Last week I came across a very funny and interesting satire blog stuffwhitepeoplelike.com. Here is a complete list of topics already covered, such as Indie Music, Frisbee Sports, Shorts, Bottles of Water and Recycling (My personal favorite). The author of the site published a book on this subject already.
Check it out and have a laugh
Just today Jordan and I learned we have been accepted into the Ruby Programming Certificate program at the University of Washington! After previously being denied our applications were reviewed again and the instructor chose to admit us based on our technical background and experience.
So excited for this!
In fact, I’m that’s what I’m naming my next Yacht (once the Awesomeville™ marketing deal goes through, or when I get back to Planet Awesome):
Espresso. Mac web development, now more productive than caffeine … Your cup of coffee has been the thing that gets you out of bed, the smell of creativity, the taste that makes your day. Soon, Espresso will deliver something better than a caffeine boost. Coming soon to a Mac near you! —MacRabbit.com
Even though I’ve been cutting down on my GUI intake, trying to get to slim enough for the party on the metal (the bottom layers of the TCP/IP stack where the action is), I still use CSSEdit frequently, because it saves me a lot of time when I step out of Vim back into the GUI-candyland called Leopard for design work.
Because this is an app coming from the creator of CSSEdit, MacRabbit, I have to buy it and try it on GP, plus I’m very impressed with MacRabbit’s awesome swagger. Have a look at their catch phrases, and you’ll see why I’m going to issue them an Awesome Certificate™: macrabbit.com/espresso I’ve highlighted my new favorite catch-phrase on a screenshot I uploaded to my flickr awesome-stream:
Towards the end of August Jordan and I applied for the Ruby Programming Certificate program at the University of Washington.
Unfortunately this week we learned that we were not going to be accepted into the program. The reason was because we didn’t have proficiency in an object oriented programming language. They don’t count scripting languages.. we were told they are looking for experience in a high level programming language such as C++ or Java.
We’ve been communicating with the program director and hope to still be admitted into the program. If this doesn’t work out, I’m planning on doing the Free Online Ruby on Rails Course offered by BuildingWebApps.com
I’ll let you know if we end up getting in.. I sure hope we do!
Last weekend, I took a trip with my brother and some friends to Portland where I shot this polaroid of my brother outside a mattress shop. I just got my hands on some Spectra film and have had really good results which is bittersweet since polaroid has discontinued its film. I don’t like the flash on this camera and have had the best results without it. Also, I’ve heard some spectra cameras can make multiple exposures which I’m anxious to try.
I’ve noticed over the last few years that a lot of record labels have started to use the internet for viral marketing as a way to promote their artists. In an era where music can be downloaded at the push of a button this seems to be a great way to keep fans interested and coming back for more.
Fall Out Boy have done a perfect example of this by creating buzz around something called Citizens for Our Betterment that later turned out to be a very thought out scavenger hunt for fans as a way to promote their new album “Folie A Deux”.
Copeland is another band that recently used this strategy by making websites that looked similar to commonly visited sites like Absolutepunk.net but were actually a website promoting their new album.
I’m excited to see where record labels and other companies take this form of promotion in the coming years. Check out what happens when you type in myspace.com wrong.
We release about 50 new accounts weekly on Glue, our simple web & mobile content publishing tool and while we've strived to make Glue simple, there's always a learning curve with new tools.
Here's some topics to help you get started!
Glue Help Blog TopicsI'll add to the list over time, so keep checking back. You can also ask questions on our forum and follow us on Twitter for status updates and more.
Have a request for a detailed help topic? I'd gladly put it together for you, just email me at info@gluenow.com with your request.
I found an entertaining game that everyone should check out. Guess-the-google is a simple flash game that reads in photos from images.google.com based on a search term you have to guess. What I like about this game is how it shows how user friendly companies can get free advertising. With Google's attitude of allowing people to use their backends (APIs) to build other web applications. They not only created a following of supporters but a group of people that are basically performing free advertisements all over the internet, like this game.
