Thumbs up for @projectglass & #ifihadglass! Google Glass celebrates an amazing ten days of news, publicity and buzz-worthy, trending anecdotes as consumers begin talking about Glass in earnest, and what they'd do creatively with a pair if they ONLY had one -a marketer's dream!; Google's dynamic tech product is supposed to roll-out by end of 2013; #ijustine, @ijustine

Google YouTube Channel video: How It Feels [through Glass]. "Want to see how Glass actually feels? It's surprisingly simple. Say "take a picture" to take a picture. Record what you see, hands free. Even share what you see, live. Directions are right in front of you. Speak to send a message, or translate your voice. Get the notifications that matter most. Ask whatever's on your mind and get answers without having to ask. All video footage captured through Glass." Uploaded February 20, 2013. http://youtu.be/v1uyQZNg2vE.
See more at http://www.google.com/glass/start 

TheVerge YouTube Channel video: I used Google Glass -"Joshua Topolsky spends a day with two of Google Glass' creators and goes up close and personal with the company's visionary new computer." Uploaded February 22, 2013. 
http://youtu.be/V6Tsrg_EQMw


otherijustine YouTube Channel video: GOOGLE GLASS AND A PURPLE WATCH! Justine Ezarik -a.k.a. iJustine, one of our favorites- opines on Google Glass. Uploaded February 22, 2013. http://youtu.be/7vVo0jqx4dU
Above, at 3:37 of a video on multiple subjects made two days after her previous video, Justine talks about Google Glass and their just-ended contest to give away 8,000 pairs of these, but there's a catch: http://youtu.be/xHEFzTm6xD0. There's no justice if Justine doesn't wind-up with a pair, because you know she'll use them, with viewers the winners.

I'd wanted to post the Google, iJustine and Joshua Toplosky videos last Saturday morning, a few hours after seeing them for the first time, but got distracted and wound-up doing some writing on the computer, cleaning around the house and listening to the "Nashville" soundtrack album. 

In retrospect, I'm glad that I didn't post anything about it because within 48 hours, there was more news about Google Glass, courtesy of Google co-founder Sergey Brin's wife, Ann, who was spotted by a TMZ cameraman wearing a pair before heading into an Oscar party Sunday night.


TMZ YouTube channel video: Google Glass -- Sergey Brin's wife, Ann, demonstrates some of the High-Tech Spectacles for a TMZ cameraman before entering an Oscar Party in LA. Uploaded February 26, 2013. http://youtu.be/xI_YGDMvlNY




Sergey Brin on the touchscreen: 'it's kind of emasculating'
By Russell Brandom on February 27, 2013 01:24 pm
http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/27/4036366/sergey-brin-at-ted-the-cell-phone-is-a-nervous-habit

My last post on Google Glass was September 11, 2012, that featured Sergey brin in a video -
titled, Google's Sergey Brin previewing new 'Google Glasses'; England U-21 goalkeeper Ben Amos wearing Google-cam while balls are kicked at him during practice. The mind reels at the possibilities of this!; Wait until iJustine gets a pair of these!; @iJustine
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.nl/2012/09/amazing-video-of-england-u-21.html
(Yeah, I know, I wrote Glasses instead of Glass.)

Google Glass - For someone like me, to see it, much less, in-person, is to suddenly find your head swimming in creative and practical ideas and finding yourself thinking and talking about why you want one, nay, need one.

Which is why at an Oscar party in LA that was doubtless full of affluent and famous people, Ann Brin had the one intangible that everyone else in the room wanted as soon as they saw it.

Now that's currency and how you shape influential opinion-makers -make them realize that you have something that they don't have and, for all their money and clout, can't get.
Boom goes the technolgy dynamite!

Just imagine what hard-working investigative reporters -or sleuthy bloggers!- or corruption-fighting investigators could do with this technology, without a tell-tale cameraman trailing them to give away the surprise to suspected crooked/sleazy targets of scrutiny.... 

To say nothing of watching a sport or special event LIVE in-person, and being able to effortlessly record or send LIVE the whole scene around you, whenever you want.

Especially doing so at your child or grandchild's ballgame or swim meet or play or at a wedding or...yes, a government meeting about a controversial subject that is sent LIVE back to another location, whether a TV studio or newsroom or a whole self-selecting network of friends or interested people who want to see what's REALLY going on.

