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Review
My 19 year old daughter and I watched it today. We both loved it. The story and CGI was excellent.  I would have enjoyed it more if we didn’t watch it in 3D.  The 3D motion scenes, i.e. panning or ojects moving by the screen, seemed out of focus. Also, I found myself concentrating on the 3D effects rather than the scene itself.

Other than that and the constant commentary from the lady behind us (you know who you are) the experience was excellent.

View the trailer on YouTube

Have you watched it yet? Did you like it?

Re-tweet: The act of forwarding a message through the micro blogging service Twitter.

The term Re-tweeting is well known by avid Twitter users and novices alike.  But what impacts does re-tweeting have to you and your friends?  None perhaps to the casual Twitter users and social butterflies.  But their Tweets are more conversational and not likely to be reading this article anyway.

The avid Twitter user on the other hand, spends countless hours everyday building their credibility by tweeting information.  When you re-tweet, you are not only sharing their message but your source of the message.  This gives your other friends the opportunity to follow that person as well.  What better compliment can you give a Twitter user?

At times, crediting your friends is not an easy task.  Many tweets are re-tweeted several times.  Accumulating many user accounts (@name).  If thre is at least 14 characters free to allow further re-tweeting I will leave it alone.  But with the 140 limit, some  accounts may need to be deleted from the tweet.  I always leave the persons account I received the tweet from (my friend) and the originators if possible.

Giving credit were credit is due is not always an easy task.  And no one wants to make Twitter more time consuming than it already is.  But if you keep your friends in mind when you are tweeting. They may return the favor.

Everyone has a different philosophy when it comes to the people they follow on Twitter.  Many new Twitter users are overwhelmed by the amount of tweets received and unfollow or block Twitter accounts to what they perceive is a reasonable number.  Some people will only follow accounts that they believe will increase public perception of them.  I have a different philosophy.  Unless you are a spammer or your tweets are pornographic in nature, I will follow everyone that follows me.

Unless you have nothing to say or are used to talking to yourself (not my area).  You need followers to read your tweets.  And unless you are a celebrity, large commercial business, or political figure  Sure you can sign-up for the free or paid services that promise increased followers.  But they don’t work as promised.  At least the free ones don’t (I won’t pay for one).  Many people will un-follow you just for being associated with them.

I find in order to to have anyone follow you other than your friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances,  or those using Twitter to sell something.  You must follow some simple rules.  Most have been written about countless times.  But I have a new one for you.

Follow EVERYONE that follows you.  This one rule has doubled the number of people that follow me.  I block spammers and accounts that are pornographic in nature.  Those accounts are typically dropped by Twitter anyway.  But when people see that you are following everyone, they want in on the action.

Check out my follower stats on TwitterCounter.  To see the increased follower rate.  Look at the rate of new followers from August 15th through August 20th.  Compare that to August 20th through today.

Other Tweet Rules

1. Tweets must be of interest to someone other than yourself.  “”Sitting on Deck” or “Watching I Love Lucy” is not interesting.
2. Tweets should contain a link for further information if available.
3. Tweet frequently.  Not several times a week, but several times a day.
4. Re-Tweet your followers.  Take the time to read tweets from those you may not normally listen to and re-tweet from them as well.  It doesn’t matter if you agree with the Tweet.
5. Reply to your followers.  People need to know someone is listening.
6. Follow everyone that follows you.

I am not expecting every Twitter account to adopt a tweet policy. But I have certain expectations from some Twitter accounts I follow.  Particularly if the Twitter account is a commercial business, government agency, public figure or organization.

For example.  If I am following my local police department on Twitter.  I  expect to receive tweets concerning a shooting in my neighborhood.  Or that they are organizing a 12 and under flag football league.   I may not want to know the chief’s dog took a crap in the lobby.  Wouldn’t it be nice to know what to expect?

Craig’s (Cauzway) Tweet Policy

My Tweets

• Will contain information I believe will be of interest to someone.
• May include links to articles on the same subject.
• Will NOT include links to sites or articles unrelated to the subject of the Tweet.
• Will NOT be pornographic in nature nor will they contain links to sites, images, or information that is pornographic in nature.

Followers and Following

1. I will block every spammer and account that is pornographic in nature once identified.
2. I will follow everyone left that follows me.

We’re gearing up to launch a new feature which makes Twitter truly location-aware. A new API will allow developers to add latitude and longitude to any tweet. Folks will need to activate this new feature by choice because it will be off by default and the exact location data won’t be stored for an extended period of time. However, if people do opt-in to sharing location on a tweet-by-tweet basis, compelling context will be added to each burst of information.

This new Twitter feature will be off by default. But I still have some concerns.

Many businesses as well as government agencies banned access to social networking sites.   The Department of Defense is already debating the benefits vs. risks of social network sites.  If fear the addition of location to Twitter will force Pentagon officials and other businesses to ban Twitter.

Scouring YouTube for the best videos so you don’t have to.

For the Football fans here’s Josh Ferrell. A 6’1″ 245 lbs. running back with speed. In this video it shows the highlights of his high school (San Clemente) taking on the the California State Champions (Orange Lutheran) in the first round of the playoffs. With 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter and no way for San Clemente to come back Josh has an amazing play where he breaks 10 tackles! He never gave up!

This next video was taken August 9th 2009 during the Bills and Titans game.

Americans pay an average of $635.85 per year for cell phone service (compared with $131.44 per year in the Netherlands). Why do Americans pay five times more for cell phone service than the Dutch?

Please read this comprehensive article on this subject at Computer World.

What can we do about it?  Get involved!

Let your state and national politicians know that you want this industry reined in.

Start with your state representatives. Post comments here on who else to contact and what to say to them.

If you live in Maryland’s 1st district contact

Congressman Frank M. Kratovil, Jr.

Washington, DC Office
314 Cannon HOB | Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-5311 | Fax: 202-225-0254

Bel Air Office
202 South Main Street
Bel Air, MD 21014
Phone: (410) 420-8822

Centreville Office
102 Turpins Lane
Centreville, MD 21617
Phone: (443) 262 -9136 l Fax: (443) 262 – 9713

Salisbury Office
One Plaza East
Suite 103, East Main Street
Salisbury, MD 21801
Phone: (410) 334-3072 l Fax: (410) 334-3075

Or send him email here.

This is what I sent: The prices mobile carriers in the United States charge are out of control. Our country needs the governments help to control them. Have you read the various articles on this? This one is the latest. http://cauzway.net/?fUZR4EXR

After a night of typical witter usage, my “Mojo” was determined to be Concierge (You seem to be great at showing people the best URLs around).  Then I tweeted the results of my Mojo and that of a few other Twitter users.

I then re-entered my Twitter user name and the results changed to my Mojo being Matchmaker (You pass along lots of URLs, just to make sure everyone’s connected).

What this tells me is Yahoo! is only using the last few Tweets of an account in their algorithm.  So the bottom line is Yahoo! Know Your Mojo is fun entertainment.   Put in place to promote their new home page.

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