Tech After Five - Greenville Networks Startups and Techies

Earlier this year, the GSA Technology Council launched a networking event for high tech entrepreneurs and tech professionals. The group meets the 3rd Wednesday of every month, and so far it looks like everyone is having a good time.



qv: Tech After Five

My other blog is a ThinkHammer

If you are looking at this page and not finding what you are looking for, it may be that you are looking for my blog on leading a connected life in the world of work. That's another blog which has far fewer pictures of my kids. Not only is it mostly work, it is also somewhat, but not exceedingly, spiffy looking as it just got a new coat of paint which did in fact involve scraping off the old paint right down to the bare metal.

Please visit the ThinkHammer Blog.

We'll be live on the radio at noon today

WEDNESDAY, July 16, 2008

A live call-in hour on the Internet and related technologies. Eric Rodgers hosts Internet expert and blogger Phil Yanov, founder and executive director of the GSA Technology Council. Listeners can call in via the tollfree number 888-539-8859 to ask questions about using the Internet, computers, new digital devices, and related topics.

We're live from Noon until 1 PM on WEPR 90.1 FM and we stream live on the web.

Where else might you listen?

• 89.3 Charleston
• 90.1 Greenville / Spartanburg
• 91.3 Columbia
• 88.1 Sumter / Columbia
• 89.1 Aiken /Augusta
• 89.9 Beaufort / Hilton Head
• 90.1 Conway / Myrtle Beach

qv: Your Day

Honda Goldwing Wingding Video via Flip Mino

Honda Goldwing Wing Ding 2008 in Greenville, SC. This is a sample video created with the Flip Mino and the embedded muvee software.

Once I had seen how the Muvee software worked, I shot video in short clips with the idea that I would paste them together with the Muvee software later. I knew that I would care very little about the sound at the event as it would end up being background to the music track. I then selected all of my video clips and told the Movie Mixer to make the clip. This is what I got. I am amazed at what it turns out. In this particular case, I used a piece of downloaded music as the sound track.

Kathryn Plays Harmonica

My evaluation of the Flip Mino continues. This is an impromptu moment where Kathryn invites me to play harmonica with her. Flip Mino operated by Mom.

Flip Mino Preview and some very specific food advice

Here is a chance to see my very first thoughts of the Flip Mino as well as a bit of it's output. You may also learn one very simple technique for avoiding food you don't like. Sure, you think it's easy, but sometimes a bad meal is just what you need in order to avoid having two bad meals.



qv: Flip Mino

Our Time is Up

What are you doing today? I ask myself this every day, and I wonder if sometimes I ought not to be asking not "What am I doing today?", but "Why?" Rob Pearlstein's short film, "Our Time Is Up" features Kevin Pollak as a therapist who dramatically alters his approach to patients when his world is reframed by forces beyond his control.

Phil and a Cigar

A friend suggested that we get pictures of ourselves with some of our favorite smokes to be used at the local cigar shop. I thought it would be fun so I came up with a couple of shots with me and a Por Larranaga cigar by Altadis.

See the rest of the photos on Flickr.

Here comes Internet Sales Tax

Beginning last Sunday, Amazon started collecting sales tax for the state of New York. What's more important to internet shoppers is that if they live in New York, they are now paying the sales tax that they always owed and the apparent advantage of not being forced to pay sales tax on internet purchases just evaporated.

The announcement from Amazon:

Effective June 1, 2008, Amazon.com LLC will begin collecting sales tax on items shipped to destinations within the State of New York as New York has enacted a new law requiring out-of-state sellers to collect and remit sales tax based on advertising. Amazon has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of this provision. However, as required by the law, we must still begin collecting New York sales tax beginning on that date.

Amazon has filed suit to challenge the expansion of New York's tax law. The expansion was that NY essentially declares that any company that has affiliates who refer business to them within the state of NY is essentially doing business in NY and therefore must collect, report, and deliver sales tax revenues to the state.

If Amazon loses it's challenge, which it seems is inevitable, then other states will surely jump into the fray. We can't say it's the right thing to do, but legislature's will feel compelled to devise ways to collect tax from internet retailers so that they can generate revenues for their own states. They will use the argument that they have been subsidizing the economies of California, Washington, and Oregon states for years by allowing them to conduct business unencumbered by sales tax. They will argue that collecting sales tax, which they will call lost revenue, will put local companies on an even footing with large internet retailers, removing the 5-9% price advantage internet shoppers enjoy by making their purchases over the internet.

Once New York's collection of sales tax on internet purchases is firmly established, then you can be certain other states will follow.

Note: Items sold by Amazon.com LLC, or its subsidiaries, and shipped to destinations in the states of Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota, or Washington are already subject to tax.

Facebook apps (games) we like

Here are the Facebook games we mentioned in today's segment of the Your Day radio show.