Steps
I've decided to create a social network with Squad, so the first logical awesome question to answer was: what to call it? Back on Planet Awesome™, we've had many laughs at what you Earthlings call memes, for instance, we have a creature with a similar resemblance to your cats, except they can talk and are extremely sarcastic as are your lol cats as seen on http://icanhascheezburger.com, and when that meme started they were very excited, until they found out that the cats were mute, and being exploited. Memes are awesome, so when thinking of names for our new social network, the all your base are belong to us! meme came into mind, and it just felt right. I put my awesome skills to work and came up with a couple awesome variations on the AYBABTU (youtube link) meme:
And finally the name of our new social network:
RBLNG2.us
Social Awesome Network™
This is going to be an awesome place to test out some of the new Glue features that Squad is developing on PrivateBeta
Wow this is sick.. I just downloaded this earlier this week and was super impressed. This is by far the best blackberry application I have ever seen. With this app, you can get real time streaming stock quotes, view stock market summaries & news, log into your account, place trades, check your watch list of stocks & transfer money!
The app is free, just go to etrade.com/mobile and follow the download instructions. You don't have to have an etrade account to use it! Only if you want to trade, check account balances, etc. Otherwise you can use it to get quotes or read market news.
Here are a few tasty screens to feast your eyes. If you know me and want to see a real life demo let me know!
I am So Awesome Man! I was born on Planet Awesome™, and after monitoring your planet through the 1980's and 1990's (Your Time) we have concluded (what has been our general feeling all along) that your planet is Awesome. After determining that a planet and its inhabitants meet a certain criteria for being awesome through a process called "The Planetary Probationary Awesomeness Discovery Period", we travel to your planet for vacation to partake in the awesomeness, and share some of the awesomeness that we enjoy back on Planet Awesome. I've just arrived recently, landing in a small town in the United States. I rather not disclose the name at this time, seeing that I'm in the process of creating a marketing arrangement for the town to be renamed Awesomeville™ in a deal similar to the one of Half.com (see: designobserver.com article), and others—this is how I plan to pay for my expenses while here (Awesomelings are hard workers just like you Earthlings). I understand that this Awesomeville™ deal may be ways off, so I have decided to create a social network with my friends, Squad Studios.
Where do I find you So Awesome Man? - If you have mental communication technology, as we do on Planet Awesome™, you can look outside on a clear night when the stars and moon are shining bright and think of me I will open a communication channel with you, like mental Bluetooth, and we can shoot the breeze. However, I realize that your technologies, although awesome, may not have the ability yet to interface with ours, so I have set up some Earth-native-systems for now. I might have missed some important communication systems or channels for this festival you Earth people are calling "Web 2.0", so please feel free to help me out by sending me an invite or friend-request.
I have used an image from Nasa to give you a perspective of where Planet Awesome™ is, it is not exactly accurate, but similar enough visually that I thought it was appropriate. I have read the guidelines of Nasa image use, and believe that I'm using the image accordingly. I'm not attributing the image to Pingnews.com, however I did find it via Pingnews.com on flickr, but pingnews is neither the creator nor the owner of these materials.
Hey everybody! I'm back from a summer in Europe. I took a slew of photos and travelled through some not so distant lands by train, plane, and even boat… (well… boats by sea) I am still in the process of posting more photos online so stay tuned. I'll be posting mainly at http://nonbreakablespace.com.
When I moved in to my apartment a few months ago I decided not to get cable since I'm hardly home so I find myself watching my favorite TV shows on HULU or buying them off of iTunes.
But now there is a new application available called Livestation . It's designed to distribute live telivision and radio broadcasts over a peer-to-peer data network. It even allows you to flip through different stations just like a regular TV.
Livestation is still pretty new so not all of the standard channels are available yet but new ones are being added regularly.
Its available for both Mac and Windows users and read that they are thinking of making a mobile version for the iPhone.
Out of all our users on Glue: our simple web & mobile publishing tool, over half are iPhone users. Squad recently built a John Mayer iPhone voting site and an experimental iPhone tool for some fun and experience. (View these on iPhone)
This gave us a perfect opportunity to share our design experience and love for the iPhone with the Glue community.
Designing and building layouts for the iPhone is quick since you only have to test it in Mobile Safari. For Glue, our plan is to quickly revamp the iPhone design & interface to release about one page a week. We started with the login screen and we'll be releasing the "Overview" page in the very near future.
Check out these before and after screen shots of the login page on the iPhone.
Recently I was playing around with Google Adwords. I've always been on the publisher side of advertising, but lately I've been researching more of the advertiser side for certain projects.
