Getting in shape for Geeks

Most geeks usually don't care much about "getting into shape". We've got our toys, and our fingers are usually pretty "buff" from playing our games, typing or using our smartphones. Well this blogger has gotten a little angry at how his body has been responding lately (sluggishly to not at all) so I took advantage of the new year to start with some new goals.

Diet and Fitness

I've started out pretty strong this year on my diet and fitness goals. For those of you that don't know, my wife and I have been on the Carb Lovers Diet for the past 6 months or so. We slipped a little during the holidays but we are back in action this year and I've lost 3 pounds since Christmas. Carb Lovers lets you eat good carbs (whole grains, fiber rich foods etc.) and its secret is resistant starches that come from things like green bananas, beans and potatoes. Its also portion control and some calorie counting. Basically its the way you should be eating for the rest of your life.

My wife's cousin and good friend of mine for years, Jen West (@thejenwestquest) was recently featured on the Rachael Ray show talking about and showing off (in her bikini!) the benefits of Carb Lovers. She has a great blog called The Jen West Quest that follows her daily fitness writing and health goals.
Another great benefit of the Carb Lovers book is that my wife Andrea (of the blog Annie's Angle) has become somewhat of a great cook with all the gourmet and yummy recipes in the book.

I've also been bustin' out a daily arm workout almost every day for the past two weeks and I can already see some results. (ie. my Droid X is easier to pick up above my head). Next... (ugh...) RUNNING.


Best Diet and Fitness Apps

There are some great apps that you can get for your phone to help you keep track of your diet, calories, run and workout.

1. Livestrong - both Jen West and my wife love this one. Mostly a calorie counter (helpful for Weight Watchers and Carb Lovers), the Livestrong app makes it very easy to track your calories and its extensive database of more than 525,000 foods is huge! Its hard to NOT find something. (only for iPhone right now)
2. Cardio Trainer + Racing - A great app for Android that motivates you to keep doing better with voice prompts. Also tracks your run / bike route with GPS and shows you the stats and your best times so you can keep pushing yourself. Features music integration so you can play your music while using the app and Facebook updates.
3. Calorie Counter by FatSecret - Android calorie counter with a large database and features a bar code scanner to scan your groceries.

Geeky Fitness Gadgets

My friend at work (Best Buy) showed me her new Fitbit - Wireless Personal Trainer which I thought was kind of neat. This personal trainer collects data about your daily activities, such as exercise intensity levels, calories burned, sleep quality, steps and distance. The collected data is automatically uploaded to your personal Fitbit website where you can track your progress towards personal goals.

Its basically a super geeky pedometer! It even keeps track of your sleeping habits and automatically uploads to your own personal Fitbit website (which is similar to Livestrong.com) to keep track of your eating and workout habits as well.
  
The Garmin - Forerunner 405CX GPS Watch is another geeky fitness gadget that we sell at Best Buy (as well as Amazon ;-). Its an all in one type, GPS, heart rate monitor and distance and calorie computer. A little pricey but if you want a separate all in one solution that you just snap on and take off when you're done, then this gadget will work for you.


Do you guys have any awesome apps or geeky fitness gear that you use? Leave me a comment below!

How is FourSquare changing marketing?

A little mobile ap called Foursquare, that was introduced last year at SXSW has exploded in popularity this year and is being rumored to be the next Twitter as a new generation of "location based services" (or LBS) including Foursquare and GoWalla are set to take over the mobile social networking scene in 2010.

What is a Location Based Service (LBS)?

A LBS is an information and entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device via its GPS (global positioning system) sensor. (Wikipedia)

Some examples of LBS could be:

• Turn by turn navigation to any address
• Locating people or places on a map displayed on the mobile phone
• Receiving local alerts, such as notification of a sale on gas or warning of a traffic jam
• Location-based mobile advertising

Some of you may have followed our honeymoon journey last year as I used the Google's Latitude LBS on my Blackberry Curve to chronicle our road trip to Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. I also used it as a pseudo-turn by turn GPS unit when we were in the "big city".

As you can guess, some of these services can and will provide a whole new way of targeting personalized advertising, rewards or services to the end user if you follow the model out to the next logical step.

Just a game?

Both FourSquare and GoWalla started out with a level of social game play and quickly grew in popularity as users vied for the coveted badges and points for checking in. Then, businesses in the New York and San Francisco areas started noticing the usefulness of having regular customers check in and started offering physical rewards or freebies (ie. free beer, french fries, discounts) to the visitors that checked in the most (on FourSquare this is called being the Mayor). Now that FourSquare has been opened to the world, more businesses are jumping on the band wagon of the reward concept for FourSquare players.

The market share of smart phones in the U.S. is up to 17% as of January 2010, according to Forrester Research, and is predicted to be above 20% by the end of the year. Based on this growth, I predict LBS will become more interesting and useful to targeted marketing as more smart phones are purchased in the next few years and marketers and businesses look for new ad venues other than the traditional "old media" outlets. FourSquare is also getting a head start in the LBS race by already opening up their API to the public for open source ap development and there are already a few interesting aps on FourSquare's developer's page.

What are some new and innovative ways that LBS and FourSquare could be used to improve humanity, make us more efficient, have more fun? Hit me up with a comment!

iPad A Kindle Killer?

