World changing inventions

This topic came up for a newsletter for one of my groups, I had two suggestions:

  • cell phones with cameras - and more
  • the new and improved Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

Most cell phones come with video cameras now, giving us the ability to document events and publish them online immediately. Just about any event – both good and bad - can be recorded and distributed for public review. This has already changed the way society interacts, whether it’s politicians, police, teachers, or just friends in a pub. Before you know it, you too can see your indiscretion as a YouTube hit. We’ve lost some privacy and secrecy, but we have gained connectivity and transparency, so I suppose this is a “good thing”.

An extension of this inter-connectivity is the use of programs such as Twitter on cell phones, as a form of real time social networking. Look at how quickly people can share the current status of line-ups at various H1N1 vaccination sites, often faster that the traditional news media. Or we can share a real time report from a trial or political convention, or what Paris Hilton just had for lunch, or what we really think of our boss.

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Tweet Timesuck

A good article from Lisan Jutras in her new G&M column. This one is on how it's the links that will kill your day. Us tweeters don't all just post what we had for lunch or that there's a pretty moon out tonight - some also post links to interesting articles or videos or photos we have come across. Much of it fascinating to follow, but where - and how - does one stop. Too many people with too many sparkely things.

I do follow a much smaller group on Twitter than on Facebook. My Facebook friends are a large group I connect to mainly for links to arts and culture in Ottawa, not just status but events and issues and some messaging back and forth. And I check in there maybe daily. On Twitter, it's a smaller group, that I check with several times a day, a group that consistently comment on things that interest me. And they are ones that do that more than once a week, but not every 5 minutes. If it's that often an update, they can bury the other tweets. And, as I'd said, since that comment is limited by the 140 characters on there, usually there is also a link to elsewhere that expands on the idea, that in turn links to other articles and sites - a siren call that often sucks me into a hypnotic vortex.

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New Treo

So, here I am with a new toy - finally. Took Bell forever to get this out, but will be nice to have a cell and PDA and Web browser and email all together.

Note: above sent from my Treo 650 - works just fine.

Nov 6 - added a 1 G memory card from SanDisk so I can listen to music and load some of my fav pics on it. First tune - Mustang Sally - by The Commitments. Love that tune, so raunchy - allso like the way The Verdict does it. Now I need a little adapter thingy so that my stereo headphones can plug in to it - got one at The Source - wrong size! For $5 you'd think Treo would include one.

Software so far - an OpenSource prog Kmaps (because Google maps don't work on here) - and TiBR (TinyBookReader) as well as some free volumes from Manybooks.net .


Making life even easier

My local ISP, Sympatico has the following offer:

Instead of making a trip to the library, the kids can look up anything on the Internet. But because their information needs to come from a reliable source, we got MSN PremiumInternet Software. It comes with MSN Encarta® Premium, an authoritative online encyclopedia, and other great features. Now the kids can take care of their homework without even leaving the house!

This is so wrong -and I just don't mean the grammatical error.