Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 7.30.09 MC Hammer's cousin arrested. Allegedly raped woman met on Twitter

Marvin Turell Grant (Cousin of MC Hammer) photo courtesy of Livermore Police Dept.

MC Hammer’s “Cousin Marv” (Marvin Turell Grant) who has appeared on his A&E reality show was arrested for allegedly raping a 40 year old woman he met on Twitter.

He has been bailed out by his famous cousin, (who, by the way, has over a million Twitter followers).

Supposedly, Marvin arranged to meet this woman for dinner subsequently went back to a hotel in Livermore, California where the assault would have taken place.

Hammer occasionally offers up words of encouragement for Marvin via his Tweets. In one, he even welcomes his cousin to FAME.

Big Marv thanks his followers

And, in turn, Big Marv publicly thanks his followers.

You can read all about it at this ABC affiliate website.

Yes folks, this stuff really happens. Be careful out there. It’s crazy.

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 7.23.09 Facebook usernames can now be changed!

Remember several weeks ago when I blogged about the addition of a new feature on Facebook and urged you all to claim your unique user name?

There were screams of caution during this process as Facebook warned you to choose your name wisely and carefully, as you would be stuck with it forever.

Well, forever is sooner than we all thought. You are now able to change your facebook username if you did not choose wisely and carefully. This is great news if you selected that you find unbearable and cannot live with. The not-so-great news is that there is, as time goes on, less and less of a selection to choose from.

Tip: Pick a name that you don’t have to spell out for everyone, that is easy to remember and that reflects you or your business in some way and above all, will stand the test of time.

Caution: Facebook now claims that you will only be able to change your name once. I wouldn’t bet on that seeing as they reversed this policy so quickly after the launch of this new program, but in the interest of full disclosure, I thought I should mention it.

MySpace, in case you use it, also has this feature. It really does make it easy to have people who are looking find you.

So go forth and claim your (new) URL Just login to your account. Go to settings, then your account and click on change next to where it says “User Name”

You can find us at

facebook.com/muttmedia

myspace.com/muttmediany

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 7.21.09 Chase Employee arrested for ATM heist

So today I read in my favorite newspaper, The New York Post – that a 24 year old employee of Chase Bank named Robin Katz was arrested for illegedly stealing from one of her wealthy Clients.

How did she do this? Well, she got her hands on a duplicate ATM card in the Client’s name and began to slowly make withdrawls, using the card dozens of times in less than a year. In all, she managed to take over $110,000.

How was she caught? The Client noticed a six-figure differential in his seven-figure balance and notified bank officials. If this Client was anything like yours truly, this scam could’ve gone on for years without Katz’s shenanigans being discovered. Luckily, he was diligent about checking his statements.

Things like this happen all the time. Identity theft with credit cards and insurance scams are all too common. What I find interesting about this story is how the Post does research for their stories….they went on Katz’s MySpace page where she claims she is a “…rocket scientist by day, party fool by night” and her interests are “Politics – F Bush, Sex – F Me”. Photos are of her in tight, low-cut clothing doing all sorts of fun and adventurous things. She says she would most like to meet her “good twin”.

Hmmmmm. People – please think about your social networking sites and the material you post. Not that there’s anything wrong with a 24 year old single girl who likes to party, but if you’re going to commit a crime or gain any sort of notariety, have a little foresight.

She’ll probably get a reality show out of this.

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 7.17.09 European publishers seek more online control of works

I read an article in the International Herald Tribune last the other day while waiting to board my flight home from Italy. This article was written by Eric Pfanner and it was called “European publishers seek enforcement of copyright”.

The crux of the piece was how leading European newspaper and magazine publishers were calling on the European commission to strengthen their copyright protection so as to generate an income stream from their online counterparts.

The problem from the point of view of the publisher, is that information is so – almost too – readily available and transmitable that it is impeding their ability to control dissemination of the news.

