100 – Page 3 – ɔimoɈɒ

6/100 How Flickr Did it Right

This week I got Flickr working with iPhoneSlide. It means I can upload/email photos direct from my iPhone to my Flickr account. I didn’t previously have a Flickr account. I just enabled Flickr on my existing Yahoo account (which is one of the oldest IM accounts I have, dating back to about 2000, eclipsed only … Continue reading “6/100 How Flickr Did it Right”

This week I got Flickr working with iPhoneSlide. It means I can upload/email photos direct from my iPhone to my Flickr account. I didn’t previously have a Flickr account. I just enabled Flickr on my existing Yahoo account (which is one of the oldest IM accounts I have, dating back to about 2000, eclipsed only by my MSN address which was HoTMaiL before Hotmail was Microsoft.

This is one of the reasons why I’m keen on Flickr. It’s open enough and has the mass behind it to be really really good. Yahoo has had few real successes recently but their acquisition of Flickr far outshines eBay’s purchase of Skype, Google’s buying of Jaiku and FaceBook’s acquisition of Microsoft (what?).

As someone else said:

Flickr is bottom-up: unmoderated, horizontal, unhierarchical, networked, and open to just about any kind of use.

Things I like about Flickr?

It’s not just the sharing, it’s the who. Flickr is, perhaps more than any dedicated social sites like FaceBook or Orkut, a social network for people to hook up and talk about real things – pictures they have taken. There’s no pressure to be a fabulous photographer – for many it’s just a place to share images – each worth a thousand words – for others to see. The only real estimation of worth is the “favourites” system. Who cares about the appreciation of jaded photographers when you can be the favourite of real people.

And, in addition to all of this, you can get FlickrExporter for iPhoto from ConnectedFlow (the brainchild of Fraser Speirs).

[Chris Brogan’s 100 topics]

5/100 Technology That Empowers Me

Let me start by saying that I’m not a gadgeteer. I don’t rush out for the latest and greatest. That said, apart from Mac computers I have had my fair share of palmtops and phones over the last decade. Nine gadgets in 10 years isn’t bad. I’ve only ever bought one gaming console, a Nintendo … Continue reading “5/100 Technology That Empowers Me”

Nine gadgets in 10 years isn’t bad. I’ve only ever bought one gaming console, a Nintendo Wii, which I bought last Christmas and haven’t played much (it’s more for the kids) and other than that I have no “spare” computers. I’ve resisted electronic photo albums, I don’t have a massive HD TV, I do have a DVD recorder (at me mums), I don’t have a Gameboy, PSP, DS or any other handheld devoted to games, I’ve never owned a WindowsCE/PocketPC/Windows Mobile device though at one point I had real gadget-lust for a Casio model. I do have an iPod Video 60 GB which stores the kids movies and my music (which means I don’t need to break out the DVDs when the kids want to watch something). Every old Mac has gone to a new home so it’s only a few other smaller, more personal, gadgets that remain.

Newton MessagePad 120 – given away
Newton MessagePad 2000 – can’t quite bear to part with it
Palm Vx – lying somewhere about the house
Ericsson T39m – traded in…for…
Sony-Ericsson T68i – traded in…for…
Motorola RAZR V3 – in my room, as a spare phone
Sony-Ericsson K800i – spare phone again, just in case
Nokia N800 – sitting in the house, abandoned…
iPod touch – with a new master
iPhone – toy of choice

I guess it depends on how you define empowerment.

Empowerment

# To equip or supply with an ability; enable: “Computers … empower students to become intellectual explorers” (Edward B. Fiske).

For the most part, the phones never changed the way I worked. The only devices which have seriously changed the way I did things were the Newton MessagePad 2000 and the iPhone.

The MessagePad was the first device that made me leave my laptop at home. When travelling I’d have it on the plane, keyboard placed behind the screen, typing away. I’d download email over the modem before dinner at the hotel, eat dinner and reply to email and then when I returned to my room, upload my replies to the mailserver. It worked well. It had enough utility to mean I stopped bringing a heavy Dell laptop bag everywhere. When I got ethernet and a VT100 terminal emulator on it, it became indispensible for my work. I could connect to the routers and switches in the network using either a serial cable or over ethernet. The battery life lasted days rather than minutes (my DELL had a battery life of about 90 minutes) which meant it just stayed with me everywhere. Of course it was massive which meant I had to keep it in my hand, inside a large jacket pocket (and this was before fatigues-style cargo pants were fashionable). It changed my lifestyle. I felt connected. But it got left behind as my job became less “footwork” and more “deskwork” and the keyboard was no match for the Powerbook that graced my desk and powered a 21 inch monitor. People still wax about the Newton and take the jokes about it in a good-natured way. No-one who really used it found it funny – it was just essential and we’re reminded of it every time we empty the trash in Mac OS X or delete a message on the iPhone.