I still want a jet pack, but until then, this will do nicely!

-----
#ifihadglass  https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ifihadglass

@projectglass  https://twitter.com/projectglass
www.google.com/glass


Read Joshua Toplosky's first-hand account of his experience with Google Glass here: 
The Verge

I used Google Glass: the future, but with monthly updates

Up close and personal with Google's visionary new computer

By Joshua Topolsky on February 22, 2013 11:39 am
http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/22/4013406/i-used-google-glass-its-the-future-with-monthly-updates

Videos: Autonomous Vehicles On Par with Human Drivers -And I'd suggest they're superior to most South Florida drivers fumbling with Cell Phones, Makeup or Skype during rush hour; Inside Google's Self-Driving Car

FORA.tv YouTube channel video: Autonomous Vehicles On Par with Human Drivers. FORA.tv's Chris Gerdes shows the advances in autonomous vehicles, highlighting their ability to safely navigate race tracks without human intervention. Uploaded December 19, 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dQbyl5DVQk

Complete program available for free at http://fora.tv/2012/10/30/Car_Talk_Autonomous_Vehicles_and_the_Future_of_Energy

FORA YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ForaTv

Inside Google's Self-Driving Car

http://youtu.be/S_eVE6KQ4Jg

Google Self-Driving Car - August 2012

http://youtu.be/nimfOPoVs4w

Lexus To Outline Autonomous Car Strategy At 2013 CES  

By Viknesh Vijayenthiran

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1081302_lexus-to-outline-autonomous-car-strategy-at-2013-ces

Google's Sergey Brin previewing new 'Google Glasses'; England U-21 goalkeeper Ben Amos wearing Google-cam while balls are kicked at him during practice. The mind reels at the possibilities of this!; Wait until iJustine gets a pair of these!; @iJustine

England video: England U-21 goalkeeper Ben Amos wears The FA TV's Goggle-cam during a crossing training session. Uploaded September 8, 2012. http://youtu.be/egOtUmoE7Mo

This awesome video of England U-21 and Hull City goalie Ben Amos wearing Google-cam glasses while soccer balls are flying towards him during practice causes the mind to reel at the myriad possibilities of this, both training and entertainment!

(Or, in the hand of blogger iJustine, priceless. I'd be willing to bet that there's already someone at Google HQ in Mountain View trying to figure out how they can speed-up the process so that Justine Ezarik can get a pair in her hands -and on her oh-so cute face- and start evangelizing the product in her usual original and amusing ways via videos that capture the eyeballs of lots of early adaptors.) 

Hypothetically, in its simplest form, at a minimum, you could equip a striker wearing one pair of Google-cam glasses on a breakaway and a goalie wearing a pair moving out to block and you could see both points-of-views via a split-screen on TV, during a quick replay following a shot on goal, or via a sub-channel like what NASCAR does on DirecTV with driver-cam showing the view of individual drivers.


WSJDigitalNetwork video: Google's Sergey Brin Previews New 'Google Glasses', Uploaded September 10, 2012
http://live.wsj.com/video/google-sergey-brin-previews-new-google-glass/FCB1CF6F-98B3-4E0F-9534-23EE5CEAC8C6.html


Wall Street Journal
Hype and Hope: Test Driving Google's New Glasses
Device Puts Data Into Field of Vision but Software Is Balky
By Spencer E. Ante
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10000872396390443779404577643981045121516-lMyQjAxMTAyMDEwMDAxODA3Wj.html

----------

Ben Amos profile: http://www.hullcityafc.net/team/player-profile/index.aspx?playerid=331404&tcmuri=303169

Hull City AFC: http://www.hullcityafc.net/

BBC's team page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/hull-city

The FA and the English National Team: 

Homepage: http://www.thefa.com/england
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/FA
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/england
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/EnglandTeam 

As U.S. newspapers continue their slide down the slippery-slope, Alan Mutter writes about creating some "change agents" who just might help some papers slow the descent into oblivion, and recapture reader's respect and support again. (And Silicon Valley is helping!) But as Tim Worstall at Forbes.com points out, that newspaper industry is actually smaller than Google now. And shrinking!

