SplashCast goes Facebook

If you're a SplashCast and Facebook user *bling* you're in the money. By adding the SplashCast application to your profile, you can build media content right in Facebook using video, audio and images. Check it out.

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Review: I’m on LinkedIn Now what???

I've had the opportunity to review the new book from Jason Alba, founder of the wildly successful JibberJobber.com, called I'm on LinkedIn Now What???

This is the first book I've read which focused solely on LinkedIn. When I first found out Jason was writing a book about LinkedIn I wasn't real confident it could be pulled off. I did a quick search of sites and other resources on LinkedIn to see what was already out there and if there seemed to be a need.

I have to say I've read the pre-release version of the book twice. I wanted to make sure I understood the premise of the book, what Jason's direction was and whether it hit the desired mark.

This book is definitely for someone who is just joining LinkedIn and isn't very familiar with other networking services. LinkedIn has a specific purpose and it may take a n00b (that is gamer speak for newbie) some time to figure out how to make LinkedIn work for them.

What you will get is a solid list of ideas and recommendations for using LinkedIn right away. There are plenty of suggestions, guides to the various sections of the application, and where you should focus most of your attention.

I really appreciated the recommendation to be patient and build your network, and not be tempted to connect with every invitation that is sent to you. I admit I made that mistake early on because I didn't really understand what LinkedIn could be.

Jason covers searching pretty thoroughly. It's important to understand how this feature works. It will really make your LinkedIn experience better when you know what you can find.

The book could stand to use a few more visual examples from successful LinkedIn users in the key areas. For example, I would have really liked to see some solid profiles. Personally I think this is where most people fall short on LinkedIn. They worry so much about past and current employment they forget about the profile. I'm guilty of that.

Overall this is a great book. I think Jason did an excellent job. I would recommend it to anyone who is just starting to build a LinkedIn network or for someone who has been a member for some time but is just now seeing the advantages LinkedIn provides.

You can visit my LinkedIn profile here.

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I’m speaking at the Utah County Association of Realtors Tech Fair

I'll have the opportunity to speak about new media technology at this years UCAR Tech Fair, a yearly technology conference for Realtors in Utah.

I'm honored at being able to share my knowledge and excitement with this group. I've spent a lot of my career learning and implementing technology to sell real estate. I hope everyone attendee leaves with something that will improve their business.

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Speaking at the Utah New Media Conference

I will have an opportunity to speak at the Utah New Media Conference on October 18th. The topic will be Podcasting. I will be sharing the stage with Lorri Randle of MediaJoltz, who will speak on Videocasting.

I will share more on the event as it approaches. I do know that the topics covered will be Blogging, Podcasting/Videocasting, Social Media (Facebook, MySpace) and Monetizing your website.

Make plans to be there. Visit the conference web site here.

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Utah Blogger Dinner August 2007

The Utah Blogger dinner for August 2007 is going to be this week, August 30th @ 6PM. Get all the details here. Come one come all.

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Facebook Applications zuPort for Flickr and YouTube

If you use Facebook, Flickr and YouTube, you will want to try the Facebook applications zuPort: Flickr and zuPort: YouTube.

I was looking for a way to share my Flickr photos without having to upload them to Facebook, or send a Friend to Flickr just to view the pictures. zuPort does all I wanted. New photos show in my mini-feed, and if you click on one of the thumbnails in the feed, it takes you to a viewer in Facebook, not Flickr. Seamless in my view.

zuPort: YouTube accomplishes the same thing, seamlessly integrating your YouTube videos into Facebook. It's great not having to leave Facebook just to view content. That's what makes Facebook applications so cool.

Try these applications out. They are one of the reasons I continue to use Facebook.

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Single Life Stream feed via Yahoo! Pipes

I forgot to mention in the post about my new Life Stream, that I'm using Yahoo! Pipes to create one single RSS feed made up of many individual feeds.

