CyberStalking

CyberStalking seems to have jumped to the forefront of the blogosphere lately. The Kathy Sierra incident was certainly an eye opener for most bloggers over the past week. Some bloggers in support of Kathy responded by taking time off, such as Robert Scoble, others like Blog Bloke posted their ideas on how to help yourself in such a situation.

Seems there is not much talk about the law in regards to this subject. And in fact it is not clear where exactly the law comes in to play.

However, in Jackson, Mississippi this past week 3 young people were arrested for CyberStalking, and in Mississippi it carries a felony charge with prison time of up to two years and a $5,000 fine.

Is this a state by state issue?

Seems strange a crime that can certainly be global is put on the shoulders of the local law enforcement.

Follow Up Links:

• Three Jackson Teens Accused Of Cyberstalking - News - MSNBC.com
• InstaBLOKEâ„¢ a blog about blogging: Abusive Comments: What Can a Blogger Do About Them?
• Taking the week off « Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger
• Techmeme: Death threats against bloggers are NOT "protected speech" … (Kathy Sierra/Creating Passionate Users)

CybersEye

Nellie took this cool time exposure of me at the computer. Nice 3D effect with the screen. - Mike

OneSearch Yahoo Mobile

Highbrid Nation writes about Yahoo's new mobile search initiative, OneSearch. Starting on April 3, you can submit your mobile content to Yahoo for inclusion into their mobile search engine. Cool. Maybe now those cell phone web services will be useful for something. But please, no pop-ups.

Yahoo Mail knows no limits

When I heard Yahoo is removing their limits on email, I did a CyberSearch on Yahoo Mail. Here's a sampling of those results:

Yahoo Mail With Infinite Storage?
Yahoo ups the ante and announced that Yahoo Mail will start offering unlimited storage starting May this year. Right now, you’ll get 1 GB for free at Yahoo, whereas Google’s Gmail has almost 3 GB. blog.outer-court.com

Coming soon: Yahoo Mail API, turns it into a platform
What it shows is that the company is beginning to think of Yahoo Mail as a platform, leveraging cheap storage and a mega audience. gigaom.com

Unlimited storage for Yahoo Mail confirmed
Yahoo scraps 1GB mail storage limit in preparation for the launch of the Apple iPhone and an expected spike in demand for IMAP server-side mail retention. www.itpro.co.uk/news

Western Digital My Book External Hard Drive

I needed some extra storage for my computer. It took me a couple of years, but I finally filled up the original hard drive with dozens of programs, applications, photos, images, mp3's and videos. So I shopped around some, because you always get a better bargain, even if you just shop two or three stores. Always buy a brand you know and trust. I can't tell you how many dollars I've wasted buying the off-beat bargain brands, only to have it break sooner than later.

The greatest benefit I've found is browsing online until you find exactly what you want, and then check the prices at a few of the leading retail stores. And I found this computer upgrade at the most unlikely place of all...Target. Yeah, I bought a new external hard drive for my computer at a Super Target store, just a few miles from my house.

$99 for a Western Digital "My Book" external hard drive with 160GB of storage. A pretty good buy from a leading name-brand manufacturer that will last me for another two years, or maybe longer. That all depends on how many music and video files I can store on it, but that works out to something like 12 hours of video or 40,000 songs!

Here's the geeky stats for the tech-at-heart:
My Book Premium ES Edition external hard drive
USB 2.0 & ultra-fast eSATA 3 Gb/s interfaces on board
Western Digital website

Dell Customer Service

I laughed out loud when I saw this. A Dell contest to win an XPS M1210 notebook autographed by Justin Timberlake? Why would anyone care if this laptop was signed? It's their ultra-portable four pounder with a built-in webcam, next generation wi-fi and WXGA display, powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Sounds like a nice little package for some lucky winners.

Read the details of this contest at Dell's Lounge website.

I just talked to a friend and co-worker today, who had to argue with a Dell tech for half an hour over his brand new warranty to get some defective speakers replaced. C'mon Dell! Focus on your customer service problems first; fix those issues and make your customers happy.

If you don't, you will continue to lose market share, but it will probably take years before your board of directors realize it. Now don't get me wrong; I use Dell computers at work and at home on a daily basis. Yes, I've had my issues with the company, mainly with their billing and customer service people, but they were corrected (on their timetable, not mine.)

I'd just like to see an improvement in customer service from really big companies that seem to forget how they got so big in the first place. From you and me, our friends and families, that have invested in their products and services.

Google BlogBar released.

Today Google announced the release of the BlogBar as part of the Google AJAX Search API.

Once again Google demonstrates their willingness to listen to the user base and adopt ideas.

Thanks Google!

Checkout the BlogBar in action at WidgetSupport.com.