Inland-Who is Alan Mutter? from Scott Kingsley on Vimeo.
Scott Kingsley's Vimeo Channel: Inland Executive Program for Innovative Change - 

Who is Alan Mutter? May 2012. http://vimeo.com/42972547

As U.S. newspapers continue their slide down the slippery-slope, former newspaper executive, Cal-Berkeley journalism professor and former Silicon Valley CEO Alan Mutter writes about creating some "change agents" who just might help some papers slow the descent into oblivion, and recapture reader's respect and support again. (And Silicon Valley is helping!) But as Tim Worstall at Forbes.com points out, that newspaper industry is actually smaller than Google now. And shrinking!


Time to get ready for newspaper consolidation? You bet!


Forbes.com

Tim Worstall

The US Newspaper Industry is Now Smaller Than Google

June 18, 2012 @ 12:55 p.m.

Of course, many things are smaller than google. But these figures on advertising revenues show again something we mentioned a few months ago. The revenues of the US Newspaper industry, as a whole, as a total, are now smaller than those of Google alone.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/06/18/the-us-newspaper-industry-is-now-smaller-than-google/

REFLECTIONS OF A NEWSOSAUR blog

A cadre of change agents for newspapers

By Alan Mutter

June 14, 2012

Instead of merely talking about how much the newspaper industry has to change, the Inland Press Association has decided to do something about it – in a big and bold way.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2012/06/cadre-of-change-agents-for-newspapers.html


Be sure to read the reader comments, too! 

Inland-What will the program be like? from Scott Kingsley on Vimeo.
Scott Kingsley's Vimeo Channel: Inland Executive Program for Innovative Change - 

What will the program be like? May 2012. http://vimeo.com/42972895

Inland-Who should attend? from Scott Kingsley on Vimeo.
Scott Kingsley's Vimeo Channel: Inland Executive Program for Innovative Change - Who should attend? May 2012. http://vimeo.com/42973247


http://inlandinnovates.org/

Thanks for making May 2012 the second-busiest month ever at Hallandale Beach Blog, with 23,979 individual pageviews, an average of 773 a day

Thanks for making May 2012 the second-busiest month ever in over four years of keeping track of statistics at Hallandale Beach Blog, with 23,979 individual pageviews, an average of 773 a day for the month.
Busiest individual day was May 24 with 944 individual pageviews.


The top five referring sites for May 2012 were, not surprisingly, all Google sites: U.S.A., Germany, Great Britain, Canada and Sweden

www.google.com

www.google.de

www.google.co.uk

www.google.ca

www.google.se


Google Sweden's office in Stockholm, at Kungsbron 2, is just a couple of blocks from where I'll be staying for a bit later this summer. 
I definitely need to swing by and check it out.
http://www.officesnapshots.com/2009/12/24/googles-new-office-stockholm-sweden/
http://www.officesnapshots.com/companies/google/



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ProPublica's Lois Beckett on how politicians are presenting themselves to different audiences and whether they have a responsibility to tell people about the personal information they collect about them on Facebook, Google and other social media

http://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-win-facebook-friends-and-influence-people
ProPublica

How to Win Facebook Friends and Influence People

by Lois Beckett, ProPublica,  
March 13, 2012, 1:31 p.m.

Instead of picketing outside company headquarters, an advocacy group is using Facebook ads to try to influence people whose profiles identify them as employees of Freddie Mac or JPMorgan Chase.

The anti-foreclosure ad campaign, which launches today, asks Freddie and Chase employees to talk to their CEOs about a veteran -- a former Marine -- who's facing eviction in California.

"This is not any sort of attack on the employees there," said Jim Pugh of Rebuild the Dream, which is running the ad campaign. "We're trying to let them know what's happening."

The ad that targets Freddie Mac employees features a small picture of CEO Charles Haldeman's face, and the message, "Freddie Mac did what???? Freddie Mac is evicting a former Marine who's been trying to pay his mortgage. Tell CEO Haldeman to work out a fair deal with him!" according to a copy of the ad provided by Pugh.

The JPMorgan Chase ad is similar, but with a Chase logo instead of an executive's face.  

