Here are the steps of how a regular video goes viral and makes things happen.  And it doesn’t hurt that she is so adorable!

STEP 1
Mom makes a video of her three year old girl crying her eyes out because she “loves” Justin Bieber.  Mom uploads the video to youtube.com.

Click here to see the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTCm8tdHkfI
It’s a “4 plus” minute video mostly of the girl crying.  However, there’s a cute “surprise” at the end (you can fast forward).

STEP 2
Video goes viral with almost 3 million views on youtube.com.

STEP 3
The next thing you know Jimmy Kimmel is flying the girl and family out to be on his show and a little girl’s dream of meeting Justin Bieber comes true.

Kudos to Justin Bieber for taking time to meet this girl.  Very class act.
I just have one question:  Who is Justin Bieber?  (Grin)

Because of the explosive growth of Chatroulette (300 users in December 2009 to 10,000 in February 2010) it has got a lot of attention.   Here are some of the fun and freaky things reported to be seen while swimming in the Chatroulette pool.

• People dressed as ninjas
• Guy staring in the camera flipping you off
• Girls making out
• A guy appearing to fornicate with a head of lettuce
• Under age girl in clown make-up
• Guy wearing a protective cone like you put on a dog after surgery
• A penis puppet show
• In a Malkovichian moment, people have connected to themselves
• People having sex wearing superhero costumes

Are you starting to get the picture?

Here’s my theory – Chatroulette is the “dark side” response to the properly behaved social networking craze. Chatroulette is the yin to Facebook’s yang (or the other way around, I always get yin and yang confused).  It’s a Newtonian law applied to Facebook’s civility and social correctness.  It was just matter of time before an “opposite but equal reaction” sprung-up on the Internet where people could totally let their hair down, be inappropriate, an exobitionist, and totally insane.

It has always amazed me how people are so normal on Facebook.  Sure there’s an occasional political rant and off-the-wall religions sermon.  But you never see a Facebook status like this:

I’ve covered my naked body with peanut butter and I’m chasing a goat wearing a Mardi gras mask around my bedroom.

However, there is a very good chance you will actually see this on Chatroulette.  So if you decide to try it, be ready to embrace your inner freak and get ready for inappropriate behavior.

If you really want to understand Chatroulette check out the following post at mikelavear.com:

http://www.mikealvear.com/2010/03/05/if-you-missed-john-stewarts-hilarious-take-on-chat-roulette-here-it-is/

• They are difficult to enforce.
  How does a cop know if I am texting while driving vs. looking at my iPhone map app getting directions?  Does this mean I have to go back to using unfolding awkward maps?
• Studies show cell phone bans are not reducing accidents.  Here are a few links:
  http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71379
  http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/01/29/laws-banning-cell-phone-use-while-driving-have-little-impact

I have never been a fan of the hysteria around passing laws that ban cell phone while driving.  See post on http://www.biologyoftechnology.com/2008/07/hands-free/.   I think using some good old common sense while driving goes a lot farther than more laws that are difficult to enforce and don’t really make a difference.

What about laws banning changing clothes while you are in route to a date?  Why is it okay for me to play a game of chess (real chess on a magnetic board) with a passenger but can’t punch out a text while waiting at a red light.  There are no laws against arc-welding while driving.  Call me crazy, but that seems a lot worse (and creepy) that looking at an email you just got on your iPhone.  (Did I just admit to doing all that stuff?  YIKES!)

So here’s my armchair psychology on the anti-cell-phone-while-behind-the-wheel trend.  We have a love-hate relationship with our mobile technology.  We love it because it connects us to the world with a device that fits in our pants pocket.  You can reach out and touch someone from anywhere.  But we hate it because that means anyone can reach us.   We love the accessibility to others but hate the accessibility everyone has to us.

If this were a dating situation you might turn to the bottle and scream for attention.  Alas, we turn to the law.  And somehow we think that putting lame laws on the books making our car a no-phone-zone we are screaming to our mobile devices, “you’re not the boss of me.”  Really!

For example, when I was MUCH younger I had a very slight fender-bender because I was trying to tie my shoes while driving.  But I did get all crazy about banning shoe-strings for all cars!  Did I start saying stuff like, “You ARE NOT getting in the car with me with THOSE shoe-strings!”  No, I simply learned that I should not tie my shoes while driving.

Here’s a thought, just use common sense while you’re driving.  And let our lawmakers get back to what’s really important!

Here is a Facebook page that puts to rest the rumors about Facebook charging users:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Face-Book-will-never-charge-users-The-facts-the-truth/262579709805

Here is another link from telegraph.co.uk dismissing these rumors:   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/6973757/Facebook-dismisses-rumours-of-charging-plans.html

And last but not least, checkout the snopes.com article dispelling this Facebook falsehood:
http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/fbcharge.asp

More important, these phony FB groups have more nefarious intentions – to infect your PC with nasty viruses and spyware. Here’s a message from Facebook warning about these groups.

The rumor about charging $4.9…9 or £3.99 or £14.99 a month is totally made up. However, confusion is not what the scammers seek: members of the group are directed to external websites that are capable of installing malware. Some of the sources can even download 25 different infections automatically upon visit.

