Monday, August 31, 2009

Giving Pocket Bags to San Carlos School Supply Drive


Pocket Communications provided Social Media Club RGV with some cool bags and hats to give away at our meetings as door prizes. My friend, Maricela De Leon, pictured here, is organizing a school supply drive for the children at the elementary school in San Carlos. I decided to regift the bags to the drive so that they can pack the school supplies in them.

Maricela was very excited with the donation. I wish I could take credit; but, Pocket Communications deserves the credit for their donation to SMCRGV. We are simply re-routing to where the bags will do the most good in the community. So, thanks to Pocket for their generosity.
Posted by Shaine Mata
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Saturday, August 29, 2009

The Third Rail of Health Reform: Cost


Today, there is a live webcast of a health reform conference in Nashville, TN. The public is welcome to submit questions to be asked of the speakers. You can go to http://thirdrailcost.com to participate. With the heated debate on both sides of the political spectrum, this is a great opportunity to view just the facts.

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Saturday, August 15, 2009

New Media for Campaigns

Great presentation by Net Victories http://www.netvictories.com
Celinda Provost and Shanna Weisfeld
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Posted by Shaine Mata
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Texas Democratic Party McAllen Boot Camp

Here are a few photos of the Campaign Boot Camp the Texas Democratic Party is putting on here in McAllen. It is a two day event aimed at helping candidates, staffers, and volunteers raise their campaigns to the next level.
Shaine Mata
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Saturday, August 08, 2009

Use Google Talk to update Twitter

The Computer



The Computer

Art Print

Buy at AllPosters.com


Twitter used to offer the ability to use Google Talk to interact with your Twitter stream. If you are a recent convert to Twitterianism, you may not know that this was an option once upon a time. It offered the convenience of having your Twitter stream on any computer without installing an application. You could simply log into your Gmail account and start twittering via GTalk. There is a way that you can still post via GTalk; but, it's not a perfect solution.

GTalk as a Twitter client had its limitations. For example, you could not retweet with the push of a button. You could not look up profiles, you could not reply to a tweet directly, and many other things that Twitter clients do. It was not perfect; but it was lightweight and almost instant.

You have two options for updating Twitter via GTalk. The first is identi.ca; the other is FriendFeed.

Identi.ca is very similar to Twitter. You can use Identi.ca to update your Twitter stream by GTalk. The disadvantage to Identi.ca is that you will not receive the Twitter feed. This serves well as a one-way tool. You can check your Twitter account on the web for replies when it is convenient.

FriendFeed gives you more of a two-way conversation. You will receive a stream of content from your FriendFeed friends, which includes Twitter and any other accounts they have plugged in. If your friends are not on FriendFeed, you can add them as imaginary friends to receive their Twitter stream. The disadvantage to FriendFeed is that not everybody uses it.

The added advantage of FriendFeed as a conduit for Twittering via GTalk is that you can reply to specific items. If you are following a ton of people, FriendFeed also has the advantage of grouping them so that you only get a stream from some people through GTalk rather than all of them. Adding imaginary friends isn't scalable if you follow a lot of people on Twitter. You just don't have the time to keep track of it.

I use an Android phone, which has a native Google Talk client. As a result, it works instantly and only updates when there is something to update. This minimizes the amount of time you have to wait to send/receive. Whereas Twitter clients batch updates, an Instant Messaging client updates each message individually, saving battery life and time. In other words, it uses fewer resources.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Why so serious?

Don't read racial undertones into Barack Obama being depicted as The Joker unless you are ready to attribute the same to George W. Bush being depicted as The Joker
There is no racism. It is a political statement. Politics can be puerile. 
Laugh it off. Then, get your butt out and vote. 
Cheers. 
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Posted by Shaine Mata
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How to write a blog post

Many bloggers do not write clearly because they do not get to the point and they meander in their writing.
Get to the point.

Don't meander in your writing.

In summary, get to the point and do not meander. 
Posted by Shaine Mata
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