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31 Jan 2011 20:31

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Tech, World: Speak2Tweet: Google makes Egypt’s sucky day less sucky

  • lame Egypt has shut down Noor, the last ISP standing in the country, leaving the country completely, utterly offline. Great work.
  • lame Egypt also plans to shut down the country’s mobile phone systems ahead of the planned “March of Millions” tomorrow. Very lame.
  • brilliant Google just bought a startup, SayNow, which made @Speak2Tweet, a Twitter account to get Egyptians’ voices on Twitter – via phone. source
  • » And if anyone needs it: If you dial the phone numbers +16504194196, +390662207294 or +97316199855, you can leave a message for the people of Twitter, who are totally with you, even if some topic related to Justin Bieber is trending. Check out @Speak2Tweet for more.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Jan 2011 21:01

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Biz, Music: Irony: 50 Cent makes penny stock move using influence alone

  • 29¢ increase in a penny stock that Fitty recommended on Twitter
  • 240% the increase in the value of HNHI, a firm that sells headphones
  • $50M the increase in the value of the stock based on Fitty’s tweets alone
  • $10M the amount 50 Cent  made off his 3.8 million followers source
  • » Yeah yeah, we know the irony: A guy named after pocket change just used his power to give a penny stock a boost. And the best part? It’s entirely possible the stock (currently at 39 cents) will reach 50 cents tomorrow. See, when 50 Cent sells out his name, he doesn’t sell it out to make a quick buck on advertising. He sells it out to make a quick buck. Period.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Jan 2011 11:32

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World: North Korea hacked to the tune of “Super Mario World.” Heh.

  • So, when North Korea’s YouTube and Twitter accounts got hacked yesterday, this crude-looking cartoon got posted. The toon, which features background music from one of our favorite video games of all time (Super Mario World, what what?) shows Kim Jong-un violently slamming his convertible into starving North Korean children, and the heir apparent talking to his dad on an iPhone – while driving. The clip is crude and violent, so keep that in mind, but still interesting. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

08 Jan 2011 12:33

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World: Why’s the U.S. government subpoenaing Twitter about Wikileaks?

  • If the Iranian government was to attempt to coercively obtain this information from journalists and activists of foreign nations, human rights groups around the world would speak out.
  • Julian Assange • Expressing anger towards the U.S. government’s subpoena of Twitter over Wikileaks, which has been under wraps until now. Wikileaks is also concerned about whether they’ve been doing the same thing with We’re with Assange. He has a perfectly valid point here. We put the U.S. up to a double-standard that we wouldn’t be caught dead allowing the rest of the world to follow. And it doesn’t get any more obvious until secret subpoenas are part of the deal. It’s times like these that we wish Twitter was decentralized. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Jan 2011 21:23

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Politics: From Pelosi to Boehner: The changing of the Twitter guard

  • I’m now @NancyPelosi – 2 characters shorter than @SpeakerPelosi. RTers rejoice!
  • A tweet from @NancyPelosi • Regarding Pelosi’s change from Speaker to mere House Majority Leader. In case you’re wondering, John Boehner can be found at @SpeakerBoehner. And the ceremonial change of the Twitter guard commences. Hey, @SpeakerGingrich is open! So is @SpeakerHastert! And @SpeakerNewt! Anyone wanna make a parody account? (thanks pantlessprogressive for the tip) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Dec 2010 10:54

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Politics: Cory Booker’s Twitter success: Surprisingly, there’s no imitator yet

  • Booker’s Twitter tactics have raised the bar for other local officials, and beg the question: In the aftermath of the snowpocalypse, are other northeastern officials grabbing a shovel and smart phone, and following Booker’s lead? It certainly doesn’t look like it.
  • Time’s Sean Gregory • Noting the success Newark Mayor Cory Booker has had in using social media to govern his city during a major disaster. While things haven’t been perfect – Gregory notes that it’s fair to criticize Booker’s administration for being ill-equipped to handle the snow ahead of time – Booker’s work has made all the more impressive due to the fact that other big-city mayors have been unable or unwilling to use social media in anywhere near the same way. Protip to mayoral administrations: Sanitized feeds suck. (Now’s a good time to mention that Portland, Oregon mayor Sam Adams has a pretty decent Tumblr account.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Dec 2010 10:08

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Tech: Based on their latest financing, here’s how much Twitter’s worth

  • $200
    million     the amount Twitter just raised in their latest financing round
  • $3.7
    billion     the company’s estimated value; that’s a lot of tweets, guys source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

15 Dec 2010 11:09

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Tech: Major sites force password changes after Gawker’s security lapse

  • action A bunch of hacker thugs who we’d turn in if we knew who they were leaked over a million Gawker usernames and passwords online. We hate those guys.
  • reaction Other sites, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Yahoo, have asked large swaths of users to change their passwords, which is pretty smart, guys. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Dec 2010 11:02

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Tech: Random legal issue brought up by Wikileaks: Tweeting in court

  • The sky did not fall in as a result of yesterday’s tweeting, so why not allow it again? For the decision to gain wider acceptance we really need a crown court judge or high court judge to follow suit.
  • The Guardian columnist and media law expert David Banks • Discussing the legal implications of letting Twitter in the courtroom, as the district judge deciding Julian Assange’s case did. Banks’ argument? It’s very much a good thing, but journalists need to be given guidelines about what they can and can’t do to protect from libel and other issues, that citizen journalists might report things that they aren’t allowed to, and the constant danger that a journalist might want to use their camera phone since it’s right there. All of which are interesting angles. See? Julian Assange is a journalism trailblazer even when he’s not actively trying to be. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Dec 2010 10:27

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Tech: Who had the year’s most powerful tweet? NBC’s Ann Curry.

  • According to Twitter, this was the year’s “most powerful tweet.” It’s notable that so much of the year’s news directly affected Twitter in every way, shape and form, and Ann Curry’s moment of advocacy in the wake of this year’s Haiti earthquake really stood out. Other highlights? The president of Ecuador calling a state of emergency via a tweet, Prince William announcing his marriage, our boys @BPGlobalPR making fun of BP, and Conan O’Brien announcing his second-act tour. All this stuff happened on Twitter. Who cares if only six percent of people in the U.S. are using Twitter, guys? The other 94 percent appear to be missing out. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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