Note: Cross posted from TOP 10 TECH.
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The Social Media Douche Bag Cabal that runs the world recently convened meetings in Las Vegas, San Francisco, LA, and NYC to confirm amongst themselves that they were all in agreement that the company pitch to be issued by Social Media Douche Bags around the world would be that Sponsored Tweets Suck....
Note: Cross posted from TOP 10 TECH.Since November of 2008, PC User’s have benefited from the WordPress Theme Generator called Artisteer and now that WordPress Generator desktop application is available for Apple / Mac users. The initial Mac beta was just released and people that purchase/have purchased a PC license will also have the ability to use the license on a Mac or vice versa on a PC.
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I have been giving demonstrations of WordPress as a Content Management System for several months which includes a demo of Artisteer and the first question that is always asked is, “Does Artisteer work on a Mac?”
Now the answer is YES! Artisteer does work on Macs.
:)
Better yet, existing Artisteer users already know that when you purchase a license, that license will receive free upgrades for a year. I have personally created almost 100 WordPress themes since purchasing Artisteer last fall, and I have significantly benefited from many many upgrades to the software. This latest upgrade ads more Avatar support for WordPress, ads support for Dot Net Nuke and past upgrades provided support for Joomla & Drupal templates and much much more.
Note: Cross posted from The LiveWriterz.Artisteer for Mac (Beta) has arrived!
Artisteer 2.2 for Mac (Beta) is now available by clicking here. Couple interesting facts:
- Artisteer for Mac joins the family of products based on cross-platform .NET framework known as Mono.
- Artisteer might be the first product for Mac OS utilizing the ribbon interface first introduced in Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows.
Technical notes and known issues for beta testers:
- Artisteer for Mac runs on Intel based hardware with OS X version 10.5 (Leopard).
- Artisteer for Mac requires X11 which is usually installed by default on OS X 10.5.
- Artisteer may require approx 1 minute to start the first time after installation.
- The "Open" and "Save" dialogs display Windows style folder structure and may require additional navigation to desired Mac folders.
- The top Mac menu bar does not offer an option to quit Artisteer. Use the Artisteer menu, keyboard shortcut 'Command'+'Q', or the red window close button to quit.
- Keyboard shortcuts stop working after clicking anywhere within the web design preview area.
- Certain amount of instability and limitations (as above) are expected due to limitations of the current Mono framework 2.4.
- There is a slight chance that your Mac computer may freeze when using Artisteer (this happened once in our tests). Please save all your work often in case you need to reboot your computer.
Customers who purchased an Artisteer license can use it on both PC and Mac computers (one each) during the beta period. An official release date of the Mac version will be planned after receiving detailed issue reports from our beta testers and determining how much work is needed to resolve those issues.
Please send feedback and report reproducible issues to our support via the Contact Us page.Artisteer version 2.2 update
We are releasing a new update to Artisteer 2.2 to resolve a few recent issues reported in the previous version 2.2 Beta.
- Artisteer: Added "Options" button in the export dialog.
- Artisteer: Added DotNetNuke Skin export announced below.
- Artisteer: Fixed a bug with the font size being altered by changing Articles -> Line Height.
- WordPress: Improved compatibility with Avatar List plugin.
- Joomla: Resolved custom footer not showing up.
- Joomla: Resolved centered menus not shown correctly.
- Joomla: Resolved a problem with the text "'30', 'height' => '30' near h2" showing on some pages.
- Joomla: Fixed incorrect path to spacer.gif in script.js file in Joomla templates.
- Drupal: Fixed an issue with broken image appearing instead of a logo uploaded in Drupal.
The new version 2.2.0.17297 can be obtained by clicking here and may become the officially released version 2.2 after additional testing.
Note: Cross posted from Softduit Media.
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This week we are kicking off two more Labs on the Lake. This week we will hold two labs. One today, Monday(5-18 at 2pm est), covering the topic of Blog Monetization, walking through some blog revenue sources, adding some new ones to the list and giving some advice on how to navigate these options which can be murky on a good day. [Meetup RSVP link]
This like many of our topics will be covered several times. Blog Monetization is definitely not something that can be covered in a single day, let alone a single lab. Many people are looking for ways to earn extra money, raise revenue to market their companies more, or even start their own business. We will help people get started with the process of making money with a blog (a blog is required to follow along with this lab in person or on our live show at Mogulus.com/wificove ).
