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What are the Best Tech Products of 2010?

January 3, 2010 By

My iPhone Apps
Creative Commons License photo credit: marcopako 

Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of TechCrunch and the world’s fourth-most-powerful blogger, according to Technorati, has released “2010: My fifth Annual List of the Tech Products I Love and Use Every Day.”

According to Arrington:

This is a simple list of the tech products that are an integral part of my day – work or play. Some have withstood the test of time and I just can’t live without. Others are newcomers that have captured my imagination.

I use most of them every day, or nearly every day, and I would not be as productive or happy without all of them. There are now 24 products on the list.

Arrington writes that TechMeme, Skype and WordPress are the only products that have been on his list for all five years. The entire list of products  follows:

  • Android
  • Animoto
  • Apple Magic Mouse
  • Facebook
  • Gmail
  • Hulu
  • Kodak Zi8
  • MOG, Pandora and Spotify
  • Scribd and Docstoc
  • Skitch
  • TripIt
  • Twitter
  • WordPress
  • Yammer
  • YouTube

What tech products do you love and use everyday?

Filed Under: Best tech products, twitter, Uncategorized, YouTube Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do you still have privacy on Facebook? How to restore your privacy settings

December 15, 2009 By

Filed Under: FaceBook, How to, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

5 Tips to Staying Safe on Facebook

November 13, 2009 By

While meeting with students from Wakefield High School in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia, President Obama was asked for advice from a ninth grader who wants to be president someday. Julianna Goldman and Kate Andersen Brower reported for Bloomberg:

Obama offered, what he called some “practical political advice .. saying that “when you’re young, you know, you make mistakes and you do some stupid stuff.”

“I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life,” Obama said. “That’s number one.”

Goldman and Brower wrote that Obama also offered “I’ve been hearing a lot about young people who, you know, they’re posting stuff on Facebook, and then suddenly they go apply for a job,” Obama said to laughter.

Obama isn’t the only one offering advice on being safe on FaceBook.  Recently, Sarah Perez of ReadWriteWeb provided great tips to staying safe on FaceBook, no matter your age, in her article “5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook”.

According to Sarah:

Unbeknownst to most mainstream Facebook users, the social network actually offers a slew of privacy controls and security features which can help you batten down the hatches, so to speak. If used properly, you’ll never have to worry about whether you should friend the boss and your mom. You can friend anyone you want while comfortable in the knowledge that not everyone gets to see everything you post.

The problem in implementing these privacy options is that they’re just too confusing for most non-tech savvy people to handle. And often, folks don’t want to bother to take the time to learn. To simplify the process, we’re offering five easy steps you can take today to help make your Facebook experience safer, more secure, and more private.

Sarah’s provides five detailed but easy steps to follow steps on staying safe. Briefly, these steps are:

Step 1: Make Friend Lists

This step–although time consuming–according to Sarah “will be one of the most useful things you can do on Facebook.”

Step 2: Who Can See What on Your Profile

In this step, you will need to “think carefully about the sorts of things you want public and the things you want private. Should “everyone” get to see photos you’re tagged in? Or would you like to limit this only to those you’ve specifically chosen as Facebook friends?”

Step 3: Who Can See Your Address and Phone Number

You can also determine who can see your address and phone number from FaceBook. You probably don’t want everyone to have access to your home address and phone number.

Step 4: Change Who Can Find You on Facebook via Search

Step 5: Stop Sharing Personal Info with Unknown Applications

According to Sarah, “Using Facebook’s default settings, you’re unknowingly sharing a plethora of personal information (and your friends’ info too!) with various Facebook applications and the developers who created them. The problem is so bad that the ACLU recently created their own Facebook Quiz to demonstrate how much information an app has access to.”

In this step, Sarah walks you through how to stop sharing your personal information.

You can read the entire article here

What steps are you taking to stay safe on Facebook?

