I realize that there are probably two types of people who might stumble across this site … those who are interested in the content I’m posting, namely articles about computers, cooking, cars, Christianity, and the occasional personal interest piece, and then there are those who are more interested in me as a person and follow this blog to see what I’m up to and what I’m thinking.

This post is mostly directed to this latter portion of my audience. I want to make sure you know that there are other ways that you can stalk me keep up with what I’m doing besides this blog.

For a long time I didn’t jump onto the bandwagon of friendly internet stalking social networking, however over the past 6 months I have decided to give it a go, and I must say that these days that the easiest way to follow along with my life is through these various mediums.

If you’re wondering about the repeated references to stalking, they are because of my inherent distrust and skepticism of the whole social networking scene. I think it’s really far to easy to simply seek out people you know and watch what they’re doing as they post to these networks and never actually take part in the “social” aspect of things.

But despite my skepticism, I figured that there might actually be some folks out there who are genuine in their intent to make this a social endeavor and that I might as well give it a try. So whether you’re just someone who wants to watch over my shoulder as I live out my life, or if you’re genuinely interested in networking with me, here are the places you can find me online:

Facebook

Just look for Matthew E. McKimmy. I’m part of the Virginia Tech and Dayton, OH networks. I tend to frequent Facebook the most out of all these social networking tools, so this would be a logical place to start if you want to connect.

Twitter

My username is mattmckimmy, and my Twitter home page is here. Twitter is notoriously flaky, though they seem to be getting a little bit better. I’ve never really fully understood how you’re supposed to “network” through Twitter, but I do post what I’m up to fairly regularly.

Plurk

Again my username is mattmckimmy and you can find me here. I think I would actually prefer Plurk over Twitter if I ever used either of them regularly. It’s much more user-friendly and easier to understand. I also like the different verbs they encourage you to use, much more so than Facebook’s standard “is.” However, as of yet I don’t know of anyone else who uses Plurk.

LinkedIn

Honestly I’m not sure how you’re supposed to find people on LinkedIn, but some friends invited me to join so I did. I do have a public profile anyone should be able to see. The idea behind LinkedIn is to leverage your social connections for business and career purposes, though I have yet to figure out how that would benefit me at this point.

Flickr

Honestly I don’t really use Flickr, I only have 2 photos uploaded there at the moment. Even so, there is a possibility I might begin to use it more regularly. I have a number of friends who are on Flickr, and when it comes to social networking peer pressure is a powerful thing. If you want to check in and see if I’ve actually uploaded anything, check out my photostream.

And now for a confession … I cheat at social networking. Let me explain. Many of these social networking tools use little blurbs to let people know what you’re up to, how you’re feeling, etc. It seems silly to have to post the same sentiments or to have different, possibly conflicting messages in all these different places. So I use a great web service called Ping.fm to post to nearly all of them simultaneously. What does this mean for you? Well, it means that if you’re following me on Twitter and Plurk and watching my status updates on Facebook and LinkedIn, that you’re going to see the same message 4 times.

I do occasionally post something to one of them that isn’t duplicated elsewhere, however that’s probably not the norm. If you’re interested more in the networking aspect of social networking and not just the stalking, then Facebook is the primary place I tend to do that. That’s not to say I wouldn’t use these other services more regularly if people I knew also used them, however at this point most everyone I want to connect with seems to be on Facebook.

So how do you use social networks? Are you a silent facebook stalker? An avid twitterer? A flickr junkie? Do you have the same skepticism I have when it comes to using these tools to their fullest? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments …

Back in the early days of Firefox it held many clear advantages over its primary competitor, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. These days, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Firefox have all come a long way, and each has some very compelling merits. I’ve used all three and in my experience this newest version of Firefox is on top of the heap.

Apparently I’m not the only one who is excited about Firefox. As I am writing this, about 6,287,283 downloads have been registered on Mozilla’s official counter on the Spread Firefox site. Mozilla is hoping to establish a world record for most downloads in a 24 hour period, and on the site said they hoped to reach 5 million. Obviously they’ve easily surpassed this, and they still have another 4 hours to go.

There are tons of articles floating around outlining the many improvements made in this new version of Firefox including faster page loading, less memory usage, a nearly-psychic “smart” address bar, and increased security features. Here are just a couple of the articles I’ve read about it:

• Top 10 Firefox 3 Features (Lifehacker)
• Top 10 reasons you should upgrade to Firefox 3 (TG Daily)
• Igniting an open revolution: Firefox 3 officially released (Ars Technica)
• Technology Today: Firefox 3 Download Day (I Never Promised You an Organic Garden)

So what are you waiting for? Download it and take it for a test drive!

