Email is old school

In our house we have 2 teenagers, 14 and 18. Both of them skipped email, and that just makes me dizzy.

They use their cellphones for instant messaging and they can type out complete messages while never looking at the screen, however, neither one of them can type very well on a full keyboard.

This is just amazing. We now have a generation of kids who think email is old school. Instant communication is a fact of life for them. One of the downsides to this is going to be the quality of the written word. In just a few short years it will be impossible to read most handwriting and we will also have twice as many words to use as before as they continue to improvise and shortcut at every turn.

Cybersforum is a Go!!!

Its now time to see what you think about us and our topics.

Cybersforum.com is up and running and we are looking for you, the reader, to come and tell us what you think.

Please feel free to go and register on the forum today. We look forward to hearing what you all have to say.

Daylight Savings Time 2007 Update

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 now adds four weeks to our usual daylight-savings time. So get ready to spring forward an hour on March 11 and fall back on November 4 this year.

The Windows Mobile website reports on the Daylight Saving Time 2007 Update...

Congress has changed the dates for Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the United States starting in 2007. These changes could cause clocks and Microsoft Outlook calendar appointments on portable Windows Mobile-powered devices to display incorrect times for March 11 – April 1, 2007 and October 28 – November 4, 2007 and again in subsequent years. This will also affect Outlook Calendars running on corporate email systems on Microsoft's Exchange servers.

Daylight Saving Time (DST) will now start three weeks earlier (2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March) and will end one week later (2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November.) Canada has adopted similar DST dates.

Previously, Daylight Saving Time began the first Sunday in April, which would have been April 1, 2007. Under the new law, DST will start on the second Sunday in March, that will now be March 11, 2007 .

Daylight Saving Time would have ended on the last Sunday in October, which falls on October 28, 2007. With the new law, DST will end on the first Sunday in November, which will now be November 4, 2007.

Under the change, daylight-saving time will start a month sooner in March, and standard time will not return until November. Congress hopes to reduce our national energy consumption with the extra hours of daylight.

Read More...
Google News www.google.com/nwshp
Windows Mobile www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile

Google Alerts

Google Alerts are an easy and simple way to keep up with things. For example, say you wanted to see any news stories about the CES show that just happened last month.

Go to www.google.com/alerts,
enter your Search Terms (keywords or a phrase)
select the Type (News, Blogs, Web, Groups, or Comprehensive)
specify How often (once a day, as-it-happens, or once a week)
and Google creates your alert!

Then all you have to do is check your gmail.

This as-it-happens Google Alert is brought to you by Google.

Remove this alert.
Create another alert.
Manage your alerts.

Shared Items from Google Reader

Don't overlook those Shared Items on the right, under the BlogRoll. They're all interesting stories that merit reading, courtesy of Google Reader, which allows you to share any article from their RSS feeds.

This is what I'm talking about... links to this video on YouTube.

Who links to your site?

GooTube Slammed By Viacom Takedown Demand...

CNET Launches New API...

Google To Provide Downloadable E-Books...

SmugMug: The (Anti) Web 2.0 Company...

Give away the music and sell the show...

Everything in its place (ment)...

If Google Were a Restaurant...

DEMO 2007 Embraces Web 2.0...

Netflix offers downloaded movies...

Images: Google Earth's 3D world...

Digital Ethnography

Cool video about Web 2.0. I like it because it's using standard everyday things we use like notepad, viewing the source, google, etc., but in a new way and with purpose. Linking humanity together and using the net's enormous amount of data to serve everyday people.

Video created by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. Nicely done and not too long, so it holds your attention. Good pacing too. I think the average attention span online is about 15 seconds, if that long.

The Professor's profile on YouTube says his videos explore mediated culture, seeking to merge the ideas of Media Ecology and Cultural Anthropology.

The Professor's Blog: mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg

Yahoo Pipes

RSS Feeds help us stay informed in an organized way.

Now, there's an interactive feed aggregator from Yahoo called Pipes, which allows you to manipulate those feeds into a more powerful, relevant and hopefully, more useful tool.

Some of the most frequently run Pipes so far include Google Video Search, Microsoft Live News Search and del.icio.us flavored web search.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/

Browse a complete list of Pipes modules here.

Read more about Pipes at O'Reilly radar BLOG...
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/02/pipes_and_filte.html

Cell Phone Roving Bug

Here's another story that makes you wonder about high technology and the way it's being used, or abused.

NewsTarget has learned that the FBI has developed a technique that can remotely activate a nearby cell phone's microphone, thereby turning it into a listening device. The "roving bug" technique was approved by U.S. Department of Justice officials for use on members of an organized crime family in New York that was getting increasingly suspicious of tails, wiretaps or other traditional surveillance techniques. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the technique was legal, stating that federal wiretapping law was broad enough to cover the monitoring of conversations occurring near a suspect's cell phone.

The new method works whether the phone is on or off, because many phone models cannot be truly powered down without removing the battery. Some models, for example, will turn on from a powered-down state when an alarm is set.
Source: www.newstarget.com

Another article noted that cell phone providers can install a piece of software on any phone from a remote location, allowing microphone activation, without the owner's knowledge. In addition to activating a mic, the software can also stop a display from indicating a call in progress, taking away another method by which a cell phone user could tell his phone had been compromised.

According to counter-surveillance consultant James Atkinson, models from Nextel, Samsung and the popular Motorola Razr are particularly vulnerable to these remote software downloads. Some sources say that security-conscious corporate executives make a habit of removing their cell phone's battery when the unit is not in use.

This is not the first time the FBI has commandeered built-in microphones as listening devices. In a 2003 lawsuit, it was discovered that the FBI was able to activate the microphones of automotive systems such as OnStar and listen to passenger conversations without the speakers knowing. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the practice was not legal, but only because the technique prevents the system from being used in an emergency.

Source: www.newstarget.com

attendio.com

Attendio is a new social events service that automatically connects people to local events to match their interests. The user community continually adds relevant local events, reviews, and recommendations to their website and user's calendars.

The free Attendio service (still in beta) launched online on February 1st, beginning with local events for the San Francisco Bay Area. The service is rolling out to additional cities across the country throughout 2007. Coordinated with the launch of Microsoft's new version of Windows, Attendio is also featured in the new Windows Vista Calendar, and debuted at the DEMO 007 conference in Palm Desert, California.

The unique VIP "Recommenders" provide an insider's view on all the "hot" events across all categories at any time. Some early VIP's are Adam Duritz of the band Counting Crows and Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind.

"Attendio just sounded like a cool idea to me," said Adam Duritz, lead singer for the Counting Crows. "After all, there are so many great cultural events taking place all the time in the Bay Area and New York. It seems like I spend half the space on my own blogs recommending theatre and films and bands and events at Cal I think people should go out and see. Attendio seems an obvious way to get the news about that stuff out there so everyone can enjoy them as much as I do."

Users can also designate their friends as "Recommenders" to easily share information on interesting and worthwhile events. For example, music lovers can automatically see what albums or concerts their blogger friends recommend.

Within a few clicks, Attendio users set up their own personalized profile, and request that events automatically populate their personal calendar through popular programs, including Apple iCal, Microsoft Outlook, Windows Vista Calendar and Google Calendar.

Source:
www.demo.com
www.attendio.com
www.netvibes.com
media.prnewswire.com