The iPhone has done much the same. Heavy laptop and bag doesn’t often leave the house. It’s still used in the evening because it has apps I need (iWork, Mail for the accounts I don’t carry with me, XCode) and a massive screen. But day to day I carry iPhone with me because it means when I get home I have 10-20 emails to clear down rather than 200-300. Again I feel connected but this time it’s the real thing. The technology here makes Star Trek look positively dated. The only issue is battery life. I get a full day of heavy usage out of it but I’d really like a good bit more than that. It’s not much different to my crappy, blocky, slow K800i but the difference being that I’m actively using the device all day. It’s checking my email every 15 minutes, dragging down updates all day, letting me view my new house, searching out WiFi hotspots continuously and dazzling me with the brightness of the screen. I’ve yet to completely run out but this device is working constantly for me. Web pages load faster than on my allegedly 3G K800i and the whole device is just a lot more fun.

Other than that – technology that empowers me?

WordPress – accept no substitutes.
Mac OS X – working with Windows every day makes me appreciate my Mac all the more.
Cocoa – based entirely on what I learned and achieved last night with NSMutableArray and NSTableView.
RSS – because it brings the web back to 1995 in terms of formatting and delivers it to your doorstep. Content-enriched!

There’s more. Digital photography so I can keep photos of my kids with me everywhere. Instant Messenger applications which help me work, collaborate, ask questions, help friends and otherwise be part of a rich social network. Text-Messaging (SMS) because it’s the norm for communication – it’s like RSS – a content rich form of communication with really low overheads. And I’d add social networking because it’s how I met her-indoors. And I’m really grateful for that.

I can’t wait to see what technology empowers my kids. They’ll take so much for granted and it’s getting to the point where they will need to have their own computer, complete with iSight, just to maintain their own social network. I would like to think that our children would grow up educated and informed and wouldn’t be stupid and arrogant enough to believe they can get away with things that are illegal or just wrong.

We can marvel at the iPhone but I marvelled at the Newton and the comparison there is 10 years of technology. Our iPhones now will look as bulky and ridiculous as the Newton does now by the time my kids are in their teens.

4/100 A Community I Love

While there are communities around everything, there are some that I love. I made some good friends and met my fiancee on an online community but I don’t go there any more. Some communities have a way of tiring. They’re best when you take breaks from them. I’ve never really fitted in with some communities. … Continue reading “4/100 A Community I Love”

While there are communities around everything, there are some that I love.

I made some good friends and met my fiancee on an online community but I don’t go there any more. Some communities have a way of tiring. They’re best when you take breaks from them.

I’ve never really fitted in with some communities. The RPG community for example always seemed a little strange and alien and, as a result, I preferred to just blog on my lonesome rather than try to fit in with their arcane rules and preferences.`RPG.net, for example, is extremely bound by their little groups of mini-Hitlers. Anything you say that contains sarcasm or opinion is going to be vetted and you quickly find yourself labelled as “passive aggressive”. It’s a crapshoot however – like a mexican standoff where one or other person will get labelled first. As a result, I pretty much hate it there.

The Mac community is different however. Again I have some ownership over the area I spend my time in and that’s comfortable. What’s better is that there’s a very vibrant community in this little corner of the world and we do our best to moderate it in terms of keeping us legal (ie, no selling software illegally). To extend that, the friends I’ve made through owning Mac-Sys have created a community there. I’ve met, because of Mac-Sys, some savvy yet amiable businesspersons and been lucky enough to keep their friendship. I’ve also met some complete goits and I’m maintaining a list.

OSX-Nutters is a community I enjoy a lot when the Yanks aren’t whining about their own politics (which of course is the best thing to do rather than using their Constitutional rights to bear arms in the event of a corrupt government). The group started when a group of people from OmniGroup’s Mac OS X Talk mailing list needed somewhere to vent off-topic as well as keeping on-topic. Some of the humour and one-liners are just inspired.

