Social Networking

Has social networking taken over our lives and replaced face to face communication?  While some believe that it has, I believe that it has only supplemented face to face communication.  Let me know what you all think in the comment section.  I doubt that I'll get very many comments, but I suppose that you never know.

Back to the subject at hand, though.  There are many different types of social networking sites.  There are blogging sites, which are considered by some to be social networking.  Blogger, Word Press, and Xanga.  This blog uses the Blogger platform.  It is one of the two most common platforms for blogging.  Word Press is the other one.

There are plain social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and the site that is credited with starting the social networking revolution: Friendster.  These sites allow one to micro-blog, post videos, photos, notes, and bookmarks.  They are the most popular of the different types of social networking sites.

In terms of micro-blogging by itself, there is really only one big player in the game: Twitter.  Twitter is an extremely basic service that allows one to post 140 character max messages to their followers.  It also allows people to follow other people's tweets.  A tweet is what they call a message.  Oprah, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Shaq, Ron Paul, and Sarah Palin are some notable Tweeters.

Online bookmarking has become popular as more people use more than one computer per day.  People have their computer at home and then many people use a computer at work or school and need to have their bookmarks easily accessible.  The bookmarks are put online and then they can access them from any web enabled computer.  Del.icio.us, Bebo, StumbleUpon, Y! Bookmarks and Bebo are some of the most popular sites to use.

There are also sites where people can create 'user generated news'.  This means that people write the stories and put them up onto the site.  People generally post impartial things like actual news that happens around them.  It goes up onto the general site and stays there for a minute or two before it goes into their page. Reddit, Digg, and Buzz by Yahoo are some of those.

Twitter

I just wanted to talk to everyone about a growing online trend called Twitter.  People post little status messages on twitter.com from their computers or cell phones, and their friends can see what they say.  One might say 'Jill is at work.' or 'Bob is going to go to the grocery store.'  I personally think that Twitter may be too time consuming, and that's one reason why I don't use it.  I thought that I should comment on it because it's catching on so fast and becoming quite common.

CyberGuys

I would like to use this post to talk a little about a cool service that I discovered.  It's called CyberGuys.  I'm not sure if I should call it a service exactly.  At their website, you can find lots of quality, inexpensive technology products.  You can order their catalogue which lists many hard-to-find products at rock bottom prices.  I have to admit that I haven't ordered from them personally, yet.  I in the process of getting 100 blank DVD disks from them.  The DVDs are 22¢ each and I'm pretty excited to get them because I have a small 60 gig hard drive and I have to burn the movies that I get offline to disks because I cannot save them due to lack of space.

Selling My iBook G4

Yes. You've been reading through the archives and you saw when I was desperately seeking money to get an iBook G4. I was so excited about it. Well, I've had it for a few years and I'm ready to sell it. I've bundled it with some useful software, and I'm planning to sell it on eBay.

Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard

I'm hoping to get a new computer. When I get the new computer, it will come with Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard. Leopard is Apple’s brand new operating system, and it’s jam packed with some awesome new features. Among those new features are Spaces, a program integrated into Finder that allows you to have multiple desktops. Cover Flow has been integrated into Finder allowing one to browse previews of PDF’s and more just by scrolling through them in the Finder. Time machine is just a new backup system allowing your system to revert back to an earlier version if necessary. Parental controls have been expanded, allowing parents to set time limits for the kids. If I were to buy the upgrade for my current computer, it would cost $129! That’s just one of the many reasons that I have to get a whole new computer.

More Computer Trouble

I am having more trouble. Now the computer charger just gave out. I’m out of a computer for like a week. That’s bad because I completely lose touch with the world! News, weather, stocks; everything is on the computer. The good part of this catastrophe is that I’ll have plenty of time to write posts. I’m going to be writing a big list of things that I plan to write about. Anyway, I went to the Apple store at Partridge Creek. They told me that it was the LogicBoard. That’s Applespeak for the motherboard. When I asked how much it would be to fix, they told me that it would be $560. Then I asked how much it would probably sell for on eBay, she said it would probably fetch around $500. What I plan to do, is spend the $80 to get a new charger, and then sell it on eBay. It should fetch a lot of money. I’m hoping for at least $700 because I’m bundling Microsoft Office and some Adobe programs with it. The whole package(bundled software plus the computer) is probably worth somewhere between $900 and $1000. That plus some of my savings will allow me to purchase a MacBook or even a Macbook Pro! I would be able to get a fully loaded MacBook or a well equipped MacBook Pro for that price. I think what I plan to do is certainly sell my laptop, and purchase a new 15” MacBook Pro. I don’t think that I can afford the 17”, but I would absolutely love to have one. I was also thinking about getting a job to help replenish my savings.

Possible technical difficulties

There have been some outages recently that I would like to comment on. I have been able to edit the blog, however I haven't been able to view the blog. I can't get to Blog*Spot, but I can get to Blogger. Right now I cannot tell if it's simply on my end, or if Blogger is experiencing technical difficulties. I know that they recently launched the new version of Blogger, so it is possible that the problems are on their end, however I have been experiencing problems with the Internet connection at home. Sometimes the connection 'gets lazy' and just doesn't access the site that is demanded of it. In any case, I'll keep you all updated as the situation pans out.

Bluetooth

Hey guys. The Bluetooth on my computer has been broken for some time now, and you may be wondering why I am telling you this. It's because I just discovered that somehow it started working again. I thought that was good since I spent 60 bucks on a wireless keyboard that I used for about a month before the Bluetooth broke, and I am glad that I can use it again. It's certainly not BREAKING NEWS or anything, but I felt like writing this post, so I did.

VSide

Hey everyone. I just thought that I would tell you all about this neat new program that lets you create a character and interact with other people over the internet. You basically walk around this virtual world, you can shop, dance in clubs, flirt all over the internet. You have a 3D character that you control. I have met a bunch of people online that seem like neat people. Of course when using any online service like this NEVER give out your personal information. Even your name is a large risk with tracking technologies that are out today. You also need to respect other people online. Just because they can't see you doesn't mean that you can harass or verbally abuse anyone else. If you remember that and your basic NETiquette and you should be able to to use these types of sites safely. If you are under 13, always check with your parents to see what they think. Anyway, let's get back to the talk about VSide. It's so much fun. You have to download a program that is admittedly fairly large. I believe that it is about 200 megabytes. It's worth it though. Best part is that it's free!!! ;)

Computer Screen

I have been staring at this stupid computer screen all day. It's driving me nuts. I can't wait to get to blockbuster and switch movies.