Yahoo! Pipes rock. It's not the end all, but I'll tell you what, the interface is incredible. It's a complete WYSIWYG editing interface similar to Visio. Drag and drop functionality. Wow.

Here is a link to my pipe which I use to feed my Tumblr blog.

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Giving props to my Peeps

This weeks props go out to my Sister In Law V, Cameron Reilly and the band Metallica.

Sister-in-law V, thank you for introducing my girls to the wildly popular book series by Stephenie Meyer; Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse. They can't put them down. I bought several copies, of each. Apparently you should read these books too.

My next prop goes out to Cameron Reilly, founder and CEO of The Podcast Network. I can't possibly know how much work goes into running a service like TPN. I know Cameron has many people helping him and it shows in the quality of podcasts and vidcasts his network hosts.

I've had the pleasure of hosting a podcast, The Jazz Show, on TPN for a while now, and I've given Cameron more than his fair share of headaches I'm sure. But one of the things that Cameron has taught me, by example, is the sheer will to succeed. He runs a global business. He lives and works in Australia but a majority of podcast's are produced by people in other countries. He's a great mentor, coach and example. Get to know Cameron. And if you have a podcast you think would fit in with the rest of the shows, let Cam know.

My last prop goes out to the band Metallica. I recently watched the DVD Some Kind of Monster, which is a documentary of the band and the making of the album St. Anger. Even if you're not a Metallica fan, this movie is a must see. It goes behind the scenes of the worlds biggest heavy metal rock band of all time. See the contrast between the youthful "I can do what ever the hell I want" to the matured "I have a family and I need to set my priorities".

Having watched this movie some 10 times, (mostly for the music), I've learned a great lesson from these guys. You may become a rock god, in what ever you do, but everything comes with a price if you don't stop and occasionally smell the roses. It will come around to bite you in the ass. You will have to make a choice, and the choice may not be what you want. Thank you for letting me see the human side of your life.

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Moving my feeds to a Life Stream

Just like Steve Rubel, I've been creating a Life Stream. It's actually more like a big bucket that collected all the various RSS feeds where I submit content. This includes Flickr, my blog, Twitter, Facebook and del.icio.us. I have others, such as blip.tv, but I'm not sure I include them all.

I want to be part of all the really cool social networks, but I also wanted to give everyone who cares a place to get all of my various posts. Thanks to Tumblr and Feed Burner, I've pretty much solved the problem.

The only real drawback is Tumblr doesn't allow for comments. I'm ok with this because Tumblr's not really an interactive tool it's a Super Aggregator. If you want to comment on my pictures, click through to them. If you want to comment on my latest blog post, click through to it.

Tumblr also provides a mobile version of your site. If you go to www.thomallen.com/mobile on your PDA browser you get to see a mobile friendly version. I can also publish to my Tumblr with my mobile device. Very cool.

Now I have one RSS feed, but the ability to send people where they want to go. Steve mentions using Tumblr for a specific feed or subdomains. For example, you could go subscribe just to my Flickr photos at photos.thomallen.com. This would point to my Tumblr that just displays the photos. You could do this for Twitter or any other number of sites that publishes its own feed.

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My Hotmail storage is at 5GB

Not sure when this happened, since I hardly use my Hotmail account once I started using GMail, but it looks like I now have 5GB of mail storage, on my free Hotmail account. Interesting. Maybe they needed to increase the amount to make up for all the spam that gets through. Which is one of the major reasons I stopped using my Hotmail account. But 5GB, that's a pretty good amount.

Maybe I should be saying anything. I might find myself back at 10MB or something. I noticed on the Live front page it still says free Hotmail accounts get 2GB of storage. I must a member in good standing.

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Coming out of the closet

Oooh, I know that will get some click through's. But in all seriousness, I'm confessing my addiction to Galactic Fiction. I term Galactic Fiction as TV and movies around Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG1 and Atlantis and of course Star Wars. Now this may not be some earth shattering announcement, but there is a reason behind it.

