TECH: MEEBO, and the MEEBOME widget,

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

http://www.meebo.com

This is an IM aggregator. It makes it possible to watch several IMs at the same time. That didn’t know my socks off.

Now they have a widget that you put on your web page and it allows a visitor to IM you. Hey now that’s interesting.

I put it on my personal webpage and let’s see if anyone uses it.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: 1AND1 blog option shoots me in the foot

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

This critique is obsolete. See comments below.

When the 1AND1 hosting provider offered free blogs, I tried it.

I was singularly unimpressed when it turned out to be nothing more than a free WordPess blog like this one. Why was I fooled into thinking that there be something substantive behind it? No big deal. No harm. Nothing but some wasted time and effort.

Today, blundering about with MEEBO, I realized that my web page was down.

And, know one told me. Show’s you how popular I am! Arghh!!

I used FIlezilla to ensure that all my files were in tact there. Phew, that could have made me depend on my LUGGABLE to get them all back in place. OR, my backups. But, now need to pull the fire alarm … yet.

It appears that 1AND1 redirected the webpage to the blog unbeknowst to me. Double Arghhh!

I deleted the test blog, and eventually … … after ten anxious minutes … … it refreshed everything to where it should be.

Lessons Learned: Watch for the unintended consequences.

Updated 2007-04-07

1and1 has a new blog destination from it administration page. It now gives you a blog that appears to be a hosted version of WORDPRESS. It know longer throws you to the free WORDPRESS DOT COM site. That’s both bad and good. Good in that you can use javascript if you can figure out how. Bad in that the free WORDPRESS site has lots of assumptions that you can use without knowing too much. I pinged 1and1 support and they have no doc, no faq, and no real support for what they have deployed. (Dangerous?) They said it would be out RSN (Real Soon Now)! You, and so will Christmas. Any way this critique is no longer applicable. But I’d suggest caution in proceeding with the offering.THe reward MAY be worth the risk.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: “YouOS” an “interesting concept”. Not really an OS, but something else. What I don’t know?

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

http://www.youos.com

It certainly has made me think. (Always a dangerous proposition!) I may quibble about it as an OS. IMHO an OS brings bare metal to life. YouOS stands on the shoulders of whatever OS is installed on one’s hardware. Having said that, it “feels” like an OS. Maybe if I write an app, I may have another thought, or two. Certainly congrats and kudos are in order for an “interesting” implementation.

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: How to get the gubamint, and their “regulated” utilities, to respond … media!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

This morning on Jim Gearhart’s show on 101.5, he reported on the results of his airing of a listener’s trouble getting a utility pole repaired. Jim recounted the man’s ordeal trying to get help from JCPL, followed by attempt to get the BPU, who “regualtes” it, to do something. Ten months of frustration get fixed in one day due to Jim’s recitation. Everyone was falling all over themselves to get out of the limelight.

Lessons Learned: (1) Involve Jim sooner in your plight. Maybe eventually he’ll run for guv! (2) Recognize that the cozy relationship between the regulator and the regulated has NOTHING to do with satisfying you the taxpaying consumer. (3) There is no free market in regulated services. Just as we identify a tax by whether or not you can avoid it (i.e., tax unavoidable / fee avoidable), so to we can identify a free market as one in which you have a choice (i.e., any choice no matter how absurd or unpallitable is at least a choice). The interesting question is: If the gubamint madates that I have no choice, is that not in effect a tax? Sure seems that way to me.

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Posted by reinkefj