Evening Reading: 7/18/09

I’ve been pre-occupied with working out and feeding my The Wire jones, so my blogging has suffered, much to the dismay of millions. But I’m back, so let’s get caught up.

Crow Department: I argued that it would never happen, but I have almost completely surrendered to Google. Between Search, Reader, News, Maps, Voice and Docs, most of my life resides in Google. If they could take a mulligan and buy Flickr, they’d have all of me. Well, that and figure out a way to do tracked changes in Docs. The first cloud app that does that will win the online document game. If you want to pile some Google apps onto your Firefox navbar, GButts can hook you up. I’m not ready to wear the colors to that extent yet, but it’s probably only a matter of time. I’m pretty skeptical about the Chrome OS, but history has taught me not to underestimate Google.

Bad, Bad Genome: Why in the world are The Wallflowers playing on my alt. country Pandora station? Ugh.

Joy Division: The whole social networking obsession bores me to tears. You know what’s not boring? This, for one thing. I wish I could do something that cool for my kids. I mean, seriously, how awesome is that? I am deeply fond of the entire Omega clan. Granny J is a Jedi. Dote on, Obi-Wan.

Put Me in Coach: Like most writers, I have a series of Google Alerts that notify me when someone mentions my blog, articles, etc. Lately, updates from an unrelated blog have been showing up in those alerts (blog posts mentioning Newsome, etc.). I’m pulling hard for Team Newsome. If you have a spare prayer, karma, meditation or good wish, please send it their way.

Side B, Track 4: About every month or so, Penelope Trunk knocks a post out of the park, and only about half of them are about this. Her recent post on self-discipline is a must-read.

Bad Combo: You can count on me to aggressively hate on any undertaking by which some egghead takes it upon himself or herself to tell us who the cool people are. Add that grade school nonsense to the now almost completely irrelevant Technorati, and you have a recipe for slumber.

How to Get a Free Kindle: Be the first one to ask me, in person, for mine if this happens. Dudes, don’t charge me a fortune and then toss ads at me. Seriously.

And While I’m Capitulating: I have to admit, I’ve reconnected with a lot of old friends via Facebook. It still feels a little juvenile to me, but I can’t argue with the results. My page is here.

Consumer Wire: I love it when some tech-savvy consumer punks a company like this. Take the camera away, and you probably get a form letter and a coupon for $10 off an oil change.

Violets are Blue: If you want to send a subtle flora message that almost no one will get, here’s how.

Mike Morgan Department: A long time ago, I mentioned in the hall at my office that I thought the whole-world-underwater thing in Waterworld was scientifically inaccurate. The next day, my buddy Mike Morgan gave me a photocopied article that proved I was right. This was way before Dave Winer invented the internet (but after he invented the printing press). Later, Mike and I wondered if those bags of water you see at restaurants really repel flies. Here’s a semi-explanation that sort of indicates they might. A little.

The 2nd Best Day: The best day of the week is Sunday, because there’s a new True Blood. The second best day is when you read that there is a new installment of There Will Be Brawl. Episode 6 is out. Just because some of you are too lazy to go watch these masterpieces, I’m going to embed this episode, to give you a little sample.

Extreme Irony: This is funnier than the Onion. The epic irony is that the only cat in the world who actually makes a living blogging is the cat who tells you how to make a living blogging.

Department of Music: The Avett Brothers have a new album coming out on August 11, 2009. Here’s the title track. Excellent.

Email Reduction Department: If people would read these sites first, I would get 3-4 less emails a day.

Evening Reading: 6/13/09

iPhonery: There’s a lot of buzz surrounding the upcoming release of the iPhone 3G S. It looks like ATT has sold all of its pre-order inventory. A guy at the local Apple store told me today that they have sold a ton of pre-orders, and that next Friday will be a crazy day. Apple has an excellent compilation of “how-tos” for the world’s greatest phone. That link is a mandatory bookmark for all iPhone users. Postage is a neat-looking iPhone app that lets you create and email postcards, but then you have to print them to put them on the fridge. Photogene looks promising, though I haven’t tried it yet.

