Where I Have Been

I can only offer my sincerest of apologies for the extreme lack of posting here in the past couple of months.  We are trying to recruit some writers to help us with content, but it’s hard to find writers these days.  Or maybe I’m going about it all wrong.  Please stayed tune, I promise we will get things back up and running again as soon as possible.

Jason

Web Clipping

This week I would like to offer a couple of Web Clipping (note taking) sites that I have stumbled across over the past couple of weeks. There are many sites that are offering this type of service but I just wanted to focus on these couple just to get you started. The first being Google Notebook. Which is in open Beta now and offers a great way to keep track of different snippets that you stumble across while surfing. Head on over to http://notebook.google.com and play around with clipping. It's pretty intuitive and easy to navigate. Be sure to install the browser extensions to make using it much more user friendly. After you select what you want to clip, simply the little notebook icon just in the status bar at the bottom right. That's it. Pretty simple hey?

A newer, promising one is Evernote (http://www.evernote.com). It is currently in closed Beta but I have a dozen or so invitations to give away on a first come first server basis. From my last couple of days using Evernote, I must say that I am really liking what I am seeing. You can download the desktop client for Windows, Mac or Linux from their site once you get your account setup. You can also install a simple bookmarklet that allows super easy web clipping. Once you select the stuff you want, click the bookmarklet and you're done. Once you log into you Evernote page, poof, there is your clippings. Couldn't be any simpler in my opinion. I really like this one and think it will become a huge hit. time will tell I guess. If you want an invitation or information, you can drop me a line at jason@oolblogtech.com.

Jason

What of I'm speaking

Yes, I run iTunes on my PC. Yes, it's gotten slower and weirder as the "updates" progress. Yes, I used to work for Apple. Yes, I still love their design.

Yes, I was just a little delighted by the little Apple Software Update widget telling me that there's a version of their browser, Safari, for the PC. Yes I downloaded it.

Yes, the fonts were so snuggly-familiar and eye-pleasing and, yes, by golly it was faster than Firefox. Yes, I enjoyed it on my favorite flash-infested websites.

Then there was the attempt to watch a slightly mal-presented WMV file and the little apologetic error telling me exactly the memory address at which something bad happened. A lot. Over and over and over and over.

So close. Such beauty. But it still hides the heart of a geek that assumes a user needs to know the memory address at which it All Went Bad. Just tell me it's not gonna work. Or just ignore the error, like Firefox and, yes, IE does.

Sorta the reverse of my Volvo. Instead of Boxy but Good, it's Beauty but Geek.

Oh well.

View Source, Of Course

Jack of all trades…you know the drill. This is me. (Maggi that is)

By day…I am a “cheery” people person working in public and community relations (my “official” area of expertise) but by night…I am a lover of many things geek. Design, technology, code….but most of all – the relationship between these items and how they, together, create beauty. (Ok, I am all that by day as well…but I sound way cooler the first way.)

I would like to consider myself a geeky artsy chick type…but I not so cocky as to believe that either side would claim me. Let’s face it. I AM that bubbly PR girl that everyone loves, but at the same time secretly hates. (“Is she EVER not smiling? Sheesh.”)

I am a freelance graphic and web designer/geek wannabe who pays the bills by being good with people but, to be totally honest…I am a coder groupie. My strong suit is in design and I am an artist at heart – but there is just something about nice clean code that makes that same artsy-fartsy heart shiver with desire. It is fascinating to me and dare I profess it…I think I actually love CSS. And yes, to respond to the elementary playground taunt, I WOULD marry it.

So. There. I said it.

Now, I know there are many developers who will fight me on this…but for me, as a graphic designer – CSS is, and can, produce beauty. To illustrate this, I present http://www.csszengarden.com/.

I hear you asking, “Whatever. Zen? That is sooo 2004 and, frankly, sounds like a load of cheese.” Yes, I know it does, however, here are a few of the reasons why I visit it on a weekly, if not daily, basis:

1. It reaffirms my love of CSS and its strong tie to design
2. Um. It’s cool as hell.
3. Inspiration (and often skill-envy)
4. Most of all…I learn something new every time I visit.

As a designer and lover of CSS (I will save PHP for a later date *fans self*), what is the second thing I do after visiting a site that gets me juiced? View source, of course. It one of the best learning tools around.

< /ramble >

Welcome Maggi

We have a new addition to the Cool Blog tech family, Maggi Blue. Please join us in welcoming Maggi to the Cool Blog Tech team. Maggi's specialty is web and graphic design. She will talk about web and graphic design as well as sharing her unique humor and insight into women and technology.

Welcome Maggi

-=Jason=-

Who is this Rob, and why is he so inept?

I admit that it took a little poking to figure out how to post something to this Blog machine. I used to be ashamed of this ineptitude. Now I'm a little proud.

Let's be clear. I wrote my first computer program when I was 10. That was in 1972. It was on a PDP 11/20, which was the size of most people's kitchens. I am not unaccustomed to technology. I have seen more technology than most people have had fish dinners.

Rather, I am uniquely qualified to be cranky at it.

How do you think "real" people deal with such complexities as firewalls or an antivirus program that causes more damage than a virus? The answer is either a) they buy a new computer or b) they try to find someone else to tell them to buy a new computer.

You geeks out there. Yes, you, with the bluetooth whatever and the
dual core whatsit. You with the car that speaks and the house that just doesn't understand your needs.

You're forgetting that people are the greatest hack.

Let's talk about people, and how they're the technology, and the stuff around them is merely artifacts of the ill-considered promises and sad compromises that led up to this moment, here, this one, that you can time with atomic precision.

People are what it's about. Don't worry. They're just as irrational as, say, Vista when bullying back the most popular game in the world. Only you can't just press the "whatever, just do it" button.

Doesn't that sound like more fun?

Welcome Rob

Here at Cool Blog Tech, we have been searching for writers who want to write about anything and everything technical and we have found such a person in Rob Oakley.  Rob has a long career in IT and extensive knowledge about all kinds of technical things.  He also has a great ability for writing and humor.  Check out some of his articles as they appear in the coming days and weeks.

 

Jason