awesome valentine "easter egg" @ twitter

type @username <3 and you'll tweet out a very sweet valentine's day message.

e.g. @abrownie <3

Women rallying for Obama

Shamelessly re-posting from the CNN Political Ticker -- which I notice is using WordPress!

February 12, 2008

Exit polls: Obama stealing Clinton's base
Posted: 08:39 PM ET

(CNN) — Barack Obama did well with Virginia Democrats across both race and gender lines, and seems to be eating away at Hillary Clinton's backbone of support: women.

According to exit polls, Obama won nearly 60 percent of the female vote, a demographic that has carried Clinton to success in past primaries. (my emphasis)

Clinton even fared worse among men in Virginia – more than two-thirds chose Obama.

Meanwhile, the Illinois senator scored his highest percentage of African-American support to date — winning close to 90 percent of that voting bloc. And the two evenly split the white vote as whole, even though in past primaries Clinton has held a slight edge among white voters.

The only demographic Clinton won in Virginia was among white women, who broke for her over Obama by 10 points. But that margin is significantly smaller than the national average on Super Tuesday. She beat Obama among white women by 25 points then, according to national exit polls.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Lesbian (Speed) Dating

A stereotypical lesbian relationship... in three minutes.

my mobile office

Read/Write Web did an article last summer about "rolling your own office." As a telecommuter, and a consultant/freelancer previously, I'm intimately familiar with most of those tools, and have fully and completely jumped on the web application bandwagon. My calendar is online. My email is web mail. My project management tools and todo lists are online. My "office" software is online. I haven't yet paid for online storage, but I do have an account at box.net, and am seriously considering making the move. (Currently, I use Hamachi to VPN to my desktop at home. This is fine most of the time -- except when massive storms hit San Francisco and the power goes out.)

Early last year, frustrated with Sprint's voicemail system, I began looking around ago for an online substitution. I started using GotVoice to check my voicemail and get it on the web (visual voicemail pre-iPhone!). Then I signed up for a GrandCentral number and fell in love. I emailed my family and work contacts, put the new number on my business cards, and made the switch. I've used Skype when I'm on the go and can't get a cell signal, but haven't had to resort to this too often.

I write all this to get to the point of this post... I'm currently in Vancouver at Web Directions North, and AT&T's international rates are pretty high. After the first day of making calls, checking email, going online, etc., I realized that I was roaming and promptly turned data roaming off. I can do without the email and the browsing, especially since I have access to WiFi at the hotel during the day. But what to do about all those pesky calls coming in?

Here's what to do (if you have a GrandCentral account):

1. Download Gizmo (like Skype, but VOIP/SIP)
   
2. Set up your Gizmo account
3. Add your Gizmo number to GrandCentral
4. Tell your friends, family, coworkers to call your GrandCentral number
5. Take your calls on your computer!

Voilà!

[non-sequitur]I want to start capturing all the various incarnations of the usage/mis-usage/misspelling of "voilà." This might be via blog, twitter, flickr, or something else entirely (tumblr?) but it will happen one of these days. I've seen "wahla!", "wahlah!", "viola!", "vwalla!" and oh-so-many more.[/non-sequitur]

So, if you travel a lot, have a Skype-In number (or otherwise use Skype a lot), frequently head to the mountains where there is no cell signal, or are just plain curious... go download Gizmo and give it a whirl. If you need a GrandCentral invite, just hit me up in the comments or on Twitter. I know they're still in beta (so everything is still FREE!), but I don't know the status of whether you need an invite or not.

Try it out!

p.s.

I bought an iPhone.

But most of you reading this probably already know that via twitter, flickr, or *gasp* real life.

p.p.s.
Happy birthday to me. I guess the iPhone was just an early present to myself!

Flickr's new "Places" section

I don't know how "new" flickr's Places section is, but yesterday it was new to me.

The Places project is our way of saying thank you to all our members who’ve taken the time to put their gorgeous photos on a map. Browse the whole globe, from your hometown to your favorite place, or places you’ve never even heard of...

So go ahead, start exploring... Zambia, London, Jackson Hole, or even just Wyoming.

It's a pretty awesome little portal, and gets us one step closer to Tim O'Reilly's proposition:

Imagine wandering through the streets of Paris on a virtual site generated from thousands of images of Paris posted on the internet from different people! [Via]

IMAGINE! </sarcasm>

If you could mash this together with Google's Street View, I think we're almost there!

UPDATE: Turns out it's pretty new (flickr blog announcement, 11/20/2007).

Nerd

Nerd, originally uploaded by bayat.

Figured this was a pretty good shot for my first blog post in a while. Been super busy -- and super nerdy.

getting closer to breaking down

originally uploaded by spcoon.

So, last night (or was it the night before...?) I dreamed that my mom bought my brother an iPhone. Initially, I was pissed (read, jealous) and then I found three more iPhone cases hidden in her secret present spot. I was sure that I was getting one, too. Can't remember if I woke up before I actually had an iPhone in my hot little hands, but I remember the feeling. And it was good.

I think I may be getting closer and closer to breaking down. Main factors still standing in my way:
1) price
2) it's a Mac -- I know, I know...blasphemous!
3) since I'm on a PC I'll have to use iTunes as my contact manager
4) haven't liked the keyboard
5) AT&T sucks in San Francisco and I've been on Sprint for nearly 10 years

Main factors for (possibly) succumbing:
1) it's beautiful, small, shiny, etc.
2) it takes decent photos
3) web browsing is very slick
4) think I could get used to the keyboard
5) iPhone Web Apps!!!!

Number 5 is THE main reason I'm even considering it. Steve Jobs has once again revolutionized an industry and is making people finally take the idea of mobile content seriously. Consider the following sites:

http://iphone.facebook.com
http://iphone.meebo.com
http://getleaflets.com/
http://munitime.com/
http://twitter.thincloud.com/

All the iPhone-only web development is driving me batty (again, read, jealous). I knew I was in trouble after iPhoneDevCamp was so well attended and received. It's really exciting to see people pushing the envelope of mobile development.

However, there is a bone to pick here... What about the rest of us? Mobile content development is awesome, but it would be great if these sites worked on "normal" smart phones -- Pocket PCs, other phones with a browser, etc. The blue flavor crew was adamant that Leaflets works on other mobile platforms. They're not really lying, but it's not exactly a true statement. I can sort of surf through the apps, but it involves a lot of guesswork.

Anyhoo... all that to say, if I can get the expense approved for the corporate card it will probably happen sooner than later. If not, well... we'll see how long I can hold out!

heading to kansas, and it's gonna be hot

going to kansas for the weekend to raise a glass to my 85-year-old gram. she's still peppy, driving herself around, and in pretty good health, all things considered. as she would tell you, she's still "shakin' her tambourine!"

should be a fun (and hot) few days around the pool with the whole fam (sans wife). i'm hoping to get a bit of reading done, and as little work as possible (we'll see how long that lasts).

here's the weekend forecast:


see why i'm looking forward to the pool??

polyphonic spree

polyphonic spree, originally uploaded by flybutter.

still wishing i could see them again. have been listening to little else, besides tim's old band Tripping Daisy.

love this photo.