• Packrat - this is a particular favorite of mine. You collect stuff. I can't help myself.


• Scramble - This is like Boggle on the internet. I happen to have a friend who can beat you every time. I am a much easier mark.


• Scrabulous - It looks remarkably like the board game Scrabble. They make the gentle claim - "Play the world's favorite online word game for free!" You decide for yourself.

Please join us and other Your Day fans on Facebook.

Google Maps adds pictures!

Now, whenever you search for a location on Google Maps, you'll get links to Paranoramio photos, YouTube videos, user-created maps, and even see popular queries specific to that location. The new options appear when you click the "Explore this area" link in the left-hand side panel. Google has also introduced rooftop geo-coding for 50 million homes and businesses in the U.S., which should significantly improve mapping accuracy. http://maps.google.com

Here is a sample of what appears if you look at 300 South Main Street in Greenville, which happens to be the address of the Peace Center. (You get a user submitted photo of the Peace Center.)



Now, can someone map and geocode the mice?

What's that on your OLPC XO?

We had a second OLPC XO come visit us over the long weekend:



more / bigger photos -- On Flickr

Friendfeed brings it all together...

Friendfeed is a service that brings all of your various webfeeds together in one place. You can have your Twitter, YouTube, Blog feeds, Flickr, and bookmarking sites all feed into one Friendfeed, which really does then present something of an overall picture of your online life.



qv: Phil Yanov's FriendFeed

Uniqlock, a very cool clock

I discovered this way cool Flash clock while exploring Mento:



I am evaluating Mento.

Brangelina, Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged & Twitter?

I Twittered this earlier and it seemed people were both interested and previously unaware of this podcast from On The Media.

Beginning with the rumor of the upcoming Brangelina movie of Atlas Shrugged, Brooke Gladstone explores the effect of Ayn Rand's objectivism in modern society and discusses some of Rand's personal struggles. Rand's failures in personal relationships remind us that the issues she wrote about and the philosophy she developed were the logical outcomes of her own internal conflicts.





qv: On The Media: Object Lesson

Photo: Macaw at Greer Family Fest

I think this is a Blue and Gold Macaw. I saw it perched on a freckled girl's shoulder at the Greer Family Fest. The bird's owner said that she (the bird) was seven years old. I thought it made for a nice shot so I squeezed off a few frames.

More photos of the Macaw and the girl at Flickr.

Social Networking Links for Your Day listeners

On today's edition of Your Day, we talked about some of my favorite social networking tools.

Below are some links of the places we talked about:

Phil Yanov on Facebook:

• 

Become a Fan of the Your Day page on Facebook:

• Your Day on Facebook

LinkedIn Professional Networking:

• 

Twitter:

• On Twitter, I go by my professional monicker, ThinkHammer

Jaiku:

• I think Jaiku is prettier than Twitter, but there aren't as many people on the service. Still, I like it and think they have some interesting technology for mobile devices that might give them a boost eventually. Again on Jaiku, I am known as Thinkhammer.

Here is a bonus:

• I discovered Friendfeed after we did the recording. If you care to add me to your list, I use my name Yanov on that service.

I hope these are useful to you. I hope you'll listen in again on Wednesday as we discuss digital cameras and photography.

Podcast: April 16 Live Call-In Radio Show

A live call-in hour on consumer electronics, the Internet, and other technologies hosted by Eric Rodgers and Phil Yanov, executive director of the GSA Technology Council and Blogger at Thinkhammer. This show aired across the state of South Carolina on April 16, 2008:



We'll be live for a second time this month on April 30th! (mark your calendar)



via: Your Day

Car of the Future coming to NOVA

This seems like it ought to be good. I listen to Car Talk and I watch NOVA, why shouldn't the two of them be great together?

Next on NOVA: "Car of the Future"

http://www.pbs.org/nova/car

Tuesday, April 22 at 8 p.m.

Tom Magliozzi has a problem. The wacky co-host of NPR's Car Talk needs to replace his beloved 1952 MG roadster. But in today's car market, where should he turn? Is new technology about to transform the way we drive? Tom and his brother Ray hit the road in NOVA's "Car of the Future" for a lighthearted but shrewd take on America's four-wheeled future. Join them as they mix their trademark slapstick with serious nuts-and-bolts analysis of what it will take to make our autos more energy-efficient.

I don't even have to plan ahead as all new episodes of NOVA are recorded and waiting for me on the DVR by default.

Photos: OLPC XO Laptop

On today's episode of Your Day, we talked about the OLPC XO laptop. I got the laptop during last year's Give One Get One program and have been impressed by the design. I can't imagine that this laptop is for everyone, which is good, because they are actually hard to come by. I hope that enough ended up in people's hands so that there is some great software developed for it.



OLPC Photos at Flickr

By the way, we'll be live on Wednesday at noon.