Filed Under: FaceBook, How to, social media, Uncategorized, YouTube Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Filtering out FaceBook Friends

November 13, 2009 By

Filed Under: FaceBook, How to, social media, social web Tagged With: , , ,

It’s Good to Back Up, Tips for WordPress Bloggers and Gallery Users

October 20, 2009 By

Guest Post by Ken Lantz

You’ve heard that. You know it’s true. You may even have done it, or at least think you have done it. This has become an especially important topic for those of us who have a WordPress blog (such as this) or a personally maintained photo gallery, such as Gallery, an open source web based photo album organizer.

Smart Blowfish
Creative Commons License photo credit: Nano Taboada
It seems the first thing that’s emphasized is the importance of backing up the systems database. Most packages provide specific instructions for doing that. If you have done that you figure you’re done. After all your blog or gallery is the same thing in your mind as the database. The trick here is that the database is a particular thing used by web systems to enable them to function. It’s not your data your content its data about your data. After you have backed it up you still have not completely backed up your blog or gallery.

Your blog or gallery consists of three things:

  • the content (the wise words in your blog or the great shots in your gallery)
  • the program package that tells it how to work,  and
  • the database that describes its structure so it will work

The entire system resides on a web server somewhere. To back up the database you follow instructions explaining how to use mySQL to back it up and download it to your computer where you store it somewhere safe. Now, if anything happens to the system as it resides on the far away web server you would have a copy that can be used to restore the database, but you cannot necessarily rescue the programs nor your content.

To backup the programs and your content that are on the web server you need a FTP capability a package such as FileZilla to download them to your computer where you can store them.

There is one further consideration about backups that goes beyond what is needed to backup a blog or a photo gallery. What about any files that are stored on your computer that you do not want to lose?  Have you backed them up onto something that is stored away from where your computer is, so they will be safe in the case something happens to your computer or its location?

In the old days we did not have many of these files so we could store them on floppy disks or later on CDs. They didn’t take up much room and we could keep them at some other location we felt was secure. Now there are many more files and they have become quite large. Furthermore we’d like to back them up frequently and immediately move the backups off site. Two packages that can be used to accomplish this are Mozy and the new S3SystemBackup. One final decision you will need to make if you decide to use such a package is whether and how much to backup backups you have stored on your computer of your blog or your photo gallery.

Filed Under: How to, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

White House Communications Director Explains How to Control Media

October 19, 2009 By

Filed Under: How to, public relations, social media, YouTube Tagged With: , , , ,

140 Twitter Conference LA Recap; From Tony Robbins to Dr. Drew to Chris Hardwick

September 26, 2009 By

Tony Robbins - 140tc
Creative Commons License photo credit: Randy Stewart

After previewing online the two day conference agenda and the speaker roster for the “140 Twitter Conference” in Los Angeles, run by the Parnassus Group, I was hesitant to sign up. Although I really enjoy using Twitter and believe both individuals and businesses of all types can get a lot of benefit from it, the agenda gave me pause to register—it was heavy with a seemingly “entertainment focus”.  And my interests primarily center on what I could learn that would best benefit my clients. But I went ahead and registered.

Well, I was very pleasantly surprised. And I was most surprised by Tony Robbins. I really wasn’t looking forward to his day two keynote address. His talk was informative, insightful and yeah—it was pretty motivational. He was supposed to speak from 8:30 am till 10 am. Instead his talk was nearly two and a half hours and he had his audience of 400 business people and Twitter users clapping, jumping, play acting, giving each other massages, and quite mesmerized by his free form talk. He said he was giving the talk for free because he “wanted to give back.”

Robbins views Twitter as an “Intelligent browser that teaches what people say about your brand and is a brief way to connect, share and trigger.” That’s how he says he uses it. Robbins has more than 1.36 million people who follow him on Twitter now—plus one. According to Robbins, “Twitter is the crack of the tech world.”

