Review 2023 – social networks

One part of my year in review is how the SmartPhone appears, and how I use the main Apps I have installed on my iPhone:

Main Screen, pg1

Seems redundant, but the two “Google Search” widgets have different sets of options to invoke directly (they scroll thru ~6 each). This saves scrolling to the right thru many dozens of Apps. But, admittedly, still means scrolling down thru a half dozen of my most used Apps).

As example… the two widgets can both be rolled up, to show a search of Gmail, or GoogleMaps (maybe a future option would replace that with Bing).

Pg1, Scrolled Stacked Widgets

One “widget” I started to use a bunch in 2023 was the Ancestry one… it highlights a person in our family tree (as entered by Robin Marie) to show their life-event…. marriage anniversary, birthday, or death.

My “next screen” shows a 2023 trend, toward

A few AI tools appeared in 2023; Chat-On, Bing, are both based on ChatGPT, and the Google versions need to be investigated — they all provide new capabilities that can’t be ignored.

Main Screen of Apps (camera, photos, Car, Hiking, Health, office, e-payments, Uber/Lyft, Tile)

More details later, for GROUPS of Icons, and individual Icons — seems indicative of the Apps I use the most (this used to be “Pg1 on my iPhone”).

Now, media streaming and common on-line meetings or audio listening Apps; and, of course the Social Media apps (FB, IG and X).

The social media changes this year were dramatic. Twitter was purchased by Elon Musk last year, but 2023 was the year he fully destroyed it — and, renamed it “X”.

My “social networking” group of Applications does include X (formerly Twitter) as well as the Facebook and Instagram — now, includes Threads. And, should, include…

Instagram, X (and Threads), plus Substack

Also includes Facebook, X, and even Linked-in, Goodreads, Pinterest, and Patreon

My personal preferences, no longer include Facebook except for periodic Birthday greetings and just as often will browse thru Linked-in for my connections from work. I don’t use Pinterest much anymore and hadn’t used Patreon for a while now.

And, here is my biggest surprise in how I use my smartphone, it is called the New York Times. The obvious change by having an on-line subscription ($50 for their introductory rate) and then also a podcast called, “The Daily”, and other podcasts as well, like HardFork or the “Ezra Klein” or opinions columnists among other daily, or bi-weekly and weekly features. It’s

First post of 2021

We stayed up… almost to midnight, and awoke for a few minutes to watch the ball drop in Times Square in NYC.

In the new year, I am resuming my social media use after a couple of months to be off line. No Facebook, no Instagram — it was a good change to adopt for a short while.

But, it was nice to resume — with a new year’s perspective.

Having added both IG and FB icons back on the group “Social Networks” from my Home Screen.

I can appreciate now, how “top Apps, of 2020” would include Facebook, and Instagram — as well as the biggest winner of “at the right place, at the right time” it’s Zoom!!

But, I also like having a few key features for “SmartHome”, such as our lights being controlled on a schedule, or with motion sensors, or with voice commands thru Amazon Echo (an Alexia device).

Hue (from Philips) makes great, top-of-the-line residential lighting (spell that expensive) and we’ve bought both flood lights, interior lights as well.

The “social media” arena is ever changing, but a few of my personal favorite have remained key tools in both reading and posting on-line.

The Patreon tool is very popular for funding yoga classes on-line; but it’s used broadly in fund raising and social concerns. I personally have found a couple of reasonable price monthly donations that I feel great about contributing, and get awesome ashtanga and vinyasa flow (partly video based, and partly just audio recordings).

The other, Apps worth mentioning: GoodReads (now, part of Amazon) and also the wordPress App (I’m using to write this) as well as the “Vermont phenomenon” called: “Front Porch Forum”

Day One Week one

On the first day, we rested.

No, just kidding … we worked. Diane had received her notification that a new Samsung Galaxy S9-Plus was going to be delivered by 8:00pm Tuesday. So, we were at work (we left a note for the Fed-Ex delivery person, to assure they don’t send it back).

Welcome to the 21st century, and a brand new mobile phone. and we were pretty sure, it would mean it comes before 5pm while we’re away; and the voice mail message made it clear, we should expect the package. If we don’t want to arrange a location to pick it up, we need to leave a signed and dated note that a driver can easily see at our door.

We did all that. Fed-Ex delivered. No fuss, no muss, no bother. Literally three days from when she ordered it; A new phone! (Should we explain that Diane has used a Windows based, Microsoft smart phone for about five years).

Maybe we should also just make clear that our data plan of 2GB per month is almost exclusively used on one device (mine) and that her Windows phone has never consumed even a small fraction of that data allotment.

