, you can use a common kitchen item: plastic wrap. More » | | This Week In Smartphone Software Updates: Telstra, Optus, Vodafone Posted: 12 Oct 2013 08:00 PM PDT Wondering when the sweet new versions of Android will land on your device? You're in luck: each week, Gizmodo Australia will take you through all of the handset updates currently being tested on Australian networks like Vodafone, Telstra and Optus, and tell you when you can expect them on your device. More » | | Read Literary Fiction Before Dates Or Meetings For Social Success Posted: 12 Oct 2013 07:00 PM PDT The next time you have to go for a date or an important meeting, try reading some Chekhov or Alice Munro before you head out the door. It's probably going to make that interaction go off well, says a new study. More » | | This List Of Web Development Tips Should Keep You Busy Posted: 12 Oct 2013 06:30 PM PDT Web design can be a time-consuming process. Not only are you coding — itself a devourer of days — but you're usually juggling Photoshop or Illustrator, not to mention an FTP client and a host of other tools to do your work effectively. That's why any time-saving tips are always appreciated… and here's a massive collection for your weekend-viewing pleasure. More » | | Share A Digital Contact Card Right After You Exchange Business Cards Posted: 12 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT The whole point of exchanging business cards was to feature in each other's address book or rolodex. But now that address books are digital, the physical business card serves little purpose other than a greeting token. More » | | Top 10 Tricks For Better Apartment Living Posted: 12 Oct 2013 04:00 PM PDT Apartment hunting can be stressful, and living in an apartment isn't always a picnic either. From noisy neighbours to horrible landlords and tight spaces, things can get dicey. But with the right tricks up your sleeve, apartment life can be awesome. Here are 10 ways to make that happen. More » | You are subscribed to email updates from Lifehacker Australia
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Consolidate this: Quantified self edition
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 03:14 PM PDT
| Consolidate this: Quantified self edition Posted: 13 Oct 2013 01:00 PM PDT My friend, Kevin Kelly, coined the term quantified self in October of 2007 with this blog post. In the in six years since, the fruits of such self quantification can now be found on the TV, the radio, and all over the internet. Let's take stock and explore how the concept of the quantified self has grown from a small idea to national movement. Kelly argued that the question of who we are — and more importantly, what it means to be a human person — is central to our experience of technology these days. He thinks that the answers to big existential questions will be found in the personal. As he wrote, "real change will happen in individuals as they work through self-knowledge." Kelly also proposed a starter list of quantified self categories, including but not limited to: chemical body load counts, personal genome sequencing, lifelogging, self-experimentation, location tracking, digitizing body info, sharing health records, psychological self-assessments, and medical self-diagnostics. We have since witnessed real progress in each of those buckets, including Tim Ferris' Four Hour Body experiments and Shine's beautiful activity monitor. We've seen Scanadu's proposed medical "tricorder" and pure software plays like smartphone app Saga. And that's just scratching the surface. Self-tracking today is a full-blown industry. Which is why it's time for the quantified self world to start contracting, with roll-up style M&A the most likely lever of change. Certain brands have equity enough to take the quantified self outside of the insular quantified-self movement and into the mass market. Certain startups have the necessary capital, or backing. As a consumer, the choices available are maddening. 
The pure software side of the equation is even more convoluted, with dozens of offerings from small and large companies alike elbowing their way to the front of the line for my attention (of which there is little). It's time for a winner, or two. Some have suggested that Apple's iWatch will soon descend, and do what Apple is inordinately good at doing — taking the best of what’s already out there and doing it better than anyone thought possible. I think Apple will put forth a very compelling offering, but I don't think that Apple is a brand that consumers can commit their personal data to fearlessly. I am of the strong opinion that a newer brand will emerge victorious — a brand whose business is core to the vision of the quantified self, and not a bolted-on business pursued out of evolutionary necessity. The second phase of the market I believe that "lifelogging" is the strongest root term available to the quantified self movement and all its facets. But in the second phase of this market, our vocabulary must evolve if there's to be any hope of broader adoption. 
The "self" is too narrow. The quantified self movement isn't about me, explicitly — I care dramatically more about what all of the past, present and future "me" amounts to. We're looking at a new oral tradition — the sum and summary of my life. It's my story, spoken through data and technology.
The "quantified" word suggests enumeration, which is an input, but not an output (and outputs are where the most interesting stuff happens). "Logging" likewise implies input only, the act of collecting of data — warehousing, in short. So what are the outcomes and outputs? How much of our exhaust data actually tells something non-obvious? What am I doing with all this data, other than gazing lovingly towards it? Anyone who has played with this stuff for a period of time starts asking the same questions. Data is just data. It becomes an order of magnitude more interesting when a story takes form. Building a story Lifestreaming is next. Anyone who follows my writing on the subject of streams knows how central I think streams are to any future vision of the Web. The term "lifestreaming" enjoyed a short moment in the sun back when Justin.tv was hitting a (well-deserved, if fleeting) inflection point. I think the term can be reclaimed and re-oriented. Streaming implies the act of taking the self outside of the self — of sharing my life with others. That's what most B2C technology amounts to. Sharing is essential to collective experience. We want to be authentic with friends and family. We want to be digitally intimate. Whereas lifelogging signals aggregation, lifestreaming suggests openness and sharing. If new filters emerge that sit between private and public data, all the better. It's my argument that the all the quantified self data in the world amounts to very little until it's put into the context of the other human lives I care about. The next phase of the quantified self movement erodes the navel-gazing instinct for the better. Get over yourself. This is the part where Kelly got it wrong. Real change happens faster from collective knowledge (the global brain) than it does purely, isolated self-knowledge. And the best insights still come from colliding heterogeneous data sets, not beautifying homogenous ones. This fact is an even more compelling reason for the market to coalesce around 1 or 2 players. Moves has an API but I don't think that's enough — co-locating data is just more aggregation, with less friction. Buy, buy, buy For starters, I think that Saga should buy Narrative (formerly known as Memoto. That combination would be killer. For one, Saga has a great brand. I love the name. It has raised significant capital. It has partnered with the right people in the space, including Jawbone, Fitbit (see disclosure), Withings, and WolframAlpha. It’s ready to show us the way. But more importantly, at least in my own personal experience, it has the technological backbone necessary to make this all happen. 
If you're not familiar, Saga tracks your location ambiently. It is uncannily accurate, and it is incredibly frugal on battery life. Most importantly, you can follow other users' Saga for an unusual view onto their real-world adventures, and you can publish curated Sagas (comprised of multiple moments in time) to the web for anyone to enjoy, chronicling birthdays, pub crawls, sporting events and more — the mundane and the extraordinary alike. Narrative, the automatic lifelogging camera, has been regrettably slow to put product in hands but it's a really compelling piece of hardware, more so than most others in my opinion. It gives you a searchable and shareable photographic memory. Inserting Instagram photos interstitially into your lifestream is one thing, but Narrative is, like Vine before it, a new kind of media in my mind, and uniquely suited to a quantified life. It is ambient, proactive, unobtrusive, and always-on. Narrative would give Saga a sexy hardware play, and Saga would give Narrative both a mainstream brand and a creative platform for this new mode of storytelling. This idea is timely too — Narrative just raised $3 million on the strength of its pre-sales, and rebranded with a name that speaks to the same notion of a data-driven oral history that Saga likewise evokes. I'm sure there are a lot of other interesting combination out there however, and I'd love to hear yours. Maybe if we're convincing enough, these companies will take action! Who else do you think is an early winner, and would do well to go on a spending spree? What quantified self, wearable, and lifelogging matches are made in heaven? Nova Spivack is the co-founder and CEO of Bottlenose, an angel investor, and a noted technology futurist. Disclosure: Fitbit is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.  
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Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.  | | A peek inside Microsoft’s new ‘design-first’ development strategy Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:30 AM PDT A few weeks ago, I highlighted a new data-analysis tool from Microsoft that automatically analyzes and visualizes data as users type into a search bar. The feature, called Q&A, is an impressive piece of technology, hiding some complex computations under a deceptively simple user interface. That was no mistake. "Microsoft was not a design-first company for many years," explained Microsoft Technical Fellow and Q&A team member Amir Netz during a recent demo of the product. "… You see the design-first [mentality] now permeating even the highest-end enterprise products." (We'll be featuring the best in experience design at our RoadMap conference next month). The past: Let's call it suboptimal design What he means is that Microsoft was once — pretty clearly — guilty of the classic feature-first business software mindset. Throw in everything a power user might want and largely ignore the fact that most users don't want to wade through 90 menu options. They don't want a toolbar that bears a striking resemblance to the TV screen when Fox Business is on. In an office of 20 people, it doesn't matter if a product can support 10,000 users simultaneously.  Uh, what am I looking at? Speaking specifically about business intelligence, or BI, software like Q&A, Netz said the status quo is that users normally need strong skills in manipulating and analyzing data, and "a willingness to get dirty." Because of the barrier to entry (as well as some technological and cultural issues that still persist), Microsoft GM of Product Management for SQL Server Eron Kelly added, it can take weeks to get an answer to a simple business question if it means someone has to go through and reconfigure the report. Customers waiting on new versions of software could expect to wait 3 years in between releases. "If you were really aggressive you could get it to 2 years," Netz said. Add in the process of deploying traditional desktop software, which might mean buying and installing numerous different packages just to get started, and you get what Kelly diplomatically called "friction for users to consume our technology." The future: Simple, fast and addictive With Q&A, however, Microsoft "started with just a pure design view," Netz said. That meant the design team sat in a room for weeks and thought about how to make the user experience as simple and addictive as possible. They worked around the clock and on weekends, he said, with the understanding they'd move on only when "everybody in the room feels that what we have is just going to be awesome." That happened about six weeks later. Only then did the team begin thinking about the technology and the architecture that would underpin the aesthetic and interactive experience they'd imagined. They brought in other Microsoft personnel with expertise in search, BI and natural-language processing, who were tasked with making Q&A intuitive, intelligent and responsive (it's powered by an in-memory column store that Netz called "maybe the fastest in the industry."). A prototype was ready about two months later and "was way better than what we expected," Netz said. Fast-forward another 14 months, to September 2013, and the full-time that Microsoft assembled to build Q&A had the product ready for its public beta release. Like most cloud services, it will receive updates monthly. And whereas the old-school BI software really targeted about 20 percent of business users, Netz said that with Q&A, "We think there's a high potential to reach the other 80 percent we're not even aiming at." But did Microsoft deliver? There's still work to be done on Q&A, but it's difficult to find much fault in it — at least with the very curated demonstrations that I saw. Netz and Kelly easily sorted through a spreadsheet full of Billboard music data, showing various ways of sorting it by songs, artists, decades, genres and any other category included in the data.  By "best artist," which the software decides means weeks at No. 1.  The number of songs that charted in each year, by genre. I experimented with a preview version that included preloaded datasets about the Summer Olympics and sales data from a hypothetical local bar. It was easy enough to search for the recipe for a particular drink: 
And figure out on which days it sells the most: 
Or to sort a map of Olympic host cities by the United States medal count in each (Q&A automatically switched to the Olympic data from the bar data based on my query):  And then to switch to a column chart from the map and to open up a view into the underlying data in case I wanted to do something more advanced:
After all, Netz explained, Q&A is essentially just an easier way to search and visualize data that's already stored in Excel. If there's nit I have, it's on the business side: Microsoft's maze of services and add-ons still isn't the easiest to navigate — Q&A is a component of PowerBI, which is an add-on to Excel, for example, whereas Tableau is Tableau — and tools like PowerBI are clearly targeting business users. It might democratize data analysis within companies, but not among everyday consumers who want to quantify their lives. But if Q&A really is indicative of where Microsoft's software design strategy is headed, it would seem, by some measures, that business's best days could actually be ahead of it. Office 365 might not dominate the cloud like Office dominated the desktop, but the users who find themselves in front of Microsoft's services might find themselves a lot happier.  
