Posts Tagged → Flickr
Windows Live!
I have written about Windows Live before but I keep mentioning it because it has some of the coolest toys on the Internet these days. It is interesting that many people discount Windows Live without even trying them simply because they are from Microsoft when they have no idea what they are missing. It has truly become a social site that utilizes almost every social tool available. They are trying to edge their way into the social networking realm with their blogging site called Spaces. Recently the Spaces page has been expanded with the new Profiles page where users can set up their personal profile and share as much information about themselves as they choose.
Their newest version of Windows Live Messenger has some pretty cool audio and video every bit as comparable to Skype and that is really saying something as you may remember that I have regularly promoted Skype. Their Windows Live Photo Gallery allows you to edit, catalog, and share your photos online to Windows Live Photos, or even Flickr. Windows Live Maps has become just as good as Google Maps and has sharing capabilities now where you can save your favorite sites, group them and share them.
There is also a new Windows Live Mail, both online and a downloadable application. The former Hotmail, is now Windows Live Mail though if you still have a Hotmail address you can still use it. It now allows an ever growing storage space where you can archive your mails into another folder sort of like Gmail. This way you never have to delete an email again and you can search for old emails. Also there is a downloadable version that takes the place of the Outlook Express if you are using Windows XP, or older version. If you are using Vista, it replaces Windows Mail. The Vista version of Windows Mail no longer supports http mail support so downloading the Windows Live Mail application allows you to still use http mail, and IMAP, as well as POP mail. I am very pleased with the new web based Windows Live Mail as well as the downloadable version as well.
The Windows Live Writer is probably the most amazing blogging program ever designed. In fact I am posting this using Live Writer and I absolutely love it. I just love how it is a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWG) appearance using the same themes as your actual blog so you can see it exactly how it will appear. It has tagging features and categorizing. It is very easy to post pictures, and videos to your blog. It will let you post on your own blog whether it be on your own domain or any of the free blogging sites like Blogger.com, Wordpress, or Typepad, or even your own Windows Live Spaces page. I have not even mentioned the Windows Live Skydrive. This is absolutely amazing how they give you 25 gigabytes (GB) of free space to store and share your own files online. I love this feature as I can upload my Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) Files into a central location so the other club officers can all have access to them. The best part about all these features is they are free!
It has been tough getting my friends to try it because there are so many social sites out there like Myspace, Tumblr, and Facebook. Just as it has been difficult to get people to try Skype because there are so many choices and people do not see the need to join another one. I really believe that if people gave Windows Live a chance they would be hooked. I am pretty excited about how useful the site is and I want to tell others about it so they will know and use it. I want others to know there are other people using this site so that Windows Live will be a success. They really do have a lot of features that are totally free to the user and there are no strings attached that users are required to get people to give up their privacy.
Rearranging Flickr
Yesterday I uploaded all 300+ photos that my son and I took when we were in San Antonio. I noticed that I have many sets that were duplicates so I began to use the collections feature Flickr has to offer. I had several sets about San Antonio so I created a collection called “Trips” that contains all the other sets. Hopefully this will help to keep some order. I created a collection called “Family” and then added all the sets relating to family so they will be easier to find. I think this is much easier to maintain and find what I am looking for. With my online photos now surpassing 5,000 I needed a way to keep things in order.
I usually try to tag all my photos so they are searchable but occasionally I miss some. I noticed that most of my San Antonio pictures have been missed so I will have to go back to those as I get time. When I graduate next May, I am hopeful that I can get more time to focus on photography. Right now I do not have time to spend to edit them or even go through them effectively. Even ham radio has had to take a back seat. With these trips for my work, it takes even more time.
I sure hope Flickr is able to survive all the merger talks that I keep hearing about between Microsoft and Flickr’s parent company Yahoo. This is probably one of the best inventions on the Internet. Even Microsoft’s new Windows Live Gallery has adopted the tagging features that Flickr. I have noticed that with the new Windows Vista, they have included the tagging feature to all files making all of them searchable. Well I guess I have rambled long enough.
My New Favorite Toy
I speak about social networking quite often and have raved about Facebook, Twitter, among others and more recently about Friendfeed. When I first signed up for it a couple weeks ago, I really did not see the attraction but in keeping with my sign up for everything new attitude I signed up. If you are unsure of what Friendfeed is all about, it is basically a feed of all of your social networks in one spot. There are nearly 35 different social networks plus your personal blogs. At first it seemed full of disorganized text and not really useful.
