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If you run a wordpress blog, you need to know that it can be hacked in non-obvious ways. Here’s how to check it out to see if you’ve been hacked.
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Sneak peek at the forthcoming Nokia N96. Dunno when it’s coming to the US, though….
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I need this! Site that explains the art of traveling light…
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Classic example of problemsfrom traditional journo culture and definition of “news”: “Gay marrige, it’s practically impossible to find an illustration for a gay marriage story that is not either 2 women embracing or a wedding cake with 2 grooms on top.”
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“The recent announcement that the Colorado Daily will abandon its headquarters at 2610 Pearl Street in Boulder in order to share space with the Boulder Daily Camera hardly caused an uproar among locals.”
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“Twitter is not the web, or search engine dependent. More emotional, less analytic. You choose to follow to someone, which provides context. Witty headlines will work — and they will be appreciated as the short verse poetry they could be.”
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Tech Trader Daily – Barron’s Online : JP Morgan Tech Show: Nokia Touts Distribution, Phone VarietyNokia CFO Rick Simonson touted Nokia as “5th most valued brand.†Showed chart of supply chain ranking. Nokia #1. Interesting: He listed Apple as #2! Hmm. Nokia’s big new competitor is just 2nd behind it in terms of distribution? Well.”
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“Twitter is the canary in the news coalmine. If you’ve just gone through a major event, you’ll want to tell your friends. If enough people are all chattering about an earthquake at the same time, that’s a good and immediate indication of big news.”
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Article about a podcasting course my brother is going to be taking in NJ. Way cool!
Monthly Archives: May 2008
Why I keep talking about Nokia’s US Service
Some people have asked why I keep talking — on this blog and elsewhere — about Nokia’s US service problems. This video explains my motives. In a nutshell, it’s because I want to keep options open for journalists. Tools like the Nokia N95 represent a way for journalists to make their own opportunities, regardless of the fate of news organizations. But if Nokia continues to mishandle its US market, it could easily lose out to the Apple iPhone — which, while slick, is not the best tool for mobile reporting/blogging.
links for 2008-05-19
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Interesting blog by a TV news photographer in NC. Great look behind the news.
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New database-driven site — financial disclosure for members of Congress
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this is a really cool YouTube tool — build a timeline of YouTube videos that match your serach terms
links for 2008-05-18
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Excellent interview with Ethan Zuckerman about the internet and the human phenomenon of homophily…
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Easier firmware update process may be one reasons to get an N82 vs. N95
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The softwware/firmware updating process for the iPhone looks pretty simple….
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More n95/iphone competitors coming from Samsung — but not to the US anytime soon, apparently…
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The Wichita Eagle is live-twittering a murder trial — and that’s surprisingly popular
links for 2008-05-17
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When words fail, sometimes pictures — even simple ones, say it all. I love how this article comes with detail photos of the poster that this traumatized family drew after a group therapy session, now posted in the town where they were imprisoned.
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Heard from a blind friend that this popular captcha tool isn’t as accessible as it should be because it does not include the international symbol for the disabled — and the audio button is hard to find with his adaptive equipment.
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Nokia just announced an upcoming firmware update for US N95 users. Note that that’s an update for the firmware — it says nothing about thier clunky PC-only firmware update process except that it doesn’t work with Vista for now.
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“The industry changes are bad for journalists, Marshall argued, but good for journalism. As traditional journalism breaks apart, a new form of open, interactive, networked and, most importantly, iterative reporting is thriving online.”
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Good backgrounder for sorting out some important mobile phone jargon…
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Anther usful backgrounder for understanding important mobile terminology
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Another potential N95 rival….
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Apparently the Samsung G810 will be introduced in Singapore July 2008. No telling yet when it’ll hit the US. Bummer…..
Nokia Talks More (Much More) About US Service Problems
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| Nokia Conversations Blog |
| Nokia’s Conversation Blog has launched an extended discussion on its myriad US service problems. |
I’m happy to report that there has been some progress (small, but real) from Nokia in terms of addressing it US service problems, which I’ve written about extensively.
First, here’s their most concrete step forward so far: Today, Nokia announced that the long-awaited firmware update for the US N95-3 should be available by early June.
Note that this does not mean Nokia has improved its firmware update process — which (as Beth Kanter, Robert Day, and I noted) is PC-only and very cumbersome, confusing, and annoying. And, in my experience, Nokia’s firmware update process is also risky — it’s what bricked my N95 in April.
…But still, a lot of US N95-3 users have been waiting (and waiting) for this firmware update. News that it’s coming soon appears quite welcome in that community, judging by the initial comments to the announcement.
Also, I’m encouraged to see that Nokia’s Conversations Blog yesterday launched a series of posts on its myriad US service problems. So far, there’s been:
- May 15: Introductory post, in which Nokia promises to specifically respond to my six suggestions for their US operations.
- May 15: A post on US repair turnaround time.
- May 16: A post about the forthcoming N95-3 firmware update.
