Blake Ainsworth poses for the camera(phone)

Blake Ainsworth
Originally uploaded by KushalHada

I took this picture to add to my address book on my phone. :)

Switch on and switch off: A tale of "reply to" on twitter

Well, a few days ago I wrote that I did not have "in reply to" in my twitter at all (including older messages). Well, twitter seems adamant at proving me wrong as it is back as I see it is back now.

Here is a screenshot. There's no point linking to it because my twitter account is protected (and so is Chelsi's).

I will try to update this blog if and when I get more information but I cannot make any promises. I am not affiliated or related to  the twitter management team in any way.

In unrelated news, I think twitter should tell us how to conduct conversations on twitter by text messages. Right now, when I reply to someone's tweet via text messaging, there is pretty much no way of going back to the thread other than painfully going through each tweet of the people involved.

I would love to hear more about this from anyone knowledgeable about the issue. :)

Apple's latest irritating technology patent: Let's try to see some good in it

As I read the new york times article, I was trying to make some sense out of it. I hope I am not the first person on the Internet to make the connection but I think this patent application probably makes sense.

1.  More than just premium products: With mass adoption of the iPod and iPhone line-up, Apple is not an "exclusive" market player. Especially withe the iPhone (and the iPod Touch), Apple is headed into "free" (as in free beer) territory. Perhaps not so much with the devices themselves, but the apps are stuck in a whirlpool that keeps sucking prices down. Not everyone is going to buy fifty dollar apps even if they are super awesome. Wolfram Alpha gets away with charging fifty dollars for its apps. The rest of the mortals need to stick to USD 1.99 price point at the app store (or even free). To help the developers (and pay its own hosting fees), Apple needs to  monetize this transaction. Enter an annoying scheme that makes advertisers so happy that the cost per impression is dramatically high enough to cover the cost of the app. 
2. More than just products: It might sound be an urban legend now (with the tremendous success of the Mac Book and Mac Book pro line) but at some point in history, there was a joke that actually sounded right. It said that Apple made more money from its patent on laptop design than from selling laptops. Couple this with the ridiculous 1-Click patent that Apple was forced to license and you have a no-brainer. Think of all the money msn live search bing would pay to have a piece of this technology. 
3. Maybe it is not for the money: This may be stretching it too far but could Apple be taking a patent on this topic to stop others from using it? This would force its competitors to come out in the open as far as pricing is concerned and that can only be a good thing for Apple as even today, it has an image (rightly or wrongly is another issue altogether) of being over-priced.
   

Christine Easter's phone called me

Check out this voice mail message. Christine's phone apparently called me and left me a message but when I called her back she denied ever calling me in the first place.

Could it be that she just happened to push the buttons without meaning to like recent calls > received?

Over Friendly Squirrel

Over Friendly Squirrel
Originally uploaded by fangofthedoglord

Justin, thanks for the posting this photo!

Privacy vs free speech

Two German men are suing Wikimedia Foundation to force their names off of the English Wikipedia citing privacy concerns. New York Times writes:

Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber became infamous for killing a German actor in 1990. [..] In an e-mail message after the interview, he [their lawyer, Mr. Stopp] wrote, “In the spirit of this discussion, I trust that you will not mention my clients’ names in your article.”

- Read the full article at the New York Times. By the way, was it OK for the New York Times to print those two guys' names in the leading paragraph? What do you think?

http://bit.ly/4nH7XD or http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/us/13wiki.htm

Starbucks and NASA

Starbucks: Dear @NASA @richardbranson, If you need coffee for your travels to the moon, let us know. #StarbucksVIA with 8oz of water will do the trick.

Starbucks twitter

Starbucks: p.s. ... I just unlocked the 'Thanksgiving Blend' badge at Starbucks. {cc: @adamjackson}

ETBU Cafeteria on twitter

ETBU_Cafe: Lunch Menu: BBQ Brisket Sandwich On International: Pasta Fullilli