Pinterest, The Digital Corkboard

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There is nothing like the threat of a major storm to make me think about how organized we are. I like the idea that at a moment’s notice we could grab our valuables and make a run for it. The older we get, the more we want to be in control.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to stop accumulating things. I just want them filed in an organized fashion so I have easy access. That is why I wanted to tell you all about the website Pinterest. It is a digital corkboard that allows you to search all kinds of categories and then “pin” interesting pictures on different boards. Pinterest has dozens of categories to search through. You can look up DIY crafts, must read books, travel ideas, gardening ideas, and several other subjects. It is a great way to expand your hobbies and find new and interesting things. This website has turned heads all over the world, quickly gaining millions of members and growing larger every day.

You can sign up for the website and log in using your Facebook or Twitter account, or with an email account. Once you log in, you can personalize your boards using whatever topics or titles you like. Some of my boards include `Sayings,’ ‘Fitness’, ‘My Style,’ and ‘Hair and Makeup.’ Your profile button will be located at the top right corner of the Pinterest website, where you can view your boards and pins, look up friends and their boards, and invite friends to join the website with you.

You can add pins to the corkboard by either uploading a picture, or by installing the ‘Pin It’ button, which is found under the toolbar. The Pinterest website gives you detailed instructions on how to install this button under their ‘Goodies’ tab on the homepage. Installing the button allows you to browse the internet freely. When you come across a picture that you like and want to add it to one of your own boards, simply hit the “Pin It” button, which will now be located at the top of the Pinterest webpage in a big red box. Using the dropdown box that will automatically appear, choose which board the pin will belong to, hit Pin, and you’re done.

One of the reasons Pinterest is so famous, is because it gives you the ability to collect and store files and still be paperless. Enjoy, your files are just a click away!

A Hurricane In The Digitial Age

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I just heard on the news that many of us spend 15 years of our life watching TV. I am a TV junkie. I probably have spent many more years in front of the boob tube than that. Yes, yes, I know that I shouldn’t admit it. Not very scholarly of me. In the last eight years, not only do I watch a lot of TV, but I also have my laptop on my coffee table, my iPhone right next to me, and my iPad next to my iPhone. I like to think that this corner of my living room is my command center. I do my best thinking here and this is the spot where I de-stress. There is nothing like getting my work life in order to make myself feel totally liberated.

The world is outside my window. Nothing can touch me in here. That will all be tested in a few days from now when Sandy, appropriately being called Frankenstorm, hits the New York area. All of the TV news stations, WINS radio and now YouTube are reporting that Sandy might be a lulu of a storm, something the east coast has never seen before. At breakfast this morning, at our neigborhood diner, Silver Star, I told Eliot that if we did get rained in, that I could use the few days to catch up on emails and other Internet research that I was behind on. Then he gave me the bad news that never occurred to me. If we lose electricity, all of my communications gear will be useless, no TV, no radio, no Internet.

I felt myself go into panic mode. After breakfast we shopped for batteries and food for the next few days. I downloaded a lot of music, podcasts and audio books that I have been wanting to listen to. Thanks goodness I have multiple iPods so hopefully that will get me through a few days. Then there is always traditional books and printed magazines. If I light some candles, it will be like the good old days of the late 80s. Remember when we were able to concentrate on one thing at a time without beeps, clicks, bells and buzzers going off all the time? I could use some down time from all the noise but I don’t know if I am ready to live without Twitter and Facebook for a few days.

Tout This

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Have you touted yet? If you haven’t touted, you have to try it. Here is a chance to capture your 15 seconds of fame. There is a new app called “Tout” that allows you to record and share 15 seconds of video via email, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. You don’t have to upload to YouTube. Just record and send.

Click here to see my first Tout videos

You can send a quick video message to the grandkids, share a quick video of yourself on your next trip or record your grandson’s first homerun.All videos can be saved on any device and shared with family and friends. You can also view other members’ videos, including celebrities and interviews. If it is posted, you can view it.

