Twitter is down for the second day in a row.
Facebook is MIA too.
How does that Joni Mitchell song go? “You never know what you got til it’s gone .. “
Yeah, well the Twitternets were my paradise, now they’re a parking lot.
I feel naked and empty today without my “friends.”
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Okay, we got an iPhone announcement. When we actually get an iPhone is still up in the air.
Ted Rogers dropped the news in a press release earlier today.
“We’re thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can’t tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned.”
An iPhone update is due this summer. So we will get version 2.0, or the original? The data plan issue still needs to be worked out, and whether or not they’ll hose us on the exchange rate. Rumblings for a 32GB iPhone 2.0 have it at $699 in the U-S.
How much will it be in Canada?? Well .. stay tuned, eh?
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That little button at the top of my Google Reader is fulfilling.
Mark All As Read.
I love clicking it. Wiping the slate clean and seeing the 1000+ stories in my roll shrink down to zero.
Sometimes I feel empty when my queue gets to zero. As if there is nothing left to know. There is nothing new. But usually it’s a sense of accomplishment to know I have bellied up to the internet buffet and beat it. I ate all I could and still had room for more.
Well, for the next 2 weeks, I am on vacation. I’m going on an information diet.
Yes, I’m carrying a MacBook with me 1/3 of the way around the world, but that’s more for something to do while we’re shut in hotels at 730p with a sleeping baby.
I’ve loaded it with 2 seasons of Dexter and will have many hours to manipulate our daily photos and videos into fun memories.
But yes, I have also brought it to stay connected. To try and leap on to some open WiFi connections around Nantes, or St Malo or Honfleur.
Instead of hopping on and checking my reader and scrolling through the updates, I will hit one button.
Mark All As Read.
Okay, and maybe another button. Upload to Flickr.
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Jen just got home from her “Dinner Club.” Her girlfriends get together once a month and have a pow-wow at a hot spot. Tonight it was Jules Bistro in Gastown. Last month it was La Terrazza.
To show you how badly needed this Dinner Club is for Jen and her social life, the nice coat she wore tonight hasnt been worn since last month’s soiree. How did she know? She found someone else’s car keys in her pocket, probably dumped by a coat check or valet.
So how do we get a set of keys back to someone?
All that we had was a Volvo fob, and a Tiffany’s charm.
On the back of the charm was engraved a first name, and a company. That’s it. Put them in Google together and we found a matching person who had donated to the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. With that entry we discovered her last name.
Put the first and last name into Google and we discover a bulletin board post she made 2 years ago complete with phone number and email address. Now the email address has expired, as she has switched companies, but we will try the home phone number listed tomorrow.
So… good news / bad news. Google will help you get your keys back if you lost them, but it will also give out a lot of information about you to anyone who has a little bit of information about you.
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Last week I wrote in 24hrs about Twitter.
Twitter posts (tweets) are limited to 140 characters, the same limitations of SMS, so you’ll often find people tweeting on the go. Because of the character limit of the posts, they become almost poetic, a new internet Haiku.
I love it. It’s where I’ve moved my social networking. I mean, I still check Facebook every now and again, but it’s not where I spend my time. The quality of user is much more manageable at Twitter.. The Twitter peeps, tweeps, are ahead of the curve, smart, articulate and not into zombie biting. Sweet.
But things might change. I mean, I wrote about Twitter to draw in the unwashed, and now Lee LeFever and his CommonCraft crew are explaining things in plain english.
Get ready to unfollow @superpoke.
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Thanks to Chris Brogan for tweeting and blogging Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero video.
Its basic, your nose is on your face type stuff, but while the video was rolling, I scrolled through my inbox and, got it to zero.
Now I need someone to do a Desktop Zero video. My crystal clean screen has files and bookmarks all over it.
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I’m going unplugged.
I wish it was a reference to some acoustic version of Guitar Hero, but alas I’m referring to my connection to the internets.
For the better part of a month, our internet connection with Shaw has been spotty. Not the fastest, and dropping off frequently. The drop off means getting under the table, resetting the modem, resetting the router, waiting. Climbing back up, seeing it’s not working and doing it again. Even once it starts working, 15 mins later I’m crouched down doing the reset dance again.
We’ve called Customer Service a couple of times, once getting a credit for 5 days service because of our troubles (nice!).
BUT… (there’s always one of those)
The last call was resolved with Shaw suggesting we exchange our modem for a newer model, free of charge (nice!). Jen went and did that today, brought them home and plugged everything in.
Dead.
Nothing.
Zip.
She calls tech support and they have her under the desk doing all sorts of cable origami and nothing works. So they’re going to send a tech out to us (nice!).
On Sunday (ouch!). Today is Wednesday. 5 days with no series of tubes connecting us to the world.
At first I thought this would be great. A chance to format the hard drive that is my life. Get off the grid, take a breath of fresh air and re-evaluate how I have let technology monopolize my life.
The problem is, I’m not the only one it monopolizes. Work doesnt phone me when it needs something, it emails me. Friends don’t call, they Facebook. I don’t phone my parents and chat, they get updates on Zacharie through this blog and his photo blog.
With no internets, that all disappears. Gone.
Thankfully we have 2 neighbourly neighbours who leave some ports open so the whole ‘hood can get online. It’s not the most reliable of connections, so it’s nothing I can depend on to get serious blog / audio / video / research work done. Instead I’ll be able to just hop on the open port and get in a couple of email checks to stay in touch with work, but that’s about it.
For 5 long, hard days, I will be off the grid (sorta).
I’m looking forward to it (sorta).
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Unboxing is a favourite geek pasttime. Some might even call it geek porn.
Get something new? Take a picture. Every.step.of.the.way.
I received a new pair of Creative Aurvana Live yesterday, and I thought I’d try my first unboxing.
Sure, it’s not as cool as the Apple IIc unbox, or a MacBook Air unbox, but this is my unbox. Here it is
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I’m looking forward to test hearing them this afternoon on the air, I’ll post a review then.
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Leo Laporte is the host of many podcasts, tv and radio shows about technology. His TWiT Network is one of the most listened to online, and he comes up to Vancouver 1 week a month to work on The Lab With Leo.
He loves his gear. He’s usually on the bleeding edge for buying the latest and greatest, sitting on waiting lists until something new is released.
But every now and again Leo waits and buys something a little further down the line, and when he does, it means the item is about to be discontinued.
He’ll buy the HD DVD player the day before the battle is lost to Blu Ray, he’ll buy a new iPod the day before the memory is doubled and the size is shrunk.
It’s called getting Leo’d, and it just happened to me.
I finally received my iPod Shuffle that I scooped on the Future Shop Boxing Day Sale for $59.99. A GREAT deal I thought. Nope.
Today Apple announced the price of the shuffle has dropped to $55, and a new 2 gig model is being introduced for $75.
Grrr.
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Many people gathered with friends today at whoever’s house has the biggest HD TV to watch the Giants and Pats in the SuperBowl.
Watching big games with a lot of people may be a fun social event, but you never really get a sense of the drama of the game because of the din of the crowd, and beer spilled in your nachos.
For big events, like the Masters, or the Stanley Cup or SuperBowl, I prefer to watch the game tout seul. Alone. By myself.
Today, Jen is on one couch, I’m on the other. But I’m having a big party - with my twitter peeps. It’s the best of both worlds. I’m chillaxing with the fam, I get to get into the game, and when something big happens, or a cool commercial comes on, I can yak back and forth with 30something people - all the while not disturbing the ass kicking of Eli Manning.
Beautiful. I’m calling it TwitterBowl I.
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