Make money. I FAIL!

Last Friday, I went to Googleplex and had lunch there for the first time, thanks to @kimbalina for taking me in. And Dave, if you're reading, I'm still sad that you didn't want to join us. sob sob.

I was there at building #41 for a Google Usability study. I frequently sign up for these as I see them posted on Craigslist or when they email me directly. But obviously I don't get selected all the time. I think this is the 3rd time I've been to Googleplex for these kinds of studies.

So anyways, the deal is that they'll pay you $75 for about an hour for giving feedback on some new product or new feature. Not a bad deal, huh? Except this dumb one here got a traffic ticket on the way there! Fortunately, that particular cop was pretty nice to me (no, I didn't use my charm) and only gave me a ticket for not stopping at red light before making a right instead of what he said could've been a run red light ticket, which is more expensive and a moving violation or something.

So here's the tally

Google T-shirt as part of the study:   FREE
Google's 1-hour usability study:      +$ 75
Traffic ticket on the way there:      -$130
Google gourmet lunch:                  FREE

"I Surf So You Don't Have To" #9

Above pic is from http://bestpicsaround.com

Another post of weird collection of news I've came across. Why am I do this? Aquí.

1. Brilliant idea! PlayPumps International has a cleaver idea of installing water pumps for 3rd world countries that also doubles as a merry-go-around for kids. Watch the short 5 minute video either on their website or on YouTube here.
   
   
   
2. Below is a video of Dennis Hwang, Chief Google Doodler, demonstrating how he draws the doodles for Google and publicizing for "Doodle 4 Google" competition.
   
   
   
3. Meet the smallest bodybuilder in the world. Aditya "Romeo" Dev, 2 ft 9 in, is from Phagwara, India. See more pictures of him and article about him here.
   
   
   
4. Sharper Image, that store you walk by in the mall, go in, look around and never buy anything, is filing for bankruptcy protection. I'm not a Chapter 11 expert, but I wonder if there's a difference between filing for "bankruptcy protection" and filing for actual bankruptcy.
   
   
5. A day after the above news, another entity is filing for bankruptcy. This time is not a corporation, but a city. Vallejo, California is danger of declaring bankruptcy. Read about it here on sfgate.com.
   
   
6. You all know that I can't write a post without Twitter anymore. And you thought it's ridiculous that I Twitter? What about a plant?! The group at Botanicalls found out a way to have your plant Twitter when it needs water. I found out about this from @biz (one of the founders of Twitter), who, what else? Twittered about it.
   
   
   
7. Improve Everywhere did another good one again. Remember them last time in the NY Grand Central Station? Well, this time, they pulled a huge-ass-desktop inside Starbuck's. My favorite part is when "Agent Plaza"'s computer booted up with Windows 95! I'll embed the video here or you can see it at their site.
   
   
   

Signing off...

Twitter tips and tricks

I first wrote a Twitter 101 back in December 2007 and then followed it up with a review of 3 Twitter clients. Today, I'm gonna compile a list of Twitter tips and tricks I've learned or gathered over the months. Hope you'll (either Twitter user or not) find it useful.

I don't want to open a Twitter account, but I still want to stalk follow you.

1. You're in luck! you actually don't need to open a Twitter account to do this.
   
2. You can simply subscribe to the any Twitter user's RSS feed, if their profile is public (not private).
   
3. Go to user's Twitter account (e.g. http://www.twitter.com/ThomasHan). On the bottom of the page, you'll see a "RSS" link (i.e. here's my http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/3584991.rss).
   
4. You can subscribe to it using any reader (e.g. Google Reader, My Yahoo portal page, even in Gmail, etc.)

I have Twitter account (cool!) and I'm high-roller with unlimited SMS (jealous!).