Welcome to the not-so-new world, publishers! This is what makes the internet great, in my opinion. Yes, printed media will experience a loss of revenue. There are some that attempt to make the consumer pay for the online couterpart to the written word, but in my view, this is a futile effort at best. I, for one, view these pay-per-view entities as an impediment to the spirit of the web.

Only a handful of newspapers or magazines have had success in charging readers to use their sites, as the article points out – among them The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

What the European publishers want is greater control over the reproduction of their creative works.

My question is how would this function? If one did a Google search, would the results be the same and would certain articles be free while others offered at a premium.

Not on board with this one only because years of getting information easily and free have spoiled me, and trust me – you too.

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 7.16.09 NYPD spends $1M on Typewriters – how retro!

Today’s amazement comes courtesy of the NYPD and how they continue using Brother Selectric Typewriters.

I am old enough to remember when Brother came out with these – the typewriters with the screen in front that showed you your typing before it printed – one line at a time.

Oh Brother!

I watch Law & Order religiously and I cannot believe that with all of the high-tech gadgetry available and showcased that they are still using this antiquated equipement. The reason? Some of their forms still utilize carbon paper. Edith Linn, a retired NYPD officer and professor of criminal justice at Berkely College in NYC conducted a study of 500 NYPD officers on arrest behavior. Out of these interviews came the newsflash that many cops are adverse to following up on routine arrests for minor offenses because of the outdated equipment and the amount of time it takes to construct a report.

We can link a decades old crime with the perpetrator using advanced science but we can transition from the typewriter.

Amazing.

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 7.15.09 Will Blog for Food: How the unemployed are spending their time off

Another Tip from Mutt Media NY

I’ve said it before but it bears mentioning over and over again. Need attention? For anything? A charity, pet project, shameless self-promotion? BLOG!!

Yet again – this time this past Monday in the NY Post in the @work section, there appeared an article about how blogging has become THE thing for out-of-work people of all ages, shapes and sizes. I began blogging when I founded Mutt Media and I haven’t been able to shut up since. I find there’s plenty of things that I find compelling, interesting or just that warrant a comment or two and so, I write.

This wasn’t always so. Yes, I was an English major in college and writing has always come easy to me. Much easier than taking a conventional exam, I will admit but as a student I found writing to be a chore, a necessary evil. Now that it is no longer a so-called “requirement”, I submit to it voluntarily.

As a business tool, it can be invaluable. If you have good content, people will tune in and read – always a plus if your Blog is an appendage of your website. But it is more than that. In today’s climate of employee hiring, there is an abundance of competition for work. Prospective employers are using the search engines to find anything about their applicants. I personally know some who have found Facebook profiles and passed on calling the applicant for an interview.

As I said Bloggers come in all shapes and sizes. Here are some funny titles. I cannot vouch for the content but the names are catchy. Pinkslipsarethenewblack.com, yourunemployeddaughter.com, livingwithmyparents.com, whatssofunnyaboutunemployment.wordpress.com and unemployeddad.com just to name a few.

Moral of the story? Carefully craft your message and get it out there. Blog well and blog often. It works.

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 7.14.09 Mac vs. PC & Vista security

Here’s a great video posted on YOUTUBE that totally brings home the point of yesterday’s blog topic.

I love these Mac vs. PC commercials….they make me giggle.

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 7.13.09 Google & Apple: Share-Share. Is that fair?

So, forgive me if I bore you with some of last weeks’ news, but I’ve been on holiday and not in touch. There are some things in the news that I would’ve blogged about in Real Time but sometimes vacation trumps work, and that’s a good thing, right?

So, first off, our friends at Google, in the midst of executing their plan for world domination and data-collection, have announced they will be releasing their own Operating System called Chrome. At first blush, I am excited about this, for a couple of reasons.

Google does seem to get it right. Their services are useful and free – two features I always find pleasing. I like anything that works and doesn’t stress me out, as I am a simple girl. Their analytics and other applications function well and play nice with my MacBook. Life is good. Yay Apple & Google.