With an Android “latest technology” from Samsung — that story may change. Truth in story telling: it’s NOT the “latest” because the TV ads have been touting the new Galaxy 10 features. But, even using a Galaxy 9 means the “facial recognition” feature is pretty cool (is that WITH the reading glasses “on” or do you need to remove them?).

In any event, on the first day connecting to a Google account was working within minutes of powering on.

Should we also mention… from the time you power on, the delay before you start using the phone is measured in seconds — that’s pretty quick! Even if the phone were completely off, you could power it up and take a photo within 30seconds.

And, next, connecting on our home’s WiFi was almost as quick – so, we could have used a web browser to immediately ask Google “how to disable Bixbie?”

Who thought a button dedicated to the voice response system was a good idea? I mean, we are getting used to Alexa on our Amazon Echo but still find Siri useless. So, the jury is out on how frustrating the voice attendant can be. Let’s turn it off!

A phone call from Robin (our oldest daughter) and a complete dyed-in-the-wool believer in Google software tools, operating systems, browser, and everything else they make — advises that the auto-assistant is one of the first things that’s needed to be installed.

Who, wait… let’s slow down, we haven’t even opened Facebook.

So, on day one of week one, there’s no “App Store” purchases of any sort … and, other than a few contacts that got entered (magically?) it’s just the basic functionality that we’re figuring out. Haven’t even made a call. It keeps saying, “dial #8899” which is the message it says when you dial #8899…

This device is not yet registered.

Well, on the second day… before breakfast we were able to “make a phone call”; and, suddenly the flurry of incoming TXT MSGs also start working.

Yay, the device is registered!!

A smart phone, is acting pretty smart, it knows how to make calls; and it can do TXT MSG and even browse the web. Should we expect anything more than that?

One piece of advice that Robin provided was wise beyond her years: “you don’t need to register as a Samsung account”, and “you don’t need to use the Samsung Store”.

It makes sense that Samsung has a copy of every utility that Google provides (it’s similar with Apple: you can use Apple Maps, or if you prefer, use Google Maps; you can use the Google Mail “App” or just stick with the one from Apple. So, the same questions arise with Samsung…. or any other manufacturer.

Diane doesn’t need to use Google Mail, nor does she need the mail that is built into the Samsung; it was just an example.

She does want Dropbox. The best way of sharing photos from her devices to keep them nicely organized on a home computer and to be able to share any into Facebook or Instagram — it’s flexible, secure, and free. Dropbox wins the prize for being the first App loaded from the Google “App Store” called Google Play.

There is no doubt that Drive.Google.Com would probably provide a similar feature set that Dropbox offers, and Microsoft had “one drive”.

The other early download in the race to get setup with a new SmartPhone was the IM features that works with Facebook and Instagram.

So far only a couple of apps and a whole lot of searching for the right phone numbers and addresses for our family contacts. No matter how well organized a list of Google Contacts and Outlook emails and Christmas card spreadsheet and family tree genealogy … it’s never quite gotten consolidated in one place.

So, backing up, and taking it slow is a good way to get started with a new Android smart phone, and … next week we’ll summarize week two of the first month.

Home Automation – WiFi Smart Plug

Welcome to the world of automating your lights at home.

It was easy

Easy and relatively inexpensive. Especially, if you consider using a smart plug without Alexa. To be clear, I was searching for a WiFi enabled outlet switch which works with Alexa — and, yes… it could just as well have been a “Google Home Mini” to be able to turn on a couple of lights in my house.

WiFi Smart Plug – packing, docs

First, a bit of perspective — the “Home Automation” market is burgeoning with new options everyday… and more generally, the “Internet of Things”, or IoT means we have a network location (IP Address) for everything from refrigerators and light bulbs to security cameras and door locks. And now, with examples like smart thermostats, and voice enabled “assistants” for the home we can connect devices over a wireless network WiFi — it’s easy, and convenient, and provides real and very practical benefits.

An Alexa gift at Christmas time (2017) was $30 — and, adding a couple of outlet switches was another $25. And, although a wall switch was really what I had started looking for, when I saw a Leviton brand for almost $60 – I hesitated. As mentioned already we have an Alexa; or to use her full name, “Amazon Echo Dot”. The regular price is probably $50, but just before Christmas last year both the Amazon and Google competitive devices at the entry level were dropped to $30. While both companies offer a more capable (i.e. better quality audio) option for $130 – $150. I was curious to see how much value can be gained from the least expensive devices.

Back to the “Smart Plug” — because you maybe hadn’t considered voice enabled home appliance control and just wanted a network switch; then a Smart Plug outlet switch is a good start. Compared with the WeMo I tried out ten years ago, this Smart Plug is nicer form factor and probably a quarter of the price.

