Tech Talk

Anyone who ever said Twitter was just a waste of time and used only by the self-absorbed should look to one if its newest users.  It could very well lead to inner peace.

The Dalai Lama joined Twitter Monday, the official Tibetan Government Official Web site announced Tuesday:

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has joined the social networking line to keep in touch with his followers.

Evan Williams, the CEO of the social networking site, tweeted Monday:  

Met the Dalai Lama today in LA. Pitched him on using Twitter. He laughed.

But apparently he took the invitation to heart and accepted.

So far, His Holiness has posted a half dozen tweets linking to videos, photos and webcasts.

Previously there was a fake Twitter account claiming to be the religious leader, but it has since been removed.  And those concerned that this account is another fake can rest assured knowing that the account of the 14th Dalai Lama has been verified by Twitter.

If there was any question that Twitter is here to stay, it should be gone.

Google will launch a new feature as early as this week to make sharing media and updates with friends easier, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The new module, which will be integrated into Gmail, is intended to make the e-mail application “more social” by allowing users to “view a stream of status updates from people they choose,” the newspaper reported.

The new feature seems to expand off of the Google Talk application currently integrated into Gmail. 

I regularly update my Google Talk statuses to reflect what I am doing, and utilize the application to communicate with friends and colleagues — as I once did on AOL Instant Messenger.

The difference, according to the Journal, is that the development will include an area where users can sift through a stream of updates — that includes the Google-owned YouTube and Picasa services —  in a similar timeline view as on Twitter and Facebook.  It remains uncertain if updates from non-Google entities will be included.

If the development goes across networks, Mashable notes:

[T]he new features could be thought of more like a TweetDeck or Seesmic, looking to provide an aggregate view of your friends’ social media activities along with the ability to push status updates to the services you use from inside of Gmail. If not, it could be thought of as a major competitor to Twitter and Facebook as Gmail looks to covert its millions of email users into users of a whole new breed of social media service.

Apple has unveiled the much-hyped and highly anticipated tablet device – known as the iPad.

“It’s a giant iPod Touch-looking device, just like we thought. Same home button, same bezel,” Erica Ogg wrote in a live-blog from within the tablet’s unveiling for CNET News.

The device, which can be oriented in either landscape or portrait mode like its iPhone cousin, could be utilized to surf the Web using the familiar touch screen navigation, Ogg wrote.

Like on the iPhone, there is a calendar an address book and access to Google Maps and, of course, the iTunes Store.

Videos could be watched, Ogg wrote, through YouTube and other sites.

It appears that it is very similar in operation to the iPhone — in terms of zooming, scrolling and syncing with computers, based on Ogg’s description. It also has a built-in iPod.

The iPad is WiFi enabled, Ogg wrote. Models will also have 3G, Ogg reported.

There will be two plans, according to CNET: 250MB of data every month for $15 or unlimited data for $30 per month. AT&T will continue to serve as the carrier. Both plans are pre-paid and require no contracts, Ogg wrote.

There are also groovy accessories — including a keyboard, Ogg reports, for folks who need to do a lot of typing.

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO and founder, said the iPad is much more intimiate than a laptop, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Journal reports that the thin device looks like a larger iPhone:

More on the looks: Thick black border on all sides. The background of the home screen is a photo that you can set for yourself. Jobs has finished the demo and is now talking about the hardware. It’s a half-inch in thickness and features a 9.7-inch IPS display, with multi-touch sensors.

The device, which comes with as much as 64 GB of flash storage, has WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities standard, the Journal reports. It also has 10 hours of battery life and more than a month of standby life, Jobs said.

The New York Times created an app for the iPad that, according to the Journal, “looks more like a newspaper than the iPhone app — you can resize fonts, and it flows along columns. Videos accompany the stories and can be watched along side.” No mention of price, though.

iBookstore was also unveiled by Jobs, according to the Journal.  Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette books will be available. CNET reports that text books will also be available.

