May
23
Update on Apture plugin, etc…
Filed Under Apture, Twitter | Leave a Comment
Okay, got Apture working. Was pretty easy actually. I think it is somewhat like Snap Shots in that it gives you a popup but (at least for now) the main thing it does is look for related information that you can then link to whatever you are blogging about or have within your website. To see how this works put your mouse over anything with a media icon in the paragraph below. Update: It’s not working properly for some reason… I think it’s an issue where the data gets sent back to their servers and for some reason it isnt communicating right now… Update #2: It’s working now! Maybe just some kind of lag.
I’ve been watching the NBA playoffs and I have to admit that I am rooting for the Lakers because I think Kobe Bryant is the most exciting player in the NBA. It would be awesome if the Finals were between the Celtics and Lakers - that would be a dream Finals for the NBA and way, way more exciting than watching Tim Duncan and the Spurs grinding it out against the Pistons with Rasheed Wallace and co. Go Lakers!
Pretty neat, eh?
The only issue I am having (and I emailed Apture about it) is that in some cases (standard links) it is conflicting with SnapShots and SnapShots is winning. I think I can override SnapShots but I havent tried yet and frankly, who wants to do that every time? I could disable SnapShots completely but I like SnapShots a lot for straight linking to other websites if the only thing I want to do is that and not also attach other links within the same popup (which I can do with Apture).
Oh, on the Twitter Tools front, I changed the settings so they dont post my Tweets in the body of my blog. Now that I made that change I actually think that is better anyhow. If someone actually wants to read all my Tweets (and I cant imagine why anyone would), they can always go to my Twitter page and look at them.
May
23
It’s been a while…
Filed Under Apture, Me, Twitter | Leave a Comment
It’s been ages since I have posted anything. I’m going to get back to this experiment. I just signed up for a beta account of Apture which is saw a demo of here and thought I would give it a go. Fortunately the Apture closed beta is not actually closed - I just signed up and voila, I got an account. I also still have to figure out what is wrong with Twitter tools that it keeps messing with my blog formatting. I may just turn off the feature where it posts my Tweets as an actual blog post and then screws up my formatting. More to come later once I get Apture running…
Nov
1
I saw this in Google Reader and I thought it was worth passing along. Hopefully I don’t come across as too weird but I totally enjoyed it. Oh, this came via Scobleizer.com’s shared items (IMO the ultimate RSS feed for mostly technology news which shared the original post here). Anyhow, I hope you enjoy it, I did.
Oct
31
If people have trouble with electing politicians (let alone the President of United States) based on their beliefs on things like abortion and gay mariage or things they have no control over and only total idiots would see as an issue like race, gender, religion, etc… it is hard to imagine Dennis Kucinich getting away with admitting (sort of anyhow) to seeing aliens while visiting with Shirley MacLaine. Okay, he says unidentified flying objects, not actually aliens, but I think we know where he is going with this.
Now I am not saying there aren’t aliens. In fact, I am absolutely positive that we did not win the cosmic equivalent of the 6/49 (Powerball lottery for my American visitors) and end up being born on the only planet anywhere with life. On the other hand, until there is real, credible, proof of aliens landing on Earth, it is probably not advisable for politicians to be admitting to seeing aliens. I am thinking that is probably something the opposition is going to jump on don’t you?
Oct
30
TwitterWhere: A lurking service for Twitter
Filed Under Me, Technology, Twitter | Leave a Comment
I came across a pretty cool service called TwitterWhere. The idea behind it is to help you find other people who are Twittering in your neighborhood by creating an RSS feed for Tweets that are local to a certain city, town, etc… I like the idea behind this service because I personally know only one other guy in Toronto who Twitters and I feel sort of silly randomly following other Twitterers (is that a word?). I suppose I could start following some of the bloggers I like who I know use Twitter but it somehow seems awkward — like asking someone to befriend you on Facebook when they don’t know who you are. Anyhow, TwitterWhere isn’t exactly going to help me overcome my reluctance to actively following people I don’t know but it does give me a sense of a Twittering community. I think of it as lurking for Twitter if you know what I mean.