There’s an App

You are hopefully not surprised that a Smart Phone is required to setup and configure the Smart Plug. Smart things go together, it’s poetry. With the smart things connected it was quite easy to setup a schedule, and have a light, or other small appliance come on at certain times, or by your smart phone by remote control.

But yeah, by the way … I was also pleased that it works with Alexa! The integration between the WiFi Smart Plug and Alexa is done very well. There are a few steps along the way which might get a bit tricky, but especially after you’ve done it once, the process is easy and direct… and, it just works.

The benefit of Alexa (or, a Google Home) is that you don’t have to open your app, and fumble with the buttons or an App’s user interface — you just say, “Alexa, turn on the Table Lamp.”

There are certainly more complicated voice instruction options, but if you give each Smart Plug a simple name… the initial on / off commands will feel like a great success.

With the exception of my “read the fine print, below” the setup and use of the WiFi Smart Plug was easy – it really was. And, although the instructions which came in the box were tiny (I mean, get out a magnifying glass — but, you’re probably young anyway or you wouldn’t be using such a Smart Plug?) the steps were really, just 1, 2, 3 and you’re done!

Here’s a link, in case you hadn’t already Googled or Amazon’d your way to the device yourself.

<LINK>

Postscript:

One final comment, only because we have enable our Linksys “Mac ID filtering” on our home WiFi the initial steps to recognize the new Smart Plug failed; and, we had to disable the Mac Filtering to allow any IP into our home network. That worked fine, because the first two outlet switches connect… then, the Mac Addr appears in the list and I can copy them into the list allowed for filtering. It was quick, and just meant a bit of a detour while initially doing the setup.

Social Media – metrics

…still trying to figure out, when tweets are getting reTweeted, or Liked, or when links are clicked on when you post with a reference to another page. The histograms, and stats, for my various posts may lot make a lot of sense…. well, or at least won’t make much sense until you compare which posts get “click thru” from your followers.

A single click thru (especially if I have used my own “second Twitter account” to retweet or favorite a posting) is not impressive, as much as getting 10 or a dozen clicks on your tweets. With recent use of HootSuite and watching closely for the metrics results; it makes a difference: 

Each post, gathers statistics on it’s visitation data.

Simply using a second Twitter account gives 1 or two visitors in my tweet usage.

  

 

But, jumps up dramatically

 

Ok, with the reference to a common hashtag, like #thanksgiving can help (but isn’t very relevant to my more focused topics).  

Who would have expected “Macy’s parade” on Thanks giving gets anyone’s attention, or click thru:
The moral, so far… to this story is that social media gurus are the only people who notice (??!?) just my theory… still working on this theory.  

the higher click theu stats, seem to generally relate on “social media posts”
  

 

 

I will still want to see the result of the posting after a week or so. (The reality, is that a week passes… and, the stats dwindle to zero — Twitter is immediate, no need to await a trend, the trends take a day or week, no longer. After a week, it all goes to zero).

 

 

What is clear… is that time marches on, and that if you have gotten people to click on a link, or visit your site — three days later it is forgotten history. You need to keep up the traffic on a regular basis, not just once a week, or just when you happen to think of it; you have to post interesting stuff, regularly.

 

Talking about YouTube – Presentation of the swissinfo Android news app

 Too cute — listen to this in German as well.  The swiss recognize a speedy platform when they see one.

Quote

YouTube – Presentation of the swissinfo Android news app
 

Android – setup, installation, and sample code

Getting a Google Android development platform setup and ready to use was a pleasant surprise.  The first steps were quick, and intuitive.

The right place to start is by downloading a Java runtime. This may not even be necessary if you’ve already been using tools which depend upon Java. A quick test of the JRE is simple:

 <verify Java>

Getting the Java run-time installed, if it’s not already on your platform, is a matter of following the link referenced in the previous URL, <or, click here>.  The above link will also help you to remove older versions of the Java Run-time.  Make sure that you verify the versions which may be needed for other Java dependent software as well.

When you browse thru Sun’s Java site you may feel like there are lots of various options (and there are!) but, you only need a “Java SDK”.  So, you don’t need to head for the Java EE, nor Java Beans, or an Application server – just get the JDK for your platform (Windows, for me). Same goes for the Eclipse IDE links below – you want a “Classic Eclipse” (near the bottom).  I ended up with a quirky behavior (i.e. resulting in a dead-end getting no where) came from the browser (Microsoft’s IE8) which reports a 32bit executable; but, I was pretty sure that I’ have installed a 64 bit version of everything I could (at least, when they existed, I have meant to use 64bit windows binaries). What transpired, was that it’s a problem to install Eclipse into the C:\ProgramFiles folder in Windows – use ANY OTHER directory, but DON’T USE C:\ProgramFiles.   I suggest you put the environment tools into a folder under C:\Android <— this directory will be referenced in my Blog entries, for the Android SDK.