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Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.  | | Why email newsletters still work — and how you can make yours better Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:00 AM PDT The email newsletter model comes from some very humble roots, yet has grown into a powerful business model. As the former CEO of DailyCandy, I got firsthand experience on what works — and doesn't — for email newsletters. DailyCandy launched in 2000. We borrowed from the direct mail business to create a model based on email newsletters, and shared daily tips about local stores and restaurants. Thirteen years later, a lot has changed but I still think that email newsletters can be a viable business model. Here are tips for anyone trying to build a successful newsletter today: -
Entertain and inform. This strategy builds and supports the voice of the publication, and that builds and sustains the brand. At DailyCandy, even if our users didn't shop at or eat at the places we wrote about, they always ended each read with a smile — that kept them opening our emails. Of course, some brands and topics lent themselves to creative copy more than others. One of our more popular examples of this "entertainment factor" was dubbed IROD, an interesting massage device that was tethered to your iPod. I don't know how many devices the manufacturer ended up selling, but the topic generated buzz and entertained readers. -
Be brief. Newsletters should get their point across in 150 words or less. People today skim rather than read, and reading email is no exception. Thrillist recently got me hooked on a automatic home beer maker in just 106 words (yes, there was an additional video, but the content was short and sweet). No long lists of specs, parts, pieces…just a simple what and why. In the early days of DailyCandy, we developed a template of sorts (e.g., great hook, better kicker) to ensure that each of our newsletters hit the key points, but was still a short read. -
Stick to one topic. Long lists of items about different topics don’t sustain reader attention and don't have the same brand impact as focusing on one individual item of interest. If you do send out lists, feature one topic prominently and try to stick to quality curation. People want to be told what's hot and are happy to leave the trend-sorting to the experts. InsideHook's fall personal audio guide is a great example of this type of quality curation: There are dozens of headphones and bluetooth speakers on the market today, but InsideHook surfaced the best and made my job as a reader (and consumer) easier. Red Tricycle‘s kids-focused email newsletter also does a nice job of this (check out Beyond the Boring Lunch Box). -
Leverage non-email channels for delivery. Email is not the only channel to consumers — and it shouldn't be the only way for your content to reach them, either. Facebook accepts full posts (although paid promotion may be necessary) and Twitter can link back to your site's archives. When measuring your reach, these channels need to measured and added to your total list sizes (though some brands will limit advertising on them). Mobile should be a priority too. BrightNest, for instance, has a solid, well-designed mobile app that lets users organize, manage and maintain everything in their house. While the email newsletter model has changed and adapted to the times, it's continued to thrive. People love curated content, and they appreciate the lean-back experience of having interesting information delivered to them. I'm confident that there will always be a place for the newsletter in any digital content strategy. Pete Sheinbaum is founder and CEO of LinkSmart, a Boulder, Colo.-based company that helps web publishers develop, engage and manage their audiences through in-content text links. Follow him on Twitter @sheinbaum.  
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Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.  | | 114 million views and counting: What Does The Fox Say is this year’s Gangnam Style Posted: 13 Oct 2013 10:00 AM PDT Sometimes, it’s hard to predict what viral videos will pop big and then fade out, and which will become 100 million juggernauts that show little sign of slowing down. But one clear constant has always been the combination of music and comedy. Finding that out most recently is Ylvis, the Norwegian comedy/music duo who have, since blowing up last month, since racked up over 114 million views for their breakout video What Does The Fox Say?, which blends dance beats with silly animal noises. While Ylvis is technically no one-hit wonder — the brothers Bård Ylvisåker and Vegard Ylvisåke have been popular in their native land for years — the song has launched them internationally, even landing them on the iTunes music charts (What Does The Fox Say? is currently the #5 top-selling single in the United States). It’s hard to figure out just what makes a video go viral, but one of the people at YouTube who tracks these things is Kevin Allocca, whose role as head of culture and trends keeps his attention on how these videos evolve to this stage. And what’s changed from the early days of comedy/music hybrids, he says, is interactivity. “The popularity of the song comes through parodies more than sales,” he said in a phone interview. Because key to What Does The Fox Say?‘s life cycle is the ancillary content that comes with being a part of the YouTube ecosystem. The video has been reacted to by teenagers and elders as part of the Fine Bros’ long-running Kids/Teens/Adults/Small Furry Animals React series: Mashed up with other pop culture phenomena: And has also been parodied by everyone from Annoying Orange to Taryn Southern to Wolverine. Search for “the fox ylvis parody” on YouTube currently, and you’ll pull up over 86,000 results. Because of this, more people keep discovering it — even just last week, Ylvis made their late night American television debut, performing the song live on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. The YouTube posting has racked up 2.7 million views in just three days. Beyond that, though, what Allocca has observed — and what separates something like The Fox or The Harlem Shake from old-school viral hits like Obama Girl or Flight of the Conchords — is that the song itself encourages interaction. “Gangnam Style had this dance. The Harlem Shake — there was a thing you could do with that song. You can latch in and be a part of it. [With The Fox], it’s sort of an intangible thing — but people walk around making the sounds,” Allocca said. The Fox, in short, can take claim to the title of 2013′s Gangnam Style (especially since it too has a huge dance component), one we’ll still be humming months from now. I was just recently at a house party where someone asked if we’d all seen “that video about the fox” — even weeks later, people are still discovering the tune. “It definitely has legs,” Allocca said. “Four of them,” YouTube’s Matt McLernon added.  
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Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.  | | The perks and pitfalls of partnering; the week in cloud Posted: 13 Oct 2013 09:00 AM PDT At a time when most IT vendors are focused like lasers on grabbing up more of a customer’s IT budget for themselves exclusively (HP CEO Meg Whitman even acknowledged that two of HP’s biggest vendor allies are now competitors) there’s still some talk about partnering. Case in point: Akamai, a leader in content delivery networks, launched the Open Platform Initiative which will give partnrs a set of “REST-style APIs” that will give them a window into the Akamai Intelligent Platform. Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai also promised additional SDKs and other tools to open up access. Akamai is relying on Apiary to expose Akamai Intelligent Platform’s APIs to developers, customers and partners which should make it easier for third parties including customers and other vendors to integrate with Akamai’s CDN. As a first big integration, Akamai said it is integrating its Unified Performance technology with Cisco's ISR-AX routers to speed application delivery in hybrid clouds. As Zeus Kerravala, founder of ZK Research, summed it up in Network World, the deal means that: “Akamai would do what it does best … optimizing traffic across the internet. Cisco would then optimize the traffic from the Akamai network to the enterprise customer and across the WAN providing an end-to-end optimized network. Typically, customers could control the traffic on their own WAN through the use of quality of service (QoS) or [an] optimization protocol, but architecting a solution that can optimize out the internet was difficult, if not impossible, for most IT departments.”
Virtustream and Capgemini team up Elsewhere in collaboration, Capgemini, the giant global integrator, will offer Virtustream as a private or hybrid cloud option to its enterprise customers. Capgemini is already a big partner with Amazon Web Services on the public cloud front. Capgemini’s strong systems integration skills make it a go-to partner for enterprises looking to build out or migrate mission-critical applications to cloud, said Simon Aspinall, CMO of Washington D.C.-based Virtustream. “The partnership will help us extend our reach to more customers and sectors,” he said. How to put together the best big data teams Check out this week’s Structure Show for tips from Booz Allen Hamilton’s Jeff Sullivan: And from around the interwebz; From GigaOM: Amazon Web Services: SHould you stay or should you go? From Federal Computer Week: Amazon can resume CIA cloud project From Barrons: Building the cloud: who wins, who loses From InformationWeek: Microsoft’s Azure cloud move and what it means. From GigaOM: Super-secure NSA data center laid low by electrical problems’ report  
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Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.  | | This simple trick turns Chrome into Chrome OS on Windows 8 Posted: 13 Oct 2013 07:00 AM PDT The latest development version of Chrome for Windows is like no other. Instead of just being a browser, it actually works more like Chrome OS, Google’s environment for Chromebooks and Chromeboxes. You can open and move multiple browser windows on the same screen, the Chrome app launcher is present and Chrome Apps for Desktop run outside the browser. Here’s a peek of what it looks like: Simply installing the software, however, doesn’t enable the Chrome OS-like features. There’s a simple trick, though: Just make Chrome your default browser to get the Chrome OS experience. We covered this tip and more on our weekly Chrome Show podcast. Tune in below or download the show to hear more about that, the new Camera app in Chrome, and the new web app functionality in the Chrome beta for Android.
 
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Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.  | | Last week on Research: the new BI is agile BI; IT spending trends Posted: 13 Oct 2013 06:00 AM PDT It's been a rocky week for mobile: Apple has been weathering a series of iOS 7 iMessage glitches and rumors of increased app crashes on its new 5s iPhone. Samsung, another industry leader, is reportedly pushing up the launch of its next smartphone, the Galaxy 5 S, on the heels of sluggish sales numbers for the 4 S. Meanwhile, over on GigaOM Research, our analysts have just released their latest overview of IT spending, with a particular focus on smartphone and tablet sales (one of the few areas of growth over the past quarter). Other recent research reports include a deep dive into the newest trend in business intelligence, and a look at productivity in the workplace. Note: GigaOM Research, previously known as GigaOM Pro, is a subscription-based research service offering in-depth, timely analysis of developing trends and technologies. Visit pro.gigaom.com to learn more about it. Cloud: Agile business intelligence: reshaping the landscape
George Anadiotis Analyst George Anadiotis looks at a series of technological advancements that are altering business intelligence, effectively converting BI into a faster, more accessible process. Anadiotis refers to this new form as "agile BI" and his report analyzes the differences between traditional BI ("focused on extract, transform, and load (ETL) and reporting") and its newer, agile counterpart ("focused on data exploration and visualization"). He concludes that both forms of BI actually share many important aspects, especially as features such as cloud support, usability and ubiquity become a more crucial selling point. Mobile: Third quarter IT spending analysis and outlook
Ralph Finos In his latest industry report, Ralph Finos presents a somber picture of global technology spending, which has shrunk to just a 1.8 percent growth rate in 2013 — in fact, smartphones and tablets are the only hardware area experiencing growth. Finos provides an in-depth market analysis for the past two years, with a detailed breakdown of segment revenue growth in 2013. He also takes a macro-level view about which factors are constraining IT spending on a global level before diving into regional trends. He draws on this data to present a series of conclusions about the past year while making a few forecasts for 2014. Social: The future of work: new paths to productivity
Stowe Boyd Analyst Stowe Boyd looks at the continuing trend toward a distributed, decentralized, discontinuous workforce (which he refers to as a "3D workforce") and the corresponding set of challenges it presents to the traditional corporate structure and the enterprise IT department. With the rise of cloud-based systems like virtual distributed file systems, the IT department's role has shifted — away from tasks such as selecting hardware and maintaining physical server, and toward serving as decision-makers and arbitrators who ensure that end users can continue to work across these cloud-based systems while maintaining productivity and adherence to corporate regulatory requirements. On a similar level, the new 3D workforce presents changes to executive decision-making, and Boyd includes insight from corporate and startup executives and industry experts like Reid Hoffman and Brian Solis that outline some of the most pressing concerns and trends.  
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Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.  | | No, Twitter is not ruining America or American politics — just the opposite, in fact Posted: 12 Oct 2013 07:41 PM PDT Is Twitter ruining America? That’s the somewhat hyperbolic claim made by Philip Bump in a recent piece at The Atlantic Wire, in which he argues that the social network has had a primarily negative effect on the political environment in the U.S. — in part by creating a kind of echo chamber in which partisans pay attention only to the things they already agree with. This is a variation on the “filter bubble” argument that Eli Pariser popularized in his book of the same name. But does Bump’s claim about Twitter hold any water? The Atlantic writer starts off by looking at the recent report from the Committee to Protect Journalists, which describes the Obama administration’s unprecedented attacks on the press over repeated leaks of classified information. But that’s not what Bump is really concerned about — instead, he seems to be arguing that social media such as Twitter, which allow politicians to connect directly with supporters, is somehow bad for the country. As he puts it: “Buried in [the report] is a point that’s often overlooked in modern politics. Politicians and the people they lead have entered into a symbiotic exchange of information that excludes a third-party filter. And that’s almost certainly a problem.”