Hot off the presses today, Apple's Steve Jobs announced and showed off the new iPad tablet computing device called the iPad. For those of you that have been hiding in a cave, the iPad is an ultra thin tablet computer used over Wi-Fi and soon over 3G cellular networks. Some of the stats reveled today are:

• 9.7-inch multi-touch screen
• 1.5 pounds
• runs apps from the Apple app store
• attachable physical keyboard with stand
• iBook app store for buying books
• starts at $499 for the 16gig Wi-Fi version!
• iPad also comes in 32 and 64 gig versions
  

The atomic bomb that was dropped by Jobs was when the price for the base model was announced to be a low $499. Most rumor mills were expecting a price somewhere between $799 and $999. One of the new apps that Apple has revamped was the iBook store. The iBook app looked great and the interface blew the other eBook readers out of the water. So, when the price was announced, we all felt the same thing.

Kindle is dead.

According to Apple, five of the biggest publishers have already signed up to support and contribute to the iBook catalog. The new interface on the iPad using multi-touch looks very cool and innovative. You can store your books on a virtual shelf for easy access. Of course the reader is in color so to me it was like comparing the first Nintendo Game Boy to the Sony PSP. Which one would you play? The interface is similar to the iTunes store with the added ease of the multi-touch interface and app-style speed.

Will the iPad make it easier for people to switch to eBook format? Is the iPad a Kindle killer? Leave us a comment below!

Josh Self is the editor of The Horse. He is also a photographer and blogger for Examiner.com.
Follow him on Twitter @joshself or any of the other social media sites on the right.

The Geeks and Tech of Mad Men

This device isn't a spaceship, its a time machine. It goes backwards and forwards... It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. Its not called "the wheel", its called "The Carousel". It lets us travel the way a child travels - around and around, and then back home again to a place where we know we are loved."

~ Don Draper doing the presentation for the Kodak Carousel slide projector

I love this scene from AMC's show Mad Men Season 2 not only because it shows Don's genius with advertising and presentation, but it really shows the impact that technology can have on our lives and families. In the scene, Don sells the concept of the name and logo of "The Carousel" to the Kodak execs. Old family slides scroll past of his kids and Don's early family life in chronological order as he gives his presentation. As the slides go by, the power of the small piece of equipment had the power to give every man in the room watery eyes by the end. Needless to say the presentation was a success.

The show introduces many aspects of the conception and birth of the information age in the early '60s as well as the change of many social and moral though patterns in the US. Since I'm a geek, I'm going to concentrate on more of the tech aspect of Mad Men.

Manual vs. Automated

Some of the scenes that impact me the most on the show are the large amount of manual work that they do in the office. These days we have become so used to instant email, Blackberries that push information to us and instant access to statistics, a world full of Wikipedias, self updating news sources and never ending information on the Internet, that we (especially younger people) have forgotten about the days of rotary phones, carbon copies and manual typewriters. It blows my mind to think that businesses worked with any kind of efficiency this way.

One thing to remember is that Sterling Cooper is being portraid as one of the top tier ad agencies on Madison Ave. during that time and they had cutting edge technology as soon as it came out. For example, Sterling Cooper has cutting edge electric typewriters (as shown in the pilot) whereas most businesses were still working with manual typewriters at that time. The one big geek moment in the show was when they got the brand new Xerox copier machine that they had to store out in the hallway it was so big. Apparently tech was a big deal to Sterling Cooper as they thought it gave them the advantage over all the other ad agencies as it continues to be to this day. Businesses are always looking for the latest and fastest computers, most efficient machinery and latest social media marketing strategies to get that slight edge over the next guy.

Phones and Communication

Man Men also shows me just how completely reliant we are on phones and instant communication these days. We, don't even think about what we would do without our precious cell phone and internet tethered to our bodies everywhere we went. I love how in one of the episodes, Pete thought he was so high tech talking on the wired rotary phone brought out to him by a swimming pool. What should we do? How about TURN IT OFF every once in a while and go outside and take a walk. I'm talking to myself as much as anyone else.

New laws are being implemented state by state to start fining people for talking on cell phones while driving. Even more recently, an article on Mobile Crunch talked about $150 fines in New York and even one woman serving 21 months in prison for killing someone while texting and driving.

I guess Mad Men just makes me wish I could live back in those days again sometimes where things were simpler. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my technology, but I like to keep things in perspective too. I think we all need to take a look back at history and maybe start taking a few simple steps to uncomplicate your life and be ready for the day that may come in the future where our precious tech gadgets will be useless. Anyhoo... just a thought.

Advertising and media in our lives

Books could be written about the psychology, research and effectiveness of advertising and media and how it has, or should be used in marketing. Mad Men touches the tip of the iceburg, teaching us how graphic design, layout and media has been used over the years in advertising. One of the main concepts that the business of advertising and marketing has learned over the years (and that seems to be the philosophy of Don Draper as well) is that it all boils down to making the viewer/reader feel something. If an advertisement, piece of technology or software makes your feel: loved, nostalgic, hate, horny, or jealous then you will want/desire/ache for that product.

Peggy Olson: Sex sells.

Don Draper: Says who? Just so you know, the people who talk that way think that monkeys can do this. They take all this monkey crap and stick it in a briefcase, completely unaware that their success depends on something more than shoeshine.

Don Draper: You are the product. (Its) you, feeling something. That’s what sells. Not them. Not sex. They can’t do what we do and they hate us for it.

Photo copyright AMC (American Movie Classics) 2007

Is Steampunk Dead?

Victorian costumes, airships, steam engines, bizarre old yet modern weapons, fueled by a little magic or Æther... The awesome Steampunk subculture has been a part of my life since I played my first Myst game on PC and I watched The City of Lost Children wide eyed.

Steampunk movies like Sleepy Hollow, City of Lost Children, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Army of Darkness (although more Dieselpunk) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have always been some of my favorite movies. I am a member of steampunk groups on SecondLife, I read steampunk books, watch steampunk anime (Steamboy), play steampunk games (Myst / Riven, Thief, Final Fantasy) and now recently I have started making my own weapons, jewelry and costumes (for Halloween this year), (yes, I am a nerd).

