Last year I attended two reunions -- one with my childhood friends and the other being my High School reunion. While I've done a pretty good job of keeping in touch with my childhood friends, most of my high school friends I hadn't talked to since graduation.

But if there is one thing that I have in common with both groups of friends, it's Facebook.

It came up several times in conversation. Friends would tell me how much they loved my status updates.

"Mel, I saw your status about a bee attacking you while you were peeing. HILARIOUS!"

"Mel, I love your food pics! Keep posting those!"

Sweet! I'm e-popular at my high school reunion, hahah. But not all of it was positive. One of my friends came up to me:

"Mel, I don't fucking understand half of your status updates. What the hell is 'RT'? And what's up with the '@' signs? And what are the #'s for?"

At the time I was pushing all of my Tweets from my personal account straight to my Facebook. I spent 15 minutes trying to explain to her the concepts of retweets, hashtags and @mentions...but she ended up even more confused and walked away.

So that's when it hit me. That is when I realized that even though most of my Twitter followers are my personal friends on Facebook, the two are very different audiences. Or rather, different social graphs.

The reality is we have a social network for just about every possible social graph these days:

• Personal friends? Got "˜em on Facebook.

• Colleagues and business contacts? Got "˜em on LinkedIn.

• Friends that enjoy my food pics? Instagram (for me, anyway)

• Local friends that wanna know where the party is at? Foursquare.

Even with Twitter, I have two very distinct accounts. One that is for professional topics and the other for personal tweeting"¦kinda like having a Facebook Profile for personal friends and a Facebook Page for fans.

It's something that I started doing because I realized that most of my personal friends don't have an interest in my professional/geek side. The few friends of mine that are interested? They'll follow both of my accounts. And the few times that a tweet overlaps both social graphs? I'll tweet it on one and retweet it on the other. Or I'll just tweet the same thing on both.

@AndyBudd once asked, "[is there a right way to tweet?](* http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2011/03/is_there_a_righ)"

My response? There is a time and a place for everything -- the wisdom comes from knowing when and where.

Before you start whipping me with "it's my Twitter account, I can tweet whatever I want!" ask yourself this:

Do my Facebook friends really care about #FollowFriday?

Do my Twitter followers really care if I check into a gas station to fill up gas?

Do my Twitter followers really care to click a non-descriptive "Photo: http://tumblr.com/asdfghj"?

There are so many damn social graphs, some of us don't know what to do with all of them. But, these graphs are separate for a reason, so we should treat them as such.

If a person is really interested in your location, they'll follow you on Foursquare. If they're really interested on your Tumblr posts, they'll follow you on Tumblr.

So disable all that cross-site auto-posting stuff. Be selective when cross-posting on Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, and Tumblr. Realize the context of who are you talking to, why the follow you and what you are sharing with them. Or simply, before sharing anything on any social network, just ask yourself:

"Who would care about this?"

Karol: The show starts at 7pm, right?

Mel: Yeah. I'm heading there 5:45ish with Marlo.

Mel: Ness, are we supposed to save seats for you or you guys gonna be backstage the whole time?

Nessa: We're in the first act, so we'll sit with you guys after intermission.

Krystal: Save two seats for Karol.

That is a texting conversation I had with my friends on Saturday with the group texting app, GroupMe. We actually started playing with the app a couple nights before, but Saturday we finally saw its true value.

GroupMe as a Utility

As shown in the conversation above, GroupMe comes in super handy when going out with friends. Simple situations like, "Hey, I just got parked. Where are you guys?" can be easily addressed with GroupMe.

Without a group texting app, how would you solve this situation?

Twitter? You can, but you'll easily piss off your mutual followers because you're spamming their timelines with a private conversation that doesn't concern them.

Call/Text people individually? Messy and inefficient. Plus, it leaves the possibility of someone accidentally getting left in the dark.

With group texting, you're in touch with everyone that needs to be informed. Everyone is on the same page. Everyone is in sync.

GroupMe as Entertainment

During the concert, GroupMe switched from being a utility to pure entertainment. In a setting where it's rude to talk to each other while the performer is on stage, GroupMe gave us the freedom we wanted.

(Okay, texting each other during a performance isn't exactly the most polite thing to do either, but hey, at least it's discrete.)

Because the chat is private and everything goes directly to everyone's phones, the experience is a lot more intimate than Twitter ever could be.

What about Beluga, Disco, Fast Society, etc?

One thing that made GroupMe stand out to me over its competitors: it's compatible with Google Voice.

Personally, I am a very, very loyal user of Google Voice. It's the only number that I give out. I am absolutely addicted to how I can type out & send text messages from my computer. And so far with all of the competing apps I've tested, GroupMe is the only app the lets me use my GV number.

This is important to me because when friends install GroupMe and the app scans their Address Books, I will actually show up as a suggested friend.

With the competing apps, I simply couldn't use my GV number; I was forced to use my cell phone number, which is the number that nobody has.

Closing Thoughts

With just one full day of using GroupMe in the real world, I can tell this app has serious potential for my nights out with friends.

