Common Paradox Tech Blog

Based in New York City, Shane Snow is a graduate student in Digital Media at Columbia University and founder of Scordit.com. He’s fascinated with all things geeky, particularly social media and shiny gadgets he’ll never afford.

The Interwebs are buzzing, and by now you’ve probably heard about a social network called Foursquare that’s apparently a big deal. So you cracked open your smartphone (or at least, gingerly removed it from its dock) and downloaded the Foursquare app. After signing up, you scrolled through the tabs and figured out how to “check in” at whatever restaurant, bar, store, or train station you happened to be at. And then you said, “Now what?”

Just like Twitter, at first glance Foursquare may seem a bit inert. To really understand what Foursquare’s voracious user base is so excited about, you’ve got to start using it as more than just a catalog of your GPS-pinpointed whereabouts. Here are six tips for squeezing all the juicy social goodness out of this app that’s sweeping the social media world off its feet:

1. Add Friends… Carefully

Using Foursquare by yourself is like playing tennis alone. The fun lasts about three seconds. In geekier terms, it’s like having zero followers and following no people on Twitter. To get value from Foursquare, your friends need to be in on the action, too. Then you can use the app to meet up, share tips, and find stuff to do with when you’re bored, among other things.

The caveat: don’t add people you aren’t really friends with. That’s because Foursquare friends can see your GPS location, so by adopting a Myspace-style friends-with-everyone practice, you’re inviting a host of potential weirdos to meet up with you every time you check in somewhere. As founder Harry Heyman puts it, “Do you really want them to know where you are all the time?”

Unlike Facebook and other social networks, friend count doesn’t show up as a profile stat. In Foursquare, you get rewarded for things you do, not people you add, so there’s really little incentive to add strangers willy nilly.

However, when you check into a location, you’ll be able to see who else is there, which could be an opportunity to meet like-minded people and make new friends in real life!

2. Complete Your Profile

In order to become mayor of a venue (the user who checks in the most in the past two months carries this title), you must have a profile pic. “No faceless dictatorships on Foursquare!” Heyman says.

Additionally, if you link up your Foursquare account with Twitter, your profile URL will show up on Foursquare instead of just a user number. You’ll be able to send notifications to Twitter when you check in places, earn badges, or take over as Mayor somewhere – either automatically or whenever you deem fit.

3. Add Shouts to Your Checkins

Instead of simply tagging yourself in different spots around the city, keep your friends in the loop by adding short messages, or shouts. You can use these to let people know they’re invited to join you, for example, or to announce what’s happening at the venue you’ve arrived at.

4. Leave Tips and Build Your Top 12 List

After adding a few friends, you may notice messages pop up when you check in at or near venues your buddies have been to. These are tips your friends have left. Suggestions like “try the grilled cheese” from people you trust can go a lot further than the faceless reviews you read on other city guide apps.

Pay it forward by leaving tips yourself. This not only enhances the day-to-day experience, but helps you build your own personal top 12 list. Heyman explains, “Everyone knows something a little special. Put it out there so your friends will see it if they check in to your favorite spot.”

5. Manage Your Push Notifications so You Don’t Go Crazy

If you use Foursquare on an iPhone, you can get pinged – without getting an SMS charge from your carrier – whenever a friend checks in or shouts. However, all those messages can still be annoying if you have a lot of friends (or one friend that checks in obscenely often), don’t fret: Foursquare lets you configure ping settings for individual friends at foursquare.com/manage_friends

You can also turn pings off entirely, either for the night or until further notice. Personal example: My wife used to go crazy when my friends would check in at 3 AM (which is often). Once I discovered the ping management feature, she lifted her Fourquare embargo, meaning I can once again go to bed with my iPhone in the same room.

6. Stake Your Claim

Now that you’ve got things down, it’s time to get competitive. Every popular venue has a mayor — the person who has visited the most in a given time period, and mayors are often entitled to perks like free coffee or sandwiches, depending on the place. At the very least, mayorship equals bragging rights, and many a Foursquare user has been unwittingly caught in an epic mayor battle.

Going for mayor at your favorite spot encourages you to get out more, which is rarely a bad thing. Plus, new friendships are often happy byproducts of mayor wars.

“Curious how close to being mayor you are at your favorite spot?” Heyman asks. “Hover your mouse over the current user’s pic on the venue page and it will show you how many times they’ve been there in the past two months. See how close you are to claiming the throne.”

Conclusion

Foursquare is a social network that actually gets you out of your cave and into the real world with other living, breathing people. Once you nail a few basics down, it can add exponential value to your social life. Oh, and did I mention the free sandwiches?

Reviews: Foursquare, MySpace, Twitter

Tags: apps, foursquare, Lists

Does your significant other always yell at you for busting out your smartphone too much when you’re together? Follow this flowchart to determine if now really is a good time to fire that brick up:

Click the image to view a larger version.

