Twitter For Beginners

Twitter

• What is Twitter?

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. While the service itself costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

The 140 character limit on message length was initially set for compatibility with SMS messaging, and has brought to the web the kind of shorthand notation and slang commonly used in SMS messages. The 140 character limit has also spurred the usage of URL shortening services such as tinyurl, bit.ly and tr.im, and content hosting services, such as Twitpic and NotePub to accommodate multimedia content and text longer than 140 characters.

Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide. It is sometimes described as the “SMS of the Internet“[3] since the use of Twitter’s application programming interface for sending and receiving short text messages by other applications often eclipses the direct use of Twitter.

Twitter is ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide by Alexa’s web traffic analysis.[4] Although estimates of the number of daily users vary because the company does not release the number of active accounts, a February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network[5] based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits.[5] In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009. Twitter had a monthly growth of 1,382 percent, Zimbio of 240 percent, followed by Facebook with an increase of 228 percent.[6] However, only 40 percent of Twitter’s users are retained.[7]

 

• How To use Twitter?

Twitter has two main components. Just like social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook, you can add “followers” and follow other people as well. They’ll receive your updates and you’ll receive theirs.

What is unique is that your messages are limited just to 140 characters, which is why some people call it a “micro-blogging” tool. You have to keep your messages brief and to the point.

Sometimes it’s a real challenge to get the point across in the allotted space, but it also leaves room for a lot of creativity! Coming up with ways to say what you have to say in that small space is part of the fun of Twitter. It makes you think about the core aspects of the message you are trying to convey. You may also find, like me, that it helps you write shorter reports and emails generally!

• Who Needs Twitter? What are Twitter Benifits?

Nobody Really Needs Twitter, But it has so any benifits and advantages that can many people in their blogs or websites..Etc

Here are a couple of Benifits that you should know about… :

1-) Using Twitter as a research Tool

One of the things that I’ve come to enjoy about Twitter the most is the way that it can be used when you’re researching a post.

• Stuck for inspiration? Twitter and idea and see what others add to it.
• Need an example for a point you’re making? Twitter it and you might get some good ones.
• Got a question that you’re stuck on? Ask it to your followers to see what they think.
• Need to test a hypothesis? Do a straw poll on your followers.

2-) Reinforcing And Expanding Your Personal Brand

3-) Promote Content

4-) Extend Audience-Find New Readers

5-) Networking

6-) Previews

7-) Find Out What People really Think

Trillian, un solo programma tanti servizi

Trillian è un software davvero mozzafiato sia per la sua stupenda grafica che per i servizi che offre, pensate che ci permette di usare servizi di instant messaging contemporaneamente come yahoo, windows live, ICQ, google talk, ma non solo consente anche l’uso simultaneo oltre a quelli sopra citati di servizi di mircroblogging come twitter e social network come myspace e facebook, inoltre permette la personalizzazione del software da parte dell’utente tramite il download di skins e plugin estensivi… ragazzi è davvero interessante e ci fa risparmiare un sacco di tempo non resta che provarlo, quindi di seguito vi spiegherò brevemente e nel modo più semplice possibile come utilizzarlo.
Intanto cominciamo con il download dell’applicazione da Qui,
successivamente lo lanciamo per installarlo, seguendo il procedimento guidato, comprensivo della registrazione dell’account Astra che ci fa accedere anche al servizio Trillian on-line, completata l’installazione e la registrazione del profilo possiamo connetterci tramite questo client ai servizi che abbiamo scelto di utilizzare ad esempio io ho selezionato solo windows live e facebook inseriamo le nostre credenziali e in pochi secondi possiamo chattare quanto vogliamo da più servizi contemporaneamente con un unico software.
Per le skins potete andare Qui
invece per i plugins Qui
Per il servizio on line basta andare Qui inserire la credenziali Astra e il gioco è fatto.

Social media in lobbying organizations

Much has been said about the questionable use of non-profit ‘front’ organizations that strategically communicate messaging to the public and congress on behalf of corporations, unions, and other organizations.   Typically, these organizations blast out their communications at appropriate times (just prior to a vote, for example) to sway public opinion one way or another, often-times using heavily slanted news and paid polls.  The method of delivery is typically mass telephone calls and mailings, and to a lesser extent, emails with links to websites or blogs from which to register concern or donate funds.

Surprisingly, very few of these organizations have gathered social media into their toolchest.  According to one recent studyhttp://capitolcommunicator.com/News/tabid/116/EntryID/769/Default.aspx, 75 percent of organizations studied are using four or fewer online tools. That, from a list that includes Facebook, MySpace, blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Digg, StumbleUpon, widgets, email signup form, blog badges, SlideShare and Flickr.

In fact, the top 10 were the only groups that scored higher than 50%; they are:

Sierra Club: 10/71%
Service Employees International Union: 9/64%
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: 8/57%
American Wind Energy Institute: 8/57%
Human Rights Campaign: 8/57%
National Electrical Contractors Association: 8/57%
Business Roundtable: 7/50%
League of Conservation Voters: 7/50%
National Beer Wholesalers Association: 7/50%
U.S. Telecom Association: 7/50%

Personally I was shocked by this. I thought the lobbyists in Washington were much more social media savvy than it appears they are. 

Having said that, I wonder how much more effective they would be if they made better use of these tools?  Or would it increase their chatter, possibly involve their publics sooner or in more ways than they desire?  What’s your take?

The changing brain resembles Facebook

I came to embrace online social networking late in life. Apparently this has something to do with being a Generation Xer. We are a moody, cynical bunch. We created the first social networks like MySpace, but  Generation Y takes all the credit since Facebook took off in a big way. I don’t Twitter (yet) but I might try Foursquare the new mobile phone application when I become a bit more unpredictable and carefree (ha ha!).

I joined Facebook on a whim about 2 months ago. Then I joined Brazen Careerist to spy on Generation Y and get some tips about surviving in the workplace in the noughties.

Finally I joined She Writes, a social networking site for writers. All along I have felt like an imposter. I know that most people feel like imposters in their professional, and sometimes their private, lives as well.

So head first I went.

What surprises me is how happy I feel being connected to like minded people who I might otherwise have never met. Some of these connections are across vast seas and others across the dry dusty land of Australia. Some are in the next street.

All of them give me inspiration for thinking and writing.

Often a phrase will appear in my writing and I realise that it reflects someone else’s status update or blog post.  All my connections  tune in and become  integrated.

Like a well oiled bubbling productive machine.

And because I currently reside in the land of the brain, it occurs to me that there are some undeniable parallels between social networking and the neural networks that we rely on to think, connect, write and feel.

Neural Networks versus Social Networks

Your brain changes constantly. Even as an adult  you generate neurons, or brain cells.

Learning and experience equals  physical remodeling in the brain. With experience and new information neurons become connected and fire in synchrony. When 2 neurons are active at the same time their connection strengthens. This forms a neural network.

Experience leads to growth of new neurons, expansion and branching of neurons that are already present and strengthening of connections.

Then each neuron in that connection is more likely to generate a signal that keeps its channels open so information flows.

This is relatively new information in brain land.

In the land of Facebook I see a similar process. Your Facebook page is dynamic and constantly changing. You add new friends, or contacts. Facebook applications pull you all together in amazing ways. Suddenly you are all on the same page. Your network strengthens.

The more you interact with other people, the more contacts you make. The more friends you have the wider your information channels become.

Of course neural and social networks are similar, they are both networks. I love how technology reflects brain processes.  Man made versus organic. It’s a beautiful thing.

“Do starving Africans a favour. Don’t feed them”

Keeping on feeding develops dependency.People of the Nation must get rid of self seeking corrupt leaders and usher in new government.Though difficult and time consuming,it is the only way from the morass they have sunk into.
Story:
As well as being demeaning to our dignity, my education has taught me that constantly shipping food is costly, uneconomic, and can encourage dependency.”
http://worldhaveyoursay.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/do-starving-africans-a-favour-don%e2%80%99t-feed-them/#comment-174353

Historical Moments of Internet Social Power Changes

I was just checking my folder where I keep interesting screenshots of stats (ok, I admit they’re probably only interesting to me but hey… I just like sharing). So here’s some ‘interesting’ moments where power shifts occur in the world of social and UGC. (Note: Stats are from the publicly available Alexa site). Note that I screen grabbed these at the time and saved them because there’s not always a guarantee you’ll be able to get the data in the same state in the future. Currently Alexa now only goes back 2 years since they changed their data analysis so the first screenshot below is something of a collectors item (if you collect screenshots of stats that is).

