It’s been right around a year since I posted last in the blog, and I figured it was time for an update, after someone commented on my How to Handle Online Harassment blog post and a code error prevented me from approving and replying.
A couple new things have happened that have kept me out of the how-to-tech world as much as I have been in the past:
First I was married around this time last year. The wedding itself was an exercise in fusing current technology with the 1940s. The wedding ceremony music was timed to the second from start to finish so it could begin on 11/11/11 @ 11:11am. (If only the sound booth guy would have followed instructions, everything would have worked out fine). Everything was instrumental, but varied from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, to Smashmouth’s Accidentally In Love. I walked out, of course, to the opening credits music from The Matrix: Revolutions. It had to be done.
The reception music was all controlled from my Motorola Atrix Android phone, using some Brookstone Outdoor Wireless Speakers, and a subscription to Grooveshark.com. A slideshow video was created using Animoto.com to add a little more flair and excitement to the otherwise dull “here’s all our photos from our entire life – YOU MUST WATCH THIS BORING THING” video. I hate those – especially the ones that require 3 or 4 songs to finish – mine was 1 song and only spanned our adult lives from just before we met up to the wedding. You can view it below (if you have Flash):
The decorations for the wedding (if they had to be ordered) were all homemade with the materials being ordered online, and mostly from etsy.com. I made our Save the Date notifications and our wedding invitations in Adobe Fireworks, and we created a Facebook page to keep everyone up to date, and a Google Document for handling the RSVPs using the Custom Form interface.
Source: appboy.com
The second major tech-related event in my life was receiving my first iPad (3rd Gen) as my wedding gift to myself when it was released in March. I have had it with me every day, all day, and have been trying to use it as a content production device, but there are just no good apps for anything other than photo editing for my various interests. There are indeed a ton of apps out there for other peoples’ interests, but coding and photography are where mine lie, and I have yet to find a coding app that meets my three feature criteria: SFTP, PHP code highlighting, SVN control – all within the same app.
If you’re aware of any apps that contain all 3 of those features, please let me know in the comments below. I have been searching for nearly 9 months now, and have run across several that meet 2 out of 3 – and as the song goes, “2 out of 3 ain’t bad,” but since there is no file system that spans multiple apps, I need all 3 for it to effectively replace my work laptop.
I did consider starting a “working in the cloud: iPad edition” series, but I don’t have the money that someone like iPad Today has for trying and testing all kids of app recommendations, and there are already fairly comprehensive blogs dedicated to this subject, like AppAdvice.com.
In other tech news, I started backing various projects on Kickstarter.com. So far I have backed 3 projects that I considered useful or unique items.
First to ship, but the 2nd project I backed, was the SmarterStand from smarterstand.com. So far I have not engaged in 100% use of the product because I currently use a DoDoCase for my daily iPad protection. However, I foresee a future blog post here reviewing the product once I do decide to use it daily.
The first product I backed, and likely next to ship, was the popular Pebble Watch. I have been waiting for this since May 2012, and look forward to the day it actually ships. I don’t know if I will get involved in writing any applications for it, but I do plan to test it both with my Android phone and my iPad.
And most recently, a product that hasn’t even met its funding goal yet: Light by Moore’sCloud. If you’re reading this before 12/21/2012, please pledge to back it also…not because of the Mayan Calendar, but because there are 25 days to go (at the time of this post) and they are only 26.3% funded. It is a mobile-controlled (iOS at the moment) lamp that runs LAMP, with an app for controlling the color, timers, and wifi for alerts & additional functionality. It’ll match any part of an image for color choice, as well as cycle through other custom choices. You’ll have to watch the video on their page to get all the details of this beautifully designed product.
And finally in other news, as I mentioned at the start of the post, I was forced to update the blog in general because I had a legit comment on my How to Handle Online Harassment blog post, and I needed to approve and reply to it. In doing so, I removed several plugins, updated several more, and decided to go with the “twenty eleven” blog theme from WordPress this time. It’s simpler, and now my blog works with the WordPress iPad app.
In updating and replying to the aforementioned comment, I noticed that someone cited my article in their own article back in April 2012, along with many other sources. Their article was titled “Social networks: the rise of online harassment“. This marks the first time I’ve been cited in something as a “source” instead of as a link. So, thank you Anna Maria Alba for considering my blog post, and its comments worthy of citation.
I know there are ideas like this, but this is just another way to approach the issue.
Changing my SafeSearch settings on the different computers I use is annoying and the setting doesn’t carry over from one computer to another. While messing around with 
Perhaps it’s the state of things, but as I spend less time glued to the computer, and more time finding interesting TV shows to fill my evenings, I’m faced with seeing more and more commercials. Fortunately, I am able to time-shift most of my viewing choices to a more appropriate or available time-slot in my life, and can fast-forward through the commercials.