Other surprises came from the celebrity panel and the musician panel which included a number of power Twitter users including television host Dr. Drew Pinsky, professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome, actor Levar Burton, singer Tyrese Gibson, rapper Chamillionaire, musician Mark Nubar, Tears for Fear singer Curt Smith, and comedians Chris Hardwick, Tucker Max and Loni Love. The panelists debated how they used Twitter, what were the right ways to engage their followers, their feelings on letting others “tweet’ for them and whether they should financially benefit directly from the Twitter conversations.

They all agreed that the overriding principle that should be honored on Twitter is “authenticity.” They also agreed to have someone else tweet in your name was dishonest. Chamillionaire talked about how  “Twitter can be an active conversation.” He likes to start arguments on his account and enjoys lively debating his followers over who is the best athlete of all time—Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.

Curt Smith - 140TC
Creative Commons License photo credit: Randy Stewart

Curt Smith likes to use Twitter not primarily for pitching his music but for engaging others to talk about politics, his kids and everyday life. Curt is now working on a song with someone that he met on Twitter. What he seems to enjoy most about Twitter is its ability to let him be direct and not have his words translated by a record label or a reporter.  Levar Burton mirrored Smith by explaining that for him, “Twitter has created an environment that is absent the gatekeepers ad it has leveled the playing field.”

For Mark Nubar,  “Twitter’s elegance lies in its simplicity. I love its 140 characters.” Mark also spoke about his band’s evolution with social media, “MySpace was the gateway to Facebook and now Twitter. We now have a global family. My band would not be alive without social marketing.”

Tony Hawk believes that what he learns from Twitter about his own brand is “the best focus group.”  For Mayor Newsome, Twitter marks “the beginning of the end of how things have been done with governing. Twitter is changing the world of government. We want to lead the world. It’s about government 3.0 not just 2.0. ”

What was impressive at the conference, was not the continual updates or “tweet” being noted by the 400 attendees and flashed up on screens, but the eagerness and willingness of the Twitter users –both celebrity and business users– who enthusiastically sang its praises. Instead of quickly escaping once their panels had finished, both celebrity and technology luminaries stayed and sat in the audience to learn more from each other.

The two day conference can be summed up pretty well by Tony Robbins, “Twitter is a community. We are a culture on the surface but we have the tools to go deep. Twitter allows you to understand someone’s blueprint in seconds. Look at what they write and what they share.”

Filed Under: marketing, public relations, social media, social web, twitter, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Who Makes the List of the Top 20 VC Bloggers

September 22, 2009 By

Larry Cheng, a partner of Fidelity Ventures, has been keeping tabs on the top 100 VC bloggers since May, according to TechCrunch writer Erick Schonfeld. Cheng’s methogology is based on how many subscribers each VC has on Google Reader. You can see the entire top 100 VC’s here on Cheng’s blog, Thinking about Thinking. Note–Cheng’s own blog comes in at number 71.

Guy Kawasaki SXSWi 2008
Creative Commons License photo credit: deneyterrio

The top 20 VC blogs follow.

  1. Guy Kawasaki, Garage Technology Ventures, How To Change The World (24,356)
  2. Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures, A VC (21,881)
  3. Paul Graham, YCombinator, Paul Graham: Essays (16,721)
  4. Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital, Above The Crowd (8,897)
  5. David Hornik, August Capital, VentureBlog (8,037)
  6. Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Feld Thoughts (7,543)
  7. Marc Andreesen, TBD, Blog.pmarca.com (5,727)
  8. Ed Sim, Dawntreader Ventures, Beyond VC (4,162)
  9. Josh Kopelman, First Round Capital, Redeye VC (4,071)
  10. Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Ventures Partners, LSVP (3,512)
  11. Seth Levine, Foundry Group, VC Adventure (1,569)
  12. David Cowan, Bessemer Venture Partners, Who Has Time For This? (1,526)
  13. Christopher Allen, Alacrity Ventures, Life With Alacrity (1,419)
  14. Dave McClure, Founders Fund, Master of 500 Hats (1,417)
  15. Multiple Authors, Union Square Ventures, Union Square Ventures Blog (1,365)
  16. Peter Rip, Crosslink Capital, EarlyStageVC (1,107)
  17. Rick Segal, JLA Ventures, The Post Money Value (1,043)
  18. Mike Hirshland, Polaris Venture Partners, VC Mike’s Blog (1,038)
  19. Jeff Bussgang, Flybridge Capital Partners, Seeing Both Sides (1,018)
  20. Mendelson/Feld, Foundry Group, Ask The VC (1,017)
Filed Under: best blogs, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