The ADT (Android Developer’s Toolkit) is a Plug-in, to the Eclipse IDE (interactive development environment). 

For downloading Eclipse, the Android SDK, and ADT plug-in to Eclipse, use these links:

 

<Eclipse Download> <Android SDK Download> <ADK Eclipse Plug-in>

<http://www.eclipse.org/downloads>       <http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html>

Let’s make this as plain as possible.  Here are the steps for getting started with installing the free Android development tools:

1. Get a platform (Windows XP, or Windows Vista;  although Android’s SDK works on Linux and Mac OS X as well)
2. Download Java SE6 (already done, if you have previously used other Java based tools or applications)
3. Download Eclipse – the tool platform, or Interactive Development Environment (IDE)
4. Download Android Software Development Kit (SDK) for your platform (again, I’ll use Windows to illustrate, but you can use Mac or Linux too)
5. Download the Eclipse Android plug-in

These steps listed above will use “open source” software – so, they are free. Each download is available in a matter of minutes from the respective organization; be cautious about downloading these from third party sources unless you know the server’s organization.  The potential for viral software, or spam or other problems is a reality;  just, be careful – be sure you are using web URLs which you can trust.

Then a few more install/configure steps will help verify that things are installed properly and working:

1. Create a “hello world” Java application, to see the output in the IDE console.
2. Configure an Android Virtual Target (AVT) to allow simulating a smart phone application running on your desktop.
3. Create a “hello android” application which runs in the simulator.
4. Add projects, from the sample code for a platform. (run the Lunar Lander example, on your simulated target “phone”.

 

Begin:

If you have the Java run-time installed (see above link for the URL) then you’ll download the files for the Eclipse tools.

There is no “install script” or a self extracting .EXE file for Eclipse 3.5 – you just copy the file hierarchy from the .ZIP file into an appropriate directory (I use: "C:\Android”). The Android SDK (I’m using R0.4 Dec 2009) was similarly placed into my “C:\Android” folder, but you use “SDK Setup.EXE” in the top level directory after unpacking the .ZIP file.   I am using Windows x586 (on a 32bit Win/7 system). NOTE: Read Systems Requirements  It was after installation that I noticed that Win/7 wasn’t on the officially supported platform list.

 

A “quick start” in Adroid’s developer webpages shows an environment variable addition to the PATH for your system – don’t skip this step!

 

 

As mentioned, when you have unzipped the Android SDK, you’ll see a “SDK Setup.exe” in the subfolder (C:\Android\android-sdk-windows, for me).

Run the setup executable. It provides both the installation and the automatic updates to the latest version (at this writing, it’s Android 2.1; which is new enough so that most books you might get will still be referencing 1.5 and 1.6 versions of Android’s SDK).  The version reference of 2.1 is for the Android SDK not the Eclipse IDE and Eclipse plug-in for Android.

 

Subsequent download of the Android plug-in for Eclipse was invoked via the “Tools” menu after you start Eclipse (NOTE:  I am using Eclipse v3.5), but the book I purchased has examples given with v3.4 screen shots. Enhancements between version 3.4 and 3.5 are some convenient ease-of-use features, especially in this initial area of downloading a plug-in and adding Android sample applications and creating the first project.  Look around a little, to get accustomed to the version you are using!  (The “ADT Plug-in” version I reference was 0.9.5, Dec 2009 for Android 2.1 SDK).

OPEN QUESTION:   I guess it was ok to create the shortcut manually:   C:\Android\Eclipse\Eclipse.EXE

Of course, you will soon want to write the classic “Hello World”, or even better a Android specific “Hello Android” instance of a program to verify that all this installation stuff has worked properly;  check out: http://developer.android.com/guide/tutorials/hello-world.html to get started.

We should point out that a few “video clips” at ScreenCast.com’s web site can help just by ~seeing~ the way it all works. Starting with tool setup:

• Installation Tutorial

The URL given (i.e. https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse ) for the Android Dev Toolkit (ADT) plug-in for Eclipse wasn’t working for me.  The error was noted in the book I had purchased, but their solution didn’t help (there were components missing at the server, according to my error message)… the real problem was that I had installed the products under C:\ProgramFiles rather than in C:\Android or C:\Java or something similar.  Watch the rest of the videos for more startup assistance.

• Demo Android Apps

After the Installation of the ADT plug-in… the update for ADT will bring your Android development to the 2.1 version (or, what-ever is latest).

NOTE: if you want to build images to support Android 1.5, 1.6, and 2.0 and 2.1 (or today’s latest versions!)… you need to install each.