1. Log into your Twitter account and go to the http://twitter.com/devices page to configure your mobile phone.
   
2. Once you have your mobile phone setup, you can also configure sleep time by going to http://twitter.com/account/notifications. You can tell Twitter to turn off SMS during a period of time (e.g. turn off during 9PM to 8AM)
   
3. Find the user you want to follow (you know how to do that already, right?).
   
4. In addition to follow someone, you'll have to turn "notification on" for them. There are 2 ways to do this.
   
5. Method #1 is to go to user's profile, where you followed them and you'll see the radio button to toggle On/Off notification.
   
6. Method #2 is to go to your own profile, click on the "Following" link. This will take you to http://twitter.com/friends. From there, you can individually toggle the Notification On/Off radio buttons.

I have Twitter account, but I'm too poor to have SMS, any other options?

1. Yes, if you use Gtalk.
   
2. Log into your Twitter account and go to http://twitter.com/devices page to configure your Instant Messenger, follow the instructions Twitter provides you.
3. Once you have twitter@twitter.com setup as a contact on Gtalk, you can interact with Twitter by sending tweets, sending "on" (to turn on device), sending "off", sending "help", etc.
4. Whenever you're logged into your Gtalk, Twitter will send tweets to your IM for users who you have notifications turned on.
   

I'm nosy and would like to keep tabs on certain topics or keywords, how do I do that?

1. You can use Twitter's build-in 'track' feature.
2. By tracking a certain keyword, Twitter will notify you immediately via SMS or IM (not via the web) whenever someones' tweets contains that keyword, regardless if you follow them or not.
3. You can track keywords in 3 ways. They all accomplish the same thing, you can send them via the web (like you tweet), via SMS or via IM.
   
4. Start tracking a keyword by sending in "track Cupertino", "track Purdue", etc.
5. Stop tracking by sending in "untrack Cupertino", etc.
6. Check what words you are tracking by sending in "tracks" and Twitter will reply you back with the list of words you are currently tracking.

So I've missed people mentioning my name via the @username several times, any tips on that?

1. Most of you know that you can go to your "Replies" tab at http://twitter.com/replies to see when others start their tweets with @username (e.g. @ThomasHan how are you?). But one of the most common problem is if people mention your username in the middle of the tweet, Twitter won't pick those up and show them in the Replies tab.
2. I have several solutions for this.
3. Solution #1: You can use the track feature (see above) to track @yourusername. The only drawback to this is that you'll only get notified during the time you have SMS or IM turned on.
4. Solution #2: You can use a 3rd party site TerraMinds.com, there are probably others, but this is the one I use and it's been pretty good. Using this site, you can search for your own username, the site will return a list of tweets with your username anywhere in the tweet. And guess what TerraMinds offer? You guess it! RSS! You can then subscribe to the rss yourself in any reader of your choice and never miss anyone mentioning your username again. Here's an example of searching for my own username, @thomashan.
   
   Added on Feb 26 2008: In addition to TerraMinds, another 3rd party site you can try is TweetScan.com. They also offer RSS. Again, an example of searching for @thomashan.
   

I'm tired of updating Facebook *and* Twitter both, how do you update your FB status with Twitter?

1. This is the Twitter on FB app that I use http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/.

Can I send an email to some special (secret) email address to update my Twitter?

1. Yup, I use http://twittermail.com/.

How can I tell if the person I'm following is also following me back?

1. There are two ways that I know of.
2. Method #1 is via Twitter's "Following" and "Followers" page. From the Following (people you are following) page, if you see a "message | nudge" under the username, then you know that person is also following you back. "message" link just means that you can direct message (DM) them.
   
   See example screenshot below, @mdy and @ijustine are following me back, but @BobbyAnderson is not, thus I don't see the "message|nudge" link.
   
   
   As for the "Followers" page, it's more obvious. Right under each user, if you see a "follow" button that means you're not currently following that person and you can simply click on it to follow back.
   
   
3. Method #2 is via @dossy's Flash Twitter Karma app. It's a puuurty UI with green/red arrows showing you which ways the love flows. See a sample screen shot below for my account.
   