Then on Thursday(5/21 2 pm est) we are going to cover the topic of building traffic through networking. [Meetup RSVP link]
Again this is a very deep topic and one we will revisit many times in the future, but you can tune into either lab at 2 PM est or if you are in the Charlotte area, RSVP through our Meetup group (cost $5 to attend) and spend an afternoon on the lake learning some great web skills that will make you money.
We are following up on our first Lab on the Lake last week, which covered WordPress Installation, WordPress Configuration, & WordPress Theme design with our favorite WordPress Theme Generator-Artisteer. The video from this event (our first live broadcast) didn’t take to well, but we got the bugs worked out the next night when we held our weekly WordPress Meetup in Charlotte and do expect this weeks events to go off without a hitch.
Note: Cross posted from Softduit Media.
I’m guessing this app from razorfish is an April Fool’s day prank.
Compressing text – Hah!
Limited Beta expired at midnight on April 1 – Double Hah!
If free music downloads in the late 90 can provide any lesson, then you should go out and get a Kindle now, and stock up on books while things are still cheap!
BEING president of too many well-meaning organizations put my father into an early grave. The lesson in this was not lost on me. But now I am president of the Authors Guild, whose mission is to sustain book-writing as a viable occupation. This borders on quixotic, given all the new ways of not getting paid that new technology affords authors. A case in point: Amazon’s Kindle 2, which was released yesterday.
The Kindle 2 is a portable, wireless, paperback-size device onto which people can download a virtual library of digitalized titles. Amazon sells these downloads, and where the books are under copyright, it pays royalties to the authors and publishers.
Serves readers, pays writers: so far, so good. But there’s another thing about Kindle 2 — its heavily marketed text-to-speech function. Kindle 2 can read books aloud. And Kindle 2 is not paying anyone for audio rights.
True, you can already get software that will read aloud whatever is on your computer. But Kindle 2 is being sold specifically as a new, improved, multimedia version of books — every title is an e-book and an audio book rolled into one. And whereas e-books have yet to win mainstream enthusiasm, audio books are a billion-dollar market, and growing. Audio rights are not generally packaged with e-book rights. They are more valuable than e-book rights. Income from audio books helps not inconsiderably to keep authors, and publishers, afloat.
You may be thinking that no automated read-aloud function can compete with the dulcet resonance of Jim Dale reading “Harry Potter” or of authors, ahem, reading themselves. But the voices of Kindle 2 are quite listenable. There’s even a male version and a female version. (A book by, say, Norman Mailer on Kindle 2 might do a brisk business among people wondering how his prose would sound in measured feminine tones.)
And that sort of technology is improving all the time. I.B.M. has patented a computerized voice that is said to be almost indistinguishable from human ones. This voice is programmed to include “ums,” “ers” and sighs, to cough for attention, even to “shhh” when interrupted.
Privacy is dead on the internet. 
There are millions of examples of this, but yesterday TMZ found a new way to prove it by publishing pictures of the battered face of pop star Rihanna. Her current boyfriend, Chris Brown, is accused of beating her during an argument.
The LA Police are investigating the leak of this photo, which would seem to confirm the photo as a real photo as opposed to a doctored photoshop image.
The internet and technology in general make it far too easy to share information. This is not a good thing and not a bad thing. It is a reality. In this case, someone knowingly seems to have provided this photo to TMZ for sensational value. However, there are many technologies these days that share images, video and sound of people all the time. Often they don’t even know what they are sharing.
Facial recognition software is even making it possible for images or video that have been posted years earlier but not tagged. So even if a person thinks that a moment for years or decades ago is water under the bridge future technologies might re-expose what might have felt like a private moment.
Today, I installed Google Earth on my computer. This is a task that I go through every now and then. Its a really cool application but is all to infamous for crashing any and all of the computers in our house hold (all relatively new computers, the oldest being 2 years old, the newest 3 months).
