Not Maintaining This Site

Over the past several years I’ve posted content all over the web on various platforms like WordPress, Tumblr, Google+, Twitter and Facebook. In my current situation, I need to consolidate. Mostly, I don’t make money on my websites, never have, just wanted to share content and ideas.

Facebook gives me all I need at the moment; a forum, followers, media storage and discovery. So, that’s where I’ll be posting, probably for ever.

http://www.facebook.com/ThomAllen

http://www.twitter.com/thomallen

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Review: Bootstrap

As more and more opensource frameworks hit the market, few if any contain documentation on their use. The Bootstrap framework has a great website dedicated to the features and simple use. Most throw code in github and call it a day. For some people, a little instructional help or code example and they will be off and running.

I recently completed Bootstrap written by Jake Spurlock. Full disclosure, I know Jake, but he didn't ask me to review this book. I'm interested in Bootstrap and was hoping to find a great reference. While I like web based reference material, the difficulty lies in needing to refer to the online documentation while you are learning or need help. Having a copy of this book in hand is worth the price of admission.

There's nothing earth shattering or mind altering here, but that is a strength I think. Jake walks you through the framework and gives some great examples and potential uses. I rate this book a 4 out of 5, mainly because 5's mean there is no room for improvement, and everyone should have to stretch. This book should be in your library for sure.

 



* Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this book to review.

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Finally My Twitter Archive Link

After patiently waiting (how else can you do it?), I checked this morning and I have the Request Your Archive link available. I clicked it right away. Now I'll wait again.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Sony cut online security staff two weeks before it was hacked
Lawsuits against Japanese electronics giant Sony have revealed that the company laid off a number of employees responsible for network security, two weeks before attacks brought down the PlayStation Network.

2. How to use Twitter in the classroom
The advantage to using a tool like Twitter for education is that it’s instant and it’s to the point. There have been countless articles about whether or not social media makes us lazy, or whether it affects our attention spans. If that really is the case, why not use that to our advantage?

3. Laptops Powered by Typing Could Be on the Way
Australian researchers have figured out a way to harness the energy we use while typing to power a laptop. Using piezoelectricity, this method works in a similar way to cigarette lighters that create a spark by striking a piezoelectric crystal.

4. Stack Exchange Gets In The Conference Game With Stack Overflow DevDays
Q&A network Stack Exchange will be launching Stack Overflow DevDays this fall, a two day series of conferences targeting coders who want to brush up or dive into the latest programming technologies like MongoDB, HTML 5 and Coffeescript, with hour long tutorials put on by speakers culled from the developer community.

5. GitHub Releases Mac Client
Today GitHub announced a client for OSX, GitHub for Mac. The client walks developers through the process of creating a GitHub account and uploading repositories and provides a local admin interface similar to the traditional Web-based one.

BONUS

6. Cloud computing requires new thinking on privacy
The move to the cloud has broad implications on privacy and requires a lot of discussion on the boundaries and expectations for data in a cloud environment. The government’s approach to data privacy, in particular, is of great concern, from the legislation it enacts to the way law enforcement uses it, said Nolan Goldberg, senior counsel for IP and technology at law firm Proskauer.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Push.IO Buys Mobile App Framework TapLynx From NewsGator
Push IO, a startup that offers a cloud-based mobile feature platform for developers has announced the acquisition of mobile app framework TapLynx from NewsGator.

2. Lendio Scores $2 Million More To Assist Business Owners In Securing Loans
Off the heels of raising $6 million in venture capital, Lendio has secured another $2 million in debt financing from Square 1 Bank

3. Windows 8 Brings Entirely New Look And Feel, Unifies Touch And PC Interfaces
Microsoft has just given a demonstration of what they’re calling Windows 8.

4. Apple Is Building Twitter Into Your iPhone And It's A Game-Changer
Twitter integration is coming to the next version of iOS – Apple's operating system for iPads, iPod Touches, and iPhones.

5. Google’s +1 Button For Websites Goes Live
Google announced their new +1 sharing button back in March, and it has now officially launched the +1 button for websites, which will let you share your favourite websites with your friends.

Bonus:

6. With Twitter Deal, A Photobucket Comeback Is Officially On
Photobucket just made a major leap forward on the comeback trail. The online photo sharing pioneer confirmed Wednesday its technology will power Twitter’s highly anticipated native photo sharing feature.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

Today's Tech Stories I found interesting:

1. Google Wallet
Google is getting into the mobile payment market.

2. Twitter Photo Sharing
Twitter is finally putting a photo sharing service online. But can we expect constant outages with Twtimg as well? One interesting note, especially for developers. Twitter is going to crate it's own version of your stand alone client application. If you rely on Twitter for your core business, expect to be challenged, by the source.