Sneaking in the Kid’s Room: Everyone knows that I have very mixed feelings about Facebook. When I spend time there, I feel like I’m sneaking into the kids’ rooms. It is, however, the only way to interact with a lot of people who don’t have a presence on the greater web. What I’m trying to say is that, yes, when the opportunity presented itself, I capitulated to a vanity URL (facebook.com/newsome).

Wild Life Department: Back in the early 70’s, my mom and I saw a black squirrel in the woods by the road. It was one of those things you never forget.

The End of the World as We Read It: OmegaMom has a good run-down of some post-apocalyptic science fiction. That’s my favorite sub-genre. I’m currently reading and enjoying the Pelbar Cycle books. Here’s a pretty good, but incomplete, reading list to get you started.

Sirius XM Deathwatch: So now they are going to jack up the monthly rates even more? Fat chance. My Sirius XM connection is down to a single, stretched thread, thanks to the increasing costs, and the better options via Pandora and Slacker Radio.

Department of Sound: 30 Days Out has a good read on one of my favorite blues singers. One of my favorite later Howlin’ Wolf songs is this version of Little Red Roster off of The London Sessions. Also, don’t forget that I’m recommending a lot of great music at our sister site GoodSongs.Com (RSS feed). Elsewhere, Cover Lay Down continues to rocket up my music reading list.

Apptic Blast: Here are four great Windows clipboard alternatives. And four alternative file copiers. Finally, here are some good multitasking desktop apps.

I’m a Frayed Knot: Everyone should know how to tie some basic knots. Here’s a wallet card. Or for those hip like me, an Evernote card. Speaking of wallets, here’s a very interesting iPhone app to keep barcodes from all your affiliation cards. I try to stay unaffiliated, but I have gathered a couple of grocery cards along the way.

One Sentence Movie Reviews: I have recently watched (links to Netflix; 5-point scale): Taken (4)- very good action flick, with great appeal for dads. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (3)- definite chick-flick characteristics, but I liked the music element and that both the main characters were really good kids (Kat Dennings is a lovely young lady; and I noticed when researching this post at IMDB, 22 years old today; happy birthday!). Gran Torino (3)- overacting and the unnecessary verbalization of the obvious makes a great concept only a pretty good movie (nice ride, though). The Dark Knight (3.5)- I avoided this one for a long time because of the Ledger over-hype, but it and he were both excellent, particularly until the last half-hour or so. The Wrestler (4)- I loved it, Mickey Rourke was excellent and, seriously, could Marisa Tomei be any hotter without spontaneously combusting? Slumdog Millionaire (incomplete)- I had really high expectations for this one, but I just couldn’t get into it, and didn’t finish it before my on-demand time limit expired.

Blessings: I am so glad the fracking digital conversion is over. It was the most over-discussed, non-event since Y2K. And, no, I really don’t care if someone (or even 880,000 someones) ignored the deluge of public service notices and screen crawls and is somehow surprised that his ancient television not in any way suddenly quit working. Technology helps those who help themselves, and all that.

Shaken, Not Stirred (but We Can All Realize Our Dreams): I have reached Level 30 in Spymaster, which is as high as you can currently go. As I noted the other day, it’s a good start, but the game needs a lot more depth. Follow me if you’re a spy, and I will follow you back (as long as you have a legitimate, non-MLM, non-unintentionally-Deep Thoughts-like Twitter account). I’d rather be spammed a thousand times on Twitter than see another absurd to the point of self-parody, uplifting, self-affirmation post. And while I’m at it, do people really think blasting regurgitated quotes ads value?

