Shiny New Buddon!!!

Hey Readers!

If you look to the left you should see a friendly Plurk button. It says "Come Plurk Me," and it you click on it and get a new account, it will automatically add me as your first friend. If you do have an account, it will just add me.

[Props to blankanvas for the plurk button design]

Segway Death Brigade in China

...that's the image I get when I see this picture anyway:

This is actually China's new anti-terrorist solution: Segways! Since the devices allow the occupants (once trained in balance and knee steering) to keep their hands free while driving, they maybe be a good alternative to other types of transportation. Engadget points out that accidentally flipping into reverse might be a bit of a problem, but it sure does make for an impressive entrance.

There is a guy on Mason's campus that drives around one of these things and I have to say...while they can move pretty fast, they'd probably only be evenly matched if the terrorists were in an electric go-cart. Maybe these have been tuned up?

[CNET via Engadget]

Why Do We Sing the National Anthem at Games?

If you're still high on the annual patriot explosion that is Independence Day weekend, you might find this article on mental_floss interesting. The author discusses the origins and first performances of "The Star Spangled Banner." It's good to understand our longest-standing traditions, I think.

Why do we sing the National Anthem at sporting events? - mental_floss

Title Fight: Ping.fm vs. HelloTxt

Wow, I can see there are a lot of people interested in Ping.fm and other multi-platform updaters. How do I know this? After I posted my review of Ping.fm, my site stats tripled. Mason Tech Beat has just passed the 3000 hit mark!

VS.

Anyway, as amazing as Ping.fm has proven to be, I thought it should stand up to a little competition. HelloTxt is a service similar to Ping.fm that allows you to update all of your social network statuses at one time. The interface is simple and has a number of features. Let's go down the list and see how the two services compare:

Available Networks:

• Ping.fm (18 Networks) - Bebo, Blogger, BrightKite, Facebook, Friendfeed, hi5, Identi.ca, Jaiku, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Mashable, MySpace, Plaxo Pulse, Plurk, Pownce, Tumblr, Twitter, Xanga
• HelloTxt (21 Networks) - Bebo, Beemood, BrightKite, Facebook, Frazr, Feecle, Fanfou, Gozub, hi5, Identi.ca, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Meemi, Mexicodiario, MySpace, Numpa, Plaxo Pulse, Plurk, Pownce, Twitter, Tumblr

This is a very tough thing to compare, because each user is most interested in the specific networks that are important to them. Both services have the big networks like Twitter, Pownce, Plurk, Facebook, Jaiku, and the like, but the other services are a toss-up. I get the impression that many of Ping.fm's choices are meant for their blogging feature (discussed in a minute). These include Blogger, Xanga, and even Myspace. HelloTxt, on the other hand, seems to have a number of either obscure service or, more likely, services popular in countries outside the US. Because each side has a large number of services that are arguably for different tastses, I'll say this catagory is a TIE.

Posting Without An Account:

• Ping.fm - The service is currently in Private Beta, so it requires an invite code (like "masontechbeat") and a sign-up verified by email.
• HelloTxt - For the most popular networks, you only need to agree to their terms of service and it will update directly to your chosen networks. This is easy for a quick trial and for computer lab terminals. The downside to not having an account is that you have to enter your account information for each network every time. Fortunately, Firefox (and Flock) do seem to be able to remember the passwords for these fields.

Guilt-free trials are always nice on a new product. The services are basically operating at opposite ends of the beta spectrum. One if viral with a code and one is completely open and has the same log-in requirements of a wiki. This round goes to HelloTxt for being easy and open.

Posting Options:

• Ping.fm - Web Interface, Special Email Address, IM Bot, Mobile Interface (including iPhone), iGoogle and Facebook Apps
• HelloTxt - Web Interface, Special Email Address, Mobile Interface (no iPhone version), Posting via SMS, Facebook App

The great thing about both of these services is how many different ways there are to use them. Some people use status updates almost exclusively while they are away from a computer. Others are ALWAYS at a computer and just use it to keep up with their other computer-chained friends. I really liked both web interfaces (HelloTxts is the one that doesn't require a sign-up, remember). One thing I like a little more about Ping.fm's is their ability to catagorize different update sources. You can specify for each service if it is a status update, microblogging tool, or a full on blog. That's right, you can blog directly from Ping.fm using their special syntax. The special email address is there for both services, but Ping.fm just added the feature that if you attached a photo to the email (or use MMS) it will upload itself and add as part of the message. Edit: HelloTxt also has image uploads over email.

