Excursions

At FOWA, social media is the universal language

MIAMI--The Future of Web Apps conference here hasn't even started yet, but I'm already sensing a major theme of the weekend: social media really is a whole lot bigger than Silicon Valley.

I was sitting in the lobby of my hotel, writing a couple of blog posts because there's no in-room Wi-Fi (gotta make some sacrifices when choosing hotels in a luxury-saturated city like Miami) when a handful of 20- and 30-something guys with laptops came in and set up shop. Another, who'd been sitting across the room, came over and asked us if we were … Read more

Pasty geeks to invade Miami at Future of Web Apps

It's 35 degrees and windy in New York right now, but I have the good fortune to be packing up my bags and heading for Miami. No, it's not a vacation. I'm going to the Future of Web Apps conference, hosted by U.K.-based media and events firm Carsonified. I'll be there through Saturday.

Among the featured attractions at FOWA Miami are a wine tasting, an evening soiree at a South Beach nightclub, an afternoon "beach party," and a tug-of-war competition. Yeah, I'm pretty excited for that, even though I plan to … Read more

Happy holidays!

Just wanted to post a quick note to say that this blog isn't going to be updated much, if at all, until January 2. I'm taking some time off to try not to freeze enjoy a relaxing holiday season with friends and family, and will be back in action once the New Year kicks off.

If anything really drastic happens--you know, if Mark Zuckerberg quits his post as CEO of Facebook or something--then I'll have to drop in and start blogging my fingers off as usual. But for now, it's chill time.

See you in January!… Read more

BetaBlue: It's one small step for in-flight Wi-Fi

The biggest problem with JetBlue's inaugural "BetaBlue" flight, equipped with Yahoo and BlackBerry e-mail and instant messaging, was the fact that there aren't power outlets on board the aircraft.

Sure, there are those little 110-volt things in each bathroom. But if you hog the airplane toilet so that you can give your laptop some juice, you're going to be the second most unpopular person on that flight. (The screaming kid in seat 15D still beats you.)

All joking aside, if in-flight Wi-Fi is going to take off, airplanes are going to need power outlets. Virgin … Read more

Some turbulence for JetBlue's in-flight e-mail

Special thanks to my editors for posting this. I've filed it in-flight via e-mail.

I'm typing this somewhere over Louisville, Ky. (or so the "live map" on my seat monitor tells me), on board JetBlue flight 641, a "BetaBlue" New York-to-San Francisco plane equipped with Yahoo and BlackBerry e-mail and instant-messaging access. And, yes, I've found a hack already--as it turns out, you have access to some of Yahoo's mobile site as well, enabling you to look up news headlines, finance information, weather, and a handful of other light mobile apps.

Once … Read more

Reporters on a plane: JetBlue's inaugural 'e-mail flight'

Hello from John F. Kennedy International Airport, the establishment that some say is responsible for more New Yorkers' headaches than all the bars on Macdougal Street combined!

In a few minutes I'm scheduled to hop on board the inaugural flight of "BetaBlue," the JetBlue test flight equipped with access to Yahoo and BlackBerry e-mail and instant messaging. At present, I'm in the terminal at JFK waiting for the flight--which will touch down at San Francisco International Airport about six hours later

So here are a few of the things I'm hoping to explore...

-- Will … Read more

This Week in Social Media: Heading for the Hills Edition

Just kidding; this isn't a weekly recap. It's a public service announcement to let you know that The Social is going to be taking a break--I'm going on vacation from Thursday, Aug. 30 through Monday, Sept. 10. Consequently, you won't be seeing a whole lot coming out of this blog in that span of time, unless Facebook decides to file for an IPO or something. Then maybe I'll come out of hiding.

Say what? When it comes to uptime, 'Second Life' founder is on cloud nine

Virtual world Second Life, the centerpiece of this weekend's Second Life Community Convention in Chicago, has occasionally come under fire for its outages. Scheduled downtime, unpredicted outages, server crashes due to onslaughts of thousands of Super Mario graphics flooding the tubes (those are from griefers, natch)--it's a headache for newbies and avid residents alike.

But in his keynote at the convention on Saturday morning, Philip Rosedale, the founder and CEO of Second Life parent company Linden Lab, suggested that we all look on the bright side. The virtual world is active about 90 percent of the time, … Read more

SLCC '07: Chicago is the metaverse's metropolis

CHICAGO, Ill.--This might just be the perfect city for a Second Life convention. At least this out-of-towner thinks so.

When you think about it, a good number of Chicago's urban planning quirks have quite a bit in common with the aesthetics of some of Second Life's more popular "sims." It's because parts of the city are so planned--as though they were created with a few well-thought-out mouse clicks that could easily be tweaked and improved. The business and shopping districts are peppered with bright displays of greenery and flowers, the streets and gardens in … Read more

On the eve of 'Second Life' convention, Chicago gets griefed

CHICAGO, Ill.--They call it the Windy City, but I don't think travelers to this weekend's Second Life Community Convention in Chicago were expecting tornadoes to get in their way.

The Midwest was smacked with thunderstorms and flooding on Thursday, with winds in one storm hitting 70 miles per hour, and a tornado (albeit not a very big one) running amok and even entering the grounds of Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

I, for one, was scheduled to take a 4:25 flight out of New York's JFK Airport that would (allegedly) touch down at 6:15 … Read more