So with that in mind, if you are using Twitter and want to follow me and vice-versa, this is my Twitter page. I have no clue is anything I am Twittering is relevant or exciting to anyone else - that in and of itself is something I’d be curious to get some feedback on.
Oct
29
My virtual good deed for the day.
Filed Under Facebook, Me, Technology, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment
I was reading on Techcrunch about a Facebook app called Save An Alien. The idea is that there are 10 million cute little aliens on a planet that will be destroyed by a meteor in 6 months. You can adopt only one alien and thereby “save” it/him/her. Anyhow, I couldnt resist. Here is mine:
Her name is Pidi. Isn’t she cute? Did you catch that she is holding a Starbucks? Whoever came up with this idea is pretty smart. If they really do this up right they should expand it to be like a Webkinz type of interactive experience that continues to force me to keep feeding and caring for Pidi. That would be sticky as hell and presumably they’ll have a ton of users right off the bat with bleeding hearts just like me. If I am equally smart I would teach my daughter how to care for Pidi for me 
Oh, if you plan to save an alien too, do Pidi a favour and link to the app from my Facebook page 
Apparently most of her family has yet to be saved…
Also, if you have a chance to read the Techcrunch article, make sure you read the comments. Is it just me or should a lot of the commenters lighten up? They actually seem angry that there is a little bit of fun on Facebook. Newsflash: Facebook is a total diversion. Facebook will not be saving the world anytime soon. Sorry. Maybe they are just angry they didnt invent Facebook? What do you think?
Oct
29
Hulu - A YouTube Killer? Maybe, but not in Canada (yet).
Filed Under Me, Reviews, Technology, Web 2.0 | Leave a Comment
So Hulu is in private Beta. It is an attempt by big media (NBC, News Corp.) to compete with YouTube. I did not get a Beta account but I went to check it out anyhow. Sure enough, their blog has a small demo of The Office - a good choice as I love The Office. Here is what I saw:
So I did what any curious person would do. I pushed the play button. Unfortunately this was met with this not-so -friendly message:
So Jason Kilar, the CEO of Hulu, wants feedback. He invites it at the bottom of his post. My message is: Come on! The Internet does extend beyond the US/Canada border.
By the way, this isnt the first time I have seen this sort of thing. I tried to watch an episode of Lost on ABC’s website and I got the same message. Oh, and I tried to buy a Lost t-shirt and they apparently didn’t want orders from Canada.
Anyone else excited to try Hulu? Will it eventually work here? Only God and Jason Kilar know for sure.
Oct
29
I’m a Star Trek fan but…
Filed Under Me, Movies | Leave a Comment
How can they leave William Shatner out of the next Star Trek movie? JJ Abrams is directing which should be pretty cool. And if you havent seen this preview for another JJ Abrams movie which is code named Cloverfield, you have to check this out as it looks AMAZING.
Oct
28
Updated to Mac OS X Leopard today
Filed Under Apple, OS X, Technology | 1 Comment
So Leopard came out yesterday. Decided to avoid the craziness at the mall and waited until today to go and pick it up. The upgrade took about 2 hours but was easy and issue free. I had a little bit of time to play with it and what I saw I liked although there wasn’t anything that blew me away. Time machine is pretty cool but I had to go and exclude a ton of files before my backup drive had enough room for it to work. Also, coverflow for documents is pretty neat.
Oct
27
I just redid my Theme - I wanted to go to a three column layout and at the same time add a tag cloud (you can see it on the right hand side) and discovered my Theme wasn’t widget enabled. I had no idea what that meant vis-a-vis a blog but quickly discovered that if your blog is widget enabled, adding widgets is a snap. So I jusy downloaded this theme which is widget enabled and it gave me the ability to drag and drop all available widgets to the column and the order I want to see them in. Very useful.