Since I use Twitter all the time, it shows my Twitter messages (Tweets) almost instantaneously. I noticed one day that people had commented to my Twitter messages on Friendfeed page. It allows people who are not on Twitter to respond to my Twitter messages, plus Pownce, Del.icio.us, Flickr, GTalk, Stumbleupon, Facebook, Blogs, and a ton of other services. I have come to spend a considerable amount of time on Friendfeed to see and respond to people from 30 plus systems at once.
How nice it is to have a laptop with wifi because we have family staying with us this weekend and I can still get on the computer without waking up the family. This morning I can hear the wind howling again this morning. Anyway, back on topic… I am amazed at how much news and information I can find in one place like I can on Friendfeed. It is interesting how people post their comments about news stories, happenings, and their events on what ever service they choose and I can read it all in one place and respond. Sometimes I send a Twitter post from my cell phone and I get responses on Friendfeed. Yes I know, I am a sucker to a new toy on the Internet. Even this blog post will show up on my Friendfeed page.
Another cool feature that friendfeed has is the “rooms” feature. You can create a room about any specific topic and people can join it and it keeps all posts related to this subject in one central location making the conversation easier to follow. I know I am addicted again but it is really a lot of fun. I hear rustling in the house so I think others are awake so I will send this and go see the family.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Tags: Friendfeed, Twitter, Flickr, StumblUpon, Facebook, Gtalk, Del.icio.us, Pownce, Blog, Paul L. McCord Jr.
Social Networking and SMS
As most of you know, I am an Internet junkie and love to play with social networks minus Myspace. No matter how much I try, I just cannot get into Myspace. I have grown to love Twitter because of its short messaging system (SMS) capability. It is really nice to be mobile and get text messages to my phone. I can be out mobile and just send a text message to 40404 and it shows up on my Twitter page. I wish Facebook would include T-Mobile in their mobile service. I have been with T-Mobile since 2000 when it was Voicestream. I really like Facebook but I wish they would wake up and realize that T-Mobile is NOT a small mobile service. They are one of the major carriers and should be included in their mobile accounts. I have been happy with their service and have no intentions of changing after eight years.
Facebook and Twitter go well together. If I am out somewhere and post a Twitter message, it automatically updates my Facebook status and shows on the Facebook feed. There are many programs similar to Twitter like Pownce, or Jaiku but I stick with Twitter because of the SMS. I do not understand why they all do not include SMS. Yes, I can go to their mobile page and log in to check the page but that is too much trouble. Having SMS, allows me to get a message sent “to” me as opposed to having to go search for it. I can be in a meeting at work, and get a message right to my phone. This is where putting the phone on silent really helps 
. If they did not have any other features, SMS should be included. Using mobile web is nice but not that convenient.
I think Pownce has a lot of potential but until they get SMS, they will never get a large following like Twitter does. Myspace has finally included SMS but it is rediculous. They send you an SMS message telling you that you have a new Myspace message. Then you have to log into Myspace to check your message. What a waste! If i am in a meeting and do not have a computer nearby or do not want to pay extra for the mobile web, then I do not know the what or who the message is from. If I am in a meeting, then I have to be discreet when checking my messages. You cannot be very discreet while logging on to the web.
If you are like me and want to stay connected when I am away from home, you will love these toys. I must say that my favorite is the Twitter/Facebook combination. So far I think they are light years ahead of the others. Without question MySpace is the worst. It is the AOL of social networking. They will not allow access through other forums and even their SMS is only one way and does nothing more than tell you that you have some information on their website. Their pages are geared toward teens with hormone overload. Every page has some girl wearing scantily clad outfits with some provocative comment. I will admit that one thing that really bothers me about Facebook is the way it automatically requests you to send new applications to all of your friends by default. When I get those, I always say no.
I am curious to see how this is going to hold up in the long run. To my knowledge Twitter has no means of generating income so as much as I love it, I am not sure what their long term strategy is but for now it is just a lot of fun. Oh…one more thing. I know Microsoft Vista gets a lot of heat for many reasons but one thing that I love about it is the tagging features. For those that have come to love Flickr and its tagging and searching capability, you would love the fact that Microsoft has included this into Vista. Lets hope this becomes standard and open to other standards. I like having the ability to tag my photos and have this information embedded into the file itself making it search able. If you are like me and have thousands of photos on your computer, it is nice to be able to search through them. The new Office 2007 has the tagging capability as well even if you use the old Windows XP.
