StartupSchag the successor to Valleyschwag that I wrote about here, ( From ValleySchwag To StartupSchwag ) will be shipping their first batch of schwag starting on Thursday/Friday. This means that the schwag should start arriving on your doorstep starting on October 16th.
Thanks to the guys at StartupSchwag as they have sent me a care package for review. I’ll be taking photos of the entire process from obtaining the package all the way to wearing the product. Stay tuned for that.
Are you in the need of a professional looking logo but lack the artistic skills needed to create your own? After registering an account on AllFreeLogo you’ll have access to over 600 vector logos. The logos can be browsed by each letter in the alphabet or by popularity.
Before you get excited about using these logos on your own site, you should know that all of these logos are professional logos that are already in use by major corporations or businesses. These vector logos are available for download for those who are in the printing business who need a high quality logo to screen onto T-Shirts or other merchandise. Here are a few logo samples:
The logos vary in file formats. Each logo is either a .EPS file or .AI file, both of which can be edited in Adobe Illustrator. Although you can’t explicitly lay claim to these logos, they do make for an excellent source of inspiration.
For those of you who are using the ajax powered Google search plugin for your WordPress 404 page that I featured here Add Google Ajax To Your WP 404 Page, you may have noticed after upgrading to WordPress 2.3 that the search results have stopped displaying. A number of others including myself have experienced this problem and the fix is relatively simple.
In your WordPress admin panel, click on the OPTIONS link. Now click on the AA Google 404 link which will load the options for this specific plugin. Where it says Google API Key, click on the GET ONE link. Type in your URL to Google and they will provide you with a new API key. Replace the plugins current API key with the newly acquired one and click the save button. Your 404 search results should reappear.
As I was listening to Leo Laporte on his Tech Guy radio show, I noticed how he tried to pronounce a variety of different Web 2.0 company names and in the end, he mentioned that it sounded like a bunch of baby talk. I have to admit, listening to Leo try to say the names of these companies was hilarious. That’s when I got the idea to feature a list of Web 2.0 companies who’s names are nothing short of googlymoogly.
Not only is it sometimes hard to pronounce these names, but after you figure them out, the question then becomes, what do they do? I’ve taken an excerpt from each companies About page, as they would be the ones to best explain what the heck their company does.
If I missed any, be sure to let me know by leaving a comment at the end of this article.
vyew – Vyew is a next-generation online collaboration and web conferencing service that brings people and content together. With Vyew you can host LIVE conferences and work collaboratively on content asynchronously over time, ANYTIME.
vizu – Vizu provides services that make online opinion polling and market research easy, fast, accessible, and affordable to everyone.
muiso – Muiso (pronounced MOO-EE-SO) is the best new way to enjoy music on your computer or mobile player.
philoi – Philoi (pronounced ‘fee – loy’) is the first person-to-person online bookmark sharing community!
Stay connected with your friends and the Web at the same time!
jamendo – jamendo is a new model for artists to promote, publish, and be paid for their music.
diigo – Diigo (dee’go) is about “Social Annotation”. By combining social bookmarking, clippings, in situ annotation, tagging, full-text search, easy sharing and interactions, Diigo offers a powerful personal tool and a rich social platform for knowledge users, and in the process, turns the entire web into a writable, participatory and interactive media.
chuquet – chuquet scans thousands of blogs to find the latest and biggest news stories
bloggoggle – Peer rated and categorized, bloggogglers are searching the Web’s credible best and asserting themselves among them. It’s about building and sharing networks of industry expertise. It’s about navigating the pros efficiently and communicating your value with authority.
filangy – No longer Online so I suppose it’s available.
Yedda – Yedda strives to merge the convenience and efficiency of search with the unlimited value of individual knowledge to get you the best answers to your questions.
Qumana – Qumana Software, Inc. is a leading developer of tools and services for bloggers.
Imvu – IMVU is a consumer internet startup in downtown Palo Alto. IMVU makes the world’s best 3D instant messenger, which is now in beta testing with more than 1 million customers around the world.
Edgeio – Edgeio is making it possible for valuable content to be made available for sale on any web site. The web site does not need an ecommerce system, or a billing system – edgeio takes care of both
Lulu – Lulu eliminates traditional entry barriers to publishing, and enables content creators and owners – authors and educators, videographers and musicians, businesses and nonprofits, professionals and amateurs – to bring their work directly to their audience.
Ookles – Another service that apparently has bit the dust but you can get in if you know the password.
Goowy – goowy is a service that offers you simple, intuitive tools for communicating and sharing on the web.
My-me – MyMe is a FREE web-based service that lets you easily create your personal online identity.
Elgg – Elgg is an open source social platform based around choice, flexibility and openness: a system that firmly places individuals at the centre of their activities.
Qoop – QOOP turns digital content into products.
Etsy – Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade.
If I missed any that you think should of made the list of company names that resemble babytalk, please be sure to add or suggest them by leaving a comment.
I found this image and site mentioned on TheGlobalGeekPodcast blog and thought it was so hilarious, that I would share it here as well. It’s interesting that I just read a blog post over at ChrisBrogan.com that discussed the overall feeling that social media was nothing but a waste of time. Then, I took a visit to Michael Baileys site and checked out his post, showing off his ability to disconnect himself from MySpace and Facebook.
