Technology and Living in the 21st Century

I have to say that I haven't spent a great deal of time on the all the different music sharing sites but when I stumbled across BLIP.fm, I was a little surprised to see the level of conversation that occurs on BLIP.fm.
What struck me the most is that some people use this site to tweet with those that share the same taste in music. It could be sharing a mood, a lost love, or a joy in the fact that it is the weekend. The fact that there at @ replies, direct messages and hashtags makes this site stand out as a Twitter music stite
that is Twitter talk but sharing music at the same time. The conversations and threads can be long (over time) and interesting. Along the way, you will meet new people and end up following new people on Twitter. And all this from listening to a little music.
I will blip a song that I like and want share and I have other people re-blipping that song and giving me props. This in turn will introduce me to people who have songs that they want to share and this then opens me up to other songs and artists that I might have never heard before. This is a global environment and people like to share local talent.
On Twitter, people are sharing URLs to websites, blogs, and news feeds where BLIP.fm, GrooveShark, List.fm and other sites are dedicated to sharing music. I've tried a few more than this but haven't gotten the bug like I have with BLIP.fm.
My one frustration with BLIP.fm is finding songs. Sometimes I will have to scroll through many songs to find the right one only to find out that it isn't available. Oh well, things will change and evolve and my taste in music will change.

This week, Twitter introduced a new policy that restricts the average Twitter user to following no more than 1000 people in a given day. This was implemented to address performance issues that have recently plagued Twitter. Now I think that this is a good short term policy while the company expands their infrastructure to better handle the load.

However, I don't think this policy is being implemented for the right and proper reasons. If you are new to Twitter or are looking for new people to follow and want some recommendations, the guys at twitter will be more than happy to give you a few people who you can follow. The list of "Suggested Users" has grown significantly and includes the likes of @aplusk and @cnnbrk who were recently involved in a very public marketing campaign. I doubt that any of these accounts have the same limitations placed on them as the rest of the Twittersphere. Can you imagine if this policy was in place for @aplusk, @cnnbrk, @TheEllenShow, or @johncmayer? This policy is in place so that the celebrities and others on the "Suggested Users" page can be followed by as many people as possible without impacting the user experience of following celebrities and other famous Twitter accounts. Oh, and all of these tweeters are primarily one way conversations. Just another way to send out a message to the masses.

This new policy has created an even more 'elite' status on Twitter. Not only are you famous but you can have tens of thousands of people follow you every day while we toil in the weeds. Granted, I will never follow a thousand people in one day. But you never know, I may want to one day. Hopefully, by then, Twitter will have expanded their infrastructure enough to allow me to follow more people than I could possibly manage without my tweeting turning into a full time job.

Till then, I will continue to tweet in mediocrity.

I took the weekend off from blogging and other IT consulting work to spend the time with my family. However, all is not lost in the blogging arena. I will be updating the blog this week with some reviews of my latest crime-fighting and adventure traveling technology.
I purchased a new point and shoot camera that is waterproof to 10m or 33ft and shockproof to 2m or 6.6ft.I see lots of potential for both adventure trekking and crime-fighting with this camera.
I've upgraded at least half of my treking gear. Weight reduction and new technology are all the primary modivators behind these acquisitions.This includes boots, jackets, new tech clothing, stove, water purification,etc. The list goes on.
So, stay tuned. As I find the time this week, I will be posting more information and some reviews.

Why on earth would I want to backup my Twitter account. I trust that the guys are keeping everything safe and sound on their servers and I should always trust them.
Well, I can think of a couple of reasons why you might want to backup your Twitter account.

Just to refresh your memory, the program that I am referring to is tweetake. This site allows you to backup a whole host of stuff from your Twitter account.



