Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 9.15.09 Ryan Seacrest meets with Ben Stiller, interrupting his Twitter Sesh

OMG…I really love Ben Stiller and have for a looooong time – Flirting with Disaster is one of my all time favorites.

He and Ryan Seacrest made this short video about Twitter. Check it out. Oh, and if you do not require monetary numeration to do so, follow Ben on Twitter @redhourben.

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 9.13.09 Watch this cartoon from YouTube on Twitter From: "SuperNews!" An animated sketch comedy series airing on Current TV

Loving this video!

Got to give credit for one of my virtual classmates (Vanessa) at the New School for posting this video to our class blog and calling my attention to it.

This cartoon was posted on You Tube and is a funny commentary on all of the current chatter surrounding social networking, micro-blogging and the like.

Hope you enjoy it. Post your comments! Thanks, Vanessa

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came the newsflash that many cops are adverse to following up on routine arrests for minor offenses because of the outdated equipment and the amount of time it takes to construct a report.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.

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

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 6.30.09 Author Alice Hoffman uses Twitter to "vent"

So, here’s a question on ethics to mull over. If a critic gives a negative review of a creative work, how far is the “artist” able to go in expressing their reaction? No one likes negative criticism, especially when we’ve poured our creative heart ‘n soul into a project.

Yesterday, it was widely reported that writer Alice Hoffman received a less than glowing review of her recent novel, “The Story Sisters”. One such review appeared in the Boston Globe by Roberta Silman. I read the review and in truth, it was kind in some places and critical in others. This is the nature of creating something and putting it “out there”. People criticize and excuse me for stating the obvious, but so do critics.

Hoffman has enjoyed much success in her career and is a seasoned writer. I would think she would have acquired a thicker skin through the years. Apparently not.

In a series of ranting Tweets posted to her Twitter account (partial list here, thanks to Gawker.com), Hoffman basically rants about Silman’s critique and publishes her personal phone number and email information and exhorts her followers to get in touch if they want to tell her off.

In my opinion, a public figure should be a bit more adept at holding it together, even circumstances much more difficult. A bad review (which this was not) is no excuse for a public meltdown and release of personal information with encouragement for the public at large to take action against another.

SELECTED TWEETS FROM ALICE HOFFMAN:

“Roberta Silman in the Boston Globe is a moron. How do some people get to review books?”

“Now any idiot can be a critic. Writers used to review writers. My second novel was reviewed by Ann Tyler. So who is Roberta Silman?”

“No wonder there is no book section in the Globe anymore. They don’t care about their readers, why should we care about them?”

“If you want to tell Roberta Silman off, her phone is _____________. RSilman@verizen.net (sic). Tell her what you think of snarky critics”

Hoffman then soon after and through her publicist, released this apologetic statement (as they say, a day late and a dollar short):

I feel this whole situation has been completely blown out of proportion. Of course I was dismayed by Roberta Silman’s review which gave away the plot of the novel, and in the heat of the moment I responded strongly and I wish I hadn’t. I’m sorry if I offended anyone. Reviewers are entitled to their opinions and that’s the name of the game in publishing. I hope my readers understand that I didn’t mean to hurt anyone and I’m truly sorry if I did.

Of course, the synical amongst us could just view this entire episode as one giant publicity coup. Silman, through her lukewarm review and the resulting tirade on Hoffman’s part, have garnered the novel much more notice than it may have received otherwise.

Ironic, huh? Any thoughts?

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 6.25.09 Don't forget your Facebook personal URL…available to EVERYONE after midnight on Sunday!

Just a reminder to choose your personal URL on facebook! This service was available several weeks ago but was limited in terms of PAGES. If you have a PAGE and less than 1000 fans, after midnight on Sunday 6/28 you can now select your own URL…

For example http://facebook.com/muttmedia

This is great, especially when you want to provide links right to your homepage.

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 6.22.09 Craigslist in the news…again

Mutt Media brings you a Craigslist update…..

Today, Austin Fenner of the New York Post reports on a Craigslist item that caught my eye.

A woman named Elizabeth Mosh responded to an ad she found on Craigslist posted by Tonja Fenton, a 35 year old who advertised to rent out an apartment in the basement of the two-family home in Queens where she lives. Mosh, a school teacher, gave Fenton a $1300 cash deposit for the first month’s rent and security deposit and even purchased a flat screen TV and a new bed for her new place.

When the time came for Mosh to move in, she received word from Fenton that a pipe had burst and the apartment was flooded. Oh, and another little problem – Fenton doesn’t own the building, has no right to rent the apartment and has made similar agreements with at least 6 other people, netting her almost $12,000.

