I came across this blog post recently where a waiter was fired for twittering while on the job.  This wasn’t a case where they were fired just for twittering, it’s because who the tweets were about which is a whole new kind of fail whale.

Let’s cut to the chase, if you work in a field where you work with other people, about 99% of the people reading this, you need to watch who you tweet about.

In this case – the waiter was sending “documentary” tweets about various guests they served.  In this case the people who were tweeted about weren’t just John and Jane Doe’s – they were people who are considered celebs.

Needless to say, it’s safe to assume that you shouldn’t tweet negative things about people that pay you particularly if you hope to continue to be paid.  Why? Because people can find out almost anything public on the internet.  There was the widely popularized tweet that a potential Cisco employee sent previous to hiring.   For example, I work at Ruby Tuesday, Inc. If I were to blog or tweet some pretty negative comments about our leadership that’s probably not a smart career move.  Why? Because they pay me and opening up a public discourse on some deficiency I think my boss may have isn’t the best way to deal with any problem.  Let’s be clear, I’m not saying you should cover something up for the sake of a career – I’m saying use some discernment when posting.

Back to the original person who was fired for tweeting about customers. First, I’m very pro people acquiring and using technology in their lives and people should have the freedom to post what they feel they want to, but posting publicly on the Internet isn’t quite the Wild Wild West it once was.  On this issue, if you’re in a similar position you should think twice about tweeting about people.  There is a very large difference between “My last customer was super messy” and “Sandra was my last customer and OMG she was messy” and matters get compounded a bit further if you list somewhere on your blog, bio, etc that you work for aka represent a particular company.

Key takeaway, be careful what you share.  It’s global, discoverable and permanent.

I got my Google Voice invite about a month ago. I think the service is intriguing so I was excited to see the email in my inbox.  First you have to pick a number  – this was a big deal to me since they don’t offer number portability, yet.   I decided to select an 865 (Knoxville, TN) number even though my mobile is a 513 (Cincinnati, OH) number.  After number selection I started playing around with the web app and what not but I pretty much just left it as it was.

Then I found out there was an iPhone app – not fully official but still available.  Then Google released official BlackBerry and Android apps that can take over the native dialer and sms function with the promise of an iPhone in the pipeline.  This was like a fresh roll of cotton candy to my eyes as I LOVE synergy.  If I’m going to use Google Voice, I want it be be as native as possible.  Then the whole FCC Google, AT&T, Apple fiacso got rolling and all possibility of that was shelved for a bit. Although I did download the non official Google Voice app via Cydia which the developer Sean Kovacs released amazingly for free.

Addtionaly, I did some checking and I got my Google Voice up and running on the desktop with a couple of tricks.  First from this article I installed a Firefox extension, but honestly it didn’t do what I was hoping.

So I figured Fluid would be the way to go.  For those uninitiated, Fluid is a program that creates site specific browsers, i.e. creates launchable applications out of browser based web apps.  I currently use it for CoTweet, Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Reader.  I’ve never encountered any odd systemic failures but it goes without saying that you try this at your own risk.

So here’s a bit of a tutorial of sorts to add Google Voice with Growl and Javascript icon notifications.  Props to the developer who created the script to make this Google Voice magic happen, all of this information is adapted from his original post here. If you’re already familiar with adding userscripts to Fluid apps you can get the script here – for everyone else.  Read on.

Prior to this step you’ll have needed to download and installed Fluid and then created an app for Google Voice.  Use the URL “http://google.com/voice” and the PNG for the icon here.  You’ll also need Growl running for notifications.

All photos will enlarge when clicked for details.

Step 1: Browse for userscripts from within the Fluid app you created (mine is called G Voice)

This will open a new window you’ll search in.

Step 2: Search for the phrase “google voice”

Step 3: Select the script named “Google Voice Notifications”

There are a few scripts, I’ve only used the one highlighted in this overview so I can’t comment on the effectiveness of the other scripts.

Step 4: On the script page click the GREEN Install button.

This will install the script in the Fluid app

Step 5: Confirm the install and close the window.

Step 6: Quit and restart the G Voice fluid app.  All indicators should be running like clock work.

Text a friend from your Google Voice to test and witness the awesomeness.

Step 7: Rejoice!

Gavin
513 633 0573
 
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This is my foray into blogging. I’m writing on what interests me, when it interests me. Mostly in these categories:

• business
• branding
• careering
• change
• curiosity
• discovery

and maybe, maybe a few ventures to new and exciting topics. We’ll see. We’ll journey and learn together.