Google starts you out with a 'starter edition' of their Adwords system. This allows a new user the ability to slowly process and understand the Google advertising system, how it works and most importantly how to set it up effectively for your business.
Once you have successfully setup an Adwords campaign, the system tracks your usage and offers you helpful tips on how to further customize your campaign to yield better results. There are plenty of articles, how-to's and other bits of info to quickly and easily guide you through the initial setup and go process. I thought that it was a very good idea to start users out with a simple setup of a what can be very complex tool. Once the users are acclimated to the starter edition, they have the option to 'upgrade to standard edition'.
I recently found a video of Bill Stone giving a speech about going to one of Jupiter's moons, Europa. First a little on Bill Stone. This guy is known as one of the world's foremost expeditionary cavers. He has explored some of the world deepest caves and not always in person. He helped create The Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer which is an autonomous underwater vehicle.
This AUV was the first robot to use SLAM or Simultaneous localization and mapping. SLAM is a technique used by robots and autonomous vehicles to build up a three-dimensional map within an unknown environment while at the same time keeping track of their current position. Through the use of more than 100 sensors, 36 onboard computers, and 16 thrusters and actuators, DEPTHX decides where to swim, which samples to collect, and how to get home, based on maps that the probe draws during each dive. The use of around 100,000 lines of behavioral autonomy code helps with the decision making. This technology helps DEPTHX to become essentially a field micro biologist. DEPTHX proved itself by finding several new classes of microbes in a dive into one of deepest water-filled sinkholes here on Earth. This is one smart robot. Now hopefully its smart enough to find life on another planet. Which brings us back to Europa.
Many scientist believe that there is a water ocean that exists beneath Europa's surface that may harbor life. We plan on sending a probe to Europa and dropping a DEPHTX like AUV into this ocean to explore. Even though sunlight does not reach below the surface of this moon there is still hope for life. Sunlight was thought to be a key ingredient to life until the 1970's. Then we found bacteria and little creatures sustaining and thriving in environments completely devoid of sunlight using a process called Chemosynthesis. So this all makes for a very compelling case that we are not alone. It's really exciting to know that in our lifetime we could see a mission to Europa and that if we are lucky, will find life out there on another planet.
The last half of the video Bill talks about what we need to do in order to see common access into space and to further space exploration. Partly by mining the moon for propellant. To mine the moon for resources and demonstrate they can form the basis for a profitable business. Which he plans to do in 7 years. Sign me up! For more on entrepreneurship in space check out a speech by Peter Diamandis.
I have a massive amount of different things I do at my job. It is hard to remember where everything is and how to do everything the best way. So I decided to start my own Wiki and start writing out how I do everything for quick reference. If this works well, I can give access out to other people I work with. After that I can forward them to a Wiki page when they ask a question. That way, when they need something from me they can just check the Wiki first.
Now because some of the information I plan to write in here is slightly sensitive (I won't be writing passwords or anything that important). I did my best to secure my wiki, so unless you are a register user (which you can't register). You can not view any page, unless I allow it in the code to be viewed by all.
I used MediaWiki , You can check out my custom setup how to in my new Wiki
MerchSquad has the leftovers from the latest tour. This shipment did re-stock some of the favorites that were sold out, like this Eye exam T. But the new ones that came in are pretty cool. Although very limited quantities arrived for most and hardly any in my size! One that caught my eye was this SHIRT that features artwork from the sweet Russian Circles/Daughters Tour Poster. When I first got that poster in I immediately wanted the artwork on a shirt. I actually had a different shirt color in mind then what we just got in. If only MerchSquad was able to screen print in house. But wait, now we can! More on that later…
For a long time I swear I never clicked on any ads online. I wondered who actually clicks on these things? Well for some reason semi recently I feel like there have been some clever, new approaches to text link ads - specifically Google Gmail Ads that run up top with the web clips.
I have been keeping a record of the ones I see and click on, to see if there is any pattern to my clicks. Here they are. Would you click on any of these gems?
That last one is a riot and I actually discovered it today. I felt like emailing them to see if they really take themselves seriously.
Do you ever find yourself staring blankly at your computer screen or sketchbook trying to come up something and just can't seem to get any ideas. Well, I decided I would share some of my favorite websites that help inspire me when I need it.
