Monthly Archives: December 2012

There May Be a Tattoo in Your Future

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Nanshu Lu, 35 years old

Nanshu Lu, 35 years old

electronic tattooHappy New Year. We wish you a fabulous 2013.

I know that many of us have questioned the proliferation of tattoos in the last few years among the younger set. Eliot would say to me, “What is that guy going to look like at 60 with that art work on his body?” Then he would add, “The innovator who comes up with a removal system for tattoos is going to make a fortune.”

Now comes word Nanshu Lu, a 2009 Ph.D. graduate of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has been recognized by Technology Review magazine, for her work in wiring up the human body with electronic tattoos. Electronic tattoos will act as devices that can monitor vital signs like pulse, temperature, vocal vibrations, and brain signals. The tattoos are extremely thin and flexible silicone materials that adhere to the skin. They are so thin that they imitate the texture and elasticity of skin. We are definitely entering the age where electronics combined with human tissue will monitor our health. That might mean a whole new revolution of tattoo artists.

Technology Review is honoring Lu as one of the world’s top 35 innovators under the age of 35. Yes under 35 !!!

Lu is now an assistant professor in Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas, Austin, where her current research involves developing a more advanced balloon catheter, with new types of integrated sensors; perfecting the electronic tattoos; designing unconventional, flexible strain gauges; and exploring new ways to integrate stiff and brittle materials like ceramics into stretchable substrates.

Please watch the video to see how the electronic tattoos work. The videos embedded in the DigiDame posts do not work on your mobile phone. View them on your desktop or laptop computers. Don’t miss this video. I wanted you to start off 2013 with a big WOW!

I Don’t Know if I Should Laugh or Cry

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When I look at myself in the mirror, I definitely see an older me. I haven’t resorted to plastic surgery yet, even though my neck is reaching my chest and my chest is reaching my knees.

Despite all that, I don’t consider myself as elderly. Now that I may be entering my golden years, I consider elderly as someone who just vegetates. Yes, there are many days that I love to lie in bed and watch TV, but that is nothing new. I have been doing that all my life.

I was somewhat shocked, but not totally insulted, when I read Venture Beat this morning to learn about a new cell phone for the elderly by a company called Fujitsu. Target market 65. That put me in my place real fast.

So here I am screwing around trying to keep myself relevant with Twitter, Pinterest, Highlight, Foursquare, blogging, and schmogging, and now I am being pitched by a company who says I need a mobile phone that has noise cancellation, larger text, and even speech-slowing for better parsing of fast-talking callers.

I truly get what Fujitsu is trying to do, but I really think they are slightly outdated with their approach. The design of the phone looks like the call button remote attached to the side of a hospital bed and the features are color coded because “we need extra help with technology.”

Here is a link to the story and a picture of the phone. Tell me what you think. Am I over reacting? It wouldn’t be the first time!

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The Today Show Anchors Admit Internet Ignorance

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Andrea Smith

Andrea Smith, a writer for the very popular tech blog, Mashable, recently did an Op Ed piece about three Today Show personalities who admitted on air nationwide that they know little about social media. Smith was upset by this casual attitude because when she worked for ABC as a news writer and producer for 20 years, she was expected to be knowledgable about current news and pop culture.

I met Andrea Smith a number of times at industry events and I can honestly say she doesn’t easily rag on people. That’s why her piece in Mashable caught my eye. Smith was offended that Today’s Willie Geist, Savannah Guthrie, and Natalie Morales — three TV journalists at the top of their profession — laughed on network TV about their lack of knowledge about Facebook, Twitter, and privacy on social media.

The admission took place after a Today Show segment about Randi Zuckerberg’s private family photos being shared publicly. This story was publicized everywhere for days. The sister of the founder of Facebook got caught in the same privacy issue that many Facebook users are complaining about. Why is Facebook taking certain liberties with personal content belonging to its members?

Smith sent a warning to the Today Show.

“Here’s a wake-up call, morning crew; your audience is not that dumb. They watch TV news to keep up with what’s happening in the world. It is your job to inform them. Reading the news and then proclaiming you don’t understand any part of it is the epitome of failure.”

