Jamie Clague

On computers

and Star Trek

At some point over the last two years of Edinburgh Coffee Morning both John Mountjoy and Ewan McIntosh have mentioned a website called TED. Its a conference held every year in which a number of people speak about a wide range of subjects. These talks are then made free to watch via their website. Their tag line is "Ideas worth spreading" which probably sums up the quality of the presentations.

Now you know what its like you’re always being bombarded with websites you should check, books you should read, podcasts you should subscribe to and million other things. Now that I get a bus everyday to work I have 30 minutes in the morning to read those books and listening to those podcasts. So a couple of months ago I started watching TED videos and have been rather hooked on them since, downloading well over 7 GB worth.

Here are few of my favourite…

David Pogue on user interfaces

Shai Agassi’s bold plan for electric cars

Richard St. John’s 8 secrets of success

Oh and TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design!

http://www.ted.com/

Some Scottish humour from the BBC.

A selection of slang from The Wire, please feel free to leave comments.

• Corner / The corners - The streets where dealers hang out or sell
• Hi Risers / Towers - Tower blocks / High rise flats
• Hamsterdam - Is the name given to area that police allowed the drug dealers to deal in
• Po Po / 50 - Police
• Muscle - Having people to carry out handy work / tough guys
• The Pit - A grassy area with houses around the edges?
• Step off - Telling someone to move away / fuck off basically

• Burner - Pay as you go mobile that is thrown away after a couple of days
• Re-up or Package - Shipment of drug / Someone who has AIDS “they’ve got the package”
• hopper - Drug dealer at the bottom of the food chain
• Shorty - Female or a kid

• To have suction - To have pull with your higher-ups at the Police Department or in City Hall.
• The hall - The mayor’s office / City Hall.
• A redball - A high-profile case.
• A Corner boy - A young kid on the street who’s aware of the street (but not necessarily a dealer). A corner boy is one on a corner, working a package with a crew. A yo or yo boy is a derogative term for such, popularized by Baltimore cops. A corner boy would never refer to himself as a yo or yo boy.
• Police - Police officers are simply police, as in “he a police.” Emphasis on first syllable: “POH-leece.” Homicide detectives are murder police.
• Good Police - A police officer who cares more about work than the chain of command.
• Stand Tall - Not let the enemy have his way with you, maintain dignity. Common usage.
• Carrying Weight - Doing jail time (and not cooperating with the police).
• To Shove off - To get high.
• Testers - Free vials from a new street-ready package that go out to addicts to get them hooked/let them know there’s a new package….They are simply advertising the quality of a new package. Testers can be heroin, which is sold under brand names: Death Row, Tec-Nine, WMD, etc., and usually come in Ziploc bags, or inside capsules, or in glassine envelopes; or cocaine, which is usually in vials of the kind used for perfume samples, with different colored tops. Red-tops, blue-tops, yellow-tops, etc.
• Slinging - Selling drugs. Or twirling. Or clocking. Or working a package.
• The Jects - The projects.
• Cheese - Money but also a character
• Fiend - Addict.
• A humble - A cheap, misdemeanor charge. Either an unwarranted charge in some definitions, or a charge required in order to humble an arrogant corner boy.
• Crew up - To form a team and sling drugs on a corner.
• Walk-around  money - Petty briberies and monetary grease on Election Day.
• G-Pack - One hundred vials of coke, prepackaged for sale.

http://ask.metafilter.com/91636/Help-me-understand-jargon-in-The-Wire

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119888101122256433.html?mod=loomia&loomia_si=t0:a16:g2:r1:c0.542822

Earlier in the year the companies recruitment agency asked if I could give them some advice on using Twitter as a business tool. I’m certainly not an experts on Twitter but as myself and the company have been using it since 2007, I had a few ideas.

I would say most of these ideas are based on ones we’ve learnt from blogging over the years, as Twitter itself is often referred as "Micro-Blogging".

1. Humanise - Promo outside of work stories
2. Share - news/links about your industry
3. Listen - for your business name / brand - reply to the tweet
4. Add image / logo /  Wallpaper - Remind us your business by creating a customised background to promote your business
5. Business or Personal or Both - Decide what you plan to tweet about / your audience
6. Give and Take - You need to give valuable advice to your followers
7. Re Tweet - Praise or retweet your follower tweets if contain value information
8. Competition - Follow your competition
9. Ask for help / Questions - Ask your followers questions
10. Advice - Answer questions of people you don’t follow

What’s your advice for using Twitter for business purposes?

Unseen footage of Bills last show that was canned on the David Letterman Show before he died 15 years ago today.

Last night end up in the Golden Rule in Polwarth for a few birthday drinks. Sue then realised that five years ago when we all lived in Polwarth we had paid the Rule a visit for a my 24th.

In the Kop with my Dad to watch Liverpool v the bitter and twisted, and proud of it according to flag outside one of the Pubs. Everton played 10 defenders.

More photos at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamieclague/sets/72157613058766338/

Barack Obama Day, originally uploaded by redrouteone.

Picture of the Day

The 44th President of America Barack Obama is sworn in. Apart from the obvious, Barack is first President to embrace social media to new levels which surely helped him to win a large percent of votes.

I hope he can deliver on his goals for a greener America which has big influence on the rest of the world.

* Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.

* Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined.

* Put 1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars — cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon — on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America.

* Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.

* Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/energy_and_environment/