Free Pre: Baby x Baby in the Gillmor Nursery

I used to love the Gillmor Gang, but I don’t listen to it much anymore, because I have come full circle and once again think that too many of the core participants are intentionally non-inclusive. I’m not talking about on the podcast; I’m talking about on the internet. Too many of those guys treat the social networks as a stage where they can engage in dramatic dialog with one another, while the great audience watches in admiration.

And I have said over and over that Mike Arrington needs a lesson in personal brand maintenance. Petulant jerk is not the image I’d go for.

And I have not and probably won’t watch the rest of the latest Gillmor Gang podcast, so there may be things leading up to this brouhaha that I don’t know about.

And, finally, I don’t have and have no plans to get a Palm Pre.

Having said all that, unless there’s a lot more to the story, Leo Laporte was a massive baby for throwing a gigantic temper tantrum just because Mike asked him if he paid for his Pre. It’s a fair and legitimate question. A simple yes or no would have sufficed.

When I have been asked to preview phones and other mobile devices in the past, I have never been required to return them. Generally, after the review period expires, you can keep the device, but you have to pay for a calling plan, etc. if you want to use it. It’s probably different for high profile devices like the iPhone and the Pre. Maybe you do have to return it. I don’t know anything about some “wink and nod” deal where you get a letter requiring that you return it, with no one actually expecting that you will. If that happens, it’s even worse, in my opinion, than getting one completely free. Once someone in that situation says he or she didn’t get the device for free, it takes the issue from the realm of an omission to the realm of a lie.

Again, I know nothing about this practice, and I certainly know nothing of the terms under which Leo got his Pre. I’ll assume he got a review unit and always intended to and will return it.

In other words, I’m not examining Leo’s integrity, because I don’t really know him and have no personal basis to doubt it (or vouch for it). What I am interested in is the epic meltdown he had on this podcast.

There is some evidence in the comments to the TechCrunch post that Mike may have been poking at Leo for some time. I don’t know if that’s right or not, but it’s certainly possible given the way Mike relates to most people. But I’m pretty sure that no one forces Leo to do those podcasts. And I’m pretty sure the fact that Mike can be a jerk is not a secret.

And, ignoring for a moment the source, it was a relevant question. Not that Mike was necessarily looking out for truth and justice.

There is another question- about what Mike was worried about at the beginning: journalistic standards or that Leo got a free Pre and he didn’t. Questioning someone’s integrity is serious business, which is probably what set Leo off. But, again, a better response would have been “no, I didn’t get it free. What are you implying.” In all likelihood Mike would have hung himself with some tirade, while Leo sat back and watched.

But then again, what do I know. I’m not smart enough to converse with these dudes. I’m just in the audience, watching a couple of babies fight.

Can anyone spare a pacifier?

How TweetDeck Could Take Over the World

And maybe kill Google, Microsoft and Wolfram Alpha in the process. OK, that was a joke, but since all tech blogs use absurd, over the top headlines in a juvenile effort to attract readers, I thought I’d give it a try.

Back to TweetDeck. . .

I’ve dabbled with TweetDeck for some time, using it periodically but always finding my way back to my home-grown Content Master. The Twitter part of Content Master, of course, is the excellent TwitterGadget, which does a lot of really neat things that other Twitter apps have surprisingly not implemented. TweetDeck comes about as close as any desktop app I have used. With a few additions, I think TweetDeck could become my Twitter app of choice.

But make no mistake, for that to happen, this has to happen:

First, it absolutely must allow multiple columns of “All Friends,” to allow users to better manage screen space. The most important part of Twitter is the river of posts from the people you follow. Having a single column to view this limits you to 6-10 posts on your screen. That is far too few (sure, I could scroll down, but I’d rather allocate more screen space). Users should be able to allocate multiple columns to the river, with new posts appearing in the first column and then moving to next column(s) before they rotate off your screen. This is a must-have feature that should be implemented today. Literally.

