TECHNOLOGY: Google’s GOOGLE+ might be a big winner

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Recently I scored an invite to GOOGLE+, Google’s competitor to FACEBOOK. While my initial experience with it has been rough, I can see that this could be a BIG winner for Google in the “enterprise space”. It may even compete with LinkedIn, the recruiter’s white pages. This is also a competitor for various products and services that do “management of enterprise identities” (e.g., SALESFORCE; sales funnel management tools, Customer Relationship Management products). That’s how big it could be.

In a nutshell, it’s like FACEBOOK for a User’s define communities.

I’d suggest that every IT person should be grabbing a GOOGLE+ invite and try it for themselves. It’s going to be in the enterprise and everyone should understand the raw power that it represents.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Free public access for a month to 6.5 Million eBooks

Saturday, July 9, 2011

http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/64627

Millions of eBooks Available at the World eBook Fair
July 6, 2011 20:31

*** begin quote ***

The World eBook Fair runs from July 4 through August 4, 2011. Their goal is to provide Free public access for a month to 6.5 Million eBooks. Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive are both contributing organizations and will be presenting a number of items in other media this year, including music, movies and artwork, even dance choreography. The collections include light and heavy reading materials, more reference books, scientific items, etc., and about 50,000 music entries in addition to the 12,000 that debuted last year.

*** end quote ***

Wow, can one OD on content?

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: GOOGLE+ slugish start

Friday, July 8, 2011

GOOGLE+, Google’s version of FACEBOOK, is off to a slow start.

Somehow, not really sure how, I scored an invite.

Initial setup was trivial.

Added about forty folks whom I thought could benefit and enjoy this new “facebook”.

The big attraction to me was the ability to update, like “tweet”, to a specific subset of identities. My highschool mates versus my favorite headhunters versus my relatives.

Rumor hath it that adding someone to a circle triggered an invite.

So I loaded a dummy email (i.e., one of the many I have for various purposes) and about 12 hours later, it received an email update but no invite. So much for that myth.

It’s not very useful without participation. I could effect the same result with a big CC list.

Also, it appears that I can’t control the display name of the identity in my circle.

Also, it appears that there is a weak linkage to GMAIL’s contacts. With no “update”. I went to GMAIL’s contacts and I can’t figure out where the “name” for an identity is coming from. I loaded an email into GOOGLE+ and put in the name in the format I like. Poof, it gave it a different name that is not related to anything I have for it. Weird? And, I can’t fix it.

Finally, putting a post in the Google group for support, generates an email summary of a hundred or so messages, at semi random intervals.

Interesting?

# – # – # – # – # 2011-Jul-08 @ 06:26

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: Cloud update breaks app; flaw with the logic of the Cloud

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

NYT Update Breaks iPad App, Annoys Subscribers

by timothy

jbrodkin writes “The New York Times, which recently started charging iPad readers $20 a month, has a lot of angry digital subscribers after an update broke the NYTimes for iPad application. The update was designed to make it easier for readers to subscribe to the Times through iTunes (irony!) but instead left readers unable to access any articles. Worse, the Times didn’t bother to fix the app over the long weekend or reply to users who complained on Twitter. It’s not the first time developers have broken an iPad application with a poorly constructed update, but reader complaints noted that the size of the New York Times and the high price it charges make this gaffe particularly galling. Angry users have driven the app’s rating down to less than two out of five stars.”

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IT Pros know the problem. How do you run “production” when you have no change control process?

Answer: You don’t.

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Posted by reinkefj

HARDWARE: Free up tour guides to do other wealth building activities?

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-hopes-ipod-can-bring-silence-to-romes-churches

Vatican hopes iPod can bring silence to Rome’s churches

By David Kerr

*** begin quote ***

Rome, Italy, Jun 24, 2011 / 06:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican has introduced a new way of keeping silence in their churches while also informing tourists – the iPod.

Today is the first full day of a trial which sees pilgrims to the basilica of St. John Lateran given the audio-guide with a special app explaining the 1,700-year history of the church, which serves as the Pope’s cathedral.