~ @eunmac

Below: Jan 2007 YouTube clearly passes MySpace.

Below: What has happened since (in a little under 3 years)

Below: Another change in global domination in 2009. Facebook passes YouTube in July.

 

Below – What’s next? Despite the hype surrounding Twitter it’s got a long way to go to catch Facebook which continues to grow at a phenomenal rate with YouTube appearing pretty solid – although interestingly Twitter appears to be now on par with MySpace and looks set to pass it next month.

 

JELLI: ALL REQUEST RADIO

JELLI: ALL REQUEST RADIO

Welcome to Jelli, user-controlled radio. This past week, I had the chance to catch up with Mike Dougherty, CEO of Jelli, at Digital Hollywood to ask him some questions about the site. Incidentally, Mike is not the lead singer of the band Soul Coughing as I had excitedly thought before meeting him. Apparently, I am not the only person to make this mistake.

The Product

Here’s the jist. Log on, start listening, and start voting music up or down based on what you want to listen to you. Others will do the same. The combinations of all of that voting will determine what comes next in the playlist. If you really want to hear that Herbie Hancock track, “rocket” it to the top of the list. If you really can’t stand that Citizen Cope song, “bomb” it out of the playlist. I come from a traditional radio background, and as a DJ for 5 years, I was quite used to the programmed playlist that neither I nor the listener had any control over. The playlist was dictated by a number of rotations coordinated in advance by the radio Program Director, band manager, and artist. In essence, if you requested something, there was pretty much no chance in hell that it was getting on air. This web site flips the switch on the whole radio industry.

The Hotness

Pandora, MySpace Music, iTunes, and pretty much any other online music service you can think of are very one-to-one types of experiences. You pick the music and based on what you are selecting, in certain cases, the service recommends additional music it thinks you will like.

Jelli brings the social aspects of traditional radio back to the forefront allowing users to each play DJ selecting and voting on music as the playlist runs its course. In addition, every Sunday on Live 105 in San Francisco from 10PM – Midnight, what plays on Jelli plays on traditional radio. It should come as no surprise that this is the most highly trafficked time for Jelli.

The Lameness

I would much rather listen to music that I and a few of my friends are selecting rather than listening with the main group. I don’t really need to hear that Soundgarden song once an hour and I know my friends would never subject me to that. Also, giving new users more power seems to be a must. On my first try to the service, a track that I had rocketed to the top was quickly bombed by another user and removed from the playlist. Sad face. Dougherty claims that this may be on the horizon.

What Comes Next

Jelli will be nationally syndicated allowing any radio station to follow the Live 105 lead and empower listeners on their airwaves. In addition, 5 stations in Australia will also begin carrying Jelli as of November. Live DJs? Also on the way. Also, users will eventually be enticed with incentives for their participation in the site.

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• Jelli’s crowd-sourced radio opens up to the U.S., Australia (news.cnet.com)

UN inspectors inspecting Iran's Nuclear facilities.

Yes.Iran has Nuclear capabilities on the sly as well.So, what are you going to do about it?
Do a North Korea?
Story.
TEHRAN, Iran — A team of U.N. inspectors prepared Sunday for their first look inside a formerly secret — though still unfinished — uranium enrichment facility that has raised Western suspicions about the extent of Iran’s nuclear program. The inspection tour will provide the world’s first independent details of the heavily protected site, carved into a mountainside near the holy city of Qom south of Tehran. It also coincides with the countdown to Iran’s expected decision on whether to accept a U.N.-brokered plan to process its nuclear fuel abroad.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g8-DEMtAE9q4i4ySQ0eV_qZefmRQD9BI26K81

Comments Have Been Closed on Asilee.com Until Further Notice

A lot of people who have my personal e-mail has e-mailed me asking me why were the comments closed. Well do you really want to know why? Of course you do. Well…this is why:

This clown also known as “kin6x” better known as “U Wish U Knew Me” thought it was okay to flood my blog with his stupid comments. Then try to flood my blog with more of his stupid ass comments again the second time around. He’s on standby, lurking my blog to see when and if I allow people to comment again just so he can flood my blog. Get this though, I have no idea what his motive is. The guy comes out of thin air with no relevancy to why he’s being a jackass on my blog. He’s a so called a rapper and this was his little rap about me:

-yea you pussy faggots wanna test me
-i only need lyrics, when you need a vest and a 9 piece
-im da one from the south and dats foreal g
-Im slappin and clappin on da admins especially lee
-You fuck dogs, dats why you claim im ugly
-When i got girls stacked up high like mountain peaks
-Yea, but now this is the end of my rap
-I can see now that lee and tha fagmins are feelin trapped.. ohhhhhh

So I laugh and laugh and laugh. Piss him off to unconsciousness and he proceeds to say this to me:

By the way.. keep deleting my comments lol. I have all of them saved now. So when I have time off during the day you can bet your ass ill be on here givin yall hell AND ill repost all the others lol. Im gonna love this.

I warned you

Yea, you guessed it, he actually thought or still think that posting comments repetitively will get next to me. When he fail to realize after countless times in telling this idiot that he’s been labeled as spam so most if not all his comments goes to the spam folder. Sometimes though Askimet can be gay allow his comments get through. Nonetheless he’s still a fucking idiot:

Have fun editing or deleting all those comments lol. My challenge still stands u no talent pussies. Diss me if you dare and get FUCKED UP!

He began making threats and while doing so he was probably drooling at the mouth. I hope he loved the fact that his plans were foiled and I have no means in opening my comments no time soon. I’m not going to comment about the way he looks, I’ll just leave that to my admins when they see this. They’re the only ones that can comment…for now. Oh, if you want to know who this guy is [his screen name on here was "U Wish U Knew Me"] just go here to his Myspace. Maybe one of you will buy his music that costs .75 cents out of pity for the poor son of a bitch. I would but I’m not that noble.

Just in case Mr. Idiot just so happens to stumble upon this blog let me just say this to you:

I suggest you save that pocket lint up so you can make a coat because up here the weather is cold, and we as Northern folks don’t want you to get cold when you come up here to “fuck us up”. Boy sit your non-talented ass down. I have more going for me in my left toe-nail than you got going in your whole life. I’m so far more talented than you, that I probably got more views on my blog than you got listeners.

Everyone don’t have to rap to be talented and vise versa but in your case, you rap because getting a job is not in your jurisdiction because you fell prey to the get-rich-quick scheme, well listen you stupid piece of shit, you aren’t going any where with those 75 cent pieces of shit on your Myspace page. You’ll continue to be ass-hurt about who knows what and I’ll continue to be better than you.

I have yet to figure out what provoked you to come on my blog with this coonery. But it ends here and now, so go ahead and try and flood my blog if ya want. You won’t get far. Have fun getting pissed because I foiled your plans. Oh but don’t let that stop you from mono-logging. Monologue all the fuck you want, only flaw is that the only one that will hear/read it is you. So go on your Myspace page and blog about it. Again, my site is better than your said rap career which I shouldn’t even call a career, that’s obviously an insult to real rappers and I’m not talking about your average Lil’ Wayne and Gucci Mane either.

How does it feel to know that you weren’t the one to get the last laugh?

Anyway, everyone with a bone to pick with me seem to pick this specific blog. Well, there’s a reason why I have a hate-mail page, send all your stupidity there or to my contact page when its available.

MAMA Wants Jaebum

Fans have expressed their curiousity as to whether 2PM will be performing at MAMA, especially since 2PM has been revealed to be releasing their album mid November.

The MAMA staff met with Newsen and discussed their plans and desires to stand Jaebum on the 2009 MAMA stage. The producer stated “We have been expressing our opinions with JYPE. If further action is needed, I would like to invite Jaebum from America. 2PM is this year’s most anticipated guest and Jaebum was with them for all of their activities. Should 2PM receive an award this year, I believe it is only definite that Jaebum should stand on stage and receive that award also.”