I am told this is all the rage in Hollywood and in the music industry. Everyone is video recording each other and sending video messages that they don’t want to say in person, like “Go Tout Yourself.”

Right Up My Valli

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“Oh, what a night!” I haven’t felt so energized in a very long time. Watching Frankie Valli live on stage at 78 years old at the Broadway Theatre last night, was just the shot in the arm that I needed to get me back on track. I was starting to feel that maybe I should wind it down a bit (I get this way every once in a while), but after seeing Frankie on stage I feel that there is still a lot of living to do, and if that includes work, so be it!

Frankie is the new 78. Thin (he can’t weigh more than 120), strong, sexy, and totally with it. You can just tell from his body language that he is very satisfied with himself and wants to share his glorious voice with others. If you read his bio, he has had his share of tough times, but he seems like a “total picture guy” who wants to soak up every joyous opportunity.

I have a male cousin like that, Allan Becker, who is in his early 70s. When you speak to him you feel like he is planning his life as if he was still in his 20s. He travels the country for his work, loves the people he meets, focuses on helping his much younger boss build a new business, is constantly busy with community service, and has a great social wife with his beautiful wife Irene.

The minute the Frankie Valli show was over, I wrote an email to a bunch of friends telling them not to miss it. My girl friend, Sara Levinson, wrote back that she was considering it but after seeing so many Doo Wop shows where most of the singers look half dead, she decided to skip this one. I agree with Sara. Most of the time the singers that show up at Doo Wop’s look like faded glory. Last night was totally different. Frankie Valli’s falsetto voice was as strong as ever and those sounds made the crowd go wild.

What I loved the most was that the audience was vibrant. I felt like I was with a bunch of teenagers. Everyone looked fresh and animated trying to capture Frankie on their smartphones, tablets and digital cameras. No one listened to the ushers who were warning, “No recordings please.” Everyone was snapping away. During intermission, the 50-plus crowd were texting their friends, making calls on cells, emailing photos to other fans, and checking the photos they took to make sure they got what they wanted. I had to laugh to myself. This senior crowd was no different than the youngsters who rushed to Brooklyn recently to see Jay-Z at the new Barclays Center.

There was a few moments of realism when the new Four Seasons members came forward to sing right next to Frankie. First they towered over him and their bodies shimmied in ways you would only want to see on a young person.

I am thrilled that Eliot and I went to see Frankie Valli last night. I can’t get this dopey smile off my face.

Twitter Folks Respond To Donald Trump’s Obama Announcement

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I did not edit the responses. Just copied and pasted the first to tweet. This blog post gives you a good idea of how Twitter works and how the tweets get posted.

The Onion‏@TheOnion
“I’m a sad, pathetic human being and a complete waste of life.” – Donald Trump http://onion.com/TUnbpl

rob delaney‏@robdelaney
Ann Coulter, Richard Mourdock & Donald Trump = appetizers. Mitt Romney = main course.

Lizz Winstead‏@lizzwinstead
BREAKING: Donald Trump replaces bed bugs as Americas #1 Pest

Scabby Crutchfield‏@curlycomedy
Ann Coulter and Donald Trump sitting in a tree, H-I-S-S-I-N-G.

Not Brian Scalabrine‏@BScalabrine24
BREAKING: Donald Trump demands to know what medical school Dr. Dre went to

Ann Coultergeist‏@OhNoSheTwitnt
Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are all trending so I can only assume Voldemort is next.

aaron blitzstein‏@BlitznBeans
This Donald Trump character is Andy Kaufman’s greatest bit ever.

Peyton’s Head‏@PeytonsHead
Mitt Romney just announced he’ll donate $50MIL to charity if Donald Trump will just shut the f••k up.

Kid Fury‏@KidFury
I demand that Mitt Romney announce the species of demon he is and that Donald Trump admit that his wig is a hovercraft.

Andy Borowitz‏@BorowitzReport
Attention parents: if you give your children even the tiniest bit of attention now, maybe they won’t grow up to be Donald Trump.