The Today Show Anchors Admit Internet Ignorance

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20121229-214709.jpg

Andrea Smith

Andrea Smith, a writer for the very popular tech blog, Mashable, recently did an Op Ed piece about three Today Show personalities who admitted on air nationwide that they know little about social media. Smith was upset by this casual attitude because when she worked for ABC as a news writer and producer for 20 years, she was expected to be knowledgable about current news and pop culture.

I met Andrea Smith a number of times at industry events and I can honestly say she doesn’t easily rag on people. That’s why her piece in Mashable caught my eye. Smith was offended that Today’s Willie Geist, Savannah Guthrie, and Natalie Morales — three TV journalists at the top of their profession — laughed on network TV about their lack of knowledge about Facebook, Twitter, and privacy on social media.

The admission took place after a Today Show segment about Randi Zuckerberg’s private family photos being shared publicly. This story was publicized everywhere for days. The sister of the founder of Facebook got caught in the same privacy issue that many Facebook users are complaining about. Why is Facebook taking certain liberties with personal content belonging to its members?

Smith sent a warning to the Today Show.

“Here’s a wake-up call, morning crew; your audience is not that dumb. They watch TV news to keep up with what’s happening in the world. It is your job to inform them. Reading the news and then proclaiming you don’t understand any part of it is the epitome of failure.”

Become a Videographer

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dolly-descriptions

You know that I love gadgets. I am a sucker for them and want to own every single one that can make me look like a professional communicator. This is called the Dolly, a universal mobile device that helps you create cinematic videos and panning shots. All you have to do is roll the Dolly. It works with every type of smartphone.

The Dolly retails for $59.95

Dolly was created by iStabilizer based in Park City, Utah.

I Am Starting My Life Over on Twitter

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I have come to the conclusion that most of the time I spend on Facebook is a big waste. Other than a few close friends, I am following the lives of people who mean nothing to me. I can’t remember them saying anything of consequence. Twitter is totally different. Most influential people and companies use Twitter to impart information on a much more intellectual basis. They are feeding info as the news develops or are uncovering information that they think will be helpful to the people who follow them. There are still a lot of vanity posts but the 140 character limitation doesn’t allow for much boasting.

The challenging problem is to decide who to follow. From the very beginning I did it all wrong. I followed people who followed me and picked up others who my friends were following. Don’t do what I did. Carefully select folks who can share information that will have some impact on you.
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Sree Sreenivasan of the tech blog CNET (he us also Chief Digital Officer, professor of digital media, and Dean of Student Affairs at Columbia University) put together a good list of folks and companies who are thought provoking and post frequently.

Top 10 most followed journalists

Anderson Cooper: 3,455,256

Piers Morgan: 3,004,433

Rachel Maddow: 2,434,423

Larry King: 2,319,449

Bill Simmons: 1,931,155

George Stephanopoulos: 1,814,086

Chris Hardwick: 1,757,790

David Gregory: 1,584,068

Sanjay Gupta: 1,567,922

David Pogue: 1,454,191

Top 10 publications with the most journalists on Twitter

The Associated Press: 471

The New York Times: 463

The Wall Street Journal: 327

Bloomberg News: 310

The Guardian: 293

Reuters: 238

USA Today: 186

CNN: 175

Los Angeles Times: 174

Sky News: 141

Top 10 news organizations with the most total followers of all their Tweeting journalists:

CNN: 12,936,330

The New York Times: 10,361,924

ABC News: 8,080,255

NBC News: 4,886,734

The Guardian: 4,653,253

ESPN: 4,468,903

MSNBC: 3,927,080

Fox News: 3,248,385

CNBC: 2,699,308

BBC: 2,136,011

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Get Silly with Emoticons

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This post is dedicated to Mindi Lampert who taught me how to use emoticons on a smart phone the other night at a holiday party. Thank you, Mind!! 😘

Emoticons are the facial or pictorial expressions you see many people using in their texts and emails. In fact, they can even be used on my blog post.

💝🎎🎒☎🎥⏰

I have noticed emoticons for years but never knew how to use them. Now that I know, watch out. 🗿🇺🇸🚲🚠🚃🚅🚚

The word “emoticon” is a combination of emotions and icons. You don’t need to download an app to use emoticons. You can all use them right from your smartphone.

