Great Country song - Apple and Google and Gold. http://budurl.com/yhlz

Thinking about a flu shot? Think again. http://budurl.com/sk2f

This is really funny. David Pogue's gift guide. Just let it sit there after loading. Don't click for about 5 minutes. http://budurl.com/pwdk

Have an iPhone? Love Bacon? You need this. http://ping.fm/4Rxkg

I Want this Unboxing Experience on My Next iPhone

I ran across this today. Absolutely hilarious.

Refreshing Change in the Wind

With the elections over, I have heard from more than one pundit that it might be back to politics as usual in Washington, even for the incoming Obama administration. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Take this article from the November 11 New York Times. The ethics rules Obama is imposing on both his transition team and administration are among the most strict and sweeping ever. Here's a quick rundown:

• Anyone who lobbied in the past 12 months is prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.


• Any lobbyist must cease all lobbying activities during the transition.


• Appointees to the administration will be barred from working on matters involving their former employers.


• Those who leave the administration will be prohibited from lobbying anyone in the administration for the duration of Obama's presidency.


• All political appointees must disclose publicly every meeting with any registered lobbyist.
  

There is some wiggle room in the new restrictions. Lobbyists can still work for the transition team (and presumably the administration) as long as they do not work in the areas for which they lobbied. Also, the rules only apply to "registered" lobbyists - which are those who personally lobby federal officials on specific issues. This allows many experienced people who may work for lobbying firms but do no direct lobbying to get involved with the transition and/or administration.

Lobbying has been a pet peeve of mine for many years, as it follows the "squeaky wheel gets the grease" logic. Having a lobbyist without ethics restrictions in the administration gives unfair advantage to the areas of policy for which they lobbied. It is the political equivalent of insider trading.

Having these restrictions in place should make it harder for corporations with deep pockets to sway federal policy to their favor. Like everyone else, I am adopting an "it remains to be seen" attitude about all of this, but so far it seems that Obama is the real deal and represents the most refreshing change we have had to the political landscape in decades.

Be Careful What You Wish For...

Wouldn't it be great to have portable black hole you could take with you anywhere? Just be careful how you use it!

Phrases to Forget

When it comes to writing a blog, paying close attention to whether or not your words resonate with your audience is key. It's not rocket science, after all, and even though some people may think it's a nightmare, you don't need to devote 24/7 of your life to it. What you do need is to always try to come up with something that is fairly unique so at the end of the day your reader can walk away feeling like they either learned something or enjoyed themselves.

I personally try to write about things that strike me as interesting on the theory that others who enjoy my writing will find it interesting as well. Occasionally, I will get an email from someone who suggests I shouldn't of said this thing or that thing, but with all due respect, it's just a blog. Get over it. Irregardless of whether you could care less or not, it ends up being just six of one and a half dozen of another. Some people will get it, and some people won't; some will be offended while others will laugh.

For instance, at this moment in time I am writing because of an article I just read listing the top 10 most annoying phrases. OMG, did I just use all of them in only three paragraphs? Absoloutely. I sure did - and a few others to boot.

And that's the name of that tune.

Big Huge Tip of the Day

(or "How to Piss Off Friends and Enemies Alike.")

Yesterday I found a huge resource for links with web design tips and tricks. As I am trying to brush up my skills in this area, this was interesting to me. Just before going to bed I started going through them. There were hundreds of links, so I just sorted them out, bookmarking some with Instapaper and others with Delicious. so I could go back to them later. I'd made it through about 300 of these links when I received the following direct message via Twitter:

Re: "How To Avoid Being An Ass On Twitter"... does it say anything about tweeting every website that you Digg? [hint, hint] ;-)

LOL

Turns out that every web site I bookmarked in Delicious was being sent out as an individual Tweet. ARGHHH!! Well, here is how that happened and how you can avoid doing it as well...

Recently, I have been spending quite a bit of time trying to get my head wrapped around the connectivity that is emerging between social networking sites. In theory, this has the potential of expanding one's presence on the web exponentially with very little effort. Imagine, for instance, that every time you digg a story all your friends find out about it as well, whether they are on Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.

This is where FriendFeed comes in. Once you create an account in FriendFeed, you can add your login information for other accounts, such as Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Amazon, StumbleUpon, etc. Every time you do something on one of those sites, FriendFeed records it and sends it out for your friends to see via Twitter.

This is great for most of the time when you might see one or two interesting stories, or if you bookmark a few sites a day in Delicious. But I tend to look at these things in groups - which can get understandably annoying for those subscribed to my FriendFeed. So I tweaked the settings some today, and hopefully this will fix the problem.

Your Secrets, Revealed

This brings up a very interesting situation, however. When I don't think someone else will be interested in something, I tend not to Digg it - or I think twice about bookmarking in Delicious: do I really want everyone to know I visited the world's stupidest website?

If we extend this to the rest of those enlightened enough to use Digg or Delicious or a similar service, what happens is we get a picture of another person that is filtered through the lens of what they want the rest of the world to see. In itself, this isn't a bad thing - it mimics the real world in the sense that all of us do things that embarrassed us.

But it does contribute to the overall popularity (or lack thereof) for things on Digg, and can shape the opinions we have of someone else. Over time, we can even see the phases our friends go through as they explore different topics.

So, the lesson of the day is this: if you decide to use FriendFeed (and I encourage you to do so - it is very cool), remember to turn off publishing if you are going to be bookmarking tons of links, or if you spend a lot of time digging stories. Another option would be to use Delicious for the links you don't mind everyone seeing, and another service (such as Magnolia.com) for those sites you are saving to look through later.

For those interested…

• you can see my Delicious bookmarks at http://delicious.com/thechuck2237.


• you can visit my FriendFeed page (and subscribe) at http://friendfeed.com/thechuck


• you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thechuck


• you can see what I am digging at http://digg.com/users/thechuck

…or if you prefer…

• FaceBook


• LinkedIn

I'll be blogging more about social networking at some point in the future.

The Beatles's Hard Day's Night Chord Mystery

Did you know there was a Beatle's Hard Day's Night Mystery? Me either. But apparently, scientists and musicians alike have been trying to figure out how they did the opening chord to "Hard Day's Night" without multi-tracking. Here's the chord in question:

The secret, it turns out, is that producer George Martin played five notes on the piano.

You can read the complete article here.

Fascinating.