The Rumors

Something has been worrying me. I hear rumors that Steampunk is dead. Internet forums, blogs like Gizmodo and other naysayers are announcing the death of steampunk. Their reasons... you can only make so many modified weapons, tea kettles, and "steampunkified" normal everyday gadgets for one lifetime.

But, gadgets are only a small part of the sub-culture. Alternate history, costumes, games, fiction books and writing, and Internet steampunk culture (like groups on SecondLife, blogs, and forums) continue to thrive and inspire new creative works. The most recent being a new book by George Mann called The Affinity Bridge (thanks to my friend Sara for the heads up) which was just released last month (July 9th, 2009).



The Evidence

There are also a few new steampunk style movies that have been released recently. Most notable are the 2007 adaptation of Neil Gaiman's book Stardust, The Golden Compass, the adaptation of Jeanne DuPrau's teen books City of Ember and most recently Focus Feature's "9" in which a group of sapient rag dolls, living a post-apocalyptic existence find one of their own, 9 (Elijah Wood), who displays leadership qualities that may help them to survive.

The uberpopular handmade craft selling site Etsy is also full of steampunk art, jewelry and creations that are very popular and sell on a regular basis. I also see steampunk art seeping into mixed media conventional art pieces, photography and mainstream jewelry.

So to all of you naysayers (I just like that word), I say Nay! Don your goggles, fire up the airship! Steampunk is not dead!

Disagree? Leave me a comment...

The Evolution of the Geek and Nerd T-Shirt

I thought I would show off some of my favorite geek / nerd t-shirts that I have or would like to receive as a gift from someone who cares... :-)

The Evolution of the Nerd Shirt...

The beginnings of collectible t-shirts started with the concert shirts of the 60's and 70's. Bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin always had great album art and record companies eventually realized that they could make a little extra money by merchandising these bands at their live concerts with t-shirts that could only be bought at the show. They became collectible because of this reason. During that time, if you had the t-shirt, then you had actually been to that concert. I would say that was something to brag about. Pop groups jumped on the band wagon of merchandising soon after and the industry has always done it since.

The Computer Age Nerd Shirt...

In the early 80's Atari introduced one of the world's first console gaming systems as well as an affordable home computer system. This began the age of computers being introduced into the pop culture scene. Some of the first computer shirts were created for marketing purposes and to create buzz at trade shows by some of the early business computer and software companies like: Apple, Amiga, IBM and business software like Turbo Pascal, Lotus 1-2-3, IBM's OS2. These shirts are extremely rare now but you can get replicas of some of these from online vendors like Wearpower.com's Axis T-shirts. Ebay is also a great place to search for some of these. Be advised, most shirts on Ebay are replicas. A true vintage early computer marketing t-shirt is a great find if you can get your hands on them.

Vintage Toys Shirts

The late 70's and early were ripe with cool new toys that included marketing and promotion with t-shirts for fans that could be purchased. Some examples would be toys like: GI Joe, Transformers, Smurfs, Barbie, and Sci-Fi and horror movie merch like Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Gremlins, Flash Gordon, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and others from the late 70's and early 80's. Originals are true rarities these days and often go for over $50 if in good wearable condition.

Modern Gaming and Comic Shirts

We've all seen these around. Almost every comic book character and video game has their own fleet of shirts. In fact these are so common these days, that you can buy most at your local Wal-Mart and dollar stores. This is an example of saturating the market, making something that could be cool and bringing it close to the "sell out" category. There are some rarities out there. I would consider some games like Myst (replica's here) and some of the early ground breaking games like id software's Doom, or Wolfenstein to be very collectible. These companies didn't have alot of extra money for marketing and promotion early on therefore authentic t-shirts with these logos would be considered rare. (BTW if you find a vintage Myst or Riven t-shirt, send me the link!). A few of the popular designs right now are WOW (World of Warcraft) and Halo.

Sarcastic Geek and Funny Nerd Shirts

This is currently my favorite category right now and includes shirts that you have inside information and you have to know about the topic or be semi-intelligent to understand the humor or message of the shirt. One of the original innovators of the funny geek shirt are open source programs and operating systems like Linux. The Linux penguin and shirts that reference Linux commands or functions are funny to me. For example, the original Sudo Make Me A Sandwich shirt on the left.

I'm liking the new Twitter shirts and any "insider" type funny shirts like those here on X-tremeGeek.com and ThinkGeek.com. There are a plethora of new Twitter and Social Networking shirts out now that are hilarious. Find some on CafePress. So welcome to the world of geek / nerd shirts.

If you have and suggestions or links to other cool and funny shirts that I should add here, leave me a comment...

Geek Gear For A Roadtrip

Well, as most of you know, I'm getting married this week to my fiance Andrea and we are taking a road trip / honeymoon to Washington DC and Philly. So I wanted to share with you guys some essential gadgets and geek gear that I will be taking along with me to stay connected during the trip. Most of these involve my laptops and staying connected to the Internet and Wi-Fi while we're on the road. So essential #1 is:

The Laptop

This is probably the most obvious essential for any trip. A wi-fi enabled laptop can be used at a hotel, coffee shop, and even in the car on the freeway (more on this in a minute). Most hotels offer free wi-fi on the property with a log in password that they give you when you check in. Also while you're out and about, most coffee shops, airports and some restaurants now even offer free wi-fi to their patrons. Some great businesses offering free wi-fi nation wide are:

• Panera Bread Company
  
• McDonalds (not all locations)
  
• Starbucks (must have an AT&T account)
• Buffalo Wild Wings Grill and Bar
• Hooters
• Whole Foods Markets
• Krystal Restaurants has free Wi-Fi in 253 locations.
• Speedway Gas Stations
• McAlister's Deli has many locations nationwide with Free WiFi, use their location finder to check for access.

