Truth A: People make mistakes

Technology is designed and built by people.  Many of those people spend many hours in depressing cubicles, wishing they were elsewhere.  Some are overworked, some of them helped build technology at 2am while on a tight deadline, half asleep, sitting in a depressing cubicle, wishing they were elsewhere.

You get the idea!

Truth B: Technology breaks down

Most computers still hard drives with lots of moving parts.  Hard drives can last years, but they can also break down within months.

When your hard drive goes, you will probably lose all the data stored on it (operating system, games, documents, photos, everything!).  Since there is this huge variability in the lifetime of a hard drive, you need to protect yourself against this somehow.

Just think… what would you do if your hard drive fails?

Truth C: Software has bugs

All software has bugs.  Bugs can be minor little problems (like a feature is not working properly), or major architectural flaws (this software can’t do that because it’s not in the design).  Software you buy in a nice box has bugs, software you ask someone to write for you has bugs, that’s just the way it is.

Companies can spend lots of money on testing and quality assurance, but that just reduces the likelyhood of bugs.  Web software is usually a better bet than installable applications simply because its easier to fix things, and the costs are usually lower.

Has someone told you the software you’re getting is bug free?

Truth D: Websites go down

Between your computer and the website you are trying to see, there are lots of complicated pieces of technology (see point B), with lots of software packages installed (see point C), designed by people (see point A).

You can see where this one is going.

BONUS: You get what you pay for

Sure, your friend’s son can build you a website for $100…

Sure, that hosting plan is super cheap…

Sure, that taco is way cheaper than tacos should be…

… but do you really want to pay that little for those things?

If you use a designer or developer to help you manage your presence, you will need to share some of these account details with them.  Sometimes they will also set up services on your behalf.  In this case, they will be managing the service and all of the account details for you.

The only problem is that vendors will come and go… what happens when your relationship to the designer who setup your website and hosting provider ends?  Hopefully they will still be available, and you can ask them for the account details, but this isn’t always the case.  Relationships don’t always work out, and you don’t want the details of these services in the wrong hands.

The trick here is to make sure you always have the details for every service that you are using, even when others set them up on your behalf.  These are services that you own and you are paying for, so get this info and keep it somewhere safe!

• How much are you paying attention to, and how well can you absorb it?
• Is the information relevant to you?
• Are you paying attention to how effective your web presence is?
• Are people talking about you and your brands?

You might think that this is a lot of work, but given the right tools, it’s a snap!  With a few simple tools you can optimize the way you find and filter the information, and then you can easily current!

Most sources of serialized info today (blogs, news sites, etc) publish feeds of their information (technically called RSS feeds, Real Simple Syndication).  These feeds can be collected into a tool called a Feed Reader (like Google Reader).  When you connect these feeds to a feed reader, the data starts coming to you!  You can check your reader for the info (rather than the individual web sites), and filter/organize it however you want.  It’s like your own personal newspaper, all the time!

You can even hook up other things to your feed reader, like Facebook, Twitter and forums.  Not only will you be able to track more information, but you’ll get it sooner, and in a way that is easier to manage!

Stay tuned for some interesting things you can hook into your feed reader!

Recently some of the radio shows I listen to have been offering Twitter feeds of their topics, and even providing on the air interaction with twitter users. Sometimes I have considered sharing my opinion during a radio show, but I’m not a big fan of the phone. In this same context, however, Twitter is almost the exact equivalent of a phone call. Radio shows typically accept a short statement from a call in user, and then the host replies. Isn’t this basically what Twitter is?

There is a lot of interesting ways to connect the offline world to the online. I think Twitter makes a great companion to radio talk shows, and it will allow them to stay relevant as more people start looking to the Internet for their information and social opinion.

The Internet never forgets. Anything that gets posted will eventually be indexed by the search engines and other caching servers, which will store that content forever. This is great for keeping historical records of news and such, but it will also store your photos, blog posts and tweets, and anything you say in a forum.

These things will be saved, and will all be part of your brand whether you like it or not. When people search for your name, they will find everything you have ever said or done on the Internet. They will find the cooking tips you posted on Facebook, and the tweets you made about how much you dislike your job. What will future employers or clients think about these?

Assume everything you post can be found by everyone you know. Will they like what they find? Go ahead and share, but think before you post!

Geeks will talk about servers a lot, servers are what makes the Internet do the things we need. Servers run things like web sites, email boxes, instant messenger services… all sorts of things. For each kind of service, there is a… (wait for it)… Server! The page you’re reading right now is sitting on a web server, probably somewhere in California (where the server is doesn’t really matter, as long as it gets power and is nice and cool).