3. Apple iCloud
Apple plans on announcing it's newly minted iCloud (formerly MobileMe), among other new products, at WWDC on June 6th. Expect Twitter and other Interwebs to be inundated with traffic.

4. Craigslist switches to MongoDB
Cragislist is in the process of incorporating MongoDB as it's primary database system. MongoDB is a document style repository versus a traditional relational database.

5. Five Best Set-Top Boxes for On-Demand Video
On-demand video is taking the net by storm. Just look at Netflix, who is now responsible for +20% of all Internet traffic. Gaming consoles are very popular, but boxes such as Boxee and Roku are priced very competitively, and stream the same channels like Netflix, Hulu+, and Amazon Video on Demand.

What cool Tech stories have you read today?

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Favorite iPhone Apps Of 2010

I'm installing and buying more apps for the iPhone than ever befor. A couple of reason for this, but mostly, I'm eating my own dog food as it were. Paying for great apps instead of always looking foe the free alternative.

As a software engineer, I want people to appreciate my work, and I hope they find it valuable. One way thy can show me that value is to pay me for it.

That said, I installed a few apps last year that totally rocked. I'll share my three favorite apps of 2010. They are SpringPad, Camera+, and Mormon Channel.

SpringPad is an application similar to Evernote, but I like the way SpringPad visually represents my data. The iPhone app is every bit as good as the Web version. You can create multiple notebooks, and within the notebooks, you can create todo's, links, text, and web clips.

The feature that really won me over though was the way it handles web clips. It actually works. I can never get Evernote web clips to work. All I get is the page text and usually no images, so when I look at it, the page is all screwed up.

Camera+ is an awesome application. There are so many options that it would take me days to explain them all. But here are a few of the ones that won me over.

• Dozens of styles that allow me to alter the photos.


• A timer, like a real camera


• Edit existing images


• Share multiple images to Facebook, Twitter and Email. This is huge, and the one feature that really won me over. Most of the other apps only let you send one at a time.

The Mormon Channel is a pretty narrow niche, but for me it brings together all the amazing resources the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints has to offer. Everything from scriptures, magazines, radio broadcasts, audio recordings, video records and more.

Another Mormon specific application that I am getting a lot of value from is LDS Scriptures App. This application is probably the most comprehensive LDS based application I've used. This application includes scriptures, manuals, magazines and other content. The only thing I wish it had more of would be audio and video content. But other than that, this is a rock solid app.

Other applications that I really enjoyed; Angry Birds, Facebook, TweetDeck, Pandora, Foursquare and DropBox.

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The Bacon Post

Trying to post photos again after Joseph Scott pointed out I may have a broken PHP file on my server. I installed the plugin he built to resolve the issue. Now I'm going to try a post with multiple photos.

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A Twitter Client With A Brilliant UI Design

There is one reason I use the Twitter iPhone client over any other, it's a killer user interface design element. Here is the normal stream view

Now, simply slide your finger over any of the Tweets, and a menu of options are opened up. Now I can act on the tweet without having to open it up. Brilliant.

Try it out, very cool.

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Join Me For #devchat On Twitter

I started a Twitter chat called #devchat, all about the software development business. Right now the time is every Wednesday at 7PM MST. Everyone is welcome, but I'm hoping this will be a very technical discussion. A little background on Twitter Chats here.

Please follow the Twitter user @dev_chat, and use http://TweetChat.com to follow #devchat. No need to register, but you can find more information here.

Please Tweet this, blog about it, post to Facebook, or any other resource you use to communicate with other devs. You can also follow me on Twitter by clicking the Twitter icon in the sidebar at the top.

See you on Wednesday, September 2nd, at 7PM MST.

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Tweet Chats Cast A Wider Twitter Net

I've been a Twitter user for a few years now, and I have seen the service morph from a conversation tool to an advertising marketing tool. At first it was "What are you doing?" to "Hey, look at what I've done!". I enjoy and sometimes even appreciate links to articles, news items, even events, but the platform isn't the same one I used to love.

There seems to be a movement right now (and maybe has been for a while, I just didn't notice), but Twitter users are starting to host what are known as Twitter Chats, based on a hash tag and topic. Here is how a Twitter Chat basically works. Tweet often carry a hash tag like #blogchat, or some other keyword to describe the Tweet. When a hash tag is clicked, most Twitter clients will create a search based on that hash tag, giving you a view of Tweets that only carry that tag. Fine tuning the stream you are viewing means you can focus on the "Chat" and exclude you complete stream.