Second, how about a Google Reader implementation. There’s already a way to add your Facebook data to TweetDeck. Give me a way to access my Google Reader information from within the application and I’d be hooked. Something similar to, but more robust than, the Google Reader gadget would be a great start. I’d be happy with Google Reader. I’d be thrilled if other apps were also incorporated, like Delicious, Read It Later, Photobucket, Dropbox, etc. In other words, make TweetDeck as good for publishing Twitter content as it is for reading it.

Third, once all that additional source data is available from within TweetDeck, allow articles to be dragged from the applicable column (i.e., the Google Reader column), into the Tweet message box. Populate the message box with the title of the article you dropped in there, and populate the link box with the URL, which should then be automatically shortened.

Fourth, provide a way to export all, filtered portions or individual items from your TweetDeck to other services, via RSS feeds. That would allow you to use TweetDeck as the publishing platform not only for Twitter, but also for other services. If I could selectively embed some of the content I read and publish in TweetDeck to my blog or some other site, that would be very helpful.

Fifth, create a top row of tabs for different TweetDeck page layouts, content and implementations. If I could have my Twitter stuff under one tab and my Google Reader and Facebook stuff under another one, that would give me the flexibility I seek. iGoogle, My Yahoo and other apps already have tab or tab-like features, so this shouldn’t be hard to add.

That should keep you busy for the rest of the day. What are you waiting on? Time’s a wastin’.

Spymaster: Big Fun, Twitter Spam or Both

I don’t live on Twitter, so Spymaster, the Twitter-based online spy game, didn’t cross my radar until I got a DM from someone I follow inviting me to join her spy network. I followed the link and discovered an apparently easy-to-come-by invitation to Spymaster’s public beta. It looked like a pretty well-designed site, so I decided to give it a try.

After signing up, you first decide what spy organization you want to work for. I was hoping for CONTROL (Don Adams version), but it wasn’t a choice. So I picked the CIA, being an American and all. Afterwards, you’re a junior spy working for the Company.

In sum, the game then involves performing various spy tasks that, if you are successful, result in payment and an increase in experience points. Pretty standard game fare.

As you accumulate money, you can buy weapons and defensive gear- body armor, etc.- for yourself and your spy ring, which consists of your spymasters (those of your Twitter followers who also play spymaster) and your regular spies (those of your followers who do not yet play the game).

As you accumulate experience points, you progress up the spy ladder. I am currently a Level 11 spy. As you move up the ladder, you can perform more difficult- and lucrative- spy tasks and buy better gear, thereby increasing your attack and defense numbers.

You can also assassinate rival spies, though your success or failure rate is tied to the overall strength of your spy ring in a way that is not easily discernable. As a result I have, thus far, generally engaged only in retaliatory strikes and public service first strikes against those who link bomb Twitter by adding a bunch of Twitterfeed posts at one time.

If you are successfully “assassinated,” you don’t die. You just lose money and perhaps other assets. If the attempt fails, you get a portion of the assassin’s money. Thus far, I’ve made a little net money via unsuccessful assassination attempts against me, but not much. I tend to see the assassination thing as an annoying distraction so far, which is odd since I assume the interactivity of assassinations is intended to be the focal point of the game.

As you accumulate more money, you can- for a price- deposit it in a Swiss bank account, so it won’t be subject to loss via assassination. You can also purchase “safe houses” in remote location to generate additional revenue. So far, this has been the focal point of my game, with some success and a little uncertainty. While risk and payment numbers are provided, it is not clear how that matrix works, and it is not clear how often safe house payments accrue. In sum, there should be a lot more detail about some of the game play details.

But the purchase of safe houses keeps my account balance low, which is a disincentive for those who might seek to assassinate me.

There’s been a bit of an uproar on Twitter over the game feature that allows players to increase their power by recruiting their Twitter followers to the game, via DMs, and the game setting which increases your payouts if you post certain game events to your Twitter feed. Personally, I haven’t been overwhelmed by DMs, so I don’t have a problem with that feature. I only post two major game events to my Twitter feed (level ups and assassination attempts), but I have seen a bit too much game related activity in my Twitter stream. So while I wish people would keep their game-related posts to a minimum, I haven’t un-followed anyone for posting game-related stuff. Yet.