Websites have “Domain Names”, which you may have noticed at the top of your browser (my domain name is “jeremysisson.com”). Your computer looks up the domain name through a “Domain Name Server”, which tells it where to look for the web server, which then sends your computer the web page. Ta da!

The domain name is also important because we can send and receive email with it. Email uses the same system for finding the email server that your browser does. This is why we usually say “yourname AT domainname.com”.

This may be more info than you need, but it can be good to know. These details are part of the foundation of your web presence.

Here are a few options:

Watch Canadian content online, for free

CTV, Global, Showcase, HGTV provide latest episodes of some of their shows:

CTV (including Comedy Network, Discovery, etc)
HGTV
Global TV
Showcase

Watch US content online through Hotspot Shield

Hotspot Shield connects you to their service in the US, and provides some level of security when you’re connected to public WiFi networks. It also fools Hulu.com into thinking you’re in the US!

Hotspot Shield
http://www.hulu.com/

Yar! (Watch TV the Pirate way!)

Finally, there are less scrupulous ways of acquiring the episodes you want. Services like Bit Torrent and Usenet provide access to content that will even get your parrot excited!*

*Please note I am not condoning any actual piracy, including looting, pillaging, keel-hauling, and of course, downloading illegal content. I’m sure you can find other ways to excite your parrot.

So if you need to stay caught up on your favorite shows, the Internet may have what you need! You might also find you have some extra free time, now that you have escaped the influence of the boob tube.

Think about your goals. Do you want to promote yourself? Do you want to promote your company? Maybe you just want to socialize.

Here are a few tips I can suggest:

1) Try and find people local to you. Go to the Twitter Advanced Search page and find people near you. At the very least you can complain about the weather!

2) Use the Twitter search to find people that share your interests, and start following them. Maybe you like video games or baseball? The search interface can be very useful! search.twitter.com.

3) Think about the websites you read, and the blogs that you follow. Are any of the authors using Twitter? Follow them! BONUS: If you tweet at them and they tweet back, their reply will show up in their feed, and some of their followers might follow you!

4) Just start tweeting! Talk about the things you are doing. People will find you based on your tweets about your interests (probably using the Twitter search). If you are slick enough, you can optimize your tweets for searchability (then people will find you).

For example, rather than tweet something like “On my way to work today, it’s raining”, try posting “Commuting on the GO Train on my way to Toronto. Damn this Canadian weather!”. It will appeal to people searching for commuting, go trains, toronto, canada, and weather!

5) Follow lots of people, and socialize, but remember, it’s not a competition to gather the most followers. If you have too many, your Twitter feed will be too cluttered to be useful. Don’t be afraid to “prune” your followers.

And finally:

6) It might feel like you’re “Stalking” people when you follow them… but you’re not, this is how Twitter works! Think about it, they’re tweeting, so they WANT people to read it.

Have fun! (oh, and follow me!)

• Mac Mini (PPC)
• Wiimote
• Bluetooth keyboard
• Remote Buddy

Essentially I was hoping to be able to wirelessly use the Mac well enough to watch movies and stuff on the TV. We don’t get cable anymore, so it is nice to stream video off the server in VLC or whatever.

The bluetooth keyboard is nice, but for some reason it won’t wake the Mac when it’s asleep.

Using the Wiimote+Remote Buddy is a great idea, too… bluetooth, point and click, easy, right? The Wiimote needs the sensor bar (attached to the Wii) to work, but if the Wii is turned on, the Wiimote connects to it rather than the Mac. If the Wii is off, no sensor bar. I’d need a sensor bar separate from the Wii. People have hacked the right equipment into their TVs, but that’s a bit beyond me.

Solution seems to be USB extension + keyboard + mouse.  Works great!  Watched Holmes on Homes through hgtv.ca all weekend!

1) It is a web application, and Google is always improving it. No more service packs or updates!

2) It has one of the best anti-spam systems in the industry. I receive very little spam through GMail.

3) It is available from anywhere, and you only need a browser to access it. Don’t mess around with configuring your mail client anymore! (But you can use another email client if you want to)

4) You get practically unlimited storage, so you don’t have to worry about backups. And it’s fast!

5) It is super easy to find and organize things… Google is the web search champ!

You might think “Well, my mail is already on my existing service, so i can’t switch”, but there are a number of ways to migrate your mail over to GMail. The service uses all the popular mail standards, so it is a snap to move mail into and out of it, if you need to.

Give it a try!  A few little tweaks to your domain name info and you’re off to the races.