April 2008

Web 2.0 Expo – Day 1 – Quick Comments & HighTechDad meets iJustine

by Michael Sheehan on April 23, 2008

Web 2.0 Expo kicked off today in San Francisco. The company that I work for (ServePath) decided last Friday that we needed to be there as an exhibitor, mainly because our newest product, GoGrid, is perfect for startups and Web 2.0 (3.0?) companies. After a quick scramble of sign printing, stunt creation (look for the guy circling Moscone on a motorcycle with a GoGrid banner) and other “issues” (like crappy network connections and a demo laptop that just wanted to crawl at the speed of mud), we were able to pull off Day 1 of the Expo with a ton of success. I will probably write more up about it on the company blogs I manage (GoGrid & ServePath).

But even though I was tied to our booth, I still had some fun. Some quick highlights of things that were happening:

Scott Beale (LaughingSquid) had a fun run-in with the folks at the Google booth about taking pictures of the booth. They wouldn’t let him do it. But thanks to some quick twitters and a few emails, Google corporate PR contacted Scott as well as the booth personnel and everything was worked out. Google does NOT have a policy about people not being allowed to take photos of their booths it turns out. DOH!
Twhirl was updated just in time for the conference. It is my pick for Twitter clients at the moment.
Twinkle was updated in time for the conference as well. It’s one of the iPhone Twitter clients that I use on the iPhone (jailbreak required).
Hahlo Beta 3 has been updated frequently (just figured I would mention another of my fav Twitter clients)
Met briefly with Oren Michels, CEO of Mashery
Talked with a ton of people. A couple of guys said that GoGrid was “the coolest thing they saw at the expo”
Got our CEO on vator.tv (thanks Meliza) talking about GoGrid
Physically met some people who I know on twitter

Ended the day with a conversation with iJustine. (My 3 girls think that was pretty cool…they are all at that Hannah Montana stage so iJustine seemed pretty great to them.) I must say, she really is a nice person. Hope to talk more to her tomorrow or Friday.

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BART Ticket Kiosks Running Windows 2000 Professional?

by Michael Sheehan on April 16, 2008

in General, Microsoft, Software

Today I tried to add some money to a BART ticket and came across an interesting screen. I guess they had just been servicing the ticket machines and they were “rebooting.” What I saw really surprised me. First, they are running on a Windows platform. Second, they are running not on Vista, nor Windows 2003 Server…not even Windows XP, but plain ol’ Windows 2000 Professional! Here is the Wikipedia Windows page that talks about the different versions.

I guess that BART riders are safe because it looks like Microsoft has extended the Security Update through July 13, 2010. More info on Windows 2000. Luckily they are not running Windows Me (voted #4 “Worst Tech Products of All Time” by PC World)
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Warning: Watch out for "Evacuation process…San Clemente Nucklear Power Station" email

by Michael Sheehan on April 8, 2008

in General, Security

Just a quick note. Watch out for an email coming in from various news sources (mine came from “foxnews” and a buddy’s from “google news” that claims there was an issue at the “San Clemente Nucklear Power Station.” This is most obviously a fake, especially if you are not signed up to receive email notifications from news sources. (If you are, best bet it NOT to click on the link but rather to go directly to a news source to look for the story.)

This is what the email said:

Subject: Evacuation process has been started due to radiation leaks at San Clemente Nucklear Power Station.
Message: CNN, San Clemente, CA – Major Problems have been occured at San Clemente Nucklear Power Station – 20-year old circuit breaker fails to close, creating a 4,000-volt arc and fire. Possible radiation leaks on 100miles area. Evacuation process has been started – See current videoclip

Note: I removed the videoclip URL but it looked like this: http:// usa7. admin41. us / news_report.php ? portal = 21bzkwcdyDedsgdjcnwOkhb [I added some spaces within the URL to be sure that you don't click on it.

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Twitter Updates for 2008-04-01

by Michael Sheehan on April 1, 2008

in Tweets

I will be at SFbeta tonight: http://ping.fm/lbedu #
@zcopley I listen to 181.fm The Buzz under Alternative on iTunes radio. Mainstream alternative but good to play loud. #
Reviewing more SLA’s, TOS’s, UAP’s and Privacy Policies…fun! #

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