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Gnomedex Favorites: Wherein @Akalsey makes @ChrisPirillo @Tropo’s bitch
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Adam Kalsey from Tropo.com sponsors Chris Pirillo’s chest at Gnomedex 2010…

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Seattle Gnomedex Hackathon Tinkerstorm 2010 Video
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This is a peek at what happened this weekend at the First Gnomedex Tinkerstorm.

YouTube – Gnomedex Tinkerstorm.

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My Geeks Without Borders Gnomedex presentation video
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Yesterday I had the opportunity to present Geeks Without Borders at Gnomedex in Seattle.

More about:

Geeks Without Borders
The Karaoke King
Tropo
Tweet3PO

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#FollowFriday Government Officials and Federal Agencies on Twitter
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The most comprehensive list I’ve found so far on Twitter accounts for our Federal Level government officials…from the President down to each member of the House of Representatives.  Here are a few examples…

National Science Foundation: NSF
Environmental Protection Agency: EPA
Department of State: America.gov
Department of Health & Human Services: Food & Drug Administration: FDA Recalls
Department of Agriculture: Food Safety Information Center
U.S. Geological Survey: Earthquake & Tsunami Warning

For the whole list, visit:  http://twitter.pbworks.com/USGovernment

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Does @Klout show real clout? @Stranahan is a 49. @AmandaPalmer is…
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I was recently introduced to an outfit called Klout, a San Francisco-based startup that measures social influence on Twitter.   How do they measure social influence?  I have no idea.  I just I know I want it, and lots of it.

Apparently someone else agrees, because investors pumped $1.5 million into Klout in April of this year.   Launched in 2008, Klout evaluates your tweets and those of your connections using some magical algorithms and pixie dust.

Upon this, they’ve built an API which is now used by several other third-party Twitter tool makers including CoTweet, HootSuite, and  Tweetup.  What do they use it for?  I’m sure I don’t want to know.

When I first was shown Klout, a co-worker was showing it to me and he typed in his Twitter handle… he came out with a Klout score of 31.  Then he typed in another co-worker’s handle…he was a 20.  Then he typed in mine…6.

6????

MF’N 6????

You bet I was pissed.  Who were these Klout Krouts anyway with their stupid made up Social Influence Meter???  Don’t they know who I am???

Of course, I let this stew for a couple days and then returned to the scene of the insult:  Klout.com.  When I checked my score, it was a more respectable 19.  Not sure what happened in the interim, but I did notice that the site had cached an older version of my Twitter Bio so perhaps they had older data.  The newer number was accompanied with my newer Twitter Bio.  Whatever the cause, I was certainly happy to have more Klout.

Anyway, while I was writing this I looked at the Klout website and noticed they have some featured users displayed on their home page…two of which I happen to follow on Twitter.  One is Lee Stranahan, (@Stranahan), a filmmaker, blogger and contributor to the Huffington Post who I met through Jeff Pulver’s 140 Character’s Conference.  Stranahan has a Klout Score of 49.

What’s funny is that on another tab on the same Klout homepage was the Klout Score of the lovely and talented singer/songwriter/vaudevillian Amanda Palmer, (@AmandaPalmer), who Stranahan interviewed very recently (last night I think??) and who also happens to have a much more appropriate Klout Score:

I wonder if writing a blog post about Klout will increase my Klout?

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Cool interactive musical exhibit using cell phones built on Adhearsion
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Bloc Jam is a session of improvised music, collectively composed by passerbys on a busy street. For the performance, the side of UQAM’s Science Pavillion came alive with interactive projections filled with colors and moving to the rhythms of music controlled by the cell phones of the viewers. The multi-sensory experience lights up the entire side of a building, a musical score that corresponds with beats dialed in via cell phone, by anyone, and processed through a sequencer.