I smell a battle of all battles brewing within the interwebs. Social vs AntiSocial. Wisdom of crowds vs Wisdom of one. A realization that, just by having an account on all of these services that appear to be a boon for companies is simply not enough. Although you try and try to garner friendships online, nothing compares to a real-world friendship/relationship. Using Twitter and other social outlets becomes a fruitless attempt of being heard as you find out no one is listening because your’re seemingly not important enough.
Let me know what you think.
Click the image to see the full size.
FriendFeed is one of the newest startups to come swinging out of the gate, that promises to streamline your myriad of web activities into one, easy to digest stream. This is sometimes referred to as, Lifestreaming. FriendFeed was founded by Bret Taylor, Jim Norris, Paul Buchheit and Sanjeev Sing Prior to Google, Bret worked at Reactivity, Paul worked at Intel and Sanjeev worked at Thirdvoice.com. Bret, Jim and Sanjeev hold Computer Science degrees from Stanford University and Paul holds a Computer Science degree from Case Western Reserve University.
Unlike most other services I sign up to beta test, FriendFeed actually sent me a an invitation code immediately after signing up. The signup process consisted of the usual information with one exception. Password, Email and Username were the usual culprits but you can also choose your Nickname which will also be the name attached to your FriendFeed sub domain. For example, mine is http://friendfeed.com/jeffro2pt0 with Jeffro2pt0 being my nickname. So far, FriendFeed does not support logging in via OpenID. Continue reading
After Joost announced that it was opening it’s doors to the public, I wondered if LocateTV carried programming information for programs that were featured on Joost. So, I sent LocateTV an inquiring email. They responded by saying that it was definitely a good idea. However, it was not one of their priorities at the moment.
The Locate team have a very large number of platforms to cover and the goal is indeed complete coverage, but priority at the moment are those sites that have shows in demand/big audiences. Joost, while having a lot of buzz, has a small audience and in fact has relatively little content that is both unique to it and commanding a big audience.
So until Joost becomes the equivalent of in home cable, don’t expect LocateTV to be carrying programming information for them anytime soon.
Shvoong Homework, the student collaboration service I covered here ( Homework Collaboration Via Shvoong Homework ) has answered my question regarding students copying each others homework. In my last article, I asked the following question:
I’ve sent in an email to Shvoong Homework wanting to know how they plan on preventing students from copying each others work over the net. Whenever I see the words Homework and Sharing in the same sentence, I think COPY
Here is their response:
Sharing, and in essence copying, class notes and homework among teenagers has always existed in some form or another. That form in today’s technologically advanced and connected world is online. Many students already do homework on personal computers (for example using MS Word) and share it with friends simply by emailing or IM’ing each other. So while it can be argued that Shvoong Homework now makes it easier since the writing and emailing/sharing is in one program and automated, we believe that the positives are much greater than the negatives and that the results will show that.
The interactive environment which we’ve built will in fact encourage students to do more work not less. They will want to participate and feel a part of the community. Furthermore, the sharing element is optional and on a case by case basis for each piece of content. The person that wants to let his best friend copy will do so anyway, with or without Shvoong Homework. The site will not make any person suddenly share with classmates who are not close friends because we don’t reward users that share more than others. The only incentive to share with others is if it goes both ways which means that both sides do the work.
It should also be noted that Google’s Docs & Spreadsheets platform also allows for the sharing of homework so it’s not as if we are breaking boundaries here. Google even promotes an education package (http://www.google.com/educators/tools.html), that includes the Docs & Spreadsheets, directly to students. Even Facebook encourages or turns a blind eye on homework and document sharing (like term papers, dissertations, etc.) through the use of the Scribd “homework sharing” Facebook application. What we’re doing that’s different is that we’re creating niche study group communities around this concept.
I hope this answers your question and I welcome you to contact me again for any further information.
All the best,
Tal Perry
Head of Business Development
Shvoong Holdings Ltd.
Thank you for the well informed answer Tal. You make some valid points. Those who want to copy each others homework will definitely do so with or without your service. I wish these types of services were around when I was a few years younger. I’m 23 years old and the web makes me feel old.
Skype, the popular VoIP client has released version 3.5 of their software. This release includes a number of additional features. Some of these features include:
That Skype Prime feature seems interesting considering many Americans are becoming fed up with calling support centers filled with folks who can’t speak our native tongue fluently, resulting in a massive amount of frustration. Perhaps we can take support matters into our own hands.
If you were wondering why your Amung.Us widget was not working yesterday, you weren’t the only one. It turns out that the datacenter which houses the Whos.Amung.Us servers ACCIDENTALLY pulled the plug on one of their servers. After some time, they were able to fix the problem and now their site and widget are fully operational. I guess these things really do happen.
To coincide with the return of their website, Whos Amung Us has launched a new feature to their real time maps, HeatMap Overlays. Those who have the feature enabled on their maps will be able to toggle the map by clicking an option in the lower left hand corner of the map. If you already have a map embedded into your site, you will have to create a new one in order to take advantage of the heatmap feature. You can grab your map from here. One thing worth noting is that you will not be able to see the HEATMAP option on a map that is embedded on a webpage. Instead, you will need to click on the map and view the heatmap from the Maps.Amung.Us website. If you want to check out the heatmap for this website, click here.
Thoughts and Insanity From Jeff 