The community I love, however, is my group of family and friends. You can see most of my friends on my FaceBook page and my family fill out the rest of it. That’s my community.

3/100 Should My Town Use Social Media?

I would suggest that the towns are already using social media. A society, although organic and susceptible to memes, it doesn’t really have directed cognitive abilities. Sure, it can take advantage of the wisdom of crowds but more than not will be distracted by mob-thought. You only have to log onto FaceBook or some of … Continue reading “3/100 Should My Town Use Social Media?”

I would suggest that the towns are already using social media.

A society, although organic and susceptible to memes, it doesn’t really have directed cognitive abilities. Sure, it can take advantage of the wisdom of crowds but more than not will be distracted by mob-thought.

You only have to log onto FaceBook or some of it’s cousins to see this in action. Countries, Counties, Provinces, Towns and Villages all have their niches carved out. There may not be an accurate representation of the demographics but then the areas they can affect will most likely be those served by that demographic. So that’s fine for the net-heads who find the community but not so good for those people who don’t have internet access or the ability to find or navigate these forums. We start to create a very real digital divide where policy becomes made by the “haves” and the “have nots” lose out. Yes, that’s how the world works now – so I see no need to provide another barrier to entry.

Should the social media be formalised?

Oh, that’s a hot question. Considering the vocal demographics in Northern Ireland I think it would open a whole can of worms and require constant moderation. The discussion of seemingly simple social issues has already met some resistance and an online forum to deal with this would be subject to much the same – except of course that seemingly normal people seem to think it’s okay to act bat guano crazy just because it’s the Internet.
Don’t believe me? This is tragic and someone should go to jail.

Social media and the read/write web may be dangerous so how do we control the guano-heads out there and stop them from messing it up for everyone?

It’s simple. We can’t.

2/100. Ways I Embrace My Audience

Frankly, I don’t think I do. On LateGaming, I write about gaming/fiction and I guess it embodies my creative side. On NiMUG I get my Mac fix. There’s a couple of other places I write (sometimes anonymously) and they have their niches. Here I vent. To be honest I’m not really aware of having much … Continue reading “2/100. Ways I Embrace My Audience”

Frankly, I don’t think I do.

On LateGaming, I write about gaming/fiction and I guess it embodies my creative side. On NiMUG I get my Mac fix. There’s a couple of other places I write (sometimes anonymously) and they have their niches.

Here I vent.

To be honest I’m not really aware of having much of an audience (like I don’t get much in the way of comments) so it’s kind of hard to embrace the existing. So what’s the alternative – start writing in order to gain an audience?

Oh god, must I?

A friend of mine expressed some surprise that there was a picture on Facebook of me….and I wasn’t frowning or wearing black.

So I guess the answer is, I don’t embrace my audience.

[UPDATE: turns out that comments were disabled because WP-Gateway wasn’t working right and even when removed the theme I was using wasn’t displaying comments. Out with the old, in with the new and I’ll go back to using Challenge. Thanks to Mark H for taking the time to point it out to me. ]

1/100. How I use FaceBook

Chris Brogan writes: So, on my plane ride home from San Francisco, I decided to write you up 100 blog post titles that I want YOU to write. Number 1: How I use FaceBook I really seem to be an oddity on Facebook. Her indoors has used Facebook to connect with friends she hasn’t seen … Continue reading “1/100. How I use FaceBook”

Chris Brogan writes:

So, on my plane ride home from San Francisco, I decided to write you up 100 blog post titles that I want YOU to write.

Number 1: How I use FaceBook

I really seem to be an oddity on Facebook. Her indoors has used Facebook to connect with friends she hasn’t seen in over a decade, people she went to school with. I don’t have anyone like that in my list. I guess I must have fled the social scene, as Facebook puts it, and lost touch completely. As a result, my FaceBook friends are pretty much people I already have in my AIM buddy list with maybe half a dozen recent exceptions.

So, do I use FaceBook properly?

A few months ago I saw a diagram telling people that as a networking tool LinkedIn was “out” and Facebook was “in”. I’m not sure about that. LinkedIn is definitely work-focussed. FaceBook seems a lot more leisure to me.

To a degree I’m also using it as a diary in addition to my blog. The Status field has a twitter-esque quality and I miss not knowing how others are feeling in his respect.

I guess I’m not using it wrong. It is what it is and everyone is going to get something out of it. I only added extra applications because her-indoors bugged me about it. 🙂

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