Example of what a chat column looks like in Hootsuite:

Most of these Chats have scheduled times, hosts, topics, and even web sites dedicated strictly to the hash tag. I follow several, mostly about writing, and a very cool tag #blogchat. I'm looking for more, and would love any recommendations. Here are the ones I'm following at the moment, and have a column dedicated to the tag in my Hootsuite application.

#blogchat
#writechat
#scifichat
#scribechat
#storycraft

There's a few draw backs to Twitter Chats. One is the increased number of Tweets in your stream that most of your connections don't want to read. The second is Tweet Chats move fast, several thousand Tweets are generated during a chat, and you need to refresh your tool to see all the new Tweets. It's hard to stay involved in a single conversation for too long, and I tend to miss a good number of Tweets and or questions.

My advise is to watch a Twitter Chat a few times. See what people are asking, how they respond, and who is participating. Then jump in. There is no right or wrong way, only that you make sure the Chat tag is included somewhere in your Tweets.

If you use a tools like Hootsuite, or TweetDeck, you can create dedicated columns to follow a topic. You can also use a cool web application like TweetChat.com. This application creates a stream that auto refreshes every few seconds.

Tweet Chats have helped me get excited about Twitter again. I'm connecting with more people, having relevant conversations, and learning more than I have in a long time. Happy Tweeting!

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Book Review: TwittFaced

Twitter is something I know pretty well. I've been a user for 2 years. While I don't have tens of thousands of followers, I understand the power of Twitter. When I learned Josh Peters wrote a book out on Twitter, titled TwittFaced, I thought I would give it a read. I gave Josh my money and off I went.

It's not a long read, 156 pages or so, but man, this book is packed to the rafters with information. Even if you think yo know Twitter, or several other social networking platforms, Josh and his co-author Jacob Morgan do a great job of outlining the hottest tools and applications you should be looking at. And the most important part of each chapter is explaining why and how to use the services successfully.

The cover reads "your toolkit for understanding & maximizing social media". I would agree. I have marked several chapters for re-reading. Chapter nine is chalk full of statistics on social media. Chapter five talks about Facebook and the many applications which can make your experience better. And chapter 21, how to keep from being overwhelmed. I really like all of the chapters but one, the chapter on MySpace. Maybe I'm being a snob here, but I don't see MySpace as having any relevance in social media. But Josh and Jacob give it some love in chapter six.

This is a great book. Easy to read, lot's of statistics, and some great examples explaining how to get the most out of these social media platforms.

Buy the book here. It's a link to Amazon, and if you buy the book, I get a few pennies.

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While Qik Is A Leap Forward, Mass Adoption Will Be Slow

Jesse Stay wrote a piece for Louis Grey where he asks if Sundance can do for Qik what SXSW did for Twitter. I say no. I'm not saying Qik isn't an important or impressive technology, I'm simply saying Qik doesn't have the reach Twitter did, and therefore won't have as big an impact.

Here are my reasons. Qik is only supported by a small amount of handsets, unlike Twitter, which supports SMS and the mobile web. If I can't get to the content easily, or produce content easily, I'm not going to use it, and I don't think others will either. Most people will have to be logged into a computer in order to see any of the videos created, and that diminishes the purpose of a mobile social tool.

The next issue is technology and infrastructure. Many of today's handsets don't have internet access, and if they do it's not fast enough to handle streaming video. Again this leaves out a vast majority of mobile device owners who can't participate with their mobile device. I realize you can post a link to the Qik video, but I must be at my desktop to view it.

Next I think there is quality problem. I would assume because the amount of data being transfered the compression gives mobile video streaming really poor quality, sometimes unwatchable. For example, when Apple released the iPhone 3G, Jesse was at the Salt Lake City Apple store recording with Qik, but the quality was so bad it was almost impossible to follow. Nothing Jesse did, it was the technology.

I follow Robert Scoble, who is always Qik'ing video where ever he goes. When I'm logged in to my PC, I like to see what he's up to. Qik is great for recording video and sharing on the net, but so is YouTube, and it has a farther reaching affect. If you're lucky enough to have a handset that gives you this power, have fun. For those that don't, we'll have to wait for something truly revolutionary.

Maybe I'm wrong about the lack of wide spread use. But I don't think there are enough techie types at Sundance to give Qik nearly the thrust SXSW gave Tiwtter.

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CNN And Facebook Team Up To Bring Live Inauguration Content

This morning, CNN Live and Facebook have teamed up to bring viewers and interesting mix of video and chat. The layout shows the CNN Live video stream and right next to that your Facebook status updates. This gives viewers who are Facebook members the ability to chat with each other while watching the event. Very cool.