The big question, of course, is whether Spymaster is a brief diversion or something that will have the staying power to become a permanent part of the Twitter experience. While it’s clearly in beta at the moment, it needs more depth to have the permanence it seeks. At present, there’s a lot of clicking on tasks, waiting for your energy level to return, and clicking on more tasks. Notwithstanding the “social” nature of the game, interaction with other players is limited and, as far as I can tell, interaction with those in your spy ring is non-existent. On the plus side of the ledger, those of us with game playing pedigrees are conditioned to climb up the money/experience ladder and will probably do so, at least for a while. And the web site is well designed and highly functional.

It’s a good start, for sure. But the final story won’t be known until we see what else the developers have up their sleeves. There’s not enough depth now, but there could be later.

As far as the Twitter spam goes, I have not sent any recruiting DMs, because I am a vocal opponent of anything resembling spam. Given the free for all (and, candidly, already heavily spam and quasi-spam infested) nature of Twitter, I don’t consider the Spymaster-related communications spam. But I can see how some people would.

For now, I’m mildly interested in Spymaster. If you want to be in my spy ring, send me a DM and I’ll send you a return invitation. Let’s go assassinate some geeks, shall we?

Evening Reading: 5/28/09

Brawl is All: It’s always a great day when you get a new episode of There Will Be Brawl. If you haven’t watched this excellent series, you have a treat in store.

Good Idea, Bad Idea Department: I’d love a reliable pair of wireless headphones to use for our podcasts. At first glance these look pretty appealing. I use a set of Plantronics headphones every day at work and they are great. But I agree with Kevin Tofel on the proprietary thing. By using a proprietary wireless protocol instead of Bluetooth, they guaranteed that I will not buy them. No one should support proprietary when there is a standard protocol that works. I don’t want no dang ‘ol, dang ol’ dangle.

Burn the Monster: Here’s the only thing anyone should ever say about HootSuite: Lose that bloody browser bar. I will not click on any link posted by anyone who uses HootSuite. We need to nip this stupid browser bar crap in the bud. Honestly, I can’t believe there isn’t a massive public outcry over developers tossing this garbage on our screens.

In Other Monster News: I dislike the RIAA as much as the next guy (and I am a musician who gets occasional royalty checks), but I don’t think it’s productive to assume they are going to be jerks until they act like jerks. I may be proven wrong, but even the RIAA can’t be stupid enough to tell school kids not to sing pop songs on YouTube. Can they?

Good Luck with That: On the rare occasions that he has interacted with me, Om Malik has always struck me as a good guy, so I hope this move of desperation works out for him. But I don’t think it will. Blogs- even mega ones like his- simply can’t produce enough unique content to make a pay wall work. Maybe if we could all go back in time and prevent the news media from giving all their stuff away in the frantic but misguided internet land rush, the subscription model might work. But we can’t. If I were going to map out the best hope for paid content, I’d take the Daring Fireball model and charge for full RSS feeds. That probably wouldn’t work either, but it more closely approximates the Pandora, Slacker Radio payment for convenience idea. In other words, I’d never pay for “special” blog content, but I might pay for a more convenient way to access content. If you want to see some brave and righteous spin, see James Kendrick’s announcement. Again, I hope it works, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Fixing What Ain’t Broke Department: I don’t really know what Google Wave is or hopes to be. What I do know is that it isn’t going to “reinvent email” as the nerd herd is saying, because email doesn’t need to be reinvented. It works just fine the way it is, well, except for all the spam. We need to fix the spam.

My Kingdom for an iPhone Version: There is a Windows Mobile version of Live Writer! I cannot adequately describe how ecstatic I would be if someone did a version of Windows Live Writer for the iPhone. I would divide my life into the before and after.