Will it go mainstream? I hope so but I'm not sure.

There is always the possibility that Facebook might integrate their Messages 2.0 feature with Groups, Places, Events, etc. And we all know how Facebook has a knack for making early adopter ideas into mainstream hits.

Google has the opportunity to come up with something too. They have all the pieces: Gmail, GTalk, Google Voice, Disco for iPhone...I'd LOVE to see them integrate all of those technologies into one seamless experience.

Hell, Apple has the same opportunity as well, with Facetime, iChat, and iPhones. It'd be like adding that Steve Jobs magic to RIM's precious BlackBerry Messenger.

But those are all pipe dreams of mine; 100% speculation on my part based on zero insider information.

In the meantime, I've got a group of close friends on GroupMe. The cool thing is, if I want more friends to get on this, I don't even have to wait for them to install the app -- I can just add them to a group.

Even if the app never catches on with the rest of my friends, I've already got my closest friends on it.

That's good enough for me.

This isn't exactly breaking news...but man, Instapaper is a REALLY GREAT app.

For months I was hesitant about forking over $5 for this app. I constantly said to myself, "I already have Flipboard and Reeder...do I really need another reading app?"

A couple weeks ago, I said, "screw it" and finally bit the $5 bullet.

What happened? Instapaper quickly became my most-used app on the iPad.

I should note that I am addicted to RSS feeds. As of now, I follow 528 different feeds. So anything that helps me get through those feeds faster, I immediately fall in love with. In the past, that's been Firefox's tabbed browsing, Reeder for iPad, and somewhat recently, Flipboard for iPad.

A typical morning at the desktop, I will:

• load up Google Reader.
• go up and down the list with the "j" and "k" shortcut keys.
• when I find something I want to read, I open it as a background tab and continue skimming through Google Reader.
• once I finish going through Google Reader, I read each one of the background tabs.

Now with Instapaper for iPad, I have a similar routine while on the go:

• load up Flipboard.
• swipe through the pages, skimming through all of my Google Reader feeds AND Twitter feed.
• when I find something I want to read, I'll read it right away or send it to Instapaper.
• once I finish going through Flipboard, I load up Instapaper and read each article there.

And that's not all.

In the States, I spoiled myself with 3G plans for both my iPad and iPhone. During my recent 10 week trip to the Philippines, I didn't have that luxury for either device. But that was okay because Instapaper absolutely shines with offline reading.

Every time I was about to leave the house, I'd have several articles waiting for me. Hell, for my 16 hour flight back to Los Angeles, I queued up almost 100 articles. And when I came across an article that I wanted to come back to later, I'd file it under a folder like "Reblog Later", "Tweet Later" or "Watch Later".

Now that I'm back in the U.S., I really don't need to start up my iPad's 3G plan again. With Instapaper for iPad, I can enjoy my RSS feed reading list anytime, anywhere...with or without internet.

So thank you, Instapaper. Before I bought you, I had no idea how important you'd be to me. I was so hesitant on spending $5 for you...but you ended up saving me $25/month.

asked by @TheRayson.

Here we go:

Wake up.

Check notifications on Boxcar (iPhone). Notifies me of new @replies, followers, DMs, and emails. Also notifies me of breaking news about Apple.

Check text messages.

Catch up on my feeds with my Flipboard app (iPad). Tech News then links/pics from Twitter.

Check personal Twitter account on my iPad. (It's easier to skim through these since I've viewed all of the Twitpics with Flipboard already)

Promote with the @btvfam account. (Lots of the YouTubers like to promote late at night. I'll (re)tweet the morning after to give the information a little boost for the day.)

Catch up on Tumblr and other feeds with Google Reader at the desk.

Facebook.

Respond to text messages via Google Voice.

Respond to emails.

Take off DND from AIM, Skype.

Check professional Twitter account. If there's any breaking news that has been tweeted, I've probably already read about it from the news feeds.

I use Growl notifications on my Mac to passively update me with incoming tweets. Otherwise, I'll catch up with Twitter every few hours.

I also tend to load up a ton of background tabs on my browser for things to check out when I have time.

Inspired by Michael Arrington's 2009: Products I Can't Live Without, here are my vital tech products of last year:

• Google -- Chrome, Voice, Gmail, Reader
• Apple -- iPad, Magic Mouse, MacBook Air, iPhone
• Twitter -- Twitter for iPad, Hootsuite, TweetDeck
• Boxcar for iPhone
• Skype
• Tumblr
• Flipboard for iPad
• Foursquare
• Facebook
• BlogTV
• TokBox

Honorable Mentions: Adium, Mozy, Dropbox

Heating Up for 2011: Mac App Store, AT&T MicroCell

Lost That Loving Feeling: Firefox, Google Wave, Netflix, Hulu

Inspired by Michael Arrington's 2009: Products I Can't Live Without, here are my vital tech products of last year:

• Google -- Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Reader, Voice
• Mozilla Firefox
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Skype
• BlogTV
• Apple - iPhone + Push Notifications, iTunes
• TokBox
• Adium
• Wordpress

Honorable Mentions: Mozy, Dropbox

Heating Up in 2010: Foursquare, Tumblr, Google Chrome, Google Wave, Netflix, iPad

Lost That Loving Feeling: Blockbuster Online, Delicious, Digg, Flickr, MySpace

What apps do you guys have installed? I have a bunch but my favorites are:

TwitterFon

Let's me make a quick status update that'll push to my blog, Facebook status, Myspace profile and AIM profile.