Go into Settings on your phone. Find the “general” bar. Tap it and then look for “keyboard.” Tap “keyboard.” Then you will see the word “Emoji.” Click “Emoji.”

Leave Settings and go into Messages or Email. You will notice a “globe” button between 123 and the mic on the lower left hand side of the keyboard.

Tap the “globe.” You will see pages of emoticons and several categories to choose from. Incorporate them into your messages when appropriate like now.

💈🏮🚦🇺🇸🎭

To return to keyboard just tap the “globe”again. It is a lot of fun.

Shark Tank’s Cheesy Indulgence

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Mark Cuban

When someone with deep pockets makes a mistake, it is called “an experiment.” When someone starting out or just an average Joe makes a mistake, it is considered a major blunder. Hence, the reason for my post.

Mark Cuban, one of the six rotating investors on ABC TV’s Shark Tank, admitted in an interview on Reddit that allowing a T-Mobile product placement followed by a T-Mobile commercial, right in the middle of the show last season, was in poor taste. He actually used the word “cheesy.”

We are loyal fans of the show so we will give it another shot this season, but if we start to see blatant product endorsements on the show, we are going to immediately tune out. Watching real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran talk about her ability to use her T-Mobile phone to access information about one of the on-air startups was insulting to the viewers. We all knew Shark Tank was getting paid to have Barbara say that.

Cuban’s actual excuse on Reddit was, “It was beyond cheesy. None of the sharks liked it, but we learned from it and it will be different in the future.” So what does that mean? They won’t endorse products on the air as a form of advertising, or they will do a better job camouflaging it?

Reddit is a collection of entries on a website submitted by registered users. It looks like a bulletin board system. The entries are organized into areas of interest called “reddits.” The word Reddit comes from “I read it.” Users vote on stories, thumbs up or down. The result determines the positioning of the content on the site.

Cuban was featured on Reddit’s AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread. Users posed questions and he answered them quickly and candidly.

Reddit also asked Cuban how many of the deals on Shark Tank get modified or cancelled after the cameras stop rolling? Also, had any of the Sharks ever decided to make a deal with someone after the cameras stopped?

I think you are going to find Cuban’s answer very interesting. “We get the chance to do due diligence after the show. As a result, you uncover things that were not brought up in the show, so it’s not unusual for a deal to fall through in the DD phase. I have had things like people who never paid their taxes, people who lied on the show, people who thought that spending money on their personal credit cards should be considered a business expense, you name it.”

Cuban continued, “There is so much pressure on the entrepreneur during the show that sometimes they say what they think we want to hear rather than the truth. The DD helps us separate the two.”

“How many of the deals have you had to break off in the DD phase?”

“Probably about 25 per cent of them!”

Financial Whiz Todd Gerber Responds to Jerry Della Femina’s Anti Obama NY Post Story

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Jerry Della Femina

DigiDame first to challenge Jerry Della Femina PR Spin

Click here for the original blog post on Della Femina’s claims.

Remarks From Todd Gerber

“You make a good point about the high overhead probably being the reason for the sale, Lois. I can’t figure out why someone in Mr. Della Femina’s position would feel forced to sell because of the higher taxes in 2013, which would amount to an additional 8.8% (5% higher capital gain +3.8% surtax on income over $250,000 for the Affordable Care Act a.k.a. Obamacare) had he sold in 2013 vs 2012.

“Assuming a $20 million gain on the property held for decades, that would amount to $1.76 million in savings by selling in 2012. With a Manhattan townhouse and Palm Beach properties, plus the value of the Hamptons house, it’s reasonable to assume Mr. Della Femina’s has net worth in excess of $50 million. With that amount of net worth, I can’t understand why a 3.5% reduction in net worth due to the tax implications would make someone feel like they absolutely had to sell NOW. If that was the case, it sounds like borderline irrational behavior to me. Your assumptions about wanting to reduce overhead sound more plausible.

“And, of course, Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post has its own axe to grind trying to make it look like Obama forced Mr. Della Femina’s hand. The Post article implies a 40% rise in taxes in the same sentence it mentions a 5% rise in taxes,and the reality of an 8.8% rise in taxes in the case of Mr. Della Femina. That represents just 1 pretty decent year in overall investment return. Spin, spin, spin.”