If people ever find out about these features and start to use them, it would make their lives a lot easier. How nice to be able to find a single photo out of a library of 10,000. I guess I have rambled long enough so I will get this sent.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Tags: Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Facebook, SMS, MySpace, T-Mobile, AOL, Microsoft, Vista, Office 2007, tagging Flickr,
California Fires
I was browsing Flickr and found many pictures that people had taken of the fires in California. It is sad to see these people hurting. I can hardly imagine what people are going through over there. This photo was taken by slworking, a Flickr user. I have been watching some of the fire coverage on Fox News this morning. These people really need our prayers. One thing that I do find offensive is the way some of our political leaders are trying to make this a political argument. Some are saying it is a global warming event. Most of you know my opinion on global warming. It is a manufactured political movement to get money from the United States. There are others that are trying to blame George Bush for having the military in Iraq preventing them from helping in the fire fight. That is absolutely ridiculous. What do they expect? If you put the entire U.S. military in front of a raging fire being driven by a 60+ mph wind, they would be mowed over. I do hope the best for the people in California.
I took the day off this morning because I am not feeling well today. I thought I would take the opportunity to get some school work done. Unfortunately I have been struggling getting motivation to do that either. You know how it is. I will most likely have to take off another day this week because my grandmother is having a heart procedure done sometime this week. She is almost 89 years old. She is in very good health so I am hopeful that she will do well with this procedure.
Technorati Tags: California , fire , fires , Flickr , OU , school , George Bush , global warming , politics
National Weather Center
This weekend was the National Weather Center festival in Norman, Oklahoma. This facility opened last year on the South end of the University of Oklahoma campus. My son and I went to the festival to see our tax dollars at work. We really enjoyed ourselves and were really impressed with the technology. I am a weather fan and I love places like this. There is nothing like watching a severe thunderstorm come into town. If you click on this picture, you can see the whole set on Flickr.
Technorati Tags: National Weather Center , Norman , Oklahoma , University of Oklahoma , weather , Flickr , photography , digital
Flickr Is Not Censoring
I have been following an ongoing argument on someone’s blog about how Flickr is censoring people’s posts. This guys just never gives up and is really self absorbed in his posts. I am deliberately not putting the address of name or his website because any time you have controversy, traffic increases and I do not want to give him what he wants. I think that is what he wants. I think this is really sad considering he is not neutral. He is trying to ride the coat tails of someone involved in a competing company. This company is only two people and it is clear what the plan is. The plan is to make a photo sharing company that hopefully will sell for millions of dollars. This guy is wanting to ride in on the big sell that I do not think will happen. He contributes nothing to the company other than posting blog posts about it.
Anyway, back on topic. Some Germans had some posts deleted on the Flickr blog for violating the terms of service and this guy interjects himself into the argument. He inflames the argument and gets some of his posts deleted because he is bashing Flickr on their own site. This is incredible in his journalist left wing views he thinks that he has a right to bash someone on their own property. Flickr is a photo sharing site and their blog is designed to highlight upcoming events or great pictures. These guys are trying to use the Flickr blog as a stage to bash Flickr on their own blog. Flickr is a wonderful site for sharing photos, not a political soap box. If you watch this guy long enough, you will see that he really wants to get his name out and it is very reminiscent of the arrogance of Bill Clinton. You remember how Clinton would put his face on every story in the news 365 days a year? I normally would not mention this topic but I have followed this guy for about a year and a half and he does this all the time. He goes out and tries to stir the pot and then posts about it on his blog about how he was mistreated.
Flickr offers a great value with unlimited photos for $24.95 per year. They allow you to post your photos on your blog so that you can use your own blog to further your political agenda or what ever hate and discontent you want. You do not go to someone else’s house and start putting them down in their own house and not expect them to get upset about it. This is one of the things that really bothers me about journalists and wannabe journalists like this guy. They purposely try to drive a wedge between individuals or groups and then try to stand like they are neutral and report the story. I have an account at the competing company’s website as well but I have requested to have it canceled because of this type of activities. The website is a fairly nice quality site but it is still too early in their development and has some problems like very very slow uploads and the page takes a while to load. Their recent upgrade kept their website down for more than a week and possibly two. I am not putting them down but rather just showing that it WILL be a great product when it gets some finacial backing and some more employees. The kind of employees that actually contribute to the process instead of self promotion. I guess that is enough of my rant.
Technorati Tags: Flickr, not censoring, censorship, jealous, competitor