Interesting article about how American class divisions are reflected in the usage patterns of Facebook and MySpace. I still found it very interesting, as it is true that the way we use our tools reflect our societies..
Some traditional media (here, here) have picked up the story, but I'd rather read the whole essay, as I don't like the spin they put to it.
Via Slashdot.
You get Pict'Earth, so you can update Google Earth with more detailed pictures of your area of interest.
Via el blog de mediotiempo.com.
As I mentioned in my last post, I have been using WidSets for a while. They are basically widgets for mobile phones and related devices running under Java. Having been used Yahoo! Widgets for a while, I truly welcomed this development.
There are hundreds of widgets available, but the ones I use the most are news rss readers and special widgets for updating Jaiku and Twitter on the go. If you have an unlimited data cellular contract and/or Wi-Fi capabilities in your device of choice, I'd really recommend you to try it out.
I have started using at the same time Twitter and Jaiku. Whereas the benefit of telling the world what are you doing/thinking in 140 characters or less may be dubious for some, I find it quite addictive.
Since both services are very similar, there is some healthy competition between them. Twitter has going for it the fact that it's very heavily used in the States, and, crucially, has Facebook integration. Jaiku, on the other hand, has a more European user base, the interface is in my opinion more appealing and, interestingly, has the option to add other RSS feeds, so you can see not only my Jaikus but also my blog posts, public Flickr pictures, the music I've been listening to (thanks to Last.fm) and even my Twitter posts at the same place.
Both also have Widsets available to be used in my N93 (review upcoming), so I can update my status on the fly.
To compare both, you can check my Twitter and my Jaiku. You're welcome to add me to your contact list if you want. Which one do you prefer? Or do you think it's useless?
You may know by now that Last.fm was recently bought by CBS. I confess to being quite a late adopter of the service, even though I had heard about it many times before. In my case, when I was working, I didn't have time to listen to music on my PC so often, and when I started studying my internet connection was really bad. Now both conditions are set, and I've started using last.fm (my profile here).
The whole idea of the service is very simple: just continue listening to your music, and we'll make a profile. With that information we are able to show you other artists that you might like, connect you to other people that share your musical tastes, and even allow you to stream the music you like in your webpage, blog, MySpace or Facebook profile. You can even look for concerts near your area (I've found a couple I didn't know about that I'm now planning to attend).
There are a couple of things that I haven't yet found out how to do, that bother me a little. The first one was just adding all the times I've previously listened to a song in iTunes before adding the last.fm application, as I think that would have helped to build a much more accurate profile. The second one, which I believe is possible but haven't yet tried, is adding (scrobbling) the tracks played in my iPod.
If you listen to your own music often and would like to find more, this is really worth trying.
After reading this post by my good, very Genki friend, I couldn't stop thinking about my own situation. I use Skype & MSN Messenger daily for real-time communication, Flickr for my photos, Last.fm for music & have even uploaded a couple of public videos to YouTube. Besides, I post in this blog every day.
Then you have the social networking sites. I made a MySpace profile ages ago to see what the buzz was all about, but stopped being a regular since I don't really like the whole teen Wild West feeling of it, and most of the people I know offline don't use it. My main use for it nowadays is just to keep in touch with some of my favourite bands.
However, the tale doesn't end there. I use other sites more frequently: Hi5, for most of my Mexican friends, Facebook for my friends here in Belgium and LinkedIn for my professional acquaintances. Furthermore, I'm present in Tagged for my Asian friends and still have an Orkut profile for a couple of Brazilians.
It strikes me as interesting that different social networking sites are popular in different geographical areas, and that since they all belong to different companies and conglomerates of course they won't want to agree on interoperability unless something happens.
Some sort of open identity management framework would be really, really nice though.
Now that it is almost time for me to graduate, and as the technological nuthead I am, I've been thinking about those gadgets and other electronics I'd like to get with my as-yet-unearned salary when my student life is over.
Now the problem will be saving money for those again (I tend to be really tight with my wallet) and getting time to use them, as it seems coming back to work will be extremely hectic.
First, though, I need to work on finishing my final project.
I was reading Batz's Journal, where she comments her views on leaving Barcelona after being there two years, and going away from those friendships she has formed during her time there.
I started thinking that in fact these days it's not so difficult to keep in touch with those you care about. With e-mail, messenger, skype, blogging and of course text messaging and voice telephony you can still keep in touch. These days video conferencing is not so difficult either, as many chatting programs have integrated it.
Around a year ago, I was in a very particular situation. My parents were living in Brazil, my sister in Mexico, my fiancée in Japan and I was in Finland, so there was a minimum of 8,000 km between one member of the family and the next. Keeping in mind the time differences, these utilities were a godsend, and now that I'm in Belgium I use them to keep in touch, as my friends and family are scattered all over the place.
This is much better than the situation in the Middle Ages, or even 30 years ago. In that sense I'm glad I was born at a time when this is possible.
Today I was a little bit blue. The sky was overcast, with this annoying drizzle that isn't even proper rain but still messes up my hair and my glasses, and it was just the proper mood for being a little pensative.
Even though I have my iPod in shuffle (all 3000+ songs), it played almost exclusively during the whole day songs according to the mood: "My way", "Sunday, Bloody Sunday", "Polly", "Ayer me dijo un ave", "Denial, revisited", "Pennyroyal tea", "The wind cries Mary", "Black hole sun", "Bibo no aozora", "Long Cool Woman", "Ánimas que no amanezca", etc.
Given that when I'm happy, the same shuffle tends to play more rythmic songs, I'm starting to wonder if my iPod is semi-sentient or at least rather telepathic…
For the past few days I have been using Fring, a mobile VoIP application for mobile devices. I truly like that it has support not only for its own network, but also for calls and chat using Skype, MSN, Google Talk and SIP.
The application, however, is still in advanced beta stage, so some parts of usability and especially stability are still issues. If you have a S60 device with WLAN (such as a N93) or unlimited 3G, I'd say it's almost a no-brainer, especially since Skype hasn't released its version for S60 yet to the general public (other than owners of the X-series).
Now I wonder, who will have the idea of joining this with a Fonera? That would be something.