My DigitalZone

Venture Beat cited an article published today @Business Week that twitter is profitable. I know what twitter is. Actually, I have an account there but I haven’t used it much. I didn’t see too much action there, well, because I didn’t use it much.

Now I’m thinking. I haven’t really kept up with all of those. It’s probably about time for me to start using some. The social media, some of which started as media for small circles, has grown so much virally. We hear about twitter and facebook almost every day on TV.

I’ll probably explore other social media also, such as Digg and Delicious.

Home wireless (or wired) internet connection can go kaput for no reason at any time. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen too often but once in a while you need to deal with it. Before calling a tech support line, make sure to do the following as the actions listed below are the ones that the technicians will ask you to perform anyway. In most cases, doing these things will fix your problem. If not, you need to call tech support.

1. Check if you TV is working (for a cable modem user) or if your home phone is working (for a DSL modem user.)
   If your TV or your land phone is not working, something is wrong with your line, so you need to call tech support.

2. Examine the modem lights and the router lights.
   Do they look normal? The power indicator light should be solid and the activity lights should be blinking. Then proceed to the second step.
3. Unplug the power code to the modem to initialize the modem.
   Wait for at least a few minutes and plug the power back on. The modem lights will go through the initialization process. At the end of the initialization process, the modem lights should return to the normal state. Check your computer for the internet connection. If it’s still not working, proceed to the next step.
4. Unplug all the cables in and out of the modem and the wireless router. Then plug them back in securely.
   Check your internet connection on your computer again. If it’s still not working, it’s time to call tech support.

Text message spam is becoming problematic worldwide. I’ve already gotten a few. Just a few junk messages are not much of a problem for me at this time but I don’t like it nonetheless.

SMS spam is much worse than an email spam because it’s more costly for people who don’t have a text-messaging add-on to their cell plan. For those who don’t have a text message add-on, it cost at least $0.05 per message. I remember we used to be worried about junk faxs. Now we are worried about junk text messages.

In the U.S., two senator propsed m-SPAM act in April this year. (m-SPMA stands for SMA spam.) We don’t have to wait until the bill passes. AT&T and Verizon have already added some features to block unwanted text messages from their customers’ inbox.

Verizon
Log on to vtext.com using your regular Verizon username and password. You’ll see “Text Messaging” menu on the left. Then go to “Preferences” and “Text blocking.” There are different ways to block different types of text messages there.

AT&T
Go to mymessages.wireless.att.com. Choose “Preferences” and go through text-messaging and alias options.

Hope this helps.

Google changed its requirements for a new Gmail account. Here’s what Google says:

If you’d like to sign up for a Gmail address, you need to have a mobile phone that has text-messaging capabilities.
If you don’t have a phone, you may want to ask a friend if you can use his or her number to receive a code.

The main reason for this seems to be spam prevention. I’m glad I already have a Gmail account because I hate to go through some extra steps. Google also says that it stores “each phone number to make sure it is used to create a limited number of accounts.” I hope this method will work but I’m not too keen on yet another entity storing cell phone numbers, which is more private than land phones. Google does assure that “your number will never be sold or shared for marketing purposes without your permission, nor will we contact you using this number without your express permission.”