If you did join one of these groups then you should eliminate it from your Facebook account and run a full anti-virus scan on your PC ASAP.

If you do not have an anti-virus program then stop, drop, and roll…and click on the following link for instructions on how to get the free version of the AVG anti-virus software.
http://www.techadvocate-solutions.com/techtips/2009/12/09/avg-anti-virus-9-update/

I think it is awesome that Facebook provides FREE online services to hundreds on millions of people all over the world. But it puzzles me why people rise up in protest at just the rumor of Facebook potentially charging users. Even if Facebook charged $4.99 a month this calculates to just 16 cents a day! Yet we pay A LOT more to use cell phones and landlines. Makes you think!

If you are a Facebook user would you consider their service worth 16 cents a day? Let me know your thoughts by posting your comments.

Hours about the disaster in Haiti Crisis Commons organized several nationwide events to work on numerous technology projects.  The Haiti OpenStreetMap project was a direct result of this tech collaboration.  It provides one of the most complete digital maps of Haiti’s roads, hospitals, triage centers and refugee camps.  They also helped construct the We Have, We Need Exchange website; this is a pace where nonprofits working in Haiti can post requests and needs to find donors.

Haiti’s National Palace in Port-au-Prince is shown in this 2004 photo, top, and in a photo taken Jan. 13, 2010, bottom, after the earthquake struck.

Crisis Commons is a volunteer network of technology professionals drawn together by a call to service to create technological tools and resources for responders to use in mitigating disasters and crises around the world.  AWESOME!

This spirit demonstrates the Biology of Technology at its best and shows how tech can help make a difference for good.  Go Team Geek!

Over half of the e-books on the Kindle (Amazon.com’s e-reader) best seller list are available at no charge.  This is creating a whole new breed of authors who can build a fan base by giving away e-books.  Once the reader is hooked, then the other books by these e-writers are available for a fee (usually $9.99 per download).  Drug dealers have been using this “the-first-one-is-free” tactic forever.  If reading is your “heroin” then e-books could be your quick fix.  By the way, if you are a reading junkie, then I say “read on.”  There are worse things you could be addicted to.

This is refreshing change from the early days of Napster when the record companies were prosecuting fans for downloading and sharing music.  This was a mixed message from that dark page in Internet history that said, “If you like a song and you share it with your friends then we will sue you.”

One exec in the publishing industry said it best concerning free downloads,

“I guess my attitude right now is that I can be afraid of what’s coming or I can try and aggressively embrace it in some form.”

This goes to the core of the new marketing paradigm in the digital world whether it is music, software, books, or porn.   (Once again, porn dealers were ahead of the curve in getting you hooked with free stuff.)
Giving stuff away will probably make the head explode of some the stuffed-shirt businessman entranced in their “greed is good” business model.  But to those Mr. Potters’ who can’t see the Jedi ways of “give-to-get” then you should just get out of the way.

While I do not have an e-reader, I confess that I am dripping with Kindle-envy.  If you are shopping for an e-reader here’s a link to Wikipedia with a good comparison.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e-book_readers
If you have one sitting on a shelf gathering dust then you can give it to me; I will love you for it.  See, give-love-to-get-love does work.

After sending in an old phone and laptop, I got several emails from Gazelle keeping me posted on the progress. About a week later a check arrived just as promised. So Gazelle does what it says, and it doesn’t get much better than that.

If you are looking for an easy, non-eBay way to get cash for old electronics, then give gazelle.com a try.

This week over 100,000 of the tech jetsetters converge in Las Vegas to see what’s ahead in tech and to hedge their bets on what will be the next big thing.  Here are just a few headlines that may interest you.

Smart Phones
Watch out iPhone, here comes the Nexus One, a Smartphone based on the Google Android platform.  It is being slated as the iPhone killer.   But I think the real winner will be the consumer (that’s you and me) with great deals springing to life form the increased competition.  Here’s a chart comparing the top SmartPhone contenders.  Disclaimer – this info will probably change moments after you read it!

Other buzz words are tablet computers, e-readers, Internet TV (heard this one before), and 3 dimensional HDTV for your home. Yes, you can watch “Avatar” in the comfort of you home and still get that cool 3D experience.  But the first incarnations of 3DTV will probably cost as much as a first-class intergalactic spaceflight to Pandora (the fictitious planet from the “Avatar” movie).

I’m still holding out for my own personal holodeck.  For those of you who don’t know what a holodeck is, congratulations as you passed the “I am not a nerd” test.  For those like me who are holodeck-aware, why aren’t we in Las Vegas at the CES with the other geeks?  (Did that sound bitter?)  (Grin)

Deals of the Day
The CES is usually a flag to vendors to clear their shelves to make way for the new stuff.  That means some great deals at out there.  Here are just a few.

Lenovo G550 Notebook Intel Core2Duo T6600 2.2GHz 3GB DDR3 320GB HDD 15.6″ WXGA   XP Pro/Win7 Pro
$599.99

Lenovo IdeaCentre Q700 PC Intel Pentium DC 2.5GHz 4GB DDR2 640GB HDD TV Tuner   Win7 Premium 64-bit
$499.99

Shop around; I’m sure you can find more great deals!