Month: May 2009

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-31

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-31

  • Thoughts on Memorial Day weekend…the thrill of the race…the fun of the barbeque…the REAL meaning of the day. http://hub.tm/?VHjaL #
  • “We cheat the other guy and pass the savings to you.” This encapsulates the Obama profile! #
  • RT @tibco: TIBCO Positioned in Leaders Quadrant for BPM Suites Magic Quadrant: http://bit.ly/ORyng #gartner #
  • I continue to be amazed that people don’t understand that school taxes come from homes in Ohio. People need to get a clue. #
  • Check out: http://bit.ly/rPN57 I think the comments on Michelle’s shoes, Cheerios, and soft drinks is off but it is spot on. #
  • RT @tibco: TIBCO is recognized as an industry leader by appearing on the 2009 VAR500 list published in the latest issue of CRN magazine! #
  • Yes, there is money in Columbus. Deal just closed. WOOHOO!! #
  • TIBCO expected to unveil cloud computing offering at the NOW Virtual Online Summit: http://bit.ly/16PhOo #cloudcomputing (via @tibco) in reply to tibco #
  • Sitting at the high school acedemic awards meeting trying to figure out what my son accomplished. #
  • “…there is a problem here when we talk about temperament and empathy…we are not selecting a house pet.” Turley on SC nominee Sotomayor #
  • Great day. Two baseball games for the youngest. Now I’m laying on hammock listening to tunes. A bottle of wine is calling me for dinner. #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-24

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-24

  • Star Trek movie. A great way to re-invigorate the property and with an alternate reality from the series so they can break with tradition. #
  • RT @twinmamacita: What is up with baseball coaches wearing uniforms anyway? My comment: basketball / football don’t look like a player! #
  • Beautiful day to drive to Columbus. Now let’s hope someone has money up here! #
  • Robert Morris women’s basketball coach David Heeb resigns http://cli.gs/THNTjy #ncaaw (via @hoopfeed) in reply to hoopfeed #
  • There’s three sides to every story: Yours and mine and the cold, hard truth – Don Henley (Eagles) #
  • Why does this not surprise me We want to surf while we drive. Smartphones Selling Far Better Than Dumb Ones http://bit.ly/svtGE #
  • Watching Reds beat the Phillies. I am amazed it is so empty! C’mon Cincinnati leave Chikfila and go to stadium! http://yfrog.com/15qhij #
  • If I would have known Obama would renege on so many campaign promises and Pelosi would be so incompetent, I may have voted for him! #
  • Developers, check out TIBCO General Interface Open Source Project Home Page http://gi.tibco.com/ #opensource (via @tibco) in reply to tibco #
  • Just finished watching eldest son receive award for joining National Honor Society. #
  • Star Trek and Terminator. Two very different views on the future of mankind. #

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Who Owns Your Name on Twitter?

Who Owns Your Name on Twitter?

I don’t love the social networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace.  I do understand the importance of their presence though.  It is moderately important to VERY important (depending on your web presence and its importance to your income) for you to do the land grab and get your name, nickname, or company name out there.  Don’t let a cybersquatter get in your way!

If you want to follow me on Twitter, please do so: @soshaughnessey

The Wall Street Journal has an excellent article on the subject.  I don’t like to reproduce whole articles here (due to copyright issues) so here are the highlights.

Nowhere is this fact more evident than in the doling out of domain names. On the Web, domain names are available for sale on a first-come, first-serve basis. If someone else buys your name first, you can try to buy it from them. If you’ve trademarked a name, you can fight for the name in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ domain-name court system. This makes sense: money and the law are acceptable remedies in our capitalist democracy.

But social media domain names – such as Twitter.com/yourname – are a whole different ballgame. They can be doled out arbitrarily. Even if you get a name first on a social network, you are not allowed to sell it and it can be reclaimed by the social network at any time. Legal remedies for dealing with imposters or trademark issues range from murky to nonexistent.

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Still, there is some hope if you want to get your name – or reclaim it from someone else who has it. Here are some approaches:

Get There First. Since domain names are free on social media sites, it makes sense to grab yours quickly, even if you don’t plan to use it immediately.

Many sites dole out domain names on a first-come, first-serve basis. The most democratic is LinkedIn, which hands out “vanity URLs,” such as LinkedIn.com/in/JuliaAngwin, to the first person who asks for it. As long as the URL is really your name, you can keep it.

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Plead Your Case. If someone grabbed your name already, you can appeal to the site to get it back.

MySpace has an automated – and somewhat strange – process for booting imposters. You are required to send in a picture of yourself holding a piece of paper with the URL of the imposter profile written on it. This is called the “MySpace Salute.” If MySpace deems the offending profile to be an imposter, it will delete it.

To protest a Twitter name-squatter, you must send in a ‘tweet’ to Twitter containing the word ‘squatter’. If Twitter decides to reclaim the name, it often keeps the name dormant for several months before handing it over.

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Negotiate a Side Deal. Most sites do not allow users to sell names to each other, but that doesn’t mean that deals can’t be cut. After all, it’s easy to transfer control of a social media profile by handing over the username and password.

Consider the gymnastics CNN went through to gain control of the Twitter.com/CNNBrk account. A CNN fan set up the account three years ago to automatically tweet CNN’s Breaking News e-mail alerts. Eventually, CNN wanted control of the domain and its huge audience (it now has 1.5 million followers).

Twitter offered to reclaim it for CNN, says CNN spokeswoman Jennifer Martin, but CNN didn’t want to take an aggressive stance against a fan. Instead CNN chose to hire the owner as a ‘consultant’ to train CNN staffers how to use Twitter.

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Give Up. Even if you get the domain you want, somebody can still pretend to be you on a social media site.

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And after a stint in the rogue states of social media, maybe we should all be more appreciative of the democratic embrace of a simple Web domain name.

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Don’t let Vick back into the NFL until Pete Rose can play baseball

Don’t let Vick back into the NFL until Pete Rose can play baseball

Michael Vick was released from prison today to continue his sentence in house arrest.  I know that there is a lot of desire to say that he has paid his price for his mistake and therefore should be allowed to play in the NFL.

I sympathize that a man or woman should be able to move on after they have paid for their mistakes. However, sports should be held to a different level of integrity.  We should not allow Michael Vick to play professional sports until Pete Rose is allowed to play baseball again.

As I discussed several times, we need to hold athletes to a standard that at least is equivalent to everyday life and they probably should be held higher due to their incomes. Check out the following articles:

RANT! Drugs and bad conduct in professional sports

RANT! Drugs and bad conduct in professional sports (again)

Professional athletes and entertainers need to wake up to their responsibilities and stature.  Don’t let Vick play football and if he does – boycott his games.

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What and when did she know?

What and when did she know?

I don’t condone torture for ordinary criminals but I have few problems with torture for those that are involved with terror. So the current issue with Pelosi and having knowledge of waterboarding is a bit hollow. To me, she would do better to say that she had full knowledge of the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and their gallant efforts to protect us.

However, she obviously would rather deny knowledge and condemn the CIA as sadists AND liars! That is her choice but now it appears that she did have knowledge and therefore endorsed the activity implicitly or explicitly.

Which begs the question: What did she know and when did she know it? This also renders another point: When has a politician ever survived that question? We all know that Nixon did not survive it so it is doubtful the Speaker will survive unscathed.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-17

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-17

  • As I read the news today: “I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.” – De Gaulle #
  • AAU tournament in Bloomington IN. A lot of talented basketball players! #
  • What do you get when you have 15 courts going with top high school basketball talent? College coaches and sweat. #

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