Web/Tech » Stand Aside

internet-based interest groups aka meetups

: Image via CrunchBase

Meetup.com provides a platform that connects people via the internet along common interests. It’s similar to meeting people at the gym and connecting on fitness and other aspects of life. However, Meetup gives us the power of the internet to connect with others! Type a search term in the topic/interest field, follow it up with a zip code of where you’d like to Meetup and voila! Instant Meetup satisfaction. Other tools that make finding like-minded people easier are the Trending, New in-your-area, and Upcoming fields. Don’t know who you want to meet, just browse the menu of categories.

Turns out its not just a website, but a social concept. As the world grows larger and people spread, core social groups are created, transitioned, lost, and updated. Since it is essential to our health to maintain interpersonal relationships we strive to facilitate our interactions. Family is generally our first experience with social groups and relationships. It gives us a benchmark to either find more like it or escape from those that are like it. Either way we are trained to thrive in social groups. More often than not keeping a social group is difficult in the modern, western world as circumstances and situations change. Take this scenario: Mario grows up with his mother, father, and younger sister. They live in a suburban area and have an enjoyable life. Mario’s father leaves the family when he is 8 years old. Mario, his mother, and sister move to a new state near extended family. Growing up he goes to college out of state. He returns to find his sister in another state at college. His mother is busily working and living her life. Mario gets a job offer across the country. He moves, and immediately identifies with no one. What to do?

Join Meetup. Dating sites are actually all the rage nowadays and make for a great way to meet people too.

EDIT: Honestly, I began writing this a long time ago and forgot where I was going with it. Moral of the day > Finish that which you start within a reasonable amount of time.

Socialnomics by @equalman

Are people on the internet? We seem to think so. Do they use social media? Pretty much everyday. How about businesses? They’re getting there. Do people like businesses on the internet? One would think that if they were able to find out as much that is good and bad about a business on the internet that they would begin to tell their friends. Sending a link to 1,306 friends on facebook, 460 email contacts, and 3,583 followers on twitter is a lot faster than calling 1 person to talk on the phone.

Random bit of connected nonsense with no data to back it up. Maybe. I’ll call it common knowledge for now and see what happens.

Apple Announces DRM Free Music – We’ve waited far too long for this.

"In a long overdue move, all the major record labels have agreed to allow Apple to sell tracks without the much-maligned DRM software that limits consumers' ability to transfer music.
As of today, iTunes will sell eight million tracks DRM-free; by March, all 10 million tracks in the company's catalogue will be available without the software." – Wendy Davis, The daily Online Examiner, A MediaPost Publication

I've been waiting the entire life of iTunes for this! Now all I need to do is make sure that iTunes included/will include a way to unlock all the currently protected tracks that users own.

Now I can effortlessly share all of mine and my roomate's music on my Linux Music Box over my local network.

Now I can effortlessly take his music on the go without having to worry about reaching the 'Authorized Users Limit' in iTunes.

Now I can sleep easy knowing that the music industry will not crap on me if I decide to share some music.

Now I also know why RIAA stopped prosecuting individual sharers, which makes me wonder if they will also stop ISP limitations.

[References to those topics will come soon. I'm at work and should be working.]

Semester One of Senior Year: Complete

It feels quite righteous to be so close to the end. 4 years of going to school and working to pay the bills is finally culminating with receipt of the coveted Bachelor's Degree!! To be honest, I think I am more excited that I will finally be able to just work. Wierd huh? I know, there are probably a lot of people out there saying, 'He doesn't know what he's in for.' and 'He'll be wishing he was back in college soon enough.' But I am truly excited to just work for awhile. It is so taxing to have to concentrate on school as well as work. The two are very involved and I'd like to devote more energy to one vs the other but when I have to do both its just very difficult. [<--Run on sentence?]

Anyways some new stuff:

Linux is running on an old laptop as my music-box. I move a lot of my music files to that machine when I don't listen to them as much so I can save space on my primary laptop. I have Rhythmbox running a DAAP music server so that I can listen to everything through iTunes. It auto updates as I load stuff onto it. The only downfall so far is that Joe, my roomate, cannot put any of his music on it because its all iTunes protected. That's BS in my opinion, but let's not get into a rant on proprietary music rights.

I'm setting up a local server on Linux so that I can begin work on a WordPress site. I found that when I used wordpress I was able to retain a lot more knowledge on web development because I was constantly doing it. I want that knowledge back, and I also want the scalability and cost-savings of a wordpress site. So, yes, I will probImage via Wikipediaably be transitioning this site over in a few months. I'll let ya'll know my progress as I go. Maybe I'll start a nice little page on my adventures with Linux.

I can't tell you how much of a pain it was for me to just get the linux machine to run a print server. It took me a good week of troubleshooting and talking to Billy, my unofficial Linux techsupport [he is running Ubuntu 8.10 as his main OS on an Acer laptop]. Alas it finally runs smoothly with my computer and Joe's computer.

Its late. I'm tired. Plenty of West Wing and Family Guy to watch. Plenty of books and articles to read. All ready for work in the morning.

Peace readers and Thank you so much for dedicating a few minutes of your day to hear my thoughts.

StandAside Author: Kris Patel

eBay launches Rewards Program

eBay Bucks are going to be the rewards for purchasing more stuff on the online auction site. Apparently during this testing period invited users are able start with $5 of eBay Bucks after they sign up. Reward Program Participants can earn Bucks on based on a percentage of their qualifying purchases. They’ve posted the terms of the rewards program here, rewards.ebay.com. I quickly looked it over and for starters the program is INVITE ONLY, you earn rewards based on qualified purchases in most of the categories, and the rewards are usable for a 30-day period only.

Now, after signing into my eBay account to "Learn More" about the program I find that they are giving users 5% back on their purchase over the course of 1-month after which eBay will send a PayPal voucher of the amount of "Bucks" available which expires in another month. It seems like a straight-forward system. Earn Bucks throughout the month they designate and redeem them the following month. It is very limited for this trial probably for statistical purposes. With only a select timeframe available eBay will be able to get a good look at a huge segment of its users and their buying habits. I wouldn’t be surprised if they return with some interesting stats on how users react to this campaign.

I, however, will increase my usage of eBay with this rewards program as I haven’t been a steady user lately. I wonder if most of the users they sent the invite to have also been stagnant eBay users lately. I got the email at about 1am last night… woke up to "Yay! Another opportunity to spend the money pulled from already empty pockets." As a college student living with small means I put more energy into making wise purchases and the less I buy the more dinners I can afford.

[EDIT] From the eager mouth of eBay itself:

Mark your calendar, you can redeem your eBay Bucks from Aug 22-Sep 21.

Here’s how to redeem eBay Bucks

Go to www.eBay.com and log in with the User ID you used to sign up here.

Start shopping. Be sure the seller accepts PayPal.

Pick
something you love with a value close to that of your eBay Bucks. (You
may use it one time with a single order and a single seller. Any
balance is forfeited.)

Pay for your item with PayPal before the expiration date: September 21, 2008 23:59:59 PM GMT-06:00

In eBay checkout enter the unique redemption code printed on your voucher.

Important Redemption Terms
You may only redeem your eBay Bucks voucher using PayPal and eBay checkout on eBay.com or motors.eBay.com, not Express.
Your eBay Bucks voucher will be valid from Aug 22-Sep 21.
The voucher is valid one time for a single transaction with a single
seller. If your voucher value is not completely used up in that one
transaction, the balance will be forfeited.

Apple Announces DRM Free Music – We’ve waited far too long for this.

Semester One of Senior Year: Complete

eBay launches Rewards Program

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@krispatel