He went on to state “I will work and try my best to make sure that everyone can see Jaebum on the 2009 MAMA stage.”

2PM member JaeBum’s stage performing costume has fetched a high price of 6.1 million KRW at a star charity sales, gaining the attention of many netizens.

On Lotte.com on 23rd October, the charity was held and each of the 2PM member’s stage performing costume were put up for sales. In particular, JaeBum’s costume went over from 5 to 10 times its price.

Even though it is the first day of the charity sales, the bids for the costume are coming in non stop. From the current status, many wonders what price will be fetched on the last day of the charity sales on 29th October at 3pm.

The costumes were worn by 2PM during their promotions for ‘Again & Again’.

Many fans probably want to keep the clothes for keepsake amidst all the drama around Park JaeBum recently.

Here are the current rankings as of: Oct 23 10:53 PM PST.
1. Jay – $5,501.00 USD
2. Khun – $1,000.00
3. Wooyoung – $950.00
4. Junsu – $730.80
5. Chansung – $700.00
6. Taec – $650.00
7. Junho – $650.10

Credits: hazyfiasco + Belle @2ONEDAY + sookyeong

Shared by: fanaholic@wordpress

taqiah~

MySpace Music Gets A Major Upgrade

More Video, Artist Dashboard, iTunes Purchase

MySpace Music has gotten a major upgrade with the addition of a new music video hub, an artist dashboard offering analytics and track purchase via iTunes. The new features come at a time when the parent MySpace site is losing market share to Facebook.

Music Video Hub

MySpace hopes to challenge YouTube’s go-to status for music videos by creating an extensive hub for licensed video from major and indie labels and adding a social component.

• Video recommendations based on what your friends are watching
• Browse via A-Z video search
• New video player with dynamically targeted “Buy” buttons provided as part of Auditude’s video ad management platform
• Entire artist music video catalogues available in artist music players alongside “Albums” tab
• iLike now features MySpace’s Music Video catalogue within all partner websites

Artist Dashboard

Launched in beta, the MySpace Artist Dashboard is a free and offers a peak at  detailed analytics of an artist’s content within both MySpace and iLike. Functionality includes: [read]

Characteristics of successful internet entrepreneurs

If you ever have aspirations of becoming a successful internet entrepreneur then this article is for you my friend.

Ever wondered what the secret is behind the success of some of the internets biggest companies? Well the folks over at FOCUS have put together a rather nifty list of 12 characteristics that are the key components in their success.

1. DETERMINATION: Steve Jobs, Apple/Pixar
2. INNOVATION: Sergey Brin/Larry Page, Google
3. FRUGALITY: Aaron Patzer, Mint
4. EXPERIMENTATION: Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook
5. ECCENTRICITY: Tim Ferris, FourHourWorkWeek.com
6. SIMPLICITY: Chad Hurley/Steve Chen/Jawed Karim, YouTube
7. CONSUMER FOCUS: Paul Graham,Viaweb
8. ICONCLASTIC: Niklas Zennstrom, Kazaa/Skype/Joost
9. AMBITION: Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com
10. FOCUS: Max Levchin, PayPal
11. OPPORTUNISM: Tom Anderson, MySpace
12. FLEXIBILITY: Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia

Quite a hardcore list hey. Quality. I must mention that the original article explains why the characteristics go with each person. It’s an awesome read and well worth the time.

Experimentation: Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

 For the full article (do yourself a favour) go HERE.

Deleting Your Hard Drives - Entering a Green Data Center Future of SSDs

For those of us old-timers who muscled 9-track tapes on 10 ft tall on Burroughs B-3500 mainframe computers tape drives, with a total storage capacity of about 5 kilobytes, the idea of sticking a 64 gigabyte SD memory chip into my laptop computer is pretty cosmic.

Terms like PCAM (punch card adding machines) are no longer part of the taxonomy of information technology, nor would any young person in the industry comprehend the idea of a disk platter or disk pack.

Skipping a bit ahead, we find a time when you could purchase an IBM “XT” computer with an integrated 10 megabyte hard drive. No more reliance on 5.25″ or later 3.5″ floppy disks. Hard drives evolved to the point “Fryes” will pitch you a USB or home network 1 terabyte drive for about $100.

Enter the SSD

October 2009 brings us to the point hard drives are now becoming a compromise solution. The SSD (Solid State Disk) has jumped on the data center stage. With MySpace’s announcement they are replacing all 1770 of their existing disk drive-based server systems with higher capacity SSDs, and quoted that SSDs use only 1% of the power required by disk drives, data center rules are set to change again.

SSDs are efficient. If you read press releases and marketing material supporting SSD sales you will hear numbers like:

• “…single-server performance levels with 1.5GB/sec. throughput and almost 200,000 IOPS
• … a 320GB ioDrive can fill a 10Gbit/sec. Ethernet pipe
• … four ioDrive Duos in a single server can scale linearly, which provides up to 6GB/sec. of read bandwidth and more than 500,000 read IOPS (Fusion.io)

This means not only are you saving power per server, you are also able to pack a multiple of existing storage capacity into the same space as currently possible with traditional disk systems. As clusters of SSDs become possible through additional tech development of parallel systems, we need to mentally get our heads around the concept of a three dimensional storage system, rather than a linear systems used today.

The concept of RAID and tape backup systems may also become obsolete, as SSDs hold their images when primary power is removed.

Now companies like MySpace will be in a really great position to re-negotiate their data center and colocation deals, as their actual energy and space requirements will potentially be a fraction of existing installations. Even considering their growth potential, the reduction in actual power and space will no doubt give them more leverage to use in the data center agreements.

Why? Data center operators are now planning their unit costs and revenues based on power sales and consumption. If a company like MySpace is able to reduce their power draw by 30% or more, this represents a potentially huge opportunity cost to the data center in space and power sales. Advantage goes to the tenant.

The Economics of SSDs

Today, the cost of SSDs is slightly higher than traditional disk systems. Even with fiber channel or Infiniband supporting large disk (SAN or NAS) installations. According to Yahoo Tech the cost of an SSD is about 4 times that of a traditional disk. However they also indicate that cost is quickly dropping, and we will probably see near parity within the next 3~4 years.

Now, if we remember the claim MySpace made that with the SSD migration they will consume only 1% of the power used by traditional disk (that is only the disk, not the entire chassis or server enclosure). If you look through a great white paper (actually it is called a “Green Paper”) provided by Fusion.io you will see that implementation of their SSD systems in a large disk farm of 250 servers (components include main memory, 4xnet cache, 4x tier 1/2/3 storage, tape storage) you will see a reduction from 146.6kw to 32kw for the site.

Data centers can charge anywhere from $120~$225/kw, showing that we could potentially, if you believe the marketing material, see a savings of $20,000/month @ $180/kw. This would also represent 47 tons of carbon, using the Carbon Footprint Calculator.

Fusion .io reminds us that

“In 2006, U.S. data centers consumed an estimated 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy, which accounted for about 1.5% of the total electricity consumed in the U.S. that year, up from 1.2% in 2005. The total cost of that energy consumption was $4.5 billion, which is more than the electricity consumed by all color televisions in the country and is equivalent to the electricity consumption of about 5.8 million average U.S. households.

• Data centers’ cooling infrastructure accounts for about half of that electricity consumption.

• If current trends continue, by 2011, data centers will consume 100 billion kWh of energy, at a total annual cost of $7.4 billion and would necessitate the construction of 10 additional power plants. (from “Taming the Power Hungry Data Center”)”

When we consider the potential impact of data center consolidation through use of virtualization and cloud computing, and the rapid advancements of SSD technologies and capacities, we may be able to make a huge positive impact by reducing the load Internet, entertainment, content delivery, and enterprise systems will have on our use of electricity – and subsequent impact on the environment.

Of course we need to keep our eyes on the byproducts of technology (e-Waste), and ensure making improvements in one area does not create a nightmare in another part of our environment.

Some Additional Resources

StorageSearch.Com has a great listing of current announcements and articles both following and describing the language of the SSD technology and industry. There is still a fair amount of discussion on the quality and future direction of SSDs, however the future does look very exciting and positive.

For those of us who can still read the Hollerith coding on punch cards, the idea of >1.25TB on and SSD is abstract. But abstract in a fun, exciting way.