Independent vs. unfiltered 
In the same excerpt from the report, a CNN reporter states that the Obama government is “using social media to end run the news media completely,” and argues that while open dialogue with the public outside of the usual mainstream media filters is a good thing, “if used for propaganda and to avoid contact with journalists, it's a slippery slope.” Bump maintains that traditional media serves a purpose by providing an “independent perspective” that is essential for a democracy. Bump acknowledges that politicians have always surrounded themselves with sycophants and supporters. So why is the social-web age any different? Because it is more immediate, more real-time and because there is so much of it, Bump says. The kinds of media outlets that existed in the days of Thomas Jefferson were more partisan than today, he argues — but the ability to live inside that bubble of adulation created by one’s fans wasn’t as complete. “The amount of information and input [politicians] receive from constituents and interest groups and basically anyone anywhere in the world who has an opinion on something makes it almost impossible for them to ignore the stimuli. Today’s politicians must feel more like American Idol contestants who survive by constantly seeking our approval than statesmen who are empowered to take tough stances.”
Is this a fair representation of what Twitter and social media have done? I don’t think so. Here’s what I think we can say: Twitter and other forms of social media allow all kinds of people — including politicians — to reach out and find an audience that shares their views. Does it also allow the government to push its PR agenda? Sure. Does it allow politicians like Ted Cruz to imagine that they are reaching some vast audience when they’re just preaching to a tiny choir of fellow lunatics? Arguably it does that too. Partisanship existed long before Twitter 
At the same time, however, it’s worth remembering that Twitter also allows all of us to see those PR maneuvers and grandstanding happening in full public view, instead of being hidden away behind the scenes — and that has some very obvious public benefits. In the world that Bump imagines, the media provides “an independent perspective” that we supposedly can’t get from social media. But is that really what happens? It certainly isn’t when it involves partisan outlets like Fox News, or (some would argue) even CNN. In fact, things were arguably even worse in the past, when journalists would hide information or manipulate stories to win favor with certain parties — or allow anonymous sources to dictate coverage of military efforts in Iraq, for example. Is that really better than what we have now? I think that’s a pretty hard case to make. Maybe politicians are too swayed by their loyal supporters on Twitter and elsewhere, and maybe there are elements of a filter bubble, but those are problems we’ve had for decades — since long before Twitter. The hyper-sensitive and hyper-charged environment that Twitter helps to create — and the way this accelerates the political news cycle — definitely has an impact on how politics is done, and also on the way we perceive it. But I think you could just as easily argue that the transparency and lack of filters Bump is describing is a positive thing rather than a negative one. Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Shutterstock / Picsfive and Flickr users Shawn Campbell and George Kelly  
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Pinterest Lead Gen, Sexy Data, Blog SEO, and More in HubSpot Content This Week
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 03:06 PM PDT
| Pinterest Lead Gen, Sexy Data, Blog SEO, and More in HubSpot Content This Week Posted: 13 Oct 2013 05:00 AM PDT  Keeping up with the latest big trends in technology, social media, and marketing can seem like an arduous task -- even for the most experienced marketers. Updates keep popping up left and right for Twitter, Google, Facebook, and the like. Meanwhile, new tech is always emerging on top of that, which could also prove to be advantageous for many.
Spending time, energy, and resources to keep up with all of these changes and developments can be quite difficult. Leave it to us, though, to keep you in the know about all of the vital things you need to know. Kick back and relax on this Sunday (one that feels more like a Saturday for many of us) and check out some of the latest social media news, tips, etc. that we've covered these past several days. Pinterest Lead Generation 101: Best Practices and Hacks That'll Make You a Pro You may have mastered the art/science of securing a deluge of leads via Facebook and Twitter ... but what about Pinterest? Are you employing best practices when it comes to prospecting there? Take some time to comb over our tips for lead gen for this growing social media channel, including how to most effectively optimize your pins. Meet Objective-Based Ad Buys: Facebook's New Consultative Ad Dashboard
In other major social network news, Facebook -- you know, that site a billion people use? -- announced a new feature aimed to become marketers' new best friend. Objective-based ad buying and reporting, as the site is calling it, was developed to help marketing pros determine which ads they're best-suited to implement and assist them in tracking page and post performance. Read up on how the King of Social keeps getting more business-friendly by the day. Blog SEO for the Modern Marketer: How to Optimize Your Posts Though Google threw a curveball that many-a-marketer didn't see coming, one thing remains the same with the search engine conglomerate: what it considers to be best practices for SEO. In case you've forgotten some of these practices when it comes to blogging, set aside a few minutes to relearn how to make your posts as SEO-friendly as possible -- from URL optimization, to social search, and everything in between. Your Graphs Look Like Crap: 9 Ways to Simplify and Sexify Data Digital presentations can fall flat if constructed and displayed in a boring, complicated manner. When presenting data to your team and managers, you'll want to make it look phenomenal ... right? To give your PowerPoints a top-notch aesthetic and make the data in them easy-to-read, read some advice on how to make your graphs and charts stand out. (Hint: Less is more.) State Department's Senior Tech Advisor Discusses Marketing, Social, and Emerging Technologies [Q&A] Our own Anum Hussain was able to spend time and speak with Shahed Amanullah, the State Department's Senior Technology Advisor, who provided her with some pretty in-depth and poignant views on the current state of the tech world, where it's headed, and how marketers and businesses are (and should be) reacting to emerging tech, including changes related to social. You can read the entire Q&A here! What was the most interesting thing you learned this week on the HubSpot blog? What do you want to see more of? Leave your feedback in the comments! Image credit: j / f / photos    |
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Two tier voting systems in two states
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 03:06 PM PDT
| Two tier voting systems in two states Posted: 13 Oct 2013 02:01 PM PDT 
Exceptions
Ever since the Supreme Court ruled on Arizona’s voter ID laws, people following this debate have wondered if or how the state would deal with the local and state level elections which were not covered by the ruling. The New York Times has a predictably biased piece on that subject this weekend, but it does […] Read this post » | | Big Ethanol’s response to EPA’s possible RFS-rollback: Panic. Posted: 13 Oct 2013 12:31 PM PDT 
Save the subsidies, at all costs!
In what would be a pretty historical retreat, leaked draft documents last week revealed that the Environmental Protection Agency might actually considering reducing their ethanol-blending requirements for the country’s refiners through the Renewable Fuel Standard as the industry has grown increasingly vocal about the inherent problems of hitting the “blend wall.” The news spread like […] Read this post » | | Open Thread: The Vets march on Washington Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:01 AM PDT 
Voices
If you were relying on the usual cable news channels, you probably wouldn’t even know this was happening today, but the much anticipated veterans’ march on DC has been well under way for a while now. At least the local news is covering it Protestors of the government shutdown began at the World War II […] Read this post » | | NFL Week 6 open thread Posted: 13 Oct 2013 09:31 AM PDT 
Showdown.
The Pittsburgh Steelers return to action today after a much-needed bye week, in which head coach Mike Tomlin banned games from the facilities of the 0-4 team until they win a game. They go back on the road to play the 3-2 New York Jets, who are undefeated at home. Can they finally break out […] Read this post » | | Columbus Day myths and legends Posted: 13 Oct 2013 08:01 AM PDT 
Discoveries
Since the Beltway occupants are mostly taking a day off from the Shutdownpalooza, perhaps we can do likewise, at least for a little while. Tomorrow is one of the more frequently debated of the federal holidays – Columbus Day – and Christopher Wanjek assembled some of the most common misconceptions about Christopher Columbus himself. I […] Read this post » | | Film review: Captain Phillips Posted: 13 Oct 2013 06:31 AM PDT 
Execute.
In March 2009, the world watched as Somali pirates hijacked the container ship Maersk Alabama off the Horn of Africa, and then kidnapped Captain Richard Phillips in a powered lifeboat when they lost control of the ship. Captain Phillips tells the story of the ship, the pirates, and Phillips’ frightening ordeal over several days in […] Read this post » | | Open thread: Sunday morning talking heads Posted: 13 Oct 2013 05:01 AM PDT 
Yep.
Shutdown fee-vah on the Sunday shows this morning, and as you might expect, the guest rolls are full of Cruz critics. Bob Corker will headline “Fox News Sunday,” Kelly Ayotte (who reportedly confronted Cruz at a GOP caucus meeting last week) will appear on “Face the Nation,” and ol’ Maverick himself will get the spotlight […] Read this post » | | Quotes of the day Posted: 12 Oct 2013 05:31 PM PDT 
Tick tock.
Speaker John Boehner told House Republicans Saturday morning that his efforts to strike a deal with President Barack Obama are at a standstill… "I was happy to see the Republicans engaged in talks with the president, the House Republicans. That's over with. It's done. They're not talking anymore," Reid said. "I say to my friends […] Read this post » | | Priceless. MSNBC boss wants “investigation” into how Megyn Kelly pwned Maddow Posted: 12 Oct 2013 04:01 PM PDT 
Crushed
After Fox News decided to shuffle their lineup in the evenings, including moving Megyn Kelly into prime time, the buzz began over how it would impact their ratings. Having been so completely dominant in that market for so long, why mess with a winning formula, right? Well, they went ahead with the plan, and with […] Read this post » | You are subscribed to email updates from Hot Air » Top Picks
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¿Por qué elegir PS4 en la nueva generación de consolas?
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 03:05 PM PDT
| ¿Por qué elegir PS4 en la nueva generación de consolas? Posted: 13 Oct 2013 03:15 AM PDT Estamos a las puertas del lanzamiento a nivel mundial de la nueva generación de consolas: PS4 y Xbox One. Para iluminar el camino de miles de usuarios llenos de dudas por no saber qué consola es mejor para ellos hace unas horas decidimos dar una serie de razones por las que elegir a la Xbox One, y ahora haremos lo mismo pero para la elección de la PS4. Veremos como ambos productos, aunque parecidos, están claramente enfocados en diferentes tipos de consumidores. 
Diseño más estilizado La PS4 no es una caja de zapatos como podríamos pensar en un principio, este curioso título se lo queda en exclusiva la Xbox One. La compañía japonesa ha tenido que corregir en su nueva consola el grave error que cometieron con su modelo anterior, el excesivo tamaño. La nueva consola de Sony tiene un diseño estilizado que transmite cierta personalidad, a diferencia de la Xbox One que no transmite nada con esas líneas tan sobrias. Si comparamos la nueva generación de consolas con sus modelos anteriores y las versiones slim de los mismos obtendremos unos resultados reveladores: - La Xbox One es la consola más grande en cuanto a volumen total de todas, seguido de la PS3
- La PS4 es algo más pequeña, sobretodo en cuanto a grosor, que la Xbox 360 original.
Como podemos ver, la nueva generación de consolas no son precisamente pequeñas pero la mejora exponencial de especificaciones técnicas es lo que tiene. A pesar de ello, ha sido Sony la compañía que más se ha preocupado por su dispositivo en este aspecto haciendo que este sea mucho más manejable y ligero que su predecesora. Si bien, ambas consolas tienen un diseño similar, el de Sony contiene líneas mucho más estilizadas y puede ponerse en posición vertical si así lo deseamos, algo que en la Xbox One finalmente no podremos hacer debido a la posición de sus gigantescos ventiladores. Sensación de consola para gamers PS4 es una consola cuyo principal enfoque de mercado es el de los gamers más puros. Esta diferencia ya se podía apreciar en la anterior generación de consolas pero ahora es mucho más evidente. Microsoft ha apostado por la estrategia de denominar a la Xbox One como centro de entretenimiento dejando el camino mucho más aislado en el sector de los jugadores puros para Sony. 
Los consumidores que tengan en su sala principal del hogar diferentes dispositivos capaces de cumplir con sus necesidades tecnológicas se deberían sentir más atraídos por la consola japonesa. Todo está enfocado en los juegos y no se les da tanta importancia a las aplicaciones, navegación por internet, compatibilidad con dispositivos desde un punto de vista comercial. La ausencia de dispositivos del tipo Kinect 2.0 en la PS4 permite eliminar todo un ecosistema de elementos en los que Microsoft dedicará mucho tiempo que posiblemente no sea del agrado de todo el público. Por los datos que tenemos por el momento parece que el principal foco de Kinect 2.0 se encontrará en los juegos de entretenimiento familiares, algo que no encaja con el espíritu de PS4, con mucha más carga de historia o acción. Nueva época dorada de Sony Estamos frente a una nueva época dorada de Sony. La transformación de la estructura interna de la compañía japonesa a nivel global en sus nuevos productos es más que evidente. Shintaro Tanaka, director comercial de Sony España, nos explicó en un evento exclusivo que tras años de dificultades la compañía había comenzado a implantar la filosofía oriental de trabajo kando. A partir de ese momento la marca esquematizaría sus productos en tres campos principales: el primero de ellos sería la nueva PS4, haciendo presente la importancia que tiene para Sony este producto. 
