I’m a bit of a WordPress enthusiast and excited for the upcoming 3.0 release. As I continue to work on many projects centered around WordPress, they continue to push away with new releases. The beta for their upcoming release, 3.0, is looking quite impressive and includes several things I did not expect to see. First, it seems, WordPress and WordPress MU are going to merge into one install (which is great!) There’s also a new default theme to play with (called Twenty Ten), and there’s going to be tweaks to the UI! Sounds like fun!
It’s currently in Beta 1, which means it will blow something up if you’re not careful. But, if you’re interested, take a peek, download, and have fun!
My Mac is currently being shipped to the Apple depot in Tennessee. Being computerless for a week, I now have to rely on my iPod touch to keep in touch with the rest of the world. This is going to be a nice experiment. The iPod touch is like a PDA of yesteryear. The question is, how effective will it be?
Talk about lessons learned from watching the Video Music Awards. My last post was about knowing when to use social media. This one is about the opportunities to use it properly.
One thing I tell my clients when they talk about getting a new blog, twitter account, hopping onto Facebook or entering Second Life, it’s less about yourself and more about engaging these social communities you’ve entered. These mediums are great for discussing your product, service and getting your name out but know when you should pass the mic! Having your blog isn’t about promoting your all of the time, it’s best used when also highlighting related items, customer stories, or other people. Know when to pass the mic to someone, something more deserving.
If you haven’t a clue of what I’m referring to, see the video below:
The Kanye West/Taylor Swift Video Music Awards controversy serves as a great analogy when to use social media. There are plenty of examples when organizations or individuals have hopped on a fad to show they are hip and in touch. Usually, they use them incorrectly. When starting a Twitter account, Facebook page, or create a blog, know if it’s the right time to appear on that stage to speak your thoughts or promote your product. There are appropriate times and opportunities to engage your audience and perform the necessary discussion. Don’t hop on stage inappropriately or at the wrong time!
For those who don’t know what I’m talking about watch below:
I’ve had Snow Leopard for about a week, and there’s a few things I’ve noticed with Apple’s recent operating system.
First, there’s a slight focus on security. Outside of the introduced malware scanner in Snow Leopard, removing files from the trash has become more security. The default has been changed to secure delete, a feature in Leopard, but was optional. It’s almost as if Apple is trying to stay a step ahead of the game for a looming attack or marketing towards business use. The downfall, deleting a large amount of files now takes a ridiculous amount of time.
The next change with Snow Leopard relates to my interactions with it. I find myself the Finder more often instead of opening applications. With the new thumbnail abilities and an improved Quick Look, I find myself not having to open applications as often to determine what I may or may not need.
Snow Leopard did not change a lot on the surface. All of my old programs work as anticipated and there are plenty of improvements, but I’ve not used half of them. This is not to say they aren’t welcomed, but Snow Leopard is clearly the groundwork for something’s to come.
Todays social media world is very concerned about the amount of information individuals publish about themselves. From hobbies, likes, dislikes on Facebook to the information blogs posts and personal information, everyone tries to control the flow of information about themselves. Personas, a component of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit asks a different question, How does the Internet see you? By typing your name, Personas scours the Internet for keyworlds to characterize a person and displays them on a bar with each of those characteristics.
Some of these results are interesting, mine displayed some obvious key words “online, design, social” and some keywords such as “illegal, aggression, genealogy” are interesting. Personas is a nice look in how we’re characterized online and I would love to see a SEO related application based on this idea.
A few days ago, NYPD conducted a 24-hour cell phone crackdown while driving, which snared a Daily News reporter. The crackdown is a part of a growing trend of laws seeking to ban texting while driving (a just law In my opinion).
To help gauge how much texting interferes with your driving, the New York Times has released a game, “Gauging Your Distraction” on their website, simulating the act of texting and driving. At the end of the game you receive a report card of performance, my initial try was not good at all. For those who don’t quite understand the issue or distraction, this game is an eye opener.
(Source: Silicon Alley Insider)
Apple released Snow Leopard today and I decided to join the early adopters and perform the upgrade. Snow Leopard is Apple’s recent update to OS X and an upgrade to Leopard, building on many of it’s impressive features. Snow Leopard is akin to what Windows 98 was to Windows 95, same interface but new useful features. With a price tag of $29 ($25 on Amazon as of this posting), and a MacBook Pro that’s barely 6 months old, it was a no brainier to perform the upgrade. Continue Reading »
There’s a difference College Humor’s movie trailer for Minesweeper and Microsoft’s Office 2010: The Movie. College Humor is entertainment web-video company, Microsoft is a major software development corporation. When I read about Office 2010: The Movie on CrunchGear I thought this had to be a joke; after visiting office2010themovie.com the sad reality set in. This is Microsoft’s new viral campaign, and it’s stupid. What’s next? A trilogy called “The Adventures of IE 8″?
The decision to promote a product as a theatrical trailer has been done before; usually with some mention of features, displays of the product, and some cheesy catch line. If anything, Microsoft is promoting keyboards, Pac-Man, and Blackberries with this video. Of all the things to waste money on, a movie trailer for your software isn’t one of them.
The release of Safari 4 and Firefox 3.5 release candidate 2 available for Mac I wanted to know which browser performs the best. Other websites have performed benchmarks comparing a bevy of browsers within a Windows environment. While the results may be similar, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome are not available for Mac (Chrome is currently in Alpha). I wanted to provide a benchmark for Mac users comparing the two major browsers in their ability to render JavaScript, their ability to display websites, the amount of memory they used, and their adherence to web standards. For this test I compared Safari 4.0.1 and Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate 2 using my 2.66 GHz MacBook Pro 17” with 4 GB of RAM. Continue Reading »