A new update from Google allow you to access any existing group, USENET groups (which they bought in 2001) and integrate it with social media and even your mobile phone

Wonder if all my friends from the 1990’s are still in there?

Watch this video to see more

Yesterday, I posted another plea to find a person at Clear.com to talk to about this.

As you may have seen, they don’t listen to social media, and apparently have no one on staff that reads blog posts and news about them.

I’ve got another chat session from Friday afternoon’s shut down… The customer service rep was very anxious to prove:

1) The problem could be fixed so I don’t get shut down every 12 hours

2) It’s more important to follow policy than to communicate or solve a problem

After the better part of an hour, I thought were were communicating.. and I got a short paragraph telling me that I’d need to call in as there was nothing else to do. This would have been fine, but it’s exactly what I said 30 minutes before.

Then today, this started popping up.

Reluctant to go on auto-pay for a service that has never worked, I’ve seen a lot of obnoxious reminders when the bill cycles. That’s their right and almost helpful. This is a new one.

What I really hoped for was a net connection that was reliable enough to count on for most of my work, then add on mobile and phone service. I though I’d be the cool “leading edge” proponent of wireless every where. Instead, I’ve spend about 47 hours over the last year trying to get enough speed on the 6 meg and up service package I bought so I can watch a YouTube video without it stalling 3 times a minute.

Friend call me crazy for saying Clear is new, and trying to be a different kind of telco. They tell me that Sprint will always be Sprint and to give up. I’m beginning to think my friends may have a point, but will try for a while more to open a channel of communications with Clear/Sprint management.

Since I just paid for a month, and just checked the balance a couple hours before.. I was quite surprised by this one. I logged in and found that

1. I now get charge $4.99 rent on the free modem
2. there is a tax on top of what I was paying
3. There is suddenly a $2.95 past due amount

This is insult on top of injury. Likely a coincidence and small matter… but WHY would I call in and talk to them for an hour about it?

Maybe time to hook up the recorder and get some audio for the blog.. but Clear has wasted too much of my time to just call and wait on hold. I need to find someone that doesn’t mind speaking for the company.

If you know anyone that works for Clear, Clearwire or Spring, the company that owns Clear.. PLEASE tell them about this. Rather than adding to the posts with another “Clear Sucks” story.. I want

1. Resolve the billing issue
2. Get the service to work as contracted
3. Be a loud voice proclaiming that Clear is trying to listen

The future goes not to the best technology… the company that wins will be the one that learns to listen and love. I teach that, I promote that, and I live it.

Help me clear up my Clear mess.

We’re using twitter.com for micro-blogging. Short posts under 140 characters answering the question “What are you doing?”

The best use isn’t the things we post. It’s the conversations we have we real people, in real time.

I get answers for almost anything in minutes, and find out about very cool stuff.. like this

HugeURL.com

We all hate those long URL links that wrap around several lines in an email. So there are many URL shrinkers

http://snurl.com

http://TinyURL.com

http://twhirl.nl

Here’s one that does just the opposite. Put any URL in the box, click a button and get a long URL.

Try this one.. it goes to the Best Seller Authors we site

Miniture robots talking to each other form a smart network

Watch the video here

Turn a Smart Phone into a Wi-Fi Hot Spot – Yahoo! News: “North Carolina-based TapRoot Systems today announced its WalkingHotSpot software, designed to effectively turn a Wi-Fi- and mobile broadband-enabled handset into a Wi-Fi router. At launch, WalkingHotSpot will be available only for Windows Mobile or Symbian Series 60 smartphones. TapRoot CEO Bob Bicksler said.”

I saw this, and thought… “I could enter and beat them all in with my WiLan”

Speed Cabling Competition Video

Bret Taylor and Paul Buchheit of FriendFeed. Both have been successful ‘intrapreneurs’ inside of Google.

Their new idea is FriendFeed.. putting together all those data feeds you have from social networking to “follow” people you care about.

Too much data, too little time… with these tools there is hope

read more | digg story

Connecting the LaserJet 4/4mv to a Mac System

1. Printer must have JetDirect, Postscript and 12 megs memory
2. Best to connect through a hub.. but you can use a crossover cable
3. Appetalk connection only works on localtalk networks

if you use this method, you’ll get a 18 error
each time the printer is turned on. (goes away after
five minutes and does not affect operation)

Number 3 in the above diagram is the

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