Background

Just a quick bit of background about where we’re starting from. As I said we are currently on a family plan with my parents, as we have been for the past 6 years. For the past two years we’ve been using Motorola e815′s, which we’ve been very pleased with. They were the last phones Verizon sold before they started putting their own proprietary menu system on all their phones. They’ve been great phones, and they have most all of the features that are common on phones even today (bluetooth, microSD slot, and so forth.)

We have also been pleased with our service with Verizon, so we don’t really feel like we need to switch to another carrier. We are planning on dropping the land-line at our home, since we will finally be getting local Indiana numbers on our cell phones. Between my starting a new job and us getting rid of our house phone line we’ll have a little money to spend than the $30 a month we have been for the past two years, but we don’t want to go overboard.

Carriers and Plans

Even though we’ve had a good experience with Verizon we were willing to look at other cell phone providers in the interest of getting the best price and service. I looked into Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, and more. I found that most all of them had the same basic pricing structure for their plans. The main differences were in the special aspects of their plans and their coverage.

T-Mobile has their “5 Faves”, Sprint has early nights and weekends, AT&T has rollover, and Verizon has “in.” Each of these has its advantages, but more than those I am interested in getting good coverage both in town and when we’re traveling. Since we both still have family in Virginia we wanted a carrier that would give us good coverage here, there, and all points in between. I know Verizon is good for this, so I started checking out the coverage maps of the other providers. Of these others, AT&T was the only one that seemed to come close to the coverage we’ve gotten with Verizon.

I’m looking at getting a Blackberry, and all carriers charge an additional monthly fee for Blackberry service. Most all carriers charge $29.99 a month in addition to the price you pay for the main voice plan. T-Mobile was the exception to this, charging $19.99/month.  With regards to voice plans all the major carriers were within spittin’ distance of one another when it came to minutes and pricing structures. There are differences, but overall it is pretty much a wash.

Phones

I’ve been thinking for a while now that I might want a Blackberry. I’ve carried various sorts of PDAs over the years, with varying success. I have a feeling this was in part due to the fact that older PDAs were sometimes of questionable reliability and versatility. The other half of the equation is that I never really needed the functionality provided by such devices. I think that a “convergence device” like a Blackberry, that includes cell phone abilities, constant internet connectivity, text messaging, and all of the PDA functions, would be much more useful than my previous trials with more limited devices.

Having been with Verizon for so long I have gotten used to having a somewhat limited selection of phones when compared to some other carriers. Verizon and Sprint use a different cellular technology  (known as CDMA) than other carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and others around the world (called GSM.) Though Blackberries are available on most all networks, there has historically been about a 1 year lag time between new Blackberry models coming out on the GSM networks and their later release on CDMA. As I researched what Blackberry model I liked best I settled on the relatively new Blackberry Curve. It has been out for over a year on GSM networks, and as I began researching phones it had not yet been released on Verizon and Sprint. Thankfully, within the last month or so both carriers have since made them available.

I like the Curve because it has a nice large screen for messaging, managing appointments, and so on. It also has a full keyboard, like a miniaturized computer keyboard, so it is much easier to type out text messages and emails. It’s relatively small compared to other smartphones so it’s not as unweildy as some when it comes to actually using it as a phone. Another reason I’ve settled on a Blackberry is because there is a vast number of 3rd party applications available, and it’s more widely established and supported than Windows Mobile devices or the oh-so-glitzy Apple iPhone.

My wife had previously been eyeballing the LG VX8350, a nice, music-capable phone (on Verizon) that has recieved some very good reviews. As I was researching phones I ran across another phone I thought she might like and she immediately fell in love with it. The phone is an LG enV2, which is considered a “messaging phone.” It’s not quite a smartphone, but it’s more than just a basic phone. The enV2 has a clamshell design that hinges open to reveal a full keyboard and a second, larger display inside. Though neither of us have done a lot of text messaging in the past, she likes the design of the phone so much that it won her over anyway. This is especially true since I will have a phone that will make it easier for texting back and forth with each other. Additionally it has music-phone features, great battery life, and a sturdy design, which add up to a very compelling feature set. Like the VX8350 it too has recieved good reviews.