“I can easily say that in Italy there are no examples of experiences like this in religious contexts, probably not even those in museums,” Jelena Jovanovic said to CNA. Her company, Antenna International, created the handheld device.

*** end quote ***

Think about the poor guides out of work.

Technology marches on.

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Text message delayed as needed

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

http://ohdontforget.com

schedule text messages

Text messages queued up with Ohdontforget.com will be delivered at the date & time specified, unless you specify “now”, which will send the message instantly.

creative uses

Remind anyone about an event at a specific day & time queue up birthday reminders for the next several months have your to–do items sent to you throughout the day.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: “Driverless” in compared to the Gooferment’s “High Speed Rail”

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/driverless-nevada

Driverless Nevada
Posted by Randal O’Toole

*** begin quote ***

The introduction of true driverless cars will significantly expand personal mobility because anyone—not just people over 16 who can pass a driver’s test—will be able to use them. Driverless cars will reduce congestion and improve safety. The new mobility will significantly change the way we live. And the cars will render obsolete any and all rail transit and moderate-speed rail lines now being planned or under construction long before taxpayers finish paying the heavy debts incurred to build such lines.

*** end quote ***

Having just driven recently for 8 hours from NJ to NH and a week later the reverse, I’d love to have had one!

Perhaps, if the car execs didn’t have their heads so far up the Gooferment’s <synonym for donkey>, then yhey could see that they are not in the “car biz”. They are in “satisfying people’s need to move” biz!

Argh!

I haven’t gotten around to a Segway yet. Looked on the website and you can’t even tell how much they cost.

Do people really try and do anything to make stuff easy for commerce?

Argh!

You’d think these people would be falling over people to sell ANYTHING that a buyer wants.

Sigh! If marketing is a conversation, then these folk have their listening ears closed.

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Posted by reinkefj

HARDWARE: Apple’s perfidy continues

Monday, June 27, 2011

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/25/time-capsule-torn-asunder-no-server-grade-hard-drive-inside/

Time Capsule torn asunder, no “server grade” hard drive inside
by Victor Agreda, Jr.Jun 25th 2011 at 4:00PM

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Headline says it all. Caveat emptor.

Must be time to move to Linux.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Diwheel – gravity-defying?

Monday, June 27, 2011

http://www.impactlab.net/2011/06/14/the-diwheel-gravity-defying-electric-vehicle/

June 14th, 2011 at 11:30 am

The Diwheel – gravity-defying electric vehicle

in: Alternative Transportation, Crazy Stuff, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

*** begin quote ***

The gravity-defying vehicle has two large wheels that are axially aligned with an inner frame. This holds the driver who is strapped in with a racing harness. A joystick is used to turn it on the spot and drive it forwards at up to 25mph. The bright yellow electric motor is affectionately known as Edward, which is short for Electric Diwheel With Active Rotation Damping.

*** end quote ***

I don’t understand “gravity-defying”.

If you do, can you explain it to me?

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TECHNOLOGY: New top level domains?

Friday, June 24, 2011

http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/icann_new_open_domain_policy/#When:11:42:00Z

ICANN New Open Domain Policy

Posted by: Michael on Mon, Jun 20th, 2011

*** begin quote ***

Today ICANN voted to change the way we visit websites, they have pretty much allowed for any word to be a generic top-level domain (gTLD) starting in 2012. What is a g? You may know them as .com, .net, .org and .edu. There are currently 22 top level g’s.

*** end quote ***

I don’t see a lot of value. Other than TLD<xxx> for porn.

I’m not sure that DNS provides a lot of value for the problems it has and point of failure it introduces.

And, it keeps us from “solving” the identity crisis. How do I find folks on the net and how do I know it the right one? Think Lilly Tomlin as the Telephone Lady: “Is this the party to whom I am speaking?”. Makes as much sense. It’s much worse on Twitter and little better on Facebook.

Argh!

Why can’t we have phone numbers as a TLD. AAA-BBB-CCCC.tel. I thought that was proposed a while ago. Require Google validation of the identity and then you have “identity” solved.

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