A.Connector

Connecting

The other day I had a Skype chat with a friend I know from Twitter. Nice guy, good connection. I finally found out that he worked in the financial sector. Then a light bulb went off in my head. I have a good friend that is really skilled in financial market analysis. So instantly the A.Connector DNA kicks in and I asked my friend on Skype if he would be willing to talk to my friend. He said, “Sure. I’m alway looking for qualified analysts.”

So why am I excited? What benefit is there to me? Well I happen to be big fan of the new bleeding edge economics and not doing evil. There is still one better than that-doing good. Don’t know why, but it always makes me feel good when I can help others connect in a frictionless good fit kind of way. File this under-because that’s how I roll…

Free Screencast: useful web app

I tend to be reluctant about commenting on the newest shiny objects of Web 2.0 since many are so much more focused on that than me. I do however like to promote useful things that I come across. Free Screencast is one of them. It is an excellent application(Windows only at present) for recording what is on your screen and what you are doing on your computer. Very intuitive and excellent service by Jason, the applications developer I believe. The reason I know is, I had a problem and e-mailed Jason. I received his reply almost instantly. Love when you get prompt and cogent response. The problem I had and Jason will address in UI shortly is that the api login (you need to download a desktop app for synching with site) asks for user name when in fact it wants user e-mail, while the site wants user name at login. Here is my demo at A.Connector. Please try and let me know what you think.

Fear Factor

My friend and collaborator at Depth Charge Len Edgerly had an interesting conversation earlier via Skype that motivated me to think through and write this post.

We were discussing the hope and optimism cased by Barack Obama’s message and style and similar feelings for Larry Lessig (who happens to be a Barack supporter) and Lessig’s attempt to bring the balance of the political machine back to the people from the special interest groups. I have been an admirer of Lessig’s for a while. Obama is certainly starting to get some traction in my mind share. Yet I digress.

I mentioned to Len the concern I had about Obama being a target of special interest groups for assassination, and they’d probably use a white supremacist type to do it. Len admonished this line of thought saying that, “fear of him getting offed has the effect of enfeebling our hope and energy, which needs to run pell-mell to the future. If he dies, by a bus, a virus, or any other means, the nation will mourn more deeply than it did for the Kennedys and MLK. I pray every morning for his safety, and that of the other candidates. “

Len then went on to say, “I heard interesting comment by NYT editor on podcast who covered Mandela and Gorbachov, saying what was exhilarating in both cases was to see a leader help his nation come out from under the shackles of fear into the light. That’s what Obama can do here, I hope. We’re ready. Roosevelt did it. perhaps every great leader in their own way does it, except for the ones like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin - who lead by feeding the fear and controlling the people with it as a bloody tool.”

I agree with Len on the point of fear. It is an excellent albeit it wicked motivational tool. It saddens me deeply to see how this device has been employed to a great degree in the US that is hailed in it’s national anthem as “the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.”

I sure hope the next US President helps us get back on track US to being the “Land of the Free” once again.

Pwned by Peas

Tis the season and I have a tale to tell. A social media tale in fact. There once was a place called Twitter-land. Within this strange and mysterious land there lived a princess named Susan. Now Susan was a very bright and cheerful princess. Not moody and sulky like many of the other princesses. One day our princess discovered something positively frightening-a hard area in her bosom. Not one to sulk or keep secrets from her fellow Twitterzens, Susan shared her ordeal with us. She even let us know that “Boobs on Ice” (Susan provides the boobs, birdseye the frozen peas) was a soothing solution to the discomfort caused by the growing tumor. Peas, peas and more peas so many peas began to turn up in Twitter-land on peoples avatars,err peavatars demonstrating their concern and love for their princess and friend.

Unfortunately Princess Susan is not alone in her battle against this ugly disease in Twitter-land. There is also at least one other princess and a prince sucking up their courage and battling this intruder with great dignity and poise(present pluperfect tense of peas?).

So in this busy bustling season I ask that you note these folks. Add them to your prayer list, warm thoughts list, contribute to charities that help find cures, most importantly show these friends that while they are fighting the hardest, they aren’t fighting alone.

PR for a good cause…

Not often that I’m asked to blog something, but in this case it certainly merits it. A social network friend is involved in a very noble and cool work called E-Mail Our Military. Say what? Yes. Your A.Connector dude is still a lover not a fighter, but has massive love and respect for the young men and women that heed the call of duty and step up for their country. Not gonna get in to politics here, just wish them love and show gratitude and hope for peace and speedy return to their homes. Please stop by site and if you feel like it help out in some way. The internet was made for this-show them love and concern just an e-mail away!

No Rocket Science…

In fact a rocket scientist or one that is a scientist dealing with rockets. I saw a Tweet(Twitter message) the other day from @geosteph: Steph Stockman in real life. A scientist working for Goddard/NASA. She mentioned how she would love to give Bruce Springsteen and his crew a tour of the LRO… Well to make a long story longer, my buddy and fellow Dvoices member @aronski the music tour scenes hardest working and most poetic and photographic roadie got linked together by me. Now, Steph and Aron and bunch of other musical people are all getting a dose of rocket science and making diverse ends of the world and galaxy meet up do to a Tweet. Love when I can help connect the connectors. So yeah, there is some value to social networking after all..

Seth Godin if only you weren’t male…

and bald and… Right, time to get serious and write the post. In this day of socnet self-proclaimed experts, that ceaselessly remind us of their expertise, even on their Moo cards, it’s still refreshing to me to have the Seth Godins that continually demonstrate their expertise by what they say adding to the conversation not by many words, but by a few right ones. My new media friends, work your plan, sharpen up your game, but avoid the trap of sticking your foot so far down there it is difficult to get it out later on when you do know better. Just sayin.

Utility. Who knew?

Wow, amongst a plethora of useless shiny gadget devices that offer no useful qualities or are copies of others I was pointed at Fleck by David Weinberger’s blog. Fleck allows you to put movable bullets and “sticky notes” on web pages which you send to friends or business associates. So it allows web pages to perform like a white board in your communications. Nice to get something useful for a change…

Cool series…

Carrie from My Several Worlds blog has a very interesting series on East/West key cultural differences expressed by symbols and text. If this is the type of thing that piques your curiosity, check it out.

Playing For Keeps

New media content producing dynamo(prolific and GOOD-how does she do it?) Mur Lafferty has new novel project out. “Playing For Keeps” in serial pdf download or podiobook(audiobook) formats. Some of you will recall Mur contributed an excellent audio piece on last A.Connector Cast. Check out her work.