We've contacted Freddie Mac and JP Morgan Chase spokespeople for comment, and also reached out to Freddie Mac and JPMorgan Chase employees on Facebook. If you've seen one of these ads, please let us know.

 Targeted online advertising is nothing new. (As anyone who has changed their Facebook status to "engaged" can tell you, a simple update can bring a deluge of new ads.) But political campaigns and advocacy groups are increasingly adopting the same microtargeting tactics that companies use.  

Rick Perry's campaign, for instance, targeted faith-focused ads to people in Iowa who listed themselves as Christians on Facebook, and ads featuring his wife to the state's female conservatives, Politico reported.  

According to FEC data, Endorse Liberty, a super PAC that supports Ron Paul, has led the way on Facebook expenditures, spending a total of $241,508 through January 2012.

And it's not just Facebook and Google where campaigns and activists are doing microtargeting. The music site Pandora announced last year that it would be selling political ad space targeted to the zip codes of particular listeners, the Wall Street Journal reported.

There's nothing inherently problematic about targeted ads. Campaigns have been using direct mail to target particular voters for decades. Digital targeting can be a cost-effective way of spending advertising dollars, especially for smaller groups, like Rebuild the Dream, which sees the ads as a great way to get more bang for their buck in terms of reaching their intended audience. (The group also launched a special donation drive specifically for the Facebook ad buy.) ProPublica even used Facebook ads to try to find sources for our 2009 series, When Caregivers Harm.

But as the ability to use data to reach particular people grows more sophisticated, targeting risks crossing privacy lines, as demonstrated by a recent New York Times article on how Target knew a teenage customer was pregnant before her father did.

What's clear is that if all this microtargeting translates into electoral gains, the scale and sophistication of these efforts will continue to grow, and the data science that gained traction in 2008 will become a regular part of campaigning. In the meantime, the Obama campaign's already substantial data team continues to hire statistical modeling analysts and analytics engineers.

The increasing ease and flexibility of online targeting also raises new questions about how politicians are presenting themselves to different audiences, how much campaigns need to tell their supporters about the personal information they collect -- and what will happen to the massive databases of voter information collected during the 2012 presidential campaign. Will they be sold? Passed on to other politicians?

Rebuild the Dream, which focuses on economic issues, was launched by MoveOn.org in 2011, but has been independent since January, Pugh said. The group's president is former Obama green jobs adviser Van Jones.

Pugh worked on the Obama campaign's digital analytics team in 2008 while also trying to finish a Ph.D. dissertation in robotics, and later did similar work for the Democratic National Committee. He said he was not sure what kind of reaction the ads would receive.

"I would imagine that people are fairly used to targeted ads at this point," he said. But while people who work in politics and advocacy may be used to receiving Facebook ads targeting specific causes, "It's hard to know in advance how unusual it will seem to the employees of Freddie Mac and JP Morgan Chase."
-----
Reader comments at: http://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-win-facebook-friends-and-influence-people/single#comments

Giving credit where credit is due: diabolical genius! Deadspin asks, "What Time Does The Super Bowl Start, He Wrote As A Headline To Game The Google Results"

NY Giants defensive players have to resort to faking injuries in order to keep St. Louis Rams no-huddle offense from steamrolling them. Sept. 20, 2011. http://youtu.be/eY26rgd4aps

It's not officially a Super Bowl until Alyssa Milano comes to Indy. 
NOW it's on!


Above, Alyssa wearing her signature Touch by Alyssa Milano New England Patriots Sweater Mix Jacket, the sort of thing you may've seen at the NFL Experience if you were in Indy while she was there schmoozing with fans and doing some promotional work for her popular line of NFL-themed women's clothing.
(I went to the one in D.C. held on the National Mall when the NFL started doing that to start off the season and held it in the NFL city hosting the first Monday Night Football game; if I remember correctly, they later had a mini-concert there by Journey, which I missed, since I rushed home to watch the game on TV.) 
But while I have chosen to show Alyssa wearing Patriots gear above because I'm picking them to beat the Giants by at least ten points tonight, as you can see from the photos of her at her always amusing posterous photo blog, which as I've mentioned here previously, I've subscribed to for a while now, she's actually pulling for the NY Football Giants. 
http://alyssamilano.posterous.com/date-night-in-indy