How do you feel about the demise of disk? Too soon to consider? Ready to install?

John Savageau, Long Beach

"Gold plated" SSD for the green data center?

There’s been a lot of talk lately about using SSD (solid state drive) for data center servers. After reading this article, I have to question how practical some of this is.

There’s no denying that SSDs consume far less power than conventional HDDs, can provide better performance, and can consume less space too. Consuming less power results in less waste heat to remove from the data center and that’s not a bad thing either. The problem is, do the economics work?

In the example given, MySpace switched to PCIe based SSD drives. This effectively allowed them to recover 50% of the physical space in their congested data center by reducing the size of their rackmount servers from 2U to 1U. It sounds good, but does it all add up?

First, the article states that they only required 2 380GB drives per machine. The DL380 servers they replaced are 2U with 6 drive bays. This shows that they were wasting the capacity of the DL380s in the first place. It’s always good to use your space more efficiently, but this isn’t attributable to the change to SSD, just correcting sloppy engineering.

Second, they replaced standard drives retailing for under $100 each with proprietary hardware of the same size for ***$7000*** each. That’s ***$14,000*** per server, plus the price tag for the new DL160 server. Figure that as $15,000 + per server. They spent 70x the cost to gain a 50% energy saving on a relatively small part of the server.

There are far more productive ways to green a data center. Leave the “gold plated” SSDs to those with more money than sense.

Vern, SwiftWater Telecom

data center facility engineering

Waiting for data to be restored to my T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009 during the major outage Microsoft Danger Jon Hammond Sidekick user since Oct. 2002

Waiting for data to be restored to T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009 during the major outage Microsoft Danger Jon Hammond Sidekick user since Oct. 2002 with MacBook Pro Intellisync ready via mini USB connector
Jon Hammond of HammondCast Show KYOU Radio still waiting for data to be restored to his T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009 handset on October 18, 2009
Patiently following press releases from Roz Ho Microsoft PMX Division, Ina Fried CNET News, Google Tech News reports, techcrunch etc.
Latest update and Press Release for immediate release from Roz Ho Microsoft PMX:
10/17/2009 Update:
Microsoft Update on Sidekick Data Restoration

The Danger / Microsoft team has continued to work around the clock and is conducting its last round of rigorous tests before making the restoration process available to you. We’re making solid progress in restoring content and will update you tomorrow with additional timing and instructions for recovery.

This data restoration effort is only necessary for customers who lost data from their Sidekick devices. We appreciate your ongoing patience.

10/15/2009 Update:

Microsoft Confirms Data Recovery for Sidekick Users
Data Restoration to Begin as Soon as Possible for Affected Customers

Dear T-Mobile Sidekick customers,

On behalf of Microsoft, I want to apologize for the recent problems with the Sidekick service and give you an update on the steps we have taken to resolve these problems.

We are pleased to report that we have recovered most, if not all, customer data for those Sidekick customers whose data was affected by the recent outage. We plan to begin restoring users’ personal data as soon as possible, starting with personal contacts, after we have validated the data and our restoration plan. We will then continue to work around the clock to restore data to all affected users, including calendar, notes, tasks, photographs and high scores, as quickly as possible.

We now believe that data loss affected a minority of Sidekick users. If your Sidekick account was among those affected, please continue to log into these forums for the latest updates about when data restoration will begin, and any steps you may need to take. We will work with T-Mobile to post the next update on data restoration timing no later than Saturday.

We have determined that the outage was caused by a system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back-up. We rebuilt the system component by component, recovering data along the way. This careful process has taken a significant amount of time, but was necessary to preserve the integrity of the data.

We will continue working closely with T-Mobile to restore user data as quickly as possible. We are eager to deliver the level of reliable service that our incredibly loyal customers have become accustomed to, and we are taking immediate steps to help ensure this does not happen again. Specifically, we have made changes to improve the overall stability of the Sidekick Service and initiated a more resilient backup process to ensure that the integrity of our database backups is maintained.

Once again, we apologize for this situation and the inconvenience that it has created. Please know that we are working all-out to resolve this situation and restore the reliability of the service.

Sincerely,
Roz Ho
Corporate Vice President
Premium Mobile Experiences, Microsoft Corporation

Approximately 400 address book contacts, 4 email accounts pending.
I have a friend with a deaf child who can do 50 wpm with 2 thumbs, we appreciate T-Mobile’s support of the Deaf Community with Sidekick in last 7 years and are patiently waiting for a positive resolution to
“The Great T-Mobile Sidekick Data Outage of 2009″
Sincerely,
Jon Hammond
*Member AFM Local 802 & Local 6 Musicians Union, ASCAP
Note: Can we get a comment from Hank Nothhaft, former CEO of Danger, Inc.?

© www.HammondCast.com

ASCAP Network Behind The Beat with Jon Hammond “LATE RENT”
Elmar Lemes photo of Jon Hammond playing XK-3 organ at Local 802 Monday Night Jazz Session sponsored by Jazz Foundation of America
Jon Hammond MySpace

HammondCast
ASCAP Network Behind The Beat “NDR SESSIONS Projekt”

Jon Hammond is an endorsed artist of Hammond Suzuki USA

Cloud Computing, Sidekick, T-Mobile, Microsoft, Danger, Deaf Community, Jon Hammond, Smart Phone, Musicians Union, Local 802, Roz Ho, What A Name, Hank Nothhaft, Ina Fried, David Pogue, iPhone, Steve Jobs, iTunes, HammondCast, KYOU Radio

ALL JON HAMMOND RADIO…ALL THE TIME! Jon Hammond uses T-Mobile Sidekick II http://community.webtv.net/laterent/ALLJONHAMMONDRADIO
Jon Hammond at CM-H8G Superlux Tube Microphone
Jon Hammond Home Shed with Hammond XK-1 Organ 1965 Fender Amplifiers Twin Reverb and Band-Master watching CNN on Sony Bravia widescreen Hi-Def TV + 2 x Balsa Jetfire Glider Twin Pack Airplane Gliders

Cloud Computing, Sidekick, T-Mobile, Microsoft, Danger, Deaf Community, Jon Hammond, Smart Phone, Musicians Union, Local 802, Roz Ho, What A Name, Hank Nothhaft, Ina Fried, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Social Apps

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Social Media Misconceptions

I was recently discussing Social Media with some coworkers after hearing a presentation aboutthat topic at a conference earlier this week.  The universal comment was, why would I want to update everyone with the fact I’m drinking coffee or going to the bathroom?  Who cares what I’m up to, or why do I care to let them know?  The misconceptions surrounding Twitter or Facebook’s value are widespread, and keeping knowledgeable people with great information and thoughts to share from taking advantage of this amazing tools that we have at our disposal during this amazing period in time.

The whole point of social media isn’t to update the world with our lunch selection that day, or what TV show we’re watching, but rather to build a network and share.  Sure, there are three million or so people who care what Ashton Kutcher is up to, but for the rest of us who are trying to make our lives better, our companies better and the world better, that misses the point altogether.

It’s the network that makes this powerful.  I was headed out to lunch when a colleague asked me how to delete his Facebook account.  I asked him why he would want to do such a thing.  It’s too much work, and I don’t know what people are going to write on my wall, I don’t want people to see something distasteful.  I explained that it takes work to build a network of responsible professionals, and to control that network, but the value you gain is tremendous.  This isn’t a fad, evidenced by this video on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8, but a new way of doing things.  Take for instance the statistics surrounding the way companies are hiring in my blog Recruitment Trends using Social Media, http://matthewschmitt.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/part-ii/.  Clearly the way we approach learning from, and about people is changing.

There are three different ways to look at this amazing change in our world.  First, falling victim to the misconception that it’s a no value add time waster, updating the world with dribble about what I’m doing right now.  There’s a place for that, and a component that shouldn’t be ignored for sure, but that’s not the focus.  Second, using it limited only to having some friends and sharing pictures with family.  OK, that’s better than nothing.  Thirdly, building a strong social media strategy that connects you with others in your interest group to grow, build credibility and authenticity and share.  I know which one I’ll be doing, I hope you’ll do the same.

20 Social Network Growth Stats-Wow!

 

   Take a good look at this!

