February 26th, 2010 | permalink

TEDxCLE

So I spent the [snow] day at the Capitol Theatre in Gordon Square attending Cleveland’s first independently run TED event, TEDxCLE. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. It was a diverse panel of thinkers and doers in the Cleveland area that ranged from medical, bio-fuels, culinary, entrepreneurial, fashion and transportation. You can see all of the panelists on the TEDxCLE website. The thing that tied all of these things together is not just geography, but the fact they all started with a vision and persevered to make their dreams happen. With their visions, they are also creating a better community. Whether it is a neighborhood shop or fashion designing with textiles made in the region and throughout the US, these talented panelist were great to hear their thoughts, their stories and how they made it or are making it happen.

Our friend, Danielle DeBoe, owner of Room Service and creator of Made in the 216 had a great speech. It was all about her life, her path and how she finally came to realize instead of having a great idea and waiting for someone else to make it happen, she made it happen herself. She also spoke about how being a shop owner, you are not just a businessperson, you are part of the community. Her “dinner for strangers” idea sounds excellent and I cannot wait to attend.

We were recently turned onto the HBO Original Series, “How To Make It In America“. After hearing Sean Bilovecky from Wrath Arcane speak, the plot of the series seems pretty close to their story. They continue to grow and this Fall will have a women’s line.

The entire event was inspiring and while there was no formal Q&A at the show, the panelists were all at Stone Mad afterward and were glad to participate in discussions with the attendees.

View non-flash photos.

Long story short, it is great to see these success stories in the Cleveland area, but these people are not satisfied with their accomplishments. They continue to seek growth, innovation for the betterment of the city, state, nation and world. I can’t wait to see what great things these people come up with next, better yet, they have inspired me to do something great as well.

I was lucky enough to go thanks to winning tickets from Cleveland Foodie’s blog.

March 1st, 2009 | permalink

Hashtags and Flash

I have been looking for an answer to a problem that I have been having regarding Flash websites and being able to bookmark individual pages. It was not easy to find an answer to the problem, but after much research and help from friends pointing me in the right direction, I have been able to find an answer… Hashtags.

View Sample  |  Download Source

By using hashtags, I am able to update the address bar on anything that is clicked in the Flash application and then if a user bookmarks exactly where they are, they can get back to that page with another function that checks for the hashtag when the page loads. If it is there, I can have it perform a certain action based on its value.

Actionscript on my button:
getURL("javascript:show('"+_root.target+"')");

Javascript:
function show(txt){
document.location.hash = txt;
}
function getHash() {
return ( window.document.location.hash );
}


Then, if someone wants to send a link directly to that page, they can do so. I added more actionscript that checks for the hashtag in the url string when the page loads…

Actionscript:
//
import flash.external.ExternalInterface;
var myUrl:String = String(ExternalInterface.call("getHash", null ));
if (myUrl == null or myUrl == "undefined" or myUrl == undefined or myUrl == "null" or myUrl == "") {
_root.sec = _root.navigationArray[0].title;
} else {
myUrl = myUrl.substring(1);
_root.sec = myUrl;
}
goSec(_root.sec);
stop();


View Sample  |  Download Source

February 20th, 2009 | permalink

Featured Omeka Designer

Having worked with Omeka since it’s days in BETA, I have seen a lot of changes with the platform. Building a theme for Dr. Tebeau at Cleveland State University, I was able to get into Omeka before many other developer/designers. We visited the campus of George Mason University in the Fall to meet with the Center for History and New Media to get one on one training from there great team of developers and designers. Omeka always held a lot of promise but now the team at CHNM are taking it to a higher level. It is an honor to appear on their website as a Featured Omeka Designer and I look forward to working on more projects built on the Omeka backend.

January 5th, 2009 | permalink

Dipity

I have been thinking of my next redesign and I think I might try something like this… a timeline that pulls in all of my social media feeds. Placing my twitter updates, BrightKite locations, last.fm tracks, flickr photos, delicious links into a timeline format could be a cool little site.

August 26th, 2008 | permalink

Omeka

Today I spent the day at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia at the Center for History and New Media to learn more about Omeka, what it can do and more importantly, where it is headed. I have started using the open source software last year for some projects for Dr. Mark Tebeau at the History Department at Cleveland State University. He set this whole training session up for me, some of his grad students and project leaders to bring us all together and learn more about this powerful web app.

The application itself is pretty simple. It is used by libraries and historical societies to create archives of documents, photos and sounds. You can also create different “exhibits” with the software. It is open source, php software which makes it more affordable to these generally budget deprived institutions. What my role is in all of this is to enhance the visual experience through designing “themes” for the Omeka backbone. We have begun some initial testing through the Euclid Corridor data and based the theme upon the Cultural Gardens site that we did.

Having time to actually sit down with the developers and designers that made Omeka was very inspiring (thanks Jeremy and Dave for your time). It opened up discussions on some topics that I find fascinating like mapping functionality with yahoo or google and the exportation of information in xml format so that I can pull it into the environment that I love, Flash. These sessions will make future development easier as I will be able to comfortably ask for input from the developers.