-----
Giving credit where credit is due: diabolical genius! 
Deadspin: "What Time Does The Super Bowl Start, He Wrote As A Headline To Game The Google Results"

The post was sinister and dumb and ruthless and brilliant, and a good indicator of why the HuffPo's traffic numbers are so insane.

http://deadspin.com/5881720/what-time-does-the-super-bowl-start-he-wrote-as-a-headline-to-game-the-google-results


http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/46/what-time-is-the-superbowl

http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/46

Or, if you are not near any of the tens of millions of Americans TVs that have the game on,  watch it online at: http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/46/live/sunday

Beet TV video:  NFL, NBC Sports and Verizon Wireless Ready the First Mobile Super Bowl
By Andy Plesser
February 3, 2012
http://www.beet.tv/2012/02/superbowl.html  



Rasmussen Reports
Super Bowl Viewers Don’t Think Madonna’s Good Choice For Halftime Show
February 3, 2012 http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/sports/january_2012/super_bowl_viewers_don_t_think_madonna_s_good_choice_for_halftime_show

Yes, 57% of likely Super Bowl viewers say no to Madonna as halftime entertainment, and I'm with them. For about the 20th year in a row I won't watch the halftime, but instead mute the TV and listen to what they're saying on the radio broadcast, in case someone stumbles accidentally into telling the the truth.


By the way, the 57% opposed to Madonna is a higher percentage of American than have voted for any winning presidential candidate since November of 1984.
(President Reagan was re-elected with 58.8% of the vote to former Vice President Walter Mondale's 40.6%.)


Two months after that election was the last Super Bowl the Dolphins played in, a 38-16 loss to the 49ers.
To give you some perspective, no woman now or recently appearing in Playboy was alive when the Dolphins last played in the Super Bowl. 
Just saying... epic mediocrity spans decades.


Here's some more perspective on those 27 years:

1985: The last time the Dolphins made it to the Super Bowl.

Story: Jake Cline, Sun Sentinel, Photo gallery: Melina I. De Rose, Sun Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/pictures/sfl-super-bowl-1985-lifestyle,0,1759537.photogallery

Below, an excellent historical analysis of Super Sunday from John Maxham, an advertising executive at Seattle's Cole & Weber United.
He "gets it."

Apart from being an effective and fun marketing gimmick, the use of Roman numerals in the Super Bowl may offer a deeper insight into our national psyche

mediabistro's AgencySpy blog
Op-Ed: ‘Svper Bowl Svnday’ – Our Invented Ancient Tradition
By Kiran Aditham on February 3, 2012 11:03 AM
http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/op-ed-svper-bowl-svnday-our-invented-ancient-tradition_b29030


-----
Two last things: If Tom Coughlan and Eli Manning were with the Seattle Seahawks, and had the same back story and stats, and were now in the Super Bowl, nobody-but-nobody would be talking the nonsense I've heard so much of this past week, on ESPN and elsewhere, about how IF they win against the Patriots, they're locks to get into Canton.
Who decided that?


It's because they're with the New York Giants. 
Period.


Again, I like the Patriots by at least ten points.

Google does it again! Now mapping the great Indoors!; LA Weekly's Informer blog: "Google Maps to go Indoors, Cover Macy's in L.A. And Other Malls"

Google video: Take Google Maps Indoors. November 28, 2011

http://youtu.be/Gy-DI_bWElg

Just when you might've thought that Google has no new worlds to conquer, no new source of hand-over-fist advertising revenue from something that's standing right in front of us that we all take for granted, they show their business savvy and smarts.

Yesterday I got word from them that "Google Maps is entering a new frontier: mapping the indoors."

plus.google.com/111401917971052287374/posts

They've even chosen to make a humorous example of their new feature, writ large, using our old friends at Ikea...

Google video: Take Google Maps inside Ikea

http://youtu.be/kT0KMsfD4d8

As usual, Google will have the last laugh as they will now get ad dollars from other retailers, esp. smaller shops, who previously didn't cough up money for their Google Ads or sidebar ads, targeting consumers who will be more likely to be visiting the mall.

It's equally true that restaurants, bars, night clubs, book stores or other smaller owner-managed retail outlets near popular destination malls would now consider using Google Ads targeting those same consumers heading to the mall, paying to have their ads come up when someone goes to Google Maps to use this new feature to check out a specific mall's particulars.