Power Inverter

This is an essential survival tool for any geek on the road. A power inverter converts your DC power coming out of your car's battery and electrical system to AC power so you can plug in household devices. Some of the things it allows you to do on the road:

• use your laptop for an unlimited time
• recharge your batteries
• power a small TV and DVD player or gaming system on the go
  
• power a small refrigeration device for cold drinks and food on the go
• plug in lighting for camping or emergencies

Smart Phone

To me this is an essential for the road warrior. The new iPhone 3Gs would be the ideal, but any phone with unlimited Internet access will work. You want to have a backup to get your email or access any emergency contact information that you might need over the net. I personally use the Blackberry Curve 8330. Some essential aps that a road warrior should look into:

• Google Mobile Ap - available for almost any brand of smart phone out right now. Check all of your Google "stuff" from the road!
  
• Viggo - available for Blackberry and HTC. Best RSS and news reader for mobile.
  
• Pandora (Mobile) - Pandora is exploding right now. A virtual streaming jukebox for Blackberry, iPhone, PalmPre and WinMo (be sure you have unlimited minutes!)
  
• Google Sync - sync your Google calendar and Gmail address book with your phone. Work in the cloud!
• Facebook Ap - receive and update your status and upload mobile pics from the road... uh yes! essential!
• Twitterberry (or other Twitter ap) - I would consider this an essential (even though my fiance wouldn't) - tweet from the road, plus upload pics and other Twitter essentials.
  

Flip Video Camera
(or other sub-compact HD video camera)

This is another essential for on the go video of your trip that can be easily uploaded to YouTube, your blog or web page so you can easily share your trip with family and friends during and after the trip. See my blog GetAFlip for more info.

A Good Book

After being geeky non-stop, take a second to just chill out with a good book, turn a page, stop worrying about where you can connect and just disconnect. Leave the laptop in the hotel room and turn the smart phone off (but keep it in your pocket for emergencies right?)

Spend time with your family / fiance

Especially if its your honeymoon... nuff said ;-)

I'll see you guys after I get back! Thanks for reading.

Photo by Major Clanger / Flickr

The Hunt For Gollum debuts online today!

If you haven't heard about the new Lord of the Rings "fan fic" film, The Hunt For Gollum, then you've been out of the loop. This was me Sunday when my sister-in law Hannah told me about it. (Thanks Hannah!) I felt kind of out of the geek loop. But I'm back!

Apparently it has been in production for almost 2 years and was created on a budget of $3000 by writer-director Chris Bouchard with all crew and cast working for free! The film is 40 minutes long and made its debut at SCI-FI-LONDON film festival this past Saturday. As of today the owners have released the film to the public on Dailymotion.com as a free view in HD! I haven't had a chance to watch it all the way through but the trailers are VERY well done, and rival anything that Peter Jackson has done in my opinion. The story from the official website is:

The script is adapted from elements of the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows the Heir of Isildur; the "greatest huntsman and traveller in Middle Earth" as he sets out to find the creature Gollum. The creature must be found to discover the truth about the Ring, and to protect the future Ringbearer.

The official website has all the great interactive content that a big name film would have plus "making of" and deleted scenes, downloads, stills, banners, etc.

Go right now and watch it! Leave me a comment or review here so everyone can see how awesome it is.

Here's the link to the Dailymotion The Hunt For Gollum channel

Full review of the film coming soon from The Horse (after I get a chance to watch it!)...

Summer Movies That Are Going To Rock Your Face Off!

This summer the movie studios have pulled out all the stops in the Action - Adventure genre for the summer blockbuster season. I'm just going to go ahead and say that May is going to ROCK YOUR FACE OFF!

So you've heard about the rumors and the hopeful release dates. I've got em all right here complied for you on The Horse. It looks like there's going to be at least one AWESOME geek movie released every single Friday night in May and more coming in June and July. So I'll start you off by telling you what "Josh" is going to see and I'll link you to a trailer for each of them. (no need to thank me...)

• May 1: X-Men Origins: Wolverine: (trailer here) staring Hugh Jackman (duh) and Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth. We see the start of Wolverine and his early story of the military conversion of mutants into killing machines and evolution into his X-Men character. Other characters we will finally see are: Gambit (Taylor Kitsch), Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins), William Stryker (Danny Huston). Directed by Gavin Hood. News flash rumor mill! Apparently the unfinished movie has been leaked onto bit torrent sites already and was rumored to be one of the causes leading to the arrest interrogation of the owners of the Swedish The Pirate Bay warez and pirate peer to peer site last week. I chose to "not participate" and watch it in the theaters.
• May 8: Star Trek: (trailer here)Probably the most anticipated movie of the summer. JJ Abrams (Lost, Fringe, Cloverfield) directs in this prequel staring Chris Pine (Smokin' Aces) as James T. Kirk and Zachery Quinto ("Sylar" on Heroes) as Spock. Fans have been waiting for this prequel for a long time. This is going to be huge!
• May 15th: Angels and Demons: (trailer here)Adaptation of Dan Brown's earlier (and better in my opinion) book and follow up to Ron Howard's adaptation of The Da Vinci Code. Howard returns to direct Tom Hanks (returning as Robert Langdon), Ewan McGregor and Stellen Skarsgård in this historical thriller about a murder and time bomb in the Vatican and the ever ellusive Illuminati. I'm a huge fan of this book and I've been waiting for this ever since I heard the rumor last year and posted an early review trailer at the time in this post.
  
