http://ampersanddot.com/blog ampersanddotdotcom. A Boston based Social Media Consultant's view on trends in web (1 and 2.0), gadgetry, startups, and general technology. Fri, 16 May 2008 13:56:08 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The subtitle for this post is: "And other stupid ideas for the startup community". Boy, I hope people kept reading to this subtitle or you're really going to get the wrong idea about my blog... If you've been reading this site for a while, you'll well know that I'm a pretty ... http://ampersanddot.com/blog/web-20/web-20-if-you-build-it-the-money-will-come/ Tonight I'll be attending the Boston Gadgetry MeetUp, a group organized (by me) to bring together people who like to talk about fun tech-toys. The general topic of the evening will be "Mobile Operating Systems", to discuss the brewing battle between Windows Mobile, the iPhone OS, Blackberry, and the prepubescent Android. For ... http://ampersanddot.com/blog/boston/the-mobile-os-war-meetup/ By nature I am a pretty crazy mobile device enthusiast. I can name and detail more cell phone acronyms than just about anyone (CDMA, EVDO, GSM, HSDPA, HSUPA... I can do that for hours).  I can even explain to you the difference between 1G, 2G, 3G, 3.5G, and 4G data ... http://ampersanddot.com/blog/general-thoughts/sprint-drops-the-ball-along-with-109m-customers/ While working with people to better understand and utilize blogs, I am often asked about the requisite length of a blog post; often inaccurately phrased as "how long does it have to be?".  The first answer to this is that if you think it has to be done at all, ... http://ampersanddot.com/blog/social-media/shorten-your-blog-posts/ While reading the Boston blog aggregator/news/etc. Universalhub.com yesterday I came across an intriguing post on spam comments. In short, UH's Adam noticed a few newly spammy comments on older posts he'd written. After a little digging, he learned the source of this mess comes from a company that ... http://ampersanddot.com/blog/social-media/spam-comments-people-pay-for-this/ You might not have noticed, but I recently trimmed a bit of the fat from my blogroll (that little list over there- available about halfway down on the right there... for those who haven't checked it out yet) in an initial phase of overall "blogroll rehabilitation". This came about ... http://ampersanddot.com/blog/social-media/building-a-better-blogroll/ The point of today's post has nothing to do with social media. Nothing to do with "web 2.0". Today's post is all about my love for the Grand Theft Auto series. Because you know what? They deserve the praise. My life changed about eight years ago when ... http://ampersanddot.com/blog/general-thoughts/grand-theft-life-o-iv/ Last week I read a post from Chris Brogan, one of Boston's superstar social media mavens, declaring April 28th as "Read and Comment" day. This seems like a great idea, because so often it seems the we can get so wrapped up in creating social media, that we ironically ... http://ampersanddot.com/blog/social-media/feeding-out-the-social-from-social-media/ The main concept to blogging is to add value and thought to the online community. (That or show pictures of female celebrities getting out of cars...) And the point of this blog has always been to discuss things I find interesting and have some semblance of insight to ... http://ampersanddot.com/blog/general-thoughts/friday-reading/ Facebook chat launched this week, giving users yet another way to communicate with people they do, and do not, really know. The little instant message feature is incredibly similar to Google Chat - in that it sits on top of a platform that you must already have open. ... http://ampersanddot.com/blog/social-media/facebook-chat-revolutionarily-redundant/