 

The equivalent of the “hello world” program that every “C” programmer first learned from Kernigan and Ritchie is to just use the Eclipse IDE to type in a few source lines of Java code, and output a line of text in the console window.

Use the Eclipse build/debug environment:
SELECT “File –> New –> Java Project

Fill in the form which appears with a project name:   helloworld

Select “create new project in workspace” (meaning, we’ll create new source files).

The JRE (Java Runtime Environment) should be selected, as the “latest” which for us was JavaSE-1.6 in the drop down list.

I’ve changed project layout to: “use project folder as root”, but either will work.

The [Finish] button, will create the project.    (optionally, hit [Next] and step thru the next form as well.

 

In the next steps, you’ll place a source file into a folder…  it’s not important that the folder is named “src” but it is the conventional use; it is also not important that the file is named helloworld.java but it is important that the file’s name and the class we name in the main package are the same name.  I’m using “helloworld” for both. If you call the file hello2.java and the class is named helloworld the IDE will nicely remind you that they must be named the same thing. It may be just convention that the source directories are called “src”, but the file names themselves are important to end with the file suffix “.java” so that the IDE will help you find syntax errors while you are typing.

Type in the code:                  (file, named:    src\helloworld.java )

/**
*     Hello World,
*     @author Jim Donovan
*     Feb 22, 2010
*
*/
public class helloworld {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
                 System.out.println(“Hello java world”);
  }
}

When you “run” the code, it’s just from the “Run” menu, select “Run” (you can also use: CTRL F11 ) – select the “Java Application” in the dialog box which appears.

Note, this output will only be displayed on the “Console" Tab in Eclipse (the third tab, near the center on the bottom of your window).

While you are noting the names of these TAB areas in Eclipse, select the “@Javadoc” tab, which shows that the @author tag was used to relate the documentation details about the source file, this will come in handy later with a number of automatically generated documentation directly from the source files.

 

 

To output a full Android version of “Hello World" we’ll create another project.

<NOTE>     from JimD                      When I first installed the “Adroid plug-in” the “File –> New –> Android Project” was not listed.   I can try to describe the issue with getting the plug-in to work – or, just presume that everyone else will figure that out.    </NOTE>

 

SELECT “File –> New –> Android Project –> ” ( appears directly below the “Java Project” menu, from the Eclipse main window.

Fill in the following information, in the form

• Project name:            helloworld
• (*) Create new project in workspace
• Build Target:              Android 2.1        (select from the list)

Properties:

• Application name:      HelloWorld
• Package name:          org.example.helloworld
• Create Activity:           Hello
• Min SDK Version:        7                      (automatically filled in for you)

[Finish] button, to create the project.

 

Expand the project browser, to navigate down thru “src”, and “org” and “example” (note the relation to this hierarchy based on the package name you entered above.

The source file has already written for you, it provide your application’s confirmation and greeting “Hello world, Hello!”.

Again, the “Run –> Run” menu, or select [CTRL] F11 to run the application.    Although, this time you need to choose “Android Application” to get the output to run on the simulator.   

BECAUSE IT’S THE FIRST TIME, your program doesn’t have a default virtual device – this is remedied easily because the plug-in recognized that there’s no compatible target found.   Select [YES] to the dialog box which asks if you want to create one.  I gave it the name em21 (for Emulator 2.1) and you may wish to come back and create another for version 1.5 or 1.6 when you use some demo code for the earlier versions.  Fill in the other information as follows:

• Name:     em21
• Target:    Android 2.1 – API Level 7
• SDCard:  128M
• Skin:       default

 

Exploring further:

To modify this first Android application, navigate down to the folders \res\values and double click the “strings.xml” to change either the string “hello” or the “app_name” one.    The files can be edited in the “Resources” mode, or in “strings.xml” source tags mode.

 

 

The target simulator in Windows is worthy of a screen shot – this illustrates how easily an installation, and initial demo can be accomplished.

The small circle icon with a triangle inside it on the Android screen expands to display more apps on the desktop. Those are shown on the right (an Alarm Clock, the Browser, Calculator, Camera, etc). If you select the triangle within the circle icon – it’ll shrink back again, to the original desktop. Running one of these apps is as easy as selecting (with your computer’s mouse, or using the simulator’s arrow keys to navigate the cursor), it will run and takes over the android’s screen.  Other applications are continuing to run, but become background tasks to the one running in the screen.

In my next blog post…   I’ll step thru using some of the sample code (which was installed on your platform when you loaded the Android SDK), as well as just showing the target system simulation.  The target simulator may look like a quite generic handset (even though there are a number of vendors building Android based cell phone already) this simulator is live on the web from the very start; so, try selecting “Browser” and see how quickly you can search for a local movie to go see the latest block buster movie in a theater near your home!   (hint, hint:   just enter “movie 01890” (use your own zipcode!)    You may find that you need to use the “MENU” button, and select “Settings” to change the “Language & Keyboard” to English USA (or, your favorite language) and disable some of the keyboard “text settings” for character sets which you may not recognize.

