NASA and What I Enjoy The Most About Twitter

I've also been a fan of social networking. I've spent countless hours on Friendster, Facebook, and Twitter. Even though there are some that I don't quite get (Path?), I appreciate being able to keep up with old friends and make new ones.

As of late, Twitter has been my preferred network of use. One of the main reasons for this is because Twitter is best suited for finding normal people with similar interests. As you've seen from this blog, my interests vary across many technology fields, so I'm always looking for new people to meet. In contrast, Facebook is best suited to find famous people with similar interests (via Pages), or reconnecting with friends.

As I detailed in my previous posts, I won a NASA contest to see the space shuttle Endeavour launch, which was originally scheduled for April 19th. Even though several postponements led to me missing the actual launch, the Twitter community of former and current launch attendees has been a joy to be a part of. Even before I met the NASA Tweetup participants, we already shared tips, jokes, and rants together. When we did meet for the first time in Daytona during the third attempted launch date on May 2nd, it was like a reacquainting with someone you've met already.

One thing I love about finding a community that shares a similar interest is when you discover other common interests. This helped overcome the pressure, for example, of only talking about space with the NASA Tweetup folks. After we began following each other, a natural flow of conversation began as we started commenting and replying on people's messages. Even after the space shuttle program is long discontinued, I'm sure that I will maintain relationships with the people that I've met through Twitter and in person.

If you'd like to follow me, my Twitter username is @ShareefJackson. Hope to see you there!

Tech in Vegas: Touchscreen Directory

Last week I was at a medical conference at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. First of all, the place was HUGE, and the geniuses that designed it placed the conference center as far as possible from the hotel rooms. Every day I had to drag myself for what seemed like a mile through the casino where every slot machine plays the same jingle.

I did run across some cool tech though! Check out the video below for the MGM Grand convention center directory - it's pretty cool!

Tech in Business: iPads at Conferences

I've already posted from the iPad line and shot an unboxing video, so it's obvious that I'm in love with the shiny tablet. But how does it fare during one of the most stressful parts of my job - covering a medical conference?

When I cover a conference, I have a few main things that I have to do:

1) Attend medical sessions
This is an easy one for the iPad. Since I don't worry about formatting while I'm actively noting, I use the default Notes app, since it automatically syncs with my gmail. That way if I crash, I still have a backup. When I got back to my room to format the notes, I use Pages. Unfortunately Apple doesn't have a good way to backup Pages files so I use a free service called DropBox which gives me 2GB of free space online to save documents. I can sync my Pages files to my DropBox account using a service called DropDav.

2) Review medical posters
Companies and schools present their latest research on posters. Most medical conferences have a huge hall dedicated to nothing but rows and rows of posters. Previously I had to either squint into my iPhone to take notes or look up interesting companies / schools or break out my fugly work laptop. With the iPad, I can carry it around without my arm getting tired, and use one hand to do my research and take notes simultaneously. I use Numbers to carry my obnoxiously created spreadsheet containing the interesting posters that I've previously marked off, so that I can prioritize my approach to the maze like corridors of the poster hall. As I stated in the first paragraph, I use the default Notes app for note taking, and later format with Pages.

3) Send out reports to my colleagues
This one's easy. Since I've already formatted my work in Pages, it's just a matter of creating one larger report. Since I don't have a corporate iPad with VPN access to my Outlook Exchange account, I forward the report from my personal gmail to my work email. Then, I access my work email via Outlook Web Access on the browser, and send it out to my distribution list. Is this more steps then having a laptop? Definitely. But the portability and ease of use during sessions and posters more than makes up for the inability to access corporate sites via VPN.

I still bring my laptop because there are some specialized programs that I can only run on the Dell, but I don't use it anymore for the day to day work that I do during a conference. The key to being successful with an iPad at a conference is to jump in and try it. There is a bit of learning curve, especially if you're not good at fast touch typing on an iPad screen. Once you get it, you won't go back!

Tech Overload: Who Really Cares?

There's been a lot of news recently about the mythical white iPhone 4 being released. It's almost a year late, and the iPhone has sold gangbusters while being available only in black. So why all the hubbub?

Who really cares?

Is it just the tech journalists, who need things to write about?

Is it Apple, who is dealing with the embarrassment of failing to deliver on a promise of the white model?

Is it the component manufacturers, who were allegedly the cause of the White iPhone delay?

Wo really cares?

It sure isn't the average person, who wants a quality product and won't get caught up in the color. People bought purple Gamecubes and they bought black iPhones. To the tune of 3 million.

Who really cares? When the white iPhone drops, the tech blogs will make a big deal out of it but I doubt many other people will

Tech on TV: Story Reigns Supreme

Fringe, one of my favorite current TV shows, is starting to cross over into the danger zone. This zone consists of TV producers who try to use some kind of tech, fancy or not, as a crutch to carry a weak episode.

The most glaring example is the Simpsons 3D episode. Without the 3D, it would be a fairly boring episode. With the 3D, it's a fairly boring episode made even worse by the distracting graphical effects. Even though the Simpsons is still on, episodes like the 3D one marked a downfall of the quality of the show.

Poor Fringe. They decided to have half of the show as an animated comic, which is just annoying and distracting to a viewer. It did nothing to advance the story, which was a less than stellar Inception ripoff. If you haven't seen it yet I won't spoil it for you, but it does extend the storyline of William Bell inhabiting Olivia's consciousness.

I wouldn't mind this use of tech if the stories behind them were strong. It seems like content creators see the tech and slack off on the actual content that the tech is applied to. Preferably, they would draft the story first as usual, and then add the tech later. The story should stand alone.