Keeping it simple — powerfully so

How did E.T. manage to phone home in 1982 with this set-up?

Ping.fm, which is what I use both on my laptop and on my mobile networks to update microblogging accounts, describes itself as a “simple service that makes updating your social networks a snap.”

It definitely delivers as promised. If only all services in life did that.

And even though I don’t have an iPhone (yet! — just a matter of biding out my current contract) and use a severely limited BlackBerry (my workplace has a policy of restricting access to a great many useful Web sites and disabling other features as well), I can post updates here too. There are times I still have to pinch myself when thinking about how many more communication options are open to us now compared with just a few years ago.

What are your favorite ways to take advantage of these advances?

(Photo credit: Mattingly23)

This is your Pownce on Twitter

How my Ping.fm dashboard will look on Dec. 15

A lot of people shot off tweets today in response to the announcement that Pownce will be shutting down on Dec. 15. I have a Pownce account, but I don’t know a single person who’s on it. That hasn’t stopped me from posting to it, though, since I use Ping.fm to post my updates.

In fact, Pownce is one of seven accounts I routinely post to but rarely, if ever, check out. Sometimes I wonder why I have an account on Rejaw (which I have no opinion on, really) or on Plurk (which I actually dislike) when Twitter is the only one that matters to me. Those sites make me feel like the social outcast in school’s who’s sitting alone at lunch — I mean, I look around and can’t get anyone to talk to me.

So why do I bother setting up accounts I never visit? I guess for a couple of reasons — the main one being curiosity. It’s the reporter in me. The only way to see how these sites work is to get inside, so when I read about YourAre in some random article I come across, I figure why not check it out.

The other reason is because I figure no one really knows which service will end up winning out in the long run. It’s all about Twitter these days — you know Twitter’s gone totally mainstream when The New York Times writes about it) — but I feel as if every few weeks there’s yet another story about Twitter’s business model (usually, it’s about its lack of one).

I’ve decided to try to pay off my all my loans rather than contribute to a 401(k) at work, but back when I used to put money in, I took a similar tact — just picked a little bit of everything. I figured I would never cash in, but I also wouldn’t ever lose it all. (Clearly, I need help on the investment front. But if I had been good about money in the front place, I would never have decided to become a journalist.)

At least social networks are free to join (at least they are now) — and the only thing you have to contribute are words.