WinExtra

Yes folks it is true – yours truly finally admits to the inevitable – I am indeed a Social Media slut. No longer is playing around with Social Media just a whimsical past time and even though I joked about it last night on FriendFeed I can no longer keep it a secret.

It all started out innocently enough with this blog but it wasn’t long before the naked tendrils of Social Media began weaving themselves through my life.

After all, I have been seen hanging out on Twitter occasionally throwing out the enticing tweet or two to get people’s attention. I’ve been seen wandering the main streets of FriendFeed and littering the social media landscapes with my just loved songs on Last.fm like a music pimp. I have setup a corner at SocialMedian while cleaning out the cobwebs of my Facebook account. I am constantly on the prowl for word of any new products with which to offer myself up to as long as the price is right – just as any good slut would do.

Why have I lowered myself to this level you might ask.

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The tech blogosphere is littered with posts giving the big boys of blogging a slap around or chain yanking over their popularity and presumed power but today proved that there is something to the A-List power after all.

I wrote earlier over at The Inquisitr about the complaints that are going on about Feedburner and Google’s apparent lack of interest. The basic back story is that in a pile on that started with Steve Gillmor, spread to Dave Winer and beyond and how Feedburner was in danger of becoming irrelevant. At this point per usual, nothing had been heard from Google – officially or otherwise.

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I like to think of myself as a pretty faithful Twitter user even though I might poke fun at or give it the ol’ slap around once in awhile. I can even respect the idea that people want to protect their feeds from crass interlopers but can someone please explain why in the hell I would want to friend someone when I have no idea who the hell you are or what you pump through your feed?

No offence Mr or Ms itscomplicated but it’s not so damn complicated. I don’t know who are, I can’t see what you blather on about and to boot I don’t even know your name; and trust me seeing itsnotcomplicated isn’t going to make me all warm and fuzzy enough to be your friend.

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It never fails.

No sooner than we have had a round of bitching about one social media service than we turn right around and start on some other one. In this case; specially for me, Twitter has ceased for now to being the bitching darling of the tech blogosphere, only to be replaced without even losing a breath by FriendFeed.

The whole rigmarole was started in a post by Louis Gray who made some valid points but all in all it has proven to be more of a great linkbait on an otherwise boring post holiday weekend. Among others that have picked up on his post are Stowe Boyd and Alan Patrick who have both weighted in with equally points of view.

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An excellent book to read over the holidays thanks to my Amazon Wishlist and long time WinExtra Community Forum member Joe.

Thank you very much Joe.

For the past month or so I’ve had an idea percolating just beyond my grasp. I would occasionally get glimpses of what it was or what it wasn’t but never enough that I could get it down on paper – per se. I talked about the idea with Alexander van Elsas on Skype a week or so ago but as great as the conversation was it didn’t make getting all the pieces in place any easier. What I had in my head connected well enough but translating that to paper is still proving to be difficult.

The other part of the problem is like in the post I wrote about fear of thinking. It is one thing to work through an idea or concept in your head; or even talk with friends about it, but to commit it to a public viewing is nerve racking to say the least. However the bigger problem with ideas is that sometimes they just won’t let you go and you have no choice but to take the chance and let them free. This is such a case.

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Slowly and surely as we cross the line into 2009 we are working our way towards the release of the next version of Windows. Word has it we will see a public beta release in January; probably around the time of the CES show; but Microsoft is still sticking to the 2010 timetable for the release of the finished product. Myself and a number of other Microsoft watchers – like Mary Jo Foley – believe otherwise and totally expect to see the RTM release before the end of 2009.

As usual though with any Microsoft release of Windows folks are picking sides. Of course we have the Macheads already predicting that it will never be as good as what apple will be releasing for the Mac – no surprises there. Along with that though even the Microsofties in the crowd are already slamming Windows 7 – although I think Jason is blowing more hot air than anything else since much of what he says has been countered by Ed Bott.

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  Not really. It’s long since set in stone that typing in all caps is akin to shouting at someone. When you see a netizen typing along in allcaps, you assume they are:

• A fool.
• Angry or fervent.
• A hopeless, uneducated, borderline illiterate noob.

  I find the latter to be the most commonly encountered.

  I also find the capslock key itself to be superfluous and irritating. The only time I’ve used it (intentionally) is when I was editing scripts for a COD4 server I admin at, and the files were all done in capitals, so I followed suit just to keep the files looking clean. In 20+ years of using computers…that’s it.

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