SXSW

In Austin, TX for South by Southwest Education Conference, Interactive, and Music & Film Festivals. And I am excited! I ‘ve picked up few apps to help out over the next two weeks. The obvious ones of course are the SXSWedu & SXSW Mobile apps. Austin Food Carts helps you track down any of the great food carts the city has to offer. RideScout will help you made use of the multitude of transportation options.

Early restaurant recommendations Easy Tiger Bake Shop & Beer Garden and Annie’s Café and Bar.

Delicious’ passing … new options arise

With the news of Delicious’ demise, some of the alternatives I have found have an interesting take on collecting links an present them with more curated feel.  Although there is always a place for a good tag cloud.  I think this much more potential as tool for event or topic tracking.  I use delicious as a tool in education to provide one link for all supporting material for workshops and show faculty how to use it in their own classes.  Check out these examples using Bit.ly’s new bundles and Curated.by.

http://bit.ly/eDqu6N

Locked out a God send

Last night as I left my apartment a cry of horror came from the back of my brain just as the latch of the door clicked.  A burst of emotions hit me quickly changing from panic to rage to self hatred. Even though I knew the back door was both locked and chained, I went around to the rear entrance and confirmed what I had already known.  Then a small glimmer of hope the bathroom window beside me.  I checked it … also locked.  Another half hour of frustration followed as I desperately alternated from trying to force the window open and unlatching it with a credit card.  As my mood finally calmed down and switched to acceptance, I began thinking clearer.  Actual solutions presented themselves… phone no also locked inside … car keys also locked inside …landlord number also locked inside and couldn’t remember his name …campus is open until elven I can look it up online.   Alas a solution had emerged.  I headed back to campus, ran a few Google searches, and recognized his number when I saw it.  I called the number only to get voice mail.  Left my message and proceed to watch hulu for the next two hours as I waited for the return call that never came.  Since, I did have my wallet it dawned on me that if he doesn’t call back I can just get a room at the Comfort Suites in town.

When I check into the hotel, the attendant gives me a rate even lower than the AAA rate despite my not having the card… things are looking up.  Upon entering my room and see that gorgeous flat screen tv, I recall all the college basketball games being played on ESPN.  Since I have forgone cable, I would have missed these games at home.  Watching the games, I looked forward to a long shower, I only ever get ten minutes of hot water in my apartment, and the continental breakfast in the morning.

Side note major kudos to Comfort Suites the room was emmaculate was complete with:

  • the aforementioned flat screen tv
  • two beds
  • couch and coffee table
  • fridge
  • micro wave
  • a heating system with digital display allowing to actually set the desired temperature
  • an alarm clock with preset buttons to local country, classical, and pop stations as well as a line in

I mention all of this because by the end of the night and into this morning I was actually happy that I had locked myself out of the apartment.  It was like a little mini vacation right in the middle of the week that recharged my batteries.  And with the economic times what they are, it was a very affordable way to do so.  So, if you are feeling warn out and have been cutting corners to save money and just need a cheap way to get away from it all, call your local upper scale hotel you could probably dicker a pretty good price.

AJSPS

Twitter Draft Solution

If you really get into the NFL Draft but don’t want to waste 10 hours in front of the boob tube or a computer waiting for your teams’ pick. Give twitter a try. I found this NFL Draft Twitter today. Not sure if it for real but I am going to give it a try. Also, there seems to be a Steelers, Browns, Bills, and of course Dolphins Twitters as well. Not sure who set them up but if enough people start following them maybe the will start posting.

AJSPS

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twatter

No, you read that right, twatter. AKA twitter chatter. I got my first dose of it today. This is were twitter goes from a simple posting mechanism to full out chat using the @ symbol so all the readers know who the message is directed to. The problem lies in if you don’t have the other person in your follow list then you only see half the conversation. and your phone vibrates every two seconds with someone else’s conversation. The plus you don’t need to remember or have your friends numbers in your phone and your other friends can butt in with their 2 cents. Another angle on this though has to be Verizon. After a couple weeks of this my guess is that unlimited message cost goes up.

AJSPS

P.S. Or maybe… chitter I guess some things don’t like the other connotation of twat.

P.S.S. This is like one giant 21st century chat room only you never leave and only see those you call friends

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