If you're a big texter, HelloTxt will win out, but if you have web access on your phone, Ping.fm looks to have a better mobile interface (especially for iPhone users like me). The big decieding factor for me was the IM bot. I contstantly use the AIM bot (though they support gTalk and Yahoo! as well) to update everything. The bot is even friendly and the message changes sometimes! Ping.fm wins the posting options catagory, a very important one if you ask me.

Overall:
After using both services and playing around with the different options, I have to say I prefer Ping.fm. I like the IM bot feature, the catagorization options, and more of their networks are relevant to what I already use. HelloTxt is probably better for international users and users who love the SMS. I should point out, though, that Ping.fm will be rolling out SMS in the future, as revealed by Mark O'Neill's article on MakeUseOf. I enjoyed using both these services and I hope you give both of them a try and see which one works best for you.

I declare Ping.fm the Title Fight Winner!

Unquote: For When You Need Fake Quotes

This is a funny little App that a friend of mine made. It's called Unquote and it is a mash-up of the Gangsta Quote Generator and a great number of pictures of famous writers (courtesy of AllTheWeb). It's not something that you'll use very often, but it's a great little time-waster! Here's a sample of what the generator will create for you:

Yeah, I know....pretty rediculous...a new mashup on ever reload of the page, FYI.

Digg Has the Weirdest Ads

Wez Pyke, one of my fellow MakeUseOf authors, put this link up on Plurk and it is really crazy. It is a screencap of an advertisement on Digg. Doesn't he look like the Numa Numa guy? Anyway here is the video:


It is amazing what people will make into an ad. Does anybody know anything more about this video or this guy? Is it a real "viral video" or was it staged?

Ping.fm Might Just Save Me [Ping.fm Review]

Lately I have become overwhelmed with all of the social networks that require "status updates" or have a "microblogging" component. Whether it's the old standard, Twitter, or new upstarts like Plurk, I'm constantly having to jump from one network to another. Some have said to me, "Why do you even bother? Microblogging is a fad anyway." Well be that as it may, I get a lot of great links and ideas from these sites and keeping up to date has paid off so far.

To solve the problem of updating multiple networks with the same "status," a new service has just launched (still an invite-only Beta) to keep everything straight. It is called Ping.fm and it's a great little app that links all of your networks in one simple interface, letting you update them all together. I have had an amazing experience with the Beta and I want to share that experience with everyone.

The first step is to get an account. While you could hunt down a Beta invite code, why not use MINE:

masontechbeat

Go to Ping.fm, start a new account and enter the code. After this run though the list of available social networks and see if yours are listed. Almost everything you've ever heard of (including Plurk!) is already part of the system and new networks are added as user demand dictates.

The sign-up for each of the services is simple and usually works right within their AJAXy services page. Some services, like Facebook, are finicky and make you temporarily authorize Ping.fm on their site, but it all leads back to where you started, so no harm done.

Another thing to get set-up is their chatbot. They support a variety of IM networks like AIM, Google Talk, and Yahoo! Messenger. All you have to do is friend the relevant chatbot for your IM network and whenever you want to update your statuses, simply IM it with the message and it will let you know it is posting for you. If I had to have a complaint, I guess it would be that when you use the chatbot to post messages, there is no character counter to guide the process (I'm not sure how this would be done, just thought I'd throw it out there). The main site does have one though.

There really aren't too terribly more features to Ping.fm right now. It does what it does remarkably well and all of the little API goodies you have come to expect are right there for you. Also, it truncates URLs just like Twitter and other services.

I HIGHLY recommend this service to anyone who is crazy about status updates. They can take over your life if you use several services and there must be better things to do with your time. I suggest a Tower Defense game like GemCraft!