La innovación o el diseño han vuelto a entrar por la ventana de Sony y esas dos nuevas características están bien presentes en su nueva consola. Sin duda que por momento en el mercado actual de la compañía, la PS4 debería ser la mejor consola. De cara al consumidor antes del lanzamiento, la PS4 es la que mejor imagen ha dado a pesar de sus incomprensibles primeros eventos de presentación. La marca de Sony está más asentada en el mercado debido a su exclusividad durante años y la mala estrategia de comunicación de Microsoft sumado a los últimos cambios en cuanto a restricciones están detrás de esta positiva imagen de la PS4. Disponibilidad/Precio más inteligente Sony ha escogido una disponibilidad/precio más inteligente que Microsoft. La PS4 es la primera consola de nueva generación que sale al mercado en algún país, concretamente el 15 de noviembre en Estados Unidos, y a pesar de que la Xbox One sale antes en España o México, no tenemos ni tan siquiera fecha de la salida de la consola de Microsoft para el resto del mercado Latinoamericano. Sin embargo, la PS4 sale a la venta el 29 de noviembre tanto en España como en la gran mayoría de los países de Latinoamérica. La PS4 tendrá en gran parte de Latinoamérica una exclusividad de varios meses, lo que hará que miles de consumidores indecisos que no puedan esperar a tener su nuevo dispositivo se decanten por la opción de Sony estas navidades. En cuanto al precio, y olvidando que Microsoft ha incluido un dispositivo como Kinect 2.0 en su pack, la PS4 es de media $100 dólares más barata. La decisión de Microsoft de no haber lanzado al mercado un pack sin Kinect 2.0 para los consumidores que no vayan a utilizar sus beneficios puede que les pase factura a la hora de las primeras compras. La entrada ¿Por qué elegir PS4 en la nueva generación de consolas? aparece primero en Gizmología. | You are subscribed to email updates from Gizmología
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Newark mayor Cory Booker’s online video startup, Waywire, reportedly sells to Magnify
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 03:03 PM PDT
| Newark mayor Cory Booker’s online video startup, Waywire, reportedly sells to Magnify Posted: 13 Oct 2013 01:41 PM PDT  Waywire, the video service geared towards being a distribution and aggregation platform has been sold to Magnify for an undisclosed amount. As reported by AllThingsD, the deal closed last week and Waywire will continue to operate as usual, but be powered by Magnify's technology.
If Waywire sounds familiar, it should. It's the startup co-founded by Newark mayor, social media personality, and US Senate candidate Cory Booker, that launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2012. The company has been in the news recently with the departure of its CEO Nathan Richardson in August, followed by the Booker's resignation from its board. In light of his run for higher office, there were those that wondered what was going on with Waywire with low traffic and layoffs, along with any potential conflicts of interest as the company sought to raise more money. ➤ Waywire, Cory Booker's Attempt to Build a Web Video Startup, Sells to Magnify (AllThingsD) Photo credit: Shutterstock  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | | BlackBerry Z30 review: The problem with this phone isn’t the hardware. Or the software. Posted: 13 Oct 2013 09:13 AM PDT  BlackBerry's newest all touchscreen flagship was announced at a strange time, amid talks of the company courting talk of acquisitions. Nonetheless, it comes out of the gate swinging with the BlackBerry's largest touchscreen to date – a full 5-inches, a powerful 1.7 GHz dual-core processor and the newest version of the BlackBerry 10 operating system on board. But will that be enough to tempt buyers away from the more frequently chosen iOS and Android devices? Design and hardware 
Opening up the Z30′s box, I found the handset, charger, cables, headphones and the assorted little pieces of paper with things like warranty info. In our box, there was also an external BlackBerry battery booster pack (BlackBerry MP-2100 Mobile Power Charger) for the Z30 and a white leather case. We'd be surprised if these two items were included in the retail version as standard, though it would be a classy touch from BlackBerry if they were. The BlackBerry Z30, while a part of the same series and bearing some resemblance to its Z10 predecessor, instead features all curved edges where the Z10 had straight-edged sides. If I was going to describe how the phone feels in the hand in one word, I'd say 'smooth', the same goes for the the actual touch on the display too. The official measurements are 140.7mm x 72mm x 9.4mm. The overall result of the slight design tweak for the upscaling in size is that it's actually much nicer to hold in the hand and more comfortable to use than the Z10, and I'm not that much of a fan of handsets of 5-inches or larger. Around the outside of the chassis and below that 5-inch Super AMOLED display you'll find a metal surround, adding a touch of class to the device and a few grams to the overall weight. The rear panel, however, is removable – and made of BlackBerry's woven carbon fiber, but feels a little rubbery. Underneath is where you can pop in a micro SIM or micro SD card to expand on the 16GB of internal storage. Much as I like the option of adding a micro SD card, I didn't enjoy the experience of really having to yank quite hard on the rear panel to remove it but I suppose it's not something you do too often, unless you are forever hot-swapping. 
Despite that non-metal rear panel, the large-capacity battery, metallic elements of the chassis and that slab of a display all combine to make a rather weighty device – 170 grams to be precise. It's hardly going to be a problem in terms of using it or carrying it around but it's worth bearing in mind if you're used to the super-slim handsets of late. On the plus side, the weight helps with the feeling that you're using a high-quality device. On the right side of the device, you'll find volume controls and button for accessing the voice control system quickly, and on the top in the center there's the power button. Slightly to the right of this, and on the front of the screen is the forward-facing 2-megapixel, fixed-focus camera capable of capturing 720p HD video or stills. An HD selfie is what everyone needs, naturally. Hardware As we noted in our quick preview with the Z30 last month, the size and quality of the display really bring the experience delivered by the Z10 on in leaps and bounds. The resolution does however max out at 1280 x 720 pixels with a 295 PPI rating, making it good but not best in class and actually lower than the Z10′s display. Other range-topping devices like Note 3, HTC One, iPhone 5 s and others can all offer better displays. That said, it's mostly clear and crisp enough – it's just a little lacking in brightness in comparison and images certainly don't 'pop' in the same way they do on some of the devices mentioned above. However, as noted, there is a micro HDMI output so there's always the option of watching back movies on a connected display. 
Also as noted before, BlackBerry hasn't gone to town on the 8-megapixel camera as a point of differentation, and as a result it's a completely unremarkable experience that follows the general rule of smartphone cameras. 'Can take decent pictures in bright, well-lit conditions, otherwise all bets are off the table'. Again that's not to say it's particularly bad, simply that there's better out there if what you want out of a smartphone is above-average camera performance. For every day snaps, it should do you fine but if you want perfect shots, you'll need to spend a long time setting everything up manually – which was more effort than it was worth, for me. Other notable hardware specs include 4G LTE support, 16GB of on board storage, NFC support, Bluetooth 4.0 and a 1.7 GHz processor. Helping it all tick along smoothly is 2GB RAM. And it does, for the most part, run smoothly. Navigating around the phone was snappy. Software The Z30 uses the most recent BlackBerry 10.2 version of the operating system which brings a few tweaks to the platform, such as being able to respond to notifications and other messages without having to navigate away from whatever you were already doing. It's evolution rather than revolution but a useful feature without a doubt. The new version also brings a new Priority Hub to BlackBerry's devices, which allows you to see messages that are important to you at the top of your inbox. To teach it whether something is or isn't a priority message you simply hold your finger down on it and click either 'Add Priority' or 'Remove Priority'. It works too, providing you spend the time teaching it a few things to start with. As with the original version of the Hub, it integrates all your messages, emails, IMs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and any other connected accounts into one universal inbox. Thankfully, there's the option of filtering on a per-account basis too. 
Also new for 10.2 are the detailed lock screen notifications that show you the detail of messages and other notifications without having to unlock/open your device (if there is no PIN code present), which is handy (shown above). The OS also keeps true to BlackBerry 10′s 'Peek and Flow' navigation philosophy too, allowing you to 'Peek' at messages (below) and updates in your Hub without actually navigating away from whatever you were looking at before and thus allowing you to 'Flow' your way around the device. It works surprisingly well, and helps the Z30 in the area where I consider it strongest: as a communication device. 
BlackBerry's heritage (and likely future) is in the enterprise space, so it's little surprise that I think the Z30 does best is work as a communication tool. The predictive text and on-screen keyboard, in particular, I really like despite having gotten used to the Swype input on Android. Thankfully, the predictions are pretty smart and I love the way they show up in-line with the letter being pressed on the keyboard rather than in a list. Over time, the keyboard actually gets better too as not only does it learn the way you write, but it also learns exactly where abouts you hit each key. By adjusting a virtual second keyboard by tiny amounts, it ensures you're always hitting the key you intended even if you're actually a little bit off. Call quality was good too, not stellar, but clear if a little on the quiet side. The other party also said it sounded clear and was without tinniness or echo. However, while I love the Z30 as an actual tool for SMS, email and other messaging, BlackBerry 10 devices have never been the quickest at booting-up to a usable state, in this case, to a point where the BlackBerry Hub was open and showing messages. On average, it took 1 minute 40 seconds exactly to get to that point, which seems somewhere between 'a little slow' and 'actually really quite annoying' for me. Perhaps you're more patient though. I'm obliged to mention the A word here. Apps. 
BlackBerry has, and is still, making strides to add new apps to the BlackBerry World store (above left) every day, but short of building every major app itself can't possibly attract them at a fast enough rate to convince users that it's on a par with the rival platforms. You'll find direct integration with the biggest services like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others like Drobox via Dropbox Connect. There's also shortcuts to favorites like YouTube out of the box. However, if you're looking for an all-singing, all-dancing entertainment center that can rival the sort of software found on recent Samsung, Apple or HTC devices, you'll be disappointed. There's no gaze control, biometric reader, or IR blaster to use it as a remote control for your TV. It's an altogether more sombre affair. Naturally, if you're a BBM user, this handset will deliver as good as an experience as you can get on a touchscreen and offers support for advanced features like screen sharing and video calling. The key problem with BlackBerry's app situation is that while it's not necessarily lacking in numbers and is trying to make sure all the biggest names are on board, with its current future looking uncertain, there's little to encourage developers to put time and resources into building for the BlackBerry OS, certainly not ahead of more popular platforms. This isn't a problem that's likely to be fixed in the short term and ultimately depends on what happens around it being purchased. For now though, the essentials are just about there. While I said above that it did mostly provide stable performance, it did on a couple of occasions require a restart (or the threat of one, by holding down the power button) to get out of a loop/freeze that it had gotten itself in to. It didn't seem to be a problem associated with multi-tasking though. 
Similarly, other features like voice control (above right), while present, are less accurate and fully formed than those found on rival devices. You can do things like send a message, an email or open apps (Facebook, above), but it can't be used for controlling the hardware and doing things like switching Bluetooth on and off. Recognition of words was a little hit and miss too, rendering the whole process a little frustrating. BlackBerry claims the Z30 has a 25 hour mixed use battery life, and I wouldn't argue with that. It easily saw me through a day's use without threatening to die. Whether that's because there are less features and apps that I found myself using in comparison to other handsets tested could also be a part of that equation though. One feature I'm torn on is the BlackBerry Maps. I actually like the driving directions and traffic info, but having used Google Maps for so long I've gotten used to a little deeper level of detail and options. For a core experience though, it's not bad. Easily the best This is easily the best BlackBerry 10 device on the market, particularly if you've never been particularly taken with its physical keyboard. Nevertheless, answering the question of whether you should buy the BlackBerry Z30 is a tricky question. If you're a BlackBerry fan and you're buying for now and the immediate future, then the Z30 is a no-brainer if you want to stick with the Canadian brand. Its hardware design and software tweaks alone make it a worthwhile successor to the Z10 – and its one of only a few phones that carries a 5-inch display well. However, the display is only 720p which is a bit of a disappointment and leaves it falling a little short of its rival equivalents. That's not to say it performs badly, but if you're comparing like for like, the Z30 comes up a little short.