    Some of these sites are exploding over 1 year, from

                     May 2008-May 2009 !

• Facebook: up 97%
• MySpace: down 5%
• Twitter: up 2,681%
• LinkedIn: up 90%

    We have Brian Solis to thank for these important statistics. Check out his very informative article , for stats on user’s age, gender, education, & children here:

http://www.briansolis.com/2009/10/revealing-the-people-defining-social-networks/

   This information will be very useful for business, education, and more.

    Follow me on Twitter @Coolwired for more info on social media sites!

Is Blow the Latest Trend?

A new supplement on the market causes some serious controversy.

If it looks like cocaine, is packaged like cocaine, and causes the user to feel strange and energized like cocaine, is it cocaine? No, it’s the latest energy drink called Blow and it’s quickly causing controversy.

The energy drink mix, which is sold in a small vial, is measured in grams, just like the actual drug. As if that weren’t enough, a small mirror is also included in the package so the energy deprived can grind the rocks into a fine powder.

Pour the Blow in your water bottle and you’ll be flying high on caffeine. One vial contains 240mg of caffeine and 200mg of Taurine, which is equivalent to 2 Red Bulls and 3 cups of coffee. Essentially it’s an all-nighter in a small and convenient package.

However, experts are concerned that this may be too much for the average person to handle. It is still unclear how this new product will affect different individuals. While it may provide energy for some, others could get sick. One of the main concerns is its potential effect on children and pregnant women.

Others who have heard about Blow feel that it makes light of anti-drug efforts and glamorizes the use of illegal narcotics.

While the manufacturer says that only those 18 and older are allowed to buy Blow, the website where the product is sold does not enforce age restrictions. Furthermore, the creators of Blow are utilizing social networking sites that are popular with teens, such as MySpace and YouTube, as a key component in their marketing and publicity strategy.

The FDA says that Blow has not been approved under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and with the controversy it has caused, who knows if it will?

~ taken from an article on nbclosangeles.com by Annie Geffroy

___________________

What does this article stir inside you? Anger? Sadness? Indifference? Concern?

Thoughts?

Words to live by

A couple days ago I was looking through my old myspace account since I’m never on it anymore and I stumbled upon a friend’s profile. On the profile was a quote, “Never take life too seriously; no one makes it out alive anyway”. And for whatever reason, this quote had a huge impact on my outlook on life. It has nothing to do with grimness or “emo” as my friend are currently labeling it, but just simple what the quote says: that people take life too seriously. I am one of those people and for the most part I don’t particularly like that quality about myself. Sometimes, yes, we need to take life seriously, but most of the time can’t we just have fun? I have become a big advocate of this simple outlook in just one night. I have dedicated to have more fun in life or at least have more fun doing the things that I am currently doing. I have proposed to myself to lighten up and to step back. I challenge myself to laugh more, smile more, and have more fun. Because the quote is right – no one makes it out alive, so why not have fun while you’re here?

So the point of this post is to divulge that information to the public – maybe I’ll update my progress? So far its going quite well But I also created a little background for my computer, nothing very intricate or special, in photoshop to sort of epitomize my new challenge.

And if anyone is wondering, I don’t believe the quote had an attribution. I did google it and couldn’t find anything

Long Lost Brother....

This weekend was actually going to be full of blog posts. I had a few posts that I wanted to get to and share with you all. I had photos from a shoot I did last weekend and a couple other things to talk about. That all went down the drain this weekend once I got a facebook message on Friday Night.

The facebook message came at about 1:30 in the morning, I was just about to go to sleep because we had to wake up early in the morning to take Heather to the airport. I checked my phone and saw I had a new message. I saw who it was from and shot up from bed! The message was from a Christian Kessler. I haven’t heard that name in 19 years. He is brother, We have the same father but different mothers. We used to see each other a long time ago but somehow lost touch. I was really excited about hearing from him. I had sent him a letter when I graduated from High School and I never heard back. He explained to me why, He was in the middle of moving when he received the letter. He was not sure of what to say when he first read it, he didn’t know what to say back and by time he did he had misplaced the letter. I pretty much just figured he wanted nothing to do with me when I never heard back.

He and his wife have been searching for me through the internet for sometime now and they came across my Kesslers Kreatures myspace. They said that they sent me a bunch of messages but I had never received them. So finally they attempted facebook and we finally made contact. We have been talking it up all weekend. Trying to catch up on the past 19 years of our lives. I found out I have a Niece and a Nephew and a Sister in Law! This is all very exciting to me. Thank you for dealing with my lack of blog this weekend because of my little family reunion.

Until Next Time…

Meet: John West

I first heard of John West from my friend Gelesia. The girl has been my concert/show company for almost two years so naturally I trust her instincts when it comes down to good music. Over the summer, she sent me a video of a live John West performance and from that moment on I was sold. His entire CD was on repeat for at least a month while I was at home over the summer. John West is an artist that reminds me a lot of the Seattle music I listen to. Although I have never seen him perform, his songs are very catchy and relatable to a wide audience. Plus he sounds just as good live on his tracks as he does on his CD, which believe it or not, that is not always the case.. John is great, let’s make him come to Seattle ya dig?

Q: Where are you originally from and has that influenced your sound if at all?

John West: I’m from Baton Rouge, Louisiana originally.  I would definitely say the southern feel, particularly the jazz and blues of Louisiana have influenced the music I’m making.  But so did Erykah Badu

Q: When I was sixteen years old, I knew I had wanted to work with music and PR when I planned my first concert. At what point did you realize, this is what I want to do?

J: In college I was studying art – cartooning to be exact, but music was something that I had pursued since I was a little kid singing in the church choir.  It wasn’t until my last year of college, when I started my first real band that I was like “Hmm, I think this is my real passion.”  Also, some of my music had been selected for an end-of-the year concert thing at Columbia College in Chicago where I was graduating from (another town that influenced my music).  So that random opportunity inspired me to really go after it.

Q: What’s a typical day for John West, give us a run through.

J: Wake up 9:30am.  200 crunches and 100 push-ups – not really.  More like 20 emails and 50 friend requests on Myspace/Facebook.  I try to get a workout in three times a week.   Emphasis on the word ‘try’.  During the past summer, I’d be out on the Santa Monica Promenade 4-6 days a week.  So that’d be from noon-8pm usually.  I have  lunch meetings sometimes, and even afternoon naps.  I tend to work on writing/recording music in the evening.  I stay up late watching “Mad Men” and “Californication“.

Q: Pick one: John Mayer, Jason Mraz, or Jack Johnson and why?

J: Ha, I like this one.  I’m gonna have to say John Mayer because of that song he did with Alicia Keys.  But I think hanging out with Jack Johnson could teach me a lot.  And Mraz is just dope and making music that he loves to make – I think he’s the most interesting of the bunch.

Q: I follow you on Twitter, it sounds like you enjoy playing in lots of public places such as Third Street or the Promenade, why these places? I think it’s great that you are bringing the music to the public and expanding your fan base by the way, maybe more artists should do that!

J: Street performance is a great daily opportunity to get in front of hundreds if not thousands of new potential listeners, to refine your live show, to make a living, and to promote upcoming “traditional” shows.  It has it’s ups and downs, but I’ve been loving it this year.

Q: What is your guilty pleasure collaboration? Who would you like to collaborate with that your fans might find a bit surprising?

J: I would love to link up with Wil.I.Am, I think amazing things could happen.  Production is such a fascinating mystery to me.  There are some real geniuses out there.  Surprising collaboration?  How about John West & The Jonas Brothers? haha

Q: The music industry is a tough business to get into, what is one hardship you have endured and what piece of advice would you give to those who aspire to become a successful musician?

J: It takes time, and meanwhile you get older.  A hard thing to reconcile sometimes.  You have productive months, and then months where you feel lost.  My advice would be to make great music however you can.  I think it’s valuable to understand ProTools or Logic (two most popular recording software) so that you make your own music or at least communicate intelligently in the studio.  Promotion is so important.  Exposure.  Playing shows that make sense.  For more advice, email me.  I work as a new-model consultant haha

Q: What is on constant rotation on your iPod?