Twinkle

Local chatting. I used this to chat with people within *x* miles of me. This came in real handy when I was looking for the best theater to watch Dark Knight.

Shazam

When you're listening to the radio and you wanna know what the song is, just run this program, let it listen for 12 seconds and it'll tell you all the song info.

Myspace

Cuz I'm a Myspace whore like that.

Facebook

Cuz I'm a Facebook whore like that.

AIM Mobile

Occassionally used to chat when I'm on the move. Add my mobile screenname: **mel so hungry**.

Cube Runner

Super simple and fun flying game that uses the whole device as a steering wheel.

Yelp

Uses your GPS to find nearby restaurants and bars.

Pandora

Streaming radio while on the move, cuz sometimes your music library isn't big enough.

Movies.app

Uses your GPS to find nearby movie theaters and movie times. Even tells you ratings from Flixster!

What about you guys?

Even though the iPhone 3G is all sorts of sexiness in a handheld device, memory is limited to 8GB and 16GB. That's fine for people with only 8 or 16 gigabytes worth of music and videos...but what about the rest of us? You got four options:

• Buy a bigger iPod or mp3 player
• Hold out a few months for a larger iPhone
• Manually drag and drop songs you like, one by one, onto your iPhone
• Use iTunes' Smart Playlists feature

I've used that latter option -- Smart Playlists -- for years, when I figured out a way to cram 24 gigs of music to a 4GB iPod mini.

The basic idea is this: you set conditions on what you want to hear and the Smart Playlists will automagically build itself. For example, I may want:

R&B, at least 3 stars, that have not been played in the past week.

To do this in iTunes, just click on File, then New Smart Playlist, and then fill it out accordingly:

Cool, huh? Now whenever you add music to your iTunes, as long as it matches these conditions, it will automagically get added to this Smart Playlist.

Here's what I did for my 4GB iPod mini back in the day:

Up to 4GB's of the most recently added songs that are rated at least 2 stars, that haven't been skipped in the last month, and haven't been played in the last week.

If you notice, I have Last Skipped and Last Played in there. These are what make it powerful; as I listen to music on my mini (and skip the ones I don't like), the Smart Playlist will essentially learn what I like/dislike and rotate in songs from my 24 GB library.

Easy as pie.

For more Smart Playlist ideas, check out SmartPlaylists.com

Something bad happened at work the other day. A big folder for one of our projects was deleted. Nobody knows how, but it just magically disappeared. The backups we have of that folder also disappeared. Months of man-hours, by multiple coders, just went bye-bye.

Fuuuuuuck.

But wait, there's some good news and bad news.

Good news. There was one sole surviving backup, tucked away safely on an old server.

Bad news. The backup is over three months old.

We've employed the services of a data recovery specialist (the same kind of forensics that the CIA and FBI use). But that shit is hella expensive and can take a few days. Even then, 100% data recovery is not realistic.

Luckily, we have notes, bits and pieces of our work on our personal computers. It'll take a few days, but we'll be able to recover.

The point I'm trying to make here is the importance of backing up your shit. And no, I'm not just talking about your work, mp3s and porn. I'm talking about the important shit like your digital photos.

A few months ago I read someone's Facebook status message that said, "[I'm] depressed cuz my computer died and lost all my photos."

disappointed:

Work can be redone. Mp3s can be re-downloaded. And porn really isn't that important.

But those photos you've been taking on your digital camera of all your since high school -- shit like your graduation, your wedding and the birth of your first born -- are absolutely priceless. Photos are something that should last for the rest of your life. Something that you can show to your children and your children's children. Not backing up your stuff is just as bad as taking all of your parents old photo albums, putting them out on the sidewalk and hoping nothing bad happens to them. That's just retarded.

And to those of you who don't know, lemme tell you something about hard drives -- they will die on you. 100% guaranteed. The same way that a car engine will break down completely.

So please, do yourself a favor. Buy an external hard drive and use some kind of backup software. Or use an online backup service like Mozy.com (secure, unlimited space for just $5/month).

I use both. :bigthumbup:

Those infomercials say that the average person spends a third of their life in bed. So why not spend the money for a really great bed?

Well, I easily spend over 13 hours of the day at the desk...so why not spend the money for a really great chair?

$1,200 is a big chunk o' change, but with a 12 year completely-covered warranty, I think it's worth it. I mean the chair I've been sitting on is the same chair I've had since 7th grade. If that chair could last that long, I'm sure the Aeron can too.

The Aeron by Herman Miller

It's like sex. For your ass.