On the plus side, the hardware support is solid on the Z30 and I'm always a sucker for handsets with a micro HDMI output and support for a micro SD card to give a bit more storage room. Ultimately, I can't escape the feeling that BlackBerry is still playing catchup with the Z30. It has a perfectly solid spec list and performs equally as reliable, if you can overlook a rare freeze and slow boot. But with rivals on the market pushing the boundaries of what their 'hero' handsets offer in terms of software and hardware , it feels as if BlackBerry is still having to go at full-speed to just about stay up to date and in the running, and for how long is anyone's guess. The performance of the Z30 on many fronts is a word I've used many times – solid. But solid is rarely exciting and there's little remarkable about the Z30 to shout about. If you love BlackBerry smartphones and are willing to live with a few foibles to have a great communications tool, then consider the Z30, but if you want something a little more exciting, something that's equal to more than the sum of its parts then you might want to try before you buy to avoid disappointment. As the headline says, the problem for the Z30 isn't with the hardware or the software, it just lacks something special to help it stand out from the crowd.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | | Your social media obsession won’t make an enduring mark on the world Posted: 13 Oct 2013 04:05 AM PDT  Claudio Gandelman is the CEO and founder of Teckler. His career began in 1992 working in the financial market at Banco Nacional in Brazil. Since then, he has served as the CEO Match.com Latin America, founder of Keero.com, and has held strategic positions in companies in South America.
Roughly 40,000 years ago, our ancestors made the earliest known cave painting in northern Spain. Their dots and stenciled handprints eventually gave way to fancier forms of communication like writing, which arose in ancient Mesopotamia around 3,200 BC. Paper, first invented by the Chinese in 105 AD, combined with writing, became the king of content storage for roughly 1,900 years. Today, digital repositories of knowledge replace the physical. But here is irony: That 40,000 year old cave painting in Spain has survived and probably will survive for much longer than anything you write on Facebook, Twitter, and the majority of other social media sites. As far as technology has come, it may in fact be worse at preserving content in a way that matters. Yes, the Library of Congress is archiving all Twitter feeds and a few select Facebook pages, and yes, your writings are going onto servers. However, if you have written or created any content of an enduring nature, will it still be talked about years from now? If today you wrote something so important that it will matter in twenty years as much as it mattered today, if you put your heart and mind into the written word … but you put it on Facebook or Twitter, who is going to find it days, weeks, months, years, decades or centuries later, when it does still matter? Probably no one, and here's why. The cycle of story telling Historically, written works of importance were hand-copied by scribes, monks, and intellectuals who were willing to commit countless hours of grunt work to insure that future generations could benefit from that wisdom and knowledge. After the invention of printing in China in the eleventh century, and later Germany in the fifteenth century, suddenly content could be preserved more effectively because the same devotees could create thousands of copies of a single work in the time it took to hand-copy one manuscript. We have a similar mechanism on Facebook and Twitter. When you post something of interest, and people share or retweet it, they essentially reprint this information. But unlike books, which are methodically categorized and stored within libraries, Facebook posts and tweets will not be curated and probably cannot be curate to that extent. Unless your Facebook page is one of the lucky few chosen for the Library of Congress, whatever you post on Facebook is going to be virtually impossible to recall or retrieve years down the road. Whatever you write in 140 characters is probably not going to be worth finding anyway, unless of course you're writing haikus. In other words, the immense efforts you make to document your life, share your opinions, stand up for your values, or create written art ultimately have no more permanence than the wave a pebble makes upon dropping into the river. That does not mean that your Facebook post and Tweets don't count. We know from the Syrian civil war, Occupy Wall Street, and the Egyptian revolution that a tweet or Facebook post can change the world. Though if we have healthy egos, we shouldn't feel compelled to preserve our posts and tweets simply because they are ours. Like a dictator who commissions his own statue, we do not need to erect little digital statues of ourselves. However, like the monks, scribes, and intellectuals of old, we do have a responsibility to pass on our collective memory, knowledge, stories, and wisdom. And each time we create great content and place it somewhere like Facebook, we fail in that responsibility. Death of digital content My aim is not to bash Facebook or Twitter – they are incredible tools for social connectivity and the distribution of news. My aim is to make it clear that they are not the proper place for meaningful content. We owe the richness of our literature, art, science, philosophy, and history to people who created content before us and transmitted it to others in long lasting forms. We owe future generations that richness too. As much as this is a warning about the impermanence of most social media content, this is also a call to remember that just because digital content can be deleted, copied, pasted, emailed, or linked to, that does not make it inherently less valuable than the content that appears in a 1,900-year-old manuscript or 40,000 year old cave painting. The danger of purely putting content on Facebook and Twitter is that we come to devalue our own word. We post in comfort because we know our words may – or may not – pop up on a newsfeed before they quickly flow downstream to a vast and infinite digital ocean. Perhaps content goes to die on Facebook and Twitter. However, I believe that content really goes to die wherever we write it or create it under the assumption that it is going to disappear on a server and ultimately not matter. When the monk, scribe or intellectual sat down to pen something, they probably did so in hopes that someone would read it, find it worthwhile, and add it to the collective stream of knowledge. So next time you write something, write like it matters. Keep your own blog, write a guest post for a blog that has steady readership, self-publish an e-book, or put your thoughts in social media sites that actually make content permanent and searchable rather than ephemeral. Publish somewhere your words can matter today and hopefully matter 40,000 years from now.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | You are subscribed to email updates from The Next Web
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Twitter Alerts for emergencies and natural disasters
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 01:36 PM PDT
| Twitter Alerts for emergencies and natural disasters Posted: 13 Oct 2013 12:55 AM PDT Have you enabled the new Twitter Alerts set up yet? If the answer is no because you did not know it existed then lets take a minute to explain how the new service works. Twitter users can now receive new 'Twitter Alerts' from selected organizations, before anyone asks about the special emergency alerts; these are [...] | You are subscribed to email updates from Online Social Media
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A year ago on Unclutterer
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 01:25 PM PDT
| A year ago on Unclutterer Posted: 13 Oct 2013 07:15 AM PDT 2012 - Unitasker Wednesday: Hot Dog Slice and Serve
I often think this weekly feature could be renamed “Instead of a knife …” Instead of a knife, this thing-a-ma-jigger slices a banana! Instead of a knife, this gadget somehow sections a grapefruit! Instead of a knife, own a thousand unitaskers that you don’t need and that take up a ridiculous amount of space in your kitchen cupboards! - What’s in your wallet?
Do you know what’s in your wallet? Follow these five steps to keep it organized and from bursting at the seams. 2011 2010 - Simple strategies for marking items
After Saturday’s simple tape suggestion, PJ and I have been talking about our favorite tricks for marking items. Here are a handful more tips for identifying items in your home and workspace. - Sleek and streamlined diaper bags
Diaper bags — like purses and wallets — can be magnets for clutter. I speak from personal experience when I say that things go into them and rarely, if ever, come out. The smaller the bag, usually the easier it is to keep it clutter free and stuffed only with essentials. - Organize your writing, J.K. Rowling style
The website /Film reported on Friday about author J.K. Rowling’s method for organizing her books. Using pen, notebook paper, and a simple grid, she plotted out the direction of her stories. - Unitasker Wednesday: MySneezee
When I hear the phrase “sneeze guard,” I think of the glass shield that sits above the food on a buffet line. But I’m wrong, I should be thinking of MySneezee! Let Unclutterer help you get your home or office organized. Subscribe to our helpful product shipments from Quarterly today. | You are subscribed to email updates from Unclutterer
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6 Reasons You Should Say ‘Yes’ To Any Job Interview
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 01:20 PM PDT
| 6 Reasons You Should Say ‘Yes’ To Any Job Interview Posted: 12 Oct 2013 10:30 PM PDT You applied for a job and were just called in for a job interview. The only problem? You're having second thoughts about the position. Maybe the pay is low or the job function isn't quite what you're looking for. Or maybe the company culture is a bit dry for your taste. Whatever the cause of your cold feet, you should think twice before turning down any job interview. Here's why… 1. Sharpen Your Interview Skills Google "interview tips." Guess how many results turn up? 9,300,000. Why so many? Because interviews aren't easy. They're awkward, pressure-filled situations that demand your A-game. No number of advice articles or practice interviews will prepare you as much as the real thing, so suit up and take advantage of the opportunity. 2. Discover What Others In Your Industry Are Up To Job interviews are an excellent learning opportunity. Once you're done practicing your responses to common interview questions, take the time to quiz the employer. Inquire about position requirements, departmental strategies, and company goals. Take what you learn and use it to your advantage into future interviews. 3. Build Your Network The fact you applied to this job and were offered an interview suggests you'll be doing business with similar people (perhaps even these people) in the future. Why not use the interview as a networking opportunity? As long as you conduct yourself with professionalism, there's no reason why you shouldn't leave with a few new LinkedIn connections. Maybe they'll even know of an opportunity that's a better fit for you down the road. 4. Learn What's Out There Every organization is unique. By visiting a company's campus and talking to its employees, you'll get an insider's look at what it's like to work there. Remember what you like and what you don't, then use these insights as you move forward with picking a new job. 5. Gain Bargaining Power It's not uncommon for hiring managers to ask if you're interviewing elsewhere. If you're not, then you won't be seen as a hot commodity. If you can say yes, however, it might give the hiring manager a sense of urgency to scoop you up before someone else does. What's more, having multiple job offers is an excellent bargaining chip when it comes time for salary negotiations. 6. Realize You Never Know What Will Happen A million different things can happen to change your perspective of the company or the job. Maybe the salary is low, but the opportunity for advancement (including raises) is through the roof. Or maybe what you've read and heard up to this point doesn't do the company culture justice. There might even be another position open at the company that you're better suited for. The point? You'll never know if you don't go to the interview. As with any business engagement, it is of utmost importance that you act like the professional you are. Don't flake, don't convey your indifference, and don't treat the interview lightly – word gets around. And besides, the hiring manager is taking time out of his day to meet with you because he believes in your qualifications and cultural fit; why treat him with anything less than the respect he deserves? Are there any reasons you can think of to say no to a job interview?
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Photo Credit: Shutterstock The post 6 Reasons You Should Say ‘Yes’ To Any Job Interview appeared first on CAREEREALISM. | | Is Your LinkedIn Profile Picture Killing Job Prospects? Posted: 12 Oct 2013 10:30 PM PDT I don't really consider myself an HR person. I'm more of a social media strategist who loves helping job seekers. However, I do occasionally attend HR related training. Yesterday was one such occasion and inevitably, I had a shock. The discussion moved from hiring techniques, to LinkedIn photos. Many of the folks in the room would agree with us LinkedIn profile pictures should be professional. No argument. But someone told us a story that made us cringe. And if you are in HR, you may cringe as well. This recruiter was working with a candidate, who had hired her to position him for a job. He had a fabulous resume. Literally, she had trouble finding anything to change. But then she took one look at his LinkedIn profile photo. The guy looked like an axe murder. She said, "No wonder he wasn't getting any interviews, despite his killer credentials, no pun intended." So, he retook his photo, and I kid you not, within a week, he had several opportunities arise. (Lets just ignore the more frightening social implications of that for now, and accept the fact your photo makes a big impact.) So I ask you, does your photo strive too hard to be what you think professional is supposed to be? Or, are you using it as an opportunity to convey personality? I'm not a photographer, but I would like to offer some profile photo tips: 1. Don't be afraid to show personality. You can have personality and be professional at the same time. 2. Experiment with action shots. There isn't a lot of room, but the more you can demonstrate YOU in action the better. Can you fit yourself giving a presentation in the photo, shaking hands, or even leaning on a hand? 3. Play with the negative space. Try turning your body or tilting your head. 4. Smile and think inviting thoughts. That's my amateur photography advice for LinkedIn. If you have some more ideas, please share them in the comments below.