And who might now consider using their ads as well, who wouldn't normally be thought of as a likely client for Google Ads?

Popular fashion, home decor and lifestyle bloggers who want to increase the eyeballs coming over to their sites.

Yes, that's why they're Google -they're always looking at the big picture.

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/starthere/index.html

------

LA Weekly

Informer blog

Google Maps to go Indoors, Cover Macy's in L.A. And Other Malls

posted by Dennis Romero at The Informer

November 29, 2011

If you're a thoroughly modern 'tard who can't take two steps without consulting your smartphone for directions (guilty), then Google has a new update that should help you with the finest detail...

Read the rest of the post at:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/11/google_maps_malls_shopping_retail_angeles.php

-----

Peter Coffin video: The Lost Civilization of IKEA

http://youtu.be/aGFpsji9r5o

My last post on Ikea was from earlier this year, January 24th, titled, Daily Mail succeeds in solving riddle as old as time: "Ikea design stores 'as mazes' to stop shoppers leaving so you end up buying more..."

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/daily-mail-succeeds-in-solving-riddle.html

http://www.ikea.com/

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/

2012 Ikea catalog, USA: http://info.ikea-usa.com/Catalog/

2012 Ikea catalog, Sweden:

http://onlinecatalogue.ikea.com/SE/sv/2012/IKEA_Catalogue/

"Design by IKEA” blog: www.theshare-space.com/en/Blog

Ikea USA YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/IKEAUSA?feature=pvchclk

Ikea - Bättre skilsmässa åt alla -Better divorce for everyone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isjrGmFapS4

Warning! Don't upgrade to Firefox Mozilla 4.0 or you'll regret it -it's bad news!; YouTube Video Speed History

Warning! Don't upgrade to Firefox Mozilla 4.0 or you'll regret it -it's bad news!

My home computer has NEVER 'hanged' as frequently and for as long as it has since I downloaded the new version of Firefox Mozilla 4.0 on Sunday, upgrading from 3.6.15, which is one of the reasons that there have been no posts here since then.

Lest you forget, my computer crashed a LOT on Google Chrome two years ago, which is why I migrated to Firefox Mozilla in the first place. Frankly, in 2008, I got tired of resorting to simply yanking my computer's electrical cord out of its surge suppressor and starting over again after Chrome CONSTANTLY froze-up, and Google said they couldn't fix the problem.

Guess what, I DON'T drive cars that don't already have a reverse gear, working windshield wipers and headlights, because sometimes, they are needed, even when the car is used perfectly.
That's the same reason that I no longer use a web browser that the geniuses behind it can't or won't fix, preferring instead to simply shrug their shoulders and say that it's my problem when it doesn't work when used properly.
Sorry, I'm old-fashioned that way.

Chrome will have to be perfect for me to ever go to it again.

Yes, I know I can use the computer Restore function but the point is why is something being released to the public that is so problematic?

I mentioned the problem in an aside in an email earlier this afternoon about another subject. Sent, I should add, from somewhere other than my home computer, where this blog is cobbled together, two miles west of the Atlantic Ocean -and far-too-close to Hallandale Beach City Hall.

I've been having constant computer problems since Sunday night when I updated my Firefox Mozilla, i.e. lots more of "frozen" screens.

I pay for AT&T DSL Lite 6.0 but my computer is constantly operating at roughly between 3.7 and 4.2, and hence, a source of great frustration, esp. when AT&T customer service tells me that 6.0 is not a guarantee.
Thanks for telling me that after I signed-up!

An international jet-set friend commiserated.

glad to hear I'm not the only one having problems w Firefox...I watch Korean dramas on it, and it's been spotty...not downloading properly, freezing, etc.

Don't say you weren't warned.

To get a real gauge of what your computer speed is, as opposed to those dopey "speed tests" you see advertised, go to YouTube as I did below.
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=174122

Right-click a YouTube video you like and select "Take speed test."

It will give you a color-coded graph of your speed and how that compares to others with that ISP, your area, your state, your country and globally.

