Fascinating photos of cell tower "trees"

I remember the first time I saw one of these. It was from a boat in the middle of Lake Burton in north Georgia and I remember it seeming at once oddly out of place and comfortingly familiar. Now I look for them all over and find them in the most conspicuously inconspicuous places. Offered not in judgment, just interest. Here is a link to a gallery so you can learn to see them, too.

idthis: Human powered identification of anything or anyone.

See something (or someone?!) you don't recognize? Wouldn't it be cool to upload a pic and have a team of experts examine your find, and post the best answer to your query? Well, that is what you get with idthis.

From the site:

Just snap a photo of something you’d like identified (like a breed of dog, a type of car, that weird gelatinous blob sitting on your plate, or even that celebrity sitting next to you that you can’t remember their name, etc…) and then send it to be identified.

Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll Spell Checked

Click to Enlarge
Thanks to The Futility Closet

Teens Do Tweet - but it's still lame, sorta.

At long last there appears to be a definitive examination of teens' opinions and use of Twitter. In several mainstream articles published recently (like this one) and in at least one post here (like this one) we have all been, apparently, much too quick to write off the teen Twitter market based on either flawed data or misinterpreted anecdotes.

Geoff Cook, co-founder and CEO of MyYearbook has an article over at TechCrunch that presents the results of a survey of more than 10,000 teens between the ages of 13 and 17 with an eye toward adding something new to the answer. It turns out the questions asked were flawed. Says Cook:

"To date, reasons given for the alleged aversion of teens to Twitter have ranged from the condescending “Because they have nothing to say,” to the responsible “Because it doesn’t feel safe,” to the Letterman-like “Because they can’t afford it” — at least without a mobile data plan."

"Of course, all of these reasons are predicated on the widely accepted notion that “Teens Don’t Tweet” — that there is a phenomenon that needs to be explained. As recently as last week even, the New York Times cited the fact that only 11% of Twitter is teen as evidence of Twitter’s unpopularity to that group."

Furthermore:

"As it turns out, teens actually tweet more than the general population, prompting Silicon Valley Insider to say yesterday, “Kids Don’t Hate Twitter Anymore.” According to comScore, Twitter’s unique visitor composition index in the 12 – 17 age group is 118 (a value over 100 represents a higher concentration of unique visitors from that age group as compared to the age group’s concentration across the entire web). More interestingly, Twitter’s 12 – 17 composition index of 118 is higher than its composition index in the 25 – 34 and 35 – 44 age groups. The bottom line: Twitter actually skews more teen than the average site, and much more teen than Facebook."

Much more and some cool charts at the article.

Free eBook Library software for Mac or PC.

Just like you don't need an iPod to listen to music on iTunes, you don't need a new Sony eReader to read books. Use this free download to read any of millions of available books on your Mac or PC.

With the software you can:

• Shop thousands of eBook titles including New York Times Bestsellers.


• Take your library with you by transferring to your Sony Reader.


• Read eBooks on your PC or Mac with adjustable text and two-page view.


• Search inside your collection of eBooks.


• Borrow books from your library (library card required).

Google Docs integrates Google Translator

Google has integrated Google Translate into its popular Google Docs on-line office suite and now allows almost instantaneous translation of a document into any of 42 different languages. I am not sure how accurate it is but I checked with two multi-lingual co-workers and the French, German and even Arabic translations are at least intelligible if not perfect. So, if you need a down and dirty version of your business plan in Norwegian you are good to go!

MPro 120 Pocket Projector. Want!!

Complete with iPhone connectivity, I seriously want this!

Learn Something Every Day

Obscure, but generally interesting facts posted everyday in the form of clever and cute Sharpie sketches. You can also follow on Twitter or via RSS. Check it out!

Chart of Mythical Creatures. Handy!

Click to Enlarge

Social media and brand evangelism

I recenetly attended a webinar on Social Media Marketing sponsored by Razorfish, and while the webinar was less than enthralling - another Powerpoint sales presentation - it set me to thinking about the subject and how it might help us market our information discovery products better to our target audience, college students. Couple that with a recent interest in “competetive intelligence” and you have the makings of this post.

In a former dot.com corporate life long before Facebook, Twitter or even servicable chat rooms, it occured to us that the best thing we could do to foster interest in our products was to take existing clients - including those that didn’t like us, especially - involve them in product development, use them as beta testers, give them our latest products to bang on and send them into the world as evangelists to trade shows, client meetings, conferences and such, all at our expense. It worked amazingly well – so well, in fact, that several clients eventually became employees of the company. This is all fairly common today, but we really did think that up on our own more than ten years ago. Brilliant!