<summary> of Jim’s Android Development entries, or various technical subjects, and
<other topics>of Jim’s Blog entries (a variety of miscellaneous topics)
Jim Donovan lives in the Boston suburbs, and writes blog entries on technical topics in software development tools, software quality, initiatives in green energy and conservation as well as yoga, meditation, and even chronicles of his family history. Profile LINK to his “Microsoft LIVE”, Facebook, or Linked-In profile.

Tweet your way to a job, Twitter: a micro-blog communication tool

Metro article — basic instructions for getting started with Twitter, specific to job searches. 

http://www.metro.us/us/article/2009/11/02/09/1608-82/index.xml 

 

A lot of people try to comprehend microblogs phenominon (here I will use Twitter as the main example) by comparing them to "status" updates in Facebook, or Linked in.  But, the dynamics of the "Tweet" …and, the lack of structure in a microblog stream means it just is unlike any other medium — it’s different!  Many people point out the terse nature of tweet, because it’s limited to 140 characters — but, that observation (although accurate) is missing a big part of the nature of a microblog. 

 

You should try it out. You simply can’t dismiss the reality of it’s popularity. Furthermore, I do advise: "avoid jumping to judgment"… because it is, frankly, a bit flaky!! At times, it may crash on you (or, just not let you login at times).  The glee, may wear off; and you may find that you really never want to send any tweet messages.  Which is ok — you can login and never even send any "tweets".  But, you will be missing half of the experience.   Alas, even if you just "lurk" in the fringes, the people you "follow" will give you a sense of the power of the microblog.

 

But, the minute you start to "following" people (follow is a Twitter term, somewhat like extablishing a "Friend" on Facebook, or a "connection" on Linked in)  — then, you immediately notice that they "follow" you back.   That’s unnerving.

 

But, Ghandi probably wouldn’t have resisted people following him — maybe you shouldn’t either.

 

When you decide that it’s okay to post a "tweet", then the phenominon becomes more personal.  People react to your messages, and they may follow you… just because of your message.  If you say you’re going out for a run — other runners may realize that you’re into running.  It’s ok. But, then you think it is a bit creepy — but, take a deep breath; it is ok.

 

The more you post, the more likely your daily events and ideas, your activities and opinions will creep into the messages you post. This means other people who have similar ideas might notice your "tweets".  Sorry if the vocabulary seems so foreign, I’m trying to keep the language in my description accurate, and still remain within the confines of English.

 

Enter marketing. Any phenominon, can certainly be leveraged… by marketing!

 

Any corporation which wants to track the latest media trends, starts posting their MBA brilliance — and, a message is generated, and disseminated thru Twitter!  Even an old web page, might get quoted by a tweep (twitter person).  When that web page is referenced, it’s abbreviated to keep within the limits of the 140 character twitter message;   but, none-the-less you can click on the web page URL and the source of the original web page opens.   A good way to make your corporate news quickly spread around the internet!

 

The more companies begin to use Twitter — then the more powerful the searches within Twitter can provide. You can gain insight to market trends, developments, sales, and discussions about the products or markets you’re interested in.

 

Without getting started, you can’t leverage these features!   After better understanding how Twitter works, you can begin to appreciate it’s flexibility.   But, get started with just a couple of twitter messages, and you’ll be surprised.   Let it simmer for a few days and put another few tweets "out there";  it’s pretty cool.

 

Without getting nervous that someone is trying to follow you keep your wits about you; maybe follow them to find out who they are.  And, if you don’t know them (or, if they seem to just be a porn enthusiast — BLOCK them); you can block people and be assured they are not going to take it personally.

 

A few things to try, when you are still getting started with Twitter.  My follow suggestions:

  * local radio or TV stations, especially "news" and "weather" twitter updates

  * local papers, and national papers you respect: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc

  * companies, organizations, or anyone’s web site which shows a "Follow-us" twitter link

  * celebrities, causes, hobbies and areas of interest (do a "search" on the main twitter page)

  * GuyKawasaki    (I’m serious — just hit "follow" for him, and you’ll like reading his tweets; I’m sure!)

 

A quick comment, regarding celebs — they can be authenticated, and their twitter id will have "verified" with a blue check-mark; for example AmyGrant is the singer, and friendsOfAmy is a twitter account which is maintained by her fan club and agent.