This time I noticed that without even giving me an opt out, Google also installed the Google Chrome browser on my machine. :(
It instantly reminded me of the problems with Microsoft Windows 95/89 and auto installing Internet Explorer, plus making it very difficult to later remove it. Now, Google has a US Monopoly on Search, and they are trying to capture something similar world wide. I often find myself amazed every time they make a move that helps to demonstrate that they are not only a monopoly, but a monopoly that is abusing its power.
Two satellites had a fender bender in space. Both satellites were totaled out and are expected to be towed back to earth by gravity.
An iridium satellite collided with a Russian satellite launched in 1993. The Russian satellite has not operated in approximately 10 years. Iridium satellites are typically low orbit communications satellites, which leads me to speculate that the non-functional Russian satellite might have been in a more rapid orbital decay.
The Russian satellite weighed over a ton (slightly more than a car) and the Iridium satellite weighed in at over a 1,000 pounds or about as much as a very large Harley Davidson.
I find this to be incredibly moronic or possibly demonstrative that traditional media has lost the ability to keep their business profitable through TV broadcasts.
Paying $10 per month to have the ability to watch CNBC on your computer, just seems dumb.
Tonight as I watch President Obama give a speech about the economic Stimulus package, I noticed that several members of the press in the front of the room were capturing video of the President in the Oval Office.
Now this is live video at an event that is also being televised by every major network. Is it important or necessary for any given person, especially a member of the press to ALSO get some video of the President on their camera phone?
No its not, but everyone these days is doing it. Go to a concert and you will see hundreds of cell phones recording video at any given minute or second of the concert. The same goes for all live events. Its just a reality of our culture these days.
If you are involved in a live event there will be cameras. Odds are you may even get caught up in the stream yourself and there is already free facial recognition software starting to become mainstream on photo sharing sites.
Soon we will have an index or automated tagging system for every person that shows up at every event around the world. Are we ready for that level of visual inclusion and transparency at the expense of personal privacy?
Mannie Garcia and Shepard Fairey both share a hope that is likely to come true, it is a hope of having their day in court. Through the Associated Press, Mannie is litigating Shepard for Shepard’s use of Mannie’s photograph of Barack Obama which Shepard converted into the famous ‘Hope’ poster.
If you listen real hard, you can just hear that faint sound of hope in the background. If there are other noises making it difficult for you to identify the sounds of change, try and isolate the sound that rings ‘kuching’. :)
I realize it is not the best headline we have ever written, but sometimes you just have to classify things correctly in titles. Using some catchy or trendy title to call the Verizon Network Extender anything other than STUPID is . . . well STUPID!
If you haven’t heard of this, Verizon (along with competitors like Sprint and T-Mobile) are coming out with their own branded devices that help to ‘extend’ the range of your cell phone. The primary reason for this need hinges upon the failure of mobile networks to actually get coverage of cell phones into people’s homes and sometimes into their workplaces.
Great, where’s the extender? My coverage at my home 20 minutes from Charlotte is terrible both for Verizon and T-Mobile.
Not so fast.
The Verizon Network Extender is essentially a mini-cell tower that works by using a customer's existing broadband Internet connection to provide coverage in an area up to 5,000 square feet. The femtocell, which is made by Samsung, can also enhance the ability to send text messages, surf the mobile Web, and download e-mail, but it doesn't support 3G speeds on Verizon's 3G network. ~ Informationweek
So let me get this straight. The consumer gets to pay $250 up front. They get to plug the device into their broadband connection so that they can use their phone at speeds slower than both broadband and 3G.
They are charging to provide a device that slows your cell phone connection down!
Well, that’s just stupid.
I tell you what, just get a Skype connection through your broadband and have your cell phone forwarded to Skype.
Alternatively go and by a power booster for about the same price (sold by third party providers). Then you can send and receive at faster speeds with more power, wonder why Verizon didn’t use one of those ‘real’ extenders?
Maybe they are trying to protect their broadband and home phone business.
I often cover aspects of technology that appear broken, but the design, training and use of the technology in the case of the pilot that landed a plane in the Hudson River without losing any passengers is nothing short of amazing.