Sookie, Sookie, Sookie: Several people told me that I would love every single thing about True Blood. It finally came out on iTunes, and I watched every single episode of Season 1 in four days. They were right. It’s southern and gothic and scary and cool, with great acting, good music and Sookie. It’s up there with Millennium as my favorite show ever. I am counting the days until June 14, when Season 2 starts. Highly, highly recommended.

Comcast Sucks: Period. Lately, my Comcast broadband is out at least half the time. It fades in and out like a bad headache. Thank goodness for my ATT wireless broadband modem. I will dump cable broadband at the first reasonable opportunity.

Fail in Waiting: So a day late and several dollars short, Sirius XM is about to dump an iPhone app on the unsuspecting world. And rumors are that they want to charge subscribers extra to use it. That’s the most disappointing news since the great Slingbox money-grab of 2009. If Sirius XM charges subscribers extra to use the iPhone app, I hope it accelerates their death at the hands of Pandora, etc. I don’t think trying to squeeze every possible dollar from your declining subscriber base is the best way to deal with the car problem.

Department of Sound: Twangville has a take on the excellent new Dexateens record. HearYa has a take on the new Dan Auerbach (of the Black Keys) video, in which he is joined by Hacienda. This particular song doesn’t do anything for me, but most of Dan’s stuff is pretty good. Hickory Wind has a piece on the Chris Gaffney tribute record. Finally, Cover Lay Down, the newest music blog in my reading list, has some excellent Mary Lou Lord covers.

Photo Goodness: Yahoo image search (which also indexes Flickr photos) now allows you to filter results by Creative Commons license. That’s a neat feature, but I wonder how many photos have been tagged with licenses.

Apptic Blast: Among the interesting apps I’ve come across lately are TuneUp (cleans your music collection), Routine Timer (my family badly needs that board game timer), TimeLeft, the AAA iPhone app, Repper (makes designs from JPEGs) and Totally Free Burner (non-bloated disk burning).

The Line Forms Here: How the Man Controls the Social Networking Game

Toss a bunch of nerds in a room and I guess generations of nerd conditioning combine with nerd DNA and compel them to form a line and then apply their Trekkie logic to sorting and resorting each other. It’s like a supercharged version of that video of those two rats. Actually, that’s not right. Those rats are funny and you can tell by their expressions that they know they’re acting stupid. There’s nothing funny about nerd self-sorting. Boring, yes. Sad, maybe. Funny, not so much.

So why in the world someone would want to slice and dice their Friend-fracking-feed is completely beyond me. It’s bad enough that I actually have a FriendFeed. God, spare me the unmitigated embarrassment of ever talking about my FriendFeed stats. If I ever start yammering on about the clicking average of my FriendFeed with readers in Tweeting position, please taze me bro’ and take me straight to man-camp for an immediate stones transplant.

But there must be a lot of people who, astonishingly, care about this sort of thing, because there seem to be tracking apps for everything. In fact, I guarantee you that somewhere as we speak some pasty geek is working feverishly on a fantasy social networking league. With the first pick in the first round, the Cucamonga Slide Rules take Robert Scoble.

The not-so-hot stove league is not limited to FriendFeed.

You can track your Twitter use various ways. You can theoretically analyze your RSS subscribers (except, of course, for the fact that Feedburner is utterly and completely broken). I guess if you have the time, you can spend 24 hours a day pouring over your social networking post and commenting percentage. Of course that would be profoundly boring, but you could do it. I guess some people do.

But here’s the thing. The fundamental purpose of most self-policed lines is to allow those at the front to better their position at the expense of those who can be initially shoved to the back. School children to sports pages- it’s all about the line these days. There is- or at least used to be- a fuzzy correlation between line position and success, and so people latched on to the only objective criteria available and suddenly the place in line became the goal, as opposed to the result of achieving some more legitimate goal. In online endeavors, the line often takes the form of traffic, evidenced by subscriber numbers, page views, etc. So people want to find a shortcut to the goal- more traffic. Why work to grow your readership when you can just spam people with the latest get more Twitter followers scam?

