A conversation across media (email, various Facebook modalities), across generations (30-something [me] and 20-something [him]), and across continents (hence the time zone oddities).

Jul 3, 2008, at 5:22 AM
D:

Uh oh… I just wanted to let you know that I decided to join the twitter-lution yesterday and I am totally addicted. If you don’t hear from me for a couple of weeks, you will know why. Just to explain why it’s so cool… a) There is no barrier to “friendship”. On facebook, you rarely friend someone you don’t know. Or at least I don’t. On twitter, you can follow anyone. Since it is not reciprocal (meaning I can follow someone but that doesn’t mean they are following me back) it is not uncommon for someone to have many more followers than people he/she follows. So I have made friends just by searching for people with similar interests and following them. Some of them have followed me back. b) You can follow well know bloggers and other “celebrities” and get a window into their personal life. You can also tweet at them and they will reply. I have already had a back and forth with a fairly famous blogger who completely ignores my emails. But he responds to my tweets cuz it is so easy. Once I responded on his “wall”, a whole bunch of people started following me. c) There are all these great services. Timer allows me to send a message such as “d timer 45 pay parking meter” and in 45 minutes I will get a message reminding me to pay the parking meter. Trackthis sends package tracking updates. There is a CNN feed that ONLY sends breaking updates (the last one was 19 days ago) so that you can get important news and nothing else. There is an app to track and graph your gasoline usage. All these cool plugin apps! And this is after using it for less than a day. I am totally doomed! Anyways, that’s my experience so far. Just thought I would share. Now back to twhirl (my twitter client of the moment).

Jul 3, 2008 at 1:20 AM
Sarah:

My Twitter handle is power2b, but I never use it.

Jul 3, 2008 at 5:07 PM
D:

Yeah… you have 2 posts… Hardly giving it a fair chance… But then again… I highly advise against giving it a fair chance… You’ll regret it… You can thank me later.

D

PS. I think it is also a lot more useful and interesting if you are in the US and can do it from your phone.

Jul 11, 2008 at 8:30pm

Sarah added the Twitter application [in Facebook]. 4 Comments

Jul 11, 2008 at 6:30am
D:

Uh oh… Did I start something?

Jul 13, 2008 at 8:56pm
Sarah:

You wish. I can’t even figure out how to add a follow unless I accidentally stumble upon it in Google…

Jul 13, 2008 at 9:56pm
D:

Yeah… That’s why it won’t catch on like facebook did (or at least not as fast). It’s too command-liney sometimes. You can either navigate to that person’s page and click the follow button (i.e. twitter.com/usernamehere) or just send a message with the follow command (i.e. “follow usernamehere”) and you will be following that person. let me know if you have any more questions.

Jul 13, 2008 at 10:20pm
Sarah:

You’ll note that this has the prerequisite of knowing the user names of people you’re interested in following… I suppose that makes it more purely viral…

Jul 13, 2008 at 8:06pm
D:

Nope. Just go to sites like http://summize.com/ and http://www.twitscoop.com/ and search for things other people are talking about that interest you. Try searching for the word “jerusalem” (or anything that interests you). When you find others that are talking about jerusalem, read what they are saying about it. You will find a couple of people who are saying things that are interesting to you. Once you follow them you will find that they have friends that are interesting to you too so you can follow them too. As I mentioned, I also follow bloggers or other personalities who are interesting to me such as kevin rose, founder of digg (twitter.com/kevinrose). There are also a number of people who are just amusing to follow since they say interesting/funny things. There were a couple of blog posts that had the top 10 most interesting twitterers or something like that and I signed on to a few of thoset.

Facebook status Jul 14, 2008 at 8:29pm:

Sarah is tentatively Twittering.

Jul 14, 2008 at 9:46am
Sarah:

That’s helpful. I’ll try it out. Sarah (twit)
Sent via Facebook Mobile

Jul 14, 2008 at 2:38pm
D:

Also u might wanna get a twitter client. I like twhirl. There are ppl who like snitter too. Lastly 2 reply 2 ppl on their “wall” type: @usernamehere messagehere

Sent via Facebook Mobile

Jul 14, 2008 at 5:11pm
D:

Now that I think about it, I think the mac twitter app of choice is twitterific but I believe it costs money. The two I mentioned should work on mac and they are free. Also see this link:

http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2008/060208-top-twitter-tools.html

Jul 15, 2008 at 10:45am
Sarah:

Muchas Gracias! Ahora venidos a esperar.. yo puede que busca tiempo por el Twitter. Hasta luega…

Jul 15, 2008 at 4:30pm
D:

I assume this means you now have time to spend on twitter.