The large-scale public piece is the result of a collective effort, directed by Mouna Andraos & Melissa Mongiat, in collaboration with Rob Seward and Kelsey Snook.  The underlying telephone portion of the application was built by Michel Vaillancourt using an open source Ruby framework called Adhearsion.

BLOC JAM MUTEK 2010 from florian brucker on Vimeo.

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BP’s Global PR vs. BPGlobalPR – Can you tell the real from the fake?
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Below are 20 messages.  Some are ACTUAL responses from BP Executives and some are from the FAKE BP Global PR Twitter account.  Can you tell which is which>

1. “We regretfully admit that something has happened off the Gulf Coast. More to come.”

2. “What the hell did we do to deserve this?”

3. “Are people mad at us for drilling in the ocean? Maybe God shouldn’t have put oil there in the first place.”

4. “We will fix it. I guarantee it. The only question is we do not know when.”

5. “The environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest.”

6. “Here’s the thing: we made $45 million A DAY in profits in 2009. This really isn’t a big deal.”

7. “Catastrophe is a strong word, let’s all agree to call it a whoopsie daisy.”

8. “There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do. I’d like my life back.”

9. “We’re all disappointed that the “top kill” operation didn’t work. We failed to wrestle this beast to the ground.”

10. “All ideas for alternative solutions welcome on (281) 366-5511.”

11. “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.”

12. “At night the gulf really doesn’t look that bad.”

13. “You don’t go drilling 5,000 feet underwater with the tools you want, you do it with the tools you have.”

14. “We will only win this if we can win the hearts and minds of the local community. It’s a big challenge.”

15. “People are upset, so we are working nonstop to make as many ‘BP cares’ shirts as we can.”

16. “Food poisoning is a really big issue when you got a concentration of this number of people in temporary camps, temporary accommodation. It’s something we have to be very, very mindful of.”

17. “So, I actually haven’t been watching the [live feed] video.”

18. “I actually don’t know, this moment, what we’re actually doing.”

19. “We are dedicated to helping the wildlife in the gulf. Any birds that need cleaning must report to 287 Quartemain St., Baton Rouge, LA 70801.”

20. “Louisiana isn’t the only place that has shrimp.”

Click this link for the answers:BP’s Global PR vs. BPGlobalPR – Newsweek.

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How to Block Friends on Facebook Chat / Instant Message / IM by using Lists
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If you want to block anyone just from seeing you online on Facebook IM or Facebook Chat, follow these steps (Accurate as of 6/3/2010):

1.  With your Facebook page open (and logged in).  Click on Account |  Edit Friends.   (Upper right hand corner of the screen)

2.  Click the button that says “Create New List”

3.  A box will open that says “Create New List” and asks you to enter a name.  Type “Blocked IM Friends”.  (You can put anything you want…you’re the only one who will see this name)

4.  Under that box you can type the person’s name or you can select them in the list below.  You can add multiple people.

5.  When you’ve selected the Friends you want to block, click on the button that says “Create List”.

6.  Now that you’ve created a list and added people to it, you need to block that list on Facebook chat.  Do this by clicking the Chat button in the lower right hand corner of your Facebook page.  You should see the name of the List you just created with a green oval  next to it.  Click on that green oval (it will turn gray) and everyone in that group will stop being able to when you are online for IM.  You can turn it back on at any time by clicking the oval again.

You can create other groups like this as well.  I have groups for co-workers, high school friends, etc.  You can also use these same lists when you post just about anything to include or specifically exclude friends (or groups of friends) from seeing that post.

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North Korea de-friends South Korea on Facebook
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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Thursday that it was de-friending South Korea on the popular social networking site, Facebook, while the South conducted a large naval drill in a show of force after the sinking of one of its warships.

The sudden de-friending occurs among increased tensions between the two neighboring countries.

North Korea to Suspend Naval Hot Line With South – NYTimes.com.

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She’ll be comin round the mountain when she comes.
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My uncle Gerry recorded this song.  He suggested that I get it out quick.