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Photo Credit: Shutterstock The post Is Your LinkedIn Profile Picture Killing Job Prospects? appeared first on CAREEREALISM. | | 3 Ways People Can See Your Resume Posted: 12 Oct 2013 10:00 PM PDT Now that you have a great resume, you need to get it into the right hands. There are only three ways to do this, so let's review each one. 1. Over The Internet This is what most people do and it is the least effective way to get noticed. Over the Internet includes posting to job boards as well as company web sites. There are two challenges here. The first is that everyone is doing this which means you will have a lot competition for the job you want. The other challenge is the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software that a lot of companies are now using to rank your resume according to their keywords. If your resume does not rank high, there is a good chance that the human eye will never see it. Since every company has different keywords, this is very hard to do. And if you are a career changer, odds are you will not have the job experience that reflects these keywords, despite the fact that you may be a great fit. These are the reasons people complain that they applied for dozens of jobs and never got a call back. 2. Recruiters Recruiters are paid by the employer to find people for them. In return, they get a 20-30% commission based on your first year's salary. That means for an $80,000 job, they get a $16,000-$24,000 fee so they are highly motivated to place someone. The first thing you need to understand is that recruiters are paid by the employer, and their loyalty is to them. It is not true recruiters find jobs for people – they find people for jobs. It is crucial you understand this important part because many people just call recruiters and expect help in their job search. Recruiters will often have access to the "hidden" unadvertised jobs, so for managers and executives, this should be a big part of your job search strategy. Look for a recruiter distribution service that can get your resume in the hands of hundreds of recruiters. 3. Direct Contact This is by far the best way to get noticed. It simply means that you are sending your resume to a specific person. This can be the result of networking or researching the person who is the decision maker or key influencer. It is vital that you do some homework here, so lookup the person on LinkedIn and make sure you demonstrate some knowledge about the company. Use regular mail for this, put your resume on good paper and follow up after 3-4 days by phone. Your Next Step On the next page I provide a complimentary 18-point checklist of things you must have to properly write a resume for this job market. Get your copy now. FREE DOWNLOAD ►
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Photo Credit: Shutterstock The post 3 Ways People Can See Your Resume appeared first on CAREEREALISM. | | How To Start Your Own Business In The Retail World Posted: 12 Oct 2013 09:45 PM PDT Want to start your own business? In the retail world, this can seem like a scary endeavor. Each year, 500,000 new stores open across the United States. A portion of those stores are individually owned, retail operations. Many of those locations do, essentially, fail and do not turn a profit. There is, however, a market for these small retailers, so those who know, before they get involved, how to start a business stand to do well in the sector. How To Start Your Own Business In Retail Make a decision about what type of business you’d like to have and how you’d like to create it. Businesses can deal in specialty retail goods (such as replacement windows or carpet and flooring), or they can behave as “nonstore” retailers (online or television businesses). Many businesses do well as online merchants with giants like Paypal, eBay and Etsy backing them up. Before a business is even conceived market analysis is required. A business is only as strong as its location and for many small businesses “off-the-beaten-path” simply will not do. Stores that do not have the money for large-scale marketing campaigns must rely on foot traffic (or an online presence) to draw in patrons. A serious market analysis and the search for the perfect location are the first step for creating a successful retail business. After locations are found one needs to consider funding options. Liquid capital is necessary to get a business off the ground and many small businesses fail because they were underfunded from inception. Look into all the potential business loan options available to you and take on what you can afford to take on. Frankly, however, if you can’t fund the business yourself or get a sufficient business loan the entire idea belongs on the back burner. Once you start your business you’ll need to market it. Marketing is a way of letting people know about your business and it is the greatest thing a business can do for themselves. Online marketing, an online storefront, and Facebook pages for the business can all drive the customers right to a business. This needs to be done effectively. Thankfully, much can be learned about marketing through just a bit of research. Millions of Americans dream of being business owners. It is, after all, what the American dream is all about, but the idea can be scary. Thankfully, there are ways to help a business start off and grow substantially, even in a troubled economic climate.
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Photo Credit: Shutterstock The post How To Start Your Own Business In The Retail World appeared first on CAREEREALISM. | | 4 Tips For Researching Education Grants Posted: 12 Oct 2013 09:15 PM PDT If you're exploring your financial assistance options, grants are a great way to get help paying for your tuition, fees, books, meals, and other college expenses. However before you decide on a grant and begin applying for it, you should do sufficient research. The research is essential because it tells you what grants are available, how much they offer, what the eligibility requirements are, and if the company or organization giving out the grant is a reputable source for grant money. 1. Research The Grant Source The first step to researching a specific grant is considering the source. Is it a reputable organization or corporation? You should find out as much as you can from the source. Not only does this tell you more about where the money is coming from, but knowing more about their organization can help you with applying and hopefully receiving the grant. Some organizations might be more willing to give the grant to someone in the same industry as them, so if this is along with your interests, it's a good grant to apply for. 2. Get References And Referrals Before conducting your own research of the organization or when looking for grants, ask for references and referrals. Contacting someone who has previously applied for grants will have the inside track to great organizations offering grants to people like you. These are the types of referrals that will benefit you because much of the research has already been done. When researching organizations giving out the grants, it also helps to know someone who has applied or received one from the same organization as another way to get a good reference for them. 3. Internet Research When it comes time to research different grants available for you, the Internet is the best place to start. This is because it can be done quickly and effectively. You will be able to research different corporations and organizations, as well as find lists of available grants. You will also be able to find websites listing all of the grants available for the next year or so in one place which cuts your research time significantly. Once you have compiled a list of potential grants to apply for, you will then conduct research on the specific grant, the organization or firm giving it way, their history with the grant, and other information you find useful. 4. Research Eligibility The last thing you should research is what type of eligibility requirements this specific grant has. It might only be open to certain degrees or majors, while others are strictly for people at a low income level.
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Tea Partiers March To White House To Protest Monument Shutdown They Caused
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 01:19 PM PDT
| Tea Partiers March To White House To Protest Monument Shutdown They Caused Posted: 13 Oct 2013 01:00 PM PDT  Click here to view this media [h/t David] Narcissists Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Sarah Palin joined flag-waving lunatics outside the White House today to protest their own work. Funny how they give a damn about veterans when it comes to memorials but not when it comes to the Veterans Administration or health benefits for veterans, or GI Bill benefits for veterans or housing assistance for homeless veterans. Those things? Meh. But memorials are a BFD. Also, there are a couple of interesting points to make about CNN's coverage of this protest. Notice how they keep the shot very tight and focused on the American flags carried by a few? Here's what they missed: That Confederate flag at the White House today is really a nice touch: pic.twitter.com/avXiBME6Xd — Joan Walsh (@joanwalsh) October 13, 2013
Yeah, really great form there, teaBirchers. I think it's great that you're outside the White House protesting with a Confederate flag. Sort of highlights all the racism pouring out of you onto the airwaves quite nicely. Kudos to CNN for covering their backsides by keeping the shot aimed straight in and missing that little piece. Also? I'd like some clarity from Candy Crowley about why she is so sympathetic to people whining about national parks being shuttered during the shutdown, but had nothing whatsoever to say about senior citizens getting their benefits cut if chained CPI is passed, or people having to worry about whether Medicare benefits will be delayed until they're 67. Those things are worth protesting, but instead we get this crap about monuments. At least they didn't mention the Narcissist Brigade (CruzLeePalin) showing up to play to their 'dozens' of protesters: WTOP Radio (http://bit.ly/GXQKGV ) reports Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas were among those who gathered Sunday morning, along with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Cruz says President Barack Obama is using veterans as pawns in the government shutdown.
Please do click into that article and have a look at the photo they've got. Trust me, it's worth the click. As the mom of a veteran, these people need to STFU and quit using them like blankets to wrap their evil in. I've had it with the lot of them. But according to NRO's Robert Costa, Congressional nutcases think this protest is a game-changer. This is a big story; House conservatives tell me it's a "game-changer," gives Right new momentum ahead of this week http://t.co/QRzlHrjOcf — Robert Costa (@robertcostaNRO) October 13, 2013
Maybe, but the game changer I'm looking for is the one where a giant sinkhole opens right in front of the White House and/or Capitol building and swallows them all whole. It would be delicious divine retribution. It's going to be a rocky ride, no thanks to the likes of Candy Crowley and CNN, who can't be bothered to actually talk about facts when they're gazing upon all those fabulous Americans bravely waving their Confederate flags. Update: Buzzfeed has a great collection of photos. All hail the flag, Mom and apple pie laced with poison. | | GOP Rep. Jim Jordan: 'The Sequester has Been One of the Good Things' Posted: 13 Oct 2013 12:00 PM PDT  Click here to view this media Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Sunday said that House Republicans would refuse any deal to raise the debt ceiling and re-open the government if it included backtracking on the austerity fiscal policy known as sequestration. Over the weekend, Senate Democrats rejected a plan offered by Republicans that would have locked in the drastic spending cuts for the next six months. "We get the sense that they don't want to negotiate," Jordan told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday. "We've offered, I think, 11 different bills either funding all or part of the government and they haven't even debated them in the Senate, let alone pass them." Jordan explained that House Republicans had two "key" requirements: "You can't keep spending money you don't have. Basic concept. We can't keep raising the limit on an already maxed-out credit card. Second principle is this: Obamacare, the way it's being implemented, is unfair." "I don't think you're going to see House Republicans -- I mean, we are best when we stay united on basic principles of less government, less spending, of keeping taxes low," he added. "You are going to see us united that we're not going to increase spending. The sequester has been one of the good things." "Are you prepared to let this go through the [debt ceiling] deadline on Thursday, when the secretary of treasury says we're going to go in default?" Wallace wondered. "No one wanted the shutdown," Jordan opined. "And no one wants a default. What we want to do is stick to some basic principles of addressing the underlying problem. We keep spending more money than we have." "We aren't going to break the sequester caps. We think that's one thing where we've saved the American people some money here." A Bipartisan Policy Center report released on Friday warned that the sequestration cuts would have "devastating impacts" if they were not lifted. "The full brunt of the cuts hasn't hit yet, and if we go down the sequester path for too long, we won't be able to reverse the devastating impacts," the report pointed out. | | Forget it, There's No 'Saving Face' in this Government Shutdown Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:00 AM PDT Weekends with Alex Witt, October 12, 2013 The hubby is very lucky I spend most of my time barefoot, because had I been wearing shoes, I would have thrown one at the television during this segment. What gives with hosting two former congressmen, both of whom believe that in order to prevent the government shutdown, President Obama has to give a little to the Republicans, to let them save face? NBC News' balance strikes again. They are relentless. Well, you know what? F*@k the whole notion of giving a little to the Republicans (and Joe Sestak may never call himself a Democrat for his centrist neo-liberal betrayal). When a criminal takes a victim hostage, do we care about making sure he looks okay or feels good about his actions? How does that help? Does it discourage the hostage-taker from ever doing it again? That's the key, and that's why the White House and Democratic leadership need to stand strong. Eric Liu at The Atlantic: [A]s a matter of political strategy, if this crisis is truly to end rather than just be deferred, it will have to end in something like unconditional surrender by the radical conservative rump of the GOP—something Boehner has said he could not abide. If and when such surrender occurred, face would not be the prime consideration; restoration of sanity would be. A successful denouement couldn't allow everyone to pretend the last couple of weeks were acceptable and everyone was equally a winner or loser; it would have to draw a bright, toxic line around these weeks and the tactics that created the crisis and say, "No more." But put this question of strategy to the side. The second and deeper reason why face isn't a legitimate issue in the current crisis is that a concern for face—specifically, for sparing another the loss of face—is rightly the consequence rather than the cause of healthy norms. When such norms don't exist, or when one side obliterates them, that side doesn't deserve solicitude or compensation for the reputational costs of their actions. Shuttering the entire government to relitigate a law and an election—to say nothing of blithely threatening national default—is a norm-obliterating act.
[..]
What has to happen in Washington today is that GOP radicals have to be isolated and shamed so that the rest of their party—conservatives who truly want to conserve rather than destroy—can reaffirm the norms of mutuality and trust in self-government. Only when that happens should the president (or the American people) care much at all about whether those who needlessly plunged us into crisis lose or save face. Otherwise our political culture will be doing what conservatives profess to hate: defining deviancy down.
