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Why breaking up with someone on Twitter is a bad idea

Dude: I broke up with tweetygirl yesterday.
Chick friend: Aw sorry. What did you tell her?
Dude: I did it on Twitter so it was short. I wrote, "@ tweety girl Don't hate me. Can't do you/me anymore."

Chick friend: *Oh shit* no you didn't? Why would you do something so lame as to break up with her using Twitter?
Dude: I figured she she couldn't go totally off on me with only 140 characters.

Chick friend: Uh-huh, and....
Dude: And, she's kinda off so she couldn't go totally psycho on me when everyone is watching. I would have proof.

Chick friend: Riiiight. But now, she has proof as to what an idiot you are, and you now become  the lame ass Twatter.
Dude: *Quiet in silence as he realizes that his brilliant idea was actually monumentally ignoramous.*

Is putting your picture on LinkedIn a good idea?

LinkedIn now allows you to put one photo of yourself on your profile. The question everyone has been asking though, is adding a photo to your LinkedIn profile such a good idea?

There's two ways to look at it. From an employer hiring standpoint, recruiters and hiring managers will be able to see what a candidate looks like before inquiring about a position. That's if the possible candidate has the photo feature turned on for others to see. Allen over at Center Networks raises a good point in that "Without the photos, everyone is judged based on their skills in a semi-anonymous way at least on getting in the door. I have always thought the Internet put us all on the same playing field but photos certainly changes that."

And truthfully, once people can see the photos the biases and judgments are going to take affect. How can they not? With the photos, you're almost turning hiring into a similar dance as dating. Those who are the most attractive will get the most attention or have an advantage. That is a simple fact of life.

Now as the candidate, if you put your photo up and you are a looker, you are going to get far more attention, but whether it's from people you want attention from or not is something entirely different. If you're not so attractive, will people be less likely to want to link to you or contact you for any opportunities? I think if you have the qualifications and you are at least smiling in your picture it won't matter too much. I could be naive. Will posting your photo on LinkedIn open more doors or close more doors for you? Well, let's see.

I put my photo up on my LinkedIn profile for "everyone" to see. In the next month, let's see if putting my picture up has any affect on any opportunities or requests for connections that come my way.

Twitter's So Easy, Even Grandma Can Do It

Oh grandma, Twitter is easy-peasy, kind of like those old-fashioned telegrams you saved in your scrapbook, except that today we use mobile phones or computers instead of paper.

Imagine that widow Madge visits you for tea and tells you that she’s dashing off to Mallorca with a gentleman friend. With Twitter, you can spread the scandalous news faster than you can say cucumber sandwich!  Simply type a message no longer than 140 characters and all your Twitter friends will instantly hear about Madge’s preposterous behavior:

madge’s off to Spain with lover boy FULL STOP

Then imagine that Mr. Limpsford, one of your many Twitter friends, gets wind of the news and replies:

@grandma pray tell who’s the lucky bastard STOP I’ve been wanting to smooch with her since grammar school FULL STOP

Oh my! Since Mr. Limpsford is also Twitter friends with Mrs. Butterworth, you’d be better off sending him a PRIVATE note.  You wouldn’t want her to get her knickers all in a twist, would you? 

are you sitting down STOP our naughty Madge has run off with Mr. Butterworth FULL STOP

Next thing you know, Madge shares a shocking message on Twitter:

@grandma spain is marvelous STOP dumped that old sot Butterworth STOP ran off with sexy bullfighter FULL STOP

Now grandma, you know nice ladies don’t gossip, but you can use Twitter to communicate with one friend at a time or many all at once.  Just be careful what you say!

SideNotes

Do you ever take technology for granted? This year, the humble telegram celebrates its 170th anniversary as a precursor to email, chat, text messages and of course, Twitter.  Click here for a brief history.

Robert Scoble, a fella who loves communicating online, recently blogged about why he breaks all the rules on Twitter.  I agree; use Twitter in whatever way works best for you.

Do you use Twitter and if so, does it make your life any simpler?  Let me know!

Kimora Lee's Baby Phat is selling their own Motorola RAZR and SLVR

You know your brand is highly influential when a tech biggie like Motorola will create a limited edition line of its most popular phones just for you. Baby Phat is selling a limited edition Pink Motorola RAZR and SLVR cell phone that comes complete with case, gloss, phone charm, pre-loaded Baby Phat wallpapers, and an inscription on the back that reads,

"Fabulousity: 1: a state of everything that is fabulous 2: a quality ascribed to that expresses glamour, style, charisma, power and heart."

Aren't we all that, and two snaps in Z formation.

5 really funny spoof banner ads for tech companies

This was one of my favorite spoof banner ads created by Vally of the Geeks. It's soooo goes after the point behind Simplr. See the rest of the funny sppofs at Falsus.