Fenton has now been charged with Grand Larceny and Scheming to Defraud.

And what about Philip Markoff, who we talked about here in an earlier post (Daily Bone | 5/11/09 Does Craigslist Really Come in Peace?) about violent crimes linked with connections made on Craigslist? A grand jury has indicted him, according to Boston prosecutors.

Last night I finally got to see Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino – a great film about a bittersweet kind of justice. I love when the bad guys get what’s coming to them but still find it deplorable that certain things go on in the world. Craigslist and Gran Torino…..

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 6.19.09 So 5 minutes ago…MN woman found guilty in music downloading case vs. music industry

Here’s today’s “So 5-minutes-ago” news

Here’s something cool. Today’s blog comes to you from somewhere over the east coast as my daughter and I fly to Florida for a couple of days. In the air using gogoinflight.com and it only cost me $2.49.

I’m starting a running series I’ll call “So 5-Minutes Ago” – which, pretty literally means that this particular topic or web address was the most popular at the time I wrote this piece.

This morning when I began this (at around 10am) this was the top story, according to website Alexa.com. A federal jury ruled against a Minnesota woman named Jammie Thomas-Rasset in our country’s first music file-sharing case to ever go to trial. Others have all been settled where the accused pays a fine to the extent that it causes some moderate to severe discomfort; just enough to ensure they won’t make the mistake again of sharing music files that they do not have the rights to.

Thomas-Rasset was accused by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and various subsidiaries of the major record labels including Sony, EMI, Universal & Warner. She had, unlike others before her previously accused of similar “crimes” – elected to go to trial and take on this Goliath-like opponent in court as opposed to agreeing to pay a monetary settlement to make the lawsuit go away. Others have paid on average approx $3500 to settle their suits and move on, but Thomas-Rasset took her chances at trial.

She was accused of sharing 1700 music files on a service called Kazaa where, for just $19.98 per month you can download as many songs as you like and play them on up to 3 PCs for the life of your subscription. One catch – you cannot load this music onto an IPOD or other personal listening device.

Kazaa didn’t always charge for this service. Just a few short years ago, Kazaa and others like it was a free file-sharing platform where users uploaded files to share with other users. This is when the alleged “crime” took place. Needless to say, the record companies didn’t like this, and I’m sure the musicians were torn between loving the fact that there music was in wide circulation and being really bummed that they weren’t getting their due royalties.

In all fairness, internet-based laws have been slow to catch up with the technology that drives the need for them and so the debates will continue to rage on.

The ruling in the case? The suit only addressed the sharing of 24 songs and awarded the record companies $80,000 per song – or $1.92 million. A little footnote – this was the second time Thomas-Rasset went to trial on this. Initially heard by a judge in 2007, she lost that time too and was ordered to pay only $222,000. A new trial was ordered when the original judge decided he’d made a mistake in giving the jury instructions.

If you’d like to visit the “hottest” url on the web (as of this writing) and get the full story, click here.

Off for a weekend full of family

Happy Father’s Day and welcome to all of our new Mutt Media fans!

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 6.18.09 wonders why all the press about gender bias?

So it seems this week there’s a lot to read about if you’re into gender “controversy”.

It must be a really slow news week when there has been so much in the press about same sex marriages and Chastity Bono’s impending sex change.

I, frankly don’t get it, but here it is. In New York this week, City Hall has revoked the marriage license it issued back in May for Hakim Nelson and Jason Stenson (ages 18 and 21, respectively). These are two men who applied for the license in person while one was dressed like a woman, fooling the city worker who took their application. Queue the applause!

There are so many things at play here  -   a city worker who is clearly sleep-walking through their job, the struggle our government seems to be having coming up with a uniform law regarding same-gender marriage and whether this marriage was ever really legal. Does the government have the right to revoke a license that was issued because of one of their workers’ incompetence? And, though it remains to be seen – will this couple sue in the aftermath?

I think the larger issue here is the incompetency of the Agency that dropped the ball on this one, but that’s not as interesting a story.

The Daily News – yes, the Daily News has run a piece this week (click here) called “Celebs Come Out”. They include Adam Lambert (American Idol), Lady Gaga, Kelly McGillis , Wanda Sykes, Clay Aiken and the list goes on. Don’t know about you but quite frankly, none of these surprised me.

I know I normally limit my posts to tech-like items, but we are Mutt Media and this topic seems to have been running rampant all week here in New York – sexuality and chronic rain. Go figure.