Drunk Ass Rick ‏@Rickonia
BREAKING NEWS: Donald Trump demands to know what medical school Dr Dre went to

Drunk Ass Rick ‏@Rickonia
BREAKING NEWS: Donald Trump demands Latifah tells what country she’s the queen of

New York Magazine‏@NYMag
Our expectations about @realDonaldTrump’s Obama announcement were clearly not low enough. http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/10/donald-trump-obama-college-five-million.html?mid=twitter_nymag …

Nancy Lee Grahn‏@NancyLeeGrahn
Donald Trump is the Honey Boo Boo of rich people #trump

JD Crowe‏@CroweJam
The Humane Society will give Donald Trump $5 if he releases that thing on his head back into the woods.

Ed Schultz‏@edshow
NOT BREAKING: Donald Trump releases edited video of himself shouting nonsense at a camera

Zack Beauchamp‏@zackbeauchamp
Amused that Donald Trump is essentially doing a “philantrophic” version of the Joker’s moral experiments in The Dark Knight.
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Jon Lovett‏@jonlovett
“It is not the policy of the United States government to negotiate with Donald Trump.”

KimJongNumberUn‏@KimJongNumberUn
At noon I will announce that Donald Trump is my real father.

Andy Borowitz‏@BorowitzReport
I think it’s very thoughtless of Donald Trump to schedule an appearance when so many of us will be eating.

Steven Amiri‏@StevenAmiri
Donald Trump’s big announcement is that his real name is Tronald Dump.

Josh Hara‏@yoyoha
BREAKING: Donald Trump to announce how easily a rich idiot can get everyone’s attention at 12 EST.

Charlamagne Tha God‏@cthagod
Patiently waiting for Donald Trump’s announcement at noon regarding our President so I can prepare my Donkey of the Day for tomorrow.

Dr. Jill Biden‏@JillBidenVeep
I think Donald Trump’s announcement is going to be that he once killed a man with only his hair.

Josh Hopkins‏@thedayhascome
Donald Trump plans to announce that his hair has become sentient and is controlling the thinky and movey parts of his body.

Roseanne Barr‏@TheRealRoseanne
donald trump is rumored to have been born on Planet X.

The Dowager Countess‏@theLadyGrantham
Donald Trump’s revelation will be that his hair was born in Kenya.

the gangster of oz‏@holllyyx
Donald Trump is the Kim Kardashian of politics. God forbid it’s not all about him.

The Daily Edge‏@TheDailyEdge
SOURCES: Donald Trump to reveal Wednesday that Barack Obama has fathered two black children with a Chicago-born woman named “Michelle”

Roger Simon‏@politicoroger
I don’t want to be too judgmental, but Donald Trump couldn’t be dumber if you cut his head off.

Everything You Wanted To Know About Instagram

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This photo was altered by using Instagram

Intern Kiersten Daly with Taylor Swift

This post was written by an intern who works for me because she is an expert on Instagram. So many of you have asked me why Instagram is so popular. Kiersten Daly spells it out. I have included a picture of Kiersten because she got up at 4am this morning to see Taylor Swift in concert on Good Morning America. She was one of hundreds who arrived outside of ABC’s studios waiting to meet the mega star.

By Kiersten Daly

Many of you may be wondering what Instagram is and what is the point of it? Plain and simple, it is a fun and interesting way to vamp up your pictures and share them with friends and family. That is called social media photo-sharing. Instagram is now officially owned by Facebook. With the touch of a few, easily identifiable, buttons on Instagram, you can instantly change the appearance of your picture and post it on the Instagram site for all of your followers, or friends, to see. Followers are the people that are connected with your Instagram site.

Similar to Facebook, you look up family members or friends and request to follow their page so that you can see their profile, pictures, and other information that they choose to share. In return, those people will usually ‘follow’ your page. Followers are a simple way of stating, “I agree to follow what’s going on with your life and I will look at your pictures that you want to share with me.” You can make pictures look older, enhance them, make them different colors, blur out background images that you don’t want in the picture, crop them and much more!