What Ben Bernanke Knows About Communication

September 21, 2009 By

Federal Reserve
Creative Commons License photo credit: skpy

What does Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke know about communicating that others don’t? In a recent article for Harvard Business, leadership consultant John Baldoni writes that it is Bernanke’s willingness “to speak last”. In Baldoni’s article “How to Communicate Like Ben Bernake” the author notes:

Bernanke, who established his academic credentials by researching and writing about the Great Depression, is first and foremost, as E.J. Dionne noted in the same interview, a straightforward speaker — people understand him. Bernanke, according to Brooks, also worked hard during the financial crisis to keep discussions going, even calling people back after a meeting to follow up. In this way, Bernanke seems more a legislator, one who works with peers, than an executive, one who dictates.

Baldoni recommends the following tips to keep conversation flowing:

Open up. If you want to keep discussion going, you should keep talking. If the topic is critical to the future of the company, throw out your calendar. Meet with your colleagues, even those who don’t agree with you, until you come to consensus, even if it’s only an agreement to keep talking. (Mediators employ this technique to help resolve disputes between adversaries.)

Give (a little) up. The secret to good conversation is give and take. Those who feel the need to impose their will gain little by talking. Those who want to reach consensus learn how to make concessions over small things to gain agreement over major issues. Dialogue is essential to facilitating that process.

Follow up. Important matters are seldom resolved with a single conversation or a single meeting. You will need to meet multiple times. Keep the dialogue going by following up with participants between meetings. The act of simple conversation can lead to greater understanding off issues and people.

You can read Baldoni’s entire article here.

Filed Under: How to, public relations, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Idealab is Back

September 8, 2009 By

13 year old Pasadena based incubator Idealab is back with a vengeance but its new focus might be a surprise to those that remember its’ earlier successes –GoTo.com, Internet Brands Inc., and Cooking.com. The business incubator is now turning its attention to the green technology sector.

Eclipsed? Not totally.
Creative Commons License photo credit: James Jordan

According to Alana Semuels article, “Idealab rebounds with recent focus on clean technology” for the Los Angeles Times, Idealab:

In the last three years, it has created RayTracker Inc., a solar tracking solution for photovoltaic systems; Distributed World Power, which designs solar systems for developing countries; Aptera Motors, which designs fuel-efficient cars; and eSolar.

It is jumping into the environmental market as venture capital is flowing more into clean-tech companies. Investment in such firms shot up 73% in the second quarter from the previous quarter, according to Ernst & Young, and is expected to continue growing.

In the Los Angeles Times article, Semuels quotes Idealab founder Bill Gross that energy “is probably the biggest opportunity of the century. The world’s energy needs and the demand to make that clean energy is going to be a challenge and an opportunity for entrepreneurs.”

In 2000 Gross turned his attention to solar energy, which eventually led Idealab to eSolar. Semuels writes:

The concept for ESolar came about as Idealab engineers started thinking about ways to provide cost-efficient solar energy for utilities and realized that most solar panels in commercial use were too big to be cost-efficient.

“We tried to figure out the angle we could exploit where we can zig where other people zag,” Gross said.

They came up with what Gross calls an unorthodox plan: “Go small.” Rather than make giant solar panels, they sized them at one square meter. That made the panels easier to install, putting them together like Legos rather than erecting a giant solar facility.

The solar energy company built its plant in Lancaster in just 18 months and has already raised more than $130 million in investments. You can read the entire article here.

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