A recent WSJ article (may require registration) brings more attention to a lesser-known capability of cellphones: connecting your phone to a computer as a USB modem to gain access to the Internet, a.k.a. tethering.  This feature was critical to me in a fairly common setting in the consulting life: having spotty or no Internet access on the road or at the client’s office.  And I’m arguing now that wireless carriers should include this value-add service in all of their wireless data plans for free, not to charge a monthly fee for it separately.

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The other day, I was preparing a quickie assessment of the biggest office suppliers in the US, and I thought “Instead of trying Google or Wikipedia, I’ll use this newfangled Wolfram Alpha thingy that’s out now.” And after approaching that query, along with some other spur-of-the-moment questions, I’ve finally realized what Wolfram Alpha is.

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Before we explore this idea further, I’d like to point out that Apple’s App Store is unique as an entity, but hardly any different from Handango or BPlay. These portals which supported many mobile devices and PDAs aggregated downloadable software offerings for users to load onto their (sometimes, at the time) connected devices. With this context, it is interesting that this Wall Street Journal article discusses two distinct issues that the interactive community has faced for a while: What is the line that moderators/gatekeepers/administrators must adhere to, and who determines that line?
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There’s been some articles over the past few years about this, but I’m surprised that it hasn’t become a more hot-button issue for people. It seems that people simply use different applications for different purposes (using myself as an example, I keep LinkedIn (link) quite distinct from Facebook). But what about exploring the idea of the “inner circle” and implementing a way to manage the flow of information at a very fine-grained level? Read the rest of this entry »

I recently moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan and it was quite an ordeal. The move itself was fairly smooth and the flat rate quote was very comforting. However, packing turned out to be more of an issue. Who knew that there were so many different sized boxes and reasons for them. Not to mention that I had no idea there was an American Moving and Storage Association that acts as an industry group. Read the rest of this entry »