Category: Geek Love

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Creative Geek Geek Love

Scrapblog Update…

I mentioned when I returned from SXSW that I had learned about Scrapblog while I was there. I had this total fangirl moment when I met Hugh MacLeod, and after I settled down I then spoke with Alex and he explained to me somewhat how it all worked. Of course, it didn’t make sense until I saw it. Now there are some coming online, such as the Friendly Gnome (I’m a sucker for a cute gnome), and many others.

I’m really curious to see more about all the options available to the end user. Alex told me at SXSW that you use your photos from Flickr, and you can make “scrapbook” like pages from them – like the one of his. It appears that the notes from Flickr move over too.

I wonder if you can restrict who post your scrapblog to their site, or if they are open for anyone to use like YouTube? Because I don’t allow people to take my photos off of Flickr, and if I made a layout of photos to share online, I am not sure I would want other people displaying them on their blogs. I guess that is the main thing that I can see so far that people need to be aware of if anyone can use them; you need to proceed knowing that fact.

From what I have seen so far, it looks really interesting. I can’t wait for it to be open so I can test it out further!

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Geek Love

Flickr Notification – At Last!

I’m doing the happy dance right now, as I just discovered that Flickr has added the option of getting an e-mail whenever someone comments on your photos, or once a day with a comment summary. Sweet! It is one of those “wishlist” items I have had for a long time with Flickr.

There are two ways to set it up. If you are viewing your recently received comments, there is a link at the bottom of the page for notifications. You can also go into your Account page and edit the option from there. It was at the bottom of the list for me.

Yeah, Flickr! Thanks for yet another addition to your very full list of cool things you offer!

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Geek Love

Web 7.2…

Over the past few weeks (ok, years, but it has been really heavy the past few weeks), I have heard the term Web 2.0 tossed around a lot. Thank goodness for Wikipedia, I finally found a definition:

Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O’Reilly Media in 2004,[1] refers to a perceived second generation of web-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. O’Reilly Media, in collaboration with MediaLive International, used the phrase as a title for a series of conferences, and since 2004 some developers and marketers have adopted the term.

I have to admit it. I think it is a rather goofy term. It is true, and very accurate, to say tha tthe web has grown and changed over the years. I believe it is constantly changing. Every single day, new innovations appear online. To draw a line and say that everything before a time is the 1.0 version, and after is 2.0, is a bit silly. And if you ask me, aren’t we up to Web 7.2 or something like that now? That was the point I brought up last night while at the Houston NetSquared meeting.

2004 is a LONG time ago in web terms.

I also have to say that I agree with Robert Scoble as I see Blackberry phones everywhere now and with the iPhone coming out soon, maybe we need to start thinking about Mobile 2.0 instead of (or in addition to) Web 2.0? Just today, I used my phone to answer e-mails and look up maps. I snapped photos of books I wanted to remember the names of. Plus I made phone calls. When we do our next art market, I will be able to use it to validate credit cards on the spot online. (We do not have the volume to make leasing a credit card processing machine anywhere near worthwhile, but ProPay has worked well for me over the past several years.)

Rapidly, cell phones are becoming so much more, and finding them in the hands of everyday users is becoming a common thing. We need to start taking that into consideration in our way of thinking.

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BlahBlahBabble Geek Love

Tapping into My Creative Geek Side…

Unmellow Yellow

Before I started knitting and went back to school, I used to post a lot about geek related topics. Over time, between the crafty side and school work, my focus on that has dropped off – at least on this blog. (In reality, it is not something I can let go of – it has always been there.)

When I was at SXSW, I realized how much I missed writing about the geek related topics, and so many of the panels that I attended focused on building community – and for me, about building myself.

So my focus here will be changing. I considered actually closing down BigPinkCookie.com – but it is too much of me and who I am. Also, there is a lot of good content in the archives that I don’t want to lose. So instead, I am going to simply refocus the site. Reinventing myself, to borrow the term from Erica. More writing on the craft, less writing about personal things. A new domain and a new name to replace the BigPinkCookie (although it is still very much a part of me, something has always been missing), and a new look.

I feel as if I have come full circle.

The creative blended with the geek. How many of us are out there? I know there are a lot of us out there – I am very fortunate to have met many over the years. Let me know if you are one, and I look forward to your thoughts in the future as I go through this process.

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Geek Love

Pearl Links…

I will be expanding this post in the future, but as I find handy things for the Pearl that I like, I will post them here on my site. So far we have:

– How to put Video on your Pearl – It is Katherine’s fault that I own a Pearl now, because she told me that she can store full length movies on her memory card. After I get the software installed, I will be doing this, and I can’t wait! More feedback on it later.

– Blackberry Pearl tips – I had already found some of these keyboard jumps already, but reading them here in all one place is really helpful. In case it isn’t listed there, using the 3 and 9 key jump up and down a page on a browser window too.

– FreeRange offers a RSS reader for the BlackBerry. I haven’t found it on the site, but I think they have a way to manage your feeds online too.

– NewsGator offers a Blackberry version too, but it isn’t free. A perk of it though is that it syncs with the rest of the NewsGator suite. Read your feeds on your desktop or the online version, they are already synced up on your BlackBerry when you launch it.

– There is, of course, a Flickr Group for your BlackBerry Pearl Photos.

– The Opera Mini browser works on the Pearl, but I prefer the way that pages load when using the default browser. The Opera browser loads photos, etc. which slow things down. (This is an ironic thing for me to type. I realize that.)

– JiveTalk is an IM client that allows you to log in to a variety of IM clients at once – you can use GoogleTalk, Yahoo!, AIM, and so forth – all in one place.

– Gmail offers a client that allows for quick easy access to your Gmail at any time. This could be really handy if you have several e-mail addresses – more than the 10 that you can push to your BlackBerry – and you want to take advantage of their POP features and spam filtering.

– Mobile Yahoo Go! for your phone has quick and speedy access to Flickr. Mmmm…

What software are you using that you love? Feel free to share in the comments!