Motley Pursuits

Facebook Timline

Yesterday, I decided to "jailbreak" my Facebook account according to mashable's straight-forward directions.

I then quickly had to find a new cover for my Facebook.  Cool tilt shift pic of Fenway Park?  Done.

What I soon realized that the new Timeline feature is all about highlights of your life - mostly done through pictures.  As someone who LOVES taking pictueres, I love it.  And to be honest, who doesn't gravitate to pictures on FB already?  You meet someone and friend them on FB.  You read a few of their previous statuses.  But then you get sucked into their pictures.  Trite as it is to say, a picture really does tell a very full story.

It's also great that this only will impact profile pages.  Perhaps they have plans to extend it beyond, but hopefully this means less griping from end users that their news feed has been impacted.  We shall see.

Google Wallet

Yesterday, Google announced that it's latest app - Google Wallet - is ready for limited release.

I'm a fan of Google.  I'm a big fan of technology.  But I'm very curious about this.

The only phone that currently supports Google Wallet is the Nexus S 4G on the Sprint network.
Samsung?  Really?
Sprint? Really?

You also need to have a Citi-issued MasterCard or you can set up a Google Pre-Paid Credit Card.  Again, not exactly ubiquitous.

And the last component in this crazy mix is you need to find participating retailers.  I have yet to see a list of these participating retailers.  I guess it's valid wherever PayPass is still used.  One would think they would tap someone like Starbucks for a launch like this.   A place where it would be extremely convenient to tap and go.

This same basic functionality was introduced a few years ago.  PayPass.  Our registers at Fenway Park were equipped to read these cards.  Very quickly, they stopped working.  Not sure if it was the cards or the machines, but either way, the novely wore off quickly.  And mostly it was because not everyone had the cards or devices.

Google loves to "beta" almost all of their new launches.  But in this case, I think they should have guranteed they were a little further along before making this announcement.

Groupon is the new eSaver?

Remember back in the early 90s when every airline developed its eSaver program?  On Wednesday mornings they would post any discount flights leaving your airport of choice and you could decide what interesting destination to choose.

My friends and I decided to have an "eSaver Weekend".  We picked the weekend in advance and agreed we'd go somewhere.  When the eSavers came out, we hemmed and hawwed about the options.  We ended up going to Savannah and it ranks up there as one of my best trips.  The company being the first reason, but the spontaneity also helped.

I digress.

I feel like the recent boon of all of these "coupon" emails is very similar.  It was exciting to sign on to Groupon and to buy a full night's dinner at Redbones for half the price.  Butwithme?  Sure - if it's worth it.  Rue La La, GiltGroup, JackThreads, UrbanDaddy, etc.  I used to be excited when these ended up in my inbox.  But lately, I feel it's a bit overkill.  And even though they offer extreme discounts, I'm not always sold.

I do wonder if part of it is that I'm spending money NOW for something I won't use 'til LATER.  My generation isn't supposed to want to wait for anything.  I also have a friend who had become a bit addicted to buying Groupons that his wife finally put a moratorium on them until they started using them.  It's almost like buying something on credit - when you enjoy it afterwards...

What are your thoughts?  Will these eventually be folded into one giant "discount email" the way Airline discounts were finally aggragated?  Or will this fad finally fade?

 

New Title. New URL.

I used to have my own URL - www.gdavidcunningham.com.  On it, I simply kept my resume.  I didn't realize the other day that the URL expired.  Darn.

I quickly secured it back, but have not yet resurrected it.  I had tried to create a "real" website a few years ago, so it was hosted and "fancy".  Um - having a Word doc as your homepage isn't exactly fancy.  But it did the trick.  Except I no longer have Dreamweaver and it seems like so much work for someone that wasn't trying to create a great site.  So I'm trying to figure out what to do with that.

In the meantime, I've always though Motley Pursuits was a cool website name.  And could end up being a great freelancer name.  So I bought the URL today.  And since this blog is quite random, I figured I'd combine the two for now.

So now "Pieces of G" might evolve into "Motley Pursuits".  As you can see I haven't changed the banner yet.  We'll see.  But I think it could be a good evolution...

Buckyballs

My boss loves desk toys.  He is not very distracted by them.  He doesn't mind if you're playing with a slinky while talking.  He is laid back when it comes to desk toys.

This weekend I saw the ultimate desk toy and had to have it.  Buckyballs.  Essentially, it's 216 magnetic super balls.  You can create funky shapes.  But they're strong enough that they don't just go flying and get lost.  They are pretty cool.  Perhaps I'll buy some for my Boss for the holidays :)