   
   

So that's all I can think of now. If you have other questions or need more tips, head on over to Twitter Forum at GetSatisfactory where I actively monitor and answer questions, see my profile there.

Happy Twittering...

"I Surf So You Don't Have To" #8

Above pic is from http://sharkspage.com

Ha-low, I've collected enough bullets again. New here? go back to the beginning.

Enjoy the weird collection of news below.

1. Two more new iPhone ads. One is about iphone.facebook.com and the other is on www.kbb.com
   Ad #16 Facebook
   
   Ad #17 Car (KBB)
   
   
   
2. By now, I'm sure you've heard about Microsoft trying to acquire Yahoo. We all have read all kinds of in depth analysis, rumors, speculations, etc. But my favorite is still Dan "Fake Steve Jobs" Lyons' analogy.
   

   It's like taking the two guys who finished second and third in a 100-yard dash and tying their legs together and asking for a rematch, believing that now they'll run faster.
   

   
   
3. Just after I wrote the above bullet. Over the weekend, or actually on Friday. Yahoo's board met and have decided to reject Microsoft's offer stating that they think it should be at least $40/share. Let the bloodshed and stock dumping begin on Monday. Read it on WSJ.
   
   
4. Speaking of merger and acquisition. Rumors are flying around of Salesforce.com approaching Oracle to “to gauge if there is any interest in a sale at $75 a share." Pretty soon, everyone in the Bay Area would be employed by the same company.
   
   
   
5. Apparently, we've got a new tenant in the house. A very small, tiny bugger. I almost got attacked by it when I first spotted it. I don't know much about hummingbirds, but by the look of the bright red neck it was showing me while doing it's hummingbird-hover-in-place maneuver, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a good sign. This is not the first time we've had "guests" in that big bushy plant right in front of our door.
   
   Go over here to see all 3 pictures I took without getting myself injured.
   
   
   
6. Guy Kawasaki recently launched another site, Alltop.com, its tag line is "We've got all the top stories covered all the time". If you don't have enough feeds in your reader or if you're just bored out of your mind, head on over and use it as a jumping board to the vast Internet.
   
   I read about it on Drue's new ValleyZen.com which she also launched recently along with Bill Fenwick, the founder of Fenwick & West law firm. On the post, she also has 2 very insightful videos of her exclusive interview with Guy.
   
   Jean and I met Drue few months back at a Dan "Fake Steve Jobs" Lyons event in Mountain View where, with my amateur photographer skill, I took this photo of her and Guy.
   
   Photo from Drue's site.
   
   
   
7. Heard of "Can Google Hear Me" or Aaron Stanton?
   
   
   He got lots of publicity last year when he shot a video and set out from Idaho to come to Mountain View, CA to visit Google to see if they'll listen to his idea. The twist is that he didn't have an appointment with Google or know anyone here. But thousands of people on the Internet rooted for him. If I remember right, he did get a meeting with Google.
   
   Since then, he has gotten several independent programmers around the world to help out on the team. But he still has not shared with the public what the idea is, except for a group of alpha/beta testers. Which I'm part of , but of course, I can't share his idea here either.
   
   This weekend, him and his team of 4 are heading out to Mountain View again and this time to talk to Google, Yahoo and maybe even Amazon, Microsoft? Wish them luck and you can watch his 3 videos and blog on CanGoogleHearMe.com
   
   
8. Something exciting happened last week. I promise I'll share once its concrete and I'll have a blog post about it up soon.
   

Until then...

"I Surf So You Don't Have To" #7

Above pic is from http://bluebuddies.com

(p.s. hee, we loved watching the Smurfs back in Taiwan, ah the good'o days)

If you're new here, enjoy your stay, and here's the original post on why I started this.