New York Times’ Brad Stone was really impressed with iBook:

The iBooks store looks neat — plenty of colors, vivid book covers. Mr. Jobs is showing “True Compass” by Edward Kennedy, a book that was not available in the Kindle store for weeks after its release.

Among the cooler items on the device is iWork, which according to CNET, allows users to create presentations “with touch input only.” Spreadsheets could also be crafted.

16GB iPads will cost $499, Ogg reports. 32GB models will cost $599, 64GB models will cost $699; devices with 3G with cost an additional $130.

Shipments will begin in 60 days, she said. 3G models will begin shipping in 90 days.

Stone notes some of the more significant short-comings of the iPad:

• No ability to play Adobe Flash animations
• No camera
• No non-Internet phone function
• No removable battery for a device that can suck a lot of power
• No removable storage

Bottom line: The iPad looks cool and has a few neat new features, but will it be worth the price — particularly if you already own an iPhone 3GS and have a small laptop?

The American justice system is facing a threat that could result in the incarceration of the innocent and freedom of the guilty.

Graphic courtesy of California Court System

For years, judges have instructed juries to refrain from reading newspapers or watching local television news to preserve each defendant’s right to a fair trial.  However, the Internet threatens to strip our society from that inherent right of all men, women and children.

As Americans, and particularly folks from Southwestern Connecticut, become increasingly connected, it is becoming more difficult to avoid tainting a jury pool.  Countless blogs, tweets and Facebook statuses are disseminated everyday on a variety of topics — in an unpredictable manner.  As an example, a Tech Talk post from last week reported that almost 100 million words a day were posted in Facebook status updates at the beginning of the year.  It is impossible to anticipate the information one will find by logging onto the net.

For this reason, judges need to instruct juries to not just avoid – but stop visiting blogs and social networking sites – during their service as a juror.  Who knows, as was mentioned in a Tech Talk post earlier this week, it might even do the jurors some good to cut their digital leash for a little while.

The Internet also allows people, jurors included, to find supplemental information.  Jurors should be banned from using the net to find more information on the case they have been selected to offer a judgement on.

A TIME article reported that one juror doing research led to a mistrial in Miami.  This juror should be imprisoned.  It may seem harsh, but such actions threaten the very integrity of this country’s jury system — it’s that simple.  Think that juror’s actions were an isolated incident?  Think again! It was determined that at least nine of the 12 jurors Googled after hours.  America needs to get serious on this issue.

In another instance cited in the same article, a New York City juror sent a Facebook friend request to a witness during deliberations.  Following a guilty verdict, the defense team tried to get the verdict overturned, according to the article.  If the request had been granted, a potentially guilty person could have gone free and threatened the innocent.  If this person was innocent, someone who should not have been jailed was. How would you like to be imprisoned for something you did not do because of Facebook?  Either way, it is clear that judges need to prohibit jurors from utilizing social networking sites entirely during trials — and make clear that any use of the Internet, or any other means, to get supplemental information or to connect with people involved in the case will be a jailable offense.

As social networking becomes an increasingly integral part of our society, it could be expected that users will share more of life’s triumphs and tragedies.  However, for one mom, sharing the loss of her young son sparked public outrage.

Shellie Ross, an avid blogger and tweeter, announced the passing of her 2-year-old son to her 5,000 followers on Twitter, according to ABC News.

Ross tweeted 34 minutes after her 11-year-old son dialed 911 to report that his brother was floating unconsciously in their pool, according to the story, begging for her followers to “please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.” 

About five hours later, ABC News reports, the distraught mother tweeted again, saying: “Remembering my million dollar baby.”  She also included at least two photos of her son.

Her announcement prompted both sympathy and anger from other Internet users, the network reported.

Ross told ABCNews.com that no one had a right to question her tweets, and that anyone who attacked her for announcing her son’s death on Twitter “is a small-minded a**hole who deserves to rot in hell.”