One of the issues facing online news services and social network sites will be capacity. Not only is this an historic day for the United States, it will also be an historic day for online media. There will be more people online, active at the same time, than there probably ever has been.

I would get online early because the closer it gets to the event time the harder it will be to get a feed.

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iPhone Twitter Tip: Favorite Tweets For Later Review

[singlepic id=36 w=320 h=240 float=left]I read a lot of my Twitter (you're a Twitter user, right?) messages on the iPhone. I don't always have time to look at the cool links in tweets, so I found favoriting a tweet lets me go back later on the computer and look them up quickly. As you can see from the photo to the left, I use Twittellator Pro, and there is a cool little star that you tap, and its tagged. It's as easy as that.

What cool Twitter tips do you have?

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My Request For Government Bailout

News over the past few days has been all about money the US Government has been giving to ailing financial institutions in hopes of keeping them from collapsing. I'm not a financial expert, but I'm sure the layman can recognize what a sham this is.

So this morning I thought it was appropriate that I ask the US Government to give me a few Billion dollars to help bail me out. I'd even take less, say several hundred thousand. That would do it. Hey, it's my money too. All those tax dollars I've put in the coffers over the years. If my elected officials are going to squander it, I want my share back.

I got some great responses from Twitter friends. Here they are:









As you can see there are plenty of people who want their money back. Please give US our money back, don't waste it on these poor management schmucks who have been fleecing Americans for years now.

Wow I'm hardly ever political on this blog, but man that felt good. Sorry RacerX996, I edited your comment. Those reading this post can also find the original on my Twitter account for your reading pleasure, and to get the full affect.

[Update]

Thanks Christopher Penn.

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The Most Bizzar Political Message I've Ever Heard

A couple of days ago I found a message on my home phone from a local guy named Dell Schanze. It was one of those automated messages that political candidates use when they are running for office, and want to get their message to as many people as possible.

Dell, or Super Dell, as he likes to be called, started slinging mud almost immediately at two other candidate, all of which are running for the Governor of Utah. When ever someone leaves a message on my phone, Vonage provides an audio file I can download and listen too on my PC. I thought hey, this is too good to pass up, I wanted to share the message with a few friends.

I created a Twitter post which included the URL to the MP3 file of the message on my web server. A few people responded, and apparently Robert Gehrke, a writer for the Salt Lake Tribune, wrote a story about Schanze and his message, and included a link to my MP3.

While I think it's cool that the Trib writer used the link to my file, I would have appreciated a heads up, and even some attribution (as I'm doing in this post). Thanks to Russ Page, I was able to move the file to an Amazon S3 server so my blogs bandwidth isn't all chewed up.

The audio is interesting, funny, and has since been changed to be a little less abrasive. Sorry Super Dell, you won't be getting my vote.

superdell.mp3

'Super Dell' launches Super Attack against Huntsman - Salt Lake Tribune

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A Twitter Book Club

This is an interesting idea, connect Twitter users, assign a book to read and then post a review via the Twitters 140 characters. The group was started by Drew (http://twitter.com/digitalmaverick) and he also created a Wiki to follow the progress of the book.

If you want to get involved, friend Twitter user @bookgroup and visit the Wiki.

Januarys book is The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas. Have fun and don't forget to post your synopsis on Twitter when finished.

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Wanna See The Power Of Social Networking?

A few hours ago a young woman was requesting small donations to go to college. I think the starting amount was somewhere around $400. A Twitter friend of Chris Brogan mentioned this cause and Chris jumped into action. Within a few hours, and mostly through Twitter friends, people had donated enough money for the woman to meet her goal. As Chris proclaimed:

chrisbrogan: Raising over $500 in 2 hours? Great work, Twitter nation! I'm beholden to your power.

This was amazing. I'm sure everyone is abuzz over reaching the goal. But as Twitterer davedelaney said "@chrisbrogan: When the Brogan speaks we listen :-)" And I agree. That was the feeling of everyone who was watching and participating.

So my thought is, what else can we accomplish using Social Networking? Chris also started the Grasshopper Network which is a group of people dedicated to helping someone when they need it. All you have to do is ask.

Think what you could do and engage your Network.

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Is this the first Twitter Ads?

Everyone has noticed the increased Tip: usage on individual tweets coming from Twitter. However, just a few minutes ago, I got this:

Has it finally happened? The text says "If you like twitter you'll love ITConversations.com!". I'm pretty sure ITConversations has nothing to do with Twitter.

Anyone else seen something other than "you look *good*"?

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