J: Pandora is my new iPod.  I love setting up a station around Friendly Fires and Cut Copy.  I like Thom Yorke’s new solo album (the single at least).  I want the soundtrack to “Away We Go”.  I like listening to jazz on 88.1

Katie note: I wholeheartedly recommend Friendly Fires and Cut Copy as well.

Q: Some of your songs revolve around love? Were these songs inspired by experience? What’s your idea of a perfect date and what traits do you look for in a girl?

J: Wow, what traits do I look for?  I just want someone real and kind.  Who loves to laugh and knows what it is to cry.  Besides that, who knows – there are wonderful people everywhere.  And yes, my love songs come from real experiences.

Q: Aside from yourself, who do you think is on the rise currently? Who should my readers be listening to?

J: I’m definitely no music expert, my finger is not on the pulse of the business, but I really dig that one rapper Blu.  U-N-I are cool.  There are probably a bunch of great singer-songwriters I’ve never heard of that are awesome and about to get record deals.

Q: Are you considering touring at all? And if so, Seattle will make the cut right?

J: Girl, you know I’ve got Seattle covered.  Seriously though, expanding throughout the west coast is the next move for me.

Q: What’s new for John West? What can we expect from you in the next few months or year?

J: Autumn EP coming soon.  Big Roxy show on January 23rd.  Headlining on a Saturday night, wooo- new website in the works, more big moves coming soon

Me: Thank you so much John! Best of luck to you with your music and future!

J: Only two months late on the interview, but was my pleasure to answer your questions!  They got me thinking.

To listen to more of John’s music visit his Myspace

Song of the Day 2: JJAMZ

Our second song of the day, “Cleverly Disguised,” comes from LA supergroup JJAMZ.

Members: James Valentine (Maroon 5), Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley), Alex Greenwald (Phantom Planet), Michael Runion (Jenny Lewis), and Z Berg (The Like).

The video for “Cleverly Disguised” is from JJAMZ’s first show ever, at LA’s Echoplex earlier in the year. Michael Runion sings lead on the verses, and Z sings for the choruses.

JJAMZ have a Tumblr and MySpace, both of which have not been updated in a while.

The Revelation Painting ©

©PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND THIS BLOG, SUBSEQUENT BLOGS AND THEIR CONTENT IS COPYRIGHTED INFORMATION. USE OF THIS INFORMATION IN REPRODUCTION or ANY OTHER MANNER CONSTITUTES COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AND IS A CRIME PUNISHABLE BY LAW©

THE REVELATION PAINTING

Inspired from a childhood experience, The Revelation Painting has been an 11 year endeavor to not only create a magnificent and historical work of fine art, but to utilize worldwide effort through the use of natural resources in creating the painting-the first of its kind. Precious and semiprecious gemstones have been gathered and crushed into shards for Scene VII of the painting. In collecting the stones from all over the world, their beauty shed an illuminating light on the people and cultures who build their homes and lives upon such beauty. In admiring the stones one begins to admire the people and their culture striving for an exposure unlike any other creating a kind of visual and artistic peace around the world!

The Revelation Painting is a massive work of art measuring 12 feet by 40 feet with 7 magnificent scenes. Thirty canvases 48″ X 48″ were required for the creation of the painting. The canvases are of gallery wrapped cloth and custom made wooden canvases required to carry the weight and storage of the elements of the painting. This painting will travel the world in exhibition and is indeed history in the making!

The Revelation Painting has been in the works for 11 years and is scheduled for release in December 2010. The artist has expressed that in this world of turmoil and unsettling conflict, that something very beautiful can be created through resources not commonly used to create unity and world peace. Eleven years have been dedicated to exposing the beauty of the world and its resources, its people, spirit, culture and soul. The artist states: “It is a “presence” of beauty for the world, visual peace in times of turmoil.”

The painting incorporates fiber optics, 3D “flip” graphic resources, and gemstones from around the world, among other things commonly not seen in fine arts. Each gemstone holds a sacred place in the painting which is identified in one of seven journals being created simutaneously titled: The Stones. The journal includes information about the stones and it’s origin related to the painting. One of the mysteries of Revelation has been uncovered in this section of the painting!

The other six journals are:
The Journal of Dreams
The Journal of Visions (which includes the last year of the making of the painting as in a diary format)
The Journal of Measures
The Journal of Sketches
Truth-The Hemorrage of Pigs!
Journal of Acknowledgement, the most important journal in the series acknowledges the participation no matter how great or small toward the completion of this masterpiece. It discloses not only individual or personal contribution but information provided by the contributor and advertising if desired of their businesses, personal information, a message to the world, dreams and aspirations. Essentially whatever the contributor wants to say to the world!

Scene II GOD measures 14 feet by 9 feet respectively and is alive with color and energy, moving on the canvas and illuminated. As the audience becomes hypnotized by the sparkle and light, the painting begins to bleed before their very eyes: Truth-The Hemorrhage of Pigs! A hidden mystery is disclosed, then the painting returns to the beauty of brilliant, white light and energy!

Over $1500.00 of high quality acrylic was used to create the Devil due to his remarkable, highly textured reptilian skin. Real gold is used in various areas of the painting! Human hair on some characters for realism embedded and combed into the heavy lacquer becoming a part of the painting forever. A mystery of religion and mankind is revealed within the Four Horsemen which will be disclosed later in the blogs to follow!

Please subscribe to the blog for regular updates. The painting will be shown via live webcam in mid (est., June) 2010 with the artist working on it…THE FINALE. There will be scans of the work and updates regarding all aspects of the wonderful creation starting in January 2010. You will view the last year of the making of this historical painting. It is a painting to the people for the people. You and the world are a part of it!

Please note that all aspects regarding the painting will be blogged including but not limited to: Letters written soliciting sponsorship and/or investors, auctions, advertising of the painting, in addition to specific blogs related to the making of the painting. You will not be solicited but will have access to where the areas of participation are offered such as having your name embedded in the painting as a crusader of good in the visible but invisible battle of good and evil which is occuring right before your eyes!
It is exciting, original and Revelation is Rising!

"Funny People" de Judd Apatow

L’univers du stand-up à l’américaine semble nous être interdit ; du moins, il paraît difficilement apte à traverser les frontières. Question d’humour ? Affaire de culture ? Ou est-ce simplement que je fais ma mauvaise tronche et que je ne veux pas accepter des jeux de mots trop gras pour ma sensibilité ? Que nenni. La faute en revient à Judd Apatow, scénariste et réalisateur de Funny People, autrefois aux commandes écrites et filmées de 40 ans toujours puceau et En cloque, mode d’emploi, deux films qui, paraît-il, permettaient de faire travailler correctement les zygomatiques. Je n’avais, pour ma part, pas eu l’occasion de me lancer dans l’aventure de ces deux « perles » d’humour américain, avec quelque regret, mais c’est un manque qui peut être aisément comblé. Seulement il ne faudra pas se contenter de penser à Funny People en lançant les galettes de ses films précédents dans le lecteur DVD, tant Apatow semble avoir perdu de cet humour qui faisait son charme. Pour être tout à fait clair : cette dernière livraison tourne largement à vide, comme si le metteur en scène s’évertuait à avancer sur un vélo d’appartement, et sa durée excessive y est pour beaucoup. 2h20 suffiraient amplement à projeter deux bons films, ou un double programme à l’ancienne ; et pour une comédie, c’est définitivement beaucoup trop long. Disons que la moitié du temps aurait largement suffi pour un ton comique qui se veut, justement, véloce et implacable. Osons une comparaison : si un comique devait faire du stand-up durant 2h20, en sortirait-il quelque chose de bon ? Sans doute pas, puisque leurs numéros ne durent qu’une dizaine de minutes à peine. Les blagues les plus courtes sont toujours les meilleures – toujours ! – et les comédies qui tirent le moins en longueur les plus intéressantes.