I assume this YouTube test will work as well for my friends and readers at distant posts in the far-flung Hallandale Beach Blog universe as it does for me here in Hallandale Beach, whether it's:

a.) my fashion-forward friends in Sweden with non-fashion/media jobs, who keep the Stockholm nightclubs busy at night even while studiously avoiding Stureplan's omnipresent photographers http://stureplan.se/ -so they don't get linked by mistake to the free-spending credit card crowd, i.e. the "Brats"- or,

b.) my tech savvy and political savant friends in London and Notting Hill, who keep sending me great material to read and ponder, both insightful and humorous.

The latter are constantly encouraging me to do whatever is necessary to come over next year for the London Olympics.
Like I need any encouragement for that!

Let me know if you try it and it doesn't work in your area, and I will mention that in a future blog post, but make sure you try it three times over two days before emailing me your thumbs down evaluation.

I'm sure the folks at YouTube would be interested, too, since they want everyone to be able to see the videos -and the ads.

Below, the chart that tells me that my home computer speed is not world-class -or Olympian. Me and my digital divide!

-------

YouTube Video Speed History

Your average video speed at this location from Feb 26, 2011 to Mar 26, 2011 was 3.71 Mbps.

Video Speed Comparison (Feb 26, 2011 to Mar 26, 2011)

Results from users of other ISPs near you:

• Comcast [5.53 Mbps]
• AT&T [4.84 Mbps]

This data is aggregated from our video servers. All ISP and geographic speed numbers are averages across many types of Internet connectivity.

Our FAQ has more information about our measurement methodology.

Show Test Video

The test video will show you your streaming information in real time (look next to "Streaming HTTP").

------

Forgot to mention above that Stureplan.se is one of those great media platforms for bloggers like the ones that I referenced back on February 21st, like Spotlife.se http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/thoughts-re-mondays-nyt-article-blogs.html that South Florida has nothing like, despite how much everyone keeps telling Bridget Carey of the Herald how sophisticated this area is.
Nope.

The Herald's longstanding inability to leverage their power and well-known name into a great platform for thoughtful bloggers with something original to say -and that people are interested in- is proof of that.

-----
April 2011 postscript:
One of the unfortunate aspects of this story with Firefox Mozilla 4.0 was that after upgrading, I could no longer listen to the BBC Radio streaming feed, and specifically, 5live,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/, which I generally listen to a few hours a day.
It was finito.


Even after I reversed course and went back to the previous Mozilla I was using, I could no longer hear the BBC, so I'm now forced to use Internet Explorer.

In fact, the small speaker icon no longer appeared on-screen on the radio player pop-up as it had previously after
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_five_live

On April 4th, after trying my best to get this resolved, I sent out an email to IT-brainy friends titled: It's official: a week of using Firefox Mozilla for BBC Radio equals no sound for programs/programmes, Back to using fussy ol' Windows Explorer for Beeb!

The management geniuses at BBC Radio have no clue what's going on, witness this at their r comments page for the No Sound problem forum.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbiplayer/NF7331803?thread=8141049

The idea that people that don't have the problem themselves have so much time on their hands to actually write-in to the website to chastise other listeners they don't know and make them sound like audio hypochondriacs, says a lot about something, I'm just not sure what precisely.

Video: Channel 4 News technology correspondent Benjamin Cohen on the browser battle between Microsoft and Google for the British and European markets

I'm finally ready to play catch up on some news videos that I have been meaning to post here for quite some time. I think you'll find them quite informative and entertaining, which is the way the new should always be presented -but isn't. The first is one from February 15th from Channel 4 News (U.K.)

Technology correspondent Benjamin Cohen on the browser battle between Microsoft and Google for the British and European markets, Explorer vs. Chrome for customer loyalty and the $, Sterling & Euros that come to search engines.

February 15, 2010
Segment begins at 04:22

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1529573111?bclid=66056040001&bctid=66636953001




Benjamin Cohen's informative technology blog is at:
http://blogs.channel4.com/benjamin-cohen-on-technology/


Catch up on the last seven days of Channel 4 News programs with their catch up service at
http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/

www.channel4.com/news

Blogger.com's new Editor is dreadfully S-L-O-W -when it works, i.e why no posts here for 6 days; Google's Eric Schmidt on The Charlie Rose Show

I love Google but... Google's Blogger.com new Editor is dreadfully S-L-O-W -when it works. That's why there have been no posts in this space for the past six days.