  
  
• May 21st: Terminator Salvation (T4): (trailer here) The latest in the Terminator franchise. Christian Bale stars as the grown up John Conner and according to Entertainment Weekly, this one is set in the future with a grown up John battling Skynet after Judgment day. Much of the plot and characters are being kept secret by the studio and with good reason after the semi-bomb of T3. But, Christian Bale is definitely proving himself as one of the coolest actors in Hollywood after The Dark Knight. This one doesn't look too bad. I've been a huge fan of the the Terminator movies since day 1 so, naturally I will go see this one.
• May 29th: Drag Me To Hell: (trailer here) I loved the trailer for this! And Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spider Man) is the man. I learned almost everything I know about low budget film making from his movies and Bruce Campbell's books. It looks creepy and sounds like a good story. "A loan officer ordered to evict an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse, which turns her life into a living hell. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point."(from IMDB). Staring Justin Long, Alison Lohman and Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush
• June 24th: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: (trailer here) The much anticipated sequel to Michael Bay's rendition of the super popular toy and cartoon franchise. Shaia LaBeouf and Megan Fox return for this next thrilling chapter in the Transformers saga. I'm in geek heaven!

Also in July comes Public Enemies (with Johnny Depp), the new Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, and ... hold your breath... G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra! Because "knowing is half the battle..."

Seeya at the theater all next month!

Google Apps and Working in the Cloud (Part 2)

As some of you may know, I got my new Dell Mini 9 Netbook a few weeks ago from Dell. My new project is to move as much of my work and productivity schedule to an online format (cloud), not on my computer. The reason for this is that I have a super small solid state hard drive (8 Gig), so I can't store music, photos or much else on my hard drive, but I can store, use and point to these items in "the cloud". The new terminology for this is "working in the cloud". The cloud refers to applications that run on the Internet such as Google Calendar and Google Docs. Google actually has a whole host of cloud applications that you can use to "mobilize" your life. These applications can then be accessed by you or anyone that you share them with.

Here are some places you can go to for cloud usage and storage:

• Photo Sharing and editing - Flickr, Google's Picasa, Picnik, Adobe Photoshop Express
  
• Documents / Word Processing - Google Docs, Scribd
  
• Planning: Google Calendar
• Web Based Operating Systems - top 10 list here
• Presentations / slide shows - Sliderocket, 280 Slides
  
• Drawing and 3d graphics: Google SketchUp, The Scribbler, Imagination Cubed
• Storage - ZumoDrive, Box.net (up to 1 Gig for free!)

All of the above are completely free cloud sharing and storage utilities that are sponsored by ads (so free for you!). Cloud computing is becoming more and more popular as smaller devices like netbooks, smartphones and other small smart devices are introduced.

With the above positive benefits of cloud computing comes a warning. Many if not most of the cloud applications in use now are not 100% secure. So, use with caution. Don't leave sensitive financial (credit, bank, investment accounts) or private information (where you live, phone #s, addresses) in the cloud. These sites can be hacked just as easy as an email account or website. There hasn't been any major problems or leaks so far, but just use these sites with caution. Always have a backup somewhere and keep financial and personal information locked and encrypted on a physical drive. Other than that, enjoy the cloud!

(photo by mansikka on Flickr)

Finding Your New Netbook And Why Dell Is Winning

So, probably by now you've heard about the "netbook" revolution going on right now. Netbooks are sub-mini laptops ranging in size from 8-12 inches and usually under 1 inch width. Most Netbooks weigh in at around 2-3 pounds and fit in the palm of your hand. Most of them run on Intel's new Atom processor designed for small size and low power consumption:

Newly designed from the ground up, 45nm Intel® Atom™ processors pack an astounding 47 million transistors on a single chip measuring less than 26mm², making them Intel's smallest and lowest power processors.¹ All this while delivering the power and performance you need for full Internet capabilities.
(from Intel's website)

So, I finally took the dive and ordered the new Dell Mini 9 last week. It should be arriving next week and I'll have a full review and pictures here on The Horse for your enjoyment. In the meantime I'll give you guys some of my top contenders that were around $300 that I was looking at before I decided on the Dell Mini 9.

• Asus Eee PC 1008HA (Shell)
• MSI Wind U123
• Acer Aspire One
• HPMini 1000
  

In the end I decided on the Dell Mini 9 because my experience with Dell has always been great and they continue to put out great cutting edge gear and delivering top notch customer service. I felt confident that I could easily get a hold of Dell and get easy support if needed. The other reason I decided to go with Dell was that they took the chance on open source technology, mainly pre-installing Ubuntu Linux on most of their new Mini line of netbooks instead of continuing to feed Microsoft more money. I appreciate that option as I've been moving toward more and more open source software recently. (ie. OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird). It also didn't hurt that Dell had a discount day and I got my Dell Mini 9 for $199 (plus some minor upgrades ;-).

So, now I'm making the jump to Linux. Ubuntu 8 more specifically. I'm going to introduce you guys to Ubuntu and show you some cool features of this new OS here on The Horse starting later next month. Maybe I'll even do some simple tutorials and show you some of the cool things that Linux can do that Windowz can't.