Ou alors, c’est que le cinéaste considère qu’il doit porter un message… Et là, l’histoire se complique. L’humour aussi. C’est le problème de Funny People : plutôt bon dans sa première partie, avec un Apatow visiblement maître de son sujet, le film, via des protagonistes caricaturaux mais attachants (comprendre : un croisement entre des nazes et des geeks qui préfèrent parler de gonzesses durant des heures plutôt que d’aller se prendre des vestes face à la gent féminine, trop exigeante pour eux), tourne en dérision l’univers désenchanté et sordide du stand-up, d’où sont extraits des foules de comiques vulgaires et misogynes. Et cet univers le mérite bien : protagonistes agaçants et prétentieux, public désagréable, blagues foireuses. Les « stand-upeurs » passent l’essentiel de leur spectacle à évoquer des noms d’oiseaux et à explorer leurs parties génitales, quand ils ne fantasment pas sur la scatologie la plus primaire. Il y a quelque chose de jouissif à respirer tout ce cynisme et cette ironie de bon aloi. Mais les choses se gâtent dans la seconde partie, dès lors que son principal personnage, le célèbre faiseur de blagues Georges Simmons, atteint d’une forme rare de maladie du sang et promis à une mort hautement probable, tente de reconquérir son amour de jeunesse qu’il n’aurait jamais dû laisser tomber, et qui s’est marié à un brillant cadre australien, doté d’un accent à couper à la machette africaine. Apatow perd alors toute sa hargne ; et un événement advient qui renverse cette sympathique machine qu’il aura fallu une heure pour démarrer. Pourquoi un tel revirement pour passer d’un comique gras mais intéressant à une romance ennuyeuse et boursouflée ? Mystère.

George Simmons est un trublion totalement en déni de réalité. Excellemment joué par Adam Sandler, qui heureusement lui prête ses traits, Simmons n’est plus qu’une image médiatique que les gens reconnaissent sur leur chemin, mais qui ne correspond plus à aucun référent matériel. Il n’a plus d’existence propre ; et personne n’a envie de savoir que, chez lui, dans son intimité, cet homme qui fait rire l’Amérique dans des films aux titres ô combien savoureux et qui n’ont de cesse d’être rediffusés pour les gogos qui regardent la télévision plus de cinq heures par jour (et je ne parle toujours pas de la France, contrairement à ce qu’on pourrait croire), peut s’avérer être un humain triste. Tout simplement triste. Parce qu’il n’a plus de compagne – seulement des compagnes d’un soir – et parce qu’il n’a pas de véritable ami, à tel point qu’il prend le débutant Ira Wright (Seth Rogen, sympathique) pour lui servir de pourvoyeur de vannes mais également de pote éphémère. Finalement, l’aspect humain de Simmons resurgit lorsque la maladie – et le fatal horizon de la mort – le renvoie à sa condition de mortel. Pour un homme public, réputé, acclamé et célébré partout, la présence de la maladie qui ronge les cellules est comme ce conseiller qu’on attribut traditionnellement à César et qui ne cessait, paraît-il, de lui répéter : « Rappelle-toi que tu n’es qu’un homme ». Voilà ce qu’apprend la maladie à Simmons. Et voilà ce que nous dit le film : les « funny people » ne sont pas des gens très drôles, en réalité. Dès le coup d’envoi de la seconde partie, cet état de fait explose en morceaux. Et le soufflé retombe à mesure que la moralité de cette histoire se fait jour. Merci Judd, nous avions besoin de vous pour comprendre que le succès n’est pas tout dans la vie.

Reste donc, grosso modo, la première heure, attaque en règle contre l’égocentrisme masculin de ces comiques à la mode qui, pour devenir un tant soit peu célèbres, jouent la carte permanente du « zizi, pipi, caca » auprès d’un auditoire décérébré. Tout n’est pas amusant (le problème de la culture ou de la langue, encore une fois ?) mais pourquoi pas. À James Taylor, venu chanter à l’ouverture d’un séminaire MySpace (ce qui fait dire au chanteur « Fuck Facebook ! »), Ira Wright, déjà assistant personnel de Simmons et wannabe comique en herbe, demande : « Vous n’en avez pas marre d’interpréter toujours la même chanson ? ». Ce à quoi Taylor rétorque : « Et toi, tu n’en pas assez de parler toujours de ta bite ? ». Voilà qui résumerait assez justement la portée critique de Funny People, dont les personnages d’adolescents pervers ne conçoivent l’existence qu’à travers l’expression sexuelle, autrefois transgressive mais désormais passée de mode. Le plus triste, c’est que les séquences du film qui ne font pas appel à ces inepties d’adolescents sont plutôt amusantes, voire très drôles : au détour de références cinématographiques particulièrement bien vues, tels ces renvois à Piège de cristal lorsque le médecin suédois apparaît, on se donne l’occasion de bien s’entraîner les mâchoires. Mais ces moments restent des exceptions : sûr qu’on ne saurait faire du stand-up pendant deux heures et qu’il faut savoir trouver des moments pour s’affaler sur ses acquis.

Eric Nuevo

> Sortie en salles le 7 octobre 2009

Funny People – Bande-annonce en VOST

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Growing your Network

The skys the limit!
The larger you grow your network the more money you can make.

Your Blastoff Network can extend out to 10 degrees of separation from yourself. The more people you personally refer, the exponentially larger your Network can become!

For example: If you personally sign up 3 people and your Network grows at that same 3x multiple out 10 degrees, you will have over 80,000 in your Network.

Now If you personally sign up 20 people and your Network grows at the same 3x multiple as above out 10 degrees, you will have over 590,000 in your Network!
Import contacts Countdown to Blastoff!

This is a snap. Just click a button and import your email contacts from outlook, hotmail, yahoo, g-mail or any major web mail service. Then let Blastoff Network send out your Blastoff Network invitations for you to the contacts you specify. Your invitations will invite your contacts to visit your page and join your Network. We can literally have your Network virally growing in minutes!

Place a Blastoff Network banner on your blog or site G-Force

Do you have an existing web site, blog or social network page? If so, place one our Blastoff Banners on your site which will link your traffic or affinity group directly to your Blastoff Network Site where people can learn more about Blastoff Network and sign up. Attention all bloggers, all those long hours are about to pay off!

Social Networks Light Speed!
Use Facebook, Linked IN, My Space or Twitter? If so, this is another way that you can grow your Network fast! Just send out a Blastoff Network Invitation to all of your contacts and friends within any Social Network. The Invite will link them back to your Blastoff Network site where they can learn more about Blastoff Network and sign up. And theres no worries, well track your Network and Commissions for you which you can access in real time. So sit back, and get ready for the ride!
Invite Cards and Leave behinds Leave No One Behind!

Who will you ever meet that would not want to save money, have fun and make money? Exactly so spread the word and cash in! Order your Blastoff Network Invitation Cards which will come with your name and Blastoff Network web address and hand them to everyone you come into contact with. If you dont invite them, someone else will. So Carpe Diem and get ready to Blastoff

http://www.blastcashback.com

How Social Media Helps Your Divorce Lawyer

One of the first things I talk to my divorce clients about is their online presence.   Before we even think about filing for divorce, I tell them their MySpace, Facebook, and other social pages need to be cleansed and purified.  I tell them we’ll just have to hope their spouse hasn’t been keeping copies of their pages and pictures they’ve posted.

Better yet, just delete them all.  Can’t bear to lose all your “friends” you’ve worked so hard to accumulate?  Then at least delete everything off your pages.  All your pictures, notes, tags, comments, bio, interests, favorites, everything.

What’s the big deal?

Because sometimes the information you put on your page can come back to haunt you in ways you might not expect.  Sometimes what can be found online either leads to, or enhances other evidence.

Most examples are predictable.  One of the grounds for divorce in Tennessee is “Habitual Drunkenness”, and if your spouse uses this, suddenly all those pictures of you and your friends at the bar become a serious liability, even if it was the only time you’d been out of the house in weeks.

In another example, a woman files for divorce, then asks the judge for temporary support from the husband while the case is proceeding.  In her requests she lays out the details of her desperate existence where she has neither the time nor money to adequately clothe and feed her poor children.

How unfortunate for her when her husband shows up to court with a copy of her recent Facebook status that reads “… is back from a shopping trip in LA!”.  Add that to his son’s tweet, “Just got a new Xbox!!!!”.  Furthermore, this leads to the discovery that while she was out of town shopping, she hired a babysitter to watch the kids rather than just let them spend time with their father.

All of a sudden, not only does her situation not seem so desperate, to the judge she comes off a little…. well…  rotten.

I’m too smart, you’ll never me online!