I have gotten progressively more frustrated and in order to get information out, was forced to send some of the info out as emails with suggestions to forward it. I hate doing that, plus it's much more time-consuming.

Every time I got into it and was staring at a blank box, my computer, using Mozilla Firefox, immediately begins to "hang" for minutes at a time, and that's after it takes forever to load.
I was constantly having to re-start my computer!!!
Much longer than the old Editor, which was/is positively breezy by comparison.

Friday night I watched the fascinating 32-minute interview with Google Inc. (GOOG) CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt on The Charlie Rose Show.
http://www.charlierose.com/

Interview at http://www.charlierose.com/view/content/11217
Past Schmidt interviews at http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/1007

While I usually enjoy seeing Schmidt and other high-tech types on Charlie's show, along with certain authors and columnists, given what I have been dealing with for the past week, I couldn't help but watch a little more incredulously than usual...
(Cue dream sequence music...)

Given the overwhelming unpopular opinion and problems that bloggers all over the world have had with this new "improvement," I'd have happily agree to buy Charlie a coffee and a sandwich at his favorite Starbuck's in NYC if he simply had interrupted some of the more self-congratulatory chit-chat and asked Schmidt the following:

"It's said by many that the Blogger.com platform more than anything else helped usher in the blogging revolution, but it's hard not to notice the crescendo of criticism surrounding the introduction of your new "Editor" that is supposed to allow the customer to proof the post more accurately than ever, but yet is beset with all manner of functional problems that remain unsolved as of this taping, and reportedly, you even neglected to incorporate something as basic as a spell-checking widget function in the new version.
Tell me, why would Google introduce a new version of something important to writing a blog but neglect to include a spell-checker?
Is this an example of Google NOT listening to your customers?"

Google's Eric Schmidt Talks to Charlie Rose

Google's CEO on the power of Facebook, the rivalry with Apple (where until recently he sat on the board), and trying to do the right thing in China

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_40/b4197039435964.htm

Can you PLEASE not get rid of the Old Editor?

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=734e63d2afe481b4&hl=en

New Editor gives "server error" when trying to upload images

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=452f0957bd0f7028&hl=en

See also the interviews on the topic of The Growth of Google with Michael Copeland , Chris Anderson and Jessica Vascellaro at
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11174

BBC News' Siobhan Courtney on 'planned attack' resulting in Pornographic videos flooding YouTube

I came across this disturbing story on the BBC's website this afternoon after watching the Manchester United-Fulham match at Craven Cottage that resulted in a thrilling 2-2 tie.

I'd gone to the BBC's website to see if there was anything new on the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, and there was, though nothing I can embed here yet as I'd hoped.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11050737

As of 2 p.m. today, there is not a single American media reference to this story on Google News, even though the BBC reported this on Thursday, and yes, I know that Google owns YouTube.

Seriously, are there really that many newspaper editors and TV producers on vacation right now that this story could slip through without being ever being mentioned in this country?

Of late, the American news media has needed no prompting to do a story on YouTube regarding whatever the latest sensation is, the stupider the better so it seems, but this story that parents ought to know about is being smothered.

I never really thought of myself as old-fashioned, per se, but my sense of things is that now as in the past, nobody wants a watchdog that doesn't bark.

-----

BBC-TV

Pornographic videos flood YouTube

By Siobhan Courtney Interactive reporter, BBC News

Page last updated at 17:09 GMT, Thursday, 21 May 2009 18:09 UK

The BBC's Interactive reporter Siobhan Courtney talks about the investigation into the 'video attack'.

Video-sharing website YouTube has removed hundreds of pornographic videos which were uploaded in what is believed to be a planned attack.

The material was uploaded under names of famous teenage celebrities such as Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers.

Many started with footage of children's videos before groups of adults performing graphic sex acts appeared on screen.

YouTube owner Google said it was aware and addressing the problem.

Read the rest of the story and see news video here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8061979.stm?ls

--------

The Daily Mail

YouTube deletes hundreds of porn clips disguised as Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers videos http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305218/YouTube-deletes-hundreds-pornographic-clips-disguised-Hannah-Montana-Jonas-Brothers-videos.html