Here is the translation I got from babelfish:

“Thank you very much! Now come to hope. perhaps I look for time by the Twitter. Until luega…”

LOL… I will be frolicking by the riverbank and perhaps I will look for time by the twitter.

Jul 15, 2008 at 8:49pm
Sarah:

Translation from morah sarah: ‘thanks very much. Now let’s hope i Will be able to find time for twitter. See you later.’ other than reversing the meaning, not bad. Sarah

Sent via Facebook Mobile

Jul 15, 2008 at 8:54pm
D:

I actually think the translation is pretty poor. Technology can definitely do better than that. On a side note, have you ever used remember the milk or any other web2.0 to-do list manager? If so, what did you think?

Jul 15, 2008 at 9:02pm
Sarah:

Nope. I never have been effective with non.paper lists.

Sent via Facebook Mobile

Jul 15, 2008 at 9:22pm
D:

Ooooh… I kinda hate paper. I usually use my mind but that doesn’t always work out so well. I am interested in Remember the Milk and other similar services like todoist and vitalist since they integrate with all the other things I use such as gmail/google calendar, twitter, SMS, IM, firefox etc. It could be seriously useful to be able to text “Pick up milk tomorrow” from my cell and have it show up in a firefox panel on my computer as a to do item due the next day.

Jul 15, 2008 at 9:40pm
Sarah:

Some people use jott or spinvox…
Sent via Facebook Mobile

Jul 15, 2008 at 9:55pm
D:

Never heard of spinvox. Jott I have heard of. But neither of these programs alone, will let organize your tasks. However, Jott and RTM will work together so that you can call in a todo list item to Jott and have it show up in your RTM list. See: http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2007/11/jott-your-tasks.html

Jul 28, 2008, at 3:51 AM
D:

So it looks like you are totally twittering now (I love alliteration). What do you think?

Jul 28, 2008 at 3:44 AM
Sarah:

Hm. Well, I use my cell phone rarely for the Twittering. Partly because the texting is harder than typing. Sometimes in the taxi.

I also don’t follow many people (yet), or have many followers (yet). I have un-followed one person, because they created too much noise…

Jul 29, 2008 8:58 PM
D:

For all my big talking, I actually haven’t added SMS to my twitter although I do post items from my phone (web) once in a while. I don’t find it much harder to do a 140 char message from my phone. I SMS text all the time so I am used to it. I am not really addicted to twitter anymore though. The reason I think is because I deliberately didn’t follow anyone I know even though there are many people at work and personal that are on twitter. I think it would be much more useful and interesting to me if I follow people I know. I will probably decide to do that soon. Until now I have just wanted to test it without friending people I know… Until I decide that I am using it and what I am using it for…

Jul 29, 2008:

[@Power2B:] Since using Twitter to update my status, I’ve begun thinking in short, declarative statements. I wonder if this is a good thing.

Facebook Status, Jul 29, 2008 at 11:53am:

Sarah: Twitter: the ultimate means for self-centered communication. http://www.reallysarahsyndication.com/2008/07/16/why-tap-when-you-can-talk/

* * *

In a related line of thinking, I take a look at the list of people on my Facebook friends list. With a few exceptions, they aren’t my close friends (if you’re reading this, consider yourself an exception, OK?), yet I am in touch with them more frequently than I am with my closer friends.

Few of my closest friends and relatives are on Facebook. Partly, this is generational. Partly, this is cultural. But this also reflects the reality that my activity on Facebook, such as it is, is motivated by my own personal/selfish search for entertainment than by a desire for social contact. When I want social contact, I call, meet for coffee, or send an email to get contact initiated.

Here are some of the best. (A few are classics, like Kevin Mitnick’s; others are new to me.)

Also, you might have a look at this great card — ready to assemble into a working Blue Box! If you don’t know what a Blue Box is, yet, then your adventure has just begun.

When I see a truly great business card, I always feel the urge to redesign my own. Hah. The shoemaker’s children go barefoot; the graphic designer never gets their own card printed. I’m always planning great cards… Good thing I got out of design, or I’d never have gotten some of my own.

“Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over.” (Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon)

You don’t need to hear me rant on again about uncontrolled Google Ads.

Yesterday, I moved the homepage of the Haredi Women Professionals (aka Supermom) Network to a new hosting site that plants automatic Google ads along one side of the page. In the ten minutes between my setting up the page and paying for a premium service entitling me to remove the Google Ads, the homepage was advertising links to pornography (how obvious, given the word “Women” in the title, right?).

Here’s another example (from a search results page). Not a mis-match of interests, this time, as much as poorly-chosen ad copy:

Need I point out that Orthodox Jewish Women are not for sale?! :.D

…for example, if you’re working with text originally written by a non-native speaker of the language.

I wanted to change the setting on a very simple (kosher) Samsung flip phone, so that instead of answering calls automatically when I open the phone, it will only answer when I press the “call” button to accept the call (this gives me a chance to see Caller ID first).

I knew the setting was available somewhere. Well, I looked and I looked. I hunted through every possible menu (there aren’t many on this phone).

In desperation, I got help from an Israeli colleague, who found the setting in just a couple of minutes. It wasn’t obvious. The function can be found in the “Extra Settings” in the “Settings” menu — fair enough. But the function itself is called “Active Folder”.

As a native English-speaker, I understood “Active Folder” to mean “a group of files or functionalities that are activated”, and therefore didn’t select that function even when I saw it during my original hunt.

My English-as-a-second-language colleague understood “Active Folder” correctly: “the function triggered by folding the phone is active”.

Watching store/restaurant employees use infrared touch-screen point-of-sale (POS) terminals. The old technology isn’t always very responsive, often has low-resolution input, and runs slowly. Thus the following observed accommodation behaviors:

• Using a credit card instead of a finger
• Cutting fingernails to different lengths
• Pressing harder (irrelevant to an IR technology!)
• Pressing longer
• Pressing more often
• On the software end, designing extra-large icons, to reduce false positive inputs

Sorry, no picture of this one.

My spies report from the men’s room in the Hong Kong airport (HKK) that the sign over the urinal reads: “Electronic urinal. No touch needed.”

I’ve talked about each of these stores before. A recent visit to London gave me the opportunity to visit both within a couple of hours, which led me to think about how the experiences in them compare.

Nokia Flagship Store: Dark. Threatening. Exciting. Intense. Deep.

Apple Flagship Store: Light. Friendly. Discovery. Validating. Transparent.

Entering the Nokia store is like entering a video game: It’s not clear where you’re going, you need to explore and discover the levels of play. There’s a tension and an anticipation, an expectation that something thrilling is about to be revealed. Handsets are displayed in closed Lucite boxes or on pedestals, adding to the sense of mystique, but also to the distance. The dark palette and oddly high proportions of the ceiling (think Gothic awe) create a feeling of dominance and control that promises treasures if you explore. Reinforcing that, the ultra-high-end Vertu products are hidden at the far back of the space. On the negative side, there is too much empty space. Now what? Is there enough product here? Am I looking at the “right” things?

Entering the Apple store is like entering a great candy store: No surprises, here are the products, here are the prices. Bright, light, clear. Despite the open appearance, the store is rather fully packed. The glass stairs lead to the second level with the promise of more great things to find. Even if you never climb the stairs, you are left with the invitation, and with the sense that there is even more to delight you. There’s a validation and confirmation of your decisions;  you are never left wondering if you are in the right place. You can see everything on display clearly from any point in the store.

I’m not saying that one store is “better designed” than the other. They have very different atmospheres, which is interesting.

It’s good to be back to the blog…

I was just watching a camp video; the background music is of the “modern hasidic” style. The main melody line is nice but bland; the bridges between stanzas are the theme music from Beverly Hills Cop — a very popular Eddie Murphy movie when I was a teenager, notable for being one of the first of the wildly popular comedy movies that was rated R. It’s fairly safe to assume that the arranger of this more recent music has no idea where the theme comes from; it’s been copied, re-copied and re-recorded since the day it came out. Still, the association is funny.

OK, so I wasn’t going to post anything today. I certainly don’t have time to write (I must get some sleep), but couldn’t resist sharing this YouTube link. Enjoy!

Of course, that those of us who use candy-bar form phones already have random dial functionality…

[via Fortune’s Apple 2.0 blog]