19 Feb 10 What’s the #BUZZ about Google Buzz? Oh look, the Emperor has got no clothes on
You have come across Google Buzz or maybe you haven’t. Anyway it is Google’s answer to Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms, although, I wonder what the question was if Buzz is the answer.
It launched recently to a bit of a viral fanfare and all of us social media maniacs and Twitter pimps toddled on over to check it out. It seems that lots of people are going absolutely unnecessary about it. It will apparently kill off Twitter, Facebook and change the world as we know it. I say ‘apparently’ for a reason.
The problem is that I am still trying to work how Buzz accommodates any need I have. I keep coming back looking at it and thinking, ‘I must be missing something’.
I understand Blogs, LinkedIn, FaceBook and Twitter and they have somehow seamlessly slotted into the way I do things personally and professionally. I can write once on any of them and publish everywhere. I can use things like TweetDeck to get multiple views of Twitter based on friends, interest topics or back-chat. Others use aggregators like FriendFeed or Posterous but they all do variations on a theme – they collect all this etherlution (© Dave Yates, meaning rubbish deposited all over the web) and collates in into a single, manageable distribution and collection point for all you want to cherry pick from these platforms.
So while I detest e.g. FB, I do understand why it is there and I can interact with my contacts on it without having to go on it very often. Similarly with LinkedIn. I quite like it, but I don’t feel compelled to ‘live’ on it. I use it from time to time, but can update it remotely with a range of tools, mainly my Blog and Twitter account.
But again today, I returned to Buzz, looking at it this way and that and concluding that I must be missing something, because lots of people are saying it is great and everything else will now become obsolete. I repeat, I really must be missing something because, for the life of me, I don’t get it, I don’t know what to do with it and I don’t know why everyone else is raving about it.
Oh Look – the emperor’s just gone by without any clothes on.
10 Feb 10 Dictionary of Online Abbreviations
Image shamelessly adapted from toothpastefordinner.com
I know there are pre-existing glossaries out there, but at least with this one I know where it is for reference. Also I can keep adding to it.
Please feel free to suggest any more via the comments box and I will add them to the list
- AFK – away from keyboard (I am gone for a few minutes)
- AFAIK – as far as I know
- ASL – age / sex / location?
- BFF – best friends, forever
- BFN – bye for now
- BIO – going for bio break (washroom break)
- BRB – be right back
- BTW – by the way
- CSAK – Chucking Silently At Keyboard
- CUL8R – see you later
- CYA – see ya (or it could also be: cover your a*s)
- DH – darling husband
- DD – darling daughter
- DS – darling son
- FMV – fair market value (for selling items online)
- FTW – for the win (basically a big thumbs up)
- GG – good game
- IBTL – in before the lock (for when you post a message prior to the administrator locking the heated discussion thread)
- IMHO – in my humble opinion
- IMNSHO – in my not so humble opinion
- IRL – in real life
- KK – OK (commonly used by online gamers to acknowledge that a message has been received)
- LOL – laughing out loud
- MT – mistell (commonly used by online gamers to say that they made a mistake and mistyped their last message)
- NP – no problem/you’re welcome
- NWOT – new without tags (for selling items online)
- NWT – new with tags (for selling items online)
- BNWT – brand new with tags (for selling items online)
- OOAK – one of a kind (for selling items online)
- PICNIC – problem in chair not in computer (apparently favoured by IT support techs when dealing with low ability users)
- PLZ – please
- PLIBT – please let it be true
- PMSL – P*ssing myself laughing (a common UK expression)
- POS – Parents [watching] Over Shoulder
- QFT – quoted for truth (a compliment to another person on the forum)
- RL – real life
- ROFL – rolling on floor laughing
- ROFLMAO – rolling on floor laughing my a*s off
- RTFM – read the f***ing manual (to show frustration at someone’s ignorance of basic knowledge)
- RTM – read the manual
- TBH – to be honest
- THX – thanks
- TTFN – ta-ta for now
- TTYL – talk to you later
- TX – thanks
- TY – thank you
- VFF – very f***ing funny
- W/E – whatever
- WTF – what the f*** [is that all about]
07 Feb 10 Personal Branding – Coming up with a personal business card
Recently I found myself wishing I had a personal business card. It is unusual because I have various business personas for the work I do, but with some of the overseas government work I have been involved in, it is easier for them to buy into an individual, no matter where they come from, than an organisation from another country.
I may never get these printed, but the idea has driven me to think it through and there is probably a white paper waiting to happen at a more general level. In any event, if it never gets printed, at least it has a home here.
Once I started thinking about this I came up with the design shown. As with all designs, I don’t like to over-rationalise it – you hope it will speak for itself. But, briefly, being able to pull out the syllable ‘id’ from my first name, David, is handy. The id is the uninhibited and creative part of the brain. I am a creatively driven designer – I place emphsis on the psychology of design and usability in my work. So a psychological term referencing creativity is a bit of a godsend. The notion of a card being a kind of identity of I.D. is not lost on me either. For those that don’t get the rest of it, the card is my ID.
On the counter side, my surname, Yates, provides the opportunity to pick out the word ‘Yes’. The single most positive term in the language. And all that you want to put across: ‘I can do this’; ‘this is possible’; ‘all is good’; ‘Yesss! what a result’.
I like this for other reasons. I read once that John Lennnon first met Yoko Ono at an art exhibition. The central exhibit was a work of hers with a ladder in the centre of the room. At the top of the ladder was a magnifying glass and very small word painted on the ceiling. When you climbed the ladder, and looked at the word through the magnifying glass, it simply said, “Yes”.
I can’t say I like her music much and I don’t know anything about her art, but this resonates with me, as clearly it did with John Lennon.
So in a nutshell this is all about being creatively positive and so am I.
19 Dec 09 Wonderful, wonderful #Copenhagen
Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen
115 people hit town
To squabble and fight
Over the global blight
Then clink and drink one down
To wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen
Where Barak barracked Jaibao
Then he sailed away
And nothing had changed
Singing Copenhagen, wonderful, wonderful
Copenhagen for me
25 Nov 09 Protected: westland-nov
07 Sep 09 Should democracy embrace the undemocratic
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06 Sep 09 Brilliant observation on the state of traditional media
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06 Sep 09 testing Firefox Clipmarks for blog content
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14 May 09 BP Performance Engineering
Intranet site to monitor engineering performance globally for BP, allowing staff from Alaska to the Pacific to Azerbaijan facilitating a knowledge bank and skills sharing
14 May 09 Hertz lease
Website to transact and promoted Hertz’s business to business fleet lease operations
