Exit171… it’s all about the journey

Barclays Capital on 7th Ave (formerly Lehman Brothers)

A casual photograph I took in NYC was used in a recent news article on the web. Kinda neat that it was useful to someone. Normally I would charge for something like this, but it *was* taken with an iPhone (but good enough quality for web usage).

As for the pic, I was waiting to cross the street at a red light and took a quick snapshot with my 1G iPhone. I’ve shot this building many times, but the timing with the new Barclays logo was of interest.

Check out the article… very interesting:

Lehman Approves $100 Million to Execs Before Failing

Twitter can be fun. If you follow some interesting people, it can be amusing to read the witty comments or silly updates about people doing shots at the local bar (note: drunk tweets can be *very* entertaining). Even I like to tell my “followers” when I’ve arrived in Hoboken or that I’m eating some kick-ass sushi in Midtown. It’s all in good fun, but when it gets down to it I like to turn to Twitter for THE NEWS! Yup, the news… breaking news… in 140 character chunks… in real-time!

When the last earthquake hit California I knew about it within seconds. People *at the scene* were tweeting it as it unfolded and reported it faster than any news agency. Granted, the quantity of information was limited (Twitter limits each tweet to 140 characters or less), but the notification of the event was pretty much real-time… a huge value in this day and age of real-time *everything*.

Over the years I’ve gone from newspapers, television, web browsing, and even RSS Feeds to get my news. I still use all of those, but now my GO-TO news source is Twitter. Besides learning about breaking news from first-hand witnesses, I also follow the mainstream news agencies and their Twitter alerts. Pretty much anyone who’s anyone in news is now tweeting… CNN, Reuters, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc. When I’m out and about and have a spare minute I’m usually checking Twittelator on my iPhone for the latest. It truly has become an efficient way for me to keep up with news, events, and trends… without having to open up Google Reader, CNN.com, or turn on the television (or in my case, my SlingPlayer).

If you’re not on Twitter yet, you may want to see what it’s about. Create an account, grab your iPhone, download a free copy of Twitterific from the App Store, and follow a few news services. If you’ve got unlimited text messaging, you can also opt to have the tweets texted directly to your phone. Bottom line is if you’re one who likes being informed, you’ll be hooked!

P.S. Once you’re onboard you’ll also want to check out TwitScoop.com and Roomatic.com. Besides breaking news you’ll also find those sites keeping you apprised of the hot topics the Twittersphere is tweeting about. You’ll quickly find that those same topics are the ones you eventually see a few hours later… on TV.

Have I been neglecting Exit171? It may seem like that (based on my last post being on 09/24), but actually I’ve been updating quietly in-and-around Exit171. In addition to adding a couple new buttons on my header bar (Dio.TV and my photography Portfolio), I’ve also been adding new entries to my Links page… more Social Media sites and some new blogroll entries like Bend Over and I’ll Show You and This is Sanjana.

Despite my blog posts being light, my microblogging on Twitter is in full effect… I’m quickly approaching 600 updates. Likewise, moblog posts from my iPhone to my Flickr continue to increase. FWIW, if I could get rid of the ~15 second delay every time I try to startup my iPhone camera, I’d have A LOT MORE pics up on my Flickr. I’ve lost count of how many good photo opps have passed me by! @#$%

Overall, the missing link for me at the moment is some video moblogging. Since I don’t feel like jail-breaking my iPhone again (so I can add a video app), I’m going to have to wait for a new video-capable mobile before I can really start lifecasting. In the meantime I’m going to start posting to 12seconds.tv or Viddler.com more often from my MacBook Pro. Be sure to check out Dio.TV for my video projects. Yup, some fun senseless content.