Hopefully with these training sessions, we are able to tap into more of what Omeka can do and what it’s potential is in the future. It will give me and Epstein Design the knowledge necessary to be the Cleveland representative for Omeka.

July 22nd, 2008 | permalink

WordPress App

Hey, this WordPress app is pretty cool. I am able to add photos from my photo library or take one with the camera on the iPhone. I tried to take a photo, but it crashed the app. Will have to settle on pulling one in from the library. (this photo was taken last night right after I got the kids to bed. Sorry, honey.)

Right after posting this, my iPhone crashed. Don’t know if it was coincidence or the app.

July 20th, 2008 | permalink

Apple Remote iPhone app

With the launch of the new iPhone 2.0 software, there are now applications available via the iTunes App store. There are some cool apps already built and I can’t help to think of ideas to build one or two of these. One of the apps that I have downloaded is the Apple Remote app. The app is pretty cool and offers a way to control iTunes or AppleTV over wifi. This means, you do not have to be near your computer to control them. It may not seem like much, but I did some testing today.

I have an Apple Airport Express set up in our bedroom hooked up to a printer (that does not work) and some speakers. I connected my laptop iTunes to the remote speakers and connected my iPhone to iTunes with the Remote App. Worked like a charm and controlled songs and volume. You can actually choose from the iPhone which speakers to use, the computer or the remote speakers. There is a support page for more information.

There is a limit to this app. You can only play the tunes that are on the computer that you are connected to, you cannot stream from your tracks on your iPhone. You cannot make new playlists from the iPhone… bummer. And when I tried to break the app by switching computers to run on the speakers, it crashed the app repeatedly. Maybe an update in the near future will enhance it. There is definitely room to expand the features but I think it is a pretty cool application as it is.

July 11th, 2008 | permalink

iPhone 2.0 software update

With the release of the new iPhone 3G today, the new software for the original, first generation, iPhone was released today too. With all of the excitement I went ahead and downloaded the new software, went through the install and then was greeted with the above error message. My iPhone was left with no service, no use whatsoever and I thought it was bricked and frantically searched for people running into the same problem. This happened to many people that downloaded the update. There were some message boards but no answers.

Take a deep breath, think.

The error seemed to be with connecting to iTunes store once the software was installed. That makes sense since everyone and their brother was doing the same thing that I was at the same time. So I turned off the phone, turned it back on, disconnected it from my computer and then reconnected it. Then, my iPhone finally connected to the iTunes store and began to sync with my computer. Whew.

After the new software was installed, I went to the app store and downloaded a few free apps. The 2.0 software is actually like getting an iPhone all over again. There are a few other nice things about the new software including the calendar which keeps things organized by category now and the mail management allowing deleting multiple emails in a more efficient way.

It would be nice to have the new 3G iPhone, but with these updates to the software that can be run on the first generation iPhones, I am glad that I did not wait for the new one. The two main upgrades are the speed of the network and GPS… I can live with my gen1 iPhone for a little while.

April 20th, 2008 | permalink

Fanchatter.com

Yay, I made it to the homepage!

For those of you who have never heard of it, fanchatter is a website and mobile application for sports fans to keep up on the trash talk remotely. You can join different fan groups, send and receive TXT and images and now the application has expanded into stadiums.

The Minnesota Twins are utilizing the technology inside the Metrodome providing fans a way to send their photo via TXT and have it displayed on the scoreboard.

Here is how it works:
(click here to open in new window)

I think that this case study could be used to bring other stadiums and sports organization into the mix and provide fans with another fun way of interacting with their team and other fans. Most venues have the infrastructure in place. It also provides the franchises a way to sell some advertising by branding the photo slideshow that appears on the scoreboard and the and the text message that goes to the fans that submit photos. I sure hope that more organizations buy into this web application.

Good luck, Marty, I will try to help out with the Cleveland area.

January 19th, 2008 | permalink

iPhone software upgrade 1.1.3

Apple released a software update to the iPhone yesterday that added more functionality and control over the interface. Key updates include:

• Some control over the home screen
• Maps will find your current location
• Multiple recipients on TXT messages
• Web app shortcuts add to home screen

What is cool as well is that you can create customized icons for others who may bookmark your site. Just create a PNG icon that is 57×57 pixels, name the image “apple-touch-icon.png” and place it at the root directory of your web server – similar to the “favicon.ico” for site icons. The iphone automagically creates the glossy button version and rounds the corners so it conforms to the rest of the icons on your home screen.

Before:

After:

I am glad to have this upgrade version, it is better than the last version, but there still are many features that I would like to see in the iPhone software. Yet to be addressed: photo TXT’s, copy/paste, full control over home screen and apps, no flash plugin.

There are other things that I would like to see. I have an Apple Airport Express with remote speakers. While I am at home it would be great to be able to hook into those remote speakers and play songs to them. More GPS support. Now you can retrieve your location in Maps, but that is just the tip of the iceberg of GPS. It could be further developed to run like my Tom-Tom. I think the Verizon Voyager already has this capability.