The concessions have already taken place, for as much as the media ignores them. The Democrats have already conceded funding at sequester levels. They *should* be demanding expansions, not suggesting we might discuss chained CPI if the Republicans provide a "clean" Continuing Resolution. There is no reason to negotiate any further. All it does is encourage the next hostage taking, the next tantrum, the next shock doctrine attempt. It has to stop and it has to stop now. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | | Jim Bob Duggar Compares US To Nazi Germany During The Holocaust Posted: 13 Oct 2013 10:00 AM PDT  Click here to view this media Right-wing millionaire reality show television star Jim Bob Duggar appeared at this year's Values Voters Summit and implored his fellow wingnuts attending to run for office and take back America for Jesus because you know... Nazis... Jim Bob Duggar Compares US To Nazi Germany During The Holocaust: Reality TV star Jim Bob Duggar spent most of his speech at the Values Voter Summit imploring attendees to run for office, just like he did, in order to advance social conservative causes like an "army." Duggar ended the address by retelling a story about a time when Mike Huckabee and his daughter visited a concentration camp, which he used to compare the current state of the US to Nazi Germany. "As they were walking out of that concentration camp, he said little Sarah looked up at him and she said, 'Daddy why didn't somebody do something?' You know what, that's where we are at in our nation," Duggar said. "Do we want our children, when we're going to tell them about how great America was, they're going to look at you and say, 'Why didn't somebody do something?'"
Project much Mr. Duggar? I'd say he's got his exactly backwards on who we ought to be worried about leading us down a road to fascism. | | White Conservative Men Still Dominate Sunday Talk Shows Posted: 13 Oct 2013 09:00 AM PDT We talk about this problem all the time on C&L, and other left-leaning groups and blogs do as well. But as you can see from Media Matters' new report, all complaints go completely ignored. White, Conservative Men Still Made Up The Largest Proportion Of All Guests.
White, conservative men were hosted on the Sunday shows more than any other demographic by a large margin. Twenty-eight percent of guests were white, conservative men. The next largest group -- white, neutral men -- were only 19 percent of guests by comparison.
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In the first nine months of 2013, white men dominated the guest lists on the broadcast network Sunday shows and CNN's State of the Union. MSNBC was the only network achieving notable diversity in its guests, particularly on Melissa Harris-Perry's show. Republicans and conservatives are hosted significantly more on the broadcast Sunday shows than Democrats and progressives. Media Matters has continued its monitoring of the Sunday morning talk shows on broadcast and cable networks. Following up on our previous studies, we've added data for July, August, and September to the existing data collected for the first six months of this year on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CBS' Face the Nation, Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, NBC's Meet the Press, CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley, and MSNBC's Up with Steve Kornacki and Melissa Harris-Perry. Unless otherwise specified all charts and analysis below are based on the full nine months of data. The White Male Stranglehold On The Sunday Shows
White Men Still Represent The Largest Proportion Of Guests Except On Melissa Harris-Perry. Six of the seven shows analyzed -- This Week, Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday, Meet the Press, State of the Union, and Up -- have hosted white men at a significantly higher rate than their 31 percent portion of the population.Melissa Harris-Perry provided the greatest diversity among guests, providing a much higher rate of white women and African-American guests than the other programs; Up also hosted a higher percentage of people from those demographics than CNN or the broadcast programs. Latino, Asian-American, and Middle Eastern guests have been largely absent from the Sunday shows. Native Americans fared even worse, with only two appearances (one on Melissa Harris-Perry and one on Up) out of a total of 2,436 appearances over the nine-month period studied.
Wonder what the breakdowns are for all those pundit panels? No surprise, Republicans dominated there.
As for ideology, three of the networks leaned more heavily to Republicans except ABC's This Week, which had a two point advantage to the left. As usual, Fox News is the worst for being shills for one party.
| | Six-figure Ad Campaign Targets House Republicans On Shutdown Posted: 13 Oct 2013 08:00 AM PDT Another set of House Republicans are being hit by ads against the shutdown, this time by the National Education Association. The six-figure campaign: " ... will include television and online ads that will air in Washington and other markets. The targets, according to a union release, include Reps. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.), Tom Latham (R-Iowa), and Chris Collins (R-N.Y.)."
Latham was also targeted by the Americans United for Change ads that started running earlier in the week. | | MSNBC's 'Brain Trust' Includes Wingnut Libertarian Gary Johnson Posted: 13 Oct 2013 07:00 AM PDT  Click here to view this media This is why we can't have nice things. People like debt ceiling denier and libertarian wingnut Gary Johnson are considered part of a "brain trust" on MSNBC. Lord help us. If I have to watch one more of these right-wing clowns pretend like there's not going to be any economic damage to the United States if we default on our debt, or partially default, I'm about ready to break my television. This is a shock doctrine, self-inflicted "crisis" designed to do one thing, which is destroy our social safety nets, further roll back the New Deal programs, and destroy what's left of the middle class in America. And sadly the talking heads in our corporate media like Craig Melvin and Gary Johnson here are more than happy to help them do it. | | Mike's Blog Round Up Posted: 13 Oct 2013 06:00 AM PDT | | Sunday Morning Bobblehead Thread Posted: 13 Oct 2013 05:00 AM PDT The Vlogbrothers, The Lowdown on the Shutdown, Oct 1, 2013 Poor, sweet, naive Hank Green. He thinks the Republicans will actually not let the country go into default. I'm not so sanguine. After all, we live in a country where previously inarguable issues are now debatable. Where a Supreme Court justice on the highest court in the land can speak of the Devil as a person who has simply gotten "wilier" since the New Testament days. Where Ted Cruz can look at plummeting approval ratings both within and with out his party and shrug it off as proof he's doing something right. Where people love the Affordable Care Act and hate Obamacare. We live in a post-factual era. Which is why Hank Green can do a better job of explaining the truth about this shutdown in a three minute video than any of the talking heads in the hours and hours of news coverage since October 1. Facts and truth don't matter inside the Beltway. Watch with me this morning and see if you don't agree. ABC's "This Week" — Guest list to be announced. NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Panel: Co-anchor and managing editor of the PBS Newshour, Judy Woodruff; Washington Post Columnist Kathleen Parker; former Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN); and NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and Political Director Chuck Todd. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; and John McCain, R-Ariz.; Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan. Panel: Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, Wall Street Journal's Kimberley Strassel, and Washington Post's Dan Balz. MSNBC's "UP with Steve Kornacki" - Robert George, New York Post; Alex Seitz-Wald, National Journal; Kasie Hunt, NBC News; Bob Herbert, Demos; Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ); Joan Walsh, Salon.com; Jim Moore, Co-Author, "Bush's Brain"; Sam Tanenhaus, The New York Times; Kathleen Jamieson, University of Pennsylvania; Phil Johnston, former Secretary of Health & Human Services in Massachusetts. MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" - Paul Raushenbush, Senior Religion Editor at the Huffington Post; Alan Jenkins, Executive Director of The Opportunity Agenda; Vanessa K. Bush, Editor-in-Chief of Essence magazine; Jelani Cobb, Associate Professor at UCONN; Colby Harris, Fired by WalMart; Allison Kilkenny, Co-Host of Citizen Radio / Reporter at The Nation; Bill Schneider, Distinguished Senior Fellow and Resident Scholar at Third Way; Rinku Sen, Executive Director at the Applied Research Center / Publisher of ColorLines; Big Freedia, Queen of Bounce; Mayor Vincent Gray of Washington D.C. MSNBC's "Disrupt with Karen Finney" - Joe Soltz, Chairman, VoteVets.org; Paula Dwyer, New York Times; Mark Tapscott, Washington Examiner; Goldie Taylor, MSNBC Contributor; Lee Fang, The Nation. CNN's "State of the Union" — Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine. Panel: Former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, Crossfire co-host Newt Gingrich and Former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn. CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - American Enterprise Institute scholar Norman Ornstein, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, and Vanessa Williamson, co-author of The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism. American Enterprise Institute scholar Norman Ornstein, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, and Vanessa Williamson, co-author of The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism. CNN's "Reliable Sources" - Guest host: George Washington University professor and former CNN Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno. Eleanor Clift, Joe Concha and Ramesh Ponnuru. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, John Sides and Ginger Gibson. Author Leonard Downie Jr. "Vine journalist" Cody Johns and Barbara Lippert. "Fox News Sunday" — Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn.; Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Panel: George Will, Syndicated Columnist; Evan Bayh, former Democratic Senator from Indiana; Dana Perino, Co-Host, The Five / Former White House Press Secretary; Juan Williams, Fox News Political Analyst.
So what's catching your eye this morning? | | Open Thread: C&L's Saturday Night Podcast Round Up Posted: 12 Oct 2013 08:30 PM PDT Happy Saturday Night, folks! It's Blue Gal from The Professional Left Podcast with this week's round up of liberal podcasts. Remember, these podcasts are likely available on your favorite podcast player, and may not be safe for work. Decode DC: The shutdown REALLY screws up the judiciary. Zandar Versus the Stupid: They had a "blueprint" to defund Obamacare? Radio Dispatch: Feminism does not need a "rebranding." Radio or Not: What the GOP really stands for. Open thread below... | You are subscribed to email updates from Crooks and Liars
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5 Big Reasons Why You Should Consider Google Plus Marketing
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:39 AM PDT
| 5 Big Reasons Why You Should Consider Google Plus Marketing Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:07 AM PDT 
It snuck up so quietly that a lot of people didn’t even realize it was happening. One minute you could post a comment on YouTube just by logging into your YouTube account, and the next you’re being asked to sign in through your Gmail or Google+ account. The same goes for Zagat and other Google owned digital web assets. Google+ may not have caught on with users as a Facebook alternative yet, but the service’s “Plus 1” symbol is ubiquitous within social marketing, and top name brands are commonly listing the Google+ icon on television ads right next to their Facebook and Twitter symbols. Whether you like it or not, Google+ is quickly becoming a significant player in the social media marketing world because it has one thing going for it that no other social site has: Google. Google plus is now the second largest social media network behind Facebook and can no longer be ignored. So Google plus marketing needs to taken seriously in your marketing strategy. Reason #1. Search Google’s approach for Google+ has been to seek success through visibility. Because of this, Google is constantly launching new applications that integrate Google+ with search results. A search for information about the election of Pope Francis in March 2013, for example, shows several Google+ post results from TIME, NBC and CTV, as well as author posts with images of the Google+ registered author catching the eye of the casual searcher. For Google+ users, as long as you share blog posts with relevant, new (un-copied) information on a regular basis, you are that much more likely to be pushed up through the ranks of search results. 
As with any search engine, keywords are a big factor in these results. How can you push your Google+ page up in search results? - Post on a regular basis using relevant keywords in your text, but also integrate those keywords in other aspects of your Google+ page, such as in the “about” and “video” sections.
- Linking back to your own website where possible also improves your Google+ and personal website optimization.
- Creating a Google authorship for you and your most frequent posters helps your posts appear higher in search results, with the bonus of a personal author photo.
Reason #2. Google Authorship There’s something about being able to look people in the eye that makes the advice or information you receive from them more reliable. But when you can’t look them in the eye, seeing a picture makes them seem a little more reliable and trustworthy. That’s the basic psychology behind Google+ authorship. 
More and more, links to articles and posts relevant to your search in Google are popping up with images of the author posted on the left hand side. If you think that just by having a Google+ account and posting articles gets you one of these coveted search positions, however, that’s not entirely true. It takes a little more effort than that. To create a Google+ authorship: - You should already be posting on a regular basis on your website and cross-posting or linking the articles on your Google+ page, or just posting on your Google+ page. Make sure you note in each post that you’re the author.
- Once you’ve visibly established yourself, you can request authorship status from Google, which will then approve your profile image to appear next to posts you’ve written. The only catch is that your email address should be linked to the domain where you’ve posted content. For example, the author at www.webauthor.com would have an email address that read aut...@webauthor.com. Some authors have found a way around this, however, by using a rel=author tag that links back to their author page in the content code posted on other websites.