What started out as a simple idea quickly transformed into a system utilized by Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Android , and of course the iPhone and the iPad. Each system mentioned above has Instagram installed or available for download. By clicking on the Instagram icon or link you can log in and begin to take pictures or load previously taken pictures onto the site and share them with all of your followers. This fun product captures events with snapshots that will make memories last a lifetime. Instagram allows you to take all kinds of pictures and transform them into a more beautiful image than you started with, thanks to the various filters available to change the look of the photo. Capture the Eiffel Tower in France, the Statue of Liberty in New York City, or a day out with your grandchildren, and have a unique picture to last a lifetime.

Users have the option to ‘hashtag’ photos as well. This universal popular symbol, #, attaches itself to a word or phrase to categorize similar topics on a subject together so that it can be easily searched. This gives other users the ability to know what the photo is about or where the photo was taken. For instance, if a person were to hashtag one of their photos #NYC, than when you search that topic, their picture will appear. It makes things easier when trying to group pictures together under a specific topic. Yet, if you don’t want people other than your friends and family to be able to view your pictures, you can make your Instagram profile private. People will have to ask permission to follow your photos and those without permission cannot see anything on your profile.

The pictures can also be easily uploaded to your computer to print out and hang up or store until a later time. Using the explore option; you can look up family members and friends to follow their page when they share photos as well. You can also look up a specific topic or theme. By typing in the topic you are interested in, numerous pictures come up that relate to your topic. You can enjoy other users pictures of places you may want to see, ideas you may be interested in for yourself, and even inspirational sayings to help you through a difficult day. Once you start, you’ll never want to stop.

The Digital Industry Is Going On A Diet

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Sean Parker

I recently got word that one of the tech startups we repped decided to close its doors because it still had no income after a few years of existence. Investors got tired of writing monthly checks, even though they felt the founder was a genius and his proprietary software was one-of-a kind. I am keeping the name of company silent, because some of the strategic partners have not been notified yet.

Interestingly enough, Sean Parker, the guy who told Mark Zuckerberg not to call Facebook “The Facebook,” has also decided not to dump endless money into his own four-month-old startup, instead cutting staff and tweaking its software. That’s an unusual move for such a young company in this business.

If anyone knows how to build a company, Parker (played by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network) certainly knows what he is doing, having become a billionaire a few times over from Napster, Plaxo, Causes, Spotify, Votizen, and Facebook. His recent venture, Airtime, a new type of video chat, was launched with much fanfare over the summer, so the decision to slow it down a bit came as a surprise to many.

I think the digital industry is going through the growing pains it probably should have experienced a few years ago. Nothing like a Presidential election to wake people up. Many re-evaluate their portfolios because they are not sure what changes may take place in the economy regardless of which candidate is elected. It is now time for reflection, new decisions and financial housekeeping.

We are going to see more and more of the money people start to give the geniuses deadlines. I’ve always wondered about that. We worked for so many companies over the years where the founders/inventors thought they were going to get funded forever. They never addressed time commitments and goals. It was always about making them look good during their journey of glory.

It used to be so cool to tell others at a dinner party that you were an angel investor in some genius startup. Today, I think a lot of people look at you and murmur “sucker” under their breath.

For purposes of disclosure, Eliot and I got suckered in a few times. Thank goodness for the ones that made some money and for our day job.

A Bluetooth For Healthy Teeth

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Do you remember the catchphrase, “Where’s The Beef?” It originated with the fast food chain Wendy’s, but quickly caught on as a trendy one-liner for every substance question pertaining to an idea, product, or event. Everyone, regardless of age, used that expression non-stop.

There’s a new catchphrase being bounced around that you might hear soon. “Does your toothbrush have an app?” The slogan was developed by the inventors of the Beam Brush from Beam Technologies.

