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Whuffaoke or Bust: Karaoke on Tour

One of the individuals I was honored to meet and make a friend of when I went out to SXSW a couple of years ago was Alex Hillman. I’ve been following him and his efforts with his coworking initiative taking place in Philadelphia at Independents Hall.

whuffaoke-or-bust

When he kept updating his twitter status about heading all over the place and doing karaoke I was more than curious about to what was going on. After following some links I found out about the Whuff-aoke or Bust tour. Fun stuff happens at SXSW and now Alex has come up with another idea.

The idea was conceived of at SXSW Interactive this year while spending too many hours in the R{VIP} , the karaoke RV that travels from venue to venue in Austin during the interactive and music festivals. Tara turned to Tony and Alex at one point and mused, “My dream is to quit my job and karaoke across America, bringing peace, love and brotherhood with me along the way.” Both Tony and Alex thought that was the BEST idea ever and vowed that, if Tara ever did this, they would join her.

If you’re living in or close to one of the cities they’re coming to on their tour, you should be sure and check them out when they’re close to you. It’s always fun to meet people and karaoke right? The gang with Whuff-aoke is capturing everything live, on twitter and flickr.

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Are You Purchasing a Computer Soon

Are you in the market for a new computer? What are you looking for with your new machine? Going to buy a powerhouse desktop? A nice laptop with all the features you want? Or maybe a new netbook with super portable features and functionality.

junk-computers

Once you’ve decided what type of machine you’re going to get. How do you decide which one you’re going to buy? What’s more important to you?

I frequently get asked for advice on purchasing computers. Many times because I almost exclusively use a laptop these days, it’s individuals asking me about what laptop to purchase. Very rarely will someone ask me about the features they should be looking for in their machine. Instead they ask about what brand to purchase.

Is that the most important factor? There’s loyalty and trust involved for sure, but are the individual components within the different brands really that much different? Maybe it’s not the components you’re really concerned about, but the service you’ll get from the company if something does go wrong?

Let’s jump to price then. When you look for a new machine do you buy as much as you can afford or the cheapest available? Does your decision change based on the quality of the system you’re replacing?

How do you make your decisions on purchasing a new computer? What’s the last computer you purchased? What was your deciding factor on the purchase?

Image: sxc.hu

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Who Just Texted Me – SMS Shortcode WHOIS

I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of it before, but there are cellphones everywhere! Have you noticed? I’m sure you have, but did you think about the next open advertising platform that comes with all those small screens in people’s hands?

sms-shortcode-whois

I’ve started signing up with more services that will send me text alerts for their businesses. These are approved messages for me since I asked for them, but have you received text messages that used a short code but you weren’t sure who sent the message?

The US Common Short Code WHOIS Directory has collected all the registered short codes from providers and allows you to look them up to get other contact information from the company that owns the short code.

By their own comments this is not an official list, and they maintain the information as a public service. It hasn’t been updated recently, but it’s the best list I’ve found online.

The next time you’re wondering where that text message came from, visit the US Common Short Code WHOIS Directory website and uncover who that is texting you.

Image: Homepage of US Common Short Code WHOIS Directory