If you’re struggling to get your business name out there or your own name acknowledged as a relevant writer, Google+ authorship is an excellent way to start. The visibility of that little profile icon can make all the difference in whether or not a casual searcher clicks on your link. The only other aspect of Google+ that’s more visible, and even more of a bonus for businesses with Google+ accounts, is appearing in the coveted right hand space on search results: Reason #3. The Coveted Right Hand Space Let’s say you’re looking up a company with several franchises; Ford Motor Company, for example. Type it in to Google search and not only do you see the link to the main Ford website, but the right hand side of the screen fills with a map showing the Ford dealership locations closest to you and a live feed of the most recent posts on Ford’s Google+ page. For stores with brick and mortar locations, this can be a huge benefit. 
The way it works is that Google search is constantly updating with new information, and the most recent and relevant information posted in Google+ that’s related to your search is likely to appear in that right hand space. If you’re regularly posting on topics relevant to your industry and your Google+ site shows consistent updated content, then your Google+ page — and articles you’ve posted that are relevant to someone’s search — are much more likely to appear in that space. Reason #4. Sign In With Google+ In late February 2013, Google announced that app developers for web and mobile would have the option of using Google+ for their programs’ login, signup and identity verification. 
Just like with logging into Gmail, Zagat or YouTube, users would be able to simply enter their Gmail email and password and instantly login to the new app. Even though developers already have the option of using Facebook for new member signup and login, the benefit of Google+’s login is that it can prompt the user to install the app for their Android if they’re browsing from their desktop and it will be installed on his or her phone instantly. iOS users, however, are sent to the Apple App Store to download the mobile app, but the integration of mobile and desktop is still a significant plus for new programs and services. Another advantage is that Google+ is able to avoid a significant amount of what’s been deemed “social spam” by already having the ‘Circles’ feature in place. New users signing into an app with Google+, for example, would receive information based on their circles and preferences. A fan of jazz signing into a new music app, for instance, would receive information about the latest releases from significant jazz artists. Companies are already experimenting with the level of integration they can offer to their app users. Flixter, for example, not only adds a date to your calendar when you set up a movie date with friends; it also gives you the top reviews about the film you’re going to see, as well as what some of your other friends might have said about it. Depending on the type of business you have and what you hope to do with your website and/or mobile app, the level of integration provided by Google+ can make a big difference in how you speak directly with, and provide for, your customers. Reason #5. Google+ Ripples As Google+ notes on their website, “Your content is your social currency.” But you don’t really know how much currency you have until you know how many people are reading your content. For this reason, Google+ launched a feature known as ‘Ripples’ in late 2011. It’s easy to miss in all the lists of features provided in your Google+ account, but for business owners, it’s probably one of the best functions they can use. 
How does Google+ Ripples work? Google Ripples is basically an interactive circle graph showing who has publicly shared a particular post. So how does Ripples work? - To see if your (or any other) post has been shared and by whom, just click on the small down arrow in the upper right hand corner of the Google+ post and click “view ripples.”
- The graph shows the original post in the center and who shared it, in circles radiating outward. If someone else shared from one of those other circles, another, smaller circle will appear with their name and so forth.
- By hovering over the name you can see any comments the re-poster might have made. Apart from getting a good idea of who finds your posts interesting enough to repost, you can also see how important each re-poster is by the size of his or her circle. The larger circles mean that other people have read their re-posting of your article and have then shared it with others.
What is the impact of your followers sharing? It’s a great way to see, in an instant, which of your followers has the most impact in the sharing of your posts. Knowing your most important and influential followers is incredibly helpful, especially with Google+’s circles aspect. With it, you can group your most influential re-posters and send them important content, valuable coupons and anything else you might want to spread quickly and immediately to as many readers as possible. It’s likely that Ripples mirrors how website analytics will look in the next couple of years, because it’s so easy to read and react to. Like it or not, Google+ is becoming an important part of web commerce. And if you use Google or any of its services, you won’t be able to hide from it for much longer. For small business owners, jumping on now and learning the ins and outs can not only give you an advantage in the future, it can help you start building up the visibility of your business immediately. What do you think? What do you think of Google+? Has it helped your business at all? What are some of the advantages or disadvantages you’ve found to having a Google+ page? Guest author: Allison Rice is the Marketing Director for Amsterdam Printing. Allison regularly contributes to the Small Business Know-How blog, where she provides actionable business tips. Want to learn how to make your blog a success with social media marketing? My book – "Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media" – will show you how. It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog. I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 195,000. Download and read it now. The post 5 Big Reasons Why You Should Consider Google Plus Marketing appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog. | You are subscribed to email updates from Jeffbullas's Blog
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Wikileaks Unfollows and Attacks Glenn Greenwald on Twitter
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:32 AM PDT
| Wikileaks Unfollows and Attacks Glenn Greenwald on Twitter Posted: 13 Oct 2013 10:23 AM PDT For quite a while now, the only person being followed by Wikileaks on Twitter has been none other than activist Glenn Greenwald. No longer. Wikileaks and Greenwald are having a falling out, and Wikileaks is now attacking Greenwald (with awful spelling) for profiteering from Edward Snowden: Snowden cash in comenses. None involved are contributing anything to Snowden's defence fund or Mr. Snowden http://t.co/zUeHSzpvmk — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 12, 2013
Wikileaks added the following title to the article to which they're linking: "Glenn Greenwald Shills Snowden to Shysters." Put on some popcorn, folks. This is beginning to get interesting. (h/t: Jeremy Duns.)  | | Saturday Jam: Tommy Emmanuel, Classical Gas Medley Posted: 12 Oct 2013 02:59 PM PDT | | House Republican Compares Debt Default to the American Revolution Posted: 12 Oct 2013 12:28 PM PDT How crazy are House Republicans? This crazy: [Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.)] suggested the House should reject an unfavorable agreement from the Senate, even if it resulted in a debt default that severely damaged the economy. "We have to make a decision that's right long-term for the United States, and what may be distasteful, unpleasant and not appropriate in the short run may be something that has to be done," he said. Griffith, a former majority leader of the Virginia House of Delegates, cited as an example the American Revolution. "I will remind you that this group of renegades that decided that they wanted to break from the crown in 1776 did great damage to the economy of the colonies," Griffith said. "They created the greatest nation and the best form of government, but they did damage to the economy in the short run."
 | | Crazy Far Right Conference Ends With a Bang: Glenn Beck Posted: 12 Oct 2013 11:18 AM PDT Now speaking at the craziest far right conference of them all, the Values Voter Summit: none other than raving freakazoid nut sandwich Glenn Beck. Of course! How else would you end an event like this? And yes -- he brought a chalkboard! He's naked without it. And he just made the inevitable joke that it isn't a blackboard -- "You raaaaacist!" (Said in his goofy "liberal" voice.) The live video is here.  | You are subscribed to email updates from Little Green Footballs
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Apple offering iTunes credits to eligible iOS users who purchased iWork and iLife apps after September 1
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:32 AM PDT
| Apple offering iTunes credits to eligible iOS users who purchased iWork and iLife apps after September 1 Posted: 12 Oct 2013 04:00 PM PDT 
When Apple first introduced the iPhone 5s and 5c on September 12, they concurrently announced that new iOS device owners would be able to download Apple's suite of mobile iWork apps along with most iLife apps for free. Taken together, the free apps would otherwise cost $40. Note that the only app not available for free is GarageBand. All in all, the decision to provide iOS users with grade-A software for free is a smart strategic move that serves to further differentiate the iPhone and iPad from competing products. Apple has employed a similar strategy with its suite of iLife software on the Mac for many years now. So what about users who purchased new iOS devices before September 12? Well Apple has them covered. Apple on Friday began sending out emails to eligible consumers indicating that iOS users who purchased iWork or iLife apps as early as September 1 will be eligible for iTunes credits in the amount they paid. 9to5Mac got its hands on Apple's email, which reads in part: Dear iTunes Customer, On September 10, 2013, Apple announced that iPhoto, iMovie, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers iOS apps are now available as a free download on the App Store for qualifying iOS 7 compatible devices activated on or after September 1, 2013. Our records indicate that you purchased one or more of these apps on or after September 1, 2013 so we have provided you with the iTunes code below in the amount of $5.34. This credit can be used towards the purchase of any content on the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store. Detailed instructions for redeeming the code can be found at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1574. Code: [redacted] Thank you and we hope you enjoy using this credit towards your next purchase on iTunes. Regards, iTunes Customer Support iTunes Support A classy move from Apple. Apple offering iTunes credits to eligible iOS users who purchased iWork and iLife apps after September 1 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 12 Oct 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | Find Comet ISON in the night sky with free Comet Watch app Posted: 12 Oct 2013 01:00 PM PDT  Comet ISON has a split personality. Originally it was predicted by some astronomers that it might get bright enough to see during the day, but other astronomers have been saying it might not be spectacular and just run of the mill. Latest observations of the comet are encouraging for a good sky show. ISON is expected to be visible toward the end of November and into next year, and our friends behind the great astronomy app Distant Suns have come up with a free app to help you find ISON in your own local skies.
Comet Watch uses augmented reality and the compass and gyro of your iDevice to help you orient yourself to where the comet is, and make it easy to find it using your naked eye or binoculars. The app is integrated with the NASA Night Sky Network (US only) to alert you to astronomy related talks and other events in your area, and the app also presents you with a sky view to show you a snapshot of the evening sky.
ISON was discovered in September of last year. It has just passed behind the sun and is now visible in the early morning hours before dawn. It's closest to the Sun on November 28th, and then should be visible in our night sky for several months after. On December 26th, it is predicted to make its closest approach to earth, but it isn't a danger as it is expected to be about 40 million miles away.
Comet Watch is a universal app and requires iOS 6 or later.
Find Comet ISON in the night sky with free Comet Watch app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 12 Oct 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Chevy Should Get Loud About the New Corvette Stingray
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:31 AM PDT
| Chevy Should Get Loud About the New Corvette Stingray Posted: 12 Oct 2013 09:41 PM PDT 
When something is as hot as an iconic automotive legend hitting dealerships across America, it often doesn’t need very much additional buzz created for it. Some would say that this is the case for the new Corvette C7 Stingray, just now landing at showrooms. I think they’re making a mistake by not blasting this machine out there to everyone in the world. It’s that cool, but you wouldn’t know it if you’re following them on social media. There are two possible reasons for this. It could simply be a corporate thing. Social media departments at large companies are often disconnected from the rest of the company. You can usually see this when a Facebook page is dominated by feel-good stories, customer experiences, nostalgia, and the occasional advertising. Most of the time these types of posts were pre-approved by the legal and marketing departments well before the posts went out and the results are good, not great, but at least they’re safe. The other possible reason is that they simply do not believe that the car has enough mass appeal to hit their social media presence prominently. This is a huge mistake, an amateur one, really, if that is the case. Social media is not about general appeal. It’s about what’s hot. It’s about what’s amazing. There’s a reason that Ferrari has a more prominent social media footprint that Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, or any of the other major brands. It’s not that more people drive Ferraris. These people that are liking the pages aren’t going to Ferrari club meetings, nor do they have one sitting in their garage. This is social media and in many ways it’s a reflection of our desired lifestyle rather than our real one. If Chevrolet wants to really get people’s attention and make a splash on social media, they need to take advantage of this monster of a car. It truly is an amazing piece of machinery, different and better than previous Corvettes. They need to drive this beast into the ground and ride it for as long as they can in order to take full advantage of the algorithmic benefits it would create. The Corvette can go viral. The Cruze cannot. Some Chevy dealers are getting it. Here’s one video from Holiday Automotive that gives the right amount of attention to this machine. They aren’t trying to sell it. They don’t need to. Everything they have allocated is already sold. That’s not the point. The point is that it’s hot and they understand that. If only their manufacturer understood as well. Related articles The post Chevy Should Get Loud About the New Corvette Stingray appeared first on Soshable | Social Media Blog. | | Your Favorite Social Network Says a Lot Posted: 12 Oct 2013 06:45 PM PDT 
There’s a lot that can be understood about a person by knowing their favorite television show, foods, or just about anything else that requires opinions. The same holds true for social networks. What is your favorite? Does this graphic say anything correct about you? 
The post Your Favorite Social Network Says a Lot appeared first on Soshable | Social Media Blog. |
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McDonald's to Distribute Original Books With Happy Meals
Posted: 13 Oct 2013 11:28 AM PDT
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