Ok, why don't I start with some of the reasons why you might want to backup your Twitter account.
1. You're new BFF just got on Twitter and wants to know 'everyone' and follow everyone that you follow. Well, save her the time and email the list of friends to follow.
2. You have a crazy online stalker who is leaving you very weird and strange tweets. Backup the tweets and start working on that restraining order.
3. You love to work with Excel pivot tables and arranging your tweets by followers, DMs and friends in a pivot table looks way too cool.
4. You want to change your Twitter name and re-follow everyone as well as contact everyone that is following you. See #2 for reason to change name.
5. I just like to backup everything up.
6. Remember the Black Thursday Twitter crash from the summer of '08? (July to be specific). People lost followers that day. With a backup, you can save the time and energy of re-following those friends and waiting for people to re-follow you. Twitter did their best to recover all of the data but some of it was never recovered.
So, it is always better to be prepared than to be sorry. Backup your Twitter account now, before it is too late.

I've followed a bunch of new friends who are going to help me achieve all of my dreams. Here is how it works.
I have friends following me who promise they that they can show me how to make $2,500/wk. And that is without doing anything more than clicking on a URL! Imagine That! I can't wait as I must have clicked on at least 1,000 of these URLs, which, according to my math, means I will be making $2.5 million dollars a week! I'm not sure what else I will have to do but I eagerly wait for the cash to start rolling in.

The other set of friends that are following me, promise that I can get a new laptop if I click on their link. Now, I could use about 1000 new laptops for my neural network that will control the power output of my Flux Capacitor powered super hero den. I must have clicked on 2000 of these URLs in the hope that at least 1/2 of them will arrive.

The power of Twitter amazes me with the fact that I have all of these people wanting to show me how to make money and get free laptop without doing any work makes it worth every tweet.

If you've gotten your free money or laptop, please let me know so I can start planning my retirement and sign the lease on the new space that I need to expand the lair.

Oh, and I'm tweeting with a Nigerian Prince who is having money problems and says that I can help him get out of trouble.

I've had many people ask me for an update on my Flux Capacitor appliance project (ok, several people). I wanted to let everyone know just where I am with the project and some of my successes and failures that I've experienced along the way.
The first major hurdle that I had to overcome was the power output conversion from the Flux Capacitor to 110 volts AC. The Flux Capacitor is a DC power output device that kicks out 1.21 jiggawatts of power. The typical household appliance blows up real good when current is applied directly to the motor. After a little tinkering, I was able to get a standard DC-AV inverter to work (after I buffered the power output down to a reasonable rate).
For a little background. I started this project with the intention of sending a working washing machine, dryer or dishwasher back in time approximately 40 minutes. This way, I would have a completed load of laundry or dishes flash in front of me without having to wait for the entire wash cycle. Pretty good concept, eh? Saves a ton of time on household chores.
I didn't have much luck with the dishwasher. The field side affects of the Flux capacitor did some strange things to anything that was non metallic which didn't please my wife.

The dryer experiment didn't work at all as the drum didn't spin fast enough in any of the tests. Any modifications made to increase the RPMs only resulted in lackluster results for any delicate clothes which caused me to scrap that experiment.
The washing machine was a mixed results experiment in that it worked perfectly with an unexpected outcome. The bad news is that I think I have a decimal error in my calculations and sent the washing machine back in time either 40 or 400 years. I've been at the archives reviewing old newspapers to see if any stories about the sudden appearance of a strange alien device filled with wet cloths made the headlines. I'm also trying to figure out just where I made the error in my math. The good news is that it work! I just have to iron out the bugs in my math.
I've also had requests for a Flux Capacitor powered vacuum cleaner. Thus far, this is still on the drawing board as I can't find a willing volunteer to go back in time with the vacuum cleaner (it can't drive itself people!). I don't see this one getting very far.

I've had to suspend the experiments for now and look for a new washing machine for my wife. Any future experiments will be done on older washing machines (I promise).

If you don't care to experiment with a Flux Capacitor but would like to show off your very own replica to your friends and fellow geeks, hurry to ThinkGeek before they run out again (they go quickly). Please note: This is a replica and doesn't output the power needed to manipulate time.


(photo courtesy of Thinkgeek)

Yes, I've tried to power my entire house with the Flux Capacitor but you have to remember that this device only supplies power for short bursts which makes it impractical for powering the house. Believe me, I've tried.