For years I've read if you want to be a successful blogger you should write about the things you're interested in. To that end, I'm starting a new blog, one that is about my addiction to Galactic Fiction. I'm just a fan. It's my perspective. I don't plan on scooping SciFi news, there are plenty of sites for that. I don't want to start a SciFi bulletin board, there are thousands of those.

So there you go. I've confessed; come out of the closet. This should be fun. It's all in fun. I love this stuff. New blog is GalactiFi.com. I hope to write Star Trek style stories here books.galactifi.com.

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No secret Internet browsing with MyBlogLog widget

I really like the MyBlogLog widgets because it shows who's been visiting my blog (if you're a MyBlogLog member), and it also drives traffic from various websites that I've visited because my link shows up in the widget.

But today, I got to thinking, as I'm randomly visiting websites, I may not want everyone to know I've been there, for what ever reason. There are a couple of things you can do to prevent this.

Log out of MyBlogLog. The MyBlogLog widget can't track you if you logged out of the service. So, if you don't want to show up on someone's widget, make sure you have logged out.

Hide your avatar on the MyBlogLog widget. If you put your mouse over your avatar on the MyBlogLog widget a red X will show up. Clicking that X will hide the fact you've been there.

You may not care if your avatar shows up on a MyBlogLog widget, but for what ever reason you want to browse in stealth mode, remember there are some solutions.

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Giving props to my peeps

This weeks prop goes to my Daughter J. There are several things I really appreciate about her. One is her desire to be the best she can. She is into horse training, riding and competing. I've never seen someone with such dedication to her school work and her passion for horses.

She and I will be working on a new web site about her horses, competitions and friends. Stories, photos and videos. I think she'll have a blast, I know I will.

My other kids are great too. I don't want to leave them out. But this one is about J.

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Creative and Exciting ways people are helping wounded soldiers

It seems that when the war in Iraq started there was a rush of bloggers all shouting support for those fighting in the war, I was and am one of them. Now it seems there is a rush to form some type of support group/system/company to help soldiers who are suffering from physical or mental disabilities. Let me name just a couple:

Homes for Our Troops
Hire A Hero

These are all great services. And I trust they are working with the soldiers in mind. Until I see anything to the contrary that's what I'll assume.

But lets not forget those still fighting a war. Whether you support or oppose the war makes no difference. These are the same men and woman who would at a drop of a hat stand in defense of our own borders. The people of the United States would demand that. And they United States Military would deliver. And not one peep of criticism would exist. Remember Iraq isn't the only place our Military personnel are stationed. As Jack Nicholson playing Col. Jessep in A Few Good Men says:

... I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post...

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iPhoto ‘08 is a mess

I hope it's me and I need to learn a little more, but if I understand the rumblings around the net I'm not alone.

First, the program runs a hell of a lot faster than '06 did.

Second the interface is pretty nice.

Third I like the thought of tagging pictures to an event, which is a new feature.

But that is where it all falls apart. I have the preferences set NOT to import my pictures, but if you look in the iPhoto library package, there are hundreds of cached files, which in my opinion defeats the purpose of NOT importing.

There doesn't seem to be a way to NOT import your pictures into an event. Not every picture is part of an event. I have a lot more random pictures than I have groups. I want to just import my pictures into the Library and let me decide whats an event or an album or a group.

It's all messed up. I like the program but it needs a lot of work. I'll stick with Flickr Pro for the time being.

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President James E. Faust Passes Away

The second counselor of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints passed away today. The full story on President Faust and his legacy can be found on LDS.org.

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Giving Props to my Peeps

This weeks props go out to two guys that I enjoy working with and being around. The first is Steve Spencer and the other is Robert Merrill.

Steve Spencer is President of Twelve Horses, a technology company in Salt Lake City, Utah. But it's not Steve's company that I want to thank him for rather his involvement in the local tech community. Steve's company sponsors quiet a few events, but more importantly Steve mentors, coaches and gets involved. He doesn't push his company as much as he could when sponsoring an event, but he does a great job networking and spreading the word. Steve's a great example. Steve doesn't know this, but I've learned a lot from him. Get to know Steve Spencer, it will be well worth it.

