Category: product endorsements

newbie’s guide to Flickr

On By Rick McIn photos, product endorsementsLeave a comment

The best of the photo hosting services is Flickr.

Here’s a friendly introduction to the service:

Flickr is a popular photo-sharing and hosting service with advanced and powerful features. It supports an active and engaged community where people share and explore each other’s photos.

You can share and host hundreds of your own pictures on Flickr without paying a dime. There’s also a pro service that gets you unlimited storage and sharing for about $2 a month, making it one of the cheapest hosting sites around (more on that later).

Newbie’s Guide to Flickr | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

movie – The Brothers

On By Rick McIn movies, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Director Jean-Jacques Annaud did the seemingly impossible with his films The Bear and The Brothers. His footage of wild animals in nature — how did he get this stuff?

Simply amazing.

A surprisingly good film, too. Though not recommended for very young children.

Two Brothers (Widescreen Edition)

Doing for tigers what The Bear did for Grizzlies and Kodiaks, Two Brothers offers lush adventure with a message that anyone can take to heart.

French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud directed both films, blessing them with his keen eye for beauty and a love for wildlife that’s as impassioned as it is infectious.

This time, the adorable critters are Kumal and Sangha, sibling tiger cubs in French Indochina circa 1920, separated when a treasure-hunting adventurer (Guy Pearce) inadvertently leads them to capture. He makes amends by defending their right to freedom, but before that can happen …

Two Brothers (Widescreen Edition)

He also directed the excellent Quest for Fire.

Obama is President of MySpace

On By Rick McIn government, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I threw my support blind behind Barack Obama on Dec. 26th, 2006.

The main reason was the overwhelming support he was getting on the internet.

Here is who the MySpacers are supporting.

8823196.png

Data Mining: Text Mining, Visualization and Social Media: ObamaSpace

But will they vote?

Hillary’s page is not getting much love:

March 23, 2007 – I made a strange new friend today on MySpace. Her name is Hillary Clinton. Frankly, we don’t have a lot in common.

Newsweek

movie – The Fog of War

On By Rick McIn government, Islam, movies, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I only knew “McNamara” from the reference in the Simon and Garfunkle song:

I been Norman Mailered, Maxwell Taylored.
I been John O’Hara’d, McNamara’d.
I been Rolling Stoned and Beatled till I’m blind.
I been Ayn Randed, nearly branded
Communist, ’cause I’m left-handed.
That’s the hand I use, well, never mind!

source

The first album I ever bought was Simon and Garfunkle.

Though I grew up in the Vietnam era, I was never a vocal protester. My mind was on local things. Sport. School. Friends.

Later I became strongly anti-war. (that’s a separate post)

I’d heard great things about a documentary called The Fog of War and finally got around to downloading it.

It’s fantastic.

160px-robertmcnamara55.jpgRobert Strange McNamara is one of the most interesting and compelling figures in modern history.

He was hand-picked by President Kennedy to become Secretary of Defense in 1961 and was a senior advisor on US policy through until he was fired (or quit) in 1968.

McNamara recommended the Bay of Pigs invasion and was at the table during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Three times the USA came close to using nuclear weapons.

McNamara has said that the Domino Theory was the main reason for entering Vietnam. His resolve to “win” the war waned, especially after protester Norman Morrison set himself on fire Nov. 2, 1965, dousing himself in gasoline, holding his baby girl, in front of McNamara’s office. (The baby was saved.)

Though McNamara was “the chief architect of the Vietnam war”, he eventually came to believe it a mistake. LBJ lost confidence and let him go.

Film maker Errol Morris had a fantastic story. And did a fantastic job of editing. I recommend it to one and all.

Though many of the “lessons learned” could be applied to Iraq, McNamara has consistently refused to comment. And he has never apologized.

The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

The Fog of War – Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

The Fog of War – Wikipedia

You can watch the movie free in a tiny window with streamed video.

best on-line news site?

On By Rick McIn Google, internet, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I check Google News, Newsvine and Digg almost every day.

Of the three, Google News is the most useful for me.

Here’s a video comparing those three. And concluding that Newsvine is the best. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

There are others — Netscape for example — and Slashdot — but they mostly duplicate one of the three I already use:

Google News
Newsvine
Digg

These days, however, I mostly get my information from blogs and podcasts. Then use the news sites or Wikipedia for confirmation.

Toward a Better Digg – TechCrunch

Have You Seen CNN Lately?

video conference on computer

On By Rick McIn Apple, internet, product endorsementsLeave a comment

images.jpegLast night I tried iChat, the critically acclaimed software that comes free with every new Mac.

It connects with the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) network, though it tells me ICQ, .Mac, Google Talk and Jabber are also supported.

First Impression: iChat is lousy.

By comparison, Skype video worked far, far better. And it works Mac to PC.

Neither service is perfect. But I’ll stick to Skype for now.

music – DRM is toast. Instead go to Amie Street.

On By Rick McIn music, product endorsementsLeave a comment

The chorus is deafening. Everyone agrees the days of Digital Rights Management are coming to an end.

Here’s the best alternative to date — Amie Street

I’ve been writing about the Amie Street music site since their launch last July. Their model has the potential to disrupt the music industry from the bottom up: Bands and labels upload music, which is downloadable in DRM-free MP3 format.

The price always starts at free, and as more people download the song, the price starts to rise, eventually hitting $.98. Higher priced songs are by definition more popular, and I’ve found that anything over $.50 or so is pretty good music. 70% of proceeds go to the band/label, and Amie Street keeps the rest.

The service is now starting to make real progress with labels, too. They’ve signed a deal with Nettwerk Music Group, which will be uploading their entire library to Amie Street over the next few months. The first music to go up on the site is the new Barenaked Ladies album, Barenaked Ladies Are Men. All sixteen songs from the album are available here.

The songs will only be free through the first few downloads, and will start to rise after that. But even at full price, listeners are getting quality music, DRM-free.

Let’s hope other labels follow Nettwerk shortly. Market driven prices and no DRM = Music Nirvana.

Barenaked Ladies: New Album. Free. No DRM. Now.

amie.jpg
Amie Street

leaving a COMMENT on a blog post

On By Rick McIn blogs, internet, product endorsementsLeave a comment

One of the biggest frustrations with blogs is leaving a COMMENT, … then wondering if anyone replied back to you.

That frustration is over.

You can now “subscribe” to any comment you leave on this blog. If I slap you with a cutting rebuke, you will get the smack down by email.

notify-email.jpg

Actually, bloggers greatly appreciate feedback, positive or negative.

And leaving a comment tells search engines like Google that the post was worthy of your attention, positive or negative.

Note that we do not use a CAPTCHA on our commenting system. No need. This blog is 100% protected by amazing anti-spam service called Akismet.

If you want to test it, leave a COMMENT below.

another wonderful photo on flickr

On By Rick McIn blogs, photos, product endorsementsLeave a comment

.flickr-photo { border: solid 0px #000000; }
.flickr-yourcomment { }
.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 0px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }



Show case tree, originally uploaded by katmere.

One of the main reasons I updated the theme of this blog was to PERFECT the interface with flickr.

Now I can search all photos on flickr that have an “attribution creative commons licence”, then post directly to this site without moving or resizing the image.

Very convenient.

Flickr is by far the best social networking site on the internet.