Based in New York City, Shane Snow is a graduate student in Digital Media at Columbia University and founder of Scordit.com. He’s fascinated with all things geeky, particularly social media and shiny gadgets he’ll never afford.

blee37 writes “Here is an excellent video demonstration of a new program developed by Qi Pan, a graduate student, and other researchers at the University of Cambridge. The ‘ProFORMA’ software constructs a 3D model of an object in real time from (commodity) webcam video. The user can watch the program deduce more pieces of the 3D model as the object is moved and rotated. The resulting graphics are of high quality.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hugh Pickens writes “BBC reports that astronomers have invented a game to help uncover the basis of galactic collisions, showing players images of colliding galaxies and asking them to match those to simulations. These galactic mergers could be the key to why the Universe contains a mixture of different galaxies — some with trailing spiral arms, others more like compact balls of stars. Astronomers say that humans are ‘much better than computers’ at spotting the patterns and similarities. ‘The strength of the game is that it takes results from many people,’ says Dr Chris Lintott from Oxford University, one of the members of the Galaxy Zoo team. The developers describe the game as a ‘cosmic fruit machine’ (i.e., slot machine). The game shows players one real galaxy image and, on command, eight randomly selected simulations pop into the ’slot’” surrounding that image. The aim is for players to choose the simulations that look most similar to the real galaxy and take those through to the next round to examine them further. The simulated images show the different aspects of galaxy formation, so as people play, they will generate data that will help astronomers understand these collisions. ‘These collisions take millions of years to unfold,’ says Anthony Holincheck, a graduate student at George Mason University and another member of the team. ‘All we get from the Universe is a single snapshot of each one. [With] simulations, we will be able to watch each cosmic car crash unfold in the computer.’”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It seems like we’re constantly hearing about promising battery technologies that could ultimately lead to longer battery life, more power, and smaller units, but as of yet, that big breakthrough hasn’t occurred. Maybe nanotechnology, which is the current hot topic in the battery innovations field, will prove to be different.

Right at this moment, a ton of research is being put into carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for a bunch of uses, including electronics and batteries. Researchers are drawn to CNTs because, according to them, carbon nanotubes are near perfect. That has paved the way for a professor and a UC San Diego graduate student to discover a breakthrough that involves introducing purposeful defects into CNT structures. By doing so, the ‘defective’ CNTs actually work better for the development of super capacitors, DailyTech reports.

"While batteries have large storage capacity, they take a long time to charge; while electrostatic capacitors can charge quickly but typically have limited capacity. However, super capacitors electrochemical capacitors incorporate the advantages of both," Professor Prabhakar Bandaru said.

The duo also discovered that other methods, such as bombarding CNTs with argon or hydrogen, could also increase or decrease the charge capacity. In the end, the two researchers believe that their discovery could ultimately lead to electronics that charge faster and last longer than what’s available today.

Image Credit: jacobsschool.ucsd.edu

It seems like we’re constantly hearing about promising battery technologies that could ultimately lead to longer battery life, more power, and smaller units, but as of yet, that big breakthrough hasn’t occurred. Maybe nanotechnology, which is the current hot topic in the battery innovations field, will prove to be different.

Right at this moment, a ton of research is being put into carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for a bunch of uses, including electronics and batteries. Researchers are drawn to CNTs because, according to them, carbon nanotubes are near perfect. That has paved the way for a professor and a UC San Diego graduate student to discover a breakthrough that involves introducing purposeful defects into CNT structures. By doing so, the ‘defective’ CNTs actually work better for the development of super capacitors, DailyTech reports.

"While batteries have large storage capacity, they take a long time to charge; while electrostatic capacitors can charge quickly but typically have limited capacity. However, super capacitors electrochemical capacitors incorporate the advantages of both," Professor Prabhakar Bandaru said.

The duo also discovered that other methods, such as bombarding CNTs with argon or hydrogen, could also increase or decrease the charge capacity. In the end, the two researchers believe that their discovery could ultimately lead to electronics that charge faster and last longer than what’s available today.

Image Credit: jacobsschool.ucsd.edu

We haven’t written about StickK, the company that allows you to put a contract on yourself in order to help you commit to improving your lifestyle, since the service was launched back in February 2008. Good thing the company got in touch with us and pointed out they’re doing quite nicely, which gives us a good excuse for an update on them.

StickK was founded by three Yale economists (two professors and a graduate student) and basically allows you to accomplish a goal by setting up a contract against yourself, whether it’s about losing weight, stop biting your nails, writing a novel or whatever else you feel you need to achieve in life. The site takes credit card information up front and charges it on a weekly basis should you fail to meet your self-submitted goal(s). You can designate someone to be your referee — a friend, co-worker or spouse, for example — but in the end, if they fail to do their jobs, StickK.com will take your word for it.