Is there a "Next Big Thing" on the horizon?

Lots of chatter going on about Ello - the tantalizing new social network startup. Could it be the next big thing?  Let's look at some of the comments:

No, I am not interested in joining your proprietary social network - In a nutshell, it all comes down to the money and no matter what you are told, it's eventually going to $ell out.

What The Ell Is Ello? The Ad-Free Social Network Everyone's Talking About - It's all about the timing and Facebook is just messing things up now.

Actually, I'm more intrigued with diaspora, which at first glance seems to be a failed "Facebook alternative" but yet it's a different idea altogether. And it's Open Source and part of the Free Software movement.

So, I'll probably try both, maybe start my own diaspora pod, and watch the excitement unfold.

Minecraft is now part of Microsoft

News flash: Mojang, parent company of Minecraft, has been sold to Microsoft for $2.5 billion.  Take a deep breath. Yes, it's official.

Not completely sure how I feel about this. Even though I've made a living in IT using and managing Micro$oft products, they're still the necessary evil. Now something as cool, open and free as Minecraft is part of that evil empire.

Links to the announcement and related posts:

Mojang.com - Yes, we're being bought by Microsoft

Notch.net - I'm leaving Mojang

Transferring files to an Android Tablet

This post could also be titled, "Things You Can Not Do with an Android Tablet" - which is what I'm basically finding out.  Sure, I'll admit, this particular tablet is at the lower end of the market (HP 7 Plus, on sale direct from HP for less than $90), but it does function just fine as my mobile device at the office (email and web-based apps).

The goal was (supposedly) simple - load a few of my favorite songs on the tablet so I could listen to music when not connected to Wi-Fi. From previous posts one knows that my new platform of choice is Linux.  I was naive in thinking that it would be easy. After all, Android is based on Linux, right? Well, it doesn't work out that way.

If I was trying to connect to a Windows machine (Win 7 or newer, don't expect any support for XP) or a Mac, there's a chance you can get it to work.  Nothing I found for Linux worked.  Just for reference, I'll include the links of things that I tried.

First on the list, this method at least did connect to the tablet, although it is extremely slow.  Getting inside a folder on the tablet never happened (or maybe I just didn't wait long enough?): How to Transfer Files from Ubuntu to Android

These methods either didn't work  or were too risky or complicated to even try:

How To Properly Mount Android 4.0+ Devices In Ubuntu Using Go-mtpfs

Transfer Files from Android and Linux with ADB and AAFM

How to Transfer Files Between Android and a Linux Mint PC

I also went into the Software Manager (isn't that where you supposed to look first?) and installed mtpfs, which runs from the command line. There's a lack of documentation for this on the web, but there is a man file.  I was able to mount the tablet as root, but not able to enter or list the directory.  Maybe I just missed some important step or was too impatient.

So, the moral of the story is ... If you want to use an Android tablet, iPad or iPod with Linux, you're going to have to wait a little bit longer for that to happen.

PS - I was able to finally get Windows XP to connect to the tablet from the instructions provided by HP Support.  However, it still failed to allow me to copy mp3 files to the tablet.