 

Be careful; especially at first when you aren’t exactly sure who is listening.   When you "tweet" you should expect your message to be read by anyone, and everyone.   Whom-ever you’d least like to see that stream of text… may very likely read it!   Post your messages, as if they are being shouted from the mountain tops — because they are!

 

If the president of the USA might get offended by your message, think twice about sending your twitter update;  or, if the president of your company might not like what you’ve said maybe hold back, a bit;  or, your town elders; whom-ever might not see the humor in your off-handed commentary — you should presume they’ll read it too!    And, if you are looking for a job,   the power of twitter shouldn’t be ignored;   but, be cautious about your tweets,  guard your words carefully — they have become public property, and you no longer control the distribution of your statements.   You never know where that next job might come from, and you never know who’s listening to your tweets.

 

REMEMBER: If you don’t like random people following you — it’s okay to "block" them.    There’s millions of people out there, they probably wont take it very personally that you removed them from your list of followers.

 

Tech info: in-depth review of Verizon/Hub

September 2009 – UPDATE: I wrote up my second impression of the residential IP Phone from Verizon Wireless (Also, see their simulator/demo).    (For the original commentary, see my initial review)

Almost EVERYTHING WRITTEN BELOW became obsolete by Verizon Wireless having discontinued the Verizon/Hub (9/30/2009).
see:    http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2009-09/the-verizon-hub-has-been-discontinued

The Verizon/Hub had offered significant new capabilities for a home phone:

• Directory “phone number look-up”
• Movie Listings, for your local region
• Sending and receiving TXT messages at home, for Verizon cell phones only
• Simultaneous ring (to an additional three telephones, either landlines or mobile)
• Access from a web browser to configure the phone, hear voice mail, download photos
• Mapping feature, for an address of a contact
• Audio streaming as an internet radio
• Uploading photos, to use the display as a LCD Picture Frame

I have a lot of positive comments to add;  but I also wont ignore the main problem with the telephone – the touch screen input is an issue.  Using the touch screen is awkward, it is a debilitating human factor which will prevent the product from becoming a staple of residential gadgetry in American homes. The one common theme in my reflection of the cool features is how clunky the interface is for entering numbers or strings into the Verizon-Hub.  But, I am not going to repeat similar commentary for each of the following features.  But, it is a reoccurring issue which I found with each area of the Verizon-Hub: it is just clunky, and sometimes freezes up when you’re entering data.

The directory services to look up someone’s phone number is noteworthy, especially because you wouldn’t tend to expect your home phone to have such a feature – you’d dial 411, or go to your phone book or web browser.  So, it’s a nice thought that you could go to the phone and find a number and dial it… all in one quick action.

The Movie Listing – are very well done. By linking effectively into the internet for a source of preview trailers, and movie listing times at local theaters, the phone has become a handy appliance. It’s not that you couldn’t do the same on your home computer, but just that the telephone is a quick and easy way to research which shows are worth seeing tonight. And, the phone is already powered up, which you might have to await the home computer’s boot-up time to do the same function. Ok, ok, I know your computer was already on too – but, in the ideal world you might be shutting your computer down to save power!!?!  The long-and-short-of-it…  is that the movie guide is well incorporated into the phone’s design, and offers a seamless way to do a quick lookup.  Even if you were on the phone while you’re searching for a movie!

There is this feature called “Simultaneous Ring” which is remarkable! This is something that a home telephone has needed for many years. First, to explain how it works to make sure my comments ring true for you. By adding a few numbers into the simultaneous ring feature, you will get called on your cell phone, or on your office line, or even in another home each time the main number is called. This means, when a friend calls your home number, your cell phone will also ring – it’s excellent. The line which picks up first, gets connected. Other providers of this kind of service have charged a premium, it’s always been out-of-reach for the casual (i.e. home) user.

But before you get all giddy – you need to comprehend the implications. It means, any calls to your home phone now start coming to your cell phone while you’re in the grocery store, or library; or at the office or at the golf course. If someone meant to call your cell phone – you’re used to taking calls in random places, but can you get used to that when they thought they were calling you at your home number? So, it’s not a technology issue, it is a psychology thing. But, if you get used to it – it’s superb.

One more little side-effect of our experience with Simultaneous Ring feature which we hadn’t expected was misplacing our voicemail messages. The simultaneous ring meant that various numbers of rings which caused the voice mail system to kick-in were answering at different times.  We still had an old analog answering machine connected to one of the numbers we tested out our simultaneous ring – so, a machine which never had any messages was getting a lot of our voice mails.  The compromise was to just shorted the number of rings before the greeting message on the Verizon-Hub comes on, but that wasn’t satisfactory. The right thing was to disable the voice mail on that extra line.  But, a similar issue occurs with my cell phone; it’s answering more quickly than the Hub… so, my wife will miss out on messages which were intended for her; hmmmm. THAT’s a PROBLEM! But, let me repeat myself:  Simultaneous Ring is EXCELLENT, as long as you’re ready for the complications which come along with the feature.