My next prop goes out to Robert Merrill. Robert is a Technology Recruiter with SOS Technical in Utah County. But the really cool thing is, like Steve, he's involved in the tech community, sponsors events, helps people with connections, and doesn't push being a recruiter. He could, but I think he knows that would cause some problems.

Robert's a smart guy. He builds relationships. I like that. I know what Robert does. If I need his services, I'll call him. Robert is also good at connecting the community with each other. He also blogs about tech issues, which is great. Get to know Robert, it will be good for you.

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Life can turn on you in a second

This poor guy had no idea his life was about to take a drastic turn. I have a very good friend who runs an excavating business. I am always concerned when I see accidents like this that it was one of his guys, or even my friend. Be thankful your job doesn't require you to pull down mega-ton buildings all day.

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Hidden charging system of the Power Pack

Laura Moncur asked if someone would provide pictures of how the hidden power cord system looks in the Power Pack. Well Laura, here they are.

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Props to my Peeps

This weeks props go out to the people living in my neighborhood, and another Twitter friend DayngrGirl.

Last week there were several severe rain storms that dropped and incredible amount of rain in a very short amount of time. One particular family living just a few streets away from me experienced flooding in their basement. They lost many possessions and spent several days trying to clean up the mess.

Our neighborhood instituted an emergency preparedness group for situations just like this. After a few phone calls this family had dozens of people coming to their aid; cleaning up water and mud, washing and drying clothes and brining meals for the family to eat. It was exciting to see the neighborhood spring to action and help any way they could.

DayngrGirl get a prop for her efforts in promoting a service connecting people with service men and woman via the Internet at a site called eMail Our Military. As quoted from the website

Thanks for visiting and taking the first step towards making a difference in the life of a military service member.

Our troops deserve our respect, encouragement and admiration for their tireless dedication to keeping us safe and secure. As they are separated from their loved ones at home, your participation in eMOM gives our troops the support and encouragement they need and deserve.

Please help keep the support, motivation and encouragement going to our troops by joining our effort.

Thank you DayngrGirl for all your efforts.

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The Bourne Ultimatum opens today

A movie that I have been excited to see opens today. The Bourne Ultimatum, the 3rd and final chapter in the series, opens in theaters across the US today. I'm a huge fan of the trilogy, both the books and the movies. I realize the books and the movies are considerably different, but for some reason I don't mind it. Matt Damon has done an excellent job in the role as Jason Bourne.

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Meet my new friend, the Power Pack

I went online yesterday to REI.com looking for a replacement pack, Outdoor Products Power Pack, for the one that unexpectedly broke. There is a store near by and I wanted to know if there was one in stock before I drove all the way there to discover it wasn't. Fortunately REI.com they have an online chat system, and I was able to confirm the store did indeed have several in stock. Yee Haw!

I got the pack I was looking for quickly, and decided to pick up some new handle grips and bar ends for my mountain bike. I can honestly saw that because of the online support system, I not only did I purchased what I was looking for I also bought additional items. I'm extremely excited about my new friend and loaded it up as soon as I got home.

There was one notable difference, the pocket which holds the power cord system seemed bigger and easier to use. One of the really cool features of this pack is the ability to connect the power system to your laptop, internally, and plug the power cord into the wall without removing the laptop from the pack. This makes it nice if you're traveling and want to recharge in airport or restaurant.

If you're in the market for a new laptop bag system I would recommend this. It's very versatile. I use it when I go mountain biking (removing the laptop of course), have taken it on hiking trips, and bought a CamelBak water system (the UnBottle 100oz) that fits nicely inside. It's real inexpensive, REI.com has it for around $65, and that is cheaper than you can get most laptop cases for. The quality is good, although one of the adjustable shoulder connectors broke, the pack itself is in great shape.

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