My husband is engaged in a brutal war at the moment with his new laptop that is running Windows Vista, an operating system that doesn’t play well with others. He needs to run a certain software for his business and Vista just won’t cooperate. Updates, tech support, patches and lots of nonsensical work-arounds have kept my husband up at night and his staff has logged hours trying to trouble shoot for him to no avail. He’s had to wipe out the hard drive and reinstall programs, download updates that in the end, set his efforts back and just yesterday, his laptop shot off a really low blow: just crapped out. During one of the mind-bending downloads and installs, during step 3 of 3, the screen goes dark but for 3 lines that read, “Running Step 3 of 3. 0% complete. Do not shut down your computer.” And so he waited and waited. Still 0% complete 45 minutes later but the graphics are moving like something is happening. But nothing does.

I used to work off of a Windows PC. You don’t realize how much of a nightmare it is until you switch to a Mac. I swear ONCE YOU GO MAC YOU NEVER GO BACK. (Knock on wood) My Mac & I do not have to battle resistant, mutating viruses, updates go off without a hitch and all of my programs load like butter. Going on 2 years together and so far, it’s a match made in compuer heaven.

So, my point? Let’s take a look behind the scenes to see why my Mac (Apple) and Google apps work so well together. The common denominator here could be that they share a CEO named Eric Schmidt and another Board Member name Arthur D. Levinson, the CEO of Genentech.

Is this a conflict? Does this fly in the face of anti-trust laws, which are in place to safeguard against possible collusion between companies (and world domination).

An article in the Global edition of the New York Times from last Friday by Brad Stone speculates that the “Chrome Operating System is likely to create more questions for regulators”. Yep, this alliance is already on the radar of the Federal Trade Commission with the investigation going on for the last several months.

Under section 8 of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act specific limits are placed on the sharing of information between companies by common board members.

In the case of Schmidt and Levinson, both claim to recuse themselves during portions of the Board Meetings when the discussions turn to tricky topics.

Where is the overlap? Well, Apple makes the IPhone and Google has the Android Software (see YouTube video for info on Android and the “G Phone” below), Apple has ITunes and then there’s YouTube, Apple has the Safari Browser and now here’s Google with Chrome.

In the end, the FTC will decide whether these relationships are problematic. It all comes down to what percentage of the overall business is affected.

I don’t care. I just love my MacBook and my Google. Can’t we all just get along? (hello Microsoft!)

Then maybe my poor husband will get some sleep.

Molto Bene Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 7.3.09 Hello from Positano. Let's talk about Tweetlater.com

Here’s a question.

Have you ever punched in a keyword on Twitter and come up with a list of people, read through their home pages and decide to follow them? Guess what? You’re not alone. This is happening all over Twitter.

Ever get a Direct Message (DM) or public msg (@mrsjones ) from any of your Twitter followers? If you’ve spent any significant time on the site and paid any attention whatsoever, you already know that that’s how Twitter works.

Another question: Have you ever received a “personal” message from someone you’ve begun to follow that immediately thanked you for following them? How did it make you feel? For one, I am sure you were impressed by how quickly the “thank you” was delivered to your inbox and probably somewhat impressed by how the person could possibly keep on top of all of their thousands of followers and seem to thank each and every one personally.

Want to impress your followers and make a personal connection? Visit Tweetlater.com. This is a great resource and it allows you to do much more than automate responses to your followers. You can use their dashboard to vet your followers, set up multiple accounts and elect to automatically follow back. This is a great resource if you seek to use Twitter to further your business.

A word of caution: do not use the automated feature to sell a product or to overtly promote yourself or your business, which very well be construed as presumptious and irritating. Simply use this as a relationship-builder and greet your new follower with a warm, friendly message (i.e., “Thanks for the follow and your interest in Mutt Media.”)

Visit Tweetlater and have a look around the site. It takes a day or so for your account to be fully set up, so have patience. If you have any questions, they have a pretty solid Help area and, refreshingly, you can email the site and you will get a really prompt reply.

Happy Holiday Weekend from the most beautiful spot in the world!

Positano

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 7.1.09 A Cute Dilbert comic

Thought this was cute…for more Dilbert go to Dilbert.com