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By Sarah, June 24, 2009 8:30 pm

I originally posted this on the SocialVibe blog, where the teens loved it (and had plenty of harsh comments) but it’s too good not to share here too, since this blog is all about… well, technology.

A 17 year-old Romanian girl experienced an untimely death after being electrocuted while simultaneously taking a bath and tweeting. The teenager experienced a jolt of electricity after attempting to plug in her charger with a wet hand.

Let this be a warning to all of you: DO NOT TWEET IN THE BATHTUB. Your life is far more important than telling your friends that “this strawberry shampoo smells, like, so good.”

Sure it’s sad, but I’d say this one has a Darwin Award coming her way fo’ sho.

via Geekologie

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By Sarah, May 24, 2009 1:12 am

I spend about equal parts of my time online (and offline) using Twitter and listening to music. When I heard about Song.ly, the service that allows you to share mp3s with your tweets, my initial reaction was “duh, that’s brilliant.” Now let’s see if it actually works.

I had just done my weekly sweep of the Stereogum feed and tested Song.ly using a new mp3 I found – Here We Go Magic – Tunnelvision.

It works like this:

1. Copy the mp3 URL of the song you want to share.
2. Visit Song.ly and paste into the space provided.
3. Test the pop-up player to make sure it’s working.
4. Click the green button that says “Tweet.”

Your Twitter followers will be able to click the compacted URL, which will take them to Song.ly, where they can then listen to the tune… though it doesn’t seem they can easily download it, which would be a nice bonus.

Here’s a message from the co-founder of Song.ly:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc4Gd4OVLRc&hl=en&fs=1]

Looks like my Twitter followers will be hearing a lot more of what I’m listening to. If you think Song.ly is awesome too, vote for them in TechCrunch’s Elevator Pitch contest.

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By Sarah, September 24, 2008 3:05 am

Who isn’t on Twitter these days? My good friend Peter was just whining to me that even his Mom is on Twitter, much to his disappointment. You’re nobody if you’re not on Twitter, at least according to this guy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYP-wBaqQAI&hl=en&fs=1]

And as a proud internet and gadget geek of many, many years, I completely agree.

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By Sarah, September 23, 2008 1:42 am

Technology trend forecaster Aul Saffo was quoted in a recent New York Times article claiming that text messaging actually makes people dumber. Really?

“The act of texting automatically removes 10 I.Q. points. The truth of the matter is there are hobbies that are incompatible. You don’t want to do mushroom-hunting and bird-watching at the same time, and it is the same with texting and other activities. We have all seen people walk into parking meters or walk into traffic and seem startled by oncoming cars.”

I’d be curious to know how exactly Saffo arrived at the number 10, but I’d be lying if I said the statement was entirely false. I can’t count the number of times that I have nearly run straight into someone – or started heading off in the wrong direction – simply because my head was buried in my Blackberry or iPhone (lets just be thankful California now requires hands-free devices while driving!) So if we are so completely absorbed with what is going on in our handheld devices, can we really be aware of what is going on around us? And are we dumber because of it?

Perhaps not, and we are just excellent multi-taskers.

I’m not so sure we are, and the recent train collision in Los Angeles helps prove it. With the overwhelming surge of mediums by which we can connect with our peers on – are we spending just as much time maintaining these networks as we do actually connecting with one another and discussing what we came to talk about in the first place?

I successfully spent two full days in Las Vegas without really seeing much of it at all. You might be wondering how that is even possible, considering the amount of time spent going back and forth from Convention Center, to casinos, to clubs, to the airport with all the BlogWorld Expo attendees. Plenty of time to take in the sights, right? Wrong. Once again – my face was buried in my iPhone, reading tweets, checking e-mail, responding to text messages, finding out where everyone was. And I know I wasn’t the only one. There was so much #bwe08 traffic on Twitter, even those that were unable to make it to conference could still participate in the action.

So yes, it’s blatantly obvious that we have developed an addiction to mobile computing. With the wide variety of choices available to us – from smartphones to PDAs to teeny tiny laptops – in addition to the never ending flood of slick new applications and programs, it’s virtually impossible to avoid giving into the trend. And considering the impact services like Twitter are having on business development, it could be a mistake not to get involved!

So where do we draw the line? How much networking is too much? And is it really making us dumber?

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By Sarah, September 19, 2008 8:47 pm

Yesterday, I turned 26. It was by far the best birthday I’ve had in at least five years, and it wasn’t just because my friend Bonnie made me homemade birthday cookies (see below) or the fact that 30 of my closest friends helped me celebrate into the wee hours of the morning at the classiest joint in all of Los Angeles – The Belmont.

Rather than receiving gifts from my family and friends this year, I asked all my friends and family to donate to charity: water and help me raise enough money to build a freshwater well for a village in Ethiopia.

Did you know that over 1 billion people in the world go without clean, safe drinking water? That to me is just absurd, and considering the wastefulness we contribute to here, I couldn’t find one reason not to do this.

So why was this the best birthday? Well, I was successful! After I raised over $400 through the help of family and friends, CEO and Founder of Mashable.com, Pete Cashmore reached out to me. Not only does Pete share my birthday, but he was also working towards his own goal of raising money for charity: water. Pete and I are both on Twitter. Thanks to his supremely impressive following, he was able to raise over $3,500 in one day. That, in addition to my small but helpful contribution of $400, and with the help of another Sept 18-birthday-Tweeter, Paul Young, we collectively raised enough money to build a freshwater well in Ethiopia. This will provide over 200 people with clean, safe drinking water.

Pete was kind enough to write a piece about our efforts on Mashable today – and you should all check it out…
The Well That Twitter Built

On September 18th 2008, Mashable’s Twitter followers donated $3536 to Charity:Water, an initiative to build wells in Ethiopia. On the same day, our Twitter friend Paul Young raised a further $637 through his Twitter and Facebook accounts. And Twitter user Sarah Townsend hauled in $400 Рthat’s more than $4500, almost exclusively from Twitter, in a single day. With $4000 buying an entire well to supply water to 200 people for 20 years, we can truly call this the “well that Twitter built”.

To fully understand how much this means, take a few minutes to watch this video!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iox0-Ld2Hek&hl=en&fs=1]

THANK YOU to all who contributed, to Pete, Mashable, Twitter, and charity: water for making this all possible. BEST birthday gift ever.

Yours Truly,
Sarah Townsend aka TechDarling

P.S. If you want to contribute, click here.

100% of the proceeds fund water projects in Ethiopia.

To continue supporting charity: water or one of 30 other great causes, sign up for SocialVibe, who have raised over $28,000 in free donations for charity: water!