tasty blog snack

I was over at the Technology Evangelist website and stopped to laugh at Ed’s entry about “Restaurants Need WiFi and Power”. So true! This reminded me of the last trip to LA with the groovrs and the jtv laptop died!

The things we do for the sake of our technology..

The VIRB peeps are always up to something! They’ve just recently launched a t-shirt website cottyn with a selection of 3 witty designs to choose from.

This is just pure brilliance:

Last night I went home to visit my parents. As I walked in the house, I noticed my dad sitting at the kitchen table watching television. Now, what was on the screen is nothing you’ll find on any station.. ever. It appeared to be my backyard with a bunch of deer running around.

Yes, it’s true. My dad has a deercast. Much more of an elaborate set-up than I have for lifecasting!

He uses an infared camera in the woods with a motion sensor. When a deer (or anything walks into range) the camera turns on, transmits a signal to the receiver in the house, then it will turn on the TV and VCR. It’ll record to the VCR and you can watch live on any TV in the house.

So, anyone want to party?

“Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.”

Being a designer, you’re always a little more aware of typography and design around you. This movie was an inspirational look at how the font Helvetica was taken from a concept to single handedly changing the design world (at least that’s what they are claiming).

Check out their official site at helveticafilm.com for screening dates.

OH HAAAI! NEW SOCIAL NETWORKING SITEZ OMGZ!

Yahoo launches mash — Yet another social networking site. Let’s chalk up another place to waste some more productivity on.

Most new websites seem to at least look enticing at first glance. I’m not really sure if they could have made this look anymore less interesting.

I joined after receiving several emails that someone “created a profile” for me (which is the new way of getting an invite, apparently). Of course, it’s still in beta so who knows what kind of wonderful things will roll out next. Hopefully something a little more than a freak of nature (shown below) scribble of a pet (facebook fluff-friends?), lame questions, and only a few modules (facebook applications?) to choose from.

After browsing the site a little more I managed to find a few features that were slightly entertaining. Your friends are able to update your profile for you — changing anything from the layout to adding and editing modules. Prior to surfing onto Brent’s profile and accidentally stealing his layout.. Andrew had updated mine with photos, a video and even some slight style changes!

Thankfully in the settings you can control who has access to do so: only you, best friends, family, all friends, and anyone. You’d have to be very trusting to set that to anyone! This is the internet, after all.

They do have an add all friends button! Adding friends can become quite a tedious process when using facebook, pownce or most other social networking sites.

The guestbook (hey, 1990 called) module is very twitter-like, minus the cool. When posting on a friends guestbook, it will track-back the message with an @nickname - message on your profile. This could be quite useful when following multiple conversations across friends profiles.

With all of these various social networking sites — which do you use most to stay in contact with your friends?

“What iPhone case do you have?”

If there ever was a most frequently asked question, this would be it!

It’s the ‘Fitted Sleeve’ by incase. I have the black leather but it also comes in pink and brown. If you’re not a leather fan, they also have an olive canvas.

All styles are $34.95

You can buy it at the incase website or pick one up at any Apple retail store (which is what I did). I’m not saying this is the best one on the market but my iPhone has survived uncountable falls!

Reform Pittsburgh Now, the first interactive Political Action Committee based in cyberspace and dedicated to ideas. Unlike other Political Action Committees, RPN does not support candidates or campaigns. Our mission is to set the agenda for reforming local government in Pittsburgh by utilizing the social media.

The past month or so I’ve been working closely with Bill Peduto, John Carmen and Justin Kownacki and Matt Merriman-Preston on Reform Pittsburgh Now. The official launch of the site was last month at Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 and so far we have the first few episodes.

So far I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Bland (Port Authority CEO), Jim Hassinger (President and CEO of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission), Don Marinelli (Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center), Harold Safferstein (Executive in Residence, PLSG), John Manzetti (President and CEO, PLSG), Fred Marroni (President and CEO, Cartesia DX), Kevin Lane (Director, Public Relations, Pittsburgh Tech Council), Brian Kennedy (VP Gov Relations, Pittsburgh Tech Council), Jane Werner (Executive Director of the Children’s Museum), Sara Radelet (Executive Director of the Hazleltt Theater), and Barbara Luderowski (Executive Director of the Matress Factory)!

This is a great project and I’m excited to be a part of it. I’m learning so much about Pittsburgh and even more about the local government/politics.

Check it out! Reform Pittsburgh Now

As some of you might remember, I had a few issues while switching over to a new host [ mediatemple ] a few weeks ago but all was resolved quite quickly. Thankfully (mt) was great throughout the entire ordeal and they even sent Brent and I a box of treats!

Oh and yes.. I always look that creepy when drinking out of a mug.

Steve (or should I say Steven), look what you make me do!!!

[ repost? ]

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Animation Experiment: Discover how to quickly edit movie frames in Photoshop CS3 Extended Edition and control timelines with a wave of your hand.

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Black and White Experiments : To transform your images into black and white, belly up to the workbench in Dr. Brown’s Adobe Photoshop Laboratory! Explore more than a dozen ways to convert images into handsome* black and white

Be sure to register to watch the entire class!