MySpace

MySpace continues to rise above the rest of the social communities. It seems that almost everyone has a MySpace page. Particularly young artists. Whether it be Music or Graphics or any other form of artistic expression MySpace seems to draw them in.

Cord Silverstein over at Marketing Hipster wrote a post this morning that really hits home on the popularity of MySpace, and the key fact is...

...I believe to the biggest factor on MySpace’s success which is control...
Source: What MySpace Did Right

Just run some Google searches and look at Google Trends. Two topics that have enormous numbers right now are MySpace and MySpace Layouts. The layouts are basically equivalent to blog templates, and you can find a layout for any topic imaginable.

10th Annual Web Awards

The winners of the 10th Annual Web Awards have been announced from Austin's South By SouthWest Interactive Conference. Adobe Systems, (Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver) presents the awards to who's considered to be the best new websites, developing on tomorrow's online trends.

Read more @ 2007.sxsw.com

Smithsonian Photography Initiative
Twitter
Resn 2B2
OwnYourC
The Horizontal Way
Computerlove
Squidoo
Vitamin
The Fallen Alternate Reality Game
Time Trumpet
Hungry Suitcase
Just for the F of It
Jonathan Yuen
How Do I Say This?
Stikkit
Social Saga
Exopolis Valentine's Day Mixtape

Google Reader Review

Here's a quick look at some of our shared items from Google Reader:

The Google Life: Wired blogger Michael Calore is going all Google, all the time, replacing all of his desktop apps with Google’s offerings wherever applicable.

The Value of Google Gadgets: Developers have created nearly 4000 gadgets. Google now shows the approximate number of page views each gadget recieves in a week.

Negative Reactions to Microsoft attack on Google at the AAP: from O'Reilly Radar. The AAP is suing Google for scanning books from libraries. Microsoft takes another shot.

Why is the Cellphone Ringing? You probably have a guest at home: Waleli has launched the GSM Doorbell, that links the doorbell in your home to your mobile phone anywhere in the world. Wow, forget about remote desktop. Now we have remote doorstep.
www.gsmdoorbell.com

Create A Photo Comic Strip With Comeeko: Select a layout, pick your photos, add text or clipart, apply affects and presto! See ya in the funny pages!
www.comeeko.com

Posted by Mike

Blogging My State Of Mind

There's an interesting article on austin360.com about the state of blogging and the future of the online diary, written by Omar L. Gallaga, a staffer at the American-Statesman.

The article touches on a number of good points:

- there's more than 200 million abandoned blogs currently online.

- this year, the number of active worldwide bloggers is expected to peak at 100 million and eventually level off to about 30 million.

- many bloggers have either had negative online experiences or simply got too busy with their personal lives to continue regular posting.

- online communities like MySpace, YouTube and Flickr have connected many bloggers with easy-to-use tools that make the personal posting experience more interactive and visual.

Those numbers are staggering and I agree there's alot of dead blogs out there. The really good ones still attract a healthy audience because they have daily posts, current or engaging content, and they talk TO me, not AT me. In other words, I can relate to whatever they're saying. OK, so I believe content is still king.

And yes, it's a challenge to post every day. But, I remember the golden rule of radio broadcasting that taught me an important lesson. Talk to your audience like you're talking to a good friend. One on one. Make it personal so your listeners (or readers) can understand what you're saying, and relate to you and your story. It still works on the air, and it works online too. Stick to that concept, and your blogs will thrive.

Read more at www.austin360.com.

Lifelogging

I just read a fascinating article about something called "Lifelogging," which is a continuous recorded diary, either on video or audio. Basically it's your life, on the record, recorded 24 hours a day, everyday. A little unsettling, knowing your every word, movement and interaction is recorded. And what are the social, moral and legal implications of such accurate and complete records?

There is much research being done on the subject. Microsoft Research has something called MyLifeBits and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab has been working with wearable computers for years.

If that sounds farfetched, just consider the technology that we have today. Digital video cameras, cell phone cameras, mini voice recorders, GPS receivers that track our location, RFD tags, bar code scanners, security cameras, webcams, plus websites like YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, Blogger and the millions of personal blogs on the internet.

Read more at...
The Chronicle of Higher Education @ chronicle.com/free
Scientific American @ www.sciam.com

Windows Vista VS. Mac OS X

Sometimes I wonder how Microsoft got to be the "600 pound gorilla" it is today. The more I read about their new Windows Vista (and the fact it will probably require extensive hardware upgrades,) I can't help but think that MY next major computer upgrade might just be a Mac.

If I have to spend a thousand or more dollars to upgrade my home computer, why not take the plunge and join the Apple corps? Their iMac looks better than ever with the new Intel processor, built-in webcam, and iLife software, that's already integrated into Mac OS X.

After working with (and troubleshooting) Windows 3.1, 95, NT, 2000 and XP for years, I'm ready for a home computer that just works the first time, without having to download a new driver or system patch.