Did you know that yesterday was National Clean out your Computer Day? It’s true…

“It can be hard to remember to routinely clean out your computer — whether that means running virus scans or organizing your files. That’s why having a day devoted to making sure that your computer is working well and that you can find anything you need on it is a good idea. The Institute for Business Technology originally sponsored a National Clean Out Your Computer Day several years ago, assigning it to the second Monday in February. It’s a holiday well worth adding to your calendar.” Source: Feb. 8 is Clean Out Your Computer Day – WebWorkerDaily

Seems silly to have an ‘event’ like this on the 2nd Monday of February — like there’s not enough to do on Mondays anyway…

In any case, this ‘event’ got me thinking about a post I’ve been meaning to write for awhile, namely, that ‘Jacques was right’…

Who is Jacques? Jacques was a legendary systems engineer in the Chicago office of Apple Computer, Inc. [He has since moved on as part of the 'Apple Quality Eradication Program']. When I was a reseller, and later an Apple account executive, Jacques and I used to go round and round on the issue of shareware, freeware, add-ons, etc. Jacques was a minimalist whose philosophy was that there are some things that need to be removed immediately in order for a Mac to even run [which in hindsight was very true in OS 9 days -- that operating system was held together by paperclips and rubberbands!]. My approach? If an operating system is well written, I should be able to install anything I want and expect it to run just fine. Forget about the fact that my Mac was crashing 5 times before lunch — I insisted that my way was right. I mean Guy Kawasaki was telling us that system crashes in those days were ‘God telling you to hug your kids’ or ‘get a can of Coke’. In hindsight? Jacques approach was right regardless of whatever OS you’re running…

Over a decade later, I have to admit that I’m getting more and more like Jacques every day! Last summer I had a horrible daily struggle with 64 bit Vista. In hindsight it appears that I was the one creating my own hell by installing 32 bit apps and drivers in the wrong directories on the machine. I had such a bad experience that I ‘downgraded’ to 32 bit Vista and wrote a rant about it here. Fortunately, a budding genius from the IT department at St. Norbert encouraged me to give 64 bit Windows 7 a chance and the rest is history. Since upgrading at the beginning of the year, I’ve been having a rock solid computing experience but only because I think twice about every app I install and watch it like a hawk to make sure that Windows puts it in the right directory…

My advice? Here are a couple of random thoughts…

• Use the old carpenter adage of ‘measure twice and cut once’; think twice about installing that untested software…
• When testing new things, use VMWare or VirtualBox to install test applications before messing with your ‘production machine’…
• Maintain your computer! I used a combination of Tune Up Utilities [which is the only utility I buy] combined with CCleaner, Defraggler, and Revo Uninstaller. You can download the latter free applications [as well as many other good ones] here.

Finally? Here’s another beauty I’ve learned this year; limit the number of computers you use. Continuous futzing with operating systems is a huge time suck! At the end of last year, I was working on 5 computers using three operating systems. I’m now down to 3 with two operating systems and life is better! Use only the computers and os’s, along with the apps, you need…

Google’s announcing two new communication technologies. The first is live translation…

“Google already offers a tool that lets you translate text from one language to another and technology that can convert spoken language to text. Now it looks like Google is taking the next logical step and creating a Babel Fish which you can stick in your ear to instantly understand any spoken language.

…Only instead of a fish, Google’s version will be an app that runs on your smartphone. But you’ll still probably hold it up to your ear.” Source: Google working on real-time voice translation app for phones

The second? It appears that Google’s not taking Facebook’s email announcement sitting down…

“Gmail is set to become Google’s next major push into social media. According to The Wall Street Journal, the popular webmail service will soon launch a new feature for sharing content and status updates with friends. [Update: We think Google might announce these features on Tuesday]