There’s been a few times that I just can’t get tones to be transmitted properly, even in using Verizon’s own voice messaging system – the digits I press on the cordless handset are not heard by systems at the other end of the line.  This is a fundamental of telephone systems, so it is a huge surprise that they wouldn’t have tested this feature. When you call a company and they say: “press ‘1’ for sales, ‘2’ for support” the digits you dial are ignored. This is unimaginable for a product from the phone company!

Sending TXT is limited to cell phones on the Verizon network.  I am sure there’s a good reason for this, but I can’t imagine what the reason is. To me, it seems short sighted, and is almost guaranteed to just make customers grumpy about Verizon wireless policies. Is the cost of TXT’ing a prohibitive fee to the Verizon Wireless business?  Do they already have agreements with all the major carriers to relay TXT off to these other vendors?

Of course, the use of that nice 7” screen (but, no external displays can be connected) is great for making a slide show, and including your own photos as a part of the sequence.  You can also watch movie trailers on the LCD screen, similar to what you would do on a web browser before you pick which movie to go to this evening. It’s as good as having a full computer booted up, so the only question is whether you leave your computer running all the time??!?   You kind of need to leave your phone running all the time, so it would have been on anyway!

 

 

A closing note, the design of the Verizon/Hub is clearly influenced by Verizon, some features are significantly enhanced by the clout the largest telecom service provider having guided it’s inception – but, the hardware and probably major amounts of the system software were completed by Open Peak.  If the product seems interesting, you should investigate the source of the implementation; they are pretty good! (watch their video)

The print advertising for the product appeared in House Beautiful magazine (if not other medium) and we had to share the ad because it made it seem like it was our own personal product – for the “Donovan HUB”, check this out:

<summary> of Jim’s Technology Topics entries
<other topics>of Jim’s Blog entries (various topics)
Jim writes blog entries on technical topics in software development tools, software quality, initiatives in green energy and conservation as well as yoga, meditation, and chronicles of his family history. Profile LINK in “Windows/LIVE”, Facebook, Plaxo, or Linked-In profiles.

LiveJournal Tags: Verizon Wireless,Verizon-Hub

tech – Media Extender $100 from Linksys (for Microsoft Media Center Win/Vista application)

The Media Extender works with Microsoft’s entertainment system; and originally retailed for $300 or more…  it can be purchased today for around $100 – is it worth it? In a word: no.

But, it is a sign of things to come. In the same way that Apple’s TV was an experiment, the ability to record broadcast television or recieve early content of internet TV (which is limited, but at times can provide unique interesting content!??!) – but, it’s clearly still not main stream media, and will take time before it’s become the “normal way to view” broadcast material.

If a TV tuner is added to a Windows/Vista PC then the Media Center provides features like a DVR or TiVo. But, you could watch the Media Center on your PC, so the feature that a “Extender” adds is that it’s being displayed on your TV with the comfort of your living room, bedroom, or den. That’s all.

To quote one reviewer (on Amazon.com) DMA-2100 is very much worthy of your $100.   [ J. Sopha,  Oct 2008 ]

If you are thinking to purchase one, be sure you get the extender with DVD player – but, there’s TWO key facts to keep in mind:

• The DVD player will play a DVD to be displayed on the same TV which the video output is connected, but don’t expect the DVD to interact with your PC (like to provide input to the media recording on the host PC)
• The resolution is limited (it’s NOT an HD media player); you will see the equivalent to SVGA/XVGA output, but not HD 720p or 1080i

The menus are identical to the Media Center on a Windows/Vista – and, the remote works when aimed at the Linksys Media Extender – it interacts with your Windows machine over a wired or wireless home network.  It’s pretty well done, even though the response time is sluggish at times (and, you end up wondering if it’s your PC, or the Network, or the internet – well, it’s just the Media Extender (my guess).

As I said above, it’s not worth spending $300, and it’s really not even worth $100 unless you think a $100 conversation piece or a relic of the museum to remember ten years from now that you had the first media extender that was ever built.  But, later on, there will be a version which works with BluRay and it will provide a HD video output – and, it will cost $50.  Or, it will just become a part of the TV’s built-in features, and you wont even realize how little it costs.

LiveJournal Tags: Windows Media Center

<other topics>of Jim’s Blog entries (various topics)
  Jim writes blog entries on technical topics in software development tools, software quality, initiatives in green energy and conservation as well as yoga, meditation, and chronicles of his family history. Profile LINK to his “Microsoft LIVE” profile, Facebook, or Linked-In profile.