From the iPod touch
So this is my first blog post from my iPod touch from the newly released WordPress app. It is very very simple, almost as simple as it can get. You input a title, tags, choose your categories, and then start typing out your thoughts for the world to see. Pretty cool, huh?
One major thing I am seeing included is the ability to post images. For instance, here’s a screenshot: Oh wait, never mind. You can’t post images in certain parts of your posts. All the images will default to the bottom. Feature request number 1.
Since I got my iPod touch, it has really changed my mind on how I think of the future of mobility. I was one of the CrackBerry addicts, and for that matter still am. Now that I have an iPod touch (with the 2.0 firmware, mind you), I absolutely see this as the platform of the future. The iPhone architecture is a very robust one since it is built off of OS X.
Honestly, who doesn’t want a full featured Internet experience in your pocket wherever you go? You can argue that you can with Opera Mini on various devices or HTML on Windows Mobile and soon to be BlackBerry, but from what I’ve experienced, none of them render pages and emails so elegantly and true to the desktop experience as the iPhone.
You may call me a fanboy, but I disagree. There are faults with the iPhone software and I still love my BlackBerry for communication needs, including email, texting, and even Twitter. iPhone 2.0 has many flaws in it’s software and it’s buggy as hell. I once crashed MobileSafari 5 times in one day. That’s pretty sad for reliability.
But the best part of 2.0 is the App Store. Otherwise I wouldn’t be typing this on my iPod tout, unless I submitted it through email, but that’s a pain.
The App Store is essentially a candy store for iPhone and iPod touch users with all of the apps that are available online. You’ve got tons and tons of games, including the super-hyped Super Monkey Ball, an AOL Instant Messenger app, Twitterrific among at least two other Twitter apps, and just so many useful and fun apps. Now, that’s not to say there aren’t apps that suck; there are plenty of those. But if you generally stick with the well known and most downloaded apps, you’ll be good.
So while this post has been a bit random, so is my mind at the moment. Overall, here’s a summary: WordPress App = good for version 1.0. iPhone 2.0 = well worth it. There are a few other things I’d like to mention, but that will have to come at a time when my brain isn’t going in 50,000 directions. Look forward to that one… Whenever I get around to it.
Congress: Uhh… We don’t like Congressmen talking directly to you on Twitter
I don’t get into politics that often, but this isn’t necessarily so much of politics as it is questioning our own rights in the United States. Because Congress hasn’t been stupid enough lately, they’re wanting to continue to basically censor what they don’t like and what Congressional Members should and shouldn’t do. The latest shining example? Congress is trying to stop two Congressmen from actually talking to the people via Twitter and Qik.
Congressman John Culberson (R) of Texas and Tim Ryan (D) of Ohio have been using Twitter and Qik to their benefit of actually getting their word out onto the internet and talking to people in addition to listening to them. This is an absolutely astounding turn of events from the usual Congressional Members as they don’t really engage with the public on the internet (or most places, for that matter) unless they have a public statement prepared. On Twitter, it’s all about psuedo real-time discussions. On Qik, it’s speak now or forever hold your peace.
Well, the Democrats have a different position on their usage (ironic since Tim Ryan is a Democrat?). They want to ban Congressional Members from uploading content outside of the house.gov domain, essentially keeping all information inside until they can all release details on their own schedule. If they get their way, websites will have to go by government regulations before Members could post. What they don’t realize is that this infringes on one key factor: the First Amendment.
So, you’re saying that freedom of speech (and press in this case) extends to everyone (yeah…) except if you are a Congressional Member? You mean Members aren’t normal U.S. Citizens like you and me?
I believe it says somewhere in that piece of paper that you have destroyed called the United States Constitution it states that all citizens of the United States of America are entitled to their Bill of Rights, including freedom of speech. A requirement to be a Congressional Member is that you have to be a Citizen of the United States of America. See where I’m going? Complete the circle… I’ll give you time.
Bingo! They are entitled to the same rights that we are all entitled to. In fact, I think all members should have a Twitter or Qik account just so they start interacting with citizens more and actually get back to what this country is all about: By the people, for the people.
Let’s make this an outcry. Make the media see it. If our own Congress won’t see the problem with this, We the People need to make this problem bigger and more apparent because without us, this is one more step in the wrong direction.
Source Reads:
Technosailor
Mashable
U.S. Congressman John Culberson
Goodbye, b5media
It’s been a little over a year since I signed up to join b5media, only to realize that you have to be 16 years or old to blog for them. I was super excited to join them because it seemed such a good community. August 5th I joined the crew and that was a great birthday present in itself.