1. I first heard about this on NPR radio and then read it in Newsweek.com shortly after. This ain't no your loosing kidney in ice bath urban legend. An organized gang in India has been illegally harvesting kidneys by lying to the poor and sometimes forcing them at gunpoints. Sad sad story.
   
   
   
2. Speaking of sick world. Here's one from Baghdad via DailyMail UK. The title of the article says it all, "Al Qaeda use two Down's syndrome women to blow up 99 people in Baghdad markets" Despite my understanding of humanity and society's need for constant wars and conflicts, news like these always makes me a little sad and sick to the stomach.
   
   
   
3. Sorry for the above grim news. Let's switch to a lighter topic. Purdue Men's Basketball is currently at 8-1 (17-5 overall) and that makes the Boilermakers #2 in the Big Ten conference right after Wisconsin. Oh wait, didn't we beat them that other week? Hooyah! make us #1 in Big Ten then!
   
   Oh, and AP, USA Today/ESPN, RPI. Thanks for ranking us #24!!! kthxbye.
   
   
   
4. Yay! another light hearted one. OK, maybe not so funny given that it's a crime, but still. Wanna help the Royal Thai Police catch this robber who robbed the bank in a motorcycle helmet? Seen him/her late?
   
   
   
5. Eight GB just not enough on the iPhone? Now for $100 more, you can now get the 16GB for $499 ($399 for 8GB)
   
   
   
6. And speaking of the iPhone. Believe it or not, I got a spam text on the morning of Super Tuesday 2008.
   
   
   
7. I recently resurrected our site, www.JeanAndThomas.com which I put together when Jean and I first met and when I proposed. It use to be password-protected because of personal information. But it's been almost 5 years and we also removed most of the personal stuff, so we thought it would be OK to just let it all hang.
   
   We also occasionally get requests to see/hear about our 2 week backpacking honeymoon in Italy. Instead of having to grant access every time, this will save some head aches.
   
   Oh and in case you can't remember that URL. Try it the other way too. www.ThomasAndJean.com. You just have to remember both of our names and add an "and" in between, easy peasy.

Signing off...

"I Surf So You Don't Have To" #6

Above pic is from http://sfgate.com

If you're new here, enjoy your stay, and here's the original post on why I started this.

1. Microsoft did to Yahoo what Oracle did to BEA just few weeks ago. MSFT extended a hostile bid to Yahoo for ~$45B. Like most people (I think), I haven't used Yahoo search in years. The only Yahoo services that I still use are Flickr and Upcoming.org and neither of them were developed by Yahoo. We'll see how it goes down if this deal goes through. Congrats to my Y! friends for the stock's gain and best of luck in coming months, pray for the packages.
   
   
2. Like I tweeted, apparently for new start-up, not only do you need to check domain names, you'll need to check the DMV now. Seesmic is the new video start-up by Loic Le Meur, a well known European entrepreneur who recently moved to SF from France.
   
   
   
3. Found on ImproveEverywhere.com of this stunt. For 5 minutes, over 200 "agents" froze in the middle of NY Grand Central and when time was up, they just moved on about their ways. Look at the reaction of some of the commuters/tourists.
   
   
   
4. We all know that you can buy and sell anything on Craigslist.com, but this? A Michigan woman is under arrest for posting an ad to "eradicate" a woman. Apparently she is having an online affair with the woman's husband, talk about doing crazy things for love.
   
   
5. Concerned about privacy? Check out Google Map's Street View feature, ooooh, scary!
   
   
   
6. OK, before I head off to get ready for the Super Bowl party. I have to vent. Tivo, listen up! One hour before the Super Bowl, all my HDs went poof?!?!? I called Comcast immediately and was on hold for about 30 minutes. The customer rep told me to reboot my Tivo. I thought he was just trying to get rid of me. But to my surprise, after the looooong 10 minutes reboot, we got all of our HDs back! Just in time for friends, 6 pics on Flickr from the gathering.
   
   

OK, I gotta go watch some Super Bowl commercials now...