(photo by Jeff Coleman on Flickr)

The Power Of The Domain Name

I bought my first domain name ... ever the other day. I know, its kind of sad, I've been a geek this long and have never bought a domain name. I've always used my ISP's free FTP space to store my personal web page and shared files. So, I had the annoyingly long URLs like:

http://bellsouthpwp.net/x/a/xabbu/joshweddingportfolio.html or

http://www.themostspectacularlylargebusinessname.com/thissubdirectorythattheyhavewhereistoremystuff/joshuaself/mypersonalfiles/index.html~314159265

Yea, that's easy for a potentially paying client to remember you by... Maybe they'll just visit the guy with the website URL that they can remember: joesmithphotography.com. (photo by droїd on Flickr)

So, I finally bought joshuaselfphotography.com, suctionhorse.com, and theweddingphotogblog.com for my photography (mostly wedding) business website and my wedding photography blog. I bought it through GoDaddy and it was probably the easiest thing I've ever done. Now I need to get a nice website built and throw it up on joshuaselfphotography.com.

So, I thought I'd share some tips on finding a good / useful domain name tips and secrets that I have found out recently. First, domain name trivia!:

What is the Domain Name System?

The Domain Name System (DNS) helps users to find their way around the Internet. Every computer on the Internet has a unique address – just like a telephone number – which is a rather complicated string of numbers. It is called its "IP address" (IP stands for "Internet Protocol").

But it is hard to remember everyone's IP address. The DNS makes it easier by allowing a familiar string of letters (the "domain name") to be used instead of the arcane IP address. So instead of typing 192.0.34.65, you can type www.icann.org. It is a "mnemonic" device that makes addresses easier to remember. (photo by Collin Anderson on Flickr)

Translating the name into the IP address is called "resolving the domain name." The goal of the DNS is for any Internet user any place in the world to reach a specific website IP address by entering its domain name. Domain names are also used for reaching e-mail addresses and for other Internet applications.

fromthe InterNIC website

• Technicians at the University of Wisconsin developed the first 'name server' in 1984. With the new name server, users were no longer required to know the exact path to other systems (using long IP addresses). And thus the birth of the current addressing system in use today. A year later the Domain Name System was implemented and the initial top-level domain names, including .com, .net, and .org, were introduced. Suddenly 121.245.078.2 became 'company.com'.

• Today there is an estimated 19 million domain names registered, with forty thousand more registered every day. The Internet continues its unprecedented growth into the stratosphere and there is really no end in sight.

• Where it used to cost $100 / year it now costs only $7.00 or less to register a domain name and some companies provide discounts for purchasing their other products (web hosting, spam blocker, email, etc...)
• Squatting and reselling of domain names has become BIG business recently. I know some people who do this exclusively for their job and make GOOD money!

So, here are some steps for finding the best domain name for you or your business:

1. research, research, research your domain name. Does anyone else have something close? Keep brainstorming until something original and catchy comes out!
   
2. Think about SEO and how being descriptive with your name will help increase traffic to your site. Use at least one descriptive word in your domain name. (ie. Net"Flix".com, photographyblog.com, bigcupcoffee.com, Lloydsrestaurant.com)
   
3. pick the least amount of words possible to make your domain. The smaller the name, the easier it is to remember! (de.licio.us, ebay.com, YouTube.com)
   
4. try pick a catchy / rhyming / cleaver name but keep it simple. Stay away from complicated / alternate spellings, try not to use dashes "-" or other special characters.
5. ".com" is the MOST popular and quickest remembered by the public, followed by ".net" and ".org". The average person will confuse or forget domain extensions like ".info", ".biz", ".me" and ".mobi" but, if you do buy the ".com", go ahead and buy the rest of them. This keeps your personal brand and name safe so no one can steal it in the future and blackmail you trying to sell it back to you. Then have the rest of them 301 redirected back to your ".com"

Just remember, your domain name is your image, brand, business, and personality all in a little nutshell. It will determine if someone will be interested enough to click on a link to your site or pass it by. Follow Step 1 until you get it perfect!

I hope these have helped you guys out in your domain name hunt. Do you have a tip that would help our readers out in finding a good domain name? Please leave a comment and help out the community!
(photo by twinsparc)

Photosynth, changing photography?

I just learned about an interesting new program for photographers called Photosynth. It was created by Microsoft Live Labs and the University of Washington. The software analyzes a cloud of photographs taken in the same locations and compiles them together using pattern recognition into points on a 3d model scale which the user can move in and out and around, just like any other 3d model. Its a little techy but this video explained it a little better:



A group has recently used the technology on the Washington D.C. mall during the inauguration of Barack Obama to show the power of the software. They solicited snapshots and cell phone pictures that were taken during the inauguration and compiled them for a wide angle 3D view of the Mall.

I think its a really cool hybridization of photography and computer technology. Just thought I would share some geek stuff today.

Twitter - The next big thing or TOO MUCH! (or how I learned to stop hating)

What is this Twitter thing I've been hearing about, and why should I care?

You may have been asking yourself this question lately (or maybe not). But I'm here to clue you guys in on the next big social media craze. Twitter!
So, you've heard of MySpace. Maybe you have a MySpace page, and even if you don't, I guarantee that you at least know someone that has a MySpace page. How about Facebook? Facebook is for the more calm, intellectual types. YouTube? Flickr? This is called Social Media.

According to Wikipedia:

Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings.^[1] The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. ^[2] This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences.

So, basically social media is:

• computer and Internet based
• revolves around human beings
• is shared multi-media or text with groups or everyone

It naturally brings people together through blogs, stories, pictures, videos, games, applications stored on the Internet and accessed by anyone that the author allows.
I won't go into the specifics of each site but they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I will, however tell you about my latest addiction, Twitter.

Twitter is a microcosm of social media ideas, in its simplest form. It asks you the question: What are you doing? and you answer in 140 characters or less. Basically, it lets everyone who follows you know what's going on in your life.