Fast forward to today and I am now no longer a member of the great network that is b5media. It’s nothing wrong on their part. I can’t preach enough about how awesome b5 is, but here’s two things to start with:
- Community - If you are looking for a blog network that is all about community, b5 is the place. It’s such a friendly place where you can post almost anything and people will talk with you or if you need help. It’s just that amazing. I will miss b5 greatly for this.
- Training - I mean, come on, when you have the legendary Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net fame, why would you appreciate it? Tris Hussey of Maple Leaf 2.0 has also been a great source of training. Heck, even the other b5 bloggers will help you in what you need. If they see something wrong, they’ll quickly tell you what’s wrong and how to fix it.
There are a number of people I’d like to thank, but if I singled out every one of them, I might as well direct you to the main b5media authors page, so I’ll mention a few.
- Tris Hussey - Trainer Extraordinaire
- Shai Coggins - Community Goddess
- Jeanne Dupuis - Made me learn I have a blogger-stalker
- Kristen King - Made the b5 chats oh so entertaining
Working at b5media is one of the greatest things I’ve done and would highly recommend them in a heartbeat. I’ll miss working there, but if you ever want me in a weekly chat, I’d be glad to. 
Spread Firefox - Download Day (June 17th)
Honestly, who doesn’t want to be a part of a world record? It’s one of the coolest things you can do. So why not do one that will take minimal effort?
The fine folks over at Firefox have decided to dedicated June 17th, 2008 as “Download Day” where the goal is to have a world-record amount of downloads of Firefox 3. There isn’t much to talk about (almost 1.5 million people, including myself, have pledged to download Firefox 3) so just click the banner above for more info on what it’s all about.
Donation Button Up
Ok, so even though it’s contrary to the poll, I decided to put the Paypal donation button up. It’s on the top right on the sidebar. Feel free to put any amount of donation in there and if you do in donate, send me an email at donate@zachflauaus.com with the amount of money you donated and I’ll put a link to you in the “Donors” section of my blogroll.
If you haven’t seen my first post, read it and see what you’ll be donating for primarily.
Thanks for any donations. 
BREAKING NEWS: Veoh goes dark in many countries
Veoh has started an interesting turn of events. Reports are coming from all over the world saying that access to Veoh is restricted based on where you live. Andrew Baron of RocketBoom fame posted an entry on Twitter this morning saying that Veoh had inexplicably been blocked for no reason all of a sudden. From Veoh’s Wikipedia Page:
“So far users from Asia, Europe and South America such as : Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Indonesia, Chile, Argentina, St.Kitts and Nevis, Guatemala, Luxembourg, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Guam, Jamaica, Barbados, El Salvador, Hungary, Malta, Macedonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Colombia, Cyprus, Romania, the Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Panama, Czech Republic, Turkey, Croatia, Lithuania, Egypt, Bulgaria, Serbia, Iceland, Bermuda, Thailand, Brunei, Honduras, Bahamas, and Nicaragua have also reported being blocked, receiving the same message for their country/region.”
I submitted an email to Gaude Lydia Paez, Veoh’s Senior Director of Public Relations, asking what the situation was. Here’s their response:
Hi Zach,
Thanks for contacting me with your question - we appreciate the opportunity to weigh in as you write your article.
Veoh has decided to focus its resources on a number of significant product and platform developments that we believe will greatly enhance the experience we offer to our users. In tandem with these efforts, we have decided to concentrate on the 33 markets in which we have the most viewers and cease service in other markets.
We understand that is frustrating to many of our viewers in those markets, but we are confident that this decision will not only allow us to build an even better product but also expand internationally with better quality in the future.
I hope this helps - please feel free to contact me anytime with questions.
Many thanks,
Gaude
While focusing forces on developing their services where they have the most viewership makes some sense, why they are essentially IPs based on their geographical location makes absolutely no sense and will most likely backfire. Let’s just hope that no other services take this route or the internet could grow to be a very ugly place.
Donations: Yay or Nay?
I love blogging. I really really do. I mean, I gave up podcasting because I express things better in posts than on a podcast (maybe that’s because I was just talking to myself…). I problog for Gadgetell and do some design/web work, and that’s a good source of income, but where I have the most passion to write I don’t really get “paid,” per se. But I would like to ask you, the readers…
Would you like to change that?
If you like the content enough and would like to spare some money, I would greatly appreciate it. If you like the content but don’t feel like donating, that’s fine as well. It’s completely up to you. Another question would be would you do a one-time donation or a recurring donation?
With the donations, I’d primarily be saving up to get a MacBook Pro to replace my aging iBook for easier blogging (widescreen = better blogging experience). There’d also be a few other things I’d put it towards, but right now, I’m aiming for a MacBook Pro. If you do donate, I would be more than happy to put a link to you in the “Donators” section of a Blogroll.
So what do you say? Yes or no? Vote below or on the sidebar.