I think the fact that Nokia has made this discussion so public, and is respecting and addressing concerns raised by users, is a very positive step. Frankly, this is far more than most major companies are willing to do. Nokia is willing to publicly acknowledge its significant problems, and doesn’t seem to consider this inherently risky or bad for business. Many, many companies and organizations could take a lesson from Nokia on this front.
That said, Nokia’s blog does try (understandably) to put as positive a spin as possible on its US service problems. As far as I can tell, they’re not painting a specifically inaccurate rosy picture — but so far they haven’t directly tackled the hardest issues.
Therefore, it’s still up to current and would-be US users of Nokia N-Series phones to keep pushing for clear answers to our most pressing questions and concerns. This is going to take time, folks.
Here’s what I mean…
links for 2008-05-16
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“For an online generation, the Web offers what traditional counseling does not. It’s a chance to communicate without having to face someone or fear their judgment. Many younger victims believe they can warn others about their accused attacker.”
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“I can call AT&T today, go through some diagnostics and troubleshooting over the phone, and have a replacement unit on my desk tomorrow, in most cases. They trust me enough to ship a replacement and *then* allow me to return my defective handset.”
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Discussion thread about Nokia US service turnaround issues…. Some good experiences, some truly awful ones….
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Discussion thread involving Apple iPhone repair turnaround time
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Another discussion of Apple iPhone turnaround time
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Another discussion of iPhone service practices and turnaround time
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Another Nokia N-Series US service nightmare: “It took 24 days without any update other than “we’re working on it” to get a replacement unit.”
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Thread about Nokia service problems…
links for 2008-05-15
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List of resources and tips I wrote for the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Tipsheet.
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“This spring CBS listened to a noisy group of Webheads who demanded the return of “Jericho”, a show that real world viewers didn’t like but which supposedly had a huge online fan base. But when CBS revived the show, fans didn’t show up to watch it on TV.”
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“To find the biggest concentration of digitally savvy consumers, you have to head to Texas, it turns out. Austin, to be exact. And the second-highest concentration of this segment is not in Silicon Valley but in Las Vegas.”
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We’re all in the relevance business now, my media friends. Survey: “56% said their online experience would be improved if social networking sites provided more targeted advertisements and offers tailored to their specific interests and preferences.”
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“I don’t like to shatter an intern’s anchor dreams, it’s time for reality. Journalism schools, as a public service, should strongly discourage students from pursuing an anchoring career. Instead, emphasize the “do-it-all†multimedia journalist.”
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Report due out soon on The Impact of Online Advertising Networks. Media Management Center will announce it at Digital Strategies for Media Executives seminar June 22 and will publish a complete report later in the year.
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“While this may seem a bit creepy, it’s probably where the Web is headed. The data is being harvested anonymously. And Charter, to its credit, sent subscribers a relatively cleanly worded letter explaining the technology and how they could opt out.”
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“If video commenting takes off and becomes ubiquitous in the coming years, I think the best practice will be to separate video comments from regular text ones, as YouTube does with video responses.”
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“Publishers will soon have much more data to deal with as reading becomes more digital and more social. Publishers who see the world the way readers do and turn that data into something readers find truly useful stand a much better chance of success.”
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Etan Horowitz likes Pandora better than last.fm, but both are good for different kinds of music fans.
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Believe it or not, I was quoted in a Fox News story today…
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Intereting rumor for N95 US users: “If you don’t mind risking voiding your product warranty for the NAM N95-3, you can change the ‘product code’ to one for the N95-1 with Nemesis and then run Nokia update–it should install to v21.0.016.”
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“Expecting a user to devote their full attention to this embedded interface and to modulate between active and passive viewing modes creates user experience dissonance.”
links for 2008-05-14
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Everything you ever wanted to know about accessing gmail securely — especially important when using public wifi, but I just do this everywhere, even at home. Lists URLs for secure access with different features. Bookmark AND USE the ones you need.
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here’s what everybody’s twitter about today re: earthquake
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Another example of citizen journalism related to the China quake. I’m not familiar with CJReport, can someone tell me more about this site?
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All photos on Flickr today tagged “china” and “earthquake”
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More citizen journalism about the quake, from a China-based community site
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NowPublic’s featured story today
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Everything NowPublic is running today about the earthquake in China
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GVO’s roundup of citizen journalism and other local nonprofessional reporting & blogging from China about yesterday’s quake.
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This popular Chinese video-sharing service set up a special page aggregating contributed videos of the quake and its aftermath
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“When sifting through news every morning, my feed reader provides no indication of what’s important and what isn’t. But on Twitter, if it’s hot news you’ll hear about it first. Humans are the best editors, it’s almost like a filter for what I ne
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“Above all, smaller newspapers are benefiting from their still-unchallenged ability to deliver local audiences for local advertisers.”
links for 2008-05-13
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Chris from Spain told me about this search engine for Seesmic, an intriguing new video-based social media tool.
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“Twitter is definitely replacing text messaging as my primary source of quick and short communication. One reason behind this is that I’ve stopped texting some of my friends back. I’d rather they just Twittered me or called. “