As WSJ points out, Gmail (Gmail) users can already update their statuses — sort of — through Gmail’s chat feature. Currently, this feature is more akin to the traditional IM “away message.” However, with this new social push, Gmail will offer a timeline-view of your friends’ status updates, just like on Facebook and Twitter (Twitter).” Source: HUGE: Google Set to Make Gmail Social With Status Update Features

and…

“Google is working on something mysterious that has to do with Gmail and social networking, but the details are still under wraps. The new product will be unveiled tomorrow, and it could be anything from integrating Gmail status updates with Twitter and Facebook to launching a full-scale Twitter-like service of its own.” Source: Google Stream? Google will launch “huge” new social features tomorrow

Stay tuned…

Social media has it’s own “while you were sleeping” today…

“Although all is said and done when it comes to football this season, such is not the case for the Super Bowl advertisers.

We’re now entering the entertaining aftermath of the Super Bowl ad showdown, and thanks to social media tracking services like Alterian and Radian6 (Radian6), we can take an early look at advertisers winning big on the web.” Source: Social Media Score Card: How the Super Bowl Advertisers Performed

Apparently, Focus on the Family and their Tim Tebow commercial dominated the space…

Elsewhere, the TED conference starts today…

“The 2010 Technology Entertainment Design conference will be kicking off tomorrow in Long Beach, California, bringing the leading minds of many fields together to talk shop about innovation, change, and what the future holds.

As social media has become a game changer for industries across the board, you can bet the experts at this year’s TED conference will have their sights set on peeling back the hype and getting at the core of what social technology has in store for this year and beyond.” Source: 5 Insightful TED Talks on Social Media

Is Twitter dead?

“AdWeek published the article, The Tweet Hereafter, yesterday and it will probably make no sense to any Marketer who sees any of the Social Media platforms as something more than just another advertising channel.

“Like Second Life, Twitter has become a wasteland for brands. Verizon, a company that spent more than $1 billion on advertising in 2009, has around 5,000 followers — about 0.3 percent the amount that Perez Hilton has. Coca-Cola has 15,000. Apple’s not even on Twitter. And some corporate Twitter accounts suffer from prolonged neglect. Delta Airlines’ Twitter page went from June 17 to Dec. 22 last year without a single update. Delta reps could not be reached for comment.”

So, what’s the message? If you’re looking at trying to find a pure brand building or advertising channel to supplant what you’re doing on television or in print, then Twitter may not be the best substitute. But, if you’re trying to see what kind of conversation there is around your brand, the types of people interested in the industry you serve, the ideas, compliments and complaints that people have about your brand (and your industry), then why would you not be engaged on (or at least monitoring) Twitter? ” Source: Marketers Miss The Mark With Twitter | Six Pixels of Separation – Marketing and Communications Blog – By Mitch Joel at Twist Image

Rock on!

Here’s the deal…

“The main way FollowUpThen works [is]: CC a message that needs a second push to an address like 5hours, 2days, 1week, or even 10minutes@followupthen.com, and if your recipient doesn’t reply (with FollowUpThen as one of the addressees) before your time period is up, the original message is re-pushed by FollowUpThen.com, with a little email graphical tweak, seen above, and a notice that FollowUpThen is acting on your wishes.” Source: FollowUpThen Automates Email Follow Ups -- Email -- Lifehacker

Here’s a video:

Would you use a tool like this? Comment, call or contact me and let me know what YOU think…

…about what the web could be. Scoble sez…

“Siri is the most useful thing I’ve seen so far this year.

But after playing with it, getting an interview with its CEO (video here on building43) it’s even more important for you to pay attention to.

It is the best example of what the web will be.” Source: Why if you miss Siri you’ll miss the future of the Web

“I hope everyone takes a look at the video, it really shows the magic of this system, which is getting a lot of great reviews around the web. Most of the bloggers I’ve seen are slobbering over it, deservedly so.

This is the future of the web. How can we get there faster?” Source: Why if you miss Siri you’ll miss the future of the Web

I’ve been using it over the weekend and it is all that an a bag of chips as we say up here…