Just because it’s public doesn’t mean you should do It
Arguments have existed since the beginning of time. First cavemen fought over fire and which cavewoman would be their mate. Then as we became more “civilized,” we used arrows, then swords, cannonballs, guns, bombs, and nukes (the classiest of all… Not). Well, since technology is here to make our lives easier, why not use it to unleash all hell upon each other? Brilliant idea! NOT!
Seriously, since when has the internet become a tool to start complaining… About… Your problems… Err. This has a valid point, I swear!
So Twitter, with all it’s ups and downs, has really become a battleground of sorts. There was a Scoble vs. Arrington fight a while back (during SXSW I believe?) and on my Twitter stream there have been a few other fights. Lately it’s gotten worse. Why? I have no clue. Maybe it’s the summer getting to teens and they want to get out of school because of raised stress levels (I know how that is), but really? We have to resort to Twitter to duke it out?
I’m personally a fan of private fights. Keep it to direct messages, IM, emails, or phone calls (physical fights are good, but only if there is a real good reason to it, which there usually isn’t). There are fights that are just quick little blurbs back and forth that last maybe a day at the most, but grudges that last a lot longer should be dealt with in private (also mark your emails “Private” for those things).
If I can’t get anything accomplished by just talking to either one to try and stop, I block them on Twitter. At least until it dies down. If it happens again, flip the switch. Easy enough. I am following what people say you should do if you don’t like it (”If you don’t like it, don’t follow me”). But I just had to get this out and maybe those certain folks will learn from it. All I ask, please, take it in private.
Twit-Out: The much talked about event
Twitter has caused quite the big uproar with it’s constant outages at points. Anymore, it’s a matter of “Is Twitter up?” So to help “combat” this, some Twitter users have organized a global “Twit-Out” event on May 21 (two days from this post) where you don’t tweet. Simple as that.
As you may have noticed, I’m a big Twitter user myself. I wouldn’t be doing a lot of the things I’m doing now if it wasn’t for Twitter. I love Twitter. I really do. It’s just so simple to jump on there for a few minutes, see what’s going on, do a few replies, and then BOOM!, you’ve wasted your day on it. Not to say it’s a bad thing. You can get some really great ideas from the Twittersphere, but it can be a huge time waster.
Now, people either support it or hate the idea with a passion and decide to send hate to those that support it. I support it, but mainly because I want to take a day away from Twitter and see how things change in my daily routine. Think of it as a science project. I’ve had people say “I’ll do it, but I’m not sure I’ll like it” to “I’m still undecided” to the plain ol’ “That’s just dumb.” Now then, I’d like to point a couple things out.
1) You don’t have to join us. It’s called freedom of choice and that’s what the internet (should) be about. If you don’t think it’s right, that’s fine. Go ahead and say it. I won’t argue for you to join us. But don’t go around saying “OMGZ!!! THAT’S THE WORST IDEA EVER, YOU’RE STUPID!!!11!” because that won’t score you any points with me. Just say why and I’ll take it.
2) Will this get anything done? Probably not. Does it make a point? Yes. As my friend Andrew Dobrow (@anjrued), Twitter is about community, and if you make that community mad enough, they’ll leave.
Am I placing the blame solely on Twitter? Not exactly. Twitter has been growing at a rapid rate, one which not many people could have predicted, so scalability has brought up a problem. But with the rumored funding that they have received ($15 million+), there’s not a huge reason why they can’t keep up.
So are you Twitting-Out or Twitting-In? Let me know in the comments.
Screw It, We’re Starting Over…
So after a two month hiatus from my own blog, we’re starting anew. Not because I want to have a clean slate (which is true) and not because things are beginning to change (which is true), but… I had database problems and couldn’t get my old articles to transfer over. Go figure. Yeah, yeah, mock me all you want. I still feel liberated. Don’t know what from, but I feel liberated.
If you haven’t been following me on Twitter (@zachflauaus), you’ve probably been missing out on a lot of things. Of which I can’t pull out a single thing, but I’ll give a run down of what’s going on.
1) I am now blogging for Gadgetell. This means I get to blog for a greater amount of topics than high definition as I did on High Def Delight. Some of you may be reading this and be wondering, so I’ll go ahead and say it.
2) Yes, I am leaving High Def Delight, and unfortunately along the way, b5media. b5media is on the greatest places somebody can work for, but I’ll get into that on a post for tomorrow when I officially take my “hiatus.”
3) I’m the editor-in-chief for MacFocus Magazine, a teen-run weekly online magazine with articles written by teens with the teen perspective. MacFocus Magazine is an Apple-oriented news site delivering the latest Apple news, rumors, opinions, and reviews to you on a weekly basis.
It’s a short description of what’s all going on, but there will be more of everything to come. So in the mean time, sit back and watch the Twitter Stream go by…