And of course as soon as the line is formed, the focus turns to guarding one’s position in the line. And the entire system becomes a giant tug of war, often at the expense of merit or content. Or logic.

Adding to the chaos are the ranking/listing algorithms that people trot out to validate their position in the line. No matter how you dress it up, most of these allegedly analytical algorithms eventually come down to the same thing: popularity. Popularity has been the stand-in for authority and value on the internet since Dave Winer invented it. Not only is that a faulty and debilitating correlation, all of these algorithms that spit out the same oligarchical list propagate the falsely established order at the expense of those whose authority is eclipsed by their exclusion. Stated another way, popularity does not equate to authority. To say otherwise is to confuse People Magazine with an encyclopedia.

Python incoming. Surely we all agree that strange applications lyin’ in internets distributin’ lists is no basis for a system of social networking. Supreme social worth derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical statistical hegemony.

People simply don’t need some algorithm or starter list to tell them who is interesting or who they should read or follow online. People are perfectly capable of finding content they like without a helpful nudge from the establishment. The whole idea of suggested reading lists and their ilk- which as noted are usually based on popularity, which is another word for the status quo- are just a confidence trick.

Designed to allow the man to control the game.

Why the Flock Doesn't Flock

Sarah Perez wonders why more people don’t use Flock, the super-charged Firefox based web browser that has lots of social networking features baked right in to the interface. That’s a good question, and after thinking about it, I have a theory.

I think it has to do with the Facebook/geek ratio. By geek, I don’t mean someone who swims deeply in the online ocean. I mean the hardcore technophiles, like most of the people who write for and read the big tech blogs, etc. I am a part of that demographic, along with lots of the people I blog and tweet around with. Our population seems large, because of the world-shrinking effect of the technology. The same technology that allows me to be friends and podcast mates with two dudes from Australia also allows people to have and stay in constant communication with like-minded friends all over the world. So while the geek crowd seems large, it’s not.

As a result, we make the mistake of thinking that everyone views the net and the associated apps and services the same way we do. But most people clearly don’t.

A lot of the tools geeks think are indispensible- like Twitter, for example- have not penetrated the larger population nearly as much as it may appear from our little corner of the net. One celebrity gets a million followers, and others have to match that. Take away the race to a million and the resulting celebrity turf/ego war and Twitter would still be just a popular, unprofitable Web 2.0 application that few of our real world friends have ever heard of. I can still count the number of Twitter users I know in the real world on one hand.

Compare that story to the evolution of Facebook. It was created and grew up out there in the real world, with millions of young people using it daily. As those young people grew up, they took Facebook with them. Then Facebook opened up and the momentum-chasing herd of geeks migrated over there and, on occasion, fooled themselves into believing they had discovered something new and cool. To the original Facebook population, it was neither new nor cool. It was just part of ordinary life, like a TV or a telephone. While the newly arrived geeks began to honk and bray about Facebook taking over world, the young old guard just went about their lives, with Facebook as a utility, but not a religion.

A utility, however, that for most is the hub for their online activity and for many is their online activity. The reason the Facebook walls have survived relatively intact is because the large majority of Facebook users are happy to live inside those walls. Most of them have never even used Firefox, much less Flock. It’s this demographic, not the vocal in our browsers but otherwise largely irrelevant geek crowd, that makes Facebook go.

At the end of the day, what this means is that Louis Gray is right when he says the operating system doesn’t matter to most people. It doesn’t, because for many of them, Facebook is the operating system (for others some combination of Google applications are). They don’t need a new or super-charged browser to use Facebook or some other social network, because they use Facebook to do all of that stuff. Which explains why so many of these ancillary social networks seem so Facebook-centric. They know where the biggest population of potential users are.

