MySpace suicide court case begins
This story has all the makings of a tragic soap: a vulnerable love sick teenager, a sick vengeful adult and death. Unfortunately this story is not confined to the pages of a book, but is a reality that took place in October 2006 and resulted in Megan Meier, aged 13 at the time, taking her own life. But why did she do it? What had happened before? Who caused it? And what does this have to do with technology?
It all started when Megan fell out with the daughter of her neighbor Ms Drew in St Louis, prompting Ms Drew to take it upon herself to spite Megan. She did this by creating a fictitious 16 year old boy, Josh Evans, who lived in the local area which she did by creating a fake MySpace account. This was then used to contact the unassuming Megan, and create a friendship, although the implication is that Megan believed it to be more serious than that. Contined . . .
Live.com goes social
Microsoft just announced that they are giving Windows Live a major face lift. They plan to debut a whole bunch of new beta Windows Live features to help users combine all parts of their online life. These features are not going to just be Microsoft services either. But they will all be under the Windows Live umbrella page.
Even though they already hold the title of the most used messenger program; they obviously want to reach even farther into the online cookie jar. Microsoft wants to offer competition with the popular social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Whether or not they can actually provide any kind of competition coming into the game this much later remains to be seen. What’s Microsoft’s plan? Keep reading.
Blackberry and MySpace release app
In news straight out of 2006, BlackBerry and MySpace have finally gotten together and jumped on the app train. Seems straight laced corporate types have been clamoring for a way to keep tabs on their social networking bit for years and finally it is happening. BlackBerry already has a FaceBook app.
The new MySpace application will do what you’d expect it would:
- Send and receive MySpace mail
- Update your Status and Mood
- View and send Bulletins
- Add comments
- Post your photos
- And much more
I don’t know about you, but “and much more” bugs the heck out of me and BlackBerry doesn’t go on to discuss the much more bit. Of note, the application requires your device to have 64MB of on-board memory and 100KB free.
The timing suggests this move is all about adding features that the young folks buying the BlackBerry flip phone want. As the lower priced flip phone trends into younger users, BlackBerry wants to make sure it is hip with the young ones.
App page: [BlackBerry ] and [MySpace]
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Obama, technology and the future - Part Two
Hopefully you all read the first post on President-Elect Obama, technology and the future (if not, it is here) in which I started addressing what Obama’s election means for the world of tech. Having looked at how Obama will work for an open Internet, I will now delve into Obama’s plans for a connected democracy and infrastructure.
The first thing that Obama has promised to do is to create a more transparent government, a policy that has probably been prompted by the manner in which the Bush administration has been very secretive. He will attempt to do this by “creating a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for America’s citizens” through the use of technology. Presumably, this will be done by extensive use of the Internet, as well as other technology such as mobile phones, as shown in the selection of Joe Biden as his second man.
Continued after the break.
New book says tech is better than books
I have to admit, recently, if text is not staring at me from a screen I become uninterested very quickly. Although, from reading about this upcoming book, I might have to actually read a book, or find a Kindle to read it on. The book is called “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind,“ by Gary Small. Small is a neuroscientist from UCLA. The idea of actually reading the book somewhat defeats the point made in the book, however.
The book says that through technology, we are learning to use more parts of our brains. Through doing simple things most of us probably take for granted such as sending text messages and Internet searching our brains become “more adept at filtering information and making snap decisions.“ The book also claims that technology is increasing creativity and and accelerating learning. Sounds pretty good to me. Find out more after the break.
Vringo gets foot in the door; video ringtones set for world domination
Kids love those darn ringtone and ringback tones. Imagine if those same kids could share their favorite web clips just by phoning someone. Vringo is turning a simple phone call into an expression of self that can change by the hour.
A Turkish carrier has become the first to venture into a subscription model for video ringtones. Not only can the Turks with this service enjoy a web clip when their phone rings, they can push out these clips to others, making something that was somewhat personal (setting ringtones for your friends) into a very social party. Users can push these clips to show on their friends phones when the user calls them.
Learn more about Vringo.
The all new Joost: No download required
Remember Joost? The peer-to-peer video client made from the guys that made Skype and Kazaa? Yeah, sometimes I forget it exists as well. But that’s okay, because the somewhat annoying desktop client is gone. Joost has finally gone to flash, just like Hulu and a number of other services.
Joost is touting its sort of social networking aspect to try and get people to use it. You can use JoostFeed to watch the videos your Joost friends recently watched, or you can “Shout” about videos to your friends to tell them to watch it. It might be a bit hard to actually use the feature unless your friends are those who haven’t already forgotten about Joost. More after the break.
NBC ready to ditch cable and go Internet only?
Last night’s town hall debate between presidential candidates was more than just debate #2. It was the first time Hulu streamed live. That is right, in addition to the myriad of ways to catch the
“straight talk,“ add Hulu to the list. Who cares right?
Here is why you need to care: It is all about money. Click more to find out.
Cloud-based collaboration app ProofHQ moves to public beta
In private beta testing mode since January, the England-based ProofHQ has just opened it’s program up to the the public. What makes it so appealing to so many is the obvious allowance for collaboration. ProofHQ makes this simple with the use of several formats on the web. Blogs, social media applications…users are able to comment and give feedback on a project that can be seen by anyone working on it by using embeddable objects.
There is no cost for this new personal version, unless you want to upgrade to a more advanced package that offers more storage. The free package only allows for five proofs a months (50 megabytes of storage), and the upgrades run anywhere from $29 to $99 a month. However, you can get a feel for it to see what you think by taking advantage of their 14 day free trial offer. It is both PC and Mac compatible.
Can a teacher and a student be friends? A Mississippi school says no
The Lamar County school board in Mississippi has recently decided to limit communication between students and teachers outside the walls of the school, or more specifically restrict their communication online. These new rules do not limit any students (or teachers) from creating online profiles on sites such as Facebook or MySpace, but does limit their interaction on such sites. The board specifically “prohibits teachers from texting or communicating with students through Internet social network sites.“
Although they seem to have only mentioned Facebook and MySpace specifically, I would imagine that it would also apply to other sites such as Twitter, identi.ca or even leaving comments on personal blogs.
According to Superintendent Ben Burnett their “intent is to limit the personal communication between teachers and students” because they are afraid of the line between “professional and personal communication” getting crossed. This sounds logical, after all why would a teacher, someone who is a grown up want to be “friends” with someone who is a teenager, or possibly even younger online when in their real life they are an authority figure to that same person.
However moving into this tech and web centric world that we are now living in the lines are easily crossed, especially with the early adopter social networking crowd.
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