Watch the video here that asks the question

They hope their slogan will go viral so that everyone will soon know about their invention. It is the first toothbrush with a wireless Bluetooth sensor embedded in the upper part of the brush that tracks your dental hygiene activity. The information syncs to the app (both Android and Apple) which will automatically give you a total picture of your brushing habits. The information can be emailed to your dentist.

Alex Frommeyer, cofounder of Beam Technologies, said the biggest revelation in all of this, is that most people only brush their teeth for 46 seconds. A good cleaning, according to Beam, is two minutes. In fact, the Beam Brush plays two minutes of music while you brush, so you know when to stop.

The Beam Brush is available in blue or pink with adult or kid-sized brush heads. Pre-orders for the brush cost $35. When it launches in November, the price goes up to $50.

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Nothing Ailes Me

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I read this morning that Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox News, just signed on for another four years. He is 72 years old.

What makes some people want to retire at 65 and others when they are too sick or dead? In Roger’s case it must be totally ego, not that his $21 million a year compensation shouldn’t be taken into consideration. Or how about the fact that there is no heir apparent in the Rupert Murdoch family. Hmmm!

I met Roger over 25 years ago when he was between TV and political gigs. He didn’t know what he was going to do with his career, so he called in three PR experts for their advice. I was one of the three. Why? I have no idea. I certainly didn’t have the brass I have today, and my opinions and convictions were not that strong.

The three so-called experts met with him separately. I remember mine so vividly. We met at his Ailes Communications office at 7am. When I entered those premises for the first time, I became fixated on two things: the tower of bagels that sat before him and the giant red telephone that kept ringing all during our meeting.

I was starving. I was dying for him to take one so I could dive in. He didn’t, so I refrained.

The first call he answered was from Nixon. He was counseling him on who to speak to at dinner that night, what the topic should be discussed, and what his remarks should be. It didn’t matter that I was in the room. He let me hear everything.

He had similar conversations with Bush senior and Ronnie. I just politely sat there. This was way before cell phones and the Internet. All I could do was stare into space.

Between phone calls, Ailes asked me several questions. 1-Should he go back into TV or pursue his counsel in politics? 2-Would he be a good CEO in the corporate world? 3-Which publications or TV shows would be best to appear on considering his aspirations.

At the time, I was not that opinionated. I was so concerned about giving him the right answers. He talked and talked until it dawned on me that he wasn’t really asking me anything at all. I was a stage prop. He knew what he wanted and Ailes was just talking out loud.

When he completely exhausted his discussion, he thanked me profusely for my time and complimented me on my sincerity. It was anti-climatic for me, but he sure had a good time hearing himself talk.

I should have had a bagel.

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No Hiding Your Emotions

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One of the next big things in computer software will be monitoring people’s emotions. Software is being developed around the world that will tell us what other people are thinking. It’s called “affective computing.” It gives computers the ability to read users’ emotions, or “affect.”

“Affecting computing” is going to change our lives. It might not be for the better, but it certainly will make us aware if someone is really listening to us. I watch other people talking to each other all the time and I can spot the disinterested person.

The software is going to be built into glasses, pins, badges, necklaces, neckties, or any item that is visible. Everyone will be using it.

It could turn out to be dangerous. People will now know if they are boring someone and that could ruin relationships.

Personally, I would love to use this technology in the next big company meeting I attend. Most of them bore me to death. I go into my own zone. I look around the room trying to interpret what each person is thinking.

I love playing that game by myself. The person making the presentation is so wrapped up in the topic, he or she fails to see what is actually going on in the room.

I have been to countless meetings over several decades. The scenario is always the same. One guy at the conference room table is thinking about the baseball game that night, another is thinking about what he is going to eat for dinner, and the next guy, well his eyes are closed. If I could have a dollar for each time someone snoozed during a meeting, I would be rich.

Can you imagine using “affective computing” on a date? All of a sudden you see a sign that says the person is just not into you. My response would be, “Sorry, but I am leaving now. I would rather be home watching TV.”

Now that I think about it, this new developing software could be kind of scary.

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