All these kids need is a way into Facebook, and maybe Gmail. The best operating system and browser to do that with are the ones that are already on your computer.

No Flock required.

Morningstar Launches an Uninspiring iPhone App

Morningstar, the company that, via Bank of America, CarMax and Western Union stock recommendations, recently surpassed Jim Cramer as the single biggest source of my epic stock market losses, has a new iPhone app (iTunes link). The free app offers investing ideas, real-time quotes, analyst research, financial news, Morningstar ratings, company profiles and more.

Notwithstanding all my losses, I am a long-time and more or less satisfied Morningstar subscriber. Everyone has lost money in the stock market over the last year or two, and at least Morningstar isn’t brokering the stocks it recommends. I want some sort of stock market analysis, and I still think Morningstar is less bad than just about any other source.

Morningstar’s web site is full of data, analyst reports, portfolio tools and news. At the moment, I am pretending I never heard of the stock market, but when my head gets above sand level, Morningstar is my primary investing idea and analysis source.

The iPhone app, however, is no great shakes. The app does not allow access to all of Morningstar’s premium content or the stock portfolios and watch lists you have set up on Morningstar’s web site. In fact, the app is not even tied to your Morningstar account. As a result, there’s very little this app does that you can’t get in another, more mature financial app. There is a dearth of content- and there’s no reason for Morningstar to be so stingy, given the massive amount of resources on its web site.

On the plus side, you can get access to portions of the Morningstar analyst report for stocks and mutual funds, quotes and the Morningstar rating. If I wasn’t a Morningstar subscriber who is used to having all of the premium content accessible, I would probably feel a little better about this app.

A premium app with “enhanced functionality” is promised for “later this year.” That’s very close to perfectly vague. If Morningstar releases a premium app that syncs with your Morningstar paid account and allows access to a lot more Morningstar content in an iPhone-centric design and has the good sense not to charge paying members for it, they’ll have a winner.

Until then, I’d look elsewhere for my iPhone financial information.

Instant Desktop: We All Shine On (with Presto)

OK, I admit that I generally lump hardcore Linux users in the same category as carriage drivers, pursuit hunters and Wolfram Alpha users- people who make things way harder than they have to be. A few years ago, I installed Linux on a computer I built. Several hellish days later, I wiped the hard drive, grabbed my shotgun and went looking for some penguins to kill. Since then I have avoided Linux the way Cormac McCarthy avoids punctuation.

But at the same time, I get extremely impatient waiting for my various computers to load. Generations of moths are born, live a fine moth-life and die in the time it takes my desktop to boot. And my various laptops aren’t much faster. It’s semi-bearable at home, but it can be a real drag (pun intended) when I’m trying to access email or the web from the road via my laptop. Windows is never going to get within sight of the “instant on” ballpark, so I decided to look for another solution for quick access to basic laptop functions.

Guess what I settled on. . .

Linux. In the form of Presto (here’s the FAQ). Presto is a stripped-down Linux system designed to load quickly on just about any computer. It installs on your Windows hard drive, just like a regular Windows program. Once installed, when you boot your computer you have an option to boot into Windows or Presto. Pick Presto and, presto, you have an almost instant Linux desktop.

I installed Presto on the 64 bit laptop I’m using to test Windows 7. If I select Presto at bootup, less than 20 seconds later I have a completely loaded operating system, with immediate access to the web (via Firefox), email (via Gmail), Skype, and even Word documents (via OpenOffice). There’s even an App Store where you can find additional software to install.

Presto costs $20.00, but the fast loading time and preinstalled applications make it worth it for the impatient traveler. I have found that I use it even more than I thought I would. This tells me that speed is king in the new application age. And that the cloud will be good for alternative operating systems, and probably bad for Microsoft.

I’m never going to use Linux as a primary operating system, but for quick access to email or the web, Presto is a fine alternative.