Decision Time

There were a few factors that ultimately factored into our final decision. With me wanting a Blackberry I could go to just about any carrier and pretty much get the same phone. However, with my wife really liking the enV2, Verizon was looking more likely. As I mentioned coverage was a big factor, and Verizon was on top there as well. Unsurprisingly, cost was another consideration. We have been able to save a lot of money the past few years by sharing a plan with my parents.

The last time we renewed our plan we were already in Indiana and checked about changing our numbers over to local Indiana numbers. At the time the folks at Verizon said it wasn’t possible to have one plan with phones numbers from both Indiana and Virginia on it. Since we are really ready to switch our numbers over to local numbers now we were thinking that we wouldn’t be able to share a plan with them. Though we knew this would mean paying more for a plan it would allow us to drop our land line and save some money to use towards the increased cost.

This all changed as I was reading through some Verizon literature I got from a local reseller. In one little paragraph it mentioned exactly what we hoped to do – sharing a family plan with family in other areas of the country with everyone having local numbers to where they live. And so I called up the Verizon telephone sales number and asked them about it. According to him not only is what we would need possible, but it’s quite easily accomplished. So that hurdle that I previously anticipated no longer existed.

By continuing to share a plan with them we could upgrade to a plan that includes unlimited text messaging to anyone on any network for less than we would pay for basic cell phone service alone on our own. All of this gave Verizon a distinct advantage as we prepared to make a final decision on what to do.

Final Thoughts

At this point we’re planning in the next couple weeks to check into any additional discounts we might be able to get and figuring out exactly when to take the leap to renew our contract for another two years, purchase new phones, finally get Indiana cell numbers, cancel our land-line phone service, and have our DSL switched over to a new package that doesn’t require a land-line.

It’s been a circuitous path to end up back where I started, with Verizon, but I feel that having done all of this research I can do so with confidince. I know that we’ll be getting good coverage, phones we like, services we will use (like unlimited in-network calling and unlimited texting), and as good a price as we would be able to find.

I don’t know how informative or helpful this lengthy post will be for anyone else, but I think this has been an experience worth sharing. I expect that as we get our new phones and so forth that I’ll write a couple posts about my experiences with a Blackberry. I’ve promised my wife that I will not become a “crackberry” addict and I’ve given her full permission to point out if I am doing so. I give the rest of you the permission to do the same. If I start to show symptoms … please encourage me to seek professional help!

According to their website, Shutdown Day (which is a non-profit organization registered in Canada) was founded:

with the sole purpose of spreading awareness about the pitfalls and dangers that lie in the excessive use of television, computers, and computing equipment like game boxes, cell phones, music players, online social websites, etc. that impinge on social space and interaction amongst our communities.

They go on to say:

Shutdown Day is a Global Internet Experiment whose purpose is to get people to think about how their lives have changed with the increasing use of the home computer, and whether or not any good things are being lost because of this.

The idea of Shutdown Day project is simple – just shutdown your computer for one whole day of the year and involve yourself in some other activities: outdoors, nature, sports, fun stuff with friends and family – whatever, just to remind yourself that there still exists a world outside your monitor screen.

I must say that they make a very compelling point. So compelling, in fact, that before I even knew about this project I was already engaging in a similar sort of activity. Every Monday evening for about the last month my wife and I have been doing “Monday Nights Unplugged.”

Starting every Monday at about 5 or 6pm on we power down all of our computers and turn off the televison. No web surfing. No email. No Wii. No TiVo. And it’s sooooo nice. Yes, it has taken a little preparation, especially with these last couple weeks being the last few of my senior year of seminary, but it has been well worth it.

Our line of thinking is pretty much exactly the same as the folks over at Shutdown Day. Both of us spend tons of time in front of computer screens. So much that we felt we need to step away from them once and a while to retain our sanity. It has been a great opportunity for us to read, play games, work around the house, and so on. A secondary effect I’ve noticed is that we seem to be sitting in front of our computers and watching TV a little less on other nights of the week as well.

Participating in Shutdown Day is going to be relatively easy for me. I will be graduating the same day and already have plans that will take up nearly the entire day. However it will be really tough to wake up that morning and not stumble over to my laptop to check my email.

So what do you say … can you go without using your computer for 24 hours? If so, don’t forget to register with Shutdown Day and let us know in the comments!