Tamar Weinberg has an excellent short article over at Forbes.com with several timely and on-point suggestions about how to spot opportunities for brand evangelism and word-of-mouth marketing by following the on-line conversation your customers are having about you. A good read and food for thought for those of us delivering services to a frequently underwhelmed customer base.

Color Scheme Designer. Brilliant!

Color Scheme Designer combines the features of many other less capable generators into a unique, easy-to-use palette creator with all the best features.

The site is capable of generating single monochromatic, complimentary, triad, tetrad, analogic, and accented analogic color palettes. It can even simulate color-based vision disorders to see how your design colors will look—they even list the percentage of people suffering from the disorders. The preview function builds a dummy web page with the color scheme you choose so you can see how your selected colors look together off the palette.

Cool stuff and for designers, a godsend!

Kindergartners own as many smart phones as their teachers!

As smart phone usage rises it is becoming more and more important that educators recognize both the imperative and the opportunity that the devices bring. In 2006, data showed that smart phone usage among middle and high school students to be at 9 percent. In 2008 that had risen to 24 percent and 2009 data will far exceed that.

The most recent data referenced below shows that:

• Teachers report less smart phone ownership than both high school and middle school students.


• Smart phone ownership among students in kindergarten through second grade is equal to that of their teachers. Astounding!

Four Tips for Building Accountability

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, has an excellently short and to the point article over at the Harvard Business Blog about accountability and why it is important, how we are ignoring it and what to do about that.

Says she:

"The tools of accountability - data, details, metrics, measurement, analyses, charts, tests, assessments, performance evaluations - are neutral. What matters is their interpretation, the manner of their use, and the culture that surrounds them. In declining organizations, use of these tools signals that people are watched too closely, not trusted, about to be punished. In successful organizations, they are vital tools that high achievers use to understand and improve performance regularly and rapidly."

She suggests that one frequently look into the mirror to evaluate oneself and the performance of one's teams, and she offers some "classic keys" to ensuring that the mirror is not broken. Much more at the link.

Free eBooks from your library for your eReader.

In its press release touting its new eReader, Sony Corporation also announced a new service that will allow owners of the new device to access eBooks owned by their public library..... sometimes.

The eBook store will now have a Library Finder page. Sony, working with OverDrive (www.overdrive.com), the leading global digital distributor of eBooks and to libraries, will now offer visitors to the eBook Store by Sony easy access to their local library's collection of eBooks. Thousands of libraries in the OverDrive network offer eBooks optimized for the Sony Reader, and visitors can now find these libraries by typing their zip code into the Library Finder. Through the selected library's download website, visitors can check out eBooks with a valid library card, download them to a PC and transfer to their Reader. At the end of the library's lending period, eBooks simply expire, so there are never any late fees.

The process is much more complicated than the Kindles 60 second wireless downloads and we need to wait and see what the selection and availability is like before getting too excited about this, but it could have promise.

Read more!

From Steimatzky.com

Real estate sales: Newspaper vs. Internet

Obvious...thanks, Teefy.

Five celebrities most likely to give you someting you can't wash off.

Hackers use pop culture trends to spread viruses and malicious software and clicking on a link found while searching for the latest scoop on your favorite celebrity could ruin your day and your computer.

According to McAfee, the anti-computer virus folks, one in five Internet searches for terms related to "Jessica Biel" leads to a Web page, photo, video or piece of spam that contains a cyber-security threat. So, in the interest of cleanliness and hygiene, here are the top five you need to watch out for:

5. Jessica Simpson
4. Tom Brady
3. Jennifer Anniston
2. Beyoncé
1. Jessica Biel - a one in five chance. Go for it!

You are judged by your musical tastes.

As a part of their on-going series Cambridge Ideas, the University of Cambridge has published a study that suggests that people are quick to jump to conclusions about each other on the basis of their musical taste. Frankly, there should be no surprise there (if you like rap music you are dumber than me....just kidding), but Cambridge has at least scientifically validated the phenomenon and has broadened the conversation into such areas as "why" it happens and "how" we as individuals use our musical taste as both a means of expressing our own identity, mood, ethnicity, values, etc.

The results show that music is a powerful form of social expression that can reinforce stereotypes and, potentially, social prejudices. By stating a preference for a musical style, many of us appear to use music as a "badge" to tell people about our personality and values. Interesting stuff!

There is more here, and a short film below:

The Music In Me from Cambridge University on Vimeo.

Mickey Rooney finds Twitter not "wholesome".

How many minutes to earn the price of a Big Mac?

From The Economist