Shhh! Weblogs shuts downs their health blogs and other niblets around the simplr-sphere

• Weblogs Inc owned by AOL has quietly shut down their health related blogs, The Cancer Blog, The Diabetes Blog, and the Cardio Blog. The bulk of the Weblogs plate seems to be global versions of Engadget and Autoblog. Hmmm. Me thinks this is sad because health is such an important life topic compared to learning about the latest cell phone or Jetta. [TechCrunch]

• Here's another reason to hang out at Starbucks. Between October 2- November 7 of this year, about 10,000 Starbucks' will hand out, for free, approximately 1.5 million "Song of the Day" cards redeemable on the iTunes Store. " The promotion aims to celebrate the coffee house's new "Now Playing" feature, which will allow customers using the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks to instantly preview, buy, and download the music currently playing overhead." Wow! What a collaboration of "consumer experience" giants. [Apple Insider]

• Check out 19 technologies that helped Changed Nursing Careers forever. Included on the list is "Improved patient (remote) monitoring." Not only is big brother watching you, but the nurses are. [The Nurse Lady]

• Naughty Virgin Mobile. The VM ad folk trolled Flickr and used a picture taken by a Youth Group Counselor featuring a 16 year old girl. The teenager and her parents are going after Virgin because they did not give their permission to use her image for the ad campaign which they feel makes too close an insinuation about her being a "virgin" of the biblical sense, and her geekiness which ties into Asian stereotypes. No Long Duck Dong's here. [AOL Tech]

Simplr definition: How to explain RSS the Oprah Way

How do you explain RSS to someone who is non-techie? Even spelling RSS out: Really Simple Syndication is going to get you deer in headlights look. A year ago, I wrote a post called “How to explain RSS the Oprah way,” over at Back in Skinny Jeans, and that explanation of RSS has become a global favorite. In fact, the post is the number one Google search result when searching “how to explain RSS.” 

As a refresher, check out the simplr definition of RSS and forward it to anyone who needs a lamens explanation of this really cool technology that helps people surf the web in minutes versus hours.

How did we ever find our way around town before online maps?

I am so addicted to using online maps, that I don’t even know how I was able to find my way around new places. Before we had GPS or Mapquest, Google maps, Yahoo maps, or Live maps, we had paper maps. We no longer have to kill trees in order to find our way around town. Remember having to fight with the map in the car just to get it flat on your steering wheel so you could find G7or A11, the square where your destinations were located. 

And after you found where you needed to go, you jacked up the map so much that there was no way you could ever get it folded back flat and neatly so it could fit back in your overstuffed glove compartment.

Today, our cell phones can tell us where to go. Our cars can layout the land so we can see miles ahead of us. We can even use our laptops in the car and find out where that hot new restaurant is located. 

And the technology for the online maps is getting better and better. Isn’t it amazing to get a satellite view of your own house? Isn't it utterly fascinating to see a city on 3D. Yes, it’s easier for stalkers and creepazoids to check out our place of residence, but you also don’t need to get in your car and drive by your cute new crush’s house and risk getting caught and humiliated. You can just Hybrid map in. How cool is that?

Dell eliminates “Trialware” from Vostro small business computers. When are consumer computers next?

This news was announced in July, but I thought it important to share some more. Dell has eliminated all of that annoying Trialware from it’s new line of Vostro laptops and desktops which target small businesses because their research found that small business buyers hate Trialware. Totally! But, why spend tons of money on research? That fact seems like a no-brainer to me. 

I want to know when Dell and all the other computer makers are going to eliminate Trialware all together from the consumer lines of their computers. Let us opt-in and choose what software we would like to try instead of shoving it in my face, and then worse, making it hard for me to get rid of the Trialware. 

One of the reasons I love Macs is the fact that I do not have to deal with annoying pop-ups that beg me to try some software like Anti-virus or photo management. I have a Dell Inspiron and every so often at least once a day some bell rings and a pop-up comes up on the bottom of the screen informing me about some expiration of Trialware or some free offer. I really find it intrusive rather than “value add” as the marketing types would spiel. 

Dell is smart, and I'm thrilled that they stopped the Trialware for their new Vostro line. Hopefully, more of the computer makers follow Apple’s lead and make Trialware-free consumer computers standard.

Gwen Stefani and HP get stylish with Harajuko dolls and Sweet Escapes

You don't see this every day. To help promote her Sweet Escape Tour, fashionista and music icon Gwen Stefani has teamed up with HP so that you can stylish and tech'd up.

At a special Gwen/HP site, you can make our very own Harajuko doll online and turn it into a real paperdoll or greeting card. Here's the doll I made. So fun! You can pick the hair color, eye color, wardrobe, and shoes and style your doll online, and then print it out using (obviously) wonderful HP technology.

You can order a Sweet Escape Tour Book that has some really outstanding photos of Gwen performing, and you can even pick some really cool artwork for mixed CDs. This Gwen Stefani / HP promo is actually quite outstanding. It's refreshing to see the fashion world and technology world come together without Apple any where in the picture. See. More techies are starting to get the style thing.