Emptees.com is a website that showcases the art of t-shirt design. It's an awesome way to network and meet other designers with the same interests and has a lot of resources for people just starting out and wanting to learn about the process of becoming a designer / screenprinter.
Ffffound.com is an awesome site where people post pictures they find on the internet that inspire them. Pretty simple and to the point but is updated through out the day and has over 700 of pages to go through. The only downside to the site is that its invitation only if you want to post anything.
Designyoutrust.com is very similar to Ffffound.com in the way that people post inspirational images or artists that they find but you don't have to be invited. Just sign up and start posting!
Sleevage.com was a site that I recently stumbled upon but love the concept. It's all about music cover art and the artist behind it. One of the more interesting album covers I read about was the recent post about Queens Of The Stone Age ablum Era Vulgaris. They are still in the early stages but seem to updating weekly.
I hope that helps spark some of your imaginations because I know it definitely helps me out when I need to get those creative juices flowin!
More recently in my life, after Y2k, and before Web2.0, I became super obsessed with the word "Awesome" and officially added it back into my vocabulary as a staple word. How was I to know that when adding "Awesome", thinking it was just a fun way to impress friends and spice up late night conversations, I was adding the word that all other words will be judged by, and was unknowingly embarking on a journey that would change my life forever.
It's crazy that one simple word has brought sunshine and fortune into my life (not that I was doing too shabby before), sort of like a verbal lucky bamboo plant. I'm pretty skeptamistic, and at first I didn't believe the blessings were coming from saying the word "Awesome", but good things just kept happening. Finally, late one Friday night after many healthy servings of Grey Goose, it came to me… I heard a voice, it said "Awesome!", and it sounded like a thousand monks saying "om", but instead of "om" they were saying "Awesome". That moment when I heard the word Awesome, I received a gem of wisdom, insight, and knowledge from beyond the universe, I can only describe it as being similar to Neo in The Matrix getting all those ninja moves uploaded to his brain. To be upfront, with the gem I didn't receive any ancillary secrets of the universe, only the Secret of Awesome, so please don't send me messages about secrets of the universe unless it's on the topic of Awesome.
Read More …
My iPhone Home Screen Photo Dial Icon Creator is complete! Now you can simply tap a photo on your iPhone home screen to call someone, instead of going through the phone contact list. This makes phone calls on the iPhone simple.
Once you've added your "Photo Dial" Icon to your home screen, simply tap the icon you want to call and mobile Safari handles the rest. Your "Photo Dialer" page is stored locally on your phone so you never have to "hit" the web. Awesome!
If you like my Photo Dialer creation, make sure to check out my other tool which lets you add a custom iPhone home screen icon to your iPhone from any web page.
I'll be making enhancements every once in a while, so if you have any feedback please email me at jordan.dobson@madebysquad.com and I'll address it in a future update.
Last week Jordan and I applied for the University of Washington Extension Program: Ruby Programming Certificate. Since we just applied we have not been 'approved' yet but I really hope we get in. The certificate program is a 30 session, 3 quarter program. The courses are:
In my letter of application I wrote: "Although my current role is primarily project & resource management, I am seeking to learn more about the programming language that my companies future is based on as well as contribute more to my team as we move forward with our business ventures."
I hope to soon report that we've both been accepted to the program however it could be another week or so before we find out. I'll let you know!
New MerchSquad client Mitch Clem just added a sweet new product to his store. Its a book published by Dark Horse Comics that's an anthology of his Nothing Nice To Say comic strip. Nothing Nice to Say has been one of the longest lasting comics on the internet. Available for Pre-order HERE
Mitch Clem's Nothing Nice to Say leaves no mohawked, leather-jacket-clad stone unturned in its mission to expose the awesomeness and the absurdity of punk culture. Sometimes esoteric and always hilarious, Nothing Nice is so punk you'll think the book was bound with safety pins.
Does anyone remember going to Chuck E. Cheese or Showbiz Pizza as a kid? Any time we went to Missouri to visit family I insisted my parents took me there.
Not so much to see the creepy singing animatronic band but to play the arcade games and eat pizza tell I was about to explode.
Well now there is a documetary coming out about a small group of fans that are determined to bring back the awesomeness that was Showbiz Pizza.
After you watch the trailer make sure to check out this funny video of the band lip syncing Usher's hit song Love In This Club .