Some people, however, defended her actions saying that tweeting the most effective way of disseminating the news with some of the people most important to her.

As social networking continues to evolve and spread among demographics, I have no doubt that users will continue to share more about themselves.

In fact, I am surprised that Ross’ story is even newsworthy.  The proliferation of information about one’s life is one of the most practical and common use of social networking sites, like Twitter and Facebook.

In fact, above the box utilized the share information on Twitter asks users: “What’s happening?”

Ross, I believe, did nothing wrong.  She utilized her social network as she desired.  Her child’s welfare or well-being was never threatened or put at risk by her actions.  She simply turned to her friends and followers in one of the darkest moments, just as people have for thousands of years.  Just because this mother opted to digitally should not change her desire — and overwhelming need — to find support.

For anyone who doubted her sincerity should have stopped following her, but to demean her, as some people did, is just unfathomable. 

I believe more people will utilize social networking in their times of personal triumphs — and yes, tragedies — and will soon instances like this will be non-stories.

Until then, my heart is with Shellie Ross.

An Iranian ‘army’ has attacked one of the most prominent American Web sites late Thursday, according to an influential technology Web site.

The Iranian Cyber Army directed visitors away from Twitter and altered its Google summary, according to TechCrunch Friday morning.

Tweeters found the following message, according to TechCrunch:

Iranian Cyber Army

THIS SITE HAS BEEN HACKED BY IRANIAN CYBER ARMY

iRANiAN.CYBER.ARMY@GMAIL.COM

U.S.A. Think They Controlling And Managing Internet By Their Access, But THey Don’t, We Control And Manage Internet By Our Power, So Do Not Try To Stimulation Iranian Peoples To….

NOW WHICH COUNTRY IN EMBARGO LIST? IRAN? USA?
WE PUSH THEM IN EMBARGO LIST
Take Care.

As a result of the cyber attack, Twitter was down for several hours, but appears to be running smoothly now.  However, as a precaution, TechCrunch suggests changing any passwords that are the same as the one tied to Twitter.

As you may recall, Twitter played a high-profile role in the social and political upheaval following the controversial Iranian elections earlier this year.  You could read more information on that in these file Tech Talk pieces here.

According to the Twitter blog:

“Twitter’s DNS records were temporarily compromised but have now been fixed. We are looking into the underlying cause and will update with more information soon.”

To read more, and see screengrabs, please read this TechCrunch report.

Anyone who ever spent much time playing video games likely came across the Konami Code, one of the industry’s most infamous key sequences, named after the folks behind the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The code — up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A — is active in more than 100 video games and Facebook, according to TIME Magazine.

According to the weekly magazine:

It doesn’t matter where you type it: just have the Facebook page open and active. The result? Lens flares — those groovy circles that appear when pointing a camera into the sun — appear on your page with every click of the mouse. Useful? Not in the slightest. But they’re easy enough to get rid of — logout and they’re gone.

And I could personally attest to its validity.

Go try it, you know you want to.

And then check out other sites that utilize the code.

How great would it be if you were connected to someone who could offer you some really neat perks — like free travel, for I don’t know, a year?

JetBlue Airways is doing just that.

Presumably to increase the number of fans it has on its Facebook page, the airline has offered really generous perks that will increase as the number of its “friends” do.  Currently, JetBlue only has 63,863 fans, which isn’t very many for a corporation with the exposure it has.

Among the prizes offered:

• A pair of roundtrip flights given away to any JetBlue destination from Dec. 9 through Jan. 31.
• A team prize of a 5-day/4-night getaway package for four
• A one year “All-You-Can-Jet” pass valid for travel in 2010

Of course, in order to enter these amazing deals, you must give the airline access to your profile information, become a fan and share your phone number, e-mail address and postal code.

Now talk about buying your friends.  But with that said, JetBlue, if you’re listening, I think I could be friends with you for unlimited travel for a year.