Isn't this the same thing as a Facebook status update?
Well, yes and no. Updating your status in Facebook is usually done once or twice a day at most and only for letting people know the really important things. Sending a Tweet (as they are called in the Twitterverse) is done as often as you want! Find a funny video? Tweet it. Want to break some recent news before anyone else? Tweet it. Announce a new blog post, party, trip, movie, tv show or book you've seen or read? Tweet it! Twitter is more of a micro-blog that you can quickly update to let people know whats going on with you and what you think is cool. You can tweet as much or as little as you want. To me its kind of like taking the pulse of social media. You get to hear about all the cool stuff first from your Twitter buddies.

So, just sign up, find some people and businesses and even celebrities to follow and people will start following you back. Its a great way to meet friends, get advice on a hobby or learn about a topic you are interested in. The trick is to follow people that will give you good information that you want to hear. If someone is ticking you off, just unfollow them. Its not as drastic as a MySpace unfriend... Check out my Twitter feed in the sidebar to your right and follow me. I'll help you --->

I may get into Twetiquette (yes, we add "Twi"to everything) in a later post but I'll leave you with the decision:

Is Twitter right for me?

• Do you love social media? Are you slightly OCD about having to know what's going on in your friend's lives? Have you secretly ever wanted to be an exhibitionist? (not that way, dirty mind!) Are you on the Internet ALOT? Do you like knowing stuff first, ahead of everyone else? Do you like meeting minor and even major celebrities? - Then Twitter is for you! Go sign up now!
• You've heard MySpace and Facebook are full of perverts and stalkers, so social media must be bad. You don't really use the Internet that much. You would rather go read an encyclopedia to learn about your hobby or interest. You would rather just keep to yourself. If someone wants to know about me, they can call me or write me a letter. Zzzzzz... I'm boring myself just writing this...

OK, so I'll admit, you've got to be a little geeky to like Twitter. Its takes some upkeep, but its worth it to me in the payoff of new friends and personal free advice you can glean from your Twitter friends.

Next time, Twitter desktop clients and Twetiquette...
.

New at CES, Palm Pre - iPhone killer?

With CES 2009 winding down this weekend, one product stood out in the smartphone category. The new Palm Pre smartphone from Palm.


And now for something completely different...

::Arrow shoots into Concorde::
LANCELOT:  Brave, brave Concorde!  You shall not have died in vain!
CONCORDE:  Uh, I'm-I'm not quite dead, sir.
LANCELOT:  Well, you shall not have been mortally wounded in vain!
CONCORDE:  Uh, I-I think uh, I could pull through, sir.
LANCELOT:  Oh, I see.
CONCORDE:  Actually, I think I'm all right to come with you--
LANCELOT:  No, no, sweet Concorde!  Stay here!  I will send help as
  soon as I have accomplished a daring and heroic rescue in my own
  particular... (sigh)
CONCORDE:  Idiom, sir?
LANCELOT:  Idiom!
CONCORDE:  No, I feel fine, actually, sir.
LANCELOT:  Farewell, sweet Concorde!
CONCORDE:  I'll-uh, I'll just stay here, then, shall I, sir?  Yeah.
(from Monty Phython and the Holy Grail)

Pardon the interruption, but this is how I see Palm (the company, Palm = Concorde) these past few years. Lemme 'splain...

Palm was riding along the smartphone highway happy go lucky, and all of a sudden - an arrow (Blackberry, and iPhone)! Palm insists that they can go on, but they know that they are dying. The bad thing is, that everyone else (Lancelot = the smartphone community) thinks that they are dying too, so poor, sweet Palm is left behind in the swamp.
The question is: Will Palm pull the arrow out of its chest with the Palm Pre and move ahead to take the victory at Swamp Castle with Lancelot? (sorry, my analogies are a little strange...)

Some stats on the Palm Pre:

• slide down full keyboard
• 3 MP camera
• USB 2.0, GPS, Wi-Fi & EV-DO, Bluetooth 2.1 with stereo support
• 8GB of storage, and 3.5mm headphone jack
• all in one calendar view (syncs Outlook and Facebook)
• 3.1-inch, 320×480-pixel touchscreen
• Cut and Paste functionality (try that on an iPhone!)
• wireless charger (First of its kind!)
  
• should start around $200 later this year

This weekend the Pre was awarded the coveted Best of CES 2009 at CES in Las Vegas. No sooner was this announced than Palm's stock shot up over 38%! So, its definitely got some buzz going on right now in the mobile world.

One good thing to come from this news is maybe this new competition will bring the price down on that BlackBerry Storm I'm wanting to buy this year!

I'm Dreaming Of A Weird Christmas

You've all seen the normal Christmas decorations, now check out the weird side of Christmas... From wacky, yet mesmerizing Christmas light shows, to creepy Christmas ornaments, to nerdy Nativity scenes...

I know Christmas is supposed to be a time to remember Jesus' birth, but I think that the baby Jesus has a sense of humor as well. In that spirit, I bring you my Top 10

WEIRD CHRISTMAS!

(brought to you by... The Internet. Open these in a new window or tab, so you can come back and enjoy all of them!)

1. Creepiest Christmas ornament (A fetus soldier to adorn your tree this year. Very anti-choice, pro-military chic.)
2. Krampus is the evil demon anti-Santa - from Birmingham's own Mental Floss Magazine.
3. DIY Geeky Nativity Scenes - mostly lego, but how about the Simpsons, or mine ("All God's Creatures" edition)!
4. BetaMaXmas - Kindof cool actually... for an 80's kid. Watch 80's Christmas sitcom clips and vintage commercials on a virtual TV. You can even adjust the antenna for better reception!!!
5. Scary Santa Compilations - There's alot of these floating around, but this is the best compilation. Also check here and here for some good crying babys pics.
6. The Ugliest Christmas lights - Some of the most hideous holiday decorations ever!
7. 17 Jaw-Dropping Christmas Light Shows - the best of the best... really cool and weird.
   