Don’t be so sure.  There are internet investigators who’s business is tracking down online users.  There are also web archives that store copies of old web pages, so even if you’ve cleansed your web pages as your lawyer suggests, the damaging information may still be available.  Your best bet is to assume that if you ever put something on the internet, the opposing lawyer can find it.

Believe me when I say that it’s not fun when your spouse’s lawyer sends a copy of your profile they found on a dating website.  It’s even worse when a note is attached that reads, “I think your client may have understated her weight.”

Snarky comments from opposing counsel aside, the lesson to be learned is while these social web sites have dramatically broadened our ability to reach out and connect with current and past friends, they have also exponentially increased the ability for gossip and damaging news to spread.

Furthermore, you may think you’re safe because your security settings are high, or your Facebook page is only viewable by friends.  That’s not a bad move, but it only takes one mutual friend who is willing to let your spouse view your profile on their computer, and you’re sunk.

So what can I do?

If you are going to continue to use social media sites during your divorce, you need to think long and hard about what you post online.  Your best bet is to stop using them altogether and express your hurt and anger the old fashioned way, meaning to trusted friends, family members, or a counselor who has a legal duty to keep your conversations private.

Artists Leave Chuseok Greetings

Kim Tae Woo, Kara, Mighty Mouth, Taegoon – leaves UCC Chuseok greetings “Happy Chuseok!”

Kim Tae Woo, Kara, Mighty Mouth, Taegoon – leaves UCC Chuseok greetings

Yesterday Kim Tae Woo left a Video Message on his Cyworld page and Myspace of his greeting of the Chuseok festival which will be held on the 3rd of October. Apparently after the video has been posted onto the internet, it has raised the subject of the movie amongst the viewers.

Kim Tae Woo, Kara, Mighty Mouth, Taegoon were also captured in the same video which was posted onto the internet.

Sangchu (Lettuce) left a greeting saying ‘I hope everyone will recieve huge smiles during the Chuseok festival’. On the other hand, since Shorry-J’s birthday is on the 4th of October (during the 3 day festival) he said, ‘My birthday is in 4 days and its during the Chuseok Festival, I guess I celebrate it during then.’

Taegoon left ‘Have a Happy Chuseok’. He also said Chuseok express the joy of dance.

Kara also left ‘Spend your Chuseok with your families then everyone will be happy. Take Care!’

Kim Tae Woo then ended with ‘The family hopes to send you some Chuseok’ during his popular song ‘Sarangbi’

Source: MTV Korea
Translated by: ☆SoSHiMaNGo★ @ http://asianfanatics.net

Invitations Made Easy!

We are absolutely delighted to announce some new features at Remarkable Tributes. 

First and foremost, we have totally revamped the way you can invite others to contribute to a tribute, by submitting their photos and greetings.  Instead of emails with restrictive links, you can now copy an invitation link into your own emails, Facebook messages, or even to a printed flyer or invitation:  anywhere your friends and family are sure to see it!

It has never been easier to invite someone to participate in a tribute, to send out reminders to those who might not have responded yet, and to make sure your next Tribute project gets great participation from your family and friends.

This new approach allows you to pre-authorize people to submit (by entering their email addresses on the Contributors tab), otherwise people request access by visiting the link and you grant it to them on this tab (they show up as pending “Requests to Contribute”).  We have added a “Super Secret Mode” which allows you to hide the name and occasion of the tribute on this invitation, so that no surprises are ruined. 

Like always, new features and enhancements are immediately available with no software to download or files to upgrade.  All tributes are automatically updated and you can see the new features in place today at http://www.RemarkableTributes.com.  Check it out and start a new tribute today!

The new “Contributors” tab allows flexibility and ease in inviting people to join a Tribute.

Predictable? Me? NEVER teeheehee

Well, yet again I was looking at pics of another stunning lady…. and got a little carried away with the downloading of pictures… So much so, I now have about about 100 new images of Ancilla Tilia. I’m not a huge fan of blonds but I think for this lady, I shall make an exception

Most of these pics have be taken from her Myspace as I’m far too broke to pay to be a member of her site, I guess these will have to do for now I’m totally loving the new Evergreen Terrace, proper brilliant tunes. Uplifting, fun and totally got some awesome drops Their latest video may be completely terrible but still worth watching for the Karate Kid tribute bits haha. I also saw an AWESOME video but a guy called Aggro Santos. It’s purely brilliant for the only reason that the girls in the video are BEYOND FIT! haha. Hey, I’m a simple man that likes simple things, one of them is fit girls wearing not much. I’m not asking for that much, am I? hahahah

Evergreen Terrace – Sending Signals

Aggro Santos – Culo

Son, can you play me a memory? I'm not really sure how it goes...

…but it’s sad and it’s sweet, and I knew it complete, when I wore a younger man’s clothes. *

Jeg er ganske åpen for musikalske inntrykk, og trenger nå trenger jeg noe nytt å mate ørene med. Derfor vil jeg at du skal anbefale meg noe musikk.

Det kan gjerne være sær musikk, popmusikk, symfoni, jazz, elektronisk, dyster,  eller morsom. Dansbar og kul 8 bits-musikk eller “Nintendomusikk” ønskes også velkommen. 

For at du skal få et lite inntrykk av hva jeg liker, har jeg prøvd å lage en liste over noen av artistene og komponistene jeg liker:

 

Enya

Manowar

Michael Bublé

Volbeat

Sonata Arctica

Enslaved

Captain Credible

Dimmu Borgir

Andreas Vollenweider

Trivium

Frank Sinatra

X Japan

Wintersun

Nine Inch Nails

Combichrist

Týr

Coheed and Cambria

Howard Shore

Eminem

Tori Amos

Pat Metheney

Alestorm

Muse

Nightwish

Steve Reich

John Williams

Nick Cave

Minor Majority

Michael Giacchino

Hans Zimmer

Danny Elfman

 

Skal du anbefale meg et album eller en låt fra disse artistene, bør det være noe jeg aldri har hørt om, f.eks. en merkelig remiks, en sprø coverlåt eller et veldig spesielt live-opptak.

Skriv anbefalingen din i en kommentar på bloggen, eller send et e-brev til nachtwulff@gmail.com 

Hvor finner jeg dette?

Jeg setter pris på lenker (myspace, spotify, youtube, osv) eller anvisninger til hvor jeg finner musikken du anbefaler. Jeg har Spotify, og er ikke redd for  å handle på nettet.

 

 

 Bli med på leken.

Skriv anbefalingen din i en kommentar på bloggen, eller send et e-brev til nachtwulff@gmail.com

The Haunt: #1 social network for horror

Have you joined The Haunt yet? Have you heard of it? It is the place to go for all things horror related.

1 ) It blows MySpace away, and unlike MS and Facebook, you don’t get bombarded with stupid applications. If people want to play games…

2 ) There is an arcade! Lots of fun horror-themed games to play. It keeps a top score for members and lets you challenge others.

3 ) Forums. It got to where there were so many message boards out there, it was too difficult to keep track of them. Well, there are horror forums here that are run tight (no spam or political/religious flame wars), so everyone gets to have a good time and even learn some things.

4 ) It ties into your Twitter. Yep, you can set the Twitter settings on your Haunt page to pull in your Tweets for display.

5 ) You can post pictures, videos, blogs, bulletins, send messages, create groups… all the great stuff you can do elsewhere, except it all looks cooler.

6 ) There’s a chat room and they occasionally schedule organized chats with authors. Plus, there is a shout box on the home page which gets wild.

7 ) You can submit articles in a Digg-type fashion.

8 ) One of the best parts, it’s tied directly into the Horror Mall, the best store for all your horror needs, including an auction house (better than eBay) and digital store!

9 ) No stupid spammy ads, just paid advertisements by those in the community, and they don’t bog your computer down to load.

10 ) It’s all free!

There’s probably plenty more that we can’t think of at the moment, but that’s quite a lot of great stuff for one place, as it is.

Other social networks are more like close-knit cliques on the same site, but at The Haunt, it’s set up to be an actual community where people can mingle better. It’s a blast! And if there is a problem, your complaints won’t go ignored. The guys in charge are always there to help.

Check out OUR PAGE to get an idea of what it’s like. Then why not join and add us as a friend?