   
   
8. Seasons Greetings Machine Maze... Thingy - created by Roy Doty see if you can follow it all the way to the end.
9. Robot Gift Guide - Robots... nuff said.
10. Wierd and disturbing Christmas Cards

Well, that's it for now. Hope you guys enjoy these!
If you like this kind of thing, please consider subscribing via RSS or email!

Have you found anything funnier or weirder than these? Leave me a comment and I'll add them to the list.

Making a FavIcon, Widgets galore, Blogger hacks (Part 1)

This post is going to be a little more geeky than normal but that's what I'm all about! I promised great geek and tech tips and tricks, so here's some random stuff I've learned recently. You could call this a tutorial or a "get yo learn on".

(Note: All these hacks and customizations are so easy, a monkey's uncle could do them. They require little to no coding experience. If you can customize your MySpace page, you can add these to your blog. So don't label me an expert (yet). I'm just going to show you where I found them and the steps that I took to install them on a Blogger hosted blog. I don't know if they work with WordPress or any other blog hosting sites, but I don't see why they wouldn't...)

Here are a few cool things I have done to THE HORSE recently:

My own FavIcon!
Do a Google search for "Icons" or "Favicon" and you'll find 3 billion sites that make or host these. I personally use Chami.com's HTML-Kit FavIcon from Pics for my own hosted sites and I use IconJ for hosting for Blogger. Both do a great job of creating icons from any square image that you upload and IconJ hosts it and gives the the code right from their site!

Basically, just grab the code that IconJ gives you and the trick is to post it in your HTML or CSS template to just after the ]]></b:skin> and just before the </head> statement. Preview it and if everything looks all right, save your template. Then view your new FavIcon in a new reloaded tab! Coolness huh? I did my little old school Suction Horse logo for my FavIcon on THE HORSE (Check it out in your address bar!).

Create a Facebook Badge for your blog (or MySpace!)
This one is super easy. Just log on to your Facebook profile and go to your "Profile" page. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and look at the bottom left. There should be a link that says "Create Profile Badge" follow the instructions to customize. Then get the code and paste away! Be careful how much of your private info you want to give away to public readers though. I like it because I can update my profile pic on both Facebook and THE HORSE at the same time plus there's a link to my FB page right there!

Are there any cool blog widgets that you've discovered that I don't have? Let me know! I collect them all! The trick is to use them in good taste on your blog. I use things that help my readers and point them to interesting content and I use widgets that keep me and my readers informed about the stats of THE HORSE and my personal social media sites...

Josh

Next time: Twitter gadgets, Flickr Widgets, and a cool keyword cloud for your posts!

Fog at the Summit, Netflix movies and Robot Chicken Season 3

Fog at the Summit
Originally uploaded by Josh Self

One of the pics I snapped at work this morning. Whats up with the fog? Don't get me wrong, I like it. It puts me in a good mood. This is coming from Flickr so... update in a minute...

Ok, so what exciting things did I do today... I cross trained in the bakery at work. Just one more step toward trying to know everything I can about my job, so I can impress people... I guess? So, I got certified to work the bakery today and I'm teaching the next "Train The Trainer" class by myself next month.


I went out and bought Robot Chicken Season 3 tonight at Target, cuz I was bored and my fiance is out of town with her family for a wedding for the next few days. So, I told myself I needed something to entertain myself. Just some mindless laughs, and politically incorrect skits with toys... Lots of funny stuff on these 2 disks.



I also got "Lawrence of Arabia" from Netflix but I didn't realize that it is 3 Hourse and 37 minutes long! Holy Scimitars Batman! I've never seen it before and I wanted to see a young Alec Guinness at his peak. I also heard the movie was "epic amazing" and all film making types should watch it. Here's some stats from Wikipedia:

The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 1962, and won seven, including Best Picture.

Lawrence of Arabia won 7 Oscars

* Academy Award for Best Picture — Sam Spiegel
* Academy Award for Best Director — David Lean
* Academy Award for Best Art Direction — John Box
* Academy Award for Best Cinematography — Freddie Young
* Academy Award for Original Music Score — Maurice Jarre
* Academy Award for Film Editing — Ann V. Coates
* Academy Award for Sound — John Cox

It was nominated for

* Academy Award for Best Actor — Peter O'Toole
* Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor — Omar Sharif
* Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay — Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson

[edit] BAFTA Awards

Lawrence of Arabia won four BAFTA Awards

* BAFTA Award for Best Film from any Source — Sam Spiegel, David Lean
* BAFTA Award for Best British Film — Sam Spiegel, David Lean
* BAFTA Award for Best British Actor — Peter O'Toole
* BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay — Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson

It was nominated for

* BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor — Anthony Quinn

So, I'll get around to watching that some time this week or I may just pop in Speed Racer (original anime series) Disk 3 before the fiance gets home and complains about it. I've been on a Speed Racer kick ever since I saw the new Wachowski Brothers remake a few weeks ago. I used to get up at 6am every Saturday morning to watch Speed Racer when I was little. I guess that explains my obsession with Anime now.

So, what do you guys think about my obsessions?

New laptop

My new Alienware laptop.

Intel 2.0 GHz Core Duo; 1 Gig of RAM; 100 Gig 7200 RPM Hard Drive; 256 Meg ATI video card; 24X DVD Burner, and all the primo "fixins" that come with Alienware.